USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 47
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
GEORGE KRONSCHNABEL.
Having been a resident of Polk county for thirty- five years, with the exception of about eighteen months, during which he lived in Winona, Minne- sota, and having been in business in Fertile since 1886, and all the time zealous and enterprising in the service of the community in various ways, George Kronschnabel, president of the Fertile Briek and Tile company, has proven himself to be a valuable citizen and a stimulating force for progress among the people of this section, and he is esteemed by them in accordance with the services he has rendered and is still rendering them and his sterling integrity as a man and fidelity and ability as a public official.
Mr. Kronschnabel was born in Cleveland, Ohio, June 14, 1857, the son of George and Mary (Kling- horn) Kronsehnabel, who moved to Minnesota in 1862 and located in Carver county. The father died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1903, at the age of seventy-
six years. He operated a sawmill for a number of years in Carver county, and his son George assisted him in the work. He was educated and grew to man- hood in Carver county and there learned the trade of tinsmith. This trade was his regular occupation for about sixteen years, but other and better oppor- tunities opened before him and he was prompt in embracing them and making them serviceable to his advancement.
In January, 1880, Mr. Kronschnabel became a resi- dent of Polk county, and in 1886 he opened a hard- ware store at Fertile. He continued in this line of trade until 1898, since which time he has given his attention wholly to the manufacture of brick and tile and the management of his farm of 160 acres in the vicinity of Fertile, except what has been required by his position as director of the First State Bank of Fertile and as president of the village council,
308
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
which he also served for a time as treasurer. He was the first president of the council and has occu- pied that office altogether seven years, filling it with ability and studious attention to the welfare of the community and to its entire satisfaction.
In 1897 Mr. Kronschnabel started what is now the tile factory as a sand mold brick plant. In 1900 the business was incorporated with him as president of the company, which he has been ever since, and in 1903 the manufacture of tile and hollow blocks was added to the operations of the factory. It has a capacity of 40,000 briek a day, or 4,000,000 a year. Mr. Kronschnabel is the manager of the business as well as president of the company. Brown Duekstad is vice president of the company and E. B. Hanson is secretary and treasurer. The industry is a leader
in this part of the state and has an extensive and steadily expanding trade. It is admirably managed and enjoys hearty and widespread popularity, which is based wholly on the excellence of its products and the striet integrity which governs the business.
Mr. Kronschnabel is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows and the Workmen of the World. He has been a director of the First State Bank of Fertile from its organization, and has taken an earnest and serviceable interest in every worthy undertaking for the good of his home community. On June 27, 1882, he was united in marriage with Miss Sophia Oehler, a native of Rice county, Minnesota. Four children have been born to them, two of whom died in infancy. The two living are Alma O. and George C.
JULIUS BRADLEY.
Julius Bradley, president of the Seandia Bank of Erskine and a well known farmer in Knute township, was born in Norway, February 15, 1859. He grew to manhood in his native land and eame to the United States in 1881 to seek his fortunes amid the oppor- tunities of the northwest. He possessed no capital but sturdy ambition and industriousness and paid for his passage from his first earnings in the new country. During the first years he worked in the harvest fields and at other farm labor, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, coming to Northfield, Minnesota, in 1882. In the following year he seenred a homestead in the newly opened Thirteen Towns. The payment on his elaim demanded all his savings and for a few years he continued to work as a harvester and in other employment. During the winter months he was employed in the lumber woods and also worked on the log drives on the Clearwater and Mississippi rivers. Able and thrifty management soon brought sueeess to his farming operations, which have stead- ily increased. Mr. Bradley now owns six hundred acres of land in Knute township, which is ineluded in three different farms and located in sections thirty-
two, twenty-eight, twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-seven. This land is all operated under the direet management of Mr. Bradley and he has put under cultivation some three hundred aeres of wild land. Aside from grain farming he engages in the raising of high grade short horn stoek and keeps a herd of ten dairy cows. Mr. Bradley has always been active in township affairs and has ably served his fellow eitizens as township treasurer and as treasurer of the school district, having held the latter office for many years. Ile is a member of the Repub- liean party but has never allowed party lines to influenee his personal convictions in political ques- tions. Mr. Bradley is further identified with those who have established the agricultural and financial prosperity of Polk county as one of the organizers and the largest stock holder in the Scandia Bank at Erskine. Ile has been most prominently associated with the direction of this sneeessful institution, having been president, since its incorporation. Mr. Bradley was married in 1886 to Martha Bensen, who eame to Minnesota as a child and to Polk county in 1883. They have a family of seven daughters and
309
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
two sons : Gust; Gina; Bertha; Julia; Ida, who is engaged in the millinery business at Fergus Falls; Anna, a trained nurse and employed in the same town; Gyda, Joseph and Martha. The Bradley home
is four miles south of Erskine, in section twenty- eight of Knute township and occupies a delightful location on the shore of a beautiful lake.
