Simon Jahr

SIMON JAHR.
The men who have undertaken the develop-
ment of the natural resources and commercial
possibilities of Mclean county with its vast and
varied wealth of mineral and agricultural riches,
are doing the most important work that is being
done in the state today. There is no part of
North Dakota which gives promise of greater
things than the country about the town of Wil-
ton, McI.ean county, and the successes that have
been attained by the pioneers who had the cour-
age and capacity. to settle there indicate a great
future for them and their town and county.
Practically all of the development has been with-
in the past ten years and it is largely to be ac-
credited to Simon Jahr and his associates and
their energy and ability. To be a pioneer of
nearly ten years standing at Wilton takes a man
back to the beginning of things there and Mr.
Jahr has been working in and for the town and
the surrounding country for almost that long.
He is now active in the direction of the business
of the Jahr-Eastman Mercantile Company,
which is the largest mercantile institution at Wil-
ton, capitalized at $50,000 and doing a very large
yearly business, What Wilton is and what it
contains of promise is largely the work of
Mr. Jahr and P. K. Eastman, his principal part-
ner.
Mr. Jahr was born of Norwegian parentage
in Freeborn county, Minn., July 10, 1870. He
was the son of Torgar T. Jahr and Rachel Jahr,
who came from the old country and were pioneer
settlers of Freeborn county. He received an
excellent education in the public and preparatory
schools and graduated from the Nerth Dakota
University in 1897. His educational attainments
fitted him for responsible work from the time
he entered public life and he was appointed chief
clerk of the Department of Public Instruction at
Bismarck, in 1897, and occupied that position for
three years, when he was prompted to occupy
a larger field and went into the mercantile busi-
ness at Wilton. That business has been, as was
said, so very successful that the corporation into
which it grew is now the most important in that
section of the county, In addition to his mer-
cantile interests Mr. Jahr has a fine farm in
Burleigh county and is extensively engaged in
dealing in land and cattle. He is interested in
public affairs and for four years has given much
of his time to the public service as county com-
missioner of McLean county,
Mr. Jahr was married at Wilton, July 15,
1903, to Hannah E, Boat, of Burleigh county,
and they have two children, Ralph and Paul,
age 5 and 4. They have,a modern home at
Wilton and all the advantages of the advanced
communities, which advantages have been made
possible by the enterprise of Mr, Jahr and his
associates in giving to Wilton the accessories of
modern life in public utilities. In the prime of
manhood now, Mr. Jahr has already established
his right to figure in the ranks of the state build-
ers and he will go far in his work of adding to
the development of the state and his county,