Granddaughter gives a glimpse into Waldemar Ager's scrapbooks
Inaugurates Ager House Resource Library grand opening

EAU CLAIRE, June 20, 2008— While she knows now that his contributions to the community were important, Barbara Bergh Culver's first knowledge of Waldemar Ager was of a kindly pipe smoker who sketched public figures and told her stories in Norwegian—much of which she could not understand. Culver (at left, with Ager's flute) shared her recollections and her research about her grandfather with the public Friday evening, kicking off a three-day grand-opening of the Ager House Resource Library, located at 514 W. Madison Street.

Opening the event, held at the Chippewa Valley Montessori School library, Waldemar Ager Association president Ken Ziehr noted that Ager, for years the only Eau Claire resident listed in Who's Who in America, is now "Eau Claire's best-kept secret." The purpose of the association, now marking its15th anniversary, was not only to preserve the Ager house and preserve and promote Ager's work as editor and author, but to convert the house into a community asset. The resource library is the latest realization of that purpose.

One of the resource library's goals is to promote the study of immigrant groups and cultures in the Chippewa Valley. Promoting immigrant culture was also a major strand of Waldemar Ager's life's work as author, editor and speaker, according to Culver. He was instrumental in organizing Norwegians on both the local and national scale, helping O. E. Rølvaag to form the For Faedrearven society ("For the Ancestral Heritage"), and eventually the Norwegian-American Historical Association. Ager was "in complete charge of conducting [the Sigvald Qvale] declamatory contests" that promoted the Norwegian language long after his death in 1941. He played a part in developing and informing Norden, the nation's largest branch of the Grand Lodge fraternal society. His writings in its organ, "Monthly Journal," as "Professor Skravlebøtte" (Professor Chatterbox) entertained members for years. "Perhaps he was ahead of his time," Culver said, noting that Ager did work on behalf of Norskdom that newer immmigrant groups, such as the Hmong, are doing on behalf of their cultures today.

Eau Claire was the epicenter of many developments in Norwegian America, in part because of Ager's unstinting efforts at promoting a sense of heritage. Among other things, Culver remarked that Eau Claire had the largest Syttende Mai children's parade of its kind in 1914, having borrowed the custom from Norway. Below, a contemporary picture shows Mrs. Ager with three of her children, dressed for that parade, holding Norwegian flags.

Syttende Mai, 1914. L to R.: Gurolle Ager and children Magne, Valborg and Solveig pose outside their home.

Another of the Resource Library's goals is to provide historical, statistical and other relevant information about immigrant groups in the Chippewa Valley. Waldemar Ager did much to unearth and preserve primary accounts from Eau Claire's lumbering days, Culver notes, many of which surfaced in Ager's 1926 novel, Gammlelandets Sønner (Sons of the Old Country), as well as artifacts and accounts of Union Army's Wisconsin Fifteenth Regiment, led by Colonel Hans C. Heg, made up almost entirely of Norwegian immigrants. Ager collected those materials under the title Oberst Heg og hans Gutter (Colonel Heg and his Boys), in 1916, recently translated and popular with Civil War buffs. "His interest in things of local historic significance," Culver writes, "came to the surface at a time when an aging Norwegian saloonkeeper in Eau Claire expressed readiness to dispose of a vast collection of relics and oddities that he had amassed over a long period of years. These included Indian relics, all kinds of Civil War mementoes, items brought to Eau Claire by immigrants, and pioneer tools. This collection took up most of the second floor of the Eau Claire Public Library." When the city declined to purchase the collection to begin a museum, Ager arranged for it to be acquired by the Vesterheim museum in Decorah, Iowa, now part of NAHA.

Culver also shared some of the writings of her mother, Gudrun Ager Bergh, the Agers' second child. Bergh's letters shed light on how American influence shaped Ager's outlook on education, and on details of life in the Ager household; the couple helped one another out in their duties. Bergh also described life in Eau Claire's early 20th-century Norwegian district, evoking a vivid picture of the skating rink and warming house on Half Moon Lake just north of the Ager's dining room window, where young people gathered. Culver noted that nearby Luther Hospital began on a budget of $70,000, half of which was donated by the widow of Sigvald Qvale. Ager played a part in Luther Hospital's inception.

Ken Ziehr followed up Culver's remarks with thanks to all donors and volunteers an invitation to an open house at the new Ager House Resource Library immediately following the event.

Related articles:

Transcript of Barbara Culver's speech

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

The Ager House Resource Library

Summer hours at the Ager House Resource Library