USA > Minnesota > Todd County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 27
USA > Minnesota > Morrison County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 27
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SAMUEL TEDFORD.
Among the residents of Morrison county, Minnesota, who have con- tributed to its agricultural prosperity, is Samuel Tedford, who has lived within its boundaries for over twenty years. During that time he has taken an active interest in every movement started for the betterment of the com- munity in which he lives. His high ideals of business honesty and his abil- ity to solve intelligently, those problems which have come up concerning his own county, have won for him the confidence of fellow citizens and an enviable place among those who stand for sound principles and true judg- ment.
Samuel Tedford was born in Clinton county, New York, on April 30, 1874, and is the son of Robert and Sarah (Colvin) Tedford. His father, Robert Tedford, is a Canadian by birth but came to New York with his parents, where he took up the occupation of farming. Sarah Tedford is a native of Ireland, but left the Emerald Isle when she was just nine years old, and came to New York, where she now resides. In 1892, Samuel Tedford left his native state to take up his residence in Morrison county, Minnesota. He bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Clough township, section 12, and spent some time clearing the land of timber and wild brush. He now has over seventy acres broken up and the fields are in an excellent state of cultivation. Twenty acres are planted in corn, thirteen acres in hay and fifteen acres in oats. Apart from this he has
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devoted some time to the rearing of cattle, of which he keeps a high-grade stock. For the purpose of making a thoroughly modern stock farm of his place he has erected a large barn, measuring thirty-six by forty-four feet. and has also built a silo. The farm represents everything that is modern in rural design and stands as a proof of what may be done with a tract of wilderness. Mr. Tedford is a shareholder in the Ft. Ripley Creamery Com- pany.
The marriage of Samuel Tedford and Blanch Cole was solemnized in 1906. Mrs. Tedford lived only a few years after the marriage and passed away on December 22, 1911. She was a native of Minnesota, having been born in Winnebago county, on the 25th of July, 1886. To this union three children were born, Samuel C., Mary V. and Blanch M. The children are still living at home. In April, 1913, Mr. Tedford married Ella Bates, a daughter of Ephraim and Lwetta (Roberts) Bates, who are numbered among the pioneer settlers of Morrison county. She was born October 10, 1874, in Randall, Minnesota.
In his political interests Mr. Tedford is affiliated with the Republican party. He is a zealous member of the Methodist church and contributes to its support. For two consecutive years he held the office of town super- visor and served with such success that he was chosen again for the position in 1912, seven years later. Mr. Tedford is a member of the Red Men lodge.
HANS ISAACSON.
Among the foreign-born farmers of Morrison county, Minnesota, few men have made a larger success of agriculture than Hans Isaacson, a native of Norway, who, about two years after his marriage, emigrated to America with his family. He owns three hundred and twenty acres of land in Belle- vue township, all of which is under cultivation, and raises principally rye and corn. He also maintains a fine herd of dairy cattle.
Hans Isaacson was born in Norway on August 2, 1855, the son of Isaac and Annie Hanson, the former of whom died a few years ago in Nor- way, and the latter after her husband's death came to America with her chil- dren.
Having received only a very meager education in the schools of Nor- way, Hans Isaacson was thrown on his own resources at the age of nine years. He served in the army when a young man, but as the army drilled
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only a few weeks each year, he thien would return to civil life. Until about 1882, he followed fishing in the northern Atlantic and Arctic oceans and around Greenland and Iceland. After landing at New York City in 1882, Mr. Isaacson traveled to Minneapolis. For a few years he worked as a laborer. When he came to Minnesota no one could understand his peculiar native name, so he adopted the name Hans Isaacson, as suggested by his father's first and second name, Isaac Hanson, and he is now known as Hans Isaacson. After working as a laborer in Minneapolis for a few years, he received work as a carpenter. He followed this trade for eleven years. He then moved to Ripley township, Morrison county, Minnesota, and home- steaded eighty acres of land, later adding eighty acres by purchase adjoin- ing the first eighty. He was compelled to clear and improve the land and to erect buildings. He farmed there for about seven years, when he traded the land for a two-hundred-acre farm in Bellevue township belonging to J. H. Rhodes. The Rhodes farm was partly improved and a part of it was boggy and covered with water the entire year. Mr. Isaacson lived in a log house for four years, and during that time improved the farm, especially by constructing ditches and draining the swamp land. The entire farm is now under cultivation. Since coming here he has added forty acres in one tract and eighty acres in another, which is also entirely under cultivation. Several years ago he built a modern two-story brick house, and a little later a commodious barn.
