MERRY CHRISTMAS TO CHRISTOPHERS AND OLSENS EVERYWHERE!

HERE IS A COPY OF AN OLD CHRISTMAS CARD POSTCARD FROM CHRIST OLSON IN PEQUOT MINNESOTA TO HIS DAUGHTER LYDIA OLSEN AND HUSBAND CARL CHRISTOPHER ON 12/22/1919

IN MEDINA NORTH DAKOTA.

I THOUGHT YOU ALL MIGHT WANT TO SEE HIS HANDWRITING IN NORWEGIAN .

HIS NAME WAS OLE KRISTIAN OLSEN, BUT HE OFTEN SIGNED HIS NAME C.OLSON AND WENT BY CHRIST OLSON IN PEQUOT, MINNESOTA

.CAN ANYONE TRANSLATE??

THIS PRECIOUS ONE IS TO RUTH  IN MEDINA FROM HER OLSEN GRANDPARENTS IN  PEQUOT ON 12/18/1921

THIS ONE IS TO DON FROM HIS COUSIN BILLY  no date

THIS ONE IS FOR BOB FROM ROSE

THIS ONE IS TO LYDIA FROM HER SISTER CLARA 12/23/1927

I HOPE YOU ENJOY AN OLD FASHIONED FAMILY CHRISTMAS THROUGH THESE CARDS...AREN'T WE GLAD THEY WERE SAVED THROUGH ALL THESE YEARS!!!

If you have stories to tell about any of the 11 Christopher siblings, children of Carl and Inga, send them in the next two weeks if you want to include them on this blog.

 Next blog post will begin mini biographies of each of them and their families.  

Thanksgiving Post

I am grateful this year go have extended family who we can now better communicate with due to email, facebook, blogs,etc.  We live so far away from most of my relatives, that I feel the need to grow closer.

There are several loved ones in the Christopher family we have lost these last few years that I want to honor and give thanks for their contribution to our extended family.  They all mean a great deal to me, as everyone in our family does, and I am thankful that there are more extended family members that I haven't met in person that are now able to communicate through email and blogging.  As we plan our reunion for 2012, let us also plan to reunite with these loved ones in the great hereafter.

"Gene" Harry Eugene Christopher, b. Nov. 30, 1943, Richmond CA   d. Oct 21, 2011, Hermiston, OR,

Son of Robert and Beulah (Winner) Christopher, stepson of Juanita Christopher; sisters Jill Spieker and Brenda Beers;married to Beverly (for more than 50 years) Sons: Robert and Terry Christopher; grandchildren:. Michael, Cody, Jamie, Shanico, Amber, Levi.  Great Grandchildren; Austin, Jayden

Marjorie Lee Christopher Sparks, b. May 1, 1946  d. August 14, 2009. Daughter of Ken and Ruby Christopher; married to Weldon Sparks, mother of Judy Hudek, Richard Frey and Heather Stiles.  Grandmother of: Charlotte Hudek, Allie Smith, Talon Smith

Ken Christopher, b Sept 7, 1916 - d April 7, 2009 Son of Carl and Inga Christopher, husband  to Ruby Fleming  and Millie Olsen Christopher;  and father to Gloria Blake and Marjorie Sparks.

Gloria Jean Christopher Blake, b Oct 25, 1942  - d Sept 21, 2006   Daughter of Ken and Ruby Christopher, mother of  Kenneth Blake, Kimberly Hudse,

Grandmother of Julia Hudse, Dylan Hudse

In Pequot Minnesota

Bob was just a little kid in Minnesota and one day Ma gave Bob a dollar.  "That dollar looked to me to be the size of a wash tub.  We were out looking for work I guess.  We stopped in Minneapolis to get a sleep and a meal.  I crawled up on the bunk and put my dollar on my pillow.  During the night I turned over and that dollar fell out on the floor.  Ting-a-ling..away it went rolling, with me chasing right after it all over the place.  The guys like to cracked up laughing.  I thought they were going to get my dollar.  They got the biggest kick out of that, but I got my dollar back, but now I can't recall how I spent it."

