Carl Clarence (Charly) ANDERSON

Other Events and Attributes:

• MN Death Cert Checked: Y
• Minnesota Death Certificate: 1934-MN-020308
• Occupation: Farmer, Esp. Tobacco
• Baptism: 23 Jun 1867, Næs, Hedmark, Norway

Notes:

In the parish birth record as Karl. In the bygdebøk as Karl.

His obituary says that he emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 6 months.

Charley and Anna were married in a Lutheran ceremony in La Crosse witnessed by Bertha Bowe and Ole Anderson. Charley’s occupation is shown as laborer in his marriage record.

Charly and Anna spent six years in LaCrosse after Cora was born. Cora remembered it being near the Catholic church and the hospitals. Charly worked in a grocery store and a saloon. When Cora was six, the family moved out to live on the Bowe farm with the Bowes who were in declining health.

Charly lived the last eight years of his life with Maurice and Cora.

Death certificate 1934-MN-020308 was issued in Hennepin County for “Charles C. Anderson” with a date of death of May 22, 1934.

The 1900 census enumerator, Charles Engelstad, visited the Andersons on June 11th at their rented home at 715 South 11th Street in the 17th ward. The entry indicates “Charles Anderson” as the head of family, age 32, born in May of 1867 or 1868 (the exact year is illegible). Charles is indicated as being able to read, write, and speak English, having the occupation of “harvester”, having been unemployed for 8 months of the previous year, and having emigrated to the United States in 1869. He is shown to have been born in Norway.

The Anderson residence was, indeed, near a Catholic hospital and nunnery. In fact, 715 South 11th Street was across the street from St. Francis Hospital and just down the street from the Santa Rosa de Viterbo convent. In 2003, there was no building at 715 South 11th Street, just a parking lot.

From the 1893-94 La Crosse city directory, we learn that Charles Anderson was a clerk for Will & Bros., grocers at 622 South 8th St. Charlie was still living at home at 603 South 8th Street. The Will & Bros. building was gone by the time of the 1906 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of La Crosse. In the 1901-02 city directory, a George Will runs a grocery and saloon and resides at 622 South 9th. All of this is consistent with Cora’s recollection of the Wills.

In the 1895-96 city directory, Charley is still living at home but is now a bar keeper for John M. Kolb. In the 1897 directory, Charley works for George Dagendish, stone cutter, and now resides at 1026 South 10th Street. In the 1900 city directory, Carl C Anderson is a teamster for C L C L Co and resides at 813 Market. In the 1901-02 directory, Charley and his family are living at the 715 South 11th Street residence and Charley is a teamster for the C L Colman Lumber Co. Shortly thereafter, Charley and his family moved to the Bowe farm south of Viroqua.

In the 1934 Minneapolis city directory, he is presumably the Chas C Anderson with the notation “died May 22 ‘34 age 67.”

Died at Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis where he had been for four days. His residence at the time of death was 4230 Minnehaha Avenue. The cause of his death was coronary thrombosis. His death certificate, information provided by Cora, said that he had been a farmer for 12 years and that he had last been a farmer in 1924.

His obit, in the Star on May 23rd, said he had been a resident of Minneapolis for seven years. His funeral was to be at the “Folsom church near Viroqua.”

Birth:
born in Hoelstadstua according to the bygdebøk and in his birth record

Christened:
As Karl Olsen

Carl married Anna Clausdatter BOWE on 24 Aug 1895 in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. Anna (daughter of Claus Sjursen BØE (BOWE) and Kari Andersdatter MAREIM) was born on 22 Aug 1863 in Hafslo, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; was christened on 18 Oct 1863 in Hafslo, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died on 14 Feb 1926 in Viroqua, Vernon County, Wisconsin; was buried on 16 Feb 1926 in North Kickapoo Lutheran Church Cemetery, Franklin Twp, Vernon County, Wisconsin. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Minnesota Death Certificate: 1995-MN-034522
• Occupation: Homemaker
• Social Security Number: 472-44-4397 per her 1960-64 diary, confirmed in SSDI as issued in Minnesota in 1956-57
• Baptism: 26 Apr 1896, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, La Crosse, La Crosse County, Wisconsin

Notes:

Her middle name is probably from her father’s mother.

Cora is shown on the 1900 census as having been born in Wisconsin in March, 1896. In Ancestry.com’s site, it is La Crosse Ward 17, image 32 of 35. At the time of the census, in June of 1900, the family was living on S. 11th Street, probably #715, according to the census form.

Cora’s birth, as listed in the Wisconsin Births database on Ancestry.com.

Wisconsin Vital Records Indexes, Pre-1907 Birth Index, Marriages, and Death Index.

Name: Cora C Anderson
Birth Date: 07 Mar 1896
County: La Crosse
Reel: 0104
Record: 000126

Her birth is recorded (as Cora Christine) in the records of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Her baptismal sponsors were Simon Lee and Martha Brouhard and Nelson {sic} and Lovise Boe.

In early 1941, Cora, like Maurice, sought a copy of her birth certificate. She received it on April 7th in an envelope postmarked on April 5, 1941, in La Crosse, from Charles J. Wachs, the Register of Deeds of La Crosse County. The birth certificate (#126567) lists her name as Cora Christena Anderson, that she was born at 9:00 AM on Saturday, March 7, 1896, in La Crosse. The birth was recorded by Randolph Elliott, then the Register of Deeds, apparently, on August 19, 1896, and is recorded on page 236, Volume 8, of the register. The certification of the facts of the birth was apparently provided by P. B. Amunson, “attending physician”, on May 15, 1896, in La Crosse. Cora’s father is listed as Charles Clarance Anderson, “laborer.” Cora’s mother’s maiden name is listed as Anna Bowe. Charles Wachs issued the certified copy on April 4, 1941.

Confirmed November 20, 1910, Bethesda Lutheran Church, Viroqua, WI, C.E. Sybilrud, Pastor. {Sybilrud was pastor at Bethesda Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church from 1909 to 1912.}

Witnesses at wedding: Clara Nundahl and (her future husband) Odin Olson. Married by Pastor Esaias O. Hofstead. {Hofstead was pastor at Bethesda Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church from 1912 to 1919.} Hofstead died less than 4 years later at the age of 41.

The Kickapoo Scout’s 18 Jul 1918 edition noted that Cora and her mother, with several other women, visited Sam Nundahls’. This was probably to show off Cora’s one-year old daughter.

We know Cora, Maurice, Don, and probably Vivian visited Viroqua when DHC was one year old to visit with Cora's parents. The next year, Cora’s mother died and soon after that Charley came to Minneapolis to live with Cora and Maurice.



My Mother’s People
By Cora Christine Anderson Carlson, 1980 or 1981

Grandpa Claus Bowe Vaas, Norway
born June 1, 1833 in Norway
died March 2, 1913 at Viroqua, WI

Grandma Carrie Bowe Sogn, Norway
born October 31, 1833 in Norway
died October 31, 1908 at Viroqua, WI

They lived on a farm near Viroqua. When they first came from Norway, they stayed at Liberty Pole, Wisconsin, a small berg about 10 or 12 miles west of the place they homesteaded in 1862. Their first house they built on the farm was dug into the side of the hill near the house they built of logs. Later they built the rest of the house of lumber. (What you saw was the log part.) While they were at Liberty Pole, Grandpa had a shoemaker’s shop. He also built a shoemaker’s shop at the farm. He had a brother-in-law he made shoes for who was a tailor. I used to watch Grandpa make shoes for him in this shop of his. It was a big deal for me to get to be with him. But they - Grandpa and his sons and my dad - were tobacco farmers. They also had cows, sheep, horses, had hay, grain, etc., but tobacco was their main money crop. The chickens, eggs, and butter was money for the household.

My mother and dad had come to stay and take care of grandma and grandpa as they were getting old and I was an only child so no noise. The other daughters had too many kids so they didn’t want them. I was a quiet little mouse.

Grandpa and Grandma Bowe had 6 daughters (one died in childhood), 2 sons, and one adoptive son (Grandma’s sister’s son, she died). The daughters were Aunt Susan, my mother, Aunt Martha, Aunt Bertha, Aunt Louise who was a twin (the other one died). The sons were Uncle Nels, Uncle Sever, and Uncle Andrew the adopted one. (He was the son of Grandma’s sister who died in childbirth of Andrew.)

Aunt Susan married a man named Tom Munson and had 2 sons, Albert and Martin Ekum (the boys changed their names), and 4 girls, Caroline, Clara, Rhoda, and Theresa (who died in California). Caroline married a fellow named Hendrickson, Clara and Rhoda never married.

Aunt Martha married a Swenees and divorced him and married Hendrickson and had a son Arthur and a daughter Myrtle. Myrtle Carter has a son, Frank Carter Jr.

Aunt Bertha had two sons, Carl and Tillman, and a daughter Clara. Aunt Louise had 1 daughter Adah.

They are all dead.

Uncle Nels married a girl in Dakota. She died. They had a son which her folks took to raise. I never met them. Uncles Sever and Andrew never married.

Myrtle is my only living cousin but I have a lot of cousins from my cousin’s children. Clara had 11 children, two died. Carl had 10 or 11 children. Tillman had 3 children; I haven't heard that any of them are dead.

Albert had 6 kids: 3 girls and 3 boys. One girl died: Theresa.

Martin had no kids. Caroline had 1 daughter. Mildred had 2 sons: Chester and the other with an odd name I can’t remember.

Arthur Hendrickson married my cousin Gertie (they had 3 kids) then divorced her and married an older woman. His kids [apparently by Gertie]: 2 girls, Barbara and Pat, and one son Arthur.

My Father’s People

My Grandpa Ole Anderson, Sr.
Born March 11, 1834, in Hedemarken, Norway
Came to La Crosse, Wis, some time in October ,1867
Died November 26, 1898, in La Crosse, Wis

My Grandma Christiana Anderson
Born March 23, 1838, in Toten, Norway
Died April 12, 1906, in La Crosse, Wis.

My Dad Carl Clarence Anderson (Called Charly)
Born May 6, 1867, Hedemarken, Norway
Died May 22, 1834, in Minneapolis, Minn.

My Uncle Ole Anderson, Jr.
Born January 19, 1874 in La Crosse, Wis
Died in Duluth, Minnesota

Ole Anderson and his family lived in Duluth, his family is still there. He worked for a newspaper in La Crosse and Duluth.

My Grandpa Anderson had a dairy. He bought the big lot on the corner. He built a house in front on the street. {Maybe he didn’t build it; the Sanborn fire insurance map from the late 1850s shows a house on that corner already.} He built a barn for his cows on the back of the lot next to the alley. {This is confirmed by the 1891 Sanborn fire insurance map. There is a pair of outbuildings on Ferry, on the west side of the alley,that the Sanborn map identifies as a stable.} He took his cows to graze on a farm a short ways from his home outside town.

{The Lincoln Public School, which Ole and Charley may have attended, was a block north on the northern one-third of the block bounded by Division, 9th, Ferry, and 8th.}

Their home address is 609 South 8th Street, La Crosse, Wis. {No, Ole and Christina lived at 603 South Eighth Street; 609 was next door.} Don, you remember you saw the place when we drove down there [with Ron in 1966]. They had moved Grandpa's house onto a side street and built a new one on the front street. {?} They had torn off a big part of it so it wasn’t so big anymore. {This is confirmed by the Sanborn maps although the change must have happened between 1906 and 1910 after Christina died and Ole Jr. moved to Duluth. The 1891 Sanborn map shows a single house at 603. The 1906-1910 map shows two significant changes: the house at 603 has become a duplex with a new entriy at 802 Ferry and there is an additional dwelling on the lot with the address of 810 Ferry.} He had his customers. I think the lot was bigger than what we saw. {The lot was the same size, and the neighboring house at 609 in the same place, in the 1891 and 1906-1910 Sanborn maps.} They must have sold it for other houses.

