THORESON, CHRISTOPHER

THORESON, INGLESON, ERICKSON, GREENDAGER, HANSON, BREEN, JOHNSON, CARLSON, EVANS, STEINBERG, NELSON, LARSON, SAMUELSON, EVANS

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/14/2003 at 18:49:48

Biography reproduced from page 245 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

One of the influential and substantial citizens of Swea township is Christopher Thoreson, who owns a highly improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres, located on section 5, which he has been diligently cultivating for over thirty years. He is a native of Norway, his birth having occurred on the 24th of January, 1839, and is a son of Thore and Anna (Ingleson) Erickson, who passed their entire lives in the old country, where the father engaged in farming. He died in 1854, and the mother in 1856, both spending their last days on their farm. Of the six children born to them, four are still living, our subject being the eldest. The others are as follows: Carrie, the wife of Ole Greendager, of Hoffman, Minnesota; Anna, who married Nels Hanson, of Norway; and Lewis T., of Hoffman, Minnesota, who took the name of Breen upon becoming a citizen of the United States.

Christopher Thoreson was reared and educated in the locality where he was born, but after leaving school he went to Christiana and learned the tanner's trade, which he followed in Norway until 1867. In that year he decided to come to the United States, those of his countrymen who had preceded him having written back wonderful accounts of the opportunities that were to be found in America, and he took passage for New York city. During the first ten years of his residence in this country he followed his trade in the state of New York. At the expiration of that time, however, he went to Massachusetts, where he worked in the factories. From there he went to Minnesota and in 1878 he came to Kossuth county. Soon after locating here he purchased eighty acres of unimproved land, which formed the nucleus of his present farm. He hauled lumber from Algona and built a house, and then diligently set about placing his land under cultivation. He directed his energies intelligently and prospered in his undertakings and was later able to extend the boundaries of his farm by the addition of another eighty acres, making his holdings aggregate one hundred and sixty acres. Here he has ever since engaged in general farming and stock-raising, and annually feeds large numbers of cattle and hogs for the market. Mr. Thoreson is one of the progressive business men and enterprising citizens of his community, and cooperated in the organization of the Farmers Elevator Company at Armstrong, in which both he and his sons, Lawrence and John, hold stock. He is also one of the stockholders of the Cooperative Creamery Company of Armstrong.

In Algona, on the 2d of June, 1879, Mr. Thoreson was married to Miss Christina Johnson, a daughter of John and Margaret (Carlson) Johnson, natives of Sweden, as is also Mrs. Thoreson. Her father, who was a mechanic, abandoned his trade before leaving Sweden and turned his attention to farming. He subsequently emigrated to the United States with his family and located on a farm in Swea township, Kossuth county. Later, he disposed of this and went to Wisconsin, filing on a homestead which he cultivated until his death in 1902. The mother is still living and makes her home at Poplar River, Douglas county, Wisconsin. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson numbered nine, of whom but five are now living, Mrs. Thoreson being the youngest. The others are as follows: Tillie, who married John Evans, of Clearwater, Minnesota; Hilda, the wife of John Steinberg, of Minnesota; Oscar, who is living on the old home farm in Wisconsin; and Emma, who married Swen Nelson, and resides in Wisconsin.

Mrs. Thoreson was born on the 17th of December, 1851, and passed the first twenty years of her life in Sweden. In 1871, she emigrated to the United States and on May 20, of that year, arrived in New York city. For eight years thereafter she lived in the state of New York, but at the end of that time she came to Kossuth county, where she was married to Mr. Thoreson. They have become the parents of eleven children, of whom eight are living: T. Lawrence, a farmer in Eagle township, who married Christina Larson and has one son, Lloyd Warner; Emma, who is clerking in a store in Hoffman, Minnesota; Lewis, a farmer of Swea Township, who married Sylvina Samuelson and has two sons, Cecil and Orville; Dora, the wife of Maniford Evans, a newspaper man of Kossuth county; Bertha C., who is teaching school and living at home; John, who is living on the home farm with his parents; Hattie, the teacher of the school in district No. 2, Swea township; and George, who is at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Thoreson are members of the Swedish Lutheran church in Swea township, and Mrs. Thoreson also belongs to the Ladies Aid Society. His political allegiance Mr. Thoreson has accorded to the republican party ever since granted the right of franchise, but he has never been connected with official affairs in the township. Mr. Thoreson is a most estimable man and his upright character and genuine worth have won him the unqualified regard of a large circle of friends and neighbors.