To these examples could be added other towns like Silverton and Junction City, Oregon, and Stanwood, Washington.
The imprint of the Scandinavians remains strong in the Pacific Northwest, as evidenced by a rich array of ethnic festivals and organizations.11 But, by and large, the present-day participants are members of the second and third generations. Nationwide, the number of first-generation Scandinavians shrank from around one million in 1940 to around three hundred thousand in 1975. Since the majority of those who emigrated prior to the Depression were born before 1910, their ranks have thinned considerably during the past fifteen years. With a few exceptions, the resource represented by the actual immigrants from early in the century is now gone. That demographic reality heightens the value of the oral history material on which this book draws.
The Oral History Project
The general significance of preservation activity—saving historically important buildings, artifacts, and texts—is rather well understood in today’s society. The whys and hows of oral history research are less familiar. Louis M. Starr of Columbia University has provided this now standard definition of oral history: “Oral history is primary source material obtained by recording the spoken words—generally by means of planned, tape-recorded interviews—of persons deemed to harbor hitherto unavailable information worth preserving.”12 Interviewing itself is a time-honored tool of journalists and folklorists, but tape recording has given new dimensions to the scholarly use and interpretation of interviews.
As indicated above, New Land, New Lives draws on recorded life histories to depict the personal experiences of those who participated in the last waves of mass emigration from Scandinavia. In deciding to seek grant funding for, and to engage my students in, the interviewing of first-generation Scandinavians, I was motivated by three specific advantages of the oral history method. First, as Louis Starr stresses in his definition, oral history makes it possible to retrieve specific, otherwise unavailable information. Second, oral history enables us to broaden the historical record. Women, ethnic minorities, workers, and others whose experiences and perspectives are seldom rendered in official documents or written autobiographical form may be heard and recognized. Third, oral history affirms human experience as the stuff out of which the fabric of history and culture is woven. Thus, it compels us to pay tribute to the roles of individual human beings. Oral historian James Bennett points out that affirmation of the importance of individuals is especially critical in an era when we otherwise confront “massive forces that grind up and spit out our humanity.” Bennett continues, “By preserving the experiences we deem important by whatever particular criterion, we symbolize and show respect for human beings in general, as ends in themselves rather than always as means to reach other things, in endless processes of consumption and repetition.”13 Humanistic oral history suggests an affinity between personal narrative and literary narrative. When we listen to people’s stories in their own words, we reconstruct the texture of life as it is lived.
The goal of the interview project was the establishment of a tape archive for Pacific Lutheran University. Those interviewed emigrated between 1900 and 1930 from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, or Sweden and settled, either immediately or eventually, in the Pacific Northwest. The interviews were all conducted as mini-life histories. Deriving from a single encounter with an elderly immigrant, the recording session covered a wide range of topics. Project interviewers were equipped with a standard questionnaire (see Appendix) but were instructed to follow the contours of the individual’s own special circumstances rather than to move mechanically through the prepared questions. As a result, each conversation produced an oral record with slightly different characteristics and emphases.
Fewer than a fifth of all the interviews, forty-five out of 240, are presented here. The choice of whom to include was dictated by the desire to offer a balanced selection, as well as by the desire to highlight lively and engaging storytellers. Needless to say, these two factors sometimes tugged against one another and necessitated compromises. In addition, there was the practical need to create a manageable and welcoming selection. Suffice it to say that the first draft incorporated twice as many immigrant voices as found in the present volume. As noted above, a conscious decision was made to include a generous representation of women’s stories.
The tapes were transcribed—a painstaking and never-perfect task—followed by an equally painstaking and imperfect task, namely the editing of the transcriptions. An oral history interview is a conversation, steered by the interviewer; as such, multiple interpersonal dynamics affect narrator response. The most faithful record of the conversation would include all the interviewer’s questions and comments along with the responses. To highlight the first-person narrative, as I wished to do, required radical editing. All questions have been eliminated. Material has been freely moved and combined, and much has been omitted. But, with the exception of an occasional translation, factual correction, or pronoun reference, nothing has been added. The words on the page are the words of the narrator. Necessary notations and explanations have been placed in brackets or notes.
Because these selections reflect oral speech, aspects of the text require the reader’s indulgence. Interference from the native language is stronger in some cases than in others; but throughout, there are ample instances of imperfect grammar and inconsistent verb tenses. I trust that the attempt to retain the flavor of immigrant speech does not impede the reader’s understanding or convey an unintended lack of respect for the individuals who generously shared their impressions and experiences.
The interviews were conducted in a spirit of trust—trust that the narrator would respond openly and honestly. Yet one must constantly keep in mind that the narrators were asked to review events from many decades past. Some accomplished this with more agility than others, though in all cases the process of reflection tints the story being told. It is a bit disconcerting to review interviews with three siblings and to discover that each presents different information about the parents; in some respects the stories complement each other, but they also contradict each other with regard to certain dates and events. Folklore enters some of the reminiscences, too; an uncanny number of the immigrants, or their friends and relatives, just missed the fateful voyage of the Titanic.
As part of the editing process, many details have been checked and questionable items eliminated. Still, the reader is cautioned that “true” history as remembered by one witness may not be factually or representatively “true” and also that certain aspects of the situation may have been omitted or repressed. Further, it is worth stressing that one cannot claim statistical validity for the demographic patterns and the circumstances revealed on the tapes. In fact, the perspectives presented here may be skewed, in that referrals to interviewees derived, in large part, from a network of church and ethnic organizations. “Unaffiliated” Scandinavians were not so easily identified, nor were the “nonsurvivors” available to offer their side of the story. It should also be pointed out that the information supplied is not always as complete as one might wish; the identification of family photographs, for example, is sketchy.
Such interpretive and presentational difficulties do not diminish the general significance of the memories captured on tape and now on the printed page. They are a unique source of sociocultural and historical information. In particular, they highlight the human experiences and values that make up the immigrant legacy from the “top of Europe.”
NOTES
1. Magnhild Johnsen’s story will be found in Part One below.
2. See the Bibliography for additional publications of immigrant letters and diaries and for the major studies of early Scandinavian settlement in the Pacific Northwest.
