Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/869

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 757 Benevolent Society. His political belief is that of the Republican party. Mr. Dahl was married at Red Wing, in the fall of 1870, to Elizabeth Peterson, of this city, a native of Sweden, both of whose parents are now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Dahl have been born ten children, seven of whom are living. Martin W.. born March 28, 1872, died in September, 1873. Emil A., born July 16, 1873. is married and works in a bakery establishment ,in Minneapolis. Hjalmar M.. born September 15, 1875. is mar- ried, and like his father, is a stone mason in Red Wing. Axel H.; born December 15, 1877. is married and is employed by the Red Wing Furniture Company. Agnes Elizabeth, born July 15, 1880, is deceased; George II.. born July 28. 1879, like his brother Emil, is a baker in St. Paul. Herman AY., born May IS. 1882, is dead. Arthur E., born January 16. 1884, and married, is a stone mason, and lives in Red Wing. Harry W., born April 21, 1887, lives at Minneapolis, and Alvin A., born April 28, 1888, works in a wholesale shoe house in St. Paul. The family residence is at 902 South Park street, Red Wing. . Orrin Densmore, Sr., was born in Sullivan county. New Hamp- shire. September 22, 1805, and as a child moved with his father's family into the then ''out west," settling in the township of Riga, Orleans county. New York. He possessed an unusually studious mind and began teaching at the age of sixteen years. He was soon made a "school inspector," an office which in some form came to him in each and every new place of his residence; in fact, there was little time in all his years when he was not interested in and intimately connected with the advancement of school work. He drew up the Minnesota state school law of 1861, and was a clerk in the office of the superintendent of public instruction, when at the age of seventy years a break down in health obliged him to relinquish all labor. He was a silversmith by trade, but the unfavorable confinement sent him back to farm life, which he followed in New York and in Wisconsin until the 1855, when he engaged in the lumber business in the city of Janesville, Wis., coming in May 8, 1857, to Red Wing, to take eharge of the Freeborn & Co. sawmill, which the new firm of Densmore. McLaren & Co. had purchased. Two years later he was elected as judge of probate and subsequently as county treasurer, which office he held two terms. In 1866 he was elected eity recorder, and was made a member of the board of trustees of the State Insane Asylum of St. Peter. He was appointed deputy collector of United States revenue for Goodhue county in 1867. In 1869 and again in 1870 he was elected to the house of representatives, being chairman of the committee on education during both terms. In taking' tin 1 census of 1870 he acted as as- sistant marshal for the eastern district of the county. In 1871,