Kersten Family History
Presentation to the Annandale History Club
April 2, 2012
Ardis (Kersten) Hollermann

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The Kersten family has had a presence in Southside Township, Wright County, Minnesota, since 1871 and had a prominent role in organizing the town of South Haven in 1888.  In 1889 Gottlieb and Johannah Kersten helped organize the church that became Zion United Methodist.  In 2011 Ardis Hollermann, the daughter of Ernest and Ida Kersten, compiled a 530-page book, More Than a Name: The Frank & Minnie Kersten Family.  The memories of many Kersten family members are included, as well as photographs, newspaper articles and maps.  The book is a history of a Minnesota pioneer family and also a history of South Haven. 

Gottlieb Kersten (1850-1898) and Johannah Graupmann Kersten (1854-1928)

21 year old Gottlieb Kersten came to Section 18, Southside Township, Wright County, Minnesota, in the spring of 1871 to claim a homestead of 160 acres.   According to History of Wright County, 1915, "There he endured all the rigors of pioneer life.  The place was covered with timber.  He made a small clearing and erected a log house, 16 by 20 feet, with a shake roof, board floor, and home-made furniture.  His tools consisted of little more than an axe, a grub hoe and a shovel.  Fortunately he had an ox team, and these were of great assistance in clearing the farm.  He secured his supplies at Fair Haven.  Every time he went there with his ox team, he had to cut out a trail anew, for the trees fell down with such frequency as to make the roads impassable between trips.  In 1877 his crops were destroyed by grasshoppers.  In spite of discouragements he kept on, and in time had a well-developed farm."

On December 16, 1873, Gottlieb married Johannah Graupmann, age 19.  She came from Germany to America in 1869 with her family, and they settled near Plato in McLeod County.  She worked as a cook at a hotel in St. Paul.   She gave up the relative comforts of city life to join Gottlieb in the humble home he had built for her.

In 1877, after fulfilling the requirements for free land under the Homestead Act, Gottlieb secured a patent for the southwest quarter of Section 18.  After realizing the land was too hilly to be successful, he sold the land in Section 18 in 1883 and purchased a quarter section of level land in Section 16.  Gottlieb's new land abutted the future railroad tracks (1886) and future Town of South Haven (incorporated in1888).  In 1886, Johanna had railroad workmen boarding with the family during the construction of the Minneapolis & Pacific Railway (became Soo Line in 1888).  In 1896, Gottlieb added another 40 acres to his 160 acres in Section 16.

Gottlieb Kersten donated land for a cemetery and church and helped organize Zion Evangelical Church, which had its beginnings in 1878, organizational meeting in 1889, church built in 1899, and Articles of Incorporation filed in 1891.  The church building was moved to South Haven in 1916.       

Gottlieb and Johannah were the parents of Ida Marquardt (1874-1946), Alex (1877-1941), Frank (1879-1929), Henry (1882-1888), Louie (1884-1964), and Minnie Swenson (1887-1966).

In June of 1898 a great tragedy occurred.  While haying with two other men near Lake Augusta, Gottlieb drank from a contaminated spring and was dead within two days.  He was 48 years old.  Johannah moved to a house built on the northern border of the Kersten farm (just across the Main Street railroad crossing in South Haven) and lived there until her death in 1928.   

 

John F, Kersten (1819-1895) and Johannah (Krueger) Kersten (1816-1894)

By 1875 John and Johannah Kersten, Gottlieb's parents, were also residing in Southside Township.  Gottlieb had emigrated from Western Pomerania with his parents and siblings in 1869. The John Kersten family first lived near Carver, north of the Minnesota River.

Frank Gottlieb Kersten (1879-1929) and Wilhemina 'Minnie' Ernst Kersten (1882-1972)

Frank Kersten, the third of six children born to Gottlieb and Johanna Kersten.  There was little in the South Haven civic and business community that he wasn't involved in at some time.  In 1902 he was among the petitioners for the incorporation of the Village of South Haven and served on the Village Council nine years, village assessor six years and president of the school board three years. He was an officer in the Rural Telephone Company, South Haven Mercantile Co., Farmers Exchange, South Haven Peoples State Bank, South Haven Boosters Commercial Club, Old Settlers Assn. of Fair Haven, and Twin Haven Community Club.  He was Republican precinct chairman and delegate.  He played baseball and later was a manager for baseball and basketball teams and a baseball umpire.  He was a businessman and farmer.  He bought and sold cattle and horses, often traveling to North Dakota to do business.  At times he raised potatoes on the farm bordering the southern edge of South Haven.  

Frank Kersten and Minnie Ernst of Paynesville were married in 1905 and were the parents of five children: Mrytle Larsen (1906-1979), Grace Bailey (1907-1976), Ernest (1909-1992), William (1914-2005), and Esther Jucknath (1917-1987).  Frank Kersten passed away February 17, 1929.

