BIOGRAPHIES - A

AASEN, H.S.

H.S. Aasen, the well known hardware merchant of Winger, was born at Telemarken, Norway, January 20, 1874, and came to the United States and to Fillmore county, Minnesota, when seventeen years of age. He removed to Polk county about a year and a half later and was employed for a time in farm work. In 1896 he embarked upon his commercial career as the proprietor of a store at Gossen in Winger township, in a building which had been erected and used for business purposes by a Mr. Hughes. Mr. Aasen conducted a general store here for some eight years, starting with an investment of one hundred and thirty dollars and building up a profitable business. He also discharged the duties of postmaster until the office was discontinued. He located in Winger in 1906, after giving his attention to farming interests for two years, and bought the hardware store which had been established by K.A. Ingebo. Under the management of Mr. Aasen, this enterprise has met with marked prosperity and!
a steadily growing trade. He has added a warehouse to the original building and handles a general line of hardware and agricultural implements, the success of his operations readily appearing in the rapid increase in the capital invested from $2,000 to $11,000 and in the receipts of $32,000 in 1914 as compared with the eight thousand dollar trade of the first year. In 1913 he opened a hardware store at Newfolden, in Marshall county, which has also enjoyed a large patronage. Aside from his mercantile interests, Mr. Aasen has conducted a successful real estate business and is extensively identified with the various business activities of Winger, being a stockholder in the Farmers State bank and elevator and in other local enterprises. He also gives his attention to the management of his farm property, owning two hundred acres in Polk county and is especially interested in the cultivation of clover. His substantial standing in the community and the notable success which h!
e has won through his individual efforts, bespeaks his ability and worth as a business man and citizen. He has been active in all matters of public moment and has served as township clerk and justice of peace, occupying the former office for some seven years. He is a member of the [Dovre] Free Lutheran church. Mr. Aasen was married in 1901, to Lena Carlson of Winger and they have three children, Harold, Anna and Norval.

submitted Apr 28, 2003 Jon Raymond

SOURCE: Compendium of History and Biography of Polk County, Minnesota, Major R.I.
Holcombe, Historical Editor; William H. Bingham, General Editor; W.H. Bingham
And Company, Minneapolis, Minn.; 1916; reprinted by Higginson Book Company;
Salem Massachusetts; (book no longer copyrighted)
Library of Congress control number 16009966
This book can be ordered from Borders Book Store or from Higginson.
Both companies have web sites. The cost is about $70
and well worth the price.

HON. KNUTE S. AKER
pages 364-365

Two things are plainly demonstrated in the public life and services of Hon. Knute S. Aker, a leading citizen of Hubbard township, this county, and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1911 and 912, and the highly approved incumbent of several other offices from time to time. These two facts are that he fully understands the needs of the people around him and is both wise and industrious in his efforts to provide for them. In every official position to which the people have elected him he has seemed to catch the exact drift of public sentiment as to the performance of his duties and to hit upon the most effective and satisfactory manner of discharging them so as to obtain the best results.
Mr. Aker lives on Section 9, Hubbard township, and has been a resident of this county since June 12, 1878. He was born in Norway September 19, 1853, and when he was but seven years old was brought to this county by his parents, Sondre and Ingebor Aker. On arriving in the United States the parents located in Winneshiek county, Iowa, and there they lived until the spring of 1881, when the family moved to a homestead in Golden township, Walsh county, North Dakota, which was taken up by the subject of this review. He built a dwelling for his parents and broke up forty acres of the land for them, and they passed the remainder of their days on the homestead, the mother dying on it when she was seventy years old and the father when he was seventy-three.
Knute S. Aker reached the age of nineteen and obtained his education in Winneshiek county, Iowa. He worked out at farm labor until he was about twenty-five, then came to Polk county, arriving on June 12, 1878, and bought 160 acres of railroad land, which is still a part of his home farm. When he made his first purchase he incurred an indebtedness of $1,250. Now he owns about 1,200 acres of good land, all of which is paid for, well improved and practically under cultivation. By his industry, thrift, wise business management and good judgment he has added about 1,100 acres to his original purchase and won for himself a substantial competence for life.
Mr. Aker has also risen to a position of consequence and influence in connection with public affairs in his township and county, and at every step of his progress in this line of advancement has fully justified his title to the continued confidence and esteem of the people. He has been chairman of the local school board for twenty-two years, a justice of the peace for seventeen years and supervisor and assessor of Hubbard township for five or six years. In 1885 he took the state census in Hubbard township and he also taken the government census three times. Throughout his residence in Polk county he has been very active in the service of his township, neglecting no public interest and allowing none to go without his zealous support and assistance. He has

