Hans Dalager: A Brief History by his granddaughter

The following essay was written by Lavinia (Dalager ) Martinson Larson in 1942 for a college course. Lavinia is the daughter of Herman Dalager from the second family (younger brother of Karl).  She is therefore the granddaughter of Hans. The essay was found in the archives of Lavinia’s aunt, Lavilla (Dalager) Peterson, Herman’s younger sister.

When Hans came to his homestead he built a log house, a stable and cleared and broke up some land. He left the place in care of someone and went to work in Goodhue county. While he was gone a prairie fire broke out and burned the buildings and 2 mules. He became real discouraged and went to a lumber camp near St. Cloud to work. But when spring came he came back to the homestead and started over again. He had speedy oxen and neighbors helped each other with work. Mosquitoes were real bad at times but tired people slept anyway.

The first two years he was here the nearest town was St. Cloud. Some times this trip was made by foot or with oxen to get supplies. Going to town meant a trip of 4 or 5 days. One time on their way home it began to rain. They turned the wagon box up-side-down and sat under it until the rain stopped.

About 1870 Benson was established so that was closer and it was easier to haul grain to this railroad.

Hans bought horses as soon as they were available. He was one of the first farmers to have a barn with a hay mow. It was said people came for miles to see this. In 1888 he bought a team of horses in Goodhue County and went to get them. On the way back they became frightened and ran away. This happened near Willmar. The wagon tipped over and Hans broke his leg. It was never set right. As a result, this leg was shorter and had a bump on it. He had to have a built up heal on his shoe but he still walked with a limp.

Hans liked to sing when he drove along. The neighbors said they could hear him singing, mostly hymns.

He built an elegant brick house on the homestead place in about 1899.

Hans Dalager was always a hard worker and by persistent effort he forced his way ahead until he became what was considered the richest farmer in the county. At the time of his death he owned nearly 2 sections of land. He was married in 1871. Sixteen years later his wife passed away and 2 years later he married again. He had 6 children by his first marriage and 10 children by his second marriage.

Brita (Betsy) Dalager: Life and Times

The following was written by my aunt, Lavilla (Dalager) Peterson, in 1958 after a long awaited family reunion between the Glenwood, Minnesota and Webster, South Dakota branches. My Grandfather Hans’ family was separated from his sister Brita’s family in the late 1800s when tragedy struck Brita, and she moved with her children and my Great Grandmother Guri to Webster, where she would raise her family alone with little connection to Hans and his family until this reunion.

Today is the day to begin writing about our ancestors. It is the day following the 17th annual picnic, that the families of Hans, Nels, and Brita have had. It was in 1958 that Herman and Alma Dalager were invited to come to Webster, South Dakota to take part in their reunion. My brother Herman and his wife Alma in turn invited us and so after nearly 50 years of little communication the two families were brought together. Bertha’s son Andrew was there, his nephew McCarlson was there, their wives and many of their children and grand children.

You never heard such talking before. There were so many things to ask about, to marvel at and to tie together with long past events. I think by night fall we were all horse in voice and happy in spirit to think we had been united as kin.

We met and talked to my cousin (Guri) Julia Chilson, Brita’s daughter, and her children. She lived in Webster and her husband had run the Elevator Store which is still in Webster. It is still run by Herman and his sons. The Chilson family have records of their families so I do not have to go into that.

How did Brita happen to drift from Minnesota to South Dakota? She was living in Glenwood township, close to road 18 and joining Gerhard Swenson’s farm when there was an accident in their family. Her husband, Sjobakken, died mysteriously (hanging). Brita was grief stricken and determined to look for a homestead where there was room and a place for her and her five children. She decided to take her maiden name for herself and her children.

Now we must go back to see if we can get her mother into the picture. Guri Dalager had arrived from Norway bringing a small girl with her. I gather that Guri’s husband, Solfest, had passed away so she came to join Nils, Hans and Brita.

