Tributes

But for the life of one man and the pursuits he chose to follow in retirement, the genealogy of Abel Cathrine von Krogh Anderson Amundson would have never been recorded for her descendants. There would have been no written records from which to aspire to the reunion of 1985 or continue genealogy pursuits.

The "Andersonia" letter, started 100 years ago, was kept on its course by the shepherding Lester Hansen gave it over the middle half of the century. It is doubtful it would have survived without his leadership and concern for its safekeeping.

Lester Welhaven Hansen was born February 19, 1886 in Hendricks, Minnesota to Jennie Danielson and Hans Christian Hansen.... the first of ten children to this pair. His middle name was that of a very famous and revered Norwegian poet. Jennie was the second daughter and fourth child of Elizabeth Anderson and Hans Henry Danielson of Goodhue County, Minnesota. Lester's father and two of his mother's brothers, Hiram and A. J. Danielson, had all purchased land in the Hendricks, Minnesota area about the time of their marriage. During the days of early settlement the nearest town for supplies was Canby but Lester could attend District School #32 just a mile from his home through 7th grade.

About 1900 a branch line of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad was laid out and the town of Hendricks established. The area boasted a large lake of the same name and soon businesses lined the main street. Our enterprising young man would transport garden vegetables on his bicycle to sell the townsfolk. A large schoolhouse built in town offered 8th grade studies from which Lester soon graduated. At this time an opportunity presented itself via examination to teach rural school, there being a shortage of teachers. With a certificate obtained from this test to teach second grade, he was hired by a district 15 miles from home at a salary of $35 per month. Board and roan was $2 per week.

Shortly thereafter he taught in a district very close to his parent's home. Here he met a nearby landowner who worked as a railroad postal clerk. The description of his career so interested the young teacher that he took the government examination in St. Paul for this work... ranking in the upper 5%. Sworn in as a railway postal clerk he served in this capacity for the next 38 years until 1944 when he retired. The schedule of 5 days on the line, then 5 days off, enabled him to make a succession of real estate investments that grew until he owned three large apartment buildings. These provided excellent additional income in the World War II period when there was a shortage of such rental accommodations. At the funeral of his Uncle Wesley who was killed in a train wreck, Lester was introduced to a pastor's daughter, Lillian Larson, of Goodhue whom he married in 1909. They settled in St. Paul and Lester served the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul trunk line. He soon acquired a lovely home on Lake Owasso, calling the place Valhalla (Norseman's heaven).

In the years immediately following retirement, the couple made several trips south to avoid winter climate but did not move to Florida until 1952. Prior to retirement in 1944, he attended a family reunion in Rudolph Kvelve's studio in LaCrosse in the year 1941 and he has said this event sparked his interest in genealogy. A trip to Europe soon after selling the northern home also served the genealogy interest - where he did much research on our roots. A first book on the family genealogy was published in 1951 and after the European trip a second volume with increased data going back to 100 B.C. was published in 1956. This is the volume to which an up-date was completed by Kay and David Dole in 1985.

His retirement and genealogy hobby with its many pursuits was financed by the sale of the apartment buildings when they left Minnesota to settle in Florida. Lillian became ill in 1957 and succumbed to cancer on their 49th wedding anniversary, June 2, 1958. In the same year a son-in-law, Harry Smith, died in the military service. These were indeed two very severe blows. As one often does under such circumstances, Lester sought to assuage his loneliness and grief serving his large Methodist church in St. Petersburg. Assisting the financial secretary and working with the collection envelopes, he became acquainted with a pastoral assistant by the name of Dorothy Roberts. She who had helped him through a difficult adjustment became his wife in 1959. They too enjoyed several fine trips which included Hawaii and Europe. Lester's genealogy efforts continued well into the 1970s during years most would resort to leisure.

In 1971, at age 85, he published another book tracing our lines to prominent families and individuals of note throughout history. He called this a supplement to our 1956 book, representing research he had collected in his later years. Many were the articles he wrote for publication in various newspapers and periodicals. A supreme accomplishment was the writing of his own autobiography which he duplicated for members of his family.

Aside from the extraordinary contribution Lester Hansen made to his kinfolk, he was a man who savored each passing day and gave to it his best effort. He also possessed an ever-grateful heart for every kindness that blessed his life. We share with you his Christmas message of 1977, written with anticipation for a Christmas and birthday he was to spend in Valhalla.

"But for the life of one man and the pursuits he chose to follow in retirement, the genealogy of Abel Cathrine von Krogh Anderson Amundson would have never been recorded for her descendants. There would have been no written records from which to aspire to the reunion of 1985 or continue genealogy pursuits."

