PIONEER CHALLENGES

 

PIONEER CHALLENGES

My Great Grandmother, Olea Larsen, overcame challenges in her life that I cannot even begin to imagine myself doing.

The first one that I know of was giving birth in steerage on the Brig Atalanta on 19 July 1865. Andrew A.P. Larsen, his wife Olea (Ollie on the Passenger List), and their children Albertine, age 4, and Carl Rudolph, age 11 months, set sail from Christiania (now Oslo), Norway on 7 May 1865 with 114 other adults and 46 other children.¹ Caroline Emelia Larsen was born "at sea" on 19 July. The ship arrived in Québec, Que. on 25 July with now 49 children. Caroline was not listed on the Passenger List, so perhaps other children were born on that voyage as well. It was not unusual for women to give birth on the emigrant ships.

Most emigrants sailed in "steerage", between decks. A passenger on the Atalanta in 1871` told this: "Now our place as emigrants was in the hold, on the between deck. Everyone had a chest of food, a keg of milk, and one of beer, all of what was stored in the mid of the deck, held in place by ropes." "The bunks, made of rough boards, were set up along both sides of the ship. Each bunk was intended to hold from three to six persons, and these were often called family bunks. The bunks had straw mattresses or mattresses stuffed with straw. The emigrants had to bring their own pillows, blankets, animal hides and other necessary bedclothes. Contemporary sources report that lice and fleas thrived in this environment."²

Andrew, Olea and their growing family lived in Chicago for several years. The community of Scandia, Kansas, purchased a steam engine to power their flour mill and Andrew was hired to operate it. They traveled from Chicago to Scandia by covered wagon pulled by oxen. Andrew soon filed for a homestead near Warwick, Kansas, and the family stayed in the stockade at Scandia for one year. They spent the year breaking sod as required by the Homestead Act. Andrew then left Olea and the children in a sod dugout with all the modern conveniences except running water, electricity, indoor plumbing etc., and he returned to Chicago to earn more money.

Indians were frequent visitors to the homestead, usually looking for food. Lulu Larsen Stafford recalled Chief Roman Nose punching holes in the biscuits Olea had prepared for him with the rings in his nose.

Olea worked the farm and walked forty miles round trip to Scandia for supplies such as flour and sugar until she was able to trade with the Indians for a pony which she rode to White Rock for mail.

The Missouri Pacific Railroad was put through from Concordia to Warwick in 1879 and Warwick soon became a bustling metropolis of 300 people. The Larsens built a three-story building containing apartments and rooms to rent.³ I suspect that Olea cooked and did a lot of the work around the building. Their daughter, Albertine, appears on the 1880 census as a "Waitress at Hotel".⁴

My Norwegian immigrant ancestors were hard-working people  who overcame the challenges of settling in a new country, raising a family, and building a life.

1. Canada "Immigration Records" (1865-1922) Library and Archives Canada http://www.bac-slac.gc.ca/…/passenger-list…/Pages/list.aspx…&.
2. www.norwayheritage.com/steerage.htm accessed 8 Jan 2018.
3. Max Bixby, "The Pioneer Spirit Lives," The Superior (Kansas) Express, 13 July 1961.
4. 1880 U.S. census, Republic County, Kansas, population schedule, Big Bend, p. 18D, dwelling 303, family 319, A.P., Olea, Albertine, Charles, Caroline, Lulu Dora, W. Tavill and Geo Edward Larsen: digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com citing Family History Film: 1254394; Enumeration District 272.