How Did Hereim Township receive its name?

Have you ever wondered how your township was named? Hereim Township received its name from one the township’s early pioneers.

Ole O. Hereim, Sr. was born on June 7, 1833, at Stavanger, Norway. On May 2, 1954, he sailed for America and landed in Canada thirty-eight days later. Leaving Quebec, he immigrated to Stoughton, Wisconsin. He spent a winter in Wisconsin and the next in Louisiana. Having returned to Wisconsin, he drove a team of oxen from Stoughton to Dodge County, Minnesota, in 1856. There were only three settlers there at the time.

On July 4, 1859, Hereim married Kjerste Christiansen. According to his obituary, as published in the Greenbush Tribune in November of 1931, they had two daughters and six sons. The family moved to Roseau County from Dodge County, in May of 1896, and homesteaded a quarter section of land. When they arrived, there was no Norwegian Evangelical [Lutheran] Church. After a time, the Hereims held a meeting in their home to organize St. Olaf Church. Later St. Olaf and Moland Church (Hauge Synod) merged to form Bethel.

When the railroad first came to [Greenbush] in 1904, construction stopped about three miles east of the community of Greenbush, to the dismay of the merchants and businessmen. However, Ole O. Hereim’s land was located conveniently to the railroad. A deal was struck, Hereim’s farm was purchased for the new town site of West Greenbush, and the town of Greenbush moved in. The Hereim homestead is now part of Greenbush. Ole Jr. became the first town clerk.

A friend and brother-in-law from Dodge County, Carl Heltne, came to visit Ole and his family in 1899, and apparently like the area. He claimed a homestead and settled near Hereim’s farm. Heltne became the first tax assessor.

Not many people could claim that a town grew on their homestead and a township was named for them. Ole O. Hereim could make that claim.

Ole O. Hereim died in “his” town of Greenbush at the age of 98. He had been an active man until about two months before his death. He was survived by two of four sons. (Eunice Korczak, Greenbush 1905 – 2005, pg. 506)