Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1938-07-14
Ferndale Nursery Founder Dies
Monday Evening After Filling
g Years OF Useful, Active Life
Ludwig Mosb@k Possessed
Active Mind and Body
Until Last Days of Life.

Askov lost one of its oldest citi-
zens and Ferndale Nursery its founder
Monday evening at about 6:15 o'clock
when Ludwig Mosbak slept quietly
and peacefully away. Mr.. Mosbak
was active in mind and body almost
until the last, but contracted cold
during the Christmas season from
which he did not seem to get relief;
he finally had to be confined to his
bed during the last five days before
his death.
Funeral services will be conducted
in Danish from the home at 100 p. m.
Friday and at 2 o'clock in the Eng
lish language from the Danish Luth-
eran church. Rev. jobs. Knudsen
will officiate and burial will be made
in the local cemetery. g.
Born in Denmark.
Ludwig Christian Miller Mosbak
was born in Kielstrup, Denmark,
April 13, 1855. His father, Jens Mos
back, was school teacher. He started
early in life to take an interest in
plants and started a nursery and
nursery training school in Stovring,
Denmark, when but a young man.
There are several of his students in
America today who are still in the
nursery or floral business He came
to the United States in 1890 alone,
leaving his wife and six children in
Denmark while he found a suitable
location. He came to Chicago and
secured place at $500 Anthony Ave-,
South Chicago. About year after
he came to this country he sent for
his wife and children and was en-
gagged in the raising of vegetables
and bedding plants at Chicago for Is
years.
In 1908 he moved to Onarga, ILL.,,
where he was engaged solely in rails
ing bedding plants and other green
house plants. In 1906 after reading
advertisements of 'The Danish Folk
Society of America" he investigated,
with the result that in February of the
same year he took trip to northern
Minnesota, (this community where
Danish colony was being started. The
place was called Partridge at that
time. Thinking the proposition looked
good, he bought 240 acres right out
side of the Townsite of Partridge.
About March l of the same year Mrs.
Mosb9k and most of the children
moved to this north country.
Family Takes Up Work Here.
Two of the older boys had arrived
a few days before with a carload of
livestock, machinery and furniture.
Mr.. Mosb8k had rented the hotel for
two years and Mrs. Mosbak took
charge Immediately. There were
many young men who had read about
the beginning of the Danish colony
and were looking for place to settle
down. Nearly every day there were
some new people looking over land,
but when spring finally came they
saw for the first time what they were
really confronted with-brush, stumps
and stones, with few winding trails
logging roads, There were not
many roads that followed a section
line.
In the spring the Mosbak family
became busy clearing land so they
could get some plowed. Mr. Mos
back stayed in Onarga until the spring
of 1908 to settle his affairs, but
after coming here he took an active
part in all community doings, such
as church, school and the first CO.
operative started in Askov which is
now the Cooperative Feed Store.
He introduced American grown rut-
abagas to the American market about
1910 or 1912 and was actively in
terested in politics. He assisted in
starting the creamery in 1911 and
other community undertakings. About
1910 the name of the village was
changed from Partridge to Askov, a
sort of memory or namesake from
village in Denmark by the same name,
known for its Folk high school.
Mrs. Mosb9k came to be known
as ':The Mother of Askov." Many of
the people that came to look for land
were single men and they would come
here and work on their land a few
months of the year during which time
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