Polk County, Minnesota - Biographical sketches, 1916 (part 7 of 15)

J. H. ^IcNicol, station agent for the Northern Pacific at Grand Forks, North Dakota, and a prominent citizen of Ea.st Grand Forks, is a native of Canada, born at Renfrew, Ontario, June 10, 1877, the son of Duncan A. and Lucy (Wright) McNicol, who were also natives of Ontario. Duncan ilcNicol came to Grand Forks in 1880 and in the following year was joined by his wife and family. He was a millwright by trade and previous to his removal to Polk county, had engaged in the contracting business. On settling in Grand Forks he entered the lumber trade on the Red river, buying and shipping logs and later returned to the contracting business in which he engaged for many years, until 1901, when he removed to Anaconda, Montana, and is employed in the construction work on the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific railroad. J. H. McNicol was the eldest of five children and became a resident of Polk county at six years of age, when after two years in Grand Forks, the family settled in East Grand Forks. He attended the public schools and at fifteen years entered the employ of the Northern Pacific railroad company as a call boy and received steady advancement, working as car tracker and night clerk and was then made ticket clerk at Grand Forks. Subsequently he was employed as assistant ti'ainmaster and traveling freight agent and after serving as assistant agent at East Grand Forks, in 1901 was appointed agent. His rapid promotion and efficient services for many years as an official attest to the marked success of his career as a railroad man and in public affairs, he has been prominently associated with all projects for the advancement of the general welfare. As a member of an important committee he was particularly influential in securing the present valuable water works and sewerage system and also served for five years as secretary of the Commercial club. His marriage to Alice Mullally occurred in East Grand Forks, December 26, 1898. She was bom in Ontario, the daughter of James and Euphemia (May) ilullally, who settled in East Grand Forks in 1879. A sketch of the former, a pioneer railroad man of Polk county is included in this work. Two children have been bom to Mr. Mc- Nicol and his wife, Lucy Geraldine and Ruth Isabelle. Mr. McNicol is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Masonic fraternity.

Peter J. Paulsrud

Bom and reared to the age of seventeen in a land far distant from this and with institutions, scenes and associations very different from ours; coming to this country alone in his youth with no capital but his pluck; making his own way in the world to a condition of substantial comfort and independence, Peter J. Paulsrud, one of the leading farmers and citizens of Hubbard township, Polk county, has been a hard credit for the excellent use he has made of his opportunities, as he is also for the general esteem he enjoys for his sterling citizenship and usefulness.

Mr. Paulsrud was born in Norway May 22, 1865, and emigrated to the United States in the spring of 1882. He landed at New York and came direct to Ada, Norman county, Minnesota, and from there worked his way across the country to the farm of the late Nels Paulsrud, who was distantly related to him. He worked for his relative two years, receiving $150 and his board and lodging for his first year's labor and $20 a month and board and lodging for the second. He then went to North Dakota and worked out as a farm hand for three years in that state, or territory as it was then.

In the spring of 1887 Mr. Paulsrud was married to ]Miss Lena Gillebo, who was, like himself, bom in Norway. Returning to Polk county after his marriage, he took charge of his relative's farm for four years while the latter served as sheriff of the county. At the conclusion of this period he rented another farm in Hubbard township, which he occupied for six years, then bought one of 200 acres which he afterward sold in order to buy the tract of 200 acres in Section 32, Hubbard township, on which he now lives. He has improved his farm with good buildings, arranged it according to a good system and made it attractive as a rural home. His farming is of a general character and he is very successful in the management of it.

Mr. Paulsrud has served as assessor of Hubbard township during the last ten years, and has also been a constable and town supervisor. He is an active member and one of the trustees of the Norwegian Lutheran church at Nielsville, of which his wife is also a member. They have one child, their son Julius, who was born in 1890 and is a graduate of the School of Agriculture at Crookston. He is now a resident of the state of North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Paulsrud have also taken into their household a-s a member of their family Ida J. Olson, who bears to them the relation of foster daughter.

Edward W. Johnson

Edward W. Johnson is one of the leading merchants of Beltrami, this county, and also a landowner of substance and prominence, and stands well in the regard and good will of the people of the whole county because of his enterprise and uprightness in all business transactions, his progressiveness and public spirit as a citizen and his genuine worth as a man in every respect. He has lived in the county thirty-six years, and during the greater part of that period has been active in contributing to the advancement and general welfare of this section and the service of its residents.

Mr. Jolinson is a native of Lansing, Allamakee county, Iowa, where his life began February 4, 1867, and where he passed the first twelve years of it. His parents, John G. and Gunhild 0. (Dahl) Johnson, were bom and reared in Norway and became residents of Polk county, Minnesota, ia 1879, settling on a farm in section 12, Rice township. They lived on their farm until 1913, when they moved to the village of Beltrami, where the father died September 26, 1914, and the mother is now living.

Edward W. Johnson came to Polk county in 1879 with his parents and lived with them until 1887, when he began his business career as a clerk in a general merchandising store in Beltrami. He worked as a clerk seven years, then bought the business of C. E. Ford, of which he has since been the proprietor and manager. He carries a general stock of goods of all kinds, including agricultural implements, and has an extensive trade. In conducting his business he is enterprising and progressive, studying the wants of the community and doing everything in his power to meet and fully provide for them.

Edwakd W. Johnson

active part iu them, serving as treasurer of Rice township and filling other local ofBces with ability and to the satisfaction of the people. He is also deeply interested in the farming interests of the county as the owner of 500 acres of land, the cultivation of which he superintends personally. His brother, Herman Johnson, is associated with him in the mercantile line of his activity, the firm name being E. W. Johnson & Company. E. W. was married in 1891 to Miss Caroline Halvorson, a native of Norway. They have had six children, five of whom are living, Edwin, Myron, Otto, Elmira and Thelma. Mr. Johnson is a leading man in Beltrami and representative of the best attributes of its citizenship, and he is universally respected for his sterling qualities of manhood.

Albert Spokely

Whatever there is of credit in the career of Albert Spokely, one of the extensive and successful farmers of Hubbard township, this county, and there is a great deal that is entitled to warm commendation, reflects in large measure back upon the township and county of his present home, for he is a native of that township and has passed almost the whole of his life to this time (1915) within its borders. He was also educated iu that township and married there, and, therefore, all his interests center in it.

Mr. Spokely 's life began in Hubbard township, Polk county, Minnesota, April 21, 1874. He is a son of Gunleik and Gunvor (Hagen) Spokely, natives of Norway, and a brother of Alexander G. Spokely, sketches of whom will be found in this work. The parents became residents of Polk county in 1871, but emigrated to the United States several years earlier. They were pioneers in this county, and when they ai-rived here the father took up a homestead in Hubbard township, which was then largely a wilderness, and on that farm, as by his industry and skill he has made it, the parents still have it as their home.

Of the twelve children born in the family Albert was the third in the order of birth, and he is now the oldest of those who are living. He was reared on his father's farm and educated at the school iu the neighborhood. For a short time after reaching his manhood he conducted a saloon at Climax, but, with the exception of this venture in mercantile life, he has devoted his time and energies wholly to farming. He owns 440 acres in Hubbard township, on which he has put up good buildings and developed a large industry in raising potatoes and wheat, of which he makes specialties. On October 9, 1897, he was united in mariage with Miss Johanna Myrland, a native of North Dakota. They have four children, Guy, Earl, Delight and Syla.

R. T. Webster

Conducting with enterprise, skill and success the farming operations on about 800 acres of land, which he has greatly improved and made increasingly fruitful since taking charge of it, and taking an active and sei'viceable part in all the public affairs of his section of Polk county, R. T. Webster, whose home is on Section 15, is necessarily one of the leading and most useful citizens of Reis township, and is respected by the people according to his rank.

Mr. Webster was born near the city of Rock Island, Illinois, October 18, 1859, and is the son of C. U. and Mary (Caruthers) Webster, who are also residents of Polk coiinty and now far advanced in age. The family moved to Buffalo county, Wisconsin, while R. T. was in his childliood, and lived there until he was about seventeen years of age. The parents then changed the family residence to St. Croix county, Wisconsin, and the son remained in that county until 1878, when they all became resideuts of Polk county, ^Minnesota. They located in Fisher township, where they were pioneers, and wliere the fatlier took a leading part in all public affairs, filling numerous local offices and that of county auditor, which he held for four years. Of the eight children born in the parental household R. T. was the second in thi' order of birth. He lived in Fisher township, this county, until the spring of 1913, and, with the exception of si.\ years, he has been engaged in farming since his boyhood. He was assessor of Fisher township for several terms, and in other ways has shown his interest in tlie abiding welfare and improvement of Polk county, in the fall of 1890 he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Kane, of Buffalo county, Wisconsin. They have five children, Ray, ZueUa, Clifford, Mary C. and Allen II. Mr. Webster's farm is one of the best in Reis township, and his .skill and enterprise have made it tliis.

