Lavik Images #41-#80
This page is part of the sequential posting of the 319 Lavik Photograph Images, and contains Images #41 - #80. The first pages in the Lavik section provide the context for these photos - by describing the background on this collection, the Lavik ancestry in Norway, the biography of Rev. Rasmus Lavik and his family, a listing of all the extended family members and the locations where they lived, and an index to the 319 images. The image at right is #64, of the children of Rasmus Lavik and his first wife Ingeborg, taken at a photo studio in Zumbrota, Minnesota, is posted below with an explanation.
The Lavik Photograph Items
Items #41-#80
Item #41. Ruth Lavik and two child playmates. This photo is of Ruth Lavik, daughter of Rudy and Charlotte Lavik. On the back is written “These are two of Ruth’s playmates. The girl next to Ruth is more than a year older but is not as big as Ruth. They all wear overalls for play.” The back of the photo is posted just above. I wrote Ruth Lavik Funk’s daughter Kay about this photo, and she wrote back: “The one on the right is my mother. Doesn't look like North Dakota or Tempe. I'm surprised that she is wearing overalls, because my grandmother was a bit snobby about that (not into her farm roots). At this age (about 4?) Tobe [Rudy] was coaching first at Fort Collins, then at Flagstaff and this type of building could be from either of those places. - Kay Funk”]. Kay had the same photo in her grandmother Charlotte’s items. The handwriting is presumed to be that of Charlotte Lavik.
Item #42 - Francis Peter Ihrman. Shown above is a photo - and the handwriting from the back of the photo. For a number of years, I struggled with the last name based on the handwriting – thinking it was Herman or some such variation. As shown above, the name is written on the back, along with born in October 1899 and the photo taken on May 15, 1902. It also appears that a date is written on the bottom right of the actual photo – with a small piece of the photo missing, and the date unclear as a result.
I tried many ways to determine the surname written above. The World War I draft database, which has a registration card for anyone who was eighteen in 1917 and 1918 – is keyword searchable by birth month and year and first and middle name, as well as surname. By searching for a Frances Peter born in October 1899, I turned up Frances Peter Ihrman, age eighteen in September 1918, a student at Hope College in Michigan.
Going back to census records in 1900 and 1910, he is one of the children in the family of Rev. Peter Irhman, a clergyman whose parents were born in Holland. It’s unclear what the connection was to the Lavik family, as they lived in Maurice, Sioux County Iowa in the 1900 census, and Sherman, Sioux County, Iowa in the 1910 census. A delayed birth record for Frances Peter shows he was born in Maurice. The Find-A-Grave database refers to him as “Rev. Francis Peter Irhman” and that he died in 1970 in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, and is buried in Holland, Michigan.
Item #43. B. Marie Grimsrud. The photo at upper left, in a frame of two photos. Both were taken at the Oyloe Studio in Moorhead, Minnesota. As cited earlier G. E. Oyloe was in Moorhead from 1930 to the 1950’s. The card tucked in it was for B. Marie Grimsrud. On the back was a note that said “Merry Christmas? Ag and Marie (For Anton’s amusement)”. That seems to indicate that one photograph was of Agnes Grimsrud and the other of B. [Bertha] Marie Grimsrud - sisters. This seems to confirm the photograph was given to Anton Lavik, the uncle of the Grimsrud sisters. Item #44 – a photo of Agnes Grimsrud, sister of Marie. It is possible that these photo identifications were reversed. I took the photo that had the card of “B. Marie Grimsrud” as the photo of Marie and assumed the other one was of Agnes (this photo). But there is a small chance that the identifications are reversed. The subjects of these photos seem to match the sisters in photos #258 and #259, which are of the same people but are different photos.
