USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 42
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Our subject is a native of Opdahl, Nor- way, where she was born December 21, 1850, a daughter of Ole and Brielt (Storlie) Gor- seth, both of her parents being now de- ceased. She attended school during her early teens and remained at home helping her parents. In 1871 Miss Gorseth came to the United States in company with Mr. and Mrs. Peder Myran, the parents of the young man she later married. The young woman worked for private families in Mankato two years and then came to Lyon county, where soon after occurred her marriage to C. P. Myran.
The young couple made their home on the southwest quarter of section 20, which Mr. Myran had taken as a homestead in 1872 and which has been Mrs. Myran's home since her marriage. The Myrans experienced the trials and hardships of pioneer life, lived through the grasshopper era and the ter- rible winters of the early eighties, and wel- comed the prosperous years that followed. Mrs. Myran has watched the growth of the county from an unbroken prairie to one of
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the best farming regions in the Northwest.
Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Myran were the par- ents of eleven children : Peder (deceased), born December 3, 1873; Ole (deceased), born December 13, 1877; Peder, born October 26, 1875; Ole, born January 29, 188]; Andrew (deceased ), born January 27, I891; Carrie, born January 2, 1879; Lena, born June 10, 1883; Olive, born October 4, 1887; Inga (de- ceased), born October 4, 1887; Inga, born August 23, 1895; and Henry, born August 26, 1885.
ELLSWORTH EVANS (1873) is a suc- cessful Monroe township farmer who has seen the country develop from a wild prairie to the prosperity of the present day. His father, Solomon Evans, was born in Newton, Wales, in 1818 and came to America about 1844, settling in Utica, New York, and later moving to. Wisconsin. In June, 1863, he settled in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, and ten years later took a homestead in Custer township, Lyon county, where he lived until his death on February 16, 1894. Solomon Evans' wife. Anna (Evans) Evans, was born in Newton. Wales, in 1818 and died June 26, 1896, in Lyon county.
At Oconomowoc, Waukesha county, Wis- consin, Ellsworth Evans was born Decem- ber 19, 1861. When about one and one- half years of age he accompanied his par- ents to Blue Earth county, and later he came with them to Lyon county. He lived on the old homestead until six years after his marriage in 1891. Ellsworth acquired his education in the country schools and dur- ing his young manhood witnessed the trying experiences of the grasshopper days and the big blizzards. The family home in Cus- ter was built of lumber hauled from New Ulm, and this rude cabin was covered with sod. The building still stands on the place.
Ellsworth Evans was married July 16, 1891, in Monroe township, to Mary Edwards. She was born in Cambria, Blue Earth county, Minnesota, April 2, 1867, a daughter of Wil- liam and Margaret (Davis) Edwards. To Mr. and Mrs. Evans have been born two children, Roger and Raymond, July 15, 1892, and January 1, 1894, being the respective dates of their birth. Our subject farmed the old place for six years after his mar- riage and then moved to the west half of
the northwest quarter of section 30 in Mon- roe township, which has since been his home.
Mr. Evans raises considerable stock in ad- dition to his general farming. He is a share- holder in the Garvin Co-operative Elevator Company and is a director and was for many years the president of the Garvin Creamery Company. For the last five years he has been chairman of the Board of Supervisors of the township, of which he was previously a member, and he has served on the board of directors of school district No. 72. h addition to his eighty-acre farm on section 30, Mr. Evans owns the southwest quarter of section 24 and forty-six acres cn sec- tion 19.
JOHN MONROE (1874) is a retired farmer of Cottonwood and is one of the early set- tlers of Stanley township. His father, Wil- liam Monroe, and his mother, Martha (Mc- Farland) Monroe, were both natives of Cape Britain, and the father when a young man was employed as a sailor on vessels plying the waters in the vicinity of Halifax and on the Great Lakes.
John Monroe was born in Bruce county, Ontario, February 16, 1860, and when he was only fourteen years old the family moved to Lyon county, the father taking a home- stead in Stanley township, the southwest quarter of section 2. That was our subject's home for the next fourteen years, and at the age of twenty-eight he bought a quarter on section 36, Lucas township, and there pursued his vocation of farmer until bring- ing the family to Cottonwood to live some thirteen years ago.
