Pioneer Recollections - John A. Nordeen

The Odebolt Chronicle
VOLUME FORTY, Number 11, APRIL 14, 1927

Pioneer Days

Experiences of Early Settlers
Told by Odebolt People

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John A. Nordeen

Back in the 80s the advantages to be found in the United States and the many opportunities for young men were freely wafted across the Atlantic ocean and fell upon many receptive ears. Upon one young man did the seductive tidings produce a great yearning until in the fall of 1881 he embarked alone for America. John A. Nordeen was twenty-four years old at the time, having been born in 1857 in the town of Ledkjopin, Skaro Borgs Lan [Lidköping, Skaraborgs län], Sweden, and single-handed he resolved to come to America and win his way. He landed in New York in December, 1881 and at once came west where, he had been told the opportunities were greater and more beneficial. Arriving in what was then the sparsely settled village of Odebolt he soon found employment on what was then called the Wheeler ranch. Here he remained for the next fifteen years and instead of working in the fields, he was the handy man of the ranch. So varied had been his training in the early boyhood days that he could run an engine, threshing machine, repair the machinery, do carpenter work and in fact do anything, so that he was looked upon as one of the most valuable men on the place and his zeal and fidelity of purpose placed him in the foremost ranks.

In looking back Mr. Nordeen has a vivid memory of the winter days during his first years here. He says, "I thought it was cold in Sweden but those winters in the 80s when I first came here beat anything I ever encountered before or since. The high winds that swooped over the prairies certainly made it colder than in my native land."

In 1892 Mr. Nordeen decided to embark in farming for himself, having by the utmost frugality saved a sum sufficient to permit of his buying 240 acres of land one-half mile west of the Wheeler ranch, which he still owns but rents out.

Life still lacked something for Mr. Nordeen until in 1897 he was married to Miss Tilda Lundblad and to this happy union have been born two children, Mrs. Esther Huldeen and Verney Nordeen, a student at Buena Vista college.

After spending about twenty-eight years in active farming life Mr. Nordeen decided to retire and renting his farm moved to a comfortable home in Odebolt, at Fifth and Locust streets where he now enjoys the fruits of his labors in his younger years. Still active and alert he always finds something to keep him busy and at times when yearning for farm life becomes too great he hies him to the farm and takes a willing hand in the activities going on there. During his residence in and around Odebolt he has seen many changes and improvements and says that present day methods of farming are far removed from his early days here.

When he first came here the highest wages paid to farm hands was $18 a month and jobs were mighty scarce at that.

His has been a life of active industry, persistent progress in American ways in the pioneer days and as a reward he is now leading a life of restfulness, peace and contentment, so justly due the pioneers whose early days were filled with privations, self-denials and harrowing experiences.

transcribed by B. Ekse from microfilm

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