Family History of the Day for 30 March: Maren Eline Kristine Sahlsgaard, b 04 May 1836 in Norway and d 30 Mar 1898 in Norseland, MN.
Family lore has it that she was the daughter of the treasurer of the Kongsberg Silver Mines in Norway, and brought her piano with her when she emigrated to the US as a young woman. In 1863 she married my 2nd great grand uncle Thomas Lommen Johnsen, 1837 – 1906, brother to two of my great-great grandmothers. A pioneer Lutheran pastor in MN, his territory included Blue Earth, Faribault, Brown, Watonwan, Jackson, Carver, McLeod, Renville, Meeker, Kandiyohi, Stearns, Pope, Douglas, Chippewa, Yellow Medicine counties. Some of his charges were about 300 miles apart.
We unknowingly had a photo from her funeral for years. When Mom was emptying the Blixrud farm home prior to her move in 1979, she found this photo stashed in an attic crawl space, unlabeled. We called it the “Mystery Funeral” for years, and I sent scans of it to historical societies and potential researchers in both Grant and Houston counties in MN, hoping that someone would recognize it. By chance one day when I was searching for info on Thomas Johnsen for my Ancestor of the Day series, I came across a near (but not quite exact) duplicate image of this picture at the Norseland church which provided the clue. This is a photo of her funeral: note that the group of men are down front, presumably offering their condolences to Pastor Johnsen. Compare that to my original, where there appears to be someone in the pulpit. Interesting that variants of the photo survive.
I still don’t know who originally had the photo, though. Grandfather John B Blixrud was a grandson of Thomas’ sister Berit, and grandmother Alma M Onstad was a granddaughter of Thomas’ sister Ragnild, so Maren was a great-aunt to both of them.
Today, I found a new document at the Norseland church’s site which details Pastor Johnsen’s history and service, written in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his 1863 ordination. It confirms much of Maren’s background (yes, she did bring her piano from Norway!) and has extensive detail of his ministry and their life in Minnesota from the 1850s through his death in 1906. Maren came to the US in 1862, and served as a nanny to a pastor’s family for a year prior to her marriage. They had eight children according to the article although the appended obituary states there were nine. Four daughters lived to adulthood (one of whom died age 26), and their only son, a seminarian himself, died at the age of 24.
About a year before we tracked down the subject of the photo, Kevin was in MN visiting family and had stopped to take a picture of a country church he thought was particularly attractive. He stood at the entrance of the cemetery to take the church photo; we determined later out he was at the very church cemetery where Pastor and Mrs Johnson are buried.