Person:Timan Burtness (1)

Name	Timan Helgerson Burtness
Gender	Male
Birth`^?`	7 Jul 1847	Bortnes Farm, Nesbyen, Buskerud, Norway
Marriage	1870	to Barbra Knutsdatter Solum
Death`^?`	29 Mar 1931	Elbow Lake, Grant, Minnesota, USA

*Timan Burtness was born on a farm in Hallingdal, about eighty miles from Oslo, capital city of Norway, July 7, 1847, the son of Helge and Live (Majormoen) Burtness. His mother died when he was a little boy. In 1859 when Timan was 12 years old, he came to America with his father and joined some of his older brothers who had settled in Rock County, Wisconsin.

In 1864, he shared the fires of patriotism that burned in the hearts of the thousands of boys who wore the blue and marched to the front to save the Union. Timan, along with seventy-nine young men from Rock County, Wisconsin, enlisted for service in Company D, 43rd Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry with which command he served bravely until the close of the Civil War. He participated in the battle at Nashville and minor engagements, and later was stationed along the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga railway doing guard duty. For six weeks, he was confined in a hospital desperately ill.
When the Civil War ended, Timan returned to his brothers in Wisconsin. After a short stay, Timan went to Houston County, Minnesota, to work on a farm with his brother. There, in 1870 he married Barbra, daughter of Knut and Torgen (Melbraaten) Solum. In the spring of 1871 he decided to look for land in the unsettled broad expanse of prairie that stretched out far to the North and to the West. The trek in a covered wagon was the way of travel. Minneapolis was then not much of a city and Timan often recalled that when they camped there overnight, he let his cattle graze about where the Nicollet Hotel is now located. They drove as far west as Fort Abercrombie. He had no liking for that section and so returned to Minnesota. Coming to Grant County, he filed for homestead in Elbow Lake Township that remained his home to the end. His first house was build of logs that he hauled from the wooded shores of Pomme de Terre Lake. In due season a comfortable dwelling and other buildings were erected.
Timan Burtness was a charter member of the Ness Lutheran church in Elbow Lake and one of its generous supporters. When the church had been built and was to be given a name, an honor was unanimously conferred upon Mr. Burtness by choosing the last syllable of his name, 'Ness', which was also the name of his old home church in Norway.
Timan served his community in positions of trust and honor. His eldest son, Helge, was the first baby boy born in Elbow Lake Township. His three-year-old daughter, Live, who died in 1876, was the first one buried in Ness cemetery. -Written by Gerhard Flatin
Oral family history relates that Timan Helgerson Burtness was too young to enlist in the Civil War. He lied about his age so that he could become a soldier. In the same Civil War records from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. he is referred to as both Tideman Helgerson and Timan Helgerson. Oral family history relates that he was referred to by both names and at one time had used Helgerson as his surname. He later settled on Børtnes (Burtness) as his surname in America - the name of the farm on which he was born in Norway.

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