The Norton Ervin Knutson Personal Life Story
I was born to Marlowe
and Mabel Knutson at home in Holst Township, Clearwater county ,
Minnesota, at a farm home about five
miles southeast of Clearbrook. I
was delivered by a country doctor named Dr. Forrest on November 1, 1927, Tuesday
at 11:30 PM, weighing seven pounds.
7
months
I was the first born on both
sides of the family, namely paternal grandparents Nels Jorgenius and Jennie
Sletten Knutson and maternal grandparents Eivend (Evan) and Anne Gelene Twedt
Haugland.
The farm home was located on the Hedberg place and was east of my grandfather Nels place.
My first memories were of large snow banks when going to the barn with my dad I suppose they weren’t too high, but apparently high enough as my dad had shoveled a path from the house to the barn.
My Aunt Ilah was staying with
my mother when Sheldon was born and I remember her showing me the pictures of
babies in the catalog and asking which one I liked.
When it became time to start school, I remember my Dad taking me to the school and talking to the school teacher, named Mollie Leet . After that , I would walk with the Kucera brothers through the woods to and from school., for about ¾ mile.
We lived on the De Boe place
which was located northwest of the Pine Dale School about ¾ mile and the Kucera
place was about ½ mile further north west. We had moved from the Hedberg place
in September 1932 after Arline was born on August 30, 1932, to another farm
called the De Boe place , located about
2 miles northwest toward Clearbrook.
Living as we did in a poor house on the DeBoe place, we experienced chimney fires, even though dad would clean the chimney each year , using a logging chain with gunny sacks. Of course, we all had the job of cleaning, oiling, and starting oil lamps and lanterns. We finally got an Aladdin lamp, which gave out a much brighter light, but the filament could easily be broken, as it was a burnt type of cloth, that did not collapse unless touched.
As we got older, Harlan and I
got to work for a neighbor picking mustard plants from the fields and we got
some money, about ten to twenty-five cents a day.
We also worked with our grandfather Nels, hoeing potatoes.
Our grandfather also gave orphan lambs to raise.
As we lived fairly close to
our grandfather’s place , we were there quite often for dinner’s and when
family get-togethers were involved. In particular, when Aunt Alice and Uncle
Axel came up from the cities with their two girls Jeanne and
Leola. Aunt Esther would
also come with her children , James, David, Beverly and Nancy.
In addition, the Tangerd and Lee families would make visits to
grandfather’s farm. Occasionally, grandfather’s sisters would visit.
At Christmas time, dad’s
brothers and sister Judith were home , which became a reason for a large family
gathering. I remember, in particular going up to the boys room and listening to
crystal radio set , using earphones, with Uncles Wilfred, Clarence, Arnold and
Norman.
One fall in 1933, my dad,
mother and all the children, went to my mother’s home in North Dakota , where
dad helped harvest potatoes. I got
to steer the truck in the field, while my uncles and dad loaded potato sacks
on the truck for
transportation to a potato house
for storage, located on the farm .
Our grandfather made skis out birch wood , which we all used
to ski down hills, the steeper the better results. He made the skis by
shaping the board and boiling it to
turn up the end in a press he'd
made.
As I learned to read , books
became one of my favorite companions, sometimes to my mother’s sorrow, as she
tried to get me outside more. My
grandmother had some books
and my uncles and aunts would give books as presents.
By the time I was in eighth grade, five of us were going to school at Pine Dale, namely, Harlan, Sheldon, Arline and Dean. I graduated from eight grade in the spring of 1941, at the time we moved to the Bexell place , so I did not have walk the about two miles to the school very many times, but my brothers and sisters did continue to walk this long distance , including Donna from first grade.
I started high school in Clearbrook in the fall of 1941, by taking a bus about one quarter of a mile from the house. The bus picked me up at 7:00AM and took a route west before angling back northeast to Clearbrook, and then reversed its route on the way back from school so it became quite late before I got home .
In the fall of 1941 , DAD and I went Grafton , North Dakota , to work on a farm nearby. As the farmer was making corn silage, my job was to crawl into the silo and tramp down the silage as it was being blown in. I also stayed for the start of the beet harvesting, which involved the use of Mexican labor.
By the fall of 1942, we all
moved to grandfather's place , when dad bought Uncle Norman’s interest in the
farm. As we had acquired more cows, horses, pigs, and chickens, considerable
work was involved. Besides milking the cows morning and night ,we cut timber for
lumber to build a new barn . The timber was mainly Norway Pine ,still left on
the farm.
While on the farm,
grandfather Nels and grandmother Jennie continued to live in the old house (the
old house fixed after the fire in November 1940). Of course, we all visited them
,as usually there was cookies, candies, etc. as we filled them in on what was
happening to us
in school etc. . We performed other necessary chores under the
supervision of grandfather , as dad was busy in the fields. We continued to cut
timber in the winter, mainly pulp wood for sale.
During the summer, the main task was to put up hay, which involved a
haystacker and a sweep in front of
a tractor. Dad was the one who made the haystacks, so we operated the haystacker
and the sweep.
During World War 11 , we
assembled scrap iron for sale,
mainly from old machinery and junked cars, but also from scrap in an old
building called a blacksmith shop. This old building was one of the original
buildings on the farm, which was there in 1915.
The building was of rough lumber with
a large square hole in the middle of the roof for the forge smoke. The roof was
covered with layers of peeled birch bark.
