USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 34
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
death and made her home for some time with Mr. Myklejord. One daughter is a resident of Polk county, the wife of John Lee of Brandsvold township. Mr. Myklejord experienced all the privations and strenuous labor of the pioneer farmer who starts with no capital but a tract of wild land. He built a one-room log house which was his home for cight years and gave what time he could to the clearing of his land, working at farm labor and in the Dakota harvest fields and after a time bought a yoke of oxen which he broke for driving, himself. In 1899 he was married at McIntosh to Anna Norgaard, who was born in Norway and had come to this country in 1885, just a few years later than Mr. Myklejord. She was ten years of age when she accompanied her
224
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
mother and two brothers from Norway to Polk county where they bought the old McIntosh farm, one and a half miles east of the present village of MeIntosh. This place continued to be the home of the mother until six years ago when she removed to Brandsvold township where she lives with her younger son, Sam Norgaard. Ben Norgaard is a farmer in Eden town- ship where he took a homestead claim. Mr. Mykle- jord has developed his land into a prosperous and prodnetive farm of two hundred acres. He has re- claimed mueh low land with ditching and a county ditch now erosses his place. Ile has eighty aeres under cultivation, devoted mainly to wheat. Ile also
engages in dairy farming, selling cream to the co- operative creamery at Fosston. A comfortable mod- ern home has been erected and the farm is pleasantly situated six miles and a half north of Fosston. Aside from his farming enterprises Mr. Myklejord is as- sociated with the business interests of the community as a stockholder in the Cooperative Creamery com- pany and the Cooperative Elevator company at Foss- ton. Mr. Myklejord and his wife have five children, Mary, Oscar, Albert, Sehner, and Harold. IIe and his family are members of the Froen Synod Lutheran church of Brandsvold township.
JOIIN A. WIDNESS.
John A. Widness, a successful farmer of Brands- vold township, is a native of Norway, born March 2, 1865. His father, Arne J. Widness, has been a well known citizen and farmer in that township since 1884 when he located on the northwest quarter of seetion fourteen. He was born in Norway on September 11, 1835, and eame to this country and to Rice county, Minnesota in 1880. He engaged in farming and spent the next few years here and in Goodhue and Otter- tail counties. In 1884 he removed to Polk county and bought out the claim rights of a homesteader in Brandsvold township, acquiring the possession of a shanty, a few acres of cleared land with the rest of the traet covered with brush and timber. The hard work and able efforts of the next twelve years were attested to by the rapid development of the property and the snecess of all his enterprises. One hundred and twenty acres of the land were cleared and put under cultivation and a new house and buildings erected. A county ditch which affords fine drainage for several farms was started by him and built aeross his farm in addition to the private ditehes which he installed ; the construction of the county ditch costing him $1,400. His sons, Hans C. Widness and John A. Wid- ness, had taken elaims and had joined their land and farming interests, with his, making a farm of four
hundred and forty aeres, and were associated with him in the work of developing and improving the land. He also bought one hundred and sixty acres, located one-half mile from the homestead, and devoted his attention to the raising of grain on the two farmns until 1896, when he retired. Mr. Widness has never acquired the use of the language of his adopted country but has always been interested in the welfare and progress of the community and gave active assist- ance in the building of the Brandsvold United Luth- eran church, of which all his family are members. His wife, Maren Widness, died in 1910, a faithful companion during the fifty-two years of the trials and successes of their career. They had three sons, Andrew, who is the proprietor of a hotel in Seattle, Washington ; Hans C., who lived on the Brandsvold township farm for some time and is now engaged in the mereantile business at Windsor, Minnesota; and John A. John A. Widness was fifteen years of age when the family removed to this country and he grew to manhood on the Polk county homestead. He took charge of the one hundred and sixty aeres near the original traet which his father had purchased and remained here for eleven years, clearing the land and ereeting farm buildings, and when his father retired, in 1896, he returned to the home farm for a short
JJOHN R. MCKINNON
225
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
time. But in the following year he withdrew from agricultural pursuits and located at Shevlin, Minne- sota, which was then enjoying a prosperous lumber trade. He engaged in the hardware business and conducted a successful trade for five years, when the failure of a large lumber company brought disaster to the smaller business enterprises of the place. After spending a part of the year 1902 visiting in his old home in Norway, he returned to Minnesota and settled in Warroad, where misfortune again overtook him, when, after a year and a half residence, the town was destroyed by fire and his home and mercantile stock wiped out, he and his family barely escaping with their lives. However, his property was insured and he did not suffer a total loss. For some years he lived in eastern Washington, where he was employed in a hardware store and later removed to Seattle and invested in property in that city which he still owns.
