USA > Minnesota > Todd County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 14
USA > Minnesota > Morrison County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 14
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William E. Lee came to Minnesota with his parents in the spring of 1857 and settled at Little Falls. Later he lived on a homestead near Ladoux, Morrison county, and in the spring of 1860 moved to Long Prairie, where the family remained until the spring of 1862, when they returned to Little Falls. He lived for many years on a farm at Swan river, two miles south
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of Little Falls, where with his older brother, Samuel, he operated a ferry boat and carried the United States mail from Little Falls to Long Prairie and later from Brainerd to Leech Lake.
As a boy, William E. Lee attended the public schools at Little Falls and a private school at Long Prairie taught by Mary Warren, and later a school at Swan river taught by her sister, Mrs. Julia A. Spears. These teachers were part Chippewa, educated by early missionaries and now live at White Earth, Minnesota.
For several years William E. Lee worked with his father at the mill- wright trade, and in 1873, after having worked a year in the erection of the steam mill at Sauk Center, he secured a position as clerk in a store at Long Prairie owned by Kellogg, Chase & Mayo, who built the mill. In 1875 he opened a store at Burnhamville, now Pillsbury, Todd county, and in 1876 was elected register of deeds for Todd county and held the office two terms. He moved his store to Long Prairie, and later sold it to his brother, Samuel C. Lee. At the expiration of his term as register of deeds, he established at Long Prairie the first bank in Todd county, known as the Bank of Long Prairie, in which institution he is still interested and is cashier. He has extended his banking interest, and is, at the present time, president of the First National Bank of Browerville, First National Bank of Eagle Bend. First State Bank of Burtrum, and First State Bank of Swanville. He is also president of the Eagle Bend Implement Company and is interested in the Hansmann Manufacturing Company and several other business enter- prises.
Mr. Lee was elected to the Legislature of 1885 and also the Legislatures of 1887 and 1893. He was speaker of the house of representatives in the last named session. He has served on the state normal school board and as superintendent of the state reformatory at St. Cloud and was one of the first members of and helped to organize the state board of control. He was a candidate for governor in the primaries in 1912 but was defeated. He was again a candidate in 1914 and received the Republican nomination but was defeated at the polls by the present governor. He was the first candidate for a state office on either the Republican or Democratic ticket who made an open and aggressive campaign against the saloon interests and the brewery organization, and while he was defeated because of the stand he took on the temperance question the cause for which he fought was greatly advanced by the campaigns he made.
Mr. Lee has held the position of president of the Minnesota Bankers Association; was president of the first village council of Long Prairie; and
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served on the board of education and held other similar positions. During the past ten or twelve years, he has traveled considerably, having visited nearly every state in the Union and some of our insular possessions and made quite an extensive tour of European countries and also of Egypt and the Holy Land.
William E. Lee was married to Eva A. Gibson, the daughter of Ambrose H. and Margaret (Daily) Gibson, who were early settlers in Todd county. They have three sons: Rudolph, who is editor of the Long Prairie Leader; Harry, cashier of the First National Bank of Browerville; and Raymond A., vice-president of the Bank of Long Prairie and secretary of the Hans- mann Manufacturing Company.
Ambrose H. and Margaret (Daily) Gibson came from Kingston, Can- ada, to Little Falls, in 1857, and in the same year settled at the south end of Round Prairie in Todd county. The family soon afterward, however, moved to Bearhead, eight miles east of Long Prairie, where they lived until the Indian outbreak of 1862, when they moved to Little Falls. Mr. Gibson was among the first to enlist from Little Falls in the volunteer soldiers of the Civil War. He had served in the English army when a young man and was a musician of some note. While in the English army, he was a teacher of sword exercise and was an expert swordsman. After the Civil War, Mr. Gibson returned to Bearhead and lived there until the time of his death. Ambrose H. and Margaret (Daily) Gibson were the parents of three chil- dren, Alfred J., who is now a resident of Bearhead; Eva A., the wife of Mr. Lee, of Long Prairie; and Beatrice M., the wife of Charles E. Harkens, who now resides at San Diego, California.
CAMILLE H. DES MOLINE ANDRE.
