The subject of this sketch, I.B. Halderson, one of the representative citizens and partially retired farmers of Lyon township, is a native of Norway, born in 1850, and went to Wisconsin with his parents when he was four years old. His father, Bjorn Halderson, was one of a race of farmers and the only member of his father's family who emigrated to America. I.B. Halderson's mother was Inger (Anderson) Halderson, of Norway. He is one of eight children, seven of whom are living. Two brothers, H.B. and Andrew, are well-to-do farmers of Solomon township. A.R. was a nominee for county commissioner from his district (No. 3) by the Populist party against Mr. Daly, in 1901. He is a prominent man of Solomon township. He has been treasurer of his township for several terms and clerk of School District No. 42 for more than twenty years. His nomination for commissioner was not of his seeking, but had he been elected would have served the county well. A sister, Sarah Anderson, widow of Christian Anderson, who died leaving his wife and a family of two children, lives on a farm in Lyon township, Ida and Cora are her two daughters. The former, the widow of Ernest Converse, was a Cloud county teacher and a student of the State Normal School at Emporia. Amelia, wife of Everett Dickerson, a resident of Ness county, Kansas; they have a family of three children, - Beulah Mildred, Clifford Everett and Fern Agnes. Lena, wife of Hosea Stout, a farmer of Smith county, Kansas; their family consists of two sons, Ira, aged thirteen and Arley, aged ten years. Anna, wife of John Pitner, a farmer of Lyon township.

Mr. Halderson was educated in Wisconsin. The Haldersons first settled in Ottawa county, in 1870, coming a few months later to Lyon township, Cloud county, where they located government land. They came without capital, lived in a dugout and underwent the same experiences and trials that most of the early settlers did, and lived as people lived in Kansas at that time.

I.B. Halderson owns the original homestead. He had lived at home until the death of his father in 1894, and the home place succeeded to him. This is an excellent farm, wheat and corn land. In many good years his ground has yielded seventy-five bushels of corn and forty bushels of wheat per acre. The Haldersons are Republicans politically; strayed away for a while but are falling back in line again. They are members of the Lutheran church of the Glasco congregation. They all have comfortable homes and are numbered among the representative citizens.