Biographies

BIOGRAPHIES, QUERIES and OBITUARIES - M

MAGUIRE, Michael

SOURCE: Page 369, 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.

Prosperous and successful in his farming operations because the grit, industry, and good management to make himself so, Michael Maguire, who is one of the substantial residents of Sullivan Township, in which he owns the greater part of 741 acres of highly productive land, has won his own way to worldly comfort and independence, and is entitled to all the credit for his advancement. He was born in Lanark County, province of Ontario, Canada, May 30, 1838, and came to Polk County and his present farm in 1878, obtaining his first tract of land as a homestead. He had a pair of horses and $800 in money. He built a small frame house and soon afterward bought 160 acres of railroad land in Section 19, with a rebate for breaking the soil. His present farm of 741 acres lies partly in Grand Forks Township. For some of it he paid $70 an acre. He has 700 acres under cultivation, 560 of which are in his home farm. During the first fifteen years of his operations here, Mr. Maguire devoted his attention almost wholly to raising grain, but during the residue of the time he has made the livestock industry equal to his general farming operations, keeping regularly more than fifty head of cattle and doing his dealing in livestock in Grand Forks, emphasizing the purchase and sale of cows in all his transactions. He has given his time and energies wholly to his interests on the farm, keeping out of politics, although he is a firm adherent of the Democratic Party in state and national affairs. In 1879, Mr. Maguire was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Sullivan, a sister of James E. Sullivan, who, also, was born in Renfrew County, Ontario. Michael’s family consists of four children. Ida is the wife of J.C. Sherlock of East Grand Forks. They have no children. Ethel is the wife of Thomas Devitt, a railroad man. They have two children, their sons Eugene and Edward, and live in St. Paul. Sylvester is living at home and assisting his father in the management of the farm. He married Miss Norah Logan. They have no children. Gertrude married William Schipers, also a railroad man living in St. Paul. They have one child, their daughter Gertrude. All the members of the family who are still within reach of it belong to the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart, of which Mr. and Mrs. Maguire have been members from its organization.

submitted Oct 8, 2007 Jon Raymond

MALENG, MARTIN

Martin J. Maleng is an influential member of the Scandinavian colony of Acme township and the owner of one of the valuable farms of this locality. A son of John and Christiana Maleng, he was born November 13, 1867, and is a native of Norway. He was reared on his father's farm and soon became familiar with the various phases of agricultural life. When a young man of twenty-two he responded to the lure of the new world and in 1880 arrived at Crookston, Minnesota. He had saved the sum of three hundred dollars and was also the owner of a team of horses. In 1892 he purchased a quarter section near Crookston and for several years devoted his energies to the cultivation of the farm. In 1907 he sold the property and came to Whatcom county, buying a tract of one hundred and thirteen acres in Acme township, where he has since resided. He has cleared forty acres, and a large portion of the land is used for pasture, while the balance is covered with timber. He rebuilt the house and has a good barn and a modern dairy. He understands farming in principle and detail and his work is systematically conducted.

Mr. Maleng was married, in Minnesota, to Miss Sigrid Strand, also a Norwegian, and they have five children: George, at home; Ruth, who is the wife of Patrick Scott, of Bellingham and the mother of one child, a daughter; John, who resides with his parents; and Henry and Normand [Norman], both high school students. Mr. Maleng belongs to the Whatcom County Dairymen's Association and is keenly interested in its affairs. He is Lutheran in religious faith and his political allegiance is give to the republican party. He has been road boss and for four terms was a member of the board of township supervisors, doing much constructive work. He is a strong champion of the cause of education and with the exception of two years has served on the school board throughout the period of his residence in the township. He has aided in pushing forward the wheels of progress in northwestern Washington and at the same time has won that individual prosperity which is the legitimate reward of a life of industry and thrift.

History of Whatcom County, Volume II, by Lottie Roeder Roth, 1926, p. 632.

Submitted by DIANA1945@aol.com May 11, 2007

MARK FAMILY – FOSSTON

“The First 100 Years, 1883-1983, Fosston, Minnesota”
Fosston’s Centennial Book Committee
pages 53-54

