Dane County, Wisconsin - The whole text, 1906 (part 1 of 29)

The whole text

Elling B. Aaker is one of the prominent farmers of Dunkirk township, where he owns a well improved landed estate of two hundred acres. Like many others of the leading agriculturists of Dane county, Mr. Aaker is a native of Norway, where he was born May 12, 1837, and he is a son of Botton and Martha (Ellingson) Aaker. who immigrated to America in 1857 and became pioneers of Dane county, settling in Pleasant Springs township, and later removing to Dunkirk township, where they passed the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of seven children, of whom only thrc attained to years of maturity: Julia, who became the wife of Lewis Iverson, is now deceased; Elling B. is the subject of this sketch, and Susan is the wife of Nels Jenson. Elling B. Aaker preceded his parents in immigrating to America, having come in 1856, and having been twenty years of age at the time. He proceeded directly from New York city to Dane county, Wisconsin, and purchased one hundred and twenty-five acres of wild land, in Pleasant Springs township, reclaiming the major portion of the same and there continuing to reside until the spring of 1885, when he sold the property and purchased his present fine homestead, of two hundred acres, in Dunkirk township, being the owner of twenty acres in Pleasant Springs township also. His farm is equipped with good improvements in the matter of buildings and is maintained under effective cultivation. In politics Mr. Aaker is affiliated with the Republican party, and he and his family hold membership in Christ church. Norwegian Lutheran, in the citv of Stoughton. June 13, 18G8, Mr. Aaker was united in marriage to Miss Anne Quale, daughter of Andrew and Christy ( Nelson) Quale, who were natives of Norway and who settled in Pleasant Springs township, this county, in 1858, here passing the residue of their lives. To Mr. and Mrs. Aaker have been born ten children : Andrew and Martha are twins, the latter being now the wife of John Bakke, of Iowa; Ben :s deceased; the next two in order of birth are Carl and Christian; Marie is deceased; Henry is a resident of Stoughton ; Emma is the wife of Ferdinand Rasmussen ; and the two youngest children are Lydia and Caroline.

Herman Aaroen is one of the worthy citizens contributed to Dane county by Scandinavia, a source from which Wisconsin has drawn much of its best citizenship and gained much of its material and civic prosperity. He has for a number of years been numbered among the successful farmers of Blooming Grove township, and has won success and independence through his own efforts,, having come to the new world as a young man without financial means and having worked his way upward through earnest and honest endeavor. Mir. Aaroen was born in Sogendahl, Norway, in August, 1857, and is a son of Johan Ingebret Aaroen and Margaret (Olson) Aaroen, who passed their entire lives in Norway. He received limited educational advantages in his youth, and continued resident of his native land until he had attained the age of twenty-one years, when he immigrated to America, being compelled to borrow, from a friend, sufficient money to pay his passage across the Atlantic. From that time forward he has never received any assistance from extraneous sources, and he is deserving of credit for the determination and worthy effort which have brought to him so marked prosperity within the intervening years. He has been a resident of Blooming Grove township since 1894, and of his original homestead farm he now retains twenty-five acres, to which he devotes his attention as a general farmer. On the place he has made good improvements, and he is also the owner of a nice residence property in the neighboring village of McFarland. where he expects to take up his abode eventually. For some time he did contracting on a small scale, but his principal vocation lias been that of farming. Mr. Aaroen is held in high esteem in his community and is an unassuming and worthy citizen. He gives his support to the Republican party and he and lii - family hold membership in the Norwegian Lutheran church. December 33, 1886, Mr. Aaroen was married to Miss Anna Skogen, daughter of Serum and Maggie (Kleven) Skogen, of Pleasant Spr'ngs township, and following is a record of the names and re- spective dates of birth of the ten children of this union, only one of the number being deceased. Samuel Johan, May 3,' 1887; Martin Olous, January 11, 1889, died January 13, 1898; Maria Josephine, November 15, 1890; Gerhard Martin, October 10, 1892; Albert Herman, August 22, 1894; Andrew Oliver, July 28, 1896; Martin Olous (2d), December 31, 1898; Bordina Luella. February 6, 1901 ; Serina Rebecca, December 14, 1902, and Idella Helena, October 29, 1904.

Hon. Henry Cullen Adams, congressman from the second district, was a typical example of the kind of man to whom Americans are fond of referring as a natural result of peculiarly American institutions. He was a native of Verona, Oneida county, N. Y., and was born November 28, 1850. His parents, B. F. and Caroline M. (Shepherd) Adams were also natives of the same place. He wasone of the line from which President John Adams sprung. His father, Benjamin Franklin Adams, was a graduate of Hamilton College, New York. While in Hamilton College the elder Adams was a charter member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and, as principal of an academy at Oneida, N. Y.. was instructor of the late P>. J. Stevens of Madison. His mother was Eunice Webster a first cousin of Noah Webster of dictionary fame and Mr. Webster was a frequent caller at the Adams home. The family came west in the early fifties settling at Beaver Dam, then coming to Liberty Prairie, near Madison. The father died in 1902. the mother some years before. They were carried to Wisconsin by the tide of immigration which swept westward about the time of his birth, and he became a resident of Jefferson county at the age of six months. In that county and in Dane he spent his boyhood years, supplementing his instruction at the district schools with the more practical knowledge of farm life in all its details, which knowledge became in later years the instrument which led to his political preferment. His later achievements, if they formed a part of his plan of life, were to have been reached by other means, and his early efforts were all directed toward advancement through the usual methods of scholarly attainments. His first academic work was done at Albion Academy, Dane county, in 1868 ; the following year he entered the University of Wisconsin, but after two years of study he was compelled on account of failing health to give up his work ; and a second attempt to complete his collegiate course, even after a three years' rest, resulted in a second physical breakdown. In spite of these discouragements he subsequently read law in the offices of Nathaniel W. Dean and Gregory & Pinney. In realizing the necessity of an active out-door life he purchased a farm near the city of Madison, set it out to small fruits, and applying to its management the business methods for which his studies had laid the foundation, he soon began to realize a good return for his investments. He also stocked his farm with a herd of thorough-bred Jerseys and added a dairy to his establishment. He not only personally superintended his fruit and dairy business but actually performed many of the laborious duties connected with it. He varied the work of this period by occasionally teaching; in the winter of 1877 he taught a country school in the town of Burke in which his immediate predecessor was F. W. Hall and the one before that was Senator R. M. La Follette. Mr. Adams was always actively interested in political affairs and in 1880 entered the arena as a stump speaker, a part which he filled in every subsequent campaign up to the present time. In 1883 he was elected to represent the southeast assembly district in the state legislature, by a majority of over seven hundred votes and was reelected the next term, increasing his majority to over a thousand. During the later term he served as chairman of the house committee on claims. For three years following this legislative experience he spent the winters in company with Mr. Morrison, in conducting farmers' institutes throughout the state, and while giving in this work the results of his own experience and observation, he incidentally formed a wide acquaintance throughout the agricultural communities, and made many friends who rallied to his support when he became, later, a candidate for congressional honors. Three years as president of the state dairymen's association, and two years as secretary of the state horticultural society, supplemented this acquaintance and made his name a household word among the farmers. About this time, (1887), he entered the editorial field, for which he was somewhat prepared through acting as correspondent for a number of agricultural periodicals, and became, for a short time, manager and editor of the Western Farmer, published in Madison. In 1888 he was a delegate-at-large to the convention which nominated Benjamin Harrison for president, and the same year was appointed superintendent of public property by Governor Hoard, serving for two years. At the expiration of this time he became associated with C. M. Dow & Co., and later with Mr. Vernon, and divided his attention between his farming interests and a real estate business. Governor Upham appointed Mr. Adams as dairy and food commissioner, in 1894, and the wisdom of his selection for this important position was en- dorsed by two of his successors in office, Governors Scofield and La Follette. It was during his incumbency of this office that he rendered such efficient service to the farmers of this state by his efforts in the passage of the law which prohibited the manufacture of filled cheese and colored olemargerine. At the time of Mr. Adams' appointment, Wisconsin dairy products had fallen from the high grade which had established for them an international reputation to a very low place, on account, especially, of the production of filled cheese, and it has taken years to restore to them the confidence of the public, and for this restoration the dairymen are largely indebted to Mr. Adams. Following the agitation in Wisconsin most of the other dairying states have passed stringent laws along the same line, and these were supplimented, after a three years' struggle, by the enactment of a national law putting an almost prohibative tax upon the production of oleomargine. In this agitation Mr. Adams took a very active part, and his many visits to the national capital in the interests of pure food enactments, made him familiar with life in Washington, and gave him the wider outlook upon affairs which that familiarity brings, and when in" 1902, his name came before the voters of the second congressional district as a national representative, he had fully demonstrated his ability to fill it, and the confidence of his constituency in him has been shown by two re-elections to the same office. Mr. Adams came before the public eye during the most recent session of congress more than at any time in his political career, through his work for the meat inspection law now in effect. During the latter part of the session, after President Roosevelt exposed the packers, Senator Beveridge formulated an amendment to the agricultural bill, providing for inspection of packing houses. This amendment caused a bitter fight, especially the clause providing that the packers pay the expense, and one providing for both day and night inspections. When the fight was at its bitterest point, Mr. Adams saw the president and they agreed upon the measure which is now a law. His reputation for honesty and fair dealing was such that in the very storm center of politics he was always trusted and sometimes feared by both factions of his party. His taste and judgment in literature was excellent and he was. possessed of a dry humor, slightly tinged with good-humored1, sarcasm, which made him an exceedingly entertaining companion and his self-poise under the trying conditions in which an aspirant for political honors is sometimes placed was remarkable. During a recent campaign an uncompromising friend demanded of him. "Are you a Stalwart or a Hal f-B reed ?" With a twinkle of his eye he gravely responded, "I'm running for congress." Mr. Adams was married October 15, 1878, to Miss Annie B. Norton, who was born in Lowell, Mass., and reared in Madison. Their four children, Benjamin Cullen, Frank Shepherd, Mabel and Carrie were all born in Madison. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Adams had not been in robust health for many years the announcement of his death. July 9, 1906, came as a shock to his many friends. He died at the Auditorium, Chicago, on his way home from Washington. Speaker Cannon appointed as members of the hofise funeral committee the following congressmen: John J Esch, Wiscons'n; J. W. Babcock, Wisconsin; W. E. Brown, Wisconsin; C. H. Weisse, Wisconsin ; J. II. Jenkins, Wisconsin; James H. Davidson, Wisconsin; H. A. Cooper, Wisconsin; E. S. Miner. Wisconsin; W. H. Stafford. Wisconsin ; Theo Otjen, Wisconsin ; James S. Sherman, New York; J. Adam Bede. Minnesota; James A. Tawney, Minnesota; A. L. Brick, Indiana; Martin H. Madden, Chicago; John Lamb, Virginia; H. S. Boutell, Illinois; J. V. Graff, Illinois; William Wilson. Illinois; A. F. Dawson, Iowa; H. P. Goebel, Ohio; Thomas Marshall, North Dakota; A. J. Barchfeld, Pennsylvania; Jesse Overstreet. Indiana ; Harry C. Woodyard, West Virginia ; E. L. Hamilton. Michigan. Mr. Adams' death called out many expressions of appreciation from prominent men, not only in his own state, but from those who had become acquainted with him in the wider circles into which his position in congress brought him. The limits of this brief memoir prevent their reproduction here, but the spirit which animated them is well represented, especially in regard to his later work, in two or three excerpts. Governor Davidson said: "I have known Honorable Henry C. Adams for many years. On my first acquaintance he impressed me as a man of unusual talent and wide attainments. Mr. Adams was a most genial gentleman and readily made friends. As a member of congress he took a commanding position, and his battle for the agricultural interests of the country will cause him to be long and gratefully remembered. The death of Mr. Adams at this time is a distinct loss to the state and to the country." Colonel Casson : "As a public speaker Congressman Adams attracted more attention in the house than any other man in twenty years. On several occasions, notably when he spoke on the Philippine tariff bill. was this shown. On the conclusion of that speech the house took an informal recess and the entire house crowded around to congratulate him. Ik- was intensely popular and I considered him the best talker in the house. He was emphatically a growing man. He had much yet to develop. He had made a very successful member of congress. He had a way of doing things, of getting there. He had a tact and talent which eminently fitted him for successful work in a legislative body. It can truly be said of him that he was an orator, that in debate he was always ready for the occasion."

