A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848

This volume is intended to present the progress of immigration from Norway to this country from the beginning down through what may be termed the first period of settlement. It is possible that I may at some future time return to these studies to trace the further growth of the Scandinavian element and its place and influence in American life.

Four years ago I contributed an article to The Iowa Journal of History and Politics upon “The Scandinavian Factor in the American Population,” in which I discussed briefly the causes of emigration from the Northern countries. This article forms the basis of chapters VI-VIII of the present volume, much new evidence from later years having, however, been added. In a subsequent issue of the same Journal I published an article on “The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa,” which is embodied in part in chapters III-V of this volume. The remaining thirty-six chapters are new. During the last three summers I have continued my investigation of that part of the subject which deals with the immigration movement. This book represents the results of that investigation down to 1848.

For invaluable assistance in the investigation I gratefully acknowledge indebtedness to the numerous pioneers whom, from time to time, I have interviewed and who so kindly have given the aid sought. I wish to thank, also, several persons who generously have accepted the task of personally gathering pioneer data for certain localities. For such help I owe a debt of gratitude to the following persons: J. W. Johnson, Racine, Wisconsin; Reverend A. Jacobson, Decorah, Iowa; Reverend G. A. Larsen, Clinton, Wisconsin; Henry Natesta, Clinton, Wisconsin; Rev. O. J. Kvale, Orfordville, Wisconsin; Rev. J. Nordby, Lee, Illinois; Dr. N. C. Evans, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin; M. J. Engebretson, Gratiot, Wisconsin; Dan K. Anderson and wife, Woodford, Wisconsin; Ole Jacobson, Elk Horn, Wisconsin; Samuel Sampson, Rio, Wisconsin; T. M. Newton, Grinnell, Iowa; Harvey Arveson, Whitewater, Wisconsin; and Reverend Helge Höverstad, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. My thanks are also due to Reverend G. G. Krostu of Koshkonong Parsonage for having placed at my disposal the Koshkonong Church Register from 1844–1850; as also for verifying my copy of it in some cases of names and dates; for the privilege accorded me of using these so precious documents I am most grateful. Reverend K. A. Kasberg of Spring Grove, Minnesota, has given me certain important data on part of the immigration to East Koshkonong in 1842, and similarly N. A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin, for immigration from Voss in 1838–1844, and Mr. Elim Ellingson and wife of Capron, Illinois, on the founders of the Long Prairie Settlement. Many others might be mentioned who have given valuable assistance by letter and otherwise in the course of the investigation, and to whom I owe much. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. N. C. Evans of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, for the loan of Cyclopedia of Wisconsin (1906) and Illustreret Kirkehistorie (Chicago, 1898); Mr. O. N. Falk of Stoughton, Wisconsin, for loaning me Billed-Magazin for 1869–1870, and my brother, Martin O. Flom, of Stoughton, for securing for my use several Wisconsin Atlases and a copy of The Biographical Review of Dane County (1893).

Of published works on Norwegian immigration which I have found especially useful are to be mentioned S. Nilsen’s Billed-Magazin on causes of immigration and the earliest immigrants from Telemarken and Numedal; R. B. Anderson’s First Chapter on Norwegian Immigration for the sloopers of 1825, and their descendants; Strand’s History of the Norwegians in Illinois (1905) for the Norwegians in Chicago; H. L. Skavlem’s sketch of Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County, Wisconsin, Normandsforbundet for February, 1909, and several articles in Symra, 1905–1908. I must also mention a most valuable series of articles on the Rock Prairie Settlement, Rock County, Wisconsin, which appeared in Amerika in 1906. (See further the Bibliography at the end of this volume.)

No one who has never been engaged in a similar undertaking can have any conception of the difficulty of the task and the labor involved in the collecting, weighing and sifting of the vast amount of detail material. I have tried to write a work which shall be correct as to details and historically reliable. That errors have crept in I doubt not. I shall be grateful to the reader who may discover such errors if he will call my attention to them.

Finally, I wish to say that I have attempted nothing complete with reference to the personal sketches of the earliest pioneers; this was manifestly impossible. I have thought also that this was not here called for except in cases of founders of settlements, and even here I have sometimes lacked the full facts. To many it will also undoubtedly seem that the early days of the church and the founding of congregations should have received more attention. I can only say that this volume deals specifically with the causes, course and progress of Norwegian immigration and that this plan precluded a discussion in this volume of religious and educational movements among the pioneers, or of social questions, occupations, public service, and like topics. The work thus aims to keep only what the title promises, and I hope it will be found to be a real contribution to history within the scope marked out for it.

In this volume I shall aim to give an account of the Norwegian immigration movement from 1825 down to 1848. Thereupon will follow a brief survey of the course of the movement and the growth of the settlements founded here in that period. In the introductory pages I shall discuss briefly individual immigration from Norway from its earliest known beginnings down to 1825.

Immigration from Norway resulted in the founding of settlements in New York, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa successively; I shall try to give a correct narrative of the beginnings and the growth of these settlements. In this part of the work I shall stress the oldest and largest settlements in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, for the relation of these to the whole movement and later colonization of the Northwestern States by the Norwegians is one of especial importance. I shall treat somewhat fully of the causes of emigration, of the growth of the movement, and the part in it that each district or province in Norway has played. The leaders from each district and the founders of the settlements here will be named and in many cases, sketches will be given of their lives. Such questions as the course of the movement in Norway, the cost of the voyage, the course of the journey, early wage conditions, the economic conditions of the immigrants, the geographical trend of settlement, will also be considered, and approximately complete lists of the accessions in each settlement for the first few years will be given. The limits of this volume, however, will preclude the treatment of social or cultural questions, or to take more than the briefest notice of the pursuits and occupations of the Norwegian-American and his contribution to American life. I hope to be able to treat elsewhere, later, of some of these problems.

The story of the immigrant settler is one that is well worth the telling; it is one that is justly receiving increased attention in recent years. I believe that the writer of American history will, in the future, pay far greater attention than he has in the past to the immigrant pioneer as a factor in the development of the nation. There are in America today about one million people of Norwegian birth, or Norwegian parentage. That is, there are nearly half as many of that nationality in America as in Norway itself. The transplanting of so large a proportion of a race from the land to which it is rooted by birth and by its history is indeed remarkable.

Various European peoples have contributed to the growth of the American population; they have each given something to the sum total of present American life and in some measure helped to shape American institutions. As a people America is yet in the formative period; racially, at least, one-half of the population is not Anglo-Saxon. It is by the amalgamation of all its ethnic factors that the future American people will be evolved. The contribution that each foreign element will make to that evolution will be determined by the civilization, which each represents as its racial heritage, the culture which, in the course of its history, each has evolved as a people and a nation. As the true student of American history takes note of these things in the future, the significance of the foreign factor in the growth and the upbuilding of the country will receive its just recognition.

We of Norse blood, but American birth, if we are true to the best that is in us, cannot fail to have an interest in the trials and the achievements of the pioneer fathers. We must recognize the true heroism of the men and women who braved the hardships and suffered the privations of frontier life in the thirties, the forties and the fifties. The part that the pioneers of those days played in the development of the Northwest was a great one; in comparison with it that of the present generation is wholly insignificant. It is to the memory of those pioneers, in recognition of their true worth, that this record of their coming is dedicated.

Norway is, as we know, a long and narrow strip of country in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula, stretching through thirteen degrees of latitude, and in the north, extending almost three hundred miles into the arctic zone. Nearly a third of the entire country[1] is the domain of the midnight sun, where summer is the season of daylight and winter is one long unbroken night. Even in Southern Norway total darkness is unknown in summer, the night being merely a period of twilight. In Christiania the nights are light from April twentieth to the third week in August, in Trondhjem, a week more at either end. In the latter city there is broad daylight at midnight from May twenty-third to July twentieth. Correspondingly there is a period of continuous darkness in the extreme north. Thus at Tromsö the sun is not visible between the twenty-sixth of November and the sixteenth day of January. The long night is therefore short as compared with the long day of summer. Climatically, also, Norway is naturally a land of extremes, extending, as it does, over such a vast area north and south. Yet the populous portion of the country, the southern two-thirds, is not appreciably colder than the State of Iowa and the southern half of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The winter is severest in the great inland valleys. Gudbrandsdalen, Valders and Hallingdal, but especially in Österdalen. In the last-named valley the lowest temperature ever observed has been recorded, namely, 50°, mercury often having been frozen.[2] The winter is also excessively long in these valleys; in Fjeldberg and Jerkin in the Dovre Mountains the temperature is below the freezing point two hundred days in the year. In the south and in the west coast-districts the climate is more uniform and more temperate. Northern Norway, with its gulf stream coast, presents the same general climatic conditions as Western and Southern Norway; the inland region of extreme cold is limited because of the very limited inland area, which also is very sparsely populated.[3]

The population of Norway[4] is very unevenly distributed, the north being rather thinly settled. The area of Norway is 124,495 square miles, or somewhat more than that of Wisconsin and Illinois together. About four per cent of this, however, is covered by lakes, and the average number of inhabitants to the square mile is only seventeen. The corresponding figures of inhabitants to the square mile for Sweden is twenty-eight; for Denmark, however, it is one hundred and forty-eight, and for all Europe, it is ninety-eight. The density of population is greatest in Larvik and Jarlsberg on the south (barring the cities of Christiania and Bergen). In these provinces there are one hundred and sixteen inhabitants to the square mile. In Hedemarken the number falls to twelve. The western fjord districts, those of Trondhjem Fjord, the Sogne Fjord and the Hardanger Fjord are thickly populated.

Norway is a land of fjords and lakes, of mountains and glacier expanses. Less than one-fourth of the country is capable of cultivation, and eighty per cent of this is forest land. This leaves less than five per cent under actual cultivation. We may compare again with Denmark, where seventy-six per cent of the land is cultivated, while in all Europe the ratio is forty per cent.

Norway’s climate is noted for its healthfulness,[5] and its inhabitants attain a higher degree of longevity than those of most other European countries. Nearly seven per cent of its people reach the age of sixty to seventy, while one per cent attain to the age of from ninety to one hundred years. That is, reckoned as a whole, about twelve per cent attain to the age of sixty years or more. This is considerable in excess of that of nearly all other European countries.

The average age in Norway is fifty, while for instance, in Italy it is thirty-five. But the expectancy is far more than this for him who passes infancy; thus if one attains to the age of fifty in Norway, one still may expect to live twenty-three years. Such is the health and the expectancy of life among our immigrants from Norway.

The predominant pursuit in Norway is agriculture, cattle farming and forest cultivation. Herein forty-eight per cent of the population seeks its maintenance. The immigrant pioneer generally selects in America the pursuit or occupation for which he has been trained in his native country. And so we find that the great majority of Norwegian immigrants have sought homes in rural communities and engaged in farming and related pursuits. In fact, more than eighty-eight per cent of our Norwegian immigrants have come from rural communities. Twenty-three per cent of the population of Norway are engaged in industries and mining. To these occupations in this country, Norway has, especially in the later period of immigration, contributed a considerable share. A little over eight per cent of her people are engaged in fishing. And so we find that a proportionately very large amount of the New England fisheries is conducted by fishermen who have come from Norway. Navigation engages six per cent of the population of Norway. In this connection I note that our warships in the Spanish-American war were many of them manned almost exclusively by Norwegian sailors;[6] and there were Norwegians in the American marine service as early as the War of Independence, as again in no small proportion in the Civil War in the sixties.

Perhaps about five per cent of Norway’s population is engaged in intellectual work. Here, too, the contribution of Norway to our population in America has been considerable, especially during the last twenty years.

Nearly all of the Norwegian population is of the Protestant faith, and the great majority of these are members of the state church, which is the Lutheran. Somewhat similar are the affiliations in America.

The constitution of Norway is liberal and the government highly democratic. In these respects the people of Norway are now perhaps as favorably circumstanced as we in America. The Norwegian readily enters into the spirit of American laws and institutions, for their laws are not essentially different from his own. Being accustomed to a high degree of freedom, he has been trained to a high conception of the responsibilities that that freedom entails. He has long been accustomed to representation and sharing in the rights of franchise, and he exercises that right as a privilege and a solemn duty. It may be said, I believe, that no people has a higher sense of right and wrong and a stronger moral incentive to right. Frauds in elections and graft in official life are yet unheard-of among our Norwegian-American citizens.

Norway is, next to Finland, the most temperate of European countries. The sale of liquor is permitted only in incorporated cities and towns, and only by an association that is organized under government supervision. It is the so-called Gothenburg system that is in use. Of the earnings of such organization the government takes five per cent, the county ten per cent and the municipality fifteen per cent, while the net profit of the association must not exceed five per cent on the investment in any one year. The hours of sale are very much restricted. Not only is there no sale of liquor on Sundays, but places of such business must close at one o’clock on Saturday and on days preceding holidays. Norway is essentially a temperate country. Statistics show that out of every thousand deaths, only one is due to drink. The Norwegian people have educated themselves to abstinence, and the temperance movement found wide support earlier in Norway than anywhere else. Det norske Totalafholds Selskab[7] was organized in 1859; ten years ago it had ten hundred and twenty branches and a hundred and thirty thousand members, while other temperance associations also have a considerable membership. Here in America, the Norwegian immigrant has taken a prominent part in legislation looking toward the restriction of the sale of intoxicating liquors,[8] and the Prohibition party finds its strongest support among the Norwegians, as it finds a relatively large number of its candidates for state and county offices from among them.

Crime conditions in Norway are similarly significant. Comparative statistics are difficult of access, but Norway’s proportion of serious offences is very low. In the whole period from 1891–1895 the total number was only two hundred and sixty-one. Norway has its poor as every country has, but it has its excellent system of taking care of the poor. Thus every municipality has a Board of Guardians (fattigkommission), which consists of the parish minister, a police officer, and several men chosen by a local board. Norway keeps her criminals and takes care of her poor; she does not send them to America, as has only too often been the case in some other countries.

Norway has a highly developed school system crowned by the Royal Frederik University at Christiania. It has compulsory education, its boards of inspection and its great Department of Public Instruction. It has its People’s High School, its Workingmen’s Colleges, and a system of secondary schools, whose curricula are still on a conservative basis. Its one University ranks with the foremost in Europe, and with it are connected various laboratories and scientific institutions, and it has a library of three hundred and fifty thousand volumes. Here too are located its Botanical Gardens, the Historical Museum, the Astronomical and Magnetic Observatory, the Meteriological Institute and the Biological Marine Station.[9] The salaries of its teachers in Middelskole Gymnasium, and of instructors and professors in the University, reckoned by the purchasing power of money, is approximately thirty per cent greater than that of our middle western universities. I shall also mention The Royal Norwegian Scientific Society at Trondhjem, founded 1760, a similar society in Christiania, founded 1857, the Bergen Museum, founded 1825, with its literary and scientific collections illustrative of the life and cultural history of Western Norway, The Norwegian National Museum in Christiania, founded 1894, similar, but more general in character, The Industrial Arts. Museum,[10] and the various archives of the Kingdom.

As to the Norwegian language I shall merely speak of its highly analytic character, in which respect it has for a long time been developing in the same direction as English, though of course, absolutely independently. Being closely cognate with English, a large part of the vocabulary of the two is of the same stock. Further, its sound system is fundamentally similar. These three considerations, especially perhaps the first, will make clear to us the reason why the Norwegian so readily learns to use the English language, and if he learns it in youth, even to the point of mastery. This is of the greatest importance, for language is in modern times the real badge of nationality. A correct use of the English language is the first and chief stamp of American nationality, the key without which the foreigner cannot enter into the spirit of American life and institutions.

Norwegian literature I cannot either discuss here. The great movements it represents in recent times are fairly well known; its significance and its broad influence are beginning to be understood. The genius of Norwegian literature is morality and truth. It expresses herein the high ethical sense of the nation, which is pagan-racial, but which is also Christian-Lutheran, a church which in its preëminent spirituality is the typical Teutonic church.

Emigration from Norway has in large part been transatlantic. Norway has lost by American emigration a comparatively larger portion of her population than any other country in Europe, with the exception of Ireland. The great majority of the emigrants have gone to the northwestern states and found there their future homes. In Northern Illinois, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, in Northern and Western Iowa, in North and South Dakota, they form a very large proportion of the population. Emigration to European countries has been directed chiefly to Sweden and Denmark, though not few have settled in England and Germany and some in Holland. Between 1871 and 1875 about fifteen hundred persons emigrated from Norway to Australia; the number that have gone there since that has been much smaller. These have settled chiefly in South Australia, Victoria and New Zealand. In recent years some have settled in the Argentine Republic in South America. Norwegians are found in considerable numbers in Western Canada, but the majority of these have emigrated from the Norwegian communities in the western states, especially Minnesota and North Dakota.

Norwegian emigration to the United States took the sailing of Norden and Den Norske Klippe in 1836. In 1843 it began to assume larger proportions; in that year sixteen hundred immigrants from Norway settled in the United States. During 1866–1870, a period of financial depression in Norway, there left, on an average, about fifteen thousand a year. The rate fell in the seventies, rose again in the eighties, the figure for 1882 being 29,101 persons, while it averaged over eighteen thousand per annum also for the next decade. In 1898 it was not quite five thousand, then again it rose steadily, reaching 24,461 in 1903.

The Norwegian emigration has been mostly from rural districts, day-laborers, artisans, farmers, seamen, but also those representing other pursuits. Not a few with professional or technical education have settled in America; we find them in the medical profession,[11] in the ministry,[12] in journalism, in the faculties of our colleges. All the age-classes are represented among immigrants from Norway, but by far the largest number of both men and women have come during the ages of twenty to thirty-five, and particularly the first half of these series of years.

This great emigration of the Norwegian race during the nineteenth century has, of course, very materially retarded the growth of the population in Norway, especially in the period from 1865 to 1890. The increase between 1815 and 1835 was as high as 1.34 per cent annually. From 1835 to 1865 it was 1.18 per cent, but during 1865–1890 it fell to 0.65 per cent. Since 1890 the increase has been considerable again. But during 1866–1903 the total emigration from Norway to the United States alone aggregated five hundred and twenty-four thousand. To this number should be added the children of these if we are to have a proper basis of estimation for the increase of the race in the last half century. This increase thus has been 1.40 per cent annually, that is, the race has doubled itself in fifty years. We may compare with France, where the increase has been 0.23 per cent, Russia,[13] where it has been 1.35, in Servia, where it has been 2.00 per cent, this being the highest in Europe. The increase in Sweden and Denmark is about the same as in Norway—reckoning the racial increase.

It will be of interest here to consider briefly the immigration from the Scandinavian countries as a whole.

During the years 1820–1830 not more than 283 emigrated from the Scandinavian countries to the United States. In the following decade the number only slightly exceeded two thousand. Since 1850 our statistics regarding the foreign born population are more complete. In that year we find there were a little over eighteen thousand persons in the country of Scandinavian birth. In 1880 this number had reached 440,262; while the unprecedented exodus of 1882 and the following years had by 1890 brought the number up to 933,249. Thus the immigrant population from these countries, which in 1850 was less than one per cent, had in 1890 reached ten per cent of the whole foreign element. The following table will show the proportion contributed by the countries designated for each decade since 1850:

Table I

Thus it will be seen that among European countries Scandinavia, considered as one, stands third in the number of persons contributed to the American foreign-born population, exceeding that of Scotland and Wales in 1870 and that of England in 1890. Both the Irish and the German immigration reached considerable numbers at least fifteen years before that from the North, Ireland having contributed nearly forty-three per cent of the total in 1850, and Germany twenty-six. By 1900 the Irish quota had fallen to fifteen per cent, while the German is nearly twenty-six and that from Scandinavia ten per cent. In 1870 our Scandinavian-born immigrant population was twice as large as the French and equalled the total from Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Russia.[14]

The Norwegians are the pioneers in the emigration movement from the North in the nineteenth century; the Danes were the last to come in considerable numbers. Statistics, however, show that one hundred eighty-nine Danes had emigrated to this country before 1830, while there were only ninety-four from Norway and Sweden. The Norwegian foreign-born population had in 1850 reached 12,678; while that from Sweden was 3,559; and Denmark had furnished a little over eighteen hundred. The Danish immigration was not over five thousand a year until 1880 and has never reached twelve thousand. The Swedish immigration received a new impulse in 1852; it was five thousand in 1868; it reached its climax of 64,607 in 1882. According to Norwegian statistics the emigration from Norway to the United States was six thousand and fifty in 1853, but according to our census reports did not reach five thousand before 1866; the highest figure, 29,101, was reached in 1882 (according to our census).[15]

The total emigration from the Scandinavian countries to America between 1820 and 1903 was 1,617,111. This remarkable figure becomes doubly remarkable when we stop to consider that the population of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is only two and one-half per cent of the total population of Europe; yet they have contributed nearly ten per cent of our immigrant population. There are in this country nearly one-third as many Scandinavians (counting those of foreign birth and foreign parentage both) as in the Scandinavian countries; for the German element the ratio is one to thirteen.

At this point I may refer the reader to the table in Appendix I of this volume, showing the growth and distribution of the Scandinavian factor, especially in the northwestern states, since 1850. Table I shows Wisconsin as having almost as large a Scandinavian population in 1850 as all the rest of the country. Wisconsin was the destination of the Norwegian immigrant from the time emigration began to assume larger proportions, and it held the lead for twenty-five years. Iowa and Southern Minnesota began entering into competition prominently since 1852 and 1855 respectively. The growth of Swedish immigration in the fifties and sixties gave the lead to Minnesota by 1870, Illinois taking second place in 1890. Returning now to the Norwegian immigration specifically, it may be observed that it was directed to the Northwest down to recent years, almost to the exclusion of the rest of the country. The reader may now be referred to Table II in the Appendix, which shows the growth of the Norwegian population in each state since 1850.

This table tells its own story. In New England the Norwegian factor is unimportant. There has been a high ratio of growth in New York and New Jersey since 1880, but the total number is not large. In the rest of the Atlantic seaboard states, as in the gulf states, the Norwegian population has remained almost stationary at a very low figure. Such is also the case with the inland states of the South, as in the Southwest. The effort to direct Norwegian immigration to Texas, which goes back to the forties, has been productive of only meagre results. Even Kansas is too far south for the Norwegian. In the extreme West, however, considerable numbers of Norwegians have established homes since about 1882, particularly in California, Oregon and Washington, since 1895 also in Montana, and in recent years even in the extreme North, in Alaska.

What were the influences that directed the Norwegian immigrants so largely to the Northwest in the early period and down to 1890?

The great majority came for the sake of bettering their material condition. They came here to found a home and to make a living. Moreover, as I have observed above, immigrants in their new home generally enter the same pursuits and engage in the same occupations in which they were engaged in their native country.

Three-fourths of the population of Norway live in the rural districts and are mostly engaged in some form of farming.[16] Thus seventy-two per cent of the Norwegian immigrants are found in the rural districts and in towns with less than twenty-five thousand population. The fact that the influx of the immigrants from Norway coincided with the opening up of the middle western states resulted in the settlement of those states by Norwegian immigrants. Land could be had for almost nothing in the West. Land-seekers from New England, New York and Pennsylvania were in those days flocking to the West.[17] About ninety per cent of the Norwegian immigrants at that time were land-seekers. As a rule long before he emigrated the Norseman had made up his mind to settle in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, or Minnesota.

Our data regarding Norwegian emigration to America prior to 1825 are very fragmentary, but it is possible to trace that emigration as far back as 1624.[18] In that year a small colony of Norwegians was established in New Jersey on the site of the present city of Bergen.[19] While it is not known that the names of any of these first colonists have come down to us, we do have the name of one Norwegian, who visited the American coast on a voyage of exploration in the year 1619, that is, the year before the landing of the Mayflower. In the early part of 1619 King Christian IV of Denmark fitted out two ships for the purpose of finding a northwest passage to Asia. The names of the ships were Eenhjörningen and Lampreren, and the commander was a Norwegian, Jens Munk, who was born at Barby, Norway, in 1579. With sixty-six men Jens Munk sailed from Copenhagen, May ninth, 1619. During the autumn of that year and the early part of the following year he explored Hudson Bay and took possession of the surrounding country in the name of King Christian, calling it Nova Dania. The expedition was, however, a failure, and all but three of the party perished from disease and exposure to cold in the winter of 1620. The three survivors, among whom was the commander, Jens Munk, returned to Norway in September, 1620.[20]

In the early days of the New Netherlands colony, Norwegians sometimes came across in Dutch ships and settled among the Dutch. The names of at least two such have been preserved in the Dutch colonial records. They are Hans Hansen and Claes Carstensen (possibly originally Klaus Kristenson). The former emigrated in a Dutch ship in 1633 and joined the Dutch colony in New Amsterdam. His name appears in the colonial records variously as Hans Noorman, Hans Hansen de Noorman, Hans Bergen, Hans Hansen von Bergen, and Hans Hansen von Bergen in Norwegen. Hans Bergen became the ancestor of a large American family by that name.[21] Claes Carstensen’s name appears variously as Claes Noorman, Claes Carstensen Noorman and Claes Van Sant, the latter being the Norwegian name Sande in Jarlsberg, where Claes Carstenson was born, 1607. He came to America about 1640 and settled a few years later on fifty-eight acres of land on the site of the present Williamsburg. The ministerial records of the old Dutch Reformed Church in New York state that Claes Carstensen was married April 15, 1646, to Helletje Hen dricks. The latter was, it seems, a sister of Annecken Hendricks, who was there married on February first, 1650, to Jan Arentzen van der Bilt, the colonial ancestor of Commodore Vanderbilt. Annecken Hendricks is further designated as being from Bergen, Norway, the names “Helletje” and “Annecken” being Dutch diminutive forms of the Norwegian Helen and Anne. Claes Carstensen died November sixth, 1679.

About the year 1700 there were a number of families of Norwegian and Danish descent living in New York. In 1704 a stone church was erected by them on the corner of Broadway and Rector Streets. The property was later sold to Trinity Church, the present churchyard occupying the site of the original church.[22] Prof. R. B. Anderson, speaking of these people, says, that they were probably mostly Norwegians and not Danes, for those of their descendants with whom he has spoken have all claimed Norwegian descent. The pastor who ministered to the spiritual wants of this first Scandinavian Lutheran congregation in America was a Dane by the name of Rasmus Jensen Aarhus. He died on the southwest coast of Hudson Bay, February twentieth, 1720.

In 1740 Norwegian Moravians took part in the founding of a Moravian colony at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in 1747 of one at Bethabara, North Carolina. At Bethlehem these Norwegian (and Swedish and Danish) Moravians came in contact with their kinsmen, the Swedish Lutherans of Delaware and adjoining parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Swedes on the Delaware had lost their independence in 1656. New Sweden as a political state existed but sixteen years. Ecclesiastically, however, the Lutherans of New Sweden remained subject to the state church at home for one hundred and fifty years more, and linguistically the colony was Swedish nearly as long. In the church records of this colony there appear not a few Norwegian names, particularly in the later period. We know that Norwegians in considerable numbers came to America and joined the Delaware Swedes in the eighteenth century. Gothenburg, which lies not far distant from the province of Smaalenene, was at the time, and has continued to be, the regular Swedish sailing port for America-bound ships.

One of the most prominent members of the Bethabara Colony was Dr. John M. Calberlane, born 1722 in Trondhjem, Norway. He came to New York in 1753, having sailed from London on the ship Irene, June thirteenth, arriving on September ninth. Dr. Calberlane’s name occupies a foremost place among the old colonial physicians; he was a man of much ability, noble in character and untiring in his devotion to the welfare of his fellow colonists. On July twenty-eighth, 1759, he himself succumbed to a contagious fever that visited the settlement. In a sermon delivered on Easter Sunday, 1760, Bishop Spangenberg gave public recognition of Calberlane’s service in his short life of six years in the colony.[23]

Other Norwegians among these Moravian colonists were: Susanna Stokkeberg, from Söndmöre, Norway, born 1715, who came to America in 1744 with her husband, Abraham Reinke, a Swede, to whom she had been married that year in Stockholm. Reinke is reputed to have been an able preacher of the gospel, the two laboring together in the congregations of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Philadelphia, and Lancaster. She died in 1758, he in 1760, leaving a son, Abraham Reinke. Peter Peterson, who was born in Norway in 1728, and had joined the church in London, came to America as a sailor on the ship Irene in 1749. He died in 1750. Jens Wittenberg, a tanner from Christiania, born 1719, came on the Irene in 1754; he died in the colony, 1788. Martha Mans (probably Monsdatter), from Bergen, born 1716, came on the Irene in 1749. She lived in Bethabara as a teacher and religious adviser until 1773. At the same time, also, came Enert Enerson, a carpenter, while in 1759 came Catherine Kalberlahn, and in 1762 Christian Christensen, a shoemaker, from Christiana. The latter was born in 1718; he had lived some years in Holland before coming to America. The year of his death is 1777. Erik Ingebretsen came over June twenty-second, 1750, via Dover, having been on the ocean six weeks, a remarkably short passage for that time.[24]

The names of several Norwegians are recorded who served in the War of the Revolution. Thus under John Paul Jones served Thomas Johnson, who was born 1758, the son of a pilot in Mandal, Norway. The New England Historical Register, Volume XXVIII, pages 18–21, gives an account of Johnson’s career in the American marine, from which we learn that he was among those who served on board the Bon Homme Richard in her cruise in 1779, having been transferred by Paul Jones from the Ranger. Later he went with Paul Jones to the Serapis and the Alliance and finally to the Ariel. With the last ship he arrived in Philadelphia February eighteenth, 1781. For a fuller account of Johnson’s career the interested reader is referred to the source of which mention has already been made.

Thomas Johnson lived to the good old age of ninety-three, dying July twelfth, 1807, in the United States Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. He had been a pensionist here for a number of years, being known generally by the nickname “Paul Jones.” A biography of Johnson written by John Henry Sherburne was published at Washington in 1825, to which I have, however, not had access. Another Norwegian by the name of Lewis Brown (Lars Bruun) also served under John Paul Jones. I lack further particulars, however, regarding Brown, except that he is spoken of in Sherburne’s book, Life of Thomas Johnson.

A Norwegian sailor, Captain Iverson, settled in Georgia some time about the close of the eighteenth century. United States Senator Iverson from Georgia was a grandson of this Norwegian sailor pioneer in Georgia.[25] About 1805 another sailor, Torgus Torkelson Gromstu, from Gjerpen, near Skien, Norway, settled in New York.

In my article on “The Danish Contingent in the Population of Early Iowa,” Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 1906, I spoke of a society, styling itself Scandinavia, as having been organized in New York City on June twenty-seventh, 1844. I there designated this as the earliest organization of the kind in this country. This I find now to be incorrect. As early as 1769 the Societas Scandinaviensis was founded in Philadelphia. The membership of this society was made up of Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, the first of these presumably being in the majority. The first president of the society was Abraham Markoe (Markö), a Norwegian. One of the memorable events in the history of the society was a farewell reception given in “City Tavern” on December eleventh, 1782, in honor of Baron Axel Ferson, hero of the Battle of Yorktown. The committee of seven appointed to present the invitation and also to wait upon General George Washington at Hasbrouch House, Newburg, with a view of securing his presence consisted of the following: Captain Abraham Markoe, Sakarias Paulsen, Andreasen Taasinge, Rev. Andrew Goeranson, Jacob Van der Weer, John Stille and Andrew Keen. Says the chronicler of the event:

In January, 1783, General George Washington was elected honorary member of the Society on account of his Norse ancestry. On the twenty-sixth of August, that year, a banquet was given at the City Tavern under the auspices of the Society, in celebration of the recognition by Sweden, Norway, and Denmark of the independence of the United States of America. John Stille was for many years secretary of the Society; after his death in 1802 all traces of it seem to have vanished. Just when the Societies Scandinaviensis ceased to exist, the Historian cannot say. On February twentieth, 1868, eighteen gentlemen, all of Scandinavian birth and residents of Philadelphia, met together for the purpose of forming a society, and The Scandinavian Society of Philadelphia was founded, an organization which regards itself a continuation of the original society. The chief object of the Society is benevolence.

The name of at least one Norwegian who fell in the early wars against the Indians has come down to us. Frank Peterson, who had enlisted on the fifteenth of June, 1808, was among those who fell at Fort Dearborn in 1812, among the “first martyrs of the West,” in an attack by five hundred Pottawattamie Indians. In this battle two-thirds of the whites were killed and the rest taken prisoners.

At a later date some other names also appear, but those given are the only ones of which we have any record. I shall mention here that of Ole Haugen, who probably was the first Norwegian to settle in the State of Massachusetts. Haugen was from Bergen, Norway, and located in Middlesex County, that state, in 1815. Alexander Paaske, himself an early immigrant from Bergen, living in Lowell, Mass., and who was present at Haugen’s deathbed, is the source of the above fact. Though going beyond the scope of our brief survey of this earliest immigration, it may be of interest here to know that as early as 1817, a girl from Voss, Norway, Anna Vetlahuso, emigrated to America with her husband, a German sailor in Bergen, and settled somewhere in South America. The next recorded names in the order of emigration to the United States are Kleng Peerson and Knud Olson Eide, who in 1821 became the advance guard of a group of fifty-two emigrants that in 1825 founded the first Norwegian settlement in this country. It is of this sailing and the leaders of this group that I now wish to speak; of Peerson I shall give a brief account below.

The story of the Sloopers from Stavanger, Norway, who came to America in 1825, has often been told; I shall therefore be very brief in my account of that expedition. Under causes of emigration I shall have occasion below to note briefly some of the circumstances that seem to have led to their departure for America in that year. The director of the expedition and the chief owner of the boat was Lars Larson i Jeilane; the captain was Lars Olsen. The company consisted of fifty-two persons, all but one being natives of Stavanger and vicinity; the one exception was the mate, Nels Erikson, who came from Bergen. Relative to the leading spirit in this first group of emigrants, Lars Larson, I shall say here: He was born near Stavanger, September twenty-fourth, 1787. He became a sailor, was captured in the Napoleonic wars and kept a prisoner in London for seven years. Being released in 1814, he remained in London, however, till 1815, when he and several other prisoners returned to Norway. In London they had been converted to the Quaker faith by Mrs. Margaret Allen, and upon returning to Stavanger, Lars Larson, Elias Tastad, Thomas Helle and Metta Helle became the founders of the first Quaker society in that city, a society which is still in existence.

In 1821 the Stavanger Quakers began to form plans for emigrating to America. It seems that Kleng Peerson and Knud Eide, whom we have mentioned above, were deputed to go to America for the purpose of learning something of the country with a view to planting there a Quaker colony. Kleng Peerson returned to Stavanger in 1824 with a favorable report and many of the members of the Quaker colony began to make preparations for emigrating to the locality selected by Peerson, namely, Orleans County, New York State. A sloop of only forty-five tons capacity which they called Restaurationen, built in Hardanger, was purchased and loaded with a cargo of iron and made ready for the journey. Larson himself had married in December, 1824, Georgiana Person, who was born October 19, 1803, on Fogn, a small island near Stavanger. Besides him there were five other heads of families. On the fourth of July, 1825, they set sail from Stavanger. The following fifty-two persons made up the party: Lars Larson and wife Martha Georgiana; Lars Olson, who was captain of the boat, Cornelius Nelson Hersdal, wife and four children;[27] Daniel Stenson Rossadal, wife and five children;[28] Thomas Madland, wife and three children,[29] Nels Nelson Hersdal and wife Bertha, Knud Anderson Slogvig, Jacob Anderson Slogvig, Gudmund Haugaas, Johannes Stene, wife and two children, Öien Thorson (Thompson) wife and three children,[30] Simon Lima, wife and three children, Henrik Christopherson Hervig, and wife, Ole Johnson, George Johnson, Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, Nels Thorson, Ole Olson Hetletvedt, Sara Larson (sister of Lars Larson), Halvor Iverson, Andrew Stangeland, the mate, Nels Erikson, and the cook, Endre Dahl.

After a perilous voyage of fourteen weeks they landed in New York, October ninth. An account of that voyage, which also it seems was a rather adventurous one, was given by the New York papers at the time; it was reproduced in Norwegian translation in Billed-Magazin in 1869, whence it has been copied in other works. The arrival of this first party of Norwegian immigrants, and in so small a boat, created nothing less than a sensation at the time, as we may infer from the wide attention the event received in the eastern press. Thus the New York Daily Advertiser for October twelfth, 1825, under the head lines, “A Novel Sight,” gives an account of the boat, the destination of the immigrants, the country they came from, their appearance, etc. For this citation I may refer the reader to page 39 of my article on “The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa” in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 1905, or to R. B. Anderson’s First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, 1896, 70–71.

In New York the immigrants met Mr. Joseph Fellows, a Quaker, from whom they purchased land in Orleans County, New York. It seems to have been upon the suggestion of Mr. Fellows that they were induced to settle here, although it is possible that the land had already been selected for them by Kleng Peerson, who was in New York at the time. The price to be paid for the land was five dollars an acre, each head of a family and adult person purchasing forty acres. The immigrants not being able to pay for the land, Mr. Fellows agreed to let them redeem it in ten annual installments. For the further history of the colony, with which we are here not so much concerned, the reader is referred to Knud Langeland’s Nordmaendene i Amerika, Chicago, 1889, pp. 10–19, or to Anderson’s First Chapter, pp. 77–90.

We have already mentioned Kleng Peerson, a name familiar to every student of Norwegian pioneer history. Much has been written about this pathfinder in the West, and romance and legend already adorn his memory. It would be interesting to recount what we know of his life in America, but as this has been dealt with at length by Professor R. B. Anderson in his monograph on Norwegian Immigration, which is in large part devoted to the slooper’s history, I may refer the interested reader to this work. Symra (Decorah, Iowa) for 1906 also contains a brief, somewhat eulogistic account in Norwegian of Peerson’s stay in New York and his journey of exploration to Illinois, Missouri, and Texas. The briefest facts I may, however, relate here.

Kleng Peerson was born on the seventeenth of May, 1782, on the estate Hesthammer in Tysvær Parish, Province of Ryfylke. In 1820 we find him in Stavanger, where William Allen, an English Quaker, was then organizing a Quaker society. In 1821 Kleng Peerson and a certain Knud Olson Eide were, as we have seen, commissioned, it appears, by the Quakers to go to America and examine the possibility of organizing a Norwegian colony there. The two explorers secured work in New York City, but Knud Eide fell ill and died not long after, and Peerson went west alone in quest of a suitable location for a colony. Just how far west he may have come on this first journey is not known. After some time he decided upon Orleans County on the shores of the Ontario as the best place to plant his colony, and in 1824 he returned to Norway. We have noted already the results of Peerson’s mission. When Lars Larson’s party prepared to go to America Kleng Peerson also left, but he did not take passage in Restaurationen. It seems that he embarked by way of Gothenburg and was in New York to receive the sloopers upon their arrival.

It would be natural to suppose that Peerson did not go alone from Stavanger when he returned to America via Gothenburg in 1825. After much inquiry I have also succeeded in discovering the name of one man, who, with his family, accompanied Peerson that year. This man was Björn Björnson from Stavanger, a cousin of Kleng Peerson; he brought his wife and several children with him, but left two girl twins, born in May of that year, with a relative who then lived in Tjensvold, near Stavanger. Further facts about this family will be given in the chapter on Chicago.

As Peerson seems to play no role in the founding of the Orleans County settlement, I shall leave him here. There will be occasion to speak briefly of him again later in connection with the second Norwegian settlement. I wish to add a few words here about Lars Larson, however. He and his family located in Rochester, where he became a builder of canal boats, prospered; and kept in close touch with immigrant Norwegians during the two decades of his life there. His home became a kind of Mecca for hosts of intending settlers in the New World. Larson died by accident on a canal boat in November, 1845, but his widow lived till October, 1887. They had eight children, of whom the first one, Margaret Allen, was born on the Atlantic Ocean, September second, 1825. Of her and others of Lars Larson’s descendants I shall speak briefly below. We shall now return to the settlers in Orleans County, New York.

The colony was in many respects unfortunate; it cannot be said to have prospered and has never played any important part as a colony in Norwegian-American history. But it is important as being the first, and also as being the parent of a very large and progressive Norwegian settlement founded in 1834–35 in La Salle County, Illinois, of which more below. And yet the economic conditions of the Quaker immigrants gradually became better and the future looked more promising. They felt now that America offered many advantages to the able and the capable, and they began writing encouraging letters to relatives and friends in the old country, urging them to seek their fortune here. As a result there was, if not a large, at any rate a fairly constant emigration of individuals and families from Stavanger and adjacent region during the following eight or nine years, although few seem to have come before 1829. In this year, e. g., came Gudmund Sandsberg (b. 1787) from Hjelmeland, in Ryfylke, Norway, and his wife Marie and three children, Bertha, Anna, and Torbjör.

Passage was secured in the beginning for the most part with American sailships carrying Swedish iron from Gothenburg. But as this was attended by much uncertainty, often necessitating several weeks of waiting, the intending emigrants began to go to Hamburg, where German emigration by means of regular going American packet ships had already begun. Here, however, another difficulty met them. The already somewhat heavy emigration at this port made it necessary to order passage several weeks ahead in order to insure accommodations, and failing in this, the emigrant was forced to wait there until the next packet boat should sail. And so it came about that many of the early Norwegian immigrants to America came by way of Havre, France, where passage was always certain, emigration from this point being as yet very limited.

Among those who came via Gothenburg was Gjert Hovland, a farmer from Hardanger, who left Norway with his family on the twenty-fourth of June, 1831, sailed from Gothenburg June thirtieth and arrived in New York September eighteenth. He does not seem to have gone directly to Kendall, for we find him soon after the owner of fifty acres of forest land in Morris County, New Jersey.

Gjert Hovland seems to be the first one from the province of Hardanger to emigrate to America. Other emigrants during these years are: Christian Olson, who came in 1829, settling in Kendall; Knut Evenson, wife and daughter Katherine, who emigrated in 1831 in the same ship by which Hovland came; and Ingebret Larson Narvig from Tysvær Parish, Ryfylke, who came in 1831 and two years later located in Michigan. It seems probable that also Johan Nordboe and wife from Ringebo, in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, came to Orleans County in 1832. Nordboe was the first to emigrate from Gudbrandsdalen, a province from which actual immigration did not begin until sixteen years later.

Norwegian immigrants who came during these years generally located in Orleans County, but rarely remained there permanently. The northwestern states were just then beginning to be opened up to settlers. At this time migration from the eastern states was directed particularly to Illinois. Good government land could be had here for $1.25 an acre. The very heavily wooded land that the Norwegian immigrants in Orleans County had purchased proved very difficult of improvement, and many began to think of moving to a more favorable locality.

In 1833 Kleng Peerson, who seems to have lived in Kendall at this time, made a journey to the West, evidently for the purpose of finding a suitable site for a new settlement. He was accompanied by Ingebret Larson Narvig as far as Erie, Monroe County, Michigan, where the latter remained, Peerson continuing the journey farther west. After several months of wandering across Michigan, and down into Ohio and Indiana, he at last arrived at Chicago, then a village of about twenty huts. The marshes of Chicago did not appeal to Peerson and he went to Milwaukee, but the reports he received of the endless forests of Wisconsin soon drove him back again into Illinois. After several days’ journey on foot again west of Chicago he at last found a spot which seemed to him as if providentially designated as the proper locality for his western colony. The place was immediately south of the present village of Norway in La Salle County. His choice made, Peerson returned to Orleans County, having covered over 2,000 miles on foot since he left.

Peerson’s selection was universally approved and a considerable number of the Kendall settlers decided to move west. Among those of the sloopers who remained in New York I shall here name: Ole Johnson, Henrik C. Hervig and Andrew Stangeland, who, however, some years later bought a tract of land in Noble County, Indiana; Lars Olson located in New York City, and, as we have seen, Lars Larson settled in Rochester; Nels Erikson went back to Norway, while Öien Thompson and Thomas Madland died in Kendall in 1826, and Cornelius Hersdal died there in 1833.

In the spring of 1834 Jacob Anderson Slogvig, Knud Anderson Slogvig, Gudmund Haugaas, Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, Nels Thompson,[31] Andrew (Endre) Dahl, and Kleng Peerson left for La Salle County; they became, therefore, as far as we know, the first Norwegian settlers in Illinois, and indeed in the Northwest, barring Ingebret Narvig, who had located in Michigan the year before. These men selected their land and perfected their purchase as soon as it came into market the following spring. The first two to buy land were Jacob Slogvig and Gudmund Haugaas, whose purchase is recorded under June fifteenth, 1835, the former of eighty acres, the latter one hundred and sixty acres, both in that part of what was then called Mission Township, but later came to be Rutland. On June seventeenth, Kleng Peerson’s purchase of eighty acres is recorded, as also that of his sister, Carrie Nelson, widow of Cornelius Nelson Hersdal, namely, eighty acres of land bought for her by Peerson. For this date are also recorded the purchases of Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, eighty acres, Nels Thompson, one hundred and sixty acres, in what later became Miller Township.

In 1835 Daniel Rossadal and family, Nels Nelson Hersdal, George Johnson, and Carrie Nelson Hersdal with family of seven children moved to La Salle County. Nels Hersdal secured six hundred and forty acres in exchange for one hundred acres he owned in Orleans County, New York. The slooper Thomas Madland, as we have seen, died in 1826; his widow and family of seven also moved to Illinois in 1831. Gjert Hovland came in 1835, and on June seventeenth purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Miller Township. Nels Hersdal purchased on September fifth Thorsten Bjaaland’s eighty acres in the same township; the latter, however, bought a hundred and sixty acres again on January sixteenth, 1836, in the same locality. The record of these purchases was copied by R. B. Anderson and printed in his book, First Chapter, etc., cited above and also in Strand’s History of the Norwegians of Illinois, page 75.

Knud Slogvig, who, as we see, came in 1834, did not buy land but somewhat later returned east and in 1835 went back to Norway. There he married a sister of the slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt and, as we shall have occasion to note under causes of emigration, became largely instrumental in bringing about the emigration of 1836. Baldwin’s History of La Salle County also states, page 74, that Oliver Canuteson,[32] Oliver Knutson,[32] Christian Olson, and Ole Olson Hetletvedt came to the county in 1834, but the date seems to be uncertain. With regard to Christian Olson the fact seems rather to be that he came in 1836 or possibly not till 1837, while also Hetletvedt seems to be dated about two years too early here. Among those who came in 1836 according to apparently reliable records are: Ole Olson Hetletvedt and Gudmund Sandsberg.

Relative to the founders of the Fox River Settlement, as that of La Salle County came to be called, I wish to add here the following facts of personal history: Gudmund Haugaas, one of the two first to record the purchase of land, had married Julia, the daughter of Thomas Madland, in Orleans County in 1827. She died in Rutland Township, La Salle County, in 1846 and he later married Caroline Hervig, a sister of Henrik Hervig (Harwick). He had ten children by his first wife. In Illinois he joined the Mormon Church and became an elder in that church, practicing medicine at the same time, and, it is said, with much success. He died of the cholera on the homestead near Norway in July, 1849; his widow, Caroline, survived him three years.[33]

Jacob Slogvig married Serena, daughter of Thomas Madland, in March, 1831. He became one of the founders of the Norwegian settlement in Lee County, Iowa, in 1840 (see below), later went to California, where he died in May, 1864. The widow lived until about 1897. Some time before her death she had been living at the home of her son, Andrew J. Anderson, at San Diego, California.

