Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/871

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 759 eriue X. Burns, daughter of John Burns, Town of Root, Kings county, N. Y. She was born December 8, 1827, and died at the old homestead in Hay Creek, July 25, 1905. Both her parents are deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Erbar were born six children. Joseph, the oldest, died in 1881. Engelbert is a sign painter in this city. Ida L. is a milliner in St. Paul. Jessie F. married Edward Reit- man, of Lake City, and has two children, Florence and Lucille. Charles C. is a sign painter in Red "Wing. For ten years he was town clerk of Hay Creek, succeeding his father. S. M., the youngest son, was educated in the public schools of his neigh- borhood, and then learned the art of sign painting, at which he is an expert. For several years he practiced this art in "Winona, owning a large establishment. Several years ago he sold out and came to Red Wing. He still follows his trade, and is also the proprietor of the Idle Hour billiard hall, a venture of which he has made a pronounced success, showing that such an estab- lishment can be made a place of high class recreation. S. M. Erbar was married April 26, 1905, at Winona, Minn., to Elizabeth Nimz, of that place. The family faith of the Erbars is that of the Episcopal Church. John H. Elder, an influential citizen of the early days in Red Wing, the builder of the first warehouse in this city, and also one of the first steamboat agents at this point, was born in Elclers- ville, Fa., and there .attended the primitive schools of his time. His active business career was stalled as a lumberman at Black River Falls, AYis. His integrity and popularity won for him the position of sheriff of Crawford county, an office which in those days required personal strength and moral bravery. Later he became a pioneer merchant at McGregor. la., and in 1854 came to Red Wing, which at that time had little to indicate what in the future it was to become. Here he located and started the ware- house and commission business under the firm name of Elder & Hoffman. He also took the agency for the steamboats, which were then the great carriers of commerce up and down the Mississippi. The warehouse erected by Elder & Hoffman is still standing, a testimony to the stability with which buildings were constructed in those days. The Pike's Peak rush then drew him like a magnet to the westward. At Council Bluffs he joined one of the original overland parties to the peak. They debated for several days whether or not to take the Smoky Hill route or whether they should take another route. Finally they divided, into two companies, one of the parties taking the Smoky Hill route and the other party the other route. Mr. Elder went with the latter party. Not one of the former was ever heard from again. The strain, however, of mining life, proved too much for Mr. Elder, and he succumbed at Denver, Col., February 29. 1859.