Get Koselig With Your Heritage

A Stevne Surprise

We were very pleasantly surprised at this year's stevne when Telelaget member, Trygve Olson, brought into the genealogy room a framed panoramic photo of a TelelagetStevne held 99 years ago in Moorhead, Minnesota. This very historic photo was taken on June 25, 1920, by Moorhead's premier photographer O. E. Flaten, and preserves the images of over 300 stevne attendees. It was quite interesting and also great fun to see all those people in the fashions of the day, most of whom were wearing their Telelaget Stevne souvenir ribbons. Our historian, Jim Skree took several photos of the panoramic, and those sections are printed below. In the center of the picture (top two photos on the next page) stands a row of ten women proudly attired in their Telemark, and other, bunads. Sitting on the ground to the far right (bottom center on the next page) are four fiddle players with instruments in hand. Imagine how much fun they must have had to visit, listening to music, dancing, eating, hearing various speakers, and just in general soaking in what must have been a powerful and koseligTelemark vibe! There was nothing written on the back, so no identifications of any of the people, except for the fact that John Haugo and Joran Olson each found their grandfathers in the photo. John Haugo's grandfather is in the center of the first photo in the bottom row of this page. He's the tall one that looks like John with a short dark tie, watch chain on front of pants, and hand in pocket. Joran's grandfather is in the bottom center section on the next page. He is in the back, tall with dark hair and a mustache and stevne ribbon on the left lapel. He stands in line with the second fiddler in that section.

It is next to impossible at this late date to make any identifications, except for a few well-known members and perhaps members of the board whose pictures have been preserved. Jim Skree knew that the man sitting on the ground in front of the women in bunads (second photo, top row below)looking straight to the left with mustache and goatee, and white kerchief in his pocket, is Edwin Studlien, an officer in the Telelaget from the Buffalo River Settlement. Even though his roots were not in Telemark, he obviously gained access by living in a Telemark settlement and by being married to Ingeborg Roholt, a Telemarksjente(Telemark girl) from Vrådal. Webmaster Anne Sladky said it would be nice if this photograph could be scanned by the folks at NAHA. They have a collection of panoramic photos taken at early 20th-century bygdelag functions and are asking for more. They can be viewed online and are of very good quality. If any of you out there know the whereabouts of any photographs or memorabilia, especially Telelaget Stevneribbons, we would very much like to hear about them. When it comes to Telelaget's history, these items are priceless.