On October 8, 1880, two years before coming to America, Hans Isaac- son was married in Norway to Elizabeth Olson, a native of Norway, who has borne him eight children, as follow: Isaac, Gilbert, Jennie, Elmer, Charles, Clara, Edwin and George. Of these children, Isaac is engaged in the railroad business on the Soo line. Gilbert, who is a farmer, owns one hundred and twenty acres of land in Bellevue township. Jennie is the wife of Sidney Smith, of Oregon, and they have one child, Jessie. Eliner and Charles are farmers in Little Falls township. Elmer owns one hundred and eighteen acres and Charles one hundred and sixty acres. The remainder of the children are living at home with their parents and assist with the work of the farm.
Mr. Isaacson gives his political affiliation as that of an independent Republican. When living in Ripley township he served as school director of district No. 50 for seven years. He also served as school director in Bellevue township for three years. Mr. and Mrs. Isaacson and family are members of the Lutheran church.
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REV. MICHAEL SCHERER.
Prominent in Catholic circles in and around Buckman, Morrison county, Minnesota, where he is pastor of St. Michael's church, and much beloved in church circles of Stearns county, this state, where the greater portion of his life has been passed, is the Rev. Michael Scherer, to a short sketch of whose career the attention of the reader is now directed.
Michael Scherer was born at Altensdorf, Bavaria, Germany, on Sep- tember 22, 1876, and was baptized in the parish church at Hebramsdorf on the following day. His parents were John and Theresa Scherer, the father being engaged in farming. When five years of age he entered the elemen- tary schools, and at the age of eleven years emigrated with his parents to the United States. They moved directly to Stearns county, this state, arriv- ing at St. Joseph on May 12, 1888. The family immediately secured a location near Collegeville, but in the fall of that first year moved to a farm near Coldspring. Young Michael attended the public schools in the vicinity of his home and after completing his studies there worked on the farm for some years with his father. However, he had higher ambitions in life than the duties and opportunities of the agriculturist offered, worthy as they may be, and with the carnest desire to render to mankind the greatest possible service, that of spiritual counsellor and friend, he entered St. John's College, conducted by the Benedictine Fathers, in November, 1895, pursuing the classical course at that institution of learning. Being graduated therefrom, he, in 1901, entered the renowned seminary of St. John's University. Col- legeville, Minnesota, in which institution he mastered the complete philoso- phical and theological courses and was ordained to the holy priesthood on the 9th of June, 1906, by the Rt. Rev. James Trobec. D. D., bishop of St. Cloud.
Father Scherer celebrated his first holy mass on June 14, 1906. at Cold- spring. Ilis first ecclesiastic duties were performed in the parish of St. Anthony, Stearns county, Minnesota, where he was sent as assistant pastor until September of that year, when he received the appointment of assistant in the cathedral at St. Cloud. While in that position he attended to the spiritual wants of the inmates of the state reformatory, located near that place, finding there a rich field for the broad sympathy and brotherly under- standing which has endeared him to the hearts of his people wherever his ministrations have been given. Father Scherer also labored at the mission on Elk river, in Sherburn county, this state, and much of the healthy growth of the work there was due to the untiring effort which he put forth in behalf
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of that people. Father Scherer's next work lay at Padua, Stearns county, being assigned on July 3, 1910, to the pastorate of the church of St. Anthony at that place. He remained there until June 20, 1913, on which date he took charge of the work at St. Mark's church, Clear Lake, Minnesota, and on February 23, 1915, he was appointed pastor of St. Michael's church at Buckman, Morrison county.
