USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume II > Part 56
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Having acquired a fair knowledge of the English language. Mr. Enestvedt was a useful man in the community, not only in church and school matters but in town and county affairs. He was chosen treasurer at the first town meeting and afterward held several town offices. He was also a very generous man, help- ing those who were in need with money or otherwise, whether they could repay him or not. The trips to Willmar with oxen always taxed the strength and ingenuity of the settlers, and Mr. Enestvedt used to tell of how he, being a tall and strong man. had to help his neighbors to carry their wheat saeks across Hawk preek (or Mnd ereek) when the spring water made it too deep
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and the bottom too soft to eross except with the empty wagon. Faney the task of wading across a stream waist deep in mid and water 20 or 30 odd times with a bag of wheat on the back and then starting out on a 25-mile ride. Or in winter with only scant clothing to drive across the treeless prairie when a snow- storm is raging, obliterating the track. The only way to keep warm is to travel, by the side of the oxen holding on to the rope or horn with one hand and shading his eyes with the other. Mile after mile is passed this way and the track is distinguished only by the lumps thrown up by the roadside or if this fails the last resort is to feel the way with the feet. In one case when father had gone to Wilhnar in the morning and mother to a sick neigh- bor woman the great three-day snowstorm came up in which father and others of his party came near losing their lives but finally came to a settler's cabin, and mother had to stay for three days at neighbor Rudi's only a mile away. But to the children at home, although two grown persons were present, it seemed an age before old man Rudi on the third day made his way to our house and told us that mother was at his place and would come home the next morning.
Running the threshing machine in those days was also a hard job, exposure, cold and hard manual labor trying the stamina of the pioneers. Feeding the machine was a hard and dusty job, while to "stand in the strawpile" was still worse. At the age of 45 years Mr. Enestvedt contracted the disease (dropsy) which seven years later laid him in an untimely grave.
The first cellar house of the family was dug half way into the ground with three or four rounds or tiers of logs and an earth roof and earth floor and walls. These were soon sheeted over with boards from logs from our own grove hauled to the saw-mill. But the roof remained the same for many years and the narrator of these pages had his farm up there out of reach of chickens and other marauders. Here he would plow with the the corner of the hoe, put his wheat and oats in with a spike- harrow and ent his erops, if the shallow bottom should not in dry seasons make it a total failure. When the shingle roof chased him off there was an end to this and the building was afterwards changed so that the lower half was made a full cellar and the upper half added to in height for dwelling house, and a store house added to the back end. The year of Mr. Enestvedt's death (1887) a new square house thirty-four feet square with eighteen-foot posts was built and the old building torn down, sad to relate, without a single picture of it to show later genera- tions how the home of their first ancestors in the country looked !
Where the forebears of the Enestvedt family in America lived in their cellar less than half a century ago, there now stands an imposing dwelling house into which water is piped From a spring
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to furnish power and eleetrie light and then returned to the barn to go through pipes watering all the stock in their mangers. A silo completes the outfit. The old and the new! May the latter till its place as well as the former did !
Mrs. Anne Enestvedt died of pneumonia, Jan. 1, 1913, and was laid to rest beside her husband in Opdahl church cemetery, where so many of their former friends and neighbors are buried, notably Tollef Enestvedt, Lars Rudi and Erik Nilsen. The young- est of the Enestvedt family. Lonise Marie, is buried beside her parents.
Engebret German Enestvedt is living on the "Double Deck" Farm, the Enestvedt homestead, situated in Section 15-16-10 in the fraction township of Sacred Heart, along the Minnesota River valley where he was born and raised in a family of nine children, five boys and four girls. Ilis father, Ole O. Enestvedt, Sr., died when Engebret was five years old. His father bought the humber and plans for a good large house before he died. The widow, Mrs. Anne Enestvedt, hired men to build the house the following spring of 1885. The house is as good today as when it was built, in faet, it is just as it was built, except for the addition of a kitchen and full basement and the installing of modern equip- ments such as bathroom, running water system. electric light system and a hot water heating plant. Engebret G. attended the common school and later the School of Agriculture at the University Farm, where he graduated in 1902, after which he worked the home farm for his mother for four years. In 1906 he bought the home farm comprising 270 aeres, assuming heavy obligations empty-handed. In 1913 he bought another 80 acres adjoining the old farm on the south, making the farm 350 aeres. In the fall of 1906 Mr. Enestvedt took first prize on corn for Minnesota at the "International Corn Show, " at Chicago, and since then has specialized in the breeding of a large strain of the Number 13 corn. He has captured almost countless ribbons at the different corn shows and fairs. He also raises white corn to meet the demands for a white seed corn. The improvements on the farm since he bought it are as follows: The low spots of the fields have been tiled, a good private road has been built up the hill to the fields of the "Upper Deck." This road is fenced on both sides and has two cattle ways in the form of cement enlverts running under the road. One at the foot of the bluff, the other at the top. The cattle go through these culverts so the road is always open to the fields.
