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During the summer of 1886 we got an insurance agency that dealt entirely with horses and cattle but that only operated in New Denmark and Eaton. I was the chairman for said company from its conception to it eventual end, which was only a matter of a few years to to lack of customers. 

During the winter of 1886-87 Jørgen worked for Peter Jørgensen in Eaton and received $18 for six months where they threshed the entire harvest using flails.

Johan Hylsenberg died in the Spring of 1887 and upon his death we received the five acres of land that he had kept from when he sold the land to Peter Johansen. The contract was for fifteen years and it was running out just as he passed away. In the summer of 1887 we hired Hans Hansen to cut our wheat with his reaper but the wheat was so short that the machine couldn't cut it. So afterwards I grabbed my scythe and went over it again. That year we threshed bushels of wheat and an equal amount of other crops and it took 2-3 days to flail the entire harvest. So by the time we were done threshing both horses and men had pretty much consumed enough food in equivalent to what the harvest had brought in. 

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On the 9th of October Maria married Rasmus Larsen. She was born on the 11th of February in 1865 and was therefore twenty years and eight months of age when she got married. Rasmus was born on the 27th of February. Their son Johney was born on the 19th of September in 1887. I was in Negaunee during the Spring of 1887 with a load of milking cows that Hans Christian and Ferdinand Vittig had bought together. It was bad deal for me because I arrived too early. The winter was still going strong which meant an abundance of snow and it also meant that people weren't yet interested in buying livestock. It was election day in April and as I left home and passed by Lars's seed store, I observed Lindhart chewing out Jens Hansen because he had been over at Sofie Lindhart's place. On the 23rd of August 1888 Hans Christian got married, but I wasn't in attendance so I couldn't tell you how it went. Raymond was born on the 5th of February 1889. Florenze was born on the 11th of October 1893.

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On the 24th of October 1885 we saw Johan Hylsenberg and his wife celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. I was a guest for this event, and during the celebration we also figured out that I was also present 50 years ago when they were first married. I wasn't actually born until the 3rd of June 1836, but their wedding was held at my parent's house, so I'm all but certain that I was there. 

During the winter of 1885-86 Jørgen left to go and see Hans Johansen's widow in order to help her take care of her animals, while Johan and Hartvig were in the forest. However, he hadn't been there long before he got hurt using the grinder. After he had rested at her house for a while, Carl Marcusen brought him back home to our house where it took him the rest of the winter in order to recuperate. 

During the winter of 1885-86 Hanne went regularly to see the priest. She had also gone the previous winter but mother thought she would benefit from going for one more year. So that's the way it went. As we neared Spring, and her confirmation and her confirmation loomed, mother and I went to Green Bay with a small load of barley that we were going to sell in order

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to get some cash that would be used to buy clothes for Hanne. Mother also had a few pairs of stockings that she had woven herself and the sale of these was also supposed to aid in us being able to acquire Hanne's confirmation gown. The brewers were unwilling in buying our barley and as we were getting tired of driving around trying to sell said grain we decided instead to head over to Andrew Reise's hotel. Once there, we unbridled our horses, stayed for dinner and in the end we decided we'd just bring the barley back home with us when we returned. 

I lamented to Reise about my inability to sell my barley and upon hearing this he immediately telephoned someone named Van Dyke who was more than happy to take the barley off of our hands. I received 25 cent per bushel and that meant that we could go shopping at Jørgensen's. While we were trying to be thrifty the shopkeeper still ended up with all of the money we had made selling the barley and the stockings. In spite of that we still didn't end up getting everything that we needed. However, a few days later we were able to scrape together a bit of butter, eggs and some seed. The morning that Hanne had to see the priest again, I went along and on the way there we stopped at Benneke's where she got herself a new hat. She was officially all decked out and ready to go. Hanne was born on the 4th of September 1870 and was therefore fifteen and a half years old when she got confirmed. 

