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President’s Hilsen Fra Sandra Hendrickson President’s Hilsen Fra Sandra Hendrickson President’s Hilsen Fra Sandra Hendrickson President’s Hilsen Fra Sandra Hendrickson
As I sit at my computer writing to you I can look around my house and see signs of spring. There are chocolate eggs in an Easter basket on the kitchen counter and bulbs planted in pots in my basement. My crocuses and tulips are peeking through the cold earth, but so far the rabbits seem to be winning the annual war over who will enjoy them more. Today there is such a strong northwest wind that we have white caps on our lake and it seems more like a November day then mid- April. I’m ready to close the book on this winter, but it doesn’t seem to want to let go of us here in Minnesota.
The winter of 2001 has indeed been a long one, but it has also been an eventful one. Of interest to Landingslag is the retirement of Odd Lovoll from St. Olaf College. Dr. Lovoll is well known for his contributions to Norwegian-America, and bygdelag members perhaps associate him most with his books on the Bygdelag movement in the United States.
Another piece of news that Minnesotans were happy to hear is that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has decided not to close its Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Minneapolis. The Norwegian Consulate General was established in Minneapolis in 1906 and the possibility of closing the office was met by protests from Norwegian- Americans who wanted it to remain there. Consul General Ulf Christiansen left April 7th to serve as Norway’s
ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. Consul Ole Øveraas will serve as acting consul general until a successor is named.
I am happy to report to you that Norway’s new Ambassador to the United States, Knut Vollebæk is from Land. We have extended to him an honorary membership in Landingslaget for the duration of his stay in the United States. It is my hope that in a future newsletter we will feature an article on this distinguished Landing.
Closer to home, your Landingslag officers and board members have been working on the summer stevne. We have over 100 people registered so far, including our guests from Norway. It has been many years since I visited the Black Hills and I’m looking forward to being there again. Our stevne forums and entertainment promise to be excellent and the genealogy room will be up and running on Thursday and Friday. Our Saturday agenda will include fun for everyone, as we begin our day with a ride on an 1880 train and enjoy the beauty of the Black Hills.
After lunch we will reconvene at the college for our meeting and tour reunion.
I look forward to this opportunity for renewing former acquaintances and making new ones. Land is a fairly small area of Norway, and consequently when I meet members of Landingslag, chances are that we share common ancestors, not so very far back on the family tree.
Our visitors from Land will be making several stops on their bus tour between Minneapolis and Rapid City.
Their general itinerary appears on page two in this newsletter. I invite you to take a look at it and, if their plans include a stop in your area, consider taking the time to greet them while they are there. Many evenings there will be an opportunity for local Landings to join them for dinner. The tour leader asks that we do not join the daytime tours because this could create confusion with admissions, transportation, etc. If you notice that they will be stopping in your community and you would like to meet them there, you can call or e-mail me for the more details.
Landingslag will be welcoming our Norwegian guests at a reception at 6:00 PM Wednesday, July 11th, at Canyon Lake Park in Rapid City. This park is located near the stave church, Chapel in the Hills, where nightly vesper services are held from 8:00- 8:30 during the summer months.
Everyone from our lag who is attending the stevne is welcome to attend.
Please let me know if you can come, so we will know how much food to order.
I extend condolences to board member Becky Thingvold and her husband Roar Hartold on the death of Roar’s mother, Martha, who passed away in Norway in April.
Hilsen Fra Sandy
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L A N D –––– I I I ---- A M E R I K A I A M E R I K A A M E R I K A A M E R I K A
landings laget’s
landings laget’s landings laget’s
landings laget’s
Welcome New Members of Landings Laget
Baumgard, Howard D., Sun Lake, AZ Canterbury, Gordon & Barbara,
Wallace, ID
Foss, Gudrun J., San Diego, CA Homb, Kenneth W., Ventura, CA
Lingren, Patricia C., St. Paul, MN Lunsetter, Howard M., Gratzke, MN McGuire, Colleen, Brandon, MS Morgan, Meredith, Cazenovia, WI Norby, Jeanne M., LaCrosse, WI
Powless, Ruth Ann, Tomah, WI Scheffel, Paul & Joan, Verona, WI Sistad, Gloria & Marlyn, Grygla, MN
Check This New Web Site (if you can): www.ellisislandrecords.org
With multi-million hits per day since it was opened on April 17, this has been a very popular new web site!