Mrs. Carrie Nelson had seven children, of whom Anne, Nels, Inger, and Martha were born in Norway; Sarah, Peter, and Amelia were born at Kendall, New York. Carrie Nelson died in 1848. The son, Nels Nelson, born 1816, married Catherine Iverson about 1840; he died in Sheridan, Illinois, in August, 1893, as the last male member of the sloop party, being survived by his widow and four of twelve children. The daughter Inger was in 1836 married to John S. Mitchell, of Ottawa, Illinois; Martha married Beach Fallows, a settler of 1835, and Sarah married in 1849 Canute Marsett, an immigrant of 1837, who some years later became a Mormon bishop at Ephraim, Utah. Their oldest son, Peter Cornelius Marsett, born at Salt Lake City June second, 1850, was the first child born of Norwegian parents in Utah.[34] Peter C. Nelson, the youngest son of Carrie Nelson, born 1830, later settled in Larned, Kansas, where he died in 1904. Sara Thompson, oldest daughter of Öien Thompson, and born 1818, married George Olmstead in 1857 in La Salle County; he died in 1849, and in 1855 she married William W. Richey. Mrs. Richey settled in Guthrie Center, Iowa, in 1882, where she lived until recently. Benson C. Olmsted, Charles B. Olmsted and Will F. Richey of Guthrie Center, Iowa, are sons of Mrs. Sara Richey. Nels Thompson died in La Salle County, Illinois, in July, 1863. Daniel Rossadal and his wife, Bertha, both died in La Salle County in 1854. Nels Nelson Hersdal was born in July, 1800, and his wife, Bertha, in May, 1804; they were married a few months before the departure of the sloop. He, “Big Nels”, as he was called, came to Illinois in 1835, returned to New York and did not bring his family to Illinois until 1846, though he moved west before. He lived until 1886, his wife having died in 1882. Peter Nelson and Ira Nelson of La Salle County, are their sons. George Johnson died from cholera in 1849.

Andrew Dahl went to Utah in the fifties, being one of the earliest pioneers of that state. A son of his, A. S. Anderson, was a member of the Utah Constitutional Convention in 1895. Ole Hetletvedt, who located at Niagara Falls, not therefore in Orleans County, had three sons, Porter C., Sören L. and James W. The first of these, born 1831, became captain and later colonel in Company F, 36th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, in the War of the Rebellion, and was Acting Brigadier General when he was killed in the Battle of Franklin (Tenn.). Sören Olson was killed in the Battle of Murfreesboro. James Olson, who also went to the front, lived to return to his home after the war. Porter Olson lies buried at Newark, Illinois, where a fitting monument adorns his grave. Finally I wish to add that Margaret Allen, the “sloop girl” born on the Atlantic, daughter of Lars Larson, married John Atwater in Rochester, New York, in 1857. They afterwards moved to Chicago, where he died in the early nineties, while Mrs. Atwater is, I believe, still living at Western Springs, Cook County. We shall now return to our settlement in La Salle County.

We have given above a brief account of the founding of the Fox River settlement. Out of that nucleus of about thirty persons, whom we know to have come there in 1834–35 grew up one of the largest and most prosperous of rural communities in the country. The settlement developed rapidly, before many years extending into Kendall, Grundy and DeKalb counties and becoming a distributing point in the westward march of Norwegian immigration during the following years. The settlement in Orleans County, New York, ceased to grow, the objective point of immigrants from Norway had been changed and the Fox River region received large accessions, especially during the year 1836.

Immigration from Norway which heretofore had been more or less sporadic, in which individuals and very small groups are found to take part, now enters upon a new phase, begins in fact to assume the form of organized effort. The year 1836 inaugurated this change, while in 1837 there was something approaching an exodus from certain localities in Western Norway. The desire to emigrate to America had also now spread far beyond the original center, at Stavanger; the source of emigration was transferred to a more northerly region and with it, as we have had occasion to observe above, the course of settlement in this country is not only directed to a more westerly region, Illinois, but also soon extends into the northern border counties of Illinois and into southern and southeastern Wisconsin.

As this increased immigration is historically associated with the names of two of those whom we have already met as pioneers in New York, New Jersey and Illinois, a brief account of their share in the promotion of immigration from Norway will be in place. These two are Gjert Hovland and Knud Slogvig. We have seen that the former of these came to America in 1831, being probably the first immigrant from Hardanger. His name deserves special mention as an early promoter of emigration from southwestern Norway, especially from his own province. He was a man of much enlightenment and liberalmindedness to whom America’s free institutions made a strong appeal. He wrote letters home to friends urging emigration and these were circulated far and wide. In one of these letters from Morris County, New Jersey, 1835, he writes enthusiastically of American laws, and he contrasts its spirit of liberty with the oppressions of the class aristocracy in Norway. He advised all who could do so to come to America, where it was permitted to settle wherever one chose, he says. Hovland was well known in several parishes in the Province of South Bergenhus, and hundreds of copies of his letters were circulated there; they aroused the greatest interest among the people and were no small factor in leading many in that region to emigrate in 1836–37.

Thus it may be noted specifically that in 1836 a lay preacher travelling in Voss had in his possession one of Gjert Hovland’s letters, which letter was read by Nils Röthe, Nils Bolstad and John H. Björgo and others. These three since said that it was the reading of Hovland’s letter which induced them to immigrate.[35] Gjert Hovland, as we have seen, came to Illinois in 1835. His purchase of one hundred and sixty acres of land in the present Miller Township was recorded on June seventeenth of that year, the same date that the purchases of Kleng Peerson, Nels Thompson and Thorsten Bjaaland were recorded. Gjert Hovland lived there till his death in 1870.

The other name, that I referred to, is that of Knud Anderson Slogvig, who undoubtedly was the chief promoter of immigration in 1836. He had come in the sloop in 1825, and, as we have seen, settled in La Salle County in 1834. In 1835 he returned to Skjold, Norway, and there married a sister of Ole O. Hetletvedt, the slooper whom we find as one of the early pioneers of La Salle County. While there, people came to talk with him about America from all parts of southwestern Norway; and a large number in and about Stavanger decided to emigrate. Slogvig’s return may be said to have started the “America-fever” in Norway, though it took some years before it reached the central and the eastern parts of the country. It was his intention to return to America in 1836, and a large party was preparing to emigrate with him.

In the spring of that year the two brigs, Norden and Den Norske Klippe, were fitted out from Stavanger. The former sailed on the first Wednesday after Pentecost, arriving in New York July twelfth, 1836. The latter sailed a few weeks later. They carried altogether two hundred immigrants, most of whom went directly to La Salle County. Of these two brigs I shall speak again in a subsequent chapter.

I have above given some of the facts of Knud Slogvig’s personal history. Having already spoken of one element in the cause of emigration I believe it will be in place to give a fuller account at this point of the various general and special factors that have been instrumental in bringing about the coming to America of such a large part of the population of Norway in the 19th century.

What are the causes that have brought about the exodus from Norway and in general from the Scandinavian countries in the 19th century? The question is not a simple one to answer; for the causes have been many and varied, and it would be impossible in the following pages to discuss all the circumstances and influences that have operated to promote the northern emigration and directed it to America. Perhaps there is something in the highly developed migratory instinct of Indo-European peoples. Especially has this instinct characterized the Germanic branch, whether it be Goth or Vandal, Anglo-Saxon, Viking or Norman,[36] or their descendants, the Teutonic peoples of modern times, by whom chiefly the United States has been peopled and developed.

Of tangible motives, one that has everywhere been a fundamental factor in promoting emigration from European countries in modern times has been the prospect of material betterment. Where no barriers have been put against the emigration of the poor or the ambitious, unless special causes have arisen to create discontent with one’s condition, the extent to which European countries have contributed to our immigrant population may be measured fairly closely by the economic conditions at home. As far as the Northern countries are concerned I would class all these causes under two heads: the first will comprise all those conditions, natural and artificial, that can be summarized under the term economic; the second will include a number of special circumstances or motives which may vary somewhat for the three countries, indeed often for the locality and the individual.

First then we may consider the causes which arise from economic conditions. These are well illustrated by the Scandinavian countries, slightly modified in each case by the operation of the special causes. Norway is a land of mountains, these making up in the fact fifty-nine per cent of its total area, while forty-four per cent of the soil of Sweden is unproductive. The winters are long and severe, the cold weather frequently sets in too early for the crops to ripen; with crop failure comes lack of work for the laboring classes, and, burdened by heavy taxation, as was the Norwegian farmer only too often in the middle of the last century, debt and impoverishment for the holders of the numerous encumbered smaller estates. In Norway, especially, the rewards of labor are meagre and the opportunities for material betterment small.[37] “Hard times” and the inability of the country to support the rapidly increasing population has, then, been a most potent factor.[38] The same will hold true of Sweden, though in a somewhat less degree. Denmark is better able to support a population of one hundred and forty-eight to the square mile than Sweden one of twenty-eight or Norway one of eighteen.[39]

In this connection compare above the statistics of immigration from the three countries, which are much lower for Denmark than for Norway and Sweden. The Danes at home are a contented people, and it is noticeable also that it is they who are most conservative here, who foster the closest relation with the old home, and who consequently become Americanized last. The Norwegians are the most discontented, are readiest for a change, are quickest to try the new; and it is they who most readily break the bonds that bind them to their native country, who most quickly adapt themselves to the conditions here, and who most rapidly become Americanized.

Professor R. B. Anderson, in his book on the early Norwegian immigration[40] puts religious persecution as the primary cause of emigration from Norway. I cannot possibly believe that even in the immigration of the first half of the nineteenth century religious persecution was, except in a few cases, the primary or even a very important cause in the Scandinavian countries. In conversation with and in numerous letters from pioneers and their descendants, especially in Iowa and Wisconsin, I have found that the hope of larger returns for one’s labor is everywhere given as the main motive, sometimes as the only one. Whether it be the pioneers of La Salle County, Illinois, in the thirties, those of Rock or Dane counties, Wisconsin, in the forties, or the Norwegian settlers of Clayton and Winneshiek counties, Iowa, in the late forties and the fifties; the causes are everywhere principally economic. But letters written by pioneers and by those about to emigrate testify amply to the fact that it was the hard times that was the chief cause. And the same applies almost as generally to the Swedes; among the Danes the economic factor has not operated so extensively, though here, also, it was the preponderating cause.

A Norwegian journal, Billed-Magazin, published in Chicago in 1869–70 and edited by Professor Svein Nilsen, offers much that throws light on this question. It contains brief accounts of the early Norwegian immigration and the earliest settlements, a regular column of news from the Scandinavian countries, interviews with pioneers, etc. In one interview, Ole Nattestad, who sailed in 1837 from Vægli, Numedal, and became the founder of the fourth Norwegian settlement in America, that of Jefferson Prairie in Rock County, Wisconsin, and the neighboring Boone County in Illinois, describes his experience as a farmer in Numedal and how the difficulty of making any headway finally drove him to emigrate to America.[41] The statement of another pioneer I quote in its entirety.[42] It is that of John Nelson Luraas, who came from Tin in Telemarken, to Muskego, Wisconsin, in 1839, and in 1843 moved to Dane County, Wisconsin. He says:

In a letter written by Andreas Sandsberg at Hellen, Norway, September twelfth, 1831, to Gudmund Sandsberg in Kendall, New York, the former complains of the hard times in Norway. In the spring of 1836 the second party of emigrants from Stavanger County came to America. On the 14th of May of that year Andreas Sandsberg wrote his brother Gudmund in America as follows:

Ole Olson Menes, who came to America in 1845, is cited in Billed-Magazin, 1870, page 130, as follows, illustrating the prominence of the economic cause nine years later:

Of those here cited, Nattestad was from Numedal, Luraas from Telemarken, Menes from Sogn, while Sandsberg came from Ryfylke. But the conditions were the same also in other provinces. In 1844, Hans C. Tollefsrude and wife emigrated from Land. Of the cause of his emigrating and that of early emigration from Land in general, his son Christian H. Tollefsrude of Rolfe, Iowa, writes me:

Rev. Abraham Jacobson of Decorah, Iowa, a pioneer himself, writes:

Of the emigration from Ringsaker, I may cite Simon Simerson of Belmond, Iowa:

Similar evidence might be adduced for other districts and for all the older settlements throughout the Northwest. At a meeting held at the home of Ole O. Flom in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on July twenty-eighth, 1908, when the present writer read a paper on “Early Norwegian Immigration,” testimony to the same effect was given by old pioneers there present. There is no need of further multiplying the evidence.

A highly developed spirit of independence has always been a dominant element in the Scandinavian character,—I have reference here particularly to his desire for personal independence, that is, independence in his condition in life. Nothing is so repugnant to him as indebtedness to others and dependence on others. An able-bodied Scandinavian who was a burden to his fellows was well-nigh unheard of. By the right of primogeniture the paternal estate would go to the oldest son. The families being frequently large, the owning of a home was to a great many practically an impossibility under wage conditions as they were in the North in the first half and more of the preceding century.

Thus the Scandinavian farmer’s son, with his love of personal independence and his strong inherent desire to own a home, finding himself so circumstanced in his native country that there was little hope of his being able to realize this ambition except in the distant uncertain future, listens, with a willing ear to descriptions of America, with its quick returns and its great opportunities. And so he decides to emigrate. And this he is free to do for the government puts no barrier upon his emigrating. This trait has impelled many a Scandinavian to come and settle in America; and it is a trait that is the surest guarantee of the character of his citizenship. Here, too, a social factor merits mention.

While the nobility was abolished in Norway in 1814, the lines between the upper and lower classes, the wealthy and the poor, were tightly drawn and social classes were well defined. And while Norway is today the most democratic country in Europe, and Sweden and Denmark are also thoroughly liberal (in part through the influence of America and American-Scandinavians), a titled aristocracy still exists in these countries. The extreme deference to those in superior station or position that custom and existing conditions enforced upon those in humbler condition was repugnant to them. Not infrequently have pioneers given this as one cause for emigrating in connection with that of economic advantage.

In the class of special causes which have influenced the Scandinavian emigration, political oppression has operated only in the case of the Danes in Southern Jutland.[45]

Military service, which elsewhere has often played such an important part in promoting emigration, has, in the Scandinavian countries, been only a minor factor, the period of service required being very short. Nevertheless it has in not a few cases been a secondary cause for emigrating. Those with whom I have spoken who have given this as their motive have, however, been mostly Norwegians and Swedes; but none of those who belong to the earlier period of emigration give their desire to escape military service as a cause.

Religious persecution has played a part in some cases, especially in Norway and Sweden. The state church is the Lutheran, but every sect has been tolerated since the middle of the century, in Norway since 1845. While few countries have been freer from the evil of active persecution because of religious belief, intolerance and religious narrowness have not been wanting. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the followers of the lay preacher, Hans Nielsen Hauge, in Norway were everywhere persecuted. Hauge himself was imprisoned in Christiania for eight years. And the Jansenists in Helsingland, Sweden, were in the forties subjected to similar persecution. Thus Eric Jansen was arrested several times for conducting religious meetings between 1842–1846,—though it must in fairness be admitted that his first arrest was undoubtedly provoked by the extreme procedure of the dissenters themselves. After having been put in prison repeatedly, Jansen embarked for America in 1846 and became the founder of the communistic colony of followers at Bishopshille,[46] Henry County, Illinois. No such organized emigration took place among the Haugians, but we have no means of knowing to what extent individual emigration of the followers of Hauge took place during the three decades immediately after his death. The well-known Elling Eielson, a lay preacher and an ardent Haugian, emigrated in 1839 to Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois, and many of those who believed in the methods of Hauge and Eielson came to America in the following years.

It was persecution also that drove many Scandinavian Moravians to America in 1740 and 1747. Moravian societies had been formed in Christiania in 1737, in Copenhagen in 1739, in Stockholm in 1740, and in Bergen in 1740.[47] In 1735 German Moravians from Herrnhut, Saxony, established a colony at Savannah, Georgia.[47] In this colony there seem to have been some Danes and Norwegians. In 1740 a permanent colony was located at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in 1747 one at Bethabara, North Carolina. Persecuted Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish Moravians took part in the founding of both these colonies.

As we have seen, the first Norwegian settlement in America was established in Kendall, Orleans County, New York, in 1825. It has been claimed that the “sloopers” were driven to emigrate by persecution at home.[48] Another writer has shown that the only one of the Stavanger Quakers who suffered for his belief prior to 1826 was Elias Tastad, and he, it seems, did not emigrate.[49] The leader of the emigrants in Restaurationen, Lars Larson i Jeilane, had spent one year in London in the employ of the noted English Quaker, William Allen. In 1818, Stephen Grellet, a French nobleman, who had become a Quaker in America, and William Allen preached in Stavanger.[49] The Quakers of Stavanger were of the poorest of the people. It is highly probable, as another writer states,[50] that Grellet, while there, suggested to them that they emigrate to America where they could better their condition in material things and at the same time practice their religion without violating the laws of the country. The main motive was therefore probably economic.

It is perfectly clear to me that not very many of the Orleans County colonists were devout Quakers; for we soon find them wandering apart into various other churches. Some returned to Lutheranism; those who went west became mostly Methodists or Mormons; others did not join any church; while the descendants of those who remained are to-day Methodists. The Orleans County Quakers do not seem to have even erected a meeting-house; and in Scandinavian settlements a church, however humble, is, next to a home, the first thought.[51] Nevertheless the Quakers of Stavanger did suffer annoyances, and it must be remembered that the leader of the expedition and the owner of the sloop was a devout Quaker,[52] as were also at least two other leading members of the party. Had it not been for these very men the party would probably not have emigrated, at least not at that time.

There was much persecution of the early converts to the Baptist faith in Denmark between 1850–1860; and not a few of this sect emigrated. In 1848 F. O. Nilson, one of the early leaders of the Baptist Church in Sweden, was imprisoned and later banished from the country. He fled to Denmark, and in 1851 embarked for America. In the fifties Swedish Baptists in considerable numbers came to the United States because of persecution. There are, however, very few Norwegian Baptists, and I know of no cases where persecution drove Baptists to leave Norway.

Proselyting of some non-Lutheran churches in Scandinavia has been the means of bringing many Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes to this country. In the fifties Mormon missionaries were especially active in Denmark and Norway. Their efforts did not seem to be attended by much success in Norway, though not a few converts were made among the Norwegians in the early settlements in Illinois and Iowa, as in the Fox River Settlement.[53] In Denmark, however, Mormon proselyting was more successful than in Norway. All those who accepted Mormonism emigrated to America of course, and most of them to Utah. In the years 1851, 1852, and 1853 there emigrated fourteen, three, and thirty-two Danes, respectively, to this country. But in 1854 the number rose to 691, and in the following three years to 1,736. In 1850 there were in Utah two Danes; in 1870 there were 4,957. The first Norwegian to go to Utah probably was Henrik E. Sebbe, who came to America in 1836, and went to Utah in 1848, where he became a Mormon.[53]

In 1849 a Norwegian-American, O. P. Peterson, first introduced Methodism in Norway.[54] After 1855 a regular Methodist mission was established in Scandinavia under the supervision of a Danish-American, C. B. Willerup.[55] While the Methodist church has not prospered in the Scandinavian countries, especially in Denmark and Norway, there are large numbers of Methodists among the Scandinavian immigrants in this country,[56] and the early congregations were recruited for a large part from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

The efforts of steamship companies and emigration agents have been a powerful factor in promoting Scandinavian emigration. Through them literature advertising in glowing terms the advantages of the New World was scattered far and wide in Scandinavia. Such literature often dealt with the prosperity of Scandinavians who had previously settled in America. Letters from successful settlers were often printed and distributed broadcast. The early immigrants from the North settled largely in Illinois, Wisconsin, and, a little later, in Iowa. As clearers of the forest and tillers of the soil they contributed their large share to the development of the country. None could better endure the hardships of pioneer life on the western frontier. Knowing this, many western states began to advertise their respective advantages in the Scandinavian countries.

Far more influential, however, than the factors just noted were the efforts put forth by successful immigrants to induce their relatives and friends to follow them. Numerous letters were written home praising American laws and institutions, and setting forth the opportunities here offered. These letters were read and passed around to friends. Many who had relatives in America would travel long distances to hear what the last “America-letter” had to report. Among the early immigrants who did much in this way to promote emigration from their native districts was one whom we have already spoken of, Gjert Hovland. He wrote many letters home praising American institutions. These letters “were transcribed and the copies distributed far and wide in the Province of Bergen; and a large number were thus led to emigrate.”[57]

The interviews in Billed-Magazin contain statements from several among the early settlers on Koshkonong Prairie and the neighborhood of Stoughton which give evidence of the part that “America-letters” played in their emigration. On page 123 occurs a statement of Gaute Ingbrigtson (Gulliksrud) who came from Tin in Telemarken in 1843 and became one of the earliest pioneers of Dunkirk Township in Dane County. He says: “Two of my uncles and a brother emigrated in 1839. I, however, remained at home with my father who was a farmer in the Parish of Tin. But then letters came with good news from America, and my relatives as well as other acquaintances on this side of the ocean were encouraged to emigrate. From this it came about that I and many others in my native district prepared for leaving in the spring of 1843. The party numbered about one hundred and twenty....”

We have already had occasion to refer to a letter received by Ole Menes of Stoughton in 1845. Ingbrigt Helle came from Kragerö in 1845 and settled in the Town of Dunn. The ship he came on brought one hundred and forty immigrants and he mentions the fact that many had been induced to emigrate by letters from America, and he writes: “Such letters from America urging emigration was, as far as I can see, the thing that brought the majority of emigrants to bid farewell to Norway.” Ole Knudson Dyrland, who emigrated from Siljord, Telemarken, in 1843, and became one of the earliest white settlers in Dunn Township, Dane County, testifying to the same fact, mentions Ole Knudson Trovatten as one who, through letters, exerted considerable influence upon emigration in Telemarken (page 218, Billed-Magazin, 1870). We shall meet Trovatten again below as a pioneer in the Town of Cottage Grove in the same county. The editor of Billed-Magazin writes of Trovatten elsewhere, page 283, after giving a brief sketch of his life: “he settled on Koshkonong and wrote therefrom many letters to his numerous friends in his native country in which he, with much eloquence, made his countrymen acquainted with the glories of America, and there is no doubt that Trovatten in a large measure gave the impulse to the rapid development of emigration in the region of Telemarken.”

Of Trovatten’s influence as a promoter of immigration Gunder T. Mandt, himself an immigrant of 1843 (died 1907, Stoughton, Wisconsin), gives similar testimony. He speaks of the opposition to emigration in Upper Telemarken, which found expression in all sorts of adverse accounts of America, especially among the clergy, and that much uncertainty prevailed among the masses as to the advisability of going to America. During all this, Trovatten, he says, “came to be looked upon as an angel of peace, who had gone beforehand to the New World, whence he sent back home to his countrymen, so burdened by economic sorrows, the olive-branch of promise, with assurances of a happier life in America.... ‘Ole Trovatten has said so,’ became the refrain in all accounts of the land of wonder, and in a few years he was the most talked of man in Upper Telemarken. His letters from America gave a powerful impulse to emigration, and it is probable that hundreds of those who now are plowing the soil of Wisconsin and Minnesota would still be living in their ancestors’ domains in the land of Harald Fairhair, if they had not been induced to bid old Norway farewell through Trovatten’s glittering accounts of conditions on this side of the ocean.” (Billed-Magazin, 1870, p. 38.) Similar evidence of the influence of “America-letters” is also given by Knud Aslakson Juve, a pioneer of 1844, in the Town of Pleasant Spring, in Dane County.

At the close of the preceding chapter I spoke of Gjert Hovland’s letters in 1835 as a chief factor in bringing about the emigration of 1836. From settlers in other portions of the country comes testimony of similar nature, and I have spoken with many pioneers from a later period of immigration, whose coming was, in the last instance, determined by favorite accounts of America received from friends and relatives already resident there.

In letters from immigrants to their relatives at home prepaid tickets, or the price of the ticket, were often enclosed. This custom was so common as to become a special factor in emigration. According to Norsk Folkeblad (cited in Billed-Magazin, p. 134), 4,000 Norwegian emigrants, via Christiana in 1868, took with them $40,335 (Speciedaler) in cash money of which $21,768 (Spd.) had been sent by relatives in America to cover the expense of the journey. It has been estimated that about fifty per cent of Scandinavian emigrants, arrive by prepaid passage tickets secured by relatives in this country.[58]

The visits of successful Scandinavians back home was in the early days an important factor; and as a rule only those who had been prosperous would return. In 1835 Knud Anderson Slogvig, who had emigrated in the sloop as we know, returned to Norway and became the chief promoter of the exodus from the Province of Stavanger in 1836, which resulted in the settlement at Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois.

We have already above, page 63, recited this fact and its significance toward promoting further emigration from Stavanger Province and of inaugurating the first exodus from Hardanger also. Thus, while Jacob Slogvig, the brother, was one of a few to secure land in La Salle County and make the beginnings of settlement, Knud became the means of bringing hosts of immigrants from Norway to recruit the colony and start it upon its course of growth. In precisely a similar way did two other brothers become even more significant factors in the foundation and development of the earliest Norwegian settlement in Wisconsin, namely, that of Jefferson Prairie in Rock County. They were Ole and Ansten Nattestad, who had emigrated in 1837. Returning to Norway in 1839 Ansten Nattestad became the father of emigration from Numedal, Norway, bringing with him a large party of immigrants, who located for the most part in southern Rock County, Wisconsin, and adjacent parts of the state of Illinois. But of this movement I shall have occasion to speak more fully below.

An equally interesting instance we have from a somewhat later period. We have above referred to Ole Dyrland’s testimony of the effect of Ole Trovatten’s letters. After remarking that many still were doubtful of the advisability of emigrating he goes on to say:

The editor of Billed-Magazin gives other interviews with pioneers showing the effect of Svalestuen’s return (page 293).

Some of the Norwegian pioneers wrote books regarding the settlements and American conditions, and these, laudatory as they were, exerted not a little influence. Special mention should be made of Ole Rynning, whose pamphlet, Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika til Veiledning og Hjaelp for Bonde og, Menigmand, skrevet of en Norsk som kom der i Juni Maaned, 1837.[59] This little book of thirty-nine pages had not a little to do with the emigration that followed to La Salle County, Illinois, and elsewhere. In it the author gives an intelligent discussion of thirteen questions regarding America which he set himself to answer. Among them were: What is the nature of the country? What is the reason that so many people go there? Is it not to be feared that the land will soon be overpopulated? In what parts are the Norwegian settlements? Which is the most convenient and the cheapest route to them? What is the price of land? What provision is there for the education of children? What language is spoken and is it difficult to learn? Is there danger of disease in America? What kind of people should emigrate?

Another writer of immigration literature whose writings were widely distributed and had considerable influence was Johan Reinert Reierson. He came to America in 1843, but returned to Norway soon after. In America he had written a book, Veiviseren,[60] which he published in Norway and was read far and wide. This book contains a fund of information regarding the different settlements, as Racine County, Wisconsin, La Salle County, Illinois, and Lee County, Iowa, and others, all of which Reierson had himself visited. Reierson became the founder of the first Norwegian settlement in Texas in 1847–48.

Of the events leading up to this, Billed-Magazin for 1870 gives a circumstantial account, pages 58–60, 66–67, and 75–76. Reierson’s book seems to have been a leading factor in promoting emigration from Valders. Among the earliest to leave this region were Nils Hanson Fjeld and family of South Aurdal, Valders, who emigrated in 1847. He says, page 236 of Billed-Magazin for 1870, that before him only two or three single men had gone to America from that region. The “America-fever” had not yet taken hold of the people, “many would not give credence to mere hearsay, but after a while a couple copies of Reierson’s book about Texas came to the district. ‘Now we have the printed word to go by,’ it was said, and many of the doubters soon were converted to the orthodox faith in the land of promise beyond the great ocean.” And as a result, many began to emigrate. As early as 1848, emigration from Valders on a considerable scale was already in progress.

I shall here also mention Ansten Nattestad, who wrote a similar book, which he took with him on his return to Norway in 1838, and had printed there; this became a factor operating toward emigration, especially in Numedal. Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson’s Reise blandt de norske Emigranter i de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater, Stavanger, 1846 (124 pages), gave much valuable information about the settlements, but was not calculated to exert much influence toward emigration. The first three that I have mentioned, however, had an influence which we today can hardly fully appreciate.

Finally, curiosity and the spirit of adventure have doubtless prompted some to cross the ocean.

To sum up, the chief influences that have promoted Scandinavian emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century have been in the order of their importance: first, the prospect of material betterment and the love of a freer and more independent life; second, letters of relatives and friends who had emigrated to the United States and visits of these again to their native country; third, the advertising of agents of emigration; fourth, religious persecution at home; fifth, church proselytism; sixth, political oppression; seventh, military service; and eighth, the desire for adventure. Fugitives from justice have been few, and paupers and criminals in the Scandinavian countries are not sent out of the country; they are taken care of by the government.

On page fifty-five above I spoke of the advance troop of six men who established the Fox River Settlement in 1834. A list of those who followed from New York in 1835 was also given. Other settlers came in subsequent years, more and more now coming directly from Norway to La Salle County. The vicinity of the present towns of Norway and Leland, in eastern and northern La Salle County, became centers of a settlement, which later extended east into Kendall County (Newark and Lisbon) and into Grundy County toward Morris, as also north into DeKalb County (Rollo, Sandwich), and northwest clear into southwestern Lee County (Paw Paw, Sublette, and surrounding region). The slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt, had not come west with the first party. He lived first in Kendall and then went to Niagara Falls, being there employed in a paper mill. Here he married a Miss Chamberlain, then moved back to Orleans County. In 1839 he and his wife went west, settling in Kendall County. He bought land on the spot where the town of Newark now stands. He became well known as a lay preacher of the Haugian faith in the Fox River Settlement, also visiting the settlements founded soon after in Wisconsin and in Lee County, Iowa. He died in Kendall County in 1849 or 1850.[61]

Iver Waller, who bought a claim of Miss Pearson in 1835, came directly from Norway to La Salle County that year. Baldwin’s History of La Salle County lists Ove Stenson Rossadal and wife, and John Stenson Rossadal among the arrivals of 1835, and as being brothers of Daniel Rossadal, of whom we have spoken above. Strand’s History of the Norwegians in Illinois correctly names them as sons of Daniel Rossadal. Nils Bilden, who also came during this period (year uncertain), was therefore one of the very first emigrants from Hardanger to the United States. He settled at Rochester, Sangamon County, Illinois.

As to the extent of Norwegian immigration during the years immediately preceding the year, 1836, which inaugurates a new period in the movement, our information is very fragmentary. American statistics give forty-two and thirty-one, respectively, for 1834 and 1835, as the total immigration from Norway and Sweden. In 1833 there were sixteen, while the number for 1832 is three hundred and thirteen.[62] The total number between 1826 and 1831 is given as sixty-eight. It is probable, however, that these figures do not represent the full number of immigrants during these years. Norwegian government statistics on immigration which are available since 1836, give the number of immigrants for that year as two hundred, which is also the figure for the following year. It is to this exodus that we shall now turn.

We have above, under Causes of Emigration, had occasion to speak of Knud Slogvig’s return to Norway in 1835, after a ten years’ residence in America;[63] the results of his return were also there briefly noted. In the two ships, Norden and Den Norske Klippe,[64] which sailed from Stavanger in July of 1836, came two hundred immigrants,[65] who located for the most part in the Fox River Settlement. These stopped en route for a short time in Rochester, no doubt gathering advice and information from Lars Larson, the captain of the sloopers, resident there as we know; thence they continued their journey west to Chicago and to La Salle County. Thus the nucleus which had been formed in 1834–35 in a very short time developed into a considerable settlement at a time when the surrounding country was practically a wilderness. The immigrants of 1836 were, in part, from Stavanger, some, however, were from other districts, east and north, as especially Hardanger and Voss.

Not all who came settled in Mission and the later Miller townships, however. Some went considerably farther north and established, in Adams Township, a northern extension of the original settlement at and around the present village of Leland. The two, however, later grew together into one large settlement, extending also, east into Kendall County. The first white settler in Adams Township was Mordicai Disney, who located there in 1836, slightly prior to the coming of the immigrants from Stavanger.[66]

The first of our immigrants to locate in Adams Township where Halvor Nelson and Ole T. Olson, who in the spring of 1837, settled on sections twenty-one and twenty-two;[67] they had lived in Mission Township since their coming in 1836. Among those who came in 1836 and located in Mission Township were: Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, who in 1840 went to Wisconsin (see below), Erick Johnson Savig[68] and wife, Ingeborg, from Kvinherred Parish, Knud Olson Hetletvedt and wife, Serena (both of whom died of cholera in 1849), Osmund Thomason,[69] wife and daughter, Anne, Henrik Erickson Sebbe and two sons, who went to Salt Lake City in 1848 (see above, p. 78). Samuel Peerson and Helge Vatname also seem to have come in 1836; they are recorded as living at Norway, Illinois, in 1837, and as aiding in bringing some of the immigrants of 1837 from Chicago to La Salle County.

Some of those who came in 1836 did not go directly to La Salle County. Andrew Anderson (Aasen), wife, Olena, three sons and two daughters, from Tysvær Parish, Skjold, remained two years in Orleans County, New York, coming to La Salle County in 1838; he died of the cholera in 1849. John Hidle from Stavanger County, Norway, also emigrated in 1836, coming direct to La Salle County. In 1838 he settled at Lisbon, Kendall County, being thus the first Norwegian to locate there and as far as I have been able to find out, the first Norwegian to settle in that county (for Ole O. Hetletvedt did not come till 1839). Hidle, who wrote his name Hill in this country, married Susanna Anderson, daughter of Andrew Anderson; she was fourteen years old when her parents came to America, and is still living, at Morris, Illinois, with her daughter Mrs. Austin Osmond. Lars Bö and Michael Bö, who lived and died in La Salle County, came when John Hill did. Lars Larson Brimsöe, born in Stavanger, 1812, worked for some time as a carpenter in New York and Chicago before settling in La Salle County. In 1858 he located in Benton County, Iowa, and in 1872 went to Adams County (died 1873). Björn Anderson Kvelve and wife, Catherine,[70] and two sons, Arnold Andrew and Brunn, from Vikedal, Ryfylke, lived for a year in Rochester, New York, came in 1837 to Mission Township, La Salle County. He removed to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1839. Of Lars Tallakson, who came to America in 1836 (by way of Gothenburg), we shall speak below. Herman Aarag Osmond, born near Stavanger, 1818, also came to America in 1836. He first lived in Ohio, came in 1837 to Chicago, then to Norway, La Salle County. He settled on a farm near Norway in 1848, but bought in 1869 a farm near Newark, Kendall County; Herman Osmond died in Newark in 1888.

Some of the immigrants of 1836 located in Chicago, which then consisted of only a few houses. Among these was first, Halstein Torison (or Törison), to whom Knud Langeland accords the distinction of being the first Norwegian resident of Chicago. He was from Fjeldberg in Söndhordland, and he came to Chicago with wife and children in October, 1836. The site of his home was that now occupied by the Chicago and Northwestern Depot on Wells Street. He worked first as a gardener for a Mr. Newberry. Reverend Dietrichson speaks of him, in 1844, as prosperous and as occupying a leading position among Chicago Norwegians at that time. In 1848 he moved to Calumet, twenty miles south of Chicago, where he lived until his death in 1882.

Svein Lothe, from Hardanger, also came in 1836, as did Nils Röthe and wife, Torbjör, who were from Voss. The latter remained, however, in Rochester, New York, one year before coming to Chicago. Nils Röthe and wife were the first to emigrate from Voss, Norway. Johan Larson, from Kopervik, an island not far north of Stavanger city, also located in Chicago in 1836. He was a sailor and had, it seems, visited Chicago before; what year he came to America, I do not know. I may also mention Baard Johnson, who, with his wife and five children, settled in Chicago in 1837. Those we have mentioned form the nucleus out of which has grown today the largest Norwegian city colony in this country.

Svein Knutson Lothe, who emigrated with wife and two children from Hardanger in 1836, was from the Parish of Ullensvang. There were eleven persons in all who came from Ullensvang that year, the other seven being: Jon Jonson Aga, wife and two children, Torbjörn Djönne, Olav Öystenson Lofthus and Omund Helgeson Maakestad. Maakestad became the founder of the Hardanger settlement in Lee County, Illinois (see below). I am not able to say where Aga, Djönne or Lofthus located. There were also seven immigrants from Ulvik Parish, Hardanger, that year; they were: Sjur Haaheim and wife, Paul Dale and wife, Sjur Dale and wife and Aslak Holven. These eighteen persons form the advance guard of the immigration from Hardanger.

We have spoken of the two ships that came from Stavanger in 1836. These were followed in the next year by Enigheden (Harmony), Captain Jensen, carrying ninety-three passengers. These were for the most part from Tysvær and from Hjelmeland, and Aardal in Ryfylke, from the city of Stavanger, and from Egersund. They came to New York, thence went to Albany and Rochester, and by way of the lakes to Chicago. Most of them went to La Salle County, although not all settled there permanently. Among the passengers were Hans Valder and wife from Ryfylke, Knud Olson Eide, Ole Thompson Eide, from Fogn, near Stavanger, Thomas A. Thompson, Christopher Danielson and family, Östen Espeland and family, and Knud Danielson and family.

The sailing of Enigheden may be regarded as a continuation of the movement in Stavanger county, which was given such an impetus by Knud Slogvig’s return in 1835. Other immigrants continued to come from this region in subsequent years, but the autumn of 1837 inaugurates a change in the course of the movement to a more northerly region, Hardanger, Voss, and Bergen, for a period, contributing a large share to the now rapidly increasing numbers of emigrants.

The influence of Gjert Hovland in this new trend in the immigration should be noted. South Bergenhus now became the scene of immigration activity. At the same time it is to be observed that Hardanger had contributed its quota of immigrants in the exodus of 1836. The return of Knud Slogvig was noised far beyond the County of Stavanger. Among those who travelled long distances to see and talk with Slogvig and get personal affirmation of what reports had told of America, was Nils P. Langeland, a school teacher from Samnanger, one of the emigrants of 1837. Similarly Knud Langeland relates in Nordmaendene i Amerika, page twenty-three, how he paid a visit to Slogvig in the winter of 1836, and received from him assurance of what he had read[71] about the New World. Knud Langeland gives a most interesting account of how his interest in America became aroused; though a personal experience, it is undoubtedly typical of that of many a young man in Bergen and surrounding region at this time. As a document in immigration history, it is sufficiently significant to warrant quoting in considerable part. He says:

So far Langeland’s account. While the evidence points to many causes as operating conjointly toward bringing about the departure, in the spring of 1837, of so many from Samnanger and from Voss, the influence of Nils P. Langeland, already mentioned above, seems to have been a special factor at this particular time. Nils Langeland was already then an elderly man. He had devoted his life to the cause of popular education, but the intolerant clergy of the time found him too liberal minded and continually put obstacles in his way. Although he was supported by a group of faithful friends, his usefulness was hampered; discouraged at last, he decided to leave his native country and go to America.

This was in the summer of 1836. In the fall of that year, Captain Behrens returned with the bark, Aegir, from America, whither he had carried a cargo of freight in the summer. Langeland’s friends had already sold their homes and were preparing to emigrate. Hearing of this, Behrens decided to convert his bark into a passenger boat, and he offered to take them to America the next spring; the offer was accepted. While preparations were going on, the announcements of the projected sailing, which had been printed in the newspapers, led intending immigrants from other sections, also, to join the party. Among these was Ole Rynning, from Snaasen, in Trondhjem Province, of whom we shall speak more at length below.

On the 4th of July, 1837, Aegir sailed from Bergen with eighty-two passengers. Among these were Mons Aadland, Nils Fröland, Anders Nordvig, Ingebrigt Brudvig, Thomas Bauge and Thorbjörn Veste, all of whom had large families, and the following from Hardanger: Nils L. Jördre, wife and six children, and Peder J. Maurset, wife and child, from Ulvik Parish, and Amund Rosseland, wife and three children, Lars G. Skeie, wife and two children, Sjur E. Rosseland and Svein L. Midthus from Vikör. The last-named were the first to emigrate from Vikör. The party further included Halle Væte, wife and grown daughter, and the following persons: Odd J. Himle, Kolbein O. Saue, Styrk O. Saue, Nils L. Bolstad, Baard Haugen, John H. Björgo, Ole Dyvik, all of whom were married, besides several single men, mostly relatives of the above, namely: Dövig, Bauge, Fröland, Nordvig, Hisdal, Tösseland, et al. Each adult paid sixty dollars (Norwegian specie) for passage, children under twelve paying half price. They arrived in New York eight weeks later. The journey inland was attended by numerous expenses for which the immigrants were not prepared. When they had gotten as far as Detroit, the above-mentioned Nils P. Langeland found himself without the necessary means to continue the journey. His friends who had offered to pay his expenses as far as Chicago, at last became discouraged over the constant demands upon their funds and Langeland was obliged to remain in Detroit. Here, being a capable carpenter, he soon found work; later he removed to Lapeer County, Michigan, bought there 120 acres of land, plying at the same time the trade of a carpenter. Thus it came about that Nils Langeland became the first Norwegian to settle in the State of Michigan, though we have seen that Kleng Peerson had visited the state four years earlier. At least three others of the immigrants of 1837 located temporarily in the State of Michigan that year, namely, Ingebright Nordvig, Östen Espeland, who had come in Enigheden, and Thorsten Bjaaland. These went to Adrian, Lenawee County, but left again soon after. We shall meet Bjaaland again in La Salle County, Illinois, and on Koshkonong Prairie.

The immigrants who came in the Aegir seem to have intended to settle in La Salle County, but in Chicago were advised by two Americans not to go there. They were also partly influenced by Norwegian immigrants[72] who were dissatisfied with that locality, and who recommended Iroquois County as a more desirable location to settle. They were told that the Fox River Valley was a very unhealthy place, the settlers were dying of ague and fever, and it was a misfortune that they had ever been induced to locate there. (Knut Langeland also records the fact that the fever raged in the whole of the Fox River Valley from Muskego, in Wisconsin, to the Mississippi River in Illinois, that summer, but that the condition in La Salle was no worse than elsewhere). So the intending settlers deputed three men to explore the country for a site for a new colony.

These, Ole Rynning, Ingebrigt Brudvig and Ole Nattestad,[73] walked south along the line of the present Illinois Central Railroad, selecting the location at Beaver Creek in Iroquois County. Of the further history of this unfortunate and short lived colony, the reader may find an account in Dietrichson’s brief discussion of the settlement, or in Langeland’s or R. B. Anderson’s book. The majority of the settlers died during the spring in the low and unhealthy climate. Ole Rynning himself died and lies buried there. The few survivors left for La Salle County the following spring. Mons Aadland refused, however, to go. He remained in Beaver Creek three years longer; selling his land in 1840 for a herd of cattle and, moving north, he located in Racine County, being therefore one of the earliest pioneers in this part of Wisconsin.

Ole Rynning’s name is most closely associated with the brief history of the Beaver Creek Settlement. We have already seen above how his book, Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika, came to have a very far-reaching influence upon Norwegian emigration. This book Rynning wrote that winter in the Beaver Creek Settlement. It was printed in Norway the next year. It soon became widely distributed and continued for over a decade to exert a powerful influence upon Norwegian emigration from Voss, east to Hedemarken, and north to Gudbrandsdalen, in these latter provinces, at the close of the decade, especially.

We have, on page 86 above, observed that Rynning formulated certain questions which he set about answering for the information of intending immigrants. It will be of interest to note here the nature of some of his answers. The first question as to the nature of the country, he answers by giving a very intelligent account of the topography and climate of the country, the soil in the different parts, and of what the produce of the different sections consists. In answer to the third question, he says that the United States is more than twenty times as large as Norway, that the greater part of the country is not yet even under cultivation, and that there is room for a population more than a hundred times as great as that of Norway. There need be no fear, he says, that the country will be full in fifty years.

The fourth question as to where the Norwegian immigrants have located especially, he answers by saying, that in New York, Rochester, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans, there are said to be individual settlers; but he mentions four places where several have settled, namely: (1) Orleans County, New York, but where, he says, there are now only two or three families left; (2) La Salle County, Illinois, where, he says, there are about twenty families; (3) White County, Indiana, on the Tippecanoe River. “Here,” he says, live “only two Norwegians from Drammen, who, together, own about eleven hundred acres of land”; (4) Shelby County, Missouri, where a few Norwegians from Stavanger settled in the spring of 1837; (5) Iroquois County, Illinois. “Here,” he says, “there are eleven or twelve families of those who came last summer.”

The sixth question as to the land in these localities, he answers by praising the beauty and the fertility of the prairie. And as to the price of land, he says, that it has hitherto been $1.25 per acre, but that he has heard that hereafter land is to be divided into three classes and the price of land of the third class is to be half a dollar an acre. He then offers explicit directions as to how to go about securing land. He thereupon gives the prices of livestock at the time, and of produce, etc. A horse, we learn, costs from fifty to a hundred dollars, a yoke of oxen, sixty to eighty. A milk cow with calf, sixteen to twenty, a sheep, two to three, hogs are six to ten dollars a head, pork costs three to five shillings a “mark,” butter six to twelve, a barrel of (wheat) flour, eight to ten dollars; a barrel of cornmeal, two and a half to three dollars; a barrel of potatoes, one dollar; a pound of coffee, twenty shillings; a barrel of salt is five dollars (Norwegian). But in Wisconsin Territory, the prices are two to three times higher, while farther south, everything is cheaper.

Then he speaks of wages, of religious conditions, law and order, how instruction for the young is provided, linguistic conditions, health conditions. He discusses life in the new settlements, its trials and attendant evils. As to the Indians, he says: “They have gone farther west; one need never fear attack by Indians in Illinois.” In answer to the question as to who should emigrate, he warns against unreasonable expectations; advises farmers, mechanics and tradesmen to come, he who neither can nor will work must never expect, he says, that wealth or luxury will stand ready to receive him. No, in America one gets nothing without work, but by work, one can expect to attain to comfortable circumstances. He thereupon discusses the question of the dangers in crossing the oceans, which, he says, are less than usually imagined, and the rumor of enslavement of the immigrant. The latter he brands as false, adding, “yet it is true that many who have not been able to pay their passage, have come upon such terms that they have sold themselves, or their service, for a certain number of years to some man here in the country. Many are thereby said to have come into bad hands, and have not had it better than slaves. No Norwegian, as far as I know, has fared in this way, nor is it to be feared, if one crosses by a Norwegian ship, and with one’s own countrymen.” In conclusion, I shall cite his opinion on the slave trade which is interesting in the insight and judgment it gives evidence of, on the part of an immigrant over twenty years before the war:

Ole Rynning was born in Ringsaker, as the son of Reverend Jens Rynning and wife, Severine Catherine Steen, in 1809. In 1825, the father moved to Snaasen. Having finished his education in 1829, he taught school for a time. Then he bought a small farm[74] which he had to give up again, not being able to pay for it. His ultra democratic sympathies were displeasing to his conservative father, and an unhappy love affair, which his father disapproved of as being a mesalliance, seems, at least, to have been, in part the cause of his leaving Norway. We have recited, briefly, his short career in America.[75] Of his nobility of character and the self-sacrificing spirit he showed in helping the grief-stricken and suffering colonists in the unfortunate Beaver Creek Settlement, in the spring and summer of 1838, his surviving associates give ample testimony. His book, Sandfaerdig Beretning, was written on the sick-bed.[76] When he died, there was only one man in the settlement who was well enough to make a casket for him from an old oak which he hewed down. Rynning was buried out on the prairie, but no one knows now where the spot is.

Besides the 177 immigrants, who came to America from Stavanger and Bergen in 1837, there was a considerable number who embarked from Gothenburg, Sweden. These came mostly from Numedal and Telemarken in the south central part of Norway.

Among the immigrants of 1837 were, also, the brothers, Ole and Ansten Nattestad, from Vægli, Numedal, both of whom came via Gothenburg, and Hans Barlien, who emigrated with Enigheden. These men played such a part in the immigration history of the period as to deserve something more than a mere mention.

