Found – another branch on the family tree

by Sheri Neprud Ballard 

Oiumsdalen sawmill and pond. The mill shown in this photo was built by Iver Oium in 1891.

An earlier mill on the same site was built by another Mr. Oium in 1855, but was torn down later. At the busiest times the mill was going constantly day and night.

As you know, I love researching my family tree and in doing so, have found many interesting relationships. I’ve found several cousins, nice people with whom I have one or more common ancestors. I’ve also learned that some people I’ve been acquainted with for years, have turned out to be third of fourth cousins. I have read that if your ancestors came from a particular area of Norway, most of the people from that area are anywhere from your fourth to seventh cousins.

I love to walk through the beautiful Coon Prairie Cemetery where my paternal grandparents Theodore Neprud and his wife, my grandmother Pauline Stalsberg Neprud are buried. Nearby are buried my great grandfather Christian Neprud and his wife Marie, my great grandmother. Also close by are the graves of  Tjostel and Frederikke Oium, and Gulbrand, Torline, and Harrison Oium.

In my research, I learned that Marie Neprud, my great grandmother’s, birth name was Marie Amundsdatter Oium. That must mean that Marie was somehow related to these other Oiums who lay in eternal rest near her grave. Further digging proved that yes, they were indeed related, in fact they were Marie’s own siblings. There are a lot of Oiums living in the Westby area. Did this mean that I had found another branch of my ever larger family tree?

Here is what I now know about the Oium family.

Tjostel Oium was one of the three recorded children of Amund and Marit Oium. He emigrated to America in 1849. He was one of the first settlers at Coon Prairie. A story is told of Tjostel. He got a piece of land a couple of miles northwest of where the city of Westby was built. Here he dug a hole into the hillside, put a door at the front and a chimney on top and this is where he lived. Back home in North Fron, Norway, relatives waited for word from America from Tjostel. Unfortunately, writing tools were scarce and there didn’t seem to be much to write about. A couple years went by with no word, so younger brother Iver decided to go to America on his own, thinking poor Tjostel had probably perished on the trip to America. Iver made it to America, then found his way to what is now Coon Prairie. He didn’t really like it there, so went northward a few miles and came upon a deep and sheltered valley which he called Timber Coulee, and here he settled, the first white settler in that valley. 

A while later, being nearly out of food, Iver was out hunting along the streams and valleys. He saw smoke in the distance, and thought that surely he must have a neighbor, possibly even a white person. Next day, he decided to meet this neighbor and when he did, he found it was his long lost brother Tjostel.

Iver was a better correspondent than brother Tjostel, and encouraged people back home in Norway to come to America. Soon there was a large immigration from Gudbrandsdal to Timber Coulee as well as Coon Prairie.

Iver had married Marit Jonsdatter Shinne in Norway in 1850. He emigrated to America in 1852. Iver and Marit had eleven children. Soon after settling in Timber Coulee, Iver Oium decided to build one of the first sawmills in the county, as there was a stream on his property. Iver had great ingenuity and managed to dam up the creek, thereby making a waterfall. He had no money to buy machinery to build the sawmill that he wanted, so with ax and knife he carved the whole contrivance out of oak, except for the saw blade, which had to be made of steel.

What an interesting family and yes, their descendants are all my cousins!