Joseph K. Strever was born Dec. 17, 1824, in Washington county, N.Y. The first twenty years of his life was spent on a farm. He then went to work at stone cutting and masonry, and two years after worked on the Rutland railroad. Here he et with a severe accident. While turning a stone his knee became injured and for two years he was unable to work. During this time he spent every dollar of $1,500 he had accumulated, and he has suffered from a shrunken leg ever since.

He then resumed work on the Black River Canal, but finally sought a milder climate for his health. He accordingly went to Richmond, Va., superintending the stone-cutting for a lock on the James river, and at the same time dressing the finer blocks for the Washington monument. H. B. Floyd, the governor of Virginia, was often there, looking after the business, and Mr. Strever became will acquainted with him.

He left Richmond after two years and worked his trade in various places north for some five or six years. While at work on the Illinois Central railroad he woed and won Miss Melvina Buell, and shortly afterward went east to New York. His last work at his trade was building a lock at Little Falls, N. Y. He made a handsome sum on this contract, and determined to come west and try farming. In 1858 he purchased 140 acres of land of A. D. Avery. Only ten acres had been broken and a log house had been built. His wife died soon after moving here.

He energetically broke up his land and engaged in raising grain at the time when our nearest market was Winona. Mr. Strever remembers that the highest price he secured for wheat was $1.10 and the lowest 48 cents. No one who travels our highways now can imagine how difficult it was then to haul loads through unbridged sloughs. Mr. Strever has one married daughter.

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Submitted to MnGenWeb by Darrel K. Waters