Olaf A. Mogen

MOGEN, SOVTESTAD, KNUTSON

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 2/3/2010 at 04:57:28

OLAF A. MOGEN

One of the best improved and most attractive farm properties of Winnebago county is that owned by Olaf A. Mogen, whose place comprises three hundred acres on section 23, Center township. He has resided thereon for almost a third of a century and its neat and attractive appearance is the visible evidence of his life of well directed energy and thrift. He was born in Norway May 17, 1854, and is a son of Aslok and Sigrid (Sovtestad) Olson, who were likewise natives of the land of the midnight sun and there remained until called to the home beyond. The father served in the regular army in Norway for about forty years and became a sergeant.

The youthful days of Olaf A. Mogen were spent in Norway and his education was acquired in its public schools. After attaining his majority, in 1880, he made the long voyage across the briny deep and settled first in Dane county, Wisconsin, where he spent one winter. He then again started westward with Worth county, Iowa, as his destination and there he secured employment at farm labor, devoting the summer months to the work of the fields, while in the winter seasons he taught school in Worth and Winnebago counties. In this way be finally earned the capital which enabled him to purchase land and he invested in three hundred acres on section 23, Center township, Winnebago county. This he set about clearing and improving. He has cleared two hundred and seventy acres of his farm and today has one of the best improved places in the county, equipped with all the conveniences and accessories of a model farm of the twentieth century. It bears proof of the thirty-two years of labor which he has devoted thereto and each year he garners good crops as a reward for his effort. He is also a stockholder in the Lake Mills Creamery Company and in the Farmers Elevator Company of Lake Mills.
In February, 1884, Mr. Mogen was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Knutson and they have become the parents of three sons, Andrew O., Conrad C. and Gustav Theodore, all of whom are farming in Center township.

Mr. Mogen's life has ever been actuated by high and honorable principles. He holds membership in the United Lutheran church and his position upon the temperance question is indicated by the stalwart support which he gives to the prohibition party. Those who know him, and he has a wide acquaintance, esteem him as a man of sterling worth and the course which he has followed might well serve as an example to others, while his life history also proves conclusively that success and an honored name may be won simultaneously.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 554-555.