The Project

By Kathryn Elizabeth Swanson (born 12/24/1912 in Minot, ND)

Daughter of Elsie Elizabeth Smith

(who was daughter of John Amos Smith and Sarah Bogenrief-Smith)

I, Kathryn the procastinator, being of her usual unorthodox state of mind, do hereby start a project that was to have been done as soon as she retired in 1975.

Everyone has to start somewhere and so I designate this as page 1 of the facts and fallacies I have picked up about the Swanson-Smith and Huddleson-Kemper backgrounds of my off-springs. At this point, it is obvious that I will never get the point that I will get this thing organized or even edited. My only aim is to get this stuff down on paper, other than my envelopes, folders, and drawers full of miscellaneous and repetitious attempts of the past 30 years of doing "my thing". Then if anybody decides to seriously dig for their ROOTS, I shall not be blamed for losing an important link. Actually the reason I haven't taken this too seriously is that although this is interesting, I secretly agree or at least lean to a quote that the Readers Digest came up with very opportunely this month, "I don't know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know who his grandson will be." --Abe Lincoln.

Aunt Jess' granddaughter was working on this about 20 years ago. Faith Fletcher is into it deeply right now. Laurie Swanson is another buff. In 1958 Clyde Hall valiantly tried to stir up interest.

Not everyone interprets my warped sense of humor the same and so I'll try to remember to label my 'opinion' as such. Some of them just may give a far-fetched clue such as; In my reading of historical novels one was based on actual names of Revolutionary soldiers and Amos Cooper was one. Couldn't the Smiths by chance have been proud of that and used those names? Clyde challenged the story of Ornery John Cooper curing his wife of cancer but because he was mad at his daughter, he let her die. Clyde said they had no cancer cure in those days. He's so right. However, I had heard that story from both Mom and Aunt Jess and it just added to the characterization of him as an ornery old coot. They told that in his travels to China as a sea captain he picked up lots of knowledge of cures and passed them on to John Amos. Mom told of her Dad holding her between his knees and forcing salt water up her nose as a cure, or at least a treatment for catarrh. That same treatment showed up in the 30s as a cheap form of the then popular nosedrops. It wasn't long before the doctors proclaimed it a no-no because of the damage it did to the tissues. I'm sure Mom would have gladly had a doctor stop her Dad's ministrations because it's a painful treatment. Incidently, was Mom the source of your kids (and yours) allergies? Remember how I learned to head off her colds with your copyronal?

It was only lately that I discovered that Edith had a picture of Bethia Rann. The picture of her that you will get dramatizes Dale's reproductions of old pictures. The original is small, faded, and blah. On the copy she becomes a person with details of her dress coming out.

If I lean to favoring the Smith side first, that's my prerogative. I visited the Fergus Falls museum in 1978. They have a lot of pre-1870 material, but there seems to be a gap until about 1833 but I did find in the short time I browsed that Billy W. Smith (William Youlen) was the first teacher in Fergus, 1871. Charles W. Smith was a policeman, 1885.

Also in the museum is a replica of "Smith's Book and Toy Store". Never heard Mom mention a store of that type, but William and Charles could have been involved.

Bethia Rann Smith was John Cooper Smith's wife. I haven't a single anecdote about her, but she in on picture 1. She and John C. Were married June 15, 1831 at New York City by Rev. Henry Chase with witnesses William S. Johnson and Mary C. Francisco. John was a sea captain whose crew jumped ship at San Francisco during the 1849 gold rush. John "rushed" too. He brought out enough washed gold to buy a farm at Marengo, IL. He died 12/30/1885 and was buried at Monticello, MN. This is a quote from Clyde's Astonisher of March, 1958. Clyde had mentioned before that he was to get a look at an old Bible and he must have because he listed him as John Cooper and before that he had said John Calhoun and I was positive he was mistaken. (John Cooper was a policeman in New York. Kathryn was told this several times by her Mother, Elsie Smith-Swanson.)

John Cooper Smith, as told by Jess Smith Hall:

"I don't really know why, but Dad was getting ready to go on a trip. (Could it have been when Bethia died?) I remember Mamma saying, "Whatever you do John, don't bring Grandpa home with you". When he came home, he had John Cooper in the wagon with him and he said, "What could I do, Sarah? No one else would take him."

He had a room to himself. When his little income would arrive, he would come to the door and say, "Now Jissy, do something for the old man. Take this money and go get the old man some oysters and don't tell anyone. I don't remember if he shared, but I doubt it. I seemed to be his pet though. Once when he got his money he bought me an organ and when I learned to play, thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Day giving me free lessons, he would say, "Come on, Jissy, play a tune for the old man."

Aunt Jess would work real hard to learn a new piece and then to her disgust, Elsie would sit down and play it by ear with no lessons. She envied her sister Elsie's talent, but then Elsie always envied her her music lessons!

John C (as told by Elise Smith Swanson):

He must have left investments in California because every so often he would get some money from there. Once it was delayed and the "old man" was worried. He prayed to the Lord for help and promised that if the money came he would give a part of it to charity. It came and then he said that charity began at home so he bought vegetables to fill the cellar. No doubt he was insuring himself a full stomach, but as there were 11 mouths to feed, he may have had a point, especially as Dad was never a very good provider. He was always fussy and wouldn't let us kids peel the potatoes because we wasted too much. He would sit there peeling the thinnest little peels possible. Of course Jess and I were delighted to get out of doing it.

Aunt Edith Smith Heustis told the same story. I wonder if he had a delicate enough touch to leave the minerals and vitamins? In case you kids don't know it, potatoes were always peeled before boiling until the depression years and at first this was looked at askance, but the drought produced such little ones that it was a necessity and most of us soon found that we liked the skin. And we were learning about minerals and vitamins.

Sarah Catherine Bogenrief Smith

Sarah was 18 when her sister Kate was to go as a bride with Sam Dimon to Minnesota. Sarah's mother Elizabeth Bliler couldn't bear to have her daughter amongst the savages with no woman along, so she sent Sarah along. Sarah spoke no english. As she came down from the loft to do some kitchen chores, John Amos Smith saw her and when she went back up the ladder, he said, "That's the girl I'm going to marry." As she spoke nothing but the Pennsylvania Dutch, how could she say no.

Almost forgot...Louise Jevne ran into this nougat for me in her geneological research: Joseph Rann - 1752 to 1800. Private from Vermont. Married Olive Howe Ashley. There, you DAR hopefuls, dig into that!

Someone once told a Smith that he had facial characteristics of the Mohawk Indians and from that grew the legend of our Indian blood. Then someone claimed it was a Mohawk princess. So I always claimed it for shock purposes, but last summer I picked up a good one. Alma Smith raised Carrie Smith's daughter Florence (Floss) and Floss' daughter Jess told me that Alma had told Floss that she was part Indian. As Alma was one of the oldest in the family, she just may have gotten it from her folks while the younger ones just got hints. So was it Bethia or was John Cooper's father fooling around? Bethia's picture would take a lot of imagination to see Indian blood. I'm curious about her, but too lazy to follow it up. It's more fun to think it was on the other side with the men following Capt. John Smith's attraction to Pocohantas' genes.

