Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
DISCARDED
History of Norwegian Immigration
A History of Norwegian Immigration
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The United States
From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848
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By
GEORGE T. FLOM, Ph. D. (Columbia)
Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures and Acting Professor of
English Philology, State University of Iowa
PRIVATELY PRINTED
IOWA CITY, IOWA
fel
7^'*
COPYRIGHT 1909
GEORGE T. FLOM
CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA
To MY MOTHEB
THROUGH WHOM I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND SOME-
THING OF THE HEROIC WOMANHOOD EXEMPLIFIED IN THE
LIVES OF OUB PIONEER MOTHERS, THIS VOLUME IS
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
FOREWORD
This volume is intended to present the progress
of immigration from Norway to this country from
the beginning down through what may be termed the
first period of settlement. It is possible that I may
at some future time return to these studies to trace
the further growth of the Scandinavian element and
its place and influence in American life.
Four years ago I contributed an article to The
Iowa Journal of History and Politics upon "The
Scandinavian Factor in the American Population,'*
in which I discussed briefly the causes of emigration
from the Northern countries. This article forms the
basis of chapters VI- VIII of the present volume,
much new evidence from later years having, however,
been added. In a subsequent issue of the same Jour-
nal I published an article on "The Coming of the
Norwegians to Iowa," which is embodied in part in
chapters III-V of this volume. The remaining
thirty-six chapters are new. During the last three
summers I have continued my investigation of that
part of the subject which deals with the immigration
movement. This book represents the results of that
investigation down to 1848. ~.
For invaluable assistance in the investigation I
gratefully acknowledge indebtedness to the numer-
ous pioneers whom, from time to time, I have inter-
viewed and who so kindly have given the aid sought.
8, FOREWORD
I wish to thank, also, several persons who generously
have, accepted the task of personally gathering pion-
eer data for certain localities. For such help I owe
a debt of gratitude to the following persons : J. W.
Johnson, Eacine, Wisconsin ; Reverend A. Jacobson,
Decorah, Iowa; Eeverend G. A. Larsen, Clinton,
Wisconsin ; Henry Natesta, Clinton, Wisconsin ; Rev.
0. J. Kvale, Orf ordville, Wisconsin ; Rev. J. Nordby,
Lee, Illinois; Dr. N. C. Evans, Mt. Horeb, Wiscon-
sin; M. J. Engebretson, Gratiot, Wisconsin; Dan K.
Anderson and wife, Woodford, Wisconsin; Ole Ja-
cobson, Elk Horn, Wisconsin ; Samuel Sampson, Rio,
Wisconsin; T. M. Newton, Grinnell, Iowa; Harvey
Arveson, Whitewater, Wisconsin; and Reverend
Helge Hoverstad, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. My thanks
are also due to Reverend G. G. Krostu of Koshkon-
ong Parsonage for having placed at my disposal the
Koshkonong Church Register from 1844-1850 ; as also
for verifying my copy of it in some cases of names
and dates; for the privilege accorded me of using
these so precious documents I am most grateful.
Reverend K. A. Kasberg of Spring Grove, Minne-
sota, has given me certain important data on part
of the immigration to East Koshkonong in 1842, and
similarly N. A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin, for immi-
gration from Voss in 1838-1844, and Mr. Elim
Ellingson and wife of Capron, Illinois, on the found-
ers of the Long Prairie Settlement. Many others
might be mentioned who have given valuable assist-
ance by letter and otherwise in the course of the
investigation, and to whom I owe much. Finally, I
FOREWORD 9
wish to thank Dr. N. C. Evans of Mt. Horeb, Wis-
consin, for the loan of Cyclopedia of Wisconsin
(1906) and lllustreret Kirkehistorie (Chicago, 1898) ;
Mr. 0. N. Falk of Stoughton, Wisconsin, for loaning
me Billed-Magazin for 1869-1870, and my brother,
Martin 0. Flom, of Stoughton, for securing for my
use several Wisconsin Atlases and a copy of The
Biographical Review of Dane County (1893).
Of published works on Norwegian immigration
which I have found especially useful are to be men-
tioned S. Nilsen's Billed-Magazin on causes of
immigration and the earliest immigrants from Tele-
marken and Numedal; E. B. Anderson's First
Chapter on Norwegian Immigration for the sloopers
of 1825, and their descendants; Strand's History of
the Norwegians in Illinois (1905) for the Norwegians
in Chicago; H. L. Skavlem's sketch of Scandina-
vians in the Early Days of Rock County, Wisconsin,
Normandsforbundet for February, 1909, and several
articles in Symra, 1905-1908. I must also mention a
most valuable series of articles on the Eock Prairie
Settlement, Eock County, Wisconsin, which ap-
peared in Amerika in 1906. (See further the Bib-
liography at the end of this volume.)
No one who has never been engaged in a similar
undertaking can have any conception of the difficulty
of the task and the labor involved in the collecting,
weighing and sifting of the vast amount of detail
material. I have tried to write a work which shall
be correct as to details and historically reliable.
That errors have crept in I doubt not. I shall be
10 FOREWORD
grateful to the reader who may discover such errors
if he will call my attention to them.
Finally, I wish to say that I have attempted
nothing complete with reference to the personal
sketches of the earliest pioneers ; this was manifestly
impossible. I have thought also that this was not
here called for except in cases of founders of settle-
ments, and even here I have sometimes lacked the
full facts. To many it will also undoubtedly seem
that the early days of the church and the founding
of congregations should have received more atten-
tion. I can only say that this volume deals spe-
cifically with the causes, course and progress of
Norwegian immigration and that this plan precluded
a discussion in this volume of religious and educa-
tional movements among the pioneers, or of social
questions, occupations, public service, and like
topics. The work thus aims to keep only what the
title promises, and I hope it will be found to be a real
contribution to history within the scope marked out
for it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . 15
CHAPTER I. Norway. Population, Resources, Pur-
suits of her People, Social Conditions, Laws
and Institutions 18
CHAPTER II. Emigration from Norway . . 27
CHAPTER III. The Earliest Immigrants from Nor-
way, 1620 to 1825 ...... 35
CHAPTER IV. The Sloopers of 1825. The First
Norwegian Settlement in America. Kleng
Peerson . . . ..... . . 45
CHAPTER V. The Founding of the Fox River Set-
tlement. Personal Notes on Some of the
Founders . 55
CHAPTER VI. Causes of Emigration from Norway.
General Factors, Economic .... 64
CHAPTER VII. Causes of Emigration Continued.
Special Factors. Religion as a Cause. Emi-
gration Agents 73
CHAPTER VIII. Causes of Emigration Continued.
The Influence of Successful Pioneers. "Amer-
ica-Letters." The Spirit of Adventure. Sum-
mary ........ 80
CHAPTER IX. Growth of the Fox River Settlement.
The Immigration of 1836. Further Personal
Sketches . . . . .-...'. 89
CHAPTER X. The Year 1837 Continued. The Sail-
ing of Aegir ....... 97
CHAPTER XI. Beaver Creek. Ole Rynning . 102
12 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
CHAPTER XII. Some of the Immigrants of 1837.
The First Pathfinders from Numedal and Tele-
marken 108
CHAPTER XIII. Ansten Nattestad's Return to Nor-
way in 1838. The Year 1839. Immigration
Assumes Larger Proportions. The Course of
Settlement Changes 116
CHAPTER XIV. Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten
Nattestad 's Return from Norway in 1839. The
Founding of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement
in Rock County, Wisconsin . . . . 125
CHAPTER XV. The Earliest White Settlers on
Rock and Jefferson Prairies. The Founding of
the Rock Prairie Settlement. The Earliest Set-
tlers on Rock Prairie 135
CHAPTER XVI. The Rock Run Settlement. Other
Immigrants of 1839. The Immigration of 1840 147
CHAPTER XVII. The Settlement of Norway and
Raymond Townships, Racine County. The
Founders of the Settlement. Immigration to
Racine County in 1841-1842 . . . 155
CHAPTER XVIII. The Establishment of the Kosh-
konong Settlement in Dane County, Wisconsin 164
CHAPTER XIX. The Settling of Koshkonong by
Immigrants from Numedal and Stavanger in
1840. Other Accessions in 1841-1842 . . 172
CHAPTER XX. New Accessions to the Koshkonong
Settlement in 1840-1841. The Growth of the
Settlement in 1842 180
CHAPTER XXI. The First Norwegian Settlement
in Iowa, at Sugar Creek in Lee County . 190
CHAPTER XXII. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers
at Wiota, La Fayette County, and Dodgeville,
Iowa County, Wisconsin .... 198
CONTENTS 13
CHAPTER XXIII. Growth of the Jefferson Prairie
Settlement from 1841 to 1845. The First Nor-
wegian Land Owners in Rock County . - ; 204
CHAPTER XXIV. Immigration to Rock Prairie
from Numedal and Land in 1842 and Subse-
quent Years 211
CHAPTER XXV. Immigration from Hallingdal,
Norway, to Rock Prairie from 1843 to 1848.
Continued Immigration from Numedal. Other
Early Accessions 216
CHAPTER XXVI. Economic Conditions of Immi-
grants. Cost of Passage. Course of the Jour-
ney. Duration of the Journey . . . 221
CHAPTER XXVII. Norwegians in Chicago, 1840-
1845. A Vossing Colony. Some Early Set-
tlers in Chicago from Hardanger . . 230
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Earliest Norwegian Set-
tlers in the Township of Pleasant Spring, Dane
County, Wisconsin 241
CHAPTER XXIX. The First Norwegian Settlers
in the Townships of Dunkirk, Dunn, and Cot-
tage Grove, in Dane County, "Wisconsin . 249
CHAPTER XXX. The Expansion of the Koshkon-
ong Settlement into Sumner and Oakland
Townships in Jefferson County. Increased
Immigration from Telemarken. New Settlers
from Kragero, Drammen and Numedal . 255
CHAPTER XXXI. The Coming of the First Large
Party of Immigrants from Sogn. New Acces-
sions from Voss 265
CHAPTER XXXII. Long Prairie in Boone County,
Illinois; A Sogning Settlement . . . 272
CHAPTER XXXIII. The Growth of the Racine
County (Muskego) Settlement, 1843-1847. 278
14 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
CHAPTER XXXIV. The Heart Prairie Settlement
in "Walworth Co., Wis. Skoponong. Pine Lake 289
CHAPTER XXXV. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers
at Sugar Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin.
The Influx from Land, Norway, to Wiota and
Vicinity, 1844-1852 300
CHAPTER XXXVI. Continued Immigration from
Aurland, Sogn, to Koshkonong. The Arrival
of Settlers from Vik Parish, Sogn, in 1845 . 305
CHAPTER XXXVII. Kirkeregister. Church Reg-
ister of East Koshkonong, West Koshkonong
and Liberty Prairie Congregations as Consti-
tuted During the Years of Reverend J. W. C.
Dietrichson 's Incumbency of the Pastorate
from 1844 to 1850, and as Recorded by Rever-
end Dietrichson 314
CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Founding of the Nor-
wegian Settlements of Norway Grove, Spring
Prairie and Bonnet Prairie in Dane and Col-
umbia Counties, Wisconsin .... 331
CHAPTER XXXIX. Blue Mounds in Western Dane
County, Wisconsin 340
CHAPTER XL. The Hardanger Settlement in Lee
and De Kalb Counties, Illinois. Big Grove
in Kendall County, and Nettle Creek in Grundy
County, Illinois 350
CHAPTER XLI. The First Norwegian Pioneers in
Northeastern Iowa ..... 362
CHAPTER XLIL Survey of Immigration from Nor-
way to America. Conclusion . . . 375
APPENDIX I 383
APPENDIX II 386
BIBLIOGRAPHY . 387
INDEX 389
INTRODUCTION
In this volume I shall aim to give an account of
the Norwegian immigration movement from 1825
down to 1848. Thereupon will follow a brief survey
of the course of the movement and the growth of the
settlements founded here in that period. In the in-
troductory pages I shall discuss briefly individual
immigration from Norway from its earliest known
beginnings down to 1825.
Immigration from Norway resulted in the found-
ing of settlements in New York, Illinois, Wisconsin
and Iowa successively; I shall try to give a correct
narrative of the beginnings and the growth of these
settlements. In this part of the work I shall stress
the oldest and largest settlements in Southern Wis-
consin and Northern Illinois, for the relation of
these to the whole movement and later colonization of
the Northwestern States by the Norwegians is one
of especial importance. I shall treat somewhat fully
of the causes of emigration, of the growth of the
movement, and the part in it that each district or
province in Norway has played. The leaders from
each district and the founders of the settlements
here will be named and in many cases, sketches will
be given of their lives. Such questions as the course
of the movement in Norway, the cost of the voyage,
the course of the journey, early wage conditions,
the economic conditions of the immigrants, the
16 INTRODUCTION
geographical trend of settlement, will also be con-
sidered, and approximately complete lists of the ac-
cessions in each settlement for the first few years
will be given. The limits of this volume, how-
ever, will preclude the treatment of social or
cultural questions, or to take more than the briefest
notice of the pursuits and occupations of the Nor-
wegian-American and his contribution to American
life. I hope to be able to treat elsewhere, later, of
some of these problems.
The story of the immigrant settler is one that
is well worth the telling; it is one that is justly re-
ceiving increased attention in recent years. I be-
lieve that the writer of American history will, in the
future, pay far greater attention than he has in the
past to the immigrant pioneer as a factor in the de-
velopment of the nation. There are in America to-
day about one million people of Norwegian birth, or
Norwegian parentage. That is, there are nearly
half as many of that nationality in America as in
Norway itself. The transplanting of so large a pro-
portion of a race from the land to which it is rooted
by birth and by its history is indeed remarkable.
Various European peoples have contributed to
the growth of the American population; they have
each given something to the sum total of present
American life and in some measure helped to
shape American institutions. As a people Amer-
ica is yet in the formative period; racially,
at least, one-half of the population is not
INTRODUCTION 17
Anglo-Saxon. It is by the amalgamation of
all its ethnic factors that the future American people
will be evolved. The contribution that each foreign
element will make to that evolution will be deter-
mined by the civilization, which each represents as
its racial heritage, the culture which, in the course of
its history, each has evolved as a people and a nation.
As the true student of American history takes note
of these things in the future, the significance of the
foreign factor in the growth and the upbuilding of
the country will receive its just recognition.
We of Norse blood, but American birth, if we are
true to the best that is in us, cannot fail to have an
interest in the trials and the achievements of the
pioneer fathers. We must recognize the true hero-
ism of the men and women who braved the hardships
and suffered the privations of frontier life in the
thirties, the forties and the fifties. The part that
the pioneers of those days played in the development
of the Northwest was a great one; in comparison
with it that of the present generation is wholly in-
significant. It is to the memory of those pioneers,
in recognition of their true worth, that this record
of their coming is dedicated.
CHAPTEE I
Norway: Population, Resources, Pursuits of her
People, Social Conditions, Laws and Institutions.
Norway is, as we know, a long and narrow strip
of country in the west of the Scandinavian Penin-
sula, stretching through thirteen degrees of latitude,
and in the north, extending almost three hundred
miles into the arctic zone. Nearly a third of the
entire country * is the domain of the midnight sun,
where summer is the season of daylight and winter
is one long unbroken night. Even in Southern Nor-
way total darkness is unknown in summer, the night
being merely a period of twilight. In Christiania
the nights are light from April twentieth to the third
week in August, in Trondhjem, a week more at
either end. In the latter city there is broad day-
light at midnight from May twenty-third to July
twentieth. Correspondingly there is a period of
continuous darkness in the extreme north. Thus at
Tromso the sun is not visible between the twenty-
sixth of November and the sixteenth day of Janu-
ary. The long night is therefore short as compared
with the long day of summer. Climatically, also,
Norway is naturally a land of extremes, extending,
as it does, over such a vast area north and south.
Yet the populous portion of the country, the south-
ern two-thirds, is not appreciably colder than the
1 Or over thirty-eight thousand square miles.
NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 19
State of Iowa and the southern half of Wisconsin
and Minnesota. The winter is severest in the great
inland valleys. Gudbrandsdalen, Valders and Hal-
lingdal, but especially in Osterdalen. In the last-
named valley the lowest temperature ever observed
has been recorded, namely, 50, mercury often hav-
ing been frozen. 2 The winter is also excessively
long in these valleys; in Fjeldberg and Jerkin in
the Dovre Mountains the temperature is below the
freezing point two hundred days in the year. In
the south and in the west coast-districts the climate
is more uniform and more temperate. Northern
Norway, with its gulf stream coast, presents the
same general climatic conditions as Western and
Southern Norway ; the inland region of extreme cold
is limited because of the very limited inland area,
which also is very sparsely populated. 3
2 Compare Bjornson's account of the temperature at Kvikne in
his autobiographical sketch, SlakTcen.
3 The statistical and much of the other matter in this chapter has
been taken from Norway, Official Publication for the Paris Exhibition,
1900, published at Christiania. But I am also indebted to the stately
publication by Norwegian authors and artists entitled Norge i det
nittende Aarhundrede, 2 volumes, large folio, 436 and 468 pages.
Christiania, 1900. The scholars who published this are W. C. Brogger, B.
Getz, A. N. Kjaer, Moltke Moe, Bredo Morgenstjerne, Gerhard Munthe,
Frith j of Nansen, Eilif Peterssen, Nordahl Eolfsen, J. E. Sars, Gustav
Storm and E. Werenskjold. The editor in chief for the texts is
Nordahl Eolfsen, for the illustrations E. Werenskjold. There is a
large staff of collaborators, each article is prepared by a specialist;
the whole is a rare piece of book-making. The printers are Alb.
Cammermeyers Forlag, Christiania. I wish to mention also especially
here Christensen 's Det nittende Aarhundredes Kulturlcamp i Norge,
Christiania, 1905.
20 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
The population of Norway 4 is very unevenly
distributed, the north being rather thinly settled. The
area of Norway is 124,495 square miles, or somewhat
more than that of Wisconsin and Illinois together.
About four per cent of this, however, is covered by
lakes, and the average number of inhabitants to the
square mile is only seventeen. The corresponding
figures of inhabitants to the square mile for Sweden
is twenty-eight; for Denmark, however, it is one
hundred and forty-eight, and for all Europe, it is
ninety-eight. The density of population is greatest
in Larvik and Jarlsberg on the south (barring
the cities of Christiania and Bergen). In these
provinces there are one hundred and sixteen inhab-
itants to the square mile. In Hedemarken the num-
ber falls to twelve. The western fjord districts,
those of Trondhjem Fjord, the Sogne Fjord and the
Hardanger Fjord are thickly populated.
Norway is a land of fjords and lakes, of moun-
tains and glacier expanses. Less than one-fourth
of the country is capable of cultivation, and eighty
per cent of this is forest land. This leaves less than
five per cent under actual cultivation. "We may
compare again with Denmark, where seventy-six per
cent of the land is cultivated, while in all Europe
the ratio is forty per cent.
Norway's climate is noted for its healthfulness, s
4 It was 1,490,950 in 1855, 2,350,000 in 1908.
5 Dr. A. Magelson of Christiania has recently written a work on
Norway as a health resort entitled: To Norway for Health. A Sci-
entific Account of the Peculiar Advantages of the Norwegian Climate,
published by Nikolai Olson, Christiania.
NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 21
and its inhabitants attain a higher degree of long-
evity than those of most other European countries.
Nearly seven per cent of its people reach the age of
sixty to seventy, while one per cent attain to the age
of from ninety to one hundred years. That is, reck-
oned as a whole, about twelve per cent attain to the
age of sixty years or more. This is considerable in
excess of that of nearly all other European coun-
tries.
The average age in Norway is fifty, while for
instance, in Italy it is thirty-five. But the expect-
ancy is far more than this for him who passes in-
fancy ; thus if one attains to the age of fifty in Nor-
way, one still may expect to live twenty-three years.
Such is the health and the expectancy of life among
our immigrants from Norway.
The predominant pursuit in Norway is agricul-
ture, cattle farming and forest cultivation. Herein
forty-eight per cent of the population seeks its main-
tenance. The immigrant pioneer generally selects
in America the pursuit or occupation for which he
has been trained in his native country. And so we
find that the great majority of Norwegian immigrants
have sought homes in rural communities and engaged
in farming and related pursuits. In fact, more than
eighty-eight per cent of our Norwegian immigrants
have come from rural communities. Twenty-three
per cent of the population of Norway are engaged
in industries and mining. To these occupations in
this country, Norway has, especially in the later
period of immigration, contributed a considerable
22 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
share. A little over eight per cent of her people are
engaged in fishing. And so we find that a propor-
tionately very large amount of the New England
fisheries is conducted by fishermen who have come
from Norway. Navigation engages six per cent of
the population of Norway. In this connection I note
that our warships in the Spanish-American war
were many of them manned almost exclusively by
Norwegian sailors ; 6 and there were Norwegians in
the American marine service as early as the War of
Independence, as again in no small proportion in the
Civil War in the sixties.
Perhaps about five per cent of Norway's pop-
ulation is engaged in intellectual work. Here, too,
the contribution of Norway to our population in
America has been considerable, especially during the
last twenty years.
Nearly all of the Norwegian population is of
the Protestant faith, and the great majority of these
are members of the state church, which is the Lu-
theran. Somewhat similar are the affiliations in
America.
The constitution of Norway is liberal and the
government highly democratic. In these respects
the people of Norway are now perhaps as favorably
circumstanced as we in America. The Norwegian
readily enters into the spirit of American laws and
6 The Reliance which defended the America cup against Sham-
rock III in 1903 was manned almost exclusively by Norwegians. They
were from the following towns in Norway: Arendal, Aalesund,
Stavanger, Bergen, Larvik, Christiania, and Haugesund.
NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 23
institutions, for their laws are not essentially dif-
ferent from his own. Being accustomed to a high
degree of freedom, he has been trained to a high con-
ception of the responsibilities that that freedom en-
tails. He has long been accustomed to representa-
tion and sharing in the rights of franchise, and he
exercises that right as a privilege and a solemn duty.
It may be said, I believe, that no people has a higher
sense of right and wrong and a stronger moral in-
centive to right. Frauds in elections and graft in
official life are yet unheard-of among our Norwegian-
American citizens.
Norway is, next to Finland, the most temperate
of European countries. The sale of liquor is per-
mitted only in incorporated cities and towns, and
only by an association that is organized under
government supervision. It is the so-called Gothen-
burg system that is in use. Of the earnings of such
organization the government takes five per cent, the
county ten per cent and the municipality fifteen per
cent, while the net profit of the association must not
exceed five per cent on the investment in any one
year. The hours of sale are very much restricted. Not
only is there no sale of liquor on Sundays, but places
of such business must close at one o'clock on Satur-
day and on days preceding holidays. Norway is
essentially a temperate country. Statistics show
that out of every thousand deaths, only one is due
to drink. The Norwegian people have educated
themselves to abstinence, and the temperance move-
24 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ment found wide support earlier in Norway than
anywhere else. Det norske Totalafholds Selskab 7
was organized in 1859; ten years ago it had ten
hundred and twenty branches and a hundred
and thirty thousand members, while other temper-
ance associations also have a considerable member-
ship. Here in America, the Norwegian immigrant
has taken a prominent part in legislation looking to-
ward the restriction of the sale of intoxicating
liquors, 8 and the Prohibition party finds its strong-
est support among the Norwegians, as it finds a
relatively large number of its candidates for state
and county offices from among them.
Crime conditions in Norway are similarly sig-
nificant. Comparative statistics are difficult of ac-
cess, but Norway's proportion of serious offences
is very low. In the whole period from 1891-1895
the total number was only two hundred and sixty-
one. Norway has its poor as every country has, but
it has its excellent system of taking care of the poor.
Thus every municipality has a Board of Guardians
(fattigkommission), which consists of the parish
minister, a police officer, and several men chosen by
a local board. Norway keeps her criminals and
takes care of her poor; she does not send them to
America, as has only too often been the case in some
other countries.
7 The Norwegian Total Abstinence Society.
8 When the Sunday closing order was instituted in Minneapolis
in December, 1905, the Minneapolis Journal commented upon the fact
that the Norwegian citizens made no complaint, as it appears others
did.
NORWAY: POPULATION, ETC. 25
Norway has a highly developed school system
crowned by the Eoyal Frederik University at
Christiania. It has compulsory education, its
boards of inspection and its great Department of
Public Instruction. It has its People's High School,
its Workingmen's Colleges, and a system of second-
ary schools, whose curricula are still on a conserva-
tive basis. Its one University ranks with the fore-
most in Europe, and with it are connected various
laboratories and scientific institutions, and it has a
library of three hundred and fifty thousand volumes.
Here too are located its Botanical Gardens, the His-
torical Museum, the Astronomical and Magnetic Ob-
servatory, the Meteriological Institute and the Bio-
logical Marine Station. 9 The salaries of its teach-
ers in Middelskole Gymnasium, and of instructors
and professors in the University, reckoned by the
purchasing power of money, is approximately thirty
per cent greater than that of our middle western
universities. I shall also mention The Royal Nor-
wegian Scientific Society at Trondhjem, founded
1760, a similar society in Christiania, founded 1857,
the Bergen Museum, founded 1825, with its literary
and scientific collections illustrative of the life and
cultural history of Western Norway, The Norwegian
National Museum in Christiania, founded 1894, sim-
ilar, but more general in character, The Industrial
Arts Museum, 10 and the various archives of the
Kingdom.
9 This is located at Drobak.
10 Though Norway's participation in the Universal Exposition at
26 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
As to the Norwegian language I shall merely
speak of its highly analytic character, in which
respect it has for a long time been developing in the
same direction as English, though of course, abso-
lutely independently. Being closely cognate with
English, a large part of the vocabulary of the two
is of the same stock. Further, its sound system is
fundamentally similar. These three considerations,
especially perhaps the first, will make clear to us the
reason why the Norwegian so readily learns to use
the English language, and if he learns it in youth,
even to the point of mastery. This is of the greatest
importance, for language is in modern times the real
badge of nationality. A correct use of the English
language is the first and chief stamp of American
nationality, the key without which the foreigner can-
not enter into the spirit of American life and insti-
tutions.
Norwegian literature I cannot either discuss
here. The great movements it represents in recent
times are fairly well known; its significance and its
broad influence are beginning to be understood. The
genius of Norwegian literature is morality and truth.
It expresses herein the high ethical sense of the na-
tion, which is pagan-racial, but which is also Chris-
tian-Lutheran, a church which in its preeminent
spirituality is the typical Teutonic church.
St. Louis in 1904 as regards number of exhibits was limited, its ex-
hibits were acknowledged to be of very high grade, thus in its tapes-
tries, in carved and inlaid work, in silver and enamel displays it re-
ceived the highest awards. Eeport by Consul Fr. Waage, General Com-
missioner to the St. Louis Exposition, STcandinaven, June 14th, 1905.
CHAPTER II
Emigration from Norway.
Emigration from Norway has in large part been
transatlantic. Norway has lost by American emi-
gration a comparatively larger portion of her pop-
ulation than any other country in Europe, with the
exception of Ireland. The great majority of the em-
igrants have gone to the northwestern states and
found there their future homes. In Northern Illi-
nois, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, in Northern and
Western Iowa, in North and South Dakota, they
form a very large proportion of the population.
Emigration to European countries has been directed
chiefly to Sweden and Denmark, though not few
have settled in England and Germany and some in
Holland. Between 1871 and 1875 about fifteen hun-
dred persons emigrated from Norway to Australia;
the number that have gone there since that has been
much smaller. These have settled chiefly in South
Australia, Victoria and New Zealand. In recent
years some have settled in the Argentine Eepublic
in South America. Norwegians are found in con-
siderable numbers in Western Canada, but the ma-
jority of these have emigrated from the Norwegian
communities in the western states, especially Min-
nesota and North Dakota.
Norwegian emigration to the United States took
28 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
systematic form with the sailing of Nor den and Den
Norske Klippe in 1836. In 1843 it began to assume
larger proportions; in that year sixteen hundred
immigrants from Norway settled in the United
States. During 1866-1870, a period of financial
depression in Norway, there left, on an average,
about fifteen thousand a year. The rate fell in the
seventies, rose again in the eighties, the figure for
1882 being 29,101 persons, while it averaged over
eighteen thousand per annum also for the next dec-
ade. In 1898 it was not quite five thousand, then
again it rose steadily, reaching 24,461 in 1903.
The Norwegian emigration has been mostly from
rural districts, day-laborers, artisans, farmers, sea-
men, but also those representing other pursuits.
Not a few with professional or technical education
have settled in America ; we find them in the medical
profession, 11 in the ministry, 12 in journalism, in the
faculties of our colleges. All the age-classes are
represented among immigrants from Norway, but
by far the largest number of both men and women
have come during the ages of twenty to thirty-five,
and particularly the first half of these series of
years.
This great emigration of the Norwegian race
during the nineteenth century has, of course, very
materially retarded the growth of the population
in Norway, especially in the period from 1865 to
1890. The increase between 1815 and 1835 was as
11 Mostly in recent years.
12 In the early period chiefly.
EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY 29
high as 1.34 per cent annually. From 1835 to 1865
it was 1.18 per cent, but during 1865-1890 it fell to
0.65 per cent. Since 1890 the increase has been con-
considerable again. But during 1866-1903 the total
emigration from Norway to the United States alone
aggregated five hundred and twenty-four thousand.
To this number should be added the children of these
if we are to have a proper basis of estimation for the
increase of the race in the last half century. This
increase thus has been 1.40 per cent annually, that
is, the race has doubled itself in fifty years. We
may compare with France, where the increase has
been 0.23 per cent, Eussia, 13 where it has been 1.35,
in Servia, where it has been 2.00 per cent, this be-
ing the highest in Europe. The increase in Sweden
and Denmark is about the same as in Norway
reckoning the racial increase.
It will be of interest here to consider briefly the
immigration from the Scandinavian countries as a
whole.
During the years 1820-1830 not more than 283
emigrated from the Scandinavian countries to the
United States. In the following decade the number
only slightly exceeded two thousand. Since 1850
our statistics regarding the foreign born population
are more complete. In that year we find there were
a little over eighteen thousand persons in the coun-
try of Scandinavian birth. In 1880 this number had
13 The figures here are for the period closing with 1890 before
which year Eussia had furnished very few emigrants to the United
States.
30 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
reached 440,262; while the unprecedented exodus of
1882 and the following years had by 1890 brought
the number up to 933,249. Thus the immigrant pop-
ulation from these countries, which in 1850 was less
than one per cent, had in 1890 reached ten per cent
of the whole foreign element. The following table
will show the proportion contributed by the coun-
tries designated for each decade since 1850 :
TABLE I
1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900
, PER CENT ,
Ireland .... 42.8 38.9 33.3 27.8 20.2 15.6
Germany. ... 26 30.8 30.4 29.4 30.1 25.8
England .... 12.4 10.5 10 9.9 9.8 8.1
Canada .... 6.6 6 8.9 10.7 10.6 11.4
Scotland and Wales 4.4 3.7 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.2
Scandinavia . . .9 1.7 4.3 6.6 10.1 10.3
Thus it will be seen that among European coun-
tries Scandinavia, considered as one, stands third
in the number of persons contributed to the Amer-
ican foreign-born population, exceeding that of Scot-
land and Wales in 1870 and that of England in
1890. Both the Irish and the German immigration
reached considerable numbers at least fifteen years
before that from the North, Ireland having contrib-
uted nearly forty-three per cent of the total in 1850,
and Germany twenty-six. By 1900 the Irish quota
had fallen to fifteen per cent, while the German
is nearly twenty-six and that from Scandinavia ten
per cent. In 1870 our Scandinavian-born immigrant
population was twice as large as the French and
EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY 31
equalled the total from Holland, Switzerland, Aus-
tria, Bohemia, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Eussia. 14
The Norwegians are the pioneers in the emigra-
tion movement from the North in the nineteenth
century ; the Danes were the last to come in consider-
able numbers. Statistics, however, show that one
hundred eighty-nine Danes had emigrated to this
country before 1830, while there were only ninety-
four from Norway and Sweden. The Norwegian
foreign-born population had in 1850 reached 12,678 ;
while that from Sweden was 3,559; and Denmark
had furnished a little over eighteen hundred. The
Danish immigration was not over five thousand a
year until 1880 and has never reached twelve thou-
sand. The Swedish immigration received a new
impulse in 1852; it was five thousand in 1868; it
reached its climax of 64,607 in 1882. According to
Norwegian statistics the emigration from Norway
to the United States was six thousand and fifty in
1853, but according to our census reports did not
reach five thousand before 1866; the highest figure,
29,101, was reached in 1882 (according to our cen-
sus). 1S
The total emigration from the Scandinavian
countries to America between 1820 and 1903 was
1,617,111. This remarkable figure becomes doubly
remarkable when we stop to consider that the popu-
lation of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is only
14 The four last named countries have, as we know, in the last
decade entered very extensively into the emigration movement.
15 Or 28,000 according to Norwegian statistics.
32 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
two and one-half per cent of the total population of
Europe; yet they have contributed nearly ten per
cent of our immigrant population. There are in
this country nearly one-third as many Scandinavians
(counting those of foreign birth and foreign parent-
age both) as in the Scandinavian countries ; for the
German element the ratio is one to thirteen.
At this point I may refer the reader to the table
in Appendix I of this volume, showing the growth
and distribution of the Scandinavian factor, espe-
cially in the northwestern states, since 1850. Table
I shows Wisconsin as having almost as large a
Scandinavian population in 1850 as all the rest of
the country. Wisconsin was the destination of the
Norwegian immigrant from the time emigration be-
gan to assume larger proportions, and it held the
lead for twenty-five years. Iowa and Southern
Minnesota began entering into competition prom-
inently since 1852 and 1855 respectively. The
growth of Swedish immigration in the fifties and
sixties gave the lead to Minnesota by 1870, Illi-
nois taking second place in 1890. Eeturning now
to the Norwegian immigration specifically, it may be
observed that it was directed to the Northwest down
to recent years, almost to the exclusion of the rest
of the country. The reader may now be referred to
Table II in the Appendix, which shows the growth
of the Norwegian population in each state since
1850.
This table tells its own story. In New England
the Norwegian factor is unimportant. There has
EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY 33
been a high ratio of growth in New York and New
Jersey since 1880, but the total number is not large.
In the rest of the Atlantic seaboard states, as in
the gulf states, the Norwegian population has re-
mained almost stationary at a very low figure.
Such is also the case with the inland states of the
South, as in the Southwest. The effort to direct
Norwegian immigration to Texas, which goes back
to the forties, has been productive of only meagre
results. Even Kansas is too far south for the Nor-
wegian. In the extreme West, however, consider-
able numbers of Norwegians have established homes
since about 1882, particularly in California, Oregon
and Washington, since 1895 also in Montana, and in
recent years even in the extreme North, in Alaska.
What were the influences that directed the Nor-
wegian immigrants so largely to the Northwest in
the early period and down to 1890?
The great majority came for the sake of better-
ing their material condition. They came here to
found a home and to make a living. Moreover, as
I have observed above, immigrants in their new home
generally enter the same pursuits and engage in the
same occupations in which they were engaged in their
native country.
Three-fourths of the population of Norway live
in the rural districts and are mostly engaged in
some form of farming. 16 Thus seventy-two per cent
of the Norwegian immigrants are found in the rural
16 This includes also fishermen and foresters.
34 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
districts and in towns with less than twenty-five
thousand population. The fact that the influx of
the immigrants from Norway coincided with the
opening up of the middle western states resulted in
the settlement of those states by Norwegian immi-
grants. Land could be had for almost nothing in
the West. Land-seekers from New England, New
York and Pennsylvania were in those days flocking
to the West. 17 About ninety per cent of the Nor-
wegian immigrants at that time were land-seekers.
As a rule long before he emigrated the Norseman
had made up his mind to settle in Wisconsin, Illinois,
Iowa, or Minnesota.
17 Outside of Chicago, Illinois had in 1840 a population of
142,210; Wisconsin was organized as a Territory in 1836, its popu-
lation in 1840 was 30,945; Iowa had a population of only 192,212 in
1850; and Minnesota, organized at a Territory in 1849, had in 1850,
1,056 inhabitants. To the square mile the population of each was in
1850: Illinois, 15.37; Wisconsin, 5.66; Iowa, 3.77; Minnesota, .04.
CHAPTER III
The Earliest Immigrants from Nonvay, 1620 to 1825.
Our data regarding Norwegian emigration to
America prior to 1825 are very fragmentary, but it
it is possible to trace that emigration as far back as
1624. 18 In that year a small colony of Norwegians
was established in New Jersey on the site of the
present city of Bergen. 19 While it is not known that
the names of any of these first colonists have come
down to us, we do have the name of one Norwegian,
who visited the American coast on a voyage of ex-
ploration in the year 1619, that is, the year before
the landing of the Mayflower. In the early part of
1619 King Christian IV of Denmark fitted out two
ships for the purpose of finding a northwest passage
to Asia. The names of the ships were Eenhjornin-
gen and Lampreren, and the commander was a Nor-
wegian, Jens Munk, who was born at Barby, Nor-
way, in 1579. With sixty-six men Jens Munk sailed
from Copenhagen, May ninth, 1619. During the
autumn of that year and the early part of the follow-
ing year he explored Hudson Bay and took posses-
sion of the surrounding country in the name of King
18 The Vinland voyages in the llth-14th centuries do not come
within the scope of our discussion.
19 It seems that this city was so named by the colonists after the
city of Bergen, Norway.
36 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Christian, calling it Nova Dania. The expedition
was, however, a failure, and all but three of the
party perished from disease and exposure to cold in
the winter of 1620. The three survivors, among
whom was the commander, Jens Munk, returned to
Norway in September, 1620. 20
In the early days of the New Netherlands col-
ony, Norwegians sometimes came across in Dutch
ships and settled among the Dutch. The names of
at least two such have been preserved in the Dutch
colonial records. They are Hans Hansen and Claes
Carstensen (possibly originally Klaus Kristenson).
The former emigrated in a Dutch ship in 1633 and
joined the Dutch colony in New Amsterdam. His
name appears in the colonial records variously as
Hans Noorman, Hans Hansen de Noorman, Hans
Bergen, Hans Hansen von Bergen, and Hans Han-
sen von Bergen in Norwegen. Hans Bergen be-
came the ancestor of a large American family by
that name. 21 Claes Carstensen 's name appears va-
riously as Claes Noorman, Claes Carstensen Noor-
man and Claes Van Sant, the latter being the Nor-
wegian name Sande in Jarlsberg, where Claes Car-
stenson was born, 1607. He came to America about
1640 and settled a few years later on fifty-eight
acres of land on the site of the present Williams-
burg. The ministerial records of the old Dutch Ee-
formed Church in New York state that Claes Car-
stensen was married April 15, 1646, to Helletje Hen-
20 Anderson's First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 21.
21 See The Bergen Family, by Tennis Bergen.
EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 37
dricks. The latter was, it seems, a sister of An-
necken Hendricks, who was there married on Feb-
ruary first, 1650, to Jan Arentzen van der Bilt, the
colonial ancestor of Commodore Vanderbilt. An-
necken Hendricks is further designated as being
from Bergen, Norway, the names "Helletje" and
"Annecken" being Dutch diminutive forms of the
Norwegian Helen and Anne. Claes Carstensen died
November sixth, 1679.
About the year 1700 there were a number of
families of Norwegian and Danish descent living in
New York. In 1704 a stone church was erected by
them on the corner of Broadway and Eector Streets.
The property was later sold to Trinity Church, the
present churchyard occupying the site of the orig-
inal church. 22 Prof. E. B. Anderson, speaking of
these people, says, that they were probably mostly
Norwegians and not Danes, for those of their de-
scendants with whom he has spoken have all claimed
Norwegian descent. The pastor who ministered to
the spiritual wants of this first Scandinavian Lu-
theran congregation in America was a Dane by the
name of Rasmus Jensen Aarhus. He died on the
southwest coast of Hudson Bay, February twentieth,
1720.
In 1740 Norwegian Moravians took part in the
founding of a Moravian colony at Bethlehem, Penn-
sylvania, and in 1747 of one at Bethabara, North
Carolina. At Bethlehem these Norwegian (and
22 Our authority here is Eev. Baamus Anderson, who has given
this subject much study.
38 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Swedish and Danish) Moravians came in contact
with their kinsmen, the Swedish Lutherans of Dela-
ware and adjoining parts of New Jersey and Penn-
sylvania. The Swedes on the Delaware had lost
their independence in 1656. New Sweden as a polit-
ical state existed but sixteen years. Ecclesiatically.
however, the Lutherans of New Sweden remained
subject to the state church at home for one hundred
and fifty years more, and linguistically the colony
was Swedish nearly as long. In the church records
of this colony there appear not a few Norwegian
names, particularly in the later period. We know
that Norwegians in considerable numbers came to
America and joined the Delaware Swedes in the
eighteenth century. Gothenburg, which lies not far
distant from the province of Smaalenene, was at
the time, and has continued to be, the regular Swed-
ish sailing port for America-bound ships.
