Part One - Family History

I thought it might be fun to make a post about some of our family history.  I feel really fortunate to know how my father's family came to America.

This is the family fam near Aalborg, Denmark which I visited with my parents and Jillian back in the early 1990s.  Nels Norgaard (my great great grandfather) decided to leave Denmark and head for America to avoid military conscription in 1869.  After a six week, storm filled voyage he arrived in the U.S. and was escorted to the Port of Immigration.

Nels boarded a train and headed westward to Harlan, Iowa where his Aunt and Uncle had a farm.  Eventually he went to Council Bluffs and Omaha where he cared for the horse, harness, and carriage of a wealthy merchant.  Later, he went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad laying track west of Omaha.

In 1871 he decided he wanted to take up a homestead.  He returned to Harlan to inform his Aunt and Uncle and to ask Carrie Sorenson (my great great grandmother) to become his bride.  It was customary for the groom to provide his bride with a home on their marriage day so Nels and his friend Jens Peter Utrup headed west in search of homesteads.  They took the train to Sioux City, Iowa and then it was on foot to the Dakota Territory.

They reached Sioux Falls and kept walking north where they found an area with a great many trees along the Big Sioux River.  The two established their claims in adjoining properties in Moody County.

In the center of this map you will see the claims of Nels Norgaard.

They had encounters with hostile Indians while building their log shanties and some furniture.  Then in the fall they started their trip back to Harlan via the U.S. Land Office in Vermillion where they filed for their claims.

Site of the original homestead taken in 2019.  An annual Norgaard reunion and picnic takes place every August.

Around May 1, 1872 when they felt the snow and ice was melted they started their long journey back to the homestead.  The caravan consisted of three covered wagons--Nels, Mr. and Mrs. Utrup, and Mr. and Mrs. Sorenson and Carrie.  Nels brought along a cook stove, five head of cattle, and his oxen, Jim and John.

Nels and Carrie did not marry until they reached the Dakota Territory.  On June 2, 1872 they found a missionary to marry then near Canton, South Dakota.  After a journey of four weeks they reached their destination.  Mr. and Mrs. Sorenson claimed an adjacent piece of land.  The group promptly began planning for the future and plowing the land to prepare it for seed.

Nels and Carrie

They encountered blizzards and other hardships, but Nels and Carrie persisted through it all.  The Utrups gave up their claim in 1873 and returned to Iowa because of the harsh conditions.

Nels and Carrie had twelve children, three of which did not survive--Sarah, Caroline, and Sarah Marie.  My great grandfather, James, was born in 1877.

Family photo of Nels, Carrie and their nine surviving children.

The graves of the three daughters that did not survive in the cemetery next to the Big Sioux River and site of the original homestead.

Nels passed away quite suddenly in 1920 from effects of the flu epidemic at the end of WWI.  Carrie lived until the age of 96 and passed away in 1949.

My great grandfather, James, married Christina Anderson in 1903.  I remember meeting her once on a trip to South Dakota.  She was in a nursing home and asked me to get her a glass of water.  I think she passed away not long after that.  James and Christina were very instrumental in raising my father and his siblings after their father (Harry Bates) died during the great depression.  My grandmother, Bertha, was 27 when she became a widow with four young children in a time when there weren't any social programs to help.

James served in the Spanish American War.

A couple years ago several of the cousins got together and purchased this plaque to honor our pioneering ancestors who were so very brave.  It stands at the site of the original homestead.

End of part one.