    
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
Einer Nielsen
A Guide to His Oral History Interview |
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Nielsen, Einer
Collection Nr: t189
File Content:
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3 file folders
2 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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This
interview was conducted with Einer Nielsen on October 6, 1982
at the Norse Home in Seattle, Washington. It provides information
on family background, emigration, occupations, and marriage
and family. The interview also includes two photographs of Einer
at the time of the interview. The interview was conducted in
English with some Danish towards the end of the interview.
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Einer
Nielsen was born on February 14, 1897 in Henne, Denmark to Sern
Christian Brun and Anna Nielsen. Einer's parents were farmers,
raising some grain and potatoes, and Sern also worked part-time
for a house-builder. Einer was the youngest of eight children,
all of which immigrated to America except the eldest two. After
Einer was confirmed, he began working on local farms but did
not see a future for himself in Denmark. In 1914, he decided
to immigrate with two other boys who were going to homestead
in Canada. They took the Lusitania to Ellis Island and from
there, took the train to Toronto, Ontario. In Toronto, they
met a man who arranged for them to do farm work in Tavistock,
Ontario. Einer farmed until the crops were in and then went
to live with his brother in Seattle, WA. His brother owned a
boarding house, and Einer got a room there. He worked shoveling
snow and filling bakery orders for the drivers. Einer's brother
Viktor, who was also selling bakery goods, wanted to farm and
convinced Einer to join him. They began working on a 1700-acre
farm, where they lassoed wild cows, milked them, and made butter.
They had four cows, which gave them enough to live on, but soon
found a farm more suitable for dairy farming in Roy, WA. After
working with Viktor for awhile, Einer went to Alaska, where
his brother Kris had a bunkhouse near a mine. Einer's job was
to keep water out of the mine when the tides came in. Eventually,
Einer returned to Seattle and went into the milk business with
his brother-in-law. Around 1921, Einer returned to Denmark and
brought back Hilda Dungaar, whom he had known from grade school.
They were married in Seattle and had two children, Viktor and
Esther (Temple). Einer continued with the milk industry and
built a Danish brick house for his family. When he retired,
he moved into an apartment complex and met his second wife,
Helen Bogardis, who was born in Seattle.
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Full Name: |
Einer Marinus Nielsen
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Father: |
Sern Christian Brun
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Mother: |
Anna Nielsen
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Brothers and Sisters: |
Martin Nielsen
Matilda Nielsen
Sigfrid Nielsen
Kris Nielsen
Viktor Nielsen
Margrethe Nielsen
Edith Hansen
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Spouse: |
Hilda Dungaar
Helen Bogardis
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Children: |
Viktor
Esther Temple
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Nielsen, Einer
Brun, Sern Christian
Nielsen, Anna
Dungaar, Hilda
Nielsen, Viktor
Temple, Esther
Bogardis, Helen
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Family Names |
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Nielsen family
Brun family
Dungar family
Bogardis family
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Geographical Names |
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Henne (Denmark)
Roy (Wash.)
Tavistock (Ont.)
Seattle (Wash.)
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Subjects |
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Family -- Denmark
Lusitania (Steamship)
Danish-American families
Denmark -- Emigration and immigration
Ocean travel
Railroad travel
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Occupations |
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Family farms -- Denmark
Dairy Farming -- Roy (Wash.)
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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.
023 PERSONAL BACKGROUND: Name - Einer Marinus Nielsen. Born
in Henne, Denmark, which is on the west coast near Varde on
February 14, 1897.
080 PARENTS: His father was known as Sern Christian Brun. Brun
was an old family name. Einer was called the Burn's son. He's
not sure where Nielsen came from, but it was his mother's name.
Her name was Anna. They were farmers and he worked part time
for a house builder. They raised some grain and potatoes. His
father worked out quite a bit and might stay where he was working.
158 BROTHERS AND SISTERS: Martin was a farmer and stayed in
Denmark as did Matilda. Sigfrid was in this country for many
years and worked as a sewer contractor in Seattle, Washington.
