These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 9:00 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
August 16, 2026
Audrey (Helstad) Jensen wrote about her ancestors. Last week I read her remembrances of her Helstad grandparents, and this week I’ll read what she wrote about her Dokken Grandparents.
My Grandfather Knut Olson Dokken was born November 22, 1848, and married Bergit Golberg in 1867 at the age of nineteen. He left Gol Hallingdal, Norway in 1875 with his wife and four daughters, Ingred, Carrie, Kristie and Ragnihld (Rose) and two sons, Ole and Thor. They settled in Linn Grove, Iowa, where two more children were born. First a son Carl and then a daughter, Biatta (Bertha). The mother of this large family died in childbirth when Bertha was born in 1888.
In 1891 Grandpa Dokken went back to Norway to marry his childhood sweetheart. I wonder, who took care of the family during this time? It took three weeks to cross the ocean in those days. The lady he went to marry was Ingaborg Pederson who had been wed to Ivor Roan. She was a widow with a little girl, Anna. She became my Grandma Dokken.
My grandparents had two children, Biddy (Betty) and Ingvald while they lived in Iowa. Betty was a month old baby when they undertook the arduous and sometimes treacherous move to northern Minnesota in 1893. Grandma used to tell about once they were crossing a river in a covered wagon and it tipped over. (No roads or bridges then.) She found herself standing on her hands and knees with baby Betty beneath her and a bag of flour of about a hundred pounds on her back. She had to hold that flour on her back until help came or the baby would have been crushed. Not much more is known except that the last part of their journey was by bob sled from Stephen, Minnesota. They stayed at Gilbert Pederson’s (Grandma’s brother) until they could get settled.
They homesteaded north of Roseau, Minnesota on land known now as the SE1/4 of Section 2 in Jadis township of Roseau County. The abstract was dated November 20, 1899 to Knut Olson. This abstract also shows that the land was sold to Grandpa’s brother on 7-27-1900, and that he sold it back to Grandpa on 7-22-1905. They apparently were having financial difficulties because the abstract shows many transactions. They continued living there all this time. Another interesting bit of information revealed by this document was that on all the transactions earlier, Grandpa’s name was always Knut Olson. In a 1926 entry, his name was changed to read Knut Olson Dokken. This was the first time I knew that he hadn’t always been “Dokken”. His brother was listed as Halvor O. Dokken, so that may have been the reason for the name change.
After Grandpa’s death, the farm was sold and the outbuildings destroyed. The house was moved closer to the main road and remodeled. Later, the present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Pederson (he would be Grandma’s great-nephew) built on an addition which proves that it was built to endure the ravages of time.
Three children were born in that house. They are my mother, Isabelle, Clara and Margaret. Kristie, the daughter by his first wife, helped Grandpa deliver these children.
Grandpa died from cancer of the throat on July 13, 1932.
Grandpa was a leader. On December 4, 1895 a meeting was called to order at his house for the purpose of organizing a church. This is the church we know as the Moe Church in Roseau, Minnesota. He also furnished the land and a lot of the material for the first school house built in Roseau County. I remember this school very well. Grandpa gave me a black and white fountain pen when I won a county spelling contest held there. The building still stands strong and straight at the Roseau County fair grounds.
Grandpa was a farmer and raised grain and hay and cattle and chickens. Some of my favorite memories of Grandpa are as a child when I would watch him in his blacksmith shop, pumping the bellows of his forge and forming red hot steel into the state desired. Also how he would tease me by putting his cane in my way when I tried to get into the pantry under the stairway where Grandma kept the cookies. Another precious memory is riding in his nicest buggy. It had fringes on top and seats upholstered in red velvet, pulled by a team of peppy ponies. I mentioned his using a cane. His leg was broken badly when he was a young man. A load of lumber tipped over on top of him. I can’t remember a time when he didn’t limp badly. I can still remember one Sunday evening when John Roseen tried to pull the thrash machine into the yard to line it up for thrashing the next day. Grandpa hurried as fast as he could with the limpy leg to stop him by the mailbox. No one was allowed to do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary on a Sunday. He kept the Sabbath!
I remember Grandma as a very gentle and meek person. Her only expression when she was discouraged or unhappy about something was a sigh and “oh ya”. She really needed to be this way, too, since she had six children herself and eight step children. She must have had a lot to cope with.
Her step daughter told me that Grandma used to bake 15 to 18 loaves of bread at a time. She (Aunt Bertha) also told me that there was no yeast in those days. They had to save a “starter” every time they baked to use for the next batch – something like sourdough, I believe.
She was also known for making the “best butter”. What I remember most though, were her big molasses cookies, sugar cookies and fatigman. A lot of people from town would come to her house on Sunday afternoons and she would serve these goodies plus lots of home made dark bread with cream and black currant jelly.
Grandma was a heavy-set woman and when I look at myself now, I see I am built just like her – big tummy and all. Around home she always wore a checked apron with a bib pinned to her dress. He hair was always pulled straight back from a center part and pinned into a bun in the back. As I remember, she didn’t look any different when she died than when I was a little girl and pictures seem to verify this. I can remember sitting on her lap, which was small because of her big tummy, and giggling when I slid off. She also served as a midwife a great deal. Yes, she was a busy lady. She also served as president of the Moe Church Ladies Aid for 16 consecutive years. She died Dec. 20, 1946.
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for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.