Family

As you have probably gathered, my family is from Faribault, Minnesota and for most of my life, we lived on a farm. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to put here and have decided to do two things:

Tell you about our ancestry

Share some family photos and childhood memories.

Dad was born on a farm near Faribault in about 1910. His father, Anton Oppegaard was Norwegian and his mother, Alberbtina Oppegaard (Wegener) was German. Both of Dad's parents died at a young age. His mother was only 42 when she passed away from Dropsy and overwork. His father was about 48 when he contracted Gangrene and died. I never knew either of them. The family attended the Trinity Lutheran (German Lutheran) church in Faribault.

The early history of the Oppegard (then spelled Oppegaard) family can be traced back to February 7, 1482 at Gulsvik in Flaa in Hollingdal. The first to America was Erik Nubson Oppegaard who was married to Guri Garhammer and settled either in Wisconsin or southeast Minnesota. They had about 8 children, one of whom was Kristian. Kristian married Randine Kolbjornarud and one of their children was my grandfather, Anton. Sometime during his youth my Dad dropped the extra "a" in Oppegard, claiming it was a waste of time!

Dad use to talk a lot about his grandparents on his mother's side. William and Tina Wegener had a farm near Faribault. His grandmother, according to Dad, could "drive a team of horses better than most men". His grandfather mostly hunted and trapped and his grandmother did whatever farming was to be done. Apparently the Wegener farm was a frequent stopping place for Frank and Jesse James and the members of their gang. At least it was until the James Gang robbed the bank at Northfield!

Dad never went to high school. He finished 8th grade at the country school near their farm and was planning to go on, but as he put it: "I drove in, saw all those people and went back home!"

When Mom and Dad were first married on October 4, 1939, they did a lot of what could be called "migrant farming", especially in the red river valley, the Dakota's and around the Sleepy Eye area. They would hire on with the threshing crews and travel from place to place until the crops were in.

When the war came, Dad enlisted, but was rejected because of a boyhood injury. Apparently he was caught in the mower on his father's farm and his foot nearly severed. The doctor managed to sew him back together, but he had no strength in it and had difficulty running.

He did join the "CCC" during the war years. The Civilian Conversation Corp was the forerunner of today's public service employment programs and was responsible for a good number of the State and National park buildings and for many roads that now exist in more remote areas. It was the invention of the Roosevelt administration and an attempt to counter the effects of the depression and high unemployment. Dad worked in a forestry camp up by International Falls, Minnesota on Lake Kabetogema. He seems to have had the most fun across the border in Fort Frances, Canada!

Mom was born on a farm near Shieldsville in about 1917. Her father was Frank Kline and her mother Kate Uhlir (pronounced Ulish). Grandma Kate had been previously married to Frank's brother Joe. He died of a heart attack as they drove their team to church one Sunday morning. So Mom had two step sisters (Mayme and Roselle), who were also her cousins! Frank and Kate Kline had two other children besides my Mom; Joe and Evelyn. Grandma Kate was 100% Bohemian and traveled to this country from her native land, settling first in Pennsylvania. Grandpa Frank's background is a bit more of a mystery. He is at least half Bohemian, but some German as well. He may have originated from the Sudetenland between Germany and what is now the Czech Republic.

Grandpa gets mixed reviews, depending on who you talk to. My aunt Evelyn and Uncle Joe's wife Bess, thought highly of him. Mom, on the other hand, remembers his drinking and bad behavior around the house and finds it difficult to say much about him. Since divorce was not possible for good Catholics in those days, he simply moved out at some point and remained separated from my grandmother until his death. I met him once at a family reunion. He kind of scared me because I didn't really know him and he had a loud voice. According to Mom, he was in his mid 80's when he passed away.

Grandma Kate raised her kids and lived most of her life in the old farm house near Shieldsville. Her parents lived not far from there on a small farm. I can remember walking over to see Grandma Uhlir. She could not speak a bit of English and mostly I remember her sitting in her rocking chair and talking Bohemian to my grandmother. I also remember the geese and goats that seemed to have the run of the house. My mother won't acknowledge animals in the house, but it's clear in my mind! When ever I want to aggravate Mom, I tell her that her family was a bunch of gypsies! According to Mom, they were peasants, but never gypsies!