Brita and her mother Guri with the child from Norway started out in a covered wagon drawn by oxen traveling cross country. They set up on a piece of land in Day County, South Dakota. Her arrival in Webster was by covered wagon driven by oxen, Mike & Star, with all personal belongings, 5 children, Guri, her mother, and Kristie, a niece.

The first house built there is still standing and used as a granary. It was the first frame house built and it is now owned by John A. Dalager, a great grandson of Brita’s and the son of Albin Dalager.

When they arrived, they had 3 cows which they milked 3 times a day, trading milk for meat and potatoes from the Indians along the way. Jens Vinedahl was a cousin of Betsy’s who worked as a hired hand for her and also for the John McCarlsons and Andrew Dalagers. He almost lost his life in the 1888 blizzard that struck so suddenly while he was doing chores at Betsy’s.

A rocker was found there on our first visit to this location. I asked for the back piece of the chair and have it here. There is some carving on it.

Betsy lived in a wheel chair for her final 35 years, died at the home of her daughter, Julia Chilson in Webster March 31, 1921. Although severely handicapped, she often instructed confirmation classes and Bible school in place of the pastor.

Note: There is a plaque in Brita’s memory in Webster, South Dakota, commemorating her survival of a great prairie fire. To survive the fire, Brita hid down in a well for an extended period. Sadly, though she survived, her legs were paralyzed for the remainder of her life. Guri (Hans and Brita’s mother) passed away in the fire. Much later, the relatives decided to buy a marker for Guri’s unmarked grave under the lilac bushes on the original homestead near Webster.

Karl and Ida: The Fire

In May of 1928, tragedy struck the home of Karl and Ida.

St. Hilaire Spectator

 

Mar 15, 1928 K.T. Dalager & family were visitors Sunday at the E.H. Stephen’s home.

 

CHILDREN MEET DEATH WHEN FARM HOME BURNS

 

May 17, 1928 Trapped in their bedroom on second floor of the home, the two small daughters of Mr. and Mrs. K.T. Dalager, Katherine, age 5 and Adelaide, age 9, perished in a fire which completely destroyed the Dalager farm home five miles southeast of here shortly after midnight last Thursday, May 12th.

 

The parents were aroused about midnight by noise from downstairs and upon investigation found the incubator and wall behind it ablaze. After calling the children, the parents made an attempt to extinguish the blaze that seemingly had not gained much headway by that time. It is believed gas must have generated from the heated incubator lamp as the whole room suddenly burst into flame, driving the parents out and cutting off escape by the stairway for the children. The two boys, Horace and Vincent, managed to break a window and jumped to the ground clad only in their night clothing. Mr. Dalager made a heroic attempt to reach his daughters but was driven back by the flames that completely enveloped the interior of the house by that time.

 

Help was summoned from the Walseth house nearby and a general alarm was sounded on the farm telephone line. Help was soon at hand but too late to be of any assistance in rescuing the children or saving any of the contents of the house that burned to the ground. Position of the remains of the children found after the fire would indicate that neither had awakened and it is likely they smothered before the fire reached them.

 

Rev. M.L. Dahle assisted by Rev. Lerohl of Oklee at the Norwegian Lutheran Church here Saturday afternoon conducted funeral services for the little girls. Internment was made in the cemetery east of the village.

 

The heartfelt sympathy of the community is extended to Mr. and Mrs. Dalager in the sad loss of their little ones and their home under such heartrending circumstances.

 

Pastor Lerohl was from the Glenwood, Minn area and had officiated at Karl and Ida’s wedding. Because Oklee and St. Hilaire are not to far apart, the Lerohls visited with each other quite often.

May 17, 1928 Mr. & Mrs. J.O. Grove of Glenwood, Mrs. K. Knutson of Willmar, relatives of K.T. Dalager, arrived here Friday being called by the holocaust that occurred at the Dalager home Thursday morning. They all returned home Sunday, Mr. Dalager accompanying them to spend a short time with his relatives.

