Alvin Gilford Ramsey was born May 13, 1912, to Jacob and Bertine Ramsey at Emmons, Minnesota. They moved to Binford, North Dakota, when he was two years old. He went to school in Bryan Township, Binford, North Dakota.
Ruth Oline (Knutson) Ramsey was born July 31, 1914, to Ole and Caroline Knutson at Binford, North Dakota. She went to school at Bryan Township and Binford High School.
They were married December 12, 1934, at Hannaford by Rev. E. O. Lee. Their attendants were Conrad Knutson and Olga Ramsey. They raised seven children: Orville, Delores, Arlene, Sharon, Dennis, Peggy and Steven. All are married except Arlene and Steven. We have 22 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Arlene lost her husband in a plane crash in 1974. Steven was born January 31, 1953. He spends winters in Fargo and farms the home place and the Roy Watne farm, which he bought. He is a real sports fan.
We lived in Binford for three years. We then moved to a farm at Hannaford called the Fiero farm in April 1938. Carl Petersons had just moved off the farm to make a new home in Minnesota. In those days things were slim picking and the rats were taking over the farm. I said, "Boy if I live on this place one year, it will be a miracle." We are still here, but the rats are gone. As the family grew, a new home was built in 1949, and completed in 1950, but now it's old like we are.
In our young days, we worked hard. We milked cows and sold cream and eggs to buy our groceries. We churned our own butter and baked bread. We never knew what boughten bread was. During threshing it was a job to keep up with the bread baking, churning of butter and baking pies for dinner. The threshers liked chicken so we had to go out and run a chicken down for dinner. We had to chop wood for the cook stove to cook the dinner.
We had to send out both morning and afternoon lunches. Cows had to be milked and hogs fed before the men came to put their horses in for the night.
In those days, peddlers (as we called them) came and sold farm papers and would take chickens, old batteries or anything they could for the paper.
Ruth worked for 50 a week and Alvin for 35 an hour for man and team. Was it the good old days, huh?!
Alvin farmed until retiring in 1984; however, he still likes to help the boys out. He served on the Helena Township board, Hannaford School board, church council, Sunday School teacher and drove school bus for many years.
Ruth, a farm wife, taught Sunday School for 20 years. She was Ladies Aid president for several years and also secretary. She is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary in Hannaford and has held the president's position. She has been a very active member. She has served as treasurer for both the Hannaford Bicentennial in 1976, and the 1980 Diamond Jubilee celebrations. She bowls on Monday afternoons for fun. Now she is retired, mostly tired, as women never retire.
They are both members of Faith Lutheran Church in Hannaford.
Source: Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 223