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LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
WILLIAM C. EGLESTON FUND

RWEGIAN ^i
eONTRIBUTIONS TO
AMERICA'S . MAKING

America's Discoverer
Leif Erikson Monument, Boston, Mass.

THE LEIF ERIKSON MONUMENT
The plan of raising a monument to Leif Erikson, the first
European to plant his feet on American soil, -was first sug
gested by Professor Rasmus B. Anderson of Madison, Wis.
In 1873 Professor Anderson suggested to the celebrated Nor
wegian violinist, Ole Bull, the idea that America's Norse dis
coverer be honored with a lasting memorial. Ole Bull ac
cepted the suggestion -with enthusiasm and the two immediately
began preparing plans for its realization. Ole Bull was at
this time at the height of his powers and the idol of the
American people. A few years later he made his American
hoine at Cambridge, Mass. There the American Leif Erikson
Monument Committee was organized.
The Committee was a brilliant one and included among
its members James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Long
fellow, OHver Wendell Holmes, Thomas S. Appleton, Profes
sor Eben Norton Horsford, the Governor of Massachusetts,
the Mayor of Boston and many other distinguished Americans.
Funds were rapidly raised and America's then most
famous sculptress. Miss Anne Whitney, was commissioned to
produce in bronze a statue of Leif Erikson in heroic size.
The result is a great work of art. Miss Whitney seems to
have* taken the splendid physique and features of Ole Bull
for her model, according to Professor Anderson. It repre
sents America's discoverer as he discerns the first faint out
lines of land far away on the horizon, and with his right
hand he shades his eyes from the rays of the sun. Pro
fessor Horsford was the orator at the unveiling ceremonies.
A replica of the monument stands in Juneau Park, Mil
waukee, Wis., on an eminence overlooking Lake Michigan.
Another Leif Erikson monument by the sculptor, Sigvald
Asbjjztrnsen, stands in Humboldt Park, Chicago, raised by a
committee of the Norwegian group of that city.

Norwegian
Immigrant Contributions to
America's Making

Harry Sundby-Hansen
"lEditor

New York, 1921

Copyright 1921
by Harry Sundby-Hansen,
New York.

Cb4

y

3Z|

Printed in the U. S. A.
by the International Press, New York

Published by the General Committee of the Norwegian
Group of America's Making. Oluf Kiser, chairman;
Thormod Jullum, Secretary; A. N. Rygg, Treasurer;
O. G. Olsen, Chairman, Finance Committee; Thomas
Bull, Chairman, Exhibit Committee; Anton Wetlesen,
Chairman Festival Committee; Harry Sundby-Hansen,
Chairman, Committee on Publicity and Publications.

NorrjzJnafolket det vii fare,
det vii give kraft til andre.
0rnstjerne Bjprnson

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Acknowledgement is hereby made to the contributors
of the several chapters for their kindness and interest in
volunteering their valuable assistance in the preparation of
this book. The Committee also desires to thank the officers
of the Supreme Lodge and the many subordinate lodges
of the fraternal order of the Sons of Norway, the Norwegian
National League of Brooklyn, N. Y. and the many other
organizations and individuals in the East, Middle West and
on the Pacific Coast whose liberal financial support and en
thusiastic interest in this enterprise made Norwegian parti
cipation in the Afnerica's Making exhibit and festival possible.
To the Norwegian language press of the United States, its
publishers and editors, the Committee owes a debt of gratitude
for loyal support and editorial generosity in making this enter
prise known far and wide.
OLUF KI^R,
Chairman, Norwegian Group Committee.

INTRODUCTION
]HIS volume was conceived by the general com
mittee of the Norwegian group of the America's
Making exhibit and festival in New York,
October 29 to November 12, 1921, and is designed
to serve an educational purpose.
The character, achievements and contributions of the Nor
wegian ethnic element of the American people are, we be
lieve, deserving of more general recognition. This element
does not constitute a problem in any sense. It is now among
the oldest of the immigrant groups of the early XIX. cen
tury. The Norsemen discovered America nearly 500 years
before Columbus landed on one of the West Indian Islands,
and the first attempt by Europeans to plant a colony on the
North American continent was made by the Norseman, Thor-
finn Karlsefne. Norwegians were here in Colonial times,
especially among the Dutch in New Amsterdam, but also in
the other colonies, and they participated in the Revolutionary
War on land and sea. This year marks the looth anniver
sary of the beginnings of modern Norwegian immigration on
a large scale. The lOOth anniversary of the arrival of the
sloop, Restaurationen, the first immigrant ship from Norway,
will be commemorated four years hence. This group is, there
fore, no longer an odd band of newcomers, but a substantial
part of the American people, which by loyalty and demonstrated
achievements in material and cultural advancement, has
earned the right to be Americans. The voluntary contributors
of the several chapters have within the limited space and time
allotted to them endeavored to show what some of these con
tributions are.
The shortcomings of this book are obvious. It was pre
pared under pressure of speed and, in the case of several
of the contributors, with no time for adequate research work.
It is hoped, however, that this modest effort in the treatment

of an important subject will serve to stimulate an interest
in the study of the material and intellectual part Norwegian
immigrants and their descendants have played in the up
building of America. The field is rich for the scientific in
vestigator, the student of history, the seeker after truth,
and it has hardly been touched. If such a result follow,
the mission of this little volume will have been amply ful
filled.
The Editor.

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
By Professor George T, Flom
Scandinavian Languages and Literature, University of Illinois.
HE coming of people of Norwegian nationality to this
country presents three phases, if viewed in the large.
There is ist, the Vinland Voyages ; then 2, Immigra
tion in the Colonial Times, and 3, Immigration in the
XlXth Century. I shall consider these briefly in order.
The Vinland Voyages. The actuality of the discovery of
America by the Norsemen is no longer a matter of doubt
among well-informed students. The critical examination of the
sagas dealing with it and the analysis of the various other sources
of our knowledge has led to certain outstanding conclusions.
These may be summarized as follows:
I. In or about the year 1000 Leif Erikson (origin, Jaederen,
Norway) on a voyage between Norway and Greenland, lost his
way in violent storms in the North Atlantic and was driven far
to the west, where he at last came upon lands he had never seen
before. The spot where Leif landed, it seems likely, was at or
near the present Boston Bay, but it may have been as far north
as Nova Scotia.
2. A few years later an expedition headed by Thorfinn
Karlsefne and consisting of three ships and a hundred and sixty
men was fitted out for the purpose of finding Leif's Vinland
and settling there. The Saga of Erik the Red says that "they
took with them all kinds of livestock, for they intended to settle,
if possible, in the new country." They did not locate Vinland,
but they landed at other parts of the new land, probably western
New Foundland. From there they explored north and south.
They remained about three years, then returned to Iceland.
3. There were other vojrages at the time.
17

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
4. The knowledge about the discovery of land in the western
ocean was general throughout the Scandinavian North.
5. The tradition about it in Norway, Greenland, Iceland,
was alive down to the close of the Middle Ages.
And finally 6. a voyage thither is recorded for Ii2i and a
voyage from there in 1347.
As to the other voyages at the time I note here the fact that
whereas Leif's accidental discovery is "told very briefly m the
Saga of Erik the Red, there is elsewhere a circumstantial account
of a voyage of exploration to Vinland later by Leif and a crew
of thirty-five men. This is preserved in the Greenland Narrative
(Grcenlendinga pdttr), which gives a larger place to Leif and his
sailing, while the Erik's saga concerns itself principally with the
story of Karisefne. It is in the Greenland Narrative that we
have the Leif Erikson saga proper. Again the journey of Thor-
vald, brother of Leif, appears as an independent voyage in the
Greenland- Narrative. But it seems likely that it actually was a
part of the Karlsefne expedition as told in the Erik's saga.
1 pass over the other voyages.
To Leif Erikson belongs the distinction of the discovery both
on the basis of the trustworthy parts of the accounts themselves,
and on that of all later tradition. And Leif seems to have made
some effort to follow up his discovery by exploration. It is Karl
sefne, however, who is the central figure in the sagas of Vinland.
And whereas, to be sure, the romance of the discoverer does not
attach itself to his name, to us in America his story has another
and a special interest; for he was the first white to fit out an ex
pedition for the purpose of settlement in this country. They laid
their plans accordingly, they equipped themselves for settlement,
and they came and remained for three years. We have their ac
counts of the lands they saw, the conditions they met, and the
natives they. came in contact with. These they called Skralingar,
i. e., "Skinlings", wearers, of skins or fur blankets. They traded
with the natives and there was peaceful intercourse for a time.
But in the second summer there were hostile visits by the "Skin
lings", who appeared in increasing numbers in later attacks. Ul
timately Karlsefne, for these and other reasons, decided to re-
18

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
turn home. The account of barter with the "Skinlings" and the
latter's war-shout before attack form a realistic picture of Indian
ways, and shows that these "SkinHngs", at any rate, were In
dians; some natives elsewhere spoken of from farther north,
were probably Eskimos.
The sources of information, aside from the sagas themselves,
are of various kinds and come from different regions in the
North. The earliest reference is that of Adam of Bremen, who
wrote about 1070 (Descriptio instdarum aquilonis). He gives us
information gathered during a sojourn at the Danish court, as an
emissary of the Archbishop of Bremen. He was to find out
whatever he could about the lands of the North, which then
formed a part of the Archepiscopal See of Bremen-Hamburg.
And the lands that came in for consideration in connection with
Norway were Greenland and Vinland. His informants were
Danes, and no doubt also Icelanders; and King Sven Estridsen
was apparently able to augment this information with some facts
from a recent experience of the Norwegian king Harald Haard-
raade, which seems to have some connection with the Norwegian
tradition. Whether the Norwegian tradition is to be regarded
as also substantiated by the H^nen inscription from Ringerike is
uncertain, for the name Vinland does not actually appear there
except as an interpretation. Now it is to be noted that Adam
wrote only about sixty years after the return of Karlsefne.
Ari the Learned in Iceland in his Islandinga bok gives us
the Greenlandic-Icelandic tradition about half a century later
(1130). And here the facts told are traced back to Ari himself
directly to one who accompanied Erik the Red to Greenland in
985, when Greenland was discovered. Further, from the same
time we learn from the Icelandic Annals that Bishop Gnupson
"went in search of Vinland"; the year is 1121. In so doing he
was no doubt carrying out a mission given him at the newly
established Archepiscopal See of Lund. Unfortunately Bishop
Gnupson, it would seem, lost his life in the western waters,
for nothing more is heard from him. Then in the oldest Ms.
of the Landnama (ca. 1200) we have some statements from Ari
Marsson. This Mar, father of Ari here spoken of, was a grand
son of Ulfr Skjalgi as was also Ari the Learned. I pass over
the other bits of information. 19

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
That which strikes, the reader in these various references
to Vinland and voyages in western regions is the continuity of
the tradition, and the manner of its transmission. It comes
from those who took part in it or lived at the time, and it
passes down through trustworthy channels. The sagas thena-
selves show some discrepancies; they have undoubtedly, in their
received form, been embellished here and there through accre
tions from elsewhere. But they are sober narratives, and they
agree in all essentials. The Saga of Erik the Red, first writ
ten down ca. 1200, belongs to the classical age, and has the
style and the structure and the sobriety of treatment char
acteristic of the historical sagas. Nothing could be farther from
Irish and French medieval romances about thfe riches of
wonder-lands and the glories of "Blessed Isles." What the
Vinland Voyages tell about is storms at sea, diffi,culties met.
with in the new land, its vegetation and its animal life, and
troubles with "ill-looking" natives. But to relieve this we also
learn that they found grapes and self-sown wheat; the last was
of course some kind of wild grain.
The last reference to Vinland is one of 1347, when the
Annals of the Flatey Book tell of a ship that came froni Green
land, which had sailed to Markland (New Foundland), and
that there were thirty men on board. The same significant
item is carried also by the Elder Skalholt Annals for the same
year. After that, silence.
Immigration in Colonial Times. Our brief consideration
of this period may properly be prefaced by a few words about
a royally sponsored exploring expedition from the North in
1619-1620. King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway de
sirous of finding a northwest passage to Asia had fitted out two
ships Eenhj0rningen and Lamprenen, and he requested Jens
Munk, an experienced navigator, to take charge of the expedi
tion. Jens Munk was bom in 1579 at Bardu, Norway, immedi
ately east of Arendal. The crews of the two ships numbered
sixty-four. They sailed from Copenhagen May 9th, 1619, stop-
ing first a few days in Karmsund Channel, possibly at the pre
sent harbor of Kopervik, Karmpien, western Norway. It may
be noted however, that several members of the crew were from
20

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
Skudenaes at the south end of Karmji^en, hence that may be
where they stopped. It is interesting to observe that the route
taken by this expedition follows fairly closely that of the Vin
land voyagers six hundred years before. They passed ,the
Shetland Islands, the Faroes, and Cape Farwell, then crossed
Davis Straits and entered Frobisher Bay. Thence they sailed
through Hudson Strait, exploring and taking possession of the
country in the name King Christian. The fate of this expedi
tion has been recorded elsewhere. When Munk returned to
Norway in /September, 1620, only two of those who had left
with him were alive to retum with him. The crew were mostly
Norwegians and Danes, a few were Germans, two were Eng
lish. Of the Norwegian members, there was one each from
Sj^ndmj^re, Bergen, Tjzinsberg, and Oslo, several were from
Skudenaes, Karmjzfen, and from Marstrand in the (then) south
eastern corner of Norway.
We know very little about the part that Norwegians may
have played in the colonies in the seventeenth century. We j
know that they formed a certain contingent among the Swedes ('
on the Delaware; and not much more was known. However,!
through a recent investigation of New Netherlands records!
from 1630-1674, we are now better informed as to this period
and region. We learn that Norwegians, who had generally
come in Dutch ships, were present in considerable numbers in
New Amsterdam, Albany, Schenectady, and elsewhere after
1633. Their numerical extent is concealed somewhat by the
Dutch form of the names. The Norwegian Anderson or And-
reassen became AndrieSsen; such other patronymics as Karlson,
Klausen and Jonson became Carelsen, Claesen and Jansen, the
place names Bruun and Bakke became Bruyn and Bagge, while
Laurens Laurensen from Flekkerp {Mandal), became Laurens
van Vleckeren. By the introduction of a Van sometimes the
nationality of the name might be quite obliterated.
A word about what they were doing and what their
position was. We find them in every occupation and in official
life, among those who had little property or none, and among
those who had much, and in the various classes of society as it
was constituted at the time. We find them as shop-keepers
and inn-keepers, and some of them went as traders into the
21

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
wilderness; they were farmers and tobacco planters, and indeed,
some of them seem to have had an active share in the
promotion of the tobacco industry and the improvement of its
culture, something for which Arent Andriessen is especially
named; they were engaged in milling and in the lumbering in
dustry; they were carpenters and ship-builders, and as such
built some of the first ships in the Manhattan ship-yards; thus
they built the "New Netherland", of which Van Rensselaer
says "It was one of the largest merchantmen afloat, and not
for 200 years was another as large launched in the same
waters." Also the Norwegians (and Scandinavians in general)
took a large part in the development of shipping in general
and in navigation on the inland waters, as the early freighting
on the Hudson. Some were offitials in the West India Co.
And they are found in public office and in positions of
trust. They are among the magistrates of villages, as Dirck
Holgerson in 1681, they are members of governing boards of
the towns; as sheriffs and burgomasters, and otherwise in ad
ministrative positions. Many of them are extensive property
owners; some of the names of such are met with to-day in
various local names. I may note here Bronx Borough as being
named after the one time owner of that part of New York,
Jonas Bronck. Bronck came from Thorshavn, the Faroe Is
lands, to New Amsterdam in 1639. And Van Cortlandt Park
perpetuates the name of Oloff Stevenson Van Cortlandt, who it
appears was a Norwegian (though the other Van Cortlandts
were Dutch). Norwegians were also soldiers in the Indian
wars; and others rather took part in establishing friendly rela
tions with the Indians and in missionary work among them.
The readiness with which some of the Norwegians learned
Indian made them valuable in a practical way in Indian affairs.
Three of the leading interpreters of Indian languages were
Scandinavians and two of these were Norwegians: Claes Car-
stensen and- Sara Roelof.
It has been remarked before how often the -men of other
nationalities, Dutch, German, English, married women of the
Scandinavian nationalities. Especially common was the inter-
22

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
marriage with the Dutch. Thus Anneken Hendricks from Ber
gen, Norway, married Jan Arentzen van der Bilt in NeW Am
sterdam, February 6, 1650 (he was the first Vanderbilt in
America), and Cornelia Andriessen married Jan Putnam (the
first Putnam in America). Other families into which Nor
wegian women married were: Bayard, De Peyster, Governeur,
Jay, Morris, Schuyler, Stuyvesant, Van Cortlandt and Van
Rensselaer. As elsewhere so here, it was the coast towns in southem
and southwestern Norway that furnished the emigrants of those
days. It would be interesting to know what share the different
towns and parishes had in the emigration to New Netherland
in the XVIIth century. Unfortunately place of birth is most
often given only as "Norway." Where definite place is in
dicated we find that some came from Tji^nsberg, Langesund,
and Stavanger. But it is clear that the greater part were from
Smaalenene, Mandal and Bergen.
As to the extent to which Norwegians may have settled
in New England in the seventeenth century or in Atlantic coast
states south of New York there has been no investigation and
the information reaching us is of the most fragmentary kind.
And even for the whole of the XVIIIth century we are but
little better off. I have referred above to the fact that there
were also Norwegians in the New Sweden colony (founded
1638,. The church records of the colony reveal the names of
many Norwegians, particularly in the later period. In 1740 Nor
wegian Moravians took part in the founding of a Moravian
colony at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in 1747 of one at
Bethabara, North Carolina. One of the members of the Betha-
bara colony may here be mentioned: Dr. John M. Caiberlane
(Kalberlahn), born 1722, in Trondhjem, who came to this
country in 1753. He was a prominent member of the colony, a
man of ability, a noble character, and was, it appears, a leader
among colonial physicians in his time. Kalberlahn was, so far
as I know, the first man to come to America from Trondhjem,
Norway. Others at Bethabara and Bethlehem were from Sj^nd-
mj^re, Bergen, Christiania, and elsewhere; the period of their
coming is 1740-1762.
Philadelphia had a large Scandinavian colony from 1740
23

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
on, and among these were many Norwegians. The Soctetas
Scandinaviensis was founded in Philadelphia in 1769; its first
president was Abraham Markoe (Mark^e), a Norwegian. This
society ceased to be active about the year 1802. It is interesting
to note in this connection that on Febmary 28th, 1868, eighteen
gentlemen, all of Scandinavian birth and residents of Phila
delphia, met and formed an organization under the name The
Scandinavian Society of Philadelphia. This society regards it
self a continuation of that founded in 1769. In the South,
except as noted above in one case, Norwegians rarely settled
in those eariy days; nor indeed in later times except on a
limited scale. Occasional names do come down to us; in
vestigation would here probably not reveal many more. Pos
sibly the first Norwegian to settle in Georgia was Captam
Iverson in the close of the eighteenth century (Alfred Iverson,
United States Senator from Georgia, 1855-1861 was a descend
ant of this sailor-pioneer of Georgia).
There were Norwegians in the American marine and in
the army both before the Revolution and after. They served
in the War of the Revolution, and in the Indian wars, as later
in the Mexican war. The careers of some are well known, as
Thomas Johnson, who was with Paul Jones in 1779 and later.
Johnson, born, 1758, was the son of a pilot of Mandal, Norway.
There were Norwegians among those who fell at Fort Dear
born in 1812. And in all later wars of their adopted country,
the Civil War and the Spanish War, the World War they
made the same sacrifice when the call came.
Immigration in the XlXth Century. With the XlXth cen
tury Norwegian immigration enters upon a new phase. It be
comes more intensive and it takes on something like a system
atic form. This period takes its beginning with the sailing of
the Restaurationen in 1825, a sloop of forty-five tons carrying
fifty-two passengers, all but one of whom were from Stavanger
and the districts thereabouts. The history of the "sloopers"
has often been recounted and I shall only mention them here.
The arrival of the ship attracted considerable attention at the
time, as evidenced by the space given it in the American press,
especially in the East. The founding of the settlement at Ken
dall, Orleans County, N. Y. on the shores of Lake Ontario,
24

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
inaugurates the period of the formation of settlements. Other
immigrants from Norway joined the Kendall settlement clear
down to 1883; but of the original founders of the settlement
some moved away, as to the City of Rochester, N. Y., but es
pecially to the State of Illinois, where they helped to found
the extensive and prosperous Fox River settlement in Illinois
in 1834-36. The descendants of the sloopers live especially in
New York, Illinois, and Iowa, but some are in Michigan, Min
nesota, Missouri, South Dakota, Kansas, Utah, and California.
During the years 1826-1833, inclusive, there was but little
immigration. There were new arrivals from Ryfylke, while
in 1831 the first immigrant came from Har danger, an^ in 1832
the first one from Gudbrandsdalen. But with 1836 it takes a
definite start with the coming of the brigs Norden and Den
norske Klippe bringing some 200 immigrants from Ryfylke,
S^ndhordland, Hardanger, Bergen, and also the first immi
grants from Voss. Finally I note the continuation of this
exodus from southwestern Norway in 1837 when the ship Enig-
heden from Stavanger, brought ninety-three passengers mostly
from Egersund, Stavanger, and Ryfylke again, while the ship
Aegir from Bergen brought eighty-two from Hardanger, Voss
and the vicinity of Bergen. And there were other sailings with
ships from other ports, bringing the first contingents from Tele-
marken and Numedal. During the years 1837-1845 the move
ment shifted to these districts and Voss, Sogn and Hallingdal.
In the last two it began in 1842 (though one man had left
Sogn in 1839). In 1843 the first came from Saetersdalen, in
1844 from Land, 1847 from Valders, somewhat later other
districts east and north. By 1850 many large settlements had
been established, elsewhere in Illinois, and in Wisconsin (Kosh-
konong, 1839), and Norwegians were beginning to locate in
considerable numbers in Chicago. From 1846-55 date the begin
nings of the numerous prosperous Norwegian communities in
Iowa and Minnesota, and the colonies in St. Paul and Min
neapolis. In all these regions it was almost wholly imsettled
where they came. They had a very large share in the reclaim
ing of that wilderness and transforming it to what it now is.
And similarly later in the Dakotas and west; and no less in
the upbuilding of the cities. To follow the westward move
rs

DISCOVERY AND IMMIGRATION
ment of Norwegian settlement would be to follow the ever-
moving line of the frontier.
We have been concerned here only with the immigration.
And I have avoided names and dates, and statistics, as much
as possible. The tide of immigration that set in in 1836 con
tinued to 1859, then there was almost complete cessation until
after the Civil War. Now began a long period of heavy immi
gration in 1865 which continued to 1911. The heaviest year
was 1882 with 29,101. In this period Gudbrandsdalen and
Trondhjem and eastern Norway in general have contributed
most of those who came, and their destination generally was,
as is their present home, the great Northwest and the Pacific
Coast. But I shall stop at this point. All that has been attempted
here is to tell in outline the story of the coming of Norwegians
to this country, as a first chapter in the much longer story of
their contribution to the Making of America.

