Glimpses into my Grandfather's Scrapbook
Barbara Bergh Culver

The following is from the text of Barbara Culver's speech, delivered on June 20, 2008, at the Chippewa Valley Montessori school, on the event of the Ager House Resource Library's grand opening. She was introduced to the audience by Ella Ager Fossum.

Good Evening.

Thank you for inviting me to your opening of the Waldemar Ager Library. Thank you,
Ella, for your kind introduction. It is especially nice to be back here in Eau Claire and see
so many familiar faces, both relatives and friends.

About five years ago, our daughter, Pam, who lives in La Crosse had her office in a building with
a bookstore that had many Norwegian gifts and books, and when the owner heard that
Pam was a great granddaughter of Waldemar Ager, they asked her if she would talk about him
at their Sons of Norway meeting. She immediately suggested they ask me since I had
known him as a child. It was an interesting idea, and since I had written a Wisconsin History
term paper about Grandpa while at Eau Claire Teachers' College (which it was called back then), in 1956, I decided to use that paper as my theme.


Culver addresses the audience

First for those who do not know me—I am Barbara Bergh Culver and I grew up in Eau Claire
and am the daughter of Gudrun Ager and Milo Bergh. My mom was Ager’s second child
and my dad owned an auto repair shop on Water St. After graduating from the UW at
Eau Claire I married Fritz Culver, also an Eau Claire native, and we immediately moved to Houston, Texas, where he was in the oil business. We moved very frequently from Houston to Mc Allen,
Texas, then to New Orleans, Morgan City, Louisiana, on to Lagos, Nigeria, then Great Missenden,
England, and finally back to Louisiana, where we have lived the past 31 years. We would
return to Eau Claire during the summer and ultimately bought a cottage north of New Auburn, and so have been fortunate to be in the area during the summer months.

Waldemar Ager was born in Fredrikstad, Norway in March 1869. Fredrikstad is a
lovely walled town just south of Oslo. He lived there a for a few years and then the
family moved across the river to Gressvik, where he spent most of his early childhood.
When we were living in England, Fritz had business in Norway, and we made a few trips
there. Then in 1983 my mom and I took a trip to Norway and we went to Fredrikstad.
Walking around the village, we found a book store, went in and looked around. The
shopkeeper asked how come we were visiting at that time of year, October, and I told
him that my mom's dad had been born there. He immediately asked if she was
Waldemar Ager's daughter. We had a wonderful conversation and he suggested that we
go to Gressvik and visit Grandpa's home. We did go and went to the door, the gentleman
that answered was very happy to have us, gave us coffee, showed us many papers, books,
and etc. that they had collected about Grandpa. He even gave my mom a copy of the title
to the house that they had. This experience, plus visiting Tromsø where Grandma was
born and finding their home, made the trip very exciting and fun.

When times were bad in Norway in the late 1800's many Norwegians decided to
immigrate to the US, as many of your ancestors evidently did. His father preceded the
family to Chicago and in 1885 Grandpa with his mother, brother and sister emigrated and
joined his father. His first job was a printer apprentice at Norden, a weekly Norwegian
paper in Chicago. He became interested in the temperance movement and started
publishing articles about abstinence. In 1892 he heard about the paper Reform in Eau Claire
which advocated temperance and prohibition and he was able to get a job there as a
printer. He met my grandma, Gurolle Blestren at a young Norwegian people's club
called Excelsior. They were married in 1899 and took their honeymoon trip to New
Orleans. This fact has been interesting to me, since we have lived there and realize how
hot it is in the summer. They were married in July and all the clothes they wore back
then must have been unbearable. They had nine children, Eyvind was born in 1900 and
my mother, Gudrun was second oldest was born in 1904 and the youngest child, Borghild
was born in 1917. Only one of the children is still living, Roald who is presently living in
Barron and he is 94.

Back in 1955 while I was in college, my mother had my grandfather's scrapbooks at our
home, so I spent a lot of time going thru them. Much was written in Norwegian, but with
my mother's help, my uncles Eyvind, Trygve and Roald, I was able to find some interesting facts
and articles. Let me read the introduction of my term paper.

