Ingeborg
Ingeborg utvandret til Amerika i 1892 da hun var 18 år gammel.
Hun giftet seg med Richard Hermann Theodore Illian i 1896, og de slo seg ned i Tracy i Minnesota (?). De har mange etterkommere I Amerika.
English verson
INGEBORG: 1873 - 1936
(From Hedvig Johansen’s booklet about Rønningen and the people who lived there)
From Uncle Erik's memoirs we know that Ingeborg worked at the vicarage, it was probably around 1890, when Jakob Skavland Fridrichsen was the vicar in Meraker. As we have mentioned elsewhere, it was the vicar that got our grandfather to help with church chores.
Ingeborg was 18 years old when she received the ticket sent from Quebec. We can hardly imagine what excitement and anticipation this young girl must have felt. Today the situation is quite different when young people travel abroad. At that time it was seen as the only possibility of reaching greater and a more affluent standing, and of course it also mattered that so many others emigrated from the country.
Ingeborg left Norway in May 1892 and she never returned to her native land. We do not know who sent her the ticket to America, but both grandmother and grandfather had sisters and brothers who had emigrated earlier, and did very well in the new country. Thinking about the hard way of life and small possibilities of improvement that existed here, they wanted very much to help their young relatives to a better life in the USA.
Ingeborg had a large family. As children we learned our cousins' names by looking at pictures at our grandparent’s house. On the living-room wall in "the old house" there still exists a picture showing the four oldest Illian children.
We remember best the name of Mabel Olga, but also the names of the two youngest (not in the mentioned pictures) as we thought they had such strange names: Pearl and Earl. Funny to remember now, seeing as we have had the pleasure of exchanging letters with our cousin Pearl for several years. Our third Cousin Lilly Peterson was responsible for this event. We are very grateful to her and it has also been a pleasure for most of the relatives in this country.
As we write this we have just received the traditional Letter from the Madsen farm in Minnesota, and we are already in the year of 1987. Lilly Peterson has just celebrated her 80th birthday, and Pearl Illian Madsen will be 80 next year. Ragnhild Hestmann is our only close relative who has visited Pearl and her family, a visit that seems to have bean appreciated on both sides.
While our mother, Ingeborg's baby sister Olga Sofie was still alive, she gave me a Letter that Ingeborg had written to her parents in 1934. "You may want to use this in your story", she said. Here it is:
"Midland, 27. Dec. 1934
Dear Mother !
You are soon to celebrate your 81th birthday, so I will try to write a few words to you. That is the least I can do for you.
I wish I were close enough so that I could come home and have coffee with you on that day! But that is an impossible thought.
I congratulate you on your Birthday, and I hope I am able to write to you on many birthdays to come. I hope that you will stay in good health, that is the best one can hope for at your age.
It is now 27. December, and it has been very cold weather here a few days. We do not have much snow though, so there is no reason for complaint.
Santa Claus was here to visit our children and same friends. He was very nice. Many people around here are having a hard time, as money is short. But we must not complain as we have plenty of food and clothes.
I received your Letter a couple of days before Christmas, and it was very nice to see so many good looking Boys and Girls whom I have never seen before, and Mother also looking nice. Thank you all very much, and especially to you, Hedvig!
It is so nice to read about how everything has changed since l was there almost 40 years ago. If I could make a visit, I do not think I would be able to find my own home. And then I had to get to know Olga and Peder. I have never been able to talk to them, other than in letters. It would have been wonderful to talk to all of you.
But we must remember each other with letters and be satisfied with that. I hope we will all meet in the next world.
We wish all of you a blessed New Year!
Write often!"
Hedvig
You can write to me in English, I write better in English than Norwegian. Try me !
My letter wasn’t sent yesterday, so I will tell you that we were at a sort of Christmas Party, given by the Lutheran Women Society. We had Lutefisk and Flatbrød, and we got Fattigmand, even lefse. But I have to say that this Lefse was not as tasty as the Lefse Mother made when I was home! I always remember all the wonderful pastries Mother made. I do not think one forgets one’s happy days in the safe and sound home we had when we grew up.
I have to end this now, but I thought I would tell you that I had had Lutefisk, and that it tasted very nice.
Love to you all from Ingeborg"
We think this letter gives the impression that Ingeborg is having a good life where she is with her family. But deep down there is maybe a little longing for someone to talk to from her childhood days. We understand that she cares very much about her mother, and that she appreciated the pictures she got from Norway for Christmas.
