“I thought I’d never find it,” a Norwegian immigrant’s chest at his home near Rollag – InForum

CLAY, Minnesota. Sometimes you can take a step back and say that “it was meant to be.”

The chest of a Norwegian immigrant who came from Norway to Clay County in the late 1800s has found its way back into the hands of Rollag notables after being sold at auction; after it was passed down from generation to generation of Andersons.

Just south of Hawley, Minnesota, Jamin Krause’s 1898 farmhouse houses a family treasure. A pink-painted Norwegian immigrant chest that arrived from Norway in the late 1800s. The person who did this? Peter Anderson, a man with a white beard,

“It was a traditional form of decorating that could be done during the long winter months,” Krause said.

“The son of a poor farmer,” Jamin said of Peter Anderson.
Peter’s name is written right on the trunk, “and it says it was made in 1848,” Krause added.

Peter Anderson on a boat from Rollag, Norway, near the famous stave church. His destination?

“From Rollag, Norway to Rollag, Minnesota,” Krause said.

You heard right. Peter came from Rollag, Norway and settled in Rollag, Minnesota; near Steamer Hill.

The suitcase remained in the family for generations until great-granddaughter Avella Anderson held an auction. The trunk went to the highest bidder. This was not Jamin Krause, and he really wanted this suitcase. As the days passed, Krause became concerned that the Rollag, Norway trunk was no longer in Rollag, Minnesota.

“It almost became a problem and I thought I would never find it,” Jamin said.

So he turned to social media.

“It was one of the Norwegian Facebook pages and I said it was unlikely. Does anyone have this suitcase? I bet it wasn’t even an hour since the woman from Fargo texted me, it was so fast,” Krause said.

This is not just an answer: as soon as the new owner of the Norwegian chest heard the story, she agreed to sell it to Krause so he could return it to the hills of Hawley and Rollag.

“She said goodbye to it and it came home,” Krause said.

Krause returned from a summer trip to Rollag, Norway, and saw where the chest came from, and now it’s here, in the perfect place.

“What we have today that will last almost 200 years is nothing. It’s like our Rubbermaid bags,” Krause said of the old immigrant chest.

Back home in Clay County.

“I thought it should be here. I was excited, but in good Scandinavian style, I felt like it was meant to be me,” Krause said.