Happy New Year, everybody! I heard from quite a few of you since the last post, and I really appreciate all the kind wishes for my recovery. Doc says it will take a while for my lungs to get back to normal, but I'm a little better every day and it's good to be back on the computer.
To kick off 2020, we're going to take our first trek up to Potter County. By 'we' I really don't mean myself, though, because to be perfectly honest, I've never been there. But my sister Liza, who has contributed photos to this blog in the past, went up to Cherry Springs State Park in Coudersport, and sent me pictures of today's subject while she was there.
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| The marker is situated on Cherry Springs Road (PA Route 44) near West Branch Road, at Cherry Springs State Park. Image courtesy of Liza Shankar. |
The colony mentioned on the marker is long gone, but the legacy left by the man who founded it is an unusual one. And yes, Ole Bull was his real name - Ole Bornemann Bull was born in Bergen, Norway, in February of 1810. I'm not very good with Scandinavian languages, so I wasn't entirely sure how "Ole" is pronounced, but according to one of my sources it's "OH-lay." From an early age he had a natural aptitude for and love of music, and wanted to make it his profession. To that end, he became a violinist and composer of renown; at just nine years old, he played first violin with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. It's believed that he may have composed as many as 70 or more works, although only about ten are still known today. Probably his most famous work is a song called "Sunday of the Shepherdess."
Ole had a total of seven children by his two wives, though most died young, and his second wife published a memoir of him. You can view a lithograph of Ole Bull as a young man by visiting the Historical Marker Database link in the Sources section. As part of his musical career, he was a friend of Franz Liszt and a mentor to Edvard Grieg, the stepson of one of his brothers. He did a great deal of performance touring, and he had some rather successful tours in the United States. It was while on these tours that he became familiar with, and enchanted by, the beautiful wilderness of Pennsylvania's Potter County.
In 1852, Ole purchased a large tract of land with the idea of creating settlements for Norwegian immigrants. This land was to be divided into four small communities in the Kettle Creek Valley - Oleana, or Oleona (named for Ole), New Norway (for obvious reasons), New Bergen (after Ole's hometown), and Valhalla, or Walhalla (named for the Viking afterlife). The highest point in Valhalla was named "Nordjenskald," and it was here that the violinist began to construct what is remembered as "Ole Bull's Castle."
Several Norwegian immigrant families accepted Ole's invitation to come and establish farms on his land. Together, they labored to build cabins for the new arrivals, as well as a hotel and a schoolhouse, and if passion alone could ensure success then Ole's venture would have been magnificent. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the person from whom he bought the property, John Cowan, kind of cheated him by selling only land which was completely unsuitable for farming. Heavy snows prevented the settlers from being able to travel to the nearest town for supplies, and the railroad which was supposed to connect the four villages to the rest of Pennsylvania never came into being. There was also some discrepancy with regard to the actual ownership of the tract of land, eventually leading Ole to resell the tract after only a year; he got back exactly as much as he paid for it.
Ole Bull continued to try to save his dream, going on tour despite his own poor health to raise funds to help the struggling farmers; one such fundraising performance was the very first concert given in Lancaster's Fulton Opera House. Even with such efforts, however, bills continued to mount, and his absence created a lack of leadership which didn't help anything. Many critics - including the New York Times - led the public to see the whole venture as something of a joke. Morale plummeted. As the hardships became insurmountable, most of the residents of the four villages gave up and moved away, eventually settling in Wisconsin or Michigan within other Scandinavian immigrant communities. A few still remained in Potter County, however, and welcomed the German settlers who began moving into the area. The Oleana hotel continued operations for some time, and the last remaining cabin of the settlement was still standing in the early 1900s. Oleana is now more commonly known as Stewardson Township; New Bergen has all but disappeared, as far as I can tell. For the fate of the other two, keep reading.
Ole never finished his "castle." The castle, which was actually a grand-scale cottage, was sold to and served as a home to Dr. Edward Joerg, a German physician, who dubbed it the State House. It continued to be used as a private residence until 1923, when most of it was destroyed by a fire. The foundation and a stone retaining wall are all that remain of the effort; the site and foundation were used by the commonwealth in 1929 to construct a residence for the fire foreman in Potter County, which is still used today. It has its own (non-PHMC) marker which tells a short version of the story, in what is today the town of Cross Fork. Seen here.
Instead of completing the castle, Ole returned to Norway, where he purchased the island of Lysøen (no, I don't know how to pronounce that) not far from his birthplace of Bergen. He occasionally still visited the United States on concert tours, as he remained a popular musician despite the colony's collapse, and even owned a summer home in Maine. Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, actually has a chamber known as "Ole Bull's Concert Hall" because he performed there. He passed away in his villa on Lysøen in August of 1880.
After World War I, the commonwealth purchased a portion of Ole Bull's original tract - the parts which once constituted the villages of Valhalla and New Norway - and established Ole Bull State Park. In 2002, the people of Norway donated a statue of Ole Bull to the park as a memorial to the man and his unusual vision.
