| Summary: | Mr. Gits passed away in 1950 and Mrs. Gist in 1951. Four children survive: Mrs. Jules Vande Walle, Noonan; T. F. and Vincent R. Gits of California and Mrs. J. L. Smith, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Joseph Gits a brother came to Noonan in 1914 and homesteaded 1/2 mile west of the Art Gits farm. He and his wife later in the year 1948 retired to live with his son Frank at St. Paul, Minn. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gits and their son are deceased. A daughter-in-law, one grandson and three great grandchildren survive, all living in St. Paul. OLE P. HANSON Ole Petter Hanson was born in Balteskar, Grovfjorden, Norway in 1865. In 1902, he filed on a homestead in Mentor township, near the Canadian border. There he built himself a farm home. In 1909 he was married to Anne Ringdahl at Minot. Mrs. Hanson was born in 1872 in Gudbrandsdal Valley in Norway and, at the age of thirty years, came to America. In 1902, she "took" a homestead which adjoins Noonan and which the family still owns. Her brother had homesteaded the quarter section just west of Ole's. The sister-in-law Berte homesteaded near Noonan where the Huwe family has lived for many years. A dear friend, Karen Standal now deceased, homesteaded near her, also, - the present site of Noonan. Among Mrs. Hanson's reminiscences, is one about the time when Anne and a girl friend, who was also living on her homestead with intent to "prove it up," were stranded in her sod "shack" for two days in a raging blizzard and could not get out because their door opened outward and snowbanks nearly covered the "shack," until some neighbor came along after the storm cleared and shoveled the girls out. She worked for Ragnhild Jensen and Annie Stenseth in the restaurant in Kermit for a time and, at the time of her marriage to Ole, Mrs. Hanson was working in the home of the Charles Rouse family who owned a very fine department store in Noonan. To the Hanson's were born two children: Olga, now Mrs. George Rait who still lives in Divide County and Martin, who is a telegrapher employed by the Great Northern Railway Company and lives at Wahpeton, North Dakota. They have two sons. Alton Dalager, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Lars Dalager, 'also grew from infancy to manhood in the Hanson home. (His mother died in the flu epidemic of 1918 when Alton was only four months old.) He died in the service of his country during World War II. Mr. and Mrs. Hanson continued to live on their farm until 1922, when they rented it out and the family moved to Mrs. Hanson's homestead adjoining Noonan. One of Ole's close neighbors and friends inMentor township was Nels Gausvik whom he knew in Norway. Another close neighbor and friend was Lars Dalager with whom he had an early-day threshing machine partnership, and I remember the delight and excitement of all when the threshing "rig" pulled into the yard and the housewives helped each other to cook for the threshing crew while it was there, and that could be a long time depending on whether there might be rainy or adverse late fall weather. One of Ole's early recollections was his having just bought a fine expensive team of horses (I think the price was $500.) when one day the skies looked so very threatening. His sister Emelia, a newcomer who was keeping house for Ole before his marriage, was frightened and decided to put the horses into their sod barn. A severe electrical storm progressed and, in spite of Emelia's efforts, the lightning struck and the horses were killed. Another time, much later perhaps about 1918 a "cyclone" destroyed the well-built barn which had replaced the sod one. Luckily, no one was injured, persons or animals. A fine new barn was erected in 1919. In an anniversary edition of the Noonan Miner long ago, someone wrote of Ole - "The success of Mr. Hanson in a new country is written all over his countenance and we daresay Mr. Hanson is one of the happiest men of the community." Ole Hanson died at his home near Noonan in 1953 and his wife still makes her home with the George Rait's. She is 92 1/2 years old. OTTO HUWE FAMILY Otto Huwe was born in 1860 in Posen, Germany. He came to the U. S. with his parents in 1866, settling in Sibley County, Minnesota. Emma Krueger was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1865. Her nationality was German. At an early age Emma, her mother and sisters moved to Ottertail County, Minnesota. In 1884 Otto Huwe and Emma Krueger were united in marriage at Douglas County, Minnesota. After their marriage they made their home in Minnesota for about eight years. In 1892, Mr. and Mrs. HuWe with their four children moved to Bristol, South Dakota, where they made their home until 1910. During the time they lived in Bristol nine more children were born, three of which died in infancy. So the family of four sons and six daughters were: (named in the order of age) Herman, Amelia, Emma, Louis, Lydia, Clara, Edgar, Grace, Leslie, and Rubye. In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. Huwe with Edgar, Leslie and Rubye left their home at Bristol, S. D. to come to Noonan to make their home. Mrs. Huwe, Leslie and Rubye came by train. Mr. Huwe and Edgar accompanied the two immigrant cars, consisting of one cow, horses, machinery and some furniture. Mr. Huwe purchased five quarters of land in Mentor township and settled on the northeast quarter of section 14, in a small two room house. After living here for a year they moved to the northwest quarter of section 26. In the spring of 1911, Mr. Huwe returned to Bristol and had an auction sale, and sold his farm and then brought two car loads of horses back. At this time Louie, Lydia, Clara and Grace came to Noonan to make their home. Clara worked as telephone operator in Noonan for years and Lydia taught school in several schools in Divide County. Herman and his wife came in 1912. Two of the sisters who were married, came to N.D. to live, before the rest of the family. Mrs. F. R. Harris (Amelia) lived near Kenmare and Mrs. Ernie Bowman (Emma) settled in Border township. Travel was with horses and they lived here for quite sometime before going to visit sister Emma. When they finally decided to go it took one day to drive the distance of twenty miles, to the sisters and her husbands place, and one day to visit, and one day to return. In recalling some of the first threshing done in 328 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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