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Biographical Note
Peder Garberg was born on December 8, 1898 in
Selbu, Norway to Ingebrikt and Kari Garberg. He was one of four children. Peder
worked on the family farm until he left for America in 1917 with two
neighboring boys. During his trip to America aboard the Bergensfjord, Peder
witnessed a burial at sea. Peder went to LaCrosse, Washington because his
friend had talked to someone in Norway who had been in LaCrosse before. The
first winter in LaCrosse, Peder worked on the Wigen farm and stayed there until
the next spring. Eventually, Peder leased a farm for 41 years until it was sold
and then moved to Spokane, Washington in 1962. In 1921, Peder married Brynhild
Kjøsnes in Spokane at the Old Holiday Hotel. Peder became an American citizen
in 1936. Peder and Brynhild had four children: Clara, Irwin, Sadie, and
Phyllis. Peder does not feel that there is anything special with the
Norwegian's. He felt that a person's personality determines who the person is
no matter where they are.
Lineage
Full Name:
Peder Garberg. Father: Ingebrikt Garberg. Mother: Kari Garberg. Brothers and
Sisters: Ingebrikt Garberg Jr., Arne Garberg, Ane Garberg. Spouse: Brynhild
Kjøsnes Garberg. Children: Clara Garberg, Irwin Garberg, Sadie Garberg Allen,
Phyllis Garberg Maynor.
Content Description
The interview was conducted with Peder Garberg on August 23, 1984 in
Spokane, Washington. The interview contains information on his childhood,
relatives in America, reason for going to America, his trip, occupations,
settling in LaCrosse, Washington, leasing a farm, marriage to Brynhild Kjøsnes,
his family, and his Norwegian heritage. The interview was conducted in English
with some Norwegian towards the end of the interview.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access :
The oral history collection
is open to all users.
Restrictions on Use :
There are no
restrictions on use.
Administrative Information
Custodial History :
The Oral History collection
project was started during an experimental course on Scandinavian Women in the
Pacific Northwest. Students in the course were encouraged to interview women
and learn about their experiences as immigrants to the United States. The
project was continued and expanded with support from the president's office and
by grants from the L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation, from the Joel E.
Ferris Foundation and the Norwegian Emigration Fund of the Royal Norwegian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project was directed by Dr. Janet E.
Rasmussen. The collection was transferred to the Archives and Special
Collections Department.
Acquisition Information :
Related Materials :
To search and view Pacific
Lutheran University's digitized images, visit our
Digital Assets
Website
Processing Note :
The interview was conducted by
Janet Rasmussen using a cassette recorder. A research copy was also prepared
from the original. To further preserve the content of the interview, it is now
being transferred to compact disc. We deliberately did not transcribe the
entire interview because we want the researchers to listen to the interviewee's
own voice. The transcription index highlights important aspects of the
interview and the tape counter numbers noted on the Partial Interview
Transcription are meant as approximate finding guides and refer to the location
of a subject on the cassette/CD. The recording quality is good
The
collection was transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky Husby.
Bibliography :
Rasmussen, Janet Elaine. New Land
New Lives: Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific NorthwestTacoma, WashingtonUniversity of Washington
Press1993
Additional Reference Guides :
Detailed Description of the Collection
The partial interview transcription
highlights important aspects of the interview. Numbers may be used as guides to
important subjects. Two numbers separated by a slash indicate that the first
number is for cassette and the second for CD.
Cassette
277, side 1
015: NAME
His name is Peder Garberg and he was born in Selbu, Norway
on December 8, 1898.
277, side 1
023: PARENTS
His parents were Ingebrikt and Kari. They were farmers. Both
of them were from Selbu.
277, side 1
034: CHILDHOOD HOME
Peder grew up on a farm. They had a little dairy. The
farm owned some forest area, in which they logged every year. Since he was
young, he worked in the forest. They logged in the fall and transported the
logs to a sawmill where his dad sold the lumber. They had 6-8 cows, some sheep,
and a few goats. There were four children in the family. His oldest brother was
Ingebrikt. He also had a sister, Ane, and Peder's younger brother Arne who died
during a flu epidemic in 1919, a couple of years after Peder left. Ane stayed
in Norway and took over the home farm. Her son is running the farm now.
