The Old Stone Hauge Lutheran Church near Kenyon

This church is so picturesque and beautiful, I just love stopping by when I can, which isn’t often. I knew my ggg grandmother (3mdm) was buried there from a little note passed on to me by someone in the family. It said “Grandma Iverson is buried at the old stone church in Kenyon , Minnesota . She was born in Rodness, Prestegjeeld, Smaalerne, Odemark , Norway .” ("Odemark" turned out to be "Aremark" or Marker commune. It's a long story, but I found it and visited cousins there in 2001.) Well, sometime in the mid-1990s, I was near Kenyon and went looking for the cemetery. There is a stone Lutheran church right on Highway 60 west of Kenyon, so I jumped out and started walking the cemetery looking for Maren’s grave. It was not a small cemetery, so it took a while. My search was fruitless, so I headed into town and asked a local. He said, “Oh, that stone church isn’t ‘The Old Stone Church’.” He gave me directions and then I found it easily. (It’s on Monkey Valley Rd off County Road 12 southwest of Kenyon.)

It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I just found this link about the builder of the church. The Anonby, Buers, Wasboes, Iversons, etc all came from the same area in Norway and were all related. Thanks to my distant cousin Jay Steinberg and his wife, Dorothy, we know a lot about their connections. You can download a GEDCOM file here if you’re interested.

January 8, 2007

Had a little Iverson summit in Kenyon, MN this past Saturday. Jim Stocke, Phyllis Greseth and her husband, Don, and Don Sudor all drove over. We had coffee and looked at photos for hours. Then, we tramped around to the Old Stone Church and the Kenyon city cemetery. Jim and I are descended from Christian (C. O.) Stocke. Phyllis is C. O.'s twin sister, Yetta's, granddaughter. Don and Jim and I are related via the Swansons and Petersons.

These photos are from my visit last November, 2005. It was a warm, sunny day, quiet and remote and Quinn and I just hung out and explored a bit. I think the church is only used for weddings and funerals now. “Maren Iverson Wasboe” (pictured) is my ancestor (3mdm) and the other Wasboe headstones below are the gravesites of her kids and grandkids. The Anonby and Buer photos are distant cousins of the Wasboes and I’m sure this was a tight-knit Norwegian community when they were living.

My mom's 2nd cousin, Ramona Larson Pekarek, just moved back to Minnesota from Denver, CO and we've reconnected. (Lots of good Iverson stuff at her website.) We're thinking about putting together an Iverson reunion. Here's a pic of the last one in 1999. It included other lines as well, and we had a great turnout due to lots of help from my cousin, Cynthia Stocke Betz. Here's a key to the photo. I still can't believe I made it.

I love these two photos. Ramona sent me the first one and I had the second one. Pretty much confirms we're cousins. It's fascinating how the same photos have been passed on through different lines. These were apparently taken the same day around 1912. The first shows Lily Ellingson Iverson at left in the hat with her two daughters, Ramona and Sybel (with hat and doll, mother of Ramona Larson Pekarek). Behind them are Maren Wasboe Iverson, Thea Sogaard Iverson and Anders Iverson. The second is a 4 generation photo showing Conrad Iverson in front with his daughter, Sybel.

Below are 4 photos I copied from photos Agnes Iverson, 1899-1999, had. She was a 1st cousin of my 3m, Anne Marie Iverson, and lived in Aberdeen, SD. Anges' father was Hans Iverson, who was in the shoe repair business. I'm not sure if he was in business with his brother, my 3md, Anders Olaus Iverson, or not. It might be that Anders ran a shoe store and Hans ran a shoe repair shop. Anyway, the first one is a great photo of Anders' shop. I love how there are men sitting around in the back of the store, possibly farmer friends killing time on a slow day in winter. And lots of inventory waiting to be sold.

The second shows Hans, on the far right, with two men. Since this photo belonged to Agnes Iverson and we have other pics of Hans, we're sure the man on the right is Hans. For the last 7 years, I assumed the other men were Anders Iverson and August Wasboe, Hans' brothers. Now, I'm quite sure that the man on the left is not Anders. Anders had a long, rectangular face and always had a mustache and usually a beard. This guy has a round face. It's a tintype, so it is probably older than the wedding portrait of Anders and Thea below. It could have been taken in Norway before the 3 brothers emigrated, but I still don't think that's Anders.

The third and fourth show Hans in his shoe repair shop. You can see "Shoe Shop" in the window in both photos, one from the inside, one from the street. These are scans of color copies made from the original 5x7 photographs, so raster lines are visible.

