Holtan
Today, we’re going to talk about the hardest part of the journey.
Not the farming., Not the frontier. The voyage.
This is the story of how Hans and Margit came to America in 1862. And like all the journeys we’ve been talking about, it began with a decision. To leave everything behind.
There are four parts to this journey:
- From the mountains of Norway down to the sea
- The ocean voyage to North America
- The journey inland
- And their first years in Minnesota
Let’s begin.
Part 1: Leaving Home
Before anything else—they had to prepare. That meant selling what little they had, probably a farm auction that looked like this. Hans and Margit probably had very little. Packing only what they could carry.
And most importantly—bringing food. Lots and lots of food. Hundreds of pounds of food. Because on these sailing ships, in the early days of immigration…no one fed you. You fed yourself. And cooked food on an overcrowded and sometimes storm-swept galley on deck with a fire. (pause)
They packed things like: hard bread, salted meat, dried fish, potatoes, and coffee. Enough to last for weeks. Because they didn’t know how long the journey would take.
Then came the first leg of the trip. From their home in Telemark—down to the sea. Much of this journey was by water—starting from Dalen on the Bandak, on that lakes, rivers, and early Telemark canal routes. Part of the canal was completed just the year before, called an Eighth Wonder of the World.
Eventually, they reached the port at Skien. And there… they boarded a sailing ship.
And this was the moment. The moment when everything changed.
As one immigrant later wrote: “It is not easy to leave behind your people and your native land… this is where the roots of your heart are planted.”
They knew something else too. They would likely never return.
Part 2: The Ocean Voyage
In 1862, Hans and Margit set sail. With them were: their two young sons and Hans’ elderly parents, And Margit… was pregnant.
This was not a steamship. It was a sailing vessel. Small. Crowded. Slow. So vulnerable to high seas and winds, or no wind. The journey could take 8… 9… even 10 weeks. For about 20 years, the ships from Norway went straight to Quebec, Canada, so the ships could take lumber back with them to England. But the ships were made for hauling lumber, not people. They even added an extra deck in the hold to cram in more people. The crowding was very unhealthy., for everyone, but especially children.
15 years later, it was all different. That’s when Hans and Margit sent tickets for their three Tveitane nephews and nieces, 3 sibling orphans, Bendick Tweeten, Aasne who would be a Kingland, and Else, who would be a Sime. They came on steamships in half the time, but it was still a tough time, to leave and start again. Bendick Tweeten even went back to Norway on a steamship, to visit his family there, in 1925.
Life on board the sailing ship was very difficult. Hundreds of passengers shared limited space. They cooked their own food—on a rolling ship. Lines for cooking were long. Many were seasick.
And then… disease spread. An outbreak of measles swept through the ship. Children were especially vulnerable. By most accounts, both of Hans and Margit’s two young sons—Halvor and Tarjei—became ill.
Here’s what Mary Ann Barnes Williams, Margit’s biographer, wrote a century ago about Margit, “This was a dreadful journey for this mother, who was ill from seasickness, grief, fatigue and pregnancy. An epidemic of measles broke out on board. Halvor and Tarjei were stricken. She hung over their cots, doing everything she could to relieve their burning little bodies, but death, that dreaded specter, claimed them as his own. The little coffins were weighted with sand beneath the padding and lowered into the briny deep. This grieving mother, could scarcely be comforted.
Imagine that. A mother—pregnant, exhausted—watching both of her children die in the middle of the ocean. The bodies were buried at sea. There were no proper coffins. Sometimes, sharks even followed the ships.
Here’s what Thor Sigurdson, another traveler the same year wrote- The trip by boat had been very hard. We had a lot of sick people on board and many died – mostly small children. It was terrible to see the bodies being sunk into the ocean, but also the ocean belongs to God. The Bible says that the ocean will bring the dead people to heaven.
And then the journey continued.
After about nine weeks, they reached the St. Lawrence River. But they weren’t allowed to land. The ship was quarantined for typhoid fever. They waited again. Hans’ youngest son, Theodore, a medical doctor, remembered hearing that their second son died here, in Quebec, of typhoid fever. We’ll probably never know for sure, just that the voyage was very dangerous for little ones, and both boys died before they reached America.
Finally… they were able to land in Quebec. But the journey wasn’t over. Not even close.
The next step in their journey is found in Holtan Tweeten Journey II Voyage Part 2