America Letter the danish immigrant museum

® an international Cultural Center Spring 2011 • Vol. xxiV, No. 1 2212 WASHiNGToN STREET • ELK HoRN, ioWA 51531 • 712-764-7001 • www.danishmuseum.org

Across oceans, Across Time, Across Generations: The dierssens Director’s Corner America Letter Published three times annually by On a wintery January night, I met our new the danish immigrant museum 2212 Washington Street Scan|Design interns at Eppley Airfi eld in Omaha. Elk Horn, iowa 51531 Jule Andersen, Maria Bjørg Rasmussen and 712-764-7001 800-759-9192 FAx 712-764-7002 Sara Sjölin arrived directly from Copenhagen to a Eva Nielsen, editor www.danishmuseum.org blizzard on the Great Plains. Blowing and drifting email: [email protected] snow made roads impassable and led many Board of Directors schools and companies, including The Danish President – Harriet Albertsen Spanel, bellingham, WA Immigrant Museum, to close for several days. Vice President – Mark Nussle, Palos Park, iL Secretary – Dennis Andersen, Atlanta, GA For two days, they stayed with Dawn and me at our home in Treasurer – Clark Mathisen, omaha, NE Blair before we could drive to Elk Horn. On the afternoon of Jon borgman, Harlan, iA Lone Christensen, brown Deer, Wi the second day, we were able to drive to Omaha and visit the Ane-Grethe Delaney, Wayzata, MN / Durham Western Heritage Museum. Here, I oriented them to the university Park, FL rich history of Danes in Omaha – where Den Danske Pioneer and Mark Frederiksen, Falcon, Co Kurt Hansen, Rosemount, MN the Danish Brotherhood in America were founded. According to Kristi Johnson, bethesda, MD the 2000 U.S. census there are more Americans claiming Danish Kenneth Larsen, Calistoga, CA / Harlan, iA Steven Lund, yuma, AZ ancestry in Omaha than in any other American city. Cynthia McKeen, St. Paul, MN Carol Jensen Mills, Dubuque, iA By the time their stay ended, they had discovered that (as one of Kay Esbeck North, Ames, iA them said to my colleagues at the museum) “John Mark knows a benedikte Ehlers olesen, Eugene, oR / lot about Danish immigration and he can really talk!” It’s easy to do bryup, Denmark Marian “Mittie” ostergaard, Mission when one has an intellectually curious audience. Viejo, CA Henrik Fogh Rasmussen, Springfi eld, iL The Scan|Design Intern Exchange Program at The Danish Consul Lynette Skow Rasmussen, Immigrant Museum, funded by the Scan|Design Foundation by Johnston, iA Flemming “Eric” Smitsdorff, Racine, Wi Inger and Jens Bruun of Seattle, Washington, has been invaluable Mark Strandskov, Mt. Pleasant, Mi to our museum. So, too, are the interns that we have from Janet M. Thuesen, Sausalito, CA American museum studies programs who are supported through Ex-Offi cio Marc Petersen, omaha, NE your contributions and museum membership. To date we have Kai Nyby, LaPorte, iN hosted sixteen Danish and six American graduate student interns. Vern Hunter, Fargo, ND Nils Jensen, Portland, oR The excitement these young people bring, their experiences prior Dennis Larson, Decorah, iA to arriving, and their willingness to learn and innovate regularly inspires the staff. And they help us get a lot of work done too! Staff Executive Director: Many immigrant and ethnic organizations and institutions are Dr. John Mark Nielsen, concerned about declining membership. I often hear individuals [email protected] lament that young people, specifi cally, are not interested in their General Information, Group Tours, Volunteering Opportunities: heritage. The challenge for all of us is to engage young people; Terri Johnson, The Danish Immigrant Museum’s internship program is one way [email protected] we are doing this. Development Director: bruce bro, [email protected] We’ve been fortunate to host interns and have been successful, Wall of Honor, Donations, I believe, because we embrace them as colleagues and are Memorial Gifts & Memberships: genuinely grateful for their contributions. We know too that Debra Christensen Larsen, we are creating a network of individuals who value the story [email protected] of relations between Denmark and the United States. These Bookkeeping & Financial Inquiries: Jennifer Winters, interns are an investment in our future. [email protected] I am grateful for the investment you make through your Exhibit Questions: Tova brandt, membership in The Danish Immigrant Museum. Please know [email protected] Artifact Donations & Museum Loans: that your support is contributing to the development of these Angela Stanford, young people who are our future. [email protected] John Mark Nielsen Museum Shop: Joni Soe-butts, [email protected] Executive Director Donation of Books & Library CoVEr PHoTo: Tove Dierssen pictured with the “Danish Questions: Michele McNabb, [email protected] Delights,” including her four daughters, in 1973. First row Genealogical & Translation Inquiries: from left: Heidi Dierssen,Tina Poulsen, Christina Diers- [email protected] sen, unidentifi ed, Mette Pedersen; Second row from left: FHGC Data Entry: Wanda Sornson, Rikke Dierssen Morice, Ann Kinneberg, Annette Diers- [email protected] sen Jagger, John Bruun-Andersen, Kirsten Pedersen, Custodian: Tim Fredericksen 2 • America Letter Lisa Jensen. “Across Oceans, Across Time, Across Weekend Staff: Beth rasmussen Generations: The Dierssens” begins on page 4. Rodger Rasmussen Welcome Scan|Design Interns

Julie Andersen In the middle of a blizzard I started my For the last two years I have been working internship at The Danish Immigrant as an educator and guide at the Viking Museum. Working at the museum is a Ship Museum in Roskilde. There I had the good opportunity for me to experience an opportunity to learn the practical aspects American museum from the inside, learn of communicating history to children as more about the Danes who immigrated well as to adults from all over the world. to the U.S. and fi nally to experience During my internship at The Danish American culture and history. Immigrant Museum I will sort artifacts from While I am an intern in Elk Horn, Iowa, the Lauritz Melchoir collection and create I am taking a break from my studies in a detailed inventory of the materials. Copenhagen. Since 2008 I have studied Furthermore, I will work two days a week history at the university, and have written at the Family History and Genealogy my fi nal on the political situation in Center where I will be translating Danish Denmark in the beginning of the (Danish) and German letters and documents in Middle Ages. At the same time I took Gothic script for patrons and staff, writing museology classes. I have always thought a section about the Danish Baptists in that history and, in particular, Danish the U.S. for the webpage and helping to history was interesting. Thus it was not search for pictures of immigrants wearing diffi cult to decide what I should study or to bonnets, hats, and caps for a photo know where I would like to work one day: exhibition for this summer’s Tivoli Fest. in a museum! Julie Andersen at work at the museum’s Family History and Genealogy Center Bjoerg Rasmussen I joined The Danish Immigrant Museum the middle of an Midwest snowstorm, so Ministry of Culture where I was affi liated on February 1, 2011 as one of the new we started our internship with a little mini with the international affairs in culture. Danish interns. Or not exactly; I arrived vacation at John Mark and Dawn Nielsen’s It was interesting getting an inside view with the other two interns from Denmark in home in Blair, Nebraska and arrived in to policy making about cultural affairs in Elk Horn on the following Denmark. But, I must say, I love working Thursday. at museums and hope to make it my About me: I have a BA future living. in art history with social At The Danish Immigrant Museum I will and political science as mostly work with Tova Brandt in curatorial subsidiary subjects from planning and changing exhibitions. I Aarhus University and I am already engaged in working on the am now about to fi nish next exhibition, Church Basements and my MA in art history at the Children’s Homes. University of Copenhagen. As an intern at The Danish Immigrant It is my plan to write my Museum I hope to learn about the thesis when I get back to operations of American museums while Copenhagen in August. gaining hands-on experience in exhibition Since 2006, I have worked and collection work. I am already learning as a docent at ARKEN a lot, so I really do look forward to the Museum of Modern Art rest of my time as an intern at The outside Copenhagen and Danish Immigrant Museum. I am quite at The National Gallery certain my internship here in Elk Horn will of Art in Denmark. I also make a great addition to my MA and my had a job as a student professional as well as private experience assistant in The Danish in general.

