Andrew Larson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1352-1353 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	ANDREW LARSON, whose farm is located seven miles from Flandreau, 
the attractive county seat of Moody county, is a native of Norway, where 
he was born in October, 1845. His parents died when he was a boy, and he 
was reared to maturity in his fatherland, securing his early education 
in the national schools, and thereafter being engaged in fishing until 
1867, when he came to the United States and settled at La Crosse, 
Wisconsin, where he found employment in connection with the great 
lumbering industry of that state, continuing to make his headquarters in 
La Crosse for eleven years, at the expiration of which, in 1878, he came 
to the territory of Dakota and became one of the pioneers of Moody 
county, where he entered claim to one hundred and sixty acres of 
government land, which constitutes a portion of his present finely 
improved ranch. He labored sturdily and unceasingly, meeting with his 
quota of trials and discouragements but his courage never flagged, and 
his determination and perseverance have had their reward in the good 
gift of prosperity and independence, for his success has kept pace with 
the development and progress of the country, which he has seen 
transformed from a wild and desolate section to one marked by all the 
evidences of a splendid civilization. He is the owner of six hundred and 
forty acres of land, the greater portion of which is under cultivation 
and devoted to diversified agriculture, while he has made the best of 
improvements of a permanent nature, including the erection of a good 
farm residence and a large and substantial barn, besides other requisite 
farm buildings, for the care of stock, produce, implements, etc. 

	Mr. Larson has also been very successful as a stock grower and 
gives preference to the shorthorn type of cattle, and to, the Poland-
China swine. In politics Mr. Larson gives his support to the Republican 
party, as do also his sons. Both he and his wife are prominent and 
consistent members of the Lutheran church, in whose work they take an 
active interest.