Lyon County Biographies
"An Illustrated History of Lyon County"
Below are biographies from the 1912 "An Illustrated History of Lyon County".
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*The date in parentheses following the name of each subject is the year of arrival to Lyon county.
JEROME MORSE (1871), of Lynd township, is one of the first settlers of Lyon county. He was born in Golden, Erie county. New York, on February 13, 1858. His father, Milo B. Morse, a native of Island Pond, Vermont, went to Golden, New York, when a young man and married Clarinda Irish, a native of Utah City. They removed to Columbia county, Wisconsin, in 1868 and resided there one year. They then came to Minnesota, locating in Oronoco. Later they came to Lyon county, with C. H. Whitney. The father died at Steele, North Dakota, and the mother, aged seventy-four years, still resides at Steele with her three sons. There are four sons living: Jerome, Edward, Frank and William, the last three residing with their mother. One daughter, Phoebe (Mrs. Robert Bellingham), died in 1891.
Jerome Morse came to Lyon county with his father in 1871. The father pre-empted the southwest quarter of section 4, Lake Marshall township, now a part of the city of Marshall, and C. H. Whitney took the southeast quarter of the same section. They built a sod house, 16x24 feet, across the present Northwestern tracks. There they lived until the fall of 1872; then Milo Morse sold to the townsite company and homesteaded the southwest quarter of section 6. Lake Marshall township.
In 1877 the father sold to George Link and moved to Bellingham, Lac qui Parle county, where he purchased a. farm and where our subject took a pre-emption claim. The latter lived on his place until the spring of 1882, when he went to Brown county, South Dakota, and homesteaded land, upon which he resided until 1885. He then moved to Lac qui Parle county and again took up his residence on his pre-empted farm, where he resided till 1893. On the latter date he sold out and went to Roberts county, South Dakota, and took a claim in the Sisseton country, where he resided until 1907. He then went to Lewistown, Fergus county, Montana, and worked at his trade of plasterer until 1909. He returned to Lyon county and has resided in Lynd township since. He follows his trade of plasterer.
Mr. Morse was married in Marshall December 20, 1878, to Melissa Smith, a native of Horicon, Wisconsin, born May 10, 1861. She is the daughter of Thomas B. and U. K. Smith. The former died during the Civil War in a hospital at St. Louis. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Morse was one of the first in Marshall. The license was secured from James Williams, who was then clerk of court. They have no children.
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GREGAR AMUNDSON (1872). A pioneer settler of Lyon county, one of the few men who still live on the homestead they took in an early day, and one of the big land owners, farmers and stock raisers of Nordland township is Gregar Amundson, who for forty years has lived on the southwest quarter of section 22. His farm consists of 560 acres on sections 22 and 27, improved by good substantial buildings and a fine home. He had practically no means when he came to Lyon county and his rise has been accomplished by his own unaided efforts.
In Tellemarken, Norway, on October 10, 1850, Gregar Amundson was born. His parents were Amund and Ragnild (Levson) Olson. both of whom are buried in the old country. In 1872, when he was twenty-two years of age, Gregar broke home ties and journeyed to America. After spending two months in Boone county, Iowa, he came to Lyon county and took his claim in Nordland township, and upon that place he has ever since lived. After passing through the days of adversity that accompanied the grasshopper scourge, he came upon prosperous times and is in comfortable circumstances. He is an extensive stock raiser and makes
a specialty of Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. He is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church and a director of school district No. 25.
Mr. Amundson was married in Minneota May 12, 1878, to Annie Furgeson. She was born in Winnebago county, Wisconsin, December 14, 1860. Her father, Kittle Furgeson, was born in Norway and died in 1902. Her mother, Margaret (Helgeson) Furgeson, was also born in Norway and now resides in Minneota at the age of eighty-two years Mr. and Mrs. Amundson have twelve children, named as follows: Ferdinand A., Carl M., Ragnild, Fredericka, Clara, Freda, Alice, Anna, Rudolph, Leonard, Mabel and Abner.
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EDWIN W. HEALY (1871). The oldest Lyon county settler now living in Tracy is Edwin W. Healy, who with his wife, has for forty-one years resided continuously in Monroe township and the city of Tracy. There were only a few people living in southeastern Lyon county when they came and Mrs. Healy was the first American-born woman to live in Monroe township. The family experienced many of the hardships of pioneer days and are richly entitled to a place in this History of Lyon County.
