Mr. and Mrs. Thore Olson

My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Thore Olson, and their eight children, left Farmington, Minnesota in 1883, along with some other farmers and headed west.  They traveled by covered wagon and oxen taking their poultry, cattle and other prized possessions.

By the time they reached the Binford area it was getting near fall so they stayed there.  They worked hard building a sod house and spent many days gathering buffalo chips for fuel.  In the spring they had lost their oxen so they stayed in Binford.

Thore Olson was a veteran of the Civil War.  Due to injuries he received while serving in the war, he spent the last seventeen years of his life as an invalid.  He died shortly after 1900 in Binford.  His wife, Anna, died in Kalispell, Montana in 1915.

There were so many Olsons in the area, my mother, Ragnild, and her four brothers took the name of Thoreson.  Her three sisters kept the name of Olson.  The children started separating to go out on their own and soon lost contact with one another.  In 1959 Caroline and Ragnild were reunited after a fifty-one year separation.

My mother, Ragnild Thoreson, came to the Binford area with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thore Olson, when she was nine years old.

In 1891 Ragnild was married to Torger O. Torgerson.  During their years in Griggs County they operated a restaurant and post office in Cottonwood, also a store in Jessie.  Many times my mother use to tell us about a huge sow that would make a trip, daily, to the store to get a "barber stick", (candy).

My uncle, John Thoreson, had come to Montana in about 1905 to take up a homestead.  He returned to Binford in 1907.  After telling my parents about the land where there were high mountains on three sides and a huge lake on the fourth side, my father became very interested in the new land, so in 1907, with another farmer went to Montana and bought some farms.  Upon returning to North Dakota they spent the rest of the summer and winter making preparations for the move.  In 1908 the two families hired a train to take all of their farm machinery, livestock, furniture and their families.  My parents also brought my grandmother, Anna Olson, with them to Kalispell, Montana.

When my parents left North Dakota they had seven children:

  1. Mary Torgerson,

  2. Clara Torgerson,

  3. Ella Torgerson,

  4. Matilda Torgerson,

  5. Olga Torgerson,

  6. Theodore Torgerson and

  7. Alice Torgerson (who was 6 months old.) 

They had four more children in Montana,

  1. Mabelle Torgerson,

  2. Norman Torgerson,

  3. Gladys Torgerson, (died as an infant) and

  4. Thomas Torgerson.

My father passed away in Kalispell in 1916.  (I was about 6 weeks old).  My mother, Ragnild Torgerson Perry, passed away in Whitefish, Montana, in 1969 at the age of 95.  At the time of her death she was survived by four daughters, Clara Dunluck, (who died 3 days after her mother) Matilda Grina of Kalispell, Olga Glidden of Wasilla, Alaska and Mabelle Lynn of Missoula, Montana and by three sons, Theodore, Norman and Thomas Torgerson, all of Olney, Montana, 30 grandchildren, 85 great -grandchildren and 28 great-great -grandchildren.

Tom Torgerson Olney, Montana

Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 500