114 Joseph Street

The day began by heading east from Fargo on US 10 the 25 miles to Hawley, Minnesota. Our great grandfather, Knud, settled in Hawley in the late 1800’s. Cousin Bob (I believe that being my mom’s cousin would make him my second cousin) had given us some good visual directions, but no street names. Hawley is a tough place to get lost in and while we were not able to use the directions to find the house we never were lost. After 30 minutes or so of driving around fruitlessly we ventured into the Hawley Herald and handed over the directions to the a nice young lady who tried to make sense of that landmarks in the email. After a few minutes she went in the back and brought out Leona Lewis Anderson. She is 87 and has lived in Hawley her entire life. Not only did she know exactly where the Wefald house was, she knew both Knud, his wife Sarah and their children Olav (Bob’s dad), Magnus and Egil (my grandfather and Coop’s great-grandfather). It was pretty neat to meet someone who had a connection to the family. It felt like we were on a treasure hunt and so far it was going pretty well.

A little historical note about Hawley. Hawley was settled in the 1870’s as a depot for the Northern pacific Railroad. It was given its name by Thomas Hawley Canfield, who laid out the current town, in 1872. General Custer visited the town in 1876 not long before the infamous battle at Little Big Horn. More on Custer later...

We followed Leona’s directions to Joseph street and shortly were in front of the house that fit the description. Two story porch, middle of the block, left side of the street. Coop and I stood out front for a few trying to decide if this really was the house. It has fresh vinyl siding and does not look like a house built in 1901 on what was still fairly wild praire. Upon closer inspection I could see that the foundation was made of stone and looked to be pretty old. Coop encouraged me to knock, and we did. We stood out side for a couple of minutes and were turning back to the car thinking no one was home and we would have to simply assume that this was the house. Halfway down the walk the door opened. Ryan Klev walked out and we told him our story. This was indeed the house. He works nights, we woke him up, but he was still nice and genuinely excited to find out a little about the Wefald’s. We have promised him some more information and the house may even become a stop of next year’s Wefald Family Reunion tour.

Searching for our roots is not only exciting, but a little draining. It was time for lunch which brought us back to downtown and the Whistle Stop Cafe. When Coop decided not to get green peppers on his cheese steak, I decided to get them on my burger, which had two of thickest pieces of bacon I have ever seen on a burger. Apparently no in in the Whistle Stop has ever thought to put peppers on a burger and this led to a long discussion amongst the people who work at the Whistle Stop and then into a long discussion with me about the desire for peppers. I’m breaking new culinary ground in Hawley and am sure that if I return I will simply be known as the green pepper guy.

Having successfully left my culinary mark on Hawley, Coop and I took a walk around town. We checked out the train tracks, the grain elevator and tried to go back and thank Leona for the directions to the house but the paper was closed. Hawley is a small and simple place but it is going through somewhat of a growth spurt as it has been heavily promoting itself as a bedroom community for Fargo. Aside from family history, what Haley has the most of is really nice, genuine people.

Off to the cemetery in search of Knud (pronounced kuh-nude), wife Sarah and spinster Emma. We first found Bob’s mom and dad Olav and Walma,, and then found Knud, Sarah and Emma. Coop had the great idea of getting flowers so we went to Tony’s market and picked up the $9.99 bouquet of blue and yellow carnations. Coop also decided that Knud, as the big guy of the family, should get blue. Knud was a pretty impressive guy. He came over from Norway in the late 1870’s, went back and then came back. He is described as a poet, the mayor of Hawley, a congressman and a member of various commissions. His headstone, which may have been stolen from the colosseum in Rome is pretty striking. It is about 8 feet long with columns on either side. Next time we visit, it’s flowers and a toga.

Posted by JW