USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 50
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offiees both in King and Knute townships, and is at present a member of the school board. He is asso- ciated with business enterprise as a stockholder in the cooperative creameries in Erskine and MeIntosh and was one of the organizers from King township of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, a flour- ishing corporation of Polk county, of which he was president at one time and is now treasurer. His mar- riage with Agnes Hoffard, a native of Norway, was solemnized December 30, 1889, in Dakota county,
Minnesota. Seven children were born to them of whom six are living: Frithjof and Christ, who are twins; Gunda, staying at home; Julia and Agnes, students in the high school at McIntosh, and Emma. A daughter, Ingeborg, died in her fifteenth year. Frithjof Uggen is associated with his father in the management of the home farm and Christ Uggen is living on a Montana claim, Dawson county. Mr. Uggen and his family are members of the Synod Lutheran church.
II. H. FLATTEN.
With a fine farm of 160 aeres in Section 24, Esther township, eight and a half miles north of East Grand Forks, and on the boundary line between Esther and Northland townships, which is improved with good buildings and in a condition of high produetiveness, HI. H. Flatten is one of the most comfortably fixed farmers in his part of Polk county, especially as he owns an eighty-aere traet of hay land in Sandsville township in addition to his home farm. And the best part of it all is that everything Mr. Flatten has he has aeenmulated by his own industry, thrift and good management. He was born in Norway July 2, 1850, and was reared on a farm and educated in that conn- try. In the spring of 1875 he eame to the United States and located in Goodhue county, Minnesota. He had only a few dollars in money, and so for three years he worked out at farm labor for a compensation of $20 a month and his board in summer and for his board alone in winter. He was very frugal and saving with his earnings, and at the end of three years he had $350 laid by.
About this time Jens I. Peterson, who had come over a year before and located in this county, wrote to his friend C. M. Lindgren in Goodhue eounty to join him in Polk county, and Mr. Flatten accompanied Mr. Lindgren to this part of the state, arriving in March, 1878. He took up his home plaee as a homestead by the side of one selected by Mr. Lindgren, and built on it a one-room log house, with a sawed roof and floor,
which made him a comfortable dwelling for the time and his circumstances. He proeured a team of oxen and broke up fifteen aeres of his land, which he put in wheat the next season.
The first year he worked out at harvesting and threshing but also put up some hay for his own oxen and eows. He and Mr. Lindgren each had a yoke of oxen and they joined forees and made erops in 1879, Mr. Flatten's yield being about 300 bushels. He then broke up more of his land and put in more wheat. After two or three years hail storms wasted his erops and eansed him serious loss, but he persevered and kept on making progress, and he was soon able to buy a traet of eighty acres of railroad land in Sands- ville township, four miles northeast of his home, for which he paid $7 an aere. This is excellent hay land, and it is nearly all devoted to that produet.
Mr. Flatten lived in his little log house nine years, then ereeted his present dwelling. This was an am- bitious structure for the seetion twenty-eight years ago, and many persons thought it was too large. But the owner felt confident he could pay for it, and he accomplished that duty years ago. Wheat, oats and barley have been his main erops, with wheat leading. He has taken an active part in the affairs of the town- ship, serving on the township board in Higdem town- ship before the division, then helping to organize Esther township and serving on its township board. He has also been a member of the school board in
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each, but he has never held or sought a county office.
For two years after settling on his farm Mr. Flat- ten lived in the barbarie splendor of a bachelor's hall, but in 1882 he was united in marriage with Miss Gina Larson, a sister of Ludwig Larson, and a Polk county arrival of 1877, coming here with her father, Johanes Larson, who took up a homestead that year in Seetion 10. Mr. and Mrs. Flatten have two daughters, Hilma and Julia. Hilina is now the wife of Carl Thompson
of Esther township and has one child, their daughter Genevieve. Julia is the wife of Richard Riee and is living at home with her parents. She attended the high school in Grand Forks and the State Normal in Moorhead, and for four years was a teacher in the Polk county public schools. All the members of the family belong to the North Lutheran church at Grand Marais, of which the head of the house has been treasurer for fifteen years.
JAMES ADAIR.