Bjoerg with one of her favorite museum pieces , a Danish landscape painting from the 19th century. Across Oceans, Across Time, Across Generations: The Dierssens by Eva Nielsen

Tove and Gunther Dierssen moved to White Bear Lake, Minnesota as young Danish immigrants in 1963. Seeking connection with other Danes, they and their daughters would make the drive into Minneapolis to attend the Danish Christmas service at St. Peder’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, an institution founded by an earlier generation of Danish immigrants. Today, the Dierssens still drive to Minneapolis to connect with Danes. Now, however, they have another place to gather: the Danish American Center. Tucked in the trees beside the parkway that runs along the west side of the Mississippi River, the Danish American Center is an amalgamation of new and old. Or, put differently, it represents a new chapter in the evolving history of the Danish-American community in the Twin Cities. And, certainly, the Dierssen family is one Danish-American family that has played a role in this organization’s past and present. Tove Agerbeck, pictured here at age 21 in Denmark, came to Tove Agerbeck and Gunther Dierssen came the United States in 1959 for a year of travel. Tove’s mother to the United States separately in the fifties encouraged her to visit the United States, saying, “It’s big and – each with their own agenda. you can spread your wings there.” When Gunther sailed for the U.S. in 1956, it Yet, after the war Gunther was Fermentation Industries, was not the first time he had been outside not free to return home to his working on fermentation Denmark. Gunther, in fact, was born in family in Denmark because he and also testing Danish Hamburg, Germany. His family moved was, technically speaking, a aquavit. When General to Denmark when he was 4-years-old German, and now a veteran of Electric representatives and lived in Charlottenlund, in northern the German air force. Gunther visited, looking to recruit fifty Copenhagen. When he turned eighteen, filed an application to return to engineers to come to the Gunther was drafted into the German air his family in Denmark. While United States, Gunther was force to fight in World War II. A German- he waited, he kept himself selected. He chose to go, he born young man, living in German- busy in Flensburg, a town in said, because at his job then occupied Denmark, Gunther had no northern Germany, teaching “it was very difficult to start choice but to go. Danish classes, doing odd something new. There was jobs, working at the Danish a tradition of doing the same This was August of 1944. After training, Health Organization and things.” Gunther says he went into combat as playing sports. Four years a “parachuter on foot” (the Germans Gunther sailed on the passed before he finally were too short on gasoline at this Norwegian America Line, received permission to return point in the war to put many planes on the Oslo Fjord, from home in 1949. in the air). Gunther saw action in the Copenhagen to New York in Battle of the Bulge in December of Back in Denmark, Gunther 1956 at a time when young 1944. He was wounded (shrapnel obtained his Danish men wore a tuxedo with a in the leg) and spent the remainder citizenship. He also attended white carnation tucked in the of the war in hospital; fighting in the Technical University of buttonhole to special dinners the European theater ended in Denmark, earning a degree on the ship. Through the May of 1945. in chemical engineering. program with General Electric, He was working in the Gunther would spend several laboratory at the Danish months in different locations 4 • America Letter Tove came back through Tove and Gunther’s second Cleveland on her way west daughter, lives today with and she and Gunther had a her husband and three decision. “There was no time sons in nearby Stillwater, to waste. I had to either leave Minnesota and practices law to go to Canada to live in in Minneapolis. She says that Vancouver with a cousin, and growing up in White Bear Gunther and I would plan to Lake, she and her sisters meet somewhere in between, were “absolutely different.” like Colorado. Or we could “We didn’t speak English. We just get married.” were Danish kids – living in They got married. And, White Bear Lake, Minnesota. says Tove, “We have had a My sister Annette and I, we beautiful life.” did not have Wrangler jeans This was October of 1959. until we were 12-years-old. I The couple had a big ran races in clogs.” wedding in a Lutheran Though White Bear Lake church in Cleveland Heights, had good schools, it did not surrounded by coworkers from have Danes. And that’s what General Electric and Danish motivated the Dierssens to friends, but, says Tove, “not drive into Minneapolis, where too much family.” they quickly became involved When Christmas rolled in the Danish-American around that year, says Tove, community there. something became clear: At the time there were “We were immigrants. We still many small Danish needed some children so organizations around the Twin we could walk around the Cities – Danish Brotherhood tree at Christmas.” In 1961 and Sisterhood lodges, for the couple’s first daughter, example – that Gunther says, Annette, was born and in “weren’t necessarily doing 1962, their second daughter, much, so all of these banded Rikke, arrived. And Tove and together to form the Danish Gunther decided to speak American Fellowship.” Danish at the dinner table so The Danish American Gunther Dierssen pictured in Denmark before leaving for their children could learn their Fellowship was an the United States. Gunther was working in the laboratory at language. the Danish Fermentation Industries when General Electric organization that celebrated representatives arrived to recruit fifty engineers to work in the Then an opportunity arose and furthered all things United States. in the Twin Cities. In 1963 Danish. In 1966 the group Gunther traveled up to acquired a house which – Louisville, Kentucky; Fort can spread your wings there.” Minnesota to interview for had been a young people’s Wayne, Indiana; Schenectady, Tove sailed from Rotterdam to a position at 3M. When he home for people coming New York; and, eventually, the St. Lawrence Seaway on returned, Tove asked, “What’s from Denmark, but was no Cleveland, Ohio. This is Wasserman – a ship for young it like up there?” longer in use. Gunther says, where, in 1959, he met Tove people with more reasonably “We needed to do something Agerbeck. priced fares ($177.50 one- Gunther replied, “It’s farms and towns and farms.” with the property. It was a “The first breath I took in way). “There were big dining real headache. So we sold the U.S.,” says Tove, “I met areas and singing for the “Goodness,” said Tove, “I’m it and then in 1970 bought a 9-day voyage and it was a fun Gunther.” from Copenhagen!” property on Cedar and 42nd spirit because everyone was Street in Minneapolis, which Tove had set out for the off to explore,” says Tove. But they did it. In 1963 they United States for a year of set off for another unknown became the Danish American Tove traveled down through travel. She, too, had left place: White Bear Lake, Fellowship Institute.” Montreal and Toronto and Denmark before, visiting Minnesota, a town that they Gunther served as president then to Cleveland, where were told had good schools. among other places, England, some Danes had a house. of the Danish American “And I loved it here,” says Germany, France and Norway. There, she met Gunther just Fellowship for nine years Tove. Tove and Gunther’s “But since I was sixteen, I had briefly before continuing on and on the board for a total third and fourth daughters, really wanted to see the U.S.,” with her plans to travel to of twenty years. That was Christina and Heidi, were born says Tove. Washington, D.C., New York – Continued on page 6 in Minnesota. Tove’s mother encouraged her City, Baltimore and other cities to go, saying, “It’s big and you to the east. Rikke Dierssen-Morice, America Letter • 5 Dierssens continued from page 5

