Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 4 - The Farm

 Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

Pete went back to where he started in life, as a farmer. He purchased a 160 acre farm on the northeast quarter of Section 32 of Clyde township – or, in simpler terms, south of Huron, four miles west on the Virgil Road, and ¾ mile north. He raised cattle, hogs, and grain for feed, and later added another 120 acres. Ella had a big garden and raised chickens, and made sure the livestock was

watered and cows were milked. Ella did the household baking at that point. They worked together but fought and bickered a lot.

As with the bakery, Pete also made a success out of his farm. In addition to his crops, he sold his produce to local businesses – cream to the cream station, eggs to the local Red Owl grocery store and Manolis Grocery, and turkeys to the Swift & Co. processing plant.

Things were not always easy on the farm though, especially during the Great Depression, when a severe drought and dust storms had widespread effects across the whole country. Consecutive years of drought resulted in the once-fertile soil drying up and blowing away, carried far and wide. In Beadle County, Pete’s daughter Lillian recalled sealing up the house at the first sign of a dust storm but even with rugs rolled up against the door frame, the minute particles found their way inside the house, inside the cupboards, and permeated clothes and blankets. There was no escaping the horrendous dust.

Crops failed year after year. When the farmers failed, the local businesses failed. Between 1930 and 1940, over 50,000 people left the state. And of the ones who stayed, 40% needed public assistance to survive.

And then came the locusts – the voracious locusts. The scorching dry weather allowed them to reproduce and survive like never before, and Pete said the huge swarms of them actually blocked out the sun at times. From dirt blowing into the house, to crop failure, to locusts, life was a huge challenge.

July of 1936 found Pete desperately trying to save his crops from a severe grasshopper infestation. One local reporter visiting the Christensen farm said, “Grasshoppers were looming up in clouds, jumping from one green stalk of corn to the next one, utterly mowing it down as neatly as any farm mower could cut it.” Many other farmers were walking away from farming. But Pete remained optimistic. He had paid $22,000 on the farm and still owed $2500 on it, and had no intention of leaving it under those circumstances. “I’ve seen crops, wonderful crops; that’s why I’m sticking.” Though Pete’s grain and corn crops were devastated, he was still hoping to salvage his barley and wheat fields. Besides the grasshoppers, the lack of rain was a problem. Pete felt that if they could just get a good rain, it would help the grasshopper problem, and if it would just rain hard for three days it would kill them. But he got neither. Fortunately, all was not completely lost – he had good luck with his hogs that spring with each sow having a big litter. He had nine milk cows, but what he got for the cream didn’t begin to pay for his groceries. But it was something. He said, “I’ll stick as long as I own my farm. I’ve got to stick – and wait for a good year.”

And those good years did come. By 1940 the drought was considerably better for area farmers and the Christensens were no exception. Daughter Lillian and her husband bought a farm about a mile from Pete and Ella and daughter Edna and her husband were also in the area, both couples bringing grandchildren into Pete and Ella’s lives. “Grandpa Pete” and “Grandma Pete” saw a lot of those children and they all forged happy memories of spending time on the farm. Granddaughter Betty used to follow Ella around the yard, wearing her floppy hat and using rhubarb leaves as umbrellas. She’d sit on Ella’s watering cart, slide down the banister, and play dress-up with the old clothes in the attic. She’d help feed chickens, gather eggs, and look for hidden baby kittens of which there were plenty. She recalls that every day after lunch they’d lay down for a nap and the kids always knew when she was safely asleep as she’d snore quite loudly. That was their opportunity to get up and have some unsupervised fun. But on one occasion, grandson Bobby got his head stuck between the bars on the banister of the stairway! Ella was remembered as tough, but at the same time sentimental and soft and loving. She was also known for her singing, which was brutally off-key, which Pete loved to tease her about. There was a lot of fighting between them, but when push came to shove, they took care of each other.

When Pete wasn’t tending to his livestock and crops, he loved to listen to radio and had a large, battery-operated model sitting in their living room, there being no electricity at the time. He absolutely loved wrestling, and without a doubt tuned into the matches every chance he got.

To be continued...

