BIOGRAPHIES: Knut K. HALLANGER, Galesville, Trempealeau Co., WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Nance Sampson, Trempealeau Co. WIGenWeb Coordinator,  1 June 2001      
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Knut K. Hallanger, one of the earliest settlers in Beaver Creek Valley, 
Ettrick Township, was born in Hardanger, Norway, in June, 1833.  He came to 
the United States in 1854, settling on Koshkanong Prairie, near Stoughton, 
Dane County, Wis.  In 1858 he located in Beaver Creek Valley, Ettrick 
Township, Trempealeau County, and engaged in farming, taking up government 
land and acquiring more by purchase.  The land he obtained was wild, but he 
cleared and cultivated it, and after many years of hard labor had developed 
it into a good farm.  It was his residence until 1910, in which year he 
retired and moved to Galesville, where he is now living in a comfortable 
residence which he bought at the time he left the farm.  As one of the first 
settlers in Beaver Creek Valley, and a resident of it for more than half a 
century, Mr. Hallanger witnessed many changes and improvements in the 
township.  For a number of years he served as postmaster at Hegg, being 
appointed in 1873 by President Grant.  He was also for a number of years 
township assessor and for one term supervisor.  A Lutheran in religion, he 
became one of the founders of the church of that denomination at Hegg, and 
assisted in building a number of other churches in the county.  When he 
arrived here from Norway he could speak no English, but soon acquired such a 
good knowledge of the language that he used to act as interpreter for the 
early Norwegian settlers.

Knut K. Hallanger was married in Wisconsin to Symoa Bgotveit, who also was a 
native of Hardanger, Norway, and who died Oct. 22, 1906.  They had a family 
of seven children:  Alexander, John (first) and John (second), who are 
deceased; John B., a farmer of Hegg, Ettrick Township; Helland Louis and 
Carl, both residing in Galesville, and Helena Bertina, who is now Mrs. C. G. 
Pains, of Ettrick Township.

--From the "History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917," page 373.

Link to more history from the Beaver Creek Valley area -    
http://www.rootsweb.com/~witrempe/histories/bcvhistory.htm