Long Prairie, Todd county, Minnesota, has few citizens who have accomplished more in a business way than Camille H. Des Moline Andre, a native of Potosi, Grant county, Wisconsin, where he was born on March 4, 1864. Some years age he purchased the business and good will of Van Dyke & Van Dyke, which included the Todd county abstract company, and. having revised the same, has made of it one of the most up-to-date and modern institutions of its kind in the state of Minnesota.
Camille H. Des Moline Andre is the son of John Baptist and Louise (Laurelle) Andre, both of whom were natives of Ateville, France. After
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their marriage in France, they came to America, and having landed in New Orleans about 1860, traveled north to St. Louis, where they remained for a time. They also stopped at Cairo, Illinois, and then moved to Potosi, Wis- consin. Mr. Andre's father was a wagon maker by trade, having learned the trade in his native country. While a resident of New Orleans he was engaged in the shipping business, and after coming to Potosi, Wisconsin, he engaged in the mining business. Subsequently, he left Wisconsin and moved to Shakopee, Scott county, Minnesota, where he remained for a few years. He then moved to St. Cloud and later immigrated to Todd county, home- steading one hundred and sixty acres of land in sections 27 and 28. From 1868 until 1891, John Baptist Andre lived on his Todd county farm. He then moved to Sauk Center, Stearns county, and retired from active life. Three years later he died in Sauk Center, and his wife died at Long Prairie in February, 1914, at the age of eighty-six years. The father was eighty- two years old at the time of his death. They were the parents of nine chil- dren, only two of whom are living. Mary, Camille H. D., Eugenia, Annie and five who died in infancy. Mary was the wife of Robert Stanley and died at the age of forty years at Hillsborough, North Dakota; she was the mother of four children, namely: Asa, Calvin, Earl and Annie, all living. Camille H. D. is the subject of this sketch. Eugenia is the widow of Alfred Frendberg and to them were born two children, one who died in infancy, and Olive, who died at the age of twenty years. She was the wife of Adam Hogg, a banker at Cody, Wyoming. After the death of Alfred Frendberg. his widow married Graham Morton, of Meeteetse, Park county, Wyoming. To this second marriage, there have been born two sons, Frank, who is eleven years old, and Graham, Jr., who is twelve. Graham Morton, Sr .. is a ranch- man in Wyoming. Annie Andre died at the age of twenty-four years.
Mr. Andre received his education in the Todd county district schools and at Round Prairie. He was also a student for six months in the schools at Sauk Center. After finishing his education. Mr. Andre took up farming in Todd county and was engaged in this occupation until twenty-six years old, when he engaged in buying and selling cattle. After two years, he took a trip west with the intention of going into the cattle business on a large scale, but, after his visit, changed his plans and returned to Long Prairie in 1897. opening a real estate, loan and insurance office in partner- ship with J. U. Hemmi. This partnership lasted for five years, when the firm dissolved and Mr. Andre formed a partnership with William M. Barber. This arrangement continued for about three years, when it was dissolved and Mr. Andre purchased the business and good will of Van Dyke & Van Dyke.
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The firm included the Todd County Abstract Company. Mr. Andre revised this business and now enjoys a splendid patronage in this county.
Mr. Andre has been a member of the Long Prairie Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, for many years. He is also a member of the Long Prairie Nest of Owls. In politics, he is identified with the Republican party.
OLE O. KJELDERGAARD.
The record of the man whose name introduces this article contains no exciting chapter of tragic events, but is replete with well-defined purposes which have already won for him a pleasing degree of success and promise to bring to him with future years still greater opportunities. Mr. Kjelder- guard possesses executive ability of a high order, clear foresight, and these excellent qualities coupled with a worthy ambition and unfailing energy will surely serve him well.
Ole O. Kjeldergaard, ex-merchant of Cushing, and now farmer of Cushing township, Morrison county, Minnesota, was born in Renville county, this state, on March 9, 1881, son of Ole and Gunild (Langaard) Kjelder- gaard, and one of their family of five children. Both parents are natives of Norway, the father born in 1853 and the mother in 1848. They were of the farming class in their native country, and emigrated therefrom in 1879, coming directly to this state, where in Renville county they found a loca- tion. They purchased a tract of two hundred and forty acres of land and have made many improvements, still making their home there. They have prospered, due to their earnest desire to succeed.
