Christina Helland Reagan

Christina P. Helland

Christina possibly in 1850s.
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Christina in 1917. Click on picture to
see larger view. Then click again.

Christina (as we shall spell it), born on April 3, 1836 near Stavanger in Norway, was the daughter of BERTHA HENRIKSDATTER STRAND and PAUL HENRIKSEN HELLAND. She may not have been called Christina Helland (and was definitely not called Christina "Holland") in Norway. She may have been referred to as Christina Paulsdatter. In fact, her middle initial was P, and that probably stood for "Paulsdatter." It seems likely she was born in Strand, where her stepfather lived on a farm called Aas, as he was only twenty-two years old when he married Christina's mother and since he had never been married, he was probably still living at home and didn't go far to find Bertha, the widow, whom he married. We know they at least lived in the general area. Bertha, Christina's mother, was obviously from that area to begin with, too, as her last name has come down to us as "Strand."

Here is more about Norwegian names, and our family's names in particular.

Christina's father, Paul Henriksen Helland, was a fisherman. He drowned in 1836 while on a fishing expedition off Norway, a short time before Christina was born. Christina's mother, who also had two sons by Paul Helland, soon (in 1836) married a young man named Jens Jensen, who became patriarch of a large family, part of which is related to us by Bertha, and part of which is step-related (as Bertha died and Jens married again) -- Their descendants now live in Minnesota and Iowa, Oregon, and probably many other places. Their family history is closely associated with our family history.

In the original Jensen clan book, written in 1933 by Christina and Martin Reagan's son (Rev.) Daniel A. Reagan, a story is told about Christina. A copy of this early Jensen book was given to us by Paul Jensen. Here is the story from the book:

"There is an incident in the girlhood of Christina P. Holland [note: this is how it was spelled in the book, though it was changed in the 1994 version of the book by Paul Jensen] which is interesting in itself and serves to illustrate the habits and customs of the country people at the time the story of our clan began. It was the custom to send the flocks and herds each spring up onto the uplands among the hills for pasture during the summer. The younger women and girls of the families went to take care of the stock and make the butter and cheese which was marketed in the fall. There was among the sheep which Christina watched a large ram with great horns. He had a special dislike for women and they were terribly afraid of him. One day, more for sport than anything else, Christina spread her apron over a huge rock and withdrew to a safe distance to watch results. The ram backed off and came at the rock with tremendous force. He shook his head and backed up for another blow. This time he was no more successful than at first, but he repeated the attack until he fell dead." [Added comment: This sounds cruel, but she must have been a tough sort of person.]

Christina sailed to America from Norway in 1854 with her two older brothers (the only other children besides Christina who had the same father, Paul Helland). Her mother and stepfather (Bertha and Jens Jensen) and stepsiblings had come over in 1850, arriving on May 15 in New York City -- from there traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Christina's mother, as well as three of her (Chrstina's) step-siblings, died of cholera almost immediately after they arrived. Bertha died on July 26, 1850. No doubt the children died the same day or within a day or two.

Drawing of Milwaukee in 1850 - Click on it to see slightly larger picture

After Bertha and three of their children died in Milwaukee, in 1850, Jens settled with his remaining children (not including his first wife's three children by her first husband - They were still in Norway) near where many other Norwegians had settled in northeastern Illinois, west of but close to Chicago. Our Reagan family had lived nearby since 1845 (although they were not Norwegian). Before the end of the year Jens married a young woman from Norway.

Christina and her two brothers named Henry settled there in Leland, too, when they came over from Norway in 1854. Martin and Christina were married on August 2, 1856 in Leland. Jens Jensen and his new family (including the children he had by Bertha) left Leland, Illinois and arrived in Rock Creek, Mitchell County, Iowa, in 1859. Somewhere between 1862 and 1865 (while the Civil War was going on) Martin and Christina and family moved to Mitchell County, also, probably staying with the Jensen family at first. Mitchell County is where Martin and Christina's son Paul Martin Reagan was born in 1865.

The Reagan and Jensen families spread around this area over the next several years, some moving into nearby counties in Iowa and some across the state line into Minnesota. Christina's oldest brother, Henry Paulson Helland, also moved to the area and was married in 1861 in Fillmore County, Minnesota. Note that he changed the spelling of Paulsen, to Paulson; and some members of his family were known by the last name of Paulson -- Also, since his brother originally started out with the same first, middle, and last names, as the oldest brother he was called Henry Paulson Helland, Sr. .Christina's other brother (the one who started out with the same name as Henry, Sr.), moved from Illinois to the same part of the country and called himself Henry Paulson Holland, Jr. (note "Holland" rather than "Helland," no doubt not to be confused with his brother. Henry Sr.'s and Henry Jr.'s children were first cousins of our Charles Henry Reagan and his siblings.

There is more on Norwegian names on this page.

Martin and Christina had four more children (besides the three they had in Illinois) after moving to Iowa. Their children included Charles Henry Reagan/Regan (born in Illinois), from whom many of us are descended. You can read more about him on other pages. Also, there are pictures on other pages of Charles' brothers and sisters.

Christina apparently named some of her children after relatives, including her father and mother and her husband's father and mother. Her first daughter's first name was Bertha (after Christina's mother) although the daughter was never called Bertha during her life. Her first son's middle name was Henry, no doubt after Christina's two brothers named Henrik/Henry (and maybe the grandfathers they were named after). Her second son's name was Daniel, and he was obviously named after Martin Reagan's father, Daniel. Her third son's name was Paul Martin, named both after Christina's father Paul Helland and her husband Martin. They had apparently used up all the family names by then, or at least those they cared to name their children after, and their last three children had names that, as far as we know, were not family names.

The Reagans were surrounded by their Norwegian relatives until they moved down to Fort Dodge, Iowa in about 1900. Many descendants of our families still live in the areas in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota where their ancestors settled.

"Between 1849 and 1860 the westward movement of Norwegian immigration was directed especially to northern Iowa and southwestern Minnesota -- in Iowa from Allamakee and Clayton counties on the east to Forest City and Lake Mills in Winnebago county on the west." (Norwegian Immigration Into Northeastern Iowa - http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaallama/ImNat/norweg_tx.htm).

Christina died on June 22, 1918 in Nora Springs, Iowa and was buried in Park Cemetery next to her husband. (Yes, they spelled her name "wrong" on the tombstone, but she wasn't there to correct them and perhaps she spelled it that way, too, by then.)