Undaunted: A Norwegian Woman in Frontier Texas

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Elise Waerenskjold’s biography could not have been written without the help of my wife, Inger Johanne Russell, a native of Kristiansund, Norway, not to be confused with the Kristiansand that is featured in this story. Because of her knowledge of her country, its language, and its history, Inger inspired the book and contributed the main translations of newly available letters and dispatches, all of them in Elise’s archaic Danish-Norwegian dialect and fundamental to the narrative. Three of the Waerenskjold descendants in Texas encouraged the effort and supplied material for the book. Sue Ann Trammel of Cleburne allowed me to photograph the paintings that Elise brought with her from Norway; Sue Ann also told me that her daughter Deanna and son-in-law Philip Lewis have named their recently born daughter Elise. Bill Van Shaw and his wife Mary Margaret graciously received Inger and me at their home in Dallas. During the visit we were shown items of Elise’s possessions, some of which were later donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. I was permitted to photograph Elise’s embroidery portrait of Jesus and Bill’s colorized photo portrait of Wilhelm Waerenskjold. In Denton I spent a pleasant two hours with Ophelia Sparks, Bill Van Shaw’s sister, and was fortunate to meet her daughter Susanne and son Stephen, the fourth generation of the family, who had come from their homes in California and Michigan. Forrest Brown, archivist of the Norwegian-American Historical Association , provided key documents from the NAHA collection at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, and generously answered questions about Elise’s life and Norwegian-American history. Judge Derwood Johnson, who resides in Waco, Texas, and is of Norwegian descent, allowed me to use his typed copy of the murderer N. T. Dickerson’s trial transcript; the judge had searched out the hundred-year-old document in the dusty files in the Kaufman County Courthouse basement. John Dahle, also of Norwegian descent, my Dartmouth College classmate and now a retired attorney in Denver, made recommendations crucial to understanding the proceedings in the Dickerson trial and suggested editorial changes in an early draft of Elise’s biography . His enthusiasm for the project offered constant encouragement. Ulf Hamran, former historian for Arendal County in Norway and a specialist on the history of Elise’s family, provided background on her life and was the first to disclose and translate the record of Wilhelm Waerenskjold’s criminal convictions. Lisbeth Higley of Tonsberg, who has done research on Elise in Texas and published articles about her, provided an alternative translation of the same criminal records and allowed use of her photo of Elise’s portrait as a fifteen-year-old girl. Translations of other letters by Elise and Norwegian Texans were made by members of the Ladies Group at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Pasadena, Texas, among them Anne Saglokken, Astrid Mosvold, Sidsel Roemer, Randi Jahnsen, and Ingelin Saethre. Dr. Bernard Patten, retired chief of the Neuromuscular Disease Division at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, supplied the retrospective diagnosis of Elise’s son Thorvald’s illness and death. Elvis Davis of Fruitvale, Texas, sent the copy of Governor Cole’s pardon for Dickerson; Elise’s letter to Cole also came from Davis’s files. Jeremy Hood of Higgins, Smythe, and Hood Yachts in Kemah, Texas, who has twice sailed the Atlantic from England to Texas, presented information on sailing directions and wind routes across the ocean; Janet, his wife, displayed and explained the maps of the ocean wind speeds and patterns. Alexandro De Ybañez and Roxanne Delaney , of the sailing ship Elissa harbored in Galveston, took me on a tour of the ship, explained sail characteristics and rigging, and described the passage from Florida to Texas. Alan Stewart, research assistant at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, and John G. Arrison, volunteer at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, searched out the records for the ship New England; Trond Austheim of the Norway-Heritage Project in Oslo did the same for the barque Ygdrasil. Solvi Sogner, professor of history at the University of Oslo, conveyed the information on the lack of formal divorce proceedings at the time of Elise’s divorce from Sven Foyn. Betty Ann Trednick , a resident of Van Zandt County and historian of the Four Mile Prairie Lutheran Church, gave me a copy of Jensen’s history of the church, the grave records, and supporting documents. Acknowledgments —xii— [3.141.244...