USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 61
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During this four years Mr. MeDonald continued to work out and rented his own plowed land. He then built a little house and stable, but continued to make his home with his father, Donald McDonald, who came to the county two years after the son did. The father bought a homestead right and on this land he lived until his death on February 20, 1915, having survived his wife fifteen years. He was a zealous Presbyterian and took the initiative in founding the Bethel church of that seet, and of this church he was a very active member the rest of his life.
His son Daniel worked his own land and his father's until his marriage, which took place in 1889 and united him with Miss Tena Lee, a daughter of James and
Tena (Nisbet) Lee, and also a native of Ontario, com- ing to this county with her parents when Mr. MeDon- ald eame. She died in 1899, leaving four children : Winifred, who is a teacher in the Polk county schools ; Earl, who was a student at school in Crookston; and Lee and Lindsey, who, like Earl, are living at home with their father.
Mr. McDonald's second marriage was with Miss Annie MeDougall, also a Canadian by nativity, and occurred at Elphin, Ontario, March 2, 1904. They have four children, Grace, Gilbert, Manriee and Mar- vin. Since his first marriage Mr. MeDonald has ad- ded 160 acres to his farm and it now comprises 320 acres, his last purchase costing him $23 an aere, with improvements. Ilis main dependence for a time was grain, but in late years he has devoted more attention to live stock, keeping regularly about thirty head of cattle with twelve milch cows. He has seventeen acres in potatoes and generally plants thirty in corn, and the buildings and other improvements on his place are good.
The public affairs of his township have always in- terested Mr. MeDonald and enlisted his service. Ile has served on the township board one term, being its chairman. He was also township treasurer for three years and has been a member of the school board for many. His religious connection is with the Bethel Presbyterian church, of which he has been an elder for a long time and is now an ocenpant of that offiec.
IVER HOYE.
Born, reared and married in Norway, and coming to the United States and the Northwest in the full vigor of his young manhood at the age of twenty-four, Iver Hoye, who has a productive and attractive farm in section 8, Sullivan township, this county, which is known far and wide as the "Hoye Farm," brought to his new home a stimulating foree which has been serviceably employed in pushing the further devel- opment and improvement of the locality in which he lives, as it was in doing the same in other localities in which he lived previous to settling where he is now.
Mr. Hoye's life began in Norway February 28, 1854, and he remained in his native land until 1878, when he came to this eonntry and located in Winneshiek county, Iowa, where he remained one year. In 1879 he moved to Yellow Medicine county, Minnesota, where one of his sisters was living. He made his home with her until 1881, and then bought a homestead in Grand Forks county, North Dakota, near the village of Honeyford, twenty-five miles northwest of the city of Grand Forks, driving with oxen to his new home from Yellow Medieine county.
JENS OHNSTAD, M. D.
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
For a few years hail storms destroyed Mr. Hoye's crops on his homestead and he encountered many other discouragements. He discovered that his land at best was none of the most choice, and after living on and cultivating it fourteen years he changed his base of operations to this county. In 1891 he bought a quarter of section 34 in Northland township, for which he paid $1,500, it being all wild land. In 1895 he came to this county to live, but instead of locating on his Northland township land he bought a quarter of section 8 in Sullivan township, two miles distant from his first purchase, and has made his home on that ever since. This second purchase in Polk county was made on a contract for 8,000 bushels of wheat to be delivered within a certain term of years, and Mr. Hoye's enterprise and good management in the opera- tion of his farms was such that he was able to meet the requirements of his contract promptly and with- out any default whatever.
Mr. Hoye has since sold his Northland township farm and erected new buildings on the one in Sul- livan township. He has also bought a quarter section
half a mile distant from his home place. By these deals he has made money through the advances in the value of the land. Ile raises grain principally on his two quarter sections and keeps ten to twelve cows of good grades. His interest in the welfare and advance- ment of the township in which he lives has always been warm and active. Ile has served on the school board for a number of years and has shown his pro- gressiveness and publie spirit in many other ways.
