Diana Morkassel's Page

I wish I could have known my grandparents more personally.  I was so young when they passed from this earth.
 I will start with my Mother’s parents, there is so much to tell, this may take awhile.  I am glad I don’t have to hurry through this.  One can tell so much more when there is time to dwell on it, mull it over, and bring up more old memories.  
Much of what I will say about them is through other’s stories, and my own research of historical pictures and documents.  I was blessed with parents who kept a lot of pictures and documents.
Mom’s mother was Esther Clara Viola Fleischman Knox.  
Her mother, Martha Bertha passed away when she was only 41  years old from Pancreatitis, gall bladder disease and child birth.  
Esther was only 12 years old when her mother died.    
She was born 4th of 10 children.  The older siblings were born in Wisconsin and the younger ones in Minnesota, but no birth record was found for Esther, though, there is evidence her brother, Carl said he was 9 years old when they got to  Minnesota in 1897.   He, Belle and Laura were born in Wisconsin.   Ralph was born in 1897 in Minnesota.  Esther’s birthday was March 3, 1895, so she must have been born in Wisconsin.  
Just one year after Martha Bertha passed away, Laura, who was 4 years older than Esther, was killed by a heart broken lover, who also took his own life.  This took place in the Fleischman farm home.  Esther had to have been witness.  

So this left 8 children with their father, a heart broken man, who had lost his wife and 2 daughters.  (one of the twins, Mildred, had died at only 3 months old.)  Her surviving twin, Maude was retarded.  The baby, Uncle Freddie, at the time of his mother’s death was only a few months old.  
Poor Great Grandpa, Carl Ferdinand Charles Edward Fleischman was a desperate man.  
My understanding is, he had a mail order bride for a bit, but that didn’t work out.  The oldest son, Carl and daughter, Belle, were adult, but the 4 youngest children were taken to Owatonna State School for orphans.   In the ‘20’s Belle was also admitted to an institute as she, too was borderline retarded.  Beatrice went to live with her Aunt in Wisconsin.   I am quite sure Ralph was kept at home, because he was old enough to be a lot of help to his father on the farm where they homesteaded near Gull Lake, North of Bemidji, Minnesota.  
My Grandma, Esther was old enough to help take care of the children.  It must have been a very difficult time for her.  She did finish high school,  and she then went to Normal school in Bemidji to become a teacher.  Her first school was the Ten mile school, just a mile west of the Pleasant Valley Lutheran Church on Ten Mile Drive (it was just a dirt road then.)  The church wasn’t there either and the Pleasant Valley School had not been built.  The nearest resident was Billy and Ethel Knox Betts on the ten Mile Creek, where the school teacher, Esther Fleischman,  lived while teaching.  Ethel was also a school teacher, as were her sisters, Carol, Bess, Shirley and Nell Knox. Another sister, Marjorie Knox, was a piano teacher.
  Naturally, it wasn’t long before Esther met Norman L. Knox, who lived with his parents on Ten Mile Lake in a log cabin where they had homesteaded.

This photo is of Norman’s parents, Hattie and Myron Knox  at their home on 10 Mile Lake.  Before long, Norman and Esther married in 1916, when she was 19 years old.
As Norman’s Brothers and sisters  matured and moved away, Norman and Esther acquired the home of his parents in Pleasant Valley, Minnesota.  
They lived there and raised their family of 10 children.  My mother, Helen was the second child.
 Norman’s parents, Hattie and Myron Knox were homesteaders since the early 1900’s.   They always promoted education having daughters that became teachers at the Rice Lake School and Boston Lake School to the South of Ten Mile and other country schools, and their son Charles was a seller of school materials in the state of Minnesota.    
Their son Charles also owned land in the property where Ron Northup currently has his Campground, all the way North to the Church corner, which at that time was known as Pine Tree Corner.  There was a big old pine tree which had been used as a pivot for winching logs out of the woods.
When the Pleasant Valley School was built in 1921, the Schools of the area consolidated.  This was before electricity came to the rural community, so they had a generator and electric lights in the New 4 room School building, heated with a coal burning furnace.  Grandpa Norman was instrumental in the building of the structure.  The sand of the ground there, was used for the stucco and plaster, inside and out.  
The Knox family were upstanding community builders, being pilgrims at the turn of the 20th century, they helped to build roads, telephone lines, (their home had the local switch board for a time,) and the schools and church, for which Grandpa Norman donated the 10 acre land at Pine Tree Corner, where the Pleasant Valley Lutheran Church was built.
The Knox family raised cattle, pigs, chickens and kids, and the food to feed them.  Hay, grain and a large vegetable garden.  Grandma also loved flowers, and did much to pass her skills on to her children.  They learned to can and preserve and of course, to bake bread, to feed all the hungry mouths.

This is Grandma Esther with Grandpa Norman Knox and their first 4 children.  My mom, Helen has her hand by her face.

