USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 36
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able. He keeps a large herd of dairy cows, sending the cream to the cooperative creamery at MeIntosh, abont seven miles from his place. The farm is equipped with good buildings, the large barn having been erected in 1895, and in 1902 he built the pleasant farm home which is delightfully situated on the banks of a small lake. The Amundson homestead which adjoins his land is now part of his property, this having been taken as a preemption claim by his wife, Anna (Amundson) Hanson, to whom he was married May 10, 1889. She was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, November 15, 1863, the daughter of Lewis and Ann Amundson, who had come to the United States in 1860. They removed to Minnesota, settling in Hill River township. The death of Lewis Amund- son occurred three years later and his daughter Anna filed on a elaim and proved up on it. She is now the only surviving member of the family of Lewis and Ann Amundson, all of whom made their homes in this county. The eldest son, Lewis, died in October, 1912, in his fifty-sixth year and is survived by his wife who lives on their homestead in section nineteen of Hill River township. Ole Amundson also was a farmer in this vieinity until his death. Betsy Amundson became the wife of Ole Thompson and lived during their lifetime on the farm now owned by their son, Oscar Thompson. The other daughter, Delia Amundson, was married to John D. Kuntson of King township, who survives her. Mr. Hanson is a member of the Democratic party and has been prominently identified with publie affairs through- out the years of his residence in the county. IIe has
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generously recognized the responsibilities of efficient citizenship, having given able service in the various offices of the township; as a member and chairman of the township board; as clerk and as a member of the school board. He was one of the promoters and organizers of the cooperative creamery at McIntosh with which he continues to be identified as a stock- holder. He was active in the organization of the Vernes United Lutheran church in Hill River and has given further service to its interests as secretary of
the church. Five children are now living of the fam- ily born to Mr. Hanson and his wife, Clarence, who is a farmer in Canada; George, Edward and Mabel, students in the high school at MeIntosh ; and Edith, who remains at home; Edward, has taken a course of study at Fargo, North Dakota. George IIanson grad- uated from the McIntosh high school in 1914 and subsequently attended the business college in Fargo. Ile is now employed in a real estate office in North Dakota.
OLE E. SONSTELIE.
Ole E. Sonstelie, a pioneer farmer and prominent citizen of Sletten township, was born in Valders, Norway, December 27, 1845, the eldest of the eight children born to Elling and Maret (Higden) Son- stelie. The Sonstelie family came to the United States in 1865 and located in Vernon county, Wisconsin, where they remained for about four years. They then removed to Chippewa county, Minnesota, and later to Dakota where the parents died at an advanced age, she in her eighty-fifth year and he living to the age of eighty. Ole Sonstelie went to Dakota in 1882 but only remained a year, being dissatisfied with condi- tions there. On hearing of the springs of "13 Towns" he came to Sletten township and although the land was not yet open for settlement, he located on the creek bottom meadows, making a squatters claim to the land. About a month later. July 13, 1883, this district was declared open to settlers and on August 8, he filed on his claim. His start in his farming enterprise was with thirteen head of stock and his first house was a sod-roofed dug ont. He has interested himself particularly in stock farm- ing, his first ventures being with sheep but he now confines his attention to the raising of blooded short horn cattle. He has been eminently successful in the stock business, the rich meadows which were his choice as a homestead, providing excellent grazing land. He now owns three hundred and sixty aeres of land in Sletten township, all of which he has made
productive. He has erected good farm buildings and his comfortable home commands a delightful view of the valley of Sand Hill river. He also engages in the dairy business and was one of the original share- holders in the Sletten cooperative ereamery company. As president of this corporation, his eapable services have done much to promote its rapid growth and suecess. The company was organized in 1902 with thirty-two stockholders. It now cares for the dairy produce of forty-five farmers and in the months of June and July, 1915, distributed over thirty-eight hundred dollars among its patrons. As an early set- tler of this region Mr. Sonstelie has been identified with every effort to further its welfare and prosper- ity, giving his services and support freely to every worthy cause and has earned the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens, who have invested him with various offiees of authority in the local govern- ment. He was present at the meeting of October 10, 1883, at the home of Lars Saue, when the township was organized and was named Sletten in complimen- tary respect for Paul Sletten, at that time the ineum- bent of the land office at Crookston. He was elected chairman of the first township board, the other mem- bers being Lars Saue and James Vanvert. Aside from his private and public interests, Mr. Sonstelie has had charge of several estates to which he has been appointed administrator or guardian. When the Sletten postoffice was established, he received the