One of the most prominent members of the
Bethabara Colony was Dr. John M. Calberlane, born
1722 in Trondhjem, Norway. He came to New York
in 1753, having sailed from London on the ship
Irene, June thirteenth, arriving on September ninth.
Dr. Calberlane 's name occupies a foremost place
among the old colonial physicians ; he was a man of
much ability, noble in character and untiring in his
devotion to the welfare of his fellow colonists. On
July twenty-eighth, 1759, he himself succumbed to
a contagious fever that visited the settlement. In
a sermon delivered on Easter Sunday, 1760, Bishop
EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 39
Spangenberg gave public recognition of Calberlane's
service in his short life of six years in the colony. 23
Other Norwegians among these Moravian col-
onists were : Susanna Stokkeberg, from Sb'ndmore,
Norway, born 1715, who came to America in 1744 with
her husband, Abraham Eeinke, a Swede, to whom she
had been married that year in Stockholm. Eeinke is
reputed to have been an able preacher of the gospel,
the two laboring together in the congregations of
Bethlehem, Nazareth, Philadelphia, and Lancaster.
She died in 1758, he in 1760, leaving a son, Abraham
Eeinke. Peter Peterson, who was born in Norway
in 1728, and had joined the church in London, came
to America as a sailor on the ship Irene in 1749.
He died in 1750. Jens Wittenberg, a tanner from
Christiania, born 1719, came on the Irene in 1754;
he died in the colony, 1788. Martha Mans (probably
Monsdatter), from Bergen, born 1716, came on the
Irene in 1749. She lived in Bethabara as a teacher
and religious adviser until 1773. At the same time,
also, came Enert Enerson, a carpenter, while in 1759
came Catherine Kalberlahn, and in 1762 Christian
Christensen, a shoemaker, from Christiana. The
latter was born in 1718; he had lived some years
in Holland before coming to America. The year
of his death is 1777. Erik Ingebretsen came
over June twenty- second, 1750, via Dover, hav-
23 The name John M. Calberlane, originally Hans Martin Kalber-
lahn, is an interesting instance of an early Americanization of a Nor-
wegian name.
40 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ing been on the ocean six weeks, a remarkably short
passage for that time. 24
The names of several Norwegians are recorded
who served in the War of the Kevolution. Thus
under John Paul Jones served Thomas Johnson,
who was born 1758, the son of a pilot in Mandal,
Norway. The New England Historical Register,
Volume XXVTII, pages 18-21, gives an account of
Johnson's career in the American marine, from
which we learn that he was among those who served
on board the Bon Homme Richard in her cruise in
1779, having been transferred by Paul Jones from
the Ranger. Later he went with Paul Jones to the
Serapis and the Alliance and finally to the Ariel.
With the last ship he arrived in Philadelphia Feb-
ruary eighteenth, 1781. For a fuller account of
Johnson's career the interested reader is referred to
the source of which mention has already been made.
Thomas Johnson lived to the good old age of
ninety-three, dying July twelfth, 1807, in the United
States Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. He had
been a pensionist here for a number of years, being
known generally by the nickname "Paul Jones." A
biography of Johnson written by John Henry Sher-
burne was published at Washington in 1825, to which
I have, however, not had access. Another Norwe-
gian by the name of Lewis Brown (Lars Bruun)
also served under John Paul Jones. I lack further
particulars, however, regarding Brown, except that
24 For some of these facts I am indebted to Juul Dieserud,
Washington, D. C.
EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 41
he is spoken of in Sherburne's book, Life of Thomas
Johnson.
A Norwegian sailor, Captain Iverson, settled
in Georgia some time about the close of the
eighteenth century. United States Senator Iverson
from Georgia was a grandson of this Norwegian
sailor pioneer in Georgia. 2S About 1805 another sail-
or, Torgus Torkelson Gromstu, from Gjerpen, near
Skien, Norway, settled in New York.
In my article on ' ' The Danish Contingent in the
Population of Early Iowa," Iowa Journal of His-
tory and Politics, 1906, I spoke of a society, styling
itself Scandinavia, as having been organized in New
York City on June twenty-seventh, 1844. I there
designated this as the earliest organization of the
kind in this country. This I find now to be incor-
rect. As early as 1769 the Societas Scandinaviensis
was founded in Philadelphia. The membership of
this society was made up of Swedes, Norwegians
and Danes, the first of these presumably being in
the majority. The first president of the society was
Abraham Markoe (Marko), a Norwegian. One of
the memorable events in the history of the society
was a farewell reception given in "City Tavern" on
December eleventh, 1782, in honor of Baron Axel
Ferson, hero of the Battle of Yorktown. The com-
mittee of seven appointed to present the invitation
25 p. S. Vig. in his book De Danskc i Amerika says Iverson was
of Danish descent but gives no reasons for the claim. As the name
"Iver" is peculiarly Norwegian I must therefore adhere to my view
as formerly expressed (So. Immig. to Iowa).
42 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
and also to wait upon General George Washington
at Hasbrouch House, Newburg, with a view of se-
curing his presence consisted of the following : Cap-
tain Abraham Markoe, Sakarias Paulsen, Andrea -
sen Taasinge, Eev. Andrew Goeranson, Jacob Van
der Weer, John Stille and Andrew Keen. Says the
chronicler of the event:
"This event was one of the most glorious in the So-
ciety's history. The reception was held at the City Tav-
ern, Wednesday evening, December eleventh, 1782. The
President of the St. Andrew's Society, Rev. Wm. Smith,
D. D., lauded the bravery of the Baron and his men at the
Battle of Yorktown, whereupon General Washington in
thanking the members of the Society for their forethought
in tendering the reception to the noble officer (he subse-
quently decorated Ferson with the "Order of the Cincin-
nati" for valor displayed) expressed his pleasure at being
present among the people of his forefathers' blood, as he
claimed descent from the family of Wass, who emigrated
from Denmark in the year A. D. 970, and settled in the
County Durham, England, where they built a small town,
calling it Wass-in-ga-tun (town of Wass.)" 26
In January, 1783, General George Washington
was elected honorary member of the Society on
account of his Norse ancestry. On the twenty-
sixth of August, that year, a banquet was given at
the City Tavern under the auspices of the Society,
26 Cited from a prospectus of the Society issued in December,
1901, and kindly sent me by C. M. Machold of Philadelphia.
Variant forms of the name Wassingatun are, as given in the
prospectus, Wessington, Whessingtone, Wasengtone, Wassington and
finally Washington. The prospectus itself cites from Machold 's His-
tory of the Scandinavians in Pennsylvania.
EARLIEST IMMIGRANTS 43
in celebration of the recognition by Sweden, Norway,
and Denmark of the independence of the United
States of America. John Stille was for many years
secretary of the Society; after his death in 1802 all
traces of it seem to have vanished. Just when the
Societies Scandinaviensis ceased to exist, the His-
torian cannot say. On February twentieth, 1868,
eighteen gentlemen, all of Scandinavian birth and
residents of Philadelphia, met together for the pur-
pose of forming a society, and The Scandinavian
Society of Philadelphia was founded, an organiza-
tion which regards itself a continuation of the orig-
inal society. The chief object of the Society is
benevolence.
The name of at least one Norwegian who fell in
the early wars against the Indians has come down to
us. Frank Peterson, who had enlisted on the fif-
teenth of June, 1808, was among those who fell at
Fort Dearborn in 1812, among the ' ' first martyrs of
the West, " in an attack by five hundred Pottawatta-
mie Indians. In this battle two-thirds of the whites
were killed and the rest taken prisoners.
At a later date some other names also appear,
but those given are the only ones of which we have
any record. I shall mention here that of Ole Hau-
gen, who probably was the first. Norwegian to settle
in the State of Massachusetts. Haugen was from
Bergen, Norway, and located in Middlesex County,
that state, in 1815. Alexander Paaske, himself an
early immigrant from Bergen, living in Lowell,
44 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Mass., and who was present at Haugen's deathbed,
is the source of the above fact. Though going be-
yond the scope of our brief survey of this earliest
immigration, it may be of interest here to know that
as early as 1817, a girl from Voss, Norway, Anna
Vetlahuso, emigrated to America with her husband,
a German sailor in Bergen, and settled somewhere in
South America. The next recorded names in the
order of emigration to the United States are Kleng
Peerson and Knud Olson Eide, who in 1821 became
the advance guard of a group of fifty-two emigrants
that in 1825 founded the first Norwegian settlement
in this country. It is of this sailing and the leaders
of this group that I now wish to speak; of Peerson
I shall give a brief account below.
CHAPTER IV
The Sloopers of 1825. The First Norwegian Settle-
ment in America. Kleng Peerson
The story of the Sloopers from Stavanger, Nor-
way, who came to America in 1825, has often been
told; I shall therefore be very brief in my account
of that expedition. Under causes of emigration I
shall have occasion below to note briefly some of the
circumstances that seem to have led to their depart-
ure for America in that year. The director of the
expedition and the chief owner of the boat was Lars
Larson i Jeilane ; the captain was Lars Olsen. The
company consisted of fifty-two persons, all but one
being natives of Stavanger and vicinity ; the one ex-
ception was the mate, Nels Erikson, who came from
Bergen. Relative to the leading spirit in this first
group of emigrants, Lars Larson, I shall say here : He
was born near Stavanger, September twenty-fourth,
1787. He became a sailor, was captured in the Na-
poleonic wars and kept a prisoner in London for
seven years. Being released in 1814, he remained in
London, however, till 1815, when he and several
other prisoners returned to Norway. In London
they had been converted to the Quaker faith by Mrs.
Margaret Allen, and upon returning to Stavanger,
Lars Larson, Elias Tastad, Thomas Helle and Metta
Helle became the founders of the first Quaker society
46 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
in that city, a society which is still in existence.
In 1821 the Stavanger Quakers began to form
plans for emigrating to America. It seems that
Kleng Peerson and Knud Eide, whom we have men-
tioned above, were deputed to go to America for
the purpose of learning something of the country
with a view to planting there a Quaker colony.
Kleng Peerson returned to Stavanger in 1824 with
a favorable report and many of the members of the
Quaker colony began to make preparations for emi-
grating to the locality selected by Peerson, namely,
Orleans County, New York State. A sloop of only
forty-five tons capacity which they called Restaura-
tionen, built in Hardanger, was purchased and loaded
with a cargo of iron and made ready for the jour-
ney. Larson himself had married in December,
1824, Georgiana Person, who was born October 19,
1803, on Fogn, a small island near Stavanger. Be-
sides him there were five other heads of families.
On the fourth of July, 1825, they set sail from Stav-
anger. The following fifty-two persons made up the
party: Lars Larson and wife Martha Georgiana;
Lars Olson, who was captain of the boat, Cornelius
Nelson Hersdal, wife and four children; 27 Daniel
Stenson Bossadal, wife and five children ; 28 Thomas
Madland, wife and three children, 29 Nels Nelson
27 Anne (b. 1814), Nels (b. 1816), Inger (b. 1819), and Martha
(b. 1823).
28 Ellen (b. 1807), Ove (b. 1809), Lara (b. 1812), John (b.
1821), Hulda (b. 1825).
29 Rachel (b. 1807), Julia (b. 1810), Senena (b. 1814).
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 47
Hersdal and wife Bertha, Knud Anderson Slogvig,
Jacob Anderson Slogvig, Gudmund Hangaas, Johan-
nes Stene, wife and two children, Oien Thorson
(Thompson) wife and three children, 30 Simon Lima,
wife and three children, Henrik Christopherson Her-
vig, and wife, Ole Johnson, George Johnson, Thor-
sten Olson Bjaaland, Nels Thorson, Ole Olson
Hetletvedt, Sara Larson (sister of Lars Larson),
Halvor Iverson, Andrew Stangeland, the mate, Nels
Erikson, and the cook, Endre Dahl.
After a perilous voyage of fourteen weeks they
landed in New York, October ninth. An ac-
count of that voyage, which also it seems was a
rather adventurous one, was given by the New York
papers at the time ; it was reproduced in Norwegian
translation in Billed-Magazin in 1869, whence it has
been copied in other works. The arrival of this
first party of Norwegian immigrants, and in so
small a boat, created nothing less than a sensation
at the time, as we may infer from the wide atten-
tion the event received in the eastern press. Thus
the New York Daily Advertiser for October twelfth,
1825, under the head lines, "A Novel Sight," gives
an account of the boat, the destination of the immi-
grants, the country they came from, their appear-
ance, etc. For this citation I may refer the reader
to page 39 of my article on * ' The Coming of the Nor-
wegians to Iowa" in The Iowa Journal of History
and Politics, 1905, or to E. B. Anderson's First
Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, 1896, 70-71.
30 Sara (b. 1818), Anna Maria (b. 1819), Caroline (b. 1825).
48 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
In New York the immigrants met Mr. Joseph
Fellows, a Quaker, from whom they purchased land
in Orleans County, New York. It seems to have been
upon the suggestion of Mr. Fellows that they were
induced to settle here, although it is possible that
the land had already been selected for them by
Kleng Peerson, who was in New York at the time.
The price to be paid for the land was five dollars an
acre, each head of a family and adult person pur-
chasing forty acres. The immigrants not being able
to pay for the land, Mr. Fellows agreed to let them
redeem it in ten annual installments. For the fur-
ther history of the colony, with which we are here
not so much concerned, the reader is referred to
Knud Langeland's Nordmaendene i Amerika, Chica-
go, 1889, pp. 10-19, or to Anderson's First Chapter,
pp. 77-90.
We have already mentioned Kleng Peerson, a
name familiar to every student of Norwegian pio-
neer history. Much has been written about this
pathfinder in the West, and romance and legend al-
ready adorn his memory. It would be interesting
to recount what we know of his life in America, but
as this has been dealt with at length By Professor
R. B. Anderson in his monograph on Norwegian Im-
migration, which is in large part devoted to the
slooper's history, I may refer the interested reader
to this work. Symra (Decorah, Iowa) for 1906 also
contains a brief, somewhat eulogistic account in
Norwegian of Peer son's stay in New York and his
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 49
journey of exploration to Illinois, Missouri, and Tex-
as. The briefest facts I may, however, relate here.
Kleng Peerson was born on the seventeenth of
May, 1782, on the estate Hesthammer in Tysvaer
Parish, Province of Byfylke. In 1820 we find him in
Stavanger, where William Allen, an English Quaker,
was then organizing a Quaker society. In 1821
Kleng Peerson and a certain Knud Olson Eide were,
as we have seen, commissioned, it appears, by the
Quakers to go to America and examine the possibil-
ity of organizing a Norwegian colony there. The
two explorers secured work in New York City, but
Knud Eide fell ill and died not long after, and Peer-
Bon went west alone in quest of a suitable location
for a colony. Just how far west he may have come
on this first journey is not known. After some
time he decided upon Orleans County on the shores
of the Ontario as the best place to plant his colony,
and in 1824 he returned to Norway. We have noted
already the results of Peerson 's mission. When
Lars Larson's party prepared to go to America
Kleng Peerson also left, but he did not take passage
in Restaurationen. It seems that he embarked by
way of Gothenburg and was in New York to receive
the sloopers upon their arrival.
It would be natural to suppose that Peerson did
not go alone from Stavanger when he returned to
America via Gothenburg in 1825. After much in-
quiry I have also succeeded in discovering the name
of one man, who, with his family, accompanied Peer-
50 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
son that year. This man was Bjorn Bjornson from
Stavanger, a cousin of Kleng Peerson; he brought
his wife and several children with him, but left two
girl twins, born in May of that year, with a relative
who then lived in Tjensvold, near Stavanger. Fur-
ther facts about this family will be given in the
chapter on Chicago.
As Peerson seems to play no role in the found-
ing of the Orleans County settlement, I shall leave
him here. There will be occasion to speak briefly of
him again later in connection with the second Nor-
wegian settlement. I wish to add a few words here
about Lars Larson, however. He and his family
located in Rochester, where he became a builder of
canal boats, prospered; and kept in close touch
with immigrant Norwegians during the two decades
of his life there. His home became a kind of Mecca
for hosts of intending settlers in the New World.
Larson died by accident on a canal boat in Novem-
ber, 1845, but his widow lived till October, 1887.
They had eight children, of whom the first one, Mar-
garet Allen, was born on the Atlantic Ocean, Sep-
tember second, 1825. Of her and others of Lars
Larson's descendants I shall speak briefly below.
We shall now return to the settlers in Orleans Coun-
ty, New York.
The colony was in many respects unfortunate;
it cannot be said to have prospered and has never
played any important part as a colony in Norwe-
gian-American history. But it is important as be-
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 51
ing the first, and also as being the parent of a very
large and progressive Norwegian settlement found-
ed in 1834-35 in La Salle County, Illinois, of which
more below. And yet the economic conditions of
the Quaker immigrants gradually became better and
the future looked more promising. They felt now
that America offered many advantages to the able
and the capable, and they began writing encourag-
ing letters to relatives and friends in the old coun-
try, urging them to seek their fortune here. As a
result there was, if not a large, at any rate a fairly
constant emigration of individuals and families from
Stavanger and adjacent region during the following
eight or nine years, although few seem to have come
before 1829. In this year, e. g., came Gudmund
Sandsberg (b. 1787) from Hjelmeland, in Eyfylke,
Norway, and his wife Marie and three children,
Bertha, Anna, and Torbjor.
Passage was secured in the beginning for the
most part with American sailships carrying Swedish
iron from Gothenburg. But as this was attended
by much uncertainty, often necessitating several
weeks of waiting, the intending emigrants began to
go to Hamburg, where German emigration by means
of regular going American packet ships had already
begun. Here, however, another difficulty met them.
The already somewhat heavy emigration at this
port made it necessary to order passage several
weeks ahead in order to insure accommodations,
and failing in this, the emigrant was forced to wait
52 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
there until the next packet boat should sail. And
so it came about that many of the early Norwegian
immigrants to America came by way of Havre,
France, where passage was always certain, emigra-
tion from this point being as yet very limited.
Among those who came via Gothenburg was
Gjert Ho viand, a farmer from Har danger, who left
Norway with his family on the twenty-fourth of
June, 1831, sailed from Gothenburg June thirtieth
and arrived in New York September eighteenth. He
does not seem to have gone directly to Kendall, for
we find him soon after the owner of fifty acres of
forest land in Morris County, New Jersey.
Gjert Hovland seems to be the first one from
the province of Hardanger to emigrate to America.
Other emigrants during these years are : Christian
Olson, who came in 1829, settling in Kendall; Knut
Evenson, wife and daughter Katherine, who emi-
grated in 1831 in the same ship by which Hovland
came; and Ingebret Larson Narvig from Tysvaer
Parish, Eyfylke, who came in 1831 and two years
later located in Michigan. It seems probable that
also Johan Nordboe and wife from Eingebo, in Gud-
brandsdalen, Norway, came to Orleans County in
1832. Nordboe was the first to emigrate from Gud-
brandsdalen, a province from which actual immigra-
tion did not begin until sixteen years later.
Norwegian immigrants who came during these
years generally located in Orleans County, but rarely
remained there permanently. The northwestern
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 53
states were just then beginning to be opened up to
settlers. At this time migration from the eastern
states was directed particularly to Illinois. Good
government land could be had here for $1.25 an acre.
The very heavily wooded land that the Norwegian
immigrants in Orleans County had purchased proved
very difficult of improvement, and many began to
think of moving to a more favorable locality.
In 1833 Kleng Peerson, who seems to have lived
in Kendall at this time, made a journey to the West,
evidently for the purpose of finding a suitable site
for a new settlement. He was accompanied by In
gebret Larson Narvig as far as Erie, Monroe County,
Michigan, where the latter remained, Peerson con-
tinuing the journey farther west. After several
months of wandering across Michigan, and down into
Ohio and Indiana, he at last arrived at Chicago, then
a village of about twenty huts. The marshes of
Chicago did not appeal to Peerson and he went to
Milwaukee, but the reports he received of the end-
less forests of Wisconsin soon drove him back again
into Illinois. After several days' journey on foot
again west of Chicago he at last found a spot which
seemed to him as if providentially designated as the
proper locality for his western colony. The place
was immediately south of the present village of
Norway in La Salle County. His choice made, Peer-
son returned to Orleans County, having covered over
2,000 miles on foot since he left.
Peerson 's selection was universally approved
54 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
and a considerable number of the Kendall settlers
decided to move west. Among those of the sloop-
ers who remained in New York I shall here name:
Ole Johnson, Henrik C. Hervig and Andrew Stange-
land, who, however, some years later bought a tract
of land in Noble County, Indiana; Lars Olson lo-
cated in New York City, and, as we have seen, Lars
Larson settled in Rochester ; Nels Erikson went back
to Norway, while Oien Thompson and Thomas Mad-
land died in Kendall in 1826, and Cornelius Hers-
dal died there in 1833.
CHAPTER V
The Founding of the Fox River Settlement. Per-
sonal Notes on Some of the Founders.
In the spring of 1834 Jacob Anderson Slogvig,
Knud Anderson Slogvig, Grudmund Haugaas, Thor-
sten Olson Bjaaland, Nels Thompson, 31 Andrew
(Endre) Dahl, and Kleng Peerson left for La Salle
County ; they became, therefore, as far as we know,
the first Norwegian settlers in Illinois, and indeed in
the Northwest, barring Ingebret Narvig, who had lo-
cated in Michigan the year before. These men se-
lected their land and perfected their purchase as
soon as it came into market the following spring. The
first two to buy land were Jacob Slogvig and Ghid-
mund Haugaas, whose purchase is recorded under
June fifteenth, 1835, the former of eighty acres, the
latter one hundred and sixty acres, both in that part
of what was then called Mission Township, but later
came to be Rutland. On June seventeenth, Kleng
Peerson 's purchase of eighty acres is recorded, as
also that of his sister, Carrie Nelson, widow of Cor-
nelius Nelson Hersdal, namely, eighty acres of land
31 Nels Thompson had married Bertha Caroline, the widow of
5ien Thompson in 1827. She had three daughters by her first hus-
band: Sara, born 1818; Anna, born 1819; and Caroline, born 1825
(died in Bochester, N. Y., 1826). Nels Thompson and wife had two
children: Serena, born 1828; Abraham, born 1830; and Caroline, born
in 1833.
56 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
bought for her by Peerson. For this date are also
recorded the purchases of Thorsten Olson Bjaaland,
eighty acres, Nels Thompson, one hundred and sixty
acres, in what later became Miller Township.
In 1835 Daniel Rossadal and family, Nels Nel-
son Hersdal, George Johnson, and Carrie Nelson
Hersdal with family of seven children moved to La
Salle County. Nels Hersdal secured six hundred
and forty acres in exchange for one hundred acres
he owned in Orleans County, New York. The sloop-
er Thomas Madland, as we have seen, died in 1826 ;
his widow and family of seven also moved to Illi-
nois in 1831. Gjert Hovland came in 1835, and on
June seventeenth purchased one hundred and sixty
acres of land in Miller Township. Nels Hersdal pur-
chased on September fifth Thorsten Bjaaland 's
eighty acres in the same township ; the latter, how-
ever, bought a hundred and sixty acres again on Jan-
uary sixteenth, 1836, in the same locality. The
record of these purchases was copied by R. B. An-
derson and printed in his book, First Chapter, etc.,
cited above and also in Strand's History of the Nor-
wegians of Illinois, page 75.
Knud Slogvig, who, as we see, came in 1834, did
not buy land but somewhat later returned east and
in 1835 went back to Norway. There he married a
sister of the slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt and, as we
shall have occasion to note under causes of emigra-
tion, became largely instrumental in bringing about
the emigration of 1836. Baldwin's History of La
FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 57
Salle County also states, page 74, that Oliver Ca-
miteson, 32 Oliver Knutson, 32 Christian Olson, and
Ole Olson Hetletvedt came to the county in 1834,
but the date seems to be uncertain. With regard
to Christian Olson the fact seems rather to be
that he came in 1836 or possibly not till 1837, while
also Hetletvedt seems to be dated about two years
too early here. Among those who came in 1836
according to apparently reliable records are: Ole
Olson Hetletvedt and Gudmund Sandsberg.
Relative to the founders of the Fox Eiver Set-
tlement, as that of La Salle County came to be called,
I wish to add here the following facts of personal
history: Gudmund Haugaas, one of the two first
to record the purchase of land, had married Julia,
the daughter of Thomas Madland, in Orleans County
in 1827. She died in Eutland Township, La Salle
County, in 1846 ; and he later married Caroline Her-
vig, a sister of Henrik Hervig (Harwick). He had
ten children by his first wife. In Illinois he joined
the Mormon Church and became an elder in that
church, practicing medicine at the same time, and,
it is said, with much success. He died of the chol-
era on the homestead near Norway in July, 1849;
his widow, Caroline, survived him three years. 33
Jacob Slogvig married Serena, daughter of
32 Or are these two the same person?
33 Mrs. E. W. Bower of Sheridan, Illinois, is a daughter of
Haugaas and his wife Caroline. Other children of his are Daniel
Haugaas in Henderson, Iowa, and Mrs. Isabel Lewis, Emington,
Illinois, and Thomas Haugaas.
58 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Thomas Madland, in March, 1831. He became
one of the founders of the Norwegian settlement in
Lee County, Iowa, in 1840 (see below), later went to
California, where he died in May, 1864. The widow
lived until about 1897. Some time before her death
she had been living at the home of her son, Andrew
J. Anderson, at San Diego, California.
Mrs. Carrie Nelson had seven children, of whom
Anne, Nels, Inger, and Martha were born in Norway ;
Sarah, Peter, and Amelia were born at Kendall, New
York. Carrie Nelson died in 1848. The son, Nels
Nelson, born 1816, married Catherine Iverson about
1840; he died in Sheridan, Illinois, in August,
1893, as the last male member of the sloop party,
being survived by his widow and four of twelve chil-
dren. The daughter Inger was in 1836 married to
John S. Mitchell, of Ottawa, Illinois; Martha
married Beach Fallows, a settler of 1835, and Sarah
married in 1849 Canute Marsett, an immigrant of
1837, who some years later became a Mormon
bishop at Ephraim, Utah. Their oldest son, Peter
Cornelius Marsett, born at Salt Lake City June sec-
ond, 1850, was the first child born of Norwegian par-
ents in Utah. 34 Peter C. Nelson, the youngest son of
Carrie Nelson, born 1830, later settled in Lamed,
Kansas, where he died in 1904. Sara Thompson,
oldest daughter of Oien Thompson, and born 1818,
married George Olmstead in 1857 in La Salle County ;
he died in 1849, and in 1855 she married William W.
34 For these facts I am indebted to E. B. Anderson, as also for
other details of the personal history of the slooper 's descendants.
FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 59
Eichey. Mrs. Bichey settled in Guthrie Center,
Iowa, in 1882, where she lived until recently. Ben-
son C. Olmsted, Charles B. Olmsted and Will
F. Bichey of Guthrie Center, Iowa, are sons of Mrs.
Sara Bichey. Nels Thompson died in La Salle Coun-
ty, Illinois, in July, 1863. Daniel Bossadal and his
wife, Bertha, both died in La Salle County in 1854.
Nels Nelson Hersdal was born in July, 1800, and his
wife, Bertha, in May, 1804 ; they were married a few
months before the departure of the sloop. He, "Big
Nels", as he was called, came to Illinois in 1835, re-
turned to New York and did not bring his family to
Illinois until 1846, though he moved west before. He
lived until 1886, his wife having died in 1882. Peter
Nelson and Ira Nelson of La Salle County, are their
sons. George Johnson died from cholera in 1849.
Andrew Dahl went to Utah in the fifties,
being one of the earliest pioneers of that state. A
son of his, A. S. Anderson, was a member of the Utah
Constitutional Convention in 1895. Ole Hetle-
tvedt, who located at Niagara Falls, not therefore in
Orleans County, had three sons, Porter C., Soren L.
and James W. The first of these, born 1831, became
captain and later colonel in Company F, 36th Begi-
ment, Illinois Volunteers, in the War of the Bebel-
lion, and was Acting Brigadier. General when he was
killed in the Battle of Franklin (Tenn.). Soren Ol-
son was killed in the Battle of Murfreesboro. James
Olson, who also went to the front, lived to return
to his home after the war. Porter Olson lies buried
60 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
at Newark, Illinois, where a fitting monument adorns
his grave. Finally I wish to add that Margaret
Allen, the "sloop girl" born on the Atlantic, daugh-
ter of Lars Larson, married John Atwater in Ro-
chester, New York, in 1857. They afterwards mov-
ed to Chicago, where he died in the early nineties,
while Mrs. Atwater is, I believe, still living at West-
ern Springs, Cook County. We shall now return to
our settlement in La Salle County.
We have given above a brief account of the
founding of the Fox River settlement. Out of that
nucleus of about thirty persons, whom we know to
have come there in 1834-35 grew up one of the larg-
est and most prosperous of rural communities in
the country. The settlement developed rapidly, be-
fore many years extending into Kendall, Grundy
and DeKalb counties and becoming a distributing
point in the westward march of Norwegian immigra-
gration during the following years. The settlement
in Orleans County, New York, ceased to grow, the
objective point of immigrants from Norway had
been changed and the Fox River region received
large accessions, especially during the year 1836.
Immigration from Norway which heretofore had
been more or less sporadic, in which individuals and
very small groups are found to take part, now
enters upon a new phase, begins in fact to assume
the form of organized effort. The year 1836 inaug-
urated this change, while in 1837 there was some-
thing approaching an exodus from certain localities
in Western Norway. The desire to emigrate to
FOX BIVER SETTLEMENT 61
America had also now spread far beyond the original
center, at Stavanger; the source of emigration was
transferred to a more northerly region and with
it, as we have had occasion to observe above,
the course of settlement in this country is not only
directed to a more westerly region, Illinois, but also
soon extends into the northern border counties of Illi-
nois and into southern and southeastern Wisconsin.
As this increased immigration is historically as-
sociated with the names of two of those whom we
have already met as pioneers in New York, New
Jersey and Illinois, a brief account of their share
in the promotion of immigration from Norway will
be in place. These two are Gjert Hovland and
Knud Slogvig. We have seen that the former of
these came to America in 1831, being probably the
first immigrant from Hardanger. His name de-
serves special mention as an early promoter of emi-
gration from southwestern Norway, especially from
his own province. He was a man of much enlight-
enment and liberalmindedness to whom America's
free institutions made a strong appeal. He wrote
letters home to friends urging emigration and these
were circulated far and wide. In one of these letters
from Morris County, New Jersey, 1835, he writes
enthusiastically of American laws, and he contrasts
its spirit of liberty with the oppressions of the class
aristocracy in Norway. He advised all who could
do so to come to America, where it was permitted
to settle wherever one chose, he says. Hovland
62 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
was well known in several parishes in the Province
of South Bergenhus, and hundreds of copies of his
letters were- circulated there ; they aroused the great-
est interest among the people and were no small fac-
tor in leading many in that region to emigrate in
1836-37.
Thus it may be noted specifically that in
1836 a lay preacher travelling in Voss had in his
possession one of Grjert Hovland 's letters, which let-
ter was read by Nils Eothe, Nils Bolstad and John H.
Bjorgo and others. These three since said that it
was the reading of Hovland 's letter which induced
them to immigrate. 35 Gjert Hovland, as we have
seen, came to Illinois in. 1835. His purchase of one
hundred and sixty acres of land in the present Mil-
ler Township was recorded on June seventeenth of
that year, the same date that the purchases of Kleng
Peerson, Nels Thompson and Thorsten Bjaaland
were recorded. Grjert Hovland lived there till his
death in 1870.
The other name, that I referred to, is that of
Knud Anderson Slogvig, who undoubtedly was the
chief promoter of immigration in 1836. He had
come in the sloop in 1825, and, as we have seen,
settled in La Salle County in 1834. In 1835 he re-
turned to Skjold, Norway, and there married a sis-
ter of Ole 0. Hetletvedt, the slooper whom we find
as one of the early pioneers of La Salle County.
While there, people came to talk with him about
.35 First Chapter, p. 331.
FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 63
America from all parts of southwestern Norway;
and a large number in and about Stavanger decided
to emigrate. Slogvig's return may be said to have
started the "America-fever" in Norway, though it
took some years before it reached the central and
the eastern parts of the country. It was his inten-
tion to return to America in 1836, and a large party
was preparing to emigrate with him.
In the spring of that year the two brigs, Nor den
and Den NorsJce Klippe, were fitted out from Stav-
anger. The former sailed on the first Wednesday
after Pentecost, arriving in New York July twelfth,
1836. The latter sailed a few weeks later. They
carried altogether two hundred immigrants, most of
whom went directly to La Salle County. Of these
two brigs I shall speak again in a subsequent chap-
ter.
I have above given some of the facts of Knud
Slogvig's personal history. Having already spoken
of one element in the cause of emigration I believe
it will be in place to give a fuller account at this
point of the various general and special factors that
have been instrumental in bringing about the com-
ing to America of such a large part of the population
of Norway in the 19th century.
CHAPTER VI
Causes of Emigration from Nonvay. General
Factors, Economic.
What are the causes that have brought about the
exodus from Norway and in general from the Scan-
dinavian countries in the 19th century? The ques-
tion is not a simple one to answer; for the causes
have been many and varied, and it would be impossi-
ble in the following pages to discuss all the circum-
stances and influences that have operated to pro-
mote the northern emigration and directed it to
America. Perhaps there is something in the highly
developed migratory instinct of Indo-European
peoples. Especially has this instinct characterized
the Germanic branch, whether it be Goth or Vandal,
Anglo-Saxon, Viking or Norman, 36 or their descend-
ants, the Teutonic peoples of modern times, by whom
chiefly the United States has been peopled and de-
veloped.
Of tangible motives, one that has every-
where been a fundamental factor in promoting em-
igration from European countries in modern times
has been the prospect of material betterment.
Where no barriers have been put against the emi-
gration of the poor or the ambitious, unless special
causes have arisen to create discontent with one's
36 That is, "Northman."
CAUSES OP EMIGRATION 65
condition, the extent to which European countries
have contributed to our immigrant population may
be measured fairly closely by the economic condi-
tions at home. As far as the Northern countries
are concerned I would class all these causes under
two heads : the first will comprise all those condi-
tions, natural and artificial, that can be summarized
under the term economic; the second will include
a number of special circumstances or motives which
may vary somewhat for the three countries, indeed
often for the locality and the individual.
First then We may consider the causes which
arise from economic conditions. These are well il-
lustrated by the Scandinavian countries, slightly
modified in each case by the operation of the special
causes. Norway is a land of mountains, these mak-
ing up in the fact fifty-nine per cent of its total
area, while forty-four per cent of the soil of Sweden
is unproductive. The winters are long and severe,
the cold weather frequently sets in too early for the
crops to ripen ; with crop failure comes lack of work
for the laboring classes, and, burdened by heavy
taxation, as was the Norwegian farmer only too
often in the middle of the last century, debt and im-
poverishment for the holders of the numerous en-
cumbered smaller estates. In Norway, especially,
the rewards of labor are meagre and the opportuni-
ties for material betterment small. 37 "Hard times"
and the inability of the country to support the rapid-
37 A great change for the better has been taking place during
the last few years.
66 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ly increasing population has, then, been a most
potent factor. 38 The same will hold true of Sweden,
though in a somewhat less degree. Denmark is
better able to support a population of one hundred
and forty-eight to the square mile than Sweden one
of twenty-eight or Norway one of eighteen. 39
In this connection compare above the statistics
of immigration from the three countries, which are
much lower for Denmark than for Norway and
Sweden. The Danes at home are a contented peo-
ple, and it is noticeable also that it is they who are
most conservative here, who foster the closest rela-
tion with the old home, and who consequently become
Americanized last. The Norwegians are the most
discontented, are readiest for a change, are quickest
to try the new ; and it is they who most readily break
the bonds that bind them to their native country,
who most quickly adapt themselves to the conditions
here, and who most rapidly become Americanized.
Professor B. B. Anderson, in his book on the
early Norwegian immigration 40 puts religious per-
secution as the primary cause of emigration from
Norway. I cannot possibly believe that even in the
38 Thus the failure of crops and the famine in Northern Sweden,
Finland, and Norway in 1902 was followed by a vastly increased
immigration from these sections. See above page 28. Compare
Table II, Appendix.
39 The area and population of the three countries are: Sweden,
area 172,876 sq. m., population in 1901, 5,175,228; Norway, area
124,129, population in 1900, 2,239,880; Denmark, area 15,360, popula-
tion in 1901, 2,447,441.
40 First Chapter, etc.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 67
immigration of the first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury religious persecution was, except in a few cases,
the primary or even a very important cause in the
Scandinavian countries. In conversation with and
in numerous letters from pioneers and their descend-
ants, especially in Iowa and Wisconsin, I have found
that the hope of larger returns for one's labor is
everywhere given as the main motive, sometimes as
the only one. Whether it be the pioneers of
La Salle County, Illinois, in the thirties, those of
Bock or Dane counties, Wisconsin, in the forties,
or the Norwegian settlers of Clayton and Winne-
shiek counties, Iowa, in the late forties and the
fifties; the causes are everywhere principally econ-
omic. But letters written by pioneers and by those
about to emigrate testify amply to the fact that it
was the hard times that was the chief cause. And
the same applies almost as generally to the Swedes ;
among the Danes the economic factor has not oper-
ated so extensively, though here, also, it was the pre-
ponderating cause.
A Norwegian journal, Billed-Magazin, published
in Chicago in 1869-70 and edited by Professor Svein
Nil sen, offers much that throws light on this ques-
tion. It contains brief accounts of the early Nor-
wegian immigration and the earliest settlements, a
regular column of news from the Scandinavian coun-
tries, interviews with pioneers, etc. In one inter-
view, Ole Nattestad, who sailed in 1837 from Vaegli,
Numedal, and became the founder of the fourth Nor-
68 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
wegian settlement in America, that of Jefferson
Prairie in Eock County, Wisconsin, and the neigh-
boring Boone County in Illinois, describes his exper-
ience as a farmer in Numedal and how the difficulty
of making any headwiay finally drove him to emi-
grate to America. 41 The statement of another pio-
neer I quote in its entirety. 42 It is that of John Nel-
son Luraas, who came from Tin in Telemarken, to
Muskego, Wisconsin, in 1839, and in 1843 moved to
Dane County, Wisconsin. He says :
I was my father's oldest son, and consequently heir to
the Luraas farm. It was regarded as one of the best in that
neighborhood, but there was a $1,400 mortgage on it. I had
worked for my father until I was twenty-five years old, and
had had no opportunity of getting money. It was plain to
me that I would have a hard time of it, if I should take the
farm with the debt resting on it, pay a reasonable amount to
my brothers and sisters, and assume the care of my aged
father. I saw to my horror how one farm after the other
fell into the hands of the lendsman and other money-lenders,
and this increased my dread of attempting farming. But I
got married and had to do something. Then it occurred to
me that the best thing might be to emigrate to America. I
was encouraged in this purpose by letters written by Nor-
wegian settlers in Illinois who had lived two years in Amer-
ica. Such were the causes that led me to emigrate and I
presume the rest of our company were actuated by similar
motives. 43
41 Billed Magazin, 1869, pp. 82-83.
42 Billed-Magasin, 1869, pp. 6-7.
43 In 1868, Mr. Luraas moved to Webster County, Iowa, returning
to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1873. I knew him in the early nineties
CAUSES OP EMIGRATION 69
In a letter written by Andreas Sandsberg at
Hellen, Norway, September twelfth, 1831, to Grud-
mund Sandsberg in Kendall, New York, the former
complains of the hard times in Norway. In the
spring of 1836 the second party of emigrants from
Stavanger County came to America. On the 14th
of May of that year Andreas Sandsberg wrote his
brother Griidnmnd in America as follows :
A considerable number of people are now getting ready
to go to America from this Amt. Two brigs are to depart
from Stavanger in about eight days from now, and will
carry these people to America, and if good reports come
from them, the number of emigrants will doubtless be still
larger next year. A pressing and general lack of money
entering into every branch of industry, stops or at least
hampers business and makes it difficult for many people to
earn the necessaries of life. While this is the case on this
side of the Atlantic there is hope for abundance on the
other, and this I take it, is the chief cause of this growing
disposition to emigrate. 44
Ole Olson Menes, who came to America in 1845,
is cited in Billed-Magazin, 1870, page 130, as follows,
illustrating the prominence of the economic cause
nine years later :
The emigrants of the preceding year (1844) . . . .
wrote home .... and told of the fertility of the soil,
the cheap prices of land and of. good wages. In a letter
which I received from Iver Hove, he writes that there they
as a well-to-do retired farmer living in Stoughton, Wisconsin. He
died in 1894.
44 Letter copied from the original by E. B. Anderson in 1896 and
printed in First Chapter, pp. 135-136.
70 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
raise thirty-five bushels of wheat per acre, and the grass is
so thick that one can easily cut enough in one day for winter
feed for the cow. Such things fell to our liking, and many
looked forward with eager longing to the distant West,
which was pictured as the Eden that loving Providence had
destined as a home for the workingman of Norway, so
oppressed with cares and want.