Ole attended the district schools near his home in Renville county until he was seventeen years of age, when he entered the normal school at Madison, this state, and took a general course. He was then qualified to teach and in 1902 took charge of his first district school in Renville county. He taught just the one year, when he moved to Cushing and opened up a general iner- chandise store. The first building he occupied was a frame structure, which was destroyed by fire, and he replaced it with a substantial cement building, size thirty by fifty feet. In 1913 Mr. Kjeldergaard bought four hundred and eighty acres of land in section 28, of Cushing township. This is timber land, but twenty acres of same being broken when he purchased it. In 1915 he sold out his business in Cushing and is devoting his entire energies to clearing and improving his fine land.
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Ole O. Kjeldergaard was married on June 29, 1905, to Amy Wilson, born on April 5, 1891, at Sauk Center, this state, a daughter of Bradley and Susan (Phelpes) Wilson, natives of Minnesota. To Mr. and Mrs. Kjelder- gaard have been born seven children, namely: Ada, Cirel, Alia, Erma, Bernice, Louisa and Lisby.
Mr. Kjeldergaard has from the first taken an active interest in whatever was for the good of the community and became one of the first interested in the creamery at Cushing. He holds membership in the Lutheran church, to the support of which he gives liberally of his means. He gives his political support to the Republican party and is one of that party's most active work- ers in this section. He is at the present time treasurer of Cushing town- ship and is a member of the school board. His fraternal affiliation is with the Yeomen and to everything with which he is connected he gives the best of his ability.
DR. SPIRIT J. VASALY.
Dr. Spirit J. Vasaly, of Little Falls, Morrison county, Minnesota, the proprietor of an optical parlor at 104 Broadway, called "The House of Your Most Precious Sight," is not only a well-known professional man but one who has taken a deep interest in the mineral possibilities of this section of the state. He is heavily interested in iron mine prospects in the range just north of Little Falls on Belle Prairie, and has great faith that this prospect will some day develop into one of the handsomest beds of iron ore in this part of the country.
Spirit J. Vasaly was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, October 30, 1871. His father's sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Spirit J. Vasaly was educated in the common schools of Little Falls. When about fifteen years old he became an apprentice to I. E. Staples, a well-known watch maker and jeweler of this city, but now of Portland, Oregon. Later in 1890, he went to St. Paul, where he was employed by John Pfister, another jeweler, for one year. In 1892 Mr. Vasaly went to Chicago where he attended the Chi- cago Horological School, at which instruction was also given in optical science. After graduating from this school, he worked in Chicago until 1894 when he came back to Little Falls and opened a jewelry store. In January, 1894, Mr. Vasaly opened the "Diamond Sign Jewelry Store," which he operated until 1910 when he sold a half interest to E. V. Wetzel. Four years later he sold the other half interest to Mr. Wetzel. Soon after sell-
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ing the second half interest Mr. Vasaly went to Chicago to take a post- graduate course in optometry, attending the Northern Illinois College of Optometry. On his return to Little Falls he opened the optical parlors at 104 Broadway. Dr. Vasaly already enjoys a lucrative business which is continually increasing. He has always been a booster for his city, doing his best to have the "White Way" installed here; also worked for the present school site, which faces the "Father of Waters," the Mississippi.
His great faith that iron will be found in the Little Falls, Millelacs and Carlton range has good foundation that it will prove to be a producing dis- trict in the very near future, and he was the first to suggest naming the new range Little Falls, Millelacs and Carlton, his main reason for giving it this name being he wanted the name Little Falls to be put on the map in larger type. another reason being the range would be more easily distinguished from other ranges further north, and last but not least the range is entitled and better explained by the name proven by the United States government report, which stated that from all present indications large bodies of iron should be found on this range on a line between Little Falls, Millelacs and Carlton. He has an option on some lands besides owning eighty acres in section eight on Belle Prairie. Everything around the prairie indicates that there is a very good prospect for iron. What gives Mr. Vasaly more faith in the land, per- haps, than anything else is the fact that when he first purchased the land, through the friendship of Louis Rocheleau, an expert mining engineer, and estimated to be worth ten million dollars, made in iron, he was able to get Mr. Rocheleau to view the land personally. Mr. Rocheleau had his private mining engineer with him. He found the mineral attraction to start on the north line going clear across the eighty acres to the south line in a gradual increase from one to eighteen. Later these figures were confirmed by a government engineer with two perfect government dip needles, also found on the land just south on Mr. Moran's attraction up to twenty-five. The lay of this land and the surrounding country gave him more confidence as to the good prospect of a large body of iron on the land. After inspection he privately praised the prospects and called it a "peach" of an iron prospect. This suggested to Mr. Vasaly the name "The Peach Farm." He has another forty acres in section 3 in the Belle Prairie, ou same range, and is also inter- ested in one hundred and sixty acres in section 3, with others; and eighty acres in section 4 with C. B. Buckman and others. The prospect for iron is good in all these places.
