Lyon County, Minnesota - Biographical sketches, 1912 (part 2 of 17)

The young couple made their home on the southwest quarter of section 20, which Mr. Myran had taken as a homestead in 1872 and which has been Mrs. Myran's home since her marriage. The Myrans experienced the trials and hardships of pioneer life, lived through the grasshopper era and the terrible winters of the early eighties, and welcomed the prosperous years that followed. Mrs. Myran has watched the growth of the countv from an unbroken prairie to one of

I'.Hmjkaniical History

ELLSWORTH EVANS (1873) is a successful Monroe township farmer who has seen the country develop from a wild prairie to the prosperity of the present day. His father, Solomon Evans, was born in Newton, Wales, in ISIS and came to America about 1844| settling in Utica, Xew York, and later moving to. Wisconsin. In June 1863, he settled in Blue Earth county. Minnesota, and ten years later took a homestead in Custer township, Lyon county, where he lived until his death on February 16, 1894. Solomon Evans' wife, Anna (Evans) Evans, was born in Newton, Wales, in 1818 and died June 26, 1896, in Lyon county.

At Oconomowoc. Waukesha county. Wisconsin, Ellsworth Evans was born December 19, 1861. When about one and onehalf years of age he accompanied his parents to Blue Earth county, and later he came with them to Lyon county. He lived on the old homestead until six years after his marriage in 1891. Ellsworth acquired his education in the country schools and during his young manhood witnessed the trying experiences of the grasshopper days and the big blizzards. The family home in Custer was built of lumber hauled from New LTlm, and this rude cabin was covered with sod. The building still stands on the place.

Ellsworth Evans was married July 16, 1891, in Monroe township, to Mary Edwards. She was born in Cambria, Blue Earth county, Minnesota, April 2, 1867, a daughter of William and Margaret (Davis) Edwards. To Mr. and Mrs. Evans have been born two children, Roger and Raymond, July 15, 1892, and January 1, 1894, being the respective dates of their birth. Our subject farmed the old place for six years after his marriage and then moved to the west half of

Mr. Evans raises considerable stock in addition to his general farming. He is a shareholder in the Garvin Co-operative Elevator Company and is a director and was for many w:irs the president of the Garvin Creamery Company. For the last five years he has been chairman of the Board of Supervisors of tin' township, of which he was previously a member, and he has served on the board of directors of school district Xo. 72. In addition to his eighty-acre farm on section 30, Mr. Evans owns the southwest quarter of section 2 1 and forty-six acres on section 19.

JOHN MONROE I 1874) is a retired farmer of Cottonwood and is one of the early settlers of Stanley town shin. His father, William Monroe, and his mother, Martha (Mc- Farland) Monroe, were both natives of Cape Britain, and the father when a young man was employed as a sailor on vessels plying the waters in the vicinity of Halifax and on the Great Lakes.

John Monroe was born in Bruce county, Ontario, February 16, 1S60, and when he was only fourteen years old the family moved to Lyon county, the father taking a homestead in Stanley township, the southwest quarter of section 2. That was our subject's home for the next fourteen years, and at the age of twenty-eight he bought a quarter on section 36, Lucas township, and there pursued his vocation of farmer until bringing the family to Cottonwood to live some thirteen years ago.

Since making his home in the village Mr. Monroe has served eight years as police officer. His record in that office and his integrity and high standing as a public citizen made him a formidable candidate for the office of sheriff in the election of 1910. Mr. Monroe being defeated by Mr. Grannan, the present incumbent, by only sixty-four votes. Mr. Monroe has spent some time in the Rainy Lake region, having purchased timber land in Beltrami county a few years ago.

a Stanley township settler of 1874. Mrs. Monroe's birthplace is Ontario, Canada. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe are Gladys and Howard. A son, Leland, died when three years old.

Fraternally, John Monroe is a member of the A. O. U. W. and the Masonic lodges, and his wife belongs to Equity Lodge Xo. 221, of Cottonwood.

The aged father of John Monroe died in 1910, having lived to be eighty-seven years of age. He lived on the old Stanley township homestead until the death of his wife fifteen years ago. Afterwards he returned to his old home in Cape Britain, where he resided until his death.

ALVAH R. TOWX (1871), manager of the elevator of the Eagle Roller Mills at Balaton, came to Lyon county when he was only two years of age. He is the son of two of the oldest settlers of Rock Lake township, who now live in Balaton.

His parents, Alvah S. and Sarah R. (Clark) Town, were born in the eastern states, settled in Indiana in an early day, resided there a number of years, and in 1871 became residents of Lyon county. Alvah S. Town and his three brothers, Lucius, Julius and Ralph, came together and each took as a homestead a quarter of section 22, Rock Lake township, adjoining the present platted village of Balaton. Of these brothers, Lucius still lives on the homestead, Julius is dead, and Ralph lives at Rockford, Illinois.

Alvah Town's claim was the southeast quarter of the section. On it he erected a little shack with lumber hauled from Heron Lake, in which the family lived several years. The devastation brought by the grasshoppers proved too much for the Town family, and in 1875 they left the country and returned to their former homes in Indiana. Ten years later, however, they returned, lived on the farm two years,*and since that date have lived in Balaton. Besides our subject there is one other child in the family. Erne (Mrs. Elmer Hughes), of Flint, Indiana.

Alvah R. Town, the subject of this review, was born at Salem, Indiana, February 12, 1869. He came to Lyon county with his parents in 1871, returned to Indiana with them in 187". and came back to the county again in 1885. After spending two years on the farm he became a resident of Balaton, and that village has since been his home. Alvah worked in the Balaton creamery two years and then took up carpenter work, which he followed until 1902. That year the Eagle Roller Mills erected an elevator in Balaton and Mr. Town was given the position of manager, which he has since filled.

The Eagle Roller Mills elevator was erected in Balaton in the fall of 1902. The head office of the company is at Xew Ulm, from which it operates twenty-four plants in Minnesota and thirty-nine in South Dakota. The present officers are as follows: Charles Salverson, president; William Salverson, first vice president; J. H Siegel. second vice president; Charles Vogtel, secretary; H. L. Beecher, treasurer. The company deals in grain, coal, flour and feed.

Mr. Town was married at Balaton in March, 1889, to Frankie L. Jones, a native of Waseca county. Minnesota. To them have been born the following named seven children: Jule. Verne, Harold, Bessie, Roy, Helen and Lulu. Mr. Town holds membership in the A. O. U. W. and M. W. A. lodges.

JASPER L. HAVENS (1874) is the owner of a fine quarter section farm in Amiret township and has been a continuous resident of the county for the past thirty-three years. He was born in Green county, Wisconsin. Xovember 23, 1859, and is a son- of Luther and Lovina (Palmer) Havens.

Luther and Lovina Havens, natives of Xew York, moved to Wisconsin when quite young. The father was a farmer, and when the Civil War broke out he enlisted. His army service broke his health and he died in 1865, at which time the subject of our sketch was only six years old. When eight years of age Jasper moved with his mother to Waseca, Minnesota, and four years later he was placed in the Soldiers' Orphans Home at Winona, where he remained until 1874.

Jasper's mother married again, moved to Lyon county in 1873, and took as a homestead the southeast quarter of section 24. Amiret township. There our subject went to live in 1874, and the next few years were spent in working out at farm labor in Amiret township and in the vicinity of Waseca, to which place he returned for a period. In

The subject of this sketch is a stockholder of the Farmers Elevator Company, The Creamery Company of Tracy, and the Amiret State Bank. He has been called upon to serve the township on its governing board and was clerk of school district No. 23 three years. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.

The ceremony which united Jasper Havens and Elizabeth Purves in the holy bonds of matrimony was performed in Amiret township September 30, 1889. She was born in Waukesha county. Wisconsin, November L3, 1868. and is a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Johnston) Purves. Her parents were natives of Scotland and both are deceased, the father having died in 1889 and the mother in 190S.

THOMAS D. SEALS (1874) is the oldest living settler of Minneota and a man who has played a most important part in the affairs of that village. He has seen the town grow from a place of two shacks to the prosperous municipality of today. He has been engaged continuously in business, there for thirty-six years, his business interests nowconsisting of a general merchandise store, a wholesale produce establishment and farming.

The pioneer whose name heads this review is of Scotch-German, ancestry- His father, Spencer Seals, was born in Scotland and early in life became a resident of Pennsylvania; his mother was born in Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. Both parents died when our subject was a child.

Thomas D. Seals was born to these parents while they were residents of Pennsylvania but while on a journey in Tennessee. The date of his birth was October 23, . 1837. His life has been an eventful one. Left an orphan at a tender age, he grew to manhood in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he received his education.

of his country, "serving in both the army and navy. He enlisted in the navy in New York and his ship, the Galata, saw service in Southern waters. Part of the time it acted as convoy to mail steamers and visited many foreign waters, its principal station being Hayti. Mr. Seals was in the army at the time of the battle of Bull Run and he was wounded in that engagement, lie was in the service until the close of the war.

After peace was declared Mr. Seals spent several years traveling, visiting the South and many parts of the western frontier. He made the trip to California in 1870 and made the trip up the Missouri river from St. Louis to Yankton with General Custer in the spring. of 1872. Our subject located in Flandreau a little later and opened a store and tradingpost for the Sioux trade. He then established a store at Lake Benton, conducted it a year, and then moved the stock to Marshfield, Lincoln county, and founded the first business enterprise there. A few months later, in November, 1874, he moved the stock to Minneota, where he has ever since been in business.

