The "Vigdahl's" from Suldal, Rogaland, Norway

Family Line Links: (WikiTree.com)(Ancestry.com)(FamilySearch.org)

Researching family history in Norway can be a bit challenging due to the patronymic naming system that was widely used until 1923. On one hand, its nice because if your ancestor's name was Ole Jonsson or Lena Jonsdatter, then you already know that the father's first name was Jon. But you have no idea what his last name was, and you can't look anything up by surname since it changed every generation. That is where the farm names become so important. Up until the 1800s, 80-90% of Norway's inhabitants lived on farms and each farm had a name. Furthermore, mountainous inland areas like Suldal, generally allowed for only small, scattered settlement areas around river deltas or gorges. Back in the 1800s, these small hamlets generally held at most about 5 farms, so saying your farm name was almost like saying what town you were from. And thankfully, that is how Norwegian farmers often referred to themselves when baptizing a child, or answering a census worker. So if Ole Jonsson lived on the Guggedal farm in the town of Bratveit, Norway, he would refer to himself as Ole Jonsson Guggedal, or sometimes just Ole Guggedal. Not so bad, right? However, if his family decided to move to nearby Vetrhus farm instead, he now began to refer to himself as Ole Jonsson Vetrhus, or maybe just Ole Vetrhus. So it gets complicated to trace whose who. 

Fig 1: An example of the Norway's mountainous terrain, in which non-coastal farming is only possible in small, low-lying areas of land watered by the rivers of mountainous runoff (light green areas). Before industrialization and electricity, the inland population was contained mainly within these areas.

Map showing Nesflaten within the Suldal Parish of Rogaland County, Norway
 

Thankfully, the owners of most farms kept detailed farm books (bygdebøker) that listed the names of their inhabitants, as well as the day to day accounting of the farm's history. The earliest mention of the Vigdahl family line occurs in these farm books. According to Halvord Hoftun (Ref 0), Østen Knutson, b.1605 lived on Vik farm (Fig 1) in Jensaplasset, Suldal, Norway (son of Knut, b.1580, of Veka farm (Fig 1)) while raising his family. Østen did not own this farm, however, he was merely a worker, and so his children has no particular interest in staying on the land as adults. Thus, his son Jon Østenson, (b.1654, direct line), after marrying Kari Nilsdatter of Veka farm, left Vik to raise his own family on Fisketjon farm (Fig 1) in Suldalsosen. Likewise, his son, Østen Jonson (b.1691, direct line) went on to Gautun farm, where he married an older woman named Gjertrud Torkelsdatter, and together they had 3 children (Note 4). This seems to have been a lucky match for Østen, because somehow they eventually became owners of Gautun farm (Fig 2).

Guatun (Guattun) farm in Nesflaten, Suldal, Rogaland, Norway today

Fig 2: Satellite view of the farms along Suldal Lake from Veka to Nesflaten

Historical Background

Gautun farm (now Gauttun (Note 1)) lies at the western edge of the river delta hamlet of Nesflaten, Suldal, Norway. It is a quaint, rural village, overlooking the deep waters of Lake Suldal (Suldalsvatnet) and nestled within the rocky folds of Mount Melsnuten (Mælen). Suldal lake is the headwaters of the Suldal River (Suldalslågen), which travels a winding 30 miles westward to the city of Sand, and then empties into the Sands Fjord (Sandsfjorden). When the census was taken in 1664, Nesflaten contained 3 original undivided farms (matrikkelgård): Overskeid (Avinskei), Haugen, and Gautun. Amazingly, these 3 farms still exist today (along with a few more as well), as they probably have, in one form or another, for more than 1,000 years. 

Google Map showing the 29 mile route from Nesflaten to Sand. Lake Suldal feeds into the Suldal River just north of Suldalsosen (you can see this map in better resolution by clicking on the link). It is a long, skinny lake; about 18 miles in length and just over a mile wide. Today you can travel this route by car rather than boat, by following the historic National Road 13 (shown above). The family line lived at various farms along this route throughout the 17th-19th centuries, and probably for much longer.

Mapcarta satellite view of Nesflaten, Suldal, Norway, showing 5 of the farms now present there. Gauttum farm is found on the Westernmost end of the hamlet.

Norway is, of course, part of the original homeland of the Vikings, who were in power from about 800 to 1050 AD. While we tend to be more familiar with the Vikings that went around conquering places like England, the reality is that most Vikings were simple farming folk, just like in the rest of Europe. During the Viking era, extended families (and livestock) usually lived all together in large Turf or Longhouses and worshiped Norse gods like Odin. The Norse religious beliefs of the old country began to be slowly Christianized around 995 AD, after King Olaf Tryggvason was converted and baptized into the Roman Catholic faith during an expedition to England. By the end of the 11th century, there were likely at least 3 Catholic stave churches in the Suldal Parish, one in Jelsa, one in Sand, and closest to our ancestors, the Suldal Church in Sudalsosen. During the Protestant Reformation, King Christian III converted Norway to Lutheranism in 1539 (ie persecuted Catholic priests and took over church lands while burning/plundering churches all along the way). He also established the state sponsored Church of Norway. In light of all this mayhem, the Suldal Church has been rebuilt several times over the centuries, with the most recent version being constructed in 1852. A parish church in Nesflaten was first built at this time as well.

Example of a Norwegian Stave church, a medieval style of architecture using a wooden post and lintel construction technique. This particular church is found in Borgund, Norway, and is believed to have been built about 1200 AD.

The Nesflaten Chapel of Suldal Parish of the Church of Norway. The current Suldal church in Suldal hamlet was designed by the same architect, Hans Linstow, and is of very similar style. The cemetery of the Nesflaten Chapel was not created until about 1848.

Unfortunately, the Suldal Parish churches did not begin record keeping until 1778, and so up until that point we know very little about the family line. We do know than that Østen Jonsen's first born son was named Torkel Østensen (b.1716), and that now that the farm was owned, several generations of this line's first born sons would continue to reside on Gautun for their entire life span. What was life like for these Norwegian peasant living far up in the mountainous terrain of Suldal Parish?

