Mapping Monday

Ed and Belle Swanson Farm site

Peter and Ida Sorteberg homestead

Allen Sorteberg took over the homestead

Source unknown at this time.  Believed to be written by Leland Sorteberg in the 1980s.
In 1916 Peter Sorteberg married Ida C. Swanson, daughter of John P. Swanson, who had homesteaded a farm about 2 miles away just west of the Great Northern Railroad tracks.  For a short period of time they operated the Sorteberg homestead.  For the next 10 years the Peter Sorteberg family farmed on the 80 acre farm known as the Warren Barney place. This farm was the first place north of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific railroad tracks and on the East side of Hanson Road.
In the late 1920's the Peter Sorteberg family returned to the original homestead.  The house was moved from the original site by Sand Creek to a new location, which is now the site of the Presbyterian Church on Northdale Blvd.  One of the main reasons for this move was to be nearer to the school bus route because Northdale Blvd., (county road A) was the only road suitable for school bus transportation at the time.  New barns were built at the new home site.  Also, another 40 acres was purchased from Andrew Cilley (?) to add to the 320 acre homestead, which gave much needed additional peat land to accommadate the growing holstein dairying operation carried on by the Peter Sorteberg family.
Peter and Ida Sorteberg raised 7 children during this period of time. 
In the early 1950's Peter Sorteberg sold the farm to Orin Thompson & Associates.  Much of the present Thompson Park Development is on the land ownded and farmed by the Sorteberg family.  After the farm was sold a new farm was purchased in Ramsey township.  In 1953 Peter Sorteberg retired and son Allen and his family took over the farming and dairying operation.  Ida Sorteberg expired in 1965.  Peter Sorteberg expired in 1973.
The elementary school located in Thompson Park was originally named the Northdale Elementary school.  In 1970 it was named the Sorteberg Elementary School in recognition of the services rendered by Leland Sorteberg to public education.

Shopping Saturday

Here is where my frustrations blow up!  My goal today was to post some great picture of a historical general store from Rowland, Nevada, Mountain City, Nevada and Johnsville, Minnesota.  Alas, my efforts have been road blocked!
I know that my Great Aunt Geneva Swanson Olson (1895-1981) moved to Rowland, Nevada to be a teacher and later married and was a postmaster and worked as a store keeper.  I was able to find a record for her husband Chauncey Axel Olson (1892-1964) as the postmaster in Nevada appointed in 1930.

So, I switched gears and looked around for another general store that is closer to home in the hopes that I could find something on this store.  As luck would have it, I did find tiny bits of information!  I was disappointed that the pictures that I did find from the Blaine historical society did not have information about who is in the pictures or what the dates are.  Here is what I do know about this store in my family which isn't very much:  William Tigue (1881-1956) and Anna Swanson Tigue (1885-1963) Ran the Johnsville General Store in 1926.  It was bought from John Augustson whom I also cannot find information about.

http://www.blainehistory.org/Photo_Gallery/Misc_Johnsville_Store.jpg http://www.blainehistory.org/Photo_Gallery/Misc_Johnsville_Store_2.jpg

Thankful Thursday

 Today I am thankful for my grandfather Leland Sorteberg (1918-1996).  I have wonderful memories of him growing up.  They lived in a cabin on the lake and my brother and I would spend the night there often.  We would get up early and Grandma would make us eat oatmeal and then we would go fishing.  My grandpa was a traveler.  It seems to be in our blood.  My family loves to travel and see new places.  They had an airstream trailer that they pulled everywhere.  They have a map on the wall that had all of the places they had been in their airstream, they made it to all of the US states and many countries.  They were Texas Snow Birds every winter.  I like to think that my love for travel came from him.

 One of the many things that he was able to do was to travel to Norway to continue research on our family history.  I was far too young at that time to be able to appreciate what it was that he was doing.  He was able to travel to the family farm in Aal, Hollingdal, Norway.  At that time he was able to see where his grandparents lived and confirm many of the relatives information.
I am so fortunate to have all of this information.  I am about the only one in the immediate family that has any interest in the family history.  I don't mind but it does make asking the right questions to get further information that much harder!  I have always had an interest in the family history but it hasn't taken root until I became an adult and had my own family.  I so wish that I could sit down with my grandfather today and share all of his memories.  He was very good at writing down the history of others.  He never was able to write his own.  He passed away suddenly from a heart attack never dreaming that his research would come to such an abrupt end.  All of the above information, pages and pages of data were done on his 1980s computer, writing letters, making phone calls and traveling all over to find more and more information about our family.

Wedding Wednesday

Carl and Mollie

The marriage of Carl Brenna and Mollie Pederson

 

Today I am sharing a photo grouping that I recieved a few years ago from a complete stranger!  I had been researching my family history on Ancestry.com and had a message in my in box from someone asking if I was a direct relation to Carl Brenna.
My great grand Aunt Catherine Sorteberg married Clifford Brenna.  Carl and Mollie (Annie) Brenna were Clifford's parents.
Even though I am not directly related to these two I was very excited to see what this person had.  She is a genealogist and found this picture in an antique shop in another state.  She thought it was a waste for it to be sitting in an shop and not in the hands of the family.  I was so grateful for the opportunity of this gift, especially with all of the information that it contained.
I thought this was such a neat idea for someone to have put together.  I am fortunate to have such a treasure.

 

 

Farm homesteading

Montana Homestead

My mom's family was very close growing up.  The siblings all got together for dinner almost every weekend. I have talked about how close the cousins became at this time growing up.  This transferred into adulthood as well.  Every summer around the 4th of July the cousins still make the trip to Montana to sit and talk of old times and current events in their lives.  I remember as a kid going there for the 4th of July parade and playing in the big red barn.  Some of my best memories growing up are from being with this extended family.  The kids would play on the huge round bales and just plain enjoy life on the farm. 

