The Emersons : According to Ole and Alice

Ed's Day Wednesday

Dear FOLKS,

Each Wednesday I continue to share family information that was provided by my late cousin Edwin J. Ostrom. We now focus on stories and anecdotes regarding Ed's maternal grandparents, Reinert Immanuel Emerson and his wife Dora Elisa Nelson. We have learned of the records found for Reinert that I wrote earlier as a report. You can see this report by clicking here.

In recent weeks I have shared the memories of their children that I have found in their age order. You can read:

• Ruby's story by clicking here; 
• Geneva's story by clicking here; 
• Lola's story (Part One) by clicking here
• From last week, Lola's story (Part Two) by clicking here

This week we will learn the memories of Reinert and Dora's children Ole and Alice through their telling of recollections of growing up on the prairie of Torning Township, Ward County, North Dakota.

Let's begin with the autobiography of Ole Emerson, the first of Reinert and Dora's sons to share his memories.

IMAGE: Ole Emerson of Eaglesham, Alberta, Canada as he
pumps gasoline into a combine. Image from the family
collection of Edwin J. Ostrom.

Ole Emerson’s Autobiography - written 1986

Writing this story has only been possible with the help of Twyla, and I owe gratitude to her. I thank her for her eager interest and concern to have my story recorded.

I was born June 21, 1908 in our home south of Minot, North Dakota the sixth child in a family of thirteen children. My parents were God-fearing and hardworking people. Mother’s desire was to teach us all the Word of God, and she held Sunday school right in our home.

I started public school at the age of 6, attending a one-room schoolhouse about one mile from home. This school had grades 1 to 8 with about 30 in attendance. While attending this school, Bill, Lola and I received a certificate for three years of perfect attendance and no tardiness. We always walked this distance. The school was later moved so we then had 1 ½ miles to go. Eight years of schooling were completed here. Often in the winters in North Dakota terrible blizzards occurred. Only once do I remember the teacher not allowing students to return home, so everyone stayed overnight at the school. Some of the older boys kept going for coal and stoked the fire during the night. The coal shed was only about 30 feet from the school, but the drifting snow and wind was so strong that it took two of us to carry the coal bucket. News was heard later from other areas of parents who went to the school by team and sleigh to pick up their kids never returning home. All froze to death. The drifts were so deep that the horses couldn’t get out of them.

During this blizzard one of the neighbor men, Mr. Killmer, came to the school at dusk with a 100 pound flour sack containing bread and butter. He had taken a ball of twine, tied it to his fence, held it under his arm and let it unravel until he met up with our fence. This way if he got lost he could follow the twine back to his fence home.

Following our fence took him to the schoolhouse. Shortly after he arrived, brother James, who had then finished school, also came with bread and butter for all of us. He and Mr. Killmer stayed the night. At daybreak James returned home since the bread was all gone. Mother’s prayers had been answered, as we can only imagine her concerns as she sent James into the storm not knowing if he got through or not. She was a God-fearing woman and depended much on His care for her family. More bread filled the sack and was tied onto James’ back, leaving his hands free to help fight the storm and he again found the school. Late afternoon the wind died down, and drifting almost stopped so everyone returned to their homes that evening.

Grade 8 was considered full schooling then, unless you went to Minot to attend Normal School. Normal School was only six months and this then certified one to teach school. In my grade 8 year, Bill and I spent the fall shocking (aka stooking in Canada) bundles for neighbors. I returned to school late in the fall, but with the coming of spring, because of much work at home and helping neighbors with fanning grain, plowing, etc., I quit before completing the year. That same fall Bill and I again went shocking - first our own crop and then for neighbors. This was the first year that we (Bill and I) went out thrashing on a big steam rig, which handled 12 bundle racks, 2 spikes, and engineer, a fireman, a water hauler, and a separator man. This was a total crew of 18 men. Bill and I had our own team of horses from home and our own hayrack with which we followed this rig all-round the country.

We thrashed for 31 days that fall without a breakdown. Sundays were always off. This rig was owned by August Zethren from Max, North Dakota and he had his own cook car with two cooks and tents for the crew to sleep in, which went from place to place too. I was the youngest of the crew, being 14 then. For the next six years I worked out for farmers in the area during the spring, summer and fall. Winters were spent at home. One year I worked for a dairy farmer west of Minot from early fall till early winter and got $80 a month in wages. This was big wages at the time! They had a herd of 45 milk cows and many times during harvest in the evening I milked all 45 alone by hand. This took 6 hours. Starting at 4 p.m. to get the cows from the pasture and finishing at 10 at night. Milk had to be strained and put into milk cans, then ice gotten from the ice shed washing all the sawdust off and packed around the milk cans. The milk was sold the next morning in Minot to restaurants, stores, etc.

