Hendricks Family Tree Project

Newsletter: Volume 6, March 2005
Author: Jim Winsness, 323 Broadwater Circle, Anderson, SC 29626
Phone: 864-261-7139 Email: winsness@charter.net
website: http://www.LRWMA.com/hendricks

The month of February found me literally buried under wonderful input from so many individuals and it will take me a while to catch up. If any of you have sent me data, and have not heard from me that I am working on it, let me know. I've tried to keep all of these inputs organized with a "to-do" list and I'm just going to have to work on them one-at-a-time. I am delighted that so many have found this project, and our website, as a benefit.

March 3rd 9 p.m.- David Winsness visits Hendricks! I was at my son's house in Atlanta GA and got a call "Dad - I'm standing in Hendricks MN!" Dave has been working with Ethanol companies in MN, SD, and Iowa to process a by-product of ethanol production. On this trip, he was close enough to Hendricks to drive through. I tried calling Gail Kvernmo and Trygve Trooien but neither were at home. Dave went to a store and asked about Gail and they said she would be at church at Singsaas and gave him directions. But he got there too late - they were gone. On the way back he remembered my directions to Gail's and he actually found her house, and spent a delightful hour with her. I think now he understands what I say when I tell him it's not the dead people you identify that is the reward, it's meeting such nice living people who help in the hunt! But I want to thank Dave for going out of his way to see what I've talked to him so much about - even if he only had that hour! He's one great guy! I also think it is great that his work might bring some economic benefit to people of MN - his grandmother was raised in Bemidji! And I want to thank Gail for her hospitality so late that evening!

Knutson and Aune families Well, last month I asked "where have all the Knutsons gone?" I got a lot of replies that Gail Kvernmo would be the expert there so we found that her mother Hattie had written down the family lineage back in 2002! Gail sent that to Lorenchia and Lorenchia sent it on to me and the fun began. First, I also worked on the Kvernmo line and have that lineage back into the 1600's. Then I worked on the information of Hattie and that quickly tied into lines where we already had significant numbers of ancestors in Norway also. Thanks Hattie for your work - it was exactly what we needed! But late one Saturday night, I called Gail Kvernmo and said I had a huge surprise. Both Gail and Glen (her husband for any of you that might not know ) had a common ancestor. Per Persen Vinsnes, born 1639 is the 6th great grandfather of Glen Kvernmo, and he was also the 7th great grandfather of Gail Aune! Glen was the 7th cousin one time removed of Gail. It was sweet that Gail's response was that it was incredible that descendants of Per had moved half way around the world and 300 years later Gail and Glen married - Gail added, "it was meant to be."

Additions to the website for February were 11 items

I will describe them here with some additional information for those not on the Internet


23 Feb 2005 - added page for Marit Bjorgen - Gold Medal Finisher in Cross Country Skiing
Marit Bjørgen is from Rognes in Storen. We are proud of the anchor skier that won the gold medal with her team February 2005. Marit is related to just about everyone that came to Hendricks from the Singsaas and Storen area. I believe that by the time the competition ended, Marit received medals in 5 of the 6 competitions she entered and is known as Norway's best skier. Two of the medals were gold.
She overtook a Russian rival on the last uphill and into the stadium. "I just really wanted to get right up behind her back, and when I managed that, I just had to stay there," Bjørgen exulted, calling the victory "a wonderful feeling."

21 Feb 2005 - added the Hendricks Pioneer article about the Hendricks Family Tree!
The article described how the project got started, and where we were at this time with finding the descendants and ancestors of the early settlers. If any of you want a copy, it can easily be obtained on the website so I'll not put it here. But the response was great and it led to the many additions to the website for the month!

21 Feb 2005 - added photos to the Knutson page The photo of Jon and Guri Knutson, and another of the family including Gerhard and Kari were added - great photos

21 Feb 2005 - added Aune to list of families and added photos
Photos on the page of the Jon Aune Family, The John Aune / Gerhard Aune Farm, The Aune's visiting their neighbor the Ole Reitans, and the obituary for John Aune dated April 22, 1927

21 Feb 2005 - added Resfeth house photo in "Photos"
The photo is of the Ole and Anna Refseth house and contains people of the Aune, Udseth, and Knutson families and most of them are identified in the photo!

16 Feb 2005 - added "I remember when...." by Emma Winsness dated July 5, 1973
On July 5, 1973, the Pioneer had an article written by Emma Winsness that I was sent and I put that article in the webpage.

