Vetle Torjussen was the last of Torjus Vetlesen Brekke and Anne Olsdatter Rui's three children. He was born in 1814 at Lien (Lii), a small farm within the larger Uppsund area in Ovre Sundeboignden (Sundebygdi). Lii farm is between Brunkeberg and Kviteseid, south of Holtan farm. Vetle (Wetle) was baptized at Brunkeberg kirke on November 29, 1814. The church record lists his parents and the five witnesses to his baptism. Because his older sister, Anne, had died a month before his birth, Vetle grew up with just one sibling, his older brother, Ole Torjussen.
When he was a child, Vetle's family moved to nearby Brekke gard. Sixteen-year-old Vetle Torjussen Brekke was confirmed at Kviteseid kirke on October 16, 1831. His confirmation record says that he'd been vaccinated against smallpox on November 16, 1818, by a man named Bjornsen. The British physician Edward Jenner had performed his first vaccination in 1796, and this critical health practice initially occurred in Norway in December 1801. Soon, all Norwegian children over the age of one were required to be vaccinated. Vetle was four when he received his inoculation. The procedure was so important that proof of vaccination was required for events such as confirmations, weddings, and emigration.
Among the girls who were confirmed that year was Birgit Frantsdatter, the older sister of Karen Kristine Frantsdatter, Vetle's future wife. Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was born in the Kilen area of Kviteseid on October 22, 1820, and was baptized November 26, 1820, at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. She was the fifth of Frants Carlsen Rui and Kari Olsdatter Overland's ten children.
When Karen was sixteen, she was ready for her confirmation. She was a member of the girls confirmation class at Brunkeberg kirke on November 20, 1836. Karen's baptism and confirmation records are available. The fifth column of her confirmation record is marked Dom angaaende Kundskab op Opforsel, which contains the pastor's "Judgement regarding Knowledge and Behavior." Norwegian children had to study the Lutheran catechism and explanations of the Bible. They had to read and recite from memory certain portions of these, and the pastor determined the youngster's grades. For example, maadelig likely meant "reasonable" or "moderate" knowledge, while god meant "good." The children's records indicate that Vetle's kundskab (knowledge) was maadelig, and that Karen's opforsel (behavior) was god. The sixth column tells us that she'd received her smallpox vaccination from E. Evindsen on May 30, 1829, when she was eight.
Losjenger Vetle Torjussen, 25, married Inderste Karen Frantsdatter, 19, at Kviteseid kirke on November 11, 1839. Losjenger identified a vagrant, or a person with no fixed home, so it seems that Vetle wasn't in the best of financial circumstances. He wasn't alone in that regard. Inderste (innerst) signifies that Karen was a lodger at Bukaasa farm, where her father had passed away several months before. The granddaughter of the renowned fiddle-maker, Karl Rue, as well as the rest of her family, apparently had fallen on difficult economic times. The marriage record tells us that he was born at Lien (Lii) and lived on Brekke, and that she was from Bukaasen farm. Their fathers' names are listed, as well as the witnesses: Tarje Drengsen Lundeberg and Carl Frantsen Bukaasen, Karen's brother-in-law and brother.
Vetle and Karen were romantically involved by 1839. On her wedding day, Karen was five months' pregnant. Their baby was delivered February 28, 1840, at Brekke farm. He was christened Torjus, after his farfar, his father's father, or paternal grandfather. Sadly, the baby died at eleven months, on January 30, 1841. He was buried on the 11th of February at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. On October 16, 1841, another son arrived. He was named Torjus, in honor of his deceased brother. Vetle and Karen ultimately had six children: Torjus (died in infancy), Torjus, Anne Karine Vetleson (married Hans Martinsen Indahl), Frants, and twins, Carolina (Kari) and Ole (died young).
A significant increase in Norwegian emigration occurred in the early 1840s. In Norwegian Migration to America, Theodore Blegen wrote, "(e)migration interest was flaming in Telemarken and Numedal especially." People between the ages of twenty and thirty made up a large proportion of those emigrants, causing the great Norwegian nationalist poet, Henrik Wergeland, to rage in 1843: "The emigration frenzy (is) precisely the word for this desire to emigrate to America, which like a general epidemic has swept over large sections of our country. It is the most dangerous disease of our time, a bleeding of the Fatherland, a true frenzy, because those whom it seizes follow neither their own nor others' reason, disdain arguments and examples, give up the present for a still more threatening, dark future, and let themselves be driven by it into the vortex of that future's unknown sufferings." Another writer asked, "What, in God's name, is it that draws the phlegmatic Northman over to the New World?" But such agonized pleas for a halt to emigration lacked sufficient force for most young and middle-aged Norwegians, who saw the bleakest of futures for themselves if they stayed in Norway. Crushing famines, increasingly smaller farms, and economic woes ensured that. Norwegian newspaper articles and "America letters" written by immigrants to the folks in the homeland heralded glorious possibilities in the United States. By the 1840s, ship owners advertised their plans for emigrant voyages. Professor Blegen continued: "In November 1842, newspapers announced that Hans Gasmann had sold his gaard (farm) and mill for seventy-five hundred specie dollars in preparation for emigration. The people talk of nothing but America,' said a Laurvig news item, and artisans and others are busy taking lessons in English.' "The emigration desire in this vicinity and in Telemarken is so great,' it was reported from Skien, "that if it is realized (then) many vessels will be employed next spring in carrying the emigrants from here.' Another Skien item mentions the arrival at the local post office of some fifty letters from "Telemarkian emigrants' in America. Ship owners advertised extensively in the newspapers their plans for emigrant voyages."
Vetle, Karen, and their toddler, Torjus, were about to book passage on one of them. The promise of America beckoned, and Vetle and Karen made their decision to emigrate. Kviteseid's Udflyttede record indicates that they and young Torjus received their emigration certificates on Monday, May 1, 1843. At the time, they lived on Rollefstad gard on the larger Softestad farm in Kviteseid. Karen might've been early into her third pregnancy.
Others of her family also prepared to leave Kviteseid. Her oldest sister, Elen Marie Frantsdatter, with husband Tarje Drengsen and their children, Dreng, Sigrid, Hans, and Ole, got their certificates on the same day as did Vetle's family. Tarje and Elen Marie lived on Lundeberg gard on Syftestad. Imagine the two husbands, " brothers-in-law," hiking down the hills and then getting onto large rowboats to travel down the Sundkilen and Kviteseidvatnet to the gamle kirke to ask the pastor for his permission to leave. But Tarje and Elen Marie never made the planned voyage to America. On the record, shown here, is the pastor's note: "Denne familie wendte tilbage fra Frankrig..." In English: "this family went back from France." For some reason, they'd returned home from Le Havre, France. The parents and most of the children never went to America. Karen's younger sister, Kirsti Frantsdatter, husband Carl Olsen Nykaas, and their youngsters, Frants and Elen Maria, received their certificates on May 9, 1843. A day later, another older sister, Birgit Frantsdatter, husband Harald Olsen Kilen, and sons Olaf and Frants, got theirs. Finally, on May 15, 1843, Karen's widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, and the rest of her children, Gunild, Guro, and Hans, all from Bukaasa farm, obtained their certificates.
Which sailing ship carried Vetle, Karen, and Torjus? We'll never know with certainty, but one very likely candidate is the vessel, Tecumseh. Vetle and Karen packed their belongings and used waterways to travel nearly 80 kilometers southeast, until they reached the town of Skien. A small ship would've taken them several kilometers down the Skiensfjord to the port of Porsgrunn, where more passengers boarded. From there, our ancestors were taken to Le Havre, France, where they awaited passage to America onboard a larger sailing ship. But why is Tecumseh such a promising choice?As shown previously, Kviteseid's Udflyttede lists the dates on which people obtained their attester, or emigration certificates. The register indicates that 193 people received certificates in 1843. Of those, 177 professed to be headed for America. Back then, people usually left Kviteseid from the ports at Skien and Porsgrunn. With a few exceptions, they then traveled along the Skagerrak, onto the North Sea, then into the English Channel to Le Havre, before departing for New York. During the period after Vetle received his certificate, they traveled aboard these sailing ships:Washington, Salvator, Winterflid, Lorena, Venskabet, Familien, Uncas, Kong Carl Johan, Tuskina, Tecumseh, Aeolus, and Argo. Passenger lists from these ships were scoured on Ancestry.com for Vetle, Karen, and Torjus, but to no avail.
We know that members of Karen's family, including her widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, went to Le Havre, France, before sailing for New York. Kari's daughter Kirsti's family left on the Argo, pulling into the port of New York on July 26, 1843. Kari and young son Hans, with Kari's daughter Birgit's family, sailed aboard the Tecumseh. They arrived in New York on August 8, 1843. But where were Kari's daughter Karen, son-in-law Vetle, and grandson Torjus? Passenger lists from the two ships were searched to find that family. The Argo list shows 390 passengers. Yet the list from the Tecumseh has just 42 names. Could a page or more of that document be missing? Yes. At least one, and probably more are lost. The next year, the Tecumseh sailed from Le Havre to New York, arriving on June 9. Its passenger list had 155 names and included the important first page, listing the ship's name, captain, and other important information. The Tecumseh also came to New York from Liverpool on May 31, 1836. That year's list, including the important first page, had 157 names. We know that the first page is missing from the Tecumseh's 1843 list. Vetle, Karen, and Torjus were almost certainly on the same ship that carried her mother, brother, and sister's family to America.
After their arrival at New York City, Vetle, Karen, and Torjus took the usual route for that period. They traveled by steamship up the Hudson River to Troy, above Albany, a "short" trip normally accomplished in less than ten hours. They disembarked, and their baggage was weighed and loaded onto a canal boat on the Erie Canal. For eight to nine days, the flat barge was pulled slowly by a team of horses. They moved along the 360-mile canal until they reached Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie. A lake steamship ferried them across the Great Lakes to the small city of Milwaukee. The last leg of their odyssey was likely made using ox-drawn wagons. From Milwaukee, they ventured nearly 50 miles southwest, until they arrived at the Skoponong settlement in LaGrange township, Walworth County, Wisconsin. In this Norwegian settlement, they joined others of Karen's extended family.
American citizenship was a coveted prize for America's immigrants. Not only did the process give them an American identity, but it allowed them to purchase land. The naturalization process was straightforward. An immigrant made a "declaration of intention" to become a citizen. This was called signing "first papers." Then, usually after a five-year wait, the applicant could petition for citizenship papers. Vetle signed his first papers at the District Court of Walworth County on November 22, 1845. Because he couldn't read or write, Vetle "made his mark," signing the document with an "X." The clerk, as did others who heard his very unusual name, misspelled it, "Waitley Toryurson." He cited his 1814 birth in Norway, renounced allegiance to the Government of Norway, and claimed that he'd landed at the port of New York "on or about the month of October in the year eighteen hundred and forty-three." Once his first papers were signed, Vetle could purchase land. Soon, he and others of Karen's family did so, in La Grange Township. A land record indicates that "W. Torurson" sold to Carl Olsen the west half of the southwest quarter of section 8 in the township. This was very likely his brother-in-law, Carl Nykaas Olsen, whose family also lived in the Skoponong settlement. The 80 acres were sold by warranty deed, and the transaction was recorded on October 25, 1847, so Vetle must've bought this property sometime between signing his first papers in 1845 and late 1847.
Shortly after their arrival in La Grange, probably on January 1, 1844. Karen gave birth to a girl, Anne Karine Vetleson. In 1845, she delivered another son, named Frants after her father. On or about April 5, 1846, baby Carolina (Kari) arrived. No Skoponong church records for the mid-1840s exist. However, the 1846 and 1847 Wisconsin Territorial Census records provide some insight into the family. In both reports, the family consisted of six people, three males and three females. The head of household is spelled "W. Torusen" in the 1846 census and "Wettle T----n" in the 1847 report. The last name in the 1847 census is badly faded; however, its placement alongside the same Olson and Kittleson families in both censuses provides support that the family is ours. The 1846 census was conducted on May 30, 1846, so we can logically assume that the family on that date consisted of Vetle and Karen and their four children: Torjus, Anne, Frants, and Kari.
Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and ague fever plagued the early Walworth County settlers, and many of them succumbed. Sadly, Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was among them. Our immigrant mother of four hadn't reached her thirtieth birthday. The 1847 census was taken December 1, 1847. Vetle, in need of a mother for his five children, remarried on January 23, 1850. It's most likely that Karen died in 1848. The small Skoponong cemetery is in Palmyra township in Jefferson County. Karen is almost certainly buried there, though her grave marker surely has been lost. Cemetery records for graveyards in and around the area were also checked, but without success.
Vetle, "Wickery Toleson" in the civil record, married Marthe Halvorsdatter on January 23, 1850, in La Grange. Born August 29, 1818, on Svensoe farm in Bo parish, Telemark, Marthe left Norway for America in May 1844. The 1850 census was conducted in August. It shows "Watteley Thurstin," Marthe, and five children, Torjus (9), Anne (6), Frantz (5), and the twins, Carolina (Kari, 3) and Ole (3).
Vetle's family apparently left the Skoponong settlement in the spring of 1851. Recall that Vetle and Marthe's family lived at La Grange, Wisconsin, in August 1850, when the census was taken. Lutheran church records show that their first daughter, Ingeborg, was born November 1, 1851, and was baptized July 28, 1852, in the home of Randine Larsdatter in Springfield, Iowa. All subsequent census reports confirm Ingeborg's place of birth as Iowa.
Vetle and Marthe probably joined that group of family members who packed their belongings into wagons and set out for Winneshiek County in northeastern Iowa. A similar journey, made the previous year, was described by Abraham Jacobson in Past and Present of Winneshiek County Iowa. The vehicles they used were an assortment of shapes and sizes, he wrote. The large wheels of the truck-wagons were constructed of solid sections of oak logs. Provisions also were stowed into smaller two-wheel carts. Men drove the oxen, while some people, depending on their health, walked alongside or rode in the wagon. The roughly 200-mile trip to Iowa took nearly five weeks. Some slept at night under the wagons' covers, while others took refuge underneath the wagons on bare ground. A small ferry boat, with paddle wheels powered by a horse on a treadmill, allowed the wagons and oxen to traverse the Wisconsin River. One wagon and team were taken per crossing, and the herd of loose cattle had to swim to ford the river. Upon reaching the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a larger ferry, powered by four mules, was needed to cross. They then traveled northwest, until they reached Winneshiek County.
Within a couple years, Vetle and Marthe began buying farmland in Springfield township, south of the growing city of Decorah. The township was a primarily Norwegian settlement just east of Calmar township, where Vetle's former in-laws settled in 1853. Springfield is twenty miles south of Minnesota and about thirty miles west of the Mississippi. Its name comes from the numerous fresh streams and springs within its boundaries. Its rolling prairie hills contained rich, fertile soil, interspersed with tree groves to provide much-needed timber.
Before 1848, the only inhabitants of this portion of Iowa were Winnebago Indians, soldiers at Fort Atkinson, and a handful of white squatters. Fort Atkinson was built in 1840 to keep the Winnebagos on the Neutral Ground, a 40-mile-wide strip established by the Treaty of 1830, after they were relocated from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1840. The fort was used to protect the Winnebagos from the Sioux, Sauk, and Fox tribes who also inhabited the area, as well as from white intruders on Native American land. The Winnebagos reluctantly ceded "all claim to land" on October 13, 1846, and they were given a tract of land in Long Prairie, Minnesota. This was a place that was selected by the chiefs, but which dissatisfied many in the tribe. Once these and other Native Americans had been removed from their ancient homes, the United States government proceeded to sell their land to the white settlers.
The first Norwegians built their homes around Springfield in June 1850, and more Norwegians arrived from Wisconsin in July of that year. Land records indicate that Vetle first bought 40 acres from the U.S. government, in the northeast quarter of section 28 in Springfield, on October 27, 1853. On April 11, 1854, nearly nine years after signing his first papers in Wisconsin, Vetle appeared at the courthouse at Decorah and was granted American citizenship. He then added an adjacent 40 acres in section 28, buying them from the government on May 4, 1854. On March 23, 1855, Vetle purchased 40 more acres from a rich land speculator, Horatio W. Sanford. This parcel consisted of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter in section 28. These purchases gave Vetle a 120-acre farm, comprising a goodly portion of the north half of the section 28 in Springfield. At some point, Vetle must've acquired property in the southwest quarter of section 21, immediately north of his section 28 property. The land record verifying the date of that purchase couldn't be located.
Vetle's farm was a productive one. The 1856 Iowa state census says that "Wakly Torrisson" was 41, a naturalized voter, in the militia, and had lived five years in the state of Iowa. The family consisted of Martha (38), Torris (Torjus,15), Ann (12), Caroline (Kari, 9), Catharine (Ingeborg, 5), Emily (Karen Kristin, 3) and Francis (Frank, 0, an infant). The last three of these were Marthe's children. Two of Vetle's sons, Frants and Ole (who would've been about 11 and 10, respectively), were in the 1850 census but weren't listed in this one. The boys had died in Wisconsin, or else in Iowa. As was the case with most farmers, Vetle grew wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes, and had cows for making butter.
In the 1860 census, Vetle's name was spelled "Weekly Turison." The family remained at Springfield, where their real estate was valued at $1600 and their personal property at $1000. Both figures were slightly above those of many of their immigrant neighbors. The names of the children were Toris (Torjus, 18), Anna (16), Caroline (Kari, 13), Isabella (Ingeborg, 8), Claura (Karin, 6), Frank (3), and Oliver (Halvor, 6 months). Rev. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first resident Norwegian Lutheran clergyman west of the Mississippi River. Fresh out of the University of Christiania (Oslo), he brought his bride to Springfield in 1853, where they lived in a log cabin that doubled as a home and a place of worship. The energetic and popular pastor organized the first Norwegian Lutheran congregation at Springfield and its adjoining townships in the summer of 1853. Vetle's family were original members of the congregation at Washington Prairie. Rev. Koren was a fixture in mid-western Norwegian Lutheran circles for decades. He served as the president of the Norwegian Synod, a function like that of a bishop, until his death in December 1910. Rev. Koren helped pave the way for the Luther College to procure a permanent site in the city of Decorah. He was the man who baptized, confirmed, and later married several of Vetle's children - including the marriage of Anne Karine Vetleson to Hans Martinsen Indahl in December 1868.
Vetle and Martha "Torgerson" farmed at Springfield when the 1870 census was conducted. The farm's land value was appraised at $5000 and their personal property at $820, figures at or above many of their neighbors. The family included Ingeborg (18), Karen (17), Frantz (14), and Halvor (10). A baby girl named Gunhild had been born in 1861, but she died soon afterward. Another daughter, also named Gunhild, was born in September 1864, and was five at the time of the census. In 1866, a Norwegian immigrant named Hans Martinsen Indahl arrived at Springfield. The 26-year-old farm laborer was charmed by Vetle's eldest daughter, Anne, and he married her in the winter of 1868. They and their one-year-old baby, Mina Nathalia, lived in a small dwelling alongside Vetle's cabin.
Cheap farmland in Minnesota became available at the expense of Native Americans. A long series of treaties signed in 1805, 1825, 1837, 1847, 1851, 1854, 1855, 1858, 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1867, resulted in the cession of Indian land to the U.S. Government. Tribes, including the Winnebago, Dakota (Sioux), and Chippewa (Ojibwa), had given up their ancient homes and were relocated onto reservations. White settlers poured into the region to homestead or to purchase land, and lumbering and farming began in earnest. Vetle and Marthe became a part of this movement after they sold the last of their Springfield farm, 120 acres in sections 28 and 21, to Ole Halvorsen for $4,200 on August 20, 1874. Then, as did so many Norwegian immigrants, they moved into Otter Tail County, Minnesota.
Otter Tail County was a primitive place in 1874. The county was established in 1858 but wasn't organized until 1868. By 1870, the population barely touched 2,000. An 1874 map shows that railroad tracks had been laid through the county and that one branch passed through Tumuli, a township incorporated in 1869. Although they'd given up their native homes and been relocated onto reservations as the result of various treaties, the Ojibwa and Dakota, bitter enemies for decades, sometimes were encountered by white settlers. These meetings were invariably peaceful, despite an occasional story like the one in which a hungry Indian shot a farmer's steer for its meat. Otter Tail's rolling hills were roughly two-thirds forested and one-third native prairie at the time white settlement began. Hunting in the forests and on the prairies, and fishing in the county's pristine lakes, were both excellent. The whites who inhabited and farmed Tumuli were nearly all of Norwegian descent, and wheat was their primary crop.
When Vetle arrived in 1874, Otter Tail farmers faced a more formidable foe than any wicked winter blast, scorching summer, or poor band of Indians could provide, the Rocky Mountain locust. From 1873 to 1877, enormous swarms of these insects invaded the Great Plains. Western Minnesota, including Otter Tail County, was particularly hard-hit. The pests devoured nearly anything edible in their paths, including wheat crops, which they quickly reduced to stubble.
On September 15, 1874, amid the wicked infestation, Vetle walked into the Land Office in Fergus Falls. He'd come up from his home in Iowa to buy a 160-acre farm from John Johnson in Tumuli township. Vetle did so, by warranty deed, paying $1600. The farm occupied the southeast quarter of section 1, about a mile northeast of tiny Dalton village, shown on an 1884 plat map. Many Norwegian settlers called Tumuli home. Vetle farmed and Marthe Halvorsdatter Torgerson kept house and raised the children there, until her death at age 60, on September 3, 1878.On April 30, 1878, some months before Marthe's death, Vetle Torgerson, an Americanized version of his last name, purchased additional land in the northwest quarter of section 1. He paid Ole and Karolina Simonsen $750 for parcels totaling 139.30 acres, which he then transferred to his son, Frantz (Frank) Vetleson.
Vetle was a widower for the second time. Still spry at 65, he returned to his old home in Norway and married for the third time, on March 5, 1880. On this occasion, his bride's name was Aase Jensdatter. Though she was born in Kviteseid, she was only twenty-three, much to the dismay of some of his grown children, according to family lore.
The newlyweds boarded the large German steamship Hohenstaufen at Christiania (Oslo) on May 20, 1880, and arrived at the port of New York on the 4th of June. The trip took 15 days. What a difference steam travel made over the old sailing ships of 1843! They returned to his farm in Minnesota, this time by railroad instead of ox-cart, and the pair settled permanently on his farmstead at Tumuli.
In the 1880 census, Vetle lived at Tumuli with 23-year-old Aase (pronounced OH-seh) and his son, Halvor, who by this time was twenty and nearly as old as his step-mother. With Aase, Vetle had six more children, including twins Jens and Martha (died three days after her first birthday), Ida Marie, Ingebor Emma, Torgus, and Carl Oscar Vetleson. Carl was born in 1889, when Vetle was 74! In all, he fathered 18 documented children, six with each of his three Norwegian wives.
Vetle became ill in the winter of 1893. The sickness progressed over the course of a couple weeks, and he finally succumbed to it on the evening of January 17, 1893. Vetle Torjussen (Torgerson) was seventy-eight at the time of his death. An obituary was written in Ugeblad, a Norwegian-language paper in Fergus Falls. Its translation: "Vetle Torjusson, who lives near Dalton, Pastor Vetleson's father, died last Tuesday evening at 82 years of age, after a 2-3 weeks sickness. He leaves a wife of a 3rd marriage and five small children in poor circumstances. Torjusson undoubtedly died where he had lived for about 16-17 years. He was from Telemark in Norway." [Note: the age given in the obituary is incorrect, as Vetle was 78 years old at the time of his death].
Vetle was buried a couple miles southeast of Dalton in St. Olaf Cemetery. Burial records for St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church tell us that his funeral was held on January 26, 1893. The small cemetery is about three miles south of the family’s farm. Although no marker can be found, it should be noted that parishioners with names listed in the burial record above and below Vetle’s name have tombstones in the cemetery—including Olina Dahl, whose funeral was just eight days before Vetle’s.