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I was also a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge in Negaunee. I also had to discontinue my membership there due to my inability to get more money. It so happened that my neighbor, Niels Christoffersen wanted to sell his farm and I bought 40 acres off of him for $500. However, I only paid $100 in cash and owed the other $400 as a loan at a 6% interest rate. The deal was sealed on the 24th of April 1886 and I took immediate ownership of the property, with the stipulation that payments wouldn't start until the 1st of October 1886. That way I'd havesix months worth of income from the land which came in the shape of grassing grounds, firewood and 32 bushels of rye. All together probably worth about $50 so I would really only end up paying $450 for everything.

When I bought this land I started feeling better because now I finally had something I could call my own. However, it wasn't long before I realized that I had made yet another foolish move. I say that because now my wife would receive her dowry part off of my property while I still didn't receive any ownership in hers.

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However, after much pondering she one day tells me that I have no need to worry too much about it because she was more than willing to relinquish all rights to said land. So one day we walked together to see Peter Christensen who was a justice and we demanded that he write up a document that would fit our particular needs. He then tells us that he can't help us in this matter since a woman's rights don't go into effect until her husbands death. So she actually had no case to relinquish said land. He proceeds to tell us that we could just sell the land and pocket the money. At least that way she can't get at it. However, I didn't want to sell that land since that way I'd be back to having nothing that I could call my own.

He then suggested that I sell it to one of my sons and that's exactly what I did. I sold it to Jørgen for $25.00, at least that's what the paperwork said, truth be told no money changed hands. To ensure that he wouldn't turn around and sell it, I got him to lease it to me for the remainder of my life, which in return made me feel a lot better about the entire affair. 

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and I was beginning to realize that all of it had been wasted. I paid out $100 to Niels Olsen to cover back pay. I bought a team of horses off of Andreas Reis out of Green Bay. I paid $200 for it and he included harnesses in the deal as well. 

I also paid a debt to Stefen Petersen in the amount of $25. A store bill of $6.00. A bill to the blacksmith for $4.00. I hauled lumber that I was going to use to finish the house, as well as all of the materials to fix a room with a loft. I also had all of the things I needed to finish the kitchen section as well as building a stove and a number of other things we needed. It didn't take long before my wife and I began to realize that something was amiss. The problem was that I had spent all my money on her property, and did so in good faith without having any ownership in the finished product. So we decided to include each other in our respective last will and testaments. Mostly to ensure that if she died I'd get something for my investment and we once more sought out the advice of the very wise Anders Peter. He told us that it seemed to be the best for all parties involved

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and that he would be more than capable to draw up the paperwork that was necessary. I was grateful for that, because while I was able to draw up the papers myself, I also understood that such documents were best prepared by a justice of the peace. He agreed and invited us to return in order to discuss the matter further. 

It so happened that Ms. Maria Hemmingsen and Mr. Lauritzen came to visit one Sunday and we all went to church together. While we were there, we met with Anders Peter and we agreed to follow him to his house where he drew up our last will and testament, with the two Marias as witnesses. Later on we learned that Anders Peter wasn't a justice at all and that he had deliberately deceived us. He merely wanted the money that was involved. Furthermore, we also learned that a married woman wasn't allowed to draw up such papers. Back then I was a member of the Danish Brotherhood and for each timea member died I was obligated to pay out$1.90. Most of my money was gone and no new money was coming in so I had to cancel my membership.

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with me to the courthouse. My wife and I brought them because we thought that in this country they had the same procedures as in Denmark. Meaning that if a widow wanted to get remarried she needed to come to terms with the children, but here the customs were different. When we had stated our case to the judge he asked us if we were married to which we both replied no. So he in turn told us that we had no business here. He told us to go get married and then we could talk again, until then you have no business being here. It is the responsibility of the children, the heirs, who have to come here and tell us that their mother has remarried and that they now seek their inheritance from their father's estate. So we let him know that this is why we're here. We wanted to know whether or not my wife was able to sell me her house and transfer the deed to me. He tells us that we can certainly do that but we need to appoint someone who could advocate for the children. Lars Larsen, Peter Marcusen and Peter Christensen were selected for this purpose, and they decided on a value of $1100 for the property, which had a $200 mortgage. So it amounted to $300 for each of the girls and $300

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for my wife as a dowry. 

