USA > Minnesota > Rock County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 62
USA > Minnesota > Pipestone County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 62
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JAMES P. KENNEDY (1876), president of the Hardwick village council, is one of the early day settlers of Rock county, in which he has lived since eight years of age. He was born in Clayton county, lowa, January 24, 1868. In 1876 he moved with his par- ents to Rock county and located in Mound township, which was the family home for eight years. Then a removal was made to a farm near Trosky, Pipestone county, where James assisted in its cultivation and management until 1891. That year be re- turned to Rock county and bought the south- west quarter of section 25, Denver township, which is within the incorporated limits of the village of Hardwick. He and his broth- er, Thomas F. Kennedy, were partners in the purchase of the farm. They conducted it on a large scale and were extensive feed- ers of stock, adding to the original purchase until they owned over a section of land in one body. Seven years ago they divided their property and real estate, James P. Kennedy retaining the home place, upon which he has since resided.
He is the son of Thomas Kennedy, who moved from Iowa to Rock county in 1876. He bought land, upon which he lived for sev- eral years, and then moved to Pipestone county and homesteaded a quarter section. He resided on the Pipestone county farm until the spring of 1892, when he moved to Hardwick, where he has since made bis home with his son James.
In Luverne on May 3, 1894, Mr. Kennedy was married to Snsan Kean, a native of Allamakee county, Iowa, where she was born in 1877. They are the parents of three children: Emmit, Leo and Regenia.
With the exception of one year, Mr. Ken- nedy has been a member of the village council since the incorporation of the town, and for the past three years has served as the president of that body. For twelve years he has been a member of the board of education. The elegant new school house was erected on land formerly owned by Kennedy Brothers. They platted the Ken- nedy addition of two blocks to the village of Hardwick in 1902. Mr. Kennedy is a char- ter member of Modern Woodmen Camp No. 3851, of Hardwick, and also belongs to the K. C. and the Catholic church.
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ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
WILLIAM JACOBSEN (1872), deceased. Luverne was a small, struggling prairie hamlet, but a short time founded, when a young man of determination and energy moved there from eastern Iowa and es- tablished himself as one of the few men of business of the town, with which he was destined to be prominently identified. That man was William Jacobsen, pioneer mer- chant, successful banker and public-spirited citizen. At the time of his death, which occurred on August 21, 1905, he was presi- dent of the First National Bank, one of the strong and substantial financial insti- tutions of this section of the state.
A native of Norway, William Jacobsen was born September 7, 1844. In his native land he was educated and grew to manhood, departing from the northern shores at the age of twenty-one to seek a field for fu- ture accomplishment in the new world to the west. He was left an orphan at an early age and with his twin brother he was left entirely alone in the world, having not a single near relative to whom to look for kindness or assistance. He was in every sense of the word a self-made man, and one who conquered over many odds in preparation for the shaping of a successful and useful career.
The young Norwegian selected as the field for his earlier activities in the United States the state of Iowa, and more partic- ularly the county of Allamakee. With an eager desire for learning and for the pur- pose of acquiring a firmer grasp of the tongue of his adopted country, he secured a place to work for his board near the town of Lansing, while attending the district school. Mr. Jacobsen taught school for a number of terms in Allamakee county and then secured his first acquaintance with business life as a clerk in a general store at Waukon. He then went to Madison, Wisconsin, and enrolled for a course in a commercial school.
By frugal industry he accumulated a few hundred dollars, and with this meager cap- ital he set forth to seek what Fortune had in store for him in the new Rock county of Minnesota. It was in the spring of 1872 that our subject arrived in Luverne, the home of his future years. In partnreship wnth A. Bartlett, he established himself in the general mercantile business in a
small building on a site one block west of the present Heinz blacksmith shop. Sev- eral years later Mr. Bartlett died and Mr. Jacobsen succeeded to his partner's inter- est in the business, which he conducted many years. He ( quickly outgrew his original quarters and eventually he built and occupied the building which now houses the business of the Luverne Mercantile company.
