USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 73
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member of the school board. In 1885 he was elected mayor of Crookston, and at the end of his term he was re-elected. But in the meantime, in 1886, he was also chosen clerk of the district court. Ile has long taken an earnest interest and an active part in the affairs of the Masonic Order, which he joined in 1880, and in which he was made a Knight Templar in Palestine Commandery No. 14. at Fergus Falls, Minnesota, in 1886.
MRS. MARY BUCKLEY NELSON.
The career of this good woman in Polk county, which has covered a period of nearly forty years. has been one of great usefulness and her life has been one of continuous devotion to the comfort and gen- eral welfare of others. She was born in Ireland August 16, 1849, the daughter of Matthew and Anna (Murphy) Buckley, who came to the United States in the year of her birth and located in Adams county, Wisconsin, where they lived until she was six years old. At that time her father entered the United States army and was commissioned captain of Com- pany D, Fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, dur- ing the Civil war. He died in the fall of 1865.
The daughter was married in Wisconsin May 14, 1878, to Christopher Nelson, a native of Norway. Soon after their marriage the young couple took up their residence in Polk county, making their first home in it in Crookston, where Mrs. Nelson, for five
months taught the first school ever kept in the place. The next year she and her husband moved to Famy township and took up a half-section of land on which they lived and which they improved and cultivated for sixteen years. At the end of that period they lived for a year on a farm in Euclid township, and then moved to the village of Euclid, where they fol- lowed keeping a hotel, and where Mr. Nelson died March 17, 1912, at the age of seventy-four years.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson were the parents of five children : Anna, who is the wife of Mr. Joseph Ilene- meth : William, who died when ten years old; Flor- ence, who is the wife of J. Dunnoody ; and Amber E. and Walter, who are still living with their mother. She owns 200 acres of land in Polk county and takes an earnest interest in everything that affects the welfare of the county.
NELS M. MALMBERG.
Owning 280 aeres of superior land in Fisher town- ship and eighty in Roome township, this county, and having the greater part of it under cultivation with good results, Nels MI. Malmberg is one of the sub- stantial citizens of Polk county and one of its pro- gressive and successful farmers. Ilis home farm is in Section 26, Fisher township, four miles southeast of Fisher and eight miles west of Crookston. He was born in Sweden April 7, 1838, and came to the
United States in 1869. In the fall of that year he joined his brother Andrew in St. Paul, the latter hav- ing come over about two years and a half before. Nels had always worked on a farm in his native land, and his whole capital when he arrived in this country was $30 to $40.
During his first winter in the United States Mr. Malmberg worked in the pincries. He was next em- ployed in laying traek for the St. Paul & Duluth
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railroad, and in his second winter he went south to Memphis and engaged in chopping wood. The next summer he was back at railroad work on the North- ern Pacific near Brainerd and the next winter on the grade in Dakota. In the fall of 1872 he and his brother came to Polk county and selected land, and in the spring of 1873 he took possession of his, taking it first as a pre-emption elaim but later turning half of it into a homestead.
Mr. Malmberg's land is on Burnham's creek, which was named for Mr. Burnham, who settled in this county the year before Mr. Malmberg, and with him came also Charles Matson, August Peterson, Martin Swentson and a Mr. Christianson, all of whom settled along the Red Lake river toward Crookston. Mr. Malmberg had eighty acres of timber in his tract and the rest was prairie. He has since bought eighty aeres of school land and 100 aeres more of prairie and timber land in Section 25, Fisher township, be- sides sixty-six acres in another tract and eighty acres of hay land in Roome township, or 360 acres in all, and the whole body is productive in one way or another.
In the early days this enterprising farmer sold wood and did anything else he could to turn his opportunities to advantage. He had two yoke of oxen with which he broke prairie land for other farmers, and he had to do whatever he could, be- canse he had only about $300 when he came to the
county, and this was very little with which to found a home and improve a farm in the wilderness and rear a family there. In his farming operations for years he depended on raising wheat and other small grain as his mainstay, but of late he has been keep- ing live stock and milks ten cows for cream, which he sells in Crookston. Ile has also been raising fine crops of eorn for some years, steadily increasing his acreage in this cereal.