Michael Adler, of Waunakee, born in Germany July 13, 1853, is the son of Germans, Nicholas and Alary (Michaels) Adler. The father died in Germany in 1860, and some years after the widow and her two sons, John Adler. now of Cross Plains, and Michael, the subject of this sketch, came to America. Michael came to Berry township, Dane, in 1868, and went to work on a farm; two years later he went to Springfield and in 1882, joined his mother and brother in Cross Plains, where they had located in 1873. At the latter place he bought forty acres of land, to which he has added from time to time, and is now, through his own diligence and good jnanagement, the possessor of a farm of two hundred acres. He is actively interested in the welfare of the Democratic party, and has held many offices of political trust, having served five years as justice of the peace, two years as trustee of the village of Waunakee, five years as supervisor of Cross Plains township, and three years on the county board, which last position he holds at present. He married January 11, 1876, Miss Annie Mergen, who was born in Dane, March 3, 1855. She is the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Schauffhausen) Mergen, both born in Germany ; he came to Dane in 1853 and she in 1854, and on April 24, of that year they were married. Mr. Mergen's first wife, (who was a Miss Biddinger) died in Xew York City in 1853. Of the sixchildren of the first marriage, three are living, and of the nine children of the second marriage, of whom Mrs. Adler is one, seven are living. To the subject of this sketch and his wife, twelve children have been born of whom five died in infancy; those living are, Michael P., who lives on the old homestead; John J., of Vienna township; Henry, of Madison; Math. F., Joseph, Mary and Anna. Mr. Adler has retired from active life and resides in a beautiful home in the village of Waunakee.

William Albers, farmer and teamster of the town of Madison, was born in Hanover, Germany, May 28, 1841. his parents. William and Catherine (Rinkhoft) Albers. both being natives of that province. The father died before the subject of this sketch was born and the mother afterward married William Mollenbard, a carpenter by trade. In 1858 the family came to America and settled in Dane county. There the stepfather bought a large farm and followed farming and carpentering the rest of his life. William Albers is the only child of his parents, though his mother had four children by her second marriage. As a boy he had but little opportunity to acquire an education, being compelled by circumstances to work on the farm. At the age of eighteen years he left home and went to work in a brick-yard at St. Louis. In 1861 he returned to Dane county, bought a team and has been engaged in teaming more or less ever since. Some time later he bought the farm where he now lives, and upon which there is a sand and gravel pit, from which he derives considerable revenue. Mr. Albers is a fine example of that industry and thrift which is a distinguishing characteristic of the German people. Beginning life with small capital and limited opportunities he has achieved success through his own efforts. In political matters he is classed as a Democrat, though in local elections he votes for the man rather than for the candidate of any party. He is a member of the Turner society of Madison, and of the old fire company No. 2. He has been twice married, first in 1861 to Augusta, daughter of Fritz Smith, a native of Saxony, and his second wife was Sophia Smith, daughter of Philip Smith. She died July 2, 1902, aged fifty-one. By this second marriage he has five children living and one deceased, viz : Charles, Susie, George, William, Kate, all living at home, and Margaret, the last named dying in early childhood.

Fritz Albrecht, Sr., a retired farmer, whose home is in Middleton, was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and came to America with his father, Carl Albrecht. when he was three years old. The latter was bom at Bresegardt, Mecklenburg, was married at Middleton to Mi^s Maria llinrechs of Bresegardt, and was a foreman on the German roads. In 1855 he set sail with his family for America and was seven weeks en voyage. They located at Middleton and obtained a farm of forty acres in section 14, having nine acres under cultivation, and a log dwelling. This farm Mr. Albrecht proceeded to clear dnring the hours when he was not active in his duties as an employee of the C, M. & St. P. R. R. He was a stanch Democrat and with his family supported the German Lutheran church. Mr. Albrecht died in 1878 aged sixty-five, his wife in 181 !. aged fifty-six. ( )f their seven children but two (John and Fritz) are living, both at Middleton. Fritz Albrecht was born November 3, 1852, and grew to manhood on his father's farm, re- ceiving" such education as the country schools of that time afforded. He worked the farm for many years and was also employed in threshing for seventeen years. At the present time he is the owner of a splendid farm of two hundred and seventy-two acres just south of Middleton and a pleasant home in Middleton, which he has occupied since 1905. He is a Democrat and has always been much interested in politics, but more in school affairs, in which he has been active as clerk of the school board of Middleton for twelve years and clerk of the district school board for nine years and treasurer for twelve years of high school. For three years he was chairman of the town board also town treasurer 1883-4 and served on county board 1886-7 and 1892. October 5, 1873, he married Miss Mary Hinrichs, daughter of Jacob and Marie (Rieland) Hinrichs of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Nine children were born to them, of whom four sons are now living; William, who is a carpenter of Madison, Wis. ; Fritz. Jr., who farms the old home farm ; Emill, who is a painter by trade and lives at home ; and Frank, the youngest, also at home. All of the sons have the best education afforded by the Middleton schools, for whose welfare their father has always labored.