We enclose a letter we received from Ingeborg’s youngest daughter, Pearl Madsen:
Feb. 5 th 1976.
" Dear ones! How wonderful it was to hear from our Norway relationes at Christmastime - it really added something special to our holiday! Our family is quite small for holiday festivies Chas, Joe and Mabel gone, Ethel in Oregon and Earl in California. Marie, Chas’s wife, lives here so she is with us unless she goes to some of her family, Jim in Colorado, Don (the minister) in Iowa or Anita at Sioux Falls - she visits Lilly often.
We have one daughter Janice - and she and her husband have taken over our ranch and built a new home in our yard° We retired 6 years ago and come and go as we please. Real nice!
Right now we are getting ready to go on the tour, or guess I should say, cruise, mentioned in our holiday letter. We had 5 inches of snow last night so I hope it "staysput" and doesn't drift so we can drive to Sioux Falls (250 miles) on Sunday to board our plane on Monday. I plan to call Lilly while in Sioux Falls – haven’t met her though I go to S.F. often as a member of the State Cancer Board - seemes our time is so short and so much to do - anyway, I didn’t even know her last name until just recently - I knew she was a Brende but just heard about her as "Lilly" - no married name.
The letter of inquirey about our family was from Gotfried Brende, a nephew of hers, so our letter went through him. He is a retired teacher and lives in Arizona now. His first years of teaching were in Midland and he was at our house a lot - he married our minister’s daughter and we have kept in touch through the years. I went to California in the Spring of 73 and took care of Mabel for the last two months of her bout with terminal canser (colon). Gotfried lived just 15 miles from where I was so I saw him a couple times. He was music instructor in Castro Valley schools.
The picture you spoke of was of the 4 oldest in our family: Chas, Ethel, Joe and Mabel. I was born 6 years later and Earl 5 years later than I. I love that picture so cute of all of them and to think it still hangs on the wall in the grandparents home - is the house occupied? We have pictures of it, I am sure - have so many pictures from Norway and have no idea who most of them are - what a mistake it was, not to name every one on every picture at the time it was taken:
Had a picture of Ethel and her husband at Christmas time - she is so thin and has had a few problems the past five years, she was 77 last Oct. Her husband is almost blind (Cataracts) and has problems with his knee. Had one rebuilt last year and plans to do the other probably has by now. They came to see Mabel while I was there so we had a good visit we plan to see them next fall, God willing.
A friend of ours is translating the newspaper - has Eric's letter and the one of Lilly's family done and is working on the rest - I see her in Church every Sunday and she usually has one more finished each Sunday. Simply can't tell you how happy we were to receive it and what a wonderful thing for you to do - guess we cherish things like that as we grow older and this shall surely be filed among my most cherished possessions. Our mom was such a wonderful, wonderful woman and loved by every-one who knew her. Ours was a happy family, not blessed with many luxuries, but we were comfortable and had lots of fun. Our house was a gathering place for young folks and Mom always seemed to scare up enough to feed everyone. Don't see how she managed in all the confusion etc. Dad loved a houseful too, "The more the merrier" he used to say and he was always ready to join in the fun and play the violin for us - I played the piano and everyone sang. Oh, what fun and what memories we have of it.
Somewhere I saw a picture of Aunt Mary and Eric - probably at Mabels. I would love any pictures you could send - Mary and Uncle Frank are the only I'we really seen, Frank used to visit us ocassionally in Minnesota and in South Dakota - we haven't seen Mary for about 20 years - she did plan to come see Mabel and me when Mabel was ill, but her family thought it too much of a bus trip for her alone so she didn't come -. I was so disappointed as we have always loved her so, she is so jolly and so much fun. I hot's why we would so much like to meet the rest of the family - they (or you) must be a bunch of "good guys" Ha! I am enclosing a couple pictures of us so you will have some sort of an idea what we look like and to whom you are writing. I will send others when we get good ones (our pictures book too much like us,Hal) Greetings to all our family - God be with you! Pearl Madsen."
