Anfinn Anfinnson Vetti: 1715-1773 4th Great-Grandfather
Tomas Anfinnsson Vetti 1766-1851 3rd Great-Grandfather
Sjur Tomasson Hestetun Svalheim: 1807-? Great-great Grandfather
Ove Sjursson/Syverson Svalheim: 1840-1882 Great Grandfather
According to Mr. Botten, my fourth-great-grandfather Anfinn
Anfinnsson Vetti and his wife, Elsa Jorgensdatter “bought a farm called Vetti,
the highest and most remote farm in the mountains of Ovre Ardal. It was
purcheased from the minister Christopher Munthe. Jim Klobuchar, Tribune writer
(and incidentally the father of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar) stayed at
Vetti and wrote of it in his column.”
The accompanying family tree Mr. Botten provided, which I am
in the process of verifying on Ancestry, showed that Anfinn was born in 1715
and married Elsa in 1745. They had several children, the last of whom was my
third-great-grandfather Tomas Anfinnsson Vetti, born in 1766. He married Marita
Tolleivsdatter Hestetun and one of their sons, Sjur (Syver) Tomasson Hestetun
Svalheim, born in 1807, was my second-great-grandfather. He married Randi
Olsdatter Ve, and their sixth child was my great-grandfather Ove Sjursson
(Syverson) Svalheim, who emigrated in 1869 with his wife Ragnhild Oldsdatter Ve
and the oldest of their children.
Norwegian surnames are tricky. During the 18th
and 19th centuries, families used the names of the large farms they
lived on as surnames, similar to English surnames that referenced locations
like Underhill or Redpath. As we can see in the family tree above, Sjur
Tomasson Hestetun Svalheim did not live on the Vetti farm. By that point, as he
was a younger son, he moved, farming on the Svalheim land, which became his
surname and that of my great-grandfather until he moved to Minnesota and
dropped the location name in favor of his patronymic. I will have to research
the Svalheim location further. For this post, we will focus on the Vetti farm
that belonged to Sjur’s grandparents and uncle.
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| Vetti Farm |
Wikipedia provides some information on the Vetti Gard or
Vetti Farm:
“Vetti (or Vetti Gard) is an old farm area in the Utladalen
valley in Årdal Municipality in Vestland County, Norway. It located northeast
of Øvre Årdal, along the Utla river and has likely been inhabited since 1120.
From Vetti, there are two walking paths into the Utladalen Landscape Protection
Area and the Jotunheimen National Park. One path goes to the waterfall
Vettisfossen and the other one goes to old mountain farm, Vettismorki, 2
kilometres (1.2 mi) to the north.”
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| Satellite view: dot is farm, Utla River to left |
The Vetti Gard Turiststasjon website provides some history
of the farm, stating in rather stilted English:
“Vetti is a farm with a long history. The meaning of the
name Vetti supposedly means something along the lines of “fairy tale meadow”,
and the fairy tale landscape connection makes sense when experiencing the
contrasts between the mowing fields, the roar of the waterfalls and the close
vicinity to wild nature. The entire valley of Utladalen as outlying fields has
belonged to the farm of Vetti for centuries. Old sources tell us that there
were arable land and the cultivation of grains going as far back as 1120. As so
many of the outlying farms, Vetti was left deserted after the Black Death.
Vetti was officially named as a deserted farm in 1601, making it perhaps more
desirable as clearing a deserted farm could lead to both a period of tax
exemption and future tax breaks. From 1603 onwards a man named Eirik was named
as the farmer. Sources say that the current Vetti family arrived at the farm in
1714."
“Jørgen Anfinnson, born 1747, was most likely the first
farmer on Vetti to own the farm. Since then the family lived on the farm until
the 1980s. Up until the 19th century there was only one farm at Vetti. Later on
the farms of Lauvhaugen and Flaten became part of the community, first as
tenant farms and later on as owner-occupied farms. Vetti has had seasonal farms
at the mountain farms of Vettismorki and Fleskedalen. The latter vas previously
known as Fleskenosdalen. The seasonal farm at Fleskenosdalen was in use up
until 1953, whilst seasonal farming was taking place at Vettismorki up until
1968. The seasonal farm included a fenced in mowing field which was harvested
up until the end of the 1950s.”
The Vetti Gard history lists Jorgen Anfinnson as the probable
first farmer, despite acknowledging that the Vetti family arrived at the farm
in 1714. That is around the date of Anfinn Anfinnsson Vetti’s birth. The Jorgen
mentioned in the website was Anfinn’s second oldest son, so my fourth-great-uncle.
Jorgen was born at Vetti. It is unclear whether other siblings continued to
live and work at Vetti along with him, or if they, like Jorgen’s nephew Sjur,
moved to other Ardal area farms.
The farm history also states that the Vetti family continued
to live on the farm until the 1980s. This corresponds with the Jim Klobuchar
column, recounting his July 1986 visit to Vetti Gard. He reported that siblings
Jorgen and Johanna Vetti lived there and welcomed tourists. Klobuchar compared
Johanna to Mother Goose, and described the farm as follows:
“…on the slopes below the 200-year-old farmhouse [Jorgen]
still raises potatoes, barley and cauliflower. Next to the main house is an
ancient shed and granary standing on stubby posts papered near the bottom to
make it impossible for all but the most acrobatic mice to enter.”
Klobuchar also reported that Jorgen Vetti “said he couldn’t
trace the family lineage or the history of the farm much before 1714, which was
about the time George Washington was born.” Klobuchar also said that Johanna
Vetti asked about ancestors who had moved to Minnesota; it is unclear if she
was referencing Ove Syverson or later relatives, as she mentioned them settling
in St. Paul.
Now the Vetti family is gone from Vetti Gard, and the farm
is only open during the summer months for tourists and mountain hikers. The
website explains:
“Vetti Gard Turiststasjon has been an important place for
mountaineers since the mountain pioneers found their way into the valley of
Utladalen as early as the 19th century. Famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg
once said that he became 10 years younger every time he visited Vetti, and
chances are that if you have found your way there once, you will want to visit
again. The farm has also housed other famous people such as the explorer
Fridtjof Nansen, mountaineer William C. Slingsby and the current queen consort
of Norway, Queen Sonja.”
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| Upper farm in winter--you can see why the site is only open in summer. |
The website continues: “At present day, Vetti Farm Tourist
Station is open during the summer months, found at the heart of Jotunheimen.
The farm has 13 rooms and 27 beds in total. Extra beds/mattresses can be put
down in the barn and tents can be erected on the farm’s land. In addition to
this there is room for 12 in a dormitory in the barn. The farm serves food
during the summer season.”
The rooms pictured are filled with rustic furniture and
lovely décor. Prices are amazingly inexpensive at the current exchange rate of
1 NOK equaling 11 cents. Rooms run around 460 NOK, or about $50, and breakfast
is under $20, while dinner is about $44.
I am stunned at the beauty of this place, and amazed by its
history. I marvel at the thought of people living in such a wild, remote area
in the twelfth century, and then dying during the Black Death, leaving the farm
abandoned and lost. Perhaps someday we can return to the Old Country and visit
the farm, or perhaps one of our children can make the trek. I like to imagine
them staying in one of the charming rooms and walking through buildings which
may have been standing when my great-grandfather left Ovre Ardal in the 1860s. They
can look out at the mountain landscapes and the fields studded with
wildflowers, the same views that my fourth great-grandparents must have gazed
upon with pride when they first bought the farm. What a miracle that it still
exists!
Sources:
“Mother Goose in All Her Grandeur” by Jim Klobuchar,
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 19 Jul 1986, pg. 21-22.
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