A hodgepodge of anecdotes...mostly those told by Elsie when she was in the mood and I had sense enough to take notes. If I take time to put them in order, they will never get done so here goes. Many of them are repetitious and I can only hope I can catch those.

Elsie was very proud of her musical ear. John Amos was told by a traveling entertainer that he should be his quartet on the road. That was Jess, Elsie, LaMonte, and Charlie. Their 4 part harmony was entirely by ear.

Elsie and Jess had a very close relationship, being 2 years apart, with Jess and her petite build and Elsie tall for her age. They were, from their own accounts, more like hoydenish twins. The 'old Doc' told them once that if they didn't quit eating everything they found, he would hang them by the thumbs but it never deterred them from wandering in the swamp and tasting. Another time he said, "You tell your mother to make you some hats (Grandma was a milliner) and you wear them. You look like Indians. Charlie and Monte spent a lot of time with the Chippewa Indians, much to their Dad's disgust. The guys were responsible for herding cattle near what is now Detroit Lakes, but they were prone to take the hoydens with them and sneak off, leaving the girls in charge until Grandpa investigated and then the girls had to stay home. Both Mom and Aunt Jess told me this and remembered it more as a punishment to them! Does this sound like your regal dignified Grandmother? One of her former pupils told me that she was the most graceful skater that he ever saw. How come she produced so many klutzy spastics as far as athletics!!?

Grandma Sarah died in 1887 leaving Jess 17 and Elsie 15 to keep house for Charlie, Monte, Grandpa and Art (10). Jess left after 2 years of high school to teach -- she told me that it was to get some clothes for their backs -- and one of her anecdotes was:

"I was told to go see Mr.--- as he did all the teacher hiring and when I did, he told me to see the other board members. I said, "I was told you did the hiring, so what is it you don't like about me?" (Remember Sarah was only 5'2".) He said, "Well I'm tired of these 18 year old girls trying to teach these 17 year old boys -- it always makes trouble." I removed my hat and showed by streak of gray hair and said, "I'm 21." She got the job.

The Detroit School was a 2 story with the high school upstairs. Oldest sister finished high school about 1875. (Doesn't make sense--would make Carrie only 14, but that was in my notes). Slates were used. Alma excelled in Latin. They advanced readerwise. When they went to Fergus Falls in 1885--Mom was 13--they no longer used slates and they were tested to place them in grades. An arrogant teacher gave her her exam and she didn't pass but.......(missing few words her)...good thing because she went ahead with good marks. (She was always proud of her schooling, but later on I asked her why she was 21 before she finished high school and she just didn't know. She wasn't put back, as such; she didn't remember missing school during a move or her mother's death. She told of Jess as being way ahead tho' only 2 years older. In High School cousin Ivy, cousin Bess, and Elsie seemed to be a solid threesome. Ivy was spoken of as a quick study and went on to be a nurse and on further to be a doctor. She married a Dr. Titzell. They had 5 children. I have pictures of them. This marriage ended in a divorce. (Boy! Was Ivy ahead of her day!!) Maybe there are some of this family in Chicago yet. Ivy was also a linguist. She read it--talked it. One member of Mom's graduating class, a boy smarter than a whip, was 16 or 17 when he graduated. Mom started high school at 17 (so...what went on at Detroit to give her such a late start? She certainly had no reading problems. I have one of her report cards--I hope--on which she got a 65 1/2 --- yes 1/2 -- in something, but that was passing. (I passed several of my state's exams with 65s and 70s and never felt disgraced. There was nothing unusual for kids to take the state's exams over for one or two years, if they hadn't dropped out by then. So what else is new? At least the high school teachers didn't have to spoon feed them for 4 years and then let them go out with a blank diploma. Oh yes we had high school graduates then that couldn't spell, couldn't figger, couldn't write a legible hand (example--me), and murdered the King's english. While teaching my last years, I noticed often that the parents that yelled, "You don't teach phonics" or "You need to go back to the basics", were the ones that were quite capable of sending misspelled, unpunctuated, uncapitalized, ungrammatical notes. Down, Huddleson, Down off your soapbox!)

Elsie though she was 6 or 7 and was reading in the first or second reader. She remembered that any girl that had a pretty bottle as a water holder for slate cleaner was envied by all. The boys didn't care. Spit and a shirt sleeve sufficed. She also remembered her most embarrassing moment -- when she read Belle as belly and the class laughed at her. McGuffy Readers were the readers.

Stout character Elsie had her nerves too. She often told of finishing a summer term of teaching and being thin and having a pain in her tummy. She went to visit Jess and while there she spotted a chunk of Milk of Magnesia on the shelf. She chewed off a piece and got immediate relief from her pain, so she would nibble on it often after that until voila! No more problem. (She also didn't go back to that school.) She had first noticed the pain on Memorial Day when she had gone most of the day without eating and then filled up on hot bread!!!

In the late 1930s arthritis started plaguing her so she would take a few drops of wintergreen oil on a teaspoon of sugar and her aches would go. I used it too and thought it helped, but the drug store attendants were aghast when I told them what I wanted it for. Said it was a poison -- I'd have to have a prescription. Dr. Breslich said it was an old remedy of the Greeks but we had better things now. Hum! Cortisone, aspirin, Darvon?? With their side effects??

You kids all probably know the story of Gram and "Hot Hands Ole". He was at the height of his popularity as a healer of all when we moved to Minot in 1944 and as he lived and worked in our block, Mom swore me to secrecy and went to see if he could help her. (Secrecy to Edith, that is). She came back and was very quiet, but finally burst out, "Everyone says you feel something as soon as he puts his hands on you. All I felt was disgust!"

Back to her teaching days.

She had them change the position of the stove in her primary room - 4 grades - because the kids were having too much fun behind it. Early blackboards were lampblack mixed with plaster. When you erased it, the black flew and you were as black as a nigger (her word, not mine) by night. Then they got to covering it with liquid black. Not all country schools had maps.

Her first school was in a Finnish community. The kids brought what looked like raw fish to eat every day. She said it may have been processed.

Water supply - 1/2 mile down the road. Pulled up by bucket form open well. Birds thick, lying around the canopy. Stove - rural school - big round barrel like affair, flat on top, middle of room towards the back. Patrons hauled in wood. She was brought burned over wood by a would-be-but rejected-suitor, so she'd get her 'lily white hands' dirty.

Not many books - no shelves needed. Brought books from home. You used what they brought. Punishment - kept after school - mothers approved. Only once she grabbed a switch off a tree in the yard and lambasted a big lout, but always regretted it because 'there must have been a better way'. (With her regal queenlike posture, that boded no good, I doubt if discipline was a problem.)

