From the Archives
    by Beulah Folkedahl (Volume 23: Page 236)

In the Slooper Society files is a letter in English to Ove Rosdale, November 12, 1874, written by LARS ELLICKSON from Santa Fe, where he was in military service with Company G, First Regiment, Illinois Infantry.

"Notes on Norwegian Settlements in Texas," by AXEL ARNESON, is a fourteen-page typescript about frontier hospitality, church and school life, and relations with Indians.

Among the papers of A. O. SERUM, a Halstad. Minnesota, farmer, are articles and letters on crop production, co-operatives. and local history, as well as correspondence with personnel at Augsburg and Augustana seminaries.

An interesting item in the IVER SIMLEY Papers is an auction bill announcing the sale of the family gaard. issued by Simley’s father just before he emigrated to Black Earth, Wisconsin in 1869.

A manuscript volume of 167 pages entitled ‘Days That Are Gone," by A. Sophie Boe, is a detailed story of her father. NILS E. BOE, as a child, a student, a Civil War soldier, husband and father, and as a pastor in Kansas, Michigan. Illinois. Iowa. and Wisconsin.

A history of Aaberg Academy, Devils Lake. North Dakota, was written by PASTOR OLE H. AABERG, founder and president. [237]

Among F. A. SCHMIDT'S correspondents were leading churchmen: Claus L. Clausen, 0. J. Hatlestad, Kristofer Janson, J. N. Kildahl, U. V. Koren, Laur. Larsen, Th. N. Mohn, B. J. Muus, J. A. Ottesen, H. A. Preus, P. A. Rasmussen, and H. A. Stub.

A manuscript en tithed "Amerika feberen begynner, av norsk utvandrings historic 1839" discusses causes and results of migration and includes a letter by Ansten Yattestad of November 6, 1839, It was donated by Sverre H. Ader, Norway.

In the AUGSBURG COLLEGE AND SEMINARY Papers is a typescript of the testimony of Sven Oftedal and Ole Paulson in the court record of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church vs. Augsburg Seminary.

Among the JULIUS B. BAUMANN Papers are three scrapbooks: "Stottegalskab i Reform," "Norskdom og norsk-am. literatur i Decorah-Posten," and "Over Grænsen."

The "Protocol for Scandinavia Association Board of Directors," 1893--1932, is a primary source on the history of Scandinavia Academy and its successor, Central Wisconsin College.

A typescript of eighteen pages contains biographical material about VIGGO DREWSEN, chief of the technical research department of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company in New York.

Papers of HANS O. EGEBERG (1875—1933) relate to his career as employment manager at the Gary Steel Works, Gary, Indiana.

PETER J. EIKELAND’S manuscript article, "Vanskeligheter for norskundervisninger ved yore høiereskole" (ca. 1923), gives a historic survey of the teaching of Norwegian.

MINNIE J. GASMANN of Amherst, Wisconsin, presented a copy of biographical data about Hans Jacob and Johan Gotfred Gasmann, their ancestors and descendants, a translated version.

The ABRAHAM GRIMSTVEDT correspondence presents a bright picture of life in America as it was lived in Dane County, Wisconsin; Fillmore County, Minnesota; and Decorah and Lake Mills, Iowa, from 1850—75, by his sisters and their husbands.

In the ANDERS O. HAGEN Papers are letters from W. J. L. Frich, U. V. Koren, B. J. Muus, H. A. Preus, and P. A. Rasmussen.

The EINAR HAUGEN and KRISTINE HAUGEN Papers include letter’s from Ole E. Rølvaag, 1920—31. [238]

In the J. J. HEIMARK Papers are account books, 1880—1933, of the Moe grocery store, St. Paul.

Descriptions of the Hudson’s Bay Company retail stores and stage lines are in the notes taken by Anton Hillesland during his interviews with Swen N. Heskin, farmer and lay preacher in the Goose River settlement in North Dakota.

The HALVOR ROSVALD (Solveson) Papers contain data on Rosvald’s expedition to California during the gold rush, in the company of Hans C. Heg.

