{"id":4702,"date":"2018-09-04T19:15:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T19:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kelolandblogs.com\/lundatlarge\/?p=4702"},"modified":"2023-07-20T20:59:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T20:59:59","slug":"grandpa-gruseths-holiday-homecoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/grandpa-gruseths-holiday-homecoming\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandpa Gruseth’s Holiday Homecoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

My brother, Tom and his wife Ilene have a beautiful lake home in South Carolina but really haven’t spent much time there lately. They’re back home in South Dakota to celebrate their 50th high school reunion. (Yep..high school sweethearts) They didn’t have much time to unpack following a three week Viking Ship tour of Europe which included a personal diversion for them to spend a few days visiting our relatives in Norway.\u00a0 It was a visit 18 years later than expected. The three Lund brothers had made plans to travel with our wives to the Old Country during the Summer of 2000. But on Memorial Day weekend that year, Tom was jogging in a park near their New Jersey home when he went down with a brain aneurysm. He was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery as soon as possible. At first the prognosis was grim..but he rallied and within a few months was back to normal and within a year, had passed all his Continental Airlines exams for a return to the cockpit.\u00a0 \u00a0On Labor day weekend Linda and I along with sister in law Judy (brother Denny’s widow) enjoyed a leisurely lunch downtown where we got to hear Tom and Ilene’s fun accounts of meeting with our Norwegian cousins on my mom’s side and seeing their pictures.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 A favorite story they heard while there was of when our Grandfather, John Gruseth, who’d become a successful farmer and family man in Brookings County U.S.A., made a Christmas pilgrimage back to Trondheim from which he left as a boy of 17.<\/em><\/p>\n

I told them I’d written an account of that homecoming in a blog years ago..but they hadn’t seen it. It’s a timeless tale that’s true with just a few author embellishments. Perhaps it’s one worth revisiting. So here goes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Grandpa<\/a><\/p>\n

When John Gruseth first stepped off the ship\u2019s gangway onto solid ground once again he still had his sea legs and felt a bit wobbly.\u00a0It had been a long rough voyage across the Atlantic in late December and he was mighty glad to be standing here at Trondheim Harbor on Christmas Eve day 1906.\u00a0As he looked out across the city he\u2019d known so well as a boy, John could see a few rays from the sun, so low in the southern sky this time of year, reflecting off the beautiful spires of Nidaros Cathedral..Mecca to Lutherans everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His mind raced back to the last time he stood on that same spot 24 years earlier, when he was just 17, and about to board another ship; this one bound for America; taking him away from everything and everyone he\u2019d ever known. John had been born with a spirit of adventure. \u00a0\u201cNo grass growing under that Gruseth boy\u2019s feet,\u201d people used to say. \u00a0But, as the oldest of two sons, it looked as if\u00a0 it was John\u2019s destiny to inherit and stay on the little hillside family farm at Byneset..even though there were already way too many people trying to scratch out an existence from it.\u00a0By 1882, thousands of \u00a0Norwegians had already immigrated to the United States to take advantage of free land being offered to anyone with the gumption to farm and develop it.\u00a0Not only was it free for the taking but mostly free of rocks and best of all it was FLAT. No more aching ankles from long days standing on steep slopes cutting hay with a scythe.
\nJohn was convinced that he must go to America too and was determined to find a way. He pleaded with his parents,\u00a0Jon Sr. and Jonetta, to let his brother, Anders, take over the farm and allow him seek his fortune and independence in America.(\u201cBehage , behage far , utleie meg bror Anders har den jorbruk og utleie meg g\u00e5 til USA.\u201d)But the answer was always no. It\u2019s too far, you\u2019re too young, you\u2019re needed here.\u00a0Then, one day, \u00a0Uncle Nels Christopherson stopped for a visit to announce that he was selling out and taking his whole family to the United States.\u00a0He\u2019d gotten letters from other relatives, already there, who had found success and happiness in Dakota Territory.\u00a0\u201cBetter make hay while the sun shines,\u201d Nels said. \u201cWe can take John along and help him get started over there if you say its alright.\u201d
\nWell, it wasn\u2019t alright with Jonetta who knew once her son stepped aboard that boat.. she\u2019d never see him again.\u201cWe\u2019ve got to let the boy go, mother.\u201d Jon Sr. said to his usually stoic wife who, knowing there was no stopping him, allowed a single tear to roll down her ample cheek.<\/p>\n