Drawing by Severin Worm-Petersen depicting a pre-industrial Norwegian mountain farm

Unlike most other areas in Europe, Norway never adopted a feudal system for land ownership, due to a lack of rich nobility with which to purchase and administrate it (Ref 1, p.21). When church land was taken over by the king during the Reformation, most of it was simply sold to the peasants who cultivated it, and by the mid-1700s the majority of peasants were land owners (bøndergods) (Ref 9). Under this system, even non-landowning tenant farmers (leilending) were given a great bit of leeway. Their share of the farm's cultivation was taken in the form of rents, but the way in which the tenant farmer's family went about earning the amount needed was up to the tenants themselves. 

Many farmers were also excellent craftsmen, a skill which could be put to use for extra income during the winter months.

Additionally, throughout the 1400-1600s, farm land in Norway was plentiful and cheap. This was due to the black death that had ravaged the country in 1349-1351, killing about  65% of its inhabitants (Ref 3, p.144), including most of its noble class (Note 5). Many farms during this period were abandoned, especially in lower quality and/or more isolated mountainous areas. Despite later strong population growth, pre-plague levels of population were not again attained until the late 1600s, and for a time, population growth was easily absorbed by the reoccupation of previously abandoned farms. Having such relatively easy access to farm land ownership allowed this ideal to become an important part of Norwegian identity. 

"Mother there comes an old woman" (Mor der kommer en kjerring) by Theordor Kittelsen. In Norway, the black death was often described as arriving in the shape of an old woman named Pesta, who would travel from community to community with a broomstick and a rake. If you came across her path while she held her rake, then at least some of your people would be spared. But if she was sweeping with her broom, all would be dead within 3 days.

Due to their remote location and short growing season, mountain-based Norwegians were unable to rely overly on crops for their subsistence. Instead, farmers survived by growing what grain they could, mainly barley and oat, and then supplementing their crop with the proceeds from fishing, dairy, and livestock (Ref 1, p.20). The goal was to get the store house (stabbur) as full as possible before the cold set in, so that the family and livestock could make it through the long, dark winter. It was not uncommon for cattle to be too weak in the spring to rise up from the barn floor. During years of repeated crop difficulties, whole families could starve.

A Norwegian pillared storehouse built in the 17th century. They were built raised off the ground and with a gap between the steps and walls in order to help prevent mice from entering. Inside they kept bins or grain and flour, salted meats and fish, and cold hardy dairy such as butter and cheese. History mentions their use back to the age of the Vikings, and keeping them in top shape and secure from rats and thieves was of the utmost importance.

Another strategy Norwegian farmers from mountainous regions like Suldal used was that of the summer dairy (seter). Historically, Norwegians recognized only two seasons - summer and winter. Summer started on April 14th and ran though Oct 13th, with Midsummer's Eve falling on July 13th. Once summer arrived, livestock were released from the dark, cramped barns and preparations were made for the journey (buføring) to the mountain summer pasture. Often this pasture was some distance from the main homestead, but at a fixed location near a stream where primitive dwellings were maintained for processing animal milk into food, and storing it safely until it could be transported back to the main farm. The two main tenets of these summer dwellings were the milkmaid (seterbudeie) and the cowherd (gjetergutt). In old Norwegian literature, many romances begin with a young suitor utilizing the long summer nights to make his way up the mountain for a visit with the desire of his heart.

On the Banks of the Fjord by Hans Dahl, depicting young milkmaid being taken out for a boat ride by her suitor.

Summer pasturing allowed for much smaller allotments of land to be necessary on the main farm. The result was that multiple households could be maintained on a relatively small piece of farmland. Farm owners utilized this advantage by subdividing the original farm (matrikkelgård) into subfarms (bruk), whose owners were sometimes related to the original family. During census taking, each farm and subfarm would be assigned a number to help make their identity more clear. Although some of the names have changed a bit due to the standardization of spelling that occurred in the early 1900s, most of the 68 Suldal main farms listed on the 1664 census can still be located (or if not the farm itself, then at least the village where it was once stood). Farmers also began to create cottager (husmann) tenancies at the edge of farms (Ref 1, p.21). Instead of paying rent, the cotter was bound to work the main farm for a set number of days per year. Norwegian farmers relied heavily on these work agreements to make certain to have enough labor to complete the work that would get the family through the long winter. In early times, they took these agreements so seriously that farmhands were only allowed to leave their jobs on two specific days of the year, April 14th and Oct 14th (the beginning of the new season, called "faredag"), and even then, only if they had first given at least 8 weeks notice. 

Li farm museum in Suldal Parish, Rogaland, Norway. Here one can view and example of the small, interdependent farm community (bygd) that this region is known for. These characteristic Norwegian communities were created as a function of the farm subdivisions, which allowed farmers to make the most of the limited land available. By the keeping the homes and farm buildings small and tightly packed, they left a greater amount of land free for crops and pasturing.

"Vigdahl" Family Line

Such was the world Torkel Ostenson was born into as he came of age in the mid 1730s. Torkel first married in his mid-20s to a woman named Kari Eriksdatter. She was from Guggedal farm (near Bråtveit, Fig 2), about a 5 mile row down the length of Lake Suldal. They had at least 2 daughters together. Unfortunately, sometime after this second daughter, Torkel's first wife died. He made do for a few years on his own, and then married again in his mid-30s. His second wife was a woman named Ingrid Oddsdatter from Foss farm (Fig 1), which was quite a ways down river from Nesflaten. She was about 10 years younger than him, which was fairly typical for second marriages in these farming communities. Ingrid joined Torkel on Gautun farm, and they added 7 more children to the family. Their second born child, Aad Torkelsen (b.1754), was this line's direct ancestor. Torkel died in 1768 at the age of 52. Despite being only 14 at the time, as his first born son, Aad would have been the child most likely to take ownership of the farm when he came of age, which seems to have been what occurred. All but one of Torkel's 9 children lived to adulthood (this was during a time when the child mortality rate was close to 25% (Ref 4)). The other children all left Gautun farm, but settled at other nearby farms along Suldal Lake and River.