Of those here cited, Nattestad was from Nume-
dal, Luraas from Telemarken, Menes from Sogn,
while Sandsberg came from Eyfylke. But the con-
ditions were the same also in other provinces. In
1844, Hans C. Tollefsrude and wife emigrated from
Land. Of the cause of his emigrating and that of
early emigration from Land in general, his son
Christian H. Tollefsrude of Eolf e, Iowa, writes me :
The causes were, no personal means and no prospect
even securing a home in their native district, Torpen,
Nordre Land (letter of July 27, 1904).
Eev. Abraham Jacobson of Decorah, Iowa, a
pioneer himself, writes :
Reasons for emigrating were mostly economic, very few
if any religious Wages here were at the very-
least double that in Norway, and generally much more than
that.
Of the emigration from Eingsaker, I may cite
Simon Simerson of Belmond, Iowa :
The causes were economic. In the case of my parents,
they came here to create the home that they saw no chance
of securing in the mother country. (Letter of Oct. 12,
1904.)
Similar evidence might be adduced for other
districts and for all the older settlements through-
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 71
out the Northwest. At a meeting held at the home
of Ole 0. Flom in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on July
twenty-eighth, 1908, when the present writer read a
paper on "Early Norwegian Immigration," testi-
mony to the same effect was given by old pioneers
there present. There is no need of further multi-
plying the evidence.
A highly developed spirit of independence has
always been a dominant element in the Scandinavian
character, I have reference here particularly to
his desire for personal independence, that is, in-
dependence in his condition in life. Nothing is so
repugnant to him as indebtedness to others and de-
pendence on others. An able-bodied Scandinavian
who was a burden to his fellows was well-nigh un-
heard of. By the right of primogeniture the pater-
nal estate would go to the oldest son. The families
being frequently large, the owning of a home was to
a great many practically an impossibility under
wage conditions as they were in the North in the
first half and more of the preceding century.
Thus the Scandinavian farmer's son, with his
love of personal independence and his strong inher-
ent desire to own a home, finding himself so cir-
cumstanced in his native country that there was
little hope of his being able to realize this ambition
except in the distant uncertain future, listens, with
a willing ear to descriptions of America, with its
quick returns and its great opportunities. And so
he decides to emigrate. And this he is free to do
72 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
for the government puts no barrier upon his emi-
grating. This trait has impelled many a Scandinav-
ian to come and settle in America ; and it is a trait
that is the surest guarantee of the character of his
citizenship. Here, too, a social factor merits men-
tion.
While the nobility was abolished in Norway in
1814, the lines between the upper and lower classes,
the wealthy and the poor, were tightly drawn and
social classes were well defined. And while Norway
is today the most democratic country in Europe,
and Sweden and Denmark are also thoroughly lib-
eral (in part through the influence of America and
American-Scandinavians), a titled aristocracy still
exists in these countries. The extreme deference to
those in superior station or position that custom
and existing conditions enforced upon those in
humbler condition was repugnant to them. Not in-
frequently have pioneers given this as one cause for
emigrating in connection with that of economic ad-
vantage.
CHAPTEE VH
Causes of Emigration Continued. Special Factors.
Religion as a Cause. Emigration Agents.
In the class of special causes which have in-
fluenced the Scandinavian emigration, political op-
pression has operated only in the case of the Danes
in Southern Jutland. 45
Military service, which elsewhere has often played
such an important part in promoting emigration, has,
in the Scandinavian countries, been only a minor fac-
tor, the period of service required being very short.
Nevertheless it has in not a few cases been a second-
ary cause for emigrating. Those with whom I have
spoken who have given this as their motive have,
45 As a result of the Dano-Prussian war of 1864 Jutland below
Skodborghus became a province of Prussia. The greatly increased
taxes that immediately followed and the restrictions imposed by the
Prussian government upon the use of the Danish language, as well as
other oppressive measures that formed a part of the general plan of
the Prussianizing of Sleswick-Holstein, drove large numbers of Danes
away from their homes, and most of these came to the United States.
In notes and correspondence from Denmark in Scandinavian-Ameri-
can papers during these years complaints regarding such regulations
constantly appear, and figures of emigration of Danes "who did not
wish to be Prussians" are unusually large for this period; for ex-
ample in the foreign column of the Billed-Magazin. The United
States statistics also show a sudden increase in the Danish immi-
gration during the sixties and the early seventies. From 1850-
1861 not more than 3,983 had emigrated from Denmark; while in
the thirteen years from 1862 to 1874 the number reached 30,978.
74 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
however, been mostly Norwegians and Swedes ; but
none of those who belong to the earlier period of
emigration give their desire to escape military ser-
vice as a cause.
Religious persecution has played a part in some
cases, especially in Norway and Sweden. The state
church is the Lutheran, but every sect has been tol-
erated since the middle of the century, in Norway
since 1845. While few countries have been freer
from the evil of active persecution because of relig-
ious belief, intolerance and religious narrowness
have not been wanting. In the beginning of the
nineteenth century, the followers of the lay preach-
er, Hans Nielsen Hauge, in Norway were everywhere
persecuted. Hauge himself was imprisoned in
Christiania for eight years. And the Jansenists in
Helsingland, Sweden, were in the forties subjected
to similar persecution. Thus Eric Jansen was ar-
rested several times for conducting religious meet-
ings between 1842-1846, though it must in fairness
be admitted that his first arrest was undoubtedly
provoked by the extreme procedure of the dissenters
themselves. After having been put in prison repeat-
edly, Jansen embarked for America in 1846 and be-
came the founder of the communistic colony of fol-
lowers at Bishopshille, 46 Henry County, Illinois. No
46 So named from Biskopskulla, Jansen 's native place in Sweden.
See article by Major John Swainson on "The Swedish Colony at
Bishopshill, Illinois," in Nelson's Scandinavians, I, p. 142. This
article gives an excellent account of the founding of the Bishopahill
settlement and Jansen 's connection with it. See also American Com-
munities by Wm. Alfred Hinds, 1902, pp. 300-320.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 75
such organized emigration took place among the
Haugians, but we have no means of knowing to what
extent individual emigration of the followers of
Hauge took place during the three decades immedi-
ately after his death. The well-known Elling Eiel-
son, a lay preacher and an ardent Haugian, emi-
grated in 1839 to Fox River, La Salle County, Illi-
nois, and many of those who believed in the methods
of Hauge and Eielson came to America in the fol-
lowing years.
It was persecution also that drove many Scan-
dinavian Moravians to America in 1740 and 1747.
Moravian societies had been formed in Christiania
in 1737, in Copenhagen in 1739, in Stockholm in
1740, and in Bergen in 1740. 47 In 1735 German
Moravians from Herrnhut, Saxony, established a
colony at Savannah, Georgia. 47 In this colony there
seem to have been some Danes and Norwegians.
In 1740 a permanent colony was located at Bethle-
hem, Pennsylvania, and in 1747 one at Bethabara,
North Carolina. Persecuted Norwegian, Swedish,
and Danish Moravians took part in the founding of
both these colonies.
As we have seen, the first Norwegian settlement
in America was established in Kendall, Orleans
County, New York, in 1825. It has been claimed that
the "sloopers" were driven to emigrate by perse-
cution at home. 48 Another writer has shown that the
47 Decorah-Posten, September 9, 1904, p. 5. See also above p. 37.
48 E. B. Anderson is emphatic in this view. Pages 45-131 of his
First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration are devoted to a discussion
76 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
only one of the Stavanger Quakers who suffered for
his belief prior to 1826 was Elias Tastad, and he, it
seems, did not emigrate. 49 The leader of the emi-
grants in Restaurationen, Lars Larson i Jeilane, had
spent one year in London in the employ of the noted
English Quaker, William Allen. In 1818, Stephen
Grellet, a French nobleman, who had become a
Quaker in America, and William Allen preached in
Stavanger. 49 The Quakers of Stavanger were of
the poorest of the people. It is highly probable, as
another writer states, 50 that Grellet, while there,
suggested to them that they emigrate to America
where they could better their condition in material
things and at the same time practice their religion
without violating the laws of the country. The main
motive was therefore probably economic.
It is perfectly clear to me that not very many of
the Orleans County colonists were devout Quakers;
for we soon find them wandering apart into various
other churches. Some returned to Lutheranism;
those who went west became mostly Methodists or
Mormons; others did not join any church; while the
descendants of those who remained are to-day Meth-
odists. The Orleans County Quakers do not seem
to have even erected a meeting-house ; and in Scan-
of the sloop " Restaurationen " and the Quaker Colony in Orleans
County.
49 Nelson's History of Scandinavians, 1901, p. 133.
50 B. L. Wick, in The Friends, Philadelphia, 1894, according to
Nelson, p. 134. I have not been able to secure a copy of the above
article, therefore cannot here state the arguments, or cite more fully.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 77
dinavian settlements a church, however humble, is,
next to a home, the first thought. 51 Nevertheless
the Quakers of Stavanger did suffer annoyances,
and it must be remembered that the leader of the
expedition and the owner of the sloop was a devout
Quaker, 52 as were also at least two other leading
members of the party. Had it not been for these
very men the party would probably not have emi-
grated, at least not at that time.
There was much persecution of the early con-
verts to the Baptist faith in Denmark between
1850-1860 ; and not a few of this sect emigrated. In
1848 F. 0. Nilson, one of the early leaders of the
Baptist Church in Sweden, was imprisoned and later
banished from the country. He fled to Denmark,
and in 1851 embarked for America. In the fifties
Swedish Baptists in considerable numbers came to
the United States because of persecution. There
are, however, very few Norwegian Baptists, and I
know of no cases where persecution drove Baptists
to leave Norway.
Proselyting of some non-Lutheran churches in
Scandinavia has been the means of bringing many
Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes to this country. In
the fifties Mormon missionaries were especially ac-
51 The reader who knows Bjornson's Synnove SolbakTcen will re-
member the author's introduction of this feature in Chapter II, the
first two pages.
52 Lars Larson settled in Eochester where he could attend a
Quaker church. The same is true of Ole Johnson, another of the
"sloopers" who later settled in Kendall but finally returned to Eoch-
ester, where he died in 1877.
78 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
tive in Denmark and Norway. Their efforts did not
seem to be attended by much success in Norway,
though not a few converts were made among the
Norwegians in the early settlements in Illinois and
Iowa, as in the Fox Eiver Settlement. S3 In Den-
mark, however, Mormon proselyting was more suc-
cessful than in Norway. All those who accepted
Mormonism emigrated to America of course, and
most of them to Utah. In the years 1851, 1852, and
1853 there emigrated fourteen, three, and thirty-
two Danes, respectively, to this country. But in
1854 the number rose to 691, and in the following
three years to 1,736. In 1850 there were in Utah two
Danes; in 1870 there were 4,957. The first Norwe-
gian to go to Utah probably was Henrik E. Sebbe,
who came to America in 1836, and went to Utah in
1848, where he became a Mormon. 53
In 1849 a Norwegian- American, 0. P. Peterson,
first introduced Methodism in Norway. 54 After
1855 a regular Methodist mission was established
in Scandinavia under the supervision of a Danish-
American, C. B. Willerup. 55 While the Methodist
53 Some of the early Mormon leaders were Norwegians, however,
as Bishop Canute Peterson (Marsett), of Ephraim, Utah, who came
to America in 1837 from Hardanger, Norway. The slooper Gudmund
Haugaas became an elder in the church of the Latter Day Saints in
La Salle County, Illinois; he died in 1849 and was succeeded by his
son Thomas Haugaas.
54 See a brief account by Rev. N. M. Liljegren in Nelson's His-
tory of Scandinavians, I, pp. 205-209.
55 Methodism had been introduced into Sweden from England
early in the century.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 79
church has not prospered in the Scandinavian coun-
tries, especially in Denmark and Norway, there are
large numbers of Methodists among the Scandina-
vian immigrants in this country, 56 and the early con-
gregations were recruited for a large part from
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
The efforts of steamship companies and emigra-
tion agents have been a powerful factor in promot-
ing Scandinavian emigration. Through them lit-
erature advertising in glowing terms the advantages
of the New World was scattered far and wide in
Scandinavia. Such literature often dealt with the
prosperity of Scandinavians who had previously set-
tled in America. Letters from successful settlers
were often printed and distributed broadcast. The
early immigrants from the North settled largely in
Illinois, Wisconsin, and, a little later, in Iowa. As
clearers of the forest and tillers of the soil they con-
tributed their large share to the development of the
country. None could better endure the hardships
of pioneer life on the western frontier. Knowing
this, many western states began to advertise their
respective advantages in the Scandinavian coun-
tries.
56 By far the larger number, however, are Swedes.
CHAPTEE VIH
Causes of Emigration continued. The Influence of
Successful Pioneers. "America-letters."
The Spirit of Adventure. Summary.
Far more influential, however, than the factors
just noted were the efforts put forth by successful
immigrants to induce their relatives and friends to
follow them. Numerous letters were written home
praising American laws and institutions, and set-
ting forth the opportunities here offered. These
letters were read and passed around to friends.
Many who had relatives in America would travel
long distances to hear what the last "America-let-
ter" had to report. Among the early immigrants
who did much in this way to promote emigration
from their native districts was one whom we have
already spoken of, Gjert Hovland. He wrote many
letters home praising American institutions. These
letters "were transcribed and the copies distributed
far and wide in the Province of Bergen ; and a large
number were thus led to emigrate. ' ' 57
The interviews in Billed-Magazin contain
statements from several among the early settlers
on Koshkonong Prairie and the neighborhood of
Stoughton which give evidence of the part that
"America-letters" played in their emigration. On
57 See Billed-Magaein, p. 74.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 81
page 123 occurs a statement of Graute Ingbrigtson
(Gulliksrud) who came from Tin in Telemarken in
1843 and became one of the earliest pioneers of Dun-
kirk Township in Dane County. He says : ' ' Two of
my uncles and a brother emigrated in 1839. I, how-
ever, remained at home with my father who was a
farmer in the Parish of Tin. But then letters came
with good news from America, and my relatives as
well as other acquaintances on this side of the ocean
were encouraged to emigrate. From this it came
about that I and many others in my native district
prepared for leaving in the spring of 1843. The party
numbered about one hundred and twenty . . . . "
We have already had occasion to refer to a let-
ter received by Ole Menes of Stoughton in 1845.
Ingbrigt Helle came from Kragero in 1845 and
settled in the Town of Dunn. The ship he came on
brought one hundred and forty immigrants and he
mentions the fact that many had been induced to
emigrate by letters from America, and he writes:
' * Such letters from America urging emigration was,
as far as I can see, the thing that brought the major-
ity of emigrants to bid farewell to Norway." Ole
Knudson Dyrland, who emigrated from Siljord,
Telemarken, in 1843, and became one of the earliest
white settlers in Dunn Township, Dane County, testi-
fying to the same fact, mentions Ole Knudson Tro-
vatten as one who, through letters, exerted consider-
able influence upon emigration in Telemarken (page
218, Billed-Magazin, 1870). We shall meet Trovat-
82 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ten again below as a pioneer in the Town of Cottage
Grove in the same county. The editor of Billed-
Magazin writes of Trovatten elsewhere, page 283,
after giving a brief sketch of his life : "he settled on
Koshkonong and wrote therefrom many letters to
his numerous friends in his native country in which
he, with much eloquence, made his countrymen ac-
quainted with the glories of America, and there is
no doubt that Trovatten in a large measure gave
the impulse to the rapid development of emigration
in the region of Telemarken. ' '
Of Trovatten 's influence as a promoter of immi-
gration Gunder T. Mandt, himself an immigrant of
1843 (died 1907, Stoughton, Wisconsin), gives sim-
ilar testimony. He speaks of the opposition to emi-
gration in Upper Telemarken, which found expres-
sion in all sorts of adverse accounts of America,
especially among the clergy, and that much uncer-
tainty prevailed among the masses as to the advisa-
bility of going to America. During all this, Trovat-
ten, he says, "came to be looked upon as an angel
of peace, who had gone beforehand to the New
World, whence he sent back home to his countrymen,
so burdened by economic sorrows, the olive-branch
of promise, with assurances of a happier life in
America. . . . 'Ole Trovatten has said so,' became
the refrain in all accounts of the land of wonder, and
in a few years he was the most talked of man in
Upper Telemarken. His letters from America gave
a powerful impulse to emigration, and it is probable
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 83
that hundreds of those who now are plowing the
soil of Wisconsin and Minnesota would still be living
in their ancestors' domains in the land of Harald
Fairhair, if they had not been induced to bid old
Norway farewell through Trovatten's glittering ac-
counts of conditions on this side of the ocean."
(Billed-Magazin, 1870, p. 38.) Similar evidence of
the influence of "America-letters" is also given by
Knud Aslakson Juve, a pioneer of 1844, in the Town
of Pleasant Spring, in Dane County.
At the close of the preceding chapter I spoke of
Gjert Hovland's letters in 1835 as a chief factor in
bringing about the emigration of 1836. From set-
tlers in other portions of the country comes testi-
mony of similar nature, and I have spoken with
many pioneers from a later period of immigration,
whose coming was, in the last instance, determined
by favorite accounts of America received from
friends and relatives already resident there.
In letters from immigrants to their relatives at
home prepaid tickets, or the price of the ticket, were
often enclosed. This custom was so common as to
become a special factor in emigration. According
to Norsk Folkeblad (cited in Billed-Magazin, p. 134),
4,000 Norwegian emigrants, via Christiana in 1868,
took with them $40,335 (Speciedaler) in cash money
of which $21,768 (Spd.) had been sent by relatives
in America to cover the expense of the journey. It
has been estimated that about fifty per cent of Scan-
84 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
dinavian emigrants, arrive by prepaid passage tick-
ets secured by relatives in this country. 58
The visits of successful Scandinavians back
home was in the early days an important factor;
and as a rule only those who had been prosperous
would return. In 1835 Knud Anderson Slogvig,
who had emigrated in the sloop as we know, return-
ed to Norway and became the chief promoter of
the exodus from the Province of Stavanger in 1836,
which resulted in the settlement at Fox Eiver, La
Salle County, Illinois.
We have already above, page 63, recited this
fact and its significance toward promoting fur-
ther emigration from Stavanger Province and of in-
augurating the first exodus from Hardanger also.
Thus, while Jacob Slogvig, the brother, was one of a
few to secure land in La Salle County and make the
beginnings of settlement, Knud became the means of
bringing hosts of immigrants from Norway to re-
cruit the colony and start it upon its course of
growth. In precisely a similar way did two other
brothers become even more significant factors in
the foundation and development of the earliest Nor-
wegian settlement in Wisconsin, namely, that of
Jefferson Prairie in Eock County. They were Ole
and Ansten Nattestad, who had emigrated in 1837.
Returning to Norway in 1839 Ansten Nattestad be-
came the father of emigration from Numedal, Nor-
way, bringing with him a large party of immigrants,
58 Nelson 's History of Scandinavians, page 56.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 85
who located for the most part in southern Bock
County, Wisconsin, and adjacent parts of the state
of Illinois. But of this movement I shall have occa-
sion to speak more fully below.
An equally interesting instance we have from
a somewhat later period. We have above referred
to Ole Dyrland's testimony of the effect of Ole Tro-
vatten's letters. After remarking that many still
were doubtful of the advisability of emigrating he
goes on to say:
"But then Knud Svalestuen of Vinje, who had lived
for a time in the Muskego Settlement, came home on a
trip back to Norway, and by his accounts even the most
hesitating were made firm in their faith. Knud came in
the fall of 1843, and during the winter he received visits
of men sent out from various districts in Telemarken, who
came to secure reliable information about the new coun-
try. The next spring hosts of intending emigrants left
the upper mountain districts of the country. . . . Three
emigrant ships left that year from Porsgrund. On board
the ship I left in there were two hundred and eleven
emigrants. ' '
The editor of Billed-Magazin gives other inter-
views with pioneers showing the effect of Svale-
stuen 's return (page 293).
Some of the Norwegian pioneers wrote books
regarding the settlements and American conditions,
and these, laudatory as they were, exerted not a little
influence. Special mention should be made of Ole
Eynning, whose pamphlet, Sandfaerdig Beretning
om Amerika til Veiledning og Hjaelp for Bonde og,
86 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Menigmand, skrevet af en Norsk som kom der i Juni
Maaned, 1837. 59 This little book of thirty-nine
pages had not a little to do with the emigration that
followed to La Salle County, Illinois, and elsewhere.
In it the author gives an intelligent discussion of
thirteen questions regarding America which he set
himself to answer. Among them were: What is
the nature of the country 1 What is the reason that
so many people go there? Is it not to be feared
that the land will soon be overpopulated ? In what
parts are the Norwegian settlements ! Which is the
most convenient and the cheapest route to them?
What is the price of land? What provision is there
for the education of children? What language is
spoken and is it difficult to learn? Is there danger
of disease in America ? What kind of people should
emigrate ?
Another writer of immigration literature whose
writings were widely distributed and had consid-
erable influence was Johan Reinert Reierson. He
came to America in 1843, but returned to Norway
soon after. In America he had written a book, Veivi-
seren, 60 which he published in Norway and was read
far and wide. This book contains a fund of infor-
mation regarding the different settlements, as Ra-
cine County, Wisconsin, La Salle County, Illinois,
and Lee County, Iowa, and others, all of which Reier-
59 True Account of America for the Information and Help of
Peasant and Commoner, written by a Norwegian who came there in
the month of June, 1837.
60 The Pathfinder, a book of one hundred and sixty-six pages.
CAUSES OF EMIGRATION 87
son had himself visited. Eeierson became the
founder of the first Norwegian settlement in Texas
in 1847-48.
Of the events leading up to this, Billed-Mag-
azin for 1870 gives a circumstantial account,
pages 58-60, 66-67, and 75-76. Beierson's book
seems to have been a leading factor in promoting
emigration from Valders. Among the earliest to
leave this region were Nils Hanson Fjeld and fam-
ily of South Aurdal, Valders, who emigrated in
1847. He says, page 236 of Billed-Magazin for 1870,
that before him only two ov three single men had
gone to America from that region. The "America-
fever" had not yet taken hold of the people, "many
would not give credence to mere hearsay, but after a
while a couple copies of Beierson's book about Texas
came to the district. 'Now we have the printed
word to go by,' it was said, and many of the
doubters soon were converted to the orthodox
faith in the land of promise beyond the great
ocean." And as a result, many began to emigrate.
As early as 1848, emigration from Valders on a
considerable scale was already in progress.
I shall here also mention Ansten Nattestad,
who wrote a similar book, which he took with him
on his return to Norway in 1838, and had printed
there; this became a factor operating toward
emigration, especially in Numedal. Reverend J. W.
C. Dietrichson's Reise blandt de norske Emigranter
i de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater, Stavanger,
88 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
1846 (124 pages), gave much valuable information
about the settlements, but was not calculated to exert
much influence toward emigration. The first three
that I have mentioned, however, had an influence
which we today can hardly fully appreciate.
Finally, curiosity and the spirit of adventure
have doubtless prompted some to cross the ocean.
To sum up, the chief influences that have pro-
moted Scandinavian emigration to the United States
in the nineteenth century have been in the order of
their importance : first, the prospect of material bet-
terment and the love of a freer and more independ-
ent life ; second, letters of relatives and friends who
had emigrated to the United States and visits of
these again to their native country; third, the ad-
vertising of agents of emigration; fourth, religious
persecution at home; fifth, church proselytism;
sixth, political oppression; seventh, military ser-
vice; and eighth, the desire for adventure. Fugi-
tives from justice have been few, and paupers and
criminals in the Scandinavian countries are not sent
out of the country; they are taken care of by the
government.
CHAPTER IX
Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immi-
gration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches.
On page fifty-five above I spoke of the advance
troop of six men who established the Fox Eiver Set-
tlement in 1834. A list of those who followed from
New York in 1835 was also given. Other settlers
came in subsequent years, more and more now com-
ing directly from Norway to La Salle County. The
vicinity of the present towns of Norway and Leland,
in eastern and northern La Salle County, became
centers of a settlement, which later extended east
into Kendall County (Newark and Lisbon) and into
Grundy County toward Morris, as also north into
DeKalb County (Eollo, Sandwich), and northwest
clear into southwestern Lee County (Paw Paw, Sub-
lette, and surrounding region). The slooper, Ole
Olson Hetletvedt, had not come west with the first
party. He lived first in Kendall and then went to
Niagara Falls, being there employed in a paper mill.
Here he married a Miss Chamberlain, then moved
back to Orleans County. In 1839 he and his wife
went west, settling in Kendall County. He bought
land on the spot where the town of Newark now
stands. He became well known as a lay preacher
of the Haugian faith in the Fox Eiver Settlement,
also visiting the settlements founded soon after in
90 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Wisconsin and in Lee County, Iowa. He died in
Kendall County in 1849 or 1850. 61
Iver Waller, who bought a claim of Miss Pear-
son in 1835, came directly from Norway to La Salle
County that year. Baldwin's History/ oj La Salle
County lists Ove Stenson Kossadal and wife, and
John Stenson Kossadal among the arrivals of
1835, and as being brothers of Daniel Rossadal, of
whom we have spoken above. Strand's History of
the Norwegians in Illinois correctly names them as
sons of Daniel Eossadal. Nils Bilden, who also
came during this period (year uncertain), was there-
fore one of the very first emigrants from Hardanger
to the United States. He settled at Rochester, San-
gamon County, Illinois.
As to the extent of Norwegian immigration dur-
ing the years immediately preceding the year, 1836,
which inaugurates a new period in the movement,
our information is very fragmentary. American
statistics give forty-two and thirty-one, respective-
ly, for 1834 and 1835, as the total immigration from
Norway and Sweden. In 1833 there were sixteen,
while the number for 1832 is three hundred and
thirteen. 62 The total number between 1826 and 1831
is given as sixty-eight. It is probable, however,
that these figures do not represent the full number
of immigrants during these years. Norwegian gov-
61 One of Ms sons was Colonel Porter C. Olson of Civil War fame,
member of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry.
62 Among those who came in 1832 was John Nordboe from Gud-
brandsdalen, Norway.
FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 91
eminent statistics on immigration which are avail-
able since 1836, give the number of immigrants for
that year as two hundred, which is also the fig-
ure for the following year. It is to this exodus that
we shall now turn.
We have above, under Causes of Emigration, had
occasion to speak of Knud Slogvig's return to Nor-
way in 1835, after a ten years' residence in Amer-
ica ; 63 the results of his return were also there brief-
ly noted. In the two ships, Norden and Den Norske
Klippe, 64 which sailed from Stavanger in July of
1836, came two hundred immigrants, 6S who located
for the most part in the Fox Eiver Settlement.
These stopped en route for a short time in Eoches-
ter, no doubt gathering advice and information from
Lars Larson, the captain of the sloopers, resident
there as we know ; thence they continued their jour-
ney west to Chicago and to La Salle County. Thus
the nucleus which had been formed in 1834-35 in a
very short time developed into a considerable set-
tlement at a time when the surrounding country
was practically a wilderness. The immigrants of
1836 were, in part, from Stavanger, some, however,
were from other districts, east and north, as es-
pecially Hardanger and Voss.
Not all who came settled in Mission and the
63 While in Norway he married a sister of Ole Olson Hetletvedt,
which may have been in part the purpose of his return.
64 The North and The Norwegian Rock.
65 Langeland says a hundred and sixty on page eighteen of his
work, elsewhere a hundred and fifty. Two hundred seems, however, to
have been approximately the number.
92 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
later Miller townships, however. Some went con-
siderably farther north and established, in Adams
Township, a northern extension of the original settle-
ment at and around the present village of Leland.
The two, however, later grew together into one large
settlement, extending also, east into Kendall County.
The first white settler in Adams Township was Mor-
dicai Disney, who located there in 1836, slightly
prior to the coming of the immigrants from Stavan-
ger. 66
The first of our immigrants to locate in Adams
Township where Halvor Nelson and Ole T. Olson,
who in the spring of 1837, settled on sections
twenty-one and twenty-two ; 67 they had lived in Mis-
sion Township since their coming in 1836. Among
those who came in 1836 and located in Mission Town-
ship were: Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, who in
1840 went to Wisconsin (see below), Erick Johnson
Savig 68 and wife, Ingeborg, from Kvinherred Par-
ish, Knud Olson Hetletvedt and wife, Serena (both
of whom died of cholera in 1849), Osmund Thom-
ason, 69 wife and daughter, Anne, Henrik Erick-
son Sebbe and two sons, who went to Salt Lake
City in 1848 ( see above, p. 78) . Samuel Peerson and
Helge Vatname also seem to have come in 1836 ; they
66 Disney left again in 1837.
67 The Olson homestead is still owned by the son, Nels Olson.
68 Died in 1840, leaving wife and two children, John and Anna
Bertha ; the latter later became the wife of John J. Nseset in the town
of Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin. Ssevig was born in 1803, hi
wife in 1809.
69 Died in 1876, ninety-two years old.
FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 93
are recorded as living at Norway, Illinois, in 1837,
and as aiding in bringing some of the immigrants
of 1837 from Chicago to La Salle County.
Some of those who came in 1836 did not go
directly to La Salle County. Andrew Anderson
(Aasen), wife, Olena, three sons and two daughters,
from Tysvaer Parish, Skjold, remained two years in
Orleans County, New York, coming to La Salle
County in 1838 ; he died of the cholera in 1849. John
Hidle from Stavanger County, Norway, also emi-
grated in 1836, coming direct to La Salle County.
In 1838 he settled at Lisbon, Kendall County, being
thus the first Norwegian to locate there and as far
as I have been able to find out, the first Norwegian
to settle in that county (for Ole 0. Hetletvedt did not
come till 1839). Hidle, who wrote his name Hill in
this country, married Susanna Anderson, daughter of
Andrew Anderson ; she was fourteen years old when
her parents came to America, and is still living, at
Morris, Illinois, with her daughter Mrs. Austin Os-
mond. Lars Bo and Michael Bo, who lived and
died in La Salle County, came when John Hill did.
Lars Larson Brimsoe, born in Stavanger, 1812,
worked for some time as a carpenter in New
York and Chicago before settling in La Salle
County. In 1858 he located in Benton County,
Iowa, and in 1872 went to Adams County
(died 1873). Bjorn Anderson Kvelve and wife,
Catherine, 70 and two sons, Arnold Andrew and
70 Abel Catherine von Krogh was born in 1809. Her father was
Arnold von Krogh. Bjorne Anderson Kvelve was born in 1801. For
94 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Brunn, from Vikedal, Eyfylke, lived for a year
in Rochester, New York, came in 1837 to Mission
Township, La Salle County. He removed to Dane
County, Wisconsin, in 1839. Of Lars Tallakson, who
came to America in 1836 (by way of Gothenburg),
we shall speak below. Herman Aarag Osmond,
born near Stavanger, 1818, also came to America in
1836. He first lived in Ohio, came in 1837 to Chi-
cago, then to Norway, La Salle County. He settled
on a farm near Norway in 1848, but bought in 1869
a farm near Newark, Kendall County; Herman
Osmond died in Newark in 1888.
Some of the immigrants of 1836 located in Chi-
cago, which then consisted of only a few houses.
Among these was first, Halstein Torison (or Tor-
ison), to whom Knud Langeland accords the dis-
tinction of being the first Norwegian resident of
Chicago. He was from Fjeldberg in Sondhord-
land, and he came to Chicago with wife and chil-
dren in October, 1836. The site of his home was
that now occupied by the Chicago and Northwestern
Depot on Wells Street. He worked first as a gar-
dener for a Mr. Newberry. Eeverend Dietrichson
speaks of him, in 1844, as prosperous and as occupy-
ing a leading position among Chicago Norwegians
at that time. In 1848 he moved to Calumet, twenty
a sketch of Bjorn Anderson and his wife see pages 155-170 of First
Chapter of Norwegian Immigration by E. B. Anderson, who is their
third son (b. 1846 in Albion, Wisconsin) ; I am indebted to this work
for many facts relative to the Illinois pioneers of 1836-1837.
FOX RIVER SETTLEMENT 95
miles south of Chicago, where he lived until his
death in 1882.
Svein Lothe, from Hardanger, also came in 1836,
as did Nils Bothe and wife, Torbjor, who were from
Voss. The latter remained, however, in Eochester,
New York, one year before coming to Chicago.
Nils Bothe and wife were the first to emi-
grate from Voss, Norway. Johan Larson, from
Kopervik, an island not far north of Stav-
anger city, also located in Chicago in 1836.
He was a sailor and had, it seems, visited Chicago
before; what year he came to America, I do not
know. I may also mention Baard Johnson, who,
with his wife and five children, settled in Chicago
in 1837. Those we have mentioned form the nucleus
out of which has grown today the largest Norwegian
city colony in this country.
Svein Knutson Lothe, who emigrated with wife
and two children from Hardanger in 1836, was from
the Parish of Ullensvang. There were eleven per-
sons in all who came from Ullensvang that year, the
other seven being: Jon Jonson Aga, wife and two
children, Torbjorn Djonne, Olav Oystenson Lofthus
and Omund Helgeson Maakestad. Maakestad be-
came the founder of the Hardanger settlement in
Lee County, Illinois (see below). I am not able to
say where Aga, Djonne or Lofthus located. There
were also seven immigrants from Ulvik Parish, Har-
danger, that year; they were: Sjur Haaheim and
wife, Paul Dale and wife, Sjur Dale and wife and
96 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Aslak Holven. These eighteen persons form the
advance guard of the immigration from Hardanger.
We have spoken of the two ships that came from
Stavanger in 1836. These were followed in the next
year by Enigheden (Harmony), Captain Jensen,
carrying ninety-three passengers. These were for
the most part from Tysvser and from Hjelmeland,
and Aardal in Eyfylke, from the city of Stav-
anger, and from Egersund. They came to New
York, thence went to Albany and Rochester, and by
way of the lakes to Chicago. Most of them went to
La Salle County, although not all settled there per-
manently. Among the passengers were Hans Val-
der and wife from Eyfylke, Knud Olson Eide, Ole
Thompson Eide, from Fogn, near Stavanger,
Thomas A. Thompson, Christopher Danielson and
family, Osten Espeland and family, and Knud Dan-
ielson and family.
The sailing of Enigheden may be regarded as
a continuation of the movement in Stavanger county,
which was given such an impetus by Knud Slog-
vig's return in 1835. Other immigrants continued
to come from this region in subsequent years, but
the autumn of 1837 inaugurates a change in the
course of the movement to a more northerly region,
Hardanger, Voss, and Bergen, for a period, con-
tributing a large share to the now rapidly increasing
numbers of emigrants.
CHAPTER X
The Tear 1837. The Sailing of Aegir.
The influence of Gjert Hovland in this new trend
in the immigration should be noted. South Bergen-
hus now became the scene of immigration activity.
At the same time it is to be observed that Hardan-
ger had contributed its quota of immigrants in the
exodus of 1836. The return of Knud Slogvig was
noised far beyond the County of Stavanger. Among
those who travelled long distances to see and talk
with Slogvig and get personal affirmation of what
reports had told of America, was Nils P. Lange-
land, a school teacher from Samnanger, one of the
emigrants of 1837. Similarly Knud Langeland re-
lates in Nordmaendene i Amerika, page twenty- three,
how he paid a visit to Slogvig in the winter of 1836,
and received from him assurance of what he had
read 71 about the New World. Knud Langeland gives
a most interesting account of how his interest in
America became aroused ; though a personal experi-
ence, it is undoubtedly typical of that of many a
young man in Bergen and surrounding region at this
time. As a document in immigration history, it is
sufficiently significant to warrant quoting in con-
siderable part. He says:
71 Especially in a German book on travels in America, see his
account, p. 21. Knud Langeland did not emigrate, however, before
1843.
98 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
"Purely by accident I found in a friend's library in
Bergen a book by a German entitled REISEN IN AMERIKA.
. . . . As this book contained some vivid pictures of
the distant regions the traveller had visited, as well as of
the impressions he had received of land and people in the
new world, it was read with all the allurements of a novel.
Here was given full information about the German emigra-
tion. With this description of travels in my pocket I went
early one summer morning along the bay of Solem and up
the steep ascent of Lyderhorn. Up there I read and
dreamed of the new wonderful world far away to the west.
The mist had sunk low over the fjords between the isles
about Bergen, but up there around the tree-tops it was
bright sunshine. It was the first time I had seen this glo-
rious sight peculiar to mountain regions. If any prosaic
nature ever received poetic inspiration and exaltation it
was during this time, while my eyes beheld the sunlit sur-
face of the fog and in the distance caught a glimpse of the
sparkling shield of the North Sea, which seemed to rise to
the height of the mountain And far out to-
ward the west, thousands of miles out there, lies the land
about which I am reading, lies the big, still so little known
part of the world, with its secrets and its wonders. From
that time I sought all books and descriptions of travel con-
cerning America which I could get, and, together with an
uncle of mine, I began to collect as much information about
the new world, as well through books as through the verbal
accounts from Stavanger people, which now began to be
current in the district concerning Kleng Peerson 's emigra-
tion and return, without our yet actually thinking of emi-
grating. Through a kind friend's help I was enabled in
1834 to spend six months in England, on which occasion
I gathered a number of pamphlets and books about America
SAILING OF AEGIR 99
and emigration from England. In this way more definite
and more reliable information as to conditions in America
and the journey thither gradually spread in the vicinity.
This seemed to discredit the many ridiculous and impossible
stories now constantly set in circulation. Slowly but stead-
ily the thought of emigrating to America took root; more
and more joined the little group which now in earnest be-
gan talking of selling their homes and going to America.
Then it was that the bishop of Bergen wrote a letter to the
farmers of Bergen on the text, "Remain in the country;
make your living honorably," whether he forgot it or did
not regard it suitable to the occasion, he failed to quote the
second commandment of the passage: "Multiply and fill
the world." The latter the farmers had adhered to; most
of them had large families, and since the land at home was
filled, while they now heard that a large part of the new
world was unsettled, they decided to disobey the bishop's
advice and go to the new Canaan, where flowed milk and
honey. ' '
So far Langeland's account. While the evi-
dence points to many causes as operating conjointly
toward bringing about the departure, in the spring
of 1837, of so many from Samnanger and from Voss,
the influence of Nils P. Langeland, already men-
tioned above, seems to have been a special factor
at this particular time. Nils Langeland was al-
ready then an elderly man. He had devoted his
life to the cause of popular education, but the in-
tolerant clergy of the time found him too liberal
minded and continually put obstacles in his way.
Although he was supported by a group of faithful
friends, his usefulness was hampered; discouraged
100 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
at last, he decided to leave his native country and
go to America.
This was in the summer of 1836. In the fall
of that year, Captain Behrens returned with the
bark, Aegir, from America, whither he had car-
ried a cargo of freight in the summer. Lange-,
land's friends had already sold their homes and were
preparing to emigrate. Hearing of this, Behrens
decided to convert his bark into a passenger boat,
and he offered to take them to America the next
spring ; the offer was accepted. While preparations
were going on, the announcements of the projected
sailing, which had been printed in the newspapers,
led intending immigrants from other sections, also,
to join the party. Among these was Ole Eynning,
from Snaasen, in Trondhjem Province, of whom we
shall speak more at length below.
On the 4th of July, 1837, Aegir sailed from Ber-
gen with eighty- two passengers. Among these were
Mons Aadland, Nils Froland, Anders Nordvig, Inge-
brigt Brudvig, Thomas Bauge and Thorbjorn Veste,
all of whom had large families, and the following
from Hardanger : Nils L. Jordre, wife and six chil-
dren, and Peder J. Maurset, wife and child, from
Ulvik Parish, and Amund Eosseland, wife and three
children, Lars G. Skeie, wife and two children, Sjur
E. Bosseland and Svein L. Midthus from Vikor. The
last-named were the first to emigrate from Vikor.
The party further included Halle Vaete, wife and
grown daughter, and the following persons : Odd J.
SAILING OF AEGIR 101
Himle, Kolbein 0. Saue, Styrk 0. Saue, Nils L. Bol-
stad, Baard Haugen, John H. Bjorgo, Ole Dyvik, all
of whom were married, besides several single men,
mostly relatives of the above, namely : Dovig, Bauge,
Froland, Nordvig, Hisdal, Tosseland, et al. Each
adult paid sixty dollars (Norwegian specie) for
passage, children under twelve paying half price.
They arrived in New York eight weeks later.
The journey inland was attended by numerous ex-
penses for which the immigrants were not prepared.
When they had gotten as far as Detroit, the above-
mentioned Nils P. Langeland found himself without
the necessary means to continue the journey. His
friends who had offered to pay his expenses as far
as Chicago, at last became discouraged over the
constant demands upon their funds and Langeland
was obliged to remain in Detroit. Here, being a
capable carpenter, he soon found work; later he
removed to Lapeer County, Michigan, bought there
120 acres of land, plying at the same time the trade of
a carpenter. Thus it came about that Nils Lange-
land became the first Norwegian to settle in the State
of Michigan, though we have seen that Kleng Peer-
son had visited the state four years earlier. At least
three others of the immigrants of 1837 located tem-
porarily in the State of Michigan that year, namely,
Ingebright Nordvig, Osten Espeland, who had come
in Enigheden, and Thorsten Bjaaland. These went to
Adrian, Lenawee County, but left again soon
after. We shall meet Bjaaland again in La Salle
County, Illinois, and on Koshkonong Prairie.
