Nels Dokken was born on August 9, 1901, in Antler, North Dakota, to Erik N. and Ester Johnson Dokken, the first boy born in Sherman Township. His father, Erik, was born in 1848 and immigrated to the United States in 1882. Ester Johnson was born in 1861 and came to the United States in 1888. The couple was married in 1896.
Dokken moved with his family to Mekinock, North Dakota, in 1903. He farmed there from 1916 to 1972, and also worked for the railroad beginning in the summer of 1942. He served as Mekinock school board clerk from 1938-1944. In 1943, Dokken was elected church superintendent of the Ness Evangelical Lutheran Church where he taught Sunday School for many years. In 1945 he built a house in Mekinock. On June 30, 1946, he married Gertrude Davis.
Gertrude Davis was the daughter of Simon and Hannah Davis. Her parents were married in 1894. She had one brother, Frank Davis. The family lived near Northwood, North Dakota, in Pleasant View Township. Simon Davis farmed along with his son.
Gertrude Davis attended Moorhead State Teachers College where she earned her teaching degree. She taught in Grand Forks County for over thirty years. She was the principal of the Mekinock school in 1938.
Nels and Gertrude were married in a triple ceremony in 1946. Gertrude's brother, Frank, married Signa Rike, and Signa's sister, Julia, married Earl Mallinger in the same ceremony.
Gertrude died in February 1972. In 1983, Dokken moved to Tufte Manor, Grand Forks, and then to the nursing home on October 7. He died on October 18, 1988.
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