Born: 17 Jun 1860, Trysil, Østerdalen, Norway
Died: 21 Mar 1946, Shelton, Mason co, WA
Buried: Shelton Memorial Park, Shelton, Mason co, WA
Parents: Ola Mattisen Tørberget
Marte Halvorsdtr Bakken, Skjærberget
Shelton – Mason County Journal, Shelton, WA. March 28, 1946, p 11
Skokomish Valley Resident Passes
Halvor O. Bergh, 85, of Skokomish Valley, died in the Shelton General Hospital Thursday, March 21, after an illness of five days. Services were held Monday, March 24 in Witsiers Funeral Home with the Reverend Walter Wangerin in charge. Burial took place in Shelton Memorial Park.
Mr. Bergh had lived in the valley for the past 29 years, after coming to the United States in 1877.
He is survived by his sister, Mrs. Carrie Swenson of Fargo, North Dakota, and a niece, Mrs. Minnie Hegman, of Oakland, California.
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Halvor emigrated in 1877 from Norway at the age of 17 and joined his family in Cass county, North Dakota where his mother and step-father, Marte and Lars Mortensen Berg and children had settled a year earlier. On 17 September 1894, Halvor’s signature appears as “H.O. Berg, President of the District School Board” on the teaching contract for Petra Nordby in school district 61.
There was a lot of activity in the area the fall of 1894. Many from the community had decided to move west and two groups organized to move to British Columbia and start new Norwegian colonies. Others went west and settled in Montana and Washington. Many of these adventurers were Trysilingers and Halvor went west with a group that began the colony of Quatsino on the northern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. By November 10, 1894, Halvor was with the group in Victoria, BC and wrote a letter to the Decorah Posten encouraging other immigrants to join them. During the next years, Halvor worked hard to bring more settlers to the colony and served as justice of the peace, secretary and later as President of the colony. He owned and operated a store, served as postmaster and prospected. His efforts at bringing in more settlers met with little success.
By 1909, Halvor was discouraged and wanted to try something else. He moved to Somers, Montana where he farmed and prospected. About 1917, he moved to Shelton, Washington area where he lived the last years of his life, a few miles from Harold Strandvold.
Halvor has been described by those who knew him as extremely intelligent and multi-talented. He was an artist, poet, woodcarver, avid learner and community leader. His interests also included geology and prospecting, study of runic script, and love of all things in nature; birds, animals, plants. On the 1920 census he states his occupation as gardener.
In 1942, Halvor published a little book of poems he had written. Toner fra “Det vilde Øde” . He never married and had no children. His sister, Berthe came to America in 1880, married Andrew Dalen and lived in Georgetown, Clay co, MN. She also had no children.
Further reading about Halvor O. Bergh’s life in Quatsino can be found in the book, Norwegians in the Northwest , published 1995, by Eric Faa.
~ material courtesy of Don Reierson and book by Eric Faa