USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume II > Part 31
USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume II > Part 31
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ship, after which he settled on eighty acres of land in section I, Carlos township. The tract at that time was undeveloped and was covered with stumps, brush and some timber. There was no road to the place and it was necessary for Mr. Meister to build one so that he might get to his farm. There he built a small shack, ten by twelve feet, and in this the family lived for several years. At the time he came here he had no team with which to assist in his clearing and the planting of his crops. Yet in some way he succeeded and in time became prosperous. He purchased another tract of land, consisting of forty acres. Today about sixty acres of his farm is under cultivation, the balance being in meadow and pasture. He has built a sub- stantial house, which is nicely located and well kept. In 1911 he built a large barn and in 1913 a silo, fourteen by thirty feet. He is engaged in general farming and stock raising and has met with success. He has a fine herd of Holstein cattle and feeds all his grain, disposing of his stock when ready for the market. For six years Mr. Meister was assessor of his township and has also served as a member of the school board.
Mr. and Mrs. Meister have one child, a daughter, Amelia.
PETER PENNIE.
Peter Pennie, one of the well-known and successful farmers of Hudson township, Douglas county, was born in Kinross, Scotland, March 13. 1839, the son of Thomas and Mary ( Drummund) Pennie, both natives of Scot- land, who continued to live in the land of their birth until 1853, when they decided to locate in America. On their arrival in this country they came to Illinois and later to Minnesota, and here located in Pope county, where they died some years ago. It was there that Mr. Pennie homesteaded a tract of land in Leven township, which he developed and improved. He became well known in the community, and was recognized as one of the successful men of the township. Mr. and Mrs. Pennie were the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters. They were members of the Presbyterian church and were devout Christians, highly respected by all.
Peter Pennie received his education in the public schools of Scotland, where he lived until he was fourteen years of age, when he came to America with his parents, with whom he remained until 1862, in which year he enlisted in Company B, Twenty-Fifth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and saw much active service in the Civil War. In October, 1862,
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soon after his enlistment, he was sent with his company to the new settle- ment at Alexandria, Minnesota, where the company erected a stockade as a means of defense for the few settlers who had remained in that region after the Indian uprising. In the summer of 1863 he was sent with his command to Vicksburg and was later in many battles, and was with Sherman in the march to the sea. During his stay in Savannah, Georgia, Mr. Pennie filed a soldier's claim for homestead in Minnesota. His brother Dan located the tract of one hundred and thirty-nine acres for him, in Leven township, Pope county, just across the road from where he now lives in Douglas county. At the close of the war Mr. Pennie located on the claim and made that his home until 1900. The homestead was a wild tract, and without improve- ments. There he erected buildings, broke the land and engaged in general farming and stock raising. Since that time he has erected a fine brick- veneered house and made other substantial improvements. In 1900 he moved across the road to his present home, and there, despite his advance age, continues active in farm work. Today he owns three hundred and eighty acres of excellent land and is engaged in general farming. Mr. Pennie is a Presbyterian. He is a Republican and served as a member of the board of township supervisors while living in Pope county.
In July, 1865, Peter Pennie was united in marriage to Eliza Bevier and to that union eight children were born, Thomas, Duncan, Mary, Jean- nette, Robert, Eliza, Daniel and Hattie. The mother of these children died in 1899 and in the year following Mr. Pennie was united in marriage to Mrs. Melissa (Judkins) Judkins, who was born at Lexington, Maine, and who came to Wisconsin, with her first husband, Alanson J. Judkins, from central Pennsylvania. They made the trip with horse and wagon and were five weeks on the road. To add to the hardships of the trip, they had the care of their four-months-old baby. They had among their other household goods, a stove with an elevated oven, which she used for forty-two years. They remained in Wisconsin until 1865, when they came to Minnesota, mak- ing the journey with an ox-team. The next year they homesteaded in Pope county, and there Mr. Judkins died on September 8, 1897. Alanson J. and Melissa Judkins were the parents of four children, Mark E., Mary Annette, Benjamin G. and Wilmer. The latter is now in the Canadian army, expecting soon to go to the front in Europe. He is one of twenty-four men that were selected, out of seventeen hundred, to operate a rapid-firing gun.