Since making his home in the village Mr. Monroe has served eight years as police officer. His record in that office and his integrity and high standing as a public citi- zen made him a formidable candidate for the office of sheriff in the election of 1910. Mr. Monroe being defeated by Mr. Grannan, the present incumbent, by only sixty-four votes. Mr. Monroe has spent some time in the Rainy Lake region, having purchased timber land in Beltrami county a few years ago.
The subject of this sketch was married in Stanley township February 5, 1892, to Sadie E. Gary, a daughter of John Gary,
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a Stanley township settler of 1874. Mrs. Monroe's birthplace is Ontario, Canada. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe are Gladys and Howard. A son, Leland, died when three years old.
Fraternally, John Monroe is a member of the A. O. U. W. and the Masonic lodges, and his wife belongs to Equity Lodge No. 221, of Cottonwood.
The aged father of John Monroe died in 1910, having lived to be eighty-seven years of age. He lived on the old Stanley town- ship homestead until the death of his wife fifteen years ago. Afterwards he returned to his old home in Cape Britain, where he resided until his death.
ALVAH R. TOWN (1871), manager of the elevator of the Eagle Roller Mills at Bala- ton. came to Lyon county when he was only two years of age. He is the son of two of the oldest settlers of Rock Lake township, who now live in Balaton.
His parents. Alvah S. and Sarah R. (Clark) Town, were born in the eastern states, set- tled in Indiana in an early day, resided there a number of years, and in 1871 became resi- dents of Lyon county. Alvah S. Town and his three brothers, Lucius, Julius and Ralph, came together and each took as a home- stead a quarter of section 22, Rock Lake township, adjoining the present platted vil- lage of Balaton. Of these brothers, Lucius still lives on the homestead, Julius is dead, and Ralph lives at Rockford, Illinois.
Alvah Town's claim was the southeast quarter of the section. On it he erected a little shack with lumber hauled from Heron Lake, in which the family lived several years. The devastation brought by the grass- hoppers proved too much for the Town fan- ily, and in 1875 they left the country and returned to their former homes in Indiana. Ten years later, however, they returned, lived on the farm two years, and since that date have lived in Balaton. Besides our subject there is one other child in the fam- ily, Effie (Mrs. Elmer Hughes), of Flint, Indiana.
Alvah R. Town, the subject of this review, was born at Salem, Indiana, February 12, 1869. He came to Lyon county with his par- ents in 1871, returned to Indiana with them in 1875, and came back to the county again
in 1885. After spending two years on the farm he became a resident of Balaton, and that village has since been his home. Alvah worked in the Balaton creamery two years and then took up carpenter work, which he followed until 1902. That year the Eagle Roller Mills erected an elevator in Balaton and Mr. Town was given the position of manager, which he has since filled.
The Eagle Roller Mills elevator was erected in Balaton in the fall of 1902. The head office of the company is at NNew Ulm, from which it operates twenty-four plants in Minnesota and thirty-nine in South Da- kota. The present officers are as follows: Charles Salverson, president; William Sal- verson, first vice president; J. H Siegel, sec- ond vice president; Charles Vogtel, secre- tary; H. L. Beecher, treasurer. The con- pany deals in grain, coal, flour and feed.
Mr. Town was married at Balaton in March, 1889, to Frankie L. Jones, a native of Waseca county, Minnesota. To them have been born the following named seven chil- dren: Jule, Verne, Harold, Bessie, Roy, Helen and Lulu. Mr. Town holds member- ship in the A. O. U. W. and M. W. A. lodges.
JASPER L. HAVENS (1874) is the owner of a fine quarter section farm in Amiret township and has been a continuous resi- dent of the county for the past thirty-three years. He was born in Green county, Wis- consin, November 23, 1859, and is a son of Luther and Lovina (Palmer) Havens.
Luther and Lovina Havens, natives of New York, moved to Wisconsin when quite young. The father was a farmer. and when the Civil War broke out he enlisted. His army service broke his health and he died in 1865, at which time the subject of our sketch was only six years old. When eight years of age Jasper moved with his mother to Waseca, Minnesota, and four years later he was placed in the Soldiers' Orphans Home at Winona, where he remained until 1874.
Jasper's mother married again, moved to Lyon county in 1873, and took as a home- stead the southeast quarter of section 24. Amiret township. There our subject went to live in 1874, and the next few years were spent in working out at farmi labor in Amiret township and in the vicinity of Waseca, to which place he returned for a period. In
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1879 Mr. Havens and his two brothers proved up on a homestead, the northwest quarter of section 21, Amiret township, to which they had fallen heir upon the death of their father. Later Jasper bought his brothers' interests and is now proprietor of the quar- ter section.