Mr. Seals selected that location after looking the country over with a view to finding a healthful place in which to live. At that time he weighed only 100 pounds and was a dyspeptic. He has never been ill since and soon after locating at Minneota he weighed 150 pounds. He attributes it to the healthfulness of this part of the country.

Upon his arrival to Minneota in the fall of 1874 Mr. Seals found the town to consist of only two buildings, a blacksmith shop and N. W. L. Jager's little shack containing a few goods. He engaged in the drug and general merchandise business and soon had a prosperous trade. At the present time, besides his business interests in Minneota, Mr. Seals devotes his time to farming, he and the family owning about 600 acres of land in Yellow Medicine county. For twentyyears Mr. Seals held the office of justice of the peace for Minneota. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

In Minneota, on December 28, 1879, Mr. Seals was united in marriage to Edith Kenyon, a native of Minnesota and a daughter of Charles P. and Amanda M. Kenyon, early settlers of Lyon county. Mr. and Mrs. Seals have an adopted daughter, Dorothy Seals.

MRS. AXXA MASTERS (1868), resident of Garvin, is the widow of Henry G. Masters, who died in May, 1908. She was born at Dayton, Ohio, August 17, 1836, and is a daughter of Russell and Amanda (Gunn) Randall, both of whom are deceased.

Henry C. Masters was born in Springfield, Illinois, May 27, 1831. His parents were Robert and Nancy Ami (Taylor) Masters. February 24, 1856, he was married to Anna Randall of this sketch. To this union the following children were born: Edwin (deceased), George (deceased), Frank, Samuel, Luanna (Mrs. Edward Edwards), of Garvin: Maxson and Clark.

Our subject and her husband were among the very first settlers in Lyon county. They took a homestead in Custer township in 1868 and commenced farming. In those days the settlers were compelled to drive to New Ulm for groceries and their mail, a distance of about eigh:y miles, and the story of their early years in the county is the story of the earliest pioneer residents. Mr. Masters died in Kalispel during a trip to Montana in 1882.

MRS. ERICK ROXXIXG (1872) is the widow of Erick Ronning, one of the earliest homesteaders in Shelburne township, who died in July, 1908. She is the owner of a comfortable home and twenty-five acres of land adjoining Florence.

Airs. Erick Ronning was born in Trondhjem, Xorway, December 23, 1843, the daughter of Peter Anderson and Carrie (Corneliuson) Sanden, neither of whom is living. Our subject attended school in Xorway and at the age of twenty-two she came with the family to this country. In 1870 she was married to Erick Ronning, a native of Xorway. She and her husband came to Lyon county in 1872 and settled in Shelburne, where the husband farmed until his death. Mrs. Ronning has since lived in town. The Ronnings w^ere the parents of the following children: Knute, born March 10, 1871; Peter, born June 27, 1873; Menna, born November 10, 1875; Carrie, born April 12, 1878; Edward, born August 22, 1880; and Inga, born August 21, 1882.

R. M. ADDISOX (1872) is the senior member of the firm of R. M. Addison & Son. hardware dealers of Marshall, and he is the pioneer business man of that city. He has played a most important part in the history of Marshall during the forty years of his residence in that city and has done much toward the upbuilding of the city. He has served as mayor of Marshall and was treasurer of Lyon county one term. For the past twenty years Mr. Addison has been vice president of the First Xational Bank of Marshall.

In Manchester, England, our subject was born. When a child he accompanied the family to America and for a time lived in Providence. Rhode Island. When he was ten years of age the family came West and settled in Iowa county, Wisconsin, and there he grew to man's estate. On the thirteenth day of August, 1862, Mr. Addison enlisted as a private in Company E, Twentythird Wisconsin Infantry, and served in the old army of the Tennessee under General Grant. He participated in the Vicksburg campaign and other engagements in the rear of Vicksburg. including Port Gibson, Jackson,' Big Black River Bridge. Champion Hill, etc. At DeCroe's Point, Texas, two years after he entered the army, he was commissioned first lieutenant. He was the highest commissioned officer of his company and was in command during the rest of the war. bringing the company back to Wisconsin for muster out. The father of our subject. Robert M. Addison, served as a surgeon in the Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Regiment during the Civil War.

After the war Mr. Addison located at Waseca, Minnesota, formed a partnership with William Everett, now deceased, erected the first business building in that village in 1867, and engaged in business there until his removal to .Marshall late in 1S72. For the purpose of engaging in business in the new town of Marshall, the firm of William

Everetl & Companj was formed, composed of William Everett, K. M. Addison and Charles A. DeGraff, the latter the head of the railroad contracting firm which was building the railroad through Lyon county.

M r. Addison hauled lumber from New Ulm and erected the first building for business purposes in the village. The railroad was then being built and the town had not yet been platted. The frame shanty he erected, 16x13 feet with a lean-to, was put up in what proved to be a street, directly in front of the site of the present Lyon County National Bank. In that building Mr. Addison began his business career in Marshall. The firm carried a large stock of goods and the railroad workmen patronized it liberally. The daily sales at the store at times reached $2000 to $2500. At the time of locating in the town Mr. Addison also engaged in the implement business in partnership with H. Tripp, who carried the mail between Redwood Falls and Lynd. Mr. Tripp was a prominent man in the early history of the county and had many friends. The partners established their business on the corner back of the present Addison Block - a business now conducted by R. M. Addison & Son.

After the completion of the railroad to Marshall Mr. Addison and S. H. Mott purchased the pioneer store of William Everett & Company, ahd two years later our subject became the sole proprietor of the business. He conducted the store for a time in the building on the corner now owned by Arthur Drew and later occupied the Reichert Block. In 1887 he erected the handsome business block he now occupies and engaged in the hardware business exclusively. For a few years Frank Reed was a partner in the business, and twelve years ago Harry Addison became his partner, since which time the firm has been styled R. M. Addison & Son.

R. M. Addison was married at Waseca, Minnesota, in February, 1867, to Ella A. Wood, a native of New York State. She died in Marshall in February, 1906. Mr. Addison has three children: Harry, Edith (Mrs. S. Kennan), of Helena, Montana; and Robert M., Jr. Mr. Addison is a member of D. F. Markham Post No. 7, Grand Army of the Republic.

proprietor of a confectionery, cigar and notion store at Garvin and is one of Lyon county's oldest settlers, having made settlement in Custer township forty-one years ago. In the early days he played an important part in the affairs of his community.

Mr. Thomas was born in Allegany county, Maryland, September 24, 1847, and spent the first thirteen years of his life in his native state. He came West with the family in 1860 and lived one year in Columbia county, Wisconsin. In 1861 he went with the family to La Crosse county, Wisconsin; in 1863 to Rock Island county, Illinois; in 1868 to Boone county, Iowa; in 1870 to Blue Earth county, Minnesota; and in 1871 to Lyon county.

The Thomas family made the trip to Lyon county with ox teams, and settlement was made on section 4, Custer township. The father took as a homestead claim the northeast quarter of the section and our subject the southeast quarter. A log house, with shake roof and puncheon floor, was built on the place and in that the family lived for some time. No railroad had yet penetrated the county, and during the first winter Benjamin Thomas made five trips by ox team to Lake Crystal to bring in material and supplies.

Mr. Thomas farmed the homestead until 1884. Then he gave up farming and located at Minnesota Lake, where for two years he bought grain for Hodges & Hyde. He then located at Hankinson, North Dakota, and for many years was employed as a grain buyer. He returned to Lyon county in 1901 and for two years conducted his farm. Mr. Thomas then became a resident of Garvin. He managed the Sleepy Eye elevator at that point a year and a half and then bought and shipped stock for a year or two. He established his present business in 1907.

In 1876 Mr. Thomas circulated a petition asking for the right to organize the township in which he lived, under the name of Reno, in honor of the general in charge of the forces against the Indians in Montana. Before the required permission was granted, however, the Custer massacre had occurred and the township was named in honor of General Custer, whose life had been sacrificed a few months before. Mr. Thomas was the first clerk of Custer township and served sev-

The parents of Benjamin Thomas were two of the best known residents of southern Lyon county. They were Benjamin and Catherine (Jones) Thomas, natives of Wales, who came to America at the ages of nineteen and twelve years, respectively. They were married in Allegany county, Maryland, and there all their children, excepting Ruth, were born. Both parents died on the Custer homestead, the father in 1884, the mother in 1892. The children of the family are Mrs. William Hughes, of Garvin; Ann (Mrs. Richard Hughes), deceased; Benjamin, of this biography; James J., of Tracy; Ruth (Mrs. Rees Price), of Tracy; and Joseph B., of Garvin.

Our subject was married in Custer town: ship to Loretta Delong. She was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, and died March 7, 1897, at the age of thirty-eight years. Mr. Thomas has three children: Edgar, who is engaged in railroad work in the West; Harvey, of Wells, Minnesota; and Hattie, who attends school at Wells.

WILLIAM E. BERRY (1874), one of the oldest residents of Amiret township and one of its prosperous farmers, is the proprietor of the southeast quarter of section 15. This farm used to be known as the Rowell homestead, owing to the fact that its former owners were Louis and Patience (Vrooman) Rowell, parents of our subject's wife. The Rowells, natives of New York and Pennsylvania, respectively, came to Lyon county in 1877 and Mr. Rowell purchased the land from the railroad company.

Our subject's parents were William and Adelia (Fuller) Berry and were natives of New York and Maine, respectively. They settled in Lyon county in the spring of 1874, and the father took as a homestead a quarter in Sodus township and a quarter as a tree claim. The family made their residence on the homestead and their first few years in the county were full of hardships and privations, as the grasshopper years were just beginning. They made their home on the farm until their deaths.

