USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume II > Part 7
USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume II > Part 7
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C. A. PRESTRUD.
C. A. Prestrud, cashier of the First National Bank of Wendell, was born in Norway, June 17, 1878. a son of H. C. and Charlotte L. (Mason) Prestrud, natives of Norway, who came to America in 1886, locating at St. Paul, where the father worked at his trade as cabinet-maker, and made this home for the rest of his life. He died on May 3, 1902, and his widow sur- vived until 1916. The subject of this sketch is the youngest of two children born to these parents and the only one now living, his sister, Lydia, now be- ing deceased. The Norwegian Lutheran is the family church.
C. A. Prestrud was but eight years of age when he came to this country
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and he was educated in the public schools of St. Paul. As a young man, at the age of eighteen, he was employed as messenger for the Scandinavian and American bank, of St. Paul, and that was the beginning of his career in connection with banking, a business that he has since continued. In 1902 he came to Wendell to take a position as cashier of the Farmers and Mer- chants State Bank, of Wendell, a position he now holds, the bank now be- ing known as the First National Bank of Wendell.
In 1901 C. A. Prestrud was married to Nanna J. Hoff. daughter of Hans Hoff, of Christiania, Norway, and to this union seven children have been born, Norman A., Mildred C .. Raymond A., Ethel K., Earl W., Eve- lyn L. and Doratha H.
Mr. Prestrud is a member of the Synod Lutheran church, and general trustee for the congregation. In politics he affiliates with the Republican party and was formerly a member of the village council.
ROBERT K. BROUGH.
Robert K. Brough, postmaster at Alexandria, enjoys the usual dis- tinction of nearly thirty years continuous service in the postoffice in that city, having been engaged there ever since the fall of 1888, when he entered the postoffice as a clerk. Two years later he was promoted to the position of deputy postmaster and served in that capacity under successive post- masters until his appointment as postmaster in 1908, a position he ever since has held, being one of five postmasters out of fifteen hundred appli- cants for reappointment that were retained in office under the Wilson admin- istration.
Mr. Brough is a native of England, born in the city of Hull in 1866, son of Robert Brough, a sea captain, who was lost at sea. In 1872, he then being but six years of age, he accompanied his widowed mother to the United States, the family locating at Alexandria, where Mrs. Brough spent her last days. There Robert K. Brough grew to manhood. He received his education in the Alexandria high school and worked at various occupations until the fall of 1888, when he became employed as a clerk in the local postoffice. He at once demonstrated his fitness for the work in hand and two years later, in 1890, was appointed to the position of deputy postmaster. In that capacity he was retained by successive postmasters. serving under Godfrey Vivian one term: under J. H. VanDyke, one term :
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under Fanny VanDyke, widow of J. H. VanDyke, three terms; under Charles S. Mitchell, one term, and under H. K. White one term, or until the death of the latter in December, 1908, when, on recommendation of Senator Nelson, he was appointed to succeed Mr. White and has ever since held his commission as postmaster at Alexandria, being one of the very few "presidential" postmasters holding office under the Taft administra- tion to be reappointed under the Wilson administration, an evidence of fitness for the place to which Postmaster Brough's friends point with pride.
In 1894 Robert K. Brough was married to Elizabeth Aldrich, a daugh- ter of J. D. Aldrich and wife, pioneer residents of Douglas county, and has a son. Eugene Brough, thirteen years of age. Mr. Brough is a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and of the Order of Yeomen and in the affairs of both of these organizations takes a warm interest.
HON. HERMAN HILLMOND.
