by James Canby | Feb 19, 2022 | SW People & Families
A great storm off the coast of Nova Scotia ship-wrecked the whaling vessel on which William Thorsen and his companions were chasing whales. He nearly lost his life. After he was rescued and recovering from his ordeal, he vowed that the whales could have the sea, the...
by James Canby | Feb 19, 2022 | SW People & Families
During his lifetime, Carl Helland was county commissioner for South Whidbey, owner of the Clinton Union Store, a sawmill, and an important farm in the Clinton area. Yet, the first time he settled on South Whidbey, he rejected it and moved away. He was later to return,...
by James Canby | Feb 18, 2022 | SW People & Families
Ole J. Ramstad took the name of his home town, Ramstaddallen, Norway, as his surname. Ole was a farmer and fisherman. Jensine Klokk, who lived across the river from him, was the girl he married; their daughter Carrie was born January 24, 1906. Ole’s brother came...
by James Canby | Feb 18, 2022 | SW People & Families
Anna Nyman might have had serious second thoughts about leaving her Finland home in 1900 and journeying across an ocean and half a continent to join her brother in Nucla, Colorado, if she 52 had even remotely envisioned that she was walking into a murder. Her brother...
by James Canby | Feb 18, 2022 | SW People & Families
It was a miserably cold day. John Olaf Erikson, his wife Sofia, and their children were huddled around the stove in their home in Strandquist, Minnesota, wondering whether they had really improved their lot in life by leaving their native Bjurholm, Sweden. Then the...
