History Commons^™

Remembering Our Unsung Pioneer Ancestors, Jim Lewis

The Bridge

My great-grandparents, Niels Jensen Norgaard (1848-1920) and Karen Sorensen Norgaard (1852-1949) immigrated to America in 1869 and 1871, respectively. They had both been raised in the Aalborg area of northern Jutland. Niels left his family and a comfortable home at the age of twenty to travel alone to a new, yet unknown, destination. His immediate objective was Harlan, Iowa, where relatives had a farm. It was twelve hundred miles across unfamiliar land between New York City and Harlan, Iowa. Niels was alone in a strange land, didn't know the language, and had little money to sustain himself. He traveled on …

Jacob A. Riis: The Ideal American Citizen, Flemming Just

The Bridge

At his death in 1914, Jacob A. Riis was one of the US's best-known and most admired citizens, who had been able to effect more social change than most of his peers. President Theodore Roosevelt had earlier declared Riis to be "the most useful citizen of New York," and now called him "the ideal American citizen." In one of many obituaries of Riis we read:

Denmark gave him to us, and if we gave Denmark millions in return, we could not pay her for what Riis did for us and for what Riis inspired us to do. He landed in …

The Transformation Of Chris Madsen In 1875-76: From Troubled Young Man In Denmark To Mature Wild West Hero In America, Frans 0rsted Andersen

The Bridge

In October 2018, I pub- lished a book about Chris Madsen with the title Et liv pa kanten. En biografisk fortcel- ling om Chris Madsen's utrolige liv (A life on the edge. A bi- ography about the incredible life of Chris Madsen). The second edition, which I cite in this article, was published in 2019. This book grew out of two separate projects: one aimed at publishing texts that can encourage boys and men to read more books (again), and another focused on Dan- ish emigration to the US in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

“Car Bum Brothers:” The West Coast Escapades Of Svend And Folmer Hansen, 1923-4, Erik S. Hansen, Rikke Utoft Hansen Olsen

The Bridge

Many contributors have added signature elements to the story of the “Car Bum Brothers.” Some of these were the original instigators of action during events that transpired over an eighteen- month period, from January 1923 to May 1924, while brothers Svend and Folmer Hansen were on the road traveling in the western states. This they did for the most part in a Model T Ford they bought for fifty dollars and affectionately called “Our Lizzie.” The cast of characters from that time includes a range of immigrant Danes and their off spring who lived scattered in Danish enclaves up and …

The Spirit Of Hans Christian Andersen In The United States, Taru Rauha Spiegel, Kristi Planck Johnson

The Bridge

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) was a great traveler and would undoubtedly have liked to visit the United States, in which he took a keen interest. As his fame grew, he received numerous invitations from his admirers across the Atlantic. However, as is well known, he became morbidly afraid of sea voyages after his dear friend, Henriette Wulff, perished in a fire onboard ship in 1858. 1 Prone to seasickness and careful of his health and well being, the aging author found the prospect of the long Atlantic voyage daunting and never undertook it.

Regulations Concerning Immigration And Citizenship, C. V. Eberlin

The Bridge

Americans, both the native born and the immigrants, are proud of their country. It is their firm belief that there isn’t a country in the world where the working class is so well off and has such a good lifestyle as over here, that America has far less illness and fewer cripples than most other countries, that America, morally, is far above any other country, and that no other country can show the same degree of freedom, equality, and brotherhood than the United States of America.

The Travel Diaries And Letters

The Bridge

At the dockside in Copenhagen on 21 March 1894, a worried father stood and waved goodbye to his eldest son, who had made the big decision of his life at the age of seventeen and was setting out to realize his dreams in the vast, unknown land of America. "Write soon, Christian," was the father's last word to his son. The very next day, Christian wrote his first letter

The Turkey, Carl Hansen

The Bridge

The church bells did not chime in Rainesville, for there was no church. But there was a schoolhouse, and in it, the Danish and Norwegian church folk gathered twice a month to hear a Norwegian pastor, who in half an hour taught his parishioners about predestination, free will, and the Missouri Synod's infallibility. But it was still Christmas Eve, even if the church bells did not chime. And if there was anyone who doubted it, they could just stick their noses inside Jens Larsen's door to be convinced.

Mary Dilberg's Memories, Charles Berg, Edel Berg

The Bridge

Mary Jensen Dilberg wrote the following account, in

English, in 1972. She was born in Aarhus, Denmark, on

November 4, 1891, sent out to earn her own living at age 12

and journeyed to America by herself in 1911 where she

spent time in Red Lodge, Montana, Ord, Nebraska, and

finally settled in Bothell, Washington, near Seattle, where

she spent most of her adult life except for a four year return

to Nebraska from 1919 to 1923.

A Danish Socialist In Capitalist Chicago, George R. Nielsen

The Bridge

The vast majority of the 200,000 Danes who migrated to America in the 19th century came as ordinary, anonymous people looking for work and willing to live within the American system. Louis Pio, on the other hand, was wellknown in Denmark, especially to the Copenhagen police and businessmen, and came to America with a mission to reform society in both Europe and America. In America, however, Pio never gained the status that he had held in Denmark and his attempts at social reform were unsuccessful. Yet, in spite of Pia's lackluster life in the United States, scholars, for good reason, …

The Image Of The United States In Danish Literature: A Survey With Scandinavian Perspectives, Sven H. Rossel

The Bridge

Until recently a 19th century ballad, entitled "Amerikavisan" ("The America Ballad") or "Lovsang over det fjaran Amerika" ("In Praise of the Far Off America") has survived in the Swedish-language oral tradition of Minnesota.