a place, then, where the Dierssen girls spent a lot of time growing up, surrounded by Danes and Danish traditions. Tove taught Danish folk dancing there for over twenty years. There were Christmas celebrations, Danish lessons (which Gunther taught), Fastelavn activities, and the annual Danish Day celebration with Danish open- faced sandwiches. “And who made the 3,000 sandwiches?” Tove asked. “Someone called Tove and her Danish girlfriends,” said Gunther. (By the way, in addition to making numerous sandwiches and teaching folk dancing, Tove has also been part of other Danish endeavors: she has served on the board of Gunther and Tove met in Cleveland, Ohio and married just the Rebild Uppermidwest Chapter and was months later in 1959. “The first breath I took in the U.S.,” says an editor for Den Danske Pioneer in Chicago Tove, “I met Gunther.” for fourteen years.) For her part, Rikke visited the elderly residents and keep the Rikke says that going to the Danish Danish American Fellowship organization financially viable. American Fellowship was just a natural part less often in the eighties of growing up. “It was a place where you’d So the question before the and nineties. She lived in Danebo board was what to go to be with your folks. You go and visit and France during stretches of it felt like home….In the United States, our do with the facility – with this the eighties (where she met Danish-American institution. extended family became our friends in the her husband to-be, who Danish community.” The board of Danebo was was playing on the same split: one group wanted to turn professional soccer team, F.C. the place over to an existing Nantes, as Rikke’s cousin, local health care organization Henrik Agerbeck), traveling that could provide elderly often to visit friends and care. Another group wanted to family in Denmark. And in the hold on to the building for use nineties there was law school by the Danes. at the University of Minnesota, a new career, parenting. She The Dierssens asked Rikke continued to visit the Danish to come along to a meeting American Fellowship from where the issue was to be time to time – usually with her discussed (she is a lawyer, parents. after all). And Rikke was stunned by what she saw In 2002, though, events were there. “A group on the board unfolding in the Twin Cities was operating in a very Danish-American community dictatorial style to control the that reconnected Rikke in a direction of the proceedings different capacity. and to take away this asset. I Danebo, another Minneapolis was shocked.” Danish-American organization Ultimately litigation became Rikke Dierssen-Morice speaking at the opening of the that had been established by necessary to resolve the new addition to the Danish American Center in January Danes in 1924 as a not-for- dispute. When Rikke dug into of 2011. Rikke and her sisters grew up deeply connected profit facility for the elderly, the issue further she realized to people in the Danish-American community in the Twin was in financial straits. that the group who wanted Cities. Rikke, now a lawyer, has fundraised and done Danebo simply couldn’t offer legal work for the Danish American Center. the senior mission to continue the physical space, activities – even if it meant letting the 6 • America Letter or services that would attract facility go – was represented The building housing the Danish American Center was erected in 1924 as Danebo, a residential facility for elderly Danes. Today, as the Danish American Center, it is a home for Danish cultural activities. by a sophisticated legal team a home for Danes and Danish for families and children). Even the language has experienced in representing Americans. There’s bridge club, Danish evolved. Tove says she and clients in takeovers of They also have a new embroidery, watercolor Gunther speak a Danish of financially vulnerable not-for- gathering space. The Danish classes, Rødspætte Klubben. fifty years ago – a more formal profits. American community raised The center also hosts Danish. “Everything was more Rikke worked pro bono for the money to make some reunions and groups; The formal in those days,” says other group who wanted to modifications to the existing National Danish Performance Gunther, “we shook hands preserve the Danish asset for Danebo building to suit its Team, for example, stayed and shook hands and shook a changed, cultural purpose. new purpose. One of the there during the Twin Cities hands.” “We wanted to preserve the additions is a light-filled new leg of their U.S. tour. Tove says she even learned organization for the Danes,” entryway/social space with There is also a new influx of a new Danish word at the says Rikke. tall glass windows called Danish immigrants coming center the other day, “But,” Here’s how they did it. The the atrium. (Rikke and into the Danish American she laughs, “I can’t remember group met and planned and, Honorary Danish Consul Center. Many are young it now!” says Rikke “the Danes came Anelise Sawkins co-chaired a professionals who have It has been forty-seven years out, full force, with a well- fundraising effort.) come over to work in the since Gunther and Tove planned response to vote out So in an age when many Twin Cities community. They moved to White Bear Lake those board members [who ethnic and immigrant are scattered throughout the and began driving into south wanted to give up the facility] institutions are experiencing area and come in, seeking Minneapolis. Their daughters and to turn the organization in declining membership, lots what Tove and Gunther were are grown. (We’ve heard a new direction.” of people are coming to this seeking years ago: some about Rikke; Annette lives and Danish company. In 2005, then, Rikke worked new/old center. teaches in White Bear Lake successfully with the “I was there yesterday,” All these generations of and is active at the center Minnesota Attorney General’s Gunther says. Danes and Danish Americans too; Christina is a journalist in have a chance to interact at Washington, D.C.; Heidi is a office to shift the mission of “There are a lot of old people the organization – of Danebo the Danish American Center. professor at the University of there,” says Tove and then Gunther points out that not Connecticut.) And there are – from a non-profit elderly she laughs, saying, “We are home to a cultural center. all Danish immigrants are enough children, spouses and actually old people!” She the same – each generation grandchildren now that they What was Danebo and what pauses before muttering, takes the Denmark he or she not only make one ring around was the Danish American “There are a few older.” left and brings that Denmark the tree at Christmas, they Fellowship, then, merged to Whatever your age, there to America. “We carry what make two. form this new/old hybrid with appears to be plenty to do was Danish when we left. Our Tove says, “We have had a a new name called the Danish at the Danish American backgrounds were different. American Center. Though it is wonderful life and are very Center. There are sangaftens, The times were different. humble and happy about that.” no longer a residential facility æbleskive breakfasts, Each generation brought its for the elderly, it is very much papegøjeklubben (a group own culture.” America Letter • 7 The exhibition will feature the Elim Children’s Home in Elk Horn, which operated from 1890 to 1961, supported in large part by Danish Lutheran churches throughout the Midwest. Coming Soon: Church Basements and Children’s Homes: Danish-American Missions Here and Abroad A new exhibition, Church A traveling version of the exhibition will be available Basements and Children’s to museums, libraries, churches, and other cultural Homes, will be open to museum institutions and groups. This traveling exhibition will take the form of five retractable banners that are freestanding visitors from April 16 to October on the floor. Each banner will be nearly three feet wide 31, 2011. It will explore the and seven feet tall and combine texts and images that variety of examples of church- communicate the core content of Church Basements and based efforts within Danish- Children’s Homes. In addition, the video component of American communities to the exhibition will be sent on a DVD that each venue can play for their audience. support children’s homes, mission schools, health care, The traveling exhibition will be available beginning April 2011 through 2013. For more information on renting this and other social services for exhibition or other available displays, please contact Tova vulnerable people within the Brandt, curator of exhibitions, at 712-764-7001 or dkcur@ United States and around metc.net. the world. Both the museum exhibition and traveling display are supported by a grant from Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

8 • America Letter Danish-American Artist Series presents Grete Schioler The Danish Immigrant Museum is pleased to exhibit the work of Grete Schioler, a textile artist in Dayton, Ohio. Her weavings, fabric collages and dyed silk are on view now through July 10, 2011. Grete Schioler was born and raised in Denmark. She and her husband, an architect, immigrated to Ohio in the 1950s. Schioler studied textiles and fashion design in Denmark, but after settling in the United States began to study the craft of weaving. She has won several national awards and her work has been pictured in local, regional and national publications. Grete Schioler also works as a textile conservator and does restoration work for museums and private collectors. Her expertise lies in the restoration of historic fabrics, with special attention in the field of tapestries, quilts, coverlets and vintage clothing. She writes: With growing up in Demark, in my early childhood I experienced fantastic sights such as the northern lights and I think that has influenced my sense of design and color. Colors and their use in textiles have always been a part of me ever since I graduated with a degree in fine arts and textiles in Copenhagen, Denmark. For a long time, I experimented with natural dyes, but in the last many years I have become fascinated by the multitude of color variations possible with modern dyes on silk. Through weavings, textile constructions Viking “Runer” (Viking runes), weaving with natural wool, 35 and dyeing silk, my goal is to bring to others the joy and inches wide, 37 inches tall. fulfillment I experience when creating the work. Inspired by the runic alphabet of the Vikings, the first Besides numerous private and corporate commissions, Europeans in North America, Grete Schioler wove her own Schioler’s work has been accepted and shown at many exhibits history into this piece. The runic lettering along the top and and art galleries throughout America. She has taught weaving bottom translates as “Ole and Grete Schioler came to the and fabric dying at universities, schools and to many individuals. United States in 1951. Thank you America!” ABOVE: Tulips, tapestry weaving, 63 inches wide, 37 inches tall. America Letter • 9 Collection

The Connection C By Angela Stanford, curator of collections Since June of 2010, the this tablecloth is similar to paternal side (her father, Fred museum’s curatorial department a signature quilt, a tradition Thogersen, was a Danish has been cataloging and that began in the 1840s. immigrant), as well as Danish Signature quilts were often friends and sponsors in inventorying the textile collection created by church groups and America. – a collection that numbers around aid societies to be used as The embroidered dates range 2,000 pieces. Throughout this fundraisers for such things from 1907 to 1938, with project, we have rediscovered as missionary work or troop the exception of one name, some wonderful pieces, such as the support. Others were created written in pencil or faded pen, by families or friends as a tablecloth pictured here. dated 1962. It seems most sort of memorial. Typically, likely that the dates recorded Sometimes, we find that artifacts have little people signed the fabric and on the tablecloth coincide with or no provenance, information that makes it then someone stitched all the individuals’ signatures. important to and useful for our collections. of the names and organized For example, at least six In other cases, we have a full history and the fabric pieces into a quilt. signatures are dated June 12, are able to tell its story completely. The This tablecloth reflects that 1907, though the locations textile featured in this article is somewhere in tradition. associated with them are between. Unfortunately, the purpose scattered across the country. This tablecloth belonged to Maria Bertha of this tablecloth is unknown. Also mysterious are the Kiebel Amundsen of Racine, Wisconsin. Specifically, we do not know embroidered illustrations in Later, the tablecloth was passed down to the meaning behind the each corner. There is a baby Maria Bertha’s daughter-in-law, Marion Jane embroidered names, dates, lying on the floor with a cup Amundsen (née Thogersen). It later came and locations. The family and bowl in front of him, a into the possession of the donor who, in of Marion Jane Amundsen child riding a tricycle, a young turn, gave it to the museum in 2006. believed the names to be boy sitting at a school desk, relatives from Marion Jane’s With its embroidered signatures and dates, and an older boy hammering what appears to be a small wagon. At center is a profile of an older man. There are also two sets of flags – from the United States and from Denmark. Of particular interest is the phrase “Received payment in full” which is stitched along one edge. This might indicate that this was from a pattern and more were made as a fundraiser. Perhaps the mystery of the origin of this tablecloth will never be fully known, but it is a quality example of needlework and of the signature quilt tradition. If readers of this article have information that may help to fill in the gaps of the history of this tablecloth, please contact Curator of Collections/ Registrar Angela Stanford This tablecloth is similar to a signature quilt, a tradition that dates from the 1840s, where at the museum (registrar@ people sign the fabric and then the signatures are stitched. danishmuseum.org). 10 • America Letter The National Danish Performance Team Completes Successful American Tour by Tim Pallesen media relations. Museum small Danish-American hosted in their honor by the Scan|Design intern, Lisa communities. Danish Brotherhood Lodge Nearly 70,000 spectators Hansen, assisted with in Kenosha, Wisconsin. got a breathtaking The group kicked off logistics. The museum also their tour in Washington, Memorable experiences look at Danish culture created a traveling exhibit D.C. on October 9, 2010 and support from Danish during the National about Danish gymnastics with a performance at American groups Danish Performance that was displayed at each the Kennedy Center for continued out West. The tour venue. Team’s 2010 tour across the Performing Arts and Scandinavian Heritage America. Denmark’s Queen a dinner hosted by the Foundation sponsored Margrethe II is the team’s Danish ambassador at the the team for Thanksgiving Denmark’s best gymnasts – protector, so it was Danish Embassy. week in Portland, Oregon. fourteen men and fourteen only fitting that twenty- In Junction City, Oregon, women ages eighteen to A flight from New York five Danish American City to Omaha on October organizers delayed the twenty-four – displayed organizations across start of the show so the extreme coordination, 17 brought the tour to the America played a critical Midwest, where the staff large crowd lined up in the strength and balance in role in supporting the tour. rain to purchase tickets the show, “Connections,” a of the Danish Immigrant Danish-American groups Museum had prepared for would be sure to see the combination of gymnastics, were among those who entire performance. (A dance and acrobatics. performances, host families welcomed the twenty-eight and school workshops in special thanks to Benedikte “It’s like Cirque du Soleil,” gymnasts into their homes Elk Horn, Iowa and Omaha, Ehlers Olesen, Danish was how Margaret (Peg) and sold tickets for their Nebraska. Immigrant Museum board Naylon, coordinator of performances. member, for her efforts in The Danish American athletics and physical “It was a great joy for team Oregon.) And in Arizona, education for Omaha Public Center in Minnesota the Danish Club of Tucson members because they organized host families for Schools, described it. have met a lot of fantastic served up a delicious the gymnasts during their Christmas dinner. The Danish Immigrant people,” team general Minneapolis visit. Then Museum helped to make manager Johannes Bjerre families at the Danebod Chicago, Denver, Los the tour a reality. Museum said. Folk School welcomed the Angeles and Honolulu were board member Mia Hansen The National Danish team to Tyler, Minnesota. also on the tour of twenty- coordinated the team’s tour Performance Team’s tour The gymnasts will always seven cities in fifteen in America. Museum staff was full of memorable remember the Green Bay states. managed tour finances and moments in large cities and Packers tailgate party The gymnasts also performed for children in schools across America as ambassadors for Denmark and advocates for healthy living. School workshops gave American children— from students in New York City schools to Native American children on an Arizona reservation— contact with the Danish athletes in a memorable cultural exchange. The Danish Immigrant Museum’s Board of Directors has expressed interest in coordinating another tour in two years. Talks with the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Association (DGI) are Gymnasts led workshops in schools across the U.S. already underway. America Letter • 11 From the Development Director