CHAPTER XI
Beaver Creek. Ole Rynning.
The immigrants who came in the Aegir seem to
have intended to settle in La Salle County, but in
Chicago were advised by two Americans not to go
there. They were also pa,rtly influenced by Nor-
wegian immigrants 72 who were dissatisfied with that
locality, and who recommended Iroquois County as
a more desirable location to settle. They were told
that the Fox Eiver Valley was a very unhealthy
place, the settlers were dying of ague and fever,
and it was a misfortune that they had ever been in-
duced to locate there. (Knut Langeland also re-
cords the fact that the fever raged in the whole
of the Fox Eiver Valley from Muskego, in Wisconsin,
to the Mississippi River in Illinois, that summer,
but that the condition in La Salle was no worse than
elsewhere). So the intending settlers deputed three
men to explore the country for a site for a new col-
ony.
These, Ole Rynning, Ingebrigt Brudvig and
Ole Nattestad, 73 walked south along the line of the
present Illinois Central Railroad, selecting the loca-
72 Bjorn Anderson seems to have in part been instrumental in
their not going to La Salle County, but there is no evidence that he
recommended Iroquois County as far as I am aware.
73 Niels Veste may also have been of the party.
BEAVER CREEK 103
tion at Beaver Creek in Iroquois County. Of the
further history of this unfortunate and short lived
colony, the reader may find an account in Dietrich-
son's brief discussion of the settlement, or in Lange-
land's or E. B. Anderson's book. The majority of
the settlers died during the spring in the low and
unhealthy climate. Ole Eynning himself died and
lies buried there. The few survivors left for La
Salle County the following spring. Mons Aadland
refused, however, to go. He remained in Beaver
Creek three years longer ; selling his land in 1840 for
a herd of cattle and, moving north, he located in
Racine County, being therefore one of the earliest
pioneers in this part of Wisconsin.
Ole Rynning's name is most closely associated
with the brief history of the Beaver Creek Settle-
ment. We have already seen above how his book,
Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika, came to have
a very far-reaching influence upon Norwegian emi-
gration. This book Eynning wrote that winter in
the Beaver Creek Settlement. It was printed in
Norway the next year. It soon became widely dis-
tributed and continued for over a decade to exert
a powerful influence upon Norwegian emigration
from Voss, east to Hedemarken, and north to Grud-
brandsdalen, in these latter provinces, at the close
of the decade, especially.
We have, on page 86 above, observed that Eyn-
ning formulated certain questions which he set about
answering for the information of intending immi-
104 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
grants. It will be of interest to note here the na-
ture of some of his answers. The first question as
to the nature of the country, he answers by giving
a very intelligent account of the topography and
climate of the country, the soil in the different parts,
and of what the produce of the different sections
consists. In answer to the third question, he says
that the United States is more than twenty times
as large as Norway, that the greater part of the
country is not yet even under cultivation, and that
there is room for a population more than a hundred
times as great as that of Norway. There need be
no fear, he says, that the country will be full in fifty
years.
The fourth question as to where the Norwe-
gian immigrants have located especially, he an-
swers by saying, that in New York, Rochester, De-
troit, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans, there
are said to be individual settlers; but he mentions
four places where several have settled, namely: (1)
Orleans County, New York, but where, he says, there
are now only two or three families left; (2) La Salle
County, Illinois, where, he says, there are about
twenty families ; (3) White County, Indiana, on the
Tippecanoe Eiver. "Here," he says, live "only two
Norwegians from Drammen, who, together, own
about eleven hundred acres of land"; (4) Shelby
County, Missouri, where a few Norwegians from
Stavanger settled in the spring of 1837; (5) Iro-
quois County, Illinois. ' ' Here, ' ' he says, * ' there are
BEAVEE CREEK 105
eleven or twelve families of those who came last
summer. ' '
The sixth question as to the land in these
localities, he answers by praising the beauty and
the fertility of the prairie. And as to the price
of land, he says, that it has hitherto been $1.25 per
acre, but that he has heard that hereafter land is
to be divided into three classes and the price of land
of the third class is to be half a dollar an acre. He
then offers explicit directions as to how to go about
securing land. He thereupon gives the prices of live-
stock at the time, and of produce, etc. A horse, we
learn, costs from fifty to a hundred dollars, a yoke
of oxen, sixty to eighty. A milk cow with calf,
sixteen to twenty, a sheep, two to three, hogs are
six to ten dollars a head, pork costs three to five
shillings a "mark," butter six to twelve, a barrel of
(wheat) flour, eight to ten dollars ; a barrel of corn-
meal, two and a half to three dollars; a barrel of
potatoes, one dollar; a pound of coffee, twenty shil-
lings; a barrel of salt is five dollars (Norwegian).
But in Wisconsin Territory, the prices are two to
three times higher, while farther south, everything
is cheaper.
Then he speaks of wages, of religious con-
ditions, law and order, how instruction for the
young is provided, linguistic conditions, health con-
ditions. He discusses life in the new settlements,
its trials and attendant evils. As to the Indians,
he says : ' ' They have gone farther west ; one need
106 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
never fear attack by Indians in Illinois." In an-
swer to the question as to who should emigrate, he
warns against unreasonable expectations; advises
farmers, mechanics and tradesmen to come, he who
neither can nor will work must never expect, he says,
that wealth or luxury will stand ready to receive
him. No, in America one gets nothing without
work, but by work, one can expect to attain to com-
fortable circumstances. He thereupon discusses the
question of the dangers in crossing the oceans,
which, he says, are less than usually imagined, and
the rumor of enslavement of the immigrant. The
latter he brands as false, adding, "yet it is true that
many who have not been able to pay their passage,
have come upon such terms that they have sold
themselves, or their service, for a certain number
of years to some man here in the country. Many
are thereby said to have come into bad hands, and
have not had it better than slaves. No Norwegian,
as far as I know, has fared in this way, nor is it to
be feared, if one crosses by a Norwegian ship, and
with one's own countrymen." In conclusion, I shall
cite his opinion on the slave trade which is inter-
esting in the insight and judgment it gives evidence
of, on the part of an immigrant over twenty years
before the war:
The northern states are trying in every congress to
abolish slavery in the southern states; but as these always
oppose it and appeal to their right to govern their own
internal affairs, there will probably soon take place a sep-
BEAVER CREEK 107
aration between the northern and the southern states, or
else there will be internal conflict.
Ole Eynning was born in Eingsaker, as the son
of Reverend Jens Eynning and wife, Severine
Catherine Steen, in 1809. In 1825, the father moved
to Snaasen. Having finished his education in 1829,
he taught school for a time. Then he bought a small
farm 74 which he had to give up again, not being
able to pay for it. His ultra democratic sympathies
were displeasing to his conservative father, and an
unhappy love affair, which his father disapproved
of as being a mesalliance, seems, at least, to have
been, in part the cause of his leaving Norway.
We have recited, briefly, his short career in
America. 75 Of his nobility of character and the self-
sacrificing spirit he showed in helping the grief-
stricken and suffering colonists in the unfortunate
Beaver Creek Settlement, in the spring and summer
of 1838, his surviving associates give ample testi-
mony. His book, Sandfaerdig Beretning, was writ-
ten on the sick-bed. 76 When he died, there was only
one man in the settlement who was well enough to
make a casket for him from an old oak which he
hewed down. Eynning was buried out on the
prairie, but no one knows now where the spot is.
74 This he bought of the father of Eev. B. G. Muus, well-known
in Norwegian-American church history, and a long time pastor at
Norway, Goodhue County, Minnesota.
75 See above p. 103.
76 Ansten Nattestad, of whom below, took it with him to Norway
that year and got it printed in Christiania.
CHAPTER XII
Some of tine Immigrants of 1837. The First Path-
finders from Numedal and Telemarken.
Besides the 177 immigrants, who came to Amer-
ica from Stavanger and Bergen in 1837, there was a
considerable number who embarked from Gothen-
burg, Sweden. These came mostly from Numedal
and Telemarken in the south central part of Norway.
Among the immigrants of 1837 were, also, the
brothers, Ole and Ansten Nattestad, from Vsegli,
Numedal, both of whom came via Gothenburg, and
Hans Barlien, who emigrated with Enigheden.
These men played such a part in the immigration
history of the period as to deserve something more
than a mere mention.
Ansten Nattestad may be regarded as the father
of the emigration movement from Numedal, Norway,
from which some of the most successful Norwegian
settlements in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, were
later recruited. His brother, Ole Nattestad, became
the founder of one of these settlements, that of
Jefferson Prairie, in Eock County, "Wisconsin (also
extending into Illinois) ; while Hans Barlien found-
ed the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa, at Sugar
Creek, Lee County. Of the circumstances which led
to the emigration of the Nattestad brothers, an in-
teresting account appears in Billed-Magazin, 1869,
THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 109
pages 82-83. This, which is an interview with Ole
Nattestad, has been reprinted in other works and I
shall not take the space for it here. We may note,
however, that they had received their first news of
America upon a journey to the neighborhood of
Stavanger in the close of 1836. During Christmas of
that year, they were the guests of Even Nubbru in
Sigdal, a member of the Storthing, and it was his
praise of American laws which first aroused Ole
Nattestad 's desire to emigrate, as he had already
had some unpleasant experiences in that respect.
In April, 1837, they stood ready to leave for
America, having converted their possessions into
cash, a sum of eight hundred dollars. They went
on skis from Eollaug to Tin, over the mountains
and through the forests to Stavanger. Halsten
Halvorson Braekke-Eiet, also from Kollaug, be-
came a third member of the party. In Stavanger,
local official hostility to emigration led them into
difficulties, and they were forced to seek safety in
flight by night. They went to Tananger, where they
were more successful, a skipper contracting to take
them in his yacht to Gothenburg. In Gothenburg,
they secured passage with a ship which carried iron
from Sweden to Fall River, Massachusetts. The
journey lasted thirty-two days. Thence, they went
to New York, where they met a few Norwegians, and
thence again to Rochester. Here they spoke with
several members of the sloop party of 1825, now liv-
ing in Rochester, and they were, for a short time, the
guests of Lars Olson, as so many others of the immi-
110 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
grants of those years. Hearing that those who had
come to America in 1836 had gone west to La Salle
County, they decided to go there. In Detroit, Ole
Nattestad was one day walking about to view the
city, and he says:
Here I accidentally came upon a man, whom I imme-
diately recognized by his clothes as a countryman from the
western coast of Norway. I greeted the man, and the meet-
ing was for us both as if two brothers had met after a long
separation.
This man was one of the passengers on the
Aegir, who had just then arrived in Detroit. The
Nattestad party now joined these, all (except N. P.
Langeland and family, as we have seen, page 102
above), going west to Chicago. Here they met
Bjorn Anderson Kvelve, whose unfavorable account
of the Fox Eiver locality first gave them some doubt
as to the wisdom of going there. Of the subse-
quent events, the reader has already been told. We
shall meet again with both Ole and Ansten Natte-
stad below. Halsten Braekke-Eiet later settled in
Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
Hans Barlien was from Overgaarden, Trond-
hjem; he seems to have been the second emigrant
to America from that region. Of him there will be
occasion to speak more in detail in connection with
the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa. I desire,
here, however, to mention five others, who came via
Gothenburg to America in the same year, namely,
Erick Gauteson Midboen, Thore Kittilson Svimbil,
and John Nelson Rue, who had large families, and
THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 111
two single men, Gunder Gauteson Midboen and
Torsten Ingebrigtson Gulliksrud. These form the
advance troupe of emigrants from the Parish of Tin
in Upper Telemarken, a region which furnished a
large share of recruits for the pioneer colonies of
Wisconsin and Iowa in the forties and the fifties.
Thore Svimbil became a pioneer in Blue Mounds,
Dane County, where we shall find him later. Erik
Gauteson Midboen, who had a large family, settled
in La Salle County, but, says our authority, "for-
tune was not kind to him." He later joined the
Latter Day Saints and undertook a journey to Nor-
way as a representative of that church, returned to
America and died soon after, about 1850, as near
as I can ascertain. Torsten Gulliksrud also settled
in Illinois, but died early. John Nelson Kue will
appear later in our account as one of the founders
of the earliest Norwegian settlement in Winneshiek
County, Iowa.
We do not know what the circumstances were
that led to the emigration of this little group from
Upper Telemarken in 1837. It seems not unlikely
that the news of America had come to them through
copies of letters from Hovland or others, though
they may also have had information more directly
through Knud Slogvig's return. The latter does
not to me seem so likely, however, for they appear to
have made no attempt to secure passage from Sta-
vanger. The departure of this group from Tin
does not seem to have had any immediate influ-
112 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ence upon emigration from that region. The
real exodus from Tin does not begin till 1839,
and then as a part of the general movement,
but this may have been aided by letters from
those who went thence in 1837. The number
that in this way took passage via Gothenburg
that year may have been larger than we have
knowledge of. While the number, two hundred,
which our statistics, cited above, gives as that of
the emigration from Norway in 1837 is certainly
rather low, it is highly improbable that it was as
high as three hundred, as elsewhere given. A con-
servative and reasonable estimate would seem to
place it at about two hundred and forty or fifty.
Among the passengers on the Aegir, we men^
tioned Nils Froland. He was one of two, the other
being Mons Aadland, to first join Nils P. Langeland
in his preparations for emigrating to America.
With his wife and children, he located at Beaver
Creek, and they were among the fortunate survivors
of that colony. In 1839, he moved to Mission Town-
ship in La Salle County, and to the present Miller
Township the next year. He died there in 1873. His
widow (born 1798) was still living in 1895. A
grandson, Lars Fruland, resides at Newark, Illinois.
Anders Nordvig, who also came on the Aegir,
died in the Beaver Creek Settlement. His widow,
a sister of Knud Langeland, moved to La Salle
County; she died there at the age of ninety in 1892.
A daughter, Malinda, married Iver Lawson (Iver
THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 113
Larson Bo), who came to Chicago from Voss, Nor-
way, in 1844. Victor F. Lawson, owner of The Chica-
go News, is her son. Another daughter, Sarah (born
1824), married a Mr. Darnell, a pioneer of Benton
County, Iowa, in 1854. Mrs. Darnell was the first
Norwegian in that county. After Darnell's death,
she returned to Illinois, locating at Sandwich, De
Kalb County.
Among the passengers on Aegir, Odd Himle,
Baard Haugen, Ole Dyvik and John Bjorgo went
direct to La Salle County. The first of these re-
turned to Norway in 1844, and, while there, married
Marie L. Jenno; he returned to America in 1845,
and settled on Spring Prairie in Columbia County,
Wisconsin, where we shall meet with him again. He
died in De Forest, Dane County, Wisconsin, in May,
1893. We shall also meet John Bjorgo below as one
of the pioneers of Koshkonong, Wisconsin. Halle
Vaete died in Beaver Creek, as did his wife and
grown-up daughter. Kolbein Saue and Styrk Saue
both went to Beaver Creek and were among the sur-
vivors; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and are
to be remembered among the early pioneers there.
Styrk Saue was born in Voss, September twenty-
fifth, 1814; his wife, Ellen Olson (born Bekve), was
born in 1816. They were married in America. Nils
Bolstad settled in Koshkonong in 1840. He was one
of a group of three to visit Dane County, Wisconsin,
on a trip of exploration in the fall of 1839, being,
therefore, the first Norwegians in that county.
114 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Among the passengers on Enigheden was Hans
Valder and wife. He was born on the farm, Vaelde,
in Vats Parish in Ryfylke in 1813. Having re-
ceived an education he taught school in Tysvaer
some years before emigrating. Here he heard
much about the earliest emigration to America
from Stavanger. In Detroit, Valder and Osten
Espeland separated from the rest of the party
and went to Adrian, Michigan. Thence they
went a few miles into the country in Lenawee
County to visit a small Norwegian settlement,
whither Ingebrigt Larson Narvig had recently
moved from Monroe County, where he had settled
in 1833. 77 In the spring of 1838 Valder left for
La Salle County, Illinois. Here he lived until 1853,
when he moved to what is at present Newburg, Fill-
more County, Minnesota, and became one of the
earliest Norwegian pioneers in Minnesota. Osten
Espeland and family remained at the home of Nar-
vig a little longer than Valder, but then they also
went to La Salle County.
Another passenger on Enigheden was Christo-
pher Danielson from Aardal, in Lower Byfylke.
He was fifty-seven years old at the time of
emigrating, settled in Mission Township, La Salle
County, where his wife died a few years later.
Danielson died of the cholera in 1849. His son,
Christopher Danielson (born in Norway), resides
at Sheridan, Illinois. Thomas A. Thompson, born
77 See above, page 101, for the circumstances of Narvig 'a coming
to Michigan.
THE FIRST PATHFINDERS 115
1812 in Skjold Parish, Eyfylke, settled in Nor-
way, La Salle County, Illinois. In 1867 he removed
to Adams County, Iowa, where he died in 1870.
Lars Eicholson and wife also came in 1837, and
settled near Ottawa in La Salle County. Lars
Eicholson, as, indeed, several of the pioneers
of these years, soon became one of the substantial
men of the community. 78 Ole Heier, who also came
in 1837, from Tin, Telemarken, located in La Salle
County. He had been an ardent Haugian, but be-
came a Mormon in Illinois, and later a Baptist. In
1868 he moved to Iowa, where he died in 1873. A
son, A. Hayer, lives in Leland, Illinois. Finally
there came that year Even Askvig with wife and
children from Hjelmeland Parish in Eyfylke. Set-
tling first in Indiana (Beaver Creek) they removed
the next year to La Salle County, Illinois. Late in
the forties they settled in Texas and at last in 1852
the parents and a part of the family located in south-
western Iowa, where Even Askvig died in 1875 and
his wife in 1881.
78 Attorney Samuel Eicholson, of Ottawa, who died in 1906, was
a son of Lars Eicholson. He was born March twenty-fifth, 1841, on
the homestead bought by his father in 1837-38. He was for a long
time member of the firm, Boyle and Eicholson, in Ottawa, was mayor
of Ottawa from 1871-1881, at one time attorney for the Chicago, Bur-
lington and Quincy railroad. His widow, Marietta Eicholson, and
two children are still living.
CHAPTER XIII
Ansten Nattestad's Return to Norway in 1838. The
Tear 1839. Immigration Assumes Larger
Proportions. The Course of Set-
tlement Changes.
The principal event in Norwegian immigration
history for the year, 1838, is Ansten Nattestad's
return to Norway. We have seen, above, page 103,
that Ole and Ansten Nattestad left the Beaver
Creek settlement in the spring of 1838. Ansten
went to Norway, as it seems, for the express pur-
pose of promoting emigration from Eollaug, Nume-
dal, while Ole went out to explore new fields. Go-
ing north as far as the Wisconsin line he stopped in
what is now Clinton Township in Eock County.
This place suited his fancy and he decided to settle
here.
This was July first. 79 He entered a claim of
eighty acres and immediately set to work erecting
temporary quarters. For a year he lived alone,
rarely coming in contact with a white man, and not
seeing anything of his own countrymen during all
that time. "Eight Americans," he says, "had
settled in the town before me, but these also lived
in about as lonely and desolate a condition as I.
79 According to Ole Nattestad 's letter in Nordlyset for May
eighteenth, 1848.
- >.
.
'</ ; '" .:-' *
ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 117
I found the soil especially fruitful and the melan-
choly uniformity of the prairie was relieved here by
intervening bits of woods. Flocks of deer and
other game were to be seen daily, and the uncanny
howling of the prairie wolf constantly disturbed my
night rest, until the habit fortified my ears against
disturbances of this kind." The following summer,
Ole built a cabin in which he received, as we shall
see below, the first group of immigrants into that
country in the early fall of that year.
The year 1838 brought a small contingent of
emigrants from Voss. They were Steffen K. Gil-
derhus, Knud Lydvo, Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjer-
stad. 80 Gilderhus went to Cleveland, Ohio, being, I
believe, the first Norwegian to locate there; he re-
mained there only one year, however, going to Chi-
cago in 1839. We shall later find him among the
pioneers of Koshkonong, Dane County, Wisconsin.
Knud and Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjerstad went to La
Salle County, Illinois, and thence to Shelby County,
Missouri, where the restless Kleng Peerson had the
year before gone in search of a new locality for a
settlement in the southwest (see below).
Before passing on to the emigration of 1839, it
will be in order to speak briefly of a small group or
emigrants from Numedal in the year 1838. The
name of the leader was Ole Aasland, a wealthy far-
mer of Flesberg Parish. He sold out his farm
and, taking with him his family and about twenty
80 As brought out by Nils A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin.
118 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
other persons, whose passage he paid for, he sailed
from Tonsberg, via Gothenburg, and thence to New
York. He then went to Orleans County, New
York. 81 Here it seems he fell into the hands of
speculators, who sold him six hundred acres of
marsh land in Noble County, Indiana, for a very high
price. He removed to that place soon after, it
seems, with most of those whom he had brought from
Norway. Sickness set in, brought on by the swamp-
iness of the region, and many of his party died.
He thereupon (next year) abandoned the land, tak-
ing with him the survivors. In the Kendall Settle-
ment, Andrew J. Stangeland bought the land of
him for a nominal price. 82 Aasland, who changed
his name in this country to Orsland, lived on the
so-called Norwegian Koad in Kendall, till his death,
about 1864. In Kendall, he accumulated consider-
able property. He left a wife and four children,
Canute Orsland, and Harry B. Orsland (born 1828
in Kendall), the former occupying the old homestead
as late as 1895, and Hallock Orsland living in
Detroit, where a daughter is also living. Let us
now turn to Ansten Nattestad's journey.
According to Nattestad's own account he went
back to Norway in the spring of 1838 via New Or-
leans and Liverpool. In Drammen he had printed
his brother's journal, En Dagbog, and Bynning's
81 The Kendall Settlement
82 Aasland did not take anything for it, says Canute Orsland
in letter of 1895 to E. B. Anderson; letter is printed on page 265 of
First Chapter.
ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 119
book was printed in Christiania. He speaks of the
great interest that these pamphlets aroused as well
as that of his own return. He says:
"The report of my return spread like wild fire
throughout the country, and an incredibly large number
of people came to me to get news from America. Many
even travelled eighteen to twenty Norwegian miles to
speak with me. It was impossible to answer all the let-
ters that came with reference to conditions across the
ocean. In the spring of 1839 about one hundred persons
stood ready to go with me across the ocean. Among these
were many farmers with families, all except the children
able to work and in their best years."
There were, moreover, a host of people from
Telemarken and Numedal, who could not accompany
him, as there was no more room in the ship.
In the meantime these people from Telemark-
en, not to be deterred long in their plans to go to
the New World, immediately set about organ-
izing their party and went to Skien to seek passage
there. They were all from Tin and Hjertdal par-
ishes in Upper Telemarken. The leaders of the
party were the Luraas family, which was repre-
sented by four heads of families, in all about twenty
persons of the total number of forty, composed al-
most exclusively of grown men and women. They
embarked at Skien, May seventeenth, somewhat
earlier than the party from Numedal and arrived in
America before, hence it is to this group that we
shall now turn our attention, leaving for the time
being Nattestad and his party. The Luraas party
120 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
was in all composed of eleven families, most of
them being from Tin Parish. We have already,
under Causes of Emigration, spoken briefly of John
Luraas, who perhaps was the chief promoter of this
emigration.
The party consisted of John Nelson Luraas,
Knut Nelson Luraas, Halvor Ostenson Luraas, Tor-
ger Ostenson Luraas, Halvor T. Lonflok, Halvor
Nelson Lohner, Helge Mathieson, Ole Hellikson
Kroken, Osten Mollerflaten, Ole Kjonaas, Nils John-
son Kaasa, and the latter 's brother, Gjermund
Johnson Kaasa, all of whom had families, be-
sides three unmarried men, namely, Nils, Ole
and John Tollefsjord. The Kaasa brothers were
from Hiterdal; the rest I believe were all from
Tin Parish. In Gothenburg they met another small
company of Norwegian emigrants, who had just
arrived there from Stavanger, bound for Amer-
ica. This party included Gitle Danielson, the
leader of the party, from the island of Benneso,
a little north of Stavanger, and who had a large
family, Halvor Jellarviken, with family, and Peder
Bosoino, both with families, Erik Svinalie and
sister; the party also included John Evenson
Molee from Tin in Telemarken, who was at
that time in the service of Gitle Danielson. In all
there were now about sixty. The journey across
the Atlantic took nine weeks and the journey from
Boston to Milwaukee took another three weeks. The
latter led by way of New York and then by canal
ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 121
boats, pulled by horses, to Buffalo ; thence by way of
the Great Lakes to Milwaukee, the most common
westward route for the early immigrants. This was
at the close of August. It was the intention of the
emigrants to settle in La Salle County, Illinois ; but
in Milwaukee they were induced to remain in Wis-
consin, and a site for a settlement was selected near
Lake Muskego in the southeastern part of Waukesha
County, about twenty miles southwest from Milwau-
kee.
A story is told how it came about that they
did not go to Illinois as originally intended. A
good-natured fat man is said to have been pointed
out to them as the product of Wisconsin. On the
other hand Illinois was described as a hot and un-
healthy region in substantiation of which a pale, sick-
ly man was presented as the result of life in that
state. Whether this was done or not I do not know ;
but the story may serve as an illustration of frontier
humor and immigrant credulity both.
Suffice it to say that the people of Milwaukee suc-
ceeded in diverting the immigrants from Telemark-
en from going any farther, but selected a site for
a settlement, as we have said, near Lake Muskego in
Waukesha County. Then they returned to Milwau-
kee to perfect their purchase of land there, the price
paid being the usual one of a dollar and twenty-five
cents per acre.
Before reciting further the fortunes of this
group of immigrants, the first to enter the State of
122 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Wisconsin, let us turn for a moment to a consid-
eration of the larger movement. With the year
1839, emigration from Norway begins to assume
larger proportions, and certain districts, which hith-
erto had sent very few, now begin to contribute the
larger share of the number of emigrants to Amer-
ica. This year may very properly be said to have
inaugurated the second period in Norwegian immi-
gration history. Down to 1839 the immigration
movement in Norway had not really gone beyond
the provinces of Stavanger and South Bergenhus
in southwestern and western Norway. Indeed, near-
ly all of the emigrants had come from these sections.
In fact, before 1836 the movement was almost con-
fined to Stavanger and Eyfylke. In that year it
reaches Hardanger, and in 1837, Bergen. It does
not reach Voss properly before 1838, although Nils
Eothe and wife had emigrated from there in 1836.
In 1837, as we have seen, the first emigrant ship,
the Aegir, left Bergen with eighty-four passengers.
Before 1839 we meet with occasional individual emi-
gration from provinces to the east and northeast.
Thus Ole Eynning and Snaasen in Trondhjem Dio-
cese emigrated in the Aegir in 1837. The first emi-
grants from Telemarken also came in 1837. As we
have seen above, 1837 is also the year which records
the first immigration from Numedal. Among the
emigrants from other parts of Norway prior to
1837 must be mentioned also Johan Nordboe, from
Ringebo in Guldbrandsdalen, who came in 1832 and
ANSTEN NATTESTAD'S RETURN 123
resided for some time in Kendall, New York, later
going to Texas, and Hans Barlien from Trondhjem
County, who came to La Salle County in 1837.
Neither of these two men, however, were instrument-
al in bringing about any emigration movement in
Gudbrandsdalen and Trondhjem. It is not until a
much later period that these two districts are rep-
resented in considerable numbers among emigrants.
It is the year 1839 in which emigration on a
larger scale takes its beginnings. Similarly, the
year 1839 marks a change also in the movement of
the course of settlement. Down to this time all
emigration from Norway stands in direct relation
to the movement which began in Stavanger in 1825,
and which in the years 1834-36 resulted in the forma-
tion of the Fox Eiver Settlement in La Salle County,
Illinois. This settlement then became the center of
dispersion for what may be called the southern line
of settlements. All through the forties and the fif-
ties the southern course of migration westward,
which includes southern and central Iowa, stands in
direct relation to early Norwegian colonization in
New York and Illinois, that is the first period of
Norwegian emigration from the provinces of Stav-
anger and South Bergenhus (and this province only
as far north as Bergen, Voss being excluded) in
Southwestern Norway. In 1839 the first settlements
are formed in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Mus-
kego in Waukesha County, and in Kock County ; and
in 1839-40 that of Koshkonong in Dane and Jeffer-
124 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
son Counties. These settlements then became a
northern point of dispersion. From here we have
a second northern line of settlement westward and
northwestward into Northern Iowa, Minnesota, and
the more northerly localities of Wisconsin.
CHAPTER XIV
Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten Nattestad's Re-
turn from Nonvay in 1839. The Founding of
the Jefferson Prairie Settlement in Rock
County, Wisconsin
Before returning now to the thread of our nar-
rative, I wish to speak briefly of an early effort, and
the only one, before the fifties, to found a settlement
from the southern point of dispersion.
In 1837 Kleng Peerson, Jacob and Knud Slog-
vig, Andrew Askeland, Andrew Simonson, Thorstein
Thorson Bue, several of whom had families, and
about eight others, left La Salle County, went to
Missouri and made a settlement in Shelby County;
this, however, proved unsuccessful, principally on
account of the lack of a market.
Peerson does not seem to have selected a very
desirable locality, and he did not possess the stead-
fastness of purpose that would seem to be a prime
requisite in the pioneer. He was too much of a
lover of adventure, and hardly was a plan brought to
completion before his head was again full of new
dreams and fancies.
He was something of a Peer Gynt but without
Peer Gynt's selfishness or his eye for the main
chance ; the roving spirit dominated Peerson wholly ;
not until old age had laid its hand on him did he
126 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
yield to the monotony of a settled life ; but even then
in the wilderness of Texas in the fifties. I have
personal information of his life there; he took no
part in the upbuilding of the community, no active
interest in its progress. In a settled community he
alone was unsettled; he was never able to gather
himself together into concentrated action and pro-
longed effort in a definite cause or undertaking. A
vagabond citizen, he died in poverty. The only ac-
tivity we associate with his name is the adventurous
wanderings of his youth.
After having spent a year in Missouri Peer-
son returned to Norway, evidently for the pur-
pose of recruiting his colony, but I have no evidence
that he succeeded in this. Independent of Peer-
son 's efforts, the little colony did receive an acces-
sion of three in 1838, namely, Knud and Ole Lydvo
and Lars Gjerstad, and of one person in the fall of
1839, namely, Nils Lydvo, who had just come from
Voss, Norway, with a group of immigrants from
that region, most of whom remained in Chicago.
The Shelby County settlement did not thrive. It
was too far removed from other settlers, too far
from a market; the settlers suffered want and be-
came discouraged. The colony was practically
broken up in 1840, when most of the settlers removed
north into Iowa Territory into what is now Lee
County. Here they established the first Norwegian
settlement in Iowa. Of this we shall have occasion
to speak under the year 1840. Let us now return
SHELBY COUNTY, MISSOURI 127
to Ansten Nattestad and his party of emigrants,
whom we left above, page 119, as about to depart for
America.
Ansten Nattestad 's party of one hundred then
sailed from Drammen by the Emelia, Captain Anker-
son, late in the spring of 1839. It was the first time,
says he, that the people of Drammen had seen an
emigrant ship. Every person paid thirty-three dol-
lars and a half (specie) ; they were nine weeks on
the ocean, going direct to New York. They took
the usual route inland and arrived in Milwaukee
just at the time when the Luraas party had returned
to Milwaukee to purchase land already selected in
Waukesha County, as we have seen above. They
urged the new arrivals to stop in Milwaukee and go
with them to Muskego, but Nattestad objected, and
so they continued their journey to Chicago.
Here Ansten learned that his brother had lo-
cated in Wisconsin the year before. The party's
destination was La Salle County, but this changed
the course of some of them. Some who had friends
there did go to La Salle County, a few remained in
Chicago, especially single men, but the majority
went with Ansten to Clinton. All these (excepting
some to be noted below) bought land and began the
life of pioneers there in the fall of 1839 on what
came to be known as Jefferson Prairie. Besides
Ole Knudson Nattestad and his brother Ansten,
those who founded this settlement were: Halvor
Pederson Haugen, Hans Gjermundson Haugen, Thore
128 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Helgeson Kirkejord, Torsten Helgeson Kirkejord,
Jens Gudbrandson Myhra, Gudbrand, Myhra, Erik
Skavlem, the brothers Kittil and Kristoffer Nyhus,
and T. Nelson. Halvor Haugen did not come with
the Nattestad party, although he was in Drammen
intending to sail on the Emelia. Owing to lack of
room about thirty persons, including children, had to
be left behind. Halvor Haugen has himself told
(in Amerika, September, 1907) of the coming of
these. After several days of waiting, they se-
cured passage on a boat bound for Gothen-
burg, Sweden. The journey went via Fredrikshald,
where another stay of two or three days took place.
At Gothenburg a wait of ten days followed before
the brig Bunyan, on which they were to sail, was
ready. "It was certainly fortunate," says our narra-
tor, * * that people were not in such haste then, or the
repeated delays of several days duration would have
been the cause of much unpleasant irritation. ' ' Land-
ing in Boston, the immigrants travelled by rail to
Providence, Rhode Island, thence by steamboat to
New York. Here they boarded the boat which was
to carry them to Albany. As they were told the
boat was not to leave before five o'clock in the after-
noon most of the men of the party went ashore
again to purchase food. When they returned how-
ever the boat had sailed having left at ten in the
forenoon instead of five in the afternoon as planned.
Those left behind managed to reach their destina-
tion also, though with many difficulties and unpleas-
SHELBY COUNTY, MISSOURI 129
ant experiences. From Albany they travelled by
canal to Buffalo. ' ' Of this part of the journey, ' ' says
Haugen, " there is nothing to be said except that,
like all other earthly things, this also at last came
to an end." From Buffalo the journey went by
steamboat to Chicago. They did not go thence to
La Salle County though undoubtedly intended orig-
inally to do so. I do not know what changed their
course, but on the next day after arriving in Chica-
go, they went to Du Page County, Illinois, where a
week later they met those who had gone with Natte-
stad in Captain Ankerson's ship. The party whose
coming has thus briefly been related was composed
of Halvor Haugen, wife, three sons, Peder, Halvor
and Andreas, and two daughters Bergit and Sigrid ;
Halvor Stordok, Lars Haugerud, Gunder Fingal-
pladsen, Engebret Saeter, Lars Dalen, Gjermund
Johnson, and Sven Tufte, all of whom also had fam-
ilies, besides some single persons. Halvor Hau-
gen 's family and most of the party remained in Du
Page County for a time, and Peder Haugen and his
brother Andreas and the two sisters secured employ-
ment there. The father, however, went with Erik
Skavlem to Jefferson Prairie to help him build a
house. At Christmas the rest of the party also went
to Jefferson Prairie. During the winter they all
lived in Skavlem 's house. This house is described
as follows :
"It was sixteen by sixteen and quite low. In order
to add to room 'crowns' were erected overhead, that is,
beams which were laid crosswise near the ceiling. These
130 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
beams were cut pointed at the ends which were made to
rest between the logs in the walls on either side, like
riders across -the house. On top of these again was laid
flats, on which beds were arranged. Down below on
the floor there were also three beds."
A writer in Amerika, March first, 1907, quotes
one of the immigrants as speaking of the cramped
quarters in the log cabin, in which the whole party
lived that fall and winter ; room which to one family
would seem too small now. "How these settlers,"
he says, ' ' could manage in one log cabin a whole win-
ter is a riddle to me. ' ' The following spring Halvor
Haugen also built a cabin which was always full as
newcomers were constantly arriving. At the same
time other cabins were erected by Kittil and
Kristoffer Nyhus, Gudbrand and Jens Myhra,
and Torsten Kirkejorden. Two years later all
of these built new and more commodious houses.
The settlement thus founded exclusively by im-
migrants from the district of Numedal has
always continued to be recruited largely from
that region (see, however, below). In the follow-
ing year a few more families came from Numedal,
while from 1841 the accessions were considerable
every year for a number of years. Among these is
to be mentioned Bergit Nelson Kallerud, from
Vsegli, who also came in the ship Emilia, in 1839, but
who does not seem to have gone directly to Jeffer-
son Prairie. She married Jens Gudbrandson
Myhra at Christmas, 1839, while his brother, Gud-
brand Myhra, married Ambjor Olson (also from
132 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Vaegli) in 1840. The following year they, however,
moved to the Eock Prairie Settlement (see below),
and in 1852 they settled in Mitchell County, Iowa.
In connection with the settling of this county we shall
have occasion to speak again more fully of them.
Jens Myhra was born in Vaegli, Numedal, in 1812.
Of the other founders of this settlement I may
here add the following facts. Ole Knudson Nattestad
was born at Vaegli, in Kollaug Parish, December
twenty-fourth, 1807. We have above given an ac-
count of his settling at Clinton. In Nordlyset for
May eighteenth, 1848, there appeared a communica-
tion from Nattestad relative to this occasion, in
which he rightly claims to have been the first Nor-
wegian to settle in the state. He married there Lena
Hiser in 1840 ; he lived in the settlement, as an influ-
ential, respected member of the community, till his
death, which occurred at Clinton, May twenty-eighth,
1886. His wife died in September, 1888. They left
seven children ; Henry Nattestad, the oldest, at pres-
ent occupies the homestead. The other children are,
Charles (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), James (Da-
kota), Ann (Clinton), Julia (Mrs. Martin Scofftedt
Lawrence, Kansas), Caroline (Mrs. Louis 0. Larson,
Clinton), and Eliza (Clinton). Ansten Nattestad
was born August twenty-sixth, 1813, the youngest
of three brothers. Ole was the next oldest.
Their father, Knud Nattestad, was a man of
some means, but by the right of primogeniture, the
oldest inherited the estate and he remained in Nor-
SHELBY COUNTY, MISSOURI 133
way. Of these things and the early life of the two
younger brothers, Ole Nattestad gives an account in
an interview printed in Billed-Magazin, 1869, where
also is a detailed account of Ansten Nattestad 's com-
ing to America with his group of one hundred immi-
grants in 1839. He also there, pages 107-108, gives
a description of the settlement as it was in 1869, and
he has elsewhere in the columns of that magazine
made important contributions to the immigration
history of the years 1838-1840, which now are among
the original sources of material for a history of Nor-
wegian immigration. Eelative to the further career
of Ansten Nattestad I shall only add here that he
became one of the substantial members of this great
and growing settlement, in which he continued to
live until his death on April eighth, 1889.
Hans G. Haugen was born at Vaegli in Eollaug
Parish in 1785. He was an old soldier, having been
in the Norwegian-Swedish War of 1814, and having
served in the Norwegian army for seven years. His
wife, whose maiden name was Sigrid Pedersdatter
Valle, was born in January, 1803. The family con-
sisted further of two sons, Gunnul and Gjermund,
the former born at Vaegli, April twenty-eighth, 1827,
the latter on September nineteenth, 1836. The fath-
er, Hans Haugen, lived only a year after coming to
America; he died in October, 1840. In 1849 the
widow and two sons moved to Primrose, Dane Coun-
ty, Wisconsin, where we shall meet with them again.
Sigrid Haugen died in Beloit in 1885. It may be
134 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
added here that the family took the name of Jackson
in this country. Of the circumstances that led to
the adoption of this name the son gives an account
which appeared in Anderson's First Chapter, etc.,
page two hundred sixty-three.
Thore Helgeson Kirkejord 83 was born Septem-
ber twelfth, 1812; married in 1837. They had one
daughter, Christie, born 1849, and who is married to
Gunder Larson. 84 Thore Helgeson died in Clinton
in 1871. Christopher C. Nyhus (Newhouse) was
born at Vsegli in July, 1812. When he came to Clin-
ton Township he first entered claim to forty acres of
land, which was later increased to a hundred sixty.
He married a daughter of Halvor Halvorson in the
fall of 1843. They had five children, Christopher,
who died in infancy, Oliver, Christopher 2d, Torrena
(Mrs. Gustav Nelson, Clinton), and Christiana. T.
Nelson settled on section twenty in 1839 ; he married
Eachel Gilbertson that year. They had five chil-
dren. The son, T. T. Nelson, married Mary Tangen
of Manchester, Illinois, in 1872. They have two
daughters, Anna E. (b. 1875), Gertine (b. 1878).
83 Whose name appears as Torro Holgeson in The History of
EocTc County, Wisconsin, 1879, p. 780, to which work I am indebted
for some of the facts recited above.
84 They again have four children. Mr. Larson enlisted in the
42d Illinois Eegiment, later transferred to the Mississippi Marine
Brigade, was at the battle of Vicksburg, served faithfully and was,
honorably discharged.