Between 1892 and 1924, 22 million entered the U.S. through Ellis Island and the Port of New York. It is estimated that 40 percent of the U.S.
population today can trace one or
more ancestors who entered this country this way. The site is a joint effort by the U.S. Park Service, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints.
At this site you can research passenger records from ships that brought the immigrants—and see original manifests with passenger names.
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Landingslag is interested in building up its library and is looking for copies of Landingen Aarbok. If you have a copy or know of any that could be donated, please contact a lag officer or board member.
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Due to a computer problem, Marjorie Wills has lost lag member e-mail addresses and would so appreciate if everyone would please drop her a note at: [email protected]
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Land USA Tour Itinerary
July 8: Minneapolis/Norway Day in LaCrosse, WI Dinner and overnight in Onalaska, WI
July 9: LaCrosse July 10: Sioux Falls, SD July 11–14: Rapid City, SD July 15: Medora, ND July 16: Medora July 17: Fargo, ND July 18: Fargo
It is very necessary that our genealogist Carol Olson has help at our lag genealogy table in Rapid City on Thursday and Friday. So, for those of you who will be attending the stevne, please volunteer to spend some of your time with this very important activity!
Please contact Carol by e-mail
or snail mail. Her addresses
appear on the back page of this
newsletter.
Seven-Lag Stevne: Rapid City, South Dakota, July 12 – 14.
This promises to be a most special event, with interesting forums on many topics, wonderful entertainment, a bus tour of this beautiful area, and a ceremony Friday evening at Mount Rushmore. A group of about 32 people from the area of Land will be attending the stevne (listed in right column) and about 50 from Hadeland.
Among the forums offered will be presentations by:
Sidney Rand, former US Ambassador to Norway and Past President of St. Olaf College; Virginia Sneve, a Rosebud Sioux award winning writer and historian; Marilyn and Narv Somdahl speaking on the subject of publishing lag newsletters; Gordon Jacobson speaking about publishing a family history; Christian Skjervold speaking about Norwegian resistance in WWII; and Robert Denholm speaking on the topic of “Keeping the Family Tree out of the Public Park”.
A map of the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology appears below. When you arrive there, go to the Surbeck Student Center (northwest part of the campus) to register and receive the program for the stevne. A map of Rapid City is on the next page. The Hotel Alex Johnson is located at 523 6th Street.
For everyone (those of you staying in the dorms, at the Hotel Alex Johnson, and other places), if you plan to eat all or some meals on campus, you must send that information to the school. This form appeared in the last newsletter – if anyone needs another form, contact Ann Edwards
([email protected]). It is most necessary that the personnel at SDSMT know how many people attending the stevne will be eating their meals on the campus!
Those from Land and others in their group from Norway who were signed up for the U.S. tour as of May 15:
Inger Helen and Odd Nordraak of Nordsinni, Nordre Land Geir Steinar Loeng of Dæhli, Nordre Land
Bjørg Margrethe Hagelund of Brufladt, Etnedal Roar Loeng of Dæhli, Nordre Land
Unni Stubbene, Merethe Nilsen and Mari Nilsen of Brufladt, Etnedal Rune Rustestuen of Dokka, Nordre Land
Gerd Norunn Rønningen of Vestsida, Nordre Land Anne Karin and Jan W. Myhre of Raufoss, Vestre Toten Anne Marit and Gjermund Almaas of Flisa, Åsnes
Sidsel Andrine and Bernt Adolf Røstøen of Bøverbru, Vestre Toten Grete Torhild and Harald Slåttsveen of Nordsinni, Nordre Land Annie Målfrid and Aage Sandlie of Nordsinni, Nordre Land Ole Martin Loeng of Dæhli, Nordre Land
Kari Margaret Brunstad, Per Olav Dotset, Mari Brunstad and Geir Brunstad of Eina, Vestre Toten
Solveig Fredlund of Dokka, Nordre Land
Nanna and Nils Tor Ødegaard of Fagernes, Nord-Aurdal Leif Ingvar Snertinn of Dokka, Nordre Land
Per Arne Haugner of Dokka, Nordre Land
Anne Lise and Erling Olsen of Dokka, Nordre Land
A Western Adventure – First Years in America: 1853-1866 (Part One)
By Ole Nelson (Sjaahem),
Born: May 6, 1836 Died: August 25, 1926
(Submitted by Bruce Nelson ([email protected])
[In 1859, Ole Nelson, with his brother, John, and two cousins, the “Felde boys,” all immigrants to Argyle, Wisconsin from Land, went west to try their luck mining gold. In 1910 or so, Ole wrote, in Norwegian, an account of that adventure. This is the English version of the account, translated many years ago by family friend and former Argyle, Wisconsin, resident Carl O. Paulson, who now resides in Madison and is, incidentally, still active, at 91, in the Grieg Male Chorus. The manuscript was prepared and submitted by Bruce Nelson, Nelson-Sjaahem family genealogist (great-grandson of Ole, grandson of Nim, son of Vernus) who grew up in Argyle and who is currently an editor in the national office of the Girl Scouts of the USA in New York City. On his mother's side, Bruce shares Landings ancestors with John Monson, a frequent contributor to this newsletter.”]
