North Dakota History and People
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Chicago, Ill. 1917

MADS DAHL, a lumberman at Columbus, was born in Norway, February 5, 1868, a son of Ole and Carrie (Sundseth) Dahl. The father was born in 1843 and took up the occupations of farming and carpentering, following the latter during much of his life. He is now living on a farm at Throndhjem, Norway, where his wife passed away.

Mads Dahl spent his youthful days on the old homestead dividing his time between the acquirement of a country school education and work in the fields until he reached the age of fifteen years. The previous year he had visited America in company with an uncle who was a sea captain. When a youth of fifteen he wished to become a seaman but his parents objected. However, he shipped on a sailing vessel and visited all parts of the world. His first trip was made on a lumber ship to Melbourne, Australia, covering fourteen thousand miles in eight months. He followed the sea for ten years, acting all of the time as cook.  When twenty-five years of age, however, he returned to America and established his home near Hillsboro, North Dakota, where he worked on the farm of his uncle for nine years.  In 1900 he filed on a homestead in Ward county and in 1903 took up his abode thereon, continuing its cultivation and development until 1909, when he retired and removed to Columbus.  There he followed carpentering until 1914, when he formed a partnership with John A.  Walter and organized the Independent Lumber Company, establishing a large lumberyard at Columbus, of which he is the manager, his attention being now concentrated upon his commercial interests. He still owns the one-hundred-and-sixty-acre tract in his homestead, together with an adjoining quarter section, both of which lie rents. In the town he has erected a fine modern residence and he has further extended his business interests by becoming the owner of the Columbus Wood Works, having the only wood works and planing mill in Burke county. His business has steadily grown in volume and importance and his enterprises are now bringing a substantial financial return. He is also a stockholder in the Columbus Implement Company Incorporated.

Upon his farm, in the fall of 1902, Mr. Dahl was united in marriage to Miss Annie FIorine, who passed away at Columbus in 1909. She was born in Arcadia, Wisconsin, and on removing to Ward county, North Dakota, secured a homestead. On the 3d of July 1912, at Bowbells, North Dakota, Mr. Dahl was married to Miss Lizzie Hanson, who was born in Norway and was only a year old when taken by her parents to St. James. Minnesota, where she was reared. Later they removed to Ward county and homesteaded. The father has now passed away but the mother is living in Burke county. Mr. and Mrs. Dahl have become the parents of two children; Clara, born June 11, 1913; and Orville, November 1, 1914.

In politics Mr. Dahl is a socialist and while on the home farm served as supervisor of Short Creek township and also as justice of the peace. For two years he was tax assessor of Columbus and in 1915 he was elected a member of the city council, in which capacity he is now serving, exercising his official prerogatives in support of all plans and measures which he believes will prove of benefit. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and his religious faith is evidenced in his membership in the Norwegian Lutheran church. He deserves much credit for what he has accomplished as he started out in life empty handed and his success is therefore attributable entirely to his earnest, persistent efforts, intelligently directed.

RAY H. FARMER, Financial interests in Burke county have a representative in Ray H. Farmer, president of the Bank of Flaxton. He was born in Chamberlain, Brule county, South Dakota, June 21, 1882, a son of W. J. and Anna B. (Middaw) Farmer. The father, a native of Indiana, is largely a self-educated as well as a self-made man. He became a pioneer settler of South Dakota, arriving in an early day at Chamberlain, where he engaged in the practice of law. He became a prominent and influential citizen of that locality and filled various county offices, while upon public thought and opinion he exerted a beneficial and widely felt influence. He has now retired from active practice and makes his home in Chamberlain. His wife is a native of Indiana but was reared, educated and married in Iowa.

Ray H. Farmer obtained his education in the public schools of his native city and after leaving the high school entered the Dakota Wesleyan University at Mitchell, South Dakota, after which he made his initial step in the business world as an employee in the National Bank of Huron at Huron, South Dakota, with which he was connected for nine years. He started in as office boy and worked his way upward to the position of assistant cashier, which position he resigned in 1913 to become president of the First Bank of Flaxton in which capacity he still continues, actively directing the interests and development of that institution.

On the 10th of March, 1914, Mr. Farmer was married to Miss Carrie A. Morrison, of Pine River, Minnesota, who was born at Pierre, South Dakota, and educated at Miller, that state. She afterward taught school at Miller and at Brookings, South Dakota, and following her marriage came with her husband to Flaxton, where she passed away February 22, 1916, her death being deeply regretted by many friends.  In his political views Mr. Farmer is an earnest republican. He has served as a member of the town board of Flaxton and in the spring of 1916 was elected mayor, which position he is now acceptably filling. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen camp of Flaxton and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and he is an active and prominent member of the Presbyterian church, in which he is serving on the board of managers. His has been an active and well spent life characterized by high principles and a ready recognition of the rights of others at all times.