Petter Martildo Morch, whose name became Peter Mark when he arrived from a suburb of Oslo, Norway, called Lillebo in 1864, was born on August 6, 1843. He traveled west from New York, and in the late ‘60s became a registered pharmacist – and established on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis – the first Norwegian Drug Store in that city. In accordance with the Norwegian custom of naming a drug store for some animal, Mr. Mark called his establishment “LØVEAPOTHEKE” (Lion Drug Store). Over the door, and projecting out over the sidewalk was a big gilded lion, and upstairs over the store, the Scandinavian physicians of Minneapolis had their offices. Mr. Mark was often called on by these doctors to administer anesthetics for them. He assisted with the first cataract operation ever performed in Minneapolis, by a Dr. Benkehe – who was a specialist in eye, nose and throat cases. He was a firm advocate of equal rights for women,!
when Womens’ Sufferage was just becoming an issue in the United States. A daughter, Cora, recalled the booklet he bought for her and her sister, Hilda (Mrs. Albert Kaiser) titled “Parliamentary Rules for Women.”
During the several decades that Mr. Mark lived in Minneapolis, his several homes included a summer lake on at Minnetonka. “Old timers” may recall a station situated between Orino [should be “Orono”] and Northwood called Marksville, which was named for him.
Harold Fritjof was the Marks’ first son – born in 1872. He was called “Guten” by his father (“boy”) and somehow that became “Goodie.”
In 1892 Mr. Mark closed his business in Minneapolis and moved to Fosston, which was then the end of the railroad line from Crookston, and headquarters for lumberjack trade and supplies. Mail going to Bemidji had to be marked “Rural Route, Fosston.” Here the already established Drug Store of Ed Ruud, located on the site of the present Post Office, was purchased. Peter Mark was also engaged in the wholesale pharmacy business, manufacturing his own patent medicines in the building which had housed the First National Bank of Fosston, and which is now the Lindfors building; and his son, H.F. Mark came from Minneapolis to operate this Medicine Factory. Carrying his merchandise with him, in specially built wagons, P.M. Mark called on stores in “off the railroad” small towns of northern Minnesota, adjacent to Fosston. Considerable territory was covered by this fleet of wagons – going as far west as Grand Forks, north of Bemidji, down int!
o the Itasca Park country, and west of Brooks. One of these wagons – eight feet high and approximately sixteen feet in length had, boldly inscribed on its sides in gold-lettering – “Mark’s Celebrated Medicines” – below the big design of a mortar and pestle. Its wide back door advertised such remarkable nostrums as “Sarsaparilla for the blood;” Lung Balsam; Kill0Pain; Gall Cure for Horses; and last but not least – “Mark’s Kidney and Liver Balsam will cure you. If your dealer does not carry this medicine, write P.M. Mark, Fosston, Minnesota!” This wagon was presented to the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul in 1955, where it became one of the Society’s exhibits.
In the course of its 76 years, Mark’s Drug Store had four different locations in Fosston, and three generations of the Mark family observed these store moves at various times and places. Philip, youngest son of H.F. Mark, aided his father until his death in 1942. They were both joined in 1940 by Donald C. Mark who came from Hibbing. H.F. Mark died in 1951 – his father having preceded him in 1932 at the age of 89 – a man who was a pioneer pharmacist of the old school – one who enjoyed his store and his customers to the utmost, and who showed an avid interest in the progress of his adopted northern Minnesota hometown.
P.M. Mark purchased an entire block – a farm field, in fact – in 1896 to build his home and a barn with its carriage room and horse stalls. He selected and oversaw the planting of a thousand trees on his lot, many of which still stand – even rather unusual ones this far north, as for instance the Catalpa. A tennis court on the northwest corner of the lot was a gathering place for old and young for Sunday afternoon matches. Peacocks strolled about, and a flock of sheep kept the lawn neatly cropped without the use of a mower. A duck pond at the opposite side of his property made it resemble a park.
In 1957 Mark’s Drug Store became a partnership between Don Mark and Elmer Nord. Mr. Nord worked in the store after receiving his Service discharge in 1946, and took over the pharmacy department after his graduation from North Dakota State University in 1951. The partnership was terminated in 1968 – it became Nord’s Corner Drug.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

McCLINCH/McCLINCHY/McCLINCHEY

If you are researching these Polk Co., MN Surnames, please contact me. Also see website:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~raymond
submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

McKINNON, ALLAN J.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MELBO, HANS H.

