This Historical Inclosure

Victor E. Lawson (1871–1960), a pioneer historian of Kandiyohi County, was born in Paxton, Illinois and came as a young boy with his parents and other family members to New London. His father built several church structures, and Lawson had only a meager sixth-grade education in rural schools, but educated himself through extensive reading and built a personal library of several thousand volumes of literature and historical works. In his twenties he showed aptitude as a writer and printer and became publisher and editor of the New London Times. In 1895 he moved to Willmar to found a third weekly newspaper, the Willmar Tribune, a paper of liberal persuasion that eventually outgrew the other two papers, prospered, and in 1928 became the West Central Daily Tribune. In 1905 he wrote The Pioneer History of Kandiyohi County, reputed to be the most comprehensive such history in the state. Lawson also had a distinguished career in public life, serving several terms in the Minnesota State Senate, where he was one of the founders of the Farmer Labor Party in the 1920–30 period and sponsored legislation establishing Sibley State Park and Monson Lake State Park. In Willmar he served several terms as mayor and for several years as president of the school board. Statewide he served as president of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota Associated Press. He also helped lead the establishment of the memorial highway north of Willmar and the acquisition of Robbins Island as a city park. In 1945 Gustavus Adolphus College awarded him the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, and in 1949 King Gustaf V of Sweden decorated him as a Knight of the Royal Order of Vasa in recognition of his standing as an outstanding Swedish-American. A devoted Lutheran, he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bethel Lutheran in Willmar when the congregation built its present cathedral-design church in 1926, and he also served as president of the state organization of the Lutheran Brotherhood, for years on the board of the Augustana Book Concern, and for many terms on the Board of Directors of Gustavus Adolphus College.

New London, Minnesota · United States