Author's Note: It was in the 1960's when people we knew were traveling to Norway as tourists. I asked Grandma if she ever wanted to go back. She responded, in her still heavily accented manner, "Ach, this is my family now". When she made the decision to leave her friends and family and move to America, it must have seemed like it was a one way trip. Apparently the option to travel back to her homeland wasn't of interest or never occurred to her.
US Census 1910 - Town of Easton - Household of John Berg
We left Ragnhild arriving in the USA in 1904, in Portland, Maine, bound for Wisconsin.......
And now we find her in 1910 in Wisconsin. Her name appears on the last line of this census excerpt, as a boarder in John Berg's home. What on earth transpired in the intervening 6 years? We know that John's wife, Hanna had not been well. Gust, Pauline and Minnie had all gotten married and moved away. By 1910, their daughter Hannah was working away as well. Perhaps they advertised for live-in help? Another part of this census record lists neighbors named Edwardsen. Was this a connection with Ragnhild's friend Rikke? More pieces missing in our puzzle.
But now we know how Ragnhild and Antone met!
Ragnhild was embraced by the Berg family. Antone's sister Hannah and she were the same age (which she was happy to report in later years when Hannah would have preferred to keep her age a secret). They all seemed to work well together and find time to enjoy each other's company. She was becoming a country girl!
Ragnhild and Hannah
L to R: Jennie, Ragnhild, Hannah
On October 31, 1912, Antone and Ragnhild were married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The family quickly expanded with a daughter and son:
Sylvia Mina born 20 November 1913 and Robert Anthony born 21 February 1915.
Sylvia & Bob
Antone, a carpenter, built a house for the family. They had been living in the Berg's log house.
Ragnhild's new home was a rural farm community, log house, a small, simple house for the family. She gardened, kept house and helped Antone farm. What a change for Ragnhild, who had been raised in large apartment buildings in a large city. She was nothing if not a trooper! Is this what she had imagined when she was waiting tables in the café in Kristiania and dreaming of going to America?
When the opportunity to move to an urban area came along, she was no doubt supportive, and "up for anything". She might even have looked forward to returning to a familiar lifestyle. She created cozy homes for her family wherever they lived: Everett, Washington, Milwaukee and Wausau, WI. And when she and Antone returned to the Town of Easton, back to the rural neighborhood, she fit right in.
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