During the summer of 1943 , a
new barn was built on the farm ,to hold twelve milking cows. This was a big
improvement as the old barn, consisted of a number wood buildings of plain rough
lumber, strung along a line. This resulted in a horse barn at one , a milking
area in the middle and young stock at the other end, with all hay being carried
in from outside. The new barn gave
us a hay mow, so feeding the and
cleaning the barn became easier. This
new barn was only completed enough to
winter the and next spring the roof was completed.
It was about this time that we were able to obtain a battery operated
radio, which we enjoyed in the evenings, by trading a calf to a neighbor.
I spent the summer of 1944 ,
working for my mother’s cousin, Clarence
Swenson, on his farm near Hoople,
N.D. This was my first opportunity
to operate tractors,
drive a pickup and perform other
chores involved with a grain and potato farm.
With the money earned, I was
able to buy my clothes and pay other necessary
school expenses.
In the spring of 1945, I
graduated from Clearbrook High School and being only 17, I tried to enlist in
the Navy with dad’s blessing, but lo and behold we discovered I was color
blind. It was decided to await the
draft and see what would happen.
Again I went to North Dakota to work on a grain farm during July and
August . This involved mainly
driving and delivering to the elevator or unloading in grain bins on the farm
from the combine in the field. In the fall, Clarence Swenson, asked me
to help with potato harvest.
Again I mainly drove the truck, unloading and spacing potato sacks for
the pickers and loading the full sacks for dumping into the potato houses on the
farm.
In 1944, grandfather and
grandmother moved into a house in Clearbrook, where I stayed
during the heavy snow
months, to help keep the house, etc. as grandfather’s health starting failing.
December 1945: I received the
greetings of the President to report for a physical prior to being drafted. I
passed the physical, which I told grandfather just before he died on December 26
, 1945. The summons came in early
January 1946 and I was sworn into the Army , at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. The
first time I had ever seen the Twin Cities, was on the trip for the physical
examination. Quite a trip, as we
stayed at a downtown Hennepin Ave. hotel named the Andrews. Of course we had to
inspect the white lighted way, but none of us was of age, so we could only look
in from the outside.
From Fort Snelling, we
were put on a troop train to Fort Lewis,
Washington. Imagine, it was 40 degrees below in Minneapolis and we arrive in 60
to 70 degree sunshine. However, as
soon as our basic training started, typical winter Washington weather came.
Drizzle, damp and about 40 degrees. This seemed to last the whole eight weeks,
as when we finished the weather
again was sunshine and warmer in April.
During basic training we were given some tests and were advised we would
be in the Army Engineer Corp. Another
troop train , this time clear across the USA to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Somewhere on the way scarlet fever broke out , so we arrived in
quarantine. After being restricted
to the barracks area for two weeks, we again were given tests.
Finally I was assigned to a school to learn topographical surveying. This
course took about three months, but we get liberty for trips to Washington D.C.
I also found that my liking math helped to complete the course.
Upon completion of the course, we were given delay enroute furloughs, to Pittsburgh, California. I therefore took a train home for a couple weeks of visiting and continued the balance of my trip by train to Pittsburgh Ca. I arrived in the re-depot camp awaiting posting to the Asia theatre of operations. We embarked on October 23, 1946 for Manila in the Philippines. The troop ship made a stop in Yokohama, Japan, where we were given a short trip on a bus and were able to see the destruction caused by the bombing. We arrived in Manila on November 20,1946 and assigned to a re-depot camp.
Finally
I was assigned to the 29th Eng Topographical Battalion.
After a time of refresher courses, I was assigned to a team given the
responsibility of taping a base line, of six miles long, to be used in mapping
the whole Philippine Islands. This
involved living near a Japanese prisoner of war camp ,who prepared and served us
our food. We did have liberty passes, so we visited Manila quite often and saw
the immense damage of the war.
As all draftees were being discharged, we were shipped home on February 3, 1947, on a Liberty ship to San Francisco where we arrived February 24,1947. We were sent by train to Fort Sheridan, Illinois for discharge on March 23, 1947. This ship passage lasted 21days as we dropped off Philippine Scouts in Okinawa before continuing on our way. The ship was very crowded and bad weather kept us below deck.
Upon returning
home, I helped on the farm and later got a job on a farm north of Devils
Lake, N.D. performing the spring work of plowing, disking, etc. and returned
home for the haying season. Harlan
had a job on a farm near Hackensack, N.D. where he worked from spring through
summer and fall. This farmer needed
shockers during the harvest season, so Robert Stenseng and I took the job.
As I was signed up to start school on September l, 1947, at Minnesota
School of Business in Minneapolis, I was unable to stay for the threshing
season.
In order to go to school on
the G.I. Bill, the government paid all the costs of
tuition and books and in addition paid us 75.00 dollars a month for
living expenses. My Uncle Wilfred
and Aunt Marjorie gave me room and board for 40.00 dollars a month, which left
me with some spending money. As the
house they had purchased was old, considerable repair was involved and I
assisted Wilfred in whatever way I could. During
the summer of 1948, I helped with the haying on the farm and at harvest time,
Sheldon, cousin David, a neighbor and I went to Hackensack, N.D. to work
in the harvest . Sheldon and I obtained work for one
of the few farmers still threshing in the old way.