Ansten Nattestad may be regarded as the father of the emigration movement from Numedal, Norway, from which some of the most successful Norwegian settlements in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, were later recruited. His brother, Ole Nattestad, became the founder of one of these settlements, that of Jefferson Prairie, in Rock County, Wisconsin (also extending into Illinois); while Hans Barlien founded the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa, at Sugar Creek, Lee County. Of the circumstances which led to the emigration of the Nattestad brothers, an interesting account appears in Billed-Magazin, 1869, pages 82–83. This, which is an interview with Ole Nattestad, has been reprinted in other works and I shall not take the space for it here. We may note, however, that they had received their first news of America upon a journey to the neighborhood of Stavanger in the close of 1836. During Christmas of that year, they were the guests of Even Nubbru in Sigdal, a member of the Storthing, and it was his praise of American laws which first aroused Ole Nattestad’s desire to emigrate, as he had already had some unpleasant experiences in that respect.

In April, 1837, they stood ready to leave for America, having converted their possessions into cash, a sum of eight hundred dollars. They went on skis from Rollaug to Tin, over the mountains and through the forests to Stavanger. Halsten Halvorson Brække-Eiet, also from Rollaug, became a third member of the party. In Stavanger, local official hostility to emigration led them into difficulties, and they were forced to seek safety in flight by night. They went to Tananger, where they were more successful, a skipper contracting to take them in his yacht to Gothenburg. In Gothenburg, they secured passage with a ship which carried iron from Sweden to Fall River, Massachusetts. The journey lasted thirty-two days. Thence, they went to New York, where they met a few Norwegians, and thence again to Rochester. Here they spoke with several members of the sloop party of 1825, now living in Rochester, and they were, for a short time, the guests of Lars Olson, as so many others of the immigrants of those years. Hearing that those who had come to America in 1836 had gone west to La Salle County, they decided to go there. In Detroit, Ole Nattestad was one day walking about to view the city, and he says:

This man was one of the passengers on the Aegir, who had just then arrived in Detroit. The Nattestad party now joined these, all (except N. P. Langeland and family, as we have seen, page 102 above), going west to Chicago. Here they met Björn Anderson Kvelve, whose unfavorable account of the Fox River locality first gave them some doubt as to the wisdom of going there. Of the subsequent events, the reader has already been told. We shall meet again with both Ole and Ansten Nattestad below. Halsten Brække-Eiet later settled in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

Hans Barlien was from Overgaarden, Trondhjem; he seems to have been the second emigrant to America from that region. Of him there will be occasion to speak more in detail in connection with the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa. I desire, here, however, to mention five others, who came via Gothenburg to America in the same year, namely, Erick Gauteson Midböen, Thore Kittilson Svimbil, and John Nelson Rue, who had large families, and two single men, Gunder Gauteson Midböen and Torsten Ingebrigtson Gulliksrud. These form the advance troupe of emigrants from the Parish of Tin in Upper Telemarken, a region which furnished a large share of recruits for the pioneer colonies of Wisconsin and Iowa in the forties and the fifties. Thore Svimbil became a pioneer in Blue Mounds, Dane County, where we shall find him later. Erik Gauteson Midböen, who had a large family, settled in La Salle County, but, says our authority, “fortune was not kind to him.” He later joined the Latter Day Saints and undertook a journey to Norway as a representative of that church, returned to America and died soon after, about 1850, as near as I can ascertain. Torsten Gulliksrud also settled in Illinois, but died early. John Nelson Rue will appear later in our account as one of the founders of the earliest Norwegian settlement in Winneshiek County, Iowa.

We do not know what the circumstances were that led to the emigration of this little group from Upper Telemarken in 1837. It seems not unlikely that the news of America had come to them through copies of letters from Hovland or others, though they may also have had information more directly through Knud Slogvig’s return. The latter does not to me seem so likely, however, for they appear to have made no attempt to secure passage from Stavanger. The departure of this group from Tin does not seem to have had any immediate influence upon emigration from that region. The real exodus from Tin does not begin till 1839, and then as a part of the general movement, but this may have been aided by letters from those who went thence in 1837. The number that in this way took passage via Gothenburg that year may have been larger than we have knowledge of. While the number, two hundred, which our statistics, cited above, gives as that of the emigration from Norway in 1837 is certainly rather low, it is highly improbable that it was as high as three hundred, as elsewhere given. A conservative and reasonable estimate would seem to place it at about two hundred and forty or fifty.

Among the passengers on the Aegir, we mentioned Nils Fröland. He was one of two, the other being Mons Aadland, to first join Nils P. Langeland in his preparations for emigrating to America. With his wife and children, he located at Beaver Creek, and they were among the fortunate survivors of that colony. In 1839, he moved to Mission Township in La Salle County, and to the present Miller Township the next year. He died there in 1873. His widow (born 1798) was still living in 1895. A grandson, Lars Fruland, resides at Newark, Illinois.

Anders Nordvig, who also came on the Aegir, died in the Beaver Creek Settlement. His widow, a sister of Knud Langeland, moved to La Salle County; she died there at the age of ninety in 1892. A daughter, Malinda, married Iver Lawson (Iver Larson Bö), who came to Chicago from Voss, Norway, in 1844. Victor F. Lawson, owner of The Chicago News, is her son. Another daughter, Sarah (born 1824), married a Mr. Darnell, a pioneer of Benton County, Iowa, in 1854. Mrs. Darnell was the first Norwegian in that county. After Darnell’s death, she returned to Illinois, locating at Sandwich, De Kalb County.

Among the passengers on Aegir, Odd Himle, Baard Haugen, Ole Dyvik and John Björgo went direct to La Salle County. The first of these returned to Norway in 1844, and, while there, married Marie L. Jermo; he returned to America in 1845, and settled on Spring Prairie in Columbia County, Wisconsin, where we shall meet with him again. He died in De Forest, Dane County, Wisconsin, in May, 1893. We shall also meet John Björgo below as one of the pioneers of Koshkonong, Wisconsin. Halle Væte died in Beaver Creek, as did his wife and grown-up daughter. Kolbein Saue and Styrk Saue both went to Beaver Creek and were among the survivors; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and are to be remembered among the early pioneers there. Styrk Saue was born in Voss, September twenty-fifth, 1814; his wife, Ellen Olson (born Rekve), was born in 1816. They were married in America. Nils Bolstad settled in Koshkonong in 1840. He was one of a group of three to visit Dane County, Wisconsin, on a trip of exploration in the fall of 1839, being, therefore, the first Norwegians in that county.

Among the passengers on Enigheden was Hans Valder and wife. He was born on the farm, Vælde, in Vats Parish in Ryfylke in 1813. Having received an education he taught school in Tysvæer some years before emigrating. Here he heard much about the earliest emigration to America from Stavanger. In Detroit, Valder and Östen Espeland separated from the rest of the party and went to Adrian, Michigan. Thence they went a few miles into the country in Lenawee County to visit a small Norwegian settlement, whither Ingebrigt Larson Narvig had recently moved from Monroe County, where he had settled in 1833.[77] In the spring of 1838 Valder left for La Salle County, Illinois. Here he lived until 1853, when he moved to what is at present Newburg, Fillmore County, Minnesota, and became one of the earliest Norwegian pioneers in Minnesota. Östen Espeland and family remained at the home of Narvig a little longer than Valder, but then they also went to La Salle County.

Another passenger on Enigheden was Christopher Danielson from Aardal, in Lower Ryfylke. He was fifty-seven years old at the time of emigrating, settled in Mission Township, La Salle County, where his wife died a few years later. Danielson died of the cholera in 1849. His son, Christopher Danielson (born in Norway), resides at Sheridan, Illinois. Thomas A. Thompson, born 1812 in Skjold Parish, Ryfylke, settled in Norway, La Salle County, Illinois. In 1867 he removed to Adams County, Iowa, where he died in 1870. Lars Richolson and wife also came in 1837, and settled near Ottawa in La Salle County. Lars Richolson, as, indeed, several of the pioneers of these years, soon became one of the substantial men of the community.[78] Ole Heier, who also came in 1837, from Tin, Telemarken, located in La Salle County. He had been an ardent Haugian, but became a Mormon in Illinois, and later a Baptist. In 1868 he moved to Iowa, where he died in 1873. A son, A. Hayer, lives in Leland, Illinois. Finally there came that year Even Askvig with wife and children from Hjelmeland Parish in Ryfylke. Settling first in Indiana (Beaver Creek) they removed the next year to La Salle County, Illinois. Late in the forties they settled in Texas and at last in 1852 the parents and a part of the family located in southwestern Iowa, where Even Askvig died in 1875 and his wife in 1881.

The principal event in Norwegian immigration history for the year, 1838, is Ansten Nattestad’s return to Norway. We have seen, above, page 103, that Ole and Ansten Nattestad left the Beaver Creek settlement in the spring of 1838. Ansten went to Norway, as it seems, for the express purpose of promoting emigration from Rollaug, Numedal, while Ole went out to explore new fields. Going north as far as the Wisconsin line he stopped in what is now Clinton Township in Rock County. This place suited his fancy and he decided to settle here.

This was July first.[79] He entered a claim of eighty acres and immediately set to work erecting temporary quarters. For a year he lived alone, rarely coming in contact with a white man, and not seeing anything of his own countrymen during all that time. “Eight Americans,” he says, “had settled in the town before me, but these also lived in about as lonely and desolate a condition as I. I found the soil especially fruitful and the melancholy uniformity of the prairie was relieved here by intervening bits of woods. Flocks of deer and other game were to be seen daily, and the uncanny howling of the prairie wolf constantly disturbed my night rest, until the habit fortified my ears against disturbances of this kind.” The following summer, Ole built a cabin in which he received, as we shall see below, the first group of immigrants into that country in the early fall of that year.

The year 1838 brought a small contingent of emigrants from Voss. They were Steffen K. Gilderhus, Knud Lydvo, Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjerstad.[80] Gilderhus went to Cleveland, Ohio, being, I believe, the first Norwegian to locate there; he remained there only one year, however, going to Chicago in 1839. We shall later find him among the pioneers of Koshkonong, Dane County, Wisconsin. Knud and Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjerstad went to La Salle County, Illinois, and thence to Shelby County, Missouri, where the restless Kleng Peerson had the year before gone in search of a new locality for a settlement in the southwest (see below).

Before passing on to the emigration of 1839, it will be in order to speak briefly of a small group of emigrants from Numedal in the year 1838. The name of the leader was Ole Aasland, a wealthy farmer of Flesberg Parish. He sold out his farm and, taking with him his family and about twenty other persons, whose passage he paid for, he sailed from Tönsberg, via Gothenburg, and thence to New York. He then went to Orleans County, New York.[81] Here it seems he fell into the hands of speculators, who sold him six hundred acres of marsh land in Noble County, Indiana, for a very high price. He removed to that place soon after, it seems, with most of those whom he had brought from Norway. Sickness set in, brought on by the swampiness of the region, and many of his party died. He thereupon (next year) abandoned the land, taking with him the survivors. In the Kendall Settlement, Andrew J. Stangeland bought the land of him for a nominal price.[82] Aasland, who changed his name in this country to Orsland, lived on the so-called Norwegian Road in Kendall, till his death, about 1864. In Kendall, he accumulated considerable property. He left a wife and four children, Canute Orsland, and Harry B. Orsland (born 1828 in Kendall), the former occupying the old homestead as late as 1895, and Hallock Orsland living in Detroit, where a daughter is also living. Let us now turn to Ansten Nattestad’s journey.

According to Nattestad’s own account he went back to Norway in the spring of 1838 via New Orleans and Liverpool. In Drammen he had printed his brother’s journal, En Dagbog, and Rynning’s book was printed in Christiania. He speaks of the great interest that these pamphlets aroused as well as that of his own return. He says:

There were, moreover, a host of people from Telemarken and Numedal, who could not accompany him, as there was no more room in the ship.

In the meantime these people from Telemarken, not to be deterred long in their plans to go to the New World, immediately set about organizing their party and went to Skien to seek passage there. They were all from Tin and Hjertdal parishes in Upper Telemarken. The leaders of the party were the Luraas family, which was represented by four heads of families, in all about twenty persons of the total number of forty, composed almost exclusively of grown men and women. They embarked at Skien, May seventeenth, somewhat earlier than the party from Numedal and arrived in America before, hence it is to this group that we shall now turn our attention, leaving for the time being Nattestad and his party. The Luraas party was in all composed of eleven families, most of them being from Tin Parish. We have already, under Causes of Emigration, spoken briefly of John Luraas, who perhaps was the chief promoter of this emigration.

The party consisted of John Nelson Luraas, Knut Nelson Luraas, Halvor Östenson Luraas, Torger Östenson Luraas, Halvor T. Lönflok, Halvor Nelson Lohner, Helge Mathieson, Ole Hellikson Kroken, Östen Möllerflaten, Ole Kjonaas, Nils Johnson Kaasa, and the latter’s brother, Gjermund Johnson Kaasa, all of whom had families, besides three unmarried men, namely, Nils, Ole and John Tollefsjord. The Kaasa brothers were from Hiterdal; the rest I believe were all from Tin Parish. In Gothenburg they met another small company of Norwegian emigrants, who had just arrived there from Stavanger, bound for America. This party included Gitle Danielson, the leader of the party, from the island of Rennesö, a little north of Stavanger, and who had a large family, Halvor Jellarviken, with family, and Peder Rosöino, both with families, Erik Svinalie and sister; the party also included John Evenson Molee from Tin in Telemarken, who was at that time in the service of Gitle Danielson. In all there were now about sixty. The journey across the Atlantic took nine weeks and the journey from Boston to Milwaukee took another three weeks. The latter led by way of New York and then by canal boats, pulled by horses, to Buffalo; thence by way of the Great Lakes to Milwaukee, the most common westward route for the early immigrants. This was at the close of August. It was the intention of the emigrants to settle in La Salle County, Illinois; but in Milwaukee they were induced to remain in Wisconsin, and a site for a settlement was selected near Lake Muskego in the southeastern part of Waukesha County, about twenty miles southwest from Milwaukee.

A story is told how it came about that they did not go to Illinois as originally intended. A good-natured fat man is said to have been pointed out to them as the product of Wisconsin. On the other hand Illinois was described as a hot and unhealthy region in substantiation of which a pale, sickly man was presented as the result of life in that state. Whether this was done or not I do not know; but the story may serve as an illustration of frontier humor and immigrant credulity both.

Suffice it to say that the people of Milwaukee succeeded in diverting the immigrants from Telemarken from going any farther, but selected a site for a settlement, as we have said, near Lake Muskego in Waukesha County. Then they returned to Milwaukee to perfect their purchase of land there, the price paid being the usual one of a dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

Before reciting further the fortunes of this group of immigrants, the first to enter the State of Wisconsin, let us turn for a moment to a consideration of the larger movement. With the year 1839, emigration from Norway begins to assume larger proportions, and certain districts, which hitherto had sent very few, now begin to contribute the larger share of the number of emigrants to America. This year may very properly be said to have inaugurated the second period in Norwegian immigration history. Down to 1839 the immigration movement in Norway had not really gone beyond the provinces of Stavanger and South Bergenhus in southwestern and western Norway. Indeed, nearly all of the emigrants had come from these sections. In fact, before 1836 the movement was almost confined to Stavanger and Ryfylke. In that year it reaches Hardanger, and in 1837, Bergen. It does not reach Voss properly before 1838, although Nils Röthe and wife had emigrated from there in 1836. In 1837, as we have seen, the first emigrant ship, the Aegir, left Bergen with eighty-four passengers. Before 1839 we meet with occasional individual emigration from provinces to the east and northeast. Thus Ole Rynning and Snaasen in Trondhjem Diocese emigrated in the Aegir in 1837. The first emigrants from Telemarken also came in 1837. As we have seen above, 1837 is also the year which records the first immigration from Numedal. Among the emigrants from other parts of Norway prior to 1837 must be mentioned also Johan Nordboe, from Ringebo in Guldbrandsdalen, who came in 1832 and resided for some time in Kendall, New York, later going to Texas, and Hans Barlien from Trondhjem County, who came to La Salle County in 1837. Neither of these two men, however, were instrumental in bringing about any emigration movement in Gudbrandsdalen and Trondhjem. It is not until a much later period that these two districts are represented in considerable numbers among emigrants.

It is the year 1839 in which emigration on a larger scale takes its beginnings. Similarly, the year 1839 marks a change also in the movement of the course of settlement. Down to this time all emigration from Norway stands in direct relation to the movement which began in Stavanger in 1825, and which in the years 1834–36 resulted in the formation of the Fox River Settlement in La Salle County, Illinois. This settlement then became the center of dispersion for what may be called the southern line of settlements. All through the forties and the fifties the southern course of migration westward, which includes southern and central Iowa, stands in direct relation to early Norwegian colonization in New York and Illinois,—that is the first period of Norwegian emigration from the provinces of Stavanger and South Bergenhus (and this province only as far north as Bergen, Voss being excluded) in Southwestern Norway. In 1839 the first settlements are formed in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Muskego in Waukesha County, and in Rock County; and in 1839–40 that of Koshkonong in Dane and Jefferson Counties. These settlements then became a northern point of dispersion. From here we have a second northern line of settlement westward and northwestward into Northern Iowa, Minnesota, and the more northerly localities of Wisconsin.

Before returning now to the thread of our narrative, I wish to speak briefly of an early effort, and the only one, before the fifties, to found a settlement from the southern point of dispersion.

In 1837 Kleng Peerson, Jacob and Knud Slogvig, Andrew Askeland, Andrew Simonson, Thorstein Thorson Rue, several of whom had families, and about eight others, left La Salle County, went to Missouri and made a settlement in Shelby County; this, however, proved unsuccessful, principally on account of the lack of a market.

Peerson does not seem to have selected a very desirable locality, and he did not possess the steadfastness of purpose that would seem to be a prime requisite in the pioneer. He was too much of a lover of adventure, and hardly was a plan brought to completion before his head was again full of new dreams and fancies.

He was something of a Peer Gynt but without Peer Gynt’s selfishness or his eye for the main chance; the roving spirit dominated Peerson wholly; not until old age had laid its hand on him did he yield to the monotony of a settled life; but even then in the wilderness of Texas in the fifties. I have personal information of his life there; he took no part in the upbuilding of the community, no active interest in its progress. In a settled community he alone was unsettled; he was never able to gather himself together into concentrated action and prolonged effort in a definite cause or undertaking. A vagabond citizen, he died in poverty. The only activity we associate with his name is the adventurous wanderings of his youth.

After having spent a year in Missouri Peerson returned to Norway, evidently for the purpose of recruiting his colony, but I have no evidence that he succeeded in this. Independent of Peerson’s efforts, the little colony did receive an accession of three in 1838, namely, Knud and Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjerstad, and of one person in the fall of 1839, namely, Nils Lydvo, who had just come from Voss, Norway, with a group of immigrants from that region, most of whom remained in Chicago. The Shelby County settlement did not thrive. It was too far removed from other settlers, too far from a market; the settlers suffered want and became discouraged. The colony was practically broken up in 1840, when most of the settlers removed north into Iowa Territory into what is now Lee County. Here they established the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa. Of this we shall have occasion to speak under the year 1840. Let us now return to Ansten Nattestad and his party of emigrants, whom we left above, page 119, as about to depart for America.

Ansten Nattestad’s party of one hundred then sailed from Drammen by the Emelia, Captain Ankerson, late in the spring of 1839. It was the first time, says he, that the people of Drammen had seen an emigrant ship. Every person paid thirty-three dollars and a half (specie); they were nine weeks on the ocean, going direct to New York. They took the usual route inland and arrived in Milwaukee just at the time when the Luraas party had returned to Milwaukee to purchase land already selected in Waukesha County, as we have seen above. They urged the new arrivals to stop in Milwaukee and go with them to Muskego, but Nattestad objected, and so they continued their journey to Chicago.

Here Ansten learned that his brother had located in Wisconsin the year before. The party’s destination was La Salle County, but this changed the course of some of them. Some who had friends there did go to La Salle County, a few remained in Chicago, especially single men, but the majority went with Ansten to Clinton. All these (excepting some to be noted below) bought land and began the life of pioneers there in the fall of 1839 on what came to be known as Jefferson Prairie. Besides Ole Knudson Nattestad and his brother Ansten, those who founded this settlement were: Halvor Pederson Haugen, Hans Gjermundson Haugen, Thore Helgeson Kirkejord, Torsten Helgeson Kirkejord, Jens Gudbrandson Myhra, Gudbrand, Myhra, Erik Skavlem, the brothers Kittil and Kristoffer Nyhus, and T. Nelson. Halvor Haugen did not come with the Nattestad party, although he was in Drammen intending to sail on the Emelia. Owing to lack of room about thirty persons, including children, had to be left behind. Halvor Haugen has himself told (in Amerika, September, 1907) of the coming of these. After several days of waiting, they secured passage on a boat bound for Gothenburg, Sweden. The journey went via Fredrikshald, where another stay of two or three days took place. At Gothenburg a wait of ten days followed before the brig Bunyan, on which they were to sail, was ready. “It was certainly fortunate,” says our narrator, “that people were not in such haste then, or the repeated delays of several days duration would have been the cause of much unpleasant irritation.” Landing in Boston, the immigrants travelled by rail to Providence, Rhode Island, thence by steamboat to New York. Here they boarded the boat which was to carry them to Albany. As they were told the boat was not to leave before five o’clock in the afternoon most of the men of the party went ashore again to purchase food. When they returned however the boat had sailed having left at ten in the forenoon instead of five in the afternoon as planned. Those left behind managed to reach their destination also, though with many difficulties and unpleasant experiences. From Albany they travelled by canal to Buffalo. “Of this part of the journey,” says Haugen, “there is nothing to be said except that, like all other earthly things, this also at last came to an end.” From Buffalo the journey went by steamboat to Chicago. They did not go thence to La Salle County though undoubtedly intended originally to do so. I do not know what changed their course, but on the next day after arriving in Chicago, they went to Du Page County, Illinois, where a week later they met those who had gone with Nattestad in Captain Ankerson’s ship. The party whose coming has thus briefly been related was composed of Halvor Haugen, wife, three sons, Peder, Halvor and Andreas, and two daughters Bergit and Sigrid; Halvor Stordok, Lars Haugerud, Gunder Fingalpladsen, Engebret Sæter, Lars Dalen, Gjermund Johnson, and Sven Tufte, all of whom also had families, besides some single persons. Halvor Haugen’s family and most of the party remained in Du Page County for a time, and Peder Haugen and his brother Andreas and the two sisters secured employment there. The father, however, went with Erik Skavlem to Jefferson Prairie to help him build a house. At Christmas the rest of the party also went to Jefferson Prairie. During the winter they all lived in Skavlem’s house. This house is described as follows:

A writer in Amerika, March first, 1907, quotes one of the immigrants as speaking of the cramped quarters in the log cabin, in which the whole party lived that fall and winter; room which to one family would seem too small now. “How these settlers,” he says, “could manage in one log cabin a whole winter is a riddle to me.” The following spring Halvor Haugen also built a cabin which was always full as newcomers were constantly arriving. At the same time other cabins were erected by Kittil and Kristoffer Nyhus, Gudbrand and Jens Myhra, and Torsten Kirkejorden. Two years later all of these built new and more commodious houses.

Map of Southern and Central Norway

See Appendix for names of parishes here numbered.

The settlement thus founded exclusively by immigrants from the district of Numedal has always continued to be recruited largely from that region (see, however, below). In the following year a few more families came from Numedal, while from 1841 the accessions were considerable every year for a number of years. Among these is to be mentioned Bergit Nelson Kallerud, from Vægli, who also came in the ship Emilia, in 1839, but who does not seem to have gone directly to Jefferson Prairie. She married Jens Gudbrandson Myhra at Christmas, 1839, while his brother, Gudbrand Myhra, married Ambjör Olson (also from Vægli) in 1840. The following year they, however, moved to the Rock Prairie Settlement (see below), and in 1852 they settled in Mitchell County, Iowa. In connection with the settling of this county we shall have occasion to speak again more fully of them. Jens Myhra was born in Vægli, Numedal, in 1812.

Of the other founders of this settlement I may here add the following facts. Ole Knudson Nattestad was born at Vægli, in Rollaug Parish, December twenty-fourth, 1807. We have above given an account of his settling at Clinton. In Nordlyset for May eighteenth, 1848, there appeared a communication from Nattestad relative to this occasion, in which he rightly claims to have been the first Norwegian to settle in the state. He married there Lena Hiser in 1840; he lived in the settlement, as an influential, respected member of the community, till his death, which occurred at Clinton, May twenty-eighth, 1886. His wife died in September, 1888. They left seven children; Henry Nattestad, the oldest, at present occupies the homestead. The other children are, Charles (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), James (Dakota), Ann (Clinton), Julia (Mrs. Martin Scofftedt Lawrence, Kansas), Caroline (Mrs. Louis O. Larson, Clinton), and Eliza (Clinton). Ansten Nattestad was born August twenty-sixth, 1813, the youngest of three brothers. Ole was the next oldest.

Their father, Knud Nattestad, was a man of some means, but by the right of primogeniture, the oldest inherited the estate and he remained in Norway. Of these things and the early life of the two younger brothers, Ole Nattestad gives an account in an interview printed in Billed-Magazin, 1869, where also is a detailed account of Ansten Nattestad’s coming to America with his group of one hundred immigrants in 1839. He also there, pages 107–108, gives a description of the settlement as it was in 1869, and he has elsewhere in the columns of that magazine made important contributions to the immigration history of the years 1838–1840, which now are among the original sources of material for a history of Norwegian immigration. Relative to the further career of Ansten Nattestad I shall only add here that he became one of the substantial members of this great and growing settlement, in which he continued to live until his death on April eighth, 1889.

Hans G. Haugen was born at Vægli in Rollaug Parish in 1785. He was an old soldier, having been in the Norwegian-Swedish War of 1814, and having served in the Norwegian army for seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Sigrid Pedersdatter Valle, was born in January, 1803. The family consisted further of two sons, Gunnul and Gjermund, the former born at Vægli, April twenty-eighth, 1827, the latter on September nineteenth, 1836. The father, Hans Haugen, lived only a year after coming to America; he died in October, 1840. In 1849 the widow and two sons moved to Primrose, Dane County, Wisconsin, where we shall meet with them again. Sigrid Haugen died in Beloit in 1885. It may be added here that the family took the name of Jackson in this country. Of the circumstances that led to the adoption of this name the son gives an account which appeared in Anderson’s First Chapter, etc., page two hundred sixty-three.

Thore Helgeson Kirkejord[83] was born September twelfth, 1812; married in 1837. They had one daughter, Christie, born 1849, and who is married to Gunder Larson.[84] Thore Helgeson died in Clinton in 1871. Christopher C. Nyhus (Newhouse) was born at Vægli in July, 1812. When he came to Clinton Township he first entered claim to forty acres of land, which was later increased to a hundred sixty. He married a daughter of Halvor Halvorson in the fall of 1843. They had five children, Christopher, who died in infancy, Oliver, Christopher 2d, Torrena (Mrs. Gustav Nelson, Clinton), and Christiana. T. Nelson settled on section twenty in 1839; he married Rachel Gilbertson that year. They had five children. The son, T. T. Nelson, married Mary Tangen of Manchester, Illinois, in 1872. They have two daughters, Anna R. (b. 1875), Gertine (b. 1878).

We have seen that when Ole Nattestad settled at Clinton on July first, 1838, the country was a wilderness, he being the only white man there. He speaks, however, of eight Americans living some distance from him, in similar condition. It was less than three years prior that the first white settlers had located in the county. On the eighteenth day of November, 1835, John Inman, of Lucerne County, Pennsylvania, Thomas Holmes, William Holmes, and Joshua Holmes, of Ohio, Milo Jones and George Follmer, settled on the site of the present city of Janesville, opposite the “big rock.”[85] This was the first settlement in Rock County. Inman and William Jones had visited the locality and selected this spot in July of that year. On this occasion they had camped on the bluff on the Racine road. Our authority relates: “From this point they saw Rock Prairie stretching away in the distance to the east and south, till the verdant plain mingled with the blue of the horizon. They saw before them an ocean of waving grass and blooming flowers, and realized the idea of having found the real Canaan—the real paradise of the world.” They returned to Milwaukee, having in their ten days’ exploration of the Rock River Valley, found but one family, namely, a Mr. McMillan, who resided where Waukesha now stands.[85] Somewhat later in the year came Samuel St. John and his wife, the last being the first white woman in the county. The next year there were several new arrivals. On December seventh, 1836, townships one, two, three, and four north of ranges eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, of the fourth principal meridian, afterwards the eastern sixteen of the present twenty townships of Rock County,[86] were taken from Milwaukee County and constituted a separate county, called Rock. The county took its name from the “big rock” on the north side of the river, now within the city limits of Janesville, and an ancient landmark among the Indians and the early traders.

All these earliest settlements (1836–1837) were made near and along the Rock River. In 1838 there were four hundred and eighty settled in this region chiefly, the centers of population being already then Janesville and Beloit. Next follow Johnstown, Lima, and Milton, in the northwestern part of the county, and Union. The region west of Beloit, Newark, Avon, Spring Valley, was still wholly unsettled in the summer of 1839. The Town of Bradford, the next north of Clinton, was first settled by Erastus Dean, in 1836; there were very few before 1838. The Town of Clinton, as originally organized (1842), comprised the territory of the present town, the south half of Bradford, and portions of Turtle and La Prairie.

The first actual settlement in the present township was made in May, 1837, on the west side of Jefferson Prairie, by Stephen E. Downer and Daniel Tasker, and their wives, on the southeast side of the prairie. In July, Oscar H. Pratt and Franklin Mitchell, from Joliet, Illinois, made claims. These were the earliest. On the west side of the prairie settlement was made in October, 1837, by H. L. Warner, Henry Tuttle, Albert Tuttle, and Griswold Weaver. We recall that Ole Nattestad said that when he came to Clinton on July first, 1838, there were eight Americans living isolated at considerable distance from him. Nattestad located on section twenty. Here Christopher Nyhus also settled, while Thore Helgeson settled on section twenty-nine. Who the eight settlers were that Nattestad met, remains somewhat uncertain, but it does not seem unlikely that it was the four last mentioned, and some of the first explorers, who are named as Charles Tuttle, Dennis Mills, Milton S. Warner, and William S. Murrey.

The Town of Turtle, directly west of Clinton, was not organized until 1846. The first settlers were S. G. Colley, who located on section thirty-two, in the spring of 1838, and Daniel D. Egery, who came there about the same time, locating on section thirty-six (to Beloit, however, in 1837). Such were the beginnings of settlement east of Beloit prior to Nattestad’s coming, and it was still virtually a wilderness when Ansten Nattestad’s party came at the close of September, 1839. West of Beloit, in the Town of Newark, the Norwegians were the first, while in Avon and Spring Valley they were among the earliest groups of settlers. It is the settlement of this region, and especially the Town of Newark, to which we shall now turn.

We observed above that some of Ansten Nattestad’s party who came to Jefferson Prairie in September, 1839, did not remain there. These went fourteen miles farther west and established a settlement in the Township of Newark, which had not been settled by white men before, while a few of the members of this latter party went south from there eighteen miles, crossing the Illinois line, and located in the Township of Rock Run, in Stephenson County, Illinois.

The founder of the Rock Prairie Settlement was Gullik Olson Gravdal, of Vægli, Numedal; he emigrated from Norway with Ansten Nattestad in 1839. He came directly to Jefferson Prairie, but did not remain there. With Gisle Halland and Goe Bjöno he went west a distance to look over the country, with a view to settling elsewhere. Having arrived at Beloit, they managed here to secure a map and from it got some idea of where government land was to be had. Then they continued their journey along the Madison road seven miles farther west. Finally, he came to a place which suited him, for he found, as he says, “good spring water, as also prairie and woodland in the right proportion.” Together with Lars Röste, a single man from the Parish of Land, he then bought forty acres of land.[87] Gisle Halland bought land one mile farther east, while Goe Bjöno took a claim on a piece of land for Mrs. Gunhild Ödegaarden, three miles south of the site selected by Gravdal.

Gunhild Ödegaarden (who emigrated from Nore, annex parish in Numedal) was a widow of considerable means, who had paid the passage of several other persons. Her family, among whom were grown sons and daughters, emigrated with her to America in the Nattestad party and came directly to Jefferson Prairie. Immediately after Bjöno’s purchase of land for her in Newark Township she, with family, moved out there and had a log cabin erected, this being the first dwelling built in that township. This statement is based upon the authority of Gravdal himself, as printed in an interview on page 162 of Billed-Magazin for 1869. The History of Rock County agrees in this statement that Mrs. Ödegaarden’s log cabin, built in the fall of 1839, was the first house erected in the Town of Newark. Gunhild Ödegaarden’s name appears regularly as Mrs. Gunale (or Gunile). She is there mentioned several times, her family being extensively intermarried with the old pioneer families in the settlement.[88] Gravdal completed the erection of a cabin late in the fall, and his family having been left on Jefferson Prairie, he brought them to Rock Prairie in the latter part of November (Billed-Magazin, 1869, page 162).[89]

That same fall Gisle Halland married Margit Knudsdatter Nösterud from Rallaug Parish, Numedal, being obliged to go as far south as Rockford, Illinois, to get the ceremony performed. Their oldest child, Kristine, born in the fall of 1840, was the first white child born in that township. Gravdal, speaking of those days, says: “When I located in this region, the whole country to the west was a desert. I do not know whether there lived white people anywhere between my home and the Mississippi. The same was also the case toward the north; however, about seven miles west (east?) from my home two Yankees had settled in the wilderness. The Indians were still lords of these regions. They often visited us in our houses, but they were always friendly and courteous. We were never molested by the wild son of the desert. There was at this time an abundance of game; we saw stags in large herds, and prairie chickens literally swarmed.” There seem to have been no fresh accessions of settlers until the spring of 1841. Then Lars H. Skavlem arrived and located on section eleven. Gullik Knudson Laugen also came at the same time, and not long after several Americans moved in. Both Skavlem and Knudson had come to America in 1839, having been members of Nattestad’s party. Skavlem had, in the interval, lived on Jefferson Prairie. Gullik Knudson had remained in Chicago, as had also Gunnul Stordok, securing work there,[90] as did also two girls from Numedal, to whom they were engaged in Norway. These two couples were married the following winter, and, having saved some money from their small earnings, they decided to buy a home somewhere in the Norwegian settlement in Rock County. Knudson relates: “I walked about several days to find a location for a home, and at last came to a place on the verge of a prairie, where a rushing spring of water poured out of the ground. Here I decided to build and live, and I called the place Springen (the spring). The land about was like a desert; barring the four Norwegians who had come before me, there were no settlers. Toward the west one had to travel twenty-two miles to find white people. It was fortunate that there was an abundance of game, for what we secured by hunting was the sustenance on which we chiefly relied during the winter.” He tells how, with the first fall of snow, he and another[91] walked on skis to Beloit to buy flour, and how the tracks left in the snow by the skis had aroused considerable wonder and speculation among the Americans about there, who afterwards discovered the tracks, and that it became the subject of extensive discussion as to what unknown monster could have left such tracks. Beloit, he says, consisted then of a mill, a hotel, two stores, and a few laborers’ cottages.

From the fact of his location near the big spring, “Springen,” as Knudson called it, he came to be called Gullik Springen; his sir name, Laugen, he no longer used, but wrote himself Gullik Knudson. Here by this spring, Knudson built a hut of shrubs, thatched with straw, in which they lived for three months while the log cabin was being built.[92] The flat cover of a chest, brought from Norway, served for a table, and the cooking was done on the ground. In December the log cabin was ready. Gunnul Stordok and wife, who did not come to Newark until September, lived with Knudson during the first winter, after which they removed to Illinois.[93]

In the summer of 1841 a considerable number of Knudson’s acquaintances from Norway came; these found a temporary home with Knudson, sharing in his genuine pioneer hospitality. Among them were Halvor Skavlem and his wife, Berit, the daughter, Kari, and two sons, Ole and Paul Skavlem, the latter with wife and child, Bessie. Halvor Skavlem died one week after their arrival. The son Paul bought land; Ole first, however, went to Mineral Point, in Dodge County, returning, however, later; he settled near Orfordville. Another of this group was Halvor Nilson Aas, who, with his family, settled near Gravdahl, in Newark Township. Knut Kristensen also came in 1841 and located on section eleven, erecting a log cabin there. Finally, Ole Halvorson Valle, who later moved to Iowa, was among this number.

Several of those who had come to Jefferson Prairie in 1839 removed to Rock Prairie in the summer of 1841. Thus, Hellik Glaim, Lars Skavlem, and the latter’s three brothers, Gullik, Gjermund, and Herbrand; these all moved there upon their father Halvor’s arrival from Norway that summer. Hellik N. Brække and Nils Olson Vægli came directly from Norway in 1841. The last mentioned was from Vægli Annex to Rollaug Parish in Numedal. He was born at Vægli Parsonage and was therefore often called Nils Prestegaard. He lived at Gravdal’s the first winter; the following summer he, with two others, Paul Skavlem and Hellik Brække, bought a quarter section of land together in section thirty-two in Plymouth Township. Nils Vægli was married in 1844 to Kari Skavlem, daughter of Halvor Skavlem; they went to Koshkonong, in Dane County, to be married by Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson, who had just come there from Norway. They were one of the first couples to be married by him. Hellik Brække sold out his share in the land, and in 1852 moved to Mitchell County, Iowa. Lars Skavlem bought land and settled near Halvor Aas, whose daughter (Groe Nelson) he married in 1844; hence, he was also called Lars Aas. He later bought his father-in-law’s farm, the place being called “the Skavlen farm” (Skavlenfarmen). Gullik Skavlem bought land three miles east of Gisle Halland in Beloit Township, about three miles from Beloit; he, however, moved to Mitchell County, Iowa, in the fifties.[94] Hellik Glaim had stopped in Chicago till 1840, when he came to Rock Prairie. Ten years later he sold out and moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota.[95]

The above is a brief record of the beginnings of the Rock Prairie Settlement. Of some of the founders of this settlement, which, in a few years, became one of the most prosperous in the state, I may here add:

Gullik Gravdal, the nestor of the settlement, was born in Vægli, Numedal, in 1802; he died in 1873, leaving widow, a daughter, Sarah, and two sons, Ole and Tolle. Ole Gravdal was born in Norway in 1830; he married Jöri Ödegaarden in 1855, after which he lived for thirteen years in Beloit, then removed to Newark Township. He is at present living in Beloit, Wisconsin. Ole Gravdal dropped the latter name and used the patronymic Gulack. Tolle Gulack Gravdal was born in 1833. He married Bessie Skavlem, daughter of Paul H. Skavlem, in 1857. They lived on the farm in Newark until 1894 (Tolle having lived there fifty-five years), in which year they moved to Beloit. He died in September, 1903, leaving a widow and two children, a son, Gilbert Gravdal, in Newark Township, and a daughter, Mrs. C. E. Inman, in Beloit. A son, Henry, died in 1902, and a daughter, Nellie (Mrs. W. O. Hanson), died in the summer of 1903. Amerika for September twenty-fifth, 1903, prints an obituary notice of Tolle Gravdal, according to which his death was sudden, being stricken as he was at work. The notice says, “he was one of those who had tried the privations and the trials of pioneer life, and he was always ready to extend a helping hand to all who needed it. He enjoyed universal respect and love for his sincerity and his integrity and his lovable nature.” Sarah Gravdal, daughter of Gullik Gravdal, married Halvor Halvorson (son of Cleophas Halvorson), of Newark Township, in 1869.

Hellik Nilson Brække married a sister of Reverend C. F. Clausen’s wife; in 1852 he joined the latter’s colony of settlers in Mitchell County, Iowa. Lars Skavlem was born in 1819. He married Groe Nilson Aas in 1844; their children are Halvor, Bessie, Helen and Carolina. The son, Halvor L. Skavlem, born 1848, is a farmer in Newark Township; he married Cornelia Olmstead, in Plymouth, a granddaughter of Mrs. Gunild Ödegaarden.[96] Gunnul Stordok moved to Rock Run (see below). It seems that he had retained some of his land in Newark, for when Gunder Knudson Springen (brother of Gullik Springen) came there in 1843, he bought land then owned by Gunnul Stordok.

We shall now leave, for the present, the Rock Prairie Settlement, and observe what was taking place elsewhere during the period that has been briefly sketched here.

It has been stated that a settlement was also established in Illinois about twenty miles southwest of Rock Prairie, the same year as the latter was settled, i. e., in 1839. This came to be known as the Rock Run Settlement, from the name of the town. It lies partly in Stephenson, partly in Winnebago County. The locality is prairie, relieved here and there by bits of timber land. The foundation of this settlement is also to be accredited to an immigrant from Numedal, who came on the Amelia, in 1839. His name was Clemet Torstenson Stabæk, and he came from Rollaug Parish. With him three others located there in the fall of 1839, namely, Syvert Tollefson and Ole Anderson, from Numedal, and a Mr. Knudson, from Drammen. Stabæk was a man of considerable means. He selected land in Winnebago County, near the present village of Davis. His son, Torsten K. O. Stabæk (born in Norway[97]) married Torgen Patterson, and they lived on the farm until 1884, when they moved to Davis.[98] Kristopher Rostad and wife, Kristi, seem also to have moved to Rock Run before the close of 1839. In the following summer came Gunnul Stordok, to whom we have referred under the settling of Newark in Rock County. Stordok lived in Rock Run until 1870; he then moved back to Newark, where the rest of his relatives who had come to America had settled.[99] Gunnul Stordok was born in Rollaug, Numedal, in the year 1800; he married Mary Larson (of Rollaug) before emigrating.

Among the earliest arrivals in the settlement subsequently was Halvor Aasen, born in Numedal in 1823, and who came to America in 1841. For two years after coming to this country he worked in the lead mines at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and at Galena, Illinois. In 1843 he married Christie Olson, and bought a farm in Laona Township, Winnebago County, whither he and his wife moved in 1844. Here they lived until their death. She died in 1902, and he in March, 1905.[100]

The Rock Run Settlement was prosperous but did not grow to such proportions as its sister settlements to the north. In later years many of its earlier pioneers moved back to Rock County, as Stordok did, and as Lars Rostad and family also did in the sixties. Among those who located at Rock Run in the forties were Hovel Paulson (born 1817) from North Land Parish, Norway, who located near Davis in 1846;[101] Christian Lunde, also from Land, Norway, came to Rock Run in 1848 and later moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota; Narve Stabæk, Torsten Knudson and Nels Nelson, all three from Numedal; Gunder O. Halvorson, from Kragerö; Svale Nilson, from Bukn Parish, Stavanger; Gunder Halvorson, from Telemarken, and Lars O. Anderson. There appears a very brief account of the Rock Run Settlement by Lars O. Anderson in Nordlyset, under date of June second, 1848. According to this there were at that time twenty families, twelve unmarried men over twenty years of age, six unmarried women of over twenty years, while there were thirty-two persons below the age of twenty. The whole settlement, he says, numbers ninety persons and comprises 4,062 acres of land.

We have followed somewhat fully the immigration movement in Numedal and Telemarken in 1839, and we have also noted the fact that that year records its contingent of emigrants also from Stavanger Province. It remains here to note briefly the growth of the movement in Voss and its spread elsewhere. Nils Lydvo came from Voss in 1839, and went directly to his brothers, Knud and Ole Lydvo, in Shelby County, Missouri. At the same time came Anders Finno, Lars Davidson Rekve, Nils Severson Gilderhus, and Anfin Leidal; their destination was La Salle County.[102] The party further contained Ole K. Gilderhus, Lars Ygre, Anders Flage, Lars Dugstad, Knud Gjöstein, Anders Nilson Brække and wife, Knud Brække and wife, Magne B. Bystölen, Anna Gilderhus, and Anna Bakketun.

This party seems to have arrived in New York early in July, 1839, and to have intended to go to Illinois. We shall meet with most of them later as pioneers in Wisconsin settlements, but for a time many of them remained in Chicago, so that in the fall of 1839 and the following winter there was a considerable colony of Norwegian immigrants located in Chicago. Nils A. Lie, of Deerfield, Wisconsin, writing of this fact, says there were more Vossings in Chicago about 1840 than all other Norwegians combined.[103] Among those who remained temporarily in Chicago were Ole K. Gilderhus, Lars Ygre and Lars Rekve. The last of these worked for a year on a steamer plying between Chicago and St. Joseph, Michigan.[104] I shall give a brief sketch of him below, under Koshkonong. Anders Finno went to Koshkonong, Dane County, in 1840, but later settled in Blue Mounds, in the same county. In 1850 he went to California with a group of gold seekers and has not since been heard from by his compatriots.

Anders Nilson Brække[105] was born at Brække, Voss, Norway, February twelfth, 1818; he had married Inger Nelson in Norway. Brække located permanently in Chicago, working at first for Mathew Laflin and John Wright. He laid the foundation of his future fortune in 1845, when he purchased some property on Superior Street, on part of which he built the residence, where he lived until his death in 1887. He held many offices of public trust in the discharge of which he was able and unimpeachable in his honesty. Brække’s first wife died early leaving three children.[106] In 1849 he married Mrs. Julia K. Williams; three children by this marriage are living.[107]

In the party of emigrants from Voss in 1839 were also Arne Anderson Vinje (born 1820) and wife Martha (Gulliksdatter Kindem). From Vinje we learn that the ship, on which the twenty emigrants from Voss came that year, left Norway April sixteenth and that they arrived at Chicago in September. Vinje located first in Chicago; soon after arriving he built a log house, in which he and his wife lived during the first winter. Anders Brække, it is said, assisted him in the erection of the log house. During the winter Vinje worked on a road that was being laid out on the west side; for this work he received sixteen dollars a month. The next July however Vinje together with Per Davidson Skjerveim (who had just arrived from Voss, Norway) each with his team of oxen left for Hamilton Diggings in La Fayette. Here each took a claim of government land; of this we shall speak more at length in the chapter on Wiota.

During the year 1840 emigration from Norway was rather limited. There had been a considerable exodus in 1839 from Numedal and Telemarken. The lull in 1840 may be explained by the fact that intending emigrants in those regions were waiting for favorable news from their relatives and friends who had gone the preceding year. The settlers at Muskego, on Jefferson and Rock Prairies and at Rock Run had barely gotten located when the winter set in. Communication was of course very slow, and spring and early summer was the sailing season of Norwegian emigrants in those days. The year 1840, however, brought its quota of arrivals from Voss,[108] namely Kund J. Hylle, Ole S. Gilderhus, Knut Rokne, Mads Sanve, Baard Nyre, Brynjolf Ronve, Torstein Saue, wife, and son Gulleik,[109] Klaus Grimestad and wife, Arne Urland and wife, and Lars T. Röthe; there were twenty in all in the party. All of these it is said settled in Chicago.[110] They all came in Captain Ankerson’s ship Emelia, the same ship which carried Nattestad’s party in 1839. They were five months on this journey, arriving in Chicago in September. We shall later meet with some of these elsewhere.

A few other names from different parts of Norway are recorded among the immigrants of 1839. We have observed above that Johan Nordboe of Ringebo in Gudbrandsdalen had come to America in 1832. Though he wrote letters home it does not seem that he succeeded in promoting emigration from that section of Norway, except individually, and then not until 1839. In that year his friend Lars Johanneson Holo of Ringsaker, Hedemarken, together with three grown up sons came to America.[111] Holo did, however, not go to Dallas County, Texas, where Nordboe had settled the year before, but he first located in Rochester, New York. A man by the name of Lauman from Faaberg in Gudbrandsdalen also came with him and went to Rochester. He, however, went west a few years later, settling in Lee County, Illinois. Holo remained in Rochester two years, he and his sons being employed there on the canal. In 1841 they went to Muskego, where we shall find them in our next chapter.

Among the immigrants of 1839 we find one man from Sogn, the first to emigrate from that region to America. His name is Per I. Unde,[112] and he came from Vik Parish in Outer Sogn. He lived in Chicago it seems, the two first years he was in America. In 1841 his brother Ole Unde arrived and the two went to La Fayette County; we shall speak of both of these men later. Among the immigrants of 1839 who did not go to Muskego I may here mention Knud Hellikson Roe and wife Anna and four children who came from Tin, Telemarken. They went to La Salle County, Illinois, where they lived till 1841; thence they removed to Racine County and in 1843 went to Dane County, Wisconsin (see below).

