Recollections of Family Life as told by Stella Bremseth Johnson in the Year 1990

Mom and Dad were both bon in Norway in 1859. They were married in 1877 at the age of 18. They
were the parents of two children when Moms uncle, Enoch Anderson, who was living in Fillmore
County, Minnesota sent Pa a ticket to come to the United States. The reason Pa wanted to get out of
Norway at that time was because of the Draft. He and Ma had two kids and he didnt think he could
afford to be drafted into service, as his family would have on means of support. Because he was of draft
age, he used his brothers name, Ole, as Ole was too young for the draft and there werent any
questions asked by the authorities in Norway.

From Norway he came to Enoch Andersons, which is the farm right south of the Garness Church. Dad
had to stay here for a year to establish himself before he could send for Ma and the children. Uncle
Enoch had come to the USA much earlier. His children were the same age as Ma and Pa. He had quite a
few children: John, Edward, Art, Andrew, Bernard, Sophie and possibly another girl. Bernard was the
one who stayed on the home place, and he had 3 children: Orson, Evelyn and Curtis. His son Curtis is
now living on the home place. Evelyn, the daughter, is marred to Grant Redwing and they live in Mable,
Minnesota. The oldest boy, Orson, died. All of Enochs family is buried in the Garness Church Cemetery.
They are all buried in a line right up to the Garness Church. There is a great big stone with Father
Enoch on it.

Pa had been here a year before he sent for Ma and the two children. Uncle ole, who was still too young
for the draft, came with them. Ma always said that if Ole hadnt been along she didnt know what she
would have done, as the minute the ship got on the ocean she got deathly sick. She stayed in her cabin
in bed for the entire three weeks they were on the ocean, and uncle Ole had to take care of John and
Sarah. She wondered how in the world she would be able to get off the boat and take a train to Chicago
when they finally reached land. She was so sick, but the minute she stepped on land she was ok. She
said, The sickness just left me. They came by train from New York to Chicago and from Chicago to
Mable, Minnesota.

When Dad came, he didnt know if he should be a Johnson or an Olson, because his fathers name was
Johannas Olson, so when Uncle Enoch met him he said, this whole country is nothing but Olsons and
Johnsons, so why dont you take Berets name and be Bremseth. So, he did. When Uncle Ole came
with Ma he decided to be Bremseth too, as long as his brothers name was Bremseth.

I dont know how many brothers and sisters Dad had. I do know of two brothers and one sister, but
there may have been more. Christine Lunds father was a brother to Dad, and they looked so much alike
that every time Christine came down home to visit she would cry for 10 minutes before she could say
anything. Her father was till in Norway. Its believed that Dad had a twin and Christine always said it
was her dad, but Bertha says that he wasnt dads twin so I guess we dont know for sure.

Mom and Dad had been here about a year when Gilbert was born and then they had a child about every
two years. The first place they lived was called The 40. The, Dad rented a place East of Lenora and
they lived there for quite a few years. In the winter, Dad cut cord wood for 50 cents a cord. He said he
cut two cords a day, so he made a $1 a day. Thats all the money he had to support his family in the
winter, along with farming. In March, 1904, they bought the home place. I was the only child born on
the home place. Dad added to the house he built the living room and the kitchen. When Dad bought
the farm there was an old lean-to barn. Ill never forget that barn. Wed climb up into the loft and jump
down into the hay. I remember one time when the hay was pretty low, so there was quite always to
jump. There was also this big spike nail sticking out. Well, I jumped and this big spike nail caught my
clothes in the back and there I hung screaming. Bernie helped me down. I was lucky it was just my
clothes that got caught. I did get a little scrape, however. One Sunday Bernie and I were home while
the others were at church. I cant imagine why we were home as we always went to church no
questions asked. There must have been something special going on. Anyway, we sere home alone and
we were up in the hay barn rolling down the hay. The barn had just been filled with fresh hay and there
was a door that went into the barn where the cattle were. At the bottom of the door was a hole. Well, I
rolled down the hay into that hole-head first, and the hole was so small I couldnt do anything but stay
there with my head down in the chaff. Im sure I would have smothered if Bernie hadnt run like crazy
to get around the barn and open that door. When he opened the door, I fell right into the cattle barn.

Dads father (my Grandpa) also came here from Norway. His wife (my Grandma) had died and he had
re-married. So both he and his wife stayed with Uncle Ole when they came to America. Since both his
sons had changed their name to Bremseth, he thought he had better change his name to Bremseth too.
Way down in the corner of the Garness Church Cemetery is buried John Bremseth, my grandfather.

