Face the Facts and Live with the Truth: Memories and Thoughts of Ted Hovey

By Ted Hovey

Ted Hovey is a man of the twentieth century. Born to the second generation of immigrants from Norway; rooted in the American Midwest; raised in a broken and reunited family; moved frequently as a child; profoundly shaped as a young soldier; and anxious about the horrors of nuclear war. Hope is his favorite w

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Prairie Publishing
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781735060408

Ted Hovey

Ted Hovey earned his MFA at Hamline University. He served with the U.S. Army in Munich, Germany, from 1960 to 1962 - the period of the Berlin Wall Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the Army, Hovey worked as a CPA.

Book preview

1

HERITAGE

Norwegian Roots

Norway, land of my ancestors —

your blue skies, green forests, and blue green

waters were not enough. People left you forever.

What future did they see?

Norway’s farms — steep, stony, small —

they were owned by others.

Norway’s cities were filled with strangers and

factories — dark and cold.

Letters from America gave my people hope for

better lives.

Land was waiting — farms, flat and fertile.

Some weighed the risks and chose to go.

With God’s grace, good soil, new farm

machines and long hours working in the

fields and barns — they thrived in the USA.

I went to see where we came from: Selbu,

Tydal, and Hol in Hallingdal — my roots.

Real names, real places. I saw your mountains

and your fjords, your flowered alpine meadows —

your rivers and lakes — the sunshine diamonds

dancing on your waters.

Norway — land of my people.

You are part of who I am.

Roots

My roots are in Norway. All of my great-grandparents came from Norway, mostly from the town of Selbu, in Trøndelag county, near Trondheim. I am proud of my Norwegian heritage, as most immigrants and their offspring feel pride in their roots.

I’ve been to Norway three times. Each time I learned more about the history and the people of that mountainous country at the far northern edge of Europe. On my first visit, in 1962, I met my grandmother Ragnhild’s brother, Ole Syvertson. Ole had accompanied Ragnhild to the United States in 1905. He returned to Norway in 1909, married and raised his family there. Meeting Ole and his family was special for me.

* * * *

Geography

About 10,000 years ago, before the last ice age ended, Norway was covered by a thick sheet of ice. When the ice melted, it left over 50,000 islands, 450,000 lakes, and many deeply indented fjords. A few ice glaciers still exist.

Norway is in northern Europe. Looking at a map of Norway, it is shaped like a spoon and it is long — about 1,100 miles from north to south.

Map of Norway

Much of Norway is mountainous and not suitable for farming. Forests cover much of inland Norway. On Norway’s coastlines, many fjords project inland from the sea. Furs and fishing have been important parts of Norway’s economy for a long time, and in the twentieth century, oil was discovered in the sea off Norway’s coast. Oil made Norway a wealthy nation. My understanding is that Norway is committed to a renewable energy future for itself, and that much of the profits received from its oil industry have been reinvested in waterpower, wind power, and solar power as energy sources for Norway’s citizens and industries.

I remember being at the Varden viewpoint looking over the town of Molde — the fjord with its islands, and the famous Molde panorama with its 222 partially snow-clad peaks. It was a fantastic sight!

* * * *

Viking Age

Alone

Steinar stood upon the lonely rock,

shielding his eyes, looking out to sea.

On the seventh day after the raid, there was a storm.

His ship went down — all but he were dead.

Arnulf and the others were now in Valhalla.

Steinar had his knife and hand axe.

He had flints to start a fire — driftwood and dead grass.

Gone were thoughts of lesser things.

Gone were petty matters, who had more, and why.

Gone were memories of raids gone by.

Gone were worries about those who would be kings.

Gone were dreams of wearing golden rings.

Gone were cares for those he caused to die.

Steinar’s thoughts were only for his love.

To hold Sigrid again was his desire.

He looked out to sea, standing upon the stone.

In silence did he pray to the Gods above —

That they would save him — keep him alive.

Steinar waited, and he hoped, but he was all alone.

What we now call the Viking Age was the period from about 800 to 1066 A.D. The Norwegian Vikings used rivers and oceans to explore Europe for trading, raiding, and conquest. The first documented raid took place in 793 with a deadly and destructive attack on a Christian monastery on the island of Lindisfarne off the coast of northern England. Viking raids continued for over two and a half centuries, and they were responsible for laying the groundwork for the development of Western civilization.

