USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 25
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which had been but recently platted, and engaged in the hardware and agricultural implement business. This firm has enjoyed a prosperous and steadily grow- ing patronage and is one of the leading establishments of that region, handling furniture in addition to their original lines. As a business man and citizen, Mr. Espeseth has been widely identified with the growth and sueeess of the various interests of Er- skine and has actively promoted every projeet which would advanee its prosperity. Both he and Mr. Gil- bertson are shareholders in the Erskine Elevator company and have extensive land interests in Polk county and elsewhere. Their commercial activities include the Oslo Trading company, at Oslo, Marshall
county, Minnesota, in which they own a quarter in- terest each, Mr. Espeseth has been associated with the State Bank of Erskine, one of the flourishing financial institutions of the county, since 1913 and in 1915, succeeded A. D. Stephens as president of the board of directors. Mr. Espeseth enjoys the confidence and esteem of his associates, his many activities indicating his enterprise and ability in all phases of his successful career. Ile is a member and an active and faithful supporter of the United Lutheran church. His marriage to Annie Ramseth occurred in 1898. She was born in Norway and has made her home in Polk county since childhood. They have three children, Cora, Phillip and Fritjof.
KNUTE RYGGEN.
The resolute and heroic mother and the filial, serv- iceable and praiseworthy son are presented working together in the life story of Knute Ryggen, one of the enterprising, progressive and successful farmers of Badger township, this eounty. IIe was born in Nor- way February 3, 1869, and orphaned in his boyhood by the death of his father, Jacob Ryggen, in that country. After the death of her husband the mother, whose maiden name was Engebord Ilagden, brought her five children to the United States with the hope of bettering conditions for herself and them in this land of rich promise and abounding opportunities. They came over in 1882, and, after living one year in Grand Forks, North Dakota, moved to Polk county, Minnesota, where the son took up a homestead of 160 aeres of government land on which the family has since resided. Mr. Ryggen and his brother Arne worked hard improving this new home in the wilder-
ness, and so well applied have been their labors and so wisely have they managed their affairs that they now together own and have under cultivation 500 aeres improved with good buildings and equipped with all the requisites for advanced and systematic farming according to the most approved present-day methods. The mother is still living and she, also, still has her home in Badger township, this county. Her fidelity to her children has been rewarded by the realization of all hier hopes of good fortune in the New World, and she furnishes in her career a shining proof that devotion to duty brings its own reward, and sometimes, at least, in a substantial, tangible way that is patent to all observers. All the members of the family belong to the United Lutheran church and take an active part in the affairs of the congregation in which they are enrolled.
MARTIN B. NELSON.
This progressive and prosperous Knute township farmer is one of the substantial and enterprising citizens of Polk county, and for thirty-two years he has been active in helping to build up, develop and
improve it in a judicious and commendable way, add- ing to its material wealth and aiding in direeting its public affairs along lines of wholesome progress. He is a native of Norway, where his life began
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March 30, 1857, and where he lived until 1880, when he determined to seek his fortune in the New World. Ile landed at Quebec, Canada, but soon afterward came over into "the States" and took up his residence in Wisconsin. About a year later he changed his base of operations to Northfield, Minne- sota, and in 1883 he moved to Polk county, Minnesota, and took up a homestead in sections 10 and 15, Kunte township, on which he has since made his home and expended his energies to good purpose.
Mr. Nelson now owns 310 acres of choice land improved with good buildings and furnished with all the most approved applianees for systematic and advanced farming. His land lies partly in Knute and partly in Badger township, and he has brought it all to a higli state of productiveness and made his home attractive in appearance as well as comfort- able in equipment and a model in scientifie and up- to-date tillage.
On December 12, 1883, Mr. Nelson was married in Crookston to Miss Mary Benson, who was born in Norway February 25, 1865, the daughter of B. L. and Bertha Mary Benson, also natives of Norway. The father came to this country in 1867 and located in Dakota county, Minnesota, and in 1869 the mother came over with her children and joined him. They
lived in Dakota county until 1883. In 1882 the father came to Polk county and took up a home- stead in Woodside township to which the family moved the next spring. The parents occupied and improved this homestead until they retired from active work, when they made their home with their daughter, Mrs. Nelson. The mother died on Mr. Nelson's farm October 11, 1909, when she was eighty- five years old, and the father September 9, 1912, in his ninety-third year.