Vi har forsøkt å få med noe som kan gi en pekepinn om vår mors eldste søster. Det er tydelig at hun var en utmerket mor og husmor, og at hun skapte et godt hjem for sin store familie. Det var musikk og sang i hjemmet, barna ble oppfordret til å ta sine venner med hjem. Alle fikk føle den store gjestfriheten som hersket der. Det Pearl forteller om sitt hjem og sin familie tyder på at Ingeborg overførte til sitt eget hjem den samme ånd som hersket i hjemmet på Rønningen.
Ingeborg og Richard hadde seks barn, slik vi ser det av den vedlagte slektsfortegnelsen. Den ble sendt oss av Pearl, og den er videreført av Knut Skarning.
Vi vet at noen av Ingeborgs barnebarn i sin tid besøkte vår slekt på Grefsen, men ingen av dem har hittil besøkt Meråker. Men som nevnt tidligere har det gått. andre vegen, idet Ingeborgs søsters barnebarn, Ragnhild Hestmann, har besøkt Pearl og hennes familie på deres farm i Midland, So. Dakota.
Ragnhild Hestmann er Olga Sofies datterdatter, og er bosatt i Trondheim.
We have tried to include things that may give us an impression about our mothers eldest sister. It is obvious that she was an excellent mother and wife, and that she created a good home for her large family. There was music and singing, and the children were encouraged to bring friends home. Everybody felt the hospitality that reigned there. What Pearl tells us about her home and family leads us to believe that Ingeborg transferred to her own home the same atmosphere that existed in the home at Rønningen.
Ingeborg and Richard had six children, as we can se from thefamily tree. It was sent us by Pearl, and is enlarged on by Knut Skarning.
We know that some of Ingeborg’s grandchildren in their time visited our relatives at Grefsen, but none of them have so far visited Meraker.
But, as mentioned earlier, a visit has been made the other way, as Ingeborg’s sister’s grandchild, Ragnhild Hestmann, has visited Pearl and her family on their farm in Midland, So. Dakota.
Ragnhild Hestmann is Olga Sofies granddaughter, and lives in Trondheim.
Opplysningene nedenfor er hentet fra Hedvik Johansens beretning
om sin bestemor og bestefar, Solaug og Ole Fr. Rønning.
INGEBORG: 1873 - 1936
Fra onkel Eriks beretning vet vi at Ingeborg hadde jobb i prestegarden, det var kanskje ca.1890, og da var det Jakob Skavland Fridrichsen som var prest i Meråker. Det var han som også fikk vår bestefar med som medhjelper i kirken.
Ingeborg var 18 år da hun fikk billett sendt fra Quebec. Den spenning og forventning dette måtte være for en 18-åring den gang kan vi knapt tenke oss i dag. I våre dager er det helt andre forhold som spiller inn når unge reiser utenlands. Da var det vel som eneste mulighet til å komme til større og rikere forhold, og selvsagt virket det vel at det var så mange av slekt og venner som reiste fra landet den gangen.
Det var i mai 1892 at Ingeborg forlot Norge, og hun kom aldri mer tilbake. Vi vet ikke hvem som sendte amerikabilletten til henne, men både bestemor og bestefar hadde søsken som hadde emigrert tidligere, og som hadde fått det svært bra i det nye landet. Med tanke på de små kår og små utsikter som fantes her i landet, ville de svært gjerne hjelpe sine unge slektninger til en bedre tilværelse i USA.
Ingeborg fikk en stor familie. Som barn lærte vi å kjenne søskenbarna på navn etter bilder vi fikk se hos bestemor og bestefar. På stueveggen i gammelhuset er det fremdeles et bilde som viser de fire eldste av barneflokken hos Illian. Best husker vi at den fjerde av barna var Mabel Olga. Men vi husker også navnene på de to yngste, som ikke er med på det nevnte bildet. Vi syntes det var så rare navn: Pearl og Earl. Det er litt morsomt nå i ettertid å tenke på at vi har hatt gleden av å ha brevkontakt med søskenbarnet Pearl gjennom flere år. Dette var det vår tremenning, Lilly Peterson, som fikk i stand, noe vi er svært takknemlig for, og som har vært til glede for de fleste av slektningene her i landet. Når dette skrives har vi nettopp hatt det tradisjonelle brevet fra Madsen-farmen i Minnesota Lilly Peterson har nettopp fylt 80 år, og Pearl Illian Madsen vil bli 80 neste år. Av vår nærmeste slekt har Ragnhild Hestmann hatt gleden av å besøke Pearl og hennes familie, noe som visstnok ble satt pris på av alle parter.
