Grandpa George was born on Nov. 11, 1890. He was the first born in the new house built on the Evenson Homestead. He attended school at the Lee School 2 miles east of the farm and then attended the Hall School 1 mile west of the farm. George attended one term at Mayville Normal College. George and Ted played baseball for Essex Baseball team when not working on the farm. There is a large pond in front of the house and grain elevator and my grandfather told me they raised geese on it.
When fall came George and his brother Ted would get a long hay mow rope and stretch it across the pond and herd the geese to one end for butchering. The geese were then taken to Devils Lake and sold. Eggs, cream, beef and pork were also hauled to Devils Lake to be sold.
George rented the farm from his father in 1912 and purchased the farm in 1919. In 1912 George worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad as they built the Soo Line Rail Line from Duluth to Devils Lake. The rail line would go a quarter mile south of the Evenson homestead. George started work approximately 5 miles east of the farm near Rohrville, driving his team of horses and pulling a dump wagon full of dirt or gravel as the rail bed was being built. He continued past the farm towards Devils Lake until it got too dark at night for him to get the team of horses home. George took the money made building the Soo Line rail bed and bought a threshing machine and started to custom thresh area farmers’ fields with a neighbor named Lee. When his partner couldn’t get going in the morning George bought him out and continued custom threshing with 2 machines for more than 20 years. He married Stena Hjerpus in 1915. Stena was born in Oslo, Norway on Jan. 7, 1889. Stena immigrated to North Dakota with brother Chris a few years prior. Stena would cook meals out of a large cook car hauled to the area farms where the threshing was being done and the farm was not capable of cooking for a large crew. George and Stena continued this business until newer threshing machines were developed. George and Stena had 4 children; Elmer, born in the house, on November 28, 1916; Irene born on September 15, 1918; Gary born on December 7, 1920 and Orrin born on September 14 1923. All of the boys worked on the threshing crew as they grew old enough. Irene worked in the cook car with Stena.
