USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 68
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Ole O. Estenson homesteaded in Section 23 half a mile south of his father's place and has since bought eighty acres in addition to his homestead and forty more farther out on the prairie. His home farm of 240 aeres borders on the Red river and is three miles northwest of Climax. He had no money when he lo- cated on his homestead, but he, Mr. Satermo and Mr. Jevning united in building log houses on their three places and plowing five acres of each. They did no out- side work except entting cord wood for the Hudson Bay company's boats on the Red river, and to the men in charge of these they also sold beef, butter and other supplies, there being no other market for them. His first erop, which was harvested in 1872, was 200 bush-
els of wheat, a large yield for the acreage seeded. He got some live stock from his father but he lived as a bachelor for three years, his mother doing the house- work for him as well as for her own household.
In 1875 Mr. Estenson was married to Miss Pauline Hanson, a daughter of Evan Hanson, who came to this county from Freeborn in 1874, and whom Mr. Estenson had known in Freeborn county. Five chil- dren have been born of the union : Emma, who is the wife of Martin Strommen and lives near her parents ; Helmer, who is a resident of Climax and has a sketch in this work; Peter, who is cultivating the home farm, and who married Miss Josie Ellingson and has two children, Celia and Ordin; Ida, who married Severt Rostvet and resides at Newburg, North Dakota, and John, who is living with his parents and is a bach- elor. He assists in the work on the farm.
Mr. Estenson has about 180 acres of his land under cultivation. He keeps a good deal of live stock, in- eluding eattle for beef and cows for milk and butter, and raises large crops of wheat and oats. During the last four years he has also devoted about thirty aeres to potatoes with excellent results. He built his pres- ent dwelling in 1907 and the other improvements were made at different times. When the time came for the organization of Vineland township he was one of the most active men in the work, and he has served one term as county commissioner. His associates on the board were Messrs. Frederick, Jarvis, Higdem and Salverson, and during his term the old court house, which stood on the site of the present one, was built. The county was then several times as large as it is now, but he has not held any other position in its government. Ile was one of the founders of the Vine- land Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1885 and has been the treasurer ever since. He was also one of the founders of the Climax Co-operative creamery in 1903 and has been the manager ever since.
In his political affiliation Mr. Estenson has been a Prohibitionist from the organization of the party. He is a total abstainer himself and firmly opposed to the manufacture and sale of intoxicants as beverages. He does not use tobacco and never hunts, although the
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locality was full of game when he settled in it. A gun was accidentally discharged in his hands and the charge came near hitting one of his sisters when he was a young man, and he has never touched one since. He was one of the founders of the Free Lutheran
church at Neby, three miles north of his place, and has been connected with it ever since in a leading way, serving as one of its trustees and as a participant in all its useful work of every kind.
JAMES JEROME JIILL.
There are names which in themselves are a history and an inspiration-themes which are their own elo- quent interpreters beyond the power of speech or writing-and who is there that can add a word or a thought to the story involved when before the people of the northwest, or any part of it, one mentions the name and ealls to notiee the achievements of James J. Hill ?
The record of this master producer and empire builder is written in his work, and that is ever present under observation in the appreciative regard and service of millions of our people.
It is beyond the purpose of the present writing, however, to present a narrative of Mr. Hill's life, and happily such an aet is no longer anywhere necessary. The salient features of Mr. Hill's career are so well known, the world over, that they need no repetition in any part of it. But his fruitful connection with the early history and development of Polk and the adjacent counties, especially in drainage, railroad building and agricultural progress, and the valuable results which have flowed from his activities here, have been so potential for good to this region that they are deserving of special mention in a work devoted exelusively to Polk county chronicles. In- deed, so prodnetive of large consequences have those activities been that no compendium of Polk county history would be complete without some aeconnt of them.
