1. The Great Northern Railroad was completed through Pine County in 1887. The railroad established numerous stations including one named Mansfield Station. Settlers were already moving into the area by this time, including the Doyle brothers, Jimmy, Jack, and Mike. The Doyles sold food and drink to loggers who worked at local camps, but the brothers were a pretty tough bunch. They allegedly liked to put knockout drops in their customers' drinks and then relieve them of their money.
2. By 1894, most of the residents of Mansfield Station were associated with the railroad or the lumber industry. R. L. Saunders was the telegraph operator. William Nestler, the section foreman, lived in Mansfield with his wife, Annie, and their children. Pete Peterson and Matt Hands were section crewman, and the Tozer and Barter Logging Company had opened a warehouse to store their supplies.
3. In 1895, the Empire Logging Company constructed the Fleming Logging Railroad that began just southeast of Mansfield Station. The railroad transported logs from Pine County lumber camps to the Yellow Banks landing on the St. Croix River. The railroad was discontinued in 1898 or 1899 and became a wagon road around the turn of the century.
4. Mansfield Station received its post office on April 10, 1896. It operated out of the Tozer and Barter warehouse.
5. In 1898, the railroad changed the little village's name from Mansfield to Bruno because there was already a Mansfield Station elsewhere in Minnesota. No one knows for sure how the village got its new name. It might have been borrowed from French hotel proprietor and logging company owner Bruno Vinette. It may also have been a corruption of the German word for “bear.” A local saloon kept live bears for the amusement of its customers, which included German loggers.
6. Bruno's first schoolhouse, a 10 x 12 foot structure, was built in 1901. The school population soon outgrew it, and a new, larger school was built the following year. Bruno's school district, #54, was also organized in 1902.
7. The Bruno town site was platted in 1902 by Fitzhugh Burns, and the village was officially incorporated on September 10, 1903. Town officers were L.A. Buswell, village council president; A.O. Wharton, J.H. Alexander, and H.E. Crane, trustees; L.C. Klug, treasurer; J.H. Alexander and A.O. Wharton, justices of the peace; and W.H. Gellatly and Pat Murphy, constables.
8. The new village council got busy immediately and passed the first ordinance. It regulated the local saloon and specified the following: “The saloon interior be visible from the street at all times, with a light burning all night. No minors allowed in the saloon. The saloon be closed Saturday at 11:00 p.m. and not opened until Monday morning. No liquor sold during the hours the saloon was required to be closed.”
9. The first white child born in Bruno, William Gellatly, Jr., arrived in December of 1903. Another child, William Marihart, was born in January of 1904.
10. By 1904, Bruno was a bustling village. Businesses included the Marihart and Nelson sawmill, a shingle mill, John Stafford's general store, a meat market, a saloon, Pat Murphy's livery barn, the Bruno Farmers' Produce Company, and the Farmers' Land and Cattle Company. The village could boast of boardwalks, four kerosene street lamps, a new “lock-up” managed by village marshal Andrew Nelson, a new two-room schoolhouse, and two churches (Catholic and Presbyterian). Fitzhugh Burns donated the land for the two churches, and the Farmer's Land and Cattle company, managed by Pat Murphy, donated $500 toward the construction of each.
Sources: Courage in a Rugged Land by Edna Bjorkman and Robert David Olson; One Hundred Years in Pine County; Pine County...and Its Memories by Jim Cordes; Askov American newspaper, July 1, 1976
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