Polk County, Minnesota - Biographical sketches, 1916 (part 10 of 15)

In November, 1861, ^Ir. Fontaine enlisted for the defense of the Union in Company E, Fourth Minnesota Infantry. This regiment helped to bear the brunt of the mighty sectional strife, and Mr. Fontaine was with it in all its engagements. He took part in the battles of luka, Corinth, Fort Pemberton. Champion Hill, Jackson, Duval's Bluff and others, and the long siege of Vicksburg. He was also in the engagements at Altoona and Missionary Ridge, and with Sherman iu the historic "Marcli to the Sea"; aud when the momentous conflict was ended he participated in the grand review of the Federal armies iu Washington, D. C, being discharged from military service in July, 1865.

Immediately after his discharge from the army Mr. Fontaine returned to Minnesota. He arrived at St. Paul at 9 o'clock one morning, purchased a restaurant, saloon and fixtures before noon, aud began business in his new place before nightfall. At the end of three years, during which his business was very profitable, he sold out and engaged in general merchandising, in which he was occupied for ten years in St. Paul. In the meantime he took up a soldier's homestead near Mapleton, North Dakota, which he sold a year later. His visits to his homestead brought him to Crookston, whose location and seeming possibilities impressed him so favorably that he determined to locate here.

In the summer of 1878, in association with William Anglim, he purchased the stock and business of W. D. Bailey, a general merchant at Crookston, hurried back to St. Paul to close his business there, and in September returned to Crookston to remain. Timber then covered the site of the town, there was not a street opened, and there were very few improvements of any kind. The settlement, however, contained two stores in addition to that of Messrs. Fontaine & Anglim, but all three were in primitive log buildings. At the end of two years these gentlemen erected a brick building, in which they conducted their grocery department when later they put up two additional rooms, which gave them three fronts. They carried a stock of $75,000 and employed ten clerks after their business reached its development, and had the most extensive as well as the most profitable trade in this whole section of the Northwest. In 1882 they put in a large stock of farm machinery, but they were so busily occupied with their numerous other lines of trade that they soon abandoned this one. Mr. Fontaine, however, had an interest in a general store at Argyle, in Marshall county, which also did a very extensive business.

Mr. Fontaine held a high place in the regard of the people of this part of the state and wherever else he was known. He was a man of fine business capacity, great force of character and sterling integrity. He was also public-spirited and progressive to the last degree, and was universally esteemed as one of the truly representative men of Polk county. He was a Catholic in religious faith and a devout and serviceable member of his church. On September, 19, 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Rosie Trombley, a native of Kankakee, Illinois, and the daughter of Mitchelle Trombley. They became the parents of nine children : Lizzie, Cora, Albert, George, Ermine, Victor, Albert, Blanche and Alma, six of whom are living.

The useful and stimulating life herein briefly chronicled ended in St. Paul, November 7, 1914. The mother of the household is still living and now has her home in St. Paul, where, although she lives retired aud in an unostentatious way, she is well known in many parts of the city and most highly respected by all classes of the people.

Paul, then located in Dakota county, Minnesota, where he engaged in the development of a small farm. In 1881 he came to Polk county and took a homestead claim in section seven of Woodside township on the .shore of Maple lake, about six miles southwest of Mentor. This land he has developed into his present productive farm and has cleared and cultivated fifty acres of the tract, which was covered with timber. He gives his attention fo both grain and dairy farming. He has always taken an active interest in the affairs of his adopted countrj' and has capably discharged the duties of good citizenship. In local activities and progress, he has been influential as assessor and member of the township board, serving as supervisor for ten years. In political opinion and allegiance he is independent. He is allied with the business intei-ests of the community as a stockholder in the cooperative creamery and cooperative store at Mentor. Mr. Wik and his wife have reared a family of five children,

Hans Oscar, who now lives in Bottineau coimty, North Dakota; Marj^ the wife of D. E. Clark, of the same state; Bertina, who married Christ Fulstaid and whose death occurred at Melvin, Minnesota, in 1905 ; Carrie A., a teacher, who after seven years employment in Polk county schools, is now teaching in Bottineau county, North Dakota, and Olof, in charge of the home farm and who was married to Sophia Iverton. Mr. Wik was one of the organizers of the United Lutheran church at Maple lake and has continued tobe a faithful supporter of its interests.

Knute Knudson

Knute Knudson, a well known pioneer of western Polk county and prominent farmer of Bygland township, came to tliis county in 1873 from Wisconsin. He was born in Norway, in November, 18-17, and was but twelve years of age when his parents brougiit their family to the United States and settled in Wapaca county, Wisconsin, where Knute Knud.son became familiar with the labor and vicissitudes of pioneer life, assisting in the work of clearing the timber land for cultivation and working in the lumber woods. During his first winter in Minnesota, he hauled logs to the Red river for the Hudson Bay company and in the spring took his homestead in what became section four of Bygland township and was joined in his new location by Aspen Olson, his brotherin-law and Osman Isaacson, whose sister. Bertha Isaacson, later became his wife. He assisted Mr. Olson to erect a home and later replaced the loss of his own shack, which had been destroyed by a prairie fire, with a more substantial structure, which is now ineluded in his present home. With thrifty management he had saved several hundred dollars and he continued his lumber work along the river, and this enabled him to purchase a yoke of oxen and immediately engage in the breaking of his land. He endured discouragements and misfortunes and suffered the loss of one of his first crops through the devastations of grasshoppers. Some years later he bought two hundred acres of railroad land and continued adding to his property until it comprised an estate of four hundred and fortj' acres. His principal agricultural interest has been the raising of grain, to which lie devotes a quarter section of his land and he has an annual crop of several thousand bushels. He also keeps a herd of Short Horn and Polled Angus cattle and dairy cows but has never engaged in stock farming. As one of the first settlers and a man of progressive interests, he has ever been associated with public affairs and the general advancement of the community. He was present at the first election held when the township received its name from those present who were natives of Bygland, Norway. He was elected the first township treasurer and has given almost continuous service since on the township board, in various capacities. His interests were always active in church and school affairs and he was one of the organizers of the Bygland Lutheran church. He is a member of the Republican party but maintains the independence of his political judgment from the strictures of partisan views. His marriage to Bertha Isaacson, whom he had known in his Wisconsin home, occurred in 1876. Ten children were born to this union, of whom two are dead, Isaac, whose death came in his eighteenth j-ear and Neal, who died on his

Canadian homestead. Margaret is the wife of Ole Torkelson, of Red Lake county ; Martin is now living on the western coast; Toney married Lars T. Larson and lives in Canada; Birget is the wife of Osmau Sannes, of Grand Forks and Osman Salve and Ole remain with their parents. Theodore Knudson, the eldest son of the family took a homestead in Pennington county, near Thief River Falls and after acquiring the title to his land, sold and returned to Polk county, purchasing a portion of his father's homestead and has since combined the operation of his farming interests with those of his father. He is a member of the Socialist party.

Bernt L. Bjugstad

Reared to manhood and strength in his native laud of Norway and inheriting the hardiness and resolute spirit of his Norwegian ancestry, Bernt L. Bjugstad, one of the progressive and wide-awake farmers of King township, this county, has succeeded in winning his way to a comfortable prosperity in the New World, as all who knew him in youth and observed his industry, determination and perseverance, expected him to do, wherever he might be. He was born December 14, 1860, and emigrated to the United States in 1880, landing at Boston and from there coming at once to Minnesota and locating in Ottertail county, where he remained about two years.

The next year was passed by Mr. Bjugstad near Fargo, North Dakota, on the Buffalo river, and in 1883 he came to Polk county and took up 160 acres of land in section 11, King township. On this tract he has since lived, and by his industry and good management he has converted its wild expanse into a good farm and enriched it with good buildings, making it an attractive and valuable country home. He has also taken an earnest and helpful interest in the public affairs of his township and has given his district valuable and appreciated service as school director.

On February 4, 1891, Mr. Bjugstad was married to Miss Anna G. Moy, who was born in Norway May 9, 1872, and came to the United States with her parents in 1881. Her father was Guuder Moy, who lived in Polk county until 1894, then sold his farm and moved to Bemidji, where he passed the rest of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Bjugstad are members of St. John's Lutheran church. They have two children, Nettie and Gunda. The genuine worth of the parents has won them the lasting esteem of all who know them.

Frederick Baatz

The interesting subject of this brief review has been one of Polk county's most progressive and esteemed citizens. His industry and thrift, which are characteristic of the German people, and his persistent and devoted attention to his own affairs, have been potent factors in his success and have also won him the respect and good will of his whole township, which is largely populated by persons of a totally distinct nationality.

United States in 1871, joining ar uncle who lived in Wabasha county, Minnesota, with whom he remained until the spring of 1878. He then came to Polk county and took up the first homestead in what is now Russia township, which later he helped to organize. He came to this county to get a home, and he has not only had a good one for himself ever since but has helped very largely to make the region habitable for other persons.

quarter of Section 4, in Russia township, and is ten miles southeast of Crookston. When he settled on it there was no other resident for many miles south or east of him and there were but few north of him in the direction of Crookston. He now owns three quarter sections, 480 acres in all, one quarter in Section 5, Russia township, and one in Section 34, Fairfax township, but all contiguous so that they make one farm. For one quarter he paid $800 and the rest of liis land he paid $26 an acre. When he located in Polk county he had only $200 with which to buy teams and get a start, but he has now a competence for life, all due to his own efforts.