Hon. Herman Hillmond, one of the largest landowners in Grant county, former representative from this district to the Minnesota state Legislature, independent candidate for the Legislature in 1916, proprietor of a fine farm of seven hundred and sixty acres in Pomme de Terre township, for the past fifteen years a director of the First National Bank of Elbow Lake and for many years one of the most active factors in the civic and indus- trial life of his home community, is a native of Germany, but has been a resident of Minnesota since he was thirteen years of age and has con- sequently been a witness to and a participant in the development of this part of the state for many years. He was born in Saxony on January 18, 1860, son and only child of Edward and Dorothy ( Marx) Hillmond, both natives of Saxony, the latter born on May 29, 1836, and the former some years earlier. Edward Hillmond was a farmer and landowner, who died in his native land in October, 1860, when his son, the subject of this sketch, was but an infant. His widow later married Jacob Treise and in 1868 or 1869 came with her husband to the United States, leaving hier young son in charge of her father, Jacob Marx. Jacob Treise and his wife came to Minnesota upon their arrival in this country and settled in Birchdale township, Todd county, where Mr. Treise homesteaded a quarter of a section of land and established his home, remaining there until the fall of 1875. when he moved over into Raymond township, in Stearns
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county, and settled on a farm about nine miles south of Sauk Center, in the meantime, in 1873, having been joined by his stepson, the subject of this sketch, and the latter's grandfather, Jacob Marx. The year following the removal of the family to Stearns county the whole country hereabout was devastated by the ravages of the grasshoppers and the farming operations of the Treises, as well as those of all other settlers, were seriously inter- rupted, young Hillmond thus being compelled, even as a boy, to take such employment as he could find in the neighborhood, to help out during the time of distress, and was thus employed, working for others, until 1879, when he resumed his place in the home and there remained until 1882, in which year, he then being twenty-two years of age, he came over into Grant county and bought a quarter of a section of wild land in Pomme de Terre township and began farming on his own account. Two years later the Treises also moved over into Grant county and bought a farm adjoining that of Mr. Hillmond, where they lived until 1899, in which year they retired from the farm and moved to Elbow Lake, where both Mr. and Mrs. Treise are still living. To them three children were born, Emil, who died when a child; Lottie, who married Jacob Woessner and lives in Pomme de Terre township, and Winnie, who married Frank Schaeffer and lives in that same township.
As noted above, Herman Hillmond remained in his native land until he was thirteen years of age, receiving his elementary schooling in the schools of his home town, and in 1873 came to this county with his grand- father and joined his mother and his stepfather in Todd county, later mov- ing to Stearns county, where he remained until taking up his residence in Grant county in 1882. There he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of wild prairie land and proceeded to develop the same. He drove over with two teams of oxen and the first year he occupied his homestead he broke sixty-four acres, making his domicile in his wagon-box. In the fall of that year he returned to Sauk Center and there worked during the winter, using the money thus earned to apply on the payment of his land and for the purchase of seed for the spring farming, returning to his farm in the spring and planting to wheat and oats the sixty-four acres he had previously broken. That year he broke seven acres additional and then sold the place to Robert Staley, applying the money thus secured to the purchase of the northeast quarter of section 29 in the same township, on which he erected a seat of buildings which still stand and are in use. In 1891 Mr. Hillmond married and established his home on his quarter
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section, continuing to reside there until 1903, when he and his wife moved to Elbow Lake in order to secure better school advantages for their chil- dren, renting the farm in the meantime, and remained at the county seat until 1912, when, the children then being through the high school, they moved to Miriam Park, St. Paul, in order that the children might enter the University of Minnesota, and two years later returned to the old home farm and shortly afterward erected there the present fine farm residence, in which the family is very comfortably and very pleasantly situated. Mr. Hillmond's farming operations have prospered from the very beginning and he is now the owner of seven hundred and sixty acres, all in one body. one of the best-improved farms in that part of the county. Not only has Mr. Hillmond done well in his farming operations, but he has for years given much attention to various other enterprises and for fifteen years has been a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Elbow Lake. From the beginning of his residence in Grant county Mr. Hillmond has given close and thoughtful attention to local political affairs and in 1900 was elected, as the nominee of the Populist party, in a Scandi- navian Republican district, representative to the Legislature, defeating Sena- tor Knute Nelson's son by a majority of sixty-eight. In the campaign of 1916 Mr. Hillmond again became a candidate for the Legislature, stand- ing on a strictly non-partisan platform, long having maintained a strictly independent attitude in his political views. In local civic affairs he also has been an active and influential factor and has held all township offices in his home township at one time and another, having ever been an earnest promoter of all movements having to do with the advancement of the best interests of his home community. Mr. Hillmond was reared as a Lutheran and in his fraternal relations is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and with the order of Yeomen, in the affairs of both of which organizations he takes a warm interest.