Some of Uncle Oles children are Lilly, Clara, Amy, Frances, Art, Russell, and Blanche. None are living
today. Lilly had two boys, Royal Rollins and Darrell Rollins. Both have passed away. Royal died from
pneumonia while in the hospital recovering from an electrical shock. Frances was married to Harry
Ingland. She died from gall bladder surgery in the hospital in Caledonia, MN. That was right around the
time the folks celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in the late 1930s. the Inglands had two boys
that lived around here Arden and Irvin. Irvin died a few years ago and is buried in the Hesper Church
Cemetery. Arden still lives between Prosper and Mable, MN. Russell Bremseth married Florence
Serfling and they lived in the area. Their children are Marian, Marvin, Mervin, Neil and LeRoy. Marian
married Richard Glenna and they live in the Highland Area, Marvin lives in Fountain, MN, Neil in Preston,
MN and LeRoy in Harmony, MN

John, my oldest brother, went to North Dakota and homesteaded near Minot. While there, he met a
Norwegian girl named Bertha and married her. Then, Sam went out to North Dakota and met Berthas
sister, Bella, and he married her. When Sam was in North Dakota, he wrote me a letter sand addressed
it to Miss Tulla Bremseth. When I was little everyone called me Tulla. (it means little bundle), but I
wasnt really fond of that name. When I received the letter, I cried and cried. I was soooo ashamed to
think of all the people who had seen the way he had addressed it. John was married for about 1 years
before his baby boy and wife died. After that happened, he pretty much just roamed the country. He
had a great interest in looking up relatives and actually found Christine Lund. John also found in his
family searching that Barbara Stanwicks grandfather and Dad were cousins.

Sarah, my oldest sister, was married to Jens Midge. They farmed for a while, then quit and bought a
grocery store in Praire Farm, Wisconsin. One day in the afternoon when she was in the store all by
herself as it usually was pretty quiet around that time of day, a man walked in. She was so shocked
when she looked at him, as right away she thought it was Dad they looked so much alike. He told her
that he and his brother had come from Norway and they were all alone. But, he said we do have two
cousins here in this country, but we dont know where they live. Their names are Arndt and Ole
Bremseth. She said, Well, my father is Arndt Bremseth! His name was Arndt Dahl and his brothers
name was Ole Dahl. They were named after Pa and his brother Ole. They both lived in Ellsworth,
Wisconsin. All this happed on a Thursday and the next Sunday Arndt Dahl and his family arrived at our
house. They came to visit regularly after that. But, the only reason we found them was because Sarah
had thought he looked so much like Pa. It was funny because Arndt did look just like Pa and his brother
Ole looked just like Pas brother Ole. Every summer, Sarahs children would come to our house and stay
so they could go to parochial school with us.

I remember family life as being pretty ordinary. We were never spanked, but we did get our ears pulled.
Bernie used to tease me a lot, and I remember this one time (this was after Clara was widowed and
came home to live with us) he was teasing me terribly and since the folks didnt spank, Clara really let
him have it and that really tickled me.

We always had Christmas together. The morning of Christmas Eve when I was 10 years old, Gilbert
called us from town as he and his family had just come from Saskatchewan, Canada where they had
been living. They came to stay with us. Alvin and Stella had gotten married in July and they were also
living with us. Clara and Bertha came as they were both working away from home. From Christmas
until the 1st of April we always had 19 to 25 people living there. Dad had to butcher a hog every two
weeks. Back in those days we had a lot of pork to eat. That Christmas I remember I got a beautiful doll
from Clara and Bertha. One of them had made a pink doll outfit and the other had made a blue doll
outfit. They always gave me such beautiful gifts when I was little. Of course we never got gifts from Ma
and Pa on Christmas, so getting their gifts was a real treat for me. Anyway, I got this beautiful doll. It
was the first doll I had ever seen with sleeping eyes. After Christmas, when I had to go back to school, I
said to Ma, the kids can play with any of my toys, but not that doll. I dont think I had been in school
for more than two days when I came home to find it all smashed. I cried and cried. I held the eyes with
the weight connected to them, as the doll no longer had a head for them to be in, for two days
(Saturday and Sunday) and every time I looked at them I would cry some more. I guess Mom could
never say no to anyone. The last time we had Christmas supper (lutefisk and lefse) together, there
was 65 of us. We had one table in the dining room and one table in the kitchen. We had to cook
lutefisk many different times. We always cooked our fish in a cloth in the dish pan. When we finally got
done, the fish waster was so thick and goopy. Of course the men always washed the dishes as the
women usually did all they preparing and serving. Anyway, Engmar had taken the dish pan and was
going to throw the water out, but somehow he slipped a little bit ad the whole pan of goopy water went
all over the kitchen floor! It was just like slippery glue. You couldnt walk without slipping and it stuck to
the floor so you couldnt just clean it up it was the worst mess ever!

