USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 77
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MARGARET E. CLENDENNING (1883) is the proprietor of a grocery and crockery store in Marshall and has been a resident of Lyon county since girlhood. She is the daughter of Isaac and Eleanor (Forbes) Clendenning, natives of Canada. They came to Lyon county in 1883 and moved to Mar- shall several years later. Mr. Clendenning was one of the first rural mail carriers out of Marshall. He and his wife still reside in Marshall. They have six children living.
Miss Clendenning was born in Ontario, Canada, and came to Lyon county with her parents in 1883. She was educated in the public schools of Marshall, in the Mankato Commercial College, and in the Albert Lea Presbyterian College for girls. After school days she engaged in teaching several years and then took up stenography. For eight years she was stenographer and bookkeeper for D. D. Forbes & Company and later served in the same capacity for Odell & McNiven and the Marshall State Bank. She then went to St. Paul to take the position of bookkeeper for the St. Paul Ditcher & Carrier Company.
In the fall of 1910 Miss Clendenning re- turned to Marshall and purchased the G. J. Hardy & Company grocery store, which is located in the. Marshall State Bank Building. She deals exclusively in groceries and crock- ery. In the conduct of the store she has the help of her brothers, Forbes, Walter, Joe and Harry.
FRANK BUYSSE (1885) is the owner of 800 acres of fine farm land in Westerheim
and Fairview townships and is one of the prosperous farmers of the county. His home farm is in Westerheim and he rents out 240 acres in that township.
Our subject was born in Belgium June 1, 1866, and is a son of Bruno and Sophia (Cat- toir) Bnysse. They died in the old country, and Frank is one of four children, the others being Bruno, of Ventura county, California; Emma (Mrs. Emil Christian), of Belgium; and Mary (Mrs. Bruno De Clerk), of Belgium. One son, Peter, died in April, 1907.
Frank was educated in the schools of his native land and helped his father until 1885. Then the boy of nineteen years came to this country, located in Minneota, and worked three years at farm labor. In 1SS8 he bought a homestead right from John Wissiers to land on section 22, Westerheim township, and after farming it five years sold out and purchased a half of section 15, Wester- heim. He lived on that seven years and then bought his present place. He has im- proved the place wonderfully and has pros- pered.
In Ghent our subject was married to Leo- nora Wambeke, the date of the wedding being February 21, 1889. His wife was born in Belgium and came to America in 1888. Her parents were Ferdinand Wambeke and Rosilie (De Fouw) Wambeke, both deceased. The family settled in Fairview township upon their arrival in this country and later moved to Westerheim. Mrs. Buysse is one of eight living children, the others being Charlie, Henry, Peter, John, Matilda, Marie and Christina.
Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Buysse. The oldest child, Camil, died when he was four years old. The living children are Leo, John, Peter, Henry, Lizzie, Emma and Mary.
Mr. Buysse is a director of school district No. 54. He is a member of the Catholic church.
RUSSELL G. DONALDSON (1890) is the junior member of the firm of Donaldson & Son, of Tracy, dealers in wood, coal, ma- chinery, hay and grain. He is a native of Mower county, Minnesota, and was born May 15, 1870, a son of George W. and Mary E. (Hoag) Donaldson, natives of New York State.
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The father was born in 1847 and served in the Civil War. He was in Company H, Sixty-six Ohio regiment, and later was in the Fifteenth Ohio and took part in Sher- man's march to the sea. After the war he came to Minnesota and located in Mower county, where he lived until 1890, with the exception of a few years spent in Lyon county, when he came here and homesteaded land. He was driven out by the grasshop- pers, remained away a year and a half, came again for a short period and in 1890 he took up his permanent residence on the land he had homesteaded.
Russell Donaldson broke up the place for his father and remained on the farm until 1901, when he moved to Tracy and with his father opened a coal and wood yard under the firm name of Donaldson & Son. Our subject owns a farm adjoining his father's old homestead in Amiret township and a home in Tracy.
In the family of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Donaldson are the following children: Rus- sell G., of this sketch; Mamie, deceased; Mabel (Mrs. S. Selix), of Woodlake, Minne- sota, who was one of the first teachers of the consolidated schools in the county, hav- ing taught four years in Lynd; Caroline (Mrs. Bert Blakesley), of Marshall; Mazie (Mrs. F. Whitmore), of Spokane, Washing- ton; Dasie (Mrs. Ernest Hunter), of Ames, Iowa; Rev. Charles Donaldson, of Fort Ben- ton, Montana; and Alice (Mrs. George Ad- ams), of Spokane, Washington.
