The Giljarhus Farm
The following description was written by Julia Reque and first read at the meeting of the Gilderhus Clan at Kasson, Minnesota in August 1932.
I will try and give you a mental picture of the location of the farm of Giljarhus over in Norway.
It is located in the beautiful valley of Durvesalen, the most picturesque of the many interesting valleys of Voss. At the bottom lies the lake called "Vangs-Vatne" which is noted throughout all Norway for its beauty in general. On either side of this valley are high mountains and in the background the snow capped mountain of Tvarafjeld. Down from the melting snows rushes a stream, or river, called Reques-elva (river). This divides the valley into two parts. Nearest the lake on the east side of this river we find such farms as Honve, Veka, Böe, Burkjo, and further up through the valley lies Gjermo, Dolve, Gjerstad, and so forth.
On the west side of the river, and bordering on the lake are the Reque farms. Then comes Röte (Rothe), Save, Have, and uppermost we come to Giljarhus. The valley is, so to say, terraced, each farm situated on a comparatively flat piece of ground.
On most of the farms there are more than one landholder. On the Giljarhus farm there has always been two. Close beside the farm buildings is a "jeel" (jil), a gulch. (We find this word also in the Scotch language meaning a Gulch.) And here is where the farm derived its name -- a house beside a "jeel", "Giljarhus". Not only from their front yard, but from their whole farm could they look all over down the valley, over the lake, and across and up the valley on the other side. They saw the many waterfalls down the Reue river, with its many mills. Each farmer ground his own meal and many of them had a "stampa", a house where all new cloth was put through a shrinking process, and some ran their blacksmith shops with water power.