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 3 - Bell Bakery

 Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

1907 and 1908 were the years of change for Pete. In 1907 he traveled to California, planting seeds for what would later become a major change in direction, and in 1908 he went back to Denmark. Why he returned isn’t known, but when he re-entered the U.S. he was listed as a “non-immigrant alien.” He arrived back in Iowa in March. Sometime in this time period he met Clarence H. Bell, a bakery owner in Missouri Valley, Iowa. How they made their acquaintance isn’t apparent. Missouri Valley is about 25 miles from Council Bluffs. Bell, a 38-year-old business man teamed up with the 24-year-old baker and they went into business together. In 1908 they bought the City Bakery in Huron, South Dakota, a location neither man had ties to, but the City Bakery was a good acquisition after a number of failures for previous owners. Bell explained, “I first saw the town in 1908. I had come up to South Dakota from Missouri Valley, Iowa, where I had been in the bakery business for 10 years. I felt that this state showed great possibilities, so I looked several cities over and finally decided on Huron. Huron didn’t have a bakery then, and I knew I could make money there. It kept me hopping about 16 hours a day, and a half a day on Sunday.”

Bell Bakery is the two-story wood frame building to the left of the large Costain Music Store.

They purchased the bakery on September 23 and relocated to Huron immediately. The Bell Bakery was open for business by October 17, advertising that they took phone orders and made deliveries, and their products were already on store shelves. Bell ran the business and Pete produced the products. Together they were a profitable team. Pete had a good work ethic and was a hard worker. The products put out by Bell Bakery were high quality, and while there were other bakeries in town over the years, Bell Bakery had no real competition.

The Bell Bakery delivery cart, about 1909

The bakers: Pete Christensen is pictured 2nd from right, and his
brother Soren is 3rd from right.  Photo taken about 1911.

Pete lived in an apartment above the bakery. Two of his three brothers also became bakers, and one of them, Soren, worked and lived with Pete for 7 years. After service in World War I, Soren went on to have a lengthy and successful baking career in Omaha, Nebraska, where many members of the family had migrated to.

While Clarence Bell was an astute businessman, Pete was responsible for the products they put out. He was especially known for his Fruit-Filled Cookies and people would come from miles around for them, especially at Christmas time. His daughter, Lillian, still remembered them 50 years afterward.

Pete’s recipes were written down, but only as a list of ingredients. He kept the details “in his head.” One of his ingredients was referred to only as “ammonia.” This odd sounding ingredient actually refers to baker’s ammonia, or ammonium bicarbonate, which was used as a leavening agent before baking soda or baking powder were used. When heated, the ammonium bicarbonate breaks down into ammonia, water, and carbon dioxide, the latter of which causes the baked goods to rise, but the ammonia can affect the flavor. Therefore, it was only used in relatively "flat" baked goods like cookies, so that the ammonia gas could escape.

On May 6, 1911, Pete married Gabriella “Ella” Monsen, a Norwegian immigrant who came to the U. S. at age 19, just three years after Pete. She was the first in her family to leave Norway, her widowed mother saving money to pay her passage. She went to her paternal aunt near Howard, South Dakota, about 60 miles from Huron, to learn English. How or when Pete and Ella became acquainted isn’t known, but Ella worked as a household servant in Norway and may have done likewise in Huron too. They purchased a home on Beach avenue in Huron and started their family a year later. Their children were: Lillian (b. 1912), Raymond (b. 1914), Clarence (b. 1917), Edna (b. 1919) and Sylvia (b. 1924).

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In 1914 there were big changes for Bell Bakery. The land on which the building sat was to be the site of the new 3-story I.O.O.F. building, so Bell Bakery had to move – building and all. As the local newspaper of July 16, 1914, reported, “The Bell Bakery is now comfortably located on Fourth street just off the avenue, after a somewhat tempestuous journey across the street and around the corner. The building held together very well, until nearly in place, when a section of the south wall bulged badly. This will not, however, be a serious matter, as it was braced up at once. Work on the new Odd Fellow block will begin at once.” In the photo to the left, you can see the two-story building with the braces through the front windows.  The new I.O.O.F. building was completed toward the end of October, and Bell Bakery moved into one of the two ground-level store spaces. The old wood-frame building was to be sold to the highest bidder in December, to be moved immediately.