I.e. not using combines. This
involved using horses and hayracks to haul grain bundles to the threshing
machine. As I
was again going to school, Sheldon handled the team and hayrack and I
loaded grain bundles on all the hayracks.
Returning to school in the
fall of 1948, I again stayed with Wilfred, but after the first of the year,
grandmother came to stay and I took in room in the YMCA in downtown Minneapolis
and obtained a part time job as an usher at the Orpheum theatre. Harlan also
came to Minneapolis, to go to the Dundwoody Institute and also stayed at the
YMCA and became an usher at the same theatre I worked at.
I was promoted to a barker, wearing a bright red uniform, standing in
front of the theatre, telling people what was playing, what time complete shows
started and controlled large crowds, by keeping in line,
so that the sidewalk remained open. Lots of fun especially when major
stars came to the theatre for movie opening or special attractions were booked,
such as Sigmund Romberg.
Upon graduation in June 1949, I returned to the farm and helped construct a pump house /milkhouse combination. Finally an electric power line was constructed to the farm and most of the buildings were wired for electricity. Now Mom and Dad had good lights in the house and barn. As electric motors became available they operated the well pump and the cream separator.
During July 1949, I obtained
a job in Bemidji as a clerk in the Coast to Coast store.
An used refrigerator became available in the store which dad purchased
and a friend and I hauled to the farm. As
work in the store would slow in the
winter, I decided to look for work suited to my training as an accountant.
Contact had been made with a
Public Accountant, named F.E. Rideout, in Bemidji, however, no favorable
response had been given, so I went to Minneapolis to seek a position.
While in Minneapolis, Mr. Rideout contacted me at Wilfred’s place. We
met and I was hired starting January 1,1950 as an accountant of 1.00 dollar per
hour. Working in this office gave
me valuable experience, as it involved preparing income tax returns, bookkeeping
for many types of small businesses and I gained experience working without
supervision at various business locations assisting their bookkeepers with
problem areas, including preparing the necessary financial statements.
This experience helped me in
obtaining my future positions in the accounting field.
During the summer of 1949 , at a dance in Shevlin I met a girl named Elaine Johnson from Duluth, Minnesota , who was staying with her relatives near Shevlin. We started corresponding by mail and telephone during winter season of 1949-1950 and would meet at Elaine‘s relatives during 1950 to see each other in person and meet other relatives of mine, namely my parents, brothers and sisters and my grandmother Jennie who all lived on the farm. The Korean Conflict started during last week of June 1950, and my brother Harlan decided to enlist in the AIR Force rather than be drafted in the fall of 1950. He had a 1941 Plymouth two door which I purchased. With this means of transportation I made many trips to the farm as we did not work on Saturdays except during tax season. This car required some repairs ,which I had done during the tax season. I started making car trips to Duluth to meet with Elaine. During this time I also kept up a Correspondence course with International Accountants Society, based in Chicago, Illinois. In addition, I was active in the Army Reserve., which resulted in two weeks of annual active duty, at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin and/or Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. ,I also joined Junior Chamber of Commerce in Bemidji , whose major project was to put on the Paul Bunyan Water Carnival each summer during the later part of June..
On June 7,1952, Elaine and I
were married in the Zion Lutheran Church in Duluth.
We
made our first home in a little
furnished rented house in the northern part of Bemidji. We lived about two miles
from where I worked so I had to
drive in the only car
we had. Elaine obtained a secretary position with the Minnesota
Employment office in downtown Bemidji, which
was in the same area I worked . Therefore,
we drove to work together.
With
both of us working we
decided to purchase a new car, a dealer demonstrator, 1952
4 door Chevrolet sedan.
We made many short trips , but one in particular comes to mind , as we
made a trip to Fargo N.D. to see
General Eisenhower. who was making an appearance as a
Presidential Candidate. We were able to see
Ike and his wife board the back of a train for the continuation of
their trip.
Our first son Lee was born on
June 22, 1953, at the Bemidji hospital. As Lee was first grandchild on both
sides of the family, we had a lot of company .. The first company was from
Duluth, namely his grandmother Gladys Meyers, Great grandmother Bertha Solberg
and Elaine’s uncle Tony Solberg.
We also took Lee to see his grandparents, Marlowe and Mabel Knutson, his
great grand mother Jennie Knutson,. We
made a special trip to Hoople, N.D. to see
his other great grand mother Annie Haugland my mother’s mother.
Lee also saw his great grand
father Nels Solberg and Elaine’s other relatives in Duluth.
We continued to live in Bemidji and Elaine returned to work, after
arranging with Mr. And Mrs. Hjalmer Johnson, a retired farm couple living to the
rear of us, to take care of Lee.
After the tax season of 1954,
Mr. Rideout suggested that I look for a position with more of promotion, as the
business was not big enough for a partnership.
I therefore, made arrangements to go
to Minneapolis to look for a position. During
the previous December 1953 I had
taken a residential final examination in Advanced Accounting from the
International Accountants Society.. Therefore I contacted their representative
in Minneapolis for assistance in obtaining a new position.
He informed me of a possible
opening with a CPA firm in Duluth. I
went to Duluth and had an interview
with the CPA firm.. I was not given any indication one way or the other about a
position, so I went to the Minnesota Employment office.
Nothing ventured nothing gained. They
referred me to Oliver Iron Mining Division of United States Steel Corporation.
