Family Group Sheet for Asbjørn Halvorsen RAAE (1813-1890)

Husband: Asbjørn HALVORSEN Raae

Born: 4 Aug 1813
Place: Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Married: 18 May 1843
Place: Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Died: 8 Jul 1890
Place: Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin
Husband's Father: Halvor OLSEN Raae
Husband's Mother: Anna ASBJØRNSDTR Opheimshaug

Wife: Ragnhild ANDERSDTR Raae

Born: 20 Apr 1817
Place: Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Died: 20 Dec 1877
Place: Amherst Twp, Portage, Wisconsin
Wife's Father: Anders OLSEN Raae
Wife’s Mother: Ragnhild KNUTSDTR Mo

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Children

1. Anders A. ROE

Born: 13 Sep 1844
Place: Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Spouse: Elsa FREDRICKSON
Married: 27 Nov 1866
Died: 8 May 1913

2. Anna ROE

Born: 24 Jan 1851
Place: Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Spouse: Eugene BERRY
Married: 31 Jul 1883
Died: 23 Apr 1939

3. Ole A. ROE

Born: Mar 1854
Place: Spring Prairie, Walworth, Wisconsin
Spouse: Bertha Christine MJOLDO
Married: 1883
Died: 15 Oct 1927

4. Knudt A. ROE

Born: Feb 1857
Place: Portage, Wisconsin
Spouse: Hattie Isabella
Married: Unknown
Died: 8 Feb 1923

5. Andrina ROE

Born: Jul 1859
Place: Wisconsin
Spouse: Frank Warren HOGAN
Married: 1894
Died: 17 Feb 1930

Emigration Record: Asbjørn Halvorsen RAAE family (16 Apr 1852)

The Minister's book from the Lærdal parish has a record of the Asbjørn Halvorsen and Lars Andersen Raae families leaving the church 16 Apr 1852 to emigrate to America.


Detail of Sogn og Fjordane fylke, Lærdal, Ministerialbok nr. A 17 (1851-1877), Innflyttede 1852, Utflyttede 1851-1852, side 6. Image courtesy of Digitalarkivet.

16 / 16 April / Asbjørn Halvorsen Raae born 4 August 1813 / 38 years / to America
17 / 16 April / wife Ragnilda Andersdtr Raae born 20 April 1817 / 35 years / to ditto
18 / 16 April / son Anders Asbjørnsen born 13 September 1844 / 7 years / to ditto
19 / 16 April / daughter Anna Asbjørnsdtr Raae born 24 January 1851 / 1 year

Passenger list: Bjørgvin (1852)

The United States brig, Niagara. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia, a brig is a "sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts." The brig, Bjørgvin, would have looked similar to the photo above of the brig, Niagara.


Passenger list. Bjørgvin (26 May-16 Jul 1852). Image courtesy of Norway Heritage: Hands Across the Sea.

Above is a scan from the passenger list for the brig, Bjørgvin, which departed from Bergen, 26 May 1852 and arrived in New York, 16 Jul 1852. The captain was Gunder P. Olsen. The list shows passengers Asbjørn Raa and family as well as his cousin, Lars (Ragnild's brother).

22 / Asbjørn Raa / 38 / m / Houses on deck
23 / Ragnild Andersdatter Raa* / 34 / f / Houses on deck
24 / Anders Asbjørnsen* Raa* / 7 / m / Houses on deck
25 / Anne Asbjørnsdatter* Raa* / 6 mo / f / Houses on deck
26 / Lars Raa* / 37 / m / Houses on deck

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SOURCE: NARA Roll # 116, arr. no. 961 - Transcribed by Børge Solem - 2000. Norway Heritage: Hands Across the Sea.

Was Asbjorn Roe first owner of octagon barn?

The octagon barn in the mid-1980s, showing its further deterioration. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Floistad Sather)

By WENDELL NELSON
Special to The Gazette

Asbjorn Roe, the first owner of the town of Amherst site of the octagon barn, was born in Norway, according to the U.S. censuses of 1860, 1870, and 1880. He was 46 in 1860, 57 in 1870, and 66 in 1880, which means he was born in about 1814.

His total financial worth (real estate plus personal property) was $1,200 in 1860, and $1,500 in 1870; the 1880 census does not list residents’ wealth or lack of it.

