Ole P. Bolkan came to Dakota Territory in the summer of 1880 to join his brother Christopher P. Bolkan who had come earlier and filed on a homestead in Washburn Township. Ole filed on the NE quarter of Section 2, Sverdrup Township as a homestead and on the SW quarter of the same Section as a Treeclaim.

The rest of the summer he spent cutting trees with his brother for a log house. In the late fall he returned to Dixon, Iowa to marry Mary Ellen Everts on January 1, 1881. He took his bride to Kensett, Iowa where his parents lived and assembled all the necessary equipment he could load on a wagon. He bought three horses and when the weather moderated, started on the long trek to the Homestead site. Mary was to stay in Kensett with his parents until summer when he hoped to have the house built. She had spent the winter studying the Norwegian language under Grandfather Bolkan's careful guidance and in early summer was able to carry on a simple conversation with Grandma who could not speak English. In the years to come she was very thankful for that winter's study because she would live in a Norwegian community.

In early July, Mary wrote to Ole saying she would be in Valley City July 19. On the way she stopped over at Ortonville, Minnesota to visit her sister. Here she acquired seven baby chicks, which had been trampled and had broken legs or wings, which she splinted. These she carried with her on the train in a shoebox and were her start with poultry.

At that time the settlers in that part got their mail in Gallitan and her letter lay in Valley City until long after she arrived so she had a very difficult time, walking many miles of the way.

Bolkan was assessor for 6 years. In the early 80's, they adopted an 8-month-old baby girl, from a broken home, named Clara and had a son Gustavus and a daughter Angeline.

Mary Ellen Bolkan died August 10, 1915. Ole P. Bolkan died December 7, 1931.

Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 425