Our community, Marion, N. Dak., 1900-1975: prairie to present

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library 2014
• Subjects: Clifford; Greenland; Homestead; Ida; Loren; Nona; Norway; Westminster
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/14844

Superintendent of the Magnolia Memorial Park and worked there until his retirement. In 1961 he married June Gillering. He passed away in March 1974. Jake and Ida had two children: Harriett, who married Arnold Kuska of Dickey and has 6 children, lives in Santa Ana, Calif.; and Donald, who lives with his wife and two daughters in Westminster, Calif. OLSON, ANTON AND MARIE Anton Olson, a pioneer of the Marion community, now deceased, was born in Gustsal, Norway, January 26, 1883. He came to the United States in 1906. In 1913, he was married to Marie Olson, who was born in Rockenvick, Norway. They were the parents of 10 children: Henry, married Violet Bruhn, 3 children, lives near Marion; Alice, Mrs. C.J. Kronebusch, 6 children, lives in Valley City, N.D.; Milford, married Alice Beckness, 6 children. Valley City, N.D.; Erma, Mrs. George Peterson, 5 children. Valley City, N.D.; Ardith, Mrs. Lovett Bruse, 3 children, lives near Marion; Helen makes her home in Fargo and has one son; Arthur, Valley City, N.D., has two girls; Louise, Mrs. Les Wicks, 6 children. Valley City, N.D.; Donald, married Lydia Pekarski, 2 children, lives in LaMoure, N.D. One son, Russel, passed away in 1940. Mrs. Olson resides in Marion. There are 34 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren in the Olson family. OLSON, HAROLD A. AND NONA Harold was born 7 miles west of Marion to John and Thea Olson. He married Nona, daughter of Oswald and Susan Bruschwein, in 1947, and they farmed west of Marion until 1966. They then moved into Marion and live in the former Ed Peterson home. Harold is employed at the Equity Elevator. Their children are: Noelyn, born in 1948, married 1972 to Dallas Anderson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Vernal Anderson, lives at Gwinner; Linda, married Craig Robbins, son of Mr. and Mrs. James (Rollie) Robbins, in 1972, they have one son and live in Rapid City, S.D.; Debra, married Loren Loose, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Loose Jr., in 1974, lives in Rapid City, S.D. OLSON, HENRY AND VIOLET Henry Olson, son of Anton and Marie Olson, came to the Marion area with his parents and family in 1928 from the Litchville area, where he was born. Henry worked on the Harry Bruschwein farm for a number of years. In Nov. of 1940 he married Violet Bruhn. They lived on the Edw. Bruhn farm for a short time, on the Clarence Trapp farm south of Marion for 4 years, then on Mrs. Anna Bruschweins farm, where they now live. They are the parents of three children. David Gene, who married Lois McLaughlin, and has two sons, Bryan and Travis. They live in West Virginia where he is an air ovality tester in the mines. Allen Henry is married to Fern Piehl of Marion and they have three children, Jason, Melissa and Jarrod. They live in Valley City where Allen teaches in the Valley City High School. Bonnie Gail is married to Gary Wieck who works for the Peavey Elevator in Valley City and they have two children. Cooper and Stacey. OLSON, JOHN AND THEA John was born in Norway in 1881 and came to America in 1903. Mrs. Olson (Thea Holt) was born in Norway in 1885 and came to America in 1887. They were married in 1905 and started farming in Benson Corners, then in 1909 they moved to the Marion community and farmed until 1947, then retired to Adrian and Harold continued on the farm. Their children are: Petra (Mrs. Julius Jesperson), Thora (Mrs. John Gamez), Doris (Mrs. Stanley Ried), Harold, and two older sons are deceased. OLSON, OLE A. AND EFFIE Mr. Ole Olson was born in Norway and came to the United States when a young man, following his father, Casper Olson, who had located near Preston in Ransom County, North Dakota, on the Sheyenne River six miles north of Fort Ransom. In 1890 Mr. Olson made a trip north, near the towns of Leal and Dazey, to work in the harvest fields and do threshing. Here he met Miss Effie Root who had moved there with her parents, Adelbert and Ellen Root, from the state of Michigan, to their homestead. In 1893 Mr. Olson and Miss Effie Root were married and in the spring of 1894 they moved to Greenland Township, where they filed on a homestead located on the N.E. % of section 34. They built a sod house the first summer, while Mrs. Olson worked for Mrs. Charles Baertsch. They occupied this home until the summer of 1903. Here their five children were born: Laura, Agnes, Pearl, Alice and Clifford. In the winter of 1902 and 1903 Mr. Olson worked in the railroad shops in Brainard, Minnesota; he was a good mechanic and blacksmith. After spending Christmas with the Root grandparents, Mrs. Olson and the five children moved to Brainard for the winter. When they returned, a frame house was built and the sod house had served its purpose. Mr. Olson served as clerk on the township board and also director on the school board. Ole, a good blacksmith, sharpened plow shares for the neighbors. They would often take over in the field while he did their blacksmithing or Mrs. Olson would replace him in the field. Mr. Olson owned a threshing machine and cook car and, as machines were scarce in those days, he had long runs of threshing. They charged by the bushel. He was threshing north of Litchville when he was taken ill with typhoid fever. He came home the day Andrew was born, October 16, 1904, and passed away November 2, 1904. Mrs. Olson stayed on the farm one year. With the help of her brother, she had the crops planted but the harvesting of the crop was done almost entirely by herself. She married Knute A. Bakke in 1906. OPDAHL, ANDERS AND JULIA AND ANNE Anders was bom in Norway in 1853. He came to America in 1872. His wife Julia (Myhre) was also born in Norway, and came to America at the age of 16. She made the trip across the ocean by sailing vessel, which took nine weeks. They were married at Marshall, Minn, in 1879 and settled on a farm near Minneota, Minn., where Anders had taken a homestead a few years earlier. Times were not too easy in that new country. It was prairie with no trees and fuel was scarce. People burned hay in their cook stoves and depended more on clothes than fire to keep warm. Grasshoppers were a scourge the first few years. They lived in a sod house until they could build a frame house, then it burned to the ground with most of their belongings. Four years later, when they had rebuilt the house, a tornado 104 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.