Baard Iversen (22 September 1836 – 15 March 1920) was a Norwegian businessperson and politician.[1]
Biography
editIversen was born in 1836 in Aukra in Møre og Romsdal, Norway . In 1854, at the age of eighteen he left home for the city Ålesund. [2][3]
In 1862, he moved to the larger city Trondhjem to establish his own trade agency.[2] He was awarded burghership the same year, and opened his first store B. Iversen. He moved the store to larger premises one year later, and expanded the field of business.[3]
In 1868, Iversen's company entered the shipping business, investing in a freight boat route between Trondhjem and Frederikshald. Iversen later became a ship-owner, his first ship built in 1872 for traffic in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. In 1890 a route between Trondhjem and Newcastle was established.[3]
Iversen also campaigned for a decent railway connection between Trondhjem and the southern cities. From 1895 he was a member of the working committee of the proposed Dovre Line,[2] which would connect Trondhjem to the capital Oslo via Lillehammer. It finally opened in 1921, one year after Iversen's death. Still, he was nicknamed "the father of the Dovre Line".[3]
Iversen was also involved in local politics and organizational life. He was a member of the executive committee of Trondhjem city council from 1881 to 1892,[4] and chaired several public committees.[3] He represented his city in the Norwegian Parliament as a deputy representative during the term 1892–1894.[5] He co-founded the local chapter of the Conservative Party in 1883.[6] He was also chairman of the Trondheim Commercial Association (Trondhjems Handelsforening) in several periods, and was a member of the Federation of Norwegian Commercial Associations from 1894 to 1900.[2]
Personal life
editHe was married to Anna Johanne Georgine Junge (1842–1933). His son-in-law Trygve Marstrand Jørgensen became a partner in the company in 1907, and took over in 1915. Baard Iversen died at Trondheim in 1920.[3] He had been proclaimed Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1900[4] and Commander of the same order in 1910.[2]
His life became the inspiration for the novel Brostein by Toril Brekke (Oslo: Aschehoug. 2003).[7]
References
edit- ^ Terje Bratberg. "Baard Iversen". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Johansen, O.J. (1936). Den tusenårige by ved Nidelven. Trondhjem fra Olav Tryggvason til Håkon VII (PDF) (in Norwegian).
- ^ a b c d e f Brissach, Ingrid J. (15 August 2007). "Dovrebanens far". Adresseavisen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2008-10-18.
- ^ a b "Baard Iversen". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
- ^ "Baard Iversen" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD).
- ^ Øksendal, Lars; et al. (1993). Trondheim Høyre 110 år. 1883–1993 (in Norwegian). Trondheim. p. 13.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Trondheim public library" (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2011-06-11.