The news of his mother's failing health brought him back to Minnesota. She died in the spring following his return and since that time he has operated the homestead in Brandsvold township which had been rented for a number of years. He has added eighty acres to the estate and has remodeled the old home and has all of the land under cultivation. He is particularly interested in dairy farming and keeps a large herd of cows, selling his produce to the co- operative creamery at Fosston, five miles distant. Mr. Widness was married in Polk county in 1889, to Anna Hogan, a native of Norway, from whom he was later divorced. They had two daughters, Minnie and Letta. During his visit to Norway in 1902, he was married to Christopha Torgeson and four children have been born to this union, Marvin, Arnel, Iva and Joyce.
JOHN R. MCKINNON.
John R. MeKinnon, retired capitalist and ex-mayor of Crookston, has been notably identified with the business activities of that city for many years. He is a native of Scotland, born at Inverness, on Septem- ber 13, 1850, and was brought to America when four years of age, by his parents, Archibald and Jeanette (Gillis) MeKinnon, who came to Canada in 1854 and located in Glengarry county, Ontario, near Montreal. The father engaged in farming there until his death in 1884, having survived his wife twenty-one years. They reared a family of seven sons and two dangh- ters and five of the sons became residents of Crooks- ton. John R. MeKinnon remained in his Canadian home, attending the public schools, until his seven- teenth year, when he began to work in the lumber region of Michigan. He remained in that state for thirteen years, employed as a lumberman, and also mastered the trade of carriage maker, and in 1880 came to Crookston and joined his brothers, Alexan- der MeKinnon and A. J. Mckinnon, in the manufac- ture of wagons and carriages. The firm of MeKinnon
Brothers was one of the pioneer industries of the county and conducted a thriving business as manu- facturers and dealers in farm implements. In 1897 the company was disorganized and Mr. John R. MeKinnon gave his attention to other enterprises until 1905, when he retired from active business pur- suits. His has been an eminently successful career, which has included many able services in the promo- tion of the best interests of the community, and he has been actively associated with the development of Crookston since the first years of its growth. In 1887 he erected the MeKinnon block, the first good business building to mark its progress from village to city. As a director of the First National bank, he has been interested in the direction of its affairs for thirty years. In 1895 Mr. MeKinnon was elected mayor and capably discharged the executive duties during one term. He is a member of the Democratic party. His marriage to Henrietta MeDonald, a na- tive of Ontario, Canada, took place in Michigan, July 22, 1874. Her death occurred in March, 1909. Eight
-
226
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
children were born to this union, two of whom are now living, Margaret, the wife of Mr. George W. church.
Capser, and IIenrietta, who makes her home with her
father. Mr. MeKinnon is a member of the Catholie
JOHN A. HAGEN.