JOHN SHELDON GEE, a retired hardware merchant of Flaxton, and the president of the Burke County Fair and Agricultural Society, was born July 3, 1860, at Virgil, Cortland County, New York. His father, John L. Gee, was born and reared in Pennsylvania and in early manhood removed to New York, after which he engaged in farming in Cortland county for many years. Eventually he homesteaded near Marshall, Lyon count}', Minnesota, becoming one of its pioneer settlers and there carrying on general agricultural pursuits for a third of a century. At length he retired from the farm and took up his abode in Monticello, Minnesota. He married Felicia Seamons, who was born in New York and spent her last days in Monticello.

John S. Gee continued a resident of the Empire state until he accompanied his parents on their removal to Minnesota, after which he assisted his father in the work of the home farm until he had attained his majority. He then purchased land in Lyon county, Minnesota, and engaged in farming on his own account until 1900, when he sold that property and made his way to Flaxton, North Dakota, taking up a homestead claim in the vicinity of the town.  He cultivated that property until he secured the title thereto, after which he became a resident of Flaxton. He was appointed postmaster in 1901 and occupied that position continuously for fifteen years, or until January, 1916. Upon his retirement from that position he entered the employment of the Flaxton Hardware Company, with which he is still connected.  He owns his homestead property, upon which there has never been a mortgage. He is accounted a successful man and is highly esteemed and respected by all who know him.

In February, 1883, Mr. Gee was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Marron, at Marshall, Lyon county, Minnesota. She was born in Grant county, Wisconsin, near Platteville, a daughter of Owen and Ellen Marron, who were natives of Ireland, and on coming to the new world settled in Wisconsin. After leaving that state they became residents of Lyon county, Minnesota, and there Mrs. Gee was reared upon the home farm, completing her education by graduating from the high school at Marshall. To Mr. and Mrs. Gee have been born nine children, of whom six are living; Maud, the wife of George Wilson, a farmer of Saskatchewan, Canada; Vernon Lynn and Roland, who are also farming in Saskatchewan; Etta, the wife of Jay Olney, a farmer of Steele, North Dakota; and Harold and Lyle, at home.

In politics Mr. Gee is a republican and for ten years he has served on the school board of Flaxton. He is president of the Burke County Fair and Agricultural Society. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Presbyterian church and fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, belonging to the lodge and chapter at Marshall, Minnesota. He also became a charter member of the Modern Woodmen camp at Flaxton, in which he has filled all the chairs. He is a man of kindly spirit, of genial disposition and sterling worth, pleasant and agreeable in manner and looked upon as one of the most substantial and valued citizens of his town. He owes his success entirely to his own efforts, for he started out emptyhanded, working his way upward to success by reason of his close application and diligence.

FRED ALBERT KEUP, cashier of the Farmers State Bank of Columbus, Burke county, is one of the substantial citizens that Wisconsin has sent to North Dakota. His birth occurred in Oshkosh, January 6, 1880, his parents being William and Wilhelmina (Bremer) Keup.  The father's birth occurred in the town of Stettin, Germany, in 1835 and there he was reared and learned the miller's trade, which he followed in his native country to the age of twenty-nine years. He crossed the Atlantic to America in 1864 and established his home at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he secured work in flour mills, eventually winning promotion to the position of superintendent. In that connection he continued for a quarter of a century, after which he retired and removed to Wautoma, Wisconsin, where he now makes his home, being most comfortably situated. His wife was born at Treptow, Germany, in 1837 and they became the parents of one child before their emigration to the new world. Eventually their family numbered seven children, six of whom were born in Wisconsin, and all are yet living.