The Glenwood Herald

May 17, 1928

 

Mr. & Mrs. J.O. Grove of Glenwood and Mrs. Knute Knutson of Willmar left here last Thursday evening for Hazel, Minn., called there by Mr. Karl T. Dalager, brother of Mrs. Grove and Mrs. Knutson, on account of the burning the night before of Mr. Dalager’s farm residence where two of his children lost their lives.

 

The fire was noticed in the middle of the night and at that time it had reached such headway that Mr. and Mrs. Dalager and the two elder boys barely exited in their nightclothes. Some of them had to jump out through the windows. It is not known how the fire started except that it is thought that it may have come from an incubator that was running in the house at the time. The two children that lost their lives were: Adelaide nine years old and Kathryn four years old.

 

Funeral services were conducted on Saturday afternoon at St. Hilaire. Relatives from Hallock, Minnesota also attending were Mrs. John Brendal and Hazel Grove.

 

Karl and Ida took this especially hard for if they had cleared the house of people before trying to put out the fire, no one would have lost their lives.

 

At the time of the fire, Gladys Peterson remembered waiting along with her mother for her dad, Gabe, to return. He had gone over to the Dalager place when central had sent out the general call. Horace went to stay with the Gabe Petersons and Karl, Ida & Vincent went to Walseths. As a result of the fire my parents lost all their pictures. They had lost the house and Katherine and Adelaide but also their memories.

Hazel Dann was the teacher at the East-Side school during the 1927-28 school year, the year of that fire. Hazel remembered that Katherine was visiting school the day before the fire. Katherine and Adelaide were having so much fun and they did not want to go home. Hazel described the girls as being “sweet.” When school met again Hazel said she had a “sad group of children.” One of the hardest jobs she had was to clean out Adelaide’s desk.

My parents never talked about the fire, however, the cellar and foundation of the house was always there as I grew up. The pain of the event is evident, also, in the fact that Dad left the farm for a time to live with his sister in Battle Lake, and Mom’s hair turned from black to white in a year’s time.

One of the sweet memories that mother told Shirley in later years was that Katherine and Adelaide had run down to the barn to say “good night” to their dad before they went to bed on the night of the fire.

Karl and Ida: Starting Over

After the fire, August Erickson, a neighbor who had built a new house on a forty about 1/4 mile away, let the family live in his house while a new house was built. The new house was completed during the summer and fall. That fall James was born on August 23 and Horace started high school in St. Hilaire. He drove a model A Ford car to school as long as he could and stayed in town during the winter.

Vincent took his eighth grade at the St. Hilaire School starting in the fall of 1930. Horace was a junior in high school there and Karl and Ida thought it would be simpler if they both went to the same school. Horace and Vincent drove to school every day. A neighbor, Paul Jepson also rode with them. Vincent could not remember what they did on stormy days or when the roads were impassible but they most likely had to resort to horses. Horace graduated in 1932 and Vincent graduated in 1935. Shirley was born May 28, 1930.

St. Hilaire Spectator

May 16, 1929 Evelyn Peterson, Annie Walseth and Horace Dalager spent the weekend at their respective homes.

Jan 9 1930 Mr. & Mrs. K.T. Dalager & family were guests at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Hansen of Red Lake Falls, Sunday Jan 3, 1930.

Feb. 13, 1930 Mr. & Mrs. K.T. Dalager & Mrs. G B Peterson attended the PTA meeting at St. Hilaire last Friday. They reported the Declamatory Contest very good.

May 28, 1930 Karl and Ida Dalager were blessed with the birth of a daughter. This was the birth of Shirley.

July 24, 1930 Rev. & Mrs. M.L. Dahle and family were guests Monday at the K.T. Dalager home.

Oct. 30, 1930 Mr. & Mrs. Fred Erdmann, accompanied by Mrs. K.T. Dalager motored to Moorhead Sunday to spend the day with Helena Erdmann while Mrs. Dalager visited her sister-in-law Mrs. Knutson of Fargo. On their return Mrs. M.L. Dahle and Maria Erdmann who had spent the weekend in Moorhead accompanied them.