Levi was born on March 5, 1899 in Toad Lake Township, Becker County, MN and died on May 8, 1977 in Park Rapids, MN. He married Ida Jukua on October 28, 1940. The story goes about Levi that he was so small when he was born that he was placed in a shoe box and warmed in the oven. From these doubtful small beginnings, Levi grew as a man to be 6'2" tall. When Levi was in school, he was asked his mother's name. He replied, "We always call her Mother."
Levi enlisted in the army, had passed his physical and was ready to leave when WWI ended.
Levi "Louie" as he was called by his friends was fun-loving. He had many different jobs in places as Butte, MT. He also worked the threshing crews in the Dakotas and the mines in Chisholm, MN. Levi also traveled to the West Coast. Levi, his brothers and Albert Niemi had a business making wood shingles.
At the age of 41, Levi married, lived with his parents for 18 months and on June 28, 1942 he moved his family to a farm in Spruce Grove Township. He died there 35 years later.
Verniel Yliniemi Latto writes about Uncle Levi:
What I remember about Levi was his laughter. It took him a little longer to start speaking English then it did my dad, but by the time his children were growing up he spoke in English pretty well. However when he could, he would turn the conversation to Finnish.
One time after my dad got sick, and we still had the cows. We had a cow that could not get up. We were wondering what to do with it, as we were losing it as a milk cow, and my dad was not able to take care of it at the time. Levi happened to come over. He said I know what to do for that cow, to get it to get up. He had experienced it before, and said it would be up the next day. Levi and I went into the barn armed with some old rags, and soapy water, and a knife. I watched as Levi took the knife, and split the tail of the cow until the tail bled. We then wrapped the tail up after cleaning it. The next morning the cow was up. What the tail bleeding had to do with it I do not know, but it worked.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ingvar Rudegran Kiruna Norrbotten/Northern Sweden Sweden
i_rudegran@hotmail.com Sun Oct 29 08:10:35 CST 2000
Dear Relative! Date 29 Oct. 2000 I did not know that I have relatives on my father´s side in America. I heard about it this summer when I visited some relatives in Gothenburg in the south of Sweden. I want to tell you a little about myself. I was born in 1953 in Kiruna. My parents were Arne Rudegran and Lilly Rudegran. My father´s sirname from birth was Wiitavaara. As you can see he changed it to a Swedish name. Both of my parents are dead. I have two brothers and two sisters. I have a family of my own, and my family-members are: Eva, Emil 15 years old, Therese 12 years old and Adam who soon will be 10. Me and my family would very much like to get in touch with you and others of my relatives in the U.S.A. Please tell them about me and my letter. My address is: Ingvar Rudegran Virvelvägen 81 981 45 KIRUNA Sweden Phonenumber:004698061658 My best regards from Ingvar and my family