In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. A few names of people born after 1905 are withheld for privacy. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1866
From An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota (1912)
OSMUND N. MITCHELL (1900), of Shelburne township, owns and farms 360 acres of the precinct's fertile soil. He is not a pioneer resident of Lyon county but he has prospered and is rated as one of the substantial farmers. His home place is the northwest quarter of section 33, on the southern boundary of the county.
The gentleman whose name heads this sketch was born near Stavanger, Norway, April 26, 1866. His father, Nels Mikkelson, died in 1887; his mother, Ingeborg (Osmundson) Mikkelson, two years later. Until he was sixteen years of age young Mitchell attended the schools of his native land. Then he spent four years working as a farm laborer, three years for an uncle and one year on the home place.
In 1887 Mr. Mitchell came to America. The first two years in the New World were spent working on the railroad in Livingston county, Illinois; then he worked at farm labor in Lasalle county two years. He was married in 1891 and moved to Kossuth county, Iowa, where he bought land and engaged in farming until 1900.
In the spring of that year Mr. Mitchell came to Lyon county and purchased 200 acres of land on the west half of section 33, Shelburne township, upon which he has ever since resided. In the fall of 1910 he purchased the southeast quarter of section 32, making him a farm of 3 60 acres. Mr. Mitchell raises considerable stock, including Hereford cattle, Duroc-Jersey hogs and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens.
Mr. Mitchell is interested in several other enterprises. He has stock in the State Bank of Florence, the Farmers Elevator Company of Ruthton, and the Independent Harvester Company of Piano, Illinois. He has been treasurer of school district No. 57 for the past ten years.
The marriage of Mr. Mitchell to Lena Olson occurred in Streator, Illinois, December 26, 1890. Mrs. Mitchell was born in Norway April 30, 1875, the daughter of Andrew and Martha (Severson) Olson. The head of the family came to America in 1886 and the rest of the family in 1890. They lived in Lasalle county, Illinois, and Kossuth county, Iowa, and in 1903 moved to Cottonwood county, Minnesota, where they now reside. Mrs. Mitchell has two brothers, Severt Olson, of Cot-
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
As printed in An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota (1912). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1912. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.