Torger Knutsen HOUGEN

1833 - 1916  (82 years)

• Name	Torger Knutsen HOUGEN
  Birth	24 Mar 1833	Jørstadhaugen 36/8 Øs
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	farmer sjekk Hougen boka
  Death	15 Feb 1916	Manitowoc Co., WI. USA
  Notes	Deltok i borgerkrigen Compaies E og H. 19th Regt. WI 1864-1865. When Torger Knudsen reached confirmation age (a time of passage in the old Norwegian culture) he aspired to be a farmer, but as fourth son his chances of bedoming a bonde by inheritance were remote. According to one source, he left the Ostre Slidr e ga'rd to work on a commercial fishing vessel. But 20-year-old Torger Knudsen soon decidet to try his luck in America. He filed for permission to emigrate, receiving it on April 1, 1853, with thirteen other Valdres men. Torger made the long Atlantic passage, entering North America through Queb ec. He stepped ashore at Manitowoc on June 18, 1853, buying land in the present town of Liberty some fifteen months later. His letters home were apparently enthusiastic, for his brother Ole Knudsen followed in 1857. Torger Knudsen and Anne Olsdatter left Valdres, a mountain vallez in Norway, to join a growing Norwegian settlement in Manitowoc Country, arriving in 1853 and 1854, respectively. Perhaps they knew one another in Norway, for they came from neighbor ing communities. They married in 1857, then created from wilderness a prosperous farm and raised a remarkable family of ten children. Their success was influenced by habits of mind and behavior acquired in Norway, so we begin our account with a br ief look at the elders* native country. Land of the Midnigth Sun Norway occupies the western side ot the Scandinavian peninsula, extending about 1,100 miles from north to south, but the length of the rugged coastline, following the fjords, is an astounding, 12,000 miles. There are about 150,000 coastal islands , onlz 2,000 of them inhabited. The western islands provide a barrier that protects the navigable north-south coastal waterway from which Norway draws its name. On the extreme northeast, above the long eastern boundary with Sweden, Norway joins Ru ssia and Finland. The country's northern and southern extremes compare in latitude with Point Barrow and Juneau, Alaska. Norway covers 125,181 square miles, an area comparable to that of New Mexiko. Approximately 70 percent of the surface consist of rugged, mountainous terrain. while nearly a quarter is covered by timber and about five percent by lakes and rivers , with only about three percent suitable for agriculture. The northern third of the country lies within the arctic circle. But, thanks to the Gulf Stream and west-east atmospheric circulation, the climate is relatively mild, with humiditzy compara tively low. In the extreme north, a portion of the sun can be seen above the horiyont for twenty-four hours ech day from mid- May to August; in the south, there is twilight but no real night from the end of April to mid-August. The reverse is true in winter , with the sun in the north staying below the horizon for more than two months, while in the south midwinter nights last about seventeen hours. During the three centuries after A.D. 750, Norwegian „vikings" conducted successful conquests in the British Isles and in Europe. Norwegians unified their country in the ninth century, adopted Christianity and sent expeditions to Vinland (North Am erica) during the tenth and eleventh, and by the thirteenth century had acquired an empire that includet the Shetland and Orkney islands, off the Scottish coast, and reched westward to colonies on Greenland and Iceland. Then, in the summer of 1349 , a British merchant ship docked in Bergen, bringing with it an oriental plague known as "black death" that was already rampant alsewhere in Europe. The "black death" swept through Norway during the fall and winter of 1349-50, wiping out at least a third of the people. Thinly populated to begin with, Norway was now severely crippled. The clergy had been decimated and the nobility declined fro m some 300 families to about sixty, most of whom were impoverished and relatively powerless. As a result, many Norwegian nobles sought marriage with foreigners of their class. One consequence of the situation caused by the "black death" was the end of the old Norwegian royal dynasty and loss of national independence. In 1363, King Haakon VI of Norway married Margaret of Denmark. Their son Olaf (last of Norway's royal li ne and already King of Denmark) succeeded Haakon in 1380. After Olaf died in 1387, his mother ruled Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Thus, the Norwegian royal line was endet, and the weakened Norwegian nobility was easily manipulated by Margaret. The aranngement between Norway and Denmark began as a union under a common ruler, but in 1537 the Danish sovereign made Norway a province of Denmark. Norway¨s empire now dissolved: the islands off the British coast reverted to England and Scotland , and the Iceland colony was taken by Denmark; the settlement in Greenland simply died out. Norway¨s Danish period endet in 1814, shattered by the Napoleonic upheaval. Denmark had sidet with France against Britain, paying for that mistake by losing Norway to Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel, Januray 1814. Norway balked at the terms of the tr aty, delaying union with Sweden until November. Meanwhile, the