140 years of Excellence
Peter Jebsen Story
Peter Jebsen was born 6th of May 1824 in Broagder, Denmark. He grew up on a farm and early learnt the value of hard work. Still, there was on other terms he would see the fruits of the seeds he sowed because in big parts of Jebsen’s life he was a part in Norwegian business, community, and politics.
Jebsen came to Norway in 1842 after he had finished his mercantile education in Hamburg and worked a few years in manufacturing. Two years later he invested a lot of the money he had saved up to buy the river called “Blindheim” in Ytre Arna where he the next years built a big cotton weavery, bleaching-factory, and color-factory.
In relation to the inspection of new pathway for the new trailway called “Vossebana”, Jebsen noticed the powerful watercourse located in Dale. Since he already had experience from Ytre Arna he knew how this could turn out being useful.
In 1873 farmers in Dale and Jebsen signed a contract where Jebsen got the rights of the Bergsdals river between Fosse in Bergsdalen and Dale farming area. The next years he prepared his plans for buildings, machines, and equipment. Jebsen bought 100 weaving looms from a factory in England that was closed. He transported them to Norway and worked on getting factory buildings and houses up before workers started 1878.
The first production of textile canvases was ready for shipment 22nd of August 1879. Since this day there has always been textile production on Dale
Peter Jebsen was not only a part of creating and run textile companies, he was also a central person in building the railway “Vossebana”, he was the mayor in the local community for three years, a local politician in Bergen, member of the parliament for two periods and bank director in Bergen Private bank. In addition to this he also was the owner of the largest Norwegian steamship line for many years and the director of the American line for several decades.
In Jebsen’s private life he got married twice, had 13 kids with his first wife Anna Larsdotter Uthus and 11 kids with his second wife Sophia Sundt. Several of Jebsen’s kids followed his footsteps. The oldest son, Peter jr., took over as director and owner of Dale Factories after his father.
To mark Jebsen’s death 30. October 1892 they put up extra trains between Dale and Bergen. Many hundreds of workers from Jebsen’s many textile and marine companies participated in this marking. The council in Bergen and a big part of the city’s business people and citizens also participated.