In an early day, Peter Pennie hauled wheat to St. Cloud, the nearest market at that time. He assisted in the location of the corners of Hudson
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township, Douglas county. He is an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Willard. The post once had eighty mem- bers, but is now reduced to five; yet the members hold together and march to the cemetery each Memorial Day.
REINERT AANENSON.
Reinert Aanenson, a native of Norway and a retired farmer of Evans- ville township, Douglas county, was born on October 7, 1827, the son of Aanen Jestsen, who died in Norway. He is the second in order of birth of the twelve children born to his parents and was educated in the schools of his native land, and there grew to manhood. He remained a resident of his native country until he was thirty-two years of age, when, in 1855, he decided that he would come to America. After a seven-weeks voyage he landed at Quebec, and from that port proceeded directly to Wisconsin, where he located at Manitowac. He purchased one hundred and sixty acres of wild timber land in that vicinity, erected a log house and at once pro- ceeded to clear some of his land. He remained there but two years, at the end of which time he sold the place and went to Kansas, where he engaged in the real-estate business. After two years he went from there to Pikes Peak and from there on to California. He remained in California and Idaho for eight years, engaged in the gold mining business, and met with fair success. After his experience in the mining world, he returned to his native land, where he purchased a farm and remained some years. The desire to return to the United States caused him, in 1869, to leave Norway for the second time. He sold his farm and returned to the land of his adoption. He remained in Chicago for a short time and then went to Iowa. He later came to Minnesota, where for twelve hundred dollars he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, in section 3 of Evansville township, Douglas county, the tract for the most part being covered with heavy timber. There were two small log houses on the place, the only im- provements. Mr. Aanenson purchased a team of oxen, a cow and a few farming implements and started the task of clearing and developing his new farm. He soon had a tract cleared and plowed, and there he planted his first seed, which was winter rye. In time the farm was cleared and under cultivation, the greater part of the task being done by Mr. Aanenson himself. He was a careful and prudent farmer and manager and became successful,
ยท
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engaging in general farming and stock raising, and developing the farm into one of the best in the township. He improved the farm with splendid buildings, having a beautiful house and a fine barn. Though now retired from the active work on the farm, yet he continues to manage the place, his sons doing the greater part of the work.
Reinert Aanenson was united in marriage in 1869 to Amanda Tolefson, who died that same year. In 1871 he married Synneve Saterlee and to this union four children have been born, Amanda, Otto, Theodore (deceased) and Fridthjof. Amanda Aanenson married Halvor Hanson, manager of the elevator at Clair City, South Dakota: Otto Aanenson is working in a packing house at St. Paul and Fridthjof Aanenson, known as "Fritz," is farming the home place. Mr. and Mrs. Aanenson are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Aanenson is a Democrat and has served as super- visor and as a member of the school board.
FRANS OSCAR HERBERT.
Frans Oscar Herbert, one of the prominent and successful merchants of Alexandria, was born in Sweden on July 26, 1865, the son of John P. and Caroline Herbert, natives of Sweden, who there received their educa- tion in the public schools, grew to manhood and womanhood and were there married. As a young man, John P. Herbert engaged as a sailor, and in time became the owner of a freight vessel on the Baltic sea, and operated between Sweden and Germany, making England as well as the ports in the Gulf of Bothnia." He continued thus engaged until 1867, when he decided to come to America. He sold his vessel and he and his family sailed for the United States. On their arrival in this country they came direct to Minnesota, where Mr. Herbert took a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in Douglas county. The tract at that time was all wild country and without improvements. There Mr. Herbert erected a log house and at once began the task of clearing and breaking his land, with a team of oxen, with which he farmed for many years. He continued to farm there in Holmes City township for some eighteen years, during which time he did much in the way of development and made many valuable improvements, develop- ing one of the attractive farms of the township and meeting with consid- erable success as a general farmer and stockman. He later sold that place and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Evansville township,
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near the village of Evansville, and it was there that he and his wife spent the rest of their lives. They were the parents of eight children, Hilda (deceased ), Gustav, Augusta, John A., Hjalmar (deceased), Frans Oscar, Ida and Jennie. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert were prominent in the early social life of the community and were held in the highest regard and esteem by all who knew them. Mr. Herbert took an active interest in the civic life of the township and was often consulted in matters relating to the policies of the district. He was a patriotic citizen and did much to further the interests of both the township and the county in which he lived.
