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On August 9, 1889, the Wik family arrived in Orleans, of what was to be South Dakota. "It seems we knew the day they would arrive for I waved at my husband to be and his family as the train passed," Emma writes. The Wiks lived at first with the Olsons. Then they moved into a hovel that later became Ed Olson's chicken coop. "N.P. had some land and other belongings that he sold before coming to America," Curt Wik writes. " When they first arrived in Dakota and saw people living in sod houses and cellars, Christina staged the "Revolt of Mother." She would not live in a cellar or sod house. Therefore, N. P. bought lumber and built a nice but little wood home in the Olson's pasture. The house has two large windows in front about 6 feet by four feet. I knew the house well as dad bought that quarter of land about 1940 and the house was in fair condition. It was about 20 feet by sixteen feet. Ed Olson had added a garage to it for his car. The inside was all lathed and plastered. It made a fancy chicken coop. They lived in it the first winter and then moved to a homestead shack in spring. They moved back to the little house for the second winter again. After that, they built a house on the homestead that was at least three times larger."
Nils bought a cow and two oxen. He filed a claim on NE ¼ of 24-120-70,a quarter section with a shed on it and moved into it for the summer.
In the March 19, 1981 Faulk County Record, we see a photo of Nicholas Wik, my grandfather, holding baby Victor, Emma, Erik and Karen Olson, and members of the Ole and Anna Olson family. As Victor is no more than a year old, that picture must have been taken around 1901.
Erik Olson, Emma's father, petitioned to have a post office in Orleans. He became the first postmaster, and served from 1890 to 1908. "Poor father! He paid dearly for years for that bit of civic improvement," Emma writes. "Think of all the trips back and forth, summer and winter. I recall some summer months the pay was less than two dollars a month." His son Edward N. Olson was the postmaster to 1917 and again between 1918 and 1920.
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