Hans Aanensen Helland

GEDCOM Note

Helland was born January 19, 1826 on a farm near Stavenger,Norway, where he grew to manhood. At an early age his time was occupied in fishing along the Norwegian coast and learning how to make fishing nets and handling small sailboats. In 1848, with many others fromNorway, he left his home country to find a new home in America. His destination was Wisconsin where the Norwegians had started settlements about ten years earlier. There was also a Norwegian settlement started in Illinois near Chicago which was called the Fox River settlements.These two settlements became the first and most important attractions to the Norwegian immigrant. Therefore, Milwaukee and Chicago became the two main gateways for the Norwegian Immigrants. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a sailboat which took from seven to nine weeks, then on a steamboat from New York to Albany. From Albany to Buffalo on a canal boat on the Erie Canal drawn by horses, then across the Great Lakes to Milwaukee. As most all the Norwegian Immigrants were looking for farm homes, Wisconsin offered the greatest opportunity for unoccupied and cheap land. He made his home in Dane County for three years where he was married to Karen Shervin. The first year he spent some time working in a brick yard for $8.00 a month. In 1851 [may not have been until 1853-54], he moved to Minnesota and located in Rice County, thirty miles southwest from Red Wing and seven miles east from Faribault. It was the very frontier settlement at that time. There were no railroads and no Minneapolis, but St. Paul was there.All transportation was done on the Mississippi River and Red Wing was their trading point for several years. The country to the west and northwest was a wilderness and mostly occupied by Indians. He bought 160 acres of land from the Government at $1.25 per acre. This place becamehis home for twenty years where most all his children were born. This country was quickly settled up mostly by Norwegians and Germans. The new settlers were coming in increased numbers, so at the Indian outbreak about 1863, the frontier settlers had reached 100 miles west and northwest. This outbreak by the Indians was especially severe around NewUlm and in Kandiyohi County, where Norwegians had made settlements.Homesteaders were driven away from their homes, men were massacred, and young girls carried away. Toward the end of the Civil War he was drafted to serve in the Army,but to go to war and leave a wife and eight children ranging in age froma few months to twelve years was a troublesome problem, so he hired asubstitute paying him $400. Before this man got to the front, the warwas over. His first great sorrow and loss was the death of his wife,Karen, the mother of his eight children, the youngest less than a year old. She died in the fall of 1863, caused by burns from a lamp exploding in being too close to the stove while filling it. Her clothes caught fire and she tried to reach a spring a few rods from the house. The young girls tried to help her but she collapsed before reaching the spring. She lived only a few days and her suffering was extreme. Her husband was over to a neighbor close by at the time. In 1864, he married Mrs. Breta Grindy, a widow with five children, living on her own farm close to his place. To this union was born seven children, two boys and five girls. In 1870 he sold his own place and the following year together with six of his oldest children moved to GrantCounty near Hoffman, Minnesota. His wife and four children remained in Rice county another year coming to Morris by train. This too was a pioneer settlement, the very earliest settlers had located there about four years previous. The same year a railroad was built to Morris and some distance farther west. Before that their trading point was St.Cloud and Benson. The journey from Rice County to near Hoffman was made overland in covered wagons and driving their cattle and sheep along the road. There were also some friends along in the same company. In 1873 he made his home for eleven years and where his two youngest children were born. In1884 on account of his wife's failing health, he rented out his homesteadand moved on to a place one and one half miles southwest which he owned as a tree claim. In the fall of 1885 his wife died of dropsy having been in poor health about two years. He was left with a family of children,the youngest being eight years old. In the winter of 1887 he married Mrs. Uni Benson, a widow who owned a farm in Elk Lake Township. She was one of the first settlers in that township. She had five children all grown. Her husband died in 1872. In the summer of 1888 he sold his Tree claim and moved onto his wife's place in Elk Lake Township and built a large farm house. He continued to live on this farm up to the fall of 1903 when he moved to Hoffman having bought a lot and built a house which was his home to the end of his life. In the fall of 1913 at the age of 87 he passed away from this life at his home in the presence of several of his children. He had been ill for some months and the last few weeks he was too weak to leave his bed. Besides his wife, eleven children survived tomourn his loss. Hans Helland was buried in Elk Lake Township Cemetery, Grant, MN.