John's Early Life in Norway

John Johnson

Birth:  29 Dec 1833  Norway
Death:  8 Apr 1904   Walnut Creek Township, Mitchell County, Kansas
Marriage to Mary A. Ray: 10 Oct 1858  Ellenboro, Grant County, Wisconsin
Marriage to Cornelia Alsista Underwood Richardson: 14 Feb 1875  Wisconsin



This is a photo of John Johnson's parents, taken many years after they made the long journey from Norway to Wisconsin with their family of small children.

Ingebrigt Johnson Helle & Helene Ellefsdatter Masterod
Photo courtesy of Karen Helford.

John was the second child and oldest son of Helene Ellefsdatter Masterod and Ingebrigt Johnson Helle.

Many thanks to Karen Hulford for translating this information from Norwegian and making it available to us.  Karen is a descendant of Inger Helena (Edith), child # 8 below.

Mother: Helene Ellefsdatter Masterod / Masserod
               Birth: 17 June 1812     Norway 

               Death: 19 March 1882                 McFarland, Dane County, Wisconsin  Age 69
               Marriage: 11 Nov 1831

               Farm name:  MASSEROD
               Parents:  Ellef Nielsen (Eneren) & Anne Kirstine Jensdatter
                              of Bamble, Telemark, Norway. 

Father:  Ingebrigt Johnson (Helle)
               Birth: 1 Oct 1807     Nissedal, Norway 

               Death: 8 Feb 1885    Dane County, Wisconsin     Age 77

              Farm name:  HELLE

              Possible parents:  John Olsen (Wraalstad) & Thore Marie Clausdatter (Steensland)

 Engebret and family left Sannidal 12 January 1845, 

               sailed on the Norwegian bark Salvator arriving in NYC 15 July 1845.



Children Born in Norway:

1.  Anne Marie
Birth:  9 Feb 1832     Norway
Baptized:  18 Mar 1832     Bamble, Telemark, Norway

2.  John
Birth: 29 Dec 1833     Norway
Baptized:  4 Jan 1834     Bamble, Telemark, Norway

3.  Ellef
Birth:  24 Nov 1835     Norway
Baptized:  26 Dec 1835     Tordal, Telemark, Norway
Ellef must have died young as another son born in 1843 was named Ellef and the first one does not appear in the migration records of the church or in the ship's passenger list (1845).

4.  Anne Kirstine
Birth: 24 Oct 1837    Norway
Baptized:  10 Dec 1837     Sannidal, Telemark, Norway

5.  Maren Elise
Birth:  25 Apr 1840     Norway
Baptized:  21 Jun 1840     Sannidal, Telemark, Norway

6.  Ellef (Eli)
Birth:  23 Dec 1843     Norway
Baptized:  30 Jun 1844     Sannidal, Telemark, Norway

7.  Ole (Oliver)
Birth:  23 Dec 1843     Norway
Baptized:  30 Jun 1844     Sannidal, Telemark, Norway

Children Born in America:

8. Inger Helena (Edith) 
Birth: 1846
Death: 1918

 9. Guri (Julia)
Birth:  ca 1848     Buffalo, New York.  Died young?

10. Jonette
Birth: 25 Apr 1848     Buffalo, New York

11. Susan
Birth:  ca 1849.  Died young?

12. Isaac
Birth:  20 May 1850     Wisconsin

13. Ellen
Birth:  20 Jun 1852     Wisconsin

14. Helge Andrea (Harriet) (Hattie)
Birth: 14 Sep 1854     Wisconsin


Learn more about John's siblings on the page titled Children of Ingebret and Helene Johnson / Siblings of John Johnson.



Karen Hulford has researched the history of the family of Ingebregt and Helene Johnson.  From her A Johnson Family History:

The story of the Johnson family begins in the county of Telemark in Norway.  In about 1831 Engebret[1] Johnson married Hellene[2] Ellefsdatter, supposedly in Bamble in the commune of Bamble.[3]  There are reports that Engebret’s family had also lived for a time in Nissedal, another commune in the Telemark region.[4] 

.... As so often is the story of the poor farmers of Norway, the Johnson family decided to make the trip to America, the land of opportunity.  Engebret and Hellene left Sannidal on the 12^th of January 1845.  Accompanying them were their children, Marie, John, Kirstine, Maren Elise, Ellef, and Ole.[1]  The family would have traveled overland to Porsgrunn and down on to Langesund to board the Norwegian barque Salvator.  They would have taken along enough provisions to feed the family during the expected ten-week trip to America.[2]  Most often the emigrants took cured mutton and other foodstuffs including flatbread, sour milk, butter, soft whey cheese, and beer.  They also had to take their own cooking vessels and eating utensils.  
   

---

[1] Passage for an adult from Norway to New York and inland generally ran about $30-$40 dollars at this time; children under 14 were half price.
[2] If provisions ran out due to unexpected delays, remaining food and water were rationed. 

