Mr. and Mrs. Elling Johnson (Maria Dorthea) came to Granite Falls, Minnesota in 1882 from Stavanger, Norway. They had three daughters:
and two stepchildren:
They stayed in this area for a year, where they had friends and neighbors from Norway.
In the spring of 1883 he bought two yoke of oxen, two covered wagons and two milk cows, and started for the Cooperstown area where they had a step-daughter, Mrs. Nels (Maria) Herigstad. She had homesteaded in Sverdrup Township in 1882. Elling also had a sister, Jergen Soma's first wife, Gurina. They had taken a homestead in Ball Hill Township in 1882.
Elling homesteaded the northeast quarter of Section 10 in Ball Hill when he arrived here. A son, Hans, was born in 1884. Elling farmed until 1907, when Hans married Louise Carstens, who had come to Fargo in 1905 from Trysil, Norway. She worked in Fargo for a year before coming to Cooperstown.
During the early years they endured many hardships. Dorthea, wife and mother, died in 1893. He married Severina Hagen of Grand Forks in 1903. She died in 1914. In 1918 he came to live with his son, Hans, who was on the farm, and he lived there until his death in 1935.
Hans continued farming until 1941, when his son, Irwin, took over the farm operation and farmed until 1972.
Mr. and Mrs. Hans Froiland had four children:
Lloyd and Ovidia and their families live in California. Elwin and his wife live in Fargo and Mesa, Arizona.
Irwin married Esther Njaa in 1934. They had three sons:
Edward, who lives in Seattle, and is married. Kenneth lives in Pembina, North Dakota, and has two children, Sheila, and Timothy. Stephen, the youngest, his wife, Bernice (Anton), and daughter, Melinda, live on the farm in Ball Hill Township - (fourth generation to be there).
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 199