Our Ancestors’ Occupations

As I stopped at the magazines in Barnes & Noble recently, the feature article on the cover of a genealogy magazine gave me a quiet chuckle. The title was something like, “Discover Your Ancestors’ Occupations.” Really! I thought to myself: going back in time from my grandparents’ generation, were there any men who were not farmers and any women who were not housekeepers?! My reaction is not meant at all to disparage anyone; it’s just a fact of life from our ancestors’ time past. All the same I decided to take a closer look.

Our grandfather Emil Borreson was a farmer, and so were his father
Elias and father-in-law Bertinus. In the next generation back, so far as I can determine, the results were the same: living on a farm, tenant farmer, etc. Some of them would have been called cotters in Norway.

As I examined the family line further back in Aunt Clara’s Homestead, I found very few exceptions. One was Anders Pedersen (born 1757), the father to Borre Anderson, who was  tailor. A second was Anders’ grandfather Jens Jensen Abilgaard (born 1696) who was a minister in Loten. And a third was Jen’s father Jens Pedersen Abilgaard who a “Captaine,” as high officer in the army. (This Jens, by the way, was born not in Norway, but in Jylland, Denmark.)

Of course, sometimes farmers had secondary occupations to fall back on, and one of the most common was carpentry or woodworking. Emil himself did this kind of work, as did Gina’s grandfather, Thor Taasensen (born 1797), back in Norway. Emil also worked as a cook in a lumber camp, a place of winter employment for some immigrants. Among the women, a not-unusual supplement to their housekeeping was the vocation of Gina’s mother Maria Thorson: service as a mid-wife.

It appears to me that real variety in occupations came to our family only in the generation of our parents beginning in the 1920s and 1930s. Thanks to Clara’s family history we have a snapshot of earlier generations.

In the Shorthorn Business

Clara’s description of her first cousin Theodore J. Thorson’s business has interested me and I have wanted to know more about it. Clara wrote that he “purchased cattle of the breed known as Shorthorns and built up a first class and profitable herd in the work of a lifetime” (Homestead, 9)

When searching for other information lately, I came across exactly the kind of news item that I wanted. In the front page of the March 6, 1919 issue of The Whitehall Times-Banner, T. J. Thorson had purchsed two Dual Purpose Shorthorn cattle, “quite the best ever shipped to this town.” From B. W. Little in Janesville, Wisconsin, “one of the oldest and best American breeders of Dual Purpose Shorthorn cattle,” Theodore purchased a yearling bull and heifer of superior pedigree. (Here’s a photo of Shorthorns today.)

While not wanting to bore you with the article’s cattle breeding details, I am compelled to mention that the bull was “by the 17th Duke of Wapsie, one of the best Bates bulls living.” Don’t you love that name?! The Bates name also must have been important in Shorthorn breeding circles because it was mentioned a couple more times.

Think about this: The purchase of these two animals made page 1 headlines in the Whitehall paper. Was it because of a slow news day? Probably not. More likely, the rural nature of the community and the farming leadership Theodore was demonstrating by his leading-edge – and probably costly – purchase.

When he died just five and a half years later (October 26, 1924) at the age of 44, not only must there have been sadness due to his unexpected passing but also because of the demise of his good work. That “work of a lifetime” Clara describes, was more likely a brief time of about ten years or so from 1913 when he had returned home at his father’s request “to save the old homestead” (Homestead, 9).

His 1919 purchase would not have been looked upon with admiring eyes by certain leaders in the dairy business. W. D. Hoard, for example, Wisconsin’s premier dairying promoter and one-time governor, was not a fan of dual purpose cows, saying something to the effect, that “as long as we have dual purpose notions, we will have no purpose cows!” I expect Theodore Thorson would have disagreed with him.

A Prominent Ekern Neighbor

Perhaps you remember the line from Clara’s Homestead I shared here, that in 1875, immigrant pioneer Peter Ekern gave our great-grandfather Bertinus Estenson a ride from Black River Falls to Pigeon Falls, his new home in America? Peter Ekern had been in BRF to replenish supplies for his store in Pigeon.

I find it interesting that the Ekerns readily made the transition to become a politically-involved family in their new country. Peter not only was a key citizen in the community of Pigeon Falls with the businesses he began (mill and store, for example), but he was elected to a term in the Wisconsin State Assembly where, as I read in one source, he was a sponsor legislation to limit the power and abuses of the railroads, a major issue in the latter half of the 19th century.

I’m including the above portion of a 1914 plat map of Pigeon Township, because I discovered that our grandfather Emil’s farm was just three properties north of land owned by another Ekern, Herman, son of Even and nephew of Peter. If you look closely on the bottom right portion of the map, you’ll see the names of H. A. Anderson and H. L. Ekern on 160 acres. That would be Hans Anderson, a Pigeon lawyer, Trempealeau County judge, and law partner with the other – Herman Ekern, Han’s son-in-law, also a lawyer and eventually an influential Progressive leader in Wisconsin.

