Four Brothers & a Sister Go to America

Our GGG Grandfather, our Great great great grandfather, is Endre Hansen Lee Nissestad.

GGG Grandfather

He is the GG Grandson of our oldest ancestor, Kristoffer Kristenson.  He was born Jan 25, 1783 on the Lee farm in Vik, Norway and he died some time in 1850. His wife died the same year. At this time, I do not know the exact dates, nor do I know exactly how they died, was it illness? He and his wife, Kari Vikingsdatter Mörkve, had 8 children between the years 1804 and 1823. Two of those children died as babies, 1 stayed in Norway and 4 of the brothers came to America.

8 children

These graphics are from my family tree software. This is what I see when I am working on the family tree database. Names in blue are male and those in pink are female relatives. The one name in BOLD shows our Vangsness line. Two of their children died as babies.

The 4 Brothers:

1
Iver Endreson Nistad, AKA Iver Vangsness, 1819-1905, who came to America with his wife and child in 1854. He is the first ancestor of the our Vangsness line to come to America.

2
Another son, Wiking Endreson, 1813-?, came to America with his brother Iver in 1854. I do not know very much about what happened to this bother.

3

The oldest son, John Endreson, 1804-1887, came to America in 1870. He and his second wife had 11 children, 4 died as children in Norway and 5 came to America, some in 1861 and the rest most likely with their father in 1870. I do not know very much about this part of the family. But there must be many relatives in America now.

4
Then there is Hans Endreson Nistad Dale, 1806-1878, who came to America in 1869 with his wife Ingeborg Wilhelmsdotter. He was 60 and she was 62. Hans and his wife had 7 children, 2 who died as babies and the other 5 eventually coming to America either just before their parents or at the same time.

The Sister:

5
There is a sister, Synneve Endresdatter, 1808-1861, who marries Hermund Johanneson Nese and they have 6 children. Maybe she went to America, maybe she did not! I do not know if she or her husband came to America for sure, but all 6 of her children came to America from 1861-1874. I only know the names of these children and when they came to America. I would like to find out more.

The One Who Stayed Behind:

6
Ole Endreson, 1823-1905, stayed in Norway and had 6 children, all of whom stayed in Norway as far as I know.

So, virtually all of the children of Endre Hansen Lee Nissestad came to America except for one son, a massive exodus in a way. I have always wondered what happened to the parents of these people. Both either mother and father died in 1850, making it much easier to emigrate if that is what you wanted to do. It is something I want to find out. Also, if I wanted to go to Norway to see someone from the family, I would have to look up the descendants of this family. That is good to know!

Dale Family Line

Some time ago, I had received family tree data from the Tode family in the Dale line most likely via John G. Vangsness. (Sorry, I can not remember.) Much of that has already been input into the family tree. But recently, other cousins, direct descendants of the this Dale-Tode line contacted me and I have gotten more detailed documents which I hope to input and share with all the family. It will take me some time to do that. And I hope to share this Dale family search adventure with you all in up coming blog entries.

Family Connections

I have been taking a break from the family tree work for some time. For the past year, Takao and I have been working on the remodelling of our house, which has turned into a never ending story. We hope to be finished with that project in a few months.

But some interesting things have come up. I have been contacted by two different sets of cousins who are working on their family trees as well. And their stories have interconnections with our story! And what is most interesting is that we are all related in one big widely scattered family!!

I hope to detail some of those new developments here and on the family tree database in the next few weeks.

The Question of the Two Mabels

I have not been working on the family database or blog for a long long time. I got some information from Dave Vangsness about a year ago, and still I did not write anything up about this. Sorry Dave. I hope I can get it straight today! And today, as I write, it is July 3rd, the day that one of the Mabels died in 1947!

We had not answered the question of the two Mabels. The Mabel who is Rueben's sister, who married Adolph and the gravestone marked Mabel that Dave Vangsness found in near the Vangsness family plot.

Mabel #1

The unknown Mabel. Dave Vangsness found a gave stone near the Vangsness family plot only market Mabel. Her birth date was 1903 and her death date was 1983. She is Mabel #1.

