Olmsted County MINNESOTA Biographies.....Baar Starkson 1832 - 1894
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File contributed for Minnesota Biographies Project by:
Mike Oiseth MOISETH@mn.rr.com March 10, 2005, 8:50 am

Author: Joseph Leonard, History of Olmsted County, Minnesota

BAAR STARKSON (deceased) was one of those hardy pioneers who left
Norway, the land of their birth, to seek home and fortune in America,
and whose lives were inseparably interwoven with the growth and
development of the early history of Olmsted county. He was born in the
year 1832, and was reared to manhood and educated in his native country.
In 1854 he immigrated to the United States and, like many of his fellow
countrymen, first located in Dane county, Wisconsin. He lived there four
years, working as a farm laborer, but in 1858 came to Olmsted county,
Minnesota, and bought a farm of eighty acres in Rock Dell township. This
property five years later he sold, and moved to a farm on section 35,
Salem township, where he lived the remainder of his days. Mr. Baar
Starkson was a man of unusual good business judgment. While he took a
keen interest in public affairs, he devoted his energies mainly to the
improvement and increase of his properties. Through hard work on the
part of himself and wife, he accumulated 450 acres of choice land and
improvements to the value of about $8,000. During his life here he was
identified with East St. Olaf's Congregation, and upon his death, in
1894, was buried in the cemetery connected with that organization. To
his marriage with Ingeborg Larson Sjerve, solemnized in 1859, these
children were born: Stark, Ingeborg, Julius, Martin, Lewis, Albert,
Caroline, Ella, Gurena, and Ida. The latter two died in childhood, also
one son, Lars. Mrs. Starkson, since the death of her husband, has
resided in Rochester and on the home place, and is justly proud of the
well-developed condition and splendid improvement of the farm brought
into effect by the labor of her own hands and those of her husband. She
is the daughter and only surviving child of Lars Erickson, an old, well
remembered settler of Olmsted county. He settled on section 25, Salem
township, Olmsted county, Minnesota, at the early date of 1856, was born
in Norway, and was there married. With the tide of immigration flowing
to America, he came to this country at an early day and finally settled
in this county, here participating in the struggles and privations
incident to pioneer life. He was one of the founders of East St. Olaf's
Congregation and was active in its government and prosperity for nearly
a quarter of a century. He died in 1880, at the age of seventy-five
years, followed by his wife three years later, aged seventy-eight years.
They were good citizens, honest, industrious, law-abiding, and died in
the belief of the immortal life hereafter. They were the parents of
three children, Mrs. Starkson being the only survivor. In 1910 she built
her present beautiful home in Rochester, in which she expects to pass
the remainder of her years.

Additional Comments:
Joseph Leonard, History of Olmsted County, Minnesota: together with sketches of many
of its pioneers, 
citizens, families, and institutions. Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association,
1910.

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