"Independent Emma Hanson has interesting stories to tell" from the December 12, 1978 Door County Advocate
EMMA HANSON — Shea
Independent Emma Hanson has interesting stories to tell
By HENRY SHEA
In Walden I Thoreau wrote "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation; what is called resignation is conformed desperation." Not so Emma Hanson. It is doubtful if she ever had any long lasting moments of true despair.
At 83 going on 84 in January, she manages to preserve an outlook on life that is both practical and backed by solid religious convictions. She would be the first to say "Why write a story about me, I've done nothing special in my life, I've just been here.
But her "being here" has added some new dimensions to lives around her. Those who are aware of her responsibilities have considerable admiration.
Emma lives today in the house in which she was born, a neat shingled cottage that is more reminiscent of Cape Cod than of a typical, elderly Door county farmstead. The farm buildings are unused now but they have afforded much pleasure to various photographers and artists who have stopped by to record their mello, weathered appearance.
Emma was born in the house of father Ole Hanson of Eidskoggen, Norway. He came to the U.S. in 1869 as did her mother, Marie Malmer, who was from Kongsvinger near Oslo.
Both were in Chicago at the time of the disastrous fire of 1871 and both had gone through the famous immigration entry point, Castle Gardens, New York. This was later replaced by Ellis Island, now abandoned too, when during the late 1880's and 1890's the waves of Lithuanians, Polish, Bohemians and German and Russian Jewish families began to arrive.
Emma's mother contracted typhoid in the aftermath of the Chicago fire and she was invited to recuperate at the home of her brother Martin Olson Malmer in Ephraim. As she became well she took over the cooking chores at the brother's logging camp nearby.
In the meantime Emma's father-to-be, after a bout of malaria, had found work in a brickyard at Muskegon, Mich. Emma's Uncle Martin, who had known her father briefly in Chicago and perhaps acting, unconsciously, as a matclunaker, urged Ole Hanson to move to Door county where, he thought, prospects were better and he would be among fellow, Norwegians.
Ole Hanson did move, met Marie Malmer and they were married in 1872 at the Moravian Church by pastor John J. Groenfeldt. There were no fancy touches such as bridesmaids, matrons of honor, and practically the whole village turned out for the event. The celebrants followed the old custom of seating themselves with men on one side of the church, women, married, or not, on the other.
Emma's earliest remembrance is of attending funeral services of Ole Olson Malmer, another brother of Uncle Martin, and picking the seed pods of wild roses on the property which is now the site of the Ephraim Condominiums.
Another memory comes clear to her, a Sunday morning in October, 1903. Arriving in Ephraim for Sunday School she heard news of the sinking of the 79 ft. passenger-freight steamer Erie L. Hackley. The steamer had been owned by the Fish Creek Transportation Co. and journeyed across Green bay to Menominee, Escanaba and other northern ports.
Caught by a sudden squall from the southwest, east of Green Island, the Hackely went down with a loss of eight passengers and three of the crew, including the Captain. As it happened, Emma's father had a friend on board the Hackley who with his son spent the evening and night clinging to a crude raft and singing all the Norwegian hymns they could remember to keep awake. Rescue came with the Goodrich Line's Sheboygan, 14 hours after the sinking.
The vagaries of Green bay were an ever present hazard and Emma recalls that her cousin Mabel Malmer and a friend were swept out into Green bay by a sudden surge of wind as they were loitering in the shallows in a rowboat without oars. A sudden rescue by her father was called for. She places the Hackley episode by a kind of landmark, the day after the funeral of Mrs. Thomas Goodletson (original family name Gudleikson — Norwegian men, on arriving in the U.S. frequently Anglicized or otherwise changed their names to make them difficult to trace and avoid being called up for military service in Norway).
Emma's first schooling was at a building at the junction of county trunk F and Maple Grove Road, now a meeting place for the VFW. To get the children started on comprehension of the English language a part of every day's studies was the "chart class," a period using a large chart showing everyday objects with their Norwegian names and English equivalents.
Little Emma was fascinated, ran home to her mother to tell her of the "short" class and that the teacher said she was doing well. The pardonable confusion was caused by basic differences in the pronunciation of "S", "Sh" and "Ch" sounds. To this day some persons of Scandinavian extraction are heard to pronounce the word "sure" as "sooer".