In Dudley, Massachusetts, on the eleventh day of September, 1840, Edwin W. Healy was born. His parents were Davis and Zeruiah (Williams) Healy. Both are deceased, the mother having lived to the age of ninety-three years. Until he was ten years old Edwin attended the Dudley Hill school and later the public school at Merino. He completed his schooling at the age of twenty years, having taken a course in Dudley Academy. For two years after quitting school Mr. Healy worked in the mills, and then until 1868 he worked at the carpenter's trade in Webster and Dudley.
In the spring of 1868 Mr. Healy came West. For three years he rented land and farmed in Houston county, Minnesota, and then in 1871 he took up his residence in Monroe township, Lyon county, where he has ever since lived. After taking up his residence in Tracy Mr. Healy for a number of years worked at his trade and also conducted a feedmill. In the spring of 1911 he retired from active pursuits.
Mr. Healy owns a fine home in the city. He was one of the first clerks of Monroe township and one of those who organized the Methodist church. For a number of years he was one of the church trustees.
On September 22, 1864, occurred the ceremony that made E. W. Healy and Sarah Bates man and wife. She is the daughter of John and Mary Ann (Jacobs) Bates, natives of Connecticut and early settlers of Dudley, Massachusetts, and was born August 29, 1847. They have two children, Fred W. and Arthur F.
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OLE L. ORSEN (1874), retired farmer, has lived in Minneota since the fall of 1905. He is the owner of 320 acres of fine, improved land in Westerheim township and also of a fine residence and five lots in the village. Mr. Orsen was county commissioner from district No. 2 eight years and was street commissioner of Minneota one year. He is a stockholder of the Farmers & Merchants Supply Company and was one of the promoters and organizers of the Norwegian Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Eidsvold, Lyon county, of which he has been a director since its organization and of which he was for twenty-one years secretary.
The Norwegian Mutual Company was incorporated February 22, 1879. The head office is at Cottonwood, Minnesota, and the company is authorized to do business in fifty townships of the counties Lyon, Lincoln and Yellow Medicine. There are now over 2400 policy holders and the company has nearly $5,000,000 of insurance in force. The board of directors for 1912 comprises the following members: O. C. Wilson, Granite Falls, president; C. G. Nelson, Canby, vice president; A. E. Anderson, Cottonwood, secretary; I. L. Kolhei, Cottonwood, treasurer; O. L. Orsen, Minneota; H. G. Odden, Echo; H. P. Rodness, Clarkfield; Chris Wollum, Porter; and Chr. Ramlo, Hendricks, directors.
Our subject was born in Romsdalen, Norway, February 28, 1849, and is a son of Lars O. and Magnild (Aandhal) Aasen, both of whom are dead. The parents came to America in 1874 and located in Allamakee county, Iowa. Two children, Ole and Magnild, had preceded the family to America several years. The family moved to Lyon county and took a homestead on section 18, Westerheim, in 1875, and there the father died eleven years later, the mother living on the farm until ten years before her death, June 6. 1910, at the home of her son Ole in Minneota.
Ole Orsen received part of his education in Norway and later attended high school two years in Monona, Iowa, one term at Waukon, and one year attended a common school of Allamakee county. In the spring of 1874 he came to Lyon county and took a homestead on section 18, in the town of Westerheim, where he farmed until moving to Minneota in 1905. Mr. Orsen is a member of the Hemnes Lutheran church of Lyon county and is a trustee. He was the first town clerk of Westerheim, holding office four years, served on the town board, school board and as justice of the peace, and was one of the organizers of the township. To him belongs the honor of bestowing the name Westerheim upon the township.
In 1878 Ole Orsen married Theoline Strande, a native of Westre Thoten, Norway. They have the following children: Amalia. Lewis, Nickolai Martinus, Alfred, Ludwig, Magnild, Theoline, Mamie Attilia, Nora Sophia and Martin Olai.
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REESE DAVIS (1871). One of the oldest settlers of Lyon county now residing in the county and a highly respected citizen of Marshall is Reese Davis. For more than forty-one years he has had a continuous residence in the county and he has seen it develop from a sparsely settled, treeless expanse of prairie to the populous and prosperous conditions of today. Only a few men have had more opportunity than he to participate in the history making of Lyon county.
