Edvard Liljedahl was born to Apollonius Liljedahl and Britha Olsdotter Hopperstad in 1845. He received his degree from the
Balestrand Teacher's School in 1864 and another from the
Stord Seminary in 1866. For a year, he taught school in
Leikanger Municipality. He also worked as an office clerk for a justice of the peace. On 18 October 1869, Liljedahl married Barbra Einarsdotter Ramsli. They were the first couple to be married in the newly-built
Kyrkjebø Church. They were the parents of Army general
Einar Liljedahl. He sang in the church choir and was the first educated teacher in Kyrkjebø, where he worked from 1867 until 1889. He then went on to become a member of the cabinet in
Stockholm from 6 March 1889, until 13 July 1889. Liljedahl later became
postmaster in
Aalesund in 1891, and then
Bergen in 1901. After retiring in 1904 he moved to his property Røytehola (officially Fredheim) in
Kyrkjebø Municipality. He cleared the land himself during his time as a parish clerk and a member of parliament, and rented it out when he lived in Ålesund and Bergen. On a visit to Vik, he purchased the Havnen farm from hotel owner Hopstock and moved to
Vik Municipality in 1905. He sold the Røytehola property to a quartermaster sergeant named Mo.
Agriculture When he took over the property, the Havnen farm consisted of only a barn, a summer cow barn, and a bathhouse. Liljedahl had to build a farmhouse, cow barn, and a stall. He cultivated more land in Havnen and planted a large number of fruit trees (about 250) of which, about half were pear and the rest were apple and cherry. These trees became an important source of income for him in Havnen. In addition to Røytehola which had been cleared and planted with fruit trees, he also had another farm in Østrem which he sold, and an additional farm farther out in Sogn. In Sogn he planted many plants and also tended the parish garden in
Eivindvik. In 1904 after his postmaster days were over, he went back to Kyrkjebø to live at the Røytehola property, and immediately purchased more land which he cultivated. After his employment as postmaster in Ålesund, he purchased the Vågenes farm in
Borgund Municipality, but quickly sold it to his brother-in-law Magnus Ramslie, who was from
Vangsnes. He then purchased the
Spjelkavik farm, which was a large farm with several cottages, many forests, and mountain bodies of water. It ended up being too large and expensive to operate, so he sold it after a few years, and moved from Ålesund to Bergen. In addition to farming, he was interested in freshwater fishing and hunting. At that time there were no fish in the large lake of Uldalsvatn in Kyrkjebø. His brother-in-law, merchant Andreas Ramslie, introduced fish there. This later became a source of income for Liljedahl. He started
fisheries in many lakes in Sogn and in Uldalsvatn. He also founded the Spjelkavik yarn and fishnet factory, which grew to be a large business that contributed to the construction of many buildings and homes in the area. ==Community involvement==