The Valdres House

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Vesterheim

The Valdres

Compiled by Charlie Langton from the research and writings of

Wayne and Dorothy Johnson

T

he building that traveled farthest to Vesterheim stands at the center of the museum’s Open Air Division, its striking Norwegian-red siding, forestgreen trim, and double entry doors immediately attracting the attention of visitors. Now called the Valdres House because it was constructed in Valdres, a region in eastern Norway, the house was located on the Moahaugen farm in an area of Valdres known as Øystre [East] Slidre, within the village of Heggenes and adjacent to Heggenes fjord, not far from Fagernes. Valdres is famous for the breathtaking beauty of its hills and mountains, forests and valleys, lakes and rivers. It is a region dotted with small communities and historic stave churches, each possessing its own stories, history, and traditions.

The house was a perfect addition to Vesterheim’s Open Air Division. Built in the eighteenth century (circa 1795), it is typical of a landowner’s home. It epitomizes ideas and traditions that are not only central to the lives of many Norwegian Americans, but which also enrich and enliven the larger American mosaic. The house illustrates the way many people in Norway lived during the decades of large-scale emigration. It is connected to both east and west Norway in that it stood close to the main road between Bergen and Oslo. And it is also part of the story of Norwegian immigration to America, for five children born in the house eventually came to the United States and Canada. In its new setting it helps compare and contrast lifestyles in the Old World and the New. The Valdres House is not merely a building. It is a place where we may reflect on who we were and who we have become.

Ingebjørg was born there, so extensive documentation was available. Kolbein Dahle of the Valdres Folk Museum in Fagernes supervised the dismantling of the house in 1974 and supplied carpenters to reconstruct the building in Decorah in the summer of 1975. The house was shipped with the generous assistance of Al Johnson, of Sister Bay, Wisconsin.

Accompanying the house were most of the major pieces of furniture, including a sideboard dating back to when the home was first built. The Valdres House was dedicated at Vesterheim on October 7, 1977.

The relocation of the Valdres House was made possible through the generosity of Carrie Hovland in honor of her parents, Jens Oluf and Anne Swenes Hovland. Contributions also were made by communities throughout Norway and by Esther Kjorstad, Laura Esch, and other Norwegian Americans of Valdres origin.

How the House Came to Vesterheim At the museum’s request, popular Norwegian painter Sigmund Aarseth conducted an extensive investigation and selected the Valdres House for Vesterheim’s Open Air Division. Aarseth’s in-laws lived in the house and his wife J.C. Dahl, Hjelle i Valdres, 1850. Courtesy of Scandinavian Specialities, Hudson, Wisconsin.

Opposite: Valdres House in Vesterheim’s Open Air Division.

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Torstein and Ingebjørg Moen. Vesterheim Archives— Valdres House Collection.

The House in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Torstein Kristoffersen Rudi Moen, a farmer and carpenter, married Ingebjørg Syversdotter and purchased Moahaugen in 1866. He later added a forstue (covered front entry) to the house. Two letters to Beth Hoven Rotto of Decorah, Iowa, from Ingebjørg Aarseth, great-granddaughter of Torstein, are filled with important information about life at Moahaugen. In one she writes about the construction of the house: We think the covered front entry was not part of the original house, but rather added later as a place to hang outdoor clothing.

It was probably divided on one side by a farmhouse cupboard used for storing food. I believe the cellar dates to my great-grandfather’s time, since the stone walls were so high.1

When I wrote about what they had to eat I must not forget the fish from the fjord. It had much meaning for them.

What they didn’t eat fresh, they could salt down to rakfisk (partially fermented) and then have it for Christmas and all the way through the winter. In addition they had a sætre where they went with the animals in the summer and where the girls were instructed in work as they were growing up.

Mother told that they had something they called [a] “slo” in the river there (a type of trap), which the fish swam into, and they had to keep checking that. Whenever the river was high, grandma moved them to a place where they got large fish from good fishing water farther in.5 Combining family history and personal memory, Aarseth is able to describe the furnishings typical of such a house: By the seat of honor was a corner cupboard, which either stood on the bench or hung on the wall above it. The seat of honor was a bench attached to the wall, often with extra carving on the endpiece. It could extend all the way to the traditional cupboard. The bed was certainly short and wide and large enough for two or three persons. There was also a fairly wide bench with a removable top and a trundle bed beneath. It could be pulled out breadthwise to make extra sleeping room for the children. In the morning the trundle was pushed back in and the top replaced, and it served again as a

The house has three rooms: the main room with the fireplace, which served as the primary living space; a front side room called a “washroom,”similar to a grovkjøken, where cheese was made and food was preserved; and a rear side room which, according to Ingebjørg Aarseth, “was probably filled with as many sleeping places as possible.”2 In this house, from 1867 to 1880, six children were born to Torstein and his wife.3 All but one child emigrated to America. Aarseth also writes about her great-grandfather, Torstein, and describes what life must have been like at Moahaugen for generations: Torstein Kristoffersen Rudi... came from Rudi in Skammestien, was born in 1837,4 and they probably took the farm name Moen later. ...Torstein Kristoffersen was also a carpenter, so in addition to the farm work, he did a lot of work around town. Later, when he was older, he had a workbench in the house where he carried on coopering of all types of wooden vessels…

North of the house stood a barn and they had a few animals.

