Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report:

[ Home Page | First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page ]

Generation No. 1

1. THOMAS LEWIS⁵ THORSON (KRISTIAN⁴, TORE GUNNARSON³ VERALAND, GUNNAR GUNNARSON², GUNNAR¹ BENDIKSSON) was born January 12, 1887 in Streator, La Salle Co., IL, and died September 16, 1964 in Madelia, Watonwan Co., MN. He married MABEL SERENA WORLIE October 11, 1917 in Sanborn, SD, daughter of THOMAS WORLIE and OLAVA HAUSKIN. She was born January 27, 1894 in McCallsburg, Hardin Co., IA, and died April 21, 1985 in St. James, Watonwan Co., MN.

Notes for THOMAS LEWIS THORSON:
Thomas (Tim) was the only one of his family not born in Norway. His father, Kristian Thorson came over in 1882 bringing 8 of their 14 children. His older brothers Chris and Gabe would have been 1 and 9 years old at the time. Tim grew up in Streator, IL. and then moved to Radcliff, IA in 1902 at the age of 15 where the family rented a farm. After their mother's death in 1914 at age 27; Kristian, Chris, Gabe and Tim moved to Butternut in 1915 and bought a farm. The brothers farmed together until Gabes death in 1931. Hattie Apeland, Tim's niece was their housekeeper until her marriage to Bruce Reiman. Mabel Worlie came to be their housekeeper in 1915 and she latter married Tim in October 1917.

Some of the land transcations of T.L. Thorson etal. in Butternut Township are listed. As you can see the economic conditions caused by the boom of the 1900-1920 was followed by the bust of the 1930's great depression. I was told that Tim defaulted on his 1935 ballon payment and let bank take the farm since he still owed more than it was worth and then bought another cheaper farm in 1937.

January 19, 1887 Warranty Deed William Cole sell Herman Bahma 160 acres consisting of the SW 1/4 of section 35 in township 108 Blue Earth Co. for $2,050 ($12.18/acres).

June 9, 1919 Age 32 Contract for Deed Chris, Gabe, and Thomas Thorson sell Roman Gappe 160 Acres 1/4 of section 34 in township 108 Blue Earth Co. for $32,000 ($200/acre). They get $1,000 down payment, $8,600 in
March 1920 and for the balance of $22,400 Mr. Gappe assumes a 5% mortgage payable to John Wendt.

June 14, 1919 Age 32 Contract for Deed Herman Bahma sell Chris, Gabe, and Thomas Thorson 220 acres in section 35 township 108 Blue Earth Co. They pay $33,065 ($150/acre): $1,000 down, $9,065 on March 1920 and balance of $23,000 payable under a 5.5% mortgage with the following terms. $3,000 on March 1925, $7,000 on March 1930 and the balance $13,000 on March 1935. They took possession on March 1, 1920.

March 1, 1932 Age 45 Chattel Mortgage T.L and Christ Thorson borrow $2,050 payable on February 28, 1933. Here is some of the property they secured: 13 head of horses and mules; a bay team named Dolly and Molly, a gray team named Bill and Frank, a bay gelding named Dick, a sorrel mare May and increase,....a black mule named Jenny. Livestock consisting of 36 head of cattle, 21 head of hog, 40 head of sheep and various farm machinery.

February 17, 1937 Age 50 Contract for Deed The Ole T. Thompson estate sell T.L. Thorson 158 acres consisting of the SW 1/4 of section 21 in township 108 Blue Earth Co. excluding a tract measured 20 rods by 16 rods 2 acres. He paid $6,500 ($41/acre), $500 payable at execution and $5,000 on April 1, 1937. Fred Nokes has $400/year farm lease on this property for the remainder of 1937 which T.L. Thorson agrees to honor.

June 1, 1937 Age 50 Mortgage Deed T.L. and Mabel Thorson mortgage $2,000 on their property 1/4 of section 21 in township 108 Blue Earth Co. to Ole Osten. The promissory note has 4% interest and is payable in June 1,
1942.

July 17, 1944 Age 57 Warranty Deed Evan Thorstad sell T.L. and Mabel Thorson a house in Lake Crystal Lot 4 Block 16 for $1,150

July 12, 1958 Age 71 Contract for Deed T.L. and Mabel Thorson sell Bernard Stephens their house in Lake Crystal Lot 4 Block 16 for $6,100.

