Off to Idaho

The US Army didn't take Far in the first World War because he was beyond the age. He decided that he would go to Idaho and farm and help the war that way. When his brother Paul heard that, he wanted to go with us. Up to that time Far and Paul had been in the building business together and had built some nice homes on the East Bench between 13th and 15th East and also a high school addition in Garfield. There wasn't much going on in the building business at this time, so Paul said he wanted to go with us to Idaho.

 Mor, Bergliot, and Finn

We went up and rented an 80-acre farm in Springfield, Idaho, 25 miles west of Blackfoot. After we got there, they got a contract building a home for the store keeper, Mr. Blackburn, so they had a little building business beside farming. The next year Far also built the Mormon meeting house in Springfield.

Paul stayed with us that summer, and then in the fall he came back to Salt Lake and went back into the contracting business. We stayed in Idaho two years. Bergliot was born the first fall, September 17, 1917, and Finn was born two years later on September 13, 1919. In December of that year we decided to return to Salt Lake. We stayed with the family of Christian Johannessen (the father of the world famous pianist Grant Johannessen), on Harrison Avenue until we found a house. They seemed to be glad to have us. Mrs. Johannessen was right down in bed and needed someone to help out. She had two little children, Harold and Helen. We stayed two weeks until we found a house at 1441 Redondo Avenue.

Paul built us a big double garage. It was a nice home and we were really happy there. We stayed there until the following September when we decided to sell and go back to Idaho. Far was in the real estate business, and business at that time was poor. He just drove around with people who wanted a free ride. He decided to go back to Idaho and start in the insurance business. So we sold our home and drove to Lava Side, Idaho, where we stayed with Far's sister, Ingrid, and her husband, Simon Christiansen, and their six children. They lived in a house with a kitchen and one big room. They said, "Why don't you build a home here on our farm. Then we'll buy it later if you want to sell." So, we built a five room home on his farm, living with them and their six children in the meantime. It was really a nice home. Far was in the insurance business.

In December 1921 Simon and Ingrid lost their six year old son, Berger, who was in the first grade, and a week later their baby, Elsie, died. Children who had been well just went like that. Simon felt he couldn't stay there any longer. He wanted to get away. But they did stay another year before moving. Our Abel was born December 8, 1922, and their girl, Esther, was born January 10, 1923.

I'll have to tell this ... it was really comical. After they found out that we were both pregnant, Simon said "Well, I'm going to go in and see the doctor now and see if I can get a good price from him, two for one if possible, when he comes out to deliver the babies." So he went in and said, "We have two babies that are going to be born at the same time. What is your best price for them?" The doctor said, "How do you know that they are going to be born at the same time?" He said, "Oh the women know, they're the ones that know." The doctor said, "Well, are you the father of both of them?" Simon said, "Oh, no, I'm not the father of both -- me and Abel Paulsen." The doctor said, "Well, if you're not the father of both then you don't know and neither do the women. But, I'll do the two for $50.00." Simon said, "Well, you'll just have to make one trip." The doctor said, "No, I'll expect I will have to make two trips." Talk about crazy ... well, you do things differently at different times, don't you? It all depends on how you are situated.

In the meantime Simon had given up the land. Abel paid the taxes on the farm for two years and hoped that we could sell the farm and get something out of it. But, it turned out that we couldn't, and so it went back to the banker, the new house and everything. We decided to leave with Simon in February, 1923.

It was towards evening in February when we left. It was storming terribly. Ingrid's baby Esther was less than four weeks old. Simon took the older children and some of the things we needed in the sleigh and drove to Erling's (Far's brother) farm in Moreland, Idaho. The rest of us drove with Far in the car. We were going to stay there over night and take the train the next morning to Salt Lake. Ingrid and her two youngest were with us in the car. The blizzard was so terrible toward the end of the trip that we couldn't see the road. So, Ingrid got out and walked to point the way. She told me I had better stay in the car with the babies. "I think I can take it better than you." When we arrived at Moreland and were on the road close to Erling's farm, his son, Roald, was waiting for us on horseback at the turn-off, which we would have missed without his being there to meet us. Roald always had a premonition of things that were going to happen. He told his folks that he knew that someone was coming that night and that he better go down to the road to meet them or maybe they wouldn't find the way. I doubt if we would have found it without his direction.

We left the next day for Salt Lake. We rented a home on Yale Avenue and 11th East and the Christiansens rented a home on 3rd East and 21st South. We lived on Yale Avenue until the middle of December, 1924, and then bought the home we're living in now at 1483 Hollywood Avenue. Abel had a new job traveling for the Everwear Company selling overalls and coveralls. Carl was born March 14, 1925, in our new home.

Two years later, in I927, Erling quit farming in Moreland and rented land on the Indian Reservation at Fort Hall, about four miles from Blackfoot, Idaho. He wanted Abel to take over his farm at Moreland and raise alfalfa seed. "It would just be summer work because the seed was already in the ground. It would just be a matter of watering it and then harvesting it in the fall. So we went up to Idaho again. Erling still lived in his home in Moreland and worked the new land on the reservation. We rented a home about a mile away. That summer everything looked great. Finn was only eight years old and he cut 60 acres of alfalfa with two big horses pulling the mower. It really looked like we were going to have a big harvest. But Erling was one who wanted to get things done in a hurry. He could hardly wait until it was time to harvest it. He told Abel that he thought he should cut the seed. Abel thought he should wait a little longer. But Erling said, "Well, you may get a frost and then you haven't got anything." So Abel decided to go ahead and cut it. They had a pretty good harvest but only about one half what they thought they would have. Those that waited about a week or 10 days had twice as much. But anyway, we made $2600, which enabled us to pay off our debt for remodeling our home on Hollywood Avenue. Far started again in the fall selling for Everwear.

The next year we rented Erling's Moreland farm again and lived in his home as he had moved into a new home which he had built on the reservation. That is when Kristine was born on the 5th of July. On the 3rd of July a neighbor lady came over and asked if she could go swimming in the canal. I said, "Sure." I used to go frequently with the children swimming in the canal. On the way we stopped at another neighbor's to see if she would like to go with us. She said, "Oh, no, I can't go." I asked her why not, and she said, "I'm expecting a baby." I said, "Oh you are? When are you expecting?" She said, "In November." I said, "Good night, this is only July. You've got plenty of time; come and go with us." She said, "No, I wouldn't think of it." So, of course, she didn't go. I was able to use my same green bathing suit. This other woman never had a bathing suit. She was half or quarter Indian. She had a big house dress she wore. She didn't know how to swim, but she used an inner tube to float on. When she laid on this tube, her dress would blow up in the air and she looked like a great big balloon. When I got home that night, I started with labor pains. I can't remember why, but all our linen, sheets, etc. were over at the laundry. I usually washed them myself, but for some reason they had been taken to the laundry. Abel was to have picked them up on his way home from the reservation. He had also rented some land on the reservation to farm. When he got home he had forgotten to pick up the laundry. I said, "I don't know what we're going to do. I'll need more laundry." Anyway the labor pains stopped and I went to sleep.

Erline came the next morning and got the three older children to take with his family to celebrate the 4th of July over on the reservation with the Indians. I kept Carl home with me while I cleaned the house. Then we went over to the reservation later in the day. The Indians were dancing and the dust was flying. We were there for only about half an hour, and I said, "Oh, I think we ought to go home." Erling's wife Mary said, "We'll go home to my place and have some ice cream." They had made a big freezer of ice cream. So we went there and had ice cream and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Then I told her I thought we had better be leaving as I was starting in with pains again. On the way into Blackfoot, which was on the way home to Moreland, we stopped at the doctor's and told him not to be surprised if he got a call in the night. He said, "Now don't you wait too long. Have you got someone there to help you?" We told him my sister-in-law was going to come over from the reservation when we needed her. He told us to go back and get the sister-in-law immediately. So that is what we did.

In the middle of the night about one o'clock, we felt like we better call the doctor. Abel had to drive about two miles to get to a neighbor's phone. When he got there just the teenage children were there with their friends having a party. Their parents had gone away over the 4th. But they let him in, and he phoned for the doctor. Abel told him how close the pains were. The doctor knew me, as he had delivered Abel. He said he didn't think there was any terrible rush but not to wait too long before he called him again. So Abel came home and then went back again at 5 a.m. and phoned for the doctor. Kristine was born about 7 a.m. She was born with a full head of hair. It went clear down to her breasts. It was black as coal and so thick you couldn't find the scalp. After she was born, Abel went in to phone Hildeborg in Salt Lake to come and stay with me. He went across the road to the neighbor woman who had been swimming with me two days before and said he had something to show her. She said, "What is it?" He said, "She has a new baby." She said, "A new baby? You don't mean she has had a baby?" He said, "Yes." She said, "Well I don't believe it. I know she hasn't." Abel said, "Well, come and see for yourself." So she came and when she got in the kitchen, although she couldn't see us in the other room, she started to scream. I suppose because she was so surprised that I had a baby when she didn't even know I was expecting. When she got in the room where I was and saw the baby, she just couldn't get over it. On Sunday several of the neighbors came to see the baby. It was so hot and humid in the house that it was almost unbearable.

We had been out earlier in the day and looked over the farm. The crop looked so good. We visualized $10,000 in seed that year. Then it started to thunder and lightning and hail. We lost the crop. It didn't even pay to have the threshers come in September. You may ask how we took it? Well, it's strange when you're young ... maybe that's it. I don't know. There was nothing we could do about it. We had done our best. That's all we could do. We knew we could live. Things never get that bad. We took it pretty good, I guess. We didn't let it bother us so that we got sick or lost any sleep over it. Of course Abel had his selling job and would go back on the road. Abel got a new job, however, as a traveling salesman for Mishawaka Rubber & Woolen Manufacturing Co. selling Ball-Band products. He stayed with them 22 years. We returned to Salt Lake in the fall and stayed until spring while Abel traveled his territory.

The next spring we went back to Idaho, this time to the Indian reservation where Abel had removed all the sage brush the summer before, plowed the ground, and planted alfalfa seed. Erling had built a little one room house for us during the winter, and we were quite comfortable there. It was a pleasant while home with windows on all sides. Our one room home was furnished with a stove, two tables and chairs, a sofa that pulled out into a bed, a double bed and a crib. We used orange crates covered with oil-cloth for cupboards. We also had an ice box. Finn and his cousin, Walter Christiansen who worked for us that summer, slept in a tent pitched at the side of the house. It looked like we were going to have a real good crop of seed. I think the price was about 50¢ a pound, which was a good price. Shortly before we were to start harvesting, we had a severe night frost that killed most of the seed. We went away with very little to show for our summers work. Erling bought our little house and used it as a granary on the next farm that he bought at Wapella, Idaho. That was the end of our farming permanently. Abel liked farming better than any work, except commercial fishing which he had done one winter in Norway when he was about 18.