There is much more in Paul Mandt’s book, Relatively Speaking, but it pertains mostly to the Mandt descendants in the TG Mandt direction. If you’d like to find out more about them, download the full book from the Family Search Library in Salt Lake City, easily found with a Google search. (PEH)
R E L A T I V E L Y S P E A K I N G, a Mandt Family History by Paul Mandt
“And who was your grandfather—— T.G. or G.T. ?”
The voice booming from the inner office was that of Gerhard Naeseth, Associate Director of the University of Wisconsin Library. I’d gone to Madison to begin mysearch for family roots and history. My Guardian Angel, working through a student librarian, had guided me to Professor Naeseth’s Inner Sanctum and the beginning of a new and appreciated friendship.
Gerry, an international authority on Norwegian immigration to the United States, suggested Norwegian and American books and other sources of pertinent information about early ancestors in Norway and those who pioneered in Wisconsin.
He also supplied valuable data from his own exhaustive records, and after I’d completed this manuscript, he read and edited it for accuracy. Mange tusen takk, Gerry, for the help and inspiration!
Grandpa Mandt,”G.T. Really Started This Story!
In 1906, Grandpa Gunnar Tarjeson Mandt wrote the STORY OF HIS LIFE. Mother safely filed it in the Family Bible. When translated in 1972, it prompted our own search for family roots– a search which led to libraries, museums, old records, old cemeteries, books on Norwegian and Wisconsin history, and eventually a flight to Norway which took fewer hours than it had taken weeks for Grandpa to make the trip 130 years earlier!
In Norway, Lola, Shirley, and I, with a helpful bi-lingual driver, drove into Telemark, visited old family farms and churches, and met Tarjei Mandt and Mrs. Ingeborg Mandt at Eidsborg, and in Bergen we spent time with Dr. Per Mikkel Mandt. All contributed family lore. Tarjei’s detailed family genealogy, plus the articles written by his father Olaf in 1914 and published serially in the newspaper VARDEN gave direction to our Mandt Hunt. Continued correspondence with Tarjei was also of great help, as were the copies of “Dei Forste Mandtane in Telemark” and “Telemark Husflidslag” sent us by Halvor Nordbo of Skien, Norway. Both featured excellent genealogies and family stories.
Most of the information tied—in with the stories which Mother and Dad had passed on to us from their folks——tales of long-dead relatives in Norway and stories about pioneer life in Wisconsin. The Mandts in Norway are proud of their family and their lineage. We found that being a Mandt is helpful when it comes to shaking the family tree. “Mandt” is a family name passed from one generation to the next, a rarity in Norway where name-changing was common because families usually took the names of their farms or the places they lived (Norgaard—-North Farm; Smedal-Valley of the Smiths; Bakken-Hillside) or added “sen” or “son” to their father’s given name (Olsen, Johnson, Mikkelson). Family names, we were told, were often of foreign origin and limited to the “upper classes.” In addition, our early ancestors were literate , and could read and write, unusual at that time. As Lensmann (highest local officer) and Klokker (Sexton), many were also keepers of the civil and church records.
What! No Kings?
We never did find proof of old family legends about “royal blood”… in fact, we didn’t look for it. If there is any blue blood in the Mandt veins, it’s now too diluted to be of any importance. Although lineage hasn’t been traced conclusively to Germany, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary lists a Dr. Wilhelm von Mandt (1800-1855), a German physician and naturalist for whom Mandt’s Guillemot (North Atlantic Water Bird) is named. As you read this family history, you’ll notice that names often vary because of euphonic spelling: Michel and Mikkel, Kettil, Ketil, and Kjetil, Peter and Petter, Christian and Kristian, Tarjei, Tarje, and (more pronounceable in America) Targe.
We make no pretense of complete accuracy- sources vary in detail, many stories have probably been changed by frequent retelling, others have suffered in translation. I sometimes punch the wrong typewriter keys. But RELATIVELY SPEAKING, we present the following as a reasonably “True Story” about the Saints and Sinners on the Mandt Family Tree !
T A L E S F R O M T E L E M A R K
Telemark is a beautiful province or county in southern Norway, with a comfortable combination of mountains, green valleys, great dark evergreen forests, rushing streams, and long lakes that sparkle in the clear sunshine. Like the rest of Norway, good land is in short supply, but the country is dotted with farms, some large and prosperous, many others clinging dejectedly to the rocky hillsides. Most buildings are of wood, and in West Telemark towns are small. Dalen, a pretty town nestled in a steep—walled valley at the head of Lake Bandak is center of the area where the Mandt Family has lived since Michel Lauritsen Mandt and his wife Else came to nearby Vinje Parish in the early 1700s. The first Mandts to live in Telemark, Michel and Else are progenitors of all the Mandts in Norway and those who immigrated to America.
