USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 44
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In 1886 Mr. Dale was married in Knute township to Miss Anna Levorson, a native of Waseca county, this state, and the daughter of Halvor Levorson, who was one of Waseca county's pioneers. Mr. and Mrs. Dale have had five children. Hilda, Agnes, Henry and Ella are living. Emma died September 16, 1913, at the age of sixteen years, four months and two days. The parents are active members of the United Lutheran church.
CYRUS H. HOLMES.
Born and reared in the west, and with the whole of his life to the present time (1915) passed in the Missis- sippi Valley, part of it amid the privations and hard- ships of the frontier, Cyrus Il. Holmes, one of the prominent farmers and publie-spirited citizens of Onstad township, this county, is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of this seetion of the country and fitly represents its stalwart, sturdy manhood and elevated, progressive citizenship.
Mr. Holmes is a native of Pike county, Illinois, where his life began January 19, 1857, on a farm located about Your miles from Pittsfield, the seat of the county government. When he was about twelve years old his parents moved to Champaign county, in the same state, and there the son remained until October, 1880, when he went to Kansas and located on a farm near Wellington, Sumner county, on which he lived about two years and a half. In the spring of 1883 he became a resident of this county, and the next year he settled on the farm on which he now lives, in Section 21, near the village of Melvin, in Onstad township, the tract being 160 acres which he
bought of the railroad company, and on which he lived until 1897.
In the year last named Mr. Holmes moved his family to Litchfield for the purpose of obtaining better edu- eational facilities for his children, and in that city he remained six years, his farm being operated by a tenant during that period. In 1903 he returned to the farm and lived on it three years longer, and in 1906 went back to Kansas, locating at Moran, in Allen county, and engaging in the oil business during the next three years. He returned to his farm in 1910. and since then he has made it his home continuously. Ile has added forty aeres to his original purchase and now owns 200. In 1909 the railroad company opened a gravel pit on his farm, and this has proven very profitable to him. He has erected good buildings on the farm, set out a fine grove and added other features which have greatly increased its value and attractive- ness as a rural home, and he has carried on a general farming industry with studious attention to the qualities of the soil and according to the most. approved methods of present-day farming.
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On February 23, 1881, Mr. Holmes was married in Sumner county, Kansas, to Miss Addie Dillon, who was born near Danville, Illinois, July 28, 1862, and reared to womanhood in the adjoining county of Champaign. They have three children, Mabel E., Melvin D. and Roland W. Mabel is the wife of Rein- hold Lohi. Melvin married Miss Jessie Cunningham and lives at Melvin. Roland is a student at the high
school in Fertile. Mr. Holmes has taken an active part in township affairs and has filled with eredit to himself and benefit to the people several township offices. He has been assessor, treasurer and supervisor in Onstad township, and has served as a justice of the peace for many years. He and his wife and chil- dren are members of the Christian church.
J. H. McNICOL.
J. H. MeNicol, station agent for the Northern Pacific at Grand Forks, North Dakota, and a prom- inent citizen of East Grand Forks, is a native of Canada, born at Renfrew, Ontario, June 10, 1877, the son of Duncan A. and Lucy (Wright) MeNicol, who were also natives of Ontario. Duncan McNicol came to Grand Forks in 1880 and in the following year was joined by his wife and family. He was a millwright by trade and previous to his removal to l'olk county, had engaged in the contracting busi- ness. On settling in Grand Forks he entered the lumber trade on the Red river, buying and shipping logs and later returned to the contracting business in which he engaged for many years, until 1901, when he removed to Anaconda, Montana, and is employed in the construction work on the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific railroad. J. H. MeNicol was the eldest of five children and became a resident of Polk county at six years of age, when after two years in Grand Forks, the family settled in East Grand Forks. He attended the public schools and at fifteen years entered the employ of the Northern Pacific railroad company as a call boy and received steady advancement, working as
car tracker and night clerk and was then made ticket clerk at Grand Forks. Subsequently he was employed as assistant trainmaster and traveling freight agent and after serving as assistant agent at East Grand Forks, in 1901 was appointed agent. His rapid pro- motion and efficient services for many years as an official attest to the marked sueeess of his career as a railroad man and in public affairs, he has been prominently associated with all projects for the advancement of the general welfare. As a member of an important committee he was particularly influential in securing the present valuable water works and sewerage system and also served for five years as secretary of the Commercial club. His marriage to Alice Mullally occurred in East Grand Forks, Decem- ber 26, 1898. She was born in Ontario, the daughter of James and Euphemia (May) Mullally, who settled in East Grand Forks in 1879. A sketch of the former, a pioneer railroad man of Polk county is included in this work. Two children have been born to Mr. Me- Nicol and his wife, Lucy Geraldine and Ruth Isabelle. Mr. MeNicol is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Masonic fraternity.