26

AGRICULTURE

CONTRIBUTIONS TO AGRICULTURE
I By O. p. B. Jacobson
Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission
|INCE their first arrival in America, the chief mission
of the Norwegians has been to stock the national lar
der. The great cities into which other immigrants
streamed by thousands and even millions have held
no temptation for the hardy Norsemen. The great open country
beyond, where nature smiled and freedom beckoned always and
ever was their goal. This explains why the upper Mississippi
Valley has become the new Norway. Cheap land and an agree
able climate were the principal lures. The great Mississippi
Valley, often called the Northwest, offered both. As the Nor
wegians emigrated in large bodies, it was but natural that they
should settle in large bodies. Of the great tide of immigration,
beginning in Northeastern Illinois in the thirties, wave after
wave radiated out into Wisconsin and Iowa, then into Southern
Minnesota, then into the famed Park region and the more
famous Red River Valley and South Dakota, further again into
Montana and across the Rockies and the Canadian border.
Today hundreds of thousands of Norwegian immigrants
and their progeny are tilling the soil. Their relative value im
mediately looms large. Agriculture not only is the world's prin
cipal industry, but it is the basic industry. It must be then
that any racial element in the American composite that is de
voted mainly to agriculture should have due recognition as of
leading importance.
But whether they received recognition or not, the Nor
wegian people may well be satisfied with their emoluments.
Reared in a land mainly devoted to agriculture and well versed
in the methods of extracting sustenance from the soil, they but
followed natural laws and impulses when they sought the land
in the new world. Land owning became a passion. It was the
distinctive trait of the Norse newcomers. 29

AGRICULTURE
Happily, for them, they were peculiarly well adapted for
their national task. Of strong and rugged physique, inured to
hardship, industrious and energetic and possessing courage, will
power and infinite patience they faced alike the primeval wilder
ness and boundless prairies and by sheer force tamed the wild
nature for the permanent blessing of mankind. In other words,
they were and are ideal pioneers.
It is keenly regretted that this article, through unfortunate
circumstances arising at the last moment, had to be prepared
within the short space of one week and without any statistical
data at hand. In that brief time it was impossible to do any
research or to gather any exact information. A certain amount
of historical matter, such as has been found in various his
tories naturally is reliable, but the agricultural figures mainly
are estimated. Hence, instead of representing a picture of the Norwegian
farmer as a national figure, it is possible only to reveal a glimpse
here and a sidelight there. At the best this writing is but a
sketch and a most incomplete one. Certain individuals and cer
tain events have received more space than their relative import
ance to the whole would warrant and vice versa. It has been
quite impossible to give honor where honor is due and to es
tablish fully what the Norwegians have accomplished in the
field of agriculture.
A presentation of the Norse contribution to Agriculture in
the United States simply becomes a recital of the saga of the
second Viking movement to America. Virtually all of the emi
grants from Norway to the United States sought the soil and
today in all probability there are more than 4,000,000 people of
Norwegian blood occupied in agricultural pursuits within the
United States. This figure will be questioned far and wide,
but it will withstand analysis.
No less a student than Mr. E. G. Quamme, President of
the Federal Land Bank for the seventh district, declares that
there are fully 5,000,000 persons of Norse blood in the United
States. The majority to be sure have lost their identity as
Norwegians, are true Americans by birth, speech and thought
and do not even realize that their ancestry is of Norse origin,
but they are part of Norway's contribution to America never-
30

AGRICULTURE
theless. It must be remembered that the Norwegians are a pro
lific people. Among them large families are the rule rather
than the exception. Ordinary birth statistics will not hold good
when applied to the Norwegians, for a family of four or five,
which among many peoples are regarded as large, to them is
small. Mr. Quamme also asserts, after personal observation, that
from eighty-five to ninety per cent of Norwegian born cit
izens and descendants of Norwegian immigrants are found
in the rural communities. To be sure there are consid
erable bodies of this people in New York, Chicago, Min
neapolis and other cities, but in the total number the percentage
of dty dwellers will not exceed fifteen per cent. In the interest
of accuracy one might well wish that the Federal Census reports
carried their analytical tables to include information on this
point, but inasmuch as they do not, the best available informa
tion is the prudent estimate. Accepting the population estimate
and the percentages of rural and urban dwellers, it is found
that upward of 4,250,000 persons of Norse blood are devoted
to agriculture. It should be understood that that figure is not
limited to those who actually till the soil, but embraces all those
having a part in furthering farm work. Included in this class
would be the local elevator men, the rural blacksmiths and
mechanics, the rural bankers and merchants. Without them
the farmer would be in a sorry way indeed and all except pro
fessional men, located in rural communities, . justly may be
classed as devoted to agriculture.
But it is not only in the number of people the Norse race
has contributed to the all important task of supplying the
country with food that they are en'titled to honor and should
have recognition. The great West largely was won by home-
seekers from the thirteen original colonies and the Scandi
navians. The Norwegians contributed a mighty share, for they
laid the groundwork for the development and prosperity of a
large part of the upper Mississippi valley.
They are not numerically superior to some other immigrant
races, but they prepared the way. They were pioneers, seventy,
sixty and fifty years ago and they are still pioneering beyond
the fringes of the cultivated lands. They laid low the primeval
31

AGRICULTURE
forests, broke the virgin prairies, opened roads, established
markets, founded school houses, then after they had survived
the rigors of pioneer life, demonstrated the agricultural values.
Other races, who now outnumber them and who hold com
manding positions in the rural sections of the United States,
moved in and became land owners. Without inviting any
criticism or making any invidious comparison no one should
take offense when it is asserted that as pioneers in the upper
Mississippi Valley the Norwegians hold first place.
But it is not only as pioneers that this people deserve
recognition. They have the name, and a well deserved one,
of being very progressive as farmers. Always they have been
ready to adopt new methods, to try new machinery, to experi
ment with new crops in the hope of increasing their individual
productive capacity. Often while their neighbors looked ask
ance at proposed farming innovations, such as silos, the Nor
wegian farmer did not hesitate to give them a fair trial. If
they proved successful his more cautious neighbor was quite
willing to adopt the idea. As a rule the Norwegian farmer
has shown that he is not hidebound in his ideas and the younger
stock today are found in the very front ranks of livestock
breeders, and dairymen, as well as of general farmers.
Travelers relate that they always can tell when they enter
a Norwegian farm settlement. There is a neatness and tidi
ness of appearance, not only of the houses, but of the bams
and out buildings. Farm machinery usually is well housed,
while the livestock invariably ' is sleek and well fed. Wherever
he has located the Norwegian farmer usually has been regarded
as something of a model in his line.
The life of the pioneer is inconceivable to the present
generation of Americans. A prairie "schooner" looks very pic
turesque, but it is a slow and tiresome means of transportation,
particularly with an ox team over the roadless country. So
also log cabins appear romantic and sod houses are very curious,
but they also are very uncomfortable for habitation, even under
the best of conditions. Markets were far distant, sometimes
a hundred miles away and many had to make such a journey
with ox team to dispose of their harvest and obtain supplies.
In a great many sections the Indians were troublesome, if they
32

AGRICULTURE
did not do actual violence, they often were threatening and
spread much fear. For some years particularly in Western
Minnesota and the Dakotas, the grasshopper plague appeared
year after year and the pests devoured everything that was
green right down to the bare earth. Only a hardy people could
have overcome the many difficulties and withstood the many
discouragements, but the Norwegian immigrants were just that
kind of people and they have transmitted the same desirable
qualities to the modern American character.
It is said of the Norwegian element that a larger percentage
of the second generation remains on the land than of any other
racial group and such statistics as are available appear to point
in that direction.
Without being able to present any figures that will estabUsh
a fact, none probably will gainsay the statement that the Nor
wegian people have contributed a mighty impulse to the agri
cultural development of the upper Mississippi Valley and that
their influence will continue a potent factor in the continued
growth of this farm empire.
Like any other movement of any consequence the Nor
wegian settlement of America in its genesis had an outstanding
figure, as forerunner or pathfinder. This personage was Kleng
Pederson or Cleng Peerson, as he signed his name in later life.
In all justice he should be ranked with Daniel Boone, Davy
Crockett, Sam Hbuston and other forerunners in the making
of the great West. He was restless and eccentric, of a roving
disposition, always improvident and generally impecunious, but
he had a veritable mania for planting colonies. He traveled
the middle West far and wide, generally on foot and studied
the agricultural possibilities of the terrain, wherever he went.
He talked America, he wrote America and he did both well.
Three times he returned to Norway between 1824 and 1842
and went up and down the countryside painting in glowing
words the fortune that lay dormant in the new world for those
who had the vision and the courage to attempt the great ad
venture. Writers have dubbed Kleng Pederson everything from
a tramp and a vagabond to a romantic hero. Be that as it may,
he had vision and boundless enthusiasm. And he felt that he
had a mission in life. Two remarkable settlements flourishing
33

AGRICULTURE
today, live as monuments to his zeal and energy, namely- the
Fox River settlement in La Salle County, ilhnois and the pros
perous Norwegian colony in Dallas County, Texas.
The mother colony of the Norse emigration through the
West the Fox River settlement truly was. It became the ob
jective point for thousands of newcomers. They came for rest
and guidance and wandered on to the cheaper lands- in Wis
consin, Iowa and Minnesota. The early settlers were good
letter writers and the "American Letters" were read with
avidity in Norway and were passed from house to house.
Further stimulus to the emigration fever was given by three
little booklets concerning the United States. These were Ole
Nattestad's "Dagbog" or "Diary" and Ole Rynning's "Truthful
Statements About America" (Sandferdig Beretning om Am
erika), both published in Christiania in 1837 and Johan Reier-
son's "Guide (Veiviser) for Norwegian Emigrants," published
in 1344. The former works dealt mainly with Illinois and Wis
consin, while the latter, although somewhat general, commended
Texas for which Reierson was an enthusiastic boomer.
Kleng came to America in 1821. Whether he traveled as
an emissary of the Quaker band in Stavanger is disputed, but
that he conferred with the leaders on his return to Norway in
i8i4 has been established. This Quaker congregation chartered
the little sloop "Restaurationen" (Restoration) and set sail
from Stavanger July 4, 1825. After three months of buffeting
the stormy Atlantic the little party of fifty-three souls found
haven in New York Harbor, October 2nd. Kleng was there
to meet them and to lead them to land near Kendall in Western
New York . which he had selected for them.
Eight years later he set out on foot for the unknown
West accompanied by one man, said to have been Thomas
Erickson, a giant in size and strength. They traversed Ohio,
Indiana, parts of Michigan and Illinois and probably South
eastern Wisconsin. On the Fox River they found an ideal
country and a thriving farm community soon was established.;
Later Cleng Peerson founded another community in Shelby
County, Missouri, to which he led a party of homeseekers in
1837. This colony did not prosper for some reason or other
and was abandoned in a short time, the members removing to
34

AGRICULTURE
the Sugar Creek locality in Iowa. Finally in 1850, then sixty-
eight years of age, he set out from Fox River with a party of
ambitious homeseekers for Dallas County, Texas.
In the meantime other lesser pathfinders were busy else
where. Ole Nattestad led a party from Numedal on to Jeffer
son Prairie in 1838. Next came the extensive Norwegian com
munities at Muskego and Koshkonong. The most desirable
lands were_ soon taken, but the tide from Norway assumed
larger and larger proportions.
Without much doubt the main cause of the great rush of
Norwegians into Minnesota, Iowa and the country beyond was
the passage of the free homestead act in 1863. Previously gov
ernment land was obtainable only through the process of pre
emption. The cost was generally $1.25 an acre.
John Anderson, publisher of Skandinaven, was most enthusi
astic over the passage of the free homestead law and urged his
readers to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime. It
is related that he printed handbills explaining the act and per
sonally distributed them among the Norwegian newcomers arriv
ing by water and rail at Chicago. Without doubt hundreds had
their attention directed to the excellent agricultural lands of the
Northwestern territory by his newspaper articles and handbills.
In many respects the valuable services rendered by Cleng
Peerson were duplicated in later years by Paul Hjelm-Hansen,
a journalist from Norway. It is understood that his purpose
in coming to the United States was to obtain material for articles
tending to discourage emigration from Norway. He was speed
ily converted to an opposite view of the question when he saw
former tenant farmers established in economic independence on
farms that would have been regarded in the home land as baron
ial domains. He realized that the shift from dire poverty to
comparative afflhience had been effected in but a few years and
that in the main those emigrants who sought the land had pros
pered even beyond their hopes and dreams. It then occurred to
him that he could render their kinsfolk no better service than
undertake an exploration in the then unsettled portions of Min
nesota to learn if there were not other tracts available for settle
ment. 35

AGRICULTURE
His journeys were historic for they led directly to the
speedy settlement of the Red River Valley, often called the
"bread basket 'of the world" because of its immense production
of grain. Hjelm-Hansen left La Crosse June 17, 1869 to begin his
memorable tour. He went by steamboat to St. Paul, took the
railroad to St. Cloud and by stage reached Alexandria. Here
he came in touch with countrymen who had an ox team and
consented to accompany the explorer on his expedition. They
drove through parts of Ottertail and neighboring counties reach
ing the Red River at Fort Abercrombie and thence went down
the valley some distance. On his return to Alexandria he wrote
to Nordiske Tidende describing the land he had seen. One of
the statements in his first letter to the public is worthy of re
production. He wrote as follows : "The soil is productive in the highest
degree and unusually easy of cultivation, as there is not as much
as a stone or a stump in the way of the plow."
It was this same land that General Hazen officially described
as "unproductive, unsuitable for cultivation and only fit for mos-
quitos, -wild animals and Indians."
Much detailed information was given of the character of
the country and the soil by Mr. Hjelm-Hansen in his first
letter and this was further amplified by subsequent writings
to the Norwegian papers in the United States and Norway.
His readers followed the advice offered and immediately there
began a migration of Norsemen that probably is without parallel
in the history of their race. When the movement fairiy was
under way in the middle seventies- a continuous stream moved
day and night from the Atlantic coast to the Twin Cities of
Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul, where it divided into in
numerable smaller streams which spread westward and north
ward overflowing the valley and reaching far into South Dakota
and North Dakota.
Pioneering still is going on in Wisconsin and the Norweg
ians have an active hand therein. Men from Telemarken, Nume
dal and Stavanger located in Rock and Dane Counties and there
established some of the largest and most prosperous colonies in
36

AGRICULTURE
the West. Virtually all of them were engaged in agricultural
pursuits. At first, it was a sordid struggle for mere existence.
Poorly provided with household goods and agricultural imple
ments they were compelled to live a life of primitive simplicity.
Cholera and smallpox epidemics threatened, nature was stub
born, the log cabins offered only a meagre shelter and their trials
were many. But they hewed, sawed and cleared, then plowed
and planted and later harvested. Their yields were small at
first, but grew with each succeeding year and it was not so long
before they found themselves in comparative comfort.
In 1850 there were 8,651 Norwegian born residents of Wis
consin nearly one half of the entire Norwegian population of the
United States. Virtually all of them were engaged in farming
and aiding thereby to lay the foundation of what has been one
of the most progressive agricultural commonwealths in the world.
Some five years ago Wisconsin was credited with having
200,000 residents of Norwegian ancestry. Unquestionably an
overwhelming majority of them, if not actually tilling the soil,
were engaged in promoting agriculture.
No less, an authority than Mr. Samuel G. Iverson, for many
years Auditor of the State of Minnesota, places the farm wealth
of the Norwegian element in Minnesota at the prodigious figure
of $1,200,000,000. And he states that his estimate is conserva
tive. On account of his long service as State Auditor which
enabled him to cover the entire State time and again Mr. Iver
son probably is the best qualified person to undertake to make
any such computation.
"After the Federal Census of 1910 I undertook to learn
what share the Norwegians had in the farm industry of my
native State" Mr. Iverson explained to the writer. "From per
sonal knowledge of the distribution of immigrant elements within
the State and particularly in the rural sections, I reached the
conclusion that the Scandinavians owned 115,000 of the 175,000
farms reported in Minnesota by the Census Bureau. From
personal observation I should say that a greater proportion of
Norwegian stock are engaged in agricultural pursuits than is
the case with other immigrant elements and therefore half of this
number was credited to that people. The number of farms in
37

AGRICULTURE
Minnesota doubtless has increased by several thousands and with
out question the Norwegian element has had its full share^ in
the increase. Hence, no one will be far from wrong in placing
the number of farms owned by this element at 60,000. Taking
160 acres as the size of the average farm and bearing in mind
that thousands of farms have a value of $200 an acre and even
more, the average value will be approximately $20,000 per farm.
This value will of course include farm buildings, stock and
machinery. Sixty thousand farms at $20,000 makes a total weailth
of more than a billion, and although! the figure is unbelievable at
first thought, I am sure that it is. conservative."
It will be observed in this connection that Dr. J. S. John
son after much careful investigation in 1913 placed the number
of Norwegian farm owners at that time at 50,000, the extent
of their holdings at 8,850,000 acres and the land value at $500,-!
000,000, so the estimates virtually coincide.
Fillmore County saw the first Norwegian settlers in 1851.
They came from Muskego colony in Wisconsin and very soon
there as a procession from the older colonies in Wisconsin and
Illinois to which were added 'the rising tide of immigration from
the motherland. Of course, Fillmore County could not begin
to hold them all and they overflowed into Houston, Mower, Olm-
stead, Freeborn, Goodhue and Rice Counties. The war and the
Sioux massacre halted the occupation of Minnesota for a period.
It may be recorded that the Federal Census of i860 credits
Norway with being the birthplace of 8,425 of Minnesota citizens.
Virtually all of them were engaged in agriculture. They actually,
laid the foundation for the future prosperity of the State.
After the war and massacre, settlement was resumed; Ren
ville, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle, Chippewa and Swift
Counties were occupied to such an extent that it was possible to
travel for days at a time in certain districts without getting
beyond the domain of the Norwegians. Later came the greatestj
migration initiated by Hjelm-Hansen and which gave the Park;
Region and the Red River Valley to the Norwegian immigrants
and their descendants.
Only in North Dakota, so far as is known, has an attempt
been made to obtain exact figures of the land holdings Of the
38

AGRICULTURE
Norwegians. In the year 1913 while preparing a North Dakota
exhibit for Norway's Centennial Exposition, for which the State
Legislature had made an appropriation, Alfred Gabrielsen under
took to ascertain the amount of land owned by residents of Norse
stock.. In this category he included only those bom in Norway
or whose parents were born in Norway. In other words the
statistics were limited to the first and second generation of Nor
wegian blood. Undoubtedly there are many of the third and
fourth generations of the race within the State, but having lost
their identity as Norwegians and in numerous cases altered or
changed their names, it would be a well nigh hopeless task to
enunjerate them. His report showed that a solid territory of 600
square miles in Trail, Grand Forks and adjoining counties is
populated exclusively by Norwegians. In addition there are
the Sheyenne River, the Park River, the Turtle Mountain and
the Williams and: Benson County settlements all of great extent.
The report also showed that out of a total of 32,000,000
acres of taxable farm land in North Dakota 7,867,140 acres were
owned by individuals classed as Norwegians. Using the aver
age acre value of $35.00 fixed by the Federal Census Bureau
he placed the value of this land at $275,349,200. Truly a princely
sum. But, inasmuch as land values have more than doubled
since the tabulation was completed and that land holdings have
increased materially, the aggregate wealth of these people in
North Dakota now reaches a stupendous sum.
Mention should be made of C. P. Burastad, who at the time
operated a cattle ranch of 6,000 acres in Logan County and John
Steen, who had a "bonanza" farm near Rugby.
Norwegians first settled South Dakota as farmers. They
came from the Koshkonong Colony to Vermillion County in 1859.
From this locality they spread in various directions and became
the dominant element in many districts. There were various
Indian scares, trying experiences with blizzards in which quite
a number lost their lives, but the worst handicaps were event
ually overcome. This element today comprises about 25 per
cent of the population of the State.
As early as the forties the Norwegians appeared in Iowa
and they were real pioneers. Today the entire northern part
39

AGRICULTURE
of the State is sprinkled liberally with Norwegian settlements.
In not a few counties they are the dominant element and they
have become famous as progressive farmers and breeders of
livestock. Cyrus Tow, the famous Hereford breeder is of Norse
blood and there are others who have achieved success in raising
blooded stock. They have exerted an extensive influence on
agriculture within the State and sent thousands of their sons
and daughters to aid in developing other parts of the Union.
Some of the finest farms in Iowa, which means -in the United
States, are in the hands of racial stock with which this article is
concerned. Norwegian farm communities were founded in Kansas and
Nebraska as early as 1857, but it was not until after the Civil
War that any considerable number of this people sought to ob
tain land. Virtually all of them are engaged today in agricultural
pursuits. What their number may be is not possible to deter
mine, but it must be 50,000 in the two States and possibly many
more. In the great rush at the opening of the Oklahoma re
servation, there were quite a number of Norwegians and they
obtained their share of the prizes.
Michigan attracted numerous Norsemen in the early days.
The parties that went out together were smaller than those
which penetrated the more Western States. However, some
were of considerable extent and virtually all proved successful.
The Norse population of the State probably will reach 100,000.
Early in the twentieth century a party was formed in Otter-
tail County, Minnesota led by Jens Dunham, Amund Levorson
and John L. Trosvig to find a new home in the South. Vir
ginia was selected as a desirable field and a suitable tract was
found near Williamsburg and named Norway. Some ten or
twelve families comprised the first party. The land cost them
from $5 to $10 an acre. By industry and intelligence and the
application of modern metliods of farming they made a garden
spot in the heart of the old Dominion. Within fifteen years their
land easily was worth $75 an acre and upward. It is today an
object lesson for the entire State and it is needless to say that
this isolated band of Norwegians is highly regarded by their
40

AGRICULTURE
neighbors and the State authorities. Instances of this kind are
numerous and similar ventures without doubt may be found in
virtually every State in the Union.
Ole Bull, the famous violinist was an altruist and philan
thropist in the broadest sense. Having knowledge of the un
promising lot of thousands of his countrymen in Norway and
realizing the glorious possibilities in the new world he undertook
the foundation of a colony which he hoped would be a Mtecca
for his people. Oleana, Odin and New Bergen were founded
in Potter County, Pennsylvania in the early fifties and at one
time these settlements became a complete failure. Nevertheless
they had their value for they contributed one thousand very
desirable people to other communities.
Few Norwegian immigrants were attracted to New Eng
land unless they were artisans or engaged in commercial pur
suits, but there are small but prosperous Norwegian farming
groups near Carlisle and Cambridge, Mass. near Berlin Mills,
New Hampshire and in Connecticut.
In the Southern States there are quite a number of thriving
Norwegian colonies, notably the Listonia settlement in Georgia,
Thorsby settlement in Alabama, the Oslo and Viking colonies in
Florida and the Norse colonies at Lawrenceburg, Frankfort
and Genesis, Tennessee. These andi others were founded
in the nineties mostly by Norwegian farmers from the North
who had found a change of climate desirable.
Up and down the Pacific coast Norwegian farmers are
found in numbers. Many rural communities were established
by them when the country was in possession of the Siwash In
dians, some antedating the Civil War. Martin Ulvestad credits
Washington with 60,000 inhabitants of Norwegian descent in
1905, but there must be many times that number in the State at
the present time. Oregon had quite a number of distinctive
Norse colonies some years ago, and doubtless they still are
flourishing. Several widely scattered groups of this race also
located in California, one near Golita, Santa Barbara County,
two in Humboldt County and in various other Counties.
The mountain states of Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Utah,
New Mexico and Arizona. In the rural districts of Montana
41

AGRICULTURE
the Norwegians are particuarly numerous. There are thousands
of them in Utah, probably one-eighth of the entire population
of the State and there are successful Norwegian farmers in
numbers in Idaho and Colorado.
It must be confessed that the foregoing is an unsatisfactory
treatment of a great subject.' Some day some one will have the
time to prepare something more worthy of preservation as a his
torical record.

42

INDUSTRY

CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDUSTRY
COMMERCE, finance, ENGINEERING, LUMBERING AND GENERAL
business enterprises.
By Harry Sundby-Hansen
Editor and Manager, Norwegian Section, Foreign Language
Information Service, New York
jMERICANS of Norwegian birth and lineage consti
tute a considerable force in American industry.
While by far the greatest number of the Nor
wegian group in America is engaged in agricultural
pursuits, there still remains a force of sufficient numbers to
make its influence in industrial and allied occupations felt in
the fields suited to the group's degree of skill and temperament.
For the present purpose, those engaged in strictly in
dustrial occupations as well as leaders and workers in a
variety of enterprises embracing finance, commerce, engineer
ing, architecture, the skilled trades and lumbering, are in
cluded in the general classification of industry.
In the basic industries of coal and metaliferous mining
and in the manufacture of steel the number of Norwegian
immigrants engaged as industrial workers is negligible. That
sort of labor does not appeal to the Norse temperament. Nor
way has no coal deposits and consequently that class of
workers has not been developed. Only a limited amount of
metaliferous mining is carried on, mainly copper and silver
mining, and to a somewhat larger extent iron in northern
Norway, but these industries require only a comparatively
small force of workers. Neither does Norway manufacture
steel except in a limited, specialized line.
Norway's suzerainty over Spitzbergen or Svalbard, as the
islands were called by the early Norse discoverers, offers some
opportunity for the development of coal mine workers, but this
45

INDUSTRY
field is as yet in its infancy and does not call for a very
large force of men.
Thus it comes about quite naturally that Norwegian im
migrants in America remain for the most part aloof from
these unfamiliar fields of labor.
It is an outstanding characteristic of the Norwegian im
migrant that he seeks and usually finds the kind of work
he did in his native land. People from the rural parts of
Norway settle in the rural regions of the United States; people
from the cities remain as a rule urbanites here.
It is one hundred years since immigrants from Norway
began to come in large numbers. The first of these, the
pioneers, hailed almost exclusively from Norway's rural dis
tricts and remote coast villages. They soon found land to
their liking and settled down to a life of agriculture. The
urban people did not come until later. The first arrivals
of these were laborers, sailors, and skilled mechanics. Sub
sequently larger and larger numbers of skilled workers ar
rived until the group found itself sufficiently numerous in
various cities to form societies and develop organized group
activities. Following these waves of immigration came still other
classes of workers with speciaHzed education, and not a few
with university training. Among the latter are men with
doctor's degrees in medicine, law and theology. New York
and Chicago each boasts an alumni association of the Univer
sity of Christiania. Graduates are likewise found in Min
neapolis, Seattle, and other centers of population as well as in
many other parts of the country, all contributing of their
knowledge and skill to the upbuilding of America.
Norway has no illiteracy. Consequently no illiterate im
migrants come from Norway.
Disregarding for the present those with a technical train
ing and higher education, all Norwegian immigrants possess
at least a common school education plus a moral and religious
training. In addition to these qualifications the girls and
young women are trained in needle work, ordinary domestic
duties and home making, the boys and young men in a trade
or skilled handicraft. 46

INDUSTRY
The work of the earlier Norwegian immigrants in break
ing new land and aiding materially in the tremendous task
of opening up the west and northwest for settlement, and the
growth of cities and revival of business and prosperity fol
lowing the Civil War, gave impetus to this urban class of im
migration from Norway. The pioneers had already then be
come "old settlers" and had given a good account of themselves
as officers and enlisted men in the volunteer regiments of the
Union army. Those, who by reason of age or other dis
abilities remained at home, helped to raise food.
In the earlier period of Norwegian immigration thousands
flocked to the forests of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota
where they constituted a factor in the lumbering industry.
This was a work which many were famiUar with from Nor
way. They arrived here with previous experience in wield
ing the axe and logging, and with skill was coupled a robust
physique, brawn and brain, desirable qualifications in such
a strenuous occupation. The timber was floated down the
rivers to saw mills where other Norwegian immigrant workers
converted the- logs into building materials. These were there
upon shipped to the citiees, to a large extent by means of the
old lumber schooners on the Great Lakes.
The lumber carrying traffic on the lakes in the 60s, 70s
and 80s of the last century was largely in the hands of Nor
wegian masters and sailors. In Chicago, Milwaukee and other
lake ports men are still living who can look back to the "days
of romance" when their sailing ships in endless procession
carried the lumber that went into the construction of dwel
lings for the constantly increasing population of our cities.
A big single factor which gave stimulus to the lumber car
rying traffic was the great Chicago fire of October 9, 1871.
This fire was one of the worst on record. It reduced the
greater part of the young city to a smouldering heap of
ashes in less than three days, destroyed millions of dollars worth
of property and rendered thousands homeless. Among the
victims were large numbers of Norwegian immigrants of the
artisan class. All joined with their fellow sufferers of all
47

INDUSTRY
races in combating the fury of the onrushing flames as volun
teer fireman and in rescue work.
The date of the beginning of the Chicago fire has been
adopted generally throughout the United States as "fire pre
vention day."
The city had to be rebuilt and speed was an essential
element of reconstruction. Demand for lumber and all kinds
of building material was enormous. Millions of feet of lumber
were consumed in building operations in this one city alone.
Thus Chicago became one of the most important lumber
markets of the country. In all these operations Norwegian
immigrants played a leading part. They cut the timber in the
northern forests, transported the logs to sawmills, converted
the sawn lumber into building material, carried the lumber
and materials in their sailing ships down the lakes and finally
as building contractors and artisans erected dwellings and
structures of every description. In Chicago Norwegian
builders and workmen did their full share in helping to re
build the fire stricken city.
In lumbering the Norwegian immigrant group still con
stitutes a substantial factor in the forested areas of the
Pacific Northwest. Large numbers of this group have moved
westward in the course of the last quarter of a century
until they and their descendants now make up a considerable
proportion of the population of Washington, Oregon and other
Pacific coast states.
When the first white man set foot upon the great region
west of the Cascade Mountains, he found a barricade of
forest, unconquered and apparently unconquerable by man.
Only the strong dared essay the task of making the advance.
The weak, the fearful, the doubting, the cowardly had no
place there. Where were the right men to be found?
The pampered dandy of the streets and parlors would
have perished before he had dropped a single giant tree.
But the men came. They came from Norway, the land
of hills and waterfalls, the land of lakes and fjords, the
land of rock and forests. 48

