Class ^L^^^t^ Bookie Copyright 1^^ coFVRiGinr DEPosrr. History of Norwegian Immigration A History of Norwegian Immigration to The United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 By GEORGE T. FLOM, Ph. D. (Columbia) Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures and Acting Professor of English Philology, State University of Iowa PRIVATELY PRINTED IOWA CITY. IOWA 1909 Sv V ^ COPYRIGHT 1909 GEORGE T. FLOM THI TORCH PRESI CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA ^0! A ^n 90^)0 To My Mother THROUGH WHOM I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND SOME- THING OF THE HEROIC WOMANHOOD EXEMPLIFIED IN THE LIVES OF OUR PIONEER MOTHERS, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED FOREWORD This volume is intended to present the progress of inunigration 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 Jour- nal 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 numer- ous pioneers whom, from time to time, I have inter- viewed and who so kindly have given the aid sought. 8 FOREWORD I wish to thank, also, several persons who generously have accepted the task of personally gathering pion- eer 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. 0. J. Kvale, Orf ordville, Wisconsin ; Rev. J. Nordby, Lee, Illinois; Dr. N. C. Evans, Mt. Horeb, Wiscon- sin; M. J. Engebretson, Gratiot, Wisconsin; Dan K. Anderson and wife, Woodford, Wisconsin; Ole Ja- cobson, Elk Horn, Wisconsin ; Samuel Sampson, Rio, Wisconsin; T. M. Newton, Grinnell, Iowa; Harvey Arveson, Wliitewater, Wisconsin; and Reverend Helge Hoverstad, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. My thanks are also due to Reverend G. G. Krostu of Koshkon- ong 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, Minne- sota, 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 immi- gration from Voss in 1838-1844, and Mr. Elim Ellingson and wife of Capron, Illinois, on the found- ers of the Long Prairie Settlement. Many others might be mentioned who have given valuable assist- ance by letter and otherwise in the course of the investigation, and to whom I owe much. Finally, I FOREWORD 9 wish to thank Dr. N. C. Evans of Mt. Horeb, Wis- consin, for the loan of Cyclopedia of Wisconsin (1906) and Illustreret Kirkehistorie (Chicago, 1898) ; Mr. 0. N. Falk of Stoughton, Wisconsin, for loaning me Billed-Magazin for 1869-1870, and my brother, Martin 0. 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 men- tioned S. Nilsen's Billed-Magazin on causes of immigration and the earliest immigrants from Tele- marken 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 Scandina- vians 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 ap- peared in Amerika in 1906. (See further the Bib- liography 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 10 FOREWORD 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 settle- ments, 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 atten- tion. I can only say that this volume deals spe- cifically with the causes, course and progress of Norwegian immigration and that this plan precluded a discussion in this volume of religious and educa- tional 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. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 15 Chapter I. Norway. Population, Resources, Pur- suits of her People, Social Conditions, Laws and Institutions ...... 18 Chapter II. Emigration from Norway "^ . . 27 Chapter III. The Earliest Immigrants from Nor- way, 1620 to 1825 35 Chapter IV. The Sloopers of 1825. The First Norwegian Settlement in America. Kleng Peerson . 45 Chapter V. The Founding of the Fox River Set- tlement. Personal Notes on Some of the Founders 55 Chapter VI. Causes of Emigration from Norway. General Factors, Economic .... 64 Chapter VII. Causes of Emigration Continued. Special Factors. Religion as a Cause. Emi- gration Agents ...... 73 Chapter VIII. Causes of Emigration Continued. The Influence of Successful Pioneers. "Amer- ica-Letters." The Spirit of Adventure. Sum- mary 80 Chapter IX. Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immigration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches 89 Chapter X. The Year 1837 Continued. The Sail- ing of Aegir 97 Chapter XI. Beaver Creek. Ole Rynning . 102 12 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Chapter XII. Some of the Immigrants of 1837. The First Pathfinders from Numedal and Tele- marken ........ 108 Chapter XIII. Ansten Nattestad's Return to Nor- way in 1838. The Year 1839. Immigration Assumes Larger Proportions. The Course of Settlement Changes 116 Chapter XIV. Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten Nattestad's Return from Norway in 1839. The Founding of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement in Rock Coimty, Wisconsin .... 125 Chapter XV. The Earliest White Settlers on Rock and Jefferson Prairies. The Founding of the Rock Prairie Settlement. The Earliest Set- tlers on Rock Prairie ..... 135 Chapter XVI, The Rock Run Settlement. Other Immigrants of 1839. The Immigration of 1840 . 147 Chapter XVII. The Settlement of Norway and Raymond Townships, Racine County. The Founders of the Settlement. Immigration to Racine County in 1841-1842 ... 155 Chapter XVIII. The Establishment of the Kosh- konong Settlement in Dane County, Wisconsin 164 Chapter XIX. The Settling of Koshkonong by Immigrants from Numedal and Stavanger in 1840. Other Accessions in 1841-1842 . . 172 Chapter XX. New Accessions to the Koshkonong Settlement in 1840-1841. The Growth of the Settlement in 1842 180 Chapter XXI. The First Norwegian Settlement in Iowa, at Sugar Creek in Lee County . 190 Chapter XXII. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Wiota, La Fayette County, and Dodgeville, Iowa County, Wisconsin .... 198 CONTENTS 13 Chapter XXIII. Growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement from 1841 to 1845. The First Nor- wegian Land Owners in Rock Comity . . 204 Chapter XXIV. Immigration to Rock Prairie from Numedal and Land in 1842 and Subse- quent Years . 211 Chapter XXV. Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Immigration from Numedal. Other Early Accessions 216 Chapter XXVI. Economic Conditions of Immi- grants. Cost of Passage. Course of the Jour- ney. Duration of the Journey ... 221 Chapter XXVII. Norwegians in Chicago, 1840- 1845. A Vossing Colony. Some Early Set- tlers in Chicago from Hardanger . . 230 Chapter XXVIII. The Earliest Norwegian Set- tlers in the Township of Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin 241 CHiVPTER XXIX. The First Norwegian Settlers in the Townships of Dunkirk, Dunn, and Cot- tage Grove, in Dane County, Wisconsin . 249 Chapter XXX. The Expansion of the Koshkon- ong Settlement into Sumner and Oakland Townships in Jefferson County. Increased Immigration from Telemarken. New Settlers from Kragero, Drammen and Numedal . 255 Chapter XXXI. The Coming of the First Large Party of Immigrants from Sogn. New Acces- sions from Voss 265 Chapter XXXII. Long Prairie in Boone County, Illinois; A Sogning Settlement . . . 272 Chapter XXXIII. The Growth of the Racine County (Muskego) Settlement, 1843-1847. 278 r / 14 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Chapter XXXIV. The Heart Prairie Settlement in Walworth Co., Wis. Skoponong. Pine Lake 289 CHiVPTER XXXV. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Sugar Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin. The Influx from Land, Norway, to Wiota and Vicinity, 1844-1852 300 Chapter XXXVI. Continued Immigration from Aurland, Sogn, to Koshkonong. The Arrival of Settlers from Vik Parish, Sogn, in 1845 . 305 Chapter XXXVII. Kirkeregister. Church Reg- ister of East Koshkonong, West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie Congregations as Consti- tuted During the Years of Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson 's Incumbency of the Pastorate from 1844 to 1850, and as Recorded by Rever- end Dietrichson ...... 314 Chapter XXXVIII. The Founding of the Nor- wegian Settlements of Norway Grove, Spring Prairie and Bonnet Prairie in Dane and Col- umbia Counties, Wisconsin .... 331 Chapter XXXIX. Blue Mounds in Western Dane County, Wisconsin ..... 340 Chapter XL. The Hardanger Settlement in Lee and De Kalb Counties, Illinois. Big Grove in Kendall County, and Nettle Creek in Grundy County, Illinois 350 Chapter XLI. The First Norwegian Pioneers in Northeastern Iowa 362 Chapter XLII. Survey of Immigration from Nor- way to America. Conclusion . . . 375 Appendix I 383 Appendix II 386 Bibliography 387 Index 389 INTRODUCTION 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 in- troductory pages I shall discuss briefly individual immigration from Norway from its earliest known beginnings down to 1825. Immigration from Norway resulted in the found- ing 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 Wis- consin 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 16 INTRODUCTION geographical trend of settlement, will also be con- sidered, and approximately complete lists of the ac- cessions in each settlement for the first few years will be given. The limits of this volume, how- ever, will preclude the treatment of social or cultural questions, or to take more than the briefest notice of the pursuits and occupations of the Nor- wegian-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 re- ceiving increased attention in recent years. I be- lieve 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 de- velopment of the nation. There are in America to- day 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 pro- portion 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 Amer- ica is yet in the formative period; racially, at least, one-half of the population is not INTRODUCTION 17 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 deter- mined 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 hero- ism 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 in- significant. It is to the memory of those pioneers, in recognition of their true worth, that this record of their coming is dedicated. CHAPTER I Nonvay: Population, Resources, Pursuits of her People, Social Conditions, Laws and Institutions. Norway is, as we know, a long and narrow strip of country in the west of the Scandinavian Penin- sula, 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 ^ is the domain of the midnight sun, where summer is the season of daylight and winter is one long unbroken night. Even in Southern Nor- way 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 day- light at midnight from May twenty-third to July twentieth. Correspondingly there is a period of continuous darkness in the extreme north. Thus at Tromso the sun is not visible between the twenty- sixth of November and the sixteenth day of Janu- ary. The long night is therefore short as compared with the long day of summer. Climatically '^Iso, Norway is naturally a land of extremes, extent^mg, as it does, over such a vast area north and south. Yet the populous portion of the country, the south- ern two-thirds, is not appreciably colder than the 1 Or over thirty-eight thousand square miles. NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 19 State of Iowa and the southern half of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The winter is severest in the great inland valleys. Gudbrandsdalen, Valders and Hal- lingdal, but especially in Osterdalen. In the last- named valley the lowest temperature ever observed has been recorded, namely, 50°, mercury often hav- ing been frozen. ^ 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. ^ 2 Compare Bjomson's account of the temperature at Kvikne in his autobiographical sketch, Blakken. 3 The statistical and much of the other matter in this chapter has been taken from Norway, Official Publication for the Paris Exhibition, 1900, published at Christiania. But I am also indebted to the stately publication by Norwegian authors and artists entitled Norge i det nittende Aarhundrede, 2 volumes, large folio, 436 and 468 pages. Christiania, 1900. The scholars who published this are W. C. Brogger, B. Getz, A. N. Kjaer, Moltke Moe, Bredo Morgenstjerne, Gerhard Munthe, Frith 'rf Nansen, Eilif Peterssen, Nordahl Eolfsen, J. E. Sars, Gustav Str and E. Werenskjold. The editor in chief for the texts is Noraahl Eolfsen, for the illustrations E. Werenskjold. There is a large staff of collaborators, each article is prepared by a specialist; the whole is a rare piece of book-making. The printers are Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag, Christiania. I wish to mention also especially here Christensen's Det nittende Aarhundredes Kulturkamp i Norge, Christiania, 1905. 20 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION The population of Norway'' 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 inhab- itants to the square mile. In Hedemarken the num- ber 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 moun- tains 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, ^ Tltlv-as 1,490,950 in 1855, 2,350,000 in 1908. 5 Dr. A. Magelson of Christiania has recently written a work on Norway as a health resort entitled: To Norway for Health. A Sci- entifio Account of the Peculiar Advantages of the Norwegian Climate, published by Nikolai Olson, Christiania. NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 21 and its inhabitants attain a higher degree of long- evity 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, reck- oned as a vs^hole, 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 coun- tries. The average age in Norway is fifty, while for instance, in Italy it is thirty-five. But the expect- ancy is far more than this for him who passes in- fancy ; thus if one attains to the age of fifty in Nor- way, 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 agricul- ture, cattle farming and forest cultivation. Herein forty-eight per cent of the population seeks its main- tenance. 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 22 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION share. A little over eight per cent of her people are engaged in iSshing. And so we find that a propor- tionately 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 ; ^ 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 pop- ulation 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 Lu- theran. Somewhat similar are the affiliations in America. V 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 6 The Reliance which defended the America cup against Sham- rock III in 1903 was manned abnost exclusively by Norwegians. They were from the following towns in Norway: Arendal, Aalesund, Stavanger, Bergen, Larvik, Christiania, and Haugesund. NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 23 institutions, for their laws are not essentially dif- ferent from his own. Being accustomed to a high degree of freedom, he has been trained to a high con- ception of the responsibilities that that freedom en- tails. He has long been accustomed to representa- tion 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 in- centive 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 per- mitted only in incorporated cities and towns, and only by an association that is organized under government supervision. It is the so-called Gothen- burg 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 Satur- day 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 move- 24 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ment found wide support earlier in Norway than anywhere else. Det norske Totalafholds Selskab ^ was organized in 1859; ten years ago it had ten hundred and twenty branches and a hundred and thirty thousand members, while other temper- ance associations also have a considerable member- ship. Here in America, the Norwegian immigrant has taken a prominent part in legislation looking to- ward the restriction of the sale of intoxicating liquors,^ and the Prohibition party finds its strong- est 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 sig- nificant. Comparative statistics are difficult of ac- cess, 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. 7 The Norwegian Total Abstinence Society. 8 When the Sunday closing order was instituted in Minneapolis in December, 1905, the Minneapolis Journal commented upon the fact that the Norwegian citizens made no complaint, as it appears othera did. NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 25 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 second- ary schools, whose curricula are still on a conserva- tive basis. Its one University ranks with the fore- most 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 His- torical Museum, the Astronomical and Magnetic Ob- servatory, the Meteriological Institute and the Bio- logical Marine Station.^ The salaries of its teach- ers 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 Nor- wegian 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, sim- ilar, but more general in character. The Industrial Arts Museum,^^ and the various archives of the Kingdom. 9 This is located at Drobak. 10 Though Norway's participation in the Universal Exposition at 26 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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, abso- lutely 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 can- not enter into the spirit of American life and insti- tutions. 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 na- tion, which is pagan-racial, but which is also Chris- tian-Lutheran, a church which in its preeminent spirituality is the typical Teutonic church. St. Louis in 1904 as regards number of exhibits was limited, its ex- hibits were acknowledged to be of very high grade, thus in its tapes- tries, in carved and inlaid work, in silver and enamel displays it re- ceived the highest awards. Keport by Consul Fr. Waage, General Com- missioner to the St. Louis Exposition, Skandinaven, June 14th, 1905. CHAPTER II Emigration from Norway. Emigration from Norway has in large part been transatlantic. Norway has lost by American emi- gration a comparatively larger portion of her pop- ulation than any other country in Europe, with the exception of Ireland. The great majority of the em- igrants have gone to the northwestern states and found there their future homes. In Northern Illi- nois, 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 hun- dred 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 con- siderable numbers in Western Canada, but the ma- jority of these have emigrated from the Norwegian communities in the western states, especially Min- nesota and North Dakota. Norwegian emigration to the United States took 28 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION systematic form with 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 dec- ade. 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, sea- men, 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,^^ in the ministry,^^ 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 1 1 Mostly in recent years. 12 In the early period chiefly. EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY 29 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 con- 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, Eussia,^^ where it has been 1.35, in Servia, where it has been 2.00 per cent, this be- ing 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 coun- try of Scandinavian birth. In 1880 this number had 13 The figures here are for the period closing with 1890 before ■which year Russia had furnished very few emigrants to the United States. 30 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 pop- ulation 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 t-able will show the proportion contributed by the coun- tries designated for each decade since 1850 ; Table I 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 Ireland . . . . 42.8 38.9 33.3 ^^x:^!^ J. — 27.8 20.2 15.6 Germany .... 26 30.8 30.4 29.4 30.1 25.8 England . . . . 12.4 10.5 10 9.9 9.8 8.1 Canada .... 6.6 6 8.9 10.7 10.6 11.4 Scotland and Wales 4 . 4 3.7 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.2 Scandinavia . . .9 1.7 4.3 6.6 10.1 10.3 Thus it will be seen that among European coun- tries Scandinavia, considered as one, stands third in the number of persons contributed to the Ajner- ican foreign-bom population, exceeding that of Scot- land 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 contrib- uted 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 EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY 31 equalled the total from Holland, Switzerland, Aus- tria, Bohemia, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Russia.^"* The Norwegians are the pioneers in the emigra- tion movement from the North in the nineteenth century ; the Danes were the last to come in consider- able 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-bom 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 thou- sand. 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 cen- sus). ^^ 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 popu- lation of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is only 14 The four last named countries have, as we know, in the last decade entered very extensively into the emigration movement. 15 Or 28,000 according to Norwegian statistics. 32 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 parent- age 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, espe- cially 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 be- gan to assume larger proportions, and it held the lead for twenty-five years. Iowa and Southern Minnesota began entering into competition prom- inently since 1852 and 1855 respectively. The growth of Swedish immigration in the fifties and sixties gave the lead to Minnesota by 1870, Illi- nois 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 EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY 33 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 re- mained 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 Nor- wegian. In the extreme West, however, consider- able 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 Nor- wegian immigrants so largely to the Northwest in the early period and down to 1890? The great majority came for the sake of better- ing 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. ^^ Thus seventy-two per cent of the Norwegian immigrants are found in the rural 16 This includes also fishermen and foresters. 34 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 immi- grants. 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. ^'' About ninety per cent of the Nor- wegian 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. 17 Outside of Chicago, Illinois had in 1840 a population of 142,210; Wisconsin was organized as a Territory in 1836, its popu- lation in 1840 was 30,945; Iowa had a population of only 192,212 in 1850; and Minnesota, organized at a Territory in 1849, had in 1850, 1,056 inhabitants. To the square mile the population of each was in 1850: Illinois, 15.37; Wisconsin, 5.66; Iowa, 3.77; Minnesota, .04. CHAPTER III The Earliest Immigrants from Norivay, 1620 to 1825. Our data regarding Norwegian emigration to America prior to 1825 are very fragmentary, but it it is possible to trace that emigration as far back as 1624.^^ In that year a small colony of Norwegians was established in New Jersey on the site of the present city of Bergen. ^^ 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 ex- ploration 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 Eenhjornin- gen and Lampreren, and the commander was a Nor- wegian, Jens Munk, who was born at Barby, Nor- way, 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 follow- ing year he explored Hudson Bay and took posses- sion of the surrounding country in the name of King 18 The Vinland voyages in the llth-14th centuries do not come within the scope of our discussion. 19 It seems that this city was so named by the colonists after the city of Bergen, Norway. 36 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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.^° In the early days of the New Netherlands col- ony, 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 Han- sen von Bergen in Norwegen. Hans Bergen be- came the ancestor of a large American family by that name.^^ Claes Carstensen's name appears va- riously as Claes Noorman, Claes Carstensen Noor- man and Claes Van Sant, the latter being the Nor- wegian name Sande in Jarlsberg, where Claes Car- stenson 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 Williams- burg. The ministerial records of the old Dutch Ee- formed Church in New York state that Claes Car- stensen was married April 15, 1646, to Helletje Hen- 20 Anderson 's First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 21. 21 See The Bergen Family, by Teunis Bergen. EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 37 dricks. The latter was, it seems, a sister of An- necken Hendricks, who was there married on Feb- ruary first, 1650, to Jan Arentzen van der Bilt, the colonial ancestor of Commodore Vanderbilt. An- necken 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 comer of Broadway and Eector Streets. The property was later sold to Trinity Church, the present churchyard occupying the site of the orig- inal church.^^ Prof. R. B. Anderson, speaking of these people, says, that they were probably mostly Norwegians and not Danes, for those of their de- scendants with whom he has spoken have all claimed Norwegian descent. The pastor who ministered to the spiritual wants of this first Scandinavian Lu- theran 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, Penn- sylvania, and in 1747 of one at Bethabara, North Carolina. At Bethlehem these Norwegian (and 22 Our authority here is Rev. Rasmus Anderson, who has given this subject much study. 38 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Swedish and Danisli) Moravians came in contact with their kinsmen, the Swedish Lutherans of Dela- ware and adjoining parts of New Jersey and Penn- sylvania. The Swedes on the Delaware had lost their independence in 1656. New Sweden as a polit- ical state existed but sixteen years. Ecclesiatically, 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 Swed- ish 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 EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 39 Spangenberg gave public recognition of Calberlane's service in his short life of six years in the colony.^^ Other Norwegians among these Moravian col- onists were : Susanna Stokkeberg, from Sondmore, Norway, born 1715, who came to America in 1744 with her husband, Abraham Eeinke, 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 bom 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, hav- 23 The name John M. Calberlane, originally Hans Martin Kalber- lahn, is an interesting instance of an early Americanization of a Nor- Tvegian name. 40 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ing been on the ocean six weeks, a remarkably short passage for that time.-'* 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 Boyi 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 Feb- ruary 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 Sher- burne was published at Washington in 1825, to which I have, however, not had access. Another Norwe- gian by the name of Lewis Brown (Lars Bruun) also served under John Paul Jones. I lack further particulars, however, regarding Brown, except that 24 For some of these facts I am indebted to Juul Dieserud, Washington, D. C. EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 41 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. -^ About 1805 another sail- or, 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," loiva Journal of His- tory 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 incor- rect. 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 o-*-. the majority. The first president of the society was Abraham Markoe (Marko), 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 com- mittee of seven appointed to present the invitation 25 P. S. Vig. in his book De Danshe i Amerika says Iverson was of Danish descent but gives no reasons for the claim. As the name "Iver" is peculiarly Norwegian I must therefore adhere to my view as formerly expressed {Sc. Immig. to Iowa). 42 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION and also to wait upon General George Washington at Hasbrouch House, Newburg, with a view of se- curing his presence consisted of the following : Cap- tain Abraham Markoe, Sakarias Paulsen, Andrea - sen Taasinge, Rev. Andrew Goeranson, Jacob Van der Weer, John Stille and Andrew Keen. Says the chronicler of the event: "This event was one of the most glorious in the So- ciety's history. The reception was held at the City Tav- ern, Wednesday evening, December eleventh, 1782. The President of the St. Andrew's Society, Rev. Wm. Smith, D. D., lauded the bravery of the Baron and his men at the Battle of Yorktown, whereupon General Washington in thanking the members of the Society for their forethought in tendering the reception to the noble officer (he subse- quently decorated Person with the ''Order of the Cincin- nati" for valor displayed) expressed his pleasure at being present among the people of his forefathers' blood, as he claimed descent from the family of Wass, who emigrated from Denmark in the year A. D. 970, and settled in the County Durham> England, where they built a small town, calling it Wass-in-ga-tun (town of Wass.) " ^6 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, 26 Cited from a prospectus of the Society issued in December, 1901, and kindly sent me by C. M. Machold of Philadelphia. Variant forms of the name Wassingatun are, as given in the prospectus, Wessington, Whessingtone, Wasengtone, Wassington and finally Washington. The prospectus itself cites from Maehold 'a His- tory of the Scandinavians in Pennsylvania. EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 43 iu celebration of the recognition by Sweden, Norway, and Denmark of the independence of the United States of America, i 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 His- torian cannot say. On February twentieth, 1868, eighteen gentlemen, all of Scandinavian birth and residents of Philadelphia, met together for the pur- pose of forming a society, and The Scandinavian Society of Philadelphia was founded, an organiza- tion which regards itself a continuation of the orig- inal 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 fif- teenth 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 Pottawatta- mie 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 Hau- gen, 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, 44 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Mass., and who was present at Haugen's deathbed, is the source of the above fact. Though going be- yond 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. CHAPTER IV The Sloopers of 1825. The First Norwegian Settle- ment in America. Kleng Peerson The story of the Sloopers from Stavanger, Nor- way, 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 depart- ure 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 ex- ception 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 Na- poleonic 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 46 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Ivnud Eide, whom we have men- tioned 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 emi- grating to the locality selected by Peerson, namely, Orleans County, New York State. A sloop of only forty-five tons capacity which they called Restaura- tionen, built in Hardanger, was purchased and loaded with a cargo of iron and made ready for the jour- ney. Larson himself had married in December, 1824, Georgiana Person, who was born October 19, 1803, on Fogn, a small island near Stavanger. Be- sides him there were five other heads of families. On the fourth of July, 1825, they set sail from Stav- anger. 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;-'' Daniel Stenson Kossadal, wife and five children ;2^ Thomas Madland, wife and three children,^^ Nels Nelson 27 Anne (b. 1814), Nels (b. 1816), Inger (b. 1819), and Martha (b. 1823). 28 Ellen (b. 1807), Ove (b. 1809), Lars (b. 1812), John (b. 1821), Hulda (b. 1825). 29 Kachel (b. 1807), Julia (b. 1810), Senena (b. 1814). FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 47 Hersdal and wife Bertha, Knud Anderson Slogvig, Jacob Anderson Slogvig, Gudmnnd Hangaas, Johan- nes Stene, wife and two children, Oien Thorson (Thompson) wife and three children,^" Simon Lima, wife and three children, Henrik Christopherson tler- vig, and wife, Ole Johnson, George Johnson, Thor- sten 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 ac- count of that voyage, which also it seems was a rather adventurous one, was given by the New York l)apers 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 atten- tion 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 immi- grants, the country they came from, their appear- ance, etc. For this citation I may refer the reader to page 39 of my article on ' ' The Coming of the Nor- wegians 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. ■ 30 Sara (b. 1818), Anna Maria (b. 1819), Caroline (b. 1825). 