Brown County MN Archives Biographies.....Roland, Peter 1858 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 26, 2014, 11:14 pm Source: See Below Author: L. A. Fritsche PETER ROLAND. As miller and manager of the elevator at Hanska, Brown county, Peter Roland is doing a thriving business, being in the center of an excellent wheat country. He was born on September 27, 1858, in Foberg, Norway, and is a son of Nels C. and Lena (Gelberg) Roland, both natives of that country also. The father was a mason by trade and continued in the same until he was past eighty years of age. He came to the United States in 1866 with his family, which consisted of his wife and four children. They came direct to Minnesota, locating in South Bend, Blue Earth county, where they lived two years, then came to Brown county, locating in Lake Hanska township where the father homesteaded eighty acres in section 24, on which he lived until his death, which occurred on November 23, 1913, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. His family consisted of six children, namely: Christ, Peter, Mrs. Jorgena Seymoure, Matt, Mary and Nels. As a hoy, Peter Roland received a very limited education for the nearest school house to his home in Brown county was three miles. When about fourteen years of age he began working to earn his living, assisting his father on the home place, more land having been acquired, and he was thus employed at home until he was married. About that time he bought two hundred and forty acres in Stevens Bounty, to which he removed. It was wild land, and after living there one year he gave it up owing to his wife objecting to living in an undeveloped country. They came back to Brown county and bought property on the townsite of Hanska, where they built a house, which was the second in the place. He then started a dray business and followed that until the fall of 1910, when he became manager of the New Ulm Roller Mills and elevator in Hanska, and is still operating them with much success. Mr. Roland was married in Brown county, September 17, 1899, to Tanethe Gibberg, who was born in Norway, a daughter of Jens Gibberg and wife. She was about twenty years old when she came to the United States, her father coming a few years later, her mother having died in Norway. The union has been without issue. Politically, Mr. Roland is a Democrat, as was his father before him from the time he was naturalized and he and his sons were the first Democrats in Lake Hanska township, in which there were but ten families at the time of their locating here. The country was wild, and there were deer and much small game, ducks, geese, prairie chicken, etc. Madelia was their nearest postoffice, which town at that time contained only about thirty-five people. Mr. Roland has held minor offices in the town of Hanska. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and wife belong to the Unitarian church. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY MINNESOTA ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS L. A. FRITSCHE. M. D. Editor With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families VOLUME II B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/brown/bios/roland472gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mnfiles/ File size: 3.7 Kb