ANDREW THORESON.
Andrew Thoreson, a well known farmer of Lessor township, is a native of Minnesota, born in Dakota county, March 3, 1861, and has devoted all of his career to the agricultural activities of the northwest, developing wild land and advancing the growth of prosperous farming enterprises. At the age of twenty-one he took a pre-emption claim near Grafton, North Dakota, and lived on that place until 1892, when he came to Polk county, having heard of the merits of this section through relatives who were then living there, and bought the two hundred and forty acres of land in section twelve of Lessor township, which is his present home, paying about thirteen hundred dollars for the tract, which had no improvements and but a few acres cleared. - He has put some one hundred and forty acres under cultivation and also owns one hun- dred and twenty acres in section thirty-six of Lambert township, in Red Lake county, about two miles north of the home farm. This latter place is crossed by Hill river and is unusually rich bottom land and
devoted to the raising of grain. All of this land has been developed by Mr. Thoreson, who has also been instrumental in securing good roads through that scetion and a substantial steel bridge on the river. His home farm provides much good pasturage and he engages in stock and dairy farming, raising thoroughbred Short Horn cattle, and is a patron of the Clover Leaf creamery, manufacturers of cheese, a local enterprise operating to the profit and advan- tage of the farmers of that region. Mr. Thoreson has ever taken an active interest in any project tending to the general welfare and progress and has given able service as a member of the township board and school board. Like many of the settlers of northern Minnesota he is a great enjoyer of out of door sports and participated in the deer hunts which formerly afforded great sport in this country. He was married in 1893 to Julia Sunstahl of Polk county, and they have seven children: Tena, Salma, Bertha, Len, Alpha, Lillie and Alphonso.
PEDER K. ESPESETH.
Peder K. Espeseth, of Badger township, is one of the successful farmers of this region who have notably demonstrated the latent riches of Polk county soil and advanced it to its present prosperous standard as an agricultural community. He was born in Norway, December 27, 1868, and is the son of a well-known pioneer of Badger township, Knute Espeseth. His brother, G. K. Espeseth, president of the State bank of Erskine, is prominently allied with the commercial activities of the county. The Espeseth family came to the United States in 1882, when Peder Espeseth was a lad of fourteen, and after
spending a short time in Chippewa county, Minne- sota, Knute Espeseth squatted on land in the Thir- teen Towns, awaiting its re-opening for settlement. A nephew, Gilbert Espeseth, and Mr. Evanson accom- panied him to Polk county and also chose locations. On the opening of the land in 1883 he filed on his homestead, which is the present home of Peder Espeseth, in section three of Badger township. Knute Espeseth devoted his life to the development of his land and died there in 1906, the death of his wife occurring in the same year. Peder Espeseth's life has been spent on this homestead, which, in his youth,
310
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
he assisted his father to clear of timber and break for farming. During the later years of his father's life he assumed entire direction of the place and sinee his death has beeome the owner of the three hundred and sixty acres, which includes the home- stead and part of a half seetion, which they pur- chased in partnership as partially improved land. The first home, a long house, was replaced by Knute Espeseth with a modern structure, and he also erected the good barns which now occupy the estate. Peder Espeseth applies the most progressive and enterprising methods to his farming interests and has met with marked success in all his activities. He has two hundred acres in cultivation for grain and harvests an annual erop of some 3,500 bushels, but does not give his entire attention to this phase, utilizing the balance of his fertile aeres for his extensive operations as a stoek man. He keeps a large herd of Short Horn cattle, is a breeder of
Pereheron horses, and raises sheep and hogs, selling two earloads of stock each year. He also has fifteen dairy cows and is a patron and stockholder in the co-operative creamery at Erskine. Mr. Espeseth's prosperous and busy farm exhibits the results of careful management and intelligent study of the farm business, in its adequate equipment and effi- eieney and profitable operations. In his barn is to be found modern improvements for the l'eeding and watering of stock, and to facilitate the routine farm work. Mr. Espeseth is a stockholder in the First State bank at Erskine. He was married in 1910 to Gina Rud, who is the daughter of Jorgen Rud, a farmer in Garden township, near Fertile. They have two children, Mildred and Clarence. Mr. Espeseth and his wife are members of the Saron United Luth- eran church, of which his parents were original members.
