UNDATED REMARKS BY AGNES KNUDSEN (born 1909) ABOUT HER FATHER, GABRIEL, AND HIS PARENTS.

On April 28, 1868, a baby boy, our pa, was born in the home of Hans Knudsen and his wife, Godfreda (Godfrieda) Berklund. He was named Gabriel, and was the first son. A sister, Caroline, had preceded him. Eventually there were nine children in all: Caroline, Gabriel, Christian, Marie, Thorvald, Hannah, Conrad, Harold and Emma. (As of this entry, in Sept. of 1998, there are birth dates here for only three of these children. Perhaps they are listed above in the order of their birth???)
The family lived in Songnedal, Norway, a small village on the west coast. The father, Hans, was initially a ship’s carpenter and sail maker, and, in later years, a pilot of a ship. He was always handy at carpenter work.
Hans’ father was Knute Knudsen, a farmer, whose wife was named Tore. Knute’s father was named Tunis.
Gabriel’s mother was Godfrieda (Godfreda). One night when her husband and a son were on a ship out at sea, she heard knocking on the window or door three times and knew it was some sign of disaster. She feared for her husband and son who that same night were lost in a storm at sea and never returned.
Before that time, the Hans Knudsen family (Gabriel’s parents and siblings) must have been happy and peaceful. A cousin of Gabriel’s, Fredrick Knudsen, told some Knudsens visiting in Norway some years ago of life in Hans’ time in Norway. He said Hans and one of his brothers lived in a large double (duplex) house, and each had a large family. The children played together and ate meals in whichever part of the house they were at mealtime, and their mothers never quarreled but straightened out little squabbles with patience and love. The children attended school but it isn’t known just how much. Gabriel must have been well taught as he became an avid reader, handeled his business well, and expressed himself well in writing, although his spelling was always done the Norwegian way, using the sounds in the words just as he heard them.
When Gabriel was 18 years old, it was perhaps his desire for adventure which led him to America (in 1886). He worked for a farmer in Kansas where people spoke English, so he had to begin learning the language there. He had typhoid fever there and almost lost his life. He told that when it was over and he was still very weak, he went to the funeral of his best friend who had died of the disease. Later he went to Minneapolis and attended Luther Seminary for a while. He met K. N. Rudie there and they became lifelong friends. Rudie went on to become a minister, but Gabriel dropped out because he had too little money.
Gabriel drifted down into Illinois, working for farmers as he went; he was working on a farm in Illinois when he met and married his wife, Emma Rand, when he was 30 years old. He may have gone to Illinois because he had a first cousin, Mrs. Knute (Emelia) Wicks (Wix) living near Morris, Illinois. Gabriel and Emma farmed in Illinois for about 12 years, where their first six children were born. For part of that time they owned a small farm three miles from Morris, Illiois. When Agnes (the writer) was five months old, the family moved to South Dakota, arriving on Feb. 25, 1910. Gabriel had learned that for the same money they could have more land in South Dakota than in Illinois. So in South Dakota they bought a farm on the North Dakota state line, which was their family home until Gabriel died in 1948. A carpenter named Nils Pederson had built that large nine-room farmhouse complete with six clothes closets and built-in cupboards in the kitchen, conveniences rarely found in country homes at that time.
Life in South Dakota included good years and poor, wartime and peacetime, the depression, drought and dust storms, sickness, operations and accidents. But, by the grace of God, we can say that there was much happiness, much good health, good friends and neighbors, and more blessings than we could count.