Ringstad, Johannes I. 1850 - 1895

RINGSTAD, ANDERSON, MOHN

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:46

Source: Decorah Republican Aug. 15, 1895 P 5 C 1

—Intelligence comes to us of the death in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, of Mr. John I. Ringstad, formerly of this county. At the present writing we are without data concerning his life with which to give a more extended notice.

Source: Decorah Republican Aug. 22, 1895 P 8 C 2

IN MEMORIAL.
RINGSTAD—At his home in Minneapolis, Minn.,
Tuesday, Aug. 13th, 1895, of consumption, JOHN I. RINGSTAD aged 45 years.
Deceased was born near Stoughton, Wis., A. D. 1850. Two years after his father, Iver Ringstad, moved with his family to this county and settled in Madison township. When the war broke out and his brothers, Lieut. Ole Anderson. Eli Anderson and Anthon, enlisted in ’62, he plead that he might go as a drummer boy, but his father refused consent. He attended Luther College for a number of years, and in ’68 commenced clerking for the firm of McHenry & Allison, with whom he stayed a couple of years, in 1873 he married Miss Anna Anderson, daughter of ex-Sheriff Anderson, and just prior to the Ridgeway fire of that year had embarked in the mercantile business at that place. His whole stock was destroyed, but he rebuilt and continued in business, being also P. M., until the fall of 1878, when he closed out. In 1880 he accepted a position as bookkeeper in the 1st National Hank at Northfield, Minn., where he remained for nearly two years, leaving the bank to take the responsible position of head book-keeper for the Archibald Milling Company, at Dundas, Minn., and with them he remained for over eight years. The summer of 1891 he moved to Minneapolis, where he worked for a large grain commission house. In the spring of 1892, his health, which had never been very robust, (having been a sufferer for over 20 years from asthma) failed to such an extent that he {illegible}d work, and during that summer
and fall he “stumped” the northern part of Minnesota for the Republican party. On one of his trips he contracted a very severe cold, from which he never recovered. During the world’s fair he assisted in the management of one of the hotels built by Minneapolis men in the capacity of cashier and book-keeper. Although a daily sufferer from that dread disease, asthma, Mr. Ringstad was one of the most uncomplaining, heroically patient men imaginable. Why? Because he was a Christian, and with the far-seeing eye of a Christian’s faith he looked heavenward through death’s portal with happy anticipation, for to him the lines
“I would not live alway
Away from my God.
Away from yon Heaven
That peaceful abode.”
from Tom Moore’s “Come ye disconsolate” became his constant wish as the brightness of that Paradise which never diminishes came nearer to him. The storms of his life are hushed, and grief and sighs and separations of friends to him are no more. All wounds are healed: all expectations more than satisfied; nature’s struggle and man’s warfare with sin are followed by that lullaby which we all fain would sing, "Safe in the arms of Jesus;” and the tears of the mourner are wiped away forever by the hand of the Living God.
Mr. Ringstad was a brother-in-law of Prof. Mohn. President of St. Olaf College. Northfield, Minn., who conducted the funeral services which were hold Wednesday at 2 p. m. from the United Lutheran church. The casket was covered with handsome flowers twined into anchors of hope, crowns and crosses, and friends of the family had most beautifully decorated the grave with evergreens and flowers so that the last resting place had more the appearance of a green arbor than a sepulcher His wife and son Ivan survive him.

Transcriber’s Note: His gravestone in Lutheran Decorah Cemetery shows the name as Johannes.

Lutheran Decorah Cemetery
 

Winneshiek Obituaries maintained by Jeff Getchell.
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