Live stock and grain are the staples of Mr. Baatz' productions. He keeps 30 to 60 head of cattle every year, mostly Holsteins, and milks 10 to 12 cows the year round, selling cream to the creameries. In 1915 he raised 4,000 bushels of wheat and 2,000 bushels of oats and barley, and he has in the neighborhood of 40 acres in com on his land every year. His farming operations are conducted on a large scale and with decided enterprise and energy, and they are very profitable on that account.

It is easy to see that Mr. Baatz' own affairs are very compreliensive and exacting, but they have never kept him from taking an earnest and active part in the affairs of his township. He has been treasurer of the township board nine years and its chairman fifteen years, being a member of it almost from the organization of the township, and has served for thirty years on the local school board. In fact, he has scarcely been out of office a day since Russia township's corporate existence began, and his services in every official position liave been highly satisfactory to the residents of the township.

Mr. Baatz was married in Wabaslia county, Minnesota, in 1882, to iliss Emma Schwirtz, a German by birth. They have had five childi-eu, all but one of whom are still living and at home with their parents. Their son Frank died when he was twenty years old. The living children are Rosa, Mary, Annie and John. The last named attended the State Agricultural School at Crookston for a special course of instruction. All the members of the family are Catholics and belong to the Cathedral parish in Crookston.

Hon. Knute S. Aker

Two things are plainly demonstrated in the public life and services of Hon. Knute S. Aker, a leading citizen of Hubbard township, this county, and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1911 and 1912, and the highly approved incumbent of several other offices from time to time. These two facts are that he fully imderstands the needs of the people around him and is both wise and industrious in his efforts to provide for them. In every official position to which the people have elected him he has seemed to catch the exact drift of public sentiment as to the performance of his duties and to hit upon the most effective and satisfactory manner of discharging them so as to obtain the best results.

Mr. Aker lives on Section 9, Hubbard township, and has been a resident of this county since June 12, 1878. He was born in Norway September 19, 1853, and when he was but seveu years old was brought to this country by his parents, Sondre and Ingebor Aker. On arriving in the L^nited States the parents located in Winneshiek county, Iowa, and there they lived until the spring of 1881, when the family moved to a homestead in Golden township, Walsh county, North Dakota, which was taken up by the subject of this review. He l)uilt a dwelling for his parents and broke up forty acres of the land for them, and they passed the remainder of their days on the homestead, the motlier dying on it when she was seventy years old and the father when he was seventy-three.

Knute S. Aker reached the age of nineteen and obtained his education in Winneshiek county, Iowa. He worked out at farm labor until he was about twenty-five, then came to Polk county, arriving on June 12, 1878, and bought 160 acres of railroad land, wliifli is still a part of his home farm. Wheu he made his first purchase he incurred an iudebteduess of $1,250. Now he owns about 1,200 acres of good land, all of which is paid for, well improved and practically under cultivation. By his industry, thrift, wise business management and good judgment he has added about 1,100 acres to his original purchase and won for himself a substantial competence for life.

Mr. Aker has also risen to a position of consequence and influence in connection with public affairs in his township and county, and at every step of his progress in this line of advancement has fully justified his title to the continued confidence and esteem of the people. He has been chairman of the local school board for twenty-two years, a justice of the peace for seventeen years and supervisor and assessor of Hubbard township for five or six j'ears. In 1885 he took the state census in Hubbard township and he has also taken the government census three times. Throughout his residence in Polk county he has been very active in the service of his townsliip, neglecting no public interest and allowing none to go without his zealous support and assistance. He has long been one of the directors of Bethesda hospital in Crookston, and it has profited by his systematic attention to its affairs.

House of Representatives. He served in the regular session of 1911 and the special session of 1912 with credit to himself and benefit to the state. He was a member of several important committees in the House and was constant in his attention to his legislative duties both in committee rooms and on the floor, giving careful study to all bills introduced and keeping himself well posted in reference to every need of the state and every danger that threatened its welfare.

Mr. Aker was married in Bygland township, Polk countj', on June 3, 1880, to Miss Ales Thompson, who was born in Howard comity, Iowa, of Norwegian parentage. Nine children have been born of the union, seven of whom are living, the first and second in the order of birth having died in infancy. Those wlio are living are Ole, Bella, Sander, Gurie, Carl, Annie and Mabel. Bella is now the wife of John Tofsley ; Gurie is the wife of Ole Bramseth, and Annie is the wife of Harry Larson. Mr. and Mrs. Aker are very genial and companionable persons, with a cordial and helpful interest in all their fellow beings. Their agreeable home is a center of bounteous and gracious hospitality and a popular resort for their friends, who are numbered by the host, and who find it the seat of refined and illuminating social culture.

Christian C. Quern

Christian C. Quern, an early settler of Esther township and for many years a prominent farmer of Polk county, was born in Norway, April 20, 1838 and died at his home in Esther township, February 14, 1911. He came to the United States as a young man and located in Fillmore county, Minnesota, in 1861 and later lived for a time in Renville county, where he was married in 1866 to Olia Manrud, who was born and reared in Norway and had come to Minnesota some years previous to her marriage. In 1877 Mr. Quern removed to Polk county and took a homestead on the north west quarter of section fourteen of Esther township, being the first settler to locate north of the Marais river. With a small capital and a few head of stock, Mr. Quern entered upon his new enterprise and with thrifty management built up one of the large and prosperous estates of this section. His first home was a primitive cabin which he soon replaced with a log house and in 1888 erected the comfortable modern house which was his home until his death. This home was built on the four hundred acre tract of railroad land, which he bought in section fifteen of Esther township. He also became the possessor of the quarter section adjoining his homestead, for which he traded land in Renville county. His property later included a section in Higdem town- ship, six miles north of his home place. The greater part of this was railroad land which secured at six dollars an acre, and has been devoted to the raising of grain. Mr. Quern gave his entire attention to his farming operations and under his management the estate was brought to its present splendid condition. He confined his personal operations to the Esther township land and rented the section in Higdem towTiship. His death occurred in his seventy-ninth year at the close of a long and active career, marked by the constructive service of the pioneer farmer and progressive citizen. He is survived by his wife and five children, three of whom reside on the Quern estate, Carl, Olivia, whose husband, Gust Nelson, operates a part of the Higdem township farm, and Ole, who since the death of his father has capably assumed management of tiie home place, ilartin Quern entered the commercial world and is a merchant at Gunvick, Minnesota. Carrie Quern married John Hofsteen and lives at Grand Forks, North Dakota. Ole Quern was married to Clara Bang, the daughter of a well known citizen of Higdem township and they have two children, Adea and Erma.

Dalecarlia Grain And Stock Farm S. E. Erickson, Prop

Owning and occupying one of the finest homes in the Red River valley, with native trees surrounding his house, which stands on the banks of the Marias river and overlooks a wide sweep of the country lying around it, and cultivating a large, well improved and productive farm in the most progressive way, and enjoying in a marked degree the esteem of all who know him, S. E. Erickson, of Dalecarlia Farm in Section 25, Esther township, seven miles north of East Grand Forks, has made great progress in his worldly estate since he came to Polk county on June 3, 1883, a penniless youth of nineteen years of age.

Mr. Erickson was born in Sweden September 23, 1864, and when he arrived in the United States came direct to this county, where his brother Andrew, now a resident of Roseau county, Minnesota, and his uncle, 0. Metz Erickson, were then living. The uncle had come to Becker county, Minnesota, in 1868, and had acquired a homestead in that county. In 1878 he changed his residence to Polk county and bought the Northeast quarter of Section 25, in Esther township, which was then railroad land and is now a part of the farm of S. E. Erickson. The uncle paid about $7 an acre for this land. It is now worth $100 an acre. He passed his remaining years on the farm, dying on it in 1902. He had a family of eight daughters. They are

After his arrival in Polk county S. E. Erickson and his brother Andrew, who lived in this county about sixteen years, rented a farm for six years. S. E. also bought railroad land in Section 29, Northland township, two miles east of his present farm, which he improved and still owns. He at first rented a part of his home farm from his father-in-law. Erick Dickson, who bought it in 1880 and took up his residence on it in 1891.

]\Ir. Dickson was also a native of Sweden, born September 3, 1843, and came to the United States in 1868, locating for a time at Elkhart, Indiana. He worked in the Calumet and Ilecla copper mines in Michigan for seventeen years. He was killed by a falling tree on his farm in 1904. He .served several years as township treasurer and otherwise took an active part in local public affairs. His wife died in St. Paul in 1869, leaving an infant daughter, Matilda, who was born at Elkhart, Indiana, the same year that her mother died in. She was reared by her grandparents at Becker, Sherburne county, Minnesota, and in 1878 came with her grandfather, 0. Metz Erickson, to this county, where she remained until 1880, then joined her father at Calumet, Michigan. In 1890 she returned to this county, and on January 1, 1891, was married to S. E. Eriekson. They have no children of their own but they reared from the age of six an adopted daughter, Lottie May Eriekson, who is now the wife of Henry Lillisve, of Roseau county, Minnesota.

