    
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Administrative
Information
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Information
Lineage
Selected Search Terms
Partial Interview Transcript
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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
Henny Pauline Marie Johannessen
Hale
A Guide to Her Oral History Interview |
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Hale, Henny Pauline Marie Johannessen
Collection Nr: t146
File Content:
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3 file folders
3 photographs
1 sound cassette
0 compact discs
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Processing Information:
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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 Inger Nygaard Carr
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky
Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
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Restrictions:
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The
collection is available for research.
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Preferred Citation:
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[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
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The
interview was conducted with Henny Hale on February 17, 1982
in Tacoma, Washington. This interview provides information about
life in Norway, church experiences, Norwegian Christmas traditions,
oral tradition within the culture, dealing with Norwegian winters,
reasons for coming to America, voyage to America and Tacoma,
settling into a new country, life in Tacoma, marriage, trips
to Norway and the changes there, maintaining Norwegian traditions,
and pride in Norwegian heritage. The interview also contains
an early photograph of Henny Hale and her husband Louis and
two photographs of Henny at the time of the interview. The interview
was conducted in English with some Norwegian at the end of the
interview.
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Henny
Hale was born in Eidet, Vesteraalen, Norway on April 15, 1903.
She was one of six children by Harold Johannessen and Petra
Nilson. Her mother died when Henny was 12 years old, at age
36, which left Henny and her older sister Mary to do the work
and raise the rest of the children. Her father remarried Amanda
Freeberg, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. Henny
was confirmed at age 15 and left home when she was 17, after
which she did housework at a neighboring farm for two years.
She then worked as an aid for her schoolteacher. Henny left
for America on October 10, 1923, originally planning on staying
only five years. After reaching Ellis Island, she took a five-day
train ride from New York to Tacoma, WA where her uncle, George
Johnson, and aunt met her. She did housework for Scott Henderson,
a lawyer in Gravelly Lake, but soon found another job. She started
going to Normanna Hall, where she met her husband Louis Hale,
who was a gardener at the time, in 1926. She went to night school
and lived in Seattle for a year but then moved back to Tacoma.
She was married by Pastor Edwards (no date given) on 12th and
'I' Street. Louis worked at Atlas Foundry until he was sick,
and then as a school janitor for a while. They had two children:
Phyllis June, born on April 15, 1929, and Anita Larraine, born
on February 3, 1934; both were born in Tacoma, WA. Phyllis married
Herman McDowell and remarried Irvin Schmit, and works as a secretary
for the County Commissioners. Anita has five children and lives
in Oregon. Henny has ten grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren.
She took trips to Norway in 1977 and 1979, and had another planned
for the summer of 1982. She has always been with the Mt. Zion
Lutheran Church and used to be very actively involved with Scandinavian
organizations, though not as much by 1982.
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Full Name: |
Henny Pauline Marie Hale
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Maiden Name: |
Henny Pauline Marie Johannessen
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Father: |
Harold Peder Johan Johannessen
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Mother: |
Petra Oluffa Nilsen
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Paternal Grandfather: |
Johannes Ludvik Madsen
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Paternal Grandmother: |
Jensine Dreier Madsen
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Maternal Grandfather: |
Nils Johnsen
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Maternal Grandmother: |
Mekkelene Johnsen
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Brothers and Sisters: |
Mary Kristufa Johannessen
Hjordis Josie Johannessen
Bergljot Elvine Johannessen
Merthon Norberg Johannessen
Ethel Juliett Johannessen
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Spouse: |
Lars (Louis) Olaf Sigurd Hale
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Children: |
Phyllis June Hale
Anita Larraine Hale
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Hale, Henny Pauline Marie
Johannessen, Henny Pauline Marie
Johannessen, Harold Peder Johan
Nilsen, Petra Oluffa
Madsen, Johannes Ludvik
Madsen, Jensine Dreier
Hale, Phyllis June
Hale, Anita Larraine
Hale, Lars (Louis) Olaf Sigurd
Freeberg, Amanda
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Family Names |
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Johannessen family
Hale family
Nilsen family
Madsen family
Johnsen family
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Geographical Names |
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Eidet, Vesterålen(Norway)
Tacoma (Wash.)
Seattle (Wash.)
Gravelly Lake (Wash.)