Ole H. Hanson and wife also from Tin, Telemarken, came in 1839. They settled at Indian Creek, near where now stands the village of Leland, La Salle County, Illinois. The first winter they lived in a dugout on the same spot on the homestead where the residence now stands. Mrs. Hanson died in 1842, Mr. Hanson died three years later. The children were Ole, known as Ole H. Hanson, Alex, Betsey, Helen, and Levina. Ole Hanson assumed charge of the homestead and lived there and near Leland till his death in December, 1904. In 1855 he married Isabella Osmundson, who died in 1873. They had six children, one of whom is C. F. Hanson,[113] State’s Attorney, of Morris, Illinois.

We have seen how in the fall of 1839 the Luraas brothers established a colony near Lake Muskego in the present Waukesha (then Milwaukee) County. The locality was illy selected, being low and marshy. It was in the first place unhealthy and the settlers suffered much from malaria. Furthermore it was very heavily covered with timber and the soil which was clay yielded but small returns for their labor. The settlers therefore found it difficult enough to make a living.

As early as the next spring several moved farther south into Racine County, where the conditions were more favorable and where a thriving settlement grew up in a few years. The old settlement ceased to become the objective point of intending emigrants from Telemarken. After the cholera year 1849 most of those who survived moved away.[114] The southern extension of the settlement, which took its root at Wind Lake in Norway Township, later spread out so as to include the townships of Yorkville, Raymond and Waterford all in Racine County. The old name, “Muskego,” was retained as the designation of the new as well as the old settlement, although the settlement in Racine County is now often referred to as “Yorkville Prairie.” It is the beginnings of this settlement to which I shall now turn.

The founders of the settlement at Wind Lake in the Town of Norway were Sören Backe, son of Tolleff O. Backe a merchant of Drammen, and Johannes Johanneson. The latter was a clerk in the employ of Tollef Backe of Drammen, whom he latter deputed to accompany his son to America. He was a man of about forty years of age, of strong character and moral principles. He had some knowledge of the English language, having once lived for a short time in England. Sören Backe was a young man, evidently of little promise, whom the father sent to America ostensibly that his ambition might be kindled by American opportunities and by being placed upon his own responsibility. In company with them came also a third man, of whom I shall speak again in a later chapter, namely Elling Eielson Sunve from Voss, a lay preacher and the noted founder of the “Ellingian” sect of the Lutheran Church. These three left Drammen in the summer of 1839, and arrived in La Salle County in the fall of that year. The forest land had all been taken and was now occupied by settlers, and Johannesen seems to have been suspicious of the prairie, where land could still be had.

A contributor to the Billed-Magazin for 1869 says that the conditions of distress, the winter storms and the extreme cold on the prairies were the things that influenced them to seek a locality for a settlement elsewhere, and that they did not go north to Racine County until the spring of 1840. He says: “Early the next spring they walked north and came as far as to Wind Lake, where there was then a single settler, an Irishman. Here in the primeval forest, on the shores of the little lake they had found what their hearts desired; and they bought the piece of ground which the Irishman was cultivating, and Backe chose this place as his home.” It is to be noted, however, that K. Langeland in Nordmaendene i Amerika says that they remained in La Salle County only a few weeks and went north to Wisconsin that same fall (page forty-three).[115] Langeland adds further, that they dug a cellar in an Indian mound in which they lived during the winter.

In touching upon these facts in my article on “The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa”[116] I did not hesitate to accept this as correct, and I must now adhere to this view. My reason is that as early as the middle of the summer of 1840 a small group of emigrants were ready to leave for America with the view of settling at Wind Lake, having received letters from Backe and Johannesen, urging them to come there. Had these not located at Wind Lake before the spring of 1840 the time would have been insufficient for the second party at Drammen to have not only received word from America but also to have made all necessary arrangements preparatory to emigrating. I assume then that it was about December 1839 that Backe and Johannesen located in Norway Township. I am inclined to think, however, that Elling Eielson remained in the Fox River Settlement during the winter, and that he came to Wind Lake in the spring of 1840. During that spring and summer the brothers John, Torger, Halvor, and Knut Luraas, with their families, as also Gjermund Johnson Kaasa, located in Norway Township. Nelson Johnson Kaasa, who had emigrated in the Luraas party in 1839, remained in Milwaukee for three months and moved to the settlement in November, 1840.

Among the immigrants of 1837, who went to the ill-fated Beaver Creek Settlement in Iroquois County, Illinois, was Mons K. Aadland. We have already observed that he was the last one to leave Beaver Creek. He with family also came to Racine County in the summer of 1840. He however selected a locality on the prairie east of the Indian mound, buying a farm of a hundred and sixty acres on section thirty in Raymond Township. This part of the settlement came to be known as North Cape. The nucleus of the later extensive settlement had then assumed considerable proportions by the fall of 1840; but new accessions were soon to come.

Backe and Johannesen decided to write to friends in Norway and their letters were productive of results. In the summer of 1840 a party of about thirty persons stood ready to emigrate to the settlement in Wisconsin. The leader of these was Even Hanson Heg, the keeper of a hotel at Lier in Drammen, who sold out his property and with his wife and four children came with this party. Other members of the party were: Johannes Evenson Skofstad, Syvert Ingebretson Narverud, Helge Thomson, Ole Anderson, all from Drammen and all of whom had families, Ole Hogenson and family from Eggedal, and Knut Aslakson Svalestuen from Vinje, Telemarken. All these came to Wind Lake and located there in the autumn of 1840.

Sören Backe seems to have been a man whose generosity was as remarkable as his lack of business ability. His father, a man of considerable wealth, had supplied his son generously with funds upon his departure for America. Sören Backe evidently loaned money very liberally to those of his countrymen who were in need, and there were many of these here as in all pioneer communities. It is said that when his funds were used up he made a journey to Norway for more money. With this he purchased land, which he let out on easy terms to new comers from Norway. It was Johannesen who had charge of these transactions in which it seems Even Heg was a partner with Backe. Johannesen is described as a devout christian, a zealous adherent of the Haugian tendency, and in every way a noble character. As we have seen, the settlement developed rapidly, and it continued to grow for many years. Backe and Johannesen then joined partnership and started a store; for this purpose an Indian mound was excavated, the walls were sided with boards, and this structure, which was partly underground, served as store, living room and kitchen combined. Their stock of goods was shipped from Milwaukee, itself then only a village of one or two stores, a hotel and half a dozen pioneer cabins. Backe and Johannesen continued their business together for about three years when Johannesen fell ill and died (in 1845). That same year Backe returned to Norway and settled on his father’s farm Valle, in Lier, near Drammen.

Even Heg was a leading spirit in the settlement in Norway and surrounding townships during his life-time. Much has been written about him and I shall not here repeat the eulogies elsewhere voiced in his honor. After Johannesen’s death it was Heg upon whom the settlers in the early days of the colony leaned for advice and it was Even Heg to whom every new arrival from Norway to the colony came for help and counsel. His hospitality and his resourcefulness in the aid of his compatriots was boundless. Heg’s barn, where large parties of immigrants were received every summer, and in which they were permitted freely to make their home during the first weeks after the long and arduous journey, is famed throughout many an early settlement in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The log cabins of the settlers were too small to afford the necessary quarters for the numbers that continuously flocked in, and the large barn was a boon for which they were truly grateful. For a time Racine County became the objective point of most of the immigrants from Norway, a distinction which however it was soon to share with the still more famous Koshkonong Prairie in Dane County, Wisconsin.

Of Elling Eielson I shall speak below, as also of Hans C. Heg, son of Even Heg, and of some of the other Racine County pioneers. I wish to add here a few words of Mons Aadland, who as we recall, came to America in 1837, and located at North Cape in 1840. Aadland was born near Bergen, Norway, in April, 1793, being thus forty-four years old when he emigrated. He was one of the few survivors of the Beaver Creek Colony in Illinois. As we have seen, he is the founder of the North Cape branch of the settlement. There he lived till his death in 1869, his wife having died two years before. A settlers’ history says of him: “He was a man of generous spirit, as is shown by his liberal gifts, and one who took a commendable interest in public affairs.” Ten years before his death he owned between five and six hundred acres of land which he then divided among his children. Thomas Adland and Knud Adland both of Raymond Township are his sons, while a daughter, Martha, lives in Norway; the other children are dead.[117] Mons Aadland was a nephew of Nils P. Langeland whom we have spoken of above page 100.

The immigration of 1841 was not extensive. Backe and Johannesen do not seem to have continued their propaganda of immigration; but the party who came with Even Heg wrote home letters full of praise of the New World. But even in the face of such tempting exhortations the old world resident requires time for thought before he decides to bid farewell to the home of his fathers and seek his fortune in a strange and distant land. I am not aware that anyone came from Drammen or Telemarken to Racine County in 1841.[118] Knut Roe and wife located in Racine County, however, in 1841, but they came from La Salle County, where they had settled in 1839. In 1842 there were several arrivals. Thus Hermund Nilson Tufte with wife Kari and three daughters came from Aal Parish in Hallingdal. This was the first family to emigrate to America from that province.[119] In that year came also Aanund Halvorson Bjoin, wife and family from Tin, Telemarken, and John Jacobson; further, Halvor Larson Lysenstöen (Modum) from Hadeland, Norway, the first immigrant from that region, and Helge Sigurdson and wife Bergit Olsdatter, who however, removed to Dane County in 1844.[120] John J. Dale from Norway, who had come to America in 1837 and settled in La Salle County, Illinois, came to Racine in 1842; his wife Anna had died in Illinois in 1839. Another of the immigrants of 1839 came to Muskego in 1842, namely John Evenson Molee. He had lived in Milwaukee the preceding three years; I shall speak of him below. There were individual accessions to other settlements in 1841–42, but they are few in number. With 1843 the immigration movement receives a new impulse, but the discussion of that year will better be postponed until we have recorded the founding of some other important settlements in 1840–42.

The genesis of the settlement of Koshkonong Prairie[121] in Dane County, Wisconsin, the most noted undoubtedly of all Norwegian settlements in America, dates from 1840. The recital of this event, however, will take us back to the preceding year; for the first visit of Norwegians to Dane County, is, I believe, correctly recorded as having taken place in 1839. Before discussing the first coming of Norse pioneers to Koshkonong I shall mention a few “first settlers” in Dane County, who preceded the Norwegians; to do this will help to give us a better idea of the state of wilderness which they found there, and which they in a few years transformed into a settled and thriving community.

The townships in Dane County in which the Norwegians settled most extensively are found in three groups, viz.: in the southeastern, in the northern and in the southwestern part of the county. The first of these comprises originally Albion, Christiana and Deerfield; from this region the settlement soon grew into Dunkirk and Pleasant Spring, and from the latter north into Cottage Grove.[122] On the east it extends into Sumner and Oakland townships in Jefferson County. This settlement came to be known as Koshkonong Prairie, though properly the name applies only to the two first-named towns and adjacent portions of Pleasant Spring and Deerfield. The second settlement includes the townships of Burke, eastern Westport, Vienna, Windsor, and northwestern and central Bristol. The western portion of this settlement is generally known by the name of the Norway (or Norwegian) Grove Settlement, from the post-office of that name in Vienna Township around which it lies. In its northern extremity the settlement extends into Columbia County, northeast into Spring Prairie and Bonnet Prairie and northwest past the village of Lodi. This whole region is in reality a northern extension of the Koshkonong Settlement.[123] It is also from four to eight years later in order of formation.[124] Our third group of townships comprises Primrose, Perry, Springdale, Blue Mound and that part of Verona Township which lies east of Blue Mound Creek.[125]

In the Town of Albion the Norwegians were the earliest settlers, for some of them came as early as the spring of 1841, as we shall see below. The History of Dane County, 1880,[126] says, page 838, that Freeborn Sweet, from New York, was the first settler in the town; and yet on page 1189 we are told that he was “one of the first settlers.” As he did not arrive until August of that year he clearly was not the first. The next earliest American settler seems to have been Samuel T. Stewart of Massachusetts, who located on section fourteen in the fall of 1841.[127] The first white settler in the Town of Christiana was William M. Mayhew who came in 1837, and located on section twenty-eight. The next arrivals were Norwegians (see below).

The first settler in Pleasant Spring seems to have been Abel Rasdall, who located his cabin on the eastern shore of Lake Kegonsa, about half a mile south of the inlet; the year of his arrival, however, cannot be given definitely and I am not able to say with certainty whether he preceded Knut H. Roe (see below) or not. In the Town of Deerfield the first settlement was made by Norwegians in 1840; as we shall show below; however, Philip Kearney had erected a house on section eighteen in 1839; he remained the only American there for several years.

The first settlers in the Town of Rutland were Joseph Dejean, John Prentice and Dan Pond, who located in its southern part in 1842. John Nelson Luraas may have been the first settler in Dunkirk; he came in 1843, and was followed soon after by John Wheeler,[128] Chauncey Isham, and Mitchel Campbell. In the towns of Cottage Grove, Burke, Windsor, and Bristol, Americans preceded Norwegians by several years, as also in Blue Mounds, where Ebenezer Brigham located as early as 1828, or some sixteen years before that part of the county actually became settled.

The Township of Springdale was settled first in 1844, when John Harlow entered it, he remaining the only white man there for a year. A few Americans came in 1845, then Americans and Norwegian immigrants in 1846. An American settlement was effected by Thomas Lindsay and David Robertson in the Town of Bristol (section seven) two years before Norwegians came there, which was in 1847. The earliest settler, however, seems to be William G. Simons who entered in 1838. The first white settler in Perry Township was John Brown of Indiana, who came into the town in 1846. A few other Americans (as B. K. Berry in 1847) preceded the Norwegians, whose coming dates from 1848. In the Town of Primrose, Robert Spears and family were the first comers (1844); a few other Americans had also arrived there before Christian Hendrickson located in the town in 1846. We shall now turn to the events that led to the establishment of the extensive Norwegian settlement on Koshkonong Prairie in the southeastern part of the county.

We have seen that most of the immigrants from Voss, Norway, who came in 1839, located either in Chicago or in La Salle County, Illinois. It has been observed also that not all of those who went to the Fox River region located there permanently. The land here was now mostly taken, besides our pioneers from Voss did not like the prairie; they were in search of a location where timber and water was near at hand. And so some of them decided to try their fortune in Wisconsin, where they had heard there was plenty of forest land with many lakes and rivers.

Our party from Voss had been in La Salle County only a few weeks, when three of them decided to go and investigate for themselves. These three were Nils Bolstad, Nils Gilderhus and Magne Bystölen. They engaged Odd J. Himle (who had emigrated from Voss in 1837), then living in Illinois, to accompany them as their guide and interpreter. Bystölen, being taken sick and thus prevented from going, gave instructions to the rest to select land for him if the region was satisfactory to the rest. Bolstad, Gilderhus and Himle started on foot for Milwaukee, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles. Having arrived there in safety, they procured maps and whatever information they could with reference to the regions that were open to settlement in the interior of the state. Then they walked west about eighty miles inspecting the land on the way, and after two weeks reached the eastern part of Dane County.

The spot where they stopped was about two miles east of the site of the present village of Cambridge. Here a man by the name of Snell had shortly before established a tavern for trappers and frontiersmen; with him our party of homeseekers put up, and from him they received instructions as to the “government markings” of the sections and the stakes placed at the corner of sections and quarter sections, giving the number of each.

After a two days’ rest they continued their tramp westward to Koshkonong[129] Prairie. Himle, Gilderhus and Bolstad inspected the whole prairie from one end to the other, walking about for two days. Then they returned to Cambridge, finally deciding on a parcel of land a little over two miles northwest of that place, lying on both sides of the boundary line between the towns of Christiana and Deerfield. Here Gilderhus and Bolstad selected forty acres each, and forty for Bystölen. This locality was chosen because of its abundance of hardwood timber, and besides there was plenty of hay on the marshes and fine fishing in Koshkonong Creek near by.[130]

Having thus made their choice of land, Gilderhus, Bolstad, and Himle returned to Illinois by way of Milwaukee, walking the whole distance; they remained in La Salle County through the winter. Their account of the land of promise which they had discovered, aroused much interest, and, as we shall see below, brought others in their train later. Early in the spring of 1840, Gilderhus and Bolstad, accompanied now by Magne Bystölen and also Andrew Finno, started for Koshkonong, driving, this time, in wagons drawn by oxen. They arrived there at the end of April and immediately took possession of the land selected. The land that had been chosen for Bystölen was inside the Christiana Township line, where Anders Finno also now located. Nils Gilderhus’s land lay within Deerfield Township; he was the first Norwegian to locate there. He built a log cabin, which was the first house in the town. Nils Gilderhus and, I believe, Nils Bolstad, soon after walked to Milwaukee and filed their claims at the government land office, Nils Gilderhus being the first in the party to purchase land. The date of the purchase is May sixth, 1840; the land is the south half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-five. Nils Bolstad entered on forty acres of section two in the Town of Christiana, and Magne Bystölen’s forty acres lay directly east of Bolstad’s in the same section.[131]

Their first habitation was a hurriedly built log cabin; it was not plastered, and, as we can believe, proved inadequate as a protection against winter, which was already setting in. Here they experienced the intensest suffering from cold,[132] until, the condition becoming intolerable, they dug out a cellar against an embankment, where they lived during the remainder of the cold season. In this “dugout” Nils Gilderhus and Magne Bystölen continued to live another year, but Nils Bolstad erected a log cabin in 1841, when he married Anna Vindeig, who was the first white woman in the locality. Gilderhus erected a cabin in the town of Deerfield near the Christiana line in 1842, but he sold out in 1843 to Gulleik Thompson Saue; for further facts about these men see below. Andrew Fenno and Odd Himle did not purchase land.[133]

We shall now turn to the two other groups of settlers on Koshkonong in 1840.

Among the immigrants who came from Rollaug, Numedal, in 1839, was Gunnul Olson Vindeig, though, as we have seen, he did not come in Nattestad’s party. Through the illness of a child he was prevented from emigrating with Nattestad, as he had intended. Coming later in the year, he went via Chicago, directly to Jefferson Prairie, where he remained during the winter. In the early spring of 1840, about the time our Vossings, spoken of above, are moving north to locate on their claims, Vindeig built or bought a boat at Beloit, and this being ready, he, with a companion, Gjermund Knudson Sunde, rowed north along the Rock River, up Koshkonong Lake and Koshkonong Creek, into the Town of Christiana.

That the journey should have been made in a boat up Rock River against the stream, may sound like a legend; why not have walked this comparatively short distance (about forty miles), just as Gilderhus and party had walked the much longer distance from La Salle County? The Norwegian pioneers were good walkers and seem to have loved walking. Vindeig evidently did not. That he actually navigated up stream I take, however, not to be merely a local or family legend, for it is vouched for by his subsequent neighbors and comes down to us on good authority. I myself visited Ole Gunnulson, Vindeig’s son, who is still residing on the old homestead, last August (1908), and also received his confirmation of the route his father took in the spring of 1840. Lars Lier, a neighbor of Ole Gunnulson, is cited by Prof. R. B. Anderson as having been told by Gjermund Sunde himself, that they had tied the boat a little below the Anikstad ford, where the Funkeli bridge was afterwards built. Evidence comes also from some of the oldest pioneers of the locality, as Halvor Kravik and Jens P. Vehus.

Gunnul Vindeig and Sunde returned soon after to Beloit, as they had come, by way of the Rock River. Thereupon Vindeig, with his wife, Guri, and two sisters, moved from Jefferson Prairie via Milton, to Koshkonong, driving in a covered wagon, and proceeded to take possession of the land he had selected. He soon had erected a cottage of one room, with an attic accessible by ladder.[134] The land which Vindeig located on is the south half of the northwest quarter of section thirty-four. There he lived until his untimely death by accident in October, 1846.[135]

Gjermund Sunde selected forty acres of land directly north of Vindeig’s home, which he later, however, sold to Ole Lier. The land which Vindeig purchased was recorded in the land office at Milwaukee on May twenty-second, 1840, just sixteen days after the purchase by Gilderhus and Bolstad was recorded. There has been much discussion as to whether the Vossing party or Vindeig built the first house in the Town of Christiana. Our first group of settlers had selected their land the fall before and came north in April, 1840. We have seen that the large log-cabin they constructed was hastily and poorly built. I assume that either they all together, erected this immediately upon arriving and taking possession of their claims in 1840; or else, the hewing of timber and the erecting of the cabin was begun by the two who remained, while Gilderhus and his companion went to Milwaukee to file their claims. It might then have been built at the close of April, or more probably, the beginning of May. Now Vindeig’s purchase was recorded May twenty-second; but as he seems to have gone direct from Jefferson Prairie to Koshkonong, he evidently had built his cottage and shelter for the family before he started for Milwaukee. There can, therefore, have been very little difference in time between the two. Absolute proof of the priority of either, it is not possible to obtain, it seems to me, but I am inclined to think the cottage erected by Gilderhus, Bolstad, and party, was the first.

Let us now turn to our third group of settlers, most of them immigrants from Stavanger, who were living in La Salle County. These four men were Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, Björn Anderson Kvelve, and Lars Olson Dugstad. The first of these—Bjaaland—had come in the sloop in 1825; he is the only slooper who came to Wisconsin, and the last of that party whom we shall meet in our excursion down through the years of immigration. The second of this group was also from the Province of Stavanger, being born on the Island of Moster in 1806. We have seen that he came to America in 1836, and that he had settled in La Salle County, where he lived for four years. The third member of the party, Björn Kvelve, we have also met with among the arrivals of 1836; he had been living mostly in Chicago and La Salle County. He had come from Vikedal Parish in Ryfylke. Three other men, Erick Johanneson Savik, Lars Scheie, and Amund Anderson Rossaland, intimate friends of Kvelve, were of the party, but these did not settle on Koshkonong.

In the spring of 1840, these seven men decided to go north in search of homesteads.[136] From Gilderhus and Bolstad they had received information of Koshkonong and they decided also to go there and inspect the locality. About the middle of May, I take it, they started on foot for Wisconsin. The way led by Shabbona Grove, in De Kalb County, through Rockford, Beloit, Janesville, and Milton. They crossed the Rock River at Goodrich’s Ferry, now Newville, then pushed on until they reached the southern line of Dane County, stopping in the Town of Albion, near Koshkonong Creek,[137] and about four miles north, slightly by east, of Lake Koshkonong. Here they found country that suited them in every way. Björn Kvelve is said to have exclaimed: “This is indeed the Land of Canaan!” Here woods were plentiful, the soil was rich, a vigorous winding stream teeming with fish, ran near by, and not far off there was a large lake.

We see that the Stavangerings, as the Vossings, looked for wood and water; they did not realize the superior advantages of the prairie, and that it would yield much quicker returns for their labor. And yet there was good reason for their choice, and we shall find that quite often the early Norwegian pioneers located in a woodland tract near a stream or a lake. It was undoubtedly an inducement to build near a wood, where the timber for the usual log-cabin was near at hand, and it was highly desirable to locate within access of that primary necessity of life, water. In this region, then, our party selected land. Amund Hornefjeld chose the east half of the southeast quarter of section one,[138] and Björn Kvelve, the west half of the same quarter section.

Thorsten Bjaaland chose eighty acres immediately north of Kvelve’s, consequently in section two, while Lars Dugstad took the east half of the southwest quarter of section one. Having made these selections,[139] they walked to Milwaukee to file their claims and perfect their purchase.[140] This is recorded at the land office under date of June twenty-second, 1840, just one month, therefore, after entry was made of Vindeig’s claim in section thirty-four in Christiana, the next township and section north. Amund Rossaland selected a piece of land near that of Björn Kvelve, but he was later informed that it had already been taken;[141] so Rossaland did not settle on Koshkonong, but went to Jefferson Prairie, as did also Lars Scheie, thence again elsewhere.

The whole party then returned to La Salle County, Illinois, and did not move to Albion Township and take possession of their land before the spring of 1841. Erik Savik became ill upon their return to La Salle County when he was asked if he, too, didn’t wish to go along to Milwaukee and purchase land, he answered: “I think I can get a bit of ground here from Ole Middlepeint.”[142] His prophecy proved true, for he died there in June, 1840. Erik Johanneson Savik and wife, Ingeborg, had emigrated from Kvindherred in 1836, locating in Rochester, New York. A son, John, was born to them there in December, 1836. The following year they seem to have removed to La Salle County, Illinois. Their daughter, Anne Berthe, was born there in November, 1838.

Early in the spring, Kvelve and Bjaaland moved to Koshkonong with their families, following the same route they had taken before. Bjaaland drove a yoke of oxen, and Kvelve a yoke of black steers, which were not yet broke, says Arnold A. Anderson, oldest son of Kvelve, and who was in the party; both teams were hitched to a wagon owned by Kvelve. Kvelve’s family consisted, at the time, of wife and four children, two daughters having been born since the arrival in America in 1836.[143] Thorsten Bjaaland (born in 1795 in Haa Parish, about thirty [American] miles south of Stavanger, Norway) was still unmarried when he came to Dane County, as was also Lars Dugstad. The latter evidently came north from La Salle County about the same time as Kvelve and Bjaaland. Amund Hornefjeld married Ingeborg Johnson, widow of Erik Savik, in La Salle County, in June, 1841, and he, with wife and her two children, came north to Albion a few weeks later.

It was, therefore, just twelve persons who located in northeastern Albion Township that spring. The Hornefjeld family moved directly into the shanty Amund had built before leaving in 1840. Dugstad made a dugout on the side of a hill near the creek, in which he continued to live till 1855, when he married and moved into a large log-house. Björn Kvelve erected a log-house on his farm immediately upon arriving in 1841, the logs having been cut by men engaged to do so, during the winter of 1840–41. These men were Lars Kvendalen and Knut Olson Vindeig. We shall now pass to the account of their arrival, and that of others who came in 1840–41.

As the first explorers of Koshkonong from La Salle County, Illinois, in 1839, attracted others in their train from the same region the following year, so Jefferson Prairie and Chicago sent new recruits following Gunnul Vindeig in the summer of 1840. The first of these were the two we have mentioned at the end of the preceding chapter, namely, Lars Kvendalen and Knud Vindeig, a brother of Gunnul; both were single men. They came there early in the summer of 1840, and met in Albion Township Björn Kvelve and Lars Dugstad before these had left for Milwaukee and Illinois in June, 1840. Knud Vindeig and Lars Kvendalen (the latter also from Numedal) came to America in the fall of 1839. Another brother of Gunnul, namely Hellik Vindeig, and two sisters, Berit and Anna, came to America in the fall of 1840. As said, Kvelve met Knud Vindeig and Kvendalen in Albion Township in the summer of 1840, and he engaged them to split rails during the winter of 1840–41, so as to have them ready at hand when he should come there to locate with his family in 1841.[144] These two men did not take land, but worked for a time for others in the settlement.

In the autumn of the same year came Hellik Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen (generally called Nils Halling), but the latter did not remain there long. The sister, Anna, married Nils Bolstad in 1841 (see above, page 171). About a year later Berit married John G. Smith, a man who played a role as both doctor and preacher among the pioneers in the forties. There were no further additions to the southern part of the settlement in the fall of 1840, so far as I know.

Late in the fall of that year Lars Davidson Rekve[145] came to Koshkonong and selected land in the Town of Deerfield. Entry of this was made at Milwaukee on December eighth, 1840; the land was the south half of the southwest quarter of section twenty-eight, about a mile south of Deerfield, and two miles northwest of the eighty acres selected by Gilderhus in the spring. Together with Rekve came also Ole K. Gilderhus, who had immigrated from Voss, Norway, in 1839. When they reached Albion they stopped over night at the house of Thorsten Bjaaland, who had not yet returned to Illinois for the winter. Then they travelled north until they came to the place where the four settlers from Voss had erected a log cabin the spring before. Not having the means wherewith to make improvements on his land, Rekve soon after (summer 1841) went to Muskegon, Michigan, where he secured employment in a sawmill. He did not settle in Dane County before 1842.

If now we pass on to the year 1841, we shall find that there were several accessions to the Koshkonong settlement in that year. It is to be observed, first, that a small group of immigrants came from Voss in 1841. They were: Anders Nilson Lie, with wife, Gunvor Sjursdatter (Gilderhus), and two children, Rasmus Grane, Ole Grane, Kolbein Vestreim, Nils Vikje, Lars J. Mön, Knut Larson Böe, and Anna Solheim. These had emigrated with a small brig that carried iron to Boston; thence they went to Racine County, Wisconsin, and Koshkonong, by the usual route. John Haldorson Björgo, who had emigrated from Voss in 1838, as we have seen, also came to Koshkonong in the spring of 1841, and Ole Severson Gilderhus[146] came a short time after. The latter had emigrated in 1840, having remained in Chicago during the winter. Björgo settled in the Town of Christiana in section nine, Ole Gilderhus a little farther north in Deerfield Township. “None but Norwegians were then living in these regions,” writes Björgo twenty-seven years later.[147] Björgo and Ole Gilderhus had, of course, arrived before Anders Nilson Lie.

During the first winter John Björgo lived in a small log-house; his nearest white neighbor lived about three miles away. As he was unmarried he was obliged to cook and do all his own housework. Near by an Indian tribe had erected a camp, where they remained from that fall until the next spring. Björgo says of them that they were friendly and neighborly, and he never suffered inconvenience because of them; “they were often my guests, as I also visited them, and it never occurred to me to have any fear of the son of the desert. Nor did they ever give me cause for that; for they were peaceful and gladly shared their meagre supplies with those who needed their help.”[148]

Let us now return to the party of eleven persons who came with Anders Lie. The son, Nils A. Lie, Deerfield, Wisconsin, writes that after a long and trying voyage they arrived in Boston whence they went to Racine, arriving there in December. There they hired two Swedes to take them to Muskego, where the Lie family and one other family stopped with Even Heg. Lie’s destination was the home of his brother-in-law, Nils Gilderhus, in Dane County. Leaving his family, he soon after set out on foot for Koshkonong, not meeting anyone he could speak with before he reached Fort Atkinson. Here an American took him across the Rock River in a canoe, and by waiting there a day he was joined by two immigrants from Numedal,[149] who walked with him as far as Koshkonong. Thence he continued north to his brother-in-law’s place in Deerfield Township. We have seen that Nils Gilderhus made a dugout early in the winter of 1840–41, having found the cabin they had built in the spring too cold. In this dugout Anders Lie and family[150] also lived during the winters of 1841–42 and 1842–43. In the meantime Anders Lie worked for others, saving up all he could with a view to buying a home for himself.

In 1843 he bought forty acres farther west in the northeast corner of the town of Pleasant Spring, becoming the first Norwegian to settle in that township; selling this out in the fall of 1844 to Peder Gjerde, he located on section thirty-two in Deerfield Township, where he lived most of the time till his death in 1907.[151]

Just how long the rest of Anders Lee’s party remained in Muskego I am not able to say at this moment. Nils Lie writes in 1902 that they all came to Koshkonong, and I accept that as authoritative; but I may add that the names of Grane, Vikje, Vestreim, Mön, or Böe, do not appear in the roll of members of Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson’s church in Koshkonong for the years 1844 to 1850, which is elsewhere published in this volume. Nor have I been able to trace them in the towns of Christiana or Deerfield in the years 1842 to 1844. They do not appear as purchasers of land, and probably left for other regions soon after coming to Koshkonong. One member of the group who came from Voss in 1839, with Ole K. Gilderhus and others, did soon after come to Koshkonong, however, namely, Knut Brække. He and his wife located in Deerfield Township in 1843; it was he who, in 1844, bought the large log-cabin built by Nils Gilderhus in 1840. He then removed it farther southeast (in the same town), where later it became the property of Erik Lee, the father of Andrew E. Lee, of South Dakota.[152]

There were also several accessions from Numedal in 1842. The first of these, I believe, were Jens Pederson Vehus, from Nore Annex of Rollaug Parish, Numedal, and Thore Knudson Nore and sons, Knut, Lars, Ole and Sæbjörn, also from Nore.[153] With them came also Halvor Funkelien, a native of Kongsberg. Jens Vehus was a brother of Gunnul Vindeig’s wife. All three of these came directly from Norway. Jens Vehus settled about three-quarters of a mile southeast of Gunnul Vindeig, on the north half of the northeast quarter of section thirty-five. Later in the summer, and in the fall, this locality received new recruits from Numedal, who came for the most part directly from Norway via New York, Milwaukee, and Muskego, to Koshkonong. Others came from Chicago, La Salle County, and Jefferson Prairie, principally to the towns of Christiana and Deerfield.

Among the immigrants from Numedal who located there later in the year of 1842 were: Ole Helgeson Lien, wife Turi,[154] and children, Barbro and Ole, from Nore; Niels Olson Smetbak, wife Barbro Olsdatter, and family, from Nore; Mrs. Ole Bakli (Bagley), widow, and her son, Ole, from Flesberg; Björn Guldbrandsen Mörkvold, wife Asbjör and son, Guldbrand; Hellik Gunderson Hvashovd and wife, Marit, from Flesberg; Hellik’s parents, Gunder Gunderson Hvashovd and wife, Kirsti; Mari Guldbrandsen (cousin of Gunnar Hvashovd) and her daughter, Kristi (born Kristoffersen 1826); Herbrand Tollefson Mörkvold and son, Ole, and daughter, Ragnild; Torstein Levorsen Bergrud, wife Kirsti Gundersdatter (born Hvashovd) and son, Levor, from Flesberg; Thore Olson Kaasa, wife Anne Torsteinsdatter, and daughter Aslau, from Rollaug; Ole Amundson Buind, wife Helene (Brandt), and daughter Anne, from Flesberg; Gjertrud Olsdatter Sælabakka (born 1822), from Rollaug; Juul Gisleson Hamre (born 1805), with wife Anne Gundersdatter, and children, Gisle, Kjersti, and Gunder, and his sister, Anne Gislesdatter, from Flesberg (born 1797); Hellik Helliksen Foslieiet (born 1812), his wife Sigrid, and children, Hellik (born 1833), Anders (born 1835), Marit (born 1838), Christoffer (born 1841).[155]

Of those mentioned here the Hvashovd, Hamre, and Bergrud families, Mari Gulbrandsen and her daughter, Christi, and one or two more, nineteen in all, left Flesberg, Numedal, in May and arrived in Muskego in October. Here they stopped two or three weeks with Even Hegg, whose wife was a relative of Mari Gulbrandsen. Some early settlers on Liberty Prairie (Koshkonong) took their baggage to Koshkonong while the immigrants walked. These facts are told me by Reverend K. A. Kasberg of Spring Grove, Minnesota, as related by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Halvor Kravik, who was in the party (she was Kristi Kristoffersen). She relates also that “in the spring (hence 1843) she and her mother walked to Madison to get work. There was only one house on the whole road, that of an American family; but their friendly ‘come in, come in’ (Norwegian kom ind, kom ind, but pronounced alike) was easily understood. Here we were well entertained over night.”

From Telemarken the following came:[156] Richard Björnson Rotkjön (born 1816), and brother Aslak (born 1826), from Vinje; Torstein Torsteinson Gaarden, from Tin; Ole Höljeson Yttreböe, with wife, Margit, and children, Johanne and Anne, and Halvor Hansen Dalstiel (Dalastöl), from Hvideseid; Ole Torsteinson Aasnes, wife, Ingeborg, and daughter, Hæge, from Vinje; Ole Gulliksen Barstad (born 1791), wife, Ingeborg Jonsdatter (born 1799), and children, Vetle, Eivind, and Halvor, from Siljord; Ole Olson Haugan, from Siljord; Torbjörn Havredalen, wife, Lisa, and family, from Vinje;[157] and Gunhild Saamundsdatter (born 1798), from Laurdal. Furthermore Guro Olsdatter (born 1821), from Nissedal, and Thomas Johnson Landeman (born 1804), from Sandsværd; and Torbjörn Havredalen with wife, Lisa, and family, also came to Koshkonong that year.

The great majority of these made the town of Christiana their first stopping place. So that, by the end of 1842, there were perhaps more immigrants found together within the area of that township than in any of the other settlements founded during the preceding years, 1839–1840.

It was at this time that the question of a name for the new town was being mooted. Gunnul Vindeig was given the privilege of naming it, and he decided for Christiania, adopting the name of the capital of Norway. The form as it came to stand, however, would seem to be a typical instance of that slovenly habit of slurring syllables in foreign names, which so often appears in the records of American officials or clerks in land offices in those days. Yet the Billed-Magazin is authority for the statement that Gunnul Vindeig himself was the cause of the error, he, by mistake, writing Christiana instead of the correct Christiania.

In the meantime new colonies are springing up elsewhere and the settlements previously established are growing and thriving. Before, therefore, tracing the further development on Koshkonong Prairie, it will be in order to note the advance in other localities.

The same year that records the genesis of the Koshkonong Settlement, also registers the founding of the earliest Norwegian colony in Iowa, that of Sugar Creek, in Lee County, in the southeastern part of the state. When Kleng Peerson was on his way to Missouri in 1837 (see above, page 117), it seems that he passed through the southeastern corner of Iowa; he was, therefore, in all probability the first Norwegian to enter the State of Iowa.[158] Iowa had been organized as a territory in 1838. The settlers in Shelby County, Missouri, were dissatisfied, and, having heard of the natural resources of the Territory of Iowa, immediately to the north, and that good land with a near market[159] could be had in the southeastern part of the territory, they decided to move to Iowa. Going north into Lee County, Iowa, they located at a place six miles northwest of Keokuk, known as Sugar Creek. Andrew Simonsen and most of the settlers in Shelby County came at that time; but Peerson remained in Missouri. Here, however, they found a small colony of Norwegians who had, it seems, but recently established themselves. With the exception of one to be mentioned below, it is not known who these earlier settlers were, and I have not been able to ascertain where they came from.

Kleng Peerson has been accredited with being the founder also of the Sugar Creek Settlement, but there is no proof that he previously selected the site or even that he located there in 1840. Indeed the evidence goes rather to show that he never actually settled at Sugar Creek. His home in the following years was probably chiefly in Shelby County, Missouri; in 1847 he sold his land there and joined the Swedish colony in Henry County, Illinois, which had been founded in 1846. Nor does it seem to me that Hans Barlien was a member of the Missouri colony, as Professor Anderson suggests. No mention of Barlien can be found in connection with the Shelby County colony or any other settlement. It seems more probable that he went to the Fox River Settlement when he came from Norway in 1837, but with a few others left in 1840, coming to Lee County somewhat before the party that came with Andrew Simonsen from Shelby County. They may originally have received their knowledge of this locality from Peerson. Barlien himself may have been in La Salle County when Peerson in 1837 returned from his journey to Missouri. It was, then, Barlien and a few immigrants with him whom Andrew Simonsen and others from Shelby County found already settled at Sugar Creek in the spring of 1840. If this is correct then the first Norwegian settler in Iowa and the real founder of the first Norwegian colony in the state is Hans Barlien, who was born at Overhalden in the province of Trondhjem about 1870.

In 1838 Kleng Peerson went to Norway to gather recruits for the Shelby County colony; the following year he brought back with him from Stavanger County the three brothers, Peter, William, and Hans Tesman, Nils Olson, Ole Reierson and family, and six or seven women, all of whom came to Missouri; but several of these went to Lee County, Iowa, the following year.

As far as known, the first settlers who came with Andrew Simonsen from Missouri were: Omund Olson, Knud Slogvig,[160] Jacob O. Hetletvedt, Mrs. Thorstein T. Rue and her sons, Thorstein and John, Peter Omundson Gjilje, Erik Öie, Ole Öiesöen, and the three Tesman brothers; some of the rest seem to have followed later. Lars Tallakson settled there about the same time, but he came from Clark County, Missouri, where he had located in 1838. Gjermund Helgeson[161] was also among the earliest settlers, and Jacob Slogvig, who had gone back to La Salle County in 1838, likewise later located at Sugar Creek. Among the subsequent arrivals were Ole Soppeland, Hans William, C. Person, and Nils and Christ Nelson; these located there before 1846.

The leading spirit in the colony was undoubtedly Hans Barlien. He was a man of great natural endowment, and he had a fair education. In Norway he had been a pronounced nationalist of the Wergeland direction and had taken part in the first peasant uprising. He was for a time a member of the Storthing (the national parliament). In religion he was a liberal, which aroused the hostility of the clergy, while his radical political views called forth the enmity of the official class. He owned a printing establishment at Overgaarden, and published a paper[162] in which he did not hesitate to give expression to the principles for which he stood. This frequently involved him in litigation; and, feeling himself persecuted, he at last decided to emigrate to America in 1837.[163] Barlien seems to be the second Norwegian emigrant from Trondhjem.[164] Lars Tallakson came from Bergen, while the rest of the colonists were mostly from the region of Stavanger.

Lee County was but little settled at that time;[165] land was bought of the Indians for a nominal price, but it often became expensive enough in the end, since it proved very difficult for many of the settlers to obtain a clear title from the United States. This is one reason why the settlement did not grow, though probably not the chief cause. In 1843 there were between thirty and forty families, writes John Reierson,[166] but in 1856 there were, according to the census of that year, only sixty-eight Norwegians in the county. This number had in 1885 decreased to thirty-one. In the fifties many of the settlers moved to other localities, but throughout the forties there was a prosperous colony that contributed not a little to the development of the community and the county in that early period. The settlement is of special interest in that it was the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa. Its founding inaugurated Norwegian colonization in the state which, particularly in the fifties, resulted in the establishment of a score of extensive settlements in the central and the northern counties.

There are many reasons why the Sugar Creek Settlement did not grow as did the later settlements north and west. First of all, land was not of the best in Lee County. And then, the locality was rather too far south, Norwegians have everywhere in America thriven best in the more northerly localities. Again, the tide of emigration from the vicinity of Stavanger was not sufficiently heavy to recruit the various settlements already established by immigrants from that region. The majority of those who came went direct to the Fox River Settlement in Northern Illinois, which offered unsurpassed natural advantages. To be sure, the Shelby County (Missouri) and the Lee County settlements might have been recruited from other districts in Norway. But it must be remembered that such other districts as had begun to take part in the emigration movement had their attention directed just at this time in another direction. The other provinces in question are Voss, Telemarken, and Numedal. It was representatives of these that founded the Wisconsin settlements in 1839–40, and in them the great majority of immigrants from those provinces located in the following decade. This is also true of those who came from Hardanger, Sogn,[167] and from Western Norway in general.

There is still another reason why the colony did not grow. Beyond the common desire of material betterment, there was too little of community of interest. It is enough to mention that several different religious sects were represented in the little settlement, chief among which were the Quakers and the Latter Day Saints. Just across the Mississippi was the town of Nauvoo,[168] which was a Mormon center at the time. When the Mormons who did not believe in polygamy established themselves at Lamoni some years later, many Norwegians of that belief went with them.[169] And not a few of the Quakers joined American Quaker settlements farther north, as in Salem, Henry County.[170] In the later fifties a prosperous colony was founded at and south of Legrand in Marshall County. A few of the early pioneers, however, remained and their descendants live in Lee County to-day. Finally, the difficulty of securing a title to the land upon which many Norwegians had settled, to which reference has been made above, undoubtedly drove many to seek homes elsewhere.[171]

Of these first Norwegian pioneers in Iowa I shall here add a brief final note, as we shall not meet with them again. We have met the brothers Knud and Jacob Anderson Slogvig four times as the founders of settlements—in Orleans County, New York, in La Salle County, Illinois, in Shelby County, Missouri, and in Lee County, Iowa. Jacob Slogvig went to California about 1850; there he became wealthy and died in 1864. Knud Slogvig moved to Lee County early in the fifties, I believe, and died there. Hans Barlien died in the Sugar Creek Settlement in 1842. Mrs. Thorstein Rue and her son, Thorstein, lived in Sugar Creek till 1846, when they went to Wisconsin, and took part in the founding of the Blue Mounds Settlement in western Dane County. Lars Tallakson settled about a decade later in La Salle County, Illinois, where he lived to a good old age.[172] Jacob Olson Hetletvedt (brother of the slooper, Ole O. Hetletvedt) continued to live in Lee County till his death in August, 1857. His widow married Sven Kjylaa, with whom she then moved to the Fox River Settlement. Per Omundson Gjilje was one of the last to leave the settlement; in 1864 he removed to New Sharon, Mahaska County, Iowa, where he died in 1895. His wife (born Karina Bornevik, from Nærstrand, Norway) died in 1902, aged eighty-six.

About forty miles directly west of Rock Prairie lies Wiota, about which town stretches in all directions a Norwegian settlement of considerable size. It is separated from Luther Valley by Green County and lies only twenty-five miles distant, northwest, from the old settlement of Rock Run, in Illinois. Here extensive lead mines were being operated in the forties, and they were the means of drawing to that locality a large number of immigrants of different nationalities, many of whom, to be sure, only remained there temporarily, going elsewhere to buy a home as soon as they had accumulated sufficient funds. The mines were at that time called “Hamilton Diggings.” As early as 1840 we find two Norwegians working in these mines, namely, the brothers Andreas and John O. Week, both from Eidfjord, in Hardanger. The Week brothers seem to have been two of a party of about forty from Hardanger, who emigrated in 1839.[173] I do not believe, however, that either Andrew or John Week entered a land claim in the vicinity, and they remained there only a few years. In 1844 John Week moved to Dodgeville in Iowa County, where he established a shoe store in company with John Lee, from Numedal, Norway. Andrew Week went to Marathon County some years later; here he built a saw mill, which, however, was bought out by his brother John in 1849, when Andrew joined the California gold-seekers.

In the spring of 1842 Lars Davidson Reque, an immigrant from Voss in the year 1839, came to Wiota. We have already met him as a purchaser of land in Deerfield Township, in Dane County, in December, 1840. Not having the means to begin the improvement of his land, he says, he decided to go to Hamilton Diggings, and he did not take possession of his land until the summer of 1842.[174] Rekve remained at the Diggings only about one year. In 1841 the first permanent settlers arrived; these were Per Unde, from Vik Parish, Sogn, Per Davidson Skjerveim, Sjur Ulven, and Arne Anderson Vinje, from Voss. The first of those was, it seems, the earliest emigrant from Sogn to America. He was a man of considerable means, but a copy of Rynning’s Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika fell into his hands and he decided to emigrate. He remained in Chicago the first year and a half or over. Ulven and Skjerveim had come from Norway in 1840. Arne Vinje (born 1820) came to Chicago in September, 1840, after having been five months on the journey. He had left Norway April sixteenth with his wife,[175] and a party of twenty other persons from Voss. The following spring Vinje and Skjerveim, having decided to go to the mines in Wisconsin, secured each their yoke of oxen, and drove overland, arriving at Wiota on the seventh of July, after five days of difficult travel; Unde and Ulven came at the same time. Unde immediately entered a claim on a piece of land in the vicinity and built a house, as did Skjerveim and Vinje a short time after; these located, however, about three miles farther south.

According to Arne Vinje the following twenty-one persons came from Voss that spring: Torstein Saue, his wife and son Gulleik, Lars Saue and wife, Klaus Grimestad and wife, Arne Anderson and wife and infant son Andrew, Knudt Hylle, Ole S. Gilderhus, Knudt Rokne, Mads Sonve, Baar Lawson Böe (a brother of Iver Lawson), Lars Röthe, Brynnel Ronve, two young ladies from Saue, one from Ronve and one from Gilderhus. In discussing the voyage Vinje says:

In the spring of 1841 Peder Skjerveim, who had come from Norway in 1837, having lived in Chicago in the interval, drove from Chicago up to Hamilton Diggings to explore the region. Upon his return he reported that there was government land for sale there, and Vinje and he decided to move thither. Peder Iverson Unde and family and Sjur Ulven went to the “Diggings” at the same time. Of this Vinje writes:

To those which Mr. Vinje mentions as arriving in 1842 may be added Isak Johnson from Skien,[176] and Christian Hendrickson from Lier, Norway. The latter however moved to Primrose Township in Dane County in 1846. (See below).