While not having given as many years to the priesthood as many of his colleagues, Father Scherer can boast of such opportunity and experience as does not always fall to the lot of a pastor with so few years to his credit, and it can truthfully be said of him that his various duties have been dis- charged in a manner most pleasing to all who have been under his watchful care. He is endowed with such qualities as especially fit him for the great course which he chose in life and his great influence for good will never be known this side of the shores of eternity.
HARRY MILTON LOGAN.
Harry Milton Logan, proprietor of the well-known confectionery store of Royalton, Morrison county, Minnesota, and a mail carrier in Morrison county, was born on February II, 1867, in Greenville, Pennsylvania, the son of John D. and Mary J. ( Walker ) Logan.
John D. Logan was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, August 2, 1838. In 1855, when seventeen years old, he came to Minnesota, set- tling at Northfield, where he took a claim at the edge of the present city. Afterward, he sold out, and in April, 1861, enlisted in Company G, First Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, as a private. He was discharged for disability in 1864, having suffered a sun-stroke near Falmouth, Virginia. John D. Logan fought in both battles of Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg. Antietam, Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Seven Days, in fact. all the battles of the Army of the Potomac until disabled.
After the war, John D. Logan returned to Greenville, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged as a stationary engineer until he took up contracting and building. On August 2, 1864, he was married, and thereafter, until 1872, lived in Greenville, operating a planing mill at Orangeville and Hub- bard, Ohio, after leaving Greenville. In 1874 he sold out at Hubbards, and removed to West Middlesex, Pennsylvania. where for five years he operated a saw and planing mill. When the mill burned, he removed to Royalton, arriving here on June 12, 1879. Here he built a saw and planing mill.
·
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which he operated until it was destroyed by fire in 1883. He had no insur- ance. In the meantime, in 1879, he had laid out the original townsite of Royalton, covering about twenty acres of land owned by himself. The first house was built in 1879, and was a frame house. A store was also built in the same year on the site of the present Commercial hotel. The town has been growing steadily ever since, and has a population, according to the 1910 census, of six hundred and seventy-six.
In 1887 Mr. Logan began the operation of the mill at Lincoln, Morri- son county, which he continued for four years in partnership with his son, Harry Milton Logan. In November, 1891, the mill at Lincoln burned with- out insurance. After selling his personal property, John D. Logan retired from active business, and, being taken ill about this time, passed through a long period of sickness. He died in August, 1907, at the age of sixty-nine years. A Republican in politics, he was president of the village council and chairman of the first school board of this district and also for several years thereafter. He was chairman of the board of supervisors of Belle View township, and was a member of the Presbyterian church. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife, who was born at Mercer, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1841, lived at Mercer until her marriage. She was the mother of five children, three of whom grew to manhood. Harry Milton was the eldest. The others are Frank B. and Charles W.
Harry Milton Logan was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania and at Royalton, Minnesota, coming to Royalton when twelve years old. Until he was twenty-six years old he assisted his father and during the last three years of this period was in partnership with him in operating the saw-mill. When twenty-seven years old, Mr. Logan began shifting for him- self. He learned the painter's trade and followed the trade until 1903, when he started the confectionery store on Center street, which he has operated successfully ever since.
On December 24, 1892. Harry Milton Logan was married to Martha A. Conner, who was born in Davis county, Iowa, January 20, 1869. Mrs. Logan is the daughter of Lee W. and Saralı (Evans) Conner, the former of whom was born and reared in West Virginia, and the latter of whom was born and reared in Indiana. They lived in Iowa until 1903, when they came to Royalton. Mrs. Logan came to Royalton in July. 1892, and was married soon afterward. Mr. and Mrs. Logan have had six children Those living are: Mary E., Mildred M., Florence H. and Harry Milton, Jr. Two died in infancy.
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In 1904 Mr. Logan was appointed as rural mail carrier and has been engaged in the civil service every since. In 1894 he was elected as recorder of the village of Royalton and served two years. In 1905 lie was a member of the school board of district No. 40. He has been chief of the fire depart- ment for the past fourteen years, and is a honorary, life member of the State Fireman's Association. He is secretary of the Fire Department Relief Asso- ciation, and has served since its organization in 1908. He is also secretary of the engine (fire) company No. I, and has served in this capacity for the past sixteen years. Since the year 1895, he has been agent for the Fire Insurance Company of North America and the Phoenix Fire Insurance Com- pany of Hartford. During the fourteen years preceding 1906, he was a notary public.
