An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 111

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Minnesota > Rock County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 111
USA > Minnesota > Pipestone County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 111

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In 1904 Mr. Boehmke established his residence in the village of Holland, at that time entering the employ of the Minnesota & Western Grain company as buyer. Six months later he bought the business of the Baker Elevator company in Holland and conducted it in his own name for three years, disposing of the same to become the manager of the Farmers Co-operative association. He retired from the grain business to become a banker, as noted above. He also deals in real estate.

Our subject is one of the prominent and influential men of affairs in Holland. He has served without interruption as the treasurer of the board of education since the first year of his residence in the vil- lage. He is also a member of the local board of health and of the village coun- cil. He has been a member of the council three years and for two terms was its president. Mr. Boehmke is a stockholder in the Farmers Co-operative association and is a member of the I. O. O. F. and M. W. A. lodges of Holland.

Gustav was married in Plymouth county, lowa, on October 25, 1899, which was the birthday of his bride, Anna Breiholz. She is a native of that county and was born ir 1879. They are the parents of three chil- dren: Pearl, born August 6, 1902; Vera, born August 22, 1903; and Roy, born April 29, 1905.

PRATT M. SERRURIER (1879) was un- til the beginning of the present year a well-known and successful Pipestone coun ty banker, through his connection with the Holland State Bank, of the affairs of which lie was the active manager for ten years from the date of its founding. He moved in January, 1911, to Lynden, Washington, where he continues his banking career as the head of the Lyndon State Bank.

Pratt is the oldest in a family of six chil-

dren born to Alex T. and Flora (Taylor) Serrurier, residents of Holland. The oth- er children in the family are Theodore, Charlie, Lawrence, Alice (Mrs. D. R. Walk- er) and Florence. Alex T. Serrurier, the father of our subject, was born in Aus- tralia, of German-French parentage, while his wife is a native of Wisconsin, of Eng- lish-Norwegian extraction. Mr. and Mrs. Serrurier settled in Pipestone county in the spring of 1879, and, with the exception of a few years spent in lowa, they have main- tained their residence in the county since the date mentioned. A. T. Serrurier is now a banker and hardware merchant of Hol- land.

Pratt M. Serrurier is a native of Pipe- stone county. He was born on the home. stead of his grandfather in Grange township on December 12, 1879. When a child the family moved to Jones county, Iowa, where they remained six years, returning then to Pipestone county and locating on the southwest quarter of section 10, Grange township, which the father had taken as a tree claim. Pratt attended the district schools and later the Pipestone high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1899. The same year he accepted the position of assistant cashier of the Woodstock State Bank, with which insti- tution he was connected until February, 1901. Then he moved to Holland, and, in company with his father and R. W. Green, bought the private bank of Harris and Ja- cobs.

The Bank of Holland was conducted as a private enterprise until 1903, when it was reorganized as a state bank and a number of new stockholders added. Under Mr. Ser- rurier's control, in the official capacity of cashier, the bank prospered and developed into one of the leading and most substan- tial financial institutions in the county. The bank was able, through its earnings, to in- crease the $5000 working capital, which it had at the time of organization in 1901, to a present capitalization and surplus fund of $25,000, and has at the same time paid an average annual dividend of ten per cent. The neat little building which houses the bank was erected in 1908. In August, 1910, the bank and its business passed into the hands of a new administration, headed by Gus Boehmke as cashier.

PRATT M. SERRURIER A Native of Pipestone County.

DR. HENRY C. DOMS Practising Physician of Holland.

GUSTAV BOEHMKE Cashier of the Holland State Bank.

L. H. MOORE Former Pipestone Business Man.

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PIPESTONE COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.

During his residence in Pipestone county Mr. Serrurier earned a wide reputation as a successful banker and as a prominent man of affairs in his home community and the county at large. In May, 1910, he was hon- ored by election to the presidency of the State Banker's association of the second congressional district. In 1908 he was chos- en chairman of the republican county cen- tral committee and served in that cajacity one year. He was for several terms tbe president of the Holland village council and clerk of the school district. Mr. Ser- rurier holds membership in the I. O. O. F., M. W. A. and A: F. & A. M. lodges.

The subject of this biography was mar- ried in Holland on the twelfth of August, 1902, to Rozetta Sass, a native of Wis- consin. She was born in Sauk county Oc- tober 1, 1877, and is the daughter of Her- man Sass, an early settler of Pipestone county who now resides at Holland. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Serrurier: a son, Gordon, born September 17, 1906, and a daughter, Beulah, born July 9, 1908.