Mr. Eriekson 's farm now comprises 640 acres and is in a highly improved condition. In 1915 he erected a fine dwelling house on it, built according to plans furnished by an architect and constructed of stucco on a cement foundation. It has hot and cold water throughout and is lighted by electricity from a power plant in the basement. The house cost about $10,000. In digging a cistern Mr. Eriekson found, about twelve and a half feet below the surface of the earth, the bones of an animal unknown to him. He has given his attention mainly to raising wheat, oats and barley, and in 1915 he produced over 13,000 bushels. He has been chairman of the township board. And for eleven years has been township treasurer, having succeeded his father-in-law in that office. He and his wife belong to Bethesda Swedish Lutheran church near their home, and he is its treasurer and one of its trustees, while Mrs. Eriekson has been its Sunday school superintendent, organist and choir leader for twenty-four years. The Sunday school has regularly thirty to forty scholars and is kept during six months of the year.

John Albert Hendricks

John Albert Hendricks, a prominent lawyer residing at Fosston, is a native of Minnesota, born in Dacotah county, December 14, 1865. His father, Henry Peterson, who was a resident of Polk county during the latter years of his life, was a native of Norway and was among the first of his countrymen to seek a new home in the United States, a worthy pioneer in the wilderness of the northwest. This was in 1850 ; a few years later he returned to Norway. In 1864 he came to Dacotah county, Minnesota, where he lived for three years and then took a homestead claim in Renville county and made his home on this fann until 1900, when he removed to Polk count}'. His death occurred here in 1907, in his seventy-sixth year. John A. Hendricks was reared on his father's homestead in Renville county and received his early education in the common schools, later attending business college in Minneapolis and Minneapolis Academy, which is now called Minnesota College. He then spent several yeare teaching in his home county, in the public schools and also in the parochial school which is maintained by the Augustana Synod. But his ambitions were centered upon a professional career and in 1901 he entered the law school of the State University. Upon his graduation in 1903 he was admitted to the bar and immediately established himself in Renville county, where he remained for about a year and a half. On February 14, 1895, he came to Fosston, where for twenty years he has engaged in the general practice of law with eminent success, becoming widely known through his capable and masterly handling of important land controversies. During the early years of his career the courts were largely concerned with title contests and land cases and it was in such litigation that he scored several notable and significant victories. One of these involved the reversal of a supreme court decision ; this was the case of Theodore Torgerson vs. the Crookston Lumber company, relating to the overflow of Clearwater river. The Crookston Lumber company was then the largest lumber corporation in Minnesota and arrayed against Mr. Hendricks, in defense of its interests, the best legal talent of the state. But he carried his cause to a favorable decision through the nine days' trial in the circuit court and a long and hard-fought contest which covered three years. This decision, which establishes the rule that the defendant must disclose the facts and the plaintiff is not required to prove the facts in each case, is recorded in volume 144 of Northwestern Reports, and in Minnesota Reports, and has been regarded with great favor in subsequent judicial proceedings in its application to many and various conditions. Another case which concerned one of the important (juostious of the time, in which Mr. Hendricks acquired further fame, was in reference to the land allotted to Indians of mixed blood, the courts ratifying his contention that the proceeds of a sale of such land differed from the proceeds of a sale of homestead land and was subject to attachment and garnishment. Mr. Hendricks takes an active and public-spirited interest in the affairs of the community in which he lives and as a member of the Republican party has given much efificient service in political campaigns and state conventions. He has been a candidate for the nomination for state's attorney and for a numhcr of years has served as village attorney and as a nu'iuber of the school Ixiard, and in the latter capacity lias promoted the erection of the present high school building. In addition to his professional work he is interested in agricultural develoj)ment and finds time for tlie management of his farms. In 1S9G he was married to Bertina ]\Iaria Bakke of Willmar, Minnesota. They have three children, Camilla, who is a member of the 1916 high school class; Horace, and Byron A. Mr. Hendricks is an enthusiastic outof-door sportsman, enjoying hunting and fishing and recreation at his cottage on the lakes. He is a member of the United Norwegian Lutheran church and has earnestly supported the plan for the union of Lutheran churches.

William Jackson

William Jackson, a well known pioneer and successful farmer of Grand Forks township, located in Polk county in 1876 and has since been prominently identified with its agricultural development. He was born at White Haven, in Cumberland, England, January 22, 1833 and lived there until 1868, when he came to Canada. As a youth he learned the trade of the iron molder and worked at this trade for many j'ears, in his native land and later in Canada. Becoming ambitious to secure farming land, in 1876, he started west to Winnipeg where he had a large grant but his journey was destined to end at Fishers Landing, where, an acquaintance on the steam boat, George Walsh, persuaded him the most desirable land was to be found. In Grand Forks he heard of a tract of railroad land in Grand Forks township, the first to be opened for settlement north of Grand Forks and this land he bought. With some cash capital and a team of oxen he was enabled to begin immediately his farming activities and in the first year put sixty acres under cultivation. The first home was a log house which was replaced in 1898 by a comfortable country home, pleasantly situated on the banks of Red River.

Mr. Jackson has met with steady prosperity in his agricultural enterprise and has developed one of the model farm properties of Polk county. This place is in section three of Grand Forks township, on the river and conveniently located, six miles north of Grand Forks. For many years he devoted his attention to the raising of grain but of later years has extended his interest to stock farming, raising Short Horn cattle and dealing in dairy produce for private customers. As a pioneer and able citizen, Mr. Jackson enjoys the respect of the community, being essentially that type of man, who receives the best from all associations, having maintained friendly and co-operative relations from the early days when the Indians were his frequent visitors to the times when a more aggressive citizensliip is demanded. As a member of the township board lie has given active service in public affairs, promoting the improvement of roads and schools. He is the descendant of a long line of faithful adherents to the Presbyteiian creed and is a member of the First Presbyterian church at Grand Forks. He was married in his native land to Mary Ann Wild, who is also a native of Cumberland and thev have three sons and two daughters, William, Thomas, John, who is a carpenter and resides at Brainerd, Minnesota ; Etta and Ida. William Jackson and Thomas Jackson

Michael Maguire

Prosperous and successful in his farming operations because he has the grit, industry and good management to make himself so, Michael Maguire, who is one of the substantial residents of Sullivan township, in which he owns the greater part of 741 acres of highly productive laud, has won his own way to worldly comfort and independence, and is entitled to all the credit for his advancement. He was born in Lanark county, province of Ontario, Canada, May 30, 1838, and came to Polk county and his present farm in 1878, obtaining his first tract of land as a homestead. He had a pair of horses and $800 in money. He built a small frame house and soon afterward bought 160 acres of railroad land in Section 19, with a rebate for breaking the soil. His present farm of 741 acres lies partly in Grand Forks township. For some of it he paid $70 an acre. He has 700 acres under cultivation, 560 of which are in his home farm.

During the first fifteen years of his operations here Mr. Maguire devoted his attention almost wholly to raising grain, but during the residue of the time he has made the live stock industry equal to his general fanning operations, keeping regularly more than fifty head of cattle and doing his dealing in live stock in Grand Forks, emphasizing the purchase and sale of cows in all his transactions. He has given his time and energies Avholly to his interests on the farm, keeping out of politics, although he is a firm adherent of the Democratic party in state and national affairs. In 1879 Mr. Maguire was vmited in marriage with Miss Catherine Sullivan, a sister of James E. Sullivan, who, also, was born in Renfrew county, Ontario. Michael's family consists of four children. Ida is the wife of J. C. Sherlock, of East Grand Forks. They have no children. Ethel is the wife of Thomas Devitt, a railroad man. They have two children, their sons Eugene and Edward, and live in St. Paul. Sylvester is living at home and assisting his father in the management of the farm. He married Miss Norah Logan. They have no children. Gertrude married William Schipers, also a railroad man living in St. Paul. They have one child, their daughter Gertrude. All the members of the family who are still within reach of it belong to the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart, of which Mr. and Mrs. Maguire have been members from its organization.

As a merchant, a hotel keeper and the postmaster at Mentor, this county, Ferdinand Le Page has many ways of being useful to his community, and he uses them to aidjn promoting its progress and the welfare of its residents. He was born near Montreal, Canada, August 4, 1854, and lived there until 1858, then moved to L 'Original, Ontario, with the family, attended common and high school there until 1875. Went into the mercantile business at Ottawa, Canada, remaining there until 1881. On March 2d of that year he came to Crookston and opened a store. This he conducted until 1886 and also kept a hotel in the city until that year. He then took charge of the St. Louis hotel and kept it for two yeai"s. During the succeeding four years he was on the road as a traveling salesman for the house of J. A. Shea of Minneapolis.

