Christmas Uproar at Groli Farm. God Jul! 25. desember 1880

It was Christmas Day of 1880 at the home of our great-greats, Hemming Paulsen and Gurine Olsdatter. Their children were grown and most had arrived to celebrate with young families of their own. Dear Elen was remembered, their daughter gone since spring, but babbles from Ingeborg Anna Marie’s infant son filled the house with expectation and joy.

This Christmas Day of 2023 holds every indication that Hemming was super eager to unveil his gift to the family. Indeed, it is the one unwrapped below and re-gifted to generations to come; framed portraiture of Gurine’s folks!¹ It was a novel and rich gift then, from ours of humble means. Hemming had acquired the images from a sitting the elders had done, years earlier “next door” on Nerli Farm.

As it turned out, another agenda item took hold this day and Hemming surely chose to put his show on hold – awaiting today’s reveal, if one can believe. He was upstaged by an uproar created when their eldest son, Ole Mathias (our direct forebear) arrived late. It changed the dynamic in the gathering and actually the rest of their lives. God jul, he bellowed, door still ajar! Ha!

Ole Mathias did not receive a perfectly pleasant response, but then he had first breathlessly announced that his wife, Beret Mathisdatter, was still at home “wrapping up some details” and would be along later. Then he DARED to add that his sister, Pauline, well… Well, Pauline was still at her home too, calming her boys, explaining that their father was boarding a ship out of Trondheim this very day. He was on his way to Wisconsin and that was why he had neither bid them “God jul” nor “Good-bye”. Only Elen Olina, a wee babe in Pauline’s arms, remained undisturbed by the events.

Ole Mathias did not tattle on Beret’s collusion with the sailing. She was actually at home dealing with the aftermath of preparing and “wrapping up” a month’s worth of homemade Norwegian hardtack, dried meats and cheese. Now, a good bet says that our Granddad snuck some of those provisions. He was one of her now four children under six, keeping her busy hands busier. She added the food to her brother-in-law’s cache of coin and clothes, which he had secreted in her home (presently in Hemnes), to grow quietly over time. His money had suddenly become just enough to cover travel. The plan, which was to steal away on the very next ship, had been immediately enacted. The ship just so happened to sail on Christmas Day.

paraphrased from Gina Rued Plocker via audio tape 1959.

That the matter was wound up in secret, and why, was recounted in audio tape by Pauline’s daughter, Gina, in 1959. Truth was, there was no choice; some had to leave their land which could no longer provide enough for its people and Engelsbruket² did no favor to Norway. That enterprise met with some disdain by the elders in this family and certain newcomer husbands had come with Engelsbruket employ.

Old Ole Hemmingsen (1800-1896), with Army guy authority, led the resistance, stubbornly trying to keep the rest of his progeny home, having already lost his daughter, Elin Oline, to Wisconsin. Her husband had come to town as a skovdriver!³ Now the contagion was spreading. All knew in their hearts that Pauline and the children would be gone too, and soon.

Ole Mathias concealed his own plot, that he would be next, after Pauline, but why spoil Christmas?

There was far more to this particular Groli story, which started in Prequel with Elin Oline: “Our Dahlby Family: First Others in Cumberland, Wisconsin.” and will continue after a short Part I, as outlined below.

PART I: Pauline Hemmingsdatter (1852-1907) and Lars Nilsen Rued (1842-1929)

Pauline Hemmingsdatter and her maternal aunt, Elin Oline Olsdatter were seven years apart. Pauline lived with her maternal grandparents on Nerli Farm, at least in 1865, allowing this bond to tighten.

Each young woman wed a maverick newcomer in 1871. The men were age peer, both born in October of 1842 and came from Hedmark County, albeit from different parishes. While there was no known friendship before Hattfjelldal, Gunder Olsen Dahlby arrived in town as the skovdriver, according to Church Book entry, and Gina Rued Plocker said her father, Lars Nilsen Rued, worked for that “English lumber company”. The four were as close in Wisconsin as they had been in Norway. On Christmas Day 1880, Lars left Norway with Gunder’s address in pocket.

Part II of this story will follow, to explore the life of Lars Nilsen Rued; his class struggles in Norway as the illegitimate child of a wealthy father and a servant girl. He will make his own way in the lumber industry and then “escape” from Hattfjelldal on Christmas Day. Penniless in New York, by mischance, and speaking only Norwegian, Lars will try to find Dahlby in America.

Part III, will bring Pauline and their four living children, to Lars in Wisconsin. This will dovetail into the many stories of the history of Ole Mathias already told in the series “In The Beginning Again”.

God jul! Merry Christmas!

Notes and Sources

Note: Background for this genealogy comes from the Memoirs of Matt Hemmingsen written in 1954, output of audio of 1959 by Gina Dahlby Plocker (born Rued) and The Family History of John O Hemmingsen, written in 1999, all unpublished and protected here. Sources:

1 Photographs courtesy of Helgeland Museum: digitaltmuseum.no Identifier VBH.F.2010-064-0005 for Ola Hemmingson and Identifier VBH.F.2010-064-0006 for Ingrid Arentsdatter, his wife. The date and origin of the photos was not given. The digital photos were assembled into a digital picture in 2023 at this website.

2 Engelsbruket was the colloquial term for The North of Europe Land and Mining Co. Ltd. who drove a period of intensive logging in Helgeland.

3 Skovdriver or Skogdriver was a forestry job, although its exact definition was not found.