Ole Andreassen Fedde (1862-1951)

Biography
For many years I have wanted to learn more about Ole Fedde, the one who "went West" into the setting sun. To those of us in Brooklyn and Staten Island riding the elevateds and subways, his was the romantic life with horses, roundups like we saw in Madison Square Garden, and the outdoor life, free from the auto exhaust. We knew, or had been told, that Onkel Ole had been diagnosed by my father as having a tendency to wikipedia:tuberculosis:TB, and that his medical opinion was that he should go to a drier climate. Well, he did, - perhaps drier than was conducive to the good farming life. The story has been pieced together and modified, so no one person bears the full responsibility. If you have any additions or subtractions or corrections, please feel free to write me, and I shall easily modify the narrative as it is recorded on a floppy disk. Ole Fedde was born at Feda, Vest-Agder, Norway, on December 18, 1862. His parents were Andreas Villumsen Fedde and Anne Marie Olsen. (Most of you already have their family tree diagram; if not, drop me a line and I shall blue-print a copy.) Andreas' father was a farmer and a skipper sailing his ship along the Norwegian coast, probably in the profitable lumber trade. There is little arable land at Feda, so one wonders about the extent of his farming. Ole had no middle name; if needed, he would use his father's name, Andreas. There were eight children in the family, five girls and three boys (one of whom died the same day he was born). Ole was the youngest. A nephew of Ole, Andreas Andreasen, had come to America also to seek a drier climate. After buying a farm and farming in Fowler, Colorado, for fifteen years, he left for California when a medical opinion suggested his daughter would do better at a lower elevation. Ole remained in Fowler. Stomach problems bothered Ole, and the physician advised him to give up smoking if he wanted to live a long time. He never smoked again. Nor did he need further medical assistance until he was in his 80's. Ole's father, Andreas Villumsen Fedde, died when Ole was about 11 years old. Ole disliked the sea for good reason; it took its toll. Willum Andreason, Ole's brother, and grandfather of Olive and May Fedde, was a sea-faring man; he was extremely proud of the sailing ship he had built himself. It took him to his death; it was found washed up on the Danish coast. (I do not know if his body ever was recovered.) So Ole set his sights on a land job, - the Norwegian Army. To prepare for this he learned the cobbler's trade. Many were leaving Norway and Europe. It was a time of overpopulation (due, some say, to the "three P's", - peace, pox vaccine, and potatoes), and Ole's sister, Elisabeth, who since 1882 had been a deaconess in Brooklyn, New York, (and now is listed in your Lutheran Book of Worship as one of the lesser saints with celebration for February 25, the date of her death) suggested that Ole give up his plan for a military career in Norway and come instead to America. And so, in 1887 at the age of 25 he arrived in New York. The following year in September 1888 his fiancee, Severine Jakobsdatter, of Feda, joined him in New York. The next year, 1889, they were married there. New York was no easy place for immigrants to find work, especially on the eve of the "Panic of 1890". People feared the money they received for their work was only so much paper. And then there was the handicap of the strange language. To top it off, their first child, Agnes, was born July 8, 1890, adding to their responsibilities. Because of the Indian uprisings in the West, the United States needed more men to serve in the Army to protect the frontier settlers. Since Ole had a predisposition to military service, it was natural for him to join the U.S. Army. The enlistment was for five years. The hardest part was to leave his wife, Severine, and the infant Agnes for a while. Yet the two returned to Feda, Norway, while Ole did his army stint. Severine, like Ole, hated the sea and the seasickness. (Her return trip across the Atlantic to rejoin her husband was to be her last, although Ole and Agnes returned to Norway much later for a short visit, but not Severine.) Ole was ordered to Colorado and spent all his five years in the Army barracks at Fort Logan, west of the present Littleton. (Fort Logan today is mainly a cemetery for service men and their wives. Ole and Severine, however, gave up their right to be laid to rest there, opting instead for the Fowler cemetery.) After about three years there, when Ole understood he would not be moved, he sent for his family. The Army needed a cobbler to repair shoes and harness, so his stint did not involve much riding or marching, as one might have expected. He was too busy in his shop. Severine and Agnes lived in Denver near the present bus station on Curtis Street, quite a distance from Fort Logan. (One may assume that Ole frequently loaded an Army vehicle with enough fodder for a week-end and drove a team for the trip to see his family.) No doubt much time was spent thinking and talking about their future. To remain in the Army was out of the question because it might mean separation