My dad’s brother lived in Duluth. He had quite a few kids who still live there. His wife is dead also. I don’t know much about them. I met 2 of the daughters. They were nice. Mariam and Gertie and one son called Herbert.

My dad had relatives on the southern part of Minnesota at Grand Meadow by the name of Jorgens and some by the name of Skogstad. They had their own band. They were his mother’s relatives I guess. I remember meeting some of them at my grandmother’s funeral. [There were] also some cousins in La Crosse and some here in Minneapolis. Grandma Anderson was a singer from Oslo, Norway, so I guess all the music singers were from Grandma’s side. She was very well liked and had lots of friends. She belonged to the Norwegian Lutheran Church in La Crosse. Her funeral was so big and had so many flowers. I haven’t seen so many flowers at a funeral (until Maurice’s). Those days they had special built carriages for choirs, etc. It impressed me so I will never forget it.

Cora Christine Anderson Carlson

I was born at La Crosse, Wis March 7, 1896. I remember [a] few things about when we lived in La Crosse. I remember one place we lived, even to the lay out of the house. It was near the Catholic church and the hospitals. At Easter time, Palm Sunday, the nuns and other people would go by the house, carried palms. I would see the nuns going to the church.

At this place we had rooms upstairs that we let a lady dress maker rent. She made me a light brown silk dress trimmed with light blue. I think I had my picture taken in it. She had a boyfriend that was an artist. To pay his way at school, he had to deliver milk. Anyway, he must have liked me as he painted Christmas cards for me with my name on them. He also painted two big beautiful paintings for my mother, framed. We had them hanging in the living room. I could have had them but I didn’t want them. I am sorry now. They were so big. (I couldn’t see them on my walls, too old fashioned.)

{Presumably, Cora remembers their home at 715 S. 11th. It is shown in the Sanborn fire insurance directory as a 1-1/2 story wood frame building with a slate roof. It was located in mid-block, on the south side of the alley and there were other buildings, including a stable, next to the house on the alley. The house was across the street from St. Francis hospital and a few blocks from the Santa Rose de Viterbo convent.}

My dad worked at a grocery store and saloon beer parlor. {Charley is shown as a clerk for Will & Brothers grocery in the 1893-94 city directory and a barkeeper in the 1895-96 city directory. By the time Cora would have been able to remember, Charley is shown in the city directory as a stone cutter and a teamster so he probably helped out part-time at the grocery and saloon. The Will & Brothers grocery was at 622 S. 9th, a building that is not shown in the 1906 Sanborn fire insurance map.} The grocery store was in front, the saloon in back. I remember I would go with my mother grocery shopping. I would go into the saloon part (there was nobody there in the day.) I could see all those tables and chairs, also what they had on the bar such as crackers, eggs, etc. (snacks). Their name was Wills. {George Will was the name of the grocer/saloon keeper.} They had a little boy, older than me. Anyway, he liked to play with me. His name was Ruben Wills. They teased me about [it?] so I would play with [him?] even after we moved to Viroqua. [When] we would go back to visit in La Crosse, we would go over to visit. We were at my grandma’s. Her place was just a block away, down the alley. Ruben would come running over to play. It was OK as long as they wouldn’t tease me and such things visiting with friends, going over to my grandma’s. She always had such good smelling spices from baking goodies (rolls, etc.). And all those flowers! [She had a] big room full of house plants. She sold one plant to a doctor for $20 which was big money in those days. I also remember his place but I can’t remember his name. My mother had to take a young lady that lived on the next farm from us on the farm at Viroqua to this doctor in La Crosse for a couple of weeks. (This was a cancer doctor.) I would go with Mother and this girl when she these treatments. He had a big machine about 12 or 14 feet wide from floor to ceiling with lights, not like lights we have in our house. I haven’t seen anything like it: red, blue, green, yellow, all mixed up, moving. There was heat from it. I looked at it and fainted. I’ll never forget it. But the girl was cured. She married, had kids, full of pep.

I was six years old when we moved to Viroqua. I was 20 years old when I married and came to Minneapolis so I was only 14 years on the farm. But it seems much longer. Now I will try to remember what took place in my childhood.

My childhood on the farm in Viroqua, Wisconsin, was very lonely. I didn’t have anyone to play with and had to be so quiet. I remember I always thought it was my mother’s fault that we had to live on the farm. I felt sorry for myself and my dad. I had no one to play with or talk to so cats were my friends. But I couldn’t have them in the house although they could be in the summer kitchen.

My grandpa Bowe went to La Crosse to see his daughter Martha who lived there so he went to see my Grandma Anderson and she sent a bird called Petie, cage and all, with him for me. She always was such a good person: always giving you things and goodies. I remember when we went to La Crosse she gave me a pretty yellow crocheted shawl. I remember I took such good care of it but I can’t remember what happened to it.

Aunt Bertha and her family lived in Soldiers Grove, Wis, and we would drive down once in a while. Those days you rode in a wagon or buggy. But most of the time it was a light wagon, we would be so many going. Aunt Bertha loved to dance and have fun so they would get a party going. Uncle Sever (her husband) would play the violin. Carl, Clara, and I would watch them dance and have a good time. My uncle Sever Bowe played the violin also so it was plenty music. Sometimes we would stay a couple of days and I could go to school with the kids (its kindergarten). We made some things cut out of paper. I liked that so when we got home by myself, I would play school with dolls. I had lots of dolls.

Later, Aunt Bertha and her family bought a farm next to Grandpa’s. Then I had Clara and Carl and Tillman to play with once in a while. When I started to go to school, my mother took me up to a farm which joined Grandpa’s farm up on the hill in back of us. They had a boy a little older than I by a couple of years, Alfred Olson. He was supposed to take me to school and take care of me. He was so bashful that he would either be in back of me or in front of me but not too far away. Then I had to walk alone from their house to my place. It must have looked funny. When I got older, I would walk over to Clara and Carl and go to school with them. The other kids would join us. It was a one room school house with a stove in the center. We hung our clothes on the back wall and put our lunch pails on the floor. We had two in a seat, big kids in the back, little ones in the front. At noon, after we had lunch, we had to carry water from a half mile away. I used to have nose bleeds a lot so we had to have lots of water to stop it with. And of course we had to have water to drink with our lunch.