Mr. Ilill passed a number of the years of his early manhood at Fisher's Landing, as the village of Fisher in this county was then ealled. Early in the seventies the thought of a possible railroad through the north- west began to occupy his mind. The thought eame
from his experience in Northwestern transportation problems, his faith in the productive powers and natural resources of this part of the country, and of the state of railroad conditions at the time. The feverish activity in obtaining land and cash in eon- eessions to railroad enterprises during the sixties had brought on a collapse, and a great many of such enterprises were wrecked in the panie of 1873. But Mr. Hill retained his faith in his projeet and began to prepare for carrying it into tangible realization.
The fragments of the old St. Paul & Pacifie system were available for the development of the northwest if converted into real assets, and the holders of their seenrities were eager to sell them for what they could get. Their valne lay to a considerable extent in what was left of a land grant, and they were in the hands of a receiver. "Yet so great seemed the task and so nneertain the reward, in the general opinion," accord- ing to Mr. Ilill's own statement, "that any plan of acquiring and reorganizing the property was re- garded as visionary in those days by most holders of capital and most men of affairs."
Mr. Hill did not share this view. In company with the late Lord Stratheona, George Stephen, afterward Lord Mount Stephen, and Norman W. Kittson, he bought the defaulted bonds and at onee began opera- tions. The gaps in the lines that first required filling were those between Melrose and Barnesville and Crookston and St. Vincent. Filling the former was necessary to save the land grant, whose time limit, already extended, was about to expire ; and filling the latter was required for connection with a railroad projected by the Canadian government from Winni- peg south. These gaps were soon filled, and the sub-
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
sequent progress of the Great Northern system has been steady and uninterrupted.
The land grant enabled the promoters to push the road and open the country to settlement. They sold the railroad lands to actual settlers at $6 an aere on a partial payment plan and with a rebate of $3 on every aere broken up and seeded at the time when the last payment was made. Sales were rapid and new settlers began to come into the region in very promising numbers. Then a new difficulty of magni- tude arose, and this, too, severely taxed the resources of the master mind that was so vigorously stimulating the colonization of the northwest.
The difficulty was this: A considerable part of Polk county is low, and in the early days water covered it to such an extent during several months of the year that the land could not be cultivated regularly, and even after seed was put in and gave promise of a good yield a wet spell would often ruin the erop. A comprehensive plan of systematie drain- age was requisite to overcome this difficulty, and Mr. Ilill inaugurated and directed this with the sweep of vision and practical ability which have character- ized everything he has done. He sent out an engineer to make a survey and determine the elevation at each seetion corner. He then had an elaborate drainage map made to show how the drainage work should be done. A few years later the legislature enacted the present drainage law and appropriated $100,000 for a drainage system for Polk county. Mr. Hill agreed to add $25,000 to the fund on condition that the railroad company be allowed to name a competent civil engineer as one member of the drain- age commission. This was the beginning of the admirable system of drainage work that has so materially helped to bring about the advanced agri-
cultural development of the present day in Polk county.
But this step, serviceable as it soon proved to be, was not in itself sufficient to fully accomplish the purpose desired. Mr. Hill was a laborious and eriti- cal student of the seienee of agrienlture and he realized that there was great need among the people of the northwest of more general and exact practical knowledge of that seience based on experimental study of it. Ile therefore induced the railroad com- pany to donate 400 aeres of land for an agricultural school and experiment station at Crookston. The land lay idle for years, and he then informed the state authorities that unless they decided to carry out the purpose of the donation without further delay the land would revert to the company. Hon. A. D. Stevens, then a member of the state senate, per- suaded the legislature to appropriate $50,000 for the erection of the first buildings, and since then the school has advanced in progress and usefulness at a very gratifying rate.
Mr. Hill did not, however, stop with this effort to elevate the farming industry in Polk county and other parts of the northwest. During all his subse- quent years he has been very active in this behalf, and in frequent publie addresses on notable occasions and pamphlets widely circulated has continued to lead the farmers of Minnesota to higher aims and greater profits in their work, and to teach them how to reach the goals he has pointed out. His interest in everything that pertains to the welfare of this region is now, when he is well advanced in age and laying aside many of the burdens of a long term of great activity, as great as it has ever been, although the need of his personal stimulus in the matter has largely passed away.