My grandfather was 72 years old when he died in 1941 but I can still remember
numerous incidents and things about him which help me to realize the type of man that he was. I know now that his contributions to the community were important, but as a little girl, he just seemed like a kind old man who would sit and smoke a pipe while telling me stories in Norwegian, much of which I couldn't understand. Many times I would sit on his lap while he was working at his desk and once, he even sketched pictures of Hitler, Mussolini, and other well known men for me, which I still have.

The mental image that I have of grandpa was of a small man with a bushy moustache,
wearing a dark gray suit with a vest, and almost invariable smoking a large pipe. When he drank coffee, he would pour it into the saucer to let it cool, before drinking it. This is just one of his many mannerisms which come to my mind as I think of him. He had numerous hobbies which he was very interested in, which included collecting articles, souvenirs, and other items that he would paste in large scrapbooks. 11 is from these many scrapbooks that I was able to gather information and learn a lot about my grandfather and what he did for the area around Eau Claire.

He had 3 areas of causes that he was most interested in:

1. Temperance and total abstinence

2. He wanted to keep the Norwegian culture and traditions alive but tempered by American physical and social settings

3. He wanted to advocate things that would be evidence of such a culture—keep both languages active, literature, art and music.

When you analyze it, it isn't much different from ideas of today in regards to [recent immigrant groups]. He was probably way ahead of the times.

Many of you that receive the Ager newsletter, may have read some of the articles
he wrote on their honeymoon to New Orleans. He wrote about what he saw and his
opinions. The differences between the whites and the blacks, his observations in Chicago
and how things had changed in the years since he left there, how the new restaurants
counteract the saloons, a lot of observations about the Civil War as he had studied and
read a lot about it, the observations at the national cemetery in Vicksburg where he wrote
the following:

Why do they call these cemeteries where soldiers are buried National Cemeteries? Are they institutions that belong to a well organized state or is it so that the nation recognizes them as theirs to a higher degree than others? Or is it the responsibility that the nation admits? True it is . . . they are all beautifully maintained. Our nation does much for its dead. Great measures are taken for proper arrangements that the dead shall "Rest in
Peace" Could not a troubled conscience also be satisfied if the government would make provisions so that the living could also "Live in Peace"?

There are so many observations on this honeymoon trip that make you realize that my
grandpa must have visualized way ahead of his time.

As my grandpa continued at the Reform and eventually took over the paper as editor, and
owner, his writing skills increased. He wrote numerous short stories, 4 novels, an historical work on the record of the 15th Wisconsin Regiment in the Civil War, essays plus his numerous articles in the Reform and other Norwegian Publications. He became recognized as a sought-after public speaker and due to his interest in Norwegian culture, he was asked to manage and be secretary for the Wisconsin Display at the Norwegian Centennial Expositions in Oslo in 1914. In his scrapbooks he had numerous souvenirs and articles in regard to this display. My mother recalled how nervous the family was at the time as here he was in Oslo and WWI was breaking out and they were concerned about his safely and how he would get home.

The scrapbooks of Grandpa’s produce an early history of Eau Claire and the contributions made
by the Norwegian-Americans that lived in the area. One of the Civil War heroes was Col.
Hans C. Heg, a Norwegian from Wisconsin. Grandpa decided to write the book about
Col. Heg and interviewed many of the men that had survived of which there were very
few, and he collected letters from relatives of the men. He was also responsible for
collecting the fund for the monument of Heg in Madison erected in 1926. ON the
program, the caption read, "it is due largely to the zeal and untiring efforts of Mr. Ager
that this Memorial has become a reality". Before the war, Heg was elected State Prison
Commissioner and through his honesty and love, brought himself an enviable record with
that work. Through his efforts, the 15th Wisconsin Regiment, composed almost entirely
of Norwegian immigrants, was organized. They played a gallant part in the war,
especially around Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Georgia. At the battle of Chickamauga
the regiment was virtually wiped out and Col. Heg was shot on the first evening of the
battle and died the next day. The statue was the first memorial to any Civil War hero in
Wisconsin and was a gift from the citizens of Norwegian descent living in the northwest. They
also erected a memorial in Heg's hometown in Norway.

