Anthony O. Tobiassen

TOBIASSEN, ANDERSON, TWITO, JACOBSON, BEACH

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 2/7/2010 at 17:24:17

ANTHONY O. TOBIASSEN

Anthony O. Tobiassen, who at different times has been connected with a variety of business interests in an important capacity but is now largely concentrating his energies upon the real estate business and upon selling silos, was born in Norway, May 22, 1853. He is the eldest of five children, whose parents, Abraham and Torie (Anderson) Tobiassen, came to the United States in 1864 and settled in Legrand, Marshall county, Iowa. The father had farmed in Norway but followed the stone mason's trade in Iowa. In 1885 he removed to the state of Washington, locating near Lynden, and there he engaged in farming until his death in 1913 at the age of eighty-nine years. He is buried there but his wife is interred in the North cemetery at Lake Mills, as she passed away in 1902 when visiting her son Anthony. The rest of the children all live in Lynden, Washington.

Anthony O. Tobiassen received his early education in the common schools and worked for others until he was twenty-one years old, when he went to Chicago and engaged in the nursery business. In 1874, realizing that a better education would be of great value to him, he entered Grinnell College, where he was a student for two terms. In 1876 he came to Lake Mills, which he had visited in 1869, and for five years he taught school in Winnebago county. In 1881 he began working in an implement store in Lake Mills and later turned his attention to cattle raising, taking up his residence on a farm which he owned in Norway township. While living there he also served as deputy sheriff for three terms under Jacob Twito and he made an excellent record in that capacity. In 1888 he became connected with a lumber company in Lake Mills and three years later became president of the local creamery company and also secretary of the Winnebago County Mutual Insurance Company. In 1892 he was one of the incorporators of the Lake Mills Lumber Company, of which he was manager and treasurer until 1903, during which time the business was very ably conducted and yielded a good profit to its stockholders. In 1903 he formed a partnership with A. A. Sanden for the conduct of a real estate business, but in 1906 went to Lyman county, South Dakota, where he homesteaded land. He became active in the real estate field there, dealing in lands in that state until 1911, when he returned to Lake Mills and again became manager and treasurer of the Lake Mills Lumber Company, serving in those capacities until 1915. He has since given his time and attention to selling silos and to his interests as a real estate and insurance agent and for the past thirty-two years he-has been a representative of the Fidelity Phoenix Fire Insurance Company. He still owns several valuable tracts of land in South Dakota.

In September, 1879, Mr. Tobiassen was married to Miss Clara Twito, a daughter of Hans and Aslaug (Jacobson) Twito, who in 1846 removed from Norway to the United States. Both settled in Muskego, Wisconsin, where they were married, and later they removed to Spring Grove, Minnesota, where the father died in 1866 and where he was buried. The mother and her children removed to Estherville, Iowa, and in 1871 came to Lake Mills, where Mrs. Twito's death occurred in 1914. She was buried in the North cemetery here. To Mr. and Mrs. Tobiassen were born four children, one of whom died in infancy, the others being: J. Ben, who is married and is engaged in the hardware business in Draper, South Dakota; A. Homer, who is married and is a general merchant of Draper, South Dakota ; and Lottie, the wife of Joseph Beach, a banker of Draper.

Mr. Tobiassen has been a lifelong republican and has always discharged to the full all the duties devolving upon him as a good citizen. He held the office of township clerk for several years and has also served as township assessor and his official record is highly creditable to his ability and public spirit. In religious faith he is a Lutheran, and fraternally is a charter member of the Modern Woodmen of America lodge at Lake Mills. His has been a life of intense and well directed industry and although he began his independent career empty handed he is now financially independent. He naturally finds satisfaction in his material prosperity, but values even more the high place which he has won in the esteem of his fellow citizens through his strict adherence to high moral standards in all relations of life.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 247-248.