TORA THURSTON: THE HISTORY OF A NORWEGIAN PIONEER
By Morris Ashcroft Thurston

“Tora Thurston’s odyssey had its origin in the autumn of 1838, in the long, narrow valley called Numedal. Here in the heart of Norway’s rugged southeastern mountains, the nineteen-year-old youth listened with rapt attention to the talk of a land across the sea, where freedom and opportunity was to be had for the taking. ‘America’ seemed to be on everyone’s lips that fall, men and women, young and old, farmers, loggers, laborers, craftsmen, and even clergymen.”

This is the opening paragraph from Tora Thurston: The History of a Norwegian Pioneer. Thore Torstensen, as he was known in Norway, took passage on the Emilie, bound for New York Harbor, one of the first immigrant ships to sail from Norway, joining in the vanguard of what was to become a massive Scandinavian migration in the decades to come. Not long after his arrival in the Norwegian colony at Fox River, Illinois, Tora converted to a new American religion, Mormonism, and then fled west with the pioneers after the murders of its leaders, Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

This book is a culmination of ten years of research and writing. It is over 400 pages of fascinating history, not only of Tora, but of his three wives (a Yankee, a Dane and a Swede) and his nineteen children. It has numerous photos and other illustrations, custom-drawn color maps, indices and pedigree charts taking Tora’s lineage back to the 1600s and beyond. The book has met with critical acclaim, winning the Dallas Genealogical Society’s first prize for biography. Over 1,000 copies have been sold and it is now a collector’s item. I have a limited number of new books remaining. Click here for information on how to obtain this book.