Peter James Dahl (Fulton's Great-great-great Grandfather)

Story from Roland and Dale Dahl (Peter's grandsons)

From Roland:

Peter James Dahl and Augusta Dahl immigrated form Norway in the time after the civil was. We have no concrete evidence of birth dates and all I have to go on are personal memories and observations throughout my life. We (Betty and I with the assistance of Dale and Rosemary) hope this is as accurate as it can be.

Svoldal family home in Norway

The Dahl family started with the marriage and immigration to the US of Peter and Augusta Dahl. They originated in Hardanjer, Stavengen Fjord near Bergan, Norway. They spent the first few years of life in the United States working in the logging and lumber business in Northern Minnesota. I would assume that they accumulated a stake and came south to Winona, MN. This was the railroad terminus at the time and my Grandfather told me of making the trek to South Dakota with a couple of horse drawn wagons that contained all of their worldly goods. They also had a small bunch of cattle to start farming and cattle raising. They homesteaded a farm in Hidewood Township north of Estelline, SD. They built and lived in a sod hut for a time until they could afford and get lumber to build a house and farm buildings. The children were born and raised on this place and it is still farmed by the descendants of James, the oldest son.  One corner of the farm was donated for the constructions of a Lutheran church and cemetery where both Peter and Augusta are buried.

Augusta died when our father, Helmer, was a baby. Matilda (Tillie), the oldest girl, took over the task of raising the kids and doing the housework. My personal memories of grandfather Peter were and still are very positive. He was a very imposing man, I would guess about six feet tall and a well-muscled 200 pounds. Until the year before he died he had jet black hair, it seemed to turn white overnight. He would live with us on the farm all summer and parts of the winter. He would buy young cattle and pasture them on land adjoining our farm. In the fall, he and our father would load the cattle on rail cars and take them to the St. Paul stockyards to be sold and slaughtered. He would visit each of the other kids for a while and spend the rest of the winter with us. He had his own large oak rocker where he would sit and smoke his curved pipe. I would sit and listen to his tales of shooting buffalo, deer, prairie chickens, ducks and geese to feed his young family. He would hitch up a team to a wagon or sleigh and drive to So Shore for coal, flour and essential items. This was about a four or five mile trip and once in a while I would get to go with him. On one trip we spotted a coyote on the hillside and to a little boy it looked like it was a mile away. Grandpa reached under the seat, loaded a shell into the chamber and shot the coyote in the head. Very impressive to me and I will always remember that episode. I believe he was 88 or 89 when he died and he was buried in the family cemetery in Hidewood.

From Dale:

I was too young to remember grandpa Dahl. I do recall, however, studying a photo portrait of grandpa and grandma that Aunt Tillie had in her home at Morris. Grandpa Dahl looked very much like my own father-black hair combed straight back, prominent but not large nose and dark eyes. He was a handsome fellow indeed. Grandma Dahl was of french descent and was also dark-haired with a sculptured face that reminded me of the looks of Aunt Pearl. They made a striking looking couple.

The following and the pictures are courtesy of my brother Steve:

• Emigration 1868 of John and Peter
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• Brothers John and Peter came to America together in 1868. The young courageous brothers, along with a small group of passengers traveled by way of a small sailboat.  The journey was interrupted by storms which altered their course and took them far out of their way.  The trip across the ocean took them 60 days.  Passengers were required to fish for food.  They arrived in the port of New York where the two brothers ventured to Stoughton,  Wisconsin for one year and then to Filmore County, Minnesota, before finally settling in South Dakota.    Sometime after arriving in America Johannes changed his name to John Dahl
•  Story about Halvor Dahl, Peter’s brother below.  Peter raised Halvor’s children from his first marriage after Halvor’s wife died in childbirth it looks like at Peter’s home in South Dakota (appears that they were staying there at the time from reading a few sources).  Ida Dahl  (Thompson) lived her entire life in the area and had many children.  She was clearly Halvor’s daughter raised by Peter and Augusta from an infant.  The records are a bit more hazy on James Dahl.  Much or most of the records show him being Halvor’s son (Ida’s older brother) also raised by Peter and Augusta.  Some make it appear that he was Peter and Augusta’s son.  It is interesting to see in the records that all nine children of Jens and Ingeborg made their way into the US at some point each routing through the home of Peter and Augusta Dahl for a few years.  One son went back to Norway when he inherited the family boat business.  Otherwise there are descendants in several states outside South Dakota and Minnesota (North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Texas, Washington and California) but it appears that half the population of the Esteline area are somehow relatives and they most all lived very long lives (Peter’s brother John who finally settled in the Texas panhandle well north of Amarillo – Oslo, Texas area, had many children and lived to age 96 as an example). 
• Born July 9, 1855, AEnes, Kvinnherd, Norway. Confirmed on Oct 1, 1871 in the Lutheran faith. Halvor emigrated to America from Norway in 1882 after his marriage to Sella in Norway.  They settled in Havana Township near Goodwin, South Dakota.  Sella and Halvor had three children Jens Olai Halvorson Svoldal born Dec 28, 1881, Vetle Svoldal, Norway, Idella Sylvia Dahl born March 28 1885 in Hidewood Twp, Deuel Co, South Dakota and an infant twin son Dahl.  Sella and the son both died during the birth of the twins. After Sella died Halvor asked his brother Peter and his wife Augusta when their mother died at Ida's birth.  Halvor had asked his brother to take her until she was a little older, but when it came time for Halvor to get the two children back, Peter and Augusta did not want to return the children to Halvor, feeling the children felt at home with them, so they would not give the children back to Halvor.  Halvor then married Bertha they had one dauther Mary E Dahl born December 27 1888, Deuel Co., South Dakota.  Bertha died one year later from a fish bone in her throat, her burial is unknown.  Halvor hired Lovisa Peterson to help care for Mary, he later married Lovisa  Petersdotter Bjerknes on January 9, 1891, Castlewood, Hamlin Co. South Dakota.  They had one son Henry L Dahl born May 26, 1891in Castlewood, South Dakota.  November 1908, Halvor, Lovisa and Henry moved to Washington.  They had bought, sight unseen 20 or 40 acres up the hill from the old Victory School, store and Communmity Hall.

 He could be heard reading aloud from his Norwegian bible for long periods of time in the evenings and on Sundays.  Halvor was quite deaf in his later years, he had a stroke and died a week later at the age of 85.  He and Lovisa are buried in Victor Cemetery, Victor, Washington.

Halvor was a shoemaker by trade.