Manfred History & Preservation, Inc.
T.L. and Clara Beiseker
Husband's Full Name: Thomas Lincoln Beiseker
Husband's Place of Birth: Muncie, Indiana
Husband's Father's Name: Charles N. Beiseker
Husband's Mother's Name: Kate R. Reilly
Husband's Siblings' Names: Jessie (Shelby); (Mary Yelland); Henry, Elizabeth (Metzger); Arthur N., Lawrence, Loretta (Roberts) and Chester
Wife's Full Name: Clara Edwards Beiseker
Wife's Place of Birth: Moscow, Freeborn, Minnesota
Wife's Father's Name: Daniel B. Edwards
Wife's Mother's Name: Olinda Van House Edwards
Wife's Siblings' Names: Henry, Ellen, Amy, Sherman
Children's Names: Charles and Lila Netcher
Fessenden and Wells County have been the home for many years of one of the shrewdest and most noted bankers and financers of the entire Northwest, T. L. Beiseker.
Mr. Beiseker was born in Muncie, Indiana, April 8, 1867, in their covered wagon as the family was moving to Austin, Minnesota. He died in June of 1941. He was educated in the schools of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and at Austin, Minnesota. At Austin he was employed for seven years as deputy county auditor.
In the spring of 1893 he came to Sykeston and organized the Wells County Bank with a capital of $10,000, the first bank organized under the state law and also the first permanent bank established in the county.
He was elected president of this bank and in 1893 moved it along with the county seat to Fessenden, reaching there November 18, 1894. Mr. Beiseker is interested in several other banks of the county and also in banks in North Dakota and Montana. Mr. Beiseker purchased land in Manfred and had the First State Bank of Manfred built in 1905.
In 1892, Mr. Beiseker was united in marriage to Miss Clara A. Edwards of Austin and they were the parents of two children, a daughter, Lila, now Mrs. A. L. Netcher of Fessenden, and son, Charles, now deceased, who served in the U. S. Aviation Corps in the World War.
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Mrs. Clara Beiseker took a very active part in Red Cross activities and on May 1918 became chairman of the Fessenden working branch. It is said by many of those who worked with her that no other woman devoted as much time as did Mrs. Beiseker to the production of the innumerable article her unit was called upon to make. Her mother, Olinda Edwards, must surely have been a great inspiration to her during those days of hard work, and a son in the service must indeed have been the incentive to perform to the most of her ability. Mrs. Beiseker took sick early in spring and died May 7, 1919. Mr. Beiseker left Wells County in the late 1920s after his banking business fell due to poor investments. Beiseker moved to Alberta where he lived out the rest of his days.
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Source. The History of Wells County and Its Pioneers – by Walter E. Spokesfield 1929
The Beiseker Mansion in Fessenden, ND. This is where T.L. Beiseker resided while running his banking empire. It has been on the National Register of Historical Places since 1977.