Hegra before and after the Emigration Era

Abstract

by JON LEIRFALL translated and edited by C. A. CLAUSEN i Hegra before and after the Emigration Era The book article published translated in Oslo below in 1970 is entitled taken from Stor- a book published in Oslo in 1970 entitled Stormaskina (The Threshing Machine), a collection of essays dealing with economic and social developments in the community of Hegra, Trpndelag. They are concerned largely with the later decades of the nineteenth century. Jon Leirfall, the author, was educated as an agriculturist, and he has managed his family farm since 1946. Besides being an active farmer, he has filled many positions of trust in Norwegian agricultural associations, but he is especially well known as a politician and writer. Leirfall has been a prominent leader in the Norwegian Agrarian Party ( Bondepartiet ), and he represented his district in parliament (Storting) from 1945 to his retirement from politics in 1969. Among his numerous publications is a four-volume work, Liv og lagnad i Stj0rdalen, which, for lack of a better title, can be translated as Fate and Fortune in Stj0rdalen. Stjprdalen is the district in which the community of Hegra is located. This work is recognized as one of the very best of numerous local social histories published in Norway during recent years. A companion volume to 3 Jon Leirfall Stormaskina entitled Mangt eg minnes (Many Are My Memories) appeared in 1973. During his busy life as agriculturist, politician, and scholar, Leirfall has also found time to write four hilariously humorous paperbacks in mock saga style about Norwegian political struggles since World War II. They have become best sellers in Norway. Among distinctions awarded him, the following should be mentioned: Knight of the Order of St. Olav, Commander of the Order of the Lion (Finland), honorary member of Norway's Bondelag (Farmers' Association ), and honorary citizen of Minneapolis. With the author's permission, the Association has chosen to publish this article about emigration from Hegra because it gives readers an intimate "feel" for the life lived in a typical Norwegian rural community a hundred years ago. Here are detailed the restricted circumstances , the narrow horizons, and the population pressures which made the people - especially the young and the poor - ready victims of "America fever," which was sweeping large areas of Europe at the time. Following is the text of Leirfall's account: In 1815 approximately 1,800 people lived in Hegra, my home community. It was then exclusively a farming district, where soil and forest were the only sources of livelihood. Fifty years later, in 1865, the population had risen to 3,400. There were 225 farmers compared with 150 in 1815, and the number of cotters ( husmenn ) had increased from about 100 to 300. Within a couple of generations, employment and sustenance had to be provided for twice as many people as previously. No appreciable amount of new acreage had been put under cultivation, and farming methods had remained largely the same as before. With the exception of the potato, nothing new had been introduced which could increase the production of food. Imple4 HEGRA BEFORE AND AFTER ments were identical with those of the Middle Ages, and artificial fertilizers and grass seeds were unknown. The lumber industry had been greatly reduced and as a result work in the forests, which had provided employment and wages for many men during the previous century, was sharply curtailed. It was a loaf of the same size that was to be divided - but there were twice as many consumers to share it. How did the community solve the problem? It was not solved; it was merely postponed. Makeshifts were resorted to which limped along for a while - about as we are now trying to solve the problem of pollution. So long as most of the farms were leaseholds, the landowner was not at all interested in having them subdivided to an extent that would reduce the ability of the leaseholder to pay taxes and rents. The king was also interested in seeing that the farmers had areas sufficiently large to enable them to pay taxes. The subdividing of land and the setting up of new farms during the era of leaseholds was therefore, as a rule...