again. Besides, the family responsibility had grown, - Frank was born in 1894. Language facility limited his choice. Consequently they began thinking more about farming, even though Ole had had little previous understanding of it. Because land was very cheap near the present Buena Vista, Colorado, they first thought of going there. Today's generation finds little there to lure them. To be sure, it can yield potatoes and barley which may be in demand, but experienced farmers say never to settle in an area that cannot raise corn. The growing season there is all too short, and, what little there is, is too cool for corn. Enter a Norwegian circuit riding pastor, Domersness, the first pastor of Fowler's Lutheran Church, with a better choice! He suggested Fowler, where there already were a few Norwegians, and some Danes had come, too. Even a farm with a little sod hut, circa 15' x 15', was available. A Norwegian named Erickson owned 80 acres with rights to water from Highline Canal which tapped water from the Arkansas River. Involved in the purchase was a cow and horses and some farm machinery. Erickson was selling out and returning to Norway. Why? The new owners we are sure wondered many times why he wanted to leave. Ole Fedde had managed to save $1,200 for a down payment. The price was $2,300, leaving a balance of $1,100 to pay later. It was a great advantage to find that only a town road separated the irrigation canal from the farm. There were several disadvantages, however. In those early days the market for farm produce was at Pueblo, 36 miles away. We are told that they would butcher and dress hogs, load them on their wagon, drive to Pueblo, and sell them on the streets to workmen at the steel mill. The trip took two days. Cattle, however, could be sold to a passing cattle buyer who would drive them to the city. Difficult as this was, the greater problem was the farm itself. Contouring of the land was left to Agnes and Albert McNeil to do years later; it was not one of Ole's skills. One thinks of Ole as a farmer not by choice, but of necessity. His crops needed water; not too much, not too little. To irrigate properly 80 acres was quite a problem for one man. So they decided to sell 20 acres to Severine's sister Matilda and her husband, John Carlson. It often meant night work to control the irrigation on his difficult terrain. If one did not watch carefully, it could end with a lake in the middle. But persistence and patience paid off when, at the end of World War I, he took a load of beans to Fowler and brought back that famous Buick touring car, and this car he drove the rest of his life. In working the farm the children helped on the hayfield and in the row crops. And their mother, Severine, was there with them. Especially helpful was their son, Frank. Mountain storms brought much beneficial silt, but also weed seeds. And in the bright Colorado sunshine the weeds prospered. The entire family had to lend a hand in weeding and hoeing. As for the adobe shanty they had bought, he expanded it into a two-story house with three bedrooms, dining room, living room, and a porch on the East side. There was a bedroom off the dining room and a large enclosed porch to the West. This was the Ole Fedde house, and as it is today. A major reason for choosing to locate at Fowler was the possibility of a Lutheran Church, and Norwegian at that! The Ole Feddes were charter members of Trinity Lutheran Church of Fowler. The first building, a frame structure, was built on a corner of the Andreas Fedde farm, before he moved to California. With little prospects for growth at that location, it was moved to Fowler in 1925. That it exists today is due in no small measure to the help it received from the Norwegian Lutheran Church. Financial help was but one aspect; reinforcement of the mother-tongue, Norwegian, and its vocabulary of Christian faith was another. And it was a sad day for Ole and Severine Fedde when the old ways yielded to the younger generation and they could no longer hear sermons in their native Norwegian. With full realization of the needs of the younger generations in this land, Ole and Severine did not object too strenuously. Severine died on May 19, 1939, aged 73, a few months short of their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary. For a while Ole continued to live in the home three miles West of Fowler, but with the death of his youngest son he was left entirely alone. Then he began a trek from house to house, from daughter to son, and so on. On December 5, 1951, at the age of 88, a few days before his 89th birthday, he joined his wife in death. Both were buried, as they had asked to be, in the Fowler Cemetery. Ole Fedde left an estate consisting only of his farm, which the McNeils bought. But he had been careful with what he had earned, and with it he had given each of his children a good education beyond high school. This, really, was their inheritance. Now, in 1988, all the boys in Ole's family have passed away. Only two children survive, Helen Fedde Bestul and Olga Fedde Larson, both living now at Albert Lea, Minnesota. (Source: G. Bernhard Fedde 1919 N.W. Ramsey Crest Portland, Oregon 97229-4209 in 1988)