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Kristoffer Ulseth
Childhood and Youth
Kristoffer was born in 1871 at Ulset. At that time
Ingebrigt and Ingeborg had left Grøtlia (in 1865). He
was christened "Kristoffer", but later changed his name in
the US to Christopher, but usually called Chris. When Chris
was 11 years old, in 1881, the family moved to
Stølen. After Ingebrigt's decease in 1888 and after
Ole's emigration the same year, Chris made a good job
helping on the farm. Later, when Iver emigrated in 1890,
Chris and Martin were left behind with their mother. There
were different reasons why Chris decided to emigrate. Many
of his friends at Oppdal and Kvikne and his brothers, Ole
and Iver, had emigrated already. He was influenced by their
desire of adventure and possibilities of making a good
profit in America. He also went abroad to avoid military
service.
Emigration
Early one morning in 1893, Chris left his home with a
horse conveyance. We believe he left from Kvikne. An
interview Chris gave to a local newspaper in Kvikne in 1954
at his visit, indicates so. We also believe that his mother,
Ingeborg, moved back to Kvikne about that time. Let us
listen to what Chris told in the interview in 1954:
"Early one morning in the Spring 1893 1 left, bound for
Trondheim, by carriage drawn by horse. I said goodbye to
people in the neighbourhood who had gathered at the fences
along the road, and stood waving to me. I waved too, it was
my goodbye to "Mother Norway". I did not know if it was
forever, or would I some time see this landscape again, and
meet again some of these people?"
Chris was a quiet and modest young man with courage to
press forward, and he wanted to create something with his
own hands. He would try to get something meaningful out of
the existence. He would try to experience as much as
possible out of the world he met, and he would test himself
against the world and try to defend a persons rights in the
struggle for the being. Unmarried, he left Trondheim in
April 1893, via Liverpool, to America. At the emigration
Chris embarked on S/S "Hero" in Trondheim, the same vessel
that brought his older brothers Even, Ole and Iver over to
England earlier. Now his turn had come.
From New York to farming in Canada
From his period in America he told to a local newspaper
at his visit back in Norway: "I've roamed from working
different places in New York to more lonely places in the
States. Besides a lot of small jobs, I've run my own sawmill
in Fosston, Minnesota, I've worked with mining in Hibbing
and tried farming different places. After being married to
Bettie (Swedish) in 1905, at last I
settled near Calgary, Canada. With a farm of 6400 acres, my
dreams got fulfilled. I had created something with my own
hands and I had got something out of the existence. In spite
of all the struggling it was a happy time."
Again and again his crop was ruined of stormy weather
with hail as big as eggs. Sometimes the losses were very big
so that it was difficult to start up again. "One time",
tells Chris, "the hails came through the windows on one side
of the house, touched the floor and slashed out of the
windows on the other side." Together with his Swedish wife,
Bettie, he made a hospitable home. Their home was open for
the newcomers, and here they received a hearty welcome.
Quite often the Nordic people met in their living-room for
pleasant parties. Bettie and Chris had eleven children.
After his wife's decease, his son Dean
took over the farm. In the summer 1954 Chris got an
opportunity to visit Norway again. Then he was 83 years old
and had been away for 62 years. Some of us can still
remember him as a tall, white-haired old man, who gave the
impression of having been a strong and powerful man in,his
young days. No wonder he could run the farm together with
his mother and later make his fortune in "The new
world."
The later owner of Stølen, Reidar Hagen, told in
1990 he had heard about "This Christopher" who was named the
"Christopher Boy". Mr. Hagen tells he knew a neighbour to
Stolen who was a friend of Christopher. Chris, as an old
man, visited Norway in 1954, and met people in Kvikne and
Oppdal. He met again his childhood-friend, Hellaug. Chris
was at that time at Stølen and looked at the new
houses. He said he could hardly recognize a bit. The only
thing that he felt familiar to, was a stone-block near the
barn. Mr. Hagen tells he came home to Stolen and met his
wife the day Chris had been there. Mrs. Hagen said: "Oh,
Reidar, guess who has been here today? That "Christopher
Boy"!"
Chris left in 1893. According to the Public Record Office
in Trondheim, he left from Kvikne. Maybe his last stay in
Norway was at his relatives at Ulset. An interview Chris
gave to a newspaper in Norway in 1954 also tells he left
from Kvikne to Trondheim.
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