Maria                  T. A.

and

Torstein  Rossing

 

(click on photos to enlarge)

 

The Four Rossing Brothers

Chris and Lars

Ole and Torkild

Captain T. A. Rossing was born in Norway in 1840.  He was 17 in the year 1857 when the family emigrated to America and settled on a farm near Argyle, LaFayette County, Wisconsin.  At the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Rossing was attending the Warren, Illinois College Institute.

He enlisted in 1861 in the Fifteenth Wisconsin Scandinavian regiment.  Because of his superior education he received the rank of Sergeant Major July 1, 1862 and 1st  Lieutenant in September, 1862.  He took part in the Battle of Chickamauga, historical known as the bloodiest two day in American history, battles of Perryville, KY., Stone River, and Knoxville.  After the battle of Chickamauga, he attained the rank of Captain at only 24 years of age, and mustered out on December 20, 1864.

May 30, 1864 the Captain married Maria Lyngstad  Anderson.  They were the parents of one son, Torstein, who became a Lutheran minister and adopted a son, Martin Rossing.

Mr. Rossing came to Bode, Iowa in 1868 hoping to homestead land as his brother, Christian, and brother-in-law, Andrew Gullixson, had done in 1865, but there ws no homestead land available.  So he purchased a farm from a German family that was across from Christian for $1.25 an acre in section 20. 

Mr. Rossing was one of Bode's powerful promoters and boosters for business, bank, church, school, creamery and for the growth of Bode.  Sometime before 1870, Torkild and Marie moved to Humboldt County to farm.  He is found in the 1870 census in the Lott's Creek area of Delana Township. 

By 1886 he was living in Bode, Iowa, where he operated a store and later became president of the State Bank of Bode.

The first business was erected was built by Torkild A. Rossing in April, 1882.  In this, he opened a general merchandise store.  The structure was 22 x 60 feet in size, two stories high.  The lower room he used as a store room, the upper as his family residence.  In October, 1882, Mr. Rossing erected another building of the same dimensions to the north of his store, and during the following winter used it as a storeroom for wheat and flour, exchanging flour for wheat with his patrons.

The lumber store was also established by the enterprise of Mr. Rossing in April, 1882, but in March, 1883, he disposed of it to J. B. Griffin.

At the time of the starting of the town T. A. Rossing also sold coal, but he sold out his interest in that business to Brown and Berry.  The senior partner later on withdrew from the business leaving it in the hands of W. H. Berry.

After fifty-two years of marriage, Marie died. In 1910 T.A. sold his farm and moved to Decorah, Iowa, in 1913.  There he joined the Col. Hughes Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Capt. Rossing attended the reunion of 15th Wisconsin veterans in September, 1917, at Madison, Wisconsin, under the name "T. A. Rossing." He died of on June 25, 1923 of "an apoplectic stroke" just 1 day after his only child was ordained as a Lutheran Minister.  He is buried in the St. Olaf Lutheran Church Cemetery, in Bode.   

The following is from his obituary in The Decorah Republican newspaper of June  28, 1923.

"Capt. Rossing was a public spirited man, and was a liberal contributor to good causes. Among his notable gifts was one of $10,000 to Luther College [in Decorah] to be used in the support of needy students who intended to study theology."