Mathias J. Engebretsen of Gratiot, Wisconsin, tells me that Per Fenne and wife Martha came to Wiota in 1842, while Nils Sunve and wife Maline, and Ivar Fenne came in 1843; all these were from Voss. Helge Meland and wife from Telemarken came in 1843, as also Tore Thompson from Tindal and Ashley Gunderson from Numedal.[177] Those mentioned by Arne Vinje at the end of the above account, Ole and Sjur Bruavolden, did not settle at Wiota, it seems, before 1845, and Erik E. Hove not until 1847. These had located first at Long Prairie in Boone County, Illinois, as had also Ingebrigt Fuglegjærdet, who came from Vik, Sogn, in 1844. Of the immigration from Land, Norway, to Wiota, which began with Syver Johnson (Smed or Smedhögen in 1844), I shall speak in the next chapter. The growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement will, however, claim our attention briefly first.

In an earlier chapter I have given an account of the coming of Norwegians to Jefferson Prairie in 1838–39. We found that a considerable number of persons had located there by 1840, principally immigrants from Numedal. These first settlers located in the southern half of Clinton Township, but others soon came who settled still farther south, so that the settlement soon came to include a portion of the Township of Manchester in Boone County, Illinois. The first settlers here were Tönnes Tolleivson (or Tollefson) from Jæderen, and Svend Larson, both of whom settled in Boone County in 1840; Tollefson had come to America in the fall of 1839, presumably spending the winter of 1839–40 on Jefferson Prairie.

The settlement thus came to be divided into a northern and a southern part, the immigrant settlers in the two representing different provinces in Norway. The Numedalians settled as we have seen, nearer Clinton and in general in the northern end of Jefferson Prairie; in fact they occupied most of the prairie proper. The southern portion, the timber land, come to be settled principally by immigrants from Voss. Very few of these located in the Town of Clinton; they selected homes in the early days, for the most part, just where their descendants now live, on the south side of the state line, in Illinois. The whole settlement extends from about a mile and a half south of Clinton across the prairie and into the timber which began about three miles south of Clinton and extends about four miles down into Illinois.

We have observed above that Ole Nattestad’s house became the stopping place of the earliest immigrants to Jefferson Prairie. In a similar way D. B. Egery’s place,[178] located four miles southwest of the Nattestad cabin on the trail to Beloit, became the headquarters for many a Norwegian immigrant in that early day. Speaking of him, H. L. Skavlem gives testimony to his kindness and the readiness with which he lent a helping hand to the incoming settlers in his vicinity, who were seeking a place to establish a home in the wilderness. As soon as the immigrants arrived, parties of two or three would fill their knapsacks (skræppe) with provisions and strike out in various directions to “spy out the land.”[179]

The first Norwegians to buy land on Jefferson Prairie were Ansten Nattestad and Thorstein Nilsen, the date of whose purchase is December 25th, 1839.[180] On January 25, 1840, Anders Jacobson’s purchase was recorded, and further in the same year those of Erik Gudbrandson (May 16) and Kittil Newhouse (Nyhus, June 15). The first three purchases were in sections 32, 30 and 22, respectively, while those of Gudbrandson and Newhouse were in section 20, all in Clinton Township. The latter made a further purchase in 1842 in the same section, as did also Tosten Olson. Ole Nattestad’s purchase was recorded on November 25, 1842, while in September of that year Ole Newhouse (Nyhus) had bought three forties in sections 15 and 22, and Christoffer Newhouse one in section 30; others were now rapidly moving in and becoming owners of their choice of land on the “Prairie.” Among these were Jas. Hilbeitson, Erik Hilbeitson, Tore Helgeson, Erik Gulbeitson, Gulbrand Gulbrandson, and Ole Pederson Bogstrandeiet, all in the fall of 1842.

In this connection it may be noted that Gulleik Gravdal’s purchase of land in the Town of Newark (in section 1) was recorded December 12, 1839, and he made additions to his holdings in 1842 in sections 1 and 9. Mrs. Gunnild Ödegaarden purchased land in 1839 and 1840, Lars H. Skavlem in June, 1841, and Gudbrand Olson and Mrs. Gulleik Springen in October, 1841. During September of the latter year four purchases were also recorded in Plymouth Township, namely those of Paul Halvorson Skavlem, Nils Olson Vegli (Wagley) and Gunnel Holgerson, while in May, 1840, Gulleik H. Blakestad Skavlem had become the owner of forty acres in Beloit Township.[181]

The Jefferson Prairie Settlement received considerable accessions during the next four years. Lena Sondal came in 1841, Haakon Paulson from Sigdal and his wife Inger came in 1842, Ole Severtson and family from Numedal, including a daughter, Petra, who is now Mrs. Henry Jacobson (Oppedal)[182] of Clinton, came in 1843, as did also Brynild L. Lie and wife from Voss, Lars O. Lie from Hallingdal[183] and Edwin O. Wilson Næshaug. The last of these settled in Boone County, Illinois, where he bought land in 1846, but removed to Filmore County, Minnesota, in 1854. Gunder Vedfald and family, including the sons, Ole and Halvor, from Telemarken also came in 1843. In the year 1844 there was a considerable influx of settlers from Voss;[184] among them were: Sjur K. Kvarma wife and four children from Voss, Brynild Dugstad,[185] wife and five children, Erik K. Dugstad, wife and child, Lewis Severts, Ole Shipley and wife Guri, Lars Grane, Sjur Grane, Elling Ellingson and wife Magela, Ole Skutle,[186] Peder Bere and wife Britha. Also the following came about the same time (1844 or the following year): Lars Baarson and wife Gudve, Guru Isakson, Sjur A. Grönlien, wife and two children, and Erik E. Slæen. Nearly all those here enumerated followed the lead of Clas Isakson and settled near or south of the state line. From Vik, Sogn, Norway, there was a single settler, namely, Ole O. Train. From Hardanger also there was, it seems, only one immigrant among those who came during this earliest period, Anna Tollefson, wife of Tönnes Tollefson, who, as we have seen, came to America in 1839. From Telemarken there were about twelve persons, among them Steinar E. Hadland, wife and son, Guldmond; Gunder O. Vedfald, wife and daughter; Even Haatvedt and Ole A. Haatvedt and wife, besides the Vedfald family spoken of above. From Næs in Hallingdal we find Knud R. Væterud, a widower, and his two daughters, Ingeborg and Rönnau, besides Lars O. Lie, and from Modum, Thov Modum and wife Karen; finally Krödsherred is represented by Even Fingerson Foslien.

Among the earliest purchasers of land (1842) I have mentioned Ole C. Newhouse. He was a brother of Kristoffer and Kittil Newhouse who had come in 1839. The original name, Nyhus, was in the early days changed to Newhouse, which is a translation of the Norwegian. Ole Newhouse married Helen Stabæk, daughter of Klemet Stabæk, who has been spoken of as the founder of the Rock Run Settlement in Stephenson County, Illinois, in 1839.

Sjur Kvarme’s children included a son, Kolbein (born 1831); he lived on Jefferson Prairie from 1844–1854, in which latter year he joined the gold-seekers in California. With the proceeds of three years’ work in the gold mines he came east again in 1857 and bought a farm near St. Ansgar, Iowa, where he lived till his death in October, 1906. Olav Vedfald, son of Gunder Vedfald, remained with his parents on Jefferson Prairie till 1850, when he purchased land and settled on Bonnet Prairie in Columbia County, Wisconsin.[187]

Among the pioneers of Jefferson Prairie are also particularly to be named Reverend O. Andrewson and wife, Ragnild Paulson, both of whom came to America in 1841, but did not settle in Clinton Township before 1855; in that year Rev. Andrewson accepted a call as pastor of the congregation which he had organized there in 1850. Mrs. Andrewson, who is now eighty-five years old, is still living there.

In the above survey of the growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement during these years many names have been omitted because of the uncertainty among my informants as to the year of their arrival. In a subsequent chapter I shall also outline the subsequent growth of the settlement. I shall here merely note the fact that Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson speaks of the congregation in 1844 as numbering 150 members.

In Chapter XI above we have given an account of the beginnings of the Rock Prairie Settlement and traced its growth down to 1842. We shall here briefly discuss the development of this settlement during the next eight years. Already in the summer of 1842 a considerable number of immigrants came, most of them locating there permanently. I shall mention first Halvor N. Aaen and wife, Guri (Frögne), both from Nore in Numedal, who settled in Newark.[188] Halvor Stordok and Ole Stordok, brothers of Gunnul Stordok mentioned before, both came in 1842. Halvor bought land near Sugar River Bottom; he married Ingeborg Paulson, and the couple lived on the homestead till their death. Their children, Knud, Halvor, Inge and Ingeborg, all unmarried, are still living there. They are all over fifty years of age now. Ole Stordok, who married Anne Sand from Rollaug, located at Sand Prairie, five miles south of Broadhead. In the same year came also Gullik O. Mygstue, with wife Jöran and five children, from Vægli, Numedal. Gullik died in 1852, but the widow lived till 1887. Their oldest son, Ole (born in 1825), had learned the trade of a shoemaker and conducted a shoemaker’s shop on his farm long after he had begun farming.[189] In 1848 he married Sive Espeset from Hallingdal, Norway; they had no children.[190]

Among those who came from Numedal to America in 1842 was also Herbrand H. Berge (born in Rollaug in 1821). He remained for a year and a half on Jefferson Prairie, however, so that he did not locate on Rock Prairie until early in 1844. Anna Torbjörnsdatter, who later became his wife (1847) also immigrated in 1842. They removed to Jackson County, Minnesota, in 1876; he died there in December, 1903, and she in February, 1904,[191] at the age of seventy-seven. In 1843 Hellik Olson Holtan with family from Flesberg in Numedal emigrated and settled on Rock Prairie. Holtan was a man of much intelligence and strength of character, who soon came to hold a leading place among the pioneers in the community.

So far we have spoken only of immigrants from Numedal. In the year 1842 the first family from Land, Norway, came to Rock Prairie, namely Hans Smedsrud and wife. We have seen that the first immigrant from Land, Lars Röste, who came in 1839, located at Rock Run. It was the year 1843 which inaugurated the tide of emigration to America from Land and nearly all the earliest arrivals located on Rock Prairie. Thus in that year came Harald Ommelstad and family, five in all, Anders Lundsæter and family, in all five, Peder H. Gaarder with family (six), Sören Sörum, and Anne Marie Nilsdatter, in all eighteen persons. These were followed the next year by fifteen persons, namely: Lars Nord-Fossum and family (five), Hans Christofferson Tollefsrude and wife, Anders Midböen with wife and one child, Anders Engen, Gudbrand Gaarder, Helene Gaarder, Inger Gaarder, and Helene Klevmoen. Anders Erstad and wife, and Syver Smed, who came at the same time, did not locate on Rock Prairie; the former went to Rock Run while Smed located at Wiota, being the first native of Land to settle in La Fayette County.

I shall also add here the names of those who came from Land in the following years. In 1845 came two families, namely Askild Ullensager, wife and four children, and Tarald Jörandlien, wife and four children. Jörandlien or Jorlien, as the name is usually rendered, located in Newark. In 1846 Marie Engen and her son, Hans (born 1823) and daughter, came, as did also Erik Nederhaugen. The year 1847 brought Ole Nörstelien, Christine Nörstelien and Hans Sveum, wife and five children.[192] The year 1848 with its extensive immigration also brought an increased contingent from Land. The following settled on Rock Prairie; Ole Gaarder and wife, Andreas Sörum, Ingebrigt Fossum and family (six), Halvor Ruud and family (seven), Johans Nederhaugen[193] and family (four), Johan Frankrige and family (five) and Hovel Jensvold,[194] Hovel Smeby and Bertha Lybæk.[195] In all there were fifty-four who came from Land in 1848; of these, twenty-eight settled on Rock Prairie, twenty-five at Wiota and one at Rock Run. The roster of immigrants from Land in 1849 includes forty-eight persons, of whom sixteen located on Rock Prairie; they were: Johannes Ommelstadsæteren, Ingeborg Ommelstadsæteren, Marthea Brendingen, Johans Lybæk, Bertha Fröslie, Marit Fröslie, Hans Engen (Fröslieit) and family (five) and Jonas Gjerdet and family (five). Syver Gaarder and family, thirteen in all, who located farther west at Albany, Green County, came directly from Land, but they were natives of Valders. He had moved from Valders to Torpen in Land and bought there the Gaarder farm when the Gaarder family emigrated in 1843, remaining there, however, as we have seen, only six years.[196] The accessions for 1850 were: Ole Smeby and family (five), Östen Lundsæteren and family (five), Sjugal Frankrige and family (six), Helene Fröslie, Bertha Sörum, Hovel Fossum, Ole Hovdelien and Hans Værhaug, in all twenty-one.

The account of immigration from Land which it has been possible to give so fully here is based on the private records of Hans C. Tollefsrude, as published in part in Amerika for March 8th, 1907. Hans Tollefsrude’s name occupies a foremost place in the early history of the Rock Prairie Settlement. In the seventies he again became a pioneer, locating now in Pocahontas County, Iowa.[197]

We will now turn to another contingent in the early immigration to Rock Prairie,--that from the dialect district of Hallingdal. The emigration from this region began in 1842 with the departure of the brothers Knud and John Ellingson Solem, who came direct to Rock Prairie. In 1843 Kleofas Halvorson Hansemoen immigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard) and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in Newark Township, Rock County.[198] Kleofas’s father’s name was Halvor Kleofasen Hansemoen; he did not emigrate. There were two other brothers, Erik and Hans, of whom the former did not come to this country. Hans Hansemoen had in Norway bought an estate called Husemoen, not intending to emigrate. But when his brother sent favorable reports back from America, he sold out and came to this country in the fall of 1845. He bought land in sections eleven and twelve in Newark Township, near his brother. The above is narrated in part to show how his name happens to appear as Hans Husemoen, while the brother is Kleofas Hansemoen and the brother’s children are Halvor Kleofas, Knud Kleofas, etc. (see note 198). Hans Husemoen’s wife’s maiden name was Bergit Halvorsdatter Tveto; she was from Aal Parish in Hallingdal.

In 1845 the settlement received other accessions from Hallingdal. The list includes: Ola Brunsvold, Halvor Hesgard, Kristen Grimsgaard, Ole Skaalen, Nils Roe, Ola Sando, Mikkel Rust, Svend Hesla, Gjermund Mæhtum, Aslak Rustad and Aslak Ulsak.

In 1846 about three hundred persons emigrated from Hallingdal. How many of these came to Rock County I am not able to say; among them were, however, Erik Kolsrud and family, Ole Hei and family, Nils Haugen, wife and six children, Knud Tröstem, Henrik Henriksen Tröstem, Halvor Ness, Hans Engen, Kari Husemoen, Guttorm Roen and son, Ole, Tollef Tollefsrud-Ballandby and sons Nils, Ola and Amund, Henrik Rime, brother of Tollef, A. T. Beigo, Timan Burtness and his brother John, Aadne Engen, Kristen Megaarden, Lars Grimsgaard, wife and family, Ingeborg Olsdatter Tröstem, Asle Hesla, and Asle Brunsvold. Many of the above had families. The leaders of this party were the three first named and Tollef Tollefsrude. They were the owners of large estates in Norway which they sold when they left for America. They paid the passage for many who came from Hallingdal that summer, but I cannot give the names of these. The party of emigrants left Drammen in April by the ship Newmann, which took them to Havre, France. Here they remained one month, before the ship on which they were to sail was gotten ready. They did not arrive to Rock Prairie until October, having been six months en route.

In 1847 very few came from Hallingdal, among them are mentioned Ole Onsgaard, Nils O. Wikko,[199] and Östen Burtness. In the following year, however, there was a considerable immigration. Erik K. Berg and his brother Truls Berg, Ole Trulson Ve and Ole Gulsen (Tröstem) with wife and son Gul and daughter Guri, Erik Ovestrud, Tideman Kvarve, Guttorm Megaarden, a Mr. Sagdalen and wife, Kari,[200] Levor Kvarve and family of twelve, and Knut Guttormsen Tyrebakken.[201] There came others from Hallingdal also in the years following. I may mention here Ole J. Bakke and wife and Herbrand K. Finseth (born in Hemsedal in July, 1830), who emigrated in 1852 and lived three years on Rock Prairie. They moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota, in 1855, as did also Knut K. Finseth and A. K. Finseth, brothers of Herbrand; these together with Halvor Hesgard, Aadne Engen and Christen Evenson, who removed to Minnesota at the same time, were the first white settlers in the Town of Holden, Goodhue County.[202] I may also mention Kittel O. Ruud, born 1823 of parents Erik Sanderson and Margit Ruud, and who came to Rock County in 1850. A few years later he moved to Northwestern Iowa and in 1855 became a pioneer settler in Holdon, Goodhue County, Minnesota, where he married Margrethe Andersdatter Flom in 1856. She was born in Aurland, Sogn, 1824. She died in March and he in April, 1903.[203]

The immigrants from Hallingdal settled chiefly in Spring Valley, and Plymouth; Beloit and Newark townships were settled for the most part before the Hallingdal immigrants began to come in larger numbers, yet some are located in Beloit Township. Newark is occupied largely by immigrants from Numedal, as is also Beloit. While Rock Prairie was taken possession of chiefly by pioneers from Numedal, Land, and Hallingdal, there were also a few from Telemarken, Sigdal and Ringerike, and one from Valders among the pioneers of the forties. Of those who came from Telemarken I shall mention Knut Simon (born 1819), who located near Janesville in 1843. He removed to Rice County, Minnesota, in 1854, and thence to Pope County in 1865; died in 1905.

The single immigrant from Valders to locate on Rock Prairie was Guul Guttormson. He came in 1843 and is the first known American immigrant from that district. He was born at Ildjernstadhaug in Hedalen in 1816. About 1840 he had removed to Modum; here a copy of Nattestad’s journal fell into his hands and he and Hans Uhlen and Anders Aamodt[204] decided to emigrate. These three came on the same ship that brought Kleofas Halvorson and Peder Gaarder. Guttormson bought land half way between Orfordville and Broadhead. He was always called “Guul Valdris” for he was and remained the only “Valdris”[205] there, for while he wrote home urging his friends in Valders to come to America, the immigration from Valders did not set in before 1847–48 and by that time Rock Prairie had been, as we have seen, taken up largely by immigrants from Hallingdal and Land. Guul Guttormson’s oldest son, Guttorm Guul (Broadhead, Wisconsin), born August, 1848, was probably the first child born of Valdris parentage in America. I have already spoken of the emigration of Syver Gaarder,[206] a “Valdris” who came with the party from Land in 1849. They located at Albany in Green County. These I believe were the only settlers from Valders in this locality.

In discussing the causes of emigration, we have found that economic factors entered extensively into operation. It was the desire for material betterment that prompted a very large proportion of Norwegian emigrants to leave the land of their fathers. The first five decades of Norwegian emigration was a period in which the battle for existence among the Norwegian peasant and the common man was none too easy. Unfavorable economic conditions, the oppressive methods of the larger land owners, frequent crop failure, often reduced the lesser farmers into a condition of impoverishment. Even wealthy families found themselves burdened by debts from which the future seemed to offer little hope of relief. By the law of primogeniture the oldest son inherited the estate. The sons of men of means, therefore, were financially often no better situated than the cotter’s son, and were often forced to seek their fortune beyond the native village or district. These considerations will make clear first that the great majority of Norwegian emigrants to the United States were at the time of emigration of small means; they were often very poor indeed. Their wealth lay in the ability and the will to carve their way in a land of greater promise. Their wealth lay also in their thrift, in their ideals, and the moral fiber of their race. Many of those who have succeeded best in their adopted country came here well-nigh penniless. To them poverty was no longer a curse when the path of opportunity lay before them. But the above considerations will also have indicated that Norwegian immigrants of that early period were not always of the poor classes even though they came here with little or nothing. Later Norwegian immigration has, it is true, generally been from among the impecunious. But in that early period, especially 1835 to 1865, a very large number of the immigrants came from families which general or special conditions had suddenly so reduced to conditions which became to them intolerable. And it was the hope which America held out which inspired them with the will to seek there the independence now no longer theirs. We have already met with the evidence of this in such families as Hovland (1835), Nattestad (1837), Aadland (1837), Aasland (1838), Gravdal (1839), Stabæk (1839), Gitle Danielson (1839), Luraas (1839), Unde (1839), Heg (1840), Gaarder (1843–49), Nils Haugen (1846), and many others. We shall in the following pages meet with families of considerable means from Numedal, Telemarken, Voss, Ringsaker and elsewhere, of whom the same is true; and among the pioneers who came from Sogn in 1844, 1845, and later there were many old families of property and prominence in their native community. I stress this fact because some who have formerly written about Norwegian settlements in this country have never yet fully recognized the full significance of this; but I speak of it here especially because I have myself also failed to fully appreciate this fact when last I wrote upon the subject. What has been said here applies to the founders of the settlements of Northern Illinois, of Racine, Rock, Dane and other counties in Southern Wisconsin, and many of those who some years later established the settlements in Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota. On the other hand also some of those who later became most substantial members of these settlements were men whose transportation to America was paid for by others that they might come and get a start in life. These men emigrated prompted by the desire of material betterment and in that aim they have succeeded, and they have succeeded honestly, often accumulating great wealth.[207]

The second topic in the title of this chapter is the cost of passage. I shall discuss this item briefly, using concrete illustrations from our sources. In that early period the voyage was made by sail-ships. These continued to be used for a long time after steam had come into use, clear down into the seventies. The ticket was then generally somewhat cheaper by sailing vessels than by steamship. Passengers furnished their own board and beading, and they were required to bring a supply sufficient for ten to twelve weeks.[208] The price of passage ranged between 33 and 50 speciedaler, that is between $25.00 and $38.00. Children under fourteen travelled for half price; those under one went free. The Luraas party (page 158 above) paid forty-two speciedaler from Gothenburg to Boston, while the Nattestad party paid fifty dollars from Gothenburg to New York in 1837. In 1839 the party that came with Ansten Nattestad secured passage for thirty-three dollars per person. This may be regarded as normal; it was the price paid, e. g., by Anders Tömmerstigen and family from Christiania via Havre, France, to New York in 1846. Those who came in June from Sogn in 1844 paid twenty-five dollars a person from Bergen to New York. The extremes are illustrated by two groups for the year 1839 and 1845: The little group of immigrants who came from Stavanger via Gothenburg to Boston with Gitle Danielson in 1839 paid, it seems, sixty dollars apiece,[209] while Peder Aasmundson Tanger and others, ninety in all, who came in 1845 from Kragerö, paid only eighteen dollars apiece to New York.

The inland journey, generally in the early days made by canal boat, varied greatly in cost, often amounting to as much as fourteen dollars to Milwaukee or Chicago. But the additional toll inland frequently made the inland journey much more expensive than was the ocean voyage. One pioneer, writing of this later, says that his whole journey cost him ninety dollars.[210] In the fifties the inland journey was made by railroad; the railroad ticket from Quebec to Chicago or Milwaukee was eight dollars.

The course of the journey has been incidentally indicated above. During the first years it was usually by way of Gothenburg, sometimes via Hamburg, not infrequently by way of Havre. The starting point was Stavanger, Bergen, Skien, Drammen, Porsgrund and Christiania, later other ports. New York was most often the place of landing, but not infrequently Boston, in isolated instances, Fall River, Philadelphia and New Orleans. After 1850 sail-ships plied extensively between Scandinavian ports and Quebec.[211] The inland journey from New York went by steamboat to Albany, thence by canal boat to Buffalo, a distance of three hundred and fifty miles, which usually took twelve days but often over two weeks.[212] From Buffalo the journey went by steamboat over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee and Chicago, after 1842 usually to Milwaukee. Those who took the Quebec route after 1850 were then brought to St. Levi by the railroad company’s steamboats, whence they went by rail to Chicago or Milwaukee,[213] a journey which generally took four or five days,[214] over a distance of 1020 miles. Milwaukee-bound passengers were often shipped from Port Huron by way of Lakes Huron and Michigan or were taken by rail from Detroit across Michigan to Grand Haven, thence by steamboat across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee.[215] The latter was of course the shorter and the favored route for immigrants whose destination was Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, or Minnesota. Immigrants who landed in Boston usually went by steamboat thence to New York and from the regular inland route as given above.

The duration of the journey was always a matter of great uncertainty. Intending emigrants who came from the interior of Norway often had to wait as long as two weeks at Bergen or Skien, as the case might be, before the ships on which they were to go sailed. The overhauling and putting in repair of the storm-battered ships often took weeks.[216] The duration of the voyage across the Atlantic depended of course largely upon the state of the weather. With this favorable a sail-boat would usually cross the ocean in six or seven weeks,[217] but in a voyage of such a distance it was practically certain that there would be stormy weather sometime before the other side was reached. In his answer to this question in Billed-Magazin I, page 123, John A. Johnson wrote that the average length was seven weeks, but he adds that those who crossed in that time had no reason to complain. And he speaks of the fact that emigrant ships have in rare cases taken twelve to thirteen weeks.

The Nattestad party made, in 1837, an especially short voyage of thirty-two days from Gothenburg to Fall River. I have no record of any other ship in those early years which sailed so well as did Enigheden. Juno, the most rapid sailer on the Atlantic in the forties, crossed in five weeks and three days in May-June, 1844, which Kristi Melaas of Stoughton, Wisconsin, who was a passenger, says broke the record for speed at that time. Ansten Nattestad and party took nine weeks in 1839 with the ship Emelia from Drammen. Nine weeks is the number which many report as the duration of the voyage in the forties. The party that came with the Luraas brothers from Tin and Gitle Danielson from Stavanger also in 1839 took nine weeks and three days from Gothenburg to Boston. And Aegir took nine weeks on its journey from Bergen to New York in 1837. The sloop Restaurationen we recall crossed in ten weeks. The so-called Brook-ship Albion usually required from eight to nine weeks for the voyage.

In stormy weather the voyage sometimes lasted as much as fourteen weeks. The sail-ship Tricolor took that long in April–July, 1845, the route being from Porsgrund to New York. Ingebrigt Johnson Helle, from Kragerö, who was a passenger, writes of the terrors of this journey (see appendix 2). On a voyage made in 1848 Tricolor took fourteen weeks and four days, according to interview with Kari Gulliksdatter Mogen (from Flesberg, Numedal), who was a passenger on the ship (see Billed-Magazin I, page 388). The little sail-ship in which Nils Hansen Fjeld and family came in 1847 took fourteen weeks from Christiania to New York.[218]

In this connection I shall cite from an article by Dr. K. M. Teigen of Minneapolis, Minnesota, entitled “Pionerliv” (Pioneer Life).[219] He says:

At the place of landing the immigrants were frequently obliged to wait for several days before the westward journey was begun. To Rock Prairie, Koshkonong or Norway Grove, as the case might be, required another week, and correspondingly more for those bound for more westerly settlements. In all the duration of the journey from Norway to the settlement which was the immigrant’s ultimate destination was rarely made in less than nine weeks; often it consumed as much as five months.

On page 94 above I have spoken briefly of the first Norwegian settlers in Chicago in the years 1836–1839. On page 150 mention was made of the increase of the Chicago colony by the arrival of a number of immigrants from Voss, Norway, in 1839–41. As there indicated, however, many of those who came during these years lived there only temporarily; we find them later as pioneers elsewhere, especially in Dane and La Fayette Counties, Wisconsin.[220] The same applies also to several of those who came from Voss, Sogn, and Telemarken, to Chicago in 1843–1844;[221] these went mostly to Koshkonong, Wiota or Long Prairie, others to the various parts of the Fox River settlement.

In chapter XXI above I have further related some incidents from the life of some early Norwegian settlers in Chicago. In the following pages I shall merely try to give a brief account of new accessions to the Chicago colony between the years 1842 and 1850. It is estimated that there were in Chicago in 1850 3,000 persons of Norwegian birth; relatively the number was therefore considerable in that year. Yet I shall probably be right if I say that the actual number of Norwegians in the city in the year 1842 was very small, not more than in some of the smallest rural settlements already established. I assume that as the early Norwegian immigrants came here with the intention of settling on a farm, comparatively very few were induced to remain permanently in Chicago. Chicago and vicinity was not particularly inviting at the time; the swamps and marshes soon drove the incoming immigrants to the more inviting and the far more fertile inland counties.

As residents of Chicago before 1839, we have found Halstein Torison, Johan Larson, Nils Röthe and wife Torbjör, Svein Knutson Lothe and wife and two children, Baard Johnson, wife and five children, Andrew Nilson Brække and Anders Larsen Flage, both with families; these were all from Voss except Johan Larsen, a sailor who was from Kopervik, a little south of Haugesund, and Torison, who was from Fjeldberg in Söndhordland.[222] Among Baard Johnson’s sons were Anfin, John and Andrew; the first of these was a tailor in the employ of Simon Doyle on Kinzie Street.[223] The first directory of Chicago, published in 1839, gives a few more names of Norwegians.[224] We know that Lars Davidson Reque lived there then; he seems to have lived in the Cass Street Dutch settlement. His occupation was that of a fireman on the steamboat George W. Dole. There were two other Davidsons, Sivert[225] and Peter; in the latter we recognize our Per Davidson Skjerveim (see above p. 199). Other names in the same directory are: Asle Anderson, musician; Endre Anderson, laborer; Eric Anderson, pressman; all three of whom lived at the same house on North State Street, and were probably brothers; Canute Lawson (Larson), city street carpenter and Iver Lawson, who lived at 240 Superior Street.

But the directory does not give the name of another Norwegian who, if the year of his arrival is correctly recorded, must have been the first Scandinavian resident of Chicago, namely David Johnson, who came in 1834. He was a pressman in the employ of Mr. Calhoun, the publisher of The Chicago Democrat. David Johnson was a sailor, who came from Norway to New York as a boy, locating in New York in 1832, securing work as a press-feeder. About this time Mr. Calhoun was planning to install a cylinder press in place of the old hand press at his printing establishment in Chicago. The cylinder press was ordered from New York, Mr. Johnson having accepted Calhoun’s offer as pressman for him, he went to Chicago at the same time, where he put up and operated the new press. The Chicago Historical Society has among its documents Mr. Calhoun’s account-book for 1834, which gives Mr. Johnson’s name.[226]

But there were other Norwegians in Chicago in 1839 who do not seem to have been found by the census taker. Thus Steffen K. Gilderhus came there from Voss in 1838 and his brother Ole K. Gilderhus came in 1839. They lived in Chicago until 1844, when they settled on Koshkonong Prairie, Dane County, Wisconsin. Further Per Unde, Sjur Ulven and Arne Vinje who came there in 1839; these three settled at Wiota, Wisconsin, in 1841. Of this removal I have given a full account above chapter. Probably the earliest subsequent arrival from Voss were Torstein Saue, wife and son Gulleik, who came in the summer of 1840. They lived in Chicago until 1843, when they also went to Koshkonong. At about the same time of the year came also Baard Nyre, Mads Sanve, Ole Gilbertson, Brynjulf Ronve, Klaus Grimestad and wife and Lars T. Röthe and Anna Bakketun, all from Voss, and all of whom were for some time residents of Chicago. Anna Bakketun married a Mr. Nicholson (Nikolausen), who died from cholera in 1849. From this marriage there were two sons, Henry Nicholson, who served throughout the war, and John G. Nicholson, who is still living (Orchard Street). Torstein Michaelson, who succeeded Halstein Torison in the employ of Newberry, also came in 1840 or 1841. Michaelson was from Voss where he was born in 1808; he remained Newberry’s gardener for about thirty-five years.

We have above seen that some of the early immigrants to Illinois were from Hardanger, Norway, but the number was not large. We shall speak of this immigration more in detail in connection with the settlement of Lee County, Illinois. Here it will be in order now to note briefly Hardanger’s contribution to the Norwegian colony in Chicago in the period under discussion.

In 1839 twenty-two persons emigrated from Ulvik Parish, Hardanger, and all of these came to Chicago. They were: Gunnar Tveito, wife and child; Anders Vik, Johan Vik, Brynjulf Lekve, Lars Torblaa, wife and two children, Nils Vambheim and wife, Olav L. Mo, wife and two daughters and Lars Spilde, wife and four children.[227] This party having started out from Bergen left Gothenburg May 27, landed at Fall River, Massachusetts, August 2, took boat to New York, thence via Buffalo to Chicago, where they arrived August 25.[228] In Chicago they suffered much hardship, many were taken sick and died, among the latter Tveito’s and Vambheim’s wives. The men secured work, some on the canal, some on a schooner on the river, others as wood-cutters in the forests about Chicago. Lekve and the two Vik brothers wrote an account of their trials which was published in Bergens Stiftstidende for June 11, 1841, in which they advised against emigrating to America, and as a result there was no immigration to this country from Hardanger again before 1846–1847. Very few of the later immigrants from Hardanger located in Chicago.

Other arrivals during subsequent years were: 1841, Peter Nelson and Knut Larson Bö; 1842, J. C. Anderson, and in 1843, Ole Kaasa and family, G. A. Wigeland, Nils Bakketun and Randver Lydvo (b. 1813). Ole Kaasa moved from Chicago to Boone County, in 1845, but one of his sons, Jens, became a permanent resident of Chicago and a leading member of the Norwegian colony of Chicago during his life. Jens Olson, as he was known, was born in 1824 in Siljord, Upper Telemarken. In the early part of 1840 the family moved to Bamble Parish in Lower Telemarken, whence they emigrated in 1843. They arrived in Chicago October 20 of that year. The brother, Thore Olson, went out to Boone County; Jens settled permanently in Chicago, where he lived till his death in 1907. In 1853 he married Martha Anderson[229] at Capron, Illinois.[230]

Jens Olson was a master mason and brick-layer, and he built Vor Frelsers Kirke[231] the corner of Erie and May Streets. Later he became a contractor on a larger scale and erected a large number of school houses in Chicago. He was an ardent supporter of the Lutheran church and gave freely to its cause.

Randver Lydvo[232] came to Chicago in October, 1843. In June, 1844, she was married to Lars Knutson Dykesten; the ceremony took place in Nils Röthe’s house and the ceremony was performed by Rev. Flavel Bascum of the First Presbyterian church. Lars Knutson died in the cholera epidemic in 1849. Mrs. Knutson who is still living[233] is one of the oldest Norwegian residents of Chicago.

In 1844 Bryngel Henderson and wife Martha came to Chicago and became permanent residents of the city, as did also Knut Iverson Glimme, Mrs. Julia Nelson, Ellef G. Severtson[234] and John A. Hefte. These were all from Voss; Severtson was from Vossevangen. Ole Bakketun and family and Sjur M. Sære, also with family, both from Voss, came to Chicago in 1844, but lived there only one year, when they went to Koshkonong.

The year 1844 also brought Chicago another permanent resident from Voss, who later became prominently associated with the commercial and political life of the city. This was Iver Larson Bö, born 1821, in Voss, Norway, who came to Chicago that year and not as generally found stated in or about 1840,[235] locating on the north side. Iver dropped the surname Bö, and changed Larson to Lawson, so that his name became Iver Lawson. He was one of the organizers of the First Lutheran church in 1848, located at that time on Superior Street between Wells Street and La Salle Avenue.[236] Lawson took a prominent part in the political life of early Chicago, e.g., as member of the city council, and otherwise. In 1869 he was a member of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature. As legislator his name is most closely associated with the establishment of Chicago’s excellent system of parks; the creation of Lincoln Park in particular was due in great measure to Lawson’s efforts.[237] Iver Lawson’s name is also associated with that of John Anderson in the founding of Skandinaven, now the largest and most widely circulated Norwegian newspaper in this country.[238]

The year 1845 brought a number of accessions to the Norwegian colony of Chicago. Among them Kittil Nirison, from Bö Parish in Telemarken, one of the few from Telemarken who settled in Chicago in the early days, Knud K. Harrisville and wife Maren Karine (née Larson), Christian Lee, from Gausdal, and Andrew Anderson, wife, Laura, and family from Voss. This family included a son John, born March, 1836, who is the well known founder and owner of Skandinaven and president of the John A. Anderson Publishing Company.[239]

Andrew Anderson died of the cholera in 1849, and to the son John, then thirteen years old, fell the task of supporting his mother and baby sister, which he did at first by peddling apples and carrying newspapers. Then he became “printer’s devil” and soon learned the art of distributing and setting type.[240] In the following years he was successively connected with The Argus, The Democratic Press and The Press-Tribune. In 1866 he launched a paper of his own, Skandinaven, which at first a small sheet issued weekly has grown until, through its daily, semi-weekly and weekly issue, it is now the largest and politically the most influential of Norwegian newspapers in the country. Mr. Anderson has engaged extensively in the publishing of books, issuing a far larger number of books a year than any other Norwegian-American publisher. In this connection it is to be especially mentioned that he has also in recent years done excellent pioneer work in the publishing of certain educational works, as school and college texts of Norwegian literature, thereby facilitating materially instruction in this field in our colleges and universities.

In succeeding years the Norwegian colony in Chicago grew rapidly. Already in 1850 it was considerable; to-day there are more Norwegians in Chicago than any other city in the country (see also footnote 443). They resided in the early days for the most part on the north side, south of Chicago Avenue, between the lake and the present Orleans Street. Later the region of Wicker Park became a Norwegian center. To-day they are found very extensively in the vicinity of Humboldt Park and Logan Square, the business center is along West North Avenue.[241]

Among the earliest Norwegian settlers of Chicago now living is to be mentioned finally Mrs. Martha Erickson who come to this country in 1841. She is the daughter of Björn Björnson, who accompanied Kleng Peerson to America in 1825. For account of this see above page 50. The other twin, there referred to came to America in 1866; her name is Mrs. Bertha Fuglestad. They are both living in Chicago enjoying excellent health at the age of eighty-eight. Björn Björnson settled in Rochester, New York, where he died in 1854.[242] On their eighty-fifth birthday in 1906, the twin sisters held a family festival at the home of Mrs. Eric Ross at which four children and one grandchild of Mrs. Erickson were present and Mrs. Fuglestad’s four children, eighteen grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren.

I have above spoken of the fact that Knut H. Roe was one of the party that emigrated with John Luraas from Tin, Telemarken, in 1839. These two men became the first Norwegians to settle in the townships of Pleasant Spring and Dunkirk respectively in 1843. Roe had lived for a time in La Salle County, Illinois, going to Racine County, Wisconsin, in 1842, as we have seen above. In the fall of 1841 a few of the settlers in Racine County had travelled west as far as Koshkonong Prairie, for the purpose of inspecting the uninhabited country there, of which they seem already to have heard from friends. In the townships of Albion and Christiana, these met and spoke with those who had come there from Jefferson Prairie in 1840.

The favorable report of these explorers relative to the fertility of the soil and the general character of the country on Koshkonong created considerable restlessness among the pioneers at Wind Lake, in Racine County, and many decided to remove to Dane County. Among these were Knut Roe and John Luraas. We shall first follow the fortunes of the former. As soon as the snow was gone with the end of the winter of 1842–43, Roe walked on foot to Koshkonong, where he visited the different parts of the prairie, and selected a spot on which to settle. Then he walked back to Racine County. John Luraas and family also having decided to remove to Dane County, the two families secured a team for the overland journey; they reached their destination on one of the last days in May. “Two weeks before St. John’s eve,” writes Roe, “my first home, a hut of brushwood and leaves, supported at the four corners by an oak, was ready sufficiently so that my wife and child and myself could find protection therein against rain and wind.” This he built in the southeast corner of section twenty-two in the Town of Pleasant Spring, at a point about two miles and a half west of Utica. Knut Roe, his wife, Anne, and family were the first white settlers in the township. An interview with Roe which the editor of Billed-Magazin prints will therefore be of interest. He says: “I often received visits by the Indians, and the many deep paths in the ground showed that the son of the wilderness often held forth in the region about me. In their marches between the Lake Koshkonong and the four lakes which have made Madison famed far and wide for its beauty, the Redskins often pitched camp close to my brushwood hut. Sometimes I accompanied them on their hunts. They never caused me any trouble, but on the contrary were always ready to be helpful. There was game in plenty. Almost daily I saw herds of deer, flocks of prairie chickens, and I was often awakened at night by the howling of the wolf."

In the autumn Roe built a log cabin; in this cabin he and family continued to live till 1870. During the earliest years, he writes, he was obliged to drive as far as Whitewater, thirty miles east, or Madison, a distance of eighteen miles, for flour. At Lake Mills, twenty-two miles, there was a saw-mill. After a time the settlers began to sell some wheat; this had to be hauled to Milwaukee, seventy-five miles away. Their only means of transportation at that time was the Kubberulle, or block-wheeled wagon, drawn by oxen, much of the way through forest, where a way had to be cut by the axe. Two weeks after Roe’s settling, Ole K. Trovatten came from Muskego and located on the farm later owned by Gunder J. Felland. Trovatten, who had been a school teacher in Norway, had emigrated from Laurdal, Telemarken, to Muskego in 1840. He was, therefore, the second Norwegian to locate in Pleasant Spring. He, however, left for Cottage Grove that same fall. See below, page 252.

The next arrivals were Osmund Lunde and his brother-in-law, Aslak Kostvedt, both from Vinje in Telemarken. The latter bought land three miles southeast of West Koshkonong Church, near Trovatten’s place. Lunde lived at first with Kostvedt; thereupon he bought land in section three. Some years later Lunde sold his farm to Kittil Rinden, oldest son of Kittil Rinden, Sr., and moved to Minnesota, whither Kostvedt also moved.

On the third of August a small group of immigrants arrived and selected a home and settled directly west of West Koshkonong Church, on section fourteen. These were Knut A. Juve,[243] his brother, Knut Gjötil (or Jöitil), and his sister, Tone Lien, then a widow. Juve owned an estate in Telemarken, which he sold upon deciding to emigrate, in May, 1843. They sailed on the brig Washington, which carried eighty-six passengers, mostly from the parishes of Hvideseid and Laurdal.[244] They landed in New York on July fourth. It was the intention of the members of this party to settle in Illinois, but in Milwaukee they were advised against doing so; they were told that many who had settled in Illinois had later moved to Wisconsin and bought homes there. Many remained in Milwaukee, some went direct to Koshkonong, while others, including the Juve party, went to Wind Lake, in Racine County. Knut Juve was not pleased with Wind Lake. One day he met a pioneer settler from the Town of Christiana, Dane County, who, when he noticed Juve’s downcast condition, said to him: “Go farther west; not until you get to Koshkonong are you in America.” Juve acted upon the advice; he and his brother and sister started west soon after, arriving in the Town of Pleasant Spring, as we have said, on the third day of August. Half a mile west of where the church was built two years later, they built their hut of brushwood, thatched with straw.

“Our furniture,” says Juve,[245] “consisted of a few chests, that were used both as table and chairs, while the bed was arranged on the ground on some twigs and grass.” Here they lived till October, when they made a dugout, in which they lived till the following summer. Both Juve and Jöitil were soon, however, taken ill with the climate fever. In the interview from which we have already cited, he speaks of how many a time during his illness he longed back to the old home, kindred and friends in his native land. In the summer of 1844 a log cabin was built, and not long after Jöitil and the widowed sister also had erected log cabins of their own in his immediate neighborhood. In the spring of 1844 Juve broke two acres of ground and raised a little corn and potatoes; the next summer he raised enough of grain and potatoes for family use; the third year he was able to sell a little. Such were the beginnings of agriculture in the wilderness.

About the middle of August a large number came and located in the settlement. Among these were Gunleik T. Sundbö (b.1785), with wife and three sons, two of whom were married and had families.[246] Others who came were: Tostein G. Bringa (b. 1817), with wife and son, Halvor Laurantson Fosseim (b. 1810), and family, his brother, Ole L. Fosseim, and Ole K. Dyrland (b. 1819).[247] Sundbö, Bringa, Fosseim and Dyrland all bought land not far from Knut Juve and Knut Jöitil. During the next two months the following arrived: Torbjörn G. Vik, with wife and son Guttorm, and daughter Anna from Siljord, Aslak E. Groven (b. 1812), and family, from Laurdal, Ole E. Næset (b. 1796), and family, and his brother Aadne, from Vinje, and Gunnar T. Mandt, from Moe, Telemarken.[248] Groven settled about a mile east of the West Koshkonong Church near the Christiana Township line; the two Næset brothers also located near there. This group of immigrants came via Racine County, where they had remained a few weeks resting after the journey, as the guests of Even Heg. They arrived on Koshkonong Prairie in the latter part of September, having walked from Muskego. Gunnar Mandt first came to Pleasant Spring, but as he did not have anything[249] with which to buy land, as he says, he worked for others there and elsewhere for five years. From his autobiographical sketch[250] I cite the following account of the method of threshing in those days:

Gunnar Mandt worked in Chicago during the years 1844–45, where he got seventy-five cents a day, but had to furnish his own keep. In 1846 he returned to Pleasant Spring; in April, 1848, he married Synneva Olsdatter Husebö, from Systrond, Sogn, who had come to America with her parents in 1844. Having secured his own farm (on section nine) he farmed there until 1875, when he moved to the village of Stoughton. Gunnar Mandt died in December, 1907, his wife having died a month earlier.

The greater part of nine sections (13–15 and 22–27) in this part of the Township of Pleasant Spring, was settled before the winter of 1843–44. Knut Roe says that, while he was alone there when he came in June, he had neighbors on all sides before winter came, although the distance between the pioneer cabins was, of course, considerable. The year 1844 brought a large influx of settlers, chiefly from Telemarken, but in part also from Voss. Among them I shall here speak only of Hendrik Hæve and family, from Voss, who located somewhat farther north, on section one, on the property later owned and occupied by his oldest son, Ole Hæve (Havey); Anfin O. Holtan and family from Sogn, who settled in the southeastern part of the town on section thirty-six, where the son, Ole Holtan, later lived; and Ole Iverson and his wife Angeline and son Lewis.

There were a few others, as Aanund O. Drotning, from Vinje, and Knut H. Teisberg, from Laurdal, Telemarken, who came to America in 1843, but they, too, settled elsewhere first; we shall have occasion to speak of them again. Finally, relative to Knut Roe, I may add that he and his wife continued to live on the old homestead till their death; he died as early as 1874, but she lived till 1908, being then a little over ninety years of age. The homestead was owned by the oldest son, Helleik. On the occasion of Mrs. K. Roe’s ninetieth birthday, all her children, eight grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren, gathered at the old home to commemorate the event.[251]

We shall now turn to Dunkirk Township, the earliest settling of which also dates from 1843.

The first Norwegian settler in the Town of Dunkirk was John Nelson Luraas. Together with Helge Grimsrud he had explored Dunkirk and surrounding country in the fall of 1842 and selected a site on which to settle. His father, Nils Johnson Luraas (b. 1789), arrived from Norway in June, 1843, and came with his son direct from Muskego to Koshkonong, where the party arrived on June sixteenth. An American by the name of John Wheeler had settled in the town two weeks earlier, being the only white man there.[252] Luraas settled on section three, about two miles east of the present city of Stoughton, and three miles south of where his companion, Knut Roe, located in the Town of Pleasant Spring. Only about a week after Luraas’s arrival, two more families, who also came from Muskego, arrived and settled there, namely, Helge Sivertson Grimsrud, wife Birgitte, son Sigurd, and Hans P. Tverberg and wife Ingeborg, and John P. Tverberg. The former had emigrated from Norway (via Drammen and Gothenburg) the year before, while Tverberg had come in 1841. They were all from Tin, in Telemarken. Helge Grimsrud possessed considerable means in Norway and owned a fine estate, which he sold upon emigrating. Grimsrud bought land in section two, directly east of Luraas, while Tverberg settled a mile south of Luraas in section ten.[253] The next settler was Gaute Ingbrigtson Gulliksrud (b. 1815), from Tin, Telemarken, who arrived there five weeks later, that is, in August.[254] He came in a party of about one hundred and twenty persons, mostly from Telemarken, embarking at Skien, and sailed via Havre de Grace to New York. Most of the party went temporarily to Muskego. Gulliksrud did not like Muskego, and soon after set out for Koshkonong. Having selected a location for his home, he bought, for $200, a hundred and sixty acres of land, near his countrymen, chiefly in section ten, and erected his log cabin a short distance north of Hans Tverberg’s home.

