Knut Thomassen ELTUN

1738 - 1799  (61 years)

• Name	Knut Thomassen ELTUN
  Birth	1738	Eltun 13/ Øvre, Vang i Valdres, Oppland Fylke, Norway
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	Lunde 17/, Vang i Valdres, Oppland Fylke, Norway
  	farmer
  Death	1799	Nystuen 1/, Vang i Valdres, Oppland Fylke, Norway
  Notes	He was born at Eltun, but moved to Lunde when he married Anne in 1760. They then moved to Nystuen, where they operated the mountain hostel. There was a long legal case about rights to this mountain hostel. Anders Frøholm wrote about the widow of the "hostel man" Nils Oldre, Dordi Lassesdatter Ølgøgn (Hamre) (1743-1783): "When Dordi became a widow (1777) she had real problems dealing with responsibilities of managing the mountain hostel. The tax collector wanted to have her out and have Knut T. Lunde as the new mountain hostelman, and demanded such in the fall of 1778. The case was postponed six times, but at court on the 6 of July 1780, the decision was handed down that Dordi should move from Nystøga on the first day that she could travel and that she should make the mountain hostel ready for Knut Lunde. He was to promise her a life pension of 4 tons of barley and foder for three cows and 6 calves, either in materials or in cash according to the local prevailing price. She claimed that she had the right to stay at the mountain hostel because her husband had acquired Nystøga in a fairl exchange, but the legal decision was that the cottage was a public place. In other words, it was a public property that her husband had for a lifetime lease, and not such that a widow could retain for her lifetime. The tax collector had complained about her on 18 Dec 1778 for poor maintenance of the cottage for travelers and the state. The property left after Dordi, in the fall of 1784, had a gross value of hardly 137 riks dollars, but it was considered to be worth 248 riks dollars! At probate, the tax collector claimed compensation from the estate because the guideposts on the mountain were broken and he complained about the forest's destruction, but the heirs maintained that they had not cut down more trees than they needed themselves, and Knut Lunde said that the guideposts were broken every winter. Knut did not want to pay for the house that belonged to the mountain hostel, while the heirs insisted that the hostel men, man after man, had paid the previous owner for the house. There was so much snow that it was not possible to evaluate the guideposts even though the case was heard on the 9th of July."
  Person ID	I8785	Ellingboe
  Last Modified	15 Nov 2010