The late James Adair, of Esther township, who died February 17, 1909, at the age of sixty-three years and eight months, and who was for over twenty years one of the wide-awake and energetic farmers and live stock men of Polk county, was born in Sim- coe county, province of Ontario, Canada, the son of an Irish father and Irish mother. Ile was reared and educated in his native county, and at the age of twenty-five married there Miss Margaret Patterson, whose father was Irish and mother Scotch, both born in Ireland but married in Canada, where her life began in the same county as her husband's.
In the spring of 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Adair emigrated to the United States and located in this county. Mrs. Adair's brother, Thomas Patterson, had come across the line four years before and settled on the Red river five miles north of Grand Forks. He lived there several years, then moved to Grantsdale, Mon- tana, where he now has his home. Mrs. Adair also had a sister in this county, Mrs. Robert Anderson, who is now deceased, and whose life story is briefly told elsewhere in this volume.
On their arrival in this county the Adairs bought railroad land in Esther township at $10 an aere, the same being part of the farm in Section 35 of that township on which Mrs. Adair is still living. They bought cows, oxen and other necessary things for the farm, and built a small log house with a floor and shingle roof but no chimney, the smoke being allowed to escape through a hole in the roof. When they
settled in their new home they had just enough means to supply them with the absolutely necessary things for their living for a year. They had a stove and made benches and a table, but were without dishes. In a little while Mr. Adair had sixteen acres ready for a crop, and after that matured they were able to live in some degree of comfort.
When his progress enabled him to do it Mr. Adair bought an additional traet of eighty acres of land at $25 an aere, and still later 160 acres more, paying $5,000 for the last traet, which is half a mile distant from the home farm. Hle raised grain and eattle, milked 8 to 10 cows and made butter for private ens- tomers, and worked as hard as any man in the county, keeping up his industry without abatement until seven years before his death and retaining the care of his cows to the last. In 1886 he built the dwelling house which is now on the farm and the home of the family.
Mr. Adair had no taste for public life and never songht office or took an active part in political con- tests, although he was an unwavering Democrat and loyal always to his party. But he always manifested a deep and helpful interest in the building of roads and other public improvements. In religions faith he was a Presbyterian and at first belonged to church of his sect in Grand Forks, but later he helped to start the Presbyterian church in East Grand Forks and was a member of that until he died.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Adair number three.
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Edward Alexander, William John and Annie Belle. Edward is now living on the home farm. He has operated a threshing outfit for nine years, threshing in 1915 nearly 80,000 bushels of grain. William owns the farm of 160 acres half a mile from the home farın. His first wife was Miss Runa Belle Peters, who left two children when she died, William Roscoe and
James Monroe. After her death the husband married Miss Iva Beulah Haas. They have five children, John Edward, Walter Earl, Clarence Millen, Emmet and Karl. Annie Belle is the wife of Hugh Blue. They cultivate the home farm and have three children, Annie Luella, Edward Donald and Leonard. Mrs. Adair has her home with them.
PETER OLSON.
Passing through severe trials to enduring triumph, and winning a comfortable estate by his own perse- vering and wisely applied industry, Peter Olson, one of the substantial and progressive farmers of Higdem township, has well illustrated in his career the sturdy hardihood and determination of the pioneer and the strong fiber and resolute self-reliance of the sterling citizenship of Polk county, Minnesota, and the North- west in general.
Mr. Olson was born in Norway October 22, 1860, the son of Ole and Ella (Midtmoen), and with them came to this country and located in Iowa county, Wisconsin, when he was twelve and a half years of age. In the spring of 1878 the family moved to Polk county, Minnesota, and Peter located on eighty aeres of railroad land two miles north of East Grand Forks. Later he changed this land for a homestead in Sec- tion 24, Grand Forks township. During his first winter in this county he had only two pounds of but- ter and ten bushels of potatoes from October 21 to spring, and would frequently walk three miles through the snow to cut cord wood at 50 cents a cord and dine on frozen pork and bread.
On the arrival of the family in this county the father took up railroad land in Section 25, Grand Forks township. He died at the home of his son Peter December 30, 1893, having passed his last year there. While living in Wisconsin Peter worked out on farms and he did the same after coming to this county, doing anything he could get to do to make a living. The first ox team belonging to the family here was bought jointly by him, his father and his 21
brother Andrew, who all went in debt for the purchase price, $90. They all lived together until Peter took up his homestead.