INDUSTRY
Their muscles were like the sinews of the giant firs '
themselves, tough, strong, enduring and unbreakable. Patience
and endurance they had and eternal industry. Before them
the mighty forests melted away. The stumps were uprooted,
the stubborn roots were Hterally torn from the ground.
Fields and gardens smiled where once the cougar roamed, and
civilization and culture blossomed on the vanished realm of
the wilderness. The Norwegian set to work in the forest, on the farm,
or on the deck of a ship is the forerunner and advance
guard of civilization.
The forests on the Pacific Slope are the largest and den
sest in the United States, and when removed from their
native soil, are manufactured into lumber and find their way
into all parts of the world. From the time the axe is
applied to fell the giants and until they are loaded into the
vessel that carries them to their destination, and during this
process, they are handled many times. The handling is
performed mostly by men of Norwegian birth or parentage.
The logger, the millhand, the mechanic and finally the lumber
loader who places them into the ships bound for the four
corners of the earth are, if not exclusively, though mostly
immigrant Norwegians.
Starting in the logging business with his brawny hands
and a team of oxen, the Norwegian immigrant skidded the
mighty logs down the slopes into tide water. Later, true to
his progressive nature he discarded the oxen for logging
engines, and if the territory was too hilly, he later employed
the air routes with cables and finally also became the first
user of logging railroads with powerful locomotives. Over
these roads he transported logs of unbelievable size to salt
water, where a tug boat, built by a Norwegian shipbuilder,
manned by a Norwegian . crew, would tow the mile along
raft to mills, where the great part of the necessary labor
power, skilled and unskilled, is supplied by Americans of
Norwegian birth and parentage.
A fist of the logging and mill companies on the Pacific
Slope which are owned and operated by Norwegian-Amer-
49

INDUSTRY
icans would fill pages. The one, however, who pioneered in
this work on Puget Sound was Mr. A. H. Anderson, now
deceased, a son of the Middle West pioneer, Mr. Mons An
derson of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
In the wood working trades of carpentering, house build
ing, furniture making, wood carving, ship building, general
shipyard work, including sail and rope making, Norwegian
'immigrants rank high as skilled workmen. They are more
over to be found in practically all skilled trades including
machine shops, tool making, electrical works, the manufac
ture of fire-arms and the finer trades such as watch making
and optical instrument manufacture. In Chicago and other
cities are to be found local unions of organized workers in
the carpentering, house painting and other building trades
whose membership is made uj) exclusively of Norwegian im
migrants or in which a majority are Americans of Norwegian
birth or parentage. A large number of the group is en
gaged in the printing trades and alhed industries of which
a goodly proportion are compositors on our American news
papers. In Chicago the membership of a local union of the
International Typographical Union is made up entirely of
Norwegian and Danish immigrant printers, the Norwegian
contingent being heavily in the majority. These men are for
the most part engaged in the composing rooms of Amer
ican newspapers printed in the Norwegian language.
In the wood pulp industry and the manufacture of paper
Americans of Norwegian lineage play an important part.
America is rapidly being deforested by the ruthless stripping:
of our timbered areas. Forestry experts estimate that our
forests will have entirely disappeared in fifteen years unless
steps are taken to prevent such a calamity.
The demand for news print and paper of all kinds is
enormous. The demand for wood pulp for the manufacture
of paper is bigger than America for many years has been
able to supply by reason of timber shortage. Our shortage
in the supply of wood pulp is relieved by imports from Nor
way. In return Norway buys food stuffs and other neces
saries from the United States. The maintenance of this
50

INDUSTRY
commerce is of enormous importance to the economic wel
fare of both nations. In New York and other Atlantic
seabord cities many Americans of Norwegian lineage are
engaged in the import and export business connected with
the wood pulp and paper industry.
Norwegian methods of converting wood pulp into paper,
especially into news print for our great dailies, have been
adopted by the American paper making industry, and many
Norwegian immigrants are engaged in paper making. One
of the largest American paper mills, one controlled and
operated by Noi-wegian immigrant leadership and technical
skill, is located in Maine.
Among the foremost men in this line in New York are
Mr. Jack Anderson, Mr. A. Olafsen and Mr. S. Jobs. Chris-
tensen. In the manufacture of agricultural implements and farm'
vehicles Norwegian immigrants and their descendants rank
among the leading factors. Since agriculture is the basic
industry of the Norwegian group it was to be expected that
its members soon would enter a field of manufacture so
closely related to the tilling of the soil. Foremost among
these industries are plants in Stoughton, Beloit and Madison,
Wis. where plows, wagons and agricultural implements of all
kinds are manufactured under the leadership of Norwegian
immigrants or descendants of Norwegian immigrant pioneers,
who laid the foundation of the industry. The products of
these plants are known to all American farmers for the
excellence of their quality.
One of the foremost and largest American plants for
the manufacture of tool machines is also located in Madison,
Wis. This enterprise was founded in the early 90s by the
Hon. John A. Johnson, a Norwegian immigrant. Experts
consider the tool machines produced there the best in America.
The largest chair factory in the United States, possibly
in any country, is located in Chicago and was founded by
a Norwegian immigrant. Many Americans olf the Nor
wegian group in Chicago are engaged as employers and
workmen in the cooperage business. One of the largest
SI

INDUSTRY
manufacturing plants in Chicago devoted to the making of
desks and office furniture was founded by Norwegian im
migrants and is owned and operated by their descendants.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., Norwegian immigrant leader
ship has developed a flourishing textile industry in the
midst of this, the country's furniture making center.
Mr. Alfred Clementsen the founder, is also interested in a
large number of business enterprises and is regarded as
one of the pillars of the community. In Manitowoc, Wis.
is located one of the most extensive mercantile enterprises
in America in the hands of descendants of its Norwegian
immigrant founder, the late Osuld Torrison. In New York,
Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Fargo, Grand
Forks, Seattle and other centers of population Americans
of Norwegian lineage are found in practically all lines
of business activity.
The Norwegian group has three large city centers of
population. Numerically Chicago is the largest. In proportion
to population, however, Minneapolis holds first place. New
York City is third.
The principal occupations of Norwegian immigrants in
New York are the skilled trades of carpentry and other
building trades work, and large numbers are engaged as water
front and marine transport workers in the harbor. A
characteristic occupation of Norwegian immigrant sailors in
New York is the trade called "rigging". Many of the
group are also engaged in this work in Chicago and other
cities where skyskraper construction work calls for a suf
ficient force of men to make the work profitable.
Riggers are men who by means of rope and tackle
hoist steel beams aloft to iron setters working on the erec
tion of steel skeletons of skyskrapers. These men are also
employed in moving heavy objects, when necessary to hoist
or lower them through upper story windows high above
the sidewalk. It is a hazardous occupation, requiring men of
robust physique, muscle and nerves of iron. They must
also possess a thorough knowledge of the handling of ropes,
splicing and looping. For these reasons former Norwe<^ian
sailors are peculiarly fitted for the work.
52

INDUSTRY
The business of marine surveying in the port of New York
and other Atlantic ports is largely in the hands of Norwegian
immigrant engineers. A prominent representative of this group
is Mr. Christian Nielsen of New York, well known on the
Atlantic coast as a marine engineer.
In welfare work among employes in large manufacturing
plants Mr. N. O. Nelson, a St. Louis manufacturer, was a
pioneer among American employers in this field. A system
of welfare work inaugurated by Mr. Nelson several years
ago served to focus the attention of American employers upon
his plant and to influence others to follow the example set
by this progressive Norwegian American employer.
Tobacco growing is classified both as agriculture and
as an industry. It is included in this sketch because it is
closely related to commerce in general. '
Americans of Norwegian birth and hneage are heavily
interested in tobacco growing in the state of Wisconsin.
Moreover, they are pioneers in the industry. Dane, Rock,
Jefferson, Vernon and Crawford Counties are dotted with
tobacco fields cultivated by Americans of Norwegian ex
traction. The yearly crops marketed are valued at millions
of dollars. An interesting fact in this connection is that through
Norwegian immigrant enterprise Wisconsin tobacco is now
cultivated successfully in Norway. Norwegians returning to
the mother country brought plants and seeds with them to
try as an experiment in Norwegian soil. The experiment
proved successful beyond expectations and as a result Am
ericans visiting Norway as tourists may have the pleasure
of filling their pipes with Wisconsin tobacco grown in the
Sogn district of the Land of the Midnight Sun.
One of the pioneers in the Wisconsin tobacco industry
and a leader in many other financial and commercial enter
prises was Mr. Andrew Jensen of Edgerton, Wis. Mr. Jensen
embodied the cardinal virtues of his race— integrity, straight
forwardness and sturdy honesty. In him all classes of
people placed impHcit confidence. 53

INDUSTRY
In a necessarily hurried sketch such as this and the lack
of time for research work it is manifestly impossible
to do justice by a mention of all the enterprising pioneers and
men of action who have blazed the way in industrial activ
ity among the Norwegian group. Nevertheless, no sketch,
no matter how general in scope, would be complete if it
failed to mention Mr. Magnus Swenson of Madison, Wis.
Coming to America from Norway at the age of 13 Mr.
Swenson has carved out a career unique among Americans
of Norwegian hneage. The recording in a comprehensive
way of his numerous and varied achievements would alone
require a chapter of considerable length.
Mr. Swenson worked his own way all the way up. He
was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1880.
Older students will remember him as a teacher of chemistry
and later he became noted in chemical enterprises. He is
credited with being one of the founders of the College of
Agriculture of Wisconsin, one of the foremost institutions
of its kind in the world. Mr. Swenson had a passion "for
saving waste and is credited with a big share in placing
the American sugar industry on its feet and developing the
manufacture of glycerine on a large scale. He is the inventor
of a number of important improvements in sugar refining
machinery. To this work he devoted a number of years in
Texas and other sections of the South.
Subsequently he entered the field of machinery manu
facture in Chicago.
After leaving that field he planned to retire and take a
well earned rest, but fate willed otherwise. The tremendous
water power resources of Wisconsin which annually went to
waste would not let him rest.
He set to work developing the power of the great rivers
of his beloved state. To his foresight and initiative are due
in a large measure the present tremendous water power dev
elopment of Wisconsin. The great Sauk City Dam bears
living testimony to his vision and practical abiHty as an in
dustrial organizer and builder.
Nor can a sketch such as this be considered complete
54

INDUSTRY
without mention being made of the late Mr. Anton M.
Holter, who died at his home in Helena, Mont. July ' i6,
1921, at the age of 90 years. Mr. Holter was a leading fin
ancier and an industrial pioneer in his section of the country.
He came to America from Moss, Norway in 1854. After six
years spent on the then frontiers in Iowa, Missouri and Min
nesota he set out with a party of gold seekers headed for Pikes
Peak, Colo. Meeting with indifferent success in his hunt
for gold he set out for Montana taking with him a small
sawing outfit. After many hardships he and a partner by
the name of Evenson, also a Norwegian immigrant, managed
during the winter to cut a considerable quantity of lumber.
The following year they opened a lumber business in Nevada
City. In 1867 Mr. Holter established the first sash and door
mill in Montana. In the 70s he entered the copper and
silver mining industry and in 1884 he established in partner
ship with others the first street car line in Helena. Sub
sequently he extended his mining operations to include gold
and c(fel.
Mr. Holter was at the time of his death among the best
known of the generation of Norwegian pioneer immigrants
who helped to clear the wilderness, advance the frontier and
build up the great Northwest. Two sons, Norman B. Holter
and Aubrey M. Holter, succeeded to the business in Helena.
Another son, Edwin O. Holter, is a well known attorney in
New York City.
Americans of Norwegian extraction are extensively in
terested in banking both in the larger cities and in the rural
sections of the country. This is especially true in the- great
Mississippi Valley. In the smaller citiees and towns up and
down this great agricultural region Norwegian immigrants
and their descendants are found everywhere as bank dn-ectors
and as active executive heads of banking institutions.
In New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Other large
cities thousands of the Norwegian group are to be found
as executives and employes of the leading banking houses.
: Banks founded and controlled exclusively 'by Nor-
55

INDUSTRY
wegian immigrants and their descendants are scattered all
over the country. They are, of course, most numerous in
the Middle West and Northwestern States.
The largest and most influential of these institutions is
the State Bank of Chicago, founded in 1879. One of the
founders, the late Mr. Helge A. Haugan, was at the time of
his death a power in Chicago's financial circles and a leader
in all progressive enterprises for the advancement of the city.
;. This bank, while it has drawn largely for its clientele
upon the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish groups and owes
much to their support, is nevertheless thoroughly American
in spirit and business organization and enjoys the support
of many leading Americans of other than Norse ancestry.
As president of the bank, Mr. Henry A. Haugan, a typi
cal American, is a worthy successor of his father. Another
son. Captain Oscar H. Haugan,.^ is vice-president and man
ager of the Real Estate Loan Department. In the matter
of interesting himself actively in Norwegian group interests
Captain Oscar Haugan is worthily upholding the tradition
established by his father. •
Another member of this noted immigrant family, who
contributed to the upbuilding of the Middle West, was the
late Hauman G. Haugan, a brother of the founder of the
bank. He was for many years actively interested in trans
portation development and served for forty years as comp
troller of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad.
A station on the line is named in his honor.
A large number of the Norwegian group is engaged in
railroad work, as executives, as employes in the various de
partments of railroad administration, in the train service
as conductors and trainmen generally, as engineers and fire
men, in the passenger and freight terminals and in many
other capacities. The Chicago and Northwestern Railway
Company's shops at Chicago was at one time manned almost
exclusively by Norwegian immigrant workmen and there is
still quite a number of the "old timers" employed there.
The old town of Pullman, now a section of Chicago's
aouth side, was in the 80s and 90s largely populated by
56

INDUSTRY
Norwegian workmen employed as car builders in the plants
of the Pullman 'Palace Car Co. This concern drew upon
Norwegian immigrants for large numbers of its most skilled
workmen in the fine wood working trades.
Norwegians with technical education began arriving in
the United States as early as the 60s and continued coming
in small numbers through the 70s and early 80s. These
men were for the most part mechanical and civil engineers,
though there were also a few architects and chemists among
them. The influx of technically educated men from Norway
increased rapidly in the latter part of the 80s and grew
to considerable proportions in the course of the two suc
ceeding decades. Between 1890 and 1910 the great bulk of
this class of Norwegian immigrants arrived on American
soil. While statistics are lacking it is estimated by technical
men in touch with group affairs within the profession that
there are not fewer than 5,000 engineers and architects of
the Norwegian group in America at the present time. Some
of these are American born, but the great majority are immi
grants and have received their education in the technical
schools of Norway.
A large contingent of these men was graduated from
the leading technical institute of the country, Norway's Tech
nical High School at Trondhjem. This school has given
America a number of prominent men in the field of engi
neering. Other schools represented in the group are Bergen,
Christiania, Porsgrund and Horten. In Chicago the con
tingent from Trondhjem is so numerous that an alumni asso
ciation has been in existence for several years.
While many of these men have never reached farther
than the draftsman's table, it is nevertheless a fact that the
number which has reached the top ranks of the profession
is remarkably large. It is moreover a fact that in propor
tion to population, Norway has not only given America a
greater number of her people than any other sovereign nation
on earth, but she has also given this country proportionately
a greater number of technically educated men than any other
country. 57

INDUSTRY
It would be impossible here to estimate the values sup
plied Anierica by these immigrants. That tViey are enor
mous, considered from an economic standpoint alone, no
one will seriously deny. Norway foots the educational bill,
and when the young men reach an age when, according to
natural expectation they should yield a return, they emigrate,
many of them never to return. This supply of values costs
America nothing. On the other hand America gives them
larger opportunities for the exercise of their skill and
efficiency. Space permits only a brief mention of some of the
Americans of Norwegian birth and extraction who have
made a name for themselves in the technical world. There
are many more, but to include them all would require a
large volume.
In construction work in New York City Mr. Gunvald
Aus, consulting engineer, and Mr. Kort Berle, architect,
stand out prominently as distinguished men in their line.
The two men are business partners. Mr. Aus came into
prominence in connection with construction work on the
United States Custom House, the monumental and artistic
structure facing Bowling Green. Subsequently Mr. '[Aus
added lustre to his fame by designing the steel work for the
Woolworth Building, the beautiful "Cathedral of Commerce"
on Broadway near City Hall Park, of which the distin
guished American, Mr. Cass Gilbert, is the architect. In the
designing and erection of the steel structure of this monu
mental building, the tallest of its kind in the world, MV.
Aus and Mr. Berle shared responsibilities and honors.
Mr. John A. Gade of New York is a well known archi
tect of high standard.
Mr. Olaf Hoff, of New York City, consulting engineer,
is the inventor of a new method of building subaqueous tun
nels of which examples in New York are several subway
tunnels under the Harlem river. He also built the great
New York Central Railroad tunnel under the Detroit river.
Mr. Hoff served for many years as engineer of bridges for
58

INDUSTRY
the New York Central Lines. His brother, Mr. J. H. Hoff,
a graduate of the Christiania Technical School, has followed
bridge construction in the United States for a number of
years and is now chief engineer for the American Bridge
Company at Chicago.
Mr. Carl Wigtel, of New York City, is an inventor
and expert in the manufacture of hydraulic machinery.
Mr. Otto J. Andreason is a designing and estimating engi
neer, for many years with the world famous engineer, William
Barclay Parsons, New York City. Mr. John Borge, of New
York, has for many years been identified with the improve
ment and manufacture of incinerators.
In connection with New York subway construction work
-Americans of Norwegian birth and education have taken a
prominent part. Thus Mr. Sverre Damm has for more
than twenty years been engineer in direct charge of subway
construction in the American metropolis. Mr. Berge B.
Furre and a large number of engineers of the Norwegian
group are engaged in various capacities in connection with
subway work. Mr. Guttorm Miller has likewise for over
twenty years been connected with New York subway and
other big construction enterprises.
Mr. Eugene Schou, structural engineer with the Board
of Edu-cation of New York City, has for years been prom
inently identified with the construction of the city's numer
ous public school buildings.
Mr. Nils F. Ambursen of New York is a well known
consulting, hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the Am
bursen dam. Mr. John S. Branne, of New York, is a well
known consulting engineer. In the silk industry Mr. A.
Berg, of Paterson, N. J., is a chemical engineer and expert
in silk dyeing.
In the field of chemistry Mr. E. A. Cappelen-Smith, of
New York; is an outstanding figure among Americans of the
Norwegian group. He is another of the large number of
graduates of the Trondhjem technical school who have made
their influence felt in the American technical world. Mr.
Cappelen-Smith has invented great improvement devices in
59

INDUSTRY
the copper industry. The Mining and Metallurgical Society
of America recently gave a dinner in his honor in New York
at which he was presented with the Society's gold medal in
recognition of his great services in the development of hydro-
metallurgical science. It is especially his inventions and im
proved methods employed in extracting copper from the ore
that have made Mt. Cappelen-Smith famous. He is en
gaged by the Guggenheim Co. in an expert capacity.
Mr. Tinius Olsen of Philadelphia is a pioneer inventor
and manufacturer of machinery for the testing of materials-
He was awarded the grand prize at the Panama-Pacific Ex
position at San Francisco. At Mr. Olsen's plant was built
the largest testing machine in the world for the United
States Bureau of Standards. Mr. Henrick V. Loss of Phila
delphia made the first rolled steel railway car wheels in .Amer
ica and has the Franklin Institute gold medal. Another
Philadelphian of the Norwegian group, Mr. Carl G. Barth,
is the inventor of a system of efficiency in industrial man
agement. Mr. Viggo Drewsen of New York is a leading chemical
engineer and a recognized authority on the subject of paper
manufacture. Other prominent paper mill engineers are Mr.
D. S. Jensen and Mr. Ole Berger of New York. Mr. Her
bert W. Guettler of Chicago, a graduate of the Christiania
technical school, is closely identified with the paper mill in
dustry. He is the inventor of the Guettler barking drum,
an improved method of removing bark from the logs, and
other improvements in fibre making processes.
Graduates of the Trondhjem and other technical schools
in Norway are well represented in Chicago and other cities
in the MJddle West. Many of the engineers who arrived in
America in the 60s and 70s now hold high executive posi
tions in the steel industry, in the state and municipal govem
ment, in transit enterprises and with public commissions.
One of the Trondhjem graduates of the early 70s is
Mr. Gustav L. Clausen of Chicago, civil engineer and expert
on sewer construction. Mr. Clausen was among the early
arrivals in Chicago. He has devoted himself chiefly to the
60

INDUSTRY
work of laying out cities and planning sewer systems for
cities. He planned the town of Pullman and the town of
Hyde Park, both of which now are within the city limits
of Chicago, and several other cities adjacent to the Middle
Western Metropolis. Mr. Clausen was for a number of years
superintendent of sewers of the City of Chicago and is a
recognized authority on sewer construction.
Mr. E. Lee Heidenreich is another Trondhjem graduate
of the 70s who has reflected glory on his Alma Mater. Mr.
Heidenreich is the inventor of the modern type of grain ele
vators used in America. He made a specialty of building
large grain elevators both in and outside of Chicago. Several
of Chicago's big grain elevators are his work. Mr. Heiden
reich also specialized in reinforced concrete and wrote a
book on this subject. He was considered the foremost en
gineer in the world of reinforced concrete construction. To
gether with Mr. A. A. Boedtker, also a Trondhjem grad
uate, Mr. Heidenreich built a number of the beautiful ex
hibit buildings of the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893. Mr
Boedtker was a leading railroad engineer. These two men
also built a big section of the famous drainage canal between
Chicago and Lockport, 111.
Mr. Leonhard Holmboe, a graduate of the Christiania
technical school in the early 70s, designed and built one of
the largest steel plants in America, the Illinois Steel Com
pany's South Works on the southwest shore of Lake Michi
gan at Chicago. Mr. Holmboe has been in the service of this
company for a period of forty-one years and is chief engi
neer of construction. Another graduate of the Christiania
technical school of the same period is Mr. Thomas G. Pihl-
feldt of Chicago. Mr. Pihlfeldt is a noted bridge engineer
and the inventor of many improvements in bridge construc
tion, notably in the Pihlfeldt-Ericsson or Chicago type of
"jack-knife" bridges of which Mr. Pihlfeldt has built a large
number for the City of Chicago. He is chief engineer of
bridges for the city, a position he has held for more than
twenty-five years.
Mr. Joachim G. Giaver is a noted civil engineer and
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INDUSTRY
a graduate of the Trondhjem school in the early 70s. As a
young man he held the position of chief engineer for one of the
large bridge companies of Pittsburgh. He came to Chicago in
1891 and entered immediately upon the work of designing the
steel frame of the great exhibit buildings of the World's Fair.
Subsequently he held the position of chief engineer for H. D.
Burnham Company, designing skyscrapers. He is - one of
the foremost engineers in America on skyscraper construc
tion, and is the inventor of the well known Giaver bell
foundations. Mr. Giaver was connected with the construc
tion of several of the largest buildings in the country in
cluding the Equitable Building in New York and other
large structures.
In steel plant construction Mr. A. B. Neumann of
Chicago holds an eminent place. Mr. Neumann is a grad-l
uate of the Trondhjem Technical school in the 90s and
came to the United States shortly afterwards. He is the
designer and builder of the largest steel plant in America,
possibly in the world, the great plant of the United States
Steel Corporation at Gary, Ind., on the south shore of
Lake Michigan just outside of Chicago. The plan of the
new City of Gary is also Mr. Neumann's work. He held
the position of chief engineer of the city and laid out this
newly created manufacturing town on the basis of a popu
lation of 100,000 people. Other steel plants built by Mr.
Neumann are the American Rolling Mill Company's plant!
at Middletown, Ohio and seamless tube plants for the Pitts-!
burgh Steel Products Co. Mr. Neumann is an inventor and
has patented the first blast furnace rotary distributor which
greatly improved on blast furnace practice.
Mr. J. A.' Dyblie is a prominent engineer of the Nor
wegian group in the steel industry. He too is a graduate;
of the Troiidhjem school in the early 70s. For a number of
years he held the position of chief engineer of Anaconda
Mining Co., Anaconda, Mont. He then went to the Illinois
Steel Company and is at present chief engineer at this
company's Joliet, III, works. Mr. Dyblie is an inventor and
has secured patents on many valuable improvements in the
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INDUSTRY
copper industry as well as in the iron and steel industry.
Mr. Christian Holt and his brother, Mr. Severin Holt,
are well known engineers and inventors. Mr. Christian Holt
spent all his time in the service of the United States Gov
ernment designing locks in rivers and other navigable water
ways. Mr. Severin Holt is an inventor and was for a num
ber of years with the McCormick Co., now the International
Harvester Co. of Chicago. He invented and patented several
machines built by this company and he is also the patentee
of the well known Holt cream separator. Mr. H. Claussen
and Mr. Carl Printz are well known engineers and hold
important positions with the £. P. Ellis Co. of Milwaukee.
Wis. Mr. K. Baetzman is a graduate of the Trondhjem
Technical School and holds an important position in one
of the large steel plants near Chicago. Mr. Leif Lee. has
been chief engineer and assistant to the president of a' large
steel plant in the Youngstown, Ohio, district. Mr. Halfdan
Lee, a brother of Leif, was also engaged in the steej^ in
dustry and then entered the coke making industry. He
now holds an important position with a large concern in
Pittsburgh. Mr. Gustav Bergendahl and his brother, Mr. EiUar
Bergendahl, both of Chicago, are noted engineers and build
ers. A third brother, Mr. Carl Bergendahl, has for years
been identified with bridge construction. Mr. Einar Bergen
dahl is at present engaged on the construction of the great
bridge over the Delaware river between Philadelphia and
Camden. Mr. F. W. Cappelen was until his death on October i6,
1921, city engineer of Minneapolis. Mr. Cappelen was born
in Drammen, Norway, in 1857 and came to the United States
in the early 80s. He was for some years with the Northern
Pacific Railroad in Montana and was later this company's
bridge engineer with headquarters in Minneapolis. In 1886
he entered the service of the city and in 1892 he became
City Engineer. He built the Northern Pacific bridge over
the Mississippi river near the University of Minnesota, the
Third Avenue bridge and the city filtration plant. He
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INDUSTRY
was an inventor and patentee of a number of improvements
in reduction plants.
Mr. J. Heyerdahl-Hansen is a noted engineer of the
Norwegian group on the Pacific Coast and is president of
a large Diesel engine company. Mr. Knut Dahl is chief engi
neer of the well known Union Iron Works of San Fran
cisco. He is also the inventor of the famous oil burner
used by the United States Navy for our gun boats. Mr.
J. P. Paulson is chief engineer of the C. H. Moore Iron
Works of San Francisco.
This list could be extended, but time and space forbid
it. The foregoing is sufficient to show that the Norwegian
group has made substantial contributions to the upbuilding
of our country. These men are thoroughly American in
spirit and take a pride in their work for America. The
psychology of the attitude of mind of the Norwegian immi
grant toward the Hfe and ideals of his adopted country is
that tlje transplantation process is perhaps effected with a
minimum of pain as compared with some other racial groups.
The spirit and ideals of America are largely those with which
he is familiar in Norway. America gives to the ideals within
him a quickening impulse.
In concluding this sketch of Norwegian immigrant in
dustrial contributions it is fitting that mention be made of
an important industry the Norwegian group has given our
great northern territory of Alaska. Reindeer were first in
troduced in Alaska many years ago from Northern Nor
way, where nomad Lapps are the principal raisers of these
useful animals. Lapps sustain a relation to the govern
ment and people of Norway somewhat akin to that of the
Indians with respect to the Government and people of America.
During the last twenty years reindeer raising in Alaska
has assumed large proportions and much of this industry is in
the hands of Americans of Norwegian birth and descent.
One of the foremost men in this work is Federal Judge
G. J. Lomen, of Nome, who controls a herd of 30,000
animals. Judge Lomen is a native of Iowa of Norwegian
parents. He practiced law a number of years in Minneapolis
64

INDUSTRY
before going to Alaska twenty-one years ago. Alaskan rein
deer raisers are now estabHshing markets for reindeer meat
all over the United States thus adding a delicacy to the
country's food supply by means of an industry of great
economic possibilities.
The assertions made in this sketch are based largely upon
experience and contact with men in all walks of industrial
activity. They are conservative. More could be said fori
the industry, thrift, progressiveness, integrity, and depcnd-j
ability of the Norwegian immigrant. Sufficient has been'
told, however, to show that this group has made substan
tial and lasting contributions to our country's upbuilding.j
The character, life and work of Americans of Norwegian
birth and descent deserve well of our great Republic, to
which they are all whole-heartedly devoted.

