Iver Bagstad Biography

	This biography appears on pages 635 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	IVER BAGSTAD - The subject of this sketch is one of the 
representative business men of Yankton county, retaining his residence 
in the village of Volin, and his career illustrates in no uncertain way 
what is possible of accomplishment on the part of a young man who will 
bend his energies to the accomplishment of a definite objective. Mr. 
Bagstad is a native of Norway, where he was born on the 28th of 
January, 1843, being a son of Peter and Mary Bagstad, who were likewise 
native of that portion of the far northland, where they were reared. 
When the subject of this sketch was in his seventh year his parents 
immigrated to America and located in the eastern part of Wisconsin, 
where his father took up a tract of wild land, which he reclaimed to 
cultivation, and there our subject was reared under the conditions of 
pioneer life, his educational privileges therefore being very limited. 
In August, 1869 in company with his parents, he came to South Dakota, 
which was then on the very frontier of civilization, and the family 
located about four miles south of the present thriving village or 
Volin, Yankton county, where our subject continued to be engaged in 
farming about four years. in 1873 he took up his residence in Gayville, 
where he engaged in the mercantile business, starting in a most modest 
way and having to encounter many difficulties and put forth the most 
strenuous efforts, but the enterprise grew to be one of magnitude under 
his effective direction. His capital was very limited at the start, but 
such had been his course that he held the confidence of all who knew 
him and his credit was practically unlimited as the business grew in 
scope and importance. Finally he admitted as a silent partner his 
brother-in-law, John 0. Aaseth, having in the meanwhile become 
extensively engaged in the live-stock business, which required his 
attention to such a degree that he needed a competent and reliable man 
to look after the details of the mercantile business. In 1893 he 
effected the organization of the J. T. Daugherty Company, and engaged 
extensively in the live-stock business, and finally the demands placed 
upon him by this enterprise became so great that, in 1901, he disposed 
of his extensive interests in Gayville and has since devoted his entire 
attention to his other business affairs, having his residence and 
headquarters in Volin. In politics Mr. Bagstad is a stalwart 
Republican, taking an active interest in the cause, and he has been 
called upon to fill positions of public trust and responsibility. He 
was for sixteen years postmaster at Gayville and he served two terms as 
county commissioner. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran church 
and have the esteem of all who know them.  

	On the 22d of February, 1872, Mr. Bagstad was united in marriage 
to Miss Elena Aaseth, who was likewise born in Norway, and of their six 
children four survive, namely: Paulina, Clara, Ida and Chester. All of 
the children remain at the parental home except Ida, who is attending 
college in Yankton at the time of this writing.