From Norway to the Gold Rush to New York: One Family’s Story

Interviewer: Are there any stories from your life that you think people would find interesting?

Jane: Well, I am from four grandparents who came from Norway as immigrants. They have very interesting stories, how they came and what happened to them. One of my grandfathers went to the gold rush in Alaska and did find some gold, but it was such a rat race that he ended up having to shoot moose to sell for money. Then, he and a friend built a boat and went down the Yukon River to get home. He was married to my grandmother at that point. Both he and the other grandfather --  they did not know each other then -- but they both ended up like many Scandinavians, working on the tall buildings and bridges in New York City. 

I've heard that the reason that they did that was that the Norwegians and the Scandinavians were known to be good climbers because of the ships that they were sometimes on. One thing I thought was interesting was, it was the time when the unions were starting. One of my grandfathers was actually the boss of the other one at that point. He was an important man. But he refused to go against the unions. And he was blackballed in the New York area, because of that, so he had to work a little bit further from New York City. His wife, from Norway, managed to borrow one thousand dollars from my father.

She bought a boarding house in the Catskill Mountains that was 50 acres. That was a big part of my childhood. Every summer, I was there, until she died when I was 10. 

I was born in Brooklyn, where there were many other Norweigians and Scandinavians. My parents moved out to New Jersey when I was a year old. I grew up in New Jersey, and had a wonderful, wonderful life, namely in the woods and being a tomboy and having a great time.

There was no college background in my family because none of my grandparents had gone to college. My father didn't go to college but got a very good job with IBM, you know, International Business Machines. He did well, so he was able to put his younger brother through college, and that younger brother went to Bard College. After college, he was an actor for two or three years. 

Then, during the Second World War, he became an ambassador and had a very important life. 

When I was going to go to college, there was no pressure like there is today. I applied to three colleges and got into them and decided to go. No one was pressuring me. But I thought I would like to be a teacher. So I majored in education. 

I would never do that again. If you’re going to be in education, you major in what you're passionate about, then you take a master's degree in education afterwards. I taught for two years.