An interesting account of [veteran] Ben Nelson's trip home to Eau Claire in his diary mentioned that he worked for the Smith and Buffington's Saw Mill in Eau Claire for $18.00 a month before the
Civil War. Mr. Nelson lived in Elk Mound and this is his account of his trip home in May 1863 from the war:

After I had been sick a long time the doctor said it would be best for me to go home for a while. On the 8th day of May (1863) I took the boat for Cairo. It cost one dollar. There I took a train for Chicago, which cost $6.50. From there to Sparta it cost $5.40. At Sparta I took the stage to Eau Claire. It cost $5.00. There was no railroad to Eau Claire at that time. I stopped at the Eau Claire House for the night and next day went to see Dr. Galloway, who was the only doctor in the village. He gave me a bottle of medicine, which cost a dollar and which did not do me the least bit of good. I now had eleven miles to my home, but fortunately I found a farmer with an ox-team with whom I got a ride nine miles, so had only two miles more to go. I arrived home the evening of the 15th.

I found numerous buttons and delegate ribbons for the early Prohibition National
conventions. Of more local interest were the numerous temperance rallies and meetings
held in Eau Claire for the people that were interested in combating the prohibition problem.
These early organizations were called Excelsior, Varden and Viking, and were social
gatherings of many of the Norwegians and their families in the area. Grandpa Ager did
a lot to help organize these early meetings and carried out the ideas and arguments
proposed by the groups in regard to the liquor situation. They would have opening
ceremonies, then a business meeting which usually included a speaker on temperance and
a short musical program. Then they had a coffee hour and games so the people could be
come acquainted. He used the Reform to publish his arguments on temperance. His
first temperance work was a production of short stories that treated the drunkard as an
human being whom it was necessary to understand and did not antagonize, resulting in a
more effective means for dealing with the question. As the question was settled later on
by the 18th Amendment, the Reform was devoted more to general news.

At a banquet held for Grandpa in 1923 when King Haakon bestowed the honor of the
decoration of a Knight of the First Class in the Order of St. Olaf on him. Grandpa said:

The main thing about the temperance questions was to get the saloon out
Of politics. With that accomplishment, the people will settle the rest of the
problem without much trouble. I am an old-fashioned prohibitionist—never
thought we would win in my time, but we did.

One of Grandpa’s scrapbooks is devoted entirely to the souvenirs and articles about his
trip to Oslo for the Norwegian Centennial Exposition in 1914. In the report of the
committee for the affair, he explained in detail what he had done to organize the display,
what it consisted of, and the expenses entailed in it. From Eau Claire there were 50 homes
photographed from all types of financial and working levels, including Dr. A. Thrane's
home. He was the son of Marcus Thrane who started the labor movement in Norway.
Nearly every city in Wisconsin was represented and such things as the first Norwegian home,
churches, farms, academies, printing offices, and the large industrial plants that were
started and owned by Norwegians were displayed. One example was the Northwestern
Steel and Iron Works in Eau Claire. The exhibit of Civil War relics and photos of the officers
and soldiers was one of the principal features of the display.

One of the displays which received some publicity, were the two maps of Wisconsin, one
marked the spots of the Norwegian settlements and the other was an Anti-Saloon League
of 1913. When you compared the two maps the places where the saloons were voted out,
corresponded to the more densely settled Norwegian areas. Grandpa was very pleased
with this and wrote a brief article about it which was in his scrapbook.