William Berry was born in Clark county, Wisconsin, April 7, 1863, and accompanied his parents to Lyon county at the age of eleven years. In 1888 he married and moved to the farm in Sodus township which his father had taken as a tree claim when the family came to the county. There Mr. Berry resided until the fall of 1906, when he moved to his present farm in Amiret township, having purchased the same a short time previous. He has put very substantial improvements on the place and has one of the finest farms and homes in the township.

At Tracy, Minnesota, May 26, 1888*, Mr. Berry was married to Susie Rowell, a native of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. She was born February 20, 1869. Her father is dead and her mother lives with her daughter and sonin-law. Mr. and Mrs. Berry are the parents of two children, Gladys B., born December 17, 1891, and Laura A., born April 7, 1900.

Mrs. Berry is one of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rowell. The others are Chauncey, John S., who has mining interests in Alaska, and Lewis L., all of Amiret township; Charles (deceased), Patience Bell (Mrs. Jay Nichols), of Hayti, South Dakota; and Ira V., an engineer in the employ of a construction firm in Minneapolis. Mr. Berry has two brothers, Adelbert, of Edmonton, Canada, and Edward, of Sodus township.

Mr. Berry is a member of the Modern Woodmen lodge of Amiret. He has served one term as a member of the Amiret Township Board of Supervisors.

OLE J. WIGNES (1878), farmer of Eidsvold township, is an ex-member of the Board of County Commissioners, a pioneer resident of his precinct, and a man who has been actively identified with the affairs of his county and township. His residence here covers a period of thirty-four years.

In Toten, Norway, on the twenty-fifth of August, 1853, Ole Wignes first saw the light of day. His parents, Ole and Ellen (Fjelhog) Wignes, are buried in the land of the midnight sun. Until he was sixteen years of age Ole attended the common schools of his native land; then for a year he worked for his father on the farm.

Having decided to cast his fortunes in the New World, Ole Wignes left his native land in the spring of 1871, being then less than eighteen years of age. From the date of his arrival in America until the spring of 1878 he worked at farm labor near the city of

La Crosse, Wisconsin, and in the Wisconsin pineries. He then came to Lyon county and purchased the southwest quarter of section 27, Eidsvold township, two miles west of the little village of Minneota, and he still owns and operates that farm.

The firs! I wo winters after his arrival Mr. Wignes worked in the pineries of Wisconsin, but in the spring of 1880 he returned to the counts Cor permanent residence, having been married al that time. He has ever since resided on the farm he bought in the early daj s and has prospered exceedingly, now being the owner of 480 acres of Lyon county farming land. He raises Poland China hogs and grade horses and cattle. Besides his farming operations Mr. Wignes has other business interests. He is a stockholder of the First National Bank of Minneota, and he was one of the organizers of and for several years was president of the Farmers Elevator Company of Minneota.

During his -long residence in the county Mr. Wignes has many times been called upon to serve in an official capacity. From 1890 to 1894 and from 1898 to 1902 he represented his district on the Board of County Commissioners and two years of that time he was chairman of the board. He was a member of the Eidsvold Board of Supervisors two years and for several years has been assessor of his precinct. For more than thirty years he has been treasurer of school district No. 55. Mr. Wignes is a member of the English Lutheran church of Minneota and was formerly a church trustee."

Mr. WTignes was married at La Crosse, Wisconsin, March 26, 1880, to Caroline Evanson. She was born in Wisconsin September 16, 1861, a daughter of Christian and Agnete (Hemah) Evanson. Her father resides near La Crosse; her mother is dead. The following named five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wignes: Edwin, Oscar," Alma (Mrs. Gilbert "Severson), of Nordland township; Carl and John. The four boys reside at home.

Wisconsin, May 20, 1857. His parents were Kittel and Margaret (Helgeson) Furgeson, natives of Telemarken, Norway, and they came to the United States in 1849. They settled near Nina, Wisconsin, where our subject was born and where he received his early education and resided until twelve years old.

In 1869 the family moved to Freeborn county, Minnesota, and there they made their home until 1875, in which year they came to Minnesota and Kittel Furgeson filed on the southeast quarter of section 4, Island Lake township, as a homestead. On that farm our subject grew to manhood, and when twenty-five years of age he bought the homestead right to the southwest quarter of section 10 and proved up on the place. He later bought additional land on sections 16 and 9 and is now the owner of 360 acres of the township's best land. He has fine buildings on the place and is raising a great deal of stock for market. Mr. Furgeson is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Minneota.

Our subject married in the township December 19, 1881, taking for his wife Aasil Johnson. She was born in Telemarken, Norway, January 21, 1862, and her parents, Bjorn and Engebor (Stenerson) Johnson, came to this country in 1866, settling in Story county, Iowa. They came to Lyon county in 1872, and the father filed on a homestead on section 32, Nordland township, where he and his wife lived until their death. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Furgeson are the parents of the following children: Clara M., born March 23, 1884; Fredrik B., born April 21, 1887; I. Sophie, born June 20, 1889; Hannah A., born November 11, 1891; Ella J., born July 28, 1895; Mabelle A., born June 10, 1897; Alice H., born August 28, 1901; and Elmer H., born May 14, 1904.

Mr. Furgeson is a member of the township board and is a director of school district No. 62. He is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church.

KNUD E. KJORNESS (1874) and Ole L. Orsen are the two oldest settlers of Minneota in point of residence in Lyon county. Mr. Kjorness has a fine residence in Minneota and leads a comparatively retired life, farming a little and raising some stock. He is

Our subject was born in Valders, Norway, March 1, 1851. Knud and Rognild (Kjorness) Fodness, his parents, are both dead. Knud's schooling was that of the average Norwegian farmer boy and was completed by the time he was fifteen. A year later he came to America, locating in Allamakee county, Iowa, and working at farm labor for fifty cents a day. He was eager for more education and attended country school during the winter months for the next four years. Later for two years he was a student in the high schools of Lansing and Waukon, Iowa.

In the spring of 1875 Mr. Kjorness drove from Allamakee county to Lyon county and took a homestead on the northwest quarter of section 24, Eidsvold township, having driven up the year before to look over the country. He farmed until 1895, when he moved to Minneota, and for the next ten years farmed land near the village. He retired from active life in 1906.

June 11, 1895, Knud E. Kjorness and Sarah Kjorness, a native of Dane county, Wisconsin, were joined in the holy bonds of- matrimony. She is the daughter of Andrew and Inga (Olson) Hellikson, who are living in Westerheim and who came to the county in 1875. To our subject and his wife have been born three children: Andrew, on December 25, 1896; Elmer, on October 3, 1901; and Roy, on January 6, 1904.

Mr. Kjorness was treasurer of the Norwegian Evangelical church for several years and has been secretary of the Farmers & Merchants Supply Company of Minneota for eleven years. He has served as justice of the peace, been chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Eidsvold, has spent several years as town clerk and town treasurer, and was for a time treasurer, of school district No. 39.

JOHN C. TWEET (1874). One of the finest improved farms in the immediate vicinity of Tracy is the one belonging to Mr. Tweet, on the northwest quarter of section 4, Monroe township. When our subject came to the county there was no town of Tracy, and there were only a few scattered settlers living in the southeastern part of the county. Mr. Tweet at once bought a right from Gilbert Gilbertson to the land which he now owns and took it as a preemption claim, later changing the filing to a homestead. He has lived on the place ever since.

The first years of Mr. Tweet's residence were discouraging ones. His home was the little 14x16 feet shanty put up by Mr. Gilbertson prior to Mr. Tweet's arrival. Our subject's crop of grain in 1875 was destroyed by the grasshoppers and he spent the fall of the year in the harvest fields in Blue Earth county, earning enough to keep his family. The crop in 1876 was also lost, and Mr. Tweet again worked out to provide food and clothes for the folks at home. His fortitude prevailed and years of prosperity have more than made up for the early years of hardship. Mr. Tweet has in late years added considerably to his original holdings.

Our subject's parents were Christian Tweet and Anbgar (Johnson) Tweet, both now dead. John was born in Norway September 1, 1842, and lived in his native land until 1869, receiving his education and working on his father's farm and at the carpenter's trade. Coming to America in 1869, the young man located in Columbia county. Wisconsin, where he lived four and one-half years, except four months spent in Norway on a visit. Immediately upon his return to America Mr. Tweet came to Lyon county and purchased- the farm where he has since lived. He has been a supervisor four years in Monroe township and was treasurer ten years. He is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church.

John C. Tweet was married October 9, 1874, in Monroe township to Oleana Johnson, a native of Norway, where she was born December' 11, 1856, coming to America and locating in Lyon county in 1874.v To Mr. and Mrs. Tweet have been born the following children: Emma C, Henry E. and Annie, all of whom are deceased; Clara H. (Mrs. Thomas Jones), of Brainerd, Minnesota, born April 13, 1880; Peter Alexander, of North Dakota, born March 12, 1882; Eddie K., of Canada, born November 9, 1889; Carl A., who resides at home, born January 12, 1887; Julia O., a school teacher, born July 28, 1890; Stella J., born July 21, 1894; and

JOHN B. GISLASON (1879). An early settler and a man prominent in the affairs of his township and county is John B. Gislason, a farmer of Westerheim township. He has held several local offices and been in the forefront of many campaigns for the betterment of Lyon county. He is first vice president of the Lyon county branch of the Southern Minnesota Better Development League and vice president of the Lyon County Agricultural Association, of which society he was president seven years. He was Westerheim's township clerk two years and clerk of school district No. 3 six years. He holds membership in the Masonic and Woodmen lodges in Minneota.