Nesflaten, Suldal, Rogaland, Norway in 1888

Aad (sometimes spelled Odd) married in his mid-20s, to a woman named Kari Tjaerandsdatter from Vetrhus farm (Fig 2). Vethrus farm was in the same river valley as Guggedal, but about a mile inland and farther up the mountain. They raised a family of 9 children together on Gautun farm, though 2 of them died in early childhood. Their second born son, Tjaerand Aadsson (b.1782), was our direct line. His older brother, Torkel (b.1779), inherited the family farm after their father passed in 1818 at the age of 64. Interestingly, Torkel's family line continued to occupy Gauttun farm until at least 1910, after which time the family moved to Urheim farm, directly adjacent to Gauttun. A member of the family was living on the Urheim farm in Nesflaten until at least 2004, and more recent members of the family are buried in the Nesflaten churchyard.

Norwegian Christmas on the farm, 1846 painting by Adolph Tidemand

Not being the first born son, upon adulthood Tjaerand Aadsson set off to find a future of his own. In 1809, at the age of 27, he married a woman named Ingrid Ostensdatter from Jordebrekk farm in the even more remote Suldal hamlet of Bleskestad (Fig 2). Together they moved to the farm hamlet of Veka, about a mile from the heart of the Sudal parish- Suldalsosen. There Ingrid gave birth to 8 children, though sadly 3 of them died in early childhood. This was during the very difficult final years of the Napoleonic Wars. Since 1536, Norway had been considered a Danish province, and Denmark chose to align itself with Napoleon against Britain during the wars. In 1807, the British bombed the Danish capital of Copenhagen in order to capture and destroy the Dano-Norwegian Navy. Britain was successful, and after this battle the Royal Navy was able to effectively block all Norwegian ports from trade for the remainder of the war, which ended in 1814. By 1812, the Kingdom of Norway was suffering under mass starvation and economic hardship, and it was not until the 1840s that financial stability finally improved. Though Tjaerand and Ingrid's first three children born during the war did survive to adulthood (Note 2), all 3 children born shortly after the war, from 1816-1819, died before the age of 8. Thankfully, the family seems to have been doing better by 1822, because that is when Tjaerand Tjaerenden, the line we descend from, was born.

The bombing of Copenhagen, Denmark in Sept 1807

After the war ended in 1814, Denmark was forced to give up control of Norway, and instead it passed to the hands of Sweden as a democratic constitutional monarchy. Though not without Norwegians first attempting to fight for their independence. Frustrated by their thwarted efforts to become an independent nation, while at the same time wary of their new Swedish political ties, it became important to Norwegians to develop their own sense of Norwegian nationalism (Ref 5, p.3). In addition to formally documenting Norwegian spelling, art, and folklore, the writings of philosophers sought to create an ideal of who a "true Norwegian" was. This ideal was meant to be in opposition to someone who was "intellectually Danish" or "politically Swedish" at heart, as many in the ruling class were judged to be (Ref . 5, pp.9-13). Given these constraints, the ideal, genuine Norwegianer began to look a lot like a traditional, rural Norwegian farmer. In order to preserve their "Norwegianness", many felt it was vitally important to begin educating this working class of farmers so that they could begin to take on a larger role in the democratic process (Ref 5, p.16).

Beginning in the 1830s, the development of a modern education system began to take shape for the purpose of strengthening and modernizing the nation (Ref 6, p.9). Unfortunately, this coincided with the early industrial revolution in Norway, which by the the 1860s was shifting farmers away from traditional agriculture, and into the mechanized labor of the cities instead. As trade and agricultural methods modernized, nutrition improved and the population of the nation skyrocketed. Between 1800 and 1900, Norway's number of inhabitants almost tripled, and during the 1850's, experienced a higher rate of growth than any other European nation. The amount of farm land available for carrying out the newly defined Norwegian dream did not change overly much, however, and thus more and more Norwegians began to feel that their ideal pursuit of happiness could be better obtained in the land rich New World (Ref 7, p.52).

Photo of immigrants waiting for a boat to travel from Bergen, Norway to America in the 1860s. Beginning in 1849, steam ships dramatically reduced the amount of time it took to cross the Atlantic- from about 3 months to about 3 weeks, making the difficulty of traveling abroad much less burdensome than it had been previously. 

 

Tjaerand Tjaerandsen survived the difficult post-war years of his childhood and went on to marry Marta Sveinungsdatter, also from Veka farm, in 1848 at the age of 25. Together they had 7 children, 5 of whom survived to adulthood. Sometime between their second and third child, they left Veka farm for the nearby Vikene farm, about a half mile down the road. Sadly, Tjaerand did not live long into adulthood. He died in 1861 at the young age of 38, when his youngest child was just 1 year old. Financially, this seems to have been very disruptive to the family. In 1865, Marta was still living on Vikene farm with her young family and managing to get by somehow. But as soon as the children were old enough to work, they were sent away from farm to make their own way elsewhere. By 1875, the youngest, Kari, age 15, was working as a maid servant back on Veka farm. Brita, the next youngest, had gone up the lake a ways to work as a maid servant on Guggedal farm. Marta's oldest son, Tjaerand, had gone with her back to Nesflaten, where they were working at Kilen farm. But her second oldest son, Sveinung Tjerandsen (b.1851), along with her daughter Ingrid, decided to take their lives in a new direction. In the early 1870's, they became the first of the direct line to leave Suldal parish behind, and travel 100 miles eastward to Bjørg, Telemark, Norway.

Map showing the town of Bjørg, within the parish of Seljord, within the county of Telemark, Norway.

It is unknown for certain what was behind Ingrid and Sveinung's decision to move to Telemark upon reaching adulthood. Probably not the stories of Selma, the sea monster, said to live in the waters of Lake Seljord at that time, but who knows? More likely might be the Dyrsku'n, an annual agricultural show that the Seljord area became known for, which attracts many thousands of visitors each year. It began in 1866, and at that time specialized primarily in cattle, which would have been an area Sveinung and Ingrid were quite familiar with given their mountain farm upbringing. The 1870s were also a major period of restructuring in Norway's agricultural section. Adoption of more modern mechanized farming techniques reached wide spread levels of adoption this decade, forcing many farm laborers out of work. With their father's early passing leaving the family scattered, Ingrid and Sveinung probably felt less tied to the small farming communities around them than previous generations of the family line. And like many Norwegian's of that time, they were probably searching for an area where they could carry on the farming tradition they had been born into, though perhaps with some modern additions, as young folk are more apt to do.