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Subjects |
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Family -- Norway
Norway -- Emigration and immigration
Eidet (Norway) -- Emigration and immigration
Stavangerfjord (Steamship)
Ellis Island Immigration Station (N.Y. and N.J.)
Railroad travel
Normanna Hall (Tacoma, Wash.)
Mount Zion Lutheran Church (Tacoma, Wash.)
Norway -- Social conditions -- 1945-
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Occupations |
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Dressmakers
Janitors
Weavers
Domestics -- Norway
Domestics -- United States
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Genre/Form |
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Oral history
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Institution |
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Pacific Lutheran University. Scandinavian Immigrant Experience
Collection
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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.
020 HENNY PAULINE MARIA HALE, maiden name Johannessen. Born
in Eidet, Vesteraalen, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, north
of Bodø, April 15, 1903.
048 PARENTS: Harold Peder Johan Johannessen and Petra Oluffa
Nilsen. They were neighbors. Father was a fisherman and a farmer.
072 Father fished up in Finnmarken in the summertime, in the
winter he went to the Lofoten Islands for torsk. He was gone
quite a bit.
092 Lived on a little farm. Mother died when she was 36 leaving
six children, she was a hard worker. Henny was 12 years old
when she died.
125 BROTHERS AND SISTERS: Mary stayed with the home place until
father married again. He married Amanda Freeberg. Mary worked
in Bodoe at the asylum. She came to America and married a fisherman,
Axel Brandwik. Mary did housework when she came over to America.
Helped her to learn the language. Hjördis married and had two
daughters. She also came to America. Bea came to America and
lived on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma. She married Rader Nilson
they were second cousins. Merthon, her only full brother. She
had not seen him from when she left until 1976. He was a farmer
and fisherman in Norway.
269 Father had two boys and two girls with his new wife; they
also adopted a girl who did not have a family.
286 Ethyl, youngest sister, married and settled in Norway. She
has four children.
321 HALF-CHILDREN: Petra, Solveg, Harold, and Arnolf.
328 GRANDPARENTS: Maternal, Nils and Mekkelene Nilson. Paternal,
Johannes and Jensine. They were farmers. Jensine was the daughter
of one of the big farmers in Henny's home area. She was disinherited
when she married Johannes. Paternal grandparents' last name
was Madsen.
413 Took a trip back to Norway in 1979 for a reunion stemming
from her grandfather's father.
424 CHILDHOOD HOME: Little. Children lived downstairs and grandparents
lived upstairs. Father built a new house next to the old one.
This one much bigger, three bedrooms, living room, kitchen,
back porch. Burned down when it was three years old. Describes
what happened in more detail.
473 Home place has not been properly cared for. Her birthplace
is still standing.
494 Used peat for heat. Father used to cut peat squares and
children would slice the squares into six pieces. Had a baking
oven in the kitchen.
551 MOTHER'S BEDSPREAD: Henny has found a pattern the same as
her mother's spread. She has been working on it for two years.
Mother used to make many things in the house. She was a seamstress
and sewed for other people. Processed all the wool. Henny and
her sisters took over all her mother's tasks when she died.
She tells more about this.
606 CHRISTMAS: They were very poor. Did not fuss much. Sister
and her did a lot of baking. Lots of snow outside. Father made
her a pair of skis one Christmas. She was so proud of them.
646 Henny had lots of fun with her father. She was a tomboy.
Played ball with the boys, swam in the river, and went fishing
with her father when he was home during the summer.
690 CHRISTMAS FOODS: Lutefisk and risngrynsgrøt on Christmas
Eve. Also ate lefse. Had lamb or beef on Christmas day. Went
to church took an hour to walk, quicker to row. Eidet Kirke.
740 Church is now an annex, services every other Sunday. Not
as many people going to church.
768 SCHOOL: Had six grades. She did well in school. Had some
high school subjects in grade school.
790 Left home when she was 17, confirmed at 15.
797 Mother made vadmal, heavy black wool. Was for her father's
suit. Mother did all the farm work.
839 Went to church every Sunday. Remembers confirmation class
when they were confirmed. Liked to sing in church. Names a few
of her favorite hymns.
867 LIVED ON STORIES: Older folks always told the kids stories.
Uncle and father would get together and share stories. Troll
stories left their mark. Put out food for the julenissen. Afraid
of trolls.