In the spring of 1893 Mr. Le Page was appointed postmaster of Crookston. He assumed the duties of the office on April 1st of that year and held it four j'ears, after which lie served as assistant postmaster for one year. On April 1, 1899, he moved to Mentor and again became a hotel keeper and also engaged in the livery business in connection with the hotel, and in these lines of public service he is still engaged, in addition to being postmaster of Mentor, which he became by appointment of President Wilson on January 1, 1915.

all the different offices in their gift. He has also been a justice of the peace for a number of years. On August 17, 1875, Le was married in Ontario, Canada, to Miss Emma Seguin, a native of that province. They have had twelve children, eight of whom are living. They are Anatole, Arthur A., Louis F., Endora E., Ferdinand H., Alma E., Eva C. and Theodore C. All the members of the family belong to the Catholic church, in the welfare and progress of which they are deeply interested.

Olof M. Groven

Mercantile circles in and around ilentor, one of the thriving and progressive villages of this county, has no more enterprising, energetic or resourceful merchant among their business men than Olof M. Groven, the junior partner of the hardware firm of Ellingson & Groven, dealers in shelf and heavy hardware, furniture, stoves and ranges, farm implements, threshing machines, harness and horse furnishings. He was born at "Winger, Polk county, Minnesota, March 10, 1892, and is a son of Ole T. and Tone (Hauge) Groven, natives of Telemarken, Norway, who were among the first settlers at Winger, where they located early in the eighties, and where they now o\vii the east half of Section 26.

The sou grew to the age of twenty years on his father's farm and obtained his education in the district schools and at the college in Crookston, fi-om which he was graduated in 1911. During about four months of 1912 he served as bookkeeper for the

Mentor Co-operative company, then formed a partnership with Eric Ellingson for the purpose of engaging in the hardware and implement trade. The partnership still exists and the firm is in the front rank of business men in its part of the count}'. It carries an extensive stock of goods at all times and studies how it may best meet the requirements of the community in which it operates, please its patrons and continue to build up its trade and enhance its reputation and that of its store.

Mr. Groven is a young man, but he takes an active and helpful part in the affairs of Mentor, Grove Park township, in which the village is located, and the whole county of Polk. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Order of Modern Woodmen of America, and is a gentleman of fine social ([ualitics and warmly interested in everything that ministers to the welfare of the people among whom he lives and labors.

Hon. A. L. Hovland

The testamentary interests of the people of Polk county were placed in capable and careful hands when they were put in charge of Hon. A. L. Hovland as judge of probate by the fall election of 1912. He was well prepared for his official duties and since entering upon them he has been diligent, conscientious and thoroughly fair and discriminating in the performance of them. He was first elected as a non-partisan candidate and in 1914 was reelected with general approval in all parts of the county.

Judge Hovland was born in Goodhue county, Minnesota, December 31, 1863, and is the son of Lars J. and Ingeborg (Throsseth) Hovland, who were bom in NorwaA' and came to the United States in the late fifties. They located ou a homestead in Norman county, Minnesota, in 1883, and there they passed the remainder of their days, the father dying at the age of seventy-nine and the mother some years later after she was over eiglity.

Their son, A. L., remained in Goodhue county until 1893. He tlien passed four years on a farm which he owns in Norman county. He was educated in the public schools and by private study and reading. In 1897 he took up his residence at Fertile, in this county, where he was employed as manager of the Farmers' elevator for thirteen 3'ears, after which he spent three years on the road as a salesman for a grain commission house in Minneapolis. He was elected judge of probate in November, 1912, and took possession of the office January 1, 1913, since when he has given his attention wholly to the duties of the position and discharged them to the satisfaction of the people.

Judge Hovland was married in 1885, in Goodhue county, to Miss Anna Caroline Foss, a native of that county. They have five children, Myrtle Idella, Leonard Adelbert, Mabel Constance, Joseph Lincoln and Arnold Clinton. IVIyrtle is a graduate of the high school at Fertile and pursued a special course of training at the normal school in Moorhead. She was afterward a teacher in the public schools of Norman county. She is at present a deputy in her father's office. All the members of the family belong to the United Lutheran church and take an active part in its work for the welfare of the community.

Right Reverend Timothy Corbett

Right Rev. Timothy Corbett, bishop of the See of Crookston, the fifth and latest organized in Minnesota, to which he was appointed in 1910, is one of Minnesota's native sons, having been born at Mendota in 1858. "While yet a lad, his parents removed to Minneapolis, where he grew to maturity, attending the parochial school in Father, now Bishop, McGolrick's Parish, receiving private instruction in Latin, Greek and English from Father MeGolrick himself.

In those boyhood da.ys his native inclination and habits gave an indication of the possible future worth of the man, and he was induced to enter more fully upon a thorough course of study, Father MeGolrick accompanying him to Mexemieux, France, where he became a student in the same school in which Archbishop John Ireland and Bishop 0 'Gorman had completed courses, and where he continued four years, the progress made fully justifying the judgment of his teachers.

Returning to America, he made his philosophical and theological studies in Grand Seminary at Montreal and in Brighton Seminary at Boston, where he was ordained Priest in 1886.

as assistant to Father MeGolrick, though three yeai-s later he was made pastor of Sacred Heart in Duluth, where he devoted the succeding twenty-one years, and until his elevation to the Episcopate.

In 1892 the church and residence were destroyed by fire, entailing a serious loss to the weak congregation ; but with faith in the future, steps were at once taken to rebuild. The foundation was secured, but the financial conditions of that period were such that the cornerstone was not laid till the next year, and the present Sacred Heart Cathedral was finally dedicated in 1896, standing a worthy monument to his persistence and devotion to a cause and to the support of a loyal people. Coming to that church while it was still small, pastor and people grew and developed together, and it is said that few congregations in the state can show a closer intimacy and mutual confidence than was the case here for more than twenty years.

Soon after his going to Duluth, his old friend Bishop MeGolrick followed him there, so that the intimacy of earlier years became closer, and it was not long till he was chosen Chancellor of the Diocese, so serving fifteen years and until his own elevation to the place he now holds. The history of the church and collateral institutions bfing found elsewhere in this worji it is not necessary to speak of them here ; but reference to the personality oi' the IJishop and expresisons of others will not be out of place. May 9, 1910, he was consecrated in St. Mary's Chapel of St. Paul Seminar}', the occasion being one that called for the presence and assistance of twenty-one visiting Bishops, six Bishops, three Archbishops and the Papal Delegate. Catholics and non-Catholics alike indicated earnest interest and appreciation, among the many present being the Governor and staff.

As a priest Bishop Corbett is a dauntless defender of truth and justice, though of a retiring rather than of an aggressive nature, he has become a power and hesitates not, whatever be the occasion, to speak in no uncertain tones for the great principles of religion, social betterment and good citizenship. He has been called "The Thundering Orator," and while ever in private conversation has convincing argument and inspires coniidence, he is at his best when in the pulpit, warmed by the subject, his logical and forceful oratory carries the largest audience, and much of his success is attributed by his friends to this wonderful facultj'.

As Chancellor of the Diocese he displayed highest business tact and judgment, not a little of the strengthening of the smaller churches being due to his personal attention and appeal.

As Bishop the administration has already met with the uncjualified approval of all church authorities. One of tlie leading secular press said upon his elevation, that "his appointment will prove a boon to the Diocese of Crookston, but with relative loss to the Cathedral of Duluth."

As an American citizen he is thoroughly imbued with sound patriotic principles, no suitable occasion passing without his substantial indorsement of the correct l)asis of our institutions.

Ellsworth D. Guilds

Now of North Yakima, "Washington, was for many years one of the most active business men of Crookston. He was born at AVestboro, Mass., April 7, 1843. Soon after finishing the grade work in the local school, in 1856, he went with his parents to Pierce county Wisconsin. The end of the railroad was then at Dubuque, from where the trip to Preseott, at the junction of the Mississippi river with Lake St. Croix, was made on the steamer "War Eagle," under command of the noted old riverman, Capt. Harris. This boat and this old captain had much to do with the making of the gi-eat noi'thwest, both being frequently mentioned in the annals of its history, nearly all the first settlers having come up the river on the "War Eagle."

The family home was made on a tract of wild land in Clifton township nine miles from Preseott, where was found the nearest church and school. The next ten years were spent in assisting in clearing and operating this farm.

Union Army and went south, leaving Ellsworth alone to assist his father, who was accidentally drowned in Lake St. Croix soon after the departure of the elder brother ; the full care of the farm, mother, and sister then fell upon the young man.

On Christmas day, 1864, he married Miss Esther Hamblin, of whose companionship and assistance he was deprived of by death less than two years thereafter. When his brother returned at the close of the war, Ellsworth left the old farm, but continued at farming on rented land, for two years. Having taken all the meagre advantages offered he secured a license as a teacher, and for some years was so engaged during the winters; while the summers were spent largely in a stave mill at River Falls. For parts of two years he was engaged in selling musical instruments, traveling with team over much of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

ued as Stone, Gray & Childs until 1878, having in those years been extensive dealers not only in grain but also in agi'ieultural implements. In the historical department of this work will be found a very interesting reminiscence of Mr. Childs relative to early days in Crookston, to which the reader is referred, and which will be found well worth perusal, and which gives so much of his own relation to the Red River

Valley that we will not repeat it here. July 7, 1873, Mr. Childs was united in marriage at Norwalk, Ohio, to Eliza McLorinan, whose death of paralysis occurred November 4, 1904. Of four children born, one died in infancy.

