USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 33
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ANDREW E. WOLD.
Andrew E. Wold, a farmer in Brandsvold town- ship, is a native of Norway, born August 24, 1861. lle was reared on his father's farm and came to the United States when twenty years of age, locating in Ottertail county, Minnesota, where his brother, Lars Wold, had settled in the previous year. Here he was employed in farm work for several years, his first wages being used to repay his passage money which he had borrowed. In 1887 he came to Polk county and bought a quarter section of land in Brandsvold township and entered upon the ardu- ous task of clearing his land for cultivation. The only investment in stock which his meager resources allowed him at that time was a Polled Angus calf which he bought in Ottertail county for twenty- five dollars and this purchase marked the standard for Mr. Wold's farming activities, his farm has al- ways been stocked with finely bred animals. He de- voted all his time to the elearing off of the timber on the tract and for several months, his brother assisted him in the work. In the second year, he 14
put in a erop and had it destroyed by the frost and in the following year suffered the same loss, saving but a small part of the erop for harvesting. This led to his determination to dispose of that place and secure a farm on higher ground and in 1891, he bought his present farm, the northeast quarter of section twenty-one of Brandsvold township, three miles and a half northwest of Fosston. This had been the former homestead of Sam Hanson, who had met his death by suicide and its primitive wildness had been practically undisturbed, a few acres having been cleared and a log shanty built on the claim. Mr. Wold was able to pay about half of the purchase price of $860 and with thrifty management, in a short time, cleared his property of debt. He now owned a number of head of stock and the work of developing the farm progressed steadily. The place was very advantageously located and ineluded no waste land and required very little artificial drain- age. IIe has put one hundred and thirty of the one hundred and sixty aeres under cultivation and
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the rest is utilized for pasturage, Mr. Wold engaging quite extensively in stock raising in addition to his grain farming. He raises short horn and red polled cattle, breeding to secure a strain best adapted to general farm purposes and keeps a herd of sixteen dairy cows, selling cream to the cooperative creamery at Fosston. The farm is well equipped for efficient and profitable operation, the barn has modern con- veniences for the care of stock and accommodates some forty head. An excellent water system has been installed with tanks and troughs supplied by a gas engine from two spring wells. Mr. Wold re- calls that in the earlier days, in his Norwegian home, his father had quite as convenient a plan in his barn for the watering of stock. The house which he first built on locating on this place, has been remodeled and included in the present modern structure which is pleasantly situated on a sightly elevation. Mr. Wold is associated with the business interests of the county
as a stockholder in three important cooperative cor- porations, the creamery, Farmers Elevator and store companies at Fosston. He was actively identified with the organization of the Lutheran Brotherhood church at Fosston, of which the Reverend Gunhus is pastor and continues to be a faithful member of that congregation. His favorite recreation has been hunting, although he does not engage in this sport as much as formerly, making a frequent substitute for out-of-door pleasure with automobile trips. Ilis marriage to Marie Joten occurred in Polk county, in 1887. She is a native of Norway and had been a resident of Ottertail county. Of the family born to them, eight children are now living, Inger, who married Andy Fossett and lives in Enderline, North Dakota; Edwin, Olga, Melvin and Lena, who are students in the high school at Fosston; Alfred, Selma and Bennie.
OLE MELLESMOEN.