During the past two years as others have in the past at other locations as The Danish Immigrant around the country. Museum’s development At the February board meeting, the board director, I have been privileged of directors began fi nalizing a strategic plan, which has been developed over the to connect with countless Danish past year. A signifi cant part of the plan clubs and organizations coast- outlines further emphasis on outreach to-coast that gather regularly to projects around the country. The plan also celebrate Danish culture. We at the calls for building the endowment to provide sustaining support for the museum’s long- museum value our association with term existence. It has become clear that them. there is great demand around the country for us to continue The Danish Immigrant Museum also strives these outreach activities as part of our mission and purpose. to enhance the activities of these groups But for us to continue this work, we greatly need your fi nancial by providing speakers, traveling exhibits support. and workshops that help explore our Danish Could you help us with this effort? Here are some possibilities: heritage. We are not simply a facility in the • If you haven’t already, please review your will to include the Midwest that houses Danish artifacts: We museum in your estate. preserve and promote Danish culture around the United States so that our children and • If you have appreciation in portfolio values in recent months grandchildren will learn and appreciate the or have real estate holdings that are subject to capital gains, roots from which they came. which you could donate as a tax-deductible contribution, please remember the museum. For example, this February, at the request of the Danish Club of Phoenix, the museum • If you would like to investigate other gift vehicles, such as arranged for Janet Crowle, daughter of tax-free annuities, please contact us so that we may provide Victor Borge, to speak to the Scandinavian you the information. Club of Sun City and to the Danish Club of • If your children or other relatives are not currently members Phoenix. It was a pleasure to work with John of the museum, please give them a gift membership so that Larsen, Danish Consul of Arizona and New they may be exposed to the work that we are doing. Mexico, to arrange these opportunities. Both • I would also love the opportunity to tell you about the many events drew large crowds. The audiences opportunities we have for you to name features of the thoroughly enjoyed Crowle’s wonderful museum, the Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park, and our presentation about the life of her famous exhibits. You can create a loving Danish American legacy for father. And we were also able to spread the yourself and your family in this way. word about the museum’s mission. In the coming months we will continue providing traveling Also in February, coinciding with The exhibits, speakers, and genealogy workshops around the Danish Immigrant Museum’s board country. Our work to promote our Danish culture and history meeting in Chandler, Arizona, we provided will continue. We hope that you share our passion for this rich a genealogy workshop conducted by heritage and will continue to support your museum. Michele McNabb of the museum’s Family History and Genealogy Center. The local Mange Tak! attendees raved about these workshops, Bruce Bro, Development Director New Additions to the Wall of Honor October 5, 2010 – February 15, 2011 The Danish Immigrant on the Wall. Their stories and the stories of their Museum’s Wall of Honor families contribute to the growing repository of provides families and friends family histories at the museum’s Family History and with a means of preserving Genealogy Center. the memory of or honoring bERTEL PETER MoRTENSEN (1919) - Cedar Falls, iA, Dale those who emigrated from & Linda Chimenti, Ames, IA Denmark to America. THoRA LuND FREDERiKSEN MoRTENSEN (1919) - Cedar Over 4,500 immigrants Falls, iA, Dale & Linda Chimenti, Ames, IA are currently recognized EVELyN WALKER (1957) - Warren, Mi, Charles & Carol Kevnick, oxford, Mi 12 • America Letter Thank You Businesses and Organizations These businesses and organizations have Elk Horn Pharmacy (Tim & Mary Waymire), Elk Horn, IA contributed annual memberships of at least Elk Horn-Kimballton Community School District, Elk Horn, IA Elk Horn-Kimballton Optimist Club, Elk Horn, IA $100. We recognize their generosity and support Faith, Family, Freedom Foundation (Kenneth & Marlene in each newsletter during their membership. Larsen), Calistoga, CA Hall Hudson, P.C., Attorneys at Law (Robert Hall), Harlan, IA A & A Framing (Annette Andersen), Kimballton, IA Harboe Architects, PC (Thomas “Gunny” Harboe), Chicago, IL Andersen Windows (Sarah Andersen), Bayport, MN Harlan Newspapers (Steve Mores & Alan Mores), Harlan, IA Answers (Rick Tighe), Atlantic, IA Heartland District of the DBIA, Ventura, IA Atlantic Friends of The Danish Immigrant Museum, Atlantic, IA Henningsen Construction, Inc., Atlantic, IA Audubon Family Chiropractic (Douglas & Nichole Olsen), House of Denmark, San Diego, CA Audubon, IA Jensen World Travel, Ltd. (Tor & Jeanette Jensen), Wilmette, IL Carroll Control Systems, Inc., Carroll, IA King of Kings Fishing Guide Service & Lodge (Richard & Cedar Valley Danes, Cedar Falls, IA Bonnie Andersen), Anchor Point, AK Danish American Athletic Club, Roselle, IL Knudsen Old Timers of The Danish Lutheran Church, Yorba Danish American Club in Orange County, Huntington Beach, Linda, CA CA Leman USA, Sturtevant, WI Danish Brotherhood Lodge #1, Omaha, NE Liberty Labs, Inc., Kimballton, IA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #14, Kenosha, WI Los Angeles Naver Club, Monrovia, CA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #15, Des Moines, IA Marge’s Hair Hut (Kent & Marge Ingerslev), Elk Horn, IA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #35, Homewood, IL Marne & Elk Horn Telephone Co., Elk Horn, IA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #56, Overland Park, KS NE Gen Comm Danish Brotherhoood, Omaha, NE Danish Brotherhood Lodge #75, Albert Lea, MN Nelsen & Nelsen, Attorneys at Law, Cozad NE Danish Brotherhood Lodge #84, Lincoln, NE O & H Danish Bakery (Eric Olesen), Racine, WI Danish Brotherhood Lodge #126, West Toluca Lake, CA Olsen, Muhlbauer & Co., L.L.P., Carroll, IA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #144, Dike, IA Outlook Study Club, Elk Horn, IA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #211, St. Paul, NE Pacific NW District Lodges D.B., Eugene, OR Danish Brotherhood Lodge #219, Webster City, IA Proongily (Cynthia McKeen), St. Paul, MN Danish Brotherhood Lodge #268, Junction City, OR Rebild National Park Society, Southern California Chapter, Danish Brotherhood Lodge #283, Dagmar, MT Glendale, CA Danish Brotherhood Lodge #341, Elk Horn, IA Red River Danes, Fargo, ND Danish Brotherhood Lodge #348, Eugene, OR Ringsted Danish American Fellowship, Ringsted, IA Danish Club of Tucson, Tucson, AZ Shelby County State Bank, Elk Horn, IA Danish Mutual Insurance Association, Elk Horn, IA Symra Literary Society, Decorah, IA Danish Sisterhood Lodge #176, Aplington, IA The Danish American Archive and Library, Blair, NE Danish Vennelyst Park, Omaha, NE The Danish Inn, Elk Horn, IA Den Danske Klub, Washington, MO The Rasmussen Group, Inc., Des Moines, IA Den Danske Pioneer, Hoffman Estates, IL Des Moines-Winterset-Atlantic Memorials, Des Moines, IA

