Norway's Top 100 Women

March is Women's History month, here in America. I'd like to recognize the women, not from America, but from Norway. Those women ancestors who made a remarkable difference in who we (descendants of these amazing women), are allowed to become. 

Image borrowed from
https://www.vg.no/spesial/2013/norske_kvinner/index.php?filter=0&sort=0&profile=0

The year 2013 marked the centennial anniversary of Women's Suffrage in Norway. The vote took place on June 11, 1913, and was a unanimous Storting.  Article 50 of the Norwegian Constitution was amended to read:

“Those entitled to vote are the Norwegian citizens, Men and Women, who have reached 25 years of age, and who have been settled in the Country for five years and resided there.”

History: "The Women's Suffrage Association was established in 1885, and the first women's suffrage proposal was put forward in the Storting the following year." 

Municipal franchise* granted to tax-paying women.............................1901

Fullfranchise granted to tax-paying women.........................................1907

Municipal franchise extended to all women.........................................1910

Full Parliamentary franchise extended to all women............................1913

*granted to women who, either in their own persons or with their husbands, paid taxes on an income amounting to about $100 a year or on approximately $100 worth of property. This totaled about 300,000 women.  Basically this was limited to upper and middle class women.

In 2013, a women's jury was selected, and these seven women (ages 33-79) chose the hundred women they believed are most important in connection with the voting anniversary. This was not a scientific piece of work, but instead a suggested ranking. 

"Our hundred most important women have largely completed their tasks. We have not included women who are in the middle of their lives. It is too early to judge their significance in the great history of Norway."

Norway’s Top 100 Women 

Fredrikke Marie Qvam

Below is a small selection of the women that were recognized by the women's jury, in 2013. This is just a sample of the 100 women on the list. You can access the full list on the newspaper's website: 

#2 Fredrikke Marie Qvam (1843-1938)  •  Pioneer in the fight for female suffrage

• The National Women's Suffrage Association (Landskvinoestemmeresforeningen) was led by Ms. Qvam and established in Kristiania (1624-1924), now referred to as Oslo.

#  3 Gina Krog (1847-1916)  •  Uncompromising Women’s Advocate

#11 Anna Rogstad (1854-1939)  •  First woman in the Storting

#13 Camilla Collett (1813-1895)  •  First great female writer

#16 Katti Anker Møller (1868-1945)  •  Mothers’ Champion

#22 Betzy Kjelsberg (1866-1950)  •  Women's Rights Activist

#36 Elsa Laula Renberg (1877-1931)  • Sami organizational pioneer

#66 Ragna Vilhelmine Nielsen (1854-1924)  •  Woman advocate and teacher

#93 Anna Bugge Wicksell (1862-1928)  • Lawyer and Peace Activist

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You might also, find this article interesting: “Norwegian history of equality 1814 - 2013” (Norsk Likestillingshistorie 1814 – 2013) are historian Eirinn Larsen, cultural historian Hilde Danielsen, and philosopher Ingeborg W. Owesen.

This is the first and the only coherent representation of Norwegian history of equality thus far. You can view it at libraries found on WorldCat.org.

Portrait of a Notable N-A: Ole T. Hanson

•

Mayor Ole Hanson
Source: Seattle Municipal Archives #22884030
2613-07: Engineering Department Negative,
box 84 • Photographer W. L. Dahl

Ole Thorsteinsson Hanson
Mayor of Seattle 1918-1919  •  33rd mayor

Election Results: March 5, 1918; Hanson 32,286, J.A. Bradford 27,677.
Took office March 18, 1918 • Resigned from office August 28, 1919

"A now-and-then politician, Hanson was a real estate developer in Seattle whose political position changed from being a supporter of the Progressive Republicanism of Theodore Roosevelt to becoming one of the earliest and most visible opponents of Bolshevism and the Red Revolution."  
Terje I Leiren, Professor Emeritus, Scandinavian Studies and History, University of Washington (since 1977)

Born: January 6, 1874 • Union Grove, Racine Co., WI

Parents: Thorstein Hansson-Andersson Hanson (Rusten) and Goro Kristoffersdotter

Died: July 6, 1940 • Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., CA

age 66  --  cause, fatal heartattack 

Description:  5ft 9in with brown eyes and thick red hair, which turned gray by his 40's.

Find A Grave Memorial page for Ole Hanson

QUOTES FROM OLE : Washington Posten (a Norwegian language newspaper), May 21, 1909.