The subject of this review spent the first eighteen years of his life at his home in Mower county and then came to Lyon county to take charge of his father's homestead in Amiret township, and he has been a resi- dent of the county since that time, He is a member of the A. O. U. W. lodge and was treasurer of school district No. 32 for some time.
In Redwood county, Minnesota, on Sep- tember 7, 1897, Jessie Moses became the wife of our subject. She is a native of Tracy and was the first girl born in that city. Her father, W. W. Moses, was one of the early settlers of Redwood county, just over the line from Lyon county, and one of the large landholders in that county. To Mr. and Mrs. Donaldson have been born the following named seven children: Dale, Doris, Ruby, Lawrence, Myrl, Rosemond and Callie.
JOSEPH E. REGNIER (1883) is the pro- prietor of a fine half section of land in Grandview township and has lived in the county since he was two years of age.
January 30, 1881, was the date of Joseph E. Regnier's birth in Kankakee county, Illi- nois. Two years later he accompanied his parents, Joseph I. and Zepharine (Mongeau) Regnier, to Lyon county and the father bought the northeast quarter of section 20, Grandview township. The boy was educated in the country school, brought up on the farm, and has been living on the old home place since the rest of the family moved to Marshall. In addition to the original quarter section, Mr. Regnier farms the northwest quarter of section 21.
The marriage of Joseph E. Regnier and Margaret Lynch took place August 30, 1905. To this union have been born five children: Philip, Margaret, Joseph, Maurice and Marie. Mrs. Regnier is a native of New York City.
Mr. Regnier was on the school board of district No. 12 three years. He is associated with the Modern Woodmen lodge and is a member of the Catholic church.
Joseph I. Regnier, the father of our sub- ject, was born in Kankakee county, Illinois. He was brought up there, married there, and lived in the house of his birth when his own son, Joseph E., was born. His wife was a native of Canada. She died in 1901 and Mr. Regnier now lives in Marshall. They were the parents of twelve children, two of whom, Lucy and Isaac, are dead. The other children are George, Marie, Thomas, Philip, Florence, Agnes, Alex, Blanche, Atwood and Leo.
JOHN J. STURGEON (1878), stock buyer and shipper of Marshall, has resided in that city since he was thirteen years of age, a continuous residence of thirty-four years. He has been engaged in business many years and has been a prominent "booster" for Marshall. He is also a thirty-second degree base ball fan and was manager of the suc- cessful Marshall team of 1911.
John Sturgeon was born at Lampton, On- tario, Canada, twenty-two miles west of the city of Montreal, on June 8, 1865. At the age of six years he accompanied his parents to Austin, Minnesota, resided there seven or eight years, and then in August, 1878, came
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with his parents to Marshall, where he has ever since resided. He learned the butcher trade early in life, working three years in the shop of Johnson & Woodruff. Then he opened a shop of his own in the building now occupied by the Serlet saloon and was engaged in the business until January 1, 1900, occupying later the building in which is now the Shardlow music store and later still the John Schutz building.
In June, 1900, Mr. Sturgeon left Marshall with two loads of stock for Cape Nome, Alaska, and was absent until September I, of the same year. Upon his return he en- gaged in the stock business and has since been buying and shipping cattle, sheep and hogs. For the past four years he has also engaged in the breeding of thoroughbred horses. The head of his stud is Allie Dale, with a trotting record of 2:1514. He built the hitch barn and the four residences ad- joining and still owns the barn and one of the residences. In the summer of 1911 he erected for his home one of the prettiest little residences in the city. It is of the California bungalow style, has six rooms, and is modern in every particular. He also owns a 120-acre farm southeast of Tracy.
Mr. Sturgeon was married in Marshall January 30, 1889, to Lucile Phillips, a native of Michigan. They have one child, Lila R.
Our subject is of Canadian-French origin. His parents, John and Zoie (Morin) Stur- geon, were natives of Canada, located at Austin, Minnesota, in 1871, at Marshall in 1878, and at DeSmet, Kingsbury county, South Dakota, in 1882. In that city the fa- ther died in 1903, and there the mother still has her home. There were sixteen children in the family, of whom the follow. ing named nine are living: Nellie, Henry, John J., Millie, Emma, George, Hattie, Wil- ford and Hattie.
FREDERICK W. VANSTROM (1910), cashier of the Lynd State Bank, is a product of Minnesota. He was born in Lac qui Parle county March 19, 1879, a son of Jacob Van- strom, a native of Sweden who came to the United States when thirty-five years of age and settled in Carver county, Minnesota. Later he went to Lac qui Parle county, where he homesteaded land. The elder Mr. Vanstrom was married in Carver county to
Malena Johnson. They are the parents of eight children, as follows: Josephine M., Julius E., Frederick W., George I., Edna M., Ella L., Eunice M. and Florence L. The parents still reside on the old home place in Lac qui Parle county.
