JACOB F. JABERG, Thirty-five years have come and gone since Jacob F. Jaberg arrived in Barnes county, establishing his home at Sanborn, where he opened one of the pioneer mercantile enterprises of his part of the state. Through all the intervening period to the present time he has been identified with the development and progress of the district as merchant or farmer and is now concentrating his efforts upon agricultural pursuits. He was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, December 11, 1855, a son of Daniel Jaberg, whose birth occurred in Bern, Switzerland, and who came to the United States in 1837, settling at Canal Dover. He was a tailor and followed his trade after coming to America, passing away when he had reached the advanced age of seventy-seven years. His wife died when their son Jacob was but two years of age, leaving a family of eight children. The eldest son, Daniel Jaberg, Jr., enlisted in the Civil war as a member of an Indiana regiment and being under age ran away from home in order to join the army. He was one of the first to enlist and served throughout the war. He died of fever at Memphis, Tennessee. Another son of the family, Samuel, lives in Decatur, Indiana.

About 1864 the family removed to Indiana and in that state Jacob F. Jaberg attended school to the age of seventeen years, when he removed to Minnesota, living in Norwood and Glencoe, that state. For a time he attended school in Minnesota but in the school of experience he has also learned many valuable lessons. When his textbooks were put aside he mastered the drug trade and afterward engaged in business in partnership with Dr. R. S. Miles at Norwood. After a year and a half he purchased his partner's interest and then continued the business alone for six years, but sold out in 1880. With several others he then made a trip into Dakota territory in order to learn something of the district and its resources. He returned to Minnesota and the following year made his way to Sanborn, where he established a hardware business in partnership with E. E. Elliott, who joined him in the active management and conduct of the undertaking in March 1882. They were thus associated in business until 1895, when Mr. Jaberg purchased Mr. Elliott's interest and remained alone until 1902, at which time he sold the store to his former partner. In the meantime he had purchased his farm of one hundred and sixty acres situated just a half mile north of the town and after disposing of his store he concentrated his energies upon stock raising but is now carrying on general farming, while for the past eight years he has devoted twenty acres of his land to a demonstration farm. He has always taken a most active Interest in the work of developing the county and investigating its possibilities and resources and has taken an advanced stand upon many questions of importance to the agricultural community.

On the 17th of October 1878, Mr. Jaberg was united in marriage to Miss Angeline Packer, a native of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of John S. and Ellen Packer, who were also natives of the Keystone state. Her grandfather was Edward Packer, of the famous soap manufacturing family of England, and the grandmother, who bore the maiden name of Ellen Fulton, was a native of Scotland and a near relative of Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat. Mr. and Mrs. Jaberg have become the parents of four children: Stella Grace, who is a graduate of Fargo College and is now the wife of F. 0. Olson, of that city; Clifford E., who for three years attended the State Agricultural College and is now conducting a garage in Sanborn; Rollin E., who is a member of Company G, First North Dakota Infantry, and has responded to the president's call for service on the Mexican border; and Margaret, who died in infancy.

Mr. Jaberg has always been deeply interested in public affairs and in 1888 was elected county commissioner, which position he acceptably filled for three years, when he declined to again become a candidate. He has served on the village board of Sanborn as a member of the board of education. In 1904 he was again elected county commissioner and was re-elected in 1908, so that he has served altogether for eleven years in that position. He was elected for three successive years as president of the state commissioners association and was made an honorary life member at the close of his service. For a quarter of a century he has been clerk of the school district and since 1903 has been clerk of the township board. He considers no question of minor interest if it has to do with the welfare of his community and is thoroughly informed concerning the grave and vital political problems which confront the country.  He has always voted with his party and gives to it his stalwart allegiance. He is the oldest past master of Sanborn Lodge, No. 14, F. & A. M., and is still active in that organization and is an exemplary representative of Masonry, believing firmly in its basic principles concerning mutual helpfulness and brotherly kindness.

JOHN EMIL JACOBSON, president of the Dazey State Bank, has spent the greater part of his life in the northwest, having been but five years of age when he was brought to the United States by his parents from Norway, his native country. His birth occurred at Kongsvinger on the 26th of April 1863, and his first five years were spent in that city, where his father Christian Jacobson was engaged in the furrier business. In 1868 the latter brought his family to the new world, making his way to Minneapolis. Times were dull and as he was unable to find anything to do in the manufacturing line, he entered the employ of Folds & Griffith, the leading carpet dealers of the city at that time, with whom he remained for several years. Later he began the manufacture of buffalo coats on his own account and afterward engaged in the grocery business, which he followed until his death in 1898, when he was sixty-three years of age. His family numbered nine children, of whom four are yet living.

