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

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