This story is compiled from family records and the writings of my great aunt Anne Olson, nee Doxtad.

The Norwegians of Lillehammer and Vos – the Dugstad (Doxtad) family.
In 78 A.D. Tacitus wrote of the difficulty in fighting Northmen on their own ground:
"They are likewise wont to scoop caves deep in the ground, and over them to lay great heaps of dung. Thither they retire for shelter in the winter, and thither convey their grain: for by such close places they mollify the rigorous and excessive cold. Besides when at any time their enemy invades them, he can only ravage the open country, but either knows not such recesses as are invisible and subterraneous; or must suffer them to escape him, on this very account that he is uncertain where to find them.”

Lars Ole Gjernes was born on April 2 1807 in Voss, in the fertile green valleys between Bergen on the coast and the highlands. The district, Hordaland, is famed for its creative people, including the composer Grieg and the playwright Ibsen. Most Norwegian music, television, theatre, film and other media is dominated by Hordalanders to this day. The Hordaland coat of arms is crossed axes and a crown, symbolising the destruction and creation that the axe represents in heraldry, under the rule of the king. It is also the symbol of the Tysnes ‘ting’ or council, where Hordalanders met in earlier times in the same way that Ditmarschers would meet for their ‘thing’ in Heide.

His grandfather was a farmer, Sven Gjernes and his father was also a farmer, Ole Svensen Gjernes. When his father died his mother, Ingeborg Kjellsdatter Helleve, remarried to a Dugstad and Lars took his stepfather’s name (or the name of the Dugstad estates on which he had been born. Norwegian naming ran: Name- then ‘son’ or ‘dattir’ after the name of your father – then the name of the town or farm you lived on). Like many Norwegian young men he was a ‘cotter’ with no expectations of inheritance or land ownership. Norway’s mountainous landscape and limited farmland meant that only the eldest son would inherit a farm, to prevent the land being reduced to tiny and inefficient farmsteads.

In an earlier age he would have joined a Viking ship and gone trading and raiding with a crew of similar tough landless guys. It's hard to fully conceive of the challenge and hardship for Lars of leaving one’s homeland, expecting never to see it again, family and loved ones left behind.
Ole Rynning, author of a guidebook on emigrating to America, advised that "The best time to leave Norway, is so early in the spring as to be able to reach the place of settlement by midsummer, or shortly after that time. In that way something can be raised even that first year; namely buckwheat, turnips and potatoes, also to gather fodder for one or two cows and build a house for the winter." Allowing for breakup of winter, the months of March, April and May became the big season for emigration. The preceding long, dark winter was busy with preparations for departure, using Rynning's book as a guide. "They must have provisions to take care of their needs for twelve weeks, particularly foods that could be kept a long time without being spoiled." He suggested "pork, dried meat, salted meat, dried herring, smoked herring, dried fish, butter, cheese, primost (rich thick goatsmilk cheese), milk, beer, flour, peas, cereals, rye crispbread, coffee, tea, sugar." There was danger of sickness on the voyage so he advised "a little brandy, vinegar, and a couple of bottles of wine, as well as raisins and prunes to make soup for the seasick; a cathartic; sulphur powder and ointment for the itch; Hoffmans drops (ether)and spirits of camphor." The emigrant "must take with him bedclothes, clothing of fur and homespun, an iron plate for baking flat bread, a spinning wheel, a hand mill, silverware and tobacco pipes to sell in America." The men must also take "good rifles, with percussion locks, and tools of his trade." Throughout the winter, "the women of the family spun, wove, and sewed dresses, suits, underclothing, and other garments." The men "turned to carpentry, sawing, planing, and hammering as they made the many traveling chests required, all with homemade iron bands, locks and large keys." All of this they had to move from the Dugstad
Estate just north of Voss to the port city of Bergen, which today takes about 90 minutes. When Lars left, typically: “the journey was made in several stages: first by sleigh, then a transfer to wagons, then perhaps a long wait for a boat sailing one of the fjords, and finally arrival at the seaport where, not infrequently, the emigrant’s schooner was not ready to sail and were delayed many days, and even weeks, perhaps camping at the pier or finding the most inexpensive lodging, eating their precious food and spending their money."

