Ben Mekvold Biography


	This biography appears on page 1168 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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				BEN MEKVOLD. 

	Ben Mekvold, one of the substantial and representative 
agriculturists of Minnehaha county, where he has resided for the past 
quarter of a century, is the owner of two hundred and fifty-two acres 
on section 17, Mapleton township, comprising one of the most productive 
farms in the state of South Dakota. His birth occurred in Norway on the 
28th of January, 1867, his parents being Ole and Bertha (Eliason) 
Mekvold, who emigrated to the United States in 1904, seventeen years 
after their son Ben had come to this country. They still survive and 
make their home on the farm of our subject. 

	Ben Mekvold spent the first twenty years of his life in the land 
of his nativity and attended the public schools in the acquirement of 
an education. In 1887, desiring to take advantage of the opportunities 
held out in the new world, he crossed the Atlantic to America and took 
up his abode in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he worked in the sawmills 
for two years. In 1889 he came to South Dakota, locating in Mapleton 
township, Minnehaha county, where he was employed as a farm hand by Ole 
Gunderson for nine years or until his marriage in 1898. Subsequently he 
settled on the tract of one hundred and sixty acres on section 17 which 
was owned by his bride and has since added one hundred and six acres to 
the farm, so that it now embraces two hundred and fifty-two acres. It 
is situated in the Sioux Valley bottoms and is therefore one of the 
most productive farms in the state of South Dakota, yielding its owner 
a most gratifying annual income. 

	In 1898 Mr. Mekvold was united in marriage to Miss Gertie 
Peterson, a daughter of Robert Peterson, who was one of the early 
settlers of Minnehaha county, homesteading a quarter section of land on 
section 17, Mapleton township. Mr. and Mrs. Mekvold have two children, 
Roy and Irvin, both at home. The parents are consistent members of the 
United Lutheran church, and fraternally Mr. Mekvold is identified with 
the Modern Brotherhood of America. At all times his life has been 
active, useful and honorable and it is his genuine personal worth that 
has gained for him the favorable position which he occupies in the 
regard of those who know him.