Wolltveit-Hagen-Neset Family Papers

Wolltveit-Hagen-Neset Family Papers

• 1981 (Creation)

Contains one bound copy of the family history, which was originally recorded in 1945 by Alem Hagen. He served with the U.S. armed forces in Norway toward the end of World War II. The family history was completed in 1981 by Arnold J. Hagen. The second section of the account describes the history of the American branch of the families and their assimilation into American culture. The first chapter introduces the family's history since the early 19th Century on the Neset Gaard, or Neset Farm, with Bergit and Anders Hagen. This first chapter lists the members of this branch of the Neset family who lived on the farm and gives brief personal descriptions. This account then continues with biographies of each of the children of emigrants Bergit and Anders, and thus the "founding" branches of the family in America. Each biography of their children is also followed by brief biographies of their own descendants, if any. The book is also replete with photographs of family members, the Hagen farm, and the Saude Church in Norway, of which they were members.

Biographical Note

The first section of the family history begins with a geneological listing by branch of the family. The biographical account begins with Torstein Hagen. Torstein was born on 12 March 1863 in Telemark, Norway; and died on 8 January 1937 in Los Angeles, California. He emigrated alone at the age of 20 to Pomme de Terre, near Ashby, Minnesota, to live with his cousins. Three years later, the rest of his family joined him in the Pomme de Terre area. In 1885 he married Anne Olson Lia, who was also originally from Telemark. Torstein began his work farming, teaching in parochial schools, and doing evangelistic work. In 1900 he was ordained as a minister in the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. He went on to be a highly respected member of the local communities in Minnesota and North Dakota where he served. Torstein and Anne had nine children, and Torstein was known for ruling his family with a stern hand, which sometimes greatly strained familial relations. Anne Torstein died 8 August 1946.

The next account begins with Ole Olson and Ingeborg Hagen Olson, also born in Telemark, Norway in 1864. Ingeborg emigrated with her parents to America, also settling in Pomme de Terre. She married Ole Olson there in 1890, and they had eight children and homesteaded mostly near Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Ole Olson died 11 Spetember 1924, and Ingeborg died on 25 January 1929. Their relationship was remembered as one of a working and positive relationship.

Anna Hagen was born in Telemark on 12 March 1867, and died in Twin Velly, Minnesota on 24 January 1927. She married Andrew Eken on 1 September 1889 three years after her arrival in America in 1886. They had ten children and also worked as homesteaders. Anna suffered from poor health for much of her life, and five of their children preceded her in death. Andrew died on 21 October 1933, six years after Anna's death in 1927.

Margit Muhs was born on 16 September 1869 and in 1886 she immigrated with her parents to America. In 1889 she married Henry Muhs and they moved to a homestead in Gardner Township in North Dakota. She died in childbirth, having her 15th child on 16 August 1914. Henry passed away on 7 June 1940.

Halvor Hagen was born in Telemark on 21 January 1872, and died in Alamo, North Dakota on 10 February 1937. In 1898 he purchased a farm two miles west of Ashby, Minnesota, and on 25 Feburary 1899 he married Anna Olson. In 1906 he began working as a grain miller in Ashby, and later in Barnesville as a boilermakter. He later moved back to Ashby and began a soft drink business. On 16 April 1912, after having five children with him, Anna died; Halvor, having no desire to remarry, sent his children away to live with relatives and he then moved to Alamo, North Dakota where he devoted the rest of his life to providing veterinary services.

Torstein "Tosten" Hagen was born on 20 May 1884, in Telemark and died in Elbow Lake, Minnesota. He was a farm worker in Minnesota and North Dkota, and in 1895 he operated a combination store and post office at Waukon, Minnesota before returning to work on the farms. At the age of 17 he bought his own farm in Tumeli Township. He married Karen Bertine "Tena" Brekke, and they had nine children together.

Ole Hagen was born 8 July 1877 in Telemark, and accompanied his parents to America in 1886. He was a steam engineer and later bought a soft drink establishment in Argusville, after finding himself unsuccessful in the agriculture industry. Relatively later in life he married a woman named Louise, but she asked for a divorce and he eventually agreed with great reluctance.

Bergit "Bessie" Hagen was born on 11 January 1879 and accompanied her parents to America in 1886. While she had many suitors, in the end she never married. She died at her sister Anna's home in 1914 at the age of 35, after finding herself with progressively more illnesses.

Anders "Andrew" A. Hagen was born in 1880 in Telemark and died in 1941 of pneumonia. He immigrated to America with his parents in 1886. He married Josie Tollefoson in 1905, and they had seven children. Anders also had a homestead, but he was best known for serving as the first treasurer of the Outlook School District and being active in many other educational, political, cultural, and economic organizations in the areas around Alamo, North Dakota.

Ingeborg Hagen Smith was born on 1 August 1883 in Telemark, and immigrated with her parents in 1886. She worked in the general merchandise store in Kennedy, Minnesota, until her marriage to Bengt "Benie" Johan Smith, who was originally from Sweden, in 1908. They had three children together. Bengt eventually went into a partnership in a general store in Kennedy, but after he and his partner sold the business, he remained as a store clerk until his retirement fourty years later.

Lewis "Lars" Hagen was born 1885 in Telemark and immigrated with the rest of his family as a baby in 1885. He started work helping on the family farm, and later he moved to Chicago in the 1920s and worked for Swift Packing Company in their chemical laboratory. He eventually married the widowed Anna Eken, his niece by marriage. When she died, he married another widow named Loisa, but nothing know is known about her. She survied him when he passed away in 1941.

Tillie Sophia Hagen was born in 1889, and worked in the Northwest Bakery of Moorhead, and later occupied herself with sewing and painting as her strength permitted. Although she had many suitors, she, like Bergit, could not decide, and eventually after having chosen one, was rejected, and never married later.

Huldah Theolina Hagen Johnson was the last of the thirteen children of Anders and Bergit Hagen, and was born near Dalton, Minnesota in 1893. Before her marriage, she mostly lived at home and helped with farm chores. She married Eval Johnson, who was the manager of the Land O' Lakes Cooperative Creamery. They took in two of Havlor's children the same year they were married, and also had three children of their own.