Prosperity came as a reward of merit to Mr. Jacobsen. In 1885, on returning from a trip to the scenes of his youth in Norway, he was instrumental in the organization of the Rock County Bank, of which he be- came the president. In the early nineties he disposed of his interests in that insti- tution and devoted himself exclusively to the real estate business for a year or more. He then became heavily interested in the First National Bank, of which he was made president, the high position he held until his activities were cut short by death. Under Mr. Jacobsen the First National Bank en- tered upon a new era of prosperity, which has ever been increasing under the present management. At the time of his death Wil- liam Jacobsen was one of the large proper- ty owners of Luverne. He served as a mem- ber of the board of education thirteen years. He was a prominent Mason and a charter member of Ben Franklin Lodge No. 114, A. F. & A. M ..
At Luverne, on May 15, 1877, Milla C. Erickson, a native of Allamakee county, Iowa, became the wife of William Jacob- sen, and to this union eight children were born, one of whom, Lula, died in infancy. Those surviving are Effie (Mrs. C. H. Cris- topherson), of Luverne; William, Jr., cashier of the First National Bank; Dr. Leonard, of Seattle, Washington; Walter, assistant cash- ier of the First National Bank of Howard, South Dakota: Nora, a North Dakota school teacher; Jessie and Milton.
NELS IVERSON (1871) is one of Rock county's pioneers who suffered in the ad- verse times of the grasshopper scourge and other dire calamities of the early days, but he never lost hope and today enjoys the reward of perservering toil and has had many seasons of bountiful harvest. He was born in Vang, Valders, Norway, on April
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28, 1845. His parents, Iver Olson and Anna (Myre) Sondral, were small farmers in the land of the Norse.
Mr. Iverson was educated in the com- mon schools of his native country and in the first year of his manhood came alone to seek his fortune in the new world. A three years' residence in Decorah, Iowa, was broken by an eight months' sojourn in the pineries of Wisconsin. He next came to Minnesota, the scene of his sub- sequent activities. He worked at farm labor in Freeborn county, was married there, and in 1871 joined the vanguard of Martin township pioreers. He took as a homestead claim the southwest quarter of section 27, which has been his home from that day to this. Mr. Iverson was a faith- ful member of the township board for four- teen years and was a director of school dis- trict No. 66 for three years. He is a stock- holder in the Farmers Mercantile com- pany of Hills, and in the co-operative creamery at that point. With his family he is a member of the Synod Norwegian Lu- theran church.
At St. Ansgar, Iowa, on July 16, 1868, Nels Iverson was married to Rangde Olson Ellingbo. She was born November 4, 1849, and is the daughter of Ole and Engebor (Anderson) Ellingbo, both deceased. To this union were born twelve children, including two pair of twins, and of the family seven are still living. The family register gives the following record: Ingeborg, born May 23, 1869, died July 27, 1909: Anne, born June 26, 1872; Ida M., born December 10, 1874, died August 9, 1899; Iver, born No- vember 19, 1877; Ole, born January 15, 1881; Dora, born October 9, 1882, died Sep- tember 7, 1896; Bertha, born April 27, 1885; Nels R. and Randi N. (twins), born April 17, 1887, the last named dying September 15, 1888; Ragndi N. and Andrew T. (twins), born July 15, 1889, the latter of whom died September 7, 1889: Amanda T., born July 8, 1893.
ABRAHAM JAYCOX (1876). One of the grand old men of Rock county, whose long life has been one of invaluable service to his country, his community and his fellow citizens, is the gentleman whose name heads this review. He has proven himself
a valiant soldier in times of war and a useful citizen in the calmer hours of peace.
Abraham Jaycox is a native of Putnam county, New York. There, also, his father and mother. John and Elizabeth (Garson) Jaycox, were born before him. John Jay- cox died on the old homestead, upon which our subject was reared, after he had lived out the appointed four score of years. Ab- raham was born on the eighteenth of Sep- tember, 1829. Ile attended the district schools and faithfully remained by his aged parents until he had reached the age of 27. Then the lure of the west beckoned him. The wild and primitive Minnesota of the fifties had just begun to feel the first refin- ing touch of civilization. It was a land only for those of sturdy heart. Of such a stamp were the pioneers, and among those who left the milder life of the seaboard states to hew a civilization out of the wil- derness with its many terrors was Abraham Jaycox. Fillmore county was his goal, and there in Preston township he settled on a pre-emption claim of eighty acres and made his home for twenty years. He added 100 acres to the original plat and wrought mar- velous changes in a land which was slow to yield to the crude implements of the pio- neer. In 1876 he disposed of his ownings in Fillmore county and joined the vanguard of settlers who were to sow the fruits of pros- perity in Rock county. He established a home on the north half of the northwest quarter of section 13, Luverne township, and there he has continued to reside to the present day.
