Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 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. =========================================================================== Biographical Review of Dane County, Wisconsin Biographical Review Publishing Co., Chicago - 1893 [309-311] OLE H. FARNESS, a farmer of section 23, Dane county, was born at Farness, Norway, November 28, 1826, a son of HERMAN FARNESS. the latter was a farmer of Norway, and came to Wisconsin at the age of seventy-five years. Our subject came to America before his major- ity, immediately after his marriage, on the Lofoton, a Norwegian bark, May 22, 1847, and landed in New York city after a voyage of nine weeks and two days. They immediately took steamer up the Hudson river to Albany, by Erie canal to Buffalo, by steamer to Milwaukee, and then came by ox teams to Dane county. There were then no roads, and the cattle had no feed but the pasturage of the prairie. MR. FARNESS came to America in company with about 140 emigrants, and their passage price to New York was $22, at which place they made a contract to Milwaukee for $14 a person, and hav- ing their own provisions, they reached this county at an expense of about $50. These gentlemen were all stalwart young men, and were ready to meet any emergency and face any danger, as they demon- strated on two occasions. The first was in Albany, when the vessel- men were throwing their chests and trunks and injuring them. They asked them to be careful, but they heeded not, and these young giants seized the men and threw them where they had thrown the trunks. Again, in Buffalo, they were going to transfer them from the canal-boat to a stern-wheel steamer, and their contract in New York called for a side-wheel steamer. They could not converse with the men, but as they undertook to hoist their goods to this boat, they took off the hooks. The men, seeing that they were determined, sent for an interpreter, and their goods were put on board the good side-wheel steamer. After arriving in Wisconsin, MR. FARNESS purchased 110 acres of Government land in this neighborhood, for which he paid $110. The farm contained a small, rough log house, covered with shakes, but he soon hewed the logs on the inside, erected an addition a few years later, and they lived there for twenty-one years. In 1868 they moved into their present large frame dwelling. At one time he owned 620 acres of land, but he now has only 310 acres, where he raises about fifty head of cattle, about twenty head of good sheep, from fifty to eighty hogs, and from eight to ten horses, mostly of the heavy draft stock, but also a few good drivers. MR. FARNESS was married in Norway, to GERTRUDE ESSE, and they had six children. MRS. FARNESS, who was born April 13, 1827, died January 2, 1859. The youngest daughter, a babe of eight months, was buried with her in the same coffin. She had buried one child pre- vious, and at her death left three sons and one daughter. HERMAN, a furniture dealer of Madison, has a wife, three daughters and six sons; LARS, a farmer of Minnesota, is married and has six children; RANDEY, wife of SVEN GILBERTSON, a farmer near Appleton, Minnesota, has three children; and OLE, deceased, was a graduate of the Rush Medical College, of Chicago, and also of a school in Minneapolis. He was a well-known and successful practitioner at Rice Lake, Wis- consin, and his death occurred from exposure, at Prairie Farm, this State, at the age of thirty-six years, and at his death left a wife and two daughters. In 1860 MR. FARNESS married MISS ANNA NELSON, a native of Nor- way, and a daughter of NELS and GERTRUDE (NELSON) KNUTSON. She came to America with her parents in 1852, at the age of fifteen years. MR. and MRS. FARNESS have two infant sons, and one daughter, SARAH, at the age of five years. They have seven living children, namely: GERTRUDE, wife of BOWER BOWERSON, a prominent farmer, in Primrose, Dane county; NELS, a farmer of Minnesota, is married and has one son; THOMAS, a graduate of the high school of Madison, is now em- ployed as salesman in a dry goods store in that city; BETSY, wife of IVER BOYUM, a merchant of Fillmore county, Minnesota, and they have one daughter; JOSEPH, aged seventeen years; SIMON, fifteen years; and BENJAMIN, twelve years. MR. FARNESS is still enjoying good health, although he has done a vast amount of hard labor dur- ing the past fifty years, and the grand increase of the $400 with which he landed in New York has been produced only by hard work. He is a firm adherent to Republican doctrines, a consistent member of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, and an estimable and respected citizen. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================