John E. Jacobson, the eldest, entered the public schools of Minneapolis and passed through consecutive grades to the senior class of the high school, while further training for life's practical and responsible duties was received in the Curtiss Business College, so that he thus became well qualified for a place in the workaday world. He attended the business college in the evening, while aiding his father in the store through the daytime.  Later he pursued a course of study in Archibald Business College and devoted a further year to study in the Minneapolis Academy, after which he became bookkeeper for the milling firm of Crocker, Fisk & Company, with whom he continued for three months. He then took charge of the books for Morse & Sammis, millers, whose interests were later merged with the Minneapolis Flour Mills Company, a corporation capitalized for six hundred thousand dollars. With the latter he became cashier and so continued until the company became a part of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company in 1898. He remained with the last named corporation for six months and in the fall of 1899 removed to Dazey, where he organized the Dazey State Bank with a capital of five thousand dollars. He became its president, with his brother, George Jacobson, as vice president and cashier. They erected a one-story frame building eighteen by twenty-four feet, continuing the business therein until 1905, when they built their present brick building, erected along lines especially adapted for their purpose. The success of the bank is indicated in the fact that the capital has been increased to fifteen thousand dollars and there is a surplus and undivided profits of seventeen thousand dollars. J. E. Jacobson remains the president, with George J. Jacobson as vice president and C. 0. Jacobson, assistant cashier. In 1906 J. E. Jacobson, associated with his brother George, promoted the Farmers State Bank at Walum, Griggs county, which has also proven a profitable undertaking and is capitalized for fifteen thousand dollars, while the total assets amount to about a quarter of a million.

On the 17th of October 1888, was celebrated the marriage of J. E. Jacobson and Miss Emma Lee, of Beloit, Wisconsin, a daughter of Bernt Lee. They have become parents of eleven children. Beatta, the eldest, is deceased. Stella, who was educated at the University of North Dakota, is the wife of C. O. Stee, a mining engineer now manager of the mines at Cerro de Pasco, eighty miles from Lima, their home being at an altitude of sixteen thousand feet. Estrid was educated in Minneapolis and in the University of North Dakota, pursuing an art course. Beatta graduated from the Academy of St. Olof College and from the Minneapolis Kindergarten School and is now teaching. Harold, who won a scholarship from the high school at Dazey, is now attending the Jamestown College of North Dakota.  Rudolph is in school. Harriet is deceased. Helen is a twin to Harriet. Elsie, Dorothy and Eunice are the younger members of the family.

The family attend the Lutheran church, of which Mr. Jacobson is a trustee, and fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Sons of Norway. He has served as a member of the village board and of the school board of Dazey and he is interested in all that pertains to progress and improvement in town, county and state, lending generous aid and support to many measures and movements which he deems of public worth.

JENS OSCAR JENSEN, cashier of the Farmers State Bank at Kathryn, was born at Oakville, Barnes county, North Dakota, January 13, 1888, a son of Hans M. and Emma (Hoyde) Jensen, both of whom were natives of Norway, the former having been born in Nanstad and the latter at Telemarken. On coming to America the father settled in Fillmore county, Minnesota, as a pioneer and in 1878 removed to Barnes county. North Dakota, homesteading land at Oakville, a mile southeast of Kathryn. With characteristic energy be began the development and improvement of that tract of land, upon which he has since made his home, and he now has an excellent farm of four hundred and sixty acres on which he is cultivating grain of various kinds, specializing somewhat in corn and timothy. He is also engaged in raising shorthorn cattle, of which he has some very fine specimens.

His family numbered six children, of whom Jens Oscar Jensen was the fifth in order of birth, and spending his youthful days upon the home farm, he divided his time between the work of the fields and attendance at the district schools, while later he pursued a course of study in the Dakota Business College at Fargo. On the 7th of December 1908, he made his initial step in the business world by entering the Bank of Leal, at Leal, Barnes county, where he filled the position of assistant cashier and was also a stockholder and a member of the board of directors for several years. At the end of 1915 he resigned and removed to Kathryn, where he organized the Farmers State Bank, which was opened on the 1st of March, 1916. He is one of its stockholders and directors as well as the efficient and capable cashier, while Hon. Martin Thoreson is the president. The bank is capitalized for twenty thousand dollars. The owners thereof purchased a good frame building in which to open the bank and on the 1st of May 1916, began the erection of their present modern bank building-a brick structure with stone trimmings. In addition to a fireproof vault and the latest design of burglar proof safe, they have a number of safe deposit boxes which they rent. The bank has met with success from the beginning and in a few weeks the deposits exceeded the capital.  Mr. Jensen's previous experience well qualifies him for the work which devolves upon him in this connection and his capability is demonstrated in the success which has already attended the institution.

