Ole Larson 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 300-301

	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


OLE LARSON. It is said that biography yields to no other subject in 
point of interest and profit and it is especially interesting to note 
the progress that has been made along various lines of business by 
those of foreign birth who have sought homes in America the readiness 
with which they adapt themselves to. the different methods and customs 
of America, recognize the advantages offered and utilize the 
opportunities which the new world affords. Among those from across the 
sea who have met with most excellent success in South Dakota is the 
gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, as he is to-day one of the 
most prosperous and substantial citizens of Sanborn county, his home 
being in Benedict township. 

Mr. Larson was born in Norway, in 1846, and was reared on the home 
farm, receiving very limited educational advantages as his services 
were needed in the farm work most of the time. He remained under the 
parental roof until 1873, when deciding to try his fortune on this side 
of the Atlantic, he came to America and located in Michigan. His first 
work here was unloading railroad iron from a steamboat. In the fall 
after his arrival he obtained employment in the employment in the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad shops, but the next year went to 
Minnesota, where he engaged in farm work for a few years. 

In 1878, Mr. Larson married Miss Johanna Hanson, also a native of 
Norway, whose father was a fisherman, and they have become the parents 
of eight children who are still living. For one year after his 
marriage, he operated a rented farm in Minnesota, and in 1879 came to 
Sanborn county, South Dakota, locating on section 31, Benedict 
township. He was the first man to erect a house in that township, and 
for a stable he built, in the fall of 1879, a sod structure, twelve by 
fourteen feet. To begin life here he brought with him fifteen head of 
cattle, two horses, two colts and a wagon. All lumber and provisions 
had to be hauled from Sioux Falls, as that was the nearest railroad 
town, and it required three days to make the trip. While bringing his 
cattle from that place to his farm, a band of outlaws came over the 
prairie one night and drove the cattle away. The following day he had 
to speed his last five dollars in hunting for them and was thus left 
penniless in an ocean of prairie grass. The first winter spent here, he 
and his dog caught seven antelopes, and after the October blizzard of 
1880 a herd of about thirty of those animals was seen not more than a 
mile from his house. All kinds of wild game was then very plentiful and 
furnished many a meal for the early settlers. Mr. Larson's first crops 
were very good but as he had only a few acres broken, he raised but 
little and he broke land for others to help meet his expenses. 

Mr. Larson encountered many hardships and trials during his pioneer 
life, and in one of the terrible windstorms of early days his house was 
blown down and his little daughter was badly injured. His furniture and 
household goods were scattered all over the farm, and an old copper 
boiler was not found until four years afterward. At the same time he 
also lost ten acres of grain, which was stacked. Notwithstanding these 
difficulties, however, he has steadily prospered, and is now the owner 
of about one thousand four hundred and forty acres all in one body, 
with about six hundred acres under a high state of cultivation. It is 
the largest and finest farm in the county, it being all fenced and 
improved with good buildings, including a barn, one hundred and twenty 
by seventy two feet, with twenty-foot posts, which is undoubtedly the 
largest building of the kind in four adjoining counties. On his land, 
Mr. Larson has four flowing wells which give an abundance of water. As 
a general farmer and stock raiser he has met with most remarkable 
success, and his career has ever been such as to commend him to the 
confidence and respect of the entire community. In his political 
affiliations he is a strong Republican, and in religious faith he and 
his family are Lutherans.