Norwegians formulated a constitution (subsequently adopted) that providet for a representative legislature (the storthing) and ambraced democratic principles borrowed from the Unite d States, France, and Britain. Norway now asserted its independence by electing as king Prince Christian Fredrick of Denmark. The Danish prince accepted the crown, but when Sweden intervened militarily he promptly yieldet. The Norwegians now saved face by electing the Swedis h king as their ruler, managing to enter into the union as a constiutional monarchy with virtual independence in all matters except foreign affairs. The tense arrangement with Sweden was destined to last until 1905, when Sweden acquiesced to Norwa y's demand for independence. Norwegian society was strified. The upper class consisted of nobility, clergy, professionals, officials, and wealthy burghers; it was sharply divided from the rest of the people. Bills abolishing titles of nobility, passed by the storting in 181 5 and 1818, were vetoed by the Swedish king. But when a third successive storting passed a similar bill in 1821 he reluctantly sanctioned it, making Norway the only nation in Western Europe to have abandoned that relic of feudalism. The cleavag e between clases persisted, however, with the upper class demanding defernce from ordinary people. The bondekultur of rural Norway was deeply rooted in the past, having evolved over some two thousand years. It developed arount the bonde , the hardy landowning farmer, an exalted figure in Norwegian literature. Scholarly research reveals how th e bondekultur developed in the interior valleys, so we will sketch in the lines of development, with Valdres being the case in point. Valdres is one of several great mountain valleys which contain most of Norway's arable land; it is situated some 140 miles northwest of present Oslo. In prehistoric times, during the Age of Migration, unorganized tribesmen filtered into Valdres , sustaining themselves by hunting, fishing, and gathering; later, by grazing and primitive agriculture. The erlaiest ga'rd (farms) appeared in natural clearings on the heavily forested hillsides. With farmland scarce, cattle were driven to pastur es above the timberline for summer grazing. Customarily, a family of several generations lived in a long, norrow dwelling, partitioned into rooms and including shelter for animlas at one end. The ancient Valdres bonder (pl.) found big iron in the soil of sshallow lake bottoms and marshes, and lerned to produce it. The timber operations were expedited by axes and tools of iron, which resluted in waste, but the cleared land could be pu t under the plow. Smelting thus accelerated agricultural development. It endured as a cottage industry into the late Middle Ages, taking its place with other seasonal occupations on the ga¨rd. Comunity development dates to ancient times. A remarkably democratic organ of government called the things was organized to settle disputes and maintain the peace, but it ultimately acquired legislative functions. (Storting means „great thing." ) The hov, a place for pre-Christian worship, met the community's religious needs, while people traded goods at the kaupang (market place). Typically, the hov,kaupang,and a meeting place for the thing were centrally located in a district organize d within natural boundaries. To protect the people from bands of marauding warrios, the Valdres districts united under a bonde chieftain in the fifth or sixth century, remaining a „bonde republix" through the Viking Era (A.D. 780-1030). The bondekultur includet, at various times, several classes. Bonder were always foremost, with other classes growing or declining in importance with changing conditions. At the bottom, was the „thrall", or serf, who was indeed a slave. Serfdom fad ed with the spread of Christianity, however, for Norwegians found it incompatible with religious doctrines. It disappeared altogether by the thirteenth century. Above the thrall were free laborers of various origins; then the hussmenn (crofters) , peasants who farmed land on large estates, paying rent by laboring for the bonde landlord; and above the hussmenn were other tenant farmers of more comfortable means. The Hussmenn were badly disadvantaged, with little opportunity to improve their station. They existed in the bondekultur from ancient times, but before the eighteenth century never in significant numbers. Then, with the population of the countr y rapidly increasing, the Danish sovereign ordered more land put under the plow and offered tax incentives to encourage cooperation. The bonder now brought in thousands of hussmenn to clear the forest and till the soil. By the 1840s, the hussmen n had become a huge rural underclass, constituting a majority of farmers and a quarter of the nation¨s population. The bonde owned his ga'rd under a system of freehold known as odelsrett (alodial right). As government extendet itself, families having used the land from „time immemorial" were granted title to it. The vonde was lord over his family and dependent s, but to sell his real estate he needet the approval of potential heirs, property within a reasonable time. In early times, many of the ga'rd were large estates, which as the centuries passed were subdivided into smaller plats for the benefi t of heirs. When further division was impractical, inheritance became the privilege