USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 50
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OLE S. PETERSON (1878) is a Wester- heim township farmer and a pioneer of Lyon county. He owns and farms the northwest quarter of section 9.
Mr. Peterson was born in Iceland April 27, 1863. When he was fifteen years old, in 1878, he accompanied the family to America and to Lyon county. They resided on section 16, Westerheim township, one year and then the father took a homestead in Limestone town- ship, Lincoln county. There young Peterson worked for neighboring farmers until the spring of 1886. At that time he bought his present farm, and he has ever since been engaged in farming it. The first three years he made his home with Joseph Josephson, who resides across the road from his place; then he built on the place.
Ole Peterson has three half-brothers, Frank, Joseph and Sigrud. He also has two step- brothers, Hal and George Benson. His par- ents are Segfinn and Segurborg (Segertson) Peterson, now residents of Minneota.
The marriage of Mr. Peterson to Mrs. Annie Johnson occurred in Winnipeg, Can- ada, October 27. 1907. She also was born in
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Iceland, came to America in 1896, and prior to her marriage lived in Winnipeg. By a former marriage she is the mother of two daughters, Mabel and Lizzie. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson have had two children, Seg, who was born February 17, 1910, and died August 28, 1911, and Joseph S., born May 29, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson are members of the Icelandic Lutheran church of Westerheim township.
LEWIS B. LELAND (1879) is a farmer of Nordland township who has a thirty-three year residence in Lyon county to his credit. He lives upon the farm he took as a home- stead in the early days, the southeast quarter of section 28.
Mr. Leland was born in Vos, Norway, De- cember 11, 1847, a son of Bernard and Mag- lina (Grimestad) Leland. The family came to the United States in 1849, in company with Knute Nelson, now United States sen- ator from Minnesota, and landed in New York on the nation's birthday. The Lelands made settlement in Dane county, Wisconsin, and in 1873 moved to Buffalo county of the same state.
It was in 1879 that Lewis B. Leland left Wisconsin and came to Lyon county. He purchased a pre-emption claim to his present farm, changed the filing to a homestead, proved up on it, and engaged in its cultiva- tion until 1894. That year he moved to Minneota and for the next fifteen years he worked at the carpenter's trade and con- ducted a wagon shop there. In 1909 Mr. Leland returned to the farm. For seven or eight years he was clerk of school district No. 25 and for four years he was a justice of the peace. He is a member of the Nor- wegian Lutheran church.
Mr. Leland is a man of family, having been married in Stoughton, Wisconsin, May 9, 1872, to Martha Gilderhus. She is a native of Dane county, Wisconsin, and was born October 1, 1850. Her parents, Ole and Mar- tha (Overland) Gilderhus, were born in Vos, Norway. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Le- land are Luella, Josie, Lillian. Beatrice, Mar- vin, Mabel and Winnifred.
ALLEN BATES (1875). Of the few people who were living in the little village of Tracy
when Allen Bates and his family located there in 1875, not one is now a resident of the city and they are the oldest settlers. Mr. Bates was engaged in business for many years but during the past eight years has been retired from active pursuits.
The gentleman whose name heads this re- view was born July 15, 1845, at Dudley, Massachusetts, the son of John and Mary Ann (Jacobs) Bates. The former died April 15, 1873, and the latter in January, 1871. Allen Bates spent his boyhood days attend- ing school and made his home in his native town until nineteen years of age.
At that age, in October, 1864, he enlisted as a member of Company M, First Massa- chusetts Heavy Artillery, and fought for the Union cause during the closing days of the Civil War. He participated in the battle of Petersburg and several skirmishes. At the time of the assassination of President Lincoln he was in Washington, and he was on the detail that paraded at the president's funeral. Mr. Bates was mustered out at Philadelphia June 16, 1865.
After the war Mr. Bates returned to his old home and in the fall of 1866 he was married. After engaging in the shoe manu- facturing business for a short time, he moved to Ames, Iowa, where for eight months he was employed at the Northwest- ern Railroad Company s depot; then he re- turned to the Bay State and engaged in his former occupation until moving to Lyon county.
In the spring of 1875 Mr. Bates became a resident of the village of Tracy, then being founded, and until the fall of 1880 he was engaged in business there. During the next seven years he lived at Orange, Massachu- setts, employed as an engineer by the New Home Sewing Machine Company. Returning to Tracy in the spring of 1887, Mr. Bates engaged in the restaurant, confectionery and notion business. Ile discontinued the res- taurant the following year, but conducted the store until 1904, when he retired. In the fire of 1893 he was burned out, but he rebuilt and continued the business.
At Dudley, Massachusetts, cn September 30, 1866, Mr. Bates was united in marriage to Mary C. Wheelock, who was born in Mendon, Massachusetts, July 28, 1851. Her parents were Henry and Mary (Thornton) Wheelock. Her mother died January 9,
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1861; her father December 8, 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Bates have two children, both residents of Tracy. They are Esther MI., the wife of Charles G. Porter, and Clara I., the wife of O. J. Rea. Mr. and Mrs. Bates are members of the Methodist church of Tracy and he holds membership in Joe Hooker Post, G. A. R., and the Modern Woodmen lodge.
MAXWELL J. AURANDT (1878), one of the early settlers of Shelburne township, is one of the well-to-do farmers of that com- munity.
Mr. Aurandt was born in Blair county, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1862. In 1878 he came to Lyon county with his parents and settled on the northwest quarter of section 26, Shelburne, his father taking it as a homestead. The father died October 23. 1885, and since that time Maxwell Aurandt has had charge of the old home place, be- sides farming the east half of the south- west quarter of section 23, which he bought in 1900.
The parents of Maxwell Anrandt were Da- vid and Susan (Bossom) Aurandt, both de- scended from good old German stock. David Aurandt was born in Pennsylvania January 10, 1824. His wife was born May 16, 1824, in Maryland, and still lives with her son. Maxwell, on the old homestead. To the Aurandts have been born the following named children: George W., William A., Daniel W., Samuel C., Melinda C. (Mrs. George Westbrook), all of Blair county, Penn- sylvania; David E., of Carlton, Minnesota; and Maxwell, of this sketch. Two other children, Margaret E. and Jacob B., are dead.
Maxwell Anrandt was married in Balaton December 13, 1893, to Jennie V. Crouch, daughter of James Crouch, a homesteader of Rock Lake. His wife died May 1, 1895, since which time his aged mother and his niece, Anna M. Aurandt, have kept house for him.
Mr. Anrandt has held various offices in the county. He was elected treasurer of school district No. 68 at the first annual - election and held the office thirteen years. He is at present clerk of the district and has held the office for the past seven years. He has served on the township board con- tinnonsly for seventeen years and is the present chairman, an office he has held for six years.
ROY W. WILLIAMS (1879) is a young farmer and stock raiser residing in Lake Marshall township and owns considerable land in that township. Roy is a native of Lyon county and was born at Marshall April 28, 1879, a son of James W. and Ada F. (Webster) Williams, pioneer residents of the county. The father is a native of Con- necticut and was born in 1847; the mother is a native of Ohio and was born in 1858.
Roy received his early schooling at Mar- shall, where he was a student until eighteen years of age. Then he took a course in the Minnesota School of Business at Minne- apolis. After completing his work there he purchased the farm he now operates, the southwest quarter of section 20, Lake Mar- shall township. He engages in stock rais- ing, including Durham cattle, Duroc-Jersey hogs and Shropshire sheep. He holds mem- bership in the Masonic and Modern Wood- men lodges. Mr. Williams has been treas- urer of school district No. 7 for the past six years and was road overseer in Lake Marshall township three years. He holds stock in the Lyon County Agricultural As- sociation. Our subject has been a very successful farmer and stock raiser.
On April 24, 1901, Mr. Williams was united in marriage to Martha Bellingham, a daugh- ter of Charles and Louise (Durst) Belling- ham, pioneer residents of Marshall. Mr. Bellingham was born in England and Mrs. Bellingham in Maryland. Mrs. Williams was born in Lake Marshall township September 13, 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are the parents of two children, Margaret, born August 20. 1904, and James Roy, born June 7, 1911.
CARY J. WIMER (1883) is the proprietor of a drug store in Minneota and one of that village's pioneer business men, having been engaged in business there nearly thirty years. During his long residence in Minne- ota Mr. Wimer has taken an active part in the affairs of his village and community, having served as president of the Village Council and held other offices of trust.
Mr. Wimer descends from two old Ameri- can families who established residence in the colonies prior to the American Revolu- tion. His paternal grandfather, John Wimer, was born in Maryland in 1785. His maternal great-grandfather, Daniel Ansley, came from
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England before the war and served in the American Army under General Washington, taking part in several engagements with the British forces commanded by his brother.
The parents of our subject, Thomas R. and Melinda A. (Ansley) Wimer, were both born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania. After their marriage, they moved to Granville, Ohio, where the former studied for the ministry and was later ordained as a Bap- tist minister. He enlisted in the Forty- sixth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Com- pany I, of which regiment he was a hospital steward and later chaplain. He died while taking part in Sherman's march to the sea and was buried in the National Cemetery in Georgia. Mrs. Wimer resides in Dayton, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of the following three children: Cary J., of this sketch; Ida M. (Mrs. Thomas J. Starr), of Kittanning, Pennsylvania; Thomas H., who died in Marshall April 17, 1907.
To these parents Cary J. Wimer was born October 6, 1854, in Indiana county, Pennsyl- vania. Cary spent his boyhood days at home and attended school, fitting himself for a teacher. He attended the Dayton and Glade Run Academies one term each and spent two summers in the State Normal School in Indiana county. He then taught a number of years in Pennsylvania and one year in Kansas. He spent the winter of 1881 study- ing medicine, and the next year, in company with his brother, Thomas H., he purchased a drug store at Plumville, Pennsylvania. A year later the brothers sold out and moved to Minneota, where they purchased a drug store. In the meantime, our subject was teaching school and studying pharmacy through correspondence with the National Institute of Pharmacy, from which he was graduated.
The Wimer brothers conducted the store in partnership two years. Then Cary pur- chased his brother's interest and has con- ducted the store alone since. He has one of the largest drug stores in the county and carries a complete, up-to-date stock. He also has other interests. He is a stockholder and a director of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Minneota, owns a farm in Yellow Medicine county, and a quarter section of land in Kanabec county, Minnesota. He has been a school officer of Minneota for the past twelve years and has served as justice
of the peace. Mr. Wimer is a member of the Masonic and Modern Woodmen lodges.
Mr. Wimer was married near Frostburg, Maryland, June 23, 1886, to Alice M: Durst, a native of that state and a daughter of Michael Durst, who settled near Marshall in grasshopper days. Michael Durst returned to his native state and a number of years later came back to Minnesota and died at the home of his son near Preston, Minne- sota. Mr. and Mrs. Wimer are the parents of the following named five children: June L., Eva F., Leon A., Homer E. and Alice C. Their daughter June L. attended Carleton College and is now a music teacher; Eva F. is a school teacher and also attended Carle- ton College; Leon A. is a student in the Pharmacy Department of Highland Park College, of Des Moines, Iowa.
LUDVIG E. LARSON (1876), who owns and farms the southeast quarter of section 18, Lucas township, has lived in Lyon coun- ty since he was three years of age. He is a prosperous farmer and has taken a leading part in the affairs of his community.
His parents, Haldor and Engel Marie (An- derson) Larson, were born in Norway in 1849, came to the United States when chil- dren, and were married in Wisconsin. They came to Lyon county in 1876 and home- steaded the farm now owned by their son. The mother died on the homestead in the spring of 1880 and the father two years later. There are two other children in the family, Theodore, of Broderick, Saskatche- wan, Canada, and Bergene (Mrs. Julius An- derson), of Tacoma, Washington.
Ludvig was born in Jackson county, Wis- consin, July 28, 1873. He came to Lyon county with his parents in 1876 and until their deaths made his home with them. Thereafter until he was thirteen he lived with an uncle, John Anderson, and two years after that with another uncle, George An- derson. At the age of fifteen he began to make his own way in the world and has since been farming except for a time when he worked at the livery and dray business and in a hardware store in Cottonwood.
The homestead had remained in the fam- ily and in the spring of 1896 Ludvig and his brother began its cultivation. The partner- ship continued until 1911, when our subject
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purchased his brother's interests and became sole owner of the farm. All the improve- ments the farm has were made by the brothers.
Mr. Larson was one of the organizers of school district No. 89 and he has been clerk of the district since its organization. He served as assessor of his township two years and was a member of the township board four years, three years as its chairman. He is now serving his second term as township clerk. He and his family are members of the United Lutheran church.
Mr. Larson was married in Cottonwood November 28, 1895, to Amelia A. Roberts, who was born in Yellow Medicine county February 13, 1876. Her father is Louis Dib- ble, but she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Roberts. Mr. Larson and his wife have eight children, named as follows: Harvard Eugene, born October 29, 1896; Alfred Les- lie, born Márch 10, 1898; Amy Luella, born July 5, 1900; Hazel Eunice, born March 15, 1903; Edward Ludvig, born February 20. 1905; Walter John, born March 6, 1907; Mil- dred Ruth, born February 14, 1909; Elfreda Marie, born December 18, 1911.
MRS. C. A. JOHNSON (1878) is the widow of Charles A. Johnson. She has lived in Lyon county thirty-four years and resides on the old homestead, the northwest quarter of section 2, Coon Creek township.
Mrs. Johnson was born in Vallers, Norway, September 28, 1850, the daughter of Nels and Mary (Olson) Nelson, both of whom died in this country. Miss Betsey Nelson attended school in her native country until sixteen years of age and then, in 1866, accompanied her parents to America. The family lo- cated in Winona county, Minnesota, and there two years later Miss Nelson became the wife of Charles A. Johnson, the date of the marriage being October 22, 1868.
Charles A. Johnson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, May 4, 1840. At the age of twelve years he came to America, spent two years in Chicago, and then until the outbreak of the war resided in Winona county, Minne- sota. He enlisted in 1861 in the First Minne- sota Light Artillery and served three years and nine months in the service. After the war Mr. Johnson again. settled in Winona county, bought land there, and farmed until
moving to Lyon county in 1878. He took a homestead in Coon Creek township and engaged in farming continuously until his' death on July 25, 1908.
Since the death of her husband Mrs. Johnson has made his home on the farm, which is conducted by her sons, Carl and Harry. They raise Jersey and Shorthorn cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. The family owns 250 acres of land in Coon Creek. Mrs. Johnson has stock in the Farmers Mutual Telephone Company.
Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, as follows: Mary Ann, born Sep- tember 14, 1869; Emma, born May 25, 1872, died May 11, 1908; Lillie, born February 19. 1878; John, born December 17, 1880; Carl, born February 20, 1885; Oscar, born May S. 1886, died May 10, 1901; Harry, born March 2.1. 1892.
ARTHUR FREESE (1879), of Lake Mar- shall township, was born in Sibley county, Minnesota, November 15, 1872. His parents were Henry and Sarah (Schmidt) Freese. The latter died in May, 1911, and the former resides in Lyon county part of the year, spending the winters in California. Arthur attended the Marshall schools until twenty years of age, after which he worked for his father on the farm nine years.
In 1902 he purchased from his father the southeast quarter of section 7, Lake Marshall township, where he has resided continuously since. In 1910 he erected a fine residence on his farm and in 1911 a fine barn. Mr. Freese is chairman of the Township Board of Supervisors, to which he was elected in March, 1911, and was a member of the board previous to that time. He was road overseer in Lake Marshall township several years. He holds membership in the Masonic lodge of Marshall. In addition to farming, Mr. Freese raises considerable stock, including full-blooded Shorthorn cattle and Duroc-Jer- sey hogs. He makes a specialty of selling blooded stock for breeding purposes.
On October 12, 1910, occurred the mar- riage of Mr. Freese to Minnie E. Mellen- thin, a daughter of August and Anna Mellen- thin. Mrs. Freese was born November 12, 1885, in Lynd township. She is the second of a family of three children.
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BJORN B. GISLASON (1879) is a lawyer and real estate dealer of Minneota and has lived in Lyon county for the past thirty- three years. He was county attorney in 1905 and 1906. Mr. Gislason is a native of Iceland and was born May 29, 1873, coming to Lyon county with his parents in 1879 and locating in Westerheim township. He is a son of Bjorn and Adalborg (Johnson) Gisla- son. The former died in July, 1906, aged seventy-nine years; Mrs. Gislason resides on the old home place with her son, J. B. Gisla- son. They are the parents of nine chil- dren, six boys and three girls, as follows: Eyjolfur Bjornson (Mrs. John Snidal), of Westerheim township; Olive and Walter, of Badger, Minnesota; John B., Mrs. S. J. Holm, Bjorn B., Haldor B., a teacher in the Univer- sity of Minnesota: and Arni B.
Bjorn made his home with his parents on the farm for several years, attending the country schools, the Minneota schools and the Marshall High School. He served in the Spanish-American War, in Company A, Thir- teenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and saw service in the Philippines, his regiment participating in thirty-two engagements.
After his discharge from the army Mr. Gislason again took up his studies, gradu- ating in 1900 from the Law Department of the University of Minnesota. After his grad- uation from the university Mr. Gislason lo-
profession for one and a half years. He then moved to Minneota, where he has since been engaged in the practice of law. In 1900 he assisted in the organization of the Globe Land and Loan Company, capitalized at $50,000. This is one of Minneota's prin- cipal enterprises, the firm doing a thriving business. In 1900 its land sales amounted to half a million dollars. There are two branch offices, one at Elbow Lake and one at Badger, Minnesota. The law firm has been conducted under the name of Gislason & Gislason since January, 1911, when our subject admitted A. B. Gislason. The sub- ject of this review is a member of the Masonic, Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen lodges.
Mr. Gislason was married in Minneapolis October 7, 1904, to Joan T. Peterson, a na- tive of Iceland. They have three children, Bjorn B., Rose and Harry Sidney Payson.
JOHN J. LAUDENSLAGER (1877), of Marshall, is one of the oldest business men of that city, having conducted a saloon there for the past thirty-five years. Besides his saloon business he engages extensively in the ice business with his son, Richard S. He and his sons own 400 acres of Lyon county real estate and he owns his residence in the city, the ice houses with twenty-seven acres of land, and other lots.
John Laudenslager was born in Gratz. Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, August 24. 1845, and resided there until he was sixteen years of age. In August, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Fiftieth Pennsylvania Regi- ment, at Harrisburg, and served a two-year enlistment. He located at St. Paul in 1863 and re-enlisted in Company A, Fifth Minne- sota, and served as a member of that regi- ment until the close of the war. He took part in the battles of Gettysburg, the second battle of Bull Run and Fredericksburg and participated in the campaigns in Missouri and Tennessee.
After the war Mr. Laudenslager located at New Ulm, Minnesota, to which place his parents had in the meantime removed, and there he resided until 1875, engaged in the saloon business. He settled in Winona and conducted a salcon and hotel until burned out two years later. He lost everything he had in the fire and moved to Marshall in
cated in Lake Benton and practised his . 1877 with just $2.00 to his name. Until
February, 1878, he tended bar in a Marshall saloon, and the next month he engaged in the saloon business on his own account in a little shack on the site he now occupies. the building being destroyed by fire in No- vember, 1892. He built his present building in 1893. Soon after locating in Marshall he engaged in the ice business in a small way, the beginning of his present prosperous busi- ness. Mr. Laudenslager's son Charles con- ducts the saloon and his son Richard S. is his partner in the ice business. Mr. Lau- denslager is a member of D. F. Markham Post, G. A. R.
Our subject comes from an old Pennsyl- vania family of English origin. The parents. Jonas and Sarah (Smith) Laudenslager, were born in Pennsylvania and their ancestors had lived there for several generations. The fam- ily located at New Ulm, Minnesota, on Janu- ary 1, 1863, only a few months after the town had been attacked during the Sioux
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War, and both parents lived there until their deaths. Mrs. Laudenslager died June 11, 1872, the anniversary of both her birth and marriage. Jonas Laudenslager was a promi- nent citizen of New Um. He was probate judge of Brown county several years and was one of those instrumental in the or- ganization of the first Lutheran church in the city. He died at New Ulm in 1899.
In the Laudenslager family were thirteen children, of whom the following named eight are living: Harry, John J., Wilhelmina (Mrs. Conrad Hamm), of St. Paul; Elizabeth (Mrs. Richard Pferle), of New Ulm; Mary (Mrs. Peter Penning), of New Ulm; Sarah (Mrs. Tobias Pferle), of New Ulm: Jonas, of St. Paul: Riley (Mrs. John Sigler), of Brookings, South Dakota.
ARNE SWENNES (1875) owns and farms 400 acres of land in Eidsvold township and Burton township. Yellow Medicine county, the home place being the southeast quarter of section 2. He has been a resident of Lyon county thirty-eight years and is rated as one of the substantial farmers of his township.
Mr. Swennes was born in Nordre Amdal, Vallers, Norway, September 10, 1858, and in June, 1870, he came with his parents to America. The family lived in Walworth county, Wisconsin. five years and came to Lyon county in 1875. The northwest quarter of section 2, Eidsvold township, was taken as a homestead, and on that farm Arne lived with his parents twenty-five years.
In 1900 Mr. Swennes moved to his present farm, which he had purchased eight years before. He built a home on the place, other- wise improved it, and has since resided there. With the help of his five sons he farms his entire holdings. During the Al- liance and Peoples Party days Mr. Swennes took a prominent part in local politics. He has held several township and school offices.
On the old homestead in Eidsvold, on June 8, 1892, Mr. Swennes was united in mar- riage to Effie A. Doane. She was born in Pepin county, Wisconsin, June 16, 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Swennes have five sons, Sid- ney, Olaf, Harold, Arne and Lee.
Ole A. and Ingrid ( Ulvstad) Swennes were the parents of our subject. The father died in Eidsvold in 1906 and the mother in 1908.
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