"History of Freeborn County", 1882
Bath Twp. Biographies
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NIELS PETER PETERSON, a native of Denmark, was born on the 28th of April, 1847. His father died when our subject was six years old, and in 1867, his mother sold out and came with her son to America, directly to Minnesota, and located in Winona. In 1871, Niels came to this township and farmed with his brother for three years, then bought land in section twenty-four and has since made it his home. He has been a member of the board of Supervisors, and is serving his second term as Town Clerk. He has been Secretary of the Bath Mutual Fire Insurance Company since its organization.
DAVID A. PEIRCE was born in Maine on the 2d of October, 1830. His father was a farmer and David lived at home until the age of twenty-one years. He was married in 1858, to Miss Amanda M. Bailey, and the following year moved to Mower county, Minnesota. Five years later they removed to Spring Valley, and in March, 1862, Mr. Peirce (Pierce?) enlisted in Company E, of the Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and served two years and ten months. After his discharge he returned to Spring Valley and removed his family to Bath, locating in section eighteen, where he has a good home with commodious buildings. His two oldest daughters are school teachers in this county and he has a son editing a Marshall county paper.
MITCHELL SLATER is a native of England, born on the 29th of April. 1854. His parents emigrated to America when he was six weeks old, and settled in Smithville, Massachusetts. Four years later they came to Minnesota, and Mitchell remained at home until twenty-one years old, then worked in different places until buying a farm in section twelve, Bath township, and has since made it his home. He was united in marriage on the 9th of January, 1880, with Miss Dora E. Heath, and they have two children.
GEORGE W. SKINNER, one of the early residents and prominent citizens of this county, was born in the city of Warren, Massachusetts, on the 9th of August, 1815. His father was a scythe maker and he learned the same trade, after which he went to Kentucky as salesman for the firm of Blanchard & Co. (for which his father also worked), and traveled one year, then returned, but soon went to St. Louis. While there he met Gen. Marcy, with whom, in 1837, he went to Fort Snelling, thence to the Missouri and up the Yellowstone, and a short time after to Ohio, where he remained one and a half years. He then returned east and entered upon the practice of law until his health failed, when he gave up the profession and accepted a commission from Gov. Briggs, of Massachusetts, as Colonel for the Tenth Massachusetts Regiment; went to Mexico and served till the close of the war, having participated in the battle of the National Bridge, and others. In 1848, he again returned to his native State and entered the office of the Rhode Island £ Massachusetts Telegraph Co., and operated the same for one year. In 1849. he was joined in wedlock with Miss Elizabeth A. Brooks, of Oneida county, New York. The same year he went to Mexico and erected a telegraph line between the cities of Vera Cruz and Mexico, after which he returned to Massachusetts and was employed in an office at Harrisburg for the Erie Railroad Company. He subsequently built a line from Elmira, New York, to Philadelphia. Previous to 1857, he had accumulated railroad bonds to the amount of $100,000, all of which he lost in the Ohio Life and Trust Company. Then, after settling up business, he came to Minnesota in September, 1858, and preempted land on section twenty-two, in this township. He came by water to Red Wing, where he hired a team to bring him here, and the same autumn got up a log house. In an early day he was sent to Washington by the settlers of the county, for the purpose of importuning President Buchanan to withdraw the lands from market for the benefit of settlers, and gained an extension of one year for the settlers to raise money to pay back dues on their claims. Mr. Skinner has been a prominent official since the organization of the town, and served as Justice of the Peace seventeen years. He has four children; Hattie, one of the teachers in this county; George W., Henry D., and Maud L.
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