AN EVASIVE ANCESTOR
Michel Mandt was not one to talk about the past, but he did admit to being born in l692, but was evasive about other details, such as his parentage and where he was born. His name and speech indicated a foreign background, probably German. Hand-me-down family stories, which in most cases are as reliable as any other source, picture Michel as a hot-headed young patriot, possibly of noble birth, from Schlesweig-Holstein, or one of the other 300 duchies into which Germany was then divided. Supposedly a political refugee, Michel had been imprisoned, escaped, and fled to Norway with a price on his head. Somewhere enroute he learned the art of gold filigree, which he reportedly introduced to Norway. But there are other more imaginative and less believable stories about this colorful ancestor
Many of our early ancestors worshipped at Skafsa Church, Mo Parish, in West Telemark. Church records indicate that both Michel and Else Mandt were buried here- Michel in 1766 at the age of 74, and Else in l795, aged 99. This is also the church where Grandpa Gunnar Mandt was baptized and confirmed. Sundet, the farm where he was born, is nearby.
Rikard Berge, in his hard-to-translate book in old Norwegian, NORSKFOLKEKULTUR suggests a few of the tallest tales. Take your pick…
Michel was a soldier of fortune from Germany, Denmark, or Sweden… a fugitive because he’d deserted from the German Army, slain a man in self-defense or in a fit of jealousy or in a game of cards, or in a street brawl… These dastardly deeds had taken place in Germany, Stockholm, or Copenhagen, where he’d learned the art of gold filigree. When imprisoned he’d escaped through a window by making a rope from torn clothing, put his shoes on backward to confuse pursuers, and shod his horse with silver so he could take his assets with him
When questioned why he left his native country, he was noncommittal: “I stole a horse” ; My father was a Catholic Priest”. In his book, Berge describes Michel as a “historic character”, possibly inspiration for, or confused with a Norwegian saga about an itinerant goldsmith. But whatever his origins, Michel was in Norway to stay. When he arrived, probably about 1710, he settled in Kristiansand, where he plied the goldsmith trade. Later, as a junior officer in the Vesterlaendske Regiment, he fought in the war against Karl XII of Sweden. After the decisive battle at Frederikshald in l7l8, he met and married 32-year-old Else Resen, daughter of Lars Christianson Resen, a prominent merchant and business man in nearby Halden. Shortly thereafter, their first child, Lars Laurentius, was born.
Michel, together with his wife and infant son, then probably returned to Kristiansand, then moved to Skien. Later they found their way up the wild Setesdal Valley to Vinje in Western Telemark, where the Vesterlaendske Regiment had a training ground at the upper end of Vinjevatn (Lake Vinje). As an officer in the same regiment, Michel settled on nearby Skjelvik, next to Vinje Parish Church. He built a small house and workshop and dug a small pond near the house, where he kept the first geese ever seen in Telemark
MICHEL FINALLY SETTLES DOWN
After reaching Vinje Parish, the restless Michel settled down to beget a family and fashion fine silver and gold jewelry, specializing in the gold filigree work for which he became famous. At a time when people in rural areas of Norway had little other than land for investment, Michel’s jewelry was in demand, especially the beautiful buckles, brooches, chains, and belts of gold, silver, or pewter to decorate the native costumes. To broaden his market, Michel travelled through Telemark, selling the jewelry. One legend indicates Michel became wealthy. Typically, stories of how he gained this lucre are varied: When he tore down an old barn, he found a great deal of money in one of the rotten timbers…when digging in an ancient grave mound, he unearthed a long-buried treasure. Both accounts are probably pure fiction; there is no record of his having left a large estate.
Michel, the supposed political refugee and itinerant soldier of fortune, became a staid and prominent citizen in Vinje Parish, becoming Lensmann,the highest local administrative office, and parish Klokker or sexton.
Eidsborg Stave Kirke in Telemark. Built about 1300, this is one of the few of these historic churches still in its original location. They were called “stave” because they were built of pine posts or staves, specially treated to last for centuries. In 1759 Peter Christian Mandt, one of Michel’s sons, purchased the church at public auction , later turning it over to “the people”. Altar painting in the church was painted nearly lOOyears later by Michel’s great great grandson Mikkel Peterson Mandt, who had been educated and trained on the continent. The building overlooks a little lake surrounded by Mandt Family farms. Unconfirmed is the rumor that Mandt brides married in the church may wear the family’s traditional “bridal crown”.
Else, it has been said, was exceptionally beautiful. Although firm and sharp tongued, she was an intelligent and capable spouse and mother. Both parents evidently came from good back grounds, and together instructed their eight children: Ingebret, Peter, Johanne, Knut, Ole, Rasmus, Storre Lars, and Vesle Lars (Lars the elder and Lars the younger- a typical Norwegian custom of naming one son for the maternal and one for the paternal grandfather. In this case, both grandfathers were Lars, hence the two sons by the same name). The boys, particularly, were known for their fine handwriting and proper use of the language.