Lake Seljord (Seljordsvatnet), home of Selma, the infamous sea serpent

Fig 3: Seljord Municipality, containing Seljord Church and the nearby town of Bjørge

By 1874, Sveinung had married a woman named Gunlaug Haraldsdatter, who was born on the mountain farm of Dalen (Fig 3), just a mile north of Bjørge. In 1875, Sveinung, his sister Ingrid, and his new wife were all living on the farm of Leif Ellefsen in Bjørge, along with another young couple as well. A year later, Sveinung and Gunlaug welcomed their first child Tjerand Sveinungson (b.1876, direct line) into the world. Unfortunately, this Tjerand was born just as Norway was entering a long period of economic depression. Previously, Norway had overcome the economic instability at the launch of the Industrial Revolution, and had entered a period of strong economic growth from 1843-1875 as it joined the world market in trade. But this worldwide period of expansion hit a major snag in 1873 when the US government passed the Coinage Act; a law which had the ultimate effect of basically forcing the world to adopt the gold standard monetary system. Initially, this caused a sudden contraction of the world's money supply, prompting a run on the banks. In Norway, this led to a long period of deflation that strangled the economy. By 1880, Norwegians began fleeing this economic hardship with large-scale emigration to America.

Seljord Church, first built in 1180 AD, where Sveinung and Gunlaug baptized their first child, Tjerand Sveinungson, in 1876.

In 1880 (Note 3), Sveinung Tjerandson and his wife Gunlaug Haraldsdatter, decided to join this wave of Norwegian emigrants looking for better opportunities overseas. Gunlaug's sister Margit and her family joined with them on the voyage. Sveinung's sister Ingrid did not accompany them though. Instead, like many others in the failing agricultural sector, she finally abandoned the farming lifestyle and instead made her way to Oslo, Norway; the country's economic, industrial, and governmental hub. For those that did choose the immigration pathway, however, the Midwest of America was the place to go at the time. Many of the pre-Civil War immigrants from Norway had settled in western Wisconsin and along the Red River Valley of Minnesota (Ref 8). After the Civil War, the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act saw continued Norwegian settlement in southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. By 1880, many of these farmers were pulling up stakes again to try out homesteading on the relatively untouched lands of North and South Dakota.

Late 1800s advertisement for land in Minnesota in South Dakota

Sveinung and Gunlaug started out in Albert Lea, Freeborn Co., MN, where they lived for a time with the family of one of Margit's brother-in law's siblings. This sibling, Andres Knudtson, had been born on Overland farm (Fig 3) less than a mile from the Dalen farm where Gunlaug and Margit had been raised. When Andres and his wife Anlaug first came to America in 1867, relatives had provided them with similar hospitality to help smooth the way. By 1900, they had purchased a 40 acre farm in nearby Hayward, MN. 

1906 plat map for Hayward, Freeborn Co., MN showing the property of Sveinung Tjerandson. Located at "the South Half of the North West Quarter of Section 31, Twp. 102, Range 20, containing roughly 40 acres."

Upon arriving in the US, many Norwegians chose to Americanize their last names in order to better fit in with their new neighbors. This usually involved either changing all of the household last names to match the father's surname, or taking the name of the farm the family had worked on as a surname. By the 1880 census, the family was using Tjerandson as their surname, and thus their son, Tjerand Sveinungson, had become Tjerand Tjerandson. By 1900, they had Americanized their last name further, going now by the more pronounceable surname of Vigdahl (though this does not seem to have been a formal name change, given the continued use of Tjerandson on later legal documents). The word "dal" in Norwegian means valley. Given that "g" and "k", as well as "i", "a", and "e", were often interchanged in spelling at that time, it is possible that the "Vig" in Vigdahl was meant to call back to the Veka farm (sometimes spelled Vegge) that Sveinung had come from before leaving Suldal for Seljord. Additionally, Tjerand was now going by the first name of Charles, while his younger sister Ingeborg began using the first name of Emma. 

1880 and 1900 census for Sveinung Tjerandson's family

In 1899, Charles Vigdahl (formerly Tjerand Sveinungson) married Susan Gullickson from Logan Twp, Winnebago Co., Iowa, which was right across the county/state line from Freeborn Co., Minnesota. Susan was born in Iowa in 1879, but most of her 8 siblings had been born in Voss, Hordaland, Norway before coming to America in 1873. In the first year or so after their marriage, they lived in Hayward, Freeborn, MN with Charles' parents and siblings. This may have been a bit of a rushed wedding given that their first born, Elsie, was born less than 4 months after tying the knot! By 1905, they had welcomed two more children into the world, David and Ansil Vigdahl (b.1904, direct line) and were living in the warehouse district of West Minneapolis while Charles worked as a mechanical laborer. Then, in 1909, they relocated once again to Mason City, Cerro Gordo, IA, (just SE of Winnebago Co.) where they chose to remain. It was here that they completed their family with their youngest child, Margaret, born in 1911.

In Mason City, Charles worked for the railroad industry doing car repair. By 1920, he and Susan had purchased a home at 630 S Monroe Ave, where the Monroe Plaza South strip mall now stands. Most of their 4 children stayed in Iowa, with the exception of their son David who moved to Alaska. When their son Ansil was 30, he married his first wife, Leona Sandschulte, who grandparents had immigrated from Germany in the mid-1800s. They were married Mar 4, 1935, in a Catholic ceremony at St. John's Catholic Church in Mason City, IA. A little over 6 months later, Leona gave birth to their son Roger Vigdahl (b.1935). Sadly, the labor was complicated, and Leona went into shock following a forceps delivery and passed away. Ansil remarried to Irene Carpenter from Minnesota two and a half years later, but Roger remained their only child. Leona was buried with her parents at the Saint John's Cemetery in Bancroft, Kossuth, IA.

Although many descendants of this line are still found in IA and MN (as well as a few in TX, CO, and MO), those of the line carrying the Vigdahl surname are only still present in Minnesota (our line) and Alaska (Ansil's brother David's line).

