Peter Elisæus Dige (February 21, 1807 – September 16, 1859) has a family grave in Skive Cemetery. After his father’s death, he successfully ran a grocery store in Brogården and owned three bridges in Skive. An important source of income in those days.
Family and background
Peter Elisæus Dige was a merchant in Brogården on Østertorv in Skive from 1831 until his death in 1859.
His father, carpenter Peder Pedersen Kronborgdige, bought the merchant’s house by Skive Å with its garden and timber yard from merchant P.M. Woetmann on March 11, 1811.
The versatile grocery store Brogården
In Brogården, Peder Dige continued his carpentry business, but in addition to his craftsmanship, he also ran a grocery store, brandy distillery and tavern, as well as extensive farming and animal husbandry and, last but not least, a timber business.
A grocery store like the one Peder Dige took over in 1811 bore little resemblance to today’s grocery or grocery stores. In 1735, the product range of the Skive merchants is described as follows: they sold coarse goods that the farmers needed: Timber, iron, flax, hemp (for rope), salt, tar and hops (for brewing beer), and they bought the farmers’ products: grain, butter, pork, hides, wax, tallow and sold them on to merchants in Aalborg and Copenhagen or directly abroad. In addition, some merchants also traded in wine and hardware. This description still applied when Dige moved into Brogården – it wasn’t until 1840 that the specialization of trade in Skive began with the opening of the first manufactory shop. An important source of income for the Skive merchants was the distillery and innkeeping, which Peder Dige also ran.
His father dies and how P.E. Dige comes to take over
Peder Dige died aged just 49 in 1824, but his wife, “Madam Dige” (née Marie Buemann in Viborg), continued the business until their son, Peter Elisæus Dige, was old enough to take over in 1831. Before taking over, Peter Elisæus Dige had been a grocery salesman and clerk (kommis) at the merchant Røse in Aarhus for seven years.
What did Dige trade with?
At the time when P.E. Dige took over Brogården, the Skive merchants’ biggest sales items were timber and iron. Timber was a familiar commodity, but iron – and later coal – came to play a bigger role as machine technology became more widespread. Groceries didn’t make up much of the turnover, but some hops were sold for home brewing beer and salt for home slaughter. Manufactured goods were on their way out of the grocery stores and over to the new manufacturers.
Much trade took place in the form of trade in kind. The merchant primarily bought the farmers’ grain, but also bought butter, pork, hides and skins, wool and wax etc. The grain was sold to England, Holland and Hamburg, the wool to Norway, the pork and butter to England, and hides and skins to Copenhagen and Hamburg. Like his father, P.E. Dige was the co-owner of a sailing ship – the yacht Caroline Henriette (16½ commercial loads) – in which he bought a third share in 1839.
Brogården is expanded
P.E. Dige’s business was booming, and the income was used to expand Brogården, among other things. In 1847, the four-length farm was described as follows: A 26-bay front house with apartment and shop, a 15-bay west house with kitchen, utility room, milk room, malt room and cowshed, a 26-bay north house with stable, wagon gate and warehouse and a 15-bay east house with barn, threshing floor and warehouse. In addition, a new building (built in 1839) of 6 bays, which on the ground floor housed a “steam distillery” – a modern brandy distillery with an iron steam boiler, brandy clothes etc. and in the attic above the steam boiler a malt mill for making malt for brewing beer.
Owner of three bridges
Immediately after taking over Brogården, P.E. Dige became the owner of the three bridges over Skive Å in January 1832. He received 120 barrels of barley per year from the residents of Salling in return for maintaining the bridges. He also had the right to collect passage money from anyone who was not a resident of Salling – one shilling from each person on horseback and two shillings from each person driving over the bridges. In 1843, he built a small bridge house next to the toll booth (Østertorv 9, demolished ca. 1958). After his death in 1859, his heirs sold the bridges to Viborg County Council, who made it free to cross the bridges.
New methods – and public office
P.E. Dige was not afraid to use new trading methods. He was a frequent guest in the advertising columns of “Den Viborg Samler” (later Viborg Stiftstidende) – for example, in 1838: “The stranded port wine, known for its goodness, is available for 5 mk. a bottle at P.E. Dige in Skive” – and in the 1850s he advertised garden and flower seeds, clover seeds, timothy and velvet grass seeds.
Dige held several public offices. He was head guardian (manager of minors’ funds) in Skive and a member of the municipal council in Skive from 1848-1853 – in 1852 he was possibly chairman of the municipal council.
Marriage and the family grave site
Peter Elisæus Dige was married twice. In 1830 he married Gjertrud Marie Svindt, a daughter of merchant Didrik Svindt and Ingeborg Rønberg, a relative of the former owners of Brogården, Ole and Peder Rønberg. Peter Elisæus Dige and Gjertrud Svindt had four children, including Peder Ingvard, who took over Brogården after his father. Gjertrud Marie Svindt died in 1836, only 26 years old. Just over a year later, Peter Elisæus Dige married Gjertrud’s sister, Marie Elisabeth Svindt, with whom he also had four children. All three are buried in the family grave.
One of Peter Elisæus and Marie Elsabeth Dige’s children, Christiane Jensine Dige (b. 1843), married senior lawyer Enevold Borch Jacobsen, Skive. Their descendants still use the family grave site.
Sources:
- Niels Mortensen: XL Diges 200 years – with a view to much more. 2011.