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!"
Cool stories!
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