HON. KNUTE S. AKER
pages 364-365 (con’t)

long been one of the directors of Bethesda hospital in Crookston, and it has profited by his systematic attention to its affairs.
In the fall of 1910 Mr. Aker was elected to the state House of Representatives. He served in the regular session of 1911 and the special session of 1912 with credit to himself and benefit to the state. He was a member of several important committees in the House and was constant in his attention to his legislative duties both in committee rooms and on the floor, giving careful study to all bills introduced and keeping himself well posted in reference to every need of the state and every danger that threatened its welfare.
Mr. Aker was married in Bygland township, Polk county, on June 3, 1880, to Miss Ales Thompson, who was born in Howard county, Iowa, of Norwegian parentage. Nine children have been born of the union, seven of whom are living, the first and second in the order of birth having died in infancy. Those who are living are Ole, Bella, Sander, Gurie, Carl, Annie and Mabel. Bella is now the wife of John Tofsley; Gurie is the wife of Ole Bramseth, and Annie is the wife of Harry Larson. Mr. and Mrs. Aker are very genial and companionable persons, with a cordial and helpful interest in all their fellow beings. Their agreeable home is a center of bounteous and gracious hospitality and a popular resort for their friends, who are numbered by the host, and who find it the seat of refined and illuminating social culture.

submitted July 28, 2003 Jon Raymond

ALRICK, John J.

submitted Jan 20, 2003 Jon Raymond

ANDERSON, ADOLPH N.

SOURCE: Compendium of History and Biography of Polk County, Minnesota, Major R.I.
Holcombe, Historical Editor; William H. Bingham, General Editor; W.H. Bingham
And Company, Minneapolis, Minn.; 1916; reprinted by Higginson Book Company;
Salem Massachusetts; (book no longer copyrighted)
This book can be ordered from Borders Book Store or from Higginson.
Both companies have web sites. The cost is about $70
and well worth the price.
pp 335-336