Jacob Bjontegard

Jacob Bjontegard, a successful farmer and dredge contractor, of Queen township, has been a resident of the county since 1886. He was born in Norway, March 6, 1860, and was educated iu the under officers school at Christiania. When twenty years of age he enlisted in the regular arm.v as corporal and within a year was promoted to the office of sergeant and detailed to service as a drill master for recruits and made an excellent i-ecord in military training. He received his honorable discharge after five years service and in 1886 came to the United States and to Minnesota. For a time he rented a farm near Fisher, Polk county, and then bought two hundred and forty acres, of which eighty acres were wild land. This was prairie land and after six years of successful operations in that region, he decided to move to a timber country witli a milder climate and sold the farm with the intention of investing in Oregon property but on visiting the eastern timber section of Polk county, concluded to locate there. He bought the homestead claim of Halkinrud in section twenty-eight of Queen township, seven miles northeast of Fosston, paying $2,500 for the property with a small frame house and sixty acres of cleared land. The greater part of the land was covered with large timber, for the most part, oak, spruce and ash and Mr. Bjontegard has sold a great deal of first class lumber cut from his place and has now all the land in use in his various agricultural activities. This region, being a tine grass country and naturally adapted to the raising of clover, has proven peculiarly advantageous to dairy farming and Mr. Bjontegard has given some attention to this enterprise. During the fifteen years which he has spent on this place, he has built up a fine, modern farm, erecting good buildings and has advanced the efficiency of his operations with the improvements and conveniences of progressive farm equipment and has a good watering .system with a drilled well. Aside from his farming activities he has engaged in the ditch contracting business and has constructed some eighteen miles of the county drainage in three different ditches and has at times employed a force of twelve men in this work. Previously he was selected as the viewer and assessor for a number of the county ditches. On his own farm, which is named "Meadow Brook Farm," lie has reclaimed thirty acres of valuable meadow land. Mr. Bjontegard is a member of the Republican party and has always taken an active interest in public affairs and has been honored with numerous local offices, his able services beginning as a member of the school board to which he w-as elected a few days after locating in Queen township and he has filled the offices of chairman of the board of supervisors, treasurer and justice of peace and has served continuously on the school board. He is a member of the Norwegian Free church, one mile east of his home, and is associated with the business interests of the community as a stockholder in the cooperative creamery and Farmers elevator at Fosston. He has also for a number of years been director and agent for the

Local Farmers Fire Insurance company, a most successful organization. Mr. Bjontegard has been twice married. His first union was solemnized at Grand Forks in 1887, with Minnie Moe, who was a native of Norway and died in 1893, leaving two children, Thorwald and Mary. In 1896, Mr. Bjontegai'd was married to Carrie Berg of Red River, Polk county, and they have four children, Ingmar, Mamie, Clara and Arthur.

Michael L. Enright

Michael L. Enright, proprietor of the Edenvale farm and one of Polk county's leading agriculturists, has been a resident of Huntsville township since 1878, when his father located on tlie land which is his present home. Michael Enright is a native of Canada, born in Plyinpton county, Ontario, February 4, 1869, the son of Dennis and Catherine (O'Neil) Enright, of whose family of nine boys and two girls, but four sons are now living in Polk county, the subject of this sketch, Richard, Edward F. and Thomas, all of East Grand Forks. Michael Enright has devoted his life to the farm. After receiving a common school education and after the death of his father in 1884 he assisted his mother in operating the homestead and upon the death of the latter in 1906, became the owner of the three hundred and sixty acres. Edenvale farm now includes five hundred and twenty acres and is one of the model stock and dairy farms of the region, located two miles east of East Graud Forks, on the Red Lake river. This farm with its products, is one on which Polk county bases its high standard of agricultural prosperity and attests notaVily to the enterprise and ability of its owner. As a stock farmer, Mr. Enright has captured many high honors at the state and local fairs, with his thoroughbred Holstein cattle and as a business man, is operating a stock and dairy enterprise of a net earning capacity of five thousand dollars. His milk and cream shipments are made to the Sanitai-y Milk company of Grand Forks. He has notably promoted the efficiency and grade of local stock in the fine specimens of cattle which have been l)red on his estate. He keeps some eighty head of registered Holsteins and a large herd of dairy cows and also is intei-ested in the raising of farm horses. Aside from his extensive grain operations, he cultivates coi-n for ensilage use and was one of the first to demonstrate the value and successful culture of alfalfa and has steadily increased his acreage for this crop and now has eighty acres devoted to it. As a progressive farmer and citizen, Mr. Enright is interested in the advancement of public welfare. In political relations, he recognizes no distinction of party prejudice in his selection of candidates and policies. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Mutual Insurance company and president of the Sanitary Slilk company of Grand Forks. In 1903 he was married to Annie O'Connor, who was boni near Grand Forks, in North Dakota, the daughter of Ed O'Connoi-, a successful farmer and well known pioneer of that region. Mr. Enright and his wife have seven children, Josephine, Jerome, Frances, Helen, Michael, Margaret and Mary. Ml'. Enright is a member of the Knights of Columbus and with his family, is a communicant in the Sacred Heart church of East Grand Forks.

Anders 0. Morvig

For more than forty-two years Anders 0. Morvig, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers and leading citizens of Garfield township, has been a resident of Minnesota, and during over thirty-six years of the period he has lived in and helped to develop and improve Polk county. He came to this county in 1879, before Garfield township was organized, and was one of the early sellers in that part of the county, and, as he was a raau of intelligence and force of character, he had an important part in starting the new township on its course of progress and development when it was organized.

Mr. Morvig was bona in Norway December 29, 1848, and grew to the age of twenty-five in his native land, where he was engaged in farming after completing his education. In 1873 he emigrated to the United States and came direct to Freeborn county, Minnesota, and there he was employed at farm labor until the fall of 1877, when he revisited Norway and remained until spring. On his return to Minnesota he again took up his residence in Freeborn county and renewed his farming operations, which he carried on until the spring of 1879 in that county, then moved to Polk county, making the journey from Freeborn with teams, and through the veritable wilderness part of the way.

On his arrival in this county Jlr. Moi'V'ig took up 160 acres of land in Section 15, in what is now Gai'- field township, and on this land, with a large additional acreage which he has since purchased, he has lived and expended his energies ever since, greatly to his own advantage and the benefit of the town.ship and all its interests. He now owns a whole section of land and some beyond that, his holdings being partly in Garfield and partly in Garden township, and nearly all under fruitful cultivation. Soon after lie located here the new township of Garfield was organized, and the county commissioners appointed Mr. Morvig its first judge. He has also held the oflSces of constable and township supen'isor, and has at all times taken an earnest interest and an active part in all township affairs, serving for a time as township treasurer and frequently in some ofiice in connection with the administration of the public school system. He is a director of the Fanners State Bank of Fertile and of the Cooperative Creamery company and the Elevator company of that village.

On December 28, 1883, Mr. Morvig was married in Garfield township to Mrs. Ingre (Vidder) Nelson, the widow of Ole Nelson, who died in that township. Siio also is a native of Norway, where her life began July 18, 1859. By her first mariage she became the mother of one child, her daughter Olava, who is now the wife of G. G. Haugen. Mr. and Mrs. Morvig have had eleven children, nine of whom are living, Clara, Matilda, Alfred, Olaf, Ida, Ivar, Lloyd, Melvin and Edwin. Their son Carl T. died January 1, 1915, when he was twenty years of age, and their daughter Anna Maria in childhood. The parents are zealous members of Little Norway church in Garfield township, which the father helped to organize and in which he has ever been an earnest worker.

Haftor B. Haftorson

Although not a native of this country Haftor B. Haftorson, one of the enterprising, progressive and successful farmers of Polk county, is thoroughly imbued with tlie spirit of its people and loyal and devoted to all its public institutions. He came to the United States when he was but five years old, and all of his subsequent years have been passed in the northwest and more than half of them in Onstad township, this county, in the progress and improvement of which he has been a potent factor in private and public life.

the son of Berssvend and Anna (Balstad) Haftorson, with whom he came to America and located in Allamakee county, Iowa, iu 1865. There the family lived until 1883, and there the son grew to manhood and obtained his education. In the fall of 1883 they all moved to Polk county, Minnesota, and took up their residence in Liberty township, where the parents resided for many years. Late iu life they moved to the state of Washington, but four years afterward returned to this county and made their home with their son Haftor. The father died June 24, 1912, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and the mother

March 17, 1913, when she was eighty -five. They were the parents of seven children, five of whom grew to maturity. They were Haftor, his sister Mary, and his brothers Eleseus, Albert and Louis. Mary is now the wife of G. K. GuUickson. Eleseus died in the state of Washington. Albert is a resident of Idaho and Louis has had his home in Oregon for many years. Haftor B. Haftorson has lived in Polk county continuously since 1883, except for two years and a half, during which he was engaged in publishing the Evangeli Basun, a Norwegian religious paper. Throughout the rest of his life here he has been engaged in general farming principally. About 1885 he purchased the fann on which he is now living, and this he has greatly improved with good buildings and systematic cultivation until he has made it one of the choice farms in his township. He has taken an active part in all township affairs and has held and ably filled

In December, 1883, Mr. Haftorson was married in Liberty to^vnship, this county, to Miss Sarah Olson, who died in Onstad township February 23, 1893. They became the parents of five children, only two of whom are living: Carola, who is the wife of Ole Leiran, and Hannah. Bennie and Alton died near together of diphtheria, the former in his seventeenth and the latter in his fifteenth year. Fifth child was bom dead and buried with its mother.

