About St. Petri.

Christ and Rakel/Rachel Soblerg were among the group of Norsk immigrants from the Nordfjord area in Norway who homesteaded nearby and established the church. Their names are on documents hanging on the wall inside the church.  Signe was baptized there; Signe and Palmer were married there-

Many Solberg relatives are buried in the graveyard. Including Christ and Rakel and some of Signe's siblings.

2882 – Beautiful prairie view north seen from the gate into the St. Petri cemetery.

2888- Bjørn stands ready to write his name (to join other names), on the blackboard in an old country school where the door stood open for some years.  Many visitors to the area came in – and left messages-

And why does this school matter?  It is near St. Petri and was the first school that Signe taught at in the 1930s after she had earned her Teachers Degree at Valley City College. The school was called the Pierson School as it stood on Pierson farmland, near the Pierson house. And this Pierson farm was the first farm in ND to get electric lights, these from the Baker Electric REA that Palmer was central in establishing.  This happened while she was teaching there and living with the Pierson family.

2112 and 2122-This was a Stadum get-together (not official reunion) at the Hillestad place in Benson County, the hosts being children of Ida Stadum, Palmer's sister, who had married a Hillestad. The blond woman on the right end is a Stadum second cousin who is very attentive visiting Peggy in Bottineau—The man sitting, Gary Stadum, was (he died this spring) the oldest Stadum cousin at the time. He had taken over the Stadum farm where John and Gina had first homesteaded and where Palmer grew up. After Gary retired, and his son took over the farm, Gary began to do quilting, as his grandmother Gina had done. The blue quilt is one of his products.

2013-This is the Cover of the small book I wrote about my experiences coming to live in Norway.  Ir was printed locally and given to friends in 2010. (Some of what I thought then about the Norway has changed! ) In the photo, I am wearing a “bunad” – the official festive costume in Norway.This had been Peggy's but she gave it to me when I moved here

She had arranged to buy it when she and Palmer took a trip to Stadum reunion in Norway in 1978 or 1979. Your parents were also at the reunion in an area called Hadeland where the Stadums came from. But she and Palmer then travelled north to Nordfjord where the Solbergs had come from.  The colors and design of the bunad are recognizable as coming from Nordfjord.

A neighbor here took the photo of me standing with my camera looking around for my next photo. This was the first Constitution Day, May 17t celebration I had attended, a day when bunads come out of the closet.