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.
pages 358-359

Hans H. Melbo, of Gully, president of the Melbo Mercantile company and postmaster of that place, was born in Norway, October 2, 1872, and came to the United States as a lad of sixteen, locating at Wilmar, Minnesota, where he was employed as a farm laborer. After two years there, he removed to Lyon county, working on the farms in that county until 1896, when he went to the Red Lake Reservation, which had just been opened for settlement, and took a claim in section 11 of Eden township, near the present site of Gully and about sixteen miles northeast of Fosston. He was one of the first settlers of this region and has continued to be notable identified as an influential and public spirited citizen and progressive business man, with its growth and development. He embarked upon his farming enterprise with a capital of $700, which he had thriftily accumulated, and this enabled him to advance the laborious work of clearing the land for profitable operation, and for some years he!
spent several months of each year working near Benson, Minnesota. His first home on this farm was a pioneer log cabin built of timber cut from the land, and he later erected a larger log house. He devoted his attention to the management of this farm for seven years, putting fifty acres under cultivation. In 1903 he entered upon his successful career in the commercial field, and in partnership with Nels M. Bolstad, opened a general store at Gully, about four years before the Soo railroad was built to that place. Mr. Bolstad, as a member of the firm of Kronschnabel & Bolstad, had operated the first store established at Gully, in a building which stood on the site now occupied by the Gully flour mills, which were erected in 1899. The firm of Bolstad & Melb9o succeeded the first company, which had disposed of the old stock upon dissolving. Two years later, after the death of his partner, Mr. Melbo became the sole owner of the business, and when the railroad reached the t!
own he organized the Melbo Mercantil company, one of the most prosperous and popular stores in this section. This was the third store to open in the new village, the others being operated by Hans Pladsen and Gust Watnbryn. The company was incorporated in December, 1910, with a capital of $10,000. Mr. Melbo is the president, with Oscar Thor, secretary and treasurer, and John F. Thoreen, of Stillwater, vice president. A fine commodious building, constructed to give frontage on two streets, was erected at the cost of $6,000, and is owned by the company. Its rapidly growing trade justified the addition of a department for farm machinery which was installed, with salesroom in the rear of the building. The enterprise has met with steadily increasing prosperity and now transacts an annual business of about thirty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Melbo is a member of the Republican party and has ever given capable service to the public interests in official capacity. He was superv!
isor and also clerk of Eden Township for several years and in 1900 was the census enumerator for that township and Queen township; the population of the two, totaling 1,212 in that year. In 1907 he was appointed postmaster at Gully and has continued to serve in that position. The office now supports one rural route and its transactions command a quarterly salary of $275. Mr. Melbo is a member of the Modern Woodmen lodge and was active in its organization. He enjoyed frequent hunting trips in the days when game was abundant in this section, and recalls the hunting and killing of deer in the vicinity of the present site of Gully. His marriage to Hilda Bergdahe, of Fosston, occurred September 4, 1907, and they have three children, Ervin, Alpha and Rolf. Mr. Melbo and his family are members of the Lutheran church at Gully.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MELLESMOEN, OLE

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.
pages 218-219

Ole Mellesmoen, a pioneer citizen and successful farmer of Brandsvold township, was born in Norway, September 26, 1859, and came to the United States when twenty-two years of age, the first of his family to seek a home in the western land. He came to Minnesota and a short time afterward was joined by his father, B.O. Mellesmoen, who located in Wadena county where he lived until 1911 and since that time has made his home with his son, Ole Mellesmoen. After two years in the new home, the latter helped two brothers to secure their passage to this country. Ole Mellesmoen lived for two years in Ottertail county and in 1883 removed to Polk County, taking a homestead claim on section twenty-three of Brandsvold township [see note below], the southwest quarter. This was timber land and his first home was built of logs cut from the place. To the development of this farm he has devoted the able efforts of many years and has been eminently successful in all phases of his enterpris!
e. It is one of the model farms of the region and one of the best locations, being situated on the main road north of Fosston, about three miles from that place. He has put over one hundred acres under cultivation, the remainder being in timber land and in productiveness and equipment the farm can be favorably compared with those in the older and famed agricultural districts of the middle west. He has good buildings, attractively situated in fine natural groves and in 1908, erected his comfortable country home. His farming interests have been directed to the raising of grain and to dairy farming, selling his dairy produce to the cooperative creamery at Fosston. Me. Mellesmoen has been identified with the affairs of the township since its organization and attended the first election which was held in one of the pioneer homes. He was one of the first members of the Brandsvold United Lutheran Church, of which he continues to be a faithful supporter. Mr. Mellesmoen was ma!
rried in 1899 to Inga Sagmoen, who was born in Norway and accompanied her parents to Polk county in 1881. No children have been born to them but they have taken a girl and boy into their home, Clara, who has made her home with them since her fourth year and is now sixteen years of age and Ole, aged two and one-half years. Mr. Mellesmoen is associated with the business interests of the county as a stockholder in the Cooperative Creamery and in the Farmers Elevator companies in Fosston.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
According to a map of Brandsvold Township, Ole purchased the southwest quarter of Section 23, Township 148 North, Range 40 West (Brandsvold Township).

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MELQUIST, R.J.