When he was a child, Vetle's family moved to nearby Brekke gard. Sixteen-year-old Vetle Torjussen Brekke was confirmed at Kviteseid kirke on October 16, 1831. His confirmation record says that he'd been vaccinated against smallpox on November 16, 1818, by a man named Bjornsen. The British physician Edward Jenner had performed his first vaccination in 1796, and this critical health practice initially occurred in Norway in December 1801. Soon, all Norwegian children over the age of one were required to be vaccinated. Vetle was four when he received his inoculation. The procedure was so important that proof of vaccination was required for events such as confirmations, weddings, and emigration.
Among the girls who were confirmed that year was Birgit Frantsdatter, the older sister of Karen Kristine Frantsdatter, Vetle's future wife. Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was born in the Kilen area of Kviteseid on October 22, 1820, and was baptized November 26, 1820, at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. She was the fifth of Frants Carlsen Rui and Kari Olsdatter Overland's ten children.
When Karen was sixteen, she was ready for her confirmation. She was a member of the girls confirmation class at Brunkeberg kirke on November 20, 1836. Karen's baptism and confirmation records are available. The fifth column of her confirmation record is marked Dom angaaende Kundskab op Opforsel, which contains the pastor's "Judgement regarding Knowledge and Behavior." Norwegian children had to study the Lutheran catechism and explanations of the Bible. They had to read and recite from memory certain portions of these, and the pastor determined the youngster's grades. For example, maadelig likely meant "reasonable" or "moderate" knowledge, while god meant "good." The children's records indicate that Vetle's kundskab (knowledge) was maadelig, and that Karen's opforsel (behavior) was god. The sixth column tells us that she'd received her smallpox vaccination from E. Evindsen on May 30, 1829, when she was eight.
Losjenger Vetle Torjussen, 25, married Inderste Karen Frantsdatter, 19, at Kviteseid kirke on November 11, 1839. Losjenger identified a vagrant, or a person with no fixed home, so it seems that Vetle wasn't in the best of financial circumstances. He wasn't alone in that regard. Inderste (innerst) signifies that Karen was a lodger at Bukaasa farm, where her father had passed away several months before. The granddaughter of the renowned fiddle-maker, Karl Rue, as well as the rest of her family, apparently had fallen on difficult economic times. The marriage record tells us that he was born at Lien (Lii) and lived on Brekke, and that she was from Bukaasen farm. Their fathers' names are listed, as well as the witnesses: Tarje Drengsen Lundeberg and Carl Frantsen Bukaasen, Karen's brother-in-law and brother.
Vetle and Karen were romantically involved by 1839. On her wedding day, Karen was five months' pregnant. Their baby was delivered February 28, 1840, at Brekke farm. He was christened Torjus, after his farfar, his father's father, or paternal grandfather. Sadly, the baby died at eleven months, on January 30, 1841. He was buried on the 11th of February at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. On October 16, 1841, another son arrived. He was named Torjus, in honor of his deceased brother. Vetle and Karen ultimately had six children: Torjus (died in infancy), Torjus, Anne Karine Vetleson (married Hans Martinsen Indahl), Frants, and twins, Carolina (Kari) and Ole (died young).
A significant increase in Norwegian emigration occurred in the early 1840s. In Norwegian Migration to America, Theodore Blegen wrote, "(e)migration interest was flaming in Telemarken and Numedal especially." People between the ages of twenty and thirty made up a large proportion of those emigrants, causing the great Norwegian nationalist poet, Henrik Wergeland, to rage in 1843: "The emigration frenzy (is) precisely the word for this desire to emigrate to America, which like a general epidemic has swept over large sections of our country. It is the most dangerous disease of our time, a bleeding of the Fatherland, a true frenzy, because those whom it seizes follow neither their own nor others' reason, disdain arguments and examples, give up the present for a still more threatening, dark future, and let themselves be driven by it into the vortex of that future's unknown sufferings." Another writer asked, "What, in God's name, is it that draws the phlegmatic Northman over to the New World?" But such agonized pleas for a halt to emigration lacked sufficient force for most young and middle-aged Norwegians, who saw the bleakest of futures for themselves if they stayed in Norway. Crushing famines, increasingly smaller farms, and economic woes ensured that. Norwegian newspaper articles and "America letters" written by immigrants to the folks in the homeland heralded glorious possibilities in the United States. By the 1840s, ship owners advertised their plans for emigrant voyages. Professor Blegen continued: "In November 1842, newspapers announced that Hans Gasmann had sold his gaard (farm) and mill for seventy-five hundred specie dollars in preparation for emigration. The people talk of nothing but America,' said a Laurvig news item, and artisans and others are busy taking lessons in English.' "The emigration desire in this vicinity and in Telemarken is so great,' it was reported from Skien, "that if it is realized (then) many vessels will be employed next spring in carrying the emigrants from here.' Another Skien item mentions the arrival at the local post office of some fifty letters from "Telemarkian emigrants' in America. Ship owners advertised extensively in the newspapers their plans for emigrant voyages."
Vetle, Karen, and their toddler, Torjus, were about to book passage on one of them. The promise of America beckoned, and Vetle and Karen made their decision to emigrate. Kviteseid's Udflyttede record indicates that they and young Torjus received their emigration certificates on Monday, May 1, 1843. At the time, they lived on Rollefstad gard on the larger Softestad farm in Kviteseid. Karen might've been early into her third pregnancy.
Others of her family also prepared to leave Kviteseid. Her oldest sister, Elen Marie Frantsdatter, with husband Tarje Drengsen and their children, Dreng, Sigrid, Hans, and Ole, got their certificates on the same day as did Vetle's family. Tarje and Elen Marie lived on Lundeberg gard on Syftestad. Imagine the two husbands, " brothers-in-law," hiking down the hills and then getting onto large rowboats to travel down the Sundkilen and Kviteseidvatnet to the gamle kirke to ask the pastor for his permission to leave. But Tarje and Elen Marie never made the planned voyage to America. On the record, shown here, is the pastor's note: "Denne familie wendte tilbage fra Frankrig..." In English: "this family went back from France." For some reason, they'd returned home from Le Havre, France. The parents and most of the children never went to America. Karen's younger sister, Kirsti Frantsdatter, husband Carl Olsen Nykaas, and their youngsters, Frants and Elen Maria, received their certificates on May 9, 1843. A day later, another older sister, Birgit Frantsdatter, husband Harald Olsen Kilen, and sons Olaf and Frants, got theirs. Finally, on May 15, 1843, Karen's widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, and the rest of her children, Gunild, Guro, and Hans, all from Bukaasa farm, obtained their certificates.
Which sailing ship carried Vetle, Karen, and Torjus? We'll never know with certainty, but one very likely candidate is the vessel, Tecumseh. Vetle and Karen packed their belongings and used waterways to travel nearly 80 kilometers southeast, until they reached the town of Skien. A small ship would've taken them several kilometers down the Skiensfjord to the port of Porsgrunn, where more passengers boarded. From there, our ancestors were taken to Le Havre, France, where they awaited passage to America onboard a larger sailing ship. But why is Tecumseh such a promising choice?As shown previously, Kviteseid's Udflyttede lists the dates on which people obtained their attester, or emigration certificates. The register indicates that 193 people received certificates in 1843. Of those, 177 professed to be headed for America. Back then, people usually left Kviteseid from the ports at Skien and Porsgrunn. With a few exceptions, they then traveled along the Skagerrak, onto the North Sea, then into the English Channel to Le Havre, before departing for New York. During the period after Vetle received his certificate, they traveled aboard these sailing ships:Washington, Salvator, Winterflid, Lorena, Venskabet, Familien, Uncas, Kong Carl Johan, Tuskina, Tecumseh, Aeolus, and Argo. Passenger lists from these ships were scoured on Ancestry.com for Vetle, Karen, and Torjus, but to no avail.
We know that members of Karen's family, including her widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, went to Le Havre, France, before sailing for New York. Kari's daughter Kirsti's family left on the Argo, pulling into the port of New York on July 26, 1843. Kari and young son Hans, with Kari's daughter Birgit's family, sailed aboard the Tecumseh. They arrived in New York on August 8, 1843. But where were Kari's daughter Karen, son-in-law Vetle, and grandson Torjus? Passenger lists from the two ships were searched to find that family. The Argo list shows 390 passengers. Yet the list from the Tecumseh has just 42 names. Could a page or more of that document be missing? Yes. At least one, and probably more are lost. The next year, the Tecumseh sailed from Le Havre to New York, arriving on June 9. Its passenger list had 155 names and included the important first page, listing the ship's name, captain, and other important information. The Tecumseh also came to New York from Liverpool on May 31, 1836. That year's list, including the important first page, had 157 names. We know that the first page is missing from the Tecumseh's 1843 list. Vetle, Karen, and Torjus were almost certainly on the same ship that carried her mother, brother, and sister's family to America.
After their arrival at New York City, Vetle, Karen, and Torjus took the usual route for that period. They traveled by steamship up the Hudson River to Troy, above Albany, a "short" trip normally accomplished in less than ten hours. They disembarked, and their baggage was weighed and loaded onto a canal boat on the Erie Canal. For eight to nine days, the flat barge was pulled slowly by a team of horses. They moved along the 360-mile canal until they reached Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie. A lake steamship ferried them across the Great Lakes to the small city of Milwaukee. The last leg of their odyssey was likely made using ox-drawn wagons. From Milwaukee, they ventured nearly 50 miles southwest, until they arrived at the Skoponong settlement in LaGrange township, Walworth County, Wisconsin. In this Norwegian settlement, they joined others of Karen's extended family.
American citizenship was a coveted prize for America's immigrants. Not only did the process give them an American identity, but it allowed them to purchase land. The naturalization process was straightforward. An immigrant made a "declaration of intention" to become a citizen. This was called signing "first papers." Then, usually after a five-year wait, the applicant could petition for citizenship papers. Vetle signed his first papers at the District Court of Walworth County on November 22, 1845. Because he couldn't read or write, Vetle "made his mark," signing the document with an "X." The clerk, as did others who heard his very unusual name, misspelled it, "Waitley Toryurson." He cited his 1814 birth in Norway, renounced allegiance to the Government of Norway, and claimed that he'd landed at the port of New York "on or about the month of October in the year eighteen hundred and forty-three." Once his first papers were signed, Vetle could purchase land. Soon, he and others of Karen's family did so, in La Grange Township. A land record indicates that "W. Torurson" sold to Carl Olsen the west half of the southwest quarter of section 8 in the township. This was very likely his brother-in-law, Carl Nykaas Olsen, whose family also lived in the Skoponong settlement. The 80 acres were sold by warranty deed, and the transaction was recorded on October 25, 1847, so Vetle must've bought this property sometime between signing his first papers in 1845 and late 1847.
Shortly after their arrival in La Grange, probably on January 1, 1844. Karen gave birth to a girl, Anne Karine Vetleson. In 1845, she delivered another son, named Frants after her father. On or about April 5, 1846, baby Carolina (Kari) arrived. No Skoponong church records for the mid-1840s exist. However, the 1846 and 1847 Wisconsin Territorial Census records provide some insight into the family. In both reports, the family consisted of six people, three males and three females. The head of household is spelled "W. Torusen" in the 1846 census and "Wettle T----n" in the 1847 report. The last name in the 1847 census is badly faded; however, its placement alongside the same Olson and Kittleson families in both censuses provides support that the family is ours. The 1846 census was conducted on May 30, 1846, so we can logically assume that the family on that date consisted of Vetle and Karen and their four children: Torjus, Anne, Frants, and Kari.
Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and ague fever plagued the early Walworth County settlers, and many of them succumbed. Sadly, Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was among them. Our immigrant mother of four hadn't reached her thirtieth birthday. The 1847 census was taken December 1, 1847. Vetle, in need of a mother for his five children, remarried on January 23, 1850. It's most likely that Karen died in 1848. The small Skoponong cemetery is in Palmyra township in Jefferson County. Karen is almost certainly buried there, though her grave marker surely has been lost. Cemetery records for graveyards in and around the area were also checked, but without success.
