In Search of Great Grandma's Girlhood, Part II

For months I've been meaning to get back to scanning a box of loose photographs given to me by a cousin who lives in New York, who had previously borrowed them from relatives in Minnesota and Idaho.  These photographs--already quite well-traveled--were part of an extensive collection that once belonged to my great grandparents, Ole Martin and Malla (Larson) Johnson, of Leonard, Minnesota.  Due to a severe Pacific Northwest snow storm, I had a few precious days off work.  I decided to roll up my sleeves and warm up the scanner (hopefully, my husband is not now feeling as neglected as the scanner was until this past week). 

Recently, in one of the old Johnson cabinet card albums, I discovered a previously undetected tin type photograph of Malla (Larson), looking several years younger than she was at the time of her wedding in 1886 (see my previous blog post:  "In Search of Great Grandma's Girlhood.")  I was overjoyed to find this photo, because it is now the youngest image the family has of Malla.  I say that it was "previously undetected," because my ancestors, like yours, did not often take the time to write down the identities of people in their photographs.  Everyone knew who they were at the time, so what was the urgency?

Perhaps unmarked ancestral photographs were left untouched in order to present a challenge for relations to come... for people like me, who take pride in being the family historian, and who also possess capable facial recognition skills along with a love of the chase.  And, a chase it is!  Many of you know that familiar adrenalin surge when recognizing someone in a newly acquired vintage photograph, or feeling the slow spread of certainty after an initial reaction of "I know this person!"  You have just "bagged" another ancestor and not returned home from the hunt empty-handed.



Anne Marie ("Mary") Sloan (right), 1884/85

 

Though I was not actively looking for it, I acquired a piece of another great grandma's girlhood among the tin type photographs I scanned yesterday.  In this especially lovely pose from the mid-1880s, I knew I had seen the girl standing on the right before, though the hat made it more difficult to see all of her features. The girl sitting next to her was unfamiliar--a cousin, or friend, perhaps?  Suddenly, it hit me that the girl on the right looked like my mother's maternal grandmother, Anne Marie ("Mary") Slaaen (or Sloan--the Americanized version of the family name).  Her face in the photo above has a bit more "baby fat" than what I remembered in her wedding photograph, so I zoomed in on the two in order to compare.  One in the same!



Mary (Sloan) Berge, Feb. 1886

In 1886, at the time of her wedding to Ole Benhart Berge in Leenthrop Township, Chippewa County, Minnesota, Mary Sloan was 17 years old.  In the earlier photograph, she appears to be 15 or 16.  Now, Mary was not related to either Ole or Malla (Larson) Johnson, the original owners of the photographs.  What then, was my other maternal great grandmother doing in Ole and Malla Johnson's photo collection?

I then remembered the situation as my mother had previously described to me.  In early Chippewa County, as in any sparsely populated pioneer community, it is true that everybody knew everybody.  When friends gave likenesses to friends, it was a kind gesture that was usually reciprocated.  But, Mary Sloan had an even more important reason to give her photograph to young Ole Johnson, because the two of them courted for awhile.  Mary Sloan, at about age 16, dated Ole Martin Johnson, a local homesteader and landowner, who was eight years her senior.  At the same time, Malla Larson, also age 16, dated Ole Benhart Berge, who was four years her senior.  Somewhere along the line, Ole Johnson must have decided that Malla Larson would make a better partner for his chosen way of life, whereas Mary Sloan fell in love with Ole Benhart Berge, a future mail carrier and railroad worker.  Both couples, linked to better suit their mutual strengths, were married in February 1886:  the Berges on February 6, and the Johnsons on the 28th.  So, Ole Johnson got his helpmate in lovely Malla, and Ole Berge got his sweet Mary; the stars were aligned correctly, at last, and the Johnson/Larson and Berge/Sloan legacies were begun.



