My grandfather Frank Gustaf Severin Erickson left home in 1910 at the age of eighteen and headed west seeking warmer climates, adventure and work.

He went west by train to California and lived in Daly City. Over the next seven years between visits back to North Dakota to work on the family farm in Regan, he traveled to Phoenix, Port Huron, Michigan, Armstead and Polaris, Montana. In the Spring of 1915 he was cutting timber in British Columbia.

Over the years he worked as a hunter, logger, a miner and in a metal shop. Frank loved to camp and went deer hunting when he had no work.

By 1917 Frank and his older brother Ernest Julius Alfred Erickson traveled by train from Wilton to Bismarck to Baker, Oregon. Besides working for various lumber mills they became deputies for the Oregon Railroad out of La Grande, Oregon. Both would join the American Expeditionary Force in the Summer of 1917 and in 1918 would serve in France with the 308th and 361st Infantry respectively.

Frank wrote home regularly to his parents Christine Brita (Olson) and Anders Alfred Erickson and here is his March 23, 1917 letter when he was living working as a deputy in La Grande.

Translated from Swedish:

March 23, 1917
La Grande, Oregon

Dear Parents
I received your letter today and will now write a few lines to let you know that I am alive and got my health, I wish you the same.? We are not working at the moment, there is so much snow here you can’t get any timber from the woods.

We've stopped cutting yesterday and will not start again for several days. It is snowing more here than in Montana. The snow in the woods is about 5 feet deep, it is even more than in North Dakota.

Is Sebran home? I haven’t heard from him in a long time. I wrote to Ebba a long time ago, but have not heard back from her. Is she still working in Wilton?

Have you heard from Ernest lately? I hope he is alright and will be home soon. I received a letter from Sebran a few days ago, but he didn't send me his address.

From your son
Frank
Box 195
La Grande, Oregon