In 1891 Herman Hillmond was united in marriage to Pauline Schwantz, at that time a resident of the village of Evansville, but who was born in Sibley county, this state, daughter of William Schwantz and wife, who later became substantial residents of Effington township, Otter Tail county, and to this union three children have been born, Arthur, who is at home; Eleanor, who married William B. Schneider, of Minneapolis, and has one child, a danghter, Ruth, and Albert, at home.
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PETER HOPLIN.
Peter Hoplin, a well-known and progressive merchant of Brandon, owner of the hardware store that formerly belonged to the Larsen estate in that village, a member of the board of county commissioners of Doug- las county, former assessor of his home township and for six or seven years justice of the peace there, a director of the Farmers State Bank of Brandon and the owner of a considerable tract of land in Montana, is a native of the kingdom of Norway, but has been a resident of Minnesota since he was four years of age. He was born on September 23, 1876, son of Nels and Hannah Hoplin, who came to the United States in the spring of 1880, settling for a time in Wisconsin, whence, in the summer of that same year, they came out to this part of Minnesota and settled on a farm of forty acres in the Brandon neighborhood in Douglas county, where they are still living.
Nels Hoplin was a laborer in his native land, but upon acquiring a bit of land out here in Minnesota proved himself a good farmer and as he prospered in his farming operations added to his holdings until he is now the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres, on which he engages in general farming and dairying and on which he has done very well. He and his wife have five children living, those besides the subject of this sketch being Lena, wife of Hans Nelson, a farmer of Hennepin county, this state; Bessie, who is at home with her parents, and Nettie and Ole (twins), the former of whom also is at home and the latter of whom is a well-known hardware dealer at Lowry.
Peter Hoplin was but a child when he came to this country with his parents in 1880 and he grew to manhood on the home farm in the vicinity of Brandon, receiving his schooling in the schools of that village and in the high school at Alexandria. Upon completing his schooling he remained on the home farm for a few years and then engaged in the grain-buying business at Brandon, continuing thus engaged for a year, at the end of which time he began clerking in the store of B. F. Tiegen, in that same village, and was thus engaged for six years. He then was appointed to take charge of the L. P. Larsen estate and had since then been managing the Larsen hardware store at Brandon, which he recently bought, long having been recognized as one of the leading business men of Brandon. In addi- tion to his general hardware business Mr. Hoplin is the local agent for one of the best-known automobiles in the country and is doing very well. He is a stockholder and a director in the Farmers State Bank of Brandon
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and is the owner of a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Montana. Mr. Hoplin is a Republican and since 1911 has been serving as a member of the board of county commissioners for Douglas county, now serving on his second term, and for two years was chairman of the board. For six years he was clerk of the Brandon school district No. 76; then for four years served as township assessor and for six or seven years then was justice of the peace in and for his home township. He is an active member of the Norwegian Free church and since 1910 has been superintendent of the Union Sunday school at Brandon.
WILLIAM H. HENGSTLER, M. D.
Dr. William H. Hengstler, well-known physician at Osakis, is a native Minnesotan, born at Winona on May 8, 1887, a son of William and Anna ( McBride ) Hengstler, the former of whom was born in Freedom, Wiscon- sin, May 26, 1856, and the latter, at Austin, Minnesota, March II, 1859. William Hengstler is a railroad train dispatcher and lives at Wilmar. He is the father of two children, the subject of this sketch having a brother, Herbert. The elder William Hengstler is a Republican and a member of the Woodmen's lodge.
Doctor Hengstler was well equipped by preliminary study for the prac- tice of his profession, his early schooling having been obtained in the pub- lic schools and in the Model Normal School at Winona. He took the first year course in the high school at Tracy and the last three years in the high school at Mankato, from which he was graduated in 1904. In the fall of that year he entered the medical department of the University of Minnesota and after two years of study in that institution went to the Pacific coast, where he remained from June, 1906, to the fall of 1907. He then returned to Minnesota and resumed his studies in the university, com- pleting his medical studies and receiving his degree in 1911. For about two months after graduation Doctor Hengstler served as interne in a hospital at Minneapolis and then took up the general practice, locating at Rockford, Minnesota, where he remained until the summer of 1913. In July of that year he removed to Osakis and has been engaged in the practice of his profession there since that time. In August. 1915, Doctor Hengstler formed a partnership with Doctor Gilkinson, and the two are at present thuis asso- ciated in practice.
