History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota : its people, industries, and institutions, Volume II, Part 54

Author: Mason, John W. (John Wintermute), 1846- 4n
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1156

USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota : its people, industries, and institutions, Volume II > Part 54

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Olof Peterson was educated in the public schools of his native land. He came to America and to Otter Tail county, Minnesota, in 1892 and, for a short time, worked on neighboring farms. In 1894, in partnership with his brother, Peter. Mr. Peterson purchased eighty acres of land in section 13, of Leaf Lake township. In 1900 they sold the farm and in the same year moved to Henning township, purchasing one hundred and twenty acres in section 35. In 1914 Mr. Peterson purchased forty acres in section 35. and now owns altogether one hundred and sixty acres. Several years ago, in 1907, Mr. Peterson built a large barn, thirty by sixty-four feet. His farm is all very well improved. It is well drained, well fenced and has commod- ious and substantial outbuildings, which are kept in a very high state of repair. Mr. l'eterson is a general farmer and stockman.

In 1900 Olof Peterson was married to Caroline Person, who was born in Clitherall township, near Eagle Lake church, in 1875. and who is the daughter of Andrew and Elna Person, natives of Sweden and pioneers in Clitherall township. They homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land in 1869 and were among the first members of Eagle Lake church. In fact. Mrs. Peterson's father had charge of the church for many years. He died in 1910 and his wife in 1908, both living to advanced ages. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson were married in Fagle Lake Swedish Lutheran church by Rev. James Moody. Mrs. Peterson was one of five children born to her parents, being the youngest. The other children were Cecelia Eunice, Will-

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iam, Matilda and Axel, who is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Olof Peterson have five children, Erick, Alfreda, Cecelia, Carl and Elizabeth.

The Petersons are members of the Swedish Lutheran church. They attend religious services regularly and take an active interest, not only in religious matters, but in civic matters as well. The family is widely known in Henning township and very popular.

MICHAEL LONG.

Michael Long, a general farmer and stock raiser of Candor township, Otter Tail county, and the proprietor of forty acres of land in Candor town- ship, as well as forty acres in Becker county, Minnesota, was born on Febru- ary 28, 1858, the son of Daniel and Mary (Gleason) Long, both natives of Ireland. When about nineteen years of age, Daniel Long and Mary Glea- son emigrated to the United States and settled in Onondaga county, New York, where they were subsequently married. They spent their entire lives on a farm near Pompey Hill, Onondaga county, and lived to attain the ripe old ages of about seventy-five years, he passing away in 1904 and she in 1903. To this happy union there were born seven children: John, Nora, Michael, Edward, Mary, Thomas and Kate. Of these children. Nora alone is deceased.

Reared to manhood in Onondaga county and educated in the public schools of that county, Michael Long, upon reaching early manhood, began driving mules from Buffalo to Syracuse on the Erie canal. continuing the work for three summers. After working on the Great Lakes for several years as a laborer, he went to Minneapolis, only to remove a short time later to North Dakota, where he worked by the year as a farm laborer for Sheriff Twitchel. After his marriage he continued in the employment of Sheriff Twitchel on the Cass farm, near the Dalrumple farm. In 1900 he removed from North Dakota and settled in Candor township, Otter Tail county, buying forty acres in section 3. of that township. He also pur- chased an additional forty acres situated in Becker county.

On August 20, 1897, Michael Long was united in marriage to Carolina Bordseth, who was born in Norway, March 1I, 1871, the daughter of Ole and Bertha Arneson, both of whom were natives of Norway. The former died in his native land in 1873, the father of but one child, Carolina, the wife of Mr. Long. Bertha Arneson was married, secondly, to Peter Mik- kelsen, to which union there were born twelve children, seven of whom are living. To Mr. and Mrs. Long there have been born three children, all of whom are living, as follow: Mary, born on August 9, 1808: Arthur. November 17, 1900, and Mildred. August 29, 1905.

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JOHN HENRY LARSON.

The second eldest living settler of Tordenskjold township, Otter Tail county, Minnesota, is John Henry Larson, who had many Indians for neigh- bors when he first came to this part of Minnesota. Bear and deer were also plentiful during the period of his early residence in this county.

