An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 61

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 61
USA > Minnesota > Pipestone County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 61

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Mr. Ilalvorson has from the very earliest actively interested himself in all matters of local import and has on repeated occasions been honored with election to offices of trust in the management of the township and its interests. With his family he is a stanch member of the Synod Norwegian Lutheran church of Inverne. He was one of the charter members of that organiza- tion and has held various church offices.

CHARLES A. REYNOLDS (1871). Among the best known pioneer settlers of Rock county is Charles A. Reynolds, of Luverne, who has a residence of forty years to his credit-a man whose life has been very active in the affairs of the county and who has been closely associated with the history making events of pioneer days. Aft- er having spent many years of his life as a farmer and county officer, Mr. Reynolds now lives a retired life in the county seat town.

It was in Columbia county, New York, on the fourth day of March, 1840, that Charles A. Reynolds was born. In his native coun- ty he spent the first sixteen years of his life, securing an education and making his home with his parents. In 1856 he came west with the family and settled in Buchan- an county, lowa. For four years he lived at home and worked on farms in the vi- cinity, then for several years he engaged in teaching school in Butler and Blackhawk counties, thereafter he engaged in various occupations, selling pumps for a time and engaging in the livery business. In 1870

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he was conducting a grocery store at Park- ersburg, Butler county, Iowa.

Disposing of his interests in Iowa, Mr. Reynolds came to Rock county, arriving in May, 1871. At the time of his arrival the only buildings in Luverne were a log house near the present location of the Rock Island depot, owned by Philo Hawes, and a log building owned by P. J. Kniss, on the site of C. S. Bruce's present residence. It was largely through the recommendations cf Mr. Reynolds that many German families located in the townships of Luverne, Beaver Creek and Clinton that year. He spoke very favorably of the country to his old neighbors in Butler county, lowa, and many came to the new country as a result of his words of praise.

Upon his arrival to Rock county in the spring of 1871, Mr. Reynolds took as a pre- emption claim the northeast quarter of section 30, Mound township, upon which he lived three years. lle lost his build- ings by fire, then sold the land and took homestead and timber claims on section 2, Springwater township. He built a a home there and continued to make his home on the homestead twenty years.

During the early years Mr. Reynolds snf- fered many hardships incident to pioneer life in Rock countly, not the least of which were grasshopper invasions. The grasshop- pers damaged his crops first in 1873, while he was living in Mound township, but the damage was not great that year. tn 1875 he escaped the pests and reports that his wheat averaged nineteen bushels to the acre that year. Mr. Reynolds bad many adven- tures in the fierce winter storms of the early days. He says there are three dates that will never be effaced from his memory. They are the blizzards of March, 1871, of January 7 to 9, 1873, and the winter of the deep snow-1880-81. In the blizzard of Jan- mary, 1873, Mr. Reynolds was caught in the storm and was unable to return home for several days. On the morning of the seventh he started from home with a team with the intention of going to the home of Fred Kothe, in Martin township, a distance of nine miles. The morning was a beautiful one and the snow on the ground was melt- ing. Between ten and eleven o'clock he stopped at the home of a Mr. Loose, on sec- tion 30, Luverne township, to dry his feet.

While he was in the house the wind sudden- ly changed to the northwest and the bliz- zard struck in all its fury. He could go no farther and here he remained three days. His wife and seven year old boy were left on the home place with the stock to care for. The home of Mr. Loose was a twelve by fifteen feet shack, and the snow completely covered it, so that the men were obliged to dig their way out after the blizzard stopped.

Mr. Reynolds continued to make his home on the Springwater farm until 1893. That year he rented the farm and located in Lit- verne, which has since been his home. In recent years he has retired from active pur- snits. For several years he was manager of the Morgan Horse company and took an active interest in breeding and training track horses. Our subject owns 340 acres of land in Springwater township and resi- dence property in the village of Luverne.

In the political life of Rock county Mr. Reynolds has always been active and many times he has been called upon to serve in an official capacity. In the spring of 1874 he was appointed a member of the board of county commissioners to fill a vacancy, and that fall he was elected to the office and served a three-year term. He was elected to the same office in 1886 and served four years. Again in 1908 he became a county commissioner, serving one year to complete the unexpired term of John Houg. During the years 1874 to 1877, inclusive, Mr. Reynolds was chairman of the board. Dur. ing the time Mr. Reynolds was chairman of the board the bonds were voted to aid in the construction of the Worthington & Sioux Falls railroad through the county- Rock county's first railroad-and it was because of Mr. Reynold's firmness that the bonds were not turned over to the railroad company until the road was completed and trains running. Our subject was also a member of the county board when the pres- ent court house was erected, a board which holds the record of being the only known one which erected a county building for less money than the amount of bonds voted for the purpose.

Besides his position on the county board, Mr. Reynolds has held other offices of trust. He was clerk of Springwater township and he took the first assessment of the north half of Rock county. In 1909 he was ap-

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pointed by the tax commission to reasses the township of Springwater and he per- formed his duties in a highly acceptable manner. On April II, 1911, Mr. Reynolds was appointed city assessor by the Luverne common council.

The father of our subject was Lester Reynolds, who was born in the same house iu which his son was born, in Columbia county, New York. Lester Reynolds was the son of a farmer and grew to manhood on a farm. He married Anna Mosher, a native of Hudson, Columbia county, New York, and in 1856 came west and located in Buchanan county, Iowa. There parents moved to Luverne in 1897 and died in that city, the mother in 1902, aged eighty- three years, and the father in 1905, aged eighty-nine years. There were two children in the family, Charles A. and N. R. Reynolds, hoth residents of Luverne.

In Butler county, Iowa, on July 7. 1864, Mr. Reynolds was united in marriage to Jul- ia A. Burgess, who was born in Chautau- qua county, New York, September 5, 1844, and who died October 9, 1892. Three chil- dren were born to this union, as follows: Fred C., of Wales, Cavalier county, North Dakota; Anna (Mrs. T. L. Ness), of St. Cloud, Minnesota; Bertha Reynolds, book- keeper for the White Mercantile company, of White, South Dakota. The second mar- riage of Mr. Reynolds occurred in Luverne in 1895, when he wedded Bereth Johnson, who was born in Norway September 14, 1841.

TOLLEF O. OPSATA (1870). Picture a wide sweeping expanse of treeless prairie, utterly exposed to the fury of the incon- siderate elements, unpeopled except by a few hardy pioneers, indeed, a scene of desoluation in the extreme! Rock county was such forty-one years ago when first gazed upon by the earliest of her pioneers, men of fortitude and valor, prepared to wrest the hidden fruits from a wilderness which had long awaited the coming of the conquerors. Of one of these men of un- selfish devotion to duty and of sterling manhood, we are permitted to write. Tollef O. Opsata, one of the makers of Vienna township, yet resides in peaceful old age and blessed with the rewards of a successful

career on the old homestead taken in young manhocd, the southwest quarter of sec- tion 22.

A native of Norway. Tollef O. Opsata was born iu Hollingdahl on the second of September, 1845, the son of Ole and Annie (Kjeldergard) Opsata. Ole Opsata, who was born in 1815, came to the United States in 1866, and died in Tennessee, where is also buried his faithful wife, who passed away in 1900.

Tollef was reared on his father's farm and received a common school education in his native land. It was in the first year of his manhood that he crossed the Atlantic and with his parents made settlement in the new world. For a few months the family lived in Mitchell county, Iowa, and then moved to Emmett county, in the same state, where they resided four years, or until coming to Rock county in 1870. It was in May, 1871 that o. party of Norwegians, which consisted of Ole T. Opsata, his wife and six children, whose names were Tollef O., Thorston O., Nels, Ole, Marget and Gusta; and Swen Sanderson, Ole Nelson and Ole T. Berg, journeyed from Iowa to establish homes in the new Rock county. All took homesteads in Vienna township.

Our subject took as his allotment the southwest quarter of section 22, but for the first year lived with his parents, who took a claim near by. The first few years were fraught with innumerable hardships and adversities. That first winter the family lived almost entirely upon fish caught in the river. In order to provide themselves with the necessities of life, Tollef and his brother Ole were forced to return to their old home in Emmett county, Iowa, to seek work. The whole journey was made on foot. There was a fairly good crop in 1872, but the dark days of the grasshopper scourge fell upon the land, with many at- tendant sufferings.

The sum total of Mr. Opsata's worldly possessions on arriving in Rock county were six dollars in cash and a two year old heifer. The first pretense of a home on his claim was a dug-out, which was lo- cated on the high bank of the creek. The second year saw constructed a 10x12 feet log hut with a sod roof. But better days were to come, and a finely improved farm with its comfortable and adequate build-

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ings now grace the once desolate scene. Mr. Opsata served for three years as a di- rector of school district No. 29. He is a member of the Blue Mounds Norwegian Lutheran church.

