Uncle Louie's youngest daughter Mabel on her pony by their new house
Each new family that moved in or anybody that did not have the homemade everlasting yeast was given a starter. The recipe was: one cake yeast foam, 14 cups warm water, 14 sugar or honey, one tablespoon salt, 14 cups boiling water. Cook two medium potatoes, mash potatoes and save the potable water, add the mashed potatoes and mix like puree, add salt, sugar or honey and let this cool to lukewarm. Then add yeast which has been soaked in lukewarm water till dissolved, add this to the potato mixture for next time or for a friend, then add the rest of the yeast mixture to the potato water with shortening, add flour to mix a stiff dough - knead hard. My mother used this yeast for years, when she baked bread for her family.
For fuel in the summer they gathered the dry cow chips and twisted dry hay to burn for a quick fire, but had to get wood for winter from the timberland, which was not too far away.
On her homestead, they made a limekiln in the hill west of her house above the lake. Dad and the others picked limestone off the land and hauled them to the limekiln. The limekiln was a large hole dug in the hillside and filled the hole half-full of dry oak wood. Then the limestone was piled on top of the wood, and then more wood piled on top of the limestone and all around. Then sod and dirt was put on top of the wood again, then they started the fire and it would take seventy-two hours to burn out a limekiln. Then it was uncovered. The burnt stone, still hot, was placed into a mortar box or barrel, poured water over the lime, and then it became quick lime. It could be very dangerous. lf they were not careful when they added the water, it could explode, and one time it did and blinded a young man. Lime was sold for plaster and to make bricks for chimneys. They used pig hair in it too, to make it stick together. The lime was sold for seventy cents a bushel.
They also picked all the dry buffalo bones on the prairie and shipped them east to use in making sugar. They got two dollars a ton for the bones.
Uncle Louis
was born in Hellum, Denmark, on April 1 1857. He came to America with his mother, sister and two brothers in 1871. He stayed home with mother for some time, then went to Bismarck. He met Caroline Larson who had come from Warmland (probably Varmland), Sweden, in 1882.
They were married in Bismarck on August 7 1885. Louie and his wife ran a boarding house in Bismarck for some time, then they homesteaded a quarter section of land at Painted Woods near Wilton, North Dakota, and later bought land till he had a section. They moved to the homestead in 1886. They slept under a wagon box tipped upside down for shelter, till they built a granary to live in while he was building a two-room stone house. Then later he built a large frame house.
There were nine children born to this union: Edward, Mrs. Ellen Johnson, Mrs. Balch, Frank, Chris, Fred, Anna Rishel, and Mabel. There is only one living, Ellen Johnson of Wilton, North Dakota.
Edward was married and had three children, residence unknown.
Ellen was married to Henry Johnson. They had a farm at Wilton, North Dakota. Ellen had five children: Marie, Seattle, Washington, Caroline, who lives in Casper, Wyoming; and three sons Donald, Norman, and Bobbie, all are farmers in North Dakota.
Emma Balch was crippled from arthritis, but had three sons, Michael F. Balch, born December 29 1919, who lives in Casper, Wyoming.
In his later years he married his childhood sweetheart, Sofie. He had never married before, she had married and had four children: Margaret, Chester, Herbert, and Alaska, who lives in Oakland California. Chris died on his birthday, September 4 1947, at the age of 8l years. Sofie ls still living at the age of 97 years.
Uncle Nels Kristensen and Aunt Sena had two children, Johanna Marie Christensen, born May 18 1872, Harry Johnson's mother. She married Jasper Johnson in 1888 and had nine children: Christ, Harry, Lawrence, Theo, Ethel, Anna, Boyd, and Beatrice, and one child died in childhood.
Lawrence Johnson married Flavia Nobel, they have no children.
Theo married John Belfy, there are two sons: Duane and Dennis. Duane married Betty, they have no children. Dennis never married
Ethel Johnson married Lee Candee. They have two children: Janet and Roger. Ethel died when Roger was born. June Allen was born June * 19**. Lee remarried later after the children were older. Janet married Robert Wilder, three children were born to this union: Robert, born September ** 19**; Janet Le Mae, born July ** 19**; children: Joann Marie, August ** 19**; Marcia Kristine, October ** 19**; Amy Louise, May ** 19**. Roger Allen Candee lives in Fontanelle, Iowa. He married Donna Mae Hinkel on November * 19**. They had three children: Connie Jo, Feb. * 19**; Kevin Leroy, March * 19**; and Kent Allen, October * 19**.
Nels Kristensen died in 1914 from being gored by a mad bull. He was born in Denmark in 1846 and he was 68 years old when he died. Sena died November 1927, at the age of 74 years.
At the age of 24 years, Nels my Dad, became a citizen on the 24th day of May 1886, from the King of Denmark to the U.S.A. Nels went to Thirteen Towns, which I think is now called Foston, Minnesota, homesteaded land in 1887, and built some buildings on the land. I don't know how long he lived there. He sold the homestead and came back to Richwood. Chris lived with their mother until she passed away. After the funeral was over, Chris went to live with his sister Sena. Nels bought eighty acres in District 4 in March 1891 for the sum of six hundred dollars, just north of his mother's homestead. There was a small house, barn and granary on his eighty. Nels bought his first team of horses, Dan and Kate, which were his pride and joy. He sure loved his horses.
