Ness, Gulbrand H. 1840 –

NESS, JOHANAS, GILBRANSON, KELSON, BAKKE, LAVSTRIEN, ANDERSON

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 4/16/2015 at 08:07:40

GULBRAND H. NESS.

Norway has furnished a considerable proportion of citizens to Winneshiek county and the diligence and energy characteristic of the people of that land have become important factors in the development and improvement of this section of the state. A representative of this class is Gulbrand H. Ness, now a well known and worthy farmer of Glenwood township, living on section 23. He is also numbered among the veterans of the Civil war. His birth occurred in Norway, October 25, 1840, his parents being Hans Johanas and Anna Gilbranson, who spent their entire lives in Norway where the father followed farming. Their family numbered four children: Johan, who was born October 1, 1838, was for thirty years in the employ of the Ekebergh firm, the wealthiest people of Norway, well known all over Europe. He has been retired by them on a pension and makes his home in Christiania, Norway. He is a well educated man, Gulbrand H. Ness having given him part of the money necessary to secure his education. The subject of this review is the second member of the family. The daughter Carrie became the wife of E. Kelson and she died in this county while her husband passed away in Norman county Minnesota. She was brought to America by her brother Gulbrand, as was the youngest of the family, Hanson Ness, who came to the United States in 1868 and died in 1870.

Gulbrand H. Ness was reared upon the home farm in Norway and in 1861 crossed the Atlantic to the United States, arriving in Winneshiek county on the 17th of May. Here he was employed as a farm hand by the month at a salary of eleven dollars per month, and on leaving his first employer he entered the service of another farmer with whom he continued for five months. On the 15th of October, of the same year, he went to Decorah to purchase clothes. He did not carry out his intention, however, but instead enlisted in the Union army, offering his services through an interpreter. This was on the 15th of October, 1861, and he joined Company G, of the Twelfth Iowa Infantry, under Captain C. C. Tupper. He served for the full term of three years and then enlisted in 1864 in the same company and regiment, with which he remained until February 17, 1866, when he was honorably discharged at Memphis, Tennessee. The entire company was captured at Shiloh save Mr. Ness, who at that time was in the hospital with typhoid fever, which incapacitated him for duty for three months. His command was imprisoned for six months, during which time five regiments of those who had been released from the hospital were consolidated into the Union Brigade which name they bore until the others of the original command were released from prison. Mr. Ness participated in many hotly contested battles and made a splendid record as a brave and loyal soldier.

With the close of the war he returned home and began farming in Frankville township where he remained until 1900, in which year he removed to his present farm on section 23, Glenwood township. He owns ninety-nine acres of rich and valuable land to which he has added many substantial improvements, supplying the place with all of the equipment and accessories of a model farm of the twentieth century.

Mr. Ness has been twice married. In 1869 he wedded Annie E. Bakke, a native of Norway, who died in this county. She had eight children: Mina, the wife of John Moe, of Ossian, Iowa; Erik, living in Frankville township; Henry, of Decorah; Gustave, who died at the age of thirty-seven years; John, who died when twenty-four years of age; Melvin, living in Mason City; and two who died in infancy. In 1900 Mr. Ness married Mrs. Martha Lavstrien, who was born in Norway in 1858 and came to the United States with her first husband. She was a widow and had four children when she became the wife of Mr. Ness. The children are: Helena Marie Anderson, of Canada; Anna Anderson, deceased; and Helga and Agnes, at home.

Mr. Ness is a member of the First Lutheran church and honorable principles guide him in all the relations of life. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he has held some township offices, the duties of which he promptly and faithfully discharged. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and thus maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades. He has ever been as true and loyal in matters of citizenship through days of peace as he was in times of war when he defended the old flag upon the battlefields of the south.

Source: History of Winneshiek County, Iowa Vol. II Chicago the S. J. Clark Publishing Company 1913