Marie Gulbrandsen (1840 - 1918)

Born 6 Jun 1840 in Harestueie, Norway

Wife of Christian Ellenson — married 1861 in Norway

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bob Beers [send private message]

Biography

She smoked a corncob pipe. Grandmother Marie was the only living grandparent when I was born. She started smokeing a pipe when she was left alone in Norway. It was so strange. When we got together, we never thought anything of it, it was just something that grandmother did. But I saw her shear sheep. Every spring they would pick the feathers from the ducks' necks to use for pillows. She spun yarn, combed the wool, knit mittens and I saw here at the spinning wheel many times. She lived in a log cabin until it burned down. That was on Anton's farm (her son b. 1880). He built an addition to his house so she had two rooms of her own. She would go up in the hills to get the cattle, but she would be knitting as she walked. I have helped her churn butter. I remember one night when I was about 12 (1915) I was supposed to make the milk soup. Ida and the kids were doing the chores. And I remember sleeping in the feather bed with grandmother Marie one night. We sunk way down in the feathers. I remember so well that when the mittnes and the socks wore out, they never threw them away. They saved them and dyed them. She would sew them on gunny sacks. After they were sewed on, she would ravel them and they used them as rugs in their bedrooms. They were really pretty."

When Anton and the other members of the family came to town in Decorah, they would always come to our house. They had these bricks they would heat up at our house to put in the buggy to keep their feet warm on the way home.

I remember the rattlesnakes. I used to go out and pick gooseberries and be afraid of the snakes. But the primary thing I would remember is work. Work, work, work. Some sense of humor, but work and the church were the two main realities of their life."

Recollected by Christian and Marie's granddaughter Frances Sorlien.

Buried Iowa River Cemetery.

Sources

• Sorlien, Arne. Christian and Marie Ellingson and their Progeny. Minneapolis, MN: self published, 1983.
• Profile created by Bob Beers through the import of lymansmithancestors.ged on Jul 25, 2019.