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Growing Up in Ambrose
Marlis Glaspey - Lignite, North Dakota I have visited your website – very good. But I was surprised that Pete and Alice Jensen were not listed as past residents. I am a grand niece of them. I used to spend some time at their home every summer growing up. They lived on the south end of Main Street on the east side. Their house had a front porch that I loved.
I had never ridden on a train so my grandmother Mrs. Martin Jensen took me for the ride. We got on at Flaxton and arrived at Ambrose. Alice met us at the station with a child’s wagon to put our suitcases in and we walked to their house. They didn’t have a family. My Uncle Delbert and Aunt Beth Jensen lived there and ran a café. They looked after Pete and Alice in their last years. Pete died in 1963 at 82 years old. I’ve looked through what I have of Mother’s things but I can’t come up with anything more. It’s not that I’ve never been back to Ambrose, as I have traveled with our daughter and family to many horse shows held there. I thought of looking for Pete’s house but it always seemed we had our hands full with the two grandchildren, horses, meals, etc. Pete and Alice left their china cabinet to me in their will. Delbert and Beth organized the auction sale of their house and contents. My mother and I drove up that day. I bought a beautiful small mahogany cedar chest which I treasure. Enough “rambling”. Hope our weather is perfect for all the towns celebrating this year. We here in Lignite celebrate next year! Good job, you guys! Marlis Glaspey (Received via U. S. Mail)
My name is Merle Parsley. I was born on April 8, 1936 in the Ambrose Hospital. I am the youngest of six children. My parents were Glen and Margaret Parsley, very modest people of little means but the salt of the earth. My dad died in 1946 and mom put us kids through school by running the Ambrose Café. Mom died in 1997 in Crosby. I graduated from Ambrose High School in 1955. After spending four years in the United States Air Force, I graduated from Minot State University with a Bachelor of Science degree and from Utah State University with a Masters Degree. I married Judy Kelly of Minot and we are the parents of five children. Sincerely,
Ralph Wheeler - Fort Mill, South Carolina My name is Ralph Wheeler and I was born in the Ambrose hospital on February 19, 1933. My grandfather was Rasmus Aalund. My mother was Martha Aalund Wheeler. Our family, consisting of Martha and her husband Walter, and their sons Robert and me, spent summers at grandpa Aalund's farm located a few miles south of Ambrose. The Wheelers grew up in the Minot area, and brother Bob still lives there. I now live in South Carolina. Rasmus Aalund had eleven children. My many aunts and uncles lived mainly in the Crosby, Ambrose and Fortuna area. Ruth Aalund Paulson lived near Fortuna. Two of their children, Maynard “Bud” Paulson and Wayne Paulson were often at grandpa Aalund's farm to visit. One of grandpa Aalund's sons, Sam Aalund, farmed near Mohall. His oldest son, Ronny Aalund, still farms there. Oscar Aalund married Flossy and had two children, Bob Aalund and Irma Aalund, who grew up in Crosby. Agnes Aalund married Kenneth Haugland and their children (Keith, Marvin, Norman, Crissy and Mary Ann) grew up in the Crosby area. Olga Aalund married Harry Gulbranson and lived in Minot with daughter Sandra. The youngest Aalund son, Ralph, married Louise and had three sons and a daughter who lived in the Crosby area. I last visited Ambrose in 1981 to show my children where I was born. My mother told me the hospital had served many functions over the years: hospital, old folks home, storage building, etc. I’m sure it has an interesting history and I will be interested to see and tour the building again. My brother Robert and I, along with our wives, are planning to attend at least one day of the Ambrose centennial celebration. (Received via U. S. Mail)