R.J. Melquist, a well known farmer of Brandsvold township, is a native of Minnesota, born in Freeborn county, June 10, 1872, the son of John and Randa (Jacobson) Melquist. John Melquist was born in Sweden and married to Randa Jacobson in Norway, her native land. They came to the United States about the time of the close of the Civil War and located in Minnesota, in Freeborn county. Here his death occurred and she was later married to Ole Runhoug and in 1883 the family removed to Norman county and in 1888 came to Polk county. They bought a claim of Ole Trunson, paying five hundred dollars. [See note below.] A log house had been built on the place and but three acres of land had been cleared. Soon after settling here, the departure of his step-father left the management and development of the homestead to Mr. Melquist, then a lad of seventeen years. He capably shouldered the responsibility and has continued to devote his efforts and interests to the farm which with careful management and hard work, he has built from the primitive timber land left in his charge. For two years he worked at the clearing of his land without the assistance of a team and then became the owner of a yoke of oxen which he later exchanged for horses. The timber which he cut from his land he sold in Fosston and McIntosh as cord wood, receiving from one dollar and a quarter to three dollars a cord. He has now seventy acres under cultivation and engages in the raising of grain, wheat being his principal crop. His farm is pleasantly situated six miles northwest of Fosston and about the same distance from McIntosh. During the years of his residence in this county, Mr. Melquist has ever taken a public spirited interest in the welfare of the community and has given able service as a member of the local school board. He takes keen pleasure in hunting and enjoys frequent trips, in pursuit of his favorite sport, in the deer country. Mr. Melquist has never married and his mother made her home with him until her death, April 4, 1912, at the age of eighty-six. He is a member of the Synod Lutheran church at Fosston.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: This land purchase (40 acres) appears to be the NW quarter of the NE quarter, section 16, Brandsvold Township (Township 148 North, Range 40 West, 5^th PM). Thankyou Jon Raymond who owns this book and submitted this information.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MERRILL, ANSON CHARLES
pages 411-412

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.

The late Anson C. Merrill, who lived on Section 10, Fisher township, two miles north of the village of Fisher, was one of the greatest farmers Polk county has ever had, and when death cut short his usefulness on January 21, 1897, at the early age of thirty-four years, everybody who knew him or of him felt that a career of imperial magnitude and consequence had come to an unfortunate and very untimely end. Mr. Merrill was born in Illinois October 10, 1863, and came to Polk county in his boyhood with his parents, J.B. and Polly (Brainerd) Merrill. The family located on the farm which is a part of the one owned and operated by the widow of their son Anson C., the father having sold it to him when he was ready to take charge of it. The parents then moved to Fisher, and there the father kept a general store in partnership with his son, C.B. Merrill, until the father died as the result of an accident, his wife also passing away at Fisher five years afterward.
Some time later C.B. Merrill moved to the state of Washington. A.A. Merrill, another son of the family, was a farmer in Nesbit township, one mile north of the old family home, and died on his farm in July, 1914. The members of his family are still living on that farm. Still another son, G.E. Merrill, owned a farm half a mile east of the old home. He is now living at Hood River, in the state of Oregon. Their sister Ella is the wife of O.J. Tinkham, of Fisher township.
The elder Mr. Merrill owned a considerable body of land which became the property of his children. Anson C. got the old home place of 160 acres, and to this he kept adding by successive purchases until he owned two whole sections and a quarter of another one, also 40 acres of timber or 1,480 in all, and the whole body of this land is still in the possession of his family. He raised great quantities of grain and kept six to eight men in his employ at all time. He also raised and handled large numbers of cattle, fattening beeves for the markets himself and buying and shipping all the live stock in the neighborhood that was intended for the market. the dwelling house on the farm was built by him, but the barn and some of the other improvements were added after his death, but were included in his plans while living.
Mr. Merrill was married January 22, 1893, to Miss Ida Strande, a daughter of Ole K. and Carrie (Skatrud) Strande, of Nesbit township. She wsa born in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, and was seven years old when the family moved to Polk county and twenty-one at the time of her marriage. Three children, Alvis, Ellen and Anson, were born of the union, and all of whom are living. Ellen was a Polk county school teacher for two years. At the time of Mr. Merrill’s death the oldest of the three was only three years of age. He is now twenty-one. He has given careful attention to a course of study in agriculture at the state farm.
Mrs. Merrill was won warm admiration and high praise from the whole people of her own and the surrounding townships. Left a young widow, with three small children and a very large body of land to look after, she entered upon her heavy and momentous duties with a resolute spirit and the heroic fortitude of a Spartan matron, and she has met the requirements of her position with great fidelity and ability. She has continued to carry on the farm on a scale equal to that of her husband and made every phase and feature of its business profitable. She has also reared her children with the utmost care and developed them into very useful and worthy members of the community, furnishing an admirable example of sturdy American womanhood at its best under severe trials and responsibilities.

