Anton Johnsen Paulsrud

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=57484559

1888 to America (Crookston, Minnesota).

1887 (29 April) Anton J. Paulsrud (22yrs Øier) left Oslo for Ada, Minnesota on the ship "Rollo".

1907 Norway to Minnesota.

Anton Paulsrud and Mathea Hanstad were both born in Gudbransdal, Norway. He was born at Tretten on November 14. 1864 and she in Ringebu on December 20, 1879. Their early education consisted of attending local schools only every other day as the school was crowded and the teacher taught only half of the grades every day. Because Anton was the oldest son in a family of eight children, he was the natural heir of the home farm. However, he realized at an early age that it would be impossible for that large family to make even a mediocre living from the small farm of less than twenty tillable acres.

As he already had a brother and a cousin in the United States, he decided at the age of 20 to go to the United States also. The first part of the trip to Lillehammer was made by horse-drawn carriage. From there he went by train to Oslo and by boat to England. After crossing England by train he left from Liverpool by ship and landed in Canada. His destination was Nielsville, Minnesota, but as there was no railroad there he went to Ada, Minnesota. From there it was a two days walk to Nielsville, where his cousin, Nels Paulsrud, gave him a job on his farm.

Nels had been elected sheriff of Polk county a short time before this and eventually Nielsville was named after him. Anton worked for Nels several years and then decided to try his luck out West. He helped build a railroad in Washington and worked in the harvest fields in the Sacramento Valley of California. Later he started working east again, helping in the harvest fields of North Dakota and coming back to Minnesota, where he continued to work in the United States for eight years.

He then decided to return to Norway. There he met Mathea Hanstad and they were married. With the money he had saved in the United States he bought the farm, Jahr. Within ten years Anton and Mathea had eight sons. Again Anton had to make the decision that his small farm held no future for his eight sons. Again Anton sold Jahr and he came to America. Their first plans had been to settle in Canada, but ties in Minnesota drew them back to Nielsville, where Anton bought a farm of 140 acres on the Red River for $5000. One of the sons, Gunnar, is still living on the home farm. The oldest son, John sold his farm in North Dakota and retired in Lillehamer, Norway. Two sons, Arne and Sigrud, are deceased. Three sons, Magnes, Asmund and Ivar live in California and the youngest son, Ottar, lives in Nielsville. Anton lived to be 95 and Mathea lived to be 88 years old. [http://umclibrary.crk.umn.edu/digitalprojects/polk/PolkFinalSm%2016...]

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