USA > Minnesota > Rock County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 66
USA > Minnesota > Pipestone County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 66
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121
P. GAINEY (1875). Clinton township was a sparsely settled territory when Mr. Gainey of this biography first set foot upon it in pioneer days. From the dark days of the grasshopper scourge, with its bitter experiences, he has been an eye- witness of the development to the pres ent day prosperity and an active partici- pant in the events of the transition.
In Cary county, Ireland, on St. Patrick's day, 1852, Mr. Gainey began his earthly career. He is the son of Dennis and Mary ( Fitzgerald ) Gainey, who died in their na- tive land. The father lived to a ripe old age and died some six years ago in Fill- more county, Minnesota. On his father's farm in the Emerald isle our subject passed the first twenty-two years of his life.
In 1874 Mr. Gainey was welcomed as a member of Uncle Sam's cosmopolitan fam- ily. The first year in America was spent in construction work for the Southern Min- nesota Railway company in Fillmore coun- ty. In March, 1875, his residence in Rock county began, locating at that time in Luverne. For ten years he was employed on the Milwaukee railroad in different places along the line hut all the time his home was at Luverne.º
As early as 1876 Mr. Gainey bought from the railroad company his present farm,
461
ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
part of the southwest quarter of section 5, Clinton township. He did not person- ally locate on the place until retiring from railroad work in 1885. However, from the start he assumed the active overcharge, hiring a man to live on and take care of the place. The first few years were a succession of discouragements. The grass- hoppers descended upon the land, and the ravages they perpetrated are too well known to invite explanation. Each season the heavy expense of seed and labor had to be met, but there were no returns to be posted on the credit column. Many hazardous experiences in the blizzards of that day are recalled by Mr. Gainey. From a raw piece of prairie land Mr. Gainey's place has developed to a productive farm.
Mr. Gainey was married in Luverne on December 8, 1885, to Maggie Coughlin, a native of Wisconsin. Five children, all liv- ing at home, have been born to them, as follows: William Patrick, Mary, Catherine, Honora and Rosella. The family are mem- bers of St. Catherine's Catholic church in Luverne.
The present manager of the Gainey farm is William Patrick Gainey, the only son, who was born November 19, 1886, on the farm which has been his home to the present time. He was educated in the district schools and at the age of seven- teen rented a farm in Luverne township, which he conducted three years. During the year following he was engaged in the horse business; then for two years he was absent from home, working at various oc- cupations in different parts of the Dakotas and in eastern Minnescta. In the spring of 1910 he rented the old farm from his father, which he has since successfully conducted.
WILLIAM E. MCDERMOTT (1871) en- joy the distinction of being the second white boy born within the borders of Rock county, the honor of first-born being cred- ited to Charles Shoemaker. His father, Lawerance McDermott, was born in Ire- land about 1841, and as a boy came to America and located in Clayton county, lowa. There he was married to Julia Brazzell, and with his bride and two com- panions, J. C. Kelley and J. F. Shoemaker,
arrived with the very earliest of the pio- neers in Rock county during the year 1870. Lawerance McDermott took as a homestead and tree claim land under the Blue mound-, three miles northeast of Luverne, where he resided until called by death in 1886. His good wife, the mother of our subject, passed away ten years later, in 1896.
Nature could not have given a man a more beautiful or splendid environment for a birthplace than was afforded Wil- liam E. McDermott, in the shadow of the historic Blue mounds, which in those primitive days stood out in even greater monumental splendor amid the expanse of trackless prairie than at the present time. His birth cecurred August 13, 1871. He passed his youth on the old homestead and received an education in the district school and in the Luverne public schools.
From 1894 until 1898 Mr. McDermott re- sided in Sioux Falls. He then spent five years in Luverne, and in 1903 he moved back to the farm. in 1908 he settled on his present Vienna township farm, the southeast quarter of section 30, which he owns.
The marriage of William E. McDermott to Rena Herrick was solemnized at Chat- field, Minnesota, November 9, 1903. Mrs. McDermott is a native of Olmsted county, Minnesota. These parents have two chil- dren: Laurence, born August 27, 1905, and Milton, born April 14, 1907.
PEDER O. SKYBERG (1872). No man in Rock county is better known or more highly esteemed than is Peder O. Skyberg, pioneer, faithful public servant and suc- cessful banker. For a quarter of a cen- tury Rock county would have no other man to safeguard her treasury, a worthy tribute to the trust and confidence re- posed in a man by his fellow citizens and an honor that but few men and on rare occasions are privileged to share.
