Looking for Country: A Norwegian Immigrant's Alberta Memoir

Michael Payne is head of the Research and Publications Program at the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
the co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

As Janice Dickin notes in her introduction to this memoir, the
author’s story is “both similar to and different from the stories of
countless other immigrants.” At first the narrative seems quite
familiar. Merriken’s family left Norway in 1910 and settled in
east-central Alberta, near what would become the community of Veteran.
This bold stroke was followed by various struggles with the climate, the
land, and a new society before the author’s family reestablished
itself with a fair level of security. However, this tale of immigrant
struggle and eventual success takes a slightly different turn after the
author’s marriage in 1920 to a local farmer. Together they enjoyed
some success in the 1920s, but by the 1930s, with her husband’s health
in decline and the agricultural economy in crisis, a decision was
made—apparently regretfully—to leave Alberta and the farm.

As Dickin points out, after all the upheaval and struggle of her
parents’ move to a new country, Ellenor Merriken is forced to repeat
the experience for herself. Immigrating to Alberta and taking up a
homestead turns out not to be the end of this immigrant tale, but rather
a stage in a larger story of social and economic change. This is not,
however, a bleak and unremitting account of suffering and woe. Merriken
concludes in her epilogue that “it was a good life,” and this
positive view of her experiences shapes the entire text.

What makes this memoir particularly interesting as social history is
the insight it offers into the experiences of a Norwegian family cast up
on the Canadian plains. It begins with what is very much a child’s-eye
view of homesteading and follows Merriken’s maturation into a farm
wife and mother. As such, it gives a human face to three groups of
immigrants who are not always well represented in conventional
historical accounts: Norwegians, children, and women. Historians will
also find it useful because it includes considerable detail on the
social life of the community and the daily round of farm life, from diet
to hauling water and looking after animals. As the editor notes,
historians may well take an equal interest in what this memoir suggests
but does not really spell out in terms of social, sexual, and gender
relations. There is a lot of scope for reading between the lines of
Merriken’s text.