Helge Høverstad was born on March 15, 1870 in Vang, Valdris, Norway. His parents were Torger Anderson Høverstad (1834-1883) and Gjertrude Helgesdatter Leine (1843-1939). Together they had four other children besides Helge, including: Torgeir who emigrated to Minnesota, and Boye, Torstein, and Berit who all stayed in Norway. Helge immigrated in June 1892, first landing in Quebec, Canada. He first settled in Holden, Goodhue County, Minnesota where his uncles, Anders and Torstein, had settled.
Helge first went to the Hamar Seminary in Norway from 1887-1889, and then went on to study at the United Church Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1893-1896 (Now Augsburg University). From 1896-1897, he attended Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary. He served various congregations including: Elliot, Illinois (1897-1904); Perry, Wisconsin (1904-1909); and Sioux City, Iowa (1909-). He served on the board of the Foreign Missions and wrote for St. Petri tidende.
Helge’s father Torger was born to Anders Anderson Hoverstad Berit Hambre. He had four siblings: brothers Anders and Torstein (both settled in Holden, Goodhue Co., MN), and sisters Berit and Kari. Berit married Kristoffer Lockren (Wangs, Goodhue Co.), and Kari married Ole H. Leine (Vang, Norway). Helge’s mother Gjertrude was born to Helge Helgeson Leine and Gjertrud Boyesdatter. She had eight siblings: Helge, Ole, Boye, Ove, Erik, Nils, Karn (married Lars Lenie) and Berthe (Married Trond Hambre).
Helge’s brother Torstein, who stayed in Norway, conceived the idea of establishing a Norwegian teacher's college, and he worked actively from 1916 to 1922 to realize this idea through both the government and the Storting. He served as the publisher and editor of Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift (the Norwegian Journal of Education). Torstein’s son, Gunnar, was a Norwegian bomber pilot who was trained to fly in Canada at Camp Little Norway during World War I.
(Information gathered from Andrew Veblen’s book “The Valdris Book,” and from bibliography of Norwegian Lutheran pastors in the United States. Both available in the NAHA Archives.)
Scope and Content:
Papers of a Norwegian-born clergyman in the United Norwegian Lutheran Church in America (1897-1917), and in the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (1917-1945).
The papers consist largely of letters received by Høverstad, including a number from Gertrude Høverstad, his mother, and other Norway relatives, from Torgeir A. Høverstad, his cousin in America; from Kristine Haugen, zealous protagonist of Norwegian-American culture; from Hans C. Ness, Norwegian consular agent in Sioux City, Iowa.
The correspondence deals with personal problems of friends; with affairs of church foreign missions in China, Madagascar, and Africa; with church politics; with relation of church and state and with the use of Norwegian language during World War I; with hypnotism and spiritualism; with personal problems as land owner; with problems connected with settlement of Torgeir Høverstad’s estate; with Torstein Høverstad’s book “Skularne i Amerika og det Praktiske Liv;” with the Veblen family (mostly in the T.A. Høverstad folder); with Valdres Bygdelag, of which he was a founder.
Correspondents include Lars W. Boe, Olaf M. Norlie, Einar Haugen, Missionary Harold Martinson, Governor W.L. Harding (Iowa), Kirkesanger (Precentor) John O. Quale (Bishop Jens Pederson Schelderup, 1557-1582). There are occasional carbon copies of letters by Høverstad.
The papers also contain newspaper clippings concerning his ideas and activities; his poems, lectures, newspaper articles, including such titles as “Rationalismen, Historie og Historie Undervisning,” and “Address at Unveiling of Gjermund Høyme portrait in Valdres, Norway, 1923;” his autobiography, 1893; his mother’s autobiography, 1921; and many photographs.
]]>Scope and Content:
Short stories, novels, and poems in print and typescript by a Norwegian-born novelist, short story writer, poet, and editor.
Scope and Content:
Correspondence, a scrapbook, a biography, biographical notes and a diary of an Iowa-born teacher. Much of the material deals with life at the schools she served. She also spelled her surname Kittelsby.
Scope and Content:
A scrapbook, 10 volumes of correspondence (2,408 letters), 9 notebooks, and 43 pamphlets and addresses of a Norwegian-born physician, writer, and lecturer.
Scope and Content:
Correspondence, articles, reports, and clippings of a Norwegian-born journalist, diplomat, and financier. The correspondence includes dispatches to the United States Department of State and letters concerning American interests in Uruguay and Paraguay, national political problems, Norwegian settlement, and investment opportunities. Among the correspondents are William Jennings Bryan, Gilbert N. Haugen, Nils P. Haugen, E. H. Hobe, Hanna Astrup Larsen, Medill McCormick, Knute Nelson, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, and William Howard Taft. Primary election reform, patriotism of the Scandinavian press.
Carl enrolled for military training at the University of Washington (1917-1918), but performed the bulk of his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in German and history. From 1922-1924 he held a teaching fellowship at the University of California and was selected to assist Carlton J.H. Hayes of Columbia University. Eventually Carl went to NEw York for higher education. Columbia University awarded him a fellowship in 1924 and a lectureship in history in 1925.
Starting in 1935 Carl worked at the National Archives. He was an active member in the Society of American Archivists, American Historical Association, Minnesota Historical Society, Norwegian American Historical Association, and many others. At the time of his passing in 1960, he was on the editorial board of Norwegian-American Studies. Carl was married to Laura Wendt Lokke.
A biography on Carl Lokke was published by H.B. Fant and reprinted by the American Archivist (Society for American Archivists), Vol. 23, No. 3, 1960 July.
Scope and Content:
Articles, clippings, correspondence, diaries, maps, notes, and photographs collected by an archivist, author, and educator. The material concerns the Lars Gunderson family, and the career of the Monitor Gold Mining and Trading Company of Alaska. The papers formed much of the basis for Klondike Saga, by Lokke, published posthumously by NAHA in 1965.
Scope and Content:
Bulletins, catalogs, reports, clippings, programs, brochures, and directories.