The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article appeared in the April 15, 1943 edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
Skiing, now a popular winter sport in Minnesota, served a practical purpose as well as being a form of recreation for Tom Knudtson, Luverne, when he was a boy.
Living on a farm at Bjolland, near Christiansand, in Norway, Mr. Knudtson would strap on his skis and speed down a mountainside to school about a mile away. The place where he was born was about five miles from the sea and in the timber country. Although the surroundings were beautiful, Mr. Knudtson felt that an opportunity for a successful future could be found only in America, so he left home at the age of 22.
Mr. Knudtson was one of seven children and was born March 22, 1865. He was christened Torkel, but after coming to this country he has used the name Tom.
He had hardly reached school age before he was put to work, helping with the wood cutting, cattle herding and other tasks. The first money he ever earned that he could call his own was a small amount which he received from a neighbor for helping to plant potatoes. Later, he received the income that was produced by two of the cows in the herd which he watched while they grazed on the mountainside.
A sister who lived in Sioux City induced him to make his decision to leave the land of his birth. With another young man, he set out for the United States, and one day in the spring of 1887, they stepped off the train at the Rock Island depot here. Mr. Knudtson distinctly remembers that they had no one here to meet them and that they made two trips from the depot to the business district, carrying their trunks.
Mr. Knudtson had $10 in his pocket—more than his companion had. “You’ll get along right with that much more,” his companion stated, and Mrs. Knudtson agrees that the prediction came true.
The first year he was in Rock county, he worked at several different jobs. He recalls how Ole Iveland at one time took him in an oxcart to the brick yard to get a job. He didn’t get one, and in walking back to Luverne, he took the wrong railroad track. When he realized the fact, he was almost to Kanaranzi, so had to walk back.
He worked first for Jens Haugetum, on a farm about two miles south of Luverne. It was there he milked his first cow. In Norway it was always the custom that the women folk did the milking, and for that reason, he had no training along that line endeavor.
Later, he obtained a job on the Ole Hanson farm near Ashcreek. When asked what wages he wanted, he said $25 a month.
“To my surprise,” Mr. Knudtson said, “I got it.” As a matter of fact, I was so ashamed when I asked for that much, that I looked down on the ground instead of at Mr. Hanson.
“I worked there until fall, then got a job helping build the railroad into Steen. That winter, the winter of the big blizzard, I lived with Mr. and Mrs. Knute Aanenson in their dugout. I saved $100 during the summer so I felt pretty good about my first year in this country.”
Mr. Knudtson then obtained a job working for T. P. Grout in Beaver Creek township. Up until that time, whenever he wanted to go to town, he would have to walk. Mr. Grout, however, permitted him to use one of his horses to ride, and that pleased him as much as it would a farm hand today if his employer would give him his gasoline coupon book and tell him to use the new car whenever he wanted it.
“Even though I had a horse to ride, I didn’t go very much,” Mr. Knudtson states. “In those early days, about the only time a young fellow would ever go to town would be on the Fourth of July.”
After working for Mr. Grout, he went to work for LaDues, near Luverne, who had many cattle. For six years, he did the milking on the La Due farm, then he bought a quarter section in Vienna township. Five years later, he lost his property in the Depression, and after that came to Luverne where he worked at several jobs before going back to farming, this time in Clinton township. After 10 years, he bought a farm there and lived there until 1935 when he retired and moved to Luverne.
Mr. Knudtson was married to Anna Hollekim in Luverne on Nov. 15, 1900. They became the parents of five children, three of whom are living. Thy are Mrs. Alvin Olson, Luverne; Mrs. Ragnvald Nelson, Clinton township and Mrs. Olivia Moldenhauer, Chicago. They have five grandchildren.
Mr. Knudtson is a member of the Lutheran Free church and helped organize the Zion Lutheran congregation in Luverne.
Thinking back over the years which have come and gone since his friend told him, “You’ll get along here all right,” Mr. Knudtson declared, “God has been good to me all these years, and I’m thankful for it.”
One year, he went back to Norway, but was glad to return to the United States. “I think this is the best country in the world,” he said, “and when I went back to Norway, I realized it all the more. I never had any desire to return to Norway to live, even if it was my motherland.”
One of a family of seven children, Mr. Knudtson has two sisters, Mrs. Esther Chesley of Denver and Mrs. Anna Haugen, who lives in Canada. Before the outbreak of the war, he had a brother still living in Norway.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.