904 Went to a neighboring farm and did housework after school
for two years. Then went to work for her schoolteacher. In the
winter the students stayed at school because it was hard to
travel in the cold weather. Had school on Saturday. Henny worked
as an aid to the teacher and her family.
950 WHY GO TO AMERICA? Maybe it was born in me, because my dad
wanted to go to America when he was a young man. He used to
talk to Henny about it. Thought America was lined in gold. Had
relatives over in America. They would send packages from America.
She wanted to see more of the world. Stood on a hill by her
house and decided to go to America.
983 Wrote to uncle, George Johnson, in Tacoma to see if he could
send her a ticket. Father was glad. She was 20 when she came
over.
995 Left October 10, 1923 on Stavangerfjord. Took a boat to
a city to get her papers in order. First time she saw an electric
light.
1019 FEELING ABOUT LEAVING: She just wanted out. Her little
brother went with her to the boat. Kissed father good-bye before
she left.
1053 So much of the population died on the sea in Northern Norway.
Tells of a friend who never returned from the sea.
1071 Henny planned on staying only for five years in America.
1074 TRIP: Sailed from Eidet to Bodoe to see her sister for
a few minutes. Went by train from Bergen to Oslo. Met some people
on the train who were also going to America. One girl from Finnmarken
named Turid Johanson. Took a tour of Karl Johan in Oslo. Bought
a green silk hat for 30 krones.
1113 Took Stavangerfjord. It was a marvelous trip. Many were
sick.
1119 ELLIS ISLAND: She was so scared. One girl was sent home.
Pushed everywhere, tags put on them.
SIDE II
024 TRAIN TRIP: Got on a train in New York. Did not talk to
anybody on the train. There was a lady who looked after her.
Took five days on the train. Ate food from a box. Met a man
who could speak Swedish. Met by her uncle and aunt in Tacoma.
131 THINGS BROUGHT FROM NORWAY: Clothes, blue pleated skirt
and red silk blouse. Blue wool dress she had made for her.
172 Most difficult thing was being lonely. She started working
on Gravelly Lake for Scott Henderson, a lawyer. Did housework.
Lonely because she could not speak English well and had a hard
time getting into town.
217 She did cooking, cleaning. Learned to swim at the lake.
Talks about when her friend from Norway died in Norway, shocked
her.
247 She bought a newspaper and found herself another job.
264 Started going to Normanna Hall and met friends, then she
was on easy street.
269 NIGHT SCHOOL: Went to night school. Talks about this some.
Went to Seattle with the people she worked for and lived there
for a year. Then back to Tacoma.
289 MEETING HUSBAND: Met husband at Normanna Hall, Louis Hale.
He was a gardener when they met. He was from Sikeldun (?). They
met in 1926. Louis had come to her uncle's house with her cousin.
Went to movies together, Normanna Hall.
360 WEDDING: Married on 12th and 'I' Street. Small wedding,
Pastor Edwards. She quit working.
377 Bought a house. Husband worked at Atlas Foundry until he
was sick. Worked at the schools' as a janitor for a while. Lived
at 49th and 'G'.
411 CHILDREN: Phyllis is a secretary for the County Commissioners.
Was married to Herman McDowell. She is remarried to Irvin Schmit.
Anita had five children, she lives in Oregon. Henny has ten
grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren.
446 Get together every now and then with all the family. Daughter,
Anita is a Jehovah's Witness.
475 CHURCH: Has always been with the church Mt. Zion Lutheran.
486 SCANDINAVIAN ORGANIZATIONS: Used to be very actively involved,
not so much anymore.
MAINTAINING TRADITIONS: Embroidery, speak the language. Make
Norwegian things, sweaters, pillows, etc. Cooking, especially
around Christmas time.
560 TRIPS BACK TO NORWAY: 1977 and 1979. Took her daughter with
her in 1979 for the family reunion. Talks about this some. Sister
visited her here. Had other relatives come to visit. Going summer
1982, describes her trip.
669 CHANGES IN NORWAY: All the hills looked smaller. River where
she used to swim was a trickle. People are marvelous people.
715 PROUD TO BE A NORWEGIAN: Her family was a good family. They
were good people. Poor people but happy. Hard workers. Had God
fearing parents.
760 Gives an account of her father's love for his children.
808 Speaks a bit in Norwegian, tells a brief story.
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