When I was 20 years old I worked with Peder (Pete) Endresen harvesting again for neighbors. I operated the binder pulled by four horses. We again worked all fall harvesting.

After reading in the ‘The Independent’, which was the Minot newspaper, of the Settler’s Rate offered by the Railway to American Immigrants to come to Canada, Ray, Pete and I decided to avail ourselves of this half fare, and investigate as some of the Larson’s were already there. We had no intentions of homesteading ourselves - but rather as an adventure. This was in October 1928. Our ‘adventure’ became a lifetime commitment and it would be 20 years before I would return to North Dakota for a visit.

[This group of three who traveled to Canada included Ole Emerson, his brother Ray and local friend Peder ‘Pete’ Endresen. Ole’s story continues, telling of his life in the Peace River Valley area of northwestern Alberta, Canada near the hamlet of Eaglesham. The Larsons he tells of are part of another large family from Torning Township, Ward County, North Dakota who in 1926 began leaving North Dakota and settling in this same area of Canada. Those leaving for Canada between 1926 and 1928 were the adult children of Syver and Heline Larson. Names I read are George and Louis Larson, who left first, followed by their brothers Ole, Bert and Selmer.  [I will stop here the telling of Ole’s story, to remain focused on the life he shared with his parents and siblings.]

Next we'll continue with the memories of Alice Emerson Ostrom.

IMAGE: Left to right- Alice Emerson, the dog Rex and
Estelle Emerson (ca 1920). Photograph for the family
collection of Edwin J. Ostrom.

Alice Ostrom Memoirs

"This is Feb 9, 1981. I have been ‘ordered’ by my children to write my memoirs, so I shall jot them down as they come to mind." [Initially formatted by Edwin J. Ostrom with edits provided by Janice (Ostrom) Vail.]

My father - Reinert Immanuel Emerson.
First my father and our early home. We called him ‘Papa’ and I remember his always eating so heartily and telling us to put only as much food as we could eat on our plate. We could take more if we wanted but to clean our plates was a must!. To this day I will eat all even if I can scarcely swallow any more.

Our table, where we ate was a long one by the window in the kitchen area. For years my place was on the bench. We always had plenty to eat and they were the essentials for good health. We ate many raw vegetables.

Papa hauled all our coal for both the heater and cook stove in winter months. He would start in the morning hours in the sleigh when it was still dark. He looked like a Teddy Bear dressed very warm and would return after dark very tired. Mama had warm food waiting for him.

My Mother - Dora Elise Nelson.
Mother always worked so hard. We called her ‘Mama.’ She raised chickens to help with household expenses. I slept with her one spring night when she had 5 egg incubators going. I wondered if she slept at all as she was up every 10 minutes checking the egg thermometer. If too high or too low it would kill the life in the egg.

She was a godly woman and lived her Christian life very faithfully, teaching us children about God’s love and how we needed to turn our lives over to Him.

She raised huge vegetable gardens every year on the farm in ND. We had string vegetables by the bushel in the cellar. One time when I was supposed to be weeding the garden it was hot so I went in the shed where the boys slept in summer months and laid on a bed and made pictures of the clouds, mostly faces, as they floated by, until I heard, “Alice you’re to be weeding the garden.” We used to pull up a carrot and if it wasn’t large enough we would poke it back and try another one. It wasn’t long until Mama figured out what her kids were doing as she found too many dead ones.

We were a healthy happy lot.

Mama was always sewing and making over clothes for her brood. She tried to change them so they looked like new. It took so much patience when it came to fitting time.

She was so interested in education and was the only parent to visit school that I recall.

Sunday morning at 10 o’clock we younger ones and Mama gathered around the kitchen table for Sunday school lessons. I was so proud when she asked me to read scripture lessons from the Bible.

One spring or fall we children had the flu and she waited on us. When we began feeling better in the mid-afternoon we decided we were hungry for pancakes so Mama made them for us. Then after she went to all that work we couldn’t eat. We felt badly about it.