Mr. Jensen is well known in Masonic circles and for three years was secretary of the lodge at Leal. He is also a member of the Royal Arch chapter at Valley City and he belongs to the North Dakota Bankers Association, while his interests are further indicated in his membership in the Lutheran church. Those who know him esteem him highly as a man of worth and one who already has made such a start in life as promises success and advancement in the future.

HALVOR P. LANGEMO, a representative of farming interests in Barnes county, was born in Goodhue county, Minnesota, April 6, 1865, and is a son of Peter Langemo, who is mentioned in connection with the sketch of Nels P. Langemo on another page of this work.

His boyhood days were spent upon his father's farm and after acquainting himself with the branches of learning taught in the public schools he attended St. Olaf College at Northfield, Minnesota, for two years. He afterward concentrated his attention upon farm work until 1886, when he left Minnesota and on the 3d of August arrived at Valley City, Barnes county, North Dakota. There he joined his elder brother, Nels P. Langemo, by whom he was employed until 1894, when he took up farm work on his own account and has since concentrated his attention and energies upon general agricultural pursuits. He now owns a section of land, constituting an excellent farm, and upon his place he has planted a fine grove. There is a substantial residence and good barns and outbuildings and he makes a specialty of raising shorthorn cattle. He also cultivates grain, hay, oats and barley and he is a diligent and untiring worker who owes his success to his close application and the many hours of labor which he puts in each day.

On the 22d of November 1899, Mr. Langemo was married to Miss Ida Maasjo, who was born in Barnes county, North Dakota, December 26, 1882, her parents being Mr. and Mrs.  Ole E. Maasjo, natives of Eidsvold, Norway. Mr. and Mrs. Langemo have become the parents of nine children, Marie, Martha, Peter Oscar, Inga Matilda, Arthur Theodore, Henry Ingvold, Edwin Norman, Ervin Maurice and Herman Milford.  The parents are members of the Lutheran church and their many good qualities have endeared them to all who know them, while Mr. Langemo's capabilty as a business man has placed him with the substantial farmers of Barnes county.

NELS P. LANGEMO, who follows farming five miles west of Fingal, in Barnes county, was born in Goodhue county, Minnesota, July 10, 1887, a son of Peter and Mary (Ralston) Langemo, both natives of Norway, the former born at Telemarken in 1832. The paternal grandfather, Nels Langemo, was also a native of Telemarken and came to America in 1849, settling in Dane county, Wisconsin, where he resided for six years, becoming one of the early pioneers of that locality. In 1855 he removed to Goodhue county, Minnesota, where he spent the residue of his days, reaching the age of eighty-eight years. He met all of the hardships and privations of pioneer life but ultimately won success in his business affairs.  Peter Langemo took up land adjoining his father's property and still occupies the home farm, enjoying good health at the advanced age of eighty-four years. He has three hundred and twenty acres of land and his property yields him a gratifying annual income. It is now being operated by his son, J. A. Langemo.

Nels P. Langemo spent his youthful days upon his father's farm, attending the district schools, while later he became a student in St. Olaf College at Northfield, Minnesota, and afterward entered the Lutheran College at Decorah, Iowa. He then returned home. In 1878 his father made a trip to North Dakota and purchased a quarter section of land, which constitutes the present home farm of Nels P. Langemo, situated five miles west of Fingal.  The father then returned home and in 1884 Martin Langemo came to Barnes county and began the development of his father's land. He returned home the same fall but in the succeeding spring Nels P. Langemo came and has since continued upon the old homestead save for a few winter seasons. He today owns two sections of land, a portion of which he rents. He raises shorthorn and Red Polled cattle, usually keeping about forty head for sale and a dozen milk cows. Around his residence he has a six acre grove and his farm is splendidly equipped with modern and substantial buildings, which include large barns and a big silo. In addition to his other interests Mr. Langemo is now vice president of the First National Bank of Fingal.