The four sons who reached maturity—- Ingebret, Peter Christian, Olav, and Rasmus—-all became outstanding goldsmiths, and like their father travelled through the province selling their jewelry. Except for Engebret, the sons, and many of their sons and grandsons, became prominent citizens as lensmann and parish klokker. All acquired extensive property.
What Happened to the Money:
Ingebret was a colorful character. Black haired, black eyed, often wearing a brown wig, he was a linguist of sorts, speaking German, Dutch, English, and Norwegian. Like his father, he was a wanderer, often leaving his wife Anne Caterine at home in Kragero and travelling to Holland, Denmark, and England to sell his jewelry and buy gold and silver. Returning from one trip, he introduced potatoes to Norway. In 1760, after a particularly long absence, it was learned he had died in England after a fall from his horse. Knowing he carried at least 2,000 rigsdalars with him, two nephews went to England to investigate and collect the money. They found his grave, but British authorities refused to release the money because English documents listed him as ”Engelbright” or ”Ingebright” Resen Mandt instead of Ingebret.
Another son, Qlay, owned many large farms, one of more than 1,500 acres. The story is told of how he acquired Eikland, a particularly fine place he’d long admired. when owners of a saw mill offered 1,000 rigsdalars to anyone who could break a log jam, Olav accepted the challenge. He waited for the first flood, then with a crew of woodsmen felled pines on both banks of the river, piling trees and limbs into the water above the jam. The rushing stream carried them down into the obstruction, backing up water until it broke through, taking the logs downriver. In one day, Olav earned 1,000 rigsdalars and bought Eikland for 900!
Hasmus, another son, demonstrated value of the Mandt jewelry when he secured Honstoylheii, one of the prettiest farms in Mo, in exchange for bridal jewelry. A daughter, Gjertrud, married Tolleiv Huvestad (1761–13 July 1847), who became a member of parliament and the Eidsvold assembly and signer of Norway’s Declaration of Independence.
T H E P E T E R-B R A N C H of the Family Tree
Our own branch of the family is directly descended from a fourth son of Michel and Else, Peter Christian (or Kristian). (So are the Holtans and the Tweetens- PEH) Goldsmith, klokker, lensmann, and farmer, Peter also owned extensive forest lands and operated a large sawmill on his farm, Omli or Amli, the only sawmill in West Telemark by royal privilege. Even in the 1700s, Norway practiced conservation of its timber, one of the country’s most valued resources. Peter also dealt in real estate, buying and selling property.
Because of his fine distinctive penmanship and clear, correct use of the language, Peter was in great demand for preparing documents locally and in other areas. As lensmann in Fyresdal he often spent 14 days without interruption holding court, often expressing regret at the number of persons brought to trial.
Upper Amli was the home of Great Great Grandfather Peter Christian Mandt. Located on a high plateau, the house on this large farm has a magnificent view over valleys, meadows, and mountains. Other buildings include a smaller house, a stabbur or storehouse with upstairs quarters (probably for “help”), and a big red barn. Exterior of the house originally may have been of dark brown pitch pine, which was later either painted or covered with new siding.
Peter and his wife Aase Tarjesdatter had 12 children, four of whom died in infancy. A son Tarje was a junior officer in the Norwegian army, serving in the War of Independence in 1814. Tarje married Gro Tarjesdatter. Their youngest son was Gunnar Tarjeson Mandt, who immigrated to the United States in 1843, the first of our ancestors to come to America.
Halvor, another son of Peter and Aase, possessed the typical family talent for inventing and experimenting. He tried to fly in a machine of his own design. The experiment was a failure, but he lived until 1863, when he died at 90. In the book (1974) TELEMARKHUSFLIDSLAG(Home Arts in Telemark) Halvor Nordbo tells of contributions which Michel Mandt and his descendants made to the art and culture of Telemark. Many of the goldsmiths, artists, sculptors, woodcarvers, weavers, and musicians have been Mandts or descendants of the family. He adds: “Many may have gotten their artistic ability from others, but from Michel and Else have come their sense of beauty, form, and color. It was often said in West Telemark that the Mandts could do whatever they set out to do… The same applies today !”
One of Halvor’s six children was a daughter named Haege. She was 20 when she saw the infant Mikkel Mikkelson Sinnes/Sanden. “This”, she said, “is the one I will marry!” He didn’t have a chance. They married when Haege was 40 and Mikkel 20. In 1849 they immigrated to America, where Haege lived to the age of 99.
Peter Mikkelson Mandt was a grandson of Peter Christian. In the 1800s, Peter Mikkelson was Lensmann in both Laardal and Mo and also Stortingmann, or member of the Norwegian Parliament. A man of strong cultural and political principles, he liked to write both prose and light poetry, and was frequently host to Norway’s prominent men of letters and politics. He is still remembered as one of the most prominent leaders in West Telemark. Civic minded, he is credited with initiating many early improvements in Telemark, such as better roads and steamship traffic on Lake Bandak.