Ingebrikt Jr. died rather young, 42 years old. Ingebrikt Jr. went to college
and became a teacher. There were four teachers in the family. His mother's
brother had two boys and two girls. They all went to college and ended up as
teachers. Another one of his mother's brother had a son who also was a teacher.
277, side 1
108: RELATIVES IN
AMERICA
His dad visited the U.S. before
Peder left Selbu. Ingebrikt Sr. had five brothers. Five out of the six brothers
had been in America. Some of the brothers returned and some stayed their entire
life. Three of his brothers were in Alaska during the gold rush in Klondike and
Nome. Two returned to Norway. Peder's father returned to Norway after four
years. Peder's uncle Pete was in America for about seventeen years before he
returned around 1906, when the gold rush slowed down. Uncle Chris returned in
1910, he had been in America for around nineteen years. Chris did well in the
gold rush, but lost a lot of it in a bank in Norway. Uncle Andreas lived in
America and died in Seattle. He bought a place, broke up some land, and built a
nice home there. Uncle Pete was married and bought a farm in Norway. Peder came
over in 1917. His uncle in Seattle had died a couple of years before Peder went
to America.
277, side 1
169: FATHER IN
AMERICA
His father was in Minneapolis,
MN, where he worked at a sawmill and in lumber camps in northern Minnesota. He
was not married at the time. He returned to Selbu and bought a place, got
married, and traded with his oldest brother, Pål, for the home place. The
oldest son was supposed to take over the farm. Peder's father was number 3, out
of the 6 brothers. Pål had been in America as well, in Seattle. Pål did not
marry and he never had children. It was a pattern for young men to go to
America to earn money and then return. A lot came back, but several did
not.
277, side 1
210: PEDER'S REASON FOR GOING
TO AMERICA
The lust for adventure helped
Peder decide to go to America. Two neighboring boys were going and he joined
them because his brother was going to inherit the farm. One of the two he
traveled with also went to LaCrosse, WA.
277, side 1
227: WORKING ON THE
FARM
After confirmation he did the same
work. He transported logs the last winter he was in Norway. He was eighteen at
that time. The sawmill was close to the farm in the mountain and he used a
horse and a sleigh to transport the lumber to the mill. Peder's father worked
with him for a while, they had two horses, and after a while they hired one of
the neighbors to help them. When spring came, he transported the timber to the
highway. He received some money from the family to go to America. This was the
only money he obtained for the work he did on the farm.
277, side 1
257: TRAVEL TO
AMERICA
The ticket to America cost 440
NOK, which included transport from Trondheim, Norway to LaCrosse, WA. To be
able to enter America in New York you had to show that you had 25 dollars and
you had to have an address of the person you were traveling to. He did not have
any addresses because he did not know any people there. When they were on Ellis
Island, they were divided into lines to get their train tickets. They were
supposed to call the person they had an address for. The immigrants were
stacked like sardines. The boy he traveled with was ahead of him in line, so he
had his train ticket long before Peder got his. Peder went to the Norwegian
Seaman's Mission after he got his ticket and the Norwegians were supposed to
wait until their train departed. When the neighbor boy did not see Peder, he
thought he was lost, and went back to Ellis Island to look for Peder. They met
when Peder was getting his train tickets. Then they walked together, Peder
missed the telephone booth, or they missed him, so he did not call anybody here
in America. Both were headed for the same farm in LaCrosse, WA and they
traveled together until they got to LaCrosse.
277, side 1
299: SEAMAN'S
MISSION
They had a room and had something
to eat. They had to wait there for quite a while before they boarded the
train.
277, side 1
307: IMMIGRATION
Peder had information about the railroad from Norway.
They were in Oslo for 3-4 days and before they got on the boat they had to show
papers to the American Consulate there, so his papers were cleared back in
Norway. They arrived in New York in the morning. The American citizens on board
could walk ashore immediately. Peder and his friend had to wait on the boat
until the next morning because they were immigrants. Then they were allowed to
go to Ellis Island. They were split into lines according to what railroad you
were going on. If you did not know what company was the right one, you had to
look at the company name, and try to figure out what the right one was and then
take a chance with one window. If that was not correct, a person had to try to
find another line, and stand in line all over again.
