Gunerius Erik Walstad was born in Ness, Overe Romerike near Oslo, Norway on July 10, 1842 and he was baptized on August 28, 1842.
His mother was Elisabeth Paulsdatter Walstad and his father was Erik Nilsen Eggum.
Grandfather Gunerius' name in Norway was Gunerius Eriksen. He was given his father's first name of Erik and added sen for his last name which is commonly done in Norway. When he came to America he took his mother's maiden name as his last name.
I have been unable to find out about his years in Norway. He married Berte Christine Iverson also born in 1847 in Ness Overe Romerike near Oslo, Norway. They were married in 1867. Our grandmother used the name Christine (sometimes spelled Kristine).
When they immigrated to America they were accompanied by his wife's mother, Mrs. Maren Iverson Hanson and step-father Nels Hanson, Sr.; her brothers, Julius and Alert Iverson; her sisters and brothers-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Andreas (Gurene) Rolstad and Mr. and Mrs. Peder (Indiana) Hagen, Jr. and his father Peder Krestian Hagen, Sr.; Mrs. Walstad's step-brother Nels Hanson, Jr. (he changed his name to Hans Nelson in America as he did not wish to be called "Little Nels").
This group came across the Atlantic in a sailboat. It took then 14 weeks to cross the ocean. They drifted for three weeks in sight of the same island. They arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and on to Brooklyn, New York. Their journey led them to Daleyvile, near Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, where they farmed 15 years before they immigrated to Walsh County in 1880.
Gunerius and Christine, their six children (all born in Wisconsin), Iver, age 11; Elise, 10; John, 7; Emanuel, 5; Gustav, 3; Amanda,1; and the same relatives who had immigrated with them from Norway, accompanied them to Walsh County in two freight cars. They arrived in Grand Forks, North Dakota and traveled the rest of the way by horses and two wagons. Near Oslo, Minnesota, they were caught in a wet snow storm, and were delayed two days. They were fortunate to find lodging with a kind and generous pioneer family in their log cabin. By the time they arrived to what was then called the Salt Lake Flat, in the Ardoch, North Dakota area, the weather had become very warn and the land was covered with flood water, and the men had to take the boxes off the two wagons and fit them up for boats, after getting the people and loads across with a rider on their back.
The Walstad's filed on a homestead five miles south of Hoople, North Dakota. In the Heritage Book there is a passage written by Carl Grimstad that was supposedly his remembrance while standing with John Daley looking west over what became Grandpa's homestead.
In 1883, the Walstad's, together, planted and hoed the trees which still stand today on the home farm. Cottonwoods, boxelders and willows were given to the settlers by the government, as they were fast growing and the pioneers needed a grove started for windbreak and shade. Ten acres were set aside one forth mile west on the north side of the quarter for the farmstead. This included the grove of trees, farm buildings, pasture, an orchard of wild plums, chokecherries, gooseberries and black currents transplanted from the timber, two miles north of the farm. Before these bore fruit, Grandma and the children would walk to the timber and pick berries, as this was the only fruit they had for jelly and sauce, besides the rhubarb roots she brought from Wisconsin. She also brought potatoes which they planted that first spring near the cabin. These multiplied wonderfully.
The second year they planted wheat from the acres broken the previous summer and received 38 bushels per acre. The sod was broken very thin at first. Then later in the summer it was plowed again, what was termed the "black set" which consisted of plowing the land an inch or two deeper than the first plowing, which resulted in turning the turf under completely. The soil then was in shape for the crop the next year.
The wheat was hauled to Grand Forks, North Dakota. There were no roads, just trials, which made the distance further, several days for the trip, which left the mother at home to care for the children and stock. She did this the second year, also, when the father, after the grain seeding, went to the Devils Lake, North Dakota area to work on the railroad until harvest time. Mail was very undependable, no communication for weeks.
The first winter the well went dry, so they had to melt snow for the stock. There were two coal barrels in the cabin and they were kept full of water from the snow. They heated the water for the cow. The next spring they dug a deeper well.
Little except bare necessities were purchased. They lived on what they raised on the farm, and walked for supplies to the little store of Nash, six miles east of the farm. Mrs. Walstad was an excellent seamstress and sewed all the clothes for the family. She carded the wool they brought from Wisconsin. On her spinning wheel, she spun the yarn, dyed it and knit all the mittens, sweaters, stockings and caps they needed. Three more children were born in Walsh County -- Melvin, Helmer and Lydia.
Mrs. Walstad was a very ambitious woman and worked in the fields when the boys were too small to help. She died of a heart attack June, 1897 at the age of 50. The family was at a young peoples church program and death came to her as her 10 year old daughter, Lydia, was singing a solo, "There are Riches in Heaven for God's Children". Their oldest daughter Elise had died from pneumonia the previous December during a four day blizzard.
As the sons grew to manhood, they owned a threshing machine and did custom threshing. Later they left the community and established homes elsewhere. Their children were Iver, 1869-1942, Bowbells; Elise, 1870-1896, Hoople; John 1873-1960, San Diego, California; Emanuel, 1875-1958, Black Earth, Wisconsin; Gustav, 1877-1965, Park River; Amanda (Mrs. Josheph Lockrem), 1879-1944, billings Montana; Helmer, 1882-1950, disabled, bedridden, World War I veteran for 32 years, St. Paul, Minnesota; Melvin, 1884-1970, Lansford; Lydia (Mrs. Axel Schibsby), 1887-1926, San Diego, California.