Who is this first Mabel???  We could not find any record of her, but there she was near the Vangsness family plot. It was a mystery!

a) According to the grave stone was born 1903 and died 1983

    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=80803099

Mabel #2

Mabel Reuben Agnes Arthur Ester Ellen Mom Dad Sjoquist

Then there is the Mabel we know all about. Reuben Sjoquist Married Lydia Vangsness in 1927. Reuben had a sister named Mabel Elizabeth Sjoquist, born born May 13, 1896 and died July 3rd, 1947 at the age of 51. She had married Adolph B. Vangsness in September 1925. She is Mabel #2.

b) Here is a link the Sjoquist-Vansness Family Tree on the Blog:

    http://minfamilien.blogspot.jp/2012/06/sjoquist-vangsness-family-tree.html

c) You can zoom this link to see the family tree better:

    http://www.etown.co.jp/SjoquistVangsnessFamily.jpeg

d) Here  is a link to the family tree database showing Mabel Elizabeth:

    http://www.etown.co.jp/Vangsness/wc01/wc01_022.htm

We all wondered about this for some time.

Then....

On July 21, 2013 Dave Vangsness solved the mystery!

Here he speaks in his own words:

---------------------------------

June 21, 2013

Hi, 

I figured out the mystery of the two Mabels. And it only took a year!

Mabel #1 (1903-1983) is actually Mabel Sjoblom.  The Sjoblom and Sjoquist plots are right next to each other with Mabel's marker closer to the Sjoquist family marker so that's where the confusion came about.  I confirmed it with the directory at the cemetery.  What's interesting is that Mabel #1's mother (Anna Sophis Olivia Sjoquist Sjoblom 1871-1930) and Mabel #2's father (Carl Oscar Sjoquist 1861-1939) are siblings so the Mabels are first cousins. 

Dave

June 22, 2013 

The original problem was that there were two Mabel's at the cemetery that both seemed to be in the Sjoquist plot.  We knew that one was Mabel Sjoquist Vangsness who was married to Adolph Vangsness but we didn't know who the other one was. The other Mabel turns out to be a Sjoblom, not a Sjoquist. The confusion was that the plots are right next to each other and it looked like she was a Sjoquist. I've corrected her name on Find A Grave. I was at the cemetery the other day taking some photos and checked the directory  and noticed where I had gotten it wrong originally.

Dave

---------------------------------

So, there you have it. Mabel #1 is really Mabel Sjobelom. Her father was Claus O. Sjoblom and her mother was Anna Sophia Sjoquist Sjoblom. But the two Mabels are first cousins! So she is family after all!

Little War on the Prairie

When I was younger, I read a lot of history books and stories about the history of Native Americans / Indians in the States. I thought I had read just about everything out there. Of course, I am talking about the 70s and 80s, I guess. Little did I know that was a significant Indian conflict/war that took place in the area where my family comes from and I did not know anything about. It also seems, it is a "forgotten" war in many ways.

Who associates Minnesota with Indian wars anyway? Few do. I do not. And it seems that many of the people who live in Mankato and that area did not know the history as well. More and more books have been written about this tragic event and if you go to Amazon, you can find many, many books that have been written fairly recently.

I like to listen to "This American Life" while I do my bead work. Recently I had the latest episode playing. It was titled "The Little War on the Prairie". I was stunned to hear that it was about the largest public hanging ever in the US that took place during the Civil War. 38 Indians were hanged!

The Indians who took part in the fighting had been cheated by agents who were supposed to give the Indians their agreed upon annuities. But the agents in charge of paying out the annuities had been cheating the Indians and not giving them their supplies, so the Indians were starving.

--------------------
This is what Wikipedia says:

The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, (and the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 or Little Crow's War) was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux (also known as eastern Dakota). It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota. It ended with a mass execution of 38 Dakota men on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota.

Throughout the late 1850s, treaty violations by the United States and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agents caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota. Traders with the Dakota previously had demanded that the government give the annuity payments directly to them (introducing the possibility of unfair dealing between the agents and the traders to the exclusion of the Dakota). In mid-1862 the Dakota demanded the annuities directly from their agent, Thomas J. Galbraith. The traders refused to provide any more supplies on credit under those conditions, and negotiations reached an impasse.[3]

On August 17, 1862, one young Dakota with a hunting party of three others killed five settlers while on a hunting expedition. That night a council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley to try to drive whites out of the area. There has never been an official report on the number of settlers killed, although as many as over 800 settlers have been cited.