48 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 pur- chasing 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 fur- ther liistory of the colony, with which we are here not so much concerned, the reader is referred to Knud Langeland's Nordmaendene i Amerika, Chica- go, 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 pio- neer historj^ Much has been written about this pathfinder in the West, and romance and legend al- ready 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 K. B. Anderson in his monograph on Norwegian Im- migration, which is in large jDart devoted to the slooper's history, I may refer the interested reader to this work. Synira (Decorah, Iowa) for 1906 also contains a brief, somewhat eulogistic account in Norwegian of Peerson 's stay in New York and his FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 49 journey of exploration to Illinois, Missouri, and Tex- as. The briefest facts I may, however, relate here. Kleng Peerson was born on the seventeenth of May, 1782, on the estate Hesthammer in Tysvaer 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 possibil- ity 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 Peer- son 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 in- quiry I have also succeeded in discovering the name of one man, who, with his family, accompanied Peer- 50 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION son that year. This man was Bjom Bjornson 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. Fur- ther facts about this family will be given in the chapter on Chicago. As Peerson seems to play no role in the found- ing 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 Nor- wegian 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 Novem- ber, 1845, but his widow lived till October, 1887. They had eight children, of whom the first one, Mar- garet Allen, was born on the Atlantic Ocean, Sep- tember 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 Coun- ty, New York. The colony was in many respects unfortunate; it cannot be said to have prospered and has never played any im])ortant part as a colony in Norwe- gian-American history. But it is important as be- FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 51 ing the first, and also as being the parent of a very large and progressive Norwegian settlement found- ed 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 encourag- ing letters to relatives and friends in the old coun- try, 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 Torbjor. 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 52 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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, emigra- tion 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 emi- grated in 1831 in the same ship by which Hovland came; and Ingebret Larson Narvig from Tysvaer 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 Gud- brandsdalen, Norway, came to Orleans County in 1832. Nordboe was the first to emigrate from Gud- brandsdalen, a province from which actual immigra- tion 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 FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 53 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 In gebret Larson Narvig as far as Erie, Monroe County, Michigan, where the latter remained, Peerson con- tinuing 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 end- less 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, Peer- son returned to Orleans County, having covered over 2,000 miles on foot since he left. Peerson 's selection was universally approved 54 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION and a considerable number of the Kendall settlers decided to move west. Among those of the sloop- ers who remained in New York I shall here name: Ole Johnson, Henrik C. Hervig and Andrew Stange- land, who, however, some years later bought a tract of land in Noble County, Indiana; Lars Olson lo- cated in New York City, and, as we have seen, Lars Larson settled in Rochester ; Nels Erikson went back to Norway, while Oien Thompson and Thomas Mad- land died in Kendall in 1826, and Cornelius Hers- dal died there in 1833. CHAPTER V The Founding of the Fox River Settlement. Per- sonal Notes on Some of the Founders. In the spring of 1834 Jacob Anderson Slogvig, Knnd Anderson Slogvig, Gudmund Haugaas, Tlior- sten Olson Bjaaland, Nels Thompson, ^^ Andrew (Endre) Dalil, 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 lo- cated in Michigan the year before. These men se- lected 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 Gud- mund 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 Cor- nelius Nelson Hersdal, namely, eighty acres of land 31 Nels Thompson had married Bertha Caroline, the widow of Oien Thompson in 1827. She had three daughters by her first hus- band: Sara, born 1818; Anna, born 1819; and Caroline, born 1825 (died in Eochester, N. Y., 1826). Nels Thompson and wife had two children: Serena, born 1828; Abraham, born 1830; and Caroline, born in 1833. 56 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Nel- son 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 sloop- er Thomas Madland, as we have seen, died in 1826 ; his widow and family of seven also moved to Illi- nois in 1831. Gjert Hovland came in 1835, and on June seventeenth purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Miller Township. Nels Hersdal pur- chased on September fifth Thorsten Bjaaland 's eighty acres in the same townsliip; the latter, how- ever, bought a hundred and sixty acres again on Jan- uary sixteenth, 1836, in the same locality. The record of these purchases was copied by E. B. An- derson and printed in his book. First Chapter, etc., cited above and also in Strand's History of the Nor- wegians 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 emigra- tion, became largely instrumental in bringing about the emigration of 1836. Baldwin's History of La FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 57 Salle County also states, page 74, that Oliver Ca- nuteson, ^^ Oliver Knutson, ^- 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 Set- tlement, 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 Her- vig, 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 chol- era on the homestead near Norway in July, 1849; his widow, Caroline, survived him three years." Jacob Slogvig married Serena, daughter of 32 Or are these two the same person? 33 Mrs. R. W. Bower of Sheridan, Illinois, is a daughter of Haugaas and his wife Caroline. Other children of hia are Daniel Haugaas in Henderson, Iowa, and Mrs. Isabel Lewis, Emington, Hlinois, and Thomas Haugaas. 58 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 chil- dren. 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 sec- ond, 1850, was the first child born of Norwegian par- ents in Utah. •''* 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 Oien Thompson, and born 1818, married George Olmstead in 1857 in La Salle County ; he died in 1849, and in 1855 she married William W. 34 For these facts I am indebted to R. B. Anderson, as also for other details of the personal history of the slooper 's descendants. FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 59 Ricliey. Mrs. Richey settled in Guthrie Center, Iowa, in 1882, where she lived until recently. Ben- son 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 Coun- ty, 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, re- turned 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 Hetle- tvedt, who located at Niagara Falls, not therefore in Orleans County, had three sons, Porter C, Soren L. and James W. The first of these, born 1831, became captain and later colonel in Company F, 36th Regi- ment, Illinois Volunteers, in the War of the Rebel- lion, and was Acting Brigadier General when he was killed in the Battle of Franklin (Tenn.). Soren Ol- son 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 60 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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, daugh- ter of Lars Larson, married John Atwater in Eo- chester, New York, in 1857. They afterwards mov- ed to Chicago, where he died in the early nineties, while Mrs. Atwater is, I believe, still living at West- ern 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 Eiver settlement. Out of that nucleus of about thirty persons, whom we know to have come there in 1834-35 grew up one of the larg- est and most prosperous of rural communities in the country. The settlement developed rapidly, be- fore many years extending into Kendall, Grundy and DeKalb counties and becoming a distributing point in the westward march of Norwegian immigra- gration 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 inaug- urated this change, while in 1837 there was some- thing approaching an exodus from certain localities in Western Norway. The desire to emigrate to FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 61 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 Illi- nois and into southern and southeastern Wisconsin. As this increased immigration is historically as- sociated 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 de- serves special mention as an early promoter of emi- gration from southwestern Norway, especially from his own province. He was a man of much enlight- enment 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 62 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 great- est interest among the people and were no small fac- tor 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 let- ter was read by Nils Rothe, Nils Bolstad and John H, Bjorgo and others. These three since said that it was the reading of Hovland's letter which induced them to immigrate. ^^ Gjert Hovland, as we have seen, came to Illinois in 1835. His purchase of one hundred and sixty acres of land in the present Mil- ler 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 re- turned to Skjold, Norway, and there married a sis- ter of Ole 0. 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 35 First Chapter, p. 331. FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 63 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 inten- tion 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. Nor den and Den Norshe Klippe, were fitted out from Stav- anger. 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 chap- ter. 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 com- ing to America of such a large part of the population of Norway in the 19tli century. CHAPTER VI Causes of Emigration from Norway. General Factors, Economic. What are the causes that have brought about the exodus from Norway and in general from the Scan- dinavian countries in the 19th century? The ques- tion is not a simple one to answer; for the causes have been many and varied, and it would be impossi- ble in the following pages to discuss all the circum- stances and influences that have operated to pro- mote 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,^^ or their descend- ants, the Teutonic peoples of modern times, by whom chiefly the United States has been peopled and de- veloped. Of tangible motives, one that has every- where been a fundamental factor in promoting em- igration from European countries in modern times has been the prospect of material betterment. Where no barriers have been put against the emi- gration of the poor or the ambitious, unless special causes have arisen to create discontent with one's 36 That is, ' ' Northman. ' ' CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 65 condition, the extent to which European countries have contributed to our immigrant population may be measured fairly closely by the economic condi- tions 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 condi- tions, 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 il- lustrated by the Scandinavian countries, slightly modified in each case by the operation of the special causes. Norway is a land of mountains, these mak- ing 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 im- poverishment for the holders of the numerous en- cumbered smaller estates. In Norway, especially, the rewards of labor are meagre and the opportuni- ties for material betterment small.-"' ''Hard times" and the inability of the country to support the rapid- 37 A great change for the better has been taking place during the last few years. 66 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ly increasing population has, then, been a most potent factor.^^ 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. ^^ 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 peo- ple, and it is noticeable also that it is they who are most conservative here, who foster the closest rela- tion 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 E. B. Anderson, in his book on the early Norwegian immigration"**^ puts religious per- secution as the primary cause of emigration from Norway. I cannot possibly believe that even in the 38 Thus the failure of crops and the famine in Northern Sweden, Finland, and Norway in 1902 was followed by a vastly increased immigration from these sections. See above page 28. Compare Table II, Appendix. 39 The area and population of the three countries are: — Sweden, area 172,876 sq. m., population in 1901, 5,175,228; Norway, area 124,129, population in 1900, 2,239,880; Denmark, area 15,360, popula- tion in 1901, 2,447,441. 40 First Chapter, etc. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 67 immigration of the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury 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 descend- ants, 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 Winne- shiek counties, Iowa, in the late forties and the fifties; the causes are everywhere principally econ- omic. But letters written by pioneers and by those f 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 oper- ated so extensively, though here, also, it was the pre- ponderating cause. A Norwegian journal, Billed-Magazin, published in Chicago in 1869-70 and edited by Professor Svein Nil sen, offers much that throws light on this ques- tion. It contains brief accounts of the early Nor- wegian immigration and the earliest settlements, a regular column of news from the Scandinavian coun- tries, interviews with pioneers, etc. In one inter- view, Ole Nattestad, who sailed in 1837 from Vaegli, Numedal, and became the founder of the fourth Nor- 68 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION wegian settlement in America, that of Jefferson Prairie in Eock County, Wisconsin, and the neigh- boring Boone County in Illinois, describes his exper- ience as a farmer in Numedal and how the difficulty of making any headwiay finally drove him to emi- grate to America.'*^ The statement of another pio- neer I quote in its entirety.'*^ It is that of John Nel- son Luraas, who came from Tin in Telemarken, to Muskego, Wisconsin, in 1839, and in 1843 moved to Dane County, Wisconsin. He says : I was my father's oldest son, and consequently heir to the Luraas farm. It was regarded as one of the best in that neighborhood, but there was a $1,400 mortgage on it. I had worked for my father until I was twenty-five years old, and had had no opportunity of getting money. It was plain to me that I would have a hard time of it, if I should take the farm with the debt resting on it, pay a reasonable amoimt to my brothers and sisters, and assume the care of my aged father. I saw to my horror how one farm after the other fell into the hands of the lendsman and other money-lenders, and this increased my dread of attempting farming. But I got married and had to do something. Then it occurred to me that the best thing might be to emigrate to America. I was encouraged in this purpose by letters written by Nor- wegian settlers in Illinois who had lived two years in Amer- ica. Such were the causes that led me to emigrate and I presume the rest of our company were actuated by similar motives. '^■^ 41 Billed - Magaein, 1869, pp. 82-83. ^2 Billed-Magazin, 1869, pp. 6-7. 43 In 1868, Mr. Luraas moved to Webster County, Iowa, returning to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1873. I knew him in the early nineties CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 69 In a letter written by Andreas Sandsberg at Hellen, Norway, September twelfth, 1831, to Gud- mnnd 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 : A considerable number of people are now getting ready to go to America from this Amt. Two brigs are to depart from Stavanger in about eight days from now, and will carry these people to America, and if good reports come from them, the number of emigrants will doubtless be still larger next year. A pressing and general lack of money entering into every branch of industry, stops or at least hampers business and makes it difficult for many people to earn the necessaries of life. While this is the case on this side of the Atlantic there is hope for abundance on the other, and this I take it, is the chief cause of this growing disposition to emigrate. '*'* 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 : The emigrants of the preceding year (1844) . . . . wrote home .... and told of the fertility of the soil, the cheap prices of land and of good wages. In a letter which I received from Iver Hove, he writes that there they as a well-to-do retired farmer living in Stoughton, Wisconsin. He died in 1894. 44 Letter copied from the original by R. B. Anderson in 1896 and printed in First Chapter, pp. 135-136. 70 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION raise thirty-five bushels of wheat per acre, and the grass is BO thick that one can easily cut enough in one day for winter feed for the cow. Such things fell to our liking, and many looked forward with eager longing to the distant West, which was pictured as the Eden that loving Provi'dence had destined as a home for the workingman of Norway, so oppressed with cares and want. Of those here cited, Nattestad was from Nume- dal, Luraas from Telemarken, Menes from Sogn, while Sandsberg came from Ryfylke. But the con- ditions 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 Rolf e, Iowa, writes me : The causes were, no personal means and no prospect even securing a home in their native district, Torpen, Nordre Land (letter of July 27, 1904). Eev. Abraham Jacobson of Decorah, Iowa, a pioneer himself, writes : Reasons for emigrating were mostly economic, very few if any religious Wages here were at the very least double that in Norway, and generally much more than that. Of the emigration from Ringsaker, I may cite Simon Simerson of Belmond, Iowa : The causes were economic. In the case of my parents, they came here to create the home that they saw no chance of securing in the mother country. (Letter of Oct. 12, 1904.) Similar evidence might be adduced for other districts and for all the older settlements through- CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 71 out the Northwest. At a meeting held at the home of Ole 0. Flom in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on July twenty-eighth, 1908, when the present writer read a paper on ^' Early Norwegian Immigration," testi- mony to the same effect was given by old pioneers there present. There is no need of further multi- plying 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, in- dependence in his condition in life. Nothing is so repugnant to him as indebtedness to others and de- pendence on others. An able-bodied Scandinavian who was a burden to his fellows was well-nigh un- heard of. By the right of primogeniture the pater- nal 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 inher- ent desire to own a home, finding himself so cir- cumstanced 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 72 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION for tlie govermnent puts no barrier upon his emi- grating. This trait has impelled many a Scandinav- ian 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 men- tion. Wliile 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 lib- eral (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 in- frequently have pioneers given this as one cause for emigrating in connection with that of economic ad- vantage. CHAPTER Vn Causes of Emigration Continued. Special Factors. Religion as a Cause. Emigration Agents. In the class of special causes which have in- fluenced the Scandinavian emigration, political op- pression has operated only in the case of the Danes in Southern Jutland/^ Military service, which elsewhere has often played such an important part in promoting emigration, has, in the Scandinavian countries, been only a minor fac- tor, the period of service required being very short. Nevertheless it has in not a few cases been a second- ary cause for emigrating. Those with whom I have spoken who have given this as their motive have, 45 As a result of the Dano-Prussian war of 1864 Jutland below Skodborghus became a province of Prussia. The greatly increased taxes that immediately followed and the restrictions imposed by the Prussian government upon the use of the Danish language, as well as other oppressive measures that formed a part of the general plan of the Prussianizing of Sleswick-Holstein, drove large numbers of Danes away from their homes, and most of these came to the United States. In notes and correspondence from Denmark in Scandinavian-Ameri- can papers during these years complaints regarding such regulations constantly appear, and figures of emigration of Danes ' ' who did not wish to be Prussians ' ' are unusually large for this period ; for ex- ample in the foreign column of the Billed-Magazin. The United States statistics also show a sudden increase in the Danish immi- gration during the sixties and the early seventies. From 1850- 1861 not more than 3,983 had emigrated from Denmark; while in the thirteen years from 1862 to 1874 the number reached 30,978. 74 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION however, been mostly Norwegians and Swedes; but none of those who belong to the earlier period of emigration give their desire to escape military ser- vice 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 tol- erated since the middle of the century, in Norway since 1845. While few countries have been freer from the evil of active persecution because of relig- ious belief, intolerance and religious narrowness have not been wanting. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the followers of the lay preach- er, 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 ar- rested several times for conducting religious meet- ings 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 repeat- edly, Jansen embarked for America in 1846 and be- came the founder of the communistic colony of fol- lowers at Bishopshille, ^^ Henry County, Hlinois. No 46 So named from Biskopskulla, Jansen 's native place in Sweden. See article by Major John Swainson on "The Swedish Colony at Bishopshill, Illinois," in Nelson's Scandinavians, 1, p. 142. This article gives an excellent account of the founding of the Bishopshill settlement and .Jansen 's connection with it. See also American Com- munities by Wm. Alfred Hinds, 1902, pp. 300-320. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 75 such organized emigration took place among the Hangians, but we have no means of knowing to what extent individual emigration of the followers of Hauge took place during the three decades immedi- ately after his death. The well-known Elling Eiel- son, a lay preacher and an ardent Haugian, emi- grated in 1839 to Fox River, La Salle County, Illi- nois, and many of those who believed in the methods of Hauge and Eielson came to America in the fol- lowing years. It was persecution also that drove many Scan- dinavian Moravians to America in 1740 and 1747. Mora\aan societies had been formed in Christiania in 1737, in Copenhagen in 1739, in Stockholm in 1740, and in Bergen in 1740.^^ In 1735 German Moravians from Herrnhut, Saxony, established a colony at Savannah, Georgia.'*^ In this colony there seem to have been some Danes and Norwegians. In 1740 a permanent colony was located at Bethle- hem, 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 perse- cution at home. "^^ Another writer has shown that the 47 Decorah-Posten, September 9, 1904, p. 5. See also above p. 37. 48 R. B. Anderson is emphatic in this view. Pages 45-131 of his First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration are devoted to a discussion 76 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION only one of the Stavanger Quakers who suffered for his belief prior to 1826 was Elias Tastad, and he, it seems, did not emigrate/' The leader of the emi- grants 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/^ The Quakers of Stavanger were of the poorest of the people. It is highly probable, as another writer states,^^ 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 Meth- odists. The Orleans County Quakers do not seem to have even erected a meeting-house ; and in Scan- of the sloop "Restaurationen" and the Quaker Colony in Orleans County. 49 Nelson's History of Scandinavians, 1901, p. 133. 50 B. L. Wick, in The Friends, Philadelphia, 1894, according to Nelson, p. 134. I have not been able to secure a copy of the above article, therefore cannot here state the arguments, or cite more fully. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 77 dinavian settlements a church, however humble, is, next to a home, the first thought.^^ 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,^^ 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 emi- grated, at least not at that time. There was much persecution of the early con- verts to the Baptist faith in Denmark between 1850-1860 ; and not a few of this sect emigrated. In 1848 F. 0. 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 Moraion missionaries were especially ac- 51 The reader who knows Bjomson's Synnove SolbaJcken will re- member the author's introduction of this feature in Chapter II, the first two pages. 52 Lars Larson settled in Rochester where he could attend a Quaker church. The same is true of Ole Johnson, another of the "sloopers" who later settled in Kendall but finally returned to Roch- ester, where he died in 1877. 78 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION tive 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. ^' In Den- mark, however, Mormon proselyting was more suc- cessful 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 Norwe- gian 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.^^ In 1849 a Norwegian-American, 0. P. Peterson, first introduced Methodism in Norway.^"* After 1855 a regular Methodist mission was established in Scandinavia under the supervision of a Danish- American, C. B. Willerup.^^ While the Methodist 53 Some of the early Mormon leaders were Norwegians, however, as Bishop Canute Peterson (Marsett), of Ephraim, Utah, who came to America in 1837 from Hardanger, Norway. The slooper Gudmund Haugaas became an elder in the church of the Latter Day Saints in La Salle County, Illinois; he died in 1849 and was succeeded by his son Thomas Haugaas. 54 See a brief account by Rev. N. M. Liljegren in Nelson's His- tory of Scandinavians, I, pp. 205-209. 55 Methodism had been introduced into Sweden from England early in the century. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 79 churcli has not prospered in the Scandinavian coun- tries, especially in Denmark and Norway, there are large numbers of Methodists among the Scandina- vian immigrants in this country,^^ and the early con- gregations were recruited for a large part from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The efforts of steamship companies and emigra- tion agents have been a powerful factor in promot- ing Scandinavian emigration. Through them lit- erature 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 set- tled 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 con- tributed 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 coun- tries. 56 By far the larger number, however, are Swedes. CHAPTER VIII Causes of Emigration continued. The Influence of Successful Pioneers. "America-letters." The Spirit of Adventure. Summary. 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 set- ting 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-let- ter" 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. ' ' " 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 57 See Billed-Magazin, p. 74. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 81 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 Dun- kirk Township in Dane County. He says : ' ' Two of my uncles and a brother emigrated in 1839. I, how- ever, 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 let- ter received by Ole Menes of Stoughton in 1845. Ingbrigt Helle came from Kragero 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 major- ity 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, testi- fying to the same fact, mentions Ole Knudson Tro- vatten as one who, through letters, exerted consider- able influence upon emigration in Telemarken (page 218, Billed-Magazin, 1870). We shall meet Trovat- 82 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ten again below as a pioneer in the Town of Cottage Grove in the same connty. 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 nmnerous friends in his native country in which he, with much eloquence, made his countrymen ac- quainted 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 immi- gration Gunder T. Mandt, himself an immigrant of 1843 (died 1907, Stoughton, Wisconsin), gives sim- ilar testimony. He speaks of the opposition to emi- gration in Upper Telemarken, which found expres- sion in all sorts of adverse accounts of America, especially among the clergy, and that much uncer- tainty prevailed among the masses as to the advisa- bility of going to America. During all this, Trovat- ten, 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 CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 83 that hundreds of those who now are plowing the soil of AVisconsin 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 ac- counts of conditions on this side of the ocean." {B illed-M agazin, 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 set- tlers in other portions of the country comes testi- mony 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 Scan- 84 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION dinavian emigrants, arrive by prepaid passage tick- ets secured by relatives in this country.^* 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, return- ed 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 fur- ther emigration from Stavanger Province and of in- augurating 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 re- cruit 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 Nor- wegian 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 be- came the father of emigration from Numedal, Nor- way, bringing with him a large party of immigrants, 58 Nelson 's History of Scandinavians, page 56. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 85 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 occa- sion 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 Tro- vatten's letters. After remarking that many still were doubtful of the advisabiUty of emigrating he goes on to say: "But then Knud Svalestuen of Vinje, who had lived for a time in the Muskego Settlement, came home on a trip back to Norway, and by his accounts even the most hesitating were made firm in their faith. Knud came in the fall of 1843, and during the winter he received visits of men sent out from various districts in Telemarken, who came to secure reliable information about the new coun- try. The next spring hosts of intending emigrants left the upper mountain districts of the country. . . , Three emigrant ships left that year from Porsgrund. On board the ship I left in there were two hundred and eleven emigrants. ' ' The editor of Billed-Magazin gives other inter- views with pioneers showing the effect of Svale- stuen '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, 86 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Menigmand, skrevet af en Norsk som horn 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? Wliat provision is there for the education of children? What language is spoken and is it dif35cult 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 consid- erable influence was Johan Eeinert Reierson. He came to America in 1843, but returned to Norway soon after. In America he had written a book, Veivi- seren, ^^ which he published in Norway and was read far and wide. This book contains a fund of infor- mation regarding the different settlements, as Ra- cine County, Wisconsin, La Salle County, Illinois, and Lee County, Iowa, and others, all of which Reier- 59 True Account of America for the Information and Help of Peasant and Commoner, written by a Norwegian who came there in the month of June, 1837. 60 The Pathfinder, a book of one hundred and sixty-six pages. CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 87 son 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-Mag- azin 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 fam- ily 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 hlandt de norske Emigranter i de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater, Stavanger, 88 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 pro- moted Scandinavian emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century have been in the order of their importance : first, the prospect of material bet- terment and the love of a freer and more independ- ent 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 ad- vertising of agents of emigration; fourth, religious persecution at home; fifth, church proselytism; sixth, political oppression; seventh, military ser- vice; and eighth, the desire for adventure. Fugi- tives 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. CHAPTER IX Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immi- gration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches. On page fifty-five above I spoke of the advance troop of six men who established the Fox River Set- tlement 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 com- ing 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, Sub- lette, 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 90 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Wisconsin and in Lee County, Iowa. He died in Kendall County in 1849 or 1850. ^i Iver Waller, who bought a claim of Miss Pear- son in 1835, came directly from Norway to La Salle County that year. Baldwin's History oj La Salle County lists Ove Stenson Eossadal and wife, and John Stenson Eossadal among the arrivals of 1835, and as being brothers of Daniel Eossadal, of whom we have spoken above. Strand's History of the Norwegians in Ulinois correctly names them as sons of Daniel Eossadal. Nils Bilden, who also came during this period (year uncertain), was there- fore one of the very first emigrants from Hardanger to the United States. He settled at Eochester, San- gamon County, Illinois. As to the extent of Norwegian immigration dur- ing 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, respective- ly, 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.^^ 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 gov- 61 One of hia sons was Colonel Porter C. Olson of Civil War fame, member of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry. 62 Among those who came in 1832 was John Nordboe from Gud- brandsdalen, Norway. FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 91 ernment statistics on immigration which are avail- able since 1836, give the number of immigrants for that year as two hundred, which is also the fig- ure 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 Nor- way in 1835, after a ten years' residence in Amer- ica; " the results of his return were also there brief- ly noted. In the two ships, Norden and Den Norske Klippe,^'^ w'hich sailed from Stavanger in July of 1836, came two hundred immigrants, ^^ who located for the most part in the Fox River Settlement. These stopped en route for a short time in Roches- ter, no doubt gathering advice and information from Lars Larson, the captain of the sloopers, resident there as we know; thence they continued their jour- ney 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 set- tlement 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 es- pecially Hardanger and Voss. Not all who came settled in Mission and the 63 While in Norway he married a sister of Ole Olson Hetletvedt, which may have been in part the purpose of his return. 64 The North and The Norwegian RocJc. 65 Langeland says a hundred and sixty on page eighteen of his work, elsewhere a hundred and fifty. Two hundred seems, however, to have been approximately the number. 92 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION later Miller townships, however. Some went con- siderably farther north and established, in Adams Township, a northern extension of the original settle- ment 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 Mor- dicai Disney, who located there in 1836, slightly prior to the coming of the immigrants from Stavan- ger. ^^ 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 ; ^"^ they had lived in Mis- sion Township since their coming in 1836. Among those who came in 1836 and located in Mission Town- ship were: Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, who in 1840 went to Wisconsin (see below), Erick Johnson Savig^^ and wife, Ingeborg, from Kvinherred Par- ish, Knud Olson Hetletvedt and wife, Serena (both of whom died of cholera in 1849), Osmund Thom- ason, ^' wife and daughter, Anne, Henrik Erick- son 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 66 Disney left again in 1837. 67 The Olson homestead is still owned by the son, Nels Olson. 68 Died in 1840, leaving wife and two children, John and Anna Bertha ; the latter later became the wife of John J. Najset in the town of Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin. Saevig was bom in 1803, his wife in 1809. 69 Died in 1876, ninety-two years old. FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 93 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 Tysvasr 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 emi- grated 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 0. 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 Os- mond. Lars Bo and Michael Bo, who lived and died in La Salle County, came when John Hill did. Lars Larson Brimsoe, 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). Bjom Anderson Kvelve and wife, Catherine, ^^ and two sons, Arnold Andrew and 70 Abel Catherine von Krogh was born in 1809. Her father was Arnold von Krogh. Bjorne Anderson Kvelve was born in 1801. For 94 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Brunn, from Vikedal, Ryfylke, lived for a year in Eocliester, 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 Chi- cago, then to Norway, La Salle County. He settled on a faiTQ 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 Chi- cago, which then consisted of only a few houses. Among these was first, Halstein Torison (or Tor- ison), to whom Knud Langeland accords the dis- tinction of being the first Norwegian resident of Chicago. He was from Fjeldberg in Sondhord- land, and he came to Chicago with wife and chil- dren 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 gar- dener for a Mr. Newberry. Reverend Dietrichson speaks of him, in 1844, as prosperous and as occupy- ing a leading position among Cliicago Norwegians at that time. In 1848 he moved to Calumet, twenty a sketch of Bjorn Anderson and his wife see pages 155-170 of First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration by E. B. Anderson, who is their third son (b. 1846 in Albion, Wisconsin) ; I am indebted to this work for many facts relative to the Illinois pioneers of 1836-1837. FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 95 miles south of Chicago, where he lived until his death in 1882. Svein Lothe, from Hardanger, also came in 1836, as did Nils Rothe and wife, Torbjor, who were from Voss. The latter remained, however, in Rochester, New York, one year before coming to Chicago. Nils Rothe and wife were the first to emi- grate from Voss, Norway. Johan Larson, from Kopervik, an island not far north of Stav- anger 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 per- sons in all who came from Ullensvang that year, the other seven being: Jon Jonson Aga, wife and two children, Torbjorn Djonne, Olav Oystenson Lofthus and Omund Helgeson Maakestad. Maakestad be- came the founder of the Hardanger settlement in Lee County, Illinois (see below). I am not able to say where Aga, Djonne or Lofthus located. There were also seven immigrants from Ulvik Parish, Har- danger, that year; they were: Sjur Haaheim and wife, Paul Dale and wife, Sjur Dale and wife and 96 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Tysvaer and from Hjelmeland, and Aardal in Ryfylke, from the city of Stav- anger, 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 per- manently. Among the passengers were Hans Val- der and wife from Ryfylke, Knud Olson Eide, Ole Thompson Eide, from Fogn, near Stavanger, Thomas A. Thompson, Christopher Danielson and family, Osten Espeland and family, and Knud Dan- ielson 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 Klnud Slog- vig'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, con- tributing a large share to the now rapidly increasing numbers of emigrants. CHAPTER X The Tear 1837. The Sailing of Aegir. The influence of Gjert Hovland in this new trend in the immigration should be noted. South Bergen- hus now became the scene of immigration activity. At the same time it is to be observed that Hardan- ger 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. Lange- land, a school teacher from Samnanger, one of the emigrants of 1837. Similarly Knud Langeland re- lates 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 ^^ about the New World. Knud Langeland gives a most interesting account of how his interest in America became aroused ; though a personal experi- ence, 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 con- siderable part. He says: 71 Especially in a German book on travels in America, see his account, p. 21. Knud Langeland did not emigrate, however, before 1843. 98 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION "Purely by accident I found in a friend's library in Bergen a book by a German entitled Reisen in Amerika. . . . . As this book contained some vivid pictures of the distant regions the traveller had visited, as well as of the impressions he had received of land and people in the new world, it was read with all the allurements of a novel. Here was given full information about the German emigra- tion. With this description of travels in my pocket I went early one summer morning along the bay of Solem and up the steep ascent of Lyderhom. Up there I read and dreamed of the new wonderful world far away to the west. The mist had sunk low over the fjords between the isles about Bergen, but up there around the tree-tops it was bright sunshine. It was the first time I had seen this glo- rious sight peculiar to mountain regions. If any prosaic nature ever received poetic inspiration and exaltation it was during this time, while my eyes beheld the sunlit sur- face of the fog and in the distance caught a glimpse of the sparkling shield of the North Sea, which seemed to rise to the height of the mountain And far out to- ward the west, thousands of miles out there, lies the land about which I am reading, lies the big, still so little known part of the world, with its secrets and its wonders. From that time I sought all books and descriptions of travel con- cerning America which I could get, and, together with an uncle of mine, I began to collect as much information about the new world, as well through books as through the verbal accounts from Stavanger people, which now began to be current in the district concerning Kleng Peerson's emigra- tion and return, without our yet actually thinking of emi- grating. Through a kind friend's help I was enabled in 1834 to spend six months in England, on which occasion I gathered a number of pamphlets and books about America SAILING OF AEGIR 99 and emigration from England. In this way more definite and more reliable information as to conditions in America and the journey thither gradually spread in the vicinity. This seemed to discredit the many ridiculous and impossible stories now constantly set in circulation. Slowly but stead- ily the thought of emigrating to America took root; more and more joined the little group which now in earnest be- gan talking of selling their homes and going to America. Then it was that the bishop of Bergen wrote a letter to the farmers of Bergen on the text, "Remain in the country; make your living honorably," whether he forgot it or did not regard it suitable to the occasion, he failed to quote the second commandment of the passage: "Multiply and fill the world." The latter the farmers had adhered to; most of them had large families, and since the land at home was filled, while they now heard that a large part of the new world was unsettled, they decided to disobey the bishop's advice and go to the new Canaan, where flowed milk and honey. ' ' So far Langeland's account. While the evi- dence 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 men- tioned above, seems to have been a special factor at this particular time. Nils Langeland was al- ready then an elderly man. He had devoted his life to the cause of popular education, but the in- tolerant 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 100 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 car- ried a cargo of freight in the summer. Lfenge-, land'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 Kynning, from Snaasen, in Trondhjem Province, of whom we shall speak more at length below. On the 4th of July, 1837, Aegir sailed from Ber- gen with eighty-two passengers. Among these were Mons Aadland, Nils Froland, Anders Nordvig, Inge- brigt Brudvig, Thomas Bauge and Thorbjom Veste, all of whom had large families, and the following from Hardanger: Nils L. Jordre, wife and six chil- dren, 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 Vikor. The last-named were the first to emigrate from Vikor. The party further included Halle Vaete, wife and grown daughter, and the following persons : Odd J. SAILING OF AEGIR 101 Himle, Kolbein 0. Sane, Styrk 0. Sane, Nils L. Bol- stad, Baard Haugen, John H. Bjorgo, Ole Dyvik, all of whom were married, besides several single men, mostly relatives of the above, namely : Dovig, Bauge, Froland, Nordvig, Hisdal, Tosseland, et al. Each adult paid sixty dollars (Norwegian specie) for passage, children nnder twelve paying half price. They arrived in New York eight weeks later. The journey inland was attended by numerous ex- penses for which the immigrants were not prepared. Wlien 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 Lange- land became the first Norwegian to settle in the State of Michigan, though we have seen that Kleng Peer- son had visited the state four years earlier. At least three others of the immigrants of 1837 located tem- porarily in the State of Michigan that year, namely, Ingebright Nordvig, Osten 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. CHAPTER XI Beaver Creek. Ole Rynning, 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 Nor- wegian immigrants '^^ 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 in- duced to locate there. (Knut Langeland also re- cords 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 col- ony. These, Ole Rynning, Ingebrigt Bnidvig and Ole Nattestad,''^ walked south along the line of the present Illinois Central Railroad, selecting the loca- 72 Bjorn Anderson seems to have in part been instrumental in their not going to La Salle County, but there is no evidence that he recommended Iroquois County as far as I am aware. 73 Niels Veste may also have been of the party. BEAVER CREEK 103 tion at Beaver Creek in Iroquois County. Of the further history of this unfortunate and short lived colony, the reader may find an account in Dietrich- son's brief discussion of the settlement, or in Lange- land's or E. 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 Settle- ment. We have already seen above how his book, Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika, came to have a very far-reaching influence upon Norwegian emi- gration. This book Rynning wrote that winter in the Beaver Creek Settlement. It was printed in Norway the next year. It soon became widely dis- tributed and continued for over a decade to exert a powerful influence upon Norwegian emigration from Voss, east to Hedemarken, and north to Gud- brandsdalen, in these latter provinces, at the close of the decade, especially. We have, on page 86 above, observed that Ryn- ning formulated certain questions which he set about answering for the information of intending immi- 104 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION grants. It will be of interest to note here the na- ture 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 Norwe- gian immigrants have located especially, he an- swers by saying, that in New York, Rochester, De- troit, 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 Eiver. '^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) Iro- quois County, Illinois. "Here," he says, "there are BEAVER CREEK 105 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 di\^ded 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 live- stock 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 corn- meal, two and a half to three dollars; a barrel of potatoes, one dollar; a pound of coffee, twenty shil- lings; 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 con- ditions, law and order, how instruction for the young is provided, linguistic conditions, health con- ditions. 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 106 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION never fear attack by Indians in Illinois." In an- swer 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 com- fortable 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 imm^grant. 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 inter- esting in the insight and judgment it gives evidence of, on the part of an immigrant over twenty years before the war: The northern states are trying in every congress to abolish slavery in the southern states; but as these always oppose it and appeal to their right to govern their own internal affairs, there will probably soon take place a sep- BEAVER CREEK 107 aration between the northern and the southern states, or else there will be internal conflict. 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 ^'^ 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.^^ 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 testi- mony. His book, Sandfaerdig Beretning, was writ- ten on the sick-bed. ^^ 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. 74 This he bought of the father of Eev. B. G. Muus, well-known in Norwegian-American church history, and a long time pastor at Norway, Goodhue County, Minnesota. 75 See above p. 103. 76 Ansten Nattestad, of whom below, took it with him to Norway that year and got it printed in Christiania. CHAPTER XII Some of the Immigrants of 1837. The First Path- finders from Numedal and Telemarhen. Besides the 177 immigrants, who came to Amer- ica from Stavanger and Bergen in 1837, there was a considerable number who embarked from Gothen- burg, 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 Vsegli, 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 found- ed the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa, at Sugar Creek, Lee County. Of the circumstances which led to the emigration of the Nattestad brothers, an in- teresting account appears in Billed-Magazin, 1869, THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 109 pag€S 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 Brrekke-Eiet, also from Rollaug, be- came 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 liv- ing in Rochester, and they were, for a short time, the guests of Lars Olson, as so many others of the immi- no NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION grants 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: Here I accidentally came upon a man, whom I imme- diately recognized by his clothes as a countryman from the western coast of Norway. I greeted the man, and the meet- ing was for us both as if two brothers had met after a long separation. 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 Bjorn Anderson Kvelve, whose unfavorable account of the Fox River locality first gave them some doubt as to the wisdom of going there. Of the subse- quent events, the reader has already been told. We shall meet again with both Ole and Ansten Natte- stad below. Halsten Brsekke-Eiet later settled in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Hans Barlien was from Overgaarden, Trond- hjem; 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 Midboen, Thore Kittilson Svimbil, and John Nelson Rue, who had large families, and THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 111 two single men, Gunder Gauteson Midboen 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 Midboen, who had a large family, settled in La Salle County, but, says our authority, "for- tune was not kind to him." He later joined the Latter Day Saints and undertook a journey to Nor- way 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 Sta- vanger. The departure of this group from Tin does not seem to have had any immediate influ- 112 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ence 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 con- servative and reasonable estimate would seem to place it at about two hundred and forty or fifty. Among the passengers on the Aegir, we men- tioned Nils Froland. 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 Town- ship 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 THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 113 Larson Bo), who came to Chicago from Voss, Nor- way, in 1844. Victor F. Lawson, owner of The Chica- go 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 Bjorgo went direct to La Salle County. The first of these re- turned 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 Bjorgo below as one of the pioneers of Koshkonong, Wisconsin. Halle Vaete 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 sur- vivors; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and are to be remembered among the early pioneers there. Styrk Saue was bom 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. 114 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Among the passengers on Enigheden was Hans Valder and wife. He was born on the farm, Vaelde, in Vats Parish in Ryfylke in 1813. Having re- ceived an education he taught school in Tysv?er some years before emigrating. Here he heard much about the earliest emigration to America from Stavanger. In Detroit, Valder and Osten 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, Fill- more County, Minnesota, and became one of the earliest Norwegian pioneers in Minnesota. Osten Espeland and family remained at the home of Nar- vig a little longer than Valder, but then they also went to La Salle County. Another passenger on Enigheden was Christo- pher Daniel son 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 77 See above, page 101, for the circumstances of Narvig 's coming to Michigan. THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 115 1812 in Skjold Parish, Ryfylke, settled in Nor- way, 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.^^ Ole Heier, who also came in 1837, from Tin, Telemarken, located in La Salle County. He had been an ardent Haugian, but be- came 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. Set- tling 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 south- western Iowa, where Even Askvig died in 1875 and his wife in 1881. 78 Attorney Samuel Richolson, of Ottawa, who died in 1906, was a son of Lara Richolson, He was born March twenty-fifth, 1841, on the homestead bought by his father in 1837-38. He was for a long time member of the firm, Boyle and Richolson, in Ottawa, was mayor of Ottawa from 1871-1881, at one time attorney for the Chicago, Bur- lington and Quincy railroad. His widow. Marietta Richolson, and two children are stiU li\dng. CHAPTER XIII Ansten Nattestad's Return to Norway in 1838. The. Year 1839. Immigration Assumes Larger Proportions. The Course of Set- tlement Changes. 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 pur- pose of promoting emigration from Rollaug, Nume- dal, while Ole went out to explore new fields. Go- ing 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. ^^ 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. y9 According to Ole Nattestad 'b letter in Nordlyset for May eighteenth, 1848. ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 117 I found the soil especially fruitful and the melan- choly 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. Gil- derhus, Knud Lydvo, Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjer- stad.^" Gilderhus went to Cleveland, Ohio, being, I believe, the first Norwegian to locate there; he re- mained there only one year, however, going to Chi- cago 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 or emigrants from Numedal in the year 1838. The name of the leader was Ole Aasland, a wealthy far- mer of Flesberg Parish. He sold out his farm and, taking with him his family and about twenty 80 As brought out by Nils A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin. 118 NORWEGIAN UVBIIGRATION other persons, whose passage he paid for, he sailed from Tonsberg, via Gothenburg, and thence to New York. He then went to Orleans County, New York.^^ 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 swamp- iness of the region, and many of his party died. He thereupon (next year) abandoned the land, tak- ing with him the survivors. In the Kendall Settle- ment, Andrew J. Stangeland bought the land of him for a nominal price. *^ 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 consider- able property. He left a wife and four children, Canute Orsland, and Harry B. Orsland (born 1828 in Kendall), the fornier 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 Or- leans and Liverpool. In Dram men he had printed his brother's journal. En Dagbog, and Rynning's 81 The Kendall Settlement. 82 Aasland did not take anything for it, says Canute Orsland in letter of 1895 to R. B. Anderson; letter is printed on page 265 of First Chapter. ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 119 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: "The report of my return spread like wild fire throughout the country, and an incredibly large number of people came to me to get news from America. Many even travelled eighteen to twenty Norwegian miles to speak with me. It was impossible to answer all the let- ters that came with reference to conditions across the ocean. In the spring of 1839 about one hundred persons stood ready to go with me across the ocean. Among these were many farmers with families, all except the children able to work and in their best years." 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 Telemark- en, not to be deterred long in their plans to go to the New "World, immediately set about organ- izing their party and went to Skien to seek passage there. They were all from Tin and Hjertdal par- ishes in Upper Telemarken. The leaders of the party were the Luraas family, which was repre- sented by four heads of families, in all about twenty persons of the total number of forty, composed al- most 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 120 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Ostenson Luraas, Tor- ger Ostenson Luraas, Halvor T. Lonflok, Halvor Nelson Lohner, Helge Mathieson, Ole Hellikson Kroken, Osten Mollerflaten, Ole Kjonaas, Nils John- son Kaasa, and the latter 's brother, Gjermund Johnson Kaasa, all of whom had families, be- sides 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 Amer- ica. This party included Gitle Danielson, the leader of the party, from the island of Renneso, a little north of Stavanger, and who had a large family, Halvor Jellarviken, with family, and Peder Eosoino, 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 ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 121 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 Wis- consin, and a site for a settlement was selected near Lake Muskego in the southeastern part of Waukesha County, about twenty miles southwest from Milwau- kee. 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 un- healthy region in substantiation of which a pale, sick- ly man was presented as the result of life in that state. Whether tliis 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 suc- ceeded in diverting the immigrants from Telemark- en 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 Milwau- kee 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 122 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Wisconsin, let us turn for a moment to a consid- eration of the larger movement. With the year 1839, emigration from Norway begins to assume larger proportions, and certain districts, which hith- erto had sent very few, now begin to contribute the larger share of the number of emigrants to Amer- ica. This year may very properly be said to have inaugurated the second period in Norwegian immi- gration 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, near- ly all of the emigrants had come from these sections. In fact, before 1836 the movement was almost con- fined to Stavanger and Ryfylke. In that year it reaches Hardanger, and in 1837, Bergen. It does not reach Voss properly before 1838, although Nils Eothe 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 emi- gration from provinces to the east and northeast. Thus Ole Rynning and Snaasen in Trondhjem Dio- cese emigrated in the Aegir in 1837. The first emi- grants 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 ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 123 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 instrument- al in bringing about any emigration movement in Gudbrandsdalen and Trondhjem. It is not until a much later period that these two districts are rep- resented 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 forma- tion of the Fox Eiver 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 fif- ties 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 Stav- anger 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 Mus- kego in Waukesha County, and in Rock County ; and in 1839-40 that of Koshkonong in Dane and Jeffer- 124 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION son 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. CHAPTER XIV Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten Nattestad's Re- turn from Norway in 1839. The Founding of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement in Rock County, Wisconsin Before returning now to the thread of our nar- rative, 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 Slog- vig, 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 stead- fastness 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 126 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 pro- longed effort in a definite cause or undertaking. A vagabond citizen, he died in poverty. The only ac- tivity we associate with his name is the adventurous wanderings of his youth. After having spent a year in Missouri Peer- son returned to Norway, evidently for the pur- pose of recruiting his colony, but I have no evidence that he succeeded in this. Independent of Peer- son's efforts, the little colony did receive an acces- sion 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 be- came 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 SHELBY COUNTY, MISSOURI 127 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 Anker- son, 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 dol- lars 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 lo- cated 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 128 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 se- cured passage on a boat bound for Gothen- burg, 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 narra- tor, " ' 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. ' ' Land- ing 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 after- noon most of the men of the party went ashore again to purchase food. When they returned how- ever 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 destina- tion also, though with many diflSculties and unpleas- SHELBY COUNTY, MISSOURI 129 ant 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 orig- inally to do so. I do not know what changed their course, but on the next day after arriving in Chica- go, they went to Du Page County, Illinois, where a week later they met those who had gone with Natte- stad 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 Fingal- pladsen, Engebret Saster, Lars Dalen, Gjermund Johnson, and Sven Tufte, all of whom also had fam- ilies, besides some single persons. Halvor Hau- gen '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 employ- ment 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 : "It was sixteen by sixteen and quite low. In order to add to room 'crowns' were erected overhead, that is, beams which were laid crosswise near the ceilingr. These 130 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION beams were cut pointed at the ends which were made to rest between the logs in the walls on either side, like riders across the house. On top of these again was laid flats, on which beds were arranged. Down below on the floor there were also three beds." 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 win- ter 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. The settlement thus founded exclusively by im- migrants from the district of Numedal has always continued to be recruited largely from that region (see, however, below). In the follow- ing 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 V^egli, who also came in the ship Emilia, in 1839, but who does not seem to have gone directly to Jeffer- son Prairie. She married Jens Gudbrandson Myhra at Christmas, 1839, while his brother, Gud- brand Myhra, married Ambjor Olson (also from 4f^c Jia^t^StJkiMy, iMlflt C*»vfeflivY^M^ ^4ir4n»«i' r«.jf/^t,(v« i^^^^ ^^^^ 132 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION VaBgli) in 1840. The following year they, however, moved to the Eock 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 Vaegli, Numedal, in 1812. Of the other founders of this settlement I may here add the following facts. Ole Knudson Nattestad was born at Vaegli, in Eollaug Parish, December twenty-fourth, 1807. We have above given an ac- count of his settling at Clinton. In Nordlyset for May eighteenth, 1848, there appeared a communica- tion from Nattestad relative to this occasion, in which he rightly claims to have been the first Nor- wegian to settle in the state. He married there Lena Hiser in 1840 ; he lived in the settlement, as an influ- ential, 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 pres- ent occupies the homestead. The other children are, Charles (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), James (Da- kota), Ann (Clinton), Julia (Mrs. Martin Scofftedt Lawrence, Kansas), Caroline (Mrs. Louis 0. 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 Nor- SHELBY COUNTY, MISSOURI 133 way. 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 com- ing to America with his group of one hundred immi- grants 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 Nor- wegian 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 Vaegli 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 con- sisted further of two sons, Gunnul and Gjermund, the former bom at Vapgli, April twenty-eighth, 1827, the latter on September nineteenth, 1836. The fath- er, 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 Coun- ty, Wisconsin, where we shall meet with them again. Sigrid Haugen died in Beloit in 1885. It may be 134 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 ^^ was born Septem- ber twelfth, 1812; married in 1837. They had one daughter, Christie, bom 1849, and who is married to Gunder Larson. ^* Thore Helgeson died in Clinton in 1871. Christopher C. Nyhus (Newhouse) was bom at VaBgli in July, 1812. When he came to Clin- ton 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 Eachel Gilbertson that year. They had five chil- dren. The son, T. T. Nelson, married Mary Tangen of Manchester, Illinois, in 1872. They have two daughters, Anna R. (b. 1875), Gertine (b. 1878). 