The subject of this sketch is a stock -. holder of the Farmers Elevator Company, the Creamery Company of Tracy, and the Amiret State Bank. He has been called upon to serve the township on its governing board and was clerk of school district No. 23 three years. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.
The ceremony which united Jasper Havens and Elizabeth Purves in the holy bonds of matrimony was performed in Amiret town- ship September 30, 1889. She was born in Wankesha county, Wisconsin. November 13, 1868, and is a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Johnston) Purves. Her parents were natives of Scotland and both are de- ceased, the father having died in 1889 and the mother in 190S.
THOMAS D. SEALS (1874) is the oldest living settler of Minneota and a man who has played a most important part in the affairs of that village. He has seen the town grow from a place of two shacks to the prosperous municipality of today. He has been en- gaged continuously in business there for thirty-six years, his business interests now consisting of a general merchandise store, a wholesale produce establishment and farming.
The pioneer whose name heads this review is of Scotch-German ancestry. His father, Spencer Seals, was born in Scotland and early in life became a resident of Penn- sylvania; his mother was born in Pennsyl- vania, of German ancestry. Both parents died when our subject was a child.
Thomas D. Seals was born to these par- ents while they were residents of Penn- sylvania but while on a journey in Tennes- see. The date of his birth was October 23, 1837. His life has been an eventful one. Left an orphan at a tender age, he grew to manhood in Washington county, Penn- sylvania, where he received his education.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Seals joined the volunteers in the defense
of his country, serving in both the army and navy. He enlisted in the navy in New York and his ship, the Galata, saw service in Southern waters. Part of the time it acted as convoy to mail steamers and visited many foreign waters, its principal station being Hayti. Mr. Seals was in the army at the time of the battle of Bull Run and he was wounded in that engagement. lle was in the service until the close of the war.
After peace was declared Mr. Seals spent several years traveling, visiting the South and many parts of the western frontier. He made the trip to California in 1870 and made the trip up the Missouri river from St. Louis to Yankton with General Custer in the spring. of 1872. Our subject located in Flandrean a little later and opened a store and trading post for the Sioux trade. He then estab- lished a store at Lake Benton, conducted it a year, and then moved the stock to Marsh- field, Lincoln county, and founded the first business enterprise there. A few months later, in November, 1874, he moved the stock to Minneota, where he has ever since been in business.
Mr. Seals selected that location after look- ing the country over with a view to finding a healthful place in which to live. At that time he weighed only 100 pounds and was a dyspeptic. He has never been ill since and soon after locating at Minneota he weighed 150 pounds. He attributes it to the healthfulness of this part of the coun- try.
Upon his arrival to Minneota in the fall of 1874 Mr. Seals found the town to consist of only two buildings, a blacksmith shop and N. W. L. Jager's little shack contain- ing a few goods. He engaged in the drug and general merchandise business and soon had a prosperous trade. At the present time, besides his business interests in Minneota, Mr. Seals devotes his time to farming, he and the family owning about 600 acres of land in Yellow Medicine county. For twenty years Mr. Seals held the office of justice of the peace for Minneota. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
In Minneota, on December 28, 1879, Mr. Seals was united in marriage to Edith Ken- yon, a native of Minnesota and a daughter of Charles P. and Amanda M. Kenyon, early settlers of Lyon county. Mr. and Mrs. Seals have an adopted daughter, Dorothy Seals.
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who is fourteen years of age and a high school student.
Mr. Seals has a sister, Anna C. Spinks, of Tennessee, and a half-sister, Mrs. R. T. White, of Alabama.
MRS. ANNA MASTERS (1868), resident of Garvin, is the widow of Henry C. Mas- ters, who died in May, 1908. She was born at Dayton, Ohio, August 17, 1836, and is a daughter of Russell and Amanda (Gunn) Randall, both of whom are deceased.
Henry C. Masters was born in Springfield, Illinois, May 27, 1831. His parents were Robert and Nancy Ann (Taylor) Masters. February 24, 1856, he was married to Anna Randall of this sketch. To this union the following children were born: Edwin (de- ceased ), George (deceased), Frank, Samuel, Luanna (Mrs. Edward Edwards), of Gar- vin; Maxson and Clark.