FISHERIES

CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN FISHERIES
By Thomas H. Kolderup
Vice Consul of Norway,
Seattle, Wash.
jHEREVER Norwegians have taken up their home,
whatever they have done, their sterling honesty,
t their sturdy character and their clear intelligence
have always made their mark in the development of
the country of their choice. It is, therefore, only natural that
their influence and contribution become so much greater
in spheres, where their forefathers for generations have found
their life-work, where their old country has been one of the
foremost during all time.
The writer is not in possession of the necessary facts
to judge competently of the contribution made by the Nor
wegians to the fisheries of the Atlantic Coast, but, judg
ing from the information he has been able to gather,
they have been prominent in the fishing • on that coast
from the very beginning of the immigration of the Nor
wegians to America. During the last few decades they have
also made great strides in the development of the fish canning
industry of the Atlantic Coast.
But the Norwegians have never in the fisheries on the
Atlantic Coast been represented in such great numbers that
the whole fishing industry has been, so to speak, impregnated
by them and led by them. This, however, is eminently the
case on the Pacific Coast and in Alaska. It may be said with
out fear of contradiction, that the Norwegians have pioneered
practically all kinds of fishing on the Pacific Coast, that
they have taken the initiative and carried their plans to
success as far as their limited capital has allowed. But
in the early days of the fisheries the capital held and owned
by Norwegians was insignificant and when more money was
69

. FISHERIES
required to accomplish the results they had planned, it oftei
became necessary to interest others. Too often did it ther
'6ccur, when other capital was secured, that the originators
of the plans and the successful workers in the enterprise
were ousted, the new capital claiming the credit for the
accomplished success. Nevertheless — the initiative was Nor
wegian — the first and hardest work, overcoming all difficulties
and obstacles of conditions and nature, was done by Nor
wegians. Success could not have been accomplished without
this display of initiative, intelligence and energy. .
A few words should be said about the contribution of
the Norwegians to the development of the most important
branches of fishing on the Pacific Coast, namely: Salmon,
Halibut, Herring, Cod and Whaling.
I have mentioned salmon first, as this branch of fishing
is so decidedly the most important on the Pacific Coast. The
value of the salmon catch does now and has for many years
constituted more than 80 percent of the total value of all
fish products. Up to about 1878 practically all salmon fish
ing and canning was done on the Columbia River, some on
other rivers in Oregon and California and but very little
on Puget Sound and in Alaska. In 1878 the output from
Columbia River was 460,000 cases out of a total for the
entire district of 629,191 cases. And the greatest part of these
460,000 cases of American salmon was caught by Norwegian
fishermen. Capital for canneries they had none, nor did they
perhaps know enough about the country and its customs
to conduct successfully such a business, but they had the un
tiring energy of the old Norwegian vikings, they had the
courage of their forefathers to wrest from the sea its silver
treasures. And they made a name for themselves, "Nor
wegian" became a synonym for sterling honesty and un
questioned courage.
On Puget Sound we hear of one John Brygger, a
Norwegian, who in 1876 founded one of the first salmon
fisheries at Salmon Bay near Seattle and the salmon fishing
and canning industry grew from that time on apace in
Washington and particularly in Alaska. Out of a total
70

FISHERIES
pack of 629,191 cases packed on the Pacific Coast in 1878
Alaska's share was only 8,159 cases, while in 1898 Alaska
packed about i million out of 2,484,722 and in 1918 6,177,569
out of a total of 9,692,300 cases.
The predominant figure amongst the early Norwegians in
the salmon business in Alaska is Peter Thams Buschmann, who
in 1 89 1 with wife and 9 children came from Trondhjem to
Tacoma. His influence has been more widely felt and his
achievements are probably greater than any other of the
early Norwegians in Alaska. For a few years he made his
home on Puget Sound, experimenting with different branches
of fishing and fishing business and during that time he
located and put in the first salmon trap on Lummi Island,
Puget Sound, in 1892. This location was some years ago
sold for the sum of $90,000.00, the largest amount ever paid
for a salmon trap site.
But Buschmann saw in Alaska the greatest future for
the American fisheries and in 1894 he disposed of his hold
ings in Washington and took a homestead in the southern
part of Alaska. The future proved his judgment to be
correct. The fishing products of Alaska now exceed in value
those of the combined fisheries of British Columbia, Wash
ington, Oregon and California. Out of an approximate total
value of all the American fisheries in the entire district of
72 million dollars in 1920 Alaska produced $43,443,340.00.
Buschmann started his first cannery in 1894 and later on
3 more canneries were built by him. On this homestead and
the adjoining land a town grew up, named "Petersburg" in
honor of Peter Buschmann its Norwegian immigrant founder.
This town of probably 1,500 inhabitants is one of the main
centers of the fishing business in Alaska and it is claimed,
that at least 90 percent of its inhabitants are of Norwegian
birth and descent.
In 1901 Buschmann put in the first salmon trap in Icy
Strait, Alaska, and the fishing, which was previously done
exclusively by purse seines has gradually changed, so that
now probably 50 percent of the salmon are caught by trap
and 50 percent by purse seines. Buschmann's work gave
71

FISHERIES
a great impetus to the cannery business in Alaska and after
his death most of his sons have followed in his footsteps.
His oldest son. Christian Henry Buschmann, was until his
death General Manager of one of the largest fish industries
in the United States and his second son, August Busch
mann, is now the owner of the most modern and one of
the largest canneries in Alaska. '
The process of salting salmon, packing the fish in large
tierces — "mildcure" is the technical term used — was started on
the Pacific Coast in 1893 by representatives of Einar Beyer
of Bergen, Norway, who is now the president and general
manager of one of the very large fishing industries on the
coast. This way of treating salmon was started on a small
scale on Columbia River for export to Europe, but the business
has developed greatly and the largest quantity of mild-
cured salmon is now produced in Alaska. In addition to the
quantities exported the article has also found a large market
in the United States and the yearly value of mildcure salmon
exceeds now 2 million dollars.
Halibut fishing is pre-eminently a Norwegian undertaking
and was started by Norwegians in the latter part of the 19th
jcentury. Just a sailboat and a few men fishing from dories
jOn the bank off Cape Flattery, Washington. It was at that
itime an exceedingly dangerous and hazardous task and took
men of the highest courage and intelligence. For a number of
years only Norwegians partook in the halibut fishing, but
during later years fishermen from Nova Scotia and New
Foundland have also fotind their way out here. However,!
even today about 80 percent of the hahbut fishermen are!
immigrant Norwegians.
The fleet of fishing vessels has now reached the number
of about 300 and practically all of them ^ are owned andi
operated by Norwegians. 'The type of vessels differs, quite a
number are now of the most modern construction with destil-j
late or oil engines. The crews range from 3 to 15 men!
and about a total of 1,800 men are engaged in this branch of
;| fishing. Sentimental regard for the mother-country is indiJ
cated by man^ of the names given the vessels, such as "Tor-

FISHERIES
denskjold", "Ibsen", "Eidsvold", "Alten", "Helgeland", and
"Vestfjord" and the three last names seem also to indicate
the local origin of the owners.
The sailing boat of olden days made a round-trip of about
300 miles to the banks off Cape Flattery to catch the halibut.
the modern schooner of today makes in 3-4 weeks a round-
trip of about 3,000 miles to the banks off Kodiak Island,
Alaska, and returns with a catch that may give owners and
crew a net sum of up to $4,000.00. The trips are often hard
and stormy and the fishing mostly done 20 to 60 miles off
shore, but the vessels are staunch and can ride out any storm
that a present day steamship can weather, and should damage
occur, then the ship will be taken care of and repaired at
the Vessel Owners' own Marine Railway and Repair Yard".
But accidents are few and comparatively speaking very few
men are lost at sea.
In order to judge of the importance of the halibut
fisheries on the Pacific Coast it should be mentioned that
the value of the catch in 1920 amounted to more than 7
million dollars and that more than 49 million pounds of halibut
were brought into the ports of the Pacific in 1920.
Herring is exclusively an Alaska product and was in
the early days caught practically only for bait for the other
fisheries, for fertilizer and for oil, until Peter Thams Busch
mann, referred to under the salmon fisheries, started to do
salting in commercial quantities in 1898 or 1899. Only a
few thousand barrels were then packed and a market for
these was found amongst the Scandinavians of the Middle
West. Others, mostly Norwegians, followed Buschmann's
example and the demand for the article grew gradually lar
ger. The development of this branch of fishing has been
wonderful, more than 100,000 barrels being packed in the
year of 1918. The quality of the Alaska herring is excel
lent and by experts claimed to be superior to any European
herring. Amongst business men and consumers the opinion
is prevalent that the Alaska herring will unquestionably,
within a short time, exclude any other herring from the
American market. /3 "

FISHERIES
Cod fishing is the oldest fishing industry on the Pacific
Coast, starting as early as 1863 or 1864. The cod has all
been caught in Alaska around the Shumagin Island, the
Aleutian Islands and in the Bering Sea. It was at its in
ception a strictly American undertaking, sailing ships being
outfitted in San Francisco for their season's trip north.;
A great many of the crew were, however, already in the
earliest days Norwegian fishermen. The industry has been
gradually expanding and vessels are now also being sent
north from Anacortes and Seattle, Washington. The boats
are chiefly manned by Norwegian crews and Norwegian
masters. Although cod-fishing is the oldest fishing industry on
the Pacific Coast it is of less importance than any other
in that district and the total value of the products from
1867 up to the present day amounts to only about 10 mil
lion dollars.
The whaling industry on the Pacific Coast is of very
old date, sailing ships being sent into the Arctic mostly
from San Francisco to catch the bow-heads, principally for
their value in whale^bone. Later on other products of the
whale were also partly utilized, but this manner of catchingi
became gradually obsolete and the industry dwindled in the
early part of the twentieth century down to practically
nothing. It remained for the Norwegians to introduce modern shipsi
and modern methods. Through Norwegian initiative modem
whaling was started in British Columbia in 1905 or 1906
and in the United States a shore whaling station was erectedj
in 1913 at Port Armstrong, Alaska, with partly Norwegian!
capital and under entirely Norwegian management. To this
establishment belonged three of the most modern ships, which,
although built in the United States, were exact reproduc-|
tions of the present day Norwegian whaler and did excel
lent work. Since that time three other companies, also with
part Norwegian capital, have been established and success
fully operated. 74

FISHERIES
While it is on the northern shore of the Pacific Ocean,
Oregon, Washington and Alaska, that the Norwegians have
done their greatest work and made their largest contribution
to the American fisheries, their influence has also been dis
tinctly felt in California. As individuals they have been fore
most in the catching of the fish and during later years they
have introduced modern methods into the canning industry
of sardines and tuna-fish. Several large concerns, composed
of Norwegians, are now leading factors in this industry.
A whaling company has also a few years ago been started
by California Norwegians and is already a proven success.
In this short article there is no opportunity of going
more deeply into statistics, nor more exhaustively into the
history of the fishing industry. What the writer has tried
to demonstrate and hopes to have proved is only this out
standing fact: That the Norwegians have done more than
any other immigrant group towards the development of the
present day American fisheries and that these fisheries could not
have reached the magnitude of today without this contribu
tion to America's making.

75

Sffll'PING

CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN SHIPPING
By Audun H. Teln^es
T required time and much dickering before the
Indians consented to sell Manhattan Island to the
Dutch settlers. One of the biggest stumbUng blocks
in the way of that famous bargain was the lack ot
a common language. But as history records "it, the deal went
through and the island passed out of the hands of the Indians
who appeared to have been satisfied with the compensation
amounting .in value to twenty-four dollars. This historical^
real estate deal was closed with the help of a Norwegian
sailor by the name of Sand, who acted as interpreter be
tween the Indians and the Dutch.
This incident illustrates the versatility and world-wide
experience of the Norwegian sailor. No shore, no country,
no harbor was strange land to him. During hundreds of
years his blue eyes had penetrated the unknown and always
there was a longing to roam over the big oceans. Thousands
of rugged, able-bodied, clean-cut Norwegian sailors have fared
westward in a steady stream toward America.
Accurate figures showing how many Norwegian born
sailors have helped to man American ships are not available,
but acceptable proof of their conspicuous participation in
American shipping is to be found in the fact that few Amer
ican writers of native maritime affairs — fiction included —
fail to include one or more Norwegian names in describing
the crew of ships with which the story deals. And there
is surely no American harbor where "Ole Olesen" is a myth
to shipping people and others familiar with water front
activities. Before the age of steamships— when the picturesque and
romantic sailing vessels were the ambassadors of trade, hardly
a Yankee Clipper cut the blue oceans of the world without
79

SHIPPING
Norwegian sailors on board. It happened quite often more
over that all hands in the forecastle were born in the Land
of the Midnight Sun, and the rule was that Norse sailors
were welcome on all American sailing ships. It happened,
of course, that the difference of language made it difficult
for all concerned during the first few weeks, but this draw
back was easily outweighed by the conspicuous efficiency of
the Norwegians in all a seaman's work.
There are still to be found many a Yankee skipperl
who will vow that no better sailors can be found than Nor-^^
wegian tars. Thousands of them have become American citi
zens and prefer to sail under The Stars and Stripes.
The seaman in the golden era of America's sailing vesj
sels was above everything required to know his business.
No better kept ships were wafted by the winds over tht
seven seas than the Yankee Clippers and few ships madp
quicker passages. To man these ships were needed firs|
of all men who did not shrink on account of a wet coat
and who had no fear of the many hazards and dangers of
life at sea. In such surroundings the Norwegian born sailor
fitted perfectly. From his boyhood days he was used to
hardship and the ways of the sea. Many of these sailors
came to America and their skill as seafaring men was soon
discovered and valued on ships flying the Stars and Stripes-
Reliable accounts of the advancement of .American sailors
of Norwegian lineage are lacking. A few available records
show, however, that quite a number found in due time a
place on the quarterdeck. This is especially the case on the
Great Lakes, where Norwegian sailors went in large num
bers in the early days. It is also recorded that Norwegian
born sailors by hard work and thrift became owners of their
own schooners. There was at one time a large fleet of
these ships on the Great Lakes. Many of these ships were
built by Norwegian immigrant shipbuilders who had learned
the shipbuilding trade in their native country.
In other inland waters and lakes Norwegian immigrants
have been conspicuous for enterprise. Thus Captain P. C.
Sorensen, who came to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, in 1880 from
80

SHIPPING
Kragero, Norway, built the first steamboat on that big lake.
This was the government owned "Amelia Wheaton," in the
service of Fort Sherman. Captain Sorensen served as its
skipper for a number of years. He navigated the lake in
every direction and named all the principal bays and points
besides making the first official map of Lake Coeur D'Alene.
He also was in charge of dredging the mouth of the Coeur
D'Alene river, the first work of this kind in northern Idaho.
Mr. P. W. Johnson later became Captain Sorensen's partner
and the two men operated for a number of years an ex
tensive boat building business.
In more recent times it is evident that American sea
men of Norwegian birth and descent have decided to ad
vance to the highest positions. The coming of the steam-
slwp upon the high seas seems to have fired them with an
ambition to advance to the most responsible positions in
American maritime affairs.
How strong this ambition is may to a certain extent be
gauged by the record made in the World War. During the
most critical days when the transportation of troops and
munitions of war was a question of life or death for our
gallant fighting men many American ships were navigated
through a floating hell of mines and submarines by Amer
ican skippers of Norwegian birth or extraction. Hardly a
single American transport sailed without a part of the crew
at least being immigrant sailors of the Norwegian group.
As an illustration of the numerical strength of immi
grant sailors of Norwegian lineage in American shipping to
day, it is perhaps sufficient to point out that between 10,000
and 15,000 of these seamen are employed annually on board
American merchant vessels. These figures do not include
the large number of immigrants of the Norwegian group who
are employed in harbor transport work in our ports and in
the American coastwise trade. In this particular branch of
shipping Norwegian born American sailors have made a sub
stantial contribution to the upbuilding of American shipping.
During many generations Americans of the Norwegian
group have taken a leading part in the American revenue
81

SHIPPING
cutter and lighthouse tender service. fudging from the
honorable discharges many of these sailors are the proud
possessors of, there is every reason to believe that they
have done their full duty to our government.
And what is true of the men in the government service
is equally true of the sailors of this group in the United
States Navy. Here the descendants of the Norwegian vikings
were some years back found to outnumber all other immigrant
groups among the enlisted men. The rolls of our navy disclose
a large number of names of officers and enlisted men of Nor
wegian racial origin. Large numbers of the young Amer
icans who enlist in the navy today come from the Middle
West where Norwegian immigrant settlers form a substantial
part of the community.
In one particular service of the navy American sailors
of the Norwegian group have for years served in conspicu
ously large numbers. This is in the navy transport service.
During the Spanish-American war many transports were
manned almost exclusively by sailors of this group.
There is one branch of American sea life in which sailors
of Norwegian lineage have made a contribution equalled by
no other immigrant group. This is in the field of American
yachting. Here these sailors have joined with American boat
designing ability and yacht building their efficiency as sailors
in keeping the American flag in a place of honor. For a
long time a great part of American yachting has been in
the hands of Norwegian immigrant sailors. Hardly a race
o'f consequence has been sailed in which these men did not
make up the crews of the contending boats. In the inter
national race in New York in July, 1920, the victorious Amer
ican cup defender was manned by one Dane, eleven Swedes and
twenty-two Norwegians. Among the latter were the Reso-
lute's sailing master and all the other navigating officers, j
Many American sailors of the Norwegian group have!
taken a prominent part in the organization and development
of the different seamen's associations. In this field it is only
necessary to point out that the leader of the, American or^
ganized seafaring men is an American of Norwegian birth,
82

SHIPPING
Mr. Andrew Furuseth, President of the International Sea
men's Union of America.
Before concluding this brief sketch of the part Norwegian
immigrant sailors have played in the upbuilding of Amer
ican shipping, it is proper to mention that for many years
our merchant marine has profited by the experience of a
large number of capable Norwegian shipping men, who have
helped to make it possible for our sailing vessels and steam
ers to secure cargoes in competition with the ships of other
maritime nations. During the height of shipping activities
during the World War many trained shipping men of this
group acquitted themselves with credit in this branch of
American shipping.
Space forbids a detailed account of the life and work
of Norwegian born sailors in helping to build up our great
merchant marine. This sketch would not be complete, how
ever, if we failed to call attention to the team work carried
on between Norway and the United States during the World
War with regard to shipbuilding operations. Norwegian
immigrant shipbuilding enterprise was of special importance
to America in the first years of the war. The enterprise
and efficiency of the Norwegian group helped to save many
American lives and assisted in bringing on a speedy ter
mination of the war.
This big seafaring contingent of the Norwegian immi
grant group has done its full share in the development of
-American shipping.

83

CHURCH AND EDUCATION

ll^'^

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
By Gisle Bothne
Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literature in the
University of Minnesota
^HE Lutheran church is by far the strongest of the
church organizations among the Norwegians of Amer
ica, and what the Norwegian Lutherans have done
for education is the most important contribution the
Norwegians have made to America's Making.
Americans of Norwegian birth or extraction affiUating
with other denominations have not neglected education, but
have established no schools of their own. As a rule, the
Methodists, Baptists and others have their pastors trained and
their young people educated in schools connected with larger
American institutions of learning as f. i. at the Northwestern
University at Evanson, 111. Others, as the Seventh Day Ad-
ventists, have combined with Danes in establishing schools
of their own.
To tell the story of the Norwegian Lutherans in the
United States, of the various Lutheran church bodies, their
struggles and controversies, is^ impossible within the space
allowed, although a knowledge of this is essential to a com
plete understanding of the origin and history of their educa
tional institutions.
At present there are two Norwegian Lutheran bodies
that have to be mentioned in a discussion of what the Luther
ans of Norwegian origin have done in the educational line in
America. The smaller body is the Free Church which, after separa
tion from the United N. L. Church in 1893, retained and
has ever since maintained the old established institution in
Minneapolis, Augsburg Seminary, a combination of a theo
logical seminary, college and preparatory department. The
87

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
Free Church also has established a school for girls and young
women in Fargo, N. D.
By far the larger church body is the Norwegian Lutheran
Church of America, the strongest and most powerful or
ganization of Norwegians in America. This church body was
formed in 1917 by the merging of the United Norwegian
Lutheran Church with the Norwegian Synod and the Hauge
Synod. Twenty institutions are at the present time under the
supervision of the Church Board of Education. The Board
defines its duties in the following words : "The department
of education is that sphere of the activity of the Church in
which the Church endeavors to awaken and nourish the con
sciousness of its own Christian educational mission and to
provide ways and means by which its educational duties can
be most effectively discharged. The agency which has been
instituted by the Church and through which, as a guiding and
coordinating center, the Church aims to carry its educational
purpose into effect is the Board of Education."
Of the twenty institutions eight are owned and gov
erned by the Church:
I. Lutheran Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
2. Norwegian Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.
3. St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
4. Red Wing Seminary, Red Wing, Minn.
5. Augustana College and Normal School, Sioux Falls,
S. D. 6. Madison Normal School, Madison, Minn.
7. Spokane College, Spokane, Wash.
8. Canton Normal School, Canton, S. D.
Twelve institutions not directly owned by the Church
receive aid:
9. Canada College, Canada.
10. Central Wisconsin College, Scandinavia, Wis.
II. Clifton College, Clifton, Texas.
12. Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.
13. Gale College, Galesville, Wis.
14. Jewell Lutheran College, Jewell, Iowa.
56

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
15. Luther Academy, Albert Lea, Minn.
16. Outlook College, Canada.
17. Pacific Lutheran College, Parkland, Wash.
18. Park Region Luther College, Fergus Falls, Minn.
19. Pleasant View Luther College, Ottawa, 111.
20. Waldorf College, Forest City, Iowa.
The Lutheran Ladies' Seminary, Red Wing, Minn., a
school for girls, stood in the same relation to the Church as
this class of subsidized schools until the buildings were de
stroyed by fire two years ago. It will probably be reestab-
hshed. Out of the total budget for 1921-22 of $354,086.61
Concordia College at Moorhead, Minn., which maintains a
complete college, will receive $24,800; the other eleven subsi
dized schools which are not colleges, though some have the
name, receive only $11,000. The balance goes to the institu
tions owned and governed by the Church.
Of the twenty schools above mentioned, Luther Seminary,
with 10 professors, prepares students for the ministry. Four
are colleges, only one, St. Olaf, exclusively so; three, Luther,
Concordia, Augustana, have also in connection with the college
department, preparatory schools, in the Board's official report
listed as academies. Spokane College has, in addition to
the academy, only College Freshman and Sophomore classes.
The others, listed as academies, offer high school or normal
courses in both. Of the academies the Board in its last
report says: "They are important. Through them our
Church can give to a larger number than our colleges can
reach, and at a younger age, a culture touched by the finger
of Christ. These (subsidized) schools have received only
scant recognition by the Church. It is of the utmost impor
tance that the academies should receive far more liberal help
from the Church."
In the twenty institutions 284 men and women, of whom
only a very few served part time, were employed as in
structors in the year 1920-1921, and the total number of the
students was 4,045. Sy

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
The following tables show the status of attendance and of
the number and class of graduates of the various institutions
for the year 1919-20:

Attendance

1919-20

SCHOOLS
COLLEGE
ACADEMY
Model
Boys
Girls
Boys
Girls
Total :
Music School
Luther Seminary 
87
Luther College  -
127
90
217
St. Olaf College.™  
381
330
790
79
Red Wing Seminary 
111
89
200
9
Augustana Col. & Nor
mal School 
2
n
147
226
n 40
Madison Nor. School-...
26
65
91
32
Camrose College 
18
63
81
2
Concordia College
60
66
224
201
551
177
Clifton College 
27
18
45
6
Gale College  
67
71
138
62
Jewell Luth. Col 
47
79
126
44
Luther Academy 
97
129
226
97
LuthL Ladies Seminary
'
152
152
18
Outlook College 
39
64
103
53
Park Region L. Col 
119
72
191
48 31
PI. View L. Col 
76
80
156
17
Scandinavia Academy
28
96
124
Spokane College  <..._
8
2
68
49
127
4 4
Waldorf College ..- 
120
106
226
134
Total 
580
475
1,234
1,481
3,857
859 71
90
CHURCH AND EDUCATION

Graduates 1919-20

SCHOOLS

<1 n

6

3

o

M W M M W MWMW MWMW MWMW Tot.

