In the beginning. . .
John Peter Dalquist came from Ringsbo, Sweden in 1889 at the age of 23 to join his brother C.O. who was already working in the mines in Ishpeming, Michigan. Their parents and 11 year old brother Axel joined them in 1890. They worked and lived in horrendous conditions in Michigan with the dream of making enough money to buy land in Minnesota. They moved to the Randall area in 1893 and J.P., or Peter as he was called, bought land from the railroad in 1896 to homestead. In May of 1894 Emilia Carlson came to the US, probably at the request of Peter since Peter had been the hired hand for Emilia's father in Sweden. Evidently there was a bit of romance going on between them before Peter left for the US. They were married in December of 1894. By 1898 the couple had added 3 little boys, Oscar, John, and Carl. They went on to have 7 children, and Michael’s grandfather David was the youngest.
When John Peter bought his land in 1896 from Olaf O Searle, he paid $826
for 74 acres of land. Homesteading was a tremendously hard work. There were trees to cut down, stumps to pull, rocks to pick, a house and barn to build and fences to put up to keep the animals in. But with all of that, it was important to Peter to become an American
citizen and in September of 1897, Peter officially became a citizen of the USA.
David and Violet Dalquist were the 2nd generation of farmers on this land.
Violet was born and raised in Oakland Nebraska. She was at a Bible Camp in MN when she met Hildur, David's sister. Hildur invited Violet to visit her in Randall and that is where David and Violet met, started their friendship, and eventually married in 1946. Their wedding day in Nebraska was so hot that the long candles wilted and just laid down! Violet worked in accounting for 4 years for a company in Neb. making B28 bombers for WWII.
David was born on the farm and spent most of his life there. He went to school in Randall until high school where he roomed in Little Falls, riding the train home on Friday and back on Sunday. He finished high school at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis. His brothers were quite a bit older than David so he was already farming the land when Peter decided to sell the farm. Peter asked each of his living sons, John, then Carl, then Ed if they wanted the farm. Each of them was already settled elsewhere near Randall. When he asked David, David said yes, he wanted it!
Actually, Ed still lived on the home farm with David, Peter, and Hildur although he was slowly building a house on the land he owned. When David and Violet came home from their honeymoon it was to a house shared with 3 other people. Ed finished his house eventually and then Hildur and Peter moved into his home. By then Violet had given birth to 2 baby boys, David and Doug. They eventually went on to have 2 more children, Dale and Elizabeth (Betty).
Grandpa Peter liked to garden and when Violet joined the family, he was picking lots of strawberries. Violet and Hildur would be up till 11 pm canning them! David also liked to garden. When he became unable to work the farm because of his eyes and heart problems, he enjoyed gardening.
Violet liked flowers and when her children got older and she had more free-time, she planted flowers and cared for them. Interestingly, it was David who liked to make bouquets of flowers to take to church. After David died in 1981, Violet took over making bouquets for church each Sunday.
David and Violet were actually related. David's mother, Emilia was a sister of Violet's grandmother, Christina. So, Violet's father Carl, was the nephew of Emilia, David's mother.
Michael never met his Grandpa. Cora got to meet Michael’s Grandma Violet a couple of times before she passed away, shortly after Michael & Cora got engaged.
Dale started farming in 1970 and bought the farm from his parents in 1973. He had the big red barn built in 1974, which is where Michael now milks his cows.
Dale met the love of his life, Kathy Housman when he stopped by the veterinarian clinic where Kathy was working. They eventually fell in love; were married in 1982 and went on to have 3 children: James, Rachael and Michael.
Dale & Kathy eventually transitioned the farm to being certified Organic in 2005, although they had moved away from chemicals and weed sprays early in their marriage. They weren't totally organic before that time as there were no organic milk routes close by and they didn't know what all needed to be done. But they began buying mineral and feed from Buckwheat Growers in Wadena and the owner encouraged them to go organic and put them in touch with a man named Glen who helped them through all of the paperwork, field analysis, etc. They were able to move directly into transition then and when the 3 years of transition were over, there was an organic milk-truck going by them on Hwy 10!
Dale and Kathy still help out a lot on the farm and if you’re a milk customer long enough, you’re sure to meet them in the barn at chore time someday. Dale has 2 hobbies: cutting wood and FISHING! He also enjoys gardening now in his semi-retirement.
