USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 41
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On his homestead Mr. Galbraith continued
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to make his home until 1886 and then moved to Balaton, having been appointed postmaster of that village by President Cleveland in May of that year. He also served a second term under President Cleveland. During his second term Mr. Galbraith erected a build- ing and engaged in the hardware business, which he has since followed. He deals in general hardware, shoes, groceries, etc. In the management of his store he is assisted by his son, Walter C., to whom he gave a half interest in 1906. The business is now conducted under the firm name of S. W. Galbraith & Son. Mr. Galbraith, in addition to his other duties, attends to the manago- ment of his farm, being the owner of 240 acres of land.
While a resident of Lyons township Mr. Galbraith served ten or twelve years as clerk of school district No. 11, having been the first clerk of the district. In Balaton he served as a member of the Village Coun- cil four years.
The marriage of Mr. Galbraith to Ellen Orbin, a native of Fort Elizabeth, New Jer- sey, occurred in Dodge county, Wisconsin, Jannary 14, 1863. Seven children were born to this union, of whom four are deceased. The living children are Ferdinand S., Walter C. and Lola P.
OLE A. BROUGHTON (1871), one of the first settlers of Vallers township, was born on a small farm in Vallers, Norway, Febru- ary 9, 1849, a son of Anders and Anna (Olson) Broughton. He was reared in his native land and at the age of eighteen set out alone to seek his fortune in America.
Upon his arrival in America young Brough- ton located in Iowa county, Wisconsin, where he worked at farm labor and in the pineries the following two years. He then moved to Trempealeau county and was occupied there until the spring of 1871 in the pineries and as a laborer on the railroad. Our subject had then by careful saving accumulated $120, and with this he came to Lyon county and took as a homestead the southwest quarter of section 6, Vallers township. The township was not organized at that time and there were only two other claims taken that year, John Hella filing on the northeast quarter of section 6 and John Anderson on the northwest quarter.
Times were strenuous for the homestead- ers, and the first few years of Mr. Brough- ton's residence in the township he went East during the falls and worked in the harvest fields. During the grasshopper years the posts took all his oats and he realized only about seven bushels of wheat to the acre. Better years came before long, however, and our subject prospered and im- proved his land, and today Mr. Broughton's fine 240-acre farm and fine home is an evi- dence of his thrift and perserverance. He helped organize the township, attended the first election, and has served on the town- ship board six years. He has also been a member of the school board of district No. 56 since it was organized.
Ole A. Broughton and Helena Nelson were joined in the holy bonds of matrimony in Yellow Medicine county March 10, 1874. She was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, Janu- ary 23, 1859, and her father and mother were Jonas and Marit (Melvatne) Nelson, natives of Norway. The father died in 1890 and the mother lives with her daughter and son-in-law at the advanced age of ninety-one years. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Broughton, their names being as follows: Andrew, Matilda, Annie, An- neta, John, Julia and Anton. Mr. and Mrs. Broughton belong to the Norwegian Lu- theran church.
ANDREW SANDEN (1872), whose parents were the first settlers in Shelburne town- ship, is a retired farmer of Florence. Leav- ing the farm in 1902, Mr. Sanden moved to Florence and engaged in the hotel and livery business. He sold his interests in 1910 to Erick Erickson and retired from active busi- ness life. Mr. Sanden is a stockholder of the State Bank of Florence and still owns a 200-acre farm in Lincoln county and an eighty-acre tract in Lyon county, besides his commodius home and six acres of land adjoining Florence.
In 1871 Peter and Karen (Corneliuson) Sanden, parents of Andrew Sanden, immi- grated to the United States from Norway. The family located first in Fillmore county, Minnesota, making a stay of only five months before moving to Mankato for the winter of 1871-1872. In the fall of 1872 the family came to Lyon county and home- steaded in Shelburne township.
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Our subject was born in Trondhjem, Nor- way, September 12, 1855. He attended the common schools until the age of sixteen, at which time the family moved to America. Andrew helped his father on the farm during the early years and experienced the hard- ships of pioneer days. During the summer months from 1872 to 1876 Andrew worked with a railroad construction crew. In 1876 a quarter section in Lincoln county was taken by the subject of our sketch as a homestead, and there he made his home for twenty-six years, until renting the place and making his residence in Florence.