Mr. Malmberg has devoted his attention largely to his farm and has taken no active part in publie affairs and has held no political office at any time, although he has always been warmly and practically interested in the welfare and progress of his town- ship. For several years he was his own housekeeper, but in 1891 he was married to Mrs. Matilda Johnson Rodahl, a widow, born in Norway. They have two sons, Nels Henning and Alfred. Carl Rodahl, a son of Mrs. Malmberg by her former marriage, is also a member of the family, and they are all living on the farm.
The first bridges over the creeks in the neighbor- hood were built by Mr. Malmberg and the other settlers, those over Burnham and Anderson ereeks being built earlier. He and two or three others also sold and loaded the first carload of wheat that was shipped out of Crookston by rail, having sold their crops to Mr. Bailey in that eity.
HENRY L. GAYLORD.
Henry L. Gaylord, of Fertile, a prominent pioneer of Polk county is widely known through the many interests of his busy career as lawyer, real estate dealer and farmer. He is a native of Minnesota, born at Roekville, Stearns county, November 15, 1857, the son of L. P. and Lida Gaylord, who came from Con- nectient to St. Anthony Falls in 1855 and shortly afterward removed to Rockville, where L. P. Gay- lord operated the mill and postoffice and owned some six hundred aeres of land. The Sionx outbreak of
1862 eaused him to seek safety for his family at St. Cloud and he later sold the land in Stearns county and for a number of years was employed as a lum- ber scaler by Bridgeman, making his home in Min- neapolis for eight years. In 1877 he came to Red Lake Falls, then in Polk county and took a homestead four miles west of the town, in Louisville township, where he was actively associated with the organiza- tion of community affairs and served in various local offiees. Later he lived for a number of years in Cali-
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fornia, returning to Polk county to spend the last years of his life with his son, in Fertile, where his death occurred in 1901, in his eighty-second year. Two sons, William O. Gaylord and Henry L. Gaylord, are both residents of Minnesota, the former being a farmer in Beltrami county, having formerly been an employee in the courthouse at Minneapolis.
H. L. Gaylord came to Crookston as a young man of twenty years and as his first business venture, se- cured a contract with the Great Northern railroad for cutting cord wood, supplying them with some five hundred cords for engine use. The proceds from his work enabled him to purchase a yoke of oxen and establish his farming activities and in 1882 he located on a homestead in Liberty township, where he was one of the first settlers, Pat Connery and Christian Sankey being the only previous residents, the latter having been the first to file on a claim in that town- ship. Mr. Gaylord built a log house for his family and spent six prosperous years on the place, during which he erected good buildings and put one hundred and sixty acres under cultivation and stocked his farm with a large herd of cattle. But ambition di- rected his attention to other fields. The goal which his childhood's wishes had fixed for his manhood's career was the practice of law and native determina- tion and industry brought him victory over the re- stricted advantages and seemingly discouraging circumstances which attended his desire. During the years spent on the farm he secured law books from John Bottineau of Minneapolis and through his own efforts fitted himself for admittance to the bar and for practice in all the courts. During the earlier years of his life this latent ambition and ability had led his instigation of the organization of a number of debating societies in private homes and school houses and such a club was started by him in Fertile. Mr. Gaylord is notably associated with the history of Fertile, as the man who had charge of the sale of the lots when the townsite was put on the market in 1888. The town was laid out by J. B. Hohnes, of Minneapolis, who then sold the site to James M.