Ole Mellesmoen, a pioneer citizen and successful farmer of Brandsvold township, was born in Norway, September 26, 1859, and came to the United States when twenty-two years of age, the first of his family to seek a home in the western land. He came to Minnesota and a short time afterward was joined by his father, B. O. Mellesmoen, who located in Wadena county where he lived until 1911 and since that time has made his home with his son, Ole Mellesmoen. After two years in the new home, the latter helped two brothers to secure their passage to this country. Ole Mellesmoen lived for two years in Ottertail county and in 1883 removed to Polk county, taking a homestead elaim on section twenty-three of Brands- vold township, the southwest quarter. This was tim- ber land and his first home was built of logs cut from the place. To the development of this farm he has devoted the able efforts of many years and has been eminently successful in all phases of his enterprise. It is one of the model farms of the region and one of
the best locations, being situated on the main road north of Fosston, about three miles from that place. Hle has put over one hundred acres under cultiva- tion, the remainder being in timber land and in pro- ductiveness and equipment the farm can be favor- ably compared with those in the older and famed agricultural districts of the middle west. He has good buildings, attractively situated in fine natural groves and in 1908, erected his comfortable country home. His farming interests have been directed to the raising of grain and to dairy farming, selling his dairy produce to the cooperative ereamery at Foss- ton. Mr. Mellesmoen has been identified with the affairs of the township since its organization and at- tended the first election which was held in one of the pioncer homes. He was one of the first members of the Brandsvold United Lutheran church, of which he continues to be a faithful supporter. Mr. Mel- lesmoen was married in 1899 to Inga Sagmoen, who was born in Norway and accompanied her parents
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to Polk county in 1881. No children have been born to them but they have taken a girl and boy into their home, Clara, who has made her home with them since her fourth year and is now sixteen years of age and
Ole, aged two and one-half years. Mr. Mellesmoen is associated with the business interests of the county as stockholder in the Cooperative Creamery and in the Farmers Elevator companies in Fosston.
E. G. EKLUND.
E. G. Eklund, well known farmer and prominent citizen of Polk county, has been for many years actively associated with its development and progress as public official, farmer and business man. He was born near Folland, Sweden, January 21, 1865. Here he attended school and as a young lad apprenticed himself to the trade of shoemaker. In 1882, at the age of seventeen, he came to the United States, join- ing an uncle who was then living in Alexandria, Minnesota. A year later he was able to financially assist his father on the journey from Sweden to a new home in the western state and some time later they were joined by his mother and half brother and sister. E. G. Eklund and his mother and half sister are the only members of the family now living. His first year was spent working on his uncle's farm and burning lime on the shores of Lake Carlos in Doug- las county. During this time he devoted all the time possible to the study of English in the country schools. He formed a partnership with another boy who was ambitious to acquire a thorough training in the language of their adopted country and they lived in a sod shack, attending school and taking contracts from the settlers for grubbing the wild land. One of these contracts involved a daily wage of fifty cents. In 1888 he made his first trip to Polk county and two years later located here. In the fol- lowing year, 1891, he purchased eighty acres in Rose- bud township for five hundred dollars. This was timber and prairie land and only a few acres had been broken for cultivation. He was able to pay one hundred and seventy-five dollars of the purchase price and it took ten years of arduous labor and thrifty management to complete the payment. In the meantime he bought another eighty acres, a mile
and a half from the first tract, and this is part of his present farm, three miles south of Fosston, and was all wild land. After selling the first place at a profit of thirteen hundred dollars he bought one hun- dred and twenty acres of partially developed land, paying twenty-two hundred and now owns a fine farm of two hundred acres, all of which is under cul- tivation. He has reclaimed the low land with open ditches and the county ditch which crosses the farm has completed an excellent drainage system. For a number of years he devoted his attention to the rais- ing of grain. He now keeps thoroughbred cattle and dairy cows, selling to the county cooperative cream- ery company in which he is an original stockholder. His pleasant farm home was erected in 1905 and is attractively situated in a large grove of poplar and other native trees. In 1915 he added to his farm- ing equipment a fine barn. The successful manage- ment of this property has not monopolized Mr. Ek- lund's efforts and he has devoted much time to the larger interests of the county, generously support- ing and promoting important business enterprises which are identified with the general prosperity of the community and giving many years of able serv- ice in public offices. He was active in the organiza- tion of a creamery company in 1896, an unsuccess- ful venture, and in its re-organization into the pres- ent eounty cooperative company which handles the dairy produce of over two hundred and fifty farm- ers. Ile was one of the organizers of the Farmers Elevator company at Fosston, a company that has been of great benefit to the agricultural district, in- suring good prices at home. Mr. Eklund was the first president and has continued to be active in the ad- ministration of its transactions. Mismanagement on
