Stories and histories of Divide County

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library
• Subjects: Enevold; Esther; Great Falls; Homestead; Norway; Sortland; Nordland; Northern Norway
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/40496

I caught a glimpse of him as he remounted and spurred his horse into a gallop as he headed southward up the alley, and it was my understanding that it was after he returned to main street that townsmen opened fire on him. Just who shot him was never determined for they said several guns rang out. Perhaps the person pulling the trigger didn't even know for sure. I had never seen a man dressed in that fashion before. He had what looked like sheepskin on the front and sides of his trousers, and looked to be the same length too. These I found out later were chaps and were worn to protect the riders legs from trees and brush. Uncle said cowboys wore them, but I had never heard of cowboys. His friends vowed to conduct their own investigation, seeking out any information needed to get revenge, and that night they did knock at doors. However, nothing happened, nor was there any local inquiry made that I know of. That fall we moved onto our homestead, and it seemed like an event of great importance. Spring and summer of 1909 found uncle, with his four oxen, turning over fifteen acres of sod for each of us. It was a slow tedious process made even more difficult with so many rocks. But uncle seemed to thrive on work and we helped by picking all the rocks we could. A homesteader had to live on the land fourteen months, and having now done so we were free in 1910 to live where we liked, so Martha and Ole (she was now Mrs. Ole N. Gilbertson) made preparations to move to his farm. Uncle had purchased the SE1/4 of Sec. 6, and began building a house on it. When it was finished I would work for him. It was while we were all gone for the day that a neighbor set fire to a straw stack and it went out of control, heading straight for our shacks. Hadle Johnson, a neighbor on the north, saw all the smoke and when he got there Ole and Martha's barn was in flames. A cow, calf and some chickens perished, but he managed to save both shacks as well as the other barn wherein uncle's cattle were. In 1915 I married Herman Strand, who was also an immigrant. His birthplace was on the Sortland Islands in Vesteraalen Nordland, Norway, the 18th of September, 1883. He was the third of a family of eight and when he was old enough to do a mans job, like most of the neighboring men, engaged in commercial fishing. In northern Norway too, America held great promise so in 1905 he came to Fingal, N. Dak., where his brother Enevold was. He worked for a while on the railroad, on farms, or in the woods in Minnesota. He, also, had homesteaded, but in Montana where you were allowed to file on a half section. So there within three miles of Comertown we planned to make our home. Nineteen seventeen was a very dry summer, so when we had a chance to sell to a neighbor we did so, and moved back to my homestead in Divide County in the spring of 1918. This was our home until 1923 when we moved to my uncles in order to lessen the distance to school. When uncle returned to Norway in 1925, we bought this land and it is on this quarter we now live. Herman passed away in 1951, and since then my two sons, Melvin and Art, have taken over the farming operations. Violet's marriage to Harold J. Hansen took place in 1941, and they are presently living in Great Falls, Mont., where he is associated with the Montana Farmers Union Insurance. They have two boys. My intention of returning to Norway was never fulfilled, but this country has been good to me and I have no regrets. However, I have not forgotten about the land of my birth, and I find great enjoyment in talking to Norwegian tourists about present conditions in "gamle Norge." ENEVOLD STRAND-HISTORY Enevold came to America from Norway in 1904, and Esther Anderson came in 1907. They came to Fingal, North Dakota, and were married there in 1908. They came to Twin Butte where they homesteaded in April of 1908. Here three families lived in one small shack until they were able to get their own built. This was the Rasmus Gunderson, Carl Christianson and Enevold Strand families. They have nine children, Alma, Emma, Norma, Clara, Earl, Morris, Lillian, Berniece and LaVerne. They moved to Ambrose in 1914 but had his land for many years rented out. He was a Rawleigh man in Divide County all the time he lived here. In the early Mr. & Mrs. Enevold Strand 409 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.