There were then in the fall of 1843 four Norwegian families settled in the Town of Dunkirk. In the following year a considerable number of immigrants came from Norway (Telemarken, Voss, and Sogn) but Dunkirk did not receive many of those who came that year; they settled mostly in Christiana or Pleasant Spring, while some now began to find homes in Cottage Grove and Dunn, immediately north and west of Pleasant Spring.

The first Norwegian settlers in the Town of Dunn were Nils Ellefson Mastre and Lars Mastre, who had come to America in 1845; they located in Dunn, just across the Pleasant Spring line soon after arriving; American families had settled in the township before them. Ingebrigt Johnson Helle, from Kragerö, was the next settler there, but he didn’t enter Dunn until 1849; he emigrated in 1845 but had worked in Buffalo four years.

John O. Hougen, from Solör, Norway, was the first Norwegian to settle in Cottage Grove, where he came in the summer of 1842, consequently a year before Roe and others came to Pleasant Spring. Hougen had been a baker in Christiana and usually went by the name of John Baker (or Bager). Some years later he removed to Coon Prairie, in Vernon County, Wisconsin. Björn Tovsen Vasberg, from Laurdal, Telemarken, also located in Cottage Grove in the summer of 1842. Nothing seems to be known of his antecedents, and little that is favorable seems to be known of him during his brief career in the township. He later moved to Minnesota, where he lived, it seems, a roving life, being at last found dead on the public highway. He was a notorious, and as far as I know, the only instance of the vagabond and ne’er-do-well among the Norwegian pioneers of those days. The next Norwegian settler in the Town of Cottage Grove was Halvor Kostvedt,[255] from Vinje Parish, who emigrated in the spring of 1842; he lived for a year in Christiana Township, and came to Cottage Grove in the summer of 1843 and made a dugout on section twenty-four, in which he lived the first year. Others who came on the same ship were Alexander O. Bækhus (or Norman), Ole A. Haatvedt and Osmund Lunde. The first of these located in Christiana, but later moved to Minnesota; Ole Haatvedt settled on Jefferson Prairie, whence some years later he went to Iowa, while Asmund Lunde, after remaining a year in Muskego, came to Pleasant Spring, as we have seen, in the summer of 1843. Ole Trovatten, whom we have already met, both in Muskego and in Pleasant Spring, came to Cottage Grove in the fall of 1843. Trovatten is reputed to have been a man of unusual natural gifts and considerable eloquence. He served as deacon in West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie churches for many years, a capacity in which he had officiated also in Norway. He later affiliated with the East Koshkonong Church, which congregation he, with O. P. Selseng, represented on the occasion of the founding of the Norwegian Synod in East Koshkonong Church, on February 5th, 1853.[256]

Asmund Aslakson Næstestu, with wife and family, came to Muskego in the fall of 1843, where he worked as a blacksmith for six months. He removed to Koshkonong early the next spring, going direct to Halvor Kostvedt, with whom he lived in the dugout the first summer. In 1847 he bought land in the same locality. Næstestu[257] is said to have been famed in Norway as a mechanical genius of rare talent. On one occasion King Carl Johan was shown a gun made by the farmer’s son in Vinje; the King afterwards sent Asmund Næstestu a silver cup as a token of his pleasure over the excellent workmanship of the gun. Asmund Næstestu bought a farm a mile and a half northwest of Nora Post Office in 1854, where he, in the course of time, became the owner of two hundred acres. Among others who came to America with Asmund Næstestu in 1843 and later settled in Cottage Grove, were Næstestu’s nephews, Aslak and Halvor Olson Bækhus (or Gjergjord as they called themselves in this country), Björn O. Hustvedt, Halvor Donstad and Knut Teisberg.[258]

Finally I shall add the names of Björn A. Stondall and Björn Stevens Hustvedt, two of Cottage Grove’s well known early pioneers, who emigrated in 1843 and stopped through the winter in Muskego; thence they came to Koshkonong, locating in Cottage Grove in the spring of 1844.[259] Björn Stondal was from Vinje, in Telemarken, being born on the farm Næstestu in Bögrænd in 1823. He sailed on the ship Vinterflid from Porsgrund in the spring of 1843, as he relates.[260] They were eleven weeks on the ocean before reaching New York. The objective point was Milwaukee and the Muskego settlement; here they stopped during the winter with an American by the name of Putnam,—seven persons in a hut that was fourteen feet long and ten feet wide. In the spring of 1844 he walked west to Koshkonong, where he decided to buy eighty acres of land in section thirty-two in southern Cottage Grove, and begin the occupation of a farmer. Four years later he married Gunhild Bergland. Björn Stondal died in April, 1906, at the age of eighty-three, survived by his wife and nine children.

In our discussion of the settling of Koshkonong by immigrants from Numedal in 1840–42, mention was made of Tore Knudson Nore and wife Gjertud among those who arrived in 1842. Tore Nore did not, however, locate in Christiana or Albion townships, where his compatriots had settled. He selected land about three miles southeast of where Gunnul Vindeig had located, across the Jefferson County line in what later was named Sumner Township. Tore Nore, who was then a man of about forty years of age and had a large family, had emigrated in the spring of 1842, but had not, as the immigrants from Numedal so far had generally done, gone to Jefferson Prairie or Rock Prairie, but had stopped in Muskego. Being dissatisfied here, he decided to go to Koshkonong. Taking his family with him, he arrived there about October first of that year. Soon after he erected his log cabin in Sumner,[261] being, therefore, the first Norwegian to settle in that part of Jefferson County, his being the second family to enter the township of Sumner.[262] Here he lived till his death in 1868, at the age of seventy-six. Gjertrud Nore died in 1884. Three sons are prosperous farmers living in the neighborhood of the father’s original homestead. A daughter, Gro, married Peder Larsen Svartskuren (or Svartskor) in Norway, in June, 1842. They became the second Norwegian family to settle in the township. Peder Svartskuren was a native of Konigsberg, Norway, being, as it appears, the third emigrant to America from that locality.[263]

In an interview with Svein Nilson printed in 1870, Peder Svartskuren mentions Björn Anderson (Kvelve), Amund Hornefjeld, Gunnul Vindeig and Thorsten Olson as being the only Norwegians living in the neighboring towns of Albion and Christiana when he came there. He speaks of Sumner Township as being a heavy primeval forest, with only here and there a stretch of open country. “There was an abundance of game, deers and prairie chickens, and the lake (Koshkonong) and creek were full of fish. The Indians were roving about the country, but they did no one any harm and were kindly and ever ready to help.”

Mrs. Svartskuren, who is now eighty-seven years old and quite feeble, has, since 1902, lived at Leeds, North Dakota, with a son, Carl, he having sold the homestead after the father’s death, and moved to Viroqua, Wisconsin, and later to Leeds. Peder Svartskuren was among the founders of the East Koshkonong Church; he was a man of strong character, who enjoyed in large degree the love and the respect of his fellows.

The Town of Sumner did not receive many accessions from Norway. In the same interview Svartskuren says: “There are now twelve Norwegian families, besides six Swedish families. The rest are German and English.”

The Town of Oakland, Jefferson County, also received a few settlers at this early period. The earliest arrival there was, I believe, Tollef Bækhus and wife, Aasild; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and located two miles east of the village of Rockdale. They were from Laurdal Parish, in Upper Telemarken, had been married in 1838, and had two children when they came to this country. Tollef Bækhus died in 1897, the widow lived until 1906, being ninety years old at the time of her death. A son, John Bækhus, now owns the homestead.[264]

In Chapter XVIII above we gave an account of the founding of the Koshkonong Settlement, which began in the townships of Christiana, Deerfield and Albion, in 1840–41. We spoke briefly of the founders and of those who came and joined the three groups of pathfinders in the following year. In Chapter XXVIII a similar record has been given of the events which led to the settling of the Town of Pleasant Spring by four families in 1843, and by others in the following year. We have also observed how the towns of Dunkirk and Cottage Grove became settled in 1843, and that Dunn received its first Norwegian settlers in 1844. The towns of Sumner and Oakland, in Jefferson County, in the eastern extremity of Koshkonong Prairie also received a small contingent of Norwegian immigrant settlers in 1842 and 1843 respectively. The original nucleus and the subsequent expansions of the settlement, east, west and north, are thereby indicated.

In four years after its inception, the settlement covered an area of about fifteen square miles. But the settlers lived, for the most part, far apart; geographically they had made ample provisions for a great settlement in this garden spot of Wisconsin. While there were as yet (in 1843) not more than a hundred and fifty individuals in the settlement, there was room for thousands more without going beyond the boundary as already laid out. The beginning made in a few years was remarkable, but the growth in the years immediately following was even more wonderful. For a time Koshkonong was the destination of four-fifths of those who emigrated from Norway.

The year 1842 records the beginning of the great development, which in five years resulted in the settling of almost the whole of this vast area by immigrants from Norway. The next year was that of the great influx from various points in Telemarken, especially, Siljord, Laurdal and Hvideseid, although there were considerable numbers also from Vinje and Tin. The year 1843 was the one in which the Telemarkings took possession of Koshkonong; they gradually selected their permanent homes in Pleasant Spring, extending into Dunkirk and Cottage Grove and the northeastern sections of Christiana (as Eggleson, Bjoin, Hauge, Borgerud, Bosbön and Kingland). The Numedalians came only in limited numbers after 1842 and did not spread much beyond the original center around East Koshkonong church in southeastern Christiana and northern Albion townships. Those on the extreme west were Levi Kittilson, Levi Holtan, O. O. Lenaas and Tore E. Smithback, all coming somewhat later than those in the eastern extremity. The immigration from Numedal, which began in Rollaug, is after 1842 almost confined to Flesberg, a parish which furnished no immigrants before 1842.

In the year 1843, there came to Koshkonong, 35 families and many single persons, or a total of 182 individuals. This was the year of heaviest immigration to Koshkonong. The year’s influx is significant in the large number of districts in Norway represented, Telemarken leading as has been pointed out above. In addition to 9 persons from Numedal, and a small contingent from Voss, the first party of fourteen persons arrived from Kragerö. These first immigrants from Kragerö were: Bjorn O. Rom, Kjöstolf Tollefsen Hulderöen[265] (b. 1821), Even E. Buaas (b. 1799), Abraham K. Rönningen, Erick K. Rönningen, Halvor E. Dahl (b. 1802), wife Anne, and family, Torbjörn K. Rönningen, Glus P. Tyvang and wife, Audi, and Peder K. Rönningen. From Leikanger in Sogn[266] Anna L. Eggum (or Eggene, b. 1811), who in 1845 married Sjur C. Droksvold, from Voss; from Lier came Knut O. Lier, as also the widow Anne Thorstad, Knut Asdöhldalen and Gabriel Björnson (from Drammen); from Drangedal came Baruld J. Strandskougen and family, from Sandsværd, Ellef A. Berg, from Skauger, Halvor J. Stubberud, from Rögen, Lars P. Haukelien and family, from Holte, Tarald E. Midböe, from Gjerpen, Peder H. Moe, and from Hallingdal, Even Olson.

We have noted the fact above that there came for the first time in 1843 a group of immigrants from Flesberg Parish in Numedal. We shall note here briefly who these were. For the facts I am indebted to Mrs. Levi Holtan, formerly of Utica, at present of Stoughton, Wisconsin. The name of the ship on which these people came, Mrs. Holtan cannot remember, but it was commanded by Captain Overvind; the first mate was Friis. In the party of ninety persons were: Halvor Kjölen, Juul Hamre and wife Anne, Tostein Ullebær and Halvor Aasen, who went to Jefferson Prairie,[267] Gulleik Laugen, who stopped in Rochester, but soon after came west, locating on Rock Prairie, Paal (“Spelleman”) Lund, Guldbrand G. Holtan, a widower, his brother Ole G. Holtan,[268] Knut K. Bakli and Kittil G. Bakli and families, Ambjör Olsdatter and Synnöve Kristoffersdatter Bekkjorden from Lyngdal Annex of Flesberg. This was the ship on which also Per Svartskuren and wife Gro, Knut Lier and Baruld Johnson came on.[269] In the same party emigrated also Klemet Larson Stalsbraaten and wife Gunild, and his brother Halvor Stalsbraaten (Kravik) from Sigdal in Numedal. Halvor Stalsbraaten took the name Kravik from the estate where he had worked five years before emigrating. Reverend Kasberg writes me, citing Halvor Kravik, that they (the Stalsbraatens)

The rest of the party also came to Koshkonong a short while after, except those who went to Rock County. Ole G. Holtan (b. 1821) and Ambjör Olsdatter (b. 1821) were married a few weeks after arriving; Ole Holtan died in 1851, leaving wife and two children, Anna and Ole. Anna later became the wife of Levor Kittilsen Fjöse (Levi Kittilsen) well known farmer and prominent in the councils of the West Koshkonong Church.[270] Ambjör, widow of Ole G. Holtan, married Nils Torgerson Grötrud in 1852; he had come to America in 1849.[271]

We have, on page 183 above, spoken of Lars J. Holo, who was the earliest immigrant from Ringsaker (1839). From Rochester, New York, he came to Muskego, Racine County, Wisconsin, in 1841; in 1843 he located permanently on Koshkonong. His son Johannes also settled on Koshkonong, as also the sons Lars and Martin Holo. The latter now owns the farm originally purchased in Albion Township by Björn Kvelve. Halvor Kravik (b. 1820) was the son of Lars A. Stalsbraaten and wife Maria. In 1845 he married Kristi Guldbrandson, who had come to America in 1842. They bought land and settled permanently about three-quarters of a mile south of East Koshkonong Church at what came to be called Kravikhaugen (the Kravik hill). The homestead has now for many years been occupied by the oldest son, Lars C. Kravik. Since about 1899, Halvor and his wife lived with their son-in-law, Rev. K. A. Kasberg, in Stoughton, Wisconsin, later in Grand Forks, North Dakota, now for several years past at Spring Grove, Houston County, Minnesota. Mrs. Kravik died a year ago; Mr. Kravik in February, 1909.

Kjöstolf Hulderöen (Hulröya), who came to Muskego in 1843, went back to Norway two years later, but returned to America in 1846, settling on Koshkonong, at Cambridge. In 1848 he married Hæge O. Sube, who had come from Telemarken to this country that year. In 1853 he started a general merchandise business in Rockdale, Dane County, where he lived till his death in 1889. The widow is living with her oldest daughter Mrs. John Halvorson in Rockdale. A son, Charlie C. Tellefson, one of Dane County’s prominent democrats, resides at Utica, Wisconsin.

Gabriel Björnson was one of the few who came to Koshkonong from the region of Drammen. He married Gunhild Grötrud, sister of Nils T. Holtan (Grötrud). Björnson is said to have been the first Norwegian to be admitted to the bar in this country. He died in Ada, Minnesota, in 1889; he was at that time County Attorney of Norman County.

There were two families from Voss, who had immigrated earlier among those who settled permanently on Koshkonong in 1843, namely Styrk Olson Saue, who, we have seen, came to America in 1837, and Gulleik Torsteinson Saue, who immigrated in 1840; they had lived most of the time in Chicago. There Styrk Saue married Eli K. Væte; she died at Deerfield about 1885. Styrk died in 1894. Gulleik Saue (b. 1821) married Donant Rölje in 1844. They purchased land in northern Christiania, not far from Cambridge; here, and in neighboring parts of Deerfield Township, Gulleik Thompson, as he called himself, became in the course of time the owner of about 1,000 acres of farm land. At the time of his death he was Koshkonong’s wealthiest farmer. His son, Hon. T. G. Thompson, occupies the old home and owns the estate.

It has been noted above that one of the earliest pioneers at Wiota, La Fayette County, Wisconsin, was from Vik Parish in Sogn, namely, Per Unde who emigrated in 1839. In 1842 Ole Unde came and joined his brother at Wiota. In 1843 Ole Schærdalen[272] came to America from Aurland, Sogn; he was the first emigrant from that parish. It has been said that there was a party of immigrants from Sogn in 1843, but this I doubt as I have been able nowhere to verify it. Ole Schærdalen went to Muskego where he stopped the first year, then he joined the party of Sognings who came that year and passed through Muskego en route for Koshkonong. Per and Ole Unde wrote letters home to Vik Parish, in response to these letters, full of praise for Wisconsin, there came many immigrants from Vik during the next two years. Ole Schærdalen in a similar way aided in promoting emigration from Inner Sogn.

In Aurland Parish lived Ole Torjussen Flom; he had travelled much in Norway and come in contact with people who had relatives and friends in America, and who themselves were planning to emigrate. He was well acquainted with Schærdalen and he had been in Vik and knew, it seems, the Unde family. Ole T. Flom (b. 1794) was the son of Torjus Flom (b. about 1765) generally called Torjus i Midgarden, who was the owner of a valuable estate at Flaam near Fretheim. There were three sons, Gulleik, Ole, and Knut; by the right of primogeniture the estate would fall to the oldest son, Gulleik Flom. Ole Flom had selected for purchase a place then for sale, in Voss, and it was his intention to remove to Voss. He was, however, prevailed upon not to do this by his father who told him he would give him half of the family estate. When, however, the time came, the temptation to follow the general practice and give the estate intact over to the oldest son became too strong for the father and he gave it all to Gulleik Flom.

Ole T. Flom then began thinking about emigrating to America. In 1843 he went to Vik Parish and while there he and Anfin J. Seim agreed to go to America. After he returned to Aurland others in the parish also began to make preparations for leaving for the New World and the fever spread to Fresvik and Systrond and up as far as Sogndal Parish. In the spring of 1844 a considerable number from these regions and from Vik stood ready to emigrate. Ole T. Flom, wife Anna and sons Ole and Anders, Ivar H. Vangen and Knut Aaretuen (i Aureto), wife Anna[273] and three children left Aurlandsvangen on the 12th of April. They had engaged passage on Juno, Captain Bendixen, but were obliged to wait in Bergen two weeks before sailing. In the meantime others who also were to go on Juno joined them at Bergen. Among them were the Melaas families from Norum Annex of Sogndal Parish; they were the first to emigrate from that district. This party was composed of the following eleven members: Mons Lasseson Melaas (b. 1787) and wife Martha; Kristen L. Melaas, wife Aase and daughter Anna; Johans K. Bjelde and wife Kristi; Ole A. Slinde, wife Martha;[274] and two children.

The following persons from various parts of Sogn also embarked on Juno: Anders Engen, Per L. Gjerde, Michel J. Engesæter and wife Synnöve from Systrand, Ole I. Husebö with wife Ingeleiv and children, and Ole A. Værken (Grinde) from Leikanger, Nils T. Seim, wife Mari and children (3) and Thomas T. Seim from Lærdal, and the aforementioned Anfin I. Seim from Vik with his wife Britha and five children.[275] There were about sixty persons on Juno when it sailed in May. At the same time two other ships sailed from Bergen with immigrants for America; they were Kong Sverre, Captain Vingaard and Albion, Captain Brock. A very large number of those who embarked on these ships also were from Sogn, especially Vik, nearly all these going to Long Prairie (see next chapter). Among those who came to Koshkonong were: Torstein Thronson Selseng and wife Kari, Knut Gjerde, Ole Selseng, Jakob I. Gjerdene, from Sogndal, Elling O. Flatland, wife and children, and Sjur S. Ölman.

Kong Sverre and Albion sailed three days before Juno, but arrived in New York several weeks later. Juno made the journey to New York in five weeks and three days, which, says Kristi Melaas, broke the record for fast sailing at that time. “The Brock ship” took eight weeks for the journey, while Kong Sverre was on the ocean twelve weeks. The party that came with Juno was therefore the first large group of Sognings to land in America, the date of their landing being St. John’s Eve. From New York they went by canal-boat to Buffalo, where they arrived on the fourth of July. Here they were put on board an old steamboat, which the immigrants feared would go to the bottom at any moment of the journey, says Mrs. Melaas, over the lakes to Milwaukee, where they arrived at the end of July.[276] Kristi Melaas says the agent weighed their goods at every stopping place and charged toll each time. There was no interpreter on the boat who could voice their objections. The ticket from New York to Chicago was $14, but by additional charges along the route, the expense of the inland journey was greater than that from Bergen to New York. In Milwaukee most of the party, including Ole Vendelbo, Ole T. Flom, Knut Aaretuen and Michel Engesæter went to Koshkonong via Muskego, but the Melaas family went to Chicago, as did Ole Husebö and one man from Vik who had intended to go south to Missouri,[277] and they were all met in Chicago by one who was to bring them to Missouri. It seems, however, that the departure hither was delayed for weeks by their guide who was addicted to drink. In the meantime the Melaas families becoming discouraged and having met a certain Ole Bringa who urged them to come to Koshkonong, decided to go where the rest of the party had already directed their course. They then bought two yoke of oxen and drove to Koshkonong, stopping in Pleasant Spring Township about two miles northeast of Lake Kegonsa.

Soon after arriving at Koshkonong they were met by Ole Trovatten who aided them in the selection of land and who accompanied Johans and Ole Melaas to Milwaukee to purchase the land selected. The two brothers bought each forty acres at first in section three; later Johans bought out Ole and eighty acres more adjacent to the acquired forty. Ole A. Melaas thereupon located on section thirty-five in Cottage Grove Township, a mile northeast of his brother’s property. The Melaas families all located in that immediate neighborhood. Ole T. Flom bought eighty acres in Cottage Grove Township, a mile north of Door Creek where also Ole Vendelbo Olson settled, purchasing forty acres. Olson, however, sold this out to Ole T. Flom not long after, and moved to Minnesota. Nile Seim also located near there, while Per Gjerde settled in section two in Pleasant Spring, near the Cottage Grove line. Ole I. Husebö settled in Christiana Township and Sjur Ölman settled a mile north of Nora Post-office. Ivar Vangen located on Bonnet Prairie, Michel Engesæter lived a few years on Koshkonong, then removed to Norway Grove. Knut Aaretuen settled in Koshkonong, but went west (to Minnesota) after some years. Anfin Seim, who was from Vik, went with the Melaas families to Chicago, and thence to Long Prairie, Boone County, Illinois (see next chapter). The only family from Vik to locate in Koshkonong that year was that of Mons Halringa, who settled in Pleasant Spring, a mile or so southwest of Utica; the homestead being that later occupied by his son Simon.

The immigration to Koshkonong in 1844 was thus principally from Sogn, and it is to be noted that a considerable number of these settled in the northern extremity of the settlement, north of Door Creek and Nora. At the same time there were new accessions from other districts, especially Voss and Laurdal in Telemarken, while from Rollaug came that year Gisle H. Venaas and Anfin A. Haugerud. Among those who came from Voss I shall name here the brothers Nils and Sjur Droksvold, Ole Droksvold, Henrik O. Hæve, Erik V. Rio (Williams), Erik S. Fliseram, and Knut E. Rokne; all these had families.

Among earlier immigrants from Voss who located in Dane County in 1844 were Ole and Steffen Gilderhus; the former had immigrated in 1839 while Steffen came in 1838. As has been observed above, Lars D. Rekve, who came to America in 1839, did not actually settle in Koshkonong until 1844. Rokne and Venaas settled in Christiana, the former three miles west of Cambridge, the latter two miles northwest of Rockdale. Most of the Vossings, however, located in Deerfield Township, south and west of the village of Deerfield. We shall now turn to the immigrants who came from Sogn with Kong Sverre and Albion in 1844 and did not settle in Wisconsin.

In the vicinity of the present village of Capron, Illinois, a few Norwegians located in 1843, forming the nucleus of what later came to be known as Long Prairie. This settlement is located only a few miles south of Jefferson Prairie (which extends into Illinois) and is about sixty-five miles distant west from Chicago. The earliest Norwegian settlers here were Thor Olson Kaasa and Thov Knutson Traim, his wife Ingebjorg and sons, Knut, Kjetil, and Ole, from Siljord in Upper Telemarken. Thor Kaasa was the son of Ole Kaasa and wife Margit, who immigrated in 1843 with a family of nine children, of whom Thor was the oldest. We have spoken of their coming on page 235. Among the other children the sons, Gjermund, Jens, Jörgen, and Kittel, and daughters, Guro, Aase, Emelie and Kristense, also moved to the settlement in 1845. Both Ole Kaasa and his wife died of cholera in 1854; Jörgen Kaasa settled in Winneshiek County in 1852, while Thor Kaasa moved to Filmore County, Minnesota; Jens located permanently in Chicago.

In 1844 there came five persons from Siljord, Norway, namely Björn Brekketo[278] and wife Guro, her brothers Jens and Steinar, and Johannes Kleiva. Björn Brekketo died early and the widow married Ole Oreflaat. Not many more immigrants from Telemarken located at Capron. In 1844–45 natives of Sogn took possession of Long Prairie, and the settlement has ever since remained preëminently a Sogning settlement.

We have observed above that of those who came from Sogn on the ship Juno in 1844, Anfin Seim and family did not locate in Koshkonong, but went to Boone County, Illinois; they were the only ones of Juno’s passengers to settle in Illinois. On the other hand a considerable number of those who came on Kong Sverre and Albion located at Long Prairie. Among them were the following who came with the Albion: Ole J. Aavri, wife Britha and daughter Inga and sons Johans and Andres.[279] Ivar S. Rislauv and wife Eli, a daughter of Ole Aavri; Lars Johnson Haave, wife Randi, daughter Britha, and two sons Joe (John) and Ole; Andrew Olson Stadhem (Staim), wife Sigrid, two sons and four daughters, Olina, Britha, Aase, and Inga; Ole Stadhem and family; Ivar I. Haave, wife Barbro and sons Ingebrigt and Elling; Endre H. Numedal and wife Helga, daughter of Ivar Haave; Ole Berdahl and family; Ingebrigt N. Vange, wife Britha, and three daughters, and Ole Vange.

With the Sverre came: Anders H. Numedal and wife Aagot, Ole Tistele, Ole O. Tenold and wife Sigri, Ole P. Tenold, Ole J. Orvedal, wife Ragnilda, and three daughters,[280] Lars O. Fölie, Joe Fölie, who died of cholera in Chicago, Ivar Fölie, Lars Jensen Haave, with family and Ingebrigt J. Fuglegjærdet. Besides these there were on both ships a number of young unmarried men and women whose passage was paid for by Lars Johnson Haave and Joe Fölie, who may perhaps be regarded as the leaders of this party. Most of those named were men of means, and some of them were owners of valuable estates which were of course sold and converted into cash upon emigrating to America. Albion took eight weeks for the voyage. Kong Sverre took twelve. The former arrived in New York about July 25th.

From New York they took the usual inland route to Chicago, their destination being Wiota. But at Belvidere in Boone County, they met Thor Olson Kaasa, who advised them strongly against going to Wiota, which, he said, was two hundred miles from a market. La Fayette County was moreover nothing but hills, and he gave such an unfavorable description of that locality, that the immigrants decided to accept his suggestion and go to Long Prairie, where they were told there was plenty of level and fertile land only seventy miles from Chicago. A few were deputed to wait at Belvidere for those who were coming on Kong Sverre, and inform them of the change in plans, the rest accompanied Kaasa to Boone County,[281] where also soon after the second party came. Thus by the autumn of 1844 the settlement numbered about one hundred individuals.[282]

In the year 1845 about fifty persons settled near Capron. It has already been observed that the Kaasa family moved out there that year from Chicago.[283] Others came directly from Sogn, Norway, the recruiting region being Vik Parish exclusively. In that year three ships left Bergen again with immigrants principally from Sogn, especially Aurland and Vik. Those who came from Aurland went to Koshkonong, as also many of those who came from Vik. One of these ships was Albion, Captain Brock, the passengers of which went, most of them, to Long Prairie.

Relative to the voyage of Albion, Elim Ellingson of Capron, who was on this ship, tells me the following incident which occurred in mid-ocean.

Mr. Ellingson in telling this, added that it is doubtful what fate might have awaited them, had not the captain promptly turned the ship about and succeeded in escaping what most certainly would have been a similar attack.

Among those who came on that ship at the same time, and who located at Capron, were: Johans Dahle from Voss, his wife, Ingebjör, and son, Ole;[284] Lasse Ellingson Aase (b. 1808), wife Gjöri Ravsdal and five children, Ragnild,[285] Elling (Elim), (b. 1835), Nils, Endre and Britha; Andres E. Aase, wife and two sons;[286] Anders O. Torvold, Johannes Lie (now living in Goodhue County, Minnesota), and Johanna Stadhem. John Benson of Capron tells me that his grandmother, Martha Numedal, a widow, came there in 1845 or 1846, and also the following: Joe Sande, who was married to a Miss Aase, Edlend Myrkeskog, wife Eli and daughter Ingebjör,[287] and Ole Myrkeskog, who is living at Capron yet at the age of eighty.

The Long Prairie Settlement continued to grow for a decade. Space does not, however, permit printing here the complete list of later arrivals, kindly supplied me by Elim Ellingson and John Benson.[288] We shall now speak briefly of the growth of the old settlement of Muskego.

In Chapter XV we discussed briefly immigration to Racine County in 1841–1842. The period of largest growth of the settlement was between 1842 and 1847; an especially large party came in 1843. After 1847 the arrivals that became permanent residents were few and scattered. In the early fall of 1842 there arrived at one time a party of forty persons. They had embarked at Langesund about May 30th, were over eleven weeks on the ocean, arriving in New York August 16th. Here they met Elling Eielson, who accompanied them to Albany; three weeks later they landed in Milwaukee. Among others there were the following persons: Hermo Nilsen Tufte and family from Aal in Hallingdal, Johan Landsverk and family from Tuddal, Telemarken, Sondre N. Maaren and wife and his brothers Östein and Nils from Tin, Östen G. Meland also from Tin, Tostein E. Cleven and Aanund Bjaan (Bjoin) and family who were the first to emigrate from Siljord. Of these several remained only temporarily; thus Anders Dahlen went to Winnebago County, Wisconsin, about 1848, in company with Ole Myhre, an immigrant of the year 1843. Kjittel Busness, who was a brother to the said Ole Myhre’s wife, also remained in Racine County only a few years, then he went to Stoughton, Dane County.

Sondre Maaren settled on section 34, Town of Norway, where he and his wife lived in a dug-out for a time; later, selling out to a Mr. Sawyer, they moved to Jefferson Prairie and ultimately to Cresco, Iowa. Aanund Bjoin died in 1847; the son Halvor, then eighteen years old, walked to Koshkonong with the view of selecting land and settling there, and the rest of the family moved there that same year. Johan Landsverk, who was a brother of Ole Landsverk, an immigrant of 1838, settled on Yorkville Prairie and remained there till 1854, when he moved to Sande in Chickasaw County, Iowa, where he lived till his death. A son, Peder J. Landsverk, born 1840, occupied the homestead later; he died in January, 1908. Hermo Nilson Tufte and family located on section 31 in Raymond Township; here he lived till his death.

As has been said, Tufte came from Aal Parish, Hallingdal, and was not only the first emigrant to America from Aal, but it seems, also the first from the Valley of Hallingdal. The Tufte farm lay in the extreme north of the valley close up under the mountains; the region is extremely cold, much of it covered by snow the whole year round. The family was extremely poor; of a pious nature and fervid adherents of Hans Nilsen Hauge. Besides the father and mother there was a son, Nils, and a daughter, Sigrid. The latter, in whom the piety of the mother had found strong expression, was attracted to the young lay preacher, Eielson, and in July the next year became his wife. The son, Nils, married in 1865 a daughter of Ole Sanderson in Perry Township, Dane County, and lived on the old homestead until he died about 1901. The daughter, Julia, married Thomas Adland of North Cape, Racine County, and another daughter, Betsey, married O. B. Dahle of Perry, Dane County. Hermo Nilson and his wife both died in the latter part of the sixties.

Three different parties of immigrants, nearly all from Telemarken, came to Racine County in 1843. One, the so-called Wigeland party, left Skien early in the spring by ship commanded by Captain Bloom, sailing to Havre, France. The second party, going about the same time, sailed out from Skien by the Olius, Captain Björnson, also going to Havre. Of the third party we shall speak below.

At Havre those in the first party seem to have engaged passage on an American ship Argo, a five-masted sailing vessel loaded with Swedish iron bound for New York. While Olius was laid up for repairs, the American captain began cutting prices, offering at last to take the new arrivals to New York for nine five-franc pieces each (or about $8). Many did not dare to take passage on the Argo, fearing that some trick was being played on them, but most of them went. Argo proved a good sailer, reaching New York four weeks ahead of Olius. There were, however, long delays in New York and Buffalo, so that the immigrants did not reach Milwaukee before August 15th. Among those who came on the Argo were: Arentz Wigeland and wife Gunild, his aged father Andrew Wigeland, and his brothers George and Andrew, and two sisters; Halvor Pederson Haugholt, with wife Tone and four sons and two daughters, Gunild and Ingeborg; Ole Overson Haukom and family, eleven in all; Anders Jacobson Rönningen, wife Kjersti and three sons;[289] Jens Hundkjilen and Anders Smekaasa; Amund S. Sötholt, his brother, Sören S. Sötholt, Sven S. Klomset; Lars Tinderholt; Nils H. Narum, Halvor Nisson, John Maaren, Nils Rue, John Kossin, John Husevold, all with families; Östen Ingusland, John Husevold, Hans Tveito, Svein Nordgaarden, Gjermon T. Nordgaarden, Mathias H. Kroken, wife and children, his wife’s sister Anne and their mother Sissel; Ole O. Storlie, with wife,[290] four sons and two daughters; Kjittil Haugan and family; Gunuld K. Maaren, Gro Grave and her mother; Halvor I. Doksrud, wife and two sons, Halvor and Ingebret. All these, about one hundred in all, were from different parts of Telemarken. Besides there were sixteen persons from Sætersdalen as follows: Tollef Gunnufson Huset, wife Hæge Olson and six children from Bygland, Augun Berge and wife from Vallö, Kjögei Harstad from Vallö, Tollef Knudson and wife and three children from Holestad Parish, and Tolleif Röisland and Ole Nummeland from Vallö, the first emigrants from Sætersdalen to America. All but the last two of these went to Muskego.[291]

Arentz Wigeland, born 1812, who may be regarded as the leader, had sailed for seven years between Boston and the West Indies and along the American Atlantic coast. Passing the winters in Boston he had learned the English language, and in 1842 returned to his home in Bamle, Norway, to bring his family to America. He became the chief promoter of the considerable immigration from Lower Telemarken that year. Wigeland settled in Yorkville Township. In 1844 he married Gunild Pederson; he died in 1862. The daughter Maren (b. 1845) married John W. Johnson in 1865. Mrs. Wigeland died in Racine in 1897. Haugholt (b. 1799) was from Saude Parish in Lower Telemarken. He settled on section 18 in the Town of Raymond; there he died in 1882, his wife[292] died in 1876, aged 79 years. Their oldest son Ole, who was drowned in the fifties in the Norway marshes, was the first person buried in the Yorkville Cemetery.

Nels Narum was from Stathelle in Bamle Parish; he settled in Norway Township on section 20. Both he and his wife died in 1887, about eighty-seven years old. Hans Tveito (Twito) settled in the part of the settlement that lay in Waukesha County; he moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1855 and in 1866 to Filmore County; Halvor Nissen who was from Bamle, also settled in Waukesha County. Ole Overson was from Hviteseid Parish; when they came to Norway they lived for some time with John Dale (who had come from Norway in 1837 with Mons K. Aadland and Ole Rynning). In 1845 he preëmpted land in section 34, where his son Frank Overson lived until quite recently.

Our third party of emigrants were from Upper Telemarken, mostly from Siljord Parish. They came on the ship Vinterflid.[293] Among those in the party were: Knud S. Kvistrud and Kari Berge from Tin, Egil O. Cleven and family, and a cousin Knut Haugan, wife and two daughters from Langelev; Björn Stondal, Ole O. Hedejord[294] and wife Liv, three daughters, Esther, Ida and Etta, and two sons, Ole and Edward; Torbjörn G. Vik and family, who later moved to Koshkonong; Aanund Drotning who also went to Koshkonong that same year;[295] Aase and Ingeborg Olson[296] from Mandal, Telemarken. John Homme from Siljord, father of Reverend G. Homme, founder of the Indian School at Wittenberg, Wisconsin, also came at the same time, as also Ole Myren and wife Bergit, and Torgrim Busness and wife Anne from Tin, who moved to Springfield Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1851.

That year also Ole Heg, son of Even Heg and a brother of Colonel Hans C. Heg,[297] came and settled in Racine County, as also Knud Langeland from Samnanger, who in 1866 became the first editor of Skandinaven founded that year by John Anderson in Chicago. Knud Langeland lived at first in Muskego, later at North Cape, Racine County. In 1849 he married Anna Hatlestad (born in Skjold Parish, Ryfylke, in 1830), whose parents Jens O. Hatlestad and wife Anne had immigrated in 1846, and settled in the Town of Norway. Knud Langeland was also the first editor of Amerika, which began publication in Chicago in 1884. During the last years of his life Langeland lived in North Cape and in Milwaukee, where he died in 1888; his wife died in 1908, at the home of her son, Dr. Peter Langeland with whom she had lived since her husband’s death.[298]

There came three persons from Voss to Racine County in 1843, namely, Knut S. Skjerve (b. 1808), and wife Kari, and his unmarried sister, Brita Selheim. Skjerve located in Norway, Racine County, in the neighborhood of Nils Johnson. In 1847 Skjerve sold his land to Knut K. Aaretuen from Sogn and went to Jefferson Prairie, Boone County, Illinois, where he bought a farm and lived till his death in 1892; his wife died there in 1873.

During 1844–1846 the increase in immigration was constant, though not large. In 1847 there arrived a considerable number. The scattered accessions of these years represent as widely removed parishes as Skien, Lærdal in Sogn, and Namsos in Trondhjem. The following is a partial list: 1844, John Larson and Peter Jacobson and family from Stathelle, Bamle, Johannes J. Quala from near Stavanger; Thormod S. Flattre with wife Ingeborg (Lydahl)[299] and children from Voss, who settled in Norway Township, Halvor O. Skare and wife Margrete and two children from Lower Telemarken, who located in Norway Township in 1845;[300] John I. Berge and wife Julia, and Hans H. Bakke and wife Ingeborg, who moved to Spring Grove in 1854, and Peder Torgerson and wife Anne and five children from Kragerö.[301] In 1846: Jens O. Hatlestad and wife (see above page 284) parents of Rev. O. J. Hatlestad, pioneer publisher, minister, and author of Historiske Middelelser om den norske Augustana-Synode, Decorah, Iowa, 1877; Elling Spillom, wife Maren and three sons, Ole, Hendrik, and Mikkel and one daughter; Ole Homstad and Mathias Homstad, both with families, from Namsos in Trondhjem Diocese;[302] they settled in Raymond Township; Halvor and Ingebret Roswald[303] from Gjerpen. Knudt K. Hedle, wife and sons Mathias, Peter, and daughter Betsy from Lærdal, Sogn; Tyke Hendrikson Lökken and wife Anne from Gjerpen, who bought the Aslak Aas farm in Norway Township; they had four children, Hans, Ole, Peter and Maria.[304] In 1847: Peter M. Andsion from Namsos, with wife and four children (three daughters and a son); they settled in Norway Township.

In this year Captain Hans Friis from Farsund, Agder, Norway, settled in Muskego. Friis was a sailor with Enigheden in 1837 (see above page 96), and between 1837 and 1847 had made nine journeys to America. After settling in Muskego he continued for many years sailing on the Great Lakes. In 1848 the following came to Muskego: George J. Björgaas from Houg, Voss,[305] Tollef O. Öien from Tönset, Österdalen (removed to Kewanee County in 1855), and J. H. Skarie, from Hadeland, who located in Town of Norway. This year also brought to Muskego the pioneer minister Hans Andreas Stub (b. 1822), who had that spring received and accepted the call to the Muskego church. Knut and Anna Aaretuen from Aurland, Sogn, also appear among the number; they bought the farm of Knut S. Skjerve in Norway Township. In 1854 they moved to Winneshiek County, Iowa, and about 1860 to Gilmore County, Minnesota. John T. and Christoffer Olson from Romskogen in Rödenæs, Halvor “Modum” from Modum, Norway, and Guro Wait and son Reuben from Österdalen, Norway, all came in 1848.

This brief outline of the growth of the settlement represents fairly completely the increase by immigration from Norway between 1842 and 1850. The wave of migration had long ago moved westward; it had already gone beyond Koshkonong also. It was northern and western Dane County and southern Columbia County that were now the Mecca of immigrants. In the meantime some small settlements in Walworth and Jefferson Counties had already been founded. We shall, therefore, briefly discuss these now.

Walworth County forms one of the southern tier of counties in Wisconsin, being situated between Rock on the west and Kenosha and Racine on the east; to the north lies Jefferson County. There are four Norwegian settlements in the county, as follows: (1) in the southern part of the Town of Whitewater and the northern part of the Town of Richmond lies the Heart Prairie Settlement, taking its name from the beautiful little prairie directly east of it; (2) about four miles east of the city of Whitewater lies Skoponong, partly in Whitewater Township and extending north into Jefferson County as far as Palmyra; (3) in the city of Whitewater there is a considerable Norwegian colony, and (4) about six miles southeast of Heart Prairie lies the Sugar Creek Settlement, extending from about five miles north of Delavan to about three miles northeast of Elk Horn, the county seat of Walworth County. It is the first of these settlements that we shall discuss in this chapter.

The first Norwegian settlers at Heart Prairie were Ole A. Sögal and wife Kari, who, with their four children Anne, Andrea, Karen, and Johanne, came in 1842 and located four miles and a half southeast of the city of Whitewater. They lived there only a few years, however, then moved to Wautoma, Waushara County, in Central Wisconsin. The next settler was Ole’s brother, Hans A. Milebon, who with his wife Kari came in 1843, and settled about a mile north of his brother’s place; they had one daughter, Mary Ann, who was about three years old when they came, and who is still living near Whitewater.

During the year 1844 a number of families arrived from Norway and settled at Heart Prairie. They were as follows: Hans Arveson Vale and wife Aaste (Esther), with children Arve (or Harvey) and Isak. Mr. Arveson bought his first eighty acres at government price of $1.25 per acre, and built his log house in the fall of 1844. In this log cabin many a Norwegian immigrant found a temporary home upon his first arrival in Wisconsin in the early days of the settlement. Here Mr. Arveson lived, cultivating his own farm, until his death in 1873 at the age of sixty-one; the widow died in June, 1900, at the age of eighty-six. Hans Thompson and wife Marie also came in 1844; they had three children, Thomas, Karen and Ann. He bought land adjoining Arveson’s farm, lived the first winter in a dug-out. But the next spring “when the snakes began to come in,” writes my informant, they moved to the Arveson’s where they lived till they got their log-house built.

Andres J. Skipnes and his wife Aaste also came at the time; they settled near Ole Arveson, but lived there only a short time, then moved to a farm near Stoughton, Wisconsin. Ole J. Vale and wife Anne likewise came in the same party, but they went to Sugar Creek, where a son, John, and a daughter, Annie Torine, had located the year before.[306] Another arrival at this time was Peder H. Swerge, and Ole Tölvson Grönsteen and wife Kari and three children, Tosten Olson, a carpenter, and wife Aaste, Karine, a daughter of Halvor Anderson, came in 1844. Tosten built most of the log-cabins that were erected in the settlement for a number of years. His wife died soon after coming to America, and Tosten died in the Civil War. Finally the accessions of 1844 included also the following persons: Gunder H. Lunde, Anne Kosa, Ole O. Huset and family, John C. Opsal, and Halvor Huset. The latter two remained only a short time, then went west; Ole O. Huset located on Koshkonong.[307]

All the above thirty-one persons who emigrated in 1844 were from the vicinity of Skien in Holden, and all came on the same ship, namely, Salvator, Captain Johan Gasman. They were nine weeks on the ocean, landing in New York July 4th; they came by the regular route to Milwaukee, thence they drove in lumber wagons to Heart Prairie.

For the year 1845 the following accessions are to be noted: The brothers Nils and Gunder C. Opsal; Halvor A. Lunde and wife Ann and six children, most of them grown up, and another son Gulleik and wife Dorothea; Anders J. Björndokken; Johans Grönsteen with wife Maria and three children. For 1846 we note the following: Anders Gunderson, John Arveson and wife Kjersti and four children;[308] Lukas Ingebretson; Anders G. Bjerva, wife Anne and four children:[309] Anne, Börte Maria, Karen, and Jens, who many years ago moved to Crookston, Minnesota; and John Grönsteen and wife Asberg. All those who came during the years 1845–46 were from near Skien.

In 1847 Christen M. Bö, wife Inger and four children from Gjerpen came to Heart Prairie; and in 1848 came Ole Nilsen from Christiansand.

In either 1848 or 1849 came Nils, Steen and Ole Haatvedt; Nils moved to Wautoma, and Ole settled in Waupaca after living a few years at Heart Prairie. In 1850 Hans Hanson, a blacksmith, came from Holdon and located there; he worked for a time with the George Esterly Harvesting Machine Co., then bought a farm, which he occupied till his death in 1893. Another blacksmith by the name of Claus Hanson came at the same time; worked at his trade for a while in Whitewater then went to Michigan, married and came back and settled in Milwaukee, where he is still living. In 1851 Arve Gunderson Vale emigrated; his son Hans Vale had come in 1844; Arve Vale lived only a week after arriving. With him came Gunder H. Vala and wife Kersti and seven children; they moved to Vermillion, South Dakota, a few years later, all except the oldest son Halvor, who is living at Rio, Wisconsin. In that year (1851) came also Christopher Steenson Haatvedt and his two brothers-in-law, Peter Kystelson Haatvedt and Christen J. Tveit, while in 1852 came Jörgen A. Nilson Vibito and wife Karen Kristine, née Hanson, and six children. Jörgen Nilson had taught parochial school in Norway for twenty-nine years and continued to do so here for many years.

The above is a complete account of all arrivals to the settlement from Norway down to the year 1852; the roster of settlers here given has been patiently gathered during several months of research by Mr. Harvey Arveson[310] of Whitewater, himself the oldest son of the third settler in the community, namely Hans Arveson Vale, of whom we have spoken above. I have followed his manuscript closely, omitting only certain facts of family and personal history. Mr. Arveson speaks briefly of the trying summer and fall of 1846 when for a time sickness and death seemed to threaten to exterminate the settlers of Heart Prairie. I will quote from his own account of the condition; speaking of John Grönsteen, who came in 1846 and died that same fall, he continues:

Whitewater city received no Norwegian settlers until in the fifties, therefore an account of their coming falls outside the scope of our discussion. Of the old Skoponong Settlement I am able to give only a few general facts. The first settlers came in 1843–44; they were: Kittil Jordgrev, Hans Bukaasa, and Björn Lien from Upper Telemarken, Hans and Harald Nordbö from Flaa, Hallingdal, Ole Lia from Hiterdal, Halvor Valkaasa from Sauland, Lars Johnson Lee, Sjur Hydle, Knut T. Rio, and Tollef Grane from Voss, and Anon Dalos; several of these had families. Lars Lee and wife Britha came to Muskego in the summer of 1843 and to Skoponong early in the fall, and were therefore among the very earliest in that locality. They lived there until 1861, when they located at Spring Prairie, Town of Leeds, Columbia County.[311] In his history of the Skoponong Congregation (founded in 1844), C. M. Mason, Secretary of the congregation, names also the following among the earliest members of the church: Halvor Mathison (in whose house the church was organized in 1844), Styrk Erikson, Knud Dokstad, Nils Herre, Ole Sjurson, Simon Sakrison, Jacob Kaasne, Halvor Glenna, Mathias Baura, Björn Hefte, Sjur Flittre, Lars Klove, Mathias Lia and Even Gulseth.