At the usual age Fred A. Keup became a pupil in the public schools of Oshkosh, passing through consecutive grades to the high school, and following his graduation therefrom he attended the Northern Illinois Normal School at Dixon, of which he is also a graduate. He next entered the employ of J. F. Thompson, who owned a chain of banks, Mr. Keup becoming clerk in the bank at Thompson, Iowa. For seven years he was in the employ of Mr. Thompson at different points in Iowa and in 1905 he arrived in Columbus, at which time the town was situated on section 16, school land, seven miles northwest of the present town site.  When the Soo Line was built through Columbus was removed to its present site along the railroad. Mr. Keup organized the Farmers State Bank in the old town and in 1906 removed to the new town, his bank building being the third building erected in the town. Upon the organization of the bank he became its cashier and still continues in that capacity, in which connection he is directing the interests of the oldest bank in Columbus. He is president of the Security State Bank of Wildrose, North Dakota, and a director of the Security State Bank at Noonan, North Dakota, and of the Woodman-Jacobson Lumber Company of Opheim, Montana. He also owns farm lands in Burke county, on which he raises shorthorn cattle and breeds Percheron horses and other registered stock.

On the 3d of September 1908, at Osage, Iowa, Mr. Keup was united in marriage to Miss Ina Louise Hallingby, who was born in Osage and after attending high school there continued her education at the Iowa Normal School at Cedar Falls and in the Cedar Valley Seminary at Cedar Valley, Iowa. She afterward engaged in teaching in the high school in Osage up to the time of her marriage. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ole Hallingby, were natives of Norway and there the father learned the business of cabinetmaking, after which he was for many years proprietor of a furniture store in Osage, where he and his wife still make their home, although he is now living retired.

In his political views Mr. Keup is a republican. When Burke county was set off from Ward county in 1902 Henry Ackerman was elected public administrator, but died while in office and Mr. Keup was appointed to fill out the unexpired term, after which he was elected to the position in 1912 and served for four years. He continued in the office altogether for six years but did not seek reelection in 1916, Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic lodge at Forest City, Iowa, and with the Scottish Kite bodies at Grand Forks, where he also has membership in Kem Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Williston, North Dakota, and is a charter member of both the Modern Woodmen camp and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen at Columbus. He owns a modern home in the town and is not only its pioneer banker but one of its most progressive and valued citizens, respected by young and old, rich and poor.

DR. CHARLES J. KING, successfully engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Columbus, has based his financial advancement upon a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the scientific principles of his profession, combined with a knowledge gleaned from practical experience. He was born in Sheldon, Iowa, November 27, 1879, a son of R. J.  and Marie (Arquette) King. The father was born in Albany, New York, and after attending the city schools removed westward to Iowa in early manhood, settling near Dubuque, where he purchased land and engaged in farming until he reached the age of twenty-six. He afterward followed farming near Sheldon, Iowa, until he retired from active business life, his home being now at Rock Rapids, Iowa. His wife was a native of Quebec, Canada, and in her early girlhood went to Dubuque county, Iowa, being married at Farley, that state. Her last days were spent at George, Iowa.

Dr. King was reared upon the home farm between George and Sheldon, in Lyon county, Iowa, and attended a district school in the neighborhood. He did not wish to follow agricultural pursuits as a life work, however, and determined upon a professional career. In 1899 therefore he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago, the medical department of the University of Illinois, and was graduated in 1904 with the degree of M. D.  For a year thereafter he served as interne in the Dearborn Post Graduate Hospital of Chicago and he also spent a year in doing post graduate work. In 1906 he removed to McHenry, Foster county, North Dakota, where he practiced for six and a half years, and in 1913 he opened an office in Columbus, devoting his attention to the general practice of medicine and surgery. He is accorded a liberal clientage and his efforts are attended with excellent results in checking the ravages of disease. In addition to his practice Dr. King is quite extensively interested in raising cattle and believes every farmer should have a considerable amount of live stock upon his place. He is putting forth every effort to improve the grade of cattle and other livestock raised and he is a stanch advocate of modern diversified farming believing in the rotation of crops and the application of scientific methods in the development of the great agricultural state of North Dakota.

On the 14th of July 1908, Dr. King was married to Miss Alvina Thiede at Tagus, North Dakota. She was born in Crawford county, Wisconsin, and her parents, who were farming people of that state, are now connected with agricultural interests near McHenry, Foster county, North Dakota. Mrs. King was graduated from the high school at Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, and there engaged in teaching school for two years, while in 1905 she became a schoolteacher of North Dakota. She now has one son. Royal Ross, who was born in McHenry, Foster county, North Dakota, October 26, 1911.

Politically Dr. King is a democrat and in 1915 was elected coroner of Burke county, a position he is now filling. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows at Buford and the Elks lodge at Jamestown, North Dakota. He has also attained high rank in Masonry as a member of the lodge at Cooperstown, the Scottish Rite bodies in Fargo and El Zagal Temple of the Mystic Shrine, also at Fargo. Along strictly professional lines he has connection with the Northwestern District Medical Society and the North Dakota Medical Society and is a fellow of the American Medical Association. In 1915 he was president of the Columbus Commercial Club.