She remembered her daily program as something like this: Reading, Arithmetic, Spelling in A.M. Geography, Writing-Spencerian Copybooks--History, Physiology in P.M.

Games: Button Button. Songs they sang: "It wasn't too long after the civil war, you know"; "Marching through Georgia"; "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, The boys Are Marching"; "Awake, Awake, Ye Dreamers: Billy Boy, Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me; Up on the House Top; Jingle Bells; Whippo'will. (Kathryn asks: So how come we were singing the same songs in the 1920s after the World War?)

In their Smith Quartet, it was mostly Negro spirituals and Irish songs, such as: Myself and Barney Casey; Went on a Bit of a Spree. Those were the days of minstrels and vaudeville.

Teaching years:

3 months at Long Lake, 5 months at Butler, 3 months at Long Lake again. These were short terms in the fall and spring. In 1893 she went to New York Mills where she taught 3 years. That's where she met Dad who had a meat shop there.

Entertainment: Spelldowns --- great! Elsie Dinsmore books available at the Methodist library. Ralph Conners books --- quote from Herb Hall (Aunt Jess' husband), "My children can read Conners books any time!" Dime Novels. Said Mom, "They were good clean, war and spy stories -- too clean I guess". John Amos caught them reading this 'trash' under the counter in his store and a long lecture ensued.

The folks homesteaded 2 miles north of Gavin Yards in 1901. They moved to Minot in 1905 where they build a new home, but Dad was dabbling in real estate and they made 2 or 3 moves after this before they moved to 1 mile North of Riga where Dad controlled many quarters of hay and pasture land through keeping up delinquent taxes, renting by managing land for out-of-state owners and getting some of it free for his own use. On paper he owned about 3 quarters, but I'm sure he never made full payments and lost the property about 1927, as did so many. It was the way of life. I can visualize at least 7 other quarters and some odd 40s that I criss-crossed many times with the hay rake and mower from the age of 12 on. In 1926 Dad bought the elevator at Riga and bought grain to ship. He lost heavily on that but made good money on sweet clover seed, but the banks caught him in 1925 and he never fully recovered financially from that and had nothing to fall back on in 1929. He was not alone. He was always dabbling in politics and did practical veterinary work. It wasn't until the epidemic of encephalitis in the 30s that he was convinced of the true value of vaccination. He opposed smallpox vaccination for us kids even though diphtheria vaccine had saved all but Clarabelle in 1904 and Aunt Ede almost died of it when she insisted that Mom and Dad and the kids use the vaccine then when they didn't have enough to go around. He really was a whiz with sick horses and cows, but nobody who was educated to the fact that an animal can't be marked before birth (smarty me) could convince him that it was so. Anyway, by 1936 he was struggling to make a living by milking cows, trucking livestock, pasturing a few stock from the Surrey territory--plain hard manual labor. He had spent the years before that on the go, leaving the boys to milk cows, haul hay, etc. Milking shorthorns - Dad's prize registered cow never gave enough milk to her calf. Nor were any of her heifers milk producers.

Back to Mom:

One day when she was in her 80s and I was home for lunch, she started to recite a poem she had learned in school. It wouldn't come and she scared me half to death because she struggled so and it seemed so urgent that she get it out. I finally got her side-tracked but when I got home, she was ready for me and I copied it down. Here it is. A version of it popped up in the Reader's Digest Yellow Songbook. I like heres best.

A fox came forth one still clear night

and prayed for the moon to give him light,

For he'd a long journey to take that night

Before he'd reach his den-o.

First he came to the farmer's yard;

The duck and the geese were all alarmed.

Said he, "I'll have one of you this night

Before I reach my den-o.

So he took the old duck by the neck

Gave her a heave across his back;

And the old black duck cried, "Quack! Quack! Quack!

As her legs came dangling down-o.

Old Mother Squibble Squabble hopped out of bed;

Out of the window she popped her head,

"Run, John, run, the goose is dead!

And the fox is through the town-o.

Cousin John ran to the top of the hill.

He blew his horn both loud and shrill.

The fox ran down to the old gray mill,

And he hear the sound of the hound-o.

At last he came to the fox's den;

There sat the young ones, nine or ten.

The fox and his wife they ate the meat

And the young ones picked the bones-o.

*****

Training and materials for teaching: Visited a school at Battle Lake 1/2 day to observe. The teacher used the vowels with the consonants: s-s-s-snake. Didn't teach the alphabet as such. (Kathryn says: We get the impression from old stories that the alphabet was the first thing they taught but I wasn't taught it at school. We started with a picture of a cat saying f-f-f-f and the stimulating !!!!The sentences underneath were: I have a fan. A fan I have. Yet I well remember Keith complaining about 1937 that Larry wasn't being taught the alphabet!!! I'll warrant that he had his formal first grade teaching confused with our pre-school.

Back to Mom's experience:

Big schools - 2 or 3 minutes for each lesson. (Kathryn says: Now I go back to Eva Covell telling me about her classes about 1919 and telling about her 5 minute classes. By the 30s, when I started with our magazines, course of study, teachers institutes, monthly directives from the County Superintendent, we were bombarded with the "correlation of grades" such as teaching certain aspects of geography, history, language, on alternate years or combining 2 or 3 grades in language activities and even daring to put a slow 6th reader with a fast 5th reader!!! As I've always said -- there wasn't much progress form Mom's day to the 30s and then along came Leila Ewen to pull the good ideas together and teach them to teachers. At least in North Dakota.)

Tests - written tests aimed at passing state tests in upper grades.

Training - summer schools at Fergus Falls -- 4 weeks.

Materials - Some commercial charts with pictures and printing.

Type of students. A lot of Finns with no english vocabulary. One knew 'fence' and she built on that. Another little not quite 5 year old went to the board and quickly wrote 1,2,3,4,5 and that was her starting point.

Now to Youlen's notes:

Homestead days. Built 8x10 shack. 1/2 on Dad's claim and 1/2 on Aunt Ede's. Built a sod barn. (Picture) A.V. filed on homestead 1901. Oscar and family came to their claim one mile west when the A.V.s and Aunt Ede and kids came. (Kathryn says: Edward Swanson was with his dad, Uncle Ed, when he came out that summer to prove up on a claim next to Oscar's. - That was a surprise to me. - They just stayed long enough to establish their claim and sell. Had no intention of living there.) (Aunt Ede and kids lived there long enough to establish, 'prove up' on hers and then moved to Minot where she built a house on Valley Street and put all 3 kids through high supporting herself with dressmaking and nursing. Dad used his political pull to get her the job as matron of the County Hospital before it was taken over and renamed St. Joe by the Catholics. Avis was born in Minnesota. Afton and Clarabelle on Homestead, Edith, Keith and Kathryn in Minot. They lived on Valley Street Belyea (3rd Street) Main Street and in Red House (close to Valker's old Green House, now parkway trailer park).