Mr. Larson was born at Lolland, Denmark, September 21, 1841, and is a son of Lars Christiansen and Annie Elizabeth Hendricksen, who spent their entire lives in their native land. Mr. Larson's father was a farmer and gardener. Both he and his wife were faithful and earnest members of the Lutheran church. They were the parents of five children, of whom Johanna, who married Hans Petersen, died in Denmark; Sophia, who mar- ried Peter Olson, died in Copenhagen, Denmark; Henry died in infancy, and Mina died at the age of ten years; John Henry, the subject of this review, is the youngest child.

Educated in the common schools of his native land and reared on his father's farm, John Henry Larson enlisted in the Danish army in 1864, and served eight months in the Danish-German War. He was taken prisoner by the Germans and was confined in a prison camp for two months. Dur- ing his service as a soldier he participated in the battle at Duble, and after that battle was driven on to an island, where he was captured. He remained in prison until the close of the war. As a result of his service in the Dan- ish army he receives an honor gift every year.

After leaving the army, Mr. Larson returned to the farm in order to earn money with which to come to America, and in 1868, while still unmar- ried, he emigrated to America and settled in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, about twenty miles west of Milwaukee, where he lived for one year. The next year Mr. Larson emigrated to Minnesota, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land in Tordenskjold township. He began life in this new state by clearing the land and improving it in various ways. From time to time he erected substantial buildings and has lived on the farm where he first settled ever since. In the meantime, however, he has added to his original holdings and now owns two hundred and forty acres of splendid land in one tract. Mr. Larson is a general farmer and stockman, and has met with pronounced success in his chosen calling. He is a director in the creamery at Battle Lake, and takes an active interest in all local affairs which have for their object the betterment and development of his home community.

After living nine years as a bachelor in America. Mr. Larson was married. in 1878. to Carrie Amelia Robertson, a native of Denmark, and the daughter of Hans Robertson, who died in his native land. Mrs. Larson,

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with her mother and some of her brothers, later came to America. Mr. and Mrs. Larson are the parents of ten children, as follow : Annie, the wife of Christian Hilton, lives at Red Wing, Minnesota; Sophia, who died in infancy : Dora, who also died while young; Sophia II is the wife of George Newman, and lives in Nebraska; Hans Johan, living at home; Dora. the wife of Emil Newman, a farmer of Elizabeth township; Mina, the wife of Bernard Carson, also a farmer of Elizabeth township; Henry, who lives at home; Julius, also living at home, and one who died in infancy.

John Henry Larson was identified with the Populist party. He served as a member of the school board in this township for many years. Although he was forty years a member of the Lutheran church, he is not now identi- fied with any church. Mr. Larson is a very successful farmer, and a man who enjoys the confidence of a host of friends in this community.

ERNEST FREDERICK WINTER.

Ernest Frederick Winter, a farmer of Buse township, Otter Tail county, Minnesota, near the city of Fergus Falls, was born near Aldenburg, Ger- many, March 28, 1876, a son of Ernest Henry and Helen ( Hackenfrerisch) Winter. The father was born at Minden. Prussia, and the mother near Aldenburg, in a small village. At the time when the immediate subject of this sketch was about four and one-half years of age, the parents emigrated to America and came directly to this state, where the father had a brother, William Winter, residing at Horseshoe lake. William Winter had come to America prior to the Civil War and was a veteran of that struggle. . \fter the close of the war he came to Otter Tail county and was one of the earliest settlers of this section.

In the winter of 1880-81 E. H. Winter purchased forty acres in Buse township from William Ward and took his homestead right for another forty, making his entire holdings eighty acres. There were no improve- ments on the land at that time and no building but the small claim shanty, but he set about making a home which came nearer to his ideal, and in time had many acres under cultivation and a comfortable residence, as well as suitable outbuildings. He later added another tract of forty acres and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1899. Mrs. Helen Winter is still living and makes her home with her son, John. Ernest H. Winter became an ardent Republican and was known as a man who took great interest in anything which made for the development of the com- munity where he had chosen to make his home. Both he and his good wife were devout members of the Lutheran church, in which faith they reared their family. There were seven children, as follow: Diedrich, a retired ranchman, living at Chinook, Montana: John, a farmer living near the old

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homestead; Henry, who died in Seattle, Washington, where he had been a railway conductor : Mattie, single; Gerhard, living near the old homestead; Ernest Frederick, the sixth child in order of birth, and the youngest of the family was Mary, who died when but sixteen years of age.