Entertainment was cards, and games in winter, singing and performing skits and plays for the Helping Hands Farmers club and PTA, as well as the church.  Meetings were held at homes before the PV School was built.  It then became the community meeting place, including Church services on Sundays.  
In 1939, a Railroad coach was furnished for the Lutheran worship at Pine Tree Corner.  A year later it caught fire and burned from an Oil heater.  The industrious community did not let that stop them.  In 1940 they built a concrete basement for church.  It would be a few years, before it was a finished building, as it stands today in 2022.
Grandma Esther was wise and loving and creative,  A thespian, and poet, and musical. Mom often bemoaned the fact that she was lost at the prime of her life,   She suffered Cirrhosis of her liver, though she was never was known to drink alcohol.  Apparently gall bladder and liver disease was genetic.   She expressed the hope that her visits to Mayo Clinic would facilitate the research to help others some day.  Grandma Esther died in 1937 at the age of 42.   Grandpa was left with 8 children at home.
He, like Great Grandpa Fleischman, married again.  Kathryn could not handle all the children, and she left.  His third wife, Olga Heggie Knox, is the one I remember.  She was sweet and kind and quiet.  A very capable woman, I have pictures of her in pants with strings of fish.  Women didn’t wear pants in my childhood, but I guess she did.
This is Grandpa and Olga as I remember them.

Grandpa Norman Lewis Knox, was a kind gentle, strong man.  He loved kids, this I know, because I loved him.
He not only kept his farm and family together, he developed 3  milk trucking routes.  He would pick up neighbor farmer’s cans of milk and cream and their shopping lists, deliver the cans to the creamery in Bemidji, and pick up groceries and supplies for them, delivering them the same day as he returned their empty cans on the route home.  
I was only 9 when he passed away of cardiac arrest in 1954 at the age of 60 years old.

I could probably write a book about the Northup side, but since my brother Rick did extensive website on the Northups, I will be more brief.
Grandma and Grandpa Northup lived in Ottertail County when I was a child.  Archibald Ambrose Northup was born in Wisconsin and came with his parents to southern Minnesota.  He set out as a young man to find his own farm in Ottertail County where he met Myrtle Olive Johnson.  Her father, Parker Johnson was a farmer, and his wife Ella Davis lived and raised their family in Ottertail County.
  Grandpa and Grandma Northup, Archibald Ambrose and Myrtle Olive Johnson Northup.

This is their family when they were all mature.

Myrtle and Archie raised 5 children, my father Vyron, being the first.  They were industrious settlers in the Township of Maine, Ottertail County.   By trade, my grandpa Archie was a stone mason.  He built many stone structures in Ottertail county, including a school, which I should find a picture of, and the memorial at the entrance to the town of Ottertail, where the original Post Office was located.
He also built the stone basement foundation of his own home, after a fire destroyed the first home.  My Dad was 18 at the time and Grandpa asked him to come home and help rebuild, so Dad got some good experience in stone work.
Grandpa was also handy at carpentry and built his out-buildings as well.
      This picture is when Grandpa Archie built his tool shed and my Brother Lewis and Connie were there to help.

Archie was musical, too and I recall the last time I saw him, he came visiting and we had a little square dance outside on the drive way.  Grandpa did a jig that day.  Sure wish I had a video of him doing the Irish Jig.
We always visited them in the summer and I have many pictures of the Aunts, Uncles and cousins.

When they were no longer able to live on their own, My grandparents went to Illinois to live with Uncle Dean.  
Grandma Myrtle did a lot of volunteer work as a Grey Lady at the hospital.  Grandpa just wanted to get back to Minnesota.  He succeeded in returning to Minnesota by bus.  My Dad wanted him to come live with us, but Grandpa said, ‘no.’  However, when the winter was cold and he was trying to light his fire, he was overcome and died there in his own home all by himself.  A couple days later, Dad received a letter he had sent, written in a shaky hand, ‘You better come and get me. ‘  I’m not sure I have a record of his year of death.   You can look it up if you really want to know.  I know I was only about 10.  About 1955.
Grandma Myrtle was 16 years younger than him, and she lived several more years.  I remember her as rather grumpy, but I also can recall her chuckle when she was younger and something made her smile.  I also remember my Aunts and her in the kitchen preparing meals, murmuring among themselves, such phrases, as,  ‘Vera, help Marj with the meat. ‘ “I’ll take the fruit out to the lawn,   there’s too many to eat indoors.’ ‘Here let me handle that.’   ‘Oh, I can slice the bread, while you make the kool aid.’  We had many happy picnics out there at their farm in Ottertail county.
And speaking of Kool Aid, It really tasted strange made of that strongly iron flavored water.  I was fascinated by the pitcher pump on the edge of the counter by the sink.  
Grandma Myrtle continued to live in Illinois until 1964 when she came to live with Dad and family at Pleasant Valley.  I had already started my own family in Warren, MN.  In October, 1965 she died of cardiac arrest right there in the living room.  
I now wish I had visited with her about her family and likes and dislikes.  I can’t say I knew her very well.  I guess I look like her mother Ella Davis Johnson.  

I think this picture looks a lot like my brother Chuck and me.  It is Great Grandpa Parker Samuel Johnson and Ella Davis Johnson.

I could write lots more, post more pictures of more Great Grandparents and do more research, but for now, I hope I have answered the question, What were my Grandparents like?