Actively and profitably engaged in general merchandising at Birkholz, in this county, twelve miles north of Grand Forks, during the last eleven years, and for fifteen rendering the township of Higdem good service as a public official, first as a justice of the peace for two years and since then as township clerk for thirteen, Adolph N. Anderson has well earned the cordial regard and good will of the people around him which he enjoys in such full measure as a merchant, as a progressive citizen and as an upright man.
Mr. Anderson was born in Chippewa county, Wisconsin, February 11, 1871, and became a resident of Minnesota in August, 1893. He is a son of Jens and Dorothy (Nelson) Anderson, natives of Norway. The father came to the United States prior to the Civil war and settled in Wisconsin. During that ware he served in the Fifteenth Wisconsin Infantry, and felt the effects of the hardships and privations he was obliged to undergo in the army to the end of his life, which came on his Wisconsin farm in 1877.
Adolph N. Anderson left the farm in 1891, when he was twenty years old, and during the next two years worked as a hired man on other farms. In 1894, having relatives in Polk county, he came here in search of employment and soon obtained an engagement on a threshing outfit, on which he worked as a hand one season and was then given full charge of it. During the next six seasons he operated this outfit of the Eliason brothers and during the next six seasons he operated on for Ole. H Bang. The business was extensive and gave him plenty to do, the aggregate of his threshing in 1895 being about 60,000 bushels of grain, with other seasons in proportion.
When Mr. Anderson first came to Minnesota he located at Hinckley, in Pine county, and was there on September 1, 1894, when the great fire in which 380 lives were lost and the town was entirely destroyed occurred. He lost all his possessions by the fire and escaped out of the burning town on the ill-fated train which was destroyed by the same fire at Skink Lake. At Skunk Lake, six miles north of Hinkley, it was discovered that the fire was getting ahead of the train and it was stopped on the bridge to give the passengers a chance to save themselves by getting into the water, which many of them did. The train was entirely destroyed by the fire where they left it on the bridge.
In 1904 Mr. Anderson bought the store he is now keeping. It had been opened three years before by M.O. Kleven. The stock and buildings at that time amounted to $1,500. Now the investment in the business, including the real estate used for it, aggregates several thousands of dollars and the trade is growing all the time. On January 1, 1915, the store and its contents were destroyed by fire at a loss of about $2,000 above the insurance. Mr. Anderson immediately rebuilt his store and opened up on a larger scale than before. He handles farm produce, butter and eggs as specialties and a regular stock in general, and his business has more than doubled within the last few years.
In 1900 Mr. Anderson was elected a justice of the peace. He held this office two years, and at the end of his term was elected township clerk, in which capacity he has been serving ever since. He was married on June 17, 1899, to Miss Annie Nelson, a daughter of Erick and Oleanna (Farder) Nelson, a brief sketch of whom appears in this work. Mrs. Anderson was but seventeen at the time of her marriage. She and her husband belong to the Kongsvinger Lutheran church near their home. They have four children, Elmer Johnsie, Oscar Daniel, Alice Doris and Mary Eldora Adeline.
submitted Jan 20, 2003 Jon Raymond

Brothers ANDERSON, Andrew ANDERSON, Arnold W.

ANDERSON, Daniel

submitted Jan 20, 2003 Jon Raymond

ANDERSON, HENRY

ANDERSON, Robert

submitted Jan 20, 2003 Jon Raymond

THE ARNESS HISTORY

Bicentennial History of Polk County, Minnesota: Pioneers of the Valley,
Polk County Historical Society, 1976, Copyright 1976, Taylor
Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas
pp 380-381