The daughter of another of Vienna town- ship's pioneers, Ole Berg, became the wife of Toller O. Opsata. He married Annie Berg on December 5, 1873. She was born in Norway April 7, 1854, and came to the United States with her parents at the age of fifteen years. Ole Berg now resides at Hills. To Mr. and Mrs. Opsata were born the following six children, all of whom are living: Olaf, a grain buyer of Faulkton, South Dakota, born September 24 1874; Oscar, at home, born February 12, 1877; Sophie (Mrs. Wilson Abbott), of Worthing- ton, born October 30, 1879; Julia, of Lu- verne, born October 29, 1881; Millie, of Worthington, born July 20, 1886; Theo- dore, at home, born May 13, 1888.

BISHOP I. CROSSMAN (1871), deceased, was one of the early day settlers of Beav- er Creek township and resided on his old homestead until his death on April 11, 1911. He was born in Essex county, New York, August 20, 1836, and when a boy moved to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he resided fifteen years. He came to Rock county in the fall of 1871, when his earthly posses- sions consisted only of a team and a few dollars, and took as a homestead claim the southeast quarter of seciton 26, Beaver Creek township, where he ever after resided and which his son now farms.

On the homestead Mr. Crossman built a little sod shanty, in one side of which his horses had their quarters, while the fam- ily occupied the other part of the buildings. The hard times incident to the grasshopper scourge brought many hardships to the family, but they stayed with the county and weathered the storms of adversity. In 1876 Mr. Crossman drove to Sioux City and se- cured cottonwood shocts, which he plant- ed and which grew io the present magnifi- cont grove on the farm. In 1908 his son ent and sawed 11,000 feet of lumber from these trees, and the big barn on the farm was constructed from the lumber.

The wife of Mr. Crossman was Mary J. Brooks, She was born in Syracuse, New

York, in 1841, and died August 7, 1908. There are eight children in the family, named as follows: Anna (Mrs. Arthur Dike), of Beaver Creek township; Edwin, of Airlie, Minnesota; Seward, of Creston, Soutlı Dakota; Elma (Mrs. G. H. Rowley ), of Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Charles, of Pipestone; Car- rie (Mrs. Willis Cole), of Alberta, Canada; Mattie (Mrs. Albert Hart), of Fedora, South Dakota; George H., who conducts the home farm.

JACOB MERKEL (1872), ex-county com- missioner and for nearly forty years an honored citizen of Rock county and Beaver Creek township, has since 1900 made his home in the village of Beaver Creek. De- spite his advanced age, Mr. Merkel is ac- tively engaged in the threshing business, a line of work he has followed every season without interruption for the past fifty years. It is a record that very few, if any, living men in the country can boast of. His son, Lycurgus, is associated with him in the management of his interests.

Mr. Merkel is a son of the Buckeye state. He was born in Summit county, Ohio, De- cember 29, 1840. He was a youth of sixteen summers when he moved with his parents to Minnesota, which at that time was for the most part little better than an untem- pered wilderness. The family settled in Rice county, where our subject first entered on the career in which he was to achieve distinction. In the fall of 1871 he moved to Blue Earth and the next year Jacob Merkel became a member of the heroic band of Rock county pioneers. He filed a homestead claim to the northeast quarter of section 21. Beaver Creek township, which he thoroughly improved, and made his home there until he became a resident of Beaver Creek village eleven years ago. In common with others, he suffered the trials and dis- comforts occasioned by the crop failures for which the most formidable of all the early settlers' enemies-the grasshopper- was responsible. To the late P. J. Kniss, of Luverne, he gives great credit for timely aid at that critical period.

For twelve years Mr. Merkel presided as chairman over the sessions of the Beaver Creek township board of supervisors, and for a term of four years he faithfully repre-

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sented Springwater and Beaver Creek town- ships on the board of county commission- ers. Our subject was married at Faribault, Minnesota, October 21, 1866, to Elizabeth N. Dunn, Mrs. Merkel was a native of Wash ington county, fowa, and died in 1895, at the age of fifty-one years. Two children were born to this union: Lycurgus, of Bea- ver Creek; and Cora (Mrs. Earl Coss), of Luverne.