Pequot Lakes, Minnesota -Jan. 21, 1934

Here is a copy of the letter Grandpa Carl sent back to the Medina Citizen Newspaper after he moved the family from Medina, ND back to Pequot Lakes, Minnesota where 32 years earlier he married Inga.  They had many trips back to the area before moving there to visit relatives and so Inga could get medical help for her leg at the Mayo Clinic.  The doctor bill for her surgery caused them to sell all of their furniture and farm machinery and move onto the Olsen Family Homestead around 1933. At that time Bob was a teen ager and went to Pequot Lakes High School with his Evan's cousins. (Inga's sister Clara's children) Doris and Don the youngsters were there in Pequot Lakes, but the rest of the Christopher Camp were on their own..most of them settling in Arlee, Montana.

"Well, here we are among the jack pine, savages, retired lumberjacks, river pigs and retired farmers (who are working for the CWA) cutting some wood and incidentally helping the missus with her chores.  Conditions here are not so good either, although there is no one in this township who has asked for or received any government salt pork. Weather conditions here have been mild since New Years, but at that time it was down to 52 below. We have quite a little snow--up to--well it is pretty deep  Our neighbor, Seven Sleeps, the Indian, predicts a wet summer by examination of the onion, and Mary, the assistant chamber maid at the
VJ-LU summer resort, agrees with him, and says onions will be big; she always does.  At the present time the people here are busy putting up ice and cutting up a supply of wood for the summer, and believe me they have some big wood piles.  Almost all the farmers here put up ice, as they sell milk to the tourists and have to cool the milk.  They depend on the tourist trade for a lot of their income in the summer.  This is right in the heart of the Land o'Lakes.  There is on this farm a hill or nearby mountain from which 20 lakes are visible to the naked eye and with field glasses one can see for nearly 50 miles. It is truly a vacation land of rest--long, lazy days, if you wish, quiet, restful places, with a program of the pines, breezy beaches, cool nights, and sleep such as you have never known before--days are sunny, with long evenings, and beautiful, with gorgeous sunsets and sky colored waters.  Hope this finds you all O.K., as we are. The Carl Christopher Family"

Christopher kids growing up

"When Lauren and Ken were teenagers, they used to ride the freights together and they would sew money in the band of their pants.  The other guys they were riding with were always able to bum a meal by just going up and down the streets where the train stopped and asking for a meal, but Lauren and Ken would ask for work.  They would get their money that way.  Some how they just couldn't be bums.  One time when Ken was on a train he got held up.  He had money sewn in his pants but he didn't tell them of course.  They were coming from Bismark to Medina.  He was in the reefer car when two guys came in.  Ken had a 22 shell in his pocket and it made them think he had a gun.  They tried to get him to jump off the train, but he flatly told them no and so they climbed out of the car and locked the door on Ken.  He stayed still awhile and then tried to get out, but couldn't.  When the train slowed down, the door opened and they were gone, so Ken climbed up to the top of the car and ran the length of the train in the dark, like a darn fool.  When the train stopped Ken told the brakeman, but the brakeman said he couldn't do anything about it."

"There wasn't too much to do in those days, so the big thing on Saturday night was to walk three miles to Medina and stand on the corner watching the people eat roasted peanuts.  We usually stayed out late and by the time we got home everyone was asleep.  Mother had made two or three tables full of freshly baked homemade bread that day and of course, boys are always hungry.  We'd peel the crust off the bread and load it down with butter and go ahead and eat all we could eat.  We expected to hear about it in the morning, but mother never said a word.  She just took it all up and put it back in the oven and made a new crust on it.  So we got  by pretty good, but we didn't dare try that too often."

More Stories of their childhood in Medina..by Bob and Ken

We don't have many pictures of the Christopher kids when they were little so you will just have to use your imagination when you read these whoppers!:

"When Ken was working for a neighbor, Mrs.Lepold, she wanted him to catch a badger.  What he caught was a skunk! The trap caught his front paw.  Ken picked him up by the tail because he was always told that if you pick up a skunk by the tail it can't squirt you.  That's how the story goes.  So he was eye-balling him and saying..."..you can't doing nothin'."  That skunk just doubled up and filled his eyes, nose and mouth before he could let go.  He forgot the foot was still in the trap! It was like a trigger.  The neighbor took all Ken's clothes and buried them in the wood pile.  And Ken laid in the tub for an hour and scrubbed.  Then, he had to borrow clothes to go on home."

