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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Illustrated Album of Biography of the Famous
Valley of the Red River of the North and the Park Regions
Including the Most Fertile and Widely Known Portions of
Minnesota and North Dakota
Pub. Alden, Ogle & Co., Chicago, IL, 1889

              Page 613-614
              
              ELZEAR G. MERCHANT, the present efficient and popular
            manager of the Lake Park Hotel, in the village of Lake
            Park, Becker county, Minnesota, is a native of Minnesota.
            He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the 31st day of
            December, 1858, and is the son of SAMUEL and ADEL (BEGIN)
            MERCHANT, natives of Canada. In his younger days the father
            of our subject followed the life of an engineer on the St.
            Lawrence river, and in 1850 removed to Michigan, where he
            followed lumbering for four years. At the expiration of
            that time, in 1854, he removed to Stillwater, Minnesota,
            and from there to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he settled
            on a farm about nine miles from the city. He has since
            remained there, actively engaged in general farming oper-
            ations. He is a representative citizen of that locality
            and affiliates with the republican party. The father and
            mother of our subject were the parents of the following
            named children - VIRGINIA, ELZEAR, JOSEPH, EDWARD, LEAH,
            ELEANOR, LEWIS, MITCHEL, MARY, LILLIE and LAURA.
            
              Mr. MERCHANT, of whom this article treats, remained on
            the home farm, attending school, until he was twenty-one
            years old. Prior to this, however, he had spent two years
            in the pineries, and at the age of twenty-one he commenced
            in life for himself, and for the first year was employed
            in the pineries as a wood sawyer. In 1881 he removed to
            Becker county, Minnesota, where he secured work for THOMAS
            H. CANFIELD. After working eight months at farm work for
            his employer, our subject hired out to his old employer for
            nineteen months more. In April, 1883, Mr. MERCHANT purchased
            a relinquishment of 114 acres, and made it a homestead. In
            November, 1883, our subject hired out to HENRY SMITH, the
            proprietor of the Lake Park Hotel. When Mr. BUNNELL took
            charge of the hotel our subject was employed as clerk and
            held that position for eighteen months. Since the 14th of
            November, 1885, he has been employed by Mr. CANFIELD to
            operate the house. He is popular with the traveling public
            and bears the esteem of all who know him. The hotel is the
            only first-class house in the village, and its reputation
            is due to the untiring efforts of our subject to bring the
            hotel up the highest standard.
            
              Mr. MERCHANT was married on the 19th day of June, 1887,
            to Miss EMMA ANDERSON, the daughter of GUSTAF and JOHANNA
            (LARSON) ANDERSON, natives of Sweden. Our subject affiliates
            with the democratic party, and is actively interested in all
            public matters. He is a man of the strictest honor and in-
            tegrity and bears the esteem of all who know him.
            
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