When he came to this state he had a thorough college training in his profession, supplemented by broad hospital experience and post-graduate study, but he possessed no capital. Today he is the owner of an excellent farm in Foster county and another in Burke county besides his fine modern residence in the town of Columbus. North Dakota has not been generous to him above others, his success being won through persistent, earnest effort in his profession and judicious investment in property. He is very conscientious in the discharge of all his professional duties and through broad reading and study he keeps in touch with modern methods of thought and practice.

RAY BENJAMIN TOWN, progressive business man of Flaxton, was born on a farm in the town of Leon, Cattaraugus county. New York, on the 23d of February 1874. His father, Benjamin T. Town, was born and spent his life in the same locality, and his mother, Emily Gail Town, was born in the town of Eden, Erie county, New York, and later with her parents removed to Garden City, Minnesota, where she resided until the time of her marriage.

R. B. Town received his education in the district and village schools of his birthplace and at the age of seventeen began work as a helper in the office of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company at Athol Springs, New York, where he remained for nearly a year, when he returned to the old home and spent a year in farming and working in the lumber woods. In the early spring of 1893 he removed to the city of Minneapolis, where he was employed for several years in the office of George W. Jenks, a banker and broker.  When he severed that connection he went with the H. C. Akley Lumber Company and remained with that firm until the spring of 1901. On the 13th of September 1899, he was married to Miss Belle M. Dolphin, who is a native of St. Peter, Minnesota, and attended school at that place and Minneapolis.

In the spring of 1901 Mr. Town came to North Dakota looking for a location in which to start in business for himself and finally landed in the then un-platted town of Postville now Flaxton and, being satisfied with the prospects for this country, decided to locate. About the 1st of May 1901 Mr. Town arrived in Bowbells with a carload of household goods and a team with which he moved his belongings to the present site of Flaxton, putting up a tent while constructing the first store building to be built in the new town site, in which building he and C. G. Davis opened up a general merchandise business under the firm name of Davis & Town, their firm acting as the town site agents during the first year. At this time Mr. Town's brother, W. S. Town, purchased the interests of Mr. Davis and the business was continued by them until the fall of 1903 when they sold out the general store to continue the farm implement business that Mr. Town had started with R. B. Burger of Bowbells.  This business was incorporated during the year 1906 and has continued since that time as one of the leading implement houses of Burke county. During this time Mr. Town filed on a choice quarter section of land near Flaxton which he proved up. During their residence on the homestead a son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Town. This was their only child and they were called upon to mourn his death when he was about nine years old.  Mr. Town is affiliated with the democratic party in politics though but taking an active part in political matters, never having sought an elective office. He has however filled various offices in local affairs, such as township, village, and school.  Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order, and he and his wife also belong to the Eastern Star. In church affairs they have always taken an active part, both belonging to the Church of Christ, Mr. Town being a member of the state board of missions. It was in their home that the first Sunday school of Flaxton was organized. This school has the distinction of having lived throughout the history of Flaxton, now being the Sunday school of St. Paul's Presbyterian church.

Mr. and Mrs. Town are not of the kind that seek public recognition but are always to be depended upon to furnish their help and means for any movement for the betterment of the community in which they live or the community at large. Wherever they are known they are held in high esteem and most of all where they are the best known. In an interview with the writer Mr. Town showed himself to be an enthusiastic booster for North Dakota and was particularly proud of the progress that has been made by the people of this state, speaking of the development he has witnessed from the unbroken prairie to a highly cultivated farming community, with all modern conveniences, such as rural delivery, rural telephone, a splendid school system with high schools in nearly every village of the state and electric lights in all the villages and on many of the farms, and all this within the short time of fifteen years from the date of settlement.