#1 Ruby.
I adored her. She was the oldest of 13 children and always away at school studying to be a teacher. When she came home she would clean up the upstairs bedroom where we had 3 beds in a very small room. But she could make it look like a palace and would sit on the bed and just enjoy the coziness.

#2 James.
Worked on a neighboring farm and came home on Saturday evenings. Ivene and Vivian watched for him. They stood on chairs on each side of door to pounce on him as he entered. Then they’d play. He was always so jovial. Mother was opening a boil on James’ face and he fainted. I said, “James died.”

#3 Geneva.
I was so proud of her. She was away at school too as she was so intelligent and used such big words. When she was home she made Estelle and I do the breakfast dishes before we went to school. I was secretly glad when she went back to school.

#4 Lola.
How she got pronto out of bed in the morning when Mama called was beyond me. She rubbed my hurting legs so patiently at night as I cried. I think she even rubbed them in her sleep. She was number one in my estimation, always so jolly and still is to this day. She and Ivene were filling the water barrel for clothes washing one day. Lola used a gallon pail and I a half gallon. I stepped on a wet board that was across the top of the open well, slipped and went headfirst into that well. Lola grabbed my feet as I was going down and pulled me out. I was soaked and frightened and went into the house crying. She was my special angel and saved my life.

Estelle and I were in the coal shed spying on Lola and Stuart in his roadster and all of a sudden we heard coal buckets being knocked over and she dashed in house yelling, “Stuart kissed Lola, Stuart kissed Lola.”

#5 Bill.
He was small but had a powerful strength and like me had a hot temper. I can still see him standing quietly and whistling.

#6 Ole.
Was of a mild even temperament. At Rice Lake, a tourist attraction just 2 ½ miles NE of home we would spend many a Sunday evening. He would buy Estelle and me each an orange. He was the greatest.

He did like to tease and I was very fascinated by Papa’s knitting. I tried knitting but I had the yarn so tight on the needle that it could scarcely move. Ole teased me. My temper flared with anger so I jabbed at him with the needle and caught him on his hand. I thought what if I got his eye?

#7 Alice.
Then me in the middle of the 13. I was always so clumsy. Estelle and I had the job on washday to do noon meal dishes and we were so sorry for ourselves. Estelle got into the sulphur in the cupboard and ate until she threw up. We had to be quiet too as our parents were napping. When we washed floors on knees she would do one half and I the other and boy we better not do the same on each other’s work. We usually ended up washing each other’s face with those dirty rags and water. But it was all in fun. We sang a lot and did many things together too numerous to mention.

I did so enjoy reading Jane Grey and Gene Stratton Porter’s books and also the Elsie Dinsmore’s series of books. When I was reading Porter’s “Laddie” it was so interesting. I thought if I’d go to the platform in end of the barn I would not hear Mama calling me to work. But sure enough, soon “Alice” was called and not mistakenly and I didn’t think of pretending not to hear.

#8 Ray.
He had such beautiful white even teeth. I was jealous as I was always having a tooth ache and having them pulled. I sure didn’t think it fair. Ray always took such good care of his belongings.

Ray trained the buck sheep to take after anything that moved. I climbed the wagon very quickly one time when the buck saw me. Another time I was gathering eggs when he saw me. I got the barn door closed just in time as he hit it so hard his head bled. What a relief when Dad got rid of that buck. Ray was a tease.

#9 Estelle aka Toots.
We had such fun together. She would laugh and tease me about my temper tantrums. She was a dear sister and we confided in each other. The day came when parting had to come and I truly missed her. She could do anything or at least try.

#10 Oliver.
Such a dear little boy while growing up. He was always singing and got along so well with us all. He was smart too-I was proud of him.

#11 Ivene.
When it was my turn to warm up the evening potatoes, I could talk Ivene into doing that job for me while Estelle and I would take turns. Ivene would make those potatoes taste so good and she was always so sweet about doing my job.

#12 and 13 the twins - Vivian & Verola.
I shall never forget the night they were born. It hailed that evening and Mama was holding a blanket over the windows to keep hail from breaking the glass. Later on Mrs. Peterson a neighbor and midwife was called. We were upstairs in the bed and Ivene was crying, so Papa came up to quiet her and said, “in morning we could see the babies.” Estelle and I looked at each other, Babies? That meant twins. We loved them so much. The only time I didn’t like them was when I had to care for them and I wanted to play.

My Special Memories.
Our parents taught us the necessity and dignity of work. Estelle and I had to scrub the kitchen chairs every Saturday. Mama insisted that we be fastidious housekeepers.