"I am a daughter of Nels and Ingeborg Winsness. We were five girls and two boys in our family. My father came from Singsaas, Norway, in 1869, and my mother came in 1879. They were married June 1, 1992.

My father came together with eleven canvas hooded wagons from Alameekee County, Iowa, starting May 15, 1873. They had a flock of 30 head of cattle with them. On July 14, they reached the shore of Lake Hendricks, stopping on the spot where the town of Hendricks is located today. In the fall my father went to work in the lumber camp at Spring Water, east of St. Paul, Minn. He returned to Hendricks the following spring. He was a charter member of the Singsaas Lutheran congregation, which was organized Oct. 26, 1874.

My father walked to Lynd, Minn. to get the mail. Lather, on Feb. 21, 1876, a post office was established at Prairie Farm, where Hans Digre lived. This farm is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Olson of Huron , S.D. The name "Prairie Farm" is still on the barn. My father helped plow a furrow to Medary from Lake Hendricks, which served as a road.
My father also went to Toronto for groceries and other staples and sometimes he had a long list of things to bring back, even children's hats.

I remember when I was young I helped some of the neighbors take care of their children, when the mothers helped outside. The first place I stayed was at the Sven Overlie home, about one or two weeks, and helped take care of Joseph, while his mother helped outside. I was then 8 or 9 years old. She fixed up a play house for us near the barn. I received a quarter when I went home and I felt that I was rich. I worked at the John Wahl home when Joseph was small and was there when they moved their house to the present location (where Harvey Wahl now lives), from it's former location farther south. I also helped Mrs Lars Larson when they moved their house from the John Rue place to the valley south of Pernie Kjelden's home. On the way they stopped and cooked coffee at the Ellef Reppe home before going down the hill.

I also remember L. A. Larson, grandfather of Larry Larson, who had a country store northwest of Hendricks, not so far from the Glen Kvernmo home, before the town was started.

I am living on the farm where my father homesteaded. My sister, Mrs. John Lunde (Anna) of Astoria, and I are the only ones left in our family. I thank God for all he has done for me all these years.

16 Feb 2005 - Funeral Service and Obituary for Harriet Sandro The beautiful service for Harriet was added to the website. As always, I wish I had been given the opportunity to meet these people and to listen to their stories.

16 Feb 2005 - Obituary and eulogy for Dorothy Sandro
The eulogy written by Steve Hemmingsen, "800-Pounds Of Strength In An 80-Pound Body" tells so much about the character of this woman. After adding this to the website, I was contacted by Orlan and I added a few people to his family tree and connected him to several lines. Orlan descended also from Per Persen Vinsnes, born 1639, so he's a cousin to me, Gail Kvernmo, Ron Lunde, Paul Grande, Trygve Trooien, Lorenchia Scott, and so many others! I know that he enjoyed the information I sent him showing his family tree going back to the 1500's! I only wish Dorothy had seen the chart!

10 Feb 2005 - Meet the Key Contributors that are helping in this project - new page added! It would be wrong for you to think that I generate the information for the project as I simply combine the results of the efforts of many. So I added a page showing photos of those who are doing so much for all of us. The page shows my wife Bev who got the idea for the project, it has a photo of me, and it then has photos and tells of others as follows:

Torill Johnsen: Torill lives in Oslo and has strong connections to Storen where so many of the settlers lived. She found our website and has been incredible in providing information on those from Storen. In her words: "My mothers mother was born in Støren and had a twin sister who lived there her entire life. The two sisters were close and my grandmother went to Støren often. Before I started school, I always went with her and later I spent my holiday there. I still have contact with the older generation at Støren."

Annbjorg and Jakob Winsnes are pictured above in their home in Singsaas Norway - Storstuu Winsnes. They allowed me to stay in their home in 2001 for 3 weeks while I helped work on the reconstruction of an old building that is now used by foster children. Annbjorg spent an incredible amount of time working on my genealogy while I was there adding to the data I had received before from Dag Einar Winsnes.

Linda Schwartz: Linda found our site in 2003 (I think). She lives in Michigan and has an incredible site "Sor-Trondelag to America" and she and her friends have filled in so many gaps in my research. Look at her site under the "links to other great websites" link on the left. She said: The photo is me with my new bichon frise puppy last summer. Her name is Bibelot's Sparkling Chablis. Chablis is descended from parents Belle Creek's Latest News and Belle Creek's Secret Admirer and grandparents Ch Special Times Just Right! [JR] and Belle Creek's Tessa Noel / Belle Creek's Moon Beam and Belle Creek's Silly Sally. Grandfather JR was the Best of Show at Westminster in 2001. I can apply genealogy anywhere. ;-)

Per Moen: Per lives in Haltdallen and sings in the Haltdallen Manskor where I met him at a practice in 2001. He has been very helpful with connections that had lines from the Haltdallen area.

