USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 56
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CHRISTIAN C. QUERN.
Christian C. Quern, an early settler of Esther town- ship and for many years a prominent farmer of Polk eounty, was born in Norway, April 20, 1838 and died at his home in Esther township, February 14, 1911. He came to the United States as a young man and located in Fillmore county, Minnesota, in 1861 and later lived for a time in Renville county, where he was married in 1866 to Olia Manrnd, who was born and reared in Norway and had come to Minnesota some years previous to her marriage. In 1877 Mr. Quern removed to Polk county and took a homestead on the north west quarter of seetion fourteen of Esther township, being the first settler to locate north
of the Marais river. With a small capital and a few head of stock, Mr. Quern entered upon his new enter- prise and with thrifty management built up one of the large and prosperous estates of this seetion. His first home was a primitive eabin which he soon re- placed with a log house and in 1888 ereeted the com- fortable modern house which was his home until his death. This home was built on the four hundred aere traet of railroad land, which he bought in seetion fifteen of Esther township. He also became the pos- sessor of the quarter section adjoining his homestead, for which he traded land in Renville eounty. His property later ineluded a seetion in Higdem town-
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ship, six miles north of his home place. The greater part of this was railroad land which secured at six dollars an acre, and has been devoted to the raising of grain. Mr. Quern gave his entire attention to his farming operations and under his management the estate was brought to its present splendid condition. Ile confined his personal operations to the Esther township land and rented the section in lligdem town- ship. His death occurred in his seventy-ninth year at the close of a long and active career, marked by the constructive service of the pioneer farmer and progres- sive citizen. IIe is survived by his wife and five chil-
dren, three of whom reside on the Quern estate, Carl, Olivia, whose husband, Gust Nelson, operates a part of the Higdem township farm, and Ole, who since the death of his father has capably assumed management of the home place. Martin Quern entered the com- mercial world and is a merchant at Gunvick, Minne- sota. Carrie Quern married John Hofsteen and lives at Grand Forks, North Dakota. Ole Quern was mar- ried to Clara Bang, the daughter of a well known citizen of Higdem township and they have two chil- dren, Adea and Erma.
DALECARLIA GRAIN AND STOCK FARM.
S. E. ERICKSON, PROP.
Owning and ocenpying one of the finest homes in the Red River valley, with native trees surrounding his house, which stands on the banks of the Marias river and overlooks a wide sweep of the country lying around it, and cultivating a large, well improved and productive farm in the most progressive way, and en- joying in a marked degree the esteem of all who know him, S. E. Erickson, of Dalecarlia Farm in Seetion 25, Esther township, seven miles north of East Grand Forks, has made great progress in his worldly estate sinee he came to Polk county on June 3, 1883, a pen- niless youth of nineteen years of age.
Mr. Erickson was born in Sweden September 23, 1864, and when he arrived in the United States came direct to this county, where his brother Andrew, now a resident of Rosean county, Minnesota, and his uncle, O. Metz Erickson, were then living. The unele had come to Beeker county, Minnesota, in 1868, and had acquired a homestead in that county. In 1878 he changed his residence to Polk county and bought the Northeast quarter of Seetion 25, in Esther township, which was then railroad land and is now a part of the farm of S. E. Erickson. The unele paid about $7 an acre for this land. It is now worth $100 an aere. He passed his remaining years on the farm, dying on it in 1902. He had a family of eight danghters. They are
living in various places but none of them in this county.
After his arrival in Polk county S. E. Erickson and his brother Andrew, who lived in this county about sixteen years, rented a farm for six years. S. E. also bought railroad land in Section 29, Northland township, two miles east of his present farm, which he improved and still owns. He at first rented a part of his home farm from his father-in-law, Erick Dick- son, who bought it in 1880 and took up his residence on it in 1891.