In 1819, when he was 25, Peter married Gro Steinarsdatter. Capable in all he did, he sired 16 children, one of whom was artist Mikkel Mandt. A story involving Peter reflects the times: A second cousin, Lars Mandt, who became one of the finest goldsmiths in the family, was accused in his youth of falsifying the silver content of jewelry. He was sentenced to several days in jail, jail being the home of Lensmann Peter. Lars and another cousin Olav arrived carrying lefse, gammelost (VERY aged cheese), spekekjot (smoked meat), and other delicacies. Lensmann Peter, it is reported, supplied the drinks.
Another tale probably involved the same Peter: In Eidsborg Stave Kirke, which his Grandfather Peter had owned briefly, was a carved wooden image of St. Nicolaus of Bari, patron saint of the church. In earlier times, on St. John’s Day, parishioners carried St. Nicolaus down the hill to a little lake, where they bathed him to free them of their sins and to insure good crops. By the mid-1800s the custom had been abandoned, but the parish still held Nicolaus in high esteem. In 1850, Lensmann Peter Mandt took the carved image to Oslo, presenting it to the Oslo University Collection of Antiquities, where it still remains. Shortly afterward, when Peter became seriously ill, many believed it was just punishment for having moved the saint from Eidsborg.
This bronze bust of Peter Mikkelson Mandt, great grandson of Michel and Else,is in a little park across from Skafsa Parish Church. Peter, one of the prominent men in Telemark in the 1800s, was a Stortingsmann, or member of Norway’s Storting or Parliament. He was also Lensmann in Laardal and Mo, and a cousin of Grandpa Gunnar Mandt.
This bronze likeness of Peter was made by Anne Grimdalen, prominent Norwegian sculptor
T WO W O R L D S -A Troubled Norway and The American Dream
In the 1800s, people in Norway became conscious of two worlds-— their own and the promised land of America, three thousand miles away across a dangerous sea. Times were tough in Norway. The Napoleonic Wars, which impoverished most of Europe, also cut off Norway’s trade with Britain, its chief market for timber and source of needed food imports. The cost of the War of Independence in 1814 added more burdens. Because of post-war inflation and soaring taxes, even the large land owners were often forced to sell , mortgage, or divide their property. Interest rates of 20% were not uncommon.
By the right of primogeniture, eldest sons inherited the land, hence other sons of men of means were often no better off than the poorest peasants. When possible, younger sons bought portions of the ancestral acres, further breaking up the farms into unproductive units, of which there were already too many. Repeated plagues, crop failures, and resulting famines ravaged the country, sometimes making it necessary to grind tree bark as a grain substitute. Although class lines were supposedly abolished in 1814, social position was still rigidly defined, with clergy, military officers, teachers, public officials, and large land owners considered “upper class”. It was easy to move down the social ladder, but almost impossible to move up.
There Was Hope in America
Into these troubled times came the hopeful dream of America, with its promise of limitless, fertile land and golden opportunity. Letters from the few who had already immigrated fired the dreams to fever pitch. Nearly 30 years after he went to America, Gunnar Mandt recalled typical letters he and others had received before they left the ‘old country”. Ole Trovatten, one of the first to leave Telemark, was one of the most enthusiastic. “Trovatten,”Gunnar wrote in 1870, “sent back to his countrymen, burdened by economic sorrows, assurances of a happier life in America. “Ole Trovatten said so” became the refrain of all accounts of the land of wonder.”
The powerful Norwegian clergy strongly opposed immigration; so did some of the apprehensive families. But opposition only served to strengthen the resolve of those determined to better their lot. Gunnar, like thousands of others, was lured especially by stories about Koshkonong Prairie, an unincorporated area which was being opened in the heartland of Wisconsin Territory, some20 miles southeast of the little settlement called Madison.
T H E M A N D T S I N A M E R I C A
KOSHONONG ——T H E P R O M I S E D L A N D
To Gunnar Mandt and the multitude of others who decided to leave Norway, Koshkonong was The Promised Land. Basically, a prairie, it offered pioneers faster returns for their labor than areas where forests had to be cleared. The fertile countryside was gently rolling covered with prairie grass and wild flowers. Stands of hardy oak and hickory were ideal for building and fuel. Clear springs, streams, and sparkling lakes provided water. Teeming with fish, they also were a source of food, as were the roaming herds of deer and other wild animals. Other sections of Wisconsin Territory along the Great Lakes and rivers had been settled much earlier by French and Yankee pioneers, but this inland area wasn’t opened to settlement until the Blackhawk War had banished the Indians to Iowa and Minnesota. Although scraggly bands of Indians still roamed the territory, they were friendly and helpful. But tales of earlier massacres still frightened the pioneers.
