BRAUTI FARM
The farm Brauti is less than two miles west of Kviteseid village in a low saddle or draw facing Bandak Lake. Up in the slope above the farm, lies Brauti. It is now two farms dealt in 1913. The name implies road or way, and undoubtedly was so called because in olden days it was on the road to the docs on Bandak, where there was considerable commercial activity. It is quite an old farm. It was spelled Brott in 1585, Broutten in 1665. The present spelling probably started sometime in the early 1700's, but the exact date is not known.
In Norway they use the designation "mål" about the area of a farm. One "mål" is 1000 square metres. The upper part of the farm has an area of about 30 mål cultivated field and about 2000 mål with timber. The lower part has about 40 mål cultivated field and 100 mål timber, but several farms near by have the same owner (bought between 1980 and 1990) so the total area of the lower part today is about 80-90 mål cultivated field and 2000 mål timber. Both farms have area with timber and mountain-area in the field between Kviteseid and Laardal in Tokke. There are several houses (cottages) at these parts. In old days they use this mountain-area in the summer for the animals (cows and sheep) and parts of the family, mostly the women and children, lived here 2-3 months in the summer. Rauberg is the name of the place where the old farm, and later on the upper part, used for the animals in the summer. Kyrvestaul and Kvaalen are names of the lower parts area in the mountain. (Bought to the lower part in 1985). All these parts have houses today, but now the use are mostly as hunting-cottage or in use connecting to vacation. In the old days there were several hired man’s places under Brauti. Their names were Dapen, Undeberg, Tveitstodalen, Apalstoi (+ Skotet bought in 1994 to the upper part). The farm had no local owners for several years. In 1651 - 1659 Halvor Verpe (Bo) owned 1 tn in Brauti and beside Hellek Lunde (1660-70). John is owner in 1672 but he sold it away to Claus Andersen who sold to Anna Claus (1672-82). But the farm became redeemed again and became bond (farmer) owned. Jon Brauti has the farm 1683-97. The farm changed hands in 1698. Jon and his wife Sidsel (daughter of a man called Nils) are dead, and their son Tallev inherit the farm after his parents. Tallev (the son of Jon) has the farm 1698-1713. Tallev died in 1713. He has been married to Asgjerd (her fathers name was Halvor from Berge North. They had 3 children. Trond Asmundson Sandland acquired a sister’s share from Jon Tormodson (1 measure owned). Tallev Jonson bought this portion in 1707. Jon Tallevson has Brauti after his father from 1720 until Torgrim Torjusson Hasleberg got a right to the farm (1731 - 53). The sons of Torgrim, Tallev and Hans lived at Brauti. So that is why Tallev lived on the farm in 1758 when he became a widower. He missed his wife Sigrid Knutsdotter after one year of marriage. Hans Torgrimson got a home at Brauti in 1774. It was changed (the inheritance was given to the children) after Hans in 1805 (23 July). He has been married to Anna (Olav’s daughter). They had 6 children. The widow gave up her share of the place on the grounds of old age vagueness. Torgrim Hansson took over Brauti in 1804 (24 November). He died childless in 1807 and his brother Halvor took over the farm in 19 November 1807. Halvar married Anne (Nikolais’s daughter). They had 8 children, all born at Brauti. Halvar died at Brauti in 1824. (Several of his children emigrated to the USA.) At this time it is that the farm went over to Gunnar Lonnegrav. The house has stood on the same foundation from old, but changed place. Now all the houses are new and real good. Brauti is family owned in seven generations (as of 2001). In 1820 Gunnar Tarjeison Lonnegrav bought the property. Gunnar was born in 1785 to Tarjei Aadneson Lonnegrav and Sigrid Svendotter Dale. He married Signe Jonsdotter Fjone who was born in 1786. They had nine children; Tarjei (1806), Sigrid (1808), Birgit (1810), Kristi (1812), Jon Gunnarsson (1814), Aadne (1817), Rasmus (1819), Signe (1822) and Svend (1824). (Tarjei and Rasmus emigrated to USA and at least one of Gunnar’s brothers - Saamund - had emigrated earlier.) Gunnar’s son, Rasmus, was married to the daughter (Anne) of the earlier owner, Halvor Brauti (perhaps Gunnar was richer than Halvor, so he bought the farm for his son and daughter-in-law). Gunnar Lonnegrav was considered to be a very rich man in his time. He owned upper and lower Lonnegrav which was a large timber area, also Lonnemoen, Vraali, Vraaland, Hagland, Naper in Vraadal, also Utbøen and Brauti in Kviteseid, so you see they owned many farms. After Signe died, Gunnar married Elen Roholt, widow after Leiv Roholt in Vraadal.
