Fredrik took the name Anderson. His father John did likewise, but Hommelstad is written on his tombstone.
Fredrik married Ellen Eines of Aure. (The sister of Dr. Eines.) She came to America when 23 years old, and they met each other in Traverse City. They first had a farm in Port Oneida and then in Northport, next to Guri and John Holton. Children: John Clarence, Ole Gilbert, Maria Elsie, Paul Gerhard, Emma Pauline, Paul Gerhard, Ana Mathilda, Eda Christine, and Fredrick Erling.
Fredrik frequently played the accordion at dances. Now and then he would dance while holding the accordion behind the lady's back!
His son Paul (9) and his daughter Eda (5) danced "The Old-Fashioned Waltz" at a wedding in Gill's Pier to the great delight of the guests. Often Fredrik would gather his own and other children for dancing instruction during the evenings. One of them could waltz before learning to speak. That was Emma, and she has occasionally been on visits to Hans Hyldbakk's at Kleiva. She called him the "Man on the Mountain". Above all, Emma was not sparing the time when she took over when the cook became sick and she made sour cream porridge by herself! Marie was with her (1970). Sour cream porridge, herring balls, doughnuts and much more were constantly prepared in the family.
Fredrik was proud of his children's dancing and his son Ole taught himself to play the fiddle. Eda played the organ in church after six lessons. Anna Mathilda played the accordion at dances when only ten years old! Fredrik was a light-hearted man. His wife didn't dance, but had a fine singing voice.
Their daughter Eda, who told us this, also said that everyone in the area spoke Norwegian and that she was confirmed in Norwegian in 1917.
Today, nobody lives in the farm buildings that once belonged to Fredrik Hommelstad. The wind whistles through a crack in the planking, and a loose piece of wood slowly bangs on the barn wall. The anticipated journey from the great team of horses and the new wagon sadly didn't quite develop as planned. Never is the silence and the past so close to heart, as among old and abandoned houses.