Text in curly brackets {} denotes handwritten corrections to the original hand-typed document, which is located in Deane Merrill's "Allen" folder (2/24/99).

{MORBEN (from Newman, CA, 1991) }

The following is a short history of the Ole {C.} Morben family. We found the account in a book called the Utvandringshistorie Fra Ringerikesbygdenne (History of the emigrants from Ringerike, Norway) written by O.S. Johnson.

The father of Ole S. Morben was Christian Torbjornsen. His mother was Olea Paulsdatter. His father was born at a place called Gyrley which was under a farm named Hoff on the 21st of March 1828. He had a sister who married Martin Haugen. Haugen was also a place under the farm Hoff. His mother Olea had the following family: Marthe, married to Hans Olsen in Christiania where he worked at a mechanic shop. Maren who came to America and married Thore P. Scotland who lived in Norwegian Grove, Minnesota now deceased. Marie also came to America and lived at Barnesville, Minnesota. She too has died.

Ole S. Morben tells a story that as a boy he was a witness to the drowning of Erik the foreman at Hoff. He used to bring noon meals to his dad who worked on the Hoff farm or gard as they called it. He got a ride with Erik on a load of corn. Erik told him that as soon as they had eaten he wanted to go down to the creek and bathe himself. As soon as they had eaten, Erik and three other men ran down to the creek and swam over a deep hole. Erik ran into the water to swim over but he disappeared for a long time. Finally he came up again and let out a yell but sank under again. One of the men had a rope along which he tied around his waist and sprang in to save him. He got a hold of Erik but had to let him go because he fought him off. Ole ran back to the house and got a man named Ole Eriksen who swam under and got up right away, but it was too late.

In 1881 Ole S. Morben together with his father, mother, two sisters and his youngest brother left Norway. They had bought tickets for America on a LANDAGENT ship. But coming to England there was such a stream of immigrants that they didn't get to go on that ship. The agent had rented another old ship called the City of New York.

When they were out on the sea a great storm came up. The waves came over the sides and tore loose the hatches so that water poured into the holds where the people were. Articles began floating from one end of the ship to the other as the ship was tossed about and many thought the ship would sink. The pump broke down so they had to bucket out the water by hand. They formed a chain up the steps and handed the buckets up that way. It went better than many had thought.

After 13 days they came to New York and from there they set out for Norwegian Grove, Ottertail County, Minnesota where they lived for three years. They then moved to the town of Winger in Polk County, Minnesota where they lived until 1899. Since then they have lived in McIntosh for 12 years and North Dakota for several years until he came to Thief River Falls, Minnesota. He has been a farm renter, shopman, lumber dealer, grainbuyer and carpenter. He was also a church singer for 18 years.

Ole {C.} Morben had several brothers and sisters. They were:

Thore born February 13, 1349, Winger, Minnesota

Peter born September 5, 1852 deceased

Sophie born May 15, 1855 deceased

Reinard born December 2, 1857 Barnesville, Minnesota

Olaf born April l1, 1860 deceased

Maren Orvidia born December 9, 1862, Winger, Minnesota

Nette born September 22, 1866 deceased

Alfred born February 20, 1873 deceased

Ole S. Morben was married two times. His first wife was born in America, the daughter of Lars and Sidsel Hatleberg from around Bergen. Two children were born namely one girl now Mrs. Clara Lillemoen, Gustine, California and a son Oscar Norlin {Morben} deceased.

His second wife was Mathea Olsen from Solar, Norway. Born to this marriage were the following children:

Obert Henry deceased

Wilhelm Rudolph Tacoma, Washington {Deceased}

Olga Mildred deceased

Olaf Rueben Gustine, California {Tacoma, Wash.}

Gerhard Edison Modesto, California {deceased}

Harold Sherman Minneapolis, Minnesota

Oliver Franklin Seattle, Washington

Martin Gudmund {Gilman Storlie} Bismarck, North Dakota {Deceased}

The first six were born in McIntosh and the last two were born in Thief River Falls.

This file, in WordPad text document format, is
osmorb2.html 2/24/98 in:
dennie:\\d:\ftw\allen
http://merrill.wwh.net/family/allen

from:

dennie:\\d:\ftw\allen\osmorb2.txt 2/24/98, edited in WordPad from
chris:\\c:\paprport\data\osmorb.txt 2/24/98, Wordpad OCR from
chris:\\c:\paprport\data\desktop dennie3 osmorb-(1-4) 2/24/98,
scanned by Paperport from
"History of Ole S. Morben family", from Kay Lillemoen Azevedo, about 1988, via Anna C. Morben 1991

merrill@crocker.com