Wilhelm Madson: 1891-1961

Wilhelm Madson: "A little sketch on the life story of Wilhelm Julius Edmund Madson"

“Wilhelm Julius Edmund Madson was born in a lowly sod house about 9 miles northwest of Culbertson, Nebraska of the parents Jorgen Elesius Madson, and Helga Andrine, nee Nayes. (The name was originally Naess, in Norway, but the spelling was changed when the family came to America, to conform more to the usages in the U.S.)

“He was born October 22, 1891, and has only a few sketchy visions, like dreams, of anything in Nebraska.

"The family came to Big Timber, Montana, about April 5, 1895, and were taken by spring wagon to the log cabin, formerly the dwelling place of Ben Forsyth before he made the new frame building. It seemed we stayed about a year and a half at place before we moved to the parsonage about a mile and a half away, right beside the road that led to Big Timber.

“The young lad enjoyed the fine stone springhouse - - or milk house - - built over the fine spring that gushed from the side of the hill, and went through a stone channel thru the house, where cans of milk and cream and butter could be set. That became almost an ideal spot in the mind of the little lad.

“Many memories linger in the mind from boyhood days, trying to break the calves to ride and drive, the older brothers, Harold and Carl, making a steam boiler out of a kerosene can that would blow a referee’s whistle , learning to ride, going after the horses and after the cows, learning to milk several run-away horses, hunting for binder twines in the straw stacks, worming our way thru straw stacks and coming out after a little circular trip, and almost dying of suspense when Ma and Pa went away, and not come home quick enough.

"Then to start the grade school that ran about 6 months during the summer. Then during recess or noon, to dive in the tiny spring, or stream that trickled by, to pick up stones or marbles one would drop in, arid so deep I got wet under the arm-pits. Some of the teachers were of high character and tried to make the best of the limited facilities they had, and much praise is due to them."

Helga Nayes & Jorgen Madson & Family
- - outside the new Melville parsonage, 1895 - -
[ Ed note: The place and date are based on an educated guess:
1895 was when the new parsonage was built,
and the youngest child (b. 1893) looks to be around 2 years old ]

Far right: Wilhelm Madson, about 4 years old, sitting on a chair in a sailor suit

Click on photo to see a hi-rez version with identification of people

December 1901: Jorgen & Helga moved their family from Melville, Montana to Absarokee, Montana - - 75 miles to the southeast

“In about 1901 [when I was 10 years old], the folks moved from the Norwegian settlement near Melville, Montana to south of Absarokee, Montana on the East Rosebud River. I rode most all the way on the saddle horse, Prince. Most of the folks were in the spring wagon and Carl [who was 14] drove the big wagon loaded with most of the household goods.

"At our home in Absarokee, I remember hauling spring water from the neighbor's (Magnus Johnson's) spring,

“That fall brother Christian (two years younger) and I started to the local grade school and we were shocked and frightened nearly to death, because the boys were so big and so far behind in school. Two boys, much bigger and older than I was, had a fight that first morning over being advanced into the second reader, and I at age of about 10 was to go into the fourth reader. There was one man about 18 years old in my class in school and it made him so mad to have a little tot like me in his class. He stuttered quite a bit and would often mumble out his complaints when I happened to correct some of his work on the board. I laughed and laughed and could not retain myself when one boy, well up in age, showed me his grade in a Geography test where he had gotten 19 and his brother 18. Their answers were so ridiculous:

Norway

has to built dikes to keep the water from flooding the land, etc. Many of the teachers in that school could not maintain discipline, so the school was raors or less like a madhouse. But we had a couple of teachers who were models and could accomplish much in a short period."

[ On the farm, the boys slept in the bunkhouse. ]

“The older boys in the family, Harold and Carl, did not stay home very much, but went out to work many places and often far away from home, so lots of the home work and chores fell on Christian and I. So we often missed school, and after a while we thought we had had enough schooling."

[ In addition, oldest brother, Harold Madson, was away attending St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, for at least the school years 1899-1900 & 1900-1901. ]

Helga Nayes & Jorgen Madson & Family going to Church
- - 7 of their 9 children as young children & teenagers - -
Absarokee, Montana, about 19__

Ed. note: By this time, 1st child, Harold Madson (age __, b. 1883) & 2nd child Christine Madson Ramsland (age __, b. 1885) had left home.