On the 27th of July 1892, Mr. Langemo was married to Mrs. Minnie (Dunham) Maasjo, who was born at Eidsvold, Norway, where the celebration took place at the crowning of the prince, king of Norway. She is a daughter of Andrew and Bertha (Lee) Dunham, the former of whom was a native of Ullensaker, Norway, and died when Mrs. Langemo was only two years of age. About a year and a half later she was brought by her mother to America, location being made in Fillmore county, Minnesota. Subsequently they removed to Ottertail county, that state, and there the mother died on the 29^th of April 1893, at an advanced age, as her birth occurred January 27, 1819, at Eidsvold, Norway. She left three children, namely: Mrs. Langemo; Mrs. Ole Marshall, a resident of Norman township, Barnes county, North Dakota; and John, of Ottertail county, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs.  Langemo have the following children: Peter, who was educated in the Lutheran College at Fergus Falls and is now a student in the North Dakota Agricultural College; Melvin, attending the Lutheran College at Fergus Falls; Clarence and Rudolph, also in school; and Oscar, who completes the family.

In his political views Mr. Langemo is a republican. He has served as chairman of the township board since its organization in 1889 and has also been treasurer of the school board. He has many sterling qualities and his force as a business man is manifest in his honorable success.

HENRY T. LEE, county commissioner of Barnes county and a farmer who resides two miles west of Fingal, was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, September 27, 1873, a son of T. J. Lee, who was a native of Kongsberg, Norway, and came to America in 1869. In 1878 he brought his family to North Dakota, establishing his home on his present farm, seven miles west of Fingal, where he still carries on general agricultural pursuits. A sketch of his life appears elsewhere in this work. His family numbered nine children, of whom Henry T. is the eldest.

Henry T. Lee spent his youthful days upon his father's farm, mastering the branches of learning taught in the district schools and afterward becoming a student in the State Agricultural College at Fargo, where he remained for three years. In 1899 he purchased his present farm property, situated two and a half miles west of Fingal, upon which he has planted a large grove of trees and has also set out an extensive orchard containing apple, plum and cherry trees. He likewise raises raspberries and gooseberries and his farm comprises three hundred and twenty acres of rich land, mostly given over to grain raising. He usually has also about forty head of stock upon his place.

In 1899 Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Clara Roos, a native of Minnesota and a daughter of Dr. Carl Roos, a dentist and one of the pioneer settlers of Clay county, North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Lee hold membership in the Lutheran church and he belongs also to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. His political allegiance is given to the republican party.  He has been road overseer of his township, also town clerk for the past nine years, and in 1914 he was elected county commissioner of Barnes county, which position he is still filling. He is a good citizen and an honest, intelligent county official. His home constitutes one of the attractive features of the landscape, for he has a fine place, his trees forming a square which encloses ten acres. He is progressive and prosperous and ranks with North Dakota's representative men.

THORVAL J. LEE, a farmer residing near Fingal, Barnes county, was born at Kongsberg, Norway, June 29, 1849. His father, John Lee, was employed in the extensive silver mines which are owned and operated by the government in Norway. He had a family of seven children, the eldest of whom was Anthon, who became a storekeeper in Kongsberg and there died at the age of forty years.

The second of the family was Thorval J. Lee, who remained in his native country until April 1869, when he started for America, landing at Quebec. He had his ticket from Norway to Stoughton, Wisconsin, and from Quebec was sent with other emigrants to Grand Harbor, Michigan, in box cars, the trip taking nine days. From that point they crossed Lake Michigan to Milwaukee and proceeded from there to Stoughton. Having learned the carpenter's trade in Norway, Mr. Lee went to work in a carriage shop and was promised fourteen dollars per month and board, but at the end of the month his employer's funds amounted to only four dollars, with which sum Mr. Lee had to be content. He next entered the employ of a contractor who was building farm residences and in the fall of that year he took a trip to Illinois, where he remained for three months. He afterward resumed carpentering with his former employer and so continued until the fall of 1870. In the following spring, he began contracting on his own account in a small way and was thus engaged until 1878, when he came to North Dakota and took up a tree claim in Barnes county, nine miles southwest of Valley City. Later he returned to Wisconsin, where he remained until the following year, when he brought his family to this state, arriving at Valley City on the 18th of June 1879. From that point he traveled to his homestead on the east side of the Sheyenne and began farming. He put up a sod house twelve by fourteen feet and a sod barn, and he occupied that home for four years or until his funds were sufficient to enable him to secure a more modern dwelling. He is today the owner of an excellent farm of four hundred and eighty acres largely devoted to grain raising. He usually keeps thirty head of Brown Swiss cattle, twenty head of horses and a large number of high grade hogs, and aside from his farming interests he has become a stockholder in the Middle West Trust & Loan Company.

