 In 1902, the family loaded their possessions into a rented box car and moved with a couple of other Swedish families to live at Hilmar, a new Evangelical Covenant Church colony in the Central Valley of California promising irrigated land for farming operations.He married his wife, Leona, in 1914 and they had one daughter, Wilma.He farmed outside of Hilmar, near his parents, raising beans and other crops.