JAY LADUE (1885). For more than a quarter of a century the gentleman whose name heads this sketch has been a resj- dent of Rock county, and there is probably no man in the county who enjoys a larger acquaintanceship in this vicinity and the country at large than he. He has taken a prominent part in many lines of endeavor, and the county of Rock is indebted to him for many things that have tended to its betterment.

Jay LaDue is the sixth child in a family of thirteen children. Eight of the children are still living and their average age is more than seventy-five years. He was born in Chautauqua county, New York, April 7, 1827. He secured his education in the common schools of his native county and in Mayville academy. At the age of fourteen years, in the year 1841, he left his father's home on the farm to begin an apprenticeship of five years at the tailor's trade, with the the privilege of attending school three months each year. He completed his ap- prenticeship and in 1846 went to Fredonia, in Chautauqua county, and for two years worked as a journeyman tailor.

In 1848 Mr. LaDue engaged in business on his own account, forming a partnership with F. P. Isherwood in the merchant tailor- ing business in Fredonia and was a mem- ber of the firm until 1851. That year he located in Sherman, New York, where he conducted a merchant tailoring and gentle- men's furnishing goods store until the spring of 1857. In the spring of 1853, soon after the inauguration of Franklin Pierce as president of the United States, Mr. LaDue was ap- pointed postmaster of Sherman and served a four-year term.

Deciding to take Horace Greeley's advice to "go west and grow up with the coun-

try," he resigned the office of postmaster in the spring of 1857, spent some time ar- ranging his business matters and early in 1858 located in the city of Rochester, in the then territory of Minnesota. He con- ducted a merchant tailoring establishment in that city until 1862, when, owing to poor health he closed out his business and joined the great army of commercial travelers. During one of his business trips to Luverne, in or about 1876, he contracted with the railroad company for a section of land near Luverne. In 1885, when they began to call him the "old man," he resigned his posi- tion on the road, disposed of his property interests in Rochester, and settled on his Rock county farm.

This was a radical change from his here- tofore active life. From the tailor, the mer- chant, the salesman on the road for twenty- five years, to a Rock county farmer! But he soon adapted himself to the changed con- ditions and made a decided success of his farming, as he bad of his other business ventures. He engaged extensively in the breeding of fancy stock and became famous as the owner of the great brood mare "Bell," whose colts brought him at the farm from $600 to $3000 each.

One of the colts became world famous. In two short seasons on the track in different countries in Europe, the colt, "Polly" by name, won $150,000 in purses. After this feat the Russian government, proud of their Orloffs as long distance race horses, and jealous of the American trotter who had won everything in sight, in Germany, Austria and France, offered a thousand rubles, in addition to large purses, for any American-bred horse that would come to Moscow and compete with the famous Orloff in three two-mile heats and the sweepstakes. The owner of "Polly" (the daughter of "Belle" and "Hamdallah") ac- cepted their challenge, and "Polly" met the famous horses in Moscow, won the three straight heats and the sweepstakes and was awarded the large purses that were put up for each. The trainer and driver of "Polly" then presented his claim for the four gold medals offered by the Russian government, one for the winner of each of the three races and one for the horse that won the sweepstakes. But the Russian government said, "No, these medals

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were awarded by the Russian government to the breeder of the winning horse."

Mr. LaDue was quick to respond with the proof that he was the breeder of "Polly" and the four large gold medals, that weigh- ed out $400, were sent to the proprietor of what was thereafter known as the "Gold Medal" farm in Luverne. These medals were placed on exhibition at the Minne- sota state fairs, at many of the county fairs of the state, and in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. At that exposition "Old Belle" and seven of her kin were entered in the various class- es, and nearly $1000 was awarded to this string of horses from the Rock county farm, while "Polly," the queen-bee of the family, was in Europe, resting on the laur- els she had won from the czar of all the Rnssias. There never was a horse which so extensively advertised its owner, its county, its state, the United States, and the whole continent of Europe, as this great mare "Polly" did. She had a four-mile rec- ord to a standing start, hauling 300 pounds weight, of ten minutes and five seconds- the fastest four-mile record in the world at the time it was made, and it may be the record yet.