The subject of this sketch received his early education in the public and high schools, later attending the University of Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1905. He then accepted the position of superintendent of the Welcome High School, which he held five years. In the spring of 1910 he assisted in the organization of the Lynd State Bank, of which he is cashier and manager. Mr. Vanstrom is a member of the M. W. A. lodge.
Mr. Vanstrom was married at Truman, Minnesota, June 23, 1908, to A. Mabel Hen- ton, a native of Martin county and a daugh- ter of W. B. and Mary Henton. Mr. and Mrs. Vanstrom are the parents of two chil- dren: Malena Josephine and Mary Gladys.
N. W. HANSON (1897), farmer of Rock Lake township, was born May 4, 1870, and is a son of Hans and Tillie (Nelson) John- son, the former of whom is deceased and the latter being now a resident of Sweden. Our subject was born and brought up in Sweden and attended the common schools until fourteen years of age. He then worked at farm labor until the age of twenty-three years.
In the fall of 1894 N. W. Hanson came to America and located at Dundee, Minnesota, where he was engaged as a section hand on the railroad for some months, and later as a farm laborer. It was in December, 1897, that he came to Lyon county, and he rented and farmed for himself in Rock Lake and Custer townships for seven years. With the idea of trying town life, Mr. Hanson went to Illinois and after investigating condi- tions there accepted employment in a hard- ware store in Moline, where he worked sev- eral months. He had become very well sat- isfied with Lyon county, however, and he resigned his position, returned to Lyon county, and again engaged in farm labor for six months. Later he returned to Moline and accepted his old position for one year.
Leaving Moline in the spring of 1907, Mr. Hanson spent the summer months in his
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old home in Sweden. Returning to Lyon county, he has since conducted the farm which he rents, the northwest quarter of section 1, Rock Lake. He has been suc- cessful and his farm is one of the town- ship's fine farms.
Our subject was married July 2, 1910, at Marshall to Tillie Johnson. She is a na- tive of Sweden and was born May 17, 1880. To this union has been born one child, Harry William. Mrs. Hanson's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Swan Johnson, former residents of Hinckley, Minnesota, are both deceased.
ALEXANDER KOLHEI (1904) is assistant cashier of the State Bank of Cottonwood. He is also interested with his father in the Eickschen-Kolhei Company, the largest gen- eral merchandise store in Cottonwood, and with his father has considerable real estate holdings in the vicinity of Haworden, Sas- katchewan, Canada.
Alexander was born in Yellow Medicine county, in Roumania township, on the fa- ther's homestead, January 2, 1882, and lived on the home farm until coming to Cotton- wood in 1904. That year the young man was given the position of assistant cashier of the state bank and has filled it ever since, being now a stockholder. Our subject is unmarried and resides with his parents in Cottonwood. Alexander has six brothers and sisters living, their names being Hag- bort L., Caroline (Mrs. Olai Aamodt), of Lyon county; Carl J., of Cottonwood; Hilda, Ida and Alfred.
Alexander Kolhei is the son of Ingebret L. Kolhei and Korina (Haraldson) Kolhei, both natives of Norway. They came to the United States and first settled in Wiscon- sin, moving later to Iowa, and in 1867 going to Yellow Medicine county, Minnesota, among the first settlers. The elder Kolhei took a homestead in Roumania township. There were then but three other settlers between Redwood Falls and Yellow Medi- cine, and they were Ingebrit Johnson, Ger- hart Gooman, and an Englishman. The first home on the farm was a log hut, for several years all the trading had to be done at New Ulm, and the nearest railroad station was at Janesville, in Waseca county. In 1869 the Great Northern railroad was built to
Willmar and the elder Kolhei hauled grain several times to Willmar.
In 1905 Ingebret Kolhei sold his Yellow Medicine farm to his son H. L. Kolhei, now on the place, and moved to Cottonwood. In 1897 he had helped organize the Cottonwood State Bank, of which he is now vice presi- dent. Since moving to Cottonwood he has been active in other business enterprises. He is interested with his son, Alexander, in the Eickschen-Kolhei Mercantile Company, is treasurer and one of the founders of the Norwegian Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which was organized about thirty years ago and which is one of the largest mutual com- panies in this part of the state, doing busi- ness in Lincoln, Lyon, Yellow Medicine and Redwood counties. The amount of insurance in force in 1911 was over $5,000,000.