He got some arthritis and got a boarding house where workers
from Alaska would come to stay for the winter. They would always
pay even if they didn't have the money at the time. After this
he went into the apartment house business. Following Sigfrid
to the US came Kris, Viktor, Margrethe, and Edith who married
a farmer in Snohomish, Washington. Kris went to Alaska, worked
in a mine and later started raising foxes. He fed the foxes
with the fish he caught. Viktor was a farmer between Enumclaw
and Tacoma. He died young from Bright's disease. Margrethe married
a farmer in Seattle. Edith married Chris Hansen.
360 GRANDPARENTS: Had met his paternal grandparents Brun.
370 CHRISTMAS IN DENMARK: They always had a tree and decorated
it. They ate either rabbit or ducks or geese with red cabbage.
They made their own bread, pumpernickel.
424 SCHOOL IN DENMARK: It took about 25 minutes to walk and/or
run there.
430 CONFIRMATION: Went to the minister with four girls. They
met with the pastor on Saturday. They had to go about three
Danish miles.
458 CHURCH IN DENMARK: They didn't always go because it was
too far to walk and they didn't have horses.
470 FARM WORK: That was all there was to do. He lived with the
people he worked for. They would hire out for a year. After
one year he went to another place where he stayed until he came
to America. They wouldn't let him go because his time wasn't
up.
505 REASONS FOR COMING TO AMERICA: His brothers and sisters
were here and doing well. Most thought they would go to America
and make some money and come back and but a place. It was a
loss for the parents to lose their children. He promised his
parents that he would try to save and come back, but no one
ever came back. Einer did come back to visit.
545 PREPARING FOR THE U.S. TRIP: He didn't have enough money
to some and he never asked his brother because they didn't want
him to come because they wanted to the youngest to stay home
with the family. He couldn't see any future in Denmark. This
was the start of WWI.
570 TRIP TO US: He got the money from the grocery man that he
was working for in his spare time. He borrowed 300-400 Dkr.
They left from Copenhagen and went to England. This was in 1914.
They didn't know when they would leave England in the Lusitania
because they were afraid of the U-boats. They were ordered to
sleep in their clothes and come on call. There was a battle
ship that escorted them out. This ship was sunk on the way back.
There were movies and dances on board. He came with two other
boys that were going to homestead in Canada. They were supposed
to go to Canada but they couldn't land because of the war so
they came to New York. The trip took about ten days from England
to New York. They had waited several days in England and waited
in a boarding house. The food was bad.
695 TRIP FROM COPENHAGEN, DENMARK TO LONDON, ENGLAND: They were
in a small boat and it was rough and he was sick.
705 LUSITANIA: The food was good and he wasn't sick.
712 ELLIS ISLAND: They had to go through but they didn't have
enough money. $5 was required so Einer went through first and
handed the money back to the next guy to get through. They were
going to send him back because the address that he said he was
going to didn't exist. The ticket agent in Denmark made up the
place. Some Danish people helped them explain that they were
going to work on farms up there because they knew that farm
help was needed.
750 TRAIN TRAVEL: Took the train to Toronto, Canada. They bought
food to take on the train.
760 TORONTO, CANADA: There was lots of snow so they thought
that they would go and stay with one boy's brother in Detroit,
Michigan, but his brother refused him when they called from
the border because he didn't know that his brother was coming
and thought that it was someone playing a trick. The people
at the border wouldn't even try to call Einer's brother after
that, but sent them back to Toronto. When they got back they
stayed at the RR station until it was time for them to close
and a person came that took in travelers and took them to a
boarding house.
850 BOARDING HOUSE: The man gave them a nice room and fixed
them a big breakfast. He helped was the dishes to pay for the
food. This man took him to the Norwegian immigration man.
877 IMMIGRATION MAN: He told them that the railway had to refund
their ticket to the US because they didn't have the papers for
passage. They got their money back. This man arranged for them
to go to Tavistock, Ontario where there was a Danish man that
could find them a job.
915 Worked on farms until they got enough money to send the
one guy to his brother. The third boy in their party couldn't
land because he was engaged to a German girl and they had to
marry before he entry would be allowed. They never saw him again.
His last name was Petersen.
