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Browse Items (15419 total)
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Letter from Thor J. Benson to Carl G.O. Hansen, Chicago, Illinois, 1917 August 3
Letter from Thor J. Benson to Carl G.O. Hansen. -
Letter from Elias Bentson to Rasmus Meland, Stryn, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, 1947 October 22
Letter from Elias Bentson to Rasmus Meland -
Letter from Elias Bentson to Rasmus Meland, Stryn, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, 1948 February 1
Letter from Elias Bentson to Rasmus Meland -
Exhibit materials receipt for Mrs. M.H. Bentzen, circa 1925
List of materials Mrs. M.H. Bentzen of Minneapolis, Minnesota sent to the Norse-American Centennial. -
Exhibit materials receipt for Mrs. O.L. Berby, 1925
List of materials Mrs. O.L. Berby of Duluth, Minnesota sent to the Norse-American Centennial. -
Berdahl family autobiography, undated
In this document, Andrew and Erick Berdahl recount important events from their lives, beginning with their childhoods in Norway and ending around 1900, when they both had settled down and likely would have assumed that their living family members knew the story. The document is typewritten by James O. Berdahl, but told by Andrew and Erick, respectively. They write primarily about their travels, both to the United States and westward in later years. The main focus of the autobiography is the move to South Dakota and the beginning of their settlement there, dubbed the “Slip Up Creek” Settlement. There, they endured many harsh weather events, including multiple blizzards, years of grasshopper swarms, and floods. They also encountered other groups, and wrote frequently about the “Indians”. The Berdahl autobiography contains many important stories that mirror those found in O. E. Rolvaag’s Giants in the Earth, which was largely based on his having heard stories about the plains as told by Andrew Berdahl. Many big stories, such as the winter storm of 1880-81, and smaller details, such as the location of other settlements, are taken from Andrew and Erick’s accounts of their lives. The inspiration that Rolvaag gleaned from their stories is highly evident within this autobiography. -
Letter from Andrew Berdahl to the Ole Rølvaag family, 1924 November 30
Translation:
Sioux Falls, Nov. 30th 1924Dear children and grandchildren,
Your letter and the book “The Land-Taking” has been received and read. Great thanks for the book.
Oh yes, I know that Per Hansa and that Beret from the first year out here, many women stared until they were sick at this strange wilderness that they believed could never be inhabited, but this nesting did not last so long. Will get more about that Sörine and that Kjersti in the other part of the book.
James is reading it now and says that it is very interesting. It should also be more entertaining for the younger relatives and for us who have taken our part with that Per Hansa, that Hans Olsa, and Tönseten.
I should believe that this book will get raving sales in Norway. Here it will be too expensive; that’s one thing, and also that so many of our younger relatives cannot be bothered to read Norwegian.
I hope, then, that you get a little compensation for the great work.
I had decided to write you a letter on Thanksgiving, but then something got in the way. There are many things I am thinking of writing about, but when all is said and done it won’t be anything. There were a couple of sick people I was going to visit, and then the day went by. The one was old Ole Berdahl as an automobile driver drove by and disfigured him largely. The one leg was somewhat twisted and he got scratches on his head. But now after some 3 weeks’ time he is such that he is walking across the floor. But he has not been out yet.
It is only with the greatest vigilance that a pedestrian can come unscathed straight across the road.
Near Martha’s home a Mrs. Rogness was run over and killed a week ago.
She belonged to our congregation.
Now for two to three days I have struggled with a strong cold. Yesterday I had to stop at the office at dinner and it was hard for me to go home. Since I have mostly been in bed until this afternoon I feel well enough again, so I am hoping to be all good again tomorrow.
This evening we have a church service here in the church right by us, so I am thinking to go there. I don’t remember when I have managed to drop a church service because of sickness, but today I didn’t dare go out.
Have just this morning heard from Minneapolis that Martha Thompson’s baby died yesterday, and that Martha is very poorly herself. You all have well heard that her father and mother are up there at their place. It seems to be smallpox. The mother is quarantined with them, but Herman is at Prof. Hel’s place.
With a heartfelt greeting from Grandfather
[Along the side]
Just heard that Martha has written to Jennie today, so I won’t say any more this time.
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Letter from Andrew Berdahl to Ole Rølvaag, 1924 December 3
Translation of Andrew (Anders) Berdahl's letter to Ole Rolvaag:Sioux Falls, Dec. 3rd, 1924
Dear Mr. Rølvaag,
Yesterday I received your letter. I thank you for your birthday well-wishes,
and your questions regarding the October storm in 1880 I will answer the best I can.