Luther Seminary
Luther Colleere. . 18
St. Olaf College. 65 46
Red Wing: Sem.
Aug. Col. & Nor.
School 
Madison Normal
School 
Camrose College
Concordia Col... 10 7
Clifton College. .
Gale College . . .
Jewell L. Col. . .
Luther Academy
Luth. L a d i e s'
Seminary ....
Outlook College
Pk. Kegion Luth.
College 
PI. View Luth.
College 
Scandinavia Aca.
Spokane College
Waldorf College

36

8 10 2
8 5 3

6
2 1
9 14

2
25 1 4
1
5

14 12

4 1
1 2

7 11
1

7
10

6 4
3 9
7 1
9 13

2
4 6
12

6
14

11 7 6
13 13

37 18
65 46 111
11 27 38
13 40 S3
5 13 18
3 12 15
41 37 78
14 5
9 15 24
12 3
14 29 53
26
2 2
8 18 26
9 15 24
7 21 28
16 12 28
25 36 61

Total  93 53 36 84 104 6 59 1 5 50 16 5 101 12 15 228 329 64S
Luth. Sem. — One graduate with degree B. D.
Clifton College — Two graduates from Home Economics course.
PI. View Luth. College — One graduate from Home Bconmlcs course.
Spokane College — Four graduates from Intermediate course.
Waldorf College — Four graduates in agriculture.
As to salaries paid the various classes of instructors, the
Board of Education recommended to the General Church Con
vention in 1920 the following increases, which I believe were
adopted :

Class I
Class II
Class III
Presidents

Colleges
Present Schedule
$1,500-2,000 1,200-1,500 800-1,200
2,000 and House
91

Proposed Schedule
$2,000-2,500 1,500-2,000
1,000-1,500
2,000-3,000
and House

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
Academies and Normal Schools
Class I, permanent $1,300-1,500 1,040-2,000
Class II, elected annually 700-1,500 900-1,700
Presidents 1,700-2,000 2,000-2,500
As to the resources of the schools the following state
ment is from the last report of the Board of Trustees of the
Church. In this list are not included the large gifts from
Harald Thorson to St. Olaf College nor the resources of the
institutions that are only subsidized by the Church.
RESOURCES
SCHOOLS—Luther Seminary:
Real estate, building and equipment. Ham-
line      -  119,000.00
Real estate, building and equipment, St.
Anthony Park  162,478.00
Endowments   170,014.66
Students' Support Fund  21,911.57 473,404.23
Red Wing Seminary:
Real estate, buildings and equipment  158,206.82
Endowments  -..  2,050.00
Interest in St. Peter's Church, Red Wing 2,000.00
Endowment Hauge Memorial Fund (Held
by Red Wing Seminary Alumni & Norw.
Lutheran Church of America)   40.217.71 202,474.53|
Gt. Olaf College:
Real estate, buildings and equipment  575,422.98
Endowments  -_   297,063.02
Building Fund   106,746.08
St. Olaf Corporation      34,641.96 1,013,874.04
Luther College:
Held by Luther College Corporation)
Real estate, buildings and equipment  447,549.57
Endowments (Held by Corporation)  30,320.00
Endowments (Memorial Fund)  250,000.00
Endowments  :-.-  ...-  8,791.70 736,661.27
Lutheran Normal School, Madison, Minn.:
Real Estate buildings and equipment  137,946.27
Endowments  -.-  5,087.51 143,033.78;
Augustana College and Normal Schopl,
Sioux Falls, S. Dakota:
Real estate, buildings and equipment  222,552.07
Endowments  224,705.86 447,257.93
Canton Lutheran Nor. Canton, S. Dakota:
Real estate, buildings and equipment  96,011.93
92

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
For detailed information about the institutions, their his
tory, their aims and their courses, one must consult the cata
logues, usually published every year by each one of them.
In a general way it must be said that they have served
the Norwegian section of the American people very well
and better than other institutions of the same grade could
have done. Much highly creditable work has been done by
a number of able and enthusiastic instructors, and the results
obtained by these institutions have more than paid for all
the money that has been contributed by members of the
Church. It has been an excellent and very profitable invest
ment. As a matter of course, the general aim of all these
institutions is to give young men and women an education
on the basis of the Christian faith as taught in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church. "The work is based," as one of the cata
logues puts it, "on the conviction that there is no true culture
or education without personal Christianity, and that all mental
training, in order to have real value, must be blended with
Christian faith and love."
Owing to the fact that the Norwegian Lutheran Church
of America is a merger of three church bodies that formerly
were rivals, the existing schools are not all properly located
for their future growth and success. And it may also be
said that the Church is hardly able to support and maintain
four colleges in the way it should be done in our day. But
as Cleveland said: "It is a condition, not a theory, that con
fronts us." Some of the more difficult of this class of edu
cational problems in the Church only time will solve, while
in some cases there may be consolidation.
Of the most widely known institutions of the Church,
Luther College at Decorah, Iowa, has an interesting history
and has exerted great influence. It was established in 1861,
in the first year of the Civil War, and the collection of
$75,000 to put up the first building, in those days among
pioneer farmers, still stands as an unequalled achievement of
organized Norwegians in America. It was also very fortu
nate that the leaders of the movement to establish this first
9d

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
Norwegian higher institution vigorously maintained, and at
Luther College carried through the demand that the future
pastors of the church should have a thorough training and
education without shams and frills, to use the words of the first
President, Laur. Larsen. This stand has given strength and
direction to the whole educational movement among the Nor
wegian Lutherans of America. It is especially true of all the
earlier history of this institution that the excellent training
given by self-sacrificing and conscientious instructors, in an
atmosphere created by honest and hard work, put a stamp,:
easily recognized, on all Luther College men, graduates and
former students, wherever they were scattered throughout thei
length and breadth of the land, and in whatever position they
were. In the Luther College Catalogue we read: "The chief
aim of the College is to provide a liberal and thorough edu
cation for young men who intend later to enter the ministry:
but it welcomes any youth who desires to avail himself of
its advantages." The following summary shows the number of
Luther College graduates and their present occupations, also of
other former students who have become clergymen.
LUTHER COLLEGE
Summary
Clergymen and Students of Theology  335 43.00%
Teachers  133 17.07%
Business Men  83 10.66%
Physicians and Medical Students  48 6.16%
Bankers and Bank Clerks  42 S.39%
Farmers  38 4.88%
Attorneys and Law Students  30 3-8s%
Public Service  ,  26 3-34%
Editors and Authors  12 i.54%!
Students  10 1.28%
Foreign Missionaries  6 0.77%
In Various Occupations  16 2.05%

Total Number of Graduates  779 99-99%
Deceased  ,  ,. . 96 12.31%
Students who have become clergymen without finishing the
College Course  ,  193
94

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
The obstacle to any great future growth of Luther College
is the location. Dfecorah is no longer a center of the Norwegian
population in America.
While Luther College is a school for boys only, St. Olaf
at Northfield, Minn., is a co-educational institution. It has
had a remarkable growth, and although in these last few
years has accepted only students of college grade, it has by
far the largest number of all the institutions of the Church,
and last year it had to refuse admission to many who wanted
to enter because of lack of buildings and other facilities. The
following Record of Growth of St. Olaf College was recently
pubUshed : St. Olaf College Record of Growth

Men
1899-00  153
1900-01  267
1901-02  307
1902-03  275 .
1903-04  263
1904-05  300
1905-06  306
1906-07  302
1907-08  350
1908-09  317
1909-10  294
1910-11  317
1911-12  313
1912-13  317
1913-14  292
1914-15  328
1915-16  339
1916-17  350
1917-18  267
1918-19  349
1919-20  385

Degrees

Women

Total

Granted

25

178

7

41

308

14

60

367

12

70

345

17

93

356

20

105

405

31

136

442

34

174

476

17

182

532

30

180

497

36

161

455

41

177

494

3^

206

519

3S

224

541

6]

216

508

5/

222

550

6:

259

598

9-

304

650

&

282

549

9

282

631

?

405

790

10

95

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
Distribution of Students by states
Minnesota  400 Montana  4
Iowa  125 Washington  4
Wisconsin  93 Michigan  3
South Dakota  72 Texas  3
North Dakota  52 Nebraska  2
Illinois  21 California  i
Canada  5 Maine  i
Oregon  4 Total students  790
St. Olaf College was founded in 1874. For a number of
years the name of the institution was St. Olaf School. It
was conducted as an academy until in 1886, when the name
was changed to St. Olaf College and collegiate work was be
gun. According to the catalogue also of this college: "the
chief and special object of the college is to prepare young men
for the study of theology, in order that they may become
ministers and missionaries in the Church." In addition to the
many usual college subjects offered young men and women,
and in which excellent instruction is given, this college is
especially strong in music. The St. Olaf choir has become
famous and is one of the great assets of the institution, which
under the present administration seems to have a great future
before it.
The emigration from Norway to America has been very
great, greater proportionately than ' that from any other inde
pendent nation in Europe. To transplant this nation to Amer
ican soil without losing the best traits of their character, to
make it a fully harmonious part of our American people so
as to enrich and strengthen it, has, as it should be, been the
general aim and the only real justification of the American
institutions established by the Norwegian contingent of our
people. In some instances educators may have lost sight of
what this view of the Norwegian- Ameri can institutions in
volves, but it is their only real strength, and real educational
leaders will maintain it. There are, of course, also in the
96

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America some so-called leaders
who Uke many other leaders in reality are followers of what
they at the moment conceive to be the winning side, and easily
join in the cry for false- Americanism, just now so prevalent
in many places.
The higher institutions of learning established by Ameri
cans of Norwegian birth or ancestry owe it to the people
whose money has built these schools and who have done their
share in building America by conquering the wilderness, by
clearing and cultivating the land, to give in their curricula a
prominent place to the intelHgent and intensive study of Nor
wegian literature and history. They owe to themselves as
American institutions to hit back and hit hard, at the ignor
ance and arrogance which dare to call everything "foreign"
that does not conform with the narrowest conception of Amer
icanism. They owe it, in true understanding of the idea
underlying the Norwegian-American institutions of learning, to
our glorious America which they want to make more glorious
and rich in good things by doing their share, by contributing
what the Norwegian element has that is worth while to the
sum total of America's spiritual, intellectual and moral values.
This has been the great glory and the real justification of
these educational institutions. When this view of the general
aim of these institutions no longer prevails, and they lose their
individuaHty, they will also lose their special appeal and run the
risk of becoming superfluous in the large company of American,
Christian and Lutheran institutions.

97

HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTIONS

HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTIONS
By The Rev. C. O. Pedersen,
Superintendent, Norwegian Lutheran Deaconesses' Home and
Hospital, Brooklyn, N. Y.
GREAT problem presented by the thousands of
new Americans who reach our shores is, "WilL these
people become a burden upon or an -asset to -the
state?" In order to become an asset- it is essential
first of all that every individual- or group of people be self-
supporting. To ' be self rsupporting as a group means also ¦ to
provide for those among us who may be in need of aid, -either
financial or other assistance.
That Americans of Norwegian birth and descent are self-
supporting and that they are doing the very thing mentioned
above is evidenced by the extensive social and humanitarian
work conducted by them in all parts of the country.
The immigrant: is met at the door of our nation by repre
sentatives of the group. Once settled he is introduced to -in
terests of every description. The Church, the sick benefit
and fraternal oganizations, the cultural societies as well as
the many purely social clubs vie with each other in interesting
the newcomer in their respective activities. Once a member,
and he invariably joins one or more of ' these organizations,
he i -finds that -each has a very definite problem to deal -with
and that he is expected to do his share in its solution. An
important part of all organization programs is the effort
made for the relief of the sick and helpless. The -words of
the Divine Master, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy," have in a peculiar way found favor with
Americans of the Norwegian group. Not only do they care for
their own but they share freely of their store with others.
The Church alone directly and indirectly maintains more
than twenty orphanages, nine hospices and seamen's ; homes,
lOI

HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTIONS
two rescue homes for wayward girls, eight home finding
societies, operating in as many different states, surely an
honorable record for a group as small as the Norwegian group
is in proportion to the total population of our country.
This is the chief reason why so few Americans of Nor
wegian extraction, when they are in need of assistance, be
come a burden upon the state, and why there are so few of
them found in state institutions. The group is self-sup
porting. Not only does the Church (and in the case of the Nor
wegian group 98 per cent adheres to the Lutheran com
munion) perform a truly wonderful work but also the large
fraternal organizations, the most prominent of which is the
national fraternal order of the Sons of Norway. A few
church congregations belong either to the Methodist Epis
copal Church or to the Baptist denomination.
A practical illustration of the eleemosynary work done
by the Norwegian group may be found in the following:
The Borough of Brooklyn of New York City has a popula
tion of about 25,000 of Norwegian origin. They maintain a
modern 200-bed hospital, two old people's homes, one or
phanage, a day nursery, a slum station for the unemployed,
a summer camp for poor children, several sick benefit societies
besides six or eight poor relief societies. There is a
sailors' temperance home and several employment agencies
conducted by group relief organizations. The total population
of the Norwegian group in Greater New York and vicinity
is approximately 50,000.
In Chicago, where the Norwegian group numbers fully
100,000, the Church maintains several important humanitarian
institutions notably the Norwegian Lutheran Deaconesses'
Home and Hospital, regarded by the medical profession as
one of the best equipped hospitals in the city. The group also
maintains several secular institutions such as the Norwegian
American Hospital, two orphanages, two old peoples' homes'
and a number of other social and welfare activities. The Nor
wegian Old People's Home in Norwood Park, Chicago, ii
an institution of high standard and is generously supported':
102

HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTIONS
by the group. The Bethesda Home for the Aged is also a
high grade institution for the poor and helpless.
Similar Church and secular institutions are found in Mil
waukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Seattle and other cities. There
are schools for nurses and for the training of social work
ers who wish to dedicate their life to a service of mercy
and good works for those in need of sympathy and assistance.
With such a record of achievement and active work
going on the Norwegian group feels confident that its position
in American life is all to the good. There is no "foreign
jproblem" here. Americans of the Norwegian group take care
of their own. By adding in every way to the worth and
Iwelfare of the nation we take by right an honorable part
in America's Making.

103

POLITICS

PARTICIPATION IN AMERICAN POLITICS
By N. a. Geevstad
Former United States Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay.
I HE basic facts which go to determine and explain
the part taken by citizens of Norse stock in the
political hfe of the United States are these:
I. The percentage of land holders is greater
among the Norwegians than in any other ethnic group in the
country, and for this reason their average wealth per capita
is higher than the average for the country at large. It follows
that they have a greater national stake in the country than the
average for all groups of citizens.
2. Of all non-English speaking immigrants the Nor
wegians, in common with the other Scandinavians, the Ger
mans, and the Dutch, show the highest percentage of American
citizenship. 3. They hail from one of the two most democratic coun
tries of Europe and have come, as they are coming, to the
United States thoroughly schooled in popular government.
4. In several of the northwestern states this group of
voters is strong enough to wield the balance of power between
parties and policies.
As a people of land and home owners and taxpayers
the Norwegians want to have their say as to what use is to
be made of the taxes they pay. The practical exercise of
their privileges as American citizens appeals to them as some
thing with which they seem to be familiar at the very out
set. In Norway as in the United States tjie government
rests upon the broad foundation of universal suffrage for
men and women; the organic laws and institutions of the two
countries are very much alike, and popular govemment works
about the same way in one of these countries as in the other.
107

POLITICS
Hence the Norwegian immigrant comes to feel at once that
he has merely come to a greater Norway as far as his political
duties and privileges are concerned.
The source and center of the political influence of voters
of Norse birth or blood are the farming districts and the
villages and small cities with) which tljey are dotted, in the;
middle western and western states. The typical Norwegian
in., this country is a, farmer, not a city man or industrial
worker. About four-fifths of the Norwegian element in our
bo,dy politjc are, farmers. In other words,- the Norwegianj
fa^-mer. represents the ; great , bulk of the "Norwegian vote" —
to use a common if not very commendable campaign term — ,
and, he has put his st^mp ,upon this vote : ever since it came,
to-be, felt, as a - factor in the public life of the country.
The, swelling current, of early Norwegian immigration was
made-.up,, almost exclusively, of tenant farmers, farm hands
and small farmers,, who all came to obtain what they could
not get in their native land-: farms of their own. Upon land-i
ing, these landrhungry people made a. bee line for the west,
settling:. . at first in Illinois and Wisconsin and, successivelyj
in Iowa, . Minnesota, Dakota and other western states or terri
tories where free or cheap lands were to be had. The fir^st |
thing they did was to secure a quarter section, or more, of
land after. ; taking , out their "first papers," and under the
Hberal,; or lax, local election laws in force in this part of
tljie country in those d^ys,; the new settlers were qualified to
vqte. wjthin a, few months. In many of the localities where
these people drove their stakes they were the » first comers
or made up , the majprity of the early pioneers. In such places
it fell to their lot to take charge of , public matters ; to- or^
ganize and , run some sort of local government in the pioneer,]
communities their hard toil was, building. The. ballot was
as much of a nepessary tool in their life as the, ax, the. spade,
tl^e hoe, the plow and the harrow.
So it came, to p^ss that the American Government with
w-hiqh.,the iNorwegjan pioneer ^settlers . first came into immediate ,
an4.,d^ily. contact .was, one that largely was of their own making,,
Most, of , them knew , but . very little of the English language;.
loS.

POLITICS
and were more or less unfamiliar with the methods and prac
tices of local politics in this country. Even so they would
not gp far astray by following Norwegian models. There is
no material difference between the American and the Nor
wegian types of government of local rural communities. In
Norway as here the public affairs, of a rural community are
managed by a body of men elected by the people and which,
within its jurisdiction, combines legislative with executive
powers. But county government is organized on somewhat
different lines in the two countries. In Norway the head and
executive officer of the county government is appointed by
the national government, while the law-making power of
the county is vested in a county legislature made up of the
chairmen (speakers) of the legislative bodies in the parishes,
or townships, into which the county is divided. We see here
illustrated a general difference between national and local gov
ernment in Norway, on the one hand, and state and local
govemment in the United States, on the other. Norway has
what we term the "short ballot"; only such public officials
as are vested with legislative powers are elected by the people;
all' others are appointed by some executive authority, except
ing commissioners of conciliation, communal judicial officers
who are elected by the voters of the respective communities.
There is no danger whatever of encroachment upon popular
rights in such a system in any country where, as in Norway,
the executive branch of the govemment is under the direct
and complete control of the legislative branch.
That the Norwegians, as a rule, have made wise use of
the power of the ballot is attested by the general prosperity,
the progressive spirit and the orderly character of the com
munities where they have controlled the majority vote or held
the balance of power. They have provided generously for
the public schools, for' road construction and other
pubhc improvements; and those among them who have
had pubHc funds in their care have made enviable records for
integrity and honesty in the discharge of their duties. Em
bezzlers and defaulters are extremely rare exceptions among
Norwegian guardians of public moneys.
109

POLITICS
What has been said about the Norwegian farmer as a
voter applies in a measure also to the people living in the
villages and small cities dotting the Norwegian farming dis
tricts. As nearly everywhere else in the country these small
urban communities are closely allied to the surrounding rural
neighborhoods in politics as well as by family ties and in
bi^iness relations. Many of their residents are retired farm
ers from the vicinity, and their business enterprises are
largely in the hands of sons of farmers. While the farmers
are inchned to believe that the local merchants are getting
the best of them in business, buying or seUing, the reverse
is generally true in matters political; for here the farmer
has the upper hand, and the trades people of the villages
and cities are slow to oppose him even if they do not fully
agree with his views. These conditions prevail in the Nor
wegian as in other rural districts in the western part of
the country. In the public life of our larger cities the Norwegians
have cut a much more modest figure. Very few of the early
comers remained behind in the cities of the East. As the
years passed more and more Norwegian sailors would settle
in coast cities frequently visited by Norwegian ships, and
during the last 30 to 40 years there has been considerable
emigration also from the cities of Norway, and the majority
of this urban element have cast their lot in our seaboard
cities and our industrial centers of the eastern part of the
country or the middle west. But all of these immigrants,
whether early or late comers, have settled in communities
that were ready-made in a political sense; hence they had no
such opportunities as had the Norwegian farmers of doing
political pioneering work by organizing or helping to or
ganize local political units; and, moreover, in but very few,
if any, of the larger cities have they been strong enough in
numbers to make themselves felt as a distinct factor of
importance in politics. Some years ago they were recognized
as an element of importance in the public Hfe of Chicago,
which was due in part to the vigorous leadership of able
and aggressive men, but since then they have been dwarfed
no

POLITICS
by\a growing influx of people of other race's. In such middle-
sized cities as Minneapolis, Duluth, Superior, Madison, La
Crosse, Fargo, Grand Forks, Seattle, and Tacoma they have
exercised a pohtical influence somewhat commensurate with
theii strength in numbers.
trhere is nothing startling and very little to attract any
special attention in the discharge of what may be termed the
humble, everyday duties of the voter. Yet these routine activ
ities l,orm the foundation of our whole frame work of govern
ment as a living organism in practical operation. It is true
in politics as in religion that he who is faithful in little things
fits himself, and proves his fitness, for greater tasks. Unless
the citizens provide good honest government in the local units
we cannot have clean, competent and progressive government
in state or nation. It is to be said for citizens of Norse
birth or blood that in the management of local affairs they
have used the ballot with intelligence and good judgment,
doing their full share in providing for justice, peace, good
order and healthy development in the communities where they
have made their homes.
With respect to national policies and issues of a more
general character they have, on the whole, been in Une with
the progressive forces of their time and section of the country.
They made their entrance into national politics in the trying
years preceding the Civil War, and enlisted under the banner
of Lincoln almost to a man. In the voting booths of the
North as on the battle fields of the South they fought, with
enthusiasm and characteristic perseverance, the good fight
for union and human freedom. Their staunch and soHd sup
port of the union cause was a factor of no small importance
in some districts in such states as Wisconsin.
Their early baptism in the spirit and creed of Lincoln
was to become a controlHng force of the trend of their politi-j
cal development for years to come. For a generation or
more after the Civil War the Norwegians remained all but
solidly repubhcan in national and local politics. In more
recent years other parties or creeds have found followers
within their ranks, espfecially among the "newcomers," but
III

POLITICS
the: great majority still remain true to the Reptiblican party.
Most of them have supported the progressive wing of the
party and the teachings and policies of Lincoln and Roosevelt-
names that are sacred to the Norwegians above those of any
other national leaders.
While their attitude on general issues is not free from
freakish aberrations their influence has, as a rule, been a
source of strength to constructive development along sane
conservative .Hues. In the eighties they supported the demand
for a modification of the high customs tariff in force at that
time; in more recent years the protection sentiment has gained
in strength among them. In 1896 the vote that saved the
gold standard was cast by Germans and Scandinavians, in
cluding the Norwegians. In 1912 the majority of the Nor
wegians voted for Roosevelt, and in 1916 a large Norwegian
vote went to Wilson, because "he had kept us out of war."
The strength of the peace sentiment among the Nor
wegians is due to a large extent to direct influences from
[Norway, where peace organizations were in active operation
more than a generation ago. Norway is one of the pioneer
countries in the world peace -movement and has been repre
sented on the inter^parliamentary council for world peace ever
since the organization of that body. Her conspicuous leader
ship in the cause of peace was recognized by Alfred Nobel
when he made the congress of Norway the custodian of the
-Nobel Peace Fund with power to award the peace prizes.
Immigrants who have come from Norway during these years
have reflected the peace sentiment prevailing in their native
land, and this accounts in a great measure for the heavy
vote cast for Wilson by Norwegian republicans in 1916. At
first the League of Nations, with its setting of Wilson
"points" and speeches, found general support among them;!
but as the discussion of the covenant progressed their en
thusiasm for it gradually cooled, and in the "solemn referen
dum", they voted for Harding with practical unanimity.
In the wheat states of Minnesota, North and South
Dakota two radical movements have made heavy inroads
among the Norwegian farmers during the last generation.
112

POLITICS
The first of these waves, an agrarian movement tinged with
socialism and known as populism, swept the prairies in the
early nineties. Thousands of Norwegians embraced the popu
list doctrines and helped to make the Peoples Party the power
it was for a few years. As the wave subsided the Nor
wegian populists gradually found their way back into the
republican fold.
The second wave of radicalism, which under its organized
name is known as the Nonpartisan League, is a socialist propa-i
ganda deftly masked as a farmers movement. It is not to be
denied that the Norwegians were as easily misled as any other
group of farmers by the cunning clap-trap of Townley and
his aids, and that they have to shoulder their share, or more,
for the successes of the League and the grave ills it has
brought upon the state of its birth. For in North Dakota
the Norwegian farmers are so strong, numerically and finan
cially, that it would have been impossible for Townley to
make any headway at all without the generous backing of their
votes and purses. But it is to be said for them that, as they
were among the first to be led astray they were also among the
first to recover their senses. They have taken the lead in
the war now going on for the complete up-rooting of Town-
ley socialism in North Dakota.
The Norwegians of Wisconsin are charged, or credited,
as the case may be, with a substantial share in the political
making of La Follette. In his early career he stood for a
material curbing of the power of ,great corporations which
at that time had too much to say in the government of the
state. On this issue the Norwegians were with him, and
his first nomination for governor was made possible
only by their unwavering support. After his second adminis
tration they began to fall away, though he still has many
Adherents in their ranks, but most of these followers are mem
bers of I the Nonpartisan League.
In the war upon the liquor traffic the Norwegians, along
with the Swedes, have taken a strong and leading part, up
holding > the ¦ cause of temperance at all successive stages Of
the movement as indicated by the slogans "high license,"
"3