Gunnar had given over Lower Lonnegrav to Aadne (his son born in 1817 - but another source said he gave it to son Tarjei and that Aadne got Upper Lonnegrav) and Lonnemoen to Jon (his son born in 1814). His other housefrau Enna had Roholt, so he and Elen lived there, but some day she inheritance and her son Kristoffer Roholt, got one Roholt and the other of her sons, Jon Roholt, got the other Ronolt, some others called it Austgarden. Gunnar’s son, Rasmus Gunnarson (born 1819) married to Anne Halvorsdotter Brauti (Hasleberg 31) in 1841 and lived at Brauti. Hasleberg is a family name and appears with Brauti over many years. It was first given in the early 1700's. Apparently the Haslebergs were connected by marriage or by residing on Brauti, although this is not too clear. Rasmus traded farms with his brother Jon. Rasmus got Lonnemoen in Vraadal and Jon got Brauti 1850, (d. 1900). This is how the Brauti clan was started and how they became known by Brauti instead of by Lonnegrav, which is the original home place of the male line. (Rasmus and his family emigrated to Wisconsin USA in 1866). NOTE: If the two brothers had not changed farms, the same family would have been the owners from about late 1600 or early 1700 to 2001. Jon Gunnarsson Lonnegrav Brauti was born in 1814 to Gunnar Tarjeisson Lonnegrav and Signe Jonsdotter Fjone. He was married twice - 1x) in 1844 to Gunhild Gunnarsdatter (1825 - 1848) and 2x) in 1849 to Torhild Aslaksdatter (1824 - 1902). Jon and Gunhild had one daughter; Signe (1845). Gunhild died at Brauti in 1848. Jon and Torhild had six children; Gunnar (1850), Aslak (1852), Johannes (1857), Gunhild (1861), Sigrid (1863) and Gunhild (1867). All these brothers and sisters emigrated to the USA except Signe and Gunnar. After Jon was dead in 1900, also the widow Torhild moved to the USA to her daughter’s. She is buried in the USA. Gunnar Jonson Brauti was born in 1850 to Jon and Torhild Brauti. Gunnar married Tone Aslaksdatter in 1873 who was born in 1852. They had a little girl who died when she was only two or three months old. Tone died in 1874 at the young age of 22. Both Tone and her young daughter are buried in the old churchyard in Kviteseid. They used Flekstveit as their last name from the mountain farm called Flekstveit where they lived. Gunnar then married Tone’s sister Dordi Aslaksdotter in 1879. She was born in 1854. Dordi did not want to live on that farm (Flekstveit) so they moved down to Brauti in 1880. He owned Flekstveit lower and was an enterprising man. He was one of the first who used fertilizer and grass spreader and planted trees. He had many positions in the community. They really struggled to survive, the situation in Europe was unsafe, there was lots of unemployment, Norway was in a union with Denmark (about 1450-1814) and Sweden (1814-1905).