After an interview, I was contacted at Elaine’s mother the next day for
further interviews and offered a position as an accounting clerk at the rate of
$300 a month. I accepted the
position and returned to Bemidji to make arrangements to move to Duluth.
As it would take some time to find a
place to live, we stayed at
Leon Meyer place ( Elaine’s mother had remarried in the fall of 1951) for a
time. I reported to work
on April 19, 1954 and was informed my salary was increased to $325 per
month. We thought, what a company
to work for, pay increases even
before working for them.
In the meantime, we looked for places to live, but were no too satisfied with the apartments available. Elaine was informed by her mother that she had inherited some money from her father, so we started looking for a house. We finally decided on a house located at 422 12th Ave. East.
It
was an old house, but Leon
was very experienced with old houses, as he had purchased
and fixed houses for re-sale and he recommended the house.
Of course we had no furniture, but with our savings from Bemidji, we
purchased a stove, refrigerator, washing
machine ,living room set and a bedroom set . With all our accumulative
belongings from Bemidji, we established our first purchased home.
With the payments for a car , furniture and house mortgage
we did not have much lee way in covering other things we needed, however,
we made it and with salary
increases and overtime pay we started to see daylight.
On December 21,1955, our
second son, Jeffrey Noel was born
at St. Lukes Hospital. By Christmas
eve Elaine had convinced the Doctor to let her and the
baby go home. We ended up at
Leon and Gladys’s house,
where Lee was staying and had a wonderful Christmas.
It was a little cool, about 0 degrees, but the car was warm.
In the meantime, at work I
was progressively given more and varied type of work.
In particular, I was given responsibility for keeping the accounting
records for the Iron Ore exploration
work in Canada. This
exploration was taking place in Northern Quebec, near the Iron Ore Company
operations at Seven Islands, on the North Shore
of the St.
Lawrence River.
By the spring of 1957, U.S.
Steel Corporation, decided to form a new subsidiary, called Quebec Cartier
Mining Company. The key personnel
for starting the company were assembled from Oliver Iron Mining ,with the
President being Mr. L.J. Severson.
The top accounting position
was filled by Mr. F.R. Strasser, who asked me if I was interested in going to
Canada for a short time to continue doing the accounting work I had started in
Duluth. I said yes, but that my
wife was expecting shortly and could not go immediately.
On June 23, 1957, our first
daughter Amy Beth, was born at the St. Lukes Hospital
and a telegram arrived from Montreal, Quebec, Canada
congratulating us on the new arrival.
After Elaine
was settled at home , I immediately flew to Montreal, where QCM
was establishing its first headquarters.
After being there a short time, I was told the job would last a few
months, so we could bring our families. The
company would furnish us with a fully furnished apartment near the office, so
I returned to Duluth to get Elaine and the family.
We set out in our car from
Duluth to Montreal with three children, Lee
4, Jeffrey 1 and Amy, one month old.
Arriving in Montreal, we settled into the furnished apartment, which also
contained other families from Duluth and Pittsburgh.
In addition were other couples from other countries, who were also in
transit. At
Christmas time, I was asked whether we wanted to move to Canada to
continue with the work I had started. We
made the trip back
home to Duluth with our car and had good luck
with the weather. In Duluth
I talked to various personnel in the Accounting Department of Oliver Iron
Mining. The jest of this
conversation was that chances of promotion would be considerably better in
Canada. Knowing full well
that the company would be moving near the mine site sometime in the
future, we decided to accept a position with QCM.
Therefore, February 1, 1958, I was promoted to management with the title
of Senior Accountant.
It was decided that the company headquarters would remain in Montreal for at least one more year, we were advised to find other living quarters and move our household effects. We located a three bedroom bungalow in Ville St. Laurent, a suburb of Montreal, which we rented.
570 Robertson
The
whole family flew with me to Duluth, the first airplane ride for Elaine
and the children, where we contacted Leon and Gladys and Oliver Iron
Mining to arrange for the moving
our furniture and other personal effects. We
also arranged with Leon and Gladys
to handle the renting out our house and
keep a watch on the house
and advise us of any problems. They
were able to rent out the house ,
with renter paying all utilities including all heating costs, for an amount
sufficient to cover our mortgage, real estate taxes and house insurance
payments and a small amount to cover other costs we may encounter.
We took a return flight to Montreal to begin our Canadian adventure.
During `the time we lived in
Montreal, Elaine I were invited to many dinners, weddings and employee
gatherings resulting in establishing new friends. In
addition, we were involved with escorting visitors to the many restaurants and
theatres in Montreal. We became
well acquainted with Montreal area by taking many family trips in the car on
weekends.
My first trip to Seven
Islands, was taken in late October 1957, by flying from Montreal to Seven
Islands on a noisy Trans Canada North Star.
From Seven Islands, my supervisor, Jud Diehl and
I traveled by jeep to the paper town of Shelter Bay, which was also where
Port Cartier was to be to be established. From
there we traveled by jeep on an Access
Road being built towards the future mine site at Lac Jeannine.
Upon returning to Seven Islands we learned that
no planes were flying due to foggy weather.
Therefore the group gave me a birthday party at the hotel we were staying
at, with the result that I missed celebrating my 30th birthday with
my family.
In the spring of 1959, we
were advised that housing would be available in Port Cartier by the fall and I
was required to move to Port Cartier in June 1959.As our lease expired on May 1,
1959, we decided that rather than
have Elaine and the children remain in Montreal by themselves, they would return
to Duluth for the summer. We
therefore, had our household effects packed
for a sea voyage and stored. Our
car was also stored and awaited a ship going to the Port Cartier
dock for delivery to me.