In his young manhood Mr. Hoye was married in his native land to Miss Ingeborg Wistad. They have had seven children, three of whom are living. One daugh- ter named Anna died at the age of sixteen. Another, who had the same name, died at the age of twelve. Theodore died when he was eight and Emma when she was four. The three living children are: Martin, who is still with his parents, and who has been the township assessor for four years; Henry, who married Miss Alma Onneland, has two children and is living in Montana, and Matilda, who is the wife of Norval J. Bolstad. The members of the family all belong to the Grand Marias Norwegian Lutheran church.
JENS OHNSTAD, M. D.
Jens Ohnstad, M. D., of McIntosh, one of the lead- ing physicians of the county, was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, June 20, 1868. His parents were natives of Norway and came to the United States in 1846 and were pioneer settlers of Dane county, where his father is living at the close of a long and useful career, hav- ing reached his eighty-cighth year and being one of the few survivors among those who initiated the emi- gration of his compatriots to this country. Two brothers and a sister are also living at advanced ages, all having passed their eightieth year. Jens Ohnstad was reared on the Wisconsin homestead and was edu- cated in normal school at St. Ausgar, Iowa. He grad- uated in 1892 and in his early manhood engaged in teaching school in Fillmore county, Minnesota, using this work to secure the financial aid to attain to his professional ambitions. In 1899 he entered State
University for a four-year course of study in the college of physicians and surgeons and received his degree from that institution in 1903 and in October of that year located in McIntosh, where he has con- tinued to pursue his practice with eminent success, with the exception of two years, during which time he transferred his professional activities to Minne- apolis. Dr. Ohnstad has kept in touch with the prog- ress of medical science and has taken post-graduate courses in advanced scientific studies, in Chicago. He has gained a wide reputation for his skill and pro- fessional achievements and his able services have been distinguished by notable victories over serious epi- demics of malignant diseases. He has devoted every effort and interest to the duties of his vocation and has increased his opportunities for efficient service by the establishment of the Dr. Ohnstad Hospital,
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
which is amply equipped, with professional nurses in attendance, and has proved of unmeasured benefit to the community in providing immediate relief for local distress, obviating the disastrous delays entailed in reaching city hospitals. Dr. Ohnstad is that type who, by their broad, progressive and unselfish service, furnish the substantial support of the welfare of any community and has made a most honorable record as
a physician and citizen. Ile is a member of the Red River Valley, the Minnesota State and the American Medieal associations, and in fraternal societies is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Mod- ern Woodmen of America. Ile was married at Red Wing in 1908 to Mabel Hooverson, of that place, who had resided for a time at McIntosh. Two sons have been born to them, Peter Rolf and Karsten Jerdee.
JOIIN N. BOLSTAD.
Althoughi a native of a foreign land in which his aneestors lived for many generations, John N. Bolstad, one of the enterprising and successful farmers of Sullivan township, this county, has passed the whole of his life to the present time, except the first four months of it, in the United States and the Northwest. He was born in Norway March 15, 1858, and was brought to this country by his father, Niles Bolstad, in July of the same year. The parents settled in Crawford county, Wisconsin, and passed the remain- der of their days there. They converted a tract of wild timber land into a good farm on which they both died.
Their son John remained at home until he reached the age of twenty-one. His father died when the son was twelve years old, and although the latter had four sisters older than himself, the management of the farm rested largely on him and his brother Nels, who op- erated it under the supervision of their mother. Nels Now owns the home place. Another brother, Louis, is a homesteader in Bowman county, North Dakota, and their sister Josephine, the wife of Ole Miller, a retired farmer, lives in East Grank Forks. This sister aecom- panied John to Polk county in 1879. Each of them took up a homestead, the two comprising the northeast and sontheast quarters of section 28 in Northland township, and each built a shanty. Josephine proved up and paid all that was required on her claim, and remained on it until she sold it when she moved to East Grand Forks. She was married to Mr. Miller in 1882.
The shanty built by John N. Bolstad on his home- stead was twelve feet in size each way and had a board roof covered with tar paper. HJe and his sister worked their land together as they had opportunity. But as they had only $7 or $8 between them at the start they were obliged to work for other persons in order to live. The sister worked in Grand Forks and John N. obtained employment on the great Grandin wheat farm in Dakota in the summer of 1879. In a little while he bought a pair of steers and with them he broke up what ground he could that year. But his land was low and flat, and it was generally too wet to plow until June, and erops sown after that would not mature.