Most likely there couldn’t have been more than 3 to 5 cows, but they perhaps had a pig or a couple of sheep. Therefore they had milk, from which they could make butter and cheese, [and] meat and pork. It was preferably salted and dried in the stabbur. The storehouse, which stood above the hut, still stands back of us and it is still in use for storing and drying of smoked ham and smoked meats. It has two floors and two small rooms upstairs, which now are used in the summer for overnight guests. Perhaps it was used the same way in the old days because there must have been many people at Moahaugen in those days.

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Above, large cupboard, or framskap, circa 1795, no known maker.

Probably part of the original inventory of Moahaugen. Vesterheim 1978.035.001—Purchase from the Valdres Folk Museum.

Opposite, section of the main room in the Valdres House as it is today.

Vesterheim

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seat. It was a simplified version of what we today call a sofa bed. It was often painted red and was moved around depending on where there was room for it. I believe it often stood in an adjacent side room…

My grandparents had a fold-down table mounted on the wall between the fireplace and the bed, and it probably came to Decorah with the house. It could be quite old.

As for lighting—the museum staff knows more about that than I do. I do not know when they began using petroleum lamps… Before that, light was provided by burning pitchpine chips on a vented shelf built into a vertical interior wall of the fireplace.

The fireplace was the only source of heat in those days.

Later, a stove, which was used for cooking and heating, was placed adjacent to the fireplace and was vented into the fireplace chimney. I do not know when they began using cast iron stoves, but I suppose it was before 1900.

I imagine they had either wooden or pottery dishes, and in the room used for storage of milk and dairy products there were probably wooden containers of different types for milk, cheese, butter, etc.6 One of Torstein’s sons, Nils, started a general store in the house in 1897. Later, he built a store across the road and used the house exclusively as a dwelling. He became a successful Heggenes businessman. Nils’s son Knut later took over the business and his son Torstein took over the farm.

Ingebjørg Aarseth writes: Nils Torsteinson… went to business school in Fagernes for seven years, and he also started his own business in Heggenes in 1898. He married Ragnhild Kjorli, and they also lived at Moahaugen until they had built a new house above the state highway. So both my mother and her oldest sister were born at Moahaugen. Then there were also two generations who lived in their house [Nils Torsteinson’s family and his parents]. In 1902 they moved both their home and the store to the new building, so the elders were alone at Moahaugen, but mother told that she remembers that they were with them and did much work there. They were also with them every Christmas Eve as long as they lived. Torstein died in 1925 and Ingebjørg in 1919.

I assume that later the house was empty periodically, but mother and father lived there for a while after they were married, so I was also born there. After Nils (grandpa) turned over the store to his son, they moved to Moahaugen. The oldest son, Torstein, took over the farm and the other son Knut took over the business. He built a new business and house in 1950 south of the old one, which he still operates. Torstein died a couple years ago, so the farm is now taken over by the daughter and son-in-law. Grandma and grandpa lived at Moahaugen all the way until after grandpa died in 1958, so I have many good memories of how cozy it was to visit them in the old house.7 The Immigrant Legacy It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to leave the sights and sounds of the peaceful area of Valdres, forsaking the small farms in the valleys and the summer farms in the mountains. Yet for children growing up in Norway during the 18

Valdres House interior in Norway, showing the fireplace-stove arrangement, above; and the arrangement as it is today, below. Notice the fold-down table referred to by Ingebjørg Aarseth: in the upper photograph, it is on the rear wall, hanging unused above a smaller table, and in the lower photograph, it is folded down for use.

Vesterheim

Guri and Kristoffer Moen, right, and their friends Mr. and Mrs. Rogne, at a silver wedding anniversary celebration, probably for the Moens, but, given the interesting arrangement of the photograph, possibly for both couples, 1913. Mrs. Rogne had written Guri Moen in Norway urging them to emigrate. Vesterheim Archives—Valdres House Collection.

Kari and Tollef Moen, charcoal renderings using photographs.