On October 1, 1894, Mr. Haftorson contracted a second mariage, which united him with Miss Belle Olson, who was born in Norway August 28, 1868. Of the eight children born of this union three died in childhood. The five who are living are Harry, Willie, Oluf, Ruth and Irene.

Sever Quarberg

During all of the last forty years this progressive and prosperous farmer and enterprising, publicspirited citizen of Fairfax township, this county, has been a resident of the northwest and at two periods of the time has manfully braved the hardships, privations and dangers of the frontier. Through all difficulties, however, he has made his way with steady pi'ogrcss, relying whoUy on his own industry, ability and good management to advance his interests, and forcing every step of his advancement to tell to his benefit.

Mr. Quarberg was born in the city of Ringsaker, Norway, May 20, 1861, and came to the United States with his parents when he was about fourteen years old. The family located in Buffalo county, Wisconsin, on arriving in this country, and there Sever grew to manhood, obtained what education was within his reach and helped to make a tract of wild timber land over into a productive farm. He remained at home with his parents until he reached the age of twentyfive, then came to Polk county in 1885 and bought a prairie homestead claim in Onstad township some miles east of his present home. The homestead had been proved up on, and Mr. Quarberg paid $800 for it, although he had only $600 in cash at the time when he made the purchase.

On that farm Mr. Quarberg lived twenty-eight years, making good improvements, adding another for which he paid $1,000, and raising good crops of wheat, oats, flax and barley, and also raising and feeding live stock for his own use and for the markets. In 1910 he sold his land at a good advance over the original cost and bought the old Ilimmelsbach farm of 400 acres, on which he now lives, and on which he has erected new buildings at a cost of about $5,000 to take the place of the old shacks the farm contained when he bought it. He has also sunk a deep artesian well on the place, and this furnishes him an abundant supply of excellent water for every purpose.

Mr. Quarberg paid $29 an acre for his new farm and has since devoted his time and energy to mixed farming and his dairy business and live stock industrj'.

In 1915 he raised about 8,500 bushels of grain, 3,700 bushels of which were wheat. He also keeps regularly some forty head of cattle and milks fifteen cows, selling cream to the Ci'ookston creamery. The sire of his herd is a thoroughbred Shorthorn, and his stock is always in good condition. He does not confine himself to cattle, however, but also raises good draft horses and uses them in his plowing.

While this good citizen is wholly devoted to his farm and its interests, he never neglects the affairs of his township or the public welfare in any way. He helped to organize Onstad township, which was named for a pioneer who is now living at j\laple Bay in Godfrey township, and has served on the township board in both Onstad and Fairfax townships. He also helped to build Ilafslo church, now in Russia township, and is still a member of it and one of its trustees, anil he has served for years on tlic school board wherever he has lived and taken an active interest in educational matters.

Mr. Quarberg was married while he was living in Wisconsin to Miss Anna Sylverstereon, also a native of Norway. Tiicy have three sons and one daughter. The daughter is JMay Matilda, now the wife of Sever Lee, a butter manufacturer in Crookston. The sons are : Alfred Selmer, who is living on the home farm ; Oscar Melvin. who is a graduate of the State Agricultural School at Crookston, and Arthur Oliver, who juirsucd a course of special training at Crookston college and is now a salesman and })ookkeeper in Crookston.

Daniel Anderson

Daniel Anderson, a well known farmer of Kuute township, was bom in Sweden, July 26, 1848, and spent his early manhood in his native land. He was a blacksmith by trade and after coming to the United States in 1879 worked at his trade for some years in Douglas county, Minnesota. He came to Polk county in 1883 and filed on a preemption claim September 3 of that year but did not make his home on the land until four years later. From the first years of hard toil and privations of the pioneer farm life with a meager income, he has risen through native ability and thrift to his present success and now owns a half section of Polk county land which he has put in the front ranks of its notably prosperous farming section. Seventy-five acres of the home farm, in section fourteen of Knute township, and sixty acres in the second quarter section are under cultivation and his enterprises also include stock farming and dairying. He keeps a herd of twelve dairy cows and is a stockholder in the cooperative creamery at Melntosh, four miles east of his farm. His natural aptitude and liking for mechanics led to his operation of a private work shop on his place for many years, where he worked at his old trade aud at wood work for his own benefit and occupation, lu his farming activities, ilr. Anderson has displayed the results of enterprise and careful study and has triumphed with notable success over the old belief that apple culture was impossible for this .section, and has had some splendid crops of fine grade apples. Willwater lake, of some sixty acres in extent lies entirely within the boundaries of his farm and provides excellent fishing sport beside adding to the natural attractions of the home. The first log farm house was replaced in 1002 hy a eomfortiil)le modern home wliirh occupies a 7nost happily cliosen site on the banks of the lake. Mr. Anderson has given his influence in all affairs of public welfare and has given able service as a memlK>r of the town- .ship board. He has always been an enthusia.stic huntsman, having enjoyed elk hunts as a young man in Sweden and is still a devotee to the hearty out of door sports. He has been twice married. His first marriage was in Sweden to Johanna Larsen, who died in Douglas county, and was survived by five children, John, owns a farm in Knute town.ship ; Erick, now farming in Canada; Willie, who is in the livery busi- ness at Erskine and owns a farm in Knute township ; Daniel, who operates a threshing machine outfit, and Andrew, who has a claim in Montana. Mr. Anderson's second union was with Christina Peterson, of Douglas county, and they have five children, Arthur,

Selma, who like her brothers owns a Montana claim ; Minnie, Albin and Esther is at home. Arthur Tlnderson has secured a claim in Montana. John and Arthur operate a threshing outfit.

J. F. King

J. F. King, of Euclid, proprietor of a full line of agricultural implements and a hardware store and well known citizen of the county, is a native of Ontario, Canada, and has been a resident of Polk county since 1890, when he was appointed station agent for the Great Northern railroad, at Mallery. Until recent years, his career has been devoted to railroad work, having been employed by the Great Northern road as station agent in Polk county for twenty-two years and previous to that time he had spent several years in the same occupation in North Dakota. In 1904 he was transferred from Mallery to Euclid and here he retired from his former interests after the many years of his able and competent service as a railroad man. He entered upon his present mercantile enterprise in 1915, establishing a hardware and agricultural implement business and erecting a modern and well equipped building. During the years of his residence in the county, Mr. King has earned the respect and confidence of its citizens and has been given a prosperous welcome in his commei'cial activities. He was married to Mary 0. Hunter, in 1891. She is the daughter of Thomas Hunter, who for twenty years, was section foreman at Mallery, for the Great Northern railroad and now makes his home in Alberta, Canada. Nine children have been born to Mr. King and his wife, Catherine, Nellie, Clara, "William, who is associated with his father in the hardware business, John, Mary, Hazel, Edward and Estelle. The two oldest daughters, Catherine King and Nellie King are graduates of the high school at Warren and of the State Normal school and are both employed as teachers in the schools of Polk county, the latter being the principal of the high school at Euclid. The third daughter Clara is bookkeeper and secretary of the firm 's accounts.

John Remick

Jolm Remick, one of the progressive and prosperous farmers of Grove Park township, this county, is practically a self-made man in the best sense of the term, as he has made his advancement in life wholly by his own efforts, unaided by the favors of fortune or propitious circimistances. Every step of his progress has been planned and worked out by himself, and none that he has taken has ever been retraced because he was unable to hold his ground.

daughters. He grew to the age of nineteen on his father's farm in Rice county and obtained his education at the country school in the neighborhood. In 1890 he came to Polk county, and here he has ever since resided. For a while after his arrival in this county he lived with his sister Mary, who is the wife of Charles Damann, and worked out on farms in the vicinity. He then rented land and farmed on his own account as a tenant until 1894, when he bought 160 acres of land in section 3, Grove Park township, on which he has since maintained his home.

is in an improved condition, under systematic cultivation and yielding excellent returns for the labor and skill he expends upon it. He has erected attractive and comfortable buildings, making his place one of the desirable rural homes in his township, lie follows general farming and does it in an intelligent and progressive way, making all of his industry tell to his advantage, and add, also, to the attractiveness and prosperity of the township.

Canada, October 12, 1875, a daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth Christine (Charien) Quesnel, also natives of Canada. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Mrs. Remick was the fourth in the order of birth. She and her husband have five children, Viola, Lloyd, Herbert, Robert and Roy. ilr. Remick has taken an active part in the public affairs of his township and filled several of its important public ofiSces, as a member of the township board, with credit to himself and benefit to the township. He and his wife are members of the Catholic church.

