Kari's Clan - Epilogue

 I still had another 10 chapters or so to post, on Kari's life and the stories of her relatives. However, I was beginning to feel it was all rather boring, too many Oles and Knuds,  so thought you might be thinking that too. Kari died a few months later in 1908.

Most of my information about Kari Kjorstad Hills Saalsaa and her family came from the book, “The Kjorstad Clan in American and in Norway Since 1800,” by Beulah Folkedahl, (Kari's great niece)  published in 1951 and updated in 1959.

The letters I used were real ones, but not from Kari’s relatives. The came from the internet sites which contain much material about early Norwegian emigrants from Valdres to Wisconsin. I have no doubt that they are true in spirit to the sorts of things her brother would have written.
The same is true of the Civil War letters. They are accurate (although somewhat truncated) and came from a Norwegian who was writing to relatives in Wisconsin, but they were not from her nephew, Ole.

The details about the family itself were accurate and came from the book I referred to before, and I also got much material from Ancestry.com and specifically the Saalsaa family website. Also Agnes' great granddaughter, (my third cousin) Shirley Dickerman, provided me with lots of details and photographs.

Knud and Berte moved to Canby, Oregon in 1911, (pictured above with Agnes) and took the youngest three children with them. Agnes put a note on the back saying Berte only spoke Norwegian.The use of the trunk was fiction, as was the story line. However, in my own family, there was a cedar chest passed down which was used to store precious bits of family information.

I must admit that in Beulah’s book about the family, she never once said anything negative about Kari - so her personality change after her stroke was also my invention.

Here is how Beulah describes her in her book. “Kari was short of stature and had light complexion and blue eyes. She was ambitious, kind and hospitable. She spent her declining years with her son Iver; died in 1906 after falling on the ice and breaking her hip. Earlier she had suffered a stroke.”

We know even less about Berte. It says, “Knud married for the third time to Mrs. Berte Kolden, Argyle, Wisconsin; then lived in Argyle for seven years to be near his mother. In 1911 they moved to Canby, Oregon, when Knud died Feb 12, 1924, and Berte (after marrying a third time) died in September 1935.

What I did think I might do next is provide a bit of information about one of Knud's children,  my grandmother, Laura Hills.