FRANK O. JOHNSON.
Frank O. Johnson, a well known farmer of Lessor compelled to return to his former employment that township, is a native of Sweden, born December 29, he might accumulate the necessary capital. In a 1861. Sinee coming to Polk county he has been engaged in successful farming operations and has been actively associated with all phases of publie development. Mr. Johnson eame to the United States, as a young man, in 1880 and spent four years working on a stoek farm in Yellow Medieine county, Minnesota. Industry and ambition led to successful retrenehment of his wages and he was enabled to send passage money to his parents, that they, with the other members of the family, might join him in his new life. In 1883 his father, J. H. Johnson, seenred a homestead elaim in seetion six of King township, and in the following year Frank Johnson purchased two yoke of oxen and conveyed his mother and family to the Polk county home. The purchase of the oxen and the ontfitting of the family in their new quarters exhausted his funds, and before em- barking upon his own farming enterprise he was year or so his thrifty endeavors provided him funds to attain his ambition, and in 1885 he returned to Polk county and filed on a homestead in section twenty-seven of Lessor township, about three and one-half miles north of MeIntosh. His parents re- mained on their farm for several years and now reside in MeIntosh. Frank Johnson ereeted a small log shack and barn and entered upon laborious tasks of the pioneer farmer. The years of labor and able management have developed a prosperous farming property and some eighty aeres have been eleared of timber and put under cultivation. The present house was ereeted in 1900 of sprnee and tamaraek logs which were hauled from Gully, twenty miles distant, and in the following year a good barn was built. The house has since been converted in out- ward appearance to a modern frame home. Mr. Johnson also owns a quarter section in section nine-
311
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
teen, Lessor township, four miles from the home farm, which he utilizes as hay and pasture land, engaging quite extensively in stoek farming and raising Short Horn and Red Polled cattle. Through- out the many years of his eitizenship Mr. Johnson has been identified with the public activities of the community and has been honored with the various local offices of public trust, serving for many years on the township board and for twenty years as treasurer of the school board, but perhaps his most notable service to publie progress has been as road boss and supervisor, an office which he has held off and on sinee 1885 and in which eapaeity he has direeted the construction of many roads in the township. He was identified with the movement which instigated the building of the first church by
a Swedish congregation. This edifiee was ereeted of logs and stood until 1915, although the eongre- gation had been for some time disbanded. Mr. Johnson has spent two years in Canada, where he held a claim for his son and also invested in a half seetion of land near the Lake of the Woods. Mr. Johnson has been twice married; his first wife, Bena Hanson, of Chippewa county, Minnesota, to whom he was married in 1886, died in the following year. In 1889 he was married to HIannah Sjoden, like her husband, a native of Sweden, who came to Winnipeg as a young girl and later visited her sister, Mrs. J. E. Carlson. To his second union were born seven children : Henry, Bannard, Fred E. and Arthur, who are located on land at the Lake of the Woods, Can- ada; William, Hilmer and Olive.
JAMES I. PETERSON.