Item #45 - Ingvald Lavik, also a match to Item #166. This photo was taken at the Miller Studios in Minneapolis. According to the Minnesota photographer directory, there were two Millers in Minneapolis in this period, but only one seems to have had the name of Miller Studios. It was William R. Miller, located in Minneapolis from about 1884 to about 1917. Yet this photo matches the photo that is shown in the 1927 pastor book. In the directory, that photo is tagged with a date of 1921. Ingvald was in Luther Seminary on both sides of his World War I service (Luther Seminary, 1917-18, 1919-21), and this picture was likely taken in that era. So this photo was likely taken in 1921 in whatever Miller studio was open at that time. One Luther Seminary history indicates that the Seminary was located in St. Paul from the year 1917 - meaning that was where Ingvald would have been a student at the time this photo was taken.
Item #46 - Photo of unidentified woman, taken at the Washburn Studio, Spring Valley, Minnesota. Spring Valley is just into Fillmore County in southern Minnesota near the Iowa state line. The photographer in the Minnesota directory appears to be E. G. Washburn, who was in Spring Valley operating at least in the period 1898-1901, 1904, and 1912, and was probably engaged during the entire period from 1898 to 1912, if not for a little longer period. This photo is likely from that period. Matilda Ofstedahl, widow of Nils, is shown in Spring Valley in the 1900 census – enumerated with a cousin.
Item #47 - Postcard – Unidentified Baby –Lidgerwood ND. This was the first of a number of postcards, undated, with no text – from the same place. This baby appears to be in christening clothes. They were done by F. W. Gertson, Lidgerwood, North Dakota, and the back of the postcard is scanned as #47a. In the Dakota directory, he appears to have been a photographer in Lidgerwood from 1900 to 1921. Lidgerwood was just into Richland County from Sargent County in North Dakota. The most difficult photographs in the entire Lavik batch are the photos of babies or infants, with no identifying information. They will be the photographs most likely never to be identified. There might be some hope in the instance of the Gertson photos, given the work of Gerry Parker of Casselton, North Dakota – a retired dentist who is working with the records and plates of photos from this photographer in this period, discussed in the photograph project introduction page. There are other Gertson photographs in the post card format - such as the very next item, but this is the one place I will include a scan of the backside for reference, noting that the others have identical or similar backside markings.
Item #48 - Another postcard of an unidentified baby from the Gertson Studio in Lidgerwood, North Dakota. This item is in postcard format as well, with the similar message side as in the previous item.
Item #49 - Unidentified Woman and Child, also in post card format, taken at the Gertson Studio in Lidgerwood, ND. This photograph is also undated, and it is difficult to tell if the baby is one of the two in the items just before this.
Item #50 - Rudolph Lavik – in World War I Uniform. This is a duplicate of Item #14. This card has no writing on the other side, and is simply a second, unsent copy. Item #14 had a message on it about returning home.
Item #51 - Unidentified Young Man, taken at the A. Carlson Studio in Wheaton, Minnesota. This photograph and the next one were taken at the same studio – as were Items 8, 13, 27, 38, 238, and 247.
Item #52. Unidentified Young Woman, Wheaton Minnesota. This is a photo of a young woman, taken at Axel Carlson Studio in Wheaton, Minnesota – just as is the previous item, but the studio markings are different between the two photos.
Items #53 and #53a. Unidentified Young Man, Decorah, Iowa. This is a photo of a young man, taken at A. W. Adams Studio Water Street in Decorah, Iowa. A. W. Adams is shown buried in Decorah, born 1842 and died in 1915. I scanned the back of this photo as #53a to show the markings for the A. W. Adams studio. One online biography indicates that Asa W. Adams ran his studio in Decorah from 1863 through 1884 before moving his photography business to Waterloo, Iowa. If that is the case, this photo would have been taken in 1884 or before. The oldest Lavik son would have been age ten in 1884.
Decorah was the home of Luther College, founded by Norwegian immigrants. I am not aware of any young Lavik’s who studied there. Andreas Oefstedal studied there from 1874-1878 and would have been between the ages of nineteen and twenty-three in that period. Nils Ofstedahl studied there 1875-1878, and would have been between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-four in that period. We do not have a photo of either without a beard, so there is nothing to compare this photo to. Nils and Andreas were both close to Rasmus Lavik - Andreas immigrating with him, and a sponsor at the baptism of Andreas, the oldest son of Rasmus and Ingeborg. Rasmus was a witness at Nils wedding and spoke at his funeral.