Orin Alderman, a farmer in the town of Pleasant Springs, was born in the neighborhood where he now lives, February 1-1, 1858, and is of German and Norwegian descent. His father, Walter Alderman, was born in Baden, Germany, February 14, 1822, his parents being John and Frances Alderman. The father died while Walter was still a small boy, and in 1830 the widow and her son came to America. After living two years in Buffalo, N. Y., they went to Detroit, where they remained for six years, Walter finding employment in a hotel. Then they removed to Milwaukeer where he worked in a hotel until 1845, when they came to Dane county. About this time Walter Alderman married Caroline Wittleson, who was born in Norway but came to Wisconsin in 1840. He obtained forty acres of land in the town of Dunkirk, upon which he built a shanty and began farming. Later he bought some land in the town of Pleasant Springs, and added to his first purchase until he owned over two hundred acres. He was a Republican in political matters and a member of the Lutheran church. The children of Walter and Caroline Alderman are as follows : John, who now runs a hotel and hardware store at Crookston. Minn. ; Catherine, wife of Iver Johnson, of Avon. Wash. : Adeline,. now deceased, was the wife of Iver Anderson, of Pleasant Springs : Mary Ann, wife of Ole Lothe. of Pleasant Springs: Frances, living at Crookston. Minn. ; Orin, the subject of this sketch; Julia and Frederick, now both deceased; Turena, living- at Crookston; and Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Martin Mickelson. Orin Alderman attended the schools in Pleasant Springs in his early boyhood, but the death of his father restricted his opportunities to acquire an education, as he had to begin work at an early age. In 1889 he bought one hundred and twenty acres of the old home place, and here he carries on a general farming business. He raises a considerable quantity of tobacco, and also pays some attention to stock raising and dairying. In politics and religion he has followed the affiliations of his father, being a Republican and a member of the Lutheran church at Stoughton. He has never married.

Edwin K. Allandslee, proprietor of the "Central Restaurant" in Stoughton. was born in Telemarken, Norway, September 6, 1853. He is a son of Knud and Rannae Allandslee. His widowed mother, with her nine children, immigrated to the United States in 1866, coming direct to Wisconsin, where she purchased eighty acres of land in the town of Dunn, Dane county. Subsequently she made her home in the town of Rutland with the subject of this sketch and died there. Her children were Osman, George. Stener, Edwin K.. John, Dagna, Gunhild, Asloug and Rannae. Edwin K. was brought up in Dane county from the time he was thirteen years of age. receiving such educational advantages as the schools afforded. One year of his life was spent in Pleasant Springs and twenty-five years on the old homestead in the town of Dunn. In 1862 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in the town of Rutland, where he lived until 1900. In the latter year he removed to Dunkirk, purchasing fifteen acres, of land just outside of the corporation limits of Stoughton. This he now uses as a market garden to supply the restaurant which he has conducted since August, 1905. His place of business has now become one of the principal centers of a growing city. In 1881 Mr. Allandslee was united in marriage to Gunhild Berge, a native of Norway, and to this union have been born eight children, Rannae. Oliver, Julia, Anna. Signa, Clarence. Alfred and -Arthur. The family are all communicants of the Lutheran church. In his political connections Mr. Allandslee is a Republican.

Hans J. Allberg, foreman of the Amerika Publishing Company, was born near Trondhejm, Xorway, August 12, 1866. His parentS were Anders Peterson and Hannah (Peterson) Allberg, both natives of Norway, where the father was a mechanic. They never came to America, the father dying in the old country at the age of

-sixty-four years and the mother when she was fifty-three years of age. Of their five children Hans J. was the youngest. The others are Peter A., a mechanic, now living in Madison ; Paul, a farmer living near Walcott, N. D. ; Martin, now and for several years county surveyor of Ottertail county, Minn., living in Henning; and Helmar B., living in Norway. Hans J. Allberg received his education in the public schools of Norway, and after coming to this country in 1884 attended the schools here. His trade of printer lie learned in Minneapolis, Minn., where he worked three years. In the fall of 1887 he came to Madison and was employed on different papers until 1896 when the "Amerika" a Norwegian paper -of which Prof. R. B. Anderson is the editor-in-chief, was moved to this city, since which time he has been with that paper. For some six years he edited and managed a Norwegian paper in Stotfghton, -called "The Normannen." which he later sold. The paper was removed to Madison and consolidated with "Amerika." On October 15, 1892, Mr. Allberg married Betsey, a daughter of Erick E. and Martha Hovland of Pleasant Springs and to this union three children have been born, Arthur Herman, Elmer Martin and Hazel Lenora. Mr. and Mrs. Allberg are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church. For some years Mr. Allberg was secretary of the church board. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

Professor William Francis Allen, one of the distinguished scholars and educators of the state and nation, was born in Xorthboro, Mass., September 5, 1830. His father was Joseph Allen, a minister of the old church of that town. His preparatory schooling was obtained partly at home and partly at Leicester Academy and Roxbury Latin school. In 1851 he was graduated from Harvard and spent the next three years as a private instructor in New York city. The years 1854-56 were spent in European study and travel, chiefly at Berlin, Goettingen and Rome. In Rome he devoted his attention for several months to a study of the topography of the ancient city ; he also visited Naples and Greece before returning to the United States in 1856. These were the years of his specialized effort wherein he laid the foundations for h's life work in Latin, history and Roman antiquities. Prof. Allen next taught for seven years in the English and classical school in West Newton, Mass. He was married July 2, 1862, to Mary T. Lambert of the latter town, who died in 1865, leaving one child. Katharine. During the last two years of the Civil War he served in the south as an agent of the treedmen's and sanitary commissions, ministering to the cause of education among the blacks. While in this employment he gathered materials for a collection of negro songs, published in 1867, under the title of "Slave Songs." After the close of the war he was for one year professor of ancient languages at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, and one year at Eagleswood Military Academy, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, While here he accepted a call to the chair of ancient languages and history in the University of Wisconsin, with which institution he was associated during the remainder of his life; in 1870 his chair was changed to that of Latin and history, and in 1886 to that of history alone. June 30. 1868, he married Margaret L. Andrews of Newburyport, Mass.. and three children were born of this union,. Andrews. William W. (deceased) and Philip. Professor Allen died in Madison, Wis., December 8, 1889, after a brief illness, from pneumonia. He gained an international reputation in the literaryworld for his labors and publications in the field of Roman history and antiquities. He is also the author of numerous Latin textbooks of standard merit ; numerous review articles in The Nation, North American Review, and other leading critical journals; has published a large number of well known monographs of marked excellence. Among his best known works are his "Annals of Tacitus." and "History of the Roman People" (Ginn. 1890). In the midst of his busy life as educator and writer, he found time for numerous outside activities, and was a director of the Madison free library, aad a trustee of the Unitarian church. He was beloved by students, associates and all who knew him, and has left the impress of his scholarly personality on many generations of students. No one man has added more to the splendid reputation of the great university with which he was so long and intimately associated.

