Nobles County MN Archives Biographies.....Hesselroth, Erland W. 1834 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 18, 2006, 9:14 pm

Author: Arthur P. Rose (1908)

  ERLAND W. HESSELROTH, of Graham Lakes township, is one of the very earliest

settlers of Nobles county, having resided here since the spring of 1870. During

the pioneer days he took a very active part in the political and social life of

the county, and was one of Nobles county's first public officers.



  Mr. Hesselroth was born in Dahlands, Bosure lan, Sweden, May 28, 1834, the son

of Carl and Anna (Berg) Hesselroth. His parents died in Sweden, his father in

1848, aged 47 years, and his mother in 1850, aged 50, years. Young Hesselroth

was educated in his native land and resided there until he was 20 years old. For

two years he was employed as clerk in an iron foundry. He came to America with

an uncle in 1854 and located at LaCrosse, Wis., where his relative bought land,

and that was his home until the outbreak of the war. Two winters he spent

working in the logging camps of northern Wisconsin, and during the rest of the

time he claimed LaCrosse as his home he was employed at farm work and in sawmills.



  He was enrolled in company A, of the 20th Wisconsin volunteer infantry, on

July 14, 1862, at LaCrosse, and served in that regiment until Aug. 24, 1863,

when he was discharged at Carleton, La., because of disability arising from

wounds received at the battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., on Dec. 7, 1862. He was in

a hospital at Fayetteville, Ark., for two or three months, and in February,

1863, was taken to the hospital at Springfield, Mo., in which he remained until

early in April. He had then sufficiently recovered to rejoin his regiment, and

with it he took part in the closing acts of the Vicksburg campaign. After his

discharge he was out of the service one year. Then he reenlisted, on Aug. 30,

1864, in the first battery of Wisconsin artillery, but saw no more active

service, being placed on garrison duty at Baton Rouge, La. He was honorably

discharged at the close of the war, his discharge being dated June 26, 1865.



  After his service with the army Mr. Hesselroth returned to his Wisconsin home,

but in the spring of 1866 he moved to Rochester, Minn., where for four years he

worked in the harvest fields and at other occupations. In the spring of 1870,

with five companions, he set out for the Sioux Falls country. While the party

was passing through the Graham Lakes country they found a few settlers, who

induced them to locate there, and about the 15th of May all took claims. Mr.

Hesselroth filed a soldier's homestead on the southeast quarter of section 34,

Graham Lakes township, and in the fall of the year built a cabin thereon. For 38

years, with the exception of five years—from 1902 to 1907—spent in Worthington,

he has lived there.



  At the county's first election, held in November, 1870, Mr. Hesselroth was

elected judge of probate and served until late in 1872, when he resigned and W.

M. Bear was appointed. He was also Graham Lakes township's first justice of the

peace, and served several terms. He was the second assessor of the township, and

served one term. For many years he was a member of the township board of

supervisors.



  Mr. Hesselroth was married in Cottonwood county Nov. 23, 1875, to Clarissa

Oakes, a native of Genesee, Mich. To this union have been born three children:

Lawrence Hilmer, born Sept. 14, 1876, died when 12 years old; Anna Nancy (Mrs.

Roy Rose), born Jan. 31, 1878, residing in Graham Lakes township; Hilda Lucia,

of Worthington, born March 29, 1881.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NOBLES COUNTY

MINNESOTA

BY

ARTHUR P. ROSE



NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA 

PUBLISHERS

1908



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