Edie's Story

Born in a small town in northern North Dakota, Edie Peterson grew up during the 1920s and 1930s. After her father’s death, she and seven siblings were reared by her widowed mother surviving extremes of weather, poverty, the Great Depression, Prohibition, and the Dust Bowl. Married in 1938, she and her husband had no choice but to leave home for the west coast in search of jobs. As the country struggled to overcome the Depression and became embroiled in World War II they traveled where they found work, eventually settling in Oregon. Edie’s Story is a chronicle of her experiences during those historic times.