Born 9 Apr 1889 on Sommerstad Farm near Efteløt Church, in an area known as Sandsvaer which is south of Kongsberg on the Lågen River, Buskerud, Norway.
While there is at least one picture of Alvilda when she was
younger, I like this one the best as most representative.
She died 16 November 1918, Hoboken, New Jersey, one day after
son Raider Alf was born.
Buskerud is to Norway as a state is to the United States,
with the equivalent name for state being fylke. Buskerud
fylke is named after the old Biskopsrud farm in Åmot in
Modum kommune (municipality) - a pearl in the central part of
Norway. The name of the farm is derived from Biskop (bishop)
and rud (clearing), so Buskerud means "the bishop's
clearing". The area of the original farm is today the site of
an agricultural college. An full page on this location is
at Buskerud Resources from
which I have borrowed the following two paragraphs of descriptive text for inclusion here.
Buskerud fylke stretches from near to the Oslofjord to the Hardangervidda mountains in the northeast. The southeastern part of the county is flat, with fertile farmland, including Sandvaer, while in the northeast the mountains and valleys dominate: Eggedal, Hallingdal, Hemsedal, Numedal, Sigdal, Ustedalen, and Uvdalen are some of these valleys. Kongsberg (misspelled on the map) at the southeast of those valleys in the southern part of Buskerud, and Sandvaer is even further to the southeast between Kongsberg and Hvittingfoss as shown on the accompaying map. Sandsvær seems quite small, and may have related to the whole of Buskerud in a manner similiar to how the Santa Ynez valley related to the whole of California.
In 1623 silver was discovered at Kongsberg, giving rise to Norway's largest mining industry. From 1623 to 1957 over two and a half million pounds of ore was mined at here The mining operations also gave rise to industries such as the Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (a weapons manufacturer), Norway's first institution of higher learning - Bergseminaret - and the Royal Mint. Another important mining operation was the cobalt mines in Modum. During the 1830's these mines produced great quantities of cobalt, a blue pigment widely used in the glass and porcelain industry. Lumber mills were also a prominent part of the economy between Kongsberg and Sandsvaer, particularly at Labros, a falls in the Lågen River which runs through Kongsberg, Labros, and Sandsvaer to the fjords as shown in the following map. One should try to place the geographic symbols and names for:
Kongsberg is off to the top left from the map.
From old nordic: Sandshverfi = (in Engl.) Sand + district or place, i.e., a sandy area. Sandsvær is now a part of Kongsberg town (since 1964).
Efteløt too comes from old nordic: Elptarleyti = rivername Elptr (meaning Swan) + Leyti = hollow, dip, depression. The river bends so much, it looks like a swan's neck.
Efteløt (the church) and Sommerstad are noted on the map on opposite sides of the Lågen River (between Kongsberg and Hvittingfoss).
In the following picture, taken from an old postcard, we see the Sandsvaer valley at this area, looking north.
Efteløt church is shown in the middle of the above
picture on the left side of the bridge. It was founded in
1183 A.D. and held its 800 year Jubilee in 1983.
Here are two pictures of Efteløt Kirke.
The picture at the left was taken as H.M. Olav V, King of
Norway (1903-1991), left the church after the Jubilee.
Services at Efteløt church are not held regularly
every Sunday because the vicar is shared between the churches
in the subparishes: Hedenstad, Efteløt, and Tuft.
Now (referring back to the photograph of the valley) if you
look to the right edge of the photograph about midway up that
side, there is an almost invisible farm house on the margin
which has been identified as part of Sommerstad Farm by a
recent visitor. From there, one would go down a road and
across the bridge to get to the church. Here is a photograph
of the scene on that road on the east side of the bridge
looking toward the church.
Right in back of us, if we were standing in the photo, lies Sommerstad, the farm last owned by Asbjorn Sommerstad, son of Sofie Sommerstad, sister to Ole and Alvilda. This might be a good place to put a summary for Alvilda's family:
Anton Olsen SOMMERSTAD (we do not have a picture of him), her
father
----------------------------------------
Birth: 1868, Kongsberg, Norway
Death: 1948
Occ: sliberi arbyter Transl: sliperi arbeiter = pulpmill
worker
(1900 Census says he was Sagbrugsarb. a sawmill worker)
Father: Ole Hansen Borge, SOMMERSTAD (1821-1893)
Mother: Ingeborg Marie Olsdatter LIA (1824-1905)
Spouse: Anne GJERMUNDSDTR KALDAL FRA SAUHERAD, her mother
Birth: 1863, Telemark, Norway
Death: abt 1903
Father: Gjermund GJERMUNDSEN
Mother: Gro OLSDATTER
Children:(Alvilda had 3 sisters and 2 brothers)
A second wife is recorded, Kathrine Ottosdatter LAUGERUD FRA OVRE SANDSVÆR, after the death of Anton's first wife in 1903, when Alvilda was 14 years old. We don't have any records or information at this time of what or how matters were arranged for her. We do have what has been labeled as a photo of Ole and his sisters on the farm at about this time as it appears in a family scrapbook.
While it may look a bit posed, it does make sense. After Alvilda left, there were three sisters left. Ole looks about 11 or 12 in the picture, which would be about right if Gunda had not left yet. Of course, we haven't accounted for Hans. To put the heights in perspective, you will find from the manifests that follow that Alvilda was 5'1" and Gunda 5'2". How tall is Ole then, and what age would you guess?
Of the children,
Alvilda emigrated to the United States in September of 1907
and Gunda in April of 1908, both on the ship Hellig Olav. The
respective manifests for Alvilda page-A, page-B (on line 12), and Gunda
Page-A, Page-B (on line 1) are available with
a click.
From the manifests, we see that they both went to Eau Claire, Wisconson at the place of one John Strand, probably to accept some employment, but we don't know anything more about that at this time. From Wisconson, the family lore is that Alvilda went to Denver, where she met Fritjof Olav Tvedt, whom she married; while Gunda next appears married to Oscar Olsen and is living in Everett, Washington. More about all this in the next chapter.
On Sunday 25, May 2003, we visited Drammen, Kongsberg, Labru, Efteløt and the Sommerstad Farm. I put together a report which is linked to this page and may be visited.
Credits: I am indebted to Ann Sommerstad Graves, daughter of Ole Sommerstad; for loan of some of the pictures from her scrapbook, which I have included here. Also, information from Knut Sommerstad (no relation) and Rune Helland was included. This work first created January 2003 © Robert Block and is not for general publication.