Grandpa Ager was particularly fond of Norwegian cultural ideals, and when the
temperance question had been settled with the 18th Amendment, he spent a lot of time
lecturing and writing trying to promote the idea among the Norwegians to maintain their
ancestral traditions, customs, language and ideals, in 1919 a group of leading men in the
Northwest met in Eau Claire for the purpose of organizing a more intense campaign of the
preservation of cultural and intellectual values native to the people of Norwegian
ancestry. O.E. Rølvaag from St. Olaf together with men from Eau Claire, including Peder
Tangjerd, Korneliun Sumstad and Grandpa were members of this group. The aim of the
organization called, For Fædrearven, was defined as:

To awaken among the people of Norwegian stock in America a deeper
appreciation of and love for he great values we have received from our fathersin history, language, religious and secular literature, art, and racial characteristics; to make these values powerfully operative for good in our national life as well as in the life of the church, and especially in the rearing of our children and in the education of our youth; to strengthen the feeling of kinship and to preserve the spiritual contact with people of our own stock and order that we may guard and fructify the heritage we have received from the fathers and bring it forward in augmented form to the coming generations.

Professor Knut Gjerset from Luther College at Decorah together with others from the
college started collecting Norwegian documents before 1925. These men decided to
combine the various Norwegian groups into one historical society. In August, 1925,
Rølvaag, Gjerset and Kristian Presstgard, editor of the Decorah-Posten, all journeyed to
Eau Claire, where they discussed merging with Grandpa's group. Later that fall an organizational meeting was held in Northfield where objectives for the Norwegian Historical Association were
formed.

When Sigvald Qvale lived in Eau Claire in the 1880's, he accumulated a fortune in real estate.
After his death, his widow arranged for encouraging the study of Norwegian by offering silver and gold medals to young people who distinguished themselves by reciting short
stories or poems in Norwegian. Soon Grandpa was in complete charge of conducting
declamatory contests in different parts of the country. Many of the young Norwegians in
Eau Claire had ample opportunities to partake in these contests and received medals for doing an
exceptional job. Another Norwegian custom that was kept alive for many years in the United States
is the annual 17th of May celebration, which honors Norway's independence. In 1914 Eau Claire
held the largest celebration of this type when it borrowed the old tradition from Norway
of holding a children's parade. Fritz and I were fortunate a number of years ago of being
in the Seattle area and went to the parade there with Norwegian friends and Midge and John
Amend from Eau Claire. Another interesting Norwegian place that we have frequented in New
Orleans is the Norwegian Seamen's Church of which there are a number in port cities in
the United States.

There are also many other things in his scrapbooks which reflect his interest in preserving
local history. He was very interested in listening to old-timer immigrants from Norway
tell about their experiences in getting to Eau Claire, and their work and life after they got here.
After listening to numerous accounts, he wrote a novel into which he wove many of these
old yarns, resulting in his novel Sons of the Old Country. Another fact stated in his
scrapbook was the local Norwegian saloon keeper had gathered numerous relics and
oddities which he wanted to dispose of. Grandpa encouraged him to display them at the
library and they took up most of the second floor. Afterwards Grandpa tried to get the
c city to purchase these artifacts but they were not interested, so he assisted in having the
collection acquired by Luther College for their museum.

Grandpa often said that he would like to see people of other racial background, such as
Germans, Irish and others, develop the same intensive interest in their historical
background in the new world, because when you roll them all together you have the
history of America—the melting pot of all people.

A faded blue ribbon for the annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of the Independent
Scandinavian Workingman's Association held in Eau Claire in 1899 was pinned on one page of
the scrapbook. In 1889 it was found necessary to obtain some type of financial security
for the man working in the lumber yards and sawmills when sickness, accidents and death
occurred. A group of Scandinavians in Eau Claire proposed organizing a branch of the
Scandinavian Workingmen's Association of North America and a meeting was called on March
1,1889, for this purpose. The group were dissatisfied with the Grand Lodge so they
seceded and formed their independent group in March 1893 and a year later the first
meeting of the Grand Lodge was held, and "All male Scandinavians who had reached
their 18th birthday but not past 45 years of age, in good health, of good moral character
and self-supporting" were eligible. In 1914 the Eau Claire Branch "Norden" was the largest
Norwegian Fraternal society in the United States, with a membership of 600. The organization published "Monthly Journal." In the March 1943 issue was an article about Grandpa stating that
during the early years of Norden, he was largely responsible for making its meetings both
interesting and instructive. It stated that for a number of years a great number of
humorous articles appeared written by him under the pen name of "Prof. Skravlebøtte.”

