Conversations with Dad 3/7/77
compiled by Ruth Madson

Mother and Dad always had a nice home. I was born in Blekinge, Sweden, Feb. 10, 1877, and the last place in Sweden I remember is Kyrkhult. That is where I went to school. My father had a bakery in Kyrkhult. All their products were taken to the market - people didn’t have shops of their own where they sold things. My Dad did some farming at the same time. He rented a farm owned by the church. Our home was on a lake shore below the hill of Kyrkhult on a main road. We went to church school there. I went to school about two years in Sweden.

My mother was from a prominent family. One of her brothers was the same as a representative here. My grandmother and grandfather (Mother’s parents) lived with us in Kyrkhult. He was a big man and she was a little woman. My mother was slender and she was of medium height. Her name was Johanna Jensen. Her parents were farmers - quite wealthy farmers. My mother was four years older than my father. My mother’s parents objected to her marrying my father, because he didn’t have anything. My mother was “converted” in a big evangelistic revival in Sweden - she was a Christian before that too, however.

My father was born in Skåne. He came to Kyrkhult to work and that is where he met my mother. They had seven children: Cecelia, John, Gummie, Natalie (died in Sweden), Alfred, Victor, and Herman. All the children were born in Sweden.

There was a great depression in Sweden and it was hard to make anything. My father had a sister in the United States, Mrs. Swen Younggren. They lived near River Falls, Wisconsin, and were doing well so my Dad decided to go the the United States too. Father, John, Cecelia came to America first in 1884. It was hard for my Mother to see them go so far from they rest of us who stayed in Sweden. Then Mother, Gummie, Victor, Herman and I - and a cousin of ours - left Sweden for America in the fall of 1885. When we left Sweden my Mother’s parents went to live with other relatives in Sweden. We came to River Falls, Wisconsin in 1885. I think the fare from Sweden to the United States was $30. We left Sweden from Malmö to Hull, England and took train to Liverpool and then to New York. We took a train to Chicago and to Hudson, Wisconsin, where Father and his sister came to meet us. I was eight years old. Then we went to the Swen Younggren farm - that is where we stayed. They had a house they let us use.

Our name in Sweden was Persson. Holmquist came from the some settlement in Sweden. I went to the third grade when I came to the United States. I went to an English speaking school. My cousins helped me learn English. We stayed in Wisconsin for four years. Celia worked in St. Paul. John was the first one to go to Kittson County where he worked for his uncle. We left for Northcote, Kittson County, Minnesota in 1889. On the way up there I was able to get off the train in St. Paul and look up my sister, Celia. I found her all by myself so I must have been able to speak English fairly well. In Kittson County Father rented a small farm owned by Charlie Younggren. It was close to the railroad, 1 1/2 miles from Northcote. I started grade school in Northcote and finished the 8th grade there in 1893. I finished grade school in Northcote when I was 16 years old. Then I took some teacher’s training in Hallock and at 18 got a diploma to teach. It was a thrill to get my first two ponies and convered buggy. They were red and white ponies. Mother had lots of rides in that buggy. Victor got the ponies from me (free) when I left home. I taught for four years in common schools - in Tien, Tabatha and Scane schools. Then I went to St. Paul to study to be a telegrapher. I had saved money for that. I was there in 1898 and in 1899 I went to St. Peter to Gustavus Adolphus and finished the business college course there in 1900. I was an “A” student - valedictorian of the class. After graduation I got a call from Northwestern College in Fergus Falls in 1901. I accepted that call and we lived there until 1911. At Northwestern College I built up the business department to be the biggest department in the college. We had many good friends and many good years in Fergus Falls. While in Fergus Falls I played tennis and golf with Youngdahl, the music professor. In 1911 we moved to Minneapolis where I was head of business department of Minnesota College in Minneapolis. We stayed in Minneapolis two years untill fall of 1912 (we moved to Lancaster November 1, 1912). I went into hardware, machinery and undertaking business with William Lindgren. We were partners for several years but split partnership and I took over the hardware store and Bill took over the machinery and undertaking business. Soon after we came to Lancaster I was elected mayor. In September, 1935, our hardware store was completely destroyed by fire. This was right in the middle of the Great Depression. On October 10, 1935, we moved to Grand Forks where I had a job teaching at Acker Business College. In 1937 the job of manager of the Kittson County Farmers Mutual Life Insurance Company was open. Alvin and I went up to Hallock and we called on all the directors. The next day at their meeting, I got the job. The family moved back to Kittson County - Hallock - right after school was out in the spring of 1937.