Vetle, "Wickery Toleson" in the civil record, married Marthe Halvorsdatter on January 23, 1850, in La Grange. Born August 29, 1818, on Svensoe farm in Bo parish, Telemark, Marthe left Norway for America in May 1844. The 1850 census was conducted in August. It shows "Watteley Thurstin," Marthe, and five children, Torjus (9), Anne (6), Frantz (5), and the twins, Carolina (Kari, 3) and Ole (3).
Vetle's family apparently left the Skoponong settlement in the spring of 1851. Recall that Vetle and Marthe's family lived at La Grange, Wisconsin, in August 1850, when the census was taken. Lutheran church records show that their first daughter, Ingeborg, was born November 1, 1851, and was baptized July 28, 1852, in the home of Randine Larsdatter in Springfield, Iowa. All subsequent census reports confirm Ingeborg's place of birth as Iowa.
Vetle and Marthe probably joined that group of family members who packed their belongings into wagons and set out for Winneshiek County in northeastern Iowa. A similar journey, made the previous year, was described by Abraham Jacobson in Past and Present of Winneshiek County Iowa. The vehicles they used were an assortment of shapes and sizes, he wrote. The large wheels of the truck-wagons were constructed of solid sections of oak logs. Provisions also were stowed into smaller two-wheel carts. Men drove the oxen, while some people, depending on their health, walked alongside or rode in the wagon. The roughly 200-mile trip to Iowa took nearly five weeks. Some slept at night under the wagons' covers, while others took refuge underneath the wagons on bare ground. A small ferry boat, with paddle wheels powered by a horse on a treadmill, allowed the wagons and oxen to traverse the Wisconsin River. One wagon and team were taken per crossing, and the herd of loose cattle had to swim to ford the river. Upon reaching the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a larger ferry, powered by four mules, was needed to cross. They then traveled northwest, until they reached Winneshiek County.
Within a couple years, Vetle and Marthe began buying farmland in Springfield township, south of the growing city of Decorah. The township was a primarily Norwegian settlement just east of Calmar township, where Vetle's former in-laws settled in 1853. Springfield is twenty miles south of Minnesota and about thirty miles west of the Mississippi. Its name comes from the numerous fresh streams and springs within its boundaries. Its rolling prairie hills contained rich, fertile soil, interspersed with tree groves to provide much-needed timber.
Before 1848, the only inhabitants of this portion of Iowa were Winnebago Indians, soldiers at Fort Atkinson, and a handful of white squatters. Fort Atkinson was built in 1840 to keep the Winnebagos on the Neutral Ground, a 40-mile-wide strip established by the Treaty of 1830, after they were relocated from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1840. The fort was used to protect the Winnebagos from the Sioux, Sauk, and Fox tribes who also inhabited the area, as well as from white intruders on Native American land. The Winnebagos reluctantly ceded "all claim to land" on October 13, 1846, and they were given a tract of land in Long Prairie, Minnesota. This was a place that was selected by the chiefs, but which dissatisfied many in the tribe. Once these and other Native Americans had been removed from their ancient homes, the United States government proceeded to sell their land to the white settlers.
The first Norwegians built their homes around Springfield in June 1850, and more Norwegians arrived from Wisconsin in July of that year. Land records indicate that Vetle first bought 40 acres from the U.S. government, in the northeast quarter of section 28 in Springfield, on October 27, 1853. On April 11, 1854, nearly nine years after signing his first papers in Wisconsin, Vetle appeared at the courthouse at Decorah and was granted American citizenship. He then added an adjacent 40 acres in section 28, buying them from the government on May 4, 1854. On March 23, 1855, Vetle purchased 40 more acres from a rich land speculator, Horatio W. Sanford. This parcel consisted of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter in section 28. These purchases gave Vetle a 120-acre farm, comprising a goodly portion of the north half of the section 28 in Springfield. At some point, Vetle must've acquired property in the southwest quarter of section 21, immediately north of his section 28 property. The land record verifying the date of that purchase couldn't be located.
Vetle's farm was a productive one. The 1856 Iowa state census says that "Wakly Torrisson" was 41, a naturalized voter, in the militia, and had lived five years in the state of Iowa. The family consisted of Martha (38), Torris (Torjus,15), Ann (12), Caroline (Kari, 9), Catharine (Ingeborg, 5), Emily (Karen Kristin, 3) and Francis (Frank, 0, an infant). The last three of these were Marthe's children. Two of Vetle's sons, Frants and Ole (who would've been about 11 and 10, respectively), were in the 1850 census but weren't listed in this one. The boys had died in Wisconsin, or else in Iowa. As was the case with most farmers, Vetle grew wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes, and had cows for making butter.
In the 1860 census, Vetle's name was spelled "Weekly Turison." The family remained at Springfield, where their real estate was valued at $1600 and their personal property at $1000. Both figures were slightly above those of many of their immigrant neighbors. The names of the children were Toris (Torjus, 18), Anna (16), Caroline (Kari, 13), Isabella (Ingeborg, 8), Claura (Karin, 6), Frank (3), and Oliver (Halvor, 6 months). Rev. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first resident Norwegian Lutheran clergyman west of the Mississippi River. Fresh out of the University of Christiania (Oslo), he brought his bride to Springfield in 1853, where they lived in a log cabin that doubled as a home and a place of worship. The energetic and popular pastor organized the first Norwegian Lutheran congregation at Springfield and its adjoining townships in the summer of 1853. Vetle's family were original members of the congregation at Washington Prairie. Rev. Koren was a fixture in mid-western Norwegian Lutheran circles for decades. He served as the president of the Norwegian Synod, a function like that of a bishop, until his death in December 1910. Rev. Koren helped pave the way for the Luther College to procure a permanent site in the city of Decorah. He was the man who baptized, confirmed, and later married several of Vetle's children - including the marriage of Anne Karine Vetleson to Hans Martinsen Indahl in December 1868.
Vetle and Martha "Torgerson" farmed at Springfield when the 1870 census was conducted. The farm's land value was appraised at $5000 and their personal property at $820, figures at or above many of their neighbors. The family included Ingeborg (18), Karen (17), Frantz (14), and Halvor (10). A baby girl named Gunhild had been born in 1861, but she died soon afterward. Another daughter, also named Gunhild, was born in September 1864, and was five at the time of the census. In 1866, a Norwegian immigrant named Hans Martinsen Indahl arrived at Springfield. The 26-year-old farm laborer was charmed by Vetle's eldest daughter, Anne, and he married her in the winter of 1868. They and their one-year-old baby, Mina Nathalia, lived in a small dwelling alongside Vetle's cabin.
Cheap farmland in Minnesota became available at the expense of Native Americans. A long series of treaties signed in 1805, 1825, 1837, 1847, 1851, 1854, 1855, 1858, 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1867, resulted in the cession of Indian land to the U.S. Government. Tribes, including the Winnebago, Dakota (Sioux), and Chippewa (Ojibwa), had given up their ancient homes and were relocated onto reservations. White settlers poured into the region to homestead or to purchase land, and lumbering and farming began in earnest. Vetle and Marthe became a part of this movement after they sold the last of their Springfield farm, 120 acres in sections 28 and 21, to Ole Halvorsen for $4,200 on August 20, 1874. Then, as did so many Norwegian immigrants, they moved into Otter Tail County, Minnesota.
Otter Tail County was a primitive place in 1874. The county was established in 1858 but wasn't organized until 1868. By 1870, the population barely touched 2,000. An 1874 map shows that railroad tracks had been laid through the county and that one branch passed through Tumuli, a township incorporated in 1869. Although they'd given up their native homes and been relocated onto reservations as the result of various treaties, the Ojibwa and Dakota, bitter enemies for decades, sometimes were encountered by white settlers. These meetings were invariably peaceful, despite an occasional story like the one in which a hungry Indian shot a farmer's steer for its meat. Otter Tail's rolling hills were roughly two-thirds forested and one-third native prairie at the time white settlement began. Hunting in the forests and on the prairies, and fishing in the county's pristine lakes, were both excellent. The whites who inhabited and farmed Tumuli were nearly all of Norwegian descent, and wheat was their primary crop.
When Vetle arrived in 1874, Otter Tail farmers faced a more formidable foe than any wicked winter blast, scorching summer, or poor band of Indians could provide, the Rocky Mountain locust. From 1873 to 1877, enormous swarms of these insects invaded the Great Plains. Western Minnesota, including Otter Tail County, was particularly hard-hit. The pests devoured nearly anything edible in their paths, including wheat crops, which they quickly reduced to stubble.
On September 15, 1874, amid the wicked infestation, Vetle walked into the Land Office in Fergus Falls. He'd come up from his home in Iowa to buy a 160-acre farm from John Johnson in Tumuli township. Vetle did so, by warranty deed, paying $1600. The farm occupied the southeast quarter of section 1, about a mile northeast of tiny Dalton village, shown on an 1884 plat map. Many Norwegian settlers called Tumuli home. Vetle farmed and Marthe Halvorsdatter Torgerson kept house and raised the children there, until her death at age 60, on September 3, 1878.On April 30, 1878, some months before Marthe's death, Vetle Torgerson, an Americanized version of his last name, purchased additional land in the northwest quarter of section 1. He paid Ole and Karolina Simonsen $750 for parcels totaling 139.30 acres, which he then transferred to his son, Frantz (Frank) Vetleson.
Vetle was a widower for the second time. Still spry at 65, he returned to his old home in Norway and married for the third time, on March 5, 1880. On this occasion, his bride's name was Aase Jensdatter. Though she was born in Kviteseid, she was only twenty-three, much to the dismay of some of his grown children, according to family lore.
The newlyweds boarded the large German steamship Hohenstaufen at Christiania (Oslo) on May 20, 1880, and arrived at the port of New York on the 4th of June. The trip took 15 days. What a difference steam travel made over the old sailing ships of 1843! They returned to his farm in Minnesota, this time by railroad instead of ox-cart, and the pair settled permanently on his farmstead at Tumuli.
In the 1880 census, Vetle lived at Tumuli with 23-year-old Aase (pronounced OH-seh) and his son, Halvor, who by this time was twenty and nearly as old as his step-mother. With Aase, Vetle had six more children, including twins Jens and Martha (died three days after her first birthday), Ida Marie, Ingebor Emma, Torgus, and Carl Oscar Vetleson. Carl was born in 1889, when Vetle was 74! In all, he fathered 18 documented children, six with each of his three Norwegian wives.
Vetle became ill in the winter of 1893. The sickness progressed over the course of a couple weeks, and he finally succumbed to it on the evening of January 17, 1893. Vetle Torjussen (Torgerson) was seventy-eight at the time of his death. An obituary was written in Ugeblad, a Norwegian-language paper in Fergus Falls. Its translation: "Vetle Torjusson, who lives near Dalton, Pastor Vetleson's father, died last Tuesday evening at 82 years of age, after a 2-3 weeks sickness. He leaves a wife of a 3rd marriage and five small children in poor circumstances. Torjusson undoubtedly died where he had lived for about 16-17 years. He was from Telemark in Norway." [Note: the age given in the obituary is incorrect, as Vetle was 78 years old at the time of his death].
Vetle was buried a couple miles southeast of Dalton in St. Olaf Cemetery. Burial records for St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church tell us that his funeral was held on January 26, 1893. The small cemetery is about three miles south of the family’s farm. Although no marker can be found, it should be noted that parishioners with names listed in the burial record above and below Vetle’s name have tombstones in the cemetery—including Olina Dahl, whose funeral was just eight days before Vetle’s.
Vetle Torjussen was the last of Torjus Vetlesen Brekke and Anne Olsdatter Rui's three children. He was born in 1814 at Lien (Lii), a small farm within the larger Uppsund area in Ovre Sundeboignden (Sundebygdi). Lii farm is between Brunkeberg and Kviteseid, south of Holtan farm. Vetle (Wetle) was baptized at Brunkeberg kirke on November 29, 1814. The church record lists his parents and the five witnesses to his baptism. Because his older sister, Anne, had died a month before his birth, Vetle grew up with just one sibling, his older brother, Ole Torjussen.