• 840 — Norwegian Vikings found and settle the city of Dublin, Ireland.

• 866 — Vikings establish a kingdom at York in England.

• 911 — The Viking Chief Rollo founds the province of Normandy in France.

• 981 — Erik the Red discovers Greenland.

• 986 — Norwegian Vikings, led by Leif Erikson, arrive at Newfoundland in North America. They call their settlement Vinland.

In 995, the Viking King Olav Tryggvason built the first Christian church in Norway. For years afterward, Christianity and the old pagan Norse gods vied for the hearts and minds of people. Christianity won the struggle eventually — the King and Viking chieftains promoted Christianity and made life difficult for pagans.

I used to think that red-headed Norwegians got their red genes from Irish brought to Norway by the Vikings. I was wrong. It is more likely that the Vikings brought their red genes to Ireland!

In 1015 the North American settlement known as Vinland was abandoned. The long journey needed to trade with Norway for necessary supplies made it difficult to sustain the community.

In 1066, England’s King defeated Norway’s Harald Hardrada at the battle of Stamford Bridge, while William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Saxon King Harold at the battle of Hastings. Historians consider the Viking Age to have ended with those military defeats.

* * * *

Hanseatic League

One of my first acts of rebellion happened when I was in high school. My family took pride in being one hundred percent Norwegian, but I had read biology books on genetics at our school library, as well as the set of Compton encyclopedias that we had in our house. I learned that there were reasons to question what I’d been told: yes, we were one hundred percent human — but we were most likely not all Norwegian. Three historical events, in particular, tipped me off that our genetic makeup could be a mixture. First of all, during the Viking Age, the Norwegian Vikings brought female and male slaves back from their raids in England, Ireland, France, and the Mediterranean area. Then there was the Hanseatic League, a German trading consortium of northern European cities. After the Viking Era, Bergen, Norway, became an important trading center for the Hanseatic League. Fish and furs from northern Norway came to the port city of Bergen and were traded for grain. This arrangement lasted for about four hundred years, from 1360 until about 1760. Surely, there must have been significant genetic sharing between Germans and Norwegians during this period.

My family were not great communicators. I don’t recall them reacting, one way or another, to my heresy — that we were not pure Norwegians. They just looked at me, not understanding at all.

* * * *

Great Northern War

While Norway was controlled by Denmark, Sweden was the major power in the Baltic Sea region of northern Europe for over a hundred years. A series of armed conflicts took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and then came the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. An anti-Swedish coalition was formed in the late 1690s that included Russia, Denmark, and Saxony-Poland. Sweden’s teenage king, Charles XII, was considered weak, and there was a widespread belief that most Swedes were weary of decades of war. The coalition felt that Sweden was ready to be defeated militarily and her territory carved up by the victors. In 1718, the Swedish King Charles XII ordered his armies to invade Norway, which belonged to Denmark at the time. Swedish armies laid siege to the Norwegian fortress at Fredrikstad in the south and Trondheim in the north. On November 30, 1718, Charles XII was killed at Fredrikstad. With the death of their king, the Swedes were ready to sue for peace. Their armies in Norway began to return home. The 6,000-man Swedish army at Trondheim were mostly Finns, commanded by a Swedish general — Carl Armfeldt. As they made their way home from Trondheim, they lived off the land. Armfeldt decided to take the shortest route home, and that was through Selbu and Tydal. In mid-January 1719, Armfeldt’s men were caught in a blizzard on their way home to Sweden and Finland. Tragically, almost 4,000 men died on that trek.

Isn’t it probable that the Finnish and Swedish soldiers left a few half-Norwegian children in Selbu and Tydal?

The bragging about being all Norwegian was based on pride, and not to be taken literally. Yes, I am proud of my Norwegian heritage, but the fact is that the history of homo sapiens is the story of humans moving and mingling for over 200,000 years.

* * * *

Independence

Until the end of the Napoleonic wars, Norway had been united with and governed by Denmark for about 430 years. Denmark-Norway was an ally of Napoleon’s France, but upon Napoleon’s defeat, Denmark lost control of Norway. The Norwegian leaders met at Eidsvoll in 1814 and wrote their own constitution. Sweden was part of the coalition against Napoleon, and as part of the spoils of war, was granted control over Norway.

