HANNAH LARSON MARRIES EDWARD ENGER

Hannah Larson, the second child of Norwegian immigrants Martin and Mattie Larson, was born October 27, 1880 in Vernon County, Wisconsin near Westby.  Martin worked there as a farm laborer, no doubt for his father Christian who raised tobacco.  When Hannah was a small child Martin and Mattie left Wisconsin and lived in Norcross, Minnesota for about 10 years near Mattie's parents, the Ellsons, and later settled in Hanley Falls, Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota where Martin hired on with Great Northern Railroad.

As fate would have it, another family also moved to Hanley Falls about that time.  Elling Pedersen Enger and his wife Anna Lee came from Spring Grove, Minnesota to Hanley Falls with their children, Peter, Edward, Sophie, Hjalmer, Elling, Jr. and Lena. I have a copy of a deed showing that Elling Enger bought property at Wood Lake in Yellow Medicine in 1886 and built a house on it.  I figure that Martin and Mattie moved to Hanley about 1890 when Hannah was ten.  I have a Hanley Falls diagram dated 1904 which shows the location of the Martin Larson residence in Hanley not far from the railroad tracks. (But then nothing was far from the railroad tracks in Hanley!)

Edward Ellingson Enger was the second son of Elling and Anne, born March 12, 1873 in Spring Grove so he would have been 13 when coming to Wood Lake.  Elling was a farmer but Ed went to work in the local hardware store and had several other jobs before becoming a railroad man with the Great Northern line.

I don’t know how it all happened but somehow Hannah Larson, 18, and Edward Enger, 25, got together and were married on September 3, 1898 at Granite Falls, the county seat of Yellow Medicine.

The Wedding Day

September 3, 1898, Granite Falls, MN

Ed and Hannah had their first child, my father William Delander Enger, born Nov. 19, 1899 in Hanley Falls.  I asked him where the name Delander came from, and supposedly his father Ed wanted him to have the initials W. D. so he picked the middle name Delander because it started with D and for no other reason.

When “little Willy” was a year old he came down with a bad case of measles and almost died.  His fever was so high that he was burning up, and attempts to cool him down were not working.  His Norwegian grandmother, Anna Lee Enger, picked him up and carried him out to the horse tank which had a layer of ice forming on top and dunked him in.  Hannah was crying and thought her mother-in-law was killing the baby, but the fever broke.  As a result of the dunking, however, Willy developed pneumonia.  The family doctor, Old Doc Beck, (more about him in the future) advised Ed and Hannah to take the baby to the woods to a better environment for recovery, so for a year they lived up north in Lengby, Minnesota with Hannah’s parents, Martin and Mattie Larson.

William Delander Enger Baptism, one year old

I guess the north woods was a healthy environment in more ways than one as little Willy recovered and during that year the second son, Arthur Miller, was born, on May 20, 1902.  After that Ed and Hannah went back to Hanley where their third son, Earle Melvin, was born Feb. 12, 1904.  A daughter Hazel Evelyn came along on Sept. 8, 1907 followed by another son Stanley James on Aug. 10, 1911.

When my uncle Earle Enger retired from the railroad in the early 1970’s his daughter Shirley encouraged him to write the family history while his memory was still good.  He did a wonderful job, and his writings have given a good insight into the life of my grandparents.

Earle wrote, “Dad was employed at the hardware store in Hanley as a farm machine salesman and demonstrator, and served as the town Constable and Deputy Sheriff of Yellow Medicine County.  He later operated his own threshing rig for several years as well as being Fire Chief in Hanley.”

                                      

Ed Enger, Deputy Sheriff                                                      Ed Enger, Fire Chief, Hanley Falls, Minnesota

                                                                                                                 

In the early 1900’s Ed went to work for the Great Northern Railway as a well and pump expert and was sent to British Columbia in Canada to install water stations while the family stayed behind.  Ed was there for about a year before returning to Hanley Falls.

My father told me that his father loved British Columbia and thought it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen.  He really wanted to stay and move his family there but Hannah wouldn’t hear of it so Ed returned to Hanley to continue his work.

