Thomas Tobiason

TOBIASON, TINESON, RANBURG

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 2/7/2010 at 07:37:53

THOMAS TOBIASON

Thomas Tobiason, who is successfully carrying on general agricultural pursuits on section 22, Forest township, Winnebago county, was born in Cook county, Illinois, February 8, 1854, and is one of the eight children whose parents were Tobias and Nettie Tobiason, who were natives of Norway. Leaving the land of the midnight sun, they came to the new world and took up their abode in Chicago, Illinois, in 1850. There they spent their remaining days and reared their family of eight children, but only two are now living, the sister of Thomas Tobiason being Matilda Tobiason, who yet makes her home in Chicago.

Thomas Tobiason was reared and educated in his native county and had jeached the age of thirty-three years when in 1887 he came to Iowa, establishing his home in Winnebago county, where he purchased the farm upon which he now resides, situated on section 22, Forest township. He afterward made investment in another farm of one hundred acres on section 15 of the same township and he has since improved his land by careful cultivation and by the erection of good buildings. His home place is known as the Forest View Farm and his one hundred acre tract is known as the Clover Valley Farm. He makes a specialty of raising stock of all kinds and his live stock interests constitute a very important branch of his business. He is likewise a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator and in the Forest City Cooperative Creamery Company.
On September 12, 1885, Mr. Tobiason was united in marriage to Miss Olena E. Tineson, a native of Norway, and they have become parents of nine children: Lillie, the wife of Oscar Ranburg, of Winnebago county; Theodore C., living in Winnebago county; Tobias W., also a fanner of Winnebago county; Arthur M., Norman S. and Martin L., all at home; and Norman T., Tobias M., and Walter, all now deceased.

Mr. Tobiason votes with the republican party and keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day. He has served on the school board and the cause of education finds in him a stalwart champion. Both he and his wife are members of the United Lutheran church, and in Winnebago county they have a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaintance.
Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. p. 212.