Payne, a townsite owner of Carlton, Minnesota, and Mr. Gaylord was made the local agent. In the first week fifty lots were sold. The first building was erected by John LaDue, who removed his store from the old town of Fertile which he had started some years previous, about a mile south, and Fritz Barholz also moved his hotel to the present site of the Fertile House. Other pioneer merchants were A. L. Middle- ton, Orpheim & Nelson and Mr. Gilmore. The law and real estate office of Mr. Gaylord was the fourth building to be erected on Main street. Mr. Gaylord began the practice of law before the justice of peace, while still living on his farm and served as a justice of peace for fourteen years. From the experiences of the early days he recounts many amusing instances of legal procedure, among which was the granting of a decree of divorce by a justice of peace in Nor- man county, and recalls a case which he settled out of court by refusing a search warrant to a man who claimed that a sum of money had been taken from him in a saloon and instead searched the man, dis- covered the missing funds in the plaintiff's shoes. His principal opponent in these days was Mr. J. Walsuff. Other members of the profession, who have since moved away, were Edward Titus, now an attor- ney at Minneapolis, and Thomas Keith. For twelve years, Mr. Gaylord was associated in his professional interests with Judge Watts, during which time Mr. Watts gave his attention to the business in Crookston and Mr. Gaylord remained in Fertile. They were easily recognized as among the most able in this sec- tion and stood at the head of the profession in their activities in the courts, having as many as eighty- five cases on the calendar for one term. They engaged in numerous criminal cases and always suc- cessfully established their retainers' eause. The association was dissolved upon the election of Mr. Watts as judge and Mr. Gaylord has since continued the practice of law in the office which he opened in Fertile in 1893. A number of the important cases in which he has been interested have involved disputed titles to land and his practice has included cases in
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the Supreme court, in one of which the sustaining of his contention that it was illegal for a justice of peace to change venue to a justice of peace in an adjoining township not adjoining the village, resulted in a state law. Aside from the many accomplishments of his legal career, Mr. Gaylord has engaged extensively in the real estate business, retained an active interest in his farm and for the last five years, has engaged in the mercantile business, operating a general store in Fer- tile. As a real estate dealer, he has handled one of the largest businesses in the county making a sales record of one weck's sales of fifty quarter sections of land. In Fertile he has built some thirteen buildings among which is one of the first brick structures. He has given partieular attention to the raising of potatoes in his agricultural enterprise and has taken three hundred bushels from the aere, raising a erop of ten
thousand bushels. In all phases of public affairs his carcer has been marked by loyal service and able snp- port of the best interests of the community and as a member of the school board he was influential in sc- euring the present splendid organization of the public school system. He is a member of the Republican party and has ever been an active worker in political circles. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Gaylord has been twice married, his first union was with Laura M. Briggs of Minneapolis, in 1875, and two sons were born to this marriage; Harry O., who lives in Grand Forks, and George, who is a barber at Park River, North Dakota. In 1907 Mr. Gaylord was married to Kasper Aggerness, of Fertile and they have six children, Christina, Henrietta, Lida, Belle, Henry and Harriet Beecher.
T. THYGESON.
Having come to this country as a young man from his native land of Denmark, where he was born May 27, 1843, and having worked his way to a comfort- able estate by his own efforts, and at the same time given careful and helpful attention to the public af- fairs of his community and township, T. Thygeson, one of the progressive and successful farmers of Polk county, has made a record ereditable alike to himself, his native eonntry and the land of his adoption. He has for years been seriously handicapped by a phys- ical affliction, having lost his right leg in a threshing accident, but this has neither arrested his progress nor slackened his energy.
Mr. Thygeson arrived in the United States in 1865 and at once came West and located in St. Paul, where he worked at day labor until 1870, when he moved to Ottertail county, this state, and turned his attention to farming. He became the owner of a farm in that county and lived on it until 1877. He then came to Polk county, bringing with him as his only facilities for starting a new home in the wilderness two yoke of oxen and a few eows. He took up a homestead in
Section 4, Andover township, five miles west of Crookston, on the prairie and one mile from any timber. Alexander Burnham and Peter Anderson were then the only other settlers in the neighborhood, and they were on the creck, advantageously located, and had a start in developing and improving their land and obtaining the ordinary comforts of life.
In a little while Mr. Thygeson put up a log shanty on his tract, afterward creeting a larger and more substantial log house. His present dwelling was built in 1906, and is a comfortable and attractive home for him and his family. IIe also has a large barn built four years ago, or in 1911. To his original tract he has added another quarter scetion, so that he now owns and cultivates 320 acres in one body. His principal crops are wheat, barley, rye and oats, and in 1915 his products of these amounted to about 6,000 bushels. He keeps regularly six cows and makes butter of a superior grade for private enstomers. He also raises good horses and earries on a general farm- ing industry embracing every ordinary feature of the business.
