acres on the present site of Story City. There he and his wife continued to live until called to their final rest, Mr. Larson passing away in November, 1873, and his wife in January, 1901. While he owned a farm he did not personally engage in agricultural pursuits. He was a mechanic and while in Norway engaged in watch-making. After coming to the new world he followed carpentering, shoemaking, and the tinsmith's trade, and in fact could do anything in mechanical lines. He was a man of unswerving integrity and possessed sound judgment. People came for miles around to ask his advice, especially in matters concerning building or buying. Unto him and his wife were born seven children: Lars, now deceased; Erick, who was a soldier of the Thirty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry in the Civil war and is now living at Island, Minnesota; Randi, the widow of Holver R. Larson and a resident of Story City; Inger, who is the widow of Samuel Larson, a brother of her sister's husband and a resident of Los Angeles, California; Margaret, who is the widow of Jacob Jergenson and lives in Story City; Betsy, the deceased wife of the Rev. O. G. Jukam; and Mrs. Hegland.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hegland have been born twelve children: Betsy, now the deceased wife of T. C. Jacobson; Martin, who died in infancy; Margaret, the wife of T. S. Erickson, who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume; R. L., who was educated at Sioux Falls and is a graduate of a business college, his home being now in Sharon, North Dakota; Mary, the wife of M. O. Anderson; Henry T., who was educated at Sioux Falls and is now following farming a mile west of Roland; Martin N., who, after graduating from the high school at Roland and the Lutheran grammar school at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, spent three years in school at Decorah, Iowa, as a teacher but is now in Twin Valley, Minnesota ; Clara, a nurse in the general hospital at Des Moines; L. Roy, at home; and three who died in infancy.
In his political views Mr. Hegland has always been a stalwart republican since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He has held some minor offices but has never cared much for political preferment. He belongs to the Bergen Lutheran church and his life is an exemplification of his Christian faith and belief. His history, is in many respects a most interesting one, for few residents of Roland and this part of the county have been more closely associated with the pioneer development and subsequent prosperity of the district. People today can scarcely realize the hardships and privations which were borne by the early settlers. Mr. Hegland was twenty-three years of age before he possessed an overcoat, and many comforts which the present generation regard as necessities were at that date unknown. It was with difficulty, too, that the farm work was carried on, for the machinery was very crude as compared to that in use at the present time. Much of the work of the fields was done by hand and the farmer worked from daybreak until dark. Mr. Hegland is still the owner of one hundred and sixty-three acres of land a mile west of Roland,