Kjome, Norton H.

(Mildred Kjome)

Norton H. Kjome was born 22 Jul 1905 in Decorah Twp to Gustav and Thea Kjome. He was baptized and confirmed at First Lutheran Church in Decorah. He graduated from Luther Academy and attended Luther College for two years. He got his first retail experience in his father's grocery store at 121 E. Water Street. “Nort” worked for Nehi Bottling Co. for 11 years, and also spent a year working on the Alaskan Highway before getting a store of his own. His first venture was the Kjome Cafe, where Frederick’s Cafe was located until the late 1980's. Then he entered the hardware business by buying Bill Fisher's Specialty Co. His next venture was a bicycle shop. He purchased property owned by his parents on East Water St. and moved in Kjome Hardware in 1951. During the next quarter century he saw the business change from mainly selling farm handtools to everything being mechanized. The last five years in business his firm was affiliated with the well known OK Hardware chain.

Nort was married to Dorothy Sayre Morgan and the couple had one child, Nancy. Nort was married a second time to Alice Muellerman Scholtes, owner of Alice's Beauty Salon. Nort adopted her son Clair. The family owned a summer home on the Upper Iowa River, seven miles northeast of town. Nort was very fond of fishing and also liked to play golf. Alice died in 1964. His daughter, Nancy Eber. died in 1965. Nort was married a third time to a widow, Martha Lee Solvie Nelson. She helped out in the store until it was sold in 1972. Nort and Martha retired with the intention of spending time with their children and grandchildren. Nort was active in church, civic, and fraternal affairs. He was a past secretary of First Lutheran’s Board of Trustees, past president for five years, a ten year member of the Cemetery Board, past High Priest of Decorah Masonic Lodge 181, a 32nd Degree Mason, member of the Oneota Country Club, and past director of the Decorah Chamber of Commerce. Norton H. Kjome died at the Eastern Star Home 3 Oct 1985. He is buried beside his second wife, Alice, in the Lutheran Cemetery in Decorah. His children: Nancy Ann Kjome. married Blaine Eber of Janesville, Wl, and Clair “Sonny” Kjome of Minneapolis, MN.

Kjome, Ole and Ambjor (Dybsjord)

(Mildred Kjome)

Ole N. Kjome was born in Rollag Parish, Numedal. Norway 24 Sep 1849, the youngest child of N.N. Kjomme, Sr. and Margit A. Hov. He was only five years old when the family emigrated to America and settled in Highland Twp. He was educated at the Kjome School. Ole married Ambjor Johnson born 18 Dec 1844, daughter of Johannes Olson Dybsjord, an immigrant from Hallingdal who farmed in Section 23.

Ambjor grew up in Aal Parish. She came with her family to America in 1861. Ole took over the family farm when his father died. He built a small creamery on the farm, later to be known as the Rock Springs Creamery. The spring for cooling the milk flowed through the basement part of the building. In 1892, Ole sold the farm and creamery to his two nephews, Nels and Louis Larson, and moved to a farm near the Spring Grove, MN town hall (now owned by Reierson Brothers). In January of 1899, Ole was victim of a painful accident. A horse kicked him, fracturing his knee. In 1900 they moved into Spring Grove and Ole ran the creamery there. He is also credited with being the first farmer in the area to plant tobacco.

Ole N. Kjome and Ambjor Johnson Dybsjord

Ole died 16 Jun 1916. Ambjor died 9 Mar 1926 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. G.M. Helland, where she had spent the last 6 months. They are both buried in the West End Cemetery, Spring Grove, MN.

Their children were: Ole O, Nels 0, John O, Maria, Anna Bertina, Ingeborg Christina (m. Hilmar J. Evensen), Andrew 0, Emma (m. John Engebretson), Julia (m. G.M. Helland), Olaf O and Arthur Martin.

Kjome, Thurston and Martha (Nesheim)

(Mildred Kjome)

Thurston Augustus Kjome was born 1 Jan 1899 to Gustave and Thea Anderson Kjome. He grew up in the family home on East Water Street in Decorah, across from the Creamery. Music was to become his life. He started a dance band with Eli Ellickson on tuba, Bill Hart on sax, Fred Cooley on banjo and guitar providing a good deal of humor, and several other guys on various instruments, Les Anderson and his brother, Luther Baker, Wallace Moen, and Jimmy Kavarick. "Thurst" played piano. He was such an even-tempered man that he was a delight to be around. His band played together for about 15 years all around northeast Iowa. They traveled in good and bad weather, eight people in a car with all the band instruments, to wherever people were waiting to dance. During the Depression years, the band kept playing in spite of the low pay it brought. Music was a way of life for this band, they just had to play. He opened a music store in Decorah and sold pianos, band instruments, guitars, sheet music, phonograph records, and tuned and repaired instruments, and even taught you howto play them.