Mr. Dickson was also a native of Sweden, born September 3, 1843, and came to the United States in 1868, loeating for a time at Elkhart, Indiana. He worked in the Calumet and Ilecla copper mines in Michigan for seventeen years. He was killed by a falling tree on his farm in 1904. He served several years as township treasurer and otherwise took an active part in local public affairs. His wife died in St. Paul in 1869, leaving an infant daughter, Matilda, who was born at Elkhart, Indiana, the same year that her mother died in. She was reared by her grand- parents at Becker, Sherburne county, Minnesota, and in 1878 came with her grandfather, O. Metz Erickson, to this county, where she remained until 1880, then joined her father at Calumet, Michigan. In 1890 she
JOHN A. HENDRICKS
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returned to this county, and on January 1, 1891, was married to S. E. Erickson. They have no children of their own but they reared from the age of six an adopted daughter, Lottie May Erickson, who is now the wife of Henry Lillisve, of Roseau county, Min- nesota.
Mr. Erickson's farm now comprises 640 acres and is in a highly improved condition. In 1915 he ereeted a fine dwelling house on it, built according to plans furnished by an architect and constructed of stneeo on a cement foundation. It has hot and cold water throughout and is lighted by electricity from a power plant in the basement. The house cost about $10,000. In digging a eistern Mr. Eriekson found, about twelve
and a half feet below the surface of the earth, the bones of an animal unknown to him. He has given his attention mainly to raising wheat, oats and barley, and in 1915 he produced over 13,000 bushels. He has been chairman of the township board. And for eleven years has been township treasurer, having succeeded his father-in-law in that office. He and his wife belong to Bethesda Swedish Lutheran church near their home, and he is its treasurer and one of its trustees, while Mrs. Erickson has been its Sunday school super- intendent, organist and choir leader for twenty-four years. The Sunday school has regularly thirty to forty scholars and is kept during six months of the year.
JOHN ALBERT HENDRICKS.
John Albert Hendrieks, a prominent lawyer resid- ing at Fosston, is a native of Minnesota, born in Da- cotah county, December 14, 1865. His father, Henry Peterson, who was a resident of Polk county during the latter years of his life, was a native of Norway and was among the first of his countrymen to seek a new home in the United States, a worthy pioneer in the wilderness of the northwest. This was in 1850; a few years later he returned to Norway. In 1864 he came to Dacotah county, Minnesota, where he lived for three years and then took a homestead claim in Renville county and made his home on this farm until 1900, when he removed to Polk county. His death occurred here in 1907, in his seventy-sixth year. John A. Hendricks was reared on his father's homestead in Renville county and received his early education in the common sehools, later attending business col- lege in Minneapolis and Minneapolis Academy, which is now called Minnesota College. He then spent sev- eral years teaching in his home county, in the public schools and also in the parochial school which is main- tained by the Augustana Synod. But his ambitions were centered upon a professional career and in 1901 he entered the law school of the State University. Upon his graduation in 1903 he was admitted to the
bar and immediately established himself in Renville county, where he remained for about a year and a half. On February 14, 1895, he came to Fosston, where for twenty years he has engaged in the general prae- tice of law with eminent success, becoming widely known through his capable and masterly handling of important land controversies. During the early years of his career the courts were largely concerned with title contests and land cases and it was in such liti- gation that he scored several notable and significant victories. One of these involved the reversal of a supreme court decision ; this was the ease of Theodore Torgerson vs. the Crookston Lumber company, relat- ing to the overflow of Clearwater river. The Crooks- ton Lumber company was then the largest lumber corporation in Minnesota and arrayed against Mr. Hendricks, in defense of its interests, the best legal talent of the state. But he carried his cause to a favorable decision through the nine days' trial in the eircuit court and a long and hard-fought contest which covered three years. This decision, which establishes the rule that the defendant must diselose the facts and the plaintiff is not required to prove the faets in each ease, is recorded in volume 144 of North- western Reports, and in Minnesota Reports, and has
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been regarded with great favor in subsequent judicial proceedings in its application to many and various conditions. Another case which concerned one of the important questions of the time, in which Mr. HIen- dricks acquired further fame, was in reference to the land allotted to Indians of mixed blood, the courts ratifying his contention that the proceeds of a sale of sueli land differed from the proceeds of a sale of homestead land and was subject to attachment and garnishment. Mr. Hendricks takes an active and public-spirited interest in the affairs of the commun- ity in which he lives and as a member of the Repub- lican party has given much efficient service in politieal campaigns and state conventions. 1Ie has been a candidate for the nomination for state's attorney and
for a number of years has served as village attorney and as a member of the school board, and in the latter capacity has promoted the ereetion of the present high school building. In addition to his professional work he is interested in agricultural development and finds time for the management of his farms. In 1896 he was married to Bertina Maria Bakke of Willmar, Minnesota. They have three children, Camilla, who is a member of the 1916 high school class; Horace, and Byron A. Mr. Hendricks is an enthusiastic out- of-door sportsman, enjoying hunting and fishing and recreation at his eottage on the lakes. He is a mem- ber of the United Norwegian Lutheran church and has earnestly supported the plan for the union of Lutheran churches.