After locating on his Rock county farm Mr. LaDue became interested in his new line of business and took an active part in the affairs of the county. He was instru- mental in forming the non-partisan Farm- er's Alliance club of Rock county, and was elected and served as its president three or four years. It was formed as a non-par- tisan organization strictly, devoted to the interests of the farmers in this great agri- cultural state, but when its growth had reached great proportions the politicians, against Mr. LaDue's advice and judgment, succeeded in turning the Alliance club into a political party.

In politics Mr. LaDue, in the early days, was prominent and active. In 1890 the farmers alliance and democratic parties nominated him for the office of state sena- tor, the nomination was ratified by the peo- ple at the polls, and he represented his district in the senate for the next four years. In 1892 he was appointed by Gov. Merriam one of the six members of the Minnesota State Board of World's Fair Managers, and

he served as vice president of the board thre ghout the fair.

For a number of years Mr. LaDue has not been active in business, having retired to private life and turned over to his sons the management of the business enterprises that he inanugurated in Rock county in the early days. He now enjoys the fruits of a hard-working well-spent life.

Jay LaDue was married in the fall of 1851 to Janette, the third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Buel, of Mayville, New York, the county seat of Chautauqua coun- ty. Mr. LaDue has always been prominently identified with church work, and it was largely due to her efforts that the Luverne Episcopal church was organized. Mr. and Mrs. LaDue are the parents of the fol- lowing named children: C. M. and Lamott LaDue, of Luverne, who carry on the busi- ness built up by their father: John J. LaDue, who is engaged in the grain business in Chicago and Kasota, this state; Mabel La- Due, who resides with her parents; and A. D). LaDue, president of the First National Bank of Luverne.

ROBERT C. NORTON (1869) came to Rock county in the days of 1869 when a boy twelve years of age and is one of the county's respected citizens. He lives on and farms successfully the south- west quarter of section 6, Magnolia town- ship, a couple of miles east of Luverne.

The father of our subject, Sylvester Nor- ton, is a well known character in Rock county's eventful history. A native of Onei- da county, New York, is his young man- hood he moved to Pennsylvania, from there to Ohio and later to Missouri. During the civil war he served in a Missouri regiment under the stars and the stripes of the union army. After the war he set up a home for his family in LeSueur county, Minne- sota, at that time a new and undeveloped country. In 1868 Mr. Norton with several others undertook a journey to southern Min- nesota in quest of some suitable location where they might establish homes. Trav- ersing what is now Rock county, Mr. Nor- ton became impressed with the winding Rock river and its abundance of timber, and he decided upon a location in its im- mediate vicinity. He homesteaded the south-

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west quarter of section 6, Magnolia town- ship, and, moving his family there the fol- lowing year, made that place his home up to the time of his death in 1909. His wife, Elizabeth (Mingus) Norton, a native of Ohio, died November 12, 1905.

It was while the family were living in Ross county, Ohio, that Robert Norton of this sketch was born April 3, 1857. When a child of four he accompanied his parents to the new home in Missouri and in 1866, the date of the family's arrival in Lesueur county, his career as a Minnesotan began. In September, 1869, the father moved his family to the homestead in Magnolia town- ship. The removal was a long and tedious task. The cattle, hogs and sheep had to be driven the entire distance from Lesueur county, while the passenger accommodations via wagon route were not of the best, The first few years' residence in Rock coun- ty were fraught with hardship and dis- couragement. The blight followed the bit- ter days of the grasshopper scourge and the danger of the prairie fire was a source of constant anxiety. But brighter and well- earned prosperous days came to the gal- lant pioneers, and today the fruits of un- daunted perseverance are enjoyed in full measure by the posterity.

Robert Norton grew to manhood on the old homestead; then he rented a part of his father's farm and engaged in farming for himself. In 1888 he went to Moody county, South Dakota, proved up on a claim, sold out, and returned to Rock county at the end of two years. He bought 120 acres of Magnolia township's soil, which was later increased by eighty acres from the orig- inal homestead, which now makes a total of 200 acres farmed by our subject.

Mr. Norton was married on February 28, 1888, near Flandreau, South Dakota, to Matilda Rnle, a native of Lafayette county, Wisconsin. To this union two children have been born, Floyd Judson, on March 29, 1889, and Hazel Elizabeth, on August 23, 1895. Mr. Norton is one of the directors of school district No. 6 and has served in the same ca- pacity on several previous occasions. He also served the district as treasurer two ternis. Mr. Norton and family are mem- bers of the Baptist church of Luverne.

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An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 61

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