Footsteps Home Page

Retracing the travels of Torkel Oftelie, 100 years later

He was among a small group of Norwegians that met in Fargo, North Dakota on January 16 in the year 1907. He was elected Historian at this very first meeting of Telelaget of America. Nearly 100 years later, we can only marvel at his accomplishments. His name was Torkel Oftelie and between 1907 and 1926 he traveled about the Midwest documenting the lives of Telemark (Teler) pioneers. He wrote the first 53 issues of Telesoga to chronicle the lives of the pioneers that he visited. His motto was:

"We must see to it that the 'Telers' are not forgotten."

After Torkel stepped down, only five Telesoga were printed in the next 54 years. Telelaget was revived in 1980 and thrives today. We continue to "remember the Telers" as we publish Telesoga twice a year. In the year 2007, one hundred years after that first meeting of Telelaget, we will begin to retrace the footsteps of Torkel Oftelie through the settlements of the Midwest. That is the dream of this Webmaster. We will "check in" with the descendants of those pioneers described in the early editions of Telesoga. We will publish our findings in Telesoga, of course, in the spirit of Torkel Oftelie.

In this section of the website we will document the travels of Torkel Oftelie, by year. We will list the names of the Telers that Torkel described in Telesoga in the hopes that we will hear from present-day descendants of those original Telers. This section of the website is a "work in progress" and will take years to complete.