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Subject: Diary of Elisabeth Koren - 106-114
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 09:48:13 -0700
Acknowledgment
The following selection is taken from "The Diary of Elisabeth Koren"
translated and edited by David T. Nelson and published by the
Norwegian-American Historical Association (NAHA) in 1955. The Volume is
still in print and available from NAHA at http://www.naha.stolaf.edu
where you will also find the first 33 volumes of Studies and Records
online as well as Theodore C. Blegen's 2 volumes on Norwegian Migration
to America. This chapter is published with the kind permission of NAHA.
The book this selection is drawn from is under copyright and permission
has been granted for educational purposes and it is not to be used in any
way for commercial purposes.
It was a pleasant drive home, for it was no longer blowing. Anne and Knud
entertained us with horrid stories of snakes, and we made fast progress
until we came to Thrond Lommen's. There we simply had to turn in, for he
is Knud's best friend, he said, and it would not do to pass him by. The
entrance to Thrond's house is not very nice; one has to cross an area
something like a dunghill, where horses, oxen, cattle, swine, hens, and
all kinds of four-legged and two-legged creatures wander about amiably
together. Thrond lives in a very large room which houses, besides him and
his family, also half a score of newcomers for the winter. His elderly
wife met me with many heartfelt and pious wishes that our coming hither
might be a blessing both for us and others.
After we had tasted her Christmas beer, we hurried away to reach home
before darkness fell; but it overtook us just the same. Anne invited us
to have dinner with her tomorrow, and we promised to come. We found the
supper table set and Helene waiting for us with her pork. Suckow was
there, too, and ate with us. It is quite comical to hear him; he speaks
such absolutely pure bergensk, and has a slight burr. {17}
Tuesday, December 27. We have just come back from Aarthun's. Because
Vilhelm was busy with his affairs and I was helping Helene sew curtains
for the beds before we set out, it got so late that Anne met us on the
road, fearing we might not keep our word. It would have been better if
she had not --- we can hardly ever be alone. It is a poor house that Knud
has, and too small for his large family; he has eight children, and this
winter his paternal uncle and family are living with him. He is a
handsome old man, the uncle, though he did not seem very happy at having
emigrated; he felt that they were in straitened circumstances --- the
house and other things --- in which opinion, indeed, he may be right.
I soon wished myself home again, I cannot deny it; it was hot, there were
so many children, and it is not always pleasant to watch Anne's naive,
free and easy manners. At the same time, they are so friendly, these
people, and in every way make it so comfortable for us that I am ashamed
of being critical. I took a walk with Anne across their fields after
dinner, went in and looked at her favorite horse, etc.; Vilhelm and the
uncle roamed about by themselves. Knud was not home, and had not yet come
when we left, which was four o'clock, I think.
Helene had just finished her curtain when we came home; I helped her get
it up, and have spent the rest of the evening writing. Vilhelm is writing
too; Erik is studying the same Emigranten for the third evening in a row.
Helene is in bed, whither I, too, now consider betaking myself. {18}
Wednesday, December 28. It was so lovely out this morning that I remained
wholly lost in contemplation when l went outdoors as usual to brush my
teeth. The sun had just risen; its beams made the frosted hazel brush
gleam as if covered with diamonds and gave the woods the golden
appearance of a beautiful autumn day. After working industriously for a
time, we agreed to take a walk in the beautiful weather. I went up to the
loft to put on my things and Vilhelm, as usual, began to ponder what he
should put on his feet --- traveling boots, buffalo shoes, or overshoes.
It turned out to be the last, and we began our ramble. We had to trot
through a thick hazel brush, of course, to avoid a little detour before
we came down to the main road. The snow lay deep there and the result was
that Vilhelm got his overshoes full of snow and decided to go back and
change. I continued on my way and turned around just at the right moment
to see my lord husband, arrayed in his great boots, making most graceful
leaps over the hazel bushes.