Francis M. Ames is a native-born son of Dane county, and during all of his long and active career he has resided within her confines. He was born in the town of Oregon, March 23, 1847, and is the son of John N. and Mary Ann (Ball) Ames, pioneer settlers of the county, who are deserving of more than a passing mention in a volume devoted to the history of worthy citizens, past and present. John X. Ames was born July 7, 1822, in Steuben, Oneida count}'. X. Y., and is descended from noble Revolutionary ancestry. Mis grandfather, Nathaniel Ames (born April 25, 1761, in New Hampshire) was a farmer and a Protestant Methodist preacher, who served under Washington and experienced the miseries of that winter camp at Valley Forge. In 1800 he settled in the wilderness near the headwaters of the Mohawk river, and there built him a home in which he resided for a number of years. He was married to Miss Sarah Hall, a native of Albany county, N. Y., who became the mother of eleven children, one of whom, David H., was the grandfather of the subject of this review. Although eighty-four years of age, in the summer of 1845, Nathaniel Ames, the old Revolutionary veteran, with his wife and five of his Children, (Frances, Jonathan, Naomi, Perymus and Ira), migrated to the wilds of the then territory of Wisconsin and settled on section 22 of what is now the town of Oregon, in Dane county. There his wife died, in July, 1851, at the age of eighty-four, and nine years later the old gentleman moved to the village of Oregon, where he died in August, 1863, aged one hundred and two years, doubtless the oldest white man wdio ever lived and died in Dane county. He was a Mason and was buried under the auspices of that order. David H. Ames, son of the venerable patriot, was born near Albany, N. Y., served through the war of 1812, and died but comparatively a few years ago, near Trenton Falls, N. Y.. aged one hundred and one years, nine months and twenty-seven davs. He married Miss Betsy Norton, who was a native of Herkimer county, N. Y., and a granddaughter of General Norton of the Revolutionary War. She also lived to be very old. John N. Ames, father of our subject, and son of David H. and Betsy (Norton) Ames, came with his grandfather to Wisconsin, in 1845, and was the only one of the eleven children born to his parents who made his home in this state. He lived on the original half-section entered by his grandfather until 1870, and then purchased two hundred and forty-four acres, lying on both sides of the track of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad, two miles south of Oregon village, and in the heart of the best farming land in that section of Wisconsin. On this farm he built a large two-story farm house, a substantial basement barn and other buildings, and although he began his independent career with $100 which he had earned as monthly wages, few men made greater or more constant progress. Mr. Ames married, in his and her native town, Miss Mary A. Ball, daughter of Eusevius and Keturah (Weld) Ball, her father being a native of Massachusetts and of Revolutionary ancestry, as was also her mother, who was born in Orange county. N. J. Mr. Ames still lives at the old homestead, enjoying the fruits of his early endeavors. Mrs. Ames died February 4, 1893. Five children were born to them, all on the old Oregon farm: Francis M., John F., Sarah A., William L. and Florence A. Francis M. Ames is the eldest of these children and is the one to whom this sketch is especially dedicated. He received his primary education in the district schools of Oregon, and supplemented the knowledge thus gained by taking a course at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He resided at the home of his parents until 1876, when hewas married and located on the farm where he still resides, in section 32 of the town of Rutland, the place being known as the old Axtell farm. It comprises two hundred and fifty acres, and since taking possession of it Mr. Ames has made many needed improvements, including a beautiful residence which he built in 1893. In addition to this homestead he owns two hundred and eighty acresin Brooklyn, Green county, which tract is known as the Willis Hazeltine place. Mr. Ames has always followed farming of a general nature, raising oats, corn, hay and wheat, and in live stock, and breeds hogs, horses and cattle quite extensively. In politics he gives an unwavering allegiance to the principles of the Prohibition party, but has never aspired to official position. In 1904 the Farmers' Mutual Banking & Trust Company of Brooklyn was organized, and Mr. Ames was elected as the first president of the organization, serving in that capacity for two years, and he is now secretary of the same. Our subject was married on August 15, 1876,. to Miss Alice C. Main, daughter of R. P. and Cordelia A. (Dakin) Main, who are given extended mention on another page of this volume, in the sketch of their son, Edwin D. Main. Mrs. Ames was a school teacher in her early life, and is a lady of culture and refinement. She is the mother of seven children, the names and other facts concerning whom are here incorporated : F. Marion attended school at Evansville, graduated in the commercial college at Madison, and is now the book keeper at the chair factory at Brooklyn. J. Quincey is at present attending Yale college, being a member of the class of 1907. and is assistant secretary of the college Y. M. C. A. He has also been a student at the University of Wisconsin and he was in St. Louis two years and in Manila for the same length of time, being in the civil service of the government. He has also made a trip around the world, visiting- Shanghai, London, Rome, Paris, and other notable places. He is now preparing himself for the practice of law. Hallie, the third child, is assistant cashier and book keeper in the bank of Evansville. She is a graduate of the Evansville Seminary and the commercial college al Madison and taught several years. Tressa attended the Whitewater Normal school for two years, and has been teaching for the past three years, being the teacher in the primary department of the high school at Brooklyn. Robert P. took a commercial course in the Madison Business College, then went to Montana for a while and was book keeper for a time at'Canastota. S. I ). He is now at home engaged in the management of his father's farm. Paul Main and Sadie Minnie (twins) are graduates of the high school at Evansville, of the class of 1906. In 1893 all of these children attended the World's Fair at Chicago, and in 1904 they visited the St. Louis exposition.

A. O. Amondson is a retired farmer of Cambridge, of Norwegian birth and ancestry. With his parents, Ole and Ingobar (Larson) Amondson, he came to the United States when he was twelve years old and located at Christiana, Dane county, Wis., after one winter spent at Jefferson Prairie. Eleven children were born to Ole Amondson and his wife, of whom A. O. is the oldest living son. Rhoda, the oldest daughter, is married and lives in Iowa ; Betsy is Mrs. O. D. Olson of Grand Forks, N. D. ; Martha is the wife of I. Isaacson of Rock county, Wis.; Christie married Nicholi Anderson of Rockdale. Ole Amondson was a blacksmith and a skilled worker in metals but when he came to Wisconsin he engaged in farming. The voyage was made in a sailing vessel and the family was twelve weeks upon the ocean. They landed at New York, in July, 1844, and came to Wisconsin by way of the Great Lakes, the common route at that time. The farm upon which they lived comprised one hundred and sixty acres and upon it a dug-out was soon constructed to be followed later by a substantial home. Besides the work of the farm Mr. Amondson was the blacksmith for the young community, made plows, tinkered guns, etc. He died at the old homestead in January, 1861, and his wife in May, 1881. Mr. Amondson was a member of the Lutheran church and in political sympathy a Democrat, though he was never active in politics. A. O. Amondson, better known as Ed., was born in Voss, Norway, September 26, 1832, attended the home schools and assisted his parents with the work of the farm. In 1850 he crossed the plains to California and after a difficult and dangerous journey of four months arrived at Placeville, Cal., where he worked in mines and in a store. Returning to Dane county after several years in California he bought one hundred and twenty acres of the old home farm and there he carried on a prosperous general farming business for thirty years. In 1898 he retired and since then has made his home in the village of Cambridge. A 'member of the Republican party Mr. Amondson has always been an active worker for the advancement of the community and has

Ed. Amundson, a prominent farmer of Rutland, was born in Norway and came to America with his brother and sister, in 1871. Of a family of eight children but three left their native land, Ole, who lives with his brother, Anna, whose home is in Pierce county, Wis., and Ed. The other members of the family remained with the parents, Amund and Martha (Olson) Larson, in Christiania. Ed Amundson was born Feb. 15, 1845, at Christiania, attended the common schools and worked on the farm until he was twenty-six years old. when he sailed for America and located at Pleasant Springs. Here he remained for a number of years and in 1896 purchased one hundred and forty-two acres of farm land in the town of Rutland, which is his present home. Many improvements have been made by him upon the farm, until it is now very completely equipped. Mr. Amundson is a Republican in his political affiliations but has never taken an active part in politics. He is a member of the Stoughton Lutheran church. October 9, 1873, he married Miss Inga Erickson, daughter of Eric Erickson and Lena (Olson) Erickson, natives of Norway. Mrs. Amundson has a sister, Rebecca, and a brother, Edward, living in Dane county, but the remainder of the family never came to America. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Amundson, all of whom have attended the schools of Rutland and Stoughton. They live in Rutland; Alfred and Oscar are farmers; Sophia is a dressmaker; Hannah. Edwin, Josephine, Idella and Alf. Theodore remain at home.

Christian Anderson, a merchant of Deerfield, was born in the town of Christiana, Dane county, March 26, 1853. His parents were Andrew and Cary (Nelson) Anderson, both natives of Norway. They came to Wisconsin about 1847. bought forty acres of school land in the town of Christiana, but later traded that farm for another in the same neighborhood and there lived the remainder of their lives. The mother died in October. 1860, and the father in the following January. W^hen the war broke out the two older brothers rented out the farm and entered the army. At that time Christian was only eight years old. He was taken by a neighbor, with whom lie remained for a year. He then worked for different persons until he was fifteen years of age. when he went to work in a wagon factory at Cambridge. He was there but a short time when his arm was seriously injured by a circular saw, disabling him for a year. This accident still affects the use of his arm. He next worked in hotels at different places for about five years, at the end of which time he went to Chicago and found employment in an organ and furniture factory . Mr. Anderson has now an organ and several ornamental pieces of furniture of his own construction, having become an expert cabinet maker in spite of his injured arm. While in Chicago he attended the evening schools, adding to the elementary education he had obtained in the public schools in the town of Christiana. On New Year's day, 1880, he married Anna Hendrickson, who was born in Norway, Dec. 10, 1849. Her parents, Hendrie and Sarah (Arandt) Hendrickson, were both natives of Trondhjem, Norway, but came to the United States in 1865, settling first in Michigan, but a year later they located at Oxfordville, Rock county, Wis., where they bought a farm and there passed the remainder of their lives. They had three children, Mrs. Anderson being the only one now living. In 1885 they removed to Deerfield, where Mr. Anderson erected the building in which his store is established, and where he has ever since been engaged in the mercantile business. Mrs. Anderson is an accomplished milliner, having had several years experience in some of the leading milliner stores of Chicago, and she is engaged in that business in connection with her husband's store. They have a large patronage and conduct a store that would be a credit to a much larger town. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have had two children, but both died in infancy. In political matters Mr. Anderson is a Republican and takes an interest in public matters, both general and local, and has served two terms on the village board. He and his wife belong to the Norwegian Lutheran church and take considerable interest in church work.