March 17, 1888, Andrew Sanden married Mary Storle, a native of Norway and a daughter of Arnt and Olive (Storle) Storle. Mrs. Sanden was born November 6, 1867. Two children have been born to the San- dens. They are Clara, born June 7, 1895, and Alma, born July 24, 1900. Andrew San- den has three brothers living, named Hans, John and Andrew. Ingeborg ( Mrs. Erick Ronning) and Melena (Mrs. Paul Ronning), both of Florence, are sisters of our subject.
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Sanden are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Flor- ence.
C. M. GOODRICH (1869), retired farmer and for the past five years a resident of Garvin, is one of the county's old settlers. He is the owner of 213 acres of well-improved land in Custer township and is a stockholder in the Farmers Independent Elevator Com- pany of Garvin.
The Empire State is the birthplace and boyhood home of C. M. Goodrich. His father, Allen Goodrich, was a native of Con- necticut, and his mother, Elizabeth (Stey- ens) Goodrich, was born in Vermont Both are deceased. Our subject was born Janu- ary 17. 1846, and his first years were spent in New York State. In 1854 he and his mother and two sisters moved to Wisconsin and made their home on a farm. The follow- ing spring they moved to Olmsted county, Minnesota, where they resided until 1858. Then until 1862 they lived in Waseca county. They returned to Olmsted county for an- other year's residence and later spent several years in Rice county.
In 1869 Mr. Goodrich and his mother came to Lyon county, and they took adjoining
homesteads in Custer township in the early seventies. They were among the first set- tlers and their experience is the story of pioneer days, punctuated with struggles and hardships. Mr. Goodrich farmed on his homestead practically all of the time from the early seventies until he moved to Garvin a few years ago.
Mr. Goodrich is a member of the Masonic lodge. He is a respected citizen of the community and is enjoying a well-earned rest after a lifetime of hard and honest toil. He has watched the country grow and pros- per from the time where there was only an occasional settler's rude cabin to be found within a radius of miles of unbroken prairie until the present day, with farms of rich land and modern buildings.
JEROME MORSE (1871), of Lynd town- ship, is one of the first settlers of Lyon county. He was born in Colden, Erie coun- ty, New York, on February 13, 1858. His father, Milo B. Morse, a native of Island Pond, Vermont, went to Colden, New York, when a young man and married Clarinda Irish, a native of Utah City. They removed to Columbia county, Wisconsin, in 1868 and resided there one year. They then came to Minnesota, locating in Oronoco. Later they came to Lyon county, with C. H. Whitney. The father died at Steele, North Dakota, and the mother, aged seventy-four years, still resides at Steele with her three sons. There are four sons living: Jerome, Edward, Frank and William, the last three residing with their mother. One daughter, Phoebe (Mrs. Robert Bellingham), died in 1891.
Jerome Morse came to Lyon county with his father in 1871. The father pre-empted the southwest quarter of section 4, Lake Marshall township, now a part of the city of Marshall, and C. H. Whitney took the south- east quarter of the same section. They built a sod house, 16x24 feet, across the present Northwestern tracks. There they lived until the fall of 1872; then Milo Morse sold to the townsite company and home- steaded the southwest quarter of section 6. Lake Marshall township.
In 1877 the father sold to George Link and moved to Bellingham. Lac qui Parle county, where he purchased a farm and where our subject took a pre-emption claim.
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The latter lived on his place until the spring of 1882, when he went to Brown county, South Dakota, and homesteaded land, upon which he resided until 1885. He then moved to Lac qui Parle county and again took up his residence on his pre-empted farm, where he resided till 1893. On the latter date he sold out and went to Roberts county, South Dakota, and took a claim in the Sisseton country, where he resided until 1907. He then went to Lewistown, Fergus county, Montana, and worked at his trade of plas- terer until 1909. He returned to Lyon coun- ty and has resided in Lynd township since. He follows his trade of plasterer.
Mr. Morse was married in Marshall De- çember 20, 1878, to Melissa Smith, a native of Horicon, Wisconsin, born May 10, 1861. She is the daughter of Thomas B. and U. K. Smith. The former died during the Civil War in a hospital at St. Louis. The mar- riage of Mr. and Mrs. Morse was one of the first in Marshall. The license was secured from James Williams, who was then clerk of court. They have no children.
GREGAR AMUNDSON (1872). A pioneer settler of Lyon county, one of the few men who still live on the homestead they took in an early day, and one of the big land owners, farmers and stock raisers of Nordland town- ship is Gregar Amundson, who for forty years has lived on the southwest quarter of section 22. His farm consists of 560 acres on sections 22 and 27, improved by good substantial buildings and a fine home. He had practically no means when he came to Lyon county and his rise has been accom- plished by his own unaided efforts.