More of my (Kathryn's) notes:

Dad (A.V. Swanson) was County Commissioner. That's where he got his clout for Aunt's job. Many tales fascinated us about Drs. Devine, Kermott, Erenfeld, Ringo Pence, and Newlove (our doctor and her favorite). She didn't like Erenfeld because she though his skin grafting was cruel -- experimenting, she called it. I think he was Austrian trained and probably a bit ahead of hit time in techniques. She nursed many of the doctor's wives through their confinements. Nursing at that time meant taking over the management of the whole house in many instances. She also took care of many families during the 1918 flue epidemic. Ida Van Fleet remembers that she was with them for months.

So I may as well tell more about "Aunt" at this time. After leaving Minnesota to come out here to homestead, the folks lost track of much that was going on within their families. Dad was a better correspondent than Mom, but his was usually a birthday letter and not always every year. Until Aunt Ede got sick in the early 30's, we had little touch with Aunt Jess. In 1930 the three sisters did get together at Aunt Alma's and later on, the four were at our house (about 1932). They had the two bedrooms and it was really something to listen to the four snoring--- a real quartet with 4 distinct levels of sound. But again I digress---Aunt was "aunt" for years because she was the only one we met until about 1925. She was the middle child. Alma and Carrie would say, "Let's see who can dress first and take care of the babies." She always won and said she was so dumb that she never caught on! That left them free to be the "ladies" and go to the milliner shop with their mother. However, she was the nurse of the family and probably enjoyed her role. Alma had a suitor, Frank Heustis, and in Edith's make believe games, she always spoke of her husband as Frank H. She had the least education of all the girls, but she was an avid reader and all of the Smith's had good grammar and vocabulary. She had two long spells of illness as a child and later diagnosed one as a burst appendix which drained itself off through the bowel. Dr. Newlove heard her telling his wife that and said, "Very good, Mrs. H. You are probably right." Another spell left her with aching knees and as she said, it was probably inflammatory rheumatism. Anyway, she was plagued all her life with a bad heart. She did marry Frank Heustis and was widowed young when he was struck by an engine while working on the railroad. She supported her kids by sewing and nursing. She homesteaded with the folks. While on the homestead, Dad had to go to St. Paul. They were low on coal so he told Ralph (17) and LaMonte (15) to go to Burlington to get some. As soon as he left, the air changed and Aunt was weatherwise enough to sense danger and wouldn't let them go (14 miles) and had them haul in as much flax straw as possible. A blizzard struck in the afternoon and they twisted and burned straw for its 3 day duration. On the 3rd day, Ralph insisted on going to see to the stock, so with the aid of a clothesline, they made it to the barn. During their struggle, there and back, Mom and Aunt would take turns going to the door and "Yoo-hooing" as a guide to them. The air was so breathtaking that they had to take turns. They survived and their story is nothing unusual for the time, but Mom always had a horror of blizzards and rightly so. When the Anderson kids started home from our school in 1919, Mom walked the floor in empathy with Mrs. Anderson, knowing the agony she was going through. Their buggy had tipped over just a few rods from the school and the kids had a fence to follow back to Herbranson's close to the school. I was only 7, but I was well aware of our danger going only a little over a half mile across the field to our home. The horses wouldn't face the storm and Dad had to fight them every inch of the way. Now you know why mother worried about me on cloudy days when I struck off for McKinley 2 blocks away. With her dim eyesight, it spelled danger to her baby.

In 1904 Diphtheria struck Clarabelle, the 2nd child. Dad went for Aunt and they came out of Minot with enough vaccine for everyone but one. Aunt Ede insisted that the others get it as she could get more back in Minot. The delay was almost fatal, for she contracted it and almost died. Clarabelle died. Aunt told me that Mother always blamed herself but why was never clear to me. Anyway, it was a closed subject and never discussed until many, many years later.

When Ralph's marriage broke up, he was left with Armine.......and Duane...Aunt Ede went to Devils Lake to live with Ralph and raise the boys until her death from breast cancer in 1934. She used to visit us at least once a year and often twice or more when she was in Minot to "sew us up". We 3 girls good dresses were mostly cleverly made-overs and we wore them with pride because she was a real stylist. Dad had gotten a bargain on 2 bolts of flowered light material some time before I can remember, but I do know that I made up the last of the blue for summer school in 1931. It had been sitting around during the more affluent middle 20s. The main drawback was that though it made up into beautiful dresses, you had to stay clean! It faded fast and by the 4th washing, you had a white dress. And no deodorants!!! We washed a lot!!!!

Other things I remember about Aunt's visits. She had a great love of mushrooms and, if they were around, she'd find them and also gathered wild greens. Also we always demanded noodles and she always obliged. She would never stay too long. That was the first I was introduced to the phrase "wearing out your welcome'. She was so right because though she herself never did, Armin could never stay on his good behavior more than a week at a time and we were exposed to one of his nasty temper tantrums and we were glad to see him go and then could hardly wait until their next visit.

She was a giving person and a natural born psychologist. She understood people. She, like Elsie, was a proud woman and like to associate with the better class.

Now for Aunt Jess. She had all of Ede's understanding and warmth, but there was no discriminating for her. Mom and Aunt E. Would say in dismay, "Why Jess will talk to anybody". (How often Mom would say to me later on, "You talk too much and don't care to whom".) Well if I can have as nice things said about me now and after I've gone as she, I will be well content. Besides that to paraphrase, "Talkers have more fun. Aunt Jess lived a full life until 84. Aunt Ede was an old woman at 60 - lived to 69. Aunt Carrie died when Floss was born. Aunt Alma, I have the impression, enjoyed ill health most of her life (74). Uncle Charlie died in his 80s (85) at a health spa of an apparent heart attack. Uncle Monte was in his late 80s (84) and was another lively one. Mom was a few days short of 96 and she never had time to get old. She was too busy looking after us!!! All of them were mentally alert until the end or at least until near it. I'm positive that the only reason that Mom disoriented was because her mind couldn't accept the indignities of her failing body. With a permanent and a new dress, she'd perk right up. I never saw her slump in her wheel chair until the night before she died and she got sick while I was feeding her. That's how I knew she was sick, tho' the nurse wouldn't believe me.

Remember at 80 when she said, "I go up these steps like an old woman?" and how she took care of you 3 youngest while you were getting over the mumps and had Alma and me to care for while we were both sick with them, plus all the dishes, washing, cooking, etc? She was 77 or 78 then.

