Person:Hans Hermansen (2)

Memories of the Hermansen Family

Taken from a tape recorded interview at Minnie’s home in Ogden, Utah on August 2, 1979 Source: Booklet arranged by Althea Sylvester Southwick- in possession of Karl and Diane Furr (as of 2006.) Typed by Holly Goodman- Spelling, punctuation, etc. are as in the original.

Q: “What were your memories of and your relationships with your parents, brothers and sisters?” Thoughts on Parents A: (Minnie) “I have good memories of our family. I don’t remember being a quarrelsome family at all, and even though conditions and circumstance made it so that we could not be close together, I feel we still had concern and care for each other. I think the girls had a special love for each other and we still do. My parents were good, honorable parents. My father was known by all because of his honesty. His word was his bond in all dealing with his fellowmen. It was said that if he made a remark in church, he really knew what he was talking about. He never held any church positions of significance, but he paid his tithing down to the dime, even over the resentment and criticism of my mother and family. In the end, he found the inner peace that is the search of all who journey on this earth. He left a good character, clean moral living, and an honest life as a legacy for his descendants. I used to sneak out to the blacksmith shop and talk to my father. He was typical of the village blacksmith. Those sparks would fly out of the door when he was hammering and shaping the steel. It used to frighten me and I would run out until he took a break. I would play one parent against the other and I always knew that father would be on my side. I always felt that father was more modern than mother. I wanted to get a girdle like my friends and mother wouldn’t let me have one. She said, ‘No you can’t have a girdle because it cinches you up too tight and that is not good for your growth.’ I thought, ‘What do I care about my growth?’ I went out to father in the shop and asked him if I could have a girdle. He said, ‘A girdle, what’s that?’ I proceeded to explain what a girdle was. He said, ‘Well, what does your mother think?’ I said, ‘She thought I shouldn’t have one because it would hurt me. It would be bad for my growth. But all my friends are getting girdles because it makes their dresses hang so nicely.’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t know that that would hurt you. You can go down to the store and get you a girdle and charge it.’ We always had a charge account. When I needed a new pair of shoes, I would never go to mother because I knew that the shoes that she would buy for me would be too substantial. I would go out to father in the shop where he worked late in the evening. He would say, ‘What size do you wear?’ Then he would take a stick and measure my foot to see what length I would have to have. I would get him to go down and buy my shoes after work. He always brought some nice ones home from the store on approval. One time he brought two pair of shoes home for me to look at and decide which pair I wanted. I remember that one pair was a pair of gun metal shoes and the other pair was soft kid with velvet inserts in the sides and they were beauties. I tried them on and they were a little too small, but not for my head. I chose the kid shoes. The next day was Sunday. I wore them to Sunday School and I have never had so much misery in my life. I knew I had to wear them. When Sunday School was over, I changed into my old shoes. When they asked me what I had done with my shoes, I said, ‘I’m keeping them so they will be pretty.’ I kept trying them on and wearing them until finally I got them stretched out so that I could wear them. I used to sneak out to ask my father for a Sunday nickel. He would say, ‘I’ll give you a Sunday nickel, but don’t tell the rest of the children because I haven’t got that many nickels here today.’ Father favored me all along and I knew it. He was always more understanding on things like that and I could always talk things over with him. I didn’t understand my mother very much. I remember one simple little thing that happened with her and it touches my heart to look back on it. My bothers and I used to go to school together. I remember coming home and sitting out on the back porch and singing, ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed’. My mother came out to listen to us and the tears rolled down her cheeks. I thought, ‘What is she crying for?’ It is touching to me now as I reflect back upon it. Those memories never fade from a child’s mind. Mother had little or no education and I remember my sister, Marie, challenging her in her reading. Marie said to her one day, ‘Mother, I don’t believe that you can read and explain what you have read.’ Marie then read mother a quote from Shakespeare. She gave one of Shakespeare’s quotes to mother to read. Mother read the quote and told her the meaning of that paragraph.” A: (Delilah) “We were a large family with parents that set a good example for us. I love each and every member of the family. We were not all perfect. We were human and we had our little conflicts like other families. We had our different personalities. I can tell you a little about our parents and each brother and sister if we take each one separately. I felt that our parents were a lot more protective and tender with their boys than their girls in a way. I felt that the boys were not made to take responsibility like they should have. My parents were good parents and they did the best they could and I don’t feel I should be critical of them just because I didn’t agree or see