Cornelius J. Kelleher

Cornelius J. Kelleher, mayor of East Grand Forks, and a prominent business man, has been a resident of Polk county since 1906. Prior to that time he had resided for a number of years in Grand Forks, where he engaged in the plumbing and heating business, to which activity he has devoted his business career with notable success. He is a native of Ireland, bom in the city of Cork, March 2, 1867, and accompanied his parents to this country when twelve years of age. For a few years they resided at Ithaca, N. Y., and in 1882 removed to St. Paul, where his parents continue to make their home. As a youth he became apprenticed to the plumber's trade and steadily worked his way to an independent business and for ten years conducted a profitable trade in Grand Forks. In 1906 he located in East Grand Forks, where he is recognized as one of the substantial and capable business men of the eit}'. Not only in commercial circles but in every phase of civic interest, Mr. Kelleher has made his influence a factor in behalf of progress and higher achievement, and while his preference is for the service of a private citizen, his aggressive and capable cooperation has compelled a more active and responsible position. He served as a member of the city council during the term which was marked by the installation of the city water works and was also a member of the charter commission. Upon the launching of a citizens' ticket in the political arena, through which the voters advocated enforcement of city ordinances and a clean and efficient government, Mr. Kelleher was chosen to head the ticket and led it to victorious election and a commendable fulfillment of its pledges. He was married in East Grand Forks to Nellie Racine, daughter of Louis and Mary Racine, pioneers of the city. Mr. Kelleher and his wife have four children, Mary, Firmin, Louis and Cornelius J., and he with his family, is a communicant of the Sacred Heart Catholic church.

Peter A. Hotvedt

The late Peter A. Hotvedt, who made a quarter of Section 8, Sullivan township, and some other land into choice farms, well improved and highly productive, and who became one of the leading citizcnj of his township, began his career in this county with almost nothing in the way of capital, continued it through many difficulties and rendered every step of it one of progress and service to his locality. He was born in Portage county, Wisconsin, February 26,

1856, and died on his Sullivan township farm July 22, 1905. On April 1, 1878, in company with his brother, Nels Hotvedt and 0. T. Onnelaud, he came to the Red river valley, whose promise had been painted in glowing colors to his two companions while they were working on farms in Fillmore county, Minnesota, by a traveling merchant tailor.

brotber Nels the southeast quarter and Mr. Onneland the northeast quarter of Section 8, in Sullivan township. They decided to pool their issues and built a shanty nine by fourteen feet in size on the line between the homesteads of Nels Hotvedt and Mr. Onneland, with a bed on each side of the one room. They then cut basswood logs on railroad land on the Red river five miles away, and with them they built a house fourteen by eighteen feet for Peter, who had been married the year previous. The three had about $300 among them and they bought two yoke of oxen at $125 a yoke. The two bachelors slept in their own house but boarded with Peter after the arrival of his wife and tiret child. The wife was Miss Clarissa Lind before her marriage, and tliey were married young. Soon after they settled here Andrew Anderson, who had been their neighbor in Wisconsin, homesteaded on the remaining quarter of Section 8.

A little later Mr. Hotvedt bought eighty acres of railroad land in Section 9 at $6 an acre, with a rebate of $3 for each acre he should break up, and his brother and Mr. Onneland made .similar deals. Peter passed his time on his land until the death of his first wife five years after she came to this county, and for some time longer, his sister keeping house for him. He then passed two years keeping store at East Grand Forks, but in 1889 returned to his farm and remained on it the rest of his life. He sei-ved as township clerk for several years and in other ways rendered good service to the people, as be was always interested in their welfare and ready to aid in promoting it.

By his first marriage Mr. Hotvedt became the father of two sons and one daughter, William L., Charles and Gertrude. Charles is now a resident of Rocky Ford, Colorado, but still owns a farm near the family homestead. Gertrude died in infancy. William was born in Portage county, Wisconsin, March 31, 1878, and was reared on the Sullivan township farm. He attended school in the country near his home and at East Grand Forks, and was with his father until the death of the latter except during five years which he passed on a homestead he took up in Marshall county,

Minnesota, in 1899, which he still owns and now devotes to raising hay. He also owns 160 acres near his old home, the father a.ssisting him in the purchase of it, as he aided the otlier son in making a similar purchase. They all worked together with their father, and the two sons remained in partnership for two j'ears after the father's deatli.

William withdrew to his own farm at the end of the partnership and Cliarles worked the home farm until 1909, when William returned to it and Charles rented a farm in Grand Forks township. Now William works his own farm, the home place and Charles' farm, 560 acres in all, and raises large quantities of grain and other products, his crops in 1915 being more than 10,000 bushels of grain and a great output of potatoes from the twenty to thirty acres devoted to that vegetable. He also plants a few acres in corn and keeps a number of cattle of good strains and raises his own horses, having three four-horse teams with which he plows and does other work.

Mr. Hotvedt is a Democrat in his political faith and allegiance, and is at present (1915) a justice of the peace. His father was a Republican in the early life but became a Democrat Ijefore he died. By a second marriage he became the father of four children, Gertrude M., Clara, Walter and Arthur. Gertrude married 0. E. Bjoring and died at the age of twenty-five, leaving a daughter, Margaret, who lives with her grandmother. Clara, Walter and Arthur are living at home. Clara has been a teacher in the scliools in North Dakota. She was educated in Grand Forks, pursuing the summer normal course and also a course in business training. For two years she was employed as a stenogi-aphor in Grand Forks.

Peter A. Hotvedt's second marriage took place in East Grand Forks, November 28, 1888, and united with him Miss Mary Bergman. His venture in mercantile life was an unfortunate one. The business was conducted largely on credit and turned out disastrously. When he died his estate was heavily encumbered, but his widow displayed rare business ability as the head of affairs, and within a few years had all the indebtedness paid off and the new buildings now standing on the farm erected. She assumed a weighty burden with the heroic fortitude of a Spartan woman

Theodore Nelson

Theodore Nelson, cashier of the State bank at Erskiue, is a native of Polk county, born in Badger township June 14, 1885, the son of Torger and Mary Nelson, who came from Norway to Polk county in 1882. Torger Nelson became a well-known pioneer citizen and merchant and after many years of a successful career, retired from commercial activity and is now living at Erskine. Three of his sons are residents of the county, Anton Nelson and Theodore Nelson, who live in Erskine, and 0. T. Nelson, a prominent business man of Gully, and Oscar Nelson, the fourth son of Mary and Torger Nelson, is teller at the Northern National bank at Bemidji, Minnesota. Theodore Nelson was educated in the schools at Erskine and all the interests of his career have been confined to his native county. He has earned his responsible position in the financial world through native ability and ambition backed by competence and industry. His first position in the bank was that of bookkeeper, which position he held from 1902 until 1906, when he was advanced to the position of assistant cashier and in 1912, at the time of the reorganization of the bank, he was elected cashier and became financially interested in the institution. Mr. Nelson is one of the younger business men of the county who have already won their mark of success and enjoys the confidence and respect of a wide circle of friends and associates. He is interested in farm lands but devotes his attention to the affairs of the bank.

Edward Hamlin Nesbitt

To avoid confusion it should be remembered that this family name is spelled three different ways by the persons who bear it in Polk county. The name of the township, which was chosen in honor of the members of the family who were the first settlers in it, is ' ' Nesbit ; ' ' the name of the family to which the subject of this sketch belongs is "Nesbitt," and that of still another family is "Nisbet. "

Edward Hamlin Nesbitt, who lives on Section 27, Nesbit township, four miles and a half north of Fisher, was born in Kalamazoo county, Michigan, four miles south of the city of Kalamazoo, September 19, 1845. His father went to Michigan from Ireland and his mother from the state of New York. The son grew to manhood in Michigan and then traveled some years through the south after the Civil war. On his return to the north he located near Rockford, Illinois, on a prairie farm which was already improved. After

The south had still a winning voice for Mr. Nesbitt, however, and he was unable to withstand its persuasiveness. He went to Florida and passed four years in the cotton country near Tallahassee. But he found that a region must have more than climate to make it attractive. The soil in Florida was poor for what he wished to do, and he determined to return again to the north, where he could raise wheat and other grain. His attention was drawn to the Red river valley, and in June, 1880, he came to Polk county, Minnesota, and bought a whole section of railroad land at $7 an acre, with a rebate of $3 an acre if threefourths of the land should be broken up within a specified period of time.

up a frame house, which cost him $800, aud which he lived ill until 1912. Ilis first teams were oxen. These were superseded iii a little while by mules, and later he used only horses. He broke up as much of his laud as he could, but, while he suffered no total loss of crops, he had no grain to sell during his first three years on the farm. The land was so wet much of the time that it could not be worked and the farmers were helpless for years under this condition. Then, hail storms would come aud destroy a large part of what a fairly good season gave them hopes of harvesting, and so discouraging were the circumstances that there was no demand for the land, and it was at times impossible to give it away. Since the present ditching system was inaugurated about sixteen years ago all have been able to raise good crops and the value of the laud has risen

In 1912 Mr. Nesbitt erected his present dwelling house, which is a very good one, and he also has good barns and other improvements, among them ten acres of trees which form an attractive and useful grove. In 1915 his farm yielded about 13,000 bushels of grain and a large quantity of hay. He is at present township assessor and has also served as supervisor of the township. At the age of twenty-two he was married in Michigan to Miss Celia M. Van Hoesen. They have three children, Cora B., Victor H. and Irene, all of whom are still members of the parental family circle. Ml-. Nesbitt gives a good deal of attention to raising white-faced Hereford cattle of superior strains in addition to his general farming operations, and is successful in the enterprise.