submitted Sept 3, 2003 Jon Raymond

MERRILL, HAROLD
page 266

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

Harold Merrill and family reside on the same farm that his great grandfather and family, Jeremiah B. Merrill, settled on in 1878. The farm is located in Fisher Township, Section 10 north of Fisher, Minnesota. The farm is still in the Merrill name, with the fourth and fifth generations living there now. The first Merrills were originally from Chautauqua County, New York State and for years the farm was called the Chautauqua Farm. More land was added as the years went by.
The first generation was Jeremiah B. and Polly Brainerd Merrill. They had five children: Anson C. Merrill, Alvin A. Merrill, Cephus B. Merrill, George Ed Merrill, and Mrs. Ella Merrill Tinkham.
The second generation included their son, Anson C. Merrill and Mrs. Ida Strande Merrill, and their three children: Alvin L.; Mrs. Ellen Merrill McCleary; and Anson C. Merrill II.
The third generation consisted of Alvis L. Merrill and Mrs. Eda Larson Merrill, and their two children: Mrs. Elaine Merrill Prestemon and Harold L. Merrill.
The fourth generation is represented by Harold L. Merrill and Mrs. Cathy Baker Merrill and their four children: Allen J., Gem Elizabeth, Aaron L. and Kimberly Inez.
They were fortunate to have sons, so the name remained the same through all generations, which started ninety-eight years ago.
There are a lot of descendants of the first Merrills living around here yet: Mrs. Ellen Merrill Mccleary and two sons; Billy McCleary and family of East Grand Forks and David McCleary and family living in Fisher. Mrs. Elaine Merrill Prestemon and her husband, Milton and two of their sons, Lee and Miles who live at Bagley, Minnesota.
Anson C. Merrill, III, is living in Fisher, Minnesota. The Roy and Nora Tinkham families, Arthur, Earl and Alton all live in Fisher and around Fisher, and Mrs. Bernice Tinkham Samuelson and family live in Crookston, Minnesota.

submitted Sept 3, 2003 Jon Raymond

MILLER, ARTHUR A.

pages 203-204

Arthur A. Miller, of Crookston, well-known lawyer and identified with the banking interests of the northwest, was born in Rock county, Wisconsin, September 16, 1851. His parents, Samuel and Sophia (Reid) Miller, were natives of Nova Scotia and came to Wisconsin in 1851. Here Samuel Miller located on timber land and began the arduous task of clearing and cultivating this tract. He devoted the remainder of his life to his farm and developed a fine property. His death occurred in 1888 and that of his wife in 1914. Three children survive them, a daughter, who is the present owner of the old homestead; a son, residing at Harvard, Ill., and Arthur A. Arthur A. Miller was reared on his father’s farm and attended the schools at Milton, Wis., where he graduated. He then entered the educational field and spent eight years teaching in the schools of his native state. But his ambitions were centered in the legal profession and in 1882 he began the study of law. The following year he was admitted to the bar and located in Fargo, N.D. After five years of successful practice in that city, he formed a partnership with Mr. Foote and the new firm of Miller & Foote was established at Crookston in 1888, where they have enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. As a lawyer, Mr. Miller has won the respect and confidence of his professional associates. Aside from his legal activities he has been prominently identified with the growth of the financial institutions of this region. In these interests, he is associated with his law partner, Mr. Foote. In 1906 they bought the controlling interest in the Scandia American State Bank. Other banks in which they own shares are the First National of Cass Lake, the Citizen State of McIntosh, the First State bank at Thief River Falls, the First National of Warren and the First National bank of Crookston. Mr. Miller also has extensive land interests, owning several thousand acres of farm land. His political affiliations are with the Republican party and although he has evaded active participation in the political arena, he has faithfully discharged the duties of good citizenship. As a pioneer citizen of Polk county, he has been honorably associated with its progress and prosperity. His marriage to Alice L. Page of Rock county, Wis., occurred in 1877. Four children have been born to this union, Albert A., who died in 1891, Lucius S., Annie M., who is the wife of Harry L. Marsh of Crookston; and Harold P. Mr. Miller is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Shriner and member of the Commandery. He is a member of the State Historical society of Minnesota. Mr. Miller and his family are communicants in the Congregational church of Crookston.

submitted Aug 4, 2003 Jon Raymond

MILLER, AUGUST

page 191

The late August Miller of Crookston, who died in that city June 8, 1913, was the founder of the Crookston tannery and for nearly twenty years was one of the leading manufacturers and business men of Polk county. He was born in Sweden in 1853 and was reared and educated in that country. There also he learned his trade as a tanner and followed it until 1888. In that year he brought his family to the United States and Minnesota and located in St. Paul, where he operated a tannery until 1894. He then moved to Crookston and started the first tannery operated in this state north of the Twin Cities. He began his operations on a small scale but steadily increased them until now the plant he founded handles about 3,000 hides a year. The tannery is completely equipped with modern machinery, occupies two large buildings and draws its trade from a large part of this state, the two Dakotas and the province of Manitoba, Canada.

Mr. Miller was married in his native land to Miss Eva Johnson. They became the parents of eight children, all of whom have died except three. Their mother is also still living. She is a member of the Swedish Lutheran church, as was her husband during his life. They were among the founders of the congregation of their faith in Crookston and zealous in its service from the beginning of its history, being persons of sturdy and sterling qualities and helpfully interested in all good works among the people around them.

Herman U. Miller, the son of August, is also a native of Sweden, where his life began in 1884. He was a child of four years when he came to this country with his parents, and in Minnesota he grew to manhood and learned the tanning trade under the tuition of his father, and since the death of that estimable man he has managed the business of the tannery with enterprise and expanding trade and gratifying success. Though one of the younger set of Crookston’s business men he is one of the most capable and progressive of them all, and is generally esteemed as such.

