Great-Grandmother Thone
From Nancy (Kneeland) Pollay - January 4, 2012
A Headstone for Great-Grandmother Thone - Dave (Our Dad) Kneeland's Grandmother
Hello all you cousins out there,
Those of us who made it to the Kneeland/Tollefson/Myers family reunion over Labor Day in Shelton, WA, learned a little about our history and predecessors. And we learned that our great-grandmother (those of us whose grandparents were Wallace and Inga (Tollefson) Kneeland), Thone Lee Tollefson is buried in Willmar, Minnesota, but has no headstone.
At any rate, Thone (pronounced Tone-ah) was Grandma Inga’s mother, born in 1862 to Norwegian immigrants Aslak and Liv Lee at the farm homestead in Wisconsin, the sixth child of their eight, and the first to be born in the U.S. She married our great-grandpa Martin C. Tollefson (add another great- if you’re of the next generation), had four children with him (Inga was the oldest). Thone died in 1894 of tuberculosis. In 1895, Martin married Ingebor (sometimes known as Annie) also from Norway, and a great number of the descendants of Martin and Ingebor found their way to Shelton as well (the Myers clan descends from their youngest daughter Margaret).
From the Lee Family History book, and the sleuthing of our cousin Tiffany Schwander, we know that Thone is buried in the Vinje Lutheran Cemetery in Willmar, MN. But she has no grave marker or headstone of any kind. And, we are thinking, we, her descendants, should provide her one. Also in the Tollefson plot in Willmar are two of Thone’s children, and four of Ingebor’s babies. We’d like to put a little marker for them too, or incorporate them in a marker in the Tollefson plot.
I know these aren’t the easiest of times to part with $10 or $20 (or more, of course!), and perhaps a gravestone for a great-grandmother we never knew may not be of great importance in the grand scheme of things, but Thone IS a small part of each of us and what we are today, so it would be a nice thing to recognize her and honor her with a headstone.
We didn’t push it at the reunion, but we already have nearly $200 for starters, and if a majority of Thone’s descendants pitch in something, we can arrange for a nice headstone to be made. June 20, 2012 will be the 150th anniversary of Thone’s birth. Wouldn’t that be a great day to present her with her own headstone? – and summer solstice to boot. Any amount you can contribute will be appreciated. We’re sending this to Tim Kneeland’s family list, plus addresses collected at the reunion, but if you know of more family who might be interested, please forward this. We’ll do the best we can with the amount collected, and let you know how it all comes out. Thank you!
Please send checks to: Nancy (Kneeland) Pollay
PO Box 754
Wickenburg, AZ 85358
???s? – email Nancy at peco1@mindspring.com
Please send a few bucks if you can. Tim