Watne — Tvedte (Tweed)

In 1886, Erick and Marlene Watne and their son Edwin moved from Wisconsin to Dakota Territory and made their home in an abandoned dugout. Marlene died in 1891, and after Erick married Hannah Hystad in 1893, they continued living there until toward the end of the century. Erick’s daughters Lizzie, born in 1889, and Gerda, born in 1895, were born there. In 1887, Tollef and Dorothea Tvedte, Erick Wayne’s sister, and their four sons, William, Louis, Alfred, and Carl, came from Minnesota and lived with the Watnes in the dugout while building their first home northeast of there in the pasture. In later years, William G. Tweed, Tollef’s son, operated a blacksmith shop in the dugout while the railroad was being built in 1899.

North Dakota · United States