In 1846 Syver O. Haaland, wife and nine children, Hadle Evenson and wife Anne J. Fjösne, and Tostein H. and Osmond O. Högstul came to Skoponong, the latter two from Tuddal in Telemarken; the former were from Etne Parish in Söndhordland. Björn Holland of Hollandale, Wisconsin, who is a son of Syver Haaland,[312] writes me that they came on the ship Kong Sverre from Bergen.[313] In Ulvestad’s Nordmaendene i Amerika, page 56, appears an account of their first few weeks in the settlement and of S. Haaland’s sickness and death. The Högstul party came in a brig by the name of Washington, which carried iron from Tvedestrand, commanded by a Norwegian captain by the name of Simon Cook. He says:

Hadle Evenson moved to Perry, Wisconsin, in 1854, where Mrs. Evenson died in 1861. The oldest son Edwin Hadley, enlisting in Co. E, 15th Wisconsin, was killed at the Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia, in May, 1864. In 1875 Mr. Evenson settled at Slater, Story County, Iowa. Peter Hadley, Treasurer of Webster County, is the only surviving son.

Among the early settlers at Skoponong was Mrs. Ingeborg Nelson who came from Evanger, Voss, in 1849. She left Skoponong a few years later, settling permanently at Deerfield, Dane County, in 1853, where she is still living at the age of ninety-five. Mrs. Nelson is the mother of Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who was born in Norway in 1843. Knute Nelson was educated at Albion Academy, Albion, Wisconsin, and removed to Alexandria, Minnesota in 1871. He was Governor of Minnesota during 1892–1895. In the latter year he was elected U. S. Senator and has been reëlected twice since, serving now his third term.

I shall mention one more settler, namely Torstein Rio,[314] born at Vossevangen in 1835, who, with his wife Ingeborg (Bershaugen) and family came to America in 1849 on the ship Henrik Wergeland and located at Skoponong. A brother whose name also was Torstein came at the same time, and the family included a son Nels (Thompson), who is living at Madison, Wisconsin, having moved there in 1860.[315] Torstein Rio died at Skoponong in 1869, his wife died in Madison in 1876.

At Pine Lake and Nashota in northwestern Waukesha County a considerable number of Norwegians lived among the forties and fifties, since which the settlement has dwindled very much.[316] At Pine Lake the first Swedish settlement founded in America in the last century had been established in 1841 by Gustav Unonius.[317] In 1843 about fifty Norwegian families located at Pine Lake, according to Unonius Minnen, 1862, page 3. Unonius mentions especially a Captain Hans Gasman as the principal figure there. Gasman had a large family of sons and daughters, and the name is a well known one among the early pioneers of Racine, Waukesha, and Dodge Counties.[318] Other members of the family were Charles, Peter and Captain Johan Gasman, who commanded the Salvator, plying between Skien and New York. This very ship brought a number who located at Pine Lake, among them Halvor Salveson from Gjerpen.[319]

Among the fifty families who came to Pine Lake in 1843 I may name Engelbret Salveson from Gjerpen, Erik Helgeson, Hans Roe, Christen Puttekaasa, Halvor Rosholt, Jacob Rosholt, Peter Næs from near Skien and Gjerpen, Ellef Björnson and Halvor Halvorson from Saude, Telemarken, and Tollef Waller from Eidanger in Lower Telemarken, Christopher Aamodt and Hans Uhlen from Modum, Tolleiv Röisland and Ole Nummeland from Vallö in Sætersdalen and Ole Lia from Gausdal.[320] Some of these, as e. g. Halvor Halvorson[321] located in the extreme northern part of the settlement at Toland, and John Lia settled across the Jefferson County line,[322] but most located in Waukesha County at Hartland or Nashota.

In subsequent years there arrived constantly new settlers from Skien, Sætersdal and Gudbrandsdalen, but even in the later forties many began to go to the counties immediately northwest to Waupaca and Portage counties and elsewhere. In 1850–54 these counties, as also Waushara and Winnebago counties on the south, received hosts of Norwegian settlers, some coming direct from Norway, a large number however from Racine and Dane Counties, and the Pine Lake region.[323] The period of growth in this settlement was therefore relatively short, and the removals relatively large. The result was that the Norwegians came to live more scattered and the community soon began to lose its distinctive national character. Thus it is significant, that of the ninety services held during 1907 in Vor Frelsers Kirke at Oconomowoc sixty-three were in the English language.[324] But we are here touching upon questions which it is not our purpose to discuss in connection with the survey of settlement.

We have briefly referred to Sugar Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin, in chapter XXXIII above. This little settlement received its first Norwegian settlers in 1844 when Ole Vale and wife Anne from Holden Parish, Skien, located there; with them came the sons John and Anders and the daughters Aasta, Anne, Turine, Andrea and Maria. Vale and his wife lived in Sugar Creek till their death, and the daughters all married and settled there. In the same year Ole Kittelson and Nils T. Kvamodden, both unmarried and both also from Holden, came to the settlement. Ole Kittelson located permanently in Sugar Creek, but Nils Kvamodden and wife moved to Norway Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota, in 1857. There they died years ago, the homestead being now occupied by the son Ole.

Christian L. Vestremo and wife Ingeborg and three children, and Gunder K. Næseth emigrated from Gjerpen near Skien, in 1844. Næseth moved to Norway, Minnesota, in 1856 and Vestremo in 1857. According to Ole Jacobson of Elk Horn, to whom I am indebted for these facts, there were no further accessions to the colony before 1847. In that year his parents came from Gjerpen, as also Jacob Torstenson and wife Maren Margrete and three sons Ole, Torsten and Jacob, and a daughter, Maria with her husband Lars Jensen Teigen and family. With them came also Teigen’s mother. Jacob Torstenson died in 1861; the widow is still living at the old home.

Ole Jacobson writes me that his father and family left Skien in April by the ship Axel (og) Valborg, Captain Bloom, going first as far as Havre, France. There they waited three weeks, then secured passage with an American ship, the journey being very slow. Landing in Boston, they went by train to Albany, thence by canal boat to Buffalo, and by steamboat via the lakes to Milwaukee, where they arrived sometime in August. From Milwaukee they thereupon proceeded to Sugar Creek, where they located permanently. Ole Jacobson is at present living on the farm purchased in 1847. In 1849 Aslak Rasmusson Slettene with wife Gunild and eight children came from Gjerpen, Norway.[325] Grindemelum, with wife, son, and daughter, also came in 1849, as did Peter J. Gromstulen, wife Svanang and five children, and Nils J. Overholt, wife and two children.

There do not seem to have been any further accessions of Norwegian immigrants during the pioneer days of the Sugar Creek settlement. In the sixties quite a number came and located at and about Elk Horn but these do not fall within the scope of our survey.

The original home of immigrants from Land, Norway, was Rock Prairie, as we saw above, chapter XXIV. From this as their distribution point they migrated west and north, aiding in the founding of other settlements. As early as 1844 we find one pioneer at Wiota from Land, Norway, namely Syver Johnson Smed (see above page 213). But the influx from Land did not begin until 1847.[326] In that year two families, numbering in all fourteen persons, arrived via Rock Prairie; they were those of Svend Nörstelien (wife Karen, and five children) and of the widow Kari Lillebæk, who had six children.[327] In 1848 Hovel Tollefsrude, wife Bertha and children: Christopher, Hans, Jahannes, Siri, and Lovise arrived. Further immigrants of that year were: Johannes Brenom, wife Ingeborg and three children; Hans Halvorson (Brenna), wife Eli, and children, Berte, Halvor and Johannes; Johannes E. Smedsrud, with wife Anne and two sons Engebret and Mathias; and Johannes Smehögen (or Smed) with wife Engeborg, and two children.

In 1849 came Torkild Husværet, with wife and three sons, Gulbrand, Lars and Frederik; Ole Monson Tollefsrude, wife Karen and three children, and Nils Aason, Ovre Hasle and wife Ingeborg, who had come to Rock Prairie in 1848 (removed to Wiota in 1848). Hans Lillebæk came in 1850 and about twenty in all in 1851–52.

Ole Monson, whom we have mentioned as coming in 1849, was the builder of the old Norwegian church at Wiota, which is still standing; the present larger and more commodious structure stands on the wall built by Ole Monson.

There were not very many from other provinces in Norway among those who emigrated to Wiota in the late forties. We have spoken of Ingebrigt Fuglegjærdet’s coming in 1846 from Long Prairie, where he had lived two years; he was from Vik, Sogn.[328]

From Vik came Erik I. Haave and wife in 1847, while Harald Melland and wife Anne came from Telemarken. From Sigdal there came one family in 1848; Ellef (Alef) Johnson and wife Anne. The latter served in the Civil War, in Company G of the Twenty-Second Wisconsin Regiment.[329] In 1872 he married Mary Larson,[330] of Blanchardville, La Fayette County, where they are now living.

I may conclude this chapter by saying that Arne Vinje, whose name is so intimately interlinked with the history of the community, died in 1903, having lived on the old homestead for sixty-two years. Of his eight children, three are living: Peter S. Anderson, Newell, Iowa, Daniel K. Anderson and Mrs. Martha Brunkow of Woodford, Wisconsin.

In the year 1845–1846 immigration to Koshkonong from Laurdal, Vinje and Moe Parishes continued and a considerable number came from Flesberg. The accessions from Laurdal, Moe, and Hvideseid for these years record the end of a movement that began in 1843. But that which especially characterized the growth of the Koshkonong Settlement in 1845–1846 was the extensive additions through immigrants from Sogn. So extensive, in fact, was the influx from Sogn these years as to make their total representation on Koshkonong at once exceed that from either Voss or Numedal, and equal to about half that from Telemarken. These four have ever since been the dominant elements in Koshkonong’s population. A part of this immigration from Sogn was from parishes represented among the arrivals of the year before. Such were Botolf J. Grinde, Ole N. Steenhjerde and Sjur I. Romören from Leikanger, Herman T. Vee, Joseph J. Gjellum and Hermund O. Offerdal from Lærdal, Anders S. Övrebö, wife Anne and three children from Lyster, Erik L. Grov and Anders H. Ödegaard and wife Martha from Hafslo.

But much more significant was the immigration from Aurland Parish in 1845–1846, from Sogndal in 1846, and the new immigration from Vik Parish in 1845. We shall discuss these three groups in order briefly.

We have noted above, Chapter XXXI, that there were several persons from Aurland Parish, Sogn, among the immigrants who settled on Koshkonong in 1844. I am now in receipt of a letter from Anders J. Flaam of Flaam in Aurland, Norway, relative to the earliest emigration from Aurland to America. His letter, as also that of Reverend E. P. Juul, the present Minister of the Parish, shows that the earliest emigrants left there in 1844. I quote in translation from Reverend Juul’s letter:

Reverend Juul thereupon gives a list of those who emigrated from Aurland in 1845, and while several of these did not settle on Koshkonong it will be of interest to the reader to see this list. I therefore give it complete here:

Some of the immigrants mentioned by Reverend Juul are still living on Koshkonong. Thus among the children of Erik J. Ytreli (who died in 1892, at the age of 90),[332] Johannes (John E. Johnson) is still living on the old homestead, two miles east of Utica, and his brother Haakon is living there with him.[333] Simon Gjellum lived two years in Chicago, then entered the Mexican War, after which he came to Koshkonong. Ivar I. Ytreli[334] had been a school teacher and deacon at Systrond, in which capacity he continued serving here in this country, at Rock Prairie, Rock County, whither he went soon after arriving in Wisconsin; he died there about 1875. Of other immigrants from Aurland, which Mr. Anders J. Flaam speaks of, I shall mention Peder J. Gjeirsme, and Torbjörn O. Gjeirsme, wife Metta and family, who came in 1846, and Hans Torjussen Flom, who, he says, went soon after Ole T. Flom.

During the year 1845 there came also a group of immigrants to Koshkonong from Vik Parish, namely several families from near Arnefjord. This party included several Næset families, the oldest living survivor of which is Jens J. Næset (b. 1828), well-known Koshkonong architect, who resides at Stoughton, Wisconsin.[335] I have had several interviews with Mr. Næset relative to their sailing, and their early life as pioneers; it will be possible to give here only the briefest facts. Jens Næset tells me that there were eight estates at Næset and that the owners of four of them sold out at the same time and went to America. The biggest of these estates was that of Ingebrigt Næset, or as he was usually called, Skuungen. In the party were Jens Næset’s parents, Johannes Jensen Næset and wife Eli, his oldest sister Gro, married to Ole Larson (Haugan)[336] who is living in Cambridge, Wisconsin, two brothers Ingebrigt and John, and another sister who later married Henrik Lien of East Koshkonong.[337]

There were three ships that sailed at the same time, Næset relates. One of these was the Kong Sverre, Captain Fischer (of which Haakon Lie speaks above), and on which the emigrants from Aurland were embarked. Another was a two-masted sloop, Peder Schröder, and which carried about 130 passengers, among whom the Næset families; this sloop had crossed twice before. The third was one commanded by Captain Brock. The passengers on this ship were mostly from Sogn, but there were three boys from Hardanger, and a few persons from Voss. Peder Schröder also carried emigrants principally from Sogn, but there were two from Voss, says Næset. One of these was Brynjulf Leland, who settled at Norway Grove, where he is still living. The other was Odd Himle, whom we have met with above page 168, as the guide of the first party of explorers of Koshkonong in 1839. He had returned to Norway in 1844, married there in 1845, and was now returning to America. Among those who came on the Brock-ship were Skuungen and Ole Menes.

We recognize in Captain Brook’s ship the same ship that Lasse Ellingson of Capron, Illinois, came on in 1845. It was furthermore the very same voyage of this ship. The name of the ship was Albion. For a partial list of the passengers on this ship as of Peder Schröder, whose captain was Vingaard,[338] the reader may now be referred to the account of the sailing of these two ships above, Chapter XXXII.

The two ships Kong Sverre and Peder Schröder sailed side by side the whole way, relates Næset, Kong Sverre arriving in New York in the evening, Peder Schröder the next morning. Captain Brock’s ship which had started ten days earlier, arrived three days later (see above page 275). From New York the immigrants were taken over the usual route to Milwaukee.[339] Having arrived in Muskego, they secured Halvor Luraas to take their goods to Koshkonong; he brought them to Clinton (Rockdale), where the first man they met was Torstein Selseng, who had emigrated from Aurland, Sogn, to Koshkonong the preceding year. Johannes Næset, who was a man of considerable means for the time, bought the land, which is now occupied by the son Ingebrigt Næset, which is section thirty-five in the southeastern part of Christiana Township.

Johannes Næset was born in Leikanger Parish in 1795; his wife, Eli I. Berdahl, was born in 1797. She died in Koshkonong in 1850, Johannes died in 1882. He was noted for his ability as a mechanic, was successful as a maker of violins, and was himself a capable player. Jens Næset early distinguished himself as a builder and an architect. Though but sixteen years old he assisted in the building of the old log church in East Koshkonong in 1844, and it was Næset who took it down again in 1858 and constructed the old stone church, which a few years ago was replaced by a handsome brick edifice. He also built the tower of the old Liberty Prairie Church, and a number of the oldest houses on Albion Prairie were erected by him. Jens Næset was married in 1850; he has no children. Mrs. Ole Melaas of Stoughton, Wisconsin, is an adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Næset.[340]

As has been noted, there was a considerable immigration from Sogndal, Sogn, in 1846; to name only a few: Ole C. Teigen, Ellend T. Quale, with wife Dordei Baardsdatter and family, eight in all, Anders S. Hundere, Nils O. Selseng and wife, and Johannes I. Gjerde. From Aurland, Sogndal, and Hafslo there came others in the following four years. I shall here name Peder Sylfestson Aaberge from Hafslo, who came in 1847, Ole O. Anderson (1848), Ole O. Hemsing (1849), both from Sogndal, Atle S. Gjellum and family, Per Sherping and wife Kristine and Kristen Olson Gulvangen from Aurland in 1849. Of these Aaberge later moved to Minnesota. Ole Anderson (often called Skog-Ola) settled three miles north of Albion, where he lived till his death. He married Guri Pederson, adoptive daughter of Torstein Selseng in 1851, who had come to America in 1849. She died in June, 1909. Ole Hemsing located first in Cottage Grove; in 1855 he purchased the old Hemsing farm three miles north of Stoughton, later owned by the son Ole H. Hemsing (b. 1853), since 1884, of Stoughton, Wisconsin. Ole O. Hemsing died about 1895, the widow (Ragnilda) died in 1907. Per Sherping died early and the widow married Kristen Olson, who then took the name Sherping (Sherpi). Kristen Sherpi (b. 1823) is still living at the old homestead near West Koshkonong Church. There was scattered immigration from Telemarken down to 1850, especially from Hvideseid, about forty in all came from Hallingdal, and twenty-five from Hardanger; Valders, Ringsaker, Biri and Vardal, and a dozen other provinces and parishes are represented by four or five settlers each. The first to arrive from Hardanger were Svend L. Lund, Ingebrekt, Nicolai, and Johannes Erdahl, Guttorm Buo, Ole L. and Aslak E. Quammen; these came in 1847. From Ringsaker came Anders J. Tömmerstigen, wife Maria Olsdatter and children Johannes, Olive, Peter (b. 1843) and Karen Marie, in 1846, while from North Aurdal in Valders came Ole Loe and Ole H. Hippe, both with families, and from Slidre, Tollef H. Gvale, all in 1847.

I shall now offer a copy of the official register of members of the Koshkonong churches during this period, according to the Parochial Records left by Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson for the years 1844 to 1850. This is here printed for the first time and will be read with considerable interest by the many descendants of the founders of these two historic congregations on Koshkonong Prairie.

J. W. C. Dietrichson.

Den 28nde Mai, 1850.

In the extreme northern part of Dane County in the Towns of Vienna, Windsor and Bristol, a large number of Norwegian immigrants, principally from Sogn, settled in 1846–1848, forming the nucleus of what in a few years came to be one of the most prosperous settlements in Southern Wisconsin. The first Norwegian in this section was Svennung Nikkulson Dahle, who came from Flatdal in Telemarken in 1844 to Koshkonong, and the next year purchased land and settled near Norway Grove in the Town of Vienna. He was then only eighteen years old.[360] Nearly all who came later were from Sogn, and Dahle was and remained the only native of Telemarken in Vienna. In 1846 Erik Engesæter, from Leikanger, Sogn, with family, including a son John, settled there. In 1847 Ole H. Farness (b. 1826) and wife Gertrude came from Sogn, Norway, to Norway Grove. Erik C. Farness[361] (b. 1828) also came the same year. These men both acquired large farms there in the course of time, Ole Farness owning 530 acres. Arne Boyum and family, five in all, from Outer Sogn, came in 1848 as did Knut K. Naas (b. 1810), with wife Alau and family of four children from Kragerö.[362]

The first Norwegian to buy land in Windsor Township was Ingebrigt Larson Tygum, from Systrand, Sogn, who immigrated in 1844, lived one year in Muskego, then came to Windsor in 1845. For two years he seems to have been the only Norwegian in the Town.[363] In 1852 Tygum sold his farm in Windsor and moved into Vienna Township, buying the farm at present occupied by the son Lars (b. 1849). In 1847 the following settled in Windsor Township: Stephen Holum and family, who had immigrated in 1845 and lived two years at Rock Prairie, Sjur Grinde and family, and Truls E. Farness and wife.[364] These families are intimately connected with the history of the Village of De Forest. A son of S. Holum, namely Ole S. Holum (b. 1847), lives on 204 acres of land adjoining the village. Ole Holum is a prominent democrat and has held various offices of trust, being e. g. Register of Deeds in 1877–78.[365] In 1848 several families moved in, among them Lars Eggum, Ole Haukness and family (ten in all), and Sjur S. Vangness and family. Vangness had immigrated in 1844, first settled in Rock County, then came to De Forest in 1848. He died there in 1878. The family included a son, Sjur S. Vangness (b. 1816 at Vangsness in Sogn), whom we meet with later as a man of much influence in the township; he owned 264 acres of land near De Forest.[366]

In Bristol Township three families settled as early as 1846; namely that of Botolf E. Bergum (b. 1816), who came there in the fall of 1846, and continued to reside there until his death in 1904 (his wife died in 1903; after a wedded life of fifty-four years),[367] Sjur Johnson and wife Ingeborg and one son, and Erik Larson and wife and several children.

In 1848 Hans H. Quamme came up to Bristol from Rock Prairie, where he had settled in 1846, coming from Norway that year. During the next three years so many immigrants came from Sogn and located in Norway Grove that the settlement came to be called “Sogn.” Among the many families who located there at that time, John Ollis of Madison, Wisconsin, writing in Bygdejaevining, page 341, names: “Engesæther, Grinde, Farnes, Tygum, Eggum, Boyum, Huseböe, Hamre, Ohnstad, Slinde, Sværen, Vangsness, Holum, Linde, Lidahl, Thorsnes, Fosse, Rendahl, Ethun, Vigdahl, Ulvestad, Röisum, Svalem, Fjerstad, Henjum, Jerde, Haukeness,” besides all who were called Olson, Larson, Nilson, Anderson, Peterson, Johnson, etc.

About ten miles northwest of Norway Grove, at Lodi in Columbia County, a smaller settlement of immigrants from Hardanger takes its beginning in 1847–48; although one family had settled there as early as 1844. In that year Peder L. Ödvin (b. 1819) and wife Kathrine Spaanem, from Ulvik in Hardanger, emigrated to America and went direct to Lodi. Ten years later they moved to Springdale in Dane County.[368] In 1847 Peder Fröland (see page 336) and Ole Jone, both from Hardanger, became the founders of the Hardanger Settlement there. In 1846 Ammund Himle and family from Voss immigrated and settled near Lodi, but below the Dane County line.

The origin of the Spring Prairie Settlement in Columbia County, the northern extremity of which is more specifically called Bonnet Prairie, dates back to 1845. In that year four men settled about the same time on Spring Prairie, namely: Odd Himle and Sjur S. Reque from Voss, Anders Langeteig from Vik in Sogn, and Knud Langeland from Racine County. The three first of these had families. Reque moved away again four years later, settling on Liberty Prairie, not far from Deerfield. Langeland, as we have recited above, was already in 1848 back in Racine County as one of the founders of Nordlyset, the first Norwegian newspaper published in this country; but Himle and Langeteig became permanent settlers.

In his book Nordmaendene i Amerika Langeland gives a circumstantial account of his coming to Spring Prairie. He says that in August of 1845 he and Niels Torstensen, equipping themselves with a cook stove, provisions, bedding, and all the necessities for camping out, drove with oxen and a wagon from Racine via Koshkonong, following the regular road to Madison (presumably going by West Koshkonong Church). But Madison did not attract them. He says: “Madison had nothing remarkable about it except its natural beauty and the big Territorial Building, which looked very imposing among the small frame houses.” These sons of the land of mountains “were scared away by the big hills” where the University is now situated, and turned east, driving almost as far as Fort Winnebago, where Amund Rosseland, a friend of Langeland’s, from Norway, had recently settled. Not finding the marshes here very inviting, and failing to meet Rosseland at home, they decided to turn back. Camping out over night, they drove back twenty miles the next day; then upon the advice of an American by the name of Young, they turned east, and driving on a few miles, came upon an American by the name of Gilbert, who was just engaged in erecting his log hut. The prairie here was to their liking and they selected a site and in due time entered a claim on land.

Langeland says there came no other Norwegians there that fall, but as we have seen, three others did locate in other parts of the prairie, about the time Langeland came there. That same fall Langeland went to Milwaukee to take out pre-emption papers and he stopped at Koshkonong, and told his countrymen there of the beauties of the prairies to the north, and a little later he wrote letters to friends in La Salle County, Illinois. From Milwaukee he says he brought back to Spring Prairie with him a plow, a harrow, and other farm tools.

In the spring of 1846 Peder Fröland[369] came up there from La Salle County, bringing with him two ox-teams and a wagon and farm tools, but he seems to have been the only one who came from La Salle County; a number of settlers, however, came from Boone County and Jefferson Prairie to Spring and Bonnet Prairie in 1847–1850. In June, 1846, Norwegian immigrants began to come in hosts from or via Koshkonong, says Langeland. He and Fröland plowed about one hundred acres of prairie land for the newcomers that season. Two years later Langeland sold his claim and moved back to Racine County.

So it happened that also Spring Prairie became settled largely from Koshkonong, and as this was the period in which immigration from Sogn was taking place on a large scale, it was especially Sognings who took possession also of this region; though a considerable number of Vossings also gradually moved in. Reverend L. S. J. Reque writes me that Spring Prairie is today almost exclusively a Sogning-Vossing settlement, and the former predominate.

The Spring Prairie Settlement, whose beginnings have here been briefly sketched, rapidly expanded north to Bonnet Prairie, this part of it coming to be known as the Bonnet Prairie Settlement. The settlement is located principally in Otsego Township, but partly in Hampdon and surrounding towns. The first Norwegian settlers in this locality were John Anderson and Kjel Anderson, who came in 1846, having immigrated from Saude, Telemarken, that year.

The following is a list of the founders of the settlement as submitted to me by Samuel Sampson of Rio, Wisconsin. Mr. Sampson (b. 1839) is the only survivor of those who settled there at that time, being the son of Thorbjörn Skutle. The year to the right of each name indicates the year of immigration to America. All except the last two settled at Bonnet Prairie in 1846; these two settled there in 1848.

Since the above was written I have received from Reverend L. S. J. Reque of Morrisonville, Wisconsin, further facts relative to the earliest settlers there. The earliest records of the Bonnet Prairie Church kept by Reverend A. C. Preus show that the testimonial of emigration was issued to “Eivind T. Indlæggen.” April 5, 1843, to “Johannes Johannesen” April 10th, 1843, to John Anderson and wife May 3d and 6th, 1843, to “Hans Olsen Haukaas” May 7th, 1843. Also to “Thorbjörn Samsonsen and wife Anna Ellingsdatter” May 13th, 1844. As it is probable that these emigrated at the time of issue of the testimonial of emigration the table should be corrected with reference to these names. During the intervening three years most of the above had lived in Boone County, Illinois, whither also some of the later settlers came en route to Bonnet Prairie. Thorbjörn Skutle and family who came from Voss, sailing on the ship Hercules, located first at Jefferson Prairie. T. Skutle and his wife both died in 1897, age 88 and 91 respectively.

The extensive Norwegian settlement in Western Dane County, ordinarily referred to as Blue Mounds from the “blue mounds” in the township of that name, was founded in 1846. Three families had, however, located there as early as 1844, namely those of Thor Aase, Peder Dusterud, and Lars P. Dusterud. Thor Aase, with wife Martha, five sons and two daughters,[370] settled on section ten in Springdale; they came from Sogn in 1843 and had lived one year at Wiota. Peder Dusterud and wife and family settled on section 33 in Blue Mounds and the son Lars Dusterud and wife located on section 27, both in Blue Mounds Township. These two came from Rock Run, Illinois, where they had located in 1842, immigrating from Vægli, Numedal.[371] They had also worked for some time in the Dodgeville, Wis., lead mines.

In 1846 a company of eleven persons arrived from Racine County; they were the following: Tore Toreson Spaanem, Halvor and Nils H. Grasdalen, John I. Berge and wife Julia and one child, his sister Mrs. Knut Sörenson Kvisterud, Tosten Thompson Rue, Ole T. Garden, Ole Kvisterud, and Ole Sjutvett. Knut S. Kvisterud, who had just before this gone to Mineral Point and secured work there, came to Blue Mounds in 1848. John Thompson later was more generally called “Snow-shoe Thompson” from the fact that he carried the U. S. mail over the Sierra Nevada Mountains for twenty years (1856–1876), walking on skis.

All these came from Muskego, Wisconsin, whither they had immigrated from Tin, Telemarken. Spaanem and Halvor Grasdalen had come there in 1841, Knut Kvisterud and wife in 1843, and Berge in 1845. The Rue family had come from Norway, as we have seen, in 1839 (see above page 125). In 1846 the Town of Primrose, immediately south of Springdale, also received its first Norwegian settlers, namely, Christian Hendrickson, wife Maria and three children, Caroline, Henry, and Charles. He had emigrated from Lier, Norway, in 1842, and worked four years in the lead mines at Wiota to pay his passage from Norway. Mr. Hendrickson drove from Wiota to Primrose with oxen, all his possessions being then a wagon, a cow, and seventy-five cents. He lived eight years in the log hut first erected and built a stone structure in 1855.

The next arrivals to Blue Mounds were Erik Solvi, who came from Sogn in 1847, and lived successively in Springdale, Vermont, and Blue Mounds, and Gullik Svensrud and family from Vægli, Numedal, who had immigrated in 1844,[372] and first located on Rock Prairie. It was also in 1847 that the first immigrant from Valders arrived in Blue Mounds; this was Ragnild Fadnes who in 1851 married Ever Halsten. She was born in North Aurdal in 1826; as near as I am able to determine she was the only member of the family who came at the time.

During 1846–1847 other localities, Wiota, Western Koshkonong, Spring Prairie and Norway Grove had claimed a considerable portion of the immigrants. But in 1848 they began to come in in large numbers in the townships of western Dane County and neighboring parts of Iowa County. To Primrose the following came in that year: Nils Skogen, Salve Jörgenson, and Nils Einarson. To Perry: Ole O. Bakken and wife Anne (Bergum) and two sons (Ole and Tideman) from Valders. This was the first Norwegian family to locate permanently in Perry; Bakken bought the claim of a “squatter” named Andreas Olson, who was therefore the earliest Norwegian in the township. Later in the same year came Lars Langemyr from Christiania, Norway, Torger T. Tvedt from Aamli in Nedenæs, Reiar Aarhus from Telemarken, Halvor O. Milesten from Hadeland, and Lars Halvorson and Hans Johnson from Drangedal.

The arrivals of 1848 were Ole Barton, wife Ingeborg and son Ole, Gulbrand Elseberg,[373] wife Ingeborg and two daughters, Christian O. Skogen, Ole O. Braaten and Nils O. Belgum; and in 1849: Knud Larson, Anders Lundene, Iver Halstein, Iver Lund, Ole Jelle, Sr., and Tore Maanem, all of whom were from Valders, mostly from North Aurdal. Tollef S. Anmarksrud and wife Karen came to Koshkonong the latter year, but he also removed to Blue Mounds in 1850. During the next few years immigration to the various townships of western Dane County was rapid. For the fall of 1849 and in 1850 are to be mentioned, e. g. the following arrivals in Springdale Township: Harald and Arne Hoff, Ole and Aslak Lee, Levor Lien, Ole Thompson Brenden, Anders, John and Knut Lunde, Knut J. Lindelien, Harald Stugaard, Michel Kolskett and Erik O. Skinrud; several of these had large families. To Blue Mounds Township came: Erik Engen, Ole Boley, wife and four children, and Arne Röste, with family of eleven children; all those named here came from Valders.[374]

From Sogn came Ole A. Grinde and Ole Menes, the latter remaining, however, two years in Norway Grove before coming to Blue Mounds. Michael Johnson (b. 1832 in Leikanger, Norway) emigrated to America in 1853, located first in Windsor, then removed to Vienna, finally settled permanently in Springdale in 1856. His parents, Jon Michelson Dahlbotten and wife Randi, and his sister Martha[375] and younger brother Botolf came to America in 1854. Mr. Johnson became a prosperous farmer and stock-raiser, his farm of 400 acres being one of the finest in that part of the state. He took an active part in church and school affairs and was for many years a member of the governing body (Kirkeraad) of the Norwegian Lutheran Evangelical Synod of America. He held many positions of trust in the town and the county, was a member of the State Legislature for three consecutive terms, 1874–75-76, and for years a well-known figure in the politics of the state. Mr. Johnson lived in Mt. Horeb since 1894; he died in 1908, leaving a widow and seven children.

In Primrose and Perry the Norwegians also settled extensively in 1849–1850. Among those who arrived in the former year were Gunnuf and Ole Tollefsen from Sæltersdalen, who as we have seen above, page 281, had immigrated to Muskego in 1845. Others who came to Primrose that year were G. and Ole Danielson[376] from Telemarken, Leif Olson, Kittil Moland, Ole Anderson and Peter P. Haslerud. Tollefson relates how he became the possessor of his quarter section in Primrose as follows:[377]

During 1850 came Mrs. Ole Baker with son P. O. Baker (b. 1838), Mons Ness, Elling Stamn, Ole Skuldt and Lars Halvorson from Hallingdal, Knut and Jens Olson from Stavanger, Lars L. Kolve and family from Voss and Knut Baardson (Bowerson) and family from Sætersdalen. During 1853 to 1855 Norwegians came in still greater numbers, writes Reverend Höverstad.

About twenty Norwegians settled in Perry in 1849; they were: Torger Hastvedt, Hans J. Dahle, Ole Gangsei and Jacob Aanhus from Telemarken, Andreas Stutelien and Jul Haavernd, wife and eight children from Valders, and Anders Sanderson from Hallingdal. After 1849 Norwegians came in in large numbers, settling up the town rapidly.[379] I shall mention here only Onon Björnson Dahle (b. 1823) from Nissedal, who settled in Perry in 1853, and Christian Evanson (b. 1819) from Valders, and wife Ragnild from Numedal, who came there in 1854.[380] Dr. Evans tells me that Ragnild Evanson (maiden name Ragnild Brekke) was born in Numedal, Norway, in 1819, and after her marriage to Christian Evanson, immigrated to America in company with her brother Lars N. Brekke (who for many years resided and conducted a grocery store in Madison, Wis.) in the year 1848, preceding her husband by about five years. They came by sailing vessel, and were sixteen weeks on the voyage, having been grounded on a rock off the coast of England and were obliged to wait repairs. After landing in New York they came by Erie canal and the lakes to Milwaukee, Wis., then to near Stoughton, Wis., and later to Madison, where she met her husband five years later. From Madison they moved to Perry, Dane County, and settled on section twenty-three and remained there until their death.[381] O. B. Dahle, who had been a school teacher in Nissedal, left Norway in company with a cousin, Knut Dahl, in 1848. They first came to Koshkonong, where the former taught parochial school for two years. They went to California in 1850 in search of gold as so many others. Having been unusually successful in the gold mines, they returned in 1853, and Onon Dahle bought a farm in Perry, on which he founded the village of Daleyville, beginning at the same time there a mercantile business. Here he amassed a fortune, retired and moved to Mt. Horeb in 1897. In 1854 Dahle married Betsey Nelson, daughter of Hermo N. Tufte of Racine County, and sister of the well-known lay evangelist, Elling Eielson. Mr. Dahle always took an active interest in public affairs and in the work of the Lutheran Church of which he is a member. He died in July, 1905, his wife having died in February of the same year.[382]

We shall close this chapter with a word about the first Norwegians in Madison, Wisconsin. It is not until 1850 that Norwegians began to locate in Madison in considerable numbers. However, there were a few there before that. As near as I can find out, Ole Torgeson, Ole O. Flom, Ole Lenvick, and Halvor N. Hauge, all of whom came to Madison in 1844, were the first Norwegians in Madison. All four of these worked for a printer by the name of Daniel Holt. Ole Flom, as we have seen, had come from Norway with his parents that summer in the first party that left Aurland, Sogn. He remained in Madison till 1847 when he returned to his father’s farm at Door Creek.[383] Halvor Hauge had come from Norway with his parents in the summer of 1844; the family had located in the Town of Christiana. Halvor went to California in 1848 where he remained several years, returning then to Koshkonong. Ole Torgerson had emigrated from Norway in 1844, coming directly to Madison, where he continued to live till his death in 1900. He published during 1850 there a Norwegian paper in the interests of the Whig party, but as this was not a paying enterprise he sold his types to Knut Langeland, who soon after began the issue of Maanedstidende in Janesville, having previously published Nordlyset and Demokraten in Muskego. Among other Norwegians in Madison in the early days were: Anne Vik, who worked for Dr. Collins during 1845;[384] in 1846 she married Halvor Bjoin, a Koshkonong pioneer. In July, 1846, Hans Christianson from Lærdal, Sogn, came to Madison; he, however, soon removed to Blooming Grove, where he located permanently.[385] Halvor Gabriel immigrated from Haugesund in 1848, coming direct to Madison, where he continued to live until 1877; he then moved to Sun Prairie and in 1893 to Fort Atkinson, where he died in 1897. Among the subscribers to Nordlyset and Demokraten, 1848–1850, appear the names of three residents of Madison, namely: Eric Anderson,[386] Lars Johnson, and William Anderson. Finally, when the Bethel Congregation was organized in 1855 the following appear as charter members: Ole Torgerson, Mrs. Ole Torgerson, Hans Olsen, Mr. Erickson, Olaf Olson, Haakon Larson, Nels Peterson, Lars Nelson, Ole Lawrence, Halle Steensland, Eline Hoel, Anne Nilson, Ingeborg Olson and Anne Olson. Lars Nelson (Brekke) had come there in 1848 from Numedal,[387] coming direct to Madison. Mr. Nelson was well and favorably known as the owner of a grocery store on West Main Street for many years. Of the other persons mentioned above only Haakon Larson and Halle Steensland are now living. The latter has always held a prominent place in the financial history of the capital and in general in the upbuilding of the city. He has always been a staunch member of the Bethel Church, and was one of the leaders in the organization of the Norwegian-American Pioneer Association, of which he was president in 1903–05.

Although Hardanger has contributed a relatively small proportion of the American immigrant population from Norway, several of the earliest arrivals were from that province and its sons occupy today a prominent place in Norwegian American history. It has been shown above, chapters IX and X, that several members of the party who came in 1836, as also of that of 1837, were natives of Hardanger; and in the Chicago colony in 1839 we met with several natives of that province. In 1839 a considerable number left Hardanger, especially from Ulvik Parish, as we learn from Nordmandsforbundet, 1909, page 175. Among these were the brothers Anders and Johan Vik from Eidfjord in Hardanger. The two brothers first went to Wiota, where they secured work in the lead mines. In 1844 John Vik (Week) went to Dodgeville, where he established himself as a shoemaker, entering into partnership with Johan Lee from Numedal. Later he went to Portage County, Wisconsin, where he prospered and was for over a decade a dominant power in the lumber trade of northern Wisconsin.[388]

Among the immigrants who had come from Hardanger, Parish of Ullensvang, in 1836, we mentioned Ammund Helgeson Maakestad above, page 95. Maakestad dropped the family name in this country and called himself Ommon Hilleson. For a little over a year he was a coast sailor; then he decided to go west and secure land where his countrymen had settled. This he did, but not in the usual way, for Hilleson walked the whole distance from New York to Chicago. This was in 1837.[389]

From Chicago he directed his steps farther west; he did not, however, go to the settlement founded several years before, but pushed on as far as Lee Center in the County of Lee.[390] Here he secured work, saved some money, and bought a homestead in Bradford Township, and erected thereon a sod house. Soon after he married Catherine Reinhart, daughter of a German pioneer, recently moved in.

For ten years Hilleson was the only Norwegian settler in the county, but in 1847 there arrived in response to letters from Hilleson, a considerable party from Hardanger. These left Sörfjorden in Hardanger, and embarked in May at Bergen in the sailing vessel Juno, which brought them to New York in a little over four weeks, a remarkable record for that time.[391] Mr. T. M. Newton (Torgels Knutson) says, when we came to Buffalo we met an old man who was returning to Norway. He advised us to go back at once, saying America was not a fit place for respectable people to live in, it was a place for thieves and robbers. The party consisted of the following persons: Lars Larsen Röisetter (Risetter), Lars Olson Espe, Lars Helgeson Maakestad, Gjertrud H. Lönning, Helge H. Maaketad (who died in 1854), Ingeborg H. Maakestad, Torgels Knudson Maakestad, Sjur Sjurson Bleie (Bly) and Lars Larson Bly. They were met at Chicago by Ommon Hilleson; Lars Bly remained in Chicago, the rest started for Lee County, stopping a short time at Norway, La Salle County, thereupon all but Ingeborg Maakestad drove to Hilleson’s home in Lee County.[392] Most of them settled in Bradford Township, but Lars Risetter (born 1827 in Ullensvang) bought eighty acres of land in Sublette Township, whither other subsequent immigrants from Hardanger also soon moved. Soon after arriving, Risetter and Gjertrud Lönning were married in the first house built by a Norwegian in Lee County, at the home of Ommon Hilleson. Lars Espe and Lars Risetter were the first two of the party to build a log cabin.

Mr. Newton tells that two young men came from La Salle County about the same time and bought a piece of land in Franklin Grove about two miles and a half from where he lived. “They lived in a log cabin on their place,” he says. “One night about two months after we arrived, they were both murdered. The same day I had tried to persuade one of them to stay with me, but he felt it necessary to be at home. Their heads had been split open with an ax. I then thought of what the old gentleman had tried to tell us and heartily wished myself back in Norway.”

During the years 1848 no immigrants left Hardanger for America, and Lee County received no settlers directly from Norway. In 1849, however, thirty-two emigrated from Ulvik, but none of these seem to have come to the settlement. In 1850 there was one accession, namely, Amund Lönning, who came directly to his brother-in-law, Lars Risetter, in Sublette Township. He worked in the harvest the first season for Thomas Fessenden for $11.00 a month, bought a quarter section in Willow Creek Township in 1852, being the first Norwegian to settle there. In 1857 Lars Risetter also moved into Willow Creek Township, where he has since lived.[393]

Of the rest Torgels Maakestad, who adopted the name T. M. Newton (Knutson), is still living, his home being at Grinnell, Iowa. Sjur Bleien lives at the Old People’s Home, Stoughton, Wisconsin.

In 1851 the following arrived from Ullensvang, Hardanger, and located in the settlement: Jacob O. Rogde (b. 1828), Haaken L. Risetter and wife Maria (Hildal), Haldor Nilsen Hovland, and Agatha Espe, a sister of Lars Espe. Rogde purchased eighty acres of land in Bradford Township in 1854 and in 1855 he married Else Bly from Hardanger, who had come to America in 1854.[394] Haakon Risetter settled in Ogle County immediately north of Lee County. Of those who arrived in subsequent years many settled across the county line in De Kalb County, and in a few years there had sprung up a thriving and prosperous community. At present the Bradford Norwegian Evangelical Congregation of Lee numbers 300 adult members. The center of the settlement is about four miles south of Franklin Grove.

Immediately east of De Kalb and the northern part of La Salle County lies Kendall County, into which extends a northeastern branch of the original Fox River Settlement, located chiefly in Big Grove Township; the village of Newark lies within its boundaries. The first Norwegian to settle in the village of Newark was Ole Olson Hetletvedt, as we have observed above. Ole Hetletvedt, or Medlepeint as he was called, was born in August, 1797, and was, as we know, one of the members of the sloop party. Of his first years in this country we have already spoken. He came to Newark in 1839; there he lived till his death in 1854. The next settlers in Newark were Herman Osmonson and Knut W. Tysland, both of whom also located there in 1838.

The first Norwegian settler at Lisbon was John Hill (Hidle) from Fjeldberg in Söndhordland, Norway. He came to America in 1836,[395] going direct to La Salle County. Among the immigrants of that year were also Anders Anderson Aasen and wife Olena and family from Tysvær Parish, a little south of Haugesund. The family included a daughter Susanna, (born 1822), who was married to John Hill in 1844. The Aasen family lived in Kendall, New York, for two years, then in 1838 moved to La Salle County, Illinois. In 1839 John Hill located at Lisbon, and he was thus the first Norwegian to settle here, whither a considerable number later moved.[396] About 1846 Sjur Larson came there from Skaanevik, Norway; Lars Chelley (Kjelle) came in 1847.

The Norwegians did not begin to come in extensively to Lisbon before 1850. Mrs. Austin Osmond, oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hill, who is now living in Morris, Grundy County, tells me that she was the only Norwegian child in school at Lisbon when she first began to attend, but later there gradually came more. At Newark several Norwegians had already begun to move on. Goodman Halvorson (b. 1821) and wife Martha Grindheim from Etne Parish in Söndhordland, came to America in 1847 and purchased land in Fox Township, Kendall County; he erected his log cabin there in the spring of 1848. Halvorson is still living on the old homestead which, however, he leases to other parties. Osmund Tutland from Hjelmeland in Ryfylke, and wife Malinda from Aardal in Ryfylle and two children had come to Mission Township, La Salle County, in 1836; a daughter, Mrs. Anna Hegglund (b. 1842) is at present living in Newark. Tutland became, in 1854, the founder of the Norwegian colony at Norway, Benton County, Iowa.[397]

Among the old pioneers of Lisbon was also Henry Munson from Voss, but I am not able to give the year of his arrival. Munson died in 1907, being over ninety years old. Wier Sjurson Weeks (born in Skaanevik in 1812), and wife Synneva and two children emigrated in 1846; after much hardship, and sickness in the family, through which they lost the two daughters, they arrived at Lisbon late in 1846. Here Weeks worked at first at the trade of a carpenter. In 1848 he bought eighty acres of land on North Prairie, five miles north of Lisbon.[398] Here he settled permanently, prospered, and became an influential citizen and active member of the Lutheran Church of North Prairie. Mr. Weeks died in February, 1900, at the age of eighty-seven; his wife lived till 1904, reaching the age of ninety-four. A name most closely associated with the early annals of Newark is that of Torris Johnson (b. in Skaanevik 1837), who came to America with his grandfather Torris Torison in 1848.[399] Having arrived at Chicago, they went to Calumet, twenty miles south of Chicago, to Halstein Torison, who was an uncle of Torris Johnson. There Johnson remained till 1851, when he located in Kendall County. Mr. Johnson served in the war, being promoted to sergeant; after the war he returned to Newark. In 1865 he married Elizabeth Ryerson, born in Stavanger, Norway; they have had six children. Mr. Johnson is still living, his home being in Newark.

Although E. S. Holland (b. 1834) of Big Grove Township, did not settle in Kendall County before 1866, he belongs to the earlier pioneers now resident there, having come to this country with his parents in 1846. In 1854 he settled in York Township, Green County, Wisconsin, where he married Johanne Chantland the following year. In 1866 they removed to Kendall County, Illinois.[400] Mr. Holland has been especially active in the work of the church, and has been trustee and treasurer of Pleasant View Luther College since its organization.

