Also includes Holden Church Program, 1906.]]>
Oral interview by Sandra Hendrickson with Ole Foss available online here. ]]> ]]> Papers, photographs and letters acquired from the Gudrun Andersen Rawlins estate (Minneapolis, Minn., 2012).

Include:
  • Certificate of naturalization for Jonas Anton Andersen and spouse Mina Anderson (1914)
  • Inspection card/vaccinated (Mina Knashaug, 1909);
  • Third class passage on the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad (1909)
  • divorce decree for Berit Iversdatter Rosenberg & Johan Edvard Rosenberg (1922)
  • recipe notebook
  • obituary Knut Stormoen (1963)
  • War Rations Book (1942)
  • Mortgage deeds
  • Correspondence (40+) to and from Jerome "Jerry" Rawlins. He ended his life in 1972 while serving a sentence at the Stillwater, Minnesota prison.
  • Correspondence (20+) from John Rawlins, serving time at the Minnesota State juvenile Reformatory, Glen Lake and St. Cloud, Minn.
  • Correspondence (40+) from Linda Rawlins, Home School for Girls, Sauk Centre, Minnesota
  • Miscellaneous Correspondence.
    • Includes clippings regarding robbery of jewelry store owned by J.E. Berg (1935) and letter from Berg (1929)
  • Images, mostly unidentified and many from Norway
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Biography/History: 

Tilda Akersmyr Tofteland was born November 21, 1896 in Lyngdal, Vest Ager, Norway, to Alfred Finkelsen Akersmyr and Rakel Reime Akersmyr. She attended school in Lyngdal and Framnes, and worked as a secretary until her marriage on April 4, 1925 to Reinert Tofteland. In May 1925, the couple came to Luverne, Minnesota where they farmed near Kanaranzi, Minnesota until 1958. She was a prolific writer of poems and articles, and composed many songs. She painted numerous watercolor and oil paintings. She was a charter member of the Agderlag and served as secretary for 25 years. 

Scope and content: 

Tofteland family papers of Luverne, Minnesota. Includes family history by Jenny Lindland, "Mine Minner" (1985); bunad histories and depictions (collected by Rose Tofteland Johnson), including paper dolls; and general clippings regarding the Vikings. Additional files contain extensive writings, mainly poetry (notebooks, manuscript and published) by Tilda Akersmyr Tofteland; newspaper articles by and about Tilda Akersmyr Tofteland; writings by Lily Tofteland Hartmann, photographs and correspondence. Audio recordings, circa 1950-1960.


Access to digitized materials available here. If you have trouble accessing the files, please contact the archivist.
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Sandberg/Kjos family papers (descended from Johan Olaf Sandberg (1829-1872) and Tolline Thronsdatter Vestre Midsem (1830-1882). Files include (1) 18+ letters dating from 1884 to 1889 from Caroline (1861-1902) to brother John Sandberg (1866-1942); Norwegian documents; photograph album; land records (Mohall, North Dakota, and Miami, Florida where John owned Quail Lodge, a 5-acre citrus grove); and family genealogy. Caroline immigrated in 1884 and worked as a domestic in St. Paul. She married Christian Andersen Kjos in 1889, McIntosh, Polk County, Minnesota. Caroline died in childbirth; 5 children survived. John apprenticed as a seaman in 1883, immigrating to America in 1900 and settling first in Polk County, Minnesota and later Mohall, North Dakota.
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Early accounts as told by grandparents (23)
Buffalo (24)
Diphtheria (25,37)
Cheating/swindling in real estate, livestock (24)
E.A. Hjelle (25)
Indians/Native Americans (26)
Wagon trains or "movers" and those that died (28, 37)
Corn husking contest (32)
Haugians (34, 52)
Norwegian folk and ghost tales/supernatural (34)
Wine making, wedding practices (34)
story of a boy sleeping/sex with his girlfriend (35)
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean/food dwindling (35)
Plow, yoke Oxen, flower and garden seeds as a wedding gift (36)
Homemade clothes (36)
Panther, diseases, crops, and farming equipment (38)
Log houses (40)
Quarantine (44)
Lightening striking house (45)
Halley's Comet (46)
Winter woodcutting (47)
Having to wear high-buttoned girl shoes to school (48)
Moccasins worn by Norwegians (49)
Gopher snaring/trapping (50)
Dancing and folk gaming (53)
Grave digging and stories associated (54)
Horses (55)
Olness compiled a Norwegian-English dictionary, created to teach his own children the Norwegian language. Olness stated, "the primary purpose of this compilation is to provide a dictionary that will be quick, easy, precise and representative. In particular to those Americans of Norwegian extraction who wished not only to learn the Norwegian language but, also are interested in Norwegian history and literature. ...included with it are dialects, variations, modern and English words which have been incorporated into the Norwegian vocabulary. Also included are some Norwegian-American coined words."
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Includes:

Family pedigree and family notes/missives transcribed
Letter from Lars O. Aasen written in Newburgh, Trail County, Dakota Territory, 1879 November 28
In this letter he writes, "I am working at Knudt Larsons for my board. I have two cows of my own. I have gotten twenty acres broke on my land, and if we get a good crop next summer I will sit fine."
Notes on Paul Thompson and Helga Aasen who left Albert Lea in a covered wagon heading to the Red River Valley]]>