User:Annariptide19*/sandbox

Biography
Helga Avilda Ida Marie Johanssen was an immigrant woman born in Oslo (at the time called Christiania), Norway in 1860. She traveled to Manistee, Michigan with her mother in 1871.

Life In Norway
Helga was two years old when her father died and her mother, Karen Hendrikstatter Johanssen remarried a merchant who had the money to send Helga to private school where she was educated in English, science, and religion. Helga's family decided to move to the United States in 1871 before the economic crash in Norway from 1874 to 1914.

Life In America
Helga and her mother arrived in Manistee on October 12, 1871 where she quickly enrolled in school, improved her English, and began adapting to the customs within the United States. Manistee was most likely where Helga learned about the women's suffrage movement as in 1874, men were given the chance to extend the ability to vote to women. When Helga was sixteen, she got pregnant and her parents arranged for her to marry Ole Estby, a Norwegian immigrant in 1876. Helga and Ole married in November of that year, and gave birth to a daughter, Clara, in November. They initially started their new life together in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, where they had three children: Ole (who died as an infant), Olaf and Ida. However, they eventually relocated in 1892 to a 160 acre farm in Mica Creek, Spokane County, Washington. Here, the family grew, as Helga gave birth to several children: Henry, Hedwig, Johnny, Arthur, William, and Lillian. By the time Helga was thirty five, she had given birth to ten children, eight of whom were still alive.

Walk Across the Country
An East Coast Party offered $10,000 wager to a woman who would walk to New York City. Helga, at thirty six years old, was quick to accept this challenge as the money would help her family keep the farm. She contracted with the East Coast Party to walk more than 4,000 miles from Spokane to New York in seven months. Helga, inspired by Nellie Bly, a female journalist who documented her travels around the world, planned to publish a book of journals she intended to keep of the trip. Attitudes about women leaving their familial responsibilities made it difficult for Helga to leave. However, Helga's seventeen year old daughter Clara agreed to accompany her which put her family to ease knowing that Helga would not be traveling alone. When they set off, they both carried bundles weighting less than eight pounds and neither or them brought a change of clothing in attempts to travel as light as possible.

Planning to Add
I am planing to add more about her walk across the United States and the aftermath on her family after locating some new sources and going through more of the ones I already have. I also wanted to edit some of that is on the Wikipedia Page already.