277, side 1
341: TRIP TO
AMERICA
Peder and his friend went by
train from Trondheim to Oslo and boarded "Bergensfjord" in Oslo, heading for
New York. The weather was good, so it was a nice trip. They witnessed a burial
at sea. A woman died so they stopped the boat. They had the body in a wooden
box on the upper deck. The captain gave a service speech and the box were
lowered it into the water. Almost a week into the trip they picked up a
fisherman from Newfoundland, Peder thinks he was Portuguese. He had lost
orientation and had drifted away from the big ship he was on. The fisherman was
sitting in a small rowboat without an engine. "Bergensfjord" picked him and
took him along to New York. There were several people on deck when the
fisherman was rescued. People knew something was going to happen since the ship
suddenly stopped and started to turn. Peder was in his room and when he looked
out the window, he saw something on the water. Peder got scared because this
was during World War I and he thought it was a submarine. The trip happened in
August, so the weather was warm and nice.
277, side 1
392: DECIDING TO GO TO
LACROSSE
Peder came to LaCrosse because
his friend talked to someone in Norway who had been in LaCrosse before. That
person had worked in the woods in Spokane and on the farms during the harvest.
Lumberjacks usually worked in the forest during the winter and helped with the
harvest when it was necessary. Peder's friend had gotten the name and address
for someone in LaCrosse that could help them. Peder's friend name was Per
Garberg but they were not related. The farmer in LaCrosse was named Haldor
Kjøsnes, but he was not related to Peder's wife, who was born Kjøsnes. Kjøsnes
and Garberg are common names from Selbu.
277, side 1
420: ARRIVING IN
LACROSSE
Peder and Per came to LaCrosse
on August 7. They had gotten a name of a doctor in LaCrosse that could speak
Norwegian, so Peder contacted him. The doctor knew two boys, Tim and Tom, who
worked on a farm. They were in the LaCrosse delivering a load of wheat. Per and
Peder contacted them and rode with them from LaCrosse to the farm on the empty
wheat wagon the same evening. He does not remember much about his first
arrival in LaCrosse because he was very tired. He does remember that it was
very warm and he had very warm clothes.
277, side 1
441: TRAIN TO
LACROSSE
Peder did not sleep much on the
train because it was an uncomfortable trip. The train was a combination of
passenger and freight train. They had first class tickets but they were not
able to use them. Peder and Per came through Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska. He
also came to Pendleton, Oregon, where he changed trains. They got to Pendleton
during the night; he was very tired and laid down on the lawn to sleep. Then
they traveled on the WRN from Pendleton to LaCrosse. They bought the food they
ate on the train. They also bought some cured meat from Norway. On the ship a
rat smelled the meat and managed to eat some of the meat.
277, side 1
470: "BERGENSFJORD"
From England he took the boat to Halifax, Nova Scotia
because of World War I. The Englishmen examined the boat for propaganda and
spies and they looked through everything. They stayed in Halifax for two days
before they were allowed to continue to New York.
277, side 1
480: LEAVING NORWAY
He did not make any plans when he left. He had not
told his parents if he was returning. Before Peder left, friends of his parents
called and told his parents that they should not let Peder go to America. His
mother answered that there were five people in the close family that had lived
there before, so Peder was not the first person to go. His father had been
there before, but did not say much, except that he told him to stay out of the
cities and work on a farm.
277, side 1
495: ON THE WIGEN FARM AND THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Peder worked the first
winter on the Wigen farm with Wigen's two sons. The eldest married and had four
small children, which gave him several opportunities to learn the new language.
Wigen had a four-year old girl that tried to help him all the time. Peder
stayed there until the next spring. Wigen had another hired man and Peder was
offered a better deal on another farm. He worked on several different farms for
the next four years, until he leased his own farm in the area.
