The land-owner

My grandfather, Nicolai August Andreasen Tangsrød, who chose to be known as Nicolai Tangsrud in the United States. He is holding his eldest son, Carl Norbert, in this picture. Nick was born in Borre, Norway, on March 21st, 1885, and arrived at Ellis Island at age twenty, with $20 in his pocket. He came west to Williams County, North Dakota, and filed for a Homestead claim and American citizenship on the first day that he was eligible, his twenty-first birthday. He earned both. His life in western North Dakota was brutally hard, and I often wonder if he regretted his choices. He died at age fifty-five, with two minor children still at home, and never was fully able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. I think he would be pleased to know his land (now in Divide County, North Dakota) remains in the family, and that he lives on through his twelve grandchildren.

The man with the (probably not yellow) hat

I inherited my grandmother Golda Slagle Forthun's photographs. Goldie, as she was known, was born in Ravenwood, Nodaway County, Missouri, to Elizabeth Lockhart and William Slagle on March 20, 1889. Goldie's parents were natives of Lee County, Virginia, and migrated to northwestern Missouri in the aftermath of the Civil War. Both Elizabeth and William had siblings and extended family members who also moved to northwestern Missouri, to Nodaway and Gentry counties. Fellow neighbors and friends from Lee County, Virginia, joined them there as well.  I have yet to determine who went first, but there was a large network of family and friends surrounding my grandmother's family.

My grandmother chose to leave this community at age twenty-one, when she left Missouri for western North Dakota in 1910. Her sister, Nettie Slagle Sowards, had given birth to twins, and needed help. Eventually, Goldie moved out on her own, when she filed a Homestead Act claim in McKenzie County, North Dakota. She ultimately proved up her claim, and married a fellow homesteader, Julius Forthun.

When Goldie left Missouri, she took with her a beautiful photo album filled with studio portraits. Sadly, none of the photographs were labeled. I imagine that all of the subjects were close friends and family, so she felt no need to mark them. Although I have been able to determine the names of some of the individuals, there are many that are still mysteries. 

This is one of them. I imagine that this young man was one of Goldie's friends from Nodaway County, or perhaps one of her many, many cousins. Some of the surnames of the extended family in Missouri are Lockhart, Slagle, Lawson, O'Bannon, McNeely, and Babb. The young man was likely born in the 1880's, and given the heavy coat and hat, he probably lived somewhere that had cold winters.  The photo album came with Goldie to North Dakota, to the best of my knowledge, so the photograph was probably taken prior to 1910. And that is the extent of my educated guesses.

The chicken ranch

My maternal great-grandmother, Ingrid Oline Burkum Forthun, in 1925. Lena was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants (her father fought in the Civil War). Born in Wisconsin, Lena married a Norwegian immigrant in the Dakota Territory, bore six children, and homesteaded as a widow in western North Dakota. She was visiting her daughter's chicken ranch in Arkansas at the time of this photograph.