Tribute: Three Lives Remembered

Part One Ernie and Tom In the late 1800s, Sven and Hedvig Pearson emigrated from Sweden and Norway, respectively, and settled in Fargo, North Dakota, where Sven worked as an iceman. Motivated by a restlessness and a desire for a better life, they moved to Minneapolis, where they lived for a short time before taking advantage of the Homestead Act, which promised them free land in northern Minnesota if they would clear it, build a home, and live on it for at least five years. The year was 1913, and Sven and Hedvig set up roots in the Bemis Hill area of northern Minnesota but didn't homestead very long, because the conditions turned out to be unsuitable for farming. So back to Minneapolis they went. Sven's job as a park caretaker in Minneapolis provided a lovely home for his family, which included five boys: Edwin, Oscar, Ernest, Raymond, and Roy. As the years went by, however, the older boys became increasingly involved with unsavory characters in the city, and Sven and Hedvig worried that they were turning into "hoodlums." Whether it was this worry over their sons' reputations or Sven's seemingly peripatetic nature - or a combination of both factors - a move was once again in the picture for the Pearsons. Their home this time was 160 acres they were able to purchase in Falun Township, back in northern Minnesota. It was the last move that Sven and Hedvig would make. Sven and Hedvig, along with their five boys, left Minneapolis for Falun in the spring of 1930. Raymond tells the story of their trip in the book, We Just Shoveled Two Feet of Partly Cloudy: "Someone told Pa that if he would buy a plow and a harrow to prove that his intentions to be a farmer were sincere, he could rent a whole boxcar for 25 dollars. He did just that, and, after asking for God's help on the trip, we left Minneapolis in a 1926 Model T Ford with no top and no side curtains, the absence of which wasn't a problem since it was spring and the weather was warm. We made it to Badger, about 30 miles from home, on the same day, but with no headlights we couldn't continue and had to stay overnight. The next morning we arrived at our destination in Falun Township. A few days later the boxcar with our furniture and plow and harrow arrived in Roseau, and we hauled everything home with a team of horses and a wagon that Pa had recently purchased." Hilding Ernest Pearson (Ernie), born on July 13, 1916, was 13 when they arrived at their new home. He had two years to enjoy the farm and hunting with his brothers, especially Raymond, before he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. Hedvig took him to the hospital at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on the train and stayed with him for two weeks. Ernie underwent treatments at the hospital, and between treatments he often stayed with his Uncle John (Sven's brother) and Aunt Carrie. He was only 300 miles from home, but he might as well been clear across the country because on one - neither his parents nor his brothers - had the money or the wherewithal to visit him during his three-month absence. So he wrote sentimental letters, using a simple, folksy style of writing - letters that were flooded with a sense of nostalgia. He wrote from the heart for those he loved and for himself, evoking childhood memories and conveying hope...........always conveying hope.