Historic Sideboard with Mirror

By RuthAnn Wilson

Marjorie Haugen with her sideboard

Marjorie Haugen’s mother Agnes Bekkum Steenberg was born to Oline Torgerson and Rudolph Bekkum in a log home in Timber Coulee on the Torger Bekkum home farm in 1904, joining her sister Mabel, 3 years old. In 1907, their brother Otis was born.   

In 1908, Rudolph Bekkum met a real estate agent from Montana who encouraged him with promising new opportunities in Montana. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad reached the Musselshell River in 1907 when the town of Roundup, Montana, was nothing more than a little cow town. The railroad spurred homestead filings on the newly surveyed land.  

His Viking wanderlust awakened, he and Oline, with their children Mabel age 7, Agnes age 4, and baby Otis, along with the Chris Kjelland family, rented an immigrant car to travel to Montana for a new and better life. They brought along their cows, chickens, machinery, food, and furniture. The men stayed with the animals in the emigrant car, and the women and children traveled in a Pullman car.  

Needless to say, it was a long, arduous journey. Upon arrival, more distress was caused when Oline learned that some of the railroad people had killed and eaten several of their precious chickens.  

Finally, they reached their destination and established a farm on the Musselshell River.  Their first 6 years were quite productive, but then things became very difficult. After 13 years, they decided to come back to Wisconsin. (Today, the Musselshell County Courthouse in Roundup, Montana, reports a current population of nearly 10 percent Norwegian descendants, so that real estate effort must have been successful!) 

Agnes and Mabel decided to stay in La Crosse and find work. Agnes was hired as “kitchen help” in a nice home. When Agnes admitted to her new employer that she didn’t know much about that, the woman replied, “That’s what I like. I can teach you what I want, then.”  

Agnes enjoyed living in La Crosse, and she became good friends with an elderly couple living next. That couple had been married for over 50 years and it was time for them to move to a smaller place. They had numerous furnishings for sale, and Agnes bought the lovely sideboard and mirror from them in 1922. She had it shipped to Coon Valley and safely stored at her parents’ home.

In July, 1924, Agnes married Melvin Steenberg from Westby. They did as so many others liked to do at the time — they went on the train to Winona to get married. They lived in Westby, where Melvin worked for Bekkedal’s. Later they farmed near Westby, and then moved to Coon Valley in 1944.   

Agnes and Melvin Steenberg’s only child is Marjorie Haugen. She and Elnor Haugen were married 62 years ago. They lived in La Crosse for some years. In 1964 Marjorie and Elnor built their beautiful home in Coon Valley next to her parents’ home. For their housewarming, Marjorie’s parents gave them this sideboard, and they have treasured it ever since.  

Now this sideboard is the focal point in the dining room at the Thoreson House in Westby, where it will be on view for future generations.