Feeding the Threshing Crew

Bertine Sem had fifteen acres of flax and needed someone to thresh it.

Her story survives in “Free Land for All,” an account written by her grandson, Erling N. Sannes, from Sem’s recollections and those of other family members. Sem had arrived in Bottineau County, North Dakota, from Snåsa, Norway, in the spring of 1902. She filed for 160 acres and spent her first months living in a tent.