POLITICS
"local option," and general prohibition. In the Northwest
in particular the Norwegians and the Swedes have furmshed|
the bone, marrow and sinews of the temperance movement.
Illiteracy is unknown in Norway. English is taught in
all schools of that country, from the high schools and up.
The Norwegian immigrant learns English quickly and Ameri
canizes readily. Coming from a country with a constitution
second in age only to that of the United States and as
democratic as any organic law that was ever framed— from
a society where a caste of nobility has been unknown for a
hundred years— Norwegians feel at home here as soon as
they land. The first comers were eager to become full-fledged -
Americans at once and to be nothing but Americans. They J
cut all ties with the native land, except exchanging letters
with relatives, who were urged to come over and join them.
Their loyalty to America and her institutions was forcibly
illustrated not only by their whole-hearted support of the
national cause in the great crisis of those days but also,
among other things, by their vigorous defense of the pubhc
schools against insidious attacks.
As they were increasing in numbers and planting settle
ments and organizing congregations all over the northwestern
prairies they came to feel that they formed a distinct body
of people like other racial groups hailing from other coun
tries; and that they, in the historical traditions, religion,
language, literature and art of their native land had a pre
cious national heritage worth preserving for the benefit of
themselves, their children and their adopted country. This;
sentiment has been stimulated by the rapid progress in social j
and political betterments made by Norway during the last
two generations and by her remarkable achievements in lit
erature and the arts, in science and exploration. That Nor
way, though small and comparatively poor, has forged so
conspicuously to the front in all developments of higher]
civilization has nourished and strengthened their pride in
their native land and their race. And believing that they are
here not only to receive but also to give something besides
their loyalty and their labor they feel that by treasuring th^
"4

POLITICS
best of their national heirlooms they will do their part to
broaden and enrich the moral and intellectual life of America.
But they have but one flag. Old Glory, and it is because they
love America that they strive to give her the best of what
they are and what they have.
As public speakers, leaders of political assemblies and
candidates for public offices, citizens of Norse birth, excepting
those that have come in their tender years, have been handi
capped in various ways. Public speaking is not taught in the
schools of Norway nor so highly developed as it is here.
Nor is the Norwegian temperament such a fruitful soil of
oratory and eloquence as, for instance, the American or the
Irish. Moreover, the Norwegian who has come to this
country a grown-up man cannot get rid of his brogue entirely,
though he otherwise may learn quickly to master the English
language. He knows that his particular brogue is not the
privileged one in this country and that his speech will sound
somewhat odd to the audience ; and as he is sensitive of
ridicule, expressed or suspected, he is apt to remain passive
and silent, even though he may feel that he has something
to say worth hearing; or if he speaks he will do so haltingly
from lack of confidence in his delivery. As office seekers he
is lacking in the aggressiveness with which some other groups
of voters are more generously endowed, and is held back by
an inherited belief in the doctrine that the office should seek the
man, and not the man the office. In Norway, until a few
years ago, it was an un-heard of thing for a man to announce
himself as a candidate for an elective office; and to soHcit
votes for oneself was a misdemeanor under the law punish
able by fine or imprisonment. This view of public office
was common among Norwegian immigrants until compara
tively recent times. It has plainly been a handicap in a country
where it is proper for a man who wants an elective office
to say so frankly and as loudly as he can and to do his best
to get it.
In the smaller political units these obstacles have made
themselves felt only to a limited extent. There men of
ability are known, personally or by reputation, to pretty neai
"5

POLITICS
all thei voters, and public servants of the community are
chosen not for their oratorical abilities but on their known
merits for positions of public trust. Whether a village
trustee, or a county treasurer, or a register of deeds, speaks
with a brogue or not is of small consequence; all that mat
ters is that he is honest and otherwise well qualified.
What is known as clannishness in politics, a weed that
grows most readily in a many-tongued society, is found
among the Norwegians as among other groups of voters. It
is more or less customary to attribute clannishness only to
voters of foreign birth or extraction, but that is a mistaken
view. The group spirit crops out among all classes- of
voters and in all parts of the country. It is a source of
mischief, yet it is not wholly unnatural nor is it easily
uprooted even in an homogeneous society. It is born ofi
the greater trust a voter has in the candidate he knows bestI
or whom he regards as most closely identified with his own
interests. The "farmer vote/' the "labor vote," etc., are'
manifestations of class clannishness, and even in our national
politics section-clannishness is frequently appealed to as an
argument in favor of an eastern, a western, a northern or;
a southern candidate, as the case may be. But while the Nor
wegian is not free from clannishness he is less influenced by;
this spirit than are many other groups of voters. It is to
be noted in this connection that as an American voter he has
no foreign interests to serve. In casting his ballot he hasi
never been called upon or tempted to consider the fate or for
tunes of his native land. His ballot is ail-American, even
if it may at times express a narrow American point of
view. He is apt to prefer a candidate of his own blood if
he believes that he is as good a man, or almost as good .a|
man as the opponent or opponents of other blood, but that
is as far as he will go. It is to be remembered, moreover,
that in a constituency made up of two or more racial groups
clannishness is invoked as a means of justified defense against!
unreasonable opposition more frequently than it is resorted
to as a weapon of aggression. Ii6

POLITICS
In the states or districts where they have made their
homes the Norwegians have had about their "share" of pub
lic offices, as measured by their voting strength, in some
places more, in others less. This applies more particularly
to local offices, membership in state or territorial legislatures
and state offices below that of governor. A fair percentage
of such honors have fallen to the lot of citizens of Norse
birth, though in more recent years they have gradually
come to step aside in favor of their own sons born or brought
up in this country.
Citizens of Norse blood who have held pubHe positions
of a broader scope and which, if elective, are filled by larger
constituencies of voters, have, with some few exceptions,
Ibeen men who either were born in the United States or re
ceived their schooling here.
The pioneer Norseman in the broader field of American
poHtics is the Honorable Knute Nelson of Minnesota. But
he is a ¦ typical American in everything except his place of
birth. He landed here at the age of six years and received
his elementary American education in our public schools
and as a newsboy in Chicago. As a boy of eighteen he
jvolunteered for service in the union army, carried the musket
on many southern battle fields and was left for dead after a
battle in front of Fort Hudson, La. But for the timely
nursing of some kind rebel ladies who took pity on the
slender youth he would have been buried there. Returning
from the war he worked his way through an academy, studied
;law, was admitted to the bar and shortly afterwards was
sent to the legislature from the district where he lived with
his widowed mother in Wisconsin. Attracted by the tempting
opportunities in virgin Minnesota he went to that state, took
a homestead near the village of Alexandria, where he has
lived ever since; was promptly drafted into the service of the
¦county and subsequently sent to the legislature, where he saw
service in both houses, and in 1882 was elected to Congress
jfrom- the "bloody fifth" after, the most memorable political
battle in the history of the state. After serving three terms
iMs popularity with the people was so firmly established that
"7

POLITICS
he had no opposition either for the nomination or the elec
tion to a fourth term. But his private affairs demanded
his attention and he refused to stand as a candidate. How
ever, his rest was to be of short duration. In 1892 the Re
publican party of the state was in such a demoralized con
dition that its only hope of victory was pinned to the
leadership of a man who enjoyed the confidence of all the
people. Knute Nelson was drafted to head the ticket as
candidate for governor and led the party to victory along
the entire line. Soon after his re-election as governor he was
sent to the United States Senate, where the "Grand Old
Man" of Minnesota is now ser-ving his fifth term.
During the heyday of popuHsm in the nineties, two of
the Congressional districts in the northern part of the state
were carried by that party, each selecting a citizen of Nor-i
wegian birth and education to represent it in Washington;
for one term. Of Minnesota's ten representatives in the
lower house of the present Congress three were born in
this country of Norwegian parents, while one came here from
Norway as a youth of tender age. The present governor
of the state, J. A. O. Preus, represents the third generation
of the Norwegian people in America. Excepting but one,
of his predecessors he is the youngest man ever elected gover-j
nor in Minnesota.
In Wisconsin the office of governor has been filled for twoj
terms by an adopted citizen of Norwegian birth, and thel
present chief executive of the state was born in this country|
of a Norwegian mother. One of the Congressional districts:
in the northern part of the state was in the nineties repre-|
sented for three terms by N. P. Haugen, born in Norway butj
brought up and educated in this country. He declined a
fourth nomination to enter a contest for the govemorshipi
and came within a hair's breadth of landing the prize. He
has since distinguished himself for his soHd abiHty as a
member and head of the tax commission of the state. Since
1906 the third Congressional district has been represented
continuously, with the exception of one term, by John M.
Nelson, born in this country of Norwegian parents.
118

POLITICS
While the "Norwegian vote" is comparatively stronger
in North Dakota than in any other state, no citizen of this
group has ever filled the executive chair at Bismarck. But
the ticket of the conservative forces in the recall-campaign
now going on in the state is headed by a Norwegian-born
candidate for governor, and the indications are that this ticket
wiU win. In the Congress of the United States North Dakota
has been represented by two citizens of Norse blood in either
house, all born and educated in this country. One of the
senators, A. J. Gronna, serving two terms, displayed a fertile
initiative and came to be recognized as a leader within his
group of the Republican party. The present representative
from the first district, Olger B. Burtness, was born of Nor
wegian parents on a farm near the city of Grand Forks.
Two governors, one United States senator and one con
gressman are to be credited to the Norse element in South
Dakota — all born and educated in this country. Peter Norbeck,
who served four years as state senator, two years as lieu
tenant governor and four years as governor, occupies a posi
tion in his state similar to that of Knute Nelson in Minnesota.
He is strong in the confidence of the people and has kept his
party in good shape, disarming the radical elements by com
mitting it to and enforcing a program of practical progressive
legislation. He has just taken his seat in the national senate,
where we may expect to hear from him after a while.
Charles A. Christopherson is serving his second term as rep
resentative from the first district. Before he was sent to
Congress the first time he had served as speaker of the house
of the state legislature for two terms.
In Iowa the Norse element has been more or less active
in local politics and has made its influence felt in the legislature,
but its only conspicuous representative in national politics is
G. N. Haugen, now serving his eleventh term as a member
of the lower house from the fourth district. He was born,
Ibrought up and educated in this country.
Illinois has had no representative of the Norse race in
Congress until M. A. Michaelson was elected in the seventh
(Chicago) district last fall (1920). He was born in Norway,
119

POLITICS
but landed here at the age of seven and hence is American
by education and training.
New Mexico counts but a handful of Norwegians within
its borders, but one of them, -Holm O. Bursum, is now serving
the state as United States senator. He is a full-blooded Nor
wegian, but ail-American by birth and education.
It may not be amiss to state in this connection that the
mother of United States Senator Reed Smoot was born in
Norway. Like most other men of mark the strong Republi
can leader probably can thank his mother for a generous
part of his mental equipment.
Three citizens of Norse blood have represented our gov
ernment as heads of diplomatic missions to foreign countries.
Two of them were born and educated in this country, while
one was born and educated in Norway. The present consul-
general in Constantinople was born in Norway and received
his education there.
The public officials mentioned in the foregoing and other
men of Norwegian extraction who have held official posi
tions have discharged their duties creditably and some of
them have disf)layed marked abilities. Senator Knute Nelson
is in a class by himself. In all positions of public trust
he has held as state legislator, congressman, governor, and
United States senator, he has borne himself in a manner that
Hfts him far above the average. Sterling patriotism, a vast
store of practical common sense, keen, penetrating judgment,
the knack of getting to the bottom of everything he tackles,
indomitable courage and sensitive integrity and an inex
haustible capacity for work are the outstanding features
of the political profile of this great American. His record
in the Senate is in some respects altogether unique, and
to men in a position to know it is no secret that for many'
years he has been one of the half dozen men, more or less,!
who have been doing the real work of the Senate.
As chairman of the committee on judiciary, Andrew
Volstead has shown reHable ability and, incidentaHy, achieved;
national fame. Halvor Steenerson has done good work as
chairman of the committee on postal affairs, and Harold
120

POLITICS
Knutson is at the head of the pension committee. Sidney
Anderson has attracted attention by his work on the appro
priations committee and in other ways. Gilbert Haugen, in
charge of the committee on agriculture, and who is thoroughly
familiar with the economic conditions of the country, espe
cially in the farming districts of the west, and a man of
sound business judgment, has shown himself to be the right
man in the right place.
In this connection it may not be out of place to state
that public servants of Norse stock have taken the lead in
bringing about reforms ' that promise to insure a quicker,,
easier and steadier marketing of the grain crops of the west!
For some time Mr. O. P. B. Jacobson, railway and ware
house commissioner of Minnesota, has been emphasizing, in
reports and public speeches, that the lack of terminal ele
vators in the eastern seaboard cities, is the chief obstacle
to easy and uninterrupted marketing of western grain. His
view has been endorsed by the Interstate Commerce Commis
sion, and a bill to compel railroads to build such elevators has
been introduced by Knute Nelson in the Senate and Sidney
Anderson in the House.
Another Norwegian has won laurels by his work in the
field of taxation, one of the most difficult problems confront
ing any government of any country at any and all times.
Mr. N. P. Haugen, for many years head of the tax com
mission of Wisconsin and honored with the presidency of
the National Association of State Tax Commissioners, has
accepted a flattering invitation from Montana to study the
tax system of that state and suggest needed and beneficial
reforms. The radical theories and movements that have made con
siderable headway in this country in recent years have found
adherents also among the Norwegians of the west and the
far west. It has been asserted by some that the Norwegians
have contributed more than their proportionate share to
the red hosts. That is not a fact, with the possible exception
of a few scattered localities. But it is true that in recent
years Norway, in common with other countries in Europe,
121

POLITICS
has sent a not inconsiderable number of sociaHsts and other
radicals to this country, and after landing here these people
have sought the company of their kind. Like other radicals
they are denationalized, or cosmopolitans; they are neither
Norwegians nor Americans.
The vast bulk of the Norwegians in this country are
either conservatives or believers in sane progressive policies.
Yet the Norwegian is always ready to listen to new doctrines
and at times may be led into new paths more easily than some
other racial groups. Unlike the typical American the Nor
wegian is very slow to accept new ideas in business matters,
while he is much quicker to embrace new notions in matters
social and political. This is also one of the reasons why
Americanization comes to him as a matter of course. But
if he is inclined to test all his aim is to keep the best,
and that is what he generally succeeds in doing in the end.
Taking the political history of the Norwegians in Am
erica as a whole it may be said truthfully that the Norsemen
in this country have shown themselves to be worthy sons and
daughters of a race of state-builders.

122

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
By Julius E. Olson
Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literature in ihe
University of Wisconsin
HEN the melting-pot of the great Northwest shall have
ceased boiling, when the various racial elements that
have been hurled into it shall have become fused,
and the historian of the future undertakes to de
scribe the constituent races, he will find it possible, on the
basis of reliable records, to give an adequate account of the
part that -the immigrant race from Norway contributed to the
resultant formation.
One of the functions of literature is to inform posterity.
Much of even great literature received but scant recognition
from the age that produced it; but a later age perceived its value.
The Norwegian immigrants in the United States have already
done much through their various intellectual activities to inform
posterity. Like the Norse colonists of the ninth century in Ice-
iland, they have conscientiously garnered the facts of their migra
tion and colonization. These records are to be found in the
columns of their newspapers, in individual memorabiHa, in let
ters to the home-country that are gradually coming to light,
and in inexhaustible contributions of pioneers to the press of
both this country and Norway, to say nothing at this point of
works of conscious historical character. In our age the press
has become in large measure the storehouse of early achieve
ment, from which the historian and the literary worker will find
both facts and creative impulse. And in this modern. age the
iwork of transmutation of the records of pioneer Hfe into perma
nent historical or literary form is not a matter for a very remote
future. It has in fact already begun. The part that the Nor
wegian immigrants played and are playing in the Making of
America is gradually being revealed in ever clearer- outhnes in
125

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
historical accounts of great and small dimension, and in poems
and novels. It has proven a very difficult matter for native
historians to give satisfactory account of immigrant groups for
lack of written records. So far as the Norwegians are con
cerned it does not seem hazardous to assert that no non-Eng-
Hsh-speaking race that has come to these shores— regardless of
numbers — has done as much as the Norwegian pioneers to
preserve the records of their early life and experience in the
new home. And what is more, the records of no other foreign
group will, it may be emphatically declared, reveal such devotion
to the new home, such loyalty to the institutions of the land, and
such high hopes for its future. The Civil War was the first
great test of this loyalty and faith. There had for two decades
preceding been a steady stream of immigration from Norway.
The coming conflict had already been sensed by the young Nor
wegian press, which, in consonance with the democratic heritage
from the home country, quickly aligned itself with the anti-
slavery movement.*
The first Norwegian paper in America, Nordlyset (Northern
Lights), begun in 1847, was an advocate of the Free Soil move
ment. The first number presented, as an introduction to the
public, a translation of the essential parts of the Declaration of
Independence, with a cut of the American flag at the head of the
column. A recent historical investigator, Mr. Albert O. Barton,
of Madison, Wisconsin, in an article on The Beginnings of the
Norwegian Press in America, says concerning the extract from
the Declaration:

* It is a remarkable fact that Ole Rynning, an educated pioneer of
1837, in a booklet on America ifor the instruction of prospective emigrants,
published in Norway in 1838, sounded the keynote on slavery in these
prophetic words : "An ugly contrast to this freedom and equality which
justly constitute the pride of the Americans is the infamous slave traffic,
which is tolerated and still flourishes in the southern states  The
northern states try in every Congress to abolish the slave trade in the
southern states;- but as the latter always oppose these efforts, and appeal!
to the right to settle their own internal affairs themselves, there will in
all likelihood come either a separation between the northern and southern^
states, or else bloody civil disputes." 126

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
"This was a happy conception of the editor, and was to
prove of good omen. It pointed the hopes and ideals and sym
pathies of the newcomers from the Northland. The lofty prin
ciples of the Declaration . . . appealed to the freedom-
loving minds of the immigrants from the North, and it is to
the credit of their nationality that in this free land of oppor
tunity they have lived up to, and sustained, these principles and
ideals in their best sense."
This first newspaper lasted but two years. Its successor,
Emigranten, began in the latter part of the 50's to argue against
slavery. Its influence was felt. During the Civil War one-
sixth of the Norwegian population enlisted, which was a better
showing than that of the native born, which was one-eighth.
The quintessence of Norse sentiment toward the war is pre-
:sented in the career of Colonel Hans C. Heg, a pioneer lad of
the 40's, in whose father's house the first numbers of Nordlyset
were printed. He was the first Norwegian to be elected to a
state office, which he resigned, after a re-election, to form a
Scandinavian regiment, the 15th Wisconsin. He proved himself
a most efficient officer and was on the eve of appointment to a
generalship; but he was mortally wounded in a gallant charge at
the battle of Chicamauga. His last words were: "I am wiUing
to die, for I have fought for a righteous cause."
The sons of Norwegian immigrants stood the test of the
Great War equally well. The deeds of daring performed by
many of them, as evidenced by the recognition received from
mihtary and governmental authorities, shine resplendent. These
records of individual valor have already been collected and sym
pathetically presented in English (see The North Star magazine
for Dec. 1920), by Carl Hansen, associate editor of Minneapolis
Tidende. This article shows how alert the editors of the Nor
wegian press have been to record anything that would do honor
to the race. And there has evidently been a special reason for
this last example of journalistic alertness. In the dark days of
the war there were alien groups on these shores whose loyalty
to America was questionable. This fact cast suspicion on all
foreign groups. The use of a foreign language, was viewed by
127

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
the great mass of native Americans as an act of disloyalty; and
showed lack of devotion to the institutions of the land. In some
states the use of 'foreign languages in the churches was not only
frowned upon, but actually prohibited. The Norwegians, con
scious of a clear record as to loyalty, smarted under this czar-
istic treatment. They still feel the sting. Native Americans,!
with many notable exceptions, have found it impossible to under-!
stand the attitude of the alien toward his native land. They
have assumed that language is an index of loyalty. They have
not only failed to grasp the fundamental idea of the alien's love
for his mother tongue and the memories of the land of his
birth, but they have seemingly had no conception whatever of
the vital necessity for foreign groups to maintain their lan
guages, their press, their churches and social institutions, not
only for their own happiness and welfare, but also for the ul
timate advantage of the land of their adoption. It is the pro
found conviction of the writer that Norwegian churches, schools,
press, and other activities of allied character have not been
antagonistic to republican institutions and a stable state of,
society in this country. As the years pass, and results become
apparent, it is evident that the very opposite is true. A Dano-
Ainerican investigator of this question, -with the Norwegian
situation particularly in mind, declares it as his conviction that
these things "instead of being a menace to our state, form one
of the main safe-guards of this country against the dangers
accompanying the large influx of people of foreign nationality."
The chief point of the above contentions with respect to
the theme of this essay is that the maintenance of the Nor
wegian language, to the extent that it has been maintained
(which has been in no exclusive sense whatever), the churchj
and its schools, and to some extent the various social organ-!
izations outside the pale of the church, such as the numerous
singing societies and philanthropic unions, have made possible
both a Norwegian press and a Norwegian literature among the
Norwegian pioneers and their descendants. When an alien
population, very limited in number to begin with, and un
affected by any propaganda from the home country, can ac
compHsh' anything along the lines of higher humanistic
128

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
endeavor, it is a sign of cultural ambition, and deserves recog
nition. If it was conceived in love for the land of their
fathers, it is sure to develop into love for the land of their
children. But as a matter of fact, love for the new home was
an early growth among the Norwegians. Thousands of testi
monials could be adduced to prove it. Despite frequent heart
aches, sore trials and tribulations, the large majority of
Norwegian immigrants were satisfied with the new home.
They were quick to see its vast possibilities for their chil
dren, if not always for themselves. But for the church and
the press, their fate would more often have been tragic, —
which emigration to a certain extent always is. In the course
of time, they saw the fruits of their toil: the prairies billowed
with golden grain, the pastures gleamed with sleek cattle.
They prospered. They built comfortable homes, stately
churches, academies and colleges to guard and educate their
children. But for their own Norwegian institutions, even with
their wealth, they could not have been happy in a foreign
land. First contentment, and then prosperity: these are the
source of Norwegian prestige in America. It could not have
been achieved without the church and a sympathetic press.
All of the activities of the church in the pioneer days were
staunchly and generously supported by the press. It was a
mutual matter. The press needed the church, and the church
needed the press. This mutuality made possible the gigantic
;organization of the church, and the substantial and independent
position of the press, as both exist today.
Fortunately for both the press and the church, the Nor
wegian immigrants settled in compact groups. It was fortu
nate for the pioneers in more ways than one. Among other
things, it developed political prestige. The native American
politician has learned to have respect for compact groups.
These brought pohtical recognition and an opportunity to
iparticipate in governmental affairs, which was of course bene
ficial both to the immigrant and to the country, for it fos
tered a sense of responsibility for good government. The com
pact group has, therefore, been the source of whatever distinctive
achievements the Norwegians have attained as a racial element
129

