USA > Minnesota > Todd County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 23
USA > Minnesota > Morrison County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 23
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In May, 1915, Mr. Groover returned to Long Prairie and, in partner- ship with A. L. Sheets, engaged in the job printing business. This business was sold to Mr. Sheets on July 1, 1915, and Mr. Groover came to Hewitt, Todd county, Minnesota, and purchased the Hewitt Banner from V. E.
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Joslin. Mr. Groover is now the editor and publisher of this paper, which has a most satisfactory circulation in this part of Todd county. It is his first experience as editor of a paper, but he is a bright, clean-cut young man of excellent habits and of splendid business ability and is bound to make a success of any enterprise to which he might turn his hand.
Leslie A. Groover was married on September 9, 1915, to Mary Hennek, oi Long Prairie, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hennek, of that place.
Politically. Leslie A. Groover is wholly unprejudiced and is, therefore, the better equipped as a newspaper publisher and proprietor. He is an inde- pendent voter. Mr. Groover is a member of the Catholic church and devout in this faith.
NICHOLAS J. HENNEN.
Those men who faced every danger and death itself on the battlefields of the Civil War and who bore the suffering and made the sacrifices for their country's sake especially deserve mention in these annals. The younger generation should never forget that to them is due a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, since the prosperity, liberty and happiness we now enjoy are the outcome of their labor and loyalty. Among the honored vet- erans of Morrison county, Minnesota. is the venerable Nicholas J. Hennen, who, in less than ten years after his arrival in America, was fighting val- iantly for the cause of liberty in his adopted country.
Nicholas J. Hennen was born in Prussia on July 4, 1844, and is the son of Peter J. and Margaret Hennen, natives of Prussia. Peter J. Hen- nen brought his family to America in 1852, and after landing in New York City the family emigrated to Fond du Lac county. Wisconsin, where they purchased one hundred and twenty acres of wild land. There they built a house and began improving the land, doing general farming in the mean- time. Peter J. Hennen died in 1868, and his beloved wife in 1874. They were members of the Catholic church. Peter J. Hennen voted the Deino- cratic ticket. His wife bore him six children. John, Mathias J., Nicholas, Nicholas J., Joseph and Mathias.
Nicholas J. Hennen was seven years old when the Hennen family came to America. He received an elementary education in the public schools of Wisconsin and lived with his parents in Fond du Lac county until fifteen years old. He then emigrated to northern Michigan, where he worked in the copper mines for three years.
NICHOLAS J. HENNEN
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MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
On August 15, 1862, Mr. Hennen enlisted in Company I, Twenty-third Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, serving two years, seven months and two days under General Rosecrans and General Sherman. The regi- ment left Saginaw, Michigan, on September 18, 1862, for Kentucky. Dur- ing the following winter it was stationed at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and other points. The regiment saw no actual fighting, however, until the fol- lowing summer after which Mr. Hennen was engaged in the follow- ing battles and skirmishes; Paris, Kentucky, July 29, 1863; Huff's Ferry, Tennessee, November 12, 1863; Cambells Station, Tennessee, November 16, 1863; the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, November 17 to December 5, 1863; Dandridge, Tennessee, January 14, 1864; Strawberry Plain, Tennessee, January 22, 1864; Rocky Face, Georgia, May 8, 1864; Resaca, Georgia, May 14, 1864; Etowali, Georgia, May 22, 1864; Dallas, Georgia, June 17, 1864; Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864; Chat- tahooche River, Georgia, July 5 and 6, 1864; the siege of Atlanta, July 22 to August 25, 1864; Lovejoys Station, Georgia, August 31, 1864; Colum- bia, Tennessee, November 25, 1864; Duck River, Tennessee, November 28, 1864; Spring Hill, Tennessee, November 29, 1864; Nashville, Tennessee, December 12, 1864.
During his services Mr. Hennen contracted an abscess on the lungs as consequence to exposure shortly before the battle of Nashville and after that was confined to the hospital until shortly before his discharge, on March 17, 1865.