To reach a seeming paradise, the pioneers from Norway faced long voyages in cramped sailing vessels, each passenger bringing enough food to last the entire trip. Flatbrod, cheese, and dried meat were packed in iron-bound wooden trunks, often gaily decorated with rosemaling. These trunks often became the first tables and chairs in the pioneers‘ crude log cabins. Ships usually left Norway in the Spring to take advantage of Summer-sailing conditions. If the weather was good and the winds favorable, the Atlantic crossing was made in 5 to 10 weeks, but if the boats were becalmed or driven off course by storms, the voyage sometimes lasted 15 weeks. Passengers were crammed into the boats without consideration for comfort or sanitation. After landing, usually in New York, the immigrants bound for Wisconsin faced a slow, tedious journey up the Hudson River by steamboat; to Buffalo by horse-drawn boats on the Erie Canal; then by indifferent Great Lakes steamer to Milwaukee. The 70 mile trek from Milwaukee to Koshkonong was on foot, or by ox team if they could afford it.
Arriving at Koshkonong in the Fall, the pioneers’ immediate problem was shelter. Usually, their first home in this promised Land was a quickly constructed brush hut, thatched with prairie grass. Later to survive the bitter sub-zero winter, they retreated to dugouts in the hills or Indian mounds; simple log cabins were usually built the following year.
Hardship was the way of life: Isolation and loneliness; extremes of climate; homesickness; breaking tough virgin soil with makeshift, inadequate tools; the need to establish and build their own churches and schools in an alien country; a different language barrier, making difficult any communication with others not of Norwegian birth. The summer days were filled with the songs of birds and the scents of wild flowers and freshly turned earth, but at night the lonesome howl of prairie wolves often made sleep impossible for the weary settlers.
Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Crops on Koshkonong Prairie
Koshkonong, the third settlement of Norwegians in Wisconsin and the sixth in the United States, was considered the “wealthiest”- a reflection on the status of the others! The crude Koshkonong log cabins, often resting directly on the ground, were entirely of wood, including hinges and latches. Clothes were of blue drilling or homespun from Norway, or from wool which the housewives had carded, spun, and woven. Except for the fish and wild deer and fowl, food was much the same as 100 generations had eaten in Norway: Flatbrod, homemade cheeses such as mylse and brie, and curdled milk or bresta. Principle crop was wheat, easy to plant and care for, harvested as they had in the “old country”. But it was several years before Gunnar Mandt and the other earliest settlers had a mill or market nearer than Milwaukee, 70 miles away over rough trails. Transportation was by oxen, pulling a “kubberole”, a home-made wagon with slices of tree trunk for wheels.
Despite the toil and hardships, the pioneers were seeing their dreams come true. They worked together- breaking land, building cabins and barns, planting and harvesting- turning the park-like wild prairie into their own profitable farms. Oxen gradually gave place to horses; mills were located nearby; markets became readily accessible.
When Gunnar Mandt came to Koshkonong in the Fall of 1843, only a handful had settled in Pleasant Springs Township. These included the first settlers, Knute Roe and his wife and infant son, who had arrived several months earlier. The pioneers of the early 40’s were the forerunners of the thousands who settled in the area during the next few decades—-a surge of population growth believed by some to be unequalled any time, anywhere in the world.
0 U R P I O N E E R H E R I T’A G E
Grandpa Gunnar Tarjeson Mandt *, a great grandson of Michel and Else, was 20 and unmarried when he decided to immigrate from Norway to America. Orphaned at 14, with no inheritance because he was the youngest son, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. In 1906, 63 years after he settled on Koshkonong Prairie, he wrote a detailed story of his life, which was published in the DECORAH POSTEN, a popular Norwegian American newspaper of the time.
Following is a direct translation from the Norwegian, especially valuable because it gives a first-hand account of pioneer life in Wisconsin. “Purpose of the autobiography,” he explained, “is to acquaint future generations with the difficulties faced by the pioneers.” He wrote the account as a charter member of the Old Settlers‘ Association.
T H E S T O R Y O F H I S L I F E as related by Grandpa Mandt
I was born on the Farm Sunde, Skafsa Annex, Mo Parish, Upper Telemark, Bratsberg County on March 25, 1823. My parents were Tarje Petersen Mandt and Groe Tarjesdatter Rortvedt. My father, an officer in the Norwegian Army for some time, and also during the War of Independence in 1814, passed away when I was two years old. My mother died when I was 14, the same year I was confirmed. After mother’s death, I lived with my brother “Storre” Gunnar (Gunnar the eldest) until the Spring of 1843, when I left relatives and friends and my dear fatherland and went to America.
I travelled with a group of acquaintances from Vraadal, Kviteseid Parish: Gunder Flatland and Family; Kittel Strommen and family; Knut Holtan and family; Wetle Norgarden and family; and Endre Anderson Vraa. It was Vraa who lent me money for the trip, as I did not have any. We were the first group from our part of Telemark who dared make the journey to far-off America, which in those days was considered a dreadful thing. My brother Gunnar said, when I departed, he would rather have followed me to the grave. However, five years later he and his family arrived in America, and it became my task to follow him to his grave.
