Torsten Nilsson Saltkjelen and Randi Olsdatter Kjodnes



Torsten Nilsson Saltkjelen
and Randi Olsdatter Kjodnes

Five of Torsten and Randi's children
Standing, left to right: Mary Johnson Odegard, Anna (Lewis?)
Seated, left to right: Martha Anderson, Nels T. Nelson, Thomas T. Nelson
Photo courtesy of Marlene Stiernagle


     Torsten's father Nils Torstenson came from an unidentified place called "Dunvoll," presumably in L�rdal, Sogn, Norway. I have a theory that Nils Torstenson was the brother of Halvor J. Moe Sr.'s grandfather Ola Torstenson, whose birthplace was also unknown. Halvor Moe also immigrated to Steele County and his family appears to have been close to the Nelsons there. In 1790 Nils married Randi Henriksdatter, who came from Glithaug under R�. Nils and Randi went to live on a farm called Saltkjelen under Mo. Their children were: Johannes (1786-1804); Torsten (1791-1794); Marita (1794-1824); Mari (b. 1797); Anna (b. January 1, 1801); and Torsten (b. December 24, 1804). Torsten's sister Anna and nephew Ole Tollefson (Mari's son) also immigrated to Steele County, Minnesota.

     Randi's father Ola Johannesson lived on a farm called Kjodnes under Gr�t�. In 1800 he married Gjertrud Andersdatter from Mid B�. They had six children: Randi (b. January 11, 1802); Anders (b. 1804); Johannes (b. 1808); J�rond (b. 1813); Ragnhild (1817-1898); and Johannes (1822-1848). J�rond immigrated to America with her husband Jakob Hallvardson Hauge and lived at least at the end of her life in Steele County, Minnesota. Randi's first cousin Velgjerd Simonsdatter Mid B� (Velda Thompson) was a close neighbor in America, and in fact the Thompson Cemetery, where Torsten and Randi and many of their descendants are buried, is on Velgjerd's family's land.

     Torsten Nilsson and Randi Olsdatter were married on December 8, 1830 in L�rdal and they went to live on a farm called Gr�t�yane (also called �yane) under Gr�t�. They can be found in the L�rdal Bygdebok in volume 3, page 29. Torsten and Randi's first child, Nels (Nils, Niels), was born May 30, 1830 near L�rdal and they had six more children: Martha (Marita), born May 2, 1832; Ola, born February 8, 1836; Randi, born 1838; Thomas (Torsten), born October 10, 1841; Anna, born September 3, 1846; and Mary (Mari), born September 10, 1850. In 1829, Torsten had also had a daughter with Guri Lassesdatter from B�. Her name was Guri Torstensdatter and she married Henrik Olsson (b. 1834) from B�rkjo. Guri and Henrik came to America in 1855. In 1861, Torsten and Randi, with their children (minus Randi, who had died, and Ola, who emigrated in 1857) and grandchildren, immigrated to America. They had a difficult, 13 or 14 week voyage due to high winds and rough weather and were lost in fog near Greenland part of the time before arriving in Quebec, Canada. I don't know where Torsten and Randi first lived in America, but it may have been in Crawford or Vernon County in Wisconsin or it may have been in the Holden or Kenyon Township area of Goodhue County, Minnesota. In 1865 they show up in the state census in Havana Township, Steele County, Minnesota along with their daughters Anna and Mary. I know little more about Torsten and Randi, who were also known in America as Thomas and Rosa Nelson. They lived near their children -- in the 1880 census they appear on the same page as Nels, Martha, Thomas and their families. Randi died of old age on November 6, 1883. Torsten died five years later, on January 26, 1889, after years of living as an invalid with his son Thomas. Torsten had a brief obituary, and Randi had none. I don't know for certain where they are buried, but in the Thompson Cemetery in Havana Township, near Thomas T. Nelson's plot, there are two graves, one marked simply T.N., the other R.N.

