Gunnar Helland’s Violin Shop, 1930s

Clay County Histories

Markus Krueger | Program Director HCSCC

Gunnar Gunnarson Helland finally sat down to write a letter to his father in Norway. He struggled to find the right words – his Norwegian was rusty after so long. He began: 14 April 1935
Dear Father, I meant to write home before, but days and weeks fly by so quickly. First I must thank you for the beautiful small Norwegian flag I got from you for my 50th birthday.… [I] cannot imagine that I have already reached the age of 50, I feel much younger, but when we think about it, it is now 30 years since I first left Norway …
Gunnar told his father about the weather in Fargo, the crops, and the economy, before he got down to talking shop in their shared profession. Going back five generations, the Helland family were Norway’s most famous makers of folk violins called Hardanger fiddles. In America, however, Gunnar mostly made and repaired regular violins.
Out here in North Dakota there is a lot of work and few if any other fiddle makers of importance are in the vicinity. I am now working on some new fiddles, not Hardanger fiddles as there is not much demand for them now, but of the others I have sold all the ones I had in store so now I have to make some new ones. I have been able to sell some quite good violins recently, some people out here have started to see that the Helland violin is not so bad, I sell these for $250 a piece…
Gunnar informs his father that his adult sons have joined him in Fargo.
We all have now moved from our old home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, so the entire Helland family are now Dakota people. We have a fine home here in Fargo and we all like it here, this is a bigger and finer town than Chippewa Falls and we are all content.
Gunnar gives updates about his sons Gilman and Alton and his daughter Edith, the American grandchildren Gunnar’s father has never met. He gets nostalgic.
I would have loved to visit the old district back home now after having been away for so many years. Naturally I would find many and great changes in Bø since I was there. What I long for most of all is to spend some time with Father again. It is strange to think back to the time when I left now, how little I considered what it meant to stay away from home for so long, maybe forever. Perhaps it seems that we have forgotten about our home and the country that we left, but one thing is for certain, we can never forget that and it is more often in our minds and thoughts than others know.
Yet there are signs that his family’s Norwegian-ness is fading.
The great Norwegian church [probably First Lutheran] is only a short way from where we live. We can attend service in Norwegian and English there. When the children go with us we usually take the English service because they are not so interested in understanding the Norwegian service. Mom [Gunnar’s wife Edith] understands Norwegian but is most used to the English language and then I go with them. Even though Norwegian is most natural for me I have got used to English and understand it well.
Ocean voyages were not as easy or common as they are today. Gunnar Gunnarson Helland, the Fargo violin maker, never saw his father again. His father, the great Norwegian fiddle maker Gunnar Olavson Helland, died in 1938. If you can, go give your dad a phone call, or better yet, a hug.