Hans Dalager: Leaving Norway with Anfin and early homesteading

Hans Sylfestsen Dalager was born November 5, 1842 in Sogndal, Norway and baptized in the Sogndal Lutheran Church, Sogn og Fjordan County, Norway. His parents were Solfest Lassesen and Guri Anfindsdatter Hostager. Solfest and Guri owned or worked on a tract of land known as ‘Dalaker.’ Hans had three brothers, Anfin, Lasse, and Nels and one sister, Brita.

If the Dalager ancestors had followed the Norwegian naming tradition when they came to America, Hans and Anfin would have been Solfestsen. However, they took the name of the farm, Dalaker, and changed it to Dalager. The Dalagers we know in Norway such as Aasmund and Molfrid still are known as Dalaker.

The Sogndal church records showing those leaving the parish in the year 1861 lists Hans Solfestsen, born November 5, 1842. No listing was found for Anfin but family tradition says that they traveled together by sailing ship. Prof. Gerhard B. Naeseth, genealogist for the Vesterheim Genealogical Library in Madison, Wisconsin, who did this research, felt that in 1861 Hans and Anfin most likely would have travaeled up the St. Lawrence River, through Quebec. Prof. Naeseth could not check the ship passenger list because lists were not retained in Quebec until 1865. The 1861 sailing date for Hans disagrees with the date found in some writing by some of the family but Prof. Naeseth sent a copy of the record confirming the 1861 date.

Passengers on sailing ships in 1861 had to provide their own provisions and almost all the passengers exhausted their food supplies before reaching America. According to Julia Dalager Chilson, Anfind and Hans had a chest of Lefsa and flatbrod on the ship which they shared with the rest of the passengers.

After arriving at Quebec, Hans and Anfin made their way by river boat and wagon to Wisconsin. Here they went to a meeting where they were asking for volunteers for service against the Indians. Anfin was so sold on becoming an American that he looked at America as his homeland and even gave up his birthright in Norway. Here was a chance for him to serve his new country so he volunteered.

Private Anfin Dalaker
From Wanamingo, Minnesota<
Goodhue County
Enlisted August 22, 1862 at Fort Snelling, MN
Mustered into Company D, 10th Regiment of Minnesota
Infantry Volunteers Oct 9, 1862
Honorably discharged for disability Sept 14, 1863 at Fort Goodhue, MN

Anfin was involved in the Indian wars and was stationed at Fort Sisseton in the Dakota Territory. Due to lack of proper clothing and frozen feet, Anfin contracted tuberculosis and was discharged. He spent the rest of his life with a couple and died March 17, 1864, leaving Hans alone in the U.S. at the age of 22. Anfin had been a very thrifty soldier and after all the expenses of his illness, death and burial were cared for, he left an estate of about $200.00 to his younger brother Hans.

Hans stayed with his uncle and aunt, the Hostagers, in Goodhue County of south eastern Minnesota for about two years, working for his keep. He was paid a few pounds of wool for his work

Another cousin made his stockings from the wool which Hans needed when he worked in the pinery woods and lumber camps in the St. Cloud and Little Falls area of Minnesota during the winters.

Between 1866 & 1868, after the Indian scare was over, using the money he had inherited from Anfin plus his savings from the lumber camp work, Hans fulfilled his dream when he filed a claim for 160 acres of land under the Homestead Act. This land was the NE 1/4 of section 12 in Barsness township, about six and a half miles south of the present sight of Glenwood, Minnesota. Ulysses S. Grant was President. Hans’ patent, homestead papers signed by President Grant, were issued Oct 1, 1873, five years after the original homestead. This is the farm that was farmed by Herman Dalager and later by Orville Feigum.

Hans broke some land and built a log house and a stable. Leaving the farm in the care of a neighbor, Hans went back to Goodhue County for a visit. While he was gone his house, stable and two mules were burned by a prairie fire. He became rather discouraged and left for a lumber camp near St. Cloud for the winter. However, when spring came, he returned to his homestead, rebuilt his building and started over again.

Hans and one of his neighbors would help each other break new land. This neighbor said Hans had the speediest oxen he had ever seen. He also said the mosquitoes were so bad he could not sleep, but Hans did not mind them at all and he would sleep all night. During this time in the late 1860’s, the nearest town was St. Cloud, about 70 miles away. Sometimes Hans would walk to town and return carrying flour and other necessary things on his back. Sometimes he would use oxen but they were very slow. A trip to St. Cloud would take four or five days. One time when Hans and a neighbor were returning from St. Cloud, it started to rain. They stopped, removed the produce from the box, turned the wagon box upside down and sat under it until the rain was over and arrived home without getting wet. It is unclear whether they had oxen pulling a wagon or they were pushing a two wheeled cart with a box on it.

About 1870, the town of Benson was established. It was now possible to shop and haul grain to the railroad there. It was 25 miles away and the trip could be made in two days. Hans was one of the first to buy horses and to build a barn with a hayloft. People came from miles around to see his barn.