ALEXANDER C. WIPER, Not to know Alexander C. Wiper, whose friends call him Sandy Wiper, is to argue one's self unknown in Bowbells and Burke county, with the history of which he has been largely connected as a representative of its business development and of its political interests as well. He is today president of the First National Bank of Bowbells and one of the extensive landowners and cattle raisers of the county. He was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1863, a son of Robert and Mary Ann (Coleman) Wiper. The father was born in Glasgow, Scotland, was educated in the schools of that city and remained in Scotland until he reached the age of twenty-four, becoming a coal miner there. Crossing the Atlantic, he engaged in coal mining in Pennsylvania until 1874, when he was employed by General Warren to go to Noble county, Ohio, and develop coal mines in the vicinity of Marietta and act as mine boss. Later at Buchtel, Ohio, he was pit or mine boss for John R. Buchtel, one of the coal kings of Ohio. In 1885 he retired from coal mining and removed to Sargent county, North Dakota, where he filed on the northwest quarter of section 15, town 132, range 55. With characteristic energy he began to break the sod and for many years actively engaged in farming, becoming one of the most prominent agriculturists of his section of the state. As his financial resources increased he added to his holdings from time to time until his possessions aggregated several hundred acres. At the time of the Civil War he as well as all his brothers and his father had manifested his loyalty to his country by enlisting in 1862 as a member of Company I, Sixty-third Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, for ninety days. At the close of that term, however, he immediately re-enlisted and continued to serve until the cessation of hostilities. He participated in a number of hotly contested engagements and was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. His wife was born, reared and educated on the present site of Pittsburgh and passed away on the old homestead farm in Sargent county, North Dakota, two years prior to the death of her husband, who died at the age of seventy-three years. They were the parents of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, all of whom came to North Dakota in 1885, were reared to manhood in this state and are still living within its borders save one son, J. H. Wiper, who is now mayor of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. While on a visit to that state he was injured in a railroad accident, causing the loss of both limbs, and the railroad company in settling his damage claim offered him a position in the office at Monongahela, which he accepted, and he has since made his home in that city, which contains a population of one hundred and fifty thousand and of which he is now the chief executive.

Alexander C. Wiper, whose name introduces this review, was a lad of thirteen years at the time of the removal of the family to Ohio and in the schools of that state and Pennsylvania acquired his education. He afterward engaged in cultivating a small farm of forty acres which his father owned and on which the family resided while the father worked in the mines. In 1885 they arrived in Sargent county and he continued as active assistant to his father in the development of the homestead claim until 1891, when he removed to Hankinson, North Dakota, where he entered the employ of John R. Jones, implement dealer, with whom he continued for ten years. In 1901 he took up his abode at Lidgerwood, North Dakota, and traveled for the McCormick Harvester Company as salesman and collector for two years. In 1903 he became a resident of Bowbells, a newly established town, in which he opened the First National Bank, remaining active as its president since that time. In fact he has figured prominently in banking circles in his section of the state for more than a decade. In 1905 he established the Citizens State Bank at Ryder, of which he was president for some time, and in 1907 he organized the First State Bank of Lignite, Burke county, of which he is still the president. In 1914 he promoted the Farmers & Merchants Bank at Colgan, of which he has always been president, and in the same year he established the First State Bank at Northgate, Burke county, but has retired from the presidency of that institution. He is an extensive landowner, having made judicious investments in property from time to time until he now has fifty-two farms in Ward and Burke counties, his holdings exceeding those of any other individual in the latter county. The work of farming, however, is carried on by others. Upon his land he has Rowan Durham cows of high grade, also seventy-five head of horses on his ranch, four-fifths of which he has raised himself. His property interests likewise include a fine residence in Bowbells.

On the 31st of July 1896, at Lidgerwood, North Dakota, Mr. Wiper wedded Miss Louisa Wohlwend, who was born in Buffalo county, Wisconsin, and in her girlhood days became a resident of Richland county, North Dakota, where she completed her education. Her father, Benjamin Wohlwend, a native of Germany, settled in Buffalo county, Wisconsin, on coming to the new world and subsequently removed with his family to this state. Mr. and Mrs.  Wiper became parents of four children, three of whom are living: Raymond C. and Thomas B., who were born in Richland county; and Robert, born in Bowbells.

Mr. Wiper is a "stand pat" republican. He has been very active in political circles in Burke county and is now a member of the county executive committee. He served as deputy United States marshal under A. F. Pierce for the southern district of North Dakota for four years and he has been mayor of his city and also president of its school board. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic lodge at Bowbells and has attained high rank in the order, being now a member of Kem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Grand Forks. He also has membership with the Knights of Pythias at Bowbells and the Elks lodge in Minot.  His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church and he is a very ardent supporter of the temperance cause, doing all in his power to secure the suppression of the liquor traffic. His life has been guided by high and honorable principles. His business career has been the expression of justice and honor as well as of enterprise and diligence. He is a big man in thought, purpose and act and has been one of the prominent builders of city and county to whom his fellow citizens instinctively pay deference, not alone by reason of the success he has achieved but also owing to the honorable, straightforward methods which he has ever followed in every relation of life.

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