| Summary: | He lived with the Nels Holms until 1919. He was a partner in the Ekren Hardware store in Kensal. Haakon purchased the present farm 2Vi miles south of Kensal in 1923. Later a number of evergreen trees were added along with a shelter belt. Haakon also bought the George McKenzie farm in the 1920's. Haakon Jr. now lives there. He took over the farm in 1957. Haakon Sr., also had a section of land in Nogosek township. Mr. Ekren represented Stutsman county in the N.D. legislature from 1943-1953 and was active in the Republican party in the county and state. He served as Kensal township assessor for 34 years, and was a member of the township and Kensal school boards several different years in the 1930's and 1960's. He was a Mason and a member of the Shriners' Lodge. Mr. and Mrs. Ekren built the Kensal tow mill in 1947-48. It is still an attraction, as it is always well kept up by Haakon "Buffa" Ekren Jr. Haakon Sr. in the early days sold Delco Light Plants to numerous farm homes from Glenfield, McHenry, Melville, Juanita, Carrington, Courtenay and Kensal, long before rural electrification came to the community. He put up dozens of windmills, including all the Holms brothers, Nels, Andrew, John, Lars and Swan. These men were all original homesteaders of their farms. They came from Sweden. Nels was born in 1857 and Lars was the oldest. I have heard Haakon tell about his brother-in-law, Nels, when they needed supplies like flour and such staples, they walked to Jamestown and carried the flour on their backs, took off their boots, threw them over their shoulder and forded the river (James River) I believe. Who today would walk to Jamestown over the prairie, no roads, and carry home a sack of flour? Carrington did not exist. Lumber was brought in from Melville with which to build homes. Haakon married Maybelle L. Nelson in Fargo, N.D. They have four children. Mrs. Robert Lovell of Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. John Fisher (Anna Marie) Milton A. Ekren and Haakon M. Ekren Jr. of Kensal. Maybelle Nelson Ekren came with her parents from Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1911. She and three borthers, Clayton, Raymond and Russel at that time. Mr. Nelson came the year before and had a home on the George Brewer farm. Mr. Nelson had been a great northern railroad engineer before coming to Kensal. After coming here he was engineer on threshing rigs and did custom threshing. Elbert lost his leg in seperator accident in 1910 while threshing. He fell through the feeder on a wooden seperator. Mr. Nelson also was a windmill engineer. He put up mills and serviced them all over the territory. It was on a business trip of putting up a mill at Davenport N.D. that he lost his life in May 1932 at Valley City. There was a 90 degree hill there then and he swerved his truck to avoid hitting a little lady in a car coming down the hill at a terrific speed. Nelson could not brake the ford truck so it was out of control. Four more children were born to the Nelsons before this sad time. Robert "Pat" who is a Lutheran minister at White Bear Lake, Minn. Jessie Nelson Rosen Dahl, a retired army nurse and teacher in Minneapolis. Gordon "Mike" Nelson at Kent Wash, and Lee Ann Nelson Roebeck Krueger at Madison, S.D. Mrs. Nelson passed away when Lee Ann was born in 1922. She was adopted by August and Hattie Roebeck (old family friends of Anna and Elbert Nelson while they lived in Minn.) Lee Ann became a teacher and lives in Madison. Clayton Nelson, (oldest of the first four Nelson children) became a navy man. He was Admiral Richard E. Byrds Engineer on the Bear Ship to Antartica (Little America) they and the crew were there from 1939 to 1940. In the war at Pearl Harbor, Clayton, now Lt. Commander in the navy, Captioned the Submarine that went down on the 4th of July and never was located, in 1944. Mr. Ekren passed away in June 1977. Maybelle Ekren now farms alone with the aid of Haakon Jr. and grandsons Dean and Kelly. Mr. & Mrs. Dean Ekren Dean, son of Buffa and Marlene Ekren, married Brenda Rindy of Carrington on October 11, 1980. They have two children, Dustin Dean, born August 4, 1982 and Andrew Haakon, born January 14, 1985. Dean and Brenda are engaged in farming. Dean recently became a partner in the Kensal Lumber Company. Brenda is a cosmetologist. Dean is a private pilot and enjoys hunting, fishing, running and most sports. Brenda's hobbies include bowling, hunting, sewing and craft projects. Olaf A. Ekren Olaf Ekren arrived in Kensal in 1904. He had left Norway in 1901. The intervening years were spent in England, where he served a medial doctor as a coachman. This time helped him with knowledge of the English language which would help him in missionary work. Two sisters had preceded him to America. One settled in Kensal with her husband who set up a hardware store. Olaf worked here for 6 years, then started to buy land. In 1911 he traded his land for a hardware and machinery business in the Bottineau area. Ekren returned to Kensal in 1915 which he called a "rough place" with hoboes and transients ane there was danger of being shot. He was still in the hardware business having purchased the store from his brother-in-law. Rapid expansion came in the thirties. By 1934 Ekren had acquired the John Deere and Chevrolet dealership. Mrs. Ekren assisted her husband in the business as bookkeeper. He also owned the Christopherson building. He had become a businessman rather than a missionary but he did not abandon his Christian principles having been Sunday School Superintendent for 30 years at the Kensal Methodist Church. At a two day dispersal auction on July 19-20 in -70- Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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