John A. Ilagen, a pioneer farmer of Queen town- ship, is a native of Norway, born February 8, 1855. He was married there to Olava Gunderson, and in 1883, in company with her father, Ole Gunderson, came to the United States, locating in Wisconsin. In the following year he was joined by his wife and three sons, August, Olaf and Julius. In the spring of 1886 John A. Hagen removed with his family to Polk county, taking as a homestead a quarter scetion which lay in both Queen and Eden townships and has continued to devote his interests to this farm. Sinee 1896 Ole Gunderson has also been a resident of the county and a member of the Hagen household, and has reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. Mr. Hagen contended with the usual privations and hard work of the pioneer farmer, with no resourees but native ingenuity and untilled aeres. It had taken his small eapital to make the payment on his land and the first log shanty which he built was destroyed by fire before ever occupied by his family. The second house was also constructed of logs and was used as the residenee until 1907 when the present farm home was ereeted. Mr. Hagen later bought an additional forty aeres and now has two hundred aeres, one hundred and forty of which he has put under enltivation. Al- though the land was not naturally adapted for most
successful farming purposes, either by location or soil conditions, by intelligent study and able manage- ment, he has through his own efforts developed it into one of the most productive farms in that region. With an extensive drainage system he reelaimed some fifty aeres of marsh for profitable use and has steadily advanced the efficiency of his operations. He has ereeted a good barn, which stands in Eden township, but his home has always been on the Queen township land. He is a shareholder in the cooperative ereamery at Olga and a member of the Salem or Norwegian Synod Lutheran church at the same place, and during the many years of the faithful serviee of his member- ship has been actively identified with its interests. His wife died May 9, 1915, at the age of sixty-two years. Five children were born to Mr. Hagen and his wife after they came to this country: Helena, who married Andrew Alrick of Clearbrook, Minne- sota ; Ingmar, a farmer near Williston, North Dakota ; and Orgine Josephine, Evan and Otto, who live with their father. Of the older sons, August Hagen is a well known farmer of Eden township, a sketch of whose life is ineluded in this work; Olaf Hagen is engaged in the restaurant business in Crookston, and Julius Hagen resides in Clearwater county, where he is a farmer.
AUGUST HAGAN.
August Hagan, a prominent farmer and influential eitizen of Eden township, has been a resident of the county since 1886, when a lad of eleven years, he accompanied his father to the old homestead in Queen township. August Hagan was born in Norway, July 28, 1875, the son of J. A. and Olava (Gunderson) Hagan, and eame to the United States with the family
in 1884. He grew to manhood on the Polk county farm, assisting in its management, and was associated with his father's sneeessful farming operations until 1908, dividing his work and interests between the home place and his own farm, which he had bought in 1898. He paid $950 for this land, which was in Eden township, and had been the homestead elaim of
227
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
Tilda Ostling. No buildings had been creeted on the tract and but thirty-five aeres cleared, and there were a number of acres of useless slough land. With an adequate drainage system he has converted this into fine meadow land. Mr. Hagan has devoted his entire attention to the operation of this farm sinee his re- moval here in 1908 and with creditable industry and ability has made rapid progress in developing its resources, having put some ninety-five aeres under cultivation, and equipped it with modern buildings and improvements. Ile engages in general farming pursuits and dairy farming. Aside from his private enterprises Mr. Hagan is prominently identified with the advancement and success of important business activities in the county. He was one of the promotors of the organization of the cooperative ereamery at Olga and has capably directed its affairs as president and treasurer of the company sinee its incorporation
in 1906 with sixty-two stockholders. This enterprise has met with steady and marked prosperity and dur- ing the nine years of its operations has distributed a quarter of a million of dollars among its one hundred and twenty patrons. Mr. Hagan is also a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company at Fosston; also president of Cooperative Live Stock Shipping Asso- ciation. He is a member of the Democratie party and is actively interested in all questions of publie moment and is giving his efficient services in the office of township supervisor. One of the original members of the Salem Lutheran church at Olga, he has continued to give it his faithful and generous support. Mr. Hagan was married, June 30, 1910, to Mabel Clara Martinson. She was born in Clay county, Minnesota, in 1888 and is the daughter of Carl Martinson, a farmer of Eden township.
ANDREW M. EATON.