When he was a child, Vetle's family moved to nearby Brekke gard. Sixteen-year-old Vetle Torjussen Brekke was confirmed at Kviteseid kirke on October 16, 1831. His confirmation record says that he'd been vaccinated against smallpox on November 16, 1818, by a man named Bjornsen. The British physician Edward Jenner had performed his first vaccination in 1796, and this critical health practice initially occurred in Norway in December 1801. Soon, all Norwegian children over the age of one were required to be vaccinated. Vetle was four when he received his inoculation. The procedure was so important that proof of vaccination was required for events such as confirmations, weddings, and emigration.
Among the girls who were confirmed that year was Birgit Frantsdatter, the older sister of Karen Kristine Frantsdatter, Vetle's future wife. Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was born in the Kilen area of Kviteseid on October 22, 1820, and was baptized November 26, 1820, at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. She was the fifth of Frants Carlsen Rui and Kari Olsdatter Overland's ten children.
When Karen was sixteen, she was ready for her confirmation. She was a member of the girls confirmation class at Brunkeberg kirke on November 20, 1836. Karen's baptism and confirmation records are available. The fifth column of her confirmation record is marked Dom angaaende Kundskab op Opforsel, which contains the pastor's "Judgement regarding Knowledge and Behavior." Norwegian children had to study the Lutheran catechism and explanations of the Bible. They had to read and recite from memory certain portions of these, and the pastor determined the youngster's grades. For example, maadelig likely meant "reasonable" or "moderate" knowledge, while god meant "good." The children's records indicate that Vetle's kundskab (knowledge) was maadelig, and that Karen's opforsel (behavior) was god. The sixth column tells us that she'd received her smallpox vaccination from E. Evindsen on May 30, 1829, when she was eight.
Losjenger Vetle Torjussen, 25, married Inderste Karen Frantsdatter, 19, at Kviteseid kirke on November 11, 1839. Losjenger identified a vagrant, or a person with no fixed home, so it seems that Vetle wasn't in the best of financial circumstances. He wasn't alone in that regard. Inderste (innerst) signifies that Karen was a lodger at Bukaasa farm, where her father had passed away several months before. The granddaughter of the renowned fiddle-maker, Karl Rue, as well as the rest of her family, apparently had fallen on difficult economic times. The marriage record tells us that he was born at Lien (Lii) and lived on Brekke, and that she was from Bukaasen farm. Their fathers' names are listed, as well as the witnesses: Tarje Drengsen Lundeberg and Carl Frantsen Bukaasen, Karen's brother-in-law and brother.
Vetle and Karen were romantically involved by 1839. On her wedding day, Karen was five months' pregnant. Their baby was delivered February 28, 1840, at Brekke farm. He was christened Torjus, after his farfar, his father's father, or paternal grandfather. Sadly, the baby died at eleven months, on January 30, 1841. He was buried on the 11th of February at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. On October 16, 1841, another son arrived. He was named Torjus, in honor of his deceased brother. Vetle and Karen ultimately had six children: Torjus (died in infancy), Torjus, Anne Karine Vetleson (married Hans Martinsen Indahl), Frants, and twins, Carolina (Kari) and Ole (died young).
A significant increase in Norwegian emigration occurred in the early 1840s. In Norwegian Migration to America, Theodore Blegen wrote, "(e)migration interest was flaming in Telemarken and Numedal especially." People between the ages of twenty and thirty made up a large proportion of those emigrants, causing the great Norwegian nationalist poet, Henrik Wergeland, to rage in 1843: "The emigration frenzy (is) precisely the word for this desire to emigrate to America, which like a general epidemic has swept over large sections of our country. It is the most dangerous disease of our time, a bleeding of the Fatherland, a true frenzy, because those whom it seizes follow neither their own nor others' reason, disdain arguments and examples, give up the present for a still more threatening, dark future, and let themselves be driven by it into the vortex of that future's unknown sufferings." Another writer asked, "What, in God's name, is it that draws the phlegmatic Northman over to the New World?" But such agonized pleas for a halt to emigration lacked sufficient force for most young and middle-aged Norwegians, who saw the bleakest of futures for themselves if they stayed in Norway. Crushing famines, increasingly smaller farms, and economic woes ensured that. Norwegian newspaper articles and "America letters" written by immigrants to the folks in the homeland heralded glorious possibilities in the United States. By the 1840s, ship owners advertised their plans for emigrant voyages. Professor Blegen continued: "In November 1842, newspapers announced that Hans Gasmann had sold his gaard (farm) and mill for seventy-five hundred specie dollars in preparation for emigration. The people talk of nothing but America,' said a Laurvig news item, and artisans and others are busy taking lessons in English.' "The emigration desire in this vicinity and in Telemarken is so great,' it was reported from Skien, "that if it is realized (then) many vessels will be employed next spring in carrying the emigrants from here.' Another Skien item mentions the arrival at the local post office of some fifty letters from "Telemarkian emigrants' in America. Ship owners advertised extensively in the newspapers their plans for emigrant voyages."
Vetle, Karen, and their toddler, Torjus, were about to book passage on one of them. The promise of America beckoned, and Vetle and Karen made their decision to emigrate. Kviteseid's Udflyttede record indicates that they and young Torjus received their emigration certificates on Monday, May 1, 1843. At the time, they lived on Rollefstad gard on the larger Softestad farm in Kviteseid. Karen might've been early into her third pregnancy.
Others of her family also prepared to leave Kviteseid. Her oldest sister, Elen Marie Frantsdatter, with husband Tarje Drengsen and their children, Dreng, Sigrid, Hans, and Ole, got their certificates on the same day as did Vetle's family. Tarje and Elen Marie lived on Lundeberg gard on Syftestad. Imagine the two husbands, " brothers-in-law," hiking down the hills and then getting onto large rowboats to travel down the Sundkilen and Kviteseidvatnet to the gamle kirke to ask the pastor for his permission to leave. But Tarje and Elen Marie never made the planned voyage to America. On the record, shown here, is the pastor's note: "Denne familie wendte tilbage fra Frankrig..." In English: "this family went back from France." For some reason, they'd returned home from Le Havre, France. The parents and most of the children never went to America. Karen's younger sister, Kirsti Frantsdatter, husband Carl Olsen Nykaas, and their youngsters, Frants and Elen Maria, received their certificates on May 9, 1843. A day later, another older sister, Birgit Frantsdatter, husband Harald Olsen Kilen, and sons Olaf and Frants, got theirs. Finally, on May 15, 1843, Karen's widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, and the rest of her children, Gunild, Guro, and Hans, all from Bukaasa farm, obtained their certificates.
Which sailing ship carried Vetle, Karen, and Torjus? We'll never know with certainty, but one very likely candidate is the vessel, Tecumseh. Vetle and Karen packed their belongings and used waterways to travel nearly 80 kilometers southeast, until they reached the town of Skien. A small ship would've taken them several kilometers down the Skiensfjord to the port of Porsgrunn, where more passengers boarded. From there, our ancestors were taken to Le Havre, France, where they awaited passage to America onboard a larger sailing ship. But why is Tecumseh such a promising choice?As shown previously, Kviteseid's Udflyttede lists the dates on which people obtained their attester, or emigration certificates. The register indicates that 193 people received certificates in 1843. Of those, 177 professed to be headed for America. Back then, people usually left Kviteseid from the ports at Skien and Porsgrunn. With a few exceptions, they then traveled along the Skagerrak, onto the North Sea, then into the English Channel to Le Havre, before departing for New York. During the period after Vetle received his certificate, they traveled aboard these sailing ships:Washington, Salvator, Winterflid, Lorena, Venskabet, Familien, Uncas, Kong Carl Johan, Tuskina, Tecumseh, Aeolus, and Argo. Passenger lists from these ships were scoured on Ancestry.com for Vetle, Karen, and Torjus, but to no avail.
We know that members of Karen's family, including her widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, went to Le Havre, France, before sailing for New York. Kari's daughter Kirsti's family left on the Argo, pulling into the port of New York on July 26, 1843. Kari and young son Hans, with Kari's daughter Birgit's family, sailed aboard the Tecumseh. They arrived in New York on August 8, 1843. But where were Kari's daughter Karen, son-in-law Vetle, and grandson Torjus? Passenger lists from the two ships were searched to find that family. The Argo list shows 390 passengers. Yet the list from the Tecumseh has just 42 names. Could a page or more of that document be missing? Yes. At least one, and probably more are lost. The next year, the Tecumseh sailed from Le Havre to New York, arriving on June 9. Its passenger list had 155 names and included the important first page, listing the ship's name, captain, and other important information. The Tecumseh also came to New York from Liverpool on May 31, 1836. That year's list, including the important first page, had 157 names. We know that the first page is missing from the Tecumseh's 1843 list. Vetle, Karen, and Torjus were almost certainly on the same ship that carried her mother, brother, and sister's family to America.
After their arrival at New York City, Vetle, Karen, and Torjus took the usual route for that period. They traveled by steamship up the Hudson River to Troy, above Albany, a "short" trip normally accomplished in less than ten hours. They disembarked, and their baggage was weighed and loaded onto a canal boat on the Erie Canal. For eight to nine days, the flat barge was pulled slowly by a team of horses. They moved along the 360-mile canal until they reached Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie. A lake steamship ferried them across the Great Lakes to the small city of Milwaukee. The last leg of their odyssey was likely made using ox-drawn wagons. From Milwaukee, they ventured nearly 50 miles southwest, until they arrived at the Skoponong settlement in LaGrange township, Walworth County, Wisconsin. In this Norwegian settlement, they joined others of Karen's extended family.
American citizenship was a coveted prize for America's immigrants. Not only did the process give them an American identity, but it allowed them to purchase land. The naturalization process was straightforward. An immigrant made a "declaration of intention" to become a citizen. This was called signing "first papers." Then, usually after a five-year wait, the applicant could petition for citizenship papers. Vetle signed his first papers at the District Court of Walworth County on November 22, 1845. Because he couldn't read or write, Vetle "made his mark," signing the document with an "X." The clerk, as did others who heard his very unusual name, misspelled it, "Waitley Toryurson." He cited his 1814 birth in Norway, renounced allegiance to the Government of Norway, and claimed that he'd landed at the port of New York "on or about the month of October in the year eighteen hundred and forty-three." Once his first papers were signed, Vetle could purchase land. Soon, he and others of Karen's family did so, in La Grange Township. A land record indicates that "W. Torurson" sold to Carl Olsen the west half of the southwest quarter of section 8 in the township. This was very likely his brother-in-law, Carl Nykaas Olsen, whose family also lived in the Skoponong settlement. The 80 acres were sold by warranty deed, and the transaction was recorded on October 25, 1847, so Vetle must've bought this property sometime between signing his first papers in 1845 and late 1847.
Shortly after their arrival in La Grange, probably on January 1, 1844. Karen gave birth to a girl, Anne Karine Vetleson. In 1845, she delivered another son, named Frants after her father. On or about April 5, 1846, baby Carolina (Kari) arrived. No Skoponong church records for the mid-1840s exist. However, the 1846 and 1847 Wisconsin Territorial Census records provide some insight into the family. In both reports, the family consisted of six people, three males and three females. The head of household is spelled "W. Torusen" in the 1846 census and "Wettle T----n" in the 1847 report. The last name in the 1847 census is badly faded; however, its placement alongside the same Olson and Kittleson families in both censuses provides support that the family is ours. The 1846 census was conducted on May 30, 1846, so we can logically assume that the family on that date consisted of Vetle and Karen and their four children: Torjus, Anne, Frants, and Kari.
Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and ague fever plagued the early Walworth County settlers, and many of them succumbed. Sadly, Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was among them. Our immigrant mother of four hadn't reached her thirtieth birthday. The 1847 census was taken December 1, 1847. Vetle, in need of a mother for his five children, remarried on January 23, 1850. It's most likely that Karen died in 1848. The small Skoponong cemetery is in Palmyra township in Jefferson County. Karen is almost certainly buried there, though her grave marker surely has been lost. Cemetery records for graveyards in and around the area were also checked, but without success.
