Bendick Jorgenson Tveitane was born in Mo, Telemark, Norway in 1855 and came to America with his two sisters, Elsie Tveitane Sime and Aasne Tveitane Kingland, in 1878. The voyage tickets were paid for by their uncle and aunt, Hans and Margit Holtan. In America, he met Olava Gudbransdatter Hovland, born in Lunner, Hadeland, now called Oppland, Norway in 1866. They married in 1884 at Winnebago Lutheran Church in rural Lake Mills, Iowa. They farmed together n Mt. Valley Township, section 25, and raised… mostly children, 13 of them. Olava was birthing babies from 1885 to 1907, 23 years. All her children grew to adulthood, married and had families of their own. If immigration was for the sake of the children, Bendick and Olava did very well. The count of their direct blood descendants is near 2000, with more still being added.
Each of these children and their spouses have a page link. In 1989, in preparation for a Tweeten Family Reunion, they prepared a Tweeten Family Book, almost 200 pages, with lists of family and details of birth, death and marriage, photos and stories on each of Bendick and Olava’s 13 children. We will list those children separately and include a link to each section of the book .Most of the content was offered by individual persons and families, then gathered and edited by Vivian Maxine Westerberg Charlson, a daughter of Ruth and Rollie Westerberg for the Tweeten family book she helped publish in 1989. We share a limited number of the descendants in each family, seeking to protect the privacy of younger, living persons. If you have need of more complete information on each family’s members, you may contact [email protected] and we can provide that in a number of formats.
This is a work in progress and we will continue to add stories and photos as they are offered to us. Again, please contact [email protected]
1. Sarah Tweeten and Carl Gustafson
2. John Bendick Tweeten and Edith Johnson
3. Gilbert Tweeten and Cora Myre/Mae Dahlby
4. Bennie and Clara Swenson Tweeten
5. Martin Tweeten and Ruth Nelson
6. Gena Tweeten and Ernest Nelson
7. Theoline Tweeten and Henry Sheldon
8. Oliver Tweeten and Nettie Westerberg
9. Albert Tweeten and Annette Anderson
10. Bill Tweeten and Evelyn Vance
11. Ruth Tweeten and Rollie Westerberg