Martin Sands

This first settler and long the leading citizen of Sandsville township, this county, which he helped to organize and which was named in his honor, has had a varied career in his struggle to aid in making the wilderness docile and productive. The fine farm which he has made of his wild and for years very wet land in the southwest quarter of section 8, with its northern border on the line between Polk and ^Marshall counties, lies one mile and a half south of Alvarado, seventeen miles north of Grand Forks and forty-two miles northwest of Crookston, and is now one of the choice ones in the township.

Mr. Sands was born in Norway November 23, 1854, and came to the United States with his parents in his fifteenth year, locating with them near La Crosse, Wisconsin. The father soon afterward took a homestead in Kandiyohi county, this state, on which his son Martin grew to manhood. In 1875, when he was just twenty-one, the j'oung man visited the Red river valley and stopped a .short time at Fisher's Landing. But he returned to his father's home and remained there two years. In 1877 he eame back to Polk county and selected his homestead and also chose one for each of his two brothers, Ole and Casper, and another for JIartin Johnson, their cousin.

In making his selections Mr. Sands chose land suital)le for grazing with an extensive open range around it, for he concluded that it would be years before the locality was much settled. In March, 1878, he built three shacks and slept one night in each of them. He then returned to Kandiyohi county, and in May or June, as soon as the grass was fit for pasture, he brought over ninety head of cattle, two yoke of oxen and one pair of mules and three saddle ponies. He and his two brothers owned all the land, and all their subsequent operations were carried on in partnership, although Casper, who died in 1914, was a conductor on the Great Northern railroad for thirty years, and necessarily absent from the land a great deal of that time. When Martin drove his cattle to his land miles of the distance between it and Grand Forks were all under water.

brought his sister Maren with him to be his housekeeper. She afterward married Martin Johnson, and is still living near Alvarado. The live stock did Avell and the Sands boys found a ready market for all they had to Bell among new settlers, and they kept bringing up new supplies from Kandiyohi count}'. But in the course of a few years the settlers were all supplied and the market grew slack, especially as the range for the cattle was settled up.

In this contingency Martin Sands moved to Crookston and had a meat market, where he remained three years, and also handled live stock on his own account. He then traded young stock for mares and bronchos in Montana, and hired a man to care for them. In 1889 he returned to his farm. He then had some thirty acres of his homestead under cultivation, and also had a tree claim some distance away, which he plowed up. He had helped several persons to come over from Norway, among them his three uncles, Amun Berg, Ole Holt and Ole Gulbrandson, bringing their families with them. The Sands brothers paid their passage over and helped them after they came. Each of the uncles took a homestead. They have aU died here, but their children are still living in the locality.

Mr. Sands has bought and sold a great deal of land, but he now owns only one half-section. For many years he has devoted his attention to raising grain as his principal dependence, but in 1901, on account of floods had only partial crops and lost several of his hoi-ses from swamp fever. For eleven days that year he was forced to go about on his place in boats, and the crops on 600 acres of his land were wholly spoiled. Because of this disaster he moved to "Warren and opened a meat market.

Merchandising was not to his taste, and Mr. Sands and his brothers organized a ditch district and succeeded in having a ditch dug direct to the Red river at a cost of $80,000, which was not finished, however, for four or five years. When the Soo railroad was building and Alvarado was started he moved to that town and built a hotel to aid in starting the town, but afterward sold the structure without making any money on the deal. When the new ditch was completed he decided to return to his farm, and he has had excellent crops ever since, the ditch being the making of this region as a farming country.

When the township was organized it extended IY2 miles farther north than it does now, the extra strip of ly^ miles being now in Marshall county. Mr. Sands has filled every office in the township from time to time, has served many times on juries in Crookston, has helped to build roads, and in every other way has aided in promoting the progress and development of the township. He and his brothers procured the building of the first road from the Red river back into the prairie, and this has been a great help to the region.

Mr. Sands was married in 1884 to Miss Annetta Larson, a daughter of Andrew Larson in Higden and the sister of Louis Larson, now of Sandsville township. They have ten children, Clara, Hilma, Effie, Alfred, Ella, Agnes, Stella, Frederick, Marvin and Margaret. Clara is the wife of Anton Frugard of Devon Mount. Hilma is the widow of Robert Fering, of Alvarado. Effie is the wife of Adolph B'atalden, of Cottonwood county. Agnes is a teacher in Marshall county. Frederick is a student in the high school at Warren. The others are all at home. The members of the family all belong to the Novst Lutheran church, which Mr. Sands joined with thirty others in starting. The church edifice they built was moved to Alvarado when that town was begun. In the early days Mr. Sands shot many deer in his neighborhood, also one big bear and a wolf.

Amund Christianson

a mile back from the main road ruiming through this locality, is a native of Norway. When he came to the United States he located in Renville county, Minnesota, where he was variously employed for six years, then took up a homestead which he converted into a good farm.

In 1878 Mr. Christiansen came to Polk county and took a pre-emption claim on the land on which he now lives, which is the southeast quarter of section 18, Sullivan township. He was accompanied to this county by his present brother-in-law, Ole Rice, and Mrs. Rice, the mother of Ole. Mr. Rice took a preemption claim on the northwest quarter of section 18 and his mother a tree claim on the east half of the northeast quarter of that section. Ole Rice lived iu this county about twenty years, then moved to Oregon. His mother died here, and her tree claim became the property of her daughter, Mrs. Christianson. Mr. Christiansen, who is now living retired from active pursuits has sold a large part of the land he once owned, and now owns only his original farm, the cultivation of which he supervises. When his son Christian married he gave him 160 acres.

Grasshoppers destroyed the crops of ]\Ir. Christianson in Renville county, so he hooked up his ox teams and drove to this county for a new start and a better opportunity for advancement. His first home here was a crude dugout on the banks of the IMarais, but this was soon succeeded by a log house, whicli lasted until he built his present abode. To his first marriage was born one child, his son Christian Amundson, who was named according to the Scandinavian custom. Mr. Christianson 's first wife was Miss Gena Rice. She died in 1897. His second marriage, in

1903, was to Ingeborg Ollestad, whose son John by a former marriage, is making his home with them, ilr. Christianson is a devout and zealous member of Grand Marais Lutheran church.

Christian Amundson, the only son and child of Amund Christianson, was born in Norway September 9, 1868, and at the age of eighteen years came to Polk county, Minnesota. In 1898 he was married to ^liss Sena Ilotvedt, a sister of the late Peter A. Hotvedt. At the time of his marriage he bought his present farm of Ole Rice and the tree claim which belonged to Ole's mother first and Christian's stepmother afterward, the tree claim being the tract on which he is now living. He had in addition the 160 acre farm in Northland township, five miles north of his home, which once belonged to his father.

Mr. Amundson completed the house on his farm begun by Ole Rice and put up all the other l)uildings on the place. He has since bought another farm of 160 acres, which adjoins his home farm and is cultivated in connection with it, the whole body of 400 acres being treated as one farm. His principal industry is raising wheat, oats, barley and flax. In 1915 his crops aggregated 7,000 bushels. His farm lies along the Marais river and is one of the choice ones of the valley. It contains a grove of stately trees planted by Mrs. Rice and her son Ole.

For ten years Mr. Amundson has served as township supervisor, and he lias long served as a member of the school board. His religious connection is with the Grand Marais Lutheran church, of which he was one of the trustees for a number of years. He and his wife are the parents of six children, Elcanora, John, Alice, Harold, Clara and Clarence.

Cultivating with enterprise and skill 560 acres of land in one body, only part of which lies in his home farm, James McDonald, of section 32, Nesbit township, is doing as much as almost any other man to aid in promoting the industrial and commercial power of Polk county and minister to the general welfare and progress of its residents. He was born in County Frontenac, province of Ontario, Canada, December 6, 1853. and in the spring of 1876 came to Blue Earth countj-, Minnesota. During his first summer in this state he worked as a farm hand in Blue Earth county, and in the winter was employed in lumber camps on the Chippewa river in Wisconsin, running logs on the drive when spring came and while it lasted.