James I. Peterson, a pioneer farmer of Grand Forks township, was born in Sweden, July 24, 1853, and eame to the United States with his parents in 1869, when sixteen years of age. After locating for a short time at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, they removed to Goodhue county, Minnesota, and later to Renville county, where James Peterson secured a homestead of eighty aeres. After several years there, in com- pany with Louis Larson, with whom he had been associated in the operation of a threshing machine, he traveled farther west looking for land and after driving through Dakota, located on a pre-emption claim in Polk county. In May, 1877, he was married to Hannah Larson, born in Christiania, Norway, June 26, 1858, at the same time his two sisters were united in marriage, Agnes Peterson to Louis Larson and Emma Peterson to Andrew Norleen, and the three eouples immediately set out to find homes in the western part of the state. Mr. Peterson and Mr. Larson located in Polk county and there Mr. Norleen joined them later and for a number of years has made his home at Winger. Mr. Peterson settled on his land in Grand Forks township in June, 1877, and
with a few dollars and the thrifty ambition which was the usual capital of the pioneer entered upon the ardnous and often discouraging task of develop- ing a profitable farming enterprise. Buying out the right of a settler on a tree claim, he filed on the claim himself and here set out six aeres of box elders, which now presents one of the most attrae- tive sights in the county and is one of the finest groves in the northwest. During the first summer he broke some eight aeres of land and in the winter was compelled to seek employment in the lumber woods near Brainerd, Minnesota, but this proved an unfortunate year for lumber work and his months of labor brought him little financial advanee. There- after he devoted his efforts to his land which has sinee brought him steadily increasing prosperity with the exception of two years when the erops were destroyed by hail storms. Ile resumed his partner- ship with Mr. Larson in a threshing outfit and they enjoyed a large patronage among neighboring farm- ers for a number of years. His first agricultural activities were devoted entirely to the raising of grain, but of recent years his interest has ineluded
312
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
stoek and dairy farming. His first home was a log cabin on the pre-emption elaim, where he also ereeted his second house. In 1897 he built his pres- ent home on the traet secured as a tree claim. This is in section two of Grand Forks township and five miles north of East Grand Forks. Mr. Peterson has ever been actively identified with the best interests and local development and has served as township supervisor and as one of the first direetors on the school board, ably promoted the establishment of
the present efficient school system. IIe is a member of the Grand Marais Lutheran church, which was ereeted on his land which he donated for the pur- pose and of which he continues to be a faithful sup- porter. Mr. Peterson and his wife have five chil- dren, Emma, the wife of Thorjus Morken, of Thief River Falls; Arthur, who also resides in Thief River Falls; Walter, Clarenee and Osear, who reside at home.
BERNT J. HAGEN.
This now prosperous and well conditioned farmer has reached his estate of worldly comfort and inde- pendenee through much tribulation, but he has never lost his nerve or spared his efforts to advance his interests, and in spite of his adversities and serious losses he has made steady progress by reason of his persistent and wisely direeted industry and good management. Ile was born in Norway, November 17, 1851, and eame to the United States in 1871, locating at Spring Grove, Houston county, Minne- sota. He did grading work on the railroads and followed farming for a few years, but lost his erops by the ravages of chineh bugs. In spite of this dis- aster, however, he managed to save $200, and then made jaunts about the country looking it over with a view to selecting a permanent location.
In the spring of 1876 his money was all gone, and he came to Polk county. One year later, 1877, his sister, Mrs. O. O. HIoff, came and homesteaded a quarter section joining Mr. Hagen. Soon after his arrival in this eounty he pre-empted eighty acres of his present home and took up eighty more as a home- stead. He located on that land in the spring of 1876, being the first man to settle on the prairie in what is now Grand Forks township, his farm being in seetion twenty-four, two miles north of East Grand Forks, and his dwelling house on this farm being one of the best in the county of its elass and size. His first house was a little log shack twelve feet square, with a straw and sod roof. Yet poor as this was its
destruction by fire was a serious embarrassment to him.
After the loss of the little shack Mr. Hagen built a larger and more pretentious log house, which was about the best one in that part of the county for years. It was long used as a church alternately with the residence of Mrs. A. D. Steele, there being at that time no real church edifiee within many miles of this seetion.