Mr. Miller, the younger, is a member of the Masonic order and the Crookston Commercial club. In religious affiliation he adheres to the faith of his parents. He was married in 1908 to Miss Marie Amundson, who was born and reared in Polk county. Her parents were pioneers of the county, locating and living in the thirteen towns. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have two children, their son Ronald and their daughter Irene.

submitted Aug 4, 2003 Jon Raymond

MORVIG, ANDERS O.

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.
pages 293-294

For more than forty-two years Anders Ol. Morvig, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers and leading citizens of Garfield township [transcriber’s note: township 147 north, range 44 west], has been a resident of Minnesota, and during over thirty-six years of the period he has lived in and helped to develop and improve Polk county. He came to this county in 1879, before Garfield township was organized, and was one of the early settlers in that part of the county, and, as he was a man of intelligence and force of character, he had an important part in starting the new township on its course of progress and development when it was organized.
Mr. Morvig was born in Norway December 29, 1848, and grew to the age of twenty-five in his native land, where he was engaged in farming after completing his education. In 1873 he emigrated to the United States and came direct to Freeborn county, Minnesota, and there he was employed at farm labor until the fall of 1877, when he revisited Norway and remained until spring. On his return to Minnesota he again took up his residence in Freeborn county and renewed his farming operations, which he carried on until the spring of 1879 in the county, then moved to Polk county, making the journey from Freeborn with teams, and through the veritable wilderness part of the way.
On his arrival in this county, Mr. Morvig took up 160 acres of land in Section 15, in what is now Garfield township, and on this land, with a large additional acreage which he has since purchased, he has lived and expended his energies ever since, greatly to his own advantage and the benefit of the township and all its interests. He now owns a whole section of land and some beyond that, his holdings being partly in Garfield and partly in Garden township [transcriber’s note: township 147 north, range 43 west], and nearly all under fruitful cultivation. Soon after he located here the new township of Garfield was organized, and the county commissioners appointed Mr. Morvig its first judge. He has also held the offices of constable and township supervisor, and has at all times taken an earnest interest and an active part in all township affairs, serving for a time as township treasurer and frequently in some office in connection with the administration of the public !
school system. He is a director of the Farmers State Bank of Fertile and of the Cooperative Creamery company and the Elevator company of that village.
On December 28, 1883, Mr. Morvig was married in Garfield township to Ms. Ingre (Vidder) Nelson, the widow of Ole Nelson, who died in that township. She also is a native of Norway, where her life began July 18, 1859. By her first marriage she became the mother of one child, her daughter, Olava, who is now the wife of G.G. Haugen. Mr. and Mrs. Morvig have had eleven children, nine of whom are living, Clara, Matilda, Alfred, Olaf, Ida, Ivar, Lloyd, Melvin and Edwin. Their son Carl T. died January 1, 1915, when he was twenty years of age, and their daughter Anna Maria in childhood. The parents are zealous members of Little Norway church in Garfield township, which the father helped to organize and in which he has ever been an earnest worker.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MORVIG, ASKELD OLSEN

Bicentennial History of Polk County, Minnesota: Pioneers of the Valley,
Polk County Historical Society, 1976, Copyright 1976, Taylor
Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas
page 133

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the push was on to settle the lands on both sides of the Red River Valley in North Dakota and Minnesota. Many settlers were leaving the comforts of home and family in Europe to make new lives upon the prairie, once the domain of the Sioux and Chippewa Indians. The call came as a challenge to those courageous men and women willing enough to place their future in the hands of providence to create for themselves a “New Jerusalem” in the wilderness.
Among the early settlers was Askeld Olsen Morvig, the son of Ole J. (Tretenes) Morvig of Bergen, Norway. Mr. Morvig emigrated from Norway to Dodge County in 1873. He worked there for a while and later he and a brother, Andreas, who had also been attracted by “America Fever,” got work building conestoga wagons at Faribault, Minnesota. In June of 1879, Askeld Morvig, having decided to homestead, arrived at the Sandhill River and took a claim. His homestead is operated today by Allen Erickson.
That first winter of 1879-1880 revealed on “five smoking chimneys,” according to Knute Nelson, a local historian and eyewitness. Those who had remained on their claims that winter were: Askeld O. Morvig and his brother, Andreas; Thomas Lensegrav; Lars A. Bolstad; Knute Nelson, who spent the winter holding the claim for his brother, Einar; John Anderson and George and Ole Hamre. These people named their settlement Aldal. It was later going to have its location changed when the railroad came through and would be known as Fertile.
In 1881, Askeld O. Morvig and Knute Nelson were introduced to Martha and Anna Brunborg at Mr. Nelson’s general store. Within a year the two couples had decided to have a double wedding. They were married on June 4, 1882 above Dr. Nelson’s drug store at Aldal, as the first log church for the Little Norway congregation was not yet completed.
Askeld O. Morvig and his wife anna Oddsdatter Brunborg Morvig had four children: Olga Amanda, Rose Elina, Ole Otto Adolph, and Ida Louisa. Of the four, only Olga and Rose were to live. Olga married Charles O. Kankel, a pioneer miller at Terrebonne. Rose married Otto Joel Vivken of Fertile. Rose and Otto Viken lived at Fertile their whole lives. He died in 1943 and she in 1971.
submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MORVIG, OLE JOHANNESEN (TRETENES)

