TIDEMANSON, Ole

TIDEMANSON, BROGMUS, NELSON, PETERSON

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 2/5/2011 at 22:20:30

Ole Tidemanson is living retired in St. Ansgar but for an extended period was one of the active farmers of Mitchell county and through his well directed energy and thrift he won a substantial competence that now enables him to live retired.

He belongs to that substantial class of citizens that Norway has furnished to the new world. His birth occurred in Hallingdal on the 25th of January, 1850, his father being Tideman Peterson, who was a farmer of Norway.

The son remained a resident of his native country until he reached the age of nineteen years, when he determined to try his fortune in the new world, having heard favorable reports concerning its advantages and its opportunities. He therefore bade adieu to friends and family in the land of the midnight sun and crossed the Atlantic to the United States. For five years after his arrival in Iowa he was employed as a farm hand and during that period saved his earnings until his industry and economy had brought him sufficient capital to enable him to purchase property.

He bought one hundred and sixty acres of unbroken land and with characteristic energy began its development and improvement. He performed the arduous task of turning the first furrows upon the place and putting in the first crops. He continued to cultivate that farm until 1877, when he sold the property and removed to a farm south of St. Ansgar.

At a later period he disposed of all of his farm property and took up his abode in St. Ansgar, where in 1907 he purchased a fine residence in the northern part of the city. Here he is most comfortably located and is in possession of a substantial competence which has come to him as the direct reward and outcome of his labors.

On the 27th of May, 1877, Mr. Tidemanson was married to Miss Anne E. Nelson, a native of Winneshiek county, Iowa, and they have become the parents of five children: Tom and Iver, who are resident farmers of Mitchell county; Clara, the wife of Christ Brogmus, of St. Ansgar; Carl, who follows farming in Winnebago county, Iowa; and Anton, who is operating an elevator at Mitchell.

The parents are consistent members of the Norwegian Lutheran church and in his political views Mr. Tidemanson is a stanch republican, having supported the party since becoming an American citizen. He is loyal to the interests of his adopted land and his cooperation has been given to various movements which have been beneficial to his community.

His time and efforts, however, have been most largely concentrated upon his farm work and through the careful manage­ment of his business affairs he has gained a place among the prosperous and well-to-do citizens of Mitchell county, so that he has never had occasion to regret his determination to try his fortune in the new world.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 366.