things the way they did. We didn’t have much and we were taught to work early in life and it was probably a good thing, because it taught us to cope and accept life.” Thoughts on Marie (Oldest Sister) A: (Minnie) “Marie was my oldest sister and also the oldest child in the family. I learned to love her with love that grows bigger with my age, maturity, and learning experiences in life. I was at the age where I was running around with girls and the only thing that we had on our mind was being popular and having a good time. I feel that Marie changed my attitude and life at a very important time. When I was in the eighth grade, my parents and family moved to Venice, Utah. After attending school there for a week, I refused to go to school there anymore. I wrote to Marie and asked her if I could come down and stay with her. She talked it over with her husband, John Dastrup, and wrote back and said that I could come and live with them. I was fourteen or fifteen years old. Marie required you to conform to her rules and values, but at the same time, she was the most generous and liberal person I have ever known. She had a lot of pride and she cared very much about my appearance. When I first arrived, she said, ‘You have got to have a new wardrobe to go to school. The crowd that you will want to be with is well dressed and you’ve got to look like all of these girls.’ She sat down and made me some new dresses, even though they didn’t have too much at that time. When I got into school, they had a lot of school parties. If you were asked to go to the parties, you had to bring a cake or furnish something. Marie told me to always tell them that I could bring a cake. I sensed very much that she wanted me to be in with the best crowd. I lived with her and their family until the day I was married, seven years later.” A: (Delilah) “My sister Marie was a very generous person. At the time of my birth, she had lost a baby boy at birth. My parents were moving to Idaho and they had very little. She came to my parents and gave them her entire baby trousseau. My first baby clothes came from my oldest sister, Marie. Marie felt the responsibility and concern for the family more like a parent than a sister. She was always concerned about how we were dressed and she would make dresses for me and for Christie. She did not have the even temperament like Sarah and she was quick to flare and she said what she thought. She could be very critical. As a high school girl, I felt she was too critical with me. Yet she would make it up with her love and generosity. Marie had a daughter, Leora, who was just a year younger than I. When we were teenagers we used to attend the dances. We also celebrated the Fourth of July and other holidays together. Marie made holidays a special thing. In our home, holidays were not that special. We were remembered with some small item or little thing. When I was about ten or eleven years old, Marie invited us to her place for Christmas and they really celebrated. Our stockings were hung up and filled with popcorn balls and all kinds of things that we were not used to having or even thinking about. I really liked this and thought it was a real holiday. I always looked forward to being with her family at that time.” Thoughts on Sarah (Sister) A: (Minnie) “Sarah to me, was one of the sweetest people that I have ever met. She was beautiful and gentle. She was also generous and would do anything for you. She always made you feel welcome in her home and the family loved to be with her and her husband, Hans Lorensen. We enjoyed many meals in her home. She was always so gentle an soft spoken. When Woodruff and I were first married, we had a little rock house down by C. K. Christensen’s. I was afraid to be alone in this little house and so I would run up to Sarah’s everyday to see her. I never missed a day. When our first son, Woodrow, was born, I used to put him in the buggy and I would go up to see her once a day for a visit. I don’t remember having any friction whatsoever with Sarah. I loved her when I was a little child. I remember when she would leave to go to Kimberly (the mining camp) to work and I would cry all day after she left. Mother would take me over to see the neighbors to distract me.” A: (Delilah) “Sarah was a sister that lived next door. I was about twelve or thirteen years old when I remember her best. I had a sister, Christie, and we would go to her place just like it was home. In fact we would argue about who would get to go over to her place for supper each evening. I wonder now how she put up with us all the time. She was very generous and good and we loved her very much. Most people thought highly of my sister Sarah. I always felt that Sarah’s home was a place where I wanted and had to be. I went there often. Even after I was married and had my twins I sometimes wondered about her calmness and even temperament. She was really a peace maker. When Marie would come to see us we would all go over to Sarah’s. She would make us a delicious meal that we all sat down and enjoyed and then we had a good visit afterwards.” Thoughts on Josephine (Sister) A: (Minnie) “Josephine was a patient, beautiful person. She was a gentle and sweet mother and a responsible and good wife. She was fair in her dealings with people but she was also hot headed. I just loved her husband, Henry, but when they first got married, he had a habit of wanting to be with the boys down at the pool hall. Josephine felt he should be more responsible and come home and help with the family. She warned him that if he went to the pool hall and used up the money he’d made in the blacksmith shop to not be surprised at what she might do. She had a temper and she could hold her own with him or anyone else. I went down to her place one day and she said, ‘Look at all the candy I’ve got around here.’ She had all kinds of candy boxes. She said, ‘I knew Henry was at the pool hall and so I just walked in there and I said to the clerk, “Give me a box of that and a box of this.” I was buying everything I could see.’ The clerk was starting to get alarmed and so he said to Henry, who was playing pool, ‘Should I give your wife all these things?’ Henry said, ‘Yes! Yes! Give her anything that she wants.’ Henry left the pool hall as soon as he could get out of there. Josephine was patient and fair but if she felt something needed to be changed, she was not afraid to go into action and act on her feelings. Henry and Josephine got their differences worked out and they were very happy later. They moved from Salina to California and things worked out very well for them and their family.” A: (Delilah) “I remember my sister Josephine best when I was a high school girl and I was staying with my sister Marie in Salina. Josephine also lived in Salina and her home was right across the street from the high school that I attended. I wasn’t well acquainted with anyone in Salina and I was feeling shy and afraid. Josephine sensed this feeling in me because she was sensitive to other people’s feelings. She called me over to her place and fed me homemade bread. I can just see the beautiful loaves of bread coming out of her oven. She had me over often and would give me hot bread and butter with molasses. Even though she had a large family and a stressful life she took time to have me come over to her place and talk to me. She was always comforting and willing to put herself out for others to try and make them happy. She was a kind, gracious person.” Thoughts on Carrie (Sister) A: (Minnie) “I loved Carried but we were not together very much because I left home early. She used to work in Kimberly, the mining camp. They just loved her at Kimberly. Fred Lee’s wife was the proprietor at the boarding house where she worked. When she quit to get married, they gave her a going away party. I remember Carrie saying that they sang a song for her. The words were: So long Carrie, How we hate to see you go. When she told me about them singing to her I thought, ‘That must have been quite a thrill.’ Carrie had a very hard life, but she was a very responsible and good person. She spent many years working at the sugar factory to help support her family. She and her husband Ludwig Franck raised a wonderful family and I felt especially close to their son, Eugene, and his wife.” A: (Delilah) “My first recollection of my sister Carrie was in the home about the time she was married. I remember that she bought an organ so that she could have it in her own home when she got married. We had this organ in our home for a while and we thought it was great because we hadn’t had anything in our home like that. I remember when she went to get married to Ludwig Franck. She lived in a little house not far from the Elsinore cemetery. Their home was just south of the cemetery. Their first two babies, Irene and Eugene, were born there. Her husband, Ludwig was from Elsinore also. They had a hard time making a living in Elsinore and so they moved to Idaho. I rally felt sad when they left because I loved them very much. She was a wonderful person. After they moved to Idaho, we didn’t see her for seven years. One day we got word that they were coming to Salina to Marie’s. I will never forget that reunion when she and her husband and family came back to Salina. We had a wonderful visit with them. In later years, Carried became very homesick to be with her family and so they bought some land from my father in Austin, a little town that was near Monroe. Her husband, Ludwig, worked in Austin for a winter. The land in Austin was very swampy and so the community undertook the task of draining this land. Ludwig worked on this project and stood in water up to his waist in the cold winter. From this work he contracted tuberculosis. The work did not yield enough to make a decent living. The dreams that Carrie had of being near her family were not the realities she thought they would be. She and her husband decided to move their family back to Idaho. They remained there for the rest of their lives. She lost her husband when she was thirty-six and was faced with the support and care of six children. She went through a tough time where she suffered from poor health. Later she got a job at the Idaho sugar factory. Her sons worked at the sugar factory also. They were very successful in their jobs. Carrie had a difficult life but she and her family bonded together and she raised a beautiful and successful family.” Thoughts on Hans (Brother) A: (Minnie) “I like to remember Hans as he was when we grew up together. He was a gentle brother and we used to go to school together. We learned all of our poems together. I remember the tender moments that I had for Hans. While I was staying with Sarah, I remember a time when all the kids had skates and were going skating. All the kids had horses and I rode behind Norman Lee who had a beautiful horse. We went up to the old Svedin farm where they had a skating pool above the canal. I wanted a pair of skates so badly but I had no way of getting them. Hans was working at the livery stable and I told him about my desire for a pair of skates. He surprised me! He went down and bought me the best pair of skates that you could buy. They were diamond skates and they were the very most expensive skates they had. You can imagine my