New book tells of Croft and Norgren families on the North Shore

An American Story tells the tale of nine emigrant families and includes an account of the Croft and Norgren families who settled on the North Shore, establishing the community of Croftville in Grand Marais.

A newly published book written by a man with roots in Cook County is available as a historical resource for others with local ties. An American Story by Jesse McIntyre III is a historic account of nine families who left their homes in Europe to eventually settle in southeastern Missouri and the Missouri Ozarks and along Minnesota’s North Shore.

The 574-page tome contains over 306 images of historical documents and photos that help tell the story of these families in the context of historical events of the time. McIntyre conducted extensive research into archives in both the United State and Europe and concluded that leaving home and family in the Old Country to forge a new life in America took a great deal of faith and courage.

An American Story was 20 years in the making. McIntyre wrote it for his children in order to pass down a rich legacy of stories told to him by family members through the years.

Of interest to Cook County News- Herald readers will be McIntyre’s account of the Croft and Norgren families who immigrated to Cook County in the early 1900s. “The Croft brothers, Charles and Joe, along with Peter Olson, established Croftville,” McIntyre told the Cook County News-Herald. “Croft men quickly established themselves as ‘herring chokers,’ while the females tended their homes and managed cabins along Lake Superior. Generations of Crofts and Norgrens have followed in establishing the North Shore as home.”

Copies of the book have been given to the Grand Marais Library, where it can be checked out, and the Cook County Historical Society as well as to other libraries and historical societies. It is not being sold in stores.

Jesse McIntyre III is an assistant professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is also a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with over 35 years of military service. He previously served at the Pentagon as the Director for Psychological Operations Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict.