Francis De Lille, of French descent, was born in Canada in 1782. He came with his family to St. Anthony in 1848, and in 1852 to Elk River, where he occupied the first house built in the lower town. He settled on a farm, where he lived the remainder of his life. He died April 18, 1874, under peculiar circumstances. He was a devout Catholic, and died suddenly in the church while kneeling during a part of the service. His widow and youngest son reside at the old homestead.
Mrs. De Lille, formerly Catharine Queenan, of Ireland, is one of the oldest settlers of Sherburne county. She has eight children living, Mary F., married and living in Dakota; Frank, Agnes; Elisabeth, married to Peter Trump of Taylor's Falls; Harriet, wife of Joseph Holt, of Taylor's Falls; Joseph F., Rosanna and Sarah, all married.
Howard M. Atkins was born in New Sharon, Franklin county, Maine, May 11, 1838. His father was stricken down by lightning, leaving him at the age of thirteen to assist in taking care of the family. Howard was near his father and was struck senseless by the same flash that deprived him of a father. Recovering, he set himself earnestly and seriously to the duties of life, performed his allotted tasks about the household, and succeeded in obtaining a good high school education. He came to Princeton, Mille Lacs county, in 1856, studied law and was admitted to practice in Mille Lacs county in 1863. Subsequently he practiced law five years in St. Cloud. He came to Elk River in 1876. He has held official positions in Mille Lacs, Stearns and Sherburne counties. Mr. Atkins has acquired an honorable position through his own exertions and richly deserves the respect of his fellow citizens. He was married in 1862 to Virginia Sinclair, of Illinois. They have two sons and four daughters.
B. F. Hildreth was born in Milford, Maine, March, 1822. He learned the trade of a blacksmith and came to St. Anthony in 1849, and the year following did part of the crew work of the first steamer launched on the Mississippi above the falls. Since then he has engaged chiefly in lumbering and farming. In 1850 he was married to M. E. Farnham, of St. Anthony. He removed to Elk River in 1873.
Samuel Hayden was born Oct. 12, 1806, at Madison, Maine. He came to Livonia, Sherburne county, in 1856. He has a family of four sons and three daughters, residents of Minnesota. His brother, the Hon. Wentworth Hayden, was a member of the constitutional convention of 1857.
The writer of these sketches had known Mr. Samuel Hayden in early life, and distinctly remembered seeing him the winter of 1827, driving an ox team in the pineries on Dead river, Maine. He was then a young man of twenty-one, and the writer was a boy of ten. Sixty years later they met in Sherburne county, and the writer recognized in the aged man of eighty-one years the young man of twenty-one, though for the moment unable to call his name. It is seldom that memory bridges so wide a chasm.
Joseph Jerome settled in the town of Haven in 1846, and is therefore among the first of the pioneers. In 1848 he sold his property to Samuel Sturgis and removed to Michigan.
Joshua O. Cater came from Stafford county, New Hampshire, and was one of the earliest settlers of the town of Haven, where he still lives.
J. F. Bean also came from New Hampshire to Sherburne county, and is now a resident of Livonia, and postmaster at Lake Fremont.
J. H. Felch, of Maine, an early settler of Livonia, is now living at Elk River.