Clay County

Minnesota map showing location of Clay County

Tarje was planning to move to the Buffalo River in Clay County when the railroad reached Moorhead in 1875. Ole Midgarden decided to return to Norway and in 1873 offered to sell Tarje his farm (480 acres along the Buffalo) for $1600. The price was too good to resist!

Tarje and his family became part of the Buffalo River Settlement. Tarje and the boys arrived by covered wagon on June 26, 1874. Tarje was one of the oldest homesteaders in the community. Geline, her father Gulbrand, and the Grover's two daughters Mary and infant Elise, made the trip from Houston to Glyndon on the train.

Tarje left a well established home (with his brother Ole just a quarter mile down the road) for a near wilderness at the age of 44.

1875 Minnesota Census

Note: When I heard this story, Ole Midgarden was referred to as "Tarje's cousin" but that familial connection has yet to be verified ..... Oral tradition also says that when Ole returned to Minnesota a few years later, he approached Tarje about buying back his farm. Tarje said no and Ole purchased a nearby farm in the Red River Valley. Apparently Ole never quite got over Tarje's refusal to "return his farm," and some sort of friction remained until the end of their days .... Webmaster

The Early Years

of the Buffalo River Settlement

Tarje's son Alec recalled that in the early years ... "people lived in one room log huts with sod roofs that didn't always hold out the rain. We had as a rule a lot of rain in the first half of the summer, with plenty of pests, mosquitoes, and what were known as Buffalo gnats .... The winters were long with many severe snow storms..."

view original Moorhead Daily News article

When Tarje bought Ola Midgarden's farm in 1873, Ole had already constructed a log cabin, as shown in the sketch above.
Within 10 years, Tarje built his own home, captured in the photo below.

Tarje's home was situated within a few hundred yards of the bank of the Buffalo, yet remained untouched by the infamous Red River Valley floods for over 100 years.
The home Tarje built in the 1880s burned in the 1910s and Otto built a new home complete with indoor plumbing and electricity. This home still stands, but it passed out of the family in the 1940's.

1899 Moland Township Plat Map

Tarje not only concerned himself with building his farm operation along the Buffalo, he also immediately took a leading role in building his community.
He was one of the first members of the Moland Township board.

Moland Township was organized by the settlers along the Buffalo River and named for their home district in Telemark, Norway. No longer a district, the village of Moland, Norway still serves as the administrative center of the Fyresdal district.

The location of Moland Township is indicated by the green area on the map of the Buffalo River.

Tarje was the enumerator in Moland Township for the 1880 Census.

Tarje was a member of the organizing committee for the Clay County board and was later elected as a commissioner, serving from 1881-1883.

A staunch Republican who helped organize the party in Clay County, he remained interested and active in the politics of the county and served on a number of committees until shortly before his death in 1895.

Death Record

(149 KB PDF document opens in a new window)

With a houseful of school-aged children, it is not surprising that Tarje built the "Grover School" where the children in the Southern area of the settlement received their educations. He donated the materials and labor for the building and a number of family members served as school teachers at various times over the next 20 years!

The school remained open until 1935. It still stands, and is now the last remaining one room schoolhouse building in Clay County.

Tarje made use of the contacts he had made at the Stone Church in Houston County and arranged for and housed a traveling minister. The first services in the South settlement were held in Tarje and Geline's living room on November 23, 1874. Initially named the Glyndon Congregation, the name was almost immediately changed to Our Savior's. The church building was erected in 1884, and the wedding of Tarje's son Alex was the first to be held there.

Tarje was a strong advocate of the merger between the congregations of the North and South settlements that created Concordia Congregation in 1891. The Telesoga reported in 1909 that "...In the Buffalo River Settlement...they had the wisdom to join the two congregations together, even though they each belonged to their own community."