     I. On December 6, 1852, Nels Torstenson (b. May 30, 1830) married Gjertrud Johannesdatter from Yttri under Rikheim. Born on March 16, 1829, her parents were Johannes Knutson Sletten and Ingeborg Jensdatter Erismarki. Three children were born in Norway to Nels and Gjertrud: Randi, born May 1, 1853; Bertha (Brita), born October 16, 1855; and Ingeborg, born April 8, 1860. In 1861 the family came to America with Torsten and Randi. In America, they adopted the surname Nelson. Nels and Gjertrud lived first in Crawford County, Wisconsin, where at least for a while in 1863 they and their family appear to have stayed with the Robert and Malina (Hillestad) Mellem family, who had emigrated from Hafslo, Sogn, Norway in 1854. This is when Nels and Gjertrud had another daughter, Olena, born April 11, 1863. The family story is that Olena, as a baby, was born in or lived in the same house with my great grandfather Robert Mellem, Robert and Malina's youngest child, who was also born in 1863. Nels and Gjertrud stayed in Crawford County until 1864, when they moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota long enough to have another daughter, Bell (Ingeborg), born January 24, 1865. Also in 1865, Nels and Gjertrud moved to Havana Township, Steele County, Minnesota where they would spend the rest of their lives. They had two more daughters in Steele County: Hannah (Johanna), born July 8, 1867; and Gjertina, born about 1869. Nels and Gjertrud were living with their daughter Olena's family in Havana Township when they died on the same day, March 28, 1909. According to the story my mother told me, Nels had been an invalid for some time when, unexpectedly, Gjertrud died. The family was concerned about how Nels would take the news and they gathered around his sickbed to tell him. His response was that if Gjertrud was gone, then he was ready to go too. And before the day was over, he too died of natural causes. Both are buried in the Thompson Cemetery.

  II. On December 6, 1852, Martha Torstensdatter (b. May 2, 1832) married Mons Anderson Haugen from �vrevoll. This was the same day Martha's brother Nels married Gjertrud Johannesdatter. Mons already had a son Iver (b. October 29, 1846) with Anna H�konsdatter from Haugen in Borgund. Both Iver and Anna, with her husband and younger children, eventually immigrated to Steele County as well. Martha and Mons had three children in Norway: Ida (Inger), born July 25, 1852; Anna, born May 2, 1856; and Thomas (Torsten), born January 2, 1858. They came to America in 1861 with Torsten and Randi and lived first in Holden Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota. In America they used the surname Anderson. The family lived in a dug out before building a log cabin there, but they were uneasy because of the clashes between the Dakota Indians and the white settlers that were taking place in 1862. This has come to be known as the Sioux Uprising or the Dakota Conflict. In 1867, the family came by ox team to Havana Township, Steele County, where Mons bought 88 acres of land in section 28. Mons and Martha had four more children in America: Randa, born January 24, 1862; Martha, born August 29, 1866; Andrea Olena, born October 13, 1872; and a boy who was born June 5, 1877 and died a day later. Mons sold the farm to his son Thomas in 1883. Mons went blind around 1885, and he died thirteen years later, on January 31, 1898. Martha continued to live with Thomas and his family. In 1922, they moved from the farm to the city of Owatonna, and on October 3, 1924, Martha died at the age of 91. She and Mons are buried in the Thompson Cemetery.

III. Ola (b. February 8, 1836) came to America in 1857, four years before the rest of his family. It was probably his "America letters" that helped the others decide to make the move, and he may have sent them money for the journey as well. I know nothing else about him save for the speculation that he may have settled first around DeSoto, Wisconsin. I further speculate that he may have served in the Civil War. I don't know what surname he may have used in America. Torstenson seems likely, at least in the beginning. He may have Americanized it to Thompson or he may have taken Nelson to match the rest of his family when they came over. He may even have used Gr�t�, �yane, or Gr�t�yane. He apparently died before 1924.

