Roots of Resilience

 

Ella Monsen Christensen

I have been documenting the early life of my great-grandmother Gabrielle “Ella” Christensen, a Norwegian immigrant.  Her father, a fisherman, was caught up in a storm off the coast of Norway and never returned home, leaving his wife a young widow with three small children.  One by one, she sent her children to relatives in the United States in hopes of a better life for them.  Ella was the oldest of the children and first to make that trip at the age of 20.  Her mother worked as a “washer woman” to pay her fare.

Ella’s destination was Howard, South Dakota to the home of her paternal aunt, Ingeborg Rye. While I was happy to find so many details about Ella’s life, which was my primary goal, what I found as a backstory was even more interesting.

Aunt Ingeborg immigrated March 1, 1889 as a 35-year-old single woman.  She married a homesteader, Ole Rye, and they settled down on his farm in Miner County, South Dakota.  Eleven months later, she gave birth to their only child, a boy named Ole, and five days after that her husband died.  She was suddenly left as a single immigrant woman with a newborn, and no means of support but a homesteaded farm. So what did she do?  She farmed.  With a baby.  In fact, in 1892, she “proved up” the homestead and her farm was granted to her free and clear.  In 1904 her niece Ella came to the United States to her Aunt Ingeborg and there she not only learned English, but probably a whole lot about digging deep and doing what you need to do to make it in this world.  Eventually Ella moved to nearby Huron, and Aunt Ingeborg and her son continued to farm for at least another 20 years. 

This is what I love about family history.  I want my granddaughters to know that they come from strong roots and that there are some remarkable women in their ancestry.