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Note: piled for the White Earth Centennial Celebration 17-22 June 1987 by Eva Moller Schmidt.Taken from Page 481 of Biography section of Vol. II of "Tales of Mighty Mountrail" published by Mountrail County Historical Society in 1986. ANDRES S. SAMUELSON Mr. and Mrs. Samuelson homesteaded and farmed about seven miles south of White Earth in Myrtle Township. Their first home and barns were built of sod. Andres farmed with oxen the first years. He also farmed his siter Sarah Samuelson's homestead that adjoined his land on the east. Their four children went to grade school in School No. 1, south of where they first lived. Anna, the oldest, taught school in the area and now lives in Illinois. Sam, a doctor who had his own hospital in Minneapolis, was killed when his plane crashed on a trip to Canada. His two sons were also killed in the crash. Hedvig was murdered in Arizona. She was also a teacher. Arnold had a degree in journalism and spent a year with Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Florida. Later he and his wife retired in Robert Lee, Texas, where he passed away at his home. Notes from Anna's diary: Anders secured a watchman's job during some of the winter months while Lake Michigan was frozen and they could not sail. In 1905, Anna was 7, Sam was 5 and Hedvig was 2 years old, Anders heard about free land given in North Dakota. Live there nine months and it was yours. So they got on a train and landed in White Earth, North Dakota. I suppose it was in about May or June and I suppose Dad must have been there before this and built a frame of a house, a couple of rooms. They brought their furniture with them. It was not expensive furniture but it looked very nice while in our rented home in the back of a lot in Milwaukee. When it began to rain soon after we arrived at White Earth the roof leaked and mother was indeed concerned about her furniture which was soaked. Dad put some tarpaper over one of the beds to keep the rain off, that I remember well. That fall, I suppose it was, he insulated our house with turf on the sides, roof too. His sister Sarah Tobine Samuelson came a couple of years later and proved-up on some land. She lived about 1/2 mile from our farm. She didn't like living up there and returned to Milwaukee, where she was making a living doing housework for a rather well to do family. She died when about 50 from an infection. She was a much loved Aunt Tobine to the Samuelsons in Milwaukee and much missed by them all. I believe Dad (Anders) bought Sarah's land and her little shack was added to our house as a bedroom. We lived in a sort of a low section of our farm, and along side of us was a low place leading to coulees, so when the snow melted in the spring, this would fill with water and become a river which would run into the coulees. Our well was located there, very close to our home, and that is where we got our water, which was not very clean in times like this. Years later our house was moved west of us 1/2 miles, to higher ground and close to the main highway going to White Earth, which town was 6 miles north of us. It is still in existence. The first barn we had was made of Turf and one day the hay in it caught on fire and that I believe was the end of that barn. We had some cattle and some pigs later. Our transportation at first must have been some oxen who pulled the plow. Dad had varicose running veins and wasn't very good at walking back of a plow. He had a case of typhoid when younger. I don't know just when but was left with ulcerated veins which he bound and rebound every night before he went to bed. In later years of his life they finally dried up, but instead of that neuritis and rheumatism incapacitated him. For a few years he was able to work with his hands and he made hook rugs. He made his own pattern and enjoyed making them. Mother bought the material from the Salvation Army stores and Dad dyed them bright colors. He must have developed cataracts in his eyes in later years and could not see to read and by that time his neuritis caused him so much pain he could not work with his hands. That made him unhappy.
Note: THE SAMUELSON FAMILY by Glen R. Dolan published in "This We Remember" com
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