Ole and Malla Johnson, Feb. 1886

  
 Ole and Malla Johnson facts:

--Ole Martin Johnson, August 6, 1860-April 20, 1948; born at Lassemoen farm, near Grong, Nord-Trondelag, Norway; immigrated with parents and sister in 1866; died from heart disease.
--Malla (Vigesaa) Larson, April 20, 1868-April 19, 1948; born near LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA; died one day short of her 80th birthday from pneumonia and stroke.
--Ten children, all of whom lived to old age.
--Lived in Granite Falls Township, Chippewa County, Minnesota; Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota; Leonard, Clearwater County, Minnesota.
--Married 62 years.
--Died within hours of each other; both buried under a double headstone at East Zion Cemetery near Leonard, Minnesota, across the road from their last residence.
 

Ole and Mary Berge, Feb. 1886

   
Ole and Mary Berge facts:

--Ole Benhart Berge, October 30, 1864-January 24, 1949; born at Storberget farm near Lillehammer, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway; immigrated with mother and sister in 1869 (father immigrated the year before); died  from stroke.
--Anne Marie (Mary) Sloan/Slaaen, June 20, 1868-June 7, 1947; born in a covered wagon near Swan Lake, Nicollett County, Minnesota; died from leukemia.
--Twelve children; two died in infancy.
--Lived near Leonard, Clearwater County, Minnesota; Maynard, Chippewa County, Minnesota.
--Married 61 years.
--Both buried at Maynard Lutheran Cemetery, Maynard, Chippewa County, Minnesota.

Special note:  Ernest Johnson, son of Ole and Malla Johnson, married Esther Berge, daughter of Ole and Mary Berge, on March 22, 1917 in Chippewa County, Minnesota.  Ernest and Esther Johnson were my maternal grandparents.

The Dirty Thirties: No Easy Street

Ernest Johnson Begins Farming

During the Depression era, independent farmers like my maternal grandfather, Ernest Johnson, found it increasingly difficult to earn a living from planting and harvesting, and frequently supplemented their income through other work. The following story tells how he coped and managed to keep his small farm through difficult economic times in the 1920s and 1930s.

Ernest and Esther Johnson in March 1917.
Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota.

My Grampa Johnson was a farmer in rural Minnesota from 1914-1945. Like his nine brothers and sisters, Ernest Johnson had a Norwegian accent all of his life, even though he and his siblings were all born in America. English was something primarily used at school and social functions, while Norwegian was spoken at home. Upon leaving his parents' farm in 1914, Ernest purchased a plot of land about three miles outside of Leonard, Minnesota in Clearwater County, where Mississippi headwaters trickle from Lake Itasca, mirroring lush pines and running crisp and clear on the long journey to the Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. When Ernest married Esther Agnes Berge on March 22, 1917, he brought his shy, deferential, and bespectacled bride to live on that small farm. In a little clapboard farmhouse with one room up and one room down, my aunt and mother were born, in 1918 and 1920, respectively.




The farmhouse where my mother was born near Leonard, Minnesota, ca. 1920.



Ernest Johnson lived down the road from his parents and some of his siblings. For many years, the creed among farmers, including his grandparents as Norwegian-American homesteaders, was that neighbor helped neighbor, and especially, family helped family. Family is the main reason Ernest's parents left behind a picturesque and productive farm in the green and forest-rimmed fields outside Fosston in Polk County, so that they could follow him and his older brother, Bennett, to Leonard, over twenty miles away. Keeping the family together was not only ideal, but prudent, especially when there was hard labor to be done on a regular basis.

Though the newlyweds were off to a good start, Ernest and Esther's marriage was tragically short. Before their younger daughter celebrated her second birthday, Esther fell mortally ill with tuberculosis and died in January 1922. As per their mother's deathbed request, the young girls were sent to live with their paternal grandparents down the road, Ole M. and Malla Johnson, in order to be close to their father as they grew. It was painfully obvious that Ernest would not have the time nor resources to care for his two young daughters as long as perpetual and solitary work awaited him in the fields. And, what of the autumn and winters, when he must travel here and there to bring in some kind of income? No, it was far better that the little tow-headed girls, Phyllis and Doris, be watched over by their grandparents and a maiden aunt, Mabel, who could help supervise them and make their clothing.

