USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 58
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Mr. Amundson completed the house on his farm begun by Ole Rice and put up all the other buildings on the place. He has since bought another farm of 160 acres, which adjoins his home farm and is cul- tivated in connection with it, the whole body of 400 aeres being treated as one farm. Ilis principal in- dustry is raising wheat, oats, barley and flax. In 1915 his crops aggregated 7,000 bushels. His farm lies along the Marais river and is one of the choice ones of the valley. It contains a grove of stately trees planted by Mrs. Riee and her son Ole.
For ten years Mr. Amundson has served as town- ship supervisor, and he has long served as a member of the school board. His religious connection is with the Grand Marais Lutheran church, of which he was one of the trustees for a number of years. He and his wife are the parents of six children, Elcanora, John, Alice, Harold, Clara and Clarenee.
JAMES McDONALD.
Cultivating with enterprise and skill 560 aeres of land in one body, only part of which lies in his home farm, James McDonald, of section 32, Nesbit town- ship, is doing as much as almost any other man to aid in promoting the industrial and commercial power
of Polk county and minister to the general welfare and progress of its residents. He was born in County Frontenae, province of Ontario, Canada, December 6, 1853, and in the spring of 1876 came to Blue Earth county, Minnesota. During his first summer in this
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state he worked as a farm hand in Blue Earth county, and in the winter was employed in lumber camps on the Chippewa river in Wisconsin, running logs on the drive when spring came and while it lasted.
When he quit the lumber job he went to Duluth expecting to get work on the railroad. But in Duluth he met some of his old friends from Ontario who were on their way to the Red river valley, where the Nes- bit boys had already started a settlement on the Marais river, but were the only men located there. Mr. MeDonald and his companion, David Morrow, who had come with him from Canada, joined their old neighbors and came to this section. He filed on a part of his present farm as a pre-emption claim, but afterward changed his claim to one for a homestead in order to get a full quarter-section. He had about $350 in money to start with.
David Morrow selected at the same time a place about one mile distant, and each of the two newcomers hired the breaking up of twenty acres of his land. This was in the spring of 1877. They cut logs and hewed them for a dwelling house, and the next winter they put up a house of the hewn logs sixteen by twenty feet in size. This house is still standing and in a good state of preservation. The winter was an open one and Mr. MeDonald and Robert Nisbet built several houses, hauling logs to Grand Forks to have them sawed into lumber for finishing the houses. The next spring Mr. McDonald planted the twenty aeres he had plowed. He had bought oxen but these he sold after he got his crop in and could dispense with their serv- ices for a time.
At that time Mr. McDonald and Robert Nesbit went back to their old home in Canada and were mar- ried on the same day, May 8, 1878, Mr. MeDonald being united with Miss Isabella Miller, who had been his schoolmate in earlier years. He brought a car- load of stock on his return trip and his wife followed with Mr. and Mrs. Nesbit. Several other settlers ac- companied them, the party including James Lee, wife and family, William Hannah, Daniel H. MeDonald, a brother of James, Mr. Bromelee, Sandy MeLean and George Island.
In his carload of live stock James MeDonald had horses for David Morris, James Lee, Robert Nesbit and George Island, of this neighborhood, and one for James Miller, of Fargo. That spring (1878) Mr. McDonald's grain eame up well but dry cold winds injured his erop. In the following winter he hauled wood to Fisher, a mile and a half distant, to supply the railroad with fuel for its engines, and got 55 cents a cord for it. In this way he earned the cost of a wagon, having none the first summer. He kept on breaking land for himself and others, raising grain and hay, and was soon enjoying substantial prosper- ity with good prospects of getting ahead rapidly.
In the course of time Mr. McDonald bought eighty acres of railroad land at $5 an acre, with a rebate of $3 an aere for breaking up three-fourths of it. He also acquired another traet of eighty acres which was already plowed, and in 1898 he bought an additional half-section for $7,000, all plowed and ready for seed- ing. He keeps twenty-five to thirty head of cattle, but grain has been his main dependence, and in 1915 his erops totaled 3,550 bushels of wheat. 3.500 of barley, 4,000 of oats and 140 of rye.