About the middle of June
1959, a Corporation plane was sent to Montreal to fly us to Seven Islands.
However, as we were about to depart , we were advised that Seven Islands
was socked in by fog. The next day
the company plane, a DC3, flew us to Seven Islands even though the weather
wasn’t good. Upon landing in Seven Islands
we were loaded into jeeps for our trip to Port Cartier.
We drove about ten miles and we encountered a bridge with about a foot of
water going over the bridge. The
lead jeep made it through but our driver only got half way over and
decided to back out. I guess it was a good thing because the Provincial
Police immediately closed the bridge for traffic.
We returned to Seven Islands and awaited further instructions.
It turned out that a small plane flew
from Seven Islands to Shelter Bay and
by taking turns we all arrived in
Shelter Bay that evening.
Our living quarters was a prefabricated bungalow, which was available for
a short time, but eventually we
were moved into a men’s dormitory, similar to an Army barracks, except it had
been partition into single rooms. With
a company cafeteria nearby and offices in a similar building to the living
quarters. We established our
offices and began hiring and training additional personnel needed for the Iron
Ore Project.
To continue this story an
explanation of the Iron Ore Project is required
to understand the magnitude of the work required to bring the project
into a productive iron ore operation. The
project involved developing an Iron Mine, located some 200 miles north-northwest
of Seven Islands, Quebec, Canada. The
mine location was established after extensive
exploration activity performed by Oliver Iron Mining
from 1952-1956 and the preliminary engineering work required
to make the mine into a high
grade concentrate required by the steel mills during 1957-1958.
As the mine was located in
the wilderness of Northern Quebec, everything had to be built and developed.
This involved the building and construction of:
(1) A 200 mile railroad from the mine site at Lac Jeannine to a harbor
located at Port Cartier.
(2) The carving out of solid rock a safe harbor for large ocean going
iron ore carriers on the
St. Lawrence River , located near
the town of Port Cartier.
(3) Two townsites, one located at Port Cartier
(formerly Shelter Bay) and another located near the Mine site, called
Gagnon.
(4) A power plant on a
river, called Hart-Jaune, near the
mine.
(5) Most important of all ,
the first large scale concentrating plant to up-grade low-grade iron ore to a
commercial basis.
(6) Last but not least, opening up and preparing the mine to
provide raw material necessary
to produce 8,000,000 tons of Iron Ore Concentrates.
In additional to the
personnel required by the company QCM during the construction and development
phase, a force for production had
to be obtained and trained. As only about 50 US Steel personnel were assigned as
a nucleus , but the balance of the personnel were hired in Canada.
Some of the personnel, were new immigrants from Europe, but most were
mainly French-speaking personnel from the North Shore, Gaspe
Peninsula and the Montreal areas. This
force ranged from 1500-2000 employees.
As can be imagined, many hours of were required by all personnel each day, Monday through Saturday and even Sundays. The hours ranged from 60 to 90 hours per week.
During the latter part of
July 1959 it looked like the house we had been assigned in the new town of Port
Cartier would be ready by the end of August. I took a short vacation and flew on
the company plane along other from personnel
to Duluth, to see my family. I was able to take some home movies of the town,
including the new house , showing the view of the St. Lawrence River,
which was only a few yards away, which I showed
to Elaine and the family back in Minnesota.
At the end of August Elaine and the children flew to Montreal, where I met them prior to continuing on to Seven Islands by plane. I had left my car, which had arrived by boat in June, in Seven Islands and we commenced to drive the 40 miles over mainly dirt road to Port Cartier. Of course on the way, the children asked to see “Daddy fall in bridge” and as we continued they saw burnt over forest, with Elaine wondering what kind of place she was moving to. However, the town site area was covered by the “North Shore Fir”, a fir tree which grows very tall and thin but closely packed and our house was located on the shore of the St Lawrence River, which you could not see across.
The beach was only about 30
or 40 feet from the house
and as it had tides it was like an ocean front.
The children could hardly
wait to walk on the beach, where they discovered a large rock to climb up and
sit upon.
View
from backyard
The development and
construction phase continued from 1959 to June 1961 by which time the first
shipment of Iron Ore Concentrates was made for the steel mills of U.S. Steel.
This period in our lives can
be called “pioneering”. To give you an idea of what I mean, Picture a young
wife with 3 small children coming to a wilderness town in the late summer of
1959, where only way to get there was by air or boat.
Houses were being built in sand and rock, roads were accordingly built of
same --- husband was home Sundays, but the rest of the week at work except to
come to sleep! Stores were non
existent, except for a paper
company general store. Forests were
all around and we had a forest
fire, with 10 minutes of warning to vacate our new home then- thank god the fire
did not reach the houses but at the time you wondered what be left. As there
were many other young families in the same situation, we quickly made many
friends from all over the world. This led to a community spirit, which developed
the churches, schools, library, community art and drama, other associations .
In keeping with this new
life, our third son, Eric Niles,
was born on October 26,1960, in a construction camp hospital, located at mile 6
in the new railroad to the Lac Jeannine Mine.