DR. HENRY C. DOMS (1905) has for six years been a practising physician and surgeon of the village of Holland and is a native son of Pipestone county. He is the son of Dr. W. M. Doms, of Woodstock, the present coroner of Pipestone connty. His mother is Anna (Ingley) Doms, a native oť Minnesota. The elder Dr. Doms is a native of Wisconsin. Dr. and Mrs. Doms were pioneer settlers of Burke township, where they resided until locating in Woodstock.

Dr. Henry C. Doms was born on his fa- ther's farm in Burke township on March 29, 1880. He was educated in the district schools of his native precinct and in the Pipestone high school. On deciding to take up the study of medicine, he matriculated in the medical department of the univer- sity of Kansas, from which he was gradu- ated in 1905. Dr. Doms attended the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, in Min- neapolis, during the year 1903-04. and at the same time served as an assistant po- lice surgeon in St. Paul. He located in Holland in 1905 and has since built up an extensive practice. He also conducts the Holland drug store, a business he pur- chased from A. H. Ellis.

Our subject was married in the city of Pipestone on July 9, 1905, to Anna Marie Thiel, a native of Marcus, Sioux county, lowa. Dr. and Mrs. Doms are the parents of one daughter, named Elizabeth Ann. Dr. Doms is president of the village board of health and is village recorder. He is ať- filiated with the Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen and Royal Neighbors orders.

WILLIAM J. SCHROEDER (1896), one of Grange township's enterprising farmers, is a native of Cook county, Illinois. The date of bis birth is July 31, 1868, and he is the son of Frederick and Frederika (Byer) Schroeder, both of whom came to this country from their native land of Germany. Frederick Schroeder was a shoemaker by trade and he followed that occupation in the town of Addison, Illinois, until our sub- ject was in his second year.

The Schroeder family moved from 11- linois to Platteville, Grant county, Wiscon- sin. The father followed his trade in that town for several years, then bought land in the vicinity and engaged in farming. After securing a district school education, William was for a year a student at the state normal school at Plattsville. He as- sisted his father in the management of the home farm until 1896, the year of his advent to Pipestone county. At that time he bought the farm which has since heen his home, the northeast quarter of section 15, Grange. Mr. Schroeder devotes con- siderable attention to fine stock raising, especially Durham cattle and Duroc-Jer- sey hogs.

Our subject is identified with a number of the foremost enterprises of his home community. He is the secretary of both the Farmers Elevator company of Holland and of the co-operative creamery at that place. He is the clerk of school district No. 4 and a member of the German lal- theran church of Holland, being the church treasurer. William is the oldest in a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters. Fle is unmarried.

AUGUST DITTMANN (1900), Osborne township farmer and stock raiser, was born in Pommern, Germany, on July 17,

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PIPESTONE COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.

1857. He is the son of John Dittmann, a laborer, who died in Chicago in 1908, and Freda (Bouto) Dittmann, who is buried in Germany. She passed away in 1871, when onr subject was fourteen years of age.

August spent the first twenty-four years of his life in the land of his birth. He was brought up in the town of Sanof, was edu- cated there, and at the age of sixteen years commenced work as a foundryman. He followed that occupation until coming to America, excepting two years (1878-79), when he served in the German army. Mr. Dittmann's first home in the new world, to which he immigrated in 1881, was at At- lantic, towa. He resided there nine years and was employed in construction work on the Rock Island railroad. He spent the next ten years as a section foreman on the Rock Island system at Shelby, lowa.

Mr. Dittmann became a Pipestone county resident in 1900 and has since lived on the one farm, the north half of section 12, Os- borne township, land he had bought in 1899. He set out a fine grove of trees on the place and erected substantial build- ings. His herd of stock generally averages about sixteen horses, forty-five head of cattle and thirty hogs. Our subject owns stock in the Farmers Elevator company of Edgerton. He is a member of the German Lutheran church of the same place.

The marriage of August Dittmann to Hulda Witts occurred at Sanof, Pommern, Germany, September 24, 1880. Mrs. Ditt- mann was born December 11, 1857. The following nine children have been born to these parents: Paul, of Canada; Minnie (Mrs. Wilson Mills), of Osborne; Emma (Mrs. Jacob Smith), of North Dakota; George, Willie, Martha, Freda, Rosa and John. The last six named reside at home.

