a/k/a:
Karen Dorthea Olsdtr MORK
Born: Sandsvaer Twp; Prestigjeld, Norway.

Per Kongsgården says that Porsgrunn was not a city in 1856. It was part of Skein,
Norway. Karne Dorthea and family came over on the Sjofna; Captain was Peter Peterson; built ship in England 1831. Family left Sandsvaer on 8 April 1856 and left Porgsrunn, Norway 25 April 1856.

Dorthea and family left for the Port of Porsgrunn, Norway in April 1856, arriving in Quebec, Canada five weeks later. The winds must have been terrific as the journey was expected to take eight to twelve weeks. They were lucky for throughout their journey they had good weather, good health and not much seasickness.
When Dorthea and her family arrived at Quebec by way of the St Lawrence River, they transferred in Canada to a large streamer that took them to Montreal. From there, they took a lake streamer across Lake Ontario to Lewiston, a order town in northern New York state. For seven miles, they traveled by stage coach to Niagara Falls. From there they traveled by rail to Buffalo, New York. From Buffalo, they took a lake streamer down Lake Erie to Detroit, Michigan. From Detroit, the streamer channeled north into Lake St. Clair, then north into Lake Wisconsin, where they boarded open-drawn wagons for the inland trip to Rock County, Wisconsin.
They arrived at their destination in Luther Valley in Rock County, Wisconsin, the first of June. Dorthea's children, Antoni and Sophia who had emigrated in 1853, were not there to meet her. In May, they and their spouses and children, along with six other families, had left Luther Valley in search of land in southern Minnesota.
While Dorthea's journey was safe and speedy, life in Rock County, Wisconsin the following year was very trying. in 1857 there was a panic - a financial crash in the United States which paralyzed the whole country.
In the Spring of 1858, Dorthea and her children left Rock county for new Richland, Minnesota. again, the timing for the Sorensen was terrible. It was also the year of the historic flood/ heavy rains in July and August caused the banks of the LeSueur River and it's tributaries to overflow. As a consequence, crops were destroyed.
Dorthea was truly the Rock of Gibraltar -- she overcame one crisis after another. Three years after arriving in New Richland, the Civil War called three of her young sons into battlefields. Then in the summer of 1862, son Johan volunteered to defend his neighbors against the Sioux Indians.
Ten years later, in February 1872, Dorthea died at the age of 68. She was an American for 16 years. Not only did she make a courageous decision to come to America in 1856, she was truly a woman of courage, strength and patience who endured great sorrow, hard work and hard times. Her faith in GOD sustained her and left a legacy for all her descendants to follow. While Dorthea was not the captain of the ship on which she sailed across the Atlantic, she piloted the ship of opportunity and hope for her children, grandchildren and future generations.
...In some family writings, her first name is spelled Karne. However, she went by her middle name - Dorthea.