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On October 5, 1912, Dr. W. H. Hengstler was united in marriage to Edna E. Baird, who was born at Graceville, Minnesota, April 7. 1889. a daughter of Edward C. Baird, and to this union has been born one child, a daughter, Marmion Gertrude, born on March 21, 1915. Doctor and Mrs. Hengstler are members of the Presbyterian church. In politics the Doctor affiliates with the Republican party. He is a member of the Masonic order and also of the Order of the Eastern Star and of the Workmen's lodge. He holds a membership in the Minnesota State Medical Association, in the American Medical Association, and in the Park Region Medical Society. Doctor Hengstler is at present the surgeon for the Great Northern Railway.
H. F. HELLECKSON.
H. E. Helleckson, chairman of the board of supervisors of Pomme de Terre township, Grant county, and a well-known and substantial farmer of that township, is a native son of Minnesota and has lived in this state all his life. He was born on a farm in Brown county, January 9, 1869, son of Ellev and Sigri (Engrebretson) Helleckson, both natives of Eggedal, Nor- way, who came to the United States in the same year, about 1865 or 1866, and settled with their respective parents in Brown county, this state, where they were later married. Ellev Helleckson homesteaded a farm in Brown county and there made his home until 1876, in which year he sold his place and moved up to Ottertail county, pre-empting there a quarter section in Tumuli township on which he established his home and there spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1898, he then being about sixty-four years of age. His widow survived him about fifteen years, her death occurring in November, 1913, she then being about sixty-eight years of age. They were members of the Synod Lutheran church, now the United Lutheran church, and their children were reared in the faith of the same. There were seven of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest and two of whom died in infancy, the others being as follow : Edward, now deceased, who was for years a well-known Graut county farmer; Teoline, who mar- ried Louis Larson and lives in Ottertail county; Martin, who lives on the old home farm in Ottertail county, and Marie, who married Andrew Holte and died in Ottertail county.
H. E. Helleckson was about seven years old when his parents moved from Brown county to Ottertail county and in the latter county he grew to
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manhood, receiving his schooling in the schools of his home neighborhood, such as they were at that time, for there was no organized school district in that community until he was seventeen or eighteen years of age. As a young man he began farming on his own account, managing the home farm for his father, during which time, for ten or eleven seasons, he was also engaged as an engineer with a threshing crew. In the meantime, in 1892, he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Grant county, the north- east quarter of section 18 in Pomme de Terre township, but not until his marriage in 1904 did he make his home on the same. He had, however. erected some small buildings on the place and had done considerable toward improving the same, and upon taking up his residence there in 1904 erected a modern barn and the next year erected his present comfortable farm resi- dence. He also has on the farm an attractive grove and a well-cared-for orchard. Mr. Helleckson is a firm believer in the modern methods of farm- ing and has brought his farm up to a high state of cultivation. He is a Republican in his political persuasion and has for years given his close atten- tion to local civic affairs, long having served as a member of the board of township supervisors and for the past four years as chairman of the same.
On July 6, 1904, H. E. Helleckson was united in marriage to Seriana Nelson, who was born in Ottertail county, daughter of Joseph Nelson and wife, early settlers of that county. No children have been born to this union, but Mr. and Mrs. Helleckson have adopted a daughter, Amanda Holte, a niece of Mr. Helleckson. Both Mr. and Mrs. Helleckson are members of the Hjardel United Lutheran church and Mr. Helleckson is secretary of the congregation, to the affairs of which he for years has given his earnest atten- tion, both he and his wife being warmly interested in all local good works.
ALFRED O. LUND.
Alfred O. Lund, one of the younger and successful business men of Norcross, was born in the building in which is now located the State Bank of Norcross, on June 23, 1884, the son of Andrew and Maline ( Selleseth ) Lund, natives of Norway.
