SEGMENT: FARM BACKGROUND & TRANSPORTATION
Jacqueline Jackson>ISM Interviews A-L>ISM Interviews A-L, Segment 29
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- BACKGROUND
- A Norwegian named Gilbert came to the farm with an organization called the American-Scandinavian Foundation. They would send two young men to the US to spend six months on a Midwestern farm and 6 months on a western ranch. He came over early and got a job on a farm and didn't like it. Went to the U of W and they told him to talk to W.J. and Ron Dougan. Then he went home and got married to Solveg. They came back to the US and Ron thought Gilbert was going to buy him out and take over the farm. Solveg was homesick though, and wanted to go back to Norway. Gilbert was being offered jobs in Norway. Finally he accepted a job back in Norway. The farm business and milk business were difficult at that point. Jackie was married at that point and there wasn't any attempt to make her come back and be a farmer. Jackie took the opportunity to move to Rockford, IL. She always was connected with the farm though, and spend at least a month there in the summer. She always had in the back of her mind that she was going to write her book. It wasn't until her dad was in the hospital that she really began working on it. If she had taken over the farm she probably wouldn't have written her books.
- TRANSPORTATION
- Eisenhower began the interstate system in the 1950s. They needed an interstate from Chicago to Minneapolis. It was to go through Rockford, Madison, Baraboo, and Mauston, among others, and up to St. Paul. Jackie's sister was married in 1948 and W.J. gave her a little bit of land, on which they built a house of cement blocks. The interstate was coming straight at them from Illinois. I-90 was going to go through the good farmland and the dairy. They had to move to another part of the land just off the dairy. A lot of the house was salvageable, including the roof. A salesman came to the door to see all the kids in their rags and the house falling to pieces and says, "Nice little place you have here."