Mrytle was a teacher in area schools and served as Pine County Superintendent of Schools 1951-1972.  Grace became a nurse and served in the Army in Africa and Italy during World War II.  Her nursing career included the Buffalo Hospital and for many years as an R.N. in the nursery at St. Barnabas Hospital in Minneapolis.  Esther and her family moved to Florida in 1944.  She was a homemaker and raised eleven children.

Frank Kersten mortgaged the farm through different business transactions, and the Kersten family farm was lost during the Great Depression. In1949, his sons, Ernie and Bill Kersten, were able to repurchase the home farm in Section 16, Southside Township.

Ernest Gottlieb Kersten (1909-1992) and Ida Gehrke Kersten (1914-2004)

In 1924, at the age of 15, Ernie began working on the roads around South Haven.  During the Great Depression, he rode freight trains in search of work.  He worked the harvests in the Dakotas and did construction work in Mississippi.  In 1936, he worked in Glacier National Park as a truck driver.  In the late 1930s, he began a life-long farming partnership with his brother, Bill.  The brothers bought their first threshing machine in 1939.  Ernie was good with machinery and crops, and Bill specialized in cattle.  They helped each other with all the work and made decisions as a team.   

Ernie Kersten and Ida Gehrke were married in 1939 and were the parents of Douglas, Ardis, and Charles.  At first the brothers rented the home place.  In 1943, the Kersten brothers, Ernie and Bill, purchased the Herman Lueders farm one and one-half miles west of South Haven alongside Highway 55.  The two families lived together for about six years.  Ernie, Ida, and children Douglas and Ardis, lived upstairs in the large house, and Bill, Trula, and son Rolly lived downstairs.  In 1944, the brothers bought the Knute farm.  In 1949, the brothers bought back the home place bordering South Haven, and Bill, Trula and Rolly moved to the home farm.  Through hard work, the Kersten brothers were progressive and successful crop and dairy farmers.

Ernie and Ida were active in their church, Concordia Lutheran in Fair Haven, and also in youth and 4-H leadership.  Ernie was a Farm Bureau member and served on the South Haven School Board.

Ernie and Bill loved to play basketball and baseball.  They both played for the South Haven baseball team.  Ernie played from 1926 into the 1940s.         

William Henry Kersten (1914-2005) and Trula Ballard Kersten (1914-2007)

Bill Kersten and Trula Ballard were married in 1935.  Trula taught at Wadman School (District 93) 1933 to1935.   Bill and Trula raised Trula's nephew, Rolly Ballard, since he was 15 months old and eventually were able to adopt him.  Rolly Kersten's contributions to the book include his memories of farming and farm equipment starting with horses, through many tractors and improvements in dairy barns and dairy methods over the years.  There were prosperous years on the farm and tough times of drought.

At the peak of operations, including land owned and rented, the Kersten brothers farmed in excess of 850 acres.  The cattle were sold at auction September 15, 1981, including 134 Holstein cows and 10 bred heifers.  The farm equipment was sold at auction April 11, 1992. 

Bill and Trula were active in their church, Zion United Methodist.  They were also youth leaders and 4-H leaders.  Bill was a pioneering member of the FFA, lifetime Farm Bureau member, and served on the Southside Township Board and South Haven Village Council.

Bill graduated from Annandale High School in 1931.  Tall (6'4") and athletic, he was a standout basketball player.  He also threw the discus on the track team and played high school baseball.  Bill played on the South Haven town baseball team, usually as catcher. 

Final Thoughts

Ardis Kersten Hollermann wrote the following:

"The activity around the Kersten farms has ended, but the memories of a way of life continue in those of us who lived them. Gone is the bustle of activity on the two South Haven Kersten farms along with all the sights, sounds and smells.  The barnyards are empty and the milking machines are quiet.  The garden areas are grown up with long grasses or planted into a field crop.  The farm women are no longer in their kitchens preparing large meals for hungry men and children.  The house that Gottlieb Kersten built, Frank Kersten updated and expanded and was the home of Bill Kersten is no more.  It was destroyed by fire in a controlled burn on March 19, 2011.  Some other buildings on the two farms are crumbling or beyond repair.  Gottlieb, Frank, Ernest, and William Kersten along with their wives are buried in a cemetery a short distance to the south of where they had lived."

Rolly Kersten wrote the following:

"The cows were gone, the machinery was gone and the land rented out.  The Knute place had been sold, the partnership dissolved and the farm land separated between Ida and Mom and Dad.  The Kersten Brothers Farm no longer existed as it once was.  The end of an era had come.  As it is said, "All good things come to an end."  And so they have...  I am very fortunate indeed to have grown up, lived and worked amongst the Kerstens on the Kersten Brothers Farm."