Mr. Gislason was born in Iceland December 6. 1872. When he was seven years of age, in 1879; he came with his parents to America and Lyon county and has ever since resided in Westerheim township. He attended the district schools until eighteen years of age and made his home with his parents until his marriage in 1895. He rented the home farm in 1893 and purchased it from his father in 1900. In addition to that 200-acre farm on section 10, he is the owner of eighty acres on section 3, making him a farm of 280 acres. The place is known as Hillside Homestead and contains one of the finest homes in the county. Mr. Gislason raises registered Oxford Down sheep and grade Durham cattle and Poland China hogs. Besides his farm property he is the owner of the Gislason Block in Minneota. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Mutual Elevator Company of Minneota.

Lecta E. Edwards became the wife of Mr. Gislason on November 13, 1895. She was born in Iceland February 25, 1875. Her parents, Edward and Cecilia (Johnson) Thorleifson, came to America from Iceland in an early day. The father took a homestead in Swede Prairie township, Yellow Medicine county, and resided on the place until his death on December 14, 1884; the mother still lives in that county.

Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gislason, as follows. Harold Miles Hugo, born November 10, 1896; Byron Edward, born December 26, 1898; Julian Bernard, born October 9, 1900; Francis Alexander (deceased), born August 28, 1902; Cecilia Adalborg, born August 6, 1904; William Bjorn, born September 13, 1906; Francis Alexander, born August 28, 1908; John Frederick, born November 29, 1910. All the children reside at home.

Bjora and Adalborg (Johnson) Gislason, parents of John B. Gislason, came to Lyon county from Iceland in 1879, arriving in Minneota on the twenty-first day of July of that year. They purchased the farm in Westerheim now operated by their son from a homesteader and conducted the place until 1893. Thereafter until his death on August 9, 1906, the father continued a resident of Westerheim township; the mother makes her home with the subject of this review. Bjorn Gislason was born September 10, 1827; Adalborg Johnson was born December 20, 1836.

CHRISTIAN CUPP (1878), a resident of Coon Creek township, is one of the older settlers of Lyon county. He was born in Heilbronn, Wurtemburg, Germany, May 17, 1847. His parents were Christof and Katherine (Hoetzer) Cupp, both of whom are de-. ceased. Christian attended school in Obereisesheim, Germany, until eighteen years of age, after which he worked for his father on the farm until twenty.

In 1867 Christian immigrated to America and located in New York City, where he remained a year. He then worked in a suburb, Harlem, for two years, going from there to St. Louis and Southern Missouri, where he remained six years as superintendent of a cotton-gin. Returning to Germany, he remained a month, after which he returned to St. Louis, where he worked in the iron works for a few months, going from there to Illinois and Iowa, working as a harvest hand. In 1876 he landed in Newry, Freeborn county, Minnesota, near which place he worked at farm labor for one and one-half years.

In the fall of 1878 Mr. Cupp homesteaded the southwest quarter of section 6, Coon Creek township, which he still owns and operates. Since that time he has become the owner of 280 acres on section 7, of the same township, making him the owner of 440 acres of fine land. In addition to general farming, Mr. Cupp raises considerable stock.

including Black Polled Angus cattle, grade hogs and Red Leghorn chickens. He is a member of the German Lutheran church and the A. O. U. W. and A. F. & A. M. lodges. Mr. Cupp is a stockholder of the Tyler Telephone Company and has been treasurer of school district No. 66 for twenty-five years. He was a member of the Township Board of Supervisors fifteen years and is assessor of Coon Creek township.

On March 4, 1885, Mr. Cupp was married to Caroline Louise Gurr, a daughter of William and Katherine (Keller) Gurr, deceased. Mrs. Cupp was born April 2, 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Cupp are the parents of the following named children: William, Henry, Sophia, Clara and Carl. All reside at home. Mrs. Cupp has three brothers and three sisters, as follows: William, August, Henry, Pauline, Wilhelmina and Mary, all of whom reside in Germany.

BYRON P. TERRY (1877), a dealer in farm machinery at Balaton, is one of the pioneer residents of southern Lyon county and a man who has taken a prominent part in the affairs of his community. For over thirty-five years he has resided in Rock Lake township and Balaton.

Byron P. Terry was born at Berlin, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1877 the family set out from their Wisconsin home by ox-team . for the new land of Lyon county. They drove to Winona and then entrained for .Marshall. The father bought the northeast quarter of section 20, Rock Lake township, having arrived at the new home on June 30, 1877. The father conducted the farm three years and then moved to St. Paul. At that time our subject bought the farm, and for the next fourteen years he engaged in farming it.

After leaving the farm Mr. Terry moved to Balaton. His first occupation in the village was as a clerk in the hardware store of D. F. Sanders, which was conducted in the building in which Mr. Terry now carries on his business. For seven years he was on the road as a traveling salesman for machinery companies and for a time worked for the Laird-Norton Company. Later he conducted a livery barn for three years. In partnership with James Murrison, Jie bought Eng Brothers' hardware and implement business, but two years later sold to his partner and again engaged in farming on his property two miles west of Balaton. He returned to the village one year later and in November, 1910, he bought his present business house and put in a new stock of implements. Besides his machinery business Mr. Terry is engaged in the conduct of his farm. For sixteen years he served as justice of the peace, giving up the office in 1904.

Mr. Terry was married in the village in which he has lived so long on July 17, 1880, to Inez L. Hamm, the eldest daughter of William Hamm, one of the county's pioneers. She was born at Painted Post, Pennsylvania. To these parents two children have been born, Guy E., of Haynes, North Dakota, and Maud M., who died in 1902, at the age of eight years. '

The parents of our subject were Thomas L. and Margaret D. (Daniels) Terry, both natives of Syracuse. New York. They came West in an early day, Mr. Terry being the second settler in Berlin, Wisconsin. He was a newspaper man and founded the Berlin Courant, the first paper in that town. After living on his farm in Rock Lake township, Lyon county, two years, in 1879 he moved to St. Paul and took employment with the Home & Danz Manufacturing Company, by whom he was still employed at the time of his death in September, 1891. He was sixtyfive years old when he died. The mother of our subject died at Hennessey. Oklahoma, in 1904, at the age of seventy-one years.

There are five children in the family of Thomas L. and Margaret Terry, named as follows: Lucy I.Mrs. E. T. Slayton), of St. Paul, Minnesota; Minnie (Mrs. Nathan Mathews), of Poy Sippi, Wisconsin; Byron P., of this sketch: Mary (the wife of Dr. Austin F. Merrill), of Hennessey, Oklahoma; Maud M. (Mrs. Fred Chase), of Oakland, California.

OLAF DOVRE (1874) is a successful farmer and stock raiser of Eidsvold township. He owns 520 acres of land in that precinct and has one of the township's finest farm homes. He has gained a reputation for his blooded stock, for which he has a ready sale. He raises pure-bred Shorthorn cattle and Duroc-Jersey and Poland China hogs. Excepting one year, Mr. Dovre has

His parents, Knud O. and Anna (Skaar) Dovre, were born in Norway and came to Lyon county in the spring of 1872. They were among the first settlers of Eidsvold township, Knud Uoyre taking as a homestead the land upon which his son now resides. The father of our subject died September 1, 1899; the mother lives with her son. The living children of the family are Ole, of Fessenden, North Dakota; Olaf and Sarah, who resides with her brother in Eidsvold. The deceased children of the family were named Mary, Barbara and Ole.

Olaf Dovre was born on the Eidsvold homestead August 9, 1S74. He attended district school until eighteen years of age and worked for his father on the farm until the latter's death in 1899. He conducted the farm a year and a half after that and then purchased the interests of the other heirs. He has ably managed his affairs and is in prosperous circumstances.

Mr. Dovre is a stockholder of and was formerly a director of the Farmers and Merchants Elevator Company of Minneota. He was a director of school district No. 55 for three years. He and his family are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Minneota and he holds membership in the Modern Woodmen lodge of the same village.

Anna Mary Rafling became the wife of Mr. Dovre at Elbow Lake, Minnesota, June 2, 1904. She was born in Lyon county November 7, 1882, and is a daughter of Anton and Anna (Dovre) Rafting. The family came to Lyon county in 1880 and a few years later moved to Grant county, now living at Elbow Lake. Mr. and Mrs. Dovre's children are Karl Adolph, born January 2, 1908, and Alice Evelyn, born August 2, 1910.

JOSHUA GOODWIN (1872). An early settler of Lyon county and a man who has played a part in pioneer times is the gentleman whose name heads this review. For an even forty years he has resided in this county, most of the time in the county seat engaged in contracting. He now lives a retired life, enjoying the fruits of his earlier activities.

English stock. His paternal grandfather was an Englishman and served as a drummer boy in the battle of Waterloo. His father, Amos Goodwin, was born in Canada and died in 1845; his mother, Amanda (Brundage) Goodwin, was also born in Canada and is deceased.

Until he was seventeen years of age Joshua Goodwin attended school in his native province; then he served an apprenticeship to the ship-builder's trade and worked at the trade for a number of years. In 1855, when he was twenty-three years of age, Mr. Goodwin came to the States and until he enlisted in the army during the Civil War he worked at the carpenter's trade - eighteen months in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, until the fall of 1858 in Kinmundy, Illinois, and until 1860 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Then he returned to Illinois and in the spring of 1861 he enlisted as a private in an Illinois regiment. He became a lieutenant of Company B, Fortieth Illinois Volunteers, and served until the latter part of 1863, when on account of ill health he received an honorable discharge. After the war Mr. Goodwin resided in Illinois until 1872, recovering his health.

