Bernt (Ben) Saxberg, a mason, and Lena Smesrud, a pastry cook, were married March 15, 1900, in Norway. John and Erick (1902-) were born there before they left for America on a stock boat to Liverpool, England. Then they took a steamboat to America in the fall of 1905. They arrived northeast of Jessie where two sisters and husbands were farming. While living there, a son, Albin, was born on Christmas Eve.
In 1907 Ben decided to go back to Norway but only made it to Cooperstown where he began working for the railroad and later worked at the Blackwell Lumber yard.
They began building a house southwest of the tracks. Ben would build the sides of the house on the ground, and Lena helped him raise the walls. It was small, but home to them. Selma was born in this home.
Ben later did mason work. He laid many of the sidewalks in McVille, North Dakota, at that time. He stayed there during the week and drove back to Cooperstown for the weekends with horses. The weather was treacherous many of those trips.
In 1912 they decided to try farming again and rented land until 1928 when he bought a farm southwest of Cooperstown where his son, Erick is now living. In 1943 they bought a house in Cooperstown and moved into town.
Ben helped Edwin Pousette with cement work until his health failed. He passed away in June of 1954 at the age of 74 years.
Lena then made her home with two of their son's families, Erick and Albin, and the daughter in Minnesota until she passed away in 1959 at the age of 87.
When Erick helped John move to Minnesota in 1932, he drove one team of horses and load and had another team and load behind. It took a week on the road in all kinds of weather. They slept in haystacks or barns wherever they could.
In 1942 Erick married Dorothy Hegeland. To this union two children were born, David in 1943, and Elain in 1945.
Comparable to the blizzards in the pioneer days, in 1966, after the 3-day storm, Erick and his family couldn't get out through the door, so they had to crawl in and out a window. The house was covered and surrounded with snow-banks. Bruce Hazards got worried because they couldn't see lights. So one evening, the Saxbergs heard a knock on the roof. Going to the room where they had been going through the window, they saw the Hazards bending down, looking in. So much snow was in the yard that it came nearly to the top of the REA pole.
Erick and Dorothy are still living on the farm with David, who now owns it.
Their daughter, Elain, is married to Roy Ackland and they lived in Waco, Texas.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 page 209