This same farm we got water from had a press drive by horse to press out juice from sugar cane. The farmers all around us grew sugar cane to make sorghum. We had fun watching the the two horse pull this pulley around in a circle. Then we would cook the juice which was a big deal with us kids.

In the winter we would skate and slide in tubs across a big pond near the school. Also sleds. There were big rocks we climb over and around. There were also caves we crawled into. Some were so big they were arches. Near school we picked flowers in the woods, played baseball, threw the ball over the school house to catch. We would get caught in snow storms in the winter, some so bad that the biggest boy would go first and then we would follow in his steps. Sometimes the wind would blow it in before we could get in his steps. The wind would blow and we could hardly see. We hung on to each other so we wouldn’t get lost. Then I had to go on alone but it was all down hill into the valley. The wind would blow so bad. Once I came to a low spot in the road where it had drifted across so much that I stood and wondered how I was going to make it across. But I waded in up to my armpits. After that the roads were fine and when I got home they didn’t know anything about any storm. Everything was fine. I lived in the valley; the school was on the prairie and the roads were closed.

In the spring the snow would melt [and we would get] floods. Sometimes I wondered how I was going to make it home. Once I had to cross a creek that was flooding but I couldn't make it so I walked through a pasture along a hillside until I got to the road that went by the cave. I saw it was flooded so I couldn’t make it so I had to go over the top of the cave to get to Grandpa’s house. You really had to have your wits about you to win out back in those days.

The floods weren’t something you could wade into. The current was so strong it would sweep [away] bridges, chicken coops, whatever happened to be in the way, down the valleys to the Miss River through Readstown which was four miles down from Grandpa’s farm.

[The Mississippi River, of course, is a long way from Readstown. Various branches of the Kickapoo River flow through the Readstown area, including Reeds Creek which Cora may be referring to. The Kickapoo River ultimately reaches the Wisconsin River thirty miles south of the old farm. The Wisconsin then reaches the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, about 35 miles southwest of the farm.]

When I was 14, I was confirmed in a church in Viroqua. I wouldn’t go to the one out in the country because the minister couldn’t talk very good English (he had just come from Norway) {this must have been Martin Finstad who was installed as pastor at Kickapoo Lutheran Church in April of 1906} so I went to the one in Viroqua. (You saw the new church when we were down there.) The old church burned down and I guess they lost all of their records. I had the minister from Viroqua when Maurice and I were married six years later. {The in-town church, then called the Viroqua Lutheran Church, burned to the ground on Christmas Day, 1946. The new stone church building was begun in the spring of 1949 and dedicated on November 19,1950. The congregation has been called Good Shepherd Lutheran Church since 1964.}

Now back to my childhood. It wasn’t all hard luck or bad. We had parties, picnics, sleigh rides, boy friends. The only thing was we had to walk to parties if we wanted to go to them. My first boy friend was the kid that used to take me to school when I first started going to school. But that was later. (?) I was 16 when I could go to parties. My mother and all the other mothers would be there too. This time Alfred took me home and my mother had to go home without me. (Ha.) After that, Alfred took me to parties. He got the first car down there. He took me for the first long ride in a car, all over the country and small towns. Great day! Then he went away to college and he told me who I shouldn’t go out with so Peter, his brother, used to take me to parties. He got a car but he would take a bunch of us kids. We would have a good time.

Then Aunt Martha came down there for a visit and she wanted me to go back to Minneapolis with her so I did. Dad said if I could stay two weeks he would eat his hat he was so sure I would get homesick. I stayed three months so I wrote and told him he better start eating his hat.

I met Maurice three days after I got to Minneapolis. He was with the kids that met at my aunt’s place to go to church. They all sang in the choir. He had a girl friend named Helen Hall. I liked him the first time I met him. Three days later, he called my aunt and asked her if he could take me to a show. She said yes, he could ask me so he did and that was how I met Maurice. Maurice’s dad had a hardware store on 38th Street and Chicago Avenue at the time. They had an old car they delivered things in. One day he drove by and stopped so I said why don’t you take me for a ride. He said not in this old car so he went home and said he wanted a new car so his dad bought him a car. Then he called my aunt to see if she would let me go with him in his new car with his folks but that I would have to come stay over night at his house as they were going to go early in the morning. So I told him he had to have his mother invite me to come and stay over night which he did and she did. That was the beginning. From that day on until I went back home we were together all the time.

Don, your mother told me to tell you this: I don’t remember saying anything about it, that Grandpa Al, Maurice’s dad, was part French. He told me one day about his folks in Sweden. His dad had horses, race horses, and he was killed by a horse. And about his mother. He said they were rich, she wore silks and satins, but it all changed after his father was killed. And that his mother was part French. He was rather proud of that. Then she met this fellow Fogelquist and married him. They had a son by the name of Sandy Fogelquist, Irene’s father, who was married to Mary .... I can’t remember her last name right now. Anyway she was related to John Everson. She was from up there and John Everson knows her name.

Irene married a fellow by the name of Dawson in California. They had two sons: Duane Dawson, youngest son, and Darrell Dawson. They live in California. I lost touch with them after Irene died.

The Fogelquists lived in Superior, Wisconsin. They had a hardware store. They were both living when I came to Minneapolis. My dad was up to see them and I was up to see them. They were very nice people. Even Grandpa Al couldn’t find fault with them. In fact, he was rather proud of them.

Your Grandpa John knows more about Mary’s people. I believe John Everson was a cousin of Mary’s. Well, anyway John knows how the relation hangs together.

By the way, off the record, I told Vivian about Grandpa Al being part French and she also is rather proud of being part French. She even took French when in school. She even started a French club. I have forgotten the name of it. It was a fancy name.