In the course of a little while Mr. Ilagen obtained a yoke of steers. He bought them wild and then broke them so that he could drive them anywhere. He used the opportunities available to him to break np as much of his land as possible, and in the mean- time obtained some work on barges on the Red river, which helped to provide him with the necessaries of life. For a number of years he either kept a bael- elor establishment or had a sister keeping house for him, but in 1882 he was married to Miss Dorothy Midtmoen, a daughter of Ole and Ella Midtmoen, and born in Norway, but brought to this country when she was eight years old. She is a sister of Peter Olson, a sketch of whom will be found in this work.
The first five years of Mrs. Hagen's life in this country were passed in Iowa county, Wisconsin, and at the end of that period she accompanied her par- ents to this county. Her father had settled on land elose to Mr. Hagen's and built a house on it. Then, in 1878, his wife, Dorothy, and her brother Peter,
313
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPITY OF POLK COUNTY
came to the farm where he was. Mr. Hagen met the wife, son and daughter at Fisher's Landing with his ox team and hauled them to the farm. ITis marriage with Miss Dorothy occurred when she was but seven- teen years of age. She was resolute in spirit, always ready to take what came in the way of duty, and for one summer worked out in the employ of Robert Anderson's family. Her father's old homestead is now owned by Andrew Peterson.
Mr. and Mrs. Ilagen were married by I. Thorelson, of Grand Forks, a minister there. By this time he owned horses, and he was more prosperous and making better progress than he had been, but he still lost crops by hail, one storm being so violent that it killed everything he had growing, scattered his
stock and forced him to protect his head with his boots, and the hail stones lay in heaps on the ground for hours after falling. Frost also injured his crops frequently. Ile was carly in the field in this section with a threshing outfit, but he was obliged to steer his first engine with teams.
He has been a member of Grand Marais Lutheran church and one of its prominent workers ever since he settled here. He and his wife became the parents of ten children, nine of whom are living: Olof, Thorval, Emma, Ode, Bennett, Julia, Ida, Nina and Arthur. They are all at home with their parents yet, the only break in the family circle occurring by the death of a son named Adolph, who died when he was five years old.
ANDREW L. STEELE.
Andrew L. Steele, a successful farmer of Grand Forks township, is a native of Sweden and came to Polk county in 1879. He was born March 5, 1855, and grew to manhood in his native land, where he was employed in an iron mine. In 1877 he came to the United States and for a time worked in the lum- ber yards at Minneapolis. Subsequently he spent a number of years as a lumber man and railroad laborer, spending the winters in the lumber woods and the summer season in railroad grading. It was in the pursuit of the latter occupation that he came to Polk county, working on the construction of the road bed between Fishers Landing and Grand Forks. Ambitions to secure an education, he availed himself of every opportunity to advance himself, using his carefully saved capital for this purpose. After gaining the use of the English language through his own studies, he spent two years in the public schools at Red Wing, Minnesota, and later studied for a year in the Gustavns Adolphus college, at St. Peter. In 1879 he took a homestead in section eight of Northland township and since that time has devoted his attention to farming, living on his homestead until 1887, when he was married to Caroline Erick- 20
son. She is a native of Sweden and came to Brain- erd, Minnesota, 1877, as a young girl, to join her brother, Peter M. Lagerquist. In 1880, she came to Polk county, immediately after her marriage to Ole Erickson, who had located in Grand Forks township two years previous. She has since continued to make her home on this farm, where the death of Mr. Erickson occurred in 1884, at the age of thirty-five. He was a well known farmer of that section and was prominent in township affairs. There were four children born to this marriage, three of whom are now living, Editlı Caroline, the wife of Adolph Lar- son, of East Grand Forks; Minnie Amanda, who married her cousin, Andrew Erickson, and lived on the farm which they bought of P. M. Lagerquist, until her death three years after; and Oscar Herbert, who is a rural mail carrier, located at East Grand Forks. Upon his marriage, Mr. Steele assumed the management of his wife's farm, which he operated with his own land until some ten years ago, when he sold his homestead in Northland township and has since added to the home farm in section two, Grand Forks township, making an estate of two hundred and ten acres. In 1898 he erected the present pleas-
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.