Ernest F. Winter. in his boyhood, received such education as the schools of Buse township at that time afforded and from early boyhood was taught to help the father with the work of the farm, which occupation he has always followed. Since the death of the father, Ernest F. Winter has managed the homestead, where he carries on general farming. Mr. Winter is a Republican in politics and both he and his wife are faithful members of the Lutheran church.

Mrs. Winter, before her marriage, was Martha Mavis, born in West- ern township. Otter Tail county, and a daughter of William Mavis. There are three children in the family, namely: Ernest, William and Martha. Mr. Winter is an honorable and upright man. highly respected by friends and neighbors.

KNUT WILHELM BONDY.

No citizen of Otter Tail county, Minnesota, has attained a greater de- gree of prominence in Minnesota state politics and few men enjoyed a larger measure of success than late Knut Wilhelm Bondy, a farmer by occupation and a member of the state board of equalization, to which position he was appointed both by Governor Nelson and Governor Klough. He also served two terms in the Minnesota state Legislature and enjoyed a large success as a farmer.

Mr. Bondy was born at Vang. Valders, Norway, June 17, 1844, the son of Wilhelm Bonde, who spent his entire life in his native land. Mr. Bondy's father was a farmer by occupation and owned land in his native country. He lived a quiet and retired life.

The late Knut W. Bondy, whose name was changed from Bonde to Bondy, after coming to America, on account of the confusion with other people of the same name, was educated in the public schools of his native land. When he was eighteen years old, he immigrated to America alone and was the first of the family to leave Norway. Upon his arrival in America, he joined friends in Wisconsin and lived with them for a time, but in 1866 moved to Rice county, Minnesota, where he was employed by O. Osmundson, at Nerstrand. While living there he was married to Mr. Os- mundson's niece and shortly after his marriage moved to Grant county, making the journey with an ox team in 1869. There were many difficulties to overcome in making this journey. The oxen were compelled to jump

KNUT W. BONDY.

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from a ferry boat at Ft. Snelling, and some of his cattle were stolen by the Indians.

After living in Grant county for several months, in 1870 Knut W. Bondy came to Otter Tail county and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres in Clitherall township. This farm was located in sections 17 and 18, and was wild land, largely covered by timber. A Mr. Myhre, cousin of Mr. Bondy, lived nearby in a large log cabin, and there Mr. Bondy and his family spent several months while he was erecting a house on his own land. Mr. Finkelson, a carpenter, assisted Mr. Bondy in building the new home. Subsequently, the farm was improved and sold to Andrew Rolandson, and another farm consisting of two hundred and forty acres south of the original place was purchased. There was only a log house on this second farin, but Mr. Bondy built a good house and barn and other substantial outbuildings. He lived on the farm until his death, in the meantime having erected a good house, which is still standing. He became one of the largest and most in- fluential farmers in this community and was prominent in the educational and religious affairs of the county.

The late Knut W. Bondy served two terms as a member of the state board of equalization, having been appointed first by Governor Nelson and later by Governor Klough. He resigned finally and was elected to the Legis- lature in 1902, serving during the session of 1903. He was re-elected in 1904 and served during the session of 1905. In the Legislature he was prominent in many lines, and his voice carried great weight in the party councils. In his early life, he served at one time as a deputy sheriff. For two terms he was president of the Battle Lake Wheat Association and was also a director of the Sverdrup Insurance Company. At the time of his death, November 15, 1908, he was a director in the Synod Lutheran church.

Knut W. Bondy was married on February 8, 1869, at Wheeling, Min- nesota, to Anna Gurine Osmundson, a native of Nerstrand, Norway, where she was born on September 13, 1850. Mrs. Bondy is the daughter of Gud- mund Osmundson and came to America in 1854. She settled in Rice county, Minnesota, where she and Mr. Bondy were married. Her father and mother died in Grant county, Minnesota.

