Bio of Thom LARSON (b.1858), Yellow Medicine Co., MN

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THOM LARSON (1872)

One of the early settlers of Yellow Medicine county, a man who has had part
in many pioneer hardships and has seen the county come from a wild and
unsettled condition to its present state of splendid development, is Thom
Larson, who owns and farms the east half of the northeast quarter of section
3 and the west half of the northwest quarter of section 2, Lisbon township.
He also owns 200 acres of land in St. Louis county.

Mr. Larson was born in Norway October 19, 1858.  His parents were John and
Annie Larson, who, with their little family came to the United States in
1861 and first settled in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where the father
worked out at his trade of carpenter.  There his wife died in 1863, and in
1865 he was again married.  After four years' residence in Wisconsin, the
family moved to Olmsted county, Minnesota.  Their the family farmed rented
land until coming to Yellow Medicine county.  On arriving here in the spring
of 1872, the father pre-empted the quarter which is now the home of his son
Thom, and on that farm the old folks lived until their deaths.  Both parents
died in 1889.

Thom Larson was only three years old when he was brought to the United
States.  All his schooling, except one year in Wisconsin, was secured in
Minnesota.  He was brought up on the farm and has always occupied the home
place, assisting his parents in his younger days and later farming for
himself.  He has had a continuous residence on this place of over forty-one
years.  When he came here Montevideo had only a store, a blacksmith shop,
and a log cabin without floor, used for a hotel.

Mr. Larson recalls many experiences of pioneer days.  The first year they
were in the county they lost fifty tons of hay, all they had and all of
which was cut with a scythe, by a prairie fire, and that winter they had to
move over to the Minnesota river to get feed for their cattle, returning to
the farm in the spring.  During the grasshopper scourge they lost two crops.
The early day period in Yellow Medicine county was a discouraging one.

Mr. Larson was married in December, 1885, at Montevideo, to Annie Peterson,
who was also a native of Norway and who had lived in the United States four
years at the time of her marriage.  She died at the hospital in Montevideo
June 26, 1913.  Mr. Larson has five children, all at home, namely: Alf O.,
Minnie, Alma, Orval and Cora.  The family all belong to the United Norwegian
Lutheran church of Stony Run.


Source: "A History of Yellow Medicine County" by Arthur P. Rose
Published 1914