Herman came back to Pigeon after earning his law degree from the UW in 1894. He entered law practice with Hans and married his daughter a few years later. In 1899 Herman was elected district attorney for the county, and then from 1903 to 1908, served three terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, the last one as Speaker. In 1907 he became the key writer of legislation for reforming the state’s life insurance business. Later, he would become one of the founders of Lutheran Brotherhood, which today has become part of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

There’s more. These were the years that Progressivism made great progress in the state, and Herman Ekern became a close friend and advisor to its dynamic leader, Robert M. La Follette, Jr. In 1926 while serving as Wisconsin’s attorney general (1923-1927), Herman was the choice of La Follette and his team for the Republican candidacy for governor but was defeated in the primary by Fred Zimmerman (who went on to become governor).  However, in 1938-1939, he served as the state’s lieutenant governor when Governor Philip La Follette appointed him to finish the term of Harry Gunderson who had resigned.

I guess that’s enough…. I just had to do this post when I observed the names in that 1914 platbook. One final comment: Herman Ekern was born in 1872, the same year as our grandfather, Emil Borreson, but how different the paths of their lives.

Borresons in South Beaver Creek

My “Borreson Mysteries” post looked at the children of Borre and Maria Anderson, the siblings of our great-grandfather Elias Borresen. As I said, the fate of three of them is unknown: Anne, Berthe, and Bernt. So what about the other two? Let’s look at one of them whose story, by the way, connects with this grave marker in South Beaver Creek (rural Ettrick, Trempealeau County, WI). More on that at the end of this post.

Andreas was born in Loten in 1836, older brother to Elias by three years. Clara has a page about him and his family in Homestead (25), and the brief version is that he and his family homesteaded in South Beaver Creek, Ettrick Township, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. That’s just south, over the bluffs, from where our family lived (Garven’s) - and I never knew about any Borreson relatives having lived there.

Clara knew that Andreas married Maria Hanson in Norway, and after Andreas immigrated to the USA in 1870, it appears that Maria brought the two children, Ole and Josephine, in 1871. Two more children, Anne and Amelia, were born in Wisconsin. Clara probably didn’t know what the 1900 census revealed: that Maria had given birth to nine children and only four of them were living.

Of these four children, only Amelia would leave descendants, according to Clara, and until recently, I thought that line had come to end. Ole farmed with his father all his life and never married. Josephine married Ole Andersen and the two had no children. About Anna Clara had no information, but recenbtly I found her obituary in the La Crosse Tribune files. She had died in January 1951 after having made her home for many years with her sister, Josie Anderson.

So, back to Amelia…. Clara wrote that Amelia had, out of wedlock, a son Adolph Borreson who went to Galesville High School, moved “further north in his later years,” and was buried in the South Beaver Creek cemetery at his death in 1975. The 1900 U. S. census, however, makes me doubt Amelia’s single status: she and her one-year-old son Adolph were residing with her parents, but she claimed to have been married for two years and was using the surname Mitchel (or Michel in the 1905 Wisconsin census). By 1920. Adolph was using the Borresen name. Interesting. I also learned in the 1920 U. S. census that Adolph, a 20-year-old renter, was married to Hubertine, also age 20. Maybe they were on his grandfather’s farm, but by 1930, they were no longer there. This calls for more research.

Amelia married Ole Bryant, Clara wrote, but I have learned Ole’s given name was James T. Bryant. The marriage took place in Winona, Minnesota, in 1914, and and the couple had twins, Lawrence and Mildred, in 1915. In 1980 , the publication year of Homestead, Lawrence was residing in Rockford, Illinois, and Mildred, who had married Leonard Kamperud, was residing at the Trempealeau County Health Care Center. That’s where my information ended, until…

A couple weeks ago, I obtained a copy of Mildred Bryant Kamperud’s obituary. She had died at the age of 95 on February 14, 2011, still a resident of the Trempealeau County Healthcare Center. I have learned that she had two sons, Wayne of Westby, and Myron of Fort Atkinson. Wayne has two children by a first marriage (no info about them) and a son John by a second marriage. John is married and has three children - Jennifer, Kristy, and Nick – with some of the family residing in Holmen at the time of Mildred’s death. So, this line of the Borreson family does continue.

A recent September day I took a deliberate walk around the South Beaver Creek Lutheran Church Cemetery. There I found the grave marker (above) for Amelia and her son Lawrence. Other family members supposedly are buried in this cemetery too, but this was the only marker I could locate – just over the hill from where I grew up. I had never known it.

Borreson Mysteries

Mystery may not be quite the right choice of words, but as I’ve worked on our family history and genealogy in the last couple years, a few big questions remain unanswered. All three items here concern the siblings of the Elias Borresen, great-grandfather to us Borreson cousins.

