USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 66
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Mr. Romo was born in the ancient and historic city of Trondhjem, Norway, July 7. 1860, and was brought to the United States by his parents, Ole and Kjersti Romo, when he was nine years old. The fam- ily settled on eighty aeres of railroad land about thirty miles southwest of Red Wing, Minnesota, and there the parents died some years later. Of their seven children only Ole and his sister, Mrs. Charles Nelson, are residents of Polk county. The others are living in different parts of Minnesota and the adjoin- ing state of North Dakota.
Ole O. Romo came to this county in 1880 with his sister and her husband, Charles Nelson, and worked for the latter, breaking nearly all of his land, inelud- ing the part that now lies in the village of Climax. He next worked for Levi Steenerson, who lived at
that time in a little cabin about where his present residence stands. Ile was with Mr. Steenerson six years, and at the end of that period had $700 to invest in a farm for himself. Ile bought the homestead of Ole Bramseth, a pioneer, in Seetion 28, Vineland town- ship, one mile and a half east of Climax, agreeing to pay $1,630 for the 160 aeres of land, whose improve- ments consisted of a little log house, a stable and a granary, all covered with straw and sod. The land was nearly all plowed and Mr. Romo was allowed ten or eleven years in which to complete his payments on it, and these he at onee began to make provision for.
Soon after taking possession of his farm Mr. Romo built a small frame house on it, and that he and his family occupied until a few years ago, when the pres- ent dwelling was ereeted, as were the barn and other buildings. Becoming at onee an intensive farmer, but devoting his forees mainly to raising grain, he prospered from the start. His erop in 1915 averaged 30 bushels of wheat and 53 bushels of oats to the aere. He keeps a good-sized drove of cattle, including nine or ten mileh eows, and owns stock in the co-operative creamery, the co-operative store and the telephone company at Climax. In addition, he has bought forty aeres of other land and has a lot and house in the village of Climax.
Mr. Romo was married just before he located on
ANDREW J. KELLEY
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPIIY OF POLK COUNTY
his farm to Mrs. Sigre Amundson, a native of Norway, and the widow of Ole Amundson, who had a farm of 145 acres in Hubbard township. She had one child by her first marriage, Alfred Amundson, who is a farmer in Hubbard township. By her second mar- riage Mrs. Romo has become the mother of seven chil- dren : Oscar, who is cultivating her farm in Hubbard township; Oliver, who is variously employed in the neighborhood; Clara and Thea, who are employed in the central telephone office in Climax; Bertha, who
is living at home; Josie, who is a high school student in Climax, and Olga, who is attending the district school there.
The members of the family all belong to Skatvold Lutheran church, of which Mr. Romo is the treasurer and one of the trustees. He has also served as town- ship supervisor for three years and is now president of the school district. He is a director of the co- operative store and the co-operative creamery at Climax, also treasurer for the Ladies Aid at Skatvold.
ANDREW J. KELLEY.
Andrew J. Kelley, whose pleasant home is located on the Red Lake river one mile and a half east of Crookston, is a scion of a military family, and was himself a valiant soldier in our Civil war, and during that momentous struggle gloriously did he sustain the examples and spirit of his family. His grandfather, Andrew Kelley, was a soldier in the Revolution and fought under Washington. His father, John Kelley, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and lie also fought under Harrison at Tippecanoe, where he was left on the field as dead from a tomahawk wound from the effects of which he died young. Andrew J. served three years in the Union army, Company E, Seven- teenth Michigan infantry, from 1862 to the close of the war, and his son Edwin, the present sheriff of Polk county, was a soldier in the Spanish-American war, of short endurance but decisive results.
Andrew J. Kelley was born in La Grange county, Indiana, September 2, 1845, and moved to Adrian, Michigan, where he passed his boyhood and youth. He enlisted in 1862, served to the elose of the conflict and received a medal for specially meritorious conduct in trying situations. He took part in more than thirty battles and had some very trying experiences, being selected at different times for particularly hazardous duties. Space is not available for a detailed account of his military exploits, but on one occasion he volun- teered to burn a house in which the Confederates were quartered and steadily pieking off the flower of the
Union command, and in company with five others suc- cessfully achieved the result desired.
