Hon. Asa Sergeant, one of the first settlers of Traill County, is a gentleman who commands respect wherever he is known. He has spent a useful career in North Dakota, and is one of the wealthy and influential citizens of Caledonia, and operates several hundred acres of rich land.
Our subject was born in Peacham, Caledonia County, Vermont, August 5, 1844 and was the fourth in a family of six children born to Elijah and Sylvia (Watts) Sargeant, both of whom are deceased. He enlisted in the fall of 1862 in Company F, Fifteenth Vermont Infantry, and after a short service returned to his native state. In 1868, during the first "boom" of the Red river country, he and some relatives invested in land on the Minnesota side of the Red river, and in 1870 our subject went to look at the land purchased. He worked during the season in Minnesota and passed the winter in Pembina. In the spring of 1872 he entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, working in the store at Georgetown, and soon afterward was established in a store at Caledonia, and later for three years at Walla Walla. In association with C. M. Clark, he rented the Caledonia flouring mills in 1876 and later they purchased the plant. The mill was erected in 1872 and was the second mill built in what is now North Dakota. The frame of the structure is of oak, hewn from the native timber, and the whole building, is as sound as when erected thirty years ago. The mill was sold some years afterward, but was repurchased by Mr. Sargeant and Edward Braseth. They are running the mill at the present time. It is a one hundred-barrel capacity mill, and is run by steam and water power combined. Our subject now owns seven hundred acres of land, bounded on two sides by the Goose and the Red rivers. He is now planning a departure to the Pacific coast to join his family and remain there for some time, and perhaps make his home there.
Our subject was married in 1879 to Miss Amanda Houghton, who went to Dakota in 1876. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sargeant, as follows: Vie, a student of music and also a teacher of music; Charles, a student of Pacific University, of Oregon; Helen, deceased; Martha; Ray, deceased, and Neal. Mr. Sargeant was elected to the territorial legislature in 1876, which met at Yankton, and he was appointed by the governor among the first county officers, as both probate judge and county treasurer. In the fall of 1886 he was elected county register of deeds and served three terms. He is one of the solid men of Traill County and is well and favorably known throughout the state of North Dakota,
Source: Compendium and History of North Dakota 1900 Page 180