Original Dahl negative number 628. The copy negative of one side is (X3)40461.
Additional information submitted by John Holzhueter, January 2020:
Photographed on August 29, 1876 in conjunction with the dedication of the East Blue Mounds Lutheran Church near Daleyville, at the dwelling of Aslak Olsen Lie and his family at Klevenville, Wisconsin. The dwelling faces directly south, so the light appears to be coming from the southwest, suggesting the photograph was taken in the afternoon, therefore probably the 29th, or the day before the dedication. Lie and his daughter, Marit Oline Lie Skogen, were the creators of the altar furniture for the church, which had been built in 1868. They evidently had been responsible for making and decorating the previous low altar and for painting the wall behind it with acanthus decoration, a panel of which survives at the Mount Horeb Historium, as does the altar. Some of the 1876 furniture is at the Historium; some, at Vesterheim in Decorah, Iowa. The dwelling was created in 1848-49 by Lie and his brother Ole.
Pictured from left: Marit Oline Lie Skogen (29 October 1830 to 9 March 1885), the painter and decorator of the East Blue Mounds Church and one of the earliest rose-painters (rosemalers) in the United States, who came with her parents to the U.S. from Valdres, Norway, in 1848; Martha (Marit) Oline Skogen Thompson (1852-1905), daughter of Marit Skogen and granddaughter of Aslak Lie and wife of Sam Thompson who became the Dane County superintendent of schools; Martha is holding her son Thomas Thompson (1872-1942) and her youngest brother, Edward C. Skogen (1875-1952), the 12th of her mother’s children; next is the oldest of her mother’s children, Ole Skogen (1851-1882), holding a plane, an indication that he assisted in working on the altar furniture project (Skogen men to this day are active in the building trades around Mount Horeb; Ole did not marry, so far as I have learned, and had no progeny); Ole Olsen Hermundsplads (Ole Olsen Lie, Aslak Lie’s brother who is buried with the name Lie in the Springdale Lutheran Church cemetery, I believe, 1794-November 1, 1881), who assisted his brother in his crafts work; Christian Olsen Skaveldene Skogen, husband of Marit Oline, (November 27, 1826- April 20, 1903), a farmer, and a passenger on the same vessel that brought the Lies to America (the couple was married October 4, 1850); Aslak Olsen Lie, the principal figure in this saga as the head of the household, the head of the immigration party, the leader of the group that founded the Blue Mounds Settlement of Norwegian-American immigrants centering on Mount Horeb and consisting largely of persons from the Reinli area of Valdres, and a consummate craftsman in wood and metal and stone and paint (June 9, 1798-October 30, 1886); Marit Knudsdatter Dolve Lie, wife of Aslak Lie, wearing a confirmation gift of a gold knitting ball (July 14, 1804-February 18, 1881); at her feet is Marit Lie Skogen’s 11th child, a son, Anton C. Skogen (1873-1959). It is notable that Aslak Lie is holding several tools of his trade that were used to make the altar furniture for the East Blue Mounds Church, particularly the communion railing with its many turnings for which his elaborate lathe wheel, created by him in a distinctive Norwegian folk style, takes prominence, along with a saw. Lie was particularly skilled at fine saw work, making highly detailed panels with hand saws. He made many of his own tools.
Image IDs: 27386 and 65362 are interior views of the East Blue Mounds Lutheran Church, and Image IDs: 25477 and 27596, exterior views, all dated August 30, 1876. |