| Summary: | West. He started out for Oregon but stopped to visit some friends in McKenzie County. That year the grass was knee high and everything looked very good. So in 1907, he filed a homestead claim along the Yellowstone River south of Cartwright, North Dakota. He built himself a little house and in the spring of 1908 he went back to Pembina County and got his family. While they lived in Pembina County, Olaf and the twins Conrad and Arthur were born. Shortly after their arrival at their new home, Olaf was bitten by a rattlesnake. He died a few hours later. He was about four years old. After that, Nels spent his spare time walking the hills, killing the snakes. After he passed away, neighbors noticed an increase in the number of rattlesnakes again. Nels and Karoline Walla lived on their farm until their deaths. He passed away January 28, 1940, and she died September 11, 1943. Both were laid to rest in the Melland Cemetery. To this union ten children were born. Olaf died in 1908. Conrad who lives at Crane, Montana, has eight children and twenty-four grandchildren. Arthur passed away October 25, 1973 and lived at Sidney, Montana. He was married to Clara Mann and had four stepchildren. Olga was married to Arthur C. Jordan, Crow Rock Route, Miles City, Montana. He passed away October 28, 1959. Their three children are: Lois, Renton, Washington; Donald at Hacienda Heights, California; and Alfred who lives on the home ranch. Olga has three grandchildren. William Walla married Jane Haughian and they live at Terry, Montana. Their four children are: Dennis, in the service; Sharon lives in Minnesota; Nelson in California and Bette Jane in Miles City. William and Jane have four grandchildren. Lillie became Mrs. Victor Nielsen. They now live in Grants Pass, Oregon, and have three children. Dorothy lives near Paul, Idaho; Vernon and Mary both live in Ancorage, Alaska. They have five grandchildren. Bjarne married Myrtle Lindsley. They have two sons, Leonard, Harlowton, Montana, and Larry, in Chicago, Illinois. They have three grandchildren. Walborg married Ralph Sattler and lives in Sidney. All their children, James, Gene, Elaine, Joanne, and Phillip live in the Sidney area. They have seventeen grandchildren. Ralph died in March, 1976. George is a bachelor and lives with his sister Olga on the ranch north of Miles City. Fred lives in Sidney as do his two sons Kenneth and Steve. JOHN M. C. AND OLINA OLSON MELLAND John Mathias Carolius Melland came from Rana, Norway in 1880 at the age of 18 years. His parents were Karolius Johann Jacobsen Melland (born 1835 at Hemnes, Norway) and Jonella K. Johnson (born in 1823 in Helgeland, Norway). Jonella received a student prize for being an exceptional student in school in Norway. They walked seven miles to attend church which they seldom missed. The Bible was about the only book they read. Jonella was very dark, small and witty. Her parents died when she was a child. Jonella's brother had a store at Hemnes, Norway which burned down, so Jonella worked out for five dollars a year, getting leather for shoes and wool for spinning. At the end of ten years she had saved $50.00. In those days in Norway (1850's) the men made their living by fishing. The women stayed at home, milked cows and made butter and cheese, knitted and sewed all the clothes for their family. Some cemeteries there have few men buried as many were lost at sea. The women baked flat bread and The John M. C. Melland Family. boiled down milk to send with their men. The men went out after Christmas and came back in the spring. They stored cod livers in barrels for cod liver oil, and ate the fish for food. Jonella married Karolius Jacobsen (Melland) in about 1860 in Norway. They had three children: John M. C, Anna and Jonella. At the age of eighteen, John M. C. decided to leave his homeland and cross the Atlantic to the promised land of the U.S.A. He landed in Fargo, North Dakota, going from there to Christine, North Dakota where he had an uncle, Nels Johnson who had come earlier. A man coming from Norway could take the name of the farm he came from in Norway, so John M. C. Jacobsen became John M. C. Melland. This solved the difficulty of so many Jacobsens already in the area. In a year he sent to Norway for his parents, Jonella and Karolius and his two sisters. After their arrival there he left his parents with relatives and went to Wolverton, Minnesota (just across the border) and began farming for himself. Landing in the same vicinity was a family from Dunna Island, Norway. They were the Ole Olsons. They had a daughter Olina (born 1873) and three sons, Ivor (1868), Hjalmer (1871) and Paul (1875). Olina worked for many families in that locality. She had an Uncle Lawrence Klabo Olson who disappeared while in the Norwegian Navy in the Far East. It was while working that she met John M.C. Melland and they were married in 1891. John M. C. kept farming, keeping parents and sisters with him. One sister, Anna, married a Scanlon and they or their descendants live in Peoria, Illinois. Mother Jonella passed away before 1884. Olina had a cousin who came from Rana, Norway named O. E. Rolvaag who became governor of Minnesota and also wrote a book called "Giants of the Earth." On March 9, 1893, a son, John Klabo, was born to Olina and John M. C. in one of the Red River's noted blizzards. Grandpa Jacobsen, as he was called, carried mail from a county post office "Ibsen" to Wolverton, about seven miles. He did not drive horses so he walked that distance both ways for a nominal wage. Olina Melland carded the wool from the sheep they raised and spun it into yarn with a spinning wheel. She then knitted mittens and socks for the whole family and also made what the Norwegians called "luga" for the feet which they wore instead of shoes or overshoes. They are layers of heavy cloth sewn to fit the foot, much like the Chinese peasants wear. Nine children were born in Minnesota. They were John Klabo, Ole Mathius, Constance Emelia, Christian Johann, George Klabo, Esther Marie, Nellie Dorea, Clarence and Julia. Agnes, Edith, Signe and Anne were born in North Dakota. The family arrived in 1907 at Buford, North Dakota. John (136) Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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