The name of Nels O. Cassem occupies a prominent place in the history of the settlement as of that of Kendall County in general. Born in 1829 about seven miles east of the city of Stavanger, Norway, he emigrated in 1849. Coming to Illinois he settled in Fox Township, Kendall County, in July of that year. Here he purchased land and began farming, an occupation which he prospered in to an unusual degree, his estate being estimated at a little over one million dollars upon his death in 1904.[401] “When he came to Illinois,” writes his son, “he found work on the tow-path of the old Illinois and Michigan Canal, at fifty cents per day. During this time he formed the habit of saving, that was the unerring guide of all his future life.” Randall Cassem defines the principal causes of his father’s success as:

Among those who immigrated in 1844 and located in Chicago was also Anders K. Vetti from Vettigjæld, Norway. He lived in Chicago until about 1849,[403] when he bought a farm at Yorkville Prairie in Kendall County. He married Anna Martha Ortzland in 1850 and lived there till his death in 1875. Mr. Vetti was a man of strong character and unusual intellectual endowments. He wielded much influence politically in his community, and enjoyed in a high degree the confidence of those who knew him. An obituary notice says of him: his truest and most enduring monument will be the good resulting from his labor in the cause of universal education, in untiring opposition to the superstitious observance of ceremonies incompatible with the spirit and the progress of the age, and in his hatred of all forms of political oppression.[404]

A few miles south of Lisbon, across the Grundy County line, a settlement was founded in 1846. The county had been completely settled by Americans already, but Norwegians bought these out and gradually supplanted them, exactly as they began doing a decade later at Saratoga in Grundy County, and have done still later in the city of Morris in the same county. The settlement is located in Nettle Creek Township. The first arrivals were Rasmus Scheldal, Ole Torstal, Paul Thompson, Michael Erickson, Simon Frye, John Wing, Lars Scheldal, Ben Hall, Ben Thornton, John Peterson, G. E. Grundstad, William and Samuel Hage. Several of these men had families; they came mostly from Skaanevik; all came between 1846 and 1848. In 1849 Halvord Rygh, Sr., and family of seven, and Sjur Nelson, wife, Jennie, and family, came from Norway and located there. Several of these men later moved away, as Paul Thompson, Michael Erickson, Rasmus Scheldal, and Ole Tvistal, who went to Story County, Iowa, while some members of the Rygh and Wing families went to Goodhue County, Minnesota, 1856. Sjur Haugen and family moved up to Helmar, Kendall County, in 1855.[405]

With this brief survey of the founding of these eastern extensions of the Fox River Settlement, we shall leave Kendall and Grundy Counties. The history of these settlements takes its beginnings at the very close of the period we are here considering. Their fuller discussion belongs to the history of the immigration of the following decade.[406]

In this chapter I shall give a brief account of the coming of Norwegians into northeastern Iowa and their founding of settlements there between 1846 and 1851. We are near the close of the period which this volume deals with. The founding of settlements in Iowa in 1849–50 is but a part of a larger movement now beginning, which, in the course of a few years, resulted in the establishment of numerous settlements in Wisconsin, Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota.[407] These settlements were founded in general through internal migration away from the older settlements in Racine, Rock, and Dane Counties. The latter were now becoming overcrowded and they furnished hundreds upon hundreds of recruits to the new settlements that were fast springing up. It is with the years 1848–49 that we associate this new trend in the movement, and which inaugurates this new period in the whole movement. Only its beginnings will here briefly be sketched as related to the counties of northeastern Iowa. Of the mass of material which has been placed at my disposal, I can only select what appears most essential to the purpose.

The first county settled by Norwegians in northeastern Iowa was Clayton. The first settlers were Ole H. Valle and wife and Ole T. Kittelsland who located in Read Township in the summer of 1846. Both these men had, however, entered Iowa three years before. In 1843 they had come to the old Fort Atkinson in Winneshiek County, and had remained there for three years in the service of the government.[408] Valle and Kittelsland were both from Rollaug, Numedal; they had immigrated in 1841 to Rock Prairie, and had from 1841–1843 worked in the Dodgeville mines. In 1846 Sören O. Sörum from Land Parish, Norway, came to Fort Atkinson and in 1847 Ingeborg Nilsen, a cousin of Ole Valle, came there.

In the summer of 1846 then, Valle and Kittelsland located in Clayton County,[409] buying a farm together, about three miles southeast of the present village of St. Olaf.[410] Through letters from Valle the locality was soon brought to the attention of Norwegian settlers in Rock Prairie and Koshkonong. In the spring of 1849 Ole Herbrandson and family came out there from Koshkonong; he was an immigrant from Mörkvold, Rollaug, in 1842 and had, it seems, visited Valle in Clayton County in 1848 and found the locality to his liking. In June[411] Halvor Nilsen Espeseth, Knut Hustad, Ole Sonde, and Ingbret Skarshaug, came from Rock Prairie;[412] going to the western part of the county, Nilsen selected land in Grand Meadow Township, becoming the founder of the Clermont extension of the settlement, which, as Norwegians began to come in gradually, expanded north into Fayette and Winneshiek Counties. Other arrivals of the same summer were Abraham Rustad and family, Bredo A. Holt, Jens A. Holt, all from Hadeland, Bertle Osuldson, Tallak Gunderson and family from Arendal, and Ole Hanson and family. These located in the Clermont region; Jens Holt on section 17, Marion Township, and Hanson on section 6 in the same township. About simultaneous with these, Fingar Johnson, Helge Ramstad and wife, Thorkel Eiteklep[413] Ole E. Sanden, with wife Guro and family, located in the eastern settlement.[414]

The founders of these settlements nearly all came from Rock Prairie, where they had lived the first few years after immigrating. During the years 1850–1851 a large number of immigrants joined the colony. The first of these were Lars Valle, Hellik Glaim,[415] and Austen Blækkestad, all from Numedal, Ole Engbrigtsen and Peter Helgeson from Sigdal in Numedal, and Ole Gunbjörnson and Knut Jæger from Hallingdal, while Halstein Gröth and family from Næs in Hallingdal and Kittil Rue located in the western part of the settlement. The Gröth family located in Marion Township, where also James and Jacob Paulson Broby, who came from Hadeland the next year, settled. Mrs. Holger Peterson and son (Peter Holgerson) came in 1851 and settled in Wagner Township. Sören O. Sörum and wife[416] settled in Farmersburg Township in 1850, being the first Norwegians there.[417]

But in the very beginning of this period the movement was directed to the counties to the North, Allamakee and Winneshiek. The immigration of Norwegians into Clayton County had practically ceased by 1855, the chief reason for this probably being that the Germans came in very large numbers, particularly to Clayton County, during the early fifties and soon occupied all the best land.[418] Northeastern Iowa was but little settled, and the development of the wilderness had only begun. Clayton County had in 1850 a population of three thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, while Fayette had only eight hundred and twenty-five, and Allamakee seven hundred and seventy-seven. The population of Winneshiek County had reached four thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven.

Allamakee was the next county in order of settlement.[419] This county was opened to settlement in 1848, but land was not put upon the market before 1850.[420] In 1849 Ole L. Rothnem, Ole O. Storlag, Ole K. Grimsgaard and Erik K. Barsgrind came from Rock County to Allamakee County and selected land. In 1850 they moved out with their families and in company with them came: Ole K. Stake, Arne K. Stake, Syver Wold and Thomas A. Grönna. Others who came about the same time were: Thomas Anderson[421] and wife Emilie, Sven E. Hesla,[421] Björn Hermundson, Nils T. Rue, Östen Peterson, Lars Jeglum, Halvor E. Turkop, Ole S. Lekvold, all from Hallingdal, and Nils N. Arnesgaard, who was from Numedal. Among others who followed the next year I shall mention: Knut Knutson,[422] G. H. Fagre and wife Katherine, and Ole Smeby (b. 1804), wife and sons Hans, Ole, and John. They settled on the prairie north of Paint Creek, living in their canvas-covered wagons until houses were built. Those here named formed the nucleus of the Paint Creek Settlement, which already the next year received large accessions.

The early settlers of Allamakee and neighboring counties experienced all the trials and hardships of pioneer life in an unsettled country. There was no railroad nearer than Milwaukee. At McGregor there were a few stores where the necessaries of life could be had.[423] The process of home building and the clearing of the forests was slow and often attended with many difficulties. The pioneers generally brought with them no other wealth than stout hearts and strong hands, and it was only by industry and severe economy that they were able to make a living for themselves and their families. Those who hired out to others received very small wages, and as there was little money among the pioneer farmers this was paid in large part in food or other articles. It may serve as an illustration that in the winter of 1850–51 a pioneer in Clayton County[424] split seven thousand rails of wood for fifty cents a hundred; for this he was paid $3.50 in cash and the remainder in food.[425]

Most of the Norwegians who first settled in Allamakee County came from Rock County, Wisconsin; later, some came from Dane County, Wisconsin, and also from Winneshiek County, where a settlement was formed in June, 1850. Several, however, came from Norway by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi, as did Gilbert C. Lyse in 1851.

In 1856 there were in the whole county five hundred and five Norwegians; one hundred and eighty-one of these had settled in Paint Creek (then Water-ville) Township, the rest being located mostly in the neighboring towns of Center, La Fayette, Taylor, Jefferson and Makee. In the meantime a new settlement had been established in the northwestern part of the county, in Hanover and Waterloo, which soon extended into Winneshiek County. But the earliest Norwegian settlement in Winneshiek was formed on Washington Prairie in June, 1850,[426] when a number of families moved in from Racine and Dane Counties, Wisconsin. Eastern Winneshiek County received in the following year a large Norwegian population.

Those who came in the latter part of June, 1850, and settled on Washington Prairie were: Eric Anderson (Rudi),[427] the brothers Ole and Staale T. Haugen from Flekkefjord, Ole G. Jevne, Ole and Andrew A. Lomen, Knut A. Bakken, Anders Hauge, John J. Quale, and Halvor H. Groven, all from Valders, and Mikkel Omli from Telemarken. On July third another party headed by Nels Johnson[428] arrived, including Tollef Simonson Aae, Knud Opdahl, Jacob Abrahamson,[429] Iver P. Quale, Gjermund Johnson (Kaasa),[430] and John Thun.

Of the coming of this party Reverend Jacobson has given the following account: In the spring of 1850 his parents and a number of other families left Muskego to move out west. The leader of the party was Nels Johnson; he had a large military wagon drawn by six oxen. “This had a big box on, filled with household goods and covered with white canvas. On the outside was placed, lengthwise, the wagon box, several joints of stove pipe, so the outfit, with a little stretch of imagination,” says Rev. Jacobson, “looked like a man-of-war; this was the so-called ‘prairie-schooner.’ Then there were other vehicles of all sizes and shapes, from truck wagons, the wheels of which were made of solid sections of oak logs, down to the two-wheel carts.” At Koshkonong, Dane County, so many more joined them that they were in all over one hundred individuals; the caravan included furthermore now two hundred head of cattle, a few hogs and sheep, a mare and a colt. They drove on via Madison, then a little village, to Prairie du Chien, where the party divided one-half going to Vernon County,[431] Wisconsin, the other half to Iowa. Reverend Jacobson says of the journey at this point:

Of this party Simonson, Opdahl, Abrahamson, and Quale settled in Springfield, the rest in Decorah and Glenwood Townships.[433] Most of the members of these parties had come to America several years before, as Opdahl in 1848 and Tostenson in 1847; three of them, as we know, Rudi and the two Johnsons, had immigrated in 1839.

A small party from Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, including Tore P. Skotland and his brother Endre P. Sandanger, Ellef and Lars Land, natives of Ringerike, also came the same summer; these secured claims around Calmar. The first list of landed assessments in Winneshiek County[434] records the names of Jacob Abrahamson, Knud Guldbrandson (Opdahl), Ole Gullikson (Jevne), Egbert Guldbrandson (Saland), Erik Clement (Skaali), Halvor Halvorson (Groven), O. A. Lomen, Ole Larsen Bergan, Mikkel Omli, Tollef Simonson (Aae), T. Hulverson, and Ole Tostenson.

Among other settlers of 1850, not named above, I may name: Nils Thronson, who had come from Valders in 1848, settling in Dane County, Wisconsin he located in Glenwood Township in the summer of 1850; Christopher A. Estrem from Vang Parish, who had immigrated to Chicago in 1848; he came to Winneshiek County and located in Frankville Township as one of the very first Norwegians there; Engebret Haugen, who had immigrated in 1842, locating near Beloit, Wisconsin; the family settled near Decorah in 1850, purchasing the old Indian Trading Post then owned by J. G. Rice.

In the fall of 1850 Johannes Evenson, Ole L. Bergan, Knud L. Bergan, and Jörgen Lommen came. Of these Evenson located west of Decorah, in Madison Township, becoming the first Norwegian to settle there.[435] As near as I can tell, Lars Iverson Medaas and family were the first Norwegians to settle in Canoe Township. Iverson who was born at Tillung, Voss (in 1802), but had married Sigrid Vikingsdatter in Graven, Hardanger (1835) and settled on the farm Medaas, emigrated to America in 1850. They spent the first winter on Liberty Prairie, Dane County, Wisconsin, and moved to Winneshiek County early in the spring of 1851, locating in Canoe Township, on section two, where they lived till their death.[436]

The first Norwegians to enter Hesper Township were a party of immigrants who came by the ship Valhalla from Tönsberg in the summer of 1852. They were from Tolgen, in northern Österdalen, and from Röraas and Guldalen,[437] hence from a much more northerly region than their countrymen in southern Winneshiek County. The party consisted of the following: Trond Laugen, John Losen, Sr., Bendt Pederson, Ingbrigt Bergh, Mons Monsen, all of whom were married, and John Vold and Jocum Nelson. These were followed in the next year by John S. Losen, Jr., and Ole B. Anderson Borren. Among the earliest settlers from other regions were Paul Thorsen, Salve Olson and Torjus Gunderson from Sætersdalen, Knut Herbrandson and Christian Lien from Hallingdal, Aadne Glaamene and family from Voss, Lars Bakka and Bendik Larson from Sogn, and Peder Wennes from Vardalen.[438]

From the towns of Springfield, Decorah, and Glenwood, the settlement thus soon spread into the neighboring townships—north into Canoe, Hesper, and Highland, where it united with the settlement in northwestern Allamakee County, and south through the towns of Calmar and Military, uniting with the settlement in north central Fayette County in Door Township. This last settlement extends through Pleasant Valley southward into Clayton County. Together these settlements form the eastern part of Clayton County, west through Fayette, and north through Winneshiek to northern Allamakee. In Allamakee it extends as far as Harper’s Ferry and Lansing. The bulk of the population, however, is found in Winneshiek County. The principal Norwegian townships are: Glenwood, Decorah, Springfield, Madison, and Highland. About half of the population of the county is of Norwegian birth, or of that descent.

We are then at the end of our task. We discussed at first early individual immigration from Norway down to the year 1825. Then tracing briefly the fortunes of the party of immigrants who came from Norway that year we followed the subsequent immigration, year by year, down to 1848, and the founding of settlements in this country from Orleans County, New York, in 1825, to Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1850. The growth of the emigration movement in Norway and the course of settlements here have been indicated. The names of the promoters of emigration in each district and province and of the founders of settlements have in all cases been given. In most cases we have succeeded in giving a fairly complete list of names of the settlers in any community during the first four to eight years of its history, that is its period of growth, the years during which it assumed the character of a Norwegian settlement. The varied causes of emigration were also discussed at some length as also other questions as the cost of passage and duration and course of the journey; and in the discussion of the individual settlements we have now and then given a glimpse of the general conditions of life in early pioneer days. I desire now by way of conclusion to summarize briefly the course of emigration in Norway and the distribution of the representatives of each district in this country.

The first emigrants from Norway were from Stavanger, Haugesund and Ryfylke. Before 1836 the movement did not reach out beyond these districts although a few individuals had come from Söndhordland and Hardanger. The emigration from Hardanger begins properly in 1836; that year also records the first arrivals from Voss.[439] However most of the immigrants of that year, as the following two years, were from the districts that had furnished the emigrants of the decade 1825–1835. The year 1837 is especially noteworthy for the sailing of the first emigrant ship from Bergen and that the immediate vicinity of Bergen for the first time furnished its quota of the emigration. It is further significant in that Voss now enters definitely into the movement, and that Upper Telemarken and the neighboring region of West Numedal contributed the first recruits to the American settlements. The emigrants of 1839 came in considerable part from Upper Telemarken, from Numedal, from Voss and Hardanger, but not a few also from the older districts. This continued in 1840 and 1841, except that there were no emigrants from Hardanger during these two years and very few for the next four years also. In 1842 the first party left Sogn and in 1844 and 1845 considerable numbers came to America from this district. The year 1843 is especially noteworthy for the very large emigration of that year from Upper Telemarken and the growth of the movement in new parishes in Numedal. In this year also the America-fever enters Lower Telemarken, a number of families going to America from Holden Parish and Kragerö, which in 1844–1845 expands to include Sande and Bö and the region of Skien. During 1843 the first emigrants also leave Sætersdalen, and from now on it is to be observed that there is a steady out-going of emigrants from Ryfylke and Söndhordland for the period of nearly a decade. The movement is also beginning to expand in two other directions; north from Numedal into Hallingdal and soon after northeast from the region of the Sognefjord up to northern and the extreme Inner Sogn. The influx of immigrants from Telemarken and Numedal continues, and in increased numbers from Voss and the movement begins anew in Hardanger in 1846. Hallingdal sent forth a large number of families and single persons in 1846–47, most of whom as we know settled in Rock and La Fayette Counties, Wisconsin, many later moving into Iowa. In 1847–48 these two movements meet in Valders, the one from Hallingdal entering first in South and North Aurdal, the other from Lærdal and Aardal in Sogn, entering about 1850 into Vang, Hurum and West Slidre in Valders. In the meantime the movement has traveled also from Lower Telemarken, Drammen and Eastern Numedal (Sigdal) up through Ringerike, Hadeland and Land. Especially large was the emigration from North and South Land clear to Torpen in 1847–1850. The region east of Land, i. e., Toten, Hedemarken and Solör furnish occasional immigrants from now on but not in considerable numbers until many years later. From Land and from Valders the movement grows northward into Gudbrandsdalen and northwestward into Österdalen and Trondhjem, from which provinces, however, relatively very few emigrated to America until after 1850, and the emigration was not heavy from this region or from the northern coast districts,—Söndfjord, Nordfjord, Söndmöre, Nordmöre—until after the Civil War.[440]

As to the number of immigrants that each of the districts had contributed to the American population before 1850, or have down to the present time, it would be difficult to say. The emigration from such vast districts as Telemarken and Sogn, as later from Gudbrandsdalen, Hedemarken and Österdalen, has been heaviest, while from Ryfylke and Voss the incoming settlers have been very numerous, as also from the small but very populous Söndhordland, Hadeland and Land. Valdris and Hallingdal[441] each about half as large as Sogn have contributed perhaps each about one-third as many immigrants as Sogn, each contributing about equally to the American emigration. Relatively small has been the immigration from Hardanger, Sætersdalen and the vicinity of Stavanger. The extensive districts of Telemarken and Sogn entered early into the movement and have continued down to the present time to furnish large numbers of recruits to the Norwegian immigrant population. Representatives of these two regions, the immigrated and their descendants, are, I believe, most numerous among the various groups of Norwegian settlers in America.

In this country the relative position of the representatives of each is about that which they occupied in the old; this finds its reason chiefly in the time at which the different states were opened up to settlers. Natives from Stavanger, Ryfylke and Söndhordland are found chiefly in Illinois and in the settlements of Central Iowa (Benton and Story Counties). In Illinois are located also in large numbers natives of Hardanger (Lee County), and Voss (Chicago), but only to a very limited extent those of other districts. In Southern Wisconsin and to a slight extent in the adjacent parts of Illinois have located especially the natives of Numedal, and to some extent those of Land and Sogn. Natives of Sogn have, however, found homes most extensively in the various settlements of Wisconsin and Minnesota and Northern Iowa.[442] Here they are present in all parts of the states but in largest numbers in the oldest settlements in Southern and Western Wisconsin and in Southeastern Minnesota. Natives of Telemarken are found well scattered, from their original center in Racine County, through Walworth and Dane Counties, thence to Central Wisconsin and Minnesota. The representatives of Valders are found in largest numbers in Western Dane County, in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, and in Goodhue County, Minnesota.

It will not be possible to discuss here the later development of the various settlements that have been treated above or the increase of the Norwegian factor in the counties where these settlements were formed. Space forbids this, and these facts have, furthermore, been briefly indicated elsewhere in this volume. Thus in Chapter II we have outlined the extent of immigration from Norway and the geographical distribution of settlements, while the subsequent history of the special settlements has often been briefly indicated. It may here be added that the counties in Southern Wisconsin as a whole enjoyed a much more rapid development during the years 1840–1850 than those of Northern Illinois, and that this was due in a very large measure to the incoming of such a large number of settlers from Norway[443] in the best years of their life.

It has elsewhere in this volume been shown that Wisconsin early became the objective point of immigrants from Norway. This significant position in Norwegian-American history Wisconsin continued to hold throughout the whole period we have discussed and for a long time afterwards. In 1850, fifty per cent of all Norwegians in the United States were domiciled within the borders of the State of Wisconsin. It was with Wisconsin that the chief events in early Norwegian-American history are associated. The principal scenes in the great pioneer drama were enacted here. As all the paths of the Norwegian immigrant in that early day led to Wisconsin so the threads of all subsequent Norwegian history in America lead back to Wisconsin.[444] Whether in material welfare, in church, in politics or in education it was in Wisconsin that the Norwegian first made a place for himself in America and laid the foundation for all his later progress.[445]

Showing the growth and distribution of the foreign Scandinavian factor by decades in the Northwestern states and in sections elsewhere

		1850	1860	1870	1880	1890		1900
Michigan		139	898	5,276	16,445	41,496		40,928
Wisconsin		8,885	23,265	48,057	66,284	99,738		103,942
Illinois		3,631	12,073	44,570	65,414	128,897		144,812
Iowa		611	7,814	31,177	46,046	72,873		72,611
Minnesota		12	11,773	58,837	107,768	215,215		236,670
Nebraska			323	3,987	16,685	46,341		40,107
North Dakota South Dakota			129	1,674	17,868		31,372 34,216	33,473 42,578
Total in Northwest		13,278	56,275	193,578	336,511	670,148		715,121
New England		749	1,507	3,113	11,243	43,606		70,632
New York New Jersey Pennsylvania		1,897	4,506	12,291	28,492	75,331		105,641
The South[1]		1,084	1,531	3,189	4,081	5,936		7,646
All other states		1,067	8,763	29,497	59,935	138,328		166,525
Total outside Northwest		4,797	16,307	48,090	103,741	263,201		350,444
Total		18,075	72,582	241,668	440,252	933,349		1,065,565

Showing the growth of the Norwegian foreign-born population in each state by decades in 1850

	1850	1860		1870	1880	1890		1900
Maine	12	27		58	99	311		509
New Hampshire	2	5		55	79	251		295
Vermont	8	34			10	38		54
Massachusetts	69	171		302	639	2,519		3,335
Rhode Island	25	38		22	56	285		342
Connecticut	1	22		72	168	529		709
New York	392	539		975	2,185	8,602		12,601
New Jersey	4	65		90	229	1,317		2,296
Maryland	10	7		17	108	164		246
Delaware	6					14		49
District of Columbia	1			5	19	70		101
Pennsylvania	27	83		115	381	2,238		1,393
Virginia	5	8		17	29	102		123
West Virginia	1				3	7		19
North Carolina	4			5	10	13		21
South Carolina	4			5		23		49
Florida	17	11		16	79	179		235
Georgia	6	13		14	23	88		155
Alabama	3	51		21	24	47		159
Tennessee	14			37	25	41		141
Kentucky	18	10		16	21	120		34
Mississippi	8	15		78	56	54		74
Louisiana	64	63		76	7	136		189
Arkansas	1	5		19	33	60		123
Missouri	155	146		297	373	526		530
Ohio	18	19		64	178	511		639
Indiana	18	38		123	182	285		384
Illinois	2,415	4,891		11,880	16,970	30,339		29,979
Michigan	110	440		1,516	3,520	7,795		7,582
Wisconsin	8,651	21,442		40,046	49,349	65,696		61,575
Iowa	361	5,688		17,554	21,583	27,078		25,634
Minnesota	7	8,425		35,940	62,521	101,169		104,895
Kansas	223			588	1,358	1,786		1,477
Nebraska	506				2,010	3,632		2,833
South Dakota			129	1,179	13,245		19,257	19,788
North Dakota							25,773	30,206
Wyoming	28				74	345		378
Colorado	12			40	354	893		1,149
Oklahoma	36							118
Texas	326			403	880	1,313		1,356
Arizona	7				45	59		123
Utah	613				1,214	1,854		2,128
Nevada	80				119	69		50
Idaho	61				276	741		1,173
New Mexico	2			5	17	42		33
California	715			1,000	1,765	3,702		5,060
Oregon	43			76	574	2,271		2,789
Washington	104				580	8,324		9,891
Montana	88				174	1,957		3,354
Total	12,407	43,695		114,246	181,696	302,721		335,726

Showing the Norwegian foreign parentage population in the United States according to the U. S. Census for 1900.

Names of Parishes and Settlements in Norway (see page 131).

The brief bibliography here given is not intended to be complete. The books and articles spoken of in the “Foreword” of this volume, pages 7–9, are not re-listed here.

[The Church Register and the footnotes are not indexed.]

• Aaberge, Peder S., 312
• Aadland, Knud, 162
• Aadland, Mons, 100, 103, 112, 158, 161, 162, 222, 283
• Aadland, Thomas, 162, 280
• Aaen, Halvor N., 211
• Aamodt, Anders, 220
• Aamodt, Christopher, 298
• Aaretuen, Anna, 287
• Aaretuen, Knut, 266, 269, 270
• Aaretuen, Knut K., 285, 287
• Aarhus, Rasmus J., 37
• Aarhus, Reiar, 342
• Aarness, Angon, 338
• Aas, Aslak, 286
• Aas, Halvor N., 143, 144
• Aas, Lars, see Skavlem, Lars
• Aase, Anders E., 276
• Aase, Hans H., 338
• Aase, Lasse E., 276, 310
• Aase, Thor, 340
• Aasen, Halvor, 148
• Aasen, Halvor, 261
• Aasen, Nils, 302
• Aasland, Ole, 118, 119, 222
• Aasnes, Ole T., 188
• Aavri, Anders O., 273
• Aavri, Johans O., 273
• Aavri, Ole J., 273
• Abrahamson, Jacob, 369, 371
• Aga, Jon J., 95
• Allen, Mrs. Margaret, 45, 60
• Allen, William, 49, 76
• Anderson, Arnold A., 178
• Anderson (Aasen), Andrew, 93, 355
• Anderson, Andrew, 238
• Anderson, A. S., 59
• Anderson, Anderson G., 58
• Anderson, Arle, 232
• Anderson (Kvelve), Björn, 93, 110, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 256
• Anderson, Dan K., 8, 304
• Anderson, Eric, 232, 348
• Anderson, Erik A.
• Anderson, Halvor, 291
• Anderson, John, 337, 338
• Anderson, J. C., 235
• Anderson, John A., 238, 284
• Anderson, Kjel, 337, 338
• Anderson, Lars O., 149
• Anderson, Martha, 235
• Anderson, Ole, 13
• Anderson, Ole, 147, 159, 202
• Anderson, Ole, 344
• Anderson, Ole O., 312
• Anderson, Peter S., 304
• Anderson, R. B., 9, 37, 47, 56, 66, 103, 173, 191
• Anderson, Susanna, 93
• Anderson, William, 348
• Andrewson, Rev. O., 209
• Andsion, Peter M., 286
• Anmarksrud, Tollef S., 343
• Arnesgaard, Nils, 366
• Arveson, Hans, 290, 293
• Arveson, Harvey, 8, 290, 293, 294
• Arveson, Isak, 290
• Arveson, John, 292
• Arveson, Ole, 290
• Asdöhldalen, Knut, 260
• Askeland, Andrew, 125
• Atwater, John, 60

• Baarson (Bowerson), Knut, 345
• Baarson, Lars, 208
• Backe, Sören, 156, 158, 159, 160
• Backe, Tollef O., 156
• Baker (Bager), John, 251
• Baker, Mrs. Ole, 345
• Baker, P. O., 345
• Bakka, Lars, 373
• Bakke, Hans H., 285
• Bakke, Ole J., 218
• Bakken, Ole O., 342
• Bakken, Tideman, 342
• Bakketun, Anna, 150, 233
• Bakketun, Nils, 235
• Bakketun, Ole, 236
• Bakli, Kittil, 261
• Bakli, Knut K., 261
• Bakli, Mrs. Ole, 186
• Barlien, Hans, 108, 110, 123, 192, 193, 197
• Barstad, Ole G., 188
• Barton, Ole, 342
• Bauge, Thomas, 100
• Baura, Mathias, 295
• Behrens, Captain, 78, 100
• Beigo, A. T., 217
• Bekkjorden, Synnöve K., 261
• Belgum, Nils O., 343
• Bendixen, Capt., 267
• Benson, John, 276
• Benson, Ole, 277
• Berdahl, Eli I., 311
• Berdahl, Ole, 273
• Bere, Peder, 208
• Berg, Ellef A., 260
• Berg, Erik K., 218
• Berg, Ingebrigt
• Berg, Truls, 218
• Bergan, Ole L., 371
• Berge, Herbrand H., 212
• Berge, John I., 285, 340, 341
• Berge, Kari, 283
• Bergen, Augun, 281
• Bergen, Hans, 36
• Bergkvam, Jens B., 307
• Bergland, Gunhild, 254
• Bergrud, Levor, 186
• Bergrud, Torstein L., 186
• Bergum, Botolf E., 333
• Berry, B. K., 168
• Bilden, Nils, 90
• Bjaaland, Thorsten O., 47, 55, 56, 62, 101, 175, 177, 178, 181, 256
• Bjelde, Johans K. See Melaas, J. K.
• Bjelde, Torsten O., 307
• Bjerva, Anders G., 292
• Bjoin (Bjaan), Aanund H., 163, 278
• Bjoin, Halvor, 279, 343, 348
• Bjöno, Goe, 138, 139
• Björgaas, George J., 287
• Björgo, John H., 62, 101, 113, 182
• Björndokken, Anders J., 292
• Björnson, Björn, 50, 239
• Björnson, Ellef, 298
• Björnson, Gabriel, 260, 263
• Björtuft, Ragnild
• Björtuft, Thorgrim O.
• Blakestad (Skavlem), G. H., 207
• Blegeberg, Gunder H.
• Bleie, Sjur S., 352
• Bloom, Captain, 301
• Bogstrandiet, Ole P., 206
• Boley, Ole, 343
• Bolstad, Nils L., 62, 101, 113, 168–171, 174, 175, 181
• Borlang, B. J., 344
• Borren, Ole B. Anderson, 373
• Boyum, Arne, 332
• Braaten, Ole O., 343
• Brekketo, Björn, 272
• Brenden, Ole T., 343
• Brendingen, Marthea, 214
• Brenna, Hans H., 302
• Brimsöe, Lars L., 93
• Bringa, Ole, 269
• Bringa, Tostein G., 245
• Broby, Jacob P., 365
• Brock, Captain, 310
• Brown, Lewis, 40
• Bruavolden, Ole, 203
• Bruavolden, Sjur T., 202, 203
• Brudvig, Ingebrigt, 100, 102
• Brunkow, Mrs. Martha, 304
• Brunsvold, Ola, 217
• Brunsvold, Asle, 217
• Brække, Anders N., 150
• Brække, Hellik N., 143, 145
• Brække, Knud, 150, 185
• Brække-Eiet, Halstein, 109, 110
• Buind, Ole A., 186
• Bukaasa, Hans, 294
• Buo, Guttorm, 312
• Burtness, John, 217
• Burtness, Timan, 217
• Busness, Kjittil, 278
• Bystölen, Magne B., 150, 168-171
• Bækhus, Alexander O., 252
• Bækhus, John, 257
• Bækhus, Tollef, 257
• Bö, Baard Lawson, 200
• Bö, Christen M., 292
• Bö, Knut L., 182, 235
• Bö, Lars, 93
• Bö, Michael, 93

• Calberlane, Dr. John M., 38, 39
• Campbell, Mitchel, 167
• Cannteson, Oliver, 57
• Carstensen, Clæs, 36, 57
• Cassem, Nels O., 358
• Cassem, Randall, 358
• Chelley, Lars, 355
• Christensen, Christian, 39
• Christianson, Hans, 348
• Clement, Erik, 371
• Cleven, Egil O., 283
• Clousen, Rev. C. F., 145
• Colley, S. G., 137

• Dahl, Endre (Andrew), 47, 55, 59
• Dahl, Halvor E., 260
• Dahl, Knut, 346
• Dahlbotten, Botolf, 343
• Dahlbotten, Jon Michelson, 343
• Dahlbotten, Martha, 343
• Dahlbotten, Randi Botolfsdatter, 343
• Dahle, Johans, 276
• Dahle, Hans J., 345
• Dahle, Leif J., 338
• Dahle, O. B., 280, 346, 347
• Dahle, Svennung N., 331
• Dahlen, Anders, 278
• Dalen, Lars, 129
• Dale, John J., 163, 283
• Dale, Paul, 95
• Dale, Sjur, 95
• Dalos, Anon, 295
• Dalstiel, Halvor H., 188
• Danielson, Christopher, 96, 114
• Danielson, Gitle, 120, 222, 224, 227
• Danielson, Knud, 96
• Danielson, Ole, 344
• Darnell, Sarah, 113
• Dean, Erastus, 136
• Dejean, Joseph, 167
• Dietrichson, Rev. J. W. C., 87, 94, 144, 185, 210, 313
• Djönne, Torbjörn, 95
• Doksrud, Halvor H., 281
• Doksrud, Halvor I., 281
• Doksrud, Ingebret H., 281
• Donstad, Halvor, 254
• Downer, Stephen, 137
• Doyle, Simon, 231
• Droksvold, Niels, 271
• Droksvold, Ole, 271
• Droksvold, Sjur C., 260, 271
• Drotning, Aamund O., 248, 283
• Dugstad, Brynhild, 207
• Dugstad, Lars, 150, 175, 177, 179, 180
• Dugstad, Erik K., 207
• Dusterud, Lars B., 340
• Dusterud, Peder, 340
• Dykesten, Lars K., 236
• Dyrland, Ole K., 81, 85, 246
• Dyvik, Ole, 101, 113

• Egery, Daniel D., 137, 205
• Eggum, Anna L., 260
• Eggum, Lars, 333
• Eide, Knud Olson, 44, 46, 49
• Eide, Knud Olson, 96
• Eide, Ole Thompson, 96
• Eielson, Elling, 75, 156, 158, 161, 278, 280, 347
• Einarson, Nils, 342, 344
• Eiteklep, Thorkel, 364
• Ellingsdatter, Anna, 338
• Ellingson, Elim, 8, 275, 276, 277
• Ellingson, Elling, 207
• Ellingson, Endre, 276
• Ellingson, Magela, 207
• Ellingson, Nils, 276
• Elseberg, Gulbrand, 342
• Enerson, Enert, 39
• Engebretson, M. J., 8, 203
• Engbrigtsen, Ole, 365
• Engen, Aadne, 217, 218
• Engen, Anders, 213, 267
• Engen, Erik, 343
• Engen, Hans, 213, 217
• Engen, Marie, 213
• Engesæter, Erik, 331
• Engesæter, Michel J., 267, 269, 270
• Engesæter, John, 331
• Erdahl, Ingebrigt, 312
• Erdahl, Johannes, 312
• Erdahl, Nicolai, 312
• Erickson, Mrs. Martha, 239, 240
• Erickson, Michael, 360
• Erickson, Nils, 45, 47, 54
• Espe, Lars O., 352, 354
• Espeland, Östen, 101, 114
• Espeseth, Halvor N., 364
• Esterly, George, 292
• Estrem, Chr. A., 372
• Evans, Dr. N. C., 8, 9
• Evanson, Christian, 346
• Evanson, Ragnild, 346
• Evanson, Christen, 218
• Evenson, Hadle, 295
• Evenson, Knut, 52

• Fadnes, Ragnild, 342
• Fagre, G. H., 366
• Falk, O. N., 9
• Farness, Erik C., 331
• Farness, Ole H., 331, 332
• Farness, Truls E., 332
• Felland, Gunder, 243
• Fellows, Joseph, 48
• Fenne, David L., 201, 202
• Fenne, Ivar, 203
• Fenne, Martha, 203
• Fenne, Nils, 201, 202
• Fenne, Per, 203
• Ferson, Baron Axel, 41
• Fingalpladsen, Gunder, 129
• Finno, Anders, 149, 150, 171
• Finseth, A. K., 218
• Finseth, Herbrand, 218
• Finseth, Knut K., 218
• Fischer, Captain, 310
• Fjeld, Nils H., 87
• Fjöse, see Kittilson
• Fjösne, Anne, 295
• Flaam, Anders J., 306, 309
• Flage, Anders, 150, 231
• Flatland, Elling O., 268
• Flattre, Thormod S., 285
• Fliseram, Erik S. Flittre, Sjur, 295
• Flom, Anders O., 266, 306
• Flom (Flaam), Ole Torjussen, 265, 266, 269, 270, 306, 309
• Flom, Gulleik T., 266
• Flom, Hans T., 309
• Flom, Knut T., 266
• Flom, Margrethe A., 219
• Flom, M. O., 9
• Flom, Ole O., 71, 266, 306
• Flom, Torjus, 266
• Follmer, George, 135
• Foslieiet, Hellik, 187
• Foslien, Even F., 208
• Fosseim, Halvor L., 245
• Fosseim, Ole L., 246
• Fossum, Hovel, 215
• Fossum, Ingebrigt, 214
• Frankrige, Johan, 214
• Frankrige, Sjugal, 215
• Friis, Captain Hans, 287
• Frondal, John J., 307, 338
• Fruland, Lars, 112
• Frye, Simon, 360
• Fröland, Nils, 100, 112
• Fröland, Peder, 334, 336
• Fröslie, Bertha, 214
• Fröslie, Helene, 215
• Fröslie, Marit, 214
• Fröslieit, Hans Engen, 214
• Fuglegjordet, Ingebrigt, 203, 274, 303
• Fuglestad, Mrs. Bertha, 239, 240
• Funkelien, Halvor, 185
• Fölie, Ivar, 274
• Fölie, Joe, 274
• Fölie, Lars O., 274

• Gaarden, Forstein T., 188
• Gaarder, Gudbrand, 213
• Gaarder, Helene, 213
• Gaarder, Ole, 214
• Gaarder, Peter H., 213, 220, 222
• Gaarder, Syver, 214, 220
• Gabriel, Halvor, 348
• Gangsei, Ole, 345
• Garden, Ole T., 340
• Gasman, Capt. Hans, 297
• Gasman, Capt. Johan, 291, 297, 298
• Gilbertson, Ole, 233
• Gilbertson, Rachel, 134
• Gilderhus, Anna, 150
• Gilderhus, Nils S., 149, 168–170, 174, 183, 185
• Gilderhus, Ole K., 150, 181, 182, 185, 233, 271
• Gilderhus, Ole S., 152, 200
• Gilderhus, Steffen K., 117, 233, 271
• Gjeirsme, Peder J., 309
• Gjeirsme, Torbjörn O., 309
  Gjellum, Joseph J., 305
• Gjellum, Lars G., 307
• Gjellum, Simon A., 307, 308
• Gjerde, Johannes L., 312
• Gjerde, Pe(de)r L., 184, 267, 270
• Gjerdene, Jakob I., 268
• Gjerdet, Jonas, 214
• Gjergjord, Aslak O., 253
• Gjergjord, Halvor O., 253
• Gjerstad, Lars, 117, 126
• Gjilje, Peter O., 192, 197
• Gjöstein, Knud, 150
• Glaim, Hellik, 143, 144, 364
• Glenna, Halvor, 295
• Glimme, Knut I., 236
• Goeranson, Rev. Andrew, 42
• Grane, Lars, 207
• Grane, Ole, 182
• Grane, Rasmus, 182
• Grane, Sjur, 207
• Grane, Tollef, 295
• Grasdalen, Halvor H., 340, 341
• Grasdalen, Nels H., 340
• Gravdal, Gilbert, 145
• Gravdal, Gullik O., 138, 139, 140, 144, 222
• Gravdal, Ole, 144, 145
• Gravdal, Tolee, 144, 145
• Gravdal, Sarah, 145
• Grave, Gro, 281
• Grellet, Stephen, 76
• Grimestad, Klaus, 152, 200, 233
• Grimsgaard, Lars, 217
• Grimsgaard, Ole K., 366
• Grimsrud, Helge S., 249, 250
• Grimsrud, Sigurd, 249
• Grinde, Botolf J., 305
• Grinde, Ole A., 343
• Grinde, Sjur, 332
• Grindemelum, 301
• Gromstu, Torgus T., 41
• Gromstulen, Peter J., 301
• Grov, Erik L., 305
• Groven, Aslak E., 246
• Groven, H. H., 368, 371
• Grundstad, G. E., 360
• Grönna, Thomas A., 366
• Grönsteen, Asberg, 292
• Grönsteen, Johans, 292
• Grönsteen, John, 292, 294
• Grönsteen, Ole T., 291
• Gröth, Halstein, 365
• Grötrud, Gunhild, 263
• Grötrud, Nils T., 262
• Gudbrandson, Erik, 206
• Gulack, Tolee, see Gravdal
• Gulberg, Arne
• Gulbrandson, Gulbrand, 206
• Guldbrandson, Kristi, 263
• Guldbrandson, Mari, 186
• Gullikson, Ole, 371
• Gulliksrud, Torsten Ingebrigtson, 111
• Gulseth, Even, 295
• Gulvsdatter, Martha, 307
• Gunale, Mrs., 139, see Ödegaarden
• Gunderson, Anders, 292
• Gunderson, Ashley, 203
• Gunderson, Tallak, 364
• Gunnulson, Ole, 173
• Guttormson, Guul, 220
• Guul, Gultorm, 220
• Gvaale, Johannes J., 338
• Gvale, Tollef H., 312

• Haaheim, Sjur, 95
• Haaland, Syver O., 295, 296
• Haatvedt, Christoffer S., 293
• Haatvedt, Even, 208
• Haatvedt, Ole, 292
• Haatvedt, Ole A., 208, 252
• Haave, Erik I., 303
• Haave, Elling, 273
• Haave, Ingebriet, 273
• Haave, Ivar I., 273
• Haave, John L., 273
• Haave, Lars Jensen, 274
• Haave, Lars J., 273, 274
• Haave, Ole L., 273
• Haaverud, Jul, 345
• Hadland, Steinar E., 208
• Hadley, Peter, 296
• Hage, Samuel, 360
• Hall, Ben, 360
• Hallan, see Ove C. Johnson
• Halland, Gisle, 137, 138, 143
• Halringa, Mons, 270
• Halsten, Ever, 342, 343
• Halvorson, Goodman, 356
• Halvorson, Gunder O., 149
• Halvorson, Halvor, 145, 298
• Halvorson, Mrs. John, 263
• Halvorson, Kleofas, see Hansemoen
• Halvorson, Lars, 342, 345
• Halvorson, Tallev
• Hamre, Juul G., 187, 261
• Hansemoen, Erik, 216
• Hansemoen, Halvor K., see Kleofas
• Hansemoen, Hans, see Husemoen
• Hansemoen, Kleofas H., 216, 217, 220
• Hansen, Hans, 36
• Hanson, Alex H., 154
• Hanson, C. F., 154
• Hanson, Claus, 293
• Hanson, Hans, 292
• Hanson, Ole, 364
• Hanson, Ole H., 154
• Hanson, Mrs. W. O., 145
• Harald, Fairhair, 83
• Harlow, John, 167
• Harrison, General, 201
• Harrisville, Knud K., 237
• Harrisville, Maren K., 238
• Harstad, Kjögei, 281
• Harvig, Henry C., 47, 54, 57
• Hasle, Ovre, 302
• Haslerud, Peter P., 344
• Hastvedt, Peter K., 293
• Hastvedt, Torger, 345
• Hatlestad, Anna, 284
• Hatlestad, Jens O., 284, 286
• Hatlestad, O. J., 286
• Haugaas, Gudmund, 47, 55, 57
• Haugan, Knut, 283
• Hauge, Anders, 368
• Hauge, Halvor N., 347, 348
• Hauge, Hans Nielsen, 75, 279
• Haugen, Andreas, 129
• Haugen, Baard, 101, 113
• Haugen, Engebret, 372
• Haugen, Gjermund, 133
• Haugen, Gunnul, 133
• Haugen, Halvor P., 127, 128, 129, 130
• Haugen, Hans G., 127, 133
• Haugen, Kjittil, 281
• Haugen, Knut, 283
• Haugen, Nils, 217, 222
• Haugen, Ole, 43, 44
• Haugen, Ole O., 188
• Haugen, Ole T., 368
• Haugen, Peder, 129
• Haugen, Staale T., 368
• Haugerud, Anfin A., 271
• Haugerud, Lars, 129
• Haugholt, Halvor P., 281, 282
• Haukaas, Hans O., 338
• Haukelien, Lars P., 260
• Haukness, Ole, 332
• Haukom, Ole O., 281, 283
• Havey, see Hæve, Ole
• Havredalen, Torbjörn, 188
• Hawkos, Tollef O., 338
• Hayer, A., 115
• Hedejord, Edward, 283
• Hedejord, Liv, 283
• Hedejord, Ole O., 283
• Hedle, Knut K., 286
• Hedle, Mathias, 286
• Hedle, Peter, 286
• Hefte, Björn, 295
• Hefte, John A., 236
• Heg, Even H., 159, 160, 161, 183, 187, 201, 222, 246, 284
• Heg, Hans C., 161, 284
• Heg, Ole E., 284
• Hegglund, Mrs. Anna, 356
• Hei, Ole, 217
• Heier, Ole, 115
• Helgeson, Erik, 297
• Helgeson, Gjermund, 192
• Helgeson, Peter, 365
• Helgeson, Tore, 206
• Helle, Ingebrigt J., 81, 227, 251
• Helle, Metta, 45
• Helle, Thomas, 45
• Hemsing, Ole H., 312
• Hemsing, Ole O., 312
• Henderson, Bryngel, 236
• Hendricks, Annecken, 37
• Hendricks, Helletje, 36, 37
• Hendrickson, Charles, 341
• Hendrickson, Christian, 202, 341
• Hendrickson, Henry, 341
• Herbrandson, Ole, 363
• Herre, Nils, 295
• Hersdal, Cornelius N., 46, 54, 55
• Hersdal, Nels N., 47, 56, 59
• Hesgard, Halvor, 217, 218
• Hesla, Asle, 217
• Hesla, Svend E., 217
• Hetletvedt, Jacob O., 192, 197
• Hetletvedt, K. O., 92
• Hetletvedt, Ole Olson, 47, 56, 57, 59, 62, 89, 355
• Hidle, see John Hill
• Hilbeitson, Erik, 206
• Hilbeitson, Jas., 206
• Hill, John, 93, 355, 356
• Himle, Ammund, 334
• Himle, Odd J., 101, 113, 168–171, 310, 334
• Hippe, Ole H., 312
• Hiser, Lena, 132
• Hoff, Arne, 343
• Hoff, Harald, 343
• Hogenson, Ole, 159
• Holgerson, Gunnel, 206
• Holland, Björn, 295
• Holland, E. S., 357
• Holmes, Joshua, 135
• Holmes, Thomas, 135
• Holmes, William, 135
• Holo, Lars J., 153, 262
• Holo, Martin, 262
• Holt, Bredo, 364
• Holt, Daniel, 347
• Holt, Jens, 364
• Holtan, Gudbrand G., 261
• Holtan, Hellek O., 212
• Holtan, Levor, 259, 260
• Holtan, Nils T., 263
• Holtan, Ole, 248
• Holtan, Ole G., 261, 262
• Holton, Levi, see Levor Holtan
• Holum, Ole S., 332
• Holum, Stephen, 332
• Holven, Aslak, 96
• Homme, Rev. G., 284
• Homme, John, 284
• Homstad, Mathias, 286
• Homstad, Ole, 286
• Hornefjeld, Amund Anderson, 92, 175, 176, 179, 256
• Hougen, John O., 251
• Hovdelien, Ole, 215
• Hove, Erik E., 201, 203
• Hove, Iver, 69
• Hovland, Gjert, 52, 56, 61, 62, 80, 83, 222
• Hovland, Halvor N., 354
• Hoyme, Christoffer T.
• Hulderöen, see Tellefson
• Hundere, Anders S., 312
• Hundkjiölen, Jens, 281
• Husebö, Ole I., 267, 269, 270
• Husebö, Synneva, 247
• Husemoen, Hans, 216, 217
• Husemoen, Kari, 217
• Huset, Halvor, 291
• Huset, Ole, 291
• Huset, Tollef Gunnufson, 281
• Husevold, John, 281
• Hustad, Knut, 364
• Hustvedt, Björn O., 254
• Hustvedt, Björn S., 254
• Husværet, Torkild, 302
• Hvasshovd, Gunder G., 186
• Hvasshovd, Hellik G., 186
• Hydle, Sjur, 295
• Hylle, Knud J., 152, 200, 201
• Hæve, Henrik O., 248, 271
• Hæve, Ole, 248
• Högstul, Osmond O., 295
• Högstul, Tostein H., 295
• Höverstad, Rev. Helge, 8