Clearly it can now be said that for the lives of two people and the pursuits they chose to follow in retirement, the genealogy of Abel Cathrine von Krogh Anderson Amundson would never have been carried forward to the year 1985 and there would have been no reunion of 1985. Gathering family data from living relatives is a difficult and sometimes frustrating task. Most relatives are pleased that someone is doing the work of documenting their family for posterity, but not all are cooperative. A certain number don't respond through laziness or disinterest. In some cases people have an almost paranoid desire to keep family data a secret. The reasons may be an innocuous as an illegitimate child in the past, even a couple of generations ago. Some people don't want their first, second, or third spouse mentioned, even to the extreme of hiding children from previous marriages or including them in later marriages. When people don't provide data for any reason they require gentle prodding and explanations of how important genealogy is.

Kay and David were masters of gentle prodding. It is a family joke that they got lots of information by driving their motorhome to the home of any relative who had not supplied data, park in their driveway, pleasantly introduce themselves and their mission, and refuse to unblock the driveway until the family information was provided. While the joke is an exaggeration, they did crisscross the country visiting "cousins" and collecting or sharing data. Their enthusiasm and dedication was inspiring.

It is questionable that another book updating the entire Anderson-Amundson-von Krogh family will be compiled and published. The family has grown very large, many have moved, and we are scattered all over the USA, Canada, and even the world. Lester W. Hansen's 1956 update book contained 564 blood descendants. By 1985 Kay and David had found 904 living blood descendants (omitting those deceased). When spouses were added the number in the family grew to 1,262. Adding the deceased brought the total to 1,545 individuals since 1836. In the twenty years since 1985 the numbers have increased greatly to magnitude nobody knows. Members will tackle some individual branches of the family and will probably produce updates as the job is less daunting. If the entire family is to be updated again, we and our descendants can only hope for another Kay and David to appear. Only people with vision, determination, and a capacity for hard work can do what Kay and David have. We can only pray that such people will appear again.

Preface To The 1985 Update

written in 1985 by Katherine Turner Dole (8d4)

Who are we who dare to go to print with genealogy data as informal as this?

I am one of a group of seventy today who are blood-related great grandchildren of Abel Cathrine von Krogh Anderson-Amundson. My grandfather was Pastor Abel Anderson, eighth child born of her first husband, Bjorn Kvelve Anderson. Abel is credited with instigating the "Andersonia" round robin letter in 1885, which has now started it's second century of circulation. My mother, Lydia Anderson Turner, was the fourth child of Pastor Abel and his wife, Marie Olson, known as Mary. Mother was widowed at age forty-three when my father, J. Vernon Turner, was killed in a train-auto collision in 1925 leaving her with five children; ages seventeen to four.

Our family was reared in Minneapolis where cousins' visits were a highlight for Mother and us children. Early, we cane to know cousins from the Torgerson, Reque and Amundson branches... members of the first two living in Minneapolis from time to time. Mother was a good cook and they frequently shared our Sunday table. There may be another reason we had early relationship with the Reques and Torgersons in that Pastor Abel and his two pastor brothers-in-law were members of the Norwegian Lutheran Synod where they participated together in church affairs. The close relationship from early childhood with the Amundson cousins was the sister-relationship of the wives of Pastors Abel and Albert Amundson. As Olsons of Cambridge, Wisconsin they were a close-knit family and many were the visits made between Cambridge and Minneapolis. Albert's son, Alvin Amundson, was a frequent visitor at our house and I can remember the time he slipped a whole dollar bill into my ten-year-old hands when Mother was busy preparing dinner.

After my graduation from Central High School, Minneapolis, in 1934, I was lucky to clerk at the Dayton Company through the influence of my cousin, Dora Torgerson Bilbrough, who was a buyer there. It was the year 1935 when great-uncle Rasmus, my grandfather's esteemed brother, visited our home, and though I was not in the least interested in genealogy (in fact I could not have told you how I was related to any of the folks heretofore mentioned) I remember the great fuss of preparing for this special "reception".

Shortly after this I met David at a church young folks organization in downtown Westminister Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis. A year-and-a-half later I was off to Madison, Wisconsin to the school in which Rasmus had established the first chair of Scandinavian languages in an American university. This change of address for me came up most unexpectedly through the kindness and thoughtfulness of my dear aunt, Edith Anderson, wife of my Mother's brother, Arthur, who was at that time newly-retired as president of a national sorority. Edith is our eldest "Andersonia" writer today.

These next two years in Madison put me in close touch with my Madison and Cambridge relatives, who included me at many family occasions in their homes. I was also on campus one year with my second cousin, Eleanor Amundson Brown, grand-daughter of Ingebrigt's son, Albert. Eleanor graduated in 1938 and we were not to be in close contact again until these many years later, though we have both lived most of our married lives in Chicago suburbs.

Shortly after I went to Madison, David moved to Chicago to work at an ad agency for whose client he also served as a commercial identity "Red Heart, The Talking Dog" on a Sunday radio network and weekday local show. At the completion of my sophomore year in Madison, I married David and the Amundsons were present at my wedding there as well as my uncle, Julius Olson, younger brother of my grandmother, Mary. Julius had been professor of Scandinavian languages at the university following the term of his brother-in-law, Rasmus, and was just recently retired. As head of the scholarship committee, he had been responsible for the waiving of my out-of-state tuition.