Notes

1) A word about spelling as well. Norway did not standardize spelling until the early 1900s, and lots of names have mutated a bit over time. People back then just wrote down what things sounded like when spoken, which could change with the dialect. Often e's and a's were interchanged, for example. Also, American's tended to change k's to c's and v's to g's. Additionally, Norway has a few letters in its alphabet that we don't have. Namely æ, ø, and å, which sometimes get translated as ae, o, and a, but other times can be just "a" or just "e" or oe or aa... Generally speaking, if the name sounds roughly the same, it probably is the same, even if it is spelled quite differently. For instance, in Nesflaten, the farm Avinskei became Overskeid with time.

2) The second born child, Odd Tjerandsen, who was born during the worst of the war food shortage in 1812, does not seem to have ever married or had children. It is possible there were physical/mental deficits caused by lack of nutrition for this child as well. Additionally, of the 5 children who did survive, all but one died in their late 30's to early 50's, unlike previous generations that had usually lived to their late 50's to early 70's.

3) It is possible it was as early as 1877. Census records disagree on the exact timing.

4) The birth year of Gjertrud is not well established, although her father's birth year of 1643 and her husband's birth year of 1691 are more certain. Given these dates, I think it is unlikely that she was born in 1663 as one source suggests though she does seem likely to be a bit older than her husband. For these reasons, I have put my best guess at about 1680 for her birth.

5) The high death toll of the Black Death in Norway compared to other Scandinavian countries was the main reason Norway lost it independence to Denmark in 1397 when it was forced to join the Kalmar Union. Basically, the political structure of both the church and state became so fractured that it was no longer able to defend itself, and nearby neighbors took advantage. It did not fully regain its independence until 1905, at which point, having no legitimate claims to the throne remaining, it offered the throne Prince Carl of Denmark, who was a distant relative of Norway's medieval kings. He accepted, and took on the title of Haakon VII, King of Norway.

References

0) Hoftun, Hallvard M. "Gamie Suldal: gards - og aettesoge" Suldal, Norway: Utgjevar Suldal Kommune, 1972, p. 388, 392-393. FamilySearch.org. https://www.familysearch.org/search/genealogies/submission/8/MMD5-72Z : 2023.

1) Holmsen. Andreas. "The old Norwegian peasant community: Investigations undertaken by the institute for comparative research in human culture, Oslo". Scandinavian Economic History Review,  (1956) 4:1, p.17-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.1956.10411481 : 2023.

2) Onsager, Lawrence W., "The Norwegian Ancestry of Johannes (John) Larson (1886-1957); From the Bakken Subfarm, Guggedal Main Farm in Rogaland County, Norway to the Suldal Norwegian Settlement in Juneau County, Wisconsin". (2018) The Lemonweir Valley Press : Mauston, WI. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/books/55 : 2023.

3) Brothen, James A. "Population Decline and Plague in late medieval Norway". Annales de Démographie Historique Année. (1996) pp. 137-149. https://www.persee.fr/doc/adh_0066-2062_1996_num_1996_1_1915 : 2023.

4) Bengtsson, T., & Lundh, C. (1999). "Child and infant mortality in the Nordic countries prior to 1900". (Lund Papers in Economic History; No. 66). Department of Economic History, Lund University. https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/files/22925644/LUP_66.pdf : 2023.

5) Bø, Gudleiv. "The History of a Norwegian National Identity". (2020) University of Oslo. https://www.tsu.ge/data/file_db/scandinavian-studies/Nation-building-the-Norwegian-way.pdf : 2023.

6) Stugu, Ola Svein. "Educational Ideals and Nation Building in Norway 1840-1900". Nordic Lights. Education for Nation and Civic Society in the Nordic Countries, 1850-2000. https://www.academia.edu/1388791/Educational_Ideals_and_Nation_Building_in_Norway_1840_1900 : 2023.

7) Mureșan, Ioana-Andreea. "Norwegian emigration and the emergence of modernity in Norway: America letters and the cases of Knut Hamsun and Sigbjørn Obstfelder". (2020) The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies. https://www.academia.edu/44833005/Norwegian_emigration_and_the_emergence_of_modernity_in_Norway_America_letters_and_the_cases_of_Knut_Hamsun_and_Sigbj%C3%B8rn_Obstfelder : 2023.

8) Qualey, Carlton C. “Pioneer Norwegian Settlement in Minnesota.” Minnesota History, vol. 12, no. 3, 1931, pp. 247–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20160922. Accessed 24 Dec. 2023.

9) Mykland, Knut [Ed.] Norges Historie, Bind 7, Gjennom Nødsår og krig, p. 221 (Oslo: J.W. Cappelens Forlag, A/S, 1979).

The Matrilineal Line of Diane Johnson

Family Line Links: (WikiTree.com)(Ancestry.com)(FamilySearch.org)

This post is for the family of my foster mother Diane, who has always wanted to know more about her matrilineal line and the many women of strong character who form it. For as long as Diane has been alive, her family has been based in Minnesota, originally from the Mille Lacs County area. She had heard stories of her great grandmother Griffith from Iowa, but beyond that she was unsure, so we decided to look into it further.

Diane Lee (Johnson) Ruonavaara b.1951 in Princeton, Mille Lacs Co., MN

The farthest back Diane's matrilineal line can be traced at present is to Rachel Watts, born in England about 1811 (see Note 1). In 1833, Rachel married a man named Charles Bowring (b.1811) who was born in Winterborne St. Martin (Martinstown), Dorset, England. Like most in that area, Charles was a farm worker, and his family had lived in the small village of Martinstown for many generations. Although a birth record for Rachel has not yet been found, she was likely from a family in a nearby West Dorset village.

District of Dorset within southern UK

Location of Winterborne St. Martin's (Martinstown) within West Dorset, UK

Historical Background

Dorset is largely rural in makeup, with few densely populated areas and no major cities. After the Saxons invaded the Roman-British in the mid-7th century, the area developed into small farming and grazing communities organized around small Catholic parishes and larger monasteries. In addition to farming, during the middle ages Dorset was known for its rope making, stone quarries, Dorset buttons, and Dorset Horn sheep, the latter of which provided excellent wool for making military flannel and sailcloth. Additionally, its southern ports were valuable for both English naval strength, and cod fishing expeditions off the coast of Newfoundland in the recently discovered New World. 