Sources and Further Reading:
Heimel, Paul W. Oleana: The Ole Bull Colony. Knox Books, 2002.
Potter County Historical Society, 1952. The Ole Bull Colony in Potter County, 1852. Author unknown; transcribed by Nancy Piper for Genealogy Trails.
Shames, Erica. "History of Ole Bull." Published on Susquehanna Life on August 30, 2014.
Dingle, Ronald W. Postcard History Series: Around Galeton and Coudersport. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
Ole Bull at FindAGrave.com.
Ole Bull's Colony at the Historical Marker Database.
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Ole had a total of seven children by his two wives, though most died young, and his second wife published a memoir of him. You can view a lithograph of Ole Bull as a young man by visiting the Historical Marker Database link in the Sources section. As part of his musical career, he was a friend of Franz Liszt and a mentor to Edvard Grieg, the stepson of one of his brothers. He did a great deal of performance touring, and he had some rather successful tours in the United States. It was while on these tours that he became familiar with, and enchanted by, the beautiful wilderness of Pennsylvania's Potter County.
In 1852, Ole purchased a large tract of land with the idea of creating settlements for Norwegian immigrants. This land was to be divided into four small communities in the Kettle Creek Valley - Oleana, or Oleona (named for Ole), New Norway (for obvious reasons), New Bergen (after Ole's hometown), and Valhalla, or Walhalla (named for the Viking afterlife). The highest point in Valhalla was named "Nordjenskald," and it was here that the violinist began to construct what is remembered as "Ole Bull's Castle."
Several Norwegian immigrant families accepted Ole's invitation to come and establish farms on his land. Together, they labored to build cabins for the new arrivals, as well as a hotel and a schoolhouse, and if passion alone could ensure success then Ole's venture would have been magnificent. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the person from whom he bought the property, John Cowan, kind of cheated him by selling only land which was completely unsuitable for farming. Heavy snows prevented the settlers from being able to travel to the nearest town for supplies, and the railroad which was supposed to connect the four villages to the rest of Pennsylvania never came into being. There was also some discrepancy with regard to the actual ownership of the tract of land, eventually leading Ole to resell the tract after only a year; he got back exactly as much as he paid for it.
Ole Bull continued to try to save his dream, going on tour despite his own poor health to raise funds to help the struggling farmers; one such fundraising performance was the very first concert given in Lancaster's Fulton Opera House. Even with such efforts, however, bills continued to mount, and his absence created a lack of leadership which didn't help anything. Many critics - including the New York Times - led the public to see the whole venture as something of a joke. Morale plummeted. As the hardships became insurmountable, most of the residents of the four villages gave up and moved away, eventually settling in Wisconsin or Michigan within other Scandinavian immigrant communities. A few still remained in Potter County, however, and welcomed the German settlers who began moving into the area. The Oleana hotel continued operations for some time, and the last remaining cabin of the settlement was still standing in the early 1900s. Oleana is now more commonly known as Stewardson Township; New Bergen has all but disappeared, as far as I can tell. For the fate of the other two, keep reading.
Ole never finished his "castle." The castle, which was actually a grand-scale cottage, was sold to and served as a home to Dr. Edward Joerg, a German physician, who dubbed it the State House. It continued to be used as a private residence until 1923, when most of it was destroyed by a fire. The foundation and a stone retaining wall are all that remain of the effort; the site and foundation were used by the commonwealth in 1929 to construct a residence for the fire foreman in Potter County, which is still used today. It has its own (non-PHMC) marker which tells a short version of the story, in what is today the town of Cross Fork. Seen here.
Instead of completing the castle, Ole returned to Norway, where he purchased the island of Lysøen (no, I don't know how to pronounce that) not far from his birthplace of Bergen. He occasionally still visited the United States on concert tours, as he remained a popular musician despite the colony's collapse, and even owned a summer home in Maine. Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, actually has a chamber known as "Ole Bull's Concert Hall" because he performed there. He passed away in his villa on Lysøen in August of 1880.
After World War I, the commonwealth purchased a portion of Ole Bull's original tract - the parts which once constituted the villages of Valhalla and New Norway - and established Ole Bull State Park. In 2002, the people of Norway donated a statue of Ole Bull to the park as a memorial to the man and his unusual vision.
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| A section of Ole Bull State Park, as seen from PA Route 144. Image courtesy of Liza Shankar. |
Sources and Further Reading:
Heimel, Paul W. Oleana: The Ole Bull Colony. Knox Books, 2002.
Potter County Historical Society, 1952. The Ole Bull Colony in Potter County, 1852. Author unknown; transcribed by Nancy Piper for Genealogy Trails.
Shames, Erica. "History of Ole Bull." Published on Susquehanna Life on August 30, 2014.
Dingle, Ronald W. Postcard History Series: Around Galeton and Coudersport. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
Ole Bull at FindAGrave.com.
Ole Bull's Colony at the Historical Marker Database.
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Great job telling this story. I just learned about it last summer when I was there.
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