I, Ole Nelson, was born to this world on the sixth day of May, 1836, on the farm Sjaahem in Nordre Land, Norway, and emigrated to America with my parents (Nils Larson Sjaahem, 1789–1874, and Berte Johansdatter Følde, 1793–1872) and brothers (Lars, 1829–1904, and Johannes, 1833–1916), and with my sister and her family (Agnette, 1818–1911 and Andreas Olson, with two sons). Two other daughters, married and with families, stayed in Land and never emigrated: Mari, 1820-1906, m. Ole Smeby; and Ingeborg, 1824–1906, m. Amund Stadtsvolden..
These two families lived on farms with those names—Smeby and Stadtsvolden–in Land).
In the year 1853, we drove with horses from Torpen in Nordre Land to Drammen, and from there to Holmestrand, where the ship lay ready to sail out upon the high seas. During the passage across, we had such a strong wind at times that things really rocked, but no damage resulted to the ship. One child was born and one died at sea.
It took six weeks and three days for the voyage to Quebec.
From Quebec, we went by steamship to Montreal, and from there by canal boat to Buffalo, then by ship again to Detroit. From there by train to Chicago and then on to Rockford, Illinois. Beyond that we drove with horses to Wiota because the Torkelson (Husvari) family lived there. They had been in America five years and owned land and a house. We met with a very good reception there.
After a short rest and enjoyable hospitality among acquaintances and relatives, we set about to look for work.
John took a job in Wiota with Hans Wang, who had a harness shop, and Lars and I got work at cutting hay for a man for 75¢ per ton. For this service we bought a cow, and for other work we did we bought another cow. We then owned two cows and thought that we had gotten along pretty well.
In the fall, Lars and John went to the pineries in northern Wisconsin in order to work, and got $16 a month,
Ole and Mary Nelson Sjaahem (ca. 1886) and three of their four children: Oscar, Helena, and Mabel (Nim, the eldest and Bruce Nelson’s grandfather, may have been away at college in Dixon) plus board. I stayed at home and worked around wherever I found a little to do, and at the same time I helped to make firewood for the house and to look after the cows and do whatever chores needed to be done. The winter went by well. In the spring, the boys came home with their full pay.
Now, father and mother wanted that we should see about getting a home for ourselves, and so over to Argyle we went, where father bought a farm from Thore Rosland Thompson a few miles west of the village. There was a little log cabin, but no other buildings. We put together a kind of shanty for the cows, but then we had to have a team to work the land. So, we had to buy oxen, a plow, and a wagon. Father had constructed a wagon during the winter by sawing sections off a big log for wheels, and by making the gearing from the same material. After we got oxen, the wagon ran well and we used it for working and for driving both to the neighbors and to town. The oxen were very good, and we worked around for farmers and received 50¢ a day, 75¢ during the harvest.
In the fall Lars and John went to the pineries again, and I stayed at home to do the chores and haul wood for the house and to split a number of rails for repairing the fences, which were in poor condition. The boys came back next spring with their full pay of $16 a month and were well satisfied.
The next summer we worked a good deal on the farm;
we grubbed and broke up more land, and worked out-of-doors as much as we could. The next winter Lars was to take care of things at home, and John and I wanted to go out and earn money.
With ten other fellows and one man and his wife, we went down the Mississippi River in the fall to the southern part of Illinois.
There we got work at chopping cord wood at a dollar a cord, paying our own board. The man had about fifty workers to chop and haul cord wood. He sold all his cord wood to the river steamboats, for they did not use coal at that time.
Next we had to build a house, and we got a woman to cook and keep house and a man to do the buying and keep track of the accounts. We paid the woman a dollar a month, so that she got
$12 a year and free board for herself and her little girl, three years of age.
