Vesterheim History & Culture | Biography & Memoirs-Kisti’s Royal Garden by Robin Lynse

This four part true story of Kisti’s Royal Garden tells of Kisti and Hendrick Lysne’s adventures in the new world as they emigrated with their family from Norway. The book offers the reader a rich understanding of how some settlers got along with Native Americans. Settling in Northern Wisconsin, Kisti and her family got along well with the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) tribe and the two families helped each other survive cold and brutal winters. Five years after they moved to Amherst, Wisconsin, the Civil War broke out, and their oldest son Ole, and Hendrick enlisted. After the War, the family resettles into their life with their local community. Some of their children perish, others grow up and help the Native people, and others start businesses with cousins in new areas around Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Written first by Walther Herman Lysne and revised by his granddaughter Robin Lysne, the story takes on more personal experiences with their amazing lives settling into a new land. The book can inspire people to learn more about their own ancestral settlement, as well as another way to relate to the first people who were already here.