In the spring of that year Mr. Goodwin came to Lyon county and took a homestead claim in Lynd township, which he still owns. He made his home on the claim a while and then took up his residence in Marshall. He spent one and one-half years near Sheridan, Montana, where he had charge of a mine for the Gold Mining and Milling Company of Chicago. Mr. Goodwin carried on a contracting and building business ui Marshall until 1897, when he retired from active pursuits. He is the owner of 360 acres of Lyon county real estate and property in Marshall. During the grasshopper days of the seventies Mr. Goodwin did not lose faith in the country and was instrumental in keeping many of the discouraged settlers on their claims. He is a charter member of the Masonic lodge of Marshall.

Mr. Goodwin was married at Kinmundy, Illinois, February 14, 1865, to Dillie M. Pearson, who was born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, July 4, 1847, and who died July 14, 1903. Her parents were natives of New Hampshire. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin, as follows: Charles Prescott, born December 17, 1866; Eugene Hubbard, born

June 1, 1869; Edna (Mrs. V. B. Seward), born November 22, 1870; Lonta, born October 31, 1873; Mehitable Whitney (Mrs. S. E. Whitmore), born February 26, 1877; Blanche I Mrs. Bert B. Dane), born June 26, 1880; Mell Augusta (Mrs. George A. Silvius), of Mineral Springs, North Dakota, and Grace (.Mrs. John Peterson), of Faribault, Minnesota, twins, born April 19, 1885; Harold and Edith, deceased.

FRANK E. BILLS (1872), of Lynd, is one of the pioneer residents of Lyon county. He is a native of Pennsylvania and was born February 13, 1845. He is the son of the late Henry and Electa (Dike) Bills, early residents of Warren county, Pennsylvania. They immigrated to Somerset, Steele county. Minnesota, in 1856. The father was a native of New York and the mother of Virginia.

Our subject received his early education in the land of his nativity. When twelve years of age he accompanied his parents to Steele county. Minnesota, where he worked for his father until twenty-two years of age. He then rented land for five years in Steele county, after which he came to Lyon county, in 1872. He took a pre-emption claim, which he held for five years, and then returned to Steele county in 1877 and farmed until 1882. That year he went to Denver, Colorado, where he remained until 1890, working at the carpenter's trade. In 1890 he returned to Lyon county and worked at the carpenter's trade for two years. He then worked at different towns in Minnesota at his trade until 1905, when he moved to Lynd.

In 1866 Mr. Bills was united in marriage to Ida Culver, a daughter of John Culver, of Steele county, Minnesota. Mrs. Bills was born in Wisconsin September 18, 1850. Two children were born to this union: Mary Estelle (Mrs. Frank Sutton), of Denver, Colorado, and Effie May (Mrs. Frank Riggs), of Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Bills owns a ranch in Cuba and also some mining stock in Alaska. He makes his home with his niece, Mrs. Maggie Williams, at Lynd and works at his trade as wagonwright and cabinetmaker.

of the Pacific Hotel at Garvin and owner of 320 acres of good farming land in Sodus and Custer townships, was born in Utica, New York, November 17, 1860. His parents, Thomas and Ellen (Williams) Edwards, came West, resided in Blue Earth county for a short time, and in 1872 took as a homestead the northwest quarter of section 34, Sodus township. The father and mother lived on the homestead farm until 1900, when they moved to Garvin, where Mrs. Edwards still resides. Mr. Edwards died in 1904. y

Edward received his education in Blue Earth and Lyon counties, attending the common schools. He engaged in farming at home until 18S3, in which year he purchased eighty acres on section 33, Sodus township, and began farming for himself, a few years afterwards adding 160 acres to his holdings. In 1887 Mr. Edwards moved to Montana, where he lived two and one-half years, engaging in railroading. Returning to Lyon county in 1890, our subject resumed farming and during the next eight years increased his holdings to 320 acres. In 1898 he moved to Garvin and built the Pacific Hotel, which he has since conducted. He still owns his land and gives considerable attention to the farms in busy seasons, leaving the hotel in the care of Mrs. Edwards.

June S, 1884, Edward Edwards was married to Louanna Masters, a Rice county girl. She was born December 13, 1866, and is a daughter of Henry C. and Anna (Randall) Masters, the former of whom is dead and the latter living in Garvin. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are the parents of three children: Maud (Mrs. John Holden), of Garvin: Thomas Henry, born June 24, 1890; and Maxson, born March 2, 1896. Mrs. Edwards is a member of the Congregational church of Garvin. Her husband is a member of the Elks lodge of Mankato. Mr. Edwards has held the office of constable and justice of the peace in Garvin most of the time since his residence in the town.

HENRY FREESE (1878). One of the most prosperous and widely known farmers of Lyon county is Henry Freese, of Lake Marshall township, who has been a resident of Lyon county over thirty years. He was born in the province of West Fahlen, Germany, September 6, 1839, the son of Herman and Minnie (Tosbach) Freese. He attended school in the land of his nativity until tourteen years of age, after which he worked out at farm labor two years. He then immigrated to the United States, settling at Fort Madison, Iowa, where he worked as a woodchopper and at farm labor eighteen months. Later he went to Madison, Wisconsin, where he worked three years in a nursery and at farm labor.

In 1862 Mr. Freese enlisted in Company D, Twenty-third Wisconsin Infantry, as a volunteer. He was mustered in August, 1S62, and mustered out in May, 1865. He took an active part in several battles, including the battle of Vicksburg. After the war he moved to Minnesota, locating in Sibley county, near Le Sueur, where he purchased 240 acres of land, selling out six months later. He then purchased an eighty acre tract in the same county, later adding forty acres more, and making that his home until 1878.'

In the last named year Mr. Freese moved to Lyon county and homesteaded land in Island Lake township, also taking a tree claim and a pre-emption, making him 480 acres of real estate. He farmed that eighteen months. He then purchased the eighty acres upon which the Marshall fair grounds are now located, on section 8, Lake Marshall township. Later he became the owner of section 7, Lake Marshall township, the west half of which he still owns, and the east half of which he sold to his sons, Noah Walter and George Arthur. Mr. Freese is a member of the German Evangelical church and the G. A. R., D. F. Markham Post No. 7, of Marshall. He was a school officer in Sibley county for several years and also in Lyon county, of district No. 9. He is a shareholder in the Lyon County Agricultural Society and owns several lots in Long Beach, California, where he spends his winters.

Mr. Freese was married in 1868 to Sarah Schmitt, a daughter of Christian Schmitt, of Kasson, Dodge county, Minnesota. To Mr. and Mrs. Freese were born the following named children: William, Arthur, Mary (Mrs. L. C. Moyer), Lydia (Mrs. A. J. Abernathy), Lawrence, Noah, Edward, Rollin, Elsie and two who died in infancy. Mrs. Freese died May 4, 1911.

THOMAS NELSON (1872) is one of the Custer township farmers who came to the county in the early days, when the settlers were few and when the nearest trading points were New Ulm and Redwood Falls. He remembers how the farm work was done with the aid of oxen and that the trips to New Ulm after supplies took at least a week. Mr. Nelson of late years has been leaving much of the management of the farm to his son Edwin and has been enjoying a deserved rest from active cares.

Norway is the native home of Thomas Nelson and he was born in September, 1833, a son of Nels and Sarah (Yoe) Nelson, both of whom are dead. Thomas received his education in Norway and at the age of sixteen commenced to learn the carpenter's trade, which occupation he followed for several years. Later, for a period of years, the young man served in the army.

Coming to America in 1865, the subject of our sketch located in Decorah, Iowa, where he worked at his trade a few years; then he moved to Rochester, Minnesota, and followed the same line of work. In the spring of 1872 Mr. Nelson moved to Lyon county, locating in Custer township and taking as a homestead the southwest quarter of section 34. In addition to general farming, Mr. Nelson takes much pride in his herd of Hereford cattle and in his Duroc- Jersey swine. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Independent Elevator Company of Garvin and in the Garvin Telephone Company.

In 1872 Thomas Nelson was manned to Karen Evanson, a native of Norway. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are the parents of four children, Henry, Neil, Edwin and Emma (Mrs. Christ Nelson), of Garvin. Mr. Nelson is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Monroe township, of which he was at one time treasurer.

JAMES J. THOMAS (1871), who now lives a retired life in Tracy, is one of the very oldest of the settlers of southeastern Lyon county. He came when a boy thirteen years old, forty-one years ago, and has spent the best part of his life as a resident of Lyon county. He has seen the country develop from a wild and almost- uninhabited

In the county of Allegany, Maryland, on the twenty-seventh day. of May, 1858, James J. Thomas was born. When a child he was taken by his parents to Wisconsin, lived there a short time, and thereafter lived a few years respectively in Rock Island county, Illinois, and Blue Earth county, Minnesota. In the spring of 1871 the family came to Lyon county and the father purchased from Zibe Ferguson a homestead claim on section 4, Custer township.

At the time of the arrival of the Thomas family there were only ten or twelve families in the vicinity, on the Cottonwood river. Among them were James Mitchell, Sr., Charles Grover, Lafayette Grover, George Robinson, Ogan Johnson, Clark Goodrich, Landy Soward, John Avery, Henry Masters, Charles Dailey and Horace Randall. On the Thomas claim was a rude log shanty. Lumber was hauled from Mankato with ox teams and an addition was made and the shanty otherwise improved. This served as the family home until a modern building was erected in 1892.

James Thomas spent his early days on the claim. From 1880 to 1883 he was located in the western territories; then he returned and took the management of the home farm. which he and his brother Joseph had purchased. They later added to their holdings by purchase until they have a farm of 560 acres. Mr. Thomas remained on the old farm until 1910, when he retired from active pursuits and located in Tracy.

