Wed Sixty Years-Mr. and Mrs. John Hegg 1931

HEGG, KOREN, CURTIS, VISTE

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 3/1/2017 at 19:11:37

Dubuque Telegraph Herald – November 1, 1931

Wed Sixty Years

Decorah, Ia. Oct. 31. – Special: Mr. and Mrs. John Hegg were married sixty years on Oct. 28, 1931. They have spent their entire married life on the farm in Springfield Township, Winneshiek County.

In fact, it was on this same quarter section that the parents of Mr. Hegg established a homestead when they immigrated to this country from Norway some 78 years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Ole Viste got themselves a homestead just a couple of miles away. These two families were friends and neighbors back in Norway, and they came to America on the same ship. There were no ocean greyhounds those days like there are today, that make the journey in a week or less. The Hegg’s and the Viste’s intended to locate further west than Decorah, but when they arrived here they found Trout Run (usually a very docile stream) was on a rampage, and they were unable to cross it. So they said, “All right, why not cast our lot right here?” They filed on a quarter section apiece in Springfield Township, an obtained patents to the land on the payment of $1 per acre.

The Viste’s had a young daughter named Sarah, she became Mrs. John Hegg, and they moved onto the Hegg farm. And they are there today and there they intend to live until their early trials are done. They were married in the Washington Prairie Church by the Rev. U. K. Koren and it was in this same church that every one of their 12 children were baptized. They were married Oct. 28, 1871. Their health today is remarkable. Mr. Hegg is 83 years old and his good mate is four years his junior. He reads the newspaper without the aid of glasses, and does a few minor chores around the farm. He has a few cows that he looks after, and milks, while his wife takes care of the household duties. Together they have been doing that same thing for 60 years.

Five of their children have died. Gerhard died this past summer at the age of 35; Sophia died in 1910 at the age of 30; Marie, Willie and Olaf died many years ago.

The living are as follows; Olaf Hegg, Brookings, S. D.; John Hegg Jr., Decorah; and the Rev. Gustav Hegg, Nome, N. D., are twins; Elizabeth and Marie Hegg live at home; Henrietta Hegg lives in Chicago; while Ferdinand Hegg and Mrs. Harold (Ruth) Curtis, reside in Detroit, Mich. There are 25 grandchildren.