I acquired quite a scar on my lip from a fall when I was about two, (1912) The older girls put a chair at the bottom of an open stairwell and I got through to the top and somehow fell knocking out a tooth. The doctor was called. The girls went out to the haystack and prayed as calling for a doctor, in those days, surely meant death. But I lived through it, and so did they.

On my sixth birthday in 1916, Mama baked a beautiful white cake and asked Alice (Alice Viola Emerson Iverslie b. 1906) and Ethel Miller to share with us. I recall Estelle and I going to meet them and I was more interested in their gift than sharing their friendship. Possibly I was reprimanded by my parents for selfishness and had qualms about my actions for many days.

For a while it was my job to fill coal buckets from the coal shed. One time I felt like it was Ray’s turn and was crying while I filled 6 or 7 buckets. When I finished and went inside I looked in the mirror and my face was black from coal dust and the tear streams left marks on my face. I ended up laughing!

The coal shed reminds me of the time Ivene was in there spying on Lola and Stuart in his roadster. All of a sudden we heard coal buckets being knocked over and Ivene dashed into the house with “Stuart kissed Lola, Stuart kissed Lola.”

I went to high school in Berthold, North Dakota for one year and started the second year but I was so homesick I had to go home. I lived with Aunt Ida, Dad’s sister. [Ida Malene Emerson b. 1-24-1873 d. 8-15-1942]

The bench behind the table was used by Toots and me to hide apples. When Dad bought a box, we would hide them in our clothes and run upstairs and climb under the covers and eat them.

When the twins were about 7 or 8, the folks had gone somewhere. I tattled on Vivian for something and as she went outside I could hear her say “that doggone Alice.” I chuckle yet when I think about that. Verie loved tickling my neck.

When I was about 6, I recall reciting, while standing on a chair for a school program, “Roses on my shoulder, slippers on my feet, I am daddy’s little girl, don’t you think I’m sweet?”

Mama was constantly making clothes over for the next one in line, trying to change them so they would look like new. It took so much patience when it came to fitting time.

When I was 16 I helped my cousin in a cook car in Canada at threshing time. Her husband was an engineer. They had three boys. I remember always playing in the fields. One of the boys, Kenneth, loved bugs and his overall pockets would be full of them. Kenneth and Delvin set fire to a shack and it required some quick moving by the adults to put it out.

On a Sunday afternoon a young man from Douglas, also with a threshing crew, asked me to go for a ride with him and another couple. When I discovered they had beer in the car, I turned on my heel and went back to the cook car. Cousin Lillian seemed concerned why I didn’t go with them. I told her, pure and simple, “Because they had beer.”

The Bergs had many acres of land and beautiful farms. I stayed and helped for about 2 ½ months. I enjoyed it and was very fond of their boys. The cook car was also our sleeping quarters and it was always parked in the fields, moving at night. Usually the morning sun came up in just the right position to startle me awake which almost ruined my stay!

At school we used to swim and skate on the “kettle”, the lake right beside our grade school below the hill. It was called the “kettle” because of its shape. We would skate as close as possible to the opening in the ice near a muskrat pile. Once when swimming with my siblings my hand touched an animal. It was live and scary and we got away from there - fast!

Politics was a constant topic with Papa and visitors. We kids would pick up on special words about World War I. “The Kaiser” was one of these emotional words I went to bed with that gave me nightmares. One time I remember dreaming that all the children were outside. A bullet killed me. Ole very casually said, “Alice is shot.” When I woke up the next morning, I thought - little did he care! Later I wished that I would have shared this horrible fear with Mama.

One time when the folks were gone, Estelle and I were in charge of delivering a can of cream to Ryder. The truck we were driving needed to be cranked. It took both of us to do it. Somehow in our adventure to Ryder, the cream can fell over, leaving a nice clearly seen white trail. There was very little cream to deliver - to Ryder!

In the north end of the pasture during the springtime, a silver bush with yellow flowers on the branches was in full bloom. It smelled so sweet. Sweet Williams grew in the ravines. It was orange colored and so fragrant. Estelle and I picked and carried armloads of the wild flowers home. Beautiful Wild Roses grew beside the road too.

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That concludes two great stories provided by family members of Reinert and Dora Emerson. I want to thank those who made possible the stories of Ole and Alice. Your help is greatly appreciated. To my readers, thank you for stopping by; I hope you enjoyed today's post.

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