In Honor October 6, 2010 – February 15, 2011

Through various funds, gifts have been received in Rev. Sara Jensen Delores Jespersen honor of people or special events. Dody Johnson - our mother and favorite Dane! Virgil & Joyce Christensen’s 60th anniversary Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Layton Class of 1958, Elk Horn, Iowa Rudolph & Florence Madsen Doris Duff’s 80th birthday John Mark Nielsen’s 60th Birthday Shirley Esbeck Dr. John W. and Elizabeth Nielsen Jan & Larry Fajen Folmer & Vera Nyby Alvina Hjortsvang - her generous spirit, her wealth of Astrid Hope Roge, our new granddaughter born December 1, knowledge, her love of learning, her joy of living, and her 2010 enrichment of many lives. Harriet Spanel, retired Washington State Senator The Edward Jensen Family, Jens Jensen’s great grandson’s Hal Strandskov family

America Letter • 13 Memorials October 6, 2010 – February 15, 2011 Memorials have been received Jagn Jensen Selma Faaborg Payne in loving memory of the following Johanne “Irene” Jensen Dr. & Mrs. A.M. Pedersen individuals: Peter C. and Clara M. Jensen David Pedersen ‘Dad’-Julius J. Henry J. Pedersen A. M. Andersen Jespersen-1896-1974; LeRoy Pedersen Louisa M. Andersen (Bloomdall) immigrated 1914 Niels M. Pedersen Thomas C. Anderson Oscar Johnson Peder K. & Olga Pedersen Flemming Andresen Niels W. & Ingrid H. Jorgensen Herbert & Mabel Petersen Eli Bager Donald L. Knudsen James F. & Joanie Petersen Nels Block, Jr. Eugene Koch Richard Peterson Arnold N. Bodtker Jim Lange Delbert Rasmussen Thomas & Ellen Brown Olga Petersen Lange Ruth Rasmussen Herluf Christensen Clara Petersen Larsen, my Andrew & Rosa Rosenkild Gertrude Christiansen mother Jens & Olga Sahl Chris & Dagmar Clausen Lars & Marie Larsen Ray Schoening Ray Esbeck Carl Laursen Karen Marie Agneta Andersen Hans & Mathilde Farstrup Dorothea Laursen Silver Esther Freund Esther R. Laursen, my wife of 68 Corrine Smith Alan Carsten Fugl years Poul V. Steffensen my Great Grandparents Bent Lernø Ray & Joyce Petersen Strong Solveig Gregory Richard L. Mandery Erik Struckman, Jr. Westi Hansen Darrell Mardesen Neva Thede Kate Rasmussen Hafke Ernest & Bertha Mathisen Arthur Thompson, my husband Allan Hansen Milton Miller Lorne Bjorn Thordahl Charles R. Hansen Karen Hoiriis Mower Jack J. Unkenholz, our grandson Clifford K. & A. Veola Hansen Thorvald & Mette Muller Manuella Werner Wendel Ida Petersen Hansen Karen Lynn Jensen Nelson Chris Werner Jane Hansen Carol Mannering Nielsen Godfrey Werner Otto & Meta Hansen Jens J. and Ellen L. Nielsen Niels Werner Leon Hoegh Niels Nielsen Nina Werner Anna E. Holland Ras C. Nielsen & Esta N. Knud Westergaard, my father Helene Ronholt Hoiriis (Feltner) Nielsen Lucia Elizabeth Bjornsen Professor Niels Ingwersen Tom Nielsen Westergaard, my mother Jay Eric Jaeger Eric & Joan Norgaard Paul A. Wickland Evelyn Jensen George Norman Gene & Doris Lindstrom Wolfe Henry M. Jensen William H. Paulsen

New Members October 6, 2010 – February 15, 2011 The Danish Immigrant Museum Garry & Carol Cupples, New Portland, Andrew & Kathryn Nielsen, Greeley, is pleased to identify the following ME CO Karen DeGraaff, Brownsburg, IN Eric & Lisa Olesen, Racine, WI individuals as its newest members. Phyllis Dina, Niles, IL Timothy Pallesen, Blair, NE Museum membership is achieved Lois Eagleton, Umpqua, OR Connie Papineau, Pleasanton, NE in various ways—through gifts, Sara Gaarde, Mount Vernon, IA Mark & Dana Paulsen, Exira, IA Jerry & Joyce Gilbert, Eugene, OR Derek & Maren Peck, Ankeny, IA complimentary or annual gifting. We Steve & Ann Godwin, Medford, OR Richard & Janet Pedersen, Eagle do appreciate your support. Robert Hall, Harlan, IA Grove, IA Ernie & Marilyn Abariotes, Blair, NE Judy Hecker, Dublin, OH Robert Petersen, Hollister, CA Keith Andersen, Gaylord, MN Judith Hestoft, Milwaukee, WI Joanne Peterson, Lauderdale, MN Sam Andersen, Liberty, MO Sue Heyne, Atlantic, IA Dick Vos & Linda Riddle, Duluth, MN Paul & Lynne Anderson, Omaha, NE Lynda Jeppesen & Ruth Jeppesen, John Riddle, Colfax, IA Virgil & LaVaille Anderson, Wallingford, IA Oak Park, IL Joyce Ford & Jim Riddle, Winona, MN Thomas & Maria Annis, Clive, IA Ardell Johnson, Watertown, SD Tom & Barbara Jensen Roberts, Dennis Barten, Saint Louis, MO Darlene Johnson, Monument, CO Eugene, OR Arthur & Betty Beckman, Omaha, NE Charles & Carol Kevnick, Oxford, MI Anders Sand, Kansas City, MO David & Cheryll Blair, Bellingham, WA Leroy & Joan Kiertzner, El Monte, CA Dennis & Jeanne Schwab, Audubon, Phyllis Boe, Omaha, NE Patrick & Sherry Kilgore, Lebanon, PA IA Ole Bondesen, Jyllinge, Denmark Sonja Kromann, Everett, WA Martinus Sorensen, Lombard, IL Judith Brehm, Blair, NE Dana Larsen, Tucson, AZ David & Cathy Sorenson, Truman, MN Ryan & Susan Brown, Gastonia, NC Darrell & Victoria Madsen, Kenneth & Cathleen Stofen, Racine, Rikke Christensen, Studio City, CA Shenandoah, IA WI Eugene & Shirley Christiansen, Apache Mary Jane Mardesen, Rushmore, MN Larry Syndergaard, Kalamazoo, MI Junction, AZ Margot McDonnell, Phoenix, AZ Karin Thomsen Valliere, Kirkland, WA Barbara Bro Colbert, Oakton, VA Eugene & Susie Meyer, Blair, NE Carolyn Thomson, Lawrence, KS Anita Cooper, Houston, TX Robin Mower, Durham, NH Karen Tinkham, Litchfield Park, AZ Neal & Lois Nelson, Albuquerque, NM Carol Weckmuller, Blair, NE Eugene Wright, Stillwater, MN 14 • America Letter Museum Wish List

If you would like to donate or contribute toward the purchase of one or more of the following needed items, please contact Terri Johnson at [email protected] or at 712-764-7001.

F amily History & Genealogy Center Collections English-language: HOBO U10-003 Temperature-Relative Humidity Data Logger • Hitler’s Savage Canary: A History of the Danish Resistance Data loggers will allow the Museum to efficiently and accurately in World War II, by David Lampe. ($17 on amazon.com) monitor the temperature and humidity levels in our exhibition • 78 RPM: The Record of a Family, by Flemming Behrend and artifact storage spaces at both the Museum and at the ($15.50) Family History and Genealogy Center. To best cover all spaces, • Historical Dictionary of Denmark, by Alastair H. Thomas we request 20 data loggers and two shuttles and two cables (Scarecrow Press, 2009; $90 on amazon.com) (one of each for both buildings). • Alice Nielsen and the Gayety of Nations, by Dall Wilson. th HOBO Data Logger:...... $75 each for orders of 10+ (2006; $49.95 from the author). Biography of a noted 19 - Total:...... $1500 century Danish-American opera singer. Required Accessories:... $35 for software • Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and $260 each for shuttle to download data Fashion, 1840-1900 ($48 on amazon.com) $15 for extra batteries • Mastering the Mission: A Brief History of the Holy Trinity $10 each for cables to connect Lutheran Church in Frederiksted, St. Croix, U. S. Virgin data logger to shuttle Islands, by Elizabeth Rezende (CRIC Productions, 1990). Total:...... $580 Out of print. Total Cost for Full Set:... $2080 • St. Croix (Historic Photos, Historiske Fotos), by Elizabeth Rezende (Danish West Indian Society; $15 on amazon.com; Filing Cabinet DKK 200 from DWIS) As our collections expand, so do our needs for additional filing • Dana College yearbooks: anything before 1927, 1928-1930, cabinets to house all artifact records. We request one in the 1932-1944, 1946-1954, 1957-1963, 1968 to 2010 “putty” color to match existing cabinets. • Grand View College yearbooks: anything before 1920, 1928- HON H320 Series 4-Drawer Filing Cabinet: $259.99, plus shipping 1929, 1933, 1935, 1940, 1944, 1947, 1950, 1953, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1972, 1977 to the present Exhibitions Danish-language: Good quality hand tools, including: • Jorden rundt efter guld; mine rejser og oplevelser some • Cordless drill with batteries and charger, $250 guldgraver, by Robert Andersen (København, Gyldendal, • Drill bits and accessories, $50 1938) – out of print. • Laser level, $100 • I centrum ved grænsen - portræt af Sønderborg Kommune • Vice-grips, Needle-nose pliers, Wire cutters, Utility blades, $100 (In the Middle at the Border – A Portrait of Sønderborg • Paint brushes, rollers, drop cloths, $100 Municipality), by Peter Dragsbo. (2006; available from • Self-healing cutting mat at least 18”x24”, $30 Historisk Samfund for Als og Sundeved). • Danske børnehjem i billeder og tekst (Danish Orphanages in Facilities and Grounds Picture and Text, by various authors, 1900). Good-quality picnic benches, $500 each • Find din slægt -- og gør den levende, by Jytte Skaaning og Bente Klercke Rasmussen. Administration • Ordbog for slægtsforskere, by Heini Madsen. 2nd ed. LCD Projector, $500 • Dansk adelsleksikon (Encyclopedia of Danish Nobility). There 6-6’ long banquet tables, $75/each are numerous editions of this title and accompanying volumes available from online antiquarian book dealers for a wide range of prices. We would like to obtain at least one set.

