Chapter 10 • Peter Iverson and Hans Dierhoe Come to Minnesota

Peter Iverson and Hans Dierhoe were brothers-in-law, married to sisters. The men came from Denmark in 1871 and took homesteads in Section Six, just outside of Callaway, where the Foltz family lives, Iverson on one side of the road and Dierhoe on the west side. When they first came, men lived in a cave down by the railroad track, which is not there at this time.
They set up some log buildings and broke up land with the oxen. Deierhoi went back to Denmark to bring back the women folks in 1873. When Mr. Dierhoe came to Denmark, he hurried to get back to the USA so that the army would not get him, because then he would have had to serve one or two years before he could get back to America.

Mr. Dierhoe came back with the two ladies and they had to find a preacher to marry them right away, as they all had to live in a little log house they had built. They had to live together until another house was built across the road. In later years, when they got the bigger houses built, they sold the log house, and it was moved to the Oris Omundson farm. Dierhoe's old log house is still standing on Oris' place, they have used it for a granary for years. In the years back, many families lived in this log house.

Grandmother and Mrs. Iverson became very good friends. Mrs. Iverson would walk as far as Grandmother's with her homemade butter and eggs, then Grandmother took her butter and eggs and they would walk to Richwood village to buy coffee, sugar, etc, which was a long walk from lverson's to Richwood. On their way back, she would stop and rest and have coffee wth Grandmother.
Grandmother's house was so cold, she put the eggs in the bed and covered them with the quilts, but they still froze. Grandmother raised spring chickens and sold them dressed to Mrs. Iverson. Many times Mrs. Iverson, Annie Mary Catheren, and Lena would walk to Richwood with Grandmother. Her house was the halfway stop for rest and coffee on their way home. Catheren and Lena said they walked to Campbell Lake with Grandmother to pick wild raspberries, which were plentiful in those days. On the way back they stopped at Tovson's to get a drink. Mrs. Tovson gave Grandmother coffee, but the girls had water to drink.

Catheren and Lena said Grandmother made the best raspberry jam. She made it half sugar and half berries and this jam would keep for a long time in a covered crock. There were no canning jars in those days. One of their main dishes for supper was thick sour milk. They had a cupboard and they set the milk crocks in there till the cream came to the top, then they skimmed the cream off and made butter from it. They left some cream on the sour milk, put sugar or salt on it and ate it from the crock. Dad used to have some to eat this way and whatever was left was fed to the pigs and chickens.

The butter was made by beating or stirring till it left the buttermilk, little golden balls worked together with a paddle. The butter washed in cold water till no more milk came out of it. Then it was salted, put into small three and five pound crocks.
These were brought to the store where the crocks were exchangeable. Then later they made wooden butter prints and used a heavy waxed paper to wrap it. I made many pounds of butter, but had a crock churn and later a barrel wood churn. I had two wooden prints, one had a bundle of grain carved into it, and it left this bundle design on the top of the butter.

Grandmother made homemade soap: eleven cups fat melted, five cups warm water, one can lye or pot ash, add lye or pot ash to warm water, stir to dissolve, mix in soft fat, stir till mixed in stone crock then pour into a wooden box lined with cloth. Leave in box until it has ripened for two weeks or more, then cut into bars and store in a tight can or box.
In Denmark, they made their own potash, they made potash from hardwood ashes. The ashes were put into a funnel like a wooden box with an opening in the bottom where the liquid ran out into a trough into a crock, where it was stored till needed. They put all ashes in this box and the snow and rain fell into the box and the dissolved ashes came out as potash. That is what came through into the crock and maybe you don't think that pot ash was strong! This is what they used to soak out the dried fish and make lutefisk with. After it was soaked out, they had to soak in clear water, changed every day till used.

Mrs. Lena Bryngelson said Grandmother was a very kind person, she said I was like her in many ways. I was named after her by my father.