Phyllis and Doris Johnson, Sept. 1921.

Once again a bachelor, Ernest applied himself to whatever would bring in enough money to pay the bills and buy seed. He helped on his parents' and brothers' farms, grew what small crops he could, and took pleasure in training and caring for his horses. Ernest's young nephews and their friends delighted in visiting someone who was "batching it." They could also ride horses away from the critical eyes of their mothers, and Ernest helped their fun along with some of his tricks. His horses were trained to stop dead in their tracks when he snapped his fingers, which sometimes left young riders clinging frantically to whatever they could, like real bronco busters. Ernest Johnson's farm was also a place where boys might find some privacy to steal a taste of their first cigar, or make successful raids on the cooky jar without the usual repercusions at home. Ernest may have been a longtime widower, but he knew how to fend for himself in the kitchen. He made his own doughnuts and canned apples, peaches, and other fruit... and he always kept the cooky jar full, too.

Ernest Johnson shows off his prized team of horses, Tony and Birdie.
My grandfather was very fond of this photograph, taken on his farm
near Leonard, Minnesota, May 2, 1943.

Whenever he could, Ernest Johnson raised sheep and planted seed crops such as flax, clover, and alfalfa, using only horses and a plow. He hunted game and fished to supplement both his larder and his income. He often traveled away from Leonard to help with late summer harvests in the fields of South Dakota and also drove drays for logging companies in the forests of northern Minnesota--hiring himself out however he could. He was often away from home for months at a time, leaving family and neighbors to tend to his livestock, and he returned such favors for them. Truth be told, he even attempted a little bootlegging on the side, but it was thankfully a short-lived venture that ended when others blew up the still during his absence.

With the onset of the 20th Century and increased industry, family-run farms began to struggle. Ernest's father, Ole M. Johnson, had made a success out of his own farm without once using a tractor, but he'd had decades of early midwestern development to build upon his success and reputation. For Ernest's generation, when so many small farms reached for a foothold in existing markets, independence by farming was harder to achieve, especially when the stock market crash of 1929 darkened the forseeable future. When the money was gone and seasonal jobs were harder to find, Ernest Johnson, bachelor farmer, began to look long and hard at new federal programs created by President Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and the promise of jobs with the Work Projects Administration (WPA). Unemployment insurance would not become available until after 1935, but even then, many farmers who were independently employed were not eligible for the "Dole," as it was often called.


To be continued in Part II...

Brave Heart Yields a Gentle Touch

A Tribute to Esther Agnes (Berge) Johnson


Written for the Carnival of Genealogy

. . . In keeping with the month of March being National Women's History Month, and March 8th being International Women's Day, the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will once again be: A Tribute to Women. Write a tribute to a woman on your family tree, a friend, a neighbor, or a historical female figure who has done something to impact your life. Or instead of writing, consider sharing a photo biography of one woman's life. Or create a scrapbook page dedicated to a woman you'd like to honor. For extra credit, sum up her life in a six-word biography.



Esther Berge Johnson, burping her youngest daughter, Doris.
Leonard, Minnesota, 1920.

 I've discussed many grandmothers in this blog, but today I'd like to honor a very special one: my maternal grandmother, Esther Agnes (Berge) Johnson. She died young--just over 86 years ago--and was never a part of my life, but I miss her every day. Her presence is found in the few treasured items my mother was given to remember her by, and in the photographs I am sharing. I have no personal experience of her touch, her smile, her voice, but my mother holds on to what foggy memories she has from when she was a baby.
Esther was a quiet, kind, dutiful woman with dark hair and spectacles. Her father, Ole Benhardt Berge, immigrated from Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, when he was a small child. Her mother, Anna Marie (Mary) Slaan (or Slaaen), was born in a covered wagon as her family migrated from Coon Valley, Wisconsin to Chippewa County, Minnesota.