Vetle, "Wickery Toleson" in the civil record, married Marthe Halvorsdatter on January 23, 1850, in La Grange. Born August 29, 1818, on Svensoe farm in Bo parish, Telemark, Marthe left Norway for America in May 1844. The 1850 census was conducted in August. It shows "Watteley Thurstin," Marthe, and five children, Torjus (9), Anne (6), Frantz (5), and the twins, Carolina (Kari, 3) and Ole (3).
Vetle's family apparently left the Skoponong settlement in the spring of 1851. Recall that Vetle and Marthe's family lived at La Grange, Wisconsin, in August 1850, when the census was taken. Lutheran church records show that their first daughter, Ingeborg, was born November 1, 1851, and was baptized July 28, 1852, in the home of Randine Larsdatter in Springfield, Iowa. All subsequent census reports confirm Ingeborg's place of birth as Iowa.
Vetle and Marthe probably joined that group of family members who packed their belongings into wagons and set out for Winneshiek County in northeastern Iowa. A similar journey, made the previous year, was described by Abraham Jacobson in Past and Present of Winneshiek County Iowa. The vehicles they used were an assortment of shapes and sizes, he wrote. The large wheels of the truck-wagons were constructed of solid sections of oak logs. Provisions also were stowed into smaller two-wheel carts. Men drove the oxen, while some people, depending on their health, walked alongside or rode in the wagon. The roughly 200-mile trip to Iowa took nearly five weeks. Some slept at night under the wagons' covers, while others took refuge underneath the wagons on bare ground. A small ferry boat, with paddle wheels powered by a horse on a treadmill, allowed the wagons and oxen to traverse the Wisconsin River. One wagon and team were taken per crossing, and the herd of loose cattle had to swim to ford the river. Upon reaching the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a larger ferry, powered by four mules, was needed to cross. They then traveled northwest, until they reached Winneshiek County.
Within a couple years, Vetle and Marthe began buying farmland in Springfield township, south of the growing city of Decorah. The township was a primarily Norwegian settlement just east of Calmar township, where Vetle's former in-laws settled in 1853. Springfield is twenty miles south of Minnesota and about thirty miles west of the Mississippi. Its name comes from the numerous fresh streams and springs within its boundaries. Its rolling prairie hills contained rich, fertile soil, interspersed with tree groves to provide much-needed timber.
Before 1848, the only inhabitants of this portion of Iowa were Winnebago Indians, soldiers at Fort Atkinson, and a handful of white squatters. Fort Atkinson was built in 1840 to keep the Winnebagos on the Neutral Ground, a 40-mile-wide strip established by the Treaty of 1830, after they were relocated from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1840. The fort was used to protect the Winnebagos from the Sioux, Sauk, and Fox tribes who also inhabited the area, as well as from white intruders on Native American land. The Winnebagos reluctantly ceded "all claim to land" on October 13, 1846, and they were given a tract of land in Long Prairie, Minnesota. This was a place that was selected by the chiefs, but which dissatisfied many in the tribe. Once these and other Native Americans had been removed from their ancient homes, the United States government proceeded to sell their land to the white settlers.
The first Norwegians built their homes around Springfield in June 1850, and more Norwegians arrived from Wisconsin in July of that year. Land records indicate that Vetle first bought 40 acres from the U.S. government, in the northeast quarter of section 28 in Springfield, on October 27, 1853. On April 11, 1854, nearly nine years after signing his first papers in Wisconsin, Vetle appeared at the courthouse at Decorah and was granted American citizenship. He then added an adjacent 40 acres in section 28, buying them from the government on May 4, 1854. On March 23, 1855, Vetle purchased 40 more acres from a rich land speculator, Horatio W. Sanford. This parcel consisted of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter in section 28. These purchases gave Vetle a 120-acre farm, comprising a goodly portion of the north half of the section 28 in Springfield. At some point, Vetle must've acquired property in the southwest quarter of section 21, immediately north of his section 28 property. The land record verifying the date of that purchase couldn't be located.
Vetle's farm was a productive one. The 1856 Iowa state census says that "Wakly Torrisson" was 41, a naturalized voter, in the militia, and had lived five years in the state of Iowa. The family consisted of Martha (38), Torris (Torjus,15), Ann (12), Caroline (Kari, 9), Catharine (Ingeborg, 5), Emily (Karen Kristin, 3) and Francis (Frank, 0, an infant). The last three of these were Marthe's children. Two of Vetle's sons, Frants and Ole (who would've been about 11 and 10, respectively), were in the 1850 census but weren't listed in this one. The boys had died in Wisconsin, or else in Iowa. As was the case with most farmers, Vetle grew wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes, and had cows for making butter.
In the 1860 census, Vetle's name was spelled "Weekly Turison." The family remained at Springfield, where their real estate was valued at $1600 and their personal property at $1000. Both figures were slightly above those of many of their immigrant neighbors. The names of the children were Toris (Torjus, 18), Anna (16), Caroline (Kari, 13), Isabella (Ingeborg, 8), Claura (Karin, 6), Frank (3), and Oliver (Halvor, 6 months). Rev. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first resident Norwegian Lutheran clergyman west of the Mississippi River. Fresh out of the University of Christiania (Oslo), he brought his bride to Springfield in 1853, where they lived in a log cabin that doubled as a home and a place of worship. The energetic and popular pastor organized the first Norwegian Lutheran congregation at Springfield and its adjoining townships in the summer of 1853. Vetle's family were original members of the congregation at Washington Prairie. Rev. Koren was a fixture in mid-western Norwegian Lutheran circles for decades. He served as the president of the Norwegian Synod, a function like that of a bishop, until his death in December 1910. Rev. Koren helped pave the way for the Luther College to procure a permanent site in the city of Decorah. He was the man who baptized, confirmed, and later married several of Vetle's children - including the marriage of Anne Karine Vetleson to Hans Martinsen Indahl in December 1868.
Vetle and Martha "Torgerson" farmed at Springfield when the 1870 census was conducted. The farm's land value was appraised at $5000 and their personal property at $820, figures at or above many of their neighbors. The family included Ingeborg (18), Karen (17), Frantz (14), and Halvor (10). A baby girl named Gunhild had been born in 1861, but she died soon afterward. Another daughter, also named Gunhild, was born in September 1864, and was five at the time of the census. In 1866, a Norwegian immigrant named Hans Martinsen Indahl arrived at Springfield. The 26-year-old farm laborer was charmed by Vetle's eldest daughter, Anne, and he married her in the winter of 1868. They and their one-year-old baby, Mina Nathalia, lived in a small dwelling alongside Vetle's cabin.
Cheap farmland in Minnesota became available at the expense of Native Americans. A long series of treaties signed in 1805, 1825, 1837, 1847, 1851, 1854, 1855, 1858, 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1867, resulted in the cession of Indian land to the U.S. Government. Tribes, including the Winnebago, Dakota (Sioux), and Chippewa (Ojibwa), had given up their ancient homes and were relocated onto reservations. White settlers poured into the region to homestead or to purchase land, and lumbering and farming began in earnest. Vetle and Marthe became a part of this movement after they sold the last of their Springfield farm, 120 acres in sections 28 and 21, to Ole Halvorsen for $4,200 on August 20, 1874. Then, as did so many Norwegian immigrants, they moved into Otter Tail County, Minnesota.
Otter Tail County was a primitive place in 1874. The county was established in 1858 but wasn't organized until 1868. By 1870, the population barely touched 2,000. An 1874 map shows that railroad tracks had been laid through the county and that one branch passed through Tumuli, a township incorporated in 1869. Although they'd given up their native homes and been relocated onto reservations as the result of various treaties, the Ojibwa and Dakota, bitter enemies for decades, sometimes were encountered by white settlers. These meetings were invariably peaceful, despite an occasional story like the one in which a hungry Indian shot a farmer's steer for its meat. Otter Tail's rolling hills were roughly two-thirds forested and one-third native prairie at the time white settlement began. Hunting in the forests and on the prairies, and fishing in the county's pristine lakes, were both excellent. The whites who inhabited and farmed Tumuli were nearly all of Norwegian descent, and wheat was their primary crop.
When Vetle arrived in 1874, Otter Tail farmers faced a more formidable foe than any wicked winter blast, scorching summer, or poor band of Indians could provide, the Rocky Mountain locust. From 1873 to 1877, enormous swarms of these insects invaded the Great Plains. Western Minnesota, including Otter Tail County, was particularly hard-hit. The pests devoured nearly anything edible in their paths, including wheat crops, which they quickly reduced to stubble.
On September 15, 1874, amid the wicked infestation, Vetle walked into the Land Office in Fergus Falls. He'd come up from his home in Iowa to buy a 160-acre farm from John Johnson in Tumuli township. Vetle did so, by warranty deed, paying $1600. The farm occupied the southeast quarter of section 1, about a mile northeast of tiny Dalton village, shown on an 1884 plat map. Many Norwegian settlers called Tumuli home. Vetle farmed and Marthe Halvorsdatter Torgerson kept house and raised the children there, until her death at age 60, on September 3, 1878.On April 30, 1878, some months before Marthe's death, Vetle Torgerson, an Americanized version of his last name, purchased additional land in the northwest quarter of section 1. He paid Ole and Karolina Simonsen $750 for parcels totaling 139.30 acres, which he then transferred to his son, Frantz (Frank) Vetleson.
Vetle was a widower for the second time. Still spry at 65, he returned to his old home in Norway and married for the third time, on March 5, 1880. On this occasion, his bride's name was Aase Jensdatter. Though she was born in Kviteseid, she was only twenty-three, much to the dismay of some of his grown children, according to family lore.
The newlyweds boarded the large German steamship Hohenstaufen at Christiania (Oslo) on May 20, 1880, and arrived at the port of New York on the 4th of June. The trip took 15 days. What a difference steam travel made over the old sailing ships of 1843! They returned to his farm in Minnesota, this time by railroad instead of ox-cart, and the pair settled permanently on his farmstead at Tumuli.
In the 1880 census, Vetle lived at Tumuli with 23-year-old Aase (pronounced OH-seh) and his son, Halvor, who by this time was twenty and nearly as old as his step-mother. With Aase, Vetle had six more children, including twins Jens and Martha (died three days after her first birthday), Ida Marie, Ingebor Emma, Torgus, and Carl Oscar Vetleson. Carl was born in 1889, when Vetle was 74! In all, he fathered 18 documented children, six with each of his three Norwegian wives.
Vetle became ill in the winter of 1893. The sickness progressed over the course of a couple weeks, and he finally succumbed to it on the evening of January 17, 1893. Vetle Torjussen (Torgerson) was seventy-eight at the time of his death. An obituary was written in Ugeblad, a Norwegian-language paper in Fergus Falls. Its translation: "Vetle Torjusson, who lives near Dalton, Pastor Vetleson's father, died last Tuesday evening at 82 years of age, after a 2-3 weeks sickness. He leaves a wife of a 3rd marriage and five small children in poor circumstances. Torjusson undoubtedly died where he had lived for about 16-17 years. He was from Telemark in Norway." [Note: the age given in the obituary is incorrect, as Vetle was 78 years old at the time of his death].
Vetle was buried a couple miles southeast of Dalton in St. Olaf Cemetery. Burial records for St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church tell us that his funeral was held on January 26, 1893. The small cemetery is about three miles south of the family’s farm. Although no marker can be found, it should be noted that parishioners with names listed in the burial record above and below Vetle’s name have tombstones in the cemetery—including Olina Dahl, whose funeral was just eight days before Vetle’s.
When he was a child, Vetle's family moved to nearby Brekke gard. Sixteen-year-old Vetle Torjussen Brekke was confirmed at Kviteseid kirke on October 16, 1831. His confirmation record says that he'd been vaccinated against smallpox on November 16, 1818, by a man named Bjornsen. The British physician Edward Jenner had performed his first vaccination in 1796, and this critical health practice initially occurred in Norway in December 1801. Soon, all Norwegian children over the age of one were required to be vaccinated. Vetle was four when he received his inoculation. The procedure was so important that proof of vaccination was required for events such as confirmations, weddings, and emigration.