Uncle Art was 5 years younger than Mom (Elsie). Although she quite often told about the Uncles C & L, she never said much about Art. Dad (Albert V. Swanson) must have known Grandfather Amos because he said once that Afton was just like him---always blowing and not knowing what he was talking about. But I also remember Mom saying that Grandpa always objected to all the kids' marriages and would have probably said she was marrying a green Swede SO - it must have been about 1896 before the folks came to ND in the Turtle, MT area and homesteaded. They (Albert and Elsie) soon moved on from there to Simpson, MT on the Canadian border - 40 miles from Havre - where they lived a few years before Uncle Monte (LaMonte Lacy Smith) moved on to Seattle where he was a policeman until retirement. He told me that while in Montana he had ridden horseback to Havre for the doctor for Aunt Jennie's (Marie Eugenia (Jennie) Baril-Smith) multiple confinements. More than once she had three in diapers. Maybe he didn't like those rides! Aunt Jennie had 17 children, the youngest, Josie, was married just before I visited there in 1936. Uncle Art? married to a Helen and they had 5 children. He was married again and by 1936 he had dropped from sight and I haven't heard anyone refer to him or his kids. Aunt Jennie didn't like his second wife, but she was saddened to lose contact with the kids. Uncle Monte and wife Nell had 2 boys, Kenneth and Laurence. Just last week I got a letter from Ellen Mae that Laurence died this summer. I never met him but had corresponded at Xmas. I met Kenneth on my first trip in 1936. He took care of his green cousin and put me on the train for Portland where Uncle M. And Aunt N. were living with Laurence and family, so I met his family but L. was out of town.

My impression of John Amos from Mom was he was a bullheaded mon-provider who couldn't hold a job because he couldn't take orders. From Aunt Jess I got an entirely different picture. He was the nurse of the family, taught them the songs, did the washing and most of the cooking, and was too friendly to his customers creditwise so he was fired. Sarah was the breadwinner as a dressmaker and milliner. She was devastated with migraines. She associated with only the best people. In spite of her headaches, she did have 8 children! She died of cancer of the throat at 50. As I said, John Amos thought no one was good enough for his girls. He bitterly opposed Jess's choice. He faithfully kept the Sabbath. Once Alma, Carrie and Grandmother decided to lay a rug on Sunday, trying to do it secretly, but when John Amos got an inkling of what they were doing behind that locked door, there was a real uproar.

Forgot another homestead story. Little Elsie Heustis was sent on her pony to get the cattle and was caught in a prairie fire. Dad was plowing and saw the fire and her danger and dashed with plow and team to her rescue. Mom (Elsie Smith-Swanson) and Aunt Ede saw that Elsie was off her pony and they saw her surrounded by smoke - but the smoke also hid the sight of Dad racing with his horses and plow to snatch Elsie up and out of danger.

Also the Yoo-hoos they used in the blizzard were quite a thing. The men had to be quite far away that they couldn't hear the call to meals. Now you know where I got my foghorn. Also we never owned an alarm clock. Mother had one built inside her and I never knew it to fail. Mom was not one for meeting the public. Entertaining was work. No spontaneous coffee parties for her. Visiting and being visited was the time to put the best foot forward. As Dad liked company, she was often made extra work to put a big meal on the table. As so many pioneer women did, she tried to keep up the niceties. A table cloth was always used even though dinner had to wait until she ironed one. The table was set 3 meals a day. The only informal snacking was bread or crackers and milk at bedtime. She guarded our reading habits. In the 1920s the popularly exchanged Xmas gifts were western books: Zane Grey, McRaine, Jackson Gregory, etc. She didn't think I should read them because they were love stories. As I was starved for reading, I would promise to quit reading them when I came to 'that part', but boy could I skim fast!! She tried to guide us to Alger, etc., but the supply was limited. We had the Alcott and Gene Stratton Porter books and they were literally read to pieces. Tess and Tess of the Storm Country were the Catcher of the Rye's of those days, but she read them-and so did I when I was supposed to be cleaning upstairs. But we were taught a form of discrimination in reading and were able to judge the true stories and movie mags as the trash they were then. She loved movies and TV. What would she think of the stuff that's put out now!!!

A little space for Dad. He was the organizer. Got our first mail route out from Denbigh and later a daily one from Granville. Had the only telephone in the area for years. Was Precinct Committee Commissioner in Ward County in homestead days. Worked hard for Gov. Shaffer's campaign with a strong motive, but he was passed over for the Game Warden job he had been promised. Was offered a new Ford in the 1930s to campaign for Frazier, but refused it because he didn't like the cut of the jibe of 'that crowd'. Handy in carpentry and blacksmithing. Understood good farming but was apt to specialize in non-paying enterprises such as Plymouth Rock Chickens, Purebred Turkeys, Milking.......

John Cooper Smith came from Maine. Died 12/30/1885, Monticello, MN. Wife Bethia Rann. Children:

1. John Amos 1831 - NY, NY died 1901, Simpson, MT.

Wife: Sarah Catherine Bogenreif 1837, PA: Died 1887 Fergus Fall, MN from Parkinson disease and heart failure.

Children:

Charles Augustus 4/29/1859 Morengo, IL. Died 1944 Havre, MT

Wife: (Jennie) Eugenia Barrel

Children: LaMonte W., Guy, George, Irving, Amy, Iva, Fred, Allen R., Don, Glen P., Eunice, Sarah, Elva, Alice, Josaphine, Jerome

Carrie 5/1861 in Monticello, MN died 8/18/1881 after Floss's birth Mar. 9, 1881 in Detroit Lakes. Husband: Walter Wheeler. Daughter: Florence (Floss) who married Clyde Miller. 2 children: Jess (Smithlin) and Henry.

Alma Jane - born 5/10/1863 in Clearwater, MN - died 6/24/1937 in Virginia, MN.

Husband: Clarence Farwell. One child: Mildred Gish who married Mr. McDonald.

Alma also raised Florence (Floss) Wheeler.

Edith Youlen - born March 24, 1865. Died 9/4/1934 of cancer in Devils Lake, MN.

Husband: Frank Heustis. Children: LaMonte, Ralph, Elsie

LaMonte - born 8/22/1867 in Clearwater - died 1951

Wife: Nell Maube died 1951. Children: Laurence (died 1980) and Kenneth

Jessie Maud - born 7/13/1869 in Clearwater - died 6/23/1953 of obstruction - no operation. Husband: Herbert Hall. Children: Clyde, Alma, Ruth, Warren (Parker), Margaret, Elsie Elizabeth (2 skin cancers removed - died pneumonia)

Husband: A.V. Swanson - cancer

Children: Avis, Clarabelle, Afton, Edith, Keith, Kathryn

Arthur 1877 -? Wife: Helen. 5 children. 2nd wife: Jolene

2. Charles Weslie - wife: Laura.

Children: Will, Lottie, Bess, Roy Sylvester (LeRoy), Lucille (Babe).

Lottie and twins visited in Minot around 1910.

3. William Youlen (not the Youlen of the ring story)

4. Augusta (Gussie) - husband: Oraage King

5. Rand

6. Louise (Louie)

7. Frank

8. Marcia

Some time I hope to go on to the other descendants and get this to the present time, but I have no time now to check pictures, etc. Uncle Charlie's family will take a year at least!!!

