Am I writing a blog post to keep my mind off the most consequential and potentially historic election of my wizened old lifetime? Perhaps. Also: My stomach is in knots and I am scared yet hopeful for democracy and tomorrow’s outcome.
Speaking of democracy and pursuing the American Dream, let me tell you about a scrappy little immigrant from Norway who struck out into the great unknown to build a future for himself and his family in the very inhospitable Chicago of the mid-1800s.
His tale is a roller coaster of success and sorrow, lots of children (many who died, but also some who lived), and businesses built and lost and built again. It is a tale of surviving and rebuilding after epidemics and illnesses, business fraud and theft, and even, one big great fire.
But it is a tale that is quintessentially American.
It is the story of my third great-grandfather, Samuel Christopher Arentz, the first known member of the Arentz family to emigrate from Norway to the U.S. (Chicago specifically).
Now, this story (and the next few blog posts) might only be interesting to genealogy hounds (like myself) and my own family members, but I do want to put it on paper/screen/the cloud for posterity nevertheless.
For some background: I began my ancestry project in March. Well, actually, I sort of began it back in 2013 when I did the Ancestry.com DNA test. My maternal line DNA results came back with a surprising result: Norwegian.
After some initial digging, I had a few more clues on my Norwegian Arentz family (they lived in Bergen and Stavanger), but I had no real idea what to do with that information or where to start, so I put it on the back burner.
When we started kicking around the idea of a trip to Norway early this year, I knew it was time for me to finally dig into the genealogy and try to visit places where my Arentz ancestors lived, worked, married and died.
However, I knew pretty early on that I was going to need some help. Not only do I not speak Norwegian, but the handwriting is so spidery and difficult to read. I was going to need some major translation expertise.
So, I emailed the Norwegian National Archives to see if they could find any information on Samuel Christopher Arentz. I knew S.C. was born in Bergen in 1818 and died in Chicago in 1900, but I could not find any immigration information such as the date or port of entry here on the U.S. side of things.
Someone at the Arkivverket (National Archives) got back to me (sadly, with no further information) but suggested I start an account on the Arkivverket Users Forum and post a question there. Sure enough, I soon found a whole bunch of Norwegian experts willing to help me out, including my new friend and genealogist, Egil J.
Over the next five months, Egil and I worked together to flesh out a lot of details around (not only my third great-grandfather) but also my fourth and fifth. Unfortunately, the direct male line sort of ends with my sixth great-grandfather, Mads Arentsen, who is mentioned in relation to my fifth great-grandfather but that’s where the record trail ends.
(So far. Who knows? Maybe someday in the future, we’ll find out more about the cooly named Mads. Also, there is his wife, whose family goes back at least one generation further, according to my Ancestry.com tree).
Armed with this research, my forever travel buddy, XFE, and I began planning our trip to Norway, taking care to include a few cities that were significant in my family history: Bergen, Stavanger, and Solvorn.
Our first stop was Stavanger, which was the city where my Arentz ancestors lived before Samuel Christopher Arentz immigrated to the U.S.
Stavanger is located in the southwest part of the country and is Norway’s fourth-largest city. It’s an old city, established around 1125. For many years, Stavanger relied on the fishing and canning industry (primarily sardines and herring) but today the city is the oil capital of Norway.
Stavanger is also known for its collection of wooden houses – the largest in northern Europe. There are an estimated 8,000 timber buildings throughout the city, including a concentration in the Old Town section of the city, known as Gamle Stavanger, and in the city center, Stavanger Sentrum.
My fourth great-grandfather, Didrich Bay Arentz, a master coppersmith, moved from Bergen to Stavanger in 1831, according to church records.
We were then able to find Didrich Bay listed in the Stavanger City Clerk mortgage book v. 9 covering 1823-1832, when he purchased a property at 369 Østre Bredevandsgaden (East Bredevandsgade) for the sum of 231 Speciedalers.
Time for math, which I think is the devil’s work. 1 Speciedaler is (loosely) equal to 4 Kroner, so 231 Speciedalers is 924 Kroner, which is roughly 73,728.38 Kroner in today’s money. 73,728.38 Norwegian Kroner equals 6,701.91 United States dollars, according to online calculators.
