Book Description

Minnesota Pioneers 1871 is the third book chronicling a small group of Norwegian immigrants to America in 1861 and their remarkable lives as settlers, soldiers and pioneers on the American Frontier. The story is based on a manuscript by Mathilde Berg Grevstad, daughter of Ole Iver Berg, a central figure in the founding of the village of Lake Park. It is a first hand account about the trip from Fillmore County to Becker County and the everyday life of pioneers who were the first to set foot on unsettled land in the American Midwest. Ole Iver was a close friend of the Hansen brothers, Hans and Olaus. While Olaus after the Civil War became a soldier in George Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry, Ole Iver and Hans - another veteran from the war - kept close ties and in 1871 migrated to Becker. Hans became the first blacksmith in town. Through Mathilde's story and new research the book tells us about the harsh conditions the settlers met in the unbroken wilderness - a vast country of mosquito filled marshes, snow storms, hail storms, massive, destructive swarms of grasshoppers, fleas, lice, bedbugs, blackbirds - and Indians. However, through undaunted courage and persistence the pioneers carved out a niche on the Frontier by utilizing Minnesota's abundant wildlife and productive soil - and the Northern Pacific Railroad - creating a community with social, political and religious life which exists to this day. Also watch out for the two previous books: "From the Hornets' Nest to Custer's Last Stand" and "Suicide by Army Life".