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Writing the History of Local Emigrants
Hadeland (newspaper)
November 8, 2013 By Torbjørn Greipsland
President of the Hadeland Lag Anne Sladky is very interested in history.
Anne Sladky is president of the Hadeland Lag and a member of four others: Telelaget, Landingslag,
Sigdalslag and Valdres Samband. She is also the webmaster for four of them, plus the 7‐Lag Stevne
website. She is not without work to do.
Sladky is not only a webmaster and active in her memberships, she is preoccupied with studying her
family’s history and has written a book for her grandchildren about her immigrant ancestors and their
descendants. She knows a lot, and it is very interesting.
From Gran to Iowa
Anne Sladky is related to a number of immigrants from Hadeland. John Anderson Kroshus left from the
Molstad farm in Gran with his wife Maria and daughter Oline. Also from Gran, Kari Gudmundshagen and
her husband Hans Dvergsten and daughter Randi went to America in 1851. Maria, Halvor and his daughter
Randi died in an epidemic. John and Kari were then married. They settled in Winnisheik County, Iowa.
Their son Halvor had many children. He became one of the wealthiest men in Norman County, Minnesota
and owned thousands of acres of land. He was a founding member of Bethania congregation.
Kanten‐Hilden families
From Gran also emigrated Anne Sladky’s great‐grandfather Iver Halvorsen Kanten and his wife Anne
Hilden and their six sons. Unfortunately their youngest boy died in an accidental fall during the journey
to America. They lived in Winona County and then moved to Chippewa County, Minnesota using a
covered wagon pulled by oxen where they lived in a mud cave (sod house).
They were founding members of Zion congregation and had 4 more children. Their daughter Anne Kanten
married Hans Olson Alm, who came to America in 1885 accompanying cousins. Hans was not a farmer,
but was a skilled painter and wallpaper hanger.
Anne Sladky’s mother’s brother Oscar Alm had a job as a postman. In the winter he delivered the mail by
dropping it from a low flying airplane.
Died before departure
In 1846 Sladky’s great‐great‐grandmother Kjersti Olavsdatter Lien and her children Tone, Ole, Tarje and
Aase emigrated from the Upper Graver farm in Fyresdal. Her husband Aslak Terjesen Skrei died before
the family left. The journey to Koshkonong in Wisconsin took six months. How they survived this long
and dangerous journey is almost incomprehensible. After living for some time with Kjersti’s brother Aslak
in Koshkonong, they moved to Houston County, Minnesota.
Where are the horses?
An embarrassing piece of history is Tarje Grover’s experience in 1869 with his brother‐in‐law Andreas
Kassenborg (from North Land), Andreas’ brother‐in‐law A O Kragnes, and Tarje’s friend Osmund
Homme. They were to explore the fertile valley of the Red River of the North in Minnesota. They
rented horses and collected provisions in Alexandria, Minnesota. After the first days ride, they settled
on a grassy prairie where the horses seemed to settle peacefully there. When morning came, the horses
were gone. The men could see across the prairie, but the horses were not to be found. It was
embarrassing to these men who always did everything right that they had not tied the horses down.
A long story ended when they returned to Alexandria and found that the horses had returned to their
owner in Alexandria. The Norwegians had to pay a new lease to take the horses again. They wondered
why no one had come looking for them. “We figured someone would find the dead bodies and bury
you,” was the discouraging reply.
For good reasons, this trip was not often discussed.
Disapproval of mixed race marriages
Anne Sladky tells a story with dramatic consequences: Erik Alm from Gran was the brother of her
grandfather Hans Alm. Erik had a daughter named Hannah. She found a job with a rich family in
Minneapolis. Her sister worked there, too. They were isolated because they only had Sunday
afternoons off. Hannah fell in love with the family’s chauffeur and married him. The problem was that
he was black. In the 1920’s a mixed marriage was almost unheard of. Hannah’s father Erik disowned
her and would not speak of her, but he put a box of vegetables from his garden on their porch (each
year). Hannah’s husband became an alcoholic and life was hard. Hans disagreed with his brother Erik
and thought they should stay in contact, but he refused. Hannah’s siblings did not talk about her, and
their children did not know the story of Hannah and her family for many years.
Anne Sladky and a cousin went to Chicago to see one of Hannah’s daughters. She had a Norwegian flag
in her yard and was a great rosemaler and did beautiful hardanger embroidery. She made good lefse
and other pastries. She told that she had tried to join the Sons of Norway, but she was not welcome
there. She was one of the proudest Norwegians Anne had ever met. “I feel so bad that she couldn’t
express her pride except in her own home,” said Anne.
Big Family in Canada
Anne says that many in her family did well and were successful. The Kanten branch of the family in
Canada is very large. Anders, son of Iver and Anne Kanten, lived in North Dakota for a time. A drought
sent the family to Canada. When his wife Anne was 97 years old, the Readers Digest said that she had
more descendants than anyone else in Canada.
Lutheran Churches
Two churches in which Anne’s family was active, Concordia in Clay County and Bethania in Norman
County, both in Minnesota, were destroyed by tornadoes in 1931 and 1952 respectively. Concordia was
rebuilt during the depression, and was completed in 1938. Members of the Kroshus family from Gran
are buried there. (They are buried at Bethania) 5 generations of the Grover family are buried at
Concordia, and Anne and her husband will be among the 6th. Bethania was also rebuilt.
Talented Women
Many of the women were talented, but they lived in a time when they weren’t allowed to speak out
even when they had strong opinions. Women were active in church, the Red Cross, and other
organizations. After the tornado that destroyed the church, the Ladies Aid raised most of the money for
its reconstruction and refurnishing. Anne’s great‐grandmother Pauline Grover was chairwomen of the
community’s Red Cross during the WWII (should have read WWI). According to Anne, they not only
raised money but also made quilts and bandages and provided other necessities.
In business, women did not have much to say in public, but gave their opinions to their husbands at
home. Men didn’t admit they discussed things first with their wives because it wouldn’t have seemed
manly. But, according to Anne, wives often had veto power over the economic decisions made by their
husbands.
Was there time for parties and other gatherings?
Winters were a great time for reunions and parties. They probably had more of a community social life
at that time then we do today, says Anne.
Good help from Kontaktforum
Anne has made contact with all the branches of her family except the Gundersens. She has found much
on her emigrants from Gran, Jevnaker, and Lunner because of Kontaktforum Hadeland‐Amerika. They
have collection information about over 11,000 Hadeland emigrants. Anne played the important role of
primary editor of the book, “They Came From Hadeland.”
Anne was the coordinator of the 7‐Lag Stevne in St Cloud, Minnesota, with over 400 delegates instead of
the usual 250‐300 attendees. She did a lot of work for it, although she credits the theme “Norwegian‐
Americans in the Civil War” for drawing people. We who were presenters found strong interest in this
topic. Most of the books about Norwegian‐Americans fail to mention the at least two hundred
Norwegian‐American soldiers that spent time in gruesome conditions in the prison camps where many
died of disease and starvation. (Torbjørn was a presenter, and probably knows more than just about
anyone in the world about Norwegian‐American experiences in Confederate prison camps during the
Civil War)
Have you been to Norway?
No is Anne’s surprising answer. In 2015, she will join the tour that the Hadeland Lag is arranging. She
will visit her ancestral farms in Hadeland, and then hopes to travel on to Sigdal, Krødsherad, North Land,
Valdres and Telemark.