"One day we skipped school and stayed down with the pigs all day in the straw stack. But we didn't fool Pa.   He knew we were there.  Pa said, "How'd you guys do with the pigs down there?" After that we stayed pretty close to the school house like we were supposed to."

"I remember one time when the kids were walking near the barn on the way to school.  It was bitter cold.  You guys told me, Bob you aught to try this..stick your tongue on that cold iron.  WOW! So I did, and I can feel it yet."
Ken interrupts. "I think I am the guilty one; I think I told you to do that."
Bob asks, "So how in the hell, do you get the tongue off, I can't remember."
Ken says, "Well you just keep wetting it with warm water, but I think you probably pulled the skin off."
Bob laughs, ""Well, that's probably why I can't talk right yet."
Ken adds, "Well, that wasn't in any shed, that was right out it the open."
Bob said, "Well, yeah, but it was by a shed, cause you pulled this piece of iron out of it."
Ken explained, "No, that was the pump handle."
Bob asked, "Is that what it was?"
Ken said, "Yeah, or maybe you did it twice."
Bob objects, "I don't think I'd get caught twice doing that."
Ken said, "Yeah, so this was the pump handle and we couldn't bring you into the house to get it off so we had to pull it off right there."
Bob said,  "It hurt so bad and can't remember it really...Anyways, I'd never let anyone try that one on me again."

"On Saturdays Dad went into town to get coal, groceries, and kerosene for the lanterns. The can we had for kerosene had lost its cork.  The kids thought the storekeeper took it.  But what he did do for a stopper was use a large peppermint gum drop.  We used to get real good at eating it right down to the coal oil."

"In Medina, Dad made a coal shoot going down to the basement and about once a year they would buy a case of plums or peaches or some delicacy like that.  They'd have them down there so we would slip down that coal shoot and get us some- a plum or peach, whatever was available.  They never bothered us too much about it.  They surely knew we were doing it, but we got by with it."

"We used to play a lot of cards.  The neighbors all played Whisk an awful lot.  So all of us kids would have to go along.  We never thought of a babysitter in those days.  So they would put us all to bed laying crosswise on a bed in a corner there someplace and they would play cards most of the night.  Then we'd head for home again."

Stories about Chrisotpher Camp by Ken and Bob

"In the winter, sometimes we'd take the sled maybe a mile or two down the road to the school house.  We'd take hay in the bottom of the sled box and a blanket over the top and a lantern under the blanket to keep warm. Dad had a big robe and he had a coat made out of it.  he used to tell us that he had taken the hide off of old Made (their horse that had died) to make the coat.  We didn't know how true it was but that's what he used to say.  Anyway, he would stand up in that cold weather with this coat on, and drive the team over to the dance.  We'd pick up neighbors, the Giesike's and so on.  Except for the Christensen's, they weren't speaking to us at the time.  We went by their place, I don't think they had any dancers anyway.  Chris, I don't they he danced.  So anyway w went on our way and got to the corner by Jablonski's and Orstens. and spend the night dancing.  They always had a place to put the horses. Either that or we'd blanket them good.  Then when we came out after the dance, the horses would be just white with frost.  Oh, it was good for us kids, we could get under the blanket if we got cold, or else, run behind.  that was quite an evening in those days."

"In the summertime, we'd want to spend out time outside mostly.  One great thing for us to play in was the corn field.  Just like the old song goes..."Chasin' up and down the corn ruins."

"One time in the summer the family went over to Crystal springs about 6 miles from home to spend the night camping.  They were going to fish for bullheads and perch.  If you got a perch, you got a prize, but the bullheads were pretty numerous.  They drove their team of horse, King and Queen over and they camped there overnight with the mosquitoes. That night, Queen got lose and went home.  They proceeded down the road on the highway with all of the kids in the wagon.  The tourists and others would go by probably thinking, "Oh look at those poor people, they can only afford one horse."  But they made it home all right and there was Queen standing out by the barn."

