NORWAY-L Archives

From: Neil A Hofland< >
Subject: Uncle Rasmus - 108 - 111
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 10:57:00 +0000

Hi All,

(Uncle Rasmus continues telling what happened to all the Sloopers.)

Andrew (Endre) Dahl settled in Kendall, N.Y. Came thence to La Salle
county, Ill., in 1834. There he married the widow of Sven Aasen, Endre
Dahl is remembered as the cook on board the sloop. His sons went to
Texas in an early day and became experts in capturing wild horses. In
the fifties, Andrew Dahl himself went to Salt Lake City in Utah, where he
died. I have recently learned that one of his sons is still living in
Utah, and his grandson, A. S. Anderson, born in Utah, was recently a
member of the Utrah constitutional convention.

Of Nels Thompson, I have already given some account. He was a brother of
Oyen Thompson and married the widow of the latter in Rochester, in 1827.
He removed to La Salle county, Ill., in 1834, and died there in July,
1863.

Andrew Stangeland bought in Kendall in 1825, and immediately married an
American girl, by name Miss Susan Cary. It is said that he married her
before he had learned to speak English. He afterwards sold his land to
Ole H. Aasland and got in exchange for it a tract of land that Ole
Aasland owned in Noble county, Ind. I am informed that Andrew Stangeland
died in Indiana, but his son, Andrew J. Stangeland, is now living in
Kendall, N.Y.

Lars Olson, the captain of the sloop, married Rachel, the daughter of
Thomas Madland, and settled in New York probably as a sailor. I am
informed that both he and his wife died in New York many years ago.

The mate, Mr. Erikson, wome say went back to Bergen in Norway, while
others calim that he, too, remained in New York.

I have saved the slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt, for tha last because I
have a long story to tell about one of his sons. He was born in the
northern part of Stavanger Amt in Norway, where he had been a school
teacher. He went first to Kendall and thence to Niagara Falls, where he
found employment in a paper mill, and while living there he married an
American lady by name Miss Chamberlain. Mrs. Inger Mitchell has informed
me that she as a young girl lived about a year with Hetletvedt's family
at Niagara Falls. After coming to this country he dropped the name
Hetletvedt and signed himself as Ole Olson. Ole Olson Hetletvedt came
west, and settled first in La Salle county and afterwards near Newark, in
Kendall county, Illinois, where he died about the year 1849. He became
widely known in the early days of our Norwegian settlements as a bible
agent and as a most efficient lay preacher of the Haugian school. Of his
gospel meetings I shall have occasion to speak in the latter part of this
volume. Ole Olson's first wife died early and he married another
American woman, a widow, but I have not been able to secure an further
facts in regard to her. Two of Ole Olson's brothers come to America in
1836. One was Knud Olson Hetletvedt , who was born on the farm
Hetletvedt in Stavanger Amt, April 21, 1793. He settled as a farmer in
Mission, La Salle county, and lived there until he died in the cholera
epidemic on August 12, 1849. He left 5 children Ole*, Søren, John,
Sophia and Bertha. Ole and his 2 sisters live in Norway, Benton county,
Iowa, and the other 2 in Illinois. John is married to a daughter of Beach
Fellows. The other brother was Jacob Olson Getletvedt. He went to Sugar
Creek settlement in Lee county, Iowa, where he died August 12, 1857. His
widow married Sven Kjylaa, and with him she moved to the Fox River
settlement. Her second husband died there recently, but she is said to
be still living at a very advanced age.

(Note that there was an " * " following Ole above. That was to call
attention to a sort of footnote Uncle Rasmus wrote as follows:

*Since the above was written, I have had a letter from Ole Olson
Hetletvedt, the nephew of the slooper. He informs me that he was born at
Hetletvedt, Ombo, Stavanger Amt, April 12 1824. As a 12 year old boy he
emigrated to America with his partents and settled with them in Mission,
La Salle county, Ill., and lived there until 1865, when he moved to
Norway, Benton county, Iowa where he now resides. His brother Soren was
born December 30, 1835. He now resides in Livingston county Illinois.
John was born March 12, 1839, in Mission and now resides in Ford county,
Illinois. His sister Sophia was born in Norway, July 18, 1821, and his
sister Bertha, December 30, 1832. There was an older borther John who
was born April 8, 1830, and died September 5, 1836, at Rochester, N. Y.,
and then there was a sister Malinda, who was born May 12, 1827, and died
on Lake Michigan, September 10, 1836. Ole Olson's wife, Bertha Olson,
was born September 9, 1830, on the farm Valem, Aardal parish, Stavanger
Amt. They were married December 25, 1857. Their children are Sarah Ann,
born September 14, 1852 (married); Peter C. Olson, born April 21, 1854
(married); Sophia, born September 9, 1856; Edward, born May 14, 1859
(deceased); Charles P., born February 4, 1864 (deceased).

Ole Olson also informs me that his mother's name was Siri (Sigrid), and
that she was born January 13, 1793, and died from cholera August 3, 1849.
Mr. Olson also mentions Osmund Tuttle from Hjelmeland in Stavanger Amt
as coming to America in 1836. This Osmund was born in 1797, and died in
1880. The slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt, had a third brother by name
Lars. Lars Olson Hetletvedt started for America in 1830, but did not get
further than Hamburg (Germany), not having money enough to get to New
York. Twenty years later, in 1850, he emigrated and located in the Fox
River settlement, where he died about a year ago.)

(Thus endeth the footnote and this chapter. Kneel)

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• Uncle Rasmus - 108 - 111 by Neil A Hofland< >