Lars embarked on the Magdalena Christina, called a schooner because of the way in which the sails of its two masts are rigged. It was at most 100 feet long and 27 feet wide. The peasant emigrant passengers occupied spaces between decks, called "steerage." The word "steerage" comes from "steers", indicating the emigrants traveled in the same spaces used for transporting livestock. Later the space was called "3rd class". Steerage was described thusly: "On a temporary floor built in the hold of a vessel, a two-story row of spaces for beds was constructed along the whole length of both sides of the ship, usually wide enough for four persons to sleep in. The provision boxes and smaller chests belonging to the passengers were placed in rows in front of their beds. The larger, heavy chests, packed to the brim with clothing, bedding and other trappings, were stored in a separate room. There were no separate rooms for men and women. Light was admitted only through hatches and, in some cases, through skylights in the deck. On deck, a moderately-sized shed, fitted with a number of fireplaces for cooking, was erected, and outbuildings on each side near the rail. This completed the alterations to a cargo ship necessary for the comfort of the passengers."
Theodore C. Blegen provides some vivid insight on some "typical" voyages in his book, "Norwegian Migration to America-The American Transition." The following are excerpts from his book: "In prolonged storms, the passengers in steerage could not even get on deck. Down in their quarters pails, cans, pots, kettles, and everything else left unlashed would rattle about and create a perfect pandemonium. All that the poor occupants could do was to cling fast to the nearest post or bed rail and stay there until the rolling ceased somewhat. Oftentimes this was in intense darkness as the hatches had to be closed to exclude the furious sea and save the passengers from drowning. They were unaccustomed to the roll of a ship and there was a vast amount of seasickness, especially among the women. After a storm, when the hatches were opened, people came stumbling out, gasping for air, and the steerage was most frightening and sickening to behold."
"It often happened that terrible disease would break out and spread with appalling speed. Dysentery added to the torment of the emigrants. In one case, it began in the upper bunk aft and continued regularly on starboard until it jumped over to larboard and there spread in the same manner. Cholera, typhus, smallpox, typhoid fever, and measles were some of the diseases that raged onboard emigrant vessels. Many did not survive the ordeal; others survived it only to fall victim in American ports to disease or to some of the worst exploiters of helpless humanity that any generation has ever seen"
When the weather was fine and the Atlantic lay clear and smooth, the deck at times rang with merriment in the evenings. The accordion was brought out and to its tones the couples whirled about. Games were played--in wooden shoes and wadmal skirt many a time--and here lifelong connections were formed." People from different parts of Hordaland exchanged as many tales of the places they had left as they did of places in America they’d heard about, repeating stories from the “America letters” from earlier emigrants that had written home.

Traditional Voss dancing

"On Sunday they would wash and dress up, have prayers and devotions, sing hymns to the accompaniment of violin and flute."
"Sometimes there was a Seventeenth of May (Norwegian Independence Day) celebration held in mid-ocean, while the emigrants sang songs and listened to toasts to the country they had left." It became a tradition to sing ‘Rynning’s Song’ (which was written and first sung on a Norwegian emigrant schooner in 1837) on the 17th May and, assuming the weather was fine, Lars would have joined with the other passengers in singing this favourite song of the emigrants
“Brothers, the bright light of Norway's freedom now shines on the mountains of the North;
the tri-color* waves on high, and the valleys are filled with celebration, song, glasses full at full and festive tables, against the music of the waterfalls’ roar.
The cliffs of Norway lie hidden now beyond the waters; but we still long to hear the rustling of pines in our ancient forests, the roar of the waves and the thunder of glaciers – music to the Norway lover’s ear.
Therefore we hail with joy the day when the Lion of Norway wakened from his slumber, drew from his shaggy breast the keen battle-axe; and with one blow broke the chains of centuries.
And so, as in saga days, Norse ships are tossed upon the sea, even now the Norwegian fearlessly faces the fearful might of storm and wave, and hails once more the distant coast of Vinland** the good.
But though Destiny should bid him pitch his tent where once Bjørn and Leif pitched theirs, he will cherish always the mountains of Norway, and yearn from his deepest heart to see his home once more.