Sonya Selle-Collins - Des Moines, Iowa With the GREAT AMBROSE WEEK-END being just around the corner, I thought I'd better get my act in gear and get this e-mail sent. I am Sonya Selle-Collins cousin of Larry Selle, who is a current rural Ambrose resident owning the farm that was homesteaded by our grandfather. I grew up on my father and mother's farm 3 miles south and 3 miles west of town. My dad, Oscar Selle, graduated from high school in Ambrose along with several of his siblings, children of Knut and Herborg Selle. My Uncle John Selle was in partnership with Kermit Thomte for a few years and his daughter Karen Thomte was one of my closest friends in high school and college. I attended first grade in Ambrose and older brother Leon was then in third grade. The school picture you have from 1952 - my cute little face should have been for all to see too, but I must have been sick that day. :) Miss Enget was my first teacher and I thought the world of her. In the summer of 1953 (I think that was the year) my mother, Leona, ran the cafe on Main Street right next to the post office. I loved those few weeks we actually lived in town. That is when "little Shirlee Anderson" became a friend of mine along with Frances Enerson, who also was a "bestest" friend all through high school and college. They were all disappointed, and I understand why, but I was very excited when they had to start attending high school in Crosby. Now I was able to renew the friendships I'd had with my Ambrose friends from years ago as I was already attending school in Crosby. Along with my brother Leon, I have one other brother, Jerome, and in 1960 my sister, Bethany, was born. Unfortunately, we lost her at the age of 19 from Hodgkins. At that time, in 1979, she and my parents were living in Grand Island, Nebraska where both my brothers and their families and my family was living. Neither Jerome nor Beth attended Ambrose but both had several friends from there. My family were member's of Immanuel Lutheran Church, south of Ambrose, and this is where my mother, Leona, is buried, having died in Nov. of 1994. Also my grandparent's and several uncles from my Dad's family are buried at Immanuel. After the church closed, we attended the Lutheran Church in Ambrose where I was married in November of 1967. All the years I was growing up, our mailing address on the farm was Ambrose. So now when people ask me where I'm from originally, I'll slip and say Crosby and my husband Tom will say, "No, you're NOT!!! You're from Ambrose!!!" And he's right!! And because we are having a Raaum (Mom's family) reunion out at my Uncle Dale's farm south of Fortuna over the July 4th week-end, I am planning on attending some of the Centennial activities on Saturday with some of my family. Greetings from Des Moines, Iowa!!! Looking forward to seeing a bunch of name tags of names I know as I'm sure I won't recognize the faces!
Shirlee Anderson Lee - Vancouver, WA Growing up in Ambrose was the best time in my life. My sister, Bonnie and I, were always busy playing in the playhouse our Uncle Omer had built for us, riding our bikes to town for a popsicle, dressing up our kittens and pushing them around in our doll buggies or Mom dressing us up to play in the snow and "then" we would have to use the bathroom - undress and dress one more time. Dad bought us "Flying Saucers" and the snow was over the top of our swing set in the back yard - boy, did we have fun!!! I remember the ice skating pond across the street from Omer and Aunty’s - the little shack in the island of the pond where we could warm up near the fire, the fun times at school, play days, spelling bees, basketball tournaments - Oh, to only be able to go back in time and do it all again. This time I would appreciate it even more. These are just a few of the wonderful memories I have of growing up in the beautiful little town of Ambrose - to me it will always be "the Queen City of Divide County." I cannot wait to see and visit with the most wonderful, caring people we and our parents have known. The memories are forever etched in my heart. From the bottom of my heart, "I love you, Ambrose, North Dakota."
Sharon Moen Semingson - Hillsboro, OR Ambrose was a great place to grow up, I have many fond memories of that little town. I was one of the last "4" to graduate from high school there. My grandparents were former residents, Theodore and Inga Moen, (deceased) they lived 2 1/2 miles north of Ambrose on the farm where I grew up. In fact, Grandpa sold the little piece of land for the customs to be built, Marienthal. I never knew Grandpa, as he passed away when I was a baby, but my sister, Maxine and I spent many fun hours with Grandma Moen. My parents were Leonard and Gladys Moen, also former residents, now both deceased, their children were Maxine Moen Bendixson - Zahl, ND; Sharon Moen Semingson - Hillsboro, OR; and Cameron Moen - Missoula, MT.
