Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, March 27, 1909, Page 46

in lij ar ct ne W( H i | JOHN WILMANN. Mr. Wilmann, as county auditor of Beltrami county, has proved his business ability by the fact that he has been elected for three successive terms, hence we need add nothing on this score. Mr. Wilmann's success both in public and financial life, fully illustrates the profit- able openings which present themselves for those of small means who are wise enough and sufficiently industrious to avail themselves of the county’s richness, inasmuch as he has earned a competence and plenteous publie favors as well, since his settlement here. Coming to Bemidji in the vear 1900, Mr. Wilmann, who is an ordained minister of the Norwegian Luth- eran church, accepted the pastorate of the Norwegian Lutheran church of this city, serving as such for three years, when he resigned to take up a home- stead, the which he now owns and one which conclusively proves what one can achieve when they set out to perform things. Mr. Wilmann is a native of Norway. He came to America in 1891. He has Jived in various cities, but has come to the conclusion that Bemidji and Beltrami county are more prosperous than any section of the country he has ever visited. Previous to his removal here Mr. Wil- mann lived in Minneapolis, and the metro- politan training he received there has served him in good stead in his official duties. He has served his constituency in an admirable and capable way, as a heavy taxpayer he is a staunch advocate of all propositions which have for their aim the furthering of Bemidji’s interests, his purse strings are always long when material aid is required to “boost” his home city and county, and The Pioneer willingly endorses Mr. Wilmann as an office ‘holder, a citizen and a patriot worthy of the name. FRED W. RHODA. Born on a farm in Todd county, Minn., July 19, 1869, Mr. Rhoda was a farm boy until he attained the age of founteen. Armed with but a common school educa- tion he became an assistant in the office of his father, who was for fifteen years auditor of Todd county. Materializing into an expert mathematician and aec- countant, Mr. Rhoda attracted the at- tention of the officers of the Bank of Staples, an institution in which he was retained for two years. Resigning his position there, he accepted a desk with Davis and Tabor, bankers at Park Rapids, and in 1897 was sent to this city to superintend the first bank established in Bemidji, and known under the title of “The Bank of Bemidji.”’ Mr. Rhoda has always been in the van of public move- ments, he has always contributed his share to every move which had for its aim the furtherance of Bemidji and Bel- trami county, and he has so comported himself that he is now one of the rec- ognized influential factors of this section, not only as an authority upon expert accounting, but as a man of energy who performs what he sets out to do. Mr. Rhoda has been clerk of the district court for the past five years. His record during the interim has greatly inured to his personal worth and value, and The Pioneer need not further expa- tiate upon either his merits or standing. BELTRAMI COUNTY OFFICERS J. O. HARRIS, Register of Deeds, Beltrami County, A. B. HAZEN. Sheriff Hazen has been a resident of Bel- trami county for upwards of twelve years, and of course must be classed in the cate- gory of our pioneers. He was here when Bemidji was a trading post, and although he suffered the rigors incident to frontier life, he has no regrets to express, as the terri- tory hereabouts has been developed until it is now one of the garden spots of the west. Mr. Hazen came here from Otter Tail county, Minnesota, where he had resided for thirty-five years. Four years after he located here he was selected as one of the city alderman, an office from which, after four years’ service, he acquitted himself creditably, both to himself and his constit- uency. Afterward he was appointed street and water commissioner, another public posi- tion he held for four terms, and one which still marks the perfection of the improve- ments he installed during his incumbency. Mr. Hazen has roughed it throughout the entire west, during the early '70’s. He has undergone experiences which will never again be witnessed in the land of the Set- ting Sun. He has experienced hardships and danger, has superintended the conduct- ing of wagon trains across wild and hostile sections of the west, and he is therefore amply able to fill the sheriff’s office with that sturdiness and fearlessness which has characterized his entire life. Mr. Hazen is extremely popular in this county. He was elected by a flattering plurality in the general election, and won cut in a four-cornered fight at the primaries, and his high standing is further attested by the general approbation with which his election met. Mr. Hazen is a taxpayer, a hustling citi- zen, a useful one and a fearless one. The Pioneer predicts for him a gratifying career and the fitting accomplishment of every dltz assigned to him. The following excerpt, clipped from one of our neighboring contemporaries, fully elucidates the prowess and experiences of Mr. Hazen as a patriot and citizen, and is well worth reading: “A. B. Hazen, elected sheriff of Bel- trami eounty at the election Tuesday, is a native of Wisconsin, being born in Crawford county, April 4, 1852, and has been a resident of Beltrami county since 1898, and was during the early days engaged in the hotel business. Succeeding years he was a logger, and during the e ¢ T T I s s L 2%