A concrete root cellar has been built to store stock beets and potatoes in. A good double corn erib has been built ; a cement 150-ton silo; cement addition to the barn for the young stock; this addition is 20x54 feet and is made of double wall conerete. Both mangers, floor, ceiling and roof are of concrete; the parti-
MR. AND MRS. OLE O. ENESTVEDT SR. E. G. ENESTVEDT AND FAMILY
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LABIARE
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATION'S
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tions are detachable. It has large doors to drive through with manure spreader; also a swinging door where cattle and hogs can go through at will. The upstairs is used for baled straw . for bedding. The, barn proper has also been remodeled with cement floors and mangers, JJames stanchions and individual watering enps for horses, cows and water cups for each calf pen, for bull and for the young cattle. The cattle soon learn to open the covers and drink of the nice spring water that supplies the eups automatically.
The improvements of the house are a double wall basement, containing a furnace room, a coal room, a seed corn room, holding 500 bushels, a laundry room and dairy and power plant room. The power plant consists of an enclosed water wheel which discharges into the sewer. This water wheel runs a dynamo that charges a set of storage batteries; it also runs a line shaft so that the separator churn, ice cream freezer, washing machine, emery wheel, drill press, seed eorn sheller and seed corn grader can be run either by direct power from the water wheel or by electric power or both. The laundry room is also equipped with laundry stove, laundry chute, a three-room stone laundry tub, a cistern lift that automatically feeds the soft water cistern that supplies each room of the laundry tub with hot and cold water, and the sinks and lavatories in the house are also supplied with hot and cold soft water in addition to spring water. The spring water system is very complete. The source of supply is 120 rods up a ravine at a spring. It is 46 feet higher than the level of the water wheel in the basement. A three-inch galvanized pipe connects the two. This same water main supplies the water fountains of the barns. the hydrants for fire protection, the cooling tank and the running spring water system throughout the honse.
The heating plant consists of a large hot water furnace and eleven large radiators. The lighting system is also very complete. with electrie lights in every room, in every building, including a porch lamp, chandeliers in parlor and dining room and two street lights that light up the yard (50 lights in all). The basement of the dwelling honse also contains a small greenhouse under the bay window. It is heated by a ceiling radiator. The outer entrance to the basement is through a conereted tunnel, through the terrace below the house. The floor of the tunnel is level with the floor of the basement and the road past the house to the orchard, so that the apple boxes can be wheeled in for storage. also the milk cans wheeled in and ashes wheeled out. The seed corn is taken into the basement in a ten-bushel truck, then raeked up and dried by electric fans. There is a work bench along one side of the seed corn room with anvil, vice, drill press and other tools. The sewer system consists of a six-inch soil pipe leaded together; it empties back into the stream 250 feet down from
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the house. The heating, lighting, water and sewer systems of the farm are second to none in the state. Mrs. Enestvedt washes and irons by electricity. Mr. Enestvedt has an orchard of several hundred fruit trees. Ile has also planted an extra wind break of several hundred evergreens to the northwest of the natural wind break of oak. In addition, he has planted evergreens on both sides of the bottom road, two rods apart, one beta grapevine between each evergreen. These beta grapes along the public road have borne very luxuriantly for several years.
Mr. Enestvedt is a firm believer in diversified farming. He is not afraid of feeding his stock too liberally. He believes that whatever the animals waste is returned to the soil providing the barn yard is taken care of. He grows a large amount of alfalfa and red elover. His hobby is watermelons, yellow eorn, pure bred Holstein cattle and red hogs. His general farm work is done by horses, though he has a Rumeley five-plow gas tractor outfit to do plowing and other heavy work. His anto is a Hamil- tonian driving team.