Bicentennial History of Polk County, Minnesota: Pioneers of the Valley,
Polk County Historical Society, 1976, Copyright 1976, Taylor
Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas
page 134

Ole J. Morvig was born in 1808 at Tretenes, Aasene Midthorland near Bergen, Norway. He married Kari Tyssen who was born at Voss, Norway in 1910. They settled on the Morvig farm and later changed their surname from Tretenes to Morvig. They had the following children: Askeld Olsen Morvig who married Anna Oddsdatter Brunborg; Andreas who married Ingre Vidden Myhre; Ole Olsen Morvig who married Gertrude Tyssen; Johannes Olsen Morvig whose wife was Anna Hjeseldal; Britha, Mrs. Bogetvedt; Martha, Mrs. Aastveit; Carolina, Mrs. Christian Aagenes; and Maria, Mrs. Rolland. All the children and the parents came to Fertile in Polk county except for maria, Britha and Martha who remained in Bergen. Ole J. Morvig and his wife Kari made their home with Askeld O. Morvig after they came to America in 1888. During their last years before they died they lived at the Andreas Morvig home. Ole died in 1900 and Kari in 1902. Both spent a productive life up to the end.
Anna Knudsdatter Fadnes Fadnes was born at Voss, Norway in 1818. She married Odd Knutsen Brunborg in 1847. Her father, Knud O. Fadnes, already 64 years old, decided to sell the family farm and come to Wisconsin Territory. He gathered all his family and paid passage for them to America. Once in America, he helped all seven children and their families obtain a fine homestead near Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin. Later Mr. Fadnes’ nephew, who later became U.S. Senator Knute Nelson, also came with his mother to Dane County. Nelson will be remembered by many as the governor of Minnesota. In 1863, Odd K. Brunborg died, leaving his wife Anna to run the Spring Prairie farm. For a while her eldest daughter, Ingeborg and her husband, Ole Larson, took over the farm until he got “Red River Fever” and took a homestead at Dwight, North Dakota where he would eventually own over a thousand acres. A son of Mrs. Brunborg had died as a child and a daughter A!
da Louise had died in Chicago of diphtheria. Another daughter, Carrie, had moved to Fertile with her husband Ole. L. Opheim to homestead. Martha Oddsdatter Brunborg married Knute Nelson and Anna Oddsdatter Brunborg married Askeld Olsen Morvig. Carrie Brunborg who was married to Ole Larson (Brunborg) Opheim had three living children: Louis who was a pioneer businessman at Clearbrook; Ella, Mrs. Koxvold; and Ada, Mrs. Hilbert S. Dahl. Dahl was a voice teacher and the uncle of actress Arlene Dahl. Ingeborg Brunborg Larson of Dwight, North Dakota, had twelve children. Better known of her children locally is Mr. Larson of Grand Forks, North Dakota, who began the Larson Furniture Company.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MOSSEFIN, ED

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.
pages 259-260

Ed Mossefin, of Fertile, president of the Citizens State bank and a successful business man of the county, is a native of Minnesota, born at Wilmar, June 5, 1878. His parents, Mads A. and Joran Mossefin, came to the United States from Norway in 1872 and located in Chicago, where Mads Mossefin worked at his trade of tailoring for several years, and in 1876 removed to Wilmar, Minnesota. In 1879 he brought his family to Crookston and engaged in the mercantile business at that place until his death in April, 1914, at the age of sixty-seven years, his son, Norman Mossefin, succeeding him in his business interests. His wife survives him and continues to make her home in Crookston. Mads Mossefin was well known in the church circles of Crookston as a trustee and influential member of the Synod Lutheran church and is remembered as a worthy and substantial citizen of that community. Ed Mossefin was reared in Crookston and has been identified in all his interests and activities w!
ith the growth and development of Polk county. He attended the common schools and after one year of study in the high school entered the business world as a clerk for Fountaine & Anglin and was employed by that firm for four years. He then took a position as bookkeeper in the hardware store of J.E. O’Brien Co., where he remained until 1901 and then made an independent venture in the mercantile world, opening a general store in Crookston, which he operated for five years, conducting a prosperous and steadily growing trade, which attested to his ability and enterprise in business activities. In 1905 he removed to Fertile, having been one of the organizers of the Citizens State bank in that plaace in the preceding December. He was appointed assistant cashier of the bank and has since been prominently identified with its notable success and rapid growth, devoting his entire attention to its management. In 1907 he was made vice president and assumed active direction !
of all the bank affairs, the president, K.J. Taralseth, residing at Warren, and in 1911 became president. The Citizens State bank is one of the most prosperous banking houses in this region, and as president Mr. Mossefin is widely known as one of the able financiers of the county. Mr. Mossefin is also interested in agricultural pursuits and owns two farms near Fertile. He takes great pleasure in out of door sports and is an enthusiastic huntsman, enjoying frequent outings in quest of game in the northern woods as well as the sports in his home locality. He is a member of the Gun club and an active and interested participant in all shooting contests and has given his influence to the encouragement of the athletic spirit of the community, faithfully supporting the baseball and other teams in all their interests. He is a member of the Elks lodge. Mr. Mossefin is that type of business man and citizen whose interest touches every phase of the life of a community and whose s!
ervices are given freely in any project which tends to the progress and general welfare. He was married in 1901, at Warren, Minnesota, to Lena Taralseth, the daughter of K.L. Taralseth, who was born at Mineapolis and is a graduate of Carleton college at Northfield, Minnesota. Mr. Mossefin and his wife are members of the Synod Lutheran church.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MOVOLD