When my mother, Doris, was a girl, she attended community dances in rural Leonard, where it was always common for young women to dance with each other. Once when my mother danced with a paternal aunt, Cora Johnson, Cora happened to mention that my mother held herself stiffly just like Esther (my grandmother) had always done.

My aunt Phyllis recalled that after my mother was born, Esther would sit in a big rocker and nurse the baby, while Phyllis sat alongside in her own little rocker and attempted to nurse her doll. There were no memories of any talking... just peaceful togetherness in the silence of the two room farmhouse.

In another memory, Esther was standing in the pasture next to the family's farmhouse, holding little Doris in her arms. They watched as some of the neighbor's cows came sauntering over the rise toward her garden. My mother was only about a year old at the time, but she heard her mother say to someone: "Here, take her," as Esther handed her over to a visiting neighbor lady and began to shoo the cows away. Doris then watched with startled interest as her father, Ernest, came stomping over the rise and proceeded to scold his wife vividly: "Don't you ever do that again!" It was her father's uncharacteristic shouting that cemented the memory for little Doris. Ernest had been afraid that by shooing the cows, his wife would draw the attention of the bull that was nearby.

My mother was less than two years of age when Esther lost her battle with tuberculosis. When close to death, all of her sisters and brothers except Bennie Berge, who lived too far away, were summoned to attend her. Her parents owned an organ, which Esther had always been fond of playing. Her last request was that someone should play the organ so they could all sing hymns together.

On January 2, 1922, Esther died, leaving Ernest a young widower. The previous spring, Esther had planted a flowerbed inside a wagon wheel laid on its side by the house. The flowers continued to grow and bloom for some time after her death, reminding them all of the hundreds of things she used to do from day to day.

My grandmother's obituary was published in a Chippewa County, Minnesota newspaper [1]

Mrs. Esther Johnson died Monday, Jan. 2nd of an illness of long duration. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. B. Berge of Maynard and has been home for the past several months when it was found that there was no hope for her recovery. The last days of her illness has [sic] been a trial both to the patient and to her loved ones and death came as a happy release from her suffering. She was ready for the summon, meeting it as bravely as she has endured her long months of sufferings. A brief obituary follows.

Mrs. Esther Johnson was born in the township of Leenthrop, on March 31, 1889, where she resided until at the age of two years, when her parents moved to the village of Maynard where they and children resided until in the spring of 1910. They then moved on to a farm in Clearwater County. On March 22, 1917 [she] was united in marriage to Mr. Ernest Johnson, to union of which two children were born, Phyllis, age four and Doris, age two. Deceased died at the home of her parents in Maynard Monday the 2nd at 12:45 p.m. at the age of 27 years, 9 months and 4 days. Besides parents of disceased [sic] four brothers amd five sisters live to mourn the loss of a dear sister; namely, George, Mabel, Cora, Mildred, Clarice and Stella of this village. Harry of Taylors Falls, Chester and Bennie of Ihlen.

The funeral was held Wednesday from the residence at one p.m. and at the Lutheran church at 2 o'clock. Rev. M. B. Erickson officiating. The News join[s] the friends of the Berge family in messages of condolences.


CARDS OF THANKS

We wish to extend our sincere thanks to those who so kindly offered us their consolation in our late bereavement, especially Rev. Erickson and the Lutheran Ladies Aid Society for the beautiful floral emblems.

Mr. and Mrs. O. B. Berge and family
O. M. Johnson and wife
Ernest Johnson

Thank you, Grandma, for caring for my mother, and for everything you did to start her and my aunt on the right path.

Esther Agnes (Berge) Johnson: Brave heart yields a gentle touch


[1] The copy of Esther Johnson's obituary in the author's possession has no publisher's info, however, it most likely came from the Chippewa County News.