The above improvements were made in the following order : In 1906 built the combination eorn crib and wagon shed; also root cellar. In 1907 tiled farm. In 1908 fenced with woven wire some of the fields in the bottom. In 1909 built cement addition to barn. In 1911 built a cement feeding floor for hogs; also ce- ment porches and sidewalks by dwelling house. In 1912 built 150-ton cement silo. In 1913 built cement eattle ways through private road; also built basement under house, put in furnace, water system and sewer system and bathroom in the house. In 1914 put in electric lights. In 1915 put in stalls, stanchions, water cups, floors in barn and tunneled into the base- ment of the house.
Engebret Enestvedt was born June 14, 1880. On September 5, 1909, he married Clara Ovidia Haug who was born in South Sacred Heart, July 9, 1880, daughter of Johannes and Bertia Hang. She went to the common school and later to the publie schools of Sacred Heart and Olivia, after which she engaged in clerking at stores, dressmaking, learning the profession of nurs- ing, studied music in Minneapolis a year, and stayed a few years at home in South Sacred Heart helping to take care of the chil- dren left by the death of her oldest sister, Mina. Engebret G. and Clara Enestvedt have three children, viz .. Odin Fredolph, born June 21, 1910: Alberta Jorgine, born October 6, 1911: and Johannes Haug, born January 11, 1915.
Theodore Enestvedt, who conduets a snecessful farmi on sec- tion 10, South Sacred Heart, was born on the home farm, not far from his present home, June 14, 1875, son of Ole O. Enestvedt, Sr., the pioneer. Ile attended such schools as the neighborhood afforded and also had the advantages afforded by two winters'
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THEODORE ENESTVEDT AND FAMILY
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CASO YORK MALIC LIBRARY
ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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studies in the Lutheran College at Decorah, Iowa. As a young man he visited the home of his ancestors in Norway. Upon his return he settled down to farming on his present place. For a time he rented it, but in 1905 bought 120 acres. To this he has sinee added another 120 acres so that he now has a splendid place of 240 acres on which he successfully conducts general farming. He has a good home and model buildings and the farm everywhere shows the thrift, industry and ability of its owner. Mr. Enestvedt makes a specialty of Duroc-Jersey swine, Aber- deen-Angus cattle and White Orpington poultry. Another feature of his farm is fifty aeres of clover which he raises for hay and seed and pasture ..
Mr. Enestvedt was married, Dee. 27. 1903, to Lena Kravik, who was born on the same farm he was, June 5, 1884, daughter of Ole and Joran (Kjontvedt) Kravik. Mr. and Mrs. Enestvedt have seven children: Oliver, born Oct. 22, 1904; Johan, born May 30, 1906; Lonis, born Nov. 6, 1907; Marie, born Aug. 3, 1909; Jonette, born July 22, 1911; Anna, born Feb. 9, 1913; and Louise, born Sept. 13, 1914.
Ole Kravik, for some years a resident of Renville county, was born in Nore, Nummedahl, Norway, and there grew to manhood. There also in 1880 he married Joran Kjontvedt. That year they set sail from Norway, landed in America, found their way west- ward to South Saered Heart, and here lived until 1887, when they moved to North Dakota and settled on a farm near Minot. In 1892 they returned to South Sacred Heart, but in 1895 onee more left here and settled near Madison, this state, where they are now engaged in farming. Mr. and Mrs. Kravik are the par- ents of thirteen children : Maria, Ole, Lena, JJosephine, Ilannah. Emil. Clara, Herbran, Carrie. Ella, Charlotte, Inga and Regina. Ole married Elizabeth Henningsgaard, lives in Madison, this state, and has three children. Josephine is the wife of Lars Sunde, of Hankinson, North Dakota. Hannah is the wife of Osear Olson, of Lostine, Oregon, and they have two children. The others are all at home.