The greatest undertaking that the Norwegians of Eau Claire attempted was the building of the
Luther Hospital. It represented the expenditure of about $70,000. 00, of which about
one half was donated by Mrs. Anna Qvale, the widow of Sigvald Qvale, who made a
fortune in real estate. I believe the Norwegians responsible for the building of Luther
Hospital, including Grandpa, would be amazed how it has grown and what a wonderful hospital it has become.

Since my grandma came to the U.S. when she was seven years old, she had attended school in Eau Claire and was very proficient in English. My mother said that she would do a lot of the research for Grandpa and help him with the English grammar.

In those days everyone came home to eat at noon and they had their big meal or dinner then. So many times Grandpa would entertain the children, have a parade through the house while Grandma would finish preparing the meal. I can picture him leading the children and play his flute. Grandma gave me his flute when I began playing the flute in junior high. You might even find him hanging up diapers or clothes on the clothesline outside. They helped each other much like the families do today.

Even though Grandpa was most informed of politics, international affairs, history and current events, and since he had accomplished so much with just a grade school education, he felt children at the age of 16 should go to work and help provide for their parents. Thus, the oldest of his children, Eyvind and Gudrun, had to quit school and go to work at age 16. By the time my uncle Trygve was in high school, one of the local ministers convinced Grandpa to allow him to finish school and go on to St. Olaf College. Coincidentally, Grandpa received an honorary degree from St. Olaf at the same time Trygve graduated. His younger children all were able to complete their education, and even the girls attended college.

This morning I found this letter that my mom, Gudrun wrote on March 15, 1993 and I thought that you would enjoy hearing her recollections of ice skating:

Last night (Sunday) and the evening before, I watched the professional figure skaters, and they were wonderful. Don’t know how they can do all the fancy business on skates. We felt that we were good when we could skate backwards – but that was eighty years ago. Even our clothing was different – mostly skirts, big sweaters or jackets, or even long coats. We also wore shoes with the skates clamped on them. We had to use a key to tighten them. When we finally got to the point where we bought shoe skates, they were high laced boots with the skates attached. The skates were made of heavy metal ( not light metal) and it was bitter cold, usually. Much too cold for the kind of skimpy things they wear now. I would be afraid straps would break and a person would be skating in a birthday suit.

It was fun though, and none of us strived to get to be a Sonja Henie. We had a little group of girls and usually took turns skating with the boys, which was fun. Some of the girls even ended up marrying the boys they had met skating on Half Moon Lake – for instance, Kitty Chambers Gorton, Helen Wachutta Ellingson, Millie Anderson Nelson, and others. The only two from our gang left are Millie and myself. Even the boys are mostly gone, I think. Eyvind was with us some of the time, but he traveled with a group a little bit older, so I was lucky because his friends would come my way to skate with me, too.

The skating rink was usually a little further north on the lake from our house. There was a warming house, where we could go in and get warm and if we had the money, we could buy something to eat, mostly bars or weiner buns, etc. They sometimes would have recordings playing, so we could skate to music, which we thought was great. Such simple fun, but the rink would be crowded on Sunday afternoons. In some of the churches, during that time, they would have a youth get-together, in the late afternoon, and many of us would go to our church for lunch and a program, etc. Maybe that would be another thing for them to do now. The parents would make the supper for them, mostly spaghetti, but it was good and we were cold and hungry.

After glimpsing through Grandpa's scrapbooks, I feel that I have had chance to become
better acquainted with him and his many interests in Eau Claire and his contributions to this
community Although I wasn't old enough to understand and appreciate his many qualities when he was living, I have gained a great deal from delving into his scrapbooks, souvenirs and personal belongings.

Related articles:

Glimpses into my Grandfather's Scrapbooks

Ager House Resource Library grand opening, June 20–22, 2008.

The Ager House Resource Library

Summer hours at the Ager House Resource Library