Our subject and her husband were among the very first settlers in Lyon county. They took a homestead in Custer township in 1868 and commenced farming. In those days the settlers were compelled to drive to New Ulm for groceries and their mail, a distance of about eighty miles, and the story of their early years in the county is the story of the earliest pioneer residents. Mr. Masters died in Kalispel during a trip to Montana in 1882.
- MRS. ERICK RONNING (1872) is the widow of Erick Ronning, one of the earliest homesteaders in Shelburne township, who died in July, 1908. She is the owner of a comfortable home and twenty-five acres of land adjoining Florence.
Mrs. Erick Ronning was born in Trond- hjem, Norway, December 23, 1843, the daugh- ter of Peter Anderson and Carrie (Corneliu- son) Sanden, neither of whom is living. Our subject attended school in Norway and at the age of twenty-two she came with the family to this country. In 1870 she was married to Erick Ronning, a native of Nor- way. She and her husband came to Lyon county in 1872 and settled in Shelburne, where the husband farmed until his death. Mrs. Ronning has since lived in town. The . Ronnings were the parents of the following children : Knute, born March 10, 1871; Pe-
ter, born June 27, 1873; Menna, born No- vember 10, 1875; Carrie, born April 12, 1878; Edward, born August 22, 1880: and Inga, born August 21, 1882.
Mrs. Erick Ronning has been for many years a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church.
R. M. ADDISON (1872) is the senior mem- ber of the firm of R. M. Addison & Son. hardware dealers of Marshall, and he is the pioneer business man of that city. He has played a most important part in the his- tory of Marshall during the forty years of his residence in that city and has done much toward the upbuilding of the city. He has served as mayor of Marshall and was treasurer of Lyon county one term. For the past twenty years Mr. Addison has been vice president of the First National Bank of Marshall.
In Manchester, England. our subject was born. When a child he accompanied the family to America and for a time lived in Providence, Rhode Island. When he was ten years of age the family came West and settled in Iowa county, Wisconsin, and there he grew to man's estate. On the thir- teenth day of August, 1862, Mr. Addison enlisted as a private in Company E, Twenty- third Wisconsin Infantry, and served in the old army of the Tennessee under General Grant. He participated in the Vicksburg campaign and other engagements in the rear of Vicksburg, including Port Gibson. Jack- son, Big Black River Bridge, Champion Hill, etc. At DeCroe's Point, Texas, two years after he entered the army, he was commis- sioned first lieutenant. He was the highest commissioned officer of his company and was in conimand during the rest of the war, bringing the company back to Wisconsin for muster out. The father of our subject, Rob- ert M. Addison, served as a surgeon in the Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Regiment during the Civil War.
After the war Mr. Addison located at Waseca, Minnesota, formed a partnership with William Everett, now deceased, erected the first business building in that village in 1867, and engaged in business there until his removal to Marshall late in 1872. For the purpose of engaging in business in the new town of Marshall, the firm of William
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Everett & Company was formed, composed of William Everett, R. M. Addison and Charles A. DeGraff, the latter the head of the railroad contracting firm which was building the railroad through Lyon county.
Mr. Addison hauled lumber from New Ulm and erected the first building for business purposes in the village. The railroad was then being built and the town had not yet been platted. The frame shanty he erected, 16x13 feet with a lean-to, was put up in what proved to be a street, directly in front of the site of the present Lyon County Na- tional Bank. In that building Mr. Addison began his business career in Marshall. The firm carried a large stock of goods and the railroad workmen patronized it liberally. The daily sales at the store at times reached $2000 to $2500. At the time of locating in the town Mr. Addison also engaged in the implement business in partnership with H. Tripp, who carried the mail between Red- wood Falls and Lynd. Mr. Tripp was a prominent man in the early history of the county and had many friends. The partners established their business on the corner back of the present Addison Block-a business now conducted by R. M. Addison & Son.
After the completion of the railroad to Marshall Mr. Addison and S. H. Mott pur- chased the pioneer store of William Everett & Company, and two years later our subject became the sole proprietor of the business. He conducted the store for a time in the building on the corner now owned by Ar- thur Drew and later occupied the Reichert Block. In 1887 he erected the handsome business block he now occupies and engaged in the hardware business exclusively. For a few years Frank Reed was a partner in the business, and twelve years ago Harry Addison became his partner, since which time the firm has been styled R. M. Addi- son & Son.