I believe that Andreas might have been an officer at Luther College college at some point - his son Rudolph and his grandson Paul Ofstedal were there in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The Decorah Posten was a Norwegian publication that carried obituaries of many of the Laviks and Ofstedahls. This is the only photograph in the Lavik Collection that was taken in Decorah.
Item #54. Unidentified Baby, a girl, Wahpeton, North Dakota. M. Brown photographer. This is in the next county over from Milnor and Sargent County. Murray Brown is shown as a photographer in Wahpeton from 1894 to 1910.
Item #55 - Unidentified Baby, quite possibly Ingvald Lavik, Red Lake Falls. W. A. Reichle, photographer. This is different from photo #26, and yet the baby looks similar in each photo. Could be the same, and Ing Lavik was the one Lavik child born in Red Lake Falls while Rasmus and Antonette were there. Just to refresh, Rev. Rasmus Lavik served as pastor in Red Lake Falls from 1889 to 1892, and the first of the four children of he and Antonette – Ingvald – was born there in February 1891, the first child of Rasmus and Antonette. While there’s no firm identification, this is most likely a photograph of Ingvald Lavik. There are eleven photographs in the Lavik Collection taken in Red Lake Falls - and all were taken at the Reichel studio.
Item #56 - Based on identifications of other photos this seems to be Karen Matson, Antonette’s sister, her daughter Hulda Carlson and her husband Helge - and their three sons. This photo was one of a group of photos dated October 30, 1936, from the Slorby Studio, Devils Lake, North Dakota.
It is clear that the child in the front right is one of the two shown in Item #7 in band uniforms with musical instruments, which also had the October 30, 1936 date and was from Slorby Studio, and has been identified as Raymond Carlson. Knowing that his father was Helge Carlson, his mother was Hulda - niece of Antonette Lavik - and daughter of Karen Matson - and that Helge and Hulda had three boys - you can work back from this knowledge.
At the time of this photo, the three Carlson boys - Raymond, Duane, and Glen - would have been 14, 12, and 9. Helge Carlson would have been fifty, Hulda Carlson would have been forty-one this year, and her mother Karen – Antonette’s sister, would have been sixty-four. The people in the photo fit those ages, and match some of the people identified in other photos in this collection.
Item #57 - Dorothy Nelson, Slorby Studio , Devils Lake North Dakota. This backside of this photo is also shown above, showing Slorby Studio, Devils Lake, North Dakota, and was dated July 26, 1928. Dorothy Nelson, the daughter of Carl Nelson and Nettie Nelson – the niece of Antonette – was the only girl in the next generation in Devils Lake, and was identified in other photos by her daughter Dorothy Monson Tsongas. She would have been twelve in 1928, and fits the age of the girl in this photo.
Item #58 - Dorothy Nelson, Devils Lake, North Dakota. This photo was a more formal portrait from Slorby Studio, Devils Lake, North Dakota, rather than the processed film photos like the two previous items. This appears to be Dorothy slightly older than the previous photo.
Item #59. Young Couple, One Carl Grimsrud Jr., Moorhead, Minnesota. This item, individually mounted photos of a young man and a young woman in separate photos, was from Oyloe Studio in Moorhead, Minnesota. When I went live with this website at the beginning of 2021, Ted Grimsrud, a Grimsrud descendant said the following by email: “I am almost certain that the male in item #59 is my father, Carl Grimsrud, Jr. I haven't seen the picture before but it is surely him, maybe around the time he finished high school in 1934 (the year his mother died). My totally uneducated guess is that the female is his sister Volberg (sic). They were the two youngest so would have been the last two at home. She looks quite a bit different in this picture from the pictures you have of Marie and Agnes when they were a similar age.”
