WI BIO - Dane Co - NORSMAN, Ole S.
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol I, pp 154-156

Ole S. NORSMAN, the popular City Clerk of the city of Madison [Dane County, 
WI], although yet a young man, has held a number of important and responsible 
positions, and is at present serving his third term as City Clerk. His is 
also a member and clerk of the Board of Education, and director and secretary 
of the [p 155] Madison Benevolent Society. He is a man who enjoys to the 
fullest extent the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, and 
deservedly so, on account of his unswerving fidelity to duty, unquestioned 
integrity, and accommodating disposition.

Mr. [Ole S.] NORSMAN was born in the township of Vienna, Dane County, 
Wisconsin, on 12 September 1851, and his boyhood life was spent on his 
father's farm, at work in the summer, and attending school in winter. At the 
age of sixteen he entered Luther College, Decorah [Winneshiek County], Iowa, 
and remained there two years, after which he attended the Wisconsin State 
University [Madison, WI] a couple of terms. Returning home he continued 
working on the farm during the summer, and teaching school in the winter, 
until the spring of 1876, when he came to Madison and accepted a position as 
Clerk in the office of the Register of Deeds, under Hon. L. J. GRINDE, who 
was then Register. After one year of service as Clerk he was appointed 
Deputy Register, which position he held for two years. He then, in 1879, 
accepted a position as clerk in the office of the Helka Fire Insurance 
Company of Madison, and after a few months he became the company's 
bookkeeper, and continued in its employ until 31 December 1882. During the 
last year of his connection with the company, he was assistant secretary 
thereof.

In the fall of 1882 he was offered and accepted the Democratic nomination for 
the office of Register of Deeds. Securing the election, he assumed the 
duties of the office 01 January 1883, and continued as Register until 31 
December 1886, having been re-elected in 1884. In June 1887 he was appointed 
Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue under General A. C. PARKINSON, Collector 
2nd Division of Wisconsin.

This position he held until the expiration of General PARKINSON's term, and 
was also reappointed by his Republican successor, General Earl M. ROGERS, in 
July 1889, but resigned 01 October of the same year. In January 1890 he was 
elected to his present position as City Clerk, taking the office on the 
succeeding first day of April, and he has been re-elected annually since.

Mr. [Ole S.] NORSMAN was united in marriage in Madison [Dane County, WI] on 
21 June 1882 to Miss Eleonora Katinka SEEMANN, who was born and reared in 
Madison, and who is a most faithful and helpful wife and mother. She is of 
Norwegian birth, her father, Jacob SEEMANN, and her mother, whose maiden name 
was Johanna Maria BRUNSBERG, were born in Norway, near the city of 
Christiania [now the city of Olso; Oslo flyke, Norway]. Mr. [Jacob] SEEMANN 
came to this country in 1854, and to Wisconsin in 1855, and Mrs. SEEMANN came 
here with her parents, at the age of nine, in 1850. They were married in 
Madison [Dane County, WI] in May 1857, and having made the Capital City 
[Madison] their home ever since, are well known and prominent people. Mr. 
[Jacob] SEEMANN is a successful attorney, who has held various important 
official positions. He is an accomplished musician, his specialty being the 
violin. In politics he is a true blue Jacksonian Democrat of the old school.

Mr. and Mrs. [Ole S.] NORSMAN are the happy parents of three bright and 
promising children, the eldest a girl, now ten years of age, named Cora 
Marion Ray; and two boys: Jerome Orton, seven years old; and Edgar, the 
youngest, a little over four.

Mr. [Ole S.] NORSMAN is also of Norwegian parentage, his father, Ole 
Svalheim, and his mother, Randi Thomasdatter [daughter of Thomas] FETHEN, were 
both born in the parish of Sogn, Bergens Stift, Norway. [If biographer 
incorrect here, try Sogne, Vest-Agder fylke, Norway.] They came to this 
country, and to Dane County [WI], in 1848, the year Wisconsin was [p 156] 
admitted as a State. They became acquainted after their arrival in this 
country, and were married at Vienna [Dane County, WI] in 1850, settling down 
immediately on the farm, which constitutes the family homestead. His father 
died in 1876, at the age of fifty-six. He [the father of Ole Svalheim] was a 
man of the strictest integrity, a worthy and highly respected citizen, a good 
and successful farmer, and an active member of the Lutheran Church. His 
mother [the mother of Ole Svalheim] is still living on the old homestead, 
active and in fairly good health, although over sixty years of age. She is 
also a Lutheran in her religious faith, and has tenderly reared a large 
family of children, of whom then are now living, two having died in infancy.

Three sons and two daughters [of Ole Svalheim and Randi Thomasdatter] are 
married. Our subject is the oldest of the family. His brothers are: 
Thomas, married to Betsy EGGUM, and they have three children. He owns and 
operates a farm near the old homestead; Peter, married to Nellie HUSEBOE, 
lives on the old homestead; Soren, is a bookkeeper in the Stoughton State 
Bank, of Stoughton [Dane County], Wisconsin, and John, the youngest in the 
family, is bookkeeper in the Capital City Mills, at Madison [WI]. His 
sisters are: Emma, married to Ole GULLICKSON, machinist, residing in Chicago 
[Cook County, IL]; Julia, married to O. S. WANGSNESS, a merchant at 
Minneapolis, Minnesota; Mollie and Carrie, both employed in Chicago; and 
Anna, who is a teacher, and has just completed a full course at the State 
Normal School at Whitewater [Walworth County], Wisconsin.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly