USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 53
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98
CHARLES J. SPONG (1883) located in Clifton township immediately upon com- ing to Lyon county in 1883. He purchased the southeast quarter of section 2 in part- nership with his brother August and soon after bought the brother's interest. Later Mr. Spong bought the southwest quarter of section 1, eighty acres on section 11, and sixty-four acres on section 13, and he is now the owner of 464 acres of Clifton township's choicest farming land. Stock raising is also claiming much of Mr. Spong's attention. He is partial to Shorthorn cat- tle and Poland China hogs and he has a splendid flock of Shropshire sheep.
Mr. Spong came to the county from Illi- nois. He was born in Sweden August 5, 1855, and was brought up in the old coun- try. In his young manhood he learned the carpenter's and cabinet maker's trades and worked at them some time in Sweden. It was in 1879 that he came to America and located in De Kalb county, Illinois, where he worked at farm labor three and one-half years. In 1883 he came with his brother to Lyon county and bought land, and he has since then been a resident of Clifton township. He is a director and share- holder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Milroy. For ten years he served as a member of the school board of district No. 42, and his church affiliations are with the Evangelical Association church. He has been a class leader since the Clifton church was organized and Sunday School superintendent for the past fifteen years.
342
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Charles Spong's marriage to Gustava C. Grip took place in De Kalb county, Illinois, March 3, 1883. She was born in Sweden February 13, 1853, and died May 3, 1889. By her marriage to Mr. Spong she became the mother of two children, John W., born February 21, 1884, died January 14, 1911, and Oscar M., born July 29, 1886.
On December 24, 1889, our subject was married at Marshall to Augusta M. C. Dahl. She is a native of Sweden and her parents, Peter and Caroline (Johnson) Dahl, still live in the old country. She and Mr. Spong are the parents of the following children: Harry B., born October 25, 1890; Paul H., born May 13, 1892; Frank A., born Jan- uary 4, 1894; and Ruth E. A., born August 19,1898.
The parents of our subject are Chris- topher and Johanna (Swenson) Spong, and they are still living in the Fatherland. Be- sides his fine farm land Mr. Charles Spong owns a house and seven lots in Marshall.
WILLARD J. VAN DUSEN (1879) farms the south half of the southwest quarter of section 4, Monroe township. He has lived on the place ever since his father took it as a homestead thirty-three years ago, and since the father's death in Febru- ary, 1907, Willard has had charge of the place.
Willard's father and mother were Charles E. Van Dusen and Fanme E. (Staley) Van Dusen. The father was born at Canton, Ohio, January 17, 1843, and was brought up on a farm. At the age of sixteen years he moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he made his home several years and where he married in the fall of 1865. In 1866 the young couple located in Medford, Min- nesota, where they lived several years, then moving to Lyon county and taking as a homestead the farm where our subject now resides. Mrs. Charles Van Dusen was born in Kalamazoo May 24, 1845, and is living on the old homestead in Monroe with her son Willard. The +Van Dusens and the Staleys are both descendants of old colonial families, and the family histories date back to the earliest settlement of the colonies.
Willard Van Dusen was born in Med- ford, Minnesota, August 24, 1867, and lived on the farm near that town until 1879,
when he came with his parents to Lyon county. He has lived on the Monroe town- ship homestead practically ever since. Wil- lard had some interesting experiences dur- ing his early days in the county. During the blizzardy winter of 1880-81 he teamed between Tracy and Sleepy Eye for Tracy merchants and carried passengers. He made five trips that winter, one trip taking him fourteen days.
June 8, 1893, Willard Van Dusen was married to Annie Lee, who was born in Norway, March, 1876, and came to this country at the age of ten years. She died February 6, 1904. To Willard Van Dusen and his wife three children were born, Al- bert E., Clarice E. and Frank E.
SPURGEON ODELL (1889), president of the Marshall State Bank and a former clerk of the district court of Lyon county, is one of the substantial citizens of the county seat-a man who has taken an active part in the business and political life of his community.
Mr. Odell is a native Minnesotan, having been born at Oronoco, Olmsted county, July 6, 1860. At the age of twelve years he moved to Faribault county, and there he grew to manhood. He was one of the first graduates of the Wells High School and he completed his education with a two years' course in a college at Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1884 Mr. Odell moved to Granite Falls, where he taught school and worked at the painter's trade until 1889.
In the month of August, 1889, Mr. Odell became a resident of Lyon county. For five years he was associated with the North- western Elevator Company at Green Val- ley station. He was elected clerk of the district court in November, 1894, moved to Marshall, and during the next eight years held the county office, having been re-elect- ed in 1898. From the first of 1902 until November 1, 1905, Mr. Odell was travel- ing agent for the Burchard Hulburt Invest- ment Company, of St. Paul. On the date last mentioned he purchased a half interest in the firm of D. D. Forbes & Company, real estate, loans, collections and insur- ance, and for several years he engaged in that business with James A. McNiven, the firm being styled Odell & McNiven. On
ยท
343
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
June 15, 1909, Messrs. Odell and McNiven and S. J. Forbes organized the Marshall State Bank and have since been associated in its management. Mr. Odell is president; Mr. McNiven, vice president; and Mr. Forbes, cashier.
For three years, 1907-09, Mr. Odell was mayor of Marshall. In 1902 he was the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, on the ticket headed by the late Leonard A. Rosing, but was defeated with the rest of the state ticket. Mr. Odell holds mem- bership in the Chapter, Blue Lodge and Commandery of Marshall, in Osmun Shrine of St. Paul, and in the Knights of Pythias and Elks lodges.
Mr. Odell was married June 27, 1894, to Effie M. Bomeroy, of Sparta, Wisconsin. They have three children. Lottie M., Althea B. and Spurgeon E.
HERMAN P. MEYER (1881) is the owner of a fine quarter section, the north- west quarter of section 1, Rock Lake town- ship, and 120 acres on sections 35 and 36, Lyons, and he farms both places. Mr. Meyer makes his home on the Rock Lake quarter.
Michael and Julia ( Peters) Meyers, par- ents of our subject, were natives of Ger- many. Herman was born in the Father- land August 10, 1879, and the family moved to America when Herman was a baby two years old, settling in Rock Lake township in the spring of 1881. The father died in 1885; the mother is a resi- dent of Balaton. Herman grew up on the Rock Lake farm and attended country school in the district until twenty years of age. He then worked out at farm labor in the county until the fall of 1902, in which year he rented the Julius Meyers farm in Rock Lake and farmed it five years, in addition to farming his own quarter on section 1.
In the spring of 1907 Mr. Meyer greatly improved the buildings on his farm. In the summer of 1910 he purchased the 120 acres in Lyons and now has 280 acres of fine land to look after.
The wedding of Herman Meyer and Anna Stankey occurred January 9, 1903, at Bala- ton. Mrs. Meyer is a native of Wisconsin and was born October 18, 1886. She is
a daughter of Charles and Albertina (Leli- man) Stankey, pioneer settlers near Ripon, Wisconsin, and now residing in Lyons town- ship, Lyon county. Mr. and Mrs. Herman Meyer are the parents of five children, Elsie, Alma (deceased), Myra, Esther and Viola. The Meyers are members of the German Lutheran church of Balaton.
DR. EDWARD T. SANDERSON (1881) is a physician of Minneota and has resided in Lyon county for the past thirty-one years. He is a native of Iowa and was born at Xenia on April 20, 1875. When a young boy he moved to Nebraska and in 1881 to Lyon county. He received his early education in the schools of Lyon county and St. Olaf's College.
When thirteen years of age young San- derson started out in life for himself. Ten years were spent in the lumber business, working at various places in South Dakota for the Laird-Norton Lumber Company, in North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa for the Smith & Rogers Company, and in Wiscon- sin for the Ellefson Lumber Company. He also spent three years as assistant cashier in a bank at. Lake Preston, South Dakota. In 1901 he went to Chicago and took up the study of medicine at the Bennett Med- ical College, from which he was graduated in 1905. Dr. Sanderson was secretary of and professor of anatomy during 1906 and 1907. He then returned to Minneota and has since been engaged in practice.
The subject of this review is a son of the late Dr. Samuel E. Sanderson, of Min- neota, one of the pioneer physicians of Lyon county and one of the best known practitioners in this section of the state. He was married to Eliza Ellefson. Both were natives of Dane county, Wisconsin, where their parents settled in an early day, having emigrated there from Norway. They made settlement in SpkaskKonong town- ship, which was the original settlement place of the Norwegian colony in that state. The mother of our subject died in 1902 and the father in 1910. They were the parents of the following children: Ed- ward T., of this sketch; Frederick W., a lumber dealer of Madison, Wisconsin; The- resa, a trained nurse of Madison; Docto '
344
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Anton Sanderson, who is practising at Min- neota; Melville, a student.
Our subject is a member of Masonic. Elks and Modern Woodmen lodges and the Tau Alpha Ipsalon fraternity. He is a member of the American Medical Associa- tion, the Minnesota State Society and the Lyon-Lincoln Medical Society, of which he is censor and a delegate to the State So- ciety. He is county physician.
Dr. Edward Sanderson was married at Eastman, Wisconsin, on December 31, 1906, to Miss Harriett Wallin, a native of that state. They have one child, Elsie Theresa.
REV. WILLIAM JOSEPH STEWART (1905), pastor of St. Edward's Catholic Church of Minneota since September 10, 1905, is a native of Ireland. He was born in Cashel, county of Tipperary, July 14, 1875, and is the eldest son of Jamieson and Mary (Moloughney) Stewart, the former of whom is deceased, and the latter still residing at the old home in Ireland.
Until fifteen years of age the boy William attended the Convent and Christian Brothers" Schools in his home town. In 1890 he entered Rockwell College, Cashel, where he began his classical studies. After three years at that college he continued his pre- paratory course for the seminary under the private tutorship of the Very Rev. Daniel Canon Ryan, P. P., Clonoulty, county Tipper- ary. Our subject entered St. Patrick's Col- lege, Thurles, Ireland, as a student in 1896, and having completed his two years' course of philosophy and four years' course of the- ology, was ordained priest for the Arch- dioceses of Cashel and Emly by His Grace the Most Reverend Thomas Fennelly, D. D., on June 21, 1903.
After his ordination Rev. Father Stewart came on the mission to America and received appointment from Archbishop Ireland as as- sistant pastor to St. Joseph's Church, St. Paul. There he labored until he was sent as pastor to St. Edward's Parish, Minneota, in 1905.
FRANK W. WEBB (1886), deceased, was among the first business men in Amiret and was a resident of the village twenty-six years. He was, perhaps, the town's most
prominent and best known business man. Mr. Webb was a stockholder and the vice president of the Amiret State Bank, and for many years he directed the management of his 480 acre farm in Amiret township.
William W. and Mary Ann Webb, parents of Frank Webb, were natives of England. and after coming to America both located in Buffalo, where they were married. They then moved to Jackson county, Wisconsin. where they made their home until their deaths. They left three children, Thomas H. Webb, of Tracy, A. J. Webb, of Melrose, Wis- consin, and Frank Webb, of this sketch.
Frank Webb was born in Jackson county, Wisconsin, January 5, 1859, and he grew to manhood in that state. After the death of the parents Frank and Thomas Webb came to Minnesota and found work on farms in the southern part of the state. In 1886 they be- gan their business career in Amiret. The brothers established a small store and were identified with the town's development in no small degree. In addition to his mercantile business Frank conducted the Van Dusen elevator, the first in the town, thirteen years. and held the office of postmaster fifteen years. In the late eighties the brothers divided their interests, and Frank remained in control of the store at Amiret.
In 1908 our subject suffered a severe loss in the burning of his store and much of its contents. The business had grown and Mr. Webb had erected a large building, and at the time of the fire he was carrying a $10,000 stock of general merchandise, dry goods. groceries, shoes, hardware, etc. The owner was fairly well insured and immediately be- gan the construction of a fine new brick building and soon had replaced his stock and was actively continuing business. There is no doubt, however, that the loss of his building and stock by fire was a serious blow to Mr. Webb, and while he was able to rise to the situation financially his health refused to stand the strain, and his physical break- down dated from that time. He sought medi- cal aid at St. Paul and Rochester but his case seemed to be not within the range of medical help. Mr. Webb's death, from anemia, occurred at Amiret August 13, 1911. Until about three weeks before he died he was able to be around and in a measure to attend to his duties in the store.
In 1889 Frank W. Webb was married to
St. Edward's Church
Where Mass Was First Said
John O'Connor
P. P. Ahern
Rev. W. J. Stewart
Proposed New Church
Robert Culshaw
H. J. Tillemans
THE NEW TORS PUBLIC LIBRARY
345
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Inez Marshall, a native of Jackson county, Wisconsin, and a daughter of William H. Marshall. To this union were born four children, Lester, Hobart, Marshall and How- ard, all of whom are living.
KNUTE SWENNES (1875). A pioneer settler and one of the prominent citizens of Eidsvold township is Knute Swennes, who owns and farms the northeast quar- ter of section 2. He has lived on the farm he now owns since he was eleven years of age and he has seen northwestern Lyon county develop from a trackless prairie to one of the best farming communities of the state.
Knute Swennes was born at Valders, Norway, January 2, 1863. He came to the United States with his parents in 1870, and after living in Walworth county, Wiscon- sin, five years came with the family to Lyon county in 1875. The trip was made in wagons and the father selected as his homestead claim the land now owned by the son. At that time there was not a house within sight of the claim, and the nearest neighbor was E. K. Kjorness, three miles southeast. Ten miles to the east lived Ole Brusven, there were a few set- tlers ten miles to the west, and there was practically nothing nearer than thirty miles to the north.
The Swennes family erected on their claim one of the best homestead cabins of the county. The lower story was built in- a side hill and sheeted with lumber; the second story was built of lumber; and it was quite a comfortable home at that time. Five years later the pioneer home was re- placed by a more pretentious building, and later still the present two-story, ten-room house was erected.
The grasshoppers brought destruction to several crops, but the family succeeded each year in harvest- ing enough wheat to carry them through the succeeding winter. They were obliged to burn hay during the memorable winter of 1880-81.
Ever since coming to the county as a boy thirty-eight years ago Knute Swennes has lived on the old homestead. During boyhood days he attended the district school and helped with the work on the farm; later he remained to manage the
farm for his father. He came into posses- sion of the farm in 1900 and has since operated it to his own account. Mr. Swennes was assessor of Eidsvold town- ship a number of years. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen lodge.
Knute Swennes is a son of the late Ole A. and Ingrid (Ulvestad) Swennes, who lived on the Eidsvold farm many years. The father died in 1906, the mother two years later. Ole A. Swennes took an active part in the business and political life of his township and was an influential citizen. He was one of the organizers of school dis- trict No. 39 and held school office many years. With O. L. Orsen and E. K. Kjor- ness he organized the Norwegian Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and he wrote the by-laws of the original company.
Three sons and two daughters comprise the Swennes family. They are Arne, who resides on the southeast quarter of sec- tion 2, Eidsvold; Knute, of this biography; Inger (Mrs. Ole E. Rye), of Eidsvold town- ship; Ola, Jr., a hardware merchant of Flaxton, North Dakota; and Anna, the wife of J. O. Hovland, a retired merchant of Flaxton.
The subject of this review is a man of family, having been married to Marie John- son December 16, 1903. She is a native of Eidsvold township and was born Feb- ruary 25, 1881. Her father, L. P. Johnson, was born in Sweden, and her mother, Marit (Nyhagen) Johnson, was born in Norway. They settled in Eidsvold township in 1877. Two sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Swennes: Knute B., on December 5, 1904, and Ola Odin, on February 28, 1907.
ED. GITS (1883), dealer in general mer- chandise at Ghent, first came to that vil- lage when a child six years of age, when the town was not much larger than he was. Although a young man, he has built up a prosperous business and is meeting with deserved success.
Ed. Gits was born in Belgium January 19, 1876. When six years old, in 1883, he came with his parents to America and his first home in the New World was Ghent. He lived with his parents until sixteen years of age and then went to Faribault, Minnesota, and clerked in a store for sev-
346
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
eral years. In 1898 he enlisted in Com- pany B, Twelfth Minnesota Volunteer In- fantry, for service during the war with Spain. He was stationed with his regi- ment at Chickamauga and Lexington and was mustered out of the service in 1899. Then he became a member of the Home Guards of Duluth and went to Kootche- chink and assisted in suppressing an In- dian outbreak on the international bound- ary line.
After that service Mr. Gits returned to Ghent and for five years he was manager of the C. M. Youmans lumber yard. In 1907 he bought a store building of Joseph Pierard and stock of general merchandise of Aime Vanhee and has since been en- gaged in. that business. He handles dry goods, groceries, shoes, furnishing goods, notions, crockery, etc.
Mr. Gits was married in Ghent on No- vember 8, 1904, to Louise Schreiber, they being the first couple married in the new Catholic church. Mrs. Gits was born on her father's homestead in Westerheim township. She is the daughter of Mathews J. and Johanna (Brewers) Schreiber, who settled in the county in 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Gits have two daughters, Juliet and Prudence, and a son, Wilfred Edward, born November 14, 1911.
For several years Mr. Gits served as recorder and treasurer of Ghent. He is a member of the Catholic church and of the Catholic Order of Foresters lodge, of which he has been chief ranger since its organization.
Francis and Louise Gits, the parents of Ed. Gits, also reside in Ghent and have done so since they came from Belgium in 1883. Francis Gits was one of the early business men of Ghent and one who has done much to bring it to its present stand- ing. At one time and another he con- ducted a blacksmith shop, general store, hardware store, hotel and livery barn and erected six or seven of the buildings in the village. He has also engaged quite extensively in farming and burned the first and only brick ever manufactured in the town.
In the Gits family are seven children, as follows: Paul, Julius, Joe, Victor, Clem- ence (Mrs. Charles Foulon), Edmund and Arthur. Prudence, who became the wife of Gustave Vergote, is deceased.
SNORRI HOGNASON (1877), of Minne- ota, was born in Iceland May 13, 1846, a son of Hogni Gunlaugson and Kristin Snor- radottir, both now deceased. Snorri re- ceived in his youth such education as was common in Iceland at that time. He was brought up and worked on a farm until 1873, when he came to America and worked on farms in Iowa and Green coun- ties, Wisconsin, three years. In 1876 he located in Goodhue county, Minnesota, and a year later took a homestead on the north- west quarter of section 4, Westerheim township, Lyon county, where he farmed until 1885.
That year Mr. Hognason located in Clark- field, Minnesota, where he built the first hotel and conducted it until 1890. He sold out and returned to Lyon county, locating in Minneota, where he has since been engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance business. He has a nice resi- dence property in the town, is one of the progressive citizens, and is an active mem- ber of the Icelandic Lutheran church. Mr. Hognason has been justice of the peace in Minneota and Westerheim and was one of the organizers of, and for three years a trustee of, the school district in which he resided in Westerheim township, also serv- ing on the Board of Supervisors. While a resident of Clarkfield he was a member of the Board of Education three years and justice of the peace.
Mr. Hognason was married May 18, 1879, to Wilborg Peterson, a native of Ice- land, born January 26, 1846. They are the parents of the following children: Wil- liam (deceased), Johanna, teacher in the Minneota High School; Kristine Lillie (Mrs. Steven Peterson), of Yellow Medi- cine county; Martha (Mrs. H. G. Johnson), of Minneota; and Guy Byron, a graduate of the Mining Engineering Department of the State University. The children have all been excellent students in school, the three girls having taken first or second honors in their graduating classes at high school and college.
LAURITZ E. BLEGEN (1879), farmer of Shelburne township, has lived in Lyon county all except the first two years of his life and is a native Minnesotan. He
347
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
owns and farms the southwest quarter of section 21, known as the Calumet Farm.
Mr. Blegen was born in Olmsted county, Minnesota, July 9, 1877, the son of Iver and Christina (Haugen) Blegen. The par- ents came from Norway in the early seven- ties, lived in Olmsted county a number of years, and since 1879 have lived in Shel- burne township. They have only one child, the subject of this biography.
When Lauritz was two years old the family came to Lyon county. The father took as a homestead claim the southeast quarter of section 32, Shelburne, lived on the place until after proving up, and then purchased land on section 8, where he has since lived. Lauritz grew to manhood on that farm and secured his education in the nearby district school. After growing up he took the management of the home farm, and in 1909 he bought his present property and moved thereon.
Mr. Blegen was chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Shelburne township one year and is the present township assessor. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen lodge and is clerk of Camp No. 3871, Flor- ence. He is a member of and one of the trustees of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Florence.
The marriage of our subject to Lizzie Alsaker occurred at Benson, Minnesota, ou the last day of the year 1903. She is a native of Swift county. Three sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Blegen, named Nestor, Lloyd and Howard.
MRS. JAMES A. HARRIS (1880) is the widow of James A. Harris, who was one of the most highly respected citizens of Lyon county. Mrs. Harris' maiden name was Mary A. Foster. She is a daughter of the late Charles S. and Sarah J. (Roberts) Foster, natives of Pennsylvania. In 1854 her parents moved from their native state to DeKalb county, Illinois, where they re- sided until 1865. At that early date they moved to Minnesota and settled in Wabasha county. The family became residents of Lyon county in 1879, residing in Lynd town- ship until 1896, when they took up their residence in Marshall. Mrs. Foster. died October 3, 1900, and Mr. Foster on May 7. 1969.
To these parents Mary A. Foster was born in DeKalb county, Illinois, May 25, 1857. When eight years of age, in 1865, she accom- panied her parents to Minnesota and at- tended the public schools of Elgin, Wabasha county, until fifteen years of age. Miss Fos- ter continued to reside with her parents in Wabasha county until her marriage to Mr. Harris on June 4, 1875.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.