Elias Molee and Alteutonic: A Norwegian American's Universal Language

Abstract

3 Elias Molee and Alteutonic: A Norwegian American's Universal Language by Marvin G. Slind The history of Norwegian immigration to the United States is full of colorful individuals who made significant contributions to local, regional, and national history. Although some, such as John Albert Thompson (1827-76), better known as "Snowshoe Thompson," had national or international reputations , most are best known in the regions where they finally settled. Still others, moving frequendy from place to place, made contributions that were often unknown to those who came after them. One such individual was Elias Molee (18451928 ). A letter he wrote to the Chicago-based newspaper Skandinaven, dated 31 December 1900, led to the establishment of a Norwegian community in the Palouse, the rich wheat country near La Crosse, Washington. Most of the setders there came from Selbu, Norway, and they named their church and community after their Norwegian home. Molee, however, left before the majority of immigrants arrived, and later generations knew virtually nothing about him. Although his effort to create a Norwegian community was undoubtedly his greatest contribution, it was not his main focus. He wanted to create a universal language, based on Teutonic forms. The language he created, which he eventually called 85 86 Marvin G. Slind Elias Molee (1845-1928). Courtesy of Monte Holm. Elias Molee and Alteutonic 87 Alteutonic, was based on a mixture of Germanie languages and included a system of shorthand that he used even when he wrote in English. It also incorporated his own aversion to capital letters - he wrote only in lower case letters. Although his work in language reform did not succeed, it represents one of the many ways in which Norwegian Americans tried to improve their society in the New World and still keep ties to the old. "MANY SURPRISING ADVENTURES AND DOINGS" The presence of Elias Molee in La Crosse, Washington, marks a significant connection between the Norwegian community there and some of the earliest Norwegian settlements in the Midwest. Molee was born in Muskego, Wisconsin, in 1845. His father, John Evenson Molie, who emigrated in 1839 from Tinn, in Telemark, was one of the earliest farmers in Muskego. John Molie s wedding to Anne Jacobson Einong was the first to be performed at the Muskego setdement and took place in Even Heg's new barn. Anne's sister was the wife of the Civil War hero Colonel Hans C. Heg, and her brother was the pioneer journalist Elias Stangeland.1 Elias Molee was clearly not one to stay in one place for long. In 1863, when he was 18 years old, he attended Luther College. There he became a good friend of Rasmus B.Anderson . Anderson devoted several pages of his Life Story of Rasmus B. Anderson to Molee, noting that "this sketch of Albion Academy students would be sadly defective if I did not mention Elias Molee." Anderson described him as "a young man of extraordinary ambition." 2 Molee spent one year at Luther, from 1863 to 1864. In his autobiography, molee's wandering, he noted, "the year i studied in the lutheran college in decorah, iowa, 1863 and 1864, was the happiest time i have ever enjoyed in my wandering life in this wide, wild, and wonderful world."3 Although he enjoyed his time at Luther and described the school in glowing terms, 88 Marvin G. Slind he was not pleased with the curriculum. He commented: the distinguishing feature of this decorah college was the immense superstitious and dark-aged importance given to the study of the latin, greek and hebrew languages, i did not love latin and greek, i hated them to the bottom of my heart, i heard many other young boys in the college say the same, what boy and girl in the high schools and colleges, who reads this does not hate latin and greek, especially, the stiff latin; that is, if they have tried to learn it, as i did. why not spend our valuable young lives in learning the living german, french, Spanish, Chinese, japanese, or alteutonik? latin and greek are dead languages.4 At Luther, he met a fellow student who greatly impressed him with his intellect. Consequendy, he...