We worked very hard there and put in long hours in order to earn a lot of money. It was a large woods and tough splitting, but we nevertheless earned $100 each, so we thought we had done well. We had good health all the time. In the spring (1856) we went home and worked for farmers and partly at home.
In the fall Lars and I got the bilious fever so we had to stay in bed for a time. We had Dr. Monroe come to see us once.
He lived up on the Fayette Prairie. Mother was then both nurse and housekeeper, but everything went away and we got well again.
In the spring of 1859, excitement spread at the news that gold had been discovered in the vicinity of Pike’s Peak in Colorado. John and I, along with five other young men got the urge to travel out there to try our luck. Between all of us, we got a team of horses to haul our provisions while we were to use our own two-legged horses, which were pretty reliable at that time.
But when we got a ways into Iowa, we met a great many who were coming back and were on their way home. They said that they had heard the mines out there were not worth anything, and that they did not pay enough to work them, and that consequently it was a great humbug for hundreds of men and teams. The roads were just full of wagons. A great many went home, and a great many decided to go clear to California. So we all made a resolution to go there.
At that time it was quite a dangerous journey. From Omaha on there were Indians the whole way, so that we had to stand guard every night until the end of the trip. It was also very difficult to get across the large rivers that are on such a long journey. Of course at the biggest rivers there would be a kind of ferry boat, but there were quite a number of smaller streams that were hard enough to get across. At that time, too, there were a good many large buffalo herds that we saw, and also antelopes, mountain sheep, coyotes, jack rabbits, and prairie dogs.
On the Fourth of July, when we were at the Great Divide of the Rocky Mountains, we had a real enough snow storm, but the next day it was clear again. We passed many beautiful valleys, majestic mountains, great forests, and fine trees that were a splendor to see. We also encountered different drinking water.
We discovered many good soda springs from which we drank.
Such water tasted quite strong of soda, but we drank from many springs and liked it quite well. We also came across hot water springs, which stood there boiling like kettles. That water was not good to drink. It tasted quite strong of sulphur.
We had long stretches also which lacked both water and grass for our teams. There were such large throngs of teams along the whole way that the grass was eaten up, and we often had to drive a whole day and night in order to find water, for it was worst when one got thirsty. And fine, dry dust was a great plague, because it was six to twelve inches deep and rose into the air before the wagons so that it was almost impossible to see one’s own horses.
Finally, we reached our appointed place—Eureka, California. We had left Argyle on the 6th of May, 1859, and got to Eureka on the 29th of September, after having traveled nearly every day without any great amount of rest.
Now we sold our team, and the company in part was broken up. Next, we were to try our luck at digging for gold.
We bought some provisions and mining equipment and started
out over a mountain about fifteen miles from Eureka on our two- legged horses. There we discovered a few of our acquaintances and others who were engaged in mining. Some of them struck it well; others only made their expenses. For the most part the paying claims had already been worked over. Nevertheless, we began to work on a stake and bought sluice boxes for washing out the gold dust that was found in the ground. We kept on for a while, but the earnings were not very big. Soon fall came, and then winter, and with it the need to lay in provisions for the whole season. That took at least $100 for every man in order to carry on until spring, when more provisions could be brought. Sluicing could not be done during the winter on account of the cold.
So, John and I decided to go back to Eureka in order to find work during the winter. We took a job of chopping cord wood for a person in the vicinity and earned just about $2 a day while standing our own expenses.
We worked the whole winter for that man, and in the spring (1860), we got work with a company that owned a large, 80 mile canal that brought water to Eureka and the nearest diggings of the miners, so they could wash out the gold that was in the ground where they worked. The wages were $2 a day and board.
The material that had filled it in needed to be cleaned out. They had a large tent that was used to cook and eat in and also to sleep in. There were about 75 men. We worked there about a month and had our wages paid. Then we wanted to go back to our old diggings to work again.
We took a man along in our company, bought a claim, and began to work again. At times it went well, at other times poorly. We worked a lot at drifting in under the ground, and we had to set up posts with caps on to keep the hole from caving in on us. We used wheelbarrows to bring out the dirt. The place for washing was where we had water to wash out the gold that was in the dirt. The sizes of the gold varied from that of a grain of sand to pieces worth up to $18 or thereabouts. But the big pieces could not often be found. We worked there for a little over a year until the third fall—1861. As the water had become quite low, we sold out the digging to a man and went back to Eureka.
