By MICHAEL F. DWYER
I enjoyed teaching three sets of Fjeld first cousins during my Otter Valley years. I taught the children of George and Carol (Keyser) Fjeld: Jessica, Heather, Kalle, and Christian; the children of Peter and Jayne (Oliver) Fjeld: Grayce, Harley, Randi, Per, Robert Oliver; and the children of Karl and Wendy (Oberkirch) Fjeld: Heather and Heidi. Their uncle Gus Fjeld’s children did not go to Otter Valley. From snippets of past conversations, I gathered that their great-grandfather Christian Fjeld came from Norway under the auspices of the Salvation Army. One day I hoped to explore Christian’s immigration story, with moves that not only crossed the Atlantic but also took him coast to coast. Christian’s only son, Ellsworth Fjeld (1931–2002), father of Peter, George, Karl, and Gus, moved his family to Leicester, Vermont, from Long Island, New York in 1972.
Before delving into Christian’s story, a few facts are in order about the Salvation Army. Founder William Booth, a Methodist lay preacher, and his wife Catherine, shed a traditional church structure. In 1865, in London’s East End, they opened “The Christian Mission,” in their efforts to reach lost souls—thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards. Adopting a military structure, their organization grew quickly. While proofreading the organization’s 1878 Manifesto, Booth changed the name to The Salvation Army. A chapter was established in Christiana [changed to Oslo in 1924], Norway in January 1888, aimed at addressing poverty and addiction.
A Salvation Army soldier who rose in its ranks, Christian Ditlef Bernard Fjeld was born in Lillestrom, Norway, less than 14 miles from Oslo, on March 6, 1884, the eldest son of Karl Anton Fjeld and Gina Kristiansdatter Svastabraten. Baptized in the Lutheran Church and confirmed at the age of 14, he joined the Salvation Army cause as a young man in his early twenties. On January 25, 1907, Christian left his native Norway aboard the SS Parisian which sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there he traveled by rail to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where he entered the United States on February 11, 1907. His first mission took him to Seattle, Washington.
Christian wasted no time in declaring his intention to become a United States citizen in 1911. Documents describe him as 5’8” with dark hair and gray eyes. He also indicated he wanted to be known as Christian Fjeld, dropping his two middle names. On June 9, 1917, he took his formal oath of allegiance as an American citizen, renouncing any ties to King Haakon VII of Norway. Christian’s work in the field took him from Seattle, then to Minneapolis, and by 1920 to Chicago, where he applied for a passport to travel to England, to attend a Salvation Army conference, and from there to Norway to see his aging parents and younger siblings. A letter from his field officer accompanied the passport application.
Over the next two decades, he made several more transatlantic voyages. While living in Chicago, he had an unintentional brush with notoriety. Christian frequented Dean O’Banion’s flower shop in order to bring bouquets to hospital patients and shut-ins. Unbeknownst to the Salvation Army officer, O’Banion was a North Side Gang leader. He was gunned down in the shop on November 10, 1924, sparking gang war reprisals that culminated in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. Perhaps this was a motivating factor to Christian’s move to New York City.
In June 1929, at the age of 47, he wed Sigrid Anderson, 15 years his junior, in New York City’s Salvation Army Auditorium. Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, on August 22, 1899, Sigrid was the daughter of Per and Augusta Anderson, Swedish immigrants. She had been highly active in the organization and held several offices. Three years after the birth of their son Ellsworth, the family made a return trip to Lillestrom in the summer of 1934 to see Christian’s father. His mother had died the previous year.
By the late 1930s, they settled in a storefront apartment at 6306 Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Christian and Sigrid’s active work, as documented in newspaper articles, continued through the 1950s, when they were described as some of the oldest officers still in service. Sigrid also sang solos at meetings. In retirement, particularly at Christmas time, they visited Swedish old age homes.
Having risen to the rank of Brigadier General in the Salvation Army, Christian Fjeld met a tragic end. On the day before his 72nd birthday, March 5, 1962, he was struck by a car at the intersection of 61st Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. He succumbed to his injuries two weeks later. Sigrid survived her husband by three years. They are buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
A common denominator in immigrants coming to the United States is that they sought a better life than the one they left. By contrast, Christian Fjeld came to America with a mission to save lost souls and spent his life in that cause.
[Acknowledgments: Dr. George Fjeld, Jayne Oliver Fjeld].