CHAPTER XV
The Earliest White Settlers on Rock and Jefferson
Prairies. The Founding of the Rock Prairie
Settlement. The Earliest Settlers on Rock
Prairie
We have seen that when Ole Nattestad settled at
Clinton on July first, 1838, the country was a wilder-
ness, he being the only white man there. He speaks,
however, of eight Americans living some distance
from him, in similar condition. It was less than
three years prior that the first white settlers had
located in the county. On the eighteenth day of No-
vember, 1835, John Inman, of Lucerne County, Penn-
sylvania, Thomas Holmes, William Holmes, and
Joshua Holmes, of Ohio, Milo Jones and George
Follmer, settled on the site of the present city of
Janesville, opposite the "big rock." 8S This was the
first settlement in Eock County. Inman and Wil-
liam Jones had visited the locality and selected this
spot in July of that year. On this occasion they had
camped on the bluff on the Racine road. Our au-
thority relates: "From this point they saw Rock
Prairie stretching away in the distance to the east
and south, till the verdant plain mingled with the
blue of the horizon. They saw before them an ocean
of waving grass and blooming flowers, and realized
the idea of having found the real Canaan the real
136 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
paradise of the world." They returned to Milwau-
kee, having in their ten days' exploration of the
Eock Eiver Valley, found but one family, namely,
a Mr. McMillan, who resided where Waukesha now
stands. 8S Somewhat later in the year came Samuel
St. John and his wife, the last being the first white
woman in the county. The next year there were
several new arrivals. On December seventh, 1836,
townships one, two, three, and four north of ranges
eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, of the fourth
principal meridian, afterwards the eastern sixteen
of the present twenty townships of Bock County, 86
were taken from Milwaukee County and constituted
a separate county, called Eock. The county took its
name from the "big rock" on the north side of the
river, now within the city limits of Janesville, and
an ancient landmark among the Indians and the
early traders.
All these earliest settlements (1836-1837) were
made near and along the Eock Eiver. In 1838 there
were four hundred and eighty settled in this region
chiefly, the centers of population being already then
Janesville and Beloit. Next follow Johnstown,
Lima, and Milton, in the northwestern part of the
county, and Union. The region west of Beloit, New-
ark, Avon, Spring Valley, was still wholly unsettled
in the summer of 1839. The Town of Bradford, the
next north of Clinton, was first settled by Erastus
Dean, in 1836 ; there were very few before 1838.
85 History of Eock County, p. 335.
86 Avon, Spring Valley, Magnolia and Union being added in 1838.
ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 137
The Town of Clinton, as originally organized (1842),
comprised the territory of the present town, the
south half of Bradford, and portions of Turtle and
La Prairie.
The first actual settlement in the present
township was made in May, 1837, on the west
side of Jefferson Prairie, by Stephen E. Downer
and Daniel Tasker, and their wives, on the southeast
side of the prairie. In July, Oscar H. Pratt and
Franklin Mitchell, from Joliet, Illinois, made claims.
These were the earliest. On the west side of the
prairie settlement was made in October, 1837, by
H. L. Warner, Henry Tuttle, Albert Tuttle, and
Griswold Weaver. We recall that Ole Nattestad
said that when he came to Clinton on July first, 1838,
there were eight Americans living isolated at con-
siderable distance from him. Nattestad located on
section twenty. Here Christopher Nyhus also set-
tled, while Thore Helgeson settled on section twenty-
nine. Who the eight settlers were that Nattestad
met, remains somewhat uncertain, but it does not
seem unlikely that it was the four last mentioned,
and some of the first explorers, who are named as
Charles Tuttle, Dennis Mills, Milton S. Warner, and
William S. Murrey.
The Town of Turtle, directly west of Clinton,
was not organized until 1846. The first settlers were
S. G. Colley, who located on section thirty-two, in
the spring of 1838, and Daniel D. Egery, who came
there about the same time, locating on section thirty-
138 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
six (to Beloit, however, in 1837). Such were the
beginnings of settlement east of Beloit prior to
Nattestad's coming, and it was still virtually a wil-
derness when Ansten Nattestad's party came at the
close of September, 1839. West of Beloit, in the
Town of Newark, the Norwegians were the first,
while in Avon and Spring Valley they were among
the earliest groups of settlers. It is the settlement
of this region, and especially the Town of Newark, to
which we shall now turn.
We observed above that some of Ansten Nattes-
tad's party who came to Jefferson Prairie in Sep-
tember, 1839, did not remain there. These went
fourteen miles farther west and established a settle-
ment in the Township of Newark, which had not been
settled by white men before, while a few of the mem-
bers of this latter party went south from there eigh-
teen miles, crossing the Illinois line, and located in
the Township of Eock Eun, in Stephenson County,
Illinois.
The founder of the Eock Prairie Settlement was
Gullik Olson Gravdal, of Vaegli, Numedal; he emi-
grated from Norway with Ansten Nattestad in 1839.
He came directly to Jefferson Prairie, but did not re-
main there. With Gisle Halland and Goe Bjono
he went west a distance to look over the country,
with a view to settling elsewhere. Having arrived
at Beloit, they managed here to secure a map and
from it got some idea of where government land
was to be had. Then they continued their journey
EOCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 139
along the Madison road seven miles farther west.
Finally, he came to a place which suited him, for
he found, as he says, "good spring water, as also
prairie and woodland in the right proportion. ' ' To-
gether with Lars Roste, a single man from the Parish
of Land, he then bought forty acres of land. 87 Gisle
Halland bought land one mile farther east, while
Goe Bjono took a claim on a piece of land for Mrs.
Gunhild Odegaarden, three miles south of the site
selected by Gravdal.
Gunhild Odegaarden (who emigrated from
Nore, annex parish in Numedal) was a widow of con-
siderable means, who had paid the passage of sev-
eral other persons. Her family, among whom were
grown sons and daughters, emigrated with her to
America in the Nattestad party and came directly
to Jefferson Prairie. Immediately after Bjono's
purchase of land for her in Newark Township she,
with family, moved out there and had a log cabin
erected, this being the first dwelling built in that
township. This statement is based upon the author-
ity of Gravdal himself, as printed in an interview
on page 162 of Billed-Magazin for 1869. The His-
tory of Rock County agrees in this statement that
Mrs. Odegaarden 's log cabin, built in the fall of 1839,
was the first house erected in the Town of Newark.
Gunhild Odegaarden 's name appears regularly as
Mrs. Gunale (or Gunile). She is there mentioned sev-
eral times, her family being extensively intermarried
87 Boste later went back to Norway, however.
140 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
with the old pioneer families in the settlement. 88
Gravdal completed the erection of a cabin late in
the fall, and his family having been left on Jefferson
Prairie, he brought them to Eock Prairie in the lat-
ter part of November (Billed-Magasin, 1869, page
162). 89
That same fall Gisle Halland married Margit
Knudsdatter Nosterud from Rallaug Parish, Nume-
dal, being obliged to go as far south as Eockf ord, Illi-
nois, to get the ceremony performed. Their oldest
child, Kristine, born in the fall of 1840, was the first
white child born in that township. Gravdal, speaking
of those days, says : ' ' When I located in this region,
the whole country to the west was a desert. I do
not know whether there lived white people anywhere
between my home and the Mississippi. The same
was also the case toward the north; however, about
seven miles west (east?) from my home two Yankees
had settled in the wilderness. The Indians were
still lords of these regions. They often visited us
in our houses, but they were always friendly and
courteous. We were never molested by the wild son
of the desert. There was at this time an abundance
of game; we saw stags in large herds, and prairie
chickens literally swarmed." There seem to have
88 Thus Ole Gulack Gravdal, son of Gullik Gravdal, married Juri
Odegaarden (given as Juri Gunale in The EocTc County History) in
1855.
89 There can be no doubt as to the correctness of the facts as
here given. It has also been said that Lars Skavlem's house was the
first to be erected, and J. W. C. Dietrichson erroneously even names
him as the first Norwegian in Eock Prairie.
HOCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 141
been no fresh accessions of settlers until the spring
of 1841. Then Lars H. Skavlem arrived and located
on section eleven. Gullik Knudson Laugen also
came at the same time, and not long after several
Americans moved in. Both Skavlem and Knudson
had come to America in 1839, having been members
of Nattestad's party. Skavlem had, in the interval,
lived on Jefferson Prairie. Gullik Knudson had re-
mained in Chicago, as had also Gunnul Stordok, se-
curing work there, 90 as did also two girls from
Numedal, to whom they were engaged in Norway.
These two couples were married the following win-
ter, and, having saved some money from their small
earnings, they decided to buy a home somewhere in
the Norwegian settlement in Bock County. Knud-
son relates: "I walked about several days to find
a location for a home, and at last came to a place on
the verge of a prairie, where a rushing spring of
water poured out of the ground. Here I decided to
build and live, and I called the place Spring en (the
spring). The land about was like a desert; barring
the four Norwegians who had come before me, there
were no settlers. Toward the west one had to travel
twenty-two miles to find white people. It was for-
tunate that there was an abundance of game, for
what we secured by hunting was the sustenance on
which we chiefly relied during the winter. ' ' He tells
how, with the first fall of snow, he and another 91
90 His wages were from six to ten dollars a week.
91 Whom we now know to have been Hellik Claim.
142 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
walked on skis to Beloit to buy flour, and how the
tracks left in the snow by the skis had aroused con-
siderable wonder and speculation among the Amer-
icans about there, who afterwards discovered the
tracks, and that it became the subject of extensive
discussion as to what unknown monster could have
left such tracks. Beloit, he says, consisted then of
a mill, a hotel, two stores, and a few laborers' cot-
tages.
From the fact of his location near the big spring,
"Springen," as Knudson called it, he came to be
called Gullik Springen; his sir name, Laugen, he no
longer used, but wrote himself Gullik Knudson.
Here by this spring, Knudson built a hut of shrubs,
thatched with straw, in which they lived for three
months while the log cabin was being built. 92 The
flat cover of a chest, brought from Norway, served
for a table, and the cooking was done on the ground.
In December the log cabin was ready. Gunnul Stor-
dok and wife, who did not come to Newark until Sep-
tember, lived with Knudson during the first winter,
after which they removed to Illinois. 93
In the summer of 1841 a considerable number of
Knudson 's acquaintances from Norway came; these
found a temporary home with Knudson, sharing in
92 This log cabin is still used as a chicken house on the old
Springen homestead.
93 The Eock County History says of Stordok: "He and his
family lived in a haystack for three months until they had completed
a log cabin (page 774). As we have seen, it was not a haystack
they lived in. Stordok 'a family consisted, as yet, only of himself and
wife.
EOCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 143
his genuine pioneer hospitality. Among them were
Halvor Skavlem and his wife, Berit, the daughter,
Kari, and two sons, Ole and Paul Skavlem, the latter
with wife and child, Bessie. Halvor Skavlem died
one week after their arrival. The son Paul bought
land; Ole first, however, went to Mineral Point, in
Dodge County, returning, however, later; he settled
near Orfordville. Another of this group was Hal-
vor Nilson Aas, who, with his family, settled near
Gravdahl, in Newark Township. Knut Kristensen
also came in 1841 and located on section eleven,
erecting a log cabin there. Finally, Ole Halvorson
Valle, who later moved to Iowa, was among this
number.
Several of those who had come to Jeffer-
son Prairie in 1839 removed to Eock Prairie in the
summer of 1841. Thus, Hellik Glaim, Lars Skavlem,
and the latter 's three brothers, Gullik, Gjermund,
and Herbrand; these all moved there upon their
father Halvor 's arrival from Norway that summer.
Hellik N. Braekke and Nils Olson Vaegli came directly
from Norway in 1841. The last mentioned was from
Vaegli Annex to Bollaug Parish in Numedal. He
was born at Vaegli Parsonage and was therefore oft-
en called Nils Prestegaard. He lived at Gravdal's
the first winter; the following summer he, with two
others, Paul Skavlem and Hellik Braekke, bought a
quarter section of land together in section thirty-
two in Plymouth Township. Nils Vaegli was mar-
ried in 1844 to Kari Skavlem, daughter of Halvor
144 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Skavlem; they went to Koshkonong, in Dane Coun-
ty, to be married by Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson,
who had just come there from Norway. They were
one of the first couples to be married by him. Hel-
lik Braekke sold out his share in the land, and in 1852
moved to Mitchell County, Iowa. Lars Skavlem
bought land and settled near Halvor Aas, whose
daughter (Groe Nelson) he married in 1844; hence,
he was also called Lars Aas. He later bought
his father-in-law's farm, the place being called "the
Skavlen farm" (Skavlenfarmen). G-ullik Skavlem
bought land three miles east of Gisle Halland in
Beloit Township, about three miles from Beloit ; he,
however, moved to Mitchell County, Iowa, in the fif-
ties. 94 Hellik Glaim had stopped in Chicago till
1840, when he came to Eock Prairie. Ten years
later he sold out and moved to Fillmore County,
Minnesota. 9S
The above is a brief record of the beginnings of
the Eock Prairie Settlement. Of some of the found-
ers of this settlement, which, in a few years, became
one of the most prosperous in the state, I may here
add:
Gullik Gravdal, the nestor of the settlement, was
born in Vasgli, Numedal, in 1802; he died in 1873,
leaving widow, a daughter, Sarah, and two sons, Ole
and Tolle. Ole Gravdal was born in Norway in
1830; he married Jori Odegaarden in 1855, after
94 Of these various removals to Mitchell County, Iowa, I shall
speak more fully in the proper place.
95 Glaim located at Hanley Falls, Minnesota, in 1866.
' '
ROCK AND JEFFERSON PRAIRIES 145
which he lived for thirteen years in Beloit, then
removed to Newark Township. He is at present
living in Beloit, Wisconsin. Ole Gravdal dropped
the latter name and used the patronymic Gulack.
Tolle Gulack Gravdal was born in 1833. He mar-
ried Bessie Skavlem, daughter of Paul H. Skavlem,
in 1857. They lived on the farm in Newark until
1894 (Tolle having lived there fifty-five years), in
which year they moved to Beloit. He died in Sep-
tember, 1903, leaving a widow and two children, a
son, Gilbert Gravdal, in Newark Township, and a
daughter, Mrs. C. E. Ionian, in Beloit. A son, Hen-
ry, died in 1902, and a daughter, Nellie (Mrs. W. 0.
Hanson), died in the summer of 1903. Amerika for
September twenty-fifth, 1903, prints an obituary no-
tice of Tolle Gravdal, according to which his death
was sudden, being stricken as he was at work. The
notice says, "he was one of those who had tried the
privations and the trials of pioneer life, and he was
always ready to extend a helping hand to all who
needed it. He enjoyed universal respect and love
for his sincerity and his integrity and his lovable
nature." Sarah Gravdal, daughter of Gullik Grav-
dal, married Halvor Halvorson (son of Cleophas
Halvorson), of Newark Township, in 1869.
Hellik Nilson Braekke married a sister of Rev-
erend C. F. Clausen's wife; in 1852 he joined the
latter 's colony of settlers in Mitchell County, Iowa.
Lars Skavlem was born in 1819. He married Groe
Nilson Aas in 1844 ; their children are Halvor, Bes-
146
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
sie, Helen and Carolina. The son, Halvor L. Skav-
lem, born 1848, is a farmer in Newark Township;
he married Cornelia Olmstead, in Plymouth, a
granddaughter of Mrs. Gunild Odegaarden. 96 Gun-
nul Stordok moved to Eock Bun (see below). It
seems that he had retained some of his land in New-
ark, for when Gunder Knudson Springen (brother
of Gullik Springen) came there in 1843, he bought
land then owned by Gunnul Stordok.
We shall now leave, for the present, the Kock
Prairie Settlement, and observe what was taking
place elsewhere during the period that has been
briefly sketched here.
96 They have two children, Lulu and Lewis.
CHAPTER XVI
The Rock Run Settlement. Other Immigrants of
1839. The Immigration of 1840.
It has been stated that a settlement was also es-
tablished in Illinois about twenty miles southwest of
Rock Prairie, the same year as the latter was set-
tled, i. e., in 1839. This came to be known as the
Rock Run Settlement, from the name of the town.
It lies partly in Stephenson, partly in Winnebago
County. The locality is prairie, relieved here and
there by bits of timber land. The foundation of
this settlement is also to be accredited to an immi-
grant from Numedal, who came on the Amelia, in
1839. His name was Clemet Torstenson Stabsek, and
he came from Rollaug Parish. With him three oth-
ers located there in the fall of 1839, namely, Syvert
Tollefson and Ole Anderson, from Numedal, and a
Mr. Knudson, from Drammen. Stabaek was a man
of considerable means. He selected land in Win-
nebago County, near the present village of Davis.
His son, Torsten K. 0. Stabaek (born in Norway 97 )
married Torgen Patterson, and they lived on
the farm until 1884, when they moved to Davis. 98
Kristopher Rostad and wife, Kristi, seem also to
97 Not on the homestead, as History of Norwegians of Illinois,
page 487, has it.
98 In 1895 he organized the Farmers Bank of Davis, Illinois, of
which his son, C. O. B. Stabeck, is now cashier.
148 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
have moved to Kock Bun before the close of 1839.
In the following summer came Gunnul Stordok, to
whom we have referred under the settling of New-
ark in Eock County. Stordok lived in Rock Bun
until 1870; he then moved back to Newark, where
the rest of his relatives who had come to America
had settled. " Gunnul Stordok was born in Bollaug,
Numedal, in the year 1800 ; he married Mary Larson
(of Bollaug) before emigrating.
Among the earliest arrivals in the settlement
subsequently was Halvor Aasen, born in Numedal
in 1823, and who came to America in 1841. For two
years after coming to this country he worked in the
lead mines at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and at Ga-
lena, Illinois. In 1843 he married Christie Olson,
and bought a farm in Laona Township, Winnebago
County, whither he and his wife moved in 1844.
Here they lived until their death. She died in 1902,
and he in March, 1905. 10
The Bock Bun Settlement was prosperous but
did not grow to such proportions as its sister settle-
ments to the north. In later years many of its earl-
ier pioneers moved back to Bock County, as Stordok
did, and as Lars Bostad and family also did in the
sixties. Among those who located at Bock Bun in
the forties were Hovel Paulson (born 1817) from
99 When he returned to Newark in 1870 he bought two hundred
acres of land, for which he paid seven thousand dollars.
100 Their children are Ole Anderson and Andrew Anderson at
Davis, Illinois, and Mrs. O. H. Lerud at Lyle, Minnesota; four
children are dead.
BOOK RUN 149
North Land Parish, Norway, who located near Davis
in 1846 ; 101 Christian Lunde, also from Lajid, Nor-
way, came to Eock Bun in 1848 and later moved to
Goodhue County, Minnesota; Narve Stabaek, Tor-
sten Knudson and Nels Nelson, all three from
Numedal; Gunder 0. Halvorson, from Kragero;
Svale Nilson, from Bukn Parish, Stavanger;
Gunder Halvorson, from Telemarken, and Lars 0.
Anderson. There appears a very brief account of
the Bock Bun Settlement by Lars 0. Anderson in
Nordlyset, under date of June second, 1848. Ac-
cording to this there were at that time twenty fam-
ilies, twelve unmarried men over twenty years of
age, six unmarried women of over twenty years,
while there were thirty-two persons below the age
of twenty. The whole settlement, he says, numbers
ninety persons and comprises 4,062 acres of land.
We have followed somewhat fully the immigra-
tion movement in Numedal and Telemarken in 1839,
and we have also noted the fact that that year re-
cords its contingent of emigrants also from Stav-
anger Province. It remains here to note briefly the
growth of the movement in Voss and its spread else-
where. Nils Lydvo came from Voss in 1839, and
went directly to his brothers, Knud and Ole Lydvo,
in Shelby County, Missouri. At the same time came
Anders Finno, Lars Davidson Bekve, Nils Severson
Gilderhus, and Anfin Leidal; their destination was
101 He moved to the Old People's Home in Stoughton in 1903,
where he died in 1907, his wife having died in 1905. His only son
was killed in the Civil War.
150 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
La Salle County. 102 The party further contained
Ole K. Gilderhus, Lars Ygre, Anders Flage, Lars
Dugstad, Knud Gjb'stein, Anders Nilson Brsekke and
wife, Knud Braekke and wife, Magne B. Bystolen,
Anna Gilderhus, and Anna Bakketun.
This party seems to have arrived in New
York early in July, 1839, and to have intended
to go to Illinois. We shall meet with most of them
later as pioneers in Wisconsin settlements, but for
a time many of them remained in Chicago, so that
in the fall of 1839 and the following winter there
was a considerable colony of Norwegian immigrants
located in Chicago. Nils A. Lie, of Deerfield, Wis-
consin, writing of this fact, says there were more
Vossings in Chicago about 1840 than all other Nor-
wegians combined. 103 Among those who remained
temporarily in Chicago were Ole K. Gilderhus, Lars
Ygre and Lars Rekve. The last of these worked for
a year on a steamer plying between Chicago and St.
Joseph, Michigan. 104 I shall give a brief sketch of
him below, under Koshkonong. Anders Finno
went to Koshkonong, Dane County, in 1840, but
later settled in Blue Mounds, in the same county,
In 1850 he went to California with a group of gold
seekers and has not since been heard from by his
compatriots.
Anders Nilson Braekke 10S was born at Braekke,
102 Where, however, they did not remain, as we shall see.
103 Bygdejaevning, page 43.
104 Anderson's First Chapter, page 330.
tOS Andrew Nelson Brekke.
ROCK RUN 151
Voss, Norway, February twelfth, 1818 ; he had mar-
ried Inger Nelson in Norway. Brsekke located per-
manently in Chicago, working at first for Mathew
Laflin and John Wright. He laid the foundation of
his future fortune in 1845, when he purchased some
property on Superior Street, on part of which he
built the residence, where he lived until his death in
1887. He held many offices of public trust in the
discharge of which he was able and unimpeachable
in his honesty. Brsekke 's first wife died early leav-
ing three children. 106 In 1849 he married Mrs. Julia
K. Williams; three children by this marriage are
living. 107
In the party of emigrants from Voss in 1839
were also Arne Anderson Vinje (born 1820) and
wife Martha (Gulliksdatter Kindem). From Vinje
we learn that the ship, on which the twenty emi-
grants from Voss came that year, left Norway April
sixteenth and that they arrived at Chicago in Sep-
tember. Vinje located first in Chicago; soon after
arriving he built a log house, in which he and his
wife lived during the first winter. Anders Brsekke,
it is said, assisted him in the erection of the log
house. During the winter Vinje worked on a road
that was being laid out on the west side; for this
work he received sixteen dollars a month. The next
July however Vinje together with Per Davidson
106 They are all dead long ago.
107 A daughter of theirs is Mrs. J. A. Waite of the Anchor Line
Steamship Company. I am indebted to Strand's Norwegians in Illi-
nois (page 215) for some of the facts of Brsekke's personal history.
152 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Skjerveim (who had just arrived from Voss, Nor-
way) each with his team of oxen left for Hamilton
Diggings in La Fayette. Here each took a claim of
government land; of this we shall speak more at
length in the chapter on Wiota.
During the year 1840 emigration from Norway
was rather limited. There had been a considerable
exodus in 1839 from Numedal and Telemarken. The
lull in 1840 may be explained by the fact that in-
tending emigrants in those regions were waiting for
favorable news from their relatives and friends who
had gone the preceding year. The settlers at Musk-
ego, on Jefferson and Bock Prairies and at Bock
Bun had barely gotten located when the winter set
in. Communication was of course very slow, and
spring and early summer was the sailing season of
Norwegian emigrants in those days. The year 1840,
however, brought its quota of arrivals from Voss, 108
namely Kund J. Hylle, Ole S. Grilderhus, Knut
Bokne, Mads Sanve, Baard Nyre, Brynjolf Bonve,
Torstein Saue, wife, and son Gulleik, 109 Klaus
Grimestad and wife, Arne Urland and wife, and Lars
T. Bb'the ; there were twenty in all in the party. All
of these it is said settled in Chicago. no They all
came in Captain Ankerson's ship Emelia, the same
ship which carried Nattestad's party in 1839. They
108 As also from Drammen, see below, page 159.
109 Father of Torger G. Thompson of Cambridge, Dane County,
Wisconsin.
HOI gather most of these names from Nils A. Lie's account in
Bygdejaevning, pages 47-48.
ROCK RUN t 153
were five months on this journey, arriving in Chicago
in September. We shall later meet with some of
these elsewhere.
A few other names from different parts of Nor-
way are recorded among the immigrants of 1839.
We have observed above that Johan Nordboe of
Eingebo in Gudbrandsdalen had come to America
in 1832. Though he wrote letters home it does not
seem that he succeeded in promoting emigration
from that section of Norway, except individually,
and then not until 1839. In that year his friend
Lars Johanneson Holo of Kingsaker, Hedemarken,
together with three grown up sons came to Amer-
ica. m Holo did, however, not go to Dallas County,
Texas, where Nordboe had settled the year before,
but he first located in Eochester, New York. A man
by the name of Lauman from Faaberg in Gudbrands-
dalen also came with him and went to Eochester.
He, however, went west a few years later, settling
in Lee County, Illinois. Holo remained in Eochester
two years, he and his sons being employed there on
the canal. In 1841 they went to Muskego, where we
shall find them in our next chapter.
Among the immigrants of 1839 we find one man
from Sogn, the first to emigrate from that region
to America. His name is Per I. Unde, 112 and he
111 The route led by way of Havre and New York.
112 H. R. Holand writes of Per Unde in STcandinaven for July
seventeenth, 1908, stating that he came in 1842. Unde's nephew,
Jacob Unde of Sherry, Wisconsin, contributes in a later issue of
STcandinaven some corrections, among them that Per Unde came in
1839.
154 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
came from Vik Parish in Outer Sogn. He lived in
Chicago it seems, the two first years he was in
America. In 1841 his brother Ole Unde arrived and
the two went to La Fayette County; we shall speak
of both of these men later. Among the immigrants
of 1839 who did not go to Muskego I may here men-
tion Knud Hellikson Eoe and wife Anna and four
children who came from Tin, Telemarken. They
went to La Salle County, Illinois, where they lived
till 1841 ; thence they removed to Eacine County and
in 1843 went to Dane County, Wisconsin (see be-
low).
Ole H. Hanson and wife also from Tin,
Telemarken, came in 1839. They settled at Indian
Creek, near where now stands the village of Leland,
La Salle County, Illinois. The first winter they
lived in a dugout on the same spot on the homestead
where the residence now stands. Mrs. Hanson died
in 1842, Mr. Hanson died three years later. The
children were Ole, known as Ole H. Hanson, Alex,
Betsey, Helen, and Levina. Ole Hanson assumed
charge of the homestead and lived there and near
Leland till his death in December, 1904. In 1855
he married Isabella Osmundson, who died in 1873.
They had six children, one of whom is C. F. Han-
son, 113 State's Attorney, of Morris, Illinois.
113 To whom I am indebted chiefly for the family history. Alex
Hanson lives at Ellsworth, Iowa.
CHAPTER XVII
The Settlement of Norway and Raymond Town-
ships, Racine County. The Founders of
the Settlement. Immigration to
Racine County in 1841-1842.
We have seen how in the fall of 1839 the Luraas
brothers established a colony near Lake Muskego in
the present Waukesha (then Milwaukee) County.
The locality was illy selected, being low and marshy.
It was in the first place unhealthy and the settlers
suffered much from malaria. Furthermore it was
very heavily covered with timber and the soil which
was clay yielded but small returns for their labor.
The settlers therefore found it difficult enough to
make a living.
As early as the next spring several moved
farther south into Racine County, where the condi-
tions were more favorable and where a thriving set-
tlement grew up in a few years. The old settle-
ment ceased to become the objective point of intend-
ing emigrants from Telemarken. After the cholera
year 1849 most of those who survived moved
away. 114 The southern extension of the settlement,
114 The editor of Billed-Magazin writes, page eleven of volume I,
that at that time (1869) Kittil Lohner and his brother Halvor Nilson
Lohner, from Hjertdal, Telemarken, and the family of Gisle Danielson,
from Skjold, were still living in the settlement. The rest were dead or
had moved away. But Knud J. Baeckhus, from Hjertdal, and Ole
156 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
which took its root at Wind Lake in Norway Town-
ship, later spread out so as to include the townships
of Yorkville, Eaymond and Waterford all in Racine
County. The old name, ' ' Muskego, ' ' was retained as
the designation of the new as well as the old settle-
ment, although the settlement in Racine County is
now often referred to as "Yorkville Prairie." It
is the beginnings of this settlement to which I shall
now turn.
The founders of the settlement at Wind Lake
in the Town of Norway were Soren Backe, son of
Tolleff 0. Backe a merchant of Drammen, and
Johannes Johanneson. The latter was a clerk in
the employ of Tollef Backe of Drammen, whom he
latter deputed to accompany his son to America.
He was a man of about forty years of age, of strong
character and moral principles. He had some knowl-
edge of the English language, having once lived for
a short time in England. Soren Backe was a young
man, evidently of little promise, whom the father
sent to America ostensibly that his ambition might
be kindled by American opportunities and by being
placed upon his own responsibility. In company
with them came also a third man, of whom I shall
speak again in a later chapter, namely Elling Eielson
Sunve from Voss, a lay preacher and the noted
founder of the "Ellingian" sect of the Lutheran
Church. These three left Drammen in the summer
of 1839, and arrived in La Salle County in the fall
Kjonaas, from Bo, had settled west of the colony in the town of
Vernon.
NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 157
of that year. The forest land had all been taken and
was now occupied by settlers, and Johannesen seems
to have been suspicious of the prairie, where land
could still be had.
A contributor to the Billed-Magazin for 1869
says that the conditions of distress, the winter
storms and the extreme cold on the prairies were
the things that influenced them to seek a locality for
a settlement elsewhere, and that they did not go
north to Racine County until the spring of 1840.
He says : ' ' Early the next spring they walked north
and came as far as to Wind Lake, where there was
then a single settler, an Irishman. Here in the
primeval forest, on the shores of the little lake they
had found what their hearts desired; and they
bought the piece of ground which the Irishman was
cultivating, and Backe chose this place as his home."
It is to be noted, however, that K. Langeland in
Nordmaendene i Amerika says that they remained
in La Salle County only a few weeks and went north
to Wisconsin that same fall (page f orty- three ). 11S
Langeland adds further, that they dug a cellar in
an Indian mound in which they lived during the
winter.
In touching upon these facts in my article
on "The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa" 11<s I
did not hesitate to accept this as correct, and I must
now adhere to this view. My reason is that as early
US Professor Anderson accepts unreservedly the authority of
Billed-Magazine in the matter and decides for the date 1840.
The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 1905, page 360.
158
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
as the middle of the summer of 1840 a small group
of emigrants were ready to leave for America with
the view of settling at Wind Lake, having received
letters from Backe and Johannesen, urging them to
come there. Had these not located at Wind Lake
before the spring of 1840 the time would have been
insufficient for the second party at Drammen to
have not only received word from America but also
to have made all necessary arrangements prepara-
tory to emigrating. I assume then that it was about
December 1839 that Backe and Johannesen located
in Norway Township. I am inclined to think, how-
ever, that Elling Eielson remained in the Fox River
Settlement during the winter, and that he came to
Wind Lake in the spring of 1840. During that
spring and summer the brothers John, Torger, Hal-
vor, and Knut Luraas, with their families, as also
Gjermund Johnson Kaasa, located in Norway Town-
ship. Nelson Johnson Kaasa, who had emigrated
in the Luraas party in 1839, remained in Milwaukee
for three months and moved to the settlement in
November, 1840.
Among the immigrants of 1837, who went to
the ill-fated Beaver Creek Settlement in Iroquois
County, Illinois, was Mons K. Aadland. We have
already observed that he was the last one to leave
Beaver Creek. He with family also came to Eacine
County in the summer of 1840. He however select-
ed a locality on the prairie east of the Indian
mound, buying a farm of a hundred and sixty acres
NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 159
on section thirty in Raymond Township. This part
of the settlement came to be known as North Cape.
The nucleus of the later extensive settlement had
then assumed considerable proportions by the fall
of 1840; but new accessions were soon to come.
Backe and Johannesen decided to write to
friends in Norway and their letters were productive
of results. In the summer of 1840 a party of about
thirty persons stood ready to emigrate to the settle-
ment in Wisconsin. The leader of these was Even
Hanson Heg, the keeper of a hotel at Lier in Dram-
men, who sold out his property and with his wife
and four children came with this party. Other
members of the party were: Johannes Evenson
Skofstad, Syvert Ingebretson Narverud, Helge
Thomson, Ole Anderson, all from Drammen and all
of whom had families, Ole Hogenson and family
from Eggedal, and Knut Aslakson Svalestuen from
Vinje, Telemarken. All these came to Wind Lake
and located there in the autumn of 1840.
Soren Backe seems to have been a man whose
generosity was as remarkable as his lack of business
ability. His father, a man of considerable wealth,
had supplied his son generously with funds upon
his departure for America. Soren Backe evidently
loaned money very liberally to those of his country-
men who were in need, and there were many of these
here as in all pioneer communities. It is said that
when his funds were used up he made a journey to
Norway for more money. With this he purchased
160 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
land, which he let out on easy terms to new comers
from Norway. It was Johannesen who had charge
of these transactions in which it seems Even Heg
was a partner with Backe. Johannesen is described
as a devout Christian, a zealous adherent of the Hau-
gian tendency, and in every way a noble character.
As we have seen, the settlement developed rapidly,
and it continued to grow for many years. Backe and
Johannesen then joined partnership and started a
store; for this purpose an Indian mound was exca-
vated, the walls were sided with boards, and this
structure, which was partly underground, served as
store, living room and kitchen combined. Their stock
of goods was shipped from Milwaukee, itself then on-
ly a village of one or two stores, a hotel and half a
dozen pioneer cabins. Backe and Johannesen con-
tinued their business together for about three years
when Johannesen fell ill and died (in 1845). That
same year Backe returned to Norway and settled
on his father's farm Valle, in Lier, near Drammen.
Even Heg was a leading spirit in the settlement
in Norway and surrounding townships during his
life-time. Much has been written about him and I
shall not here repeat the eulogies elsewhere voiced
in his honor. After Johannesen 's death it was Heg
upon whom the settlers in the early days of the col-
ony leaned for advice and it was Even Heg to whom
every new arrival from Norway to the colony came
for help and counsel. His hospitality and his re-
sourcefulness in the aid of his compatriots was
NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 161
boundless. Heg's barn, where large parties of im-
migrants were received every summer, and in which
they were permitted freely to make their home dur-
ing the first weeks after the long and arduous jour-
ney, is famed throughout many an early settlement
in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The log cabins
of the settlers were too small to afford the neces-
sary quarters for the numbers that continuously
flocked in, and the large barn was a boon for which
they were truly grateful. For a time Eacine Coun-
ty became the objective point of most of the immi-
grants from Norway, a distinction which however
it was soon to share with the still more famous
Koshkonong Prairie in Dane County, Wisconsin.
Of Elling Eielson I shall speak below, as also
of Hans C. Heg, son of Even Heg, and of some of
the other Eacine County pioneers. I wish to add
here a few words of Mons Aadland, who as we recall,
came to America in 1837, and located at North Cape
in 1840. Aadland was born near Bergen, Norway, in
April, 1793, being thus forty-four years old when
he emigrated. He was one of the few survivors of
the Beaver Creek Colony in Illinois. As we have
seen, he is the founder of the North Cape branch
of the settlement. There he lived till his death in
1869, his wife having died two years before. A set-
tlers' history says of him: "He was a man of gen-
erous spirit, as is shown by his liberal gifts, and one
who took a commendable interest in public affairs."
Ten years before his death he owned between five
162 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
and six hundred acres of land which he then divided
among his children. Thomas Adland and Knud
Adland both of Eaymond Township are his sons,
while a daughter, Martha, lives in Norway ; the other
children are dead. 117 Mons Aadland was a nephew
of Nils P. Langeland whom we have spoken of above
page 100.
The immigration of 1841 was not extensive.
Backe and Johannesen do not seem to have contin-
ued their propaganda of immigration ; but the party
who came with Even Heg wrote home letters full
of praise of the New World. But even in the face
of such tempting exhortations the old world resident
requires time for thought before he decides to bid
farewell to the home of his fathers and seek his for-
tune in a strange and distant land. I am not aware
that anyone came from Drammen or Telemarken to
Eacine County in 1841. 118 Knut Eoe and wife lo-
cated in Eacine County, however, in 1841, but they
came from La Salle County, where they had settled
in 1839. In 1842 there were several arrivals. Thus
Hermund Nilson Tufte with wife Kari and three
daughters came from Aal Parish in Hallingdal. This
117 Mons Aadland had a sister Malinda, the wife of Anders
Nordvig, who came to America in the same ship as he. Anders
Nordvig died in Beaver Creek. His wife moved to the Fox Eiver
Settlement, where she died, ninety years old, about 1892. I have
above written the name Adland as it came to be written in this
country.
118 Nor any from other provinces, for Hermund Tufte who, in
Holand's De norske Settlementers Historic, is said to have come in
1841, did not come before 1842.
NORWAY AND RAYMOND TOWNSHIPS 163
was the first family to emigrate to America from
that province. 119 In that year came also Aanund
Halvorson Bjoin, wife and family from Tin, Tele-
marken, and John Jacobson ; further, Halvor Larson
Lysenstoen (Modum) from Hadeland, Norway, the
first immigrant from that region, and Helge Sigurd-
son and wife Bergit Olsdatter, who however, re-
moved to Dane County in 1844. 12 John J. Dale
from Norway, who had come to America in 1837 and
settled in La Salle County, Illinois, came to Eacine
in 1842; his wife Anna had died in Illinois in 1839.
Another of the immigrants of 1839 came to Musk-
ego in 1842, namely John Evenson Molee. He had
lived in Milwaukee the preceding three years; I
shall speak of him below. There were individual
accessions to other settlements in 1841-42, but they
are few in number. With 1843 the immigration
movement receives a new impulse, but the discus-
sion of that year will better be postponed until we
have recorded the founding of some other important
settlements in 1840-42.
119 See below under Kock Prairie.
120 The Biographical Beview of Dane County, Wisconsin, 1893,
page 239, gives 1842 as the year Seamon A. Seamonson came from
SMen, Norway, to Eacine County, his wife and three children coming
the next year (see later chapter).
CHAPTER XVIH
The Establishment of the Koshkonong Settlement
in Dane County, Wisconsin.
The genesis of the settlement of Koshkonong
Prairie 121 in Dane County, Wisconsin, the most
noted undoubtedly of all Norwegian settlements in
America, dates from 1840. The recital of this event,
however, will take us back to the preceding year;
for the first visit of Norwegians to Dane County, is, I
believe, correctly recorded as having taken place
in 1839. Before discussing the first coming of
Norse pioneers to Koshkonong I shall mention a few
"first settlers" in Dane County, who preceded the
Norwegians ; to do this will help to give us a better
idea of the state of wilderness which they found
there, and which they in a few years transformed
into a settled and thriving community.
The townships in Dane County in which the
Norwegians settled most extensively are found in
three groups, viz. : in the southeastern, in the north-
ern and in the southwestern part of the county.
The first of these comprises originally Albion,
Christiana and Deerfield; from this region the set-
tlement soon grew into Dunkirk and Pleasant
Spring, and from the latter north into Cottage
121 In reality a group of prairies.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 165
Grove. 122 On the east it extends into Simmer and
Oakland townships in Jefferson County. This
settlement came to be known as Koshkonong Prai-
rie, though properly the name applies only to
the two first-named towns and adjacent portions of
Pleasant Spring and Deer-field. The second settle-
ment includes the townships of Burke, eastern
"Westport, Vienna, "Windsor, and northwestern and
central Bristol. The western portion of this settle-
ment is generally known by the name of the Norway
(or Norwegian) Grove Settlement, from the post-
office of that name in Vienna Township around which
it lies. In its northern extremity the settlement ex-
tends into Columbia County, northeast into Spring
Prairie and Bonnet Prairie and northwest past the
village of Lodi. This whole region is in reality a
northern extension of the Koshkonong Settlement. 123
It is also from four to eight years later in order of
formation. 124 Our third group of townships com-
prises Primrose, Perry, Springdale, Blue Mound
and that part of Verona Township which lies east
of Blue Mound Creek. 12S
122 Later Norwegians settled also in Blooming Grove (west of
Cottage Grove) and in Rutland (west of Dunkirk), but they always
remained here a minority of the population. On the north the settle-
ment extends also into southeastern Sun Prairie and southwestern
Medina.
123 But Spring Prairie was settled slightly earlier than Norway
Grove.
124 The settlement enters the Town of Dane (northwestern part)
on the west.
125 That is, excluding the southwestern part of the town and
sections 6, 7, and 18 along its western line.
166 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
In the Town of Albion the Norwegians were the
earliest settlers, for some of them came as early as
the spring of 1841, as we shall see below. The His-
tory of Dane County, 1880, 126 says, page 838, that
Freeborn Sweet, from New York, was the first set-
tler in the town; and yet on page 1189 we
are told that he was "one of the first set-
tlers." As he did not arrive until August of that
year he clearly was not the first. The next earliest
American settler seems to have been Samuel T.
Stewart of Massachusetts, who located on section
fourteen in the fall of 1841. 127 The first white set-
tler in the Town of Christiana was William M. May-
hew who came in 1837, and located on section twen-
ty-eight. The next arrivals were Norwegians (see
below) .