We had milk cows on the farm, but Dad never milked the cows and Ma and the boys did all the milking
and she took care of all the chickens. Ma got all the milk checks and the chicken money and she kept
the household running with that. Pa tended his pigs. When he sold his pigs, that was his money to pay
debts with.

I remember one time when I was just a kid, Pa had bought a new churn. It was winter time and the
churn was always kept outside in the corner of the shed right off the side of the house. The churn was
only about a year old when Clara decided to churn butter. We had some cute little kittens running
around there at the time, and one of them had disappeared. Well, she went out to get the churn only to
find inside the poor little kitten frozen stiff. Arthur had stuck the kitten in there and put the cover on.
Clara scrubbed that churn until it was practically white inside and then she churned butter. Not one of
us would eat it. Pa said, Get it off the table. Pa took the churn down to the wood pile and cut it up for
kindling wood and bought another butter churn. I suppose if Pa would have eaten the butter, us kids
would have too, but since he wouldnt touch it neither would we.

One time there was a Basket Social up at the Durkin School. Clara was working over at the Blagsvedt
place at the time, but Arthur was still at our house. Mother had made baskets for Lydie and Alma, as
they were old enough to go. When Clara came home that day she said, Stella can have a basket too,
and she made one for me. Well, Arthur just had a fit because I got to go and he had to stay home. I
think I was about 10 years old at the time. He talked to his mother and Ma, but he didnt get any
sympathy, so he came to me and said, Stella, you know youre too young to go out at night. Anyway,
John said, You go ahead and make Stella a basket and take her along. Ill tell Ole Soland (and old
bachelor) what it looks like and then he can buy it. I said, No way. When we were at the social my
basket came up and sure enough Ole Soland started to bid on it and I started crying. I thought John
had told him to bid. Of course he hadnt and he didnt buy the basket, so all turned out ok. They had
Basket Socials every once in a while at the schools to make money. I remember once Carolyn Nelson
and I had a double basket. We were both around 11 years old. This was at the Elstad School. Alvin Rose
and Minor Johnson bought our basket and they were both grown men. When we sat down to eat our
feast I said, now help yourself dont be bashful. I guess I remember it so well because afterwards I
thought it was such a silly thing or a kid to say to grown men.

I met Leonard cruising (on foot) the streets of Highland. I remember that whenever he girls would get
thirsty (good excuse) they would have to go over to the milk house* to get a drink of water and of
course the boys would follow. (*Stella didnt go into detail about the milk house but I imagine it kept the
boys and girls pretty much hidden from their elders, so what went on inside WHO KNOWS!) All the
Choice boys would come there to meet the Highland girls.

Then, theres the time when I thought I was going to have my first date. I was 14 years old. Nels Nelson,
one of Bernies friends came over on Sunday afternoon and he asked me if I would out with him that
night. Of course I was just thrilled, I thought, boy this is really great so I said yes. Well, Bernie asked
Pa if we could all take the car. Of course Bernie knew that Pa would never give him and Nels permission
to take the car, but when Pa heard I was going too, he said ok. So, I dressed up in my best and then we
took off. We got as far as Lydie and Cliffords (about mile) when they made me get out. Nels had a
date with another girl and they had just used me to get the car. I cried and was I ever mad. Lydie and
Clifford took me to Highland so Ma and Pa never did find out the dirty trick they had played on me to get
the car. When I was finally old enough to start going out, my mother told me, I have taught you whats
right and whats wrong, so now youre on your own. Of course she thought dancing was of the devil so
I never told her if I was going dancing, but somehow she always seemed to know. When I was going out,
about 4 oclock in the afternoon she wouldnt pay any attention to me, but she would start to sing
hymns and talk to herself. She would say, Let me go nowhere where I cant take Jesus with me, let me
say nothing Jesus cant hear, and let me do nothing I dont want Jesus to see. I use to thing, cant she
once let me get away without this? She never said no, you cant go. She would do this routine
instead. One time I did get the best of her though. She used to always make me go and help Bertha.
Bertha was living on the Mackay place which was bout 1 miles from our home. Well, one day when I
came home from reading for the minister, she said, now you get ready and go help Bertha this
afternoon. I said, no, Im not going today, Ma. She said, Yes, you are. I said no, I dont want to go
today. She said, Well, youre going to just get ready and go. So I thought ok for you. I knew Bertha
and Joe were going to have a dance that night so I went and got a paper sack and stuck my good clothes
in and stayed overnight at Berthas. The first dance John Lingen asked me to dance and I said, John, I
dont know how to dance. He said, Well, you can learn cant you? So, I learned how to dance and
danced every dance that night. I loved it. On Monday, Ma found out about it and started to get after
me, but I said, ma, I told you I didnt want to go but you made me go.

