Illegitimate Children

In 1900 and for several decades thereafter, out-of-wedlock births were notorious and rare. Most pregnancies in unmarried women were rapidly followed by marriage when the pregnancy was discovered (demographers refer to these as "bridal pregnancies"). If not resolved by marriage, unmarried women who gave birth typically gave up their babies for adoption.

Still, even at the turn of the century, it was typical to consider a woman “ruined” if she were to find herself pregnant with no prospects of marriage.  Illegitimate children were stigmatized.  

This topic came up in a discussion about the lack of a headstone placed for my paternal Grandmother, Christine Hendrickson.  In searching throughout census data, and knowing about small towns and farming communities in northwestern Minnesota, much of Christine's family lived around and nearby.  Granted, being a "servant" and raising a child didn't leave a lot of room for extras, let alone savings.  She probably never drove; things couldn't have been easy for her.  Or for Harold, who probably felt the brunt of the same types of exclusions throughout his entire life as well.  

Such a sad existence for a woman who was most likely shunned from societal events, and even scorned by the local married women.  My great grandmother Christine was 28 when she got pregnant.  There's no mention of the father in any records we could find.  In fact, on the 1905 census he was listed as "Harold Pederson" and in the 1910 census he was Harold Danielson, living with his uncle, Peter Hendrickson.  

There is a lot of data regarding illegitimate births in England, perhaps because social standing and inheritance laws were more in place than during the growing spurts of American history.  But I'm certain that both my great grandmother and my grandfather lived with secret knowledge and harbored resentments over how things worked out in their lives in this regard.  

Sometimes there are mysteries we cannot actually solve.  But when you consider the circumstances, what little alternatives there were in these days, and despite the hardships Harold managed to marry and have six children, sometimes it's nice just to have a little bit of whatever you can glean of the family story.

The only known photo of Harold Danielson with his mother, Christine.

(Not sure who the other woman is)

The Cafe and Game Room

I'm looking through a book of Alvarado (MN) Memories (published 2005).   I love the story of this little town who's population in 1910 was 128, and hasn't wavered over 375 since then.  

In the book, I located this photo of the Cafe, originally owned by Mike Nordine.  Inside was filled with antiques he'd collected, including skates and copper kettles.  Mike could tell stories about every piece.  Mike died in 1953, and somewhere in there my Grandmother, Myrtle, decided to take over the Cafe and called it either M&H Cafe, or H&M Cafe (Harold being my Grandfather).  They didn't make a go of it for very long, but they tried.  My mother can recall going there to help out after church on Sundays.  

When I showed Mom this photo she told me "That's a good picture of the cafe.  It was dark inside as I remember. All his glass counters were of walnut color as the other cafes were more brightly lit.  One of them was the pool hall where your dad would get him self these big ice cream cones. Or chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and of course where he learned to play pool."

This of course led me to search out another photo, "The Game Room".  I'm quite certain this is the pool hall; the book mentioned that they sold sweets and treats there. 

Mike's Cafe originally, it was J. D.'s cafe when the building was razed to make room for a mini mall in 1984.  

J.D.'s relocated inside the strip mall.