A paper entitled "Beskrivelse af Holden, Goodhue County, Minnesota, læst ved hundred-aarsfesten den fjerde juli, 1876," read at the celebration honoring the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, contains information about first settlers, Indians, crops, prices, local government, and the church.

Family and church histories by OLE A. MYRVIK give an account of pioneer life at Milton, North Dakota.

SOREN A. TYSTAD’S history of the Norwegian settlement in Miner County, South Dakota, gives names of pioneers; comments on prairie fires, farming, and the 1880 snowstorm; and discusses the religious life in the settlement.

JOHN N. KILDAHL’S letters to his son, John L., offer counsel on pastoral problems as well as items about family affairs.

A manuscript article contains the autobiography of CHRISTIAN LARSON, Winnebago County, Iowa, father of Laurence M. Larson, professor of history at the University of Illinois.

The papers of CLARA (MRS. MARTIN O.) MONSON, consisting of correspondence, family histories, and memoirs, tell much of farm, home, school, and church during pioneer days in Wiota, Lafayette County, Wisconsin.

The Forhandlingsprotokol (record book), 1889—94, of FREMAD, a debating society in Minneola, Minnesota, records the topics of debates, such as capital punishment, power of the press, restricted immigration, the Farmers’ Alliance, and the preservation of the Norwegian language in America.

HAGBARTH NIELSEN, California dairyman, has written reminiscences of his mining experiences in Alaska and the Yukon.

The scrapbook of OLE NILSEN, clergyman and writer, contains for the most part items on controversial Lutheran Church [239] subjects, written by Claus L. Clausen, Theo. H. Dahl, Gisle Johnson, U. V. Koren, Laur. Larsen, O. Nilsen, Lars Oftedal, F. A. Schmidt, Georg Sverdrup, and August Weenaas.

A biographical sketch of Andrew Furuseth and data about the "Gjøa," Roald Amundsen’s ship, famed for going through the Northwest Passage in 1903—05, are to be found in the RALPH ENGER Papers.

A letter from Peder Ydstie, Minnesota poet, filed in the TORKEL OFTELIE Papers, discusses the family life of Kristofer Janson.

The diary of HANS OLSON (Langrud) gives an account of a migration journey the family took in 1870 from Dodgeville, Wisconsin, to Coal Creek, Kansas. Towns on the route of travel and the supply of grass and water for the cattle are the chief topics.

The Sioux Outbreak of 1862 is the subject of a typescript of thirty-nine pages entitled "De Forenede Staters Værste Indianer krig" by OLE O. ENESTVEDT, a farmer from Sacred Heart, Minnesota.

A nine-page typescript of a biography of MAREN POL (MRS. ANDREAS) PEDERSON, boarding house operator, written by her two granddaughters, recounts the hardships of the sea voyage to the Hawaiian sugar plantations, via Cape Horn, and of making a living in Hawaii and California.

Some salmodicon charts consist of manuscripts of musical scores for a Norwegian one-stringed instrument.

An address given by KENNETH O. BJORK at St. Olaf College on Founders’ Day, November 6, 1963, presents the "kingly" ideals of the immigrant founders and guidelines for today’s American colleges.

One folder of correspondence in the GERHARD RASMUSSEN Papers deals with the renovation and removal of the Muskego Church from Racine County, Wisconsin, to the campus of Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul.

HELENA (MRS. GEORG) REIERSEN, in an America letter written in 1860, tells of slavery, railroads, and her husband’s commission business in Shreveport, Louisiana.

In an eighty-three-page typescript, "A Hundred Years with Norwegians in the East Bay," SOREN C. ROINESTAD of San Francisco [240] has included sketches of churches, societies, festivals, and leading Norwegian Americans.

Of value in an ULRIK V. KOREN bibliography is Austin K. Rollag’s article, "Da Professor Koren kom til Beaver Creek menighet." Rollag was a South Dakota farmer in the Garretson area.

The papers of ZACHARIAS M. TOFTEZON, probably the first white man in the Stanwood, Washington, area, deal with church, health, weather and crops.