Above: The new I.O.O.F. building, with Bell Bakery on the main floor in the store front to the right.

The back room of the bakery.  Pete is pictured at left.

In addition to pastries, cookies, and specialty cakes, the bakery had a capacity of 10,000 loaves of bread daily.

In 1920, Pete’s life took a turn when he decided to get out of the bakery business. He sold his interest to Erwin Schmidt, a native of Germany who was raised in Minnesota. In 1915 Schmidt had moved to Huron and taken a job at the A. W. Hopkins bakery. Schmidt would eventually become sole owner of Bell Bakery when Clarence Bell retired in 1931.

To be continued...

Some photos courtesy of Cynthia Christensen and Ree Lyons

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 2 - The Immigration

 Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

The S. S. New York

It was April 20, 1901 when Pete boarded the ocean liner S. S. New York from Southampton, England. Southampton was a major, established point of departure for transatlantic voyages. At the time of this boat’s launch in 1893 it was called The City of New York and was the largest and fastest ocean liner crossing the Atlantic. The massive boat was 528 feet long and 63 feet wide and could accommodate 290 first-class, 250 second class, and 725 third-class passengers. This ship, in 1912, had the notoriety of nearly colliding with the Titanic on the latter ship’s maiden voyage departing Southampton.

Pete stepped foot on American soil on April 30 after a ten-day journey. He was 16 years and 11 months old, could read and write, and claimed “farmer” as vocation. His final destination was Exira, Iowa, where surprisingly his maternal grandfather, Peder C. Larsen lived. From there, he boarded a train for Iowa.

Peder and Jacobine Larsen

Pete’s grandparents, Peder and Jacobina Larsen, had immigrated between 1890 and 1895 in order to join the rest of their children - Soren, Niels, Anna and Kjersten - who had come to the United States about 1886. Their daughter Elsie, Pete’s mother, was the only one of their children opting to stay in Denmark.

It was said that Pete learned the baking trade from an uncle in Omaha, Nebraska, but there is no known uncle in Omaha at that particular time. Pete appears to have stayed in Exira until 1903, possibly helping out on his uncle and grandfather’s farm. In 1903, his older sister Katrina and her family immigrated and joined Pete in Exira. Katrina’s husband, Jens Jensen, was a baker in Denmark and established himself in that occupation in Council Bluffs, Iowa. About the same time, Pete also moved to Council Bluffs, where he learned the baking trade and worked for bakers in the city for the next four years. It is entirely possible that he apprenticed with his brother-in-law, Jens Jensen.

One by one, most of his siblings made their way to Iowa, several of them helped by Pete to immigrate, and he helped them get settled. His brother Chris and sister Katrina arrived in 1903; Laura in 1908; Caroline in 1909; Soren in 1910; and Martinas in 1911 and Mary sometime before 1919. Only Gjertrud stayed behind in Denmark.

Back in Denmark, Pete’s mother Elsie married Jens Eriksen, a neighbor 11 years her junior, and the two of them also immigrated in 1911, settling in Omaha, Nebraska, across the river from Council Bluffs.

To be continued...

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 1 - The Beginning

I didn’t grow up knowing much about Pete Christensen except he was born in Denmark, owned Bell Bakery in Huron, and could be a little prickly for his family to get along with. It wasn’t until I started researching his life that I discovered that there is a lot more to my great-grandfather that just those three facts.  

To understand Pete, you have to understand where he came from.  His story began in Døstrup, Hinstead Herred, Ålborg County, Denmark, the land where his father's family lived for several generations  His father, Laust (also known as Lars) Christian Christensen was a lieutenant in the Danish army, whose parents died young,  He married Elsie Kirstine Pedersen from Torslev in November of 1880, three months after the birth of their first child, Ane Katrine.  Their second child, Gjertrud, was named after Laust's mother. and then came Peter, on the 18th of May, 1884, the third of eleven children and the oldest son

Laust/Lars & Elsie Christensen

In 1890, the family lived on a farm and consisted of Laust (33), Elsie (30), Gjertrud (8), Peder (5) and Marianne (3). Laust was a farmer. “Katrina” was about ten years old and is not listed in the household. The family was poor – as soon as the kids reached ten or twelve years of age, they were sent to live in other households to work – the boys as farm laborers, and the girls as household servants, taking care of kids and keeping house. Katrina had likely assumed these duties in another household by this time.

