SOURCE: Compendium of History and Biography of Polk County, Minnesota
R.I. Holcombe and Wm. H. Bingham, editors
W.H. Bingham & Company, Minneapolis, MN, publishers, ©1916
Pp 362-363

KNUTE KNUDSON

Knut Knudson, well known pioneer of western Polk county and prominent farmer of Bygland township, came to this county in 1873 from Wisconsin. He was born in Norway, in November, 1847, and was but twelve years of age when his parents brought their family to the United States and settled in Wapaca county, Wisconsin, where Knute Knudson became familiar with the labor and vicissitudes of pioneer life, assisting in the work of clearing the timber land for cultivation and working in the lumber woods. During his first winter in Minnesota, he hauled logs to the Red river for the Hudson Bay company and in the spring took his homestead in what became section four of Bygland township and was joined in his new location by Aspen Olson, his brother-in-law and Osman Isaacson, whose sister, Bertha Isaacson, later became his wife. He assisted Mr. Olson to erect a home and later replaced the loss of his own shack, which had been destroyed by a prairie fire, with a more substantial structure, which is now included in his present home. With thrifty management he had saved several hundred dollars and he continued his lumber work along the river, and this enabled him to purchase a yoke of oxen and immediately engage in the breaking of his land. He endured discouragements and misfortunes and suffered the loss of one of his first crops through the devastation of grasshoppers. Some years later he bought two hundred acres of railroad land and continued adding to his property until it comprised an estate of four hundred and forty acres. His principal agricultural interest has been the raising of grain, to which he devotes a quarter section of his land and he has an annual crop of several thousand bushels. He also keeps a herd of Short Horn and Polled Angus cattle and dairy cows but has never engaged in stock farming. As one of the first settlers and a man of progressive interests, he has ever been associated with public affairs and the general advancement of the community. He was present at the first election held when the township received its name from those present who were natives of Bygland, Norway. He was elected the first township treasurer and has given almost continuous service since on the township board, in various capacities. His interests were always active in church and school affairs and he was one of the organizers of the Bygland Lutheran church. He is a member of the Republican party but maintains the independence of his political judgment from the structures of partisan views. His marriage to Bertha Isaacson, whom he had known in his Wisconsin home, occurred in 1876. Ten children were born to this union, of whom two are dead, Isaac, whose death came in his eighteenth year and Neal, who died on his Canadian homestead. Margaret is the wife of Ole Torkelson, of Red Lake county; Martin is now living on the western coast; Toney married Lars T. Larson and lives in Canada; Birget is the wife of Osman Sannes, of Grand Forks and Osman Salve and Ole remain with their parents. Theodore Knudson, the eldest son of the family took a homestead in Pennington county, near Thief River Falls and after acquiring the title to his land, sold and returned to Polk county, purchasing a portion of his father’s homestead and has since combined the operation of his farming interests with those of his father. He is a member of the Socialist party.