An Only Child’s Memories

Cora Christine Anderson Carlson
Written in the early 1980’s

My first memories are of a home in La Crosse at [age] 4, sitting in a sun-filled bedroom with my mother, sewing bonnets for dolls while my mother was sewing. I have loved to sew ever since. This home must have been very happy as I can remember even the way it looked inside. I especially remember the large clean kitchen, the arrangement of furniture, even to the doors. There were six doors, each seeming to lead to another room from the kitchen. It was a sunny room as it faced both east and west (an L-shaped house). I used to sit on the front porch and I could see the hospitals a couple of blocks away. I also saw the catholic nuns go by to and from church. I used to be very impressed at Easter when they carried their palms.

My grandmother (father’s mother) lived a few blocks away. She was a good Christian woman but not a very well person as she had asthma. I remember the house well in every detail: the good smells from her baking all these good Norwegian cakes and cookies, all her beautiful house plants, and her canary birds. I can still see her sitting in her rocker crocheting all kinds of lovely things. I remember one yellow wool scarf I loved so well and which I got from her. She was a very generous person, always giving things. She sang in the church choir and was a good singer. When she died I told people my grandmother went to heaven and I wanted them to come and see her before they took her away. She died when I was eight years old. Grandmother Anderson had so many friends. When she died there were so many people and so many beautiful flowers that they had to haul them in two buggies.

I always seem to remember sunshine in La Crosse such as shining in the church.

When I was six years old, we moved to Viroqua to live with my mother’s folks as mother was the only one with one child and my grandparents were old and needed someone to live with them and they didn’t want any noise. I was a very quiet little mouse, playing with dolls, sewing, even to making dolls when I needed more. I would build doll houses out of orange crates, and make furniture copied out of catalogs. I had a little dog named Punch (a neighbor killed him). I used to dress him up and wheel him in my doll buggy.

When I first came to live there, I would follow my grandmother wherever she would go. She only spoke Norwegian, I spoke English, but we got along fine. I learned Norwegian in three months.

They lived on a farm. My grandmother used to raise sheep. I loved them. Grandmother made candles. I used to watch her. I can’t remember that I ever could help. I guess I just kept out of the way.

I used to climb the rocks and imagine big castles. I also used to find big sparkling rocks, read books. A short while after I got there, my grandmother from La Crosse sent me a yellow canary. I wonder if she felt sorry for me, a lone little girl that had to be quiet. I had that bird twelve years. It died when I went away for three months (I was 18 then).

My grandmother was a little woman, a very quiet and serious person. Every day she would go into the living room (we called it the front room) by herself and read her Bible and other religious books. When the minister and his family would come and see her, she would always give him cream, butter, and all kinds of vegetables and apples. His buggy would be loaded. Those days a minister wasn’t paid much.

I remember Mother made me red dresses and white pinafores. I had black patent leather slippers which I was so proud of. If they would get dusty, I would wipe them with my hanky. I would never get dirty. I remember one of my aunts asking her little girl why she couldn’t stay clean like me. She always said I was as clean when I got home from school as when I left in the morning. She asked my cousin if she rolled in the dirt. We would walk home from school together. My cousin and I were together always after I started school.

My folks moved away from grandfolks’ farm for one year as one of my aunts (Martha) got divorced which was a disgrace in those days. She had nowhere to go, she and her little boy, but I guess she and the boy were too much for my grandparents so we moved back. My aunt was a bossy woman and her boy wild and noisy. We stayed there until grandmother died (I was 12 then). My grandfather went to stay with one of my aunts (Louise in Viroqua). My uncles hired a girl to keep house. We had built a house on a farm next to grandfather’s. We stayed there until I was 15. One uncle (Sever) wanted us to move back to grandfather’s farm. I was married in grandfather’s farm house. My folks moved back to their home after I married. My uncles moved to live with my aunt Louise in Viroqua. I moved to Minneapolis.

At six, after we moved to grandfather’s farm, I got sick with pneumonia. The thing I remember is I found myself in the pantry where I had sleep-walked. It was in early spring.

One day I saw some kids climbing a hill we called Hog’s Back. I guess I was very lonesome. I got dressed and took my doll and buggy over to them but I didn’t know a soul. I did think one of our neighbor kids was there but she wasn’t so I came home a forlorn little girl. I never tried to get acquainted with anyone after that. It’s still hard for me to get to know people. My cousin Clara was my best friend. She lived about one-and-a-half miles away. She had two brothers. She moved from Soldiers Grove to this farm which joined grandfather’s when I was about 9 years old. I remember we used to go to Soldiers Grove to see them at the 4th of July and also to parties. It was fun. It was high above the river. We would drive home in the moonlight; we could count the stars.

Then one day my Aunt Susan and her five children came back from California to live with us at Grandma’s. Grandpa found a farm for them about two miles away. We used to play train as they knew so much about trains. We also played with dolls. We would cut paper money and play store and we would fight. My grandma would side with me. I guess it was because they were bolder and noisy. After they moved to their home, we formed a newspaper and the older boys were the mailmen for us when they would come to see my uncles and grandparents.

In the summertime we would always have noon dinner outdoors. Grandpa had planted trees and built a table and bench just like a park right outside of the summer kitchen. We never lived in the big house in the summer other than sleep there. I remember on rainy days I would play upstairs with my dolls. We would have church, preach and sing, have Baptism, Confirmation, and weddings. I would sit and read a big book of my uncle’s with pictures of Jesus and people of Bible time. Then, after the rain, the sun would come out and I would watch the floods go swirling by, washing out the bridges. The men had to get busy and rebuild them after the flood.

I remember going to school with my cousins. I walked alone through the woods to my cousins’ house. It was a long way to school but I did have company about two and a half miles to school. I remember right before Christmas, and it was almost dark, I was coming home carrying all my books as it was Christmas vacation and we never left them there. I heard wolves howling and I got so scared I could hardly move. But I did run when I saw one of my uncles coming from the barn. Was I glad! What a welcome sight. He said that the wolf was a long way off but we found out later he wasn’t more than half a mile away. Someone shot him.

