Book 2 - Nathan, Amy, Madison and Ethan Berga

Above: Nordrum brothers playing in Washington.
Standing: Anton, Martin; sitting: Sam and John.
nsen Nordrum
John Nordrum (Right) stands with
unknown man, in Everett, Washington.
Property of Maple Valley Historical Society
Martinus was born in Norway, November
14, 1857. 4,7 He was christened December 6, 1857. 7
His name is scribed: “Matias,” on the parish records. 7
His sponsors were John, Mari, Nils, and Ole Aasen;
his mother’s family. 7 Martin was 13 when his family
left Norway. 15 By his late teens, he was already an
experienced pioneer; working alongside his father; he
would have helped in the construction of their log
home; while working to clear land for their crop. In
1878, Martin had taken the challenge of settling the
West in Washington Territory, nearly a decade before
Washington was admitted into the Union as the 42 nd
state: November 11, 1889. He was not yet 20 years
old. 31
It was the beginning of March in 1881, Martin, barely
23; worked as a laborer on a farm to earn the money he
would need to purchase his own land. 32,33 Washington
had much more work in timber than in farming and
wages were worth the effort. At the age of 24, Martin
was hired as a lumberman in Melrose, Washington. 34
Martin must have written home of Washington, with
enthusiasm, for one by one, his younger brothers followed
in his foot steps. John was the first to join his
brother; leaving Wisconsin before 1885. 35 By 1910,
Martin had moved to North Bend where he purchased
his own land, along the Upper Middle Fork Road, in
the Snoqualmie District. His brothers, John, Anton,
and Sam lived down the road. 36 His youngest sister,
Nettie, who had been living with her brothers as their
house keeper, had recently married and moved to Kamilche,
Washington. Martin never married and lived
in King County all of his adult life. At the age of 73
he moved in with a young couple, Edward Olsen of
Sweden and his wife Hilda of Norway. He worked for
the government as the fire warden in Tanner; around
Camp Brown, near the state highway. 37
At his death on the 21 st of June, 1943, 38 a mark was
made in Christ’s Bible, thousands of miles away, in
Wisconsin. 4 Martin would be buried in Maple Valley’s
Hobart Cemetery, he was 85. 38,39 As for those that remained
in Spring Valley, a letter would have arrived,
carrying the news that they had just lost a brother.
Although Nettie and Lena each visited their family’s
homes, and wrote often, there is no record that the
two groups of distant brothers, ever saw each other
again.
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