The building was described in an 1846 Fire Assessment like this:
“A one-storey timbered Vaaningshus with [??] painted and roofed with boards and tiles [??] ¾ wide 8 ¾ Al deep, in the West 3 ½ Al and in the East 6 ½ Al high, containing: 2 timbered Rooms, one of which is furnished as a storage room and the other as a workshop with a fireplace, 1 wooden kitchen with a fireplace, 1 paneled pantry and 1 brickwork shop and 1 wooden hallway; In the attic, 1 wooden paneled storage room and 3 wooden and covered rooms and 1 hallway, 1 paneled chest room in the north, 3 slatted rooms and hallway, 2 two-story tiled stoves and 2 single-story chimneys, 21 doors and 15 casement windows and 1 staircase , is taxed for – – – 600 A Half Roof 8 Al in the East from the Vaaningshuset, 7 Al: l. 6 Al: d: 3 ¼ Al høit af Bindingsværk for – – – 10 | 610”
In April 1842, 24-year-old Samuel Christopher Arentz (Didrich’s only son and my third great-grandfather) passed his Commerce Exam, according to school records, and received his business degree. He then became a registered citizen of Stavanger in August of that same year, according to City Archives.
Around that same time, the property mortgage and deed for 369 East Bredevandsgade was transferred from Didrich Bay to S.C., according to the City Clerk mortgage book v. 10 covering 1832-1834. Samuel Christopher then went into business as a merchant selling hardware and household goods.
For whatever reason, S.C. then sold the property and business back to his father in December 1843. One theory: He might have gotten into a bit of debt. There was a ruling against him in March 1843, which required him to pay a fine in addition to repayment, according to this Pantebok.
Did this legal decision push S.C. to leave for America? Was he already thinking about going to America but felt pressured by his family to stay and open a shop in Stavanger? Did he just go into business for a short time to make enough money to immigrate to America? We can’t be sure. All we know is that he started a business and then left for America shortly after.
We also don’t know for sure when S.C. left Stavanger because we cannot find him on any ship manifests and, unfortunately, the emigrant records for Stavanger were lost in a fire in 1929. He also could have entered via Canada (Quebec to Chicago via the Great Lakes and Lake Michigan was a popular Norwegian route).
But, we did find a notice of unclaimed letters from S.C. published in the newspaper, Stavanger Amtstidende and Adresseavis in June 1843, so he was likely gone by then or well on his way. S.C. was also listed in a Chicago City Directory in 1843 working as a tinsmith working for Botsford & Beers, so he definitely had landed in Chicago by the end of 1843.
Then, in 1844, Didrich Bay placed two auction announcements in the newspaper for Samuel’s equipment and other items, with the “auction to take place at D.B. Arentz’s house” at 369 East Bredevandsgade.
Didrich Bay continued to live at the property until he immigrated to Chicago on the Steamship Prinds Carl out of Bergen in April 1850. The 61-year-old widower was accompanied by one of his daughters (S.C.’s sister).
Before he left, Didrich Bay sold 369 Østre Bredevandsgaden to merchant Peder Larsen for 900 Norwegian Speciedaler in November 1849 and stayed on as a renter until his trip, at which time the sale was completed and the deed converted in April 1850.
The former Arentz property became the K. Opsanger bookshop sometime in 1850. In 1935, Stavanger changed the street names and 369 East Bredevandsgade became 2 Nygata, which it still is today. The building was fully restored in 2012, and today, it houses Norrøna, which sells leisure and sportswear on two floors.
All of this brings us to our first stop in Norway – Stavanger. We flew from DC to Copenhagen to Oslo to Stavanger, so it was a long travel day. We picked up our rental car at the airport and made our way to City Center, aka Stavanger Sentrum, which is where the old Arentz property is located.
We stayed overnight at a small boutique hotel right around the corner from 2 Nygata, and woke up the next day for a private guided tour with Guide Companiet, a company suggested by my genealogist, Egil.
The City Center is an adorable neighborhood with cobbled streets, brightly painted houses, bars, restaurants, hotels, and stores.
I had sent an abbreviated family history for our tour guide, Turgid, so our first stop on the tour was the family property at 2 Nygata.
The wooden exterior of 2 Nygata is still intact although the inside has obviously changed quite a bit. It felt pretty surreal to be standing on the cobbled street outside my family’s home and workshop. Turgid walked us through the Sentrum, explaining the economic and social history of the area and pointing out historic buildings, including the first worship house and the many bars and dance halls (ie: brothels) that helped keep seamen from the nearby wharf entertained.
We then crossed the river and went to traipse up the hills in the Gamle Stavanger part of the city, which, unlike the Sentrum, was full of white wooden houses instead of colorfully painted ones. It was a wonderful introduction to Norway and we ended our one-day visit to Stavanger with dinner at the very excellent Fisketorget Stavanger right on the wharf.
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