277, side 1
513: SALARY AND
WORKDAY
The usual arrangement was $60 a
month with free room and board. The salary could be better in the harvest
season, but the average salary in spring was $60 a month. Jobs in the field
were easy to find when Peder arrived in LaCrosse. He usually got up at 4am. The
horses were out during the night so they needed to be gathered and fed before
they could start working in the field. They were not finished until 7-8pm in
the evening. Peder did not get much time off to go into the city. The salary in
the harvest season also depended on the job you had. The farms usually used a
stationary thresher. Wagons with four horses transported the crops to the
machine. Working in the field was three dollars a day, feeding the thresher was
four dollars, if you worked filling the wheat in the sacks, the salary was five
dollars a day. That was a difficult job, especially on the machine. That was
very hard, could be 500 sacks. On a combine, there was a chute on the side,
where the sacks were dropped. That was not so hard. A sack could weigh about
145-150 lb. Peder worked with the sacks for one season, and he remembers
getting tired after a day's work with the sacks. He worked mostly for Norwegian
farmers.
277, side 1
563: LEASING HIS OWN
FARM
Most of the people were satisfied
with the farming they were doing. Peder did not think of going anywhere else,
so he leased a farm in the area for 41 years, until it was sold and he bought
his own house in Spokane. The lease was dependent on the crops and the rule was
that the landlord received one-third of the crops. He paid the lease from
1921-1927 until the man that owned the place said that Peder could have the
place without paying lease as long as the owners lived. Peder ran the farm
until 1962. When the owner died, the three sisters took over the lease and they
wanted to sell the farm in 1962. The farm was small, 320 acres and it was a
wheat farm. Peder had some milk cows, some chickens, and some hogs. The
property was never for sale, so he never had an option to buy the farm.
277, side 1
593: PRICE OF LAND
The price of land in 1921 was around $60 an acre. In
1928, a neighbor sold for $80 an acre. Then the Depression came and brought
very hard times. In 1931, 800 acres that partly bordered Peder's place was for
sale. This piece of land could be bought for $37 an acre because people did not
have any money. Now the land sells for around $1,000 an acre in the area.
277, side 1
612: MARRIAGE
Knew his wife, Brynhild Kjøsnes, from the time he
came to LaCrosse, because he used to visit her parents on Sundays after he got
there. He was working on the Wigen place, and Brynhild's parents owned the
neighboring farm. He had brought some things for Brynhild's sister from Norway.
Peder and Brynhild were married in Spokane, WA at the Old Holiday Hotel, in the
manager's apartment. Her parents were there for the ceremony, with Peder's
brother and Per Kjøsnes. A Lutheran Pastor, John Rockne, conducted the ceremony
from Our Savior Lutheran Church. The sermon was conducted in Norwegian. They
did not go on a wedding trip; they went directly back to the farm. The weddings
were usually completed in Spokane at that time.
277, side 1
637: CAR
His first car in America was a 1917 T-Ford, which he bought
from the person who had leased the farm before him. He bought the car along
with nine horses, three cows, some hogs, and chickens. Peder had not driven a
car much before so the oldest brother on the Wigen farm gave Peder driving
lessons. The Wigen's had an old Dodge. Peder had the car until 1928, when he
bought the first four-door A-Ford in LaCrosse.
277, side 2
066: ADVICE FROM
UNCLE
He decided to go to LaCrosse
because Per had contacts there. He did not know what America looked like,
except that Uncle Chris said that he should go to Seattle. Chris and Uncle Pete
worked in Alaska in the summer and spent the winter in Seattle. Pål owned some
land not far from Seattle. Pål married in Norway and visited America
frequently. Chris told Peder to avoid LaCrosse and go to the West Coast
instead. Chris had been in LaCrosse before and he did not like the area. Chris
had visited a first cousin here, Mrs. Karlsen. He usually visited here in the
spring when it was dusty. Peder never went to Seattle. Uncle Andreas had a nice
house by Lake Washington but he married a bad woman.
277, side 2
143: LIVING IN
AMERICA
Not everyone had it as good as
Peder in America. The majority stayed in LaCrosse, but some returned to Norway.
There are mostly 3rd and 4th generation living in LaCrosse now.
277, side 2
170: CITIZENSHIP
Peder became an American citizen in 1936. For the
exam he studied the American government. Both had to take the exam to be able
to stay. A Federal examiner held the exam from the superior court. The exam was
held in the Colfax county superior court, in Colfax, WA. The examiner had one
big question "Have you ever heard of the checks and the balance system in our
Government?" Peder knew the answer and explained it in detail to the examiner.