GUSTAV CHRISTIANSON.
This enterprising farmer and publie-spirited citizen of Minnesota, who lived for a number of years in Scandia township, Polk eounty, and improved a large
farm there but is now a resident of Normal. county, dwelling on a farm two miles south of Rindal, was born in Norway in 1864 and eame to this country
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
with his parents in his boyhood. The family located in Goodhue county, Minnesota, for a few years and in 1881 moved to Norman county, where the father took up a homestead and passed the remainder of his days.
When Gustav was eighteen he obtained employ- ment on the Harriot farm near Beltrami and worked on it two years. In 1885 he filed a homestead claim on part of the land now owned by his sons Alfred and Benjamin, and that fall he put up his first dwelling on the farm, the one that is now used as a chicken house. On November 15, 1885, he was married on the Harriot farm to Miss Anguina Anderson, then twenty-one years old, who came to the United States at the age of two with her mother, Guria Anderson, who was her brother Olous' housekeeper.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Christianson made their home on a farm they rented for a year and then moved to their homestead. They had a couple of cows and a few chickens, but only one chair and one stove, and what little more they had of household goods Gustav made himself. He continued to work for other farmers off and on for three years, during which time he purchased a colt and a young yoke of oxen, which he used to cultivate and improve his own plaee, and this he continued to do for twenty-two years, until he sold his Polk county land to his two oldest sons and moved to his present home in Norman county.
Before he left this county, however, the father added another 160 acres to his Scandia township farm, making it a half-section, and this also he owned and cultivated for a mimber of years. In addition he
bought another traet of eighty acres and gave each of his sons Alfred and Benjamin half of it. He was chairman of the township board some years, and filled the office of township clerk when he left the county. He helped to start the Lutheran church near the homestead, raised a good deal of shorthorn stock for the purpose of supplying cream to the co-operative creamery, produced large quantities of grain on his farm, and erceted all the buildings now standing on the land.
In 1909 Alfred and Benjamin Christianson bought the farm from their father, which he priced to them at $30 an acre. They are in partnership in all their industries, raise grain and live stock, keep forty head of cattle, milk fifteen cows and raise annually a large number of hogs. They have added eighty acres to the farm in recent years, making it 480 in all, and put in enough small grain to raise some 5,000 bushels a year and have forty to fifty aeres in corn besides. The roads in and around the farm are all ditehed, the out- let being the big swamp to the west of them.
Alfred Christianson was born on the farm adjoining his present home October 24, 1886, and was married November 15, 1913, to Miss Alice Mary Carlson, of Norman county. They have one child, their son George. Alfred is chairman of the township board now (1916) and in his fourth year of service as such. Hle succeeded his father as township elerk. Benjamin Christianson was born in Shelly township, Norman county, Minnesota, September 12, 1888. He was mar- ried July 6, 1912, to Miss Nellie Boen, of near Rindal, Norman county. They have two children, Alma Katharine and Orville Gilman.
JOHN STROMSTAD.
Overtaking good fortune after it had fled from him fine farm and pleasant country home is twenty miles for a number of years, John Stromstad, one of the south of Crookston and seven miles southwest of Bel- trami. Ile was born in Norway October 5, 1850, and came to the United States alone in 1871 and located in Houston county, Minnesota. He had a little money left when he reached his new home, but did not invest leading farmers and live stock men of Scandia town- ship, he and his son Theodore owning and cultivating all of Section 34, has kept a firm grip on his oppor- tunities and made the most of them ever since. His
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it immediately. For two years he worked at farm labor in Houston county, and then, in 1873, was mar- ried there to Miss Martha Christianson, a native of that county, where her parents settled in 1853, when they came over from Norway among the first emi- grants from that country to locate in Minnesota.
After his marriage Mr. Stromstad bought a farm in Houston county, but chinch bugs and other pests de- stroyed his erops, hard luck attended him in many forms, and in 1884 he was worse off than having noth- ing. He owned a team but it was not paid for. That year he determined to seek a new basis of operations and came to this county and took up as a homestead the northeast quarter of Section 34 in Scandia town- ship. He built a small frame house on his land, haul- ing the lumber for it from the Red river, and covered the building with tar paper inside and out. Until he was able to get some of his own farm into condition for cultivation he worked with his team on other farmns, especially during harvest times.