At the call for volunteers to preserve the union in the great sectional struggle, Mr. Jaycox laid down the pruning hook and shouldered the musket. He enlisted in company E, Seventh Minnesota, on August 15, 1862, and served continuously until mus- tered out at Fort Snelling on August 16, 1865. He served under Major Rusk and for one year acted as ward master. During the first part of his career as a soldier he was stationed at Madelia and New Ulm and participated in several of the bloody bat. tles with the redskins. He was present at the execution of the thirty-eight Sioux In- dians at Mankato on December 26, 1862. He also saw service in the battles of Tuplo, Nashville and Spanish Ford.
Mr. Jaycox's wedded life began in Put-
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nam county, New York, where he was unit- ed in marriage to Nancy Lefarge, the daughter of William Lefarge. To the es- teemed couple ten children have been born -seven daughters and three sons-all but two, Francis Everet, who was born May 31, 1872, and who died in December, and Addia Gusta, born August 11, 1874, died August 12, 1900, are still living. The children are: Catherine Jane (Mrs. C. J. Allen), of Lu- verne, born February 29, 1856: Garrison L., of Pipestone, born July 16, 1858; Flabia, of Los Angeles, California, born June 24, 1860; Susan (Mrs. F. M. Gillard), of Creslow, Towa, born April 26, 1862; Abraham Lincoln, horn April 29, 1865: Minnie (Mrs. F. M. Cook), of St. Paul, born July 20, 1867; Sar- rah, of Minneapolis, born May 12, 1869; and Nancy (Mrs. Roy Palmer), of Minne- apolis, born June 12, 1877. Eight years ago Mr. and Mrs. Jaycox celebrated their gold- en wedding anniversary. They are the grand-parents of thirty-eight children and the great-grand-parents of sixteen children.
For twenty-six years Mr. Jaycox served as a supervisor of Luverne township, and for twenty years of that time he was its chair- man. He was a member of the school board in 1882, at the time the present school building in Luverne was erected at a cost of $10,000. He is one of the charter members of John A. Dix Post No. 96, G. A. R.
JAMES PRESTON (1872). Among the few surviving members of the early seven- ties is James Preston, of Luverne, who for practically forty years has been prominent- ly identified with the progress and develop- ment of the county along many different lines. His career in Rock county commenc- ed in the month of February, 1872.
Of Scotch-Irish parentage. the subject of this biography was born in Belfast, Ireland, March 4, 1847, a son of Anthony and Mar- garet (Thompson) Preston. He accompan- ied his parents to the United States when three or four years of age and located with them in Warsaw, New York. James is the only surviving child. When a youth of seventeen he volunteered his services to protect the flag of the union. That was in the year 1864. Ile was assigned for ser- vice in company M, Thirteenth New York
heavy artillery, from which he was dis- charged at the close of the momentous struggle, in Inly, 1865. On the cessation of hostilities James Preston returned to War- saw, New York, the home of his boyhood, and completed his educational career at the village academy. There had been in- stilled within him a fondness for army life and he enlisted in November, 1866, in com- pany C, regular U. S. engineers, with which he was connected three years, being dis- charged with the rank of sergeant. He was stationed during the service on Wil- let's Point, now Fort Totten, Long Island.
On his final discharge from the army Mr. Preston turned his eyes westward, and in search for a location selected Corning, lowa, where he was engaged in farming until he came to Rock county, Minnesota, in 1872. Mr. Preston was not exempt from the many discouragements and trials which seemed to heap themselves in countless array upon the heads of the valiant and determined pioneers of a frontier wilderness. It is to men such as these-men who struggled against heavy odds, but possessed of zeal that wavered not and of a hardihood that was a bulwark against calamity-that the present era of prosperity is largely due.
During the year of his arrival in the county Mr. Preston pre-emptied the south- east quarter of section 18, Lnverne town- ship, and lived on the land until he proved np. His first house was a shack, 12x16 feet in dimensions, which was built from lumber bought of J. A. Town at Worthing- ton, then the nearest trading point. All there was of the future city of Luverne at that time was the old log cabin of Philo Hawes, near the site of the Rock Island depot, and an old store building, still stand. ing to the east of the Heinz blacksmith shop.