Frans Oscar Herbert received his education in the public schools of Holmes City township and there grew to manhood on the home farm, where as a lad and young man he assisted his father with the work on the place. His educational advantages were very limited, owing to the conditions of the rural schools during his childhood days. He was but two years of age at the time his parents came to the county, which was at that time on the frontier of civilization in this section of the state. The schools were of the most primitive kind and were far from the homes of many of those early settlers. Yet, with all the disadvantages of his early environment, he has kept abreast of the times and is today one of the well-informed men of the county. Having remained at home with his father until he was seventeen years of age, he began life for himself and for some time worked for others. He later owned a soda-water factory at Alexandria, which is now owned by M. Kramer. After disposing of that concern he engaged in other business for some years and then, June 14, 1912, he established him- self in the grocery business at Alexandria, where he is still located. By his own efforts and close application to business he has been quite success- ful in his grocery trade and carries a complete line of staple and fancy groceries, his store being one of the most modern and up-to-date places of business in this section. By his systematic and business-like methods Mr. Herbert has won the confidence of the public, and uses every possible legitimate means to please his customers.
As a young man Mr. Herbert was united in marriage to Beda M. Benson, a native of Sweden, who came to the United States in her youth with her parents, and to this union eight children have been born, Aurora, Cyril, Ruth (deceased), Carl, Oscar, Delia (deceased), Philip and Axel. Aurora Herbert married Prof. Ernest Melby, principal of the city schools of Brewster, Minnesota. The family have long been prominent in the social life of the community. While Mr. Herbert is not a member of the
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church, he is a liberal contributor to the religious work of the city and to all worthy agencies designed to advance the common welfare of the com- munity.
ANDREW M. WALSTAD.
Andrew M. Walstad, a well-known and successful farmer of Moe town- ship, Douglas county, was born on the farm in that township on January 5, 1879, the son of Mathias and Bertha Walstad.
Mathias Walstad was born in Norway and there received his educa- tion and grew to manhood. In 1856 he decided to come to America and after landing in this country, proceeded to Wisconsin, where he remained for a few years. In 1866 he came to Minnesota and located in Moe township, Douglas county, and moved to the farm where the son Andrew M. now lives, the next year. The tract at that time was all wild land, and without improvements of any kind. The first trip he made to that farm, he walked from St. Cloud. The following year he drove through with an ox-team and a covered wagon. It was there that he lived the rest of his life, his death occurring on the home farm some years ago.
Mathias and Bertha Walstad were the parents of seven children, Adolph, Gunder, Bertina, Helga, Martin, John and Andrew M. Mr. and Mrs. Walstad were active members of the Norwegian Lutheran church and took much interest in church work. They were highly respected in the commun- ity in which they lived and were held in the highest esteem. Mr. Walstad took an active interest in local civic affairs and served for a number of years as a member of the township board of supervisors.
Andrew M. Walstad received his education in the public schools of Moe township and grew to manhood on the home farm, where as a lad he assisted his father with the farm work. As a young man he soon decided that he would be a farmer and engaged in the work with his father. In 1896 he began farming the home place and has since that time been engaged in that work, he having bought the farm in 1906. He has since added to his hold- ings and is now the owner of two hundred and twenty-six acres. He is engaged in general farming and stock raising and has met with much success.
