WABASHA COUNTY, MINNESOTA
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Biography transcribed & donated to Wabasha County, MN Bios by
Barbara Koska Timm.  For more information, please check
out her site "Biographies and Historical Sketches of Wabasha County,
Minnesota" at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio>.
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		    "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY MINNESOTA"
                               COMPILED BY
                         FRANKLYN CURTISS-WEDGE
                                AND OTHERS

                                ILLUSTRATED

                               WINONA, MINN.
                          H. C. COOPER, JR., & CO.
                                   1920


Befort, John (p. 722), a representative farmer of Chester Township, where he has resided all his life, was 
 born here March 30, 1869, son of William and Anna (De Ville) Befort. The parents were natives 
 respectively of Germany and France who came to this country in the early sixties, and who, after residing in 
 New York State for several years, came west to Wisconsin, thence to Goodhue County, Minn., and later to 
 Chester Township, Wabasha County, where they spent the rest of their lives in farming. The mother died in 
 1908 and the father in 1909. They were members of the Catholic church. Their children were William, 
 Mary, Anna, John (first), John (second), Katherine, Frank, Lena and Agnes. The first John died in infancy 
 and Katherine is also now deceased. The subject of this sketch, who was the second child of his parents to 
 be named John, was educated in the district school and learned agriculture on the home farm, working for 
 his father until 1895. Then for four years he operated 80 acres of land which he rented of his father. In 1899 
 he moved to the main part of the home farm, which consisted of 160 acres in section 30, and which he 
 afterwards purchased, improving the property by the erection of a barn and outbuildings. Here he has since 
 carried on general farmin, raising good stock. For eight years he has served as clerk of the school board of 
 District No. 91, and still holds that position. He is a member of the Catholic church and also belongs to the 
 Catholic order of Foresters. Mr. Befort was married April 23, 1895, to Rose Redie, daughter of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Jacob Redie of Mazeppa. She was one of two children, having a sister Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Befort are 
 the parents of five children, who were born as follows: Mary, November 16, 1896; Annie, June 19, 1899; 
 Viola J., December 7, 1901; William R., December 3, 1904, and Caroline G., July 6, 1908. Mary is now the 
 wife of Joseph Reuter and Annie the wife of Theodore Manthei.