Hans Furusaet Biography This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 798-801 Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm HANS FURUSAET, a leading business man of Bowdle, and an honored pioneer of South Dakota, was born in the central part of Norway, April 5, 1853, and is the third in order of birth in a family of five children, whose father was Ole Furusaet, a farmer of that country. Our subject was educated in the public and military schools of his native land. He lost his father when thirteen years of age, and he then turned his attention to the operation of the home farm for himself and brother, Anders, as they came into possession of the place, and continued its cultivation until our subject entered the military school. His brother bought out his interests when our subject came to America in 1882. On the 27th of March, 1883, Mr. Furusaet landed in South Dakota and took up land in Walworth county, where he began life alone in a sod house, 16x 18 feet. The first year he broke twelve acres of his land, but did not plant a crop until 1884 and it was a failure, being ruined by the drought. For several years, in connection with the operation of his own land, he also worked for others. In those early days provisions were very high, coffee being thirty-three cents per pound; flour, five dollars per hundred; potatoes, two dollars per bushel; butter, fifty cents per pound; eggs, fifty cents per dozen; matches, ten cents per box; pork, twenty-five cents per pound; syrup, one dollar and twenty- five cents per gallon; and oats, seventy-five cents per bushel. There were many trials and privations to be borne by the early settlers in their attempt to make for themselves and families homes on the Western frontier, and Mr. Furusaet encountered his share of these. On the 2d of August, 1885, a hail-storm destroyed his crops, and although they were insured he only received about twenty dollars for the entire amount. That fall he hired out as a harvest hand. The morning of the 17th of February, 1884, dawned bright and clear, and he left his farm, near the Missouri river, and started for town on foot. All of a sudden a blizzard sprang up, several times he lost the road, but kept close to the river and finally came to town. With the exception of along the river there were no settlers for many miles in any direction. Mr. Furusaet was out in the storm about six hours and one side of his face was glazed with ice, being covered with quite a coating of ice when he found shelter. On the 25th of December, 1884, he made a trip from his farm to Le Beau and back, a distance of twenty miles. On his arrival home he was almost dead from exhaustion and cold, his feet being entirely numbed from frost. Mr. Furusaet also witnessed the terrible blizzard on the 12th of January, 1888. June 5, 1895, a most terrible rain-storm struck his farm. A large cloud came up from the northwest and five minutes after the rain commenced falling wafer stood in his barn almost knee deep; all loose boards were swept away from the premises, and the water even entered his house. There were a great many pleasures, however, enjoyed by the early settlers, especially by those fond of hunting, as deer, antelope and beavers were quite numerous. Mr. Furusaet distinctly remembers two incidents which occurred in the early 'eighties and which goes to prove game was not by any means scarce at that time. February 27, 1883, accompanied by a friend, Andrew Platt, armed with two old rifles and followed by a luncher dog which they could not drive away, they came upon a herd of antelope which numbered five thousand head or more. The plains were covered as far as their eyes could see. They gradually formed a ring around the hunters, when one of the animals entered the ring and was repeatedly chased around by the dog. When the antelope became tired of the sport he retired and another took his place. This was repeated a number of times, or until the hunters became tired of the fun. They finished the sport by shooting one of the animals, with which they returned home satisfied. During the first days of April the same year, 1883, Mr. Furusaet and party of friends were hunting ducks. On reaching Swan Lake, Walworth county, South Dakota, they found the lake full of water and covered with ducks, a few geese only among the number. The hunters opened fire, the birds rose, and so thick were they in the air that they hid the light of the sun. In 1886 Mr. Furusaet removed to Bowdle, where for a time he engaged in teaming and jobbing, and in the summer of that year started a restaurant. In 1895 he bought a warehouse, and is now successfully engaged in the grain business. He is independent in politics, and has filled the office of school treasurer. Socially he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of the Maccabees. Mr. Furusaet was married in 1893, the lady of his choice being Miss Augusta Furusaethagen, also a native of Norway, where her parents still live, and by this union an interesting family of four children have been born: Oscar, Elmer, Esther and Norman. Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Furusaet will be found in connection with this sketch.