Person Page 48

The children of Jorgen's first marriage continued the name of Jorgensen or Jorgenson, but between 1901 and 1906 Jorgen changed his name to Jorgen Nelson, so all the children of the second marriage carry the name of Nelson.

He is the second "J" in the title of this history.

Jorgen acquired the Gaard (farm) at Stenderup, Forling Sogn, 2 Danish miles north and one-half mile west of Ribe, where their three sons and one daughter were born. Jorgen traded the Gaard in Stenderup for a grist mill in Aare. The operation of the mill was not successful so then Jorgen emigrated to America.

The debts that were resulting in the closing of the mill at Aare were later paid by funds sent to Denmark from Jorgen Nelson in America. This information has been verified by Chris L. Christensen, 101 S. Plum Street, Vermillion, South Dakota in that Jorgen sent money to his father in Denmark to pay the creditors. This, the senior Mr. Christensen did. Chris Christensen's father accompanied Jorgen to the ship at Esbjerg when Jorgen migrated to America in June, 1886.

That the debts in Denmark resulting from the closing of the mill had been paid was also verified in a personal visit with Mrs. Krsten Marie Christensen and her son Peder Gabriel in Vejrup.

Upon Jorgen's arrival in Dakota Territory, he worked for Soren Mortensen, an extensive landowner at Gayville. Mr. Mortensen was married to a sister of Jens Nielsen who was Jorgen's half-brother. Maria, with their two children, followed Jorgen two months later to America. Peder Kristesen took her to Hamburg, Germany to the boat on August 29, 1886. She came "lykkelig" to New York on the 18th of September and was met and stayed with her husband's half-brother Jens in Brooklyn. The children were both sick with typhoid fever contacted on the ship, and Susanne died on October 29 and Gabriel died two days later on October 31, 1886. They were buried in one grave on November 1, 1886, in Brooklyn.

Maria often spoke of her first contact with American food. As she carried one sick child and a suitcase and held the other child by the hand, a woman gave her two doughnuts and coffee. It was oh, so good! Maria continued on to Dakota on November 2, 1886. She was lonely the first weeks and months in Dakota. She would walk to meet Jorgen as he came from the work of cutting wood and logs at the Missouri River in connection with his work for Soren Mortenson. Jorgen would encourage her to look to the future rather than the past.

In his urge to accomplish things on his own, Jorgen moved to a farm in Riverside Township, Clay County, where Gabriel was born. On June 23, 1890, he bought the farm in Pleasant Valley Township, Clay County, that was to be his home and that of his family for many years. As of 1968 it was still owned by the widow of his son Herman. The Register of Deeds' records in Clay County show that Jorgen paid $35 to Charles Bowlen and Jennie Bowlen on June 23, 1890. The same day Jorgen and Maria gave a mortgage to the Bowlens for $3,000. The mortgage carried interest at 8% with the provision that insurance must be carried on the buildings for $200, and there would be a $50 penalty for default, for expenses of foreclosure, etc. The mortgage was satisfied on February 28, 1990. The description of the land purchased is

W ½ Lot 1 NE ¼ Sec. 2, 94, 52
E ½ Lot 1 NW ¼ Sec. 2, 94, 52
SW ¼ of SW ¼ Sec. 2, 94, 52
E 1//s SW ¼ Sec. 2, 94, 52
SW ¼ SW ¼ W ½ SE ¼ Sec. 2, 94, 52
NE ¼ NE ¼ Sec. 11, 94, 52 320 acres

One summer Jorgen gave his wife Maria four hundred dollars to spend either for a trip to Denmark or build an addition to the house. She chose to add rooms to the house.

Kathrine Nielssen Ebbesen tells of the relatives and friends in Denmark looking forward to a visit from Jorgen and Maria to their homeland in 1906, when the news came that Jorgen had passed away.

At the passing of Jorgen in 1906, Maria was left with six minor children to rear. In addition to supervising the farming, she raised many chickens, geese, and there was always much hand-milking. A weekly (and sometimes more often) trip to Wakonda with two 30-dozen each egg cases tied to the back of the buggy and a ten gallon can filled with cream in the seat was a regular occurrence. Maria's homemade butter was awaited at the stores. From these auxiliary farm products, a constant credit of $30 to $50 was maintained at the Corner Store and at Babbs in Wakonda.

In preparing butter, the cream had to be just right. It was a big day when a barrel churn was brought into the home to replace the "old-fashioned" stomp churn of an earthen crock with a wooden paddle and long handle to stomp up and down. In the "new" barrel churn, the children merely took turns at turning the crank. To be sure, they did not neglect to watch the small glass window that indicated when the cream had changed to butter.

When it became cold, usually just before Thanksgiving, demand for fresh fowl for the table, chickens and geese were systematically packed in large barrels and shipped to Chicago. Strange Brothers Hide Company was a popular market, but there was competition. These were a big family projects in which Chris and Gertie joined from their farm two and a half miles away in Riverside Township. The chickens had to be punched and bled back of the ear so the head could be left on, but tucked under a wing when packed tightly in a barrel. Each chicken was held by the feet and the head dipped in a large copper clothes boiler that contained boiling water, kept boiling by a hand-stuffed wood and cob range. The feathers were then removed by hand, being careful not to damage the skin. About sixty to eighty fat chickens were packed in each barrel.

Geese were handled similarly, but they were picked dry. The soft feathers were hand-plucked. They were very light and any draft would send them fluttering. The down from these geese graced homemade pillows and feather beds for many years. Since there was no commercial refrigeration it was a hurried project to get the foul to the market before spoilage. The weather was an important factor.

Wheat was the major product on the fertile bottomland on the farm. In the late summer a threshing crew of 12 to 20 men would work sometimes for a week or more in getting this crop ready for market. "Cooking for threshers" was a big time. Daily trips to Wakonda with Flory and Bird, the stand-by small horse team, were made to buy roasts and other supplies to supplement the menus of chicken, garden vegetables and dairy products from the farm.

There was no electricity so kerosene lamps were polished and cleaned regularly.

A loaf of bread was never purchased in the stores. Surely those who bought bread were extravagant. Wheat was hauled to the mills at Centerville or Bloomingdale for a credit to be traded out later in flour as needed. There was always plenty to eat, yet every crust of bread was given the highest respect. There was no waste of food.

There was feeding of cattle, many of which were "home-grown." Memorable to Marie is the time in 1912 or 1913 when she and a neighbor sat on the front porch with her brother Peter who was ill with tuberculosis and watched the other brothers drive on horse-back two or three train carloads of fat cattle to Centerville to the train for shipment to the market.

This all required constant hard work, but there was also much joy and memorable fellowship interspersed. The home seemed to be the gathering place for neighbors to play cards in the winter and croquet in the summer. There was time to go fishing in the Vermillion River for catfish, bullheads and the more plentiful but not desirable carp. In the winter there were skating and skiing parties, with hot cocoa afterwards.

Homemade ice cream was not a rarity, and this was sometimes combined with a church social and outdoor singing games on the lawn where a tent had been set up including table and benches for the serving of ice cream, cake, and pie.

In the winter time, gatherings would be held when indoor games would be played in the parlor, and in the summer singing and action games were played in the yard followed by a bounteous lunch. Friends ever felt welcome in the Nelson home.

This and many of the other reminiscences later under the Niels Jorgenson history have been provided by Carl and Camilla Tvedt.