"I am proud to say that my parents were born in Norway, and that I have never had cause to regret my Norwegian ancestry or hang my head in shame at the acts of any of my countrymen." (Speech - 5.17.1909)

"There shall be no compromise with wrong and no man shall be allowed to rise in the land proclaiming himself a representative Norwegian unless he at the same time represents all which is best in our American government.'' (Speech - 5.17.1909)

FAMILY FACTS

Ole married Nellie May Leona Rose on Sunday, May 12, 1895 in Racine, WI.
They had 10 children.

Nellie (Rose) Hanson was born April 26, 1878 • died May 11, 1944.

1. Son, Ole Howard, born April 23, 1896 in Wisconsin • died March 7, 1969.
2. Dau, Nellie Katherine, born October 28, 1899 in Pennsylvania • died November 2, 1976 in California.
3. Dau, Doris Mildred, born May 26, 1903, born in Washington.
4. Son, William Harwood Taft, born March 6, 1905 in California • died September 8, 1981.
5. Son, Theodore Roosevelt 'Ted', born May 26, 1908 in Washington • died January 27, 1977 in California.
6. Son, Robert LaFollette, born May 17, 1910  in Washington • died July 5, 1989
7. Dau, Marjory H., born October 15, 1912 in Washington • died February 7, 1990 in California.
8. Son, Eugene Field, born November 22, 1914 in Washington • died March 28, 1998
9. Son, Lloyd George, born August 13, 1917 in Washington • died Aug 18, 2004 in Florida, age 87.
10. Dau, Muriel, born December 23, 1920 in Washington • married Ross Gibbons (1949) • died June 10, 2013 in California.

CAREER  FACTS

 Seattle Daily Times •
 July 7, 1940

• Ole passed the Wisconsin bar exam at the age of sixteen but could not carry out his planned law career because he was too young. 
• Ole moved west with his wife and two children, in 1902, and went into real estate. 
• Ole his wife's nephew, Alexander Reid, incorporated the North Seattle Improvement Company. He was also a co-founder of the city of Lake Forest Park in the Seattle region in 1912. 
• Member of Washington state house of representatives, 1908-09, 43rd district. He chose not to run for re-election.  
• Candidate for U.S. Senator from Washington, 1914 (came in 3rd) 
• He had to deal with labor unrest there and was not popular as the result of his dealings with the unions. Anarchists almost killed him there in April 1919 and he resigned soon after. 
• Mayor Ole Hanson, operating the first Municipal car over the University Bridge, 1919.
• After failing to secure the Republican nomination for vice president in 1920, he moved to Southern California, becoming active in civic affairs. 
• In 1925 he founded the City of San Clemente, California, the future home and Western White House of President Richard Nixon.



Authored by Ole Hanson
Garden City etc: Doubleday, 1920

• Ole lost his home and much of his holdings in the Great Depression, and later on, went on to develop real estate in Twenty Nine Palms, California.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Terje I. Leiren,"Ole and the Reds: The 'Americanism' of Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson,"
Norwegian-American Studies,Volume 30, pg. 75.  This is an excellent article which provides a greater insight to the man, the strike and the life of Ole Hanson. It's a good read.

Ole Hanson, "Why and How I Became Mayor of Seattle," in TheWorld's Work, 39 (December, 1919), 123.

Ole Hanson 'San Clemente: The Spanish Village'
San Clemente, California, 1929

Annual Message of Ole Hanson, Mayor of Seattle Washington To the Honorable City Council • January 1, 1919

Exhibit: The Seattle General Strike of 1919

Book: Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir 
by Harvey O'Connor  •  Haymaker Books (Chicago, IL) 2009

Source: The cartoon; a reference book of Seattle's successful men, with decorations by the Seattle Cartoonists' Club, Frank Calvert, ed., 1911 • Printed by Metropolitan Press

Looking for more information on Lake Forest Park? 

Check out these links:

Timeline 

Annexation Map 

50th Anniversary Historic Sign Project 

Development of Laker Forest Park, beginning in 1909

Ole Hanson on Gehr Erickson Road (Bothell Way), 1910 • photo

Early Homes in LFP, i.e. Reid Home, profiled in Bungalow Magazine
See Seattle Public Library, Special Collections Online • Bungalow Magazine, v. 3, no. 4, April 1914
Home of Alex H. and Clara S. Reid in Lake Forest Park, pages 203-217.

Lake Forest Park Community: Schools, Civic Organizations, Notable People

COMMENTARY... 

So, what makes Ole Hanson significant for me?

