George Daniel Hemmingsen was the son of our paternal greats: Uncle Ed and Aunt Anna. Ed was six years junior to his brother, Matt, our granddad: eight, to their sister, Etta. The elder Hemmingsen siblings left Norway in the 1880s for Wisconsin and migrated to the northwest in the early 1900s. Etta, as Mrs. William … Continue reading George Daniel Hemmingsen 1907-1967: Cousin, Tugboats and Such
Tag: Lake Cowichan
Matt Hemmingsen 1876-1967: The 100 Years Since His Margaret Was Born.
Matt and Margaret Hemmingsen had five children throughout the 1910s.1 They named them for heritage and after those with whom they had shared significant hardship. These names were worn in honor through more idyllic family times, by siblings who formed deep abiding friendships. With glorious childhoods stretching through the 1920s, they matured into the depression … Continue reading Matt Hemmingsen 1876-1967: The 100 Years Since His Margaret Was Born.
Memoirs of Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967): His Postcard – 1911
PREVIEW We have told the story of Matt's years around 1911 twice: once as he made innovations in West Coast logging and again through an oil painting on maple burl that depicted his unique logging operation. This recently received postcard tells his 1911 tale through a deeply personal lens. PREVIOUSLY Past posts took Matt Hemmingsen … Continue reading Memoirs of Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967): His Postcard – 1911
The Adoption Witness: Rare Postcard to Skog-Vefsn; Revealing What?
This is sixth in a series on Edward Hemmingsen and his wife Anna Tobiassen, or Thompson. See Notes and Source, for details. Sisters! Here is an undated photo-postcard of Johanna Karoline Tobiassen in Minneapolis, with two unnamed Swedish companions. She sent it inside an envelope to some Skog-Vefsn folk such that it is unaddressed and … Continue reading The Adoption Witness: Rare Postcard to Skog-Vefsn; Revealing What?
The Adoption Witness: Those Peripatetic Skog-Vefsn Folk At Lake Cowichan
Our story has been about Anna, wife of great uncle Ed Hemmingsen and their adopted daughter, Betty, aka Baroness of Skog-Vefsn, who was also Anna’s great niece. They were Norwegians living at Lake Cowichan, B.C. mid-1920. Descendant Skog-folk from Vefsn sought an even broader emigrant accounting to include Anna’s brothers, Edvin and Theodur, plus Betty’s … Continue reading The Adoption Witness: Those Peripatetic Skog-Vefsn Folk At Lake Cowichan
Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: His Innovations in West Coast Logging 1907-1911
Photo © Sean Hemmingsen 2020 Our Tsolum River post featured Matt Hemmingsen using hands-on expertize that he had gained during river drives in Wisconsin, to correct an epic logjam in British Columbia. That was 1907. Our last post enlarged a segment of photo left, to describe a "log trough" system he developed around 1910. It greatly … Continue reading Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: His Innovations in West Coast Logging 1907-1911
The Adoption Witness On Ancestry: The Baroness of Skog-Vefsn Emigrates to Lake Cowichan
Here is a copy of an original letter from the Baron of Manby/Baron of Skog-Vefsn; Dr. Lloyd J. Bailey, B.A., M.A., M.Ed. Ph.D. to our father, John O. Hemmingsen, dated 11 Feb 2000.1 Now, even original materials must be offered with caution; some may contain a little farce. That is, while it is far from … Continue reading The Adoption Witness On Ancestry: The Baroness of Skog-Vefsn Emigrates to Lake Cowichan
From the logging camps (6)
"Port Renfrew 50 Years Later" completes the scrapbook made for me, by my father, John Oliver Hemmingsen. He called it "Forest Regeneration".1 Previous posts covered much of the book. This part accounts for a trip Dad made to the area with Uncle Bob, with my older brother John, in 1990. For some time by then, there … Continue reading From the logging camps (6)