Dr. Spirit J. Vasaly is unmarried. He is an independent Republican in politics, and a member of the French Catholic church. He is a member of
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the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Equitable Fraternal Union, the Improved Order of Redmen, Elks and Modern Woodmen of America. Doctor Vasaly is also a member of the Commercial Club of Little Falls.
RASMUS BORGSTROM.
Perhaps no farmer of Scandia Valley township, Morrison county, Minnesota, has been more successful since coming to America than Rasmus Borgstrom, who is now living retired in a beautiful villa situated five rods from the lake front of Alexander lake. When he came to Morrison county, Minnesota, he had a family of seven children and only about five hundred dollars, but since that time has accumulated two hundred and twenty acres of land in Scandia Valley and Rail Prairie townships. One hundred and sixty acres of this land is under cultivation.
Rasmus Borgstrom was born on September 10, 1851, in Skane, Sweden, and is the son of Andres and Enger ( Person) Borgstrom, who had five chil- dren : Jens, Olivia, and Olaf are deceased, the first-named dying when twenty-two years old; Pear lives in Sweden.
Mr. Borgstrom's father was born in 1821, in Sweden, and was a laborer in his native land. He died in 1874. Mr. Borgstrom's mother was born in 1820, in Sweden, and died in 1880.
One year after his mother's death, Mr. Borgstrom came to America. Ile had attended the schools of his native land and had farmed and worked in the coal mines, before coming to this country. Three years before leaving Sweden, he was married. Mr. and Mrs. Borgstrom first settled at Irvine, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the coal mines until 1893. In 1893 the family came to Morrison county and purchased one hin- dred and sixty acres of timber and brush land in section 25. of ' Scandia Valley township, for which Mr. Borgstrom paid five dollars an acre. He built a story-and-a-half house with four rooms on the north side of Alexander lake, and a little later built a barn sixteen by thirty feet. In 1912 he built a cottage of four rooms, thoroughly modern, within five rods of the water's edge of Alexander lake, and now has a beautiful view of the whole lake. His farm is one of the most extensively improved of any in Morrison county. Mr. Borgstrom has suffered many hardships, but by hard work he has been able to lay aside rather a large competence for his declining years. He has
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always kept a high grade of live stock, and has in various ways become well- known throughout Morrison county.
In 1877 Rasmus Borgstrom was married, in Sweden, to Nellie Ander- son, who was born on October 23, 1854. She is the daughter of Andres and Allak Sophia (Donar) Lumberg, both of whom were natives of Sweden, the father dying in 1866, at the age of fifty-four, and the mother in 1905, at the age of ninety-three. Mr. and Mrs. Borgstrom have had eight children, as follow : John A. operates the home place; Charles is an engineer of the Northern Pacific railroad and resides at Dilworth, Minnesota; Mrs. Annie Nelson resides at Rail Prairie; Harry W. resides at Rail Prairie; Martin A. is deceased; Emil lives at Fargo, North Dakota; Richard and Peter both work in North Dakota. All the children except John were born in America.
Mr. and Mrs. Borgstrom are members of the Swedish Lutheran church. In politics, Mr. Borgstrom has been prominent ever since coming to America. He is especially prominent in the politics of Morrison county, having served for eighteen years as chairman of the Republican township committee of Scandia Valley township. He also has served on the school board. In the largest sense Rasmus Borgstrom has amply proved his claim to the high- est esteem of the people of Morrison county, the esteem which he enjoys in a very large measure.
FRANK W. LYON.
