Andrew Charlson

CHARLSON, HALVERSON, PETERSON, VAREBERG, KLIPPING, BLISS

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/5/2010 at 05:10:18

ANDREW CHARLSON

Andrew Charlson is a retired farmer of Forest township, Winnebago county, who now makes his home on section 23. He is a representative of that large and substantial quota of citizens that Norway has furnished to Iowa, his birth having occurred in that country on the 13th of October, 1841. In 1852 his parents, Carl Anderson and Bertha (Halverson) Charlson, came to the United States with their family from Anfenesrue, near Drammen, Norway, on a sailing vessel that took seven weeks to make the voyage. They established their home in Dane county, Wisconsin. The father was employed on the construction of the Chicago, Milwaukee& St. Paul Railroad from Stoughton to Madison, Wisconsin, and he continued his residence in that state until called to his final rest, after which the mother brought the family to Winnebago county, Iowa, in 1866.

Andrew Charlson was reared and educated in Dane county, Wisconsin, pursuing his studies in one of the old-time log schoolhouses, with its slab benches and other primitive furnishings, while the methods of instruction were almost as crude in those pioneer times. However, in the school of experience he has learned many practical and valuable lessons. In the spring of 1866 he came to Winnebago county, Iowa, with his mother and in connection with her purchased a small tract of land in Forest township on which was a log cabin. In that primitive home the family was established and there resided for several years. Mr. Charlson was ambitious and industrious and through his earnest and indefatigable effort he was able to earn the money that enabled him from time to time to add to his possessions. He has- at intervals made purchases until he is now the owner of eight hundred acres of valuable farm land, all of which he has improved and which is now being further developed and cultivated by his children, with the exception of the small tract of fifty acres whereon he now resides. This splendid property is the visible evidence of his life of well directed energy and thrift. In addition to his farming interests he is a stock holder in the Lake Mills Lumber Company and in the Farmers Cooperative Creamery Company of Forest City.

On July 26, 1870, Mr. Charlson was married to Miss Bertha C. Peterson, a native of La Salle county, Illinois, and a daughter of Hans H. Peterson, who came to America from Norway in 1850 and settled in La Salle county, Illinois. In that state he was married to Kristana Thors Nelson Vareberg, who emigrated to America from Stavanger, Norway. Mr. and Mrs. Charlson have become parents of seven children, of whom five are yet living, namely: Clarence H., who follows farming in Winnebago county; Bertha M., the wife of George Klipping, a resident farmer of Hancock county; and Joseph W., Arthur Bliss and Irving W., all of whom are farmers of this part of the state, taking up the work for their father upon his land.

Mr. and Mrs. Charlson are devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church and have guided their lives according to its teachings. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and in 1864 he first exercised his right of franchise by voting for Abraham Lincoln. It was in that year that he joined the Union army as a soldier of the Civil war, becoming a member of Company I, Forty-third Wisconsin Infantry, with which he remained until the cessation of hostilities. He has served as a member of the school board in his district and has filled several of the township offices, the duties of which he has ever discharged with promptness and fidelity. He is today numbered among the old settlers of Winnebago county and is one of its most highly esteemed citizens. He certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished, for he has worked diligently and with determination to win his success and his life record indicates what may be accomplished when there is a will to dare and to do. He did not shirk the responsibilities that early came to him nor grumble that fate was unkind to him but worked along lines (hat led to success and is today one of the prosperous citizens of Winnebago county.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. p. 291-292.