Sweden was a benevolent ruler and let Norway govern itself according to its new constitution. Sweden retained sovereignty over Norway, and thus controlled its foreign affairs until 1905 when Norway became completely independent of Sweden — Norway formed a constitutional monarchy, and a Danish prince was elected as the king of Norway. He took the name Haakon VII.

* * * *

Emigration

Trolls

Can we bring some of the trolls with us? I asked.

I wanted so much to have my friends come along

on this dangerous and uncertain journey to America.

Yes, you can, said father, winking at mother.

I helped them both, the trolls — Mathias and Sirianna.

They were afraid to leave the forest, afraid

to go out on the sea. But I loved them dearly.

Don’t worry, I said. You’ll be safe with me.

The bark Neptunus left Trondheim on May 5th, 1866.

We would be at sea for thirty-five days.

Each day I saved some food and water to share,

for my little troll friends relied on me for care.

Four hundred and two people left Norway

to make their lives in a foreign land.

Five weeks went by — excitement grew.

We’d land in Quebec, then to Minnesota we would go.

People and trolls arrived in Quebec on June ninth.

On the train, I checked my pockets — but alas —

the trolls were gone. I cried and cried.

Mother asked if I missed home and was I sad?

The trolls are gone, I said through my tears.

Mother held me tight, sighed, and winked at father.

They didn’t think the trolls were real.

* * * *

Between 1825 and 1925, about 900,000 people emigrated from Norway, mostly to the United States. Of those who came to the U.S., about 2/3 settled in the five states of the upper Midwest — most resided in Minnesota.

Why did they leave Norway? First of all, the population of Norway was increasing at an unprecedented rate. From 1801 to 1865, the country’s population nearly doubled — from 882,000 to 1.7 million. This growth in population, mostly due to a steadily falling death rate as a result of improved public health measures and medical care, placed a heavy strain on the labor market — there just weren’t enough jobs to provide a living for everyone. At about the same time, the U.S. Homestead Act of 1862 presented an opportunity for Norwegians, as well as immigrants from other countries, to start a new life with their own land. The Slindens, my maternal great-grandparents, arrived as immigrants in the U.S. in 1866, and in 1867 Haldo and Marit Slinden married and filed a homestead claim for a farm near Atwater, Minnesota. That farm is still in the Slinden family after more than 150 years.

My Hovey ancestors came later, in 1882, but were able to buy land and begin farming, also near Atwater.

* * * *

World War II in Norway

Norway was occupied by German armed forces on April 9, 1940. About 300,000 German soldiers stayed in Norway for the rest of the war. On May 5, 1945, after Hitler’s suicide, the Germans surrendered and left Norway. For over five years, the Germans maintained large numbers of troops in Norway, and life was hard for the Norwegians. I remember how glad my grandmother was when the war was over, and she found out that her brothers and their families were okay.

Mary’s Dad, Jennings Feroe, was a student in Norway when the Germans invaded. In May 1940 the Germans ordered the Americans in Norway to leave the country, and Jennings and the others had an adventuresome journey through Sweden, Germany, and Austria before reaching Italy, where the Americans were able to board ships to return to the United States.

An interesting fact: The mother of the Andrews Sisters, a singing trio popular in the United States during WWII, was born in Selbu.

* * * *

Selbu

Selbu is a community about 45 miles southeast of Trondheim, 300 miles north of Oslo, the capital of Norway. Today, the population of Selbu is about 4,100. About two-thirds of the Selbu kommune is mountainous. Selbusjøen, the 17th largest lake in Norway, and the Nea river take up about seven percent of the area. Woodlands represent another fifteen percent. Land used for agriculture is not a lot, taking up only three percent of the area.

Agriculture and forestry have occupied the people of Selbu for centuries. Also, from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, millstone quarrying occupied some of the people of Selbu. Millstones were used by mills in grinding grain into flour. Quarrying came to a complete end around 1914 due to competition from foreign suppliers, metal millstones, and roller mills. The Selbu area had about 1,000 large and small quarries situated along a relatively narrow thirty kilometer-long millstone zone, with the type of geology that favored the making of millstones.

Another distinctive creation from Selbu is the Selbuvott, the Selbu mittens. In 1857, Marit Guldseth, a sixteen-year-old Selbu girl, used two threads of yarn — one white and one black — to knit mittens with a rose pattern resembling an eight-pointed snowflake. Selbu knitwear is now popular and sold worldwide.