Peter Olson's homestead was improved with a little log shanty with a sod roof and other accommodations in keeping with this. He lived in that one winter, but after that made his home with his brother Andrew until the latter married. In 1903 Andrew moved to the state of Washington, where he is now living. Peter improved his homestead and sold it. In 1898 he bought his present farm in Higdem township, which is in Section 32, bordering Red river, and seventeen miles by road from East Grand Forks. The farm comprises 242 acres, eighty of the acres being in timber, the balance on the prairie. Lars Ericksen was the original homesteader on this land, but he returned to Sweden.
When Mr. Olson bought this land he paid $6,100 for it, including the live stock and machinery on it. He has enlarged and improved the dwelling house and put up a good barn and other structures needed for his purposes. Raising grain has been his main de- pendence, but he lost on crop by hail, the first one destroyed on this farm in thirty-seven years. He milks nine or ten cows regularly and raises some other live stock but does not make this a specialty.
Mr. Olson is at this time (1916) chairman of the township board and has been for seven years, and for twelve years he has been a member of the board and taken an active part in all township affairs. He is a Republican in politics, and a Lutheran in religious faith, holding membership in Grand Marais church.
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On December 31st, 1896, he was married to Miss Anna Anderson of Grand Forks, who was born in Sweden. She died April 9, 1906, leaving four small children to the care of her husband. They are still living with
him and helping him with the duties of the farm and household. They are Esther Alice, Alma Ovelia, Mabel Helen and Dagmar Rosetta.
WILLIAM CAMERON.
William Cameron, prominent eitizen and business man of Fosston, is a native of Ontario, Canada, born November 22, 1848. In 1878 he came to the United States, joining a brother-in-law who had previously located in Grand Forks, North Dakota. After a short time spent in that eity, Mr. Cameron took a homestead claim, ten miles from Grand Forks in Nesbit town- ship, Polk county. He later purchased another quarter section of land and for a number of years devoted every attention to the development of his farm, putting it under enltivation and engaging principally in the raising of wheat. Ile erected good buildings and built up a valuable farm property which continues in his possession. In 1894, after six- teen years spent in Nesbit township, he came to Foss- ton and engaged in the livery business. At that time Fosston presented an unusually advantageous location for this enterprise; situated at the end of the railroad and the Soo line to the north not yet built and he conducted an extensive and Merative business. He was the owner of several lots on Main street and for ten years his stable oeeupied the present location of the Campbell garage. On removing from here he erected the present livery building. His stables were widely known among the horsemen and were always the center of the horse trade in this region. After almost twenty years of successful activity in this
business he retired from the livery trade. During this time he had also engaged in the hay trade, being the first dealer in hay in Fosston which is the market for many small towns, and since 1913 he has given his attention exclusively to this business. He employs a number of men and bales from two to three hundred tons of hay and ships as much more for patrons. The same qualities which have brought him sneeess in the business world are diselosed in his citizenship. He is ever alert to that which will promote the publie welfare and a faithful supporter of its best interests. IIe has given able services on the village council and served in office in Nesbit township. He is a member of the Republican party. Ile has always taken a keen interest in athleties and has been instrumental in pro- moting local endeavor in this line. Mr. Cameron was married in Ontario, Canada, to Anna Campbell and they have three children, Laura, who with her son, IIarold, has made her home with her parents since the death of her husband, John Curnyn; William, living in St. Paul, where he operates a garage, and Walter, who has taken over his father's livery interests. Mr. Cameron is an enthusiastic hunter and has enjoyed much good sport in early days hunt- ing elk and moose near Thief lake, and never failed to pull down his limit of game each season.
OLE H. FLATTEN.
This good citizen of Polk county and progressive found in this work, and like him was born in Nor- farmer of Esther township, whose choice farm is way, where his life began January 19, 1858. He eame to Polk county and joined his brother H. II. here in 1880, two years after the arrival of the brother. When he reached this county he had no located in Section 23, ten miles north of East Grand Forks, and adjoins that of Ole S. Basgaard, is a brother of H. H. Flatten, a sketch of whom is to be
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
money left, and during the first summer of his resi- dence here he worked out at farm labor and railroad construction. In the winter following he was em- ployed in the lumber woods near Brainerd and in looking after drives of ties to Little Falls on the Little Elk river, spending forty days in each of two or three seasons in such labor as the drives of ties required.