Andrew M. Walstad was united in marriage to Inga Peterson, the daughter of Martin and Anna Peterson, and to this union three children have been born, Mathias, Marvin and Alfred. Mr. and Mrs. Walstad are active in the work of the Norwegian Lutheran church, of which they are
MR. AND MRS. ANDREW M. WALSTAD.
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members. They are prominent in the social and religious life of the com- munity and are held in high regard by all. Mr. Walstad has served for a number of years as a justice of the peace of the township, and is at present a member of the school board and takes a keen interest in the success and growth of the schools of his district. Mrs. Walstad's parents, Martin and Anna Peterson, were born in Norway and were married there. They came to Minnesota about 1883 and settled in Moe township, Douglas county, later moving to Grant county, where Mrs. Peterson is still living, Mr. Peterson having died. To them were born eight children, Inga, Sarah, Randina, Annetta, Clara, Louise, Jennie and Selmer, all of whom are still living.
LARS ROSE.
Lars Rose, a farmer in Solem township, Douglas county, was born in Sweden, August 23, 1849. He is a son of Jens Rose and Karin( Larsdat- ter ) Rose, both natives of Sweden. The father was born on January 3, 1816, and died in 1907, at the age of ninety-one. The mother was born on December 22, 1816, and died on January 3. 1899. They lived in their native land until 1866, when they came to America, arriving in Chicago on June 23 of that year; but they went on to Dekalb county, Illinois, where the father began working out by the day. Three months later they went to McGregor, Iowa, where they remained until the spring of 1867. Not long thereafter the father went alone to Douglas county, Minnesota, and there entered a homestead of one hundred and sixty-four acres in Solem town- ship, and in the fall of 1867 he moved his family here, but his son, Lars Rose, remained at McGregor, Iowa, until 1868, when he joined his parents on the homestead in Solem township. Previously, in the last of June, 1866, he had gone from Chicago to Redwing, and worked on a farm near there until the fall, when he joined the rest of the family in Iowa. His father lived on the homestead in Solem township the rest of his life. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: John L., who died in Nelson county, North Dakota; Christie, who is the wife of Peter Edmand; Emma, who is the wife of John Hedstrom; Lars, the subject of this sketch ; Karin, who died when sixteen years old, and Nels, who lives in Solem town- ship.
Lars Rose spent his boyhood in Sweden, where he attended school. (21a)
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He came to America with his parents. He has lived on his present farm in Solem township since 1868. buying the same of his father at the time of his marriage. He has put on all the buildings, fencing and other improve- ments, including setting out a grove, and has been engaged in general farmi- ing and stock raising there for a period of forty-seven years, during which time he has seen the general development of the county. He is a stock- holder in the farmers co-operative store at Hoffman, which he helped or- ganize.
Mr. Rose was married in 1874 to Anna Johnson, who was born in Sweden, and to this union the following children have been born: Edward, Oscar, Julia, and Alfred, all deceased, and Tilda, Selma, Ida, Amanda, Sophia, Helma and Edward. The mother of these children died on April 17, 1895. Mr. Rose is a member of the Lutheran church. Politically, he is a Republican. He served as township chairman for about eleven years; also served as township assessor and as director in the school board.
CHARLES C. HETHERINGTON.
Charles C. Hetherington, one of Grant county's best-known pioneer farmers and an honored veteran of the Civil War, owner of a homestead farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Delaware township and former supervisor of that township, is a native of the Dominion of Canada, but has been a resident of Minnesota since the days of his youth. He was born in the township of Finch, in upper Canada, September 26, 1844, son of Henry and Adaline (Lake) Hetherington, the former of whom was a native of Ireland and the latter of Canada, whose last days were spent at Hastings, this state.
