Kari's Clan - 3

Berte opened the next letter, and began to read.

26 September, 1848

Dear family,

We are all well and hope that you are too.

Although I myself enjoyed the trip, my wife and many of the others suffered great misery. We neither had room to sit down nor stand up. We felt like so many pigs stowed together. When we had such fine weather that we could walk on the banks of the canal alongside the boat we gathered much fruit, especially apples, and brought it on board the boat in big sacks.

The whole journey was an incessant and simply maddening racket in getting through the locks, of which there were no less than eight-three.

Berte stopped reading for a moment. “When you came, did you go on that same canal?”

Kari looked as if she might be about to offer something personal, but then said nothing except, “Read on, please.”

Along the canal are located sixty-four towns or cities, some of which are two or three times as large as Christiania, and each has many churches. Besides these, there are many smaller towns with one or two churches. Also, there are stores at every lock.

After passing through Rochester, it was a swift 65 miles to Lockport with no locks.

We marveled often how this canal was laid through the hills and across dales; but when we arrived at Lockport, there were even greater things to see. This city is situated thirty miles below Buffalo. There we floated up a high hill through five successive locks, ten to fourteen feet tall.

“I find this very boring,” said Kari. “Why don’t you skip these details about the locks.”

“I’m nearly finished with this part,” said Berte as she continued.

There were nearly two miles of canal troughs, cut through solid rock, with an average height of 20 feet. In Lockport there was a need for the waterway to rise up 56 feet through the Niagara Escarpment by five pairs of double locks.

After Lockport, it was only 30 miles to Lake Erie where the quick part of the journey began.

Finally we arrived in Buffalo where canal boats filled with emigrants, and covered with goods and furniture, arrived every hour.

We were piled into a steamer for the trip on Lake Erie, and the deck was stacked high with huge heaps with furniture and chattels of all descriptions, and even hoisted up and hung on to the rigging; while the whole upper deck, and benches, and railing, sustained a mass of human bodies clustering all over them like a swarming hive.

When we finally departed on Lake Michigan, at Milwaukee, we then hired a wagon to drive us and our possessions to Dane County, which is in the southwest corner of Wisconsin - some 50 miles from Milwaukee.

In your last letter, which arrived here before you had received my first one, you asked various questions, and I will attempt to answer them now.

Speaking for ourselves only, we must admit we are satisfied in this country and, when we have learned the language, we will look to a future free of care for temporal livelihood. We have had no discomfort to complain about since we came.

You ask about the wages. Here ten-year-old children can earn more than adults in Norway. A day’s wage is from $.50 to $1.00 and monthly wages for adults are from $10 to $12. The price of government land is $1.25 an acre and speculators’ land is $3.00 per acre but prices of farm implements are high. Usually oxen are used for driving and plowing and two oxen cost $50; a plow, $12; a cradle, which is used for cutting wheat in place of a sickle, as in Norway, $2.50.

Foodstuffs in the country are very inexpensive. A bushel of wheat is 50 cents; half a pound of butter, 4 cents; half a pound of pork, 2 to 3 cents; and other food is also low priced.

Again, I must finish my letter, although I have so much more to write. We are hoping to buy a claim from a squatter near a place called Perry, who cannot make the payments. It is in an area a few miles from here. We would be very isolated, but it is too good a bargain to refuse, I think, so I expect when next I write to you, it will be from there.

With best wishes to you all from us all. We cannot wait to see you all again.

Your brother,

Ole

“Shall I go down for the coffee now?” asked Berte.

“I think it would be better if you leave now,” answered a tearful Kari. Clearly the reading of the letter had struck her in an emotional way, and she wished to be left alone.

“Do you not want me to come again and read your letters then?” asked Berte.

“I suppose you had better or Knud will shout at both of us,” said Kari with an attempt at a smile. “Come again next Wednesday.”

January 17, 1906

On the next visit Berte, almost found she was looking forward to reading more of the letters which told about her husband and his mother’s early life. Kari too, seemed less out of sorts than she had been, and managed to smile when Berte arrived. She suggested they get down straight away with more of Ole’s letters, which she had removed from the trunk and had handy on the little table, which was between the two chairs. Berte started reading.

November 1948

Dear sisters and brothers,

You wish to know if it would pay you to come and how to prepare for the trip. If you have the chance, I believe it is more promising for you here than in Valdres. About provisions, I had plenty of them when I came, and I would advise you to take just as much, for things are very expensive if bought along the way. Many bought their flour in Bergen, but it was not good, because the grain was not dry when it was milled.

The meat was good, but butter melts in weather as hot as that we had going through the Erie Canal. It is good to have whey cheese. It is well to carry all kinds of clothing. If you bring homespun, it is
wise to have it in the piece, for there are many Norwegian tailors here. American boots and shoes are dear. You must take nightshirts; here they are of red cloth. Shirts are more expensive here. You should have flat-collared jackets or vests.

You could bring bedding with you. Many emigrants have carried feather beds with them. Feathers cost 25 cents per pound here. Coarse canvas for sacks may be brought. You could take along your hide sacks if you cannot sell them. Try to buy your clothes there. Perhaps you can buy a kettle before you come You must bring cloth caps with you. Neckerchiefs are worn here. Blades for a wood plane should be brought, iron wedges and saw blades too, both narrow and wide. Axes
are unnecessary, but you could bring a double-bladed axe, and smithy equipment of all kinds. If you cannot find any, you can use mine. One or two hoes and spade blades should also be brought.

