I Remember Granny (The Story of Dagny Fosaas)

In 1892 - just three years after the Oklahoma Land Run and Montana's admission into the Union and two years after the closing of the American frontier by the head of the US Census-Dagny Fosaas Simonsen, Granny, was born in Norway. One year later, at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously memorialized the closing with his frontier hypothesis. However, as James Bassett makes eloquently clear, the professionals had jumped the gun. Frontier life - crafting an increasingly better existence on the underpopulated Western plains - was far from done. James Bassett traces a remarkable frontier life - an American life - that began in 1910 when Granny arrived in Chestnut, Montana from Oslo and spanned the better part of a complex century. While his affection is ever apparent, Bassett never lets sentiment distort an engrossing family narrative. Granny was an immigrant, pioneer, housewife, mother and grandmother, businesswoman, and human dynamo. She braved cold, fire, and economic hardships during difficult years. Against all odds she was a winner. How she accomplished these feats is the basis of this remarkable story. She was larger than life and readers will find themselves caught up in the delight of a remarkable woman.