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the part of an agent in charge, caused the loss of several thousand dollars and Mr. Eklund served on the committee which reorganized and put the eom- pany on a substantial basis which has brought suc- cess. They incorporated with a capital of $10,000 and appointed as manager an efficient wheat buyer. In 1914, this company handled 61,000 bushels of grain. Another important institution in which he is interested is the Farmers Cooperative company, which operates a general store in Fosston. He is the president of the corporation. It has a capital stock of $73,000 and receives an annual trade of $22,000. Sinee 1894 Mr. Eklund has given continu- ons and valuable service in public affairs. In that year he was elected township supervisor on the Pop- ulist ticket and was made chairman of the board of supervisors. In 1903 he was elected county com-
missioner from the Fourth distriet and held this office for twelve years, serving for a number of years as chairman of board, during which time he was active in promoting the construction of new roads and bridges. lle is a member of the township board and has been chairman of it for over eighteen years. Mr. Eklund is now a member of the Republican party but has also been elected to office on the Populist and Independent tickets. Ile is that type of progressive and industrious citizen who are the chief factors in building up states and is well known in the county. In 1890 he was married to Maria Hammergren, who was born near Alexandria, Minn., in 1870. They have raised a fine family of ten children, Harris Emil, Arnold Theodore, Alice Ruth, Raymond Wilfred, IIilma Viola, Eilert Jennings, Bertha Elvira, Stella Irene, Clarence Waldemar and Doris Evelyn.
JOHANNES R. HOVE.
Johannes R. Hove, of Queen township, a prosper- ous farmer and influential eitizen of the county, was born in Norway, March 22, 1855. Ile spent his boy- hood on a farm and was edneated in the public schools of his native land. In 1882 he came to the United States and lived during the first year in Worth county, Iowa, and then removed to Polk county. Here he preempted land on section seven of Queen town- ship and after proving up on this land, six months later, in December, 1883, he took a homestead claim in section twelve of Brandsvold township, just aeross the township line from the first farm. With the ex- eeption of marsh tracts, all of this land was covered with heavy timber, for the most part, poplar, and with thrifty enterprise and unceasing industry, he has put practically all of the three hundred and twenty aeres under cultivation. During the early stages of the development of the farm, he employed various means of support, working during the har- vest seasons in Dakota and selling wood which he hauled to Fosston, receiving from one dollar and a quarter to two dollars a eord for it. Mr. Hove has
devoted his life to his farming interests and with intelligent study of every phase of his occupation and able management, has developed one of the finest farms in the county. He has installed an adequate ditehing system which with a county ditch has re- elaimed some sixty-seven acres of slough land. The comfortable country home was erected eight years ago and in every partienlar, the farm demonstrates the successful application of modern and progressive ag- rieultural methods. The large new barn is thoroughly equipped with especial regard for winter feeding: the extensive watering system ineluding troughs in the barn. IIe gives his attention to grain and stoek raising, breeding short horn eattle and has met with unvaried success in every enterprise and has never known a crop failure, one field yielding, in 1904, forty bushels of wheat to the acre. He has estab- lished equally high records in the dairy business, in which he engages extensively, having realized, in one month, $173.40 from dairy produce, with a herd of fifteen cows, beside what was required for family consumption. He is the largest produeer in the Olga
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cooperative creamery, of which he was an original stock holder. Mr. Hove has been prominently as- sociated with the promotion of the best interests of the community in which he lives and was actively identified with the organization of both Queen and Brandsvold townships. He has been a faithful sup- porter of the Brandsvold United Lutheran church since its organization, in which he took an active part
and has given efficient service for many years as a church officer. His marriage to Betsy A. Yerstad was solemnized in his home in Queen township, in 1887, by the Reverend Rude of Fosston. She was born in Norway in 1858 and was reared in the same neighborhood with her husband. They have a family of six children, Lena, Sonva, Olaf, Roy, Hans and Johanna.
JOHN E. TUVENG.
