Individual Details

Nels knew Anne from childhood. In the journal he kept, he wrote from Bodo, June 1885, "Even before we went from there I got another letter from my childhood sweetheart. It’s very queer. Now she is trying to get my friendship and I thought at one time that she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. It might have been that her family didn’t want her to have anything to do with me . . ."

Anne is at a difficult time in her life. She has been in a difficult relationship and borne a son who has died. Now she is again expecting another child and is trying to leave a bad relationship with the father and has turned to Nels for help.He brings Anne to his home in Mo where he explains Anne's troubles to his wife, Jensine, and asked Jensine if she could stay with them and help Jensine with the small children. Jensine agrees, and for a time they apparently get along well.

In November Anne gave birth to a little boy. The Mo church book records the birth of Arne Chrsitian Johanneson, born 14 Nov 1885, christened 17 Jan 1886, the son of Johannes Peder Olson and Anne Eliasdatter, Seljeld.

On May 1st, 1886 Nels writes "Our small ones have been sick these last days but now they are better. But Anne's Arne is very sick. God help us all in our need."

In August, 1886, he writes "Anne is very quiet and sorrows much about Arne. This evening we went for a talk to his grave. After that we sat a long time." Apprently they did more than sit, because the entry is made on August 23rd and nine months later Anne gives birth to another son.

At Christmas, 1886, he writes "I could have been very happy at home if it hadn't been my sins against my loved ones . . . I live with Jensine and be ashamed of what I have done. Even if she trusts me she often lies and cries into the night . . . but how about Anne who lies upstairs and also cries all night? . . . So my sin has spoiled my home life and for my childhood sweetheart it has brought nothing but unhappiness."

He now has five children with Jensine, the youngest born in September, 1886, and the oldest age 7. He is struggling not only with his family situation but also with how to support his increasing family. His has acquaintances in America, including Anne's sister, Dorthea Eliasdatter, who emigrated in 1882 and is married to Lars Peter Olson and living in the Rush River area. In the journal he writes "I have tried so many things in Norway but I have not no luck with it, no steady work that paid much. There is no place in Helgeland for me anymore . . ."

In March, 1887, Nels has purchased tickets for himself and Anne to go to America--to Rush River where her sister lives. They plan to leave secretly and separately the first part of April. Jensine knows of their plan. Using some of Anne's money from her court settlement and what additional he can borrow, Nels provides Jensine with what he hopes will be enough food to last her three or four months, "after that I hope to be able to send her money to take care of her."

The journal provides an interesting account of their voyage from Norway to Liverpool to New York and by train to Chicago and Baldwin, arriving in Baldwin at 6 a.m on May 2nd. Later that day they went on to Woodside to Dorthea's. Nels left Anne with Dorthea while he looks for work, returning frequently. On May 22nd he records "Today when I came to Woodside Anne had already born a little boy and was under all circumstances well."

His entry from July 24, 1887, "Anne's little boy got baptized in Baldwin and was named Arne Normand Bang. Ole Olson and Carolina as well as Lars and Dorthea were sponsors for Arne. I followed them to the crossroad where I bid them farewell. Any in my lonesomness I walked back to Baldwin where now I am going out to look for work."

Nels had a variety of jobs over the next couple years, sending money to both Jensine and Anne.

At Martell, on November 22, 1890, Anne married Nels Targersen Tufte. Nels, Anne and Arne are living in Gilaman in 1900 where Nels is a farmer. His widowed mother, Dorthe lives with them. Only Nels and Anne are in the household in 1910, his mother Dorthe, having died in 1901.

An interesting side note to Anne's story is that her sister, Dorthea, had a son in Norway--Ole Andreas Miller, who immigrated in 1890 at the age of 17. It's believed that he received his passage from Ole Jenson of Brookville who gave gave him a job on a steam driven sawmill. In 1900 Ole is living with Lars P. Olson and wife Dorthea and is listed as Lars' stepson on the census. Thirty years later, Lars, now a widower is living with Ole and his family in Hudson. He is listed on the census as "step-father."

It's get more interesting, or complicated. Ole Miller's wife, Anna, is the daughter of another of Anne;s sisters (lydia Maria Eliasdatter). There's a lot more available on Anne's siblings but they're not really related to our family in anyway, at least not that I've discovered yet.

Ole Miller was a prominent in the local and regioanal Norwegian-American community. He served as secretary to the local Sons of Norway lodge for twelve years, served thirteen years as secretary of the Nordlandslag and for fourteen years edited their magazine, "Nord-Norge."

Dorothea died on February 28, 1928 at the State Hospital at Mendota, Wisconsin where she had been a patient for 13 days.

Birth	Abt 1855	Hemæs, Nordland, Norway
Marriage	1887	(Not Married), - Nils Johan Jenson
Marriage	22 Nov 1890	Martell, Pierce County, Wisconsin - Nels Targersen Tufte
Death	22 Aug 1935	Pierce co., Wisconsin

Spouse	Nils Johan Jenson (1858 - 1934)
Child	Arne Normand Bang (1887 - 1948)

Spouse	Nels Targersen Tufte (1853 - 1915)
Child	Torger N. Tufte (1891 - 1893)

Father	Elias Johan Andersen Seljeli
Mother	Anne Margrethe Olsen
Sibling	Dorthea Eliasdatter (1854 - 1928)

Notes