of eldest sons. It was customary to name the ga'rd; the names of some date to medieval times and eralier. When large estates were divided, the ga'rd carved from them were named, but the name of the original estate was retainded too; hence two names. One must unde rstand this tradition, for ga'rd names were also used to identify the people who lived on them. The naming of persons was governed by ancient custom. People received a „giben" name and a „patronymic". All persons, male and female were identified by a patronymic. There were no surnames, per se. If identification beyond given name and patronym ic was necessary, the name of the ga'rd was used. A consideration of Torger Knudsen's and Anne Olsdatter's families should clarify customs concerning names. Knud Nilsen, Torger Knudsen's father, was a bonde who lived in the community of Ostre Slidre. Knud was his given name, Nilsen, his patronymi c, meaning „son of Nils." ------- The Hougens and Berges By the time Torger Knudsen and Anne Olsdatter arrived in Manitowoc, it had become a port of call for many ships carrying immigrants on the final leg of their journey from Quebec. Manitowoc was the likely destination of Torger Knudsen, but he ma y have investigated other places. The Norwegian settlements at Koshkonong and Muskego, for instance, were still attracting many immigrants. The details of Torger Knudsen's life during the fifteen months follwing his arrival are a mystery. But it can be assumed that he sougth gainful employment. According to one source, he worked at least some of the time on commercial fishing vessel s based in Manitowoc. But he may have worked in logging or lumber milling, or perhaps in one of the building trades. There were plenty of jobs for able young men. Torger Knudsen pruchased his first forty-acres of land on October 13, 1854 at the U.S. Land Office in Menasha, paying the going rate of $1.25 per acre. He recordet the deed unter the surname „Knudsen." In fact, he also bought subsequent parcels un der that name. Torger Knudsen emigrated as „Jorstad", a farm name; He bought land as „Knudsen, his patronymic; and he would soon enter military service aus „Hougen" another farm name. Most norwegian-americans simply adopted theri patronymic as a surnaem; hence , the endless listings of Nelsens, Andersens, Larsens, etc. But others chose farm names, eg.g. Berge. And some, like Torger Knudsen, came form farms that had more than one name. Norwegians viewed the American requirement for surnames with a goo d deal of flexibility. Torger Knudsens's forty acres, still thickly wooded, was located about three miles sosouth and a mile east of the Valders Church. The first structure to appear on the new farmstead would have been a small log cabin. The walls of such a dwelling co uld be thrown up in a day by the farmer, assisted by a half-doyen neighbors and an ox team. By dusk, the cabin would be finished - all but the roof, which was left for the owner to build. Boards and shingles were sometimes hewn by the farmer, a ti me-consuming process, but inexpensive building materials could be purchased from sawmills. Torger nudsen must have found youth an assset as he began the imposing task of converting forest to farmland. He would have cleared as much land as possible during the winter of 1854-55, so he could plant grain in the spring. The stumps remainin g in the fields were only a minor obstacle to planting and harvesting, which was done with hand tools. The grain was readily shipped from the port at Manitowoc, which enabled farmers to pocket money that might have gone to pay for expensive overla nd transportation. In the summer of 1854, as Torger Knudsen prepared to buy his farm, Anne Olsdatter arrived in Manitowoc. We must guess at the details of her early days in the county. Most likely, she made her home with her sister Marit Olsdatter, wife of ve Yachar iassen, who bought land in the present town of Liberty in 1853. Her brothers also farmed in Liberty, but were still unmarried; living conditions in their homes may have been rustic. One challenge facing the newcomer was to learn English, a task that Anne Olsdatter took seriously. She developed her vocabulary and reading skills by studying an English language edition ot the Holy Bible, using a Norwegian edition to translate . Reading in both languages was a source of pleasure to her, one that she taught her children to enjoy. Most of the young Norwegians in the Manitowoc settlement led busy lives, but fount time for romance. Indeed, marriage and family were essential to a farmer's success. Accordingly, the Gjerpen and Valders churches served as social centers-places fo r the young people to meet and become acquainted. Torger Knudsen and Anne Olsdatter probably met at Gjerpen Church. It is likely that their betrothal lasted about one year, so their courtship would have begun in 1855 or 1856. On November 27, 1857, with relatives and friends gathered in Gjerpen Ch urch, Rev. Ottesen performed the marriage. The happy couple now began an industrious life that would be blessed with eleven children, one of whom died in infancy. The ten who survived went separate ways, each enjoying encouragement from their pare nts in respective fields of endeavor. Eight of the ten raised families; consequently, descendants of Anne and Torger are numerous.
  Person ID	I10448	Valdres Slekt
  Last Modified	20 Nov 2007

