The Emersons : Mama Tells Her Story

Ed's Day Wednesday

DearFOLKS,

On Wednesdays, I continue to share the stories and family research provided by my late cousin, Edwin J. Ostrom (1944-2015). Last week I introduced you to the records found for Dora Elisa Nilson Emerson who was born in 1877 in Meeker County, Minnesota to Norwegian born parents. Here is a link to that article. Dora would marry Reinert Immanuel Emerson and then homestead with him in the Torning Township, Ward County, North Dakota.  Here they would farm and raise their family that grew to include thirteen children. Because of  the drought and the effects of the Depression, in the late 1930s they would decide to give up farming and retire in Seattle, Washington. Dora would remain in her newly adopted city until her death in 1965.

In 1959, Dora would begin to tell her story with her daughter Vivian Emerson Cowe. Vivian was a frequent visitor at her parent's home in Seattle and during one of these visits she suggested that Dora tell her story with Vivian taking notes. These conversations would go on over a long period of time and then Vivian typed these notes into her mother's story. The story was completed in November of that year.

Since you haven't yet been introduced to the people who were a part of Dora's young life, I will leave the beginning of her story for later when the story of her parents is told. Today's portion of Dora's story tells of her adult life.

Dora Elisa Nilson's Memoirs

by her daughter, Vivian Emerson Crowe

written in 1959

[Note that Dora names her husband Reinert as "Dad" throughout this story. That phenomenon may come from the many years of referring to him while talking with their children.]

     In March of 1898, the news came that tickets for the West Coast could be bought for $10. Mother urged me to go to see my sister Nellie. So on March 19, 1898, I boarded the train for Seattle. I left at Paynesville [Minnesota] then into Moose Jaw, Sask. [Saskatchewan]. I changed trains there and came into the United States through Mission Junction [British Columbia]. I was sick most of the time. I sat on the seat facing the back instead of the front of the train. I had not notified my sister that I was coming; I got to Seattle in the middle of the night. I found lodgings near the depot.

     The next morning there was snow on the ground. This surprised me as I thought I had come away from the snow into a part of the country that never saw snow! I boarded a streetcar for Fremont where Nellie was living. When I arrived there, I found they had moved to a lodging house where the Denny Regrade area is now. I took the streetcar back and asked a policeman to help me locate the correct address. Nellie and her husband were most surprised to see me. I stayed and helped with the chamber work.

     In the meantime, I had received a number of letters from Reinert. He explained in one letter that if he had known that I was going to stay so long he would not have let me go! The $10 ticket was extended in July so Nellie felt she should take advantage of it.  She prepared to go back with me. She took Palmer and Grace with her. She stayed a few weeks and returned to Seattle.

     Shortly after my return home, Reinert and I were married. We were married in Litchfield, Meeker County by the Justice of the Peace. Our witnesses were Reinert’s cousin, E. Christopher Benson and sister Lena. We were married in the daytime. We drove horse and buggy twenty miles.

     I had bought a washing machine for five or six dollars to give to my mother but she would not use it. When I established a home of my own, she gave it back to me.

IMAGE: "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt created
by Dora Elisa Emerson. It is made of small fabric hexagons,
pieced by hand with a method called "English Paper Piecing."
Made by Dora at an unknown date, given to daughter
Alice Emerson Ostrom and is now with Alice's daughter
who is also named Dora.

IMAGE: Close-up of Dora Elisa Emerson's quilt, showing the
one-inch pieces and the small stitches where she used both red
and white threads. Images from the digital photo collection
 of Edwin J. Ostrom.

     Reinert hired to work for his brother-in-law, Paul Olson and Ida, his sister. We both worked for them during the first summer of our marriage. In the fall, my half-sister Mary died. Her husband, Hogen Johnson, wanted us to come to live there so I could keep house for him. The next spring, Ole, Reinert’s oldest brother wanted us to come and work for him. He had built two additional bedrooms to his house so we lived in them that summer and winter. Ruby was born there. We had bought 80 acres adjoining Ole’s land. Here we had a very comfortable house built. We moved into this new home the 26th day of June, the day before James was born. Geneva and Lola also were born here.

