ALVARADO A. HALL has been identified with the history of Benson county from its earliest settlement and has lent a liberal hand in developing its resources. His home is on section 9, Minnewaukan township.

Mr. Hall was born in East Douglass, Massachusetts, April 9. 1849, the youngest of twelve children born to the union of Isaac and Polly (Abbott) Hall. When he was about seven years old the family moved to Fillmore county, Minnesota, and located on a farm. Mr. Hall as a boy was reared to farm work and received such education as the common schools afforded.

In 1864. though still a boy, he enlisted in January in Company C, First Minnesota Infantry, to help fill out that regiment after its terrible experience at the battle of Gettysburg. He served with his regiment through the Battles of the Wilderness, at Deepbottom. Hatcher's Run and Petersburg, and went through the heat of that great and trying campaign uninjured. At the close of the war he received his honorable discharge and returned to Minnesota.

In 1881 Mr. Hall came to Dakota and settled in Grand Forks county, where he took up government land and farmed in the Forest river country. However, in 1883 he sold out in Grand Forks county and came to Ransom county at the time of the great boom in the region of Devils Lake. He took up land near the west end of the lake and settled down to farming and stock raising. He has made a success of this line of business and is now the owner of a fine farm, well improved and stocked.

Mr. Hall married, in 1870, Miss Octavia Crowell becoming his wife. To this union the following children have been born: Frederick, Elmer, Belle, Benjamin F., Lewis D., Polly V. and Elvarado Roscoe, Polly V. being the first white child born in Benson county. Mr. Hall is a Republican in political active in the public affairs of the county. He assisted in conducting the campaign for his party in 1888 and'1892, being chairman of the county central committee. He has been repeatedly chosen as delegate to state and county conventions. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being past master of Evergreen Lodge, No. 46. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F. and is past commander of J. J. Crittenden Post, No. 36, G. A. R. He is also president of the Red Cross Society.

ANTON HANSON. An early settler and prominent farmer of Benson county, whose pleasant home is located on section 34 of Leeds township, is one of the thrifty sons ofNorway who have aided so materially in the prosperity and growth of the great Northwest.

Mr. Hanson was born in Snertingsdalen Birid Prestegjeld, Norway, August 26, 1860. He was the fourth child in a family of nine children born to Hans and Anna (Hendricksdatter) Hanson, both of whom are still living in Norway. In the spring of 1875 Mr. Hanson came to America to join his brother John, who had preceded him a few years, and who sent him passage money to bring him to the United States. He obtained employment as a farm hand in Iowa, and worked around in this way until 1880, when he came to Dakota, and found work on the Gould farm in Traill county. There he remained for five years, and two years of that time he acted in the capacity of manager of the farm. In the spring of 1885 he came to Benson county, and took up land in Lake Ibsen township, but the following year he "squatted" upon the land he now owns. He has been successful since coming to Benson county, and is now the owner of four hundred and eighty acres of valuable lands, most of which is under the plow. A sod house, 16x16, which served them as a home for several years, has given place to his present comfortable residence, which was completed in 1898.

Mr. Hanson was married, in 1885. to Miss Birget Tufte, and to this union seven children have been born, as follows: Anna, the first white child born in Leeds township; Clara, Oscar, Howard, Estalles, Elmer and Laura. Mr. Hanson is a Republican in his political inclinations, and has taken an active part in local public affairs. He has rarely been absent from a county convention of his party, and has been appointed census enumerator for the northeastern portion of Benson county. Mr. Hanson is a consistent member of the Norwegian Lutheran church, and is esteemed and respected throughout the county. He came to America at the age of fourteen years, worked his way among men foreign to his people and language, and by virtue of his energy, honest dealings and good management, has made himself a man of influence in his adopted land.

HON. LARS P. HAVREVOLD. whose pleasant and hospitable home is situated on a peninsula inLake Ibsen, is one of the most influential citizens of Benson county, and throughout the state he has made his influence felt, not only in a material and financial way. but in the better and broader development of the moral and educational interests of its people.