Together with Ole and Anfin we drove and threshed for our neighbors that autumn. It was a rather rainy autumn, I do not believe anyone would say that we got to thresh every day. The earth was so soaked that it was especially hard to drag the machine around. But this day we were up north at that Per Nordlenning’s place (not Per Hansa, but a relative of his). I think we had threshed there one day, then we had a thatched roof to lie on, or straw to carry in on the floor to lie on at night. The morning of the 14th (I believe it was Friday) was dark and threatening with rain, and after breakfast, when it was getting light enough to begin working, it began to rain a little, so we stayed there throughout the forenoon and waited, thinking maybe it would stop. But instead it only increased. I stayed until the middle of the day, but then it began to snow instead, a little in the beginning, so that when I had gotten the machine covered, and all of the fixtures in the house or under a covering, I drove the horses and wagon home- the others had left before. The heavy snowfall increased. I do not believe I have ever seen such exceptionally big snowflakes; before I came the four miles home I had the wagon box half-full of wet snow. It was so far rather mild, such did it remain, wet snow as long as it was light out. Forming the working horses, I had a few-year-old foals and 3 cows. I left them in the barn, but some calves were out with Fathers’. Nobody could think about any strong cold front- much less a blizzard this time of year. I guess I thought that all this snow would become water the next day. In that thought we remained in good peace of mind for the night, and in the cellar where we lived we did not hear the terrible storm that had broken loose overnight, nor did we feel any cold before I opened the door in the morning on the 15th of October.
We always had some “twisted hay” inside and perhaps a spoon (this was a Sogning) so we fired up the stove, and indeed there was enough smoke that morning in the oven. After a light breakfast I bundled myself in winter clothes and then I was going out to find my calves, but it became another matter. Coming out through the door, the mass of snow came so strongly down over me that I began to lose my breath “gasping for my spirit”. I dared not let go of the wall of the house. Could not see a foot in front of me. I had to crawl inside again. One hour or so later I tried again with the same result, but the 3rd time I got myself free from the house, and got myself after many cold baths in the snow drifts down to Father, where we found our calves safe and sound in the corner, tight against his barn wall, a little leeward of the wind, but the little ones so snowed in that they had to dig them out with a spade and shovel. I do not know how cold it was, but it was terribly cold. The wet mass of snow was now like the finest flour, the whole day it stormed incessantly, not a glimmer of light to see, so it snowed like this, such that the mass that came the day before swirled around in the air. I would not have been able to come as far as to Father were it not for the trees I had planted, they were small then, but on the same ground as now. As evidence that the snow was finely ground and the wind strong, I can tell you that when I came home and began to take off my clothes, I was covered with snow, even in my undershirt. But a winter blizzard, that I had been outside for before, and keeping it warm in the cellar was not so difficult. Because of the dugout we were positively under a large snowdrift. From this time on I always had a shovel inside the house and it happened after that winter that I had to dig myself out by taking some snow in until I got an opening out. The 16th, which I think was Sunday, it was cleared up, but still rather cold, as if it was January. Now we got to see how it looked. The snow was heaped up in large snow drifts around the houses, and in our small forest groves, and in dugouts, otherwise on the flat prairie and on plowed land it could be quite little, just enough to cover the earth so that it did not freeze.
I had most of the potatoes still under the field. Gradually it softened, so that in a week’s time, most of the snow that was not in large snow drifts, melted away.
We got to dig up, I believe, about half of the potato-portion, the rest lay under a large snow drift that did not go away before the beginning of May the next spring, then we found our potatoes alright, under the mass of snow the ground had not frozen. I do not remember if the rest of it was very cold, but damp and bitter. I believe it was about 2 weeks before we could think about doing more threshing.
The machine had to be dug out of the snowdrift and the bundles that were to be threshed had to be gone over and the snow knocked off them. Yes, the outer tie had to be torn out and the snow shaken off them. This was done mostly the first week after the snow storm, I remember that we struggled through 3 to 4 jobs up there in the Nordlenning settlement.
But then we had to give up, as close as I remember around Dec. 1st. I cannot remember whether it snowed or rained the most in Nov, but it was just bitter, gray and overcast, and also impassable, all of the valleys filled with water. No time was mild enough that the large snow drifts diminished, but lay there, as they were stacked up on the 15th. My green stood unthreshed, and some of the others also until the end of May the next spring.
In the month of Dec. I remember that we got a lot of snow, and it was lying more evenly all over. There was thus almost no place where the land was frozen that winter. The heavy snowfall was there just as they were in both Dec. and January, but not worse than that both the driving roads and the one railroad that came into S. Falls were held roughly passable up until Feb. 7th. But then it was seriously stopped, because of the snow; it blew swiftly from the east one day and then from the west the next day from now until Apr. 4th. Then we had the last serious snowstorm of that winter.
But I will stop here.
This was indeed about the October storm and throughout November you wanted a message.
I find that my report is rather incoherent, but hope that you can pick out of this the facts that you wish to have.
When I get a little time I will write a little about this snowy winter’s hardships after, as I remember them.
I am now even in the best of health again, the others in the city are healthy.
With dearest regards,
Anders J. Berdahl
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Letter from Andrew Berdahl to Jennie Rølvaag, 1936 January 15
Andrew Berdahl's letter to his daughter Jennie Rolvaag. -
Letter from Andrew Berdahl to Ole Rølvaag, 1928 January 29
Andrew Berdahl's letter to Ole Rolvaag.