Dad was bashful in his younger years. He wanted to have lady friends but seems he had a hard time finding them, as there were not too many his age in Richwood Township. He had a Scandinavian newspaper sent to his place. The name of the paper was "The Decorah Posten", published in
Decorah, Iowa
by Annie Knudtson's husband's cousin,
Brynild Anundsen.
In this newspaper they had a column for men and women looking for husbands and wives. One day he found this ad where a lady was looking for a husband for herself and children. He could read real good, but writing was something else, so he asked a neighbor to write this lady. So the letter was mailed. In a short time he received a letter from her from Granite Falls, Minnesota.
They wrote back and forth a few times. She wanted to know what he had to offer her in marriage. It was decided she was to come to Richwood to meet the man who wanted to marry her.
She came to Richwood in the early winter. She told him that her husband had left her with four children to support, the oldest was born deaf and dumb so he was in
Faribault Hospital. Grandmother Strand took Palmer and wanted to raise him, so she had Annie and Rudy with her. Grandmother Strand kept Annie and Rudy when she came to Richwood to see Nels. It seemed they liked each other very well, agreed to get married and to take Annie and Rudy also.
Catheren, Mary, and Lena Iverson went to his house to meet her and liked her also very much. She was full of fun and they had a very enjoyable time, laughing and joking, everybody was in such good spirits. After she went back to Granite Falls, everybody laughed and said that was the last he would see of her. She went back and sold all the things she could not bring back with her. She came back with the children, baggage and all, in December 1899. On January 1 1900, they were married. When she came to marry Dad, she had the sum of four hundred dollars from her sales in Granite Falls. They talked it over and decided to pay off some of his debts to save the eight and ten percent interest he was paying. She thought they should buy milk cows and some chickens, so cows they bought. They both worked very hard to make a good home for themselves and children. (They say a woman can make or break a man).
Annie and Rudy started school in District 15, across the road from A. P. Bryngelson's farm, where Ulrich now lives. They walked almost six miles, morning and night to school. My mother washed clothes on the rubbing board, baked bread, and scrubbed the floors on hands and knees all in one day, besides cooking and helping milk the cows and feed the calves. Mom could really go through a lot of work in one day.
She raised a large garden east of the house. We had plenty of vegetables in the summer, but in the winter we had only carrots, cabbage, and onions. In those days they did not can food like we do now. The house we were all born in burned down in the 1930's, so a new house was built. But I can remember yet today, how that living room looked. Mom had papered it with wall paper and it had big red roses all over the walls, a drop leaf table with a plush velvet dark tan table cloth with fringes, puppies and kittens all over the center, and a begonia plant in the center of the table and a kerosene lamp ready to light when it became dark. Back in those days, when the evening chores and dishes were done, in the winter the evenings were long. There were no radios or television to watch. We played cards and checkers and read the
Decorah Posten.
Mother carded and spun wool and knitted stockings for the whole family. They were dyed black. She also knitted mittens for all of us.
Mom sewed all our dresses and made overcoats for the girls and patched overalls and underwear for the men and boys. We girls wore long-legged underwear with these home knit black stockings. They didn't look so nice, but were nice and warm and the snow just stuck to the outside. We very seldom got wet and just swept off the snow when we came inside.
Mom bought raw wool from those that had sheep. She would card a box full of neat little rolls about one and a half inches thick, 12 inches long, then she sat down to the spinning wheel and started to spin. When it went through, it came out in a one-strand thread. To make it heavier, she would twist three or four strands together, and then she had a four-ply yarn. Most of the time they never washed it until it was made into stockings or mittens or scarves. After it was washed, they would dye the articles made.
In 1904 the Soo Line Railroad came from St. Paul through to Winnipeg. Callaway also came on to the map in 1905. The town grew fast. It had churches, stores, a bank and a school.
Then my folks bought cream cans and hauled the cream to Callaway and shipped to Alexandria, Minnesota by rail, about ninety miles away, to a large creamery. Then, by return mail, they got their cream checks, and cans returned. This was easier than churning all this cream into butter. This helped put them on their feet. Things were much better from then on. I don't know just how many cows they had at that time, but I remember they had eight or ten cows at one time.
In 1906, Annie and Rudy went to school in School District 15. One day a mad dog bit Rudy and at that time there was no treatment for hydrophobia (rabies) here, so the doctor sent Rudy to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dad took Rudy there and had to leave him there for a week, which cost Dad a large sum of money ($200). Dad came home and Rudy came home by himself. All Dad's friends gave him a purse of money to help pay for the trip to the doctor, but much more was needed before Rudy came home well again.
Ed Bryngelson bought Uncle Christian's farm and when Ed and Lena Iverson were married, they moved in. Dad and Mom moved back to his own farm. They had moved to Uncle Chris' farm for a while to be close to the main road, as they lived about a mile in on the cart road, and Dad was doing some work on his house.
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