John's Story - The Early Years

 Johan Pedersen Akeberg (John P. Berg)

3 March 1850 - 21 April 1940

We knew him as John P. Berg.  Well, our generation didn’t actually know our great-grandfather. But he was ever-present as his picture hung in our homes, and his children and grandchildren spoke fondly of him and the impression he made on them.  And yet we know only a skeleton of his life story. He came from Norway, worked in a sawmill, farmed, helped to start a church, smoked a pipe, and lived to be 90 years old. 

The early years   

Born Johan Pedersen, the second son of Peder and Maren worked in the local sawmill in Akeberg with his older brother Anton.  by the time they were in their early twenties, they were tired of working for the tyrannical boss at Soli Bruk sawmill. 

The year was 1870 and the Great Migration of Norwegians to lands of opportunity was well underway. Johan and Anton saw their chance. They had heard about the vast, old wood forests in the middle of America and the work opportunities that called for their very skill set.  They began to make a plan, and the next summer they were on their way to America.  

It is hard to know if their parents were in favor of this venture.  Peder Andersen and Maren Henriksdatter had married and raised their four children in the Råde municipality in the Østfold region of southeastern Norway. Peder had been born in Galgehytten (Gallows Cottage) in 1825 and worked at the nearby Soli Bruk sawmill.  In 1868 he bought a piece of land, not far from his home place, at Akeberg, about a twenty-minute walk to the mill.  This became the homestead.

No doubt the young couple envisioned their three sons, Anton (b. 1847), Johan (b. 1850), and Martin (b. 1858) working at the mill with their father. They would marry and settle close by.  And their daughter Mina (b. 1853) would be the wife of a millworker as well.  

But the situation did not favor the young men staying.  In June of 1871, Johan left Norway, bound for Chicago. Was it his intention to remain in Chicago, or was this to be a jumping off point for another destination?  Family lore says that Johan had proposed to Hanna Mathisdatter Fallet from nearby Tune before leaving for America, with a promise to be back.

Two months later, Anton and his wife Julie followed. The sadness of saying goodbye to the families was compounded knowing Anton and Julie were expecting a child. The couple sailed for Quebec with the final destination listed simply as McGregor.  A search finds four communities named McGregor in North America in 1870, from Texas to Ontario. Looking at related dates and activities in each locale, McGregor, Iowa was the most likely destination for this couple. But it doesn't seem that this was the final destination.

The family Bible in Norway records a birth and a death.  Anton and Julie welcomed daughter Palmine Marie on 14 January 1872. Tragically, only months later her father died on 23 September. It is thought that he was killed in a work-related accident.

  Three years later, Julie and her young daughter left the USA for Norway. Barely legible, this church record documents Palmine Marie arrival in the parish, having left from Menomonie, Wisconsin.

The story of those few years in the USA remains a mystery. Back in Norway, Julie left her daughter to begin a new chapter in her life. Our  Norway family relates that young Palmine was welcomed, and ultimately raised, by her grandparents, Peder and Maren. So, the Norwegian branch of our family actually descends from an American.

One year later, 1876, Johan also returned to Norway, finding work in Gressvik, choosing not to return to Soli Bruk. Gressvik was a small village near the town of Fredrickstad, not too far from Råde. 

On the 6^th of May 1877, Johan and Hanna were married and made the village of Gressvik their home. 

Their first child, Gustav was born 18 January 1878, and his sister Palmine Marie followed on 27 July 1879.      We would know her as Pauline.