It was on September 21, 1872, that Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Matilda Hanson, a native of Sweden, whose acquaintance he had formed before leaving Norway and who had been left an orphan during her early girlhood. The children of this marriage are as follows: Henry T. is mentioned elsewhere in this work. Carl, who was educated in the Agricultural College at Fargo and was for some time connected with the state dairy department of Wisconsin, has also held the office of assistant state inspector of weights and measures. He married Gertrude Lange. Albert is deceased. Hulda attended the Valley City State Normal School and is now engaged in teaching. Anthon attended the public schools and the college in Fargo and is now farming in Norman township, Barnes county.  Oscar was killed by lightning when seven years and four months of age. Melvin was educated in a business college at Dixon, Illinois, and is now chief clerk with the Middle West Loan & Trust Company. Anna attended the women's seminary in Fargo and is now the wife of Lars Hoogstad and resides in Nome, North Dakota. Alfred is now a salesman with the Kumsley Threshing Machine Company. The family is one of which the parents have every reason to be proud.

Mr. Lee has become an active factor in community interests and affairs. He served for five years as school director, was also township assessor and was road overseer for several years. Fraternally he is connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and he is a member of the Lutheran church. In 1896 he visited his old home town of Kongsberg after twenty-seven years spent in America, and he found that the church which he attended as a boy and which was built in 1761, capable of seating ten thousand, was kept in the best possible condition. Mr. Lee has a fine home in the rear of which stand large barns and outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock. His first house, a little sod dwelling built in 1879, was replaced in 1884 by a small frame structure, but in 1909 his present modern residence was built and is today one of the attractive homes of Barnes county-commodious and well appointed-an indication of the success which has attended the enterprising efforts of the owner.

THEODORE S. LINDLAND, Native-born citizens, it often seems, come by the privileges of American life too easily to appreciate them in the fullest degree. At least some of those who have sacrificed and suffered to obtain them value these blessings more highly than those to whom they come as a matter of course. Believing that ho might have better opportunities in the new world than he could secure in his native land, Theodore S. Lindland, when a young man of twenty years, crossed the Atlantic to America and made his way direct to North Dakota, since which time he has continued a valued and representative resident of the state. He is now successfully engaged in the practice of law at Valley City, although in previous years he was identified with agricultural interests in Barnes county. His birth occurred at Sogndal, Norway, October 30, 1867, his parents being Tonnes and Hansine (Rossland) Lindland, the former also a native of Sogndal, Norway, while the latter is a representative of old Scandinavian stock.

The father died during the boyhood of his son Theodore, who obtained his education in the public schools of Norway and during the course of his studies took up the study of English. He was a young man of nineteen years when in 1887 he crossed the Atlantic and made his way direct to Barnes county, where resided his brother, A. W.  Lindland, who had become owner of a farm in the township of Thordenskjold and who had come to the new world in 1884. After living in this country for fifteen years, however, he returned to Norway in 1899 and occupies the old family homestead there.

Theodore S. Lindland took up the occupation of farming and two years later, in order to further perfect himself in the use of the English language, he attended Willmar Seminary at Willmar, Minnesota, where he pursued his studies from 1889 until 1891. Returning to Barnes county, he was occupied in various ways. For a time he was a student in the State Normal School at Valley City and for several terms he taught school but regarded this merely as an initial step to other professional labor, for it was his desire to become a member of the bar and with that end in view he began studying in the office of Frank J. Young, under whose direction he read law until admitted to the bar in October 1896. He afterward practiced with Mr. Young, who was a member of the firm of Young & Burke, and when Mr. Young withdrew from that firm Mr. Lindland became the associate of Mr. Burke on the 1st of January 1900, under the firm style of Burke & Lindland. That association was maintained until 1905, when Mr. Burke became district judge, and through the intervening period to the present Mr. Lindland has practiced alone. He is withal an earnest student, well versed in the principles of jurisprudence and seldom, if ever, at fault in the application of a legal principle. His strength lies in counsel rather than in pleading and his judgment is most sound and discriminating. His ability has won him a good clientage of a distinctively representative character. Fraternally Mr. Lindland is a prominent Mason, having taken the degrees of lodge, chapter, commandery and Mystic Shrine, and he exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit and purpose of the craft.

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright   may be used in personal family history research, with source citation. The pages in entirety may not be duplicated for publication in any fashion without the permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material on this site is not permitted.  Please respect the wishes of those who have contributed their time and efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank you!