By the end of 1961,
Port Cartier was a town of
about 3,000 people. In 1959 Shelter
Bay, across the river , called Rochers, was incorporated with the new town of
Port Cartier. The Quebec North
Shore Paper Company had established Shelter Bay as a place to
collect pulp wood for the paper mill in Baie Comeau, by transporting in
small draft ships , loaded from a dock on the water of the St Lawrence. During
our first years, we heard and saw many of these boats being loaded, as our new
house was located where we could see and hear
the action.
Tougher pioneers lived near
the mine site in a new town of Gagnon, Quebec - isolated except by air
or train.
In 1961 we moved into our new
main office building located on a
hill overlooking the town of Port Cartier, with
a view of the St. Lawrence River and the surrounding area. I was promoted
to Supervisor- General Accounting , with three Supervisors reporting to me.
Together we were responsible for the functions of preparing all financial
statements relating to the balance
sheet, profit & loss statement and
related schedules. In addition we
had responsibility for accounting for all physical assets of the company , which
involved converting construction data into
recognizable property units,
such as the concentrating plant into the various production
steps involved in producing iron ore concentrates. Along with the above
responsibilities we were involved
with providing the necessary office services required for the main office of the
company ,such as mail pickup and delivery within and outside the building, the
copying and printing of various reports and
forms and
providing the necessary janitorial services.
In order to provide all the
above responsibilities we had about 30 employees. As all these employees were
new to the company, the necessary procedures and work practices required for an
operating company had to be established and the employees trained to implement
same.
As time progressed, a road
was finally opened up, which allowed us to drive to
Quebec City and Montreal. In
addition, a curling club and a golf
course were established and
expanded from existing facilities.
A ski club was also formed and a ski hill established.
Of course , many enjoyed fishing in the streams and on the St. Lawrence
for ocean fish, which came up river from the Atlantic ocean.
We had many experiences
with violent weather, in particular, a
special combination of tides and wind, sent waves of about 30 to 40 feet high
crashing on the beach in front of our house.
The force of this water was such that, a large 1 foot square timbers were
thrown up within 20 feet of the house and of course the spray hit the living
room windows. In addition living
near this water, snow in the winter was considerable and with high winds we had
snow up to the eaves of the house. In
some cases, neighbors had dig others out.
As
operations got established, our working hours finally arrived at a normal week
of 40 hours, Monday through Friday. The
employees of QCM formed an association to establish a TV cable network, able to
obtain programs from Moncton, New Brunswick via micro-wave in English.
We then had one network to watch, namely the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation). This network had a
combination commercial and public broadcasting program.
We could also obtain French broadcasts from Matane, just across the
river.
From
1962 to 1970, our lives were normal, with the children
in school, church programs, cubs, girl guides, etc.
The children liked the forest very much as they could build tree houses,
hiding places etc. as well as playing on or near the beach.
In
1970 I was assigned a new position involving the controlling a budget of about
700 million dollars by the end of the project.
This project was for an
expansion of the iron ore operations. Namely,
to open a new mine some 80 miles further north of Gagnon.
This mine was to be called Mt. Wright, capable of supporting the
production of 18 million tons of Iron Ore Concentrates. This meant building a
new extension to the railroad near Gagnon to the Mt. Wright mine.
At the mine site, a new concentrator, with all related facilities, such
Maintenance Shops, Warehouses, Offices was built
and all the equipment required by the mine was purchased, including
railroad rolling stock. In
addition, some 15 miles towards Wabush a new town for about 5000 employees was
built, called Fermont. At the start
of construction, a winter road was built, connecting Wabush, a town on the
railroad to Shefferville, to the
Mine site. During the next year a
permanent road was built from
Wabush, to Mt. Wright of
approximately 40 miles. As electric power was
available from a Churchill Falls Hydro dam located in Labrador, a
Hydro-Power transmission line
was built from the master line crossing the Quebec border on its way to
Montreal to the Mt. Wright Mine site.
This
position involved a lot travel, particularly to Montreal, as the Engineering
design was being performed there. In
addition, travel to the various construction sites was required. This meant I
was not at home very much, especially at the start of the project.
During
the construction of this project, labor unrest reared its ugly head, with the
result that it got out of hand, to the extent that riots and goon squads were
terrorizing the towns of Seven Islands and
Port Cartier. At the mine site, it involved the setting of fires in the
dormitories, resulting in deaths. This
unrest was mainly due to the Union involvement in the politics of
Quebec separation from the rest of Canada, but it also was caused by the
large increases in inflation.
By
1976, the project was nearly complete and I was asked to assist in developing a
new mine. Concentrator, etc, in India. This
new mine was being built by a Government of India enterprise called Kudremukh
Iron Ore Company. This involved the
transfer to another U.S. Steel company ,called Canadian Met-Chem., an
engineering consulting firm of USS
Engineers & Consultants. My new
position was as Project Manager-Accounting, which involved making trips to India
about every three months, staying in India about one month.
In
October 1976, I made my first trip to India, celebrating me 49th
birthday in Bombay. This was
interesting to me as I had
celebrated my 19th birthday in
the middle of the Pacific ocean on the way
to the Philippines Islands in 1946.
The main office, was in Bangalore, a
city about 300 miles south of Bombay. Again we were required to hire
nationals to support our key personnel from Canada and USA. This meant setting
up the necessary offices, procedures, etc, and training the new personnel to our
way of doing things, tempered by Indian conditions.
