BIOGRAPHIES:  Christian Peter Tyvoll 

by Wilma Tyvoll Vander Vennet 1982

Christian Peter Tyvoll, better known as C.P. Tyvoll was born in 1860 near the city of 
Roros, Norway.  He was the second son and the third child of Peder Fredriksen Tyvold 
and Marit Bersvendsdatter Tyvold.  He was born and raised on the farm named 
Ivarvolden, part of the larger farm Tyvoll, located fourteen kilometers northwest of 
Roros.  As  young man, Christian worked for a time in the copper mines of Roros, then 
worked for five years in the apothecary of that city, becoming an expert pharmacist. 
 
In 1881 Christian Peter Tyvoll left Norway and came to America.  Listed among 
emigrants who sailed from Oslo via the ship Kristiania in May, 1881, was "Kristen" 
Tyvoll, age 21, from Roros, and twin brothers, Hans and Jon Almaas, age 27, from 
Roros.  Listed, also, was a family named Ronningen from Holtalen, the neighboring 
parish of Roros.  In the Ronningen family were Hans B. Ronningen, age 65, his wife, 
Beret, age 64, a daughter Johanna, age 22, and an infant, age three months -- and a 
granddaughter, Beret Andersdatter, age 14.  Beret was to become C.P.'s future wife.
 
During the rough Atlantic voyage, the fourteen-year old Beret often saw the handsome 
Kristen -- especially when he brought food and comfort to the seasick people below 
decks.  Of course, being only fourteen, she thought that he, at twenty-one, was much 
older than she.  She noticed, though, that he wore his hat at a jaunty angle, and she 
thought that he was quite a "dandy."   Whether or not Kristen particularly noticed Beret 
during the voyage is knowledge left to the ages, but we know, now, that they were 
destined to meet again in a few years.  The Ronningen's destination, at that time, was 
Baldwin, Wisconsin, where they joined other relatives named Throndson, Brodahl and 
Steene.  Kristen Tyvoll and the Almaases went to Lansing, Iowa. 
 
After four years of working on farms and clerking in stores to earn money to go to 
school, C.P. or Christ Tyvoll, as he came to be known, entered the La Crosse Business 
College in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  Graduating in the fall of 1885, he went to Cumberland, 
Wisconsin, where he worked for O.A. Ritan and Company, and later for the S.W. Hines 
Company.
 
The Almaases and the Ronningens had also come to Cumberland.  Bertha and her mother 
lived for a time with the Almaases.  On June 4, 1886, at the Lutheran Free Church in 
Cumberland, Christian Peter Tyvoll and Bertha Anderson (Andersdatter) were married.  
Their first child, Mary (Min), was born November 1, 1887. 
 
The family grew and prospered, so that in 1905, C.P. Tyvoll bought the business of R.E. 
Smaling in Comstock, Wisconsin, and set up his own mercantile business.  In 1905 he 
also became the postmaster in Comstock, keeping the postoffice in a corner of his store.  
He held that position for many, many years. 
 
In September of 1905 the family moved by train to their new home in Comstock.  There 
were seven children, by now, and the story is told that the youngest, Doris, just three 
months old, cried all the way from Cumberland to Comstock.  Mary(Min), the eldest, was 
so embarrassed that she refused to sit with the family during the trip -- too many kids.  
Well, there were, besides Doris and Min, Martin and Clara, Leonard, Helen, Edna and 
Walter.  Another daughter had died in infancy. 
 
In 1910 C.P. Tyvoll bought 120 acres of land about three miles east of Comstock.  By 
1916 he had built a new barn and house on the farm and was making his home there with 
his family.  His son Leonard was operating the farm.  The oldest son, Martin, remained in 
Comstock running the store.  Martin continued in the store, later known as C.P. Tyvoll 
and Son, until his death in 1976.  The store was then sold, used for a time as a storehouse, 
and in 1981 the building was demolished.  Leonard continued on the farm until 1957, 
when he sold it to Leonard, Jr.