Andrew M. Eaton, a well known farmer of Brandsvold township and one of the first settlers in the Thirteen Towns, is a native of Switzerland, born May 6, 1852. He was brought to this country when two years old by his parents, who made their first home in Chicago and later removed to Milwaukee and then to Iowa. In 1862, just before the Indian outbreak of that year, they settled on land in Stearns county, between St. Cloud and St. Joseph. When he was seventeen years of age Andrew Eaton left his father's farm and went to Ottertail county, where he took squatter's rights to a tract of land but did not file on it. Some years later he went to Beeker county, and was living in Frazee in 1878 when he was visited by John A. Flesch and Herman Eikens, who were enroute from their home in Douglas county to a new location in the section known as the Thirteen Towns, which had just been opened for settlement. A month later Mr. Eaton joined them in their new home, taking a claim on section nineteen of what is now Rosebud township. Of the eight men who were
the first settlers of this district, four still reside here, Herman Eikens, John Fleseh, Andrew Eaton and George Hersehberger. Edward Lebree removed to Canada, W. J. Hillegoss now lives in Tacoma, Wash- ington, and Jerome Thayer and Matt Portz are dead. Several others who took claims about this time gave up their land when the region was withdrawn from the market by the government. During the first years these pioneers struggled with all the privations and hard labor of frontier life. For a time they lived in the open, using their wagons for shelter, and a clock belonging to Mr. Fleseh and fastened to a balm of Gilead tree, marked the passing of the days. Mr. Eaton hired a few acres of prairie land broken for cultivation and in the spring of 1879 brought his family to the wilderness home. The first house was built of oak logs, with the floor of hewed poplar, and roofed with elm bark. In 1883 the land was re- opened and rapidly settled and a church and school established. Before that time a small store, known as the Wild Rice trading post, was kept on the Flesch
228
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
farm by a half breed, Mon-do-ba-shika. Trading posts were also operated by Mr. Ilillegoss and Mr. Lebree. The local tribes of Indians from White Earth and Red Lake were frequent and friendly visitors of the settlers and never threatened their safety. Their name for Mr. Eaton was Wind-de-go, signifying in their vernacular that his strength demanded their respect. Mr. Flesch was known as Mo-ko-gee, be- cause of his alert manner and the quickness of his movements. In 1883 Lewis Foss started a store and the postoffice of Fosston on the Flesch homestead, on the present site of the home of John Newton, a son- in-law of John Flesch. The following year he removed to the present location of Fosston, and another store was built by Jacob Hansen and the postoffice of Hans- ville started. Supplies were hauled from Detroit City, and the nearest wheat markets were Beltrami and Detroit. During the first years Mr. Eaton cleared about fifteen acres of his land and raised some wheat, and meanwhile industriously employed every means of supporting his family that the frontier country afforded. For two years he returned to Becker county during the harvest season, and in the spring and fall he trapped for muskrat, mink and otter skins. He also dug snake root, finding a good market for it, either dried or green. IIe often walked to Bolieu with his produce and packed the provisions home on his back in primitive fashion, and did not Jmy his first yoke of oxen until 1883, when he mort- gaged his land to make the purchase. His wheat erops were thrashed by flailing over poles, laid over a cleared space. With Mr. Flesch he once thrashed two hundred bushel by this laborious method. When T. B. Walker opened his lumber operations on Clearwater river Mr. Eaton worked in his employ, driving the teams in the winter, and during one summer was carrier for the camps, carrying mail and calks for the lum- bermen's shoes from Detroit. It took a week's time to make the route, traveling all day and eamping at any place that darkness overtook him, but the friend- liness of the natives never failed him, and, although a police patrol was not established until later, he was
never molested. With steady determination and hard work Mr. Eaton developed his farm, putting some forty acres under cultivation and erecting a comfort- able home. The able qualities which brought him success in private enterprises prompted his efficient service and influence in behalf of the public welfare, and as a worthy pioneer of Rosebud township he was identified with every phase of the history of its found- ing and development. He was present at the first election in 1883, held in the old house on the Fleseli farm, which also housed the first school in the town- ship, taught by A. D. Wishard, who later became superintendent of the schools at Red Lake Falls. Mr. Eaton was a member of the school board for many years and served as elerk of the school district, and for eight years was road supervisor. In political matters he maintains independence in his views and is allied with no party organization. He is a member of the Catholic church and attended the first mass, which was held in the Flesch home by Father Lozier of White Earth. The church at Hansville was built about seventeen years ago, and previous to that time oceasional serviees were held in the homes. In 1897 Mr. Eaton removed from his homestead to his present home on seetion eleven of Brandsvold township, six miles north of Fosston. Here he again undertook the work of the farm-builder, much of the land being uncultivated and the only buildings a log shanty and barn. He has developed a fine farm, with a pleasant home and good buildings, and with the exception of pasture land has every acre under cultivation. .. county ditch crosses the place and furnishes good drainage. He gives some attention to dairy farming, keeping a herd of twelve eows. He was married in 1876 at St. Joseph, Becker county, to Mary Brench, who was born at St. Joseph in 1858 and is of German parentage. They have seven children: Veroniea Mary, who taught in the Polk county schools for several years and married C. S. Richardson of Roseau, Minnesota; Albert Stephen, a farmer near Davidson, Minnesota; Joseph Lewis, residing in Montana; Gert- rude Louisa, living with her brother, Albert Eaton;
229
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
Andrew Matthias, who has taken a claim in Montana ; makes her home with her parents, and Christopher Ida Agnes, a teacher in the schools at Ashley ; D., who William, who is in charge of the home farm.