Vester-heim Archives—Valdres House Collection.

late 1800s and the early 1900s, staying in their homeland was difficult, as jobs were unavailable. Therefore, many families were torn apart as children and siblings left to seek a bright future in a faraway land. Such was the case with the children of Torstein Kristoffersen and his wife Ingebjørg.8 Of Torstein and Ingebjørg’s children, four sons and one daughter eventually immigrated to North America.

The oldest brother, Kristoffer was born in 1867, immigrated to North Dakota in 1888, and in 1903 left for Canada in search of land near a cousin who had emigrated from Norway and settled in the Millet, Alberta, area. The move to Canada from North Dakota was by train, and took two nights and three days. At the time, trains had ‘immigrant cars’ that contained a kitchenette in one end and was shared by the other passengers. Food was brought along, or purchased along the road at the many long stops. Kristoffer’s wife, Guri, two daughters, and five sons made this move with him. The eldest son rode in a separate ‘settler’s car’ to take care of the livestock. The ‘settler’s car’ contained three horses; seven cows; one dog; a wagon and box; one light; topless wagon called a ‘democrat;’ a set of sleigh runners; one sixteen-inch breaking plow; and one sixteen-inch walking plow. The household

effects included one round kitchen table with wings, chairs,one heater, one kitchen stove, a rocking chair, one kitchen sideboard, one living room sideboard with bookcases, and a writing desk with drawers. Kristoffer Moen prospered as a farmer in Canada and died there in 1949. His wife, Guri, died in 1948. Øystein Moen, who later changed his name to Austin, was born in 1871 and emigrated in 1888 along with his brother, Kristoffer, to Medford Township, North Dakota, where an aunt lived. He later settled into farming in Nelson County, married, and with his wife Berit Jallo Moen, raised two children, a son, Thorbein, and a daughter, Ida. In 1915 he returned to Norway for a visit. In 1918 he left his farm and moved into Fordville. He died in 1937 and his wife, Berit, died in 1939. Apparently Kristoffer and members of his family would drive from Canada to visit Øystein. Years later, in conversations with other relatives, members of Øystein’s family revealed that they were impressed with the fine clothes and automobiles of their Canadian relatives.

Jon Moen, who was born in 1881, left Norway on April 1, 1904, and followed Kristoffer to Canada, where he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and lived in employee housing. He and his wife had two children, Tim and Inga, but the children both died in their 20s and 30s. Neither married.

It is unclear exactly what became of Gudbrand. He was born in 1878. Stories indicate that he stayed in Norway until about 1915 and worked as a civil servant with the post office in Heggenes. He became dissatisfied with his job and left for Canada without his children. One of his sons, Sigurd, lived with his Uncle Jon and stayed with him and his wife until they both died. Sigurd went to Canada on February 5, 1930, looking for his father, but he never found him, although Sigurd discovered that Gudbrand had been alive in Wetaskwin in 1925, when he signed a power-of-attorney document and returned it to his brother Nils in Norway after the death of their father. On that document Gudbrand had signed his name as Gilbert. Sigurd went back to Norway in about 1962 for a visit, intending to return to Canada, but stayed there until he died, in about 1967.

Kari married Tollef Moen, also from Heggenes, and remained in Heggenes with her three young children while her husband went to Polk County, Wisconsin, with his brother, Knute, to work in the forests. Later, in 1904, she joined him in Wisconsin. In 1906 a daughter, Ida, was born and the family moved to Wood County, Wisconsin, where they farmed near Arpin. Tollef augmented his income by contracting with the county to maintain the rural roads. He also had a blacksmith shop not far from his farmhouse, and there he used the blacksmith skills he had learned in Norway from his father.

When Kari and Tollef first settled on their farm near Arpin, their neighbors were mainly from Norway. The community of farmers soon constructed a small frame Lutheran church that served the community for nearly 50 years. Kari and Tollef built a two-story home, and the large kitchen became a center for delicious meals, social activities for family and neighbors—and household chores such as washing and ironing, using the wood stove to heat the large tub of water and, later, the iron to press clothes.

Numerous recollections from their children and few

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The Valdres House in Norway. Vesterheim Archives—Valdres House Collection.

grandchildren related stories of love and attention. Kari and Tollef had a practice of taking turns serving coffee in bed to each other upon rising in the morning. Grandma Moen, as she was called, would take delight in going out to the milk house in the evening and skimming some cream from the milk cans and providing a special treat to visiting grandchildren.

She took particular pride in her special pieces of china and crystal. She would prepare favorite birthday desserts for her grandchildren, and Norwegian lefse and potato pancakes when large gatherings would come to the house. She was an active participant in the Ladies Aid organization, and would take her visiting granddaughters along with her to the meetings in neighboring homes.

