Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1979-04-05 (Creation)
Extent
3 file folders
1 photograph
1 sound cassette
2 compact discs
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This interview was conducted with Henny Storwick on April 5, 1979 in Tacoma, Washington. It contains information on family background, emigration, work, marriage and family life, community activities, and Norwegian heritage. The interview also includes a black and white photograph of Henny. The interview was conducted in English.
Folder Contents
Box 1, File 16 Personal and Family History
Tape Archive Sheet, Tape Index, and Family Background
Box 1, File 16A Correspondence and Forms
Checklist and Release Form
Handwritten Tape Archive Sheet and Family Background
Box 1, File 16B Photographs
One photograph
System of arrangement
Interviewed by Janet Rasmussen and Lise Yohe
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
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Notes element
General note
Biographical Note
Henny Storwick was born Henny Pederson on August 1, 1884 in Vik, Helgeland, Norway, which is a coastal area in Nordland, and moved to Valvik, Nordland when she was three. Her parents were Peder Jakobson and Julia Edwardson, and there were eight children in the family, of which Henny was the oldest. Henny decided to immigrate alone to America on April 9, 1909, when she was only fifteen years old. The trip took five weeks, and Henny encountered various problems throughout the voyage. Off the banks of Newfoundland, the ship struck an iceberg, cracking its hull, and upon arrival in St. Johns Newfoundland, it was discovered that Henny's trunk had been lost. She was reimbursed $25.
From St. Johns, Henny took a boat to Sydney, Nova Scotia, where she took the train to Egeland, North Dakota. There, Henny worked for the Odegard farm, which entailed housework, cooking, baking, and milking the cows. According to Henny, she 'hated every day she spent in North Dakota.' Three years after her arrival, Henny married a man named Sovick and stayed with him for seven years. In 1919, she took their children, two sons and a daughter, and moved to Tacoma, Washington, where she had friends from North Dakota. Soon after the move, she was employed as a seamstress at Durie's Tailor Shop, where she worked for nine years until she obtained a job at Peterson and Davis Tailor Shop, which paid better.
During World War II, she transferred to the McChord Field PX. In 1924, Henny married Ingvald Storwick, an Alaskan fisherman, and moved from South Tacoma to a bigger house on 72nd and Yakima. In Tacoma, Henny was very active in church and Norwegian organizations. She attended Our Saviour's Lutheran Church for forty years, where she served on the Board of Trustees and was administratively active in ALCW. She also took part in Nordlandslaget, Daughters of Norway, and Rebecca. She was elected the first female president of Tacoma's Nordlandslaget and served as president and secretary of the Daughters of Norway's Embla Lodge. Henny has returned to Norway nine times and continues to maintain her Norwegian traditions and language.
Lineage
Full Name: Henny Storwick
Maiden Name: Henny Pederson
Father: Peder Jakobson
Mother: Julia Edwardson
Brothers and Sisters: She had three brothers and four sisters.
Spouse: Ingvald Storwick
Children: Arne Storwick, a daughter, Herman Storwick