General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> /Stenhjem/
From a newspaper article clipped from probably a Kindred, ND area
newspaper (undated clipping): "Martha Stenehjem was born on September 19,
1852 near Stoughton, Wisconsin.  Her parents, Amund Stenehjem and Kari
Qualey Stenehjem were natives of Bergen, Norway.  They were the parents
of seven children, two girls and five boys.  Two years before Martha's
birth they came to America.  When martha was two and a half years old,
her parents were lured to the more fertile lands near Spring Grove,
Minn.  Packing their possessions in horse drawn wagons, they proceeded on
their way as joyfully as many of the early settlers did.  Most of the
land here was hilly woodland dotted with many lakes and streams.  The
land had to be cleared of trees and stumps before crops could be raised. 
Martha helped her father and brothers do this.  Their house was so small,
their mother could easily manage it so the girls worked out of doors. 
One day while blasting rocks, martha's father had the sad misfortune to
lose four fingers on his left hand.  Because Martha had been such a
constant helper, and with this handicap she was called his "left hand
helper".  Her father was a mason by trade and he taught her how to make a
crude mortar of lime, sand and small rocks.  They used this for linings
in the wells.  Similar mortar could be used for foundations.  The
settlers built a small church on the Stenehjem farm, a mere forty rods
from the house.  Mr. Stenehjem was the janitor but Martha and her sister,
Johanna, bore this responsibility for him.  Typical of their mother
country, these pioneers did not forget their Lord, and little Martha
worked as faithfully as the rest.  A traveling minister served the
congregation.  When special services, as funerals, were to be held, the
minister was summoned first.  Sometimes it took several days before he
could be located and no arrangements were made until he arrived. 
Confirmation classes were held in the Spring Grove church.  This was ten
miles from Martha's home but she walked to every meeting the class had. 
On her return home she carried provisions for the household from the
sotre.  Sometimes it rained so hard whle she was in school that small
streams were formed between the steep hillsides.  She had to wade through
these, for there were no bridges on any streams.  She was confirmed in
the Wilmington Lutheran Church.  On June 27, 1869 she was married to Hans
Bjerke in this same church by Reverend F. Clausen.  They lived on a farm
near Black Hammer, Minn., for two years after they were married.  News of
the vast Dakotah Territory soon reached their ears.  Together with a
neighboring family and a bachelor friend, they packed their meager
possessions in covered wagons.  Then turning their faces toward the
setting sun, they bade their first homes adieu and proceeded to the land
of golden opportunities, "the Dakotah Territory."  Besides the ox teams
which pulled the wagons, this small band had forty head of cattle.  This
was a large herd to drive over unknown lands.  Sometimes they traveled
all day before they came to a lake or stream to water the cattle.  By
this time they were unruly and hard to drive.  They camped near a lake or
on the bank of some river at night.  While they stopped, Mrs. Bjerke
would cook and bake.  They had the cook stove set up in one of the
wagons.  Mrs. Bjerke recalls baking bread on the banks of the Minnesota
River.  While the bread was baking a nearby settler came to see the
immigrants.  He marveled at the delicious bread and ran home to get his
wife so she could see it too.  A small ferry boat took them across the
Mississippi River at Fort Snelling, near the present site of Minneapolis
and St. Paul.  Only a few cattle could be taken at one time.  The last
ones became very wild and panicky and it was hard to keep them from
plunging in the raging river.  From Fort