After securing title to the land he had pre-empted, our subject moved his humble dwelling to a location on the northeast quarter of the same section, which he laid claim to under the homestead act. That farm, at first a dreary, treeless stretch of prairie, was transformed with the succeed- ing years into a beautiful and substantially improved farm home, today unrivalled in the county. The Prestons lived continuons- ly on the Luverne township farm thirty years, or until 1900, when the family moved
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to Luverne. However, at the end of four years, they returned to the farm to remain until 1909, when a permanent residence was established in the city of Luverne. The half of section 18, the original pre-emption and homestead claims, is still the property of the man who altered its primeval condi- tion.
Mr. Preston was one of the hay-burners in the early days. He felt the bitter sting of the grasshopper scourge, which descend- ed at such an inopportune time on the land just commencing to bear fruit. He was mar- ried in the spring of 1874, and that year the crop failure was most complete. Mr. Preston with his young wife was forced to ahandon the country during the winter fol- lowing and went to lowa, where he secured employment that enabled the little family to make both ends meet, and then only by the most frugal economy. Mrs. Preston tanght school in Iowa that winter. They returned to their frontier home with the opening of spring. Then there were countless try- ing experiences, never to be forgotten, dur- ing several of the fearful winter seasons.
In the early political affairs of the coun- ty our subject was a prominent factor. He held office when the township and village' of Luverne were one political unit, and in the years which have followed he has been chosen to fill every office within the gift of the precinct's population. Upon the or- ganization of school district No. 10 he was made the clerk, an office he held continu- ously for a quarter of a century. Mr. Pres- ton is an ex-county commissioner, having served a term as a member of the board, commencing in 1892. From the very earli- est he has been deeply interested in the affairs of the Luverne Methodist church, of which he is an honored member. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with Ben Franklin Lodge No. 114, A. F. & A. M., and is a charter member of John A. Dix Post No. 96, G. A. R. He is also a member of the W. O. W.
At Corning, lowa, on the fourth of March, 1874, occurred the ceremony which united the lives of James Preston and Emma L. Neill. Mrs. Preston is a native of Burling- ton, lowa, and was born December 24, 1849. Seven children have blessed this union. William E., the oldest child, 'conducts the old home farm in Luverne township. Hc
was first sergeant of company G, Fifteenth Minnesota regiment. Jessie G. is now the wife of H. H. Heald, of Belfry, Montana, having been married May 21, 1908. She is a graduate of the Luverne high school and of the Mankato normal school. For sev- eral years she was a Rock county school teacher and later took a three years' course in the city hospital of St. Paul. After grad- uation from that institution she practiced in Rock county and later in St. Paul. Lieu- tenant Homer N. Preston was graduated from West Point in 1902 and has since been in the military service. The first year after his graduation he was stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. He then spent two years with the army in the Philippine Islands, two years at Fort Logan, Colorado, and then for a few months in the Philip- pines again, where he was promoted to first lieutenant. Upon his return to the states he was stationed for a short time at Fort Assiniboine, Montana, and then, in June, 1911, took station at Honolulu, Hawaiian Is- lands. He was married in November, 1910. Another son, Arthur B., a graduate of the Luverne high school and of the Sioux Falls Business college, died October 9, 1902, at the age of twenty-three years. The other children are Herbert L., of Minneapolis; Florence M., a school teacher; and Paul J., a student in the medical department of the university of Minnesota.
BIRCH CHAPIN (1871) is one of the earliest of Rock county's pioneers who still resides on the old homestead, the northeast quarter of section 22, Springwater town- ship, taken in 1871.
The parents of our subject were Henry W. and Matilda (Stillwell) Chapin, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. They were early day settlers of St. Joseph coun- ty, Michigan, where the birth of Birch Chap- in occurred June 10. 1847. As a child he moved with his parents to Dane county, Wisconsin, and from that place at the age of ten years to Winneshiek county, Iowa, where he grew to manhood. In 1871 he ar- rived in Rock county and filed claim to the land described above. He returned to Iowa for the winter, coming back in the spring to commence improvement on the place. A year later he moved his family from lowa,
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and has lived there to this date. He weath- ered the storms of adversity which fell to the lot of the pioneers of the seventies, and now in old age he enjoys the deserved fruits of fortune.
The year 1871 was an eventful one in the life of Birch Chapin in more ways than one, for it was on January 22, of that year, in Allamakee county, Iowa, that he was join- ed in the holy bonds of matrimony to Alice F. Webster. Mrs. Cbapin is the daughter of George W. and Eliza (Hill) Webster and was born August 23, 1852. This venerable couple are the parents of the following named children: George H., born Decem- ber 3, 1871; Ellena M., born June 5, 1873, died January 12, 1878; Franklin C., born De- cember 15, 1875, died January 5, 1878; Sam- uel B., born May 31, 1879; Bertrum R., born April 11, 1882; and Ralph W., born June 9, 1SS4.
In his long life of service in this county Mr. Chapin has been called upon repeatedly to fill offices of trust. For a quarter of a century he was Springwater township's effi- cient clerk, and for two score of years lie served as clerk of school district No. 2. He was also director of the same for a number of years. He owns stock in the Farmers Elevator company of Sherman, South Da- kota. Mr. and Mrs. Chapin are old and faithful members of the Methodist Episco- pal church.
HERBERT J. MILLER (1879), deceased. The city of Luverne, the county of Rock, and the state of Minnesota, suffered a dis- tinet and profound loss in the passing away on May 8, 1909, of Herbert J. Miller, who for an uninterrupted period of thirty years had guided the destinies of the Rock Coun- ty Herald, the journal which he elevated to its present enviable position-the "lead- ing weekly paper of the state," not a com- plimentary honor but one accorded by those
in authority and in the face of stern com- petition. Probably to Mr. Miller more than to any other human agency, Luverne and Rock county are under obligations for their present prosperous condition. In the capacity of editor he was the zealous advo- cate of every movement that tended to pro- mote the material, moral, social and polit- ical welfare of the county he had selected
as the field for endeavor. A man of ster- ling integrity, of fearless and indomitahle energy, his influence was destined to ex- tend beyond the borders of a single politi- cal unit; it extended to the whole state of Minnesota.
A native of Wisconsin, Herbert J. Miller was born in the village of Deerfield, Dane county, on the thirteenth day of July, 1855. ITis parents were William H. Miller, a na- tive of Maine, and Ann L. (Gee) Miller, who was born in England and came to this coun- try in early childhood. Herbert passed his early youth on the family farm near Deer- field and attended the rural schools in the immediate vicinity. At the age of sixteen years he was enrolled as a student in the Stoughton high school, from which he was graduated at the end of two years. He then matriculated at the university of Wis- consin, where he pursued the complete four- year classical course. He put himself through college by teaching and work at other employment during the summer vaca- tions. Having determined upon a journalis- tic career, shortly after his graduation from the university Mr. Miller went to Reinbeck, lowa, where he conducted a newspaper for nearly two years, leaving there in 1879 to establish his long and eventful residence in Luverne.
Immediately upon his arrival at Luverne our subject entered upon the performance of the duties which he carried on unceas- ingly almost up to the time of his decease. He bought a half interest in the Herald from A. L. Stoughton, and the two gentle- men conducted the paper in partnership for a number of years. In 1882 Messrs. Stough- ton & Miller sold the paper under contract, which was violated. During a retirement of six months from the Herald, Mr. Miller was a member of the editorial staff of the Minneapolis Evening Journal. To protect their interests Miller & Stoughton again assumed charge of their property, and short- ly after Mr. Miller purchased the interest of his partner in the business and continued as sole owner from that time. He gave the Herald his undivided time and attention un- til within two and one-half years of his death, when signs of failing health prompt- ed a retirement from active management of the paper. He spent the winter of 1906- 07 in California in a vain quest for relief
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from the malady that had settled upon him, and from then until the final summons in May, 1909, he waged a heroic battle against the inevitable.
The name and fame of the Rock county editor early became known throughout the state and on several occasions he was cal- led upon to serve in an official capacity. He was an ardent champion of the doc- trines of republicanism, and the state lead- ers of that party were early attracted by the forceful utterances of the young editor and recognized in him a power to be reck- oned with. Mr. Miller was three times elected president of the Luverne village council and was honored time and again by being selected to fill important posts of duty in many movements and enterprises that have brought the little city of Lu- verne to the forefront. He was a member of the Minnesota delegation to the national republican convention which nominated Harrison for the presidency in 1888, and was appointed at that time a member of the Pan-American conference for the set- tlement of the Chilian dispute. Mr. Miller, with a thoroughness which characterized his devotion to every trust, public or pri- vate, supervised the federal census of 1890 for the first and second congressional dis. tricts.
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