By 1896, Laust acquired the position of “landpost”, or our equivalent of a postman. The last of their eleven children, Karl, was born in 1900 and died the same year at eight months of age. Life was hard; Laust had tuberculosis and was unable to do his job much of the time so Elsie quietly did it in his place.

Sometime before the year 1900, it had been Pete’s turn to leave his parents’ household and provide for himself. He was working as a farm laborer in 1900, some distance from home. Laust Christensen succumbed to tuberculosis in March of 1901 at the age of 44. Within a month 16 year old Peter Christensen was on a boat bound for the United States with $4 in his pocket.

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Before continuing with Pete’s journey, I think it’s important to know some of what the younger children experienced after the death of their father. Elsie still had four children in the household ranging in age from four to nine, and she needed a way to support them. With Laust’s job gone, she packed up her family and moved to the city where she took a job at a brewery. The older children took care of the younger children but they were largely on their own. Her daughter Caroline, seven years old at the time, recalled in her diary, “I don’t remember when we got ready for school, but it was up to Laura to see that we got ready. The boys were so young. I know there were times we never got to school.” She went on to say, “Sometimes Mother would lock us in our apartment for a whole day and we had to feed ourselves. As we got older, we were a wild bunch. Laura would get us into all kinds of mischief. I know we sometimes even stole things. We used to take a sack and go down to the harbor when the big ships would come in. They would bring coal in from foreign lands. We would pick it up when they spilled some. That was what we kept warm with. I know we were poor, but Mother would not take help from anyone.” She described her mother as a “beautiful, proud woman,” but also “hard” and not very affectionate toward her children. As the children were sent to other households, most were compliant, but Laura ran away several times. It was a hard life for them, and they rarely went to see their mother once they left the household. They were required to stay in the other homes until their confirmation, at which time most of them left Denmark completely.

To be continued...

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

Some photos courtesy of Barbara Johnson and Cynthia Christensen

Henry D. Giard

Of the handful of visible gravestones in Peck cemetery, two, although broken, are very legible.  One of those stones belongs to Mary A. Rounding, and information on her life can be found in the previous blog post.  She was in Dakota Territory for only a year and a half, making it challenging to find information on her.  Even more challenging is Henry D. Giard, whose stone is also very legible.  But Henry was in Dakota Territory a mere 4 months before he passed away at the age of 31 - not long enough to leave a good paper trail.

However, an article in the Dakota Huronite (Huron, SD) mentions his arrival in Beadle county in the March 08, 1883 edition.  "H. D. Giard, Levi Giard, Adolph Giard and Dan'l Bottum, who with their families comprise a party of 13, have arrived in the city from Cohoes, N.Y.  The gentlemen are all bright looking, energetic young men who appear to be firm in their determination to make their western venture a success.  They cannot well help succeeding."  Levi and Adolph are documented as brothers, and Daniel Bottom is the husband of their sister, so it's a reasonable assumption, barring the absence of any hard evidence, that Henry is a brother to Levi and Adolph.

Further circumstantial evidence is their choice of land.  Adolph and Levi had cash purchase of land in Cornwall township, as did Henry.  The location of their land, in relation to each other, also suggests a close family tie.  Henry and his wife Alice homesteaded their land, and Alice "proved up" on the claim Dec. 13, 1889, as a widow.

The map above, shows the land of the Giards, NE of Hitchcock, South Dakota.  The blue marker shows the location of Peck cemetery, and to the NE of that marker is where the Giard lands are located.  The Green "L" is Levi's land; the blue "H" is Henry's land, and the red "A" is Adolph's land,

In March, 1883, the brothers and their brother-in-law arrived in Dakota Territory.  In July, 31 year old Henry was laid to rest in Peck cemetery.  What, exactly, happened in those four months may be lost to history.  

Henry and Alice had two children - Blanche, b. 1881 in New York, and Boyd, b. 1883.  Alice appeared to have remarried William Goodman, and left South Dakota.

