Henriette Oline Karlson

Inga Marie says - Henrietta was always up to doing tricks.

One day my Grandfather's sister Else Marie came to visit, and brought her children with her. The ladies wanted to talk, so Grandma told Henriette to take all the children to play in the attic. Grandpa often built coffins in the attic, since the graveyard was so close by. One coffin was not finished yet, and to the other children it felt kind of spooky seeing the coffin there.

Henriette said - Now we are going to play funeral. Of course no one wanted to be the dead one. The oldest of the visitors was a boy named Edvard, and he was to be the minister. The girls were to sing a song. Iver and Johan were used to these games. Then Henriette said - I will be the dead one. She fixed a pillow of shavings, slipped in and laid down, closed her eyes, and folded her hands.

The minister could not speak, the girls who were to sing were almost in tears. When not a sound came from anyone, Henriette sat up quickly, and nearly scared the wits out of all of them

One night Henriette got some of Grandpa's smoking tobacco. One of the boys Grandpa hired to work with the fish, was stretched out on a bench and snoring. She rolled the tobacco in her hands until it was a fine powder, put it on a piece of paper, and held it under his nose.

Henriette married Conrad Carlson, and they moved to the United States. Conrad was a fisherman, and they lived on a houseboat on the Columbia River. One time during a storm, spring flood waters came. The houseboat got loose, and Henriette was home alone and started to drift down the river. She was scared and nervous, and had nothing to use to get close to the shore. She got a sheet from the bed, picked up what she knew she would have need for later, got dressed up, and went out and watched for a chance to get close enough to the shore to jump. Finally it got against a log, and stayed there until help could come.

Henriette and Conrad did not have any children. Inga and Tom took their family to vist them when their seventh child, Bernice, was just a baby. Tom and the six girls were sleeping in a row on the floor. Henriette had an old clock that struck every hour. It went on a rampage, and struck 40 some times. No one slept after that.

Henriette and Konrad are buried at the Fernhill Cemetery in Skamokawa Washington.

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/231/64 Berg og Torsken prestegjeld, fødte og døpte 1865

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/6719/168 Berg og Torsken prestegjeld, viede 1891