WILLIAM JACKSON.
William Jackson, a well known pioneer and sueeess- ful farmer of Grand Forks township, located in Polk county in 1876 and has since been prominently identi- fied with its agricultural development. He was born at White Haven, in Cumberland, England, January 22, 1833 and lived there until 1868, when he came to Canada. As a youth he learned the trade of the iron molder and worked at this trade for many years, in his native land and later in Canada. Becoming am- bitions to secure farming land, in 1876, he started west to Winnipeg where he had a large grant but his journey was destined to end at Fishers Landing, where, an acquaintance on the steam boat, George Walsh, persuaded him the most desirable land was to be found. In Grand Forks he heard of a traet of rail- road land in Grand Forks township, the first to be opened for settlement north of Grand Forks and this land he bought. With some eash capital and a team of oxen he was enabled to begin immediately his farming activities and in the first year put sixty aeres under cultivation. The first home was a log house which was replaced in 1898 by a comfortable country home, pleasantly situated on the banks of Red River.
Mr. Jackson has met with steady prosperity in his agricultural enterprise and has developed one of the model farm properties of Polk county. This place is in seetion three of Grand Forks township, on the river and conveniently located, six miles north of Grand Forks. For many years he devoted his attention to the raising of grain but of later years has extended his interest to stoek farming, raising Short Horn cattle and dealing in dairy produce for private customers. As a pioneer and able citizen, Mr. Jackson enjoys the respect of the community, being essentially that type of man, who reecives the best from all associations, having maintained friendly and co-operative relations from the early days when the Indians were his fre- quent visitors to the times when a more aggressive eitizenship is demanded. As a member of the town- ship board he has given active service in public affairs, promoting the improvement of roads and schools. IIe is the descendant of a long line of faithful adherents to the Presbyterian ereed and is a member of the First Presbyterian church at Grand Forks. He was married in his native land to Mary Ann Wild, who is also a native of Cumberland and they have three
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sons and two daughters, William, Thomas, John, who is a carpenter and resides at Brainerd, Minnesota ; Etta and Ida. William Jackson and Thomas Jaekson
are associated with their father in the operation of the home farm.
MICHAEL MAGUIRE.
Prosperous and successful in his farming operations because he has the grit, industry and good manage- ment to make himself so, Michael Maguire, who is one of the substantial residents of Sullivan township, in which he owns the greater part of 741 aeres of highly productive land, has won his own way to worldly comfort and independence, and is entitled to all the eredit for his advancement. He was born in Lanark county, province of Ontario, Canada, May 30, 1838, and came to Polk county and his present farm in 1878, obtaining his first tract of land as a home- stead. He had a pair of horses and $800 in money. He built a small frame house and soon afterward bought 160 acres of railroad land in Section 19, with a rebate for breaking the soil. His present farm of 741 aeres lies partly in Grand Forks township. For some of it he paid $70 an aere. He has 700 acres under cultivation, 560 of which are in his home farm.
During the first fifteen years of his operations here Mr. Maguire devoted his attention almost wholly to raising grain, but during the residue of the time he has made the live stoek industry equal to his general farming operations, keeping regularly more than fifty
head of eattle and doing his dealing in live stock in Grand Forks, emphasizing the purchase and sale of cows in all his transactions. He has given his time and energies wholly to his interests on the farm, keep- ing out of politics, although he is a firm adherent of the Democratic party in state and national affairs.
