Skaarvold > Score History

My great-grandfather, Mens (Mentz/Ments) Arntsen Skaarvold, was born 9 July 1854 into a cotter's family of 7 children on the sub-farm called Mens-Åsen on the cotter's place South Gunhildsøien, of the main farm Skårvold, about 4 km from Støren. Mens-Åsen was a very small plot of wooded land located on a mountain above Gunhildsøien. Part of the stone foundation of the cabin is still visible there today.

Although Skårvold/Skalvoll was the largest farm in the area, it had been subdivided many times by 1875. The population of the farm was at its largest then with 5 husfolk, 10 tjenestefolk, 81 husmannsfolk, and 28 inderstfolk. So Mens Arntsen went to work for the railroad in Støren. Mens parents were Arnt Mensen Skaarvold (1823-1909) and Kari Evensdatter Staverløkken (1823-1911).

Mens Arntsen Skaarvold left Trondheim on April 28 or 29, 1880 on the steamship Pasefic for Hull, England.  There were two others from the Skaarvold farm who emigrated at the same time: Iver P. Skaarvold, age 29 and Ingeborg Skaarvold, age 22.  They each paid 30 øre for their fare.  

 The Mens and Gunhild (Rogneslien) Skaarvold (Mike and Gena Score) family, about 1900 in Menomonie, Dunn County, Wisconsin.

From left: Mens (Mike), Alex, Emil, Sig, Anna, Gust, Christina, and Gunhild (Gena) Score

Mens emigrated to America on the ship "SS Bark Crown" from Liverpool a few weeks later. He arrived in the port of Philadelphia on May 23, 1880 and went directly to Dunn County, Wisconsin with about 50 other Norwegians, destined to work in the lumbering industry. They arrived in time to be documented in the 1880 Federal Census (Dunn County, Wis.) on June 1st.

Surnames of other emigrants who arrived on the SS Bark Crown with Mens Skaarvold included: Lillebjørgen, Soknes, Hage, Vold, Frøsett, Falstad, and Gynnild.

Mens' brother John Arntsen Skaarvold emigrated to Menomonie, Wisconsin the next year.  Like other emigrant Norwegians, Mens and his brother opted to change their names to be more American. They became Mike and John Score. The Score name had already been used by their cousins who had come before them.

Great-grandmother Gunhild Ellevsdatter Rogneslien, born 21 July 1863 on the farm Rognes, emigrated from Norway on April 4, 1883. Her parents were Ellev Estensen Rogneslien (1814-1912) and Gjertru Stephensdatter Refsetås (1820-1863). Gunhild's passage to America was paid by her sister, Ragnhild, 9 years older, who in 1881 married Erik Arntson Lillebjørgen in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Gunhild and Mens married 13 July 1883 in the Norwegian Lutheran Church in North Menomonie.