Pastor Abraham Jacobson served as pastor for the Norwegian Lutheran parish in southwestern Dane County from 1868-1878.

Digital Records: Birth, Confirmation

Listed as a Skrædder in the 1865 census for Nordre Aurdal:
skraedder = (see "skredder") (archaic)
skredder = tailor

Immigrated from Norway in 1867 on the ship Norden. Ships captain was S. Haavaldsen, departing Bergen on May 10, arriving in Quebec on June 18. Passed through Port of Detroit according to application for naturalization.

JORGEN OLSON
"Jorgen Olson [family photo included]. One of the oldest and best known residents of Chimney Rock Township is the subject of this sketch, who has been a resident here for nearly 48 years, having been one of the early Norwegian settlers in the county. He was born in Valdres, Norway, November 3, 1844, a son of Ole Jorgenson, a mason and his wife, Annie Uldrikson. Both parents died in Norway. It was in 1867, at the age of 23 years, that Jorgen Olson left his native land for the United States, attracted hither by reports that had reached Norway from those gone before of the opportunity to obtain free land in the great northwestern states. On his arrival in the country he located first in Dane County, Wisconsin, where he remained three years, earning and saving money and keeping his main purpose steadily in view. Then, having saved enough to purchase equipment and make a fair start, he came to Trempealeau County in 1869 and homesteaded a farm in section 2, on which he spent 18 years of his life, carrying on agriculture and stock rising and improving his property, so that when he finally sold he obtained a good price for it. Since then he has been engaged in cultivating his present farm in section 24, which he purchased on leaving the farm in section 2. This property also he has improved considerably, building the residence, a two-story house of 10 rooms, in 1889. In 1914 he erected a new barn, 30 by 74 by 14 feet, with stone basement and cement floors. His son Olaus now rents and manages the farm, and together they raise graded Shorthorn cattle, having a herd of 40 head, of which they milk 15. Mr. Olson served as township treasurer for 14 years. He also helped organize school district No. 1, Chimney Rock Township, of which he was treasurer six years. His son Olaus has served as school clerk three years. Mr. Olson was married May 17, 1870, to Berget Halvorson, who was born in Norway in 1851 and died on the home farm in November, 1904. There were seven children born to them: Olaus, mentioned above, who was born August 18, 1873; Annie, who married Halvor Veum, a farmer of Chimney Rock Townshp; Anton, who is farming Hettinger, N.D.; Henry, a resident of Superior, Wis.; Christine, who is keeping house for her father and brother Olaus; William, who is operating a farm in this vicinity; and Joachim, who is residing at home. The family are members of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church, of which Mr. Olson has been a trustee for four years. The Jorgen Olson farm contains 180 acres and is pleasantly situated, the land being fertile and everything about the place being up to date and in good condition." History of Trempealeau County, 1917

THE LIFE OF JORGEN OLSON
Out of the twilight of ocean's depths come the sound of matin and vesper heels stirred to melody by unseen hands. This we are told by good pious folks who live on shores where the storm-ridden sea has hit into the land and guileless faith will always hold that nothing dedicated solely to the service of God can be rendered entirely useless. No doubt but that many a care wracked sole has been calmed and gladdened by this sweet, beautiful fancy when men and women lived a more artless life. But we of a more sophisticated plane of life cannot see God in the clouds nor hear him in the wind nor hear the chime of sunken bells. But even to the worldly wise come hours when fancy becomes the master spirit of our reflections, for as I sit here in the closing hours of the year, forms over which flowers have grown and blossomed for years, stand clear and distinct before me. Smiles that warm and thrill flash from their faces. Voices, long since silent, come out of the past to touch their old time charm chords long dormant in my being. And in the very front rank of these many vistants, which the magic memory brings around me, stands my esteemed friend and companion, Jorgen Olson.

Once more with him I stand on deck of the good ship Norden as she lies at anchor in Bergens Fjord. Verdure clad mountains and cliff's polished by waves and tides through unnumbered centuries rise around me. The last boatful of passengers have come on board. The captain is megaphoning orders to the crew. A steam tug is unreeling a great cable in front of the ship. The first mate takes his seat high in the capstan and with a swinging lilt beings to sing "The Hoisting of the Anchor," while a dozen or more sturdy sailors work the levers and join in the song. Above, able seasmen climb and crawl straightening out ropes and smoothing folds in the sails that are to wing us across the great-wide sea. In fifteen or twenty minutes the song is ended and the great iron claw hang dripping slime and mud. The hawser is unreeled and pulled tant. The ship with its precious cargo of six hundred and fifty emigrants begins to move. A subdued murmur of awe and wonder runs from stern to stern. The unknown and untried is faced by many as never before. Slowly, silently the great ship cleaves the sunlit waters till it reaches the open sea. The sun like a great crimson ball hangs just above an undulating horizon. There is great hub-bub and excitement on board. The first mate in a great bellowing voice is hurling oaths and orders right and left. Sails are unfurled and stretched. The panting, puffing little monster has dropped the cable and is turning back toward the mouth of the fjords. The shores of our native land recede into the shadows of uncomming night. Sighs, sobs and tears express the prevailing emotions of the majority on board.

