Page 74 - Armstrong Bloodline - ebook_Neat

Over the next six years two more children arrived--a son, Alva David Armstrong, born on March 18, 1913
(named, of course after his grandfather), and another daughter -- Nora Luverne (Richardson) Armstrong -- born
on November 1, 1916. Both were born in Monticello, Wright County, MN. 255 & 256

Per the 1920 Federal Census taken on February 16, 1920, Frank, Edna, and their four children were still in
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Monticello Township, his occupation is shown as farmer, and he owned his home free of mortgage.
Sometime during this year they once again followed Edna's parents (who had departed the area five years
earlier), this time moving to the town of Hilman, Morrison County, approximately 40 miles due north of
Monticello and 60 miles north and slightly east of Minneapolis. Edna was pregnant again, and their last child,
Wayne Leroy Armstrong (my father) was born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1920, at Edna's parent's home,
about 15-20 miles away in Wahkon, MN. My father's birth certificate shows his father's post office address as
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Hilman, MN and his occupation as farmer. Edna’ post office address is shown as Wahkon, MN (Mille Lacs
County) and occupation as housewife. An article in the Wahkon Enterprise on December 30, 1920, page 3,
reads that a 12- pound boy was born on Christmas Day at the W. I. Bulen home in this village, to Mr. and Mrs.
G. F. Armstrong of Hilman.

This area of central Minnesota played a big part in the history of Frank and Edna's family over the next several
years. For example, the next mention of Hilman in the family history emerges just over five years later when
Frank and Edna's oldest daughter, Merle, gives birth to her first child in November 1925 in Hilman. Merle, and
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her husband, Elmer Bloom had three more children while living in the Hilman area between 1925 and 1934.

A few miles northeast of Hilman, and across the border into Mille Lacs County, is the town of Onamia, MN.
Nora Luverne Armstrong, Frank and Edna's youngest daughter, lived here with her husband, Marvin
Richardson, in the 1930s, and her daughter Vada was born here in 1936. Nora died in Onamia in 1986, and is
buried there. Her daughter, Vada, and husband, A. Lee Berhow, still lived there when I last talked to them in
1994.

A few miles northeast from Onamia is the village of Wahkon, MN. Willis and Lillian Bulen moved into their son
Leo's house in 1915, to a nearby farm in 1916, and finally into Wahkon itself in 1917. This is also where my
father was born on Christmas day in 1920. My great-great grandmother, Mary Eliza (Wicks) Odekirk, died here
in 1923, Willis and Lillian Bulen are buried here, and H. Fay Bulen married Leo J. McGraw here in 1919.
Interestingly, Frank and Edna moved to the Wahkon area in the early 1930's, where they purchased a farm
which adjoined ones owned by Leo and Fay McGraw, and Leo Bulen, (Edna's oldest brother) his wife Bertha,
and their family. This is where my father and one of Leo's sons – Robert Odekirk Bulen – met and became
friends.

According to family sources, Frank had always been a hard worker, but never seemed to be able to make any
money. When he got too old to farm, he moved to Hennepin county in 1942 where he worked for a time at the
Heffelfinger Estate in Wayzata, MN as a caretaker. He apparently got the job through his daughter Merle,
whose brother-in- law, George Bloom, worked there in a position of authority. Merle is also supposed to have
worked there for a period in a domestic capacity.

In late 1946 or early 1947, Frank and Edna moved to a house built for them by Elmer and Merle Bloom in Long
Lake, Orono Township, MN which was located approximately 100 yards from Merle and Elmer's house. Their
oldest son, Alva, who worked for a time as a carpenter, helped build the house.

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