After the close of the Civil War, Nicholas J. Hennen returned to Michigan to work in the copper mines. About this time he was married to Anna Gross. He remained in Michigan for about two years and then moved to Stearns county, Minnesota, purchasing one hundred and twenty acres of wild land. There he built a log shanty and started housekeeping. He gradually improved the place and lived upon it for thirteen years, raising wheat, corn, oats, etc. At the end of thirteen years, Mr. Hennen sold out and moved to Pierz, where he started a saloon, which hie operated for cleven years. He then removed to Little Falls and operated a saloon for one year. Finally he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in sections 17 and 18 in Pierz township. During his residence there he improved the house and the farm generally. In 1897 lie was appointed postmaster of Pierz, but continued to live on the farm until March, 1915, when he moved to Pierz. He kept the postoffice in the store of P. A. Hartmann, his son-in- law. During this period Mr. Hennen's son operated the home farm.
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Nicholas J. Hennen has been twice married. His first wife, Anna Gross, was a native of Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, born in 1847. She died in 1873, having borne four children, one of whom, Anna, died early in life. The surviving children were Joseph J., Kathrine, wife of F. W. Kettler, and Mathias. Mr. Hennen was married, secondly, to Mary Maery, a native of Wisconsin, born in 1847, and who died in 1891. Eight children were born to this second marriage, Margaret, Henry, Theresia, Elizabeth, Frances, John, Anna, and Lena, who died in infancy.
Mr. Hennen is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at Little Falls. He is a Republican in politics, and aside from serving as postmaster of Pierz for seventeen years he was chairman of the town board for three years and assessor for one year. He also was census enumerator in this township. He and his family are members of the Catholic church.
CARL W. RUNQUIST.
One of the enterprising agriculturists of Elmdale township, Morrison county, Minnesota, is the respected subject of this sketch, owner and pro- prietor of the "Natural Grove Farm," one of the most up-to-date farms of that section. This farm contains one hundred and twenty acres, sixty-five of which are under the plow and the balance is given over to grazing. Mr. Runquist conducts his farm business along modern, scientific lines and in addition to general farming, he raises a number of cattle each year to sell. The season of 1915 finds him with twenty-four head in addition to six hogs and four head of horses which are required to do the work of the farm. That Mr. Runquist has prospered along material lines is due to the fact that he possesses an unfailing amount of energy and good judgment and is actuated by right principles in his dealings with his fellow men.
Carl W. Runquist is a native of Sweden, born on September 19, 1854. son of Carl G. Rumnquist, born in 1830, and Maria Christina Runquist, born in 1825. The parents never left their native land, the mother passing away in 1898, at the age of seventy-three years, and the father in 1902, when seventy-two years old. He had been a soldier for many years and his interests never took him away from the land of his birth.
Carl W. Runquist is the second child in a family of nine and when a boy did not have the advantage of a good education, his schooling being limited to six months' attendance in the common schools ncar his home. His
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help was needed on the home farm, and from the time he was a very small boy he assisted the father in the work, continuing under the paternal roof until twenty-five years of age. He left home to take up his life in the land of America and after landing in New York, went directly to Wisconsin, where there were many people of his nationality. The first three months of his residence in that state he spent in the mines, and in 1880 he went to Royalton, Minnesota, where he secured work on a section gang under Ole Black, with whom he remained for three years. After leaving Ole Black he was employed for three months on the Northern Pacific railroad in like capacity, and in the fall of 1884 he went into the woods to pass the winter. After the season's work was over, he went in the spring of 1885 to Elindale township, Morrison county, where he purchased a tract of one hundred and twenty acres in section 10 and proceeded to live there alone for the three following years.
On April 18, 1889, Carl W. Runquist was united in marriage with Martha Christina Larson, a young widow. She was a native of Fodslette, Denmark, and when quite young came with her family to America, locating in Elmdale township, where she grew to womanhood. Her first husband was Louis Johnson, by whom she became the mother of five children, namely : Anna Maria, Johanna Matilda, Louis Peter, Emma Christina and Gustav Adolph. Mrs. Runquist's first husband had left her one hundred and twenty acres of land, but seven of which were under cultivation, and under Mr. Runquist's management their combined farms thrived and prospered. He has sold part of their holdings, until the farm now contains one hundred and twenty acres and every acre of ground, as well as the residence and other buildings, attest the excellent business ability of the owner. Mr. and Mrs. Runquist are the parents of ten children, namely : Ida Sophia and Hulda Victoria, twins; Hielma Henrietta. Elen Henrietta, Agnes Elvira, Myrtle Wilhelmina, Carl Norman, Edle Josephina, Lester and Lila, twins.
