On May 19, 1893, a terrible landslide occurred in Verdal, Norway.
It struck in the middle of the night, killing 116 people.
My grandfather, who had immigrated to America,
lived in this area. His "home place" survived the landslide,
but tragically, several members of the Melby family
perished in the catastrophe.
My grandfather's aunt, Maria Baardsdatter, age 70, lost her life in the landslide.
Maria, her daughter , and another young woman named Bolette were inside the house
when the landslide hit. Bolette woke up, swallowing clay & mud; she was covered from
head to foot with the wet, sticky clay. The women went into the loft of
the attached barn. They noticed a cow had been pushed up under the rafters!
There were several "waves" that occurred in the night.
Maria was carried away by one of the waves and she died.
A farm called "Melbynesset" was buried in the clay. It was here that
Ingeborg Rasmussdatter, her husband Andreas, their daughter
Ragnhild, and their grandson, Edvin Herman lost their lives
that horrible night in May.
Ingeborg was also an aunt to my grandfather.
Ingeborg, Andreas and Edvin (grandson)
Ingeborg was my grandfather's aunt.
She was 54 at the time of her death.
Ragnhild was 21 years old when she died in the landslide.
Sevald was a son of Ingeborg & Andreas, so he was also
a relative. He had gone to Chicago with his wife, Guro.
His little boy, Edvin Herman remained in Norway.
At the time of the landslide, Sevald was making
plans to have his son come to America.
This is Edvin Herman, who was 9 years old when he died in the landslide.
Such a heartbreaking story! In a letter written to his parents 3 days after the landslide,
Sevald says he read of the landslide in the newspaper,
but wasn't sure where exactly it was.
Little did he know that his parents, sister and son all died!
In his letter, he talks lovingly of his son, and hopes his sister Ragnhild can
accompany Edvin Herman to America; he planned to send tickets.
He closed his letter with, (translated from Norwegian) "Live well and
thousands of wishes from Guro and me to all of you and mostly
to little Herman from Daddy."
[Guro was Sevald's new wife; his first wife and mother of Edvin Herman
had died.]
Thanks to Stina Melby for the pictures, letter,
information and book about the Verdal landslide!
7 comments:
That IS such a sad, sad story!
I visited the site in 2006. My grandparents that came to Everett, Washington in about 1910 were John Balgaard, later took the name of their farm - Fossheim.
Gene R. Fosheim
My Norwegian uncle (once removed) Johannes Overmo showed me the site of the slide recently (May 2014) when I visited the family farm in Verdal. After the slide, the family moved their farmhouse farther up the hillside and changed their name from Moen to Overmo. The land bears an uncanny resemblance to Oso, Washington (the state in which I live), where a deadly slide also occurred in February of this year.
Yes the Oso, Washington slide is a short drive from my home and has a lot in common with the historic Verdal slide.
I would not be surprised if we are related. Now that I've completed my research I have numerous relatives all around the Verdal area. I published my book on family history and the story of coming to Minnesota and then Everett, Washington recently. It's titled 'Mill Town Boy' and available on Amazon. I think you would like it. The slide story is also in the book.
The last name of many of them is Ovrum on Mom's side and Balgaard on Dad's.
I ran across this as I am deep into researching my ancestors who died in the landslide. I don’t recognize any names mentioned here, so don’t think we’re related. But if anyone else is here looking as I am, my relatives were Peter and Anna Rasmussen Togstad. Togstad was the farm name. My branch of their descendants emigrated to the Muskegon, Michigan area.
A cousin visited the Stikelstad church and picked up a booklet about the landslide, in English, in the gift store. Does anyone know how else this might be obtained?
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