Tenus ( Thinus) Børglum / Borglum ( Larsen)

TRANSCRIPT OF TAPED INTERVIEW WITH TENUS BORGLUM And CARSTEN BORGLUM IN FERN PARK FLORIDA, MARCH 1974

Tenus was born on October 28, 1891 in the town of Kongaslo, near Baelum, Denmark, where his wife Gerda Jensen was born on November 22, 1891. Gerda died on February 23, 1974. Tenus died on March 30, 1982.

At age 19, on May 18,1911, Tenus took a ship across the Atlantic, arriving in New York City on June 1. He took a train to Chicago where he changed to a train to take him to Austin, Minnesota and then to Delavan, Minnesota where his brothers, John, Jim and Dick were already farming. Tenus found work with a farmer named Pete Larsen for 3 months that summer. Then John and Jim rented a farm and Tenus worked for them. He went to night school in January and February, 1912 to learn English. He picked corn in the fall, and then in the Spring went to work for his brothers John and Jim, who paid him $400 for the year and room and board. They milked 25 cows by hand and fed buttermilk from the creamery to 200 hogs.

Gerda Jensen came to the United States in 1914 with Tenus’ cousin. She looked for work in Chicago, but found none .She too went to Delevan, where she became a housekeeper for John. Tenus and Gerda were married in the Fall of 1914. John went to Denmark to get his wife-to-be, who then declined. He was fortunate enough to find another girl. Tenus and Gerda rented a farm for nine years. Knud, Greger, and Ardis were born there. Carsten was born on the Warmke farm, south of Easton, Minnesota on March 3,1924. Easton was only 20 miles from the Iowa border. Prohibition was in effect, and Minnesotans sold a lot of homebrew to the Iowans.

Tenus and Gerda sold the dairy and machinery. In 1928, cows sold for $135 to$160 each. They went cheap. This was the beginning of the Depression with many farm auctions. Although the animals and equipment sold, they went cheaply. The farmers sold their milk to a creamery. Tenus helped in that creamery sometimes in the winter. Tenus forgot to weigh a farmer’s milk one day and got into a big argument about it. It impressed him enough so he remembered it for 70 years! The family rented an apartment in Albert Lea for a few months. They had a big box that was made for all their worldly belongings and had it sent to Syracuse, New York. It was held until after their trip to Denmark in May 1928.They returned in August in time for school in Penn Yan, New York.. The trip to Denmark for a family of 6 cost $2500. They rented a house on North Avenue in Penn Yan, and bought furniture at auctions. Tenus worked for a farmer named Ledgerwood and a farmer named Bishop. He then rented the Rogers farm in the Fall of 1928 for 2 years. He rented the Kipp farm in 1930 and bought it in 1934.

In the winter of 1933, Knud, Greger, Ardis ,and Carsten had scarlet fever and mumps, one right after the other. Therefore, they were quarantined and couldn’t sell any milk. For 3 months. The family made a 30 gallon crock of butter that winter.