George Madson (8th child, age __, b. 1898), Wilhelm Madson (5th child, age __, b.1891), Christian Madson (6th child, age __, b. 1893), Rev. Jorgen E. Madson (age __, b.1856), Helga Nayes Madson (age __, b.1855) Agnes Madson Melby (4th child, age __, b. 1889), Dorthea Madson (7th child, age __. b. 1896), Helga Madson (9th child, age __, b 1902), Carl Madson (3rd child, age __, b. 1887)

1909 - 1913 - - age 18-22: Attended High School at Spokane College, the Lutheran Church's Academy in Spokane, Washington

“It was 1909 that Nels Bjorndal, a newcomer lad, wanted to go to school. [When I was 18 years old], and he and I went to Spokane Washington to attend school at Spokane College (our Church's Academy). [ In existence1905 -1929, then merged with Pacific Lutheran College.] We came there the day before Thanksgiving, 1909. There was no school on Friday so the students (boys that is) worked on the Gymnasium they were building. I was nailing on a shiplap on a diagonal and setae boys ware working on the roof above us. There was some frost on the roof and Richard Reierson make a mis-step and came sliding down, right over say head and hit the ground so hard I thought it had killed him. That was my first association with him, as we hastened to pick him up when he tried to stir and moan. Afterwards we were close chums and roommates. His brother, Gustav, and I waited tables and washed dishes at the Boarding Club.

“At Easter time in 1910, I went home from school to help with the farm work, at least I thought that I had to do this. But when time for school came in the fall of 1910, I was there at the start and then I was taken into the High School Department.

“In the vacation time of 1912, I was down to Troy, Idaho, and worked for Henry Emmett, a neighbor of Reiersons, and I think it was Richard Reierson that had secured the job for me.

"I finished the High School in three years and also worked for board and room and came out Salutatorian. Miss Cora Uglem - - a real brainy student - - came out first, so I did not feel hurt in the least at having to take second place to one with the brain she had."

1913-1917 - - age 22-26: Attended St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota

“St. Olaf College offered a scholarship to two students at the top, so that was quite an encouragement to try to go to college, but the financial part looked like an impossibility. Sister Agnes deserves a lot of praise for offering to help me through. Brother Carl had helped me most all of the time while in the Academy, as I needed funds. So when St. Olaf College opened in the fall of 1913, I was there. I was pretty home-sick there for awhile even tho I had been away from home from the fall of 1909 to the end of school in 1913.

“During the summers 1914 and 1915, I tried my luck at canvassing. I was trying to sell the Keystone stereoptican viewers. They were a good line, but I was too easy-going to make a success at it. I did not force my product on anyone and sympathized with their poverty too much, so I never could say I made anything to pay for my time and effort.

“In 1917 I finished College, it seems it was the 5th of June. That same afternoon, after receiving my sheepskin, I went to the US War Service and registered for the draft."

Photo of 1917 St. Olaf College Graduation

1917-1918 & 1919-1921 - - age 26 & 28-30: Attended & graduated from the Norwegian Synod's Luther Seminary on Hamline Ave, St. Paul, Minnesota
1918-1919 - - age 27: During WWI: In the Army, Camp Lewis, Tacoma, Washington

“That Fall of 1917, when [ Luther ] Theological Seminary opened I was at Hamline Avenue [in St. Paul, Mn] to start school.

"The school year of 1918-1919 was lost, because I did a hitch in the US Army, being stationed at Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington, near Tacoma.

“The summer of 1919 I worked for brother Carl on the Henningsen Land Co. ranch out of Augusta or Oilman, Montana, and took 16 carloads of cattle to Chicago for the Company.

"In the fall of 1919, I was back at the Seminary.

“During the summer of 1920 I taught school out at Little Canoe Ridge north east of Decorah, lowa and also worked for a couple weeks at the Electric Power Dam a short ways from where I had stayed."

1921 - - age 30: Graduated from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
“In the spring of 1921 they passed me out of [ Luther ] Theological Seminary as qualified for the Holy ministry and to God be all the praise and Glory for that, for He has always been unusually gracious to me and opened many ways that were strongly barricaded."

1921, June 19 - - age 30: Ordained into the Lutheran Ministry, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Absarokee, Montana
"On the 19th of June 1921 I was ordained to the Holy ministry by the great man and good pal of my father, Dr. S. Kristian Johnsen, at the Immanuel Lutheran Church, in Absarokee, Montana."

1921, July - - age 30: Called to the Lutheran Parish, Lewistown, & Fergus County, Montana
The last days of July 1921, I went to Lewistown, Montana to take up the work in the call they had, under God, extended to me. So the word was begun on the last day of July, 1921 so I could say I started Aug. 1, 1921."

1923, June 20 - - age 32: Married Mildred Romundstad in Strum, Wisconsin. See Wilhelm Madson & Mildred Romundstad

“The good wife, Mildred Romundstad, who joined forces with me on June 20, 1923 at Strum, Wisconsin, will have to add to the chapters that have rolled off the press since that day.

"But it is putting it lightly to say that God had richly blessed us beyond all expectation. To God be the Glory and Praise.“

- - end of story written by Wilhelm Madson - - -

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