*Norwegian flag
** Vinland was the name given to America by the Norwegian explorers Leif Ericson and BjørnLars Olsen Dugstad, aged 32, arrived in New York on July 6 1839, 8 weeks after he had left his family in Voss. He travelled on to Chicago.
There he met other Norwegians who had walked up to the Wisconsin territory and found land around the Koshkonong Prairie and the Fox River settlement. They invited him to join a group who planned go out there, settle and put it under the plough. In a letter home one of the Norwegians had described the virgin prairie as "luxuriant growth of grass, and a great profusion and variety of beautiful flowers, displaying the colors of ten thousand rainbows painted not by the hand of man." The indigenous Winnebago Sioux inhabitants would hunt on the land from time to time and fished in the Koshkonong lake but they were in retreat and by 1851 would reluctantly sign the Mendota Treaty that surrendered most of their hunting grounds to white settlers. They were eventually resettled on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Nebraska, an area that was to include much of Thurston County, near Emerson.
The underlying ground was fertile, there was lots of timber, marsh hay (for winter fodder) and fine fishing. Lars and the other men in his group settled in what is now Albion Township in Dane County, ploughed their land and he dug himself a cave – Lars had 80 acres, one quarter planted to woodland, the remainder under the plough. Just like the Northmen described by Tacitus, above, living in his cave, near a creek that ran through his land and which flows through nearby Rockdale, in Dane County, Wisconsin, Lars farmed, fished and lived in his cave for 10 years before going to Chicago and meeting a 33-year old Norwegian immigrant from the Voss area: Ingebjørg Kjellsdatter Helleve. She had been christened March 22 1818 in the Voss church. She was the daughter of Kjeld Knutsen and Anna Hermundsdatter, of the Helleve farm, Voss, Hordaland and had emigrated to the US, according to church records, in 1852 from Bergen. Her brother Olav Kjeldson Helleve took over the Helleve farm from the parents and had a son named Henrik Olavson Hellever who was a teacher in Norway, then emigrated to the US and became a priest. She and Lars both spoke the Vossamål dialect of Norwegian, as did many of the Koshkonong pioneers ("Da æ so gott å høyra da” = “Does me such good to hear it”). She was strong, a hard worker and was prepared to be a reliable partner in Lars’ enterprise. But she did insist that he build a house to replace his cave. By now the Indians had moved west beyond the Mississippi and Wisconsin was safer, so he built a log cabin with trees from his woodland and they produced five children. Their son Ole was born on August 30 1854 and grew up in a household which was becoming quite cultured. They married in 1855. Times were good, farmers got good prices and paid little in taxes and had hardworking children who did their farm chores before going off to school. Lars died in 1864 in a runaway accident – Ole, his oldest boy, was ten. With the help of her sons and daughters Ingeborg, now 44, ran the farm and ‘reared her family in the strictest fashion’ and still found time to be a founder of the Norwegian Methodist Church in nearby Cambridge Wisconsin, the first such church in the world. In the winter, the children would skate on the frozen surface of Lake Koshkonong, much as their father would have done on the Melsvatnet, the lake that lay to the west of the Dugstad estate back home.
When Ole was 27, on April 5 1881, he married a 19 year old Norwegian girl from Skreia, near Lillehammer, north of Oslo called Olina Fredrica Pedersen. In 1867 Olina’s mother Anna Starum had died, when Olina was 5. Anna and her husband Peter Pederson grew flax as well as other crops on their farm and Anna wove it into homespun linen which she sold at the Skreia market. In 1867 she was caught in a heavy rain on her way home, contracted pneumonia and died, when Olina was just 5. Olina went to live with her grandmother Osrud, who subsequently died. Olina’s father remarried to Mary Avenson and they had a son, Frederic, in 1869. Her aunt, Helena Maria Rusted, lived in Cambridge Wisconsin with her sons and her 2 daughters, Andrena and Tilda. Olina’s Uncle Christian, brother of Anna Starum, sent her the money for a ticket and she travelled to the US with her neighbours Anton and his wife and son. They sailed from Bergen, stopped at Liverpool and arrived in Philadelphia in June 1876, during the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Her trunks were lost, or stolen, so she arrived in Wisconsin by train, with nothing and was dropped off by Anton and his family at Stoughton. Here a Mrs. Erickson took her in overnight and took her to a celebration where the Billstad family rescued her and took her to her Aunt Helena. She learned English and around 1880, when she was 18, she started to keep company with Ole Duxstad, a 5’10” man with a black mustache. They married in April 5 1881 and lived in the Duxstad house until May, when they set off for Iowa with Mr and Mrs Gunderson, neighbours and fellow pioneers.
