[My] Great Grand father, John Knudsen...was born in Logster, Denmark, on December 02, 1855. He was one of the early settlers of the Marion community ( LaMoure County). He emigrated from Denmark to Jamestown, Dakota Territory, in 1882. He then homesteaded here in 1885 on the land that is now known as the Knudsen Addition to the city of Marion. He gave two acres of his tree claim to the city of Marion to be used for a cemetery in 1900. It is from this land the Lakeview Cemetery has expanded. His wife Margrethe died in 1896 and his buried in a cemetery 10 miles directly east from there farm home, which was then the nearest cemetery. He was left with five small children. John Knudsen's first farming was done with a team of two oxen and a walking plow. He built up his farm in early 1900 adding a large barn, a new house, two grainaries and a large windmill. He raised many cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs. He shipped hogs and fattened cattle to the St. Paul Stockyards every fall. He sold his farm to the Johnston Land Company in 1910. He the purchased the William Sinclair farm a mile south of Marion and moved there that same spring where he continued his farming until 1921 when he and his new wife moved into town to make their home. John died in 1934, and wife Nellie (Kjelby) died in 1944.

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