WILLIAM PATTERSON (1882), of Edgerton, first settled in that village in 1882, and that summer he built the pres- ent public school building. Early in the year following Mr. Patterson homesteaded land in Moulton township, Murray county, upon which he maintained a residence un- til 1895, when he established a permanent residence in Edgerton. He operated the Edgerton flour mill for nine months, then for seven years was well known as the

landlord of the Howard hotel. Since re- tiring from the hotel business our sub- ject has led a retired life in the village of his choice. For twelve years he has presid- ed over the justice court.

A native of Canada, William J. Patter- son was born in Clark township, seven- teen miles distant from the city of Toron- to, on October 10, 1841. When three years of age he crossed the border line with his parents and located with them in Kane county, Illinois, where he grew to manhood and became versed in the car- penter's trade. At the call for volunteers in the sixties Mr. Patterson offered his services to the union cause. He enlisted at Elgin, Illinois, in company B, Thirty- sixth Illinois cavalry, and served for two years. He was a participant in the bat- tle of l'ea Ridge, Arkansas, as well as other memorable engagements.

After his career in the army our sub- ject became a resident of Minnesota. He engaged in the business of contracting and mill wright in the town of Stewart- ville until 1879, moving then to Spring Val- ley, where he was similarly employed. In July, 1882, Mr. Patterson arrived in Edger- ton, which was destined to be the home in his declining years. He is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge.

At Rochester, Minnesota, on July 18, 1866, William J. Patterson was joined in marriage to Catherine E. Bonner, who was born in Mt. Pleasant, Wade county, Penn- sylvania, March 21, 1842. To this union have been born the following nine chil- dren: Willis A., of Hingham, Montana; Jessie (Mrs. C. S. Howard), of Edgerton; Edwin F., of St. Cloud, Minnesota; Charles B., of Edgerton; Margaret, of Cal- ifornia; George, of Edgerton; Nelueen (Mrs. C. F. Suerman), of LaCrosse, Wis- consin; Catherine E. and Merlyn, both of Edgerton.

JOHN W. STURDY (1899) is the owner of 240 acres of well improved land on sec- tion 17, Eden township. He has been a resident of the county since 1899. John and Matilda (Bagley) Sturdy, the parents of our subject, came from England about the year 1849 and settled in Herkimer

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PIPESTONE COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.

county, New York, where John W. Sturdy of this review was born May 4, 1853.

John was three years of age when the family departed from the Empire state and located on a farm in Delaware county, Ohio. There he was educated and lived until 1871, when Union county, Ohio, was made the family home. Ten years later Mr. Sturdy moved to Benton county, Iowa, and there farmed rented land for two years. The next nine years were spent on a homestead claim in Hand coun- ty, South Dakota, whence he moved to Belle Plaine, Iowa. He was employed on the railroad in that Iowa town until mak- ing settlement in Pipestone county. Mr. Sturdy is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator company of Ihlen. For three years he was clerk of school district No. 22 and is now the road overseer of dis- trict No. 2.

Jolin W. Sturdy has been married twice. In Ohio he was wedded to Martha J. Wal- lace, who was born January 30, 1859, and who died March 13, 1891. Seven children were born to this union, named as fol- lows: Lillie V., Iva I., Samuel O., Frank A., Homer H., Ada M. and Walter W. At Toledo, Iowa, our subject was married to Annie Beal, who was born in November, 1848, the daughter of Warner and Tressia Beal. Mr. Sturdy is a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge and the Baptist church.

SAMUEL B. ROCKEY (1890), Pipestone county's clerk of court, is a native son of Illinois. He was born in Stephenson coun- ty July 23, 1852, the son of W. F. and Elizabeth Rockey, both born in Pennsyl- vania. The latter parent has been dead for a number of years, but W. F. Rockey is still living and resides at Lincoln, Ne- braska, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Besides our subject there was one other child in the Rockey family. She is Emma (Mrs. F. M. Tynell), of Lincoln, Ne- braska.

In early youth Samuel moved with his parents to Jo Daviess county, Illinois. He was educated in the public schools of Nora, and on attaining his majority en- gaged in the general mercantile business at that point. In 1886 Mr. Rockey became a resident of Minnesota. At that time he

moved to Chandler, Murray county, and continued his mercantile career. Two years later he disposed of his business and went to Kingsbury county, South Dakota, to re- inain until establishing his present resi- dence in Pipestone, which was in 1890. Be- fore leaving Illinois our subject acquired experience as an auctioneer and continued to follow that line of work after coming to Pipestone county. He was also the pro- prietor of a millinery and notion store, which Mrs. Rockey conducted. For sev- eral years Mr. Rockey was one of Pipe- stone's justices of the peace. He was elected to the office he now holds in the fall of 1906.