Mens vår mor, Ingeborgs lillesøster, Olga Sofie levde, ga hun meg et brev som Ingeborg hadde skrevet til sin mor i 1934. "Du kan kanskje ta det med i beretningen din" sa mor. Her er det:
"Midland, 27.Dec.1934.
Kjære Mor! Det er nu ikke længe til du bliver 81 aar gammel, saa jeg vil prøve paa at skrive nogle ord til dig. Det er da det mindste jeg kan gjøre for dig.
Jeg ønsker at jeg var nær nok saa jeg kunde komme hjem og drikke kaffe med dig den dagen! Men saadant er da umulig at tænke paa.
Jeg gratulerer dig med din Geburtsdag, og jeg haaber jeg kan skrive til dig paa mange fødselsdager senere. Jeg haaber at du faar ha en god helse, det er det beste af alt naar man bliver saa gammel som du er.
Dette er nu den 27. December, og det har vært svært koldt her et par dager, men vi har ikke saa meget sne, saa vi kan slet ikke klage paa noget.
Julenissen var her til vaare barn og nogen venner. Han var rigtig god. Det er ikke saa godt for mange her, da det er ikke saa godt om penger. Men vi maa ikke klage paa nogen ting, for vi har nok af baade mat og klæder.
Jeg fik deres brev et par dager før Julen, og det var rigtig godt at se saa mange fine Gutter og Piger som jeg aldrig har set før, og Mor ser ogsaa saa godt ut. Mange tak, skal dere have, og særdeles til dig, Hedvig:- Det er da saa morsomt naar dere skriver om hvordan alt sammen er forandret siden jeg var der for næsten 40 aar siden. Hvis jeg kunde komme hjem, tror jeg nok ikke jeg kunde finde mit eget hjem. Og saa maatte jeg ogsaa bli kjendt med Olga og Peder. Jeg har nok aldrig haft anledning til at snakke med dem, andet end ved brev. Saa det vilde nok blive storartet at tale med eder alle.
Men vi maa huske paa hverandre med brever og blive fornøiet med det, tror jeg. Og vi haaber vi kan mødes i den neste verden.
Vi ønsker eder alle et velsignet Nyt Aar! Skriv rigtig ofte!
«Hedvig! Du kan skrive til mig paa Engelsk, jeg kan skrive bedre Engelsk end Norsk. Try me!
Mit brev blev ikke sendt igaar, saa jeg vil fortælle dere at vi alle var paa en slags julefest, som den Lutherske Kvindeforening gav. Vi havde Lutefisk og Flatbrød, og vi fik Fattigmand, tilligemed Lefse. Men jeg kan nok sige at Lefsen var da ikke saa god som den Lefsen Mor bakte da jeg var hjemme! Jeg husker altid paa saa mange gode bakelser Moder stelte. Jeg tror nok ikke at en forglæmmer sine gode dager i et godt og hyggeligt hjem som vi havde niedens vi vokste op.
Nu maa jeg slutte, men jeg tænkte at jeg vilde fortælle dere at jeg havde spist Lutefisk, og den var rigtig god.
Hilsen til alle sammen fra
Ingeborg"
Vi tror at dette brevet gir uttrykk for at Ingeborg har det bra der hun er med sine. Men under ligger vel en liten lengsel etter å kunne "tale" med noen av sine nærmeste fra barndommens gode dager. Vi forstår at hun har omtanke for sin Mor, og at hun satte pris på bildene hun fikk sendt herfra til jul.
Nedenfor kommer et brev som vi fikk fra Ingeborgs yngste datter, Pearl Madsen.
Feb. 5 th 1976.
" Dear ones! How wonderful it was to hear from our Norway relationes at Christmastime - it really added something special to our holiday! Our family is quite small for holiday festivies Chas, Joe and Mabel gone, Ethel in Oregon and Earl in California. Marie, Chas’s wife, lives here so she is with us unless she goes to some of her family, Jim in Colorado, Don (the minister) in Iowa or Anita at Sioux Falls - she visits Lilly often.
We have one daughter Janice - and she and her husband have taken over our ranch and built a new home in our yard° We retired 6 years ago and come and go as we please. Real nice!
