Dublin Core

Title

Letter from Ole Rølvaag to Waldemar Ager, circa 1930

Identifier

p0584_00479

Date

1930

Creator

Rølvaag, O. E. (Ole Edvart), 1876-1931

Description

Waldemar Ager was born in Frederikstad, Norway in 1869 and grew up in Gressvik--just across the river Glåma. The street on which he lived there is today named Waldemar Agers Vei in his honor and memory.

In 1885, at the age of sixteen, he emigrated to America with his mother and two siblings to join the father in Chicago—who had gone to America earlier. Ager learned the printer's trade as an apprentice typesetter for Norden, one of Chicago's large Norwegian-language papers at the time. He also became an active member of a Norwegian temperance lodge there and began writing short pieces for its little monthly paper. He would remain a dedicated avholdsmann—alcohol prohibitionist—for the rest of his life--perhaps because of his father, who had drinking problems.

Ager moved to Eau Claire in 1892 when he was 23 years old. He had been offered a job here as a typesetter and fledgling journalist for a new Norwegian temperance paper called Reform. Upon the death of its editor in 1903, Ager succeeded to that position and eventually became owner of the paper; he would be associated with the paper for the rest of his life.

Funding to digitize the O.E. Rølvaag Papers was provided to the Norwegian American Historical Association through the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, a component of the Minnesota Clean Water, Land and Legacy constitutional amendment, ratified by Minnesota voters in 2008.

Ole Rølvaag's letter to Waldemar Ager.

Type

Text

Letters (correspondence)

Contributor

Ager, Waldemar, 1869-1941

Rights

No Copyright - the United States

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.

Bibliographic Citation

[Indicate the cited item here]. O.E. Rølvaag Papers. Norwegian American Historical Association, Northfield, Minnesota.

Is Part Of

P0584

O.E. Rølvaag Papers (P0584: Waldemar Ager Correspondence)

O.E. Rølvaag Papers (P0584)