It was under such circumstances that I first met my friend Jorgen Olson May 9, 1867. After a successful voyage for those days we reached Quebec June 22. Here we were herded into box cars in which rough planks were laid criss-cross for seats. The refuse and dirt from a variety of goods and materials which had been carried in the cars littered the floor. A long train was made up with an engine in front and one behind. On a curve some distance from the city the rear engine telescoped the train. Several cars were derailed which unfortunately happened to be cars filled with goods of the immigrants. Many a beautiful spinning wheel and many an heirloom chest were broken and splintered. But the interruption of our journey lasted only a few hours and after a night and a day we were on the deck of a steamboat crossing Lake Michigan to Milwaukee. At Milwaukee came many sad partings, for during a stay of seen weeks or more together, leisure and propinquity had helped to form many ties of friendship and love. But the constrictive laws of poverty forbade choice. So each one went as he was labeled to go at the beginning of the trip.

Mr. Olson went to the Blue Mounds settlement in Dane County and I with my folks to Trempealeau with the hope of ultimately reaching the Sondfjord Colony in Pigeon, of which at that time consisted of Mads Knudtson, his good wife and children. But Knudtson and his wife were so strong, so healthy and so vibrant with ancestral qualities that they could create a homelike atmosphere anywhere and colonize a valley in a short time. During several of the following years Destiny played chess, with me as one of the pieces, for I was too young to checkmate her. The first season she bet me my board and hickory shirt that I would fall down on the job selected for me. The next season she raised the bet to a full suit of clothes and board. I won on both bets. Mr. Olson was older, had a fair education, wrote a beautiful, clear hand (an accomplishment I have never attained) and instead of being picked up and set down according to the whims of Destiny he began to select time he came to the far famed Valders settlement of Blue Mounds he gained such individual mastery of himself that he selected Borgit Lund as his life's partner and helpmate. This partnershp was confirmed by marriage on the 17th day of May, 1870. The honeymoon was spent in a leisurely way as he drove a yoke of oxen from Dane county to Chimney Rock, while his wife rode high in a spring seat which clasped one of T.G. Mandts substantial wagons.

Arrived in Chimney Rock he selected a homestead in the shadow of the hill which he crowned with the rock that has given a permanent name to a town and the region surrounding it. Here he and his strong ambitious wife planned and worked for eighteen years, while one of the great original commandments of the Creator --"Be faithful, multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdueit"--found complete fulfillment, for fourteen children were born to them and the grubby, stony land was compelled to yield a goodly reward. Having attained to a condition of comparative affluence and feeling the need of a larger and better farm he moved to the place where he heard the final summons. October 27, 1904, his wife died from heart trouble. Eight of his children passed on before him. A son, Henry, is also in all probability dead, for the last he was heard from was in November, 1910, when he left Superior, Wisconsin with a companion to go deer hunting. The surviving children are: Mrs. Anna Veum, Olaus Olson, Anton Olson, Mrs. Christine Olmstead and William Olson.

Jorgen Olson was born in Valders, Norway, November 3, 1844. In 1910 he had a paralytic stroke. Another like the stroke in 1915 which enfeebled him considerably. Later on he had a fall which crippled and laid him up for a long time. But he recovered sufficiently in time to be up and toddle around the house. About two weeks before his death he had another fall which undoubtedly tended to hurry his going. During these years of feebleness and sickness I saw him many times and always found him cheerful, smiling humorously at what he considered his useless condition. Once after his first fall when I found him helpless in bed suffering excruciating pain from his injuries, I saw tears course down his cheeks but that was the only time I ever saw symptoms of menial depression. The last time I saw him, a couple of months before he died, so stricken that he found it difficult to speak, smiles played again and again over his fine, ruddy face and he often chuckled as if he found a source of humor in watching his own feeble struggles against sickness and old age. Mr. Olson was a small compact built man of almost classic fineness and form. He always wore a full beard. He observed carefully the Cardinal virtues and was a devoted follower of his God and Master. He lived and worked within the radius of his tried abilties. No far flung ambition tempted him to try unknown paths. He was trusted and respected by all who knew him. He was gentle and sincere, and strong because he was clean, fair and just. A friendship of long standing, growing firmer with every passing year, bound us together and I shall miss him but cannot grieve over his departure, for he had finished an honorable course; lived a successful life, and was entitled to his discharge from the infirmities of age. Peacefully he went to his rest November 24, 1924.

Rev. Langehong, for many years his pastor, was sent for to officiate at his funeral which was held in the Chimney Rock church November 28.