At Nora, Illinois, on December 23, 1871, Samuel B. Rockey was joined in marriage to Ella Bancroft, a native of New York state. One sou, Foster W., was born to these parents, November 23, 1872. Foster met with an accident at lowa Falls, lowa, on January 4, 1901, which resulted in his death on that date.

HANS H. JEPSEN (1899) is a success- ful Sweet township farmer who has pros- pered since making Pipestone county his home twelve years ago. The parents of our subject came to the United States from their native land of Germany in 1865 and located in Scott county, lowa. His father, Thomas Jepsen, is now a farmer of Atlan- tic, Cass county, lowa. His mother, Chris- tina (Jessen) Jepsen, died in the spring of 1894.

Hans was a year old infant when the Jepsen family moved from Scott county, where he was born September 15, 1869, to Gocse Lake, Clinton county, Iowa. Two years later another move was made, to Cass county, and in the country schools of that county our subject secured his educa- tion. In 1894 he assumed the management of the old homestead and conducted the same three years. For two years prior to coming to Pipestone county in 1899, Mr. Jepsen farmed near Walnut, Pottawattamie county, lowa. Hle farmed in Sweet town- ship for a year, then bought the northwest quarter of section 2, Eden, which he im- proved and upon which he made his home until the spring of 1911. He now leases his own farm and rents and farms the south

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PIPESTONE COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.

half of section 33. Sweet. Mr. Jepsen raises lots of stock. He is a member of the M. WV. A. lodge of Pipestone.

In Cass county, Iowa, on March 24, 189.1, the subject of this biography was married to Christina Paulsen, who was born in Germany September 16, 1873, and who came to this country in 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Jepsen are the parents of the fol- lowing four children: Christ, born August 5, 1896; Harry, born April 18, 1898; Gretlı, born November 3, 1900; and Louis, born December 11, 1903.

SEVERT GULLICKSON (1904) has for seven years been a resident of Pipestone county and Ihlen, the little town of north Eden township. He is the manager of the Farmers Elevator company, a concern or- ganized and incorporated in 1904 by a num- ber of prominent agriculturists in the lo- cality to buy and sell grain and coal. The elevator of the company has a capacity of 30,000 bushels. Following are the officers of the company: President, C. F. Price; secretary, W. C. Duea; treasurer, L. K. Villand. These officers, with the addition of John Dahlmeier and E. G. Wilson, con- stitute the board of directors. Mr. Gullick- son is also a director of the Lutheran church and clerk of his school district.

Severt Gullickson of this review is a na- tive of Minnesota and was born in Goodhue county on December 19, 1867. He is the son of Gullick and Margaret Kittilson, who came to America from their native land of Norway in 1862 and made settlement in Columbia county, Wisconsin. A removal to Minnesota was made, the family locating first in Goodhue county and later in Yel- low Medicine county, where Gulliek Kittil- son homesteaded land. For a number of years he followed the trade of blacksmith- ing and died there in 1908 at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife, Margaret Kittilson, still resides in Yellow Medieine county.

Severt was in his second year when he moved with his parents to Yellow Medi- cine county, which was his home until 1904, the date of his settlement in thlen. He attended the district schools until fiť- teen years of age, then struck out in life for himself. He worked at the trade of

carpenter for a number of years and in 1894 commenced his career in the grain busi- ness. He bought grain for the Peavey Ele- vator company at Hanley Falls for three years, then moved to Granite Falls, where he was interested in the Granite Falls Hard- ware company. He then re-entered the em- ploy of the Peavey company and was lo- cated at Echo for a year, For two years prior to moving to Ihlen he clerked in a general store in the town of Cottonwood. For five years previous to accepting his present position Mr. Gullickson managed the interests of the Northwestern Elevator company at Ihlen.

At Granite Falls, in 1899, our subject was married to Betsy Anderson, a native cf Yellow Melicine county, where she was born Oetover 18, 1878. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gullickson, as follows: Alpha T., Mamie G., Harriet, Ge- neva and Ruth.

JAMES L. HENDREN (1886), of Wood- stock, has a continuous residence in Min- nesota of fifty-six years to his credit. A native of North Carolina, he was born in Eagle Mills, Iredell county, on December 9, 1843. As a child he moved with his parents to Boone county, Indiana, and later to Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 1855 the family moved to Wabasha county, Minnesota, where James grew to manhood.