ERNEST A. MICHEL (1906) is the junior member of the law firm of Davis & Michel, of Marshall. He was born at Appleton, Minnesota, October 15, 1887, and spent his boyhood days in that town. He was gradu- ated from the Appleton High School and then took a year's course in a business college.
In 1906 Mr. Michel located in Marshall. He entered the employ of Thomas E. Davis as a stenographer and at the same time read law. He was admitted to the bar Feb- ruary 8, 1909, and in July, 1910, entered into partnership with his employer. Mr. Michel is a member of the Elks and Modern Wood- men lodges.
Ernest Michel is the son of the late Ernest Michel and Caroline (Schmidt) Michel. They came from Germany when children, were married, and located in Michigan. They be- came residents of Willmar, Minnesota, in the early days and for a time conducted a hotel in that city. Then they moved to Ap- pleton, where Mr. Michel died and where Mrs. Michel now resides. Ernest is the youngest in a family of fourteen children, of whom ten are living.
ROBERT ALTON STRUTHERS (1881) is a son of one of the early settlers of the county, and he was born in and has always been a resident of Amiret township. James and Jane (Mitchell) Struthers, parents of
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. Robert Struthers, were pioneers and are still living in the township.
Robert Alton was born February 9, 1881, on the home farm near Amiret and was brought up amid the environments of farm life. He attended the country school and finished his education at the age of nineteen years. The next seven years of his life were spent on the farm helping his father, and he and his father then purchased section 9, Amiret township, and one year later the land was divided, Robert taking as his in- terest the south half, which he has since owned and operated. The 320 acres make a splendid farm, upon which Mr. Struthers has put many modern improvements.
The subject of this sketch is a stockholder of the Amiret State Bank. He is always awake to the interests of his community and was one of the organizers of the Mar- shall-Amiret Telephone Company, of which he is now secretary. The company was organized in the winter of 1909 by nine of the farmers of the township. The other officers are James Mitchell, president; Jo- seph Shake, vice president; and Edmond Van Moer, treasurer.
The marriage of Robert Struthers to Be- atrice Coyle took place November 27, 1907, at Marshall. To this union one child, Lucile Beatrice, was born, September 20, 1908. Mrs. Struthers' parents, Joshua and Eliza- beth Coyle, were pioneer residents of Sodus township, and she was born in that precinct May 5, 1885. Her father is dead; her mother still resides in the township.
WALLACE A. GOODRICH (1876) is man- ager of the poultry and fur business of Max Becker, of Marshall. He was born at Lake City, Wabasha county, Minnesota, December 14, 1863, and is the son of William R. and Margaret Goodrich. The former is a native of Connecticut and the latter of New York State, and they were the parents of the following children: Charles W., who resides on the old homestead in Grandview town- ship; Franklin H. and Louis W., who are deceased; and Wallace A., of this sketch. The mother died in 1893, and the father resides at St. Charles, Louisiana. The latter enlisted in Wisconsin, in Company I, First Cavalry, and served a little over a year in the Civil War.
Our subject accompanied his parents to Lyon county in 1876. The father home- steaded the southeast quarter of section 12, Grandview township, and there Wallace re- sided until 1888. He moved to Marshall that year and has made his home there since, with the exception of two winters spent in Nebraska and one year in California. In the early nineties Mr. Goodrich started a feedmill in Marshall in the building on Main Street now occupied by Finnell & Son. He conducted the mill seven years, after which he was employed by the McCormick Harves- ter Company as an expert and later by the International people, which occupied his time until February, 1908. He then entered the employ of Max Becker, in the produce and fur business, as manager. That firm handles the majority of the poultry business of Marshall, about fifteen cars a year besides the local shipments, and about $50,000 worth of furs was handled by the firm in 1911. Mr. Goodrich is a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic order and the Modern Woodmen lodge. He holds the of- fice of noble grand in the Odd Fellows lodge.
Our subject was married in Marshall Feb- ruary 7, 1910, to Lena Rask, of Russell.
PETER PETERSON (1895) is the owner of the northwest quarter of section 10, Shel- burne township. He was born in Torenby, Denmark, December 14, 1845. His parents were Peter and Karen Christenson, both of whom are deceased.
Our subject attended school in the land of his nativity until fourteen years of age and thereafter worked at farm labor. In 1881 Mr. Peterson located at Racine, Wis- consin, and for the next nine years was employed by the Mitchell Lewis Wagon Company. During the next five years he farmed rented land at Berryville, five miles south of Racine. He came to Lyon county in 1895 and purchased the farm he now operates in Shelburne township.
