Photograph of Otto Skeie-Amble courtesy of University of Minnesota Crookston Library.

"Otta Skeie was born at St. Hilaire, Minnesota in 1894, the eighth of ten children born to Christian A. and Ingjer Berkeland Skeie. They had come from Norway to New London, Minnesota, in 1881 , moving to St. Hilaire to make their home a short time later.

Christian Skeie was a shoemaker and operated a second-hand store. He later homesteaded near Spooner, Minnesota.

Their ten children were Arne, Nicholas, Helbertina,Caroline, Anna (now Mrs. Peter Lerfald of Towner, North Dakota), Christine, Ida (Mrs. Erbie Stoyke of Park Rapids), Otta, Ella (Mrs. Julius Torgeson of Minneapolis) and Od, who is called "Dick" and lives with his wife, Alice, in San Diego, California.

Samuel J. and Carrie Johnson Amble were also born in Norway, and both came to Grand Forks, where they were married in 1883. In 1906 they moved to St. Hilaire and started the Park Ridge Nursery Farm.

Their five children were : Blanche, Nettie, May, James and Cleo. May, the widow of Floyd Purvis, now makes her home with her son-in-law and daughter, Robert and Fyrne Rudh in East Grand Forks.

Otta Skeie and James Arthur Amble were married at St. Hilaire in 1916. She had been postmistress there and was organist at the Lutheran church.

James, a graduate of Union Commercial College in Grand Forks, was associated with his father in the nursery business and later employed in the Merchants State Bank in St. Hilaire. In 1919 they moved to Grand Forks where he became affiliated with "The American," a daily newspaper then being published there.

He then became associated with the Credit Bureau of Greater Grand Forks,
which he purchased from Francis McKernan in 1925 and operated until 1937, when he sold the business to Maude M. Adams.

James and Otta Amble had five children : Alva, Stanton, Raymond (who died in infancy), Anita and James Jr., who died in 1970 in California.

During World War II , James and Otta moved to the West Coast, where their children then resided. Both were employed by the R. L. Polk Company and worked in cities from California up to Seattle, Washington, where they had resided for fifteen years when he died in 1961.

Since then, Mrs. Amble has spent most of her time in East Grand Forks. For two years she lived in Bemidji, Minnesota, where her son, Stanton ("Bud"), and his family reside, returning to East Grand Forks to live when Sunshine Terrace was opened in 1971.

She fell and broke a hip early in 1973 and has made her home with her son-in-law and daughter, Arthur and Alva Amundson, in East Grand Forks. Her other daughter, Anita, is married to Elton Grina and lives in Grand Forks.
Otta has eighteen grandchildren and twenty-four great-grandchildren.

She is a member of First Lutheran Church and their Golden Circle."

Article Courtesy of University of Minnesota Crookston Library - Digital Archive and can be found at the link below:

http://umclibrary.crk.umn.edu/digitalprojects/polk/PolkFinalSm%20103.pdf