After the war Mr. Kelley became an officer in the Michigan state prison. One of the prisoners had a book describing the Red river country, and this in- dueed Mr. Kelley to come to this region in 1872. Rail- road operations were almost suspended in this locality at the time, and he journeyed from Glyndon to Crooks- ton on a hand car, his wife being with him and holding the present sheriff of the county in her arms. He selected a liomestead in the northwest quarter of sec- tion 28, Crookston township, two miles northeast of Crookston and about one mile from the Red Lake river.
Spending the summer in the shack on his home- stead, Mr. Kelley found the conveniences of life almost wholly laeking in his neighborhood. The settlers put a sail on a flat car and with this would run to Glyndon for groceries when the wind was favorable, and there they would remain until it shifted so that it would bring them back, as the trains on the railroad were not running regularly. Mr. Kelley was married in 1869 to Miss Ella A. Fleming, a daughter of Rev. S. Fleming, D. D., a Presbyterian elergyman in Indiana. In May, 1873, his wife and children joined him on the homestead. His house was the only one on the prairie between Crookston and Red Lake agency. In- dians often visited it for food, but they never showed any violence. Sometimes they brought their wives and
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
children with them. Elk and other large game were plentiful, and all the incidents of frontier life were at hand.
Since settling here Mr. Kelley has given his atten- tion mainly to his farm. But he has served as town- ship clerk since the organization of the township. In the course of time he acquired another quarter-section of land and later bought forty acres on the bank of Red Lake river, and on this tract he now has his home. Ilis principal dependence for many years was raising grain, but during the last fifteen he has given a great deal of attention to dairying.
Mrs. Kelley is a native of Michigan and she and Mr. Kelley were married at Burr Oak in that state. They have seven children : Herbert, a civil engineer, whose home is now in Vancouver, British Columbia ;
Edwin Fleming, who is now (1916) sheriff of Polk county ; Clara, who is the wife of Bert Cochrane, of Crookston ; Mabel, who is the wife of David Fleming, a member of the Crookston police force; Maude, who is the wife of M. J. O'Boyle, a machinist in Crookston ; and Lulu and Leonard H., who are still members of the parental family circle. The parents are members of the Congregational church and were among its first communicants. Mr. Kelley was the first Sunday school superintendent in Crookston, presiding over a nnion Sunday school which he started in 1874, and he has been continuously interested in Sunday school work since. In political faith he is a Republican Pro- hibitionist, and rejoices in now seeing Crookston "dry," which it never was until very recently.
MICHAEL QUIRK.
This extensive, enterprising and successful farmer of Polk county, who managed all his own land until a short time ago, has been a resident of the United States for about fifty-four years and of Polk county, Minnesota, about forty-five years. He was born in County Galway, Ireland, some seventy-five years ago, and left his native land for America while our country was in the terrible throes of the war between the North and South. He landed at New York and for some years was employed in railroad work in that state, Pennsylvania, and the states westward as far as Mis- souri.
In 1872 he was in St. Louis, Missouri, and from that city, in company with Barney Haggerty and Mattie Martin, all of whom were unmarried except Mr. Haggerty, he traveled by boat np the Mississippi to St. Paul and from there overland to Moorhead. At the place last named they heard accounts of the value of the land farther down the Red river, and all of them came to Polk county and all squatted on unsurveyed land. Patrick Quigley joined the party at Moorhead, and he also took up land.
When the land was surveyed Mr. Quirk filed a
homestead claim on his tract of 160 acres, and lie now owns, in addition to his homestead, a whole half-sec- tion in Fisher township and another farm of 160 acres in Tynsid township, the homestead being in Section 15, Tynsid township, and bordering on the Red river. For many years Mr. Quirk farmed all of these farms and got large returns from them. He came to this county with only about $500. His first home in it was a little log cabin, and his first team was a yoke of oxen. The log cabin has been replaced by a com- modious and comfortable frame house, and the oxen have given way to horses and steam and gasoline mo- tive power. Thus the hardy and adventurous pioneer of the wilderness has kept pace with the progress of events and improvement, and he has shown himself to be of a progressive and productive nature, and well qualified to make the most of his opoprtunities, sur- roundings and resources. But he has devoted his en- ergies wholly to the requirements of his farming in- dustry, raising wheat as his main crop, and has never held or sought a public office, although he has been in- terested in the development of his locality and done his part to promote that with ardor and intelligence.
