Something to Remember: A Family’s Journey Through Twentieth Century America

By Gerry Werven

A touching memoir about Marthin Werven, a Norwegian emigrant who settles in North Dakota at the beginning of the 20th century. As Marthin struggles to support his family during the thirties and forties he becomes dependent on his three sons. Lawrence would eventually leave the farm to serve in the Army during the Korean War. Later, a failing U.S. economy forces Lawrence to relocate his own family to Muscat, Oman where he becomes the first American to lead a convoy across the Arabian Peninsula. The lives of Marthin and Lawrence are told by Gerry Werven, who shares his memories of his grandfather and father as well as his own experiences growing up in Walhalla, North Dakota.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663237606

Gerry Werven

Gerry Werven lives in Rochester, MN.

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Copyright © 2022 Gerry Werven.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-3759-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-3760-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022905365

iUniverse rev. date: 03/22/2022

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

Verven

Chapter Two

Out in the World

Chapter Three

Clothilda

Chapter Four

Fields on Fire

Chapter Five

The Bush Place

Chapter Six

Little Orphan Annie

Chapter Seven

Valley of the Gods

Chapter Eight

Oman

Chapter Nine

From Whence We Came

Chapter Ten

Hugs in the Kitchen

Epilogue

For Adam, Emily, Tess, and Simon.

                         A century marks the passage of time,

                         of human events and activities,

                         accomplishments and failures,

                         dreams and expectations,

                         of children born and parents buried,

                         tears fallen and laughter shared,

                         spirits broken and then renewed,

                         of loves lost, but not forgotten.

                         —GW

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Matt Werven, Ralph Werven, Donald Werven, and Diana Yeado, who provided memories and invaluable research, and to my wife, Beth, and friend Bill McGann for their support and encouragement.

Introduction

It had been threatening to rain all morning. Standing quietly behind my father’s casket, I had hoped it would hold off until after his burial. Several members of the VFW, dressed in their uniforms, were waiting at the cemetery. These men, who, like my father, went to Korea as teenagers, were now in their late eighties, and the thought of them wet and cold worried my mother, who was certain they would all get sick. But almost on cue, as the pallbearers slowly began to navigate the church steps to where a gray hearse was parked, a gentle rain began to fall.

My father, Lawrence Werven, died of cancer on September 24, 2019. During the eight years of his illness, he had many more good days than bad, thanks to my mother, my two sisters, their husbands, and several grandchildren who lived in the same North Dakota town my parents called home for sixty-three years.

At his memorial service, I described my father as a man who believed in God and loved his family, but I did not do justice to the extraordinary person he was. I knew much about his life from the audiotapes he had recorded years earlier and stories he had told me about his family. So I began to write. But what began as a tribute to him became much more when I realized I could not tell my father’s story without writing about the people who shaped him and those, like myself, who were shaped by him.

This is a story about a family without power, influence, or prestige. And yet, their contribution to twentieth-century America was just as important as that of any explorer, inventor, or politician celebrated in the pages of our national archives. Their lives remind us of the unique role each person plays in history and the influence one life has on another. What is written in scripture is true for all generations: the meek shall inherit the Earth.

Chapter One

Verven

In the late 1800s, Norway still used a patronymic pattern for naming children. My grandfather, Marthin Kristoffersen, lived with his father, Kristoffer Olsen, and mother, Marie Eriksen, on a farm known as Verven near Brumunddal, thirty miles southeast of Lillehammer. Located on the eastern shore of Lake Mjosa, Brumunddal was a rural community surrounded by dozens of perfectly maintained farms sowed among the rolling Norwegian countryside.

Verven Farm was ordinary. The house frame and walls were made from spruce trees. Small windows, which kept the cold from entering the house during colorless winter months, were large enough to provide a view of the birth of new grass each spring. Thick sod covering several layers of birch bark rested on the roof, where a large chimney extended from a stone fireplace in the middle of the home. The interior furnishings were practical: a large kitchen table, chairs, cabinets, benches, and beds, all sturdy and handmade. Outside was a barn for goats and horses, a building for drying grain, a chicken coop, a pigsty, a cowshed, and a large garden with straight rows of cabbage, turnips, and potatoes.

Like most Norwegians, Kristoffer did not own the farm but worked for a landowner who paid him a small wage to live on the property and take care of the animals. He and Marie were good parents, attentive and caring, but they worked long days and relied on their