| Summary: | JENS BRAATEN Jens Braaten was born in Norway. He was married to Birgit Smette, December 4, 1872. In 1898, they arrived in Upham where they homesteaded. There were fourteen children in the Braaten family, seven are surviving: Halvor, Congress, Sask., Canada, Henry, Lynden, Wash., Calmer, Selmer, Mrs. J. R. Jurgenson (Sena), Mrs. 0. M. Anderson (Tena), Upham and Christ of Buford, N. Dak. Mr. and Mrs. Braaten came to Towner on the train from Belmont N. Dak., coming to Upham where they built their claim shack. They returned to Belmont to put in the crop and in the fall moved back to Upham with their cattle, machinery and horses. When they came to Towner, they tied the horses to the lumber wagon and came to their claim. Nearing the claim, they noticed that the shack was gone. It had blown into the coulee. With the help of good neighbors, the shack was soon put up again. They started to break the land with a sulky plow and a team of horses and oxen. In the spring of 1902 the crop of flax he seeded froze so they had to reseed. Ingeman Smette and Jens drove to Towner to get seed and when they got there it was gone. They drove with horses to Granville, no luck their either, so then they drove to Velva and finally got ten bushels from farmers there. They started for home the next day. One spring Jens and Birgit drove to Towner with a light wagon and horses. After doing their shopping they started back home, but decided to visit with some friends from Norway, namely, Ole Andersons, northwest of Towner. They spent the night and the next morning the ground was white with snow and it was storming, but they had to get home as the children were alone. Borrowing a sleigh from Ole, they set out for home,'becoming lost in the storm and not knowing where they were. After driving a long time, they came to a haystack, dug themselves into the hay and went to sleep. The next morning they discovered that they were sleeping in their own haystack, a half mile away from home. SIGURD SWANSON Sigurd Swanson was born in Iceland. He was married to Margaret Swanson who was also born there. The Swansons came to Upham in 1898. They lived on their homestead until 1902, then going to Canada and returning four years later. They farmed east of Upham, until 1916, when they moved to Upham to make their home. There are four of the six children surviving: J. K. Swanson, Upham, N. Dak., Mrs. B. K. Bjornson (Anne), Fargo, N. Dak., As- mundur, Blaine, Washington, and Mrs. Bert Bell (Helga), Upham, N. Dak. Mr. Swanson passed away in 1934 and Mrs. Swanson is now making her home at the Old Folks Home at Mountain, N. Dak. Swansons belong to the Melankton Lutheran Church. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited in Multi-page TIFF Editor.
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