IV. All I know about Torsten and Randi's daughter Randi (b. 1838) is that she died in 1860 in Norway, age 22.

     V. Torsten and Randi's son Thomas Torstenson (b. October 10, 1841) immigrated with them in 1861. He joined the army at LaCrosse and fought in the Civil War. He was a corporal with company K of the 37th Wisconsin Infantry, enlisting on October 8, 1864 and being discharged less than a year later, in August of 1865. He used the surname Torstenson in while in the service, but later adopted the name Nelson. Thomas then worked as a farm hand for three years before buying a farm in Havana Township, Steele County, Minnesota. He married Olena Rasmusdatter Mellem, (1) a daughter of Robert and Malina (Hillestad) Mellem, on November 21, 1866 in Steele County. She was born November 10, 1843 in Hafslo, Sogn, Norway and came to America with her parents in 1854. Thomas and Olena had seven children, all born in Steele County: Theodore, born April 10, 1868; Malina, born September 20, 1869; Randy, born September 10, 1871; Richard, born October 28, 1873; Ole Christopher, born November 22, 1875; Ragnelde, born March 25, 1880; and Malina Ragnelde (Mollie), born September 19, 1883. In 1891 Thomas was the Democratic nominee for state representative, and he had held a number of township offices over the years. Olena died December 28, 1896. Two major events then happened in Thomas's life in August of 1899. First, Thomas remarried, to a widow named Agnes (a.k.a Agatha) Lee Erickson (2) (born August 24, 1860 in Rock Dell, Olmstead County, Minnesota), although this marriage is neither recorded in the Steele County vital records nor in the records of the Aurora Lutheran Church. That same month Thomas had a daughter, Lena Jorgina (b. August 30, 1899) out of wedlock with Anna Selthun. In the 1900 census Lena Jorgina is listed as living with Thomas's niece Ida Monson and her family. Agnes had four children from her previous marriage to Erick Theodore Erickson, who died around 1891: Edwin; Anna, born in September of 1885; Ella Irene, born July 23, 1888; and Elmer Erick Gerhard, born December 19, 1890. All four of Thomas's stepchildren died young. Together Thomas and Agnes had one son, Edgar Orlando, born August 29, 1900. Orlando drowned in a water trough while visiting at the farm of Thomas's niece Olena Hillestad on July 9, 1902. Thomas died November 9, 1901. He and Olena are buried in the Thompson Cemetery. Sometime after Thomas's death, Agnes moved back to her parents' farm in Rock Dell, Olmstead County, where in 1908 she married Knute Brakke. She died there on October 13, 1923.

VI. Anna Torstensdatter (b. September 3, 1846) came to America with her parents Torsten and Randi in 1861 and is listed with them in Steele County, Minnesota in the 1865 state census. This is largely unverified, but I believe she married one Ole Christensen Lewis (b. abt. 1842) and had children Ingeborg (b. abt. 1868); Anne (b. November 2, 1870); Rodine (b. April 4, 1873); Marthe Marie (b. August 28, 1876); Kristine (b. December 13, 1880); and Albert (b. September 25, 1885) before apparently leaving Steele County sometime after 1886. I have yet to find the family in later Minnesota censuses, and it is my best guess that they may have gone to North or South Dakota. Anna died before 1924.

  VII. Youngest daughter Mary (b. September 10, 1850) married Lewis (Lars) Johnson (b. abt. 1845) on March 4, 1868. They had five children: John, born approximately 1869; Randy, born September 17, 1872; Thomas, born December 3, 1874; Simon Bernhard, born November 12, 1877; and Sofie Ragnilde (Sophia Rose), born September 24, 1880. Lewis died of inflammation of the lungs at the age of 37, on November 14, 1882. In 1900 Mary was living with her brother Thomas. She was married to Lewis (Lars) Odegard (b. abt. 1852) on January 7, 1904 and they moved to Owatonna. Mary died February 3, 1932, age 81. Her obituary says she is buried in the Thompson Cemetery, but there is no marker in existence now. Lewis survived her, but I don't know when or where he died.

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Text copyright 1999-2002 by Chris Larson
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