As stated with Item #33, Gerhardt E. Oyloe bought Ole Flaten’s studio in Moorhead in 1930 (Ole Flaten is represented in many photos and his photo is in the introduction to the Lavik Photo Collection), and was a photographer there from about 1930 to the 1950’s. Carl and Dora Grimsrud and family lived at Hitterdal, Clay County, Minnesota from 1929 to 1938. Of the three Grimsrud daughters who married in the 1930’s - Marie married Joseph Langemo in 1934 in Hitterdal just outside of Moorhead. Gudrun married Edward Erickson in June 1935. Valborg married Jerome Skeim in July 1939. Ted’s identification seems to have clarified the identities of the man and woman in these photographs.
Item #60 - Likely Hannah Lavik, Enderlin, North Dakota. This photo was taken at Gordon Studio, Enderlin, North Dakota. Enderlin is in Ransom (and Cass) County, North Dakota – which is just over thirty miles north of Milnor, where the Laviks lived. Mrs. Minnie Gordon photographed, according to the Dakota photographer directory, in Enderlin from 1902 to 1907. Rasmus’ daughters Marie died in 1902 and Hannah in 1908, so this is likely Hannah. Hannah graduated from St. Olaf College and her brother John’s biography of her states that she was a school teacher in North Dakota. Her time as a teacher in North Dakota matches the time that Minnie Gordon was operating her studio. There are no other photos in the Lavik collection that were taken in Enderlin.
Item #61 - The photograph below right, taken Austin (Studio), Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, was in a mounted holder with a faded ink note at the bottom, “Love you, Norma”. John Lavik had a daughter Norma, born in 1911, the only woman named Norma in the extended Lavik family, and was nearby in the same Perry parish in Daleyville from about 1923 to 1926. That makes it almost certain that this Norma is John’s daughter and the photo was taken during his time at the Perry church. The handwritten note is scanned, albeit hard to read, as Item #61a, and is shown below.
Item #62. Nelson Baby, Devils Lake, North Dakota. Taken by the Ziebell Photography, Devils Lake, North Dakota. Rasmus was there ca 1889, but Antonette’s family was in the Devils Lake area from the mid 1880’s until at least the 1940’s. J. C. Zeibell was shown as a photographer there from 1910 until 1918. There were two children of Carl and Nettie Nelson (Nettie being Antonette’s niece) born in 1913 and 1916 in Devils Lake - Howard Nelson in 1913 and Dorothy Nelson in 1916. This photo is likely one of the two of them. Antonette had a second niece in this area - Hulda Carlson, but her three sons were not born until the 1920’s, and therefore were not alive at the time that Ziebell Photogrpahy was operating.
Item #63 - Rasmus Lavik. This photo matches one of the photos sent to me almost twenty years ago by Paul Lavik to match to photos in the Lavik Collection. Paul’s photo had no studio identification. This photo was taken and/or developed by the Flaten Studio in Moorhead. Ole Flaten is mentioned in the introduction to the photo project - and is where a number of photos in the collection were taken.
Item #64 - Six Rasmus-Ingeborg Lavik Children, Peck Studio, Zumbrota Minnesota. Of the six Lavik children, the oldest Andrew was born in June 1874, and the youngest, Hannah, was born in December 1882. According to the Minnesota early photographer directory, C. S. Peck worked in Zumbrota, Minnesota in the 1882-83 period, which is close these years for Peck, but given that the youngest child was born in 1882 and appears to be in the neighborhood of three or four, this photo is probably from the mid-1880’s. Rasmus and his family were in Goodhue County for much of the 1870’s and 1880’s. Just as with the previous photo, this photo was a match to a photo provided by Paul Lavik. Also just as with the previous photo, the photo Paul provided had no studio identification, and this one shows the Peck Studio as the place the photograph was likely taken.
Item #65 - Unidentified Young Woman, LaCrosse, Wisconsin. This photo, taken of a young woman in LaCrosse, Wisconsin by F. W. Mould, appears to be the same woman in photos #21 and #25. The back of the photo shown below 65a lists the address and other facts about the studio. A history of LaCrosse photographers indicates he was in business from about 1883 to 1900. The back of this photo was shown in the Introduction Page to the Lavik Photo Collection - as one of the examples of studio markings on the back of photographs from this era.