Among the girls who were confirmed that year was Birgit Frantsdatter, the older sister of Karen Kristine Frantsdatter, Vetle's future wife. Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was born in the Kilen area of Kviteseid on October 22, 1820, and was baptized November 26, 1820, at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. She was the fifth of Frants Carlsen Rui and Kari Olsdatter Overland's ten children.
When Karen was sixteen, she was ready for her confirmation. She was a member of the girls confirmation class at Brunkeberg kirke on November 20, 1836. Karen's baptism and confirmation records are available. The fifth column of her confirmation record is marked Dom angaaende Kundskab op Opforsel, which contains the pastor's "Judgement regarding Knowledge and Behavior." Norwegian children had to study the Lutheran catechism and explanations of the Bible. They had to read and recite from memory certain portions of these, and the pastor determined the youngster's grades. For example, maadelig likely meant "reasonable" or "moderate" knowledge, while god meant "good." The children's records indicate that Vetle's kundskab (knowledge) was maadelig, and that Karen's opforsel (behavior) was god. The sixth column tells us that she'd received her smallpox vaccination from E. Evindsen on May 30, 1829, when she was eight.
Losjenger Vetle Torjussen, 25, married Inderste Karen Frantsdatter, 19, at Kviteseid kirke on November 11, 1839. Losjenger identified a vagrant, or a person with no fixed home, so it seems that Vetle wasn't in the best of financial circumstances. He wasn't alone in that regard. Inderste (innerst) signifies that Karen was a lodger at Bukaasa farm, where her father had passed away several months before. The granddaughter of the renowned fiddle-maker, Karl Rue, as well as the rest of her family, apparently had fallen on difficult economic times. The marriage record tells us that he was born at Lien (Lii) and lived on Brekke, and that she was from Bukaasen farm. Their fathers' names are listed, as well as the witnesses: Tarje Drengsen Lundeberg and Carl Frantsen Bukaasen, Karen's brother-in-law and brother.
Vetle and Karen were romantically involved by 1839. On her wedding day, Karen was five months' pregnant. Their baby was delivered February 28, 1840, at Brekke farm. He was christened Torjus, after his farfar, his father's father, or paternal grandfather. Sadly, the baby died at eleven months, on January 30, 1841. He was buried on the 11th of February at the gamle kirke in Kviteseid. On October 16, 1841, another son arrived. He was named Torjus, in honor of his deceased brother. Vetle and Karen ultimately had six children: Torjus (died in infancy), Torjus, Anne Karine Vetleson (married Hans Martinsen Indahl), Frants, and twins, Carolina (Kari) and Ole (died young).
A significant increase in Norwegian emigration occurred in the early 1840s. In Norwegian Migration to America, Theodore Blegen wrote, "(e)migration interest was flaming in Telemarken and Numedal especially." People between the ages of twenty and thirty made up a large proportion of those emigrants, causing the great Norwegian nationalist poet, Henrik Wergeland, to rage in 1843: "The emigration frenzy (is) precisely the word for this desire to emigrate to America, which like a general epidemic has swept over large sections of our country. It is the most dangerous disease of our time, a bleeding of the Fatherland, a true frenzy, because those whom it seizes follow neither their own nor others' reason, disdain arguments and examples, give up the present for a still more threatening, dark future, and let themselves be driven by it into the vortex of that future's unknown sufferings." Another writer asked, "What, in God's name, is it that draws the phlegmatic Northman over to the New World?" But such agonized pleas for a halt to emigration lacked sufficient force for most young and middle-aged Norwegians, who saw the bleakest of futures for themselves if they stayed in Norway. Crushing famines, increasingly smaller farms, and economic woes ensured that. Norwegian newspaper articles and "America letters" written by immigrants to the folks in the homeland heralded glorious possibilities in the United States. By the 1840s, ship owners advertised their plans for emigrant voyages. Professor Blegen continued: "In November 1842, newspapers announced that Hans Gasmann had sold his gaard (farm) and mill for seventy-five hundred specie dollars in preparation for emigration. The people talk of nothing but America,' said a Laurvig news item, and artisans and others are busy taking lessons in English.' "The emigration desire in this vicinity and in Telemarken is so great,' it was reported from Skien, "that if it is realized (then) many vessels will be employed next spring in carrying the emigrants from here.' Another Skien item mentions the arrival at the local post office of some fifty letters from "Telemarkian emigrants' in America. Ship owners advertised extensively in the newspapers their plans for emigrant voyages."
Vetle, Karen, and their toddler, Torjus, were about to book passage on one of them. The promise of America beckoned, and Vetle and Karen made their decision to emigrate. Kviteseid's Udflyttede record indicates that they and young Torjus received their emigration certificates on Monday, May 1, 1843. At the time, they lived on Rollefstad gard on the larger Softestad farm in Kviteseid. Karen might've been early into her third pregnancy.
Others of her family also prepared to leave Kviteseid. Her oldest sister, Elen Marie Frantsdatter, with husband Tarje Drengsen and their children, Dreng, Sigrid, Hans, and Ole, got their certificates on the same day as did Vetle's family. Tarje and Elen Marie lived on Lundeberg gard on Syftestad. Imagine the two husbands, " brothers-in-law," hiking down the hills and then getting onto large rowboats to travel down the Sundkilen and Kviteseidvatnet to the gamle kirke to ask the pastor for his permission to leave. But Tarje and Elen Marie never made the planned voyage to America. On the record, shown here, is the pastor's note: "Denne familie wendte tilbage fra Frankrig..." In English: "this family went back from France." For some reason, they'd returned home from Le Havre, France. The parents and most of the children never went to America. Karen's younger sister, Kirsti Frantsdatter, husband Carl Olsen Nykaas, and their youngsters, Frants and Elen Maria, received their certificates on May 9, 1843. A day later, another older sister, Birgit Frantsdatter, husband Harald Olsen Kilen, and sons Olaf and Frants, got theirs. Finally, on May 15, 1843, Karen's widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, and the rest of her children, Gunild, Guro, and Hans, all from Bukaasa farm, obtained their certificates.
Which sailing ship carried Vetle, Karen, and Torjus? We'll never know with certainty, but one very likely candidate is the vessel, Tecumseh. Vetle and Karen packed their belongings and used waterways to travel nearly 80 kilometers southeast, until they reached the town of Skien. A small ship would've taken them several kilometers down the Skiensfjord to the port of Porsgrunn, where more passengers boarded. From there, our ancestors were taken to Le Havre, France, where they awaited passage to America onboard a larger sailing ship. But why is Tecumseh such a promising choice?As shown previously, Kviteseid's Udflyttede lists the dates on which people obtained their attester, or emigration certificates. The register indicates that 193 people received certificates in 1843. Of those, 177 professed to be headed for America. Back then, people usually left Kviteseid from the ports at Skien and Porsgrunn. With a few exceptions, they then traveled along the Skagerrak, onto the North Sea, then into the English Channel to Le Havre, before departing for New York. During the period after Vetle received his certificate, they traveled aboard these sailing ships:Washington, Salvator, Winterflid, Lorena, Venskabet, Familien, Uncas, Kong Carl Johan, Tuskina, Tecumseh, Aeolus, and Argo. Passenger lists from these ships were scoured on Ancestry.com for Vetle, Karen, and Torjus, but to no avail.
We know that members of Karen's family, including her widowed mother, Kari Olsdatter Overland, went to Le Havre, France, before sailing for New York. Kari's daughter Kirsti's family left on the Argo, pulling into the port of New York on July 26, 1843. Kari and young son Hans, with Kari's daughter Birgit's family, sailed aboard the Tecumseh. They arrived in New York on August 8, 1843. But where were Kari's daughter Karen, son-in-law Vetle, and grandson Torjus? Passenger lists from the two ships were searched to find that family. The Argo list shows 390 passengers. Yet the list from the Tecumseh has just 42 names. Could a page or more of that document be missing? Yes. At least one, and probably more are lost. The next year, the Tecumseh sailed from Le Havre to New York, arriving on June 9. Its passenger list had 155 names and included the important first page, listing the ship's name, captain, and other important information. The Tecumseh also came to New York from Liverpool on May 31, 1836. That year's list, including the important first page, had 157 names. We know that the first page is missing from the Tecumseh's 1843 list. Vetle, Karen, and Torjus were almost certainly on the same ship that carried her mother, brother, and sister's family to America.
After their arrival at New York City, Vetle, Karen, and Torjus took the usual route for that period. They traveled by steamship up the Hudson River to Troy, above Albany, a "short" trip normally accomplished in less than ten hours. They disembarked, and their baggage was weighed and loaded onto a canal boat on the Erie Canal. For eight to nine days, the flat barge was pulled slowly by a team of horses. They moved along the 360-mile canal until they reached Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie. A lake steamship ferried them across the Great Lakes to the small city of Milwaukee. The last leg of their odyssey was likely made using ox-drawn wagons. From Milwaukee, they ventured nearly 50 miles southwest, until they arrived at the Skoponong settlement in LaGrange township, Walworth County, Wisconsin. In this Norwegian settlement, they joined others of Karen's extended family.
American citizenship was a coveted prize for America's immigrants. Not only did the process give them an American identity, but it allowed them to purchase land. The naturalization process was straightforward. An immigrant made a "declaration of intention" to become a citizen. This was called signing "first papers." Then, usually after a five-year wait, the applicant could petition for citizenship papers. Vetle signed his first papers at the District Court of Walworth County on November 22, 1845. Because he couldn't read or write, Vetle "made his mark," signing the document with an "X." The clerk, as did others who heard his very unusual name, misspelled it, "Waitley Toryurson." He cited his 1814 birth in Norway, renounced allegiance to the Government of Norway, and claimed that he'd landed at the port of New York "on or about the month of October in the year eighteen hundred and forty-three." Once his first papers were signed, Vetle could purchase land. Soon, he and others of Karen's family did so, in La Grange Township. A land record indicates that "W. Torurson" sold to Carl Olsen the west half of the southwest quarter of section 8 in the township. This was very likely his brother-in-law, Carl Nykaas Olsen, whose family also lived in the Skoponong settlement. The 80 acres were sold by warranty deed, and the transaction was recorded on October 25, 1847, so Vetle must've bought this property sometime between signing his first papers in 1845 and late 1847.
Shortly after their arrival in La Grange, probably on January 1, 1844. Karen gave birth to a girl, Anne Karine Vetleson. In 1845, she delivered another son, named Frants after her father. On or about April 5, 1846, baby Carolina (Kari) arrived. No Skoponong church records for the mid-1840s exist. However, the 1846 and 1847 Wisconsin Territorial Census records provide some insight into the family. In both reports, the family consisted of six people, three males and three females. The head of household is spelled "W. Torusen" in the 1846 census and "Wettle T----n" in the 1847 report. The last name in the 1847 census is badly faded; however, its placement alongside the same Olson and Kittleson families in both censuses provides support that the family is ours. The 1846 census was conducted on May 30, 1846, so we can logically assume that the family on that date consisted of Vetle and Karen and their four children: Torjus, Anne, Frants, and Kari.
Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and ague fever plagued the early Walworth County settlers, and many of them succumbed. Sadly, Karen Kristine Frantsdatter was among them. Our immigrant mother of four hadn't reached her thirtieth birthday. The 1847 census was taken December 1, 1847. Vetle, in need of a mother for his five children, remarried on January 23, 1850. It's most likely that Karen died in 1848. The small Skoponong cemetery is in Palmyra township in Jefferson County. Karen is almost certainly buried there, though her grave marker surely has been lost. Cemetery records for graveyards in and around the area were also checked, but without success.
Vetle, "Wickery Toleson" in the civil record, married Marthe Halvorsdatter on January 23, 1850, in La Grange. Born August 29, 1818, on Svensoe farm in Bo parish, Telemark, Marthe left Norway for America in May 1844. The 1850 census was conducted in August. It shows "Watteley Thurstin," Marthe, and five children, Torjus (9), Anne (6), Frantz (5), and the twins, Carolina (Kari, 3) and Ole (3).