PETER J. PAULSRUD.
Born and reared to the age of seventeen in a land far distant from this and with institutions, scenes and associations very different from ours; coming to this country alone in his youth with no capital but his wise head, strong arms, willing hands and unyielding
pluck; making his own way in the world to a con- dition of substantial comfort and independence, Peter J. Paulsrud, one of the leading farmers and citizens of Hubbard township, Polk county, has been a hard worker and a good manager, and is entitled to full
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credit for the excellent use he has made of his oppor- tunities, as he is also for the general estecm he enjoys for his sterling citizenship and usefulness.
Mr. Paulsrud was born in Norway May 22, 1865, and emigrated to the United States in the spring of 1882. He landed at New York and eame direet to Ada, Norman county, Minnesota, and from there worked his way across the country to the farm of the late Nels Paulsrud, who was distantly related to him. He worked for his relative two years, receiving $150 and his board and lodging for his first year's labor and $20 a month and board and lodging for the second. IIc then went to North Dakota and worked out as a farm hand for three years in that state, or territory as it was then.
In the spring of 1887 Mr. Paulsrud was married to Miss Lena Gillebo, who was, like himself, born in Norway. Returning to Polk county after his mar- riage, he took charge of his relative's farm for four years while the latter served as sheriff of the county. At the conclusion of this period he rented another
farm in Hubbard township, which he occupied for six years, then bought one of 200 aeres which he after- ward sold in order to buy the tract of 200 aeres in Seetion 32, Hubbard township, on which he now lives. Hle has improved his farm with good buildings, arranged it according to a good system and made it attractive as a rural home. Ilis farming is of a general character and he is very suecessful in the management of it.
Mr. Paulsrud has served as assessor of Hubbard township during the last ten years, and has also been a constable and town supervisor. He is an active member and one of the trustees of the Norwegian Lutheran church at Nielsville, of which his wife is also a member. They have one child, their son Julius, who was born in 1890 and is a graduate of the School of Agriculture at Crookston. He is now a resident of the state of North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Paulsrud have also taken into their household as a member of their family Ida J. Olson, who bears to them the relation of foster daughter.
EDWARD W. JOHNSON.
Edward W. Johnson is one of the leading mer- chants of Beltrami, this county, and also a land- owner of substance aud prominence, and stands well in the regard and good will of the people of the whole county because of his enterprise and upright- ness in all business transactions, his progressiveness and publie spirit as a eitizen and his genuine worth as a man in every respect. He has lived in the county thirty-six years, and during the greater part of that period has been active in contributing to the advancement and general welfare of this section and the service of its residents.
Mr. Johnson is a native of Lansing, Allamakee county, Iowa, where his life began February 4, 1867, and where he passed the first twelve years of it. His parents, John G. and Gunhild O. (Dahl) Johnson, were born and reared in Norway and became residents of Polk county, Minnesota, in 1879, settling on a farm
in seetion 12, Riee township. They lived on their farmu until 1913, when they moved to the village of Beltrami, where the father died September 26, 1914, and the mother is now living.
Edward W. Johnson came to Polk county in 1879 with his parents and lived with them until 1887, when he began his business eareer as a clerk in a general merchandising store in Beltrami. He worked as a clerk seven years, then bought the business of C. E. Ford, of which he has since been the proprietor and manager. He carries a general stock of goods of all kinds, including agricultural implements, and has an extensive trade. In eondueting his business he is enterprising and progressive, studying the wants of the community and doing everything in his power to meet and fully provide for them.