Being one of the very early settlers in Andover
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township, Mr. Thygeson took an active part in all its activities at the beginning of its history. He helped to organize the township and has served it well and wisely as a member of its board of supervisors. The interest in its welfare awakened in him on his arrival here has continued to the present time, and he is still zealously devoted to its good and that of its residents. In political allegiance he is a Woodrow Wilson Demo- crat, and in religious feeling he is liberal, favoring no one church sect above another. He is a man of sturdy habits and never neglects his business, but he occasionally takes a hunting trip, which he enjoys intensely, and which constitutes almost his only recre- ation.
Mr. Thygeson was married while living in St. Paul to Miss Thrine Cresterson, who is, like himself, a
native of Denmark. They have had ten children. One died in infancy, and a son named William passed away at the age of twenty-five. IIe had been farther West and died in Montana on his way home. The eight who are living are: Christian, who is a me- chanie in an auto shop in Crookston; Thomas, who is boss carpenter in a railroad repair shop ; George, who is single and living at home; Alfred, who is liv- ing on a homestead of his own near Middle River; Henry, who married Miss Eva Capistran and whose three children died in infancy; Lena, who is the wife of Gust Lavine, of Polk Station, this county; Anna, who is the wife of Otto Schroeder, and lives with him in Seattle, and Laura, who is Mrs. Robert Nicholson, whose home is in Winnipeg, Canada.
OLE J. VOLLAND.
Having come to this country at the age of twenty- one without capital of any kind but a determined will and a good trade, and having suffered a serions setback through ill health, yet, in spite of all adverse circumstances, having made his way by industry and perseverance to independence and worldly comfort, Ole J. Volland, a prosperous farmer of Andover town- ship in this county, is entitled to high commendation for his successful career, which is creditable to him- self, his native land and the land of his adoption.
Mr. Volland was born in the historic city of Tron- dhjem, Norway, October 20, 1861, and came to the United States in 1882, joining at Crookston his brother Lewis, who had come over two years before. Lewis left Crookston eight years ago, changing his residence to North Yakima, in the state of Washing- ton. Ole J. had only $22 when he reached Crooks- ton, and went to work at once at his trade as a tailor. He was soon afterward taken ill, however, and forced to seek outdoor employment. He then went to work at farm labor for Peter Berg in Roome township at $25 a month. As soon as his health improved he became a full hand and received better wages. In
the fall of 1883 he went to work for Andrew Ander- son of Andover township, whose only daughter he afterward married, as told in a sketch of her brothers Andrew and Arnold W. in this work.
In the fall of 1889 Mr. Volland went to the state of Washington and during the next three years re- mained in that state. He worked at day labor on a steam shovel until August, 1890, when he changed his base of operations to South Tacoma and was employed in helping to build the shops for the North- ern Pacific railroad at that point. In 1891 he eame back to Crookston to collect some money he had loaned out here, and with the intention of returning to Washington. But, instead of going back to the coast he took employment of Ole Knudson for the summer, and in the winter he ent cord wood in the timber.
In the fall of 1892 he bought his farm of 160 aeres, which is the southwest quarter of Section 14 in An- dover township. He had saved $1,800 of his earnings, and agreed to pay $3,000 for the farm. It had been the homestead of Gust Olson and the only dwelling on it was a little old log cabin, but Mr. Volland lived
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in this four years and then built his present residence. The barn on the place was erected some eight or nine years ago. He has also sunk an artesian well 225 feet deep at a cost of $500, and this supplies his house and barn with excellent water.
Mr. Volland devotes his energies principally to rais- ing grain. In 1895 he raised 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. 1896 was a year of partial erop failure, but 1897 was a good year. His yield for the present year of 1915 amounted to about 6,500 bushels of grain in all, 3,681 bushels of which were oats, 1,271 barley, and the rest corn and millet, part of the erop being
produced on land which he has rented. He keeps regularly a number of head of Holstein eattle, milking nine eows and selling eream to the creamery and con- fectionery stores. He is a Republican in polities and has served three years as township supervisor. ITis religious affiliation is with the Lutheran church. In 1893 he was married to Miss Julia Anderson, the daughter of Andrew and Sarah (Bordahl) Anderson, of Andover township. They have four children, all living at home, Andy, Stella, Laura and Edna. Mrs. Volland is a member of the local Ladies' elub.
