    
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
Wilhelmina (Mina) Strom Borresen
A Guide to Her Oral History Interview |
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Borresen, Wilhelmina (Mina) Strom
Collection Nr: t220
File Content:
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3 file folders
6 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: Fair. The is a hum on the tape
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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 Mina Borresen on January 14, 1983
at the Foss Home in Seattle, Washington. It contains information
about family background, emigration, work, marriage, community
activities, and Norwegian heritage. Mina was almost 100 years
old at the time of the interview. Also included are photographs
of Mina in traditional Norwegian dress, Mina in Seattle, Mina
and her husband, and Mina at the time of the interview. The
interview was conducted in English.
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Mina
Borresen was born Wilhelmina Marie Strom on April 4, 1883 in
Oslo, Norway. Her parents were Olaf Andreas Strom, a clothing
maker, and Marie Sahlgaard, who stayed home with the children.
There were seven children in Mina's family: Johanna, Henrietta,
Inga, Olaf, Mina, and two boys who died. Mina was only nine
when her mother died, and her father died when she was thirteen,
leaving Johanna to raise the family. Mina finished high school
in Oslo and then went to Stockholm, Sweden, where she worked
for a telephone company for nine years. In 1909, Mina decided
to immigrate to America, where Henrietta and Olaf already were.
Henrietta lived in Omaha, Nebraska and owned a millinery store
with her husband. Mina stayed with them first before moving
to Chicago, where she lived with Olaf and worked at a nursing
home. In 1917, Mina moved to Seattle, Washington and married
Bernhard Borresen. Bernhard was a fisherman whom Mina knew from
Oslo, and they had corresponded several times since Mina's arrival
in America. Bernhard and Mina were married as soon as Mina got
off the train from Chicago. They lived in a large house with
many chickens, and Mina never worked outside the home again.
In 1919, their only son, Roy Bernhard, was born. The family
eventually moved to Ballard, where they lived until Bernhard
died after the age of eighty. Mina then rented an apartment
on Phinney Ridge and later moved into the Foss Home. Mina was
never active in any Norwegian organizations but did attend a
Lutheran church. Mina felt she was more American than Norwegian,
but did continue to cook some traditional Norwegian dishes and
taught Roy several Norwegian words. She never returned to Norway.
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Full Name: |
Wilhelmina (Mina) Marie Borresen
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Maiden Name: |
Wilhelmina (Mina) Marie Strom
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Father: |
Olaf Andreas Strom
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Mother: |
Marie Sahlgaard
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Brothers and Sisters: |
Johanna Strom
Henrietta Rebecca Strom
Inga Kristine Strom
Olaf Andreas Strom
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Spouse: |
Bernhard Borresen
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Children: |
Roy Bernhard Borresen
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Borresen, Mina
Strom, Olaf Andreas
Sahlgaard, Marie
Strom, Johanna
Strom, Henrietta
Strom, Inga
Strom, Olaf
Borresen, Bernhard
Borresen, Roy
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Family Names |
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Borresen family
Strom family
Sahlgaard family
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Geographical Names |
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Oslo (Norway)
Stockholm (Sweden)
Omaha (Neb.)
Chicago (Ill.)
Kongsberg (Norway)
Seattle (Wash.)
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Subjects |
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Family -- Norway
Emigration and immigration -- Norway
Marriage ceremony
Foss Home -- Seattle (Wash)
Ocean travel
Oskar II (Steamship)
Education -- Norway
Christmas -- Norway
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Occupations |
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Clothing trade -- Norway
Millinery trade -- Omaha (Neb.)
Fishing -- Washington (State)
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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.
022 FAMILY BACKGROUND: Born Wilhemina Marie Strom on April 4,
1883 in Oslo, Norway. She will celebrate her 100th birthday
in a few months.
048 PARENTS: Her father was Olaf Andreas Strom born in Oslo,
and her mother Marie Sahlgaard was born in Kongsberg. Olaf was
in business for himself making clothing, coats, dresses, etc.
