Arnt Helland was born February 9, 1855 at Thime, Norway. His parents were Jonas and Maria Tuni. Later when they moved to the area of Helland, they took that name as their family name. This was a common practice at that time. Herding sheep in partnership with his brothers and helping with blacksmith work were his occupations prior to military service.
In 1885 he left for America using money saved from service to pay his fare. He arrived at Big Timber, Montana where some relatives lived. He herded sheep there for four years.
This was rattlesnake country and he had a healthy respect for them. He had heard that they never strike without rattling first. One day, to test this, he came across a coiled snake and using the stick he was carrying, poked the snake, expecting the warning rattle. Instead, the snake immediately uncoiled and struck the stick, just inches from Arnt's hand. The healthy respect was now a genuine fear. Another time he came to an abandoned sod house and stooped down to peer into the dim interior. There on a block of sod, just inches from his face, lay a coiled rattlesnake. Needless to say, the sheepherder didn't stay for a second look.
In the fall of 1889 Arnt took a stock train to Chicago and returned to Norway to spend the winter. The following spring he returned to Montana and continued herding sheep. He left Montana and went to South Dakota where his brother, Carl, lived and helped with stack threshing.
From South Dakota he came to the Cooperstown area to meet his bride-to-be, her parents and three brothers for whom he had paid the fare from Norway.
Martha (his bride-to-be) was born in Sannes, Norway on May 12, 1873. Her parents were Hans and Christina Helland. Arnt and Martha were married on December 13, 1892 by Reverend Marcus Njust.
They rented some land in Bald Hill Township for one season. Their first son, Jonas, was born here. Being dissatisfied with farming and wanting to raise sheep, Arnt took sheep on shares with Mr. Fuglestad and moved north to Addie Township and took a homestead in the NE quarter of Section 34. They lived here in a house that had been deserted by some cattle raisers, Heddington and Crane. The second son, Hans, was born in that home.
Later Arnt built a dug-out and sod home in a hillside and moved his family there. This home was covered with snow in winter and wolves roamed and howled on the roof. A third son, Hjalmer, was born in the sod house.
Then in 1899 Arnt was able to build a frame house. It was not large but was really splendid compared to the three other homes. That fall the fourth son, Fritz, was born. The Helland's were & parents of seven other children, five more sons and two daughters.
Martha Helland passed away in 1920 and Arnt Helland in 1940.
The following poem written by a granddaughter, Karen Helland Nordvall, is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Grandpa Helland:
The sun had tried to lie about his years
But I could tell, and from the old man's face
Subtracted half a score of summer's fierce
But one or ten? What mattered was the pace
As long as autumn is fulfilled from spring,
As long as there is sweat and hope and bread,
He is content to be a simple thing
Sensitive as grass, yet like a rock instead.
He has small joys, the entire earth including
Rejoicing in the rain, with empathy
Toward sun-parched hills with ribs of rock protruding,
For he is one of them and soon will be.
Although he sees a life of different light,
Who is to say he does not have good sight?
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 page 182