Mr. Runquist and his family are members of the Swedish Mission church at Upsala. He has been a director of that society for a number of years, and one of its most valued members. Politically, he supports the Republican party and has given service as a member of the board of town- ship supervisors for the past nine years. Also for seventeen years he has been a member of the school board of district No. 61, of Elidale township, and in the discharge of these various duties he has displayed excellent judg- ment and an earnest desire to advance the welfare of his community. Mr. Runquist is one of the members of the Elmdale Stock Shippers' Association
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and is interested in other enterprises calculated to develop community life to the highest and best. Mr. Runquist is known to be honest and upright in all his dealings, thoroughly reliable in every particular, and is, therefore, to be classed amongst the worthy citizens of the country where he has chosen to make his permanent home.
JOHN A. ANDWOOD.
To write the record of men who have raised themselves from humble circumstances to a position of responsibility and trust in a community is no ordinary pleasure. Self-made men who have achieved success by reason of their personal qualities and have left their impress upon the business and growth of their communities have, all unwittingly, built for themselves monuments more lasting than any shaft of marble or granite could possibly be. One of the good citizens of Morrison county, Minnesota, is John A. Andwood, a farmer in Elmdale township, who is fully entitled to claim all the honor suggested in the foregoing.
John A. Andwood is a native of Sweden, born near the city of Stock- holm, on August 29, 1858, son of Andrew Erickson and Christena ( Ander- son) Erickson. There were twelve children in the family. John A. being the fifth in order of birth, and neither parent ever came to this country. Andrew was a laborer all his life, an honest and upright man, who wished for his children all possible advantages and greatly enjoyed the prosperity which came to such of them as emigrated to the United States.
Mr. Andwood attended the common schools near his home when a lad and the years of his youth and young manhood were spent in farm labor until the time of his coming to America. He was twenty-three years of age when he left his home for the land of promise and touched this country first at the port of New York. From there he went to the northern portion of Michigan and for the following two years was employed in the iron mines. His next move was to St. Paul, where he was for four years employed by the city water company. He returned to the mining section of Michigan where he spent the following two years. He again sought employment with the city water company of St. Paul and remained with them until 1897, when he came to Morrison county and bought forty acres of land in Elmdale township, adjoining a purchase of like acreage which he had made some time previously. He brought his bride with him and they made their home
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in a log house which was already erected on the land and the first thing Mr. Andwood did was to build a log barn. He then began clearing his ground, and soon was able to get in a few small crops. In 1905 Mr. Andwood pur- chased another tract of forty acres, located in section 33, of Shanville town- ship. He devotes a goodly portion of his land to the care of his stock, having in the season of 1915 about forty head which he is feeding for the market and in addition keeps six head of horse and nine hogs.
Just before leaving St. Paul for this county, on May 1, 1897, John A. Andwood was united in marriage with Sophia Anderson, born in Sweden on February 17, 1865. She came to this country alone and secured employ- ment in St. Paul, where she remained until the time of her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Andwood was born a family of six children, all of whom died in early infancy and to fill the empty place in their hearts, these good people have taken three children, who were alone in the world, to rear as their own. The eldest of these is Victor Johnson, who came into Mr. Andwood's home when he was eight years of age. He was born on January 4, 1891, at Upsala, Elidale township, this county, and has made pleasing returns for tlie care given him in childhood. In 1913 he purchased eighty acres of land, which he is farming in a most creditable manner and gives every evi- dence of taking his place in later years among the leading farmers of this county. Two girls were also received into the Andwood home. These are Anna and Alice Bring, both natives of Sweden, the former born in 1897 and the latter in 1901.
