HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


employed commend it to the liberal patronage of the public. Mr. Torrison
has
ever pursued the honorable, straightforward policy instituted by his father
and
in carrying forward to success the business long since established he has
proven
that prosperity is not a matter of genius or of fortunate circumstances,
as held
by some, but is the outcome of clear judgment, experience and unfaltering
industry. While actively concerned in commercial interests, Mr. Torrison
has
at the same time taken helpful part in public affairs. That he is a warm
friend
and stalwart champion of the cause of education has been indicated in his
service as a member of the school board from July, i890, until July, i9io.
He
has also been alderman for the second ward, a member of the county board
of
supervisors and mayor of the city for four terms, giving to Manitowoc a public-
spirited, business like administration, characterized by needed reforms and
im-
provements. In political matters he is a republican, believing firmly in
the prin-
ciples of the party as effective forces in good government.
Mr. Torrison was married to Georgina Tostensen, a daughter of Captain Tos-
tensen, a lake captain who came to Manitowoc in the '5os and since i890 has
been living on his farm near the city. Mr. and Mrs. Torrison became the parents
of a son, Anker, who is a graduate of Luther College of Decorah, Iowa. He
also attended the Culver (Indiana) Military Academy for two years and then
took a law course in the Minnesota State University, from which he was gradu-
ated in i910, since which time he has been engaged in practice in St. Paul.
Mr.
and Mrs. Torrison, like all the other members of the family, belong to the
Luth-
eran church and are much interested in everything that pertains to the moral
progress of the community. There have been no spectacular phases in his life
record but the consensus of public opinion places him with those men who
are
the real strength and stability of the community-men who are active, reliable
and progressive in business and yet do not allow individual interests to
monopo-
lize their time to the exclusion of helpful cooperation in public affairs.
HARRY GILBERTSEN.
Harry Gilbertsen is one of the most progressive and enterprising agricultur-
ists of Liberty township, where he has passed the entire period of his life,
having
been born on the farm he now owns and operates on the 29th of January, i852.
He is the third child born of the marriage of Gulbrand and Mary Gilbertsen,
whose family numbered eleven, as follows: Dorothy; Gilbert; Harry, the subject
of this sketch; Canute; Andrew; Mary; Dorothy; Sarah; Annie; Andrew; and
Ida. The parents were natives of Norway and there they were also reared and
married and passed the early years of their domestic life. Being ambitious
young
people, in i848 they decided to emigrate to the United States, so took passage
for New York with their little daughter, Dorothy. It was a long, difficult
journey
at that period and the child was taken sick and died en route, being buried
at
sea. The father and mother landed in the new world on the Fourth of July,
i848, and came directly to Milwaukee, this state, which was their destination.
During the remainder of that summer Mr. Gilbertsen worked on the farms in
that vicinity as a day laborer, but he and his wife subsequently removed
to Port


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