Mr. Logan is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons. He is a Knights Templar, and is the present master of the blue lodge. He is also a past noble grand in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a mem- ber of the Modern Woodmen of America, and has been clerk of the local lodge since 1900. In politics he is a Republican.
MATHIAS T. MONSON.
To a great extent the prosperity of the agricultural sections of our state is due to the honest industry, the sturdy persistence, the unswerving perseverance and the wise economy which so prominently characterize the farming element of the great state of Minnesota. Among this class may be mentioned the subject of this life record, who by reason of years of honest labor and wise management has not only acquired a well-merited material prosperity, but has also richly earned the highest esteem of all with whom he is associated.
Mathias T Monson, successful farmer and stockman of Darling town- ship, Morrison county, Minnesota, is a native of the "land of the midnight sun"-born in Norway on July 17, 1853, a son of Thomas and Mary (Olson) Monson. There were in all eight children in the Monson family, the immediate subject of this sketch being the fourth child in order of birth and a babe of one year when the parents with their little family emigrated to this country. The eldest of the family is Martha, wife of J. A. Johnson, residing in La Crosse county, Wisconsin : Jane, the second child, is deceased. Olena is Mrs. A. Nelson, and also lives in Wisconsin, as do Jolin, Bertha (Mrs. J Skogen), Ole and Helen, wife of A. Skogen.
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Thomas Monson was born in Norway in 1821, and in 1853 left his native land with his little family. They moved directly to Wisconsin, where the father engaged in farming. He purchased a tract of land from the gov- ernment, paying fifty dollars for forty acres. He gave some of the best years of his life to getting this land in a proper state of cultivation and succeeded so well that he was able to retire from the active duties of life about fifteen years prior to his death, which occurred in 1903. A few years previous, in 1899, the mother had died. She was also a native of Norway. born in the same year as her husband, 1821.
When Mathias T. Monson was a child he attended the district schools near his home in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, where his father had located, and remained with his parents until eighteen years of age. From early boy- hood he had asssisted his father with the work of the home, but when he arrived at young manhood he felt the call of the outside world. He became a lumberman, working in the timber and in rafting logs on the waters of the Black river. In 1877 he returned home and purchased the homestead from his father and for the following four years he was engaged in the management of the same. He, however, desired to return to the life of the forests and gave the farm back to his father. For the next several years he was engaged in various kinds of work, among them farming, and on July 28, 1893, he located in Randall, Morrison county, where he has since made his home.
Mr. Monson purchased a tract of land containing eighty acres in section 9, of Darling township, same being at that time absolutely unimproved, and he gave himself to the task of making a fine homestead of it. He was pro- gressing nicely with his undertaking when, at the end of the first year, he had the misfortune to lose his wife. This so disheartened him that he left his farm and again engaged in the work of the timber. He remained there until 1899, when he returned to his farm in Morrison county and began making improvements. He erected a comfortable home, twenty-four by twenty-six feet, one story and a half, and built a fine barn, fifty-six by thirty- two feet. Ile also put up a silo and wind-mill and became engrossed in stock raising and the farming incidental thereto. He is at the present time tilling about fourteen acres, with twenty acres in hay, and each year he has a goodly number of cattle ready for the markets. He raises graded stock only and has progressed remarkably well in his undertaking. In addition to his private business, he is one of the larger shareholders in the Randall Co- operative Creamery Company and is one of the substantial citizens of his community, deeply interested in all that concerns the advancement of every phase of community life.
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Mathias T. Monson has been twice married. His first wife was Minnie Peterson, born in 1861, and to whom he was married in 1879. She died in 1893, having been the mother of nine children. All are dead with the exception of one, a daughter. Emma, who lives in Wisconsin. For his second wife. Mr. Monson married, in 1898, Caroline Borreson, born on December 28, 1868, in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, a daughter of Nels and Karen O. (Sveum) Borreson, both natives of Norway. They emigrated to this country in 1866, and the mother is still living at Holmen, Wisconsin, the father having passed away some years ago. The last marriage is with- out issue.