The first settler in Pleasant Spring seems to
have been Abel Kasdall, who located his cabin
on the eastern shore of Lake Kegonsa, about half a
mile south of the inlet ; the year of his arrival, how-
ever, cannot be given definitely and I am not able
to say with certainty whether he preceded Knut H.
126 A work which, unfortunately, contains a great many errors.
127 In the spring of 1842 Duty J. Green and Jesse Saunders
came, both from Alleghany County, New York; they settled near
Saunders' Creek, where Albion village now stands. Saunders had
lived one year in Bock County. In 1842 also, Samuel Clarke of
Yorkshire, England, son of James and Judith A. Clarke, arrived, and
located on Ablion Prairie. John S. Bullis, Giles Eggleston, Lorenzo
Coon, and Barton Edwards, came in 1842, C. E. Head in 1843, as
also Adin Burdiek, and in 1844 Job Bunting, L. O. Humphrey, E. P.
Humphrey, Henry Job, Samuel Marsden, and James Wileman.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 167
Roe (see below) or not. In the Town of Deerfield
the first settlement was made by Norwegians in
1840 ; as we shall show below ; however, Philip Kear-
ney had erected a house on section eighteen in 1839 ;
he remained the only American there for several
years.
The first settlers in the Town of Rutland were
Joseph Dejean, John Prentice and Dan Pond, who
located in its southern part in 1842. John Nelson
Luraas may have been the first settler in Dunkirk;
he came in 1843, and was followed soon after by
John Wheeler, 128 Chauncey Isham, and Mitchel
Campbell. In the towns of Cottage Grove, Burke,
Windsor, and Bristol, Americans preceded Norweg-
ians by several years, as also in Blue Mounds, where
Ebenezer Brigham located as early as 1828, or some
sixteen years before that part of the county actually
became settled.
The Township of Springdale was settled first
in 1844, when John Harlow entered it, he re-
maining the only white man there for a year. A
few Americans came in 1845, then Americans and
Norwegian immigrants in 1846. An American set-
tlement was effected by Thomas Lindsay and David
Robertson in the Town of Bristol (section seven)
two years before Norwegians came there, which
was in 1847. The earliest settler, however, seems to
be William G. Simons who entered in 1838. The
first white settler in Perry Township was John
128 From whom Wheeler Prairie takes its name. I am inclined
to think that Wheeler preceded Luraas (see below).
168 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Brown of Indiana, who came into the town in 1846.
A few other Americans (as B. K. Berry in 1847)
preceded the Norwegians, whose coming dates from
1848. In the Town of Primrose, Eobert Spears and
family were the first comers (1844) ; a few other
Americans had also arrived there before Christian
Hendrickson located in the town in 1846. We shall
now turn to the events that led to the establishment
of the extensive Norwegian settlement on Koshkon-
ong Prairie in the southeastern part of the county.
We have seen that most of the immigrants from
Voss, Norway, who came in 1839, located either in
Chicago or in La Salle County, Illinois. It has been
observed also that not all of those who went to the
Fox River region located there permanently. The
land here was now mostly taken, besides our pio-
neers from Voss did not like the prairie ; they were
in search of a location where timber and water was
near at hand. And so some of them decided to try
their fortune in Wisconsin, where they had heard
there was plenty of forest land with many lakes and
rivers.
Our party from Voss had been in La Salle
County only a few weeks, when three of them de-
cided to go and investigate for themselves. These
three were Nils Bolstad, Nils Gilderhus and Magne
Bystolen. They engaged ,0dd J. Himle (who had
emigrated from Voss in 1837), then living in Illinois,
to accompany them as their guide and interpreter.
Bystolen, being taken sick and thus prevented from
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 169
going, gave instructions to the rest to select land
for him if the region was satisfactory to the rest.
Bolstad, Gilderhus and Himle started on foot for
Milwaukee, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles.
Having arrived there in safety, they procured maps
and whatever information they could with reference
to the regions that were open to settlement in the
interior of the state. Then they walked west about
eighty miles inspecting the land on the way, and
after two weeks reached the eastern part of Dane
County.
The spot where they stopped was about two
miles east of the site of the present village of
Cambridge. Here a man by the name of Snell had
shortly before established a tavern for trappers and
frontiersmen; with him our party of homeseekers
put up, and from him they received instructions as
to the "government markings" of the sections and
the stakes placed at the corner of sections and quar-
ter sections, giving the number of each.
After a two days' rest they continued their
tramp westward to Koshkonong 129 Prairie. Himle,
Gilderhus and Bolstad inspected the whole prairie
from one end to the other, walking about for two
days. Then they returned to Cambridge, finally
deciding on a parcel of land a little over two miles
northwest of that place, lying on both sides of the
boundary line between the towns of Christiana and
Deerfield. Here Gilderhus and Bolstad selected for-
129 The prairie takes its name from Koshkonong Creek (and
Koshkonong Lake).
170 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ty acres each, and forty for Bystolen. This locality
was chosen because of its abundance of hardwood
timber, and besides there was plenty of hay on the
the marshes and fine fishing in Koshkonong Creek
near by. 13
Having thus made their choice of land, Gil-
derhus, Bolstad, and Himle returned to Illinois by
way of Milwaukee, walking the whole distance ; they
remained in La Salle County through the winter.
Their account of the land of promise which they had
discovered, aroused much interest, and, as we shall
see below, brought others in their train later. Early
in the spring of 1840, Gilderhus and Bolstad, accom-
panied now by Magne Bystolen and also Andrew
Finno, started for Koshkonong, driving, this time,
in wagons drawn by oxen. They arrived there at
the end of April and immediately took possession
of the land selected. The land that had been chosen
for Bystolen was inside the Christiana Township
line, where Anders Finno also now located. Nils Gil-
derhus 's land lay within Deerfield Township ; he was
the first Norwegian to locate there. He built a log
cabin, which was the first house in the town. Nils
Gilderhus and, I believe, Nils Bolstad, soon after
walked to Milwaukee and filed their claims at the
government land office, Nils Gilderhus being the
first in the party to purchase land. The date of the
130 As Mr. Odland points out. Odland adds: "They were all
Vossings and to emigrants from that celebrated district in Norway,
therefore, belongs the credit of founding the most important Nor-
wegian settlement in America." (Article in Amerika).
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 171
purchase is May sixth, 1840; the land is the south
half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-five.
Nils Bolstad entered on forty acres of section two
in the Town of Christiana, and Magne Bystolen's
forty acres lay directly east of Bolstad 's in the same
section. 131
Their first habitation was a hurriedly built
log cabin; it was not plastered, and, as we can be-
lieve, proved inadequate as a protection against win-
ter, which was already setting in. Here they expe-
rienced the intensest suffering from cold, 132 until,
the condition becoming intolerable, they dug out a
cellar against an embankment, where they lived dur-
ing the remainder of the cold season. In this ' * dug-
out" Nils Gilderhus and Magne Bystolen continued
to live another year, but Nils Bolstad erected a log
cabin in 1841, when he married Anna Vindeig, who
was the first white woman in the locality. Gilder-
hus erected a cabin in the town of Deerfield near the
Christiana line in 1842, but he sold out in 1843 to
Gulleik Thompson Saue; for further facts about
these men see below. Andrew Fenno and Odd Himle
did not purchase land. 133
We shall now turn to the two other groups of
settlers on Koshkonong in 1840.
131 Their names are recorded in the land office as Nils Seaverson,
Nils Larson and Magany Buttelson.
132 Odland writes: when they had finished their work outside,
they were obliged to lie down on their beds and cover up with robes
in order not to freeze.
133 Himle settled some years later at Norway Grove, Dane Coun-
ty.
CHAPTEE XIX
The Settling of Koshkonong by Immigrants from
Numedal and Stavanger in 1840. Other
Accessions in 1841-1842
Among the immigrants who came from Rollaug,
Numedal, in 1839, was Gumral Olson Vindeig,
though, as we have seen, he did not come in Natte-
stad's party. Through the illness of a child he was
prevented from emigrating with Nattestad, as he
had intended. Coming later in the year, he went
via Chicago, directly to Jefferson Prairie, where he
remained during the winter. In the early spring
of 1840, about the time our Vossings, spoken of
above, are moving north to locate on their claims,
Vindeig built or bought a boat at Beloit, and
this being ready, he, with a companion, Gjermund
Knudson Sunde, rowed north along the Bock River,
up Koshkonong Lake and Koshkonong Creek, into
the Town of Christiana.
That the journey should have been made in
a boat up Rock River against the stream, may
sound like a legend; why not have walked this
comparatively short distance (about forty miles),
just as Grilderhus and party had walked the much
longer distance from La Salle County? The Nor-
wegian pioneers were good walkers and seem to
have loved walking. Vindeig evidently did not.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 173
That he actually navigated up stream I take, how-
ever, not to be merely a local or family legend, for
it is vouched for by his subsequent neighbors and
comes down to us on good authority. I myself vis-
ited Ole Gunnulson, Vindeig's son, who is still re-
siding on the old homestead, last August (1908), and
also received his confirmation of the route his father
took in the spring of 1840. Lars Lier, a neighbor
of Ole Gunnulson, is cited by Prof. B. B. Anderson
as having been told by Gjermund Sunde himself,
that they had tied the boat a little below the Anik-
stad ford, where the Funkeli bridge was afterwards
built. Evidence comes also from some of the oldest
pioneers of the locality, as Halvor Kravik and Jens
P. Vehus.
Gunnul Vindeig and Sunde returned soon after
to Beloit, as they had come, by way of the Bock
Biver. Thereupon Vindeig, with his wife, Guri, and
two sisters, moved from Jefferson Prairie via Milton,
to Koshkonong, driving in a covered wagon, and
proceeded to take possession of the land he had se-
lected. He soon had erected a cottage of one room,
with an attic accessible by ladder. 134 The land
which Vindeig located on is the south half of the
northwest quarter of section thirty-four. There he
lived until his untimely death by accident in October,
1846. 13S
Gjermund Sunde selected forty acres of
134 Anderson's First Chapter, page 338.
135 He was killed by a loaded wagon tipping over him.
174 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
land directly north of Vindeig's home, which he
later, however, sold to Ole Lier. The land which
Vindeig purchased was recorded in the land office
at Milwaukee on May twenty-second, 1840, just six-
teen days after the purchase by Gilderhus and Bols-
tad was recorded. There has been much discussion
as to whether the Vossing party or Vindeig built
the first house in the Town of Christiana. Our first
group of settlers had selected their land the fall be-
fore and came north in April, 1840. We have seen
that the large log-cabin they constructed was hastily
and poorly built. I assume that either they all to-
gether, erected this immediately upon arriving and
taking possession of their claims in 1840; or else,
the hewing of timber and the erecting of the cabin
was begun by the two who remained, while Gilderhus
and his companion went to Milwaukee to file their
claims. It might then have been built at the close
of April, or more probably, the beginning of May.
Now Vindeig's purchase was recorded May twenty-
second; but as he seems to have gone direct from
Jefferson Prairie to Koshkonong, he evidently had
built his cottage and shelter for the family before
he started for Milwaukee. There can, therefore,
have been very little difference in time between the
two. Absolute proof of the priority of either, it is
not possible to obtain, it seems to me, but I am in-
clined to think the cottage erected by Gilderhus,
Bolstad, and party, was the first.
Let us now turn to our third group of settlers.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 175
most of them immigrants from Stavanger, who
were living in La Salle County. These four men
were Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, Amund Anderson
Hornef jeld, Bjorn Anderson Kvelve, and Lars Ol-
son Dugstad. The first of these Bjaaland
had come in the sloop in 1825 ; he is the only slooper
who came to Wisconsin, and the last of that party
whom we shall meet in our excursion down through
the years of immigration. The second of this
group was also from the Province of Stavanger, be-
ing born on the Island of Moster in 1806. We have
seen that he came to America in 1836, and that he
had settled in La Salle County, where he lived for
four years. The third member of the party, Bjorn
Kvelve, we have also met with among the arrivals
of 1836; he had been living mostly in Chicago and
La Salle County. He had come from Vikedal Parish
in Kyfylke. Three other men, Erick Johanneson
Savik, Lars Scheie, and Amund Anderson Bossaland,
intimate friends of Kvelve, were of the party, but
these did not settle on Koshkonong.
In the spring of 1840, these seven men decided
to go north in search of homesteads. 136 From
Gilderhus and Bolstad they had received informa-
tion of Koshkonong and they decided also to go
there and inspect the locality. About the middle of
136 For these facts I acknowledge indebtedness chiefly to Prof.
B. B. Anderson, who is a son of Bjorn Anderson Kvelve; he gives
an account of the journey of these men on pages 347-354 of hig
book, and a sketch of his parents pages 155-165; see also page 171,
and 245.
176 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
May, I take it, they started on foot for Wiscon-
sin. The way led by Shabbona Grove, in De Kalb
County, through Eockford, Beloit, Janesville, and
Milton. They crossed the Rock Eiver at Good-
rich's Ferry, now Newville, then pushed on until
they reached the southern line of Dane County, stop-
ping in the Town of Albion, near Koshkonong
Creek, 137 and about four miles north, slightly by
east, of Lake Koshkonong. Here they found coun-
try that suited them in every way. Bjorn Kvelve is
said to have exclaimed: ''This is indeed the Land
of Canaan!" Here woods were plentiful, the soil
was rich, a vigorous winding stream teeming with
fish, ran near by, and not far off there was a large
lake.
We see that the Stavangerings, as the Voss-
ings, looked for wood and water; they did not real-
ize the superior advantages of the prairie, and that
it would yield much quicker returns for their labor.
And yet there was good reason for their choice, and
we shall find that quite often the early Norwegian
pioneers located in a woodland tract near a stream
or a lake. It was undoubtedly an inducement to
build near a wood, where the timber for the usual
log-cabin was near at hand, and it was highly de-
sirable to locate within access of that primary neces-
sity of life, water. In this region, then, our party
selected land. Amund Hornefjeld chose the east
137 Then a little river; now it is almost dried out.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 177
half of the southeast quarter of section one, 138 and
Bjorn Kvelve, the west half of the same quarter
section.
Thorsten Bjaaland chose eighty acres im-
mediately north of Kvelve 's, consequently in section
two, while Lars Dugstad took the east half of the
southwest quarter of section one. Having made
these selections, 139 they walked to Milwaukee to file
their claims and perfect their purchase. 14 This is
recorded at the land office under date of June twen-
ty-second, 1840, just one month, therefore, after en-
try was made of Vindeig's claim in section thirty-
four in Christiana, the next township and section
north. Amund Bossaland selected a piece of land
near that of Bjorn Kvelve, but he was later informed
that it had already been taken ; 141 so Eossaland did
not settle on Koshkonong, but went to Jefferson
Prairie, as did also Lars Scheie, thence again else-
where.
The whole party then returned to La Salle
County, Illinois, and did not move to Albion Town-
ship and take possession of their land before the
spring of 1841. Erik Savik became ill upon their
return to La Salle County ; when he was asked if he,
138 So the description reads but the Amund Anderson homestead
is the east half of the northwest quarter, and the Kvelve homestead
is directly south.
139 Thorsten Bjaaland and Amund Hornef jeld built shanties on
their land before leaving.
140 Their names are given as: Omund Anderson, Birn Anderson,
Lars Olson, and Foster Olson.
141 It was soon after taken possession of by William Fulton.
178 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
too, didn't wish to go along to Milwaukee and pur-
chase land, he answered: "I think I can get a bit
of ground here from Ole Middlepeint. ' ' 142 His
prophecy proved true, for he died there in June,
1840. Erik Johanneson Savik and wife, Ingeborg,
had emigrated from Kvindherred in 1836, locating
in Rochester, New York. A son, John, was born to
them there in December, 1836. The following year
they seem to have removed to La Salle County, Illi-
nois. Their daughter, Anne Berthe, was born there
in November, 1838.
Early in the spring, Kvelve and Bjaaland moved
to Koshkonong with their families, following the
same route they had taken before. Bjaaland drove
a yoke of oxen, and Kvelve a yoke of black steers,
which were not yet broke, says Arnold A. Ander-
son, oldest son of Kvelve, and who was in the
party; both teams were hitched to a wagon owned
by Kvelve. Kvelve 's family consisted, at the time,
of wife and four children, two daughters having been
born since the arrival in America in 1836. 143 Thor-
sten Bjaaland (born in 1795 in Haa Parish, about
142 That is, Ole O. Hetletveidt. This incident is related in Amer-
ika in September, 1903; the words were: eg faar meg nok ein Flsek
Jord her hos ban Ola Meddlepeint.
143 Arnold Andrew Anderson was born in Norway in 1832. The
second son of Kvelve, Augustinus Meldahl Bruun, was born in 1834.
A daughter was born and died in Rochester, New York, where the
Kvelve family lived 1836-37. Elizabeth was born in La Salle County,
Illinois in 1837, and Cecelia in 1840. A daughter, Martha, was born
in Albion Township in the fall of 1841, being, it seems, the first white
child born in the town.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 179
thirty [American] miles south of Stavanger, Nor-
way) was still unmarried when he came to Dane
County, as was also Lars Dugstad. The latter evi-
dently came north from La Salle County about the
same time as Kvelve and Bjaaland. Amund Horne-
fjeld married Ingeborg Johnson, widow of Erik
Savik, in La Salle County, in June, 1841, and he,
with wife and her two children, came north to Albion
a few weeks later.
It was, therefore, just twelve persons who locat-
ed in northeastern Albion Township that spring.
The Hornef jeld family moved directly into the shan-
ty Amund had built before leaving in 1840. Dugstad
made a dugout on the side of a hill near the creek,
in which he continued to live till 1855, when he mar-
ried and moved into a large log-house. Bjorn
Kvelve erected a log-house on his farm immediately
upon arriving in 1841, the logs having been cut by
men engaged to do so, during the winter of 1840-41.
These men were Lars Kvendalen and Knut Olson
Vindeig. We shall now pass to the account of their
arrival, and that of others who came in 1840-41.
CHAPTER XX
New Accessions to the Koshkonong Settlement in
1840-1841. The Growth of the Settlement in 1842.
As the first explorers of Koshkonong from La
Salle County, Illinois, in 1839, attracted others in
their train from the same region the following year,
so Jefferson Prairie and Chicago sent new recruits
following Gunnul Vindeig in the summer of 1840.
The first of these were the two we have mentioned
at the end of the preceding chapter, namely, Lars
Kvendalen and Knud Vindeig, a brother of Gunnul ;
both were single men. They came there early in the
summer of 1840, and met in Albion Township Bjorn
Kvelve and Lars Dugstad before these had left for
Milwaukee and Illinois in June, 1840. Knud Vin-
deig and Lars Kvendalen (the latter also from
Numedal) came to America in the fall of 1839. An-
other brother of Gunnul, namely Hellik Vindeig,
and two sisters, Berit and Anna, came to America
in the fall of 1840. As said, Kvelve met Knud Vin-
deig and Kvendalen in Albion Township in the sum-
mer of 1840, and he engaged them to split rails dur-
ing the winter of 1840-41, so as to have them ready
at hand when he should come there to locate with
his family in 1841. 144 These two men did not take
144 See above, page 179.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 181
land, but worked for a time for others in the settle-
ment.
In the autumn of the same year came Hellik
Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen (generally called Nils
Hailing), but the latter did not remain there long.
The sister, Anna, married Nils Bolstad in 1841 (see
above, page 171). About a year later Berit mar-
ried John G. Smith, a man who played a role as both
doctor and preacher among the pioneers in the for-
ties. There were no further additions to the south-
ern part of the settlement in the fall of 1840, so far
as I know.
Late in the fall of that year Lars David-
son Eekve 14S came to Koshkonong and selected land
in the Town of Deerfield. Entry of this was made at
Milwaukee on December eighth, 1840; the land was
the south half of the southwest quarter of section
twenty-eight, about a mile south of Deerfield, and
two miles northwest of the eighty acres selected by
Gilderhus in the spring. Together with Bekve came
also Ole K. Gilderhus, who had immigrated from
Voss, Norway, in 1839. When they reached Albion
they stopped over night at the house of Thorsten
Bjaaland, who had not yet returned to Illinois for
the winter. Then they travelled north until they
came to the place where the four settlers from Voss
had erected a log cabin the spring before. Not hav-
ing the means wherewith to make improvements on
145 L. D. Eeque is still living in Deerfield, Dane County, Wis-
consin.
182 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
his land, Eekve soon after (summer 1841) went to
Muskegon, Michigan, where he secured employment
in a sawmill. He did not settle in Dane County be-
fore 1842.
If now we pass on to the year 1841, we shall find
that there were several accessions to the Koshkon-
ong settlement in that year. It is to be observed,
first, that a small group of immigrants came from
Voss in 1841. They were : Anders Nilson Lie, with
wife, Gunvor Sjursdatter (Gilderhus), and two chil-
dren, Rasmus Grane, Ole Grane, Kolbein Vestreim,
Nils Vikje, Lars J. Mon, Knut Larson Boe, and
Anna Solheim. These had emigrated with a small
brig that carried iron to Boston; thence they went
to Racine County, Wisconsin, and Koshkonong, by
the usual route. John Haldorson Bjorgo, who had
emigrated from Voss in 1838, as we have seen, also
came to Koshkonong in the spring of 1841, and Ole
Severson Gilderhus 146 came a short time after. The
latter had emigrated in 1840, having remained in
Chicago during the winter. Bjorgo settled in the
Town of Christiana in section nine, Ole Gilderhus a
little farther north in Deerfield Township. "None
but Norwegians were then living in these regions, "
writes Bjorgo twenty-seven years later. 147 Bjorgo
and Ole Gilderhus had, of course, arrived before
Anders Nilson Lie.
During the first winter John Bjorgo lived in
146 A brother of Nils Gilderhus.
147 Interview printed in Billed-Magazin, 1869, page 387. Late
in the summer of 1841 a few Americans came and settled there.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 183
a small log-house; his nearest white neighbor lived
about three miles away. As he was unmarried
he was obliged to cook and do all his own house-
work. Near by an Indian tribe had erected a camp,
where they remained from that fall until the next
spring. Bjorgo says of them that they were friend-
ly and neighborly, and he never suffered inconven-
ience because of them ; ' ' they were often my guests,
as I also visited them, and it never occurred to me
to have any fear of the son of the desert. Nor did
they ever give me cause for that; for they were
peaceful and gladly shared their meagre supplies
with those who needed their help. 148
Let us now return to the party of eleven persons
who came with Anders Lie. The son, Nils A. Lie,
Deerfield, Wisconsin, writes that after a long and
trying voyage they arrived in Boston whence they
went to Racine, arriving there in December.
There they hired two Swedes to take them to
Muskego, where the Lie family and one other fam-
ily stopped with Even Heg. Lie's destination was
the home of his brother-in-law, Nils Gilderhus, in
Dane County. Leaving his family, he soon after
set out on foot for Koshkonong, not meeting anyone
he could speak with before he reached Fort Atkin-
son. Here an American took him across the Rock
River in a canoe, and by waiting there a day he was
148 John Bjorgo died in October, 1868; his wife, Martha, died
in May, 1898. They are both buried in West Koshkonong Cemetery,
as Eev. G. G. Krostu of Utica, Wisconsin, informs me.
184 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
joined by two immigrants from Numedal, 149 who
walked with him as far as Koshkonong. Thence he
continued north to his brother-in-law's place in Deer-
field Township. We have seen that Nils Gilderhus
made a dugout early in the winter of 1840-41, having
found the cabin they had built in the spring too cold.
In this dugout Anders Lie and family 1SO also lived
during the winters of 1841-42 and 1842-43. In the
meantime Anders Lie worked for others, saving up
all he could with a view to buying a home for him-
self.
In 1843 he bought forty acres farther west
in the northeast corner of the town of Pleasant
Spring, becoming the first Norwegian to settle in
that township ; selling this out in the fall of 1844 to
Peder Grjerde, he located on section thirty-two in
Deerfield Township, where he lived most of the time
till his death in 1907. 1S1
Just how long the rest of Anders Lee's party
remained in Muskego I am not able to say at this
moment. Nils Lie writes in 1902 that they all came
to Koshkonong, and I accept that as authoritative;
149 These may have been Hellik Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen.
150 The family being sent for goon after; his wife, Gunvor
Sjursdatter, was born in 1805; the children were Martha (born
1838) and Nils (born 1841).
151 After his wife's death he lived some years in North and
South Dakota. Anders Lee was born in 1814, and attained there-
fore to the good old age of ninety-two. His wife died in 1876; they
were married three years before leaving Norway. Anders Lee left
three sons, Nils A. in Deerfield, Sever Lee in Grafton, N. D., and
Andrew Lee of Washington County, N. D.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 185
but I may add that the names of Grane, Vikje, Ves-
treim, Mon, or Boe, do not appear in the roll of mem-
bers of Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson's church in
Koshkonong for the years 1844 to 1850, which is
elsewhere published in this volume. Nor have I
been able to trace them in the towns of Christiana
or Deerfield in the years 1842 to 1844. They do not
appear as purchasers of land, and probably left for
other regions soon after coming to Koshkonong.
One member of the group who came from Voss in
1839, with Ole K. Gilderhus and others, did soon
after come to Koshkonong, however, namely, Knut
Brsekke. He and his wife located in Deerfield Town-
ship in 1843 ; it was he who, in 1844, bought the large
log-cabin built by Nils Gilderhus in 1840. He then
removed it farther southeast (in the same town),
where later it became the property of Erik Lee,
the father of Andrew E. Lee, of South Dakota. 152
There were also several accessions from Nume-
dal in 1842. The first of these, I believe, were Jens
Pederson Vehus, from Nore Annex of Eollaug Par-
ish, Numedal, and Thore Knudson Nore and sons,
Knut, Lars, Ole and Saebjorn, also from Nore. 153
With them came also Halvor Funkelien, a native of
Kongsberg. Jens Vehus was a brother of Gunnul
Vindeig's wife. All three of these came directly
from Norway. Jens Vehus settled about three-quar-
ters of a mile southeast of Gunnul Vindeig, on the
152 Andrew E. Lee was governor of South Dakota from 1896-1900.
153 There Nore located across the Jeff ergon County line.
186 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
north half of the northeast quarter of section thirty-
five. Later in the summer, and in the fall, this local-
ity received new recruits from Numedal, who came
for the most part directly from Norway via New
York, Milwaukee, and Muskego, to Koshkonong.
Others came from Chicago, La Salle County, and Jef-
ferson Prairie, principally to the towns of Christiana
and Deerfield.
Among the immigrants from Numedal who
located there later in the year of 1842 were:
Ole Helgeson Lien, wife Turi, 1S4 and children, Bar-
bro and Ole, from Nore; Niels Olson Smetbak, wife
Barbro Olsdatter, and family, from Nore; Mrs. Ole
Bakli (Bag-Joy), widow, and her son, Ole, from
Flesberg; Bjorn Guldbrandsen Morkvold, wife As-
bjb'r and son, Guldbrand; Hellik Gunderson Hvas-
hovd and wife, Marit, from Flesberg; Hellik 's par-
ents, Gunder Gunderson Hvashovd and wife, Kirsti ;
Mari Guldbrandsen (cousin of Gunnar Hvashovd)
and her daughter, Kristi (born Kristoffersen
1826) ; Herbrand Tollefson Morkvold and son, Ole,
and daughter, Kagnild ; Torstein Levorsen Bergrud,
wife Kirsti Gunder sdatter (born Hvashovd) and
son, Levor, from Flesberg; Thore Olson Kaasa,
wife Anne Torsteinsdatter, and daughter Aslau,
from Eollaug; Ole Amundson Buind, wife Helene
(Brandt), and daughter Anne, from Flesberg;
Gjertrud Olsdatter Saelabakka (born 1822), from
154 Turi Lien, whose maiden name was Smetbak, was born in
1811; she died in 1899; Ole Lien died in 1850; the widow then
married Lars T. Nore.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 187
Rollaug; Juul Gisleson Hamre (born 1805),
with wife Anne Gundersdatter, and children,
Gisle, Kjersti, and Gunder, and his sister, Anne
Gislesdatter, from Flesberg (born 1797) ; Hellik Hel-
liksen Foslieiet (born 1812), his wife Sigrid, and
children, Hellik (born 1833), Anders (born 1835),
Marit (born 1838), Christoffer (born 1841). 1SS
Of those mentioned here the Hvashovd, Hamre,
and Bergrud families, Mari Gulbrandsen and her
daughter, Christi, and one or two more, nineteen in
all, left Flesberg, Numedal, in May and arrived in
Muskego in October. Here they stopped two or
three weeks with Even Hegg, whose wife was a rela-
tive of Mari Gulbrandsen. Some early settlers on
Liberty Prairie (Koshkonong) took their baggage
to Koshkonong while the immigrants walked. These
facts are told me by Keverend K. A. Kasberg of
Spring Grove, Minnesota, as related by his mother-
in-law, Mrs. Halvor Kravik, who was in the party
(she was Kristi Kristoffersen). She relates also
that "in the spring (hence 1843) she and her mother
walked to Madison to get work. There was only one
house on the whole road, that of an American family ;
but their friendly 'come in, come in* (Norwegian
Jcom ind, kom ind, but pronounced alike) was easily
understood. Here we were well entertained over
night."
From Telemarken the following came : 1S6 Eich-
155 The daughters Christine and Sigrid were born in 1842 and
1844.
156 Many of these located in the eastern and northern part of
the settlement a year or two later.
188 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ard Bjornson Rotkjon (born 1816), and brother As-
lak (born 1826), from Vinje; Torstein Torsteinson
Gaarden, from Tin; Ole Holjeson Yttreboe, with
wife, Margit, and children, Johanne and Anne, and
Halvor Hansen Dalstiel (Dalastol), from Hvideseid;
Ole Torsteinson Aasnes, wife, Ingeborg, and daugh-
ter, Hsege, from Vinje; Ole Gulliksen Barstad (born
1791), wife, Ingeborg Jonsdatter (born 1799), and
children, Vetle, Eivind, and Halvor, from Siljord;
Ole Olson Haugan, from Siljord; Torbjorn Havre-
dalen, wife, Lisa, and family, from Vinje ; 1S7 and Gun-
hild Saamundsdatter (born 1798), from Laurdal.
Furthermore Guro Olsdatter (born 1821), from
Nissedal, and Thomas Johnson Landeman (born
1804), from Sandsvserd; and Torbjorn Havredalen
with wife, Lisa, and family, also came to Koshkonong
that year.
The great majority of these made the town of
Christiana their first stopping place. So that, by
the end of 1842, there were perhaps more immigrants
found together within the area of that township than
in any of the other settlements founded during the
preceding years, 1839-1840.
It was at this time that the question of a name
for the new town was being mooted. Gunnul Vin-
deig was given the privilege of naming it, and he
decided for Christiania, adopting the name of the
capital of Norway. The form as it came to stand,
157 Who located in Town of Deerfield. Some of theae, as Dalstiel,
left Koshkoning a few years later.
KOSHONONG SETTLEMENT 189
however, would seem to be a typical instance of that
slovenly habit of slurring syllables in foreign names,
which so often appears in the records of American
officials or clerks in land offices in those days. Yet
the Billed-Magazin is authority for the statement
that Gunnul Vindeig himself was the cause of the
error, he, by mistake, writing Christiana instead of
the correct Christiania.
In the meantime new colonies are springing up
elsewhere and the settlements previously established
are growing and thriving. Before, therefore, trac-
ing the further development on Koshkonong Prairie,
it will be in order to note the advance in other lo-
calities.
CHAPTER XXI
The First Norwegian Settlement in Iowa, at Sugar
Creek, in Lee County
The same year that records the genesis of the
Koshkonong Settlement, also registers the founding
of the earliest Norwegian colony in Iowa, that of
Sugar Creek, in Lee County, in the southeastern
part of the state. When Kleng Peerson was on his
way to Missouri in 1837 (see above, page 117), it
seems that he passed through the southeastern cor-
ner of Iowa ; he was, therefore, in all probability the
first Norwegian to enter the State of Iowa. 158 Iowa
had been organized as a territory in 1838. The set-
tlers in Shelby County, Missouri, were dissatisfied,
and, having heard of the natural resources of the
Territory of Iowa, immediately to the north, and that
good land with a near market 159 could be had in the
southeastern part of the territory, they decided to
158 Though not the first Scandinavian, for a Dane, Niels Christian
Boye, came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1837. In 1842 he located in
Iowa City; a daughter, Julia Boye, the only surviving member of the
family, lives now in Iowa City.
159 One of the settlers in Shelby County, Missouri, was Peter
Omundson Gjilje. As an illustration of the state of wilderness
of the country around them it ia related that Gjilje once walked for
nine whole days in the forest tract before he found human habitation.
One morning early he heard a cock crow, and then he found people.
During these days he had lived on wild strawberries. These facts
are related by Mr. B. L. Wick of Cedar Eapids, Iowa.
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 191
move to Iowa. Going north into Lee County, Iowa,
they located at a place six miles northwest of Keo-
kuk, known as Sugar Creek. Andrew Simonsen and
most of the settlers in Shelby County came at that
time; but Peerson remained in Missouri. Here,
however, they found a small colony of Norwegians
who had, it seems, but recently established them-
selves. With the exception of one to be mentioned
below, it is not known who these earlier settlers
were, and I have not been able to ascertain where
they came from.
Kleng Peerson has been accredited with being
the founder also of the Sugar Creek Settlement, but
there is no proof that he previously selected the site
or even that he located there in 1840. Indeed the
evidence goes rather to show that he never actually
settled at Sugar Creek. His home in the following
years was probably chiefly in Shelby County, Mis-
souri ; in 1847 he sold his land there and joined the
Swedish colony in Henry County, Illinois, which had
been founded in 1846. Nor does it seem to me that
Hans Barlien was a member of the Missouri colony,
as Professor Anderson suggests. No mention of
Barlien can be found in connection with the Shelby
County colony or any other settlement. It seems
more probable that he went to the Fox River Settle-
ment when he came from Norway in 1837, but with
a few others left in 1840, coming to Lee County some-
what before the party that came with Andrew Si-
monsen from Shelby County. They may originally
192
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
have received their knowledge of this locality from
Peerson. Barlien himself may have been in La Salle
County when Peerson in 1837 returned from his
journey to Missouri. It was, then, Barlien and a
few immigrants with him whom Andrew Simonsen
and others from Shelby County found already settled
at Sugar Creek in the spring of 1840. If this is
correct then the first Norwegian settler in Iowa and
the real founder of the first Norwegian colony in
the state is Hans Barlien, who was born at Over-
halden in the province of Trondhjem about 1870.
In 1838 Kleng Peerson went to Norway to gath-
er recruits for the Shelby County colony; the fol-
lowing year he brought back with him from Stavan-
ger County the three brothers, Peter, William, and
Hans Tesman, Nils Olson, Ole Eeierson and family,
and six or seven women, all of whom came to Mis-
souri ; but several of these went to Lee County, Iowa,
the following year.
As far as known, the first settlers who came
with Andrew Simonsen from Missouri were : Omund
Olson, Knud Slogvig, 160 Jacob 0. Hetletvedt, Mrs>
Thorstein T. Rue and her sons, Thorstein and John,
Peter Omundson Grjilje, Erik Oie, Ole Oiesoen, and
the three Tesman brothers; some of the rest seem
to have followed later. Lars Tallakson settled
there about the same time, but he came from Clark
County, Missouri, where he had located in 1838.
160 Jacob Slogvig was also among the first settlers; he had re-
turned from Shelby County, Missouri, to La Salle County, in 1838,
as also had Andrew Askeland.
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 193
Gjermund Helgeson 161 was also among the earliest
settlers, and Jacob Slogvig, who had gone back to La
Salle County in 1838, likewise later located at Sugar
Creek. Among the subsequent arrivals were Ole
Soppeland, Hans William, C. Person, and Nils and
Christ Nelson; these located there before 1846.
The leading spirit in the colony was undoubtedly
Hans Barlien. He was a man of great natural en-
dowment, and he had a fair education. In Norway
he had been a pronounced nationalist of the Werge-
land direction and had taken part in the first peasant
uprising. He was for a time a member of the Stor-
thing (the national parliament). In religion he was
a liberal, which aroused the hostility of the clergy,
while his radical political views called forth the
enmity of the official class. He owned a printing
establishment at Overgaarden, and published a
paper 162 in which he did not hesitate to give expres-
sion to the principles for which he stood. This fre-
quently involved him in litigation ; and, feeling him-
self persecuted, he at last decided to emigrate to
America in 1837. 163 Barlien seems to be the sec-
ond Norwegian emigrant from Trondhjem. 164 Lars
Tallakson came from Bergen, while the rest of the
161 Helgeson may have come with Barlien from Illinois.
162 Melkeveien, the Milky Way.
163 See J. B. Wist, in Bygdejaevning, Madison, Wisconsin, 1903,
p. 158; also First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, pp. 235-236,
and Eepublikaneren, February 9, 1900.
164 The first was Ole Eynning. See above, p. 107, and Normaend-
ene i Amerika by Knud Langeland, pp. 26-29.
194 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
colonists were mostly from the region of Stavanger.
Lee County was but little settled at that time ; 16S
land was bought of the Indians for a nominal price,
but it often became expensive enough in the end,
since it proved very difficult for many of the settlers
to obtain a clear title from the United States. This
is one reason why the settlement did not grow,
though probably not the chief cause. In 1843 there
were between thirty and forty families, writes John
Eeierson, 166 but in 1856 there were, according to the
census of that year, only sixty-eight Norwegians in
the county. This number had in 1885 decreased to
thirty-one. In the fifties many of the settlers moved
to other localities, but throughout the forties there
was a prosperous colony that contributed not a little
to the development of the community and the county
in that early period. The settlement is of special
interest in that it was the first Norwegian settle-
ment in Iowa. Its founding inaugurated Norwegian
colonization in the state which, particularly in the
fifties, resulted in the establishment of a score of
extensive settlements in the central and the northern
counties.
There are many reasons why the Sugar Creek
Settlement did not grow as did the later settlements
north and west. First of all, land was not of the
best in Lee County. And then, the locality was rath-
er too far south, Norwegians have everywhere in
165 The first postoffice was established in Lee County in 1841.
166 Veiviser for Emigranter, 1843.
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 195
America thriven best in the more northerly local-
ities. Again, the tide of emigration from the vicin-
ity of Stavanger was not sufficiently heavy to re-
cruit the various settlements already established by
immigrants from that region. The majority of those
who came went direct to the Fox Eiver Settlement
in Northern Illinois, which offered unsurpassed nat-
ural advantages. To be sure, the Shelby County
(Missouri) and the Lee County settlements might
have been recruited from other districts in Norway.
But it must be remembered that such other districts
as had begun to take part in the emigration move-
ment had their attention directed just at this time
in another direction. The other provinces in ques-
tion are Voss, Telemarken, and Numedal. It was
representatives of these that founded the Wisconsin
settlements in 1839-40, and in them the great major-
ity of immigrants from those provinces located in
the following decade. This is also true of those
who came from Hardanger, Sogn, 167 and from West-
ern Norway in general.
There is still another reason why the colony did
not grow. Beyond the common desire of material
betterment, there was too little of community of in-
terest. It is enough to mention that several differ-
ent religious sects were represented in the little set-
tlement, chief among which were the Quakers and
the Latter Day Saints. Just across the Mississippi
167 Immigration from Sogn was at first directed almost exclu-
sively to Boone County, Illinois, and Dane County, Wisconsin.
196 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
was the town of Nauvoo, 168 which was a Mormon
center at the time. When the Mormons who did
not believe in polygamy established themselves at
Lamoni some years later, many Norwegians of that
belief went with them. 169 And not a few of the
Quakers joined American Quaker settlements far-
ther north, as in Salem, Henry County. 17 In the
later fifties a prosperous colony was founded at and
south of Legrand in Marshall County. A few of
the early pioneers, however, remained and their de-
scendants live in Lee County to-day. Finally, the
difficulty of securing a title to the land upon which
many Norwegians had settled, to which reference
has been made above, undoubtedly drove many to
seek homes elsewhere. m
Of these first Norwegian pioneers in Iowa I shall
here add a brief final note, as we shall not meet with
them again. We have met the brothers Knud and
Jacob Anderson Slogvig four times as the founders
of settlements in Orleans County, New York, in
168 In the Fox Eiver Settlement in Illinois many Norwegians
joined the Mormons and later moved to Utah. Bishop Canute Peter-
son was one of these.
169 The Mormons first moved into Iowa in 1839, having received
assurance of protection and the liberty to practice their belief from
Governor Lucas in that year. They located in Lee County not far
from Sugar Creek. The town of Nauvoo, Illinois, had been bought
by them. The name was changed from Commerce.
170 Omund Olson was converted to Quakerism at Salem, Henry
County. As early as 1842 several of the settlers joined with him
in erecting a meeting house on his farm.
171 The question has been investigated somewhat by Mr. B. L.
Wick. See Eepublikaneren, February 9, 1900.
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN IOWA 197
La Salle County, Illinois, in Shelby County, Mis-
souri, and in Lee County, Iowa. Jacob Slogvig
went to California about 1850; there he became
wealthy and died in 1864. Knud Slogvig moved to.
