Anton O. Skrukrud, was born in Gulbrandsdalen, Norway, May 22, 1859, son of Ole and Ingeborg (Romsaas) Skrukrud. His father was born Oct. 22, 1827, in Norway and came to America in 1866, going to Rushford, Fillmore county, Minn., where he joined his brother, Knute, who had located on a farm two years before. During the first year he worked with a threshing machine. His family came to America the next year, coming on a sailing vessel, the voyage taking nine weeks and one day. From Quebec they went by boat to Milwaukee and from there on to Rushford. He there bought a tract of 200 acres of land in Pilot Mound township in Fillmore county. He built a log house, bought an ox team and began to improve the land. It was two years before he could afford a horse team. He also bought a cow for which he paid $25. Here he lived until he retired when he moved to Lanesboro, where he now resides at the age of 88 years. Before retiring he had improved his farm, built good buildings, fenced it well and increased it to 400 acres. He was a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church and helped to organize the congregation in his neighborhood. October 23, 1856, he was united in marriage in Norway, to Ingeborg Romsaas, born June 22, 1828. His wife died in Lanesboro at the age of seventy-seven years. There were seven children, five of whom were born in Norway, and the two youngest in Fillmore county, Ole, Anton, Ella, Mathias, Olaf, Ingebret and Mary.

Anton was a small boy when he came to this country and received his early schooling in Fillmore county. In 1880 he left Fillmore county and came to Renville county, where he secured a tract of school land of 40 acres in section 6, in Ericson township. It was all wild land and he began to work upon it in a small way, with his team and wagon and with $25 in cash. In May, 1883, he took a trip to Canada to investigate conditions in that country. To pay his way he worked on the Canadian-Pacific Railroad near Calgary. The line of road he was on ran from Winnipeg to Calgary. He did not find the country satisfactory to locate his family in so he worked the months of May, June, July and August on the railroad, then returned to his farm in Ericson township, this county. He gradually improved it and increased it until he owned 356 acres. In 1910 he rented this and moved to section 6 in Sacred Heart township, where he is now located. He has built modern buildings and fenced the farm and keeps a good grade of stock. He now owns 160 acres of land in that township and carries on general farming, specializing in the raising of sugar beets.

Mr. Skrukrud has been director of the Farmers' State Bank at Sacred Heart for the past five years and was one of the first to become a stockholder. He is also a director in the Farmers' Elevator at Sacred Heart. For several years he has served as township supervisor and has held other township offices. He has also been a member of the school board for eighteen years, having been both treasurer and director. He is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church and for the past three years has been a member of the board of trustees.

On March 12, 1888, Mr. Skrukrud was united in marriage to Anna A. Kolstad, born May 19, 1866, in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. She came to America with her parents in 1867, coming over on the same sailing vessel that the Skrukrud family came on. Her parents were Engebret and Anna (Voldon) Kolstad, who located on a farm in Fillmore county. The father died four years later at the age of thirty-three. His widow married Sven Kolstad, of the same name, and they are still living on their farm near Fountain, both being about seventy-eight years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Anton O. Skrukrud have had seven children: Onne Emelia, born July 17, 1889; Ilot, born April 12, 1891, and dying in infancy; Arthur Ilot, born August 16, 1893; Mabel Eleda, born August 26, 1896; Odin Millard, born Sept. 18, 1899; John Alven, born Oct. 18, 1903; and Baldwin Palmer, born July 30, 1905.