In 1879 Mr. Maguire was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Sullivan, a sister of James E. Sullivan, who, also, was born in Renfrew county, Ontario. Michael's family consists of four children. Ida is the wife of J. C. Sherlock, of East Grand Forks. They have no children. Ethel is the wife of Thomas Devitt, a railroad man. They have two children, their sons Eugene and Edward, and live in St. Paul. Sylvester is living at home and assisting his father in the man- agement of the farm. He married Miss Norah Logan. They have no children. Gertrude married William Schipers, also a railroad man living in St. Paul. They have one child, their daughter Gertrude. All the members of the family who are still within reach of it belong to the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart, of which Mr. and Mrs. Maguire have been members from its organization.
FERDINAND E. LE PAGE.
As a merehant, a hotel keeper and the postmaster at Mentor, this county, Ferdinand Le Page has many ways of being useful to his community, and he uses them to aid in promoting its progress and the welfare of its residents. He was born near Montreal, Canada, August 4, 1854, and lived there until 1858, then moved to L'Original, Ontario, with the family, at- tended common and high school there until 1875. Went into the mercantile business at Ottawa, Canada, remaining there until 1881. On March 2d of that
year he came to Crookston and opened a store. This he conducted until 1886 and also kept a hotel in the city until that year. He then took charge of the St. Louis hotel and kept it for two years. During the succeeding four years he was on the road as a travel- ing salesman for the house of J. A. Shea of Minne- apolis.
In the spring of 1893 Mr. Le Page was appointed postmaster of Crookston. He assumed the duties of the office on April 1st of that year and held it four
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years, after which he served as assistant postmaster for one year. On April 1, 1899, he moved to Men- tor and again became a hotel keeper and also engaged in the livery business in connection with the hotel, and in these lines of public service he is still engaged, in addition to being postmaster of Mentor, which he became by appointment of President Wilson on January 1, 1915.
Mr. Le Page has taken an active part in the affairs of the village and township, and has acceptably filled
all the different offices in their gift. He has also been a justice of the peace for a number of years. On Au -- gust 17, 1875, he was married in Ontario, Canada, to Miss Emma Seguin, a native of that province. They have had twelve children, eight of whom are living. They are Anatole, Arthur A., Louis F., Endora E., Ferdinand HI., Alma E., Eva C. and Theodore C. All the members of the family belong to the Catholic church, in the welfare and progress of which they are deeply interested.
OLOF M. GROVEN.
Mercantile cireles in and around Mentor, one of the thriving and progressive villages of this county, has no more enterprising, energetie or resourceful mer- chant among their business men than Olof M. Groven, the junior partner of the hardware firm of Ellingson & Groven, dealers in shelf and heavy hardware, furni- ture, stoves and ranges, farm implements, threshing machines, harness and horse furnishings. He was born at Winger, Polk county, Minnesota, March 10, 1892, and is a son of Ole T. and Tone (Hange) Gro- ven, natives of Telemarken, Norway, who were among the first settlers at Winger, where they located early in the eighties, and where they now own the east half of Seetion 26.
The son grew to the age of twenty years on his father's farm and obtained his education in the dis- trict schools and at the college in Crookston, from which he was graduated in 1911. During about four months of 1912 he served as bookkeeper for the
Mentor Co-operative company, then formed a part- nership with Erie Ellingson for the purpose of engag- ing in the hardware and implement trade. The part- nership still exists and the firm is in the front rank of business men in its part of the county. It carries an extensive stoek of goods at all times and studies how it may best meet the requirements of the community in which it operates, please its patrons and continue to build up its trade and enhance its reputation and that of its store.
Mr. Groven is a young man, but he takes an active and helpful part in the affairs of Mentor, Grove Park township, in which the village is located, and the whole county of Polk. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Order of Modern Woodmen of America, and is a gentleman of fine social qualities and warmly interested in everything that ministers to the welfare of the people among whom he lives and labors.
HON. A. L. HOVLAND.
The testamentary interests of the people of Polk county were placed in capable and careful hands when they were put in charge of Hon. A. L. Hovland as judge of probate by the fall eleetion of 1912. He was well prepared for his official duties and sinee entering upon them he has been diligent, conseientious and thoroughly fair and diseriminating in the perform-
anee of them. Ile was first eleeted as a non-partisan candidate and in 1914 was reeleeted with general approval in all parts of the county.