We went on in the best of spirits, glad to be alone for a while, until we
met Nils Katterud outside his door, with his brother. {19} We went in and
found them already busy with dinner. So varied are the hours here --- one
has dinner when it is not long since the other has finished his
breakfast. Mother Katterud insisted we should take off our wraps and eat;
but as we had come to get Nils to show us the land for the parsonage, we
chose to wait until he had eaten; and that took a long time, for Nils
eats slowly and talks slowly, and both things always have to be done at
the same time. {20}
We finally got him away, however, and then waded right through all the
snow across Nils's fields, which adjoin that [parsonage] land. I have no
fault to find with the property; it is pleasant and could certainly be
made a cozy place to live. It is fairly hilly, with small woods here and
there. The house would be situated in the shelter of one of these, but of
course it has not yet been decided whether we shall live there. It took a
long time to go over it all and for Nils to explain in detail everything
about it. At last we turned back and made our way through some high hazel
brush mixed with wild plum trees, which in summer is almost impenetrable;
from there through virgin woods, where the branches struck our ears and
caught in my clothes, though fortunately I escaped without a tear or
mishap. After having crossed the stubble of a cornfield, we came upon a
regular road again, said farewell to our guide, and walked briskly on so
that Helene might not have to wait dinner too long.
We did not get farther than Ingebret's, however, before we stopped, this
time to have a little talk with him and another man, who, unfortunately,
was on horseback; for at sight of that horse, Vilhelm stood and talked so
long that I became quite impatient. I was tired and hot and hungry. Well,
at last he was through, and we went on, conversing with the man on
horseback, who left at the same time.
When we came home, we found a neighbor's wife, whom I had not seen
before, visiting Helene; she stayed and ate with us, but left immediately
afterwards. I sat down to write Mrs. [Linka] Preus, and Vilhelm started
out for Knud Aarthun's, but came back at once with Anne, who drove in
with a young couple --- a Norwegian from Drammen, Ole Hegge by name, I
think, who is married to a Danish woman. Probably they came to pay us a
visit; they were profuse in their invitations that we visit them. I do
not recall where they live. I tried to converse with the Danish woman,
but it was not easy. They left soon after Helene had crept down into the
cellar for beer and up to the loft for bakkels for them. Vilhelm rode
with them and I busied myself with letters again until dark, when Vilhelm
came back without having found Knud.
The light was lit, the pork set on the fire. In an effort to get tea
somewhat as it should be I took it upon myself to make it; but it is no
easy task with such poor tea, and I had no great luck with it, either,
especially since Helene, without my knowing a thing about it, filled the
kettle with water. We had to drink it, thin as it was, and talked about
what poor groceries one gets in this country. We passed the rest of the
evening writing and incessantly trimming the candle with big shears, for
snuffers are a luxury in America.
Thursday, December 29. The weather is dreadful today. Snow, and on top of
it a biting, piercing wind. God be praised, we did not go to Paint Creek
today, but can sit in a warm room. {21} Two people have been here from
Minnesota this forenoon --- handsome, attractive men --- to speak with
Vilhelm. The Norwegians must be a handsome people; I am now meeting a
great many from all districts of Norway, and there are so many fine folk
among them. I have written diligently all day and I got some clothes
ready for Vilhelm for his journey tomorrow. Knud came over while we were
eating supper and brought Vilhelm a letter from Minnesota with a request
for him to come up there as soon as possible. We decided to leave [for
Paint Creek] tomorrow at ten o'clock. I hope we have better weather than
today so that I may go, too.
Paint Creek, New Year's Eve, 1853. Today I am writing my diary in the
home of Sivert Vold. {22} This is a very large room, running the length
of the house, with an ordinary little stove in the center which falls far
short of heating so large a room to the proper temperature. The house,
though new, is a poor sort of place. The floor consists of unfinished
planks, which bob up and down when walked on. At one end is a passage to
the cellar, covered with a couple of loose boards laid an inch apart. The
ceiling, likewise, consists of rough boards, through which one can see
into the loft and even catch a glimpse of the sky through the roof. There
is a bed near the cellar trap door, and beneath that a chest which is
drawn out in the evening to provide a couch for the family's youngest
members. On the other side of the window there are shelves full of tools.
At the farther end of the room Ingeborg has her milk shelves and other
kitchen articles. The table at which I am sitting is close to the stove;
and about it, as usual, there is a circle of chairs, distinguished by the
variety of their shapes and materials; and on these chairs Sivert and his
sons, as many as can find places, are sitting. Ingeborg, the lady of the
house, a handsome, attractive woman who always goes about with a nice
white cap on her head, is busy preparing dinner, with her two small
daughters as helpers, and at this moment is in the act of baking biscuits
for us. Here, then, I am spending my first New Year's Eve in America.
We came here late yesterday evening. It had been agreed that we should
leave home at ten o'clock. Early in the morning Erik went over to help
Knud with his sleigh. We were ready at the right time, but eleven,
twelve, one came, and still no sleigh. Now we became really impatient and
Vilhelm went over to Knud's. Helene hurried to get some dinner ready and
I set the table. Just as it was ready, they came at last; something had
gone wrong with the sleigh and it had to be repaired. We did not get away
until two.
The weather was changeable, now snow, now sunshine. The first part of the
journey lay across a long prairie where, as always, the wind was cold.
The land soon took on quite a different appearance; it formed great
hollows, somewhat like basins, with steeply sloping sides. The woods were
fairly open here and the road followed a ridge with these hollows on both
sides, up hill and down. It continued thus quite a distance before we
came to the prairie again. Here we lost our way and drove back and forth
a little until we met a Yankee who rode some distance with us and put us
on the right road.
We made the trip in a long sleigh, its bottom covered with hay and a
board, on which we sat, laid crosswise in the back part of the sleigh.
Knud sat in front. We had not driven far before his seat plumped down; a
little later we met a like fate. After a couple of vain attempts to make
the board stay, we chose to sit in the bottom of the sleigh, a change
which made us far more comfortable, too.
Some time after we had driven past a couple of houses (the beginning of
the county seat of Allamakee County), we met a Norwegian from Paint
Creek; he assured us that it was too late for us to reach the vossing
with whom we had thought to spend the night, and invited us to go home
with him. {23} Not long afterward we met a group of men who looked like
Yankees in their blue coats and low-crowned hats, but turned out to be
the very ones we had intended to visit --- Sivert Vold and his sons. They
now went back with us and we continued our journey to their home. It is
not pleasant to drive so late at night; it gets very cold, and the road
seems twice as long.
My feet were freezing, though they were packed in hay, and I had only one
wish --- to get into a house soon; it seemed as if that time would never
come. At last, however, we saw a light and soon were sitting in Sivert's
home. It had a cheerless look with a tallow lamp set high up on a shelf,
throwing a dim light over a room very much in disorder --- a pile of
shavings in one corner and everything scattered over the floor. The
family was probably preparing for bed and not in the least expecting such
a visit.
Ingeborg received us cordially, brought out a mug of excellent milk to
refresh us, and hurried to prepare our supper. I was a little crestfallen
as I sat there by the stove and looked about me in the dark room with the
open floor and ceiling, and began to wonder where we would sleep. I
wished I had remained at home instead of coming along, and at the same
time was ashamed for letting myself be so easily disheartened; but it was
really a bit venturesome to set forth in this manner without knowing
either how far we had to travel or where we were going to stay.
That mood, however, did not last long. The people were very friendly.
They gave us their own bed and they themselves went to sleep in the loft;
and when they had all gone up and we were alone I am sure I did not
regret having come along. Vilhelm took the tallow lamp and made a careful
examination of the bed and sheets, and even spilled tallow on them in his
zeal. We slept very well on our straw and were wakened early the next
morning by the man of the house putting wood in the stove. Ingeborg came
down soon afterward and began her morning preparations; I hurried to
dress myself before the men came down --- one must watch his chance.