joy when he came down and gave them to me. Hans left home and went to Ely to work. They liked him there but drinking was his downfall. Everywhere, everyone was having a drink! But he was so good at heart. We lost track of him and we didn’t hear from him for a long time. He got married but his marriage was unsuccessful. I remember how we all cried about his misfortune. He had two sons and a daughter but the family lost track of them. He returned to Nevada. One time when Woodruff and I were out there, we noticed a Hermansen blacksmith shop. We went over to that shop but it was a different Hermansen and they had never heard of Hans Hermansen. We heard that he married again later and had another child. His life was a loss and I’m not even sure where he was buried.” A: (Delilah) “My brother Hans left home very early in his life. I don’t remember him as well as the others. I do have recollections of him. As a child he used to be quite a tease. He wasn’t mean but he was just one of those natural boys that liked to tease.” Thoughts on Minnie (Sister) A: (Delilah) “We didn’t have electric lights in our house. My sister, Minnie was living with my sister, Marie and working at a mercantile store for money in Salina. She came home one September when we were all out working hard to harvest the beets for father. We came home hungry that night and mother had fixed potatoes and gravy and things from the garden for dinner. As we got to the door, my father was coming, but we children walked in first. My sister Minnie was standing behind the door. She stepped out from behind the door and said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light! She had had the house wired for electric lights. As she turned on the lights, I thought this truly was the highlight of my life. I couldn’t get over how wonderful it was to have electric lights. Our father thought this was one of the cutest things that had ever happened in our home. We were so happy. One of the reasons that I liked to visit my sister Marie in Salina was that they turned on their electric lights.” A: (Leora Hilgendorff, daughter of Marie) “How can I make Minnie as real to you as she is to me? Her chances to become an outstanding young woman in my community came as a result of her school days there and later as a clerk in the co-op store. She was admirably suited to the task and was loved by both young and old alike. Whenever little frustrations entered into her daily life, she had the rare ability to impersonate a character or extract the humor from the incident, making everyone laugh. As a young girl, when she was living in our home, I wanted to grow up to be like Minnie and as the years have rolled by she is still the image of everything fine and noble in the woman I wanted to be.” A: (Jan Hansen Fritz, oldest grandchild of Minnie) “One day I was sitting at the kitchen table in Elsinore and you [Grandma] was cooking something- -probably soup. Grandpa was visiting with us too, and he got up from the table to get a glass of water- probably to dilute his Sanka. As he was standing by the sink, you stepped over to him, put your arm around him and said, ‘I sure do like this old guy.’ I loved being included in that moment and I remember thinking how lucky I was to have such special grandparents. The overriding feeling that I have for you [Grandma] is one of admiration- -for your humor, your sense of the fullness of life, your ability to really enjoy life, and for your flexibility and willingness to adjust to new things and make each new experience better than the last.” Thoughts on Ana (Sister) A: (Minnie) “Ana died as an infant. I don’t remember anything about her because I was very young. The only thing that I remember is the mad rush that my parents made when she would start to cough. I was not old enough to know the seriousness of it. After her death, I remember going up to the cemetery in a wagon. They always used wagons. There were no cars and very few buggys. It was a stormy, muddy day when Ana was buried. I went in the wagon with my Uncle Chris Hermansen driving. My father was already at the cemetery. My mother was in the wagon with us in the front seat. My parents had just bought me a pair of new slippers. That was a big event, because I admired my feet. Mother went to go across the field. There were no fences and I wanted to get down and go with her. But Uncle Chris said, ‘No, we must stay in the wagon.’ He was holding the horses, and I said, ‘I’m going to get down.’ By then, mother was over by the grave where they were dedicating it. Uncle Chris held me and I was angry and kicked my shoe off, one of my precious slippers. It went into the mud and we hunted and hunted but we could not find it. This really sobered me up and I forgot all about the grave. All I could think about was my lost shoe. That is all I remember about my sister, Ana. I remember the crying and I could not understand their sadness and crying.” Thoughts on Herman (Brother) A: (Minnie) “Herman’s life, according to our judgment turned out to be sort of a tragedy. When I see his family and the way his boys and Carol are doing, I know that his success is in his children and having married Rita, a wonderful, patient, girl. Herman was spoiled. He was an expert ball player. He was professional league material. I remember that they would hire him to come up and play all the big games at the mining camps. They played with the league teams. They would get Herman to pitch for them and invariably they would win. They gave him a job at Magna, just doing nothing. They told him to just keep out of the way of the boss and pretend he was doing something and they would pay him a good salary if he would pitch for them. That was his downfall. After the games they furnished the drinks. Everyone would drink and drink and drink. He was a very brilliant student in school. Violet Jensen said that he was one of the most brilliant students that she had taught. He was witty. One time he came down to our place after he had been drinking and I said to him, ‘How did you train your children to be so successful?’ He said, ‘With three little words, DON’T FOLLOW ME.’ I thought how tragic, but he would not change his ways. School Superintendent A.J. Ashton said he really enjoyed talking to Herman. We have our weaknesses and it is a good thing that there is a judge higher than we to do the final judging and to decide where you belong.” A: (Delilah) “Herman left home quite early in life and went to Ely, Nevada. Herman was always more dominating than the other children. Mother and Father had a difficult time trying to make him see their views on life. He began to drink and later became an alcoholic. I have wondered if my brother Herman had been taken in the blacksmith shop and taught my father’s trade and how to work, if this would have changed his life. A weakness my father had was not following through and teaching the boys how to work. They were given too much free time to do as they pleased and it was not good for them or our parents. Maybe this is just my idea. Herman married and had five children. One child drowned in a canal just below their place. Rita, Herman’s wife, must be given a lot of credit. She tried to bring the children up right and she was the stability of the family. My brother, Herman did not take responsibility like he should. He would get on some high tantrums when he was drinking. This became an illness with him and there was not the information or treatment for this kind of behavior like we have now. We were helpless to help him, even though we had deep feelings and love for him and his family. Rita has raised a beautiful and successful family in spite of her circumstances. She was not only the bread earner, but a good example for her children, as well.” Thoughts on Christie (Sister) A: (Minnie) “Christie was a cute, little, lovable girl. She was always agreeable. She liked a good time and she would have a good time if there was any way of having it. She was always generous and thoughtful. Wood and I always loved to have her come to our home. Whenever she had a conflict with my parents, she would come and confide in me. Christie was well liked. She stayed with us a lot before she was married and our older children got to know her and love her.” A: (Delilah) “My sister, Christie was eighteen months older than I. My brother-in-law, Woodruff Sylvester, used to call us the little girls. We thought a lot of my sister, Minnie and her husband, Woodruff. We visited them often and we ate a good many meals at their place and enjoyed talking to them. We always felt welcome in their home. Christie was more outgoing than I. One year we attended high school at the New Jersey Academy in Logan, Utah. I loved school and was excited about going to the Academy. We went up in the fall and after our Christmas vacation, Christie didn’t want to go back and finish school She stayed home because she was going with a fellow that she thought a lot of in Elsinore. I was fearful and tearful when I returned after the Christmas vacation. I was lonely. I hadn’t been away from home much and I was only about fifteen years old at the time. Most of the girls had not returned and I went to my room and I thought I was alone. I started to cry. When I heard someone come in the door, I walked into the clothes closet and hid because I was ashamed to have anyone see me crying. A girl came in and saw me go into the closet. She knocked on the door and said, ‘I know you’re in there and I am coming in.’ She opened the door and saw me crying and said, ‘What’s the matter?’ I said, ‘Christie didn’t come back.’ She thought that Christie had passed away. I had to explain to her that Christie had decided to not come back to school. It was hard for me to get used to being there without my sister.” Thoughts on Delilah (Sister) A: (Minnie) “Delilah was a very serious, conscientious girl. She wanted things done absolutely right. She was a very good student in school. She has said several times that she was not at all pleased when Christie would go home and dress up in the things that belonged to her and go walking down town with Delilah’s clothes on and not seem to think anything about it. Delilah was very particular about her appearance and she felt the same way about her clothes. Delilah was at our home a lot. Woodruff called her and Christie ‘the two little girls’ and he thought the world of them. They would come down and help me put up fruit. When I lived in Salina and was working, I loved to send them pretty hats and clothes because I thought they were so cute. When they came to Salina to visit, I could hardly wait to take them up and down the street to show people how cute they were.” A: (Delilah) “Two things that made a difference in my life were: first, the schooling that I received at the New Jersey Academy, and second, the hiring of girls to work in the sugar factory when the boys were all in the service of their country. I had so much self esteem when I got my first job at the sugar factory and I didn’t have to go out and work for my father in the beet fields. (My father used to contract out beets and he needed us to help him fulfill his contracts by thinning, weeding, and harvesting the beets.) I wanted to go to high school and there were no high schools to attend nearby