Showing posts with label Verla Williams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verla Williams. Show all posts

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Introduction

For some reason my mother, Verla Williams, never got around to putting together a booklet for the SANDER family as she had done for all of the other branches of the family. She had gathered together the information and put it in a loose-leaf binder which I recently received. Hopefully at this point she won't feel she has to print out booklets as all of the material that would have gone into the booklet will be posted online here.

This blog contains information on the ancestors and descendants of Brede Bredesen SANDER and his wife Karen (Huseby) SANDER. It includes maps, pedigree and descendant charts, family group sheets, censuses, and numerous photos.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional information or corrections.

Mark D. Williams, D.M.A.
1393 Kim Pl.
Minden, NV 89423
voxdoc@yahoo.com

UPDATE (14 Nov 2018): I am excited to announce the publication of a brief (about 34 pages) biography and family history of Brede Bredesen Sander on Amazon.com. It is illustrated with contemporary photos and contains over 100 footnotes linked to relevant primary and secondary sources. Available in both Kindle ($2.99) or trade paperback ($5.99) editions.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Poems of Anton B. SANDER (Introduction)


In July of 2011, Verla Williams wrote the following letter to Kathleen Stokker at Luther college regarding some poems that allegedly were written by Anton SANDER. Since that will serve nicely as an introduction to the poems themselves, it is quoted here in its entirety:
23 July 2011

Dr. Kathleen Stokker

Luther College
701 College Drive
Decorah, IA 52101

Dear Dr. Stokker:

First of all, I wish to thank you so much for your presentations at our Norse Club celebrations of syttende mai. They were so interesting and informative, and were so much appreciated by our members.

Now the reason for my writing to you -- I have been the family genealogist for many years. Our son, not wanting to see it get lost or disposed of, is taking responsibility for it (and doing a great job). So, as I was going through old file folders to see if there was any thing more I should pass on to him, etc. I re-discovered some information the other day of which I question its disposition. I will quote part of the information:
* Anton B. Sander
Birthplace - Brandvold, Solør, Norway
Oct. 4, 1851 - Jan. 23, 1881
Student at Luther College 1868-1874
Father - Brede B. Sander
Mother - Karen Huseby
1874 - A.B. from Luther College
1877 - Ph.D. Doctor of Philosophy (In Cursu) Yale University
First graduate from Luther College to obtain a PhD degree
Teacher of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and German

Luther College - 1878-1879
Flushing, N.Y. 1879-1881

* Information from book "Luther College Through Sixty Years 1861-1921" by Luther College Faculty Editorial Committee -- O. M. Norlie, O. A. Tinglestad and Karl T. Jacobsen. Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minn. 1922."
Then another quotation:
Book - Luther College 1861-1961 by David T. Nelson, Luther College Press 1961, p. 109.

Anton Sander was very popular with students. He had temerity in a meeting of the Decorah Congregation to challenge certain views of the church leadership. Moreover he was regarded by some of the faculty as "too American" accordingly, as not "firmly orthodox," he was dropped from the faculty after one year, 1878-1879. His promising career was cut short two years later by illness.

In Manuscript file at Luther College 1877-1881 by A. A. Veblen.
The above information was attached to the folder which inside had a group of poems that were composed by him. They are handwritten in Norwegian on what appears to be plain tablet paper. I'm not that sure he has signed any of it, so the authorship perhaps couldn't be proven. This was given to me some years ago by a descendant in the family of Dr. Anton Sander so it was assumed by the family that the authorship was his. Anton Sander is a brother of my husband's grandmother. We thought it was of interest that this former Luther faculty member was a bit avant-garde for his time and had written some poems that have survived for over 100 years. They are written in Norwegian cursive for the most part. It would be interesting to know if in his writings one could see any tendencies that would have led to his dismissal from the faculty. I'm not sure what 
academic freedom was given to faculty at church colleges in the 1870's, but it must have been nearly non-existent to fire a PhD graduate of Yale University after only a year of teaching. It would be fun to know what they say in English. Our Norwegian is not all that good to get a real gist of the meaning.

So my question is what should we do with it? I don't think it would be of interest to this generation unless it was translated, and yet it may have some historical value. Perhaps the Luther College Archives or the Norwegian American Historical Association would be interested in it.

I would appreciate your opinion as to what my course of action should be. If you are at all interested in it, I could bring it along with me one of the next times we come to Decorah, to stay at our apartment and partake of some trout fishing, and show it to you. I await your reply.

Sincerely,
Verla Williams
4333 Pine Ridge Trail NE
Iowa City, IA 52240
verla.vince@mchsi.com
Images of the note mentioned and quoted in the letter are below:



Note attached to file containing manuscripts of poems allegedly by Anton B. SANDER. Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

At this time I am unaware as to whether any response was received. However, back in 2012 I had written to Rachel Vagts, the Luther College Archivist, and she had said that the college would be happy to receive the SANDER family items I had described to her.