Steffen Einarsen Rognved

Steffen Einarsen Rognved was born on March 12, 1827 to Einar Johannesen Rognved and Asa Jakobsdatter Lohne on the Rognved farm on Osterøy. He was the youngest of five surviving siblings. His mother died when he was only five years old. A year later, his father remarried to Gjertrud Andersdatter Sundland. However, only a few years passed before he died in a tragic accident at sea orphaning Steffen at the age of ten.

Around the time of Steffen’s confirmation in 1842, his brother – Jakob, and their stepmother – Gjertrud were summoned to court for incest. Three years after their father’s death, 23-year-old Jakob and 38-year-old Gjertrud had an illegitimate child together. Consequently, Jakob was sentenced to six months of hard labor. Once he was released in 1844, he moved to Bergen and became a successful wheelwright. Around 1846, Steffen also moved to Bergen and joined his brother as a wheelwright. However, he quickly changed his career to carpentry specializing in stair building.

On May 29, 1854, Steffen had an illegitimate child – Carl Johan – with Caroline Margrethe Knudsen. She was the daughter of a shoemaker and had moved from her home in Trondheim to Bergen around the same time as Steffen. On March 18, 1855, they were married at Nykirken. The early years of their marriage must have been incredibly difficult. Steffen suffered from alcoholism; they lived off of charity for a time, and their next three children all died young. In 1860, the family moved to Stavanger – likely in search of work – where they remained for about two years before returning to Bergen. A few years later, Steffen was caught pretending to be a master carpenter – he was only a journeyman. He was sentenced to three days in prison.

Steffen and Caroline ended up with five surviving sons – Carl Johan (b. 1854), Einar Martin (b. 1862), Stefanus (b. 1864), Oscar (b. 1867), and Petrus Johan (b. 1870). Before 1867, they moved into their main residence at Skivebakken 7 – a one-and-a-half-story building with three rooms in addition to a kitchen and a loft. While the family was growing up here many significant events happened in the Einarsens’ life. In 1875, an eight-year-old Oscar ended up in an accident where an ax fell from a construction site and landed in his back. He almost died and was partially crippled for life. In 1882, a twelve-year-old Petrus ran away from home to work on the D/S Versterålen. Around this time, Caroline slipped on an icy sidewalk and dislocated her hip. On March 22, 1886, she died from tuberculosis.

Her death must have deeply affected Steffen, as he “became a temperance man and never touched any intoxicating liquor during the remaining twenty years that he lived.” As a widower, Steffen continued to live alone at the address Skivebakken 7 for sixteen years until he eventually sold it to a gentleman named Ivar Bruland for 5,000 kroner ($41,000 USD). He ended up moving to a retirement home at Hæggebakken 2b. However, he didn’t stay there for very long before he moved to his final residence at Edvardsens Gate 9. On May 3, 1905, Steffen passed away from dropsy at the age of seventy-nine “tired and weary of life.”

Comments from Atle Einarsen:

1865 census for 1301 Bergen kjøpstad:

https://digitalarkivet.arkivverket.no/ft/person/pf01038249020239

(Steffen E. Rognved)

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Fødested Hjerstad Saagn Haus cirka 1820 Gjerstad Præstegjeld 1875 Bor familjen på gata 18-158 i Bergen. 1885 Adressen er Skivebakken 7 sammen med kona C(K)aroline fra Trondheim. 1891 Adressen er Skivegbakken 7 er nå enkemann 1904 Bor i Hæggebakken 2b, snekker og stemmeberettiget.

1905 Edv.g. 9 Han dør som snekker og enkemann.