Mr. Monson is a faithful member of the Lutheran church. contributing liberally of his means to the support of same, and his political preference is for the Republican party. He has always cvinced a particular interest for the educational work of his section, and for three years served district No. 57, of Darling township, as clerk. There is very much that is commendable in Mr. Monson's career, for he has been found true to every duty, whether of a public or private nature, and while energy and untiring industry have been salient features of his career, he is equally well known for his upright- ness and honorable methods in all his transactions as well as loyalty to any trust imposed in him. Because of his genial and unassuming disposition and his genuine worth. he is in every respect worthy of the pleasing regard in which he is held by a large circle of personal friends and business acquaint- ances.
CARL J. ERICKSON.
A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Carl J. Erickson, a prosperous farmer and merchant of Upsala, Morrison county, Minnesota, was born on Septem- ber 29. 1888.
Carl J. Erickson is the son of John A. and Sophia ( Mill) Erickson. The father was born in Sweden in 1863, and, when a young man came to America, settling in Duluth, Minnesota, where he was married. Soon after- ward he was induced to enter the stone contracting business, and during the next few years built a number of larger buildings in Duluth. In 1888 John A. Erickson came to Elmdale township and purchased one hundred acres of improved land. Since then he has added eighty acres of land to his farm holdings, but the second tract is located in St. Louis county. He is still engaged in farming. Mrs. John A. Erickson, also a native of Sweden,
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who, after coming to America, settled in Duluth, has borne her husband thirteen children, of whom four, namely: Josephine, the eldest; Rudulph, the fifth born; Esther, the tenth born; and Esther, the eleventh born, are deceased. The living children are as follow: William; Olga, who married Fred Udseth; Charles, the subject of this sketch; Helma, who married August Melander : August, George, David, Ethel and Ellen.
Having come to Morrison county, Minnesota, with his parents when an infant only six weeks old, Carl J. Erickson received his education in the Elmdale district school. He lived at home with his father, assisting upon the farm until twenty-two years of age, at which age he entered the general mercantile business at Holdingford, Stearns county. After being in business for one year, he sold out and came to Upsala, opening a store here in 1912.
On January 17, 1913. Carl J. Erickson was married to Esther Peterson, a native of St. Hilaire, Minnesota, born on .April 26, 1892. Mrs. Erickson is the daughter of the Rev. John and Ama ( Boe) Peterson. The father. who was born in Sweden, came to America when a young man and a little later settled in Minnesota, where he was married. As he has been a Con- gregational minister he has lived in many different places, but is now a resident of Upsala. His wife is a native of Norway, who came to America with her parents. She has borne her husband six children, David, Enoch, Lydia, Esther, Mary and Waldo.
Mr. Erickson has sold his store in Upsala and devotes his attention to eighty acres of land in section 28, of Elmdale township, which comprises a highly improved farm, all under cultivation.
Mr. Erickson votes the Republican ticket. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Lutheran church.
REV. SIGISMOND SUSZCZYNSKI.
Morrison county, Minnesota, has been the home and the scene of the labors of many men who not only have led lives which have served as a lesson and an inspiration to those who follow them on the stage of life's activities, but whose influence while living is most wholesome for the com- munity. Rev. Sigismond Suszczynski is a man of well-rounded character, sincere, devoted and loyal. A man who has been well-educated for the ministry and who is one of the learned priests of the Catholic church in this state.
الصيد
REV. SIGISMOND SUSZCZYNSKI
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Sigismond Susczeynski was born on September 30, 1865, in German Poland, the son of Julian and Angela ( Kempinska) Suszczynski, the former of whom was born in 1836 and the latter was born in 1846 in German Poland. Julian Suszczynski was superintendent of a farm machinery fac- tory in his native land, where he was connected with a large plant, with branches in a number of adjoining towns. He spent all his life in his native land, his death occurring in Poland about 1900, at the age of sixty-four years. His wife is still living in Poland, and is now seventy years of age. They were the parents of fourteen children, of whom Sigismond is the eldest. The maternal grandfather of Rev. Sigismond Suszczyski was clerk of one 'of the higher courts in Poland.
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