I am Edith Jenny Hansen Christiansen and I was born in Concord on July 24, 1911.
And I am Edith's sister, Thelma Hansen Soberg and I was born on October 29, 1926.
Edith: My father came from Frederikstad, Norway and his name was Herman Hansen, born in 1889. He came here on the Ibernia in 1907. My mother, Elizabeth Johanna Kittlesen Hansen came from Kristiansand, Norway, and she was born February 7, 1886. She came over here in 1905 and landed in New York and met my father.
She came over here by herself, and she landed at Ellis Island in New York. There was supposed to be somebody there to meet her, but they didn't come. She felt so bad because she couldn't speak a word of English that she wanted to get back on the boat and go back to Norway. Finally they came to get her, they were some friends from Norway. It was her brother in Seattle, Washington, that sent her the money to come over here.
The friends got her a job as a chambermaid, and the woman she
worked for taught her English.
When my father came over, he had two friends from Norway that were already in Concord working, and they met him when he came. The man that lived here, Ole Burstad, was one of them. The other one was Ludwig Petersen. The Petersen family was another Scandinavian family that lived here in Concord but not related to Lars and Rudolph.
When my parents married in 1910, they went to Worcester where they both had jobs. They later came to Concord. Ole Burstad lived on Monument Street but worked at the Buttricks and he got my father a job with Jarvis Derby. The Derby farm was a big farm with eleven or twelve men working there which was the old John Buttrick place.
Then he went to work for the Mason Ice Company, which was on the
corner of Lowell Road and Barrett's Mill Road. They had a car Edith: taker's house there to take care of the horses at night. So my
mother and father moved there and that is where I was born. There
are six of us in the family, five girls and one boy.
Then my father went into carpentry. He worked for two or three
different people, and then he had his own business. My father worked
for Helmer Olsen, Agnes Nelson's father, at one time. He was a
carpenter for the rest of his life. He did a lot of the restoration
work at the Concord Antiquarian.
I was speaking Norwegian up until I went to school and even some in the first grade. We can all understand the language and I can speak a little yet.
Thelma: My parents spoke Norwegian to each other but as kids, we were a little ashamed that our parents couldn't speak English well. And we kept wishing they could speak it well so we didn't want to learn much Norwegian. Now I wish I could
Edith: My mother really worked hard and had it tough when we were all small. They didn't have electricity but they had running water. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were the worst days. Monday was the wash day for the white clothes, and Tuesday was the wash day for the blue clothes, and Wednesday was all the pants and socks which were all dark socks not white. I was the oldest so when I got home from school I had to help hang out the clothes and take them in. It was Edith, Edith, Edith.
I used to be called Yedygowashthedishes! Here comes Yedy! My mother would stand in the doorway and call me to come and do the dishes.
I went to school until the second year of high school. At that time I had to quit school, because my mother became very ill and I took care of Thelma, who was just about a year old, and the other little ones.
My brother Frank came after me and he moved to Connecticut when he married.
...Many of the Norwegian families went to the Norwegian Methodist Church, did your family go there?
Edith: I went there on Thoreau Street, and my parents did go there once in a while. Then a church was built on Lang Street, the Norwegian Evangelical Free Church. The people that attended that church were practically all Norwegian. The first minister, Andersen would have an evening service in Norwegian. The Andersens in Acton and another Norwegian family in Acton were the biggest supporters of that church, and they liked the Norwegian language so the evening service was in Norwegian.
My father belonged to the Sons of Norway. There was also an organization called Sick Benefit and it was all Norwegians that belonged to that. The group was to care for the elderly Norwegians. That would be about the 1920s or 1930s.
...Some of the people of immigrant families felt as children that there was a gulf between them and the children of more well-to-do families of Concord. Did you find that true? How would it be expressed?
Edith: There was a big gulf between the Protestants and Catholics
more so than between ethnic groups especially where we lived
(Elsinore Street) as our neighborhood was mostly Irish and Italian
who were Catholics. Many of my friends would say I would love to go
to your church but I can't. Their parents wouldn't let them and also
the priest wouldn't.
Thelma: The Evangelical Church was very strict. We were taught that we couldn't dance or play cards and on Sunday, you did nothing but sit around and look nice. As children, we couldn't run and play ball on Sunday, you just acted nice.
Edith: I think that stems back from Norway where they are strict with their children. But, I can remember there would be a lot of fighting among Norwegians when there would be drinking. I can remember going to a picnic at Christian Olsen's on Barrett's Mill Road when I was little, and a big fight broke out and they were all drunk.
...Was it just coincidence that you both married Norwegian men or did your parents hope that for you?
Thelma: Two of our sisters married Norwegians, and one sister married
an Italian, which upset my parents because of the Catholic part not
the Italian part. Frank married an Arnold girl; Liz married Dave
Nelsen, who was Danish; Margaret married Les Larsen from Acton who
also went to the Norwegian Church; and Lil married the Italian,
Vincent Bacarello. His father had a store called The Pioneer Store
down by the depot and they were from Waltham.
Edith: My husband's father's name was Anton Christiansen and his mother's name was Marta Andersen Christiansen and they were married in 1894. My husband's name is Axel and he was born in Carlisle. The Christiansens lived on Bedford Street. There were six children in the family and Axel was next to the last.
We were married by the Evangelical minister, Mr. Johnson, on June 28, 1930. I have three children, one son and two girls, and ten grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.
My son is a fireman in West Concord. My daughter Joan is married to Elliot Nelsen and they live in Acton and Linda is married to a Finn and they live in Bolton.
The Christiansens made their living by farming. They moved from Concord to Carlisle and farmed there, and then they bought a big farm on School Street in Acton where they raised strawberries and asparagus.
Thelma: My husband's father was a farmer all his life. I don't know when they came over here. There were three children and my husband's mother died when he was three. The Sobergs came from Loiten.
We took a trip to Norway and found the house my father-in-law was born in. My husband's mother Christine was an Andersen and my husband's uncle is Krist Andersen. They also came from Loiten.
Edith: I went over to Norway in 1963 and met every one of my father's relations. Every one of us have been to Norway.
When we were young, on Sunday afternoons, people would visit back and forth and it was usually Norwegians visiting one another so you usually had a house full of company.
Thelma: I remember when we were young it was an Easter morning tradition to go to my uncle's in West Concord for Easter breakfast. We would all walk over and back. My uncle's name is Erling Johannsen. He changed his name from Kittlesen.
...Did Herman, your father, have any of his brothers and sisters come to Concord?
Thelma: No
...When you went back to Norway were there any aunts or uncles that were alive that you could visit?
Thelma: No, just older cousins. We have one aunt living in New York, my mother's sister. She came after my mother.