    
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Administrative
Information
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Information
Lineage
Selected Search Terms
Partial Interview Transcript
|
Information
Resources
Robert A. L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific
Lutheran University
Tacoma, WASHINGTON 98447
Phone: (253) 535-7586 E-mail: archives@plu.edu
New Land
New Lives Oral History Collection
Ella Fjermsted Duus
A Guide to Her Oral History Interview |
|
Administrative
Information
Creator:
Duus, Ella Fjermsted
Collection Nr: t012
File Content:
|
|
2 file folders
0 photographs
1 sound cassette
2 compact discs
|
|
|
Processing Information:
|
|
The
interview was conducted using a cassette recorder. A research
copy was also prepared from the original. To further preserve
the content of the interview, it is now being transferred
to compact disc. We deliberately did not transcribe the
entire interview because we want the researchers to listen
to the interviewee's own voice. The transcription index
highlights important aspects of the interview and the
tape counter numbers noted on the Partial Interview
Transcription are meant as approximate finding guides
and refer to the location of a subject on the cassette/CD.
Interviewed
by Janet Rasmussen
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky
Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
|
Restrictions:
|
|
The
collection is available for research.
|
|
Preferred Citation:
|
|
[Collection
Number, Collection Title]
New Land New Lives Oral History Collection
Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection
Robert A.L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447
|
Go
to top |
This
interview was conducted with Ella Duus on June 8, 1978. She
was living at Josephine Sunset Home in Stanwood, WA at the time,
and the interview contains information on family background,
emigration, and Norwegian heritage. The interview was conducted
in English.
|
|
Ella
Duus was born on January 5, 1882 or 83 in Stavanger, Norway.
Her father was a carpenter and telegraph employee and died when
Ella was only six months old. Ella had three older brothers
and two older sisters, but the younger of the two sisters died
young, and Ella can hardly remember her. Ella's brothers came
to America first and made a home for the family in WA, but Ella's
oldest sister, Anne, decided to settle in Minneapolis while
visiting an aunt there. Ella emigrated around 1902 with her
mother when she was nineteen, and her mother died not long after
the journey. Once in America, Ella met her husband through her
brothers. They were married in 1904, and Ella eventually became
an American citizen through him. Ella and her husband were married
for sixty-four years and never had any children. After he passed
away, Ella returned to Denmark to visit his family, but she
never returned to Norway.
Go to top |
|
|
Full Name: |
Ella Duus
|
|
Maiden Name: |
Ella Fjermsted
|
|
Brothers and Sisters: |
There were two sisters and three brothers.
Anne Fjermsted
|
Go to top |
This collection is indexed under the following headings
|
|
Personal Names |
|
Duus, Ella
Fjermsted, Anne
|
|
Family Names |
|
Duus family
Fjermsted family
|
|
Geographical Names |
|
Stavanger (Norway)
Seattle (Wash.)
Seward Park (Wash.)
|
|
Subjects |
|
Family -- Norway
Norway -- Emigration and immigration
Josephine Sunset Home (Stanwood, Wash.)
Denmark -- Social conditions -- 1945-
Harmon (Musical group)
|
|
Occupations |
|
Election officials (Seattle, Wash.)
Boarding houses
|
|
Genre/Form |
|
Oral history
|
|
Institution |
|
Pacific Lutheran University. Scandinavian Immigrant Experience
Collection
|
Go
to top |
The
partial interview transcription highlights important aspects
of the interview. Numbers on the left may be used as guides
to important subjects. Two numbers separated by a slash indicate
that the first number is for cassette and the second for CD.
049/08 PERSONAL LIFE. Name is Ella Duus; Duus is her husband's
name and he was Danish. Maiden name was Fjermsted (?) which
became Firmsted (?) in America. She was born in Stavanger on
January 5, 1882 or 3. [Ella was about 94 years old at the time
of the interview.]
089 Later on in her married life, she had high blood pressure
and couldn't live alone. She sold her home and moved up here
[Josephine Sunset Home in Stanwood, WA]. She was quite up in
years before she moved to the first home.
111 She met her husband through her brothers; they were sailing
together. He came and went often to their house, and they got
to talking. He seemed to like her, and they were married in
1904 a couple of years after she'd been here. His mother and
father were still living [in Denmark], and they asked for a
picture of her.
During the Depression, they got along pretty good. It helped
that they had quite a little property out by Seward Park. That
area was country then with beautiful houses.
180 They didn't have any children. Both loved children, but
they didn't have any. They wanted to adopt children but everything
worked against them.
191 She worked in the home and garden; had a lovely big yard
with fruit trees.
202/09 EMIGRATION. Her brothers came to America first and made
a home so the family could eventually all stay together. Some
of her old school friends here--one still lives in WA--said,
"Why don't you get Ella over because...we'd like to have her
over here so we could be together?" Ella refused to come without
bringing her mother. Once here, her oldest brother got married
and moved away. Then Ella got married. And the youngest brother
who was a iron worker in Canada was involved in an accident
and was killed.