83 Whose name appears as Torro Holgeson in The History of Eoch County, Wisconsin, 1879, p. 780, to which work I am indebted for some of the facts recited above. 84 They again have four children. Mr. Larson enlisted in the 42d Illinois Eegiment, later transferred to the Mississippi Marine Brigade, was at the battle of Vicksburg, served faithfully and was honorably discharged. CHAPTER XV The Earliest White Settlers on Rock and Jefferson Prairies. The Founding of the Rock Prairie Settlement. The Earliest Settlers on Rock Prairie "We have seen that when Ole Nattestad settled at Clinton on July first, 1838, the country was a wilder- ness, 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 No- vember, 1835, John Inman, of Lucerne County, Penn- sylvania, 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." ^^ This was the first settlement in Rock County. Inman and Wil- liam 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 au- thority 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 136 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION paradise of the world." They returned to Milwau- kee, having in their ten days' exploration of the Eock Eiver Valley, found but one family, namely, a Mr. McMillan, who resided where Waukesha now stands. ^^ 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 Kock County, ^^ were taken from Milwaukee County and constituted a separate county, called Eock. 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 Eock Eiver. 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, New- ark, 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. 85 History of BocTc County, p. 335. 86 Avon, Spring Valley, Magnolia and Union being added in 1838. ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 137 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 con- siderable distance from him. Nattestad located on section twenty. Here Christopher Nyhus also set- tled, 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- 138 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 wil- derness 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 Nattes- tad's party who came to Jefferson Prairie in Sep- tember, 1839, did not remain there. These went fourteen miles farther west and established a settle- ment in the Township of Newark, which had not been settled by white men before, while a few of the mem- bers of this latter party went south from there eigh- teen miles, crossing the Illinois line, and located in the Township of Eock Eun, in Stephenson County, Illinois. The founder of the Eock Prairie Settlement was Gullik Olson Gravdal, of Vsegli, Numedal; he emi- grated from Norway with Ansten Nattestad in 1839. He came directly to Jefferson Prairie, but did not re- main there. With Gisle Halland and Goe Bjono 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 ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 139 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." To- gether with Lars Roste, a single man from the Parish of Land, he then bought forty acres of land. ^^ Gisle Halland bought land one mile farther east, while Goe Bjono took a claim on a piece of land for Mrs. Gunhild Odegaarden, three miles south of the site selected by Gravdal. Gunhild Odegaarden (who emigrated from Nore, annex parish in Numedal) was a widow of con- siderable means, who had paid the passage of sev- eral 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 Bjono '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 author- ity of Gravdal himself, as printed in an interview on page 162 of Billed-Magazin for 1869. The His- tory of Rock County agrees in this statement that Mrs. Odegaarden 's log cabin, built in the fall of 1839, was the first house erected in the Town of Newark. Gunhild Odegaarden 's name appears regularly as Mrs. Gunale (or Gunile). She is there mentioned sev- eral times, her family being extensively intermarried 87 RoBte later went back to Norway, however. 140 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION with the old pioneer families in the settlement. ^^ Gravdal completed the erection of a cabin late in the fall, and his family having been left on Jefferson Prairie, he brought them to Kock Prairie in the lat- ter part of November {Billed-Magazin, 1869, page 162). 89 That same fall Gisle Halland married Margit Knudsdatter Nosterud from Eallang Parish, Nume- dal, being obliged to go as far south as Rockford, Illi- nois, 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 88 Thus Ole Gulack Gravdal, son of GuUik Gravdal, married Juri odegaarden (given as Juri Gunale in The Eock County History) in 1855. 89 There can be no doubt as to the correctness of the facts as here given. It has also been said that Lars Skavlem 's house was the first to be erected, and J. W. C. Dietrichson erroneously even names him as the first Norwegian in Kock Prairie. ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 141 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 re- mained in Chicago, as had also Gunnul Stordok, se- curing work there, ^° as did also two girls from Numedal, to whom they were engaged in Norway. These two couples were married the following win- ter, and, having saved some money from their small earnings, they decided to buy a home somewhere in the Norwegian settlement in Rock County. Knud- son 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 Spring en (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 for- tunate 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 ^^ 90 His wages were from six to ton dollars a week. 91 Whom we now know to have been Hellik Glaim. 142 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION walked on skis to Beloit to buy flour, and how the tracks left in the snow by the skis had aroused con- siderable wonder and speculation among the Amer- icans 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' cot- tages. From the fact of his location near the big spring, "Springen," as KJQudson 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. ^^ 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 Stor- dok and wife, who did not come to Newark until Sep- tember, lived with Knudson during the first winter, after which they removed to Illinois. '^ In the summer of 1841 a considerable number of Knudson 's acquaintances from Norway came; these found a temporary home with Knudson, sharing in 92 This log cabin is still used as a chicken house on the old Springen homestead. 93 The Bock County History says of Stordok : "He and his family lived in a haystack for three months until they had completed a log cabin (page 774). As we have seen, it was not a haystack they lived in. Stordok 's family consisted, as yet, only of himself and wife. ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 143 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 Hal- vor 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 Jeffer- son 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. Braekke and Nils Olson Vasgli came directly from Norway in 1841. The last mentioned was from Vaegli Annex to Rollaug Parish in Numedal. He was born at Vaegli Parsonage and was therefore oft- en called Nils Prestegaard. He lived at GravdaPs the first winter; the following summer he, with two others, Paul Skavlem and Hellik Braekke, bought a quarter section of land together in section thirty- two in Plymouth Township. Nils Vaegli was mar- ried in 1844 to Kari Skavlem, daughter of Halvor 144 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Skavlem; they went to Koshkonong, in Dane Coun- ty, to be married by Eeverend J. W. C. Dietrichson, who had just come there from Norway. They were one of the first couples to be married by him, Hel- lik Braekke 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 fif- ties. ^'^ Hellik Glaim had stopped in Chicago till 1840, when he came to Eock Prairie. Ten years later he sold out and moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota. ^^ The above is a brief record of the beginnings of the Rock Prairie Settlement. Of some of the found- ers 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 Veegli, 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 Jori Odegaarden in 1855, after 94 Of these various removals to Mitchell County, Iowa, I shall speak more fully in the proper place. 95 Glaim located at Hanley Falls, Minnesota, in 1866. ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 145 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 mar- ried 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 Sep- tember, 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, Hen- ry, died in 1902, and a daughter, Nellie (Mrs. W. 0. Hanson), died in the summer of 1903. Amerika for September twenty-fifth, 1903, prints an obituary no- tice 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 Grav- dal, married Halvor Halvorson (son of Cleophas Halvorson), of Newark Township, in 1869. Hellik Nilson Bra>kke married a sister of Rev- erend 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, Bes- 146 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION sie, Helen and Carolina. The son, Halvor L. Skav- lem, born 1848, is a farmer in Newark Township; he married Cornelia Olmstead, in Plymouth, a granddaughter of Mrs. Gunild Odegaarden. ^^ Gun- nul Stordok moved to Rock Run (see below). It seems that he had retained some of his land in New- ark, 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. 96 They have two children, Lulu and Lewis. CHAPTER XVI The Rock Run Settlement. Other Immigrants of 1839. The Immigration of 1840. It has been stated that a settlement was also es- tablished in Illinois about twenty miles southwest of Rock Prairie, the same year as the latter was set- tled, 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 immi- grant from Numedal, who came on the Amelia, in 1839. His name was Clemet Torstenson Stabaek, and he came from Rollaug Parish. "With him three oth- ers located there in the fall of 1839, namely, Syvert Tollefson and Ole Anderson, from Numedal, and a Mr. Knudson, from Drammen. Stabaek was a man of considerable means. He selected land in Win- nebago County, near the present village of Davis. His son, Torsten K. 0. Stabaek (born in Norway '^) married Torgen Patterson, and they lived on the farm until 1884, when they moved to Davis. '^ Kristopher Rostad and wife, Kristi, seem also to 97 Not on tbe homestead, as History of Norwegians of Illinois, page 487, has it. 98 In 1895 he organized the Farmers Bank of Davis, Illinois, of which his son, C. O. E. Stabeck, is now cashier. 148 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 New- ark 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. ^^ 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 Ga- lena, 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. ^0° The Rock Run Settlement was prosperous but did not grow to such proportions as its sister settle- ments to the north. In later years many of its earl- ier 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 99 When he returned to Newark in 1870 he bought two hundred acres of land, for which he paid seven thousand dollars. 100 Their children are Ole Anderson and Andrew Anderson at Davis, Illinois, and Mrs. O. H. Lerud at Lyle, Minnesota; four children are dead. ROCK RUN 149 North Land Parish, Norway, who located near Davis in 1846 ; ^°^ Christian Lunde, also from La»nd, Nor- way, came to Rock Run in 1848 and later moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota; Narve Stabaek, Tor- sten Knudson and Nels Nelson, all three from Numedal; Gunder 0. Halvorson, from Kragero; Svale Nilson, from Bukn Parish, Stavanger; Gunder Halvorson, from Telemarken, and Lars 0. Anderson. There appears a very brief account of the Rock Run Settlement by Lars 0. Anderson in Nordlyset, under date of June second, 1848. Ac- cording to this there were at that time twenty fam- ilies, 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 immigra- tion movement in Numedal and Telemarken in 1839, and we have also noted the fact that that year re- cords its contingent of emigrants also from Stav- anger Province. It remains here to note briefly the growth of the movement in Voss and its spread else- where. 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 101 He moved to the Old People's Home in Stoughton in 1903, where he died in 1907, his wife having died in 1905. His only son was killed in the Civil War. 150 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION La Salle County. ^^^ The party further contained Ole K. Gilderhus, Lars Ygre, Anders Flage, Lars Dugstad, Knud Gjostein, Anders Nilson Braskke and wife, Knud Braekke and wife, Magne B. Bystolen, 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, Wis- consin, writing of this fact, says there were more Vossings in Chicago about 1840 than all other Nor- wegians combined. ^°^ 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. ^^'^ 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 Bra?kke "^ was born at Braekke, 102 Where, however, they did not remain, as we shall see. 103 Bygdejaevning, page 43. 104 Anderson's First Chapter, page 330. 105 Andrew Nelson Brekke. ROCK RUN 151 Voss, Norway, February twelfth, 1818 ; he had mar- ried Inger Nelson in Norway. Braekke located per- manently 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. Braekke's first wife died early leav- ing three children. ^°^ In 1849 he married Mrs. Julia K. Williams; three children by this marriage are living. ^°^ 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 emi- grants from Voss came that year, left Norway April sixteenth and that they arrived at Chicago in Sep- tember. 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 Braekke, 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 106 They are all dead long ago. 107 A daughter of theirs is Mrs. J. A. Waite of the Anchor Line Steamship Company. I am indebted to Strand's Norwegians in Illi- nois (page 215) for some of the facts of Brsekke's personal hiitory. 152 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Skjerveim (who had just arrived from Voss, Nor- way) 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 in- tending emigrants in those regions were waiting for favorable news from their relatives and friends who had gone the preceding year. The settlers at Musk- ego, on Jefferson and Eock 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, ^°^ namely Kund J. Hylle, Ole S. Gilderhus, Knut Rokne, Mads Sanve, Baard Nyre, Brynjolf Ronve, Torstein Saue, wife, and son Gulleik, ^^^ Klaus Grimestad and wife, Ame Urland and wife, and Lars T. Rothe ; there were twenty in all in the party. All of these it is said settled in Chicago. "° They all came in Captain Ankerson's ship Emelia, the same ship which carried Nattestad's party in 1839. They 108 As also from Drammen, see below, page 159. 109 Father of Torger G. Thompson of Cambridge, Dane County, Wisconsin. 110 1 gather most of these names from Nils A. Lie's account in Bygdejaevning, pages 47-48. ROCK RUN 153 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 Nor- way 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 Amer- ica. ^^^ 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 Gudbrands- dalen 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, ^^" and he 111 The route led by way of Havre and New York. 112 H. E. Holand writes of Per Unde in SJcandinaven for July seventeenth, 1908, stating that he came in 1842. Unde's nephew, Jacob Unde of Sherry, Wisconsin, contributes in a later issue of Skandinaven some corrections, among them that Per Unde came in 1839. 154 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 men- tion 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 Eacine County and in 1843 went to Dane County, Wisconsin (see be- low). 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. Han- son, ^^^ State's Attorney, of Morris, Illinois. 113 To whom I am indebted chiefly for the family history. Alex Hanson Uvea at Ellsworth, Iowa. CHAPTER XVII The Settlement of Norway and Raymond Town- ships, Racine County. The Founders of the Settlement. Immigration to Racine County in 1841-1842. "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 condi- tions were more favorable and where a thriving set- tlement grew up in a few years. The old settle- ment ceased to become the objective point of intend- ing emigrants from Telemarken. After the cholera year 1849 most of those who survived moved away. ^^^ The southern extension of the settlement, 114 The editor of Billed-Magazin writes, page eleven of volume I, that at that time (1869) Kittil Lohner and his brother Halvor Nilson Lohner, from Hjertdal, Telemarken, and the family of Gisle Danielson, from Skjold, were still living in the settlement. The rest were dead or had moved away. But Knud J. Bajckhus, from Hjertdal, and Ole 156 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION which took its root at Wind Lake in Norway Town- ship, later spread out so as to include the townships of Yorkville, Eaymond and Waterford all in Racine County. The old name, " ' Muskego, ' ' was retained as the designation of the new as well as the old settle- ment, 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 Soren Backe, son of ToUeff 0. 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 knowl- edge of the English language, having once lived for a short time in England. Soren 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 Kjonaas, from Bo, had settled west of the colony in the town of Vernon. NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 157 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 Ameriha says that they remained in La Salle County only a few weeks and went north to Wisconsin that same fall (page f orty- three). ^'^ 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" ^'^ I did not hesitate to accept this as correct, and I must now adhere to this view. My reason is that as early 115 Professor Anderson accepts unreservedly the authority of Billed-Magazine in the matter and decides for the date 1840. 116 In The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 1905, page 360. 158 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 prepara- tory to emigrating. I assume then that it was about December 1839 that Backe and Johannesen located in Norway Township. I am inclined to think, how- ever, that Elling Eielson remained in the Fox Kiver 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, Hal- vor, and Knut Luraas, with their families, as also Gjermund Johnson Kaasa, located in Norway Town- ship. 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 Eacine County in the summer of 1840. He however select- ed a locality on the prairie east of the Indian mound, buying a farm of a hundred and sixty acres NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 159 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 settle- ment in Wisconsin. The leader of these was Even Hanson Heg, the keeper of a hotel at Lier in Dram- men, 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. Soren 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. Soren Backe evidently loaned money very liberally to those of his country- men 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 160 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Hau- ^ gian 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 exca- vated, 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 on- ly a village of one or two stores, a hotel and half a dozen pioneer cabins. Backe and Johannesen con- tinued 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 col- ony 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 re- sourcefulness in the aid of his compatriots was NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 161 boundless. Heg's barn, where large parties of im- migrants were received every summer, and in which they were permitted freely to make their home dur- ing the first weeks after the long and arduous jour- ney, is famed throughout many an early settlement in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The log cabins of the settlers were too small to afford the neces- sary quarters for the numbers that continuously flocked in, and the large barn was a boon for which they were truly grateful. For a time Eacine Coun- ty became the objective point of most of the immi- grants 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 set- tlers' history says of him: ''He was a man of gen- erous 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 162 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION and six hundred acres of land which he then divided among his children. Thomas Adland and Knud Adland both of Eaymond Township are his sons, while a daughter, Martha, lives in Norway ; the other children are dead. ^^^ 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 contin- ued 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 for- tune in a strange and distant land. I am not aware that anyone came from Drammen or Telemarken to Racine County in 1841. "^ Knut Roe and wife lo- cated 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 Nil son Tufte with wife Kari and three daughters came from Aal Parish in Hallingdal. This ll7Mona Aadland had a sister Malinda, the wife of Andera Nordvig, who came to America in the same ship as he. Anders Nordvig died in Beaver Creek. His wife moved to the Fox Eiver Settlement, where she died, ninety years old, about 1892. I have above written the name Adland as it came to be written in this country. 118 Nor any from other provinces, for Hermund Tufte who, in Holand's De norsTce Settlementers Historic, is said to have come in 1841, did not come before 1842. NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 163 was the first family to emigrate to America from that province. "^ In that year came also Aanund Halvorson Bjoin, wife and family from Tin, Tele- marken, and John Jacobson ; further, Halvor Larson Lysenstoen (Modum) from Hadeland, Norway, the first immigrant from that region, and Helge Sigurd- son and wife Bergit Olsdatter, who however, re- moved to Dane County in 1844. ^^o 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 Musk- ego 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 discus- sion of that year will better be postponed until we have recorded the founding of some other important settlements in 1840-42. 119 See below under Rock Prairie. 120 The Biographical Beview of Bane County, Wisconsin, 1893, page 239, givea 1842 as the year Seamon A. Seamonson came from Skien, Norway, to Racine County, his wife and three children coming the next year (see later chapter). CHAPTER XVIII The Establishment of the Koshkonong Settlement in Dane County, Wisconsin. The genesis of the settlement of Koshkonong Prairie ^^^ 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 north- ern and in the southwestern part of the county. The first of these comprises originally Albion, Christiana and Deerfield; from this region the set- tlement soon grew into Dunkirk and Pleasant Spring, and from the latter north into Cottage 121 In reality a group of prairies. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 165 Grove. ^^^ On the east it extends into Sumner and Oakland townships in Jefferson County. This settlement came to be known as Koshkonong Prai- rie, though properly the name applies only to the two first-named towns and adjacent portions of Pleasant Spring and Deerfield. The second settle- ment includes the townships of Burke, eastern Westport, Vienna, Windsor, and northwestern and central Bristol. The western portion of this settle- ment 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 ex- tends 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. ^^^ It is also from four to eight years later in order of formation. ^^'^ Our third group of townships com- prises Primrose, Perry, Springdale, Blue Mound and that part of Verona Township which lies east of Blue Mound Creek. ^25 122 Later Norwegians settled also in Blooming Grove (west of Cottage Grove) and in Eutland (west of Dunkirk), but they always remained here a minority of the population. On the north the settle- ment extends also into southeastiem Sun Prairie and southwestern Medina. 123 But Spring Prairie was settled slightly earlier than Norway Grove. 124 The settlement enters the Town of Dane (northwestern part) on the west. 125 That is, excluding the southwestern part of the town and sections 6, 7, and 18 along its western line. 166 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 His- tory of Dane County, 1880, ^^^ says, page 838, that Freeborn Sweet, from New York, was the first set- tler in the town; and yet on page 1189 we are told that he was ''one of the first set- tlers." 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. ^^^ The first white set- tler in the Town of Christiana was William M. May- hew who came in 1837, and located on section twen- ty-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, how- ever, cannot be given definitely and I am not able to say with certainty whether he preceded Knut H. 126 A work which, unfortunately, contains a great many errors. 127 In the spring of 1842 Duty J. Green and Jesse Saunders came, both from Alleghany County, New York; they settled near Saunders' Creek, where Albion village now stands. Saunders had lived one year in Rock County. In 1842 also, Samuel Clarke of Yorkshire, England, son of James and Judith A. Clarke, arrived, and located on Ablion Prairie. John S. Bullis, Giles Eggleston, Lorenzo Coon, and Barton Edwards, came in 1842, C. R. Head in 1843, as also Adin Burdick, and in 1844 Job Bunting, L. O. Humphrey, R. P. Humphrey, Henry Job, Samuel Marsden, and James Wileman. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 167 Koe (see below) or not. In tlie Town of Deerfield the first settlement was made by Norwegians in 1840 ; as we shall show below ; however, Philip Kear- ney 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, ^^^ Chauncey Isham, and Mitchel Campbell. In the towns of Cottage Grove, Burke, Windsor, and Bristol, Americans preceded Norweg- ians 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 re- maining the only white man there for a year. A few Americans came in 1845, then Americans and Norwegian immigrants in 1846. An American set- tlement 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 128 From whom Wheeler Prairie takes its name. I am inclined to think that Wheeler preceded Luraas (see below). 168 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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, Eobert 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 Koshkon- ong 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 pio- neers 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 de- cided to go and investigate for themselves. These three were Nils Bolstad, Nils Gilderhus and Magne Bystolen. They engaged Odd J. Himle (who had emigrated from Voss in 1837), then living in Illinois, to accompany them as their guide and interpreter. Bystolen, being taken sick and thus prevented from KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 169 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 quar- ter sections, giving the number of each. After a two days' rest they continued their tramp westward to Koshkonong ^^^ 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 for- 129 The prairie takes its name from Koshkonong Creek (and Koshkonong Lake). 170 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ty acres each, and forty for Bystolen. This locality was chosen because of its abundance of hardwood timber, and besides there was plenty of hay on the the marshes and fine fishing in Koshkonong Creek near by. ^^° Having thus made their choice of land, Gil- derhus, 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, Gilderlms and Bolstad, accom- panied now by Magne Bystolen 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 Bystolen was inside the Christiana Township line, where Anders Finno also now located. Nils Gil- derhus '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 130 As Mr. Odland points out. Odland adds: "They were all Vossings and to emigrants from that celebrated district in Norway, therefore, belongs the credit of founding the most important Nor- wegian settlement in America." (Article in Amerika). KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 171 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 Bystolen's forty acres lay directly east of Bolstad 's in the same section. ^^^ Their first habitation was a hurriedly built log cabin; it was not plastered, and, as we can be- lieve, proved inadequate as a protection against win- ter, which was already setting in. Here they expe- rienced the intensest suffering from cold, ^^^ until, the condition becoming intolerable, they dug out a cellar against an embankment, where they lived dur- ing the remainder of the cold season. In this "dug- out" Nils Gilderhus and Magne By stolen 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. Gilder- hus 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. ^^^ We shall now turn to the two other groups of settlers on Koshkonong in 1840. 131 Their names are recorded in the land office as Nils Seaverson, Nils Larson and Magany Buttelson. 132 Odland writes: when they had finished their work outside, they were obliged to lie down on their beds and cover up with robes in order not to freeze. 133 Himle settled some years later at Norway Grove, Dane Coun- ty. CHAPTER XIX The Settling of Koshkonong by Immigrants from Numedal and Stavanger in 1840. Other Accessions in 1841-1842 Among the immigraiits who came from Rollaug, Numedal, in 1839, was Gunnul Olson Vindeig, though, as we have seen, he did not come in Natte- stad'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 Nor- wegian pioneers were good walkers and seem to have loved walking. Vindeig evidently did not. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 173 That he actually navigated up stream I take, how- ever, 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 vis- ited Ole Gunnulson, Vindeig's son, who is still re- siding 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 Anik- stad 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 se- lected. He soon had erected a cottage of one room, with an attic accessible by ladder. ^^'* 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 Gjeimund Sunde selected forty acres of 134 Anderson's First Chapter, page 338. 135 He was killed by a loaded wagon tipping over him. 174 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 six- teen days after the purchase by Gilderhus and Bols- tad 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 be- fore 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 to- gether, 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 in- clined to think the cottage erected by Gilderhus, Bolstad, and party, was the first. Let us now turn to our third group of settlers* KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 175 most of them immigrants from Stavanger, who were Hving in La Salle County. These four men were Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, Bjorn Anderson Kvelve, and Lars Ol- son 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, be- ing 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, Bjorn 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. ^^^ From Gilderhus and Bolstad they had received informa- tion of Koshkonong and they decided also to go there and inspect the locality. About the middle of 136 For these facts I acknowledge indebtedness chiefly to Prof. R, B. Anderson, who is a son of Bjorn Anderson Kvelve; he gives an account of the journey of these men on pages 347-354 of hia book, and a sketch of his parents pages 155-165; see also page 171, and 245. 176 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION May, I take it, they started on foot for Wiscon- sin. The way led by Shabbona Grove, in De Kalb County, through Rockford, Beloit, Janesville, and Milton. They crossed the Rock River at Good- rich's Ferry, now Newville, then pushed on until they reached the southern line of Dane County, stop- ping in the Town of Albion, near Koshkonong Creek, ^^^ and about four miles north, slightly by east, of Lake Koshkonong. Here they found coun- try that suited them in every way. Bjorn 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 Voss- ings, looked for wood and water; they did not real- ize 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 de- sirable to locate within access of that primary neces- sity of life, water. In this region, then, our party selected land. Amund Hornefjeld chose the east 137 Then a little river; now it is almost dried out. KOSIIONONG SETTLEMENT 177 half of the southeast quarter of section one, '•'^ and Bjorn Kvelve, the west half of the same quarter section. Thorsten Bjaaland chose eighty acres im- mediately 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, ^^^ they walked to Milwaukee to file their claims and perfect their purchase. ^''^ This is recorded at the land office under date of June twen- ty-second, 1840, just one month, therefore, after en- try 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 Bjorn Kvelve, but he was later informed that it had already been taken ; ^'^^ so Rossaland did not settle on Koshkonong, but went to Jefferson Prairie, as did also Lars Scheie, thence again else- where. The whole party then returned to La Salle County, Illinois, and did not move to Albion Town- ship 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, 138 So the description reads but the Amund Anderson homestead is the east half of the northwest quarter, and the Kvelve homestead is directly south. 139 Thorsten Bjaaland and Amund Hornef jeld built shanties on their land before leaving. 140 Their names are given as: Omund Anderson, Birn Anderson, Lars Olson, and Foster Olson. 141 It was soon after taken possession of by William Fulton, 178 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION too, didn't wish to go along to Milwaukee and pur- chase land, he answered: "I think I can get a bit of ground here from Ole Middlepeint." ^^- 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, Illi- nois. 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. Ander- son, 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. ^'*^ Thor- sten Bjaaland (born in 1795 in Haa Parish, about 142 That is, Ole O. Hetletveidt. This incident is related in Amer- ika in September, 1903; the words were: eg faar meg nok ein Flsek Jord her hos ban Ola Meddlepeint. 143 Arnold Andrew Anderson was born in Norway in 1832. The second son of Kvelve, Augustinus Meldahl Bruun, was born in 1834. A daughter was born and died in Rochester, New York, where the Kvelve family lived 1836-37. Elizabeth was born in La Salle County, Illinois in 1837, and Cecelia in 1840. A daughter, Martha, was born in Albion Township in the fall of 1841, being, it seems, the first white child born in the town. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 179 thirty [American] miles south of Stavanger, Nor- way) was still immarried when he came to Dane County, as was also Lars Dugstad. The latter evi- dently came north from La Salle County about the same time as Kvelve and Bjaaland. Amund Home- fjeld 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 locat- ed in northeastern Albion Township that spring. The Hornef jeld family moved directly into the shan- ty 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 mar- ried and moved into a large log-house. Bjom 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. CHAPTER XX New Accessions to the Koshkonong Settlement in 1840-1841. The Growth of the Settlement in 1842. 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 Bjorn Kvelve and Lars Dugstad before these had left for Milwaukee and Illinois in June, 1840. Knud Vin- deig and Lars Kvendalen (the latter also from Numedal) came to America in the fall of 1839. An- other 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 Vin- deig and Kvendalen in Albion Township in the sum- mer of 1840, and he engaged them to split rails dur- ing 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. ^^^ These two men did not take 144 See above, page 179. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 181 land, but worked for a time for others in the settle- ment. In the autumn of the same year came Hellik Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen (generally called Nils Hailing), 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 mar- ried John G. Smith, a man who played a role as both doctor and preacher among the pioneers in the for- ties. There were no further additions to the south- ern part of the settlement in the fall of 1840, so far as I know. Late in the fall of that year Lars David- son Rekve ^'^^ 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 hav- ing the means wherewith to make improvements on 145 L. D. Keque is still living in Deerfield, Dane County, Wis- consin. 182 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION his land, Kekve soon after (summer 1841) went to Muskegon, Michigan, where he secured employment in a sawmill. He did not settle in Dane County be- fore 1842. If now we pass on to the year 1841, we shall find that there were several accessions to the Koshkon- ong 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 chil- dren, Rasmus Grane, Ole Grane, Kolbein Vestreim, Nils Vikje, Lars J. Mon, Knut Larson Boe, 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 Bjorgo, who had emigrated from Voss in 1838, as we have seen, also came to Koshkonong in the spring of 1841, and Ole Severson Gilderhus ^"^^ came a short time after. The latter had emigrated in 1840, having remained in Chicago during the winter. Bjorgo 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 Bjorgo twenty-seven years later. ^^^ Bjorgo and Ole Gilderhus had, of course, arrived before Anders Nilson Lie. During the first winter John Bjorgo lived in 146 A brother of Nils Gilderhus. 147 Interview printed in Billed-Magasin, 1869, page 387. Late in the summer of 1841 a few Americans came and settled there. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 183 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 house- work. Near by an Indian tribe had erected a camp, where they remained from that fall until the next spring. Bjorgo says of them that they were friend- ly and neighborly, and he never suffered inconven- ience because of them; "they were often my guests, as I also \^sited 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. ^'^^ 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 fam- ily 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 Atkin- son. Plere an American took him across the Rock River in a canoe, and by waiting there a day he was 148 John Bjorgo died in October, 1868 ; his wife, Martha, died in May, 1898. They are both buried in West Koshkonong Cemetery, as Rev. G. G. Krostu of Utica, Wisconsin, informs me. 184 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION joined by two immigrants from Numedal, ^'*^ who walked with him as far as Koshkonong. Thence he continued north to his brother-in-law's place in Deer- field 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 ^^° 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 him- self. 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. ^^i 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; 149 These may have been Hellik Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen. 150 The family being sent for soon after; his wife, Gunvor Sjursdatter, was born in 1805; the children were Martha (born 1838) and Nils (born 1841). 151 After his wife's death he lived some years in North and South Dakota. Anders Lee was born in 1814, and attained there- fore to the good old age of ninety-two. His wife died in 1876; they were married three years before leaving Norway. Anders Lee left three sons, Nils A. in Deerfield, Sever Lee in Grafton, N. D., and Andrew Lee of Washington County, N. D. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 185 but I may add that the names of Grane, Vikje, Ves- treim, Mou, or Boe, do not ajjpear in the roll of mem- bers 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 Brapkke. He and his wife located in Deerfield Town- ship 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. ^^^ There were also several accessions from Nume- dal in 1842. The first of these, I believe, were Jens Pederson Vehus, from Nore Annex of Rollaug Par- ish, Numedal, and Thore Knudson Nore and sons, Knut, Lars, Ole and Sirbjorn, also from Nore. *" 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-quar- ters of a mile southeast of Gunnul Vindeig, on the 152 Andrew E. Lee was governor of South Dakota from 1896-1900. 153 There Nore located across the Jefferson County line. 186 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION north half of the northeast quarter of section thirty- five. Later in the summer, and in the fall, this local- ity 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 Jef- ferson 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, ^^^ and children, Bar- bro and Ole, from Nore; Niels Olson Smetbak, wife Barbro Olsdatter, and family, from Nore; Mrs. Ole Bakli (Basfley), widow, and her son, Ole, from Flesberg; Bjorn Guldbrandsen Morkvold, wife As- bjor and son, Guldbrand; Hellik Gunderson Hvas- hovd and wife, Marit, from Flesberg; Hellik 's par- ents, Gunder Gunderson Hvashovd and wife, Kirsti ; Mari Guldbrandsen (cousin of Gunnar Hvashovd) and her daughter, Kristi (born Kristoffersen 1826) ; Herbrand Tollefson Morkvold and son, Ole, and daughter, Eagnild ; 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 Saelabakka (born 1822), from 154 Turi Lien, whose maiden name was Smetbak, was bom in 1811; she died in 1899; Ole Lien died in 1850; the widow then married Lars T. Nore. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 187 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 Hel- liksen Foslieiet (born 1812), his wife Sigrid, and children, Hellik (born 1833), Anders (born 1835), Marit (born 1838), Christoffer (born 1841). ^^s Of those mentioned here the Hvashovd, Hamre, and Bergrnd families, Mari Gulbrandsen and her daughter, Christi, and one or two more, nineteen in all, left Flesberg, Nmnedal, in May and arrived in Muskego in October. Here they stopped two or three weeks with Even Hegg, whose wife was a rela- tive 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, horn ind, but pronounced alike) was easily understood. Here we were well entertained over night." From Telemarken the following came : ^^^ Rich- 155 The daughters Christine and Sigrid were born in 1842 and 1844. 156 Many of these located in the eastern and northern part of the settlement a year or two later. 188 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ard Bjornson Rotkjon (born 1816), and brother As- lak (born 1826), from Vinje; Torstein Torsteinson Gaarden, from Tin; Ole Holjeson Yttreboe, with wife, Margit, and children, Johanne and Anne, and Halvor Hansen Dalstiel (Dalastol), from Hvideseid; Ole Torsteinson Aasnes, wife, Ingeborg, and daugh- ter, Hasge, 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; Torbjorn Havre- dalen, wife, Lisa, and family, from Vinje ;^" and Gun- hild Saamundsdatter (born 1798), from Laurdal. Furthermore Guro Olsdatter (born 1821), from Nissedal, and Thomas Johnson Landeman (born 1804), from Sandsvaerd; and Torbjorn 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 Vin- deig 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, 157 Who located in Town of Deerfield. Some of these, as Dalstiel, left Koshkoning a few years later. KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 189 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 BUled-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, trac- ing the further development on Koshkonong Prairie, it will be in order to note the advance in other lo- calities. CHAPTER XXI The First Norwegian Settlement in Iowa, at Sugar Creek, in Lee County 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 cor- ner of Iowa ; he was, therefore, in all probability the first Norwegian to enter the State of Iowa. ^^^ Iowa had been organized as a territory in 1838. The set- tlers 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 ^^^ could be had in the southeastern part of the territory, they decided to 158 Though not the first Scandinavian, for a Dane, Niels Christian Boye, came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1837. In 1842 he located in Iowa City; a daughter, Julia Boye, the only surviving member of the family, lives now in Iowa City. 159 One of the settlers in Shelby County, Missouri, was Peter Omundson Gjilje. As an illustration of the state of wilderness of the country around them it is related that Gjilje once walked for nine whole days in the forest tract before he found human habitation. One morning eariy he heard a cock crow, and then he found people. During these days he had lived on wild strawberries. These facts are related by Mr. B. L. Wick of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 191 move to Iowa. Going north into Lee County, Iowa, they located at a place six miles northwest of Keo- kuk, 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 them- selves. 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, Mis- souri ; 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 Settle- ment when he came from Norway in 1837, but with a few others left in 1840, coming to Lee County some- what before the party that came with Andrew Si- monsen from Shelby County. They may originally 192 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Over- halden in the province of Trondhjem about 1870. In 1838 Kleng Peerson went to Norway to gath- er recruits for the Shelby County colony; the fol- lowing year he brought back with him from Stavan- ger 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 Mis- souri ; 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,i6° Jacob 0. Hetletvedt, Mrs; Thorstein T. Rue and her sons, Thorstein and John, Peter Omundson Gjilje, Erik Oie, Ole Oiesoen, 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. 160 Jacob Slogvig was also among the first settlers; he had re- turned from Shelby County, Missouri, to La Salle County, in 1838, as also had Andrew Askeland. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 193 Gjermund Helgeson ^^^ 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 en- dowment, and he had a fair education. In Norway he had been a pronounced nationalist of the Werge- land direction and had taken part in the first peasant uprising. He was for a time a member of the Stor- thing (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 ^^^ in which he did not hesitate to give expres- sion to the principles for which he stood. This fre- quently involved him in litigation ; and, feeling him- self persecuted, he at last decided to emigrate to America in 1837. ^^^ Barlien seems to be the sec- ond Norwegian emigrant from Trondhjem. ^^'^ Lars Tallakson came from Bergen, while the rest of the 161 Helgeson may have come with Barlien from Illinois. 162 Melkeveieiij the Milky Way. 163 See J. B. Wist, in Bygdejaevning, Madison, Wisconsin, 1903, p. 158; also First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, pp. 235-236, and Eepublikaneren, February 9, 1900. 164 The first was Ole Eynning. See above, p. 107, and Normaend- ene i Amerika by Knud Langeland, pp. 26-29. 194 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION colonists were mostly from the region of Stavanger. Lee County was but little settled at that time ; ^^^ 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, ^^^ 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 settle- ment 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 rath- er too far south, Norwegians have everywhere in 165 The first postoffice was established in Lee County in 1841. 166 Veiviser for Emigranter, 1843. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 195 America thriven best in the more northeriy local- ities. Again, the tide of emigration from the vicin- ity of Stavanger was not sufficiently heavy to re- cruit the various settlements already established by immigrants from that region. The majority of those who came went direct to the Fox Eiver Settlement in Northern Illinois, which offered unsurpassed nat- ural 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 move- ment had their attention directed just at this time in another direction. The other provinces in ques- tion are Voss, Telemarken, and Numedal. It was representatives of these that founded the Wisconsin settlements in 1839-40, and in them the great major- ity of immigrants from those provinces located in the following decade. This is also true of those who came from Hardanger, Sogn, ^^^ and from West- ern 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 in- terest. It is enough to mention that several differ- ent religious sects were represented in the little set- tlement, chief among which were the Quakers and the Latter Day Saints. Just across the Mississippi 167 Immigration from Sogn was at first directed almost exclu- sively to Boone County, Illinois, and Dane County, Wisconsin. 196 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION was the town of Nauvoo, ^^* 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. ^^^ And not a few of the Quakers joined American Quaker settlements far- ther north, as in Salem, Henry County. ^^^ 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 de- scendants live in Lee County to-day. Finally, the diflSculty 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. ^^^ 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 168 In the Fox River Settlement in Illinoig many Norwegians joined the Mormons and later moved to Utah. Bishop Canute Peter- son was one of these. 169 The Mormons first moved into Iowa in 1839, having received assurance of protection and the liberty to practice their belief from Governor Lucas in that year. They located in Lee County not far from Sugar Creek. The town of Nauvoo, Illinois, had been bought by them. The name was changed from Commerce. 170 Omund Olson was converted to Quakerism at Salem, Henry County. As early as 1842 several of the settlers joined with him in erecting a meeting house on his farm. 171 The question has been investigated somewhat by Mr. B. L. Wick. See Bepublikaneren, February 9, 1900. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 197 La Salle County, Illinois, in Shelby County, Mis- souri, 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 Set- tlement 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 Coun- ty. Lars Tallakson settled about a decade later in La Salle County, Illinois, where he lived to a good old age. ^^2 Jacob Olson Hetletvedt (brother of the slooper, Ole 0. 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 Bor- nevik, from Naerstrand, Norway) died in 1902, aged eighty-six. 172 He died about 1900. Among those who moved to New Sharon were Sjur Olson, Nils Nilson and Aad Nilson and wife Kriatina; Martha Erickson was until recently, at least, living in Clark County, Missouri. CHAPTER XXn The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Wiota, La Fay- ette County, and Dodgeville, Iowa County, Wisconsin About forty miles directly west of Eock Prairie lies Wiota, about which town stretches in all direc- tions a Norwegian settlement of considerable size. It is separated from Luther Valley by Green Coun- ty and lies only twenty-five miles distant, north- west, from the old settlement of Rock Run, in Illi- nois. Here extensive lead mines were being oper- ated in the forties, and they were the means of drawing to that locality a large number of immi- grants of different nationalities, many of whom, to be sure, only remained there temporarily, going else- where to buy a home as soon as they had accumu- lated 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 0. Week, both from Eidf jord, in Hardanger. The Week brothers seem to have been two of a party of about forty from Hardanger, who emigrated in 1839. ^" I do not believe, however, that either Andrew or John Week entered a land claim in the vicinity, and they re- mained there only a few years. In 1844 John Week 173 They came in the same ship as Knut Eoe. EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 199 moved to Dodgeville in Iowa County, where he es- tablished a shoe store in company with John Lee, from Nmnedal, 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 Cal- ifornia gold-seekers. In the spring of 1842 Lars Davidson Eeque, 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 De- cember, 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 posses- sion of his land until the summer of 1842. ^^^ 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 Ame Anderson Vinje, from Voss. The first of those was, it seems, the ear- liest 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. Ame Vinje (bom 1820) came to Chicago in September, 1840, after having been five months on the journey. He had left 174 He did not actually settle there permanently before 1844. 200 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Norway April sixteenth with his wife, ^''^ and a party of twenty other persons from Voss. The following spring Vinje and Skjerveim, having de- cided 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 diffi- cult 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, how- ever, 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. Gilder- hus, Knudt Rokne, Mads Sonve, Baar Lawson Boe (a brother of Iver Lawson), Lars Rothe, Brynnel Ronve, two young ladies from Saue, one from Ronve and one from Gilderhus. In discussing the voyage Vinje says: The bottom of the ship in which we sailed was de- clared by Capt. Ankerson to be one hundred and fifty years old and when, in midocean, we encountered a se- vere storm, the timbers sustaining the upper berths gave way, precipitating them upon the lower ones, and the screams and cries of the frightened passengers added to the fury of the storm, almost created a panic on board. As for myself, I seized a heavy chest which I intended throwing overboard to use as a support in the water in 175 Her maiden name was Martha GuUiksdatter Kindem. EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 201 case the ship foundered. Even Hegg, and others from "Ostlandet," who came from Drammen with Capt. An- kerson, stopped in Milwaukee, while we from Voss came on to Chicago, where my wife and I were received into the home of Sjur Ulven and family. Mrs. Ulven being my wife's cousin. Knudt Hylle and myself began our first work in Chicago upon the streets of the (then) westside. My work was handling a heavy plank scraper, drawn by a yoke of oxen and used to scrape the sod from the sides of the road into the center. At this time occurred the election of General Harri- son to the Presidency. The candidate was the "People's choice" and I, from my bed, saw a log cabin, such as he lived in, mounted upon wheels and drawn through the streets to show that he was chosen from the common peo- ple. That was effective electioneering! In the spring of 1841 Peder Skjerveim, who had come from Norway in 1837, having lived in Chi- cago in the interval, drove from Chicago up to Ham- ilton Diggings to explore the region. Upon his re- turn 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 : We left Chicago on July 2nd and arrived in Wiota, or Hamilton's Diggings as it was then called, after a tire- some journey of five days. On July 7th we passed Elgin, Illinois, in a grove near which Independence day was being celebrated, on July 4th, but there was then no town, only a few scattered houses. We progressed with 202 NORWEGIAN BDnGRATION some diOficiilty as our -vragon broke down twice during the journey. The second of these accidents occurred as we were nearing Rockford toward evening, when the axle gave wav; but Peder Skjervheim.with only an ax and an augur went into the woods nearby, and from a conven- ient tree cut and made a new axle that night, so that we proceeded safely on our way the next morning. There being no bridges, we forded the rivers at Rockford and Freeport. There was then not a house where the thriving city of Rockford now stands and only one small grocery store at Freeport. There were, at that time, no Norwegians in or around "Wiota. and the nearest Norwegian settlement was at Rock Run, Illinois. Peder Skjervheim and I. each bought forty acres of government land in the Township of Wiota. upon which we each built a log cabin and began other improvements. Andres Brgekke also bought forty acres but soon sold it again. In 1842 there came to our neighborhood three young pec>ple from Voss: David Larson Fenne and wife, and his brother, Nils Fenne. In 1S43 there came some families from Vik. in Sogn. and settled near by : Ole Iverson Unde and wife Britha, and his brother Erik's family. Erik died before reaching America, but his wife and children settled down here. Likewise, Erik Engebrit Hove, Ole Anderson and Sjur Tallakson Bruavold came at the same time. To those which Mr. Vinje mentions as arriving in 1842 may be added Isak Johnson from Skien, ^^^ and Giristian Hendriokson from Lier. Norway, The latter however moved to Primrose Township in Dane Comity in 1846. (See below). 176 I am told that he eame in 1841, but this seems to be a mistake. EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 203 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 Ash- ley Gunderson from Numedal. ^^^ Those mentioned by Ame Vinje at the end of the above account, Ole and Sjur Bmavolden, 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 Fuglegjaerdet, who came from Vik, Sogn, in 1844. Of the immigra- tion from Land, Norway, to Wiota, which began with Syver Johnson (Smed or Smedhogen in 1844), I shall speak in the next chapter. The growth of the Jeffer- son Prairie Settlement will, however, claim our at- tention briefly first. l77Eeverend J. W. C. Dietrichson, speaking of the Wiota Settle- ment in 1844 Bays, that there had been organized a congregation that year, which numbered about one hundred members, of whom the larg- er part were from Voss; these, he says, had settled there for the most part in 1843. He mentions Per Davidson as deacon and a leading member of the church, and Knud Knudson as one who by great energy had acquired considerable wealth. CHAPTER XXIII Growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement from 1841 to 1845. The First Norwegian Land Owners in Rock County. 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 immi- grants 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 Tonnes Tolleivson (or Tollef son) from Jaederen, and Svend Larson, both of whom settled in Boone County in 1840 ; Tollef son 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 Nor- way. 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 JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 205 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 Clin- ton and extends about four miles down into Illinois. We have observed above that Ole Nattestad's house became the stopping place of the earliest im- migrants to Jefferson Prairie. In a similar way D. B. Egery's place, ^^^ 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 (skrseppe) 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 Nil- sen, the date of whose purchase is December 25th, 1839. 180 On January 25, 1840, Anders Jacobson's 178 Situated in section 26 in Turtle Township. 179 H. L. Skavlem in Scandinavians in the Early Days of Bock County, a most interesting and valuable pamphlet, though very brief. 180 The first Norwegian land owner in the county was however Gisle Sebjornson Halland as shown by H. L. Skavlem 's researches. The date of Halland 's purchase was November 29th. 206 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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, respective- ly, 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 sec- tion, 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 Christolifer 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 sec- tions 1 and 9. Mrs. Gunnild Odegaarden 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 Hal- vorson Skavlem, Nils Olson Vegli (Wagley) and Gunnel Holgerson, while in May, 1840, Gulleik H. JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 207 Blakestad Skavlem had become the owner of forty- acres in Beloit Township. ^^^ The Jefferson Prairie Settlement received con- siderable accessions during the next four years. Lena Sondal came in 1841, Haakon Paulson from Sigdal and his wife Inger came in 1842, Ole Severt- son and family from Numedal, including a daugh- ter, Petra, who is now Mrs. Henry Jacobson (Oppe- dal) ^^- of Clinton, came in 1843, as did also Brynild L. Lie and wife from Voss, Lars 0. Lie from Hal- lingdal ^^^ and Edwin 0. Wilson Naeshaug. 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 ; ^^'^ among them were : Sjur K. Kvarma wife and four children from Voss, Brynild Dugstad, ^^^ wife and five child- ren, Erik K. Dugstad, wife and child, Lewis Severts, Ole Shipley and wife Guri, Lars Grane, 181 In December, 1842, Mrs. Gisle Halland bought forty acres in Beloit Township. Her name appears as Margarett Nutes (Margrit Knutsdatter). 182 Henry Jacobson is a son of Jacob J. Oppedal, who came from Hardanger in 1850. 183 Frederik Frederikson 's wife, who was Martha Larson, also came in 1843. Frederikson came some years later. 184 We have seen that Clas Isakson had immigrated from Voss in 1840. He was the first Vossing to settle on Jefferson Prairie. 185 Brynild Dugstad located in the northern part of the settle- ment. A son, Knut B. Dugstad, died at CUnton, Wis., in April, 1905, age 80. 208 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Sjur Grane, Elling Ellingson and wife Magela, Ole Skutle, ^^^ Peder Bere and wife Britha. Al- so the following came about the same time (1844 or the following year) : Lars Baarson and wife Gudve, Guru Isakson, Sjur A. Gronlien, wife and two chil- dren, and Erik E. Slagen. 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 0. Train. From Hardanger also there was, it seems, only one immigrant among those who came during this earliest period, Anna Tollefson, wife of Tonnes Tollefson, who, as we have seen, came to America in 1839. From Telemarken there were about twelve persons, among them Steinar E. Had- land, wife and son, Guldmond; Gunder 0. Vedfald, wife and daughter ; Even Haatvedt and Ole A. Haa- tvedt and wife, besides the Vedfald family spoken of above. From Naes in Hallingdal we find Knud E. Vaeterud, a widower, and his two daughters, Inge- borg and Ronnau, besides Lars 0. Lie, and from Modum, Thov Modum and wife Karen; finally Krodsherred is represented by Even Fingerson Fos- lien. 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 186 Ole Skutle later married Lena Sondal, who had come in 1841; see above. JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 209 translation of the Norwegian. Ole Newhouse mar- ried Helen Stabaek, daughter of Klemet Stabaek, 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 (bom 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. *^^ Among the pioneers of Jefferson Prairie are also particularly to be named Reverend 0. Andrew- son 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 Jeffer- son Prairie Settlement during these years many names have been omitted because of the uncertainty among my informants as to the year of their arrival. 187 Of those who come in 1844 from Numedal were Gulleik Svens- rud and family, who however removed to Blue Mounds, Dane County, in 1847. In 1860 he married Ingeborg Lohn who died in 1903 ; there are five living children. 210 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION In a subsequent chapter I shall also outline the sub- sequent growth of the settlement. I shall here mere- ly note the fact that Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson speaks of the congregation in 1844 as numbering 150 members. CHAPTER XXIV Immigration to Rock Prairie from Numedal and Land in 1842 and Subsequent Years. 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 brief- ly 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 (Frogne), both from Nore in Numedal, who settled in Newark. ^^^ 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 mar- ried Anne Sand from Rollaug, located at Sand Prairie, five miles south of Broadhead. In the same year came also Gullik O. Mygstue, with wife Joran 188 Aaen is said to have been something of an inventor. He made two clocks, one of which was bought by Mr. Chrispinson; the other was bought by Simon Strand, and is now probably in the pos- session of Stone or Gunild Strand says a writer in Amerika for March 15th, 1907. Aaen died about 1886. 212 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION and five children, from Vaegli, 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. ^^^ In 1848 he married Sive Espeset from Hallingdal, Norway; they had no children. ^^^ Among those who came from Numedal to Amer- ica in 1842 was also Herbrand H. Berge (bom 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 Torbjomsdatter, who later became his wife (1847) also immigrated in 1842. They removed to Jackson County, Minnesota, in 1876 ; he died there in Decem- ber, 1903, and she in February, 1904, ^^^ 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. 189 The location of his farm is half a mile from Orfordville. 190 Mrs. Mygstue died in 1892. Ole Mygstue then sold his farm and moved to his sister, Mrs. Engen, in Primrose, Dane County. An obituary notice of Ole Mygstue (who died in 1902) speaks very highly of him as a member of the church and a citizen. He was a man of kindly nature and helpful spirit in whom all reposed implicit confi- dence. 191 Their children are: Paul Berge, Herbrand Berge and Mrs. Henry Anderson, all living in Jackson, Minnesota. IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 213 So far we have spoken only of immigrants from Nmnedal. 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 Roste, 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 Om- melstad and family, five in all, Anders Lundsaeter and family, in all five, Peder H. Gaarder with family (six), Soren Sorum, 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 Midboen with wife and one child, Anders Engen, Gudbrand Gaarder, Helene Gaarder, Inger Gaarder, and Helene Klevmoen. Anders Er- stad 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, be- ing 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 Jorandlien, wife and four children. Jorandlien or Jorlien, as the name is usu- ally 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 214 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION brought Ole Norstelien, Christine Norstelien and Hans Sveum, wife and five children. ^^^ The year 1848 with its extensive immigration also brought an increased contingent from Land. The following settled on Rock Prairie ; Ole Gaarder and wife, An- dreas Sorum, Ingebrigt Fossum and family (six), Halvor Ruud and family (seven), Johans Neder- haugen ''•' and family (four), Johan Frankrige and family (five) and Hovel Jensvold, ^^'^ Hovel Smeby and Bertha Lybaek. ^^^ 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 Om- melstadsaeteren, Ingeborg Ommelstadssteren, Mar- thea Brendingen, Johans Lybaek, Bertha Froslie, Marit Froslie, Hans Engen (Froslieit) and family (five) and Jonas Gjerdet and family (five). Syver Gaarder and family, thirteen in all, who located far- ther 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, 192 Svend Norstelien and family (seven) and Kari Lillebsek and six children from Land, who also came that year, settled in Wiota. 193 Martin Johnson of Orfordville, Kock County, is his son. 194 Christian Lunde, who also came from Land in 1848, located at Rock Run. Several families went to Wiota; see above, Chapter XXII. 195 Who later married Syver Midboen. IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 215 as we have seen, only six years. ^^^ The accessions for 1850 were: Ole Smeby and family (five), Osten Lundsasteren and family (five), Sjugal Frankrige and family (six), Helene Froslie, Bertha Sorum, Hovel Fossum, Ole Hovdelien and Hans Vaerhaug, 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 pub- lished 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. ^^"^ 196 Of the remaining twenty-three of this year 's immigration from Land eleven went to Wiota, seven to Rock Run, and five scat- I tered elsewhere. 197 The limitations of space forbid a sketch of Mr. Tollefsrude in our survey of Rock Prairie. CHAPTER XXV Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Im- migration from Numedal. Other Early Accessions. 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 inamigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard) and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in New- ark Township, Rock County. ^^^ Kleofas 's father's name was Halvor Kleof asen Hansemoen ; he did not emigrate. There were two other brothers, Erik and Hans, of whom the former did not come to this coun- try. 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 198 They had five children in this country: Knud, Kleofas, Eyvind, Eirik and Caroline, all now married and with families. The sons adopted Cleofas as the family name. The daughter was married to Kittil Haugen, now living in Pelican Bapids, Minn, IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 217 his name happens to appear as Hans Husemoen, while the brother is Kleofas Hansemoen and the brother's children are Halvor Kleofas, Knud Kleo- fas, 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 Maehtum, 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, how- ever, Erik Kolsrud and family, Ole Hei and family. Nils Haugen, wife and six children, Knud Trostem, Henrik Henriksen Trostem, Halvor Ness, Hans En- gen, 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 Trostem, 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 Dram- 218 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION men 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 0. Wikko, ^^' and Osten Burtness. In the following year, how- ever, there was a considerable immigration. Erik K. Berg and his brother Truls Berg, Ole Trulson Ve and Ole Gulsen (Trostem) with wife and son Gul and daughter Guri, Erik Ovestrud, Tideman Kvarve, Guttorm Megaarden, a Mr. Sagdalen and wife, Kari, ^°° Levor Kvarve and family of twelve, and Knut Guttormsen Tyrebakken. ^^^ There came others from Hallingdal also in the years following. I may mention here Ole J. Bakke and wife and Her- brand K. Finseth (born in Hemsedal in July, 1830), who emigrated in 1852 and lived three years on Rock Prairie. They moved to Goodhue County, Minne- sota, in 1855, as did also Knut K. Finseth and A. K. Finseth, brothers of Herbrand; these together with Halvor Hesgard, Aadne Engen and Christen Even- son, who removed to Minnesota at the same time. 199 Nils O. Wikko waa from Gol, Hallingdal. He married Beret Halvorson in 1854, and removed soon after to Worth County, Iowa. He died in 1904, at the age of eighty-three, survived by widow and six daughters. 200 They moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1853. He died in 1894 and she in 1904, at the age of eighty-four. 201 Tyrebakken moved to Black Hammer, Minnesota, in 1854, when he married Mari Haugejordet. He was born in 1823, in 1905. IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 219 were the first white settlers in the Town of Holden, Goodhue County. ^°^ I may also mention Kittel 0. Euud, bom 1823 of parents Erik Sanderson and Mar- git Euud, 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 An- dersdatter 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 num- bers, yet some are located in Beloit Township. New- ark 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 202 Knut Finseth died in 1869. Herbrand Finseth married Guri Ouri in 1867 ; he died in .January, 1901, leaving wife and six children. 203 I gather these facts from an obituary notice, which speaks at length in eloquent terms of the noble lives of this couple. 220 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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. Abont 1840 he had removed to Modmn; here a copy of Nattestad's journal fell into his hands and he and Hans Uhlen and Anders Aamodt ^^'^ 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 re- mained the only ' ' Valdris ' ' ^°^ 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 immi- grants from Hallingdal and Land. Guul Guttorm- son 's oldest son, Guttorm Guul (Broadhead, Wis- consin), born August, 1848, was probably the first child born of Valdris parentage in America. I have already spoken of the emigration of Syver Gaard- gj. 206 ^ '^ 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. 204 These two were the first to emigrate to America from Modimi. 205 Valdris is the Norwegian appellation of a native of Valders. 206 Syver Gaarder 's daughter, Barbro, married Martin Johnson (Nederhaugen) in 1855. Dr. J. S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, is their oldest son; other children are: Ben Johnson, Orfordville, Wisconsin; Mrs. Eev. Langseth, Glendorado, Minn.; Mrs. Eev. L. Njus, Mcintosh, Minn.; Mrs. Stromaeth, living on the homestead; Mandy Johnson. CHAPTER XXVI Economic Conditions of Immigrants. Cost of Pass- age. Course of the Journey. Dura- tion of the Journey. In discussing the causes of emigration, we have found that economic factors entered extensively into operation. It was the desire for material better- ment that prompted a very large proportion of Nor- wegian 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 op- pressive methods of the larger land owners, frequent crop failure, often reduced the lesser farmers into a condition of impoverishment. Even wealthy fam- ilies 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 be- yond the native village or district. These consid- erations 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 222 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Norwe- gian immigrants of that early period were not al- ways of the poor classes even though they came here with little or nothing. Later Norwegian immigra- tion 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 condi- tions 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), StabjBk (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 fam- ilies of property and prominence in their native ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 223 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 espec- ially because I have myself also failed to fully ap- preciate 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 Min- nesota. On the other hand also some of those who later became most substantial members of these set- tlements 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 hon- estly, often accumulating great wealth. ^^^ 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 voj^age was made by sail-ships. These continued to be used for a long time after steam had come into use, clear down into the seven- ties. The ticket was then generally somewhat cheaper by sailing vessels than by steamship. Passengers furnished their own board and bed- ing, and they were required to bring a supply 207 It is only ' ' financial prosperity ' ' which we are here speaking of, of course. The question of "success" is entirely a different one. 224 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION sufficient for ten to twelve weeks. ^°^ The prce of passage ranged between 33 and 50 speeiedahr^ that is between $25.00 and $38.00. Children wi- der fourteen travelled for half price; those undo* one went free. The Luraas party (page 158 above) paid forty-two speciedaler from Gothenburg to Bos- ton, while the Nattestad party paid fifty dollars fron Gothenburg to New York in 1837. In 1839 the part' that came with Ansten Nattestad secured passag) for thirty-three dollars per person. This may bj regarded as normal; it was the price paid, e. g., bf Anders Tommerstigen and family from Christianii via Havre, France, to New York in 1846. Those whj came in June from Sogn in 1844 paid twenty- five dol- lars a person from Bergen to New York. The ex- tremes are illustrated by two groups for the ye£.r 1839 and 1845 : The little group of immigrants wlio came from Stavanger via Gothenburg to Boston with Gitle Danielson in 1839 paid, it seems, sixty dollars apiece, ^'^^ while Peder Aasmundson Tanger and others, ninety in all, who came in 1845 from Kragero, 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 Mil- waukee or Chicago. But the additional toll inland 208 The regulations varying -with different ships, Juno, which brought the first party from Inner Sogn in 1844, did not accept any passenger who had not provided himself with food supply for twelve weeks. 209 i. e. $47. E. B. Anderson's First Chapter, page 313. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 225 frequently made the inland journey much more ex- pensive than was the ocean voyage. One pioneer, writing of this later, says that his whole journey cost him ninety dollars. ^^° In the fifties the inland journey was made by railroad; the railroad ticket from Quebec to Chicago or Milwaukee was eight dol- lars. The course of the journey has been incidentally indicated above. During the first years it was usual- ly 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. ^^^ 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. ^^^ From Buffalo the journey went by steamboat over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee and 210 In American money, of which less than half for tho ocean voyage. 211 Of the trials and the hardships of the ocean voyage in the thirties, forties and fifties, we can to-day have no conception. It would, however, fall outside the scope of this work to discuss that here. I may refer the reader to a well-written article by H. Cock Jen- sen in Nordmandsforhundet, December, 1907, pages 53-66. See also Holand's article, pages 56-60. 212 A good account of the character of this journey is given by Holand, pages 65-74. 226 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 steam- boats, whence they went by rail to Chicago or Mil- waukee, ^^^ a journey which generally took four or five days,^^'* over a distance of 1020 miles. Milwau- kee-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. ^^^ The latter was of course the short- er and the favored route for immigrants whose des- tination was Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, or Minne- sota. 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 mat- ter 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 sliips often took weeks. ^^^ The duration of the voyage across the Atlantic de- pended of course largely upon the state of the 213 Via Montreal, Toronto, Port Huron and Detroit. 214 Billed-Magasin I, 123-124, article "Om Udvandringen, " hj J. A. Johnson Skipsnes. 215 To Port Huron 189 miles, thence to Milwaukee 85 miles. 216 The author's grandfather, Ole Torjussen Flom, and party of about fifty-three, from Inner Sogn, were obliged to wait in Bergen nearly three weeks before sailing. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 227 weather. With this favorable a sail-boat would usually cross the ocean in six or seven weeks, ^^^ but in a voyage of such a distance it was practically cer- tain that there would be stormy weather sometime before the other side was reached. In his answer to this question in Billed-Magazin 1, 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 Enig- heden. 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 Stough- ton, "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 Sta- vanger 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 217 There was of course great difference in the speed of the boats. 228 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Kragero, 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 GuUiksdatter 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. ^'^ In this connection I shall cite from an article by Dr. K. M. Teigen of Minneapolis, Minnesota, en- titled ''Pionerliv" (Pioneer Life).^^^ He says: In the days of the sail-ship a voyage across the At- lantic Ocean was more of an undertaking than a journey around the world now. Most of the summer might be required for it if the weather was unfavorable. My mother's party from Flesberg and Lyngdal parishes in Numedal, took seven weeks and four days in 1843 with the brig Hercules, Captain Overvind, between Drammen 218 For account of the voyage see Appendix 2. 219 Th« article forms one in a series of most interesting articles bearing the general title ' ' Blandt Vestens Vikinger ' ' ( 'Mongst the Vikings of the West) printed in AmeriTca in 1901 and 1902. Dr. Teigen, son of O. C. Teigen, Koshkonong Pioneer of 1846, is a poet and story writer of the first rank among Norwegians in America. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 229 and New York; my father's company from Sogndal in Inner Sogn, three years later, lay for fourteen weeks heav- ing and lunging in contrary winds between Bergen and the promised land. And then came the journey by steam- er up the Hudson to Troy, thence through the "canal" and the sluices at Oswego by canal boats, which were drawn with a snail's pace by horses, lazily moving along the banks; then by wsiy of the lakes by steamer again westward to Milwaukee. For this journey of about a thousand miles another month went by, without counting the walk from Milwaukee to Koshkonong, lying seventy miles distant in the wilderness, whither so many of the earliest Norwegian immigrants were destined. At the place of landing the immigrants were fre- quently 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 des- tination was rarely made in less than nine weeks; often it consumed as much as five months. CHAPTER XXVII Norwegians in Chicago, 1840-1845. A Vossing Col- ony. Some Early Settlers in Chicago from Hardanger. 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 temporar- ily ; we find them later as pioneers elsewhere, espec- ially in Dane and La Fayette Counties, Wisconsin, ^^o The same applies also to several of those who came from Voss, Sogn, and Telemarken, to Chicago in 1843-1844 ; 22^ 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 Norwe- gian settlers in Chicago. In the following pages I shall merely try to give a brief account of new ac- cessions to the Chicago colony between the years 1842 and 1850. It is estimated that there were in 220 I instance the families of Th. Saue and Kvelve who went to Koshkonong, and Unde, Ulven, Skjerveim and Vinje who went to Wiota. 221 For instance the Kaasa family went to Long Prairie in 1845. NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 231 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 j^ear 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 per- manently 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 coun- ties. As residents of Chicago before 1839, we have found Halstein Torison, Jolian Larson, Nils Rothe and wife Torbjor, Svein Knutson Lothe and wife and two children, Baard Johnson, wife and five child- ren, Andrew Nil son Braikke and Anders Larsen Flage, both with families ; these were all from Voss except Johan Larsen, a sailor who was from Kop- ervik, a little couth of Haugesund, and Torison, who was from Fjeldberg in Sondhordland. ^^^ 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. ^^^ The first directory of Chicago, published in 1839, gives a few more names 222 The Newberry, whom Torrison worked for as a gardener was the founder of well-known Newberry Library. 223 For this and many other facts in this chapter I am indebted to Strand's History, pages 182-186. 232 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION of Norwegians. "^^ 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^^^ and Peter ; in the latter we recognize our Per David- son 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 Scan- dinavian resident of Chicago, namely David John- son, who came in 1834. He was a pressman in the employ of Mr. Calhoun, the publisher of The Chica- go 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 press- 224 A. E. Strand published some facts from this directory on pages 183-184 of his work. 225 He was a carpenter. Mr. Strand thinks the three were broth- ers. This is a mistake of course. NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 233 man 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. "^ 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 re- moval 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. Rothe 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 Michael- 226 Strand 's History, p. 187. 234 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION son, who succeeded Halstein Torison in the employ of Newberry, also came in 1840 or 1841. Michael- son was from Voss where he was bom in 1808; he remained Newberry's gardener for about thirty- five years. We have above seen that some of the early im- migrants 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 contri- bution to the Norwegian colony in Chicago in the period under discussion. In 1839 twenty-two persons emigrated from Ul- vik 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. 2^'' 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. ^^^ In Chicago they suffered much hardship, many were taken sick and died, among the latter Tveito 's and Vambheim 's 227 Facts gathered from Norrtuindsfor'bundet II, where Rev. O. Olofson of Ullensvang, Hardanger, discusses most interestingly the early emigration from Hardanger to America (pp. 169-180). 228 The Chicago census for 1839 does not include the names of any of this party. NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 235 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 emigrat- ing to America, and as a result there was no immi- gration to this country from Hardanger again be- fore 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 Bo; 1842, J. C. Anderson, and in 1843, Ole Kaasa and family, G. A. Wigeland, Nils Bakketun and Kandver 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. Tn the early part of 1840 the family moved to Bamble Par- ish 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 ^^^ at Capron, Illinois. ^^° Jens Olson was a master mason and brick-layer, 229 She was bom in 1827 at Stokebo in Levanger Parish, Diocese of Bergen. 230 Mrs. Jens Olson died in 1895. 236 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION and he built Vor Frelsers Kirke ^^^ at 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 sup- porter of the Lutheran church and gave freely to its cause. Randver Lydvo ^^^ came to Chicago in October, 1843. In June, 1844, she was married to Lars Knut- son Dykesten; the ceremony took place in Nils Eothe'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 ^•'^ 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^^^ and John A. Hefte. These were all from Voss; Severtson was from Vossevangen. Ole Bakketun and family and Sjur M. Saere, 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 poli- 231 Our Savior's Church. 232 She was the daughter of Anders Knutson Lydvo and wife, Martha (Eothe). Anders Lydvo died in 1860 and Martha in 1875. 233 She resides with her daughter, Mrs. Louis H. Johnson, at 235 Watt Avenue, Chicago. 234Ellev G. Seavert. NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 237 tical life of the city. This was Iver Larson Bo, born 1821, in Voss, Norway, who came to Chicago that year and not as generally found stated in or about 1840, ^^^ locating on the north side. Iver dropped the surname Bo, 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. ^^^ Lawson took a prominent part in the political life of early Chi- cago, e. g., as member of the city council, and other- wise. In 1869 he was a member of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature. As legis- lator his name is most closely associated with the establislunent of Chicago 's excellent system of parks ; the creation of Lincoln Park in particular was due in great measure to Lawson 's efforts. ^^^ Iver Law- son's name is also associated with that of John An- derson in the founding of Skandinaven, now the largest and most widely circulated Norwegian news- paper in this country. ^^^ The year 1845 brought a number of accessions to the Norwegian colony of Chicago. Among them Kittil Nirison, from Bo Parish in Telemarken, one of the few from Telemarken who settled in Chicago in the early days, Knud K. Harrisville and wife Ma- 235 So Strand, and after him Holand, p. 101. 236 Strand, page 217. 237 Brought out by Strand's investigation. 238 V. F. Lawson was also the owner of The Chicago Eecord be- fore the Record and the Herald were combined about year 1898. 238 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ren Karine (nee Larson), Christian Lee, from Gaus- dal, 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. ^^' 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 carry- ing newspapers. Then he became ''printer's devil" and soon learned the art of distributing and setting type. ^^^ 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 en- gaged 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 pub- lishing of certain educational works, as school and college texts of Norwegian literature, thereby facil- 239 There were three sons, but one died at sea, and another died on the journey from Albany to Buffalo. 240 Strand's History, page 266. NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 239 itating materially instruction in this field in onr col- leges and universities. In succeeding years the Norwegian colony in Chicago grew rapidly. Already in 1850 it was con- siderable; 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 ex- tensively in the vicinity of Humboldt Park and Lo- gan Square, the business center is along West North Avenue. ^'^^ Among the earliest Norwegian settlers of Chi- cago now living is to be mentioned finally Mrs. Martha Erickson who come to this country in 1841. She is the daughter of Bjorn Bjornson, who accom- panied Kleng Peerson to America in 1825. For ac- count 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. Bjorn Bjornson settled in Eochester, New York, where he died in 1854. ^''^ On their 241 Strand, p. 180. See also above page 50. 242 For above facts I am indebted to Mrs. Eric Eosa of 217 Mozart Street, Chicago, a daughter of Mrs. Faglestad. Mrs. Erick- son 's children: Mrs. Robert S. Carroll, Otto G. Erickson, Samuel Erickson and Alex Erickson. Mrs. Fuglestad 'a children are: Mrs. Anna Boss, Thomas B. Fuglestad in Chicago, Peter A. Fuglestad, Forest City, Iowa, and Mrs. Mary Jacobson in Beltram, Minnesota, 240 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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. CHAPTER XXVIII The Earliest Norwegian Settlers in the Township of Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin 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 respect- ively in 1843. Roe had lived for a time in La Salle County, Ilinois, 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 Koslikonong 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 Jef- ferson Prairie in 1840. The favorable report of these explorers relative to the fertility of the soil and the general character of the countrj^ on Koslikonong 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 Kosh- 242 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION konong, where he visited the different parts of the prairie, and selected a spot on which to settle. Then he walked back to Eacine County. John Lnraas 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 cor- ners 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 Kosh- konong 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 EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 243 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. Dur- ing the earliest years, he writes, he was obliged to drive as far as Wliitewater, 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 Kuhherulle, or block- wheeled wag- on, 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 Laur- dal, Telemarken, to Muskego in 1840. He was, there- fore, 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 Trovat- ten '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, 244 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION oldest son of Kittil Rinden, Sr., and moved to Min- nesota, whither Kostvedt also moved. On the third of August a small group of immi- grants arrived and selected a home and settled di- rectly west of West Koshkonong Church, on section fourteen. These were Knut A. Juve,^'*^ his brother, Knut Gjotil (or Joitil), 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 par- ishes of Hvideseid and Laurdal.^'*'* 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 di- rect 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 down- cast 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 243 Knut Juve was born in 1799. Knut Joitil in 1803. 244 Most of them in fair circumstances says Juve, EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 245 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,^''^ ** 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 Joitil 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 Joitil 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 com 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. Sundbo (b.l785), with wife and three sons, two of whom were married and had fam- ilies.^'*^ Others who came were: Tostein G. Bringa (b. 1817), with wife and son, Halvor Laurantson 245 Interview in BUled-Magazin, 1870, page twenty-four. 246 Torkild Sundbo and wife, Margit, later moved to Sun Prairie. 246 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Fosseim (b. 1810), and family, his brother, Ole L. Fosseim, and Ole K. Dyrland (b. 1819). ^^^^ Sundbo, Bringa, Fosseim and Dyrland all bought land not far from Knut Juve and Knut Joitil. During the next two months the following arrived : Torbjom G. Vik, with wife and son Guttorm, and daughter Anna from Siljord, Aslak E. Groven (b. 1812), and fam- ily, from Laurdal, Ole E. Naeset (b. 1796), and fam- ily, and his brother Aadne, from Vinje, and Gunnar T. Mandt, from Moe, Telemarken.^''^ Groven set- tled about a mile east of the West Koshkonong Church near the Christiana Township line; the two Nfeset 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 Kosh- konong Prairie in the latter part of September, hav- ing walked from Muskego. Gunnar Mandt first came to Pleasant Spring, but as he did not have any- thing^'^^ with which to buy land, as he says, he worked for others there and elsewhere for five years. From his autobiographical sketch^^" I cite the following account of the method of threshing in those days : "There were no mowers, no reapers, binders or threshing machines, everything had to be done by hand, 247 Dyrland says there were 211 immigrants on the ship on which he came, and most of these, it seems, were from Telemarken. 248 His brother, also named Gunnar, came to America in 1848 ; T. G. Mandt, inventor of the Stoughton wagon, was a son of the latter. 249 Endre Vraa paid his passage to America. 250 Published in Amerika and Skandinaven in January, 1906. EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 247 When we were to thrash, the sheaves of wheat or oats were placed on the ground in a large circle. Then three or four yoke of oxen were tied together with an iron chain; one man stood in the center of the circle on the sheaves of grain and drove the oxen around over the grain. These would then stamp the kernels out of the straw little by little, and so we kept on, until we had the sheaves replaced by new ones and got the straw away. For cleansing the grain thus secured, we used short basins or bowls such as were made in Norway formerly. After a while we got a kind of fanning-mill, mower, reaper, etc. But they were imperfect and cannot be compared with the machines and implements used nowadays." Gunnar Mandt worked in Chicago during the years 184:445, where he got seventy-five cents a day, but had to furnish his own keep. In 1846 he return- ed to Pleasant Spring; in April, 1848, he married Synneva Olsdatter Husebo, 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 vil- lage of Stoughton. Gunnar Mandt died in Decem- ber, 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 cab- ins was, of course, considerable. The year 1844 brought a large influx of settlers, chiefly from Tele- 248 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION marken, but in part also from Voss. Among them I shall here speak only of Hendrik HoBve and family, from Voss, who located somewhat farther north, on section one, on the property later owned and occu- pied by his oldest son, Ole H?eve (Havey) ; Anfin 0. 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 Iver- son and his wife Angeline and son Lewis. There were a few others, as Aanund 0. Drot- ning, from Vinje, and Knut H. Teisberg, from Laur- dal, Telemarken, who came to America in 1843, but they, too, settled elsewhere first; we shall have oc- casion 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-grand- children, gathered at the old home to commemorate the event.^^^ We shall now turn to Dunkirk Township, the earliest settling of which also dates from 1843. 251 Ole K. Roe of Stoughton, is a son of K. Roe; other children are: Mrs. F. Johnson, Mrs. Ole Thorsen, Mrs. O. Swerig and Mrs. J. King. Since the above was written I have learned that Helleik Roe has died (April, 1909). CHAPTER XXIX The First Norwegian Settlers in the Townships of Dunkirk, Dunn, and Cottage Grove, in Dane County, Wisconsin. The first Norwegian settler in the Town of Dun- kirk 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 Kosh- konong, where the party arrived on June sixteenth. An American by the name of John Wheeler had set- tled in the town two weeks earlier, being the only white man there.^^- Luraas settled on section three, about two miles east of the present city of Stough- ton, 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 for- 252 Herein I accept the authority of BiUed-Magazin. The History of Dane County, however, says that John Luraas was the first white settler in the town, Chauncey Isham and .John Wheeler coming soon after. 250 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION mer had emigrated from Norway (via Drammen and Gothenburg) the year before, while Tverberg had come in 1841. They were all from Tin, in Tele- marken. 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.^" The next settler was Gaute Ingbrigtson Gulliksrud (b. 1815), from Tin, Telemarken, who arrived there five weeks later, that is, in August.^^"* He came in a 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 Kosh- konong. 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 Nor- wegian families settled in the Town of Dunkirk. In 253 Helge Grimsrud 's wife 's parents and a sister had emigrated in 1841 and located in Muskego. Upon returning to Muskego from Koshkonong in the fall of 1842, Grimsrud went direct to Milwaukee and bought 240 acres of land, being the first to purchase land in Dun- kirk. He died in 1856. 254 Two of hia maternal uncles and a brother had emigrated in 1839 and located in Muskego; letters from these induced them to emigrate. FIRST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 251 the following year a considerable number of immi- grants came from Norway (Telemarken, Voss, and Sogn) but Dunkirk did not receive many of those who came that year; they settled mostly in Christi- ana 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 town- ship before them. Ingebrigt Johnson Helle, from Kragero, 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 0. Hougen, from Solor, Norway, was the first Norwegian to settle in Cottage Grove, where he came in the summer of 1842, consequently a year be- fore Roe and others came to Pleasant Spring. Hou- gen 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. Bjom 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 town- ship. He later moved to Minnesota, where he lived, it seems, a roving life, being at last found dead on 252 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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,^^^ from Vinje Parish, who emigrated in the spring of 1842 ; he lived for a year in Christiana Township, and came to Cot- tage 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 Alex- ander 0. Baekhus (or Norman), Ole A. Haatvedt and Osmund Lunde. The first of these located in Chris- tiana, but later moved to Minnesota; Ole Haatvedt settled on Jefferson Prairie, whence some years later he went to Iowa, while Asmund Lunde, after re- maining a year in Muskego, came to Pleasant Spring, as we have seen, in the summer of 1843. Ole Tro- vatten, 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 el- oquence. He served as deacon in West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie churches for many years, a ca- pacity in which he had officiated also in Norway. He later affiliated with the East Koshkonong Church, which congregation he, with 0. P. Selseng, repre- sented on the occasion of the founding of the Nor- 25 S Called also Halvor i Vinje. EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 253 wegian Synod in East Koshkonong Church, on Feb- ruary 5th, 1853.256 Asmund Aslakson Naestestu, with wife and fam- ily, 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 dug- out the first summer. In 1847 he bought land in the same locality. Naestestu^^^ 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 Naestestu a silver cup as a token of his pleasure over the excellent workman- ship of the gun. Asmund Naestestu 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 Naestestu in 1843 and later settled in Cottage Grove, were Naestestu 's nephews, Aslak and Halvor Olson Baekhus (or Gjergjord as they called themselves in this country), 256 Page 15 of Eort Uddrag of den norske Synodes Historie, by Rev. Jacob Aal Ottesen, Decorah, 1893. 257 Asmund Naestestu was the son of Aslak Nsestestu, a man of much native ability and influence in Vinje. Anna Naestestu, a daugh- ter of Aslak, married Ole B«khus; they were the parents of the Bsekhus (Gjergjord) brothers of whom we shall speak in the next chapter. 254 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Bjom 0. Hustvedt, Halvor Donstad and Knut Teis- ]3gj.g2S8 Finally I shall add the names of Bjom A. Ston- dall and Bjom 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.^^^ Bjom Stondal was from Vinje, in Telemarken, being born on the farm Naestestu in Bograend in 1823. He sailed on the ship Vinterflid from Porsgrund in the spring of 1843, as he relates.^^° 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 de- cided to buy eighty acres of land in section thirty- two in southern Cottage Grove, and begin the occu- pation of a farmer. Four years later he married Gunhild Bergland. Bjom Stondal died in April, 1906, at the age of eighty- three, survived by his wife and nine children. 258 They came in the same ship as Knut Joitil and Anund Drotn- ing, who, as we have seen, located in Pleasant Spring. Knut Teis- berg moved from Cottage Grove to Pleasant Spring in 1846. 259 Hustvedt wrote his name Ben Stevens. 260 According to interview printed in Amerilca. CHAPTEE XXX The Expansion of the Koshkonong Settlement into Sumner and Oakland Townships in Jefferson County. Increased Immigration from Tel- emarken. New Settlers from Kragero, Drammen and Numedal. 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 town- ships, where his compatriots had settled. He select- ed land about three miles southeast of where Gunnul Vindeig had located, across the Jefferson County line in what later was namer 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 Jeffer- son 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,^*^^ being, therefore, the first Norwegian to settle in that part 261 This log-cabin was still standing not many years ago. 256 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION of Jefferson County, his being the second family to enter the township of Sumner.^^^ Here he lived till his death in 1868, at the age of seventy- six. Gjertrud Nore died in 1884. Three sons are prosperous farm- ers living in the neighborhood of the father's orig- inal 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.^*^^ In an interview with Svein Nilson printed in 1870, Peder Svartskuren mentions Bjorn 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 Town- ship 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 262 An American family had come there before him. 263 The first emigrants from Kongsberg were Thomas Braaten, and Halvor Funkelien. EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 257 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 acces- sions from Norway. In the same interview Svart- skuren says : ' ' There are now twelve Norwegian fam- ilies, 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 Baekhus and wife, Aasild ; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and located two miles east of the village of Rock- dale. They were from Laurdal Parish, in Upper Telemarken, had been married in 1838, and had two children when they came to this country. Tollef Bffikhus died in 1897, the widow lived until 1906, be- ing ninety years old at the time of her death. A son, John Bsekhus, now owns the homestead. ^^^ 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 264 They had twelve children in all. 258 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 subse- quent 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; geo- graphically 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 desti- nation 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 set- tling of almost the whole of this vast area by immi- EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 259 grants from Norway. The next year was that of the great influx from various points in Telemarken, es- pecially, 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 Pleas- ant Spring, extending into Dunkirk and Cottage Grove and the northeastern sections of Christiana (as Eggleson, Bjoin, Hauge, Borgerud, Bosbon and Kingland). The Numedalians came only in limited numbers after 1842 and did not spread much be- yond the original center around East Koshkonong church in southeastern Christiana and northern Al- bion townships. Those on the extreme west were Levi Kittilson, Levi Holtan, 0. 0. Lenaas and Tore E. Smithback, all coming somewhat later than those in the eastern extremity. The immigration from Numedal, which began in RoUaug, is after 1842 al- most 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 im- migration to Koslikonong. The year's influx is sig- nificant 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 Kragero. These 260 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION first immigrants from Kragero were: Bjom 0. Eom, Kjostolf Tollefsen Hulderoen ^^s (b. 1821), Even E. Buaas (b. 1799), Abraham K. Eonningen, Erick K. Eonningen, Halvor E. Dahl (b. 1802), wife Ajine, and family, Torbjom K. Eonningen, Glus P. Tyvang and wife, Audi, and Peder K. Eonningen. From Leikanger in Sogn ^^^ Anna L. Eggum (or Eg- gene, b. 1811), who in 1845 married Sjur C. Droks- vold, from Voss; from Lier came Knut 0. Lier, as also the widow Anne Thorstad, Knut Asdohldalen and Gabriel Bjornson (from Drammen) ; from Drangedal came Baruld J. Strandskougen and fam- ily, from Sandsvaerd, Ellef A. Berg, from Skauger, Halvor J. Stubbemd, from Eogen, Lars P. Haukelien and family, from Holte, Tarald E. Midboe, 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. Hol- tan cannot remember, but it was commanded by Cap- tain Overvind; the first mate was Friis. In the party of ninety persons were : Halvor Kjolen, Juul 265 Came to Muskego in 1843, went back to Norway and returned, settling in Koshkonong in 1846. 266 There was one immigrant from Aurland, Sogn, in 1843, but he stopped the first winter in Muskego. See next chapter. EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 261 Harare and wife Anne, Tostein Ullebaer and Halvor Aasen, who went to Jefferson Prairie, ^^^ Gulleik Laiigen, who stopped in Rochester, but soon after came west, locating on Rock Prairie, Paal ("Spelle- man") Lund, Guldbrand G. Holtan, a widower, his brother Ole G. Holtan, ^^s Knut K. Bakli and Kittil G. Bakli and families, Ambjor Olsdatter and Syn- nove 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.^^^ In the same party emi- grated also Klemet Larson Stalsbraaten and wife Gunild, and his brother Halvor Stalsbraaten (Kra- vik) 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) "Bought tickets for America at Konigsberg Fair, left Drammen May 6 ult., 1843, arrived at New York July fourth, ninety passengers on the ship." * * * "The com- pany of immigrants went from Milwaukee to Muskego. Halvor Kravik and a young boy from Sandsvaerd walked to Koshkonong, arriving Friday evening. Monday mom- 267 Rev. K. A. Kasberg, of Spring Grove, Minn., writes me that Halvor Kravik in speaking of some of these people says Halvor Aasen went to Rock Run as did also Paal " Spellemand. " He also adds the name Gunnar Springen who, he says, went to Rock Prairie. 268 As I learn through Rev, G. A. Larsen. 269 The name of the ship, as we learn elsewhere, was Eeroules. See above page 228. 262 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ing Halvor was at work for one of the Englishmen further south. Kravik took a claim in 1844. During the winter he staid with Gunnul Vindeg, sleeping in the part of the house occupied at the time by Rev. Dietrichson, while the parsonage was being built." 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 Ambjor Olsdat- ter (b. 1821) were married a few weeks after arriv- ing; Ole Holtan died in 1851, leaving wife and two children, Anna and Ole. Anna later became the wife of Levor Kittilsen Fjose (Levi Kittilsen) well known farmer and prominent in the councils of the West Koshkonong Church. ^^° Ambjor, widow of Ole G. Holtan, married Nils Torgerson Grotrud in 1852 ; he had come to America in 1849.^^^ We have, on page 183 above, spoken of Lars J. Holo, who was the earliest immigrant from Rings- aker (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 270 Levi Kittilsen died suddenly in 1907 ; the widow is living (at Stoughton) ; a daughter, Andrea, is married to Rev. Abel Lien, Ada, Minn.; a son, Carl, is in Nome, Alaska. Dr. Albert N. Kittil- sen, another son, owns valuable mines at Nome, Alaska; he is living in the State of Washington. 271 Nils Grotrud assumed the farm name Holtan and is there- fore Nils T. Holtan. He located first on the Holtan farm south of Utica. About 1868 the family settled two miles east of Utica. EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 263 by Bjom 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 per- manently 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. Kas- berg, 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. Kjostolf Hulderoen (Hulroya), 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 Hsege 0. 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 Uti- ca, Wisconsin. Gabriel Bjornson was one of the few who came to Koshkonong from the region of Drammen. He married Gunhild Grotrud, sister of Nils T. Holtan (Grotrud). Bjornson is said to have been the first 264 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Norwegian to be admitted to the bar in this coun- try. 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 im- migrated earlier among those who settled permanent- ly 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. Vaete ; she died at Deer- field about 1885. Styrk died in 1894. Gulleik Saue (b. 1821) married Donant Rolje in 1844. They purchased land in northern Christiania, not far from Cambridge ; here, and in neighboring parts of Deer- field Township, Gulleik Thompson, as he called him- self, 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. CHAPTER XXXI The Coming of the First Large Party of Immigrants from Sogn. New Accessions from Voss. 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 Schser- dalen -^^ 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 tliis I doubt as I have been able nowhere to verify it. Ole Schaerdalen went to Mus- kego 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 Wiscon- sin, there came many immigrants from Vik during the next two years. Ole Schaerdalen 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 Amer- 272 So written, but pronounced Schirdalen in the dialect. My father is the authority for the statement that Schaerdalen waa the first to emigrate from Aurland. 266 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ica, and who themselves were planning to emigrate. He was well acquainted with Schaerdalen 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 emi- grating 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 leav- ing for the New World and the fever spread to Fres- vik 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), IMMIGRANTS FROM SOGN 267 wife Anna ^^^ and three children left Aurlandsvan- gen on the 12th of April. They had engaged pas- sage 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 fam- ilies from Normn Annex of Sogndal Parish; they were the first to emigrate from that district. This party was composed of the following eleven mem- bers: 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 ; ^^'^ and two children. The following persons from various parts of Sogn also embarked on Juno : Anders Engen, Per L. Gjerde, Michel J. Engesaeter and wife Synnove from Systrand, Ole I. Husebo with wife Ingeleiv and children, and Ole A. Vaerken (Grinde) from Leikan- ger, Nils T. Seim, wife Mari and children (3) and Thomas T. Seim from Laerdal, and the aforemen- tioned Anfin I. Seim from Vik with his wife Britha and five children. ^^^ There were about sixty per- sons on Juno when it sailed in May. At the same 273 She was a daughter of Ole Schserdalen. 274 A daughter of Mons Melaas. Their husbands took the name Melaas in this country. 275 Relative to the personnel of this party and the sailing of Juno I am especially to Kristi Melaas, with whom I have had several interviews on the question. She is the oldest surviving member of the party and is still living at Stoughton, Wisconsin. My father, Ole 0. Flom, has also supplied many facts; he was thirteen years old at the time of immigration. 268 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION time two other ships sailed from Bergen with immi- grants for America; they were Kong Sverre, Cap- tain 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 0. Flatland, wife and children, and Sjur S. Olman. Kong Sverre and Albion sailed three days be- fore 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 called the boat "ein rota haot skiJcke-leg." She says the agent who had charge of the journey to Milwaukee was a man by the name of Hohlfelt, a typical immigrant "runner," it seems, whom she styles as "ain rigele bedragar, ain stakkars Mann va han. " IMMIGRANTS FROM SOGN 269 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 Enges^eter went to Koshkonong via Muskego, but the Melaas family went to Chicago, as did Ole Husebo and one man from Vik who had intended to go south to Mis- souri, 2^^ and they were all met in Chicago by one who was to bring them to Missouri. It seems, how- ever, that the departure hither was delayed for weeks by their guide who was addicted to drink. In the meantime the Melaas families becoming discour- aged 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 Kegon- sa. Soon after arriving at Koshkonong they were met by Ole Trovatten who aided them in the selec- tion 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 277 This man we learn was Anfin Seim (see next chapter). 270 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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, how- ever, 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. Husebo settled in Christiana Township and Sjur Olman settled a mile north of Nora Post-office. Ivar Vangen located on Bonnet Prairie, Michel Enges^eter lived a few years on Koshkonong, then removed to Norway Grove. Knut Aaretuen settled in Kosh- konong, 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 north- IMMIGRANTS FROM SOGN 271 ern extremity of the settlement, north of Door Creek and Nora. At the same time there were new acces- sions from other districts, especially Voss and Laur- dal in Telemarken, while from Eollaug 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 Droks- vold, Henrik 0. Haeve, Erik V. Rio (Williams), Erik S. Fliseram, and Knut E. Eokne ; all these had fam- ilies. Among earlier immigrants from Voss who locat- ed in Dane County in 1844 were Ole and Steffen Gil- derhus; 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. Eokne and Venaas settled in Christiana, the former three miles west of Cambridge, the latter two miles north- west of Eockdale. 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. CHAPTER XXXII Long Prairie in Boone County, Illinois; a Sogning Settlement. 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 Illi- nois) 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, Gjer- mund, Jens, Jorgen, 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; Jorgen 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 Bjorn Brekketo ^'^^ and wife Guro, 278 Knut Brekketo, a son of Bjorn Brekketo, is living at Capron at present. LONG PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS 273 her brothers Jens and Steinar, and Johannes Kleiva. Bjorn Brekketo died early and the widow married Ole Oreflaat. Not many more immigrants from Tel- emarken located at Capron. In 1844-45 natives of Sogn took possession of Long Prairie, and the set- tlement has ever since remained preeminently 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. ^^^ Ivar S. Ris- lauv and wife Eli, a daughter of Ole Aavri; Lars Johnson Haave, wife Randi, daughter Britha, and two sons Joe (John) and Ole; Andrew Olson Stad- hem (Staim), wife Sigrid, two sons and four daugh- ters, Olina, Britha, Aase, and Inga; Ole Stadhem and family; Ivar I. Haave, wife Barbro and sons Inge- brigt and Elling ; Endre H. Numedal and wife Helga, daughter of Ivar Haave; Ole Berdahl and family; Ingebrigt N. Vange, wife Britha, and three daugh- ters, and Ole Vange. With the Sverre came : Anders H. Numedal and wife Aagot, Ole Tistele, Ole 0. Tenold and wife 279 Andres Aavri soon after returned to Norway. 274 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Sigri, Ole P. Tenold, Ole J. Orvedal, wife Ragnilda, and three daughters, 2^° Lars 0. Folie, Joe Folie, who died of cholera in Chicago, Ivar Folie, Lars Jensen Haave, with family and Ingebrigt J. Fuglegja^rdet. 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 Folie, 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 noth- ing but hills, and he gave such an unfavorable des- cription 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 280 One of whom married Ole Tenold ; Ihey moved to CaJmar, Iowa. The Orvedal family all moved to Winneshiek County in the fifties. LONG PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS 275 Boone County, "^^ where also soon after the second party came. Thus by the autumn of 1844 the settle- ment numbered about one hundred individuals. '^" 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 Chi- cago. ^^^ Others came directly from Sogn, Norway, the recruiting region being Vik Parish exclusively. In that year three ships left Bergen again with im- migrants 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 Elling- son of Capron, who was on this ship, tells me the following incident which occurred in mid-ocean. "One day a boat carrying seven or eight men, rather ugly in appearance, evidently Spanish pirates, approached us from the west, and their leader demanded to speak with the captain. They said they came from the New Found- land coast and wanted to send some letters back. There- upon they veered about and rowed back to their ship which \ny some distance to the west, put out nine boats with a large number of men and rowed back toward our ship. The captain, suspecting their purpose and realizing 281 Anfin Seim, who liad come on Juno, was in Chicago when they came there; he joined them there when they started for Wiota. 282 Some of them moved away a few years later as had already been indicated in the notes on the preceding pages. 283 The family numbered ten persons. 276 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION that we would be helpless before an attack of pirates, turned the ship around and sailed back for one whole day and night. In the meantime a considerable tumult arose on board, axes and guns being gotten in readiness and many carried up stones from the ballast. We succeeded, however, in escaping, and, after sailing a day and a night, we turned back and arrived safely in New York. Here we learned that recently a ship had arrived at port, the masts of which had been entirely destroyed by guns from a pirate attack." 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 suc- ceeded 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, Ingebjor, and son, Ole ; ^^^ Lasse Ellingson Aase (b. 1808), wife Gjori Eavsdal and five children, Eagnild, ^^^ Elling (Elim), (b. 1835), Nils, Endre and Britha; Andres E. Aase, wife and two sons ; ^^^ Anders 0. 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, 284 A son Andres Dahle was not in the ship, says Elim Ellingson, and probably did not come therefore until the next year. 285 Who married Sjur olman, who also came in 1844 and settled in Cottage Grove Township, Dane County. 286 Andres Aase and family soon after moved to Dane County, Wisconsin, and settled near Cambridge; they finally located perma- nently in 'Winneshiek County, Iowa. LONG PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS 277 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 Ingebjor, ^^^ 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, kind- ly supplied me by Elim Ellingson and John Ben- son.-^^ We shall now speak briefly of the growth of the old settlement of Muskego. 287 Edlend Myrkeskog died about 1850, and the widow later moved to Iowa. 288 Mr. Benson came there in 1851. CHAPTEE XXXIII The Growth of the Racine County (Muskego) Settle- ment, 1843-1847. Personal Notes. In Chapter XV we discussed briefly immigration to Racine County in 1841-1842. The period of larg- est 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 Eiel- son, 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 Ostein and Nils from Tin, Osten 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, Wiscon- sin, about 1848, in company with Ole Myhre, an immi- grant of the year 1843. Kjittel Busness, who was a brother to the said Ole Myhre 's wife, also remained RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 279 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 Lands- verk, 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 Janu- ary, 1908. Hermo Nilson Tufte and family located on section 31 in Ra^nnond 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 280 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION the mother had found strong expression, was attract- ed to the young lay preacher, Eielson, and in July the next year became his wife. The son. Nils, mar- ried in 1865 a daughter of Ole Sanderson in Perry Township, Dane County, and lived on the old home- stead until he died about 1901. The daughter, Julia, married Thomas Adland of North Cape, Racine County, and another daughter, Betsey, married 0. 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 Bjornson, 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. AVliile 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, how- ever, long delays in New York and Buffalo, so that RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 281 the immigrants did not reach Milwaukee before Aug- ust 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 fam- ily, eleven in all ; Anders Jacobson Eonningen, wife Kjersti and three sons;^^^ Jens Hundkjilen and Anders Smekaasa; Amund S. Sotholt, his brother, Soren S. Sotholt, Sven S. Klomset; Lars Tinder- holt; Nils H. Narmn, Halvor Nisson, John Maaren, Nils Rue, John Kossin, John Husevold, all with fam- ilies ; Osten Ingusland, John Husevold, Hans Tveito, Svein Nordgaarden, Gjermon T. Nordgaarden, Ma- thias H. Kroken, wife and children, his wife's sister Anne and their mother Sissel; Ole 0. Storlie, with wife, -^° four sons and two daughters ; Kjittil Hau- gan 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. Be- sides there were sixteen persons from Sastersdalen as follows: Tollef Gunnufson Huset, wife Haege Olson and six children from Bygland, Augun Berge and wife from Vallo, Kjogei Harstad from Vallo, 289 One of whom, Jacob, now lives in Racine. 290 It was Mrs. Ole Storlie, who was accidentally shot by Soren Bakke, which unfortunate event seems to have been the chief cause why Bakke, almost crazed with grief, gave up pioneer life and re- turned to Norway. 282 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Tollef Knudson and wife and three children from Holestad Parish, and Tolleif Roisland and Ole Num- meland from Vallo, the first emigrants from Saeters- dalen to America. All but the last two of these went to Muskego. ^^^ Arentz Wigeland, born 1812, who may be regard- ed 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 re- turned to his home in Bamle, Norway, to bring his family to America. He became the chief promoter of the considerable immigration from Lower Tele- marken that year. Wigeland settled in Yorkville Township. In 1844 he married Gunild Pederson ; he died in 1862. The daughter Maren (b. 1845) mar- ried 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 Rajmiond ; there he died in 1882, his wife ^92 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 Par- ish; 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 291 Eoisland and Vigeland settled at Pine Lake. 292 She was Gunild Wigeland ; they were married in 1844. RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 283 of the settlement that hiy 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 preempt- ed 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. "^^ Among those in the party were: Knud S. Kvistrud and Kari Berge from Tin, Egil 0. Cleven and family, and a cousin Knut Haugan, wife and two daughters from Lange- lev; Bjorn Stoudal, Ole 0. Hedejord -^^ and wife Liv, three daughters, Esther, Ida and Etta, and two sons, Ole and Edward; Torbjorn G. Vik and family, who later moved to Koshkonong; Aanund Drotning who also went to Koshkonng that same year ; "^^ Aase 293 Many of the facts relative to this party were gathered on a visit at the home of Mrs. Ingeborg Roswall, Whitewater, Wisconsin, August 12, 1908; Mrs. Roswall does not remember the name of the Captain of the ship. 294 Ole Hedejord died on Koshkonong; Liv is still living, with her grandchildren on the old homestead, near Waterford, in the Town of Yorkville. 295 Edwin Drotning of Stoughton tells me that his father Anon remained a while in Milwaukee before going to Koshkonong, where ho located, as we know in 1844. 284 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION and Ingeborg Olson ^^^ from Mandal, Telemarken. John Homme from Siljord, father of Eeverend 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, ^^'' 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 Muske- go, later at North Cape, Racine County. In 1849 he married Anna Hatlestad (bom in Skjold Parish, Ryfylke, in 1830), whose parents Jens 0. 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 296 These two sisters married Tostein and GuUeik Cleven in 1844. Tostein and Aase Cleven lived in Yorkville till 1866, when they moved to Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin. Tostein died in 1893, Aase in 1905, leaving four daughters and three sons: Mrs. Astri Drotning, Mrs. Ed. Drotning, both of Stoughton, Wisconsin, Mrs, Anna Howe, Mrs. Edwin Bjoin, Kice Lake, Wisconsin, Ed., Thomas, and Henry. Thomas Cleven occupies the farm, 297 Ole Heg is still living in Burlington, Racine County, Wiscon- sin. RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 285 home of her son, Dr. Peter Langeland with whom she had lived since her husband's death. '^^ 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 Sel- heim. 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 ar- rived a considerable number. The scattered acces- sions of these years represent as widely removed parishes as Skien, La?rdal 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 Sta- vanger; Thormod S. Flattre with wife Ingeborg (Ly- dahl) ^^^ and children from Voss, who settled in Nor- way Township, Halvor 0. Skare and wife Margrete and two children from Lower Telemarken, who lo- cated in Norway Township in 1845 ; ^°° John I. Berge and wife Julia, and Hans H. Bakke and wife Inge- 298 The other children are James, Charles, and Frank Langeland, and Mrs. Harry Brimble of Chicago, and Leroy Langeland, who is news editor of the Eveimig Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 299 Thomas F. Thompson, who died in Leland, Illinois, in 1908, was their son. 300 He moved to Winchester, Wisconsin, in 1854. 286 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION borg, who moved to Spring Grove in 1854, and Peder Torgerson and wife Anne and five children from Kragero.^"^ In 1846: Jens 0. Hatlestad and wife (see above page 284) parents of Eev. 0. J. Hatlestad, pioneer publisher, minister, and author of Histori- ske 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 -/^^ they settled in Raymond Township; Halvor and Ingebret Roswald ^^^ from Gjerpen. Knudt K. Hedle, wife and sons Mathias, Peter, and daugh- ter Betsy from Lferdal, Sogn; Tyke Hendrikson Lokken and wife Anne from Gjei*pen, who bought the Aslak Aas farm in Norway Township; they had four children, Hans, Ole, Peter and Maria.^""* In 1847: Peter M. Andsion from Namsos, with 301 Torgerson removed to Wheeler Prairie, Dane County, in 1846. One of the children Anne Tomine, married Ole C. Erikson in 1854 and they moved to Lake Mills, Jefferson County. In the spring of 1867 they moved to Stoughton, Wisconsin, where Erikson was one of the first promoters of the Stoughton Wagon Company. Mrs. Erikson is still living in Stoughton. 302 They were the first families to emigrate from Trondhjem. 303 Ingebret Eoswald married Ingeborg Cleven in 1854, and they then settled in Dodge County. The widow is now living in White- water, Wisconsin. 304 Hans died in 1856, Ole died in Milwaukee in 1901. Peter Hendrikson graduated from Beloit College, held a chair in Modern Languages there for about ten years, was later editor of Skandinaven and Principal of Albion Academy, Albion, Wisconsin. Is now en- gaged in farming in the State of Maine. RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 287 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 contin- ued for many years sailing on the Great Lakes. In 1848 the following came to Muskego: George J. Bjorgaas from Houg, Voss, ^°^ Tollef 0. Oien from Tonset, Osterdalen (removed to Kewanee County in 1855), and J. H. Skarie, from Hadeland, who locat- ed in Town of Norway. This year also brought to Muskego the pioneer minister Hans Andreas Stub (b. 1822), who had that spring received and accept- ed 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 Gil- more County, Minnesota. John T. and Christoffer Olson from Romskogen in Rodenaes, Halvor ''Mo- dum" from Modum, Norway, and Guro Wait and son Reuben from Osterdalen, Norway, all came in 1848. This brief outline of the growth of the settle- ment represents fairly completely the increase by immigration from Norway between 1842 and 1850. The wave of migration had long ago moved west- 30S His parents with family of ten came in 1849. George Bjor- gaas moved to Adams County, in 1849, where he has lived since. 288 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION ward ; 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 settle- ments in Walworth and Jefferson Counties had al- ready been founded. We shall, therefore, briefly discuss these now. CHAPTER XXXIV The Heart Prairie Settlement in Walworth County, Wisconsin. Skoponong. Pine Lake. 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 fol- lows : (1) in the southern part of the Town of White- water and the northern part of the Town of Rich- mond 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 AVliite- water lies Skoponong, partly in Wliitewater Town- sliip and extending north into Jefferson County as far as Palmyra; (3) in the city of Wliitewater 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 01 e A. Sogal and wife Kari, who, with their four children Anne, Andrea, Karen, and Johanne, came in 1842 and located four miles and a half 290 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION southeast of the city of Whitewater. They lived there only a few years, however, then moved to Wau- toma, Waushara County, in Central Wisconsin. The next settler was Ole's brother, Hans A. Mil ebon, 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 Wliite- water. During the year 1844 a number of families ar- rived 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 Arve- son '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 Arve- son '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 HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 291 there onlj- 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 loca,ted the year before.^^^ An- other arrival at this time was Peder H. Swerge, and Ole Tolvson Gronsteen and wife Kari and three chil- dren, 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 0. Huset and family, John C. Opsal, and Halvor Huset. The latter two remained only a short time, then went west; Ole 0. Huset located on Koshkonong.^^'' 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 306 The rest of their children who came with them were Aaste, a widow, Andrea, Anders, and Anne Christine. Thomas Thompson married Mary Ann, daughter of Christen Mason. They lived on the Thompson homestead till their death ; Thomas died in 1869, his wife in 1871. They had six children, of whom Hans, the oldest, lives at Forest City, Iowa. Karen Thompson, oldest daughter of Hans Thompson, married .Tens Skipnes (better known as John A. Johnson of the firm, Fuller and Johnson, Madison, Wisconsin), and with him lived near Stoughton, Wisconsin, where she died about four years after their marriage. 307 See Koshkonong Church Registe"", page 324 lelow. 292 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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. Op- sal ; Halvor A. Lunde and wife Ann and six children, most of them grown up, and another son GuUeik and wife Dorothea; Anders J. Bjorndokken; Johans Gronsteen with wife Maria and three children. For 1846 we note the following : Anders Gunderson, John Arveson and wife Kjersti and four children ; ■'^^ Lukas Ingebretson; Anders G. Bjerva, wife Anne and four children : ^°^ Anne, Borte Maria, Karen, and Jens, who many years ago moved to Crookston, Min- nesota; and John Gronsteen and wife Asberg. All those who came during the years 1845-46 were from near Skien. In 1847 Christen M. Bo, 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 308 The mother and one child died that same fall. 309 She was a widow when he married her. The children of the second marriage were: Gunder, Christen (Whitewater), Esther (who was Mrs. Chas. Sobye, Stoughton, Wisconsin, but now dead). Anders Bjerva and wife died many years ago. HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 293 Co., then bought a farm, which he occupied till his death iu 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 Mich- igan, married and came back and settled in Milwau- kee, where he is still living. In 1851 Arve Gunder- son 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 Haa- tvedt and his two brothers-in-law, Peter Kystelson Haatvedt and Christen J. Tveit, while in 1852 came Jorgen A. Nil son Vibito and wife Karen Kristine, nee Hanson, and six children. Jorgen 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 re- search by Mr. Harvey Arveson ^^° of Whitewater, himself the oldest son of the third settler in the com- munity, namely Hans Arveson Vale, of whom we 310 1 acknowledge here with gratitude Mr. Arveson 's valuable aid. It is only through such intelligent interest and patient effort on the part of the sons of the pioneers themselves, who have con- tinued to live in the community, that such reliable facts can be secured. 