Evje og Vegusdal

Evje og Vegusdal is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The 510 km2 municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1877. It was located in the Setesdal region in parts of the present-day municipalities of Evje og Hornnes and Birkenes. The administrative centre was the village of Evje where the Evje Church is located.

History
The parish of Evje og Vegusdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). According to the 1835 census the municipality had a population of 1,627. On 1 January 1877, Evje og Vegusdal was divided to create two separate municipalities: Evje with a population of 870 and Vegusdal with a population of 935. These two municipalities later became parts of Evje og Hornnes and Birkenes respectively.

Name
The parishes of Evje and Vegusdal were merged in 1838 and the new, resulting municipality was given the compound name Evje og Vegusdal, literally meaning "Evje and Vegusdal".

The parish of Evje is named after the old Evje farm (Efja) since the first Evje Church was built there. The name is identical to the word which means "backwater" or "mud" (likely referring to a shallow, backwater part of the local river Otra).

The parish of Vegusdal is named after the old Vegusdal farm (Veikolfsdalr) since the first Vegusdal Church was built there. The first element is derived from the old male name, Veikolfr. The male name itself was a compound name with the first component Veik- coming from which means "weak" and the second component -olfr was a variant form of the more common male name Úlfr (also spelled Ulfr, from Old Norse úlfr,  "wolf"; cf. Icelandic Úlfur and Faroese ). The last element of the name is which means "valley" or "dale". Thus this is the "valley of Weak-Ulfr (or Weak-Wolf)".

Government
During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Evje og Vegusdal:


 * 1838-1839: Notto Jørgensen Tvedt
 * 1839-1839: Baard Christensen Joreid
 * 1840-1840: Dr. Bjelke
 * 1840-1841: Gunder Salvesen Haugland
 * 1842-1845: K.O. Knutzen
 * 1846-1849: Gunstein Olsen Tvedt
 * 1850-1855: Ole Evensen Kleveland
 * 1856-1857: Jens Nicolai Egeberg
 * 1857-1861: Ole Evensen Kleveland
 * 1862-1863: Salve E. Bjoraa
 * 1864-1865: Ole Evensen Dovland
 * 1866-1866: Ole Gundersen Skrædderaas
 * 1866-1870: Rev. Dietrichson
 * 1870-1876: Salve E. Bjoraa