Alexander Arness was of the first generation on the Arness farm. Thenesses are the Teutons of the purest quality, coming from Bodo, Norway, in 1883. The first generation on the Arness farm was Alexander Cornelius Arness, born in 1841, in Bordo, Norway: he died in 1924. He married Radine Adrine Anderson in 1865. She was born in 1843, also in Bodo, Norway, and died in 1916. Alexander was a master fisherman and farmer, a man of sharp intellect, and a good manager. The family consisted of the parents, the oldest son, Albert, born in 1868; Olaf born in 1870; Conrad born in 1873; Angeline born in 1875; Ingeborg born in 1878; Ole born in 1882; and Nicolina born in 1886. Mrs. Nicolina Kolden, the only living member of this family, lives at Erskine, Minnesota, and is still active at the age of 89 years. Alexander’s active farming years lasted from 1883-1902, about 20 years. He remained true to his Lutheran faith to the last, insisting on family prayer with each meal!
, and an hour of devotions and Bible reading every Sunday morning. Both during devotional periods and at other times as well, he sang loudly and lustily his favorite hymns from the hymnary. Dancing, card playing, and the like, were sinful and not to be tolerated. The family attended church services regularly every Sunday morning at the country church known as the Bardo church, located some five miles east and north of the Arness Farm. Alexander and Radine are buried in the Bardo cemetery.
Albert Arness and Christine Anderson were married in 1894, and were the second generation on the Arness farm in Roome Township. Norway had been the land of his birth, all of his education, and his early experiences. From the very start, Albert prospered as a farmer. The price of the land he bought varied from as low as five dollars per acre, to twenty-five. Now this same land is valued at from $200 to $250 per acre.
Born to the family during these years were Arthur Roy, born in 1896; Constance, born in 1897; Gustave Adolph, born in 1901; and Carl Alvin, born in 1906. Constance lived to be only five years old. The boys, brought up in the Lutheran faith, also attended the Bardo Church, as did their ancestors. Albert built a larger and more modern home on the farm. The total cost for this spacious home was only $1500.00 for labor and materials.
In 1918 Arthur took over the farming operations. Gustave went to Minneapolis, where he was employed with the Metropolitan Building and Loan Association. Carl was employed in Crookston with a produce company. The three boys died within a short span of years. Arthur died in 1961. Carl passed away five months later. Gustave died in 1965. There are such men as Albert Arness who are an asset to our society and to our nation. As he said many times, “Human beings, not property, should be the first consideration in a democracy.”
Arthur Roy Arness and Clara Marie Larson were married October 3, 1918, the third generation to be on the Arness farm. In addition to being a farmer, Arthur was a talented musician. He played the violin, trumpet, and trombone. He had his own dance band, called “The Arness Orchestra.” This orchestra was in existence from 1924 until 1941, and played at a great many functions. He played with great warmth and feeling, whether it was a selection from Edvard Grieg, or a lively Norwegian schottische. Arthur Arness was also involved in many community services; he held offices on the town board of Roome Township, was director of the Roome telephone company; was director and president of the Farmers Elevator Company of Eldred. He was a member of the Fisher Lutheran Church. He received his education from the Fisher grade school, and from the Northwest School of Agriculture, now known as the University of Minnesota Technical College, Crookston, Minnesota.
Clara Marie Arness was a member of the Fisher Lutheran Church, American Legion Auxiliary, Ladies Aid, and Homemaker Group, in addition to being a housewife and mother. She was born in 1897 and died in 1972. Born to the family during these farming years were Alton Lowell, born in 1921, and Duane Arthur, born in 1932. Alton and Duane are both talented musicians. Alton became the farmer. Duane is an accountant for Peter Schweitzer Paper Company at Windom, Minnesota. Duane was also a member of the Army European Theater Band.
Alton Lowell Arness and Georgine Elaine Wehus were married September 19, 1942 at Climax, Minnesota, the fourth generation on the Arness farm. They have one son, Craig Arden, born March 8, 1948. He is now with the State Department. Alton Arness, of Fisher, Minnesota, was selected for the state edition of “Who’s Who,” 1975, having contributed notably to the betterment of his community. Some of his community services have been serving as chairman of the town board of Roome Township for several years; president of the Farmers Elevator Company of Eldred for the past three years, also on the board of directors; County 4-H president and Eldred 4-H leader; president of the Fisher Lutheran Church Council, and also secretary and head usher of the church; president of its Family Fellowship; and secretary of its Men’s Club. Alton has also served as secretary of the Fisher Chamber of Commerce; clerk of school district No. 39; and is a member of the E!
agles Lodge, Sons of Norway, and the Farm Bureau.
Alton is a talented musician and plays the piano, trumpet, and saxophone, and has boundless ambition for dancing and music. He played in his father’s dance band, “The Arness Orchestra,” for several years. He has served as a judge in several musical contests throughout the area. Alton Arness has lived and farmed in the Fisher area all his life. He graduated from the Northwest School of Agriculture at Crookston, no the University of Minnesota Technical College.
Georgine Arness has also been active in community affairs. She was a teacher in the Fisher Lutheran Church Sunday School for sixteen years. She served on the board of education. She was secretary of the Ladies Aid. She was a leader of the “Lutheran Children of the Reformation.” She was president of the Fisher Music Boosters for two years. She was secretary and treasurer and the Eldred 4_h Club leader for 10 years. She was a member of the Sons of Norway Lodge and the Farm Bureau. Her hobbies are music, and she plays the piano, trombone, and violin, and has boundless ambition for dancing and square dancing. She graduated as an honor student from the Climax High School in 1941. Georgine also enjoys art work, ceramics, painting, and Norwegian Rosemaling. (She has her own kiln for firing ceramics.) She has won several ribbons in exhibitions. She enjoys interior decorating, and has used a pink and purple color scheme throughout her home. Flower gar!
dening is also one of her hobbies.
Craig Arden Arness, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alton Arness, of Fisher, has been active in school, church, and community affairs for many years. He has held several class offices. He is a talented musician, and is a trumpet soloist. He was active in band, mixed chorus, boys’ club, boys’ quartette, and pep band. He played in the dance band and in the Dixieland band. He has been a letterman in basketball and football; he played a double role in the junior class play. He worked in the FFA, taking part in the crop judging contest. He also played in the All State Band. Craig has worked and held offices in the 4-H Club. He was a four-time winner of the 4-H Home and Yard Improvement Pin Award for West Polk County. He participated in the State Fair 4_h Share the Fun Festival; he was a Red River Valley Winter Shows top talent winner and guest artist. State piano contest winner; Minnesota music Teachers Association ten grand piano State Honor Student Concert at !
the University of Minnesota, State Farm Bureau talent contest. At the International Music Camp he was selected for the “Mountie Band,” the “Dance Band,” and the “Honor Band.”
Craig was consistently on the “A” honor roll at school. He played in the Crookston Municipal Band. He was active in the Teen-Age Republicans. Craig is a member of the Fisher Lutheran Church, and of the choir. He is accompanist for the Sunday school and Luther League. He was a voting delegate to the International Luther League Convention in Detroit, Michigan. He has appeared on many area programs, and on television in area cities. He was a delegate to Boys’ State at St. Paul, where he was awarded a plaque for State Champion on the written Minnesota government test. The test was taken by 408 boys. Craig was also awarded the highest score for his “City” on a government written test, and was awarded a second plaque for this honor. He received the Outstanding History Award for 1965 from the Historical Society. He was valedictorian of the Fisher High School in 1966. He was a National Merit Scholarship finalist.
In 1968 he was one of twenty-five selected from the nation to participate in a Russian Study Tour. The tour included a four-week intensive study of the Russian language at Moscow State University, and a two-week study course in Czechoslovakia. He was in Bretslave, Czechoslovakia, when the Soviet-led invasion occurred in 1968. He has traveled extensively in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Craig graduated from Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, on June 11, 1970, magna cum laude, with distinction in his major, Russian and European area studies. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from Yale University in 1971, with a master’s degree in Russian and European studies. He was employed in Washington, D.C. for a year and a half, and is now on assignment to Madras, India, in the State Department.