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appointment of postmaster and served in this capac- ity until the innovation of the rural delivery which took away from Sletten township its only postoffice. Mr. Sonstelie pledges his allegiance to no political organization and maintains the independence of political opinion. He was married June 28, 1885, to Miss Gertrude Sorlien, whom he had met in Dakota. She, like her husband, is a native of Norway. Iler parents, J. P. Sorlien and his wife are now living in
Sletten township. Seven children were born to Mr. Sonstelie and his wife, three of whom died. The oldest danghter, Ragna, died in her twenty-second year and the four surviving children are at home, Emil, who was a graduate of MeIntosh high school in 1912, Maria, Julia and Gerhard. Mr. Sonstelie was one of the organizers of the Sand Hill Lutheran church and continues in active membership.
TALLEF B. LANDESVERK.
Tallef B. Landesverk, well known farmer and influ- ential citizen of Sletten township, was born in Norway, May 12, 1864. In 1882, when eighteen years of age, he came to this country and to Polk county in com- pany with his brother, George Landesverk. These brothers were among the early settlers of Sletten township, who through years of hard labor and determined effort laid the foundation for present prosperity. Tallef Landesverk and George Landes- verk, with Edwin MeManus, are the only pioneers in this region who still reside here. George Landes- verk, after eleven years on his Polk county homestead, died in 1894. His wife and three children, who survive him, are now living in Canada. On coming to Polk county the two brothers worked at farm labor and in 1883 filed on homesteads on the second spring at the "13 Towns," and Ole Landesverk secured another tract of land through the purchase of a relinquishment. Tallef B. Landesverk has endured all the hardships and trials which beset the settler of an undeveloped country and has steadily won his way to success and prosperity. For seven years he was compelled to fight in the courts for the title to his claim; during this time decisions were made and reversed and possession of the land shifted from one contestant to the other. Meanwhile all that he earned at farm work was required to meet the expenses of the law suit. After he succeeded in establishing the legality of his title he sold the land and took another elaim of timber land in Beltrami county. In 1893 he
bought the farm in section three of Sletten township, which is his present home. This farm comprises five hundred acres and is well equipped with good barns and a pleasant country home. He has paid as high as twenty-five dollars an aere for undeveloped land and floating bog which he has cleared and drained, developing valuable farming property. Hle installed a drainage system in one marsh tract of sixty acres, the reelamation of which for fine meadow land was completed by a county diteh. Mr. Landesverk himself took the contract for the construction of this diteh, which included the straightening of the course of Sand Ilill river into which it empties. Ile did this work without the assistance of mechanical equipment, with hand labor and a seraper operated by a team. Ile engages in the raising of grain and stoek and is a breeder of full blooded cattle. He is interested to some extent in the dairy business and is a stockholder in Sletten Cooperative Creamery company. Starting, a lad of eighteen, with no eapital but the sturdy quali- ties which make snecess, he has progressed to the possession of large land interests, owning nearly one thousand acres, six hundred and ten of which are in Polk county, his property outside of Sletten township being near Erskine. The other traets are in North Dakota and Canada, where he and his neighbor, Edward MeManns, are the owners of a seetion of Manitoba land, located near Dominion City. Mr. Landesverk is a shareholder in the Farmers Elevator Company and store company and is on the board of
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directors of the latter enterprise. His political affilia- tions are with the Republican party and he has served on the township board and sehool board for a number of years. His marriage to Anna Dalle, who is a native
of Norway, oceurred in 1892. Five children have been born to them, three of whom are living, Tilda, Emma and George.
EDWIN McMANUS.
