{"id":35,"date":"2006-07-04T19:24:40","date_gmt":"2006-07-04T23:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=35"},"modified":"2006-07-04T19:24:40","modified_gmt":"2006-07-04T23:24:40","slug":"and-live-in-that-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"…and live in that America"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 30, 1891,<\/strong> my great-great-grandfather, Ole Olsen Kvalevaag, of Avaldsnes parish, Karm\u00f8y Island, Norway, wrote the following in a letter to his son, my great-grandfather, who\u2019d emigrated to America and changed his name to John Walker (my translation):<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I myself have been sick awhile, but now, thank God, I am better again; and it\u2019s a good thing, because I haven\u2019t had much of anyone to help me with the farm work this year\u2026. I myself have plowed every furrow this year\u2026.<\/p>\n

Ja<\/em>, it is certainly hard to think that we, who have brought up so many as we have, are now alone in our old age. Ja<\/em>, it is sorrowful to think of, that we should have two sons in America, and [they] go and work for day wages, with nothing of their own to hold on to, and will not be at home in their own home and country. Ja<\/em>, it is amazing how a person can be, ja<\/em>, I often wonder about it when I think of you, that you could forsake your dear home, and live in that America\u2026.<\/p>\n

You, Jan, are scared to come home, you say, because you have to go to Madla [for military service], you say; ja<\/em>, setting aside the fact that you have to, for you aren\u2019t too good for that place, nor is anyone else; for as surely as you are, and want to be, a Christian, there is something the Lord has commanded, that we should submit to God and king. I ask you not to refuse this, for think how the Lord can lay upon you something that might be worse for you if you avoid this; for I can tell you that there are many who have been punished by God for it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t have John\u2019s replies, but what I see in this letter (as well as the others in the collection) is the Declaration of Independence writ small (to an extent), in one family\u2019s history. My great-grandfather resisted a lot of pressure and well-meaning warnings (not to mention guilt) in order to strike out on a new path in a new country. He left familiar things, and things that felt right, to try it the American way.<\/p>\n

He ended up rich by the standards of his time and place, incidentally. The later letters make it clear that his father had borrowed money from him.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful to be an American, grateful both to God and to my risk-taking ancestors.<\/p>\n

Happy Fourth of July.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 30, 1891, my great-great-grandfather, Ole Olsen Kvalevaag, of Avaldsnes parish, Karm\u00f8y Island, Norway, wrote the following in a letter to his son, my great-grandfather, who\u2019d emigrated to America and changed his name to John Walker (my translation): I myself have been sick awhile, but now, thank God, I am better again; and it\u2019s … Continue reading …and live in that America<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}