Dordi died in 1899 at age 45. Gunnar died in 1907 at age 57 and his son Jon (born 1887) got Brauti. Aslak (born 1886), Einar (born 1890) and Toralf (born 1893) got Flekstveit lower and Strandin. (Flekstveit and Strandin was a large farm, about 10,000 mål timber.) Flekstveit and Strandin were later on sold, but parts of the property still belongs to the family (Halvor Nyland, Dagfinn Nyland and Erling Brauti are owners of three different parts of Flekstveit today). Jon Gunnarson Brauti was born the 30 January 1887 to Gunnar and Dordi Brauti. On the 22 July 1909 he married Gro Olavsdotter Omtveit (Raamunddalen). Gro was born the 22 January 1887 in Brunkeberg, Norway. Jon died the 19 September 1962. Gro died the 29 December 1967. They had eleven children; Dordi (1909), Gunnar (1911), Tone (1912), Gudrun (1915), Gunhild (1916), Torhild (1918), Olav (1920), Ragnar (1922), Magne (1925), Signe (1928) and Sigmund (1930). In 1913 Jon sold half of Brauti, including the part where the old farmhouse were placed, to his brother Einar and moved himself to Upper Brauti where he built new houses (it is only about 200 meters between the two farmhouses today). Einar & Anne Brauti - 1910 Jon sold the upper farm about 1929 to his brother Aslak because he wanted to emigrate to the USA. Because he had a bad knee he wasn’t allowed to travel to the USA so he then bought a farm in Gjerpen (near Skien) and lived there for several years. In Norway there is a law which allowed sons and daughters to buy back family farms if the parents or grandparents had been the owners at least 20 years. Jon’s son Gunnar bought the farm from his uncle after some time (about 1937). Gunnar was a police officer in Oslo and didn’t run the farm, but his parents moved back to the farm. They ran the farm and lived the rest of their lives there. Jon died in 1962 and in 1964 Gunnar sold the farm to his younger brother Olav. He ran the farm until 1987, then his son Ole took over and he is the owner today. RAUBERGRauberg uplands have been the mountain summer pasture of Brauti since about 1880 when Jon Brauti (1814-1900) bought the land from his brother-in-law Olav Aslakson Grave. Earlier the land was a part of the huge property belonging to Aslak Olavson Heggtveit (the father to Olav Grave and the father-in-law to Jon Brauti). Aslak Heggtveit was the owner to a lot of farms in Tveitgrend in Kviteseid (Se farm-story of Tveit). Rauberg lies at the boundary to the Flekstveit-property in LDrdal about 8-10 kilometers from Brauti and the area is about 1500 "mDl". The name Rauberg means red mountain or red rock and is named after the highest mountain in the area Raubergnuten (Rauberg mountain peak). In the old days the land consisted of at least three mountain summer pastures, Rauberg, Brotadalen and Hillestaul. All of them had houses and were in use in the summer. Today only Rauberg has houses, there are two houses or cottages. The old one was replaced to a new one by Jon Gunnarson Brauti about 1940. Jon was a clever carpenter and built the house himself. The old house was rebuilt to stables for the horses. In these days, felling timbers was usual in winter and they needed warm houses for the horses. The use of the houses are today connected to hunting and vacation. The old place Hillestaul belongs to the same property and lies about a kilometer from Rauberg. Hillestaul is named after a murder called Hille. About 1760-80 the sheriff in the area stayed at Tveit and the prison was the storehouse on pillars (Stabbur) which you nowadays find at the outdoor museum near by the old church in Kviteseid. Hille was taken into prison because he had murdered his brother. The brother had taken his girlfriend or his fiancé (a girl from Breidalen) from him and he became jealous and killed his brother. One day when he was hold prisoner he knocked out the door and escaped. The sheriff and his men followed him. At a place above Breidalen they saw him and shot at him. Hille fell down but got into his feet again and continued escaping. At this place there are two big stones and the place is called "Mannfallsteinane" (It means the stones where a man fell down). The sheriff and his men continued to follow Hille and after about a kilometer they found him dead near a bog. Here they buried him, and after this happening the bog is called "Hillesmyr" (It means the bog of Hille). Besides the bog