Among my family treasures from the farm at these small hand carved and painted figures from a man known in Valley City as Ole Olson, a Norwegian immigrant to North Dakota. He served in WWI, and when he returned he married once, lived rather unhappily it seems and without offspring, and when his wife died, never remarried. A confirmed bachelor and farmer who spent his free time whittling small carvings. People paid him -- though he didn't care about the money, and after he died many checks were discovered uncashed in a drawer. He painted his figures and signed them as "Ole the Hermit." (You can read more about Olson's life and eccentricities here.)
These figures have survived a good deal of tribulation over the years -- and I am grateful to have them. My grandmother Jeanette Westergaard purchased most of them, but it's possible that my great-grandmother purchased some of them too. They were simple figures -- farmers and farm-wives -- and this unusual among his normal work, a pair of African Americans figures, as I wonder if he ever even saw rural African Americans in North Dakota. They are rough hewn, though painted with some delicacy and he had a kind of template for making many of the same, But handcrafted work always allows for slight variations, so they remain, each charming in their own way.
Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....
