| Summary: | Mr. and Mrs. Nels Pederson with children, Mildred, Halvord, Asle, and Borgny. Halvord Pederson Family. Loretta, Halvord, John, Cheryl, Ruth. Kim and Marsha in front. in McKenzie County, North Dakota where a cousin, N.K. Nelson lived. He filed on a homestead on Horse Creek. He served with the U.S. Army during World War I and then returned to Norway in 1919. The following year he was married to Selma Engen and they lived there for 7 years. Their three oldest children Asle (Mike), Mildred and Halvard were born in Norway. In 1927 they returned to Horse Creek where Borgny was born the following year. Katherine Brodhead was midwife. They lost two children in childbirth. Later they moved to the East Fork of Horse Creek, where they lived until the government bought the land for the Cattle Reserve. They then moved back to Horse Creek where they lived until their retirement in 1957. Times were rough during the depression and school was always a problem. The first school Asle attended was the Horse Creek school (also known as the Heisler school). Here he began to learn the English language at the age of six. After moving to East Fork the children attended the Lanz school. One year there was no school, so Mr. Pederson hired a neighbor girl, Olga Oian (now Mrs. Morris Frazee, of Watford City) who had two years of High School, to teach the children for six months. The children thought they were rich as they said they had a "tutor" and only rich people could afford that. He paid Olga $60.00 and that was enough money so she could go back to high school and graduate. The children later attended Horse Creek school again. Learning to speak the language had its humor, too. Selma told of a man coming to the house one time while Nels was gone. He wanted to sell a binder. Because she didn't un derstand him, she kept shaking her head and he thought she was deaf. He kept yelling louder and louder, "Does Nels want to buy a binder?" When Nels came home that evening, she told him about it and she learned what those words meant. Another time Russell Brodhead came while Nels was gone, but Mr. Brodhead knew she couldn't understand English, but came in to wait for Nels to get home. He must have been trying to be friendly, so about every 10 or 15 minutes he would say, "Hammerfest" the only Norwegian word he knew. She really wondered what kind of character he was. In 1940 a cyclone passed through Horse Creek, which demolished their home and all their belongings, so this meant starting over again. The Pederson home was rebuilt three miles south. The Pedersons attended the Highland Lutheran Church with Rev. Svore of Alexander as Pastor. Services were held there every three weeks, weather permitting. Nels and Selma were musical. Nels played the violin and Selma the guitar. They played for many country dances. In 1956, Nels and Selma returned to Norway for a three months visit with relatives. The following year they retired from ranching and farming and moved to Sidney, Montana where they lived until their deaths, Nels in 1964 and Selma in 1966. Asle and Halvard both served with the U.S. Army during World War II. Asle served in the European Theatre and Halvard in the Pacific. Asle is married to the former Verda Brosten and they farmed in the Horse Creek area for a number of years. He is now self-employed in Sidney. They have five daughters. Mildred is Mrs. Todd Wilder. They have one daughter and one son and are also in Sidney. Halvard also married a Brosten girl, Ruth and they live on their farm south of Cartwright, the former Estes place. Their four daughters are Cheryl and Loretta in Williston, and Marsh and Kimberly at home. Their son was killed in a car accident in 1973. Borgny became the wife of Ray Simonis. They live in Glasgow and have a daughter and a son. o 4) ilk ^n iVsar Mr. and Mrs. Hagerup Hanson. HAGERUP AND JORGINE PEDERSON HANSON Hagerup Hanson, known as H. Hanson, was born in Fjare, Norway in 1879. He came to the United States in the early 1900's, to live at Big Timber, Montana. After six years he returned to Norway and married Jorgine Pederson, a sister of Nels Pederson. They lived in Norway one year before returning, this time to work at the Johnson Ranch < now the Van Cleave Ranch) near Melville, Montana. In the spring of 1911, they moved to the Horse Creek (159) Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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