B. A. E. Bagstad Biography


	This biography appears on pages 522-525 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				B. A. E. BAGSTAD.  

	In the southern part of the state not to know B. A. E. Bagstad, 
or Emil Bagstad, as he is usually called, is to argue oneself unknown. 
It has been customary to think of the pioneers largely as those who 
have claimed the land and converted it into productive farms or founded 
the cities and promoted their commercial enterprises, but there are few 
whose lives so closely touch the lives of others and work for 
advancement and improvement in so great a degree as that of the 
educator. To the work of teaching Mr. Bagstad devoted many years and 
aided in establishing the intellectual standards of the state, of which 
South Dakota has every reason to be proud.  

	He was but a youth in his teens when the family came to Dakota 
territory. His birth occurred in Dane county, Wisconsin, October 4, 
1851, and he there attended the country schools until his removal to 
the northwest. His parents were Peter and Maren (Iverson) Bagstad, who 
were born at Biri in southern Norway. They came to America in 1849, 
sailing from Tonsberg to New York on the vessel Flora. After three days 
at sea a storm so wrecked a mast of the ship that they had to return to 
Tonsberg for repairs, which delayed them many weeks, as it was 
necessary to wait until a suitable tree could be found, felled and 
dressed for use. They left Norway the first time on the 12th of April 
and they did not reach their destination - Dane county, Wisconsin,-
until the 12th of September, having spent five full months on the way, 
seven weeks of which were passed on the sea. For eighteen years the 
family lived in Wisconsin and in the fall of 1867 the father brought 
his wife and children to Dakota territory, crossing the boundary at 
Sioux City on the 30th of July. The father filed on a homestead between 
the present sites of the towns of Volin and Mission Hill in Yankton 
county and his older sons also filed on land in that vicinity as soon 
as they became of age. In the family were the following children: 
Annette, now the widow of Daniel Hopkins and a resident of San Diego, 
California; John, who died in Mississippi, in 1860, at the age of 
twenty years; Iver and Matthias, both of whom settled in Yankton 
county, between Volin and Mission Hill, and are now deceased; Emil, the 
subject of this review; and Thea, who married Charles Olson and lived 
between Volin and Mission Hill but is now deceased. The father passed 
away in 1886, while living retired in Gayville, and the mother died in 
1891.  

	B. A. E. Bagstad, on attaining his majority, secured a claim, 
entering the land, which was situated twelve miles northwest of Volin, 
in 1873. In the fall of 187 he returned to Wisconsin on a visit, but 
the next spring he came again to Dakota, a short time before the 
memorable snow storm of April, 1873, in which Custer and his men 
reached Yankton just before the worst of the storm broke.  

	Several years before attaining his majority B. A. E. Bagstad 
began teaching and for eighteen years was thus connected with the 
schools of Yankton county, some times filling engagements in two or 
three different districts in a season, owing to the scarcity of 
competent teachers at that time. He was one of the pioneer educators of 
the southern part of the state and he is widely respected and revered 
by hundreds of men and women of the great northwest whom he has helped 
and inspired to something higher and better than they might have known 
under an educator of less exalted ideals. He took a most helpful 
interest in his pupils and did everything in his power to stimulate a 
desire for useful knowledge such as uplifts humanity and develops 
latent talents.  

	After proving on his homestead Mr. Bagstad filed on a timber 
claim southwest of Volin. Subsequently he purchased a nearby farm and 
later sold his timber claim. He has owned several fine tracts of land 
but has now disposed of most of his property. For four years he lived 
on a forty acre tract which he bought in Turner county, but with that 
exception he has continuously resided in Yankton county. In 1872, when 
it was discovered that grasshoppers destroyed young groves of 
cottonwood which settlers had planted, Mr. Bagstad was, so far as is 
known, the first to introduce into Dakota the honey locust, which he 
discovered to be immune from the ravages of that insect. He purchased 
ten pounds of seed and raised nine thousand young trees, from which 
most of the groves of honey locust throughout the northwest have been 
grown. He suffered the loss of the young trees on his timber claim by 
grasshoppers and he at once began thinking about and studying upon the 
situation. He observed that the grasshoppers gave the box elder a wide 
berth and while they seemed to be especially fond of tobacco, they 
would not eat peas. Mr. Bagstad's observations were utilized in the 
development of his place and box elders and honey locust took the place 
of the cottonwoods. At the time of the great flood he was teaching at 
his homestead beyond the reach of the waters, about ten miles northwest 
of Volin, but his parents and brothers were in Gayville, where they 
were rescued by James Long and his brothers. Mr. Bagstad was employed 
in the Bruget district No. 40 and had but two pupils at three o'clock 
on the day when the southern section of the state was swept by a 
blizzard that is never to be forgotten. He took his pupils by the hand, 
one on each side of him, and started for their home, but they could not 
follow in his tracks, so he held the girl by the hand and the boy held 
hers and thus in single file they made their way along the fence to the 
house. With every phase of pioneer life and experience Mr. Bagstad is 
familiar and he has been an interested witness of the changes which 
have occurred as the county has emerged primitive conditions and taken 
on advantages of a modern civilization. In the spring of 1914 Mr. 
Bagstad purchased a small tract of land near Volin, on which had been 
established a nursery, and which, in consequence, is well covered with 
fruit and forest trees and shrubs. There he is living and still remains 
an active, forceful factor in the community, honored and respected by 
all who know him and most of all where he is best known.  

	Mr. Bagstad has always been rather independent in polities, 
supporting men and measures rather than following strictly party lines. 
He has never had any inclination for office seeking but has been forced 
into a campaign occasionally. In 1872, when only, twenty years of age, 
he was nominated by the republican party as their candidate for the 
legislature, the election occurring only four days after his twenty-
first birthday. In 1894 he was again forced into the race, this time as 
the candidate of the peoples party, and while he practically made no 
campaign, he was defeated by only four votes.