Parish and monastery towns of Dorset in 1575 (view using link provided for higher resolution)

Winterborne St. Martin's Church, built in about the 12th century AD and remodeled with tower addition in the 15th century.

Economic disruption due to the Industrial Revolution came to Dorset in the early 1700s, as newly developed textile mills began to move cloth making out of individual homes and into the factories of more northern cities. Unlike many other areas of England, the early 18th century industrial revolution largely bypassed Dorset due to the lack of coal resources it had with which to fuel it. Because of this, Dorset's transition from an agricultural to an industrial based economy was delayed. This disadvantage was made worse by the Enclosure Acts that landowners of southern England began to petition for between 1770 and 1830 (a movement that had already restructured most other parts England over the previous two centuries). Prior to the passage of these laws, many less valuable pieces of land were considered to be held "in common" by the public, and thus were available to be used by peasants and tenant farmers for personal crops and shelter. After their passage, most farm workers became "landless", and therefore completely dependent upon the landowner for a livable wage.

The Enclosure act allowed wealthy landowners to fence off previously public lands, making them inaccessible to commoners. While this eventually resulted in increased food production, due to being able to try out more advanced farming methods such as crop rotation, it was initially a hardship for farm workers whose livelihood had depended upon these small plots of free land for many generations.

During the early 1800s, farm wages were at first tolerable due to the shortage of labor caused by the Napoleonic Wars. But after Napoleon's defeat in 1815, labor became abundant, grain prices plummeted, and many farm families became destitute. This demise in way of life caused a number of Dorset families to take advantage of a Canadian immigration drive the English government was promoting as a way of off-loading the poor, and reducing the burden of overpopulation. Additionally, after the loss of the Revolutionary War in America, Britain had political interests in populating the Eastern Townships of Quebec with as many English inhabitants as possible, so that it could act as a buffer between its capitol and the United States it bordered. 

Location of the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada within the Province of Quebec, bordering Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

The primary land company in control of this Lower Canadian emigration drive was called the British American Land Company (BALC), which formed in 1832. Unlike its more successful counterpart in Upper Canada, The Canada Company, the BALC was plagued by mismanagement from the start. In 1835, they launched an almost entirely fictitious campaign promoting the virtues of the Eastern Townships. It claimed the weather was beautiful, the soil fertile, and the roads and rivers in excellent condition for travel. For those in financial hardship, the land could be purchased on credit with no money down. In reality, the summers were often wet and cool, followed by long, cold, snowy winters. The land was overworked and of poor quality compared with many other parts of Canada and the US. Roads were underdeveloped and in a miserable state of disrepair, and rivers were non-navigable for transporting goods or people. Upon discovering these harsh realities after arrival, many new British immigrants chose not to stay for long. Especially those of the younger generations that were attracted to the ample opportunities of the comparatively more developed US. 

1842 BALC Advertisement

Diane's Matrilineal Line

Rachel (Watts) and Charles Bowring were in their mid-30s, already with 5 children (and 2 yet to come), when they landed on Canada's shores in 1844. Their daughter Sarah Bowring (direct line) was 9 years old at the time, and her older brother Henry was 11. Perhaps, due to being older on arrival, they felt less rooted in their new homeland than their younger siblings. Whatever the reason, it was only these two eldest children who chose to later immigrate to America. The younger 5 siblings remained and raised their families in southern Quebec, Canada. The area they settled in was called South Durham (Durham-Sud), Drummond, Quebec, Canada (East). Rachel and Charles died in 1893 and 1896, respectively, and were buried in the St. James Cemetery of Durham-Sud.

1800s postcard showing Selby Lake, about 50 miles south of Durham-Sud

Grave marker for Rachel (Watts) and Charles Bowring in the Saint James Cemetery of Durham-Sud, Quebec, Canada.

The second born child of Charles and Rachel, Sarah Bowring, b.1836, married William Clark from Scotland in 1854, when she was 18 years old. However, Sarah and William had their first child, Anne (b.1852), out of wedlock about two years before their marriage, when Sarah was 16. It is interesting that her parents did not consent for them to marry at that point. Perhaps they disapproved? His family seems to have been Scotch Church Presbyterian, while hers was Church of England Anglican, so perhaps that was an issue? Whatever the reason, they were quick to make a fresh start in a new place shortly after tying the knot. 

Church of England baptism record for Anne Jane Clark (b.1852), performed in Shipton, Sherbrooke, Quebec and sponsored by her grandparents.

Luckily for William and Sarah, the railroad industry was booming at this time, in both the US and Canada, finally connecting isolated areas to larger industrial centers. East Canada joined the transportation boom in 1853, when the Grand Trunk Railway reached Durham-Sud on its way to joining the international cities of Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine. By 1856, connecting routes made it possible to reach as far as Illinois by train. In that same year, Sarah (Bowring) and William Clark likely hopped one of these trains, with their daughter Ann and their son Stephen in tow, to settle in the newly platted town of Lena, Stephenson, Illinois.

1856 map of Railway Routes available in the US and Lower Canada

The railroad helped Lena, IL to quickly become a bustling town. They stayed there almost 10 years, through the civil war (1861-65), adding 5 more children to the mix. Passage of the 1862 Homestead Act made many Americans hungry to move west again, however, and the family left for Iowa as soon as the war ended. Initially they settled on a farm in Butler County, IA, where two more children, Rachel (direct line) and William, Jr. joined the family. Then, in about 1871, they picked up stakes and moved west again, this time to Boyer Township, Harrison County, Iowa, west of a city called Woodbine. 

City of Woodbine, within Boyer Township, Harrison Co., IA. The Clarks lived a few miles west of the town.

Woodbine was first settled in 1849 and was platted in 1866, once it became a stop on the newly completed Chicago and Northwestern Railway. This caused a quick influx of new businesses and land investment purchases. However, in 1867, the railroad chose to move the station to Dunlap instead, which was a blow to the newly forming local economy. Understandably, some businesses chose to relocate, and land that had been planned for city development became destined for farmland instead. No doubt there were real estate deals to be had due to this change of fortune, and perhaps that is what drew William and Sarah (Bowring) Clark to the area.