Edwin MeManus, well known grain dealer and the superintendent of the elevators of the Superior Ter- minal Elevator Company, was born in Canada, Mont- calm county, Quebee, November 23, 1859. ITis parents, Francis and Jane Louisa (Lindsay) MeManus, were natives of Canada, he of Irish and English descent and she of Scotch parentage. His father was pos- sessed of considerable inventive genius but died in his thirty-ninth year. As a lad Edwin MeManus appren- ticed himself to the carpenter trade in Montreal. In 1877, at the age of seventeen, he eame to Fillmore county, Minnesota, and in Spring Valley began his association with the grain trade, a business to which he has devoted the greater part of his life with note- worthy snecess and achievement. In 1882 he was employed in bridge construction work for the Great Northern and Northern Paeifie railroad. The follow- ing summer, accompanied by II. S. Leech, he spent six weeks in the vicinity of the "13 Towns," which was about to be opened for settlement, and later filed a preemption elaim on the southwest quarter of seetion fifteen of Hill River township. His mother, who had joined him in Spring Valley in 1878, now took up the homestead in Sletten township which is his present home. In the spring of 1884 he ereeted a house for his mother on her elaim, hauling the lumber from Wild Riee river, where a government sawmill had been installed for the Indians. This first home is included in the present farm house. His mother lived here for several years and afterwards made her home with her son. Edwin, until her last illness, when she was removed to the hospital at Superior, Wisconsin, where she died May 19, 1913, at the age of seventy- nine years. After a year of possession he disposed of his elaim and in the fall of 1884 again entered the
grain business as assistant manager of an elevator at Nitehe, North Dakota, and later was put in charge of an elevator at Devils Lake, North Dakota. He was also interested in a wood yard at Crookston, where a brother, George J. McManus, engaged in the real estate and insurance business. In 1888 Edwin MeManus returned to Polk county as manager for the Red River Valley company of their elevator at MeIntosh, which was the first to be operated there. A year later his efficiency in his chosen field of work was recognized by his appointment to the office of state weighmaster by Governor Merriman. He served in this office for four years, ably discharging his duties, which included the management of the weigh- ing departments at Duluth and Superior and the direction of twenty-five deputies and some thirty employees. During this time the department handled three hundred million bushels of grain and installed numerous weighing equipments in new mills. He resigned from this offiee to accept his present position as superintendent of the elevators of the Superior Terminal company, grain receivers, storers and ship- pers. As superintendent he has entire management of the elevators which have a capacity of about five million bushels, and of the forty to one hundred men employed. Thorough application and steady industry as well as native ability have had their share in this successful career. Mr. MeManus understands every phase of the grain business and has superintended the construction of two large elevators. His main office is at Superior but for the last four years he has made his home in Sletten township on his mother's home- stead. For many years he had assumed the manage- ment of this place and after the death of his mother he became its owner, purchasing the shares belonging
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to other heirs. This farm is conveniently located four miles west of Fosston and five miles and a half south of MeIntosh, on the northeast quarter of section ten, and is one of the attractive properties in this region. Sand Hill river crosses the land and affords natural drainage, and in 1913 Mr. MeManus completed a flow- ing well, the first to be utilized in "13 Towns;" this well is one hundred and seventy-six feet deep with foree enough to carry it to all the farm buildings. Ile engages in general farming, raising grain and stock and keeping dairy cows. Mr. McManus recog- nizes readily the duties of citizenship and takes an active interest in publie welfare and progress, giving every effort to promote the prosperity of the agricul- tural interests of Polk county. He is identified with township affairs and has served as township assessor.
He was married February 3, 1892, to Mary A. Hanson of Fillmore county, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Charles Hanson, a prominent citizen of that place, who was a member of the first constitutional convention of the state of Minnesota. He died in Duluth. Mr. McManus has one son, Charles Bernard, who was born in Superior, May 26, 1894. Ile was a student in the agricultural sehool at Crookston and is in charge of his father's farm. Mr. McManus is a member of the Crofton lodge of the I. O. O. F. at Devils Lake, North Dakota, and is a past noble grand of that order. He is a member of the Commercial ehib of Superior and the Pure Seed club at Crookston. Mr. McManus and his family are members of the Episcopal church of the Redeemer at Superior, Wisconsin.