Kathy (originally from Litchfield) enjoys many things! She is very creative and loves doing crafts—often with her grandchildren nowadays. She loves writing, making Shutterfly books, looking for agates, shopping for antiques with church friends, judging for 4H, playing with her horses, going on adventures and lots of other things. :)
Which brings us to Michael and Cora….
Michael grew up on the farm, attending local schools in Randall and Little falls. As a boy, he greatly enjoyed all kinds of outdoor things: trapping, fishing, hunting, mushroom foraging, and exploring in the Little Elk river that runs by the farm. He was active in 4H and played trombone in band. Michael loved getting to go on several hiking trips out West with his uncle David. Michael eventually attended Ridgewater college, learning more about managing a dairy. As a young man, he spent a summer fishing with a friend in Alaska; he learned taxidermy skills from a talented taxidermist; milked cows at his Aunt Kim’s dairy; worked at a fur house near Wilmar (skinned thousands of critters and drove around picking up countless deer hides); and helped on the family farm when he was around.
Cora also spent many years of her growing up life on a farm. Born in Eureka, SD to dairy farmers, Robert & Dawn Bornemann, she spent many hours in the barn as a baby. The little family eventually moved to Bismarck, ND when Cora was not yet 2. The family moved around a bit (Sterling, Hazelton, Temvik, then rented a farm for 5 years near Linton). When Cora was 15, her parents were able to purchase a farm near Kintyre, ND which is where Cora’s parents are still living. Cora was home educated and appreciated the flexibility that gave their family. From the time Cora was 11, she was milking goats regularly. At one time, Cora, her mom and brother, Andrew were milking 40 dairy goats by hand twice a day and raising Holstein bull calves on the milk. Over the years, her family had a menagerie of animals: a beef cow herd, sheep, goats, a llama, a donkey, horses, geese, turkeys, ducks, chickens, and many cats and dogs. They always had a big garden and canned or froze lots of produce each year. They didn’t leave the farm very often. When Cora was in her late teen years, her family bought 10 milk cows and set up a little milking system to milk them with, still using the milk to raise calves. They separated cream with a large, old separator, pasteurized it (only way to legally sell it there) and took the cream to the local farmers market. They also had several milk customers who came regularly to the farm to get “Pet food”. Cora worked for 2 years as a CNA at the Napoleon Care Center (nursing home). She took a cake decorating class and sold cakes to friends for their special events, including weddings. She helped out at a local daycare occasionally, then had the opportunity to be a nanny for a local family for 6+ years. Then she met Michael and the rest is history, as they say.
Michael & Cora met thanks to technology! Michael said “Hi” to Cora on Christian Mingle; she said “Hi” back and it wasn’t long before the e-mails were flying back and forth. One week later, it was very rainy weather so, since he couldn’t do any hay making, Michael decided to drive the 5 hours to central North Dakota to meet Cora and her family on their farm. Their first actual date was going together to tour Gabe Brown’s farm. :) 14 months later, on a beautiful, warm, sunny day in October 2015, they were married, surrounded by many family members and friends.
The first 3+ years of marriage, they lived in ND where Michael helped Cora’s dad and brothers at a grain cleaning plant that they own. Their 2 oldest children were born there. They had a large menagerie of animals (including 1 Brown Swiss milk cow, Ivy who they milked together, by hand) and many gardens.
In early 2019, Dale started having some health challenges and the young couple needed to decide if they were going to take over the dairy farm or not. After much prayer and thought, they decided to move to the land of many lakes and trees! That first Summer, they lived in a camper on the farm while Dale & Kathy’s new home was being built. Then, just as it started to get cold at nights in the camper (later in October), Michael, Cora and their 2 little girls were able to move into the home in which Michael grew up.
Michael & Cora have added 2 more children to their family since moving to MN, a son and a daughter. Together, they enjoy getting to live the farmlife, (even though it keeps them very busy) and love watching the next generation being raised on the Dalquist farm!!!
At the time of this writing (2025), the bulk of the milk that’s produced on the farm gets sold and delivered to Turtle Lake, WI and is turned into certified Organic cheese. There are many families that come to the farm to get milk, cream, eggs, etc… as well and many have turned into good friends over the years.