From Lorriane Thorson Sturm

My father was Thomas Lewis Thorson better known to friends and family as Tim, why he was called Tim instead of Tom I never did know. He was not a tall man, but one who was very heavy. In fact, most of the Thorsons were pretty much on the heavy side. He was easy-going and fun loving with a good sense of humor. His only claim to fame was that he was an uncle three years before he was born. My dad also liked to watch his pennies.
One of his favorite stories was when they lived in Illinois they had an aunt by the name of Serena, who was pretty hard to please. Chris and Gabe were evidently working for her and whatever she wanted done that day they sent my dad to do it instead. When she saw him coming, she said, "When the devils can't come they send their angels." He always got a kick out of that.
He also liked to read and recite poetry. One of his favorites was "Mother calls me William, Father calls me Will, Sister calls me Willie, but the fellers calls me Bill. Mighty glad I ain't a girl, rather be a boy. Another favorite was "Love to chow green apples and go swimming in the lake, hate to take the Castor oil they give for belly ache. The rest I can't remember.
Then there was, "Come my wife lay down your bible. Lay your glasses on your book. Both of us are bent and aged, backward mother let us look. Let us talk about our children as we sit here all alone. Jack the first of all the party came to us one winter night. Jack you should be a parson long before he saw the light."
How many of you remember Grandpa asking, "Who put the kitty in the well?"

Notes for MABEL SERENA WORLIE:
Mabel was born in McCallsburg, IA and then moved to Elmore, MN when she was eight years old. In 1912 at the age of eighteen without her parnets permision she married a traveling piano salesman whose surname was Hutchins. The couple moved to Wisconsin and had their first child Milton. This marriage was later annulled and her father and brothers went to Wisconsin and brought her back to Elmore MN. In 1915 she moved with her two year old son to Butternut to be a housekeeper for Tim, Gabe and Kris Thorson. Two years latter she married Tim. Since they were first cousins they had to go to South Dakota to get married. Tim adapted Milton as his own, and had two children with Mabel. The couple farmed in the Butternut area until they retired in 1945. They moved into Lake Crystal, living first in a house on the North end of town and then latter on the South side. There they bought two neighboring houses there they rented one and lived in the other. After Tim's death, Mabel moved to St. James, MN in 1965 near her daughter. Living first in a small house and then moving to an appartment in 1981. She suffered a serve stroke at the age of 89 and lived under intensive care the last two years of her life in the Truman Nursing Home never regaining speech or movement.

Source: Ltr dated 5 January 1996 received from Albert Sturm - Stillwater,
MN.
[Brøderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 3, Social Security Records: U.S., SS Death Benefit Records, Surnames Beginning with T, Date of Import: Sep 8, 1996, Internal Ref. #1.112.3.84979.115]

Individual: Thorson, Mabel
Birth date: Jan 27, 1894
Death date: Apr 1985
Social Security #: 477-26-9193
Last residence: MN 56081
State of issue: MN

From Lorriane Thorson Sturm

My mother Mable Serena (Worlie) Thorson was raised in Elmore, Minn. In her day, children took slates and chalk instead of notebooks to school. She was a very hard worker. The wash would be out on the line before most of the family was up. Her family was very important to her. Looking back I think she should have got her family to help her more than she did including my sister and I. A good cook, she used plenty of cream and butter. No wonder we had a weight problem.
In my early years, people make do with what they had or they went without. My mother was an expert at making do. She would fix things or patch things or patch things most would have thrown out. I thought she went a little too far when she started patching rusted out spots on her car with masking tape. I don't think she ever got anything brand new for her house it was either hand me down from someone else or an auction sale, or the second hand store. She never complained, maybe if she had should she would have gotten some things.
She never threw anything away. If it was a month or so after Christmas and there was still hard Christmas candy sitting around, she would melt it and use it for pancake syrup. Not all that bad tasting either. She had her own recipe for cough syrup. I can't remember all the ingredients, but it seems like it was onions and honey and whatever else.
For a sore throat you wrapped a dirty sock around your neck. For chest colds there was mustard plaster on your chest and back. I had a lot of earaches as a child, there was the hot water bottle, and dad would blow smoke in my ear, which was supposed to help. The Watkins man came regularly so they always bought linament from him that was supposed to cure any and all aches and pains. Then there was their carbolic salve, which took care of sores and cuts, and was also used to treat sore teats on the cows.

Children of THOMAS THORSON and MABEL WORLIE are:

2.	i.	MILTON WILLIAM⁶ THORSON, b. March 29, 1913, Ledyard, Kossuth Co., IA; d. February 21, 1986, Fountain Valley, Orange Co., CA.
3.	ii.	LORRAINE HELEN THORSON, b. January 14, 1923, Lake Crystal, Blue Earth Co., MN.
4.	iii.	MAXINE THEORA THORSON, b. March 27, 1925.

[ Home Page | First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page ]