Skip Navigation

Stark Larson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Stark Larson

Birth Name

Styrkaar Larsen Jordalen

Other Names

Störkaar

Lived

26 Dec 1826 – 1891

Birth Place

Voss, Hordaland

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Pleasant Spring, Dane County, WI

Company at Enlistment

B

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

20 Nov 1861

Death Location

Kandiyohi County, MN

Burial Location

Nordland Lutheran Church Cemetery, Hawick, Kandiyohi County, MN

Mother

Brytteva Colbeinsdatter

Father

Lars Bottolfsen Jordalen

Spouse

Karen (Kari) Arnfinsdatter

Spouse Lived

30 Jul 1824- 10 Sep 1920

Married On

before 1858

Stark Larson was born “Styrkaar Larsen Jordalen” on December 26, 1826 in Voss, Hordaland, Norway. His parents were Lars Bottolfsen Jordalen and Brytteva Colbeinsdatter. He married Karen (Kari) Arnfinsdatter before 1858. Together, they had at least six children: twins Erik and Christina (1858), Julia (1861), Maria (1864), Inger (1866), and Frederik (1869).

Larson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company B. The men of the company called themselves the “Wergeland Guards” in honor of Henrik Wergeland, the famous Norwegian writer and poet.

The army listed Larson as living in Pleasant Spring, Dane County, WI, age 36, and married. He enlisted for three years on October 23, 1861 at Madison, WI, and mustered there on November 20, 1861 as a Private (Menig). He was left behind because of illness at Mississippi River Island No. 10 in June 1862. Larson was sick in hospital at Iuka, MS on August 1862. He was discharged from the service for disability at Quincy, IL on May 11, 1863.

After the war, they settled in Kandiyohi County, MN. In 1870, he and his family were living in Irving. In the 1880 Census, he is listed as divorced and still living in Irving. However, after he died, Kari filed a pension as his widow. She lived in Chicago at the time of her death, but is buried next Stark in Nordland Lutheran Church Cemetery, Hawick, Kandiyohi, MN. He died in 1891 and she died on September 10, 1920.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-4; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.32; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.388; Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Vol I & II, compiled under direction of the Adjutant General, Madison, WI, 1886, p.809; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.296; Nordmaendene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.305; Naeseth ’48-88; 1870 Census, Roll: T132_7, Image: 525, Family History Library Film: 830427; 1880 Census, Roll: 624, Family History Film: 1254624, Page: 32B, Enumeration District: 044, Image: 0387; findagrave.com; Civil War Pension Index, Roll #T288_274; Norway Digital Archives, Voss, Hordaland Ministerialbok, no. A 12/ 1823-1837, p.44; Norwegian Immigrants to the United States. A Biographical Directory, 1825-1850. Volume Three 1847-1848, Gerhard B. Naeseth, 2000, Anundsen Publishing Co., Decorah, IA, p. 102, ID 88.