We have had beautiful sunshine today. In the forenoon, accompanied by
Baard, we first went to the nearest neighbor, whom we found in the midst
of housecleaning. {24} From there we went to another cabin and came into
a little, low room, where there was a stench of snuff and tobacco that
was almost unbearable. Here we found, besides several children, two old
women in their mountain dress; the older of them was pounding snuff in a
wooden mortar with a trembling hand.
"I use snuff, I do, Father," she said and offered some in her hand.
Then she whispered to Baard to ask if this was indeed the pastor whom
they were waiting for. She was very happy when she heard that it was. She
is the oldest woman we have seen here, almost eighty, and came three or
four years ago. She is very active for her age and has two sons here; one
of them was the man we met on the road yesterday. Her daughter-in-law
came in, too, and wanted us to stay and have coffee, but we did not do
so. It was wonderful to get outside and away from that smell of snuff.
From here we walked down one steep hill and up another to a cabin on the
other side of the valley. Here we encountered a woman and a number of
children in a little log house with no partition between the loft and the
lower room; everything, however, had a clean and neat appearance. All the
children, from the largest to the smallest, were so clean it was a
delight to see them; it is really very seldom that they are not smeared
with that everlasting molasses that they eat. We had come a long way, and
it was heavy walking in the deep snow with the smooth buffalo shoes; I
slipped continually, fell down a couple of times, and had to listen to
Vilhelm laugh, and poke fun at me too, because, as he said, I got so
cross.
It is beautiful here, very hilly, with woods in abundance; on the horizon
one sees the bluffs along the Mississippi. Along the river it is not so
pleasant as here, although more picturesque. I was glad to reach home and
get a little of the good milk that Ingeborg always has on hand.
The service is to be held here tomorrow; so they have been busy arranging
everything and getting the seats ready. It is now late evening; Vilhelm
is occupied with his sermon for tomorrow. This year will soon be at an
end --- this year which has been so rich in experience and of so much
significance for us both. God grant that the new year, which we shall now
begin in this foreign country, may be a blessing both to ourselves and to
others!
My pen has been resting a little, while I sat thinking of Father and all
the dear ones in our distant native land; and I am sure we have been
constantly in their thoughts this evening. On such occasions they are
doubly missed. May God bless this year for them too! Last year I began
the new year clad in bobbinet, dancing away with roses in my hair. This
year I am sitting here with Vilhelm in this bare room, where tomorrow he
is to conduct divine services for all these people who so long have
lacked a pastor. Still, this is best.
<17> Bergensk is a dialect spoken by the natives of Bergen, Norway.
<18> Emigranten was one of the earliest of the Norwegian-language
newspapers. It was published at Inmansville, Wisconsin, 1852-57, and at
Madison, Wisconsin, 1857-68.
<19> The brother was probably Ola Katterud, whose family was sharing the
Nils Katterud cabin. For a note on the Ola Katterud family, see footnote
2 to this chapter.
<20> Liv Katterud (1795,-1861) was Nils's wife. The original tract for
the parsonage was eighty acres, the east half of the northwest quarter of
Section 12, Springfield Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa.
<21> Paint Creek is in Allamakee county, east of Waukon, Iowa. It runs
through present-day Waterville. The Norwegians arrived there in 1850 and
settled to the north of the creek. In all their early records and in Mrs.
Koren's diary it is referred to as Painted Creek.
<22> Sivert (Sjur) Vold, a native of Voss, Norway, his wife Ingeborg, and
his family arrived in the Paint Creek settlement in 1850; I. Rudolph
Gronlid, "The Beginnings of Norwegian Settlements in Iowa," 41. This is a
manuscript thesis submitted for the degree of master of arts at the State
University of Iowa in 1928. A copy is in the library of Luther college.
<23> The county seat of Allamakee County is now Waukon. A vossing is a
native of Voss, Norway
<24> Baard was Sivert Vold's son.
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