\"Grandpa<\/a>

Grandpa John\u2019s Parents, Jon J. Groseth and Jonetta Vevig Groseth both lived to see their son one more time before each passed away in 1908.<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, mother was wrong, John thought to himself as he began the long walk\u00a0 through the snow toward the farm at Byneset to surprise the whole family at Christmas. Traveling along the road he\u2019d known so well as a boy,\u00a0 John reflected on the decision he made to leave so long ago. No regrets, he thought, but it was mighty tough going for awhile.\u00a0He discovered that America was flat alright but it was also windy all the time, bitter cold in the winter and unbearably hot in the summer. If drought and bugs didn\u2019t ruin the crops, floods and hailstorms would.In those first\u00a0years, John ached for the mountains of home and the sight of ships sailing on the fjord below Gruseth farm.\u00a0He was determined to learn and speak English..but it was difficult and made his jaw tired.Eventually, though,\u00a0through hard work and tenacity, things got better. He met and married a lovely gentle Norwegian girl, Julia Leite, saved enough to buy his own farm just outside of Volga in the brand new state of South Dakota and had become father to four children, two boys and two girls.
\n<\/a> \"John_Gruseth_family\"<\/a>\u00a0John Gruseth family around 1910. My mom, Gladys, the little girl between grandma and grandpa, was born two years after John returned from his trip to Norway. (standing L-R) Alma, Johnny, Clarence and Clara.<\/p>\n

Yes sir, he\u2019d done alright for himself, well enough to afford this journey back to Norway.It was cold as John trudged along\u00a0through the blanket of soft snow in the forest and hills..but nothing like the winter of 88 he\u2019d gone through in America when a surprise blizzard blasted across the great plains.\u00a0It became known as the children\u2019s blizzard because so many kids froze to death trying to walk home from school through the blinding storm.\u00a0No, by golly, never seen anything like that and don\u2019t ever hope to again, John thought.\u00a0What a contrast it was to this beautiful night walking along under a canopy of stars. It was midnight by the time John arrived at the front door and began to knock.\u00a0\u201cGod Jul, it\u2019s your brother John,” he shouted.\u201d\u00a0\u201cStop trying to fool me,”\u00a0 Anders shouted back from the bedroom, \u201cmy brother is in America.\u201d\u00a0\u201cIt IS me,\u201d John repeated, \u201cI\u2019ve come home for Christmas.\u201d
\nAnders slowly opened the door and there stood the brothers face to face for the first time in two dozen years. \u201cVelkommen, velkommen,\u201d Anders said, shaking John\u2019s hand up and down as if he wasn\u2019t ever going to let go.\u00a0\u201cKaren, come here,\u201d Anders called to his wife. \u201cIt\u2019s my big brother from the U.S.A. who walked across a mountain in the dark\u00a0to get here.\u00a0Go tell Mother and Father and sister Ingeborg.\u00a0It\u2019s a Christmas miracle!”\u00a0\"gruseth_farm_in_norway_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gruseth farm as it would have appeared to\u00a0Grandpa John upon his\u00a0homecoming in 1906.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The farm today with the fjord at the top left.<\/p><\/div>\n

Grandpa John stayed in Norway through late February and had this picture taken with brother Anders(left) and sister Ingeborg\u00a0before getting back on the boat for the long voyage back to America.\u00a0\"John_Gruseth_family_002\"<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/a>\u00a0Grandpa John had brought some prairie grass seeds\u00a0from South Dakota along\u00a0on his trip home to Norway and planted them on the home farm. A patch of that “American” grass still grows there today.<\/p>\n

My cousins Don and Lawrence along with their families were able to make that trip to Norway 18 years ago and\u00a0 enjoy the hospitality of our Nordic cousins. Then, more recently my daughter Patty and Granddaughter, Allison were there followed a couple years later by Daughter Suzan, Husband Joe and Granddaughter,\u00a0 Zoey.\u00a0 \u00a0Linda and I were in Norway as hosts of a Keloland\/Holiday Vacations tour in 1997 but were not able to break schedule to follow in Grandpa John’s footsteps to Byneset.\u00a0 \u00a0 A situation we hope to correct in the near future.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My brother, Tom and his wife Ilene have a beautiful lake home in South Carolina but really haven’t spent much time there lately. They’re back home in South Dakota to celebrate their 50th high school reunion. (Yep..high school sweethearts) They didn’t have much time to unpack following a three week Viking Ship tour of Europe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[61,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11491,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4702\/revisions\/11491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}