The public affairs of his village and township have always interested Mr. Johnson and he has taken an
EDWARD W. JOHNSON
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active part in them, serving as treasurer of Rice township and filling other local offices with ability and to the satisfaction of the people. He is also deeply interested in the farming interests of the county as the owner of 500 acres of land, the enlti- vation of which he superintends personally. His brother, Herman Johnson, is associated with him in the mercantile line of his activity, the firm name
being E. W. Johnson & Company. E. W. was mar- ried in 1891 to Miss Caroline Halvorson, a native of Norway. They have had six children, five of whom are living, Edwin, Myron, Otto, Elmira and Thelma. Mr. Johnson is a leading man in Beltrami and rep- resentative of the best attributes of its citizenship, and he is universally respected for his sterling quali- ties of manhood.
ALBERT SPOKELY.
Whatever there is of credit in the career of Albert Spokely, one of the extensive and successful farmers of Hubbard township, this county, and there is a great deal that is entitled to warm commendation, reflects in large measure back upon the township and county of his present home, for he is a native of that town- ship and has passed almost the whole of his life to this time (1915) within its borders. He was also educated in that township and married there, and, therefore, all his interests center in it.
Mr. Spokely's life began in Hubbard township, Polk county, Minnesota, April 21, 1874. He is a son of Gunleik and Gunvor (Hagen) Spokely, natives of Norway, and a brother of Alexander G. Spokely, sketches of whom will be found in this work. The parents became residents of Polk county in 1871, but emigrated to the United States several years earlier. They were pioneers in this county, and when they arrived here the father took up a homestead in Hub-
bard township, which was then largely a wilderness, and on that farm, as by his industry and skill he has made it, the parents still have it as their home.
Of the twelve children born in the family Albert was the third in the order of birth, and he is now the oldest of those who are living. He was reared on his father's farm and educated at the school in the neighborhood. For a short time after reaching his manhood he conducted a saloon at Climax, but, with the exception of this venture in mercantile life, he has devoted his time and energies wholly to farming. He owns 440 acres in Hubbard township, on which he has put up good buildings and developed a large industry in raising potatoes and wheat, of which he makes specialties. On October 9, 1897, he was united in mariage with Miss Johanna Myrland, a native of North Dakota. They have four children, Guy, Earl, Delight and Syla.
R. T. WEBSTER.
Conducting with enterprise, skill and success the farming operations on about 800 acres of land, which he has greatly improved and made increasingly fruit- ful since taking charge of it, and taking an active and serviceable part in all the public affairs of his section of Polk county, R. T. Webster, whose home is on Section 15, is necessarily one of the leading and most useful citizens of Reis township, and is respected by the people according to his rank.
Mr. Webster was born near the city of Rock Island, Illinois, October 18, 1859, and is the son of C. U. and Mary (Caruthers) Webster, who are also residents of Polk county and now far advanced in age. The family moved to Buffalo county, Wisconsin, while R. T. was in his childhood, and lived there until he was about seventeen years of age. The parents then changed the family residence to St. Croix county, Wisconsin, and the son remained in that county until 1878, when
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they all became residents of Polk county, Minnesota. They located in Fisher township, where they were pioneers, and where the father took a leading part in all public affairs, filling numerous local offices and that of county auditor, which he held for four years.
Of the eight children born in the parental house- hold R. T. was the second in the order of birth. He lived in Fisher township, this county, until the spring of 1913. and, with the exception of six years, he has
been engaged in farming since his boyhood. He was assessor of Fisher township for several terms, and in other ways has shown his interest in the abiding wel- fare and improvement of Polk county. In the fall of 1890 he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Kane, of Buffalo county, Wisconsin. They have five children, Ray, Zuella, Clifford, Mary C. and Allen II. Mr. Webster's farm is one of the best in Reis town- ship, and his skill and enterprise have made it this.
JACOB BJONTEGARD.