John E. Tice

John B. Tiee, a prominent farmer of Grove Park township, was born near Niagara Falls, Ontario, December 23, 1856, and came to the United States and to St. Paul October 29, 1878. For two years he was employed in farm labor in Ottertail county and in April, 1880, filed on his Polk county homestead, in section twenty-eight of Grove Park township. In the following spring he suffered the loss of his farm house, the erection of which had required the investment of his entire capital and he was compelled to build up his finances in other occupation for a time. He worked in the harvest fields and became foreman in the brickyard at Crookston, 1881, where he directed the manufacture of the material used in the First National bank building. In 1882 he went to Fergus Falls and for two years was foi-eman of the brickyard there, some of the output being used in the construction of the Grand Hotel. Since then he has devoted his attention to his farm which in the original tract consisted of px-airie and timber laud. lie has now added sixty acres to his homestead and lias one hundred and forty acres in cultivation. This is one of the most prosperous estates of the community and a notable example of the thrift and enterprise of tlie farming population of Polk county who have advanced the general welfare of the r^on to its present high standard of development. Mr. Tice engages in grain and stock farming and as a dairy farmer is a patron of the cooperative creamery at Mentor. Although he was not present at the first election held in the township, being employed at brick making in its season, he has always been prominently associated with the direction and promotion of public interests and a foi'ceful supporter of any project which tended to the welfare of the community. As a pioneer of the section he recalls the significance and associations of the naming of the township and town, the first receiving its name from the many groves which dotted its territory and the postoffice town having been named Mentor by Mrs. E. E. Abbott in honor of President Garfield 's home. Mr. Tice is a member of the Democratic party and has ever been interested in political activities and was allied with the Farmers Alliance and Peoples party of earlier days. His official service has been almost continuous, in the various offices, as treasurer for 19 years, justice of peace 2 yeare,. and as a member of the township board, being chairman of that body for seven years, and as a member of the school board. He is now president of the school board of Mentor. In business enterprise, he is associated with the cooperative elevator creamery and store as a shareholder. Mr. Tiee has been a member of the Modern Woodmen of America for many years and wa-s one of the organizers of the Episcopal church at Mentor and has since served its interests. He was married in Fergus Falls, July 3, 1883, to

Louise Kenline, a native of Dubuque, Iowa. Eight children have been born to this union, Essica, formerly a teacher in Polk county schools and now the wife of Albert Strand, of Staples, Minnesota ; Frankie ; Elwood, associated with the mercantile interests of Reed's Store at Black Duck, Minnesota, for six years; Dorothy ; Anna, a student in the Mentor high school ; Joyce, who is attending high school at Crookston ; Robert and Elaine, attending the Mentor school. Frankie

Tice and Dorothy Tice have both been employed in the Polk county schools. The former who has taught ten yeai's continues to teach near East Grand Forks, while the latter, a teacher of four years, is a student in the business college at Crookston. The Tice home is an attractive residence and is situated but a short distance from Mentor, as the farm is partly within the village boundaries.

Lewis E. Larson

Lewis E. Larson, a well known farmer and early settler of Esther township, has been a resident of Minnesota since he was a lad of ten years, when he came with his parents to Vemon county. He was born in Norway, in November, 1852, the son of Erick and Caroline Larson, who after living for several years in Vemon county, settled in Chippewa county, where the latter is still living, having survived the death of her husband some fourteen years. Lewis Larson grew to manhood in Chippewa county, working at farm work and in the winters was employed in the pineries of Wisconsin and during the years spent as a lumber man made a number of log drives down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers to Hannibal, Missouri, St. Louis and other river ports. In the spring of 1877, in company with James Peterson, he traveled through Dakota with the intention of securing farm land but Minnesota became their choice and they secured land in Polk county where they have since remained neighbors. Mr. Larson's homestead was in section thirty of Northland township, along the JIarais river and he made his home in a log house ou that tract for several years meanwhile purchasing eighty acres of school land, bordering the river and a quarter section of railroad land in section thii-ty-one of Northland township. After six years he moved on the school land and this place has since been his home. On coming to Polk county, he possessed a small capital and a team of horses and during the first season put some fifteen acres under cultivation which yielded him a good crop and that fall, in company with his brotherin-law, James Peterson, with whom he had formerly been tissociated in the threshing business, he journeyed back to Chippewa county, where they invested in a threshing machine, which they operated that season near Climax, in Polk county. In the following fall they transferred their activities to the Marais river and to ten-itory in Dakota. Their machine was the first to be brought north of Grand Forks and after selling this, some years later they bought a steam thresher and continued in partnership for some time. Mr. Larson has met with success in his agricultural interests and has built up a fine farm property which he devotes mainly to the raising of gi'ain. He also is interested in stock and dairy farming and breeds a fine grade of Short Horn cattle. Ajs a pioneer citizen he was identified with the early organization of Esther and Higdem townships and was a member of the first township board and has continued to give efflcient service as a member of that body ever since, serving for many years as chairman. His influence has ever been prominent in matters of public betterment and he has been especially active in the interests of educational movements and the public school system. He has always been a loyal supporter of the Grand Marais Lutheran church and was one of the original members of that organization. Of his family, two sisters lived in Polk county and a brother, Andrew Larson resides at Oslo, Minnesota. The sisters were Carrie Larson, the wife of Erick Peterson of Northland township and

Severina Larson who married Ole Bosgai'd and lived iu Esther township. Both are now dead. Lewis Larson was married in Chippewa county, to Agnes Peterson, a sister of James Peterson, and a native of Sweden. Five children were boi'n to this union, Adolph, of East Grand Forks; Annie, who died at the age of nineteen, a few months after her marriage to Peter Baker of Goodhue county; Aretrander, who lives on the home place; Julius, who resides iu East Grand Forks, and Amanda, the wife of Oscar Steele, a mail carrier on an East Grand Forks route. The death of Mrs. Larson occurred eleven yeara after their marriage and in 1889, Mr. Larson contracted a second union with Anna Dalberg, who is a native of Sweden and they have four children, Elmer, who is a graduate of Aaker's business college at Grand Forks, Wilhelm, Elvin and Rudolph. After twenty-six years union, the latter Mrs. Larson died on December 6, 1915. Mr. Larson is still on the farm.

Charles W. Wilder

Since March 15, 1899, Charles W. Wilder, of Crookston township, has been a resident of Polk county, and during nearly all of the time has been engaged iu market gardening on a large scale and the leader in that industiy in this part of Minnesota. He has also been carrying on general farming operations for a number of years on three diiferent farms which he owns and has cultivated under his direct personal supervision and control. He was not the pioneer in the market gardening line but has been very successful in it, having the best years of the trade at his command during the activity of the big lumbering mill iu Crookston, which is now dismantled. His success in the business has led to active competition, but he is still the leader in the particular line which he started in this locality.

Mr. Wilder was born and reared in the province of Ontario, Canada, and in 1883 went to Dickey county, North Dakota, and took up a pre-emption and a tree claim. He lived on these claims sixteen years and was engaged in raising grain. When he went to North Dakota he had no capital, and was one of the first settlers on the prairie in what is now Dickey county. The prairie was then covered with buffalo in that region, and the soil is strewn with their bones, for thoy were slaughtered with relentless extravagance.

On his arrival in this county, with $2,500 in cash as his capital, Mr. Wilder began operations as a market gardener on 34 acres of land. He raised vegetables and small fruits for sale and disposed of them at houses and stores in Crookston. He put up a hothouse of fair proportions to which he added others as his trade increased. From time to time he bought additional land, and he now owns and cultivates his home farm of 164 acres in Section 32, Crookston township, and another river farm of 160 acres and one of 40 acres on the prairie in Section 33, Fairfax township. For some of this land he paid $50 an acre, but he has made good use of it and rendered it far more valuable. He also erected all the buildings on liis farms, expending in doing so upwards of $5,000.

In his truck gardening Mr. Wilder has about 40 acres devoted to raising potatoes and 15 in tomatoes and sweet corn, onions, cabbage, etc., regularly with other products in proportion. He employs several persons in carrying on his woi'k and uses modern machinery of the most approved models. He also conducts a general farming industry principally devoted to raising grain, and lias averaged 38 bushels of wheat to the acre on a tract of 15 acres, and reached averages almost as high on other tracts from year to j^ear.

Mr. Wilder was married while living in Dickey county. North Dakota, to Miss Lillian Coddington, a native of the state of New York. They have four children : Florence Elizabeth, who was graduated from the Crookston high school and taught school in Polk county three years, one of them in the town of Beltrami, and is now the wife of J. D. Dewar, of

Hammond township ; Jessie H., who is also a graduate of the Crookston high school and was a Polk county teacher, and is now the wife of F. R. Hedley, of Faii"- fax township ; Jay E., who is a graduate of the Agricultural College at Crookston, and Harvey A. Mrs. Wilder is a member of the Andover-Fairfax Social club and takes an active part in its proceedings and is zealous in promoting its welfare. Mr. Wilder has sei-ved as treasurer of the township board and also as a member of the school board while living in North Dakota. His home farm is located just one mile east of the center of Crookston and is one of the best in Crookston township.

