USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 48
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ant farm home and has steadily added to the im- and his wife have two children, Carrie Mabel Eloise, provement of the property, prospering in his various who married James Power and lives in East Grand Forks, and Walter Andre. Mr. Steele and his family are faithful supporters of the Swedish Lutheran church. agricultural enterprises. As a member of the school board he has given able service to the advancement of the best interests of the community. Mr. Steele
DAVID WILL.
David Will, a sueeessful farmer of Huntsville township, is a native of Wiseonsin and came to Polk county in 1882. He was born in Waukesha county, Wiseonsin, July 29, 1862, and at an early age re- moved with his parents to Blue Earth county, Min- nesota, where he grew to manhood. On coming to Polk county, he worked at whatever livelihood the country afforded, at Fisher for a time and for sev- eral years on the farm of Mr. Gilmour in Nesbit township. After six years of steady labor he had aeenmulated a small capital which enabled him to finanee a farming enterprise on rented land, where he remained for three years and then bought the quarter seetion in seetion two of Huntsville town- ship, which is his present home. This traet eon- tained no buildings and but a few aeres of cultivated land and Mr. Will entered upon his operations under the handieap of debt. Ile ereeted buildings and began the development of his property and has
worked his way to suceess through determination and unfailing industry, energetically overcoming failure and diseouragement. In the first year he suffered the loss of his erops and for a number of years was able to make but little progress toward prosperity but able management and hard work have brought him to the goal of the successful agri- eulturist. He later bought eighty aeres of railroad land and for many years has rented land and operates two hundred and forty acres aside from the home quarter. Ile engages principally in grain farming, harvesting some 8,500 bushels in 1915 and also is interested in stoek and dairy farming, and selling dairy products to private customers in Grand Forks. Mr. Will is interested in all matters of publie moment and community welfare and is a township supervisor. His marriage to Mary Fergu- sou oeeurred in 1892. She is the daughter of Donald Ferguson, a farmer in Winona county, Minnesota.
LUDWIG LARSON.
With a farm of 306 aeres in Esther township, fourteen miles north of Grand Forks, in seetion ten, which is one of the best farms in the Red River val- ley, and owning in addition a well improved home- stead, which is oeeupied and cultivated by his son, Ludwig Larson is well fixed in a worldly way and in a position to almost bid defianee to adversity. He was born in Norway, June 12, 1862, the son of Johannes and Maren Larson, and came with them to the United States in 1872. The family at first located in Renville county, Minnesota, and lived there until 1877, when its residenee was changed to Polk county.
On his arrival in this county the father took up a homestead, which is the northwest quarter of sec- tion ten, and is a part of the farm on which his son Ludwig now lives. The father built a log house which is still standing, but which he was not allowed to oceupy long, for he died about two years later at the age of forty-seven. Ilis widow afterward married Martin Hillard and passed the remainder of her days on the adjoining farm, where she died in 1892, and where Mr. Hillard also died.
The Larson family was one of the first to settle in this loeality. Its nearest neighbor was Mr. Hanson,
NELS VASENDEN
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whose farm was north of the Larson home. All the rest of the surrounding country for many miles was prairie in its wild condition. The father was a carpenter, but after his arrival in this county de- voted himself to farming, but worked incidentally at his trade. He and his wife were the parents of five children, four of whom are living. Those be- sides Ludwig are: Gena, who is now the wife of H. H. Flatten; Martin Juel, who is now a city eoun- cilman in Southern Minnesota, and Carl, who is in business at Thief River Falls. Anton died at the age of ten years.
Ludwig Larson was seventeen years old at the time of his father's death and had to take charge of the farm as all the other sons were still young. When he reached the age of twenty-one he took up a homestead for himself, the southwest quarter of seetion twelve, Esther township, on which he ereeted some buildings and lived until after his mother's death. He then bought out the other heirs of the old place and to this he has since added 200 acres, so that his home farm now contains 306 aeres, about eighty acres of which is timber land but none of it touches the Red river. He paid $30 an aere for the additional 200 aeres. He has erected a new dwelling
house on the farm and some three years ago he built a new barn and other outbuildings. Grain is his principal production and in 1915 his crop was 2,060 bushels of wheat and 1,400 bushels of other eereals. Ile also keeps thirty head of eattle, Red Polled stoek being his favorite brand, and raises a number every year, keeping the steers until they reach maturity.
