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This week’s story will be About Alma Tangen Johnson. She moved to the Klondike Ridge in the early 1900s.
The Tangen story is told by the eldest child, Alma. It is a story of true pioneer spirit as experienced by the two children HansTangen brought with him, Alma and Olender. Hans was born in Wisconsin in 1858, and came to Hazel Run in Yellow Medicine County Minnesota with his wife Pauline and their seven children. In 1901, when Alma, the oldest of the seven was 13 years old, the mother died. The children went to live with relatives. Hans and his oldest son Olender, and Hans’ cousin, Martin Jarshaw came to northern Minnesota to claim a homestead in the Klondike Ridge area. They found work at the Sjorsvold saw-mill. The mill was the place for homesteaders to get lumber for their shanties. Mrs. Sjorsvold boarded and roomed the mill workers.

When the saw-mill closed for the summer the Sjorvold family went to live in New Solem. Hans built a shack for the children in section four of Poplar Grove. By this time Alma, the eldest child had been confirmed. She traveled by train from Hazel Run to Thief River Falls, then by livery rig to the John Modal home where her father met her with the team and wagon. Then Hans had to leave his family to work in the North Dakota harvest in order to earn money to meet the their needs..
The shanty for the Tangen children was small, made of green boards, insulated with the green sawdust, and without a floor. Their bacon and flour was kept in a shack near by which had been built by some lumberjacks. The children covered the bacon with wheat to keep the flies off.
The shack had two bunks, a stove, a homemade table and stools. The children were equipped with a gun and twenty-two shells, an ax and a pitchfork for protection from the wild animals. Some of the animal sounds were scary, especially the lynx that sounded like a newborn baby’s cry. It was frightening. The shanty began to dry out and the boards shrank and sawdust blew into the bunks. When it rained the roof leaked. They ended up moving the table to a dry corner.
It was a lonely life for the children, even though Alma busied herself with household chores and cooking. How welcome it was to have Henry Bjerk visit, and also Mr. Grimm, especially since he brought a hen and a rooster. However, when they came back they had a pleasant surprise for some men from Greenbush had built a log house near the shanty and then left it for the Tangen children to use.
The following winter the children went to live with the Sjorsvolds. Hans returned after the first snow fall and lived there also. (To be continued)
(“Pioneer O’ Pioneer I, pg 117, compiled by Hazel Wahlberg)
RCHS FOOTNOTES
Flood Notes: The past two weeks the museum has been packing for the eventual storage room move to the auditorium. We appreciate all those who have spent time packing the artifacts. The plan is to move all storage room artifacts and shelving to the auditorium. The storage room will be cleaned, exhibit artifacts will then be transferred to the storage room and the museum will be cleaned. The research center will be the first place to be set up after the museum cleaning. It will take time to organize the exhibits but it will give us a chance to redo some areas and present a new and different look to the public. The long-range plan will be to set up the exhibits in six months.
Some of the problems we have encounters are very daunting; costs are incredible as you all know. With the moving we have required special packing material. We encourage you to support RCHS through donations and memberships to sustain us through this time.
Some of the items lost will affect the research area. Three of the legal fire file cabinets and the large lateral fire file cabinet that holds the church records were also wet. Although the records are fine losing these file cabinets means that some files will not be as accessible as they were before.
A special thank you goes out to the young women’s 12 up Roseau hockey team for the outstanding job they did this past week helping with some of our move to the auditorium. Langley’s has been kind enough to lend us the grocery carts which has been a wonderful help. We will never be able to express enough appreciation to those who are helping the museum make the transition from flood to recover.
The Gjovik family arrived on Friday to pick up the replica threshing machine and tractor. This will come back when we have room as will the snowmobile. Polaris has taken that until we back up and running in a situation it can be exhibited again. Bob Eastman’s trophies are temporally on exhibit at the Experience Center.
Remember our books are a wonderful gift for weddings and such. The cookbook represents our 75th year and also the year of the flood! That will present a special memory.
Monetary donations: In memory of Maggi Adams - Lillian Nelson and Robert and Sheila Winstead. Thank you for this support.
Continue picking up and completing your military history forms. We look forward to when the museum and research center will again be open.
Roseau County Historical Society and Museum, 307 Third Ave. NW Roseau MN 56751; phone: 218-463-1918
E-mail: roseau@wiktel.com Web site: www.roseaucohistoricalsociety.org

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