America Letter • 15 Stamtræ – Danish Roots, American Branches News from the Museum’s Family History & Genealogy Center By Michele McNabb, librarian [email protected]; [email protected] Activities and News • Thanks to Fritz Hansen, whose mentioned in the early • Upcoming workshops on generous donation funded the twentieth century as one Danish Genealogy will be purchase of a reference work on of the oldest in Chicago. held in conjunction with the Milwaukee Avenue runs museum board of directors land records and documents west of as a diagonal from the meeting in Denver, the Mississippi River. intersection of Lake Street Colorado, in June 2011 and • Thanks also to Bob Olsen of Houston, and N. Canal Street just in Yorba Linda, California, Texas who did some additional research west of Wacker Drive near in late September. on Chicago’s “Danevirk” Hotel mentioned in the Chicago River. Workshop information and the last America Letter. He found that Hotel • Do you like our “Danish registration forms may be Dannevirke was located at 15 Milwaukee Roots, American Branches” found on the Workshops & Avenue in Chicago; Christian Hansen was logo? If so, canvas bags Talks drop-down menu of still proprietor in 1876, so the hotel survived and t-shirts with the design the Library & Genealogy the Great Fire of 1871. E. Hansen was the are available either through section of the museum hotel owner in 1892, and the building was the Museum Shop, the webpage. FHGC or the website.

Of Genealogical Interest www.arkivalieronline.dk has now placing English-language queries may be found at http:// dropped its user name/password www.slaegtogdata.dk/andet/forum-help-english. requirement. On this website may be The iowa Heritage Digital Collections at http:// found digital images of Danish church iowaheritage.org contains interesting photographic registers and most extant censuses collections submitted by various museums and historical through 1925. Note: censuses from societies around the state. the duchy of Slesvig are not included. Pre-1935 iowa state-level death records (those not http://mydanishroots.com is a found at the county level) are being uploaded by the State basic website with information, Historical Society of Iowa as part of a new state project. explanations of common topics Check www.iowahistory.org/archives/holdings/index.html and links to various articles and for holdings. webpages dealing with Danish genealogical research. if you need maps and statistics to illustrate your family history or a presentation, two good sources are A number of changes and the American Fact Finder and the Map Gallery of Ethnic refi nements have been made to Groups, both accessible through the Census Bureau the Danish census transcriptions website (www.census.gov). found at http://ddd.dda.dk. Please read instructions www.familysearch.org has incorporated its Beta test site carefully to ensure a productive into its basic search page, allowing access to many digital search. images from its collection. DiS-Forum, the Danish A German-English-German dictionary may be found at query page, has moved to www.germandictionary.org. a new address. A guide for For Michigan research, try http://seekingmichigan.org or 16 • America Letter registering on the site and www.obitmichigan.com. Some Truly Heady Stuff!

This year’s TivoliFest and summer photo exhibit at the FHGC will take a look at what our Danish immigrant ancestors wore on their heads. We are looking for photographs of immigrants wearing bonnets, hats, caps, wreaths, babushkas, fanciful feathered creations, and everything in between. Prizes will be awarded in several categories, based on voting during TivoliFest. To enter your ancestor’s headwear in the exhibit, contact the FHGC at [email protected] for an entry form. The deadline for submissions is May 1.

Volunteer Spotlight: Andy Kissel If you were to visit and occasionally babysat the Family History & a little girl down the street Genealogy Center on named Fern Paulsen any Tuesday morning (whom, he swears, he first saw when her mother over the past dozen pulled out a dresser drawer years, chances are you to show her off). After would find one computer spending a couple of years station occupied by on a dairy farm in upstate a quiet white-haired New York, Andy joined the Of Genealogical Interest gentleman—sometimes Navy in 1955 and spent bearded, sometimes four years as an aviation not—and his (lidded) machinist. This was Andy Kissel and his trusty coffee mug may be found at coffee cup. followed by a similar stint in the Army, marriage, four the FHGC on Tuesday mornings. A volunteer since the children, and an additional area following his second Over the years, Andy has creation of the FHGC back fourteen years in the Navy. in the days when it was retirement. Fern started created useful in-house housed in the front part After retiring from the working at the museum as databases, including every- of the mezzanine in the service in 1977 Andy registrar and Andy began name listings of the 1885 main museum building, found himself in Alabama doing odd jobs around the and 1895 state censuses Andy Kissel has steadily and attracted to law museum. Then he ran into for Audubon and Shelby tapped his way through enforcement work. After Margaret Christensen and counties. Currently he is tens of thousands of attending the police Mae Petersen, two of the our main obituary indexer, names of deceased Danish academy he spent most of volunteers who had taken which ensures him job immigrants and Danish- the next eighteen years as on the task of creating a security. Andy says that he Americans. And to think a corrections officer. genealogy department at has worked for and with that he doesn’t have a Somewhere along the the museum. He attended interesting people and that Danish bone in his body! line he re-established an orientation session he likes the FHGC because his connection with Fern for prospective FHGC of all the “girls” there. We Born in Minneapolis to a volunteers, and once it was think it’s because, hidden Czech immigrant and a Paulsen and convinced her that she needed a discovered that he knew in his Irish lineage, there purely Irish mother, Andy how to turn on a computer, probably lurks a Danish moved in early childhood to full-time sitter. They were married in 1985 and he was encouraged to Viking or two! Omaha, Nebraska, where become a volunteer. he attended high school moved to the Elk Horn America Letter • 17 Stamtræ North Jutlander in the USA with 100 direct descendants One of the materials shared with Nørresundby. at the age of 24. He has Michele McNabb by participants C. M. Nielsen, who not been back to Denmark in the Danish workshops held last presumably is the oldest in sixty-eight years, but autumn was the following clipping living Dane in the U.S., had his letters home, which he from the Aalborg Stiftstidende, dated the news of his descendant still writes in Danish, bear witness to his longing for his September 12, 1949. number 100 broadcast over six American radio fatherland. A north Jutlander who has resided in stations. Nielsen now has [Christen Martinus Nielsen, the state of Iowa in the U.S. for the past twelve children, forty-fi ve born on February 19, 1857, sixty-eight years recently turned ninety-two grandchildren, thirty-eight was married on April 24, 1881 and, that same day, had the experience great-grandchildren and fi ve in Iowa to ane Cathrine of becoming a great-great grandfather great-great grandchildren. Andersen, born on March 7, to descendant number 100. The north 1859. Both were natives of Jutlander is farmer C. M. Nielsen, who was As a youth Nielsen learned Dronninglund parish in Aalborg born at Lillefælden in Ørsø in Dronninglund tailoring from his father in County. The FHGC would municipality and is the brother of 81-year- Ørsø, but got the itch to like more information on this old Mathilde Pedersen, Thistedvej 24, emigrate and left for America couple and their family.]

Have a Are You a Danish Immigrant Danish Civil or Long-term Resident? War veteran in your

Many Danes have immigrated to the at meetings of your family tree? U.S. since WWII, have been exchange local Danish-American students, or resided in this country organization. Forms may Danish immigrants for several decades. We would like to be downloaded from the served on both sides of have some information in our library “Library & Genealogy” the American Civil War. on more recent immigrants or long- section of our webpage We would like to try to term residents from Denmark. If this or contact Michele at compile as complete is you or someone you know, please librarian@danishmuseum. a listing as possible of fi ll out an Immigrant Information org for copies. those who served. If you Form or copy and distribute it have a CW vet among your ancestors, please share his story with us. Copies of photographs and other documents desired as well. Two The Scandinavian Typographical Union was websites devoted to formed in Chicago on April 25, 1883, with thirty-six members. Danes who served in the A number of them appear to have been Danish, notably vice- Civil War: president J. A. Nyberg and recording secretary Olaf A. Ras- www.factasy.com/civil_ mussen. Other Danish members may have been A. Johansen, war/2008/03/06/index_ C. J. Christiansen, J. Hansen, and A. A. Andersen. By 1885 danes_soldiers_csa membership stood at forty-nine. www.kalmus.dk/civilwar/ source: A. T. Andreas, A History of Chicago, vol. 3 (1886). Thanks to Bob Olsen for this information! westzealanders1.htm. 18 • America Letter When Ringsted Got Its Name

Ringsted, Iowa, is just one of numerous small Midwestern towns that were settled by Danish immigrants. Several accounts have been related of how the town got its name. This one appeared in Pastor E. M. Favrholdt’s En vagabonds dagbog: fortællinger og genfortællinger (A Vagabond’s Diary: Stories New and Old), published in Copenhagen in 1934 and recently translated for Eva Wernegreen Miller, who has graciously permitted this chapter to be published in the America Letter.