Lars L. Rudi was born Jan. 26, 1827, on the home place of Rudi in. Opdal, Numedal. Norway, son of Lars Endreson Rudi and Bergit Sebjornsen, born on the Hvammen place. There was but little schooling to be had in those days, but Lars learned to read and write. After his confirmation he started out as an itinerate peddler in the eastern part of the country, but was not very successful. When he was about twenty-four years of age he happened to attend some revival meetings condneted by ad- herents of Hans Nilsen Hauge, Ole Naeset, Andres Kjome, both from Rollag, Lars Paulgaarden, Thor Hatrem and others. He was converted and east his lot in with this group of lay preachers, going to Eker and Drammen, then eastward to Hallingdal, west-
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ward to Telemarken and northward along the western part to Lyster in Sogn and many other places. Lars often spoke with great enthusiasm of these journeys and meetings, which he took part in. and told how glad the people were to listen to them. Mr. Rudi was married Jan. 26, 1866. to Vighild Sunde, from Nore, and the same year they immigrated to America, leaving Skien on the steamer "baurdal" and landed at Quebec, Jme 3. From there they went by rail to Xenia, Ohio, going from there by boat to Milwaukee. Their first stopping place in this country was with O. E. Lien, Clayton county, lowa. where they both worked during the harvest season. Here they met and renewed acquaint- ance with Ole Enestvedt and his family, who had come to Lars Oset a short time before but who also now worked for Ole Lien, In the fall Mr. Rudi and his wife went to Rashford, Minn., and the next spring, 1867, to Renville county, Minn. Here Mr. Rudi took a homestead on the Minnesota river near that of Ole Enest- vedt, so the two friends from the oldl country became neighbors in the northwest and lived there till their death. During the first year there was no other church service than the occasional gatherings on Sundays in the houses. Lars Rudi acted as lay preacher and would lead in prayer, read the sermon from "Luth- er's Postille," and direct the singing. When later, missionaries N. Brandt, N. Ylvisaker, Thor Hattrem and Th. Johnson came, Mr. Rndi met them and helped them arrange the services and guided them around the settlement. Many a pioneer minister has stayed with him and though the house and rooms were small there was no laek shown in hospitality and comfort. When, in 1868, Rev. Johnson organized Our Savionr's Norwegian Evan- gelical Lutheran congregation of Renville county, Mr. Rudi was one of the first trustees of the congregation and was appointed to perform the duties of lay preacher, catechise the children, and conduet parochial school. duties which he had already performed. In time the congregation joined the Norwegian Synod of America and J. E. Bergh was called as pastor. Mr. Rudi died in 1913.
Peder O. Kittilsland, one of the prosperons and successful farmers of this county was born on the old farm, North Kittils- land. Nore parish, Numedal, Norway, on February 15, 1850. His parents were Ole. T. Kittilsland and wife, Live Pedersdatter Ved- hus, and were peasants or farmers. The father died in Norway at the age of 82. After his death the wife came to America, staying with several of her children, and died at her son Tor- bjorns home in Mellette, S. D., at the ripe old age of 92 years on June 26, 1912. There were seven children of which the subject of this sketch was the second. He attended school for Ole S. Holte, and was confirmed by Pastor Stang, who was so small that he reached only to the shoulders of Peder. The young people of those days always practiced some athletic sports, chief
PEDER O. KITTLESLAND AND FAMILY
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ASTOR. LENOX INF TILDEN FOUNDA LA
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among these were wrestling of some Form and ski running. This was good exercise to harden and develop the museles. Peder O. stayed at home on his father's farm and helped with the lum- bering work in the woods where the land was so broken by rooks and hills that the logs had to be skidded out by one horse and in some places only human beings could go. He had a pair of fills that he coupled to the logs and pulled them out of the woods and onee in passing the edge of a precipice the logs gained speed so that only by using his herenlean strength he managed to turn the fills on the upper side of a standing tree. This broke the fastening of the fills, and the logs shot past him over the edge into the abyss below. His strength had saved him from a fearful death.
In 1870, at the age of 19, he came to America, the first one of the Family. The name of the ship was "Hero," of the Allan line, and he landed at Quebec, and went by railroad to St. Peter where he joined another Norwegian, Peder Osli, who afterward settled in Sacred Heart township, on the west line of the Minne- sota river. They walked to Renville county to Ole Enestvedt's place where he made his home for a number of years when not ont working. From here he went east again to Olmsted county, where he worked during harvest. In the fall he came back to Renville county and got employment on the Minnesota river in the winter, where the Government was mining and blasting rocks to make the river navigable. A large erew worked at this job. During the spring he worked for Ole Enestvedt, grubbing several acres, In Inly he went east to St. Peter on railroad work on the track from the last named place to New UIm. In this eamp he was in company with 60 Swedes and they nearly always passed the Sundays wrestling to find out which one was the strongest. He was "boss" in this crowd but in another camp there was a giant, "Frondhjemmer," who was wrestling "boss" from the old country. While serving as soldier over there he had been "boss" wrestler among 1,400 men. He heard that Mr. Kittils- land was "boss" in his camp and came over to tease him for a fight. He started to jostle and snub Mr. Kittilsland and, although he is very peaceable, the crowd challenged and the Trondhjemmer teased him until they finally got them together. They kept on a good half hour, kieking up the earth like a pair of steers, when Mr. Kittilsland finally got the giant and threw him down. But the rascal tried to take hold of his legs and tip him too, and this got Mr. Kittilsland angry so that he grabbed the giant around the waist with his head under his chest and flopped him over in the air where he went around several times before he lost his speed. He did not come back as he was siek for three days and afterwards left the camp.