John got work as a shoemaker in town, and I hired out to a man at $50 a month to haul goods from the steamboat landing at Red Bluff, 160 miles from Eureka. The road goes through mountains and follows the Sacramento River for a long way. On the trip we always had to camp out and cook our own food. We made two trips, but on the third trip we were stopped at Red Bluff by a flood so big that it had ripped out twelve bridges on our way back to Eureka. Another time we were in danger when we were to cross over a large stream in a ferryboat. It broke the hawsers, and down stream it went with us, two teams, and two full loads of freight. We dived off near a little island, and reached dry land. The boat got caught on a large windfall in the stream. Then people came and helped us get ashore. There was still great difficulty in getting out to the boat to save it, the horses, and the loaded wagons. A rowboat had to be found so as to get there. By means of a lot of manpower we got the ferryboat pulled ashore and took off our teams and wagons. We started out on our trip again, but the roads were so soft that the wagons cut through every now and again. We had a lot of hard work. We always had to cook and sleep on the ground wherever we stopped for the night.
A NORWEGIAN CABIN IN OUR WISCONSIN WOODS By Gary Madson
How do we interest our kids and the grandchildren in our Norwegian heritage? And what can we give them as a lasting item to make their easily-aroused initial interest stay alive for many more generations?
Those questions probably plague most of us. But for Mary and me, after several trips to visit cousins in Norway and host them here in our homes, we've built what we hope is a lasting structure to help with both. (Below – photo of Gary and Mary at the cabin)
One of those cousins is deeply involved in Norway's forest and timber resources and for years has suggested we build a Norwegian log cabin on land we have in far Northern Wisconsin overlooking Lake Superior. He had visited our site on several of his trips to the U.S. and together we developed a plan.
At sunrise last August first, with 29 U.S. family members, one from Norway, and six Norwegian craftsmen on hand, we laid the first log from Norway on our foundation and three days later had an entire cabin's walls and roof structure erected and ready for completion.
We visited the plant in Alvdal, Norway in May while the cabin was under construction inside and greeted the three trans-Atlantic shipping containers, with logs, windows, doors, and a soapstone stove, at our site near Bayfield on July 31. It was erected a bit like "Lincoln Logs,"
having once been hand hewn and assembled in Alvdal.
The cabin has a one-eyed, four fingered troll carved into two logs in the living area keeping watch on things! It has a very solid four-inch Norwegian red door to greet all visitors. It has a 200-year old window taken from the girlhood home of my paternal grandmother near Tynset, and it has eight inches of Wisconsin soil and bluegrass sod on the top of the roof.
We designed the cabin in the style of the 1860s to match the type of home my grandmother left at age 14 to come to Wisconsin where she met my grandfather. The logs are of old Norwegian mountain pine, hand hewn and "lafted" (the art of cutting the corners
so the logs fit together) with a 12 inch axe by one of the craftsmen who came and spent a month supervising its construction in Wisconsin. These logs FIT—there is NO chinking material between them!
And the family IS involved! We had many volunteers assemble and work on finishing the cabin leading up to our first family "open cabin" on October 3 when 30 "cousins or closer" family members came for their first look at what is really their cabin to use and enjoy.
They brought old pictures of their relatives; books written in Norwegian used by their parents studying for confirmation, containing names written in pencil so many years ago; and things their parents brought back from trips to Norway—mostly gifts from our relatives there. These and much more, including a mantle clock given by our grandfather to his bride from Tynset on their wedding trip, are displayed in the cabin along with his Bible and church liturgy book.
During construction we had more than 300 visitors to the site, having learned of the "cabin from Norway" in a regional daily paper.
Visitors honor us with their interest. This summer another cabin shipped from Malmlaft of Alvdal, Norway will be built nearby.
This is more than a place for us to escape Virginia's summer heat. It is a place designed and working to preserve our Norwegian family heritage.
Reunions of all sorts will take place at the cabin by many family members this summer. But Mary and Ispent many days of quiet time there in February, snowed in with four feet of lake-effect snow on the sod roof. It's a great place to relax and reflect with a fire burning in the soapstone stove from Norway while looking out on the Apostle Islands. If this cabin, we call it our "Superior Seter," lasts as long as our family's 300-year-old seter in the mountains of Norway, the heritage we all share will stay alive and prosper.
If there is interest in seeing/visiting the cabin, contact Gary at Box 601 Bayfield, Wisconsin 54814 of on e-mail at [email protected].
