Iver I. Oyen Biography


	This biography appears on pages 906, 907 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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				IVER I. OYEN.  

	Iver I. Oyen, who has long been numbered among the well known and 
successful agriculturists of Minnehaha county, is the proprietor of the 
New Hope Stock Farm on section 34, Lyons township, but for the past 
couple of years has lived retired, leaving the care of his property to 
his two sons. In the spring of 1915 he purchased a fine modern 
residence in Crooks and moved to that place, where he and his wife 
expect to spend the sunset years of their lives. His birth occurred in 
Norway on the 11th of September, 1855, his parents being Ingebrigt and 
Molly Iverson, who emigrated to the United States in 1875 and took up 
their abode in Benton township, Minnehaha county, South Dakota, where 
the father homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land. On that 
property he spent the remainder of his life, passing away in 1900 at 
the age of seventy-six years. The demise of his wife occurred about 
1904, when she had attained the age of eighty-five years.  

	Iver I. Oyen acquired his education in the common schools of his 
native land and was a young man of twenty when he accompanied his 
parents on their emigration to the new world. He assisted his father in 
the work of the fields until the time of his marriage in 1879, wedding 
Miss Anne Martha Nelson, a daughter of Nels Nelson, who spent his 
entire life in Norway. Miss Nelson crossed the Atlantic to America in 
1874. Following his marriage Mr. Oyen located on a homestead which he 
had entered in 1876, the property adjoining what is now his home farm. 
He sold his homestead in 1880 and bought one hundred and sixty acres of 
his present place on section 34, Lyons township, subsequently 
purchasing an adjoining eighty-acre tract and making his farm one of 
two hundred and forty acres. He likewise owns two hundred and forty 
acres on sections 23 and 14, Lyons township, so that his holdings in 
Minnehaha county embrace four hundred and eighty acres. During the last 
two years he has not been actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
however, renting his land to his two sons. For years past he has been 
one of the well known and most successful stockmen of Minnehaha county, 
raising shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs.  

	Mr. and Mrs. Oyen have no children of their own but adopted two 
sons: William H., who operates our subject's farm on section 23, Lyons 
township and Sivert A., who cultivates the home place.  

	In his political views Mr. Oyen is a socialist. He has served as 
treasurer of the township board and as a member of the school board, 
ever discharging his official duties in a prompt and able manner. The 
period of his residence in Minnehaha county and South Dakota covers 
four decades, and he has long enjoyed an enviable reputation as one of 
the prosperous and respected citizens of the state.