| Summary: | solid walnut and cherry what-not shelves from wood he cured himself. He also used his creativity in helping friends and neighbors build barns, and many a young man learned the art of making proper forms and mixing the mud just right for foundations and other cement work. Linus now resides at the Senior Center in Napoleon, where he has continued using his many talents and especially enjoys reading and keeping up with current events. Hedda Persson Hedda Persson came to Kintyre, ND to visit her sons, Gustav Pearson, Linus Persson and Ivar Edholm (changed their names when they came to America). She stayed with the Gustaf Swensons, her sister and brother-in-law from 1920 until she went back to Sweden in 1924. She came back in a year or so because she missed her family and friends she had made and remained for quite some time. While here she was remembered for her ability as a master spinner and weaver, making many creative and artistic designs in her work. She returned to Sweden in her later years and was in her nineties when she died there. Gustav and Anna (Nelson) Pearson My dad, Gustav Pearson, was born July 15, 1884 on a small farm near Getinge, HaUand, Sweden, the oldest son in what would become a family of four girls and four boys. With much of the work done by hand, and no child labor laws, the youngsters soon got acquainted with hard work. There were equal rights, so the women worked side by side with the men—such as hoeing and thinning carrots, mangles etc., for livestok feed. In the harvest, the men would cut the grain with scythe and cradle while the women would gather the grain, tying it into bundles, flailing it, and winnowing it (throwing it into the air, letting the wind separate the grain from the straw). Much of the food and fiber needed for the home were raised on the farm. A few cows provided the milk, cream and butter. A few sheep for wool, a hog or two for pork, and some chickens were also raised. Flax was grown and processed for linen. The story goes, that Dad's father and his younger brother, on receiving each a pair of trousers made of home-spun linen cloth, thought they were a little too rough, so they went to a boulder in the woods, removed the trousers, and turning them inside out, one boy on each leg, pulled them back and forth over the boulder. After training as a blacksmith, Dad decided to come to America, where he had relatives. Borrowing money from his dad, he made a contract with the Cunard Line for transportation to Braddock, ND. But instead of bringing hime to ND, he was let off at Braddock, PA Ater some delay, he was on his way to ND where his uncle had been meeting the trains daily for several days, looking for someone from Sweden. He worked for his uncle for $200.00 a year, room and board. In 1905, he homesteaded on the NWVi Sec. 30-135- 74. Making necessary improvements, which included a dwelling in which he slept only one night, when a prairie fire destroyed it along with some hay, etc. He was away from home at the time, working with a threshing crew. (This was one way a person could earn some money as weU as get acquainted with the people of the community). He had a keen interest in the local politics, serving on the school and township boards as township assessor and on the church councils. (He took some flack for paying the teachers $90.00 a month). Mother, Anna Nelson, was the oldest child in a family of four girls and three boys, so she had to work both inside as well as doing chores, pumping water for cattle, milking cows, etc. There were no labor saving devices. The clothes had to be washed in a washtub on a washboard. The water was heated in a wash-boiler with wood, coal, or cow chips as fuel. School was held for a term of 3 or 4 months during the summer. (I'm not sure but what she got through the fourth grade). With free or open range for the cattle, it was to get on a pony and round them up in the evening after school, or herd them when there wasn't any school. Gustav and Anna were married Dec. 17, 1910. To this union Carl was bom. Life was not easy. Without refrigeration, meat had to be salted or canned. Mom often made the remark, "Oh if we only could have frozen the meat then." Rahrich January of 1896 Wendelin Horner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Horner of Linton came to WiUiamsport to get his marriage license. The weather was cold and stormy and he spent the night in the barn with the horses before returning home the next day. He married Johanna Fiest on Jan. 20. A sod house was built by Beaver Creek in Dakem District for the young couple. Mary was the oldest of five children raised by them. School was held in a summer kitchen for the children and those of the neighborhood. School lasted for two months. Mary attended six years and spent one year in a parochial school in Strasburg. Wendelin Horner, John Doctor, George Bosch and Jacob Moch bought a Nicholes-Shephard straw-burner threshing machine and threshed for the neighborhood for many years. Lawrence Elias Rahrich came to America from Odessa, Russia in 1912. He worked for his cousin, Mike Roehrich for a year to pay his passage to America. Later he joined his brother Joe in Ipswich, SD to work on the railroad. Wendelin Horner met him in Strasburg and hired him to work as a hired hand. He had no formal training in Russia. Mrs. Horner taught Page 209 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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