In passing, I'll say a bit about my own origin. My father came direct from Sweden as a young man of 19 years. He got work with my maternal Grandfather, Olav Thortvedt,(who had settled and established a home) as a hired man and there met and married my mother.
My maternal Grandparents came from Norway in the early 1650's to a place called LaCross in Wisconsin, U.S.A. They decided to travel on to Minnesota. My grandfather was the leader of the wagon train of about fifteen wagons. By now, the Indians were no threat. This trek took about six weeks and the children had a wonderful time. It was summer. They'd stop over Sundays and rest horses and gave the women a chance to bake bread and wash clothes.
They decided to settle down by the Buffalo River in the Red River Valley, My Grandfather had a team of horses but many drove ox teams. Grandfather had a grindstone, the only one for miles around and was kept busy sharpening knives, axes and scythes for people.
My Grandparents first cabin is now preserved, along with the artefacts of their beginning, as a Pioneer Memorial to those early settlers and the old "Thortvedt Place" will not be sold, but will be kept in the family to be enjoyed by his descendants. It is located not far from Glyndon, Minnesota where I was born.
I lived with my parents in Minnesota until I was ten years old. Then my folks decided to come to Edmonton, Canada. We later moved to Saskatchewan, where Fred and I grew up. Then we moved to Turner Valley, where, as I have said I met Axel. But times were hard othere and very little work as the oil boom had come to an end. So then my folks decided to come to Chip Lake and get a homestead. This would be in July of 1931.