Mr. Larson has taken an active part in public affairs in his township, having served on the town- ship board almost ever since he came of age. He is a republican in politics and a Lutheran in religions affiliation, belonging to the United Lutheran church at Grand Marais. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Miss Annie Erickson, a native of Nor- way, who came to Polk county about two years prior to her marriage. They have had eight chil- dren, seven of whom are living: John, who is operating the homestead taken up by his father; Clara, who is the wife of Arthur Peterson, of Pen- nington county, Minnesota; Gena Matilda, who is the wife of Henry Bang, of Iligdem township, and Regna, Carl Ludwig, Alma Christine and Mabel Sophia, who are living at home. A son named Emil Albert died when he was about twenty years old.
NELS VASENDEN.
During the thirteen years of his residence in Polk county Nels Vasenden, a prominent business man of Fertile and seeretary of the Polk County Agricul- tural Fair association, has contributed in many ways to the progress and development of the county, hav- ing taken an active and serviceable part in its busi- ness activities, social life and public affairs. While he is still a young man, he is very energetic and pro- gressive, with extensive intelligence, good judgment and a spirit of enterprise that overcomes obstacles and meets every requirement of duty with courage and resourcefulness.
Mr. Vasenden was born in Norway, February 25, 1881, and was reared and educated in his native land,
where he remained until he attained his majority. In December, 1902, he came to the United States and located at Fertile, where he was employed for a time by his uncle, Dr. Arne Nelson, then the leading phy- sician and druggist of this part of the county. After a time he left the employ of his uncle and passed about eight months working on a farm, but at the end of that period he returned to Fertile, and thereafter he lived with the doctor until the death of the latter, which ocenrred in May, 1908.
This event opened a new chapter with enlarged op- portunities in the life of Mr. Vasenden. He was appointed administrator of his uncle's estate, and in October, 1909, he took over the drug business which
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that estimable gentleman had started and which he owned at the time of his death. Ile has always taken an earnest interest in the affairs of Fertile and has served as village recorder. He is now secretary of the Polk County Agricultural Fair association, and in this position he has wide seope for his ability and enterprise and is employing them greatly to the advantage of the association and the general benefit of the people of the county. Ile is also a director of
the First State Bank of Fertile, and is interested in farm lands to the extent of 274 aeres in association with E. B. Hanson. In church activities he also takes an active part as a member of the Synod Lutheran congregation. In fact, there is no line of endeavor for the good of the community in which he is back- ward, and all his efforts are guided by breadth of view and governed by prudenee.
OLE O. HOFF.
This gentleman, who was formerly known as Mr. Olson, and whose fine farm lies two miles and a half north of East Grand Forks, adjoining that of Bernt J. Hagen, was born in Solor, Norway, February 4, 1854, and came to the United States in 1882, with 110 capital but his strong arm, elear head and cour- ageons spirit, his passage across the ocean not having been paid, and he being bound under a strong obli- gation to work even that out before he could lay up anything for himself or with a view to starting any projeet of his own.
On his arrival in this country Mr. Hoff came direet to Polk county, where his brother, Bernt Olson, was already established on a homestead which he had taken up in 1877. Ole's first year in this county was passed in the employ of Samuel Ormeson as a farm hand, doing work to which he had been reared. When his brother Bernt took up his homestead he also took up a tree claim, and that is the land which Ole now owns. Bernt was killed by accident on the rail- road on his way home from Crookston, and at his death left a widow and a son named Bernhardt. A daughter named Teolina was born after her father's death. Both of these children died carly of diphtheria.
