Martin Adolph EIKEN

   Another name for Martin was Adolph Martin EIKEN.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Notes: from Bruce, 1991. Martin, who was known by his middle name of Adolph, was a country school teacher, then Houston County Register of Deeds, and later cashier at the Caledonia State Bank. In about 1902 he taught school at District No. 162 in Preble Township, the South Fork School just up the valley from his home place. Adolph loved the outdoors and was instrumental in getting the State of Minnesota to set up the Beaver Creek area as a state park. He was also very good at baseball and, at one time, was hired to pitch in the Duluth-Superior league.

The following memorial was taken from the Caledonia newspaper:

"Ike won his last game on Sunday. Adolph Eiken, after 51 years as Houston County's champion of champions, has turned in his uniform, moved up into the Ever and Ever League, into the park where the Umpire calls all runners safe at home.

There will never be another Ike in these hills. There will never be another so willing to give so much to the game, leave so much of it that is fine for coming generations to enjoy, be so firmly insistent that youth be given the opportunity to learn the value of team play and good sportsmanship.

It would be expecting too much of Him, who created man in His own image, to breath life into another human being with so much love, so much tenderness and feeling for all that the Lord keeps out of doors.

There is heavy hearted silence, at the moment, along the trail Ike blazed, a winter's cold silence broken only by the creaking snow underfoot. Yet, those of us who followed Ike along the meandering creeks, through the timberland, over Houston County's rolling prairie and into the river bottoms, know the silence will be broken, broken by The Call of the Wild, the call he lived into a symphony. We will hear again the evening song of the whippoorwill, the restless wind above the timber, "the lazy music in the rill", the soft lapping of water against the side of the boat. Audible will be the uncertain rustling of sun and frost-dried leaves and grasses, the baying of the hound with nose to the trail, the nervous whimper of a bird dog at the point -- for these are the sounds that Ike blended into a harmonious rhapsody, an unending song for the ears of all who love the world as God made it.

If we were king, this day would we decree that which is now known as the Caledonia Athletic Field be henceforth designated as the Eiken Memorial Field."

• Reference: The Saint Paul Globe, 1904, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. June 11, 1904
NORTHERN LEAGUE
[...]
SUPERIOR, Wis., June 10. -- Manager Cameron made a find of a pitcher named Eiken some time ago, and today gave him a try out in an exhibiion game with Fargo. He pitched a wonderful game, allowing no hits. He struck out seven men and Fargo never had a man past first, although Eiken walked three, but in every case he pitched himself out of a hole. Leach, of Minnesota university, was put in to catch the find and made a good one. Score:
R. H. E.
Superior .... 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 7 1
Fargo ....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0
Batteries - Eiken and Leach. Foulkes and Edwards.

• Reference: Early Black Baseball in Minnesota, ca 1900, Minnesota, USA. Early Black Baseball in Minnesota

The St. Paul Gophers, Minneapolis ...By Todd Peterson
p44
With McMurray on board, the Gophers took off on another successful rampage through southern Minnesota. Reid made back the money he had lost to Hibbing when the team captured a $500 purse by topping the Red Wing Furriers, 5-0, during the Zumbrota Street Fair. Johnny Davis gave up only four hits while Sunday Leaguer and future St. Louis Brown Fred "Hack" Spencer was roughed up for 12 safeties, including yet another Schaeffer home run. The team earned another $200 a day later at the Fillmore county Fair in Preston, Minnesota, when they managed only four hits of Adolph Eiken but still beat the strong rural nine from Harmony, 5-3. The hurler from nearby Caledonia struck out ten Gopher betters for the second time that year but hits teammates couldn't do much against Davis, who relieved Means once again in the seventh and shut the country boys down. <58> [1907?]

• Biography: History of Houston County Minnesota, 1919, Houston County, Minnesota, USA. p199
EIKEN MARTIN ADOLPH
BOOK - HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY, MN., PUBLISHED IN 1919. Martin Adolph Eiken, present assistant cashier of the Caledonia State Bank and for fourteen years register of deeds of Houston County, was born in Fillmore county, Minn., May 4, 1882, son of Tollef and Johanna (Masvold) Eiken. He acquired his education in the district school and in the Breckinridge Institute at Decorah, Iowa. Subsequently he spent several years as a school teacher in Fillmore and Houston Counties. Having developed considerable proficiency in baseball, he became a member of the Northern League and for a year and a half was a professional player. At the end of that time, though only 22 years old, he came before the people as a candidate on the Republican ticket for the office of register of deeds, and was elected, taking office Jan. 1, 1905. For fourteen years he served faithfully and efficiently, winning an excellent reputation for careful attention to the county's needs. Upon his retirement he assumed his present duties at the bank, of which he had for some years been a director. Mr. Eiken has been a leader in public and political affairs, has served on various committees and delegations, and has done good work as secretary of the Republican Central Committee. He has also labored in behalf of the cause of education as a member of the school board. For some years he has been a member of the Caledonia Fire Department. His fraternal society affiliations are with the Masonic order, in which he has advanced as far as the Chapter, and with the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Eiken married Ada Odelia Solberg, a native of Houston County, and he and his wife are the parents of two children, Muriel Evelyn and Malcolm Solberg.

Martin married Ada Odelia SOLBERG, daughter of Swert J. SOLBERG and Johanna SCHANABERG, on 20 Nov 1907 in Caledonia, Houston County, Minnesota, USA.¹ (Ada Odelia SOLBERG was born on 27 Feb 1888 in Minnesota, USA and died on 18 Mar 1919 in Caledonia, Houston County, Minnesota, USA ⁴.)

Martin next married Ruth Irene LINDE on 24 May 1935. (Ruth Irene LINDE was born on 21 Dec 1902.)