Viking Magazine - August 2018 - 27

point time and again in his letters
and dwells lovingly on details of his
farm operation. On April 7, 1893,
for example, Lars notes that he has
sold eight sheep for a little more than
$28; and sold three oxen for $38.
However, his wheat is only bringing
him 53 cents a bushel; rye, 25 cents;
and oats, 25 cents. He can hire a man
to work eight or nine months for
$210; and a hired girl will work for
$2 to $3 a week. A quarter of land
there in the northeastern part of the
new state of South Dakota costs $8
to $1,000; and a threshing machine
costs $2,200.
" What do you think, brother,
aren't they fairly good prices? . . . If
I had stayed in Norway until now,
I would probably be able to make
enough to live on; that would be
all. But now I'm the owner of two
quarters of land and a group of good
houses, horses, and farm machinery
that are worth a lot. My land is
worth more than I can ever imagine.
I cry tears of happiness many times.
Yes, dear brother, we have reason to
be glad, when our worth exceeds our
greatest expectations. "
Things aren't so good back in
Norway. On a few occasions, Lars and
his sons even help Knut financially. A
letter in January 1924 makes it clear
that the Stavigs in America have helped
Knut pay off the mortgage on his farm
in Norway.
Historian's View
Jane Rasmussen said the family realized
early on that the Stavig letters could
tell a great deal about the immigration
period and that it would be important
to make them available to researchers.
So copies of the letters in Norwegian,
along with the translations, are housed
at the Stavig House Museum as well
as at the Center for Western Studies on
the campus of Augustana University in
Sioux Falls and at the State Archives
of the South Dakota State Historical
Society at the South Dakota Cultural
Heritage Center in Pierre. The family
donated the Norwegian originals to the
Romsdal Museum (Romsdalsmuseet) in
Molde, Norway. Dr. Mads Langnes, a
historian with the museum, says it's the
length of the correspondence-some 50
years-and the fact that the museum now
has both sides of it that makes the Stavig
letters so important.
" It's well known that there were very
many Norwegians who emigrated from
Norway to the United States in the last
part of the 1800s and the first part of
the 1900s, " Langnes says. " For that
reason, it's usual to find collections of
'America letters' here in Norway-that is,
letters sent from relatives in the United
States back to Norway. It's obvious that
there were also many letters sent the
other way, from Norway to the United
States. These are naturally less known
here in Norway, since only some few of
them have come back to Norway. And it
is precisely this that makes the collection
of letters from the Stavig family so
interesting, not only for the Romsdal
Museum and our region, but for all of
Norway ... The Stavig Letters are truly
a treasure. "
Be a Detective
Jane Torness Rasmussen and John Rasmussen, the wife-and-husband team who compiled and annotated the Stavig family
letters, offered some thoughts for those who might want to investigate the inception of family documents:
Take stock of
what you've got.
If you know or suspect
such family records
exist, sound out the
older members of the
family, especially those
who care deeply about
the family's history,
and ask what records
survive. If you get a
chance to visit Norway,
ask the same questions
of relatives there.
Don't wait too long.
Family members die
and records get thrown
into the trash. It's
best to get the word
out because it takes
relatives time to look
for documents that
may have historical
significance.
Check out museums
or archives in the area
your family members
left, or the area in which
they settled. There's
always the odd chance
that an older relative
or someone who came
in possession of some
letters, for example,
would have donated
them to such an archive.
Find the right archive
to make the letters
available to others
once you've used them
or made copies. Your
family history could be
ultimately important to
many other people who
were part of the same
wave of emigration from
Norway.
When dealing with
a foreign language,
find a translator who
can work in the dialect
in which the journals
or letters are written.
Especially true for a
country such as Norway,
parceled into dialects by
mountains and fjords,
there are words and
phrases that someone
from a different part
of the country might
not grasp.
sonsofnorway.com VIKING AUGUST 2018 27

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Viking Magazine - August 2018

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