that furnished transportation for students. I heard about the New Jersey Academy in Logan, Utah and I wanted to go so badly. Father was not in favor of my going to the Academy because it was run by the Presbyterian Church. My mother looked at it in a different way but my father would not support me in this decision. I was so happy when my brother-in-law, John Dastrup, from Salina made me a loan of $40 for tuition. I had a scholarship and I worked some to get through this school. I also had help from another brother-in-law, Woodruff Sylvester. Woodruff’s two sisters, Liza Sylvester and Allie (Althea) helped Christie and I to make some nice looking clothes. I felt grateful for all the support and help I received. When I got my job at the sugar factory, I hadn’t applied for work there. But one of my friends, Eva Tuft, thought they would give me a job there. Mr. Wing, the superintendent, asked me if I had put in an application. I told him no, but I would sure like to work. He said that he would find a job for me. He gave me a job watching the scales. As the beets would come in, I would watch to see when the hopper was filled and then I would ring a bell. It was quite an easy job. They gave me $3.00 a day for doing this job and that was big money in those days. When I came home and told my parents about my job, my father said, ‘Wouldn’t that beat you, that kid going down there and making that kind of money and here I am working like a slave in the beet fields for a very little bit more than that.’ I was so thrilled with my job. I bought a nice coat and dress from Olive Hansen’s and I really thought that I was dolled up that winter.” Thoughts on Eugene (Brother) A: (Delilah) “My little brother, Eugene died as a small infant. I remember his funeral. He died at home and we had his funeral in the home. Bishop James I. Jensen presided over the funeral. I remember them letting us children go up to the casket and kiss our baby brother good-bye. It was a sad memory for all of us because we all loved our little brother.” Thoughts on Frank (Brother) A: (Minnie) “I was never home when Frank grew up. I thought he was the cutest little fellow. He was pampered and petted by our parents. Mother never went out but what she brought some little thing for Frank. Frank was always a good boy and he was likeable. But I felt that our parents spoiled him as a small child. Woodruff’s older sister, Liza, said her memory of my parents was seeing them taking Frank to church with them. He would go and sit with them all during the services. When my daughter, Althea, talked to Frank, he said that he had never gotten baptized into the church. He said he remembered that there were many arguments between his parents. She asked me if I thought that he regrets not having been baptized. I told her I felt that he probably just felt that it was a split. If he felt it was important to get baptized he could make his own decision.” A: (Delilah) “Frank, being the baby, was given a lot of attention. I remembered my mother catered to him very much. I felt that he was spoiled. He grew up to be a very good and responsible man. He has married and has a lovely family and wife. She has been very good for him. Even though I resented him at times and thought he was spoiled when we were growing up, time has proved that he became a responsible provider for his family and a good father. He takes after our father in being respected by all who knew him. He is honest in all his dealings with people. He and his family settled in Idaho for most of their lives. When I visited him he certainly was happy. He is an excellent provider for his family.” Thoughts on Mary Katrina (Step-Sister from Father’s previous marriage) A: (Minnie and Delilah) “We were surprised and happy when Father received a letter in 1940 from his oldest daughter, Mary, from a previous marriage. This event happened shortly before his death. Father had never discussed this marriage and his daughter openly with our family. There were sixtythree years of silence concerning this event. This was a relief to him and Mary and it was good news to us. It is well that there is a law of forgiveness and repentance. We later me Mary, her husband and daughter after father’s death. What a happy reunion. The many years of absence cannot be changed. It was special to find our new sister and her family.” A: (Mary Marjorie Clark, Mary Katrina’s Daughter) “It is interesting that grandpa’s second child, Marie, had the same name as his first child, my mother. Actually Mom was always called Mary but her name was listed as Marie on her fare to America. Marie and Mary are the same name in Danish. My grandmother, Metta, (this is how we spelled her name although it has been spelled Mette or Mettie) had a very hard life from childhood. I have the feeling that she was not well educated at all. After the separation of she and Grandpa Hermansen she worked as a ‘live-in’ hired girl or maid. She could not have a child with her so my mother, Mary, lived with Grandmother’s aunt for five years. Mother had a cousin, Anna, to play with. Mother said how she hated to leave Omaha and go and live with her mother in Minden. She was eight years old at the time. Metta, my grandmother, married a widower, Chris Christensen. They called him ‘Big Chris’ to distinguish him from a number of other Chris Christensens. Omaha was a big city, but Minden was a tiny pioneer town with sod houses and log school houses. The schools took the students up to the sixth reader. Mom had no chance for high school She apprenticed as a dressmaker and went around sewing for people before she married.”

RIN: MH:N1820

PRIN: MH:I503401