Kanabec County’s Outstanding Seniors for this year are Gary and Ella Martens.

Both Ella and Gary are 73 and have lived their entire lives in this county. They have been honored at this time as “outstanding” because of their volunteer contributions to the community since retiring.

Garrett Martens was born on May 18, 1935, in Hillman Township, “in the old house” on the same farm where he and Ella live today.

His parents, Duke and Cora Martens, came here in 1931 from Illinois and bought their place to be closer to Cora’s parents, Peter and Anna Wilkens, who had been county residents since 1915.

Duke and Cora had four children, Donald, Gary, Audrey (Mattson), and Nancy (Holzkamp). Audrey now lives north of Mora and Nancy lives in Illinois.

Today, the “old house” is empty, but Donald and his wife, Lenore, live in their own residence on the family farm, while Gary and Ella occupy another home on the farmstead.

Their son, Rick, and his wife, Janet, have a home in the Martens’ enclave too.

Gary attended country school (Wilkens, and for a short time, Ann Lake) and graduated from Mora High School in 1953. He and Ella Mathison were married in 1954.

Ella was born on Dec. 21, 1934, at Knife Lake, in the home of her parents, Ivar and Charlotte Mathison. She shares her birthday with her twin sister, Ellen (Regan), also a county resident to this day.

Charlotte Mathison’s parents were farm managers for St. Olaf College, which had working farm holdings (donated estates) in the Knife Lake and Woodland areas. Ivar was a Norwegian immigrant and Charlotte’s parents had emigrated from Norway.

They had seven children: Stanley, who lives on the home farm, Marie (Peterson), who passed away two months ago at age 89, Irene (Workman), Leona (Lancrain), Kenneth — all deceased — and Ella and Ellen.