STORVIKEN
Translated by Inger Nillson from Sunndalsboka Bind IV, pp. 99-109, Ivar Seljedal, Utgitt Av, Sunndal, Oksendal og Alvundeid Sogelag, 1967.
Farm History
The name 'Storviken' is found in written sources as early as the 1740s, but is not used as far as we know in official documents in the "old days." Only at the registration in 1886 does it have official value. Storviken, of course, means that the farm is the 'bigger' compared with other smaller farms in Viklandet in the area of the fjord. The farm Storviken, as it is now, answers to two farms that in the old days had the names Utviken and Loeviken, but has in recent days been merged into one farm but kept the partition in two agricultural units. Utviken existed as early as the days of the Black Death c.1350, but was deserted in 1440 or around that time. Utviken meant an outer vik ('vik' meaning inlet) in opposition to an inner vik (Innviken). That was the name and now is the history.In the Middle Ages, Utviken belonged to the archdiocese of Nidaros (which is today Trondheim). After the Reformation (c.1550) the farm was added to the land that was at the disposal of the parish priest of Sunndal. On the other hand, Loeviken hardly existed during the Middle Ages as a farm and has therefore hardly belonged to the archdiocese. The first mention of Loeviken is found about 1608. As the other farms in Viklandet were added to the land that was disposed by the priest in Sunndal, it is only natural that Loeviken was also added to that. Loeviken is also called Bardviken (pronounced Boardviken). This latter name is written from about 1700 when a man called Bard lived there for about 30 years. The name Loeviken has probably originated because in the old days there was a loe there (Inger's comment regarding loe is that it has something to do with hay, probably a shed for hay).
Storviken Nr 1 (Utviken) was, according to a royal resolution dated 27 September 1833, sold to the man who sat there (the man who worked it) for 400 daler. This document is dated 22 October 1833. Together with this selling, the farm was liable to pay a certain amount to the parish priest in Sunndal Ð three barrels and two scoops of grain Ð but this tax was dissolved in 1856. The man bought it back.
Storviken Nr 2 (Loeviken) was sold according to a royal resolution dated 26 June 1840 for 180 daler and that document was dated 10 July 1840. They also had to pay the parish an amount of grain in old measures later figured out to be 1,312 hectare liter, but this was just as for the other farm scrapped for the amount of 227 kroner (the obligation to deliver grain was bought back in 1905 for about 227 kroner). [Inger's comment: That was the same year that Norway broke away from Sweden.]
Farming
(These paragraphs contain technicalities about taxation and what they owed for the land.)In 1693, they had the tax reduced because there was an avalanche from the mountain that had done great damage. Utviken and Loeviken in 1723 had soil that was middling (not good, not bad) and very unsure of growing of grain during dry years. It is mentioned that same year that they raised the tax from Utviken, but nothing came of it because the registration was not activated. Utviken had oats; the tithe is mentioned, most likely being paid to the Sunndal parish; it says for certain periods how many barrels they had to deliver. Loeviken in 1723 produced 3-3/4 barrels mixed grain, oats being the most. There is a column for rye, one for oats and one for potatoes from 1835 and onwards (the first mention of potatoes). That is the same for both of these farms.
(Now we come to the animals, just the first and last years)
- Utviken in 1657 had 2 horses, 12 cows, 7 sheep and 6 goats. In 1875, they had 2 horses, 16 cows, 20 sheep, 14 goats and 2 pigs.
- Loeviken in 1657 had no horses, 2 cows, 2 sheep and 3 goats. In 1875, they had 1 horse, 6 cows, 14 sheep, 12 goats and no pigs.
Regarding hay, in 1723 Utviken harvested 30 sommer lass (loads on wheels that a horse could pull) and Loeviken 8 sommer lass.
Regarding mills, in the 1620s there was a small mill in Storviken (Utviken) and one also in Loeviken. In 1661, there is no mill mentioned on either farm, but in 1723 there was one mill on both farms. At the end of the 1700s, Storviken had a mill but the one in Loeviken was gone.
Storviken in the 1840s had two husmann (farmhands) with land (they probably had a small place to live with a little land to grow small amounts of things for themselves). In 1865, there was no husmann. Loeviken never had any husmann with land as far as we know.
Storviken was parted in two units until 1694. In the years from 1695-99, those two units seem to have been deserted. From 1700, the two units were joined into one and it has been like that since then. Loeviken always was only one farm. From 1900, there have been some changes on these farms. From the old days, they have had some forest but this has in recent days been taken over by the government. And in connection with this there have been some changes in the units. The two registered farming units of Storviken and Loeviken were from about 1905 redistributed into six. (There then follow details on this redistribution p. 102, government forest, etc.)
Register of People Who Owned Farms
Storviken Nr 2: Viken (Loeviken, Bardviken):
[Then follows the size of the farm in three different years. Inger cannot say what the sizes mean. There also follow the names of the oppsittere (the one who sat on the farm Ð operated it but didn't necessarily own it Ð we will call this person the 'farmer'.]
- About the first three, we know almost nothing (Ole, Lars and Morten) with the exception that in 1642 Morten had a son in royal service.
- Even Brynhildsen (1660-70) is thought to have been born about 1620. He had a son, Anders, born about 1620 (there is evidently a mistake somewhere here in the date).