  
  

  Father	Knut Nilsen JØRSTAD,   b. 1791, Jørstadhaugen 36/8 Øs d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Marit Knutsdtr ONSTAD,   b. 1794, Onstad 35/2 Nordre Øs d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F4224	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Anne Olsdtr BERGE,   b. 12 Feb 1835, Berge 22/4 d. 24 Oct 1931, Manitowoc Co., WI. USA (Age 96 years)
  Marriage	30 Nov 1857	Manitowoc Co., WI. USA
  Children	+ 1. Mariane Torgersdtr HOUGEN,   b. 5 Jan 1859, Liberty, WI., USA d. 6 Jun 1956, Kaukauna, Outagamie County, Wisconsin, USA (Age 97 years) + 2. Knute Torgeirson HOUGEN,   b. 31 Jan 1861, Liberty, WI., USA d. 10 Jan 1918, Wausau, WI., USA (Age 56 years) + 3. Ole Torgersen HOUGEN,   b. 22 Sep 1862, Liberty, WI., USA d. 13 May 1913, Chicago, IL., USA (Age 50 years)   4. Nels Torgersen HOUGEN,   b. 7 Dec 1864, Liberty, WI., USA d. 29 Nov 1946, Valdres, WI. USA (Age 81 years) + 5. Gulick Torgersen HOUGEN,   b. 20 Jan 1867, Liberty, WI., USA d. 19 Dec 1950, Portland, OR, USA (Age 83 years) + 6. Emma Maria HOUGEN,   b. 4 May 1869, Liberty, WI., USA d. 2 Feb 1955, Valdres, WI. USA (Age 85 years) + 7. Edward HOUGEN,   b. 19 Mar 1871, Liberty, WI., USA d. 21 Jun 1953, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, USA (Age 82 years) + 8. Albert L. HOUGEN,   b. 12 Jun 1873, Liberty, WI., USA d. 28 Mar 1949, Manitowoc Co., WI. USA (Age 75 years)   9. Martin Augustine HOUGEN,   b. 6 Feb 1877, Liberty, WI., USA d. 27 Apr 1968, Hawthorne, CA (Age 91 years) + 10. Evelyn HOUGEN,   b. 15 Nov 1878, Liberty, WI., USA d. 12 Sep 1957, Manitowoc Co., WI. USA (Age 78 years)
  Family ID	F6357	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	20 Nov 2007

  
  

• Sources

  [S330] Bruce Simmons.