Bernt Olson's widow, whose maiden name was
Olena Jolinson, took over the homestead after her husband's death, and for one year Ole worked on it. He then moved to the place he now owns and oceupies, and he has since bought an additional 160 aeres in Roseau county. The widow had only a log house on the land when he took hold of it, and he has since built the present buildings. Ile raises princi- pally wheat, oats and barley, and for thirty-three years he has been devoting all his time and energies to the improvement and cultivation of this farm, of which only thirty aeres were broken when he located on it and began to develop it. Three years after set- tling here he was united in marriage with his brother Bernt's widow. They have three children, Olof, Emma and John, all living at home.
Mr. Hoff has been a member of the township board for the last six years, and has also been a trustee of Grand Marais Lutheran church. He was for many years a Republican in political faith and allegianee, but of late years he has been independent of party control and uses his judgment of men in disposing of his vote, and in connection with his activity in publie affairs. He is enterprising and progressive, and is universally esteemed as an upright man and a very useful citizen.
ROBERT KERR.
Robert Kerr, of Grand Forks township, has been a resident of Polk county sinee 1879, and during
these years has been identified with the development of the agricultural interests of the county. Ile is a
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native of Scotland, born in Roxburgshire, March 2, 1859, and came to America when a lad of fourteen years, his parents settling near Newcastle, county Durham, Ontario. He grew to manhood on the Canadian homestead and in the spring of 1879, came to Polk county, ambitious to secure a tract of land. Ile reached Grand Forks, a stranger in a strange land and without sufficient funds to engage immedi- ately upon his project. During the summer he worked for John Ireland, a Polk county farmer, and after several months secured a homestead in Grand Forks county, North Dakota, but ill health com- pelled him to relinquish his claim after a year's resi- dence and in 1880 he returned to Polk county and for a few years rented land along the river. He then purchased a part of his present farm in Grand Forks township, from the Culver estate, paying $25 an acre for the tract which was wild prairie. For some years he gave his attention to his farming interests, which also included a quarter section of land which he rented. In January, 1891, he was married to Annie Gagnon, who was then residing on her father's homestead, which had come into her posses- sion at his death. The former Gagnon homestead has since been the home of Mr. Kerr and his family. Mr. Kerr is one of the successful farmers of this
region and devotes the greater part of his half sec- tion farm to the raising of grain, harvesting some seven thousand bushels of small grain in 1915. He is also interested in dairying and keeps a herd of Short Horn cattle. Ilis record of public service in local interests has been a long and worthy one and dates from the time when the country was sparsely settled and the important projects of road and ditch build- ing were promoted by a few citizens and officials. ITe has been a member of the township board for twenty-seven years and has served as chairman for a number of terms. In political affairs, he is a non- partisan, preferring to form his opinion and allegi- ance independent of party decision. Ilis wife is a native of St. Paul and the daughter of Leander Gagnon, who was born in Canada and was of French lineage. The latter was employed as a car repairer in Minneapolis for some years and in 1879 secured a homestead in section twenty-three of Grand Forks township, Polk county, where he lived until his death in 1889 when the farm became the property of his daughter. Mr. Kerr and his wife have four children, Evelyn, Ella, Walter and Hazel. Mr. Kerr was reared as a member of the Presbyterian church and his wife and family are communicants of the Sacred Heart Catholic church at East Grand Forks.
RICHARD BARRETT.