submitted Jan 20, 2003 Jon Raymond

Asseltine, Agnes Edna

Source: Fisher Bulletin Feb. 15, 1902

submitted by Peggy and Bruce Ogan Sept 24, 2003

Sweet – At the home, just north of the village of Fisher, Thursday, Feb. 13, 1902, Agnes Edna, Beloved wife of E. A. Sweet, Age 55 years and 16 days. Mrs. Sweet was one of the best known and most loved woman in the village, knowing everybody and always having a kind word of greeting when meeting people in the street, she became endeared, not only to the younger generation, but also to those of middle age.
Deceased was born in Frontenac Co, Ont., near Moscow, Jan. 28, 1847, and was married at her home May 29, 1873, to E. A. Sweet. The couple lived at Selby, Ont., the next eight years when they moved to the United States and settled in Polk Co. April 1, 1881, and since then have lived in Bygland and Fisher, The latter few years making this village their home.
For some months passed Mrs. Sweet had been troubled with diabetes, or Bright’s Disease, but up to about ten weeks ago no serious results were feared, and at that time she consulted a physician, but he could give her no hopes, for the poison resulting from the disease had so spread through her system that it was impossible to fight successfully. At the time of her death she was all prepared to go, in fact was to leave yesterday for the sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., for a course of treatment in hopes of prolonging her life.
Wednesday she was taken worse and on Thursday morning all hopes were giving up, and she passed away about ten O’clock that morning, Suffering a great deal of pain, but unconscions.
Mrs. Sweet was a noble Christian woman, a staunch member of the Methodist Church, and one whom it was a pleasure and honor to greet. Always motherly and with a hearty “how-do-you-do,” No one realized the pain and sickness their friend was undergoing. Her death is a loss to us all, but no one realized her worth till to late to appreciate the past.
Beside a bereaved husband, who is well-known through out the county, she leaves a family of four children, Mrs. Mabel Van Leuven, of Moscow, Ont., and Arthur, Cyrus, Miss Edna and Harry, of this village, who will all be here to see their mother to-morrow for the last time, and also as many of her brothers and sisters as possible will be present.
There was one other child born, Geo. H., who died while a babe in the fall of 1878.
The funeral will take place to-morrow afternoon, Feb. 16, leaving the home at 2 o’clock, going from there to the Methodist Church, and thence to Oak Hill cemetery.
Everyone in this part of the country sympathize with the bereaved husband and children.