Iver Anderson, a farmer in the town of Pleasant Springs, was born at Bergen, Norway, February 22. 1836. He is a son of Andrew and Christine (Ouam) Ellingson, both natives of the stift in which Bergen is located. They were married in their native land and in 1848 embarked in a sailing vessel for America. After a voyage of seven weeks and two days they landed in the city of New York, from which point they came directly fo Wisconsin and settled in the town of Dunkirk, in Dane county. He bought one hundred and eighty acres of unimproved land, opened it to cultivation and lived on that farm until his death. He was a Democrat in his political views, and both he and his wife belonged to the Lutheran church. Their children were as follows : Elling, now living in Dodge county, Minn. ; Iver. the subject of this sketch ; Andrew, deceased; Nels, a farmer in Dodge county, Minn.; Susan, living in the town of Dunkirk; Annie, also living in Dunkirk; 3 - iii

Martha; Jacob, and Christ ne. deceased. Iver Anderson received a primary education in Norway, but after coming to America the requirements of the new country made it necessary for him to assist his father in the clearing and cultivation of the farm. He lived with parents until he was twenty-eight years of age, when he bought one hundred acres of land where he now lives. This farm, which he bought from his father, had a log cabin on it and about thirty acres were cleared. He now owns two hundred and sixty acres and has one of the best improved farms in the neighborhood. He does a general farming business, raises a good deal of tobacco, and devotes some attention to raising stock. Politically he is independent, though he takes a worthy interest in town affairs and has held the office of school clerk and treasurer for thirty years. He is a deacon in the Christ church, Lutheran, of Stoughton, and is somewhat active in church work. He* has. been twice married. His first wife was Miss Adeline Alderman, by whom he had three children, viz : Kate, now the wife of Andrew Beck, of the town of Pleasant Springs ; Caroline, wife of Samuel Brickson, a farmer of Pleasant Springs; and Mileda, now deceased. The mother of these children died in 1874, and Mr. Anderson married Inger Erickson, a native of Norway. By the second wife he has the following chlidren. Arthur, Edward, Bessie, Clarence. Mary, Ida, Christine and Andrew, all living but Arthur. Mr. Anderson has been an industrious man all his life, and whatever degree of success he has attained has been entirely due to his own energy and good judgment. He is well known and generally respected in the community where he lives.

John N. Anderson, a well-known carpenter of Stoughton, was born at Endresogn, Norway, Feb. 12, 1858. He is a son of Nels and Ela (Oldstatter) Anderson and until he was sixteen years of age his training was obtained in the Norwegian schools. At that age he immigrated to the LTnited States and located in Dane county, and the city of Stoughton has since been his home. For several years he "hired out" to the farmers of the vicinity but in 1880 started in to do carpentering work. Since that time he has been continuously at it and is known today as one of the best men in his line in the city. He has also done some contracting, but has generally preferred to do the mechanical part of the work. ( >n February 27, 1888, Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Carrie (or Kara), daughter of Halvor Burthe and Olive (Quale) T >rgeson, natives of Norway who were pioneers of both Jefferson and Dane counties. The issue of this union is two daughters.

Ella A. and Geneva M. All of the family are members of the Norwegian Lutheran synod and communicants of Christ church. Stoughton. In his political relations Mr. Anderson is a stanch Republican.

John W. Anderson, retired, of Mazomanie village, was born in Union county, Ohio, Sept. 26, 1836. He was a son of William and Mary (Argo) Anderson. William Anderson was born in Richmond, Va.. and his wife first saw the light of day near Pittsburg, Pa. The subject's paternal grandfather, John Anderson, was a wealthy planter and slave owner of Virginia. William Anderson remained in Virginia until he was about twenty-one years of age and then removed with his wife to Union county, Ohio, about 1833. In 1846 they moved again, this time to Platteville, Wis., where they remained one year. Iowa county was their next place of location and there Mrs. Anderson died. Shortly after Mr. Anderson went to Iowa to live with a daughter, at whose home he passed away. Both he and his wife were members of the Adventist church. Seven children were born to them. The father and two sons enlisted in the Union army ; the father was in Company K, Fiftieth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and saw a year's service. Benjamin, a son, was in Company H, Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. John W. Anderson, the subject of this sketch, enlisted in Company G, Eleventh Wisconsin Infantry, in October, 1861. His regiment was in the battle of Bayou Cache, in General Steele's division. Ill health kept him in the hospital at Mound City, 111., for a time, and on his release he was discharged from the army. Up to the time of his enlistment, from the age of seventeen, he had worked out, and after h"s discharge from the army he went to Cottage Grove, in this county, where he farmed for four years. For the following thirtyfive years he farmed in the town of Arena, Iowa county ; the next few years he spent in the village of Arena and in October, 1904, he retired and located in the village of Mazomanie. Mr. Anderson is a Republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been twice married. His first wife was Annie, daughter of John and Martha (Johnson) Gallagher, to whom he was married in March, 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher were both natives of Ireland. Four of the ten children who blessed this first union are still living. They are Addie, the wife of James Gorst of Arena r Winnie, the wife of James Ray. a farmer near Arena: Ralph J., a merchant at Arena, married to Addie Dodge ; and Nettie, the wife of Torrence Hughes, a merchant of Astoria, Oregon. Mrs. An- derson died October 1, 1899. On July 14, 1901, Mr. Anderson was married to Mrs. Lizzie Good; widow of Thomas Good, a farmer of the town of Cottage Grove, who was murdered August 27, 1899. She was a daughter of Jesse and Ann (Wilcox) Augh, natives of England, who came to this country in 1840 and settled in Long Island, N. Y. From Long Island Mr. Augh moved to Sun Prairie, this county, and later to Richland county, where he died. Mr. Anderson is a member of A. R. McDonald post, No. 52, of Mazomanie. Grand Army of the Republic.

Ole O. Anderson (deceased) was a successful and well-known farmer of Albion, son of Ole O. Quale and Susan (Gornan) Quale of Norway. With his brothers, Nels and Andrew, Ole O. Anderson came to Wisconsin and settled at Albion. Nels obtained a farm in section 4 and made it his home until his death in 1856. Andrew sold his farm in section 5 and went to Winnebago county, Iowa. Ole O. was born June 19, 1825, in Sogendahl, Norway, learned tailoring in Norway and worked at that trade until he came to the United States, after which he has always engaged in farming. His land was located in different parts of Albion and he lived in section 4. His property consisted altogether of three hundred and sixty acres. During the first years of his residence in Dane county, Mr. Anderson was employed in various different tasks but soon found it all he could do to manage his rapidly improving property, which has become very valuable. He was a member of the Republican party but took no active part in county affairs. He was however very prominent in the work of the Norwegian Lutheran church, for whose welfare he was always ready to labor. In October, 1851, he married Miss Gurie Peterson, who was born in Sogen, Norway, March 28, 1832, daughter of Peder and Caroline (Beck). Another daughter, Caroline, married Tosten Thronson of Sogn, Norway, and came to Albion in 1844. Four children were born to them ; Thomas, who lives at Albion ; Andrew, of Cambridge; Christopher (deceased) and Christiana, (deceased) who married A. Larson of Clear Lake, Iowa. Twelve sons and daughters blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. Susan, the oldest daughter, is the widow of Ole Barsness of Minnesota. Caroline is Mrs. Martin Mason of Albion. Nicholas, who lives on the old homestead, was for a time engaged in tobacco dealing in Stoughton and also owned a store. He takes an active interest in politics and was elected to the assembly in 1898 by the Republican party. He has also served in local offices, as chairman, supervisor, etc. For twelve years he has been a member of the board of directors of the Albion Fire Insurance Co. and its president since 1898. He is a trustee and devoted member of the East Koshkonong Congregational church. Andrew is a farmer of Albion. Peter B. resides in Stoughton. Maria is Mrs. Allen Alme of Pleasant Springs, Wis. Henry C. owns one hundred and sixty acres of the old farm, where he carries on a prosperous general farming business. His especial interest is live-stock, which he raises for pleasure as well as profit. Durham cattle and French coach horses are bred upon his farm. Martin O. is a farmer at the old home. Joseph is a farmer and real estate dealer of Stoughton. Dena Elizabeth is Mrs. Gulich Osgarn of Pleasant Springs. Edward J. is a photographer of Minneapolis. Olive J. married Otto N. Nelson of Albion. Mr. Anderson lived on the farm he bought when he first came to Wisconsin until Jan. 31, 1888, when he died surrounded by his children.