Olive A. Olson, a native of Wisconsin, became the wife of Mr. Thomas, the ceremony having been performed in Sodus township on August 16, 1893. Mrs. Thomas is the daughter of Tollef Olson, one of the early settlers of Sodus township and now a resident of Balaton. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have two children, Grace and Lloyd.

Benjamin B. Thomas was the father of James Thomas. He was born in Wales and came to the United States when eighteen years of age. He married Catherine Jones, who was also born in Wales and who .came to America at the age of eight years. Both died on the Custer township farm. The children of this family are as follows: Margaret Hughes, of Garvin; Fen'F., of Garvin; Ruth (Mrs. Reese Price), of Tracy; James

He was born in Lake City, Wabasha county, Minnesota, August 26, 1861. His parents, William I. and Margaret (Boody) Goodrich, natives of Connecticut and Massachusetts, respectively, settled in Wabasha county in 1856 and resided there until 1875. That year they moved to California for a residence of one year before coming to Lyon county.

In the spring of 1876 the father took a homestead on the southeast quarter of section 12, Grandview township. There the family made their home until 1891, when they moved to Marshall, and there made their home until Mrs. Goodrich's death in 1S94. Since that time Mr. Goodrich has lived with a son in Louisiana. He is a veteran of the Civil War, having been a member of Company M. First Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment. He served thirteen months and was honorably discharged on account of ill health.

The subject of this sKetch attended the common schools of Wabasha county in his youth and later went to school in California one year. He resided with his parents after coming to Lyon county until 1882 and then purchased land in Grandview township and started farming for himself. After six years on the place^ he sold out and rented three years, later purchasing his father's farm. In 1903 he sold one eighty and has since that time conducted the remaining eighty acres. He has a well improved piece of land and raises considerable stock. For several years Mr. Goodrich was road overseer of the township.

On February 24, 1881, occurred the marriage of Mr. Goodrich and Lizzie Williams. a native of Grant county, Wisconsin. She was born August 4, 1863, and died March 4, 1904. To this union were born six children, two of whom, Ethel and John, are living at home with their father. The others died in infancy.

LOUIS RIALSOX 11872). a business man of Tracy, is one of the oldest settlers of southeastern Lyon county, having resided there continuously for the past forty years. In the early days he took part in many of the history-making events, assisting in the organization of Monroe township and holding several offices under the township government, and in later years he has been identified with the political and business life of his community to a considerable extent.

The birth of our subject occurred in Green county, Wisconsin, January 11, 1851, and in that county he lived until coming to Lyon county in 1872 at the age of twenty-one years. He is of Xorwegian parentage, both his parents, Rile and Lucy Evanson, having come from the old country. He has two brothers, Andrew and Ole. The former lives in Kandiyohi county and is a former member of the Minnesota Legislature.

Louis Rialson drove from his former home in Green county, Wisconsin, to Lyon county, arriving during the month of June, 1872, and at once filed a homestead claim to the southwest quarter of section 22, Monroe township, a short distance west of the present city of Tracy. But at the time of his arrival there was no Tracy, no railroad in the county, and the only settlers in the vicinity were the families of Ole Anderson, Ole Helgeson, Andrew Christianson and Kittel Christopherson. The first year our subject lived in a sod house which stood on the claim of his brother, Ole, on the southeast quarter of section 23. Ole Rialson had filed his claim in the spring of 1872 but did not make permanent residence thereon until that fall.

For some little time the trading point for these early settlers was Currie, but later, when the railroad was built, limited supplies could be procured at Saratoga, near the present site of Amiret, and within a short time Tracy was founded. Mr. Rialson assisted in the organization of Monroe township and suggested its name, in honor of the county seat of Green county, Wisconsin. This occurred in January, 1874. During the dark days of the grasshopper scourge Mr. Rialson continued to make his home on the claim and his family remained there continuously, but he was obliged to seek work elsewhere to make both ends meet. During the summer season he worked for his brothers, Evan and Andrew, at Xorway Lake, north of Willmar.

From the time he took the claim forty years ago until 1906 Mr. Rialson lived on the place and he still farms it, although he now makes his home in Tracy. For a number of years before moving to town he had been engaged in the mercantile business in company with A. R. Thompson and the partners also dealt in coal. He has continued the business since moving to Tracy and in August, 1911, he bought the Sleepy Eye elevator and now deals in grain, coal, feed and salt. When he engaged in the new line of business he admitted his son, Edward, as a partner and the business is now conducted under the firm name of Rialson & Son.

Of Monroe township Mr. Rialson served as assessor several terms. He has been alderman of Tracy three terms and is now serving his third term as a member of the Board of Education.

Mr. Rialson was married in Marshall in July, 1874, to Bertha Ellofson, a native of Xorway. They have eight children, named as follows: George, Minnie, Ella, John, Freddie, Clara, Edward and Lilly.

GUSTAV LEDEL (1873) has lived in Xordland. township since he was a boy eight years of age. He was born in Xamsos, Trondhjem, Xorway, April 1, 1865, and the year following his birth was brought by his parents to America. The family farmed in Racine county, Wisconsin, four years, in Dallas county, Iowa, three years, and in 1873 they came in a prairie schooner to Lyon county.

The father took as a homestead claim the southeast quarter of section 24, Xordland township, and on that place Gustav grew to manhood and has ever since resided. He worked for his father until a man grown and for the past twenty years has had charge of the farm. For three years Mr. Ledel served as township assessor and he was road overseer for eight or ten years. He is a member of the Xorwegian Lutheran church.

April 30, 1912, at the age of eighty-four years. Josepha (Spellum) Ledel, his mother, still lives on the old Nordland homestead and is sixty-eight years of age. Gustav is the oldest of a family of three boys and five girls. The other children are Matilda (Mrs. H. R. Hanson), Nellie, Josie (Mrs. Chris Bang), Annie M. (Mrs. Gus Peterson), Adolph, of Minneapolis; Annie and Olaf, who are deceased.

ANDREW HELLIKSON (1875), of Westerheim township, is a pioneer of Lyon county and a man who is conversant with much of its early history. He has been a continuous resident for the past thirty-seven years and has seen his part of the county develop from a wild prairie state into one of the richest agricultural districts of Minnesota.

Norway is the native land of Mr. Hellikson and he was born March 16, 1835. He came to America with his parents in 1842, lived for some years in Walworth county, Wisconsin, and later near Blue Mounds, Dane county, whence he came to Lyon county in 1875. Upon his arrival he took a pre-emption and a tree claim on section 18, Vallers township, lived there two years, and then moved to his present location in Westerheim.

He paid $300 to Olaf Orsen for a tree claim, on which ten acres had been broken but on which no buildings had been erected. There were then only a few settlers in Westerheim and his nearest neighbor was Gula Peterson. Mr. Hellikson improved the farm and has ever since made his home thereon. He has prospered and is today the owner of 480 acres of fertile Lyon county soil. Many hardships were encountered in the early days. Mr. Hellikson remembers a trip he made in March, 1881 (the year of the deep snow) ; no trains were yet in operation and the ground was covered with several feet of snow. He made the trip from Ghent to Sleepy Eye on snow shoes, it taking him three days to make the journey.

Mr. Hellikson is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Minneota. He is one who assisted in the organization of school district No. 3 and he was a director of the district one year.

The parents of our subject were Hellik and Sarah Hellikson. They took a homestead claim in Jackson county, Minnesota, near the village of Brewster, in 1873 and resided on the farm until their deaths. They are buried in the Heron Lake cemetery.

The marriage of Andrew Hellikson to Inger Cliffgard occurred in Prairie township, Dane county, Wisconsin, March 31, 1860. She was born in Norway and eame to the United States at the age of twentytwo years. Eight children were born to this union, of whom the following named three are living: Sarah (Mrs. Knud Kjorness), of Minneota; Mrs. John E. Berg, wife of a farmer of Westerheim township; and Anton, who lives on the home farm.

VIRGIL B. SEWARD (1879) has been engaged in the practive of law in Marshall for the past thirty-three years. He was born on a farm near Larwill, in Whitley county, Indiana, October 4, 1853. When he was less than two years of age, in May, 1855, he accompanied his parents to Mankato, Minnesota, and practically his entire life has been passed as a resident of Southern Minnesota. He was educated in the Mankato public schools and in the University of Minnesota. Later he studied law at Mankato under M. G. Willard and at Stillwater under Congressman J. N. Castle. Mr. Seward was admitted to the bar in September, 1878, practised at Mankato until the spring of 1879, and then took up his residence in Marshall.

He has served as president of the City Council, mayor and village recorder. He was county attorney of Lyon county four terms, having served during the years 1885, 1886, 1889 to 1892, inclusive, and in 1895 and 1896. He was elected state senator from the seventeenth district in 1906 and served one term.

The parents of our subject are the late Amos D. Seward and Pleiades (Barber) Seward, natives of Tallmadge, Ohio, and New York State, respectively. They were of old Connecticut stock, the family's settlement in America dating back to the sixteenth century. They were pioneers of Indiana, having located there in the late forties, and settled at Mankato, Minnesota, in 1855. The elder Mr. Seward erected the first gristmill and sawmill in that frontier village - a mill that met destruction in the

Sioux War of L862. Amos I'. Seward moved in California in 1885 and died there in 1908 at the age of ninety-three years. Mrs. Seward, who is now ninety-three years of age, lives at Ventura, California.

Virgil B. Seward was married at Marshall October 22, 1893, to Edna Goodwin, a native of Illinois and a daughter of Joshua Goodwin, an early settler of Lyon county. Mr. Seward is a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and Shrine of the Masonic orders, and of the Sons of the Revolution and the Royal Arcanum.