In Tellemarken, Norway, on October 10, 1850, Gregar Amundson was born. His par- ents were Amund and Ragnild (Levson) Ol- son, both of whom are buried in the old country. In 1872, when he was twenty-two years of age, Gregar broke home ties and journeyed to America. After spending two months in Boone county, Iowa, he came to Lyon county and took his claim in Nordland township, and upon that place he has ever since lived. After passing through the days of adversity that accompanied the grass- hopper scourge, he came upon prosperous times and is in comfortable circumstances. He is an extensive stock raiser and makes
a specialty of Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. He is a member of the Nor- wegian Lutheran church and a director of school district No. 25.
Mr. Amundson was married in Minneota May 12, 1878, to Annie Furgeson. She was born in Winnebago county, Wisconsin, De- cember 14, 1860. ITer father, Kittle Furge- son, was born in Norway and died in 1902. Her mother, Margaret (Helgeson) Furgeson, was also born in Norway and now resides in Minneota at the age of eighty-two years Mr. and Mrs. Amundson have twelve chil- dren, named as follows: Ferdinand A., Carl M., Ragnild, Fredericka, Clara, Freda, Alice, Anna, Rudolph, Leonard, Mabel and Abner.
EDWIN W. HEALY (1871). The oldest Lyon county settler now living in Tracy is Edwin W. Healy, who with his wife has for forty-one years resided continuously in Monroe township and the city of Tracy. There were only a few people living in southeastern Lyon county when they came and Mrs. Healy was the first American-born woman to live in Monroe township. The family experienced many of the hardships of pioneer days and are richly entitled to a place in this History of Lyon County.
In Dudley, Massachusetts, on the eleventh day of September, 1840, Edwin W. Healy was born. His parents were Davis and Zeruiah (Williams) Healy. Both are de- ceased, the mother having lived to the age of ninety-three years. Until he was ten years old Edwin attended the Dudley Ilill school and later the public school at Merino. He completed his schooling at the age of twenty years, having taken a course in Dud- ley Academy. For two years after quitting school Mr. Healy worked in the mills, and then until 1868 he worked at the carpenter's trade in Webster and Dudley.
In the spring of 1868 Mr. Healy came West. For three years he rented land and farmed in Houston county, Minnesota, and then in 1871 he took up his residence in Monroe township, Lyon county, where he has ever since lived. After taking up his resi- dence in Tracy Mr. Healy for a mimber of years worked at his trade and also conducted a feedmill. In the spring of 1911 he re- tired from active pursuits.
Mr. Healy owns a fine home in the city.
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He was one of the first clerks of Monroe township and one of those who organized the Methodist church. For a number of years he was one of the church trustees.
On September 22, 1864, occurred the cere- mony that made E. W. Healy and Sarah Bates man and wife. She is the daughter of John and Mary Ann (Jacobs) Bates, na- tives of Connecticut and early settlers of Dudley, Massachusetts, and was born August 29, 1847. They have two children, Fred W. and Arthur F.
OLE L. ORSEN (1874), retired farmer, has lived in Minneota since the fall of 1905. He is the owner of 320 acres of fine, im- proved land in Westerheim township and also of a fine residence and five lots in the vil- lage. Mr. Orsen was county commissioner from district No. 2 eight years and was street commissioner of Minneota one year. He is a stockholder of the Farmers & Mer- chants Supply Company and was one of the promoters and organizers of the Norwegian Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Eids- vold, Lyon county, of which he has been a director since its organization and of which he was for twenty-one years secretary.
The Norwegian Mutual Company was in- corporated February 22, 1879. The head of- fice is at Cottonwood, Minnesota, and the company is authorized to do business in fifty townships of the counties Lyon, Lincoln and Yellow Medicine. There are now over 2400 policy holders and the company has nearly $5,000,000 of insurance in force. The board of directors for 1912 comprises the following members: O. C. Wilson, Granite Falls, president; C. G. Nelson, Canby, vice presi- dent; A. E. Anderson, Cottonwood, sec- retary; I. L. Kolhei, Cottonwood, treasurer; O. L. Orsen, Minneota: H. G. Odden, Echo; H. P. Rodness, Clarkfield; Chris Wollum, Porter; and Chr. Ramlo, Hendricks, direc- tors.
