Maria Strobock, last week's Mrs Blank, was born in Sweden, December 8, 1868.1 She believes that there is something to what Dr. John Mayo said: "If you want to live to a ripe old age, be blessed with ancestors who lived to a ripe old age." Maria's father lived to be 95 and her mother died when only 75. Besides that, before leaving Sweden, Maria was a rosy cheeked girl her grand mother took her to a fortune teller. Among other things the fortune teller divulged, was the flatfooted prophesy that Maria was to live to be a very old person. (At the time of this story she is 71.)
Maria was robust and strong and the daughter of Hans and Elma Johnson, who were both robust and strong. Shortly after Maria was born, Hans Johnson landed in America. He was looking for a home. The railroad folders - the ones with the man and the left-hand plow, plowing up gold dollars had reached Sweden too. Hans Johnson wasn't a man easily downed and Maria and Mrs. Johnson were sent for two years later.
By accident they got on the wrong boat. Marla does not recall the nationality of the crew; whether they were Malays, Hindus, or dark people from Africa. She and her mother called them "Darkies" in Swedish. At first, Mrs. Johnson and Maria were frightened, but two days at sea convinced them that there were no grounds for fear. The dark crew went on with the business of running the ship.
The Johnsons settled in Ottertail county, Minnesota, where Marie and her mother hid in the cellar when Indians called. It was also there that six brothers and two sisters were born.
Maria recalls that the first house was of sod. It caught fire and burned down. The next house was of logs and the one following the log house still stands in Ottertail county Minnesota and folks there still refer to it as "the Johnson house."
Maria Johnson was a busy person. She did housework for the neighbors and at home. Among other things, she recalls that she drove a Buckeye reeper and walked behind the harrow. Later she went to Minneapolis where she got a job and later to Duluth.
It was along about 1892 that a young Swede by the name of Nels Strobeck became interested in Maria.2 The wedding took place on June 1st, 1893. The first twelve years of their married life was spent at Leaf Mountain, Minnesota, They arrived in Mountrail county and filed on a homestead southwest of Stanley in the spring of 1906. Maria recalls that winter as a severe one. The first winter, they lived with Maria's brother, Anton Johnson.
There was sickness in the family and while Maria was away, caring for a sick sister, the children were to cook supper. A spark, some excelsior, and that place burned down too, taking all their belongings.
Yes, Maria recalls the first time she saw Stanley. There wasn't much to it. Some tar paper shacks, a rough street and a lot of prairie on all sides.3
Nels came to town to get MarÃa and the children. He drove a team of horses hitched to a wagon. Not being accustomed to the prairie, Maria remembers that she thought they were going uphill all the way. Maybe Nels was driving too fast. and maybe the wagon wheel was none too good in the first place, but when they reached the Seashore farm southwest of Stanley, the wagon cast a wheel and the Strobecks stayed at the Seashore farm that night, where and the utmost was hospitality friendliness.
Martin Anderson was their friend. They turned to him for groceries when the farm cupboard was sort of skimpy. Martin came thru and so did the Strobecks.
Maria tells of the grand times they had, the neighbors; all good in particular Mrs. Wilkeson owned and possessed an organ, the only one in the entire neighborhood. They would gather there and sing.
Later when they became better organized, Maria and four other ladies organized the Scandia Ladies Aid. They paid the preacher, made the men go to church, washed the many kids behind the ears of a Sunday morning and became the principal cogs in the wheel.
Maria and Nels raised a family, all strapping Swedes who will likewise carry their age well. Besides paying for one of the best farms in the county, they lost $1300 in cold cash in a busted bank. Years later the affair paid out $600.
Nels died on April 8, 1932. Maria and son Wm. (everybody else calls him Bill) remained on the farm until a year ago when they moved to Stanley and bought a home.
And Maria who insists that she is not growing old, family Bible, calendars and what not withstanding, keep her house in tip-top order. She was canning, despite her age and she had canned considerable. She is a hustler and don't like lazy people.
In all there were nine children in Maria's family4; Alfred died at the age of four days. Clifford a twin brother of Bill's died in 1917. Mrs. Ross Ogden in 1922. The living children Harter Strobeck, who sells rubber tired tractor tires to travel over the same roads where the original Strobeck wagon wheel was lost. Mrs. Emil Nelson lives at Casper, Wyoming; Mrs. Glenn Ellis lives at Williston; Bill lives in Stanley with his mother, and Anton is on the home farm southwest of Stanley and Henry lives near there.
There are ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Maria Strobeck is proud of the Strobeck clan and when you've sized 'em up and down, you can't blame her. Fit as a fiddle at past 71, Maria Strobeck could maybe skin you in a hoss trade or make a better pie than you ever tasted before. She's the kind of people that if the threshers arrived for dinner when they were scheduled to be there for supper; the threshers would find dinner waiting and a good one.
Nels and Maria Strobeck left Sweden to come to a better land and they found it. Maria is not rich, but still she thinks that she dwells in the best country on earth. And she does.
And if some artist wants to come along a portrait of a Northwestern North Dakota Pioneer Woman, all he needs for his model is Maria Strobeck. She's got everything he needs.
