First Hand Perspectives of Haugeanism in America

A journal kept by an emigrant from Balestrand, Sogn, who came to the United States in 1853 and was ordained into the Ellings Synode in 1858. Original volume and photocopy. He served the Arendahl Congregation at Peterson, Minnesota, of the Hauge Synod, 1858-1896, and was pastor emeritus for the congregation until his death. He was President of the Hauge Synod, 1876-1887. The journal covers the everyday happenings in home, church and community during the year. The last entry tells of the death of his wife. A translation (28 typescript pages) was made in 1984 by Anna A. Boyum Lubbers, a grand-daughter of Arne E. Boyum.

Copies of 8 letters written from Faribault, Minnesota, to the Nels Jensen family of Hudson, Wisconsin, by an acquaintance and fellow immigrant from Mo i Rana. Anna worked for an Episcopal "prestefamilie," earning two dollars a week, and later for a school. Her letters tell of declining health, possibly tuberculosis. A letter from a Bertha Hauge informs the Jensens of Anna's death. Eriksen comments on church life and interdenominational strife and on her own preference for the "Haugianers." America differs greatly from Norway, she writes, and is difficult until one gets used to things. Nonetheless, she did not want to live in Norway again.

Miscellaneous records of a physician who was born at Ålesund, Norway, and who received his early education there and at the University of Oslo. He emigrated to the United States in 1889 and attended the medical school at the University of Minnesota, 1890-1895. He began to practice medicine in 1895, first at Martell, Minnesota, and later moved successively to Abercrombie, Fargo, and Rolla, North Dakota. A man of many interests, he worked tirelessly for the preservation of the Norwegian heritage of his countrymen in the New World. He helped establish Det norske selskap and Søndmørelaget and belonged to other Norwegian-American societies. He was instrumental in the erecting of monuments honoring famous Norwegians: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson at North Dakota Agriculture College, Henrik Wergeland at Island Park and Rollo of Normandy (Gange-Rolf), all at Fargo, North Dakota; Ivar Aasen and Hans Nielsen Hauge at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota; and Henrik Ibsen at Wahpeton, North Dakota. Dr. Fjelde came from a gifted family. His father, Paul Michelet Fjelde, a woodcarver, came to Chicago with his son Oswald in 1870. His brother, Jacob Fjelde (1859-1895) became a well-known sculptor whose works include a statue of Ole Bull in Loring Park and one of Hiawatha and Minnehaha in Minnehaha Park, both in Minneapolis. A sister, Pauline (1861-1923), was a painter and needlework artist, who had studied in France mastering the art of Gobelin tapestry weaving. Her most famous work is a Hiawatha tapestry. More information about the family is scattered throughout the collection, mainly in the scrapbooks.

Photocopies of pages 135-270 of the handwritten reminiscences of the wife of Professor Rud Gunnersen (1844-1904), who taught at Augsburg College, Minneapolis from 1874 to 1883. The memoir is a lively account of the interrelated lives of the Sverdrups, Oftedals, and Gunnersens, who occupied three apartments in the same house near the Augsburg campus. Elise Gunnersen found it difficult to adapt to life in Minneapolis, and her husband was not happy in his work at Augsburg. After leaving Augsburg the family spent a year at the Hauge Seminary in Red Wing, Minnesota. The Gunnersens returned to Norway in 1884, where Elise settled into a life that was more in accord with her background.

Papers of a Lutheran clergyman: correspondence, reports, letters of call, ordination papers, and the first diploma issued by Red Wing Seminary Department of Theology (1884). The correspondence deals with such topics as Red Wing Seminary and the union movement among Norwegian Lutheran synods. Hanson was president of Red Wing Seminary and also of the Hauge Synod. In 1912 he was named Knight, First Class, of the Order of St. Olaf.

Thomas Hanson was a son of ten Hanson (1836-1898. Emigrated from Sauherad, Telemark) who was the president of the Hauge Synod from1875-76 & 1887 to 1903, and who edited that synod's organ, "Budberen," from 1868 to 1876. He served a parish at Asplund, Goodhue County, Minnesota, from 1861 until his death. The family records include documents related to his father; to his mother, Anne Haaven Hanson (1844-1936); to a sister, Elise; and to himself and his children, such as diaries kept by Mrs. ten Hanson (1900-1911) and by Ernest Hansen, a journal by Henry Fremont Hanson, sermons and biographical notes by Thomas, and official papers related to emigration, citizenship, and real estate.

Born in Hegre, North Trondelag, Mona immigrated 1880. He attended Red Wing Seminary 1897-1905, and served churches in Mt. Vernon, S.D.; Grand Forks, N.D.; Toronto, S.D.; Newman Grove, Nebraska; and Chicago. He held various positions with the China Mission Board and the Hauge Indremissions forbund.