Mathias Falkenhaug Simenson

Mathias Falkenhaug Simenson (2-26-49/5-21-02) and Pernille Hulett (1-31-44/4-5-15) were married in Norway on November 17, 1871.  In July 1883 they, with their sons, Lewis, Syver, Emil, Carl, and Pernille's father, Lars Mikkelson, arrived in the United States from Ringsaker, Hedemark, Norway to reside with Pernille's brother, Andrew Larson, living in Sverdrup Township until they could establish a home of their own.  Andrew, born in Norway in 1846, had emigrated to this country in July 1869.  It was at his homestead shanty that the Simensons' fifth son, Axel, was born on May 29, 1884.

The Simensons lived in Steele County for a few years where their youngest son, Elmer, was born on March 19, 1887.

Andrew Larson was one of the first settlers in his neighborhood having squatted on the NW quarter of Section 12 in Sverdrup Township before it came into market.  He was living there on June 15-30, 1881, the date the Township was surveyed.  He continued to live there until he became ill and was taken to the Simenson home in the townsite of Mardell to be cared for at which place he passed away on February 1, 1892.  He was buried in the Mardell (Opheim) Cemetery.

It was in 1892 the family left Mardell and moved two miles NE of Cooperstown to make their home.  The family joined the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cooperstown on December 25, 1896.  Mr. Simenson received his homestead patent on the E1/2E1/2 of Section 18, Washburn Township on May 31, 1899.

Syver died on December 31, 1900.  Carl left for Alaska in the fall of 1906 and disappeared in the spring of 1907.  States Attorney Tufte went to Alaska to see if he could uncover any information about him.  After a thorough search it was his opinion that Carl went out in a boat to fish for salmon and was drowned, as his cabin was just as he had left it with nothing touched, but his boat was missing.

After the death of her husband, Pernille, with the aid of her sons, continued to operate the farm.  She passed away April 5, 1915 at age 71.

Elmer never married, lived most of his life in the Cooperstown and Finley areas and died December 30, 1958.

Axel Simenson (5-29-84/1-10-61) and Mina Melby, daughter of Olaf and Serine Dahl Melby, were married in 1911; farmed in Eddy County for a time and then moved to the family home farm in Washburn Township and continued to farm for nearly fifty years.

They had six sons: 

Selmer (9-17-12/7-7-60) was stationed in stateside military hospitals during WW II while in the United States Army.  Olger worked in the Boeing Shipyards and as a farm employee until his death in 1975.  Alvin (2-21-15/3-17-67) married Marvelle Olson in 1944.  Their only child, Leila Kay, Mrs. Charles Mathews, lives in Michigan.  Carl married Lorraine Boelke, lives in Kent, Washington, was employed at a wholesale grocery outlet and is now retired.  Ralph (1019-21/12-14-73) was employed in the Seattle area for many years.  Melvin (6-30-24/5-4-48) served in the United States Army in the South Pacific area during WW II, enlisted in the United States Navy, and returned to the states and re-enlisted in the United States Army shortly before he was killed in an auto accident.

Mina Simenson, born 6-10-90, now resides in a nursing home in McVille, North Dakota.

Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 488