Born in Norway April 18, 1851, he came to the United States nineteen years later. His parents, Ole and Maren (Peterson) Skyberg, lived and died in the land of the midnight sun. Peder received thor- ough common school education in his na- tive land. The first two years in the land
462
ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
of his adoption were spent as a resident of Mitchell, lowa. In the pioneer days of 1872 he arrived in Rock county and took as a homestead the southwest quarter of section 15, Martin township, where he lived and toiled until called by his county , to take up the work it had prepared for him. From the earliest days Mr. Skyberg was an active participant in all that ten- ded to the progress and development of his community. In 1878 he was elected a member of the board of county com- missioners to represent the third district. He served as chairman of that body dur- ing the last year of his term. In the fall of 1882 he was elected county treasurer and continued without interruption until January 1, 1908, a period of twenty-five years. On retiring from the office Mr. Skyberg became instrumental in the or- ganization of the National Bank of Lu- verne, of which he has since been the president. He still owns the old homestead in Martin township and other lands in Rock and Pipestone counties. He is a member of the Lutheran church.
Mr. Skyberg was married in 1887 to Anna Abrahamson, a native of Winneshiek county, lowa, where she was born May 21, 1857. They are the parents of the fol- lowing five children: Henrietta (Mrs. C. W. Walters), of Flandreau, South Dakota; Matilda, the wife of C. W. Erwin, of Omaha, a state bank examiner for Ne- braska; Adeline, Walter O. and Philip A.
The organizers of the National Bank of Luverne were P. O. Skyberg, Fred B. Burley, Carl Wiese, E. H. Canfield, James AcKeon and C. L. Sherman. The bank is capitalized for $25,000 and has accumu- lated a surplus of $6000 since commenc- ing business. The present officers are: President, P. O. Skyberg; cashier, F. B. Bnrley; directors, P. O. Skyberg, E. H. Canfield, Carl Wiese, James McKeon, K. G. Oldre and A. II. Osborn.
OLE SEVERTSON (1872) is one of the early day homesteaders of Martin town- ship who has maintained a continuous res- idence of nearly forty years on the land he filed claim to in the early seventies. A native of Norway, he was born at Sigdahl,
Prestegjeld, on the twenty-fourth of Feb- ruary, 1847. When a two year old child he departed from the scenes of his nativ- ity and with his parents, Severt and Guri (Gunhus) Severtson, took passage for the new world.
The Severtson family passed their first summer in America at Rock Prairie, Rock county, Wisconsin, where the father se- cured employment at farm labor. In the fall he bought land near New Glarus, Green county, Wisconsin, where the fam- ily home was permanently established. Ole was educated in the district schools and took an active part in the management of the home farm until twenty-five years of age. In 1872 he journeyed to Rock county, Minnesota, and homesteaded the southeast quarter of section S, Martin township. The first summer he broke ten acres of the land, but the next season's wheat crop sown thereon was totally de- ctroyed by the grasshoppers. With optim- istic spirit, Mr. Severtson stayed by the country, moving his family to the prairie farm in 1875, which has since been devel- oped into a beautiful farm home, substan- tially improved. Mr. Severtson raises con- siderable stock. He is an ex-director and treasurer of school district No. 39, and has also served his community as road overseer. lle is a stockholder in the Co- operative Creamery and Rural Telephone companies of Hills, and with his family belongs to the United Lutheran church.
Jackson county was the place and May 30, 1875, the date of the marriage of our subject to Anna Peterson Berge, who was born in Selbo Prestegjeld, Trondhjem, Nor- way, February 12, 1855, the daughter of Peder and Beret. (Rosseth) Berge. Mrs. Severt- son immigrated to this country with her parents in 1867 and settled with them in Olmsted county, Minnesota, later going to Jackson county, where the Berges still make their home. To Mr. and Mrs. Sev- ertron have been born the following named children: Julia, born April 22, 1877; Christine, born July 3, 1879; Marie, born October 24, 1885; Severt O., born June 29, 1887; Alma Otilde, born June 7, 1889; Peder O., born April 23, 1892; Ed- win G., born December 17, 1893.
463
ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
KNUT ELLEFSON (1877) is an early day settler of Rose Dell township and one of its substantial agriculturists. He was born in Allamakee county, lowa, October 17, 1855, and is the son of Halvor and Berget (Knutson) Ellefson. These parents came to the United States from their na- tive land, Norway, in 1848 and lived two years in Rock county, Wisconsin. Halvor Ellefson then bought land in Allamakee ccunty, Iowa, paying $1.50 an acre, and that continued to be the family home until 1877, when settlement was made in Rock county, Minnesota.
