THE SETTLEMENTS ON TURKEY CREEK, AND CLAY CREEK, '70-71
The settlement in Turkey Creek was made in 1870. A man by the name of
John Hovde, who had homesteaded in Union county some years previously,
made a trip back to Norway and on his return the following people came
over with him: Anfin Utheim and wife; Olaf Stolen; Haakon Hoxeng with
his two sons, already referred to, and one daughter; Stingrim Hinseth
with wife and one baby daughter, Mary; Halvor Hinseth; Ingebright
Fagerhaug; and Marit Nysether, who later became his wife, and a number
of other men and women who went to other parts of the country.
These people reached Sioux City May 18, 1870. There some of the men of
the company found work on the railroad. The others, including S. and
H. Hinseth and Miss Nysether, journeyed on by ox team toward their
friends already described as settled on the South Prairie, i.e., north
of the present Volin. Their baggage went by steam boat to Yankton. Mr.
and Mrs. S. Hinseth, who had a little six-year-old baby daughter, went
by stage as far as Vermilion and there transferred to the ox team, the
stage going on to Yankton.
We will here quote from a brief narrative which Mr. S. Hinseth, at our
request, prepared for this record just before his death (1918). As Mr.
Hinseth was one of the outstanding leaders in this immigration
movement and in the building up of the new country, both materially
and spiritually, we are very fortunate in getting these memoranda
directly from him. We regret that he was cut off before he could
finish them.
"We reached our destination in Yankton county on a Sunday. That day
there was church service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. O. Bjerke,
conducted by pastor Nesse of Brule, Union county.
"There was no possibility of getting work in the neighborhood, so a
number of us went up to Fort Randall, where we obtained work cutting
cord wood for steamboat use. We remained there until fall, when Halvor
Hinseth and myself homesteaded in Turkey Valley township and were the
first to settle there.
"We lived in Iver Furuness' house that winter, and in the spring of
1871 we moved to the place belonging to Christian Marendahl, whose
field we rented that season. That fall we moved onto our own
homesteads on Turkey Creek.
"Life was often dreary for us in those first years, for neighbors were
few and far apart. However, we had occasional visits from Rev. Elling
Eielsen, whom we knew from the time he visited our part of the country
in Norway, and we were very glad of those visits. We also had pastoral
visits from Gunder Graven, whom we later called, and who served us for
many years during our pioneer days. Throndhjem's congregation became
organized, I believe, in 1871. We belonged accordingly to the
Evangelical Lutheran Synod, or, as it was also called, Eielsen's
Synod, and still later became known as Hauge's Synod. This in turn
became merged, in 1917, in the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America.
"In 1877, I believe, Throndhjem's congregation became divided into
what are now Zion's and Throndhjem's. This latter, in distinction from
the northern congregation, which kept the name Throndhjem, at first
took the name Throndhjem's Free Congregation and later Zion's.
"This division arose from a disagreement as to the site for the
proposed church building. The site at first chosen was on Peder
Engen's farm, or practically where the Zion's church building now
stands. This seemed too far south for those living in the northern
part of the original parish, so they formed the present organization
of Throndhjem's and built on the present site in the early '80's.
"In 1901 a terrible storm swept over the whole state, and in this
storm, in common with many others, these congregations lost their
church buildings. Also the buildings of Meldahl's and Salem's, which
congregations were organized considerably later than the above, were
destroyed. This was a great loss. However, under the energetic
leadership of Rev. C. Olberg, then pastor of all four congregations
above named as also of Salem's, the people rallied with splendid
loyalty and sacrifice so that soon the buildings were not only rebuilt
but in a more modern and substantial form than the structures
destroyed."
Mr. Henseth also tells of the makeshifts for stables and granaries in
those first years. As lumber could not be afforded they would make a
grain storage by laying a square of rails after the fashion of a rail
fence, then they would line this with hay or straw to fill in the
large spaces between the rails and put the grain inside.
Stables were made from a little frame work of rails, for roof at
least, and this was covered with hay or straw. The walls were usually
the same materials and were eaten up during the winter as a general
occurrence and had to be restored in the fall.
We have heard Halvor Hinseth and other pioneers in these settlements
tell of their experiences in going to mill in the first ten years or
more. As the grasshoppers destroyed most of the small grain in '74 and
'76 the settlers had barely enough for flour and a little seed. The
nearest mill was three miles south of St. Helena, Nebraska. As this
was south of the present Gayville they would either have to go by
Yankton to cross the river or else cross on the ice in the winter. Mr.
H. Hinseth relates one trip, vivid in his memory, when they with their
loads got into deep snow out on the bottom; got lost in the brush
south of Gayville; were refused shelter when they at last found a
light from a cabin in the brush; how their horses gave out and the
sleds broke down and the men themselves were about used up. Sometimes
they would be overtaken by a snowstorm on their trip and be snowed in
for several days, so these mill trips would often take a week's time
and more toil and hardship than we can describe. But they managed to
get back sometime and with flour for the family.