Rosgaard, Gullek N. 1832-1906 & Andria Amundson Family
ROSGAARD, AMUNDSON, STASTADBRATEN, MORTERUD
Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 12/11/2021 at 20:31:07
Rosgaard, Gullek N. 1832-1906 & Andria Amundson Family
“The Old Homestead Farm”
This story was taken from the ‘Rock Valley Records & Recollections’ book written about 1976 in honor of the two hundredth birthday of our nation. It was a revision of the history written by Lottie Thomas in 1955, pages 47 & 48. It was transcribed for this BIOS by Beth De Leeuw of the Greater Sioux County Genealogical Society and some research notes were added.
Mr. Gullek N. Rosgaard was born in Nummedal, Norway, March 16, 1832. In Norway he and his brothers operated a store in partnership.
Probably about 1868 he immigrated to America, since a 1908 Sioux County atlas states that in the year 1868 Gullek N. Rosgaard settled in Settlers Township, Sioux County, Iowa.
In the year 1870 he wrote to his girl friend, Andria Amundson, in Norway asking her to come to America. She did and they were married soon after. They had three children, two daughters and a son, William, born in 1873, who stayed on the home place after growing to adulthood.
Gullek and his wife homesteaded 120 acres (Northwest ¼ Northwest ¼ and East ½ Northwest ¼) in Section 24 of Settlers Township. This farm is located seven miles west, one mile north and one and three quarters miles west of Rock Valley. The homestead certificate #2892 was registered at the land office in Sioux City, Iowa on April 10, 1876 and signed by President U.S. Grant. The family still have this certificate and also some tax receipts that date back to 1879.
On February 1876, he purchased eighty acres adjoining his land on the east for a sum of four hundred dollars. In 1883 he purchased more acres adjoining him on the south.
They lived in a log house, which was built from logs cut on the homestead. All three of their children were born in this house. This log house stood just north of the present home, which was built in 1894; the present home has had additions and been remodeled since it was built. Part of the old granary stands, but has also been added to. Some of the boards in the roof measure twenty inches across. The present barn, built in 1893, also has some wide boards in it and some additions.
Wm. Rosgaard used to tell his family about the hardships endured by the pioneers. He told how the locusts and grasshoppers were once so thick they shaded the sun. They were also so thick and numerous that the trains couldn’t move as the tracks became so slick that the wheels on the locomotives would just spin. The insects also ate fence posts. He also told about the blizzard of 1880 and the flood the following spring, which took out the railroad tracks south of Fairview on the South Dakota side and floated them across the river to the foothills on the Iowa side.
Mr. Gullek N. Rosgaard died in 1906 and his wife in 1908. At that time, William Rosgaard took over the farm and owned it until his death in 1953.
William Rosgaard had two sons, Richard and Alfred, who were both born on the old homestead. Alfred is a Lutheran minister at Galata, Montana, and Richard owns and lives on the old homestead at the present time. Richard and his wife have one daughter, Joy, Mrs. Larry Gieseke of Cedar Falls, Iowa; and two sons, Joel and Lauren, at home who help their father in operating the farm. Because this land was homesteaded over one hundred years ago and because the ownership has remained in the same family, the Rosgaards received a “Century Farm Sign” this bicentennial year.
(Richard Rosgaard, a grandson)
The following article is copied from “The Story of Sioux County” by Charles L. Dyke. The article was written by Alfred Rosgaard, a grandson of G.N. Rosgaard.
“The first year after my grandfather, G.N. Rosgaard, came to Sioux County, he drove with an ox team east to the Rock river, where he chopped trees. He cut them into logs of desired length, loaded them on his wagon, and hauled them home in one day. Next day he hauled the logs to the sawmill at Beloit, Iowa, receiving fifty cents for each load of logs cut and delivered, which amounted to twenty-five cents per day. This he kept up all winter long, and thereby made enough for groceries.
“The family lived for several years in a log house, the roof of which was covered with a layer of sod. One summer, before any barns were built on the place, he kept his two cows at a farmplace located about one and one-half miles away across the river in Dakota. He carried the milk home in buckets, morning and evening, across the river bottom, waded the Sioux and plodded on up the steep hills that overlook the town of Fairview, South Dakota. One very still winter day, he called on a neighbor of his who lived on the other side of the Sioux river. He did not find him home, however. In the meantime a very severe blizzard struck, whereupon he drove his neighbor’s cattle into their stalls and started out for home. The storm became so fierce he could see nothing ahead of him. Only by following a fence did he reach home.
“In those days, when several of the old settlers were ready to market their wheat, they would band together and in a caravan of ox teams and wagons, drive to Sioux City. This trip would take about a week.
“One interesting incident took place during the big flood in the spring of 1881. Mrs. Rosgaard’s brother, K. Amundson, who lived in Dakota a little way from the Sioux river, frequently called on his sister and family. Having had some experience on the sea when he was a resident of Norway, he thought it would be a thrilling adventure to cross the swollen waters of the Big Sioux. Never before or since has white man seen this body of water so far out of its banks. Its width was a good half-mile and the main channel of the river was something like fifty feet deep. Barely visible were the tops of the huge trees that stood along the bank of the river proper. Mr. Admundson embarked in a small rowboat and reached the Iowa side in safety. On his return home across that treacherous flood, he had the misfortune of becoming snagged in the treetops. In trying to free the boat, he broke an oar and very nearly capsized. Somehow he managed to get clear of the treetops and, with one oar, paddled back to the Dakota side.”
RESEARCH NOTES added by Wilma J. Vande Berg
Ancestry.com family report list Gullik N. Rosgard born 16 Mar 1832 Ostvand-Eie, Nord Odal, Hdmrk, Norway died 15 Dec 1906 Washington (?) actually Find A Grave lists him buried Trinity Lutheran Cemetery Hudson SD.
His wife Andrea Amundsdatter born 5 Mar 1835 Utgarden, R. Austvatn, Mo, Nord Odal, Hedmark, Norway died 15 Jan 1908 Hudson Lincoln County South Dakota. Her parents were Amund Arnesen Stastadbraten 1799-1883 and Kari Olsdatter Nordre Morterud 1803-1895.
The Three children listed were:
Alfred Wilhelm Guliksen Rosgard 1873
Anna Karoline Rosgard Mrs. Roti 122 Nov 1874 Sioux Co. IA died 15 Jul 1948 Fairview SD
Dena Rosgaard Mrs. Ping 1877-1959This picture taken from the 1908 Atlas of Sioux county Part 1V, section 3, page 15.
Sioux Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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