OLE EDEVOLD.
Ole Edevold, for many years a sueeessful farmer and well known eitizen of Eden township, was one of the pioneer settlers of that seetion and prominently identified with the development of the agricultural and social interests of the eomnnity. He was born in Norway, April 23, 1865, the son of Ole and Maret Edevold, who later brought their family to the United States and lived for a time at Starbuck, Minnesota. They subsequently took land in Dakota, where they resided until the region of the Thirteen Towns was opened for settlement, when they removed to Polk county and located on seetion thirty-three of Eden township, Ole Edevold and his son Ole each taking claims on adjoining quarter sections. None of the members of the Edevold family are now living; the father died in 1899 and his wife survived him but six years. Of their children, one son, Martin, died when a lad of sixteen years; Elnie Maria, who was married to Ole Tonten, a neighboring homesteader, later re- moved to Wisconsin, where her death occurred, and the other daughter, Anna Marie, died in Polk county, the wife of Hans Eggen, a former resident of Brands- vold township, now living in Canada. The greater
part of the laborious task of clearing the half section belonging to himself and father was accomplished by Ole Edevold, and after the death of his father he became the owner of the entire tract, which he developed into one of the finest and most productive farm properties in the county. During the first years he was compelled to divide his attention between the clearing of the land and employment which would provide ready funds, and worked in the harvest fields and in a sawmill, but with thrift and hard work he was soon able to advance his farming enterprises to a profitable condition and continued to meet with steadily growing prosperity and success in all his interests. He engaged in general farming and gave partienlar attention to the dairy business, keeping a large herd of dairy cows and breeding thoroughbred cattle. Mr. Edevold was a man of broad interests and that type of progressive citizen who through years of active service in promoting the public welfare leaves at the elose of his career memorials in the institutions . of the community. He was the organizer of the eo- operative ereamery at Olga, where his farm was loeated and was the first postmaster of that place,
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with the office in his home until the erection of a store a short distance away when it was installed there. With his father he was influential in the organization of the Synod Lutheran church, one mile north of his farm. He also served in township offices, capably discharging the duties of township elerk for many years. Mr. Edevold died March 27, 1915, in his fiftieth year. He was married to Thea Hoff of Queen township, August 15, 1897. She was born in Otter- tail county, the daughter of Thore and Torgen Hoff,
natives of Norway, who were married in Ottertail. Thore Hoff is still living in Queen township, having survived his wife many years. Seven children were born to Mr. Edevold and his wife: Mabel Estelle, Oscar Theodore, Marie Theresa, Martin Hjalmar, Arthur Edwin, Elmer Eugene and Lloyd Ernest, all of whom make their home on the farm with their mother, who since the death of Mr. Edevold has as- sumed the management of the estate which she is conducting with eminent suecess.
OLE HOVEN.