Jacob Bjontegard, a successful farmer and dredge contractor, of Queen township, has been a resident of the county since 1886. Ile was born in Norway, Mareh 6, 1860, and was educated in the under officers school at Christiania. When twenty years of age he enlisted in the regular army as corporal and within a year was promoted to the office of sergeant and detailed to service as a drill master for recruits and made an excellent record in military training. lle received his honorable discharge after five years service and in 1886 came to the United States and to Minnesota. For a time he rented a farm near Fisher, Polk county, and then bought two hundred and forty aeres, of which eighty aeres were wild land. This was prairie land and after six years of successful operations in that region, he decided to move to a timber country with a milder elimate and sold the farm with the inten- tion of investing in Oregon property but on visiting the eastern timber section of Polk county, coneluded to locate there. IIe bought the homestead elaim of Halkinrud in section twenty-eight of Queen township, seven miles northeast of Fosston, paying $2,500 for the property with a small frame house and sixty aeres of eleared land. The greater part of the land was covered with large timber, for the most part, oak, spruce and ash and Mr. Bjontegard has sold a great deal of first class lumber cut from his place and has now all the land in use in his various agricultural activities. This region, being a fine grass country and naturally adapted to the raising of elover, has proven
peculiarly advantageous to dairy farming and Mr. Bjontegard has given some attention to this enter- prise. During the fifteen years which he has spent on this place, he has built up a fine, modern farm, ereeting good buildings and has advaneed the effi- eieney of his operations with the improvements and conveniences of progressive farm equipment and has a good watering system with a drilled well. Aside from his farming activities he has engaged in the diteh contraeting business and has constructed some eighteen miles of the county drainage in three dif- ferent ditehes and has at times employed a force of twelve men in this work. Previously he was selected as the viewer and assessor for a number of the county ditehes. On his own farm, which is named " Meadow Brook Farm," he has reclaimed thirty acres of val- nable meadow land. Mr. Bjontegard is a member of the Republican party and has always taken an active interest in public affairs and has been honored with numerous local offices, his able services beginning as a member of the school board to which he was elected a few days after locating in Queen township and he has filled the offices of chairman of the board of super- visors, treasurer and justice of peace and has served continuously on the school board. IIe is a member of the Norwegian Free church, one mile east of his home, and is associated with the business interests of the community as a stockholder in the cooperative eream- ery and Farmers elevator at Fosston. IIe has also for a number of years been director and agent for the
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Local Farmers Fire Insurance company, a most suc- cessful organization. Mr. Bjontegard has been twice married. His first union was solemnized at Grand Forks in 1887, with Minnie Moe, who was a native of Norway and died in 1893, leaving two children, Thor-
wald and Mary. In 1896, Mr. Bjontegard was mar- ried to Carrie Berg of Red River, Polk county, and they have four children, Ingmar, Mamie, Clara and Arthur.
MICIIAEL L. ENRIGHT.
Michael L. Enright, proprietor of the Edenvale farm and one of Polk county's leading agrieulturists, has been a resident of Huntsville township since 1878, when his father located on the land which is his pres- ent home. Michael Enright is a native of Canada, born in Plympton county, Ontario, February 4, 1869, the son of Dennis and Catherine (O'Neil) Enright, of whose family of nine boys and two girls, but four sons are now living in Polk county, the subject of this sketch, Richard, Edward F. and Thomas, all of East Grand Forks. Michael Enright has devoted his life to the farm. After receiving a common school education and after the death of his father in 1884 he assisted his mother in operating the homestead and upon the death of the latter in 1906, became the owner of the three hundred and sixty acres. Edenvale farm now includes five hundred and twenty acres and is one of the model stoek and dairy farms of the region, located two miles east of East Grand Forks, on the Red Lake river. This farm with its products, is one on which Polk county bases its high standard of agrienltural prosperity and attests notably to the enterprise and ability of its owner. As a stoek farmer, Mr. Enright has captured many high honors at the state and local fairs, with his thoroughbred Holstein cattle and as a business man, is operating a stock and dairy enter- prise of a net earning capacity of five thousand dol-
lars. His milk and cream shipments are made to the Sanitary Milk company of Grand Forks. IIe has notably promoted the efficiency and grade of local stoek in the fine specimens of cattle which have been bred on his estate. He keeps some eighty head of registered Holsteins and a large herd of dairy cows and also is interested in the raising of farm horses. Aside from his extensive grain operations, he eulti- vates corn for ensilage use and was one of the first to demonstrate the value and successful enlture of alfalfa and has steadily increased his acreage for this crop and now has eighty acres devoted to it. As a pro- gressive farmer and citizen, Mr. Enright is interested in the advancement of public welfare. In political relations, he recognizes no distinction of party preju- diee in his selection of candidates and policies. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Mutual Insurance com- pany and president of the Sanitary Milk company of Grand Forks. In 1903 he was married to Annie O'Connor, who was born near Grand Forks, in North Dakota, the daughter of Ed O'Connor, a successful farmer and well known pioneer of that region. Mr. Enright and his wife have seven children, Josephine, Jerome, Frances, Helen, Michael, Margaret and Mary. Mr. Enright is a member of the Knights of Columbus and with his family, is a communicant in the Saered Heart church of East Grand Forks.