On June 16, 1871, Mr. Peterson was mar- ried to Christine Nelson, a daughter of Nels and Annie Nelson, of Denmark. Mrs. Peter- son was born July 17, 1843. The following four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Peterson: Hans Christian, born June 24, 1872; Anton, born April 22, 1882; Anna
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Magdalena, born December 9, 1884; Nels Lawrence, born October 26, 1887.
Mrs. Peterson has one brother, James Nel- son, of Racine, Wisconsin.
ALFRED AMUNDSON (1888), who farms the southeast quarter of section 29, Nordland township, has spent the twenty-four years of his life in Lyon county. He was born in Grandview township June 6, 1888, received a district school education, and grew to man- hood on his father's farm in the town of Nordland.
His parents, Ambros and Gunhild (Shel- rud) Amundson, were born in Tellemarken, Norway. They came to Lyon county in an early day and took a homestead in Grand- view township, where they resided many years, and then moved to a farm in Nord- land, ten miles southwest of Minneota. They now live in Minneota.
Alfred was married in the fall of 1910 and the following spring he and his bride took up their residence in Nordland township, having rented the farm from his father. They have a good farm, improved with new buildings. Mr. Amundson and his wife are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church and he is a member of the Modern Woodmen lodge.
The marriage of Alfred Amundson and Sophia Furgeson took place in Minneota No- vember 2, 1910. Mrs. Amundson was born in the county June 20, 1889, and is a daughter of Henry and Ellen (Johnson) Furgeson, of Island Lake township. To Mr. and Mrs. Amundson has been born one child, Winfred Raymond, born October 19, 1911.
DR. ANDREW D. HOIDALE (1904) is a physician and surgeon of Tracy. He was born in Norway February 3, 1877, the son of Andrew and Dorothy (Lund) Hoidale. When three years of age, in 1880, he was brought with the family to America and spent his boyhood days on a farm on the present site of Dawson, in Lac qui Parle county, Minnesota.
In the schools of Lac qui Parle county young Hoidale secured his primary educa- tion. His first employment was newspaper work, being employed by his brother, Einar, as manager of the Dodge County Herald, at Hayfield, Minnesota. He completed his high
school work and then entered the Medical Department of the University of Minnesota, from which he was graduated with the class of 1904.
Immediately after his graduation Dr. Hoi- dale opened an office at Tracy and has since been engaged in the practice of his profes- sion, now having offices in the Heine Block. Dr. Hoidale holds membership in the Ameri- can, Minnesota, and the Lyon-Lincoln Medi- cal Associations .- For three years he held the position of city health officer. Frater- nally he is associated with the Odd Fellows, Elks, Woodmen, Workmen and Degree of Honor.
Dr. Hoidale was married at Kansas City, Missouri, December 27, 1905, to Pauline Ma- deira, the ceremony being performed by the bride's grandfather, Rev. Addison D. Ma- deira, who was born in Kentucky and is now eighty-three years of age. Mrs. Hoidale was born in Kansas City, a daughter of Frederick R. and Oak (Porter) Madeira. The Madeira family are of old Kentucky stock, of Spanish descent. Dr. and Mrs. Hoidale have two children, Porter Madeira and Dorothy Ellouise.
In his father's family are eight children, as follows: Aage, a druggist of Seattle; Inga (Mrs. K. O. Rice), of St. Paul; Einar, an attorney of Minneapolis; Gudrun (Mrs. Edward Jackson), of Dawson, Minnesota; Andrew D., of this sketch; Anna (Mrs. E. H. Murray), of Chicago; Hjalmar, an attor- ney of Minneapolis: and Margaret, of Daw. son, Minnesota.
GUSTAVE VERGOTE (1883), proprietor of a blacksmith shop in Marshall, has spent his entire life at his trade and has operated a shop in Lyon county nearly thirty years. He has a wide reputation as a workman and makes a specialty of shoeing fast horses.
Mr. Vergote was born in Belgium April 21, 1855. There he was educated and grew to manhood. He learned the blacksmith and horseshoeing trades in a government school and for fourteen years worked in his father's shop in the old country. In 1883 he came to America with the colony and located in the little village of Ghent. For two years he conducted a shop there and in partner- ship with Charles Foulon operated a farm under the firm name of Foulon & Vergote.
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In the old country Mr. Vergote had learned music and the members of the Marshall band induced him to sell his shop at Ghent and move to the county seat. He played with the Marshall band fifteen years and taught band music. He was also the leader of the Cath- olic choir five years. When he moved to Marshall Mr. Vergote purchased the Gibson shop and he has ever since conducted the same. He has other city property and owns one of the fine homes of Marshall. He has 160 acres of land on section 29, Island Lake township, land in the St. Louis Valley of Colorado, and twenty acres in Florida.
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