Mr. Havrevold was horn in  Roldal, Bergenstift, Norway, September 10. 1852, being the fifth child in a family of twelve children born to Paul and Walborg (Colbenstvedt) Havrevold. The mother is still living on the old home farm in Norway, from which she has never been induced to depart. The father was the owner of the farm Tostad, near Stavanger, and was a man of some means. Young Lars lived much with an uncle, and received a good education. At the age of fifteen years he engaged as clerk in a store in Stavanger, and later clerked in his father's store up to 1871. In that year he came to America, and on July 4 took up his residence in Minnesota, where he worked at farm work, and during the winter months attended school to complete his knowledge of English. He later worked on a farm in Fillmore county, Minnesota, and also clerked in a store. In 1877 he returned to Norway, but after a year's sojourn there he longed for America again, and returned to Iowa. In 1880 he went to Fargo, North Dakota, and began clerking in a store. In 1883 he went to Ramsey county, where he took a squatter's claim. In June of the same year he started from Devils Lake, and at the end of the first day's journey reached what is now called Lake Ibsen. He found an abundance of fish in the lake, and wild geese nesting on its banks while in the grove that grew upon its shores were innumerable wild birds. He and his companions determined to set their stakes there at once, and Mr. Havrevold and Mr. Goldberg remained upon tlie claims while their two comrades returned to Devils Lake to send forward provisions and lumber. The two men thus left alone in the uninhabited wild were without any visible means of subsistence excepting two pounds of rice, a little salt and five cartridges. With their last cartridge they were fortunate enough to bring down a wild goose, and upon this they feasted and thus bridged over the lapse till the arrival of provisions.

Mr. Havrevold is a Republican in political faith, and has been for many years a party leader. He assisted to organize the party in the state, and in 1890 was elected to the state legislature. He introduced house bill No. 60, an act requiring that the Scandinavian language be taught in the State University at Grand Forks. This measure aroused much discussion throughout the state. During his term of service he was also chairman of the committee on manufactures and on committee on ways and means. At the next general election he was returned to the legislature, and again did efficient work. He introduced house bill No. 100, an act providing for the establishment of courts of conciliation. He also was made chairman of the committee on woman's suffrage. His services to the state have been valuable, and in shaping the policy of a new state he showed a breadth of wisdom and foresight that commanded the highest regard. His biography is intimately associated with the history of North Dakota and its institutions.

Mr. Havrevold was married, August 20, 1893, to Mrs. Julia Rasmussen nee Johnson, and to this union four children have been born, namely: Paul V. I., Giske O., Lars P. and Johannes. By her first marriage Mrs. Havrevold has three sons, namely: Robert, Albert and Augustinus, who are members of Mr. Havrevold's household.

REV. JEROME HUNT, O. S. B., pastor of the Catholic Indian Mission and religious teacher among the Sioux Indians for the past twenty-three years, deserves a high place in the annals of North Dakota and the Northwest. He is located at Fort Totten in Benson county, and his influence is felt throughout all the region tributary to that center.

Father Jerome Hunt was born in Baden, Germany, in December, 1849. He is the youngest of two sons born to Anton and Francesca (Straub) Hunt He began his studies at the age of eight years, and when eleven years of age entered Freiburg Lyceum. When he was seventeen years old he came to America, whither many of his relatives had preceded him. He entered St. Meinrad's College in Indiana, and completed his course in theology.' with the late Bishop Marty. At the age of eighteen years he began teaching in the college, and in 1872 he was ordained, and engaged in local parish work and teaching, his specialty being languages.

In 1877 he began his work among the Sioux Indians at Fort Yates (Standing Rock Agency). From his own resources he built a brick church for the Indians, the first erected for them in North Dakota. H the first erected for them in North Dakota. He at once established a school for boys, and here in breech-clouts and blankets, with long, black hair, thirty boys gathered to be tutored. Father Hunt at once applied himself to a study of the Sioux language, which he soon mastered, not-withstanding its peculiar difficulties, and in 1897 he placed in his pupils' hands an illustrated history of the Bible in the Sioux language, and this was followed in 1899 by his book of Prayers, Instructions and Hymns. He is thoroughly a master of the various dialects of the language and a close student of the Sioux character. In 1882 he was sent temporarily to Fort Totten, his linguistic abilities being in demand. His success resulted in his taking permanent charge. He at once began teaching in the Industrial School, and his earnings were in part devoted to the building of St. Michael's church, six miles east, and in 1893 to the erection of St. Jerome's church. Up to 1890 he was in charge of the government industrial schools, since which time he has devoted himself wholly to parochial work. He is well known throughout the state, and has traveled much in the Northwest. He is one of the. very few priests that have ever been able to hold services in the Sioux language.

Father Hunt has also done much work in the cause of temperance. In 1884 he organized St. Joseph's Society for temperate organized St. Joseph 's Society for temperate male Indians and St. Mary's society for females. In 1894 he conceived the idea of publishing a paper in the Sioux tongue, and at St. Michael's a printing outfit was installed, and a paper is regularly issued, all the work being done by Indians. Contributions to its columns are received from all the agencies. His experiences in western life would fill a volume, and comparatively little is known by any, except the priest and his master, of the dangers resolutely faced and the obstacles patiently removed by the man who goes forth to set a light where darkness was before. An incident is related in connection with Father Hunt's arrival at Fort Yates . On the way they approached a crowd of Indians who seemed much excited. As they neared the group one of the Indians advanced and took from Father Hunt's head his new straw hat and walked away in triumph, while Father Hunt proceeded to Fort Yates and entered with uncovered head.

