Simon Johnson Ouren was born in Totten, Norway, on September 10, 1850, and came to the United States when he was 21, in 1871. His trip to Minnesota was very eventful as his train reached Chicago just at the time of the great Chicago fire and had to make a detour. In 1873 he began working the Halvor Brurack farm in Filmore County, Minnesota and the following spring married his boss's daughter, Sophia, and rented the Brurack farm. He bought a hand corn planter for $10, a binder for $72, and bought wood delivered at $4 a cord. In April 1881, he and his family set out for Valley City, using horses and a prairie schooner for transportation. In June he took a homestead in Sverdrup Township, NW quarter of Section 8-145-58 and E ½ of SW quarter of Section 5-145-58.
Besides farming, Simon hauled freight from Valley City to Cooperstown for three years until the railroad proved too tough competition. On these trips he crossed the river at Ashtabula crossing (near it). In those days wolves caused trouble in the winter by attacking the horses and driver. Simon had poles sticking out of the sides of the sled to protect himself. Simon planted most of the first trees around the court house and hauled stones for the foundations of many buildings in Cooperstown. He also hauled buffalo bones. He was proud of his horses and declared he could drive a mile in three minutes with a favorite team. In 1893 he raced the train from Hannaford to Cooperstown - and won! Another time he made a trip from Grand Forks to Cooperstown in one day.
The soil on a certain marshy area on his homestead was gray and sticky, and was good for "chinking" the log cabins as it would harden to a concrete consistency. People came from all around to get some of this soil.
In 1925 a news item appeared saying Simon was taking the same harrow into the fields for the 51st time.
Simon and Sophia had three children - Anna Mathilda, Henry and Anton. Sophia died in 1891. Daughter "Tillie" was married to Olai Fogderud in 1893, and had three children - Senora, Lester and a daughter who died in infancy. Tillie died in 1898. Senora remained with her father and baby Lester went to live with his grandfather.
In 1892 Simon married a widow with three small children who had recently come from Tonsberg, Norway. She was Mrs. Bertha Johnson, widow of Jergen Johnson, a sea captain. Her children's names were Bertha (Bess), Oscar and Christine. The children took Simon's last name. (His middle initial stands for Johnson also, but he took the name Ouren when he came to America.) Bess later married Thorvald (Tom) Vigesaa and adopted Lester's half-sister, Lila Fogderud. Later Oscar's second son, Marvin, spent part of his boyhood with his grandparents. Lester farmed in the Hannaford area and later moved to Moorhead to work as a carpenter. He built many houses. He married Borghild Anderson and had two children - Gordon and Marlyn. Senora worked in Japan for many years as a secretary and married her boss, Basil Ryan, of the Canadian Steamship Lines.
Area living descendants of Simon Ouren include Lester Fogderud, his son Gordon and daughter Mrs. Reynard Lyngby (Marlyn), Mrs. Senora Ryan, Mrs. Lila Torson and the children of Oscar Ouren - Clifford, Marvin, Bernice, Thelma (Mrs. Otto Watne), Glenn, Claire (Mrs. Kenneth Lunn), and Stanley and their families.
This historic pioneer who helped develop Griggs County out of the wild prairie died at his homestead in Sverdrup Township in October 1937. His wife Bertha died in 1945.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 153