Albert Hemingsen

The Hemingsen family lived at one time on Fruit Ridge Road north of 20 Mile on the west side of the Road. This is where Jerry and Diane Brennan currently have lived since 1974,

Albert Hemingsen interview. 11 March 1989.

Address: 1303 Alden Nash. Lowell, Michigan.

ED MORGAN Hello. Is this Albert Hemingsen’s?

Yes it is.

ED MORGAN: Is Albert there?

Uh, no.

This is Mrs. Hemingsen. Albert passed away nine years ago. I been talking to Al, his brother and he is coming over to our place. He and his brother Bob.

Hello. Is this Al Hemingsen.

This is Ed Morgan.

ED MORGAN Were you up to my place today, to Kent CIty?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Yeah. Yep.

ED MORGAN I am sorry to have missed you.

Were you up this way for some other reason anyway?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: No. No.

ED MORGAN: What all have you got?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Well, I got some marriage licenses from ah my father and mother and grandmother and I got some pictures, I got some of them do not know who they are. But,

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: What mostly are you looking for?

ED MORGAN: Well, we are looking for old pictures of the houses, um like barn raisings, threshing

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Well, I got some of an old stump puller thing they used to pull stumps. It has horses and men. I got some old logging pictures he worked in the logging business. I know they are dad’s pictures. He worked in the logging business. I am not sure where they pertain to, you know, whether they are local or somewhere else.

ED MORGAN: What was your dad’s name?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Albert.

ED MORGAN: Did he move down by Lowell?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: He was down there by Lowell.

ED MORGAN: Now my daughter said you were born in the house across the street.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Ah, yah, me and my brother’s was. My twin brother Albert and my older brother Robert.

ED MORGAN: Oh, you were?

Did you guys go across the street at all?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: No, no we did not feel free to do that. I mean maybe if we would if we knew who they were.

Uh, huh.

ED MORGAN: Now this coming Monday night is when we are doing our little presentation you know we have took and copied.

Nobody else um had any real old pictures of the place across the street. The people that ended up buying that from you family: the Holmgren’s. One of the older generation is still alive: Dorothy. She, um had some pictures taken in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: I got one school picture. There is no writing on it and it is a bit faded.

ED MORGAN: What do you know about the history of um either your grandparents or the house or like of the home or the barn like when they were built, stuff like that.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Oh, I moved away from I do not think I know too much about it because my brother and myself was rather small when we left.

We got one ledger now, my grandpa used to run a creamery up there I understand that would be ah there is a debate that would be whether his name was Henry, Nelson or Niels. I am not sure which one of em

ED MORGAN: On the property records I have found where it was Niels Hemingson. There was a Henry Hemingson also, up closer to Grant and he was a businessman.

I think Henry and Nels might have been brothers. But I might be wrong too

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Yeah, I have not got any bibles or anything like that. I have on my mother’s side. See, my mother’s name was Heiss. Oh, I got some of her people there too pictures. I have not got a lot of stuff, but mostly I got

my well it would be, Nelson and I my well it Karrie’s marriage license and I got my mother’s marriage license and I got one I do not know who it is. But, I thought I would take it along, and uh then I got a family picture of the Hemingsens That includes my dad, is oldest brother, his mother and sister and his mother which I can give you names of them. Then there was some Nielsen’s I got some pictures too of them too. They are related some way too. I got ten or twenty pictures. Some,but, Oh I got some pictures then they had on post cards and nothing written on the post cards. Some got writing on and some hasn’t. So you don’t know who the people are. That is where everybody should they get a picture taken they should

ED MORGAN: Do you have old pictures of the house across the street? Well I have one with a horse that we loved real well and just a portion of the house. With that I mean the horse is. I imagine the people there.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Do you know ah he is a cousin up there.

His name is Antone Nielsen.

ED MORGAN: I met him years ago, my dad used to buy hay off him when I was a kid.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Well, he is a cousin of ours and we stopped to see him, and he was not home. So, we kind of struck out.

ED MORGAN: That is too bad.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: We intend to come back up to you. We will call ahead of time. We will have to make connection.

ED MORGAN: Well, I would be glad to talk to you and when you come I can line up with

They would love to find an old picture of the house.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: There is another um I have not located it. See, the house here is a sold to my granddaughter and all In the attic there is supposed to be one old album of pictures and I cannot seem to be able to locate it. One and, If we need to save for later maybe I will get a better chance to see if I can’t scrounge up some more pictures. Okay, I would like to get together and just my older brother the one that was with me today. He knows the country better. He was old enough. I just faintly remember leaving. He is three years older.

ED MORGAN: How old are you?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: 72.

ED MORGAN: How old is your brother?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: He is three years older.

ED MORGAN: How old were you when you guys left up here?

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: I imagine I was three of four years old, fairly small, I mean fairly young, maybe older. I was a twin. Alfred and Albert. My twin brother, he is gone.

ED MORGAN: Well, I um see over the years I kinda first tried to pull together information on like just my place, the one across the street and the ones around here. I do have a few things on Hemingsen’s and stuff. I never was able to get much on Niels and Carrie.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: I ah, see Grandma was with us. We took her back up there to the cemetery.

We drove by that cemetery today.

It would be pretty. Without ideal footwear.

ED MORGAN: A couple years ago I tracked

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: When you were kids and stuff did you used to go up to the Danish Folk School and stuff..

No, the only thing that College, but, my brother, he showed me the cluster of trees in there where it was located, he showed me where that was, and it is on the opposite side of the road as the cemetery and uh, see this in all new to me and that’s, ah but we will see. Some more stuff. And get in touch.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: I would like to follow up on it.

ED MORGAN: Yeah, any Saturday or Sunday.

I want to check out your phone number.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: You know, um, now as far as now, I want to check your telephone number here. I am going to take your number again.

ED MORGAN: 887

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: 887

ED MORGAN: 8719

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: 8719

887-8719.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Thank you, and that is Ed Morgan, right?

ED MORGAN: Do you know of any other Hemingsen relatives? That are around.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Well, we had, see the Hemingsen family was a big family. There was about ten of them. In fact, a couple of them had the same name. Ah, but the only ones that I knew besides, I knew. I knew Chris, the oldest one. He was in Muskegon. In fact, that is where the Hemingsen’s originated from. Then there was a Bill, he was out in Minnesota somewhere, yeah. St. Paul. I knew them personally in fact Chris lived with us in his later years. He was a carpenter and dad followed the lumber mills some quit a little bit in the winter quite a bit of the time and he was kinda. I got some logging pictures and um so

ED MORGAN: You know I just happened to think. There was I would be real interested in seeing those. Thre used to be a saw mill on this property. So, I wonder if you do not have pictures of that.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: I know this stump machine that you are interested in. I know that definitely came from the area, and that uh, A team of horses but ah

If I can find that other album or find out if one of the other kids got it you know. Our family was five boys and two girls. Uh, so it was fairly good size. Ah, I will look for some more materials and I am sure we will get back together.

ED MORGAN: Okay.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Okay.

Thanks for calling. Yeah.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Well, I sure appreciate it. Ya, I tried to call you one night, and I was having a little trouble with my telephone. I tried to call three or four times. You know how you put something off and you don’t do it.

ED MORGAN: Yeah.

ALFRED HEMINGSEN: Well, thank you.

ED MORGAN: Bye

Bye Bye