---

[1] Variously spelled Ingebreth, Ingebrit, Ingebritk, Ingebrite, etc.
[2] Variously spelled Helena, Helene, Helen, Hellene, etc.
[3] Hellene’s maiden name is recorded as Mastre on daughter Inger’s death certificate and Erickson on Inger’s marriage certificate, but it is clearly Ellefsdatter (father Ellef Nielsson, mother Anna Kirstine Jensdotter) and her farm name was Masserod according to Norwegian birth records.  The name seems to have been Americanized to Mastre.
[4] A marriage record has been found for an Ingebreth Johnson and Hellene Ellefsdatter in Bamble (11 November 1831).  If this family moved around very much, it is difficult to pin down the right given name, patronymic name, and farm name.  Given the names of their known children (from migration, immigration, and census records), the records place them in Sannidal at the Eneren farm where at least five children were born and at the Helle farm at the time of their emigration to America.

Sannidal Register 1845-002.
Courtesy of Karen Hulford on Ancestry.com

Emigration Record of Engebret & Helene from church parish records 1845.

John's parents, and probably John, were familiar with the Sannidal Church.  Four of the Johnson children were baptized in Sannidal.  The well-known Sannidal Church, built in 1771, is a log-built church shaped in the form of a cross, dating back to 1771. It lies next to the old main road going south from Oslo to Kristiansand.  Prior to the present church there was a stave church dating back to 1200.

Before April 1845

Our knowledge of John’s life in Norway and his journey to America come from Ron Larson,  McFarland's Norwegian Heritage (1991).   The book is currently out of print, but

the author, Ron Larson, was gracious enough to send me a copy.

Many of us had received letters from friends who had left earlier, and since they praised America we also decided to look for homesteads beyond the big waters.  As far as I could gather, it was these encouragements from America that had persuaded most of the emigrants to bid old Norway farewell.   

             - Ingebrigt Johnson

We don't know how Ingebrigt earned a living in Norway, but in Wisconsin, he was a farmer.  If Ingebrigt was a farmer, and if he was not the oldest son, he might have been a tenant farmer in Norway.

The Norsk Folke Museum, Oslo web site describes tenant farming in Norway:

The Tenant Farming System

Husmann is the name for the Norwegian tenant farmer. There were many varieties of tenancy in rural Norway.

Commonly the tenant rented land from a farmer and lived and grew crops on this land. The terms were agreed to orally or in writing, and the rent was paid in cash or in work. The tenant farmer and his family were usually obliged to work on the main farm in return for daily wages. This system was common in Trøndelag and southeastern Norway. The conditions for tenant farmers were most oppressive in the southeast, where they were required to work hardest and their social status was lowest.

Other tenant farmers leased their land and were not required to work on the main farm. However, these tenants were usually not farmers and rented relatively little land. Instead, they had a craft or trade as their main source of income. This type of tenant was common along the west coast where they were freer and had a higher social status than tenants of this type in the southeast.

Some tenants rented their house but no land. Those who lived along the coast often made a living fishing and transporting goods and were not subservient to the farmer. It was a different situation for the tenant in the eastern part of the country who could not afford to rent land; the work was harder and the pay was less.

The tenant farming system eased the pressures of a growing population. Farmers needed help during the busy seasons, and tenant farmers provided cheap labor. Tenant farmers were often younger sons of farmers, and life for them and their families was difficult. The soil they tilled for their own use was poor and could hardly yield what was needed for survival, and the status of a tenant farmer was low.

The number of husmenn peaked in the mid-1800s. In 1865 there were 65,000 tenant farmers who rented land in Norway. For many years they were the largest segment of the population.

The buildings on a tenant holding were often the same as on large farms; house, cow barn, hay barn and perhaps a stabbur for food storage. The tenant farmer had neither time nor money for upkeep and improvements, so the buildings on the holding were usually small and in poor condition. The placement of the buildings followed the local custom. In some places, however, all the buildings were built together into one long structure. This saved space for cultivation and used fewer building materials. 
http://www.norskfolkemuseum.no/en/Exhibits/The-Open-Air-Museum/The-Countyrside/The-Tenant-Farmers-Holding/

Norwegian Emigration

We don’t know the reasons behind Ingebrigt and Helene’s decision to come to America, except that they wanted a better life for their family.

Norway's official website in the United States provides a history of Norwegian travel to the United States.

Norwegians began to travel to the United States in large numbers in the early 1840’s. A few, mostly Quakers and Haugeans, came because of religious persecution. But most Norwegians emigrated for economic reasons, to find a better life for themselves and their families. Norway had suffered many crop failures, and the population was growing beyond what the farmers and land could support.

America promised fertile land that had never been plowed.  In addition to the farmers, Norwegian craftsmen emigrated to America to find a larger market for their wares.

During the 1800’s, most immigrants came as families, and many then wrote to family and friends in Norway telling them about the fertile soil and need for craftsmen in America.

Early Norwegian settlements were in Pennsylvania and Illinois, then moving to Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

“Between 1825 and 1925, more than 800,000 Norwegians immigrated to America—

about one-third of Norway's population. With the exception of Ireland, no single country

contributed a larger percentage of its population to America than Norway.”

Kragero, Norway

Travel to the port city of Porsgrunn

John traveled with his parents from Kragero, Norway to Porsgrunn, Norway. The distance of 53 km (33 miles) can be traveled today by car in 50 minutes (google maps), but definitely took them longer, depending on their mode of travel.