After coming from Harstad, Norway, to the United States in 1900, Andrew Gunderson worked for five years to earn passage money to bring his betrothed Caroline Haugen to the United States from Kvafjord, Norway. After they were married on August 5, 1905, at Lynn, South Dakota, they stayed on through the harvest, leaving then for their home on a quarter section of homestead land southwest of Ryder, North Dakota. Their first child was born here.
By 1907 Andrew had brought his family to Valley City where he was able to build a new home. Two more daughters had been born, and in 1913 stunned parents were to welcome triplet daughters to their family. Caroline recalled that the day before their birth, she had been stretching curtains and seeing her three daughters sitting on the floor against the wall, she said, "If only I had three more, you'd cover the whole floor." The girls were given the same names as those of the daughters of the then President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson - Margaret, Jessie, and Eleanor. A son two years later completed the family.
The years of "growing up" were not always easy ones, but Caroline and Andrew managed by careful planning and Caroline's ability to sew. They saw all their children graduate from high school. Three went on to become nurses; two went into teaching; one became a bookkeeper and salesperson. The son attended the State School of Science and went to work for the State of California.
Six of the children married. There are now twenty-six grandchildren, including twins, and twenty-six great grandchildren. Clara (Mrs. E. Johnson) lives in Sarasota, Florida; Margaret (Mrs. Tom Kelland) lives in Devils Lake, North Dakota; Jessie (Mrs. C. Earl Varney) in Worland, Wyoming; Eleanor (Mrs. Ken Pedersen), Silver Bay, Minnesota; Norman, Bellflower, California; Agnes (Mrs. Nick Marx) and Annie live in Valley City. Annie has been Chairman of the Division of Language and Literature at Valley City State College for the past thirteen years.
Caroline and Andrew have left their children a rich and challenging heritage. Both worked diligently and almost with an obsession to assure their children an education. Both enjoyed reading and passed on to their children a similar love for reading. Both loved nature, and each had beautiful gardens, hers were flowers, especially her prize sweet peas; his were vegetables which contributed abundantly to the family larder. And sometimes Caroline sang to her children at bedtime. Many were songs from her homeland. Her guitar came with her from Norway.
Later Caroline found more time to devote to her church where for twelve years she was president of the Ladies Aid of the Scandinavian Methodist Church, which later affiliated with the Epworth United Methodist Church.
These two naturalized citizens, so fiercely patriotic to their adopted country, lived long, productive lives. When death came, Andrew was seventy-two years old and Caroline was eighty-eight.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 87