Item #66 - Two Unidentified Women, Gertson Studio, Lidgerwood, North Dakota. This was in postcard format, just like some of the previous ones with the location of Lidgerwood listed. It is unclear now who the two women were. The backside of the postcard with the markings of F. W. Gertson, Lidgerwood, has been scanned for the files as #66a and is shown above right.
Item #67 - Likely John R. Lavik, Northfield Minnesota. The studio listing was C. J. Mehlin. There is a listing for C. J. Mehlin in the early Minnesota directory, showing he operated ca. 1907 in Northfield. The only trouble with the identification is that John and Peter Lavik looked similar in this period. This photo is similar to one of those provided by Paul Lavik, and the expression around the mouth seems to match John. John R. Lavik would have been about twenty-five or twenty-six in this year. He was in Northfield at school from 1898 to 1903, and was in Minneapolis in school from 1903 to 1906. From 1906 to 1910, he was posted in Vermilion, South Dakota.
Item #68 - Rev. John Lavik Family – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This photograph is from the Charmbury Studio in Saskatoon. Written on the picture flap on one side is Rev. Johannes Lavik, Sophie Bergh, and family – Rolf, Valborg, Norma, and Paul. It is not clear who wrote that notation. John was in Saskatoon for fifteen years from 1937 to 1952, but he had other positions in Alberta – including for the greater region from 1911 through 1923 – this photo was most likely taken in the latter part of that service. His children were born from 1907 to 1915, and given their age here, it is likely this was taken in the latter part of that first Canadian service. Paul Lavik, who I corresponded with near the end of his life about these photos, is the youngest child shown in the front on the left.
Item #69 - John, Sophie Lavik and their oldest two children – postcard format. This is fun to compare to the previous photo of the entire family about a decade later. Scanned from an unsent postcard, with no date or identifying city or printer on the other side. If, in fact, these are their two oldest children – Rolf was born in 1907 and Valborg in 1909. That would place this photo as taken about 1910 either just before they left South Dakota for Canada or just after they got to Canada. The slight flaw in the print is in the original.
Item #70 - Rev. Ingvald Lavik and Family, Colorado Springs. This photograph of the Ingvald Lavik family was taken in the Emery Studio in Colorado Springs. There are three children in the photo, Agnes, Harold, and Melvin – and the third, Melvin, was born in May 1929. The fourth and last child in this family, Robert, was born in 1932 after they had moved to Wisconsin. Ingvald was a pastor in Colorado Springs from 1924 to 1931. That would place the time of this photograph about 1930 or 1931.
Item #71 - Rudy and Charlotte Lavik, Arizona. This was identified by their granddaughter Kay Funk as Rudy and “Lots”, and this was taken with palm trees and a warm setting in the background. They had a ranch house in Tempe from 1940-1948 that is now on the historic survey. This could well be that house, although to date I have not dated a photograph in this collection after the 1930’s. The Laviks moved to Arizona in 1927 and were there the rest of their lives.
Item #72 - Dora Lavik, no date or location. Dora appears to be an adult in this photo. There is no studio or location on the matting.
Item #73 - Antonette Lavik and Children, no date or location. Antonette is alone in another photo taken in Milnor (Photo #22 – that one taken at Anderson’s Studio in Milnor), and looks of a similar age in that one. She lived until 1940, it is likely that this photo is in the 1930’s. Ing and Rudy had five children between them, born between 1923 and 1932 – but there are seven in the photo, ruling out that if these were grandchildren, these were just grandchildren. John’s youngest child was born in 1915 and Dora’s youngest child was born in 1917, which places their children as too old to be in this photo.