At the call to arms to preserve the union James L. Hendren volunteered his service. He enlisted in company G, Eighth Minne- sota regiment, on August 13, 1862, and served with distinction for three years, until mustered out in August, 1865. Dur- ing the latter part of the great struggle he was in General Sibley's command and engaged in the frontier campaign, in which the army crossed the country to the west and penetrated as far as Idaho against the redskins.

With the return of peace our subject set- tled at Reed's Landing, Wabasha county, and for two years experienced the life of a riverman. He later farmed in the same county, and in 1878 he moved to the west- ern part of the state, settling in Murray county, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1886, the date of his settle- ment in Woodstock. For four or five years

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PIPESTONE COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.

thereafter Mr. Hendren farmed, but of late years he was conducted a livery and feed stable. He has been constable of his precinct for the past twenty-three years, and for fifteen years he served as village marshal. He is a member of Stephen Mil- ler Post No. 139, G. A. R., of Woodstock.

In Wabasha county, October 16, 1868, James L. Hendren was united in marriage to Mary M. Sherren, born in the Keystone state in 1847. Thirteen children were born to this union, three of whom, Elizabeth (Mrs. Addison Hughes), John and Flor- ence, are dead. The names of the ten sur- viving children follow: George, James, Ar- thur, Ernest, Fred, Walter, Frank, Alice, Agnes and Mamie. A granddaughter, Stel- la Hughes, born on September 25, 1890, has lived in the home since the death of her mother, Elizabeth Hughes, on November 25, 1892.

ALEX MITCHELL (1892) is a well known resident of Jasper, which has been his home for the past nineteen years. He came to the village in 1892 to assume the management of the E. A. Brown elevator, which he later bought and conducted in his own name for a number of years. In March, 1910, he disposed of his elevator and extensive grain business to the Heaton Grain company. Since that time Mr. Mit- chell has devoted his attention to his broad farming interests and to the business of buying and feeding stock. He owns a half section of productive Rock county land and 500 acres in Pipestone county.

Alex Mitchell is a native of bonny Scot- land and was born in Aberdeen shire the eleventh of December, 1862. His parents, .John and Isabella (Gray) Mitchell, are both buried in the land of the Scots. Alex re- ceived a careful education in his native country, and in 1883, during the first year of his manhood, he crossed the Atlantic and resided in Canada nine years. For part of the first year of his coming to the States he lived at Ashcreek, Rock county. and then established his present residence in Jasper. In 1909 Mr. Mitchell was a memher of the village council. For a num- ber of years past he has been president of the board of education. He holds member- ship in the M. W. A., M. B. A. and K. P. lodges.

On September 9, 1896, Alex Mitchell was wedded to Julia Fauth, a Hoosier by birth. The ceremony was solemnized at Jasper. To these parents the following named chil- dren have been born: Robert, Louise, Mar- ion and John Alexander.

EDWIN S. THORNDYKE (1894) is one of the substantial farmers and successful stock raisers of Osborne township. In that precinct he has lived seventeen years, and he is the owner of a half section of its productive soil. A native of Wisconsin, he was born in Ripon, Fond du Lac county, on October S, 1864. His father, William Thorn- dyke, of Ripon, was born in England in 1842 and came to the United States twelve years later. The mother of our subject was Eliza M. (Spencer) Thorndyke, who died November 6, 1891. She was born in Utica, New York, in 1837 and was the great-granddaughter of General Nathanael Greene, of revolutionary fame.

Edwin spent his first thirty years amid the scenes of his birth. He was reared on a farm, and after graduating from the high school at Dartford, Wisconsin, was for two years a student at Ripon college. On at- taining his majority, he commenced farm- ing in partnership with his father near Ripon and was so engaged up to the time of his coming to Pipestone county in 1894. At that time he located on his present farm, the northeast quarter of section 22, Osborne township, land he had purchased the year before. In addition to that farm, he is now also the owner of a quarter on section 15. He is a large breeder of high grade stock and superintends their ship- ment and marketing himself. Mr. Thorn- dyke served one term as treasurer of Os- borne township, and for one term served on the Edgerton board of education. He is a member of the M. B. A., M. W. A. and K. P. lodges of Edgerton.

At Rosendale, Fond du Lac county, Wis- consin, on the first of June, 1893, our sub- jeet was married to lda E. Hyde. the daughter of Calvin and Adelaide E. (Flint ) Hyde. Iter father lives in Rosendale, but the mother died August 14, 1883. Both the Hyde and Flint families are of old New York stock, and both are of English origin. Mrs. Thorndyke was born in Fond du Lac

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An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 111

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970 Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 924