Martin Ausland Leaves Norway
By J. Martin Bailey
I like to imagine my grandfather, Martin, sitting at the kitchen table with his parents. They have cups of steaming coffee and have just received an envelope from the United States with two letters.
They are on Knut and Gunvor’s mountainside farm, near the village of Gjerstad not far from the southeast coast of Norway. Martin’s brothers, Nils and Ole, are there as well, eager for news from Thor, a third brother who had moved to America. The family farm, called Auth’s Land – Ausland, was too small to support the family of eight children, and the local tradition was that the farm would go to Nils, the oldest son.
Thor and his wife, Olinda Olsdatter, had accepted the invitation of his Uncle Lars, his mother’s brother, to join him in St. Ansgar, Iowa, where several other Norwegians had settled. Thor (who was known as “Stor Thor,” or “Big Thor”) was ten years older than Martin, who had been baptized Thor Martin Knutsen Ausland. He was thus, “Little Thor” around home.
Stor Thor, who had learned the blacksmithing trade in Gjerstad, was grateful to Uncle Lars not only for providing lodging but also for getting him started with a blacksmith shop.
The letters that had just come indicated that Stor Thor and his family would be moving a few miles north to the village of Bailey on the Minnesota border. And he wanted Little Thor to come to America and join them! The second letter was from Uncle Lars, who also encouraged the 20 year old Thor Martin to come.
It was a big decision. But Martin was ambitious and eager to set out on his own; America was the land of promise and he had already been thinking of that possibility.
Admittedly, this scenario is nothing more than fiction—guess work based on what we do know: that Lars Moe and Stor Thor and their families had already emigrated and that Martin set sail from Risør on the coast shortly after his twenty-first birthday. He kept a diary in which he wrote:
"In the year 1887, on the 23rd of June, I left my home in order to emigrate to America. I was at Risør until Saturday morning at 6 o’clock, when I boarded the Lyngør which took me to Arendal. At 12 noon that same day I left Arendal by Odin for Scotland. From there I took the State Line Ship State of Indiana and continued the journey across the Atlantic. On July 14 I arrived in New York, on the 19th to St. Ansgar, Iowa. On the 24th I arrived at Bailey at my brother Thor’s. On August 1, I started working for Mr. Munsen for $12.50 a month."
Before leaving home, Martin climbed up to the heavy beams of the barn where the animals were kept. There he carved his initials, large and deep: TMKA—for Thor Martinus Knutsen Ausland. (On a visit to Norway in 1958, the man who then owned the Ausland farm took my daughter, Kris, and me down to see those initials.)
Martin crossed the Atlantic without many possessions. But among them were four books which are in my library today. One was a Norwegian Det nye Testamente, given to him just before he left by his mother. It was inscribed: Tilhører Thor Aūsland Kgǽrlig erindring fra Gunvor Aūsland 1887: "Belongs to Thor Ausland Dear Memory from Gunvor Ausland 1887."
There was also a new translation (1886) of the Landstads Salmebog, a Psalm book, beautifully bound and engrossed in gold with a hinged clasp. It was a present from Aanon Olsen. In the Pslam book his name was inscribed Thor Knudsen Ausland. (The price mark for the Psalm book was 4.40, for the New Testament .50.)
Another book was the diary. The fourth was an autograph book, in which some two dozen friends and relatives wrote their favorite or farewell verses, many by such prominent Norwegian poets as Gruntvig and Bjørnson. (The autograph book, with the name of the village of Gjerstad, led me to make contact with Martin’s cousin, Sofus, who supplied much information.)
I have no doubt that those books provided Martin with many warm memories as he traveled and when he began his new home in America. One inscription in the autograph book quoted the poet Ibsen: "What you are, be it fully, and not divided and in small pieces."
February 3, 2008