ALAN FREELAND

Ole Apland was a legend! He came from Norway in 1855, he landed in Canada, took a train to Illinois, and then a wagon train – yes literally a horse drawn wagon train across the prairie to Story County, Iowa. He fell in love with a cute girl named Anna Ersland who was a passenger in the wagon train as well. They became the first couple to be married in Story County, Iowa. He homesteaded his 160 acres and eventually became a wealthy pioneer, acquiring a lot of land in Story County and wealth, and eventually we all became his ancestors.

What you just read was a SUPER summary of the entire life a pioneer that could be a feature length, trilogy, movie, novel, and/or a lifetime of study! What I want to focus on is just one fact of his life – actually his death. One very small, insignificant perhaps fact. (click title heading to read on)

A couple of years ago I went to the Fjellberg cemetery in Huxley, Iowa to visit my brother Richard’s grave. I noticed in the center of the cemetery an enormously tall grave marker. I went over to take a closer look and lo and behold it was the grave marker for Ole Apland, my great, great grandfather (my dad was Elden, his mom was Anna, her father was Knut, his father was Ole).

I felt a real connection to Ole after hearing all of the fantastic stories of his adventures across the prairie, the founding of the Palestine Lutheran Church nearby, his homesteading, and the making his fortune in this new land – a veritable Hiratio Alger story.

I took a leisurely stroll around Ole’s grave marker caressing the stone (please don’t think me weird – but finding this stone was like finding a long lost friend that you had only known by continual legends passed on through generations – a goliath of a sort). As I swung around to the south side of the stone – the right side as I was facing the engraved front surface, I noticed an inscription. The stone was marble – an unfortunate stone that was chosen in that day for grave markers. My point being, I couldn’t help but wonder if the morticians of the day did not know how poorly this marble weathered. Within a hundred years most marble is worn so badly one can hardly read the inscriptions – polished granite in 100 years looks like new.

On the weather worn surface, I tried to read the inscription, but could hardly make out any of the words. It was obviously a Norwegian inscription, but very few words were readable. I tried and tried, and since I could read and speak Norwegian, it was all the more frustrating. After repeated attempts I left.

Many times throughout the years I stopped and tried and tried to read the words. I took pictures, tried computer enhancing the surface, tried gravestone rubbing with paper and chalk. EVERYTHING! Finally a couple of months ago I stopped and took a pencil and traced the depths of the inscription and stood back to read and copy the words. The following is what I thought I read:

Hore mig o Gud, ret at betrakte Min nod, og naar jeg segner ned. Min sjel i Jesus saar at sanke Min sjel njor dog for kristi blod Min sigre?? ksjed lim nodd??

I tried to find a similar poetry verse or hymn thinking that one of those were chosen for such an inscription. I tried searching on the internet, pulling up all the antique hymn books and poetry books I could. I finally settled on it be most likely a verse of an hymn. Remembering that there was no TV or radio, and the church and its activities were practically all the out-of-home activities a family had back then, it had to be that. Hymns were a veritable way of life and thinking in those days. It just HAD to be a hymn, but I could figure out how to continue the search.

I had some friends from Norway that visited a couple of months ago. They were both from the Hauge Church in Norway, a conservative Christian group that followed the teachings and guidance of an old 18^th century Norwegian religious, political, and social reformer called Hans Nielsen Hauge. Many of my ancestors were Hauge Lutherans in Iowa, and I had gone to some Hauge Churches and meetings in my past. They lived and breathed the old hymns and hymnals. I can not tell you enough about their home Church meetings and strict adherence to conservative teachings, evangelical beliefs, home-spun services of Bible reading, lay preaching, and hymn singing. SURELY these people would be able to tell me if this was a verse of an old Norwegian hymn or not!

I sent my poor rendering to Trygve Gjerde, and he knew immediately what it was – he said:

Den sang du nevner er det tredje (3.v) vers på sangen: Hvo vet hvor nær meg er min ende. I Hans N. Hauges salmebok  er dette vers gjengitt slik på side 144. I Johnsons salmebok er dette verset gjengitt slik i 1921 på side 508. I den salmebok av min der står den på nr. 316, og tonen er: Våkn opp og slå på dine strenge. Om du ønsker det så skriver jeg gjerne av alle 12 versene til deg. Salmen er skrevet av Grevinne Emilie Juliane.

‘Lær meg, o Gud, rett å betenke Min død, og når jeg segner ned, Min sjel i Jesu sår å senke Og dø i sann botferdighet. Min Gud gjør dog for Kristi blod Min siste avskjedstime god.’

The song you are asking about is verse 3 of a song called, Teach me, oh God rightly to consider my death. In Hans N. Hauge’s hymnal it is on page 144. In Johnson’s hymnal published in 1921 it is on page 508. In the hymnal I left you it is hymn number 316, sung to the tune of Wake up and put on your Strength. If you wish to have all 12 verses I can write out for you. The hymn is written by Grevinne Emilie Juliane.

‘Teach me, oh God, to rightly consider my death, and when I sink down, May my soul also sink and die in true penitence. My God, make my last dismissal good through Christ’s blood.’

How on earth could anyone have ever guess all this from my terrible chicken scratches? Seems a mystery to me. BUT, much more of a mystery to me is - why would Ole have chosen this verse for his grave? Why would he have chosen the 3^rd verse of an esoteric hymn for his grave marker? Did I tell you that Ole died a very rich man? He was well respected by the whole county. He had a great family; he had relatives that were legislators in the State House. He had the LARGEST and TALLEST gravestone in the graveyard – taller than any other stone in the graveyard. He owned a good part of the county, and yet was a humble Christian man. Did he choose this hymn because it took his fancy, and calmed his troubled soul, or……….

Let me tell you some strange facts to ponder on the mystery of this inscription:

1. I have never in my life seen a grave marker either here in the US or Norway that has an entire hymn verse on a grave stone. Why Ole?
2. I have never seen an inscription on the side of the grave stone when all the writing is on the front. Think about it.
3. This hymn writer and the song has never been translated into English (I don’t believe)
4. Is there some significance for the verse being verse 3? On the 3^rd unmarked side of the stone? Its height is approximately 3 times higher than any other stone in the graveyard? 3-3-3
5. The fact that the inscription is on the south side, the side pointing in the closest direction possible to his homesteaded land, could he have built in a message about the homestead in the verse he left behind? He chose the verse that keeps reiterating the word “sink” as in buried – BURIED TREASURE???
6. And what is really weird, is that the exact size of Ole’s picture is 33.3 KB – I am not kidding – totally random

I will let you all be judge of this mystery, and let you unravel it – a mystery BEYOND THE GRAVE perhaps??