Mr. Stromstad and his son Theodore now together own all of Section 34 and carry on flourishing indus- tries in raising grain and beef and dairy cattle. They have stock in the co-operative creamery at Beltrami and keep sixteen to twenty milch cows from which they furnish cream to that institution. They breed their dairy cattle from a thoroughbred shorthorn sire and keep them in good condition by giving them care-
ful attention. Their grain product is also large, the crop of wheat, oats and barley in 1915 totaling over 10,000 bushels. For one quarter-section of his land Mr. Stromstad paid the sum of $4,400, but it is worth a great deal more than that now.
Mr. and Mrs. Stromstad have two children. Their daughter Milla is now the wife of Andrew N. Mjelde and lives two miles distant from her father's farm. Theodore, who is the other child of the household, lives with his parents. He married Miss Helene Evje, of Norman county, Minnesota, and they have one child, their son Melvin. Theodore is at present town- ship supervisor and has been on the board some years. He has also operated a threshing outfit for ten or twelve years. His father was one of the founders of Helleland United Lutheran church near his home, which was organized soon after his arrival in the township, and all the members of the family belong to it and are active workers for its advancement. Part of the dwelling house now on the farm was hauled from Beltrami, seven miles away. It was built in por- tions at different times. The first barn put up by Mr. Stromstad was constructed of sod and covered with marsh hay. He and his son have a genius for im- provement and have lately taken contracts to do ditching along the public roads to the great advan- tage of the township and its residents.
ALF THORSON.
This now prosperous farmer, who lives on Section 26, Roome township, one mile northwest of Eldred, and owns a well improved farm of 200 acres, one corner of which the railroad crosses, came to Polk county in 1879 almost penniless, with his firm heart and strong limbs as his only sources of encouragement and means of advancement. He was born in Norway June 24, 1845, and came to the United States in 1867, locating in Winneshiek county, Iowa, where his brother Thomas, who had served in the Union army during the Civil war, was living. Alf bought 160
acres of land in Iowa, for which he paid $1,100 he had saved out of his earnings, and lived on this land five years without making any progress whatever. Prices were low and times were hard, and there seemed to be no prospect of improvement where he was. So he concluded it was best for him to abandon what he had and seek a better opportunity in a different locality.
When Mr. Thorson located on his homestead in 1879 only two other men, Ole P. Krogen and Martin Likeness, were living in the neighborhood. Mr. Krogen had two yoke of oxen but none of the three
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had a sleigh or drag of any kind. In faet, Mr. Thor- son had spent his last two cents for postage on a letter informing his people in Iowa that he had obtained land. The winter was a very severe one, and it was necessary for the three men to get food and fuel. They constructed a log sled and opened a road through the snow six miles to the Red river to get wood and another nine miles to Fisher to get food. And, as the snow drifted frequently, they had to work hard to keep these tracks open or risk having to make them all over again.
Mr. Thorson passed his first winter with his two neighbors in a log house they had built, and the next summer they all joined in building one for him, hauling the logs for it from the Red river through sloughs and across ereeks which sometimes covered the wagon and its load. But the logs made a warm house, and he lived in it until 1905, part of the first seven years as a bachelor doing his own housework and part with his sister as his housekeeper. There was so much water on his land that only the high ridges could be plowed, but he got work on other farms, especially in harvest times, and so was able to live and make some little progress.
In 1905 Mr. Thorson built the dwelling he now lives in. That year he harvested 1,800 bushels of
wheat on 65 acres. Ile sold his crop at Fisher at forty-two cents a bushel, which was very little, but it enabled him to pay for his new house. In 1915 he raised 3,000 bushels of grain, averaging over twenty bushels of wheat to the aere. He had ditelied his farm thoroughly by this time, and high water has not troubled him for a number of years. Hle had also made a purchase of forty additional aeres.
