Gerald Anderson

Based on a real event, The Uffda Trial is set in the fictitious western Minnesota town of Vingelen, an extremely homogenous Scandinavian community, in 1926. It may be the "Roaring Twenties," but 23-year-old Karl Thorson has had to quit high school to work on the family farm. He longs to be an independent farmer, and perhaps even find a wife, but he has yet to find a woman he would want to marry. While attending a dance in a neighboring community, Karl meets Julie, and it appears to be a mutual attraction. However, as he attempts to learn more about her, Karl discovers that her unusually evasive father is promoting a moving-picture show in Vingelen and has actually promised to give away an eleven-month-old baby as a door prize at the film screening. The show takes place, but the people of Vingelen become outraged at what has clearly been a swindle and literally begin to take the law into their own hands, throwing eggs at the traveling scoundrel. Karl is mistakenly caught up in the action and forced to stand trial for the assault, along with eight other young men. The trial quickly becomes a comic fiasco. Will it spell doom for Karl and Julie's budding romance? The dialogue used in the novel is a careful reproduction of the manner and accent of the first- and second-generation Scandinavian-Americans in Minnesota. And of course, the meaning of "Uffda" is articulately explained.

Berkheim geneology. Gabriel and Marie Berkheim immigrated from Russia to America in the early 1900. They traveled from New York to Union, Colorado, where they homesteaded. Gabriel worked as a blacksmith. Their ancestors have lived in Colorado for the past 100 years. This book is dedicated to Lydia Berkheim Anderson, the author's mother.

Could something like murder happen in Fergus Falls-a quiet Minnesota town known for its Scandinavian heritage and great lake fishing? Yah, you betcha Every August Dr. George Gherkin, the Fergus Falls State University president, hosts a faculty party. It's tradition for George to lock himself inside the kitchen to prepare his signature dish. But instead of Chicken Kiev, the guests find their chef with a meat cleaver buried in his head. All the guests are suspects. There's Sally Ann Pennwright, Gherkin's scorned secretary and former mistress; Sherwin Williams, the assistant professor of Art who's been denied tenure for years; and Francis Olson, the athletic director whose attempt to leave Fergus Falls was thwarted by Gherkin. Everyone has an ax to grind with the selfserving, manipulative university president. Can the small-town sheriff-who hasn't handled a homicide case in his entire career-solve this unsavory crime? This is the first of the series featuring Palmer Knutson, America's famous Norwegian-American sheriff.

In 1976, the Northwest Minnesota Regional History Center, a part of the Minnesota Historical Society, conducted a bi-centennial project to record the voices of first and second generation Scandinavian Immigrants in the Upper Midwest, especially in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. The author traveled to their homes and interviewed more than a hundred immigrants or their children to gather information on the immigrant experience. Among the issues explored with these people were conditions in the home country, reasons for emigration, the route of the emigrations and the voyage to America, initial impressions, and the first year in America. The statistical information on this immigration experience, especially for the Norwegians and the Swedes, is quite excellent, but the oral history project was also attempting to capture the intense feelings of the "divided heart" and the psychological crisis of leaving family and friends behind. The interviews also attempted to gather information as to the acculturation of the immigrants. Which new aspects of America did they accept and which did they reject? Finally, the project attempted to measure the retention of Scandinavian traditions and attitudes as they existed at the time of the Bi-centennial. The Swedes, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Icelanders, and the Finns told of their retention of customs, of their church, of their educational experiences, of their language, of their literature, of their music, and, of course, of their cuisine. This book is arranged with separate chapters to examine these issues, mostly using the verbatim transcripts of the interviews. An old Icelandic woman describes traveling by covered wagon to the plains of North Dakota. An old Norwegian man describes patrolling the Swedish border when war threatened in 1905. An old Swedish woman describes homesteading on the prairie. These are wonderful and poignant words, but a transcript can never capture the musical brogue describing the longing for Norway nor can they portray the tear that rolls down a face as a man describes that last Christmas in Sweden. The author is a retired professor of history who taught at Luther College, North Dakota State University, and Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Let us call them, for now, "Murderer" and "victim." Victim stood in the shadows behind the giant blue ox. It was eerily silent. The only sounds came from a few ripples gently lapping onto the shore of Lake Bemidji and, in the distance, exhaust fumes drifted through the air from a passing tanker on Highway 2. The fury of the thunderstorm system that had ripped across northern Minnesota five hours earlier left hundreds of small puddles on the tarred surface of the parking lot, which now reflected the light from a distant street lamp. In the east, flashes of lightning illuminated a sky indifferent to the violence that would soon occur in this vacation paradise.