Items #74, #74a - Ingvald Lavik, World War I military uniform, postcard format. This photo is on the back of a postcard that reads “Carte Postal” and in French states “adresse” and “correspondance” over the space to write. Ingvald spent a year in the service in World War I and this photograph was likely taken in France, given the French on the backside of the post card, scanned as #74a above. The biography of Ingvald’s military service shown in the Rasmus Lavik biographical section states that he was “overseas” from August 1918 to April 1919.
Item #75 - Agnes Lavik, Emory Studio, Colorado Springs. This photo was taken in the same studio, Emery Studio, as was Item #70 with the entire Ingvald Lavik family ca 1931. Ingvald and Clara only had one daughter, Agnes. It appears to be the same child as is shown with them in the other photo.
Item #76 - Unidentified Couple, Red Lake Falls. This couple is shown in a photo taken in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota at the W. A. Riechel studio there are eleven photographs in the collection taken in Red Lake Falls, and all were taken at this studio.
Rasmus pastored a parish here from 1889-1892, and he married Antonette Hagen in December, 1889. This does not look like Rasmus or Antonette. In thinking that this could be Antonette and another man – there is a wedding ring on the woman – Item #12 looks like Antonette in that photo. She has a bun, there are the same markings beneath each photo, but I think they are different women. This is an exact match to photo #122, with this photo being the one of better quality.
Item #77 - Peter Lavik and Two Others, Spanish-American War-Era . Peter was in a Minnesota unit in the Spanish American War and served in the Philippines. His service card, a newspaper article, a book reference, and a page about his service in the Philippines is in the Rasmus Lavik biographical section on this website. His gravestone in the Milnor Cemetery lists his military unit.
The photo above is undated and shows no location. It appears to be Peter front and center seated. Two others, not known, are with him. This is the period appearance of soldiers in that conflict. In an article in the Interocean newspaper out of Chicago, dated September 7 1898, it is indicated that there is illness among the troops, and “Secretary Alger” will inspect the hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, and the sick list from the Twelfth Minnesota sent four soldiers to the hospital this day from the Minnesota unit, including Peter Lavik of Company B - that article is one of the items in the Rasmus Lavik biographical section. Peter’s pension file indicates he had been hospitalized for malaria while in the Philippines.
Item #77b to the right - In communicating with the museum in Sargent County, they took an interest in this photo, and it ran with their caption in a local newspaper. It is likely that the other two are from Minnesota rather than Sargent County, as that is where Peter served from.
Item #78. Funeral Arrangement in Church - the church is unidentified, and the person for whom the funeral is, is also unidentified. Starting with Rasmus Lavik’s death and working backwards, there were deaths in his immediate family in 1927, 1920, 1910, 1908, 1902, and 1900. I scanned at high resolution three other items that from this photo – the sign at the top, the unclear writing on the wreath in the background, and wording in front of some of the flowers. I was hoping the writing on these items would give an indication of who this funeral was for, but it did not help. I have posted those high resolution photos below anyway. The wording above the casket is “He Giveth His Beloved Sleep”. It is not clear what the writing on the wreath was in the photo below right. And then at the bottom left the lettering below the wreath appears to say “Dear . . .but what is after that is not clear. Father? Mother? Maybe someone will recognize the church.
Item #79 - The four youngest Lavik brothers, ca 1904. Presumably the four youngest Rasmus Lavik children, undated and with no studio listed. The back of this photo has a hand-written note, “R. Lavik, Milnor, N. D.” Also stamped is 9 – 13 (if September 13, what year?). I believe that Ingvald is at the far right, Rudy is at the far left, Anton is at the top middle, and Theodore in the middle front. The four were born in 1891, 1892, 1895, and 1897. I would guess this photo would be somewhere around 1904 – which would have made the Lavik boys age thirteen, fourteen, nine, and seven. I could be off by a year or two, but it’s got to be in this vicinity. The top of the back of the photo is posted at right.
Item #80. Three World War I Soldiers in uniform, Ingvald Lavik Center, undated, no stated location. This is in a postcard, saying “Carte Postal” on the reverse side, which is almost identical to the card reverse side for the postcard of Ingvald by himself in uniform in Item #74.