it was a mountain summer pasture and from the time of the death of Hille the name was Hillestaul. The legend told that the girdle of Hille and his knives of silver were placed at a bush near by the grave and was hanging here for a long time. Today people say, the bog is haunted, they have seen ghosts here. KYRVESTAULFrom the old days, Kyrvestaul was a part of the huge Flekstveit property and in use as a mountain summer pasture. When Flekstveit was split up into two places in 1850, Kyrvestaul fell to the lower part. About 1873 Gunnar Brauti (later on Gunnar Flekstveit) (1850-1907) bought Flekstveit lower from his later father-in-law Aslak Gotuholt, who has taken over the farm from his first father-in-law Knut Flekstveit. Gunnar Flekstveit Brauti ran the farm until his death in 1907. Then the farm was split up into three pieces and three of his sons (Aslak, Einar and Toralf) had a part each. Kyrvestaul fell to Aslak, but in 1910 Aslak sold his part to Gunnar and Olav Utsond and Gunnleik Dalen. Already in 1911 Aslak bought the property back formally in the name of his oldest son Gunnar. (Aslak used the Norwegian law about allodial possession, "odelsloven"). In 1916 Kyrvestaul was divorced from the rest of Aslak’s part when he sold this part to Tarald Skarprud and Olav S Lie. After a short time they sold further to Eivind, Olav and Gunnar Haugan (father and two sons). In 1918 Olav Sakrissen, married to Gudrun Brauti, the sister of Aslak, used the same Norwegian law about allodial possession ("odelsloven") and bought the farm back to the family. In 1926 Olav Sakrissen sold the land to Tarald Skarprud (he had also been one of the two owners in 1916). In 1938 Tarald Skarprud let the land over to his three sons, Tor, Olav and Arne Skarprud. After the death of Arne and Olav, Tor took over alone and in 1985 he sold the land to Erling Brauti who ran several farms in Kviteseid (Erling’s father Olav was a cousin of Tor). Today (2001) the land has the same owner as Brauti lower, Borgjordet, Tveit nordigard and Nordjordet and is owned by Erling’s son Olav Brauti. The area of the timber land is today about 1000 "mDl" and consist of several old mountain summer pastures; Kyrvestaul, KvDlen, Kyrvestaulkrokan, KvDlskrokan, MidtbrslDtta, Kovstaul and Haugestaul. It’s only KvDlen which has houses today, two cottages, both built by Jon Gunnarson Brauti about 1938-40. It is several old stories connected to this area. According to the legend this area was a whole neighbourhood named Kyrvegrend with their own church until the Black Death about 1350. After the Black Death there was nobody left in Kyrvegrend, all died. According to the legend the church lied at Haugestaul and there was a rather huge churchyard besides the church. Today you can see a wall made of stones around Haugestaul, and may be it was a churchyard once. Another story from the same area tells about two bear-hunters who were lost in the fog. At last they came to KvDlen and identify the place. The hunters placed the horses at the stable and lit a fire in the house and made themselves comfortable. At night when they prepared to go to bed, there was a knock at the door and three woman came inside, a mother and two daughters. The hunters soon understood these women were from "the little people", the fairies, but the daughters were very kind and beautiful and they sat talking the whole night. The mother wanted the two boys to marry her daughters and promised them gold and riches. One of them said yes, but the other one did not want to let down his girlfriend so he said no. Before the boy who refused the offer rode home again, he had to promise not to tell anything about his companion. When he came home alone the people wondered where his friend was, but he kept his promise and told nothing. After a while the sheriff came to ask him about the other boy but he still did not tell anything. Then he was arrested and the law court judged him to death by hanging because they thought he had killed his friend. Because of his promise he still was quiet but just before the hanging a man rode into the area. It was his friend, well-dressed and in good health, so the sheriff had to let him go. His friend, who now was a very rich man, thanked him for holding his promise and gave him a lot of gold and other presents so he became a rich man too. And he lived happily all his life..... |