Anthon Lindem

Anthon Lindem, a prominent farmer of Bygland township and an ex-county commissioner, came to Polk countj^ in 1878, from Buffalo county, Wisconsin. He was born in Noi'way, September 11, 1855, the son of Arund and Maren Christine Lindem, who located in Buffalo county in 1868, and there Anthon Lindem grew to manhood, receiving his education in the common schools of that count}'. He assisted in the development of the pioneer farm, working for his parents and then thriftily extending his operations to those of a labor contractor, hiring men to clear and break tracts of farm land and also handling town contracts for road building. This proved a profitable venture and in 1878 he came to Polk county, where a friend Peter Anderson had settled some years previous. Mr. Lindem secured a tree claim in Russia township and resumed his former occupation of breaking new land and during the first summer experienced the inconveniences of frontier life, securing feed for his two teams with great difficulty and at the expense of a troublesome and tedious journey. In the fall of the same year he disposed of his land and removed to Bygland township, taking a homestead of eighty acres in section twenty-two which he later increased to a quarter section, and later by purchase increased to 241 acres. His first house was a frame shaclv and he later moved to the log house which occupied the second tract of land, which remained his home until the erection of the present structure in 1890. He continued to invest in land and has owned various tracts and has made many h^crative transactions in timber lands. He also owns a tract of fruit land in the

Sacramento Valley, California. Although he lias devoted his attention principally to his farm, he was, in company with Peter Wardner, also interested for a time in a store at Big Fork, Itasca county. His son, Martin Lindem, was in charge of this store and both he and his sister, Anna Lindem, are owners of land in that county. For many years, Mr. Lindem confined his agi-icultural activities to the raising of grain but has latterly turned more attention to stock farming, breeding Short Horn cattle for dairying and )narketiug purposes. Botli from natural location and impi-oved equipment his farm ranks among the finest of this region and attests to its owner's progressive methods and business ability. As a public spirited citizen and public servant, Mr. Lindem has given efficient service in various township offices and has been actively associated with educational matters as clerk of the school board for man_y years. In 1891 he was elected county commissioner and held this office for eight years, during which time, in company with his associates, M. E. Kirsch, of Crookston, and A. C. Reinhart, of East Grand Forks, he was identified with the erection of the county jail building and other important public improvements. He is a member of the Republican party but does not pledge himself to any political powers, pi'eferring to maintain the independence of his opinions. He was married in 1882, in Buffalo count}', Wisconsin, to Christine Thompson, who is a native of that state. They have a family of five children, Anna, who was educated in the University of North Dakota and is a Polk county teacher; Martin, who was in charge of the store in

Itasca count}' for some years and is now fitting himself for the medical profession, in the University of North Dakota; Alfred, who was also a student at Grand Forks and is now managing liis father's farm; graduating from Concordia college, at Jloorhead, Minnesota, and Selma, a member of the sophmore class of the Grand Forks high school. Mr. Lindem and his family are all active members of the United Lutheran

James Driscoll

James DriscoU, successful farmer of Huntsville township and a county commissioner, was born in County Lanark, Ontario, May 1, 1860, the sou of James and Johannah (O'Hearn) Driscoll, natives of Ireland, the former from County Cork and his wife from County Kerry. They came to Polk county from Canada in 1879 and the father bought railroad land in Sullivan township, four mile and a lialf from East Grand Forks, on the Grand Marais. Two sons, Michael Driscoll and John Driscoll, had preceded him the year previous and had secured homestead claims. The father became a prosperous farmer of that region, operating an estate of four hundred and eighty acres. He lived to an advanced age and died March 9, 1894, his wife surviving him until 1912. Of the family of five sons, all were farmers in Polk county. The death of the eldest, John Driscoll, a resident of Sullivan township occurred September 24, 1907. Michael Driscoll, Jerry Driscoll and Thomas Driscoll are farmers in the same township, the latter being the present owner of his father's farm. James Driscoll and the members of his family were all eonununicants of the Sacred Heart church at East Grand Forks. The subject of our sketch has resided in this county since his youth and for a number of years was associated with two of his brothers in the operation of the home farm. In 1891 he purchased tlie south lialf of section nine of Huntsville lownslii]) and entered upon bis independent career. This tract has continued to be his home, although he has extended its boundaries to include five hundred and eighty acres and also owns a quarter section on the Grand Marias, some two miles distant. The home farm is located four miles southeast of East Grand Forks and includes the former homestead of Z. M. Hunt, in whose honor the township was named. Mr. Driscoll is one of the progressive and enterprising agriculturists of the county and has l)uilt up a prosperous model estate in a justly famed farming community. Aside from his large operations as a grain farmer he is extensivel.y interested in stock raising and also keeps a herd of dair,y cattle. His place is stocked with Ilolstein and Short Horn cattle and he devotes a quarter section to pasturage use. His farm is equipped with good building and modern facilities for efficient farming. Not only in his private interests but as a citizen, Mr. Driscoll stands for progress and the best interests. He has given able .services in public office and has been honored with various local offices of the township, serving as supervisor and chairman of the township board and has ever exercised his influence for tlie development of the country's resources through drainage and good roads projects. He was appointed county commissioner as tlie successor of his brother, John Driscoll, whose death occurred during the third year of his term and at tlie next election, his appointment was endorsed at the polls and he was again returned to office in 1912. Mr. Driscoll is a member of the Republican party. His marriage to Anna Sullivan was solemnized November 23, 1891. She is a native of County Lanark, Ontario, the daughter of Maurice and Anna (Cunningham) Sullivan, of East Grand Forks. i\Iaurice Sullivan is a brother of Tim Sullivan, an eminent citizen of this county, and came to Minnesota when his daughter, Anna, was a small child. Mr. Driscoll and his wife have nine children : James, Lillian, Alda, a graduate of the normal school at East Grand Forka and a teacher in the school at Melville;

Edna, a student in St. Marys Academj' at Milwaukee ; Louise, who is attending high school at East Grand Forks; Leonard, Charles, Mary and Ruth Frances.

William Henry Bailey

William Henry Bailey, a prominent farmer of Knute township, was born in Winnabago county, Wisconsin, July 5, 1855. His parents were of English nativity and were married in Wisconsin. After the death of his father, his mother became the wife of William Rostron and was a resident of Crookston in the early eighties. William H. Bailey came to Crookston in 1880 and has shared in tlie activities incident to the rapidly developing prosperity of Polk county, as a public spirited citizen and successful farmer. In his youth he was appi-entieed to the mason trade and when twenty years of age, went to Michigan, where he was employed for a time and later removed to Iowa. He made the trip to Crookston in an open buggy and made his home there for years, having secured a position with the Great Northern railroad as fireman and brakeman. Being temporarily disabled for railroad work through an injury received in coupling cars, he decided to turn his attention to fanning and without inspecting the land which was to be his future home, filed on a homestead on Section 19 in Knute township. He continued his employment with the railroad for a few years and then devoted his efforts to his farming enterprise and has resided on his place since January 8, 1884. During the first years, limited financial resources and the inconveniences of the sparsely settled and undeveloped frontier country added their share to the hardships which confront the pioneer farmer. Crookston, thirty-five miles distant acro.ss countrj', was the nearest railway station and the most accessible trading point was at Maple Bay, and this ten mile trip could not be made with a wagon, making it necessary to pack provisions on foot. For several years he worked at harvesting and at the various employment presented by local conditions, assisting in clearing land and digging wells and cellars and found a further source of revenue in dealing in cord wood, buying the wood for one dollar a cord and selling it in Erskine at a profitable increase. His first house was built of lumber which he hauled from Crookston. After three years he was enabled to purchase a team of oxen and to make rapid progress in the development of his own farm, clearing the land of the heavy timber and building up his present fine property. He has put sixty acres of the homestead under cultivation and has purchased eighty additional acres, all of which is devoted to grain and stock purposes. Like all progressive farmers, he is interested in raising the standard of farm stock and raises blooded animals and also keeps dairy cattle, being a patron of the co-operative creamery at Erskine, in which he is a stockholder. Mr. Bailey has never been an active worker in political circles but in the interests of the community has senred as justice of peace and on the school board and has ever been influential in behalf of the general welfare and progress. In all activities of life, he has displayed the capable and intelligent management and enterprise, which have marked his highly efficient accomplishments as farmer and citizen. His estate is equipped with modern buildings, the house having been erected in 1911 and commands a fine panorama of Lake Sarah, one of Polk county's most beautifully wooded lakes and popular resorts. In 1915 Mr. Bailey made a valuable addition to his attractive residence in the installation of a carbide lighting plant, a material advance in the conveniences of the modem country home and the first innovation of the sort to be made in the Thirteen Towns. The plant is also utilized in lighting the bam. Mr. Bailey enjoys hunting and recalls the experiences of the earlier days when the large game visited this section and he shot bear and deer upon his own land. He was mar-

Hans P. Solstad

Hans P. Solstad, one of the pioneer Norwegian Lutheran pastors of the Red River valley, was the first preacher of the Norwegian Synod church to minister to congregations of that denomination in Polk county. After about seven years work in the ministry he was compelled by failing health to retire from active pastoral labor and has since resided on his homestead in Bygland township.

Reverend Solstad was born in Hapedalen, near Christiania, Norway, August 15, 1843, he was educated in the public schools and gi'ew to manhood in his native land. At eighteen years of age he entered the military service of Norway and served for five years in the artillery corps stationed at Christiania. At the end of his military service he decided to emigrate to the United States. In July, 1866, he arrived at Albert Lea, Minnesota. He at once secured work. From 1866 to 1869, he worked as a farm laborer, on railroad work, and in a machine shop, all the time in the southern part of the state.

In 1869 he entered Luther College at Decorah, Iowa, as a student in the normal course, graduating from that course three years later. He then taught parochial school for one year in congregations near Albert Lea. Several of his friends working as ministers had for several years been encouraging him to take up the study of theology preparatory to entering the field as a minister of the gospel to his Norwegian American countrymen. This also became his choice for a calling and accordingly in 1873 he enrolled as a student in the Concordia Theological Seminary of St. Louis, Missouri. This institution had at that time the great German Lutheran theologian Dr. C. F. Walther as its president. After two years of study at St. Louis i\Ir. Solstad was transferred to

After his graduation he received through tlie Church Council of the Norwegian Synod a call from three recently organized frontier congregations in Polk county, Minnesota, and one in Grand Forks, North Dakota..

In July, 1876, he was ordained with five other young men for the ministry by President, Rt. Rev. H. A. Preus in the Washington Prairie church, near Decorah, Iowa. In the fall of 1876 he came west to take charge of his call: The Bygland, congregation in Bygland township ; Our Saviours, at Crookston ; St. Peters, on the Sand Hill river and Walle, in Grand Forks county. North Dakota. These congregations were organized about two years previous by Rev. B. Harstad, of Mayville, North Dakota, who had temporarily under great difficulties and hardships ministered to their spiritual needs. The Bygland congregation had begun the erection of a log church in 1876. The other congregations had no .special building for worship. Services were held in the sod houses and log cabins of the early settlers. In some of the congregations served by Rev. Solstad the beautiful custom prevailed that the family at whose house sei*vices were held very hospitably entertained the whole gathering for dinner.

Rev. Solstad made his home in Bj'gland township. He received no definite salaiy from his congregations. In those early days of struggle and hardships no one had much to give. What the members of his congregations had to give, they gave gladly and generously towards the support of the pastor and his family.

summer members of the Bygland church hauled oak logs to the claim and the minister got the house built with the aid of the congregation and moved his family into it. In those early years what he could raise on the farm was a necessai*y supplement to the financial assistance his parishioners were able to make towards his living expenses.

Rev. Solstad cheerfully cast his fortune with his people, dedicating himself to the advancement of his blaster's work and laboring shoulder to shoulder with the settlers for the upbuilding of the best in community life. Besides his congregations he was assigned to minister to the spiritual needs of the scattered Norwegian settlers on both sides of the Red river extending north to the Canadian boundary.

In performing his pastoral duties he endured all the hardships of the early days, of no roads and bridges and the settlers few and far between. Ilis mission field included aboiit one hundred miles of territory. The first year he traveled on horseback, in summer crossing streams in a canoe and swimming his horse across. Rev. Solstad organized four new congregations and did the first church work at many other places where since flourishing churches of his faith have grown up. But the many arduous demands and strenuous exertions of the work told upon his strength and after seven years of ministration failing health required his retirement. Since that time he has engaged in farming on his homestead which is located on section twenty-two, Bygland township. A son, Alfred Solstad, is associated with him in working the farm.

Mr. Solstad was married in Freeborn count}', Minnesota, in 1876, to Annie Marie Hanson, who was educated at St. Olaf College at Northfield. Six children were born to them : Joseph, Peter, Martin, Alfred, Tiedmand and Albertina. The latter died in infancy and Mr. and Mrs. Solstad adopted a daughter Elena, who is now Mrs. Joel Ohnstad of Montfort, Wisconsin. Joseph, Peter and Martin were employed for several years as teachers in public schools in Minnesota and North Dakota. Martin and Tiedmand are now engaged in the mercantile business at Lang, Saskatchewan, while Joseph is superintendent of Rheinhardt's Sheet Metal Works at Grand Forks. Peter has also followed a mercantile career and is located at Eld red, Minnesota.

Rev. Solstad is one of the oldest living settlers of the valley. He has many memories of the early years - of their struggles, disappointments and hardships, and treasured, deai'ly - memories of the friendships, joys and prosperity the yeare brought him ; and he is deeply grateful that his life was cast among the people in this of the-Lord-richly-blessed, Red River valley.

Francis Marion Slyter

If he who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a public benefactor, much more is the man who starts a new enterprise in a community, the development of which leads to increased prosperity and comfort for hundreds and greatly augments tlie industrial and commercial importance of the community, entitled to this distincion and large credit for fruitful enterprise. Francis Marion Slyter, an extensive and progressive farmer of Andover township, has earned the right to such consideration. Wlien in 1912 he located on the farm which he still occupies there were not twenty-five dairy cows within six miles. Now there are nearly ten hundred in the same territory, and the business is a source of great wealth and progress. Mr. Slyter brought ten cows and began making butter for sale, others having since followed his example with excellent results.

Francis M. Slyter was born in Grundy county, Illinois, January 16, 1853. He moved to Benton county, Indiana, in 1872, and lived there nineteen yeai*s. In 1894 he changed his residence to Kossuth county, Iowa, where he bought a farm of 240 acres, which he sold in 1901 for more than double its cost. His two sons, L. E. and D. S. Slyter, had bought 160 acres of Polk county land in Fairfax township, four miles southeast of Crookston, and their father came to visit them and take a look at their purchase, hut with no intention to make one himself. The county proved so attractive, however, that he soon made a selection of his present farm purchasing at a cost of $27.50 an acre. It comprises 320 acres and was then almost wholly unimproved. He has expended about $5,000 in substantial and lasting improvements, and has the land well drained and all under cultivation and yielding excellent crops.

Mr. Slyter's place is the north half of section 25, Andover township, and lies four miles south of Crookston. It is devoted principally to raising oats and barley and raising and feeding cattle, the strain prefei-red being the Shorthorn breed. He has an artesian well 227 feet deep, which furnishes an abundant supply of excellent soft water for all purposes. His grain crop in 1915 amounted to some 7,000 bushels, and the yield per acre has been fair for years. He feeds regularly about 20 head of cattle and milks seven cows. Almost immediately after coming he began to set out some fruit trees and practically all tlie small fruits, including gi'apes, his success with them having been very gratifying.

Mr. Slyter had $6,000 in cash, live stock and some portions of a farm equipment. These combined with iudustiy, good management and up-to-date farming methods he has wrought out results that are in the highest degree satisfactory. His land was at first overrun with wild growths destructive of regular crops, lie follows a judicious system of crop rotation, thus keeping the land in prime condition. In 1913 his profits totaled $3,300 and in 1915 they reached $3,700. He has refused offers of nearly $75 an acre for his fann and discouraged all attempts to get him to sell.

Mr. Slyter was married in Grundy county, Illinois, in 1870, to Miss Anna E. Steep, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. They have five children ; Lewis Edward, who lives at Red Lake Falls, Minnesota; Derwin Sheridan, a farmer near Akron, Colorado; Ada Helen, the wife of J. F. McAdams, of Sioux City, Iowa; Clai'a Belle, the wife of Ray Murphy, of Chariton, Iowa, and Irene Winifred, the wife of Walter Mergan, of Andover township. During the last few years Mr. Slyter has been a member of the school board and he is now also supervisor of the township. He is a Republican in political alliance and a Presbyterian in j-eligious affiliation, membership being in Crookston.

Heurick Johanson

This progressive and prosperous farmer of Higdem township, this county, proprietor of the Valley Home farm, fifteen miles north and one west of Grand Forks and seven miles southeast of Oslo, has demonstrated iu his career in this locality the value of persistency and determination when conditions are discouraging. He was born in Sweden May 3, 1856, and came to tlie United States in June, 1879, locating in Renville county, Minnesota, where one of his sisters was then living. He still o^ved for his transportation from his native land when he arrived in this state, but he worked at his trade of shoemaking in the different homes around him, making shoes for whole families, also did farm work and was employed one Avinter in a shoe shop at Sacred Heart in Renville county, and so got a start after having devoted all his earnings to helping his parents before leaving home.

On May 8, 1880, Mr. Johanson filed on his first quarter section of land, Carl Krinersberg having come to this county with him. His location was in Section 24, Higdem township, and the next fall he built a dwelling on it, borrowing some of the money needed for the purpose as he had paid part of the passage nioney for one of his parents and a brother. His dwelling was a little log house the logs for which he had to bring from Snake river four miles cast of his home. For some time he cut cord wood in the winter and worked on railroad grading in tlie summer, hiring a mau to break and cultivate his land. lu the spring of 1883 he bought a yoke of oxen and rented a piece of land in order to get a crop. The laud was wet and tlie crop was poor, and the next year the frost injm-ed his graiu and it brought a low price. Many settlers left the neighborhood at this time but he determined to remain, and in a short time he began to prosper.

