| A History of STRUM and the TOWN OF UNITY by Roy Matson |
| THIS IS PAGE 8 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | PAGE BACK | PAGE FORWARD |
| Esten Johnson Dahl and family had lived in Cannon Valley near Sparta for several years when he decided to seek greener pastures. A son, John, told years later that Ottertail County, Minnesota was opened for homesteading and at the time was their intended goal. Esten had a fully loaded wagon and a good team of horses. The children herded a cow alongside as they moved across ridges and marshes passing Blair, Pigeon and Osseo in a three day travel time. They camped near the creek on the east side of this village overnight and John told of his father mounting a horse and heading up the valley the next morning. He came back shortly and announced their travels were over. Land he had appraised a year earlier was available. The caravan moved up the valley and stopped their wagon just south of a large spring in section 29 where a terrific thunderstorm broke. Refuge was taken under the wagon and he remembers his mother praying this would end their travels. The Esten Johnson Dahl Farmstead in Johnson Valley. About 1901-02. (Picture-Description) The date was June 18, 1868. They settled on the SE1/4 of section 29, T24, R8. They were alone in that valley the first year which undoubtedly was a busy one. First there was a matter of shelter which meant a trip to a sawmill at Fairchild or Eau Claire to secure pine lumber for building a small home. Next came a shed for their team and a cow. Potatoes were planted, wild hay was put up, some ground was turned for the first time, not to forget the blueberry crop which leant a blue haze to the knolls. Wild game was plentiful and the creek was full of trout. A boy could catch one or fifty if he wished. One fact was implanted in son John’s mind, to be remembered at 80. The |