(Here the narrative is written by Anne (Duxstad( Olsen, daughter of Ole and Olina, sister of Lewis). They arrived at Britt and Ruthven, Iowa, and O.L. and Oline lived with a Mr.Knte Torresen until in August. In July, a hail storm hit a narrow strip taking everything in its path even knocking potatoes out of the ground. At one place sheep were killed.
O.L. and Oline moved to a log house on the Des Moines River so Ole could work on the railroad; this was across the river from where a year later the town of Grettinger, Iowa, was laid out. That winter he helped build a bridge over the river, 1881 and 1882. Food was brought from Emmetsberg. They lived in a schoolhouse for a short time before moving into the log house. Here a dog went mad and they spent the night in the attic. Next day they were able to get a gun and kill Bowser.
That fall two neighbor girls were visiting in their home when Oline bid them goodnight, they discovered a prairie fire; the rest of the night firefighters fought to extinguish the flames, which they did. That fall O.L. helped a man who was fording the river with a wagon and team and hauling some supplies in a boat, when the boat started to sink, O.L. swam and helped get the boat to shore.
In November a Mrs. Grove and a Mrs. Hansen delivered Oline's first child, a boy Lewis Albert. The doctor arrived late, November 27, 1881. The river was high that fall and floods were common. There were many Irishmen working on the railroad and weekends they often went to Emmetsberg where they were wont to imbibe too freely. One weekend as they were coming home, one of the men fell out of the boat and was not missed, his body was later found lodged against a tree on their side of the river. Once a driver and his team fell through the ice with a load of timber. O.L. helped to get him out coming home cold and wet. In the fall he was preparing to start out on a trip to Ruthven to look after livestock that had been left there, as he was crossing the river he lost his oar and taking off a boot as an oar, he managed to reach the other bank safely as Oline watched.
In the spring, they bought an eighty-acre farm near Lost Island and two miles north of Ruthven. They had brought 15 yearlings, two horses, a wagon and trunks with them from Wisconsin. They had bought a four hole cookstove, dishes, black handled knives and forks and tin spoons when they went to the Des Moines River. They used boxes for chairs, boards for the bed and straw for mattress. O.L. had made a table and these things were taken back to Ruthven. Crops were fair that summer, wheat was taken to Okaboji to be ground at the grist mill which was run by water., O.L. brought two horses from Wisconsin, Bill and Charlie, a black and a bay. They had been runaways, a fact he did not know when he bought them. Charlie was the bay and the wildest of the two.
The next winter O.L. sold the farm to a Dane, Lauritz Hansen. The next summer Hansen and another man were killed by lightning while haying.
O.L. and Oline started westward, they had a notion they would like to live in Salinas, Kansas, as they had heard much about that area. They went in a covered wagon and when they reached Sioux City they camped behind a hotel. If memory served rightly it was the Martin Hotel. The hotel kitchen got the milk from their cows for the privilege of their camping. They continued on their way through Covington, later renamed South Sioux City, and moved through rolling country. When they were six miles or so east of Emerson on a hill, O.L. waved his whip at the valley below and said, "I would like to own that land." Evening shadows were falling when they drove into the small town and they were glad to stop as Oline was ill with an abscessed breast. They stopped at a hotel on the west side of Main Street. It was called the Lippold Hotel and was near the main intersection of the town. It was a large two story building with a porch across the front. Several Indian bucks were on the porch dressed with shawls over their shoulders and with long black braids down their backs. A few full-skirted, shawl-wrapped squaws were also in evidence. The hotel was lighted with kerosene lamps and was a welcome sight since they were very tired. Next morning the doctor was called and Oline was told to stay in bed; Kate Crowe, a chambermaid befriended her, bringing her food. Due to her kindness, she was never to forget this blackhaired, blue eyed Irish girl.