Bernt Borresen, born 10 Jan 1857

Bernt was Elias’s younger brother by 18 years. Three years after Elias arrived in America, Bernt came in 1872. After being in the La Crosse area for the October 6 baptism of Emil for whom he was a sponsor, Clara writes that he “then went west and all contact was lost.”

Now there’s a challenge! I have done numerous searches (including old census records) on Ancestry.com without success, eliminating from consideration other Bernt Borresons in Jackson County and Superior, Wisconsin, and Fargo, North Dakota. I have even tried sending out a few “blind” letters to Borresons in western states describing the situation and seeing if I could stir up a connection. Well, that was a productive as buying a lottery ticket….! In any case, Bernt remains a Borreson mystery.

Berthe Borresen, born 25 Dec 1842

Elias’s younger sister by three years also came to America and was another sponsor for Emil. As with her brother Bernt, we have no further information. She deserves to be on this list too, but I haven’t attempted a search for her yet. If she married and changed her name, locating her may be even more difficult. (A younger sibling with the name Berthe Marie (b. 1853) married Alexander Matson, and that family line continues.)

Anne Borresen, born 8 Feb 1847

Anne was another younger sibling of Elias by eight years. In Homestead, Clara reported that Anne was born this date in Norway but had no other information. So I wondered: Did she stay in Norway or come to America? Could she have married before or after Elias left Norway in 1869? Did she die young perhaps? With these questions and others, I began my search.

I had one immediate success: I confirmed her birth and baptism with records found in the Loten, Hedmark, parish register. Clara was correct. Although this next step in the wrong order, I searched Loten marriage records for her name from 1862 to 1874. No results. Then I did what I really should have done first: I searched the Loten confirmation records. Success! I found her confirmation recorded for October 6, 1861. She would have been 14 years old. So we know she was alive at that point. Then I searched Loten death records from 1861 to 1874 without finding her name. My next step may be to search emigration records for her name. In the meantime, she too is a mystery to me.

As I think about this theme, I find it quite amazing: that Elias had five siblings, and we don’t know the fate of three of them.

A Pigeon Creek Church Eulogy

The past summer we drove through Pigeon Falls only to be shocked by the absence of Pigeon Creek Evangelical Lutheran Church, the building that was the Borresons’ church home since they came to America. As you may remember, a fire destroyed the church building the night of August 1 a year ago (2011), and the congregation had the wrenching decision to re-build or not. The decision was “not rebuild” and the fire-damaged structure was demolished. As we paused there in the church parking lot, the empty space on the hilltop skyline found an echo in the hole in my heart. And in many others, I expect.

(If you click here, you will see the church both after and before the fire.)

I can imagine what a difficult decision that was, to rebuild or not. So much history, so many memories, so many tears of sadness and joy are connected with such a building. I can imagine the heart says, “Yes, rebuild!” while the head says, “Wait a minute; we need to think about this.” I just came across an Oct. 27, 2011 article from the Trempealeau County News that announced the hard decision. Even though the cost of replacement would have been perhaps $700,000 with fire insurance paying but $130,000, the vote was still close: 32 to 28 not to rebuild but to demolish. The decision was made. Even demolishing wouldn’t come cheap but could be covered up to 100 per cent. At the time of this article, that information was pending.

Even though a song might have the words, “the church is not a building, the church is not a steeple” – and pastors like me are ready to remind folks of that truth – the fact is that this is hard loss. As in grieving a long-time, faithful family friend, life goes on but the heart does not forget. It was be interesting to know how many Borreson baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and funerals took place within those walls. So very many. So the Borreson family and many others give thanks to God for this building that that helped nourish faith and, in the end, pointed to something more abiding than itself – that is, the God in whom we live and move and have our being.

My Ski Jumping Program

After all the fun I’ve had posting items about Borreson ski jumping, I have done some diligent research on ski jumping in western Wisconsin from the 1880s on. What a story that is! With beginnings in Telemark, Norway, ski jumping came to America with Norwegian immigrants and flourished in the Midwest.

Wisconsin Norwegians came to be heavily concentrated from an area south of Westby to counties northwest of Eau Claire. Not only cities like Eau Claire and La Crosse had ski jumps but so did smaller places like Pigeon Falls and Whitehall – and even a dot on the map like Tamarack south of Arcadia (as in this photo).

The 30-minute PowerPoint presentation I have prepared on ski jumping in western Wisconsin begins with its Norwegian roots and debts, and moves on to illustrate both its lively presence on local farm hills and its skiers who became national champions and Olympians. It’s quite a story.

I have presented it to three Sons of Norway lodges (in Strum, La Crosse, and Blair) and I look forward to sharing it with other groups, including members of the Borreson family who may hear a story or two of their own along the way. If you want to discuss the program with me, e-mail me at glenn.borreson@yahoo.com.

Thanks to my brother Phil who located Dad’s old skis for me, I was able to take these old jumping skis along with me when I made my presentations in La Crosse and Blair.