Mr. McDonald helped to organize Nesbit township, which was named in honor of the Nesbit boys, al- though only one of them was living in it at the time, but they and Joseph Jarvis were its first settlers. He has served on the township board many years, a large part of the time as its chairman ; has aided actively and extensively in road and ditch work; has been a member of the school board almost continuously from its organization, and in all ways open to him has done all he could to help push the township along to better development and greater progress. His religious eon- neetion is with the Bethel Presbyterian church, which he has served well as a deaeon and a member of its official board. His father was one of the founders of the church and he is devoted to it.
Mr. and Mrs. MeDonald became the parents of nine children, all of whom are living. They are: Ethel Ellen, who is the wife of George White, of Saskatoon, Canada; William J., who lives on the Mallory farm ; Eva Belle, who is the wife of William Nesbit; Daniel
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Lloyd, who is living at home; Mabel Jennie, who is the wife of Robert Stewart, a son of T. D. Stewart, of Huntsville township; Margaret Fern, who was a teacher in Polk county but is now teaching in Bemidji; Roy Herbert, Kate Gladys and Mary Edith, all of whom are living at home, Kate being the housekeeper of the family. She attended the State Agricultural school at Crookston, and Mary is a student of music
in Grand Forks. Their mother died November 17, 1903, and since then one after another of the daugh- ters has looked after the affairs of the household. The father is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has passed through all the chairs of his local lodge and served as its representative to the Grand Lodge of the Order at different times.
J. FRANK BOLES, D. D. S.
This gentleman, who stands high in professional and fraternal circles, being one of the leading den- tists of the northwest and a very enterprising and progressive citizen, has shown an active and help- ful interest in everything that makes for a better town and the general welfare of Crookston, the city of his home for nearly seventeen years, or since November, 1899. He was born in Clinton, province of Ontario, Canada, July 30, 1875, and obtained his professional training at the Detroit Dental College, of Detroit, Michigan, from which he was graduated in May, 1899. In November of that year he located in Crookston, where Judge William A. Watts, his mother's brother, was living at the time. Dr. Boles and two others in the city are the only dentists of that period who are still living in Crookston. Dr. Robertson and Dr. Spencer both preceded him.
Dr. Boles has an extensive and exacting general
practice, and he gives it close and continual attention. Hle is a member of the District, State and National Dental associations and one of the officers of the Dis- triet association. Ilis profession absorbs him almost wholly, the only recreation he takes being occasional bass fishing expeditions to the lakes in Minnesota. Ile is a diligent and thoughtful student of the litera- ture of his profession and makes every effort to keep abreast of its latest discoveries and all its advances in every way. He is unmarried and about the middle of 1913 he indueed his mother and his sister to take up their residence in Crookston. Fraternally he is a Freemason and the Eminent Commander of Con- stantine Commandery No. 20, K. T., and a member of the Grand Commandery of Minnesota. Socially he is connected with the Crookston Commercial elub and an Elk.
HIELMER HORKEN.
Sneeeeding to the ownership and management of the farm on which he now lives after the death of his parents, and giving elose and careful attention to his work, Helmer Horken, one of the enterprising and prosperous farmers of Sullivan township, this county, has made his way steadily forward and is now recog- nized as one of the sterling and substantial residents of the part of the county in which he lives. He was born in Decorah, Iowa, August 1, 1875, and is a son of Hans E. and Martha Horken, who were born, reared
and married in Norway and came to Polk county, Min- nesota, after residing ten years in or near Decorah, Iowa, following a residence of one or two years in Wis- consin.
The father took up a homestead in Sullivan town- ship in 1877 and lived on it until his death in the spring of 1890. He was born October 28, 1831, and his wife February 3, 1838. She died in August, 1906. They had no means when they came to this county with their seven children, and the father had to hire
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a man to break up his land while he worked as a fireman on a Hudson Bay company boat on the Red river to support his family. He also did some black- smithing, thereby working at the trade he had learned in his native land. Two or three years after his ar- rival here he obtained a yoke of steers and broke them, and by that time his farm was yielding a living for the family.
