Four Generations in America

I wrote this paper in 1972 for Dr. K. Smemo’s History 349, The Scandinavians in America.

I’m planning to share a ‘family story’ or two about this side of the family in Saturday’s post: which will be both shorter, and easier to read than this.

I’m using a different format for footnotes this time, reflecting which page each one was on: [page number]-[footnote number]. Finally, I’ve added some extra information in square brackets [] — since some of what seemed obvious a half-century back probably isn’t today.

Four Generations in America: From a Gaard in Norway to a Farm in North Dakota

In this paper I am going to follow four generations of Norwegian immigrants in this country and try to show how each generation became increasingly ‘American’.

My great-grandfather, Ole O. Hovde, Sr. was born October 23, 1840 at Hovde, Branting in Beridalen, Gjørvik, Nordre Land, Norway [about 110 miles, 176 kilometers, north of Oslo]. One of six children of poor parents, Ole’s education “didn’t amount to much”.^1-1 He could only attend a few weeks in the coldest winter, most of his time being spent making a living by working in neighboring gaards [farms]. He learned to read, but not write, Norwegian. However, “his lack of formal education never seemed to have handicapped him in his figuring as he [was] able to compute figures in his head at a more rapid rate than most people figuring on paper.”^1-2

Left to his own devices Ole probably would have remained in Norway, as four of the six children in the family did. However, his brother Lars “was very anxious to go to America to see if the country was as good as he had been told.”³ Lars’ sources of information may have been America letters or statements by a man named Lundsaetter, a Norwegian who had gone to America and returned as an agent for a navigation company specializing in carrying immigrants to America. Lars and Lundsaetter persuaded Ole to go with Lars to America and in 1867 Lars, Ole and Ole’s fiance Mari Gulbrandson and about one hundred other Norwegians left for North America. Landing in Quebec, Lars, Ole and Mari went to Chicago. Ole and Mari found work in the Chicago area and stayed there for several years before moving west.^1-4 During this period Mari worked as a maid in Beloit, Wisconsin, and learned English there.^2-1

Ole and Mari were married May 1, 1871, at Rock Prairie, near Beloit, by the Lutheran minister Rev. I. Juller Eggen. The brother of the minister’s wife induced Ole to go to Ottertail County [Minnesota]. Ole took out his first citizenship papers at Janesville, Wisconsin, in May of 1871 and^2-2 shortly thereafter Ole and Mari Hovde started toward Ottertail County in a covered wagon pulled by two horses, “accompanied by a number of friends with a similar aim.”^2-3

Finally arriving at Ottertail County, Ole didn’t like the area and so decided to go on to the Goose River valley with some of the group. Mari and some of the other women stayed behind while Ole and the men went on. They hit the Goose River about a mile west of where Hillsboro [North Dakota] is now. The land was not yet open for filing and the others decided to quit being pioneers, and went back to Wisconsin. Ole stayed on, squatting in the covered wagon until he could get a small log house built for winter. There were only two other settlers there at the time, living about three miles east of where Ole settled. As time went on other people came, including Ole’s brother Lars. Ole Hovde Sr. was “one of the first road supervisors of the township as he was well acquainted with the stakes set by the government surveyors.”^2-4 I take this to be an indication that Ole had become sufficiently ‘American’ to cooperate with the local government. After coming to America Ole Sr. learned English, retaining a command of the language in the 1920s. However, he preferred to speak Norwegian, using English when necessary.^2-5 While living in the Goose River area, Ole Hovde Sr. was converted to (or led astray by) Methodism. His son, Ole Hovde Jr., learned both Lutheran and Methodist catechisms and was a Methodist.^2-6

Ole Sr. retired from active farming early in life, turning the farm over to his son Ole Hovde Jr..

Ole Jr. was born on the homestead May 11, 1874,^3-1 and took over operation of the farm at the age of eighteen. He spoke and wrote both Norwegian and English fluently, preferring English to Norwegian, and had the equivalent of an eighth grade education in the local school, plus short courses intended for farmers at North Dakota State University.^3-2

In 1905 he married Gunda Olson, who had been born in Norway but had arrived in America as an infant. Her parents had left Norway because her father “had broken away from the state Lutheran Church and was a ‘radical’ Methodist.”^3-3

Ole Jr. did not want his child, Dorothy Marie Hovde, to have a Norwegian accent (he himself spoke accentless English) and so after Dorothy was born Norwegian was not spoken in the Hovde home except when relatives or visitors arrived who did not speak English. Because of this, Dorothy speaks only English, although she learned some Norwegian and think could re-acquire it if necessary.^3-4

Dorothy Hovde is the first ‘all American’ Hovde. Her only working language is English, and when she thinks of it she regards herself as an American. She moved into Hillsboro with her parents in 1918. After high school she went to the University of Minnesota, receiving a BA and completed work at Northwestern University, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree. At the University of Illinois she got a graduate degree in Library Science. While there she met Bernard Gill and they were married August 24, 1949.

I was born September 30, 1951 and am the fourth generation of Hovde to live in America. In addition to being ‘American’ in language and custom, I represent a further loss of Norwegian culture by being Irish- Scotch-Irish in background, I enjoy lefse, identify to some extent with the vkings and their accomplishments and wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.

These four generations show a pattern of assimilation which has been fairly common in the United States. Ole Sr., who came over during the first major wave of Norwegian emigration, retained much of his cultural identity although he acquired a foreign language, English, and a foreign religion, Methodism. His son, Ole Jr., was also bi-lingual but preferred to use English and was concerned that his daughter speak American English. In addition, he had some American schooling, which probably contributed to his Americanization. The third generation, Dorothy Hovde Gill, speaks only English and is quite American. She received even more education in America, which probably helped to reduce some Norwegian traits.

Assimilation has gone even further in the fourth generation. In addition to speaking only English I am only half Norwegian, the other half being mainly Irish and Scotch-Irish. This loss of native language and the mixing of ethnic backgrounds is a process which has contributed to the formation of what we call the American culture. This process is still going on, and eventually a person may be able to look back through his or her family tree and select the ethnic background which he wants to display as “his”.

Footnotes

^1-1 Ernest Oliver Nelson, July 31, 1924, A Biographical Sketch of Ole O. Hovde, Sr., p. 1

^1-2 Nelson, p. 1, 2

^1-3 Nelson, p. 2

^1-4 Nelson, p. 5

^2-1 Unsigned typewritten sheet in Hovde History file

^2-2 Nelson, p. 6

^2-3 Unsigned typewritten sheet in Hovde History file

^2-4 Nelson, p. 9

^2-5 Interview with Hazel Ebeltoft, May 21, 1972

^2-6 Interview with Dorothy Gill, May 21, 1972

^3-1 Nelson, p. 9

^3-2 Interview with Dorothy Gill, May 21, 1972

^3-3 From a letter from Florence Feehan to Dorothy Gill, May 9, 1972

^3-4 Interview with Dorothy Gill, May 20, 1972

Bibliography

Nelson, Ernest Oliver. A Biographical Sketch of Ole O. Hovde, Sr.
The material in this paper was mostly assembled through a personal interview between Mr. Hovde and his grandson,Ernest Oliver Nelson, who was then attending the University of North Dakota. (1924)

Unsigned, undated typewritten sheets giving some biographical material on Mari Gulbrandson and information on the first years spent by Ole and Mari Hovde at their Goose River farm. These sheets, and the paper by Ernest Nelson are kept in a folder marked Hovde History at my family’s home at 1010 South 16 Street, Moorhead, Minnesota.