Dag Einar Winsnes - actually, Dag is the one who started my Norwegian genealogy search when he answered a query about my grandfather Jens Winsness. Dag descended from Oline Winsnes, sister-in-law to my Jens and he had accumulated the whole ancestry for my line and shared it with me. Dag lives in Sandnes Norway, near Stavanger, and works with the mentally handicapped people there. Look at his site under "Links to other great websites" on the left.

Personal Note: Dag stopped all he was doing to give us lineage on the wonderful Sandro women that died when I explained to him that I would like tell their descendants how they tied to the families in Norway. He, and all these people have provided everything I have on the Norwegian lineage of the Hendricks settlers and without them, we would never succeed!

08 Feb 2005 - "Last Remaining Couple of the Old Pioneers in the town of Hendricks - Trovald and Gunhild Mathison.
Last Remaining Couple of the Old Pioneers in the town of Hendricks (Compiled Nov. 1999 by Janet Digre with much appreciation to The Hendricks Pioneer, Clifford Digre, Pearl Johnson, Clara Johnson, Bonnie Blue, and the late Carrie Digre and Gyda Pederson for information and previously recorded material.)
Torvald and Gunhild Mathison were married in Aalen, Norway, June 16, 1866. On May 2, 1867 they came to the United States. According to Gyda Mathison, Gunhild said they came with Torvald's brother, Anders, and their first born, Mathias. Mathias had his first birthday on the ship voyage. Gunhild got very sea sick and was in bed most of the trip. It took weeks to cross the ocean and the only food they had was what they brought in their food chest: flat bread and dried meat. They could cook coffee in the ship's kitchen, if they had some. The ship was full of hungry, poor, lice infested immigrants. There was a little child that died and the parents tried to hide it so they could keep it with them and bury it in America. The child was found and had to be buried at sea. Like everyone else, they landed at Ellis Island in New York Harbor. Their first sight of America was the Statue of Liberty. They arrived at Lansing, Iowa, June 27th and located at Waterloo Ridge and later Locust Lane. At first, Torvald got a job working for the railroad.

After thirteen years residence in Iowa, they cam to Lincoln County, MN in the fall of 1880. Torvald and Mathias drove their covered wagon and set off to meet Gunhild and the children who were coming by train. On the train trip to Minnesota, one of the children, two year old Kari, died of diphtheria and had to be buried along their route near Elkton, South Dakota in a shallow grave because the ground was already frozen. However, in the Spring, after the family was settled, her body was brought here and was buried in a small cemetery near what was the Arnold Eggen farm north of Hendricks.

Gunhild found a man from Hendricks driving a team of horses who was on his way home. He offered to take her and the children with him. He gave them a ride to Per Knutson's place and from there walked with the children to her brother's place. The first few nights in this area, Torvald and Gunhild spent at the John Knutson home (now the Glen Kvernmo home). From there they went to the Knute Nelson's home, Gunhild's brother's farm east and south of Hendricks. Knute had a two or three room sod house. There were 10 people all together there that winter. Knute had harvested wheat and been to Canby to grind it into flour. They had flour and milk from two cows to live on for the whole winter. Torvald, Gunhild, and four children stayed there the remaining winter months, waiting for their sod house to be finished. It was there, locating on a homestead in Hendricks Township in the spring of 1881, where they remained all their life.

Their sod house was located 4 miles east and 1 1/4 miles south of what is now the town of Hendricks. It was in this sod home that Theodor Gustav and Kary Anna (Mrs. P. O. Digre) were born joining three other brothers and one sister, a family of eight living in a little sod house. Carrie Digre remembered that the sod house was so small that when her mother scrubbed the wooden floor, she had to sit the children on the deep window sills. In 1891 or 1892 a new wooden house was built, one of the first frame houses in the area.

When the train came to Hendricks, the tracks were laid very close to Torvald and Gunhild's farm. Gunhild fed and boarded some of the crew working on the railroad. Their son Carl and one of Gunhild's cousins from Arlington, SD, worked on the railroad for several days. The first train came through on Carrie's Confirmation day, June 24, 1900.