Osvald C. Andersen, a leading merchant tailor of Madison, whose place of business is at 27 North Pinckney street, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 14, 1874. He is a son of Ole and Johanna (Nelson) Andersen. The father is still a resident of Copenhagen, where he is foreman in a sugar factory. Although sixty-four years of age he is still in vigorous health. He has never even visited the New World. The mother died in 1885 at the age of forty-two. Both she and her husband were members of the Lutheran church. Another son, Charles W.. and the only other child, is a jeweler in Madison. The subject of this sketch was educated and learned his trade in Copenhagen. In 1892 he sought new fields and came to the United States, locating in Buffalo. N. Y., where for a short time he worked as a coat maker. For a short time Mr. Andersen was employed in Chicago, and in July, 1893, arrived in Madison. He found employment with L. W. Gay and worked for him until 1899 when he became a partner, the firm name being Gay & Andersen. In 1902 Mr. Gay left the firm to enter the real estate business and since that time Mr. Andersen has conducted the business alone. That he is an excellent and thorough workman both as a ladies' and gentlemen's tailor is proven by the prosperity which has been his. On Dec. 5, 189G. Mr. Andersen married Sofie. daughter of L. and M. Jensen of Aarhus, Denmark. This union has been blessed with four children. Victor S.. Olga F.. Waldemar C. and Osvald N. Both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church. Mr. Anderson is a member and treasurer of the Madison society of the Danish Brotherhood of America. Modest, retiring and courteous he is a

Hon. Rasmus B. Anderson is without doubt the most distinguished and widely known of American-Scandinavians. The basic facts of his birth and birthplace are as follows: he is native-born, but of Scandinavian parentage; his native village being Albion, Dane county, and the date January 12, 1846. About his parentage there is a flavor of romance, as, contrary to all the unwritten but inexorable caste laws of European countries, there was consummated, in 1830, a marriage between the son of a Norse Quaker peasant, Bjorn Anderson, and Catherine Von Krogh, the daughter of Lieutenant Von Krough, of a long line of aristocratic, military ancestors. Following the bitter disapproval of Mrs. Anderson's family, Bjorn Anderson organized a movement for the planting of a Norse colony in America, a movement which was consummated in 1836 by the arrival in this country of the first large company of Norwegian emigrants. After a stay of two years in Rochester, N. Y., Mr. and Mrs. Anderson moved west, first to a Norse settlement in LaSalle county, 111., and later to the town of Albion, Dane county, then an unbroken forest wilderness. There some ten years later, their son, Rasmus, was born, his father's death following four years after, in 1850. The son received his first instruction in the district schools, and in his early teens was already preparing, under the tutorage of a Lutheran pastor, for his collegiate work ; this he began at a college founded by Norse Lutherans, at Decorah, Iowa, known at that time as Luther College. Even at that time he evinced an independence of spirit which brought him into collision with the college authorities, and which has always since characterized his public utterances. Notwithstanding this, however, his acquirements as a linguist were such that in 1866, when he was only twenty years of age. he received the appointment as professor of Greek and the modern languages at Albion Academy, in this county. His work in that department soon attracted the attention of the officials of the University of Wisconsin, and after a few months of post-graduate work, he was appointed instructor in languages in that institution. In 187.-), the chair of Scandinavian languages and literature was created for him, and this position he filled until 1883, when he resigned to devote himself to other lines of work. During his work in the university, Mr. Anderson had made the acquaintance of his distinguished countryman, Ole Bull, and in company with him visited Norway in 1872. This companionship was the means of his introduction to the most noted schol- ars and literary people of the Scandinavian countries, Bjorn Bjornson being among the latter. Ole Bull heartily seconded Professor Anderson's project of founding a Scandinavian department in the university library, and gave him valuable assistance toward the attainment 6f that purpose. This acquaintance abroad, his early writings and translations, and his lectures on Norse mythology and literature delivered between the years 1874 and 1877, in Boston, Baltimore and other places, prepared him for the position of United States minister to Denmark which was tendered him in 1885. by President Cleveland. This position he held for four years, and filled so well that upon the election of President Harrison, a petition, signed by many prominent men of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, was presented, asking for his retention in that office, his strong personality and varied accomplishments rendering him an acceptable addition to social and literary as well as to diplomatic circles. Professor Anderson is at the present time occupying an editorial chair in the sanctum of "Amerika," one of the largest Norwegian papers in the United States and one which by reason of his vigorous political writings exerts a wide influence among the numerous Norse people of the country and especially of the large communities of the middle west. Ever since his early controversies with the clergy of the Norse Lutheran church on the subject of their attitude toward the public schools. Professor Anderson has stood for, not alone a loyal interest in the mother country, but for the adaptation of foreign elements to the use and advancement of the home of their adoption, and has thus rendered a positive service not only to his own countrymen, but to this country, as well, in its difficult task of transmutating into a homogeneous whole the conflicting elements of which this nation is composed. Of Professor Anderson's voluminous work as a writer, space will not permit a detailed account. His first book, "Julegave." was written in Norwegian in 1871. This is a collection of Norse folklore stories, and was followed in 1874 by "Den Norske Maalsag." also in Norwegian. His first book in English was "America not Discovered by Columbus," which has passed through a number of editions and was translated into Norwegian. His "Norse Mythology," published in 1875. is the book which established his literary reputation. It has been translated into four or five languages and is generally accepted, even by the most critical authorities, as the only adequate and authorative treatment of this subject in t lie- English language. "The Viking Tales from the North." "The Younger Edda," "History of the Literature of the Scandinavian

North, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time," "The Elder Edda." are some of his principal translations. He also wrote an introduction of fifty pages to Auber Eorestier's translation of "The. Spellbound Fiddler," a "Guide into Teutondom," etc. Beside his numerous books Professor Anderson has been a wide contributor id the best current magazine literature, appearing in the Atlantic Monthly, the Epitome of Literature, the Journal of Comparative Literature, the American Antiquarian, the London Academy, etc. He has published a number of pamphlets in both the English and Xorse languages on various subjects, and has been a contributor to five or six of the leading enclyclopedias, including the American supplement to the Brittanica, Chamber's and Johnson's. A glance over a complete bibliography of Professor Anderson's literary work, - which includes many books, pamphlets and articles beside those enumerated, but largely along the same line of the Scandinavian language, literature and early religion, - show that his work is largely of a critical rather than of a creative nature. What a man of his linguistic ability, excellent diction and industry might have accomplished in the line of more original work, if he had not been so strongly attracted to the poetical and fascinating lore of the northern myths, can be only surmised, but he could probably have achieved success in almost any line of literature to which he addressed himself. In the work actually accomplished he has succeeded in opening, to a large class of readers, the gates to fresh and fascinating fields of literature. Professor Anderson has been selected as editor-in-chief of what will be, when completed, the most sumptuous edition of works in Scandinavian subjects ever issued. This is a fifteen volume library representative of Scandinavian mythology, romance, folk-lore and history, and known as the Xorroena Library. The mechanical work on these volumes represents the highest art in bookmaking. Professor Anderson married, July 21, 1868, Miss Bertha K. Oleson, of Cambridge, Wis., a native of Christiania, Norway, who came to this country with her parents, when she was a child. They have had five children : Hannah I',.. born April 18, 1869; died April 18. 1870; Carletta C, born December 4, 1870; George K., born November 7, 1872; Hjalmar O., born June 7. 1876; and Rolf Bull, born December 17, 1883. The family resides at 316 North Carroll street, Madison.

Sern Edward Anderson has always lived in Albion and is the son of one of its pioneers,. Amund Anderson. Amund was born in Norway in March, 1806. and in 1840 settled in Dane county, Wis. His wife. Ingeborg, was first married to Erick Johnson, with whom she left Norway in 1836 and came to the United States, landing in New York city after a stormy voyage of thirteen weeks. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson lived in La Salle. 111., where Mr. Johnson died in 1838, leaving two children and his young wife. John, the oldest son, served in the First Kansas Volunteers for five years and went to Wyoming where he engaged in mining and ranching. Betsey Johnson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Erick Johnson married John J. Naset of Bloomer. Mrs. Johnson married Amund Anderson and came with him to Albion. Wis., where in 1840 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 2. Settlers were few in the vicinity at that day but two other families came from Illinois with the Anderson's and located near by. They were devoted members of the Norwegian Lutheran church and belonged to the East Koshkonong church from its organization. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson : Martha is the widow of Thore Smithback of Christiania ; Andrew A., who farms part of the old homestead, married Sarah Hendrickson and after her death, married Agnes Johnson ; Sern E. lives at the old home. Marie Ingeborg is the widow of N. E. Smithback of Christiania; Martin is a prosperous farmer of Oakland, Wis. ; Sena is the wife of C. O. Tellefson of Rockdale. Sern E. was born on the farm at Albion. April 26. 1848, attended such schools as the district afforded at that time and early interested himself in the work of his father's farm. In March, 1874, he married M"ss Helen Matteson. who came from Norway in 1868 with her parents and lived at Rockdale. Two children blessed the marriage ; Adolph, who married Betsey Johnson, is a farmer and resides at the old homestead; Nordahl is also at home. Mrs. Anderson died in 1890. She and her husband always attended the East Koshkonong church. Mr. Anderson has never held political office but is a Republican in his political affiliations. He is secretary of the Hillside Creamery Co.