Emerson was small, there were a few houses on the hillside to the west, several businesses on Main Street; to the east of Main Street and on the down-slope were Indians, tepees, their horses overflowing into the valley below. All of this was an unaccustomed sight. O.L. began looking around at land and having found a land agent, Mr. McCarthy, who had come from the same area in Wisconsin and had attended Albion Academy in Wisconsin where the Duxstad brothers had spend some time, he felt at home with him. Homestead land had all been taken the year before. He finally bought land east at Emerson, for $1,120, the same land he had indicated with his whip that he would like to own. The he bought a lot or two on the second street west of Main in Emerson and with a Mr. England's help, a small house was built and painted yellow. It still stands. Here they lived for a year or so and on November 15, a boy was born and named Henry Ingval. He was called Via as a pet name. Here Olina made a life long friend, a Mrs. Goodwin, whose husband ran the furniture store. One day Lewis ran away and as she went after him this woman came out and invited her in for tea. Many cups of tea she was to drink with her throughout the years. Mrs. Goodwin had two girls, Fanny and Lena, and two boys somewhat older than Lewis and Via (pet name for Henry).
O.L. broke sod for Mr. Lippold and a Dr. Kuhn as well as on his own land. They buying two good beds and an extension table, and a rocking chair they moved out to keep house for a Mr. Larson who lived across the road (John Fey place) from their land. Mr. Larson refused to pay his share of the expenses so a spot was selected on their land, about one-fourth of a mile from the road and herea house was built out of prairie sod. It was built into a small knoll in a valley, faced east, and the back extended into a small hill. The walls were boarded up and there were half windows to the north and south and a door to the east. A well was dug and a shed put up for the horses and cows. Ole continued to break the prairie land and often ran into rattlesnake nests.
Jan. 26, 1886, another son was born and named Herman Fletcher. A Mrs. Crosley attended Olina and she had no doctor. She had become acquainted with this woman when O.L. had broken sod for her son-in-law, Baileys. Another nice neighbor was Ace Davis and family. They lived near the Crosley family.
In the fall of `86, a Harvey Crosley worked for O.L. and it was thought that he brought the germs of diphtheria with him and Lewis and Via contracted it first, later Herman and Olina were to get it. The year before the Jopps, neighbors to the southeast, lost three of four children with diphtheria and so the parents were fearful. Lewis sickened first and was cared for as best they could. A neighbor, Mr. Blume, brought medicine and Dr. Morris came, but he grew worse. One day Olina tried to cool Lewis by washing his face and hands and held him close and he had said, "I'm your sweetheart, Mama." At 2:00 p.m. he died, aged 5 years on October 23, 1886. Now Mrs. Goodwin sent George's suit out for Lewis to be buried in. That fall she had loaned George's and Harry's suits for Lewis and Via to have their pictures taken in. Lewis was buried in the Jopp cemetery, a mile to the south. Via became sick and for a time it was thought he would recover, but he took a turn for the worse and when his feet could not be kept warm even with hot bricks, they despaired for him. It was twenty-three days after Lewis died when Via called to his mother, and with his arms about her, he died in her arms. He was buried in Harry Goodwin's suit and with boots (red topped) they had lately bought him. He died November 15, 1886, and was buried in Jopp Cemetery. Small wooden crosses were erected and years later replaced by small marble stones. Herman contracted the disease but he was still nursing and recovered, as did Olina.
At New Years (December 1886), the parents, grief-stricken, decided to leave this harsh new land and they returned to Wisconsin where the next year or two they farmed Grandma Duxstad's farm. Grandma had been a widow since 1875. In 1888 another son was born February16, and was named Lewis Ingval. The thought of the graves in the hard frontier caused them to decide to go back to their land in Dakota County, Nebraska. In May, 1889, or 1890, Olina, the two boys and Uncle Charles went by passenger train; Ole taking his livestock by freight train to Sioux City. From Sioux City, they drove by wagon and team, an extra horse behind the wagon and five or six cows following at the back of the wagon. As they came to the top of the east hill overlooking their farm, the neighbor on the J. Larson farm below, Gus Isenbergs, later told them that he said, "There come the Duxstads back to their farm." Isenbergs were to prove the very best of neighbors.
