Peter Klarin 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, 1898. Page 475

	Scan, OCR and editing by Joy Fisher, jfisher@sdgenweb.com, 1999.

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PETER KLARIN is classed among the most energetic and enterprising farmers of 
Volga township, Brookings county. His career has been marked throughout with 
persistent and faithful efforts to advance his own interests, and those for whom 
he worked, and he has been rewarded by the acquisition of a good property and a 
high reputation.

Mr. Klarin was born in Vermeland, Sweden, March 15, 1845, a son of Peter and 
Bertha Klarin.  His father, a native of the same locality, was a tailor by trade 
and was born about the year 1800.  He died in 1851, leaving our subject an 
orphan, at the age of six years.  His mother bore the maiden name of Miss Bertha 
Nelson.  Peter attended the public school until he was fifteen years of age, and 
then worked on the farm until he attained his majority.  In 1869 he came to 
America, landing in Quebec, and taking passage from there to Chicago.  He 
remained in Chicago but a short time when he moved to Adams county, Wisconsin, 
where he worked at farming two years and then went to LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  Here 
he was employed as a coachman for five years and then went to the pinery for two 
years.

May 8, 1874, Mr. Klarin was united in marriage at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to Miss 
Jennie Carlson, daughter of Simon and Rachel Carlson. Mrs. Klarin was born in 
Norway, August 1, 1854, and came to America while yet a small child.  In 1876, 
Mr. Klarin went to Dakota and located a tree claim in the southwest quarter of 
section 31, township 110, range 50, which was the first claim taken in Volga 
township, and there were no claims yet taken north of this one in Brookings 
county.  After returning to Wisconsin and making a short stay, he changed his 
claim to a homestead, and in 1879, he moved his family upon it and began to make 
improvements.  The farm now consists of two hundred and three acres of which one 
hundred and forty are under cultivation.  The farm is beautifully situated on 
the shore of the Sioux river, and in the pasture is a never-failing spring which 
furnishes his stock with plenty of pure water.  The improvements consist of a 
neat set of farm buildings and a fine house wherein he and his wife have one of 
the coziest homes in the vicinity.  The well, though only fourteen feet deep, 
cannot be pumped dry, and the water is drawn by a windmill and is conducted by 
pipes to the field where it is needed.  Last season, besides his own farm, Mr. 
Klarin cultivated three quarter-sections of rented land, and had thirty acres of 
as fine corn as could be found in the county, and the place is stocked with 
seventy-two head of cattle, twelve hogs and six horses.

To Mr. and Mrs. Klarin have been born four children, as follows: Albert W. and 
Richard E., born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin; and John Walter and Ida Josephine, born 
in Volga township, Brookings county, South Dakota.  The parents are members of 
the Baptist church.  For the past fifteen years Mr. Klarin has been in very poor 
health. Politically he advocates the principles of the Republican party.