This seems to be a good place to tuck the story of the Youlen ring. There was an Uncle with the surname Youlen and he and wife had no children so when they heard that John Amos and Sarah were having another baby, they sent a gold nugget for the newcomer if they would name it Youlen. The baby was a girl, so she was named Edith Youlen and the nougat was made into a ring. She passed it on to her daughter Elsie Sarah but as Elsie had no children, she gave it to Avis Youlen and the ring is being passed to Youlen Barkus Colling; on to her Leslie Youlen Levingood who has in Adrianne Youlen age 6, 1979. After going through all these notes I have come to the conclusion that the original Youlen must have been a brother-in law of John Cooper or Bethia. Could it have been a '49ner crony of John Cooper?

Aunt Gus (John Amos' sister-in-law) had a story that the Smiths were cheated out of what is known as Trinity property ...............one of the blowing Smiths, ............

Samuel Bogenreif: Penn. Dutch blacksmith

Wife: Elizabeth Bliler (or Bloler) - also Penn. Dutch

Children: Kate - husband Sam Demon - carpenter. It was this couple that brought Sarah C. Bogenreif to Minnesota.

Ella - husband Charles or George Vorse (I have a picture of their daughter Lois Vorse McDonald).

Matilda (Tillie) - husband: George Mungor. These people visited when Elsie was small. Brought Elsie a set of doll dishes.

Daniel

Samuel

John---This was the one-eyed character that showed up at Churches Ferry. He had a wife Sarah. I quote Aunt Jess, "Sarah was such a sweet woman but when he visited one other time, he had another woman with him!"

Elida (Liddie or Lizzie)

Two other boys - one or more of these Bogenreif boys were professional gamblers. I wonder why Gram. Sarah had such a yen to associate with the 'better' class?

Sarah Catherine - died of cancer of throat

husband: John Amos Smith.

Some Bogenreifs at Grand Rapids, Minnesota were tracing their tree too.

---------

Andrew Swanson - 1/22/1829 Skone, Sweden. Died Afton, MN, possibly cancer.

Wife: Hannah Nelson 7/14/1831 Sweden, died 1898 Stillwater, MN, possibly cancer.

Children: baby boy born at sea prematurely, lived 6 weeks. Must have been a tough character to survive that long.

Elsie: died if diphtheria at age 2 ½.

Clara - 1863 Stillwater. Died about 1900. Husband: Gene Keene

Children: Vera and Orlo --- think they live in Canada. Gene married 'Aunt Mame". We always called their Helen, Annette and Bill cousins. Lived at Valley City, ND.

Edward - 1865 Stillwater. Died 1928 Stillwater - cancer of throat.

Wife: Harriet Cover (Puss)

Children: Edward W. Married Sarah

Ruth H. Married Archie Nelson

Randall W. Married Corinne

Emma - 1867 Stillwater - died 1937 Watford City, ND. Married 1884 to husband Ezra Folstrom. One child: Loretta (Rettie).

2nd husband: Frank Barrett. Children: Frances (Blossom), Precious, Myrtle.

Annie Josephine - 1869 Stillwater, MN - died in 1960s in Wadena, MN.

Husband: George Gaslin. Children: Hudson, Vera (married Arvidson), Milton

Albert Victor - 1871 Stillwater, MN - died 1941 Granville, ND.

Wife: Elise Swanson Smith

Oscar Laurence - 1872 Stillwater, MN - died 1928 Metiskow, Alberta of appendicitis.

Wife: Mildred Pendergrast

children: Laurence Andrew (Tom), Marjory, Vida, Mervin Jerome, Donald Seymore, Delia, Irving, Harley, Eugene Dale.

*******

Lavonne Kemper - French Canadian

Wife: Elizabeth Sprogel

Children: Effenger Jerome - 1859 Whiteside, IL. Died 1897 in Bolton, IL.

Wife: Phoebe Abigail Roberts - 1861 Freeport, IL, died 1933 Norwich, ND.

Children: Phoebe, Dora May, Oliva Edna, Sarah Lavina (Viny), Carried Mabel, Mary Gertrude, Jasper Lewis, Clarence Walter, Alma Evelyn

Phoebe marred Robert Summers in 1998. 2 children: Vorise (died young). Earl Summers has wife Rose.

*****

Benjamin Roberts 9/17/1806 Holland died 11/29/1907

Wife: Sarah Pricilla Doty 11/12/1819 died 4/21/1907 in Ohio

Each of these had been married twice before and each had 5 kids in each marriage. These were the parents of Phoebe Abigail Roberts.

*****

John Sylvester Huddleson - civil war veteran. While sitting at the camp fire, he had a tin cup shot out of his hand.

1st Wife: Sarah Parker

Children: Margaret Ellen (she raised Ozero)

Sylvester -left handed fiddler

John Parker - wife Pamelia Jaques (French).

Children: Newton (wife Martha), children: Lloyd, Zelda, Dean, Ella (husband Burnett - adopted son Vic)

William (drowned crossing Mississippi)

Laura (husband: Mathews)

Royal or Raleigh

Francis

Ozero - born 11/30/1855 Springfield, IL. Died 4/22/1922 Norwich, ND of cancer.

Wife: Lucy Ann Johnson 5/28/1864 Notinghamshire, England died 12/31/1943 Norwich, ND. Children: Florence May 1886, Lee, Margaret 1892, John 1895, Grace 1897.

John Sylvester Huddleson's 2nd wife: married to a woman with 5 kids.

*****

Daniel Johnson 1842 England died 9/15/1915 Norwich, ND. Was policeman in London.

Wife: Harried Finis (Fines) 1841 England.

Children: I think she had 2 sets of twins. Mary belonged to one set.

Mary: Married 3 times - all named Martin - 2 were cousins - one unrelated.

Sally: Husband Punnell. 2nd Husband: Hooker. 3rd Husband: Newgard

Amy

George

George

Lucy Ann - the oldest - see Ozero Huddleson.

Ozero was 4 when his mother died. Was raised by sister, Margaret Ellen. Ozero's brother (Francis) was a bachelor teacher. Fat guy. Sat 3 days and nights on Oklahoma border to get a claim in Land Rush. Was very indignant while visiting in the North, quote: "Do you know that when I walked down the sidewalk those **** niggers pushed me off!!".

Lucy Ann was 9 when the family came to America. She had had her ears pierced to help her weak eyes. (Did glaucoma hit that young? She never lost her eyesight, but as John said, she always had rheumy eyes). The family worked westward by covered wagon. One night they saw someone sneaking up to the wagon. Her dad turned the dog loose and he got the man by the throat so that they had to choke him off. She wrote this story and got free show tickets to the State Theater when it was new in about 1925. (This building was the S&L of you kids' day --now the site of the 1st National.) She loved movies and then the evening would be spent "telling the show" to the kids.

