Emma Olava Haarstad was born in 1867 in Winneshiek, Iowa. She as the daughte rof Simon Erikson Haarstad and Hermana Oldsdatter Botner. She married Ole Mikkelson Skolrud on April 1, 1886 in Otter Tail County, Minnesota.

Emma kept a record of the births (and deaths) of each of her children. The pages appear to have come from a journal. It is written in Norwegian and the red translations were written in by her daughter-in-law Julia [Holland] Skolrud.

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Emma shared her memories of her early years in Trondhjem township in a story published in the Fergus Falls Daily Journal on July 5, 1955. It was copied here from ancestry.com. The article was titled “Blizzards, Fires, Grasshoppers Menaced Trondhjem Settlers.”

Emma died on September 8, 1932 in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. According to her husband Ole’s obituary, she is buried in Friborg Cemetery in Rothsay, Otter Tail, Minnesota beside their first two children.