Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2025 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== History of Buffalo & Pepin Counties, Wisconsin - Vol. 1 pub. H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., Winona, MN - 1919 [page 170-171] ERIK C. NESS, who owns and operates a well improved farm of 278 acres in sections 17 and 20, Modena township, Buffalo county, of which township he is one of the prominent citizens, was born in Norway, Dec. 23, 1846, son of CHRISTOPHER and ANNA NESS. His surname, NESS, is derived from the old farm in Norway which was his birthplace. His parents had five children, three of whom were named ERIK, our subject being the third of that name. The other two were girls, GUNHILDA and JOHANNA. In 1860 ERIK C. came to the United States, accompanied by his sister GUNHILDA. Locating in Dane county, Wisconsin, he remained there for five years, working on farms near Black Earth. On April 17, 1865, two days after the assassination of President Lincoln, he left there for Buffalo county, and on arriving here located where he now lives in Church valley, Modena township, working on the farm of JENS SEVERSON. Thus occupied until 1868, he then bought a tract of 160 acres in section 28, Modena township, the land being wild and without buildings and unapproached by any road. There he started to build a log house, but before completing it he sold the property and went to Reed's Landing, Minn., where for a year and a half he worked in an elevator. He then left for Morton county, Kansas, where he took a homestead and tree claim and broke some of the land, but the grasshoppers making their appearance in large num- bers, he abandoned the claim and returned to Buffalo county, where he again found work on farms. In 1878 MR. NESS bought an improved farm of 200 acres in Church valley, a part of it lying in Modena and a part in Nelson township. He remained there until June 1, 1880, when he returned to Norway, where he spent a year, arriving in Philadelphia on his return, June 1, 1881. In 1883 he was married in Buffalo county to KJISTINE LARSON, who was born in Norway March 12, 1862. Settling on a farm in section 12, Nelson township, he lived there for three years, at the end of which time he sold the place and bought a tract of about 100 acres in section 18. Three years later he sold fifty-two acres of that farm as the site and grounds for a parsonage, and build- ing a house on the remaining land, farmed there for about twenty- four years. In 1908 MR. NESS bought the farm of 278 acres on which he now lives, a well improved place, where he is engaged in general farming and stock raising with success. He is also one of the stockholders in the Burnside creamery and a stockholder in the Farmers' Terminal Packing Co. of Newport, Minn., and stockholder in the Nelson Telephone Co. After many wanderings he is now well established in a favorable location and is regarded as one of the leading men in his township. As such he has at times held public office, first serving as constable. He has also been school trea- surer and justice of the peace and is now a member of the board of health. He was one of the building committee that had charge of the construction of the Norwegian Lutheran church, of which he is a member, and is now serving as elder or deacon. He and his wife have been the parents of a large family, numbering sixteen children, five of whom are now dead. Of these five, one, named ELLEN SUSANNA, died when an infant. Those living are: CHRISTOPHER, ALBERT, LAURITZ, ELMER, ERICK, WILLIAM, OLIVER, EDNA, HANS, VICTOR and ANNA. ===========================================================================