That was one of the popular treats in our family too. When anyone was fortunate enough to have the 15 or 25 cents to go to a show, they shared afterward. Edith would come home from Normal about once a month and she usually had one to tell. I don't remember Avis doing this, but I doubt if she had enough spending money to attend very many. She put Edith through and I suspect she slipped here a little more spending money. Dad never would go to the silent movies but the rest of us thought they were the greatest treat ever. Saturday nights at Granville was the farmers' social night. We took in the cream and eggs, went to the show, found our pals, and wandered up and down the street while our parents bought groceries, keeping the poor storekeepers open until 1 PM or so. The men stood around all evening exchanging news, politics, or getting drunk such as they were inclined. The back alley bootleggers had profitable nights. Dad wouldn't go to the movies. However, he did go to Snow White about the first of the Disney films. He was hooked and was as willing to go as the rest of us, but the silents hadn't been his thing. He certainly never begrudged our enjoyment. He liked the Chautauqua but they soon degenerated from bringing culture to the 'sticks' to taking money out of the community with no return value. He was always a supporter of the Air, but Mom wasn't. Keith and I were bribed to stay home with plates of fudge and after he was included, I always looked forward to the fudge treat but once I got my taste of the fun of the Fair, Mom stayed home alone. Betcha it was her feet that made her such a poor sport! The fudge, by the way, was her panacea for all childhood disappointments. But this was supposed to be about the Huddleson Family.

In 1979 Faith Fletcher has established that the Huddlesons are derived from the Fighting Irish.

Jasper Kemper left home at about 14 due to pressure of older sisters, especially Ollie. Lived with Sheriff at Minot for a couple of years and then went to Kalispell. Earl Summers found him there in 1950 in a coma. Nobody informed anyone about him after that. He took the name of Parks and lived under that after leaving Minot.

Windmill incident(1917?): Earl Summers was breaking a team when a reign broke, swinging the wagon against the windmill and tearing it down. It landed just a few feet from the porch where Grandma Johnson was sitting. Earl says Grace was in the wagon but John doesn't remember that. The horses ran on through a barbed wire fence twice and never got a scratch.

One time Margaret was trying to drive the Model T around the yard. Her driving was very erratic and Grandma Lucy yelled, "She's going to hit the house", swinging her arm out in front of John. At the end of that arm she was holding a butcher knife! It nicked his throat and he said, "Well, you don't have to cut my throat!!"

Jerome Kemper was a dark handsome guy. John says he looked like an Indian!! That was news to Earl. Summers, Robert, was a Canadian too. Dale always spoke of him as Grandpa Summers and from the anecdotes John, Dale and Earl have told me about him, he was one fine man that earned respect. He married Grandma Summers with her large brood and made a good life for them all.

John Sylvester Huddleson was a very patriotic guy, but his daughter Marg. Was raising Ozero at the time. What were they living on while he was at war? And --- could the Huddlesons have known Lincoln? They were living at Springfield when Ozzie was born.

One summer Earl Summers came home from Montana. John went to meet the train but Earl cut across the fields and got home before John did. Walt Kemper was over there too. Those young blades got to fooling around and John said Earl needed a bath. There was a 20 bbl horse tank and he and Earl dared him to throw him in. After a little tussle, Walt spoke up and said John wasn't big enough to throw anyone, so Earl and John turned on him and threw Walt in! How John laughed at retelling it.

Lucy was living in Minot with Grace and Margaret after Ozero's death and Alma's. One day she took the train to Norwich, got a ride to the farm, and told John she wanted to live with him. She had had FlBobe????; Jack had been adopted, Florence was with her Grandmother Summers at Deering, and Dale had been with his Dad when he wasn't going to school in Minot. She lived with John until her death. She had a stroke and her left side was affected the last 12 years. The Fletcher girls tell how agile she was on her last visit to them before that.

I suspect it was Laura Huddleson-Mathews' son that showed up at our back door in 1968

One of Harriet Finis Johnson's Georges hung himself in a swing. Harriet Finis and her sisters sang for Queen Victoria.

Someday I'll get to your cousins, etc. but right now I never want to see a typewriter again.

****

January 1976

An attempt to sort out our Swedish side. I have several of Aunt Annie's letters and will quote from them. Plus that I will mess it up with what I have heard through the years.

Way back when my youngsters were babies (its marked with baby scribbles I evidently asked her about some of our background and she wrote the following, "I have very little to give you about our parents. Father was born in Skone, Sweden, January 22, 1829. Mother in Skone too, July 14, 1831. They were ten weeks floating at the mercy of the wind on the Atlantic ocean. Landed in New York. I think that was in August but they settled in Carver first (approx. 50 miles SW of Stillwater, MN but a long distance then.) You know I don't remember how they ever came to Afton because it was mother's relatives that lived at Carver who encouraged them to come to America. They wrote of milk and honey plus and the poor creatures bit and when they got here, it was nearly starvation. That was 1958. Twas a blessing the baby died. It was premature I suppose because Mother was so seasick. Anyway both of them worked for their board all winter and scarcely had enough to eat. And Father always repeated, "You call this good America". Maybe it was a tough time, but opportunities stared them in the face just the same. Many of them. In fact all of them had left nothing behind and on one thing was certain, no future in the old country and here there was and everyone got ahead in time.

Yes, Father was a good believer in ghosts. The wildest stories he told us children. I used to be so scared when alone I'd keep my head covered up for fear of. Remember the white horse so long you could add boy after boy on his back and there was always room for more unless you swore. Then you'd get kicked off. The little hen that walked on crutches. The 7 black cats with lighted candles which burned the mill every Xmas. The dwarfs who had that horn and pipe, which too, on Xmas eve., sounded it and called their tribe together and millions more as crazy things."

In a letter to Avis she send some samples of Grandma's fancywork and said, "She never had time to make many of those stitches until the last year (1896) of her life when she was an invalid. One Sunday coming from church, Father drove too close to the bank and she rolled out of the buggy and hit her hip on a boulder. It was a bad bump and shortly after she went out to close the outside cellar trap door and the wind blow her over and she hit a post in exactly the same spot and then that bruised place became a running sore. The doctor's diagnosis ..........of the kidney, but he was wrong. I think the bruises became cancerous. Ed wanted to pay for consultation, but Emma had faith in her doctor---that was the cause of her death."

And now from a letter to Mom (Elsie) June 30, '58:

"Ruth got a book for me about the Lutheran Church in Afton with the complete history of the first 50 years. It has we Swanson's in it. I let Randall take it with a promise for a return.......Maybe after all you'll trace our ancestry back to King Gustav of Sweden. Often when our mother was in a jolly mood she would tell us kiddies she had very wealthy relatives in the old county and when they died, she would inherit their wealth. Poor Mother! With that cheerful disposition, she removed many thorns from our paths and replaced them with roses." This observation is quite in reverse of the anecdote she told Edith and me in the 30s. Aunt Mama had claimed we were related to the throne in Norway and I remember Dad coming into the house one morning to ask, jokingly, if we should go to Minot to see Cousin Martha (they were on tour that summer). So Edith asked Aunt Annie if it was true that we were related to royalty and Aunt Annie explained, " Royalty!!! We were the peasants--lowest of the low!!