The old gray farm house my Grandmother lived in had no electricity and no indoor plumbing. My grandmother was about 4' 10" tall and probably never weighed more than 90 lbs. Each morning she would walk down the hill to the well and bring back water for the day. In the evening, the house was lit by candle light and kerosene lamps. Mostly she was in bed by 9 p.m. and up about 5 a.m. Grandma raised a garden and kept the weeds down with an old fashioned hand sickle and a hoe. If she had a mower, it was one of those old push mower's (without the motor!). She cooked everything on an old wood cook stove and make the best kolachy's in the world! Since there was no indoor plumbing, there was an outhouse, complete with catalogue! The catalogue was not for reading either!

Grandma lived in that old house well into her 70's. She finally moved to a small apartment in Montgomery and then to a larger one in Faribault. My Dad recalls that no matter the weather or season, you could see her walking up town each and every day. I guess she never got out of the habit of walking to get the water each morning!

By the time Grandma Kate passed away, she was around 98 years old and still sharp as a tack. I went to see her just before she died. It had been a number of years since I had seen her, but when I walked in she recognized me right away. At that age, it's hard to say what she died of exactly. The fact that she lived as long as she did, can probably be attributed to lots of exercise, good hard work, ample sleep at night, and no cigarettes or alcohol.

The first house Dad and Mom owned was a little house on the Northwest side of town, near Farmer's Seed and Nursery. They lived there when I was born. I can still remember it --- vaguely. I remember an attic like room where I played with my friend Susie Beckley, dressing up and drinking tea from little tea cups. I remember the old man next door who made fishing lures that I was scared to death of because they looked like bugs and bees and dragon flies! I remember Dad carrying me on his shoulders across the railroad tracks and to the store for a "push-up" ice cream treat.

But mostly I remember the farm where I spent most of my growing up years. The original farm consisted of an old white farmhouse, and an old barn and granary. After a tornado destroyed the old barn , Dad built a new one at a different location. A fire burned it to the ground a few years later. The one that replaced it stands to this day. The farm sits on a hill at the end of a long steep driveway. When I was a kid that driveway seemed to go on forever. At night the stars were very bright and I spent many an hour staring into the heavens and wondering if man would ever travel to the moon and distant stars!

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The farm in recent times.

By the time Dad purchased the farm, he was working for the Faribault Canning Company as a field foreman. This took him away a good share of the time during the summer months and it was my job (when I got old enough) to take care of the crops. My main job was cultivating the corn and beans. We had an old Alis Chalmers tractor with a two row cultivator and if you did things just right, you never dug up any of the corn or beans, only the weeds!

I have one sister, 8 years younger than me. She was born on Christmas Eve! That was probably the best Christmas I ever had! Besides getting a sister, everyone must have felt sorry for me having to spend Christmas without Mom, because I got a ton of presents!

Both Renee and I enjoyed horses as kids. Dad loved horses and we always had them on the farm. I was a better horsewoman than Renee, at least in my estimation. This is kind of a cute picture of Renee and Dad, with Renee perched a top her "trusty steed"! The other is of Renee without Dad's help!

The Christmas holiday was always special. It seems that when you are a kid it takes forever for the time to pass and for Christmas to arrive. Decorating the tree was always special. A few years ago Mom gave me some of the decorations that use to adorn our tree. I don't have a tree every year and when I do it's one of those fake ones, but the old ornaments get placed first because of all the memories they bring back.

Some of my best memories are of the woods. When I was young and still attending the country school, I would walk out there everyday in the summer months. I suppose it was more a pasture than a woods, but it always seemed so deep and green. I think it was the Oak trees that made the difference. Most of the time I would just sit out there and read. Sometimes I would go berry hunting. There were always lots of wild raspberries and gooseberries to be found. I had a couple of favorite spots. One was in the middle of a thicket, where stood a flowering tree. The tree was hidden from view and the only way you could get there was to crawl through a small opening in the thicket. It was a wonderful place to be truly alone and hidden from the world. The other special spot was a path that ran along a very small creek (actually trickle of water in the spring was more like it, but when you're 8 years old it seems like a creek!). The path wound through a grove of aspens and was a great place for a kid to take a little stroll. But my very favorite spot was beneath a large cottonwood tree that sat on a knoll and looked off to the south. There was a fox hole at the base of the knoll and sometimes if I was very quiet, the little red fox would come out, look me over and then disappear into his hole. Rabbits were plentiful in this area and never seemed to be frightened a bit by the kid who sat beneath the tree. I truly loved that woods and it remains the strongest memory of my childhood.