William H. Angell is one of the sterling pioneers and most honored and influential citizens of the village of Sun Prairie, where he has maintained his home for more than sixty years, having been prominently identified with the developed of the village and surrounding country. Colonel Angell was born in West Haven. Addison county. Vermont, on June 20, 1813, and he has ever exemplified the sturdy attributes so characteristic of the true New England type, while he is a representative of families founded in that section in the colonial era of our national history. He is a son of Newell and Charity (Blackman) Angell. the former of whom was born in Washington countv. New York, on December 20, 1879, while the latter was bom in the same state, on April 17, 1789, while her death occurred in West Haven, Vermont, on June 23, 1822. Newell Angell was a millwright by trade, and he came to Sun Prairie. Wisconsin, in 1*4(>, to take charge of the erection of a mill for his s<ui. William H., the subject of this sketch, passing the remainder of his life in the Badger state. He died in Vernon county, on March 9, 1863, and his remains rest in the cemetery at Sun Prairie. After the death of his first wife he married Mary Hollis Ransome, whd was born in Connecticut, in 1801, and who died in Vernon county. Wisconsin, on November 5, 1872. Newell Angell was always a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, and was prominent in public affairs in Vermont for many years, having been a man of much intellectual power and mature judgment. He was a son of Augustus Angell, who served in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution, having enlisted when but fourteen years of age ; the latter's father likewise rendered valiant service as a patriot soldier in the great struggle for independence. Augustus Angell and also his son, Newell, were soldiers in the war of 1812. Colonel William H. Angell, who secured his title from able service as lieutenant colonel in the Vermont militia, was reared on the homestead farm of his paternal grandfather, in the old Green Mountain state, being identified with the work and management of the same until he had attained the age of eighteen years, while he was accorded the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period. Thereafter he was engaged in farm work and employed more or less at the carpenter's trade until 1844, when he determined to immigrate to Wisconsin and cast in his lot with the pioneers of that territory which was not admitted to the Union until about four years later, in 1848. lie made his way to Dane county, whose manifold attractions proved adequate to cause him to make permanent location here. He took up his residence in Sun Prairie,, being practically one of the founders of the village, and he forthwith identified himself with the interests of the locality and showed the progressive spirit and indomitable enterprise which have made the men of New England such valuable pioneers in opening up the various western state-. \\v erected a grist and saw mill in the embryonic village, '" 1847, and he has ever since been identified with the lumber business here, bavin- formerly conducted extensive operations in the manufacturing of lumber, while it may consistently be noted in this connection that he furnished the oak lumber for the construction of the vault in the office of the state treasurer in the old capitol in the city of Madison. In 1868, associated with two other representative citizens. Colonel Angell formulated the charter under which Sun Prairie was incorporated as a village, and he had the distinction of being chosen first president of said village, while since that time he has been called upon to serve in this capacity for many years, having been elected at varying intervals and having ever shown a lively and insistent interest in all that has concerned the welfare and material progress of the town and its people. Colonel Angell has an attractive residence in Sun Prairie, where he also owns considerable other real estate, while in the vicinity he has a finely improved farm of one hundred acres. He has been most successful in his business career, and for a number of years past has given considerable attention to the extending of financial loans on real estate security. He is liberal, generous and public-spirited, fair and honorable in all the relations of life and expecting the same attitude on the part of others, and he has the unqualified esteem of the entire community in which he has so long lived and labored and which owes so much to his interposition. He gave nine acres of land in the village to the fire department, the same to constitute a public park, the dedication of the park occurring on his birthday anniversary, June 20, 1903, and being a notable public event in the locality. In politics Colonel Angell has always been firm in his allegiance to the Democratic party, having cast his first presidential vote for that stanch patriot and statesman. General Andrew Jackson. He served as supervisor of Sun Prairie township for the long period of twenty-one years, and was twice chosen chairman of the county board of supervisors. For a number of years he was president of the Token Creek and Sun Prairie Anti-Horsethief association. He was the originator of the Sun Prairie Cemetery association, with which he was identified for fiftytwo years. He has been for many years a consistent and valued member of the local Baptist church, which he has served in the capacity of trustee, his wife also having been a devoted member of the same church. On January 16. 1844, Colonel Angell was united in marriage to Miss Electa L. Abernethy, who was born in Addison county. Vermont, in 1818, and who remained his faithful and cherished companion on the journey of life for more than half a century, the gracious association being terminated with her death, April 8, 1895. Of the six children of this union all died young except two sons. William Edwin, who was reared and educated in Sun Prairie, was a soldier in a Wisconsin regiment in the Civil War. and is now associated with his father in the lumber business ; Darwin C, who was likewise reared in Sun Prairie, passed fifteen years in the west, having been engaged in the coal business in Kansas, but he is now associated with his father, under the firm name of William H. Angell & Son.

Andrew E. Arneson is one of the most highly respected citizens of the village of Mt. Horeb, and while he has not been a lifelong resident of Dane county his residence has been so near the dividing l'ne that his interests have been identical with those of her citizens. He was born in Norway on February 25, 1840, and is the son of Allen and Sarah Arneson, who came to America in 1850 and located in the town of Blue Mounds. The father was a farmer in the old country and after his migration to the United States he followed the same occupation until his death, which event occurred in 1852. and the mother still resides on the old home place at the advanced age of ninety-six years. The subject of this review is one of eleven children born to these parents, seven of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. Mr. Arneson was permitted to attend school only about two or three months, but by close application of his talents and the exercise of his perceptive faculties he has overcome this handicap to a considerable degree and is a well-informed man. He commenced his independent career as a farmer when but nineteen years old at Ridgeway, Iowa county, Wis., where he purchased land and followed the occupation of a tiller of the soil until 1897. On account of ill health in the latter year he retired, and since that time has been a resident of Mt. Horeb. He was married in 18G1 to Miss Mary Anderson of Perry, Dane county, daughter of Halfer Anderson and wife, who settled in Dane county in 1854 and are both now deceased. To the subject of this review and wife 1here have been born eleven children, six of whom are living: Julia married C. M. Grimstad and resides in Brigham township, Iowa county; Andeline married G. G. Mandt and resides at Stoughton, Dane county; Emma married A. F. Gramm and resides in Mt. Horeb; Henry remains on the home farm ; Sarah married T. J. Dahle and is now deceased; Ida married Peter Nace and resides near Mt. Horeb; and Clarence remains at home with his parents. While living in Iowa county Mr. Arneson served as town assessor one year, and as chairman of the town board twelve years; and since his removal to Mt. Horeb he has served as president of the village five years and as supervisor three years. He is a member of the Lutheran church, is one of the trustees .if the local church organization, and fraternally he is one of the worthy and honored members of Ren. Dickison post,

G. A. R. The latter distinction is of course accorded him by reason of his service in the military service of the United States during the Civil War. He enlisted on February 14, 1865, in Company A, Forty-ninth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, as a private, and served with that command until November 8, 1865, when he was mustered out with his regiment, by general orders from the war department. The regiment left the state on March 8, 1865, and after reaching St. Louis was sent to Rolla, Mo., where it was engaged in guard duty during the greater part of the term of service. Mr. Arneson also had two brothers in the service, Christ Arneson. enlisted on October 19, 1861, in Company C, Fifteenth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and d ed on February 10, following, of disease contracted in the service. Allen Arneson entered the service on September 19, 1861, as a private in Company G, Sixteenth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served until June 5, 1865, when he was mustered out on account of the cessation of hostilities, having participated with Sherman in the March to the sea and the campaign of the Carolinas.

Christ Asbjornson, a prominent retired farmer of Stoughton, was born near Flekkefjord, Norway, January 7, 1840, and is a son of Asbjorn and Isabel (Thompson) Hanson, who immigrated to America in 1852, making Dane county their destination. They passed the first winter in Dunkirk township and in the following spring the father purchased eighty acres of wild land in Pleasant Springs township. He reclaimed a portion of the tract to cultivation and made good improvements on the property. He there continued to reside until 1885, when he returned to Dunkirk township, where he passed the remainder of his life, having attained to the venerable age of ninety-four years. He reared a family of four sons, Hans C, Tom, Peter C, and Christ. Tom is now deceased. The subject of this review received his early educational training in the schools of his native land, having been twelve years of age at the time of the family immigration to America. He was reared to manhood on the old homestead farm, in Pleasant Springs township, where he remained until 1885, when he purchased two hundred acres of land in Dunkirk township and removed to the same. In 1893 he bought another farm of two hundred acres, one hundred and sixty acres of the tract being in Dunkirk township and the remaining forty in Albion township. He still owns both farms. with the exception of eighty acres of the latter, which he sold. He continued to reside on the place first mentioned until 1901, when he retired and took up his residence in Stoughton, where he owns an attractive home, on East Main street. He has been most successful as a farmer, having- accumulated a handsome property and being one of the substantial and popular citizens of the county in which he has so long lived and so effectively labored. He has been one of the extensive tobacco-growers of the county, and his farms are largely devoted to this product at the present time. In politics Mr. Asbjornson is a stanch adherent of the Republican party, and he has been accorded distinctive marks of popular confidence and esteem. He served as supervisor of Dunkirk township for three years, was clerk of the school board two terms and in 1904 he was elected alderman of Stoughton, from the second ward, serving one term. Both he and his wife are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church in Stoughton. In 1878, Mr. Asbjornson was married to Miss Helen Severson, daughter of Sever Michaelson, one of the well known pioneers of Dane county, whither he came from Norway. The children of this union are three in number: Emma is the wife of Abram Severson, Thea is the wife of Trace Christehson, a prominent jeweler of Stoughton, and Andrew, the eldest of the three, is one of the successful farmers of the county.