Mother stayed home with the seven children. Both parents died
young, her father at 55 from pneumonia and her mother from TB
at 39. The youngest child was five. Mina is now the only family
member alive.
095 BROTHERS AND SISTERS: Mina was nine years old when her mother
died and 13 when her father died. The oldest sister Johanna
kept the house and family and also worked for the telephone
company. Eventually her brother Olaf and sister Henrietta Rebecca
emigrated to America, and Mina and her other sister Inga Kristine
went to Stockholm, Sweden. Mina was a little older then (about
16). They went to and stayed at one of her mother's friends.
Mina was in Stockholm for nine years, working for the telephone
company.
136 SCHOOL: She attended school in Oslo and finished high school.
146 GRANDPARENTS: Mina's paternal grandfather was a minister,
pastor around different parts of Norway. Her maternal grandfather
was a civil engineer for a silver mine in Kongsberg (Buskerud),
Norway. She remembers visiting with her grandparents, but she
was pretty little.
177 FAMILY HOME: They lived in an apartment in Oslo.
Christmas was lots of fun and celebrated for two weeks. The
tree was decorated by older people, but she remembers dancing
and singing around the trees at various parties.
200 Christmas food included some kaker, sandbakkels, cookies,
pork or lamb roast, lutefisk, and rommegrøt.
There were candles on the tree and one had to be careful. She
doesn't remember any fires; they didn't have trouble.
Presents were opened on Christmas eve. Sometimes on Christmas
Day, they went out to dinner at the relatives.
260 EMIGRATION: When she finished high school in 1900, she left
for Sweden. She immigrated to America in 1909 directly from
Stockholm. Her sister Inga was married and living in Sweden.
Her brother and sister were already in America; Henrietta had
kept in contact with Mina all this time. So Mina packed her
small trunk and sailed on Oskar II in March 1909 at the age
of 26. (She arrived in Chicago at her brother's on April 6;
after visiting awhile, she went to Henrietta's place in Omaha,
Nebraska.
305 THE TRIP OVER: The boat trip was pretty stormy; she was
sick two-three days. She traveled alone but got acquainted with
her cabin mate - who was sick, too. Later on, they had some
fun, dancing in the evenings. The trip took eight days and cost
$500, which her sister had sent her.
331 IN NEW YORK: A lady met them and showed them to the hotel
where they stayed overnight. New York was a big place with a
lot of tall buildings, but she didn't sightsee because she was
afraid to walk around at night. The same lady helped her board
the Chicago train. The trip took two days. She knew a little
German and English from school, so language wasn't a total problem.
356 WORK: After a few days in Chicago she left for Omaha. Her
sister was married (Mr. Pennell?), and they ran a millinery
store. Mina lived with them and worked in the store making hats.
She had some experience in hat making while attending school.
She doesn't remember how much she was paid, but she liked it
there.
380 MARRIAGE: Mina knew her husband from Norway. Bernhard Borresen
lived outside of Oslo and worked on steamers all around the
world. When he tired of that, he went into fishing. They had
corresponded several times, and she moved to Seattle - where
he'd been for several years - to marry him in 1917(?) at the
age of 35. She got off the train; they stopped at a building
in downtown Seattle where they were married in a minister's
office with two witnesses present. After the wedding, they went
to their apartment and she cooked a dinner. "Very interesting
day", she quips. But that was okay. She was tired after the
three-day train trip from Chicago, although she wasn't exactly
expecting to be married right away.
429 (Brothers and sisters. There were seven children in the
Strom family: Johanna, Henrietta, Inga, Olaf, Mina, and two
younger brothers that died. Olaf Andreas was a brick mason in
Chicago. Inga Kristine married and lived in Sweden. Johanna
died at 21 years of age - of pneumonia she thinks. Henrietta
immigrated to America, followed by Mina.)