Knut was educated in the country schools of his native county and assisted in the cultivation of the home farm there and also after the removal to Rock county. In 1900 he bought land in Hamlin county, South Dakota, upon which he
lived seven years. He then returned to Rock county and his wife bought the farm, the northwest quarter of section 14, Rose Dell township, where he has reaped many a bountiful harvest. Mr. Ellefson served as constable of Rose Dell township for two years and was the pound master for the same length of time. He is a member of the Synod Norwegian Luth- eran church.
The wife cf Knut Ellefson was formerly Matilda Steen, who was born March 18, 1870, and is the daughter of Knut K. and Karn (Botelson) Steen, natives of Nor- way, and pioneers of Rose Dell. Mr. El- lefsen was married to Matilda Steen on July 19, 1899. Two children have been born to these parents: Belvine K., born June 4, 1900, and Stella E., born March 15, 1902.
AMMON T. SEXE (1874) has for thirty- five consecutive years been a well known and prosperous farmer of Martin town- ship. He was born in Winneshiek county, lowa, on the first day of February, 1858. His parents, Tosten and Gjore (Sponhem) Sexe, both natives of Hardanger, Norway, came to this country in 1856 and lived near Decorah, lowa, until coming to Rock county in 1874.
Ammon was sixteen years of age when he became a resident of Rock county. His father homesteaded the southeast quarter
of section 25, range 47, Martin township. Two years later the father died, and since that day our subject has conducted the same farm, with deserved success. He is an extensive breeder of Shorthorn cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. Mr. Sexe was the constable of Martin township for six years, and also has served as school director. He is a director of both the Hills Mercan- tile company and the Co-operative Cream- ery company and also holds stock in the Independent Harvester company of Plano, Illinois.
Ammon T. Sexe has been twice married. His first wife was Lena Hamre, a native of Norway, born in August, 1860, whom he married March 16, 1877. This faithful companion died, and two children about the same time, from diphtheria, in Septem- ber, 1892. At the time of this sad event, Mr. Sexe was absent on a buying trip in Chicago, he being at that time a mem- ber of the firm of Jacobson & Sexe, gen- eral merchants, of Bruce. By his first wife the following named children were born: Theodore, born May 5, 1878; Mar- tin, born December 16, 1880; Annie, born December 20, 1882; Jessie, born March 4, 1884; Oscar, born December 25, 1886; An- ton, born October 10, 1890. Annie and Anton were the children who died with their mother.
Our subject was married the second time on October 26, 1903, to Martha Bly, the daughter of Peter and Angot Bly, of Hardin county, Iowa. Two children have blessed this union: Leonard A. and Ab- ner P. The family are members of the United Norwegian Lutheran church.
CHARLES S. BRUCE (1876), ex-county auditor of Rock county, is one of the county's pioneer settlers. He is a native of Orange county, Vermont, and was born August 19, 1837. His father, David Bruce, was born in New Hampshire and his mother, Marenda (Sturtevant) Bruce, was born in Vermont. The paternal grand- father, Joseph Bruce, was born in County Downs, ireland, in 1757, came to the United States in 1773 and fought in the revolutionary war. The Bruce family is of Scottish origin, having crossed the wa- ter to Ireland several generations ago.
.
464
ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
The subject of this biography spent his boyhood days on a farm, received an edu- cation in the country schools and resided in his native county until nineteen years of age. At that age, his father having died several years before, young Bruce left home and located in Kane county, Il- linois. Two years later, in 1858, he moved to Dodge county, Minnesota, where he en- gaged in farming until the outbreak of the civil war.
On August 14, 1862, Mr. Bruce enlisted in company B, of the Tenth Minnesota in- fantry, and served in the army until his discharge on August 19, 1865, as first sergeant of his company. The first year of his service was in the Indian cam- paign in the Dakotas and thereafter he was with the western army in the south. He participated in the battles of Tupelo, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee, was with the forces in the raid after Price through Missouri, took part in the siege of Spanish Ford, Alabama, and several minor engagements.
After the war Mr. Bruce returned to Dodge county and in the fall of 1866 was elected county auditor, an office he held during the next six years. For several years thereafter he was engaged in vari- ous occupations, and in June, 1876, he came to Rock county. He took as a claim the southwest quarter of section 20, Rose Dell township, and engaged in farming until the fall of 1890. He then located in Luverne, where he has ever since resided. He was elected auditor in 1890 and held the office eighteen consecutive years. Re- tiring from the county office at the begin- ning of the year 1909, be has since lived a retired life in Luverne.