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
in this country. This alone has made it possible to assert
themselves, and to advance gradually and naturally toward
the ultimate goal of complete Americanization. For no Nor
wegian group has ever dreamed of the possibility of perpetuat
ing the Norwegian language as the language of the home, the
church and the press. On the whole, therefore, it is apparent
that the Norwegian group has acted in accordance with the
best interests of its people and its organizations, and has in-j
stinctively felt that this would also inure to the best interests!
of the country. It cannot be denied that the process has-
nurtured a sane and admirable spirit of loyalty to this country.j
The Norwegian immigrant press was the forerunner and
fosterer of the Hterature of the pioneers. The story of the
development of the press is a long and intricate one. Only
a brief survey can be attempted. Over four hundred news-;
papers and magazines have been started. There has been an
interminable process of absorption and combination. Wonder-!
ful and lasting success was at times achieved, of which there
is evidence today in the ones that weathered all the storms.
As we shall see, at least a half dozen are today strong and
prosperous, despite the prophesies of a half century ago that
the foreign language press was doomed to an early demise.
These sturdy survivors have proved themselves to be the trusty!
guardians of their people. They have wisely encouraged their'
political activities, nurtured their intellectual aspirations, and!
supported their ecclesiastical institutions most generously.
Beginnings are usually interesting, and often significant.!
The first Norwegian paper was begun in the Muskego settle-!
ment, near Milwaukee, in 1847. The first issues were printed
in a log cabin in the country. The subscription list never
exceeded two hundred. The cholera epidemic which stalked
through the settlement in 1849 had a paralyzing effect. The
infant press did not survive it. But it had lived long enough
to give political prestige to its editor, James D. Reymerty
whose career is a kaleidoscope of romantic interest, begin
ning with a seat in the second constitutional convention of
the state in 1847, and ending with the appointment to a
judgeship in Arizona by President Cleveland. The equipment
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LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
of Nordlyset was soon employed in another enterprise of even
less duration, but which called into the journalistic field one
of the great editors of a later period, namely, Knud Langeland.
At the beginning of the year 185 1 there was no Norwegian
newspaper or journal pubHshed in America; but between 1850
and i860 seven were started, two of which were church or
gans; and of the seven, five were published in Wisconsin,
and two in IlHnois. At this time, by the census of 1850,
there were about 13,000 Norwegians in this country, of which
more than two-thirds were in Wisconsin. Of these seven
papers only one was well edited, namely, Emigranten, begun
in 1852 by representative churchmen. It was removed to
Madison as an individual enterprise in 1857, and immediately
became a staunch supporter of the republican party, born the
year preceding. It is of interest to note that the pubHsher
and editor of this paper, Mr. C. F. Solberg, of Milwaukee,
is the sole survivor of the pioneer editors of the nationality.
He was born in Christiania, Norway, in 1833, removed witb
his parents to Denmark as a lad, and was educated at the f^t-
-mous Soro Academy, the Eton of Scandinavia at that time. It
!was primarily a school for sons of the Danish nobility, and
sought to turn out educated gentlemen, adept in all the social and
athletic accomplishments. In 1852 he emigrated to America
!with his parents. After a brief sojourn in New York City, he
went with his parents to Ole Bull's colony in Pennsylvania,
of which the father became the manager, and the son a farm
hand and lumberjack. The latter came to Wisconsin in 1856.
Emigranten remained in Madison, with Mr. Solberg as editor,
until 1868. It therefore feh to his lot, as the editor of the only
important Norwegian newspaper in America during the Civil
War, to champion the cause of the Union, and this he did
in a spirit of ardent loyalty. His zeal was so great that he
spent several months in the South with the army as a corre
spondent for his own paper.
The first Norwegian pubHcation in the nature of a maga
zine was Billed-Magasin, which was published at Madison, by
fi. W. Suckow, who had been the secretary of the ill-fated
Ole Bull colony. Its chief value lies in the fact that it
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LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
contains a series of articles on Norwegian settlements, pre
pared by the editor, Svein Nilsson, a graduate of the Univer
sity of Christiania, on the basis of personal interviews with
pioneers. The leadership that Emigranten had held so staunchly
during the war, was at its close assumed by Skandinaven,
of Chicago, started in 1866, and which ever since has been
a fearless champion of the Norwegian people, the Republican,
party, and American ideals in government.
Following the westward trend of Norwegian emigration,
several Norwegian papers appeared in Minnesota during the
the 70's and 8o's, the most important of which was Budstik-
ken, which in many ways was both original and independent,
and for a time had much influence; but in 1889 it was ab
sorbed by Minneapolis Tidende, at present the most impor
tant Norwegian paper in the state.
During the period from 1878 to 1887 five newspapers
were started in North Dakota, of which Normanden, of
Grand Forks, is a lusty survivor. By 1890, three papers
had appeared in South Dakota, of which two survive.
Visergutten, of Canton, and Fremad, of Sioux Falls, are now
the leading journalistic representatives. Decorah-Posten, started
in Decorah, Iowa, in 1874, is one of the staunch pillars of
the Norwegian press of today, ably edited by Jobs. B. Wist.
As Norwegian emigration swung toward the Pacific coast,
the press was not slow to follow. Possibly a dozen papers
have been started there. Washington-Posten, edited by Gun-|
nar Lund, was begun in 1889, and has become a worthy col-i
league of the four giants of the Middle West.
Among a number of attempts to found Norwegian papers|
on the Atlantic seaboard that have been made, only one re-'
mains, namely. Nor disk Tidende, of Brooklyn, started in i8gi.
After many vicissitudes, it finally came under the capable edi-i
torial management of A. N. Rygg, who has made it the!
spokesman of the large Norwegian population of New York
and Brooklyn, in close touch with the varied industrial and
artistic activities of the seaboard.
Since the days of the Billed-Magasin of the 6o's, there
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LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
has been but one other magazine adventure of similar impor
tance, namely, Symra, launched in Decorah, Iowa, in 1905,
under the editorial control of Kristian Prestgard and J. B.
jWist. It was maintained for nearly a decade, and was a
¦most worthy and commendable enterprise. It will be a source
of rare information for the future investigator.
. Thus we see that out of the numerous pioneer news
paper enterprises, there have emerged several that stand to-
iday as fine representatives of high journaUstic endeavor and
are a credit to the race. Much might and should be said of
the men who have successfully managed these enterprises,
and more, perhaps, of the editorial writers connected with
them. Among the latter there have been men of great native
gifts and fine culture, most of them of foreign birth, who
have devoted themselves, for small pecuniary reward, to
jthe advancement of their people. They have showered their
istores of Old World culture upon an emigrant race, and
jsurely some of its pearls will some day shine in the diadem
of American cultural glory. At all events the Norwegian
press has done a great and useful work in tempering the
jminds of the immigrant to the new tasks at hand, pointing
jthe way in many difficult situations, and striving in count
less ways to make a contented, prosperous, and law-abiding
people. Only one important attempt has been made by the Nor
wegians to issue a newspaper in English. This was The
North, pubHshed in Minneapolis from 1889 to 1894, under
|the editorship of Luth. Jaeger, at one time editor of Budstikken.
Mention should also be made of a great journalistic enter
prise. The Chicago Daily News, maintained since 1876 by
Victor F. Lawson, whose newspaper interest was doubtless
;aroused by his father's, and later his own, copartnership in
Skandinaven, of Chicago.
It would indeed be strange if emigrants from the land of
Wergeland, Bjornson and Ibsen should be totally lacking in the
matter of literary productivity. They have not been. The
press saw to it that the lives of the great poets of the home
land were kept vividly before their leaders. Literary gems
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LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
from their works were constantly being reprinted. As early
as the latter part of the so's complete literary works were occa
sionally republished. These things were of inestimable value
in relieving the solitude and brooding of the pioneer. And
as he slowly came to feel the need of voicing his own joys and
sorrows, either in verse or prose, the press proved a willing
hand-maid. It has printed hundreds upon hundreds of poems
by pioneers. More than fifty volumes or booklets of verse
have appeared, nearly all published at private expense. They
indicate a tragic need of expression that could not find utter
ance in the language of the land. The voices that sing in
these homeless volumes are a part of the tragedy of Nor
wegian emigration. Time will prove that these vagrant
rhymes were not turned in vain. If the past did not hear,
the future wih. Scholars will sift out the gold and use it
to illuminate the pages in the Saga of the Norsemen in
America. There was pubHshed in 1903 a volume of Nor
wegian-American verse, collected largely from the pr^ss, rep
resenting forty-five authors and 250 poems. They are of
such variety as one would expect in an anthology of immi
grant verse. There are none that may be designated great
poetry, but there are many in which fine thoughts find ade
quate form. In conning the pages of this volume, the thought
occurs: How pleased American literary historians would
be if the somber Puritans had left such a legacy. All
but two of the forty-five writers were born in Norway. Much
poetry has been published since, and of improved quality. The
English poems by Gustav Melby, in The Seamless Robe and
Other Poems (1914), King Saint Olaf, a poetic drama, 1916,
and The Lost Chimes and Other Poems, 1918, issued by an
eastern publisher, mark a new epoch, and seem to be the
harbingers of an English period. His language nowhere re
veals the immigrant.
The chief literary form among the descendants of the
pioneers will doubtless be the novel. The first attempts at
novel-writing came in the 70's and 8o's. Some very accept
able work has been done since, particularly during the last de
cade. The novel and short story have been diHgently used
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LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
ito promote the cause of prohibition, especially by the talented
iand aggressive editor W. Ager, of Wisconsin. He knows
the Norwegian people of city and countryside, and may be
counted on to play a part in the literary awakening that
seems to be in the o-ffing. O. A. Buslett, the pioneer of the
poets, has turned from the lyric, the heaven-storming poetic
drama, and allegorical tale, to bald prose narrative, to deal
with the life of the early immigrant in the fields and lumber
camps of northern Wisconsin, where the author is on thor
oughly familiar ground. Here he has done his best work.
i-Simon Johnson, at present chief editorial writer of Nordman-
jden, has made a name as a novelist. He knows the prairies
lOf the Dakotas, and the life of the pioneers there, and in his
last work has given a moving portrayal of the trials of
^pioneer days, when the Indian was a menace. Another talented
;'writer of novels is O. E. Rolvaag, professor at St. Olaf Col-
I'lege. He knows Norway, Norwegian history and literature,
-has experienced the heart-aches and hardships of pioneer life
on the prairies, is familiar as both student and professor
I! with coUege life and the life of the church, is in close con
tact with the press, and has solid qualifications for taking
a leading part in the new literary movement. He knows what
the pioneer has done for America, and the price he has paid in
doing it. He understands the possibilities of this land of
opportunity for the grandchildren of the pioneer — and the
tragedies that have made these opportunities possible. Mr.
IiRolvaag's last book, To Tullinger (Two Simpletons), is the
grim tragedy of the love of gold, a besetting sin of emigrants
of all ages who have begun to taste prosperity. The book also
contains deft touches on some of the fanatical phases of the
Great War. This author has already won distinct favor,
and much is expected of him.
Another field for novelistic adventure has recently been
plowed by the veteran editor of Decorah-Posten, Jobs. B. Wist.
His lot as an immigrant was cast in various towns and cities
of the Northwest as a journalist, and he has undertaken
in a work published in 1920, Nykommer-billeder (Immigrant
jPortraits) to portray the sordid life of the immigrant in the
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LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
large' cities. The story is continued in a succeeding volume,]
Hjemmet paa Prarien (The Home on the Prairie), 1921,
and a third section, Jonasville, has begun to appear as a
serial, which foreshadows a picture of the religious combats'
of the So's. The author knows the grim tragedy of the
urban immigrant and has painted it realistically enough; he
has also known much of urban success and industrial and
intellectual achievements, which will soon call for portrayal^
These present-day writers have struck the pace of high
endeavor. They have marked out the field and blazed the
trail for a generation of writers. The best work will seem
ingly be done in Norwegian. The ears of the general Nor
wegian public have not yet, to any significant extent, been!
attuned to the idiosyncracies and niceties of English. Butl
the second and third generations are learning EngUsh rapidly.
Professor Laurence M. Larson's translation of The King's
Mirror, from Old Norwegian of the 13th century; Mabell
Johnson Leland's translation of Garborg's The Lost Father;]
and Hanna Astrup Larsen's translations of Jacobsen's Marie
Grubbe and Niels Lyhne, and her critical articles in American!
magazines, particularly her recent article on Hamsun in The\
American-Scandinavian Review, of which she is the literary
editor, are illuminating specimens of what the descendants of!
Norwegian emigrants can do in the way of clean-cut English..
If we now turn from the field of polite literature to that
of historical writing, we shall find things of rare value in con
tent that are destined to grow in importance as the years goi
on. Thus, Ole Rynning's True Account of America, written
and published in 1838, has recently been translated into English
for the Minnesota Historical Society, with scholarly commenta^
tion, by that keen young historical investigator Theodore C.
Blegen, who is doing commendable work in this early field.
Likewise, Ole Nattestad's Account of a Journey to North
America, pubHshed in Norway in 1839, has been translated
for the Wisconsin Historical Society, by Rasmus B. Ander
son. Similar accounts by early pioneers might be mentioned
that will doubtless soon call for translation. More important
later volumes are Langeland's Normeendene i Amerika, Ander-
136

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
son's The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, Holand's
De norske Settlementers Historic, Flom's The History of Nor
wegian Immigration, which cover the whole pioneering period.
Then there are valuable works, mainly monographs, on the
Civil War, treating chiefly of the Fifteenth Wisconsin, a
Scandinavian Regiment, and its gallant leader. Colonel Hans
C. Heg, in whose memory a statue is soon to be erected
in Wisconsin. With these should be included memorabilia
by such leaders in the church as the Reverend V. Koren and
Dr. Laur. Larsen, and particularly a volume by the former's
wife. One Norwegian farmer, O. S. Johnson, of Iowa, has
three large volumes of similar import to his credit. All of
these documents will prove to be veritable gold mines for the
historians and literary workers of the future.
Of the greatest cultural interest in the history of
the Norwegians in America is a work entitled Norsk-Ameri-
kanernes Festskrift, 1914, published as a memorial on the
occasion of the centennial of Norwegian constitutional Hberty.
With but a bare reference to the centennial, the editor and
main contributor, Johannfes B. Wist, figuratively speaking,
lays in the lap of Mother Norway the Saga of her children
in America. It is a large volume, and is possibly the most
important work ever published by the Norwegians in America.
It presents an astounding array of facts on the various phases
of cultural Hfe among the immigrants. The chapters on the
press by the editor and a fellow editor, Mr. Carl Hansen,
for completeness of detail, covering the period from 1847 to
1914, and giving an account of every paper and journal and
their editors, of inestimable value. These chapters on the
press (which constitute more than half of the book) and
Carl Hansen's chapter on Social Societies are tasks that never
before have been attempted. What is more, they are com
prehensive and definitive for the period covered.
Nor should we omit reference to the work that has been
done to acquaint Americans with the literary and historical
achievements of the mother country by Norwegians of this
country. Anderson's Norse Mythology and Boyesen's The
Story pf Norway have found a large circle of readers. Gjer-
.137

LITERATURE AND THE PRESS
set's The History of the Norwegian People is a monumental
work that has won favor with historical students. In this
field, The American-Scandinavian Review is doing most excel
lent service in promoting reciprocity and fellowship between
the Scandinavians of this country and of Europe.
It is hoped that the above account, necessarily discursive,
may give some conception of the part the Norwegians are
playing, and are likely to play, in The Making of America.

J^'

ARTS AND SCIENCES

ARTS AND SCIENCES
PAINTING, SCULPTURE, MUSIC, SCIENCE.
I.
Painting and Sculpture.
N the field of pictorial art the Norwegian group in
America up to the present time has won only a
modest place. The urge of self-expression within
the group has taken the form of song and poetry
tnore often than color and plastic art, with the result that
the Norwegian group counts comparatively few painters and
sculptors in its midst. The Norwegian temperament appears
tb lend itself more readily to literary expression.
Fundamental conditions within the group, economic and
social, are to a large degree responsible for the rather discourag
ing outlook for the development of painters and sculptors.
Americans of Norwegian origin generally considered are a
busy, workaday people with only here and there an individual
or a select circle appreciating the interpretation of life through
the medium of color and beauty of line. Artists who have
made efforts to interest and instruct through these mediums
have frequently met with misunderstanding, hardship and
discouragement when they tried to find a field among their
own people.
The craving for art and beauty is nevertheless in the race.
It is a part of the heritage from the " remote past. It is
found in the wonderfully beautiful lines of the viking ships,
in the splendid ornamentation and wood carvings on churches
and stone monuments of early times, in needle work of the
Hardanger variety, which Norwegian immigrants introduced
in America, in the quaint stave churches of Norway and in
the bright-hued, painted flower ornamentation on chests, draw
ers and household utensils in the Norwegian farmers' home.
In this respect Norwegians in America still depend upon
Norway for a supply of cultural impulses and values. Art
141

ARTS AND SCIENCES
is still to a great extent measured by them on the basis of its
sentimental value to the group. The great artists of Nor
way, especially those of the older schools, but also modern
painters, especially of the sea in all its moods, the fjords, the
mountains and the countryside, the sailor, the fisherman, the
farmer, find quick response in the mind and heart of the Nor
wegian immigrant.
In spite of hardships and discouragements, the Nor
wegian group has nevertheless produced a number of artists
of high rank, though most of these, if not aH, have been com-
pehed to seek other and more fertile fields than that of their
own race for the pursuit of their ideal. In this brief sketch
it is possible only to give a summary of some of the artists
of the Norwegian group who have won distinction in the
American world of art.
Mr. Jonas Lie of New York is perhaps the best known
and certainly among the foremost American painters of the
Norwegian group. Mr. Lie is a nephew of the late distin
guished Norwegian noveHst of the same name, one of the
five Hterary stars of the first magnitude produced by Norway
in the same generation — Ibsen, Bjornson, Kielland, Lie and
Hamsun. Few painters of any immigrant group have achieved
the fame that Mr. Lie has. His subjects show great ver
satility. He depicts the storm, the thunder cloud, snow cov
ered hiHs and rocks, dark, half hidden rivers and forest
streams, fishing boats and a great variety of other subjects.
Jonas Lie has painted New York as perhaps no other artist.
Prosaic things like city streets and bridges he has interpreted
in color, and he presents them to the onlooker in pictures
of rare artistic beauty. He has painted the Panama Canal
during construction operations and these paintings are declared
by critics to be a color-epic to labor. Pictures by Jonas Lie
hang in the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; the Luxembourg
gallery, Paris, and in many clubs and public institutions in
Europe and America.
Mr. Lars Haukanes is a well known painter within the
group. He has devoted himself mainly to painting land
scapes from the Hardanger district of Norway. One of
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ARTS AND SCIENCES
these pictures hangs in the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Another hangs in the Chicago Norwegian Club.
Mr. Alexander Grinager of Minnesota has done fine
work in landscapes with babbUng brooks and sunsets rich in
lights and shadows.
' Mr. Olaf M. Brauner is head of the Department of Fine
Arts in Cornell University. He is assisted by another artist
ol the Norwegian group, Mr. Christian M. S. Midjo. Pro-
fffisor Brauner is the son of Julius F. Brauner, at one time
well known in Norway as a wood engraver. Pie came to
Ajnerica with his parents in 1883 and is a thorough American
by education. He is a lecturer on the history of art and
has written a history of renaissance painting and other works.
Professor Brauner has modelled and painted portraits of
miny prominent Americans and is represented by works in
Aiiherst College; Cornell University; Kimball Library, Ran-
dc^ph, Vt. ; -Girls' High School, Boston; High School, Ithaca,
Nj Y., and other public and private institutions.
In Chicago the Norwegian group is represented by sev
eral painters of merit. Mr. Sigurd Schow is well known for
his excellent color work and Mr. Emit Bi0rn has done much
creditable work in oil and water colors. Mr. Ben Blessum has
devoted much of his time to the interpretation of scenes in
rural Norway, particularly the quaint architecture and people
in Sastersdalen. Two of his pictures hang in the Chicago
Norwegian Club. He has also done a great deal of mural
decoration. Both Mr. Bi^rn and Mr. Blessum are iHustrators
of high standard and have done good work in this field.
Mr. Bi^rn has painted a series of Norwegian historical
compositions for the Norwegian Orphanage in Chicago which
he presented to the institution.
In New York Mr. Thomas Bull holds an eminent place
as a decorative painter and interior .decorator. Mr, Bull, as
chairman of the Norwegian group's exhibit committee for the
America's Making exhibit and festival, conceived and de
signed the Norwegian exhibit booth, regarded by critics as
being one of the most artistic conceptions of the entire ex
hibition. Mr. Bull is represented by work in a large number
143

ARTS AND SCIENCES
of residences of wealthy Americans in New York, Philadelphia
and other cities, the Morgan Library in New York, the staff
capitol of Rhode Island and a number of other public buildings;
and churches. Mr. BuU is a relative of the famous Norwegian!
violinist, Ole Bull.
Mr. Brynjulf Strandenas of New York is a painter and;
illustrator of high standard and has done much excellent work.'
He has invariably given evidence of his keen interest in affairs
of the Norwegian group by contributing of his art to the ad
vancement and success of group enterprises. During the Nor-;
wegian group's Liberty Loan campaign he contributed a striking;
poster, and in the America's Making enterprise he responded i
generously by contributing the cover design of this book.
Mr. Sigvald Asbjprnsen of Chicago is probably the first
sculptor of the Norwegian group to achieve a name for him
self. He has modeled many busts of American statesmen and
a number of notable statues and monuments representing Amer
ican history subjects. .Among his busts may be mentioned
those of Grover Cleveland, James G. Blaine and Carter H. Har
rison. He is the sculptor of the Grieg monument in Prospect
Park, Brooklyn, N. Y., the John Monogham monument in Spo
kane, Wash., the Soldiers' Monument in Madison, Ind., a work
which art critics have given high praise, the Confederate Sol
dier's Monument in front of the Texas State capitol in Austin,
the Leif Erikson Monument in Humboldt Park, Chicago, and
many other important works.
Mr. Gilbert P. Riswold of Chicago is a sculptor of great
promise. Mr. Riswold is born of Norwegian immigrant parents,
on a farm near Baltic, South Dakota. He has done work which
critics pronounce brilliant, and a great career appears to be
ahead of him. Probably his most notable work is his statue
of Stephen A. Douglas, "The Little Giant," which was pur
chased by the State of Illinois and stands in front of the State
House in Springfield. This statue is declared by critics to be
one of the finest works of art in America. Mr. Risvro-ld's
work was accepted in a competition participated in by more
than seventy-five artists, among whom were several of Amer
ica's leading sculptors. Another of his works which has won
144

ARTS AND SCIENCES
him high praise is "The Quizzical Madonna," a portrait bust
of Miss Lucille Palmer, the noted California composer. Art
critic's refer to this bust as a "Modern Mona Lisa."
Mr. Paul Fjelde of New York is a sculptor of promise and
has done notable work. He has modeled the Colonel Hans C.
Heg monument which the Norwegian group is planning to raise
;in Madison, Wis., to the memory of the gallant commander of
ithe famous 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War.
Mr. Fjelde's father was a noted sculptor of the Norwegian group
whose numerous works are to be found in many cities and
towns in the Northwest.
Mr. Sigurd Neandross of Ridgefield, N. J., has won great
distinction for his many notable works of sculpture, among
which may be mentioned "The Kiss," "The Egyptian Widow,"
"The Song of the Sea," and many more. Critics declare that
Mr. Neandross has succeeded in combining modern French real
ism with Thorvaldsen's lofty idealism.
Mr. Trygve Hammer of New York has done good work in
stone, wood and copper and has endeavored to awaken an in
terest in Norwegian wood carving and ornamentation. He is
a director of the Society of Independent Artists and has ex
hibited in the Society's annual exhibits in New York.
There are a number of other painters and sculptors doing
creditable work. Space forbids a mention of all. Sincerity of
purpose and high ideals are the distinctive traits of all artists
lOf the Norwegian group in America. The difficult conditions
mentioned above bear eloquent testimony of that.
2
Music
The Norwegians are distinctly a musical people. In an
cient times their love of music took the form of skaldic
poetry. Few races have a richer heritage of characteristic folk
song and melodies. The profound influence of this heritage
upon Edvard Grieg is evident in the "Peer Gynt" suite and
all through his works. This heritage, Norwegian immigrants
have brought with them to America, and will eventually be-
145

ARTS AND SCIENCES
come resplendent jewels in the diadem of American music of
the future.Music, especially choral singing, is assiduously cultivated
by the Norwegian group in this country. No center of popula
tion is without its singing society. In the larger cities as
many as six and eight singing societies and glee clubs flourish
side by side. The Norwegian glee clubs, however, should not
be confounded with the American college glee clubs. They
have a much more serious purpose and permanent existence.
The name has been adopted because it seemed to the mem
bers to have American sanction as a name indicative of a
musical organization. Usually the societies bear names in
dicating racial origin, local place names or the name of a
composer or other designation typifying music.
The first Norwegian singing society in America was found
ed by pioneers about sixty years ago in La Crosse, Wis. This
society no longer exists. The oldest existing society is the
Norwegian Singing Society of Chicago which is fifty-one years
old. The anniversary of its half century of musical activity
was celebrated with a jubilee concert one year ago. Sim
ilar organizations are found in New York and adjacent cities
and in all the large and small cities from coast to coast where
the Norwegian immigrant population is numerous enough
to support .ind foster choral singing.
Locally and nationally the societies are bound together
in federations under the leadership of self-sacrificing men
devoted to an ideal. In 1887 began the movement for national
federation. At the annual concerts of the national organiza
tion, from 400 to 700 singers have taken part. At the World's
Fair in Chicago in 1893 a chorus of 1,000 men rendered a
memorable program of song. This, however, was a joint
Scandinavian chorus.
The Norwegian Singers' League of America is the prin
cipal organization of singers. It does not, however, include
the numerous singing societies in the East and on the Pacific
Coast. In 1914 a picked chorus of 200 singers selected from
societies in all parts of the United States and Canada visited
Norway and gave a series of concerts in various parts of the
146

ARTS AND SCIENCES
country. The music director on this tour was Mr. Emil
Bij^ru of Chicago.
It should be mentioned that for many years back, long
before it became a general custom, the audiences at Norwegian
singing society concerts always remained standing during the
singing of the "Star Spangled Bannar" and "America,"
frequently to the astonishment of native Americans present.
The history of the musical contributions of Norwegians
in America can not be written without mention of the world
famous vioHnist, Ole Btdl. This Norwegian genius is closely
connected with America through his many years of residence
here, his colony enterprise in Pennsylvania and his marriage
to an American woman. He lived at different times in Cam
bridge, Mass., in Pennsylvania, in Chicago and in Madison,
Wis. In the latter city his house has been used for many
years as the governor's mansion. In the 50s of the last
century Ole BuH was the idol of the American people. When
;the poet, Longfellow, in his Tales of the Wayside Inn sings of
the rapt musician, it is Ole BuH he has in mind:
"Before the blazing fire of wood
Erect the rapt musician stood;
And ever and anon he bent
His head upon his instrument.
And seemed to listen, till he caught
Confessions of its secret thought, —
The joy, the triumph, the lament.
The exultations and the pain;
Then by the magic of his art
He soothed the throbbing of its heart
And lulled it into peace again."
The Norwegian people have developed church music to
lofty standards of excellence, and they have transmitted this;
heritage to their descendants in America. The Lutheran Church
has been called "the singing Church" and nowhere is this
more evident than in the Norwegian Lutheran congregations.
It is not only the church choir that sings. The entire con
gregation joins in the singing of the beautiful hymns that have
147

ARTS AND SCIENCES
been accumulated by the Church through centuries of singing
by the worshippers themselves.
Choir singing is given careful attention. The Church
fosters choral singing in all localities where secular musical
activities do not absorb all the interest. The Choral Union;
of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America is a strong
body of singers devoted to the cultivation of sacred music.
The finest example of this class of singing society is the'
mixed St. Olaf College Choir of Northfield, Minn. The dir-^
ector of this organization of student singers is Mr. F. Melius]
Christiartsen who has succeeded in developing a choir which'
critics in New York, Chicago and other cities declare is with-'
out a peer in the United States. St. Olaf College pays much
attention to music and the little town of Northfield seems]
destined to become a music center of the Northwest. The
college also has a band which has won fame both in Amer
ica and Norway. Luther College, Decorah, la. is equally
attentive to the musical training of its students and has an
excellent band under the direction of the head of the music
department, Prof. Carlo Sperati, who in spite of his Italian
name is of Norwegian origin.
In New York Mr. Ole Windingstad is a musician of high,
rank, an orchestra conductor and director of singing societies.!
His symphony orchestra has won high favor among all lovers
of the best in music and his work as choral director gives
evidence of sincerity, intensive work and high aims.
Mr. Alfred Paulsen of Chicago is the best known and the!
most popular of the composers and music directors of the
Norwegian group. Mr. Paulsen's works are sung in aH Nor-]
wegian choral societies in America and have been adopted with!
enthusiasm by similar societies in Norway. His works have]
also won popularity among Swedish and Danish singers.
In Norway Mr. Paulsen was a pupil of Edvard Grieg.
Foremost among singers of the Norwegian group is Mmei
Olive Fremstad, for many years an American operatic star!
of the first magnitude. Her career and triumphs are so well
known to all Americans that it would be superfluous to give
an account of them in this brief summary.
14S

ARTS AND SCIENCES
The best baritone among immigrant Norwegians was the
late Mr. Albert Arveschou. His voice was a marvel of range,
power and beauty of tone. Mr. Ralf Hammer has done good
work as a tenor and romance singer, as has also Mr. Chris
tian Mathisen. Mr. Erik Aulie of Minneapolis is well and
favorably known as an orchestra director and Mr. Hjalmar
Rabe of Chicago has the distinction of being one of the fore
most trombone players in America. He has for many years
been with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Erik Bye is
a new arrival and gives promise of an American career as
a barytone singer. Mme Signe Lund won first prize during
the war for her composition entitled "On the Road to France."
A list of all the musicians and singers of the Norwegian
group would require more space than this little book affords.
A sufficient number has been given to indicate that music
is one of the arts which Americans of Norwegian birth and
parentage love and foster to an extent equalled by few racial
groups. It is fostered as an art of the people in which every
body in the community, in the state, in the nation may share.
A spiritual contribution such as this is not the least of the
values Norwegian immigrants and their descendants have given
and are giving to the enrichment of American life. H. s-H.
3-
Science.
In the American world of science there is a number of
prominent men and women of Norwegian lineage, who, by
their research work and instructive ability, have made valuable
contributions to the development of various fields of science.
Lack of space and time makes it impossible to give a com
plete list of these scientific workers, but some of the more
prominent among them will be briefly mentioned in the fol
lowing paragraphs.
The dean of the scientists of Norwegian ancestry is the
venerable professor Rasmus B. Anderson. He was for a
number of years professor of Scandinavian languages and
Hterature in the University of Wisconsin and has devoted
149 •'