These venerable pioneers were the parents of eight children. Anna M. became the wife of Nels Lillemoe and died in 1907. Louis lived in the village of Er- skine. Christian died a number of years ago. Martha is the wife of Julius Bradley. Martin and Bernt are residents of Knute township. Mary is the wife of Mr. Nelson and Gida died when twelve years of age.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have ten children, Bernhard, Melvin, Bertha (the wife of Melvin Peterson), Gilbert, Nicalie B., Alfred, Moses, Oscar Robert, Martin L. and Eunice M. The parents are members of the United Lutheran church. They take an active part in all its undertakings and also manifest an earnest and serviceable interest in all good agencies working for the general welfare and happiness of their home community.
OLOF STARDIG.
Having come to Polk county in the early days of its history, while a large part of it was still a wil- derness, sparsely settled and almost without the ordi- mary conveniences of life and destitute of all the advantages brought about by civilization, Olof Star- dig, now one of the prosperous and substantial farm- ers of Knute township, saw all the hardships and privations of frontier life and met them with the heroic courage of a hardy and resolute pioneer, daunted by no danger and deterred by no difficulty in his determination to win a home and a position of comfort and standing in the New World.
Mr. Stardig was born in Sweden May 4, 1848, and
remained in his native land until 1882. In Deeem- ber of that year he emigrated to America and located in Douglas county, Minnesota. In August, 1883, he eame to Polk county and filed on 160 acres of land in Knute township, but returned to Douglas county and remained there until January, 1884. At that time he took up his residence on his Polk county claim, after building a log cabin, the logs for which he car- ried on his shoulder through about three feet of snow. He had left his family in Sweden and, as he had but $3 in money, he was unable to send for his wife and children until spring. In the meantime he worked out at whatever he could get to do, and was thankful
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for any employment that was given him. He saved his earnings with serupulous care and in the spring of 1884 was able to bring his family to his new home in the wilds.
From that time until now Mr. Stardig has con- tinued to improve his farm, and by his steady and well applied industry he has made it one of the best in his township. The log cabin has been replaced by a comfortable modern dwelling house and other build- ings have been erected as need required and the finan- eial progress of the family permitted, and during all the passing years close and studious attention has been given to the cultivation of the land and the ap- plication of new discoveries in agricultural science
for its improvement and the expansion of its fruit- fulness.
Mr. Stardig was married in Sweden to Miss Marina Ostenson, who was born in that country October 1, 1846. They have had nine children, seven of whom are living : Otto, Selmer, Anton, Ida, Albert W., Min- nie and Emily. A daughter named Anna died when she was eleven years old and a son named Mortin passed away at Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when he was about thirty. The parents are members of the Swedish Lutheran church. The father has held the office of supervisor in Knute township for a number of years and that of school treasurer for a much larger number.
LEVOR A. BJELLA.
Levor A. Bjella, a well known contractor and builder of MeIntosh, is a native of Norway, where he was born March 31, 1876. He grew to manhood in his native land and came to the United States when nineteen years of age. He came directly to Minne- sota and for two years was employed in farm labor in Norman county. In 1897 he entered the carpenter business and during the three years of his operations in that trade, became an efficient and successful work- man. He located in MeIntosh in July, 1900, and for two years was employed with his brother in black-
smith work and then engaged in the contracting and building business and has since given his attention to his rapidly growing trade; his thorough technical training and business ability marking him as the leading contractor in McIntosh. Mr. B.jella is a member of the Synod Lutheran church. His marriage to Amelia Erickson occurred July 10, 1903, at MeIn- tosh. She was born in Freeborn county, Minnesota, and is of Norwegian parentage. Mr. Bjella and his wife have six children, Anna, Oscar, Laura, Oliver, Kalmer, and Mahel.
TALLAK H. AAKIIUS.