Sarah and William had 12 children total, 8 of whom survived to adulthood. They operated a modest sized 125-acre farm whose main crops were corn and wheat. They also owned a number of cattle, horses, chickens, and pigs, and produced a fair amount of butter and molasses for market. Their five daughters (Helen, Elizabeth "Lizzy", Armina "Mina", Rachel (b.1866, direct line), and Sarah "Sadie") married and initially stayed in the Harrison County, IA area. Their sons moved on to new adventures- Stephen to South Dakota, George to Oregon, and William, Jr. to Idaho. Apparently, Rachel liked to help her father in the fields and became known as "his right hand" (see Note 1). William, Sr. passed in 1894 at the age of 69, and is buried next their son Andrew in the Biglers Grover Cemetery. 

Sarah (Bowring) & William Clark (far right) with 3 of their children, probably "Sadie", William, and "Lizzie". Likely taken about 1883-84 after Rachel and "Mina" were married, but before Elizabeth was wed.

William Clark, died Apr 5, 1894, aged 69ys 6ms 18ds. He is buried next to his son Andrew J Clark in the Biglers Grover Cemetery. Epitaph: "Farewell my wife and children all, from you a father Christ doth call".

After William's death, Sarah remarried in 1897 to a Nebraskan man of comfortable financial means named James McCartney. They lived together on a farm outside of Stuart, Holt, Nebraska. When her second husband died in 1915, Sarah (Bowring) Clark/McCartney sold the contents of his considerable estate, which gave her ample means to live on. It is said that from that point on she chose to have no fixed address, and instead traveled the country visiting her children and other relatives for the remainder of her days. She passed away in 1921, at the home of her daughter Mina in OR, having reached 84 years of age. Her body was brought back to NE, and she is buried next to her second husband at the Stuart Cemetery.

Sarah (Bowring) Clark/McCartney (top middle) with her 5 living daughters, Helen (top right), Elizabeth "Lizzie" (bottom middle), Armina "Mina" (top left), Rachel (bottom left), and Sarah "Sadie" (bottom right). Probably taken around the time of the 1897 wedding to her second husband James McCartney.

4-generation photo of Sarah (Bowring) Clark (far left) in her later years with her daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter

A sad and disturbing event occurred in the family on 9 Jun 1899. Sarah and William's oldest son, Stephen Clark, had married a woman from a nearby county in Iowa named Eliza Gilbert in 1881. Soon after they moved to Hutchinson County, South Dakota near the city of Delmont. They had 3 children together. In Jun of 1899, however, Eliza filed for divorce from her husband due to his "extreme cruelty". Two days later, Stephen retaliated by shooting his wife and 15 year old daughter while at a dinner party. His wife was seriously injured but lived, while his oldest daughter passed away a few days later from her wounds. Meanwhile, Stephen fled to the nearby county of Brule, SD, where his body was found near Kimball a couple weeks later, having died by suicide. Eliza remarried only 3-1/2 months later to a man named Frank Peshak, a guest at the dinner party who came to her rescue during the assault. Given that both Stephen and Eliza were from the surrounding Iowan community, there must have been a lot of talk. By the year following this family tragedy, most of Sarah (Bowring) and William Clark's children had left Iowa and chosen to make a new start elsewhere. The families of Helen, Elizabeth, and Sarah all moved west to Oregon to join their brother George. Mina and her husband Stephen Terwilliger moved to South Harbor, Mille Lacs County, MN, where her husband's brother, Harvey, was also headed. Only Rachel and her husband Lewis Griffith, who must have been made of tougher stuff, stayed in Boyer Twp., IA. 

Rachel (Clark) and Lewis Griffith raised four children: William, Elsie (b.1885, direct line), Fred, and Elvira. (Apparently, Rachel got very sick with each of her pregnancies, and after the fourth, Lewis said that was enough). Sometime in the early 1890s, the family moved to Stuart Co., Nebraska for a time in a covered wagon. Her great uncle Henry Bowring (Sarah's brother), had lived near them in Crawford Co, IA, but in 1886, he became a naturalized US citizen and was able to use the 1862 Homestead Act to purchase land in Cherry Co., NE. Rachel's father, William Clark, died in IA in 1894, so perhaps the family relocated to Nebraska shortly after that time. This would explain how her mother Sarah met her second husband from Nebraska. Elsie would have been about 9 at the time, and along the way she remembered playing with a swan iron that is still in Diane's family's possession. (See Note 3) 

Swan iron similar to the one Elsie played with while riding in the covered wagon to Nebraska as a young child.

Unfortunately, the 1890s was bad timing for a move to Nebraska. Most of the good farmland had been taken up by prior settlers by this time. Making a small farm profitable on the marginal semi-arid tracts remaining was almost impossible, and more than half of the original claimants ended up abandoning their homesteads. The family returned to Boyer Co, Iowa by 1900, and the two oldest children, William and Elsie, married and settled there. Rachel and Lewis must have heard good things about Mille Lacs County, MN from Rachel's sister "Mina" though, because in 1914, about the time their youngest, Elvira, finished school, they decided to move to South Harbor, MN as well. Upon their arrival, they added a new cabin addition onto a home that had been constructed back in the 1880s, when White settlement in the area first began. Unfortunately, they would not end up living close to her sister Mina after all, because at about the same time, her sibling's family decided to relocate to Malheur Co., Oregon, where most of the rest of the family was residing.

The Griffith Family: (left to right) Lewis, William, Elvira, Elsie, Rachel (Clark), and Fred (circa 1907)

Farm addition (left?) built by Lewis Griffith and Rachel (Clark) in South Harbor, MN about 1915

Rachel had been only 16 years old when she married her husband Lewis, and he was about 11 years older than her. He was said to be an "affectionate father and considerate husband", while she was said to be "a woman ahead of her time", who loved photography, gardening, and many other creative pastimes. She particularly loved to take photos of people in their "natural stances", rather than in the formal poses that were more typical of that time. Many of these photos she made into post cards, which she then mailed to family members. At one point, she was asked by Ojibwa Chief Wadena of the local Mille Lacs tribe, to take a formal picture of him in full ceremonial dress. This is likely the photo of him that now appears in many history books.

