In the year of 1897, Joe O. Boyer came to the United States. Joe was born October 16, 1884 at Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. His family in Norway consisted of three brothers and two sisters. Joe came to the Borup, Minnesota area where he worked for the Great Northern Railway. Some years later he came to the Cooperstown, North Dakota area where he worked on the Louis Trostad Farm.
On February 22, 1908, Joe married Julia Botnan, at Cooperstown. Julia had come to the United States in 1894, at the age of nine, together with her two sisters and her mother. Her father, Ole T. Botnan, had come a year earlier. They stayed at Henry Moens.
When Julia was eleven years old, she worked for a family at Churches Ferry, North Dakota. She also tells of the days when she and her sister, Mary, cooked for a threshing crew. They were up at four o'clock each morning preparing breakfast and baking for the meals and lunches for the rest of the day. She baked bread, rolls and pies every day. When the threshing rig moved, the cook car was pulled behind the rig. They would have to pack all the dishes and cookware to prevent breakage. The threshing season would last around thirty or more days. Julia later attended a sewing school in Moorhead and became an adept seamstress, sewing her own wedding dress.
Five children were born to them:
Oswald, Binford
Signa (Mrs. John Stusiak), East Grand Forks, Minnesota
Myrtle (Mrs. Hamlin Ellefson), Aneta
Laura (Mrs. Chester Watne), Binford
Lyla (Mrs. Donald Rea), Glyndon, Minnesota
The year 1940, Joe rented land in Section 28, Pilot Mound Township, which he later bought, and farmed with his son until his death in November 1955. His wife, Julia, continues to live on the farm with her son Oswald. She was 90 years old on her last birthday, November 23, 1974, and is still very active.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 367