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Cherokee County Biographies
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Peter Lindquist
PETER
LINQUIST, of Diamond Township, Cherokee County, is one of the most
intelligent, industrious, enterprising and respected citizens of
foreign birth residing within the limits of the county. He
was
born in the southern part of Sweden, January 26, 1846. His
parents were John and Stena Swenson, and he is the youngest of a family
of six children who grew to maturity. While a young man he
learned the cabinet-maker's trade, and when he had reached the age of
twenty years he decided to emigrate to the United States, believing he
could better his condition. Accordingly he took a steamer at
Copenhagen for Quebec, which city he reached, having passed through the
usual incidents of an ocean voyage. His destination was Chicago; for a
few months he was employed at Logansport, Indiana, on a railroad
construction train. He then went farther west and spent two
years
in Wyoming, at work on the Union Pacific Railroad; he then was in the
employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and for
one
season was engaged in quarrying stone. His next move was to
Minnesota, where he worked on the Northern Pacific Railroad, then
building into Duluth. He was soon transferred to Kettle
River,
where he became section foreman; he attended to the arduous duties of
that position for nearly two years, when he concluded to engage in
farming. In order to carry out this desire he purchased
eighty
acres of land about sixty-five miles from St. Paul. After one
year's farming in that rigorous climate he determined to come farther
south, and we next find him a resident of Iowa. His first
business there was employment in a hardware store at Sheffield, where
he became a partner of John Mohl, who afterward came to Cherokee County
with Mr. Linquist, in 1876. Our subject first purchased
eighty
acres in Diamond Township, which he improved and made his home
until 1887, when he removed to is present home in section 30,
Diamond Township. This place is known as the Maxey farm, and contains
160 acres in an advanced state of cultivation. Mr. Linquist
has
excellent improvements on the farm, and his surrounds show the
management of an experienced h ad guided by an intelligent brain.
He still retains his original farm, upon which most of his
life
in this county has been passed. He has met with financial
prosperity and stands today one of the stanch farmers of Cherokee
County. Mrs. Linquist was married at Kettle River, Minnesota,
October 5, 1871 to Miss Mary Mohl. She was born in
Scandinavia in
May, 1844. They have an interesting and intelligent family of
four children: John, Louisa, Nicholas and Herman. Like most
of
his countrymen, Mr. Linquist believes that the Republican party is the
one that has done most for him and his people, and in consequence he
supports it enthusiastically. No man in Diamond Township has
more
firm friends than he, and no man has to a greater degree the qualities
of head and heart that win and hold friends. He
believes in
becoming an American, having adopted this country, and in giving his
children the advantages afforded by an English education.
Source: Biographical History of
Cherokee County, IA, W. W. Dunbar & Co Publishers,
1889
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