Owing to the conditions told above Mr. Bolstad rented a farm in Dakota for three years, and when the third year brought him good erops he traded his oxen for three mules and bought two horses. Meanwhile he had held on to his homestead and kept on working on it. In 1886 he rented the farm on which he now lives, which then belonged to William Colby. It contained all of section 7 except eighty aeres, but it had not been properly eared for. Mr. Bolstad plowed 100 acres that had been without crops for a number of years and obtained good returns for his labor. After rent- ing this farm for several years he bought one-half of it at $27 an acre and a few years later bought the other half at a higher price.
Mr. Bolstad has devoted his attention principally to raising grain. He has erected all the buildings on the place, has a deep well with a wind pump and a
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPITY OF POLK COUNTY
pressure tank to force the water to all parts of his house and barn and many other modern conveniences. A few years ago he sold the north half of the section to his son Norval, but in 1914 he bought an additional tract of 160 acres at $65 an acre, and he now cultivates all he owns. He helped to organize Northland town- ship and obtained a good deal of employment from W. C. Nash, the first settler in it. In Sullivan town- ship he has served several years as a member of the township board and the school board.
In 1883 Mr. Bolstad was married in this county to Miss Bertha Jacobson, who came to the Northwest with her father, Jacob Jacobson, and her married sister, Mrs. Anna Christlund, and took up her residence with them on a farm in Dakota. She afterward lived with her brother, Hans Jacobson, on his homestead
in the northwest quarter of section 6, in Sullivan township, where his widow is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Bolstad have had four children, but only one, their son Norval J. Bolstad, is living. Their first born, Matilda, died when she was fifteen. Norval J. was born on the farm and has passed the whole of his life to the present time on it. He was edueated in the local and the Grand Forks schools, and has now been operating his part of the home farm for two years. He married Miss Matilda Hoye, the daughter of Iver Hoye, who lives on the adjoining seetion. Three children have been born of their union, Joseph, Bernice and Florenee. All the members of btoh fami- lies belong to the Grand Marias Lutheran church, of which John N. Bolstad is an original member and was one of the men who built the church edifice.
EDWARD LA BARGE.
Having come to the locality in which he now lives in the early days before there were any internal im- provements in it and while it was yet largely in its primeval state of wildness, Edward La Barge, who is now one of the enterprising and prosperous farmers of Sullivan township, this eounty, was called upon to experienee many of the hardships of frontier life, as was also his wife, but they endured them with pa- tienee and an unyielding determination to overcome all difficulties and make their way to independenee.
Mr. La Barge was born at Hudson, St. Croix county, Wisconsin, January 10, 1861, and is a son of David La Barge, who located on a farm near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1849. The father converted his wild land near Fond du Lae into a good farm and some years later moved to St. Croix county in the same state. His son, Edward, remained with his par- ents until 1880, working on the home farm in sum- mer and driving teams in the lumber woods and logs on the St. Croix river in winter. In 1880 he eame to Polk county to get land for himself with only about $50 in money, but he bought the Southwest quarter of Seetion 9, Sullivan township, of the rail-
road company for $750, and on it he has sinee made his home.
He broke up his land as rapidly as he could, board- ing at a neighbor's while doing it, and hiring some help in the operation. In the spring of 1881 he bought four horses, intending to push the improve- ment of his farm rapidly. But the land was low and wet, hail storms came and other disasters to his crops followed in almost continuous succession, so that some years elapsed before he raised any erops worth speaking of. During all this time the Grand Marais was often full of water and totally unbridged, and all who erossed it with teams were obliged to swim their horses, as the water was often twelve feet deep. Once, when Mr. La Barge was taking a seeder across it got tangled up in the heavy tall grass which grew in the Marais and the horses could not pull it out. IIe was forced to unhook his team and abandon the seeder, and it was not found until more than a month later when the water subsided.
Owing to his inability to raise crops for seven or eight years Mr. La Barge spent the winters in the Wisconsin lumber woods and used his teams there.