Our subject was born in Romsdalen, Nor- way, February 28, 1849, and is a son of Lars O. and Magnild (Aandhal) Aasen, both of whom are dead. The parents came to Amer- ica in 1874 and located in Allamakee county, Iowa. Two children, Ole and Magnild, had preceded the family to America several years. The family moved to Lyon county and took a homestead on section 18, Wes-
terheim, in 1875, and there the father died eleven years later, the mother living on the farm until ten years before her death, June 6. 1910, at the home of her son Ole in Minneota.
Ole Orsen received part of his education in Norway and later attended high school two years in Monona, Iowa, one term at Waukon, and one year attended a common school of Allamakee county. In the spring of 1874 he came to Lyon county and took a homestead on section 18, in the town of Westerheim, where he farmed until moving to Minneota in 1905. Mr. Orsen is a mem- ber of the Hemnes Lutheran church of Lyon county and is a trustee. He was the first town clerk of Westerheim, holding office four years. served on the town board, school board and.as justice of the peace, and was one of the organizers of the township. To him belongs the honor of bestowing the name Westerheim upon the township.
In 1878 Ole Orsen married Theoline Strande, a native of Westre Thoten, Norway. They have the following children: Amalia. Lewis, Nickolai Martinus, Alfred, Ludwig, Magnild, Theoline, Mamie Attilia, Nora So- phia and Martin Olai.
REESE DAVIS (1871). One of the oldest settlers of Lyon county now residing in the county and a highly respected citizen of Marshall is Reese Davis. For more than forty-one years he has had a continuous residence in the county and he has seen it develop from a sparsely settled, treeless ex- panse of prairie to the populous and prosper- ous conditions of today. Only a few men have had more opportunity than he to par- ticipate in the history making of Lyon county.
In South Wales, on April 15, 1844, Reese Davis was born. At the age of three years he accompanied his parents to the New World and grew to young manhood in Jack- son county, Ohio. When a little past seven- teen years of age, on October 15, 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army and fought for the preservation of his adopted country. He served four years and seven months as a member of Company C, Fifty-sixth Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, having been discharged in May, 1866.
Among the battles in which Mr. Davis
MR. AND MRS. REESE DAVIS Residents of Marshall and Pioneers of Lyon County.
THR NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOP, LE-A> AND
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participated during his service were the fol- lowing: Pittsburgh Landing. April 6, 1862; siege of Corinth, May, 1862; Port Gibson, May, 1863; Champion Hill, May, 1863; siege of Vicksburg, May, June and July, 1863; Jackson, July 12 to 15, 1863; Carrion Crow Bayon. November, 1863; Sabine Cross Roads, April, 1864; Monette Ferry, April, 1864; Snaggy Point, May, 1864; and many minor engagements. At the close of the war he was stationed with his regiment at New Or- leans. Because of threatened trouble in Mexico, his regiment was retained in the service for a year after the close of the war.
Upon receiving his discharge in May, 1866, Mr. Davis returned to his home in Jackson county and went through a siege of serious illness. Upon the advice of his physician to seek a change of climate, in September, 1866, Mr. Davis moved to Blue Earth county, Minnesota. There he pur- chased an eighty-acre tract of land, upon which he resided until he came to Lyon county.
It was during the month of June, 1871, that Mr. Davis located in the county which has ever since been his home. He took as a soldier's homestead claim the southeast quar- ter of section 8, Monroe township, on which he resided about eight years, and to which he secured title. His first home was a 12x16 feet dug-out, and Mr. Davis asserts that some of the happiest days of his life were passed in that rude shelter. The dug- out was later replaced by a frame house. During the summer of 1872 Mr. Davis had a contract to do the grading for the Winona & St. Peter railroad between Lamberton and the future city of Tracy.
Mr. Davis lived on the farm until the rail- road was built westward from Tracy in 1879. Then he moved to Tracy and worked with the bridge builders on the new line between Tracy and Huron. He resided in Tracy until 1887, part of the time working at the carpenter's trade. In the year last mentioned Mr. Davis took up his residence in the county seat, where he has ever since lived. Until ten years ago he worked at his trade, and since that time he has lived a re- tired life. Mr. Davis is a member of Joe Hooker Post No. 15, G. A. R., of Tracy. He is a member of the Presbyterian church of Marshall and has been an elder of the church
since its organization twenty-one years ago.
The parents of the subject of this biogra- phy were Thomas E. and Nancy Davis. They came to the United States in 1847 and both died in Ohio. Four children of the family are living, as follows: Reese, of this review; Daniel, of Ironton, Ohio: Jane Davis, a widow, of Columbus, Ohio; and Ann Morgan, of Columbus, Ohio.