Danish Immigrant Archival Listing, Arnold Bodtker, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

The Danish Immigrant Archival Listing (DIAL) is a reference book, and guide, which will enable scholars, researchers and others to know something of the existence and whereabouts of source material related to the Danish immigrant in America. This 300 page hard-cover book is a comprehensive listing of books, periodicals, manuscripts, pamphlets, letters, documents, scrapbooks, pictures, and similar items.

Kierkegaard Who Actually Emigrated To America, Carl Woltzer

The Bridge

Niels Andreas Kierkegaard, born April 13, 1809, was apparently destined by his father, a merchant in Copenhagen, to take over the family business. His two brothers were top students in the University-bound curriculum, but Niels was steered into business. Dissatisfaction with the course his life was taking and frustration with parental pressure led him in 1832 to seek advance payment on his inheritance and to emigrate to America, where he by no means lived the life of a prodigal son . In letters to his family, the first one from Providence, Rhode Island, and dated January 8, 1833, he told …

Danish Farmers In The Middle West, Erik Helmer Pedersen

The Bridge

A former Danish carpenter and farmer, Niels Madsen, his wife, Anna, and their six children, aged 15 to 3 years, were among the passengers on board the America wooden paddle-steamer "Northern Light" when the ship on May 1, 1869, left Copenhagen. It was bound for New York, but enroute it had to call at Gothenburg in Sweden and Christiana in Norway. The Madsen family had left their native village of Klippinge at Stevns, in the company of about 30 other emigrants, headed by a so-called "yankee," Mr. A. Clausen, who during the spring of 1869 had formed an emigration group. …

The Danish-Language Press In America, Marion Marzolf

The Bridge

By the time Sophus F. Neble, a journeyman printer from Stubbekobing, Denmark, emigrated in 1883 to seek his fortune in the farmlands of the American Midwest, there was already a rudimentary Danish press tradition in the United States. But at that point in his life, Neble little cared or even knew much about it. He had thrown over his years of apprenticeship in the printing trade for a dream of becoming a successful American dairy farmer in order to win the hand of the young woman he loved.

Immigrating To America, Andrew Christensen

The Bridge

To get the proper backdrop for this article, let me quote a few statements from the introduction of an outstanding book on immigration to America, sponsored by the Rebild Society and written by Kristian Hvidt, the Chief Librarian of the Danish Parlimentary Library:

"In the course of the fifty years preceeding the outbreak of World War I in 1914, well over 300,000 Danes left their homeland to become immigrants; ninety percent of them settled in the U.S.A. The illuminating facts stated in human terms show that our grand and great-grandparents saw every tenth one of their countrymen leave their land …

The Acculturation Of The Danish Immigrant, Enok Mortensen

The Bridge

In the very first issue of The Bridge Dr. Otto Hoiberg had a perceptive article on the subject of acculturation. He suggested that a logical concern of the fledgling Danish-American Heritage Society might be to examine this process. I was particularly interested in his challenge because I have observed this process in myself and others for some sixty years, and for most of my adult life I have attempted to describe and to interpret this in lectures and in my books - not least in my stories and novels.

"Schools For Life", Harold Petersen

The Bridge

A man having read Schools For Life remarked, "It is a good book, but Enok still hasn't told us what a folk school is." I doubt that there is any living American today who knows better what a folk is than Enok Mortensen. If he has not defined what a folk school is through the pages of his book it is because- the folk school cannot be defined in such a way that it has- meaning to a person who does not know what the folk school is. It has to be experienced . It carries with it a spirit …

Thoughts At Sunrise, Olaf R. Juhl

The Bridge

Good Morning - and will the class please come to order.

Could it be that I choose this opening because I, as far back as I can remember, wanted to be a teacher? Somehow I never quite made it, although I believe that I could have if circumstances during a certain period of my youth had not had other designs for me. Let me add that any regrets I might have today are purely of a sentimental nature.

This morning we shall attempt to analyze the trials and tribulations, the mental problems and misgivings of an American, by adoption, in …

Johannes V. Jensen's Discovery Of America, Inga Wiehl

The Bridge

Johannes V. Jensen, the most influential Danish writer of the century and Nobel prize winner, chose to live his life in Denmark; yet it is entirely conceivable that given two, he would have spent one in this country. He is rightly acclaimed among his contemporaries as the first Danish writer to have pointed the way westward. His writings show the influence of America and her people as well as of American writers, notably Walt Whitman.

Do Your Homework!, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

I once heard a young American ask a Danish visitor whether or not he was acquainted with the inquirer's uncle in Denmark. It quickly developed that the only thing which the young man knew about his uncle was his family name. Incredible as it may seem, such things happen and though to a lesser degree, they happen frequently when a search is made for overseas ancestors. Denmark is a relatively small country and the unspoken assumption is often made that everyone there knows everyone else and, therefore, one need only know the name and the fact that an ancestor came …