Infant Girl Hagen, (1915-1915)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: Burial location in cemetery is unknown.

Birth: 09 June 1915, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Death: 09 June 1915, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Jacob Hagen, Petra Inga Hagen

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None

On June 9, 1915, Andrew and Pernille Hagen of Seabeck, Washington, welcomed a daughter who was stillborn. Little is recorded about this infant girl—no known name, no baptism record, and no marked grave—but her brief existence represents one of several losses within a large immigrant family shaped by hardship, resilience, and devotion to one another.

Andrew Hagen was born Anders Mathias Torstensen Kvalheim in Norway, and his wife was Pernille Karine Hansdatter Kvalheim. On September 5, 1902, Andrew and his brother Peder Martin Torstensen sailed from Bergen, Norway aboard the ship Allan with their families. After arriving in the United States, the brothers adopted the surname “Hagen” and settled in Seabeck, Washington, where many Scandinavian immigrants made their homes in the early twentieth century.

Between 1901 and 1917, Andrew and Pernille had a total of nine children. Their growing family reflected both hope and continuity, but it was also marked by profound sorrow. Their eldest daughter, Petra Inga, was born on March 1, 1901, in Selje, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, and baptized on April 8, 1901. Petra emigrated to America as a small child but died on July 24, 1905, at just four years old, from what was then called “brain fever,” a term commonly used for severe infections of the brain such as encephalitis or meningitis. She passed away at the family home in Seabeck.

Petra’s death was reported in the Seattle Daily Times, though she was mistakenly identified as a boy named Peter, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Hagen. Immigration and church records confirm that the child was a girl. Petra Inga Hagen was buried in Seabeck Cemetery in an unmarked or now-unknown location.

Nearly ten years later, as part of this same family of nine children, Andrew and Pernille experienced another devastating loss when their infant daughter was stillborn on June 9, 1915, in Seabeck. Unlike some of her siblings, this child left almost no documentary trace. Yet her place within the family is no less real. She was one of nine children born to Andrew and Pernille between 1901 and 1917, and her stillbirth stands as a reminder of the physical and emotional toll faced by mothers and families during this era.

Loss was not unique to Andrew and Pernille alone. Andrew’s brother Peter Hagen and his wife Karen also buried a young child in Seabeck. Their son Jacob, born in 1905, died of pneumonia two or three years later. Though no official records of Jacob’s birth or death have been found, his eldest brother, Ingvald Hagen (1901–2001), later shared the story with local historians. Jacob is believed to be buried in Seabeck Cemetery, likely near his cousin Petra.

Andrew and Pernille eventually moved their family to Marysville, Washington, while Peter and Karen remained in Seabeck. Other Hagen siblings emigrated from Norway and settled primarily in the Tacoma area. Though the stillborn infant girl of June 9, 1915, lived only briefly, remembering her today restores her place among her eight siblings and honors a life that existed, however fleetingly, within the broader story of immigration, family, and endurance in early Washington State.