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
Mr. Quirk was married three years after coming to this county to Miss Lizzie Lealos, also a native of Ire- land but residing at Red Lake at the time of her mar- riage. Their offspring numbered eight, three sons and five daughters. Of the sons Edward is living on a farm near that of his father. John is a resident of Bygland township, and Matthew is cultivating the home place. Only four of the daughters are living,
the oldest, Maggie, having died in early life. Annie is the wife of John Gannaw of Grand Forks. Lizzie and Mamie are living at home, and Delia is the wife of Patrick Quigley, the nearest neighbor of the home family. Mr. Quirk is a Democrat in political faith and allegiance and all the members of his family belong to the Catholic church at Fisher.
ODIN J. BJORNSTAD.
Although he is one of the younger farmers of Polk county and also one of the youngest of the public offi- cials of his township, Odin J. Bjornstad, who lives on Section 24, Hubbard township, one mile west of Neils- ville, is one of the most aggressive grapplers with prob- lems involving advanced agriculture for the welfare of his locality and public interests for the good of the whole county now residing in this part of the state of Minnesota. And he has already made a record for progressiveness and breadth of view that would be creditable to a man much more advanced in years and experience.
Mr. Bjornstad was born on the farm on which he is now living October 15, 1886, the son of J. J. and Karen Bjornstad, natives of Norway, who came to the United States and direct to Polk county in 1875 and at once took up a homestead which is a part of the present family home. They had only $1 when they arrived here, and Mrs. Bjornstad went to Grand Forks to get employment for her support, while her husband lived in a dugout and did his own cooking until they got a start in the New World. A little later he built a little log cabin on his land, but still worked out for his liv- ing, being employed by his brother-in-law, Nels Pauls- rud.
Times have mended for the family since then, and in the course of a few years Mr. Bjornstad, the elder, bought an additional quarter-section from the estate of his brother Hans, who took it up as a homestead on which he died. J. J. Bjornstad cultivated the whole half-section until 1909, when his son Odin took charge
of it, and the father has since lived retired from active pursuits but maintained his home on the farm. He and his wife became the parents of seven children, five of whom are living. Mary has her home with her par- ents. Eliza is the wife of George Burd, of Hubbard township. Odin J. has charge of the home farm. Net- tie has taught in the schools of Ottertail county in this state and during the last five years in those of North Dakota. She is now teaching in the high school at Hillsboro in that state. Hans is living on the farm with his parents.
Odin J. Bjornstad completed his academic educa- tion at Concordia College, in Moorhead, from which he was graduated in 1907, in the classical course. Since assuming control of the farm he has made a specialty of raising potatoes, devoting about seventy acres to this one product annually. He is a partner with T. A. Thompson in the ownership and operation of the potato warehouse at Neilsville and has a one-half interest in it. They store about 18,000 bushels of potatoes in this warehouse and they are all held for seed, the Red River Ohios being the favorite species, and the most of their stock is shipped to Kansas City, Missouri, more than 300 carloads being sent from Neilsville to that mart for seed in 1914.
Mr. Bjornstad has also taken a warm and helpful interest in the public affairs of his locality and is at present (1916) chairman of the township board and in the third year of his service as such. He is independent in political affairs. Like the other members of his family he belongs to St. Peter's United Lutheran
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church and he has been for some years secretary of the congregation. He is unmarried. In addition to his holdings in Polk county, Minesota, he owns 285
acres of land in Traill county, North Dakota, three iniles west of Neilsville, which he has farmed by a tenant.
THEODORE M. BOYER.
Theodore MI. Boyer, who is now one of the leading merchants at Beltrami, was born in Wisconsin, July 31, 1870, and was brought by his parents to Becker county, Minnesota, the next year. His parents, Peter O. and Barbro Boyer, are still living in Becker county, where the son was reared to the age of eighteen on the home farm. He began his education in the district schools and completed the academic part of it at a college in St. Paul and the State Normal school in Moorhead. Ile also pursued a special course of train- ing for business at a commercial school in St. Paul.
