Edward P. Larson Edward P. Larson is a representative of one of the honored and influential pioneer families of Clayton county and his parents were numbered among the sterling Scandinavian citizens who settled in this section of the state in the early days and gave splendid impetus to civic and industrial development and progress, besides which his father manifested high loyalty to the land of his adoption by serving as a Union soldier in the Civil war. He whose name introduces this review is one of the specially progressive and popular exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in his native county and is the owner of a fine landed estate in Highland township, the village of Elgin being his postoffice address. He was born in the township that is now his home, and the date of his nativity was October 27, 1871. He is a son of Peter and Carrie (Benson) Larson, both of whom were born in Norway. Peter Larson was reared and educated in his native land and was a young man when he immigrated to the United States. He was but seventeen years of age when, on the 3rd of December, 1863, he enlisted as a private in Company H, Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and went forth to aid in the defense of the nation's integrity, his company having been commanded by Captain T. Hulburt. He served during the remainder of the war and received his honorable discharge on the 29th of May, 1865, at Springfield, Illinois. Within a short time after the close of his service as a valiant soldier of the Union he returned to Clayton county, Iowa, where he had lived for a time prior to entering the ranks of the Union army, and from the modest little farm of eighty acres which he here purchased as a youthful veteran he eventually developed a valuable and well improved landed estate of two hundred and eleven acres, in Section 3, Highland township. Here he continued his activities as a successful farmer and loyal and honored citizen until ten months prior to his death, when he removed to the village of Gunder, where he passed to the life eternal on the 1st of August, 1910, his cherished and devoted wife having died in November, 1894, and both having been earnest communicants of the Norwegian Lutheran church. They became the parents of six children, of whom the eldest is Lars, another of the representative farmers of Highland township; the subject of this review was the second child; Henry is a prosperous agriculturist in Wagner township; Maggie is the wife of Albert R. Larson of Highland township; Christ is one of the substantial farmers of Highland township; and Belle is deceased. Edward P. Larson in his boyhood and youth broadened his mental ken by availing himself consistently of the advantages of the public schools of his native county and simultaneously he fortified himself in practical knowledge by lending his quota of assistance in the work of his father's farm. He remained at the parental home until he had attained to his legal majority, and he then began an apprenticeship to the blacksmith's trade, in which he became a competent artisan. For some time he was engaged in the operation of a drilling machine and a threshing outfit, and in 1900 he resumed his active and independent association with agricultural pursuits. It was at this time that he purchased in his native township a farm of one hundred and forty-seven acres, and to this excellent property he has since added until he now has a fine farm of two hundred and thirty-nine and one-half acres, in Section 3, Highland township. The permanent improvements are of the most approved modern type and include an attractive brick house of two stories and the best of barns and other farm buildings. Mr. Larson is not only one of the energetic, sagacious and progressive representatives of agricultural and live-stock industry in his native county but is also liberal and public-spirited as a citizen. He is serving in 1916 as township trustee, a preferment that indicates the high estimate placed upon him in his native community, and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. Both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Norwegian Lutheran church at Highland. In May, 1899, Mr. Larson wedded Mrs. Julia (Thompson) Knutson, widow of Thomas Knutson, the one child of her first marriage being Lena B. Knutson. Mr. and Mrs. Larson have five children, and their names and respective dates of birth are here indicated: Peter, July 15, 1900; Cora, August 10, 1902; Orvald, September 15, 1905; Mabel, October 15, 1908; and Elmer G., April 30, 1912. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 243-244 |