"Vera just came in to day Alaska was admitted to the union. Long time since Lincoln saved the union. Father had only ben in the U.S. 3 years and he could vote and have so many benefits and freedom. There was slavery in Sweden too and Father surely enjoyed his freedom of speech, religion and politics in this country..................................Now I wish I had kept Father's wooden shoes he brought over from Sweden. He had No. 12 feet. They took up so much room in the woodshed."

August 1958 "When Emma left home after Mother died, she moved into St. Paul. Frank B. Worked in ***** livery stable but Emma liked fresh air and the soil, so she made different plans. First she moved to Cass Lake where the land agency is. She planned to get a claim for Rettie but didn't and later got one in Granville. (Here she was confused with Glenburn.) Blossom was then about 10 months old. That year Oscar and Millie had worked Father's farm and Rettie had stayed with them. Then when Oscar and Millie went to Minot and joined Albert and Elsie homesteading NE of Minot, Rettie stayed with me until Emma sent for her and she joined her at Glenburn. Emma had taken a claim for Rettie at Watford City and they later changed claims. In 1912 Emma came to see us. She went to St. Paul to cook in a boys home. Father was living with us then. After he sold his farm to Ed, he lived with them but Puss got sick and asked me to give him a home until she got well. Puss got better but Father liked to stay with us as he liked Swedish cooking. Puss as good to him but he stayed with us until he got sick and died in 1914. Emma came to the funeral. After that we were not much in contact. We visited there after Frank died. Blossom wired that Emma had died but we knew nothing more except what Albert read in the paper.

In 1884 Emma married Ezra Folstrom and joined the Catholic Church. He as full of old time consumption (TB) and he lived only a little more than 3 years when Rettie was a year old. When he was sick, they moved in with his mother. That home was one of the first log houses in Valley Creek. It had never been shingled. Covered with birch bark and moss, plus. There Emma lived for 5 months. What she lived on I do not know but I do know Mother brought her a chicken and other things for her and the sick man. Emma did own a cow. Emma got TB too. It didn't show up until years later. Then she had two operations on her neck. I didn't know this until Puss told me. I suppose Rettie had Blossom but Puss took care of Myrtle and she had such a good time that she didn't want to go to her mother when she got out of the hospital and Emma cried.

I have met all of Rettie's kids and like them. When I went to see Albert in 1941, Dale and Kay took me to Tom's. He wasn't home but Mikie was. The house was spotless. Rettie died when only 48. Isabel was 13. She took care of the house, baked the bread, and was a real mother, so I was told.

On a high hill a short distance from Valley Creek, hidden from view by tall oak trees, is an old Indian burial ground. There Emma buried Ezra. Later she had him removed and buried in the Afton cemetery. It is marked with a marker with both Folstrum and Swanson as Emma planned to be buried beside him. Mother and Father are buried there too and in the same lot is an uncle. He was a character. He was a drunk until age 54. Then he married an old maid and settled in Stillwater, MN. He never liked children and we kids had no pleasant memories of him. He lived to be 94. Ed was the only relative he had there so he had to bury him. The undertaker found $35 sewed up securely in his coattail. Ed and I made up the rest.

Minnesota history says Jacob Folstrom (Fallstrom is the correct name) was the first Swede to set foot in this state. He was born about 1780 in Sweden and was left an orphan when only 7. A man moved him over to England and another one took him to Canada. Time passed and one day he got lost and would have died of hunger if some Indians hadn't found him. He accepted their hospitality and made that his home. He learned their ways and their language and married and Indian maiden. They wandered around and came to Minnesota where they stayed until their deaths. Joseph F. Was a good man. He learned Methodism and became a missionary and preached the gospel to his friends. He lived to be an old man and is buried in Afton township. This good man was Ezia's great grandfather (Aunt A. uses both Ezra and Ezia as his name).

His young widow continued to live in Valley Creek . She had the care of 3 children.

----and here I digress. In a novel I read about the Swedish immigrants I will quote as I remember it, "Folstrom had 9 children - 5 with blue eyes". I believe this is in "This Good Land" whose author I can never remember but will try to find at the library. Or it may be another book by the same author...or maybe not related to this book and author at all..don't I sound authentic? I've been going to do this little deed for 20 or so years so I thought I'd put this much clue down anyway.

Back to Aunt Annie, "I remember when this woman died in 1879. I was 10. The school was closed in the PM for the funeral. It was a big event. People came from far and near in lumber wagons to pay their respects to this pioneer. A Methodist minister spoke the last words. The oldest pupils in the school made up a choir. Ed and Clara were in it. Rev. Fosberg gave here age as 100. He paid tribute to her in many ways as her home was a refuge. Twas said she sheltered an escaped slave. Emma had seen this little woman and she was so wrinkled and said she was 100 because she had a grandson in the civil war. For that Ezia's mother got back pay of 1,000 and $8 monthly pension. That money build her a little house and bought a horse and buggy (she starved the horse). After her death, Ed bought the house and moved it to his farm for a milkhouse. Edward and Ruth had fun naming the cows after the Folstrom kids. I have read this history in the Mpls Star 3 times."

So much for the gleanings. In another letter I remember she told of her Mother being immersed by the Baptist minister in Lakeland. She compared this to an extract from a book which told of the Baptist faith coming to Lakeland. But she was very careful to state that Grandma was sin free. The character in the book had been forced into prostitution in her teens in Sweden!!!

I missed one. Its repetitious but it all adds. March 1958.

"Just 100 years in August since my parents landed in NY dirty, hungry, penniless, speechless with a pre-mature baby in their arms born on the Atlantic. Leaving Sweden they bought passage in a sailboat which faced adverse winds. Their food rations were scanty. Seasickness, nostalgia and 10 weeks of sailing put them into depression to no wonder their first years in America were discouraging. But they made the grade and were proud that they had made a home for their children in a land where they were equal to the President."

So here it is. Its repetitions just add credence because there is very little contradiction in the repeated stories. I have pictures of Andrew and Hannah. Its hard to picture the jolly month Aunt Annie tells about because the picture depicts stern stern!!

I'm glad I got this much done anyway. I also have a copy of what........wrote for the Mpls Tribune (or) Star the year of the Minnesota Centennial.

*****

Dec 1, 1979. On being asked to bring some ethnic food to a tea, I knew I wasn't ready for such, and, as I had been working on this thing and as I was going to make divinity anyway, and as it was for the genealogical society, I came up with this poem. I dressed in red, white, and blue and put on my Indian earrings:

Ay ban mostly Svensk

And a leetle Dutch;

Scotch Irish and some English;

Though of these I can't claim much.

My Grandpap was John Amos Smith;

His daddy Smith, John Cooper;

Were I to trace them I might find

A 'Revolution' trooper.

Among our family legends

A Mohawk met the Mayflower,

And, the history books will bear me out,

John Smith o'er them had power.

So I brought no ethnic food,

But came as Doodle Dandy.

I can't compete with foreign food;

So here's American candy.