The history of Ole's farm

One of our first stops will be at Eric's grandfather Ole's family farm. Ole came to America by himself as a 20-year-old in May of 1906, but he spent his early life at "Lensebråten." The farm is a bit north of Sarpsborg, which bills itself as Norway's oldest town. Sarpsborg is near Oslo fjord down towards the Swedish border, perhaps an hour or two driving from Oslo.

The area where grandfather Ole was born is called "Jelsnes." The farm on Jelsnes is called "Lensebråten." Lensebråten used to be part of a larger farm by the name of "Jelsnes-Ødegården"

Lensebråten lies south of Jelsnes school and borders the river Glomma - Norway's longest river. During the second half of the 17th century a croft was established here under the ownership of Jelsnes-Ødegården. As Eric's Oslo cousin Dag Langmyhr (source of all this great information) explains, the name Lensebråten comes from the expression "lense," which means a place where driftwood is collected from the river Glomma and which stretched across to the other side of the river.

Lensebråten had some forest "up to Hoveden and Suteren". The border stretched to the river where "an oak tree used to stand". It continued to the northwest behind the creek between Hovden and Suteren to the northern bank of the Glomma.

Apparently the area around Jelsnes was converted into farmland by the Vikings. The first available written information dates back to a register from 1577 which quotes that "the farm which lies at Jelsnes belonged to the Fredrikstad parish since 'Aridtz time.' It seems the farm had been split into two in the "Old Norwegian" times and that both became obsolete after "svartedauden", the plague in the 13th century.

In a register from 1668 the area was already called Jelsnes-Ødegården which is still in use today. The farm remained in its original size until the early 18th century, when Lensebråten was the first to be separated in 1815 but still belonged to the Fredrikstad parish. Subsequently also 10 other smaller farms were established between 1839 to 1865.

The farm Lensebråten was leased by Sjøllert Larsen, son of Lars Sjøllersen. Sjøllert was born in 1798 and died in 1880, married to Karin Jensdatter Belsby, (born 1796 died 1862). Their four children included Anders Sjøllerson, who was born in 1838. In 1861 Sjøllert agreed with his sons Jens and Anders that they should operate the farm, because at his age he could no longer run it himself. He asked the sons to provide he and his wife with reasonable room and care.

Jens was married to Torine Halvorsdatter and after they had two children, Jens left the farm in 1863 and his brother Anders bought the farm in 1867 for an amount of 570 specidaler, becoming the first owner of Lensebråten.

Anders -- who happens to be Eric's great-grandfather -- married Berte Marie Andersdatter (who was born in 1838) and over the years they had seven children: Ludvig b. 1868; Maren b. 1872; Anna b. 1874; Julius b. 1877; Anton b. 1880; 6. Sigvart b. 1883, and, the baby of the family, Ole b. 1885. As the youngest of five Anders' sons, Ole wasn't in line to inherit the land so in May of 1906 as a 20-year-old he headed off to America.

In 1911, Ole's brother Julius Andersen Lensebråten took over the farm and his descendants still own and live on the farm today. We'll be there Wednesday.