Richard Barrett, a pioneer of the county and well known farmer of Huntsville township, was born in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, July 26, 1846. His parents were natives of Ireland and removed to Wis- consin from Rutland, Vermont, in 1830. Their Wisconsin homestead still remains in the possession of the Barrett family. Richard Barrett has been a resident of Huntsville township since 1878. In the year previous he had visited Polk county with Thomas Nesbit and returned to Wisconsin for a short time before locating and drove from Milwaukee to his new home, taking twenty-two days for the jour- ney. His homestead claim was the southeast quarter
of section four and he later purchased the northern quarter and continned adding to his estate to the extent of seven hundred and twenty acres, all of which was under his management until recent years. One quarter section lies in Sullivan township and other tracts in sections one and nine of Huntsville township, his home having been on the latter place for the past thirteen years, it having formerly been the homestead of W. C. Sproat, who purchased it as railroad land. Mr. Barrett's first home on his claim was a log house which a few years later he replaced with the farm house which now occupies it. On his home place he has erected good modern buildings
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and has brought all his property to a high standard of development and ranks notably among the pro- gressive and enterprising agriculturists of Polk county. Ile has given his attention principally to the raising of grain and in 1915 harvested 13,000 bushels, of which oats was his principal crop. Al- though not a stock farmer, he recognizes the import- ant feature of this phase and his farm has always been stocked with high grade animals and he has also successfully experimented with the culture of alfalfa and now devotes some forty acres to it. Mr. Barrett has ever given his carnest support to the promotion of the best interests of the community and as a public spirited citizen has rendered able service in the general upbuilding of the country. He actively seconded the opening up of the county's
resources by railroads, giving the right of way for one-quarter of a mile through his farm, to the North- ern Paeifie road. Ile has been called to services by his fellow citizens in official capacity and has capably discharged the duties of chairman of the township board for twenty years and was the first treasurer of the school board, continuing in that office for twenty-five years. Ilis marriage to Mary E. Salisbury occurred in 1878, in Winona, Minne- sota. She is a native of Columbia county, Wiseon- sin. Four children were born to this union, Allen W., who has assumed charge of home farm; Fred, also operating a part of his father's estate; Grace, a teacher in the Polk county schools, and Elsie, who married James Chaplin and lives in East Grand Forks.
SIMON P. PEDERSON.
This energetic and progressive farmer of lligdem township, whose residence is on the northwest quar- ter of section 26, and who formerly owned all of the south half of seetion 25 but has given his son 160 acres of this tract, was born in Norway, March 1, 1856, with the family name of Perhus, which his aneestors bore for generations, but which he has changed to the one he now bears since coming to the United States and taking up his residence in Polk county. He was 24 years old when he came to this country and located in Renville county, Min- nesota, in 1880, and still had his passage across the ocean and to this state to pay for. After doing this out of his first year's labor in Renville county, where he worked on farms and at railroad grading, he had only $30 left, but he felt independent and full of enterprise.
In 1884 he moved to Polk county and took up a homestead on which he built a small shed as a shelter. As he had no money then he was obliged to work out for other farmers, and this he continued for ten years before he did mueh on his own land. His first team was a yoke of oxen, which he used
seven or eight years. As his property increased he bought additional land, purchasing a railroad tract of eighty acres in section 25 at $7 an acre, another traet of eighty acres at $13 an acre, and a quarter of a section of A. D. Stephens at $20 an aere. About twenty years ago he bought 120 acres of the railroad at $10 an acre, but this tract he has since sold.
Mr. Pederson has devoted his energies mainly to raising wheat and other cereals and flax. In 1915 his crops were 4,000 bushels of wheat, 3,000 bushels of oats, 1,300 bushels of barley and a large quantity of flax. He also keeps seven or eight milk cows and raises some other live stock. In the public affairs of his township he has long taken an active part, giving special attention to the improvement of the roads and doing for their betterment a great deal more than the law required of him in the way of a road tax. He has also rendered the township val- uable and appreciated service as supervisor. He is a man of advanced and progressive ideas and does all he can to put them in practice in the adminis- tration of the township government and all matters connected with or growing out of it.
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About twenty-eight years ago, that is, in or about 1888, Mr. Peterson was united in marriage withi Miss Anna S. Pederson, who was a native of Sweden. She died in 1907 leaving eight children: Peter S., who married Miss Lena Nelson and lives on a farm of 160 aeres in Seetion 25, Higdem township, given him by his father; Oscar, who died at the age of twenty years; Ilans, who married Miss Lydia Wal-
berg and lives on part of his father's farm; Ragna, who is her father's housekeeper, and Albin, Harold, Joseph and Amanda, the last named being reared by another family. The father is a member and one of the trustees of Kongsvenger Lutheran church, two and one-half miles distant from his home. He is well known and highly esteemed in all parts of the township of his home.
THOMAS HENDRICKSON.