Having made a little stake by his industry and frugality, Mr. Flatten purchased a yoke of oxen and during the next eight or ten years he rented land and followed farming as a tenant. In 1895 he bought 160 aeres of his present farm, which now comprises 260 aeres in one body, and he also owns 120 aeres in Northland township three miles distant from his home farm. In addition to spending $400 for im- provements on his home farm, Mr. Flatten paid abont $13 an acre for it. The original price was $10 an aerc, but it was railroad land, and by the time cer- tain disputes over it were settled the improvements made by him raised its value to $13 an aere. For the additional traet of 100 aeres, which is crossed by the Grand Marais river, he paid an average of $12 an acre, but none of the land was above a reasonable price.
Mr. Flatten's attention has been given mainly to raising grain. He has fine facilities for raising live
stock but has never done much in that line as yet. He built a part of his present dwelling house in 1895 and the rest of it sinec. It is in a commanding location on the bank of the Grand Marais overlook- ing a large extent of the surrounding country. He also has a good barn and other buildings and improve- ments in keeping with these. The farm is one of the most desirable in this part of Polk county, his land being now worth $100 an acre, its value having been greatly increased by what he has done to it in the way of development, improvements and advaneed cultivation.
The affairs of his township have always deeply interested Mr. Flatten, and he has take an active part in the management of them, having served on the township board, of which he is now a member, most of the time since he located here, and for many years having been also a member of the school board. He was married in 1893 to Miss Mary Fjeld, who is like himself a native of Norway. They have had eight children, seven of whom are living and all of them still at home with their parents. They are Henry, Christine, Mabel, Clara, Clarenee, Olga and Melvin. A son named Carl died at the age of seven years. All the members of the family belong to the Swedish Lutheran church at Grand Marais, of which Mr. Flatten is a deaeon and a trustee.
NICK WELTER.
This wide-awake, enterprising and progressive Polk county farmer and live stock breeder, who owns and lives on the East half of Section 27, Fairfax town- ship, eight miles southeast of Crookston and one mile and a half west of Harold station on the Northern Pacific railroad, eame to his present condition of independence and comfort in a worldly way through many difficulties and diseouragements but with a spirit of determination, industry and perseverance that triumphed over all obstacles. He is a cousin of Frederick Baatz, who lives two miles south of him on Seetion 4, Russia township, a brief account of whose life will be found on this work.
Mr. Welter was born in the Grand Duehy of Lux- emburg, Germany, September 20, 1858, and came to the United States in 1888, joining an unele in Wabasha county, Minnesota, with whom he remained a few months and then came to Argyle in Marshall county, where his uncle owned a large tract of land. For six years he lived on one of his uncle's farms and during the next three on another belonging to him. He improved 200 acres of his uncle's land, having some good years in Marshall county but losing his first three erops by frost. As he had only $150 in money when he came to this country the loss of his erops was a serious setbaek for him. But his
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
unele carried him along at a high rate of interest on loans and deferred payments, and in the end he won his way out of all embarrassments and through all difficulties.
While farming his unele's land Mr. Welter was in partnership with his own brother Frederick until 1894. On April 16 of that year he was married to Miss Susan Clemen, then a resident of Wabasha county, Minnesota, but born in Luxemburg, Germany, August 3, 1867, and brought to America in her infaney. Two years later, in 1896, Mr. Welter eame to Polk county, and until April, 1914, he rented land in Fair- fax township, 320 acres of which he now owns, having paid $50 an aere for it in the spring of 1914. Four years before buying this land, however, which he had farmed for twelve years as a tenant, he bought 160 aeres partially improved in another seetion, paying $25 an acre for it. He has since built a good barn at a cost of $1,000 and made other improvements of value.
Mr. Welter has one of the best farms in Fairfax
township, and it is very productive. But what it is his industry, good judgment and skilful farming have made it. He raises wheat and other grain, and in 1915 his erops reached a total of about 4,000 bushels of wheat and the same amount of oats and barley. He also keeps 18 to 20 head of cattle and 10 horses and always has a few eows for milking pur- poses. His success in his farming operations in this county is very gratifying to him, especially as it is all the result of his own unaided efforts and good management.
