South of the Border: "Agnethe Forseth: a homesteader's letters from Grandview"

Columnist's note: Writing about Grandview Cemetery, south of the Hills and north of Galata, I learned that Agnethe Forseth donated the two acres that became, for 90 years, a children's cemetery. Toni Brown Dafoe, a great granddaughter of Mrs. Forseth, recently brought me a notebook with 71 letters written by Mrs. Forseth and her two daughters. Toni's mother, Mrs. Jeannette Brown, told me the letters were translated by "a friend of Mrs. Forseth in Norway who was an English teacher."

Agnethe Forseth's husband, Kristian, was a career soldier, still in the military when he died in 1903. She qualified for a pension from the Norwegian government, payable twice a year, because of her husband's service. In 1906 Agnethe emigrated to McIntosh, Minnesota where several family members and friends from Norway had settled. Agnethe had four children ages 7-14.

Mrs. Forseth had to submit to Norwegian authorities each six months a "life attestation"-written proof of her status to receive the pension payment. The "attestations" included letters that told of her life in America, first in Minnesota, then in Montana. The letters covered a period from December, 1906 to June 22, 1925.

By March, 1910, Mrs. Forseth "took land" (filed a homestead claim) in the Grandview area, south of the Sweet Grass Hills and 18 miles north of Galata. Most letters describe the difficulties she faced getting her pension: slow postal service; difficulties contacting a minister to verify and sign her documents and the unfavorable exchange rate that devalued her pension.

The letters are both uplifting and heartbreaking. I've selected a few themes from the letters over the twenty years she wrote them. My purpose is to give the reader some sense of the challenges and successes of the early prairie homesteaders.

"Proving up" the land and the trials of agriculture

Mrs. Forseth and her 18-year old son, Sigurd, each took a homestead in 1910. She described Sigurd as "toiling like a family man." He worked local ranches for pay, then came home weekends to prove up the family's lands.

By the end of 1912 Mrs. Forseth had the required 40 acres of her 320 acres "broken." Sometimes she hired ploughmen at $4 an acre. In July, 1913 she and Sigurd were in Havre to take out 'first papers' toward owning the land. By 1914 she was inspired to write, "...everything has turned out so well for us, far better than we dared think."

But each new letter painted a more grim situation than the last. In the summer of 1918 the drought was so severe they sold livestock because there was no hay or pasture. In the summer of 1921 she wrote, "For four years we have sewn and not reaped. Sigurd hopes there will be oil in the neighborhood." "That could mean plenty of work and increased land values. Oil is the common topic of conversation."

In 1922 the Forseths took a new approach, they started a sheep operation. With 200 new lambs and "the fields greening," there was renewed optimism. In rosy optimism, Mrs. Forseth wrote, "We have plenty of grazing land...enough for thousands of sheep."

Spring of 1925, Mrs. Forseth announced, "We have moved from our old farm. Sigurd has rented a bigger ranch, about 3000 acres" 10 miles further north. In her last letter of 1925, now in her 70's, she worries with more haying and a bigger spread, "there will be too much for me."

Family and community changes and the effects of world events

Shortly after arriving at Grandview Mrs. Forseth wrote, "There is no school and no church ...there are only new settlers here." She was determined that her children go to school and receive religious education. Sigurd worked to prove up the land and support the family while the three younder children went to school. Boarding with and working for families near schools, the three youngest achieved formal schooling.

Randi was the first to marry, a local rancher named Elmer Brown. Mrs. Forseth wrote, "I like Brown very well, only sorry I cannot talk much with him as he can't talk Norwegian." Magnhild, the youngest daughter, married Ingolf Jeppesen, an American-Norwegian homesteader. The Forseth boys married later.

Many of Mrs. Forseth's letters lament the lack of a church and a minister. As the early Norwegian homesteaders aged and many moved away Norwegian Divine Services (worship in Norwegian) declined. In a 1923 letter she wrote, "At long last we shall have a Norwegian Divine Service in October." There would be a "festival with coffee and food" between the English and Norwegian services. With a declining population a proposed church was never built in the immediate area.

Despite their isolated locale, World War I affected the homesteaders at Grandview. Mrs. Forseth wrote of women gathering to hand-knit 144 pairs of socks for the soldiers. In 1919 an event at the school welcomed back eight veterans who served in World War I and honored a number "who fell."

In July 1923 the area was abuzz with the runup to the Dempsey-Gibbons boxing match set for July 4 in Shelby. The Forseths sent English newspapers so their friends in Norway could read about the fight. Mrs. Forseth wrote about the big fight, "I should rejoice when everything was finished without disasters."

Even the bank failures during 1921 to 1929 affected the homesteaders. Mrs. Forseth was very upset that when the last area bank failed all the funds of the Women's Associations (Lutheran women's groups) in Grandview, Galata and Devon were on deposit.

Mrs. Forseth lived to just a few months short of her 100th birthday. She made Grandview her home noting in a 1920 letter, "The few of us who did not go away try to come together as much as possible so that we all feel at home."