245 Ella came right to Seattle when she was about 19. It was
hard to get tickets for her and her mother whom she wouldn't
leave alone in Norway. Her mother died not long after emigration
and is buried in the old cemetery in Seattle; Ella's husband
also.
284 Came by boat and train through England; took a long time
to come over. Brothers bought the tickets in Seattle and sent
them over. School friends were happy she was coming. She and
mother sold off house things. She also had a sister in Minneapolis
who was waiting to see them at the train depot. But because
of a fire, the train was re-routed.
The sister, Anne, came to America earlier to visit and accompany
an aunt [mother's sister, Ella] who was lonesome. Anne "fell
in love with Minneapolis" and wrote back to her mother: "Mother,
I don't know if I ever want to see Stavanger. Minneapolis is
the most beautiful city. I think I'd like to stay here". She
did, was married and had six children.
308/10 Anne was the first child in the family and Ella was the
last. There were three boys in between. The second child was
a girl who passed away whom Ella can hardly remember. Father
died when Ella was six months old. He was a carpenter and telegraph
employee, and actually did a little of everything. He had very
nice handwriting and was hired on by the telegraph office to
write down the messages as they came in. After father died,
mother took care of the family.
428 SETTLING IN. Mother was over 50 when she came to America,
and it was difficult for her to learn English. It was hard for
Ella too, but she was determined. She got books with Norwegian
on one side and English on the other. She studied those words
and got along. If she didn't know words, she looked them up
in a dictionary. Her English was fine and she later worked for
16 years on the election board.
460 Ella continued to speak Norwegian to her mother and brothers
until she married. Then she and her husband bought a place of
their own only a few blocks away. She kept visiting her mother
and speaking Norwegian. She didn't want to forget "å snakke
norsk" or mix her languages together. If anybody asks her if
she's Norwegian, she says "I am. All of me. From the top to
the bottom". She feels the Norwegian language is a good language
to learn.
503/11 She had a good hand at writing like her dad and received
excellent grades on school papers in Norway. Ella went to school
seven years in Norway, and teachers always said she was good
in school, exercise, history, and geography.
519 The hardest thing in her life was leaving Norway and her
friends. She remembers looking back from the America ship and
seeing all her friends waving. She couldn't stand it and "went
back of the chimney and cried my eyes out. It was the hardest
thing for me to do". She thought she'd return in two years,
but she hasn't been back yet.
Ella went to Denmark to visit her husband's family after he
died. They were lonely, and were very nice to her during her
visit. They wrote to her in English, but she responded to her
mother-in-law in a mixture of Norwegian-Danish. She wanted to
visit Norway afterwards, but there was no one to go to. She
stayed three weeks in Denmark; saw Copenhagen and other places.
574/12 NORWEGIAN CUSTOMS. Ella was born and raised in the city,
and the house they lived in was called Fjermsted because that
was their name. The name of Fjermsted changed in America to
Firmsted. Her nephew, oldest brother's son, is Arnold Firmsted.
597 She became an American citizen after marriage. Her husband
had already lost one job in San Francisco because of no papers.
They moved back to Seattle, ran a boarding house, went to school
and learned about citizenship. They both studied hard because
he had an opportunity for another good job. He got his papers
and she became a citizen automatically through marriage. She
was sitting beside him when he had to answer the questions,
and she was hoping he wouldn't forget any answers. She was also
"trying to see if that man [judge] would just turn a little
bit, so I could whisper [answers to her husband if he forgot].
But, he managed, and she was very happy to get her papers.
645/01 Ella doesn't remember if they belonged to any organizations.
They were married 64 years and "that's a long way to forget".
654 Christmas was very different in America. In Norway they
had a four-foot juletre [Christmas tree] and decorated it with
homemade paper rings, nuts and apples. They were poor people
and had very simple Christmas traditions. She worked in a blomsterforretning
[florist shop] in Norway. She still does needlework. But she
never made lefse--that was a country thing to do. In America,
the family had more.
711 Ella belonged to a musical group in Norway named "Harmon".
She played a mandolin, and other girls played different instruments:
ukelele-guitar, violins, accordion, flute. They advertised their
performances and would go travel around the fjord in boats.
People loved to hear their music. She didn't have anything like
that in America.
Side II
028/02 Ella also played the guitar and piano. She never took
lessons but was simply full of music. She would watch other
players to discover fingering. [Discussion about friend's daughter.]
099 She has two friends at Sunset Home, one is Danish and the
other is American. They speak English together, as she did with
her husband. They wanted to learn English, so they spoke it.
But her mother had a hard time. Ella did the shopping in Norway
before she went to school--fisk and kjøtt for fiskboller and
kjøttboller.
193 End of tape.
Go to top
|
Maintained
by archives@plu.edu
© 2002-2003 Pacific Lutheran University
|