This gentleman, who is one of the enterprising and successful farmers of King township, this county, came to the United States in his youth in search of better opportunities than he thought his native land of Norway promised. Ile has been successful in his quest, having won a good estate and prom- inence among the people by his industry, frugality and good management and his abiding and service- able interest in the welfare of the land of his adop- tion, and especially the seetion of it in which he lives. He was born October 9, 1864, and emigrated to Amer- ica in 1881.
Landing at New York when he arrived on this side of the Atlantic, he found the East unattractive to him and came at once to Polk county, Minnesota, lo- cating at Fisher's Landing. He lived there about a year and a half, working out at farm labor. He then went to the Pacific coast and passed six years in the states of Washington and Oregon. Returning to Polk county at the end of that period, he purchased 160 acres of land adjacent to the village of MeIntosh, and on this tract he is still living.
Mr. Aakhus has improved his farm with good build- ings and has it all under cultivation. He has taken
ELIAS STEENERSON
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
an earnest interest and an active part in local public affairs and has filled the offices of constable, town- ship treasurer, supervisor and township clerk, holding the last named several years. He is also chairman of the board of supervisors of King township for a num- ber of years, and has long been one of the leading promoters of educational interests and activities in that township.
Mr. Aakhns has been married three times. His first marriage was with Miss Anna Torbinson and took place in Grand Forks. She was born in Minnesota but of Norwegian parentage. Five children were born of the union, Halvor, Torbjor, Theo, Olaf and Ben- jamin. Torbjor is now the wife of N. W. Phillips. The mother of these children died in King township
May 11, 1904, and the father was married some time afterward to Miss Anna Nornes, a native of King township, this county, and the daughter of Gunsten Nornes, who was one of the first settlers in that town- ship, where he died upward of fifty years of age.
By his second marriage Mr. Aakhus became the father of one child, his son Carl. Carl's mother died January 28, 1907, and afterward his father married his present wife, who was Miss Engeborg Nornes, a sister of his second wife. The offspring of this union numbers five, Andy, Arnold, Melvin, Harold and Thelma. All the members of the family belong to and are active in the work of the United Lutheran church.
IVER JOHNSON.
This gentleman, who is the present capable and obliging postmaster of the thriving village of Bel- trami, Polk county, has had a somewhat varied and interesting career, through which he has worked his way by his own pluck and ability, making every ad- vance in his progress a stepping stone to something better. He is a native of Norway, where his life be- gan March 27, 1871, and where he lived until 1882, when he emigrated with his parents to the United States and found a new home in the New World in Ottertail county, Minnesota. The next year the fam- ily moved to Polk county, and for a few succeeding years lived in Garfield township.
In 1892, when Mr. Johnson was just twenty-one years old, he took up his residence in the village of Beltrami, and there he was employed as a clerk in a store for about four years. At the end of that time
he attended the Grand Forks college for a year, and on his return to Beltrami he engaged in mercantile business on his own account. In the spring of 1904 he was appointed postmaster of Beltrami, and this office he has filled with acceptability to the people ever since. He has always taken a warm interest in the welfare of the village, and has given it excellent serviee as village recorder, and the township the same in the capacity of township clerk and justice of the peace. In addition to his business and other holdings in Beltrami he owns fifty-five acres of good land in Reis township, which is close to the village and stead- ily increasing in value. On February 9, 1907, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Matilda Agneberg. They have four children living, Norman J., Ignatius M., Constance B. and Katharine M. The religious affilia- tion of the family is with the Lutheran church.
ELIAS STEENERSON.
Elias Steenerson was born in Houston county, Minnesota, November 4, 1856. He worked on his father's farm and attended the district school in the town of Sheldon and a term in the graded school at
Rushford, Minnesota. In the spring of 1876, he took a teacher's examination, securing a certificate to teach; but he did not then take up that line of work, as different plans were in progress, his parents
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having decided to move to the Red River Valley, and Elias was eager to follow Greeley's advice to "go West and grow up with the country."