The elder Mr. Horker bought another traet of 160 acres two miles and a half east of his homestead and built the present dwelling house on the home place ten or twelve years after taking possession of it, the first residence of the family on the farm being a little log shack with a sod roof. He also set out a lot of trees which now make a fine grove. When he died his son Helmer, who was living on the homestead, took
charge of it for his mother, who continued to operate it until she died except for three years, during which she lived in Grand Forks. When she died he bought out the other heirs, and now owns the whole place, on which he has built a new barn and made other im- provements.
Mr. Horken's principal industries are raising grain and live stock. He has seventeen head of high grade Percheron horses, twenty head of cattle and ten milch cows, the cattle all being Herefords of a superior strain. In 1907 he was married to Miss Martha Eids- ness, a native of Norway. They have four children, Ella, Arnold, Harold and Stella. The father is a Republican in politics and a member of the township board and township supervisor.
PETER E. SWANSON.
For nearly eighteen years after coming to this county and settling down to build up for himself a new home in the American wilderness Peter E. Swan- son, who now has a fine farm in section 22, Northland township, this county, wrestled with almost overpow- ering difficulties and encountered an almost continu- ous succession of disasters and discouragements. Yet he stuck to his purpose and the place on which he had determined to carry it out, with the result that he has conquered bad fortune and achieved a gratifying suc- cess. As the portion of the county in which he lives is flat and low, in the early years before there was any systematic drainage on a large scale in the neighbor- hood, water often covered a great part of his land for many months and he was unable to work it in time to raise a crop. When this condition did not prevail either frost or smut would spoil his crop, and he was no better off than in a wet season. At times he has had to walk in water waist-deep to get to his house when he was away from it. Since the judicial ditch was dug about 1898 the water has not tronbled him and his crops have been good.
Mr. Swanson was born in Sweden October 13, 1839,
and came to the United States and this county in 1880. He homesteaded on the southwest quarter of section 22, and was the second settler in that neighborhood, John Erickson, on section 14, two miles farther north- east, having come first. But Mr. Swanson was about three miles farther northeast than any other settler. What money he brought with him from Sweden was lost and he had nothing when he arrived here. He built a little log house, which is still standing, and in this he lived until 1915, when the present larger and more comfortable dwelling was put up. Other im- provements were made from time to time as he was able.
During the first year of his residence in this county Mr. Swanson worked for other farmers in the sum- mer and in the fall he cut hay, which he sold in Grand Forks at $3 to $4 a ton. He has always stuck to his farm, seeking no other business and no public life or official position of any kind at any time. He is a fer- vent member of the Swedish Lutheran church, which he helped to build about 1887.
Mr. Swanson was married and had an adopted daughter when he came to Minnesota. His wife died
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in October, 1890. Emma, the adopted daughter, is now Mrs. Ekdahl, and has been a widow for twenty-
three years. Her son, John William Ekdahl, aged twenty-four, carries on the farm for Mr. Swanson.
OLE B. DAHL.
Living retired from active pursuits after his term of privation, toil and trial, with a comfortable com- petence and an agreeable home in East Grand Forks, Ole B. Dahl has well illustrated in his career as a pro- gressive and successful farmer the value of persistent industry, frugality and thrift, and has honestly earned the comforts and advantages they bring. Ile was born in Norway April 1, 1840, and was there reared to manhood and taught his trade as a shoemaker. IIe came to the United States in 1866 and located in Winona, Minnesota, where he passed a year working at his trade in a shop in which twenty men were em- ployed, a large number for a far western town in that day
Mr. Dahl next took up a pre-emption claim in Ren- ville county, Minnesota, when that county was just opening to settlement. He proved up his claim as pre-emption and paid $1.25 per acre, but made slow progress in developing and improving his land. In 1874, 1876 and 1877 the grasshoppers devoured his crops. He had a good crop in 1875 but the growing vegetation in other parts of the county was all con- snmed by the pests, which no effort seemed sufficient to eradicate for some years.