ARTS AND SCIENCES
many years of his life to scientific investigations of the his
tory of the Norse discovery of America and the first Nor
wegian immigration to the United States. Some of his
works on these subjects are still regarded as sources of
authoritative information. The same is true of his work on
the subject of Norse mythology.
Julius E. Olson is professor of Scandinavian languages
and literature in the University of Wisconsin. He has writ
ten a Norwegian grammar and reader which is extensively
used as a textbook in American schools and universities.
His edition of Ibsen's "Brand" published some years ago
attracted attention by the clear and penetrating commentaries
on the many difficult symboHsms of this dramatic poem. Pro
fessor Olson is well known through the Northwest as a lec
turer and orator.
Gisle Bothne is professor of Scandinavian languages
and literature in the University of Minnesota. He has con
tributed a large number of articles to the newspaper and
magazine press on a variety of scientific and popular sub
jects and has written the history of Luther CoUege. Pro
fessor Bothne is intimately connected with organized group
work of Americans of Norwegian origin in the Northwest
and has done prominent work in this field.
George T. Flom is associate professor of Scandinavian
languages in the University of Illinois. He has published
authoritative works on the history of Norwegian immigration
to America and has written much on philological subjects.
J. S. Shefloe is professor of romance in the Johns Hop
kins University, Baltimore, Md.
Andrew Fossum, professor in Concordia College, Moor
head, Minn., is a prominent writer on Greek philology and
Norse discoveries.
Oscar Olson, acting president of Luther College, Decorah,
la., has written much on philological subjects.
O. E. Rolvaag and P. J. Eikeland, instructors in Nor
wegian in St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., have written
valuable works on the Norwegian language.
ISO

ARTS AND SCIENCES
Knut Gjerset, professor of history in Luther College,
Decorah, la., published a few years ago an extensive two
volume history of Norway which is considered the standard
treatment of this subject in the English language.
J. E. Granrud, professor in the University of Minnesota,
is a writer on classical archeology.
Laurence M. Larson, professor of history in the Univer
sity of Illinois, is the author of a number of historical works.
John O. Evjen, president of the State Normal School,
Mayville, N. D., has pubHshed an extensive work on Nor
wegian and other Scandinavian immigrants in New York in
the 17th century.
Ludvig Hektoen is professor and head of the department
of pathology and bacteriology in the University of Chicago
and director of the Memorial Institution for Infectious Dis
eases. He is regarded as a high authority in the medical
field. M. N. Voldeng is superintendent of the Hospital for
Epileptics at Woodward, la., and has -written many works
on psychiatry. Nils Remmen, of Chicago, is a leading eye specialist
which subject he has given extensive study in Europe and
America. Dr. Remmen is chief eye surgeon in the Illinois
Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Thorstein Veblen, professor in the University of Mis
souri, has gained national fame by his exceUent works in
the field of political and social economics. His "Theory of
the Leisure Class" and similar publications stand forth as
standard works in this field.
Oswald Veblen, professor of mathematics in Princeton
University, has won reputation as an authority in his de
partment of the sciences.
A. A. Veblen held for many years university chairs,
mostly in the department of physics and mathematics.
Leonhard Stejneger is the head curator of biology in
the National Museum, Washington, D, C He specializes in
151

ARTS AND SCIENCES
ornithological and other zoological subjects and has published
a number of scientific works in this field.
F. W. Woll, professor of animal nutrition in the Univer
sity of California, is a prominent authority on agricultural
chemistry. John Koren, in the service of the U. S. Government for
several years, is an authority on statistics and has written
several scientific works on this subject.
In American library work mention should be made of J. C.
M. Hanson, Juul Dieserud and Torstein Jahr. The former is
associate director of the University of Chicago Library and
the two latter are connected with the Library of Congress,
Washington, D. C. Dieserud is a writer on anthropology
and Norse discoveries and Jahr has written much on early
American pioneers. A. K.

WARS

PARTICIPATION IN AMERICAN WARS
By Arne Kildal
Official Norwegian Press Representative in the United States.
HE fighting spirit of the Vikings has proved to be
still active in the Norwegian immigrants who came
to America in modern times. In all the American
wars Norwegian settlers have taken part as soldiers
or officers and in some of them they can pride themselves on
a most glorious record. It appears that even in the Revolu
tionary war, the war of 1812 and the Mexican war Nor
wegians were found in the ranks of the armies and it seems
very likely — according to historical investigations— that some
of the men accompanying John Paul Jones were of Norse
descent. The reports of these events, however, are too vague
to give a complete picture of the situation, whereas in the
case of the later wars, particularly the Civil war and the
great World war, full records of the merits of soldiers of
Norse extraction are available.
It is estimated that six or seven thousand Norwegians
enlisted in the various regiments of the Northern army dur
ing the civil war. The most typical Norwegian regiment was
the famous Fifteenth Wisconsin under the leadership of Colonel
Hans C. Heg. It consisted almost exclusively of Norwegians,
many of whom had only recently arrived from the other side
and many being unable to speak the language of the country
for which they fought. The regiment rapidly came into
action and distinguished itself on several occasions, in the
battles of Union City Tennessee, Stone's River, Murfrees
boro and in the siege of Island Number 10. It was men
tioned favorably in special orders, and in an official docu
ment dating from 1861 is found the following encouraging
greeting to the Fifteenth Wisconsin: "All hail, Norsemen,
15s

WARS
descendants of the Vikings, let your hordes as in days of old,
sweep down upon the South, crushing as with Thor's ham
mer the Southron who meets you on the field of battle."
The most fateful event in the history of the Fifteenth
Wisconsin was the bloody two-day battle of Chickamauga.
The Norse regiment fought stubbornly against heavy odds
and would not retreat. Lying on the ground the men fought
on in the foremost Hne and held the enemy in check. But
by a fatal mistake the reserves sent to their support took them
for Confederate troops opening fire on them from behind.
This was unexpected — ^and the regiment broke and ran for
the first and last time in its history. There were not many
left, only 75 men. On the field they left their idoHzed com
mander and the flower of his officers and men. Colonel
Heg was waving his hat and giving the order for a renewed
attack upon the enemy's intrenchments when a bullet hit him.
The history of the Fifteenth Wisconsin would probably
have ended with the battle of Chickamauga if two companies,
left behind on garrison dnty, had not joined it with about
150 men. The regiment took part in the storming of Mis
sionary Ridge and, we are told, was the first to reach the
summit. In the battle of New Hope Church it again dis
tinguished itself and in the summer of 1864 it accompanied
Sherman's army on its march to the sea, almost continually
being engaged and under fire.
The Fifteenth Wisconsin took part in 26 battles and
engagements. Its total losses up to November 7, 1864, were
481 or more than fifty per cent, of its total strength. The
State of Wisconsin has erected a magnificent monument on
the battlefield of Chickamauga in honor of the Fifteenth
Regiment, and another marks the spot where Colonel Heg
fell at the head of his battalions. Colonel Heg was a splendid
type of what is best in the Norwegian character. He was a
brave, almost a reckless commander, capable of inspiring his
men to great efforts and his popularity with his boys was
immense. The Norwegian Society of America plans to erect
a statue of Colonel Heg in Madison, Wis., his home city.
156

WARS
While the Fifteenth Wisconsin was above aU the "Nor
wegian regiment" in the Union Army there were several com
panies of other regiments which consisted almost exclusively
of Norwegians. This was true of Company F of the 36th
Illinois under the leadership of Captain Porter C. Olson who
rapidly advanced to colonel and fell in the battle of FrankHn.
Tennessee. In Company H of the 23d Wisconsin almost all
the soldiers and officers were Norwegians. In the first Min
nesota regiment there were several Norsemen. This regi
ment was in the army of the Potomac and suffered heavy
losses. At the battle of Gettysburg it lost 86 per cent, of its
men, probably a larger percentage of losses than any other
regiment during the whole war.
Several years elapsed before the Americans of Nor
wegian lineage were again called upon to enlist for war pur
poses. When in 1898 the United States went to war with
Spain the American navy was manned by Norwegian sailors
to such an extent that in some quarters it was pointed out
as a danger. The records show that a great number of
Norwegian boys took part in the battle of Santiago, and
it is reported that a bluejacket of Norwegian extraction fired
the first shot in the battle of Manila Bay. Large numbers of
Americans of Norwegian lineage enlisted as volunteers in the
United States army when the war with Spain broke out and
served to the close of the war.
When America joined the allies in the great European
war and appealed to its young people to enlist for the service
the Americans of Norwegian ancestry responded enthusias
tically. We find a great number of them in the American
army in France, and while most of these service men were
born in America there were not a few who had only re
cently settled on this side of the ocean. They frequently
distinguished themselves for bravery and courage and of
the 78 American soldiers who received the Congressional
medal of honor there are at least four who safely may be
designated as Norwegians, namely Corporal Birger Loman,
!Sergeant Reidar Waaler, Sergeant Johannes S. Andersen an-
]Private Nels Wold. 157

WARS
The two former were born in Norway. Corporal Loman
was generally referred to in the press as "the most dec
orated Yank," having received in addition to the Congres
sional medal the French Mihtary Medal and the Croix de
Guerre, the British Victoria Cross, the British Distinguished
Service Medal and the , Belgian Leopold order. Sergeant
Reidar Waaler had only been in this country a few years
and was not an American citizen. He received a number of
decorations for his bravery and when the 27th Division to
which he belonged paraded through the streets of New York
on March 25th, 1919, he was given the honor, as the most
decorated man of the division, to cut the silk ribbon stretched
across Fifth Avenue and to be the first man to pass through
the arch of victory. There are several reports of Sergeant
Waaler's brave and daring spirit. Once he defied death by
crawling in the midst of the enemy's heavy artihery fire to
a burning British tank from which he rescued two living
men and brought with him one dead. Similar reports of him
and his countrymen are plentiful. But it would lead too far
to mention the citations in which the bravery, courage and
spirit of loyalty of the "Norwegian Yanks" were eulogized.
It was not only as warriors that the soldiers of Norse
descent distinguished themselves. They also exceUed as rifle
men, sportsmen and aviators. Many of them had officers'
rank, among them the noted Colonel Jens Bugge who was
the chief of the first army corps in France. Jens Bugge was
retired from the army when the war came and was re-
caUed as an advisor to the general staff, reentering active
service. He was considered one of the best informed men
in the army on tactics and strategy. After returning from
France he became commandant of West Point, the first
American of Norse extraction to hold this important military
post. Another prominent officer was Brigadier-General Alfred
William Bjornstad who acted as chief of staff of the
third army corps and in France chiefly attended to the train
ing of officers. He is now commandant at Fort SneUing,
Minn. In this connection mention should also be made of the
158

WARS
war service which Commander John A. Gade of New York
and Magnus Swenson of Madison, Wis., rendered on special
errands to Europe for the American Government. Com-
imander Gade was entrusted with the leadership of the Amer
ican relief work in Belgium and Magnus Swenson, as the
right hand of Mr. Herbert C. Hoover in his food adminis
tration work, was at the head of the work for distribution
of food supplies in Northern Europe, particularly Finland-
Taking a retrospective view of the great World war the
impression survives that the record shown by Americans
of Norwegian lineage is one that may be characterized as
noble and proud. They enlisted when the call came and a
number of them gave their fives in defence of America.
Also in other ways they demonstrated their loyalty and
patriotism, by the women's service in the Red Cross, by
heavy subscriptions to the liberty loans, by ministerial service
in the field, by establishment of volunteer army training corps,
and by many other patriotic services. They quietly went
about their work and without hesitation offered their con
tribution in defence of the stars and stripes for the glory
of the country for which their forefathers had fought and
died before them.
It may be maintained, without fear of contradiction,
that the record of Americans of Norwegian Hneage in Amer
ican wars belongs to the greatest achievements ever per
formed by Norsemen since the heroic saga-times. Thus, both
by his material contributions and the shedding of his blood
has the Norwegian immigrant won his rights as a citizen
of the United States of America.

159

SPORTS

CONTRIBUTIONS TO SPORTS
By Cael G. O. Hansen
Associate Editor, Minneapolis Tidende.
LL Norwegians are fond of life out of doors and,
as a rule, lovers of sport. Their special fields are
skiing, sailing and skating, although they also
will be found in almost every other fielq
of sport. The homeland of the Norseman offers pe-
cuHar advantages for the skier, the oarsman, the yachtsman,
the skater. The snowclad mountainside beckons to the lad
and lassie as soon as they are able to roam and rove, in
viting them to try a swift glide down its slope. As one of
the greatest seafaring nations the Norwegians naturally at
a very early age learn to handle the oars and maneuver
the sails. During the beautiful winter season skating is
excellent on the fjords and the inland lakes. The bracing
cHmate makes for health and strength.
It is then but natural that Norwegians in America have
become the leaders in these fields of sport. There is less
professionalism in these fields than in most sports, and thej
Norwegians do not take very kindly to this sort of profes-'
sionalism. They are truly devotees of these sports.
Men of Norwegian blood have distinguished themselves
in other branches of sport as well. ' Usually, however, these
are of the second, third or fourth generation, but even then
they are very seldom found among professional boxers or
baseball players. WrestHng is a little more to their liking
than boxing. At the universities and colleges, especiaUy in
the west, some of the foremost athletes are students of Nor
wegian extraction.
Skiing is the Norwegian sport par excellence. Its popu
larity has long since gone beyond the borders of Norway,
and in few countries has it been adopted with such enthu-
163

SPORTS
siasm as in the United States. This is due principally, of
course, to the example set by Norwegian immigrants. It is
no longer therefore only a Norwegian sport. Americans of
other than Norse origin have taken to it with enthusiasm.
Accounts of ski meets are now given a prominent place
in the sporting sections of our newspapers. No first
class dealer in sporting goods neglects to have a good
assortment of skis. Devotees consider skiing the king of
all outdoor winter sports.
Skis were used in America long before skiing became
the prominent winter sport it now is. Many a Norwegian
immigrant took his skis with him to America. In the older
settlements of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and the
Dakotas, the Norwegian pioneers more easily than others made
their way through forest and over prairie on their winter
journeys to town because they had their skis.
The first record made on skis in America was set by
"Snowshoe Thompson," a native of Telemarken — famous for
its exceUent skiers — who came to this country in 1837 and for
twenty years on his skis carried the mail over the mountains
from Hangtown, or Placerville, California, to Carson VaUey,
Idaho, a distance of ninety miles.
The skiers could not fail to attract attention, and when
about thirty or forty years ago vnnter carnivals were given
in cities of the west, skiers took part. The first ski club was
founded in the middle of the eighties, and from that time
on skiing has been one of the principal recognized winter
sports of the middle northwestern states. Eau Claire, Wis.,
MinneapoHs and Red Wing, Minn., all lay claim to the dis
tinction of having had the first ski club in America. In the
latter eighties an association of ski clubs was formed and
regular national ski meets initiated. During the nineties the
interest lagged somewhat. In 1904 a new association was
organized which stiU survives and flourishes. Regular na
tional meets have been held every year since the formation
of the ski association.
The National Ski Association of America was founded
by Carl TeUefsen of Ishpeming, Mich., now deceased. It was
164

SPORTS
through his untiring effort and winning personality that the
association was formed and the sport put under organized
control. For a time skiing threatened to degenerate into a com
mercial enterprise. Tempted by big money offers for their
exhibitions of skill, a few men attempted to force profes-
sionaUsm on the organization, and for a time a bitter fight
raged over that issue.
To Mr. Thor O. Raaen of Chicago belongs the credit
of waging the war that banished the taint of professionaHsm
from the National Ski Association of America. Mr. Raaen
served as president of the association for three years and
when he retired professionalism was thoroughly wiped out.
Another untiring worker in the interest of ski sport de
velopment in America is Mr. Aksel Holter of Ashland, Wis.
Mr. Holter was for 15 years national secretary of the asso
ciation and laid down an enormous amount of time and labor
for the success of the sport. The present national president
is Mr. G. C. Torguson of Glenwood, Minn., an untiring
worker in this field.
It is of interest to note in this connection that skis have
been officially adopted by our government for army purposes
and in the forestry serace and national parks.
On making skiing a regular sport no serious efforts were
made to estabKsh records for some years. The skiers were
willing enough but the hillsides of the middle northwestem
states were not Uke the ski hills of Norway. Where there
is a will there is a way, however. If these states had no
HolmenkoUen or GraakoUen (two of the most famous ski
hills of Norway) they might be created. High steel scaffolds,
or ski slides, were erected and covered with snow. Hereto
fore the skiers in America had looked upon it as a matter
!Gf course that the records should be held in Norway. In
the earliest tournaments a jump of 100 feet was considered
good, now twice that distance has been covered by the
jumpers. In February, 1913, Ragnar Omtvedt of Chicago
set a new world's record by making a standing jump of 169
feet at Ironwood, Mich. Since that time the world's record
16S

SPORTS
has been boosted several times, usually in America. The
record is now 214 feet, established by Anders Haugen at
Dillon, Colorado, February 29, 1920. During the same meet
he made a jump of 218 feet but feU.
Ragnar Omtvedt's world record was broken in 191 5 by
Amble Ommundsen who jumped I77j4 feet at Mjjz(ndalen,!
Norway. The following year this was beaten by Henry Hall
by jumping 203 feet in the hill of Steamboat Springs, Colo.,
March 9, 1919. Hall's record was beaten by Anders Plaugen
who made a jump of 214 feet in the hiU of the Summit County
Winter Sports Club near Dillon, Colo.
Anders Haugen, the world's ski champion, was born at
Boe, Telemarken, Norway, and is thirty-two years old.
Annual summer ski meets have been held by skiers on
the Pacific coast since 1919 in the hills of Mount Rainier,
Washington. The ski meets in the middle northwestern states have
attracted wide attention and there have been present up
wards of 10,000 spectators. The municipalities have come
to recognize the importance of the ski sport. In Minne
apolis a Municipal Ski club was organized in February,
1920. The Board of Park Commissioners of the same city
was the prime mover for a Winter Carnival held in Feb
ruary of this year, and in connection with this ski runs were
held in Glenwood Park before an assemblage of over six
thousand spectators.
In several cities of the Northwest the lofty, steel ski
slides bear mute testimony the year around of the keen in
terest taken in the ski sport. In approaching Virginia, Minn.,
for example, the traveUer by rail sees the ski slide long
before he observes the first houses, and if curiosity prompts
him to inquire of a townsman what that structure might
be he is met with the response: "That is our ski slide-r-
the greatest in the country."
The American Norsemen's capabilities as yachtsmen were
proclaimed to the world when the American yacht Resolute
won the cup races with Shamiock July 20, 1920. For the
thirteenth time since the in.'-ernational cup races began over
166

SPORTS
fifty years ago a British challenger was defeated by an
American defender. The thirty men who made up the crew
of the Resolute were twenty-two Norwegians, seven Swedes
and one Dane, all American citizens however. The sailing
master of the defender was Captain Chris Christensen. Cap
tain Christensen, since he arrived in America from Arendal,
Norway, in 1882, has taken part in many national and in
ternational regattas. It is said that no man knows the
vagaries and whims of the wind and weather along the Atlan
tic coast better than he. Many of the racing captains of
the Atlantic ports are Americans of Norwegian birth. The
racing master of the New York Yacht Club since 1874 is
Louis W. BHx from Sandefjord, Norway.
Since skating races for tlie international distances of
500, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters were introduced in 1886
the different records have at various times been held by
Norwegians. Several of these Norwegian champions have
visited the United States, Axel Paulsen, Alfred Nsess, Mar-
tinus Ljzfrdahl, Peder 0stlund, Harald Hagen, Adolf Norseng,
Oscar Frederiksen, Rud. Gundersen and Oscar Mathisen.
Of these the first and the last are perhaps best known.
Axel Paulsen made this country his home for two or three
years, 1888-90, and took part in many races. Among those
whom he outdistanced were Rudolph Goetz and Hugli
McCormick. Oscar Mathisen of Christiania, who first won interna
tional fame at Davos, Switzerland, in the winter of 1906-07,
was in the United States a couple of years and met several
of the best skaters of this country on the rinks. "Bobby"
McLean of Chicago tried to beat him on his own ground and
went to Christiania for that purpose. The match took place
February 8, 1920 and Oscar Mathisen, winning 3 of the 4
races, was declared champion of the world. (The official
time for the exciting 10,000 meters race was : Mathisen 18
minutes, 39.1 seconds; McLean 19 minutes, 2/5 seconds.)
The present American ice skating champion is Arthur
Staff, who captured the national title in a match last Feb
ruary on Lake Placid, N. Y. Arthur Staff was born in
167

SPORTS
Chicago of Norwegian parents. He is this year for the first
time visiting the land of his ancestors and it is reported that
he win seek a match in Norway next winter with the worid's
champion, Oscar Mathisen. It will be interesting to see the
outcome of a match between the American champion of Norse
ancestry and the world's champion of Norway.
In the field of tennis all Americans are proud of the
achievements of "the girl from Norway," Mrs. MoUa Bjur-
stedt Mallory. Her sportsmanHke conduct toward her French
rival, MUe. Suzanne Lenglen, after the visiting player's un
fortunate illness and default, is still fresh in the memory of
all lovers of true sport.
The New York Times' tennis observer, in an article in
that newspaper, Sunday, October 23, 1921, has the following
to say about this Norwegian immigrant champion:
"Regarding Mrs. Mallory's position in first place in the
ranking there can be but one opinion. Never in the history
of the sport were American women's tennis laurels intrusted
to such capable hands as in those of the present champion
this last summer. The Times' observer of tennis is wiUing
to admit that, in advance of the women's national tourna
ment, he considered that the main burden of defense against
the invasion of MUe. Suzanne Lenglen lay rather with Miss
Mary Browne than with Mrs. Mallory. He was mistaken.
He had not sized up the magnificent resources of Mrs. Mal
lory correctly. He had thought that a more versatile game
than Mrs. Mallory's was needed to meet the French girl.
He had noted Miss Browne's command of a net attack and
her ability to lead up to it by well laid ground strokes and
he had thought that her greater variety of strcJces made her
America's one greatest hope in the successful defense of
the trophy. "Never was acknowledgment of incorrect judgment a hap
pier task than in the case of the national tournament and
Mrs. Mallory's superb performance in it. In her defeat of
MUe. Lenglen, Mrs. MaUory did something that no observer
of the game, remembering what had happened between the
strated that not only was she the foremost player in America,
168

SPORTS
two in Europe, had thought her capable of doing. She demon-
but that she was dearly the superior of the girl whom aU
the world considered the greatest woman player who had
ever raised a racquet. It was not purely her splendid skill
that made this victory possible, rare though that was. It was
unaduherated courage, gameness, determination. Mrs. Mallory
raised the back-court driving game to unheard-of heights as
an attacking medium in women's tennis. Having a limited
repertory of strokes, she used them as never they had been
before. Almost every shot was a forcing shot and sheer
grit enabled the American champion to handle returns that
any other player would have passed up as impossible. In
aU the history of the sport no player, masculine or fem
inine, ever rose to the occasion with more consummate mas
tery or a finer exhibition of grit than Mrs. MaUory showed
in the national tourney. To Mrs. Mallory more than to any
other player in the game in the season of 1921, one's hat is
off. She was magnificent."
"Marvellous MoUa" has gone from triumph to triumph
until she stands as the undisputed champion woman tennis
player. Her game is superb, and she has given America a
glimpse of the best tradition of the Norse race in the field
of sport. In football Americans of Norwegian extraction are
doing excellent work. The football teams of the Norwegian
American Athletic Association of Chicago have made an en
viable record in soccer football, which is the game preferred
by Norsemen, and are regarded as being among the top
notchers in the soccer league.
The Norwegian American Arfiletic Association is per
haps the leading sports organization of the Norwegian group
in America, although other strong sports organizations exist
in New York and other cities. The Chicago association, how
ever, embracees nearly all forms of sports such as skiing,
skating, turning, swimming, soccer football, bicycle riding
and all forms of track and field sports.
It is this organization or its forerunner, the old Sleipner
Athletic Club, which has developed ice skaters like Arthur
169

SPORTS
Staff, the present American national champion, and has
captured innumerable records in many other fields.
One of the finest trained and most efficient turner so
cieties in America is the Norwegian Turner Society of
Brooklyn, N, Y.
The Norwegians are among the peoples who come near
est being perfect specimens of humanity, according to scien
tific surveys, and their offspring in this country do not
deteriorate. It may be noted that at the time of America's
entry into the World war North Dakota, where forty per
cent of the population is of Norwegian extraction, had the
smallest percentage of rejections at camps of any state in
the Union. At the universities and colleges of the middle west these
young Americans distinguish themselves as athletes. They
are among the football stars and the best track men. At
the University of Minnesota the student who at present is
credited with having most successfully combined scholastic
attainments with athletic excellence is Arne Oas, and his
predecessor having this enviable distinction was Erling Platou.
During the world war Americans of Norwegian origin
distinguished themselves as fighters. Four of those who were
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest dis
tinction accorded an American soldier, were men of Nor
wegian blood. Corporal Birger Loman, Sergeant Reidar
Waaler, Privates Nels Tidemand Wold and Johannes S.
Andersen. As sharp shooters and in athletics the fighters
of Norwegian blood proved their mettle. Sergeant Olav
Gunheim of Canby, Minn., 351st Infantry, was awarded a
gold medal by General Pershing for being among the twenty-:
five best riflemen in the American Expeditionary Forces. He
won fourth place in the A. E. F. contest on the d'Anvours
range near Le Mans in competition with 1,300 of the army's
best marksmen. Trygve Mordt, New York, who served in
the United States navy for four years, won the distinction
of being the best aU-around athlete among the bluejackets]

170

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Page
Discovery and Immigration  17
Agriculture  29
Industry  45
Fisheries  69
Shipping  79
Church and Education  87
Humanitarian Work  101
Politics  107
Literature and Press  125
Arts and Sciences  141
Wars  15s
Sports  "  163

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