India was a very interesting country, which made one appreciate what we have in North America. Although India is a large country with an immense population, the number of people was only apparent in the large cities, as the country side was mainly farming. Of course, many of the ways of doing things were like America 30 or 40 years ago, but in other areas were very modern. As a foreigner, all the beggars latch on to you for a handout. The beggars were mainly young children who are maimed in some way, i.e. arms or legs missing, blind etc. If you started handing out money, you were swamped, therefore, like it or not it was wiser not to handout to anybody. We tried to give out money for any service performed in the form large tips, thereby giving something for something received.
While
I was making the trip to India,
Elaine was busy selling our house in Port Cartier and buying another house in
Montreal. This was accomplished
with Elaine and Eric moving to Montreal on the last day of October 1976. Thus we
left the only home our children could really remember, as we had been on the
North Shore since 1959, a total of 17 years.
However,
we appreciated living in a large city again where we could easily join in a
varied life style. Montreal is a
very cosmopolitan city, containing the second largest French city in the world.
As
the project progressed in 1976 and 1977, I had to make additional trips
to India. However with the assignment of good experienced personnel in
the accounting area, located in India, I was not required to continue the
traveling. During 1978 and 1979, my
main area of work involved the overall administration of the contract with the
Kudremukh Iron Ore Company along with other administrative duties required by
Canadian Met-Chem. By 1980 the work on this contract was nearing an end.
I was laid off for six months prior to being granted a special early
retirement effective January 31, 1981.
On
September 1, 1980, Elaine and returned
to Minnesota, by moving to Minneapolis and purchasing our present home at 3901
57th Ave. North in a suburb called Brooklyn Center where we presently
live in retirement. Since retiring at fairly young age, we took advantage of the
situation by traveling and working on a part time basis during the winter
season. I started work with H&R
Block tax service only during the tax season, which involved taking up dating
classes for the coming tax season during late fall.
This left the period from April 15th to September 15th
free for our traveling around the USA and some in Canada as well.
Elaine did clerical work on a temporary status
during the same time I was involved in the preparation of tax returns.
We did this type of work until
I was eligible for Social Security, at which time I stopped doing tax returns.
We also started making longer trips or stayed for extended times , such
as going to Florida west coast area for
about a month .. We also traveled to the West Coast to see Lee and Jeffrey, who
lived in the Seattle area, and made side trips both
going out and on our way back
to Minnesota. Amy was going to the
New York State University on Long Island to get her Master Degree in
Marine Science. We made trips to see her and with her guidance took in the New
York city experience.
In
the meantime ,Eric returned home from Canada, where he had been taking college
courses at Queen’s University in Ontario.
He decided that the course of study was not what he wanted to do.
We therefore encouraged him to take some time to determine what
he wanted to do with his
life. During the summer of 1981 Eric assisted with the painting of the house at
3901 57th Ave. as considerable work had to be
completed , such taking old peeling
paint off by scraping, repairing all the windows with new caulking and painting
the whole house twice as we changed
the color from a dark brown to a golden color.
This took most of the summer and by fall Eric
had decided to take a course with Brown
Institute, to obtain a Radio
Broadcasting Diploma. He started
this course on September 2,1982 and finished by the fall of 1983.
In October 1984, Eric started his first job in radio broadcasting in
Rugby, N.D. , which he left because
the station was sold.. He obtained
a new job in Willmar, Mn. Which lasted a short time
until being let go by the station due to lack of business about March
1985. The next
position in radio broadcasting was obtained in Marshall, Mn. Where the
work and pay were better than in his previous jobs.
It was about this time that Eric met Susan Highby, who was to become his
wife on November 30, 1985. They
made their first home in Marshall, Mn. , where Eric continued to work in the
local Radio Station and Susan worked in a local store as a clerk because work in
her field of Food Service in hospital and nursing homes was not available
due to a back injury she had experienced in Willmar.
In November of 1986 , Eric and Susan decided to move to Minneapolis
because Susan was pregnant and Eric needed to obtain new employment, which had
more pay including health benefits. They
therefore moved with us until things could be settled, such as obtaining a new
job for Eric. Eric obtained a
job with Chubb Insurance company which
paid more than his work in Marshall and included immediate health benefits for
the entire family. Susan continued to be
a sales clerk in the local
shopping mall. At the
beginning of year 1987, Eric and Susan rented an apartment in the Brooklyn Park
area and
moved their belongings in anticipation of the birth of their first born
child.. On March 26,1987 Katherine
Nicole Knutson was born, becoming our first grandchild .
We continued to help them by becoming baby sitters, especially Elaine.
Susan
obtained work at North Memorial
Hospital in Food Service, where
they also provided babysitting service for newborns.
With both Eric and Susan working and
Katie becoming older they
started looking for a house , which they found and were able to purchased as
Eric’s grandmother Gladys gave a gift for the down payment .
This house was located in a suburb next to us called Brooklyn Park . With
both parents working Elaine continued to baby sit
Katie as necessary.
On
April 26, 1991 , Adam Marlowe Knutson was born and became our first grandson and
most importantly a brother Katie could take care of .
Katie started to go pre-kindergarten classes and was therefore not in
need of baby sitting care most of the time, however, Adam needed care while
Susan worked, so Elaine provided this service
which we both enjoyed.