In 1879 Mr. Dahl moved to Polk county, having sold his land for $2,000 which was then considered an exorbitant priee. He was unable to sell his cows, however, as butter was selling at five cents a pound. He took up a homestead in section 12 of what is now Esther township but was then a part of Higdem, his location being about ten miles north of East Grand Forks. He worked the farm for a number of years and improved it with good buildings. In 1885 he rented it to a tenant and moved to East Grand Forks. He bought a few aeres of land near that city but he has not given it his personal labor as he has since been living retired from work. Before leaving the farm
he added to it twenty acres of timber land, and he has since bought another farm, but he has sold both the old one and the new one.
Mr. Dahl never allowed himself to become wholly absorbed in his own affairs. He always took an active and helpful interest in the affairs of the locality of his home, and served as township assessor of Higdem township three years while it ineluded Esther town- ship, the division being made after he left his farm. He also served on the school board and filled other local offices in Higdem township.
While he was living in Renville county Mr. Dahl was married to Miss Hannah Larson, a daughter of Bernt and Martha Larson and a native of Norway. She came with her parents to Dakota county, Min- nesota, in 1862, and took up her residence with them in that county, accompanying them to Renville county in 1865. The Indian outbreak of 1862 so frightened them that the father did not take up a homestead until 1865. In 1877 they changed their residence to Polk county and took a homestead in section 10, Esther township, as it is now, being among the very first settlers in that part of the county. The father after- ward added 200 aeres of railroad land to his farm in order to have timber for use on his farm. Later he built a dwelling honse and other buildings on the rail- road land at the edge of the timber, and there he died in June, 1902. The mother is still living and has her home with Mr. and Mrs. Dahl.
The Larson farm is now owned by the two daugh- ters of the household, Mrs. Dahl and Mrs. Melsness of Renville county. Mr. Dahl enltivated it for five years, and since he left it it has been under the man- agement of his son-in-law, O. J. Norgord. Mr. and Mrs. Dahl have seven children living: Caroline, who is the wife of B. K. Johnson, of Esther township; Mary, who is the wife of O. J. Norgord, and lives on
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the old Larson farm which he now has charge of; Sophia, who is the wife of H. Ellingson, a railroad man who lives in Grand Forks; Hildah, who is the wife of II. M. Erickson, a banker at Upham, North Dakota; Ole, who resides in Seattle, Washington; Clara, who is the wife of R. M. Jensen, assistant cashier of the Seandinavian-American Bank of Grand Forks, and Gunda, who is the wife of W. M. Ludwig, a council-
man. A daughter named Minnie, who was a stenog- rapher, died at the age of twenty-one. All the mem- bers of the family belong to the Lutheran church in Grand Forks.
After coming to East Grand Forks he helped organ- ize school district No. 3 into an independent school and held office as director for seven years and treas- urer most of that time.
OLE HENDRICKSON.
Having helped to redeem large acreages of land from the wilderness and make them fruitful in pro- ductiveness and highly serviceable to mankind, Ole Hendrickson, for many years one of the leading farm- ers of Esther township, this county, has well earned the rest and leisure he is now enjoying in his life at Grand Forks, North Dakota, retired from all active pursuits except that of supervising the cultivation of the land he still owns, which comprises eighty aeres in Higdem township and a half-section in Esther township, the former taken up as a homestead and the latter as a tree elaim in 1878.
Mr. Hendrickson was born in Sweden, July 27, 1852, and in 1869 came to this country with his parents, Hendrick H. and Walborg Grubb, who lo- cated in Carver county, Minnesota, and passed two years there. At the end of that period the father took up a homestead in Renville county, where the family remained seven years. In 1878 they came to Polk county, and here the father obtained a pre-emption claim in Esther township, on which he died in May, 1899, after transforming his wild claims into good farms. His children numbered three, Ole, his sister Betsy, who is now the widow of Ole Nilson and is living on her homestead in section 2, Esther town- ship, and their brother Henry. The last named took up a homestead in section 34, Higdem township, but later traded this for Ole's tree claim, on which Ole had proved up and planted a ten aere grove. In later years Henry worked his father's farm until he moved to California in 1902. He is now living at Orland in that state, and Ole A. Olson now owns his old tree
claim farm and his father's farm in section 2, Esther township.