     It seemed to rain constantly. The cattle had to swim in mud to get to the pasture. Dad got so disgusted we planned to go to Canada where some neighbors had migrated. Dad and Peter Jacobson went and filed on land and built a shack. They stayed one winter. It was all timber; they felt it did not look too promising so they gave it up. It was during this winter that Mother passed away in February 1904.

     In 1906 Dad went with some neighbors, Olaf Langseth, Peter K. Peterson and Christian Hansen to Minot, North Dakota to look for homestead property. All the good land was taken, so he bought a relinquishment for $1,300 which we had to prove up by living there for five years and making improvements. Mr. Verney was the original owner. He was married to a sister of Gilbert Jacobson’s wife. These people were neighbors for many years.

     Dad went back to Minnesota, got an immigrant car-load of stock and farm equipment.  On the return trip to Dakota, he had to go on the immigrant car to take care of the stock.  We had to leave much of our furniture because there was no room to take it. I had a large table that I insisted taking along but other things were of more importance so my table was left behind. Dad had to build a table, which we outgrew in a short time. One year I attended a sale and bought myself a large table bringing it home on a stone boat pulled by a horse.

     Christian Hanson, his wife and two little boys and his wife’s sister came in the same train-car as I, Ruby, James, Geneva and Lola who was 15 months old. The train was so crowded it was very difficult to handle four sleeping children. I had to awaken Christian and ask him to help me with James as the two ladies had each a child to care for. When we arrived at the station in Minot, I very nearly lost James. He ran across the street and stood against a house. I had to keep close watch on him. I bought some candy, which Ruby immediately treated to everyone in the station.

     We started for the homestead in April 1906. The road was not muddy as it had been in Minnesota but dried hard as flint! When we arrived at the house the people had not moved out! There were seventeen of us in that house that first night. The men nailed steps on the two by fours so they could get to the upstairs. There they slept while we women and children made a bed as long as the room and slept on the floor. There were a few nails for hanging children’s clothing but by the time I had made my preparations for retiring and tended to the children, the nails were out of sight! It was quite a scramble to get breakfast the next morning.

     Christian Hansen helped Peter K. Peterson build on his homestead. In a week or so they moved. That spring Dad sided the house and called it the ‘Beauty of North Dakota.’

     There were a few acres of fields on our place. Dad soon had it seeded and I planted a garden. We had a cow, two horses, bought two more from the former owner. The well was shallow and soon went dry so Dad dug more wells by sloughs but not too productive for any length of time. I would hitch up one of the horses to a stone boat with a barrel on and haul water from different sloughs.

     One summer everything went dry. Dad had to haul water in two barrels in the wagon from Rice Lake three miles away. The cattle were so thirsty he would have to turn back and go for more. I had to use it too for the clothes wash. I almost cried when I hung the clothes on the line as the water was alkaline and the clothes would be stiff.

     We had some men drill for water with no success. In the spring Oliver was born, Mr. Hillesland came with a rig and reached water at a depth of 101 feet. This well could not be emptied and it is a good well to this day.

     The summer before the well was dug, we built a sixty-foot long barn with lean-to sheds and we bought another quarter of land for pasture and several years we rented additional land for hay and pasture. We raised horses and sold many of them. I raised chickens and turkeys. We shipped the turkeys in the fall to the big cities, also chickens, however, chickens were needed for the eggs that we sold for purchasing groceries. I also made much of the clothing. I bought yardage to sew for seven and ten cents a yard. One year during the First World War, I sold eggs for 30¢ a dozen. I cleared $75 and then I gave James some money for a badly needed bicycle. He rode home from Minot on it after dark. He was about fourteen years of age.

     I always raised a large garden if it would rain in sufficient amounts for it to grow. We had good soil but plenty of rocks. We planted trees but many dry years came and a few would die. Prairie fires were always a hazard. I always kept an old pair of overalls to fight fires. They were kept in the granary.

    The family grew as the years went by. One evening a few men from Ryder came to see Dad about some business. When they stopped the car, the children ran one by one out of the house. The men asked Dad how many children he had. Dad had to stop and count!