We started the journey in May, 1843, going first to Skien, where we waited a week for another group from Lower Telemark. Then we went to Porsgrund, where we waited another week, finally continuing to Havre, France with Captain Peterson. It took two weeks to make the trip. Here we were detained for about 18 days while waiting for the American ship, Tuskina. Finally, we were on our way, but it took nine weeks to reach New York.
From there we continued up the Hudson River to Albany with a steamboat, and from there to Buffalo on the new Erie Canal. The large open canal boats were pulled by horses walking on the levees along the waterway. From Buffalo we took a steamboat to Milwaukee, and thence went to Koshkonong; but on this last part of the trip, we had to use our own legs. We finally arrived in Koshkonong in September, travelling under entirely different conditions compared with today.
I settled originally in Pleasant Springs township, Dane County. During the first five years I worked at various places to earn enough money so I could homestead a farm of my own. It was not easy to get work at that time, nor was the pay as large as at present. We received only $5 to $10 per month except during harvest, when we got 50 cents a day.
In those days there were no mowers, reapers, binders, or threshing machines; everything had to be done by hand. When we threshed, we arranged the wheat or oat bundles in large circles out in the field. Then three or four pair of oxen were linked together with iron chains. One man stood in the center of the ring and drove the oxen around over the grain, and little by little the kernels were tramped out. This process was repeated as new bundles were laid out and the straw removed. To clean the trampled kernels, we used small combers as had been the custom in Norway.
In due time we acquired fanning mills, mowers, reapers, etc.; however, they were rather primitive in comparison with the machines and implements in use today. It is difficult for the present generation, which has so many handy and good implements, to understand how few tools the pioneer had at his disposal.
During two summers I worked in Chicago. I had to walk both ways, but pay was better than in Wisconsin. A laborer received 75 cents a day during the summer months for carrying bricks and mortar, but had to keep himself with room and board. Chicago was then very small; I could walk completely around the town in one hour. I believe only 30 or 40 Norwegians lived there.
Church Services at Koshkonong_
During the winter months there was hardly work to be had; occasionally we would get a job cutting wood or splitting rails for a nominal amount. It was hard work, but we were thankful. When I arrived in Koshkonong, there was no Norwegian Lutheran congregation or minister. For us it was a wilderness. The first preacher was a Swede who called himself Smith. He was married to a Norwegian girl from Numedal. I met him at Koshkonongwhere he had a congregation of sorts. He was an emotional speaker, clever at getting women to cry. But Smith came into conflict with Pastor Clausen, our first real minister, who wanted to know where and by whom Smith had been ordained. Smith later went to Chicago, where I believe he was responsible for establishing the first Norwegian Lutheran Church in that town.
At first, services were conducted out in the open or in the small log cabins of the pioneers. I took part in the building of the first log church at West Koshkonong. I laid the roof. In those days there were no lumber yards or similar places nearby. I cut down the oak timbers and transported them to Catfish, near Janesville, to get them cut into boards and planks. I split the shingles myself for the roof from oak blocks. Later, I also took part in building the old, famous eight-cornered brick church at West Koshkonong, which was built around the old log church so we could hold services in that when the new building was under construction.
A family gathering (about 1871) at the farmhouse which Grandpa Mandt built on Koshkonong Prairie. Grandma Mandt is “pouring”, Grandpa is the bearded man. At the left are Pastor G. Lunde and his wife, Anna Marie Mandt, and at right, Ingeborg Mandt and her husband Ole Bilstad. On the grass is 8-year-old Targe (Dad). The two babies held by hired girls are Inger Mandt (later Mrs. Stenjem) and Gunerius Bilstad (Dr. G.E.). Unidentified is the child at the table.
On April 17, 1848, I married Synneva Olsdater Husebo from Sjostrand, Sogn, Bergen Diocese, who had come to America with her parents in 1844, when she was 13 years old. Pastor Dietrichsen performed the marriage ceremony on the Second Day of Easter in the old log church at West Koshkonong. Our marriage was blessed with 10 children, five of whom were called home at an early age, while a daughter died at the age of 17. The following are still alive (1906):
Ingeborg, married to Ole Bilstad, druggist in Cambridge, Wis. They have three daughters and one son, Dr. G.E. Bilstad who is married and has three children.
Anne Marie, married to Pastor G.A. Lunde, who has retired from pastoral work and now lives near Wausau, Wis. They have 7 children: Pastor Anund Lunde, Great Falls, Mont., who has two children; Gunnar, postal clerk at Madison, Wis., who has three children; Claus, railway mail clerk, one child; Sugurd, student at Madison; another son Selmer; and two daughters, all of whom live at home.
Tarje Olaus, married to Aslaug J. Lunde, farmer in Windsor Township, Dane County, Wis. Their 9 children are: Goldie, Lawrence, Gunder, Eva, Thea, Rudolph, Matthew, Theodore, and Paul.
