Thure T. Ericson
Thure T. Ericson, who is now in the tenth year of his able
service as justice of the peace in Waukon, was born in Sweden,
April 2, 1862. He is a son of C. J. Ericson, also a native of
Sweden, who grew to manhood there and married, his wife having
been in her maidenhood Miss Wilhelmina Charlotte Mattsson. They
came to America in 1867 and in June of the same year settled in
Center township, Allamakee county, where the father purchased a
small farm and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits.
From time to time he bought more land and added it to his
original holdings until he owned five hundred acres well improved
and developed. Upon that property he raised his family and there
died July 3, 1908. His wife survives him.
Thure T. Ericson was reared upon his father's farm and in his
childhood aided in its operation. He acquired his preliminary
education in the public schools of the section and supplemented
this by a course in a commercial school and one term under
Professor Loughran. After laying aside his books he carried on
general agricultural pursuits upon the homestead for some time,
afterward going to LaCrosse, where he secured employment in the
lumber mills. While on the farm he gave a great deal of his time
to the manufacture of sorghum and during one fall made over four
thousand gallons. He spent only two summers in the lumber mills
and was afterward for ten years manager of a farm belonging to
Dr. W. C. Earle. This property comprised two hundred acres and
was conducted as a dairy farm, being equipped with all modern,
sanitary and labor-saving machinery. There was a cream separator
and a large churn. The output was from one hundred to two hundred
pints of cream into butter each week. He made an exhibit of his
dairy products at the county fair and took first premium on
butter.
Mr. Ericson moved into Waukon in 1902 and at first turned his
attention to the real-estate business, buying and selling town
property and Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota lands. In the fall of the
same year, however, he was elected justice of the peace and has
been reelected each succeeding term for ten years, discharging
his duties in an able, conscientious and far-sighted way. He
still deals to some extent in real estate and owns his own
residence on Pleasant street, which is comfortable and attractive
in every particular.
Mr. Ericson married in Center township, March 16, 1892, Miss
Hannah Swenson, a native of Allamakee county and of Swedish
parentage, her father, P. J. Swenson, having been born in that
country and having come as a pioneer to Allamakee county. Mr. and
Mrs. Ericson are members of the Baptist church of Waukon and are
well known in religious and social circles of the city. Mr.
Ericson is a musician of great talent and ability and is entirely
self-educated in this art, having studied it by himself after he
reached maturity. He has been identified with several bands which
were well known in this section of the state and for years was a
member of a cornet band. He was for three years with the band
connected with the Fifty-third Regiment of Iowa and was the
organizer of the Center Band, of which he was the director for
nine years. This was composed of from twelve to sixteen
musicians. Politically Mr. Ericson gives his allegiance to the
republican party and is intelligently interested in public
affairs, although not a politician in the sense of office
seeking. Having lived in this section since his childhood, he is
widely and favorably known here, and in the course of an
honorable and upright life has gained the respect and esteem of
all who are associated with him.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Jan Miller
Return to 1913 biographies index