The Short Life of Mary Rounding

Way out in the middle of nowhere, along South Dakota highway 28, sits a quiet little unobtrusive cemetery.  It’s something you could drive by a million times and never realize it was there – unless you happened to see the white sign saying, “Peck Cemetery - Dakota Territory” hanging from a fencepost.  Although the few remaining stones are toppled and broken, someone neatly mows the final resting place of these pioneers, all of them with their stories that have mostly been lost to time.  Most of the stones are unidentifiable, but among them sits the grave of Mary A. Rounding, a young woman who left this earth in 1883, far from her home.

               Mary was the daughter of John and Cynthia Rounding of Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Her father was in the service of the Union Army and died before his daughter had even turned two years old.  A member of Company G, 41^st Infantry, he fought in the infamous Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. This bloody, savage battle lasted two days, hard fought by both sides.  It was an important victory for the Union as it allowed Ulysses S. Grant to penetrate the interior of the South and make his way to Corinth, Mississippi.  The wounded hero survived for a short time, but sanitation was lacking and disease was rampant.  Two weeks after the end of the battle, John succumbed to his illness and wounds on April 20, 1862.  His widow was left to raise their tiny daughter without him.  He was a hero.  But not the only hero in his family.

               Young Mary, the namesake of her maternal grandmother, grew to young adulthood with her mother, stepfather, and seven half-siblings.  In the spring of 1882, she left her family behind and accompanied her great-uncle, Capt. Samuel B. Lingenfelter and his wife Mary Eliza to Altoona township, Dakota Territory.  Mrs. Lingenfelter had several children, and also was in the later stage of consumption so Mary’s presence was greatly needed and valued. 

               On a stormy evening in August 1883 everything changed.  A vicious cyclone hit the Altoona area, destroying buildings, crops, livestock, and anything in its path - which unfortunately included the Lingenfelter home.  Mary shielded the children from flying debris and hail the size of chicken eggs.  While trying to rescue them from the rubble, Mary sustained a serious spine injury and died less than a week later.  Mrs. Lingenfelter, who herself would pass away two months afterward, spoke with the highest of praise for Mary.  Heroism must run in their family. 

               Out there in the middle of nowhere, under a broken gravestone, lies Mary Rounding.  She was a valiant soul who, like her father, gave her all – her very life – for the good of others.  Her story deserves to be heard and known and remembered.  SHE deserves to be known and remembered.  

Photo courtesy of Stan Phillippi, Jan. 2025

Source List

Photograph - Stan Phillippi

Jennifer Littlefield

Obituary of Mary A. Rounding, Mount Carmel Register, Sept. 20, 1883.

1906 Beadle County, South Dakota Plat Map

Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives  https://apps.ilsos.gov/isaveterans/civilMusterSearch.do

"Tempest Tossed - Mr. Carmel People in the Dakota Cyclone" - Mount Carmel Register, Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Thursday, Aug. 2, 1883, Page 1

"Wabash County, Illinois Families" Public Family Tree.  Yelobug author. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/1567687/person/250040240371/facts

1860 United States Federal Census

1870 United States Federal Census

1880 United States Federal Census

1885 Dakota Territory Census

Illinois GenWeb Civil War, Company "G" 48th Illinois Infantry

https://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/civilwar/r050/048-g-in.html

American Battlefield Trust, "Shiloh - Pittsburg Landing."  https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/shiloh

Obituary of Cynthia Riggs Rounding Ravenstein.  Mount Carmel Register, Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Aug. 24, 1914. Page 1.

Obituary of Mary Eliza Harris Lingenfelter.  Mount Carmel Register, Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Thursday, Nov. 8, 1883, page 4.

Find-a-Grave.com

The Window

 

The window.  The little window on the left, with Grandma’s curtains still hanging nicely on either side of the sink. 

I never knew how much that window meant to me.  It was just a window.  We came and went from that house about a million times over the 33 years I spent with her.  And every time we left, there she would be, at that window, waving as we left the driveway, from the time I was a child, through my adulthood and the lives of my children.  She'd wave, and we’d wave back.

That window had never looked so empty as it did the first time I left the house after her death.  There wasn’t just an emptiness, but a cavern on the other side of that glass.   For all the times I’d left the house and waved on my way out of the driveway, I never realized the significance of that simple gesture, or the smile that accompanied it.  I’ll never see that sight in real life again, but I see it in my heart every time I see that window.