 |
| Esten Johnson Dahl, Wife and Child |
| 20 January 2002: Only a few months ago, we thought this was a picture of a younger Ole Hansen, his wife, Ragnhild Juulsdatter, and a son. Now we know that this picture is clearly Esten Johnson Dahl, wife, and child, and not Ole Hansen and Ragna Juulsdatter. A cropping of the above picture, itself a picture of only the man, is on page 9 of the book, "Story of a Lutheran People". This story was written by Roy Matson, my Father, with the assist of others. The man in question, in that book, is Esten Johnson Dahl. It is unlikely that Dad or others would have mislabled that picture. But since we (I) have somehow brought Esten into our family, at least for a while as the great great grandparent Ole Hansen, let me tell you a little about him and his family. Esten Johnson Dahl was a prominent early settler in the Town of Unity, but to my knowledge, he was not a relative. The following is a quote from page 9 of the "Story of a Lutheran People", Strum, Wisconsin, 1972: In talking about early settlements and the problems, my Father writes the following, "Nearly all land around what is now Osseo, Eleva, and in the township of Hale, had been taken when Esten Johnson Dahl, his wife, and family came down the Beef River Valley in mid-June 1868. Ottertail County, Minnesota (Fergus Falls) was open for settlement and their planned destination. A hard 2-week journey was ahead with crossing of the Cheppewa River at Eau Claire and a ferry at St. Paul, not to mention innumerable streams in between and farther west. Esten immigrated in 1860, had lived in Cannon Valley, LaCrosse County, several years, and was in good condition for travel. His heavily loaded schooner was pulled by a good team of horses, and younger members of his family herded two cows with them as they moved." "He evidently had prospected in this area earlier because a son John (father of Mrs. Oscar Olson), then nine, remembered years later of their camping near the stream in Section 17, about where the Julian Johnson home is located, and of his father riding up the valley early the next morning, coming back in a short time, happy that good land was yet available. Plans were changed, the family quickly moved up stream until they reached the large spring in Section 29. They had barely arrived when a terrific thunderstorm broke and the son remembered that all took refuge under the wagon and of his mother praying that this stop would end their journeys. The date has been verified as June 18, 1868, and they were the first Norwegian settlers in this immediate area. Spencer Olson and family now reside on the property Esten claimed." If it turns out that Esten and his family are relatives, we will add him later with those titles. As you can see, he and his family are very important to the Norwegian early settlement history of the Strum area. |