Mr. and Mrs. Knut W. Bondy were the parents of nine children, as fol- lows: Caroline, who married Andrew Rolandson and lives in Roland, Min- nesota; Wilhelmina, who married Nels B. Thompson and lives in Dane Prairie township; Ellen, who died at the age of eighteen; Wilhelm, who was a traveling salesman, is now engaged in the real-estate business at Makoti, North Dakota; Konnow, who conducts a general store at Roland, Minnesota ; Alfred, who is a graduate of the Park Region Lutheran College and who is (33b)

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a salesman at Battle Lake; Sophia, who was educated in the Park Region Lutheran College and the Moorhead Normal School and taught school for five years, married Oscar Henry and lives on the homestead farm with her mother; Iver, who was married on November 15, 1915, resides at Roland. Minnesota; Melvin, who graduated from the Park Region Lutheran College, is in the mercantile business at Roland and is postmaster at that place.

The late Knut W. Bondy was progressive by nature, public spirited and devoted both to his public and private duties. He was a prominent citizen, charitable to a fault and generous to his friends. He gave liberally to re- ligious enterprises and was a leader in the movement which resulted in the construction of a new church. He also contributed liberally to the support of Park Region Lutheran College, at Fergus Falls, where some of his chil- (Iren were educated. He was a hard-working, conscientious man and a good citizen, who lived to see his children all well educated and well started on the highiway of life.

NELS A. KNUDSON.

Agriculture has been an honored and fundamental vocation from ear- liest times, and has attracted men of energy and ability. By its daily con- tact with nature in out-of-door life, husbandry cultivates those traits of character which contribute to real manhood, and lays the foundation for success in after life. The boy, therefore, who is born on a farm is fortunate, especially if by reason of the ambition within him he makes the most of his opportunities. A striking example of this is found in the biography of Nels A. Knudson, a prosperous farmer of Elmo township, who was born in Norway on October 4, 1863, the son of Knud Anderson and Johanna Nel- son, both of whom were natives of Norway, where they lived and died.

Knud Anderson was born in Bergen, and his wife was born thirty miles north of that town. There they were married. and he farmed on his own land. He passed away in 1889. After the death of his first wife, who passed away in 1865, he again married. By his first marriage he had five children, Annie, living in Norway; Lena, Martha, Nels, and John, who died in infancy, of whom Nels was the fourth born. By the second mar- riage, three children were born, these being Johanna, Christiane and Andrew.

Nels 1. Knudson received a good common schools education in Bergen. then for seven years he worked in a woolen factory, three of these years doing farm labor in addition to his factory work. At the age of twenty- nine he came to America and found employment on a farm in this county. The following year he bought eighty acres of wild, uncultivated land in sec- tion II, of Elmo township, and built there his first home, a log cabin, the material for which he himself cut and brought from the woods. This was

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later replaced by a modern frame dwelling. He continued general farming on this and eighty acres additional land which he bought, and subsequent years not only brought success in agriculture but in business, for he became a stockholder in the Almora Creamery Company.

The year 1886 saw the marriage of Nels A. Knudson and Eliza Ras- mussen. Of their twelve children. eight still live to bless their declining years. They are Knud, a street railway employee in Minneapolis; Nettie, a resident of Chicago; Hannah, who is a teacher, educated in Henning and Park Prairie; Annie, a student in the Henning high school; Amanda, who lives at home; Ragny, Martin and Della.

Mr. Knudson has been all his life an ardent Republican. Both he and his wife are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church. Mr. Knudson is considered one of the progressive farmers of his locality, and deserves com- mendation for the fact he is practically a self-made man. Mr. and Mrs. Knudson have many friends in the community, where in liberality and spirit they have given both means and time to their church and to the causes which mean social uplift.

GEORGE A. MEIGS.

A well-known citizen, a successful farmer and a man who has demon- strated to the township and to the county his value as a citizen, is George A. Meigs, who as one esteemed and respected in the community and as a man who has done no small part in the development of the locality and its resources, as well as being one to whom the people of the township look for leadership. in public matters, he is entitled to a leading place in the records of prominent men of Otter Tail county.

George A. Meigs was born in Trempealeau county, Wisconsin, on July II, 1870, the son of George Patterson and Martha (Warren) Meigs, the father being born in the state of Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna river, and the mother being born in the state of New York. Martha Warren was the daughter of Decatur Warren and wife, Decatur Warren being a farmer of the Empire state. The Meigs family were directly descended from a general in the American Revolutionary War. George Patterson Meigs. father of the subject of this sketch, following his youth in Pennsylvania, enlisted with the Twenty-first Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in the year 1861, for service in the Civil War and served with that regiment until the battle of Gettysburg, the third day of which, on July 3. 1863, he was wounded in the shoulder and in the hip, resulting in his being confined in the army hospital for two years. Following his recovery. George P. Meigs returned to the state of Pennsylvania, where he remained for a short

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time and then went to the state of Wisconsin, locating in Trempealeau county, and engaging in general farming on two hundred acres of land which he acquired there.

