Ingeborg O. Bergeim diaries, 1850-1987

A collection of 52 notebooks (3,500 pages), which constitute the daily records of a woman from Surnadal who emigrated to the U.S. in 1880, married Peter Bergeim and settled with him in Watertown, Dakota Territory. The first diaries are written in Norwegian, but beginning in 1903 are in English. They are quite introspective, covering her thoughts and her personal and family life. There are accounts of the Atlantic crossing and of an attempt at homesteading. The diaries were discovered by her son Joseph Bergeim (b. 1894), who translated the story of her early married life into a manuscript called "Ingeborg's Story," 1944. This work also includes a genealogy, a chronology of important events, Peter Bergeim's own autobiography, some family pictures, and a summary of the diaries.