FRANK A. ADAMS (1S77) has lived in Eidsvold township since he was a boy fifteen years of age. He was born in Oneida county, New York, January 14, 1862. At the age of four years he was taken with the family to Plainview, Minnesota, and three years later to Redwood Falls. A little later the family located in New Ulm and there Frank attended school, his instructor being M. E. Mathews, the Marshall attorney. In 1874 the family moved to St. Paul and in that city young Adams continued his education.

He accompanied his parents to Lyon county in June, 1877, his father taking as a homestead claim the west half of the southwest quarter of section 4, Eidsvold township. On that place our subject has ever since resided. His father left the farm in 1883 and since that time Frank has owned and farmed the old homestead. He has since purchased an additional quarter section and farms all his land. He feeds hogs and cattle quite extensively. Part of the old claim shanty erected by the father in 1877 still stands on the homestead, a reminder of pioneer days. In 1908 Mr. Adams erected a fine two-story, ten-room house and he has one of the fine homes of the vicinity. Mr. Adams has served as a director of school district No. 43.

Mr. Adams descends from old New England stock, his ancestors having settled in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. His father, Francis R. Adams, was born in Massachusetts and is now a resident of St. Paul. Frances Louisa (Winchell) Adams, the mother of our subject, was born in New York State and died in St. Paul about 1892. There were seven children in the family, of whom the following five are living: Frank

A., of this biography; TIattie Munsell, of Redwood Falls; William, a conductor of the Northern Pacific, residing in St. Paul; Nell Voight, of St. Paul; and Charles, a dining car conductor on the Northern Pacific, residing in St. Paul.

Charlotte L. Conger became the wife of Mr. Adams on July 1, 1883, the ceremony being performed in Marshall. Mrs. Adams was born in Durand, Wisconsin, and is a daughter of Samuel Conger, who settled in Lyon county in 1880. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Adams, as follows: Francis, Clara (Mrs. Ray Dillon), of South Dakota; Harry, William, Ralph, Stella, Roy and Kate.

HENRY D. MORGAN (1873) owns and farms the west half of the northeast quarter of section 12, Custer township. He was born February 22, 1873, in that township and is a son of James and Mary (Davis) Morgan, natives of Wales.

His parents came to the United States when children and settled in Blue Earth county, Minnesota. There they grew up in the same neighborhood and were married. In an early day they located in Lyon county. Henry received his schooling in Lyon county and grew up on the farm. His young manhood was spent helping his father on the farm. In 1897 our subject went West, and the next three years were spent in Montana and Wyoming working in the mines.

Henry Morgan returned to Lyon county in 1899 and was given eighty acres of land by his father, which he has since conducted, and where he has made his home. He has been raising considerable stock on his farm and has invested in various enterprises, owning stock in the Farmers Elevator Company of Garvin and being a stockholder and president of the board of directors of the Current Lake Telephone Company. Mr. Morgan has also been called upon to fill several of the township offices. He is chairman of the Township Board of Custer, served one year as a member of the board, and was several years clerk of the school district. He is active in church affairs and is a member of the Congregational church. The county Y. M. C. A. work in the Garvin community is looked after by Mr. Morgan.

came the wife of Henry Morgan on May 11, 1896, and the ceremony was performed at Marshall. She was born April 10, 1874. Her people located on a homestead on section 12, Custer township. Her father, Richard Hughes, a native of Wales, still lives on the old farm, at the age of seventy-two, and her mother, Ann (Thomas) Hughes, a native of Maryland, died in 1894. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morgan: Louis M., born November 9, 1898; Herald G., born January 24, 1905; and Donald A., born July 22, 1908.

THOMAS E. DAVIS (1877), mayor of Marshall and an attorney of that city, is one of the best known men of Lyon county - a man who has played an important part in the affairs of his community. Although born outside the county, his parents were residents of Lyon county at the time, and he has spent his entire life here.

Thomas E. Davis was born in Judson, Blue Earth county, Minnesota, February 18, 1877. He was brought to Lyon county by his parents when a babe. He was graduated from the Marshall High School in 1894 and during the next year he worked at various occupations. He was a student at Macalester College in 1895 and 1896, preparing himself for the ministry, but he changed his plans and decided to become a lawyer. In March, 1898, he entered the law office of M. E. Mathews, where he read law during the next three years. In March, 1901, he entered the office of Senator V. B. Seward, completed his studies, and the same year was admitted to the bar.

The law firm of Mathews & Davis was then formed and until April, 1902, our subject was engaged in practice with the older attorney. He then opened an office in a dingy little room containing no furniture except a kitchen table loaned by his mother. To purchase books he borrowed one hundred dollars from Col. A. R. Chace. In September, 1902, Mr. Davis received the Republican primary nomination for county attorney, defeating E. C. Patterson, the incumbent, with a majority of 276. At the general election he defeated E. B. Johnson, of Tracy, an independent candidate, by a majority of 540. He received the Republican nomination without opposition in 1904, but

During his term as county attorney Mr. Davis was exceptionally successfully in the prosecution of criminal cases, securing 140 convictions out of 143 cases, including minor and major offences. His law business has grown rapidly, and today he enjoys one of the largest law practices in Southwestern Minnesota. He devotes his time exclusively to the trial of cases and has a large practice in Redwood, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle and Swift counties.

Mr. Davis has taken an active interest in politics and is an orator of state-wide reputation. In the campaigns of 1908 and 1910 he made speeches for the state and national tickets in many parts of the state, spending several weeks in Minneapolis, Duluth and other cities. He has been mentioned as a candidate for congress and is credited with the ambition to represent his district in the nation's law-making body. Locally he has held several offices in addition to that of county attorney. In 1908 and 1909 he served as alderman from the second ward, and in April, 1910, he was elected mayor of the city, defeating H. P. Fulton by ninety-eight majority.

Mr. Davis is a man of family. He was married at Chetek, Wisconsin, June 26, 1906, to Mabel Emma Johnson. She is a native of that place, having been born May 17, 1884. She is the daughter of Ole and Mary Johnson, who were born in Norway. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis: Esther Mabel, horn March 4, 1908, and Dona May, born June 23, 1910. Mr. Davis holds membership in the M. W. A., Royal Arcanum, Maccabees, Elks and Knights of Pythias lodges.

The subject of this biography is the son of Reese and Jane (Jones) Davis, the former a native of Wales and the latter of Ohio, she being of Welsh descent. Reese Davis came to the United States at the age of three years and located with his parents in Ohio. In 1861 he enlisted in Company C, of the Fifty-sixth Ohio Infantry, served the period of his enlistment, and then re-enlisted and served until the close of the war. Jane Jones located in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, with her parents in 1858. After the war Mr. Davis located in the same county, where was a large Welsh settlement, and there the parents of our subject were married. They moved to Lyou county in L873 and took a homestead claim in Monroe township. They left the farm in 1882 and located in Tracy, and four years later moved o .Marshall, where they have since resided. i Ir. Davis is a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church and has been since the church was built.

Reese and Jane Davis have five children, all living and all graduates of the Marshall Higl School. Following are the names of the children: Esther, the wife of William Russell, an attorney at Moorhead; Mary Agnes, the wife of O. A. Krook, who is postmaster of Marshall; Elizabeth Ida, who was the assistant principal of the Laurel, Montana, schools and who is now the wife of Thomas Rigney, a merchant of Laurel; Thomas E., of this biography, and his twin brother, John I., who is an attorney at Benson, Minnesota.

CHARLES TRUAX (1875), Amiret township farmer, is a native of Lyon county. He was born at Tracy on November 12, 1875, and is a son of Samuel S. and Adeline E. Truax, the latter being deceased. The parents were born in Ohio. In 1871 they came to Lyon county and homesteaded the northwest quarter of section 32, Amiret township, where they resided until 1908. In the latter year they moved to Wyoming. To them were born the following children: Nettie, Lydia, May, Ella, Charles and Samuel.

The subject of this review has spent his entire life in Lyon county and was educated in the district and high schools of the county. After finishing his schooling he resided on his father's farm in Amiret township until 1905. In the latter year he moved to Amiret village, where he bought grain for Bingham Brothers five years. In May, 1911, he returned to his father's farm, which he has since conducted in connection with his own farm which adjoins it. Our subject is a member of the M. W. A. and the A. F. & A. M. lodges, and he was township treasurer two years.

Mr. Truax was married at Oakfield, Wisconsin, on February 14, 1900, to Gertrude Mihills. Mr. and Mrs. Truax are the parents of the following five children: Norris, Merrill, Charles, Donald and Samuel.

DAVID H. EVANS (1878). One of the best known men of Lyon county and a man who has played a most active part in the affairs of his city and county is David H. Evans, a hardware merchant of Tracy. He is interested in many business enterprises in his home town and in the state at large and he has taken an active and leading part in political affairs. Mr. Evans has resided in Tracy continuously since 1S78.

At Utica, New York, on the first day of November, 1852, the subject of this biography was born. He came to Minnesota in territorial days with his parents, the trip being made by way of the Mississippi river and ox team. It was when David was only five years of age, in 1857, that the family made settlement in the little hamlet of South Bend (since removed from the map), three miles west of Mankato. There his father opened a blacksmith shop and there the family resided for the next fifteen years.

The community at that time boasted no educational advantages and young Evans received little book learning. During the winter months he helped his father with the work in the shop and during the summer seasons he helped clear the timber from the .eighty-acre tract that the elder Evans owned. At the age of sixteen years David H. Evans left home and began work in a hardware store at Mankato, and in that business he has ever since been engaged. He lived in Mankato until 1878 and since that date has been a resident of Tracy.