Right now we are getting ready to go on the tour, or guess I should say, cruise, mentioned in our holiday letter. We had 5 inches of snow last night so I hope it "staysput" and doesn't drift so we can drive to Sioux Falls (250 miles) on Sunday to board our plane on Monday. I plan to call Lilly while in Sioux Falls – haven’t met her though I go to S.F. often as a member of the State Cancer Board - seemes our time is so short and so much to do - anyway, I didn’t even know her last name until just recently - I knew she was a Brende but just heard about her as "Lilly" - no married name.
The letter of inquirey about our family was from Gotfried Brende, a nephew of hers, so our letter went through him. He is a retired teacher and lives in Arizona now. His first years of teaching were in Midland and he was at our house a lot - he married our minister’s daughter and we have kept in touch through the years. I went to California in the Spring of 73 and took care of Mabel for the last two months of her bout with terminal canser (colon). Gotfried lived just 15 miles from where I was so I saw him a couple times. He was music instructor in Castro Valley schools.
The picture you spoke of was of the 4 oldest in our family: Chas, Ethel, Joe and Mabel. I was born 6 years later and Earl 5 years later than I. I love that picture so cute of all of them and to think it still hangs on the wall in the grandparents home - is the house occupied? We have pictures of it, I am sure - have so many pictures from Norway and have no idea who most of them are - what a mistake it was, not to name every one on every picture at the time it was taken:
Had a picture of Ethel and her husband at Christmas time - she is so thin and has had a few problems the past five years, she was 77 last Oct. Her husband is almost blind (Cataracts) and has problems with his knee. Had one rebuilt last year and plans to do the other probably has by now. They came to see Mabel while I was there so we had a good visit we plan to see them next fall, God willing.
A friend of ours is translating the newspaper - has Eric's letter and the one of Lilly's family done and is working on the rest - I see her in Church every Sunday and she usually has one more finished each Sunday. Simply can't tell you how happy we were to receive it and what a wonderful thing for you to do - guess we cherish things like that as we grow older and this shall surely be filed among my most cherished possessions. Our mom was such a wonderful, wonderful woman and loved by every-one who knew her. Ours was a happy family, not blessed with many luxuries, but we were comfortable and had lots of fun. Our house was a gathering place for young folks and Mom always seemed to scare up enough to feed everyone. Don't see how she managed in all the confusion etc. Dad loved a houseful too, "The more the merrier" he used to say and he was always ready to join in the fun and play the violin for us - I played the piano and everyone sang. Oh, what fun and what memories we have of it.
Somewhere I saw a picture of Aunt Mary and Eric - probably at Mabels. I would love any pictures you could send - Mary and Uncle Frank are the only I'we really seen, Frank used to visit us ocassionally in Minnesota and in South Dakota - we haven't seen Mary for about 20 years - she did plan to come see Mabel and me when Mabel was ill, but her family thought it too much of a bus trip for her alone so she didn't come -. I was so disappointed as we have always loved her so, she is so jolly and so much fun. I hot's why we would so much like to meet the rest of the family - they (or you) must be a bunch of "good guys" Ha! I am enclosing a couple pictures of us so you will have some sort of an idea what we look like and to whom you are writing. I will send others when we get good ones (our pictures book too much like us,Hal) Greetings to all our family - God be with you! Pearl Madsen."
Vi har forsøkt å få med noe som kan gi en pekepinn om vår mors eldste søster. Det er tydelig at hun var en utmerket mor og husmor, og at hun skapte et godt hjem for sin store familie. Det var musikk og sang i hjemmet, barna ble oppfordret til å ta sine venner med hjem. Alle fikk føle den store gjestfriheten som hersket der. Det Pearl forteller om sitt hjem og sin familie tyder på at Ingeborg overførte til sitt eget hjem den samme ånd som hersket i hjemmet på Rønningen.
Ingeborg og Richard hadde seks barn, slik vi ser det av den vedlagte slektsfortegnelsen. Den ble sendt oss av Pearl, og den er videreført av Knut Skarning.
Vi vet at noen av Ingeborgs barnebarn i sin tid besøkte vår slekt på Grefsen, men ingen av dem har hittil besøkt Meråker. Men som nevnt tidligere har det gått. andre vegen, idet Ingeborgs søsters barnebarn, Ragnhild Hestmann, har besøkt Pearl og hennes familie på deres farm i Midland, So. Dakota.
Ragnhild Hestmann er Olga Sofies datterdatter, og er bosatt i Trondheim.
