BIOGRAPHIES:  Robert LAUSTED Sr, Elk Mound, Dunn County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Laura Abood <wabood@msn.com>  20 August 2002   
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Robert Lausted, Sr., now deceased, was one of the hardy pioneers of Dunn 
County who helped to lay the foundations of its present wealth and prosperity, 
and to whom the present generation owes a debt of gratitude. He was born in 
Germany and was there educated.  It was shortly after the breaking out of the 
Civil War that he came to America, and for a year after his arrival he remained 
in New York, where he found work; but the wages he received amounted to only 
five dollars a month.  At the end of that time he came west to Dunn County, 
Wisconsin, where the lumber industry was active, and where he entered the 
employ of Knapp, Stout & Co., for whom he worked several years, sometimes in 
the woods, at other times in the mills, and also as teamster.  When he left 
their employ he began farming, buying 120 acres of hay land, in the town of 
Elk Mound.  All of this, like his original tract, was wild and covered with 
brush in addition to the timber mentioned.  Erecting a small house and log 
barn, he began the task of building up a farm, in which, after many years of 
hard work he succeeded, in time bringing 160 acres under the plow and having 
a fine house, barn and other buildings.  Here he carried on general farming 
and stock raising until his death in 1917.  His wife Bertha, to whom he was 
married in Dunn County, was born in Germany, and, like himself, came to this 
country when young.  They were unacquainted in Germany, meeting each other for 
the first time in Dunn County, Wisconsin.  She survived him some years, passing 
away in the spring of 1924.  They had been the parents of 11 children, ten of 
whom are now living, namely, Eliza, Otto, Robert, Emma, Martha, Ida, Edward, 
Sadie, Sam and Florence.  The one deceased is Clara, who was the wife of George 
Webert.  Emma is now Mrs. Will Webert of the town of Elk Mound; Ida is the wife 
of George Snyder of Augusta, Wis.; and Sadie the wife of Albert Huber of the 
town of Tainter.  Martha is Mrs. Ed. Giese of Menomonie.  Before the father died 
he bought 320 acres of land in Section 26, which he gave to his sons, Robert and 
Edward; and Sam has carried on the home farm, of which he is now the owner.

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