It was not a big group of stations and towns with space Yes, he was actually just near the station! And if I am Danes that had found their for people to build homes. an ordinary shoemaker. the fi rst to move there then I way to Forsythe, Iowa, At each location the railroad He earned his living as he can name the town. Do you when the settlement was company was going to had done at home in Salten know what it is going to be formed in 1896, but there subdivide these fi fteen acres through steady work, partly called? What do you think it is must have been about three- into building lots fi fty feet long with hammer and peg, and going to be called, Maren?” dozen people. Forsythe is and one hundred feet wide, partly with any odd jobs that “It is going to be called located in Emmet County and the fi rst ten building lots would provide food for the Ringsted,” said Maren. near the Minnesota border. eight mouths in the family. He that were claimed would be “Oh, Maren!” said Kresten. “I And although the chimneys given away free, gratis, for repaired harnesses, and did were far apart the landscape some tailoring, and dabbled would like for it to be called nothing! The lot owners were Salten – you know that it is my seemed like home to the required to be settled before a little in veterinary work Scandinavians. There were and was well liked for his hometown, and I thought that the expiration of a certain in that way I would kind of be Danes, Norwegians and period of time and at least indefatigable good humor. Swedes around. helping to build America in a before the fi rst train came “I brought that from home,” he way.” Forsythe was a very small down the track; otherwise, said. “And I and Maren have colony; it was almost what they would not be considered the most beautiful home in all “Yes, but then how about one could call a small dip in to be the owners of the lots. of Forsythe.” me?” said Karen. “I came the landscape and that was from Ringsted. And Ringsted Furthermore, the fi rst man or Maren came from Ringsted on is a town better known in exactly what it was. And that woman or family who settled Zealand. With the exception was the good part. There was Denmark than Salten. It was in such a settlement would be of the blacksmith, who in the vicinity of Ringsted a hollow in the earth, a moor- permitted to name the station came from Sneglebjerg in like, particularly fertile stretch that Knud Lavard killed a and the town! Odsherred, she was the only man! And if I had not come in the middle of the vast wild one in the settlement who prairie. A few trees and some This announcement passed over from Ringsted where from the dairy and the general came from Zealand. She was would you be now? Then you meadow grass were growing a good and happy woman; there so it was not diffi cult for store to all the settlers in would have been a bachelor Forsythe. In such a small one who knew how to adjust and walking around begging the pioneers to get started. to new conditions as well as Even if they could not afford to settlement everyone knows for your food in town during what is happening or ought any Jutlander. And that means these diffi cult times just like buy a horse and plow to break much to an emigrant. the soil the fi rst year there to be happening at their the other hoboes. Do you was always something to eat neighbors’, and in those days It was very noisy in the small remember what we saw in and drink for the livestock. everyone in the settlement shoemaker’s house since Chicago last year? But now was sharing good fortune and they had six children. But in we are independent and have There was also going to bad. There were a dozen sod spite of poverty and strange six children…. They also be a railroad. The wealthy houses in Forsythe, but only surroundings there were no originate from Ringsted in a Bertel Knudsen had heard four wooden houses. One of complaints heard from the way, don’t they? But let us not the news in Chicago, so those was owned by Bertel parents. The reason was argue any more about that! there was no doubt about Knudsen, another one was that Kresten and Maren were Take off your coat – we are it. Chicago-Northwestern owned by the dairyman, the grateful. having medisterpølse (pork Railroad, which was already third by the blacksmith, and sausage) tonight – how do going to Burd, Iowa, was in the fourth by the shoemaker, you like that?” 1897 going to extend to Fox The shoemaker was out of Kresten Madsen from Salten Medisterpølse was his Lake, Minnesota. The railroad in Jutland. breath when he came home. company had purchased favorite food. And Maren was “Listen to this, Maren! When fi fteen acres of land every But pay attention to the right in what she had said. the new railroad comes, we seven miles along the line shoemaker! will be able to get a free lot on – Continued on page 20 for the construction of train which we can build a house America Letter • 19 Ringsted continued from page 19 She was a very wise woman and The timing and circumstances The fi rst one who had put up a quick at repartee and handy. But had been in Maren’s favor. house on his lot and reported Kresten thought she was wrong about No more was said about it to the station-master that he Knud Lavard for that had happened the rest of the evening, not was “completely settled” could long ago. . . The sausage smelled until Kresten and Maren were then at once name the town. good! Why were they going to have about to go to sleep. Then To be “completely settled” medisterpølse tonight? Oh yes, it was Kresten said: meant having put up a house Martinmas-eve – he had forgotten all and eaten a meal there, so about that! Maren had remembered. She “How do you know that we that he was legally settled told him that she had promised to sew two will be the fi rst to settle near there. the station? It could happen sets of curtains for the Lars Povlsen’s for In Denmark one would not the sausage. She had heard that they had that there were others here in Forsythe who want to move consider moving a residence butchered and had quickly and discreetly several miles; but in America made a trade – yes, Maren was wonderful. there! And we only have one Helmut (an old skinny horse) this is not unusual. But then But Kresten did not like to give in without a to move us!” they are not brick houses. fi ght; it should be handled in a manner which Both the blacksmith and was consistent with his honor as man of the “No matter,” said Maren. “I will the shoemaker had lived house. He would be kind. Maren deserved think of something.” long enough in the States that. to consider this a natural move. It just depended on the There was a festive mood in the little home. The winter passed and spring preparations; everyone knows The children reveled in the sausage, and for came. Meanwhile, there had that the preparations are the some time they carried on the conversation. naturally been additional worst part. Then Kresten cleared his throat: reports about the railroad “Ahem! Hm!” and at various get-togethers Lars Jensen made big in the settlement they had preparations. He had a very “Quiet, children! Your father wants to say repeatedly discussed the roomy house with several something!” said Maren. signifi cance it would have for rooms. He borrowed or rented Kresten wiped the grease from the corner of the inhabitants of Forsythe. It sixteen horses and eight his mouth with the back of his hand. turned out that there would be wagons. The wagons were arranged in two groups with “I have thought some more about the name two stations nearby to choose four in each, and in between for the town,” said Kresten. “How would from. One would be located the inner rows of wagons you like it if we called it ‘Salten Ringsted,’ fi ve or six miles straight north were fastened heavy iron Maren?” of Forsythe (the later Fenton), the other one seven miles chains and the wagons were “No, Kresten, that does not sound very northeast of Forsythe. In connected with big wooden good,” said Maren. She had a smile ready, Dannevirke, Nebraska, they poles, bridge lumber from but did not wish to show it. She knew she had heard, there had been Minnesota. Both the chains had won the battle. agreement about the name, and the poles were obtained “Oh well,” said Kresten. “How would be if because the fi rst pioneers from the railroad company, we let the children vote? We are living in there had been veterans which also provided jacks to a democratic country, after all! Look here from the War of 1848, and in elevate the house. little ones, you know that your father Halfa, Iowa, where only Irish The day before all the people came from Salten and your mother from people had settled, they had in Forsythe were up to help Ringsted. . . . If they were to build a made the peaceful agreement getting the blacksmith’s house new Danish town nearby what should that the one who was able to arranged on the wagons. it be named, Salten or Ringsted?” whip everyone else – one at a Shoemaker Madsen was time! – would be permitted to “Do you want some more sausage, also there. He used all of his name the town. But how about children?” said Maren and looked strength and was in a good here? around the table. mood. The blacksmith told It soon became known that him that the new town was to “Yes! Hurrah! Thanks, Mother! The only the blacksmith and the be named Sneglebjerg. That town shall be named Ringsted; that shoemaker were planning on was the parish from which he is where Mother came from!” the moving to the station town had come; but the shoemaker little ones shouted. right away. On a certain day answered boldly that that was “Well, then I must give up,” said the building lots would be not going to be, for he had Kresten. made available for settlement. decided on a different name. 20 • America Letter “But you only have one horse! in all they were in agreement, shoemaker has many funny Another half hour passed. You cannot move a four- but they contradicted each ideas,” they said. Then the blacksmith arrived, room house with one horse!” other now and then in order A little over an hour later snorting and groaning, with said the blacksmith. “You are that the conversation should Kresten Madsen arrived in his seven-room house, eight bluffing, Chris.” not get stalled. But the talk the “station town.” He looked wagons and sixteen horses. was starting to ebb out. One “That is what you say,” about, and got a happy and “You are too late,” said the gets drowsy on the prairie answered the shoemaker. thankful feeling in his breast. shoemaker. “I have given the just sitting around about noon There were no trees, buildings The big day arrived. There when it is hot. town a name. I am all settled was sun over the prairie. or people to be seen - nothing in and I have registered with About 10 o’clock in the But all of a sudden Jens but the station building, a shed the station master!” morning Lars Jensen was Andersen sat up with a jerk. not much bigger than the one “You are lying,” said the ready to start. The shoemaker “What in the world kind of a he had on the wagon. blacksmith. “You only have wished him good luck on the load is coming there?” “If you hurry up, Maren, that dung-house. You cannot trip. then we had better eat the Down in the valley, quite a eat there!” “Take care of yourself!” he distance away, came a one- pancakes now as soon as “But we did eat our dinner said. horse carriage. It was the they are ready, so we can truly say that we have had a there,” said the shoemaker. It was really quite a job for shoemaker Kresten Madsen and his wife. The conveyance meal!” “And now we are going to the blacksmith. He almost felt have a sip of coffee. Maren! was a buckboard - a four- They helped each other like a king sitting in the house, You did bring the cups! The which swayed quite a bit in wheel vehicle with a long, unloading the house and set blacksmith should also have spite of the chains and the springy board in the middle. it up. Inside it they placed a a cup! Just come here, little poles, drinking coffee with his In the front sat Kresten and couple of boards across the Maren on a small box. In the papa, and see!” wife. The drivers had to move two holes and covered them back lay a small house with the horses at a good trot the with a newspaper -- and also He pulled Lars Jensen up to its door upward. There was a first piece of the way until they a tablecloth! Kresten then lit the little house. heart carved in the door. got out of the wet lowland, the kerosene stove, and from “That is a miserable place otherwise, the wagon would Was the shoemaker moving the small box on which they to eat dinner,” said the sink in. After that they crossed after all? Why had he started had been sitting during the blacksmith. “But what is the the wild prairie. There were no so far behind? It was not trip, Maren removed a pail name of the town going to roads anywhere. worth wasting his time on with pancake batter. be?” But after driving for a couple such a small house! “I will go and get the station “It is going to be what it is of hours they got to Jens “Hey, shoemaker! Take some master! Maybe he will have Andersen’s farm, which was time off and come and have a already called, because it has a bite too!” said Kresten and situated almost halfway to the drink!” cried Jens Andersen. already been named!” walked off. station. “I really do not have time “What is its name then?” Fifteen minutes later the “Stop here!” said the for that,” answered the “Ringsted,” was the answer. blacksmith. “The horses are shoemaker. But then he dinner was ready. The This time it was Maren who all in a lather! And the rest of added, “I will stop by on my kerosene stove was moved answered. us need a drink of beer. We way back.” outside, and the pancakes were served inside. will visit Jens Andersen. We He cracked the whip and old And the name of the town is have plenty of time.” Helmut changed from a walk The railroad man was a Ringsted to this very day! Jens Andersen had both to a trot. German-American. He laughed when he saw the little beer and snaps, and he was Jens Andersen shook his house and noticed the little glad to have visitors. So the head. “I wonder what he will blacksmith and his party took do with that house. That is heart in the open door. But their time. They sat on the one of those in which one as he got closer and smelled veranda out of the hot sun. does what he has to and not the pancakes, he licked his While they sat and toasted what one wants to do. Has he chops. they talked about the sold it to the station master?” “Donnerwetter!” he exclaimed. hard times and the hopes But the blacksmith and his “That smells good!” connected to the expansion of people just laughed. “That the railroad to Minnesota. All