Inger Gurine, married to Will J. Stenjen, living in Madison. They have three children: Eldon, Inez, and Dorothy.
Sold First Two Carloads of Mandt Wagons
After our marriage, I started farming for myself and continued until l870, when I went into partnership with my brother’s son, wagon manufacturer T.G. Mandt in Stoughton. I personally sold the first two carloads of wagons shipped from the factory. When T.G. Mandt went into bankruptcy and the creditors reorganized the factory as a stock company, I became shipping clerk, a position I still hold.
Ever since 1855 I have belonged to the Republican Party. The first public office to which I was elected was Constable. Since then, I have held the offices of side-supervisor, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Township Treasurer, and Justice of the Peace. In Stoughton I have been a member of the City Council two terms and am still Inspector of Elections, a position I’ve held for over 20 years.
In church affairs I have been a member of the Synod ever since its founding in this country, and was a representative at the noted meeting in Rock Prairie. When a Sunday School was organized in the Stoughton Synod Congregation, I was appointed Superintendent, serving for 14 years. Following this I was chosen Klokker, or Sexton, a task I still perform.
When I compare the churches today with the conditions under which we worshiped in the early l840s, I realize that Godin His miraculous way supported the newcomers in a strange country. I also want to thank the Lord whoso graciously preserved for me my faithful wife, who has shared both sorrow and happiness with me for nearly 58 years. Finally, may the God who steered my dear fatherland so firmly in 1814 so it may now take its rightful place as an independent kingdom, protect the people, government, and the newly elected King and his family. It is best for Norway to continue as a kingdom, because it is not in America, but in Europe.
M O R E A B O U T G R A N D P A M A N D T
The following episodes are fact, remembered and repeated years ago by members of his own family. The conversations are what we IMAGINE they might have been.
0 P P O R T U N I T Y I N C H I C A G O
In 1845, after working in Chicago for two summers, Gunnar knew he didn’t want to live there. Low-lying and marshy, the little town was considered “unhealthy”, and before railroads made it the crossroads of America, its: future wasn’t particularly promising. But like the rest of America, it was growing: The first public school had opened on Madison Street, the Methodists had built a big church on Washington, new frame and even brick buildings were springing up all over the place, and the population was almost 5,000!
Gunnar’s opinion of the town was brought into focus when he was ready to walk back to Wisconsin and went to collect the $35 still owed him for his summer’s wage. “Frankly,” his employer explained, “I’m land poor and short on cash. Instead of the money, I’ll make a deal-and give you 35 acres here on Clark Street.”
Gunnar was tempted. But he’d planned to add that $35 to the money he’d saved to buy the homestead he’d preempted* in Section 9, Pleasant Springs Township, Wisconsin Territory! Chicago didn’t fit into the dream. “Mange takk”, he said. “Mange tusen takk.” Many thanks…many thousand thanks.
It wasn’t easy to explain a dream, especially in an unfamiliar language. In broken English he added: “I just want to go home to Koshkonong.”
* As I interpret it, the Right of Preemption was the right of purchase given by the government to the actual settler on a tract of public land. If at the time the settler did not have the necessary money (in this case about $1.25per acre), he could hold the land for later purchase by meeting certain requirements as to shelter and cultivation of a minimum acreage per year.
T E M P T E D B Y T E X A S
Years later Grandpa looked forward to retirement in a climate more comfortable than Wisconsin’s. He bought land in Texas and built a house in which he and Synneva would spend their sunset years. But when it came to moving, it was Grandma who made the decision: “Texas is too far from our children and friends.” They stayed in Stoughton.
S T O U G H T O N —— N O V E M B E R , l 9 O 7
Except for the labored breathing in the downstairs bedroom, the big white house on the hill was quiet. Grandma Mandt rocked gently in the old Boston rocker in the sunny sitting room. In the kitchen the hired girl was quietly preparing supper, and Goldie, recently graduated as a nurse, was with her grandfather. Everything was hushed, except for the heavy breathing. Grandma put her face in her hands, her slight body trembling with muffled sobs. The fear which had gnawed for days was fact– there was no hope for her beloved Gunnar.
After a few minutes she raised her head. Straightening her shoulders, she looked around the familiar, pleasant room with its reminders of Gunnar: his big secretary desk, the gold-headed cane presented by ladies of the Kvindeforening in appreciation of his years as Klokker in the Lutheran Church; the ingenious walnut reclining chair, made especially for him. Even the bay window stirred memories of Gunnar building it when he was 76.
She patted the smooth arm of the old rocker, one of her first pieces of furniture in the crude one-room log cabin a 26 year-old Gunnar had built for his bride of 17- 59 years ago. It had been a good life, even the difficult pioneering days on Koshkonong Prairie made easier by sharing and caring. When one by one six of their 10 children had died, she and Gunnar had gotten strength from each other.
Rising slowly, she went into the bedroom, then carefully made ready for bed. With a soft smile she turned to Goldie. “Please don’t discourage me, because I’ve made up my mind. with God’s help, I’m going to die, too.”
Then she lay down beside her semi-conscious husband, the strong, gentle man with whom she’d spent all those years since she was a bride of 17.
A week later the Love Story ended. Grandma died, fulfilling her wish.
Grandpa, never knowing, died 12 days later.
T H E M A N D T W A G O N
Late in the 19th Century and during the first 20 years of the 20th most Midwest farms boasted a Mandt Wagon; many also sported Mandt buggies, sleighs, surreys, and cutters. Wagons became to Stoughton what automobiles later became to Detroit.
The Mandt Wagon Company was founded by Targe Gunnar (T.G.) Mandt, Grandpa Mandt’s nephew. Grandpa himself was a sometimes partner who supplied financial help and backing at several points in the firm’s history.
T.G. Mandt was 2 1/2 years old when he came to America in 1848 with his parents. His father “Store” Gunnar*, an iron worker and cabinet maker in Norway, settled near West Koshkonong Church and set up shop on his farm making furniture and fashioning iron work and implements for other settlers. T.G., who inherited his father’s ingenious mechanical skills and pride in workmanship, made a complete wagon before he was 16, using the hand lathe and forge in his father’s shop.
Too young to enlist in the Civil War, T.G. went to St. Louis, Mo. to work in a factory making wagons for the Union Army. Only 17 when he returned, he invested his savings of less than $100 in a riverside lot in Stoughton, moved an old shed onto it, and was in business with the determination to make his the BEST wagon.
In 1871, when T.G. needed capital to mechanize and expand, Grandpa Mandt went into business with him. Of completely different temperaments, the partnership lasted just two years. Grandpa returned to farming and dealing in real estate and farm equipment. He went back into the company several years later. An inventive genius as well as a super-salesman , promoter, and knowledgeable entrepreneur, T.G. developed and patented most of the improvements he made on wagons and sleighs, including a “seat belt” (to keep drivers on the seat or to keep the seat fastened to the wagon?). More important inventions included an extension “reach” to lengthen or shorten the wagon chassis, and an oscillating arrangement which enabled wagons or sleighs to turn sharp corners without tipping.
As the company grew and prospered, a wagon shop, foundry, machine shop, and other buildings were added to the sprawling factory. But like most rapidly-growing ventures, the wagon company had its set-backs, too. The wide-spread business depression of the mid ’70s almost forced closing of the plant and putting several hundred men out of work. T.G. survived the crisis, but in 1883 fire destroyed the wooden factory. Inadequately insured, the loss threatened to end Stoughton’s fame as a wagon-making center. But T.G. reorganized as a stock company, sold stock, and the business continued to grow. Five years later, when stockholders gained control, he left the company taking his patents with him. To become reestablished, he sold shop rights on some patents to blacksmiths and other manufacturers, and contracted with factories in Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois to make a complete line of Mandt wagons, buggies, and sleighs. In 1896 he opened the “new” shops in Stoughton under the name of the T.G. Mandt Vehicle Co., specializing in “The Genuine Mandt Wagon”. T.G. was only 57 when he died in 1902. His company was then sold to the Moline Plow Co., which operated as the “Moline Plow Co.-—T.G. Mandt Wagon Branch” through World War I.
In addition to putting Stoughton “on the map”, T.G. was active in local affairs, serving as village president and alderman and founder of the town’s weekly newspaper, “The Hub”. He was a giant of a man physically, too, with a lusty appetite and a booming voice which could be heard for blocks when he so chose.
His wife, Jorand Lunde, was my mother’s sister. The couple had two daughters: Tilla (Mrs. Gustave Torrison) and Clara (Mrs. Giles Dow).
Photo: Iconographic Collection, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
The Mandt wagon works in Stoughton about 1879. When the company was founded by T.G. Mandt in 1865, it occupied a little shed on the banks of the Tahara River. As popularity of the Mandt Wagon grow, so did the factory. At first the wagons were made entirely by hand, then lathes and saws were added driven by a horse walking in endless circles. Later, waterpower was used. The rapidly growing company furnished employment for many of the “newcomers” from Norway during the decades following the Civil War, and helped establish Stoughton as a prosperous town. When this rambling factory was destroyed by fire in 1883, it was replaced by brick buildings, Today, all that remains of the once prosperous factory is the land, now known as Mandt Park, but promotional folders still describe Stoughton as “Home of the Mandt Wagon,” although they have not been manufactured since World War I. By 1900 more than 1,000 men were employed making thousands of wagons. per year.
There is much more in Paul Mandt’s book, Relatively Speaking, but it pertains mostly to the Mandt descendants in the TG Mandt direction. If you’d like to find out more about them, download the full book from the Family Search Library in Salt Lake City, easily found with a Google search. (PEH)