The date of his arrival to Tracy was May 3, 1878, and he is now the senior business man of the city. At the time of his arrival Tracy had a population of only about 150 people and he established the second hardware store in the village, the first having been founded by David Stafford. The first five years Mr. Evans' business was conducted in a building on South Street and then he moved to his present location, erecting the two-story 44x100 feet building at that time. He carries a complete line of shelf and heavy hardware and implements. He is also engaged in the grain business, having bought the Neil Currie elevator in an early day and having built an addition to it in 1893.

was established in 1890 and which was later destroyed by fire. He was one of the incorporators of the Citizens State Bank and is a director of that institution. He is vice president of the Houston Pen Company and president of the Tracy Cement and Tile Company.

Mr. Evans was one of the organizers of the Retail Hardware Dealers Mutual Insurance Company of Minneapolis and is vice president of the company. On the first day of December, 1911, this concern had in force insurance to the amount of $15,000,000 and a reserve fund of $306,224.81. Our subject is the president of another worthy concern, the Retail Implement Dealers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Owatonna, which in three years has accumulated a surplus of over $10,000. Mr. Evans was the founder and is the president of the Minnesota Commercial Federation, which was established in 1908. Tbe objects of the federation are to secure united effort and definite action on the part of the various retail commercial associations of Minnesota, to better conditions of retail merchandising, and by cooperation to carry out the purposes of the affiliated organizations and secure such legislation as will promote the business interests of the state.

An extensive land owner is Mr. Evans, about 3000 acres being recorded in his name. Among his holdings is the famous Captain Aldrich farm of 650 acres on Lake Shetek. That farm is a historic spot because of the fact that the thirteen people who were massacred by the Indians in 1862 in the settlement on Lake Shetek are buried on the farm, the grave occupying a beautiful spot on the lake front.

Mr. Evans is a deep student of political conditions and has decided opinions on questions of the times. He is a strong champion of the small town as against the city. He believes that centralization of business brings about a centralization of population, and that both history and experience teach that centralization of population is disastrous to civilization - that a well distributed population contributes to the general welfare and progress. "Commerce to a town, large or small," he maintains, "is what blood is to the human body; deprive a town of its commerce and it is a dead one." Therefore, he thinks, if we are to maintain our present standard of civilization and progress it is necessary to distribute the population over the state, that the inland town must be built up and is essential as a social, religious, civic and educational center.

It is the belief of Mr. Evans that under the present system there is discrimination in railroad freight rates which gives the large centers a strangle hold on the smaller towns and that they are rapidly crushing the life out of the inland towns and rapidly destroying agricultural life. He thinks means must be found to build up the smaller towns and has given the matter deep thought and advocated these principles. He was a warm supporter of the Cashman bill, which met defeat in the last Legislature.

In politics Mr. Evans has taken an active part and is a prominent Democrat. He was the nominee of his party for congress against James T. McCleary in 1898 and has been a candidate for the Legislature. He was a delegate to the national convention that nominated Alton B. Parker for the presidency and in 1906 was made the nominee of the Democrats for state treasurer. He served a term as a member of the State Reformatory Board at St. Cloud, receiving the appointment from Governor Lind. He served as mayor of Tracy two terms and for ten years was a member of the Board of Education, serving part of the time with John Lind, who was then a resident of Tracy and later became governor of the state. Mr. Evans is a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias lodges.

The subject of this review was married at Denver, Colorado, February 22, 1880, to Mary A. Evans. She was born at Berlin, Wisconsin, February 17, 1858, the daughter of William J. and Hannah (Roland) Evans. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have six children : David Tracy, of Omaha, Nebraska; Hannah Vaughn (Mrs. John F. Lehman), of Watertown, South Dakota; William Henry, who assists his father in the store; Mary Winnifred, a student in the State University; Theodosia, a student of the Tracy High School; and Dianessa Bryan, also a student in the Tracy High School.

The parents of David H. Evans were David D. and Eleanor (Vaughn) Evans, natives of Wales. The father came to the United States when two years old in 182S and the mother in 1S44. They were married in Utica, New York, and in the fifties settled near Mankato. The father still resides in that city at the age of eighty-six years; the mother died there in 1882. Six children of their family are living, as follows: David H., John M., of Osseo, Minnesota; Maurice V., of Minneapolis; Joseph, of Hamilton, Canada; Mrs. Hattie J. Hill, of Mankato; Louis R., who is chief engineer on a steamer plying between San Francisco and China.

Mr. Evans witnessed the hanging of the thirty-eight Indians at Mankato after the close of the Sioux War. During the famous outbreak his father was a second lieutenant of the state militia.

WILLIAM S. BALDWIN (1872) is postmaster of Taunton, the proprietor of a flour and feed store and a stock dealer. He has resided in Minnesota all his life and is among the early settlers of Lyon county, having first come here when less than twelve years of age.

William Baldwin was born near- Troy, Winona county, Minnesota, August 12, 1860. His parents were Solomon and Ellen (Canfield) Baldwin, natives, respectively, of Pennsylvania and New York State. They were pioneer residents of Winona county and died there when our subject was a child. There are four children in the family: Lucy Robinson, of St. Charles, Minnesota; William S., of this biography; Fred, of Langdon, North Dakota; and George, of Winona.

The year of arrival to Lyon county was 1872, when William Baldwin was a lad eleven years of age. The railroad which was then building toward Lyon county - the Winona & St. Peter - had only reached Sleepy Eye, and the trip was made in a covered wagon from Chatfield. The trip was made with the family of Henry P. Gibbs and for three years our subject lived with that family on the homestead on section 14, Fairview township. Then Mr. Gibbs lost his life in one of the winter storms and young Baldwin went to live with the Castor family, over the line in Redwood county. The next winter he attended school in Marshall and from that time until 1893 he lived in and in the vicinity of the county seat.

various occupations. He was street commissioner of Marshall one year, operated a feed barn for some time, and engaged in fanning land for Marshall residents. In 1893 Mr. Baldwin rented land from his father-inlaw near Minneota, farmed it three years, and has ever since then resided in Taunton. He worked at the carpenter's trade and general work until he was appointed postmaster on December 24, 1907. Since then he has conducted a flour and feed store and engaged in the stock business as well as care for the postoffice. Before the incorporation of Taunton Mr. Baldwin served as justice of the peace of Eidsvold township and he has served several terms as a member of the Taunton Village Council. He is a member of the M. W. A. lodge.

Mr. Baldwin was married at Minneota October 1, 1892, to Bessie Walsh, a native of Springfield, Illinois. To this union two children, Leo and Elenor, were born. Mrs. Baldwin died December 7, 1896. The second marriage of our subject occurred at Ghent on January 18, 1900. when he wedded Annie Helvig, a native of Chicago. George, Margaret and Lester are their children.

GUSTAV J. GOLTZ (1875), owner of one of the finest half sections in Lyon county, the northwest quarter of section 10 and the northeast quarter of section 9, Rock Lake township, is one of its most successful farmers and stock raisers. His stock sales each year amount to about $1,500. Mr. Goltz is also a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Balaton.

John and Wilhelmina (Abel) Goltz, parents of our subject, came to America from Germany in 1875 and settled in Owatonna, Minnesota. The father worked out that summer and filed on a homestead in Rock Lake township, the southwest quarter of section 2, where the family went to live in the fall. That was the family's home the next thirty-four years. They came upon hard times during the grasshopper years and contended with other discouragements of the early days until good crops, market facilities, the county's growth, and their years of hard work eventually brought prosperity. They have led a retired life in Balaton since 1909.

15, 1871, and came to this country with his parents. Having finished his education at the age of twenty years he worked on the home farm one year, after which he worked out at various places in the state during the next six years. In the spring of 1899 Gustav returned to Lyon county, purchased the northwest quarter of section 10, Rock Lake, from his father, and has been farming the place since that time. In March, 1911, he bought the adjoining quarter on section 9 and has brought the half section to a fine state of cultivation.

Our subject is a member of the German Lutheran church. He was married in the township November 11, 1908. to Mary Abel, a native vof Germany. Mrs. Goltz was born October 24, 1880, and her mother, Mrs. Fred Abel, still lives in the, old country. The father is dead. Mr. Goltz has the following sisters and brothers living: Minnie (Mrs. W. G. Myers) and Elsie, of Worthington; Emma (Mrs. Julius Frost) and Sqphia (Mrs. Max Bollman), of California; Annie (Mrs. F. J. Breening) and Gertrude (Mrs. George Snow), of Balaton; Otto, of Warren, Minnesota; August, of Madelia; Robert, of Canada; Ray and Walter, of Montana; and Erwin, of Rock Lake township.

Our subject was born in Christiania, Norway, October 12, 1853, and Is a sr>n of Ole and Carrie (Sleitte) Monson. The boy grew to manhood in his native country and after completing his schooling he worked in the mines with his father. In 1878 Ole and his brother Aasten came to America, and during the first year of their residence in the new country lived on the farm of Christopher Peterson in Lucas township. The following year Ole bought forty acres of school land on section 16, built a small house, and continued to make his home there the next five or six years. In 1879 the boy's parents came from Norway and made their home with him.

In the fall of 1884 our subject married and then sold his Tarm to his brother and returned to Norway. There he remained one and one-half years. Returning to America, he took up farm work and worked on the railroad for a time in North Dakota. Shortly after coming back to this country, his wife died at her father's home in Norway, where Ole had left his family until he should find a good location in Lyon county. He was obliged to return once more to the Fatherland to get his two children, and after a stay of one year and a half our subject again made the long trip.