I too was born in Wisconsin, tho on the opposite side of the state and farther north. I too moved from the Midwest to Seattle. Ole did this in 1902 and I relocated 90 years later, in 1992. I spent the last 25 years living in Ballard, the Scandinavian neighborhood of Seattle and just a few months ago moved north and a bit east to the north end of Lake Washington. Specifically, the Lake Forest Neighborhood -- the same one that was developed by Ole and his nephew.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

THE REST OF THE STORY
There are several other websites that profile Ole Hanson. Here are links to just a handful of them

• Who Was Ole Hanson? • December 2013 • San Clemente Historical Society
• HistoryLink • Ole T. Hanson
• Vote for Ole Hanson postcard, 1918
• The Legend of Ole Hanson • March 19, 2018 San Clemente Journal
• Ole Hanson San Clemente Historic Homes • September 24, 2014
• Mayor Ole Hanson with family and car, @1920 • MOHAI
• Image: Ole Hanson's Can Clemente home
• Image: Ole Hanson at the University Bridge dedication • July 1, 1919 • Seattle Archives
• Image: Ole Hanson in Chicago 
• Image: Ole Hanson portrait, at the time he was mayor
• Image: Letterhead - Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson's letter to Representative John F. Miller regarding a quarantine on venereal disease in Washington state. • April 1918

Minister of the state for Sweden-Norway???

An index card (one of three images) for the Scandinaven (Daily Edition) newspaper.

To speak of "the minister of state for Sweden-Norway" or Sweden and Norway is even more absurd than would be the phrase: "The secretary of state for Illinois and Wisconsin".

The above is a quote I found in a foreign language newspaper from 1901. I love discovering just this type of 'gold nugget'. The opening line of the editorial mentions the Record-Herald, which refers to the Chicago Record-Herald which was published from 1901-1914. The editor was Frank Brett Noyes. 

What makes this particularly intriguing is that many people ask 'What's the issue in the often perceived animosity between Swedes and Norwegians?'.   There is an interesting Wikipedia article that addresses the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden, which took place on June 5, 1905. 

The piece also provides present day readers a peek into what our ancestors were reading and discussing, during their life time. Below is the full text of the article and a link to source.

THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Source:   Foreign Language Press Survey

Scandinaven (Daily Edition) newspaper, published in Chicago, IL 1866-1941.

Rather Mixed (Editorial in English)

The other day the Record-Herald introduced to its readers "Dr. Carl Herslow, the prospective minister of state for Sweden-Norway". In a biographical sketch of this statesman the Record-Herald says in part:

"Dr. Carl Herslow, who is generally mentioned as the successor of the present Swedish-Norwegian minister of state, Baron von Otten, is a prominent member of the Riksdag. The new army bill is certain to meet with defeat unless the king consents to universal suffrage, and this is the measure advocated by Dr. Herslow. The present administration is sure to resign, whatever the result will be and, as Dr. Herslow has repeatedly been requested to take a seat in the cabinet, everything points to him as the future minister of state for the two countries."

[card #2]
Nothing could be briefer, but brevity is not always the soul of wit. The paragraph contains the following errors:

(1) There is no such thing as a state or nation called "Sweden-Norway".

(2) There is no such thing as a "minister of state for Sweden-Norway".

(3) It follows that Baron von Otter is not "the present Swedish-Norwegian minister of state".

(4) No bill for the adoption of universal suffrage has been passed by the Riksdag, nor even considered. Universal suffrage is not a practical proposition in Sweden. Hence it is pure and unadulterated nonsense to assert that the "present army bill is certain to meet defeat unless the king consents to universal suffrage".

[card #3]
Sweden and Norway are two separate and independent kingdoms which have contracted a "perpetual union" and have a common king. The government of each country is entirely distinct and separate from that of the other. The only branch of government administered in common for both countries is their foreign relations. In their commercial relations they treat each other as foreign countries. Their military and naval establishments are not only administered separately, but are not even uniform as regards tactics, rifles, etc.

To speak of "the minister of state for Sweden-Norway" or Sweden and Norway is even more absurd than would be the phrase: "The secretary of state for Illinois and Wisconsin". Sweden has her minister of state, of course, and Norway, under the present arrangement, has even two such officials.


The correspondents of the American press should study a little history.  

# # # 

To the left is a clipping of how the article appeared in the Record-Herald.

Coincidently, the Minneapolis Journal, published an article on May 23, 1901.

NEED TO STUDY NORWAY

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Blunders Frequently Made in the American Press 

The Minneapolis Journal clipping is to the right.