The Woods	View to the south from my favorite tree!

When Dad built our new house in the early '50's, one of the memories that sticks with me is the old house being moved to Morristown. There's a photo of it somewhere but I haven't been able to locate it.

Dad sold the farm in 1973. By then us kids were all grown up. It was a good auction and Dad made a good profit. But it was also an end of an era with the last of Dad's immediate family gone from farming.

Dad had a stroke and passed away in 1990 at the age of 80. Mom still lives in Faribault in a nice apartment in a senior citizens building, where she spends most of her days terrorizing the tenants or being terrorized by them! She walks every day, much like her mother did before her and is very active for a woman now in her 80's.

Renee grew up, got married, got unmarried and got married again! She's the Office Manager at a local construction company and she and Ron just built a fancy new house out by the Golf Club! She also managed to have two great kids! Nick is 23 and Bailey is 15. Hopefully I got their ages right!

Nick graduated from high school, loves sports (has won numerous medals in Special Olympics!) and has a job with his Mom at Gray's Construction. He is now living in his own apartment where he will learn even more about how to manage for himself. He will be living just a block from Grandma, which is good since he also loves to eat and Grandma's cooking is definitively one of his favorite things!

Bailey is at that age where she isn't really sure what she wants to be when she grows up. I think boys are becoming more interesting and something other than a nuisance! She's quite an artistic kid, a good athlete and excellent student (honor roll material). She is a member of the Gem Line Dancers and lettered in this sport in high school. Last year, her team took the State Championship. The dancing is something to see......a cross between synchronized swimming and gymnastics. It is quite beautiful to watch and requires a tremendous amount of athletic skill and strength. Like most kids her age, she has mastered the computer and I think spends most of her time trying to teach her mother how to use it properly! These pictures of Nick and Bailey are not current. I need to update them one of these days!

We've all given up on her Dad where the computer's concerned. Ron's a "retro" kinda guy and prefers the north woods, a cabin without any TV or computer, a book and a fishing pole! He's also a very talented taxidermist.

Finally, there's two dogs: Emma, and a Beagle named Spencer. There is also a bird named "Peatie". All in all, your "all American" family!

Conclusion

I've been back to the farm a couple of times since my youth. It does not look the same. For one thing it's not as big as I remember. Nor is the driveway as long as I remember ---- and the woods --- are pretty much gone.

But it's all still there in my memory and now on the internet! I wonder which will survive the longest!

To close out this page, here are a few more photos from the family album.

Me and Renee in our "Puddle Makin' Days"!

Me!	Renee

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Reluctant Flowergirl! I never did make it down the isle!

Mom and Dad on their Wedding Day	The original "GI Joe"! My Uncle Joe (Mom's brother) fought in the foxholes of France during WWII.


The Farm Auction	Renee, Bailey and Dad a couple months before Dad died.

Postscript: I'm not sure how much more I will do here other than to let you know that Bailey is now a college Junior at Augustana and Nick has turned 30 and still works for Gray Construction. Bailey is doing very well in College, just as she did in high school. An A honor roll student no less. My sister Renee has also graduated from College and taken on new employment for a consultant firm in the Twin Cities. Mom turned 89 this month and celebrated it by breaking her hip. She's convalescing at a local nursing care facility. Hopefully she will do what is required to rehabilitate herself and return to her apartment.

Spencer the Beagle died suddenly and Emma is near the end of her rather long road. The bird "Peatie" is still tweeting away and my brother-in-law Ron is still "retro". Some things never change :)

I do have more current pictures of the kids and I found that picture of the old house. One of these days, I'll add them :)