My Grand Uncle has recently started to write his family history growing up on this farm, taking over the farm and eventually passing it on the his son.
"In 1908 Harris Clark made a quick trip to Montana to stake his claim:  the west 1/2 of Section 34, Township 31, Range 57 which was adjoining the Cookson's new location in Montana established in 1908.  the homesteading had to take place first so early in March 1909 he started assembling his minimal needs for the future farm in Montana.
We found his list of belongings that he bought to load into the immigrant car that he rented to make the trip to his claim in Montana.  I will list some of them so the readers in the 21st century can compare prices:  Four oxen at $50.00 each; but he must have hired someone to break them to work for $5.00, Hotel bill $4.00, three meals for $1.00, two rings to be installed in the oxen noses 90 cents, lumber for claim shack $28.40, 20 disc (10 foot) drill $15.00, (compare this to a modern 60 foot air drill); 50 bushels of flax seed $65.00, 5 gallons of gasoline $1.50 (no doubt for laundry stove), and Great Northern box car freight $35.00.  With these and other various items, he headed west to become hopefully a future successful farmer and stockman".  (Donald Clark history)

His family did have to work in town that first year so that they could feed the oxen and have some ready cash in order to survive.  Life was hard on the farm.
"The homesteaders had incredible courage to face the possible hazards in their future; on January 10, 1912, two days before our mother's birthday, she got an early present, a first born son.  Our dad had barely enough time to make the four mile round trip by bobsled to bring a midwife to assist in the delivery.  The temperature was 55 degrees below zero that morning.  The closest doctor was in Culbertson, 28 miles away.  With no telephone to summon him, and only transportation was by team and sled.  For the comparison between the "then and now", I will add that the total expense was probably $5.00".  (Donald Clark history)

Organizational Road Blocks

I have been very lazy about doing my research.
I did a lot of work the other day.  I found some newspaper articles about my grandfather that I hadn't read before hiding in a box that I had saved out just for that purpose.  If I were an organized person I would have all of my ancestry info in one place that could be easily accessed and work on it at a certain time during the week.  Wouldn't that make so much more sense than the randomness of how I have been doing it?
Logically, I know that this would make research so much easier.  However, I have these organizational road blocks that don't allow me to keep everything in one location.  I have things in a storage box in the garage, I have one in the storage unit, I have a box with my scrapbook things, I have information at my grandmother's, and another box of information at my mom's!  Far too many places to have information.
I have read all over the internet how to organize my files, what to do and how to do it.  The problem, they don't work for me.  When you don't like to organize and you don't want to take the time to go through everything these plans just plain don't work.

My challenge for the week is to come up with some way for me to be more organized with all of my photos, newspaper articles and family sheets that isn't going to take up so much space and isn't going to feel so overwhelming.

school search

Old Schools

The picture of the school on the mural is the old school house in District No. 2 was organized in 1856. The Board and residents built the school which was the second one built in Anoka County. The original school was located across from where the WCCO Radio transmitter station now stands. In 1876 a new brick school, the one you see on the mural, was built at the present intersection of Crooked Lake Boulevard and Coon Rapids Boulevard. Two other schools were built in Anoka Township (now Coon Rapids) in the late 1800's. District No. 15 located at the intersections of Foley Boulevard and East River Boulevard and District No. 50 located on Northdale Boulevard across from where the present Sand Creek Park is now located. There were no paved roads in the early years, and transportation to and from school was by foot. Several miles were covered each way as pupils walked the dirt trails. The three districts in Anoka Township plus one from the Blaine area consolidated in 1920 to form consolidated School District No. 2, located where the former L.O. Jacob School now stands.

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I do enjoy having the internet to glean more information about the history of my family.  I can really get lost searching for information.  My family went to District 50 near their farm house.  Even moving the house across the field to be closer for the kids to walk.  They also attended L. O. Jacob School.  Most of my family went to the Anoka High School and graduated from there. 

SORTEBERG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CELEBRATION EVENT

Sorteberg Elementary School held its school closing celebration event on Saturday, May 1, 2010. Listed in this photo album are photos taken at the event. Click here to read more school memories in the A-H Newsroom.

History
In early 1959, the pupulation in the Anoka-Hennepin area continued to increase and with it came exploseive rises in school enrollment that showed no signs of slowing down.

In April of that year, a special election was held to vote on the authorization of nearly $2 million in bonds to build additions on to several schools and a 26-classroom elementary school in the Thompson Park area of Coon Rapids. The bond issue was approved by a vote of 2,012 to 881 and construction on Northdale Elementary School (the school's original name) began. The school was build on a 15-acre site donated by Orrin Thompson at a cost of $726,353. It opened in September 1960 with Pauline Chamberlain as principal.

In 1976, Northdale Junior High School (now Northdale Middle School) was built down the road and Northdale Elementary was renamed Sorteberg Elementary School, after Leland Sorteberg.

Sorteberg previously owned the land on which the school was built and served as a longtime Anoka-Hennepin School Board member. He also served on the survey committee, along with L.O. Jacob (whom L.O. Jacob Elementary was named after), which recommended the consolidation of small school districts into what is now the Anoka-Hennepin School District. The committee was elected in 1947 and presented its final report in 1951.
Moving Forward
Due to school closings, attendance boundaries in much of Coon Rapids will change beginning with the 2010-11 school year. Sorteberg students will attend Eisenhower and Sand Creek schools. It has not yet been determined how the building will be reused.