Biographies:  Amund AMUNDSEN, Prairie Farm Township, Barron Co., WI 

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Amund Amundsen, a worthy citizen, now deceased, for many years a resident of
Section 32, Prairie Farm Township, was an early settler of both Wisconsin and
Minnesota. He was born in Norway, Dec. 5, 1824, and was there reared, attended
school, and grew to manhood. In 1850 he set out for America, the voyage on a
sailing boat taking over eleven weeks.  He came to Janesville, Rock County,
Wisconsin, then the end of the railroad, and from there found his way into
Dane County, where for some years he was employed at farm labor. In 1860 he
settled in Fillmore County, Minnesota, and lived there, doing farm work, 
during the stirring days of the Civil War and of the Sioux Indian Outbreak. 
Like the other settlers he fled to town when the news came that the Indians 
were slaughtering the settlers in the western part of the state and sweeping 
eastward. Having mastered the manual of arms in Norway, he helped to drill 
many volunteers from his county. He himself was drafted, and presented himself 
at Rochester, but it was found that his name had been confused with another 
and he was not mustered into service.  Fillmore County had been settled early, 
the wild land was well taken, so after a while Mr. Amundsen, for the sake of 
his children, decided to settle in a newer region. He arrived in Barron 
County, Oct. 12, 1872, and here his son, Mathias, homesteaded 160 acres of 
wild land in Section 32, Prairie Farm Township. There the family lived 
together and developed a good place. They moved into a log cabin built by the 
original claimant, Alonzo Forward, and started farming with a yoke of oxen 
and five or six cows. After a long and useful life, Mr. Amundsen died Oct. 23, 
1914. His good wife died Dec. 10, 1905. Mr. Amundsen was married at Madison, 
Wis., in 1851 to Osa Christianson, who was born in Norway, Dec. 9, 1829. This 
union has been blessed with eight children: Mathias, Andrew (deceased), Peter 
(deceased), Christ, Alfred, Sophia (of Minneapolis), Martha (wife  of  Paul 
Vance, of Dane County), and Ellen (deceased). The family name has now been 
modified in spelling to Amundson.

--Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co.,
1922, pg.  617.