C. A. Larson was born in Sweden, in 1850, son of Carl and Caroline Larson, and was a babe eighteen months old when he was brought by his parents to America. For a short time the family made their home at Andover, Illinois, after which they went to Rock Island, same State. At the latter place his father was in the employ of Judge Spencer for fifteen years. During the civil war he was drafted into the service, but the Judge bought him a substitute for $400, in order to retain him in his employ. Mr. Larson's parents now reside five miles southeast of Genesco, Henry County, Illinois. Of their six children, five sons and one daughter, C. A. is the oldest. He was reared on a farm near Rock Island, Illinois, and received his education in the public schools of Henry County.

In 1875 Mr. Larson came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and bought eighty acres of wild prairie land in section 8, Waveland Township, where he has since made his home. He has added to his first purchase, and now owns 120 acres of well-improved land. The splendid condition of his farm indicates the prosperity which has attended his labors. He has a good house, stables, cribs, good fences and a modern wind-pump. His well is sixty feet deep with thirty-four feet of water in it. He has a grove and a beautiful orchard of four acres.

Mr. Larson was married, March 7, 1880, at Red Oak, Iowa, to Miss Victoria W. Bloomquist, a native of Sweden, who came to Iowa a year or two before her marriage. They have two sons, Carl Oscar William, born March 11, 1881, and Elmer Theodore, January 21, 1891. Mrs. Larson's father, Jonas E. Bloomquist, was born in 1820, in Sweden, was a blacksmith by trade, and died in Stockholm in July, 1890. Her mother was born in 1832, in Sweden, and died in Westervik, that country, in 1867. She has three brothers and two sisters living, one of the latter a twin, residing in West Des Moines, this State, the wife of Peter Burg. October 11, 1890, a locomotive on the Fort Dodge Railroad ran over two of their (Mr. and Mrs. Burg's) children and killed them. One was Peter, three years old, and the other was Minnie, twenty-two months of age. C. J. Lillgeberg, a prominent business man of Red Oak, Iowa, is an uncle of Mrs. Larson.

Mr. Larson is a man who is well posted on the current topics of the day. His political views are in harmony with Republican principles. He is frank and cordial to all, and has the good will of a large circle of friends and acquaintances.