Another time I came home from school I came over a road home which was closer. It was in the spring of the year. We lived in the valley and I had to cross a couple of flooding creeks (from melting snow). There were bridges but sometimes they were covered with water so I had to try some other way. There was a cave alongside of the road we called sand spring. The spring flowed into the creek which was on the side of the road and was flooded so I had to climb a wooded hillside and go over that cave to get home. It was such a long walk home. I would get home about 5 o’ clock. I was so weak I could hardly drag myself along, up hill and down hill. I was a small and delicate child.

I would go early to school. There were south slopes along the road and I would stop and pick violets in the spring to bring to school. Other times I would cross fields and pastures to save time. It would be closer but there would be cows and horses. One morning I saw the herd of horses (20) way off so I thought I could make it across the pasture. When I was half way, the horses saw me. It was down hill for them, up hill for me. Did I run! I just made it under the fence as they came at me. One just missed me. He turned and kicked but I rolled away. I felt safe but not for long as there were young cattle in the new pasture but no mad bulls. I would try and time it before the cattle would leave their pens but then I would get to school and hour early and that hour would seem ages. Some time I would think maybe there wasn’t any school that day. In those days we didn’t have watches for kids.

The windows were up too high for me to look through the school house windows. It wasn’t much of a school house. One teacher for all 8 grades. The stove was in the middle of the room. There were about 30 children. Some of the teachers were very young and not very good. They would have their boyfriends come and get them. The kids would sit and make fun of them. We had a couple of good teachers otherwise we would never have learned anything. I remember one teacher was an old crab. She had everyone in an uproar, some kid was always mad at her. They would stage riots against each other to see which side she would stick up for. There was one girl that always started them. This girl had a brother the teacher was crazy about so she thought she could get by with it.

{The school Cora attended is referred to as “The Ole Torger School - District #8” in the Vernon County 150 Years book. A description of the history of the school, by Wesley Clayton Slack, is as follows:

“The Ole Torger School started in a white wood frame one-room building with pillars on the front porch on land obtained from Ole Torger, hence the name. Many of the students spoke Norwegian so had to learn English.

“The teachers earned $24 a month at the earliest records we have to $257 in 1961. The early teachers had as many as 36 students. Reading, Arithmetic, Spelling, Art, Music, Language, Geography, Agriculture, and Physiology were subjects taught. Children got a very good education because they reviewed anew each year by listening to the lower grades recite. In 1913 a new brick building was put up. There was a considerable controversy over the location of the new school and wives were brought in to vote for the first time. It was decided to stay near the original spot but east a bit. In 1938, the school was remodeled to add restrooms, water, and a small kitchen.

“The teachers from 1904-1962 were: Emelia Johnson, Alice Anderson, Hatie Dickson, Emma Swiggum, Rachel Josvanger, Susanna Sherry, Frances Fish, Agnes Sherry, Beatrice Erickson, Ella Hanson, .... Some of the teachers roomed at the Peter Solverson or Louis Hanson homes. The last school board members were Victor Anderson, Ernest Ekum, and Earl Kvale.”}

Cora’s teachers at the Ole Torger school, and their monthly salaries, were as follows:

1902-1904 ??
1904-05 Emelia Johnson, $25
1905-06 Alice Anderson Johnson, $24
1906-07 Hattick Dickson, $25
1907-08 Emma Swiggum Rice, $30
1908-1911 Rachel Josvanger Thompson

Cora made a death claim against Maurice’s Social Security on June 26, 1956, at the Minneapolis field office.

Seh made a “life claim” to Social Security in January of 1962.

Cora intended to live to be 105 years old so that she could say that her life spanned three centuries. {Note that this means that she understood that the 21st century started in 2001 and not 2000.} She survived breast cancer, with a radical mastectomy, in the late 1950s. She also survived another cancer operation past the age of 90 and even a knee scoping in her late 80s. She spent the last five years of her life at the Martin Luther Manor nursing home in Bloomington. (She was in Martin Luther Manor, and receiving cards, by November of 1989 when she received a card from Darley March.)

Baptism:
Among the sponsors were Louise Bowe and, apparently, Charley’s mother, “Christine Christiansen.”

Cora married Maurice Edward CARLSON on 2 Sep 1916 in Vernon County, Wisconsin. Maurice (son of Johan Alfred CARLSON and Brita (Bessie) ERICKSON) was born on 30 Aug 1895 in Wabasha, Wabasha County, Minnesota; died on 17 Jun 1956 in Bloomington, Hennepin County, Minnesota; was buried on 20 Jun 1956 in Sunset Memorial Park, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• MN Birth Cert Checked: Y
• Minnesota Birth Certificate: 1917-44924
• Minnesota Death Certificate: 2008-MN-010814
• Baptism: 21 Nov 1917, Nazareth English Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota
• Confirmation: 24 May 1931, Minnehaha Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota

Notes:

Baptismal sponsors: Bess and Al, Charly and Anna. Baptism performed by Pastor Halvorsen.

Attended Miles Standish Elementary School.

She had a club called the Les Belles Amies in high school, 1933-1934, and was president in February of 1934.

She was elected president of the new James Henry Longworth unit of the Woman’s Relief Corps formed in January of 1934.

Confirmed by Tenner Thompson at Minnehaha Lutheran Church on May 24, 1931.



Viv and Bill were secretly married in Iowa nearly a year before their 1935 wedding in Minneapolis. That earlier marriage, solemnized by an Episcopal rector, took place on October 20, 1934, at St. John’s Church in Mason City, Iowa. Vivian claimed to be 19 years old although she was only 17. Bill claimed to be 21 although he was 19. At that time, Bill was living at 3344 Stevens Avenue in south Minneapolis.