In September, 1876, he started for the Red River Valley with a team and a covered wagon, several head of horses, cattle, and sheep, belonging to his father, who had taken a homestead in the town of Vineland in 1875, and who was establishing a new home in the west where all his sons and daughters could beeome land owners if they wished to. Ile arrived at Sand Hill River, town of Vineland, November 3, 1876, after a six weeks' journey in the then modern prairie schooner. Few men are more intimately identified with the settlement and develop- ment of Polk county than the subject of this sketch.
In the winter of 1876-1877 he taught school in Distriet No. 5, Polk county, a territory embracing nearly two townships. The school was held at the homes of the seattered settlers along the Red river, between Marsh and Sand Hill rivers, at periods of two weeks at each plaee, so as to get all children of school age enrolled.
He applied to purchase the east half of the south- east quarter and the east half of the northeast quar- . ter, seetion twenty-five, township one hundred forty- eight, range forty-nine, from the railroad company, and also pre-empted the southeast quarter, section six, township one hundred forty-seven, range forty- eight. He secured the title to these lands by purchase from the railroad company and by homestead from the Government. He still owns these lands and takes pride in the fact that there is no mortgage on them. He has added some to this aereage, and through a renter farms six hundred aeres near Climax; he calls his farm Walhalla.
In 1879 he was selling machinery in Caledonia, North Dakota, and in 1880 in Grand Forks. In 1881 he established himself with his brother as the firm of Steenerson Brothers at Fisher and Crookston, deal- ing in Walter A. Wood's harvesting and other ma- chinery. IIe elaims the distinction of selling and delivering the first twine binder in Polk county. The
firm distributed forty-two twine binders from Fisher, and forty from Crookston in that year. The same year the firm opened a general store at Fisher. IIe was mayor and postmaster of Fisher for several years.
In 1887 the firm retired from machinery and mer- eantile business and our subjeet moved to Crookston, where he opened a real estate and insurance office, devoting a large portion of his time to farm insur- anee, which carried him all over the county and gave him an intimate acquaintance with the farmers such as few others enjoy.
He has been identified with the farmers' movement in many ways. In 1892 he instituted the famous Steenerson Grain Rate Case which established the principal of State control of Railways. He has been delegate to various farmers' and marketing conven- tions. He helped to create the sentiment which brought about legislation for the Railway and Ware House Commission; for grain inspection and grad- ing; for the reclaiming of swamp and over-flow lands by a system of state drainage; and for extending the College of Agriculture by establishing braneh agri- eultural schools throughout the state as part of the University-in particular in the Northwest School of Agriculture, located at Crookston. He is an advo- eate of placing boards of trade and chambers of com- meree under control of the state.
In 1900 he traveled over the Northwest as special agent for the Conneetient Fire Insurance Company. In 1901 he was interested in lumbering near Black- duek, Beltrami county, and furnished the Inmber that built the first honses in that village. In 1904 he was appointed postmaster at Crookston by President Roosevelt, and was re-appointed in 1909 and served with distinetion until succeeded by a Democrat, in July, 1913. During his inenmbeney the Crookston postoffice was raised to a high standard of efficiency and cleanliness. The rural delivery system was in- ereased from two carriers to six, giving service to within a mile of every farmer within a radius of sixteen miles from Crookston. A Federal building was built during his term, the furnishing of which
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he well knew how to provide, and where he presided for several years with dignity and decorum.
In 1914 he resided part of the time in Minneapolis, and at the solicitation of his farmer friends, he filed on the Republican ticket for Lieutenant Governor, and, although scarcely making an effort worth mentioning, he made a run that threw the scare into his opponent and the machine politicians who supported him, re- ceiving a total vote of nearly seventy-eight thousand (78,000), and carrying every county in the Ninth Congressional District with big majorities.
In the spring of 1915 he returned to Crookston to live where he has a neat and cozy home, and is again to be found at his desk in his office, on Main Street, where he conducts a real estate and insurance busi- ness, and looks after his farming interests through-
out the county. He is a member of the Crookston Lodge of Elks No. 342, and the Native Sons of Min- nesota. He is a liberal contributor to all public enterprises.
