Andrew E. Branstad

BRANSTAD, GROITNES, NERLEY, LARSON

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/20/2010 at 04:07:48

ANDREW E. BRANSTAD

Since 1875 Andrew E. Branstad has been a resident of Winnebago county and has therefore witnessed almost its entire development and progress. He has seen towns and villages spring up and the wild land transformed into productive and valuable farms. As an agriculturist he has been actively identified with this development and he has also taken an important part in public affairs.

A native of Norway, Mr. Branstad was born August 10, 1859, and is a son of Endre and Dordy (Groitnes) Branstad, who came to the United States in 1873 and first located in Winneshiek county, Iowa, but after residing there for two years removed to Winnebago county. The father purchased eighty acres of land on section 1, Forest township, on which he resided up to the time of his death in 1911. The mother is still living and now makes her home in Leland.

Being thirteen years of age on the emigration of the family to the new world, Andrew E. Branstad had attended school in his native land, and for one term continued his studies in the schools of Winneshiek county. He assisted his father in the operation of the home farm until he attained his twenty-second year and then started out to make his own way in the world, working on a section of the railroad for three years. At the end of that time Mr. Branstad purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land one and a half miles southeast of Leland and turned his attention to farming, with which occupation he had become thoroughly familiar during his boyhood and youth. He converted the raw prairie into highly cultivated fields and made his farm one of the best in the locality. His first house was built of logs which had formed a building erected by John Springen immediately after the Civil war and in this dwelling Mr. Branstad lived for six years, at the end of which time it was replaced by a good frame residence. He continued to live upon bis farm until the 1st of March, 1917, when he purchased his present home adjoining Leland, and now rents the home farm, consisting of two hundred and eighty acres, to his sons, Helmer and Carl.

Mr. Branstad was married June 15, 1885, to Miss Ingeborg Nerley, of Winneshiek county, Iowa, but a native of Norway, and to them have been born nine children, of whom seven survive, namely: Edward G., and Gust E., both farmers of Polk county, Wisconsin; Dinah Ann, the wife of Levi Larson of the same county; Helmer D., who is on the home farm; Hazel, with her parents; Carl O., also on his father's farm; and Wilma 0., now attending Waldorf College at Forest. City, Iowa.

Mr. Branstad now votes independently and for many years has been an active worker for prohibition. He is a member of the town council of Leland and was a member of the first town council after the incorporation. As a public-spirited citizen he has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his town and county and has given his support to all worthy enterprises for the public good. He was one of the principal factors in the organization of the co-operative creamery built at Leland, which was the first co-operative creamery in Winnebago county, and he served as the first president, after which he filled the office of secretary for some time.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Branstad are earnest and consistent members of the Norwegian Lutheran church and he was one of five men to organize the first church of that denomination in Leland. He has always taken an active part in church and .Sunday school work, serving as superintendent of the Sunday school continuously since its organization. His life has been upright and honorable in every respect and he well merits the high esteem in which he is uniformly held.

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. 107-108.