Sons of the Old Country

by Waldemar Ager, Trygve M. Ager (Translation), Odd Sverre Lovoll (Foreword)

First published in 1926, Sons of the Old Country is a lively, fast-moving novel about Norwegian immigrants, who worked in the lumber mills of Wisconsin before and during the Civil War. Readers will be reminded of the pioneer sagas of Ager's countryman, Ole E. Rolvaag These early immigrants are a vigorous, likable, hard-working lot. In summer they work in the sawmills; in winter, the logging camps. They brawl, make love, read the Scriptures, tell yarns, and struggle always to form a community. They came to America for highly individual reasons, and their integration into a new society is hastened by the Civil War. The "sons" fight on the Union side; some are imprisoned at Andersonville.

255 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Norwegian genealogy organization I belong to is reading this book in a book club they sponsor this year. I cannot attend, so I decided to read it on my own. I have Norwegian ancestors who lived in Wisconsin (where this book takes place) and fought in the Civil War (as do several of the characters in this book). I read it to get insight into my ancestors. The characters in this book work in the Wisconsin northwoods as loggers in the winter and in sawmills in the summer. The town where they live is perhaps Eau Claire; my ancestors are mostly from Dane County and were farmers, but still, there would be many similarities in terms of culture and attitudes. This book ended by having several characters return to Norway which was unexpected. In my family, I know of only one (and if I broaden it to cousins, maybe only one other) who ever returned. If they left Norway, they were here to stay. One difference may be so many of my family members came to America whereas in the book, the characters were not a part of an extended family that came together or in a bunch of folks all from the same region. In the book, they were single men or a nuclear family unit, and their ties in Wisconsin were with the friends they made in the new community. The most interesting part, to me, was reading about the men who joined the 15th Wisconsin, the Norwegian regiment, because my great-grandfather, his brother, and two cousins all joined this regiment and served in the same company. What I read in the book confirmed what I surmised from the records I have researched as to what life was like, in a general way, about camp life and war in general. It was a good read, filled with information, and captures well the diversity of the many immigrants who populated the upper Mid-West in the mid 1800s.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting look at the rough lives of early Norwegian immigrants to the Eau Claire area, especially the men who left in the winter to work in the logging camps. Surprisingly (to me anyway)
many joined the Union army during the Civil War, fighting in a Norwegian regiment that trained at Camp Randall and went on to suffer huge casualties as well as imprisonment in the infamous POW camp Andersonville. It was translated from the Norwegian by Trygve M. Ager, the author's son.

[Audrey Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite book of those that immigrants that came to America. These worked in a logging committee in Wisconsin.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Eau Claire and a town rather than rural setting, as was Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth. The Norwegian immigrants worked in the lumber mills of Wisconsin before and during the civil war.