JOHN SATTERLUND. No foreign element has become a more important part of our American citizenship than that furnished by Sweden. The emigrants from that land have brought with them to the new world the stability, enterprise and perseverance characteristic of their people and have fused these qualities with the progressiveness and indomitable spirit of the West. A prominent representative of this class is Mr. Satterlund, the present receiver of the United States land office at Bismarck.

He was born in Carlstad, Sweden. May 3, 1851, and in 1860, came to America with his parents, Errick and Mary Satterlund, who located in Traverse County, Minnesota, where the mother is still living, but the father is now deceased. After some time spent in that state our subject came to Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1872, and remained here for some time. Subsequently he spent about four years in Port Arthur, Canada, and then, in 1878, returned to Burleigh County, North Dakota, where he purchased two thousand acres of land north of Bismarck, on which he engaged in farming and stock raising. In 1882 he removed to Washburn, which was laid out and platted by Mr. Satterlund. McLean County was not organized until November, 1883, and Washburn was made the County seat. Upon the organization Mr. Satterlund was chosen the first sheriff of the County and re-elected to that office in 1884. In 1890 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature and re-elected two years later. He was the moving spirit in having the County enlarged in 1891, and is now president of the Washburn Real Estate Company.

In Duluth, Minnesota, Mr. Satterlund was married, in 1877, to Miss Charlotte Peterson, of Clay County, Iowa, and they now have a family of four children, one son and three daughters: Hilda, Lulu, Florence and Floyd. In business affairs Mr. Satterlund has met with marked success and has large landed interests in this state. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and is a prominent representative of the Republican party, having served to all the County and state conventions since coming to North Dakota. Besides the offices already mentioned he filled that of County commissioner of Burleigh County in 1882 and was deputy United States marshal for four years from 1883. In 1898 he was made receiver of the United States land office at Bismarck and is now most creditably and acceptably filling that position. His public and private life are alike above reproach and he stands high in public esteem.

BENJAMIN F. SCOVIL is one of the most useful citizens of Burleigh county, and is a pioneer settler of that locality, and has gained his possessions by honest industry and judicious management. He was born in Illinois, on a farm in 1840.

The father of our subject. Pulaski Scovil, was a silversmith by trade and also followed farming. He was descended from an English family who settled in America prior to the Revolution. The mother of our subject was of Scotch descent, and the parents were married in Illinois and our subject was the only child born to this union. He has five half brothers and sisters.

Mr. Scovil was raised in Illinois and at the age of twenty years began farming for himself and resided there until 1883 and cultivated a fine farm of eighty acres. He enlisted in Company C, Eighty-fifth Illinois, in July, 1862, and was sent south to the Army of the Cumberland and was engaged in the battle at Perryville, Kentucky, Stone River, Murfreesborough, Chickamauga. Chattanooga, and was in the Atlanta campaign and taken prisoner July 19, 1864, and sent to Andersonville, where he was held one year. He saw three years of active service and participated in some of the hardest fought battles of the war, and after his discharge from the service he returned to Illinois and began his farming operations. He went to North Dakota in 1883 and settled in Burleigh county, and with a small start has become well to do. He built a shanty and had an ox team and with it farmed two years and met with varying success in raising grains. In 1887 he embarked in the mercantile business in McKenzie and conducted a general merchandise store and was also appointed postmaster of McKenzie in 1887. He built an elevator in that town in 1888, with a capacity of twenty thousand bushels and engaged in the grain business and in 1887 began dealing in stock and has continued in this line of business since that time. He has also followed stock-raising extensively and in 1898 built a sawmill in the southeastern part of Burleigh county on the Missouri river and has operated the same each season since that date. He now has a farm of eleven hundred acres, seven hundred acres of which is under cultivation and he has all buildings and machinery for conducting a good farm and leases most of the land.

Our subject was married when about twenty years of age to Miss Elizabeth May. a native of Illinois. Her father, William May, was a farmer by occupation and the family has been in America many generations. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Scovil, who bears the name of Cordelia. The daughter was born in 1868 and is now married. Mr. Scovil served as assessor in 1896 and 1897 and is actively interested in local affairs. He is a member of the G. A. R., and is widely and favorably known.

JOHN SEBRY, one of the pioneers of Burleigh county, and an old soldier with an enviable record, has been classed among the substantial and useful citizens of North Dakota and a valued member of the community in which he resides.

Mr. Sebry was born in Ireland, in 1841, his father, John Sebry. being a native of Ireland and a farmer and mason by occupation. The father came to America when our subject was ten years old and died on board ship at Quarantine Island, New Brunswick. Our subject, the youngest of a family of eleven children, accompanied his mother and one brother and one sister to America the following year and they landed at St. Johns, New Brunswick, and went to Whitneyville. Washington county, Maine. They remained there six years and then the mother and two sons went to Dakotah county, Minnesota. Our subject worked on a farm and also worked out at day labor until 1862, when he enlisted in Company K, Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and was assigned to the First Brigade, First Division, right wing of the Sixteenth Army Corps. They started May 10, 1863, and went to the plains of Dakota as far as the Missouri river, encountering Indians in several skirmishes. In the fall of 1863 the regiment was sent to St. Louis, where they did guard duty six months and then went to Columbus, Kentucky, and thence to Memphis, Tennessee, and thence to Tupelo, Mississippi, where they had an engagement with General Forrest and General John Lee. He was also at the battle of Nashville and at Spanish Fort. In 1863 the regiment started from Dauphin Island to Montgomery, Alabama, and when within fifteen miles of that place received word that the war was ended. They then went to Jackson and Vicksburg. Mississippi, and then to Fort Snelling, where our subject received his honorable discharge in August, 1865, after an arduous service of three years, being almost constantly on raids and marches.

After his discharge he returned home and went to work in a saw-mill at Minneapolis. In 1872 he brought his family to Burleigh county. North Dakota, then a wilderness. The trip was made by team, occupying about six weeks on the journey. He lived for the first six years in Bismarck and then, in 1878, moved to his farm north of that place. He had but one cow, one hog and three horses and but little farm machinery. He now has one hundred and sixty acres, about half of which is under a high state of cultivation and the rest devoted to pasturage and his farm is abundantly stocked. He has succeeded remarkably well in his farm enterprise and has won a comfortable competence.

Mr. Sebry was married, in 1871. to Miss Mary Casey, a native of Ireland, and a daughter of Mark Casey, one of the early settlers of Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Sebry are the parents of six children, as follows: Mark, Mary, James, Jane, Agnes and John H., all of whom, except the eldest, were born in North Dakota. Mr. Sebry is a Democrat in his political faith and has always felt an interest in public affairs. He has been a member of the school board for many years and has devoted his energies to the cause of education in his community. Being one of the pioneers of the state, he has watched its growth and development and his reminiscences of early days are well worthy the pen of North Dakota's future historian.