“He certainly thought of everything,” put in Berte.

“His letters were very useful to us. We more or less did everything as he suggested.”

Barrel hoops may be brought if they are good ones. They are more expensive here, but better for use with hardwood. A wagon costs $45 or more. I would advise you to bring one with you, for many here use small wagons. You could bring your cart and axle. They ship at the cost of small wagons. You might take both a travel chest and one for provisions and clothes. You must have tight locks for them. At Bergen you should get herring, fish, and potatoes, which are good food for the sea, and you must buy tea and coffee. You should get ale at Leirdal Island, for it is expensive in Bergen. Milk will keep for awhile. Buy a copper kettle that holds eight cups. If you do not want such a big one, you can trade it off here. A small kettle might also be bought. A copper kettle costs $1.25 here.

Bring my bell with you. Brass combs are expensive here. Buy me some tailor’s shears.

Love from your brother,

Ole

“So you had decided to come, by this time?” Berte put in

“Oh, we had all decided long before Ole left - it was only a matter of getting the necessary cash together. With me, it was waiting for my sons to be old enough to stand the journey, although, of course, one of them did not.”

“Did he die on the ship?”

“I would rather not talk about it now. Read the next letter, please.”

January, 1849

Dear sister Kari,

In case you come, I want to tell you about the trip and what you should have with you. It will not be helpful to carry along jackets and coats, but do bring dresses. Where Norwegians have settled in groups they use their own costumes. Kerchiefs are worn, but not white ones. If you have some you have woven yourself, bring them with you, as many as you have. American women wear clothes like those worn by the upper classes in Norway. You might bring a spinning wheel, a carder, and weaving shears. The Norwegians here raise flax. I think you could bring a loom and some sheep shears and some tailor’s shears. Sheep shears are not available here, only scissors. Bring an iron for
ironing.

I think you know what books you will want. Guldberg’s psalm book is used, but in New York one can buy a Bible for one dollar. We have a Swedish minister here who travels about amongst the Norwegians. You want my advice about land. This area where I am is said to be the best.

I will arrange to meet you in Milwaukee. I must end this letter now, as I have much work to do.

Lovingly,

Your brother, Ole

 

“Oh, look. This next one is addressed to Knud,” said Berte.

“They are dead. All my brothers and sisters are dead. I am the only one left, so I have inherited all their things, including their letters. I just put that one into that box because it was the right date
order.”

September, 1849

Dear brother Knud,

I notice that in your letter of March 6, that you question my letter in which I remarked about prices of lumber, daily wages, etc. I must point out that costs of goods, etc., give no indication as to how one
can pay daily wages but only as to the practice in America. The system in Norway makes it necessary to pay low wages for labor; here, conversely, wages are high. If a man is poor and cannot hire labor, he must do his work himself. If he needs help but does not have the money, let him first go and work for another for daily wages.

In Norway some shall work and some shall be lords; some have wealth and pay out, and some must beg and take. This country’s constitution, on the contrary, has for its motto, "Freedom, Equality, and
Brotherhood," which are this country’s principles.

I note that you believe that to erect a house for family living will cost hundreds and perhaps thousands. This is not far wrong in Norway, but permit me to make a brief remark. Circumstances here and in Norway cannot be compared.

Here a house can be built in a week that would require six weeks in Norway. What would be done in a week in Norway can be accomplished here in one day, with the same number of laborers.

Furthermore, what in Norway would take a year can be done here in two months. You ask how this can be. We worked both hard and rapidly in Norway. Yes, but what is good and quick enough in Norway is not good and quick enough here.

Do not think that what I have written is to deprecate Norway and its people, but it is that you may understand and believe what America is like. This would be more obvious to you were you to emigrate to our new state of Wisconsin and see what has been accomplished in sixteen years. You would see Milwaukee with its 24,000 inhabitants, a sure sign of the industry and resources of the people there. You would see many well-built churches and would think the people must be
religious.

You would come upon one schoolhouse after another, full of young people with their industrious and skilled teachers, who give free education supported by public funds. You would look at all these things with wonder when you consider that fifteen years ago this was a wilderness. The churches are filled every Sunday with attentive listeners and the gospel is preached clearly and warmly. If one looks around town, one will find more improvements than could be listed.

I will give you an example. A farmer might get will 70 cents a bushel for wheat, 50 for rye, 40 for barley, 25 for potatoes, 30 for oats. Ask, too, how far he must transport it, and he will answer
perhaps 100 English miles paying $2.00 for lodging en route. You might not consider that profitable but this year I had 20 acres of wheat. I hired two men for cradling, and spent $30 for labor. I got
500 bushels of wheat, and I paid the threshers $40. I am resowing 30 bushels; I need 100 bushels for the household, and I still have 370 bushels which I can sell. If I go when roads are dry, I can haul the wheat in ten wagon loads. Even though I get only 60 cents per bushel, I can sell for $222. After I have paid for cradling and threshing, I still have $152, which can be regarded as my earnings. If a man lives near a market, he can drive to it and back in one day; he is fortunate. If one must travel farther, the expenses are much higher.

A man with two horses can plow four acres a day, if the soil is light. A threshing machine with six horsepower can thresh 500 to 600 bushels per day, depending on whether the grain is heavy and the
straw is dry. A man may buy a threshing machine and go about from farm to farm and thresh, and there are many of these.

So as you can see, there is much to recommend the life here, but it is not without a great deal of effort.

Your brother,

Ole