Mr. Andwood has prospered since coming here. His land is very largely under cultivation, his home and buildings are in good repair and all are most complimentary to the industry and thrift of the owner. Mr. And- wood is a stockholder in the creamery, the Elmdale Fire Insurance Company and besides these local interests, he holds stock in the Independent Harvester Company of Illinois and the Luce railroad. Mr. Andwood approves of twentieth-century methods of farming, and his work is managed along that line. He has installed a gas engine which pumps the water for his stock, operates the family washing machine, the cream separator and performs many other tasks in a most gratifying, labor-saving manner. Mr. Andwood has practically discarded the use of his horses for conveying him about the country, and drives and greatly enjoys, his Maxwell automobile. All con- sidered, he is a thoroughly active and up-to-date man and inasmuch as his influence has always been cast on the side of right and his conduct has been entirely above reproach, he has won and retains the unbounded respect of all who know him.
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JOHN SCHMOLKE.
Prosperity can never quite measure, much less repay, what it owes to the pioneers of a community. John Schmolke, a well-known citizen of Buckman, Morrison county Minnesota, is a pioneer builder of this section. No man has done so much as he to replace the scrub cattle common in this section a generation ago with the splendid dairy breed, which are now found on most farms. Few men have done so much as he to transform this wild prairie land into fertile farms, inhabited by happy, contented people.
John Schmolke was born in Germany on May 23, 1861, the son of Jacob and Catherine Schmolke, both of whom lived in Germany until they came to America in 1885, after which they lived with their son, John, the subject of this sketch. Jacob Schmolke was a shoemaker by trade and fol- lowed this trade until his retirement. He is still living in this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schmolke were born ten children, of whom five died early in life. John was the second born. The mother of these children died on October 2, 1910, at the age of seventy-two years.
Reared and educated in Germany, John Schmolke learned the shoe- maker's trade, which he followed in his native land for eight years. When he was twenty-two years old, he came to America, two years before his par- ents came. After landing at New York city with only one German penny, one-quarter of a cent in American money, he did a few odd jobs and then went to Little Falls, New York, where he learned to milk cows, never hav- ing seen a cow milked before. At Little Falls, he also learned to speak all the English he now knows. After remaining at Little Falls for three months, Mr. Schmolke had made enough money to come to Morrison county, Minnesota, and, after arriving here, he settled in Buckman township. He arrived in the village of Buckman on September 29. 1883, on St. Michael's Day, and, while the people were having a picnic, he spent the last penny he had at this picnic. He then went to work for a thresherman, working twenty days and making twenty dollars. With the twenty dollars, he went to Little Falls, Minnesota, and purchased leather. He returned to Buckman and, during the winter, went from house to house mending shoes. He cleared one hundred dollars during the winter, and with this money purchased a house and one-half acre of land in the following spring for one hundred and twenty dollars. Mr. Schmolke then went into the grocery business with Joe Hortsch, Mr. Schmolke furnishing the store room and his partner the stock of goods. It was the first store in Buckman. After operating the
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store for one year, Mr. Schmolke purchased his partner's interest and oper- ated the store by himself.
In 1885 John Schmolke was married to Hedwig Peschel, the daughter of John and Mary Peschel. One year after his marriage, Mr. Schmolke established a small hotel. He then sent free passage to his brother, Charles, that he might come to America and soon after this he brought his parents and all of the family to America, helping them to get started. All of the members of the family are now well situated.
Some years ago, Mr. Schmolke began to deal in farni lands. To assist in opening the country he became the agent for cattle buyers and assisted in getting the cattle out of this section. In order to get rid of so many scrub cattle, he induced the butchers to ship and kill them. He has built five creameries and cream stations in this locality to establish a market for the cream. They are located at Buckman, Ramey, Lastrop, Agram and New Pierz.
Today, after a little more than thirty years in America, John Schmolke is what might be called a land baron. He owns several thousand acres, most of which is in Canada. In Morrison county he owns about fifteen hundred acres.
ANDREW RYDHOLM.