Eric
and Susan made some moves in
hope of bettering their lives which involved moving away from the Minneapolis
area during 1995-1996 . This did
not accomplish what they anticipated so they moved back to the Minneapolis area
in a suburb called Burnsville,
located near where they would be working . Eric for an insurance company
processing health claims and Susan for Northwest Airlines in their food service
area. They first moved into an
apartment complex with three bedrooms, and later purchased a house in January
2000, where they now reside.
Amy
completed her Master of Science in
Marine Environmental Science in 1983 and started her first position with a small
town in the Stony Brook area. After
a period of time she gained the experience necessary to obtain a position
for the town of Islip on Long Island in May 1989.. During this time she
met her future husband, named James Hamilton.
James
and Amy were wed in September 21, 1991 in Wilton, Ct. where James’ mother
lived. Elaine and I and our
children, Lee, Jeffrey and Eric traveled to Wilton.
Eric brought his whole family ,namely his wife Susan and children
Katherine and Adam. It was a
beautiful wedding and wonderful sunny day .
We had a reception at the Silver Mine Inn in Wilton where we got to meet
all relatives of James and both James
and Amy's many friends from their college days and
working partners.
They
purchased a house in Sayville, Long Island, N,Y. from which they traveled to
their jobs. Amy continued to work
until just prior to giving birth to
their son ., Gavin James Hamilton
arrived on February 2, 1993. Amy
stayed home with her new son and
maintained their home. James obtained a new position in Marshfield, Mass.
In January 1995 ,where they purchased a new home.
On
March 20, 1995 a new daughter
arrived named Olivia Louise Hamilton and completed the family of James and Amy
Hamilton. They continue to make
their home in Marshfield MA.
Jeffrey
Noel Knutson enlisted in the US Navy on February 4,1975 and continued to
serve until November 1983. He became an Air Traffic Controller and Obtained the
rank of Petty Officer 1st Class.
He served aboard the USS Independence from October 1975 to October 1978.,
at which time he was assigned to
Naval Air Station
at Whidbey Island, WA. Until he left the service in November 1983.
He started to work for the FAA in August 1984 as an Air Traffic
Controller at Bay Approach in
Oakland,CA, transferred to Bakersfield, Ca. and arrived in Reno, Nevada
in March 1988. He continues
to work in Reno and added union
activities to his work as an Air Traffic Controller.
Lee obtained a Bachelor of Arts with a major in History from Concordia
University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1976. He spent the next several years
working in Toronto with an insurance company, and attended the University of
Oregon at Eugene before teaching for a year (1979-80) at the Flint School, a
seagoing private high school operating in Europe. After working in Seattle for
an insurance agent, he decided to enlist in the US Navy (1982) for six years in
order to obtain extended training in computer systems maintenance. His first
assigned station was to a Combat Systems research facility in San Diego for two
years, and he was transferred to William H. Standley (CG-32) for the remainder
of his enlistment until 1988. This included a cruise to the Persian Gulf in 1987
for duty escorting oil tankers.
Lee followed this with study at the Graduate School of Library and Information
Science (University of Washington), earning his Master's Degree in Librarianship
in 1990. After searching unsuccessfully for a position from the West Coast, he
relocated to Minneapolis and moved into our home. He was eventually offered a
position with the Wausau Insurance Companies in Wisconsin as a Reference
Services Specialist. He worked in Wausau until the company made cost-cutting
layoffs and discharged him. He returned to Minneapolis to live with us again in
1995, and found a part time position with the School of Communication Arts,
which was attempting to establish a degree program and required a Library for
accreditation. Because this position was only part time, Lee had also entered
the University of Minnesota to earn the Master's of Liberal Studies degree. When
SCA closed in 1998, rather than looking for another position immediately he
decided to pursue the second graduate degree full time. However, he was
approached by the Minnesota School of Business to develop a library, in order to
comply with requirements for their Associate's and proposed Bachelor's programs.
This position became full time in the fall of 1998, and Lee was finally awarded
the Master's degree at the end of 2000.
Soon after his relocation from Seattle to Minneapolis, Lee began going with
Lynne Horsch, who lived next door to us in Brooklyn Center. When he obtained the
full time position with MSB, they decided to marry, and a civil ceremony was
performed in her parents' home by Judge Catherine Anderson on February 20, 1999.
Lynne's mother Beverly and I served as witnesses, and her father Ted and Elaine
were also present for the ceremony. We celebrated at a wedding supper at
Nicklow's Restaurant in Crystal, MN. (They're really very quiet kids... )
Lee and Lynne moved to an
apartment in Bloomington, MN so as to be closer to the school, now located in
Richfield after moving from downtown Minneapolis. They later purchased a
townhouse in Burnsville in December 2000, near Eric and Susan, where they still
live.
On
June 29th, 2002 , Norton and Elaine celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary. The actual
date of the wedding was June 7, 1952 but our children Lee, Jeffrey, Amy and Eric
wanted put on the celebration in our home at 3901 57th Ave. N.,
Brooklyn Center Mn. They gave us
the gift of a home computer which I am using to type this story and which also
allows us to send and receive E Mails. We
had about 60 people at the celebration which happened on the hottest day of the
year but at least it did not rain. We
had everyone sign our original guest book used at our wedding so
we can leave this memento to our children and grandchildren to look at in
the future.
Family
December 2000
F:
Olivia, Gavin, Amy, Elaine, Norton, Jeffrey, Adam
B:
James, Lee, Lynne, Eric, Katherine, Susan
Norton Ervin Knutson
to Family Tree