TOWER- It was a full house here last week when Dick Peyla offered a look into the history of his family in the area as part of a presentation sponsored by the Tower-Soudan Historical Society.
“Ask questions now,” said Peyla, “otherwise there may be no one left to ask.”
Peyla, who grew up in Tower but moved away in 1970, began his story in 1880 when his great-great grandfather Peter Peyla emigrated from northern Italy to the United States, ending up in Tower.
Peter worked at the Soudan Mine as a pump operator, and his wife Agnes ran a boarding house. But when the depression of 1893-97 hit, it left Peter without a job and with a wife and five children to care for. Peter applied for a land grant for 80 acres in Vermilion Lake Township, an application— signed by President William McKinley in 1901— that has become a family heirloom.
The surveyors had only marked section corners, so Peter spent four days trudging through the woods determining the location of his parcel’s corners. There, Peter built a three-room log house where he later moved with his wife and five children. The children went to school in a one-room schoolhouse that had 18 students. The nearest neighbor lived a mile away.
“There wasn’t a proper road to Tower at that time,” Dick said. “They went into Tower once a month and couldn’t get there in the winter.”
Peter was an instrumental citizen of the area of Vermilion Lake Township still known as “Peyla.” He helped organize Vermilion Lake Township, and its first school. He served as town clerk and assessor, justice of the peace, fire warden, and election clerk. He established the Peyla Post Office and was its first and only Postmaster from 1907–1924. A monument on the Wahlsten Road, by the Little Church, was erected in 1950 to honor Peyla and other early settlers of the township.
Back to Tower
But the family’s history then moved back to Tower, when his son James bought the Anderson Garage. The Anderson Garage had its own interesting history, as recounted by Julie Olson Mickle, who has her own family connection to the business. The garage, founded in 1907, first started offering carriage service, and then bus service in the mid 1910s. A bus trip to Virginia took about 90 minutes and was offered twice a day. In 1926, Anderson Bus Lines was purchased by the Northern Transportation Company in Hibbing. Northern Transportation Company is best known by its modern-day name, the Greyhound Bus Company.
Tough times returned to the area during the Great Depression. James Peyla bought the Anderson Garage, with his partner Pela Anderson (grandfather to TV weatherman and Tower native Dave Anderson). At that time the garage had moved to its present location on Main Street, on the corner of Pine Street. The garage sold batteries, minnows and ice, things now needed for Tower’s growing tourist trade.
James married a Lutheran woman, at that point in time probably considered a scandal for an Italian Catholic, according to Dick.
The Y Store
In 1932, John Peyla, brother to James and a carpenter by trade, built the Y Store. He also built Glenmore Resort. The Y Store catered to the region’s growing tourist trade, selling candy and soft drinks (and later ice cream), and offering free camping. The Y Store, still operating today, went through a series of owners over the years. The original building (with several additions) was torn down in 2002 and a modern convenience store, now owned by the Bois Forte Band, was built in its place.
World War II
World War II brought more changes. James “Sonny” Peyla, James’ son, was working at the garage, and he left at age 21 for the Army, where he served as an instructor for the motor school, and later helped convoy Patton’s army across Germany.
Patsy Anderson Olson, daughter of Pela Anderson, helped run the garage during the war. The 17-year-old changed oil, did tune-ups, and sold gas. Elton Olson, a few years younger than Patsy, was delivering milk, and often stopped by for gas. Soon he was stopping by, supposedly for gas, every day, just to see Patsy. The two did marry, and raised their family, including daughter Julie, in Tower.
Post War War II
The Peyla family continued to modernize along with the city of Tower. By 1940, the garage had three gasoline pumps, advertised tourist information, and sold a lot of coal which was used for heating.
The newly renamed Arrowhead Garage held a grand opening in 1949. The garage soon became a Dodge and Plymouth dealership and hosted special events to announce the year’s new models.
“It was always exciting when new cars were delivered,” Dick said. He estimated they sold between five and 10 new cars a year.
The garage building was expanded when the family home, behind the garage, was moved to a new location.
Sonny Peyla now owned the garage. The business purchased their first tow truck in 1954, and Dick remembers going on middle-of-the-night calls with his father, sometimes in weather as cold as -30F, to rescue vehicles in the winter.
The garage had one of the first television sets in Tower, and many men gathered there in the evenings to visit and watch. The shop also began to sell GE appliances and later outboard motors. The garage became the first Texaco franchise in the area in 1963.
By then the coal business was a distant memory but Sonny changed with the times. With coal out of favor, he bought a dump truck and started selling gravel, a livelihood he continued even after selling the garage in 1970. He began selling fuel oil as well and opened and operated the Tower Car Wash from 1970-1984.
Sonny was a mechanic at heart, and loved anything with an engine, Dick remembered. He collected mechanical oddities, and he was well known for his two “floating” cars, as well as some of the first home-built snow sleds in the area. He also owned an army surplus “weasel”, which could float (supposedly) and had tracked treads. Dick recounted a story of how his father had driven the weasel in from Hwy. 1 to Little Lost Lake to trap minnows in the winter. The weasel broke through the ice and dropped about two feet down. “It should have floated,” said Dick, “but they could hear water trickling in.” When they returned the next day, it was 20 feet down on the bottom. A group of friends came back a few days later, broke through the ice and chained the weasel to a bulldozer, and hauled it back out. Sonny then had to put in a totally new engine.
The floating cars could often be seen boating between Echo Point and Puncher Point, and were a popular addition to the Fourth of July parade, often carrying the newly crowned “Queen.”
In the 1950s, he built a snow sled, with three skis underneath a tin frame, and an airplane engine/propeller mounted on the back.
“It did get stuck in the slush a lot,” Dick said.
The snow sled could go rather fast on clear ice. The Welles brothers once clocked it at 110 miles per hour traveling on a two-mile course on Big Bay in 65.5 seconds.
More Tower connections
Peter’s other children included Joe, who managed the St. Louis County Garage on Main Street, and Mary (Peyla) Wild, who owned Tower’s Central Store. Mary wrote a detailed history of their life as homesteaders in Vermilion Lake Township, which was published by The Tower News.
Present day
The garage that Peyla sold in 1970 went through a series of owners over the years. It was sold again in 1976 and renamed Arrowhead Dodge. In 1982 it became the used car dealership Classy Cars. In 2020, the building, which had been vacant for many years, was purchased by Miranda Kishel, who has renovated the building and turned it into the Idea Warehouse, which currently houses four businesses including an organic grocery story/antique shop, spa/gift shop, another wellness-related business, and a co-working space. The second story of the building is being renovated and will become rental apartments.
Tower Soudan Historical Society
TSHS is having a busy summer, sponsoring story-telling in the Coach 81 car at the Tower Depot. The next event is on Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m. and is free-of-charge. Kathy Siskar will be the featured story-teller. Stories are focused on area history. The Arrowhead Bookmobile will also be at the civic center area starting at 3:30 p.m.
There will be a History Happy Hour booth at the Tower Farmers Market on Friday, Aug. 25 at 4 p.m. with free lemonade.
The TSHS annual meeting is set for Thursday, Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the Herb Lamppa Civic Center. Watch for information in upcoming papers.
Learn more
The entire talk was recorded by Jake Aune and will be made available on the Tower-Soudan Historical Society’s facebook page at a future date.