Norwegian Family - Part III

"Odin and Pauline Carlsen"

The family isn't sure when Marie's parents came to America, but we do know that Odin and Pauline were in Willmar, MN in 1886 for the birth of their first child, Petrine, and a baptismal record indicates Christian was baptized in Willmar in 1888. Lillian also remembers Odin and Pauline had come to America on their honeymoon. Since couples tended to start their families early in the 1800s, it's a fair guess they came to America sometime in the early to mid-1880s. Arthur says their ship arrived in Boston harbor, so a tedious check of immigration lists might prove helpful. A preliminary check on my part was unsuccessful.

Baptism Record - Carlsen children

Odin and Pauline also came with Pauline's mother, Barrett Marie Carlsen (Larsen), whose husband, Peter Andreas Larsen had passed away in Norway. He had been a shipbuilder in his younger days and apparently had left Barrett with a fair amount of money. It was her money that allowed Odin to buy land which we assume was in Willmar, MN. (Odin had been a soldier in the Norwegian army).

Lillian recalls from family descriptions (she never met her) that Barrett's influence was considerable. She sewed for the girls, scrubbed, and shined everything in the home. She adapted well to life in the United States Through self-education she became a leader in the Lutheran church and the community. Having come from a well-to-do family, she was a tidy person and apparently had high standards. Arthur Gravseth says the family's large home in Willmar became a stopping-off point for other Norwegian immigrants. They would stay awhile, get their bearings, and go on their way.

Their home in Willmar was located about 90 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Arthur says "Odin was a drifter," but we know the family remained for at least twelve years (1886 to 1898 according to birth dates), where Pauline gave birth to Petrine, Olga, Christian, Nella, Alfred, and Marie. Marie once told Lillian she rode a horse in Willmar to school and had to cover her face because it was so cold.

[Minnesota Historical Society - source]

No one knows for sure what Odin's profession was during their residence in Willmar, but his death certificate years later indicated his profession was "fisherman," so it's a good guess he fished (at least some of the time). There he had access to a number of rivers and lakes, the closest being Foot Lake and Willmar Lake.

From Willmar, they moved 170 miles north to Bemidji, MN around 1903. There Alma, Emma, and Arnt (date uncertain) were born. It's with fondness that I recall the family's old-fashion sounding names--that are beginning to regain popularity today.

Lillian tells me that Marie was the conservative one of the girls. Later, in the 1920s her sisters would lead a wild life, partying and living it up all the time. They often came to Marie for extra money until Carl put his foot down. The story is she had been loaning them money from her egg business (she sold to the neighbors) when Carl became angry and demanded the money be given to him from that point on.

After Bemidji, Odin and Pauline moved the family to Troy, Idaho around 1908 or 1909. We think they stayed one or two years. They came at the urging of their relatives, Bertine Nilsdatter and Odin Bernhard Waller. Odin Waller may have owned the Waller Saw Mill Co. mentioned in the 1908 Troy Weekly News. It was thought that Odin Carlsen mined for ore while living in Troy, but although mines existed a distance away, the main draw to Troy would have been lumber.

Documenting the Carlsen family's time in Troy has been difficult despite the information the family has. Initially, I thought since the Carlsens were known to be strict Lutherans, a search of local church records would give me the documentation I needed. Unfortunately, the stored records were burned in a house fire in 1949. A search of school records also proved unfruitful.

So far the Troy Weekly News has been my most promising source, which mentions Christ Carlson two times to my knowledge, once as "making a cord of wood" and another time, as making "captain of the Upper Bear Ridge Baseball Team." Arnold Waller is also mentioned (Wallers had a son named Arnold). Odin and Pauline's son Christian Carlsen could be the aforementioned Christ Carlson. Christian would have been 20 or 21 years old at the time.

Interestingly, the stories that came out of the Carlsen's stay in Troy are some of the best the family has. One is the story of Marie falling in love with a local Troy minister. For some reason, Odin disliked this man--despite the fact he was a church minister. Here the story is puzzling since Odin was a devout Lutheran. We can only surmise that Marie's fiancé was not a Lutheran, or was he?

In talking with a Troy Lutheran minister I learned that the Norwegian Lutherans and Swedish Lutherans (both in Troy at the time) had a long history of tension that began long ago in Norway. He also said the Norwegian Lutherans were the rebels of the two. Many had come to America "under their own authority," unlike the Swedes who had come under the authority of the Swedish Lutheran Church. Apparently, the Norwegians wanted to escape the pietism of the church in Norway. Was Marie's beau Swedish?  

[Photo source: Latah Historical Society]
It's also possible Marie's fiancé was one of the other ministers in town (there were other denominations). We may never know, but it's fun to reflect on the romance that was cut off when Odin whisked the family away to Washington state. Added to this is the story that Odin had worried about his girls in Troy from the start, which in his opinion was a roughneck town with far too many men. Was the minister a tad bit on the wild side? It certainly paints a picture of early life in Troy, Idaho.

A short time later Odin moved the family to Wollochet Bay, WA. From there they moved across the bay to Fox Island, a short distance away (date unknown). Barrett died in 1911 and Pauline died young at age fifty-four in 1918, the year of the big influenza epidemic. Arthur believes this is why some of the Carlsen children ended up having such a tough time. They began migrating over to the mainland in Tacoma, WA in the teens and 20s, and "went wild--married anybody who came around. They were really nobodies--didn't amount to anything." Odin himself would eventually live out his retirement (behind the alley of his daughter and son-in-law Carl and Marie Gravseth).

There Lillian developed some of her fondest memories of Odin. She remembers the willow whistles he would make for his grandkids, of days playing baseball on the side of his house, while he sat smoking his corncob pipe, watching. He wasn't a teaser. He was a straightforward man, always tidy in his black suit, reciting verses from the Bible. "He was charming." When a woodpile fell on him in 1952, it was his first experience with a doctor or a hospital. He succumbed to pneumonia and died a short time later at the age of ninety-six.