If we extrapolate from numbers in Scott Derks’ The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States 1860-2004 (2004), Roe’s $1,200 would be worth about $25,000 today, and his $1,500 about $35,000.

(Third in a series)

Roe died in July of 1890, according to the July 12, 1890, Stevens Point Journal. But so far, as with his wife, no death certificate seems to exist for him.

Even that Journal obituary is very short and uninformative: "Mr. Roe, father of Knud Roe, died at his son’s residence here (in Amherst Village) Tuesday night. He was 77 years of age."

The first two censuses list his wife (or at least a woman aged either four or six years younger than he; the censuses disagree), and her occupation, as is usual in census records of the time, is given in the 1870 census as "keeping house."

Her name is a mystery; the 1860 census handwritten rendition looks like "Ragiel," while that in the 1870 seems to be "Rachema." But she is not listed at all in 1880, suggesting that she had died in the intervening decade, but, again, so far no death certificate or obituary for her has surfaced.

An e-mail from Laurel Holland on ancestrylibrary.com says that Asbjorn's wife's name was "Ragnhild," which the Web site babynology.com/meaning says means – in Old Norse – "wise counsel in battle." The same site says that Asbjorn means "divine bear" or "bear god" – a holdover from pagan, pre-Christian Norway.

There is equally sparse information on most of Asbjorn’s children. The 1860 census lists, apparently (again, the census taker's handwriting is hard to read) Anders, a son aged 16 (?) and Ann, a daughter aged 9.

The 1870 census lists Ole, aged 16, "at school"; Anne, whose name now has an "e" in it, and who is now identified as a "domestic servant," but her age is given as 19, the same age as the “Ann” of 1860. (So: another mystery.) Other children in 1870 included Knudt, age 13, and at school; Andreana (?), aged 11 and at school; and Martina (?) Roe, born in Norway, aged 67, and retired (who was she, and when and why did she enter the family?). Absent is the Anders who was 16 in 1860; what became of him?

By 1880, the family had shrunk to four: the father, aged 66, "farmer"; Ole, aged 26, "works on farm"; Knudt, aged 24, "works on farm"; and "Andrena" (?), aged 22, "keeping house."

We don’t know much about what became of Ole’s siblings. However, we do know a couple of facts about Knudt (or Knud or Knute).

According to the Amherst-news column in the Feb. 10, 1925, Stevens Point Daily Journal, he was "Killed by a Switch Engine":

“Word has been received here by relatives, announcing the death of Knute (sic) Roe at his home in Staples, Minn. Mr. Roe was employed as a section foreman, at Staples, and died shortly after being struck by a switch engine, in the Staples yards. He was a member of the Lysne and Roe firm, which operated a general store here on the C.J. Iverson corner (southeast corner of Main and Mill streets) for a number of years. He was also a brother of Ole Roe of Nelsonville."

(The 1920 U.S. Census for Todd County, Minnesota, tells us that Knute was 62 years old in that year, and that his wife, Hattie, was 51. When they moved there from Wisconsin, is unclear. It is interesting to speculate whether he would have lived into old age had he stayed in Amherst.)

Laurel Holland summarized the Asbjorn Roe family’s history:

My Roe family is from Laerdal, Norway. Asbjorn Raae (Roe) (1813) and wife, Ragnhild Raae had 5 children (:) Anders, Ole, Anna, Knute and Andrina. All the children but Anders were born in Wisconson (sic). Born between 1844-1859.

The names of other families on the Roes’ page of the 1860 census imply that in that year, Asbjorn Roe lived in or very near the – very small – village of Amherst, because those families lived in that area then.

Some of them are: Gardner Harvey (whose namesake and great-great-grandson recently died in the Veterans Home in King, Wisconsin, according to the Stevens Point Journal of Jan. 12, 2010), William Loing, Peter Grover, and William Williamson. (Malcolm Rosholt wrote in Our County Our Story (1959) that the village was not incorporated for another 40 years, in 1900.)

For Roe's name to be listed on the same page as those of these men, means that he certainly did not live three miles northeast of the village.

But then we already know from the deeds that he did not buy his future homestead until 1865.

At the moment, the only other fact we have on Asbjorn Roe is reported in Malcolm Rosholt’s book, From the Indian Land: First-Hand Account of Central Wisconsin’s Pioneer Life (1985).

