Amund Gunderson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 819-820 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				AMUND GUNDERSON. 

	Amund Gunderson, one of the representative citizens and well 
known agriculturists of Lyons township, Minnehaha county, owns a farm 
on section 27 which has been in his pose session for the past four 
decades. His birth occurred in Norway on the 27th of May, 1849, his 
parents being Gunder and Ingeborg Simonson, who came to the United 
States some years after the emigration of our subject. Following their 
arrival in South Dakota they made their home with their oldest son, 
Gunder Gunderson, of Lyons township, Minnehaha county, who had sailed 
for the United States in 1869 or three years-prior to the emigration of 
his brother Amund: Both the parents have passed away. 

	Amund Gunderson grew to manhood in his native land and attended 
the common schools in the acquirement of an education. In 1872 he 
crossed the Atlantic to the new world, locating in Union county, South 
Dakota, where he worked as a farm hand. In 1873 he took a preemption on 
his present home farm in Lyons township, Minnehaha county, but prior to 
proving up on it he changed it to a homestead. While proving up on this 
homestead he continued to work for wages in Union county as a means of 
subsistence, for he came to this country without funds. About 1877 he 
made his permanent location on his homestead and started out as an 
agriculturist on his own account, successfully carrying on farming in 
Lyons township until the farm was put in the hands of Erick Anderson. 
As the years have passed, prosperity has attended his efforts and Mr. 
Gunderson has long been numbered among the substantial and successful 
citizens of his community. He is a stockholder in the Crooks Lumber 
Company, the New Hope Grain Company of Crooks, the Lyons State Bank and 
the Baltic & New Hope Telephone Company. He was likewise one of the 
organizers and is a stockholder of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company 
of Minnehaha county. 

	In 1884 Mr. Gunderson was united in marriage to Mrs. Olson, 
formerly Miss Carrie Erickson, who is a native of Norway. By her 
marriage to Andrew Olson, Mrs. Gunderson had a son, Erick Anderson, who 
operates our subject's farm. In politics Mr. Gunderson is a republican, 
believing firmly in the principles of that party and upholding its men 
and measures at the polls. Both he and his wife are devoted and 
consistent members of the Lutheran synod. The hope that led him to 
leave his native land and seek a home in America has been more than 
realized. He found the opportunities he sought-which, by the way, are 
always open to the ambitious, energetic man-and making the best of 
these he worked his way steadily upward. His record cannot fail to 
prove of interest to many of our readers, for he has an extensive 
circle of friends and acquaintances throughout the community in which 
he has so long resided.