Goodbye friend and comrade! Precious memories of you will live in my heart til the end of my days. H.A. Anderson, December 31, 1924" THE BLAIR PRESS - January 15, 1925

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_American
The good majority of Norwegian immigrants, close to 500,000 came to the USA via Canada, and the Canadian port of Quebec. The British Government repealed the navigation laws in 1849 in Canada and from 1850 on, Canada became the port of choice as Norwegian ships carried passengers to Canada and took lumber back to Norway. The Canadian route offered many advantages to the emigrant over traveling to the USA directly. "They moved on from Quebec both by rail and by steamer for another thousand or more miles (1600km) for a steerage fare of slightly less than $9.00. Steamers from Quebec, Canada brought them to Toronto, Canada then the immigrants often traveled by rail for 93 miles to Collingwood, Ontario, Canada on Lake Huron, from where steamers transported them across Lake Michigan to Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay. (USA)" (pp. 13–14). Not until the turn of the century did Norwegians accept Canada as a land of the second chance. This was also true of the many American-Norwegians who moved to Canada seeking homesteads and new economic opportunities. By 1921 one-third of all Norwegians in Canada had been born in the U.S.

Another Obituary: OLSON, Jorgen, 80, of Chimney Rock, died 24 Nov 1924, publ. on 08 Jan 1925 Whitehall Times ( http://trempealeau.wigenweb.org/databases/obituaries/1925obit.htm )

The Churches of North Aurdal ( http://www.valdressamband.org/churches/naurdal.html )

There are four old churches in North Aurdal: Ulnes, Strand, Skrautvål and Aurdal. These are churches which today look the same as when your ancestors left for America during the last half of the last century. In addition there are three newer churches: Aurdal mountain church, Tisleidalen and Tingnes, all built after your ancestors left.

The Ulnes church is the oldest church in North Aurdal, and the only medieval church in the commune. Ulnes church is the youngest of three medieval stone churches in Valdres, the two other being the Slidre church from 1170 and the Mo church ruin from 1215, both in West Slidre. In the Ulnes Church some of the details of construction in the windows, doors, roof construction, etc can be typed as Romanic and Gothic. Since the transition from the Romanic to the Gothic style mostly dates back to sometime around 1250, we believe that the Ulnes church also dates from around 1250. The church is mentioned for the first time in 1307 and then again in 1327. The parish of Ulnes is mentioned many times during the Middle Ages, but we only know of one medieval parson in Ulnes and that was Bjøm in 1322. The Ulnes church began to decay after the Reformation in 1536. Old documents tell us that the walls had to be supported by wooden posts in 1623. In 1686 it was suggested that the old church should be taken down and replaced by a wooden church. But in 1735, when the church had been out of use for 20 years, it was finally rebuilt and restored for the most part in its medieval stone form. The church later was repaired again in the 1890s and 1950s. The bell tower is from 1735, while the wooden parts of the building (entrance and sacristy) were added in 1892. The Ulnes church has a rich interior. An altar front piece (now in the Museum of Antiquities in Oslo), a door-ring, a pyrmide like top of a baptismal font, and one of the bells in the tower are all from the Middle Ages. The fresco paintings in the choir are from the 1790s, painted by the famous Valdres rosemaler (rosepainter) Ola llermundson Berge.

The altar piece is from 1850, made by two brothers, Anders Pederson Rye, a wood-carver, and Halvor Pederson Rye, a painter. The story about the altar piece is interesting: In 1847 the two brothers decided to immigrate to America. Their ship sunk in a storm in the North Sea and all the passengers went into lifeboats. They feared for their lives. The brothers prayed to God that if they survived, they would go home and make a nice present to their old church. At long last the lifeboat was washed ashore in Holland. The two brothers stayed for some years in Holland and Germany. As artists they picked up a few ideas that were useful when they came home to Ulnes and began the work on the altar piece. One can trace the German influence in many parts of the altar piece. The Rye brothers, however, did not forget their dream of America and finally left Nor-way in the 1860s. Just this September I showed American descendants of the Rye brothers around Ulnes church. There are two baptismal fonts in the Ulnes church, both in the form of an angel. The oldest, in wood, is from 1793, a gift from Engebret Gudbrandson and Marit Eivindsdotter, Upper Ulnes. The youngest, in plaster, is a gift from the famous sculptor Ole Fla-dager, who was born in Ulnes 1832 and died in Rome, Italy 1871. Many other interior pieces and furniture are gifts from or made by people from Ulnes or from people in the United States or Canada with family roots in Ulnes (that is, the Brujords in the United States and Stavenjords in Canada).

Quebec Ports
PASSENGER LISTS: QUEBEC 1865 - 1921 (includes Montreal)
Microfilm C-4522: 1867 May 27 through 1868 May 26
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/genealogy/022-908.003.02-e.html#qc