About Christmas time he came back to Enestvedt's when he
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started to school again the Kolien schoolhouse with G. P. Greene for teacher. The next spring again found him at work on the railroad from New Ulm to Watertown. The land from Sleepy Eye and westward was then unsettled and the Indians were riding in floeks on their hunting grounds. When the railroad work closed in November there came up a snow storm which lasted for three days when they were snowed in in their tents. On the fourth day they managed to dig the horses out of their sheds and everything else was drifted down, so that when they went from there the eamp looked like a huge snowdrift with holes in it where horses and men had been dug out. Toward evening the first day of their trip back, they came to Gary where there was one store, and put up their tents. They had their blankets wrapped around them day and night for three days and three nights as they were provided with too little clothing. The rail- road company had sent ont six trains to take their worn-out crew back again and when they had marched three days through the snowdrifts and bitter cold weather, they met these trains at Marshall. Minn. They hoped to reach New Ulm the next evening, but the storm started up again and although 60 men shoveled snow every time the trains were stalled, it took them all day and the following night and until 12 o'clock next day to cover the 60 miles to New Ulm. There were 1,400 men on these six trains, and they had to remain standing, packed together, without food or rest on the whole trip.
Mr. Kittilsland now returned to Renville county and bought a homestead right of 80 acres and went to school in the winter and after that he worked at common farm work a couple of summers. lle made a half log. half earth cellar and hired a breaking team even though it was grasshopper time. Afterwards he bought an ox team and a cow. On Dee. 28, 1876, he was mar- ried to Nellie (Gunild) Enestvedt, who had taught school for a number of years and had also homesteaded 80 acres adjoining Kittilsland's land. Ile now moved into his cellar and began prov- ing up his land. After a time he built a log house on his wife's land and lived there about eight years. Then he purchased 80 acres of his brother-in-law, Tollef Enestvedt, and moved to his house in the timber on the bluff, where they have since resided. the old gentleman staying with them till the time of his death a few years ago. His old house is still standing. In 1898 Mr. Kittilsland built a modern dwelling house and in 1905 built a round barn, the only one of its kind in this part of the country, with round hay carrier and litter carrier. It is 66 feet in diameter and about 200 feet in circumference. During these years of farm- ing Mr. Kittilsland has been very prosperous and owns 260 acres of land in the township, with perhaps some money laid by for a rainy day. Besides holding different town offices he has been a
The NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
MR. AND MRS, HALVOR MUTT.1
H. H. SAGNES AND FAMILY
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trusted member of Opdal Norwegian Evangelical Luthern church. having served as trustee for Opdal congregation and helping build their nice church and chapel. Mr. and Mrs. Kittilsland have one son, Olaf John K., born Dee. 19, 1877, who stays at home with his parents. Mr. Kittilsland has five brothers and sisters, viz., Ole Kittilsland, single, Belview, Min .; Johanne Storli, Nore. Numedal, Norway : Knut Kittilsland, Gertrude Tol- stad and Gunder Kittilsland, Mollette, Spenk county, Sonth Da- kota. They are all farmers and all belong to the Lutheran church.
Mathias Johnson, a pioneer of Renville county, now living at Franklin, was born in Norway, Nov. 26, 1845, son of Mathias Johnson and his wife, Marie K. Johnson, natives of Finland. His father was born in Finland and came to St. Peter, Mimm., in 1864, and then homesteaded 160 acres of land in section 5, Camp township, where he lived until his death in 1888 at the age of seventy-two. His wife died in 1890 at the age of sixty-four. Mathias Johnson, Jr., enlisted in Company A, First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry in April. 1865, and was discharged in August, 1865. He homesteaded 160 acres of land in section 20, Camp township, where he remained until 1905, with the exception of five years which were spent at Forest City, California, 1875-1880, working in the gold mines. In 1905 he moved to Franklin where he has erected a nice home and expects to spend the remainder of his days.
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