True to his indefatigable perseverance, Rosholt found that A. H. Roe attended a large convention of many Norwegian Lutherans at the Scandinavia (Waupaca County) Lutheran Church from Nov. 15-21, 1888.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the controversy over the doctrine of “election” or predestination – the idea that God arbitrarily chooses some people for salvation regardless of their faith or works.

This dispute threatened to split the local congregations, the Norwegian Lutheran church in the United States, and even, Rosholt says, the national churches in Denmark and Norway, whose newspapers and magazines carried bitter arguments on the subject.

One of the differences of opinion sprang from the fact that the only training center for Lutheran ministers in America for many years was the Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Mo. (hence the "Missouri" Synod Lutheran Church).

But Concordia was not only in a North-South border state (Missouri was the scene of bloody Civil War battles), and so had some pro-slavery sentiments. It was also founded by German immigrants, who like Martin Luther leaned more toward predestination than many Norwegians were comfortable with.

The upshot over this theological hairsplitting was schisms between synods, congregations and families.

The Lutheran church in Scandinavia split in two, as did the New Hope Lutheran Church, which became the North New Hope and South New Hope churches, each with its own cemetery.

Rosholt summarizes the long-term effects:

“The attempt to spell out highly controversial doctrines was an exercise in futility that left scars on the hearts of two generations of men and women not only in Scandinavia and New Hope but in Lutheran communities across the Midwest.

“It went so far that some of the participants in the struggle refused to be buried with their old neighbors and when the (new) Norwegian Synod groups built new churches, they also laid out new cemeteries. As a result, husbands were often buried apart from wives because they could not abide the tombstones in the 'old cemetery.'"

We don’t know what Asbjorn Roe's opinion was on the issue of predestination.

SOURCE: Wendell Nelson, "Was Asbjorn Roe first owner of octagon barn?" Portage County Gazette (7 May 2010), 17.

1870 US Federal Census: Asbjørn ROE Family

Detail of 1870 US Federal Census. Asbjørn ROE family. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Roe, Asban [Asbjørn] / 57 / M / W / Farmer / Norway
_____, Richoma [Ragnhild] / 53 / F / W / Keeping House / Norway
_____, Ole / 16 / M / W / At School / Wisconsin
_____, Anna / 19 / F / W / Domestic Servant / Norway
_____, Knut / 13 / M / W / At School / Wisconsin
_____, Andrina / 11 / F / W / At School / Wisconsin
Roe, Mattie [?] / 67 / F / W / Retired / Norway

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Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin; Roll: M593_1732; Page: 64B; Image: 132; Family History Library Film: 553231.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

Letter from Anna to Anders ROE (4 Mar 1879)

Letter. Anna to Anders ROE (4 Mar 1879). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Amherst March 4th 1879

Dear Brother,

I have received your letter of 3 Feb for which thanks. I see thereof you all are healthy, the same I can also tell. I am now come home and will be home a while. Drina shall move away to serve. I have no news except that Jørgen Skogen is married to an old bachelor whom they call Long Ever who lives in Amherst. In addition, that Asa Mitchem is married to a Norwegian girl by the name Kornene Oleson. I can also tell that Dr. Guernsey has broken his leg for the second time but is now improving and goes on his crutches. It will be desirable if you will send me a hair lock of each of you. I have intentions of learning to make hair flowers. So I will make a hair wreath which shall contain hair of our entire family. We have had a passably good winter without many cold days. We did not get sleighing conditions before the end of Feb. but now it appears that we lose our snow. It is very mild. Ole is home. Father has been away at a quarterly[?] meeting in Tremplo. There were many ministers of different groups [synods?] but most of our own, so I close for this time with a loving greeting to you all from me.

Anna Roe

Hair wreath (c. 1880)

Hair wreath, front view (c. 1880). Image courtesy of Leslee (Blakey) Stowell (1996).


Hair wreath, top view (c. 1880). Image courtesy of Leslee (Blakey) Stowell (1996).

