Prior to moving to North Dakota Emma was living at home and teaching school as evidenced by the 1910 U.S. Census for Harrison Township in Kossuth County. In June of 1910, the U.S General Land Office shows that she bought from the U.S. government 3 adjacent parcels of public land totaling 155 acres in Grant County, North Dakota. A month later records also show that her brother, Edward, bought 160 acres adjacent to and immedately to the east of Emma's property. The 1912 city directory of Mandan, North Dakota lists Emma as a resident. Mandan is in Morton County, immediately north of Grant County.

While in North Dakota, Emma met Anton Nelson, a native of Norway, and they married 20 May 1914 in Bismark, the capital of North Dakota and just across the Missouri River from Mandan. Anton came to the United States in 1896. In 1901 he purchased 160 acres of public land in Oliver County, North Dakota.

Their first 2 children: Edwin Everett and Charles Anton were born in Emma's home town of Swea City, Iowa. The story goes that shortly before giving birth to each of the children, Emma came back home to ensure help from the parents. In 1920 the census shows they were living in Oliver County, North Dakota. She and Anton resided in North Dakota the rest of their lives. Their third child, Martha Ellen, was born in 1919 in North Dakota. Emma died in Bismark on 15 Jan 1957 after moving there after her husband died in 1946.

Edwin Everett born May 27, 1915 and married his first cousin Lelia Viola Bigelow in Winona, Minnesota on August 31, 1935. Edwin was raised on a farm near Mandan, North Dakota and Lelia, who was 8 years older, in Winona, Minnesota some 550 miles apart. How they met and what the arrangements were for their marriage is not known to me. They had 4 children all born in Winona County: Lee Walter born 1938, Carol Ann born in 1940, Jerry Warren born 1941, and Donald Edwin born 1951. Edwin and Lelia were living in Cannon Falls, Minnesota when they did, Edwin on April 14, 1983 and Lelia on December 22, 1979.

Charles Anton was born January 9, 1918 and married a young school teacher, born about 1928 in North Dakota, by the name of Delphia A. Holze on July 23, 1952 in New Salem, North Dakota. Little else is know about them as a family. Charles died at age 57 in Mandan, North Dakota on September 25, 1975.

Martha Ellen born October 20, 1919 in Oliver County, North Dakota where her parents had a farm near Price. She attended Dickinson State Teachers College and taught school in Oliver County. She married Edward Robert Brown who was born in Iowa but moved with his parents to Driscoll, North Dakota, just east of Bismark. The marriage took place in her parent's home near the small farming village of Price. Martha and Edward took up married life in Mandan where they had 7 children: Wanda Arvilla, Lois Joy, Bonnie Collene, Luther Nelson, Lamarr, Donna Naomi, and Marilyn Ann. At sometime they moved west where Edward died in Salt Lake City on January 5, 1973. Martha lived another 29 years and died on February 15, 2002 in Emmett, Idaho a small town north of Boise. She is buried in the Sweet-Montour Cemetery. Sweet and Montour are two smaller villages east of Emmett.