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Helmer & Alfrida's Residences in MN

Helmer & Alfrida lived on two different farms and one house rental before they moved to the Otter Tail Nursing Home in Battle Lake, MN, in 1965. Before their Minnesota residences, they lived in North Dakota for 31 years.

In 1943, Helmer & Alfrida Johnson moved from North Dakota to Minnesota. They had been renting a farm in North Dakota. The following is a letter from Alfrida to her son, Walter, explaining the move from North Dakota to Minnesota.

Alfrida Johnson was 49 years old, and her son, Walt Johnson, was 23 years old. He was stationed in the Navy in the Solomon Islands at the time. The event described in the letter was a household move from North Dakota to Minnesota. Walt’s parents had lived in North Dakota since their marriage in 1912 (31 years).

The relationships of the people to Alfrida in the letter are:

Pa or Your Dad (Alfrida’s husband, Helmer, age 57),

Eleanor Ramsey (daughter, age 19, married to Bud Ramsey in 1942),

Levi Johnson (son, age 17),

Sis (Helen Johnson) (daughter, age 15),

Grandma (Alfrida’s mother, Julianna Susag, age 76),

Ragna Susag (age 36 - sister to Alfrida),

Grandpa (Alfrida’s father, David Susag, age 77)

Oscar & Deline Johnson (Alfrida’s sister and brother-in-law, ages 39 & 38 respectively)

October 17, 1943

Frazee, Minn

Dear Walter,

Well here I am. I know I should have been before but it’s no use of excuses, I need all the scoldings I got and then some. Enuf said.

This is Chapter one about this Minn. business and this is for your information. I stopped the buying of the M. Wold farm west of Binford because it was further from school then we lived before and I did not like a long school road. This year we had a good crop and I told Pa we were well fixed to keep on farming like we had but we had bad luck last winter with the calves. They were either born dead or died afterward. We raised 4 calves from 12 cows and in the spring 1 cow died (the big black cow). We had the cow’s bangs (a bacterial disease aka Brucellosis) tested this summer and they passed the test O.K. And then the land Co. of Fargo refused to repair the barn and then the farm boss R. Smith hired an (Inspector) to sit out on the farm while Pa was busy combining and hauling grain and that made Pa mad and told him, the inspector, to get. And he (Pa I mean) did not want to rent from R. Smith anymore.

We had looked at this farm here in Minn this summer and was figuring on buying it. We bot it from O.A. Olson of Fargo. It is a mile S.E. of Frazee on U.S. #10 and N.P.R. Road. All the traffic a stone throw from the house. At present Eleanor is working in Frazee at a restaurant and tonite Levi & Sis went to the show in town. They have cushioned seats at the theater in Frazee. It is 11 miles from Detroit Lakes and about 19 east of Grandpa’s. We were up to see them today. Grandma is very poorly. She is not able to be up now and she does not remember things very good. Ragna is teaching school and I don’t see how things will go when she is away all day and Grandma sick abed, I asked your (dad) if I could stay and take care of mother but he said I could not as he could not get along without me (such a baby he is) but don’t write that back cus he won’t like it. Grandma needs Dr. & Hospital care, so I don’t know if Ragna and Grandpa decided to take her to the hospital tonite or not.

Oscar & Deline are living on a farm here in Minn. too (or have you heard)

Second Chapter coming up. There is another Helmer Johnson living here at Frazee so we must use the initial and R. no. in our address now.

Love Mother

R.F.D #3

Frazee, Minn

Photo from the 1980s of the elementary school house that all of Helmer & Alfrida's kids attended in North Dakota. Mencer was the only one who did not complete his schooling in this schoolhouse, as they moved to Minnesota in 1943.

In 1943, when Helmer & Alfrida moved from North Dakota to Minnesota, they purchased a farm for $4,000 in Hobart Township, a few miles south of Frazee, Minnesota.

On the left is a plat map image of Hobart Township from 1946. The thick black line on the right is Highway 10. Helmer M. Johnson’s property abutted Highway 10. On the right is a photo of the farm.

In about 1948, Helmer & Alfrida sold the farm they had purchased in 1943 to Leo P. Lockhart for $7,000. Helmer then purchased a farm a few miles further south for $4,000. William Toussaint previously owned it.

On the left is a plat map image of Hobart Township from 1953. The thick black line on the right is Highway 10. Helmer M. Johnson’s property again abutted Highway 10.

The same person took both of the photos on the left. The first was taken from the road, and the other was taken at a completely different angle so that no trees were in the photo, making the house appear as a completely different home.

Helmer and Alfrida’s son, Levi, took over and later purchased their second Minnesota farm sometime in the mid-1950s when Helmer and Alfrida rented a house on a piece of land off Highway 10. It is the small triangle of land next to Robert “Bob” and Helen Shaw’s property, marked with the large letter “A” on the map to the right. The property was bordered by Highway 10 on one side and a county road on the other.