Lee County early in the fifties, I believe, and died
there. Hans Barlien died in the Sugar Creek Set-
tlement in 1842. Mrs. Thorstein Eue and her son,
Thorstein, lived in Sugar Creek till 1846, when they
went to Wisconsin, and took part in the founding of
the Blue Mounds Settlement in western Dane Coun-
ty. Lars Tallakson settled about a decade later in
La Salle County, Illinois, where he lived to a good
old age. 172 Jacob Olson Hetletvedt (brother of the
slooper, Ole 0. Hetletvedt) continued to live in Lee
County till his death in August, 1857. His widow
married Sven Kjylaa, with whom she then moved to
the Fox River Settlement. Per Omundson Gjilje
was one of the last to leave the settlement; in 1864
he removed to New Sharon, Mahaska County, Iowa,
where he died in 1895. His wife (born Karina Bor-
nevik, from Naerstrand, Norway) died in 1902, aged
eighty-six.
172 He died about 1900. Among those who moved to New
Sharon were Sjur Olson, Nils Nilson and Aad Nilson and wife
Kristina; Martha Erickson was until recently, at least, living in
Clark County, Missouri.
CHAPTER XXH
The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Wiota, La Fay-
ette County, and Dodgeville, Iowa County,
Wisconsin
About forty miles directly west of Bock Prairie
lies Wiota, about which town stretches in all direc-
tions a Norwegian settlement of considerable size.
It is separated from Luther Valley by Green Coun-
ty and lies only twenty-five miles distant, north-
west, from the old settlement of Bock Bun, in Illi-
nois. Here extensive lead mines were being oper-
ated in the forties, and they were the means of
drawing to that locality a large number of immi-
grants of different nationalities, many of whom, to
be sure, only remained there temporarily, going else-
where to buy a home as soon as they had accumu-
lated sufficient funds. The mines were at that time
called " Hamilton Diggings." As early as 1840 we
find two Norwegians working in these mines, namely,
the brothers Andreas and John 0. Week, both from
Eidfjord, in Har danger. The Week brothers seem
to have been two of a party of about forty from
Hardanger, who emigrated in 1839. 173 I do not
believe, however, that either Andrew or John Week
entered a land claim in the vicinity, and they re-
mained there only a few years. In 1844 John Week
173 They came in the same ship as Knut Eoe.
EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 199
moved to Dodgeville in Iowa County, where he es-
tablished a shoe store in company with John Lee,
from Numedal, Norway. Andrew Week went to
Marathon County some years later; here he built a
saw mill, which, however, was bought out by his
brother John in 1849, when Andrew joined the Cal-
ifornia gold-seekers.
In the spring of 1842 Lars Davidson Eeque, an
immigrant from Voss in the year 1839, came to
Wiota. We have already met him as a purchaser of
land in Deerfield Township, in Dane County, in De-
cember, 1840. Not having the means to begin the
improvement of his land, he says, he decided to go
to Hamilton Diggings, and he did not take posses-
sion of his land until the summer of 1842. 174 Bekve
remained at the Diggings only about one year. In
1841 the first permanent settlers arrived ; these were
Per Unde, from Vik Parish, Sogn, Per Davidson
Skjerveim, Sjur Ulven, and Arne Anderson Vinje,
from Voss. The first of those was, it seems, the ear-
liest emigrant from Sogn to America. He was a
man of considerable means, but a copy of Eynning's
Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika fell into
his hands and he decided to emigrate. He
remained in Chicago the first year and a half
or over. Ulven and Skjerveim had come from
Norway in 1840. Arne Vinje (born 1820) came
to Chicago in September, 1840, after having
been five months on the journey. He had left
174 He did not actually settle there permanently before 1844.
200 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Norway April sixteenth with his wife, 17S and
a party of twenty other persons from Voss. The
following spring Vinje and Skjerveim, having de-
cided to go to the mines in Wisconsin, secured each
their yoke of oxen, and drove overland, arriving at
Wiota on the seventh of July, after five days of diffi-
cult travel ; Unde and Ulven came at the same time.
Unde immediately entered a claim on a piece of land
in the vicinity and built a house, as did Skjerveim
and Vinje a short time after; these located, how-
ever, about three miles farther south.
According to Arne Vinje the following twenty-
one persons came from Voss that spring : Torstein
Saue, his wife and son Gulleik, Lars Saue and wife,
Klaus Grimestad and wife, Arne Anderson and wife
and infant son Andrew, Knudt Hylle, Ole S. Gilder-
hus, Knudt Eokne, Mads Sonve, Baar Lawson Boe
(a brother of Tver Lawson), Lars Eothe, Brynnel
Eonve, two young ladies from Saue, one from Eonve
and one from Gilderhus. In discussing the voyage
Vinje says:
The bottom of the ship in which we sailed was de-
clared by Capt. Ankerson to be one hundred and fifty
years old and when, in midocean, we encountered a se-
vere storm, the timbers sustaining the upper berths gave
way, precipitating them upon the lower ones, and the
screams and cries of the frightened passengers added to
the fury of the storm, almost created a panic on board.
As for myself, I seized a heavy chest which I intended
throwing overboard to use as a support in the water in
175 Her maiden name was Martha Gulliksdatter Kindem.
EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 201
case the ship foundered. Even Hegg, and others from
" Ostlandet, ' ' who came from Drammen with Capt. An-
kerson, stopped in Milwaukee, while we from Voss came
on to Chicago, where my wife and I were received into
the home of Sjur Ulven and family. Mrs. Ulven being
my wife's cousin.
Knudt Hylle and myself began our first work in
Chicago upon the streets of the (then) westside. My
work was handling a heavy plank scraper, drawn by a
yoke of oxen and used to scrape the sod from the sides
of the road into the center.
At this time occurred the election of General Harri-
son to the Presidency. The candidate was the "People's
choice" and I, from my bed, saw a log cabin, such as he
lived in, mounted upon wheels and drawn through the
streets to show that he was chosen from the common peo-
ple. That was effective electioneering!
In the spring of 1841 Peder Skjerveim, who
had come from Norway in 1837, having lived in Chi-
cago in the interval, drove from Chicago up to Ham-
ilton Diggings to explore the region. Upon his re-
turn he reported that there was government land for
sale there, and Vinje and he decided to move thither.
Peder Iverson Unde and family and Sjur Ulven
went to the " Diggings" at the same time. Of this
Vinje writes :
"We left Chicago on July 2nd and arrived in Wiota,
or Hamilton's Diggings as it was then called, after a tire-
some journey of five days. On July 7th we passed Elgin,
Illinois, in a grove near which Independence day was
being celebrated, on July 4th, but there was then no
town, only a few scattered houses. We progressed with
202 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
some difficulty as our wagon broke down twice during
the journey. The second of these accidents occurred as
we were nearing Rockford toward evening, when the axle
gave way; but Peder Skjervheim,with only an ax and an
augur went into the woods nearby, and from a conven-
ient tree cut and made a new axle that night, so that we
proceeded safely on our way the next morning.
There being no bridges, we forded the rivers at
Rockford and Freeport. There was then not a house
where the thriving city of Rockford now stands and only
one small grocery store at Freeport. There were, at that
time, no Norwegians in or around Wiota, and the nearest
Norwegian settlement was at Rock Run, Illinois. Peder
Skjervheim and I, each bought forty acres of government
land in the Township of Wiota, upon which we each built
a log cabin and began other improvements. Andres
Braekke also bought forty acres but soon sold it again.
In 1842 there came to our neighborhood three young
people from Voss; David Larson Fenne and wife, and his
brother, Nils Fenne. In 1843 there came some families
from Vik, in Sogn, and settled near by : Ole Iverson Unde
and wife Britha, and his brother Erik's family. Erik
died before reaching America, but his wife and children
settled down here. Likewise, Erik Engebrit Hove, Ole
Anderson and Sjur Tallakson Bruavold came at the same
time.
To those which Mr. Vinje mentions as arriving
in 1842 may be added Isak Johnson from SMen, 176
and Christian Hendrickson from Lier, Norway. The
latter however moved to Primrose Township in Dane
County in 1846. (See below).
176 1 am told that he came in 1841, but this seems to be a mistake.
EAKLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 203
Mathias J. Engebretsen of Gratiot, Wisconsin,
tells me that Per Fenne and wife Martha came to
Wiota in 1842, while Nils Sunve and wife Maline, and
Ivar Fenne came in 1843 ; all these were from Voss.
Helge Meland and wife from Telemarken came in
1843, as also Tore Thompson from Tindal and Ash-
ley Gunderson from Numedal. 177 Those mentioned
by Arne Vinje at the end of the above account, Ole
and Sjur Bruavolden, did not settle at Wiota, it
seems, before 1845, and Erik E. Hove not until 1847.
These had located first at Long Prairie in Boone
County, Illinois, as had also Ingebrigt Fuglegjserdet,
who came from Vik, Sogn, in 1844. Of the immigra-
tion from Land, Norway, to Wiota, which began with
Syver Johnson (Smed or Smedhogen in 1844), I shall
speak in the next chapter. The growth of the Jeffer-
son Prairie Settlement will, however, claim our at-
tention briefly first.
177 Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson, speaking of the Wiota Settle-
ment in 1844 says, that there had been organized a congregation that
year, which numbered about one hundred members, of whom the larg-
er part were from Voss; these, he says, had settled there for the
most part in 1843. He mentions Per Davidson as deacon and a
leading member of the church, and Knud Knudson as one who by
great energy had acquired considerable wealth.
CHAPTER XXIII
Growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement from
1841 to 1845. The First Norwegian Land
Owners in Rock County.
In an earlier chapter I have given an account of
the coming of Norwegians to Jefferson Prairie in
1838-39. We found that a considerable number of
persons had located there by 1840, principally immi-
grants from Numedal. These first settlers located
in the southern half of Clinton Township, but others
soon came who settled still farther south, so that the
settlement soon came to include a portion of the
Township of Manchester in Boone County, Illinois.
The first settlers here were Tonnes Tolleivson (or
Tollef son) from Jasderen, and Svend Larson, both of
whom settled in Boone County in 1840 ; Tollef son had
come to America in the fall of 1839, presumably
spending the winter of 1839-40 on Jefferson Prairie.
The settlement thus came to be divided into a
northern and a southern part, the immigrant settlers
in the two representing different provinces in Nor-
way. The Numedalians settled as we have seen,
nearer Clinton and in general in the northern end of
Jefferson Prairie ; in fact they occupied most of the
prairie proper. The southern portion, the timber
land, come to be settled principally by immigrants
from Voss. Very few of these located in the Town of
JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 205
Clinton; they selected homes in the early days, for
the most part, just where their descendants now live,
on the south side of the state line, in Illinois. The
whole settlement extends from about a mile and a
half south of Clinton across the prairie and into the
timber which began about three miles south of Clin-
ton and extends about four miles down into Illinois.
We have observed above that Ole Nattestad 's
house became the stopping place of the earliest im-
migrants to Jefferson Prairie. In a similar way
D. B. Egery's place, 178 located four miles southwest
of the Nattestad cabin on the trail to Beloit, became
the headquarters for many a Norwegian immigrant
in that early day. Speaking of him, H. L. Skavlem
gives testimony to his kindness and the readiness
with which he lent a helping hand to the incoming
settlers in his vicinity, who were seeking a place to
establish a home in the wilderness. As soon as the
immigrants arrived, parties of two or three would
fill their knapsacks (skraeppe) with provisions and
strike out in various directions to "spy out the
land." 179
The first Norwegians to buy land on Jefferson
Prairie were Ansten Nattestad and Thorstein Nil-
sen, the date of whose purchase is December 25th,
1839. 18 On January 25, 1840, Anders Jacobson's
178 Situated in section 26 in Turtle Township.
179H. L. Skavlem in Scandinavians in the Early Days of Bock
County, a most interesting and valuable pamphlet, though very brief.
180 The first Norwegian land owner in the county was however
Gisle Sebjb'rnson Halland as shown by H. L. Skavlem 's researches.
The date of Halland 's purchase was November 29th.
206 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
purchase was recorded, and further in the same
year those of Erik Gudbrandson (May 16) and
Kittil Newhouse (Nyhus, June 15). The first three
purchases were in sections 32, 30 and 22, respective-
ly, while those of Gudbrandson and Newhouse were
in section 20, all in Clinton Township. The latter
made a further purchase in 1842 in the same sec-
tion, as did also Tosten Olson. Ole Nattestad's
purchase was recorded on November 25, 1842, while
in September of that year Ole Newhouse (Nyhus)
had bought three forties in sections 15 and 22, and
Christoffer Newhouse one in section 30 ; others were
now rapidly moving in and becoming owners of their
choice of land on the * ' Prairie. ' ' Among these were
Jas. Hilbeitson, Erik Hilbeitson, Tore Helgeson,
Erik Gulbeitson, Gulbrand Gulbrandson, and Ole
Pederson Bogstrandeiet, all in the fall of 1842.
In this connection it may be noted that Gulleik
Gravdal's purchase of land in the Town of Newark
(in section 1) was recorded December 12, 1839, and
he made additions to his holdings in 1842 in sec-
tions 1 and 9. Mrs. Gunnild Odegaarden purchased
land in 1839 and 1840, Lars H. Skavlem in June,
1841, and Gudbrand Olson and Mrs. Gulleik
Springen in October, 1841. During September of
the latter year four purchases were also recorded
in Plymouth Township, namely those of Paul Hal-
vorson Skavlem, Nils Olson Vegli (Wagley) and
Gunnel Holgerson, while in May, 1840, Gulleik H.
JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 207
Blakestad Skavlem had become the owner of forty
acres in Beloit Township. 181
The Jefferson Prairie Settlement received con-
siderable accessions during the next four years.
Lena Sondal came in 1841, Haakon Paulson from
Sigdal and his wife Inger came in 1842, Ole Severt-
son and family from Numedal, including a daugh-
ter, Petra, who is now Mrs. Henry Jacobson (Oppe-
dal) 182 of Clinton, came in 1843, as did also Brynild
L. Lie and wife from Voss, Lars 0. Lie from Hal-
lingdal 183 and Edwin 0. Wilson Naeshaug. The last
of these settled in Boone County, Illinois, where he
bought land in 1846, but removed to Filmore County,
Minnesota, in 1854. Gunder Vedfald and family,
including the sons, Ole and Halvor, from Telemarken
also came in 1843. In the year 1844 there was a
considerable influx of settlers from Voss ; 184 among
them were : Sjur K. Kvanna wife and four children
from Voss, Brynild Dugstad, 18S wife and five child-
ren, Erik K. Dugstad, wife and child, Lewis
Severts, Ole Shipley and wife Guri, Lars Grane,
181 In December, 1842, Mrs. Gisle Halland bought forty acres in
Beloit Township. Her name appears aa Margarett Nutes (Margrit
Knutsdatter).
182 Henry Jacobson is a son of Jacob J. Oppedal, who came
from Hardanger in 1850.
183 Frederik Frederikson 'a wife, who was Martha Larson, also
came in 1843. Frederikson came some years later.
184 We have seen that Clas Isakson had immigrated from Voss
in 1840. He was the first Vossing to settle on Jefferson Prairie.
185 Brynild Dugstad located in the northern part of the settle-
ment. A son, Knut B. Dugstad, died at Clinton, Wis., in April,
1905, age 80.
208 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Sjur Grane, Elling Ellingson and wife Magela,
Ole Skutle, 186 Peder Bere and wife Britha. Al-
so the following came about the same time (1844 or
the following year) : Lars Baarson and wife Gudve,
Guru Isakson, Sjur A. Gronlien, wife and two chil-
dren, and Erik E. Slaeen. Nearly all those here
enumerated followed the lead of Clas Isakson and
settled near or south of the state line. From Vik,
Sogn, Norway, there was a single settler, namely,
Ole 0. Train. From Hardanger also there was, it
seems, only one immigrant among those who came
during this earliest period, Anna Tollefson, wife of
Tonnes Tollefson, who, as we have seen, came to
America in 1839. From Telemarken there were
about twelve persons, among them Steinar E. Had-
land, wife and son, Guldmond; Gunder 0. Vedfald,
wife and daughter; Even Haatvedt and Ole A. Haa-
tvedt and wife, besides the Vedfald family spoken of
above. From Naes in Hallingdal we find Knud E.
Vaeterud, a widower, and his two daughters, Inge-
borg and Ronnau, besides Lars 0. Lie, and from
Modum, Thov Modum and wife Karen; finally
Krodsherred is represented by Even Fingerson Fos-
lien.
Among the earliest purchasers of land (1842)
I have mentioned Ole C. Newhouse. He was a
brother of Kristoffer and Kittil Newhouse who had
come in 1839. The original name, Nyhus, was in
the early days changed to Newhouse, which is a
186 Ole Skutle later married Lena Sondal, who had come in 1841 ;
see above.
JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 209
translation of the Norwegian. Ole Newhouse mar-
ried Helen Stabaek, daughter of Klemet Stabaek, who
has been spoken of as the founder of the Eock Eun
Settlement in Stephenson County, Illinois, in 1839.
Sjur Kvarme's children included a son, Kolbein
(born 1831) ; he lived on Jefferson Prairie from 1844-
1854, in which latter year he joined the gold-seekers
in California. With the proceeds of three years'
work in the gold mines he came east again in 1857
and bought a farm near St. Ansgar, Iowa, where he
lived till his death in October, 1906. Olav Vedfald,
son of Gunder Vedfald, remained with his parents
on Jefferson Prairie till 1850, when he purchased
land and settled on Bonnet Prairie in Columbia
County, Wisconsin. 187
Among the pioneers of Jefferson Prairie are
also particularly to be named Eeverend 0. Andrew-
son and wife, Eagnild Paulson, both of whom came
to America in 1841, but did not settle in Clinton
Township before 1855 ; in that year Eev. Andrewson
accepted a call as pastor of the congregation which
he had organized there in 1850. Mrs. Andrewson,
who is now eighty-five years old, is still living there.
In the above survey of the growth of the Jeffer-
son Prairie Settlement during these years many
names have been omitted because of the uncertainty
among my informants as to the year of their arrival.
187 Of those who come in 1844 from Numedal were Gulleik Svena-
rud and family, who however removed to Blue Mounds, Dane County,
in 1847. In 1860 he married Ingeborg Lohn who died in 1903 ; there
are five living children.
210
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
In a subsequent chapter I shall also outline the sub-
sequent growth of the settlement. I shall here mere-
ly note the fact that Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson
speaks of the congregation in 1844 as numbering 150
members.
CHAPTER XXIV
Immigration to Rock Prairie from Numedal and
Land in 1842 and Subsequent Years.
In Chapter XI above we have given an account
of the beginnings of the Bock Prairie Settlement and
traced its growth down to 1842. We shall here brief-
ly discuss the development of this settlement during
the next eight years. Already in the summer of
1842 a considerable number of immigrants came,
most of them locating there permanently. I shall
mention first Halvor N. Aaen and wife, Guri
(Frogne), both from Nore in Numedal, who settled
in Newark. 188 Halvor Stordok and Ole Stordok,
brothers of Grunnul Stordok mentioned before, both
came in 1842. Halvor bought land near Sugar
River Bottom; he married Ingeborg Paulson, and
the couple lived on the homestead till their death.
Their children, Knud, Halvor, Inge and Ingeborg,
all unmarried, are still living there. They are all
over fifty years of age now. Ole Stordok, who mar-
ried Anne Sand from Rollaug, located at Sand
Prairie, five miles south of Broadhead. In the same
year came also Gullik 0. Mygstue, with wife Joran
188 Aaen is said to have been something of an inventor. He
made two clocks, one of which was bought by Mr. Chrispinson; the
other was bought by Simon Strand, and is now probably in the pos-
session of Stone or Gunild Strand says a writer in Amerika for March
15th, 1907. Aaen died about 1886.
212 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
and five children, from Vaegli, Numedal. Gullik died
in 1852, but the widow lived till 1887. Their oldest
son, Ole (born in 1825), had learned the trade of a
shoemaker and conducted a shoemaker's shop on his
farm long after he had begun farming. 189 In 1848
he married Sive Espeset from Hallingdal, Norway ;
they had no children. 19
Among those who came from Numedal to Amer-
ica in 1842 was also Herbrand H. Berge (born in
Eollaug in 1821. He remained for a year and a
half on Jefferson Prairie, however, so that he did
not locate on Eock Prairie until early in 1844. Anna
Torbjornsdatter, who later became his wife (1847)
also immigrated in 1842. They removed to Jackson
County, Minnesota, in 1876 ; he died there in Decem-
ber, 1903, and she in February, 1904, 191 at the age
of seventy-seven. In 1843 Hellik Olson Holtan with
family from Flesberg in Numedal emigrated and
settled on Eock Prairie. Holtan was a man of much
intelligence and strength of character, who soon came
to hold a leading place among the pioneers in the
community.
189 The location of his farm is half a mile from Orf ordville.
190 Mrs. Mygstue died in 1892. Ole Mygstue then sold his farm
and moved to his sister, Mrs. Engen, in Primrose, Dane County. An
obituary notice of Ole Mygstue (who died in 1902) speaks very highly
of him as a member of the church and a citizen. He was a man of
kindly nature and helpful spirit in whom all reposed implicit confi-
dence.
191 Their children are: Paul Berge, Herbrand Berge and Mrs.
Henry Anderson, all living in Jackson, Minnesota.
IMMIGRATION TO EOCK PRAIRIE 213
So far we have spoken only of immigrants from
Numedal. In the year 1842 the first family from
Land, Norway, came to Eock Prairie, namely Hans
Smedsrud and wife. We have seen that the first
immigrant from Land, Lars Boste, who came in 1839,
located at Eock Bun. It was the year 1843 which
inaugurated the tide of emigration to America from
Land and nearly all the earliest arrivals located on
Bock Prairie. Thus in that year came Harald Om-
melstad and family, five in all, Anders Lundsaeter and
family, in all five, Peder H. Gaarder with family
(six), Soren Sorum, and Anne Marie Nilsdatter, in
all eighteen persons. These were followed the next
year by fifteen persons, namely : Lars Nord-Fossum
and family (five), Hans Christofferson Tollefsrude
and wife, Anders Midboen with wife and one child,
Anders Engen, Gudbrand Gaarder, Helene Gaarder,
Inger Gaarder, and Helene Klevmoen. Anders Er-
stad and wife, and Syver Smed, who came at the
same time, did not locate on Bock Prairie ; the former
went to Bock Bun while Smed located at Wiota, be-
ing the first native of Land to settle in La Fayette
County.
I shall also add here the names of those who
came from Land in the following years. In 1845 came
two families, namely Askild Ullensager, wife and
four children, and Tarald Jorandlien, wife and four
children. Jorandlien or Jorlien, as the name is usu-
ally rendered, located in Newark. In 1846 Marie
Engen and her son, Hans (born 1823) and daughter,
came, as did also Erik Nederhaugen. The year 1847
214 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
brought Ole Norstelien, Christine Norstelien and
Hans Sveum, wife and five children. 192 The year
1848 with its extensive immigration also brought an
increased contingent from Land. The following
settled on Bock Prairie ; Ole Gaarder and wife, An-
dreas Sorum, Ingebrigt Fossum and family (six),
Halvor Ruud and family (seven), Johans Neder-
haugen 193 and family (four), Johan Frankrige and
family (five) and Hovel Jensvold, m Hovel Smeby
and Bertha Lybaek. 19S In all there were fifty-four
who came from Land in 1848 ; of these, twenty-eight
settled on Eock Prairie, twenty-five at Wiota and one
at Rock Run. The roster of immigrants from Land
in 1849 includes forty-eight persons, of whom sixteen
located on Rock Prairie ; they were : Johannes Om-
melstadsaeteren, Ingeborg Ommelstadsaeteren, Mar-
thea Brendingen, Johans Lybaek, Bertha Froslie,
Marit Froslie, Hans Engen (Frb'slieit) and family
(five) and Jonas Gjerdet and family (five). Syver
Gaarder and family, thirteen in all, who located far-
ther west at Albany, Green County, came directly
from Land, but they were natives of Valders. He
had moved from Valders to Torpen in Land and
bought there the Gaarder farm when the Gaarder
family emigrated in 1843, remaining there, however,
192 Svend Norstelien and family (seven) and Kari Lillebask and
six. children from Land, who also came that year, settled in Wiota.
193 Martin Johnson of Orf ordville, Bock County, is his son.
194 Christian Lunde, who also came from Land in 1848, located
at Eock Bun. Several families went to Wiota; see above, Chapter
XXII.
195 Who later married Syver Midbflen.
IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 215
as we have seen, only six years. 196 The accessions
for 1850 were: Ole Smeby and family (five), Osten
Lundsaeteren and family (five), Sjugal Frankrige
and family (six), Helene Froslie, Bertha Sorum,
Hovel Fossum, Ole Hovdelien and Hans Vaerhaug,
in all twenty-one.
The account of immigration from Land which it
has been possible to give so fully here is based on
the private records of Hans C. Tollefsrude, as pub-
lished in part in Amerika for March 8th, 1907. Hans
Tollefsrude 's name occupies a foremost place in the
early history of the Bock Prairie Settlement. In the
seventies he again became a pioneer, locating now in
Pocahontas County, Iowa. 197
196 Of the remaining twenty-three of this year 's immigration
from Land eleven went to Wiota, seven to Bock Bun, and five scat-
tered elsewhere.
197 The limitations of space forbid a sketch of Mr. Tollefsrude
in our survey of Bock Prairie.
CHAPTER XXV
Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock
Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Im-
migration from Numedal. Other
Early Accessions.
We will now turn to another contingent in the
early immigration to Eock Prairie, that from the
dialect district of Hallingdal. The emigration from
this region began in 1842 with the departure of the
brothers Knud and John Ellingson Solem, who came
direct to Bock Prairie. In 1843 Kleofas Halvorson
Hansemoen immigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard)
and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in New-
ark Township, Eock County. 198 Kleofas's father's
name was Halvor Kleof asen Hansemoen ; he did not
emigrate. There were two other brothers, Erik and
Hans, of whom the former did not come to this coun-
try. Hans Hansemoen had in Norway bought an
estate called Husemoen, not intending to emigrate.
But when his brother sent favorable reports back
from America, he sold out and came to this country
in the fall of 1845. He bought land in sections
eleven and twelve in Newark Township, near his
brother. The above is narrated in part to show how
198 They had five children in this country: Knud, Kleofas,
Eyvind, Eirik and Caroline, all now married and with families. The
sons adopted Cleofas as the family name. The daughter was married
to Kittil Haugen, now living in Pelican Eapids, Minn.
IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 217
his name happens to appear as Hans Husemoen,
while the brother is Kleofas Hansemoen and the
brother's children are Halvor Kleofas, Knud Kleo-
fas, etc. (see note 198). Hans Husemoen's wife's
maiden name was Bergit Halvorsdatter Tveto; she
was from Aal Parish in Hallingdal.
In 1845 the settlement received other accessions
from Hallingdal. The list includes : Ola Bmnsvold,
Halvor Hesgard, Kristen Grimsgaard, Ole Skaalen,
Nils Roe, Ola Sando, Mikkel Bust, Svend Hesla,
Gjermund Maehtum, Aslak Eustad and Aslak Ulsak.
In 1846 about three hundred persons emigrated
from Hallingdal. How many of these came to Bock
County I am not able to say ; among them were, how-
ever, Erik Kolsrud and family, Ole Hei and family,
Nils Haugen, wife and six children, Knud Trostem,
Henrik Henriksen Trostem, Halvor Ness, Hans En-
gen, Kari Husemoen, Guttorm Boen and son, Ole,
Tollef Tollefsrud-Ballandby and sons Nils, Ola and
Amund, Henrik Bime, brother of Tollef, A. T. Beigo,
Timan Burtness and his brother John, Aadne Engen,
Kristen Megaarden, Lars Grimsgaard, wife and
family, Ingeborg Olsdatter Trostem, Asle Hesla,
and Asle Brunsvold. Many of the above had
families. The leaders of this party were the
three first named and Tollef Tollefsrude. They
were the owners of large estates in Norway
which they sold when they left for America.
They paid the passage for many who came from
Hallingdal that summer, but I cannot give the
names of these. The party of emigrants left Dram-
218 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
men in April by the ship Newmann, which took them
to Havre, France. Here they remained one month,
before the ship on which they were to sail was gotten
ready. They did not arrive to Eock Prairie until
October, having been six months en route.
In 1847 very few came from Hallingdal, among
them are mentioned Ole Onsgaard, Nils 0. Wikko, 199
and Osten Burtness. In the following year, how-
ever, there was a considerable immigration. Erik
K. Berg and his brother Truls Berg, Ole Trulson Ve
and Ole Gulsen (Trostem) with wife and son Gul
and daughter Guri, Erik Ovestrud, Tideman
Kvarve, Guttonn Megaarden, a Mr. Sagdalen and
wife, Kari, 20 Levor Kvarve and family of twelve,
and Knut Guttonnsen Tyrebakken. 201 There came
others from Hallingdal also in the years following.
I may mention here Ole J. Bakke and wife and Her-
brand K. Finseth (born in Hemsedal in July, 1830),
who emigrated in 1852 and lived three years on Eock
Prairie. They moved to Goodhue County, Minne-
sota, in 1855, as did also Knut K. Finseth and A. K.
Finseth, brothers of Herbrand; these together with
Halvor Hesgard, Aadne Engen and Christen Even-
son, who removed to Minnesota at the same time,
199 Nils O. Wikko was from Gol, HallingdaL He married Beret
Halvorson in 1854, and removed goon after to Worth County, Iowa.
He died in 1904, at the age of eighty-three, survived by widow and
six daughters.
200 They moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1853. He
died in 1894 and she in 1904, at the age of eighty-four.
201 Tyrebakken moved to Black Hammer, Minnesota, in 1854, when
he married Mari Haugejordet. He was born in 1823, in 1905.
IMMIGRATION TO ROCK PRAIRIE 219
were the first white settlers in the Town of Holden,
Goodhue County. 202 I may also mention Kittel 0.
Bund, born 1823 of parents Erik Sanderson and Mar-
git Euud, and who came to Rock County in 1850. A
few years later he moved to Northwestern Iowa and
in 1855 became a pioneer settler in Holdon, Goodhue
County, Minnesota, where he married Margrethe An-
dersdatter Flom in 1856. She was born in Aurland,
Sogn, 1824. She died in March and he in April,
1903. 203
The immigrants from Hallingdal settled chiefly
in Spring Valley, and Plymouth ; Beloit and Newark
townships were settled for the most part before the
Hallingdal immigrants began to come in larger num-
bers, yet some are located in Beloit Township. New-
ark is occupied largely by immigrants from Numedal,
as is also Beloit. While Eock Prairie was taken
possession of chiefly by pioneers from Numedal,
Land, and Hallingdal, there were also a few from
Telemarken, Sigdal and Eingerike, and one from
Valders among the pioneers of the forties. Of those
who came from Telemarken I shall mention Knut
Simon (born 1819), who located near Janesville in
1843. He removed to Eice County, Minnesota, in
1854, and thence to Pope County in 1865; died in
1905.
The single immigrant from Valders to locate on
202 Knut Finseth died in 1869. Herbrand Finseth married Guri
Ouri in 1867 ; he died in January, 1901, leaving wife and six children.
203 I gather these facts from an obituary notice, which speaks at
length in eloquent terms of the noble lives of this couple.
220 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Eock Prairie was Guul Guttonnson. He came in
1843 and is the first known American immigrant
from that district. He was born at Ildjernstadhaug
in Hedalen in 1816. About 1840 he had removed to
Modum; here a copy of Nattestad's journal fell into
his hands and he and Hans Uhlen and Anders
Aamodt 204 decided to emigrate. These three came
on the same ship that brought Kleofas Halvorson
and Peder Gaarder. Guttormson bought land half
way between Orfordville and Broadhead. He was
always called "Guul Valdris" for he was and re-
mained the only "Valdris" 205 there, for while he
wrote home urging his friends in Valders to come to
America, the immigration from Valders did not set
in before 1847-48 and by that time Eock Prairie had
been, as we have seen, taken up largely by immi-
grants from Hallingdal and Land. Guul Guttorm-
son 's oldest son, Guttorm Guul (Broadhead, Wis-
consin), born August, 1848, was probably the first
child born of Valdris parentage in America. I have
already spoken of the emigration of Syver Gaard-
er, 206 a "Valdris" who came with the party from
Land in 1849. They located at Albany in Green
County. These I believe were the only settlers from
Valders in this locality.
204 These two were the first to emigrate to America from Modum.
205 Valdris is the Norwegian appellation of a native of Valders.
206 Syver Gaarder 's daughter, Barbro, married Martin Johnson
(Nederhaugen) in 1855. Dr. J. S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, is their
oldest son; other children are: Ben Johnson, Orfordville, Wisconsin;
Mrs. Eev. Langseth, Glendorado, Minn.; Mrs. Eev. L. Njus, Mclntosh,
Minn.; Mrs. Stromseth, living on the homestead; Mandy Johnson.
CHAPTER XXVI
Economic Conditions of Immigrants. Cost of Pass-
age. Course of the Journey. Dura-
tion of the Journey.
In discussing the causes of emigration, we have
found that economic factors entered extensively into
operation. It was the desire for material better-
ment that prompted a very large proportion of Nor-
wegian emigrants to leave the land of their fathers.
The first five decades of Norwegian emigration was
a period in which the battle for existence among the
Norwegian peasant and the common man was none
too easy. Unfavorable economic conditions, the op-
pressive methods of the larger land owners, frequent
crop failure, often reduced the lesser farmers into
a condition of impoverishment. Even wealthy fam-
ilies found themselves burdened by debts from which
the future seemed to offer little hope of relief. By
the law of primogeniture the oldest son inherited the
estate. The sons of men of means, therefore, were
financially often no better situated than the cotter's
son, and were often forced to seek their fortune be-
yond the native village or district. These consid-
erations will make clear first that the great majority
of Norwegian emigrants to the United States were
at the time of emigration of small means ; they were
often very poor indeed. Their wealth lay in
222 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
the ability and the will to carve their way in a land
of greater promise. Their wealth lay also in their
thrift, in their ideals, and the moral fiber of their
race. Many of those who have succeeded best in
their adopted country came here well-nigh penniless.
To them poverty was no longer a curse when the
path of opportunity lay before them. But the above
considerations will also have indicated that Norwe-
gian immigrants of that early period were not al-
ways of the poor classes even though they came here
with little or nothing. Later Norwegian immigra-
tion has, it is true, generally been from among the
impecunious. But in that early period, especially
1835 to 1865, a very large number of the immigrants
came from families which general or special condi-
tions had suddenly so reduced to conditions which
became to them intolerable. And it was the hope
which America held out which inspired them with the
will to seek there the independence now no longer
theirs. We have already met with the evidence of
this in such families as Hovland (1835), Nattestad
(1837), Aadland (1837), Aasland (1838), Gravdal
(1839), Stabaek (1839), Gitle Danielson (1839),
Luraas (1839), Unde (1839), Heg (1840), Gaarder
(1843-49), Nils Haugen (1846), and many others.
We shall in the following pages meet with families
of considerable means from Numedal, Telemarken,
Voss, Eingsaker and elsewhere, of whom the same
is true ; and among the pioneers who came from Sogn
in 1844, 1845, and later there were many old fam-
ilies of property and prominence in their native
t
' ':
jV f
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 223
community. I stress this fact because some who
have formerly written about Norwegian settlements
in this country have never yet fully recognized the
full significance of this ; but I speak of it here espec-
ially because I have myself also failed to fully ap-
preciate this fact when last I wrote upon the subject.
What has been said here applies to the founders of
the settlements of Northern Illinois, of Eacine, Eock,
Dane and other counties in Southern Wisconsin, and
many of those who some years later established the
settlements in Northern Iowa and Southern Min-
nesota. On the other hand also some of those who
later became most substantial members of these set-
tlements were men whose transportation to America
was paid for by others that they might come and
get a start in life. These men emigrated prompted
by the desire of material betterment and in that aim
they have succeeded, and they have succeeded hon-
estly, often accumulating great wealth. 207
The second topic in the title of this chapter is
the cost of passage. I shall discuss this item briefly,
using concrete illustrations from our sources. In
that early period the voyage was made by sail- ships.
These continued to be used for a long time after
steam had come into use, clear down into the seven-
ties. The ticket was then generally somewhat
cheaper by sailing vessels than by steamship.
Passengers furnished their own board and bed-
ing, and they were required to bring a supply
207 It is only ' ' financial prosperity ' ' which we are here speaking
of, of course. The question of "success" is entirely a different one.
' **'
224 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
sufficient for ten to twelve weeks. 208 The price
of passage ranged between 33 and 50 spetiedaler,
that is between $25.00 and $38.00. Children un-
der fourteen travelled for half price; those under
one went free. The Luraas party (page 158 above)
paid forty-two speciedaler from Gothenburg to Bos-
ton, while the Nattestad party paid fifty dollars from
Gothenburg to New York in 1837. In 1839 the party
that came with Ansten Nattestad secured passage
for thirty-three dollars per person. This may be
regarded as normal; it was the price paid, e. g., by
Anders Tommerstigen and family from Christiania
via Havre, France, to New York in 1846. Those who
came in June from Sogn in 1844 paid twenty-five dol-
lars a person from Bergen to New York. The ex-
tremes are illustrated by two groups for the year
1839 and 1845 : The little group of immigrants who
came from Stavanger via Gothenburg to Boston with
Gitle Danielson in 1839 paid, it seems, sixty dollars
apiece, 209 while Peder Aasmundson Tanger and
others, ninety in all, who came in 1845 from Kragero,
paid only eighteen dollars apiece to New York.
The inland journey, generally in the early days
made by canal boat, varied greatly in cost, often
amounting to as much as fourteen dollars to Mil-
waukee or Chicago. But the additional toll inland
208 The regulations varying with different ships, Juno, which
brought the first party from Inner Sogn in 1844, did not accept any
passenger who had not provided himself with food supply for twelve
weeks.
209 i. e . $47. E. B. Anderson's First Chapter, page 313.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 225
frequently made the inland journey much more ex-
pensive than was the ocean voyage. One pioneer,
writing of this later, says that his whole journey
cost him ninety dollars. 21 In the fifties the inland
journey was made by railroad; the railroad ticket
from Quebec to Chicago or Milwaukee was eight dol-
lars.
The course of the journey has been incidentally
indicated above. During the first years it was usual-
ly by way of Gothenburg, sometimes via Hamburg,
not infrequently by way of Havre. The starting
point was Stavanger, Bergen, Skien, Drammen,
Porsgrund and Christiania, later other ports. New
York was most often the place of landing, but not
infrequently Boston, in isolated instances, Fall
Biver, Philadelphia and New Orleans. After 1850
sail-ships plied extensively between Scandinavian
ports and Quebec. 211 The inland journey from New
York went by steamboat to Albany, thence by canal
boat to Buffalo, a distance of three hundred and
fifty miles, which usually took twelve days but often
over two weeks. 212 From Buffalo the journey went
by steamboat over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee and
210 In American money, of which less than half for the ocean
voyage.
211 Of the trials and the hardships of the ocean voyage in the
thirties, forties and fifties, we can to-day have no conception. It
would, however, fall outside the scope of this work to discuss that
here. I may refer the reader to a well-written article by H. Cock Jen-
sen in Nordmandsforbundet, December, 1907, pages 53-66. See also
Holand's article, pages 56-60.
212 A good account of the character of this journey is given by
Holand, pages 65-74.
226 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Chicago, after 1842 usually to Milwaukee. Those
who took the Quebec route after 1850 were then
brought to St. Levi by the railroad company's steam-
boats, whence they went by rail to Chicago or Mil-
waukee, 213 a journey which generally took four or
five days, 214 over a distance of 1020 miles. Milwau-
kee-bound passengers were often shipped from Port
Huron by way of Lakes Huron and Michigan or were
taken by rail from Detroit across Michigan to Grand
Haven, thence by steamboat across Lake Michigan
to Milwaukee. 21S The latter was of course the short-
er and the favored route for immigrants whose des-
tination was "Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, or Minne-
sota. Immigrants who landed in Boston usually
went by steamboat thence to New York and from the
regular inland route as given above.
The duration of the journey was always a mat-
ter of great uncertainty. Intending emigrants who
came from the interior of Norway often had to wait
as long as two weeks at Bergen or Skien, as the
case might be, before the ships on which they were
to go sailed. The overhauling and putting in repair
of the storm-battered ships often took weeks. 216
The duration of the voyage across the Atlantic de-
pended of course largely upon the state of the
213 Via Montreal, Toronto, Port Huron and Detroit.
214 Billed-Magazin I, 123-124, article "Om Udvandringen, " by
J. A. Johnson Skipanes.
215 To Port Huron 189 miles, thence to Milwaukee 85 miles.
216 The author's grandfather, Ole Torjussen Flom, and party of
about fifty-three, from Inner Sogn, were obliged to wait in Bergen
nearly three weeks before sailing.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 227
weather. With this favorable a sail-boat would
usually cross the ocean in six or seven weeks, 217 but
in a voyage of such a distance it was practically cer-
tain that there would be stormy weather sometime
before the other side was reached. In his answer
to this question in Billed-Magazin I, page 123, John
A. Johnson wrote that the average length was seven
weeks, but he adds that those who crossed in that
time had no reason to complain. And he speaks of
the fact that emigrant ships have in rare cases taken
twelve to thirteen weeks.