While residing in the country Mr. Bruce held a number of minor offices. He took part in the organization of Rose Dell township and was the first chairman of the board of supervisors, an office held for a few years. He was then chosen clerk of the township and served in that capacity ten years. Mr. Bruce is a mem- ber of the Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic order and of the Grand Army of the Republic.
EDWIN H. CANFIELD (1881), ex-mem- ber of the Minnesota state senate, repre- renting Rock and Pipestone counties, and an attorney at law of Luverne, is one of the prominent and respected citizens of the county. He has been practicing law in the city of Luverne for the past thirty years and has a lucrative practice. Sena- ter Canfield is an able attorney and one of the city's most public spirited men, having taken an active part in its growth and enterprises.
The subject of this biography was born in Westfield, Wisconsin, December
27, 1855, his birthplace being a log cabin on the Wisconsin frontier. He spent the first ten years of his life in his native town and then accompanied his parents to Olm- sted county, Minnesota, where he resided with them three years. The family home was then made on a farm in Jackson county, Minnesota, where our subject re- sided four years. During this time he at- tended a select school in the little village cf Jackson, and after returning to Olm- sted county, where the family home was again made, young Canfield attended the Rochester high school. He engaged in teaching for a time and then was given private instruction.
In 1878 Mr. Canfield married, and there- after for a time engaged in teaching school and reading law. He entered the office of C. C. Willson, where he studied law until 1881. He was admitted to the bar in July, 1881. In June, 1881, the young lawyer located in Luverne, then a small village, and hung out his shingle. In that city he has ever since been engaged in the practice of his profession. He has built up a splendid law practice and has prospered. He has been called upon to serve in an official capacity a number of times. In 1885 he was appointed county attorney of Rock county to complete the unexpired term of Hon. P. E. Brown, now a justice-elect of the Minnesota supreme court, and he served in that capacity four- teen years. He was elected state senator in 1906 and served a four year term. For six years Mr. Canfield was a member of the Luverne board of education.
One of the institutions in which Sena- tor Canfield took a leading part in found- ing and of which he is justly proud is the
EDWIN H. CANFIELD
Who Has Practised Law in Luverne Thirty Years and is a Former State Senator.
465
ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
public library of Luverne. So early as 1882 he was instrumental in forming a voluntary library association, the members cf which each contributed twenty-five cents a month. In time the management of this was turned over to another associ- ation, organized by the ladies of Luverne, and later the village took hold of the in- stitution, installed the library in the city hall, and supported it by taxation. Some years later Mr. Canfield was successful in inducing a client to donate enough money to purchase the site of the present Car- negie library. The handsome building now on the site was erected in 1904, and at its dedication on December 21, 1904, Mr. Canfield was the principal speaker. He was chosen one of the first trustees of the library.
Senator Canfield is one of a family of two children, a brother, Arthur Canfield, dying at the age of eleven years. His father was native of Vermont, his mother of New York state. They moved to Wisconsin when young and were mar- ried at Waupon. Later they resided at Westfield, Wisconsin, in Olmsted county, Minnesota, in Jackson county, again in Olmsted county, and later located in Lu- verne, where both died.
The subject of this biography was mar- ried at Rochester, Minnesota, March 15, 1878, to Carrie A. Hills, a native of Wis- consin. They have two children, Nina and Arden L.
FRED E. HENTON (1873) is one of Beaver Creek's prominent business men. He was born in Columbia county, Wiscon- sin, February 19, 1868, but ever since his fifth year he has lived in Rock county. His father was a pioneer settler of Beaver Creek township, settling there in 1873. Our subject lived on this farm until 1881, when the family moved to Luverne. Fred attended the Luverne public schools until twenty years of age and then learned the blacksmith's trade in the shop of his father. For awhile he conducted a paint shop and in 1896 he located in Beaver Creek and established his present black- smithing and wagon making business. He is also a dealer in implements, buggies and gasoline engines. He has built up a most
successful business and requires the ser- vices of his sons and two other men to conduct it.
Fred is the oldest in a family of three daughters and two sons whose parents are G. H. and Helen M. (Randall) Hen- ton, residents of Rock county since 1873 and of the city of Luverne since 1881. The father is a native of Pennsylvania and the mother of New York. Soon after their marriage they moved to Fall River, Wis- consin, remaining there until coming to Rock county. They homesteaded land ad- joining the present site of Beaver Creek. Mr. Henton conducted a blacksmith shop in Luverne for a quarter of a century. Since 1906 he has been employed as a traveling salesman.