After leaving school Mr. Boyer clerked in a general store in Steele county, North Dakota, for a year and a half and after that in a store in Beeker county, this state, for two years. On March 9, 1897, he came to Polk county, and for a short time clerked in a store at Climax. He was then appointed postmaster at Eldred, receiving the appointment in May. By June he had completed the second building and the first store house in the new village and opened the first store there. He had about $1,500 to start the store with, including the building, and he kept the store until the spring of 1912, a period of fifteen years.
In 1903, in partnership with his brothers, M. P. and C. A. Boyer, he opened his present store at Beltrami under the firm name of Bover Bros. & Co. M. P.
Boyer had been associated with him in conducting the store at Eldred, but in 1903 he took charge of the Beltrami store, and later he returned to Eldred, where he died January 3, 1912. The other brother, C. A. Boyer, was in charge of the Beltrami store one year. After that Theodore took charge of it, and he has sinee been its sole proprietor. Ile handles all kinds of farm produce, uses $8,000 to $10,000 in his business and employs two clerks. His trade has grown from the start and is steadily inereasing all the time.
Mr. Boyer served as treasurer of Roome township two years while living there. He was married at Eldred on June 1st in 1890 to Miss Angeline Arness, a daughter of Alexander P. and Randine Arness, who are now residents of Fisher, in this county. Mrs. Boyer was born in Norway but brought by her parents to Polk county, Minesota,, when she was eight years old. She and her husband are the parents of five children, Percival, Alexander, Theobald, Ruth and Lucille. Mr. Boyer, in fraternal relations, belongs to the Order of Woodmen and takes an active interest in its welfare, and of which he was venerable consul for one year and clerk for five years. After moving to Beltrami he has served on the village board as council- man for six years.
JOHN O. CHRISTIANSON.
John O. Christianson, who owns and lives on a fine farm in Seetion 10, Garfield township, on which he located in 1892, is one of the enterprising, progressive and successful farmers of Polk county and enjoys the respect and confidenee of all who know him. He was born in Allamakee county. Iowa, Oetoher 14, 1864, his parents having located there just prior to the Civil
war and his father's brother three or four years earlier. They both took up government land, and in 1880, the parents of John O., who were Ole and Anna Christian- son, moved to this county and took up a homestead in Garfield township, which is now owned and oecu- pied by their son Otto.
John O. Christianson's farm, which comprises 160
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPIIY OF POLK COUNTY
acres, is located three miles and a half northeast of Fertile, and is now under cultivation to the extent of ninety-five acres. He bought it in 1892 at $16 an acre. Fifty acres were then in a partial state of culti- vation, but the land had on it no buildings fit to use. He built a log house, of logs eut in his own timber mainly, and chose an excellent location for it on an elevation thirty-five feet above Lake Arthur, an ex- panse of 200 acres, which it overlooks, and in the midst of a beautiful grove. The other improvements on the farm are also of good quality.
Mr. Christianson raises grain, hay and mixed live stock, one of his specialties being white Chester hogs. He keeps ten cows for milk for the Co-operative Cream- ery company at Fertile, in which he is a stockholder. He served as road overseer for a number of years and as a member of the school board for a long time. His first venture in land in this county was on a homestead in Onstad township, and his brother Ole took up the present farm as a homestead for himself. Later Jolin O. sold his homestead in Onstad township
and bought his brother Ole's, on which he is now liv- ing. Ole is in the real estate and insurance business in Crookston.
In 1889 Mr. Christianson was united in marriage with Miss Carrie Nesseth, a sister of the late Thomas H. Nesseth, a sketch of whose life will be found in this volume. Ten children have been born of the union, and nine of them are living. Henry O. has been operating a threshing outfit for six years. Albert M. has a homestead in Canada on which he lives. William T., Clifford I., George N. and John are living at home and helping to operate the farm. Mabel S. is the teacher of the school near the family home. She is a graduate of the high school at Fertile and of a course of training at the Moorhead Normal school. Clara and Lillie are living at home with their par- ents. All the members of the family belong to the Little Norway United Lutheran church. Mr. Chris- tianson's father donated three acres of ground for the church site and the cemetery belonging to it.