Viv worked in her father's bicycle business in the mid to late 1930s and ran the Minnehaha store, and, indeed, the entire wholesale and retail business, for awhile. She and Bill moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in the spring of 1940. Ronald was born in June, shortly after they completed their move. Viv and Bill started a bicycle business (also called Acme Bicycle) in Wilmington. (Schwinn assisted them in setting up the Wilmington store.) The Wilmington store lasted less than a year due to supply constraints arising from wartime allocations. Bill and Viv then worked for Du Pont, first in Wilmington, later in other locations, during the war. Vivian was a confidential clerk and Bill worked in the personnel section, hiring construction workers. The projects they worked on were parts of the Manhattan project although they weren’t aware of that until after the war. They returned to Minneapolis for awhile but were transferred back to Delaware in May of 1943. Bill and Viv lived in Gary, Indiana, in November of 1944 when Maurice and Cora visited them on their way back from visiting DHC in New Orleans. Bill and Viv returned to Minneapolis in a couple of weeks later, in November of 1944 to work for Gopher Ordnance, also a part of DuPont.

From Cora’s 2nd diary, we learn of the addresses Viv and Bill lived at between the time they moved and the end of 1944 (at which point they had returned to Minneapolis):

633 Harrington
Wilmington Delaware

711 Villa Monterey
Wilmington?

7531 Blaisdell
Minneapolis

21 Oak Street
Salem, NJ

541 McKinley
Gary, Indiana

445 E. Ridge Road
Gary, Indiana

Their addresses in Minneapolis:

4321 43rd Ave. S. (built in 1932)
Mpls., Minn

Rt #3, Box 352
Hopkins, Minn.

Vivian and Bill and family moved into their Hopkins house on Williston Road on August 30, 1948. They moved to a new house on Idylwood Road in 1955.

She became director of Christian Education at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Minnetonka Mills in September of 1958.

She and Bill celebrated their silver wedding anniversary on 27 Jul 1960 with an open house at their Idylwood Drive home. Mr. and Mrs. Donald Carlson and Mr. and Mrs. Reed S. Wold were hosts and hostesses. (Reed Wold was a neighborhood friend of Bill and Viv when they were high schoolers on Minnehaha Avenue.

As a reprise of her earlier days in the business, Viv and Earl helped out at the store (with Elaine) for several weeks in the spring of 1970.

Her obituary in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on April 5th:

Dahlberg, Vivian Carlson Age 90, of Minnetonka, died Friday at Methodist Hospital from complications of Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She was preceded in death by her husband, Earl and step son, Doug. She is survived by children, Ron (Doris) Marsh, Leslie (Marshall) Lewis; stepdaughter, Lynn Bauer; daughter-in-law, Carita Dahlberg; 7 grandchildren, numerous great and great-great-grandchildren; brother, Don (Elaine) Carlson. Vivian's career as Director of Religious Education began at St. David's Episcopal Church and continued on to Gethsemane Lutheran Church. It was Vivian's inner faith that continued to guide and support her which enabled her to be the foundation of our family. She was dearly loved and will be missed by all who knew her. Memorial service Monday 1:30 PM with visitation 1 hour before at the Washburn-McReavy Strobeck Johnson Chapel, 1400 Mainstreet, Hopkins. Private interment Grandview Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the American Cancer Society.

Birth:
4:30 AM. Attending physician, Dr. Witham or Wickam, would also deliver DHC.

Confirmation:
41st Street and Minnehaha Avenue

Died:
Methodist Hospital

Buried:
cremated

Vivian married William Charles MARSH on 3 Aug 1935 in Gethsemane Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. William (son of Francis Charles (Frank) AUGUSTINE and Frances Emily CARR) was born on 25 Jun 1915 in Hennepin County, Minnesota; died on 15 Feb 1964 in Hopkins, Hennepin County, Minnesota; was buried on 18 Feb 1964 in Sunset Memorial Park, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Vivian married Earl Anderson DAHLBERG on 9 Jul 1965 in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Earl (son of Oscar Frithiof DAHLBERG and Anna Josephine ANDERSON) was born on 31 Dec 1917 in Hopkins, Hennepin County, Minnesota; died on 5 Oct 2000 in St. Louis Park, Hennepin County, Minnesota; was buried on 9 Oct 2000 in Grandview Park Cemetery, Edina, Hennepin County, Minnesota. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• MN Birth Cert Checked: Y
• Minnesota Birth Certificate: 1924-44185
• Minnesota Death Certificate: 2011-MN-008512
• Occupation: Store Manager
• Baptism: 3 Oct 1924, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota
• Confirmation: 5 Jun 1938, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota

Notes:

Born at home. Attending physician was C.A. Witham or Wickam. He was the same doctor who delivered Vivian. Bess also attended the delivery. Birth certificate noted that “opthalmia neonatorum prophylactic” was administered.

Baptismal sponsors: Mr. and Mrs. Al Carlson and Mrs. G.H. Deiters.

Confirmed at Minnehaha Lutheran Church, June 5, 1938, Pastor Tenner Thompson.

Minneapolis Roosevelt High School, June 5, 1942.

In an interview in his last year of life, when his memory was suspect, DHC recalled the 1938 visit to Viroqua which he found very boring because of all the visiting of relatives. He claimed it was a two-week trip, during which time they stayed at the Ekums’ Cozy Cabins. (It was only one week.) He remembers playing golf one day with his dad at the Viroqua golf course. He also recalls meeting one of Carl’s sons, who was about his age, showing him around Carl’s tobacco farm. DHC remembers that Carl’s farm produced especially good chewing tobacco. He also learned about trapping moles.

In that interview, DHC also recalled his appendicitis operation in 1940, after which he spent time (including his 16th birthday) in the hospital and watched the Aquatennial parade from the balcony of the hospital. (This is recorded in Cora’s diary.)

Registered for the draft on 15 Dec 1942 at the Masonic Temple Building in downtown Minneapolis. At that time, his employer was Thomas F Burniece of Economy Sheet Metal.