Mr. Thorson helped to organize the township, which was named in honor of one of its pioneers, and he has worked on every road in it. He has always been a firm and loyal member of the Republican party and above all other considerations a thoroughly true and consistent American from the time of his arrival in this country. He is also well pleased with Minnesota and devoted to its welfare. He was married some years after he settled in Polk county to Miss Ida E. Gudvangen. They have had two sons and five daugh- ters. One of the sons died in childhood. The children living are: Alven, aged sixteen, but not the oldest ; Dena, a dressmaker; Sena Marie, a graduate of Akers Business college, and Tillie, Mrs. Elmer Foss, Mabel and Edith. They all make their living in useful oeeu- pations. Mrs. Thorson and the daughters are mem- bers of the Synod Lutheran church at Eldred.
OLE JEVNING.
Owning 480 acres of fertile land in Polk county, in journey in a sailing ship which kept him nine weeks several different tracts, most of them containing im- and three days on the ocean, landed him at Quebec, Canada, and was one for which he waited three weeks at Bodo, in his native land. From Quebee he traveled by rail to Sarnia, Can., from there by boat to Milwau- kee, and from there by rail to La Crosse, then up the Mississippi to Winona, and from there by rail to Rochester, which was then the end of the railroad line. He had started for Freeborn county, Minnesota, and he reached his destination the last day of August. provements of value and large parts of them under cultivation, Ole Jevning, one of the enterprising and progressive farmers of Vineland township, has used his time to advantage since he became a resident of the United States, for all his possessions are the fruits of his own industry, frugality and good manage- ment. His home farm is in section 14, Vineland township, four miles northwest of the village of Climax, and the rest of his land lies near this.
Mr. Jevning was born in Norway April 12, 1845, and came to the United States in 1866, making the
After living two years in Freeborn county Mr. Jevning moved to Ottertail county, where he started to improve a farm. But in 1871 he was indueed to.
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accompany Ole Estenson and his family and Peter Satermo to the Red River country. When they reached the Red river valley, after many privations and adventures, they had to build a bridge of elm logs in order to get across Wild Rice river. This occupied them three days, and while they were doing it Gulik Spokely and others joined them, and they all traveled on together to where the village of Neilsville now stands. Mr. Jevning, Ole Estenson and Peter Satermo journeyed farther, reaching the land on which Mr. Jevning now lives June 10, 1871, and on which he immediately squatted. The next year it was surveyed, and he then entered it under a preemption claim for which he paid $200. It contains about sixty-five acres of timber, and the rest of the quarter- seetion is prairie.
The new settlers in this wilderness were alone. There was no resident to the north of them on the east side of the Red river, and their nearest neighbor was a long distance off. Mr. Jevning's first house was a log cabin 16 by 16 feet in size and covered with straw and sod. His present dwelling house was built in 1876, and the other improvements on his land were made at different times as they were needed and he was able to make them.
In 1872 Mr. Jevning was married to Miss Ingeborg 0. Estenson, a daughter of Ole Estenson, one of his companions from Ottertail county, and twenty years old at the time of her marriage. They managed to live on the farm, as his neighbors broke up five aeres for him and the same quantity for each of themselves, and he had an ox team to cultivate his with. Later, at different times he bought railroad land at $5 to $10 an acre farther out on the prairie until he owned all of the 480 acres he now has, and he put all his pur- chases under cultivation as rapidly as he could.
Raising grain was for a long time Mr. Jevning's principal industry, but for a couple of years he has been putting about twenty-five acres in potatoes with good results. He has served some years as township supervisor and in other local offices. He and his wife became the parents of nine children, one of whom, Ingvard, died in childhood. Of those who are living Ingeborg is the wife of Andrew Stortroen of Fisher. Johan and family have a farm near Pitt, Minnesota. Olc and family live at Fisher. Ida is the wife of Christian Munson of Minneapolis. Inga is the wife of Peter Evenson of Vineland township. Anna is living at home; Olivia is the wife of Ceeil Neal, who is ope- rating the home farm.
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