Darin Erstad and His Ancestors from Torpa and Fåberg PART 2
By Carol Olson, Genealogist
with help from Leslie Rogne, Hadeland Lag Genealogist and Thelma Johnson, Chair of Landings Lag Genealogy Committee
Photographs submitted by Chuck and Dorothy Erstad
Christian Hansen Erstad, great grandfather of Darin, was an early member of Landings Laget. Carol found this on page 41 of the 1924 Landings Bogen. Christian emigrated 26 June 1882 from Torpa with the son of pioneer pastor Nils Ulvstad.
Christian lived for a year in Zumbrota, Goodhue County, Minnesota before moving to Kindred, North Dakota. On 13 November 1888, he married Ida Marie Landgraff who was born in Fåberg, west of Lillehammer. They had 4 sons (Hilmar, Malvin, Ingvald and Einar) and 2 daughters (Mina and Mabel).
On pages 243-244 and 151-152, respectively, of Boka om Land IV, Arvid Sandaker wrote a piece about Christian and his uncle Andreas Nilsen Erstad. The information about Christian was basically the same as in Landings Bogen, but Arvid added the information that Christian’s three siblings (Johannes, Andreas and Lava Marie) also came to America. Lava Marie married Andreas Hougner, and they lived in Emmetsburg, Iowa and Colby, Wisconsin. Arvid also elaborated on the mention from Landings Bogen that Christian spent his first year at the home of his uncle Andreas Nilsen Erstad (1815-1908) of Zumbrota who emigrated in 1844.
One interesting note is that Andreas (p. 151-152, Boka om Land IV) lived first in Rock Run, Illinois with his wife Oline Karine Olsdatter (1826- 1877). Their son Nils was born there, then the family moved to Zumbrota.
Andreas and Oline were among the charter members of Lands Lutheran Church where Andreas served as the first treasurer of the newly organized church (April 8, 1867) as cited on
page 95 of the 125th anniversary booklet of the Lands Lutheran Church.
Andreas and Oline sold some land to the church in 1870 and a bit later the church was built. Andreas also served on the building committee. Andreas and Oline were born in Nordre Land and are buried at Lands Lutheran Church Cemetery. Thelma Johnson, who has the church booklet, found on page 81 that in 1944 Einar Erstad (son or grandson of Andreas and Oline?) donated one-half acre of land to the cemetery. The church Cemetery Association paid $1 for the land and the added expense of having the title changed and the land surveyed. Two years later the church purchased another one-half acre from Einar who is, like Andreas and Oline, now buried at the church cemetery following his
death in 1947. Other Erstads buried there are Augustennus Erstad (1874);
John Stenson Erstad (1874); Karen Erstad (1956); Albert A. Erstad (1936); Kristine O. Erstad (1929);
Cornelius Erstad (1940); Sigrid Erstad (1948); Olaf Erstad (1965); and Ruth Erstad (1975). The dates in parenthesis are either death of burial dates.
According to Leslie Rogne, Christian and Ida owned 120 acres near Kindred where he had a diversified farm. The couple was members of the Norman Lutheran Church there. Their 4th son Einar (grandfather to Darin) lived there and added to his property about 120 acres next to the land owned by Leslie’s grandparents Peder and Kari Trana.
ERSTAD FAMILY ABOUT 1870
Left to right: Christian, Christopher, Hans Christian Erstad (father), Andreas, Berthe Marie Jensvold (mother), Johannes, and Lava M.
Christian came from a family who had owned the Erstad farm in Vest Torpa for generations, making it easier for Carol to locate the ancestors by using the Probate Record Index and filling in gaps wherever needed.
Ida Marie Antonisdatter Landgraff, wife of Christian, has a background worth mentioning. In the local church record books, Leslie found the 1888 marriage record of Ida Marie to Christian Hansen Erstad taking place at the Sheyenne Lutheran Church (later Norman Lutheran Church). The names of their parents given (verbatim) in that record were Hans Christian Erstad and Berthe Marie Jensvold, N. Land and Anton Frantson Landgraff and Anne Marie Jacobson, Fåberg. Christian was 25 ½ years old and Ida Marie 25. Carol located Ida’s family in the 1865 census online with her parents Antoni, 52; Anne Marie, 47; Frederik, 21, Johan, 18, Julius, 11, Amalie, 6 and Idda, 3. (names were spelled verbatim from that census).
Ida Marie was born to Antoni and Anne Marie on 18 April 1863 at Fåberg and migrated to America. Her parents remained in Norway. This was revealed when researching the records submitted by Torill Ranveig Mathisen Kriklum of Oslo, Norway to the Ancestry File of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family History Library.
