Where they Ended Up

Iver E. Vangsness and his wife Unni and their two year old son, John E. Vangsness settled in Madison, Dane county, Wisconsin on July 4th, 1854. John E. was the first of their 5 children. (As I mentioned earlier, there may have been 6 children, one having died in infancy according to John E.'s obituary.)

Their children were:

• John E. Vangsness:            born 1852 - died 1938
• Andres Vangsness              born 1858 - died possibly 1923 See 1880 Census
• Carl Vangsness:                 born 1860 - died 1928
• Andrew Vangsness:            born 1863 - died 1945 See 1880 Census
• Cornelius A. Vangsness:      born 1864 - died 1945

There, Iver, worked as a laborer for about eight years in Madison. (In some places, the arrival date is set at 1853.)
Click on this link to read some of the work he might have done:
Guide to Madison

In 1862, the whole family traveled to Belle Creek township in Goodhue County MN. John Vangsness II remembers his grandfather telling him stories about that trip. They traveled in an ox-drawn wagon. They saw stage coaches filled with Union soldiers - the Civil War still being fought at that time.  Iver purchased 130 acres of wild, never farmed land in Section 31. He cleared the land and improved it.

The Log Cabin

It is believed that they lived in a sod cabin for the first few years. Then, after a few years, a log cabin was built. An excavation of the site discovered when they moved the log cabin / house to a museum site in the 1960's confirms this. This dates the house to approximately 1866. Since that time, the log cabin was added on to, additions were built, sheet rock was added, layers of stucco were applied. Rooms were no doubt added and enlarged. But, at the inner core of the house, the logs were still there.

 The Barn - Front

The Barn - Back

The sons helped their father with the farm until they purchased their own places in the area.

In 1994, Steve Bauer and his colleague, Chris Romness purchased the old 128 year old log cabin / house and barn to move them to the Little Log House Pioneer Village. It seems that Mr. Bauer had been buying up old log houses and other old buildings to use in his Pioneer Village. The barn was used as lumber to build a shed and other smaller structures.

This is what I believe is the old Vangsness log house, re-built and "remodeled" by Steve Bauer at his Little Log House Pioneer Village Event site. Unfortunately, this theme park site is only open to the public 3 days a year, the last full week-end in July. The rest of the year, it is used as a wedding, event, meeting hall, convention center type facility.

(Information from a newspaper article dated about 1994 and John E. Vangsness' obituary dated 1938)