452 FAMILY LIFE: After marriage she did not work outside the
home. They had a big house and yard with a lot of chickens.
Her husband was gone fishing during the summer, so she was responsible
for the home and her son, Roy Bernhard, who was born in 1919.
"I was an old woman when I had the boy!" she says. Roy first
moved to Oregon when he got work in Astoria. He now lives in
Salem, having retired five years ago from the Internal Revenue
Service. He has two boys: one is a civil engineer building bridges
in Oregon and the other works with televisions. All her family
including the eight great-grandchildren live in Oregon, one
grandson in Beaverton and one in Sweet Home.
500 Their second home, after the big house, was on 85th St,
but that area was bought up for the freeway, so they moved to
Ballard on 6th Ave. and 66th St. That's where they were living
when her husband passed away at over age 80. He was a cook on
fishing boats to Alaska and made out "so-so". The profits from
fish sales were split equally amongst the crew. They fished
from early spring to late fall; he was home only in the wintertime.
528 COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: They attended a Lutheran church, but
didn't belong to any Scandinavian organizations. When Roy was
in school, she attended PTA. But, she simply had plenty to do
at home with the garden, chickens, eggs, etc.
558 NORWEGIAN TRADITIONS AND HERITAGE: She has retained some
of this, but not too much. She cooked both American and Norwegian
foods, like the Christmas cookies, cabbage rolls, lutefisk,
and lots of fresh fish. On Christmas Eve they had lutefisk and
risengrynsgrøt. She cooked a lot of chicken, of course. She
butchered the chickens but didn't particularly like chopping
the heads off.
598 RETURN TRIP TO NORWAY: She's never been back; nobody was
left there.
604 ON BEING NORWEGIAN: It means nothing special to be Norwegian.
She's more American than Norwegian because she's lived longer
here. Of course she's had Norwegian friends here (at the Home)
like Mrs. Strand who recently died one week before her 102nd
birthday. She was from the northern part of Norway and the last
one in Mina's crowd.
635 Mina moved to the Home in 1970, 12 years ago. After her
husband died, she sold the house in Ballard and moved to an
apartment on Phinney Ridge. She visited a friend at the Foss
Home, liked it, and moved in. She didn't move to Salem because
the nursing homes weren't too good and also she didn't want
to poach off her son and his family.
662 SPEAKING NORWEGIAN: She taught Roy a few words, but he complained
she didn't teach him enough. Mina tells about Oslo in Norwegian,
how it probably has changed: "Jeg ville ikke kjenne det igjen".
696 OTHER MEMORIES: After working in Omaha, she moved to Chicago,
lived with her brother, and worked at a nursing home before
coming to Seattle. Chicago was a big place, but okay. Both it
and Omaha were cold with snow, but no worse than Norway. The
climate is better in Seattle, but there's more rain. Certain
parts of Washington look like Norway.
734 In Omaha there weren't too many Norwegians. Both she and
her sister avoided them anyhow. Her sister Henrietta was a piano
teacher, having studied piano in Norway and one year in Germany.
Before marriage, she attended college in the Dakotas and taught
piano at the college. She was really quite good - played concerts.
776 Even though America was different - for example, the food
and language - Mina didn't feel too awkward. She simply got
on with living.
SIDE II
004 THE FOSS HOME: Mina talks about the Home, how she adjusted,
likes it and engages in the activities. She used to do knitting
and crocheting for the Home. She learned to knit in school in
Norway, and has made over 200 round pillows, which have been
sold at the bazaars. But her eyes are too poor now.
091 She has a few keepsakes from Norway, her mother's things
like a few cups, embroideries, etc.
119 She was here in America during both World Wars, but not
working then. Her husband had jobs most of that time, although
the fish prices were real low some years.
147 CHANGES IN SEATTLE: Seattle was a small village with little
buildings when she first came in 1917. It's changed a lot. The
Scandinavians lived out in Ballard.
190 End of tape.
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