Over the next several months, continued battles between the Dakota against settlers and later, the United States Army, ended with the surrender of most of the Dakota bands.[4] By late December 1862, soldiers had taken captive more than a thousand Dakota, who were interned in jails in Minnesota. After trials and sentencing, 38 Dakota were hanged on December 26, 1862, in the largest one-day execution in American history. In April 1863, the rest of the Dakota were expelled from Minnesota to Nebraska and South Dakota. The United States Congress abolished their reservations.
--------------------

According to "This American Life", the settlers were going to execute some 350 to 360 Indians after the fighting was over. They had sent a report to Pres. Lincoln to that effect. Lincoln wrote back that they could NOT execute that many people. It seems that among those slated for hanging were Indians who had just "tagged" along and had not really done anything. Lincoln decreed that the only ones who could be hanged were those who had admitted to raping woman, so the numbers were reduced to 38. I highly recommend that you listen to the This American Life episode  (link above) for the whole story. Also, here are two of the many books now avaiable about this sad piece of our history:

Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts Of The Minnesota Indian War Of 1862
Gary C. Anderson

North Country: The Making of Minnesota
Mary Lethert Wingerd

 

-------------------

I emailed some relatives about this story and John Vangsness had this to say and has allowed me to add it here:

Our Son, John Michael Vangsness, forwarded this link (to the "This American Life" story). He grew up in Mankato. We lived there for 14 years before moving back to Wanamingo. 

Our ancestors moved to Minnesota in 1862 or '63 from Wisconsin. The uprising happened in the summer of 1862. Most of the fighting during the uprising happened just west of Mankato, in the New Ulm and Redwood Falls area. This is about 100 miles west of Belle Creek Township. 

It is a little surprising to me that they chose to move to Minnesota from Wisconsin at this time. I've read that emigration to Minnesota slowed down significantly at this time because of the 'Indian problems'. Goodhue County was totally settled by 1860. I have read that in 1850 the European population of Goodhue County was zero. By 1860 there was no more land for sale....it was all sold & owned by farmers or investors. It's a misconception that land was homesteaded in Goodhue County, or any of eastern Minnesota for that matter. By the time the Homestead Act was passed by Congress all the land in this part of the state was under privet ownership already. There was homesteading in western Minnesota. 

The time & place of our ancestors arrival in Minnesota makes it unlikely that any of them were affected directly by the Sioux Uprising of 1862. I do remember hearing as a kid that our great grandfather, John, had to walk to Holden Church from the farm for confirmation classes. Minneola congregation had not been formed yet. This would have been between 1862 when they moved to Minnesota, and 1867 when Minneola Church was founded. (I was curious, so I looked on Google Maps. From the home place to Holden Church is an eight mile walk......one way.) I have a vague memory of my Grandmother or Father, saying that on this walk he once encountered Indians camped along the road. They may have been refugees, but I doubt it. Most of the Indians were rounded up after the war & sent out of state. More likely they were just people passing through. They could have been Indians. It's also possible that my memory about this story was dreamed up by an eight year old kid (me) playing cowboys & Indians one day in 1959......... but I don't think so. I'm afraid there is no one left that could confirm this for us.

Old Photos of Red Wing

It would really be cool to find modern photos of the same areas as these to use to compare what the old and new look like.

Photo by Phillips, View of Red Wing

Barn Bluff, 1895

Ferry Crossing from Wisconsin to MN, over the Mississippi, 1890

Another view of Red Wing

Indian Woman, possibly the 4th of July

Wells Fargo in Red Wing, 1903

The Photographer, Phillips

I have some interesting new information about when the photo of Synneve
Berge Vangsness may have been taken.
Here is a link to the Find A Grave page for Synneve.
Here is the link to the Family Database A Beginning - The Vangsness Family.
Again, our friend and helper who wishes to be un-named had an interesting insight. 
On the photo at the bottom, you can see:

Phillips  JP Red Wing, Minn.

This photographer and his sons can be found on the Minnesota Historical Society home page. Many of the photographers did not stay a long time in each place they worked, so it is possible to "guess" with some accuracy when the photo was taken.

John Phillips was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He lived and worked in Lake City, MN from 1878-1879. But, he also lived and worked in Red Wing from 1884-1885. The note also says that he worked in Minnesota in the 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s. There is further information that he was in Red Wing for 10 years, from 1881 to 1891.