In their absence every stick of wood had been taken, fence posts, even the well platform. They stayed in Emerson while the men built a house, this time located on the rise between east and west hills and near the road. At first a two story house consisted of one room upstairs reached by means of steep stairs and one room downstairs. The house was moved into and on July 22, 1890, a daughter was born and named Isabel Amanda.
Mrs. Isenberg and her mother, Mrs. Betcke, were present at the birth and Mrs. Bowder, the former Mrs. Crosley, came for a day and Fanny Goodwin came and stayed for several weeks. Isabel was baptized by a Presbyterian minister in the Goodwin's store. 1890 was a good year. The Isenbergs moved to Emerson and started a Hardware Store in partnership with a Mr. Paynter. Spring of 1891 Westerburgs moved on to the J. Larson place which was known more often as the Froberg place. That summer Aunt Anna and cousin Julia came from Wisconsin for a several week visit. The nearer neighbors to the west were the Betches, Blumes, Wagles, Greenwoods and a Cafoe. The Cafoes were Dane and visited Denmark. On the return trip the ship sank and all were lost. The Betckes had lost their only child, Roxie, when only four weeks old of diphtheria. To the east were the Biedes and a mile or less further on were the Wallweys. From the neighbors they learned of the blizzard of 1887-1888 and how Mr. Wiede and Mr. Wallwey had gone to the Indian Reservation a mile to the south and were caught in the blizzard. They tried to follow a fence but fences were scarce and in the blinding storm hard to stay near. The two men became separated and finally Biede found the Wallwey home and Wallwey found his way to the Biede home and not until the storm was over did they know the other was safe. These two families had come to the area some time before. The Biedes one year before. Mr. Jopp had come earlier, he had been an Indian scout and given a small plot of his land for use as a cemetery.
To the northwest was Simmons Siding where trains stopped for water and where cattle were loaded. A small town sprang up near and was called Nacora. Its depot, store and blacksmith shop were much used and the saloon or "Deutsches Gesthous" was a popular place and not to the good of the community. Trains served the area.
In 1893, the Westerbergs moved and a Swedish family by the name of Salquist moved onto the place; the Mrs. was a jolly woman and many happy times Olina and her had together, both liked to bake and they got together in the afternoons for sweets and coffee.
July 10, 1893, a son was born to Olina and named Henry Albert Ray, mother adding the Ray since she thought it a pretty name. Henry was baptized at the Louis Johnson home in Emerson by a Swedish Lutheran minister.
In 1894, Olina had a miscarriage and Dr. Evans came bringing Mrs. Isenberg and Mrs. Betche. This was a dry year, not much corn. In August of 1894, Olina, Isabel, and Henry went back to Wisconsin for a visit. Betsy was sick with consumption. Later in the fall, O.L. went back to see his relatives and especially Betsy; she died soon after in November. While O.L. was gone, a hired man was left to help the boys, he was a Dane, Charlie Bruer, and had prowess as a cowboy, lassoing the hogs at butchering time. The Salquists helped with this job. This family moved to a place several miles to the west, to a place called the Jackson place; still visits continued until they moved to northern Wisconsin in 1903. New neighbors moved down the hill in 1894, but visiting declined, the Mrs. was introverted. One day Mr. Anderson was digging a well and Uncle Charles was helping him. When he failed to come up, Charles knew he had been overcome by gas or what was called the damps; he had to restrain Mrs. from going down the well. Neighbors were soon on the scene and lanterns were lowered and as soon as possible, the body was removed. Herman was told to go to Emerson for the doctor; he rode a beautiful sorrel, "Fanny," the five miles to town and made it in record time. Mrs. was left a widow and moved to Emerson.
In 1896, two years after the Salquists left the Froberg place, a daughter was born to Olina, she was the smallest of the babies perhaps due to the fact Olina spent a sickly time of it. Doctor Evans officiated; the baby was named Anne Elizabeth, birth date was August 23. Mrs. Salquist suggested the name Elizabeth and the Anne was for Olina's mother. And so I joined the family circle and in 1934
wrote these notes as my mother told them to me.