Fred E. Henton of this review was mar- ried in Luverne on February 11, 1891, to Bertha Gronstad, who was horn near the city of Christiania, Norway, on March 31, 18€5. Mrs. Henton came to the United States in 1889. Both of her parents are buried in the old country. To this union the following eight children have been born: Clara, Helen, Harold, Verne, Anna, Mildred, Neal and Paul.
Mr. Henton has served several terms as a member of the village council and for a time filled the offices of constable and marshal. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. lodge and of the Methodist church, in which he is an active worker and of which he has been a trustee and recording stew- ard for many years. He has been the su- perintendent of the Sunday school for twelve years.
WILLIS J. STEARNS (1873) is the son of one of the first of Beaver Creek town- ship's pioneers, Joseph H. Stearns, and har enjoyed an unbroken residence of thirty-eight years in the county. He was born in Addison county, Vermont, Janu- ary 17, 1856, and was there educated.
At the age of seventeen years, he left the Green Mountain state and journeyed westward with his parents. The father had preceded the rest of the family the year before and had filed a homestead claim to the southwest quarter of section 25, range 47, Beaver Creek township. Our subject assisted with the work on the
466
ROCK COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES.
home farm until 1878, when he commenced farming on his own account. In 1904 he bought fifty acres on section 35. He now rents and lives on the northeast quarter of section 35, range 47. In connection with his farming interests, Mr. Stearns man- ages the elevator of the Minnesota and Western Grain company at the station of Manley. He was for twelve years the clerk of his school district, and for the past ten years he has held the office of postmarter of Manley. He is a member of the Congregational church and of the 1. O. O. F. lodge.
In Beaver Creek township, on the sec- cnd of January, 1884, Mr. Stearns was married to Gertrude E. Pinney, the daugh- ter of Almon S. and Lucia A. (Green) Pinney. Vermonters and pioneer settlers of Beaver Creek township. Twelve chil- dren have blessed this union, of whom the following nine are living: Alice M., born March 15, 1886; Harry C., born July 19, 1887; Florence G., born August 12, 1890; ('lark W., born December 26, 1891; Allan E .. born October 5, 1895; Ralph P., born March 14, 1898; Mabel 1., horn Sep- tember 20, 1900; Herbert S., born May 15, 1904; and Marjorie E., born September 21, 1905. The following three children are de- ceased : Eugene W., born February 4, 1885, died September 5, 1885, of mem- branous croup: Robert L., born December 5, 1888, killed by being run over by a load of gravel: Edith B., born April 3, 1894, died October 5, 1894, from scarlet fever.
The father of our subject, Joseph H. Stearns, was born in Addison county, Ver- mont, January 16, 1842, the son of Abijah and Rhoda (Sperry) Stearns, of Massa- chusetts and Vermont origin, respectively. Joseph Sterns was a Vermont farmer until 1872, when he came as a pioneer of Rock county and Beaver Creek township, home- steading land described above. He was one of the first settlers to put up buildings on hi: claim. He was married in New York on December 21, 1854, to Amenda E. Smith. Mrs. Stearns was born May 23, 1835, the daughter of John and Mary (Gillmore) Smith. Six children were born to these parents, of whom Willis J., of this sketch, is the oldest. Three of the family, Flora E., George P. and Edith, are
dead. Besides our subject there remains Charles E., born December 4, 1857, and Mary A., born April 2, 1867.
PETER C. STEEN (1870) comes from well known Rock county family who a have been prominently identified with its material growth and development for more than forty years. Our subject is the son of Ole P. and Betsey (Berge) Steen. The latter was born in Norway on November 23. 1843, and came to the United States when reven years of age. The venerable couple were the parents of six children, Peter C., Hilda A. (Mrs. Peter Boyson ), Josephine C. (Mrs. Andrew Sanderson), Charles O., George A. and Oscar B.
The father, Ole P. Steen, was one of the county's early day pioneers. He was a native of Norway, born January 14, 1832. While in the old country he became a master of the blacksmith trade. In the spring of 1854 he started for America, making the journey in a sailing vessel which consumed three months' time, Ar- riving in the new world, he located at Waupun, Wisconsin, where for two years he lived and worked at his trade. Then after a year's residence in Fox Lake, Wis- consin, he moved to Juneau county, in the same state, where he was engaged in plying his craft when the civil war broke out.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.