“The First 100 Years, 1883-1983, Fosston, Minnesota”
Fosston’s Centennial Book Committee

Submitted in part by Bernice B. Thompson, Warner, Alberta, Canada, Great-granddaughter of Tobias Movold

pages 21-22

Tron Movold was born in Trondheim, Norway and married to Lena Dunrud of Gundbrandsdalen, Norway on Feb. 29, 1866. It is thought that the Movolds had the first store in Fosston. Tron sold his father’s homestead in 1888 to A.D. Stephens of Crookston, who platted it a townsite for Fosston.
Tobias Movold, Tron’s father, was born in Tufsingdalen which is in the northeast part of Norway on Jan. 2, 18232, and married Marit Rostbakken there in 1844. He, his wife and four children – Ole, Kirsti, Tron and Karinius came to America when Tobias was 45, in 1868. They homesteaded in Ottertail County until 1881, then moved to Fertile, Minnesota and went into the merchandising business - - moving again, two years later to Fosston where he was engaged in the same business. He ran a prosperous store here until his retirement. He died on June 11, 1907, and his son, Karinus, in October, 1931. Tobias and his wife, Marit, are buried in the Kingo Cemetery.
The three sons of Tobias settled in various parts of Canada. Kirsti, his daughter, became Mrs. Louis Torgerson of rural Fosston – the mother of Orrin Torgerson.

submitted Jan 17, 2003 Jon Raymond

MOYARD/VESTERHEIM, Nels L.

"These Our Roots, The History of Fertile,
Minnesota;" The Ulen Union, David G. Evans (Publisher), 1987, page 196

"Nels L. Vesterheim born in 1865 at the Opheim farm in Voss, Norway, the son of Lars Isakson Vesterheim and Ingjerd Opheim. In 1884, he left Norway together with one brother, Isak, and sisters, Gjertrud and Cecelia. They first lived at Ada, Minnesota and then moved to Fertile. Gjertrude lived with Nels and later married Fred Peterson. Cecelia moved to Crookston and married Mr. Knutson. The brother, Isak, moved to Lengby. Mrs. Nels Vesterheim was Sigrid Moyard, born in 1864. They were married on November 18, 1893, and opened a restaurant where the Town and County building now stands. There were five children, a son who died when a child and four daughters, Ida, Christine, Leona and Inger. As they grew up they all worked with the parents in the business. Christine married Chris Ormbreck and lives in Ulen, Minnesota. She has four sons, Harlan, who lives in Fargo; Clayton, Neal and Paul who live with their mother. Ida lived in Fertile all of her life and died on September 14, 1973. Lena lived in Grand Forks and married Melvin Herndon. She died in 1959. They had one daughter, Lois, who lives in Macungie, Pennsylvania. Inger worked for many years in Grand Forks, returned to Fertile and lives at the Sunshine Courts. Mr. Vesterheim died in 1945 and Mrs. Vesterheim lived to be almost 95 years and died in 1961. She was a very active worker in Concordia Lutheran Church ladies aid. She had attended aid meetings from the time she was twelve years old back in Norway. The first aid meeting she served in Fertile was in the kitchen of the restaurant where she set the table in the kitchen, served biscuits, sauce, cheese, jelly, cake and cookies and, of course, coffee. Another interesting fact is that Mr. Vesterheim built the house where Jessie Halvorson now lives. Later he sold this to Albert Gullickson, who added to the size of the house, and the Vesterheim Family then bought the Kankel house where Inger lived until five years ago. This house is now owned by G. Werner."

Jon Raymond
St. Paul Park, MN
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~raymond

submitted February 2006

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