R. M. Addison was married at Waseca, Minnesota, in February, 1867, to Ella A. Wood, a native of New York State. She died in Marshall in February, 1906. Mr. Addison has three children: Harry, Edith (Mrs. S. Kennan), of Helena, Montana; and Robert M., Jr. Mr. Addison is a member of D. F. Markham Post No. 7, Grand Army of the Republic.
BENJAMIN F. THOMAS (1871) is the
proprietor of a confectionery, cigar and no- tion store at Garvin and is one of Lyon county's oldest settlers, having made set- tlement in Custer township forty-one years ago. In the early days he played an impor- tant part in the affairs of his community.
Mr. Thomas was born in Allegany coun- ty, Maryland, September 24, 1847, and spent the first thirteen years of his life in his native state. He came West with the fam- ily in 1860 and lived one year in Columbia county, Wisconsin. In 1861 he went with the family to La Crosse county, Wisconsin ; in 1863 to Rock Island county, Illinois; in 1868 to Boone county, Iowa; in 1870 to Blue Earth county, Minnesota; and in 1871 to Lyon county.
The Thomas family made the trip to Lyon county with ox teams, and settlement was made on section 4, Custer township. The father took as a homestead claim the north- east quarter of the section and our subject the southeast quarter. A log house, with shake roof and puncheon floor, was built on the place and in that the family lived for some time. No railroad had yet penetrated the county, and during the first winter Ben- jamin Thomas made five trips by ox team to Lake Crystal to bring in material and supplies.
Mr. Thomas farmed the homestead until 1884. Then he gave up farming and located at Minnesota Lake, where for two years he bought grain for Hodges & Hyde. He then located at Hankinson, North Dakota, and for many years was employed as a grain buyer. He returned to Lyon county in 1901 and for two years conducted his farm. Mr. Thomas then became a resident of Garvin. He managed the Sleepy Eye elevator at that point a year and a half and then bought and shipped stock for a year or two. He established his present business in 1907.
In 1876 Mr. Thomas circulated a petition asking for the right to organize the town- ship in which he lived, under the name of Reno, in honor of the general in charge of the forces against the Indians in Montana. Before the required permission was granted, however, the Custer massacre had occurred and the township was named in honor of Gen- eral Custer, whose life had been sacrificed a few months before. Mr. Thomas was the first clerk of Custer township and served sev-
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eral terms. He is a member of the Masonic lodge.
The parents of Benjamin Thomas were two of the best known residents of southern Lyon county. They were Benjamin and Catherine (Jones) Thomas, natives of Wales, who came to America at the ages of nineteen and twelve years, respectively. They were mar- ried in Allegany county, Maryland, and there all their children, excepting Ruth, were born. Both parents died on the Custer homestead, the father in 1884, the mother in 1892. The children of the family are Mrs. William Hughes, of Garvin; Ann (Mrs. Richard Hughes), deceased; Benjamin, of this biog- raphy; James J., of Tracy; Ruth (Mrs. Rees Price), of Tracy; and Joseph B., of Garvin.
Our subject was married in Custer town: ship to Loretta Delong. She was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, and died March 7, 1897, at the age of thirty-eight years. Mr. Thomas has three children: Edgar, who is engaged in railroad work in the West; Harvey, of Wells, Minnesota; and Hattie, who attends school at Wells.
WILLIAM E. BERRY (1874), one of the oldest residents of Amiret township and one of its prosperous farmers, is the proprietor of the southeast quarter of section 15. This farm used to be known as the Rowell home- stead, owing to the fact that its former owners were Louis and Patience (Vrooman) Rowell, parents of our subject's wife. The Rowells, natives of New York and Pennsyl- vania, respectively, came to Lyon county in 1877 and Mr. Rowell purchased the land from the railroad company.
Our subject's parents were William and Adelia (Fuller) Berry and were natives of New York and Maine, respectively. They set- tled in Lyon county in the spring of 1874, and the father took as a homestead a quarter in Sodus township and a quarter as a tree claim. The family made their residence on the homestead and their first few years in the county were full of hardships and priva- tions, as the grasshopper years were just beginning. They made their home on the farm until their deaths.
William Berry was born in Clark county, Wisconsin, April 7, 1863, and accompanied his parents to Lyon county at the age of eleven years. In 1888 he married and moved -
to the farm in Sodus township which his father had taken as a tree claim when the family came to the county. There Mr. Berry resided until the fall of 1906, when he moved to his present farm in Amiret township, hav- ing purchased the same a short time pre- vious. He has put very substantial improve- ments on the place and has one of the finest farms and homes in the township.
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