Five children have blessed and brightened the Welter household, all of whom are still living at home with their parents. They are: Frederick Peter, aged twenty-one; Peter Aloysius, aged nineteen ; Andrew Nicholas, aged seventeen; Theodore Johann, aged fifteen, and George William, aged five. The members of the family have all been reared in the Catholie faith and belong to the Cathedral parish in Crookston.
ERICK NELSON.
One of the enterprising and progressive and there- fore successful farmers of Iligdem township, Erick Nelson, who lives on Seetion 20, sixteen miles north of Grand Forks, has made his own way in the world from nothing to his present condition of worldly comfort and independence, and has taken pride and pleasure in the struggles by which he has advanced. He was born in Norway August 22, 1839, and in 1861 eame with his father to this country and located at Eau Claire, Wisconsin. From there he worked in the lumber woods and in saw mills for eleven years, living frugally and saving his earnings.
In the fall of 1880 he came to Polk county with a eash capital of $250 and more due him in Wisconsin, which, however, he never got. He bought seventy- eight aeres of his present farm as seript land, paying $6 an aere for it. The traet lies along the Red river and about eighteen acres of it is in timber. He has
sinee bought eighty aeres additional, forty of which adjoins his first purchase and forty lies about two miles and a half east of that on the prairie. For the prairie land he paid $300 and for the other forty acres $600.
When he settled on his land Mr. Nelson first built a little log house, which is still standing, but it is no longer his residence, as he built the dwelling he now occupies in 1902. For the first two years all his labor was in vain. His crops were drowned out and he was driven to other resources to make his venture pay. Ile began keeping eows, starting with four or five and gradually inereasing the number as his butter trade inereased. This is no longer extensive, and he now depends on his general farming operations for his profits and they have been so successful that they have fully satisfied him.
Mr. Nelson has taken an active and helpful interest
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EDMUND L. STOWE
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
in the affairs of his township. He has served as super- visor and for a number of years as a member of the township board. His political allegiance and service have always been given to the Republican party, and he has at times been very active in behalf of its ean- didates. In religious affiliation he is a Lutheran and a member of Kongsvinger church of that denomina- tion, which is about four miles distant from his home. For ten years or longer he served as a member of the school board and its treasurer, finally growing tired of the office and giving it up.
In 1881, one year after his arrival in Polk county, Mr. Nelson was married in Grand Forks to Miss Oleanna Farder, a sister of Ole S. Farder. She was a deer.
born in Norway and died at her Polk county home
on January 11, 1912, leaving six children living. Anna Dorothy is now the wife of A. N. Anderson, a merchant at Birkholz, a sketch of whom will be found in this volume. Sigward N. conduets his father's home farm. He married Miss Ada Finseth. They have no children. Mary Sophia is living at home with her father. Emma Olena, who was the wife of Albert Anvinson, died in February, 1913, at the age of twenty-three. Agnes is married to Carl L. Larson. Osear Edwin is still living at home. Another son, also named Oscar Edwin, died in infancy. Mr. Nel- son was something of a hunter in his youth and young manhood, and while living in Wisconsin killed many
EDMUND L. STOWE.
Edmund L. Stowe, of McIntosh, a successful busi- ness man and well-known eitizen, has been promi- nently identified with the interests of the county since the early settlement of the eastern townships. IIe was born in Saline county, Missouri, May 5, 1859, and is the son of Dr. L. S. Stowe, an eminent pioneer of Polk county, where the memory of his hospitable and generous character and able services still linger in the reminiscenees of the earlier days. Dr. Stowe had removed from Grant county, Wisconsin, in 1857 to Missouri, but in the storm eenter of those troublous times his native frankness and fearless championing of his convictions soon incurred the disapproval of the prevailing local sentiment and he was given no- tiee to leave and he returned to Wisconsin to enlist in the Sixteenth Wisconsin regiment and to serve throughout the four years of war in defense of those convictions. After the close of the war he resumed the practice of medicine near Bloomington, Illinois, and later went to Sangamon county in that state, where he remained until 1881, when he came to Polk county and took a elaim some thirteen miles south- east of Crookston. This pioneer home was open to everyone and the eordial welcome and good cheer
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