945 FARM WORK: Einer stayed at the farm. His friend repaid the
money he had borrowed. Einer asked for a raise and got it. He
stayed until the crops were in and then he was ready to head
for Seattle. The farmer was German and spoke German so he had
a hard time learning English.
980 TRAIN TRAVEL: Knew enough English that he didn't have any
trouble traveling. The trip took a couple of days. Other immigrants
were cooking food on the pot-bellied stove on the train. He
had contacted his brother and his brother met him at the train.
1010 BROTHER: He had a boarding house at this time and he was
also responsible for taking care of the Danish Brotherhood Hall.
Einer helped him until he got settled himself.
1025 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: This was the year of the big snow.
They got 4'. He worked shoveling snow because buildings weren't
made for this much snow. Einer had a room in his brother's boarding
house.
1050 BAKERY WORK: He filled orders for the drivers that went
out the next morning. This was a night job. His neighbor would
play violin in the day when he was trying to sleep. He learned
a lot the language there.
1077 ENGLISH SCHOOL: Didn't learn more than conversational.
1090 Brother Viktor was also selling bakery goods, but he got
tired of it and wanted to farm. They went and worked on a 1700-acre
farm. His brother wanted him to go into partnership with him.
They lassoed wild cows and milked them and sold the butter.
SIDE II
015 He continues talking about the wild cows and how they broke
them. They used a separator to get the cream. They had about
four cows and that was enough to live on.
070 ROY, WASHINGTON: They found a better farm that was suitable
for dairy farming and that's what this brother had done before.
095 ALASKA: His other brother went to Alaska and found a job
for Einer too. The brother had a bunkhouse near a mine. When
the tide was coming in it was Einer's job to keep the water
out of the mine by means of a dyke and a wood powered pump.
160 ENTERTAINMENT: Were dances every week. There weren't any
white women there. There wasn't a lot to spend your money on.
192 SEATTLE MILK BUSINESS: He bought out a man that had a milk
route and a few cows. Einer's brother-in-law got the cows and
Einer took the route. He delivered the milk in truck. The milk
was in bottles.
260 MEETING SPOUSE: They met in grade school in Denmark. She
had become a nurse in Denmark. Her name was Hilda Dungaar (?).
He had to go back to Denmark and get her in 1921 or '22. Had
someone take his milk route. She came back with him.
305 VISIT TO DENMARK: Visited old friends.
315 WEDDING: Married in Seattle. His brother, Sigfrid, and his
wife had the wedding for them. They had a dinner and a dance.
They played tricks on him so that he couldn't get away in his
car. They had a house to move into.
380 TRIP: They took a trip with his brother and went and stayed
in a cabin by the river.
430 HOUSING: They lived in their first house until they decided
that it would be better to move into town closer to his business.
They rented there.
450 KRISTOFERSON'S DAIRY: They were a large dairy with 30-40
delivery wagons. He got a job there and liked it, but had a
chance to buy a route. The previous owner was being sued for
selling milk which carried undulant fever. He got the milk to
sell from a farmer out in Renton Junction.
530 CHILDREN: His wife stayed home after they were married.
Viktor graduated from Washington State and was a teacher. They
live in Springfield, Oregon. They have great grandchildren.
Esther Temple (?) was a navy nurse and has now started an old
people's home in Hawaii. Her husband worked for the government.
They have four girls.
620 APARTMENT HOUSES: Sold the milk route and the Danish brick
house he had built and moved into the apartment houses where
he stayed until he moved to where he is now.
645 SECOND WIFE: She was one of his tenants. Her name was Helen
Bogardis (?). She had been taking care of her old mother and
her cancer ill brother who died within a week of each other.
At this time he had sold the apartment but stayed on as its
care taker. Helen was born on Capitol Hill in Seattle.
715 VISITS TO DENMARK: Had a trip down through Europe with a
Danish minister's tour. They went all the way to Italy. The
old home is gone. Before his mother died she was living with
her daughter who was a baker in Copenhagen.
755 ORGANIZATIONS: He wasn't very active in the Danish Brotherhood
because his wife didn't like the drinking. They were active
in the Church.
775 SPOKEN DANISH: He tells about his second trip to Denmark
in Danish.
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