Selbu is a vibrant community today, with churches, schools, a newspaper, three museums, a modern hotel, and many small businesses.

* * * *

Visit to Selbu — 1985

There’s a joke in our family that goes like this:

Q: How do you get to Selbu?

A: You go to Hell and turn right!

All in good fun. You see, Hell is a town near Trondheim — where you literally turn right to take the road to Selbu. This was the place where two of my grandparents were born and raised. A third grandparent was born in Minnesota to parents from Selbu.

My first visit to Selbu was in 1985. Mary and I, our children, Sonja and Kari, and Mary’s parents, Jennings and Elaine, travelled together for this exploration of our roots in Norway. Jennings had been an American student in Norway when the Germans invaded in 1940. He had some fascinating stories about that time. He spoke Norwegian, and was valuable to us throughout the trip.

Voices in the car were telling me to pay attention to the road. My eyes were going from left to right, everywhere but on the road. My heart was accelerating. My mind was back there in time — back in the nineteenth century, when my grandparents and great-grandparents left Selbu to come to America.

I was taken out of my dream when my younger daughter Kari, who was not quite seven, yelled, There’s a troll, there’s a troll. I stopped the car, and backed up. Everyone was looking towards the edge of the forest where Kari was pointing. He was right there, she said, with a twinkle in her eye and a smile a mile wide on her face.

Okay, Kari, said Grandpa Jennings. Don’t ever lose that sense of humor!

Jennings translated for us. He explained who we were, and why we were there. I had a hundred questions for him to ask the people we met. I was disappointed when one man said to Jennings, Your people left, mine stayed — so what?

We visited the Selbu church we had heard so much about. We walked around the cemetery beside the church. We noted familiar surnames. I made a list of names, for future use.

The Selbu Museum was near the church. On display in the museum was a ski that had a bullet hole through it. The museum guide told us the story of how a Norwegian partisan from Selbu had a close call escaping from a German patrol during World War Two.

There were many artifacts in the museum from Selbu’s history. For example, in the early 1700s, during the Great Northern War, a Swedish/Finnish army came through Selbu on their way home from a siege of Trondheim. The soldiers caused much hardship to the peasants of Selbu.

We learned about the famous snowflake design used in knitting sweaters and other wool garments. The design originated in Selbu.

My family is proud to be Norwegian. But I used the occasion of the museum visit as a time to teach my girls something about diversity. I said the Norwegians of Selbu could be part Swedish, part Finnish, and yes, part German, because of the presence of the armies that had been in and around Selbu. I even kidded my older daughter Sonja, who is a redhead, that it was possible that a Selbu Viking brought a redheaded Irish woman back with him from a trip to Dublin!

We bought some books at the museum, and then it was time to leave Selbu. We were headed to Roros, via a steep and curvy gravel road, and we wanted to reach Roros before dark.

Oh, how I wish it could be possible to meet and talk with all of my ancestors, to ask them what life was like in Selbu, why they left, and about this, and about that, and …Wouldn’t that be interesting!

* * * *

Great-Grandparents

HALDO & MARIT SLINDEN

Haldo Olson Slinden, my great-grandfather on my mother’s side, was born August 12, 1842, at the Slinden farm near Selbu in Norway. He emigrated to the United States in 1866 aboard the bark Neptunus. Haldo was twenty-four years old.

Marit Pedersdatter Svinaas, my great-grandmother, was born October 17, 1844, in Selbu. She also emigrated to the U.S. in 1866 with her family aboard the Neptunus.

Haldo and Marit were married on May 2, 1867, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They had eight children, including my grandfather, Martin Slinden.

Haldo and Marit filed a homestead claim on a farm several miles south of Atwater, Minnesota. That farm is still owned by a Slinden family today.

Haldo died April 3, 1927 in Atwater, Minnesota.

Marit died shortly thereafter, on May 11, 1927 in Atwater.

They are both buried in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church cemetery east of Atwater.

Haldo and Marit Slinden

* * * *

A bark-rigged ship similar to the Neptunus.

* * * *

The Haldo and Marit Slinden family — about 1895.

* * * *

Here’s what my grandfather wrote about his family. Martin was the family historian and his farm became a gathering place for families and neighbors with roots in Selbu. Beginning in the 1920s, Martin suffered with arthritis, and by the early 1930s he was confined to his bed until his death in 1968.