Antoni was born 10 January 1816 at Søre Værket, Jevne, Oppland, Norway
to Frants Frantsen Landgraff and Marthe Simensdatter Borod and was married 11 March 1845 to Anne Marie Jakobsdtr. Jevne in Fåberg. Anne Marie, who was born 19 Feb. 1821 in Jevne, died in 1881, and Antoni died at Moen Nordre in Fåberg 12 December 1912. Antoni apparently married two more times.
Frants, father of Antoni, was born 10 January 1786 in Götberg, Sweden to Frants Ferdinand Landgraff and Maria Magdalena Laumann and married Marthe 21 October 1815 at Fåberg.
Marthe died 15 Nov. 1840 at Fåberg and Frants married two or three more times before he died on 22 November 1871 in Fåberg. The earlier Frants was born in 1754 in Bøhmen in Europe, and Maria was born in 1765 in Sachsen in Germany. It appears in the 1801 census (online and the copy from microfilm sent by Leslie Rogne) that Joseph was her widowed father and that he was born in 1733.
The elder Frants, who died 12 Aug.
1817 in Skjeberg, Østfold, Norway, was manager of the Jevne glass factory, and a number of members of the Landgraff and Laumann families worked there as well. Maria Magdalena died 18 January 1845 at Fråndefors in Europe. Also, in checking the Ancestry File, one of Leslie’s questions was answered: why did the family’s surname not change when the family moved from one farm to another? The
custom in Norway was that when families moved from one farm to another, they would drop the name of the farm from which they moved and would pick up the name of their new farm. This family came from Germany, so they must have just kept the European custom even while they were living in Norway.
Christian and Ida on their wedding day 13 Nov. 1888
A very glowing article about Darin Erstad, written by George F. Will and titled “A Diamond in Orange County”, appeared in the April 2nd issue of Newsweek. A few sentences from this article follow:
“…….His defensive excellence won him a Gold Glove. [Darin got this award as the top American League center- fielder for last year.] So, he had a crackerjack year. Trouble is, he had it in Orange County, so who knew? A well- brought-up young man, he politely says, “I’m playing big league baseball. I don’t care where I’m playing…….”
“He has the reddish-blond hair of the Scandinavians who settled the northern plains. He is a descendant of Vikings, playing on the shores of the sundown sea—the Pacific. Which he is not. Pacific. Not until the late 1980s did sunny California supplant Pennsylvania as the state who has produced the most major leaguers. ……..Erstad is only the 12th major leaguer born in North Dakota……”.
“Fifty years ago, the 798 square miles of sleepy Orange County were planted thick not with people but with orange groves. Today it is a teeming (population more than 3 million), polyglot monument to American mobility and immigration.
Thirty-three percent of the population was born outside of California, 24-percent outside the United States. Two years ago the four most common surnames of Orange County home buyers were Nguyen, Kim, Lee and Tran. The country is full of centrifugal forces. It needs a center—if not a geographic one, an emotional one. Perhaps it could be touched by an Angel. A Norwegian-American from North Dakota cheered on by Nguyens in the bleachers. Only in America.”
DUES—DUES—DUES
Would all of you please look at your mailing label on this newsletter.
If it reads ’01 or before, and you haven’t already done so, please renew your membership now.
CAN YOU HELP?
I am searching for information about a person named Andreas Gundersen Kjensjord. He was the brother of my great grandfather and emigrated from Torpa in Oppland county in Norway to USA in 1866 together with his wife Lisa Christoffersdatter. They left Oslo on the 5th of May 1866 on the ship "Anna Delius".
They were listed next to Hans Christoffersen Tollefsrud but he may not be the brother of Lisa who never lived in the Tollefsrud farm. According to some papers, they at first settled down in Newark Township in Wisconsin near Rock Prairie.
Hans Tollefsrud later moved to Grant, Pocahontas County in Iowa and died in Rusk, Iowa on the 17th of May 1903.
Andreas was born in 1834 and Lisa was born in 1837. The ancestors of Andreas were landowners of the Knensjord farm, and Andreas and Lisa were married in Torpa late in 1864. They were listed as living by his brother in the Kjensjord farm at the time when the 1865 census was taken.
I am very interested in getting into contact with any one who might have any information about Andreas and Lisa and/or their possible descendants.
I would also like to know if any one could tell about probable changes of his Americanized name way of writing. (I suppose that Andreas may have been changed into Andrew and Gundersen into Gunderson, but what about the name Kjensjord?)