294 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 sick- ness 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 Gronsteen, who came in 1846 and died that same fall, he continues: There was so much sickness here at that time that there was hardly any one well enough to bury those that died; and well can I remember that the men had to come do\vn to our house and rest before they could finish the grave, and well can I remember that the cow stood outside bellowing to be milked and no one able to milk her; every- body was thirsty as all had fever and ague and had to go a mile for water before we got to the well, and sometimes no one able to go after it, I am sure a great many died for want of care, as there was none that understood the English language and did not understand how to take their medicine. Those were hard times, and to many this ac- count may sound incredible; nevertheless, it is true and I could write volumes and tell true incidents of the trials and hardships that the old pioneers had to endure. AVhitewater 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 Bjorn Lien from Upper Telemarken, Hans and Harald Nordbo from Flaa, Hallingdal, Ole Lia from HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 295 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. ■'^^ 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, Bjom Hefte, Sjur Flittre, Lars Klove, Mathias Lia and Even Gulseth. In 1846 Sj'^^er 0. Haaland, wife and nine child- ren, Hadle Evenson and wife Anne J. Fjosne, and Tostein H. and Osmond 0. Hogstul came to Skopon- ong, the latter two from Tuddal in Telemarken ; the former were from Etne Parish in Sondhordland. Bjorn Holland of Hollandale, Wisconsin, who is a son of Syver Haaland,^^^ writes me that they came on the ship Kong Sverre from Bergen. ^^^ In Ulvestad's Nordmaendene i Amerika, page 56, appears an ac- 311 Lars Lee died in 1883, his wife in 1905. Dr. Lewis Johnson Lee of De Forest, Wisconsin, is their son. 312 The family changed the name to Holland in this country. 313 Letter of May 5, 1905. ^96 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION count of their first few weeks in the settlement and of S. Haaland's sickness and death. The Hogstul 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: "In Milwaukee, there were only a few stores at the time. "We drove with oxen and a wagon to the so-called Skoponong Settlement near Whitewater. AVhen we came there nearly all the settlers lay ill with ague, the condition was wretched. We immediately began to rid and break some land and after a while we got so far that we could raise some wheat. But we had to haul it fifty miles to Milwaukee with oxen; there we got 25 cents per bushel. . . . wages was usually 25 cents a day in the spring and fall; in the haying it was 50 cents. But there was little work to get. Like other settlers my parents were poor. My mother made baskets from withes; these she then car- ried on her back about the prairie and sold them to Amer- icans, getting in return for them flour, pork and garments, in order that we should not suffer distress. Hadle Evenson moved to Perry, Wisconsin, in 1854, where Mrs. Evenson died in 1861. The oldest son Edwin Hadley, enlisting in Co. E, 15th Wiscon- sin, 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, Treas- urer 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, HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 297 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, Al- bion, Wisconsin, and removed to Alexandria, Minne- sota in 1871. He was Governor of Minnesota dur- ing 1892-1895. In the latter year he was elected U. S. Senator and has been reelected twice since, serv- ing now his third term. I shall mention one more settler, namely Tor- stein Rio, ^^"^ 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. ^^^ Torstein Rio died at Skoponong in 1869, his wife died in Madison in 1876. At Pine Lake and Nashota in northwestern Wausheka County a considerable number of Nor- wegians lived among the forties and fifties, since which the settlement has dwindled very much. ^^^ At Pine Lake the first Swedish settlement founded in America in the last century had been established in 1841 by Gustav Unonius.'^'^ In 1843 about fifty 314 Father of Knut Eio. 315 In 1880 Nels Thompson became a member of the well known firm of clothiers, Boley, Hinrichs and Thompson, later Hinricha and Thompson. 316 Or rather also in part Americanized. 317 1 have discussed this in my Chapters on Scandanavian Immi- gration (1906), pages 83-85. 298 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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. ^^^ 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 Sal- veson from Gjerpen.^^^ Among the fifty families who came to Pine Lake in 1843 I may name Engelbret Salveson from Gjer- pen, Erik Helgeson, Hans Roe, Christen Puttekaasa, Halvor Rosholt, Jacob Rosholt, Peter Naes from near Skien and Gjerpen, Ellef Bjornson and Halvor Hal- vorson from Saude, Telemarken, and Tollef Waller from Eidanger in Lower Telemarken, Christopher Aamodt and Hans Uhlen from Modum, Tolleiv Rois- land and Ole Nummeland from Vallo in Saetersdalen and Ole Lia from Gausdal.^^° Some of these, as e. g. Halvor Halvorson ^^^ located in the extreme north- 318 Into this county the settlement extended to and about Aship- pun and Toland. 319 Many of those who came with Capt. Gasman this time went to Heart Prairie. 320 Holand Be norslce Settlementers Eistorie, page 170, to which I am indebted chiefly for this roll of immigrants to Nashota, etc., in 1843. 321 Halvorson died in the spring of 1908 as the last of the orig- inal Norwegian settlers at Toland; he was born in 1818, married in 1848 Kirsten Aandrud, who survives him. HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 299 ern part of the settlement at Toland, and John Lia settled across the Jefferson County line, ^-^ but most located in Waukesha County at Hartland or Nashota. In subsequent years there arrived constantly new settlers from Skien, Sa^tersdal and Gudbrands- dalen, but even in the later forties many began to go to the counties immediately northwest to Wau- paca 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. ^-^ 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 F reisers Kirke at Oconomowoc sixty-three were in the English lan- guage. ^^'^ But we are here touching upon questions which it is not our purpose to discuss in connection with the survey of settlement. 322 Through John Lia 's influence this then came to be the des- tination of the earliest emigrants from Gudbrandsdalen between 1846-49. 323 Walworth County contributed some of the number; thus Ole Sogal, the first Norwegian settler at Heart Prairie, was one of those who went to Waushara County. 324 By way of comparison the number of English services to Norwegian as far as statistics are available were in the following localities: Morris, 111., 13 of 67, Blue Mounds, Dane Co., Wis., of 22; Leland, 111., 14 of 28; Stoughton, Wis., 35 of 80; Long Prairie, 7 of 25; Koshkonong, of 75; "Muskego," 41 of 112. CHAPTER XXXV The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Sugar Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin. The in- flux from Land, Norway, to Wiota and Vicinity, 1844-1852 We have briefly referred to Sugar Creek, Wal- worth County, Wisconsin, in chapter XXXIII above. This little settlement received its first Norwegian set- tlers in 1844 when Ole Vale and wife Anne from Hol- den 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. Naeseth emigrated from Gjerpen near Skien, in 1844. Naeseth 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 SETTLERS AT SUGAR CREEK 301 accessions to the colony before 1847. In that year his parents came from Gjerpen, as also Jacob Tor- stenson 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 wddow 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) Val- borg, Captain Bloom, going first as far as Havre, France. There they waited three weeks, then se- cured 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. ^^^ Grinde- melum, 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 325 Some of the children have moved away, to Minnesota and Washington. 302 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 Sj^er Johnson Smed (see above page 213). But the influx from Land did not begin until 1847. ^-^ In that year two families, numbering in all fourteen persons, ar- rived via Rock Prairie; they were those of Svend Norstelien (wife Karen, and five children) and of the widow Kari Lillebask, who had six children. ^^^ In 1848 Hovel Tollefsrude, wife Bertha and child- ren: Christopher, Hans, Jahannes, Siri, and Lovise arrived. Further immigrants of that year were : Jo- hannes Brenom, wife Ingeborg and three children; Hans Halvorson (Brenna), wife Eli, and children, Berte, Halvor and Johannes; Johannes E. Smeds- rud, with wife Anne and two sons Engebret and Mathias; and Johannes Smehogen (or Smed) with wife Engeborg, and two children. In 1849 came Torkild Husvaeret, with wife and three sons, Gulbrand, Lars and Frederik; Ole Mon- son Tollefsrude, wife Karen and three children, and Nils Aason, Ovre Hasle and wife Ingeborg, who had 326 Matthew J. Ingebretson of Gratiot, Wis., who came to Wiota with his parents in 1848, has kindly aided me with many of the facts on immigration to Wiota in 1847-50. 327 John Larsen Lillebaek was one of her sons. SETTLERS AT SUGAR CREEK 303 come to Rock Prairie in 1848 (removed to Wiota in 1848). Hans Lillebaek came in 1850 and about twen- ty in all in 1851-52. Ole Monson, whom we have mentioned as com- ing 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 Fuglegj?erdet'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.^^' In 1872 he married Mary Larson,^'"' of Blanchardville, La Fay- ette County, where they are now living. I may conclude this chapter by saying that Arne 328 Ingebrigt Johnson removed to Town of Dane, Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1851; there he lived till his death in 1893, his wife having died in 1890. John J. Johnson, retired farmer, of Lodi, Columbia County, Wisconsin, is their son, as is also Joseph Johnson of Dane Township in Dane County. 329 He was only sixteen when he enlisted. 330 She was a daughter of Ole Larson, who served in the Third Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry, in the Civil War. 304 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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. Ander- son, Newell, Iowa, Daniel K. Anderson and Mrs. Martha Brunkow of Woodford, Wisconsin. CHAPTER XXXVI Continued Immigration f>'om Aurland, Sogn, to Koshkonong. The Arrival of Settlers from Vik Parish, Sogn, in 1845. In the year 1845-1846 immigration to Kosh- konong from Laurdal, Vinje and Moe Parishes con- tinued and a considerable number came from Fles- berg. The accessions from Laurdal, Moe, and Hvid- eseid for these years record the end of a movement that began in 1843. But that which especially char- acterized the growth of the Koshkonong Settlement in 1845-1846 was the extensive additions through im- migrants 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. Steenlijerde and Sjur I. Romoren from Lei- kanger, Herman T. Vee, Joseph J. Gjellum and Her- mund 0. Offerdal from Laerdal, Anders S. Ovrebo, wife Anne and three children from Lyster, Erik L. Grov and Anders H. Odegaard and wife Martha from Haf slo. 306 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 earli- est emigrants left there in 1844. I quote in trans- lation from Reverend Juul's letter: "Those who, according to parochial records here, were the first to emigrate to America are the following: Iver Hansen Vingum, age twenty-five, unmarried/^^'^ Ole Torjussen Flaam, age fifty, wife Anna Botolfsdatter, age forty, and children, Ole, thirteen and a half years old, and Anders, ten years. Of these, Iver Hansen's certifcate of emigration is shown to have been issued March 20, 1844, and he to have left the district on April 13th the same year. Ole Torjussen 's certificate of emigration was issued on the 13th of April, 1844, and his departure took place the following day. All therefore emigrated together." Reverend Juul thereupon gives a list of those who emigrated from Aurland in 1845, and while sev- 331 The writer's father has always pronounced the name Vangen, which also according to Haakon Lie, is the correct form. Iver Van- gen settled on Bonnet Prairie, where his son Hans Vangen is still living. CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 307 eral of these did not settle on Koshkonong it will be of interest to the reader to see this list. I there- fore give it complete here: "Iq 1845, on the 19th of April the natives of Aurland (Aurla^ndinger) left their native village: Torsten Olsen Bjelde, (45 years of age) wife, Anna (29), and son, Ole (31/2 years) ; Iver Ingebrigtsen Ytreli (32 years) ; Jens Botolfsen Bergkvam (23i/> years) ; Jens Torgersen Taariim (44I/2 years), wife Ragnhilde Monsdatter (27) and son Torger (one year) ; Sjnr Olsen Stundal (19) and sister Katrine (30) ; Anna Marie Hansdatter Vangen (281/4) ; Erik Johannesen Ytreli (43) and wife Marthe Larsdat- ter (48) and children; Brita (21 years), Magnilde (18 years), Johannes (16 years), Ingeborg (14 years), Lars (101/2 years), Haakon (9 years), Anna (7 years), Tomas (5 years) ; Johanne Botolsdatter Ytreli (16 years) ; Eilef Olson Loven (24 years) ; Mikkel Knutsen Osterbro (22i/o years), and wife Martha Gulvsdatter (271/^ years), and son Knut (two months) ; Lars Gundersen Gjellum (331/2 years) and wife Gjertrud, and son Knut (4 years) ; Martha Gundersdatter (17 years) ; Josef Johannesen Vin- dedal (73 years), and wife Anna Jensdatter; John John- sen Frondal (28 years) and wife Magnhilde; Rognald Johannesen Knit (19l^ years) ; Simon A. Gjellum (20 years) ; Peder Monsen Loven (34 years) ; Johanne M. Loven (20 years) ; Iver J. Stene (22 years). These are the emigrants who first went to America from this Parish. Aurland Parish, January 25th, 1909. E. P. Juul." Some of the immigrants mentioned by Reverend Juul are still living on Koshkonong. Thus among 308 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION the children of Erik J. Ytreli (who died in 1892, at the age of 90),^^- 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. ^^^ Simon Gjellum lived two years in Chicago, then entered the Mexican War, after which he came to Koshkonong. Ivar I. Ytreli ^^"^ 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. 332 The family shortened the name to Lie in this country. 333 During a visit with him at the John E. Johnson homestead last August I had the pleasure of listening to H. Lie's narrative of the emigration of this party from Aurland and of their early ex- periences. Haakon Lie has a remarkable memory and he has made it a point to follow the career and keep in touch with his fellow immigrants of 1845, and their history in this country. Space does not permit me to give here details from my interview with him, nor from that with others relative to the immigration of these years. But I may add that the party sailed with Kong Sverre, Captain Fisher; they were six weeks and four days on the way from Bergen to New York, thence they went by steamboat to Albany, where they arrived on the fourth of July. Arriving in Chicago one of the last days in July, they remained there a week then proceeded to their destination, Koshkonong, driving with oxen from Chicago. Haakon Lie says there were none on the ship from Telemarken or Numedal; the 300 passengers were all from Sogn and Voss; but I learn through others that there were some from Hardanger on the ship. The limitations of space necessitates curtailment in the account in nearly every chapter. From the vast amount of material I have, I can offer here practically only that which pertains specifically to the history of immigration. 334 Or, as Kristen Sherpi of West Koshkonong called him in an interview last summer, Ivar i Heggvikji. CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 309 Of other immigrants from Aurland, which Mr. Anders J. Flaam speaks of, I shall mention Peder J. Gjeirsme, and Torbjorn 0. 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, name- ly several families from near Arnefjord. This party included several Naset families, the oldest liv- ing survivor of which is Jens J. Na\set (b. 1828), well-known Koshkonong architect, who resides at Stoughton, Wisconsin. ^^^ I have had several inter- views with Mr. Na'set relative to their sailing, and their early life as pioneers ; it will be possible to bive here only the briefest facts. Jens Na^set tells me that there were eight estates at Na?set 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 Na^set, or as he was usually called, Skuungen. In the party were Jens Nteset's parents, Johannes Jensen Naeset and wife Eli, his oldest sister Gro, married to Ole Larson (Haugan)^^^ who is living in Cambridge, Wisconsin, two brothers Ingebrigt and John, and another sister who later married Henrik Lien of East Koshkonong. ^^^ 335 Jens Nipset, I have just learned, died at Stoughton last week, May, 1908. 336 They had one child when they came ; she is Mrs. Ole Venaas, Rockdale, Wisconsin. 337 .Johannes Na;set was born in Feios, but his father had bought Nseset in 1823 and settled there, three Norwegian miles from Arne- fjord. 310 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION There were three ships that sailed at the same time, Naeset 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 Schroder, and which carried about 130 pas- sengers, among whom the Naeset families ; this sloop had crossed twice before. The third was one com- manded 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 Schroder also carried emigrants principally from Sogn, but there were two from Voss, says Naeset. One of these was Brynjulf Leland, who set- tled at Noi*way 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 Nor- way in 1844, married there in 1845, and was now re- turning to America. Among those who came on the Brock-ship were Skuungen and Ole Menes. We recognize in Captain Brock's sliip the same ship that Lasse Ellingson of Capron, Illinois, came on in 1845. It was furthermore the very same voy- age of this ship. The name of the ship was Albion. For a partial list of the passengers on this ship as of Peder Schroder, whose captain was Vingaard, ^^^ the reader may now be referred to the account of the sailing of these two ships above. Chapter XXXII. 338 The much talked of Vingaard-ship. CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 311 The two ships Kong Sverre and Peder Schroder sailed side by side the whole way, relates Njrset, Kong Sverre arriving in New York in the evening, Peder Schroder 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. "^ Having arrived in Muskego, they secured Halvor Luraas to take their goods to Kosh- konong; he brought them to Clinton (Rockdale), where the first man they met was Torstein Selseng, who had emigrated from Aurland, Sogn, to Kosh- konong the preceding year. Johannes Naeset, who was a man of considerable means for the time, bought the land, which is now occupied by the son Ingebrigt Na?set, which is section thirty-five in the southeastern part of Christiana Township. Johannes Naeset 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 him- self a capable player. Jens Nasset early dis- tinguished himself as a builder and an architect. Though but sixteen years old he assisted in the build- ing of the old log church in East Koshkonong in 1844, and it was Naeset who took it down again in 1858 and constructed the old stone church, which a few years ago was replaced by a handsome brick 339 Mr. Nffiset's full account of this journey I shall publish else- where. 312 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 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 N?pset was married in 1850; he has no children. Mrs. Ole Melaas of Stoughton, Wisconsin, is an adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. NfBset. ^''° As has been noted, there was a considerable im- migration 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 0. 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 Sj^festson Aaberge from Hafslo, who came in 1847, Ole 0. Anderson (1848), Ole 0. 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 lo- cated first in Cottage Grove; in 1855 he purchased the old Hemsing farm three miles north of Stough- ton, later owned by the son Ole H. Hemsing (b. 1853), since 1884, of Stoughton, Wisconsin. Ole 0. Hemsing died about 1895, the widow (Ragnilda) died in 1907. 340 The Na>sets have been living in Stoughton since 187G. CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 313 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 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 j)rovinces and parishes are repre- sented 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. Tommer- stigen, 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. Ovale, all in 1847. I shall now offer a copy of the official register of members of the Koshkonong churches during this pe- riod, according to the Parochial Records left by Rev- erend 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 des- cendants of the founders of these two historic con- gregations on Koshkonong Prairie. CHAPTER XXXVII '^Kirkeregister." Church Register of the East Kosh- konong, West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie Congregations as Constituted Duriyig the Years of Reverend J. W. C. Dietrich- son's Incumbency of the Pastorate from 1844 to 1850, and as Re- corded by Reverend Diet- richson. ^*^ Bygd Ole Knudsen Trovatten Gunnul Olsen Vindaeg Ole, 1842 Gudbrand Gudbrandson Holtan Torkild Gunlegsen Sundboe '*^ Torstein Thronsen Selseng John Pederson Tverberg Knud Mortensen Roland Mikkel Johnson Engesaeter ^*^ Niels Olsen Smetbak Gisle Helgesen Venaas Sondre Olsen Reishus Even Stenerson Bilstad Johannes Johnson Berg Gunder Jorgensen Fladland Bjorn Gulbrandsen Morkvold Gulbrand Halvor Johnson Grovuna Indvan Navn drede Fodt Kones Navn i Aar Aar og Fodselsaar Laurdal 1840 1807 Rollaug 1839 1842 1808 Guri, 1811 Flesberg 1843 Sillejord 1843 1816 Margit SogHdal 1844 Kari Tind 1842 1844 1811 Gro Leganger 1844 1819 Synneva, 1822 Rollaug 1842 Barbro Rollaug 1844 Sillejord 1843 1820 Moe 1843 1802 Dagne Kragero 1844 Hvidsoe 1843 Rolland 1842 Asbjor Nissedal 1843 Gunhild 341 To save space I have set the wife's name at the extreme right of the page, instead of below the husband 's name ; children 's names are given in the second line. The English foot notes are my own additions. Caption in fourth column added by me. 342 Han bor paa Sun Prairie. Han arbeidede den ftirste Dobe- font i Vostre Kirke, 1844. 343 Kr flyttel til Norway Grove. CHURCH REGISTER 315 Gaute Ingebretsen GuUiksrud Niels Colbeinsen Fladland Hans Pedersen Tverberg Peder, 1845 Amund Anderson Anfin Anfindsen Haugerud Knud Olsen Holtene Mikke! Hansen Strommen Anen Tollefsen Bolstad Baruld Johnsen Strandskougen Aase Helene, Helge Marie Knud Aslaksen Gjottil Niels Torstensen Seim Ingeleif, Torsten, Britha Christen Olsen Hole Tollef Olsen Kaase Johannes Johnson Berge Ellef Anderson Berg Tollef Johannesen Berge Tens Pedersen Vehus Knud Osmundsen Dahle V'etle Osmundsen Dahle Richard Bjornsen Rotkjon Knud Aslaksen Juve Halvor Paulsen Grovum Even Eilertsen Buaas Bjorn Olson Rom Hellik Gundersen Vashovd Peder Larsen Svartskuur Marthe Marie, Grethe Sophie Thore Knudsen Nore Knud Kittilsen Baglie Ole EJlingsen Fladland Peder Kittilsen Byestolen Tov Kittilsen Svimbll Kittil 1833, Ole, Gunhild 1843 John Halvorsen Grovum Ole Pedersen Selseng Tarald Ellefsen Midboe '" Ole Helgesen Lien Barbro Larsdatter (her child) I.ars Johannesen Hollo Fredrik, Martin, Anders Gunslein Rolfscn Omdal Odne Osmundsen Bondal Halvor Larsen Stahlsbraaten Gjermund Knudsen Sunde Tind 1843 1815 Kari Hvidsoe 1843 Tind 1841 1814 Ingeborg, 1820 Stavanger 1836 Ingeborg Rollaug 1844 Hvidsoe 1843 Kirkesanger Hvidsoe 1843 Gjerpen 1844 Drangedal 1843 Kari Kristine Laurdal 1843 1803 Thone 1816 Leirdal 1844 1812 Mari Vos 1844 1813 Laurdal 1844 Laurdal 1843 1791 Birgit Sandsvaerd 1843 Laurdal 1843 1814 Rollaug 1842 1814 Sillejord 1843 Sillejord 1843 Vinje 1842 1816 Hvidsoe 1843 1799 Gudbjor 1802 Nissedal 1843 Krageroe 1843 1799 Krageroe 1843 Flesberg 1842 Marith Eger 1843 Groe Rollaug 1842 Gjertrud Flesberg 1843 Sogndal 1844 Vos 1843 Tind 1 1836 1801 Sigrid, 1800 Nissedal 1843 Sogndal 1844 Holt 1843 Anne Rollaug 1841 Thuri 1. Ole Hedemarken 1839 Marie Moland 1844 Moland 1843 Rollaug 1843 1820 Rollaug 1839 1812 344 Married the widow Anne Gurine Engebrektsdatter in 1846. 316 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION OIc Knudsen Hjemdal Gunder Gundersen \'ashovd Ole Torgersen Bergland Knud EHingsen Doknaes Christen Lassesen Melaas Peder Larsen Hollo Stener Evensen Bilstad Halvor Aslaksen Kostvedt Aslak 1845 Ole Laurandsen Hogndalen John Ilalvorsen Vindlos Even Jorgensen lualen Osmund Aslaksen Naestestue Hermund Endresen Huke Endre, Lars Neri Tarjesen Hauge Peder Larsen Gjerde Halvor Laurantsen Fosheim Aslak Olsen Gjergjord Ole Iversen Huseboe Anna 1833, Gjertrud 1837, Lars Larsen Hollo Ole Knudsen Dyrland Kittil Kittilsen Rinden Ole Sondessen Brakken Sjur Sjursen Olmen Gotskalk Odmundsen Meland Thone Aslaksdatter Lien Anna Larsdatter Eggum '" (widow, one child, Anna) Stephen Knudsen Gilderhus Elling Olsen Fladland Knud Annundsen Jamsgaard John Osmundsen Suboe Henrik Olsen Haeve Vos Berge 1833 Reinert Andreas Gunstelnsen Clemet Larsen Stahlsbraaten Johannes Larsen Hollo Ingeborg Olsdatter Trovatten, EnkeLaurdal Ole Herbransen Morkvold Aslak Evensen Groven Bjorn Olsen Hustvedt Aniund Olsen Jordet Tollef Kittilsen Rinden Gunder Kittilsen Rinden Ole Andersen Vaerken Laurdal 1844 1799 Flesberg 1842 Kirsti Moe 1843 Holt Sogndal 1844 1799 Aase, 1803 Ringsager 1839 Moe 1843 1828 Vinje 1842 Sigrid Sillejord 1843 1807 Laurdal 1844 Laurdal 1844 Vinje 1843 1797 Leganger 1844 1811 Kirsti Hvidsoe 1844 Leganger 1844 1797 Sillejord 1843 1810 Hvidsoe 1843 Leganger 1844 1808 Ingeleiv, 1805 ,ars 1840, Iver 1844 Ringsager 1839 Gunbjor Sillejord 1843 1819 Moland 1843 1791 Vinje 1844 Sogndal 1844 1816 Vos 1844 1806 Laurdal 1843 1807 Leganger 1843 1811 V^os 1838 1813 Anne, 1806 Sogndal 1844 Vinje 1843 1844 1800 Moland 1844 Modum 1843 Ringsaker 1839 1822 Andrine ; Laurdal 1843 Rollaug 1842 Laurdal 1843 1802 Vinje 1843 Moland 1843 1816 Moland 1843 1S2G Moland 1843 1823 Leganger 1844 1823 Sjur Colbeinsen Droksvold. CHURCH REGISTER 317 Osmund Vetlensen Dahle Herbrand ToIIefsen Morkvold Knud Helliksen Roe Ole Larson Stromi Aniind Olsen Drotning Gunleg Johnsen Haugelie Aslak Bjornson Rotkjon 'fhron Halvorsen Gjotil Ole Aslaksen Rorge Abraham Knudsen Ronningen Knud Erik Knudsen Ronningen Halvor Eilertsen Dahl Eilert, Olaus, Carl Niels Johnson Luraas Anver Halvorsen Grovum Anders Halvorsen Grovum Tarje Nerisen Haugc Ole Sorensen Quistrud Knud Halvorsen Teisberg Thorbiorn Guttormsen Viig Ole Gulbrandson Holtan Niels Olsen Grovum Knud Olsen Lien Halvor Johnsen Donstad Torstein Gunlegsen Bringa Askjer Knudsen Hjemdal, Pige John Olsen Haugen Harald Kittilsen Dahle Halvor Kittilsen Luraas Kittil 1840, Niels 1845, Ingebor Lars Gunlegsen Sundboe Berit Levorsdatter Bergerud Anders Andersen Fenne Aadne Bjornson Lien Botolf Larsen Lunde Knud Thoresen Nore Aslau Thorsdatter Kaase Gulbrand Gulbrandsen Holtan Kittil Gulliksen Baglie Inbeborg ToHefsdatter Midtlien Tellef, Gunhild, Thone Mons Simonsen Halfsrund Halvor Danielsen Stensrud Bjorn Osmundsen Naestestue Eigil Aslaksen Lien Erik Henriksen Haeve Sillejord 1843 RoUaug 1842 Tind 1839 Anne \'os 1844 1796 Vinje 1843 1819 Lisbeth 3" Hvidsoe 1844 Vinje 1842 1826 Laurdal 1843 1819 Laurdal 1843 Gunhild Krageroe 1843 Ingeborg Krageroe 1843 Krageroe 1843 Anne Tind 1843 1789 Nissedal 1843 1814 Nissedal 1843 1824 Hvidesoe 1844 Tind 1843 Laurdal 1843 1803 Sillejord 1843 Flesberg 1843 Nissedal 1843 Laurdal 1844 1797 Ragnhild Hvidesoe 1843 1816 Sillejord 1843 1817 Nordrehaug 1840 Sillejord 1843 Tind 1841 1814 Jorand, 1815 Sillejord 1843 1829 Flesberg 1843 Vos 1838 Hvidesoe 1843 Vos 1844 Rollaug 1842 Rollaug 1842 Flesberg 1843 Flesberg 1843 Moland 1843 Viig 1844 Sanne 1849 Vinje 1843 Vinje 1843 Vos 1844 346 Lisbeth Evensdatter Tveba^kken, from Vinje. 318 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION Ole Nielsen Grovum Torsten Torstenson Gaarden John Johnson Landsvaerk Peder, John Tollef Sigurdsen Tveten Juri Knudsdatter Holtene Turi Hermandsdatter Fjerrestad "° Martha Ellingsdatter Fladland Ingeborg Halvorsdatter Hagedalen Anna Christensdatter Melaas Martha Henriksdatter Haeve Asian Eivindsdatter Qualen Guro Olsdatter Stromi Synneva Olsdatter Huseboe Ingeborg Tarjesdatter Dyrdal Ragnhild Herbrandsdatter Morkvold Gjertrud Brynildsdatter Sanve Knud Olsen Hjemdal Thorbjorn Gunderson Fladland Halvor Nerisen Hauge Asbjorn Eivindson Qualen Colbein Nielson Fjeldtoye Tollef Anesen Bolstad Ole Gundersen Bringen Tarje Aslaksen Lien Ole Henriksen Hseve Gunhild Aslaksdatter Giottil Kristi Halstensdatter Vinje Knut Jarandsen Bosboen Ole Olsen Stuen Aslak, Ole Gunvor Johannesdatter Berge Gunleg Torkildsen Sundboe Gunder Olsen Skrabak Ole Anderson Sanden Kittil Tovson Aase Liv Pedersdatter Bjaaen, Enke Johannes Anderson Aabo Ole Knudsen Gilderhus Britha Lars Nilsen Vaehle Lars Torgersen Rote Torge 1845 Torstein Levorsen Bergerud Levor Nissedal 1843 Tind 1842 Anna Hjendahl 1842 Anne Omgangsskole laerer, Kirkesanger Laurdal 1844 Hvidesoe 1843 Viig 1844 Sogndal 1844 Hvidesoe 1843 Sogndal 1844 Vos 1844 Laurdal 1844 Vos 1844 Sogndal 1844 1831 ^^ Laurdal 1843 1829 1 Rollaug 1842 Vos 1844 Laurdal 1844 Hvidesoe 1843 Hvideso 1844 Laurdal 1844 Vos 1844 Gjerpen 1844 Sillejord 1843 1830 Moe 1843 Vos 1844 Laurdal 1843 1792 Vos 1844 1821 Sillejord 1843 Sovde 1843 1814 Asian Laurdal 1843 1822 Sillejord 1843 1785 Margit Sillejord 1843 Sillejord 1843 1821 Sillejord 1843 Sillejord 1842 Hvidesoe 1843 Vos 1839 1817 Martha Vos 1844 1803 Vos 1840 1819 Ingeborg, 1822 Flesberg 1842 Kirsti 350 Later married Stephen Olsen Dahle. 351 She was born in Leganger. CHURCH REGISTER 319 Anne Marie Halvorsdatter Thorstad enke Thore Olsen Kaase Niels Larsen Bolstad Lars, Ingeborg Ole Sjurdsen Gilderhus Martha 1845, Syvert 1845 Lars Davidsen Rekve Ole Larsen Dygsteen Niels Cornelius Nielson Tveten Osmund Osmundsen Lunde Niels EUefsen Masterud V'aeren Svendsen Tveten Even Olsen Unskard Ole, Mari Aasild Torgrimsdatter Strand Anders Nielsen Grove Anders Ilalskusen Sanden Even Sorensen Bjaaland Barbro Evensdatter '" Eilert Evensen Buaas Aslak Anundsen Juvet Thore, Thov, Thone Even Olsen Ramberg Gunhild Nielsdatter Luraas Aslau Nielsdatter Luraas Jacob Jarandsen Bosboen Gulleck Torstensen Saue Donaut Torgeirsdatter Rolje Ole Knudsen Schserdal ^*^ Ole Knudsen Traengeklev Knud Ingebrigtsen Gjerde Ole Gunlegsen Sundboe Knud Olsen Asdohldalen Johannes Christiansen Bjelde Hans Thowsen Ederklip Lars Ilenricksen Lien Mette Larsdatter Lien Henrich Larsen Lien Ole Holjesen Yttreboe Johanne, Anne LJer 1843 1809 Rollaug 1842 Anne Vos 1837 Anne Vos 1840 1814 Eli Vos 1839 1818 Ingeborg Vos 1843 Anna Sandsvaerd 1844 Anna Kirstine Vinje 1842 Bamble 1843 1816 Laurdal 1844 Hallingdal 1843 Sigrid Moland 1843 1774 Vos 1843 Borgilda Sillejord 1844 Laurdal 1844 Sannikedal 1843 1827 Sannikedal 1843 1829 Laurdal 1843 Barbro Vinje 1844 Tind 1826 Tind 1829 Sillejord 1843 Voss 1840 1821 Voss 1844 1820 Urland, Sogn 1843 Sillejord 1843 1816 Sogndal 1844 Synneva Sillejord 1843 1819 Lier 1843 1821 Sogndal 1844 Christie **» Rollaug 1843 Ness 1845 1790 Jorand, 1787 (Hallingdal) Ness 1845 1823 Ness 1845 1826 Hvidesoe 1842 Margit 347 Later married Tollef S. Aae; he was not in the congregation. 348 ' ' Hans hiistru er endnu i Norge, men han venter hende i Sommer. " Added later: "han er dod. " 349 She was Christie Monsdatter Melaas; is still living (Stough- ton, Wis.). 320 NORWEO FAN I M M I ORATION IiiKcbifKt Ingcbrcclitscii Na-sc Wiigs I'ri'stcgjxld Jolin, Ingebrccht, Gjertrud Gudvc Niolsdatter Droksvold, Enke, Voss Anders l'",lliiigscn Aase Joliannes Jensen Nsese Jens Jolianncsen Naese Sjur Magncsen Sa;tre Mods I^asscsen Melaas OIc Andersen Melaas M.)ns 1840. Kari 1844 l?irgitte Johnsilaftor T^icn IngC'borg JoImsdalUr I.iiii Niels Nielsen Girl Wiigs Preste- KJfcld WiiR Wiig Vos Sogndal Siigndal Tin.I 'I'ind Nxss, Ilallingdal Niels 1841, Mari, 1843, Tver, 1845 Ole Gullikscn Kjerre Gjcrtrnd Olsdatter Sxlabakka Lasse Sjurscn Lillesand Knud Igli. Nils O., 143 N'.xrlinug, Hans, 215 Vicrkcn, Ole A., 267 \';cte, l-:ii K., 264 \ ,Tte, Ilalle, 100 \ .Ttcrnil, Knud R., 208 Wagley, see Vegli Uait, Guro, 287 Wait, Reuben, 287 Waller, Iver, 90 Waller, Tollef, 298 Warner, H. L., 137 Warner, Milton S., 137 Washington, George, 42 Weaver, Griswold, 137 Week, Andrew, 198, 199, 234, 350 Week, John O., 198, 199, 234, 350 Weeks, Wier S., 356, 357 Wennes, Peder, 373 Wheeler, John, 167, 249 Wigeland, Andrew, 281 Wigeland, Arentz, 281, 282 Wigeland, G. A., 235 Wikko, Nils O., 218 Willerup, C. I?., 78 William, Hans, 193 Williams, Mrs. Julia K., 1 Wilson, Edwin O., 207 Wing, John, 360 Wittenberg, Jens, 39 Wold, Syvver, 366 Wright, John, 151 Vgre, Lars, 150 YtrebGe, Ole H., 188 Ytreli, Erik J., 307, 308 Ytreli, Iver I.. 307, 308 Odegaard, Anders S., 305 Odegaarden, Gunhild, 139, (Jdegaarden, Jori, 144 Odvin, Peter L., 334 Oie, Erik, 192 Oien, Tollef O., 287 Oiesoen, Ole, 192 Olman, Sjur S., 268. 270 tisterbro, Mikkel K., 307 Ovrebo, Anders S., 305 146, 206