Reese Davis was married in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, January 22, 1868, to Jane Jones, a native of Ohio. They have the fol- lowing named five children: Esther, the wife of William Russell, of Moorhead, Min- nesota; Mary, the wife of Oscar Krook, post- master of Marshall; Thomas E. and John I. (twins), the former mayor of Marshall and a prominent attorney; and Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Regney, of Laurel, Montana.
JOHN S. OWENS (1874) owns 120 acres of the southwest quarter of section 26, Cus- ter township, and is one of the prosperous farmers of the community. His parents, Robert and Hannah (Jones) Owens, came to Minnesota from Kansas and lived for a time in Brown county before moving to Lyon county in 1874. The father is dead and the mother is living with her daughter, Mrs. Mary A. Weed, at Garvin.
John Owens was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, August 25, 1858, and while very young moved with his parents to Brown county, Minnesota. The lad received his early education in Brown county and fin- ished it in the common schools of Custer township, Lyon county. At the age of eighteen, his schooling being finished, John worked out at farm labor three years, after which he returned to work on the home farm until twenty-eight years of age, when he married and moved to his present farm, land which he had taken as a homestead at the age of twenty-one years. Mr. Owens has prospered and owns a valuable piece of farm land. He has been road over- seer of the township and is a stockholder of the Farmers Independent Elevator Company and the telephone company of Garvin.
April 21, 1886, was the date of the wed- ding of John Owens and Sephorah Roberts, a native of Wales. She was born March 25. 1866, and is a daughter of Richard and Mary Roberts, pioneer settlers of Lyon coun-
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ty and Lyons township. Mr. and Mrs. Owens are the parents of the following children: Lizzie May, Minnie, Winnie, Marion. Esther, Hazel and Garvin, all of whom, except Win- nie, reside at home. Mrs. Owens' father is dead and her mother resides at Russell. Mr. Owens is a member of the M. W. A. lodge of Garvin and was formerly an officer of the lodge. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church.
RICHARD BLAKE (1872), Lake Marshall township farmer. is a native of Ireland and was born at Kilcaske in 1848. He is the son of Charles and Mary (McCarthy) Blake, of whom the former died in Ire- land and the latter died in Minnesota at the age of eighty years.
When twelve or thirteen years of age our subject came to America with his mother and brothers, locating in Boston, Massachu- setts, where the family resided about eight- een months. He then moved to Grant county. Wisconsin, where he worked at farm labor and later at the trade of blacksmith in Platteville for several years. The year 1872 marks the date of his arrival in Lyon county, when he filed on the northwest quar- ter of section 18, Fairview township, as a homestead. He proved up on his claim and improved it. Later he purchased the north- east quarter of section 13, Grandview town- ship. upon which he built and where he lived until 1904. On the latter date he moved to Marshall and spent the winter there. In the spring he moved to a forty-acre tract on section 10, Lake Marshall township, which he owned. Later he purchased forty acres adjoining, making the eighty-acre farm upon which he now resides. Mr. Blake is a mem- ber of the Catholic church.
Our subject was married at Platteville, Wisconsin, November 20, 1870, to Margaret Hanlon, a native of Ireland. To them were born the following children: Charles P., born June 26, 1872. died May 11, 1874; Mary C., born August 6, 1874; John W., born March 10. 1877; Richard J., born March 1, 1879. died December 29, 1880; Samuel H., born April 19, 1881, died February 22, 1885; Fred S., born September 8, 1883, died Janu- ary 24. 1884. Mrs. Blake died January 31. 1884.
Mr. Blake was married a second time,
February, 1885, to Mary Versnick, a native of Belgium. She was born November 18, 1864, and is a daughter of Philip and Rosalie (De Bert) Versnick. To this union have been born the following named children: Elizabeth Julia Mae. born September 13, 1885; Charles E., born June 15, 1887; Syl- vester F., born December 12, 1888; James E., born April 14, 1891; Richard W., born February 28, 1893: Margaret E., born July 19, 1895; William J., born December 19, 1898; Leonard W., born April 23, 1901; Ed- ward L., born February 24, 1903; Irene H .. born October 3, 1905: Vincent George, born February 23, 1908.
MRS. OLAVA MYRAN (1874) is the widow of C. P. Myran, and she and her husband were early settlers of Lyon county and among the first in Shelburne township. Mr. Myran died September 28, 1907. and the widow still resides on the old homestead farm, the southwest quarter of section 20. The farm is run by two of her sons, Ole and Peder. Mrs. Myran also owns forty acres on the southeast quarter of section 19, Shelburne. She was among the first members of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Florence.
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