Elizabeth Birkeland Amensen, daughter of Saul and Anna Erickson, was born in Illinois in 1860 and came to Roland as a child. She married Engvald O. Birkeland in 1878. They were the parents of eight children, Ada, Bertha, Emily, Tillie, Clara, Agnes, and Solomon O. , and one who died in infancy. Her husband died December 18, 1893.
In 1898, she married Henry J. Amensen, born in Nertstrand, Norway, and to this union three sons were born, Elmer C. , Irvin H. , and Milford.
Amensen Family" style="width:660px;">
Back row, standing: Tillie (Mrs. Carl J. Jacobson), Birdie (Mrs. T. C. Jacobson), Ada (Mrs. M. O. Rod). Front row: Emily (Mrs. R. L. Hegland), Agnes (Mrs. M. J. Rod), Clara (Mrs. Wm. Hoff), Mrs. Birkeland-Amensen, and Solomon.(S. O.).
Ove Anderson, his wife Aagata Orton Anderson, and five children left Norway in the Spring of 1870 and seven weeks later landed in Quebec, Canada, traveling from there to Nevada, Iowa. Mr. Anderson built a house on the prairie two miles south and 1 3/4 miles west of Roland where they lived until 1875 when he bought 160 acres 51 miles south of Roland.
In March of 1876, with two or three inches of snow on the ground, Mr. Anderson and his neighbors raised the Anderson house, put it on skids, and hitched their teams to it. Away they went with the house, with family and contents, across the prairie to the new homesite. During the next few years
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