In May, on the 21st, 1899, another daughter was born. In March, mother had an abscess form behind one ear. A Dr. McKuhn doctored her and finally opened it which was a relief. Later he came to dress the ear, mother suggested he better wait and a little later on he ushered the baby into the world, she was named Mildred Luella. A new neighbor, Maggie Assenmacher, assisted at this birth. Father selected the name Luella and Fanny Goodwin, Mildred. Mother was weary after this ordeal and Ella Fricken worked for her for a time.
Mother was still to have another child, and on December 8, 1902, a daughter was born and christened Ellen Hariot. Mrs. Larson, a nurse friend, delivered the baby. Father gave her the name of Ellen, after his first choice of Della was rejected by mother; mother choosing Hariot (using this spelling).
Improvements were made on the farm through the years, the original house was raised and an ell added and a kitchen to the north. An old granary was torn down or moved and a large double corncrib was built and a new barn went up through the years. A large grove of maple trees, cherry and apple trees were planted. Fir and pine also were planted but were hard to get started.
Indians sometimes stopped, driving scrawny ponies hitched to two seated spring wagons; they liked to trade berries they had picked for sugar or flour -- sometimes they used a dark blue dress material for trading -- this smelled of the dye used on it. Dresses were made of it and they wore like iron. We girls thought the smell was an "Indian smell." Bands of gypsies roamed the country and often camped below our place, they begged for food and oats for their horses; under cover of darkness they picked up things they wanted.
Every farm had its dogs and several I remember more than some of the others. Once on a visit to the Biedes, father brought a tiny brown and white puppy home in his pocket; she was named Daisy and lived to be old. Another dog, Pug, was a roan-colored with rather long ears, he lived to be old and became cranky; he could always hear the parents when they came from town when they were a mile or more from home, this was usually at night for a wagon was often used and this meant getting home in darkness.
Dad changed the spelling of our name from Duxstad to Doxstad, thinking it was simpler, in their early years in the west -- possibly in the nineties. Business men in Emerson called him Dexted or Dexter so he shortened the name and changed the spelling.
Olina Fredrica was born near Lillehammer, Norway, Toten province, near a small town called Skreia. Her grandparents on her father's side were Fredric and Martha Osrud. They had five children: Peter, Johannes, Ole, Fredric, and Elenor. Grandma Osrud had two spinster sisters, Barbara and Elisabeth. Peter was mother's father and he married in 1861 to Anne Starum. Peter took the name Peter Pedersen Modsboken -- the Madsbaken was the name of his farm. In 1862, September 20, Olina Fredrica was born.
On mother's maternal side of the house were her grandparents, Hans and Berthe Starum. They had six children, Ole, Haakon, Christian, Helena Marie, Anne and Lena. The men took the name Hanson for a middle name and Starum which was the surname. Anne married Peter as stated in the first paragraph. Ole died rather young, Haakon married Karen and they came to America in 1877 and settled near Rockdale and Cambridge, Wisconsin. Christian came before that and went to Minnesota. Helena Marie came to America and married a man by the name of Rusted and lived in Cambridge, Wisconsin. Lena also came to America and married a man by the name of Roisli. Mother lived with her parents, Peter and Anne near Skreia, Norway. When she was five, her mother died of pneumonia. She and Peter had gone to Lillejhammer to sell bolts of the linen goods she had woven and coming home she got her feet wet and died in April. Mother lived with her Osrud grandparents for a while then that grandmother died. Her father remarried and had a son, Fredric; Olina did not fit in and when she was near fourteen in 1876 she came to America in company with folks her father knew. Philadelphia was decked in bunting, it was first of July and was 100th anniversary of American freedom. Her Uncle Christian had sent her the fare for the voyage and train ride to Wisconsin where she went to her Aunt Helena Maria. The next year Haakon Hanson Starum came to America with his family and settled near Rockdale. Mother was confirmed and worked as a hired girl much of the time but always made her home with Uncle Haakon and Aunt Karen. She felt like a sister to their children, more than a cousin. After she married and moved to Nebraska, some came to visit. Julia came in the 90's, Adolph and Carl also came to visit.
Mother never again saw her father or half-brother Fredric.