Inducted into the US Army November 24, 1943 at the age of 19. Entered active service December 14, 1943, at Fort Snelling. Service Number 37 582 663, clerk-typist, bookkeeper, radio operator. Left Minneapolis on a troop train on December 23, 1943. Discharged as grade T/4, Field Artillery. Trained at Camp Roberts in California and Camp Van Dorn in Mississippi. Went overseas January 15, 1945. Served in 63rd Infantry Division, Artillery Battalion, HQ Battery.

Discharge papers indicated that DHC served in the Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns. He was awarded the American Theater Service Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. He was vaccinated for smallpox in September, 1943, Typhoid in November of 1945 and January of 1946, and Tetanus in January of 1945. He was an expert in “carbine.”

Total “Continental Service” was 1 year, 25 days. Total “Foreign Service” was 1 year, 3 months, and 26 days. “Longevity for pay purposes” was 2 years, 5 months, and 11 days.

Departure for the ETO (European Theater of Operations) was on January 5, 1945. Arrival was January 14, 1945, a transit of 9 days.

His ASR score was 39 so he was toward the back of the line when it came to returning home. His departure for the USA from Europe was on April 20, 1946. Arrival was on April 30, 1946, a transit of 10 days.

Separation papers indicated that discharge was through the Separation Center, Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, completed on the 4th of May, 1946. Papers were signed by “Neville B. Borzarth, Major AC.” These papers were filed with the Hennepin County Register of Deeds on May 7, 1946, at 9:10 AM. His honorable discharge was as a technician fourth grade, Headquarters battery, 63rd Division Artillery, service number 37 582 663.

Discharge papers indicated height 5-11, weight 154 lbs.

Addresses while in the service, according to Cora’s diary.

Pvt. Donald H. Carlson
37582663
Battery B, 56th Field Artillery Battalion
12th Regiment
Building 6315
Camp Roberts, California

Pvt. Donald H. Carlson
37582663
Headquarters Battery
63rd Division Artillery
APO 410
Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi

Pvt. Donald H. Carlson
37582663 Hq. Bty.
63rd Div. Arty.
APO 410
c/o Postmaster, New York, NY

Pfc. Donald H. Carlson
37582663 Hg. Btry.
6th Corps. Arty.
APO 46
c/o Postmaster, New York, NY

Cpl. Donald H. Carlson
37582663 Hq. Co.
6th Corps. 1 G. Section
APO 46
c/o Postmaster, New York, NY

Sgt. Donald H. Carlson
37582663
APO 46
Hq. U.S. Zone Constabulary
c/o P.O.N.Y., NY

In the 1948 Minneapolis city directory, he is listed as a salesman for Carlson’s Sporting Goods and residing at 4230 Minnehaha. Elaine is not listed.

In the 1950 Minneapolis city directory, he is listed as the manager of Carlson’s and residing at 2255 “Olk” Shakopee Rd.

In July of 1952, he and his family moved to 2239 East Old Shakopee Road.

DHC got a $10,000 loan, at 5% interest, from Mrs. Christine Larson, 1902 4th Avenue South in Minneapolis, tel. no. FE2-7966. The payments were to be $66 per month with the first payment due on March 1, 1956, and the remaining payments due on the first of each month. All payments were recorded in a small book maintained by Christine Larson. Not all payments were made on the 1st of the month. The last payment was recorded February 5, 1962, which left the balance at 7961.75. Presumably, the balance was paid off at that time because the entry of that February payment was made in the book by DHC. Also presumably then, with the loan repaid, Christine gave the book to DHC.

The official description of the 2239 property, for the 1967 Hennepin County real estate taxes, was:

That part of Lot 50 lying S of N 147 6/10 feet thereof and Wly of a line running from a point in N line of S 258 16/100 feet of Lot 49 dis 285 feet W from E line therof to a point in S line of N 116 3/10 feet of Lot 52 dis 652 feet W from E line therof.

Plat 70342, Parcel 7050, District 20, School District 271, Watershed 2. The taxes for that year were $1,102.93.

Don and Elaine’s phone number in Bloomington 854-6106.

Depression-based nervous breakdown in the spring of 1970.

Trans-ischemic attack (TIA) episode in the late 1980s.

Fell and broke his hip in the very early morning hours of May 12, 2010.>

Obit from the Minneapolis newspaper:

Carlson, Don H. 86, died March 15, 2011, at his home in Eagan. He was born on July 13, 1924, in Minneapolis to Maurice and Cora (Anderson) Carlson. He served with the U.S. Army in Europe in World War II and owned Carlson's Cyclery in south Minneapolis for over 40 years. He is survived by Elaine, his wife of 63 years; his son, Don (Mary) Carlson of Green Bay; and his daughter, Cheryl (Kevin) Fautch of Eagan, as well as three grandchildren and one great-grandson. He was preceded in death by his parents, and his sister, Vivian Dahlberg. Funeral services will be at Grace Lutheran Church, 8700 Old Cedar Ave., Bloomington at 11 AM on Friday, March 18. Family will greet friends one hour before service. Interment will be at Sunset memorial Park in Minneapolis. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Grace Lutheran, the Fairview Foundation or the charitable organization of the donor's choice.

Official cause of death “cerebellar metastases, unknown primary.”

Birth:
4:10 AM at home. Minneapolis birth certificate #378, “Ward 12 of Minneapolis.”

Baptism:
Minnehaha Lutheran Church, 41st Street and Minnehaha Avenue, Pastor Tenner Thompson

Confirmation:
Minnehaha Lutheran Church

Died:
at home at 4:30 PM

Buried:
Funeral at Grace Lutheran Church in Bloomington.

Donald married Mabel Elaine EVERSON on 8 Nov 1947 in Aitkin County, Minnesota. Mabel (daughter of John Edwin EVERSON and Mabel Amanda LANDSTROM) was born on 27 Feb 1930 in Crosby, Crow Wing County, Minnesota; died on 25 Jun 2020 in Eagan, Dakota County, Minnesota; was buried on 30 Jun 2020 in Sunset Memorial Park, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]