The Wisconsin Collection is a partnerhip
of the Wisconsin Historical Society
and Wisconsin Public Television.
Are we all set? Yeah!
On your mark, get set, go!
? ?
Narrator: For more than 25 years
thousands of school children from around Wisconsin
have learned the rules and the fun
of an old-fashioned game of hoops.
A modern generation that has learned
that shoes were once hand-made
in a local shop.
And once this is dry
and you take all those nails out
the leather will hold that shape
wrapped around the last...
You take the iron off, it's very hot.
Narrator: And others who gained new respect
for their grandmothers and great-grandmothers
and the job of ironing clothes.
It's pretty heavy, isn't it? Yep.
And of course, back then, they ironed everything.
Narrator: This is a world beyond modern imaginations
because it is the old world
but still accessible at Old World Wisconsin
the unique historic site
located near Eagle, Wisconsin.
A place where visitors can step back in time
and learn the crafts
of Wisconsin's first pioneers.
Now you choose your skirt...
( horse whinnies )
Narrator: Or reminisce bout how life used to be
or visit the actual homes of their ancestors
buildings now part of the painstakingly researched
and reassembled exhibits at Old World Wisconsin.
Each of the buildings tells a story
tales from Wisconsin's first century of immigration
of the people who left other places
to start a new life
on what was once the western frontier.
Their stories are Wisconsin's stories
told and retold in an outdoor museum
that brings history to life.
Funding for Old World Stories is provided in part by
the Halbert and Alice Kadish Foundation
with support from the Bergee family;
and by member contributions to the Wisconsin Program Fund.
"As the farmer's son, Knudt Christiansen Fossebrekke
"intends to leave his native village
"and his fatherland, the Kingdom of Norway
"in order to emigrate to North America.
"He is hereby released from the congregation
"with the best wishes for his future
"and with assertion
"that nothing but good is known to me about him.
The Minister Johannes Reinhardt."
This is our Fossebrekke cabin.
We're taking you back to the year 1845.
And at that time, Knudt and Gertrude Fossebrekke
were living in this cabin down in Rock County near Beloit.
Narrator: Knudt Fossebrekke came to America in 1839.
According to his travel documents
he was at the time, single, age 25
a farmer, blonde, blue-eyed, slender
and cross-eyed.
No known pictures of him exist
but his cabin does
and everything it tells us about him.
Guide: He found the land he wanted, marked off 40 acres.
He didn't have money to pay for it.
He was a squatter.
And he didn't have time to build a house
that first winter
so he lived in what we call a dugout
where he lived in the side of a hill.
Narrator: The Fossebrekke cabin is the oldest
of 69 historical buildings at Old World Wisconsin
architectural artifacts relocated to almost 600 acres
outside Eagle, Wisconsin
where visitors can enter the museum's display.
Guide: Now, in the kitchen
we do have many things here.
Norwegian people made a lot of their own kitchen utensils.
Why do you think they would do this
rather thanbuying them?
Yes?
Because they didn't have a lot of money? That's true.
Narrator: The earliest immigrants often led secluded lives
bent on mere survival.
Among them were the Nattestad brothers
who Knudt had met in Norway.
"On July 1, 1838, I, Ole Nattestad
arrived at the place I now live.
Herds of deer and other wild animals were seen almost daily
and the weird howl of the prairie wolf
disturbed by sleep
until habit armed my ears against it.
The next summer, I built a cabin
and received a group of emigrants
from my home district
who came with my brother Ansten
from Norway.
Narrator: Ansten's group of more than 130
included none other than Knudt Fossebrekke
who later returned the favor to others
also looking for a home on the Wisconsin prairie.
Guide: Knudt supposedly housed17 people
in this building one winter.
Knudt probably never forgot his first winter in Wisconsin
having to live in a dugout.
Narrator: There were so many new things to learn here
even eating pigs was a new concept.
But as winter came
the Norwegians introduced a few new ideas of their own
like skiing.
"When the first snow had fallen that autumn
"another Norwegian and I went on skis
"over the prairie to Beloit to buy flour.
"The Americans later saw our tracks in the snow
"and the matter aroused much talk.
"The most learned naturalist in town
"finally delivered the verdict
"that in the forests out west
"there must be some unknown monstrosity.
"But even he could not give any satisfactory information
"as to whether this 'freak of nature'
attacked and devoured human beings."
Ansten Nattestad, 1841.
Jacob Conrad: When we walk into acabin like this today
it looks very poor to us.
But I often tell people
that they can think of a house like this as a starter home.
Narrator: After five years
the 31-year-old Fossebrekke took a wife.
This is a later picture, as Gertrude Vikers was only 17
when Knudt added windows and a stove to the cabin
as a welcome for his young bride.
This particular trunk here has the name of a woman on it.
The script is kind of hard to make out
but it says "Grunild Knudsdatter Binstir"
gives her date of birth
and the date when she was married.
She was born 1818, married 1836.
So, she evidently got married when she was 18 years old.
Narrator: An immigrant's trunk
held the few things a person could bring to America.
Only the most important possessions
took up such precious space.
Conrad: We know that people who lived in this cabin
brought both Bible and a prayer book with them.
This, of course, is a Lutheran Bible
in the Norwegian language.
A traditional curator looking at this object
would probably disregard it.
It's really quite commonplace.
Here at Old World, we tend to focus more
on what the object meant to the people who owned it.
Narrator: When he accepted the role as Director here
Peter Arnold was impressed
with the depth of research pursued at Old World Wisconsin.
What struck me here was the degree of authenticity.
They don't leave any stone unturned
in terms of trying to replicate
really, what life was like in the 19th century.
Guide: If you look where my thumbs are at
you can see how it's twisting the fibers.
Arnold: You really are able to immerse yourself in that period
whereas you can't when you're looking at a static exhibit
no matter how good it is.
Guide: I'm going to pass come wool around
so that you can feel how nice and soft it is
and you can kind of feel the lanolin that's still in it.
Now, the Kvaale's did very well during the time of the Civil War
because they had sheep.
What do you suppose they did with the wool
during the war?
What did they make out of it, then
after they made it into cloth?
The uniforms?
Yes, the uniforms for the soldiers
and also, the soldiers would need blankets.
Narrator: It's now 1865
20 years after Fossebrekke's arrival.
And Anders Ellingson Kvaale, a well-to-do farmer
who came here for a better life for his eight children
has already fulfilled his dream.
He bought 160 acres in Dane County
stocked his pens with sheep
built a home in the style of his homeland
and started filling it.
Conrad: On the one hand, there is that desire
to hold onto the old ways
which is reflected in the traditional objects
and in the traditional crafts.
On the other hand, people also want
to take advantage of the wonderful things
the wonderful opportunities
that the new world that's taking shape around them offers.
Narrator: Store-bought stoves
machine-cut chairs, factory-made things
now available
in the growing towns.
The Kvaale's probably traveled
to the nearby town of Stoughton.
"On the streets, a newcomer's ears
"will easily recognize
"the familiar sounds of his mother tongue.
"On the store, signs are Norwegian
"and at the merchant's desk, are customers who dicker
"exactly as the custom was in Old Norway.
"I do not believe there is in all America another town
"with such clear-cut pure Norwegian characteristics
as Stoughton."
Sveim Nillson, 1870.
Narrator: This was a time of change, with new machines
and products.