In South Wales, on April 15, 1844, Reese Davis was born. At the age of three years he accompanied his parents to the New World and grew to young manhood in Jackson county, Ohio. When a little past seventeen years of age, on October 15, 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army and fought for the preservation of his adopted country. He served four years and seven months as a member of Company C. Fifty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, having been discharged in May, 1866.
Among the battles in which Mr. Davis participated during his service were the following: Pittsburgh Landing, April 6, 1862; siege of Corinth, May, 1862; Port Gibson, May, 1863; Champion Hill, May, 1863; siege of Vicksburg, May, June and July, 1863; Jackson, July 12 to 15, 1863; Carrion Crow Bayou, November, 1863; Sabine Cross Roads, 'April, 1864; Monette Ferry, April, 1864; Snaggy Point, May, 1864; and many minor engagements. At the close of the war he was stationed with his regiment at New Orleans. Because of threatened trouble in Mexico, his regiment was retained in the service for a year after the close of the war.
Upon receiving his discharge in May, 1866, Mr. Davis returned to his home in Jackson county and went through a siege of serious illness. Upon the advice of his physician to seek a change of climate, in September, 1866, Mr. Davis moved to Blue Earth county, Minnesota. There he purchased an eighty-acre tract of land, upon which he resided until he came to Lyon county.
It was during the month of June, 1871, that Mr. Davis located in the county which has ever since been his home. He took as a soldiers homestead claim the southeast quarter of section 8, Monroe township, on which he resided about eight years, and to which he secured title. His first home was a 12x16 feet dug-out, and Mr. Davis asserts that some of the happiest days of his life were passed in that rude shelter. The dug-out was later replaced by a frame house. During the summer of 1872 Mr. Davis had a contract to do the grading for the Winona & St. Peter railroad between Lamberton and the future city of Tracy.
Mr. Davis lived on the farm until the railroad was built westward from Tracy in 1879. Then he moved to Tracy and worked with the bridge builders on the new line between Tracy and Huron. He resided in Tracy until 1887, part of the time working at the carpenter's trade. In the year last mentioned Mr. Davis took up his residence in the county seat, where he has ever since lived. Until ten years ago he worked at his trade, and since that time he has lived a retired life. Mr. Davis is a member of Joe Hooker Post No. 15, G. A. R., of Tracy. He is a member of the Presbyterian church of Marshall and has been an elder of the church
since its organization twenty-one years ago.
The parents of the subject of this biography were Thomas E. and Nancy Davis. They came to the United States in 1847 and both died in Ohio. Four children of the family are living, as follows: Reese, of this review; Daniel, of Ironton, Ohio; Jane Davis, a widow, of Columbus, Ohio; and Ann Morgan, of Columbus, Ohio.
Reese Davis was married in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, January 22, 1868, to Jane Jones, a native of Ohio. They have the following named five children:, Esther, the wife of William Russell, of Moorhead, Minnesota; Mary, the wife of Oscar Krook, postmaster of Marshall; Thomas E. and John I. (twins), the former mayor of Marshall and a prominent attorney; and Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Regney, of Laurel, Montana.
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JOHN S. OWENS (3874) owns 120 acres of the southwest quarter of section 26, Custer township, and is one of the prosperous farmers of the community. His parents, Robert and Hannah (Jones) Owens, came to Minnesota from Kansas and lived for a time in Brown county before moving to Lyon county in 1874. The father is dead and the mother is living with her daughter, Mrs. Mary A. Weed, at Garvin.
John Owens was born in Leaven worth, Kansas, August 25, 1858, and while very young moved with his parents to Brown county, Minnesota. The lad received his early education in Brown county and finished it in the common schools of Custer township, Lyon county. At the age of eighteen, his schooling being finished. John worked out at farming labor three years, after which he returned to work on the home farm until twenty-eight years of age, when he married and moved to his present farm, land which he had taken as a homestead at the age of twenty-one years. Mr. Owens has prospered and owns a valuable piece of farm land. He has been road overseer of the township and is a stockholder of the Farmers Independent Elevator Company and the telephone company of Garvin.