After the death of his wife, Martha, during the year 1872, George Pat- terson Meigs came to the state of Minnesota and located in Otter Tail county, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land in Friberg township, on which he lived for three years. In the year 1882 George P. Meigs went to the state of Montana, where he conducted a sheep ranch. George Patterson and Martha Meigs were the parents of four chil- dren : Richard (deceased), Marvin, George A., the subject of this sketch, and a child who died in infancy. George P. Meigs was a prominent man in the public life, both in Friberg township, Minnesota, where he served as township clerk, and in the state of Montana, where his ability was recog- nized and he was elected to various offices of his community. George Pat- terson Meigs was a member of the Episcopal church.

George A. Meigs was educated in the common schools of Wisconsin, the public schools of Otter Tail county, and at the high school of the town of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, after which he taught school for a year in Traverse county, Minnesota, and then took up a position as a traveling cigar salesman for two years, then rented a farm in Otter Tail county, Minne- sota, where he now lives.

On April 27, 1914, George A. Meigs was married to Margaret Streeter, and to this marriage has been born one son, George A., Jr. Margaret (Streeter) Meigs is the daughter of John Marvin Streeter, who was born in Goodhue county, Minnesota, August 4, 1856, he being the son of Mathias and Sarah (Leeson) Streeter, the father born in the state of Pennsylvania and the mother born in Ireland. Mathias and Sarah Streeter located in Goodhue county, Minnesota, in the year 1854, where they bought land and where they lived until the Civil War, when Mathias Streeter enlisted as a volunteer and was assigned to the quartermaster's department, while per- forming the duties of which position he contracted disease and died. Fol- lowing the death of her husband, Sarah Streeter moved to Otter Tail county and lived with a daughter in Aastad township, dying some years later.

John Marvin Streeter, son of Mathias and Sarah Streeter, and father- in-law of the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Goodhue county, Minnesota, after which he came to Otter Tail county in the year 1879, and hought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land. later buying one hundred and six additional acres in Aastad township, land which he improved and a place where his wife now lives. John Marvin Streeter was married during the year 1884 to Frances E. Carpenter, of Otter Tail county, and to this marriage were born the following children :

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John Marvin, Jr., Stella, Mathias, Margaret, Thomas Gates, Erminda and Vernon. John Marvin Streeter was a devoted member of the Episcopal church, as was his well-known and highly-respected family. John Marvin Streeter died during the year 1906, mourned by a large circle of friends.

OLE KRON.

The life of Ole Kron has been and still is proof positive that obstacles become mere stepping-stones to position and wealth, when visited upon the child. With only three short months of schooling, Ole Kron has battled suc- cessfully with the confronting handicaps of education and environment and accomplished much that is worth while. His birth occurred on October 12, 1848, in Vermland, Sweden, and he is the son of P. O. and Stina Kron, both natives of Sweden, who emigrated to America in 1867 and located in Holmes City, Douglas county, Minnesota, bringing their son, Ole, with them. P. O. Kron pre-empted a small farm, later selling it to Ole Kron and his brother. Both P. O. and Stina Kron died while living in Evans- ville, Minnesota.

Ole Kron received two months of schooling in Sweden, but upon reach- ing this country he became desirous of being something more than a mere spoke in the wheel of American industry, and began reading and thinking on the many phases of life with which the worker has to cope and was soon prepared to voice his opinion for the benefit of others. One month of schooling, received at Alexandria, Minnesota, added to his two months in his native land, comprises all the opportunities he ever had for acquiring an education. Nevertheless, he has written thousands of newspaper articles on national issues, such as the tariff, finance, education and temperance and has edited several papers, one of which was the Vesterlandet, published in Stillwater, Minnesota, a Swedish paper. His newspaper work commenced in 1888 and has continued ever since.

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History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota : its people, industries, and institutions, Volume II, Part 54

Author: Mason, John W. (John Wintermute), 1846- 4n Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1156

Author: Mason, John W. (John Wintermute), 1846- 4n
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1156