Gypsy's Journal: DAY 12 – June 23, 2013 – Moorhead, Norman County cemeteries, Climax, Minnesota

Woke up this morning to RAIN…the first “real” rain we have encountered. As luck would have it, though, once again the sun came out and the rain disappeared. I have been very fortunate on this trip to only see rain while I was sleeping or in very short time frames.

We waited for the rain to lighten then set off again in search of my grandparents…still no luck. “Maybe” I will have one more opportunity in a few days. Moorhead is only about an hour south of our next destination…Climax, Minnesota. I did ask for the story behind the naming of this town and was told it was the name of a tobacco that was widely used at the time. As I recall the story, the tobacco was cut off in pieces and each piece was given some type of metal tag with the name CLIMAX. The metal tags were then put on a large wall by the patrons and hence the name. “Meet you at Climax.”

After our unsuccessful second attempt to find my grandparents amid the mosquitoes and rain, we decided to move north. Our first excursion “off course” was to the Augustana Cemetery in Norman County. My notes indicated only one or two relatives here but I was happy to find many more than that! After taking all the photos, we went into the church (most do not lock the doors) and found a genealogy resource of all the people buried in this church cemetery. At that point, I realized I had forgotten a few old souls and had to go back and find them. The resource included stories on all the people buried in this small church cemetery. Note to self: these stories were put together by the Norman County Genealogical Society.

We found the Zion Lutheran Cemetery…more pictures from this church cemetery. The church is now on the Historical Register (these doors were locked so we could not go inside). We tried to find the Marsh River Cemetery – found the church, but not the cemetery. Will try that one again tomorrow. On down the road and we find another cemetery…right there on the side of the road ST. PETRI!! This is the cemetery with most of its inhabitants being my ancestors!! I had no idea it would be right there on the side of the road. As I am busily taking photos of almost everyone, this woman walks up to me and says, “I saw you taking pictures of the Paulsruds and was wondering if you were related to them.” Actually, I am not sure if we are (yet) but thought I would take them “just in case”. This woman just happened to be a Paulsrud but that is her married name. It turns out I WAS related to HER…she was a Smith and I had met her aunt and uncle just a few days ago. Too funny.

Now it was off to meet cousin Art. When I got into town to call him, I noticed that I had missed his call while I was at the last cemetery. No problem, he met us at the gas station and instead of going to his house (which I thought we were), his son and he suggested the Corner Bar where we would have tables and space to spread our stuff around. A few glasses of wine, much chatter, more people to meet, a light dinner, and five hours later, we thought it was time to move on. We did go to Art’s house (he invited us to stay) but the room was a bit small for two of us to share so we are now in Crookston at a very nice hotel. We will drive back down to Climax in the morning and spend the day with Art getting a tour of the places my family used to live.