R. J. MELQUIST.
R. J. Melquist, a well known farmer of Brands- vold township, is a native of Minnesota, born in Free- born county, June 10, 1872, the son of John and Randa (Jacobson) Melquist. John Melquist was born in Sweden and was married to Randa Jacob- son in Norway, her native land. They came to the United States about the time of the elose of the Civil war and located in Minnesota, in Freeborn county. Here his death occurred and she was later married to Ole Runhoug and in 1883 the family removed to Norman county and in 1888 came to Polk county. They bought a claim of Ole Trunson, paying five hundred dollars. A log house had been built on the place and but three acres of land had been eleared. Soon after settling here, the departure of his step- father left the management and development of the homestead to Mr. Melquist, then a lad of seventeen years. He capably shouldered the responsibility and has continued to devote his efforts and interests to the farm which with careful management and hard work, he has built from the primitive timber land
left in his charge. For two years he worked at the clearing of his land without the assistance of a team and then became the owner of a yoke of oxen which he later exchanged for horses. The timber which he cut from his land he sold in Fosston and McIntosh as cord wood, receiving from one dollar and a quar- ter to three dollars a cord. Ile has now seventy aeres under cultivation and engages in the raising of grain, wheat being his principal crop. His farm is pleasantly situated six miles northwest of Fosston and abont the same distance from MeIntosh. During the years of his residenee in this county, Mr. Mel- quist has ever taken a publie spirited interest in the welfare of the community and has given able service as a member of the local school board. He takes keen pleasure in hunting and enjoys frequent trips. in pursuit of his favorite sport, in the deer country. Mr. Melquist has never married and his mother made her home with him until her death, April 4, 1912, at the age of eighty-six. He is a member of the Synod Lutheran ehureh at Fosston.
C. P. HOLE.
C. P. Hole, the editor of the Erskine Echo, has been successfully associated with newspaper interests of the county for some twenty-five years. He is a native of Norway, born October 2, 1876, the son of B. K. and Mathea IIole, and when five years of age aceom- panied his parents to the United States and to Fargo, North Dakota. B. K. Hole was a graduate of Lille Hammer, a famous educational institution of Norway, and had taught for a number of years in the parochial schools of that country. After locating in Fargo he became employed in carpenter work, but also taught for several months in a school in the vicinity. In 1883, at the opening of the land of the Thirteen Towns
for settlement, he took a homestead in King township, a few miles south of MeIntosh, and brought his family to the new home in the following spring. His activi- ties as a pioneer farmer were of short duration, his death, from typhoid fever, oeeurring in the autumn of the same year. Ile was survived by his wife and three small children : C. P. Hole, who was then eight years of age; P. B. HIole, who is now a resident of McIntosh, at the age of six, and Marie, then in her infaney. The latter is the wife of C. H. Hendrickson of Moorhead. After two years spent on the home- stead the mother married Charles Johnson, a settler of Knute township, whose farm was three miles east
230
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
of the present site of Erskine. He had also been previously married, his wife having died in their pioneer home. The Hole claim was sold and the family received a pleasant home with their step-father on his homestead. IIe has now retired from farming and with his wife makes his home in MeIntosh. C. P. IIole was reared on the Kunte township farm and when fourteen years of age apprenticed himself to the printer's trade, entering the office of the MeIntosh Tribune in 1890 and continued in the employment of the editor, P. P. Bodine, for a time, learning the rudiments of his trade and then advanced to typesetting for Mr. Mckenzie of the Crookston Times. After completing his apprenticeship he be- came the foreman of the MeIntosh Times under C. T. Lanman, who was the editor at that time. In 1903 he made his first independent venture in the publish- ing business and established the Mentor Herald, the first and only newspaper ever published in that village. This venture became a successful and pros-
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.