Just a brief history of Ole and Melinda Lindebak and some of there experiences of life in a new territory as told to me.
Father was born March 22, 1849 near Stavanger, Norway. Mother was born July 2, 1858 near Stavanger, Norway.
Father came to America in 1868. Leaving Norway on May 12, 1868 in a sailing vessel and came to Creston, Ill, July 2 of that year.
Mother came to America with her family at age of three years of age. They also came to America on a sailing vessel. They came to Illinois settling near Pontiac, Ill.
Father worked on farms in Lee and LaSalle County, Ill. During the winter months he worked in a shoe maker shop. In 1875 he farmed near Leland, Ill and in 1876 moved to a farm near Rautaul in Champaign County, Ill.
Mother folks lived at Rowe, which is near Pontiac, Ill. When she was 13 years old she went to work for her oldest sister Betsy (Brita) Johnson who lived near Leland, Ill and did housework for her and others. She also helped her brother Osmund on his farm.
On March 19, 1878 she and father were married at Pontiac, Ill. They lived on the farm father was renting. Because mother was ill with what was called argue in the summer of 1882. The doctor told father if wanted his wife to live he would have to move to a drier climate. So in the fall of 1882, he, Ivan Refvem and mothers’s brother Lars Larson came to Mitchell, SD. They settled in Gerald County, South Dakota Territory. That was to be the family home.
They built a sod house. Later father bought a four room house and moved it just East of the sod house. We lived in this house until 1905, they built on to the old house. I remember the old sod house which was torn down after the new house was built. The old sod house was used as a summer kitchen, separator rooms, wash house, etc. We kids called it the dugout.
Oscar, Chris and Minnie were born in Champaign County, Ill. The rest of the family were born in Gerald County, SD. Just how many of children were born in the old sod house I don’t know.
There were three large flat stone steps into a shanty entry. There was a long window on the West and on on the East. The walls were of sod with a slanting shingle roof. The inside walls were boarded up and papered with a heavy paper like what in later years was called Oatmeal paper. There was an upstairs with two large bunks on either side of the room. The mattresses were made of straw ticks as they were called. Every fall after the trashing was done these ticks were emptied and filled with new straw.
Mother said Minnie used to wish the old sod house would burn up, but when ever the roof did catch on fire, which it did as the stove pipe extended through the roof, the girls would carry water with rest of family to put the fire out.
The first summer the nearest railroad was in Mt Vernon. Then is the fall of 1883 the railroad came North from Mitchell and Wasuscocket was established. The railroad was extended to Wessington Springs and Lane was built.
I’ve heard the folks tell of pumping the well dry and having to wait for the water to come in the well to water the live stock. I remember father breaking sod with a walking plow pulled by a horse an oxen to prepare the fields for oats, wheat and corn. Corn seed was brought from Illinois.
Mother worked those first years. Baked bread for a bachelor or two. Neighbors were quite close as there was a house or shanty on every quarter of section of land.
Father, Iver and Lars went over to the James River and got Cottonwood, and Boxelder sapling and brought them back, planting them. Ours was quite a good grove that shelter the farm building. Then later he planted an orchard, apples, plums and cherries. Cherry trees were short lived. There was also currants, gooseberries, strawberries, rhubarb. These supplied us with sauces, jam, fresh peaches , apricot prunes that seemed to be our steadies in sauces.
When the children of the neighborhood were of school age a school was built on the northeast corner of the Liars Larson farm. The folks sent Oscar and Chris but the teacher sent Chris home as he wasn’t old enough. It must have a a tying time for the teacher as there were no uniform books. Pupils brought readers and books they had at home. Imagine teaching school to students who couldn't speak English. Oscar could only speak Norwegian. Some kids spoke German, Swedish and some English. The teacher was paid only $13 per month.
There were years of drought, grasshoppers and years of good crops. There was a big blizzard on January 1, 1888.It swooped down on the folks without any warning. Father and Mother had started for a load of hay when they saw the storm coming. They put the team into the barn and went to the house. In the afternoon father decided they should get some food the children in the school house. So he bundled lump and started to the school house with a grain sack, in which mother had put a loaf of bread, butter and a 1/2 pail of syrup. The storm was so bad he could hardly see. there was a fence row along the east side of the what later was our lake, he followed it until he came to the road then started in the direction of the school house. He ran into a string which happened to fastened to the school house. The string was fastened to the door by another man who had taken his children home. The teacher and rest of children were okay. The next day they were busy digging out and doing there chores when one of Berg boys came and said his father was lost. He had when out to get a pail of water. Later that day Mr Berg came walking home, he had dug himself into a pile of straw and stayed there for awhile.
There were lots of bad wind storms to in the early days and I guess the old sod house served as a place for shelter in case of a tornado.
In the early days you were not always sure of how was your neighbor. Some families would load up in the night and move away.
Father was the Justice of the Peace for Franklin Twp. One afternoon mother said she was washing clothes, on the board, the sheriff had a horse thief and wanted a change of venue, and father was asked to help. They had court in our kitchen until school was out and then they went to the school house.
Sometime in the summer of 1902, father bought uncle Leifs (hard to read this) farm. A well was dug on the farm. On this farm we built are lake. In later years I got typhoid fever from water from this well. I don’t remember much about this, I had terrible headaches and had to learn how to walk all over again. In those days we didn’t believe in feeding the fever. Afraid they might die they staved the patient. My brother Louis also contacted the typhoid fever from the same well and died in 1905.
Oscar homesteaded in North Dakota in 1904. Married in 1906. Minnie worked doing housework and in a hotel in Alpena. She later moved to Sioux City, IA
Christ worked for Dad and in 1905 he and Hayes Cunningham bought the livery stable in Lanes. The following spring he sold his interest. He later bought a house and farmed with dad.
Louis worked for Dad and them worked with a threshing crew. He caught typhoid fever. He had planned to go to college to be a doctor.
Bertina stayed at home most of the time. Would work for people a few weeks when they needed her. After we moved to Lane she was the telephone operator for a time. She was a clerk at the time of her death in 1918