As soon as he was able he bought forty acres of railroad land at $6 an acre, and a little later another tract of forty acres at $10 an acre and still later forty acres more for which he paid $32.50 an acre. He also began to buy young cattle, but butter was only six cents a pound and eggs six cents a dozen, so he could not make much of his venture in this direction. His farm now comprises 280 acres and is registered on the county records as "Valley Home Farm" in English, "Dalhem" in Swedish. It has a fine grove or windbreak planted by Mr. Johanson in 1896, and the .judicial ditch, No. 1, through Polk and Marshall and into Pennington and Red Lake counties, forming an outlet from Snake to Red river, passes his farm on the

Mr. Johanson was married in 1886 to Miss Eliu Johanson, whom he knew in Sweden, her native land, and who came to this country to become his wife. They have four children : Elin, who is a senior in the Duluth Normal school and has been a teacher in Polk and Marshall counties; Hjalmar, Hilma and David, who are living at home. The members of the family hold membership in the Swedish Mission church. In relation to public affairs Mr. Johanson is independent, striving always to give his support to the candidates best qualified for the offices they seek. He is now in his twenty-fifth year of continuous service as township assessor, an office he does not desire but continues to fill from a sense of duty, and has been chairman of the school board for nineteen or twenty successive years, also one year town supervisor, one year road overseer and three years justice of the peace.

George Kronschnabel

Having been a resident of Polk county for thirtyfive years, with the exception of about eighteen months, during which he lived in Winona, Minnesota, and having been in business in Fertile since 1886, and all the time zealous and enterprising in the service of the community in various ways, George Kronschnabel, president of the Fertile Brick and Tile company, has proven himself to be a valuable citizen and a stimulating force for progi'ess among the people of this section, and he is esteemed by them in accordance with the services he has rendered and is still rendering them and his sterling integrity as a man and fidelity and ability as a public official.

Mr. Kronschnabel was born in Cleveland, Ohio, June 14, 1857, the son of George and Mary (Klinghom) Kronschnabel, who moved to Minnesota in 1862 and located in Carver county. The father died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1903, at the age of seventysix years. He operated a sawmill for a number of years in Carver county, and his son George assisted him in the work. He was educated and grew to manhood in Carver county and there learned the trade of tinsmith. This trade was his regular occupation for about sixteen years, but other and better opportunities opened before him and he was prompt in embracing them and making them serviceable to his advancement.

In January, 1880, Mr. Kronschnabel became a resident of Polk county, and in 1886 he opened a hardware store at Fertile. He continued in this line of trade until 1898, since which time he has given his attention wholly to the manufacture of brick and tile and the management of his farm of 160 acres in the vicinity of Fertile, except what has been required by his position as director of the First State Bank of Fertile and as president of the village council, which lie also served for a time as treasurer. He was the first president of the eouncil and has oeeupied that office altogether seven years, filling it with ahility and studious attention to the welfare of the community and to its entire satisfaction.

In 1897 Mr. Kronsehnabel started what is now the tile factory as a sand mold brick plant. In 1900 the business was incorporated with him as president of the company, which he has been ever since, and in 1903 the manufacture of tile and hollow blocks was added to the operations of the factor}-. It has a capacity of 40,000 brick a day, or 4,000,000 a year. Mr. Kronsehnabel is the manager of the business as well as president of the company. Brown Duckstad is vice president of the company and E. B. Hanson is secretary and treasurer. The industry is a leader in this part of the state and has an extensive and steadily expanding trade. It is admirably managed and enjoys hearty and widespread popularity, which is based wholly on the excellence of its products and the strict intejn'ity which governs the business.

Mr. Kronsehnabel is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows and the Workmen of the World. He has been a director of the First State Bank of Fertile from its organization, and has taken an earnest and serviceable interest in every worthy undertaking for the good of his home community. On June 27, 1882, he was united in marriage with Miss Sophia Oehler, a native of Rice county, Minnesota. Four children have been born to them, two of whom died in infancy. The two living are Alma O. and George C.

Julius Bradley

Julius Bradley, jiresideut of the Scandia Bank of Erskine and a well known farmer in Knute township, was born in Norway, February 15, 1859. He grew to manhood in his native land and came to the L^nited States in 1881 to seek his fortunes amid the opportunities of the northwest. He possessed no capital but sturdy ambition and iiidustriousness and paid for his passage from his first earnings in the new coimtiy. During the first years he worked in the harvest fields and at other farm labor, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, coming to Northfield, Minnesota, in 1882. In the following year he secured a homestead in the newly opened Thirteen Towns. The payment on his claim demanded all his savings and for a few years he continued to work as a harvester and in other employment. During tlie winter months he was employed in the lumber woods and also worked on the log drives on tlie Clearwater and ^Mississippi rivers. Able and thrifty management soon brought success to his farming operations, which have steadily increased. Mr. Bradley now owns six hundred acres of land in Knute township, which is included in three different farms and loerted in sections tliirtvtwo, twenty-eight, twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-seven. This land is all operated under the direct management of Mr. Bradley and he has put under cultivation some three hundred acres of wild land. Aside from grain farming he engages in the raising of high grade short horn stock and keeps a herd of ten dairy cows. Mr. Bi'adley lias always been active in township affairs and has ably served his fellow citizens as township treasurer and as treasurer of the school district, having held the latter office for many years. He is a member of the Republican party but has never allowed party lines to influence his personal convictions in political questions. Mr. Bradley is further identified with those who have established the agricultural and financial prosperity of Polk county as one of the organizers and the largest stock holder in the Scandia Bank at Erskine. He has been most prominently associated with the direction of this successful institution, having been president, since its incorporation. Mr. Bradley was married in 1886 to Martha Bensen, who came to Minnesota as a child and to Polk county in 1883. They have a family of seven daughters and two sons: Gust; Gina; Bertha; Julia; Ida, who is engaged in the millinery business at Fergus Falls; Anna, a trained nurse and employed in the same town ; Gyda, Joseph and Martha. The Bradley home is four miles south of Erskine, in section twentyeight of Knute township and occupies a delightful location on the shore of a beautiful lake.

Andrew Thoreson

Andrew Thoreson, a well known farmer of Lessor township, is a native of Minnesota, born in Dakota county, March 3, 1861, and has devoted all of his career to the agricultural activities of the northwest, tleveloping wild land and advancing the growth of prosperous farming enterprises. At the age of twenty-one he took a pre-emption claim near Grafton, North Dakota, and lived on that place until 1892, when he came to Polk county, having heard of the merits of this section through relatives who were then living there, and bought the two hundred and forty acres of laud in section twelve of Lessor township, which is his present home, paying about thirteen hundred dollars for the tract, which had no improvements and but a few acres cleared. - He has put some one hundred and forty acres under cultivation and also owns one hundred and twenty acres in section thirty-six of Lambert township, in Red Lake county, about two miles north of the home farm. This latter place is crossed by Hill river and is unusually rich bottom land and devoted to the raising of grain. All of this land has been developed by Mr. Thoreson, who has also been instrumental in securing good roads through that section and a substantial steel bridge on the river. His home farm provides much good pasturage and he engages in stock and dairy farming, raising thoroughbred Short Horn cattle, and is a patron of the Clover Leaf creamery, manufacturers of cheese, a local enterprise operating to the profit and advantage of the farmers of that region. Mr. Thoreson has ever taken an active interest in any project tending to the general welfare and progress and has given able service as a member of the township board and school board. Like many of the settlers of northern Minnesota he is a great enjoyer of out of door sports and participated in the deer hunts which formerly afforded great sport in this country. He was married in 1893 to Julia Sunstahl of Polk county, and they have seven children : Tena, Salma, Bertha, Len, Alpha, Lillie and Alphonso.

Peder K. Espeseth

Peder K. Espeseth, of Badger township, is one of the successful farmers of this region who have notably demonstrated the latent riches of Polk county soil and advanced it to its present prosperous standard as an agricultural community. He was born in Norway, December 27, 1868, and is the son of a well-known pioneer of Badger township, Knute Espeseth. His brother, G. K. Espeseth, president of the State bank of Erskine, is prominently allied with the commercial activities of the county. The Espeseth family came to the United States in 1882, when Peder Espeseth was a lad of fourteen, and after spending a short time in Chippewa county, Minnesota, Knute Espeseth squatted on land in the Thirteen Towns, awaiting its re-opening for settlement. A nephew, Gilbert Espeseth, and Mr. Evanson accompanied him to Polk county and also chose locations. On the opening of the land in 1883 he filed on his homestead, which is the present home of Peder Espeseth, in section three of Badger township. Knute Espeseth devoted his life to the development of his land and died there in 1906, the death of his wife occurring in the same year. Peder Espeseth 's life has been spent on this homestead, which, in his youth, he assisted his father to elear of timber and break for farming. During the later years of his father's life he assumed entire direction of the place and since his death has become the owner of the three hundred and sixty acres, which includes the homestead and part of a half section, which they purchased iu partnership as partially improved land. The first home, a long house, was replaced by Knute Espeseth with a modern structure, and he also erected the good barns which now occupy the estate. Peder Espeseth applies the most progressive and enterprising methods to his farming interests and has met with marked success in all his activities. He has two hundred acres in cultivation for grain and harvests an annual crop of some 3,500 bushels, but does not give his entire attention to this phase, utilizing the balance of his fertile acres for his extensive operations as a stock man. He keeps a large herd of Short Horn cattle, is a breeder of

Percherou horses, and raises sheep and hogs, selling two carloads of stock each year. He also has fifteen dairy cows and is a patroa and stockholder in the co-operative creamery at Erskiue. Mr. Espeseth 's prosperous and busy farm exhibits the results of careful management and intelligent study of the farm business, in its adequate equipment and efficiency and profitable operations. In his barn is to be found modern improvements for the feeding and watering of stock, and to facilitate the routine farm work. Mr. Espeseth is a stockholder in the First State bank at Erskine. He was niaD'ied in IIUO to Gina Rud, who is the daughter of Jorgen Rud, a farmer in Garden township, near Fertile. They have two children, Mildred and Clarence. Mr. Espeseth and his wife are members of the Saron United Lutheran church, of which his parents were original members.

