Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1908-08-20
FROM .he Dame ss..lenenl

Our 1east was. alas, not very
grand success after all. 1t was very
late in the beginning The old print
ed notices from year ago were posted
up as announcements and all the
speakers names we're overcrossed ex-
Mr. Ole Amble's. People like to know
who the speakers are. Mr.. Amble is
a Norwegian and had no experience
in the trials in Denmark some seventy
years ago, or the real pioneer life
through the first fifteen years of our
history. the war of the rebellion, or
the very poor times fifty-two years
ago, and of course he cannot produce
food he has not in his store.
People were very slow in coming in.
This is always a great error. 1t was
past 3 o'clock before any move was
made in regard TO the feast. For
people to sit on some hard hoard
benches three or four hours will make
them exceedingly tired. at last
Lewis johnson got his violin, VIM. T.
Rasmussen came forth TO the organ,
and in company with three or four
girls, rendered a song or two, being
all the music we had; much too little.
The chairman. w. Nielsen, rendered
first rate service. He and Mr.. Amble
then appeared on the stand and Mr..
Ambl spoke a little and mentioned
the hard and trying pioneer days and
what good work the old fathers and
mothers had done for their children,
Ietc., ETC., and when he left the stand
he recommended that some OF the
younger men should come forward
and speak, but none responded. The
chairman extended an invitation to
lseveral persons to come up on the
island to speak, but there was not
much wind in the sails. At last j. G.
Rasmussen stood forward and spoke
of the many past years he had worked
on his farm since small boy, and
said he had seen time when some OF
the Dane people had nothing TO eat
for weeks only potatoes, and there
| Wao a SiSab NSoi VI - ~ - oHN $3.50
est in what he said.
Then August Rasmussen was, after
much urging, almost lifted upon the
tstand, and the chairman presented
him as Father Rasmussen, who would
try and say few words" The old
pioneer said in part: "As | have not
by the committee been requested to
speak, am not prepared to say only
few words. For sixty-six or seventy
years have a grand recollection of
the affairs in our own fatherland
Denmark AS small boy about
8 years of age drove the little gray
horse team while my father held the
old. fashioned wheel pillow, which,
when put together in working order,
was ten feet in length. The point,
share and coulter were the only iron
found on the pillow and an iron ring
for the drag pull was all the iron on
our harrow; teeth and all the rest
we're wood, and with this implement
farmers were doing business in Dem
mark seventy years ago A pillow with
a cast moldboard | first saw in 1910
and it was marked on the inside of
the moldboard with IN "" whic h
meant New York. We called it an
Americans plow." He said further
more, II tell you, seventy years ago
there was for the poor people hard
place in Denmark. There were mis-
cradle roads, poor communications,
no railroads. farmers had TO transport
their produce to the market on a
home made clumsy linchpin wagon,
But then God gave somebody the
knowledge that there was land far
off to the west of the great Atlantic
ocean, where there was plenty OF
good farming land and free govern
ment, which fellow could get almost
for nothing, but who was to get 1t for
a poor, unlearned people was the
Question. There was a school teach
er by the name of Rasmus Sorensen,
who went from Denmark to America
y
} work in New Denmark, Wisconsin.
he wrote a pamphlet which was
printed and read with great desire.
1t was one of the first things ! ever
read except my school books. read
1t when a boy 10 years old and then
made up my mind that ] should once
see America.
The next man to GO was Christian
Johnson, when the war ended in 1850.
He wrote letters back home to his
brother, Erastus Johnson, now living
in Greenville. got hold Of one of
the letters, took his address and my
J wife and i started three years after
ward and found Mr.. johnson and an
other Dane by the name of John Pc
terson and we four Danes we're the
beginning of the Danish people who
are now living here by thousands.