Earle stated, “Dad bought a house just a block from the hardware store in town and later bought a lot near the school house and moved the house there.  After it was moved Dad bought a milk cow and some chickens.  Every morning before school it was the boys’ duty to deliver the cow to a gathering place a short distance from home where a boy would take all the cows and herd them along the river, then bring them home at milking time.  Our old cow, named Betsy, was such a family pet we would ride her to and from the gathering place.”

“I remember my father as a very devoted family man.  On Sundays he would often take us down along the Yellow Medicine River to swim, pick wild berries, and picnic.  He would often hire a livery team and take us to visit our Uncle Peter and family near Lorne or Aunt Lena near Granite Falls.”

Earl said that Ed, who had acquired quite a reputation as a water systems expert, was hired by the M & St. L Railroad to keep their systems in good order.  Water in those times was the most important item in the operation of steam locomotives and water stations were located every few miles along the tracks.  Ed was so busy that it was hard for him to get home to Hanley, so in order to be more centrally located he relocated the family to Winthrop, Minnesota in 1912.  At that time he was getting a top salary of $90 per month, and after two years in Winthrop another railroad company, the C. StP. M & O, offered him a very nice increase if he would go to Wisconsin to solve the water problems between Hudson, Duluth and Eau Claire.

Earle explained, “Full of pioneering spirit, as he always was, Dad bought a 40-acre farm in the woods three miles northeast of Cumberland, Wisconsin, and moved the family there.”

The Engers left Winthrop by passenger train with a horse and two cows riding in a railroad “emigrant” car.  Earle remembered being quite disappointed because his older brother Bill got to ride with the animals and he had to ride in the passenger car.

He continued, “I think the two years we lived on this little farm in the woods were the happiest of my young life.  We walked three miles to a country school and spent much of our time cutting wood for winter, fishing and hunting, and a small amount of field work and chores.  It was truly a boy’s dream of heaven.  Mother (Hannah) was never much impressed with this existence and I remember hearing her tell Dad one day that she thought they should get us boys out of the woods before we became savages!”

About this time the M & St. L offered Ed a position as supervisor of their water supply with headquarters in Minneapolis, so much to Hannah’s relief and the sadness of her sons, they sold the farm and stock and moved to Minneapolis in 1916.  Their last child, Myrtle Vivian was born while they lived in Minneapolis, and the following year they moved again to Hopkins, Minnesota for a year.

World War I intervened in 1917 and there was a real shortage of manpower because all of the young men were going to war.  The railroads were desperate for help and the Soo Line offered Ed a real good salary to take over the bridge gang, building bridges and water stations in their Missouri River Division between Drake, Bismarck and Sanish, North Dakota.  Due to the shortage of workers Ed even recruited his young boys to work on the bridge crew during school vacations, and they went to school in Washburn during the winter.  Bill was out of school by then and he was working full time on the bridge gang with his Dad.

Ed, the inveterate pioneer, had some money saved and when he found a ranch for sale with its stock north of Ryder, North Dakota, he made a deal for it and in 1919 the family left Washburn for the ranch with its 1200 acres owned and 2500 acres leased, plus 200 cows and 50 horses.

Things went pretty well for the first year, but the following year the war was over, cattle prices hit bottom and crops failed.  To make matters worse the ensuing winter was terrible with weather that wiped out everything.  Ed was forced to sell out and the family moved to a house in Ryder. Oldest son Bill had married a young schoolteacher, Effie Mestad, in 1920 while in Ryder and he was now managing a lumber office in Bottineau, ND.

That summer Ed started contacting railroads and was offered a position in Sioux Falls in 1921, so the family moved lock, stock and barrel to Valley Springs, SD.  After a year there Ed was transferred to Worthington, Minnesota in the summer of 1922, their final destination.

Ed’s pioneering spirit still wasn’t dead, and in 1927 he and Earle rented a farm south of town and they both worked on the railroad and the farm.  Later Earle became too busy on the railroad so moved into a house in town and brother Art lived on the farm with the folks.  In 1934 Ed’s health began to fail and he and Hannah went to a house in Worthington.  Edward Ellingson Enger died on April 10, 1935 of cancer of the prostate at the age of 62 years and 28 days.

Grandma Hannah remained a widow for the next 44 years, but that is a story for another day!

Ed Enger Family circa 1925

Back row:  Hazel, Earle, Arthur, William

Front row:  Vivian, Edward, Stanley, Hannah