If anybody has any information about this couple, I would appreciate hearing from you by using my email address:
or by snail mail with my address:
Gustav Kjensjord, Braddenveien 1, 4848 Arendal, NORWAY.
A special thank you to Carmen and Dick Holter, editors of the Numedal newsletter, for sending the following.
This appeared in their 1940 yearbook and also a past issue of
Numedalslaget Nyheter.
ET MUNTERT BREV PAA NORSK-AMERIKANSK (A HUMOROUS LETTER IN NORSK-AMERICAN)
The following article is from the 1940 Lag Aarboker. Written by M.B. Landstad it is one of several appearing in this yearbook. Who was M. B. Landstad? He was not a member of the Lag. Although it appears to be in written in Norwegian, much of it is so called “Norsk- Amerikan”. So, read it over carefully a couple of times and I think with a little help from your dictionaries and realizing that many words are spelled phonetically you should be able to catch the fun of it.
Kjær Sister,
Tænk, Jeg har already vert i Amerika et helt jer, og jeg har ikke vært homsik one day ennu. Du kan tro
her er neis til at lev herborte. Jeg work for a neis amerikan laidy in a big haus paa en stor farm tet ve taun. Du skulde bare se all de neis dresses jeg har faatt mig aalredy. Jeg har tre baais aalready. Men den siste er neisest.
Han Heter Knot Kjejjenfals og hans work paa samme farmen. Hans navn in the old kontri var Knut Hønefoss.
Men han har transleita sitt navn til englis, og da blir Knot Kjekkenfals.
Han har transleiita mit navn til englis, saa nu heter eg herborte Gundy Upstars og ikke som de old kontri Guri Lofthus. Det var neis av han Kont tu transleita mit navn.
Den forste baaien min hadde også transleita sit navn. Hans navn i de all kantri var Orm Fagernes. På engles bli hans navn Snake Bjutipoint. Er de ikke bjutiful navn? Han er åful neis du, men jeg laav Kjekkenfals mest.
Han har ikke propassa endnu, men jeg understend han er dedly in lav meg meig, saa bli ikke surpreisa om du far se i mit næste letter at jeg er engasja.
Nei, du kan aldri tru hvor neis Knot er.
Han get aap i de morning før jeg staar aap or starte feier i kjisjenstoven, saa naar jeg kommer daunsteirs.er det neis
og varmt og vannjellen staar og boiler paa stoven. Hver gang kommer et neis sjaa til taun, hitsja han aap koltadne sine for topbaggin, og saa dreive me te taun, og tar in sjaan. Du kan tro saadanne er neise her borte, Somme tider naar det er manleit og neis, travle me til taun, men da gar me kje paa raaden men kros filaa. Siste gang vi var in taun kom me kje hom før inte morning. Aa tenk missen var ikkje madd paa oss da vi kom hom.
Du kan skjønne vi ikke gjorde ikke noe bold, kjære søster, men det var aavull neis to be togeder med han Knot hele natten, eg tel ju. Han sparka meg kros heile filaa, en gang porposa han næsten, men jeg akta som jeg ikke understood det, kan du skjønne det er bisnes det, vet du.
Synes du ikkje jeg er smart som har forgotten to reit norvegjen ennu?
Reit naar du faar teim og tel mig om all de neis fellers bak hom. Har du faatt noen neis baai ennu? Jeg vet intet neisre ennen neis baai.
Med laav og kerlighet fra din søster
—Gundy Upstairs
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Oscar M. Lund, Jr. (Past President) , P.O. Box 8167, St. Paul, MN 55108 (612) 618-0442. E-mail: [email protected] NORWAY LIAISON:
Alastair Brown, Curator, Lands Museum, 2870 Dokka, Norway.
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Mary Hendrickson (218) 722-1609.
Sandra Hendrickson (952) 892-5402
CONSTITUTION & BY-LAWS COMMITTEE:
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Elaine Graham (612) 545-7669.
Mary Hendrickson (telephone and addresses, column 1) NOMINATING COMMITTEE:
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*Ray Olson, 475 Doverwood Dr., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068. (614) 864 9253. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] Ann Edwards, Newsletter Editor, 365 S. Oakland Ave., Burlington WI 53105. (262) 763-3929. E-mail: [email protected]
Carol Olson, Special Publications Editor (addresses above).
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LANDINGS LAGET WEBSITE
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnlandgs/index.html