Ramona Pekarek got me thinking about photos of Anders. How many are there? It turns out there are less than 10. Here are the rest of the ones I have:

I just received these two pics from Kristen Bachken in Oslo. They'd lain in a box for the last 100 years or so after being sent back home to Norway by my Minnesota ancestors. First, Anders and Thea, probably a wedding photo. Then, a curious family photo in an envelope marked "Thea only". Looks like Anders, but I don't think that's his family!

Here are some more pics of Hans and his wife, Alette Jacobson. They had 4 kids, all of whom had no kids, so I don't believe there is anyone living of this line.

While we're at it, here's the only known photo I have of August Wasboe, 1855-1930. The second photo is unlabeled. It might be Juliana Wasboe Thompson, 1849-1932. They were found together in an album Karin Pollock made containing photos Alice Stocke had given her, and which Alice had gotten from Anne Marie Iverson who got them from Thea.

Next is a photo that Agnes Iverson had of Maren Wasboe Iverson with two children. It's a picture postcard, but has no writing on it and was never mailed. We have very few photos of Maren, so it was exciting to see one I didn't even know existed. Who are the children? Agnes and her siblings in SD had no children. Maren died in 1924, so the kids would have been born between 1910 and 1924. Conrad and Lily were married in Chandler, ND in 1909. (Mapquest had no Chandler, ND. There's a Chandler township in Adams County in SW ND.) Anyway, it's likely that Conrad and Lily visited Agnes at some point and gave her the postcard. So, Ramona and I think they are Conrad's children, Sybel and Ramona. If so, then the photo dates from 1912 or so. They must have visited Kenyon, MN to have the photo taken, since that's where Maren lived at the time. Conrad got around. He and Lily lived in Deming, NM, Watertown, SD, Mott, ND, Bisbee & Douglas, AZ. He was a salesman and then a border guard while in NM. His son, Stan, told me that he defended the US during Pancho Villa's time.

The second photo is one Ramona sent me of Lily and Conrad with Sybel and Ramona (Mona). I think the girl on the left is the same girl in both photos.

The third photo shows Conrad in Deming, NM, I believe. The fourth is Conrad and Lily's wedding portrait.

Here's a fun one of Conrad's daughter, Ramona Iverson Thayer, with her husband, Paul. They had a Latin combo in the 30s and 40s when that music was red hot.

Ramona Thayer and Conrad Iverson
at the Conrad and Lily Iverson residence
4645 Lyndale Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN

Here are Anders and Thea Iverson's children. My 3m, Anne Marie, is on the right in back. John and Nels are in the back and Conrad and Mary are in front.

Here's a great tintype of Thea Sogaard Iverson, 1841-1924. This one's apparently from her 20s, so the mid-1860s or so. The second pic shows Anne Marie Iverson, 1872-1943 held by her mother, Thea. I'm so grateful to my 2nd cousin Karin Pollock for preserving these. I got to photograph them when we got together at her home in 1998 or so in Minneapolis, MN.

Here are Anders' and Thea's markers at the Kenyon, MN city cemetery. Here are transcriptions of their obituaries, courtesy of Ramona Pekarek.

Here are Conrad and Lily Iverson's markers at a cemetery in Minneapolis, taken June, 2000. The cemetery is Sunset Memorial Gardens or something like that. Finding these was a real test of my filing system. They had never been placed in the appropriate album, so I looked through boxes and found the negatives before I found the prints in my to-file pile which had accumulated since 2000. Should have looked there first. I'm not as organized as I once was, but it's nice to know I can lay my hand on an old photo when I want to.

My 3m's brother, John B Iverson, lived in Los Angeles. Sometime in the 1950s, his siblings and friends from Kenyon, MN got together out there. I love seeing all those Norwegians underneath the palm trees. The second photo is the article that was in the Kenyon newspaper and serves as a key to the photo.

Here is a document (two sides) that Agnes Iverson had. It's Hans Iverson's (1852-1911) military enlistment.

These are letters that John B Iverson sent to Gina Ruud Bachken in the 1950s. There's no better confirmation you're in the right family than items like these. When I visited my Stokke cousins in Hellandsjoen, Norway in 2001, they had a photo they didn't know anything about but that I instantly recognized as the wedding photo of my mom's grandparents. It was heartwarming proof I was in the right place. I'm certain it has happened that some enthusiastic people have reunited with 'relatives', never knowing they were mistaken about their connection. I'm a skeptic so I love to add data points to support my theories. These letters are also intriguing because no one else in the family I've spoken with knew they had relatives in Norway and all during this time, from 1950 - 1964, John had been writing to them.

This is an informative draft of a letter that Gina Ruud Bachken wrote to John Iverson. Not sure if she sent it. It mentions that Karoline died in 1932 and that one of Gina's brothers died in San Francisco in 1911. This would be either Oskar or Jens Joergensen (or perhaps Ruud, which was the farm name).