HIST 489 (Fall 2007)

Date

Sept 26, 2008

I traveled to Mayville to actually see the Bjornstjerne Bjornson Statue. Stopped by the Sons of Norway building but no one was there

Sept 30, 2008

Today I spent some time online doing basic secondary research about the larger topics that concern my topic. I looked at the Mayville-Portland website to get a small idea about the make up and businesses of Mayville. Then i took a little larger view at the county on the Traill county website to find the traill county historical society. I also did some research on Bjornson and his writings

Oct 07, 2008

Traveled through Mayville again today and actually managed to find the Bjornson monument this time. When I originally visited town the research I had found said the monument was located in Railroad Park near the old Railroad Depot which is now a Museum. When i didn't find the monument there I drove to some of the other parks and town and found that it had either been moved to Island Park or had always been located there and my research was faulty.

Oct 14, 2008

Today I finally recieved an reply to my email to the vice-president of the Mjosen Lodge of the Sons of Norway in Mayville, John Pederson. He informed me that Charlotte McMullen, the programming director at Mayville State did research on the Bjornson and found an article about it in the Traill County Tribune. I hope to keep in touch with both Pederson and McMullen and gain any information they can give me.

Oct 17, 2008

Today I visited the Archives and did research on Traill County and Mayville. I hoped to find information on the ethnic make-up of both areas around 1916 when the monument was unveiled. I managed to find information on Traill County's population from the time period from 1880 to 1885 and wasn't surprised to find that the area was settled by almost 3/4ths norwegians. I also found a small entry in Vol. 2 of the Traill County history about the Bjornson monument that told me it was payed for by farmers and business in the area.

Oct 22, 2008

Today I was doing research on Bjornson in the Library and found a book that I hope will be very helpful to me. Its titled Bjornstjerne Bjornson: A Study in Norwegian Nationalism. From what I've read so far it deals directly with Bjornson's contribution to Norwegian art and literature and how his idea's affected the Norwegian movement toward a cultural, as well as a national independance.

Oct 29 2008

Today I returned to the archives to do more research on Traill County and the Mayville area. I returned to Vol. 2 of the Traill county history book to do more research on community groups that may have been responsible for the funding and putting up of the monument and found some interesting facts on the Sons of Norway Lodge in Mayville that put it at about the right time to have been a part in the monument. I also found a centennial book from Mayville-Portland that finally had a picture of my monument and information about the exact date of when the monument was unveiled and who donated it. The small caption also gave me some info about who was present at the unveiling and the ceremony.

Nov 05 2008

Doing some research online because i havent been able to find any articles from the Traill County tribune that dated back to 1916 when my monument was unveiled and managed to find the name of the Mayville newspaper from during that time titled to Mayville Tribune and the Goose River Farmer. Im hoping that ill be able to get some copies of this from around the time of the unveiling of my monument to get more info about the ceremony.

Nov 14 2008

Went to the Institute of Regional Studies and looked at the Herman O. Fjelde manuscripts and found some newspaper articles that mentioned Dr. Herman Fjelde's contributions in getting the Bjornson monument erected in Mayviile and also that he attended the unveiling. I also looked at another newpaper article that focused on the Bjornson monument here on NDSU's campus but was useful because it gives information on Bjornson and who and why monuments were being put up in the area. I also looked through some of the Mayville and Traill County histories again to look up biographies for some of the people that were present at the unveiling.

Nov 18 2008

Finally got the microfiche for the Mayvile Tribune-Farmer from 1915 until 1918. After scanning through the newspapers from that time i managed to find four seperate weeks that mentioned the Bjornson Monument and the events that would be held during its unveiling ceremony. What i found most interesting was that there seemed to be alot of excitement for the monument and its unveiling but after it was unveiled it wasn't mentioned again, even on following Syttende Mai when i expected to find some mention of ceremonies being held there.