April 21, 1886, was the date of the wedding of John Owens and Sephorah Roberts, a native of Wales. She was born March 25, 1S66, and is a daughter of Richard and Mary. Roberts, pioneer settlers of Lyon county and Lyons township. Mr. and Mrs. Owens are the parents of the following children: Lizzie May, Minnie, Winnie, Marion, Esther, Haze: and Garvin, all of whom, except Winnie, reside at home. Mrs. Owens' father is dead and her mother resides at Russell. Mr. Owens is a member of the M. W. A. lodge of Garvin and was formerly an officer of the lodge. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church.
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RICHARD BLAKE (1872), Lake Marshall township farmer, is a native of Ireland and was born at Kilcaske in 1848. He is the son of Charles and Mary (McCarthy) Blake, of whom the former died in Ireland and the latter died in Minnesota at the age of eighty years.
When twelve or thirteen years of age our subject came to America with his mother and brothers, locating in Boston, Massachusetts, where the family resided about eighteen months. He then moved to Grant county, Wisconsin, where he worked at farm labor and later at the trade of blacksmith in Platteville for several years. The year 1872 marks the date of his arrival in Lyon county, when he filed on the northwest quarter of section 18, Fairview township, as a homestead. He proved up on his claim and improved it. Later he purchased the northeast quarter of section 13, Grandview township, upon which he built and where he lived until 1904. On the latter date he moved to Marshall and spent the winter there. In the spring he moved to a forty-acre tract on section 10, Lake Marshall township, which he owned. Later he purchased forty acres adjoining, making the eighty-acre farm upon which he now resides. Mr. Blake is a member of the Catholic church.
Our subject was married at Platteville, Wisconsin, November 20, 1870, to Margaret Hanlon, a native of Ireland. To them were born the following children: Charles P., born June 26, 1872, died May 11, 1874; Mary C., born August 6, 1874; John W., born March 10, 1877: Richard J., born March 1, 1879, died December 29, 1880; Samuel H., born April 19, 1881. died February 22, 1885; Fred S., born September 8, 1883, died January 24, 1884. Mrs. Blake died January 31, 1884.
Mr. Blake was married a second time,
February, 1885, to Mary Versnick, a native of Belgium. She was born November 18, 1864, and is a daughter of Philip and Rosalie (De Bert) Versnick. To this union have been born the following named children: Elizabeth Julia Mae, born September 13, 1885; Charles E., born June.15, 1887; Sylvester F., born December 12, 1888: James E., born April 14, 1891; Richard W., born February 28, 1893; Margaret E., born July 19. 1895; William J., born December 19, 1898; Leonard W., born April 23, 1901; Edward L., born February 24, 1903; Irene H.. born October 3, 1905; Vincent George, born February 23, 1908.
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MRS. OLAVA MYRAN (1874) is the widow of C. P. Myran, and she and her husband were early settlers of Lyon county and among the first in Shelburne township. Mr. Myran died September 28, 1907, and the widow still resides on the old homestead farm, the southwest quarter of section 20. The farm is run by two of her sons. Ole and Peder. Mrs. Myran also owns forty acres on the southeast quarter of section 19, Shelburne. She was among the first members of the Norwegian Lutheran church of Florence.
Our subject is a native of Opdahl, Norway, where she was born December 21, 1850, a daughter of Ole and Brielt (Storlie) Gorseth, both of her parents being now deceased. She attended school during her early teens and remained at home helping her parents. In 1871 Miss Gorseth came to the United States in company with Mr. and Mrs. Peder Myran, the parents of the young man she later married. The young woman worked for private families in Mankato two years and then came to Lyon county, where soon after occurred her marriage to C. P. Myran.
The young couple made their home on the southwest quarter of section 20, which Mr. Myran had taken as a homestead in 1872 and which has been Mrs. Myran's home since her marriage. The Myrans experienced the trials and hardships of pioneer life, lived through the grasshopper era and the terrible winters of the early eighties, and welcomed the prosperous years that followed. Mrs. Myran has watched the growth of the county from an unbroken prairie to one of the best farming regions in the Northwest.
Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Myran were the parents of eleven children:- Peder (deceased), born December 3, 1873; Ole (deceased), born December 13, 1877: Peder, born October 26, 1875; Ole, born January 29, 1881; Andrew (deceased), born January 27, 1891; Carrie, born January 2, 1879; Lena, born June 10, 1883; Olive, born October 4, 1887; Inga (deceased), born October 4, 1887; Inga, born August 23, 1895; and Henry, born August 26, 1885.