America Letter • 21 The museum’s board members met this February in Chandler, Arizona. In the front row, pictured left to right, are Kay North, Kurt Hansen, Mittie Ostergaard, Harriet Spanel, Carol Mills and Janet Thuesen. In the back row, from left to right, are Benedikte Ehlers Olesen, John Mark Nielsen (executive director), Lynette Rasmussen, Mark Nussle, Kenneth Larsen, Dennis Andersen, Jon Borgman, Mark Strandskov, Mark Frederiksen, Steven Lund. Museum Board of Directors Meet in Arizona The Danish Immigrant Museum’s Former board member Mia by the Danish Club of Phoenix Board of Directors held its 87th Hansen was on hand to give Saturday evening where a power point presentation regular meeting at the historic many home-made traditional on the National Danish Danish dishes were served by Crowne Plaza San Marcos Hotel Performance Team’s members of the club. Guest in Chandler, Arizona February 9 successful 2010 tour speaker was Janet Borge through February 12. Fifteen of the across the country. Hansen Crowle, daughter of performer board’s twenty-two members were coordinated the U.S. tour Victor Borge, who also spoke with The Danish Immigrant that day at a luncheon hosted in attendance. Museum acting as fiscal agent by the Scandinavian Club at Several key issues on the agenda were and providing staff support. Sun City West. discussion of a new curatorial center, Board members and staff The next board of directors strategic planning, the Jens Jensen were honored to be invited to meeting will be in Denver, Prairie Landscape Park and the a Smørrebrøds Fest hosted Colorado from June 9 through 11. museum’s budget.

Admission & Hours

Admission Business Hours (Includes Bedstemor’s House) Monday-Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Current Museum Members: F amily History & Genealogy Center Hours FREE with May-Oct.: Tuesday-Friday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm Membership Card Saturday: 10:00 am-5:00 pm Non-Members: Adults, $5 November-April: Children (ages 8-17), $2 Tuesday-Friday, 10:00 am-4:00 pm Museum Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 am-5:00 pm All facilities are closed on New Year’s Day; Saturday 10:00 am-5:00 pm Easter Sunday; Sunday 12:00 noon-5:00 pm Thanksgiving; Christmas 22 • America Letter (Local weather conditions may cause occasional closures.) Vacation in Denmark and Support The Danish Immigrant Museum Benedikte Ehlers Olesen, a member of The Danish Immigrant • Two bathrooms with showers and one has a hot tub. Museum’s Board of Directors, and her husband Poul Olesen • Kitchen with refrigerator, oven, and microwave. are offering their Danish summer home for rental at a reduced • Flat screen television and DVD player. price–and all proceeds will be donated to The Danish Immigrant • Five minute drive to shopping: bakery, butcher shop, bank, post Museum. office. • Located in the middle of Jutland, a 10-minute drive from Viborg, • The house is available for rental in 2010 for a minimum of two hours to Skagen to the north, two hours to the German $1,250 a week. (Usually, it costs around $3,000.) Museum Board of Directors Meet in Arizona border to the south, one hour to the North Sea on the west, and one hour to the Kattegat on the east. • 45-minute drive to Århus, and 40-minutes to Aalborg. Interested individuals should contact the • Views of the Limfjord from most rooms in the house. museum • Three bedrooms–two with queen-sized beds and one with two bunk beds. It sleeps six adults comfortably, but can sleep a total at 1-800-759-9192. of eight.

Celebrate Danish Culture This Summer in Oregon or Minnesota Save the Date: The Danish Cultural Conference lectures, and evening entertainment. This year’s conference program highlights include speakers from the Danish Embassy The Danish Cultural Conference (DCC) is one of the and The Danish Immigrant Museum as well as an evening Northwest Danish Association’s leading programs. performance by Danish folk musician and author Flemming This year the DCC runs from Friday, June 24 Behrend (www.samarkandfolk.com). through Sunday, June 26, 2011 and will again be Registration for the 2011 Danish Cultural Conference includes held at the Menucha Retreat and Conference Center meals and there are several levels of accommodations to in Corbett, Oregon, thirty minutes east of Portland. choose from. Additional information on the DCC is available on the Northwest Danish Association web page (www. The conference offers attendees a varied program covering a northwestdanishfoundation.org). wide range of topics relating to Denmark and Danish culture. Attendees also have an opportunity to experience the beauty Save the Date: 2011 Danebod Folk Meeting and amenities of the Menucha Retreat and Conference Center, The 65th annual Danebod Folk Meeting will be held August 17 which offers stunning views of the Columbia River Gorge, through 21, 2011 at the Danebod Folk School Campus in Tyler, Crown Point, and the Cascade Mountains in a cozy and Minnesota. Program and brochures will be mailed in April. To relaxed atmosphere (www.menucha.org). add your name to the mailing list contact the Danebod Church The Danish Cultural Conference has been held continuously for office at 507-247-3000 or email Ricke Bly at [email protected]. over thirty years and many people attend annually to renew old The Danebod Folk School is the only folk school still in friendships, make new friends, and revisit their Danish heritage. existence in the United States.The fall folk meeting includes The Danish Cultural Conference opens with a traditional fellowship, worship, language study, lectures, singing, and flag-raising ceremony followed by several days of activities, dancing in the Danish-American tradition. including Danish language lessons, guided nature walks, America Letter • 23 EKELUND Bamboo/Cotton Towels, 18”x26” dishcloths, 12”x10” Chef’s side Towels, 12”x29” Runners, 35”x140”

Silicone Trivets, Salt & Pepper Shaker, Strainers Joyful, innovative gifts for the kitchen and the set table. Indoor and outdoors.

Many more styles to choose from . . . Necklaces, bracelets & Earrings

For information on these and all of our unique gifts visit the Museum Gift Shop or online at www.danishmuseum.org