My Norwegian EmigrantsBy Louise M. Olson
By
way of introduction, Louise M. Olson, wife of Roy Olson, and the youngest
daughter of Casper and Gjertine Cornelius; and the youngest sister of my
brother Martin who emigrated to America in 1887. I am 79 years old and Roy 84 years old
now in 1977. We are retired and now
living with our daughter Doris and Oscar Garcia in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. I am very much interested in our relatives as
well as our folks who emigrated from Norway, so now in my spare time I have
decided to write this article.
I have been able to write this article with the help of
several sources. My father was secretary
of the “Viknalag Society” which edited their book “Viknavaeringer in America.” Also my niece Ruth, my brother’s daughter had
attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and she wrote an article
for the college entitled “How I Became an American.”
This is Ruth’s 1940s article.
Way up under the
Arctic Circle on the Norwegian Coast, there is a chain of islands known as the
Vikten Islands. Here the fisherman’s
huts are smaller and less frequent, and the vegetation more scanty. It is a place where the midnight sun softly shines
night and day with a strange unearthly light.
Here because there is something new and strange, wild legends of trolls
who lived in the mountains have been told for centuries. In Lekø, where Gjertine lived, they told the
legend of the Lekø Lady. This is how she
told it to Ruth.
A long time ago all the islands were
inhabited by big monstrous giants or trolls.
In there lived a troll and a fair lady with great charms, and at Hestmanden,
9 miles north, a valorous giant. The giant
fell in love with the Leka Møya, but she refused his proposal of marriage. Enraged by this he resolved to kill her. As most of the inhabitants were and are today
good archers, he took his bow and shot an arrow at the maiden. At first the arrow passed through Torghatten
and pierced a round hole in the mountain which can be seen today and then the
arrow struck off her head. As it was
getting near morning the rays of the sun touched them and they turned into
stone for they had ventured out too long in the day. This legend has passed down generation after
generation in our family and the Lekø lady is still standing today.
Here in these islands Casper’s ancestors had lived for
many generations in tiny fishermen’s huts made of flattened logs, painted red
and roofed with earth and birchbark. In
these secluded islands far from the turmoil of the outer world, Casper’s
grandfather, Korneilius Hallesssen was born in 1824. He was a tailor as well as a farmer and a
fisherman and was well known all over the islands. He married Ane Paulsdatter of the Vikten
Islands. She was born in 1831. On
Christmas Eve, in 1865, he was drowned at sea.
This left her and her three sons and one daughter practically penniless. Nine years later in 1874, she married Anton
Taralson.
One of these sons was Casper Cornelieus, who was only
five when his father drowned. Casper was
alos a fisherman. He worked on Leka
Island for a Mr. Sverdrup. Gjertine also
worked there. They were married in
1884. When Gjertine came to Vikna to
live, Casper and his stepfather Anton and her brother-in-law Albert, rowed her
in a boat the 28 miles between the islands.
Gjertine brought along from her home a spinning wheel, a goat, a sheep,
a trunk and a “skrin.” When she came to
America, she brought her spinning wheel with her.
Gjertine’s grandfather drowned at sea going to another
island to buy Christmas presents. Her
grandmother was only a small girl when her father drowned. She was born on Leka Island in 1825.
She married quite young to Ole Baardsen, a fisherman, and
moved to the island of Hortavaer, near Leka.
This drowning left Gjertine’s mother with three girls and
a boy. This boy died of some kind of
fever or croup on the Lofoten Islands.
Aunt Mary was six year old, my mother Gjertine was four and Aunt Lena
was born in April after her father drowned.
My mother remembered the last time she saw her father. My mother’s name was Gjertine Nikolena
Olsdatter, and she was born in Hortvaer in 1856. As her father drowned when she was five and a
half, her mother lived with her sister in Kolvereid for a while. Gjertine then left home to live with
relatives in Rappen. She attended school there and was confirmed. When she was eighteen, she left for Vaagen
where she worked with her mother until she was twenty-two.
My mother Gjertine, and her mother while working for Mr.
Sverdrup, tended sheep, goats and cattle and took care of the barns. In addition to this they made butter and cheese
and took care of the housework as the men were seldom home during the fishing
season. They also carded and spun wool
and knitted cloth out of the wool for clothes and blankets. Mother brought a “skinfeld” with her to
America. This had a woven cloth on one
side and a sheep skin on the other side.
My mother was working at this time for Mr. Sverdrup where she met
Casper. They were married in the Garstad
Church in Vikna on June 8. 1884. Casper
served in the army for a time as was required of all young men. The army post was at Steinkjer.
Continued next time.