Henry Hetherington was born in the Emerald Isle, of Scotch parentage. In youth he was bereaved by death of his father and later crossed the water with his mother, settling in Canada, where he grew to manhood and where he married Adaline Lake, who was born in that Dominion, of Dutch parents. Before 1850 the family came to Minnesota and located for a time at Point Douglas, later settling at Hastings, where Henry Hethering- ton became an active figure in the public life of that community, serving there as sheriff of Dakota county and as justice of the peace. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted for service in the Fifth Regiment, Min- nesota Volunteer Infantry and served with that command until incapacitated
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by illness. Returning North he later re-enlisted for service in the cam- paign against the Indians. Henry Hetherington made his permanent home at Hastings and both he and his wife spent their last days there and are buried in the cemetery at that place. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and their children were reared in that faith. There were nine of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being as follow: George, who was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, died at Hastings, where he was engaged in the retail meat business; Eliza, who died in the days of her young womanhood; Emma, who married P. D. Hinemarsh and lives at Hastings; Ruby, who lives at Minneapolis, widow of Robert Duff; Anna, who died in childhood; Henry who lives in northern Minnesota; Theresa, who married Ora Walker and died at Duluth, and Gordon, a traveling sales- man, living at Minneapolis.
Charles C. Hetherington was but a child when his parents came to this state from Canada and he grew to manhood on the home farm in the immediate vicinity of Hastings, where he was living when, on February 13. 1865, at the age of twenty years, he enlisted for service in Company I, First Minnesota Heavy Artillery, in which command he served until the close of the war, the command being in charge of the forts at Chatta- nooga, Tennessee. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Hether- ington returned home and followed the butcher's trade at Hastings until 1879, in which year he came over to this part of the state, locating in Grant county, where he homesteaded a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in section 8 of Delaware township, established his home there and has ever since made that his place of residence. When Mr. Hetherington settled in Delaware township there was not a house nor a tree within site of his homestead and he thus has ever been classed as one of the pioneers of that part of the county. He built a frame house on his place, planted a grove and entered upon the serious task of bringing the virgin soil under cultivation. That early homestead house, remodeled and enlarged, is still being occupied as the family residence. Mr. Hetherington is a Republican and has served the public in the capacity of supervisor and as school director. He formerly was a member of the Presbyterian church and also formerly was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
On September 25, 1875, at Hastings, Charles C. Hetherington was united in marriage to Esther McCarriel, who was born in the state of New York, daughter of George and Laurenza (Whitney) McCarriel, both also natives of that state and members of old New York families. George
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McCarriel died in New York, after which his widow returned to the home of her father and with the latter came to Minnesota, settling at Hastings about the year 1861 and there she spent the rest of her life. To Mr. and Mrs. Hetherington six children have been born, namely: Mildred, who mar- ried Edward Bergstrom and lives at Minneapolis; Charles Algernon, who was educated at Highland Park College in Iowa and at the Moorhead ( Minnesota ) Normal and is now an electrical engineer at DesMoines, Iowa; Chester, who died at the age of twelve years; Chetwyn, at home; one who died in infancy and Esther Lora, at home. The Hetheringtons have a very pleasant home and have ever taken a proper part in the various social activities of the community of which they have been a part since pioneer days, helpful in promoting all movements having to do with the advance- ment of the common welfare thereabout.
ERICK LARSON.
The late Erick Larson who was one of the pioneer farmers of Ida township, Douglas county, was born in Sweden, in 1840, and died at his home in Ida township on July 28, 1908.
Before leaving his native land Erick Larson was a surveyor around mines, and also owned a small farm in Sweden. He married in the old country and two children were born in Sweden one of whom died there. In 1868 he came with his wife and daughter Sarah, to Minnesota, settling in Douglas county, where he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land in sections 21 and 22 of Ida township. This land was all timber land at the time he acquired it, and the first home of the family was a small hut made of branches, with a bark roof. Within a short time, however, they had erected a log house. His first team was one of oxen and the family worked diligently to clear and improve their land. Their first log house is still standing, but has been boarded up nicely, and many improvements added to it until it could hardly be recognized as the old log house of the wilderness. The first barn was made of logs with birch-bark roof. On that pioneer farm Mr. Larson lived the remainder of his life, although during the last few years he had given over the active management of his farm to younger hands. He was also a stonemason by trade, and did much work of that kind in the early days, such as building brick founda- tions and chimneys for houses, as well as plastering the inside walls and
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