Andrew Rydholm, a farmer of Elmdale township, Morrison county, Minnesota, is among the leading agriculturists of his section and a man of many sterling qualities. Mr. Rydholm is a native of Sweden and when a young man came to this country and began carving a career for himself among new friends and new conditions of living. That he has attained a pleasing degree of material success is not surprising, for he possesses much native shrewdness and industry and this coupled with honorable principles has won for him material success and at the same time brought him many friends of the highest order.
Andrew Rydholm was born on June 9, 1862, near the city of Lindcop- ing, in Sweden, being the third child in a family of ten, and the eldest of the family living at the present time. His father is Axel Rydholm, born on February 2, 1834, and still living in New York city, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. He has been a tailor all his life and still does some work along that line. Andrew's mother, Sophia Rydholm, is also living. She was born on December 12, 1834, and is, therefore, also eighty-one years
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of age. Both parents are in excellent health and perform many active duties about the home not always possible to persons of their age. Mr. Rydholm's parents came to this country in 1896, at which time all their children were located in America.
Andrew Rydholm received his education in his native land, attending its common schools and after completing his studies he was apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade. However, he did not work at that trade long enough to master it and when but seventeen years of age, he started out to try his fortune in America. He landed in New York city on May 12, 1880, and came directly into the West. For a short time he was in Minneapolis and his first summer here was spent on the St. Paul and Milwaukee railroad. When winter approached. he went to Center City and secured work for the coming winter on a farm in that vicinity. In the spring of 1881 he again took up his residence in Minneapolis and at that time worked as apprentice to the brick-laying trade. He mastered that trade and continued to be thus employed until 1893 when he decided to give the rest of the active years of his life to farming.
By that time Mr. Rydholm had accumulated some money and he pur- chased an eighty-acre tract of wild land in Elmdale township, Morrison county, where he has since made his home. He has his land almost entirely cleared and under cultivation and in 1910 purchased twenty additional acres of hay land in section 16, of Eimdale township, his residence being located in section 9. Mr. Rydholm devotes his energies to general farming and as a side line raises dairy cows. He has a good strain of Holstein cattle and in the summer of 1915 had nineteen head in addition to six pigs and three head of horses. Mr. Rydholm conducts his farming along scientific lines and is uniformly successiul in his undertakings. His home and other build- ings are in good repair and the appearance of the entire homestead speaks well for its owner. In addition to his home interests, Mr. Rydholm is a stockholder in the Farmers' Co-operative Creamery Association of Upsala and a member of the Elmdale Stock Shippers' Association.
Mrs. Rydholm before her marriage was Sophia Nelson, born in Sweden on October 4, 1865. She received her education in her childhood home and in 1882 set out alone for America. She went directly to the city of Minne- apolis, where she had friends and where she secured employment. She con- tinued to reside in that city until the time of her marriage in 1885. To Mr. and Mrs. Rydholm have been born a family of nine children, one of whom died at the age of two years. The others are: Henry, Teckla, Herbert, Casper, Julia. Edith, Arvid and Ada.
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Mr. Rydholm, together with his family. holds his religious membership in the Swedish Mission church and is one of the faithful supporters of the local society. He has served as church treasurer for a number of years and still assumes that responsibility. In politics he votes independently. He takes an active interest in the affairs of the community, particularly those pertaining to education and for the past six years has been school treasurer of district No. 101. He was first elected to that position in 1908, was re-elected in 1911 and again in 1914. In March of 1910 he was elected chairman of the township board of supervisors for Elindale township and received the re-election in 1913. Mr. Rydholm performs the duties thus devolving upon him in a manner most satisfactory to all concerned. being both efficient and of unquestioned integrity. Mr. Rydholm is a man of many excellent traits who not only gives the best of attention to his private affairs, but who also realizes his duties as a citizen of the commonwealth and gladly performs his part for the general well-being of the community.
GEORGE M. RIEDNER.
Prominent in the affairs of Belle View township. Morrison county, Minnesota, a citizen whose influence extends beyond the limits of Belle View township. the name of George M. Riedner is well known among the farmers and stockmen of this community. His undertakings have been actuated by the noblest motives and characterized by breadth of wisdom, initiative and good business management. His success is merely the result of using the talents with which he is endowed.
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