The Doles took up residence on Chicago's north side where our first son, Brian, was born in 1947. From 1948 to 1951 we lived in Westport, Connecticut while David worked for a radio audience measurement service. Returning to Chicago, David joined the ad agency of Leo Burnett Company. Kevin was born in Connecticut in 1950 and Gary in Chicago in 1955.

May I digress here to introduce you to my aunt, Tryphena Anderson? She had lived with the Turner household from the year my father died to 1940 and had been a writer in the "Andersonia" since the death of her father, Pastor Abel, in 1925 - the same year my father was killed. Aunt "Tryphy", as we called her, had an avid interest in genealogy inherited from her father, Abel. Both kept detailed records of all births, marriages and deaths in the Anderson-Amundson family as well as the Olson clan. "Tryphy" also kept a large book of biographies and news clippings on all these folks. Lester Hansen once told me she was a strong incentive toward his decision to devote his retirement in genealogy pursuit... especially catching the spark when he rode with her to and from a reunion in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, at the Rudolf Kvelve studio in 1941.

In 1951 my dear aunt died and my Mother took over her berth on the good ship "Andersonia". With her children all raised, Mother sold her home in Minneapolis in 1941 and had a career as housemother at the University of Minnesota and later as administrator of a dormitory for young business women in Minneapolis. In 1953 she was retired at the age of 70, living for periods in both Des Plaines and Minneapolis before her death in 1964. Lester Hansen invited me to take her place in the famed letter at this time.

I had bought the first edition of Lester Hansen's genealogy in 1951 and it was the next year that Lester Hansen rang our doorbell in Des Plaines to introduce himself as cousin. His wife, Lillian, had a sister in the neighboring suburb of Park Ridge where they were visiting and he had decided to look me up as the daughter of Lydia Anderson Turner who had joined the "Andersonia" the year before. This initial visit was the beginning of a friendship of twenty-five years with dozens of letters carried between our households in Des Plaines and St. Petersburg.

In 1962 our little family decided to have a look at Florida during Christmas vacation, calling on Lester and Dorothy at their home on December 26th. We were introduced to Lester's library with it's shelves loaded with Norsk-related tomes and genealogies and his extensive files. I can well remember how we were urged to stay to become better acquainted with the work he was carrying on. In 1970, we again headed for Florida for the holiday season in our first motor home. On December 22nd, we had dinner with the Hansens and our Rasmus' cousins, Herbert and Jessie Anderson, of nearby Sarasota.

Upon David's retirement in 1974, we started to motorhame in earnest, crossing the country yearly while working on a foundation. We had lunch with the Hansens in January of 1976, little realizing it would be our last visit together. Again I remember his disappointment when we hurried on... and had I known this would be our last meeting, I am sure we would have lingered to ask same of the many questions that have crossed our minds since his death on Christmas eve 1977. I had no inkling then that three years later, some mysterious compulsion was to arise and spur us to undertake an update of Lester's over thirty-five years of intensive research and study of our Norsk heritage.

David had meanwhile taken over a TV coding service of commercials in his retirement, which he had authored during his years with the Burnett agency. It necessitated computer ownership and stay-at-home hours to receive mail and answer calls nationwide. This was all it took to launch us on still another endeavor... the concern that Lester's work would not be continued, coupled with David's expertise in organizing a plan of action. We had no education for the job save Lester's three books published in 1951, 1956 and 1971.

As you answered our first genealogy forms it became fascinating and exciting. When we vacationed in your area by motorhome we dared to poke doorbells and with each acquaintanceship found such happy rewards that the interest grew by leaps and bounds. Before long we were dreaming an impossible dream - to draw together this clan with its fascinating story to tell. The realization that the centennial year of the death of our matriarch, Abel Cathrine, was upon us, along with the centennial year of our "Andersonia" letter, it seemed the ideal time to celebrate and we zeroed in on our plans for a reunion.

Now that we can look back on July 25-25 1985 at Luther College, it still seems a dream that we indeed were there together - 235 strong from 26 states. The two of us say it is the most rewarding joint endeavor of our lives, save the births of three sons.

So there's our story... for what we have attempted to do herein. It has been a true labor of love and if there is one regret, it would simply be that we know not the magic formula for inspiring some cousins to answer our inquiries. If we did, perhaps all would have aided the project for the sake of those who have interest and care about their forefathers remarkable lives persevering against such great struggles.

With the data that is missing our material would not suit a formal hard-bound volume, so we have chosen to give you a manuscript which you can carry-on to completion since we feel we have taken long enough in compilation. Perhaps you will even find it a challenge to fill in the blanks as you hopefully cross paths with some whose data is incomplete or entirely missing. We will continue to enter in our DEQmate computer all data you send us so that there will be a repository for the lore of this great family. This will then be awaiting the next cousin in who feels that mysterious compulsion to embark on a most fascinating and rewarding endeavor.

~ Tributes ~

Christmas 1977