Vetle's family apparently left the Skoponong settlement in the spring of 1851. Recall that Vetle and Marthe's family lived at La Grange, Wisconsin, in August 1850, when the census was taken. Lutheran church records show that their first daughter, Ingeborg, was born November 1, 1851, and was baptized July 28, 1852, in the home of Randine Larsdatter in Springfield, Iowa. All subsequent census reports confirm Ingeborg's place of birth as Iowa.
Vetle and Marthe probably joined that group of family members who packed their belongings into wagons and set out for Winneshiek County in northeastern Iowa. A similar journey, made the previous year, was described by Abraham Jacobson in Past and Present of Winneshiek County Iowa. The vehicles they used were an assortment of shapes and sizes, he wrote. The large wheels of the truck-wagons were constructed of solid sections of oak logs. Provisions also were stowed into smaller two-wheel carts. Men drove the oxen, while some people, depending on their health, walked alongside or rode in the wagon. The roughly 200-mile trip to Iowa took nearly five weeks. Some slept at night under the wagons' covers, while others took refuge underneath the wagons on bare ground. A small ferry boat, with paddle wheels powered by a horse on a treadmill, allowed the wagons and oxen to traverse the Wisconsin River. One wagon and team were taken per crossing, and the herd of loose cattle had to swim to ford the river. Upon reaching the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a larger ferry, powered by four mules, was needed to cross. They then traveled northwest, until they reached Winneshiek County.
Within a couple years, Vetle and Marthe began buying farmland in Springfield township, south of the growing city of Decorah. The township was a primarily Norwegian settlement just east of Calmar township, where Vetle's former in-laws settled in 1853. Springfield is twenty miles south of Minnesota and about thirty miles west of the Mississippi. Its name comes from the numerous fresh streams and springs within its boundaries. Its rolling prairie hills contained rich, fertile soil, interspersed with tree groves to provide much-needed timber.
Before 1848, the only inhabitants of this portion of Iowa were Winnebago Indians, soldiers at Fort Atkinson, and a handful of white squatters. Fort Atkinson was built in 1840 to keep the Winnebagos on the Neutral Ground, a 40-mile-wide strip established by the Treaty of 1830, after they were relocated from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1840. The fort was used to protect the Winnebagos from the Sioux, Sauk, and Fox tribes who also inhabited the area, as well as from white intruders on Native American land. The Winnebagos reluctantly ceded "all claim to land" on October 13, 1846, and they were given a tract of land in Long Prairie, Minnesota. This was a place that was selected by the chiefs, but which dissatisfied many in the tribe. Once these and other Native Americans had been removed from their ancient homes, the United States government proceeded to sell their land to the white settlers.
The first Norwegians built their homes around Springfield in June 1850, and more Norwegians arrived from Wisconsin in July of that year. Land records indicate that Vetle first bought 40 acres from the U.S. government, in the northeast quarter of section 28 in Springfield, on October 27, 1853. On April 11, 1854, nearly nine years after signing his first papers in Wisconsin, Vetle appeared at the courthouse at Decorah and was granted American citizenship. He then added an adjacent 40 acres in section 28, buying them from the government on May 4, 1854. On March 23, 1855, Vetle purchased 40 more acres from a rich land speculator, Horatio W. Sanford. This parcel consisted of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter in section 28. These purchases gave Vetle a 120-acre farm, comprising a goodly portion of the north half of the section 28 in Springfield. At some point, Vetle must've acquired property in the southwest quarter of section 21, immediately north of his section 28 property. The land record verifying the date of that purchase couldn't be located.
Vetle's farm was a productive one. The 1856 Iowa state census says that "Wakly Torrisson" was 41, a naturalized voter, in the militia, and had lived five years in the state of Iowa. The family consisted of Martha (38), Torris (Torjus,15), Ann (12), Caroline (Kari, 9), Catharine (Ingeborg, 5), Emily (Karen Kristin, 3) and Francis (Frank, 0, an infant). The last three of these were Marthe's children. Two of Vetle's sons, Frants and Ole (who would've been about 11 and 10, respectively), were in the 1850 census but weren't listed in this one. The boys had died in Wisconsin, or else in Iowa. As was the case with most farmers, Vetle grew wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes, and had cows for making butter.
In the 1860 census, Vetle's name was spelled "Weekly Turison." The family remained at Springfield, where their real estate was valued at $1600 and their personal property at $1000. Both figures were slightly above those of many of their immigrant neighbors. The names of the children were Toris (Torjus, 18), Anna (16), Caroline (Kari, 13), Isabella (Ingeborg, 8), Claura (Karin, 6), Frank (3), and Oliver (Halvor, 6 months). Rev. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first resident Norwegian Lutheran clergyman west of the Mississippi River. Fresh out of the University of Christiania (Oslo), he brought his bride to Springfield in 1853, where they lived in a log cabin that doubled as a home and a place of worship. The energetic and popular pastor organized the first Norwegian Lutheran congregation at Springfield and its adjoining townships in the summer of 1853. Vetle's family were original members of the congregation at Washington Prairie. Rev. Koren was a fixture in mid-western Norwegian Lutheran circles for decades. He served as the president of the Norwegian Synod, a function like that of a bishop, until his death in December 1910. Rev. Koren helped pave the way for the Luther College to procure a permanent site in the city of Decorah. He was the man who baptized, confirmed, and later married several of Vetle's children - including the marriage of Anne Karine Vetleson to Hans Martinsen Indahl in December 1868.
Vetle and Martha "Torgerson" farmed at Springfield when the 1870 census was conducted. The farm's land value was appraised at $5000 and their personal property at $820, figures at or above many of their neighbors. The family included Ingeborg (18), Karen (17), Frantz (14), and Halvor (10). A baby girl named Gunhild had been born in 1861, but she died soon afterward. Another daughter, also named Gunhild, was born in September 1864, and was five at the time of the census. In 1866, a Norwegian immigrant named Hans Martinsen Indahl arrived at Springfield. The 26-year-old farm laborer was charmed by Vetle's eldest daughter, Anne, and he married her in the winter of 1868. They and their one-year-old baby, Mina Nathalia, lived in a small dwelling alongside Vetle's cabin.
Cheap farmland in Minnesota became available at the expense of Native Americans. A long series of treaties signed in 1805, 1825, 1837, 1847, 1851, 1854, 1855, 1858, 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1867, resulted in the cession of Indian land to the U.S. Government. Tribes, including the Winnebago, Dakota (Sioux), and Chippewa (Ojibwa), had given up their ancient homes and were relocated onto reservations. White settlers poured into the region to homestead or to purchase land, and lumbering and farming began in earnest. Vetle and Marthe became a part of this movement after they sold the last of their Springfield farm, 120 acres in sections 28 and 21, to Ole Halvorsen for $4,200 on August 20, 1874. Then, as did so many Norwegian immigrants, they moved into Otter Tail County, Minnesota.
Otter Tail County was a primitive place in 1874. The county was established in 1858 but wasn't organized until 1868. By 1870, the population barely touched 2,000. An 1874 map shows that railroad tracks had been laid through the county and that one branch passed through Tumuli, a township incorporated in 1869. Although they'd given up their native homes and been relocated onto reservations as the result of various treaties, the Ojibwa and Dakota, bitter enemies for decades, sometimes were encountered by white settlers. These meetings were invariably peaceful, despite an occasional story like the one in which a hungry Indian shot a farmer's steer for its meat. Otter Tail's rolling hills were roughly two-thirds forested and one-third native prairie at the time white settlement began. Hunting in the forests and on the prairies, and fishing in the county's pristine lakes, were both excellent. The whites who inhabited and farmed Tumuli were nearly all of Norwegian descent, and wheat was their primary crop.
When Vetle arrived in 1874, Otter Tail farmers faced a more formidable foe than any wicked winter blast, scorching summer, or poor band of Indians could provide, the Rocky Mountain locust. From 1873 to 1877, enormous swarms of these insects invaded the Great Plains. Western Minnesota, including Otter Tail County, was particularly hard-hit. The pests devoured nearly anything edible in their paths, including wheat crops, which they quickly reduced to stubble.
On September 15, 1874, amid the wicked infestation, Vetle walked into the Land Office in Fergus Falls. He'd come up from his home in Iowa to buy a 160-acre farm from John Johnson in Tumuli township. Vetle did so, by warranty deed, paying $1600. The farm occupied the southeast quarter of section 1, about a mile northeast of tiny Dalton village, shown on an 1884 plat map. Many Norwegian settlers called Tumuli home. Vetle farmed and Marthe Halvorsdatter Torgerson kept house and raised the children there, until her death at age 60, on September 3, 1878.On April 30, 1878, some months before Marthe's death, Vetle Torgerson, an Americanized version of his last name, purchased additional land in the northwest quarter of section 1. He paid Ole and Karolina Simonsen $750 for parcels totaling 139.30 acres, which he then transferred to his son, Frantz (Frank) Vetleson.
Vetle was a widower for the second time. Still spry at 65, he returned to his old home in Norway and married for the third time, on March 5, 1880. On this occasion, his bride's name was Aase Jensdatter. Though she was born in Kviteseid, she was only twenty-three, much to the dismay of some of his grown children, according to family lore.
The newlyweds boarded the large German steamship Hohenstaufen at Christiania (Oslo) on May 20, 1880, and arrived at the port of New York on the 4th of June. The trip took 15 days. What a difference steam travel made over the old sailing ships of 1843! They returned to his farm in Minnesota, this time by railroad instead of ox-cart, and the pair settled permanently on his farmstead at Tumuli.
In the 1880 census, Vetle lived at Tumuli with 23-year-old Aase (pronounced OH-seh) and his son, Halvor, who by this time was twenty and nearly as old as his step-mother. With Aase, Vetle had six more children, including twins Jens and Martha (died three days after her first birthday), Ida Marie, Ingebor Emma, Torgus, and Carl Oscar Vetleson. Carl was born in 1889, when Vetle was 74! In all, he fathered 18 documented children, six with each of his three Norwegian wives.
Vetle became ill in the winter of 1893. The sickness progressed over the course of a couple weeks, and he finally succumbed to it on the evening of January 17, 1893. Vetle Torjussen (Torgerson) was seventy-eight at the time of his death. An obituary was written in Ugeblad, a Norwegian-language paper in Fergus Falls. Its translation: "Vetle Torjusson, who lives near Dalton, Pastor Vetleson's father, died last Tuesday evening at 82 years of age, after a 2-3 weeks sickness. He leaves a wife of a 3rd marriage and five small children in poor circumstances. Torjusson undoubtedly died where he had lived for about 16-17 years. He was from Telemark in Norway." [Note: the age given in the obituary is incorrect, as Vetle was 78 years old at the time of his death].
Vetle was buried a couple miles southeast of Dalton in St. Olaf Cemetery. Burial records for St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church tell us that his funeral was held on January 26, 1893. The small cemetery is about three miles south of the family’s farm. Although no marker can be found, it should be noted that parishioners with names listed in the burial record above and below Vetle’s name have tombstones in the cemetery—including Olina Dahl, whose funeral was just eight days before Vetle’s.
Family Members
Siblings
Children
-
![]()
Torjus Vetlesen
1840–1841
-
![]()
Rev Torjus Vetleson
1841–1886
-
![]()
Anne Karine Vetlesdatter Indahl
1844–1932
-
![]()
Caroline "Kari" Vetleson Bagaason
1847–1936
-
![]()
Ingeborg Vetleson Trulson
1851–1935
-
![]()
Karen Vetleson Iverson
1853–1919
-
![]()
Frank Vettleson
1856–1942
-
![]()
Gunhild Vetleson Erickson-Sorlien
1864–1910
-
![]()
Marthe Vetleson
1882–1883
-
![]()
Jens Vetleson
1882–1972
-
![]()
Ida Marie Vetleson Rustad
1884–1975
-
Ingebor Emma Vetleson Murtha
1886–1961
-
![]()
Torgus "Thomas" Vetleson
1887–1963
-
![]()
Carl Oscar Vetleson
1889–1939
