Aaste Julsdotter Hoverud Dahlby, was born January 27, 1831, and came with her parents Jul and Marit Haverud and her 7 siblings to Wisconsin from the “Queen of the Norway Valleys,” Valdres. They were early immigrants who came on the ship “17th of May” from the Swenes parish and arrived in New York on June 26, 1849.
They, who came with their eight children, were better situated financially than many immigrants. They were comfortable parents back in Valdres but they saw little future for their children, especially their four sons, so they decided to try their luck in the new land of America.
The Hoveruds were likely members of the old Hauge Church on the northwest edge of Daleyville, Dane County, Wisconsin and the Dahlbys members at Perry Church on the south side of Daleyville village. Flam’s History of Norwegian Immigration, page 345 says, “About twenty Norwegians settled in Perry (Dane County) in 1849….They were…Jul Hoverud, wife and eight children from Valdres and Andreas Sanderson from Hallingdal.”
In 1853, Aaste’s sister Astri married Ole Swenson who would become Helen Dahlby Nelson’s maternal great-grandmother. This couple died together in the cyclone of 1868 which was so destructive in their vicinity.
In 1855, Aaste, who was 24, married Peter Amundson Dahlby, 28. Soon this young immigrant couple in this new and promising land were expecting a son to add to their family. Their joy was short lived as the young mother Aaste gave her life in childbirth but the baby, Amund, was saved. It was November 1, 1856. In those days it was necessary to find a nursing mother who had lost her own baby and who was available to nurse the motherless baby. This person would be called a “wet. nurse”. Only the hardiest babies could survive on cow’s milk before the days of pasteurizing milk, diluting it and adding dextrose.
Baby Amund had another early loss in his life when his Grandmother Hoverud died in 1874. This grandmother and Aaste are no doubt buried in unmarked graves in the Old Hauge Church Cemetery in Daleyville. Gerhard Naeseth, genealogist at the University of Wisconsin, is our authority on this burial site. Peder A. Dahlby served with Company G of the 46th Wisconsin Infantry during the latter part of the Civil War.
This baby Amund was soon to have a stepmother and later a brother Olaus. His ambitious father experienced losing all his buildings in a cyclone but he rebuilt them and moved on to another farm so that Amund could have the original home site when he married Elsie Kittleson.
Aaste’s father, Jul Hoverud, is credited in the newspaper as having invented a wood splitter which “would be one more of his inventions to make a better way of doing work.”
Amund brought handsome hair to his descendants and his lean, long frame is perhaps a credit to his mother Aaste. So also, are family traits of a love of music, hard work, devout living, and industrious living. Aaste’s grandson James Olaus Dahlby married Astri’s granddaughter Viola Swenson, so there are some who have double connections to this heritage.
Aaste’s memory lives on through her many descendants in Iowa and Canada. Aaste is one of the bridges from the old world to the new world and we are thankful for her life.