Carrie Digre told of a time in Iowa when one of the older children was born and her father, Torvald, was very sick. "So Mother got out of bed, waded out into the snow that was waist deep, went out into the trees and chopped down a large branch. She dragged it back into the house for firewood. Mother got very sick from this, and lost all of her hair from a high fever. It all grew back eventually."

Carrie also remembered that her father hauled his grain to White, SC. He seemed to get the best price for it there. The family did most of their trading and shopping in Canby though because they had more stores and shops. Hendricks did not have any stores at all.

Gyda Pederson said that Torvald and Gunhild spoke mostly Norwegian, but picked up a lot of the English language. She remembered a story Gunhild had told her about one time when she was alone with the children on the farm. "It was a cold day. She and the children were all in the house. She heard some noise outside and looked to see three or four Indians coming toward the house. She was afraid for her life and for her children. The Indians opened the door and walked right in. They spoke to her but she understood nothing. They made motions for what they wanted; coffee and tobacco. Grandma Gunhild smoked a pipe now and then so she had some tobacco to give them. She also gladly gave them all her coffee. They were not satisfied at first and searched for more. After they had taken all they wanted, they left peacefully."

Excerpts from Theodor Gustav's diary dating from Jan 1, 1900 to June 27, 1900 give insights into the life the family lived and the building of the railroad through Hendricks. Theodor was born January 29, 1882, and died Dec. 31, 1901. He died at nearly 20 years of age from poison instead of medicine given by mistake by the doctor. He was born with a physical affliction. Some say he was a "hunch back" - "pukkelryg" in Norwegian.

In other excerpts not included, one can see that there was much back and forth between neighbors and family. Tasks such as butchering, building, quilting, wall papering, haying and other more time consuming and difficult jobs were made lighter by many hands. The school house was also the house of worship. Carrie Digre stated, "Our family had been going to church at the small school house north of town. Our minister was Rev. Solonstein, and he would come from Toronto in a cart drawn by two horses. He would tell us that one horse was a Democrat and one was a Republican, because one was so slow and one was fast. Rev. Solenstein was always interested in politics. At the end of each of his services he would say "Aa moder vi eggen I 'Skole Huset' ned Buseth", which means, "Then we will meet again in the school near Buseths". The farm just north of the school house was the Buseth farm.

Torvald was the son of Mathias and Dordi or Dorthea (Reitan) Kulbotten. He was born in Norway June 6, 1844. Gunhild was also a native of Norway, a daughter of Nils Olsen Stover and Kari (Knutsdatter Heggvold) Stover. She was born Jan. 3, 1845. Torvald died Jan. 26, 1924 and Gunhild died on Feb. 11th, 1924. To this union were born seven children, five of whom were living at the time of their parents death. They were Mathias (Martin), Nils (Nels), Carl, Mrs. Ole J. (Dorthea) Eggen, and Mrs. P. O. [Carrie (Kari) Anna] Digre. All of these children located on farms close to the old homestead with the exception of Mrs. Digre who lived in Hendricks. Mr. Torvald Mathison left a sister, Mrs. John P. Moe of Arlington, SD and Mrs. Mathison left a brother, Knud Nelson of Hendricks to mourn them. They had 31 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Mr. Knud Nelson and Mrs. John P. Moe were present at their wedding in Norway in 1866, at their Golden Wedding in 1916, and at their funerals in 1924.

The obituary in the Feb. 22, 1924 issue of the Pioneer stated "A resume of the forty-four years of Torvald and Gunhild Mathison's life spent here would make interesting reading. It would tell of the simple life of these people, the hardships they endured, the privation which they accepted as a necessity in the struggle, and the courageous battle which they waged for a better period. Only could Mr. and Mrs. Mathison and the pioneers who struggled with them do justice to the incidents of those years. Rev. Christensen who conducted the memorial services for this grand old couple, paid a glowing tribute to their worth as citizens and their faith as Christians".

In the issue prior to this, Feb. 15, 1924, it stated, "Mrs. Gunhild Mathison passed away at her home Monday evening. The funeral occurred Thursday afternoon. Rev. O. L. Chistensen officiating, at the home and at the Lutheran Church near the late home of the deceased. Mrs. Mathison survived her husband but a few days. They were the last couple of the first settlers in this part of the country, and had their honorable part in developing this finely developed country from the raw and wild state...."


Hilsen

Jim