F. GUY STEARNS.
As proprietor of the Climax Roller Mills, which make 100 barerls of flour a day for merchant and eus- tom trade, supplying a large local and an extensive Eastern market, F. Guy Stearns is carrying on a very useful industry and ministering in a substantial way to the comfort and general welfare of his fellow men as well as to the industrial and commercial consequence of his home township, county and state. The mills were built in 1898 by Brasseth Bros. at a cost of nearly $20,000. They have five double stands of rollers and a feed roll, and are operated by water and steam power. In 1909 the mills were bought by Messrs. Nel- son & Gilbertson, and in 1913 Mr. Stearns purchased thiem and lias made many improvements in them, hav- ing installed modern machinery throughout. He is now installing an electric light plant to supply the mills and the village of Climax with light. The plant will be one of thirty horse-power and the current of
220 volt D. C. strength. It should be stated that Mr. Stearns manufactures in his mills a cream of wheat food and also Graham flour in addition to the large quantities of wheat flour he turns out.
Mr. Stearns was born in Webster City, Hamilton county, Iowa, in 1879, and learned his trade as a miller and all the details of the flour-making industry under the instruction of his father, who was in charge of a large mill in Webster City, where the father and son had built the Stearns mill. The son spent eleven years as owner and manager of the Webster City mills. He then sold them and in 1910 went to North Dakota, where for three years he was manager of a flour mill, grain elevator and electric light plant at Wallialla, North Dakota, until he bought the mill at Climax and became a resident of Polk county, Minnesota, in 1913. He served as a justice of the peace in North Dakota and has served as a member of the village council of
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Climax and is now president of the Climax Community Development Association.
In fraternal relations Mr. Stearns is connected with the Masonic Order and its auxiliary, the Order of the Eastern Star, of which his wife is also a member, the Order of Elks and the Order of Woodmen. He was married in illinois in 1903, to Miss Geneva Mer- shon, daughter of Dr. J. 1. Mershon, a native of Mount
Carroll, Illinois. They have four children, Robert Maynard, Dorothy Florence, Franees Jeannette and Raymond Guy. At stated periods, when the father needs relief from the exaeting cares of his business and physical recreation he seeks them in fishing and hunting trips, which never fail to give him the benefit he looks for.
WILLIAM FLEMING.
With his early manhood filled with hardships, pri- vations and adventures and his later years devoted to ardnous toil in the struggle for advancement and the full development of the land on which he squatted when other human habitations around it were few and far apart, William Fleming, who is now living retired at 501 North Third street in East Grand Forks, has had an interesting eareer. He battled bravely with adversity and through all eireumstances and conditions he maintained his steadiness of purpose, and in the course of time he won a substantial triumph over all obstacles and wrung from unwilling fate a comfortable competence for life.
Mr. Fleming was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, November 24, 1835, and emigrated to Hamilton, On- tario, Canada, in 1860. He was a farmer in his native land and in Canada, and was constantly on the look- ont for better opportunities in his chosen oceupation. In 1867 he eame to Olmsted county, Minnesota, and during the next four years worked at railroad build- ing and in other lines, and in 1871 he became a resi- dent of this county. Before leaving Canada he was married to Miss Mary Ann Dodds, a native of Dum- fermline, Seotland, and when he settled in Polk county they had two children. At that time Mr. Fleming had about $500 in money and two yoke of eattle, but after being one day on the road to this county, when near Rochester, his cattle wandered off into the brush and for four days were lost to him. A heifer and ealf that went with the eattle were never recovered, but the yoke cattle were, and for some time were of great service to him.
At Rochester Mr. Fleming fell in with Robert Coul- ter and Thomas MeVeety, known as "Long Tom," who had yoke teams and were on their way to Canada. Mr. Coulter was married and had his wife and two children with him, but Mr. MeVeety was single. They traveled together and reached the Red river, which they swam and then moved down the west bank to "The Salts," about twenty miles north of where Grand Forks now stands, there being no settlement there at that time. At that place their longing for Canada ceased and they decided to locate in Minne- sota. They chose a region on Red Lake river about seven miles east of what is now East Grand Forks and all settled close together. The Hudson Bay company had a store at the Forks, and they made their head- quarters in this, until they swam their eattle across the river to get to their land. They were almost alone in the wilderness, N. C. Nash, a Mr. Hunt and a Mrs. Alley being the only persons within miles of them, and they had come that spring.
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