Ane-Charlotte Five Aarset, born 1947, a Norwegian journalist and author of Geriljalederen (The Guerrilla Leader) 2024, Utvandreren (The Emigrant) 2012, Kavaleristen (The Cavalryman) 2007, about which Norsk Utvandrermuseum (The Norwegian Emigrant Museum) has created a mobile exhibition, and Skyttergeneralen (The Marksman General) 2005, which gave her the prize “Freelance Journalist of the Year”.

Web site: www.ac-five-aarset.com

An edited and translated  version of Utvandreren (The Emigrant) is availalble in English under the title They Sang for Norway: Olaf Oleson’s Immigrant Choir. Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press. The book is available through Amazon and Minnesota Historical Society Press Books.

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Book review: The Norwegian American, Seattle, 8. sept. 2017

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Utvandreren (The Emigrant) – brought the song about Norway over the ocean

 

 O. M. Oleson, number two from left, outside his store in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

From choir singing to supporting guerrillas

They were brothers coming from “The Red County”, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. One was guerrilla leader, the other singer association president. One became “a good Norwegian”, the other emigrated to America. Both made an impact on Norway’s history. This is the story about the one who left.

It has been a wide spread view that the more than 500.000 Norwegians who emigrated to America during the 19^th century let down their home country, while those staying behind built it. This is now proved incorrect.

By being numerous and having strongly rooted dreams about Norway, the emigrants formed powerful organizations in America. Special among these were the Norwegian-American male choirs throughout the Midwest.

This book tells how the choir members lead the front in the Norwegian-American’s support to an illegal, Norwegian army and in the collection of money used to fund the forming of Norway’s first political party, Venstre ( “Left”, social-liberals), both vital instruments when the Norwegian people won the fight against the Swedish king and his servants in the Norwegian bureaucracy in 1884. Norway gained parliamentarianism. By this the basis for what was going to happen in 1905, total liberation from Sweden, was formed. Then, again, the Norwegian-Americans were ready to help, this time also with weapon in their hands.

These singing groups in America embodied the new

Norwegian ideals of enlightened progress and freedom

with equal standing.

Camilla Haugen Cai, professor of music, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 2001.

Click on the picture to enlarge

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Kavaleristen (The Cavalryman)

– A Remarkable Love Story

Kavaleristen (The Cavalryman) was published (in Norwegian) 2007 in connection with the opening of an exhibition based on the book and arranged by the Norwegian Emigrant Museum.

The book tells the true story of a Norwegian immigrant who’s life became a quite different adventure from that of most immigrants. Rather than taking up a traditional civil living, he devoted his life to the US Army and he is probably the only Norwegian who has participated in four major wars on the American side. As a Cavalryman he took part in ”The Last Indian War”, in the Spanish-American War and the Philippines-American War which developed into a battle with the Muslim Philippine guerrillas. During The First World War he served as an instructor for American soldiers.

Bernt August Eriksen grew up on the small farm Revhaug in Oestfold, Norway. He fled to America in 1884 to avoid prison after a fist fight, changed his name to Bent Howe and swore never to return to his homeland.

The story of Bent Howe was made available to us through letters he wrote to the woman he had married and soon after left behind in Kristiania, Norway. More than 40 years after they parted he asked her for forgiveness and wanted her to join him in Seattle.

The author’s foreword in the book:
«Many years ago my father handed me some old letters. They remained in my desk drawer until the summer 2005 when I started reading them. They brought me into a remarkable love story which stretched across the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian wars, the US Army, cavalrymen, mustangs and forts, further to Cuba and across the Pacific Ocean to The Philippines and back to USA and Seattle in the 1930’s, now suffering from The Depression, where the old Cavalryman took on the role as grandfather to two small children. Then we are led back again to Norway and Kristiania and Revhaug farm in Oestfold and from there to the small farm Fokkenberg until the journey ends at the very start of this story, at the medieval church overlooking the beautiful Roedenes Lake.
Hoevik, May 2007
Ane-Charlotte Five Aarset»

«In making the book I have received help and support from several persons. I would like to mention Director Knut Djupedal at the Norwegian Emigrant Museum whom I have consulted on historical facts and Curator Thomas R. Buecker at Fort Robinson Museum, Nebraska who has been a consultant on military manners pertaining to Bent Howe’s service in the US Army», says the author.
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Published 2005 (100-year anniversary for Norway’s separation from Sweden): Skyttergeneralen Ola Five – geriljalederen med stort ansvar for Norges frihet i 1905.(”The Marksman General” Ola Five – the guerilla leader with great responsibility for Norway’s liberation from Sweden in 1905) which brought her the price ”Freelance Journalist of The Year”.

”The Marksman General” Ola Five and the Cavalryman Bent Howe – two Norwegians on each side of the Atlantic Ocean during an exciting historical period. One of them struggled for Norway’s liberation from Sweden, the other fought in Americas early wars, the first steps towards the position as international superpower. Both men met triumphs and tragedies. They have also given us stories of Lifelong Love – one in a close lived marriage, the other through memories of the woman he had foresaken.
The two men never met. Their women did, however.
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