Mrs. Agnes Lee was suggested to me [interviewer Susan Eleuterio] by Mrs. Lois Pieper of Stoughton, Wisconsin. Mrs. Lee's long residence in Deerfield, Dane County, Wisconsin and her knowledge of Norwegian customs and history made her an ideal informant for my study of Norwegian-American daily life in southeastern Wisconsin during the 19th century. In addition, Peter Lee, her husband, was raised on the family farm outside of Deerfield where his grandparents had settled in the 1840's. Therefore, I felt Mrs. Lee would be able to provide social history which would reflect a continuum from the 1840's. An untaped interview was conducted in Mrs. Lee's living room on March 3, 1978. At that time, I asked Mrs. Lee about her family, her husband's family, and questions of a general nature about Norwegian foodways, folk customs, and clothing. Mrs. Lee was born in Detroit, Michigan and later moved to Wisconsin when her father, who was a Lutheran minister was called to serve there. She attended a Lutheran normal school in South Dakota and taught school in a one room school there for several years. She then moved back to Deerfield, marrying Peter Lee.
I conducted this taped interview on May 11, 1978 again at Mrs. Lee's home. Because Mrs. Lee's hearing aid was being repaired, the questions had to be asked in a loud voice and sometimes repeated. Questions centered around seasonal work on Norwegian-American farms, clothing worn in the 19th century, and foodways of Norwegian-Americans. Mrs. Lee brought out a family photograph album and a portion of the interview pertains to pictures in that album. Mrs. Lee is a charming, well versed lady who speaks both Norwegian and English fluently. She is particularly interested in church history and has written a history of the Western Koshkonong Lutheran Congregation. She has also translated a diary written by her mother in Norwegian during the 1870s.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract below lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “Seasonal Work on Norwegian Farms in Wisconsin” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 07:10 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “seven minutes, ten seconds”) and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion.
The discussion on “Seasonal Work on Norwegian Farms in Wisconsin” continues until approximately 08:30 at which point discussion of the next topic (“Tobacco Raising in Dane County”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example the sentences underneath “Seasonal Work on Norwegian Farms in Wisconsin” give further details on what appears on the tape between 07:10 and 08:30.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However, the abstract will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussions among the many minutes of commentary.