After the death of his first wife in 1897, Grandpa Gunerius married Laura Larson, July 1899. She was born in Norway, March 10, 1875. At the age of eight years, she immigrated to the United States with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Larson, who homesteaded on the farm two miles south of Hoople, which is at present owned by Clarence Fagerholt.
The Walstad's home and most of their possessions burned in November, 1912 and a new house was built the following summer.
Four children were born -- Morral (Mrs. Hutton Young), 1902-1977, St. Paul, Minnesota; Oscar, 1903-1961, married to Joann Midgarden; victor, 1906-1984, married to Sigrud Magnuson, Drayton; Olaf, 1909-1963, married to Glayds Forse, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Alice Lockrem remembers the grandpa Gunerius used to have race horses which were pacers hitched to a sulky. He took Alice with him once when exercising his horse and she said she never went again as she was scared to death. There wasn't much room to sit beside him and nothing underneath, and she thought that horse ran too fast so she hung on so tight that her arms hurt.
Grandpa Gunerius and Grandma laura sold their farm to their son, Oscar, in 1928, and retired to Hoople. Grandpa died in 1930 at the age of 88.
Joann and Oscar and family lived on the home farm and it was always open to everyone of the Walstad clan. Now a new generation of the Walstad's live on the farm, Laurie and her husband Dick Larson and their two children. Laurie is the daughter of Gierge and Yvonne Walstad. There also was a school nearby called the Walstad School. I remember going there with the rest of my brothers and sisters one summer for a week for bible School which was held there instead of the Zion Lutheran Church.
Grandma Laura, in spite of forty years of suffering from arthritis, had an abundance of ambition and was a woman of many talents. She spent the last nine years of her life at the Oscar Walstad home as a bedridden patient, crippled from arthritis. She died in 1964 at the age of 89.
While living in the community, all the Walstads have been members of Zion Lutheran Church, rural Hoople.
The Walstad name went through many changes, the records showing the following: Vallastadum 1374; Wallestad, Wallasted 1499; Walestadt 1557; Vallestadt 1578; Wallestadt 1594; Waldstad 1666; Walstad 1723.
In Norway, the naming process is a staunch tradition. The oldest son is named after the paternal grandfather. The younger sons were given a first name chosen by the parents, the second name came from the father's first name, plus the suffix son. This way, brothers could have two different names. Grandpa Walstad was Gunerius Erikson of Mykjedal and he must of farmed briefly on the neighboring Walstad farm. His ancestors were probably from this Walstad farm as his mother's maiden name was Elizebeth Paulsdatter Walstad, and he later took her maiden name as his last name in America. The Place where our grandparents were born in Ness, Romerike, is a farming area about 35 miles northeast of Oslo. It is much like Blue Mounds -- high up, with blue mountains in the background, large farms and huge homes with the Vorma and Glomma rivers below.
Wayne Iverson was in Norway and saw this land. He also saw the place where our grandmother Kristine was born (house was gone). It is a beautiful area, and they must of missed it when they came to America. He saw the lovely white church where all were baptized. It was surrounded by a flower bedecked cemetery overlooking a deep fir-covered valley, and the older cemetery where our ancestors were buried. Everything was so well kept and the people were so gracious. He met one relative, a charming white haired man in his 70's who looked like grandpa Julius Iverson (which was Kristine Walstad's brother). All in all he said it was a most thrilling experience to walk on the land where our ancestors had lived for hundreds of years -- especially since the country was so absolutely gorgeous.
They homesteaded on a quarter of land and bought the adjoining quarter one mile south of Hoople. Here they built a log cabin, planted a grove, and farmed until 1916 when they rented their land to the Fagerholt brothers and retired to Hoople. A daughter, Mrs. Laura Walstad, sole heir, sold the land to Clarence Fagerholt in 1928, where his widow still resides.
Four children were born to the Larsons: Ole, 1872-1894, unmarried, age 22; Laura (Mrs. Gunerius Walstad), 1875-1964; Olava (Mrs. Kjolmer Schoyen), 1884-1914. no children; and Matthilde, 1884-1884.
They had four grandchildren, Morral, Oscar, Victor and Olaf Walstad. Their only other relatives were Mrs. Arnold Paulson and Mrs. Knut Aaland, Hoople; Peter and John Larson, grafton; Mrs. Louise Nygard and Miss Lena Larson, Grand Forks. All are nieces and nephews of Mr. Larson.
Mr. and Mrs. Larson were charter members of Zion Lutheran Church, rural Hoople. They and their children are buried in Zion cemetery.
This was taken from the Walsh County Heritage Book and written by Mrs. Oscar (Joann) Walstad.
I have been unable to find where in Norway Grandma Laura was from, so I was unable to do any research on her family.
Recent information reveals that Martin Larson, Laura Larson Walstad's father probably came from the same part of Norway as his relative. Peter Larson who came from Frederickstad, Norway.