The examiner answered You have been studying, I see." He had no special reason
why he took the citizenship exam in 1936. The exam looked hard and someone he
knew had been there before and gotten turned down. His wife took the same exam
a few years later.
277, side 2
218: CHILDREN
Their oldest daughter Clara was born October 4, 1922.
Clara was married twice; her first husband owned a sanitary service in
Clearfield, Pennsylvania. She had gone to Business College, so she was the
bookkeeper. Clara's husband passed away in 1951 and left her with four boys,
and 3-4 trucks and 8 men working in the business. She ran the business for some
years, before she remarried. She is a head cook for a retirement home, run by
the church in the area. They serve several hundred people there every day. The
kitchen is run on charity basis, and they serve mostly senior citizens.
Their son Irwin was born on August 17, 1925. He is married and has three sons,
Earl, Paul, and Gerry. Gerry is living in New York and is a graduate from
Columbia University. After he was in the military for four years, Irwin went to
trade school to become a mechanic. Now he is a shop clerk for At CAT-dealer in
the area.Sadie was born on July 6, 1928 and is married to a farmer,
Gene Allen and they own a farm south of Spokane, in Valleyford, WA.Phyllis was born on September 5, 1935 and she went through Business College
and works for a bank/credit card company in Spokane. She is married to John
Maynor and has two boys, Jeffrey, and Kevin. They are both married and have
children as well.
277, side 2
318: COMMUNITY/NORWEGIAN
GROUPS
They attended church activities in
the Selbu-Lutheran Church. All activities were conducted in Norwegian until
they built a new church. Then the congregation got a new pastor who knew
Norwegian, so he preached both in Norwegian and English. The church was a part
of "Den Norsk-Lutherske Kirke I Amerika." In 1931, all the sermons were
conducted in English, because the young people did not know the Norwegian
language. The name of the church was changed to the Evangelican Lutheran
Church. Peder and Brynhild belonged to this church until 1962, when they joined
the American Lutheran Church in Spokane.In the beginning, the
congregation shared pastor with Moscow, ID. Pastor Hall was the last one of
them; he was there until 1918. The pastors lived in Moscow and came down on the
train. The pastor stayed on the different farms when he was visiting the area
around LaCrosse. The church building was about 8 miles from the town. The
church was located in the center of the area, in which the Norwegians lived.
Land was donated from the farmers to build the church. They had problems
gathering funds for building the church, and getting the pastor there, but that
is the same today.
277, side 2
401: TRIP TO NORWAY
They were in Norway for a visit in 1964. That is the
only time they went back. The trip was much quicker than when they left for
America. They went on a plane from Spokane to Trondheim, via New York, Denmark,
and Oslo. Peder's sister and her husband met them at the airport. The biggest
change was that people had cars; cars did not exist in Selbu before they
immigrated. Farming methods were different. The land was steeper in Selbu,
Peder's father used to farm it all, and they used a scythe to harvest the
crops. Now the farmers used silos, but several still hang the hay on racks to
dry. His nephew used a hay-dryer on his farm. The timber was logged
differently. Cutting in 1964 was much more systematic, they cut it all, and new
trees were replanted. Earlier they cut one tree here and one tree there. He did
not like the new method.
277, side 2
458: NORWEGIAN
HERITAGE
Peder does not feel that there
is anything special with the Norwegians; a person's personality determines who
the person is no matter where they are. He does not feel anything special about
being a Norwegian. Peder does not think that there is much difference in any
nations. Peder has not passed on anything special to his kids. He gave his kids
American names because he was in America, and he felt that that was the way it
should be.
277, side 2
511: NORWEGIAN
NEWSPAPERS
He subscribed to "Decorah
Posten" and later the "Western Viking." Peder's sister sends him the local
newspaper from his hometown, "Selbyggen."
277, side 2
522: CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION IN
NORWAY
(This part is conducted in
Norwegian) They ate lefse, fattigmann (Christmas cookie), and brewed their own
beer. Peder had two weeks off during Christmas, from December 25 to January 13.
They did not keep many of the Christmas traditions when he came to
LaCrosse.
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