Great-Aunt Julia: Never Surrendering When Far From Family and Facing Adversity
Julia Joramo Peterson: 1857-1939 (Paternal Grand-Aunt)
So much of history is written only from the male
perspective, and it is easy to fall into that trap as a genealogist. Most records
from prior to the mid-1960s were created by men. Women had little power over
their own money or personal agency, yet they were often powerful, amazing
people. When I find records that actually provide a glimpse of a female
ancestor’s life, I rejoice. My great-aunt Julia Joramo Peterson was one of
those female ancestors, and her life story shows her strength and determination
in the face of tragedy and difficulty.
Julia was born February 6, 1857 in Lesja, Oppland Norway to
parents Peder Pederson Joramo and Anne Gulbrandsdatter. She was the second of
their five children. When she was thirteen, the family emigrated from Norway to
the United States, and ended up in Madelia, Minnesota.
Julia met another Norwegian immigrant in Madelia, Sever
James Severson. They married February 9, 1877 when Julia was twenty and Sever
was twenty-two. Their first child, daughter Anna, was born eight months later.
The young family decided to strike out on their own, leaving their parents and
numerous siblings behind in Minnesota, and moved to Brookings, South Dakota in
the middle of the winter of 1880. How brave they were, to leave everyone and
everything they knew in their new country behind, moving to a place where they
had no support system. Brookings was a railroad stop, so the Severson family
probably traveled by train, their possessions in the baggage car.
Julia was interviewed by the Brookings newspaper in 1939,
shortly before her death. The headline noted that she was “the longest
continuous resident” in the city of Brookings, and the article also noted she
was the “oldest living person having operated a business here.”. She recalled
her early days in the city as follows:
“Early in January 1880, my husband and I landed in
Brookings and immediately opened a restaurant on the lot where now the Economy
Center Market is on or the one directly south of it, occupied by Mr. Louis
Johnson.
It was a fine summer and we had a fine business. There
was another restaurant in town on the west side of the street, and there was a
hotel, south of us, on the lot now occupied by the Community Oil company. Meals
were 25 cents everywhere, and we had no trouble getting food of sufficient
quantities and varieties.
Hotel in on Main Street in Brookings in 1890s
Our labor problem was easy to solve. Girls newly arrived
from the old country, were glad to work for us at $2 a week and their board,
and we never had any trouble with labor. One girl stayed with us for a full
year. The meals were put on the table and you ate all you wanted.”
I am amazed at her confidence and work ethic. She had never
run a restaurant before they arrived in Brookings. I’m sure Julia had helped
her mother with cooking for their family, but cooking for the public all day
long is a far different experience. She and Sever faced difficulties as well.
She told her interviewer the following story:
“The first winter we were in business was the winter of
the big snow. Everything was eaten up in the grocery stores here, and we had to
send to Volga with a pair of ponies to try and get some groceries. We kept a
man hauling wood all winter from the river. We had a little coal, and that with
the wood helped us, especially in baking bread. Thee was a tunnel across the
street, to the grocery store, the snow was so deep. I remember a man came in
and wanted me to bake him a birthday cake, but we didn’t do it, because we had no
flour.
We owned a pair of ponies so I took a ride in a sled on
the railroad track. There wasn’t much danger of trains at that time. In the
spring I told my husband we were out of butter and that I couldn’t eat [or
cook] without butter, so my husband went out to Korstad’s to try and get some.
He didn’t get back that night and the next morning he came back, floating up to
the back part of Main Street in a wagon box, the creek had come up so much that
night, but he had one and one-half pounds of butter. We still had some crackers
and ham and a lot of goods that were at Tracy, but they were of no value to us
at that time.”
These stories make light of the danger and back-breaking
work involved in this life—digging that tunnel through gigantic snowdrifts,
risking drowning by floating down a roaring creek in a wagon box—what happened
to the wagon base and the horses? Hopefully Sever left them somewhere safe and
could retrieve them when the stream receded.
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| View of Brookings, SD in 1910s |
And poor Julia kept that restaurant running while she gave
birth to two more children in 1881 and 1884. How did she manage? How did she
care for her babies while she was prepping meals and cooking them, washing the
dishes, etc. Even with young women working at the restaurant, the hours and
labor must have been brutal on her while she was pregnant and nursing.
I am also impressed with Julia and Sever’s ability to
quickly build connections in their new community. They found people who could
provide them with wood to keep their oven and fireplace going, they found
sources for the food they needed for the restaurant like Mr. Korstad, the
buttermaker, and of course they built a customer base. They must have been
outgoing, charming people.
Julia finished her account as follows:
“We ran this restaurant four years and I enjoyed it. If I
had known as much then as I do now, I would have kept right on with it. You
know, if you have a place like that you always have a living.”
I’m sure that wasn’t Julia’s only regret. Her husband was an
alcoholic who could become violent when he was drunk. He made the newspapers after
committing assault during one bender, and he died of alcohol poisoning in 1897
at the age of 42. Sever had been working “selling groceries for a Minneapolis
house” when he died.
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| Sever J Severson, from tree on Ancestry |
Julia must have been in desperate straits after Sever’s
death. She had seven children between the ages of one and eighteen, while Julia
was forty years old. How could she support her family? On the 1900 census, it
appears she was working as a “wash woman”. Her eldest children were helping to
support the household. Daughter Anna, then 22, was working as a milliner. Son
Charles, only 15, was a grocery salesman. He may have taken over his father’s
old job, which seems to have involved door-to-door grocery sales.
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| Julia at right, with her children. Since youngest looks to be about 4-5 years old, probably taken circa 1901-02. |
By 1910, Julia was no longer working. Her eldest son Charles
seems to have been supporting not only his mother and three youngest siblings,
but his new wife as well.
Four years later, Julia married a widowed farmer, Iver
Grudem. They lived in a small house on Eighth Street in Brookings. He died in
1925. Julia died fourteen years later on September 21, 1939. She was 82 years
old. Her obituary stated that she had been in poor health for five years, but
was still up and around each day.
I feel so fortunate that my family kept this news clipping
of Julia’s interview with the Brookings newspaper. Reading her own words helped
bring her to life. I could see what a strong, determined woman she was., and
how she was a valued member of her community. Her resilience and positive
attitude in the face of hardship is admirable. She was an impressive woman.
Sources:
Julia Severson-Grudem obituary. Sioux Falls Argus-Leader,
Sioux Falls, SD. Sept. 22, 1939. Newsoapers.com.
“Mrs. Julia Severson-Grudem, Longest Continuous Resident in
City, Recalls Early Restaurant Business, Spring Flood. Brookings Register.
Brookings, South Dakota. Jan. 12, 1939.