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ELLSWORTH EVANS (1873) is a successful Monroe township farmer who has seen the country develop from a wild prairie to the prosperity of the present day. His father, Solomon Evans, was born in Newton, Wales, in 1818 and came to America about 1844, settling in Ittica, New York, and later moving to Wisconsin. In June, 1863, he settled in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, and ten years later took a homestead in Custer township, Lyon county, where he lived until his death on February 16, 1894. Solomon Evans' wife, Anna (Evans) Evans, was born in Newton, Wales, in 1818 and died June 26, 1896, in Lyon county.
At Oconomowoc, Waukesha county, Wisconsin, Ellsworth Evans was born December 19, 1861. When about one and one-half years of age he accompanied his parents to Blue Earth county, and later he came with them to Lyon county. He lived on the old homestead until six years after his marriage in 1891. Ellsworth acquired his education in the country schools and during his young manhood witnessed the trying experiences of the grasshopper days and the big blizzards. The family home in Custer was built of lumber hauled from Newtrim, and this rude cabin was covered with sod. The building still stands on the place.
Ellsworth Evans was married July 16, 1891, in Monroe township, to Mary Edwards. She was born in Cambria, Blue Earth county, Minnesota, April 2, 1867, a daughter of William and Margaret (Davis) Edwards. To Mr. and Mrs. Evans have been born two children, Roger and Raymond, July 15, 1892, and January 1, 1894, being the respective dates of their birth. Our subject farmed the old place for six years after his marriage and then moved to the west half of
the northwest quarter of section 30 in Monroe township, which has since been his home.
Mr. Evans raises considerable stock in addition to his general farming. He is a shareholder in the Garvin Co-operative Elevator Company and is a director and was for many years the president of the Garvin Creamery Company. For the last five years he has been chairman of the Board of Supervisors of the township, of which he was previously a member, and he has served on the board of directors of school district No. 72. In addition to his eighty-acre farm on section 30, Mr. Evans owns the southwest quarter of section 24 and forty-six acres en section 19.
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JOHN MONROE (1874) is a retired farmer of Cottonwood and is one of the early settlers of Stanley township. His father. William Monroe, and his mother, Martha (McFarland) Monroe, were both natives of Cape Britain, and the father when a young man was employed as a sailor on vessels plying the waters in the vicinity of Halifax and on the Great Lakes.
John Monroe was born in Bruce county, Ontario, February 16, 1860, and when he was only fourteen years old the family moved to Lyon county, the father taking a homestead in Stanley township, the southwest quarter of section 2. That was our subject's home for the next fourteen years, and at the age of twenty-eight he bought a quarter on section 36, Lucas township, and there pursued his vocation of farmer until bringing the family to Cottonwood to live some thirteen years ago.
Since making his home in the village Mr. Monroe has served eight years as police officer. His record in that office and his integrity and high standing as a public citizen made him a formidable candidate for the office of sheriff in the election of 1910, Mr. Monroe being defeated by Mr. Grannan, the present incumbent, by only sixty-four votes. Mr. Monroe has spent some time in the Rainy Lake region, having- purchased timber land in Beltrami county a few years ago.
The subject of this sketch was married in Stanley township February 5, 1892, to Sadie E. Gary, a daughter of John Gary, a Stanley township settler of 1874. Mrs. Monroe's birthplace is Ontario, Canada. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe are Gladys and Howard. A son, Leland, died when three years old.
Fraternally, John Monroe is a member of the A. O. U. W. and the Masonic lodges, and his wife belongs to Equity Lodge No. 221, of Cottonwood.
The aged father of John Monroe died in 1910, having lived to be eighty-seven years of age. He lived on the old Stanley township homestead until the death of his wife fifteen years ago. Afterwards he returned to his old home in Cape Britain, where he resided until his death.
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ALVAH R. TOWN (1871), manager of the elevator of the Eagle Roller Mills at Balaton, came to Lyon county when he was only two years of age. He is the son of two of the oldest settlers of Rock Lake township, who now live in Balaton.