After proving up on his homestead in 1902 Ole Hendrickson bought his half section in Esther town- ship two miles south of the old place, and he lived on it until he moved to Grand Forks, which he did in 1913. He made extensive improvements on the farm, draining out some lakes whereby he raised about fifty acres of valueless land to high productiveness. The draining cost him about $1,000, but the land it redeemed is now worth as much as the land is around there. Since he removed from the farm it has been operated by his son August Herman.
Mr. Hendrickson was married in 1879 to Miss Ber- tha Halvorsen, of Renville county. They became the parents of seven children, one of whom, a son named Oscar Bernhart, died at the age of thirteen years. The living children are: Johann Wilhelm, who mar- ried Anna Olena Kleven and lives on his farm in section 13, Esther township. He served for a time on the school board in Higdem township. Henry, who married Ada Cornelia Dahl, lives on his homestead in Higdem township. August Herman lives on and cul- tivates his father's farm. Walborg Josephine is a inute. She passed four years being educated at a school for the deaf and dumb. Anna Maria is house- keeper for her brother August on the home farm. Hildah Christine and Olga Berthene are living with their father. The parents also have an adopted daugh- ter, Lilah Geneva, who is now four years old and whom they have had from her infancy.
Ole Hendrickson served as township elerk for many
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years and as a member of the school board almost from the organization of the school distriet. He also served as treasurer, holding the office one year after his removal to Grand Forks, and was succeeded in it by his son August. IIe has been a member and one of the trustees of Kongsvinger Lutheran church, and president of its congregation, which he helped to or- ganize. For many years he was a Republican in pol- ities, but lately he has been independent, voting for men rather than in accord with partisan considera- tions.
Both Mr. Hendrickson and his wife have had their share of hardships. During his first years of farming
he was obliged to use oxen as his motive power in all his work. He had no capital and his father did not have over $500. In Renville county grasshoppers destroyed all their crops for two years. But his per- severance and pluck took him over all obstacles and through all difficulties until he compelled fate to yield him success. Mrs. Hendrickson, before her mar- riage did housework, toiling early and late and often doing men's as well as women's work, at a compensa- tion of $1 a week. Her industry and good manage- ment in her own home were large factors in winning her husband's prosperity.
CHARLES ROSS.
Charles Ross, of Fertile, a leading building con- section boasts. Among his past contraets have been traetor of the county and prominent citizen, was born in Norway, October 7, 1865, and has conducted ex- tensive business operations in the county for many years, handling individually the largest amount of work of any contractor. 1Ie located in Fertile in 1893, having previously resided at Reynolds, and has continued to make his home there and at Crooks- ton with the exception of some nine months spent in his native land in 1904 and 1905. Mr. Ross has at- tained a notable efficiency in his profession and through the years of his able business activity has won the confidence and regard of all his associates by his integrity and skill. He is that type of man who, through their honest and genial personality, add to their attainments as business men and citizens, a wide circle of warm friends. He has erected many of the most substantial and pretentious buildings in the county, structures which are importantly noted among the architectural possessions of which this
the Carnegie library, the Elks' home and numerous business blocks in Crookston, many of the homes in the attractive residence district of Fertile and the bank buildings in that place, which rank among the splendidly equipped and modern banking houses of northern Minnesota. He is now engaged upon the construction of the high school building at Fertile, which involves a $27,000 contract and will be finished for occupancy in January of 1916. Mr. Ross employs as many as twenty-five men in his operations, work- ing to architeets' plans, and personally supervises the work on every contract. Aside from his many pri- vate interests, Mr. Ross is actively associated with all matters of public moment and served for two years as a city commissioner of Fertile. He enjoys ont- of-door sports and makes hunting his favorite recrea- tion. Mr. Ross is a member of the Elks lodge at Crookston.
JOHN DRISCOLL.
The late John Driscoll, who was an extensive land- holder in Polk county, one of the leading men and most active and influential citizens of his locality and
a great foree for progress and development, died tragically on September 26, 1907, when his dwelling house was destroyed by fire, and the mystery of his
CHARLES ROSS
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
death has never been fully solved. His body was not consumed or injured in the fire but was found in a woodshed that the flames did not reach. No investi- gation of the case was ever made and the immediate cause of Mr. Driscoll's death has not yet been dis- closed.
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