Marit and Haldo Slinden Family

by Martin Slinden

My father was Haldo Olson Slinden, born in Selbu, Norway, on August 12, 1842. My mother was Marit Peterson Svinaas, also born in Selbu, Norway, on October 17, 1844. They both came to the United States on a sailing ship named the Neptunus. They boarded the ship at Trondheim on May 16th, 1866, and landed at Quebec, Canada on June 18th, 1866. From Quebec they traveled to Decorah, Iowa, by trains – riding mostly in cattle cars.

They spent about one month with some friends and worked at whatever jobs they could get. Father was very good to cut hay with a hand scythe, so he did a lot of that for an Englishman at Decorah. One day he had a big dinner of frog legs, thinking he was eating chicken. He liked them until he was asked if he wanted another helping of frog legs – suddenly he lost his appetite. Father and mother’s next move was to Spring Grove, Minnesota, where they spent about two months working on different jobs. Father worked on a barge on the Mississippi River. I remember father telling how he worked on a barge, shipping lumber on the Mississippi River. It was heavy work, getting 75 cents a day from just after breakfast until dark – all in the hottest part of the summer.

They finally came to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the fall of 1866. Father traveled to Meeker and Kandiyohi counties, looking for a place to homestead. He filed for an 80-acre tract in Section 24 in the township of Gennessee, it being the south ½ of the northeast ¼ of section 24. After father and mother’s deaths, this land was owned and farmed by Peter Slinden, and now is owned by Burton Slinden. Father and mother then spent all winter in Minneapolis in the company of about forty friends – all from Selbu, Norway. They lived in the same big apartment when not out working. They all pooled their income from the little work they could get to buy food and also for fuel and other necessities. Mother and another girl from Selbu both got work in a boarding house, and they were the first two Selbu girls to work in Minneapolis. In the spring of 1867, father and mother got married on March 2nd, and shortly afterward they moved out to the homestead in Kandiyohi County where they settled down in a dugout, or dirt cellar, as they were then called.

Marit and Haldo were married in Minneapolis in March of 1867 and became homesteaders with the rest of the family later that spring. They settled next to Haldo’s sister, Mali, who was married to Bersvend Samstad. They lived in a dirt cellar dugout for two years, and then built a log house that they lived in until 1889. At that time a house was built and they lived there until they built a home in Atwater in 1919.

There were eight children in Haldo and Marit’s family. Bereth (Betsy) was born in the dugout during the first year on the homestead. Betsy lived most of her life in the Atwater community helping care for her parents and in her later years lived with Martin and Ragnhild and their family for twenty years.

Peter was born in 1869 and died in 1878.

Ole was born in 1871. He married Helga Nelson and they farmed in Acton township in Meeker county. They had six children. Ole’s grandson, Donald Slinden, Sr., currently lives on the Ole Slinden farm.

John was born in 1874, He lived in North Dakota for a short time before failing health brought him back to Minnesota. John died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1909.

Peter H. Slinden was born in 1879. He married Anna Jacobson, and they lived on the Slinden homestead until 1946 when they moved to Atwater. Their son, Burton, lived there until 1984. Currently, his son Philip lives there. Pete and Annie were the parents of six children.

Gina Slinden was born in 1882. She married Ole Slind and lived in Plaza, North Dakota after 1906. Gina died at the age of 39 with two Slinden children surviving and one who died in infancy.

Martin Halan Slinden was born in 1885. He married Ragnhild Syvertson Lien on June 30, 1909, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Martin farmed in the Northwood, North Dakota, area from 1906 until 1910. In early 1910, Martin and Ragnhild bought the Art Davidson farm on the Meeker-Kandiyohi county line in Acton township. They were the parents of four children, Miranda, Haldo, Gillman, and Garvin.

* * * *

INGEBRET & INGEBORG HOVEY

My great-grandfather Ingebret Pedersen Hovey (Haave – aa or a with a circle over it, is pronounced oh in Norwegian) was born February 3, 1831, in Selbu, Norway, and died December 20, 1905. His father was Peder Berntsen, born November 30, 1794, and his mother was Berette Olsdatter, born December 23, 1799. Peder and Berete were married May 24, 1824. Ingebret’s grandparents were Ole Jonsen, born in Selbu in 1770, and Karen Olsdatter, born on March 7, 1777.