Frank 0. Johnson

Frank 0. Johnson, a well known farmer of Lessor township, is a native of Sweden, born December 29, 1861. Since coming to Polk county he has been engaged in successful farming operations and has been actively associated with all phases of public development. Mr. Johnson came to the United States, as a young man, in 1880 and spent four years working on a stock farm in Yellow Medicine county, Minnesota. Industry and ambition led to successful retrenchment of his wages and he was enabled to send pa.ssage money to his parents, that they, with the other members of the family, might join him in his new life. In 1883 his father, J. H. Johnson, secured a homestead claim in section six of King township, and in the following year Frank Johnson purchased two yoke of oxen and conveyed his mother and family to the Polk county home. The purchase of the oxen and the outfitting of the family in their new quarters exhausted his funds, and before embarking upon his own farming enterprise he was compelled to return to his former employment that he might accumulate the necessary capital. In a year or so his thrifty endeavors provided him funds to attain his ambition, and in 1885 he returned to Polk county and filed on a homestead in section twenty-seven of Lessor township, about three and one-half miles north of Mcintosh. His parents remained on their farm for several years and now reside in Mcintosh. Frank Johnson erected a small log shack and barn and entered upon laborious tasks of the pioneer farmer. The years of labor and able management have developed a prosperous farming property and some eighty acres have been cleared of timber and put under cultivation. The present house was erected in 1900 of spruce and tamarack logs which were hauled from Gully, twenty miles distant, and in the following year a good barn was built. The house has since been converted in outward appearance to a modem ft-ame home. Mr. Johnson also owns a quarter section in section nine- teen, Lessor township, four miles from the home farm, which he utilizes as hay and pasture land, engaging quite extensively in stock farming and raising Short Horn and Red Polled cattle. Throughout the many years of his citizenship Mr. Johnson has been identified with the public activities of the community and has been honored with the various local offices of public trust, serving for many years on the township board and for twenty years as treasurer of the school board, but perhaps his most notable service to public progress has been as road boss and supervisor, an office which he has held off and on since 1885 and in which capacity he has directed the construction of many roads in the township. He was identified with the movement which instigated the building of the first church by a Swedish congregation. This edifice was erected of logs and stood until 1915, although the congregation had been for some time disbanded. Mr. Johnson has spent two years in Canada, where he held a claim for his son and also invested in a half section of land near the Lake of the Woods. Mr. Johnson has been twice married ; his first wife, Bena Hanson, of Chippewa county, Minnesota, to whom he was married in 1886, died in the following year. In 1889 he was married to Hannah Sjoden, like her husband, a native of Sweden, who came to Winnipeg as a young girl and later visited her sister, Mrs. J. E. Carlson. To his second union were bom seven children : Henry, Bannard, Fred E. and Arthur, who are located on land at the Lake of the Woods, Canada; William, Hilmer and Olive.

James I. Peterson

James I. Peterson, a pioneer farmer of Grand Forks township, was born in Sweden, July 24, 1853, and came to the United States with his parents in 1869, when sixteen years of age. After locating for a short time at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, they removed to Goodhue county, Minnesota, and later to Renville coxinty, where James Peterson secured a homestead of eighty acres. After several years there, in company with Louis Larson, with whom he had been associated in the operation of a threshing machine, he traveled farther west looking for land and after driving through Dakota, located on a pre-emption claim in Polk county. In May, 1877, he was married to Hannah Larson, born in Christiania, Norway, June 26, 1858, at the same time his two sisters were united in marriage, Agnes Peterson to Louis Larson and Emma Peterson to Andrew Norleen, and the three couples immediately set out to find homes in the western part of the state. Mr. Peterson and Mr. Larson located in Polk county and there Mr. Norleen joined them later and for a number of years has made his home at Winger. Mr. Peterson settled on his land in Grand Forks township in June, 1877, and with a few dollars and the thrifty ambition which Avas the usual capital of the pioneer entered upon the arduous and often discouraging task of developing a profitable farming enterprise. Buying out the right of a settler on a tree claim, he filed on the claim himself and here set out six acres of box elders, which now presents one of the most attractive sights in the county and is one of the finest groves in the northwest. During the first summer he broke some eight acres of land and in the winter was compelled to seek employment in the lumber woods near Brainerd, Minnesota, but this proved an unfortunate year for lumber work and his months of labor brought him little financial advance. Thereafter he devoted his efforts to his land which has since brought him steadily increasing prosperity with the exception of two years when the crops were destroyed by hail stonns. He resumed his partnership with Mr. Larson in a threshing outfit and they enjoyed a large patronage among neighboring farmers for a number of years. His first agricultural activities were devoted entirely to the raising of grain, but of recent years his interest has included stock and daii-y farming. His first home was a log cabin on the pre-emption claim, where he also erected his second house. In 1897 he built his present home on the tract secured as a tree claim. This is in section two of Grand Forks township and five miles north of East Grand Forks. Mr. Peterson has ever been actively identified with the best interests and local development and has served as township supervisor and as one of the first directors on the school board, ably jiromoted the establishment of the present eflScient school system. He is a member of the Grand Marais Lutheran church, which was erected on his land which he donated for the pur- I)ose and of which he continues to be a faithful supporter. Mr. Peterson and his wife have five children, Emma, the wife of Thorjus Morken, of Thief River Falls ; Arthur, who also resides in Thief River Falls; AValter, Clarence and Oscar, who reside at home.

This now prosperous and well conditioned farmer has reached his estate of worldly comfort and independence through much tribulation, but he has never lost his nerve or spared his efforts to advance his interests, and in spite of his adversities and serious losses he has made steady progress by reason of his persistent and wisely directed industry and good management. He was bom in Norway, November 17, 1851, and came to the United States in 1871, locating at Spring Grove, Houston county, Minnesota. He did grading work on the railroads and followed farming for a few years, but lost his crops by the ravages of chinch bugs. In spite of this disaster, however, he managed to save $200, and then made jaunts about the country looking it over with a view to selecting a permanent location.

In the spring of 1876 his money was all gone, and he came to Polk county. One year later, 1877, his sister, Mrs. 0. 0. Hoff, came and homesteaded a quarter section joining Mr. Ilagen. Soon after his arrival in this county he pre-empted eighty acres of his present home and took up eighty more as a homestead. He located on that land in the spring of 1876, being the first man to settle on the prairie in what is now Grand Forks township, his farm being in section twenty-four, two miles north of East Grand Forks, and his dwelling house on this farm being one of the best in the county of its class and size. His first house was a little log shack twelve feet square, with a straw and sod roof. Yet poor as this was its

After the loss of the little shack ilr. Ilagen built a larger and more pretentious log house, which was about the best one in that part of the county for years. It was long used as a church alternately with the residence of Mrs. A. D. Steele, there being at that time no real church edifice within many miles of this section.

In the course of a little while Jlr. Ilagen obtained a yoke of steers. He bought them wild and then broke them so that he could drive them anywhere. He used the opportunities available to him to break up as much of his land as possible, and in the meantime obtained some work on barges on the Red river, which helped to provide him with the necessaries of life. For a number of years he either kept a bachelor establishment or had a sister keeping house for him, but in 1882 he was married to Miss Dorothy ilidtmoen, a daughter of Ole and Ella Midtmoen, and born in Norway, but brought to this country when she was eight years old. She is a sister of Peter Olson, a sketch of whom will be found in this work.

The first five years of Mrs. Ilagen 's life in this country were passed in Iowa county, "Wisconsin, and at the end of that period she accompanied her parents to this county. Her father had settled on land close to Mr. Hagen's and built a house on it. Then, in 1878, his wife, Dorothy, and her brother Peter, came to the farm where he was. Mr. Hagen met the wife, son and daughter at Fisher's Landing with his ox team and hauled them to the farm. Ilis marriage with Miss Dorothy occurred when she was but seventeen years of age. She was resolute in spirit, always ready to take what came in the way of duty, and for one summer worked out in the employ of Robert Anderson's family. Her father's old homestead is now owned by Andrew Peterson.

Mr. and Mrs. Hagen were mari'ied by I. Thorelson, of Grand Foi'ks, a minister there. By this time he owned horses, and he was more prosperous and making better progress than he had been, but he still lost crops by hail, one storm being so violent that it killed everything he had growing, scattered his stock and forced him to protect his head with his boots, and the hail stones lay in heaps on the ground for hours after falling. Frost also injured his crops frequently. He was early in the field in this section with a threshing outfit, but he was obliged to steer his first engine with teams.

He has been a member of Grand Marais Lutheran church and one of its prominent workers ever since he settled here. He and his wife became the parents of ten children, nine of whom are living: Olof, Thoi-val, Emma, Ode, Bennett, Julia, Ida, Nina and Arthur. They are all at home with their parents yet, the only break in the family circle occurring by the death of a son named Adolph, who died when he was five years old.