Edward G. Grover of Moland township, Clay county, is a farmer of advanced ideas and modern methods. He conducts a farming business on a very extensive scale and all his affairs are accurately and carefully managed. He is the owner of a tract of eleven hundred and twenty acres under active cultivation, and has other lands which he cultivates in his vicinity. Mr. Grover was born in Houston county, Minnesota, September 11, 1861, and is a son of T. A. and Gelena (Kassenborg) Grover. His father was a well known citizen of Clay county and intimately connected with its politics and social affairs. He numbered among his friends the oldest pioneer settlers of the region, and was born in Moland, Telemarken, Norway; his mother was a native of Lane in the same country. The father came to America in 1846 and engaged in commercial pursuits in Houston county, Minnesota, retiring to farm life about 1861. In 1874 he brought his family into Clay county and made his home on Buffalo river. His services as township officer and county commissioner brought him into close relationship with public affairs and gave him an extensive acquaintance throughout the county. He died March 14, 1895.

Edward G. Grover was reared to farm life in Houston county, and came to Clay county with his father. His early manhood was devoted to the development of the family homestead, which has since passed into his possession. He drove an ox team and breaking plow and grew up with a practical knowledge of Minnesota farming. In 1882 he began in the mercantile business. In 1883 he became agent for the McCormick Company and so continued till 1890. In 1890 and 1891 he was located at Fargo as a representative of the Deering Company. In connection with his brother, C. A. Grover, in 1891 he purchased his father's farm of four hundred and eighty acres and in the fall of the same year he bought out his brother, and thus became the sole owner of the grand old Grover homestead. It is due to his energetic labor that this fine farm has reached its present excellent state of cultivation.

He is a man of remarkable business capacity as well as executive ability, and has won for himself a distinguished place in the ranks of the twentieth century agriculturists. Mr. Grover is unmarried and belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, also the R.N.A., and the M.B.A. He has held various local offices since 1893 and in the fall of 1900 was elected county commissioner from the Third district.

Mr. Grover was engaged in a mercantile and machinery business for some ten years prior to his engaging in farming in 1892. His first years of farming were not successful on account of poor crops and low prices. In 1894 Mr. Grover began raising potatoes, devoting twelve acres to that vegetable, gradually increasing the acreage until 1900, having two hundred acres in potatoes that year. In 1901 he had one hundred and seventy-five acres of potatoes, from which he harvested thirty thousand bushels, only "Early Ohios" and "Triumphs" being allowed a place in his fields. He supplies seed potatoes very largely to the southern and south central states. He also raises in large qualities, wheat, oats, barley, flax and corn, and in 1901 had a corn field of one hundred acres, besides thirty-five acres devoted to fodder corn.

In politics Mr. Grover is an uncompromising Republican and for many years has taken an active part in the public affairs of Clay county. At the present time he is a member of the executive committee of the Republican central committee of Clay county, and is a member of the committee of his township. His father was a leader in his party and was a life-long Republican. He was born June 16, 1830. His widow, who now resides on the old Grover homestead, was born November 1, 1834. Portraits of Edward G. Grover and his father, T. A. Grover, will be found on different pages in these annals.