The young family moved to Canby, Minnesota and built a one-room sod home on the Minnesota prairie. By 1885 Estby was raising six children and performing the many chores required of a prairie woman. The environment was mentally and physically exhausting. The risk of snowstorms, prairie fires, tornadoes and cyclones, may help explain Estby’s physical and mental strength, as well as her over protectiveness and anxieties for her children. 

1880-1881 brought the worst winter of the century, there was a diphtheria outbreak in 1880, a fire that came within feet of the Estby's home, and two storms in the summer of 1885. These events encouraged the family to move west. 

The family arrived in Manistee, Michigan August 12, 1871. The town was surrounded by 24 lumber mills and the majority of the population was Scandinavians.

Young Helga continued to excel in school and enjoy a comfortable life style. 

In 1870 the Michigan Suffrage Association was formed. In 1874 the vote for a women's suffrage amendment to Michigan Constitution lost. The focus on women’s suffrage during these years, may help explain Helga’s own thoughts about female equality.

One-room sod prairie home like the Estbys would have built

The Story of ​​​Helga Estby - Her Life​

Example of a ship like the one Helga and her mother took across the Atlantic in 1871 called Oder

In May of 1887 the Estby family arrived in Spokane Falls, Washington.

Brochures advertising a “Scandinavian presence in churches and organizations

in urban centers in Washington state” and an advertisement for carpenters 

(Ole’s original profession) to build the Spokane and Idaho Railroad,

helped make the decision.

Spokane was the first non-Scandinavian location the Estbys lived in and encouraged the rest of the family to learn English. 

Spokane Falls, Washinton Territory circa 1884

Helga Estby was born May 30, 1860 in what is now Oslo, Norway. Her father died when she was two years old. When she was seven her mother Karen Hendriksdatter Johanssen remarried a wealthy merchant named Mr. Haug. Helga attended private schools in Norway and was a very bright student, learning English before moving to the United States in 1871. 

When Helga was fifteen she became pregnant. Who the father was and what became of him is uncertain. To avoid shame, sixteen-year-old Helga married Ole Estby on October 12, 1876. Twenty-eight-year-old Ole came from Norway to America in 1873. He worked near Helga’s stepfather and spoke no English. November 26, 1876 Helga Estby gave birth to a daughter she named Clara.

One night in 1888 Helga Estby was walking home along a main road that was being repaired, but here were no warning signs of the construction. She fell on a pile of rocks and severely injured her pelvic area making her unable to work to help support her growing family. By this time she had seven children. Helga Estby sued Spokane for $5,000 for not providing adequate warning of the construction. The trial took place in February of 1889 and lasted several days. On February 21, 1889 the jury was undecided but in July the case was appealed and the Estbys were rewarded $3,100.

Linda Lawrence believes this incident may have further pushed Estby to believe in her own convictions, more so than many other women of her community at that time. Estby was already tough and had her own beliefs in a woman's strength and intelligence, but now she had proof she could fight and be supported by the law.

​Helga Estby eventually regained her health after three gynecology surgeries. After a five-year hiatus from pregnancy, Estby gave birth to her eighth child, William, in 1892.