General David Atwood, journalist and politician, was born in Bedford, N. H.. December 15, 1815, the scion of a vigorous and long-lived family. The stock was good English Puritan, and the pioneer of the family was John Atwood, who settled at Plymouth in 1643. The boy David had a strain of Scotch-Irish in his blood. Such scant education as he was able to secure was obtained in winter attendance on the district school of Bedford ; summers, he worked on the farm. Among his boyhood friends were Horace Greeley and Zachariah Chandler, later United States senator from Michigan. When only sixteen years of age he left home and was apprenticed to Tredway & Atwood, printers and law-book publishers, at Hamilton, N. Y. His brother. John, was the junior member of the firm. During the five years of his apprenticeship he became master of the printer's craft in all its departments. In the years 1838 and 1839 he travelled about 10,000 miles with a horse and wagon through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and several of the western states as a law-book agent. The experiences of those years were a source of much pleasure to General Atwood in other life, and his word-pictures of those pioneer days were always of remarkable interest. In 1839. when twentyfour years old. he joined with his brother. John, in the publication of the 1 familton Palladium, a weekly Whig newspaper. In the campaign of L840 lie was a vigorous supporter of General Harrison,.

and in that of 1844, of Henry Clay. His strenuous labors through these years undermined his health and compelled him to withdraw from the Palladium. He purchased a farm near Freeport, 111., where he met with nothing but misfortune, financially, and lost his savings. However, the two years spent on the farm had recruited his health, and he was enabled to return to his profession. It had long been his ambition to establish a daily paper at some state capital, and the new territory of Wisconsin, then in the full tide of western immigration, strongly appealed to him. The village of Madison was then but a name to Colonel Atwood, but he resolved to go there in the full assurance that it would develop with the territory, soon to become a state. He reached Madison, October 15, 1847, and at once became connected with the Madison "Express" at a small salary. His duties were manifold and arduous, and in his own words he was "editor, reporter, compositor, foreman, and all hands." He reported the last two sessions of the territorial legislature, and was in constant attendance as a reporter during the protracted session of the constitutional convention which drafted the organic law under which Wisconsin was admitted to the Union. In October, 1848, Colonel Atwood purchased the "Express," which appeared in November as the "Wisconsin Express" with many improvements. Only the in-i domitable will, courage, judgment and industry of young Atwood sustained the Wrhig "Express," as there were two opposition Democratic papers published at the capital, both of which were supported by ample capital as well as state patronage. In June, 1852, a consolidation was effected with a new Whig paper called the "Statesman," which had appeared in the spring of 1850, but the new enterprise failed, and out of the wreck. General Atwood by his own efforts founded the "Wisconsin State Journal," daily and weekly, whose first number appeared September 28, 1852. The "State Journal" was the only Whig paper at the capital until the organization of the Republican party in 1854, when it espoused the principles of that party, and has ever since been its champion. In 1853 he associated with himself Horace Rublee. afterwards minister to Switzerland under President Grant, and long and favorably known as the brilliant editor-in-chief of the "Milwaukee Sentinel." Mr. Rublee was succeeded by Major J. O. Culver, whose association with the "Journal" continued until January. 1877, after which General Atwood was the sole proprietor until his death. During his residence in New York. Mr. Atwood had been successively adjutant, major and colonel of Xew York militia, and in

L851, in Wisconsin, was appointed quartermaster-general of the state; in I80S he became major-general of the fifth division of state militia. In 1861 he was chosen to represent the capital district in the state legislature, and rendered active and efficient service in the work of raising and fitting troops for the front. Lincoln appointed him internal revenue assessor on the creation of that office in 1862, but he was removed from office by President Johnson in lsiiii for "offensive partisanship," the first Wisconsin officer thus sentenced. He was mayor of Madison 1868-9, and in the latter year received a flattering vote in the Republican convention for the nomination of governor. Hon. B. F. Hopkins, who represented the capital district in congress, died in January, 1870, and General Atwood was elected as his successor in the 40th congress, taking his seat February 23. He was an industrious and eminently useful representative, serving on the important Pacific railroad committee, and being instrumental in the passage of some of the important bills of the session. He declined re-election. From 1872 until the close of the Centennial in 1876, he served as commissioner from Wisconsin to the great international exposition, and was for a time president of the full body which embraced names of national reputation. In addition to the offices above mentioned. General Atwood served in various other capacities. He was a justice of the peace in 1849; a village trustee in 1854; for thirteen years treasurer of the State Agricultural Society, and twenty-four years a director; for sixteen years a member of and president of the board of trustees of the State Hospital for the insane ; for many years a member of the Madison school board, and for a time its president ; long a trustee and member of the executive committee, for five years the secretary, and for a long series of years the president of the Madison Mutual Insurance Company ; for a long time the president of the Madison Gas Light and Coke Company ; a director in several railroad enterprises; after 1849, one of the most active and useful members of the State Historical Society, and for eight years prior to 1876, a member of the Republican national committee. In 1849 he married at Potosi, Wis., Mary Sweeney, formerly of Canton, Ohio. There were born to them two sons and two daughters, the eldest of them Charles David, who was vice-consul at Liverpool from 1872-76, and later an able associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal; in 1874 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. A. J. Ward, one of the leading physicians of Madison; he died in 1878 at the beginning of a brilliant career; his son David is the fourth generation of David Atwoods.

Harry F. and Alary L. still reside in Madison at the old homestead on Monona avenue ; Elizabeth G. resides in Milwaukee, having married Edward P. Vilas, a distinguished lawyer, the brother of ex-Senator Wm. F. Vilas. In person General Atwood was of medium size, with dark blue, expressive eyes, and a large shapely head, set off in after years by a flowing white beard and hair. His features wrere fine and regular, and his face beamed with a kindly expression. He had a remarkably clear, analytical mind, a very retentive memory, was a charming conversationalist, and a political journal'st of rare power. He was a politician of the best type, and never permitted partisan rancor to interfere with his kindly intercourse with men of every political creed. He was a representative of the highest type of western pioneers, and under his hospitable roof, for more than forty years, were entertained a long line of politicians, journalists, statesmen, and scholars, representing many sections and countries. In his latter years, with his snow-white hair and long, flowing beard, he bore a striking resemblance to the portraits of the poet Bryant. His death created a void hard to fill. His editorial associates felt the loss of an inspiriting presence, the community at large that of a public spirited citizen, and his family lost a beloved and devoted father and husband. His death occurred December 11, 1889, after an illness of brief duration, and the end came calmly and peacefully.

Aslak B. Auby, of Norwegian origin,, is one of the successful young farmers of Pleasant Springs. Bjorn and Margaret (Olson) Auby, his parents, came to America from Telemarken, Norway, where they spent their youth and early married life. In 1860, they came over in a sailing vessel and landed at Quebec after a voyage of ten weeks. Thence they proceeded to Milwaukee and after a short stay decided to locate near Stoughton, where they rented a farm in section 3-4. After working this land for six years they were able to purchase eighty acres of farm land, which they improved and made their permanent home. Mrs. Bjorn Auby died in 1876 and her husband survived her until 1901. The family, consisting of six children, of whom four are living, has always been prominent in the Western Lutheran church, of which the parents were members. The children were educated in the district schools. Betsey, the oldest daughter, and Henry, the youngest son, died ; Annie, the second daughter, is the wife of L. L. Brote, a farmer of Pleasant Springs ; Ole operates a farm in Dunkirk and Lars is also a farmer. Aslak B. was born at Pleasant Springs February 28, 1869, and worked on the home farm until he was twenty-one years 4 - :ii of age. He then settled on the farm where he now lives and worked it three years, lie farmed O. K. Roe's farm for three years and finally purchased the first tract of eighty acres, commonly called the Jacobson place. Under his management the farm has been greatly improved and increased in value. Mr. Auby is a Republican in his political affiliations and was a member of the town hoard for two years and school treasurer for three years. September 24, 1890. he married Miss Mary Jacobson, daughter of Jacob and Mary Jacobson, also natives of Norway, who came to America in 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Auby have had four children;; John. Ruby, and Ren living, and Mildred, who died in infancy.