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History of Story County Iowa E JACOB
E. ERICKSON submitted
by Dick Barton One of the well known native sons of Story county now engaged in business in Roland is Jacob E. Erickson. He was born on the 25th of December, 1870, and is the son of Michael Erickson, who was born in Norway in 1835. The father came to the United States at the age of fourteen years with his parents, Jacob and Elizabeth Erickson. The family located in Story county, Iowa, in 1856, where the father entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, on a portion of which the town of Roland now stands. He was first married in 1856 to Sarah Wooster, by whom he had two children: Lizzie, who married Henry Thompson and died about twenty-five years ago; and Ida A., who became Mrs. O. T. Hanson. For his second wife Mr. Erickson married Martha Wooster and they became the parents of four children of whom three still survive, as follows: Olaf, now a resident of New Mexico; Jacob E., our subject; and Annie May, who became the wife of J. H. Larson of Roland. The father was a member of the Lutheran church and always cast his vote with the republican party. He was honored by his fellow citizens electing him to nearly all of the township offices, which he capably filled. He was one of the very successful agriculturists of his district, acquiring during his life four hundred acres of land adjoining the town of Roland and on forty acres of which the townsite was platted. He also had two hundred acres of land in South Dakota and was a stockholder in the Farmers Savings Bank. He was a very public-spirited man, high-principled and upright in all of his business transactions. He presented to the town of Roland fifty acres for a public park and this was but one of his many substantial evidences of allegiance to the village. He was regarded as a man of incorruptible integrity, and the community lost a most estimable citizen when he passed away at the age of seventy-five years. Jacob E. Erickson is indebted to the district schools of Story county for his education and when he had acquired such knowledge as he felt fitted him to begin his business career he laid aside his text-books and assumed the more serious work of life. He remained a member of his father's household until after his twenty-first year, at which time he began working for himself. He managed his father's farm for seven years and then engaged in the grain business, with which he is still actively identified. He owns a sixty thousand bushel elevator and besides this is a stockholder and director of the Story County Telephone Company. He also owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Hamilton county, Iowa, and one-half section in Hamlin county, South Dakota. Ever since age conferred upon him the right of suffrage Mr. Erickson has cast his ballot with the republican party. He has always taken an active interest in municipal matters and is now acting as a member of the council of Roland. He is a member of the Lutheran church and is unmarried. He is one of the popular and progressive young business men of Roland, who by means of his close application, unswerving purpose and industry has met with a more than average degree of success, which his fellow townsmen feel is justly his right.
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