- Knut and Ole Pedersen (1671-74 and 1675-96) are also unknown.
- Bard Olsen (1697-1728) was born c. 1660. He had a son, Ole, born c. 1693. It is probably this Ole Bardsen who in the years 1720-46 was the farmer on Furubruk nr 14. It is probably Bard after whom this unit is called Bardviken.
- Ole Halvorsen (1729-42) leased Viken in 1729.
- Ole Olsen (1743-75) born c. 1723 was the son of the former farmer Ole Halvorsen. Ole Olsen's wife's name was Marit Olsdatter. Ole received the lease of Viken eight days before Christmas in 1742 from the parish priest Borch. Ole died without children in the autumn 1773. After the funeral, they counted how much it was worth: 2.5 daler. The wife Marit died in 1777, reportedly 67 years old. This Marit Olsdatter may have been a niece of Ole Olsen Roehjell's wife, so also the child of a sibling on the mother's side of Anders Olsen Roehjell.
- Halvor Olsen (1776-1807) is evidently of the same family as the two nearest former farmers (Ole Halvorsen and Ole Olsen), but this cannot be proven. Halvor did not get the farm lease until the autumn 1780, but already in 1776 he had taken over the management. In 1778 he was betrothed with Helga Olsdatter born c. 1750, a daughter of Ole Larssen's at Storviken. Children: 1) Ole, born 1779; 2) Ole Junior, born 1781 (the first Ole had probably died) and followed his father on Viken (took over the farm); 3) Marit, born 1784; 4) Kari, born 1788 Ð she became the woman who was in charge of the farm in Furubruk nr 6 (Inger thinks this 'bruk' is a mining place Ð it is in Swedish anyway); 5) Guri, born 1780, became a tenant farmer's wife in Oestrveitvoll under Furubruk nr 5.
Halvor Olsen was born c. 1751. He died in 1797 and the estate was valued to 75.5 daler total, but the net was 56 daler. The widow and children remained on the farm. Helga Olsdatter died as a pensioner on her own farm in 1824.
- Ole Halvorsen II (1808-39), born 1781 the son of the former farmer. He got the lease of the farm in 1808. In 1807 he was married to Ingrid Evensdatter Birkestoel (or Boerstoelen). She was the daughter of Even Ivarsen Boerstoelen. Children: 1) Halvor, born 1808, died unmarried in 1839; 2) Ole, born 1810, succeeded his father on Viken; 3) Even, born 1812, died 1832 Ð he drowned on the fjord just down from Viken where a gust of wind and a big wave overturned the rowing boat (4 or 6 oars) he was sitting in. His mother was standing helpless on land and saw the accident; 4) Ole, born 1815, became a tenant/crofter on Strandaloekken under Erstad (this means that the croft Strandaloekken was owned by another farm, Erstad); 5) Helga, born 1818; and 6) Anders, born 1821.
Ole Halvorsen was a council witness (someone to see that everything was done right) between 1818-24, and a commissioner of arbitration in the 'ting' (judicial district) for many years. He died in June 1839. His wife, Ingrid Evensdatter, died as a pensioner on her own farm in 1873.
- Ole Olsen II (1840-75) was the son of the former farmer. In the deed of 10 July 1840, he bought the farm from the public (the farm was owned by an official body of some kind, perhaps the parish or the government) for 180 spdlr (speciedaler Ð a kind of daler). In 1841, he was married to Guri Pedersdatter born 1812, the daughter of Peder Anderssen in Dalen (Alvundeid). Children: 1) Ingrid, born 1841, was in 1867 married to the tenant's son, Ole Einarsen, at Ormset (Tingvoll); 2) Ingeborg, born 1846, died 1846.
Ole Olsen II already around 1870 left the farm and gave it over to his son-in-law, Ole Einarsen Ormset, born c. 1830 in Tingvoll, but the deed was not dated until the autumn 1875 for 150 spdlr. Ole Olsen II was the first self-owner of Viken. When in 1840 he bought this farm, there was tied to it an annual land tax (see further under the history of the farm). Ole Olsen died as a pensioner of the farm in 1907. His wife, Guri, had died in 1904.
- Ole Einarsen Ormset (1875-84). As we have just mentioned, he was born in Tingvoll in 1834 and was in 1867 married to the former farmer's daughter, Ingrid. Children: 1) Ole, born 1868; 2) Jon, born 1870; 3) Edvard, born 1872; 4) Halvor, born 1876: 5) Ingebrigt, born 1878; and 6) Gustav, born 1880.
In the spring of 1880, there was at Ole Einarsen held an execution in which to the creditor Jon Saether was given what he had 'coming to him' in Storviken Nr 2: 441.54 kroner; and at an execution in June of the same year, there was taken from the farm to another creditor 84 kroner. At the same time, there was seized in payment for a debt for rights to the parish priest (what they should have paid him) at which one cow was taken. In October 1884, the farm Ð that is unit nr 2 Ð at an auction was sold to Ole Sivertsen Lundli for 1,060 kroner. In the spring of 1885, Ole Einarsen with his wife and three children Ð Halvor, Ingebrigt and Gustav Ð emigrated to America.