Case Study Continued

​After Fredrik built a shanty and planted his first crop of wheat, he  sought out construction jobs.  To meet the requirements to make the land his, he lived on the claim for three months during the spring planting season for wheat and three months of harvest.  During the intervals between those times, he was close enough to growing towns to take on electrification jobs in Canada, Montana and the Dakotas.  If needed, he could do masonry and even carpentry.   Though there were defined borders, there were no actual border checkpoints established between Canada and the U.S.  until the 1920’s.  Fredrik moved freely between his land and northern Montana.  When he had completed all the homesteading requirements, not only did he own the land outright, he also became a Canadian citizen.
During the years 1914-1919, Fredrik had become independent of Mikal’s mentorship.  Letters were sent to Mikal in Chicago or Whitehall, WI from Fredrik in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan or Minot, North Dakota.  Most of the available land for settlers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas had been claimed and developed.  The railroads were established and there was less demand for workers.  The burgeoning West drew Fredrik for the opportunities of homesteading but unlike the first settlers, he also invested in  land others had cleared and built on.  He improved his properties by electrifying  the structures. His letters detailed his daily life.  He wrote of women he was seeing, poker games during the winter months, the difficulty of supplies getting to his homestead claim, construction jobs he had or hoped to get.  His letters were dominated by reports of land deals that he did on behalf of himself and Mikal.  His entrepreneurial spirit was evident in these letters that included so much more than clearing land and growing wheat.
“I have one thing on my mind that I would like to ask you, and that is, if you would mind very much if I were to join the (Canadian) army?  You see, I’ve got another nine months to put into the land and I don’t need to be there any more if I enlist.”  Fredrik writing to Mikal,
Swift Current, Saskatchewan
July 12, 1916   
World War I kept both Fredrik and Mikal in America.  Norway was officially neutral but it’s large naval fleet, strategic position for sea battles, and supply of fish to feed troops was of strategic importance to the Germans and the United Kingdom.  The brothers worried about the farm, the well-being of their father and sisters and remaining brother.  The North Sea was too dangerous to consider going home so they continued to work and invest their earnings, looking to the future.  Fredrik, the younger brother even considered going to fight for Canada 
 
“Received your letter just one hour ago, and I see that you are serious about your returning to Norway…..I am glad that you are going home.  You may think it strange for me to say that I am happy about your leaving me, but you know what I mean.  Just now your place is at home, so you can begin making a decision about your future.   Here you were never sure of anything about the future and had to live accordingly---almost like a gypsy.”
Fredrik writing to Mikal
Regina, Saskatchewan
February 5, 1919
By the time WWI was over and it was safe to travel, Mikal was 40 years old.  In this letter, Fredrik is encouraging Mikal to claim ownership of the family farm in Norway, marry and start another generation.  Even though he had spent over 15 years in America, Mikal never gave up his right to the farm in Bygstad. Within a year of returning to Norway, Mikal was married and expecting his first child.  
  Fredrik continued to work day by day, and week to week wherever he found himself, in his words “like a gypsy”, for a few more years but he too began to long for a more stable future.  For him it was in America.