Valders House

Valders House. Heritage Park, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. , Overview , Norway's population nearly tripled during the 19th century. This increase, combined with restrictive inheritance laws and lack of farmable land, made it extremely difficult to escape rural poverty. Most Norwegian immigrants were from the lowest social and economic classes in Norway. Five of the six children who lived in this house during the mid-19th century left Norway for the United States and Canada.

. Originally in Valdres, Norway , . Built in 1795 and enlarged in 1860 , . Moved to Vesterheim in 1975 , . 1994.096.001 , Gift of Valdres Folkemuseum

, The Valdres House was moved to Vesterheim from central Norway in 1975. It is a modest size for the home of a landowner, the top of rural Norway's socioeconomic class. The oldest part of the house was built in 1795 and was enlarged in 1860. Torstein and Ingebjǿrg Rudi Moen purchased this house and the surrounding farm in 1866. The couple had six children , all but one left Norway for the United States and Canada. , Norway's population nearly tripled over the course of the 19th century. This increase was due to improved nutrition, the smallpox vaccine, and reduced infant mortality. More people meant more demands for limited resources like jobs, food, and land, especially farmable land. This population increase, combined with Norway's inheritance customs, meant there was little opportunity to move up from one class to another, but plenty of chances to move down. , The oldest son of a landowner inherited the farm. If there were no sons, the oldest daughter and her husband could inherit. In Norway, the farm could be inherited prior to the death of one or both parents. If this happened, the son entered into a contract that provided the parents guaranteed housing (even if the farm was sold) and an annual food and fuel allowance. The contract also provided for younger siblings. Because of the population explosion, however, there were often too many siblings for the brother to support. The grown-up brothers and sisters became farmers, laborers, or found other work. In reality, most of these siblings ended up living in rural poverty. , Farming in 19th-century Norway was extremely primitive compared with other countries at the time. Even the largest farms were engaged in subsistence farming, rather than in raising crops for sale. Most Norwegian farmers were unfamiliar with concepts like crop rotation or drainage systems designed to keep fields from flooding. , Instead of the more common horse drawn plows and harrows used in Europe and England at the time, farmers in the coastal districts of western Norway used hand tools like spades and hoes to prepare the soil for planting. , People had few ways of escaping rural poverty, which is one of the reasons that most of the emigrants from Norway were from the lower classes. They didn't have money to buy or rent land in Norway. With more opportunities to find paying jobs in America, they could save up money, work hard, and buy cheap land that the U.S. government made available by forcibly removing Native Americans. , Only about 3% of Norway's land is suitable for agriculture and all of it was held by a minority of landowners. As late as 1900, around 72% of Norway's population lived in rural areas. Many farms in Norway were divided into units with separate households. The bǿnder or gårdmenn owned their farms. Within the control of landowners were tenant farmers and cotters who either leased land or were granted a place to live in exchange for labor. Cotter families and other servants did much of the work on a farm. People in these lower classes left Norway in the greatest numbers.