Peterson Township section of the Medina Citizen Newspaper, Medina N.D.

Carl wrote about his Peterson Township  neighbors and his own camp for many years as the family grew.  Some of the entries show his sense of humor as well as giving us an insight as to what the family was doing::


"The Christopher Camp has been growing of late:  A summer kitchen, granary and garage has been added and they seem to fill a much needed want  The work was done by the camp farmer and his crew."

"For sale:  a 1917 model Ford and a couple of hay stacks.  Inquire at the Christopher camp, but not too early in the morning or you may find the owner in bed."

"Wanted at the Christopher camp, a good as new cream separator at the price of a second hand one."

"For sale or exchange:  Two or three small lakes.  Apply to Christopher & Todd, and take them at your own price.  Hurry as they are in the way of our work."

"Mrs. Carl Christopher departed Sunday evening for Rochester, Minn. where she goes to receive further treatment from the Drs. Mayo."

"Carl Christopher has take charge of the trapping department of the Camp now, as the boys will be too busy with schoolwork to look after it."

"Carl Christopher and family started this week for Pequot, Minn via auto, and intend to spend a couple of weeks fishing, spending the time with relatives and friends at that place.  Now look out for some big fish yarns when Carl gets back."

Inga Lydia Olsen Christopher

     Inga was born June 28, 1882 in Hurdal, Akershus, Norway.  She turned  one years old in mid-Atlantic when her mother, Mina Kristine and father Ole Kristian Olsen, were coming to American from Norway.

     Ole was a shoemaker in Nannestad, Norway.  The Olsens came first to St. Ansgar, Iowa, then to High Lake, Iowa, then to Graettinger, Iowa and finally to Pequot Lakes, Crow Wing County, Minnesota, in 1898.  Ole and Mina are buried there in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota behind the Lutheran Church they attended for years.  For many years Ole was know as Christ Olsen.  The census records of 1900 show Inga living in Brainerd, a nearby town where she was working as a servant in a boarding  house.  She was only 17 at the time.  Carl is also listed on the 1900 Census for Crow Wing County. He apparently sold his property in Iowa to buy section 24 of Peterson Township, Medina, North Dakota where they moved to after they were were married in Pequot Lakes Lutheran Church on March 31, 1902.
     Raising the eleven children and helping on the ranch kept Inga very busy, yet she maintained a calm and quiet manner, never complaining.  She suffered from a knee injury during much of her life.  She was on crutches and wore a brace for fourteen years.  This didn't seem to stop her as she still went everywhere to help the neighbors and friends around them  They took many trips back to Rochester, Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic for medical help for her leg.  They also took many trips back to Pequot to visit relatives and attend funerals.  The doctor bill for her surgery caused them to sell all of their furniture and farm machinery and move to the Olsen family homestead in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota around 1933.  They were then closer to the clinic.  Their son Bob remembers attending High School at Pequot Lakes with the Evans boys, Inga's sister Clara's children.  Then to be close to most of their family, they retired to Arlee, Montana around 1936. They lived near the Jock River and enjoyed being near many of their children and grandchildren. Inga died on July 13, 1949.

     Stories from Bob and Ken: "We boys always told our mother we wanted a blackbird pie like we heard in the rhyme: "Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie." So we kept after her to make us a blackbird pie. So finally one day she said, "You guys get the blackbirds, I'll make you a pie."  So we went out and got twenty blackbirds.  It was easy to get blackbirds then we just kept shooting until we got enough.  We cleaned them with her help.  She made us a pie out of those blackbirds and it wasn't bad."

"After they moved to Arlee, mother had a hobby of making hooked rugs out of anything, even old jeans.  She had hooked rugs all over the place and she believed in saving everything.  In those days there wasn't much money to go around."

Ken tells the story of when they had lots of skunk grease around the place.  "All of us kids trapped skunks.  We used it like goose grease to rub it on our shoes.  It sounds like it would smell, but it doesn't smell anymore than goose grease.  Mother used to rub it on our chests.  Bob is glad he was down the line, because he doesn't remember getting any skunk grease on his chest!"

Inga with grandchild Ester