His parents, Alvah S. and Sarah R. (Clark) Town, were born in the eastern states, settled in Indiana in an early day, resided there a number of years, and in 1871 became residents of Lyon county. Alvah S. Town and his three brothers, Lucius, Julius and Ralph, came together and each took as a homestead a quarter of section 22, Rock Lake township, adjoining the present platted village of Balaton. Of these brothers, Lucius still lives on the homestead, Julius is dead, and Ralph lives at Rockford, Illinois.
Alvah Town's claim was the southeast quarter of the section. On it he erected a little shack with lumber hauled from Heron Lake, in which the family lived several years. The devastation brought by the grasshoppers proved too much for the Town family, and in 1875 they left the country and returned to their former homes in Indiana. Ten years later, however, they returned, lived on the farm two years, and since that date have lived in Balaton. Besides our subject there is one other child in the family, Erne (Mrs. Elmer Hughes), of Flint, Indiana.
Alvah R. Town, the subject of this review, was born at Salem, Indiana, February 12, 1869. He came to Lyon county with his parents in 1871, returned to Indiana with them in 1875, and came back to the county again
in 1885. After spending two years on the farm he became a resident of Balaton, and that village has since been his home. Alvah worked in the Balaton creamery two years and then took up carpenter work, which he followed until 1902. That year the Eagle Roller Mills erected an elevator in Balaton and Mr. Town was given the position of manager, which he has since filled.
The Eagle Roller Mills elevator was erected in Balaton in the fall of 1902. The head office of the company is at New Ulm, from which it operates twenty-four plants in Minnesota and thirty-nine in South Dakota. The present officers are as follows: Charles Salverson, president; William Salverson, first vice president; J. H Siegel. second vice president; Charles Vogtel, secretary; H. L. Beecher, treasurer. The company deals in grain, coal, flour and feed.
Mr. Town was married at Balaton in March, 1889, to Frankie L. Jones, a native of Waseca county, Minnesota. To them have been born the following named seven children: Jule, Verne, Harold, Bessie, Roy, Helen and Lulu. Mr. Town holds membership in the A. O. U. W. and M. W. A. lodges.
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JASPER L. HAVENS (1874) is the owner of a fine quarter section farm in Amiret township and has been a continuous resident of the county for the past thirty-three years. He was born in Green county, Wisconsin, November 23, 1859, and is a son of Luther and Lovina (Palmer) Havens.
Luther and Lovina Havens, natives of New York, moved to Wisconsin when quite young. The father was a farmer, and when the Civil War broke out he enlisted. His army service broke his health and he died in 1865, at which time the subject of our sketch was only six years old. When eight years of age Jasper moved with his mother to Waseca, Minnesota, and four years later he was placed in the Soldiers' Orphans Home at Winona, where he remained until 1874.
Jasper's mother married again, moved to Lyon county in 1873, and took as a homestead the southeast quarter of section 24, Amiret township. There our subject went to live in 1874, and the next few years were spent in working out at farm labor in Amiret township and in the vicinity of Waseca, to which place he returned for a period. In 1879 Mr. Havens and his two brothers proved up on a homestead, the northwest quarter of section 24, Amiret township, to which they had fallen heir upon the death of their father. Later Jasper bought his brothers' interests and is now proprietor of the quarter section.
The subject of this sketch is a stockholder of the Farmers Elevator Company, the Creamery Company of Tracy, and the Amiret State Bank. He has been called upon to serve the township on its governing board and was clerk of school district No. 23 three years. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.
The ceremony which united Jasper Havens and Elizabeth Purves in the holy bonds of matrimony was performed in Amiret township September 30, 1889. She was born in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, November 13, 1868, and is a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Johnston) Purves. Her parents were natives of Scotland and both are deceased, the father having died in 1889 and the mother in 1908.
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THOMAS D. SEALS (1874) is the oldest living settler of Minneota and a man who has played a most important part in the affairs of that village. He has seen the town grow from a place of two shacks to the prosperous municipality of today. He has been engaged continuously in business there for thirty-six years, his business interests now consisting of a general merchandise store, a wholesale produce establishment and farming.
The pioneer whose name heads this review is of Scotch-German ancestry. His father, Spencer Seals, was born in Scotland and early in life became a resident of Pennsylvania; his mother was born in Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. Both parents died when our subject was a child.
