New Land, New Lives
Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific Northwest
NEW LAND
NEW LIVES
Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific Northwest
Janet E. Rasmussen
Foreword by Odd S. Lovoll
Norwegian-American Historical Association Northfield, Minnesota
University of Washington Press Seattle & London
Copyright © 1993 by the Norwegian-American Historical Association
Second printing, 1994
Printed in the United States of America
Typesetting by Charles Ellertson,
Paste-up by Steve Frame,
Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Design by Audrey Johansen Meyer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rasmussen, Janet Elaine.
New land, new lives : Scandinavian immigrants to the Pacific Northwest / Janet E. Rasmussen ; foreword by Odd S. Lovoll. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-295-97711-9
1. Scandinavian Americans—Northwest, Pacific—Social life and customs. 2. Scandinavian Americans—Alaska—Social life and customs. 3. Scandinavian Americans—Northwest, Pacific—Interviews. 4. Scandinavian Americans—Alaska—Interviews. 5. Immigrants—Northwest, Pacific—Interviews. 6. Immigrants—Alaska—Interviews. 7. Northwest, Pacific—Social life and customs. 8. Alaska—Social life and customs. I. Title. F855.2.S18R37 1993
979.5′004395—dc20 93-22999 CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Contents
Henny Hale “I couldn’t see over the mountains.”
Ester Sundvik “We never knew what real medicine was.”
Ina Silverberg “I get so lonesome for Finland.”
Martin Rasmussen “When I was a child, we ate out of a common big dish.”
Sigfrid Ohrt “He slipped out of the country.”
Andrew Johnson “We were raised like regular puritans.”
Torvald Opsal “Home you had plenty to eat, but there was no cash.”
Gretchen Yost “We had to find out for ourselves how to make things go.”
Bergljot DeRosa “Up in the north, they believe in trolls.”
Else Goodwin “I have such good memories of Christmas Eve.”
Magnhild Johnsen “When peace broke out …”
Ole Blindheim “We were thinking America in high tones when we saw that Statue of Liberty.”
Goodman Norwick “I never got into any hand-to-hand fighting and I was glad of it.”
Elsie Odmark “Did we get to heaven?”
Ida Apalseth “You just had to trust somebody.”
Esther Rinne “Finland those days, you never see any black people.”
Alli Benson “I got infested with lice.”
Laura Foss “We had to start all over again, writing A’s and B’s.”
Hans Fahl “The fruit trees were in blossoming white and I thought it was like paradise.”
Gustav Simonson “The sea is where you have to look for a livelihood.”
Sigvald Stenersen “My first Christmas, I hauled manure on Christmas Day.”
Thorvald Kofoed “I’m not going to freeze for five dollars a month in Minnesota.”
Astrid Lovestrand “A lady from the YWCA met us and she talked Swedish.”
John Kuivala “Butter on the bread.”
Emmy Berg “I worked for wealthy people, that’s for sure.”