HON. GEORGE E. INGEBRETSON. The oldest resident of Normania township, Benson county, remembers the presence of the gentleman whose name heads this review, and of his struggles at the beginning of Benson county's earliest settlement. However, his present prosperity marks progress and development of the wonderful resources of this region under the hand of an energetic and able worker and manager. His home is on section 15, township 155, range 67, and few farms in North Dakota equal it in value and facilities for conducting successful farming.

Mr. Ingebretson is a native of Norway, where he was born November 30, i860. He was the sixth child in a family of nine children born to George E. and Walborg Ingebretson, who were also pioneers of North Dakota. The-father still survives. In l866 the family came to America, landed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and located on the Isles of Shoals. The father, who had been a sailor, engaged in cod fishing. Young George was reared until he reached the age of fourteen on the islands, and up to that age had never set foot upon the mainland of America, nor seen a horse. In 1874 the family removed to Kittery, Maine, and there our subject received his first schooling and became acquainted with the world. In 1883 he entered a job printing office in Boston, but he desired to take up farm work, and in the following spring he started for the Pacific coast. At St. Paul he met some friends who induced him to change his route and look over Minnesota and Dakota. On his arrival in Benson county, after a two days sojourn, he filed a pre-emption claim to part of the farm which he now owns, May 15, 1884. He immediately expended his entire capital, three hundred dollars, and contracted a debt of five hundred dollars in building a shanty and stocking his farm. He knew absolutely nothing about farm work and was compelled to hire men to teach him to harness his horses and to hold the plow. He was an apt pupil, however, and believed in the maxim, "What man has done man can do," and his energy and untiring efforts soon brought him success. His parents joined him in the autumn. Within four years he had four hundred acres under cultivation, and then followed three disastrous seasons, which somewhat shook his confidence in Dakota resources. This reverse plunged him deeply in debt, but he continued to increase his acreage, and in 1891 he was rewarded with a fine crop and good prices, and in 1896 succeeded in lifting the last of his debts. Then improvements followed rapidly. His present comfortable residence was completed in 1897, and the following year he erected a barn that has few equals in North Dakota, and. it is said, none in Benson county. It is 52x80 feet, with stone basement, horses being on first floor, and affords shelter for one hundred head of stock and storage for one hundred tons of hay. A granary erected in 1899 has a capacity of fifteen thousand bushels, and is equipped with a modern dump for unloading, and with a gasoline engine for elevating. Mr. Ingebretson now owns one thousand one hundred and twenty acres of lands and controls additional acreage.

In political views Mr. Ingebretson is a Republican. He is a member of the Lutheran church, of the Masonic fraternity, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of the Maccabees. He was chosen to the first state legislature of North Dakota, and there identified himself with the prohibition movement. He has been repeatedly chosen as a delegate to state conventions of his party. For several years his invalid sister made her home with him. and her two sons, Ingemar and Olaf, now reside with him and are treated as his own sons.

MICHAEL MADDOCK, one of the earliest pioneers of Antelope Valley, is successfully conducting his farm and stock business on section 23, in township 152, range 69. Benson county owes to the men who directed her prosperity and development in the early days a debt of gratitude, and among these none is more deserving than the subject of our present review.

Mr. Maddock was born in St. Croix county, Wisconsin, September 30, 1861. He was the second child in a large family of children born to Patrick and Bridget (Kehoe) Maddock, both of whom were of Irish parentage, though natives of New Brunswick. Patrick Maddock was a pioneer of St. Croix county. Wisconsin, and followed farming as an occupation.

Our subject was reared in St. Croix county, and received such schooling as the public schools of the day afforded. He remained at home with his parents until 1883, when he went to Thompson, Grand Forks county, North Dakota. He found employment at good wages on a farm, and was thus engaged for two years. In June, 1885, our subject and Thomas Walker hired horses and started west in search of land, proceeding in the direction of Mouse river. They reached the Antelope valley, and there took up land adjoining each other. They built a sod shanty and broke some of their land. In November Mrs. Maddock, our subject having married in Wisconsin, took up her abode in the 8x12-foot shack he had erected. Mr. Walker's shack was built just across the dividing line of their land, and the two dwellings were connected by a shed. Here for about four months Mrs. Maddock met none but her own household, the nearest family being eight miles distant. During the winter of 1887-8 he removed to Oberon village and erected the first hotel in that place, and conducted it for four years, returning to his farm in the spring of 1892. He has made a success of farming and stock raising, and divides his attention between these two departments.