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
Ile afterward worked about the same period in the lumber woods of Minnesota. In the winter of 1896 he took a contract for Inmbering near Black Duck and had a camp of his own. Ile employed ten men in carrying out his contract and got out about one million feet of lumber. That winter Mrs. La Barge passed the winter in the camp and acted as cook. Her husband had a timber claim near the place, but this he has since sold.
The first house Mr. La Barge built on his land was a tar paper shanty. In that he lived as a bache- lor three summers while working his farm, and in it afterward his wife kept house three years. Part of their present dwelling was built in 1889 and the rest in 1903. The fine barn now on the place was erected in 1915. Mrs. La Barge's maiden name was Jessie Johnson and she was born in Pieree county, Wiscon- sin, but her marriage to Mr. La Barge took place in St. Croix county of that state. They have no chil- dren.
The principal industry of the farm has been rais-
ing grain, full-blooded Shorthorn cattle and graded hogs. Twelve to fourteen milk eows supply large quantities of butter for customers in the city. Horses are also raised to some extent. Mr. La Barge has served on the school board but has sought no other office. For twenty years he operated a threshing ont- fit, wearing out three engines and several separators. His present engine is a tractor. Ile is one of the best known threshermen in the Red river valley.
In 1903 Mr. La Barge took a contract to dig eleven miles of diteh for the county, extending from the Marais into Keystone township, the amount of money to be paid for his work being $7.200. Ile let the greater part of the work to sub-contractors, but dug about two miles of the diteh himself. Ilis record in this county shows impressively that persistency and pluck are winning factors in the battle of life. In spite of all his difficulties and setbacks he now has a fine farm which is well improved and highly pro- ductive.
JERRY DRISCOLL.
Pleasantly located on a fine farm comprising the Northwest quarter of Section 34 and the Northeast quarter of Section 33, in Sullivan township, Jerry Driscoll has a substantial acquisition to show as the result of his thirty-six years of life and labor in this county. His farm is five miles east of Grand Forks, and one mile north and four miles east of the farm made memorable in this locality as having been the home of his father and his brothers, Michael, John, James and Thomas Driscoll, all well known residents of Sullivan township for many years.
Jerry Driscoll was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, April 19, 1858, and in the spring of 1879 he came to Polk county, Minnesota, arriving here just before the twenty-first anniversary of his birth. He lived and worked with his father and brothers until 1892, when he moved to his present farm, the first quarter-section of which was taken up by him as a
tree claim and afterward changed to a homestead.
During the same year he built the dwelling house which he now occupies. The other part of his farm, the Northeast quarter of Section 33, was a part of his father's estate, which he had helped to purchase of the railroad company at $6 or $6.50 an acre, with a rebate for breaking it up. His whole life in Minnesota to the present time (1916) has been passed on these two farms, his father's and his own. He raises wheat, oats and barley, keeps twenty-five head of graded Shorthorn cattle and milks eight to ten cows. He has studiously kept out of political tangles and resisted all importunities to become a candidate for any public office, finding at all times plenty to fully occupy his time and attention in his own affairs.
On November 10, 1896, Mr. Driscoll was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Genereau, the daughter of Paul and Selina (- -) Genereau, na-
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
tives of Canada who came to this county in 1881 and are now living on the Point in East Grand Forks. Mrs. Driscoll was born in Michigan. She and her hus- band are the parents of three children, James, George
and Linus. James is a student at the high school in East Grand Forks. All the members of the family belong to the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks.
ANDREW PETERSON.
Andrew Peterson, a well known business man of East Grand Forks, is a native of Sweden, born Feb- ruary 22, 1864. He was reared on a farm in that country and came to the United States when nineteen years of age and for a number of years lived at Fargo, North Dakota. In 1891 he removed to Grand Forks and two years later to East Grand Forks where he embarked in the restaurant business. From a capital of fifteen dollars he has won his way to success and substantial prosperity, with a career of creditable ac- complisliment in the local commercial activities. His business interests have been confined to the hotel and restaurant business and to the management of his farming property. As an extensive property owner in both East Grand Forks and Polk county, his influence has ever been a factor in the promotion and develop-
ment of the best interests of the community. He has invested some thirty-five thousand dollars in city prop- erty, owning a number of residences and has erected two business blocks on De Mers avenue. His farming interests have been equally profitable and here his attention has been given mainly to the cultivation of grain, the annual crops attesting to able management and intelligent farming. This property is situated in Grand Forks township, where he owns a half section, two and a half miles north of East Grand Forks and in Northland township, where he operates a quarter section. Mr. Peterson was married in 1892, in Grand Forks, to Ellen Satten, who was born in Norway and they have two children, Bertha, and Arthur, who is in the employ of the Northern Pacific railroad. Mrs. Peterson is a member of the Zion Lutheran church.