IMAGE: Two-foot diameter chenille rug made by
Dora Elisa Emerson (ca. unknown). Dora, who made
several of these used a metal attachment on her
sewing machine that was designed to do this technique.
She would frequently dye fabric into the desired colors.
In 2006 this rug is located at granddaughter Jean's
home. Photo from the digital collection of Edwin J. Ostrom.

     During the time Ryder and Douglas were being built and the railroad was not finished, the people would drive from Minot to those towns. The road was a quarter mile from our house to the East. Several times the horses would tire. Travelers would come and ask to stay overnight. We always would take them in. On one occasion two men came and said if they could stay overnight and get their horses under cover they would sit up in the barn till morning. Dad squeezed the horses between the cows and brought the men in the house. We made a floor bed for them. Many times the snow was deep and thirty-five miles was too far for teams of horses to go without rest and nourishment.

     Insufficient rain most every year kept us with the rest of the farmers from prospering. Many moved away and neighbors used many of their buildings for firewood.

     A schoolhouse was built in 1907. Ruby started school that year. A bachelor, Ed Shirley, was the schoolmaster. Geneva wanted to go to school when she was four. She would sit in the stairwell and cry. One-day Ruby took her with permission from the teacher. They had a play in which there was a wedding. They wanted her to be the bride but she pouted and cried. She left the schoolhouse and went to a neighbor’s home. That finished school!

     It was a snowy day in March 1919. James had to stay home to help grind feed. It continued snowing heavy till noon. The wind was blowing so badly I had to leave the oven door open while baking bread. The stove was red hot from the intense wind. When James had finished grinding food at noon, the weather was much worse. The snow had drifted badly and the fence posts were entirely covered. We knew the children couldn’t get home from school. I took a clean pillowcase and filled it with the fresh bread I had baked and wrapped some butter and a knife to have James take to the schoolhouse for all the children. We knew they would have to stay the night. I cleaned a lantern and filled it with kerosene. All landmarks were covered but he kept the wind to his side. This helped him to maintain a straight line and guided him till he saw the lights of the school.

     Ruby liked school and loved to read. In due time she became a teacher herself. She taught at a neighboring school and later went to Ft. Ransom to teach where she met and married her husband. James, William and Ole did not go to higher learning but Geneva went to high school in Minot. It was a great day for us at her graduation! Lola had no high school aspirations nor did Alice, Ray or Estelle. Oliver went two years to Berthold High School. Ivene went three years and then was married. The twins went one year in Minot and completed their high school years in Seattle.

     The latter part of August 1936 we had a sale. We sold almost all of our possessions with the exception of personal things and bits of furniture. We rented the farm to our daughter Alice and her husband Tom. In Bill’s car we drove to Seattle - Dad, Bill, the twins and me. We arrived in Seattle on September 12 and the twins started school immediately. We stayed with Geneva and her husband for four months and then bought half of an acre. Oliver, who had preceded us to the coast, and Bill, cleared the land. The first part of November, they started on the basement. Bill went back to North Dakota. With all the trees in Seattle he felt hemmed in and went back to the wide-open spaces.

     It wasn’t long before Martin, Dad and Oliver started on the house and by January, it was completed enough for us to move in. Times were tough and work was scarce but as the men found work it was applied to the completion of the house.

     We have never been sorry we made the move to the coast. We have been happy among our good neighbors and to have several of the children living close by. We also have the opportunity to go to church and to attend yearly those wonderful Camp Meetings, which are such an inspiration. So it has been heaven-on-earth living here in Seattle.

[story ends]

It was fun to learn of the type of handiwork that Dora learned to do. Being able to sew, knit, etc. was a necessity for her to provide for her family. I enjoyed coming across the photos that were included here.

Once again we are at the end of this week's article. I want to thank Cousin Ed and his family for helping to bring these stories to us.  It is so entertaining to learn of homesteading in rural North Dakota and this week it was a story as told by the lady of the house. I hope you enjoyed this post and that you have a good week. See you next time and thank you for stopping by.

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