Mr. Maddock was married in Wisconsin to Miss Rosa McHugh in 1882. They were the parents of seven children, namely: Rosa, Mary E., John J., Agnes, Raymond, Edward and James. Mr. Maddock has taken an interest and part in public affairs from the earliest settlement of the county. He was elected county commissioner in 1894, and has held that office continuously since. He is now chairman of the board. He was influential in his advocacy of the building of the new court house, and also in convincing the people of the advisability of making it a substantial and creditable structure. He has a host of friends in the county, and he well deserves the esteem in which he is universally held by those who know him. In 1897 the Maddock post office was established and named in honor of the subject of this sketch, and now Maddock village is quite a little business center. A view of his home appears elsewhere in these pages, and is a happy addition to this biographical history.

HON. JAMES MICHELS, a prosperous farmer residing on Grahams Island, in Benson county. North Dakota, is one of the early settlers of that region and an old veteran soldier with an enviable record.

Mr. Michels was born in Canandaigua. New York, November 8, 1841. He and a sister were the only children born to the union of James and Elizabeth (Johnston) Michels, both natives of Ireland. The father was killed by accident when our subject was a baby and when he was nine years of age he went to live with an uncle. Later he was apprenticed to the shoemaker's trade.

In December, 1862, Mr. .Michels enlisted, in Elmira, New York, in the volunteer service, becoming a member of Company D, Fifth New York Artillery. He was stationed at Forts McHenry and Marshal! and took part, in 1864, in Hunter's raid. In 1864, his term of enlistment having expired, he re-enlisted in Company K, Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, and was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and was engaged at Petersburg, Sailors Creek and at the surrender of General Lee. He was discharged in 1865, but re-enlisted in Company C, Seventeenth United States Regulars, and up to 1869 was stationed in Texas. In 1870 lie was sent up to Fort Sully to deal with the Indians, who were making trouble, and he joined Stanley's expedition to the mouth of the Powder river, participating in skirmishes at Heart river and O'Fallon creek. In 1877 he was stationed at Fort Totten, thus becoming acquainted with the Devils Lake region. He served in the army until 1882, having been a member of the same company and regiment continuously since i8()6. He was discharged as first sergeant and his military record is one that is rarely equaled and does honor to him as a soldier and a man.

Seeing that the land in the region of Devils Lake was rapidly being taken, he filed a claim to a tract in Graham's Island, named, so tradition states, in honor of the old hunter of that name, who is said to have buried some treasure in the lake and was finally killed by the Indians.

Mr. Michels is a Republican in political faith and has been an active worker in the interest of his party. He was elected at the first general election in 1894 as county commissioner from the second district and in 1886 was chairman of the Republican county central committee. In 1898 he was elected to the state legislature and is now serving in that capacity. It was through his efforts that house bill No. 8 became a law.

Mr. Michels was married, in 1870, to Miss Ellen Reilly, and to this union four children were born, named as follows: James, Edward, Violet and Charles. Mrs. Michels died January 9, 1900. Mr. Michels is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the I. O. O. F., the Knights of Pythias, the B. A. Y. and the G. A. R.

GUNDER TORGESON has been a resident of Benson county since its early settlement and has aided in the development of its natural resources by his perseverance, industry and good management and by his honesty and good citizenship. His pleasant home is on section 10, township 155, range 68.

Mr. Torgeson was born in Satersdalen, Christiansand stift, Norway, October 22, 1842. He was the fourth of six children born to the union of Torge and Torbor Halvorson, also natives of Norway. The family came to America in 1861 and settled in Winneshiek county, Iowa, where our subject engaged in farming. He acquired a small farm in that county and made his home there until 1883. Two years prior to that time he had made a visit to North Dakota in the spring of 1881, passing through part of Minnesota and going as far out as Fort Totten. In 1883 he sold his farm in Iowa and came to Benton county to take up government land. He first filed a pre-emption claim to a tract of land south of Churchs Ferry and lived there about one year and then took up a homestead claim on the shore of Lake Ibsen, where he now resides. He thus became one of the earliest settlers of the township and has assisted and witnessed the wonderful growth and development of Benson county within the past few years. His present residence is a substantial and convenient structure and his barn is one of the best in the county. He has improved his lands and is now the owner of a valuable property.

Mr. Torgeson was married, in 1865, to Miss Gunild Salveson, and to this union nine children have been born, namely: Torges, deceased; Salve, deceased; Sigur; Tilda, deceased; Ole, Annie, Salve, Louise and Thomas. The family are members of the Lutheran church and Mr. Torgeson supports the principles of the Republican party. He has gained his present valuable property by honest industry and good management and has a host of warm friends throughout the county.