CLAY COUNTY, Minn. — Sometimes you can step back and say it was just “meant to be.”

A Norwegian immigrant trunk that traveled from Norway to Clay County in the late 1800s is back in the hands of the good people of Rollag, after being sold at auction; after it was passed down from generation to generation of Anderson.

Just south of Hawley, Minnesota, on Jamin Krause’s 1898 farm, lies a family treasure. A Norwegian rosemaled immigrant trunk from Norway in the late 1800s. The man who made it? Peter Anderson, the man with the white beard,

“It was a traditional form of decoration, something to do during the long winter months,” Krause said.

“Son of a poor farmer,” Jamin said of Peter Anderson.
Peter’s name is right there on the chest, “and it says it was made in 1848,” Krause added.

Peter Anderson by boat from Rollag, Norway, not far from the famous stave church. His destination?

“From Rollag, Norway to Rollag, Minnesota,” Krause said.

You heard correctly. Peter came from Rollag, Norway, and settled in Rollag, Minnesota; not far from Steamer Hill.

The trunk stayed in the family for generations until a great-granddaughter, Avella Anderson, held an auction. The trunk went to the highest bidder. It wasn’t Jamin Krause, and he really wanted that trunk. The days passed and it bothered Krause that the trunk from Rollag, Norway, was no longer in Rollag, Minnesota.

“It almost became a challenge and I thought I would never find it,” Jamin said.

So he turned to social media.

“It was one of the Norwegian Facebook pages and I said it was far away. Does anyone have this trunk? I bet it wasn’t an hour later and a lady from Fargo messaged me, it was that quick,” Krause said.

Not only a response, but once the new owner of the Norwegian trunk heard the story, she agreed to sell it to Krause so he could take it back to the hills of Hawley and Rollag.

“She said goodbye to him and he came home,” Krause said.

Krause returned from a summer trip to Rollag, Norway, and saw where the trunk came from, and now, here it is, in a perfect place.

“What do we have today that’s going to last almost 200 years, nothing. It’s like our Rubbermaid bags,” Krause said of the old immigrant trunk.

Back home in Clay County.

“It felt like it was meant to be here. I was excited, but in a good Scandinavian way, it felt like it was meant to be with me,” Krause said.