John E. Tuveng, a prosperous farmer of Brands- vold township, is a native of Norway, born Septem- ber 10, 1860. He came to the United States and to Minnesota in 1880 and lived for a few years in Otter- tail county, employed at farm work during the sum- mer months and spending the winters in the Wiscon- sin lumber camps. In the fall of 1883 he came to Brandsvold township and filed a claim on the north- east quarter of section twenty-two and in the follow- ing summer, moved on his land and began the ardu- ous task of developing wild timber land into a cul- tivated farm. Hle built a one room, two story, log house with timber eut from his land and devoted what time he could to the elearing of his fields, and meanwhile found employment on neighboring farmns. During the first year he worked without a team and then purchased a yoke of oxen. A few years later he bought forty acres of railroad land in seetion four- teen about three-quarters of a mile distant from his homestead, paying four dollars an acre. This traet
is drained by a county ditch and has all been put under cultivation. He has cleared one hundred acres of the home farm and engages in the raising of grain and hay and keeps about twenty head of stock. IIe erected his present home in 1910 and has provided his place with good buildings and an excellent water sys- tem, with a well ninety feet deep which supplies tanks in the yards and barn. Mr. Tuveng has always taken an active interest in the affairs of the community and has voted in all the township elections with the ex- ception of the first one. He was one of the organ- izers of the Brandsvold United Lutheran church, of which he is a faithful supporter. Mr. Tuveng was married in Norway, in 1898 to Lena Lein and they have three children, Edwin, Palmer and Selma. Aside from his successful private enterprises, Mr. Tuveng is identified with the business interests of the county as stockholder in the Cooperative Creamery and Co- operative Elevator companies at Fosston.
HANS O. DUNRUD.
Hans O. Dunrud, a farmer in Brandsvold town- ship, was born in Norway, June 10, 1858. He is one of three brothers who filed on land in Eden township in the spring of 1884, before that township was sur- veyed. The other brothers, Ole Dunrud and Peter Dunrud, still reside on their homesteads there. Hans Dunrud was edueated in the common schools of his native land and eame to the United States in 1880,
his parents lending him the money for his passage. On landing in this country he went to Clay county, Minnesota, where he worked at various employment and managed to repay his passage money in the first year, saving from his meager wages. As a farm laborer, he received twenty dollars a month and for the strenuous work of clearing land of brush and timber, seventy-five cents a day, with fourteen work-
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ing hours in the day. In the second year he was able to send money to his parents and later they joined him in the western land. His father, Ole H. Dunrud, took as a homestead claim, the land in section one of Brandsvold township which is the present farm of Ole Dunrud and this remained the parents' home until their death. Hans Dunrud embarked upon his farming enterprise in Polk county with a capital of seven dollars, a yoke of oxen and cow and from this start with thrift and industry, he has steadily made his way to success and prosperity. During the first years he worked in Dakota and at Ada, Minnesota, in the harvest seasons, meanwhile giving what time he could to the clearing of the land, which was cov- ered with timber and draining the marsh land and ponds with ditches. The first home was a shack which was later replaced with a good log house which
was in use until 1913 when it was destroyed. He erected the present barn in 1905 and the modern frame house which is his home, was built in 1913. He has put all of the one hundred and sixty aeres in cultivation except that reserved for pasturage, and aside from his general farming enterprises is inter- ested in dairy farming. Mr. Dunrud is identified with the important business interests of the section as stockholder in the cooperative creamery at Olga and in the Farmers Elevator and cooperative store at Fosston. As one of the organizers of the Zion United Lutheran church in Eden township, he has been actively identified in its interests. His marriage to Mattie J. Haugen, a native of Norway, was sol- emnized in 1885. They have four sons, all of whom reside with their parents, Oscar, who owns a farm in Clearwater county, Martin, John and William.
MARTIN TORGESON.