TORKEL G. ANDERSON.
Torkel G. Anderson, a successful farmer and well known citizen of Bygland township, is one of the pio- neers of the county, having settled on the land which is his present home in 1874. He was born in Nor- way, October 30, 1852, and in 1861, a lad of nine years, accompanied his family to Dane county, Wisconsin. Five years later, his father, Gunder Anderson, re- moved to Stearns county, Minnesota, and there resided until 1876, when he followed his son to Polk county and bought forty acres of railroad land in Fisher town- ship, on the Red Lake river and continued to reside there until his death in 1909, at the age of eighty-two. Another son, A. G. Anderson. also located in Fisher township in 1876, where he is a well known farmer and a daughter, Gunhild, became the wife of Ole Paul- son. Torkel Anderson made the trip to Minnesota and
later from Stearns county to Polk county by the primitive use of ox teams and in the fall of 1874 drove oxen through to Winnipeg, where scarcity of supply and abundance of demand, enabled him to se- cure from $180 to $200 for a team. His homestead lay in section ten of Bygland township and he later bought a quarter section of railroad land in section eleven. During the first years of his operations he suffered loss of crops through hail and endured the various hardships which visit the pioneer farmer, slowly win- ning his way, by unfailing industry and thrift to suc- cess and prosperity. For eighteen years, he operated a threshing ontfit and owned the first steam thresher in the township and has invested extensively in farm machinery, availing himself of advanced and efficient methods in agricultural activities. He has given par-
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
ticular attention to the raising of small grain and also has his place well stocked with cattle and horses. Mr. Anderson is a man whose enterprise and ability have carried his influence and activity beyond the marked success of his private interests and have made him a leader in the promotion of best interests and progress of the community in which he lives. He has given able service on the township board and was ae- tive in the organization and building of the local church, of which he is still a loyal supporter. He was united in marriage to Miss Aspar Isaacson, whose
death occurred in 1908. Six children were born to this union, of whom five survive, Torand, the wife of Ben Krostne, of Thief River Falls; Gunder, who is living at the same place; Isaac, Toney, and Birget, who live in Dakota, the former being the wife of Mr. Gunder- son ; and Nera, who resides in Bygland township. A son Ormand, died in his sixteenth year. Isaae Ander- son lives on the home farm and is associated with his father in its management. He was married to Julia Qualick and they have five children, Tovald, Aspar, Emma, Oscar and Anna.
THOMAS D. STEWART.
Thomas D. Stewart, a well known pioneer farmer of Polk county, now living retired on his farm in Huntsville township, is a native of Canada, born in County Lanark, Ontario, February 9, 1854. At an early age he became employed in the lumber woods and worked as a lumberman for a number of years, thriftily saving from his wages to later finance his farming venture. In 1878 he came to the United States and took a preemption elaim in Grand Forks county, North Dakota, but the soil proving unsatis- factory he soon removed to Polk county where he pur- chased a quarter section of railroad land in Nesbit township. He owned two yoke of oxen and with these he broke ten acres for his first year's erop and was able to elear quite a sum of money selling ties and cord wood to the railroad. With thrifty management and industry, his farming venture prospered steadily and he soon built up a fine farm property. After eighteen years in Nesbit township, he sold the traet and purchased four hundred and sixty acres in see- tion eleven of IFuntsville township and this place has continued to be his home. His principal interest has been the cultivation of grain and his wheat erop alone in some years has yielded some six thousand bushels. Of later years he extended his activities to stock farm- ing, starting a herd of thoroughbred eattle. In 1912, after many years of successful and creditable accom- plishment, he retired from the active management of
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