As a young man Andrew Lund came to America, in 1880, proceeding on out to Minnesota and homesteading one hundred and sixty acres of land in Grant county, one mile south of Norcross. He then returned to his native land and was there married, in his native town, Norfjord, to Maline Selle-
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seth. Accompanied by his bride he then returned to the homestead in Grant county and there erected a frame house, in which he and his family lived for some years. He developed his land and engaged in general farming until the building of the Great Northern railroad, when he engaged in the general mercantile business at Norcross, in partnership with Mons Weum, under the firm name of Lund & Weum. This partnership lasted some six years, after which Mir. Lund conducted the business alone for a time, and then Ole Selleseth associated himself with the business and the firm was known as Lund & Selleseth. This firm continued until 1900, in which year Mr. Lund retired and removed to Superior, Wisconsin, where he associated himself with the Fimon Mercantile Company as a stockholder. After two or three years he retired from the business and moved to Glenwood, his present home.
During his many years of active life Andrew Lund has bought and sold many farms in this community, and is today the owner of five hun- dred and sixty acres, as well as the owner of a one-half interest in three hun- dred and twenty acres. In the fall of 1905 he engaged in the private bank- ing business and established the Norcross Bank. In 1908 the bank was made a state bank, with Andrew Lund as president, which position he still holds; the other officers being Ole Selleseth, vice-president, and Alfred O. Lund, cashier. The bank has been a successful one and the people of the com- munity have the utmost confidence and respect for the officers of the insti- tution. The deposits today are nearing the one-hundred-thousand-dollar mark, with a steady and substantial growth.
Andrew and Maline Lund are the parents of the following children : Anna, who is the wife of Clarence Wollan, of North Dakota; Alfred O., the subject of this sketch: Iver, who lives in Superior, Wisconsin, where he is a salesman for the Twohy-Eimon Mercantile Company; Ellen, the wife of Olaf Gandrud, of Fergus Falls; Ina, the wife of Hugh Stenson, of Glen- wood and Mabel and Nora, at home. The family are members of the Nor- wegian Lutheran church and are prominent in the social and religious life of the community. Andrew Lund's life has been an active and successful one. He is a man of rare judgment and exceptional ability and is held in the highest esteem and regard by all who know him.
Alfred O. Lund received his education in the public schools of Nor- cross and at Superior, after which he took a course in a business college at Minneapolis, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1905. Soon after completing his schooling he was elected cashier of the Norcross State
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Bank, which position he now holds. In his chosen work Mr. Lund has been quite successful and has the confidence and respect of the business and social world in which he lives. In addition to his duties in the bank, Mr. Lund has always taken a keen interest in the civic life of the town and has served as a member of the town board. his efforts ever having been exerted in behalf of all movements designed to advance the growth and prosperity of the home community.
In the fall of 1913 Alfred O. Lund was united in marriage to Mabel Westberg, who was born in Illinois, daughter of Swan Westberg, who located in Grant county in 1904, and to this union one child has been born, Marquis. whose birth occurred on February 13. 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Lund are prom- inent in the social and religious life of their home town and take much inter- est in all that tends to promote the beauty and the betterment of the place.
REV. SVEN WILLIAM SWENSON.
The Rev. Sven William Swenson, pastor of the Swedish Lutheran church at Evansville and president of the Red River valley conference of the Augustana synod, is a native of the kingdom of Sweden, but has been a resident of this country since he was twenty-one years of age. He was born at Undensos, Westergotland, Sweden, April 6, 1870, son of A. G. and Charlotte Swenson, natives of that same country, who spent all their lives in their native land.
Reared on a farm, Mr. Swenson received his elementary schooling in the schools of his native land and in 1891, he then being twenty-one years of age, came to the United States and located at Manchester, New Hamp- shire, where for a time he worked in a textile factory. He then, in August, 1892, in pursuance of a long-cherished desire to acquire a more liberal edu- cation with a view to entering the ministry, entered Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois, and upon completing the academic course there entered the classical department and was graduated from the same in 1900. In the fall of that same year he entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Rock Island, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1903, with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. On June 14, 1903, at the meeting of Augustana synod at Paxton, Illinois, he was ordained to the ministry of the Lutheran church and was straightway assigned to the pastorate of the Swedish Lutheran church at Elbow Lake, Grant county, this state, where
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