The late Thomas Hendrickson, who was for many years one of the leading farmers of Western Polk county, and who died on his little farm in Sandsville township June 30, 1912, was a native of Sweden, provinee of Vermland, where his life began December 22, 1855. He came to the United States with his father, Hendrick Leeden, and located with him in Renville eounty, Minnesota, where he lived until 1878, when he moved to Polk county and bought the south- east quarter of section 28, in Higdem township, to which he afterward added eighty aeres which he pur- chased from the railroad company, and still later he also took up a homestead, which was the northwest quarter of section 26, Higdem township. On these traets of land he lived until he retired from large operations and removed to a small farm in seetion 17, Sandsville township, on which he passed the re- mainder of his life.
Owing to a rule long in use rather generally iu Scandinavian countries the children of a man take as their surname the father's given name with the suffix "son" added. Thus this gentleman as the son of Hendriek Leeden beeame Thomas Hendrickson, and his children received the patronymnie "Thompson" as their designation, and this all his sons and unmarried daughters still bear. They are alluded to in this sketch under that name.
Mr. Henderson developed his homestead and other land into good farming ground and improved his several traets with good buildings, especially the homestead, on which he made his headquarters for
many years. He had 400 acres in all in Higdem township, and when he moved to the Sandsville town- ship farm, five and a half miles east, he turned the Higdem farm in section 28 over to his son, Henry Thompson, and the old homestead over to his son, Nels A. Thompson, whose sister, Miss Christine Thompson, keeps house for him as he is unmarried, although warmly interested in every phase of his township's welfare and everything that ministers to its progress and further development.
The principal industry of the father on the farms was raising grain. He was also the first man to operate a threshing outfit in this section of the county, beginning his work in this line with horse power and continuing it with steam power for many years after that became feasible. For many years he was in partnership in the threshing business with H. H. Oberg, of Sandsville township, and they were also owners of imported Percheron stallions and gave a great deal of attention to improving the grade of horses in their part of Polk county and the adjoin- ing country. In his later threshing activities he had Ole Lind as a partner.
Mr. Hendrickson covered a wide area as a thresh- erman and was best known to the people of the North- west in that eapaeity. He served as treasurer of Higdem township for some time, and for a long period was one of the members of Kongsvenger Lutheran church, which stands one mile and a half south of his old home. When he located in this eounty he had no capital and his experienee during his first few
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years here was very discouraging. Ilis land was so wet that he could not get his team over it, and his erops were more frequently less than half of what they should have been. But he was a man of resolute spirit and adhered to his industries until success at- tended his efforts and prosperity followed them.
Soon after he became a resident of Polk county Mr. Hendrickson was married at Cokato to Miss Anna Nelson, also a native of Sweden but brought to this country and state in her childhood. She died in 1898 leaving a family of children, seven of whom are now living (1916). They are: Christine, who is keeping house for her brother Nels on the family homestead, as has been stated; Henry, who married Miss Chris- tine Nequist and lives in section 28, Higdem town- ship; Matilda, who is a trained nurse in Grand Forks; Nels A., who owns and cultivates the homestead; Al- ma, who is the wife of John Lind and lives near her old home; Esther, who is a student in the University of Minnesota and has her home at her brother's Nils Thompson, and Annie, who has had her home in the family of Axel Mathisen, of Sandsville township, since the death of her mother, which oceurred in giv-
ing her birth. Mr. Hendrickson contracted a second marriage, which united him with Miss Mina Hend- rickson. They had one child, their daughter Ruth, who is with her mother on the Sandsville township farm.
Nels A. Thompson, the second son of Thomas Hendrickson, was born June 20, 1889, on the farm on which he is now living, and has passed alnost the whole of his subsequent life on it. His education, which was begun in the district school near his home, was continued at the State Agricultural College at Crookston, which he attended when it was only an experiment station and later for some terms, being one of its first students. Ile raises wheat, oats and barley, principally, and breeds Duroe-Jersey hogs. For some years he worked with his father on the threshing outfit, but latterly he has devoted himself exclusively to his farm. He is one of the enterpris- ing, highly respected and influential young men of the western section of the county and a very foree- ful agency for good in his immediate neighborhood, with a firm hold on the confidence and esteem of the people in all other parts of Polk county.
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