Paulette Fleck Overbo - Williston, ND I was pretty young when we moved from Ambrose to Crosby, but, I got a taste of a few things that might now be considered "the old days". I remember having to walk out to the outhouse in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom because we had no bathroom in our house. I walked fast and went fast because of all the noises that came from the trees behind and the pond on the other side, not to mention it was very dark back there. Our bathtub was in the entry way of the house and it wasn't heated much. We had to share bathwater because we were always conserving water as dad and Uncle Emens had to haul the water to the cistern. Needless to say baths in the winter were short due to the cold room. If I recall right we also had to heat the water, I don't think we had hot water. My grandmother Pauline Enerson lived with us in Ambrose and we always had a house full of people. Be it relatives or friends, there was always music and eating going on. My dad raised chickens so we had our own eggs and he butchered chickens a couple of times a year. I can still see him putting the chicken on the block and saying to me "turn your head and shut your eyes Polly." Our house had three not too big bedrooms and we had mom, dad, six kids, and grandmother living there. There was a little house a little ways from the house that was the play house. Uncle Bergby from Norway used to come and visit us and always brought Watkins Nectar with him. That seemed to be a pretty good deal back then. Wally (and others) used to get into quite a lot of trouble for raiding Harry Miller's garden across the street to the north of us. There was a lot of action every day around there - Gjovigs lived across the street to the west of us and Grotes weren't too far away either (a couple blocks). We used to go visit a man just north of the old folks home, I think his name was Erickson. He used to give us those orange marshmallow peanuts to eat. Dad worked at Mobil Oil Co. and could fix almost anything - and if he couldn't, he'd find a way. Those are some of my memories of living in Ambrose although we visited very frequently after we moved to Crosby.
Debra Grote Snyder - Schnecksville, PA Our family lived in the house located on the corner of Main Street, kitty corner from the Rud Anderson Park. Our family consisted of our father Floyd Grote, mother Doris Dahl Grote and six children, Ronald, Karen, Wayne, James, Debra, and Brian. Dad worked at the Farmers Elevator and after several years he and mom bought the Old Miller Building on Main Street. One year after buying it Mom was killed in a car accident and so Dad ran it alone. We lived above the store and I will NEVER forget my childhood growing up in that building. There was a elevator that was powered by man power! There was a rope that you pulled to take it up to the 2nd floor. And to go back down to the 1st floor you slowly let the rope go! If you let it go too much, the elevator would drop very quickly! I later found out that this is what they used to take the dead body's up to the morgue!
Marge Caffrey Brackett - Casa Grande, AZ Some of my wonderful memories are of parts of the nine winters I lived at Rud Anderson's. Because of snowbound conditions his sister-in-law, Ann Stenson, and niece, Gladys Ray, and I moved to town to live with him. We had a great time with our activities - the player piano, and friends. I always remember how Rud enjoyed a glass of wine with an egg in it! He always had a big box of delicious apples. After Gladys graduated I lived with three memorable old families - the Almos's, Shaw's, and Hansen's.
Barbara Mace - Eden Prairie, MN My mother, Lucille Hanson Johnson, was born and raised in Ambrose. I have many fond memories of visits to my grandparents' (Emil and Minnie Hanson) farm as a young girl. I loved Grandma's big garden. Her flowers were beautiful and eating peas right out of the garden was a treat! I remember the sweet smelling hay in the barn, and watching Grandpa separate the milk. I also remember the wind blowing the wheat so that it looked like waves on a golden sea. At night, I could look out of the window and see the twinkling lights of Crosby. Later, after Emil and Minnie moved to town, I remember walking uptown to get groceries at either Chris or Axel's grocery stores. We also stopped to get the mail and then ice cream at Hilstead's (sp?) cafe. One year, we were still visiting when it was time for school to start, so I started first grade at the Ambrose school with my cousins.
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Pete
was a barber, and if my memory serves me right, the barber chair was in
a pool hall or beer joint. I know they served beer and played
pool and cards in that building. Alice worked or had a café and later
they owned (?) or at least they ran the “parlor”. 
My
father Floyd Grote used to manage the Ambrose Farmers Elevator.
He then took over management of the Mobil station which was owned by
the elevator. While at the Mobil station Floyd and my mother
Doris bought the Grocery store from the Schefstads. This store
was located in the old Miller Hardware building. We lived
upstairs when I was a kid. I remember some really cool things.
Like the old elevator that we pulled ourselves upstairs with because it
ran on ropes and pulleys. Or the old building behind the store
that had coffin parts in it from the old mortuary - this scared the
daylights out of us little kids.