ANDERS O. MORVIG.
For more than forty-two years Anders O. Morvig, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers and leading citizens of Garfield township, has been a resi- dent of Minnesota, and during over thirty-six years
of the period he has lived in and helped to develop and improve Polk county. He came to this county in 1879, before Garfield township was organized, and was one of the early setlers in that part of the county.
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and, as he was a man of intelligence and force of chiaraeter, he had an important part in starting the new township on its course of progress and develop- ment when it was organized.
Mr. Morvig was born in Norway December 29, 1848, and grew to the age of twenty-five in his native land, where he was engaged in farming after completing his edueation. In 1873 he emigrated to the United States and eame direet to Freeborn eounty, Minnesota, and there he was employed at farm labor until the fall of 1877, when he revisited Norway and remained until spring. On his return to Minnesota he again took up his residence in Freeborn county and renewed his farming operations, which he carried on until the spring of 1879 in that county, then moved to Polk eounty, making the journey from Freeborn with teams, and through the veritable wilderness part of the way.
On his arrival in this county Mr. Morvig took up 160 acres of land in Seetion 15, in what is now Gar- field township, and on this land, with a large addi- tional aereage which he has sinee purchased, he has lived and expended his energies ever since, greatly to his own advantage and the benefit of the township and all its interests. He now owns a whole section of land and some beyond that, his holdings being partly in Garfield and partly in Garden township, and nearly all under fruitful cultivation. Soon after he located
here the new township of Garfield was organized, and the county commissioners appointed Mr. Morvig its first judge. He has also held the offices of constable and township supervisor, and has at all times taken an earnest interest and an active part in all township affairs, serving for a time as township treasurer and frequently in some offiee in connection with the admin- istration of the publie school system. He is a director of the Farmers State Bank of Fertile and of the Co- operative Creamery company and the Elevator eom- pany of that village.
On December 28, 1883, Mr. Morvig was married in Garfield township to Mrs. Ingre (Vidder) Nelson, the widow of Ole Nelson, who died in that township. She also is a native of Norway, where her life began July 18, 1859. By her first mariage she became the mother of one child, her daughter Olava, who is now the wife of G. G. Hangen. Mr. and Mrs. Morvig have had eleven children, nine of whom are living, Clara, Matilda, Alfred, Olaf, Ida, Ivar, Lloyd, Melvin and Edwin. Their son Carl T. died January 1, 1915, when he was twenty years of age, and their daughter Anna Maria in childhood. The parents are zealous members of Little Norway church in Garfield township, which the father helped to organize and in which he has ever been an earnest worker.
HAFTOR B. HAFTORSON.
Although not a native of this country Haftor B. Haftorson, one of the enterprising, progressive and sueeessful farmers of Polk county, is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its people and loyal and devoted to all its public institutions. He came to the United States when he was but five years old, and all of his subsequent years have been passed in the north- west and more than half of them in Onstad township, this county, in the progress and improvement of which he has been a potent factor in private and publie life.
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