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Sivert Houses in Harbert and Decatur

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Sivert Larsen Houses - Youngren Road, Harbert, Michigan (1906-1921) Decatur, Michigan (1921-33)

Sivert immigrated to Chicago, via Quebec, Canada, from Trondheim, Norway in June of 1906. Sivert met a man, Mr. Carlton, who told him about farmland in Southwest Michigan, specifically Harbert, Michigan. Sivert visited Berrien County and on October 15, 1906, he bought 20 acres of farm land in Section 15 of Chikaming Township on Youngren Road from Loetta Akin for $1,500 as reported in the Three Oaks Acorn on November 16, 1906.

Sivert had bought a fruit farm even though he was a shoemaker in Norway. Sivert, Anna and Norm ran the farm growing various fruits. Alexandria (Alice) was married in 1908 one year after immigrating to the U.S. She fell ill with consumption (tuberculosis) in the winter of 1910 and came to live with her mother on February 4, 1910, so Anna could take care of her. Grandma Lillian Ackerman wasn't quite a year old and remembers her mother telling her that she played on Alice's bed and it was a wonder she didn't get TB also. Alice didn't recover and died at the farm on April 19, 1910. About that same time, Lydia had joined a theatre troupe and was traveling the country. Rose was working as a domestic and raising Lil and Sal sometimes on the farm and sometimes living in Three Oaks with Addie or just her and her daughters. Harry Beresford, Aunt Lil's son, often stayed on the farm and grandma said they were very close.

There are newspaper items from the local community section for Harbert in the Three Oaks Acorn and the St. Joseph Herald Press that tell a small part of the story of Anna and Sivert over the next 20 years in Harbert. For instance, we learned that Sivert and Anna both had the Spanish Flu in October 1918, and Sivert was kicked by a horse in 1917. Anna entertained friends on the farm on Sunday May 25, 1913. Grandma, Sal and Nana visited often and Anna would report the visits in the Acorn. Anna fell quite ill in December 1913 but was recovering just before Christmas. Both Norm and Sivert purchased new "touring" cars in 1917, there is a photo of Nana sitting in Sivert's new car in the slideshow below. See a selected list of newspaper articles to read at the bottom of page.

We don't have any interior photos of the farmhouse but quite a few of the outside, barn, garage and even a fruit grove (apples or peaches, he grew both). You can see where they began to paint the farmhouse white, and in some photos it was fully painted, or close to it. It was a very important place for Grandma, Lillian Larsen Ackerman. She loved her grandparents and used to recall many fond memories she had living with and visiting her grandparents from her birth until she married Grandpa Ackerman, Roy Gilbert Ackerman, in 1930.

Sivert and Anna rented rooms in their home in Harbert. They sold their farm on Youngren Road in 1921. Sivert and Anna bought a 40 acre farm in Decatur Township, Michigan, in 1923. Their son Norm bought 40 acres right next to them in 1925. He lived in Chicago but hired people to work for him and Sivert. Sivert and Anna lived on that Decatur farm until Sivert had a stroke in early 1933. Grandma Ackerman came to live with her grandparents to help take care of her grandfather until the summer of 1933 when Sivert moved to Chicago to live with Norm. He died in Chicago on November 5, 1933. Anna lived on the farm for an unknown period before moving back to Berrien County. She had bought land in Harbert and was having a house built for her while living in St. Joseph, right above the old Troost Brothers Furniture store, with Aunt Lil when she died in 1940. Norm sold the farm in Decatur that year and her land in Harbert to settle the estate.

I have photos of both farms and will denote in the title of each photo which farm is depicted.