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| JORAN'S JOURNEYS What do we know about these earliest grandmothers? This is my attempt to tell Joran's story. Joren, sometimes known as Jaron, Jorund, Hjoren and Jorun, has a story that is both more desperate and more dramatic than most of my stories. Above is the "Next to the Sweetest Name," her story as told by Halvor Hovland. It is a folk love story with some fact and some fiction. It seems that she had to leave her mother's home in Hallingdal to find work so she could eat. Other young people were making this same trip to Hadeland where the farms were bigger and more help was needed. The author and her husband Stanford drove this harsh valley in 1988 and sensed its desperation. Her mother's family were farm owners and so were her unmarried father's family. Her mother Sigrid Sjugurdsdotter never married and had four other children so her circumstances must have been difficult. Joran was about 17 years old when she made the journey to Hadeland from Hol, Hallingdal, the valley where she grew up. There Joran met and later married Ole Oleson (Later called Hovland) from the Gran, Hadeland area. She was a servant at farm Faland and he was a servant at farm Helmen. He was 21 and she was 25. Ole was perhaps himself the illegitimate son of Ole Toreson Rosterud and his mother Guri Nilsdotter Kloppa of Lunner. Guri died when Ole was 6 months old and Ole was probably adopted by Hans Olson from Harestuskogen. Judging from their son Gulbrand's baptismal record from 1835, Ole and Joran were able to marry and live together on the same farm Hvindeneie. There was little opportunity for young people to have a place of their own to make a home together. Part of the name of the farm comes from a little waterfall and a little river called Tangen that goes on to a fjord called Randsfjorden. The farm lies high above and a very long way from the fjord and its name in the record is the clue that they were husmannfolks, hired workers. Besides Gulbrand, they had five other sons who reached adulthood, as well as a daughter and two sons who died young. The last place they lived in Gran was a husmannsplace called Vestbraten under the farm Hovland in Lunnar. In Halvor's story lived on the farm of Hovland and had a good life, but this probably is not quite accurate. The census records show that they lived on a different cotter's place each time a child was born, which made them the poorest of the poor in the over populated Gran area. The records show that their first sons to emigrate were Hans, who was single, and Ole, who left with his wife and two children in 1867. Gulbrand, Berte, and their four children, Julia, 7, Milla, 6, Halvor, 4, and Olava, 1, left Norway September 17, 1869 on the ship "ODER" with tickets prepaid to Lansing, Iowa. Immigration must have been difficult for the old but when the last son left, Otto, who was a widower, Joran and Ole had no choice but to travel with him to the available lands in Minnesota. If our records are correct, Joren was 73 and Ole 69 when they made that difficult voyage and long trip. They spent their last years in the beautiful Red River Valley near Rothsay, Minnesota. They lived long enough to see each of their six sons prosper, own land, and build comfortable buildings, schools, and churches for their very large families. They are buried in the rural Friborg Church cemetery at Rothsay, alongside many of their descendants. Their tombstones give witness to their deep faith to those of us who view them 100 years later. "Here lies the dust of Ole and Joran. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin." Joran may have been influenced by the teachings of Hans Nilson Hauge, the revival preacher, as her cousin was later married to Elling Eielson, one of the most outstanding Haugean evangelists in America. This woman of small stature showed strong evidence of deep piety as she raised her family of six boys. Joran and Ole's story illustrates the pain of leaving all they knew in Norway for the unknown, but promised world in America, for "the children's sake". We honor their memory, their faithfulness and godliness, their hardiness and their prolific genes. Tweetens, Hovlands, Dahlbys, and Hoveruds - Journeys II - Stories of Those Who Came by Ruth Tweeten Holtan and Phil Holtan. Ole was a tall man with dark har. He was disappointed because his hair never turned grey. The records show that their first son to immigrate to America was Hans, who was single, and Ole, who left with his wife and two children in 1867. According to Syver's obituary, he and perhaps his brother Nels also came over in 1867, but at a different time than Hans and Ole. Ole lived in America for 7 years before he passed away. Joran lived in America for 10 years before she passed away. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Last Modified 4 May 1998 | Created 19 Feb 1999 by Reunion for Macintosh |
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