Among the prominent citizens and able and successful attorneys of Morrison county, Minnesota, none holds a higher position in the esteem of the people than Frank W. Lyon, at the present time serving as municipal judge of Little Falls. Frank W. Lyon is a native of the state of Illinois, born in Stark county, November 18, 1856, son of C. M. S. Lyon, who was born in 1816, and S. Eliza ( Rhodes) Lyon. The latter was born in Pennsyl- vania and when a young girl was brought west by her parents, who settled in Illinois, and there she met and married the man whose devoted wife she was for so many years. C. M. S. Lyon was born in the country near Albany, New York, and went to Illinois in 1837, where he bought a considerable tract of land. He was a blacksmith by trade and followed that occupation, in connection with his farm work, all the active years of his life. He died in 1897 at the advanced age of eighty-one years, having been an active and influential man all his life. He went to Illinois when that section of the
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state was in its early pioneer days and did much to bring about better condi- tions in the new territory.
Frank W. Lyon was one of a family of eleven children, six of whom died before reaching maturity. He attended the common schools near his home in Stark county, Illinois, remaining at his studies until sixteen years of age. Then for the two following years he was a teacher in the rural dis- tricts. In search of higher education he entered Knox College at Gales- burg, Illinois, remaining there until his senior year. when he abandoned the line of study he was then pursuing and took up the reading of law in the office of J. H. Miller, at Toulon, Illinois. He remained there for some time and then for his finishing studies he went into the office of Judge S. B. Puterbaugh, at Peoria, and in that city was admitted to practice at the bar, by examination before the supreme court in June of 1882. He returned to Toulon and opened an office for the practice of his chosen profession, remaining in that city until 1885, when he moved to Minneapolis. He remained there but two years and in the fall of 1887 he came to Little Falls, Morrison county, which city he has since made his home.
Since locating in Little Falls, Judge Lyon has been counted one of the leading attorneys of the county, and in 1888, just one year after coming here, as an evidence of the esteem in which he was held, he was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of county attorney for Morrison county, which office he most efficiently filled for eight years. He also served as city attorney of Little Falls for two years ( 1890-91). Judge Lyon lias always taken especial interest in the cause of education and as an earnest of this fact, he was for fifteen consecutive years a member of the school board of Little Falls, quitting that body in 1910. His election to the municipal judge- ship of his city occurred in the spring of 1915. with a four-year term to be filled, and in this honor which has just been conferred upon him, Judge Lyon will give the same satisfaction to his fellow citizens as he has in times past.
Judge Lyon is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Red Men of America, and Knights of the Maccabees. Judge and Mrs. Lyon were married on March 1, 1883, and to their union have been born three daughters: Ethel, wife of W. W. Brain, residing at Brainerd, Minnesota; Ilelen R., wife of C. C. Wright, of Minneapolis, and Gertrude K. Mrs. Lyon, who before her marriage was Helen G. Thompson, was born on September 3, 1861, at Pekin, Illinois, and received an excellent education in the schools of her native city. She is a charming and agreeable woman, much admired in the circles in which she moves.
Judge Lyon has long since demonstrated the high quality of his man-
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hood and citizenship, for since the first of his residence here he has taken an active position in all matters pertaining to the advancement of the best interests of the city. Personally, he is a genial and companionable gentle- man, well read and thoroughly informed on the leading questions of the day and is eminently deserving of the marked popularity which he enjoys.
HANS C. ANDERSEN.
Hans C. Andersen is a successful farmer of Rail Prairie township, Mor- rison county, Minnesota. He is a native of Denmark, born on May 9, 1866. Mr. Andersen's parents were Christian and Kathrine (Hanson) Andersen, the former of whom was born about 1837, in Denmark, and who died in his native land in 1907. He was a merchant and farmer. Mr. Andersen's mother, Kathrine ( Hanson) Andersen, who was born in 1833, in Denmark, visited her sons in America in 1905, and died in her native land in 1914. She was the mother of seven children, three of whom are living.
Hans C. Andersen left his native land in 1889 at the age of twenty- three years, and, after arriving in America, settled in Morrison county, Minnesota, where he worked as a laborer on various farms for two years. In 1891 he purchased eighty acres of brush and timber land in section 19, of Rail Prairie township, which he improved by the erection of a frame house and a log barn. In 1908 he built a more commodious hay and stock barn and has built an addition to the house. Mr. Andersen now owns two hun- dred and eighty acres of land, all of which except thirty-five acres is under cultivation, and has the very finest fields in the township. He makes a specialty of raising grain and stock of all kinds.
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