This site is about the history of the family that lived at Nørdre Klemmetsrud between 1820 and 1882.
This site is about the history of the family that lived at Nørdre Klemmetsrud between 1820 and 1882. The Klemmetsrud farm is in Hedalen in Norway. There is a north, middle, and south section (Nørdre, Midt, and Søre). Herman Syversen Klemmetsrud (1790-1877) and his wife, Kari Knudsdatter Klemmetsrud (1797-1891) purchased Nørdre Klemmetsrud in 1820. Their surviving children were Marit (1825), Syver (1829), Knud (1834), and Herman (1838). In the 1800s and before, if you purchased a farm, you inherited the name. Some family history from before this purchase is available on the Bøen and Søvde pages.
Generally in America, if you or your family use “Klemesrud” (no t), you are likely a descendant of Knud (1834). If you use “Klemetsrud”, you are likely a descendant of Herman (1838) or Syver (1829). You can confirm your connection using the descendants documents on the Documents page. In Norway, “Klemmetsrud”s (mm) that have a connection to the middle and south parts of the farm are distantly related. The family lines converge in the 1600s. “Klemetsrud”s (m) in Norway are not related. There are places near Oslo with the Klemetsrud name but they have no connection to the Klemmetsruds of Hedalen.
The Klemmetsrud farm was once part of the Li farm. This is a very old farm that goes back before the time of Vikings. In the 1100-1300 timeframe, someone named Klemmet purchased part of the Li farm and it was called Klemmetsrud starting then. Rud is a Norse word for a land clearing or pasture. So the name basically means Klemmet’s Farm. The Klemmet name comes from the Latin word Clemens which means mercy as in clemency. Early Popes had the Clement name but Klemmet wasn’t used in Norway until the 1100s.
The Klemmetsrud farm was abandoned in the mid 1300s because of the Black Death (plague). In the 1670s, Arne Bjørnsen Dølve (an ancestor of ours), who was called “the chief (king) of Dølven”, commissioned the re-clearing of many of the abandoned farms in Sør Aurdal, including Klemmetsrud. His grandson, also named Arne Bjørnsen, lived at Klemmetsrud for a time until about 1690.
Klemmetsrud belonged to the Crown until after 1690. In 1699, Klemmetsrud, Goplerud, and Ospholt were sold (descendants of Liv Klemesrud have a Goplerud connection). Klemmetsrud was sold again in 1702 to the users there. The farm was divided into two parts around this time, north and south. It wasn’t until 1819 (the year before our family purchased the north part), that the southern part was divided into the middle and south parts.
Our Dølven Connection: The Mother of Herman Syversen Klemmetsrud (1790-1877) was Guri Olsdotter Ølmhus (1771). Guri’s family lived on the Ølmhus farm for several generations that lead back to the 1500s and her great x4 grandfather, Arne Bjørnsen Dølve. See the Ancestors of Guri document for more details.
The Hedalen stave church is a 5-minute drive away from the Klemmetsrud farm. It’s an important location for our heritage. Check out the…
Herman & Kari and their children’s families all left for America between 1857 and 1882. Herman’s parents lived at the farm too, but they died before this time. The farm was sold in 1882 and no one in this Nørdre Klemmetsrud lineage remained in Norway.
Marit migrated with her family in 1857. She married Torgrim Olsen Li. A record shows them in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin in 1860.
Herman and Knud migrated to Black Earth, Wisconsin in 1866. They arrived with their families in the spring and summer respectively. When parents Herman & Kari came two years later, they went with their son Herman to Hickory Grove, Wisconsin, where son Herman bought land, built a home, helped construct the church, taught religion in school, worked as church precentor and choirmaster, and served on the town board. In 1880, three years after the elder Herman had passed away, they moved to the Ada and Twin Valley area in MN.
A majority of the descendants, however, ended up in the Rock Creek settlement near Osage Iowa called Meroa. Knud made the move there in 1868. His brother Syver arrived in 1882. The History of Meroa was documented by Gertrude Norby-Crowell in 1977. The Knud Klemesrud page and the Photo Gallery have information as well.
