Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/1151

HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 999 140 acres of farmland in Section 36. Mr. and Mrs. Grendahl have two children, one son and one daughter: Clara, born June 11, 1905, and Melvin, born September 27, 1906. Mr. Grendahl is a Republican, stockholder in the Farmers' Elevator Company of Wanamingo. Fie and his family attend the Lutheran church. Peter J. Mogaard, of Belle Creek township, was born in Nor- way, April 18, 1812, son of John and Mollie (Mulnuse) Mogaard, natives of Norway. The mother died in 1859 and the father in 1897. Peter received his education in Norway and worked with his father until he came to America, in 1866. He located in Olmstead county, Minnesota*, where he remained for three years, when he went to the Pineries at Eau Claire, Wis., where he worked one year; then he spent one year in Menominee, Wis., and in 1871 came to Goodhue county and purchased eighty acres of land in Wanamingo township, where he engaged in farming for six years. He then sold and came to Belle Creek township and purchased 160 acres in Section 21, and later added eighty acres adjoining. This he broke and cleared and built a home and a large barn, and- continued to improve and cultivate his land until now he has one of the finest farms in the county. He has carried on general and diversified farming and dairying, also making a specialty of raising Shorthorn cattle. On April 7, 1866, he was married to Bertha Moslet, in Norway. She was a daughter of John 0. and Mollie (Lean) Moslet, natives of Nor- way, who came to America in 1867 and located in Wanamingo • township and engaged in farming. The father died in 1879 and the mother in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Mogaard have had six chil- dren : Michael, of North Dakota ;• Cornelius, Henry and Paulena, who live at home ; John, who is a physician at Chicago ; and Simon, now of South Dakota. Mr. Mogaard is a Republican in his politics, but has never sought public office. He is a stock- holder in the Farmers' Elevator at Wanamingo. He and his family are communicants of the Norwegian Lutheran church. Robert E. Mathews, a retired farmer living at Zumbrota, was born in Ohio, April 15, 1859. His parents, Thomas and Mary (Halfyard) Mathews, came to America in 1853, locating in Ohio, where the father engaged in farming until the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, when he enlisted in the Eighth Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry as a private and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. The mother died in Ohio in 1895. Robert E. spent his early days in Ohio, receiving his education in the public schools of that state. In December, 1874. he came to Red Wing and took up farming, remaining there until 1879, when he re- moved to Zumbrota, still engaged in farming. In 1883 he became the owner of a fine farm of 160 acres, on which he carried on a general and diversified farming for ten years, after which, in