When he quit the lumber job he went to Duluth expecting to get work on the railroad. But in Duhith he met some of his old friends from Ontario who wei-e on their way to the Red river vallej', where the Xesbit boys had already started a settlement on the Marais river, but were the only men located there. Mr. McDonald and his companion, David Morrow, who had come with him from Canada, joined their old neighbors and came to this section. He filed on a part of his present farm as a pre-emption claim, but afterward changed his claim to one for a homestead in order to get a full quarter-section. He had about $350 in money to start with.

David Morrow selected at the same time a place about one mile distant, and each of the two newcomers hired the breaking up of twenty acres of his land. This was in the spring of 1877. They cut logs and hewed them for a dwelling house, and the next winter they put up a house of the hewn logs sixteen by twenty feet in size. This house is still standing and in a good state of preservation. The winter was an open one and Mr. McDonald and Robert Nisbet built several houses, hauling logs to Grand Porks to have them sawed into lumber for finishing the houses. The next spring Mr. McDonald planted the twenty acres he had plowed. He had bought oxen but these he sold after he got his crop in and could dispense with their services for a time.

At that time Mr. McDonald and Robert Ncsliit went back to their old home in Canada and were married on the same day. May 8, 1878, Mr. McDonald being united with Miss Isabella Miller, who had been his schoolmate in earlier years. He brought a carload of stock on his return trip and his wife followed with Mr. and Mrs. Nesbit. Several other settlers accompanied them, the party including James Lee, wife and family, William Hannah, Daniel H. McDonald, a brother of James, Mr. Bromelee, Sandy McLean and George Island.

In his carload of live stock James McDonald had horses for David Alorris, James Lee, Robert Nesbit and George Island, of this neighborhood, and one for James Miller, of Pargo. That spring (1878) Mr. McDonald's grain came up well but dry cold winds injured his crop. In the following winter he hauled wood to Pisher, a mile and a half distant, to supply the railroad with fuel for its engines, and got 55 cents a cord for it. In this way he earned the cost of a wagon, having none the first summer. He kept on breaking land for himself and others, raising grain and hay, and was soon enjoying substantial prosperity with good prospects of getting ahead rapidly.

In the course of time Mr. IMcDonald bought eighty aci'es of railroad land at $5 an acre, with a rebate of $3 an acre for breaking up three-fourths of it. He also acquired another tract of eighty acres which was already plowed, and in 1898 he bought an additional half-section for $7,000, all plowed and ready for seeding. He keeps twenty-five to thirty head of cattle, but grain has been his main dependence, and in 1915 his crops totaled 3,550 bushels of wheat, 3,500 of barley, 4,000 of oats and 140 of rye.

Mr. McDonald iielped to organize Nesbit township, which was named in honor of the Nesbit boys, although only one of them was living in it at the time, but they and Joseph Jarvis were its first settlers. lie has served on the township board many years, a large part of the time as its chairman ; has aided actively and extensivelj' in road and ditch work; has been a member of the school board almost continuously from its organization, and in all ways open to him has done all he could to help push the township along to better development and greater progress. His religious connection is with the Bethel Presbyterian church, which he has served well as a deacon and a member of its official board. His father was one of the founders of the church and he is devoted to it.

Mr. and Mrs. McDonald became the parents of nine children, all of whom are living. They are : Ethel Ellen, who is the wife of George White, of Saskatoon, Canada; William J., who lives on the Mallory farm; Eva Belle, who is the wife of William Nesbit ; Daniel

Lloyd, wlio is living at home; Mabel Jennie, who is the wife of Robert Stewart, a sou of T. D. Stewart, of Huutsville township ; Margaret Fern, who was a teacher in Polk count}' but is now teaching in Bemidji; Roy Herbert, Kate Gladys and Mary Edith, all of whom are living at home, Kate being the housekeeper of the family. She attended the State Agricultural school at Crookston, and Mary is a student of music iu Grand Forks. Their mother died November 17, 1903, and since then one after another of the daughters has looked after the affairs of the household. The lather is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has passed through all the chairs of his local lodge and sensed as its representative to the Grand Lodge of the Order at different times.

This gentleman, who stands high in professional and fraternal circles, being one of the leading dentists of the northwest and a very enterprising and progressive citizen, has shown an active and helpful interest iu everything that makes for a better town and the general welfare of Crookston, the city of his home for nearly seventeen years, or since November, 1899. He was born in Clinton, province of Ontario, Canada, July 30, 1875, and obtained his professional training at the Detroit Dental College, of Detroit, Michigan, fi'om which he was graduated in May, 1809. In November of that year he located in Crookston, where Judge William A. "Watts, his mother's brother, was living at the time. Dr. Boles and two others in the city are the only dentists of that period who are still living in Crookston. Dr. Robertson and Dr. Spencer both preceded him.

practice, and he gives it close and continual attention. He is a member of the District, State and National Dental associations and one of the ofEcers of the District association. His profession absorbs him almost wholly, the only recreation he takes being occasional bass fishing expeditions to the lakes in Minnesota. He is a diligent and thoughtful student of the literature of his profession and makes every effort to keep abreast of its latest discoveries and all its advances in every way. He is unmarried and about the middle of 1913 he induced his mother and his sister to take up their residence iu Crookston. Fraternally he is a Freemason and the Eminent Commander of Constautine Comraandery No. 20, K. T., and a member of the Grand Comma ndery of Minnesota. Socially he is connected with tlie Crookston Commercial club and an Elk.

Helmer Iiorken

Succeeding to the ownership and management of the farm on which he now lives after the death of his parents, and giving close and careful attention to his work, Helmer Horken, one of the enterprising and prosperous farmers of Sullivan townsliip, this county, juis made his way steadily forward and is now recognized as one of the sterling and substantial residents of the part of the county in which he lives. He was born in Deeorah, Iowa, August 1, 1875, and is a son of Hans E. and Martha Horken, who were born, reared and married in Norway and came to Polk county, Minnesota, after residing ten years in or near Deeorah, Iowa, following a residence of one or two years in Wisconsin.

The father took up a homestead in Sullivan township in 1877 and lived on it until his death in the spring of 1890. He was born October 28, 1831, and liis wife February 3, 1838. She died in August, 1906. They had no means when they came to this county witli their seven children, and the father had to hire a man to break up his land while he worked as a fireman on a Hudson Bay company boat on the Red river to support his family. He also did some blacksmithing, thereby working at the trade he had learned in his native land. Two or three years after his arrival here he obtained a yoke of steers and broke them, and by that time his farm was yielding a living for the family.

The elder Mr. Horker bought another tract of 160 acres two miles and a half east of his homestead and built the present dwelling house on the home place ten or twelve years after taking possession of it, the first residence of the family on the farm being a little log shack with a sod roof. He also set out a lot of trees which now make a fine grove. When he died his son Helmer, who was living on the homestead, took charge of it for his mother, who continued to operate it until she died except for three years, during which she lived in Grand Forks. When she died he bought out the other heirs, and now owns the whole place, ou which he has built a new bam and made other improvements.

Mr. Horken's principal industries are raising grain and live stock. He has seventeen head of high grade Percheron horses, twenty head of cattle and ten milch cows, the cattle all being Herefords of a superior strain. In 1907 he was married to Miss Martha Eidsness, a native of Norway. They have four children, Ella, Arnold, Harold and Stella. The father is a Republican in politics and a member of the township board and township supervisor.

Peter E. Swanson

For nearly eighteen years after coming to this county and settling down to build up for himself a new home in the American wilderness Peter E. Swanson, who now has a fine farm in sectiou 22, Northland township, this county, wrestled with almost overpowering difficulties and encountered an almost continuous succession of disasters and discouragements. Yet he stuck to his purpose and the place on which he had determined to carry it out, with the result that he has conquered bad fortune and achieved a gratifying success. As the portion of the county in which he lives is flat and low, in the early years before there was any systematic drainage on a large scale in the neighborhood, water often covered a great part of his land for many months and he was unable to work it in time to raise a crop. When this condition did not prevail either frost or smut would spoil his crop, and he was no better off than in a wet season. At times he has had to walk in water waist-deep to get to his house when he was away from it. Since the judicial ditch was dug about 1898 the water has not troubled him and his crops have been good.

and came to the United States and this county in 1880. He homesteaded ou the southwest quarter of section 22, and was the second settler in that neighborhood, John Eriekson, on section 14, two miles farther northeast, having come first. But Mr. Swanson was about three miles farther northeast than any other settler. What money he brought with him from Sweden was lost and he had nothing when he arrived here. He built a little log house, which is still standing, and in this he lived until 1915, when the present larger and more comfortable dwelling wa-s put up. Other improvements were made from time to time as he was able.

During the first year of his residence in this county Jlr. Swanson worked for other farmers in the summer and in the fall he cut hay, which he sold in Grand Forks at $3 to $4 a ton. He lias always stuck to his farm, seeking no other business and no public life or official position of any kind at any time. He is a fervent member of the Swedish Lutheran church, which he helped to build about 1887.

in October, 1890. Emma, the adopted daughter, is uow ^Irs. Ekdahl, and has been a widow for twentythree years. Her son, John "William Ekdahl, aged twenty-four, carries on the farm for Mr. Swauson.

