BIOGRAPHIES:  Henry E BROTEN, Arland Township, Barron County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Vic Gulickson <vic@indy.net>  7 January 2002	
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Henry E. Broten, a representative farmer of Section 30, Arland Township,
is a native of the place where he still resides, born Oct. 7, 1880, the son
of Erick and Eliza (Halverson) Broten. These good people were born, reared
and married in Norway. They came to America in the early seventies and
located at Menomonie, Wis., where he entered the employ of Knapp, Stout &
Co., working in the lumber woods and on the river drives. In 1872 he took a
homestead of 80 acres in Section 30, Arland Township. It was then covered
with heavy timber. He had to cut a trail to get his provisions and supplies
to his claim. There he built a log cabin and started to establish a home
and a farm. He did his logging and clearing with a yoke of oxen, and
continued to use oxen for some twenty years. Often he walked to Prairie
Farm, bringing flour home on his back. It was some years before adequate
roads were built in the vicinity. Mr. Broten worked hard and as the years
passed got 60 acres of his place cleared. He continued actively engaged in
farming until his death, Dec. 15, 1908. In the family there were five
children: Matilda, wife of Martin Anderson of Turtle Lake Township, this
county; Andrew, of Birchwood County, this state; Henry E., the subject of
this sketch; Charles, of Saskatchewan, Canada; and George, who is dead.
Henry E. attended the district schools, was reared on the home place, and
learned farming from his father. In 1891 he started out, worked in the
woods of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota for a while, then did railroad
work at Seattle, Wash., several years, and for one year was employed in
cattle roundups in Montana, his employer being an Indian named Jack
Galbraith. In 1908 he returned home and bought the old homestead. Here he
successfully carries on general farming and dairying, and has a good herd
of mixed graded Holsteins. He has made many improvements on the place,
including the erection of a pleasant new home. Here he and his aged mother
live comfortably. Both are well known throughout the community, and both
are well thought of by all who know them. The log cabin which was the
family home for so many years is still standing.

--Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co.,
1922, pp. 897-898.