Submitted by Peggy and Bruce Ogan, September 2003

See Ephraim A. Sweet's Guest Book - listing visitors at their home from May 30, 1898 to April 10, 1904.

Asselstine, Anthony Coleman

Sources:

Family History, 1880 Federal Census Minnesota,
1900 Federal Census Minnesota,
1910 Federal Census Washington,
1920 Federal Census Washington,
Red River Valley Genealogical Society Cemetery Index Book,
Ephraim Ash Sweet’s guest book,
Sunnyside (Old) Cemetery,
Yakima County, Washington Index,
IGI Individual Record,
Washington State Death Index,
Obituaries for A. C. Asselstine,
Clara Asselstine,
Social Security Death Index.

Anthony Coleman Asselstine was born in 1851 to Benjamin Asselstine and Charlotte Huffman, in Moscow, Lennox and Addington, Ontario, Canada. He was the 5^th of nine children. The Asselstines were of sturdy stock, their ancestors having pioneered the wilds of Ontario in the early 1800s. In 1876 Anthony Coleman Asselstine married Azubah Fretts in Moscow. She was born February 21, 1852 also in Moscow. To this union seven children were born, William Harold, Minnie, Edith Lucilla, Andrew Merton, Sarah (Sadie), Frank C. and Earnest. Sadly only Andrew, Sarah and Frank lived to their majority, the other children being laid to rest at the Oakhill Cemetery in Fisher.

Anthony Coleman immigrated to the United States in 1880. The Asselstines lived in Bygland Township and where they were farmers. They were staunch Methodists and attended the Methodist church in Fisher.

Azubah Fretts Asselstine died January 10, 1892 and is buried with her children at the Oakhill Cemetery in Fisher.
Anthony Coleman remarried shortly after that to Clarissa (Clara) Hodgins and they had Ross Edwin born February 10, 1898 and Albert Clayton born about 1900, both in Fisher. The family moved to Washington State about 1905 settling in Sunnyside near Yakima, WA.

Clara died in 1940 and Anthony died in 1942 in Sunnyside, Yakima, WA. They are buried in the Sunnyside (Old) Pioneer Cemetery. Andrew Merton, Frank C., Ross Edwin and Albert Clayton are also buried there.

Written and submitted by Peggy Fish Ogan September 27, 2003

Austinson, Joseph B.

The following appears in the Fertile centennial book, published in 1987.
According to this there are descendants still in the area.

"Joseph B. Austinson, born February 14, 1890 in Ada, Minnesota, passed away
February 22, 1980. He graduated from the UND school of law at Grand Forks in
1913. He practiced law in the Fertile area for many years. He was the former
Fertile city attorney, president of the 14th Judicial Bar Association and has
served as president of the Fertile School Board. He married Theressa Knutson
on March 22, 1917.

Theressa Knutson was born May 19, 1893 in Fertile and passed away June 19,
1970. She attended schools in Fertile and was a graduate of Northwestern School
of Music. She was a member and president of the American Legion Auxiliary
and member of a homemaker's club. She was past president of Concordia CLCW and
served as church organist for 30 years.

Joseph and Theressa Austinson had two children, a son Oliver and a daughter, Sharon.

submitted Aug, 2003 Jon Raymond

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