Martin Torgeson, a well known farmer and thresh- erman of Brandsvold township, is a native of the state, born in Houston county, April 10, 1860. Born in the pioneer days of the northwest, his life has been spent in the constructive work of the farm builder, who lays the foundation for the progress of civiliza- tion. From early childhood he was familiar with the vicissitudes and dangers of frontier life. In Jackson county, in 1862, the year of the Indian outbreak, the Torgeson home was under the fire of the warring hands for a whole day but owing to its advantageous location, the defendants were able to withstand the attaeks. But many of the neighbors were killed and all the stoek destroyed and although the government troops soon quelled the uprising, the Torgeson fam- ily left the scene of the massaere and returned east, to Fillmore county. After several years there, they again ventured into the more unsettled regions and in 1868 took a homestead claim in Ottertail county, near Dalton, and about eleven miles southeast of Fer- gus Falls. Martin Torgeson was reared on this farm and made his home with his father until 1883 when
he went to Polk county and located on a claim in sections twelve and thirteen in Brandsvold township. He had been married three years previous, to Ingre Sonmor, who like her husband, had been reared in the hardy school of frontier life. She was born in Norway in 1858 and had come to the United States with her parents, in early childhood. After spending some time in Wisconsin and Iowa, they located on land in Ottertail county, Minnesota, in 1868, being among the first settlers of that county. Ingre Tor- geson accompanied her husband to the new home in the wilderness, cheerfully accepting her share of the hard labor and privations and during the first years when it was necessary for Mr. Torgeson to seek work in other places and to be absent for months, she bravely endured the loneliness and the moments of terror when even the solitude of nature seemed filled with threatening dangers. Martin Torgeson embarked upon his farming enterprise without stock or team and could give little time at first to the devel- opment of his land, having to earn his support at whatever employment he could find but uneeasing
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industry steadily advanced his success and in 1886, he became the owner of an ox team and wagon, and in the same year began his operations as a thresher- man. He had threshed his first crops with a flail and was one of the first to engage in the thrashing business in the county. The first outfit which he operated was equipped with the first self traction engine used in the Thirteen Towns. In the fall of 1886, he covered seven townships, the season's crop being small and all the neighbors cooperating in their common interests, the crews eating and sleeping in one small cabin. On Christmas eve of that year, they were still threshing in Columbia township. For thirty-five years Mr. Torgeson was employed in this business, becoming widely known throughout the county and enjoying an extensive patronage and has handled millions of bushels of Polk county grain. He has been in charge of many different ontfits, seven of which he has owned and has employed crews of twenty-five men. For three seasons he operated an outfit in Dakota. Aside from the requirements of this eminently successful enterprise, Mr. Torgeson has devoted every interest to his farms. He lived on his homestead for many years, putting some sixty acres
under cultivation and in 1905, sold the property for thirty-three hundred dollars. He then bought the land in section three of Brandsvold township, six and a half miles north of Fosston, which is his present home, paying two thousand dollars for the land, with no buildings. But a small tract had been cleared and lie again engaged upon the arduous task of develop- ing a productive farm. He now has seventy acres in cultivation and has erected good modern buildings and beside his general farming activities, is inter- ested in dairy farming. His political affiliations are with the Republican party and he is a member of Brandsvold United Lutheran church. Mr. Torge- son and his wife have a family of nine children, the four younger children, Nina Pauline, Theodore, Hilda, Amanda, Ruth and Reuben William, still living with their parents. A daughter and two sons reside in Canada, Josephine Amelia, the wife of C. A. Larson of Saskatchewan, and Carl Oscar and Noble Peter who are farmers in the same region. Otto Torgeson is employed with a lumbering and railroad contract- ing firm and Melvin I. Torgeson is engaged in farm- ing in North Dakota.
OLE MYKLEJORD.
Ole Myklejord, a farmer of Brandsvold township, was born in Norway, January 19, 1864, the son of Ole Tollefson, his baptismal name being Ole Olson, but preferring a less common surname, he later changed it to Myklejord. He came to this country when he was seventeen years of age and located in Becker county, Minnesota, where he remained for a year and then came to Polk county, taking a pre- emption claim on section ten of Brandsvold township in 1884 and on coming of age made it a homestead claim. In the same year, his father, Ole Tollefson, joined him taking land in section fifteen of the same township. He died here in 1890 and was survived by his wife, his son, Ole Myklejord, and three daugh- ters. The former lived for several years after his
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