Ole Hoven, a prominent citizen and successful farmer of Eden township, has been a resident of the county since 1891, when he located on the land which is his present home, ten miles northeast of Fosston. He is a native of Norway and came to this country in 1881, making his first residence in Eau Claire, Wis- consin. For a number of years he was employed in the lumber woods of that state, working on the river drives and also in railroad construction erews, mean- while elearing out about twelve acres of timber land for cultivation. During this time, by thrifty manage- ment, he saved some twelve hundred dollars from his earnings and with this capital determined to embark upon farming enterprises in Minnesota. After spend- ing a year in Norman county he came to Polk county, where he filed on a homestead and bought a preemp- tion claim, paying three hundred dollars for the latter. Only two acres had been cleared and a small shanty was the only building upon the traet. He at. once erected a house, which has since been incorpo- rated in the present modern home, and engaged upon the development of the land. He continued to add steadily to his property, building up his prosperous estate with careful and judicious investments, putting his faith and money in the future agricultural pro- duetiveness of the country. His second purchase was a quarter section of section twenty-five of Hill River township, a little over a mile distant from his home- stead. This was all wild land for which he paid the
same price as for his first land, but was later compelled to buy off another claim in order to clear his title. He then bought two hundred aeres in section thirty-six of Hill River township, paying two thousand dollars, eighty acres having been eleared. His land interests now inelude five hundred and twenty acres, of which over four hundred are in cultivation, nearly all of the one hundred and sixty acres in the home plaee having been developed into fine farm land. Mr. Hoven also bought an improved quarter section which he gave to his son, Carl Hoven. In all his business pursuits and enterprises Mr. Hoven has met with unvaried success. He engages extensively in dairy farming and keeps a large herd of cows, selling the produce to the cooperative creamery at Olga, and is a breeder of short horn cattle. Mr. Hoven is that type of successful man whose able and sturdy qualities are freely devoted to the best interests of the eom- munity in which he lives, and he has been largely influential in every matter which would promote the general progress and welfare. Ile is associated with the business activities as stockholder in the cooperative creamery at Olga and in the Farmers Elevator eom- pany at Fosston. He is a member of the Republican party and a faithful supporter of the Zion Lutheran church. Mr. Hoven was married in Wisconsin to Carrie Kolden, who was born in Norway. They have seven children: Elsie, the wife of Albert Bakken, of Alberta; Lena, who married Soren Oistad and lives
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in the state of Washington; Albert, associated with his father in the management of his farms; Lucy, who resides in Montana, the wife of James Shandorf;
Olga ; Carl, who makes his home with his parents and is a farmer ; and Elmer.
JOHN A. NEWTON.
Jolm A. Newton, of Rosebud township, well known farmer and proprietor of Oak Dale farm, was born at Newcastle, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1859. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools of his native state. He taught in the schools for a time and then went west and spent the next five years traveling through Montana and South Dakota, em- ployed during part of the time in teaching. He came to Minnesota in 1883 and decided to locate in Polk county, taking a claim on the southeast quarter of section ten in Sletten township. In the fall of 1884 a school supported by subscription was established in the residence of Mr. Peterson, and Mr. Newton was appointed the teacher. This was the beginning of twelve years of able and efficient service in the schools of this vicinity. The settlers, realizing the importance of a competent school system, took a deep interest in the development of the local educational advantages and gave their earnest support to the project. The attendance of pioneer schools ineludes a variety of ages among the scholars, and during the first term taught by Mr. Newton twenty-eight pupils, young and old, but all seriously bent upon securing the privilege of the school, were enrolled. Mr. New- ton also taught for a number of years in Rosebud township, in school number III, which had succeeded the first school in the township, on Mr. Flesch's farm. As a teacher and a member of the school board for over twenty years he has been notably associated with the growth and progressive administration of the
edneational interests of the county. Ile sent out a number of county teachers from his class rooms, one of whom, Henry Welte, is the present county auditor. Mr. Newton lived for nine years on his homestead in Sletten township, putting all the land under cultiva- tion. After selling this place he bought a farm on section twenty-one of Rosebud township, where he remained for eleven years, engaged in developing the property, erecting new buildings and improving the land. In 1901 he removed to his present home, the old Flesch homestead of two hundred acres, five miles southwest of Fosston. This place was settled by John Flesch, a sketch of whom is found in this work, in 1878, and was the first claim filed in the Thirteen Towns. Mr. Newton has successfully conducted the management of his agricultural interests and devotes his attention to the raising of grain and hay and dairy farming. Ilis farm is equipped with modern build- ings, the pleasant farm home having been erected in 1911 on the site of the first Fosston postoffice, later known as the llansville postoffice. Mr. Newton is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company at Fosston. His favorite recreation is hunting and he enjoys an oeeasional deer hunt as an outing. He was married, in 1894, to Mary Flesch, daughter of John A. Flesch, pioneer of Rosebud township. They have four daughters, Jessie, Elizabeth, who is a teacher and is at present continuing her professional studies in a training school, Pearl and Jennie.
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