Ole Gabriel

GABRIEL

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 10/1/2005 at 22:45:21

Among those men who were active factors in promoting the agricultural development and progress of Worth county but who have been called to their final rest, was Ole Gabriel, who was widely and favorably known in Grove township, where he followed farming on section 18. Worth county numbered him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Hartland township in 1865. His parents were Tennis and Gunlah (Kaldahl) Gabriel, of whom more extended mention is made in connection with the sketch of G. Gabriel, on another page of this work.

Ole Gabriel spent his boyhood days in Hartland township and pursued his education in the public schools. Through the summer months he worked in the fields upon his father's farm and later removed with his family to Grove township, settling upon the farm which is now his widow's place of residence. Some time afterward he bought the farm, comprising one hundred and twenty acres of rich and fertile land, and with characteristic energy he began its further development and improvement. He erected fine buildings, divided the place into fields of convenient size by well placed fences and improved his land in every possible way, contenting its cultivation throughout his remaining days, his labors being attended with excellent results.

In 1894 Mr. Gabriel was united in marriage to Miss Martha Marie Espland, a daughter of Eunice and Inger Marie Espland, who were natives of Norway. Mrs. Gabriel was also born in that country and came to the United States at the age of twenty-two years, taking up her abode in Northwood, where she was married. By her marriage she became the mother of eleven children: Tennis Howe; Edward King, who is living in Montana; Oscar Clark, also a resident of that state; Grace; Henry; Hartwick; Clarence; Neil; Alice; Opal; and Leslie.

The family circle was broken by the hand of death when on the 28th of May, 1916, the husband and father passed away. He was a consistent member of the Norwegian Lutheran church, to which Mrs. Gabriel still belongs. His political endorsement was given to the democratic party but he did not seek nor desire office, preferring to concentrate his time and energies upon his business affairs in order that he might provide a good living for the family.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 395.