Ole B. Dahl

Living retired from active pursuits Eifter his term of privation, toil and trial, with a comfortable competence and an agreeable home in East Grand Forks, Ole B. Dahl has well illustrated in his career as a progressive and successful farmer the value of persistent industry, frugality and thrift, and has honestly earned the comforts and advantages they bring. He was born in Norway April 1, 1840, and was there reared to manhood and taught his trade as a shoemaker. He came to the United States in 1866 and located in Winona, Minnesota, where he passed a year working at his trade in a shop in wliich twenty men were employed, a large number for a far western town in that day.

Mr. Dahl next took up a pre-emption claim in Renville county, Minnesota, when that county was just opening to settlement. He proved up his claim as pre-emption and paid $1.2.) per acre, but made slow progress in developing and improving his land. In 1874, 1876 and 1877 the grasshoppers devoured his crops. He had a good crop in 1875 but the growing vegetation in other parts of the county was all consumed by the pests, which no effort seemed sufficient to eradicate for some years.

In 1879 Mr. Dahl moved to Polk county, having sold his land for $2,000 which was then considered an exorbitant price. He was unable to sell his cows, however, as butter was selling at five cents a pound. He took up a homestead in section 12 of what is now Esther township but was then a part of Higdem, his location being about ten miles north of East Grand Forks. He worked the farm for a number of years and improved it with good buildings. In 1885 he rented it to a tenant and moved to East Grand Forks. He bought a few acres of land near that city but he has not given it his personal labor as he has since been living retired from work. Before leaving the farm

Mr. Dahl never allowed himself to become wholly absorbed in his own affairs. He always took an active and helpful interest in the affairs of the locality of his home, and served as township assessor of Higdem township three years while it included Esther township, the division being made after lie left his farm. He also served on the school board and filled other local offices in Higdem township.

"While he was living in Renville county Mr. Dahl was married to Miss Hannah Lareon, a daughter of Bernt and Martha Larson and a native of Norway. She came with her parents to Dakota count}-, Minnesota, in 1862, and took up her residence with them in that county, accompanying them to Renville county in 1865. The Indian outbreak of 1862 so frightened them that the father did not take up a homestead until 1865. In 1877 they changed their residence to Polk county and took a homestead in section 10, Esther township, as it is now, being among the very first .settlers in that part of the county. The father afterward added 200 acres of railroad land to his farm in order to have timber for use on his fai'iii. Later he built a dwelling house and other buildings on the railroad land at the edge of the tini])er, and there he died in June, 1902. The mother is still living and has her home with Mr. and Mrs. Dahl.

The Larson farm is now owned by the two daughters of the household, Mrs. Dahl and Mrs. Melsness of Renville county. Mr. Dahl cultivated it for five years, and since he left it it has been under the management of his son-in-law, 0. J. Norgord. Mr. and Mrs. Dahl have seven children living : Caroline, who is the wife of B. K. Johnson, of Esther township; "Mary, who is the wife of 0. J. Norgord, and lives on the old Larson farm which he now has charge of; Sophia, who is the wife of H. Ellingson, a railroad man who lives in Grand Forks ; Hildah, who is the wife of H. M. Erickson, a banker at Upham, North Dakota; Ole, who resides in Seattle, AVashington; Clara, who is the wife of R. M. Jensen, assistant cashier of the Scandinavian-American Bank of Grand Forks, and Gunda, wlio is the wife of W. M. Ludwig, a councilman. A daughter named Minnie, who was a stenographer, died at the age of twenty-one. All the members of the family belong to the Lutheran church in Grand Forks.

After coming to East Grand Forks he helped organize school district No. 3 into an independent school and held office as director for seven years and treasurer most of that time.

Ole Hendrickson

Ilavmg helped to redeem large acreages of land from the wilderness and make them fruitful in productiveness and highly serviceable to mankind, Ole Hendrickson, for many years one of the leading farmers of Esther township, this county, has well earned the rest and leisure he is now enjoying in his life at Grand Forks, North Dakota, retired from all active pursuits except that of supervising the cultivation of the land he still owns, which comprises eighty acres in Higdem township and a half-section in Esther township, the former taken up as a homestead and the latter as a tree claim in 1878.

Mr. Hendrickson was born in Sweden, July 27, 1852, and in 1869 came to this country with his parents, Hendrick H. and Walborg Grubb, who located in Carver county, Minnesota, and passed two years there. At the end of that period the father took up a homestead in Renville county, where the family remained seven years. In 1878 they came to Polk county, and here the father obtained a pre-emption claim in Esther township, on which he died in May, 1899, after transforming his wild claims into good farms. His children numbered three, Ole, his sister Betsy, who is now the widow of Ole Nilson and is living on her homestead in section 2, Esther township, and their brother Henry. The last named took up a homestead in section 34, Higdem township, but later traded this for Ole's tree claim, on which Ole had proved up and planted a ten acre grove. In later years Henry worked his father's farm until he moved to California in 1902. He is now living at Orland in that state, and Ole A. Olson now owns his old tree

After proving up on his homestead in 1902 Ole Hendrickson bought his half section in Esther township two miles south of the old place, and he lived on it until he moved to Grand Forks, which he did in 1913. He made extensive improvements on the farm, draining out some lakes whereby he raised about fifty acres of valueless land to high productiveness. The draining cost him about $1,000, but the land it redeemed is now worth as much as the land is around there. Since he removed from the farm it has been operated by his son August Herman.

Mr. Hendrickson was married in 1879 to Miss Bertha Halvorsen, of Renville county. They became the parents of seven children, one of whom, a son named Oscar Bernhart, died at the age of thirteen years. The living children are : Johann Wilhelm, who married Anna Olena Kleven and lives on his farm in section 13, Esther township. He served for a time on the school board in Higdem township. Henry, who married Ada Cornelia Dahl, lives on his homestead in Higdem township. August Herman lives on and cultivates his father's farm. Walborg Josephine is a mute. She passed four years being educated at a school for the deaf and dumb. Anna Maria is housekeeper for her brother August on the home farm. Hildah Christine and Olga Berthene are living with their father. The parents also have an adopted daughter, Lilah Geneva, who is now four years old and whom they have had from her infancy.

years and as a member of the school board almost from the organization of the school district. He also served as treasurer, holding the office one year after his removal to Grand Forks, and was succeeded in it by his son August. He has been a member and one of the trustees of Kongsvinger Lutheran church, and president of its congregation, which he helped to organize. For many years he was a Republican in politics, but lately he has been independent, voting for men rather than in accord with partisan considerations.

lie was obliged to use oxen as his motive power in aU his work. He had no capital and his father did not have over $500. In Renville county grasshoppers destroyed all their crops for two years. But his perseverance and pluck took him over all obstacles and through all difficulties until he compelled fate to yield him success. Mrs. Hendrickson, before her marriage did housework, toiling early and late and often doing men's as well as women's work, at a compensation of .$1 a week. Her industry and good management in her own home were large factors in winning her husbaTid's prosperity.

Charles Ross

Charles Ross, of Fertile, a leading building contractor of the county and prominent citizen, was bom in Norway, October 7, 1865, and has conducted extensive business operations in the count}' for nianjyears, handling individually the largest amount of work of any contractor. He located in Fertile in 1893, having previously resided at Rej^nolds, and has continued to make his home there and at Crookston with the exception of some nine months spent in his native land in 1904 and 1905. Mr. Ross has attained a notable efficiency in his profession and through the years of his able business activity has won the confidence and regard of all his associates by his integrity and skill. He is that type of man who, through their honest and genial personality, add to their attainments as business men and citizens, a wide circle of warm friends. He has erected many of the most substantial and pretentious buildings in the county, structures which are importantly noted among the architectural possessions of which this section boasts. Among his past contracts have been the Carnegie library, the Elks' home and numerous business blocks in Crookston, man}- of the homes in tlie attractive residence district of Fertile and the bank buildings in that place, which rank among the splendidly equipped and modem banking houses of northern jMinnesota. He is now engaged upon !he construction of the high school building at Fertile, which involves a .$27,000 contract and will be finished for occupancy in January of 1916. ilr. Ross employs as many as twenty-five men in his operations, working to architects' plans, and personallj' supervises the work on every contract. Aside from his many private interests, Mr. Ross is actively associated with all matters of public moment and served for two years as a city commissioner of Fertile. He enjoys outof-door sports and makes hunting his favorite recreation. Mr. Ross is a member of the Elks lodge at Crookston.

John Driscoll

The late John Driscoll, who was an extensive landholder in Polk county, one of the leading men and most active and influential citizens of his locality and a great force for progress and development, died tragically on September 26, 1907, when his dwelling house was destroyed by fire, and the mystery of his deatli has uever been fully solved. His body was not consumed or injured in the fire but was found in a woodshed that the flames did not reach. No investigation of the case was ever made and the immediate cause of Mr. Driseoll's death has not yet been disclosed.