This is one of the few facts known about his early life. He and his family reached the Midwest by way of the St. Lawrence River. Upon arriving in America he changed his surname to Kiel, taking the name of an area in Norway. This change of name did cause problems. The name should have been spelled Kjel, but a printing error changed the j to i. The mistake was not corrected, and the spelling remained Kiel to this day.

Grandpa Gunderson, as he has been called through all generations, bought 40 acres in Springfield Twp, Winneshiek Co, IA from J.M. Redmond, a trustee of the Illinois Central Railroad, for $140.00 in Aug of 1862. Compared to the size of farms in Norway, this purchase seemed extremely large.

Ole Kiel

The 40 acres had been part of a mass of land sold in portions and Ole and his family were the first to homestead their particular area. He cleared the timber and built a log cabin which burned down but was quickly rebuilt. The family house, our family home, was built in the 1880’s. A granary built by Grandpa Gunderson remains as the only building of the original homestead. Built of the early rough sawed lumber, standing on stone blocks, and now leaning towards the north, we are reluctant to remove this last landmark of long ago.

Grandpa Gunderson was progressive and enterprising. He was proud to have been the owner of one of the first teams of horses.

In 1865 he bought 40 more acres from E.E. Otis for $300.00. Although Grandpa signed his name with an “X”, he was quite an intelligent Norwegian. His first wife died soon after their arrival in America. Not wanting to be alone, he wrote to Norway for his wife's younger sister. The idea of marrying his wife’s sister was quite shocking to the Norwegian Lutheran minister who refused to marry them. Completely undaunted, Ole and his new wife-to-be traveled to the county seat of Decorah and were married by the Justice of the Peace.

Hoping to find records of this marriage in the courthouse, I was disappointed to discover that births, marriages and deaths were not officially recorded before 1880.

Grandpa Gunderson and his wife lived their entire life on the original homestead. Young Ole cared for his grandparents until their deaths. In the life-lease on the farm, young Ole also agreed to furnish the farm produce, wood and the use of two cows.

Courthouse records show that Ole Gunderson Kiel died in Feb 1982 following a stroke. It was interesting to note that there is no record of his wife's death in the county records. She passed away a year later.

Grandpa Gunderson's original photograph, in his own handmade walnut frame, is now displayed with pride in our own farm's “Hall of Frame."

Kiel, Ole Marcus

(Elsie Rothmeyer)

I remember my grandfather, Ole Marcus Kiel, as a quaint, lovable, short, slightly round, gray-haired man with one glass eye.

Grandpa almost lost the glass eye on his trip to the United States when was jerked from a ship's porthole just before he would have fallen overboard.

Grandpa Kiel lived in Calmar with his mother and stepfather until he was 12 years old. Great-grandfather Ole Gunderson then asked him to come to the farm and help with the work. He stated that the young Ole was his only heir and that someday he would inherit all of his grandfather’s possessions. Grandpa Kiel did go to the farm to live with his grandparents. In 1876 at the age of 18 he received the life lease and mortgage on 80 acres of land from his grandfather.

Restless and young, Ole wanted to leave Iowa for the West - not exactly according to Grandpa Gunderson’s wishes. Ole traveled to the state of Washington. For three years he worked as a carpenter.

Grandpa Kiel proved to be quite clever. He designed the window knobs for all the upstairs windows of our present farm home. They are. unique but also frustrating.

After three years Ole returned to Iowa and married. Seven children were born to Ole and Marie. I often think of Grandpa Kiel as the “patriarch" of the family. When his four sons were old enough to farm, he gladly relinquished his job. He preferred to tend his vineyards, tinker in his workroom in Grandpa Gunderson's granary, and to read all the literature he could find, especially history.

Grandpa Kiel had only one good eye, losing one in a jabbing incident that occurred while feeding cattle. The badly injured eye never healed. Rev. Paul Koren, the Lutheran minister, went with Grandpa to Chicago for surgery to remove the injured eye and replace it with a glass eye.

Grandpa and Grandma Kiel retired from the farm, now 160 acres, to their new home in Calmar. Their unmarried