July 28 Drammen, Dallen

 The next day we headed to Drammen.  It was raining, so not a real pleasant drive.

Our great grandfather, Andreas Peterson went to Drammen more than once on his mission.  He was not welcome there.

This beautiful cathedral was just up the street from where Andreas was imprisoned.  It would have been there when he was there.

City hall

It was in this building that he was imprisoned for five days.  His crime?  Baptizing and administering the sacrament.  In the next post, I will publish his words about this experience, taken from his journal.

Pam went in this building- city hall- to find out exactly where the prison was.  The people there were so very nice and helpful.  They did the research and showed her it was the building just across the street, shown in the picture above this one.  This city hall building was there when Andreas was.  He talks about having to report there on more than one occasion to face charges against him.

It says it was built in 1871.

It was raining, so we sought shelter under this canopy.  Patty is reading to us from Andreas' journal.

Ken and I in front of the prison.

The rain seemed a fitting backdrop for the emotional words Andreas wrote about his imprisonment.  John is reading them to us here.  I will record them and present them in the next post.

One more picture of the building which housed the prison.

This picture is facing the other way- toward the pier on the fjord.

As we left, the sun came out and we drove up past that beautiful cathedral.

Gorgeous flowers in front of the cathedral.

We had lunch in a local restaurant, then went to this bakery for pastries.

The restaurant where we had lunch.

Dallen

Dallen was the area where our Gabrielsen ancestors- Hans Martin and Pauline Gabrielsen lived.  Pauline's family, the *Larsens also lived in this area.  Hans and Pauline were newlyweds when Andreas taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptized them. They and Andreas and his wife, Inga Carolina Sophia Overn (who he also taught the gospel on his mission) and Hans and Pauline all later immigrated to Logan, Utah.  As we were traveling on the highway, John had an impression, "That is it.  That is the road to Dallen."  He made a U-turn with the other cars following, and we went down the dirt road.  Sure enough.  There was a small sign that said Dahlen.  

We drove down that road for quite a while and found a beautiful farm and farmhouse.  This old barn was there.  Patty had a picture of it from their previous trip.

Could it have been there when our ancestors were there?  You can see the beautiful home in the background.  A woman came out and talked to Ken and John.  We hoped she didn't mind our trespassing.

A picture taken from the highway overlooking the Dallen valley.

Such meaningful pictures of our family standing on this sacred ground.

Pam, Patty, John, Kay, Joan

A closer picture of the beautiful home now on the farm.

We then traveled to Holmsbu, a little vacation town on the seaside.  It was fun to drive through.  It was a place that Andreas visited frequently on his mission.

So beautiful!

This was such a pleasant time.  We just parked in a parking lot and then found benches and sat together and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon before we headed back.

Joan and Patty had arrived a little earlier and had bought some currant jam in a little grocery store.  So we all stopped and bought some before heading back.  Our pleasant afternoon was soon to take a turn.  Dun, dun, dun.  Stay tuned!

*I do a lot of searching for family names to take to the temple.  A large majority of those I find come from the Larsen line.