Most small farms in Norway, before the twentieth century, were actually owned by the state run church and cotters rented out the property for a yearly fee and a portion of the yearly proceeds and/or a few days of labor for the church. The contract was generally for the life of the cotter and the first-born son had the right to rent that farm when their father died or retired due to poor health (retirement as we know it now was unknown to the working peoples of Europe at that time).
The farm Stuskin was known to exist by similar names since 1520. Through the years it was divided and the portion named Stuskin østre was owned outright by Paul's family. Anders Olsen 1722-1799 (Paul's third great grandfather) had bought the farm September 1756. All things point to the farm being fairly successful. Anders passed the farm to his eldest son Jacob Andersen 1753-1813. Jacob passed the farm to his eldest son Anders Jakobsen 1787-1875. Anders passed the farm to his eldest son Sevald Andersen 1818-1900. Paul's father Anders Sevaldsen 1863-1939, being the oldest son of Sevald, would have owned the property upon his father's death. It was not to be. Anders denied his baptism in the state church of Norway and became a Seventh Day Adventist. He trained to be a missionary along with his wife Anne Marie. He left the family farm and his birthright, never to return to Stuskin.
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| Stuskin østre |
Sad to note: Searching for my grandfather Paul in the 1910 Norwegian census I finally found him on this same farm, Stuskin. He was now 16 years old and the 1910 census says nothing of him being a relative. It states he is a worker on the farm, no more than any other farm helper. He is not even listed with his surname Sevaldsen, but merely as Paul Skoglund (his first and middle name).
After his mother had died (at the birth of her seventh child) his father Anders married quickly. That was not very unusual in Norway at the time but what saddens me is that he seems to have dumped the responsibility of his three oldest children. My grandmother told me that the baby Live was treated poorly by her stepmother. My grandfather? He was just 14 at the time of his mother's death and although at this time and place he most likely would be finished with his school and working, how degrading to be a farmhand now on the farm that by rights and Norwegian law should have some day belonged to him as the oldest son of the oldest son? His grandfather had died in 1900 and I wonder if he had lived to see this would he have made some provision for his grandson? The grandson who lost his inheritance because of the religious fervor of his father?
The story of the family farm Stuskin can be found in the bygdebok: Verdalsboka: en bygdebok om Verdal 3-54: Gårds og slektshistorie Chapter: Stuskin pgs. 576-597 by Einar Musum
I never knew great grandfather Anders. My great aunt Stina, a child of his second marriage, spoke proudly of him as a religious reformer. My grandmother Dagmar however spoke of his cruelty to his children. She told me that he had physically beat the children and she felt the beatings Paul got about the head contributed to his Parkinsons in later life. The bits I have heard do not endear me to this religious zealot. How blessed was I to have had such a kind, generous and loving man as Paul for my grandfather? Grandma Dagmar had a saying for the Anders type of religious person. "So heavenly minded they're no earthly good". Yet he did right by me. After all, if Paul had inherited the farm he most assuredly would not have met my grandmother Dagmar, nor left for America, nor become my Grandpa.
**clicking on photos will enlarge them for easier viewing**
**to view each generation before Grandpa Paul see the page "Paul's Ancestry"**