Before long this outlying school was closed and Emma started at Ephraim school, now the headquarters of the Ephraim Foundation. "No need for physical education in those days," Emma says, "it was three miles to school and three miles back, mostly uphill. During my grade school years I was only late twice" Emma says modestly, "on the first day of school and the second time when I was caught in a furious downpour of rain, an all-day one." Standing under a tree with her shoes getting progressively soggier, she finally headed for the Albert Langoehr home; borrowed a pair of shoes and left hers by the stove to dry out.
Her favorite school subjects were reading, grammar, (a fact that is evident today in her careful and precise speech) mathematics and physiology. History and government (now called civics in the social studies curricula) eluded her but she does remember that one of the 18 specific powers of Congress was the establishment of mail routes and postoffices.
John Brann was her teacher, an ambitious and energetic man who later when back to school at the University of Wisconsin and became a professor in the College of Agriculture and eventually lived to be over 90. Brann stood for no nonsense in his classes. An acquaintance recalls one time when Brann laid hands on a young male student for some misdemeanor and shock him hard. This moved young Emma to exclaim "Please Mr. Brann, don't hurt him."
Emma harks back to Fridays after recess when it became the custom to have either a spelling bee or play a "Geography" game which involved naming states, capitols, and other facts. Penalties for mistakes were the memorization of a poem. There are three survivors of that Ephraim school class, Emma herself, Albin Ohman and Robert Seiler of Sturgeon Bay.
A family story that still makes Emma chuckle has to do with the wedding of her Uncle Martin Olson Malmer. Calling for his bride in an open cordwood wagon he was caught in the rain just before arriving, his cardboard collar melted, his suit thoroughly soaked — a bedraggled bridegroom.
After the wedding the rain continued and the reception was planned for Ellison Bay. The new bride refused to undergo the 12 mile trek in her bridal finery. Uncle Martin, undaunted, proceeded to Ellison Bay where he reported the guests had a great time but had wished the bride could have been present to make the event complete.
Emma remembers her uncle as a kindly man who with his shoemaking talents probably shod most of Ephraim. When not busy with his modest logging operations and not cobbling he picked berries, fished and was never out of work.
Emma was confirmed in the Bethany Lutheran church at Ephraim Aug. 16, 1908 by the Rev. A. T. Juvland. At 13 she was working at the O.M. Olson Hotel at $3 per week. When not working, during the summer, she was busy picking wild berries which could be sold to the hotels and the growing number of summer residents at five to 10 cents a quart. The money realized was used for school books, shoes and small necessities, such as tooth brushes which cost all of 10 cents at one of the three stores in town.
There was plenty of work at home too, cutting corn, tending cattle and the kitchen work. In fall the laying down of winter supplies was an important chore. A load of beach sand was brought to the cellar and into this at three inch intervals were stuck carrots, rutabagas, potatoes. Meat balls were fried, put into a crock, covered with melted lard and a plate and a rock placed on top. From time to time Emma "helped out" at Brookside Tea Garden, then getting established.
At 16 she acquired a job in the home of a prosperous Chicago brewer, where she says she never saw any form of alcoholic beverage on the table. It was her first experience on a train. Her main responsibilities were as baby sitter, maid and general help.
She returned to the county to be with her father for several years in his final illness, then went back to continue her job until 1934 when the death of her mother brought her home to take up family duties. Now she was back at Brookside Tea Garden, only recently closed, where she turned out, over the years, thousands of loaves of bread, pans of rolls and cakes.
It is an interesting fact that in this day of Women's Lib there prevailed in Ephraim and other Door communities as they became increasingly tourist oriented a strong matriarchal undertone. True, at all male affairs such as the Ephraim Men's club it was customary to permit the ladies who prepared the refreshments to appear briefly to be formally thanked but they were immediately ushered back into the kitchen. Probably the men of the village did not realize how much of their lives were managed by their wives.
Emma, as the holiday season approaches, comments that in her home at Christmas was no mention of Santa Claus. Such fantasy was not encouraged by her parents. But her interest in her church has been constant since she was confirmed. She has been secretary for nine years and active in the American Lutheran Church Women's organization.
Discussing various forms of church services and noting that some denominations tend to be more vociferous than others in their worship, Emma has the apt phrase "Why holler, God isn't deaf." Today, besides her church activities she is much engrossed in the doings of the Maple Grove Homemakers club. She likes the regularity of a monthly project and a chance to learn something new. Here again she has inherited some of the chores. She's been both secretary and treasurer for quite some time. Right now she is looking forward, alert and ready, to her 84th birthday. Undoubtedly she will have some crisp but grandmotherly comment on that event.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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