J. FRAZER MONTGOMERY.
J. Frazer Montgomery, of Angus, a successful lum- ber and hardware dealer of Polk county, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1859, and came to Minnesota and to Angus in 1884, when he took charge of the general mercantile store owned by G. C. Winchester. This business had been started by the company of Flint and Winehester in 1882 as a branch of the W. A. Warren store in Marshall eounty and had been under the management of J. E. Flint previous to Mr. Montgomery's employment. The lat- ter entered upon his commercial eareer in Angus with a capital of $7.50 and native business talent and ambi- tion sufficient to guarantee the success and prosperity which have attended his efforts. Under his able man- agement the operations of the store inereased rapidly and won a large patronage from the surrounding ter- ritory, which is one of the richest grain sections in the county and whose citizens are thrifty members of the Scandinavian, Bohemian and German peoples aside
from the native residents. In 1897 he extended the company's interests to the lumber business and this department, with the hardware business, now eonsti- tutes the principal interests of the store. Since 1898, which marked the zenith of the lumber trade, the other branch has grown steadily and in 1915, enjoyed its largest trade. In 1908, Mr. Montgomery beeame sole owner of the business, which requires a fifteen thou- sand dollar stoek and stands a material evidence of a successful business eareer. The postoffice of Angus was established in this store in 1884 and Mr. Mont- gomery served as assistant postmaster until 1895 when he was appointed postmaster. Aside from his com- mercial activities, he has also invested considerably in farm lands. He is a member of the Democratie party and has served as a county commissioner. Mr. Mont- gomery was married in 1898 to Helen M. MeAvoy of Crookston.
JOSEPH CROY.
Joseph Croy, who is one of the progressive and enterprising citizens of East Grand Forks, and has been, in his time, largely engaged in general farming and market gardening with his own labor and diree- tion as the principal factors in his industries, but has lately put most of his land in the eare of tenants, was
born in Jasper county, Iowa, January 26, 1860, the son of John and Hannah (Hale) Croy, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania, but both reared in Indiana and married in that state. They moved to Iowa soon after their marriage, and the mother died there when Joseph was but six years
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old. Hle passed the next four years with his uncle, eight lots inside the city limits of East Grand Forks, Jacob Croy, who is now eighty-two years of age.
When the father married again at the end of this four years Joseph returned to the family and re- mained with it until he reached the age of twenty- one. He then worked a year on a railroad grading and hauling, and the next year rented a farm. After he sold his crop on this farm he went to Buffalo county, South Dakota, and took up a pre-emption claim on the Missouri river, 75 miles west of Mitehell. He lived on this claim three years and then rented it three years while he visited the Black Hills and other parts of the land.
On June 14, 1893, Mr. Croy came to Crookston, and in the fall of 1894 he bought twenty acres of stump land with all the timber cut off except about sixty eords of wood, paying $575 for this purchase and going in debt $200 to make it. The land had a little log house on it and he moved into this. He had four horses and an old wagon for his farm work and just enough furniture to start housekeeping in a very primitive way. Then he had a setback through a spell of sickness, the only one he has ever had in Minnesota. But he cut and sold his wood and got a few acres of his land cleared. He planted eorn, tomatoes and other vegetables, and from that time on times have been easier and more prosperous for him. He bought additional land at different times at prices ranging from $30 to $101 an acre, and de- voted his energies mainly to raising potatoes, onions and cabbage, which he sold to families at their homes, running a peddling rig seven or eight years.
In the course of time Mr. Croy owned eighty-two and a half acres and devoted nearly the whole tract to garden products, with some grain to vary his crops and keep his land in order, and one year he eleared $3,700 on this land, which he occupied and farmed for five years and a half. Ile then bought a part of his present home place and 34 acres of the old Mur- phy farm, paying $4,500 for the latter, and taking up his residence on it. He also bought the Murphy out lots, on two of which he now lives, the lots number- ing eight, so that he now owns 68 acres and these
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