So we had our wedding on the 5th of September in 1885. We were wed in the so-called New Church in New Denmark, by the honorable reverend Rasmus Nielsen, while Johan Hylsenberg and Jørgen Nielsen were our witnesses. One day we hired Anders Peter to drive us to the courthouse. He was an old justice and he was going to help us getting it all done. However, after talking to the judge for a while he tells me that even if I had a million dollars I'd never be able to become the owner of that house because the youngest child in question was 21 years of age. All that is left for you now is to go home and help each other the best you can to raise your children.

So we went and spoke with another old justice named Fritz Rasmusen. We presented our case to him, to which he said that he could get it done quickly but we might have to bend the law a bit. We told him to stop right there. If our goal couldn't be achieved in a honest manner then we didn't want anything done about it, and just like that it was all over and we left for home. 

A couple of months had passed and I had paid out about $500 of my own money I had brought with me from Negaunee,

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It's very likely that the farm wouldn't have been able to bring in as much as what Mr. Brown offered me but that wouldn't have been my problem. I could never have asked for a better opportunity to look around for a farm that I could buy for myself. However, my wife didn't want run her own farm, and this became a deciding factor for why this deal fell through. So time just kind of kept going by until my wife passed away. 

I of course had to continue to go to work each day and therefore I never got to see my children or really grasp how they were doing. Sometimes I was well aware that they, like most children, were getting into trouble but I was unable to do anything about that. I couldn't just stay home from work in order to take care of them. Yet another issue was that Maria had been engaged for sometime and I didn't know if she all of a sudden would start entertaining ideas about marriage. This would of course have put me in a rather embarrassing position, having young sons and all. 

In the beginning of the month of July 1885, I left for Green Bay to order a tombstone

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New Denmark

for my wife's grave and I was able to get it delivered that August. It cost $30.00. There is a mistake in my text when it states that she died on the 24th of August 1885, it should have read 1884. While I was in Green Bay I also went to New Denmark to visit old acquaintances. I met with a lot of people and among them was the one who would become my second wife. Back then I had no thoughts of getting married again, but after I had returned to Negaunee my thoughts kept trailing back and forth between New Denmark and my wife who had passed and I ended up writing her and proposing to her and she said yes. I left Negaunee on the 28th of August and arrived in New Denmark on the 29th of August 1885. It was exactly twelve years to the day when I first left there to go to Negaunee. I had my three small boys; Jørgen, Jens and Albert, as well as Hans and Maria

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However, it was a rather insignificant amount of money.

August 24th 1884 - My wife gave birth to a stillborn son, but the ordeal cost her her life and it was the hardest blow I ever experienced in my life. For me it was a loss that I'd never be able to replace. Trying to replace a faithful and loving wife is as impossible as trying to replace a tender and kind mother. We were married for 23 years and had eight children of which two were stillborn. She is buried in the protestant cemetery in Negaunee. I had a tombstone placed on her graveand had a small fence put around it which was painted white. Later on I had a marble boarder put around it. 

During the time I spent in Negaunee I was also practicing as a veterinarian and I still have a ledger listing 123 men that I treated sick animals for. I'm not going to brag about all the money I made because there were many who forgot to pay me. During the twelve years I was in Negaunee I worked for the Jackson Iron Company.

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I was the company's main mason. However, sometimes there was so much work to do and it had to be done so quickly that others needed to be brought in to help. Then again, other times there wasn't enough masonry work to go around either, so I would take a side job. A few times I even ended up working in the mine even though I didn't want to. During the winter when there wasn't anything to do on the stockpile or the rockdumps, I worked at unloading and piling up firewood off of railroad cars. It so happened that a few years before I left, that I was scheduled to travel to Iowa. Once there I was supposed to run a farm for James Brown who was the barn boss for the Jackson Company. He offered me $30.00 a month as well as food for my family. He also offered me the opportunity to keep 12 chickens for which he would supply the feed. However, I countered with that I wanted to be able to keep 25 chickens and we consequently never reached a satisfactory agreement. Afterwards I came to the realization that we were both being dumb. He was also willing to pay for my traveling expenses out there, and once there, if I didn't like it, he would pay for me to return.