Ingeborg Olsdatter Olesen was born December 12, 1836, at the Fossan farm place in Tydal in the county of Trondheim. Her father was Ole Olsen, who was born in 1791 – and died in 1837, and her mother was Kari Olsdatter, born in 1802 – and died in 1852.

Ingebret and Ingeborg were married on December 1, 1859 in Tydal, Norway — the community next to Selbu.

Ingebret and Ingeborg had five children, all sons: Bernt (my grandfather), Peter, Ole, John, and Carl. In 1882 they all emigrated to the United States and settled in the Atwater, Minnesota, area. Later, Peter, Ole, and John moved to live their lives in other communities in Minnesota and South Dakota.

Ingebret Hovey died December 20, 1905, in New Effington, South Dakota.

Ingeborg died May 9, 1927, at the Hovey farm in Gennessee township, a few miles south of Atwater, Minnesota.

The graves of both Ingebret and Ingeborg Hovey are in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church cemetery, east of Atwater, Minnesota.

The Hovey family in about 1900.

* * * *

CHRISTEN & BOLLETTA CHRISTIANSON

I know little about Christen P. Christianson and his wife Bolletta Marie Anderson, my great-grandparents on my Dad’s side. They were the parents of my paternal grandmother, Mathilda Olina Hovey, nee Christianson.

* * * *

SYVERT & GURI LIEN

As with Christen & Bolletta Christianson, I have little information about the parents of my grandmother, Ragnhild Sjugurdsdatter Lien.

I do know that Ragnhild’s father’s name was Sjugurd Halverson Lien, and her mother’s name was Guri. One genealogical source I have showed that Ragnhild’s mother, Guri, was the third wife of Sjugurd (Syvert).

I went to Norway in 1962 and met my grandmother Ragnhild’s brother, Ole Syvertsen. But when I asked her later for details about her life in Norway — why had she left? What was it like? and so forth — I didn’t get much in the way of an answer. Those who knew Ragnhild Slinden will remember that she was a woman of few words. I didn’t press her.

As for her brother, Ole, in retrospect I am filled with questions that I should have asked him when I had the chance. I wanted to know about when he and Grandma came to the United States in 1905. I wanted to know why he went back to Norway. And many other questions. It was a missed opportunity for me. I was with his granddaughter Jorunn, who was fluent in English, and who acted as my interpreter.

Grandmother Ragnhild had another brother who lived in Lillesand, Norway. I don’t know his name or anything about him. Mary and I spent a night in Lillesand in 1973 — it’s a beautiful town on the south coast of Norway.

* * * *

BERNT & MATHILDA HOVEY

My grandfather, Bernt (pronounced Behrnt) Peder Hovey, was born July 17, 1871, in Selbu, Norway. He emigrated to the United States in 1882 with his parents and four brothers. They sailed from Norway to the port of Philadelphia, and then traveled to Minnesota.

Mathilda Olina Christianson was born on November 22, 1880, in Acton township, Meeker County, Minnesota.

Bernt and Mathilda were married on June 11, 1902. They had four children: Walter Nicolai (my father), Lillian, Irvin, and Chester.

Mathilda died on August 4, 1921, and Bernt died on February 3, 1943.

They are both buried in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church cemetery near Atwater.

Mathilda was active in her church. She was an organist, and she was president of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church Ladies Aid in Atwater, Minnesota.

Bernt Hovey’s U.S. citizenship certificate — 1898.

Bernt was a schoolteacher as well as a farmer. He taught in country schools in North Dakota and Minnesota before he married. He was also active in various civic and church organizations:

• Secretary of Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Atwater for eighteen years.

• Secretary of Acton and Genessee Mutual Insurance Co. for eighteen years.

• Secretary of the Atwater Creamery board for twenty years.

• Board Director of Land O’Lakes First District in Litchfield, Minnesota.

• Secretary of the Selbulaget organization of immigrants from Selbu

• Served on the school board of the District 75 country school for many years.

• Tax assessor for Genessee township in Kandiyohi County.

• Member of Orion Masonic Lodge #138 of Atwater, Minnesota.

* * * *

MARTIN & RAGNHILD SLINDEN

My grandfather Martin Halan Slinden was born July 23, 1885, in Gennessee township, near Atwater, Minnesota.

Martin