Twelve years ago I wrote a post here thanking this country for taking my mother and her parents in (click here to read it). Today on the 250th, I want to honor my hard-working Norwegian ancestors, who came in the late 1800s.

My father, Larry Munson, with his Dad, Lawrence J. Munson in about 1940

Below are some excerpts from letters my Norwegian grandfather, born in Christiansand, wrote many years later to his son. He describes his emigration at the age of 6 with his family and their arrival in Brooklyn, N.Y., where there was an enclave of Norwegian immigrants. (click here for all the letters.)

What America was I did not know, but I had imbibed enough of family talk to realize it was a land of plenty and an interesting place to go to.
[…]
My first impression was naturally that of wonder at everything new and strange. It was a great adventure into new and different conditions. My second reaction was one I shared with my mother – that of disappointment at the dirt and filth in Brooklyn in the summer of 1884. Goats were walking the streets eating the paper that littered the street.
[…]

Munson family in 1909 celebrating 25 years in America

My mother […] pictured the U.S. as wealthy and prosperous, and here was poverty and unrestrained drinking.
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In our little Norsetown the streets were clean and in almost every house you would see potted geraniums or other flowers in the front windows. There were many poor people but they were clean and orderly, and there was no public display of poverty.
[…]
My mother with her family of eight children felt she was too busy to learn a new language, and the children did all the shopping. It was only later on as she would hear the children glibly jabber on in this new tongue, that she wanted to know more of this new language. Her children used English among ourselves – especially when we did not want mother to know of our exploits.

My grandfather would later marry a piano student of his, the daughter of Norwegian immigrants (who totally approved!). He wrote about their courtship in his diary.

Here is the account of their first meeting:

“Confirmation Sunday” today at the Norwegian Methodist Church, Carroll Street. Miss Anna Lee confirmed. All of us invited to her house for dinner to share in the festivities. On leaving the car at Court St. and 2nd Pl., I was highly delighted to meet the young lady, as she came in her beautiful white confirmation gown with a bouquet of flowers, and was glad to have the honor of escorting her to the house.

Bicycles were the way my ancestors traveled around Brooklyn.

With Anna Lee, I have had many rides this summer. It has been a summer of the greatest pleasure for me. We have had many a ride along Shore Road in Bay Ridge to Ft. Hamilton, and along Ft. Hamilton Avenue to Prospect Park, along the Boulevard, out in Bath Beach, etc., and I sincerely regret that no diary was kept so the dates could have been preserved and the events recorded. However if dates are somewhat forgotten, events are not, and I earnestly believe that memories of the happy incidents of this summer, of which I now am writing, will ever remain fresh in my mind. It will ever be a source of joy to revert to them.
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December 29, 1900: Anna has now been with us in the choir about a month and a half. Her presence has made the choir meetings doubly interesting to me. I have generally seen her home after rehearsals. Did so tonight, and we took an extra walk down Second Ave. Went a step further tonight than I dared to go on Nov.lOth last, Took and made a vow! The most charming music I have ever heard was the silvery utterance of the all—important “yes”.

Henry H Lee and family (Anna seated at far left)