Her children would walk down the gravel road to the rural elementary school. When she wished to travel to Marshfield to shop, she and her youngest daughter, Ida, would often walk through the fields to a railroad crossing called “Spur” and take the train into town. When asked, she would talk a bit about the “old country,” and related stories about her voyage to America. She told of the kindness of a fellow passenger in England who assisted her with her three young children and their meager possessions as they boarded the ship to America after the trip from Oslo.

She confided that she learned English by reading the comic strip Boots in the Marshfield News Herald. She would write to her children in Norwegian and would share with her grandchildren the letters she received from Canada. She would speak in Norwegian and English to her children, but always in English to her grandchildren. She loved to read, and she subscribed to National Geographic for many years. It was not unusual for her to send books to her grandchildren as birthday gifts.

She was meticulous about her appearance, and would spend much time combing her long grey hair to wind it up on top of her head, held in place by a small ivory comb. She was 20

a serious churchgoer and insisted that her children and grandchildren be baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran church. If she was ever dissatisfied with her decision to go to America, it was never made public in any way. She never returned to Norway, nor, as far as is known, did her husband.

Tollef died in 1939, and Kari lived until 1957. They are buried in the Slidre Cemetery in the Mill Creek area in rural Wood County, Wisconsin. These Valdres emigrants continued many of their Thomeland traditions as they made the transition to an American culture. They built churches where they worshipped together and where their children and grandchildren were baptized and confirmed along with their Norwegian neighbors. Wives and daughters came together in Ladies Aid meetings to socialize and work on various projects.

The families acquired property, built houses and schools, and entered local politics. They planted beautiful gardens and orchards, and raised horses, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens. They gathered often with their neighbors for dances, Norwegian fiddle playing, and other social activities.

They bought farm machinery, automobiles, pianos, furniture, and fancy dishes, and dressed themselves and their children in attractive store-bought clothes. It is quite significant that they made all of these transitions and acquisitions in a remarkably short time.

In spite of distance and the difficulties of travel, these families kept in touch by exchanging letters and photographs.

There were social events and family gatherings at which Valdres traditions were observed and handed down.

Immigrants made contacts in a more formal way through organizations called bygdelag, founded by Norwegian Americans who came from the same regions in Norway.

The oldest of these organizations is the Valdres Samband, which began its activities in 1899 and today still holds annual meetings where there are significant opportunities for genealogical research. The Valdres Samband’s publication, Budstikken, provides an endless array of photos, stories, and reports of the membership’s activities.

Vesterheim

Endnotes 1 Letter from Ingebjørg Aarseth to Beth Hoven Rotto, June 12, 1978. Translated by Jim Skurdall. Vesterheim Archives—Valdres House Collection.

2 Letter from Ingebjørg Aarseth to Beth Hoven Rotto, November 28, 1977. Translated by Beth Hoven Rotto. Vesterheim Archives— Valdres House Collection.

3 Wayne Johnson, “The Valdres House The Children Who Came to America,” Budstikken, Vol. 31, Number 3, May 200l.

4 In some sources this date is listed as 1836.

5 Letter from Ingebjørg Aarseth, November 28, 1977.

6 Letter from Ingebjørg Aarseth, June 12, 1978.

7 Letter from Ingebjørg Aarseth , November 18, 1977.

8 Wayne Johnson, “The Valdres House The Children Who Came to America,” Budstikken, Vol. 31, Number 3, May 200l. Much of the following information and language is taken directly from this article and is used with permission from both Budstikken and the author.

About the Authors

Kari Moen’s eightieth birthday, May 1955, La Crosse Wisconsin.

Pictured, from left to right, Ida Moen Johnson (Kari’s daughter), Kari Moen, Penelope Johnson (Kari’s great-grandaughter), and Margaret Moen Brieske (Kari’s daughter). Vesterheim Archives—Valdres House Collection. Donor: Wayne E. Johnson.

Wayne and Dorothy Johnson, Farmington, Missouri, have a personal connection to the Valdres House, for it was the home of Wayne’s maternal grandmother, Kari Moen, before she emigrated from Norway. This connection has led them to finance a full-color brochure on the house and establish an endowment fund for its ongoing upkeep and interpretation. Their commitment to the Valdres House has expanded to embrace all of Vesterheim’s Open Air Division. They have funded interpretive signs for all the buildings and sponsored this special Open Air Division issue of Vesterheim. Their fervent hope is that others will join them by creating endowments for the other buildings.

Help Preserve the Architecture of Immigration On Vesterheim’s campus, visitors encounter history in a dramatic and personal way by stepping out of the present into actual environments of the past.

Help us continue to provide this powerful experience of our immigrant heritage by contributing to the Valdres House Endowment or by establishing an endowment for one of our other historic buildings.

Send your contributon today to: Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum Attn: Valdres House Endowment 523 W. Water Street, Decorah, IA 52101 or for more information contact the Development Office by calling 563-382-9681. .

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