..."There was oral tradition of how the farm was inhabited. The first settler (user) was called Olav. He was supposed to have been next in line at Oppeluten at Myster. When his sister was married, her parents let her have the farm. Olav did not like this, as was to be expected, but neither did he wish to take up any quarrel. He put his axe on his neck (shoulder) and went up to Leiro. There he cleared and built himself a home. He took as his ownership the whole stretch on the north and east side of the water, way up to the mountain top in the northwest, north and east of the farm. After Olav his son Johann was the owner (user), and after him was Nils Johanneson. The written records seem to acknowledge and fulfill this tradition. In the beginning of the 1600s there was an owner at Myster whose name was Johannes, mentioned the first time in 1609. His wife, Anna, was a widow in 1645. She was mentioned in the Koppskatte census that year with a son Olav and daughters Randi and Helga. It is credible that they lived at Oppeluten. The next owner there was Olav Pedersson Flatekvål. I find that Olav Johannesson was never mentioned again, either at Myster or Leiro. The first owner at Leiro who is mentioned in the written records was called Johannes Olsson. In 1664 he was 31 years old. In 1665 he fed 10 head of cattle. It is therefore hardly possible that Johannes was the settler here. It is more credible that there was an owner before him, and that the settler was Olav Johanneson Myster as the tradition tells."
![[excerpt from] The Leraas Family in America](themes/cloudy/images/../../../images/media/pdf.gif "[excerpt from] The Leraas Family in America")