John had 3 sons, F.H. Phillips who may have moved to Florida, C.A. Phillips who worked with his father in the 1890s, and another son, Wellington J. Phillips who worked in Red Wing in 1894, as well as 1909-1912.

Now, Synneve died in 1891, so it is very possible that this photo was taken in 1881 to 1891, but most likely taken between 1881 and 1884 or 1885. The photo could have been taken by the father, John or the other son, Wellington J. I have looked on the web and there are several sites with photos by Phillips. I will add those links to my next blog entry. The father, John Phillips did work in Red Wing for 10 years, 1881 to 1891, so the date could have been between those years. She does look very young in the photo, so the date is most likely earlier rather than later. Of course, this is just a guess based on dates that the photographer worked in Red Wing.

----------------------------
This is what the History of Goodhue County says about John Phillips and Wellington J Phillips, that his father, John, came to Red Wing in 1881 and worked for 10 years, till 1891:
----------------------------
Wellington J. Phillips, Red Wing, photographer, was born at Fort Madison. Iowa, July 7. 1872. His parents were John and Helen (Brown) Phillips, the former a native of Baltimore, Md. and the latter of England. 

John Phillips learned the business of photography at a time when that profession was comparatively in its infancy and the modern inventions and improvements along these lines were unknown. Later he moved to Burlington, Iowa, and became a conductor on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad. An accident received in a wreck incapacitated him for this employment, and in 1870 he again took up photography, opening a studio in Lake City, Minn. In 1880 his place of business was destroyed by the great fire which visited that city that year, and in 1881 he came to Red Wing, and continued in the business ten years. In 1891 he became conductor on the Duluth, Red Wing & Southern railroad, on the run from Red Wing to Rochester. In 1895 failing health overtook him and he was forced to retire. He is now police judge at Stanley. Wis. 

Wellington J. received his education, first in the Nazarene convent at Lake City, and after coming to Red Wing with the family also studied in the convent here, afterward finishing at high school. Choosing business instead of college, he studied photography and at once started in business for himself. He does excellent and artistic work and has a large trade. He has just completed on Third street a new building, in which he has one of the handsomest and most modern studios in the Northwest. 

He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Episcopal church. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, and for six years served in the Minnesota National Guards, a member of Company G. Mr. Phillips was married February 12. 1896, at Clinton. Mo., to Mary L. Brooke, of Bristol, Va., daughter of the Rev. Pendleton and Caroline (Bunting) Brooke, of Norfolk. Va. Her father died in March. 1898. and her mother resides at Seattle. Wash. To Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have been born five children: Eleanor L.. April 4,

Bygdabok for Vik i Sogn - Le Farm - Part 2

Here is page 207.

Starting at the 3rd line and continuing for only 2 paragraphs:

Kristoffer Hansson Le was born in 1712 and married in 1735 to Turid Ellendsdotter Holstad. They leased the farm inn 1746. The rent was 1 laup 6 merker of butter (about 39 pounds of butter). Kristoffer and Turid had 3 children who grew to adulthood: Ellend who went to Tryti, Hans who got the farm at Le, and Ingeborg who was married to Kristen Torsteinson Nese, they had a place in Holum.

According to our database, they had 6 children, one that died at age 8. There may be some confusion, because two men named "Hans Kristoffersson Lee" are listed, one living till he is 102 and one living to 79. Also, Ingeborg was married first to Anders Person Tenål, then she married K. T. Nese.

Note:  Norwegian units of measurement

• laup – used for butter, 17.93 kg. 1 laup is 36 pounds.
• mark (pl. merker) –, 1/2 pound, 249.4 g, 218.7 g before 1683.

Usually tax or rent was paid in butter. The butter was put in an oval flat bottomed birch bark container that held 33 pounds.

Hans Kristoffereson Le (son of the above Kristoffer Hansson Le) was born in 1746 and married in 1772 to Synneva Endresdotter Le from farm #2. They had 7 children: Eric who got the farm, Ola had a place at Valsvik, Brita who married to Ola Inebriktson Dale, they had a place under Ola Sjurson Dale, Endre (our ancestor whose name is Endre Hansen Lee Nissestad in our database) had a place at Nistad and Ingeborg was not married in the district.

Our database lists 9 children, one who died before 1 year. 

This page continues with farmers who were in that area but who are not in our line.... so I will not translate the rest.