In January 1997, Verla Williams wrote the following that tells the story of the provenance of the wreath:

. . . Mom and I visited Gordon and family in Denver in August 1996. In the course of a conversation, Gordon mentioned that he had given to Leslee an old framed "picture" that he had gotten from Mom which was made from hair. It jogged my memory that in the Norwegian letter I have (it is included in the Roe book) which is written by Anna (Roe) Berry (sister of Anders Roe) to Anders she is asking for locks of hair from each of them. I believe that the "picture" which Lez has is the result. Gordon drove us over to Lez' so I could get a picture of it, not knowing that my camera was malfunctioning. Anyway, Lez has since sent me pictures. I have made copies of them, along with the translation of Anna's letter (also the Norwegian letter on the back side). My copier doesn't do the pictures justice but maybe you can tell that the flowers are all made of hair and mounted in quite a deep box. It looked like a shoe or boot box. Then an oval frame was attached to the front of the box.

There is no firm way of documenting that this is what Anna made, but since it is in the family, since it is very old, from now on it will be the family tradition that this "picture" is indeed the one made by Anna Roe from locks of hair supplied by members of her family. I am putting this page in my Roe book - maybe you want to do the same.

Verla A. Williams

I would agree that the preponderance of the evidence points toward the wreath being the one spoken of in Anna ROE's letter dated 4 Mar 1879.

Letter from Asbjørn to Anders ROE (27 May 1887)

Letter. Asbjørn to Anders ROE (27 May 1887). Image courtesy of Verla Williams.

Daily remembering son Anders and family, God's grace and peace.

God has allowed me lie here in the time of grace in this world up to now, so I will attempt to send you some word because the days are evil and the signs of the time are marvelous so it appears that all things are approaching end. How good it was, yes the best of all, to seek the Lord while he be found and call on him while he is near. We know from God's word that Jesus is the only Redeemer and Savior, so that when we stand in inner life's communion with Him, so can we not be dying of apprehension and terror for the expected things which shall come over the entire earth's collapse when he comes to judge the World with Righteousness. When we have the judge as friend what can then condemn when he has himself paid sin debt for us. This must we learn of God's word by the Holy Ghost's enlightenment which is promised all who ask God about that. The Holy Spirit _____ for us, not alone the external sinful deeds, but especially that our inner being is pierced through by sin, _____, blindness and powerlessness to all good. Then we are coming to the position that we can approach the crucified Lord Jesus as we are and not allow our common sense deceive us to the opinion we must be so and so holy first, which is the usual wrong path the devil will lead us into. But when we have caught hold our faith's and soul's eye on Jesus and _____ get faith our sin's forgiveness in His name and thus have him as Way, Truth, and Life, which is called Sanctification's way. On all this I can speak from experience with regard to the earthly so has the Lord _____ be praised, sustained, and preserved house and home, health and vitality for us till now.

We _____ potatoes 5 acres besides we are through with all planting. There has been little rain in this month so it is very dry here and if we do not get rain soon, so it will be worse this year than last year, which certainly is not other to expect when God's gifts are so terribly misused. Intense heat we have also had.

The thermometer has often varied between 80-90 degrees F. in the shade. There has been much lack of fodder here this spring, so Minnesota has had to get us many car loads of hay.

Knudt is at the iron mines in Michigan. I have written to him and wait for a letter from him. Drine have I written to at the same time _____ received a letter from Anna the 1st of this month. As I said, I have, thank God retained health so that I can go on foot and function some, but hearing and especially eyesight has decreased so it is difficult to read and write which also this letter shows. I'm thinking on to get me some other glasses but they will fall expensive. Anyway I long for relief from here so it can possibly be the last you may hear from me.

Lars Raae I have not heard any from for awhile, but I hope that all is well there. Haake Sønneve has sold out and the whole family is moving to Dakota. Karl Stoltenberg died this spring, otherwise all is the same here, no sickness of consequence except Anders Grøthe's wife is by the same nervous sickness. To close a loving greeting to you and family from us all here. Write back soon.

Amherst 27 May 1887
Asbjørn Raae

1880 US Federal Census: Anna ROE

Detail of 1880 US Federal Census. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Roe, Anne / W / F / 29 / Servant / Single / Domestic Servant / Norway / Norway / Norway

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Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin; Roll: 1442; Family History Film: 1255442; Page: 29D; Enumeration District: 134.

Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Descendants of Anna (ROE) Berry (1851-1939)

Descendancy chart for Anna (ROE) Berry (1851-1939). Courtesy of Williams Family Pages.