Bicentennial history of Polk County, Minnesota - to files - University ...

and the house which has remained the family home to this day.William purchased the land surrounding the grove from hisfather-in-law. He steadily acquired more farm land andbecame one of the early large scale potato growers in PolkCounty. For several years he was mayor of Nielsville andchairman of the local school board. His special interest wasclassical music. He had studied violin at the Northwest Schoolof Music in Minneapolis and with leading violin teachers inthe Twin Cities. He was a member of St. Petri LutheranChurch. William Brekke died in 1952 and is buried in SundetCemetery. Clara Brekke. aged ninety, lives in her family homeat Nielsville.LYNN BURDLynn was born in Pennsylvania and as a young man followedhis two brothers, George and Charles, to Minnesotawhere he worked on the Hayes Brothers Farm. James and SamHayes came from the same area in Pennsylvania, so this madethe Burd Brothers feel at home.Work on the farm was done with horses, which required alot of help. Because it was hard to get a housekeeper for somany, the Hayes offered to pay Lynn's tuition if he would goto the AC in Fargo to learn cooking and then come back to betheir housekeeper. But at that time, cooking wasn't offered tomen, so he decided to take buttermaking.Upon graduation, he went to LaMoure, North Dakota,where he worked for a co-operative company until the managerbOUght a creamery at New Rockford and he moved therewith him. This is where we met as I lived in an apartmentacross the street from the creamery.When Mr. Krumple. the creamery owner, passed away,Lynn decided buttermaking wasn't that interesting and hewanted to work outside; so he and a young friend, FrankGrimes. rented a farm thirteen miles from New Rockford inthe spring of 1916.I was born. Ethel Maude Nash, on a farm in Eddy County,North Dakota, and grew up there. Because of the long distanceto school, we had school in the summer. Sometimes we drove ahorse and cart, or walked three and a half miles if fatherneeded "old Kelly" in the field.Mother passed away when I was fifteen, then I went to staywith my aunt Cora Kinnaird in New Rockford during theschool term and I spent summer vacation doing housework toearn money for clothes.I took a teachers preparatory course and after passing theexamination, taught in a country school near Carrington,North Dakota. Although I really liked teaching, Lynnwouldn't take "No" for an answer so we were married the dayafter my school closed. Personally, I think he and Frank weretired of batching.We hauled our cream and eggs to New Rockford withhorses. In the fall of 1918, we had a sale, Frank went to Illinoisand we moved to ielsville. Lynn and his brother, Charles,rented a part of the Hayes Farm, where we lived until thespring of 1927. when we moved to a farm by Buxton.At that time. Nielsville was a busy little town; a new schoolbuilding. two stores, hotel, confectio nary, butcher shop, twogarages, two cafes, a hardware store, lumber yard, blacksmith,gas station, harness shop, two elevators and potato houses,perhaps more that I can't think of now. The post office was inthe Bye Store. The stores kept open late Saturday nights andpeople gathered in town to visit and to get their CrookstonTimes when it came down on the evening train. Norwegianwas still the main language spoken, so I didn't go to town often- until later years when my family was older.Very few tractors were used; except for threshing, when agroup of farmers would go together helping one another. Thegrain at the Hayes Farm was elevated by having a horse walkin a circle to run the motor.Our first son, Harry, was born in 1919, and when he was twoweeks old, there was a big wind and hail storm which sweptthrough the area, blowing down buildings and destroying thecrops. Three more children, Norman, Evelyn and Jean werealso born on this farm. orman died of diphtheria when hewas three years old. In 1927. we moved to Buxton where Mary314and Norman were born. Harry and Evelyn had polio whilethere which hospitalized Evelyn and resulted in her wearingbraces or casts for several years; later surgery helped her tolive a normal life. We thank God for this.We moved back to the Nielsville area in 1930 and Dorothyand Paul were born here. The children attended Aker, Stavanger,Sunnybrook, Nielsville and Climax Schools. We alsoboarded some of the school teachers. Two winters we had asmany as twelve at our table which meant a lot of baking,churning butter and cooking.Lynn enjoyed butchering and did a lot of extra work for theneighbors, which included a lot of visiting. Because of my illhealth, he was a good nurse and housekeeper besides doingoutside work. When I had pneumonia, the neighbor ladiescame in and helped clean house.Harry was a school bus driver for many years, also townshipconstable. He was the only one who didn't marry.The rest are married, and have families and grand-children.All are living in Minnesota or North Dakota with one exception,Dorothy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They were all confirmedin St. Petri Lutheran Church. Lynn and I joined St.Petri in 1953 where I am still a member and also of the ALCW.Lynn passed away in 1967 and Harry in 1973 ; after which Imoved to Halstad where I live now and Paul and his wife,Marjorie, and their three sons; Timothy, Terry and Ricky liveon the farm.I have traveled in all directions, but I like the Red River Valleybest. I love to see the snow even though I can' t be out in it.PAUL BURDPaul LeRoy Burd was born in Crookston, July, 1933, theyoungest in the Lynn Burd family. His schooling started atSunnybrook School, then to the Nielsville School and HighSchool in Climax. After finishing high school, he enlisted inthe United States Army and took Paratrooper Training andwent to typist school. In 1955, he moved to Minneapolis wherehe worked with various ceramic tile contractors in the TwinCity area until moving to Nielsville and the home farm in1968.Marjorie Burd (Isaacson) was the first born to Olaf andEdna Isaacson who live on the north shore of Pelican Lake,twelve miles north of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. My father isNorwegian and mother is of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. Myearly childhood found me helping my Dad with our sheep, sittingin the dark house fishing with him in the winter, bringingin fish from the fish nets on Pelican Lake, and in the summerwe had the weighing-in station for June Grass strippers. Myschooling started at Cormorant School in Cormorant Villageand I attended there until eighth grade when we went to PelicanRapids to school. I vividly remember especially the ChristmasPrograms, how we practiced for weeks and learned manyparts, and the school house was full of Moms and Dads. Also,how our school work and attention changed when the CountySuperintendent came to visit school. It's great reminiscingabout basket socials, Valentine Parties and playing Skip-tomy-Lou.High school was such a change but it was my fortune to beable to participate in many extra-curricular activities becausemy Grandmother lived in Pelican Rapids and a good share ofthe year was spent staying with her. My interest tended to leantoward the music field. with lots of singing and accompanyinggroups throughout the years. The summer of my Junior Year, Iworked as a dish washer at Fair Hills Resort to earn enoughmoney to go on the Senior Trip the next year to Chicago. Itwas worth it, but I sure did a lot of dishes! After graduation, Ienrolled in Interstate Business College in Fargo, NorthDakota, and got a job as pianist for a dancing studio in Fargoto supplement my income during business college. My first jobwas for the A.S.C. Office in Fargo, this was at the time of SoilBank Transactions so we were busy. In the fall of 1975, I transferredto the Agricultural Research Service in Minneapolisduring which time I met Paul and we were married in 1958. Welived in Northeast Minneapolis and Fridley, and I worked atHoneywell at the time John Glenn made his historic orbit.Some of the engineers I worked with designed some parts for