Thomas D. Seals was born to these parents while they were residents of Pennsylvania but while on a journey in Tennessee. The date of his birth was October 23, 1837. His life has been an eventful one. Left an orphan at a tender age, he grew to manhood in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he received his education.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Seals joined the volunteers in the defense
of his country, serving in both the army and navy. He enlisted in the navy in New York and his ship, the Galata, saw service in Southern waters. Part of the time it acted as convoy to mail steamers and visited many foreign waters, its principal station being Hayti. Mr. Seals was in the army at the time of the battle of Bull Run and he was wounded in that engagement. He was in the service until the close of the war.
After peace was declared Mr. Seals spent several years traveling, visiting the South and many parts of the western frontier. He made the trip to California in 1870 and made the trip up the Missouri river from St. Louis to Yankton with General Custer in the spring of 1872. Our subject located in Flandreau a little later and opened a store and trading post for the Sioux trade. He then established a store at Lake Benton, conducted it a year, and then moved the stock to Marshfield, Lincoln county, and founded the first business enterprise there. A few months later, in November, 1874, he moved the stock to Minneota, where he has ever since been in business.
Mr. Seals selected that location after looking the country over with a view to finding a healthful place in which to live. At that time he weighed only 100 pounds and was a dyspeptic. He has never been ill since and soon after locating at Minneota he weighed 150 pounds. He attributes it to the healthfulness of this part of the country.
Upon his arrival to Minneota in the fall of 1874 Mr. Seals found the town to consist of only two buildings, a blacksmith shop and N. W. L. Jager's little shack containing a few goods. He engaged in the drug and general merchandise business and soon had a prosperous trade. At the present time, besides his business interests in Minneota., Mr. Seals devotes his time to farming, he and the family owning about 600 acres of land in Yellow Medicine county. For twenty years Mr. Seals held the office of justice of the peace for Minneota. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
In Minneota, on December 28, 1879, Mr. Seals was united in marriage to Edith Kenyon, a native of Minnesota and a daughter of Charles P. and Amanda M. Kenyon, early settlers of Lyon county. Mr. and Mrs. Seals have, an adopted daughter, Dorothy Seals, who is fourteen years of age and a high school student.
Mr. Seals has a sister, Anna C. Spinks, of Tennessee, and a half-sister, Mrs. R. T. White, of Alabama.
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MRS. ANNA MASTERS (1868), resident of Garvin, is the widow of Henry C. Masters,, who died in May, 1908. She was born at Dayton, Ohio, August 17, 1836, and is a daughter of Russell and Amanda (Gunn) Randall, both of whom are deceased.
Henry C. Masters was born in Springfield, Illinois, May 27, 1831. His parents were Robert and Nancy Ann (Taylor) Masters. February 24, 1856, he was married to Anna Randall of this sketch. To this union the following children were born: Edwin (deceased), George (deceased), Frank, Samuel, Luanna (Mrs. Edward Edwards), of Garvin; Maxson and Clark.
Our subject and her husband were among the very first settlers in Lyon county. They took a homestead in Custer township in 1868 and commenced farming. In those days the settlers were compelled to drive to New Ulm for groceries and their mail, a distance of about eighty miles, and the story of their early years in the county is the story of the earliest pioneer residents. Mr. Masters died in Kalispel during a trip to Montana in 1882.
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MRS. ERICK RONNING (1872) is the widow of Erick Ronning, one of the earliest homesteaders in Shelburne township, who died in July, 1908. She is the owner of a comfortable home and twenty-five acres of land adjoining Florence.
Mrs. Erick Ronning was born in Trondhjem, Norway, December 23, 1843, the daughter of Peter Anderson and Carrie (Corneliuson) Sanden, neither of whom is living. Our subject attended school in Norway and at the age of twenty-two she came with the family to this country. In 1870 she was married to Erick Ronning, a native of Norway. She and her husband came to Lyon county in 1872 and settled in Shelburne, where the husband farmed until his death. Mrs. Ronning has since lived in town. The Ronnings were the parents of the following children: Knute, born March 10, 1871; Peter, born June 27, 1873; Menna, born November 10, 1875; Carrie, born April 12, 1878; Edward, born August 22, 1880; and Inga, born August 21, 1882.
Mrs. Erick Ronning has been for many years a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church.