Judge Hovland was born in Goodhue county, Min- nesota, December 31, 1863, and is the son of Lars J. and Ingeborg (Throsseth) Hovland, who were born in Norway and came to the United States in the late
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fifties. They located on a homestead in Norman county, Minnesota, in 1883, and there they passed the remainder of their days, the father dying at the age of seventy-nine and the mother some years later after she was over eighty.
Their son, A. L., remained in Goodhue county until 1893. He then passed four years on a farm which he owns in Norman county. He was educated in the public schools and by private study and reading. In 1897 he took up his residence at Fertile, in this county, where he was employed as manager of the Farmers' elevator for thirteen years, after which he spent three ycars on the road as a salesman for a grain commis- sion house in Minneapolis. He was elected judge of probate in November, 1912, and took possession of
the office January 1, 1913, since when he has given his attention wholly to the duties of the position and discharged them to the satisfaction of the people.
Judge Hovland was married in 1885, in Goodhue county, to Miss Anna Caroline Foss, a native of that county. They have five children, Myrtle Idella, Leonard Adelbert, Mabel Constance, Joseph Lincoln and Arnold Clinton. Myrtle is a graduate of the high school at Fertile and pursued a special course of training at the normal school in Moorhead. She was afterward a teacher in the public schools of Norman county. She is at present a deputy in her father's office. All the members of the family belong to the United Lutheran church and take an active part in its work for the welfare of the community.
RIGHT REVEREND TIMOTHY CORBETT.
Right Rev. Timothy Corbett, bishop of the See of Crookston, the fifth and latest organized in Minnesota, to which he was appointed in 1910, is one of Minne- sota's native sons, having been born at Mendota in 1858. While yet a lad, his parents removed to Minne- apolis, where he grew to maturity, attending the parochial school in Father, now Bishop, MeGolrick's Parish, receiving private instruction in Latin, Greek and English from Father MeGolrick himself.
In those boyhood days his native inelination and habits gave an indication of the possible future worth of the man, and he was induced to enter more fully upon a thorough course of study, Father McGolrick accompanying him to Mexemieux, France, where he became a student in the same school in which Arch- bishop John Ireland and Bishop O'Gorman had com- pleted courses, and where he continued four years, the progress made fully justifying the judgment of his teachers.
Returning to America, he made his philosophical and theological studies in Grand Seminary at Mont- real and in Brighton Seminary at Boston, where he was ordained Priest in 1886.
His initial pastoral work was in his own old home
as assistant to Father McGolriek, though three years later he was made pastor of Sacred Heart in Duluth, where he devoted the sueceding twenty-one years, and until his elevation to the Episcopate.
In 1892 the church and residenee were destroyed by fire, entailing a serious loss to the weak congregation ; but with faith in the future, steps were at once taken to rebuild. The foundation was secured, but the financial conditions of that period were such that the cornerstone was not laid till the next year, and the present Sacred Heart Cathedral was finally dedicated in 1896, standing a worthy monument to his persist- enee and devotion to a cause and to the support of a loyal people. Coming to that church while it was still small, pastor and people grew and developed togetlier, and it is said that few congregations in the state ean show a closer intimacy and mutual confidence than was the case here for more than twenty years.
Soon after his going to Duluth, his old friend Bishop McGolriek followed him there, so that the intimaey of earlier years became closer, and it was not long till he was chosen Chancellor of the Diocese, so serving fif- teen years and until his own elevation to the place he now holds. The history of the church and collateral
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institutions being found elsewhere in this work it is not necessary to speak of them here; but reference to the personality of the Bishop and expresisons of others will not be out of place. May 9, 1910, he was consecrated in St. Mary's Chapel of St. Paul Semi- nary, the occasion being one that called for the pres- ence and assistance of twenty-one visiting Bishops, six Bishops, three Archbishops and the Papal Dele- gate. Catholies and non-Catholics alike indicated earnest interest and appreciation, among the many present being the Governor and staff.
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