Stella Waters Dahl

Stella Waters about 1894

Stella Waters is a cousin to our Grandma Annette. She was born in July of 1878.  Her mother, Hanna was 28, her father William Waters was 45. His age, a houseful of young children, the farm and all the responsibility, took it's toll on William. At age 61, not really old by our standards today, committed suicide on the farm in Lake Elizabeth, Minnesota. It must have been  a very trying time for the Waters family that year of 1894.  Stella being the oldest daughter, but only 16, must have especially felt the stress of the situation and having to be more help to her mother during this time. I'm not sure of her exact age at the taking of this picture, but she doesn't look too happy; maybe a little defiant. And what's up with that funny "knot" on top of her head! I think it must have been the fashion of the day. In the 1895 census in Lake Elizabeth, Minnesota, unmarried Stella is there on the farm with her Mother, brothers,a sister, a daughter, Zola, and a hired workman named John Dahl. John is the brother of Anton Dahl who marries Stella in 1896. Whether or not her daughter Zola is his, is unknown. Grandma writes this about Stella, "We had visitors from Minneapolis that summer (of 1909). They were my cousin, Stella Waters Dahl, her husband Anton, and their four children, Zola, Mary, Irwin and Leslie. Stella was a dear, kind person like her mother, Aunt Hanna." And she had this to say about the children, "Mary was a nice ten year old but the two boys, seven and nine, were undisciplined and spoiled. Zola was my age, thirteen, but we had nothing in common. She was a pretty, knowing and sophisticated city girl." Again regarding Zola, "I saw Zola in 1933, when she came to see Aunt Sophia and found me and my four children there. It was something of a shock to see her! She was grossly fat, really an enormous woman. No trace at all of the pretty thirteen year old of twenty six years ago. Zola was a widow, no children, and was earning her living as a housekeeper for an elderly man. The two mature women of thirty-nine had a pleasant visit."
       After marrying in 1896, she and Anton lived on a farm in Friendship, Minnesota. There were other members of the Dahl family living there too. They lived there for about 10 years, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where Anton was a carpenter.
       In 1931, she and her husband, daughter Zola who was widowed, daughter in law and grandchild were involved in an horrific car accident on the way to visit with her son Irwin. Both she and Anton were killed. The newspaper article is included at the bottom of this post. A bit graphic and for that I apologize.
       Here are a few things that I have gathered about Stella's children. Zola married Arthur Bazine about 1920. She was a nurse. He died in 1924 at the age of 35. There are no children listed in census records. In 1930, she was living with her parents in Minneapolis. She died in 1960 in Minneapolis, Minn. I don't have any information on Mary. Leslie H worked as an office manager for the public telephone company in 1940. He married Irene Miller; they had two children. He died in 1978 and is buried in Mendota, Minnesota.
Irwin R worked also for the telephone company but as a traffic chief. He married Anne Smith and they had two children. He also died in 1978.
       So that's all I know about the Stella Waters Dahl family. I now realize how important it is that we write down a little of our life story. Without my Grandmother Annette's book, we would know so little about her family and others. I am hoping to do the same in writing a few lines. I have plenty of the good, bad and the ugly~ just what a good story needs these days ;)
       Just so you know who Stella is~~ Grandma's grandfather Hans Hansen had a daughter named Hanna, who is Stella's mother. So she and Grandma Annette were first cousins.

 

Ken Knudson (Aunt Julia's grandson) pictures

L  is Ken Knudson on right with friend, Top R is Ken with wife Lydia and baby@ graduation from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR , Bottom R is Ken and Lydia Bowman @ their wedding

About a year ago, Greg Bowman was doing some research on the Knudson line and sent me a message through Ancestry. From that message I have connected with Julie Knudson a great granddaughter of Julia Nelson Knudson (see previous post) through her son,William Knudson.(following me?!!) I have also included some of the stories that Julie and her brother Steve have shared about their Grandpa Will and their father, Ken Knudson. Sorry that the type font's are different~ oh well, the stories are great! Thanks Knudson's!
Memory 1 about Will Knudson~~"Just a few notes below about Dad when he was a marine from me and my oldest brother Steve.  Steve told me last night that Grandpa Knudson (Julia's son) was a very quiet guy and that Steve had to mine him for information.  Steve was the one who found out about Grandpa traveling from Idaho to Enterprise Oregon to drive a herd of horses back to Idaho to sell to the US Calvary.  And, Steve had asked Grandpa Will, when he told us the Lofoten Island fisherman's trials during the storm, if Grandpa knew the guy he was telling us about and Grandpa said yes, he knew him.( Of course we know this was Grandpa Anders!)  And, we never, ever heard about Grandpa going to Idaho on the Oregon Trail when he was a little kid.  Greg Bowman told me about that.  Just the same, one of my Dad's sisters told me that she overheard Grandpa telling my Dad when he was leaving in the marines, in a private conversation between the two of them, to 'be a man' and that was about the extent of the conversation.  I just remember Grandpa (Will), dolling out pennies to me and my brothers and sisters from a little coin purse he had in his pocket, the suspenders he always wore, the way he tipped his hat on his head when he wore it, him telling us kids the raspberries were ripe and we should go out and pick some for ourselves, and his blue eyes and sitting at his feet when he would tell us stories."
Memory 2 This is regarding Ken Knudson, Will's son~"Dad was a marine in WWII--actually all marines were sent to China (they are called China marines) ready to invade Japan but he was saved from that by the dropping of the bomb.  In China, he and another guy in his outfit went out at night to look for Japanese infiltrators in the Chinese villages.  He was called 'Big Brother' and the guy he went with was called 'Little Brother'.  My brother Dave learned about this when he went to a marine reunion of Dad's after Dad had passed away.
 "I just remember the story he told about the Chinese guy who would come and do chores for them.  At the end of his work, Dad and his buddies would load him up with gifts and take him to where they could let him out of the American compound.  Dad said he would usually be stripped of everything they gave him by the time he crossed the street and Dad and his buddies would yell at him to 'Run'!"
Memory 3 This is from Steve Knudson regarding his Dad, Ken Knudson "I would like to possibly correct a comment here. The place they would go out looking for Japanese was on Kume Shima or Kume Jima where he was for a while. It was part of the Okinawa islands and there were many Japanese soldiers hiding out with the local Okinawans who are and were Japanese citizens or hiding in the jungle.. On a patrol I don't think he was on they did lose one marine to a slit throat. In China the threat was Nationalist Chinese soldiers who he said were nothing better than bandits. At night they could hear shooting and machine guns as the Communists and Nationalists were shooting at each other. At one time the Communist general told them to leave or they would be attacked. They were prepared for battle but nothing happened. There were no Japanese hanging around in China as I remember the story."

Ken Knudson @ age 62

                                                                             

Knudson, Knutson or Knudtson!

When Julia Nelson married John Knudson, I'm sure she had no idea how much trouble that name was going to be! In some of the records I have researched, I have found a variety of spellings which makes for alot of confusion. Julie Knudson a great granddaughter of Julia's, tells me the following, "Knudson (used to be pronounced Newdson--but after a family meeting in Eugene, we decided to pronounce the 'K' and so, Knudson's from Eugene in my family are 'Canudson' and family in Portland are pronounced 'Newdson'.  Portland relatives say, 'you do not say 'K'nock, 'k'nock' and Eugene relatives got tired of being on the 'N' list rather than the 'K' list and say--'yes pronounce the 'K' '. "  :-) 
I thought that was hilarious! Thanks Julie. 

Long lost cousins! Found :-)

This family history thing is for me so EXCITING!! Not only am I finding out stories about my ancestors but probably the most cherished, charming, super cool thing about it is the cousins that I didn't know I had and the link to another branch of the big ol' TREE! Family Tree that is! I have attached these pictures from Troy Scotney a cousin from Canada and his Mom, Elaine Craven Scotney. Elaine is a granddaughter of Aunt Julia Nelson Knudson and husband John so that makes Troy our 3rd cousin! The pictures have been labeled. As I sit here writing this, we have three generations in the house as our daughter Holly and two little kiddo's are visiting us this month. I do LOVE being a granny to these two and the eight almost nine(new baby Harris in January 2015) others! I have been singing to them the old songs that Grandma Annette used to sing to me, ie., Goodnight Sweetheart, Little Boy Blue, My Pigeon House... it's a legacy of love as my voice is no Celine Dion! Enjoy these priceless pictures of Julia and her family.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5JzJrbW_a90eGlqNHg5ZzFLbEdZUy11NWdfRkg2MHNNNGlV/edit?usp=sharing