Back when we were growing up, dances were held in homes, and Bertha and Joe had many dances in
their home. I remember one time this was when I was quite young, Martin Lewis was staying at our
place. The folks had friends, Chris Petersons, who lived in Preston, and thats the one place where they
used to go every now and then and stay overnight. Well, they had decided to go to Chris Petersons that
morning and stay overnight and come back the next day. They had to drive a team and buggy so it was
quite a long way and it was much more convenient for them to stay overnight. They no more got out of
the house and into the buggy when Bertha and Martin started planning a dance for that nigh. Sure
enough, they called around the neighborhood and people came and brought stuff to eat, etc. About
11:30PM that night the band was going lickety split and in walks Ma. She had had a premonition up in
Preston and insisted on coming home. She said in Norwegian Martin, I just figured you would do this.
Another time when they went to Chris Petersons they went on a Sunday and were coming home in the
evening. I suppose I was about 14 years old at the time and had never been to a show or anyplace like
that. Engmar had brought Clara over that Sunday and Alma and Alvin were home so it was just those
two couples and me that were home. They were wondering if the folks were coming back. I overheard
Alma say, If they dont get back, what are we going to do with Stella? Engmar said, Well just have to
take her along, we cant leave her here alone. Boy, I tell you I prayed they wouldnt come back and
they didnt. But, I didnt feel at ease until we got past the Durkin School House. I was so afraid we were
going to meet them and I would have to go home with them. So, we went to see a Charlie Chaplin
movie. I laughed until I thought I would die I had never seen anything so funny. That was big fun!

Everybody in the country thought Ma was the best person in the world. They thought Pa was
of a cranky, mean old guy but, I know he wasnt. Pa always said exactly what he thought you could
never accuse him of being two faced. I think Ma knew how to manipulate Pa. She always got credit for
everything they gave church, charity, etc. She would say to Pa how much she thought they should give
and he would look at her and say, Is that anything then, that isnt enough, and he would always end
up giving more than she suggested. One time when we were at home, Lydie and Bernie were giving me
a bad time because of Pa never refusing me anything. (They thought he gave me everything I wanted)
But, after a while my mother spoke up and said, Well, shes the only one of all of you 13 who every
asked him for anything. Nobody else ever asked him for even a nickel. It was always, Ma, ask Pa, and
she would have to do the asking.

Ma made beer 1 for the haying an harvest. I remember one time when our neighbor, Herman Keen,
came to butcher in the fall. They always saved some 1 for him, as he loved the stuff. They got through
with all the butchering of beef and pork and then came into the house. Ma was getting lunch ready and
Pa went down in the cellar to bring up the 1. Herman couldnt wait until he got that opened. Well Pa
must have shaken the cap off it went whoosh - - - all over the ceiling. He put his hand over the bottle
trying to save it, but that only made it go all over everybody standing there, and alas it was all gone! It
took the paint right off the ceiling and walls! We had to paint the dining room. I guess I laughed so hard
I was almost sick. She really made some powerful 1.
When Ma went to town she drove a horse, Dexter. He would be on his hind feet after them all the while
they were hitching him up to the buggy, (It evidently took more than one to hitch him up) The would
hold him until she got into the buggy. Then shed take off for town. She used to tell that when she got
into the buggy downtown to come home, she would have someone untie him from the hitching post
and off they would go all she could do was hold the reins and let him go. One time she clocked herself
and it took her eight minutes to get home from town. (I think Grandma must have had that Bremseth
ability to enhance the truth a bit)