GRANDMA AND GRANDPA HAGEN

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA HAGEN

Anne Karine Dybdal was born 7 Nov. 1883 in Kapp, Ostre Toten, a small town near Gjovik and close to Lake Mjosa in Norway.

Oskar Olsen Rustadhagen was born 27 Sept. 1884 also in Kapp on a farm not too far from Anne’s family farm.

We don’t know any details of their courtship but family lore has it that Anne’s family thought Oskar’s family was beneath them socially and probably discouraged any thoughts of marriage. Farm land was hard to come by at the time so even if Oskar had wanted to be a farmer he may not have been able to afford the land. He loved to paint; not on a canvas but decorative painting on furniture and walls and was evidently quite good at it. A cousin in Norway still has a corner cupboard painted by him. Perhaps the young couple thought it might be better for them to leave their families and start a new life together in America where a relative of Anne’s was living.

Annie (everyone called her that) left Norway on 11 March, 1904 on the ship Montebello from Oslo to Hull, England. She sailed using the name Anne Karine Grotberg (the family farm name) with a friend, Karen Olafsen Mynvold. From Hull they would have taken the train to Liverpool where they boarded the S. S. Saxonia on 15 March, destination Boston, arriving on 25 March. From Boston they must have taken a train to Mabel, MN in Fillmore County where a relative of Annie's, Erick Grotberg, was living. Annie had been a seamstress in Norway so she probably planned to earn her living doing the same in her new country.

Oskar followed, leaving Oslo 21 October, 1904, also on the Montebello for Hull, England. From Hull he took the train to Liverpool and boarded the S.S. Cedric on 26 October, arriving in New York City on 14 November. He was listed on the ship's manifest as Olsen Oskar Rustadhagen, a painter, going to visit a friend in Minnesota.

Oscar (he had Americanized his name by now) and Annie were married in Mabel on 8 June, 1905. Oskar's name was shown as Oscar Hagen and witnesses were Erick Grotberg and Karen Mynvold. Sometime after that they moved to Duluth, Minnesota where their first son, Oscar was born 30 November, 1905. They lived next door to Oscar's uncle who we believe helped him to find work on one of the local railroads as a painter.

A year later a daughter, Helen, was born and the year after that Annie gave birth to another boy, Olney. The following year she gave birth to twin boys but, sadly, one of them died of starvation when only a few months old. The other, according to family stories, drowned before the age of two but nobody knew any of the details regarding his death.

After the death of the twins Annie and Oscar took their family back to Norway. I'm assuming she needed to be with her family after the tragedy of losing her twins. Things must not have worked out well there because Oscar again left Norway on 15 March, 1910 heading back to Duluth on the S.S. Megantic out of Liverpool and arriving in Boston on 23 March. He evidently left America once more for Norway because a son named Alf was born there in September of 1911.

On 17 April, 1912 they left Norway once more on the S.S. Oslo for Hull, England, took the train to Liverpool and sailed on S.S. Arabic, arriving in Boston 3 May, 1912. It's hard to imagine how difficult it was for them back then traveling with small children and none of the conveniences we know today. I've read that they had to bring their own food, diapers (certainly not the disposable ones) and anything else they would need. Besides all that Annie was pregnant again! The ship's manifest showed they were going back to Duluth to join Hans Ostdahl, an uncle.

In September of 1912 a girl named Myrtle was born, probably in Duluth. In 1914 another daughter, Esther, was born in Parkland, Washington. Why they were in Washington we will never know nor will we ever know how they were able to afford to travel like that on a painter's salary.

By 1916 they were living in St. Paul, Minnesota where sons Edward and, later, Lester were born. Edward, who was referred to as "Eddie Boy", was killed in a car accident near Forest Lake, Minnesota in 1933 at the age of 12.

The Minnesota Alien Registrations of 1918 show that Oscar is living in St. Paul but his wife's residence was Barronett, Wisconsin where he owned land valued at $150. I wish I knew why they ended up there and why Oscar was living in St. Paul instead of with his family. Perhaps there were friends or relatives in Wisconsin or maybe they intended to take up farming. In the 1920 census it showed that Oscar was living with Annie and their children in Barron County but by 1921 they had moved back to St. Paul where daughter Vivian was born that year. Daughter June was born there in 1923 and a son named Forrest joined the family in 1925.

The family was living on Wesley Ave. in St. Paul, near Hamline University, and Oscar was the proprietor of a painting and decorating shop called O. Hagen and Sons on Snelling Ave. not far from where they lived. Although I was probably only about 3 years old I can remember taking the streetcar from So. St. Paul to that house where there were huge beds of spearmint growing alongside it.

Over the years the older children left home, married and had families of their own and around 1940 or 1941 Oscar, Annie and the younger children packed up and drove to Washington state, settling in the little community of Lacey, Washington near the capitol city of Olympia, which Grandpa always pronounced "Olumpiya". All but two of their children followed them out there in the next few years, all ending up in the same little town.

Annie and Oscar owned a large property there with three houses on it. They and the youngest that had yet to marry and leave home lived in the main house while Esther and her family and Vivian and her family lived in the other houses. Myrtle and her family lived down the road but within walking distance. Annie raised chickens and had a little garden and Oscar continued to work as a painter/decorator with his sons.

Sometime in 1950 Oscar and Annie moved to Seattle. Their daughter June and son Forrest had both married and were living in the big city so that may be the reason they went there. Also, Oscar was still working and maybe he thought business would be better there. They must’ve lived in at least three different houses there during the next few years.

I know Oscar was still working in 1956 but he must have retired when Annie became ill with cancer and died in September of 1958. Oscar then moved to Olympia where daughter Esther still lived and stayed with her and her family until his death in August of 1959.

I am amazed at how Oscar and Annie were able to travel as much as they did and how much trouble it must have been with all those children to care for. To have endured the hardships and tragedies in their lives must have been unbearable at times, yet, like many other families of that era, raised their children as best they could and persevered.

We were separated by approximately two thousand miles after they moved to Washington but were able to visit a few times over the years. I wish I had known them both better than I did but I cherish the memories I do have of them; Annie’s potato dumplings and smiling face and Oscar’s sometimes gruff exterior that seemed a lot softer when he did his imitation of a Sumu wrestler for me. He also would, on occasion, sing a rather risqué song in Norwegian after a few little “snorts” at family get-togethers.

When Oscar died within a year of Annie’s death the family members said he died of a broken heart and after that many years together I would have to agree.


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