John C. Bjerke came to what is now Valley City on the 4th of July 1879. He was born in Norway in 1866 and came with his parents to Barnes County. His parents were Christian and Christine Bjerke and with them came their five daughters and three sons.
The year previous, John's uncle, Herman, had settled in Nelson Township and had written asking the family to come from Rushford, Minnesota to join him in Dakota. They stayed in the house of Herman while a log house was being built for them. On the way from Rushford, the Bjerkes had driven cattle for other members of the party for 50 cents per head and had crossed the Red River near Wahpeton.
In 1887 John Bjerke took a homestead next to that of his uncle Herman. Herman donated the land for the location of the first school in Barnes County at Daily, Dakota Territory. John built a house on this land and in 1891 he married Marie Davidson, who had come from Denmark in 1888.
The John Bjerkes had four children, two who died in infancy and Myrtle Lorene and Edwin O. Myrtle and Edwin attended the Daily School and the Sheyenne Valley Lutheran Church.
John C. Bjerke spent his winters cutting wood for fuel and for fence posts. In the summer he worked his land. In 1910 he worked for the State Normal School planting trees and acting as a caretaker. He was quite proud of a basswood tree he planted on the campus of the college.
Mrs. Marie Bjerke passed away September 19, 1945 and John followed in 1959.
Myrtle married Emanuel Monson on October 31, 1926, the third couple to be married in the Sheyenne Valley Church. Emanuel, a graduate from the Dunwoody Institute and a machinist and toolmaker, was born in 1893 in Nelson Township, Barnes County. He served in World War I. While at Dunwoody Institute he excelled in tool-making and was asked to remain as an instructor. However, he took a position with a machine shop in Jamestown upon graduation, where he remained for several years before taking a position with the Davidson Machine Shop in Valley City in 1930.
He remained with the Davidson Machine Shop until 1951 when he and two partners established the Dakota Machine Shop in Valley City. He died in 1956.
Mrs. Myrtle Monson, the last of the John C. Bjerke family, resides at her home at 356 College S.E.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 30