Possibly the photo of Chief Wadena taken by Rachel (Clark) Griffith

One of Rachel's postcards, showing either her son Fred or her grandson Lewis in front of the barn built by the Griffith's in MN.

Sadly, Rachel's husband Lewis passed away in 1920 at the age of 66, only six years after their move to MN. Rachel's younger daughter, Elvira, had married just a few months prior to his passing and moved back to IA. Her younger son, Fred, had joined a cavalry unit of the military during WWI when he was 30. He returned home from the war in Mar 1919 and was living with his parents a little over year later when his father died. After his father's death, Fred took over the some of the farm duties. He was said to have been a "shy, quiet man not given to social graces". In his later years, he developed advanced type II diabetes. Rachel helped to manage his diet for him until she was no longer able, after which point he went to live in a nursing home. He is buried near his parents at the Eleanor Foster Cemetery in Onamia, MN.

Rachel (Clark) and Lewis Griffith

Rachel and Lewis are buried together at the Eleanor Foster Cemetery in Onamia, MN

Lewis and Rachel's two oldest children, William and Elsie, were back in Iowa raising families of their own during this period. Elsie had married a man named Thomas Coffman in 1907 and they had 6 children: Martha, Lewis, Mary Ida (b.1910, direct line), Helen, Frank, and Rachel (called "Johnny" because she liked to wear pants- must have taken after her grandmother!). Elsie and her husband had a difficult relationship. Despite being a Methodist Episcopal lay preacher, Thomas was said to have had an angry temperament. Sometime in the early 1920's, he left his wife Elsie for another member of his church. Left on her own, Elsie decided to relocate her 6 children northward to Mille Lacs County, MN, where her mother and brother Fred were living. Her youngest sibling, Elvira, and her husband, Roy Lukecart, eventually chose to join them there as well. After the move, Elsie's son Lewis often stayed with his grandmother Rachel to help her on the farm. In return, Rachel willed the farm to him after her death with all of the family's blessing. Many years later, Lewis' son, Scott (see Note 2), inherited the cabin they built, and restored it at a new location in Isle, MN. Elsie worked as a school teacher in Cove, MN to help support her family. Eventually, she remarried to an intelligent and kind man named Frank Thompson, who was also the Cove school principal. 

Elsie (Griffith) Coffman/Thompson with her adult children. Left to right: Martha, Lewis, Mary Ida, Elsie, Helen, Frank, Rachel "Johnny"

Elsie (Griffith) Coffman and her second husband Frank Thompson at their wedding in 1942

Elsie's children all married and settled in MN, so from this point on, the MN branch of the family was firmly established. Some moved to the Twin Cities, while others stayed in the Mille Lacs area. Her daughter Mary Ida married Lawrence "Larry" Cornelius from Elk River, MN in 1929. Larry was highway patrol man, and it is said that he acquired the family summer cabin property on Little Whitefish Lake one winter, due to having saved the life of a man who had fallen through the ice! The man sold it to Larry very cheaply out of gratitude (and a desire to be done with the back taxes). Mary Ida lived in Sauk Rapids and attended St. Cloud State University in the early 1940's to become a teacher like her mother, Elsie. She taught Special Education in Onamia, and even served as interim principle for a time. In 1972, she was awarded the Mille Lacs County Teacher of the Year award. One of her grandchildren's favorite memories of her is the special "Grandma Rides" she used to take them on in her VW beetle. At intersections, she let a grandchild pick which way they should go. The rules were: take turns picking which way, dirt roads only, and you can stop to get out and explore anywhere.

Mary Ida (Coffman) and Lawrence ("Larry") Cornelius

Mary Ida with a litter of new puppies

Mary Ida and Lawrence had 3 children: Theodore, Ruth (direct line, b. 1932), and Elizabeth ("Betsey"). After finishing college, she and Larry moved back to Milaca by 1947. Their daughter Ruth Cornelius graduated from Milaca High School in 1950. Five months after graduation, she married Curtis Johnson from Foreston, MN. Although she did not become a teacher like her mother and grandmother, she did become a school secretary and administrative assistant to the superintendent. Curt was a sheet metal worker, but was very handy as well, and built the family home where he and Ruth lived in Fridley, MN during the 1950's. They had two children, a girl and a boy: Diane (b. 1951 direct line) and Chris. Later they moved to Zimmerman, MN, where Curt built significant additions onto another older home. Ruth and Curt both loved antiques and "the old ways" of doing things. She taught herself many homesteading skills that her grandmothers before her probably used regularly, and Curt took care of a farm that was complete with horses, cows, and chickens.

Ruth (Cornelius) Johnson, about 1950

Ruth and Curt while fishing on a camping trip

Diane's matrilineal line has a long history of women coming together and supporting one another through difficult times. Almost all of them lived significantly longer than (or were separated from) their husbands and had to figure out how to be economically and emotionally secure on their own. Diane now has three grown children of her own, one son and two fraternal twin daughters, plus one foster daughter (me!), who are all lucky to be a part of such an amazing family. 

Notes

1) There is a Thomas Watts (b.1809) living in nearby Netherbury, Dorset, England, who may be related (perhaps a brother?) but I have not yet found a record to verify this. There is also a Richard Watts (b.1811) living with his wife Peggy and their 6 children in Martinstown on the 1841 and 1851 census, though they are gone by 1861. There are no births or deaths in the town parish registries (1653-1812) with the Watts surname though, so I doubt that Martinstown is the village Rachel herself was from.

2) Scott Coffman is involved with the Mille Lacs County Historical Society and many of the quotes about what different people were like came from his family research.

3) Elsie remembers being told they were moving to Nebraska to get away from the Indian attacks. This is pretty unlikely, however, given that the last known Native American violence against White settlers in Iowa took place back in 1857 during the Spirit Lake Massacre. My theory is that her father was joking with her when he said this (he was known for being a jokester), but being an earnest young girl, she took it seriously. Certainly, with attacks between White settlers and Native Americans being so recent at the time, such stories would have carried a powerful "boogeyman" effect for kids at the time.