Mr. Steenerson was married in 1884 to Oliama Ilong. They have had one son, Vivian, a promising young man who died at the age of twenty-one years. Mr. and Mrs. Steenerson enjoy traveling, and spend part of their time in that manner, having visited nearly all points of interest in North America, in- cluding Mexico and Cuba. Their next trip will be to Europe, and were it not for the great war they would be there at this writing. Mr. and Mrs. Steener- son hold membership in the Lutheran church, where Mrs. Steenerson takes an active part.
HOGEN B. HOGENSON.
This useful citizen of Polk county and resident of the village of Fertile for years met the requirements of duty as an industrious and successful home-steader and farmer, redeeming a tract of virgin land from the wilderness and making it fruitful with the prod- ucts of systematic cultivation, and he is now engaged in ministering to the comfort and general welfare of a large number of persons as the United States mail carrier on Rural Route No. 2 running out of Fertile. He was born in Norway December 27, 1859, the son of Thorsten and Guro (Hanson) Hogenson, and passed the first thirteen years of his life in his native land.
His mother died in Norway, and in 1872 he came with his father to the United States. They located in Olmsted county, Minnesota, where the son lived until he reached the age of twenty-two. He then changed his residence to Polk county and entered a homestead in Garden township. On this homestead he continued to live and labor, breaking up and cul- tivating his land and making needed improvements year after year, until August, 1905, transforming his wild claim into a good farm and a comfortable home 11
in his twenty-two years of residence and well applied industry on it.
In August, 1905, he moved to Fertile and was ap- pointed rural mail carrier on Route No. 2, in which capacity he has ever since rendered excellent service to the public. His farm comprises 200 acres and is well developed and improved. While living on it Mr. Hogenson filled several township offices with credit to himself and benefit to his township. He served as assessor, justice of the peace, chairman of the board of supervisors and member of the school board, taking an active part in all township affairs and helping to develop and advance the locality by all the means available to hin. His work in the town- ship is appreciated and the people there have highi regard for him because of his genuine worth and the service he rendered them.
In church connection Mr. Hogenson is a Lutheran. He was married in Olmsted county, Minnesota, June 3, 1882, to Miss Gunnild Gunnufson, who was born and reared in this state. She died September 8, 1914, at the age of fifty-four years leaving eight children : Anna, Thomas, John, Christine, Ida, Clara, Helmar
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and Gladys. A son named Hogen died when he was five years old. Anna became the wife of Albert Holm and died June 20, 1908. Christine is the wife of Wil-
liam Olson, who is a farmer and lives in Garden town- ship.
JOIIN A. ERIKSON.
Although a native of the state of Wisconsin, John A. Erikson, a prominent hardware and farming imple- ments merchant of Fertile has been a resident of Polk county, Minnesota, for thirty-three years and of the village of Fertile for twenty-eight. He is therefore fully in touch with the people of this county and has an earnest interest in all their aspirations and under- takings for advancement and elevation in their stand- ards of living, and he has contributed his full portion of the effort necessary to promote their welfare.
Mr. Erikson is the son of Hemming and Elizabeth (Johnson) Erikson. They were both Norwegian by birth. The father came to the United States in 1854 and took up his residenee on a homestead he entered in Wanshara county, Wiseonsin, near the village of Mount Morris. There his son John A. was born June 19, 1867, and there the family lived until April 26, 1882, when the family home was changed to Lib- erty township in this eounty. In 1904 the father sold his Polk county farm, and sinee then he has made his home in Minneapolis.
John A. Erikson remained on his father's farm in Liberty township until September 1, 1887, when he changed his residence to the village of Fertile and took a position in the employ of George Kronsehnabel, who was then eondueting the leading hardware store in the village. Mr. Erikson later became his partner in
this business and they were associated in the manage- ment of it until June, 1896, when Mr. Kronsehnabel sold his interest in the firm to W. L. Vannet, with whom Mr. Erikson was in partnership until 1906. Since then he has carried on the business alone, carry- ing an extensive stock of hardware and farming im- plements and building up a large and active trade throughout a considerable scope of country.
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