The Nattestad party made, in 1837, an especially
short voyage of thirty-two days from Gothenburg to
Fall Eiver. I have no record of any other ship in
those early years which sailed so well as did Enig-
heden. Juno, the most rapid sailer on the Atlantic
in the forties, crossed in five weeks and three days
in May-June, 1844, which Kristi Melaas of Stough-
ton, Wisconsin, who was a passenger, says broke the
record for speed at that time. Ansten Nattestad and
party took nine weeks in 1839 with the ship Emelia
from Drammen. Nine weeks is the number which
many report as the duration of the voyage in the
forties. The party that came with the Luraas
brothers from Tin and Gitle Danielson from Sta-
vanger also in 1839 took nine weeks and three days
from Gothenburg to Boston. And Aegir took nine
weeks on its journey from Bergen to New York in
1837. The sloop Restaurationen we recall crossed
217 There was of course great difference in the gpeed of the boats.
228 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
in ten weeks. The so-called Brook-ship Albion
usually required from eight to nine weeks for the
voyage.
In stormy weather the voyage sometimes lasted
as much as fourteen weeks. The sail-ship Tricolor
took that long in April-July, 1845, the route being
from Porsgrund to New York. Ingebrigt Johnson
Helle, from Kragero, who was a passenger, writes
of the terrors of this journey (see appendix 2). On
a voyage made in 1848 Tricolor took fourteen weeks
and four days, according to interview with Kari
Gulliksdatter Mogen (from Flesberg, Numedal), who
was a passenger on the ship (see Billed-Magazin I,
page 388). The little sail-ship in which Nils Hansen
Fjeld and family came in 1847 took fourteen weeks
from Christiania to New York. 218
In this connection I shall cite from an article
by Dr. K. M. Teigen of Minneapolis, Minnesota, en-
titled "Pionerliv" (Pioneer Life). 219 He says:
In the days of the sail-ship a voyage across the At-
lantic Ocean was more of an undertaking than a journey
around the world now. Most of the summer might be
required for it if the weather was unfavorable. My
mother's party from Flesberg and Lyngdal parishes in
Numedal, took seven weeks and four days in 1843 with
the brig Hercules, Captain Overvind, between Drammen
218 For account of the voyage see Appendix 2.
219 The article forms one in a series of most interesting articles
bearing the general title "Blandt Vestens Vikinger" ('Mongst the
Vikings of the West) printed in Amerika in 1901 and 1902. Dr.
Teigen, son of O. C. Teigen, Koshkonong Pioneer of 1846, is a poet
and story writer of the first rank among Norwegians in America.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 229
and New York; my father's company from Sogndal in
Inner Sogn, three years later, lay for fourteen weeks heav-
ing and lunging in contrary winds between Bergen and
the promised land. And then came the journey by steam-
er up the Hudson to Troy, thence through the "canal"
and the sluices at Oswego by canal boats, which were
drawn with a snail's pace by horses, lazily moving along
the banks; then by way of the lakes by steamer again
westward to Milwaukee. For this journey of about a
thousand miles another month went by, without counting
the walk from Milwaukee to Koshkonong, lying seventy
miles distant in the wilderness, whither so many of the
earliest Norwegian immigrants were destined.
At the place of landing the immigrants were fre-
quently obliged to wait for several days before the
westward journey was begun. To Rock Prairie,
Koshkonong or Norway Grove, as the case might be,
required another week, and correspondingly more for
those bound for more westerly settlements. In all
the duration of the journey from Norway to the
settlement which was the immigrant's ultimate des-
tination was rarely made in less than nine weeks;
often it consumed as much as five months.
CHAPTER XXVII
Norwegians in Chicago, 1840-1845. A Vossing Col-
ony. Some Early Settlers in Chicago
from Hardanger.
On page 94 above I have spoken briefly of the
first Norwegian settlers in Chicago in the years
1836-1839. On page 150 mention was made of the
increase of the Chicago colony by the arrival of a
number of immigrants from Voss, Norway, in 1839-
41. As there indicated, however, many of those who
came during these years lived there only temporar-
ily ; we find them later as pioneers elsewhere, espec-
ially in Dane and La Fayette Counties, Wisconsin. 22
The same applies also to several of those who came
from Voss, Sogn, and Telemarken, to Chicago in
1843-1844 ; 221 these went mostly to Koshkonong,
Wiota or Long Prairie, others to the various parts
of the Fox Eiver settlement.
In chapter XXI above I have further related
some incidents from the life of some early Norwe-
gian settlers in Chicago. In the following pages I
shall merely try to give a brief account of new ac-
cessions to the Chicago colony between the years
1842 and 1850. It is estimated that there were in
220 I instance the families of Th. Saue and Kvelve who went to
Koshkonong, and Unde, Ulven, Skjerveim and Vinje who went to
Wiota.
221 For instance the Kaasa family went to Long Prairie in 1845.
NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 231
Chicago in 1850 3,000 persons of Norwegian birth;
relatively the number was therefore considerable in
that year. Yet I shall probably be right if I say that
the actual number of Norwegians in the city in the
year 1842 was very small, not more than in some
of the smallest rural settlements already established.
I assume that as the early Norwegian immigrants
came here with the intention of settling on a farm,
comparatively very few were induced to remain per-
manently in Chicago. Chicago and vicinity was not
particularly inviting at the time; the swamps and
marshes soon drove the incoming immigrants to the
more inviting and the far more fertile inland coun-
ties.
As residents of Chicago before 1839, we have
found Halstein Torison, Johan Larson, Nils Bothe
and wife Torbjor, Svein Knutson Lothe and wife
and two children, Baard Johnson, wife and five child-
ren, Andrew Nilson Braekke and Anders Larsen
Flage, both with families ; these were all from Voss
except Johan Larsen, a sailor who was from Kop-
ervik, a little couth of Haugesund, and Torison,
who was from Fjeldberg in Sondhordland. 222 Among
Baard Johnson's sons were Anfin, John and Andrew;
the first of these was a tailor in the employ of Simon
Doyle on Kinzie Street. 223 The first directory of
Chicago, published in 1839, gives a few more names
222 The Newbeny, whom Torrison worked for as a gardener was
the founder of well-known Newberry Library.
223 For this and many other facts in this chapter I am indebted
to Strand's History, pages 182-186.
232 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
of Norwegians. 224 We know that Lars Davidson
Beque lived there then; he seems to have lived in
the Cass Street Dutch settlement. His occupation
was that of a fireman on the steamboat George W.
Dole. There were two other Davidsons, Sivert 22S
and Peter ; in the latter we recognize our Per David-
son Skjerveim (see above p. 199). Other names in
the same directory are: Asle Anderson, musician;
Endre Anderson, laborer ; Eric Anderson, pressman ;
all three of whom lived at the same house on North
State Street, and were probably brothers; Canute
Lawson (Larson), city street carpenter and Iver
Lawson, who lived at 240 Superior Street.
But the directory does not give the name of
another Norwegian who, if the year of his arrival
is correctly recorded, must have been the first Scan-
dinavian resident of Chicago, namely David John-
son, who came in 1834. He was a pressman in the
employ of Mr. Calhoun, the publisher of The Chica-
go Democrat. David Johnson was a sailor, who
came from Norway to New York as a boy, locating
in New York in 1832, securing work as a press-
feeder. About this time Mr. Calhoun was planning
to install a cylinder press in place of the old hand
press at his printing establishment in Chicago. The
cylinder press was ordered from New York, Mr.
Johnson having accepted Calhoun 's offer as press-
224 A. E. Strand published some facts from this directory on
pages 183-184 of his work.
225 He was a carpenter. Mr. Strand thinks the three were broth-
ers. This is a mistake of course.
NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 233
man for him, he went to Chicago at the same time,
where he put up and operated the new press. The
Chicago Historical Society has among its documents
Mr. Calhoun's account-book for 1834, which gives
Mr. Johnson's name. 226
But there were other Norwegians in Chicago in
1839 who do not seem to have been found by the
census taker. Thus Steffen K. Gilderhus came there
from Voss in 1838 and his brother Ole K. Gilderhus
came in 1839. They lived in Chicago until 1844,
when they settled on Koshkonong Prairie, Dane
County, Wisconsin. Further Per Unde, Sjur Ulven
and Arne Vinje who came there in 1839 ; these three
settled at Wiota, Wisconsin, in 1841. Of this re-
moval I have given a full account above chapter.
Probably the earliest subsequent arrival from Voss
were Torstein Saue, wife and son Gulleik, who came
in the summer of 1840. They lived in Chicago until
1843, when they also went to Koshkonong. At
about the same time of the year came also Baard
Nyre, Mads Sanve, Ole Gilbertson, Brynjulf Eonve,
Klaus Grimestad and wife and Lars T. Rothe and
Anna Bakketun, all from Voss, and all of whom
were for some time residents of Chicago. Anna
Bakketun married a Mr. Nicholson (Nikolausen),
who died from cholera in 1849. From this marriage
there were two sons, Henry Nicholson, who served
throughout the war, and John G. Nicholson, who is
still living (Orchard Street). Torstein Michael-
226 Strand's History, p. 187.
234 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
son, who succeeded Halstein Torison in the employ
of Newberry, also came in 1840 or 1841. Michael-
son was from Voss where he was born in 1808; he
remained Newberry 's gardener for about thirty-five
years.
We have above seen that some of the early im-
migrants to Illinois were from Hardanger, Norway,
but the number was not large. We shall speak of
this immigration more in detail in connection with
the settlement of Lee County, Illinois. Here it will
be in order now to note briefly Hardanger 's contri-
bution to the Norwegian colony in Chicago in the
period under discussion.
In 1839 twenty-two persons emigrated from Ul-
vik Parish, Hardanger, and all of these came to
Chicago. They were: Gunnar Tveito, wife and
child ; Anders Vik, Johan Vik, Brynjulf Lekve, Lars
Torblaa, wife and two children, Nils Vambheim and
wife, Olav L. Mo, wife and two daughters and Lars
Spilde, wife and four children. 227 This party having
started out from Bergen left Gothenburg May 27,
landed at Fall Eiver, Massachusetts, August 2, took
boat to New York, thence via Buffalo to Chicago,
where they arrived August 25. 228 In Chicago they
suffered much hardship, many were taken sick and
died, among the latter Tveito 's and Vambheim 's
227 Facts gathered from Normandsforbundet II, where Eev. O.
Olofson of Ullensvang, Hardanger, discusses most interestingly the
early emigration from Hardanger to America (pp. 169-180).
228 The Chicago census for 1839 does not include the names of
any of this party.
NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 235
wives. The men secured work, some on the canal,
some on a schooner on the river, others as wood-
cutters in the forests about Chicago. Lekve and the
two Vik brothers wrote an account of their trials
which was published in Bergens Stiftstidende for
June 11, 1841, in which they advised against emigrat-
ing to America, and as a result there was no immi-
gration to this country from Hardanger again be-
fore 1846-1847. Very few of the later immigrants
from Hardanger located in Chicago.
Other arrivals during subsequent years were:
1841, Peter Nelson and Knut Larson Bo; 1842, J.
C. Anderson, and in 1843, Ole Kaasa and family, G.
A. Wigeland, Nils Bakketun and Bandver Lydvo
(b. 1813). Ole Kaasa moved from Chicago
to Boone County, in 1845, but one of his sons,
Jens, became a permanent resident of Chicago and a
leading member of the Norwegian colony of Chicago
during his life. Jens Olson, as he was known, was
born in 1824 in Siljord, Upper Telemarken. In the
early part of 1840 the family moved to Bamble Par-
ish in Lower Telemarken, whence they emigrated in
1843. They arrived in Chicago October 20 of that
year. The brother, Thore Olson, went out to
Boone County ; Jens settled permanently in Chicago,
where he lived till his death in 1907. In 1853 he
married Martha Anderson 229 at Capron, Illinois. 23
Jens Olson was a master mason and brick-layer,
229 She was born in 1827 at Stokebo in Levanger Parish, Diocese
of Bergen.
230 Mrs. Jens Olson died in 1895.
236 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
and he built Vor Frelsers Kirke 231 at the corner of
Erie and May Streets. Later he became a contractor
on a larger scale and erected a large number of
school houses in Chicago. He was an ardent sup-
porter of the Lutheran church and gave freely to its
cause.
Randver Lydvo 232 came to Chicago in October,
1843. In June, 1844, she was married to Lars Knut-
son Dykesten; the ceremony took place in Nils
Eothe's house and the ceremony was performed by
Eev. Flavel Bascum of the First Presbyterian
church. Lars Knutson died in the cholera epidemic
in 1849. Mrs. Knutson who is still living 233 is one
of the oldest Norwegian residents of Chicago.
In 1844 Bryngel Henderson and wife Martha
came to Chicago and became permanent residents
of the city, as did also Knut Iverson Glimme, Mrs.
Julia Nelson, Ellef G. Severtson 234 and John A.
Hefte. These were all from Voss; Severtson was
from Vossevangen. Ole Bakketun and family and
Sjur M. Saere, also with family, both from Voss, came
to Chicago in 1844, but lived there only one year,
when they went to Koshkonong.
The year 1844 also brought Chicago another
permanent resident from Voss, who later became
prominently associated with the commercial and poli-
231 Our Savior's Church.
232 She was the daughter of Anders Knutaon Lydvo and wife,
Martha (Kothe). Anders Lydvo died in 1860 and Martha in 1875.
233 She resides with her daughter, Mrs. Louis H. Johnson, at 235
Watt Avenue, Chicago.
234Ellev G. Seavert.
NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 237
tical life of the city. This was Tver Larson Bo, born
1821, in Voss, Norway, who came to Chicago that
year and not as generally found stated in or about
1840, 23S locating on the north side. Iver dropped
the surname Bo, and changed Larson to Lawson, so
that his name became Iver Lawson. He was one of
the organizers of the First Lutheran church in 1848,
located at that time on Superior Street between
Wells Street and La Salle Avenue. 236 Lawson took
a prominent part in the political life of early Chi-
cago, e. g., as member of the city council, and other-
wise. In 1869 he was a member of the House of
Representatives in the State Legislature. As legis-
lator his name is most closely associated with the
establishment of Chicago 's excellent system of parks ;
the creation of Lincoln Park in particular was due
in great measure to Lawson 's efforts. 237 Iver Law-
son's name is also associated with that of John An-
derson in the founding of Skandinaven, now the
largest and most widely circulated Norwegian news-
paper in this country. 238
The year 1845 brought a number of accessions
to the Norwegian colony of Chicago. Among them
Kittil Nirison, from Bo Parish in Telemarken, one
of the few from Telemarken who settled in Chicago
in the early days, Knud K. Harris ville and wife Ma-
235 So Strand, and after him Holand, p. 101.
236 Strand, page 217.
237 Brought out by Strand's investigation.
238 V. F. Lawson was also the owner of The Chicago Record be-
fore the Record and the Herald were combined about year 1898.
238 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ren Karine (nee Larson), Christian Lee, from Gaus-
dal, and Andrew Anderson, wife, Laura, and family
from Voss. This family included a son John, born
March, 1836, who is the well known founder and
owner of Skandinaven and president of the John A.
Anderson Publishing Company. 239
Andrew Anderson died of the cholera in 1849,
and to the son John, then thirteen years old, fell
the task of supporting his mother and baby sister,
which he did at first by peddling apples and carry-
ing newspapers. Then he became "printer's devil"
and soon learned the art of distributing and setting
type. 24 In the following years he was successively
connected with The Argus, The Democratic Press
and The Press-Tribune. In 1866 he launched a paper
of his own, Skandinaven, which at first a small sheet
issued weekly has grown until, through its daily,
semi-weekly and weekly issue, it is now the largest
and politically the most influential of Norwegian
newspapers in the country. Mr. Anderson has en-
gaged extensively in the publishing of books, issuing
a far larger number of books a year than any other
Norwegian- American publisher. In this connection
it is to be especially mentioned that he has also in
recent years done excellent pioneer work in the pub-
lishing of certain educational works, as school and
college texts of Norwegian literature, thereby facil-
239 There were three sons, but one died at sea, and another died
on the journey from Albany to Buffalo.
240 Strand's History, page 266.
NORWEGIANS IN CHICAGO 239
itating materially instruction in this field in our col-
leges and universities.
In succeeding years the Norwegian colony in
Chicago grew rapidly. Already in 1850 it was con-
siderable; to-day there are more Norwegians in
Chicago than any other city in the country (see also
footnote 443). They resided in the early days for
the most part on the north side, south of Chicago
Avenue, between the lake and the present Orleans
Street. Later the region of Wicker Park became a
Norwegian center. To-day they are found very ex-
tensively in the vicinity of Humboldt Park and Lo-
gan Square, the business center is along West North
Avenue. 241
Among the earliest Norwegian settlers of Chi-
cago now living is to be mentioned finally Mrs.
Martha Erickson who come to this country in 1841.
She is the daughter of Bjorn Bjornson, who accom-
panied Kleng Peerson to America in 1825. For ac-
count of this see above page 50. The other twin,
there referred to came to America in 1866 ; her name
is Mrs. Bertha Fuglestad. They are both living in
Chicago enjoying excellent health at the age of
eighty-eight. Bjorn Bjornson settled in Rochester,
New York, where he died in 1854. 242 On their
241 Strand, p. 180. See also above page 50.
242 For above facts I am indebted to Mrs. Eric Boss of 217
Mozart Street, Chicago, a daughter of Mrs. Faglestad. Mrs. Erick-
son 's children: Mrs. Robert S. Carroll, Otto G. Erickson, Samuel
Erickson and Alex Erickson. Mrs. Fuglestad 's children are: Mrs.
Anna Boss, Thomas B. Fuglestad in Chicago, Peter A. Fuglestad,
Forest City, Iowa, and Mrs. Mary Jacobson in Beltram, Minnesota.
240
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
eighty-fifth birthday in 1906, the twin sisters held a
family festival at the home of Mrs. Eric Eoss at
which four children and one grandchild of Mrs.
Erickson were present and Mrs. Fuglestad's four
children, eighteen grandchildren and fifteen great
grandchildren.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Earliest Norwegian Settlers in the Township of
Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin
I have above spoken of the fact that Knut H.
Roe was one of the party that emigrated with John
Luraas from Tin, Telemarken, in 1839. These two
men became the first Norwegians to settle in the
townships of Pleasant Spring and Dunkirk respect-
ively in 1843. Roe had lived for a time in La Salle
County, Ilinois, going to Racine County, Wisconsin,
in 1842, as we have seen above. In the fall of 1841
a few of the settlers in Racine County had travelled
west as far as Koshkonong Prairie, for the purpose
of inspecting the uninhabited country there, of which
they seem already to have heard from friends. In
the townships of Albion and Christiana, these met
and spoke with those who had come there from Jef-
ferson Prairie in 1840.
The favorable report of these explorers relative
to the fertility of the soil and the general character
of the country on Koshkonong created considerable
restlessness among the pioneers at Wind Lake, in
Racine County, and many decided to remove to Dane
County. Among these were Knut Roe and John
Luraas. We shall first follow the fortunes of the
former. As soon as the snow was gone with the end
of the winter of 1842-43, Roe walked on foot to Kosh-
242 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
konong, where he visited the different parts of the
prairie, and selected a spot on which to settle. Then
he walked back to Eacine County. John Luraas and
family also having decided to remove to Dane
County, the two families secured a team for the
overland journey ; they reached their destination on
one of the last days in May. "Two weeks before
St. John's eve," writes Roe, "my first home, a hut
of brushwood and leaves, supported at the four cor-
ners by an oak, was ready sufficiently so that my
wife and child and myself could find protection
therein against rain and wind. * ' This he built in the
southeast corner of section twenty-two in the Town
of Pleasant Spring, at a point about two miles and
a half west of Utica. Knut Eoe, his wife, Anne, and
family were the first white settlers in the township.
An interview with Eoe which the editor of Billed-
Magazin prints will therefore be of interest. He
says: "I often received visits by the Indians, and
the many deep paths in the ground showed that the
son of the wilderness often held forth in the region
about me. In their marches between the Lake Kosh-
konong and the four lakes which have made Madison
famed far and wide for its beauty, the Redskins
often pitched camp close to my brushwood hut.
Sometimes I accompanied them on their hunts, They
never caused me any trouble, but on the contrary
were always ready to be helpful. There was game
in plenty. Almost daily I saw herds of deer, flocks
EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 243
of prairie chickens, and I was often awakened at
night by the howling of the wolf.'*
In the autumn Roe built a log cabin; in this
cabin he and family continued to live till 1870. Dur-
ing the earliest years, he writes, he was obliged to
drive as far as Whitewater, thirty miles east, or
Madison, a distance of eighteen miles, for flour. At
Lake Mills, twenty-two miles, there was a saw-mill.
After a time the settlers began to sell some wheat;
this had to be hauled to Milwaukee, seventy-five
miles away. Their only means of transportation at
that time was the Kubberulle, or block-wheeled wag-
on, drawn by oxen, much of the way through forest,
where a way had to be cut by the axe. Two weeks
after Roe's settling, Ole K. Trovatten came from
Muskego and located on the farm later owned by
Gunder J. Felland. Trovatten, who had been a
school teacher in Norway, had emigrated from Laur-
dal, Telemarken, to Muskego in 1840. He was, there-
fore, the second Norwegian to locate in Pleasant
Spring. He, however, left for Cottage Grove that
same fall. See below, page 252.
The next arrivals were Osmund Lunde and his
brother-in-law, Aslak Kostvedt, both from Vinje in
Telemarken. The latter bought land three miles
southeast of West Koshkonong Church, near Trovat-
ten 's place. Lunde lived at first with Kostvedt;
thereupon he bought land in section three. Some
years later Lunde sold his farm to Kittil Rinden,
244 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
oldest son of Kittil Einden, Sr., and moved to Min-
nesota, whither Kostvedt also moved.
On the third of August a small group of immi-
grants arrived and selected a home and settled di-
rectly west of West Koshkonong Church, on section
fourteen. These were Knut A. Juve, 243 his brother,
Knut Gjotil (or Joitil), and his sister, Tone Lien,
then a widow. Juve owned an estate in Telemarken,
which he sold upon deciding to emigrate, in May,
1843. They sailed on the brig Washington, which
carried eighty-six passengers, mostly from the par-
ishes of Hvideseid and Laurdal. 244 They landed in
New York on July fourth. It was the intention of
the members of this party to settle in Illinois, but
in Milwaukee they were advised against doing so;
they were told that many who had settled in Illinois
had later moved to Wisconsin and bought homes
there. Many remained in Milwaukee, some went di-
rect to Koshkonong, while others, including the Juve
party, went to Wind Lake, in Racine County. Knut
Juve was not pleased with Wind Lake. One day he
met a pioneer settler from the Town of Christiana,
Dane County, who, when he noticed Juve's down-
cast condition, said to him : * ' Go farther west ; not
until you get to Koshkonong are you in America."
Juve acted upon the advice ; he and his brother and
sister started west soon after, arriving in the Town
of Pleasant Spring, as we have said, on the third
243 Knut Juve was born in 1799. Knut Joitil in 1803.
244 Most of them in fair circumstances says Juve.
EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 245
day of August. Half a mile west of where the church
was built two years later, they built their hut of
brushwood, thatched with straw.
"Our furniture," says Juve, 245 "consisted of
a few chests, that were used both as table and chairs,
while the bed was arranged on the ground on some
twigs and grass." Here they lived till October,
when they made a dugout, in which they lived till
the following summer. Both Juve and Joitil were
soon, however, taken ill with the climate fever. In
the interview from which we have already cited, he
speaks of how many a time during his illness he
longed back to the old home, kindred and friends in
his native land. In the summer of 1844 a log cabin
was built, and not long after Joitil and the widowed
sister also had erected log cabins of their own in his
immediate neighborhood. In the spring of 1844
Juve broke two acres of ground and raised a little
corn and potatoes ; the next summer he raised enough
of grain and potatoes for family use ; the third year
he was able to sell a little. Such were the beginnings
of agriculture in the wilderness.
About the middle of August a large number
came and located in the settlement. Among these
were Gunleik T. Sundbo (b.1785), with wife and
three sons, two of whom were married and had fam-
ilies. 246 Others who came were: Tostein G. Bringa
{b. 1817), with wife and son, Halvor Laurantson
245 Interview in Billed-Magazin, 1870, page twenty-four.
246 Torkild Sundbo and wife, Margit, later moved to Sun Prairie.
246 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Fosseim (b. 1810), and family, his brother, Ole L.
Fosseim, and Ole K. Dyrland (b. 1819). 247 Sundbo,
Bringa, Fosseim and Dyrland all bought land not
far from Knut Juve and Knut Joitil. During the
next two months the following arrived : Torbjorn G.
Vik, with wife and son Guttorm, and daughter Anna
from Siljord, Aslak E. Groven (b. 1812), and fam-
ily, from Laurdal, Ole E. Nasset (b. 1796), and fam-
ily, and his brother Aadne, from Vinje, and Gunnar
T. Mandt, from Moe, Telemarken. 248 Groven set-
tled about a mile east of the West Koshkonong
Church near the Christiana Township line; the two
Naeset brothers also located near there. This group
of immigrants came via Racine County, where they
had remained a few weeks resting after the journey,
as the guests of Even Heg. They arrived on Kosh-
konong Prairie in the latter part of September, hav-
ing walked from Muskego. Gunnar Mandt first came
to Pleasant Spring, but as he did not have any-
thing 249 with which to buy land, as he says, he worked
for others there and elsewhere for five years. From
his autobiographical sketch 250 I cite the following
account of the method of threshing in those days :
"There were no mowers, no reapers, binders or
threshing machines, everything had to be done by hand.
247 Dyrland says there were 211 immigrants on the ship on which
he came, and most of these, it seems, were from Telemarken.
248 His brother, also named Gunnar, came to America in 1848;
T. G. Mandt, inventor of the Stoughton wagon, was a son of the latter.
249 Endre Vraa paid his passage to America.
250 Published in Amerika and Slcandinaven in January, 1906.
EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 247
When we were to thrash, the sheaves of wheat or oats
were placed on the ground in a large circle. Then three
or four yoke of oxen were tied together with an iron
chain; one man stood in the center of the circle on the
sheaves of grain and drove the oxen around over the
grain. These would then stamp the kernels out of the
straw little by little, and so we kept on, until we had the
sheaves replaced by new ones and got the straw away.
For cleansing the grain thus secured, we used short basins
or bowls such as were made in Norway formerly. After
a while we got a kind of fanning-mill, mower, reaper,
etc. But they were imperfect and cannot be compared
with the machines and implements used nowadays."
Gunnar Mandt worked in Chicago during the
years 1844-45, where he got seventy-five cents a day,
but had to furnish his own keep. In 1846 he return-
ed to Pleasant Spring; in April, 1848, he married
Synneva Olsdatter Husebo, from Systrond, Sogn,
who had come to America with her parents in 1844.
Having secured his own farm (on section nine) he
farmed there until 1875, when he moved to the vil-
lage of Stoughton. Gunnar Mandt died in Decem-
ber, 1907, his wife having died a month earlier.
The greater part of nine sections (13-15 and 22-
27) in this part of the Township of Pleasant Spring,
was settled before the winter of 1843-44. Knut Roe
says that, while he was alone there when he came in
June, he had neighbors on all sides before winter
came, although the distance between the pioneer cab-
ins was, of course, considerable. The year 1844
brought a large influx of settlers, chiefly from Tele-
248 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
marken, but in part also from Voss. Among them
I shall here speak only of Hendrik Hseve and family,
from Voss, who located somewhat farther north, on
section one, on the property later owned and occu-
pied by his oldest son, Ole Haeve (Havey) ; Anfin 0.
Holtan and family from Sogn, who settled in the
southeastern part of the town on section thirty-six,
where the son, Ole Holtan, later lived ; and Ole Tver-
son and his wife Angeline and son Lewis.
There were a few others, as Aanund 0. Drot-
ning, from Vinje, and Knut H. Teisberg, from Laur-
dal, Telemarken, who came to America in 1843, but
they, too, settled elsewhere first; we shall have oc-
casion to speak of them again. Finally, relative to
Knut Koe, I may add that he and his wife continued
to live on the old homestead till their death ; he died
as early as 1874, but she lived till 1908, being then
a little over ninety years of age. The homestead was
owned by the oldest son, Helleik. On the occasion of
Mrs. K. Koe's ninetieth birthday, all her children,
eight grandchildren and twenty-five great-grand-
children, gathered at the old home to commemorate
the event. 251
We shall now turn to Dunkirk Township, the
earliest settling of which also dates from 1843.
251 Ole K. Eoe of Stoughton, is a son of K. Roe; other children
are: Mrs. F. Johnson, Mrs. Ole Thorsen, Mrs. O. Swerig and Mrs.
J. King. Since the above was written I have learned that Helleik
Eoe has died (April, 1909).
CHAPTER XXIX
The First Norwegian Settlers in the Townships of
Dunkirk, Dunn, and Cottage Grove, in
Dane County, Wisconsin.
The first Norwegian settler in the Town of Dun-
kirk was John Nelson Luraas. Together with Helge
Grimsrud he had explored Dunkirk and surrounding
country in the fall of 1842 and selected a site on
which to settle. His father, Nils Johnson Luraas
(b. 1789), arrived from Norway in June, 1843, and
came with his son direct from Muskego to Kosh-
konong, where the party arrived on June sixteenth.
An American by the name of John Wheeler had set-
tled in the town two weeks earlier, being the only
white man there. 252 Luraas settled on section three,
about two miles east of the present city of Stough-
ton, and three miles south of where his companion,
Knut Roe, located in the Town of Pleasant Spring.
Only about a week after Luraas 's arrival, two more
families, who also came from Muskego, arrived and
settled there, namely, Helge Sivertson Grimsrud,
wife Birgitte, son Sigurd, and Hans P. Tverberg
and wife Ingeborg, and John P. Tverberg. The f or-
252 Herein I accept the authority of Billed-Magazin. The History
of Dane County, however, says that John Luraas was the first white
settler in the town, Chauncey Isham and John Wheeler coming soon
after.
250 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
mer had emigrated from Norway (via Drammen and
Gothenburg) the year before, while Tverberg had
come in 1841. They were all from Tin, in Tele-
marken. Helge Grimsmd possessed considerable
means in Norway and owned a fine estate, which he
sold upon emigrating. Grimsrud bought land in
section two, directly east of Luraas, while Tverberg
settled a mile south of Luraas in section ten. 253 The
next settler was Gaute Ingbrigtson Gulliksrud (b.
1815), from Tin, Telemarken, who arrived there
five weeks later, that is, in August. 254 He came in a
a party of about one hundred and twenty persons,
mostly from Telemarken, embarking at Skien, and
sailed via Havre de Grace to New York. Most of the
party went temporarily to Muskego. Gulliksrud did
not like Muskego, and soon after set out for Kosh-
konong. Having selected a location for his home,
he bought, for $200, a hundred and sixty acres of
land, near his countrymen, chiefly in section ten, and
erected his log cabin a short distance north of Hans
Tverberg 's home.
There were then in the fall of 1843 four Nor-
wegian families settled in the Town of Dunkirk. In
253 Helge Grimsrud 's wife's parents and a sister had emigrated in
1841 and located in Muskego. Upon returning to Muskego from
Koshkonong in the fall of 1842, Grimsrud went direct to Milwaukee
and bought 240 acres of land, being the first to purchase land in Dun-
kirk. He died in 1856.
254 Two of hi maternal uncles and a brother had emigrated in
1839 and located in Muskego; letters from these induced them to
emigrate.
FIRST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 251
the following year a considerable number of immi-
grants came from Norway (Telemarken, Voss, and
Sogn) but Dunkirk did not receive many of those
who came that year; they settled mostly in Christi-
ana or Pleasant Spring, while some now began to
find homes in Cottage Grove and Dunn, immediately
north and west of Pleasant Spring.
The first Norwegian settlers in the Town of
Dunn were Nils Ellefson Mastre and Lars Mastre,
who had come to America in 1845; they located in
Dunn, just across the Pleasant Spring line soon after
arriving ; American families had settled in the town-
ship before them. Ingebrigt Johnson Helle, from
Kragero, was the next settler there, but he didn't
enter Dunn until 1849 ; he emigrated in 1845 but had
worked in Buffalo four years.
John 0. Hougen, from Solor, Norway, was the
first Norwegian to settle in Cottage Grove, where he
came in the summer of 1842, consequently a year be-
fore Roe and others came to Pleasant Spring. Hou-
gen had been a baker in Christiana and usually went
by the name of John Baker (or Bager). Some years
later he removed to Coon Prairie, in Vernon County,
Wisconsin. Bjorn Tovsen Vasberg, from Laurdal,
Telemarken, also located in Cottage Grove in the
summer of 1842. Nothing seems to be known of his
antecedents, and little that is favorable seems to be
known of him during his brief career in the town-
ship. He later moved to Minnesota, where he lived,
it seems, a roving life, being at last found dead on
252 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
the public highway. He was a notorious, and as far
as I know, the only instance of the vagabond and
ne'er-do-well among the Norwegian pioneers of
those days. The next Norwegian settler in the Town
of Cottage Grove was Halvor Kostvedt, 255 from Vinje
Parish, who emigrated in the spring of 1842 ; he lived
for a year in Christiana Township, and came to Cot-
tage Grove in the summer of 1843 and made a dugout
on section twenty-four, in which he lived the first
year. Others who came on the same ship were Alex-
ander 0. Bsekhus (or Norman), Ole A. Haatvedt and
Osmund Lunde. The first of these located in Chris-
tiana, but later moved to Minnesota; Ole Haatvedt
settled on Jefferson Prairie, whence some years later
he went to Iowa, while Asmund Lunde, after re-
maining a year in Muskego, came to Pleasant Spring,
as we have seen, in the summer of 1843. Ole Tro-
vatten, whom we have already met, both in Muskego
and in Pleasant Spring, came to Cottage Grove in
the fall of 1843. Trovatten is reputed to have been
a man of unusual natural gifts and considerable el-
oquence. He served as deacon in West Koshkonong
and Liberty Prairie churches for many years, a ca-
pacity in which he had officiated also in Norway. He
later affiliated with the East Koshkonong Church,
which congregation he, with 0. P. Selseng, repre-
sented on the occasion of the founding of the Nor-
255 Called also Halvor i Vinje.
EARLIEST NORWEGIAN SETTLERS 253
wegian Synod in East Koshkonong Church, on Feb-
ruary 5th, 1853. 256
Asmund Aslakson Naestestu, with wife and fam-
ily, came to Muskego in the fall of 1843, where he
worked as a blacksmith for six months. He removed
to Koshkonong early the next spring, going direct
to Halvor Kostvedt, with whom he lived in the dug-
out the first summer. In 1847 he bought land in the
same locality. Naestestu 257 is said to have been
famed in Norway as a mechanical genius of rare
talent. On one occasion King Carl Johan was shown
a gun made by the farmer's son in Vinje; the King
afterwards sent Asmund Naestestu a silver cup as
a token of his pleasure over the excellent workman-
ship of the gun. Asmund Naestestu bought a farm
a mile and a half northwest of Nora Post Office in
3854, where he, in the course of time, became the
owner of two hundred acres. Among others who
came to America with Asmund Naestestu in 1843 and
later settled in Cottage Grove, were Naestestu 's
nephews, Aslak and Halvor Olson Baekhus (or
Gjergjord as they called themselves in this country),
256 Page 15 of Kort Uddrag of den norske Synodes Historie, by
Bev. Jacob Aal Ottesen, Decorah, 1893.
257 Asmund Naestestu was the son of Aslak Nsestestu, a man of
much native ability and influence in Vinje. Anna Naestestu, a daugh-
ter of Aslak, married Ole Baekhus; they were the parents of the
Baekhus (Gjergjord) brothers of whom we shall speak in the next
chapter.
254 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Bjorn 0. Hustvedt, Halvor Donstad and Knut Teis-
berg. 258
Finally I shall add the names of Bjorn A. Ston-
dall and Bjorn Stevens Hustvedt, two of Cottage
Grove's well known early pioneers, who emigrated
in 1843 and stopped through the winter in Muskego ;
thence they came to Koshkonong, locating in Cottage
Grove in the spring of 1844. 259 Bjorn Stondal was
from Vinje, in Telemarken, being born on the farm
Naestestu in Bograend in 1823. He sailed on the ship
Vinterflid from Porsgrund in the spring of 1843, as
he relates. 260 They were eleven weeks on the ocean
before reaching New York. The objective point was
Milwaukee and the Muskego settlement; here they
stopped during the winter with an American by the
name of Putnam, seven persons in a hut that was
fourteen feet long and ten feet wide. In the spring
of 1844 he walked west to Koshkonong, where he de-
cided to buy eighty acres of land in section thirty-
two in southern Cottage Grove, and begin the occu-
pation of a farmer. Four years later he married
Gunhild Bergland. Bjorn Stondal died in April,
1906, at the age of eighty-three, survived by his wife
and nine children.
258 They came in the same ship as Knut Joitil and Anund Drotn-
ing, who, as we have seen, located in Pleasant Spring. Knut Teis-
berg moved from Cottage Grove to Pleasant Spring in 1846.
259 Hustvedt wrote his name Ben Stevens.
260 According to interview printed in Amerika.
CHAPTER XXX
The Expansion of the Koshkonong Settlement into
Sumner and Oakland Townships in Jefferson
County. Increased Immigration from Tel-
emarken. New Settlers from Kragero,
Drammen and Numedal.
In our discussion of the settling of Koshkonong
by immigrants from Numedal in 1840-42, mention
was made of Tore Knudson Nore and wife Gjertud
among those who arrived in 1842. Tore Nore did
not, however, locate in Christiana or Albion town-
ships, where his compatriots had settled. He select-
ed land about three miles southeast of where Gunnul
Vindeig had located, across the Jefferson County line
in what later was namer Sumner Township. Tore
Nore, who was then a man of about forty years of
age and had a large family, had emigrated in the
spring of 1842, but had not, as the immigrants from
Numedal so far had generally done, gone to Jeffer-
son Prairie or Bock Prairie, but had stopped in
Muskego. Being dissatisfied here, he decided to go
to Koshkonong. Taking his family with him, he
arrived there about October first of that year. Soon
after he erected his log cabin in Sumner, 261 being,
therefore, the first Norwegian to settle in that part
261 This log-cabin was still standing not many years ago.
256 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
of Jefferson County, his being the second family to
enter the township of Sumner. 262 Here he lived till
his death in 1868, at the age of seventy-six. Gjertrud
Nore died in 1884. Three sons are prosperous farm-
ers living in the neighborhood of the father's orig-
inal homestead. A daughter, Gro, married Peder
Larsen Svartskuren (or Svartskor) in Norway, in
June, 1842. They became the second Norwegian
family to settle in the township. Peder Svartskuren
was a native of Konigsberg, Norway, being, as it
appears, the third emigrant to America from that
locality. 263
In an interview with Svein Nilson printed in
1870, Peder Svartskuren mentions Bjorn Anderson
(Kvelve), Amund Hornefjeld, Gunnul Vindeig and
Thorsten Olson as being the only Norwegians living
in the neighboring towns of Albion and Christiana
when he came there. He speaks of Sumner Town-
ship as being a heavy primeval forest, with only here
and there a stretch of open country. "There was an
abundance of game, deers and prairie chickens, and
the lake (Koshkonong) and creek were full of fish.
The Indians were roving about the country, but they
did no one any harm and were kindly and ever ready
to help."
Mrs. Svartskuren, who is now eighty-seven
years old and quite feeble, has, since 1902, lived at
262 An American family had come there before him.
263 The first emigrants from Kongsberg were Thomas Braaten,
and Halvor Funkelien.
*4 j;
EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 257
Leeds, North Dakota, with a son, Carl, he having
sold the homestead after the father's death, and
moved to Viroqua, Wisconsin, and later to Leeds.
Peder Svartskuren was among the founders of the
East Koshkonong Church; he was a man of strong
character, who enjoyed in large degree the love and
the respect of his fellows.
The Town of Simmer did not receive many acces-
sions from Norway. In the same interview Svart-
skuren says : ' ' There are now twelve Norwegian fam-
ilies, besides six Swedish families. The rest are
German and English. ' '
The Town of Oakland, Jefferson County, also
received a few settlers at this early period. The
earliest arrival there was, I believe, Tollef Baekhus
and wife, Aasild ; they came to Koshkonong in 1843
and located two miles east of the village of Bock-
dale. They were from Laurdal Parish, in Upper
Telemarken, had been married in 1838, and had two
children when they came to this country. Tollef
Baekhus died in 1897, the widow lived until 1906, be-
ing ninety years old at the time of her death. A son,
John Baskhus, now owns the homestead. 264
In Chapter XVIII above we gave an account of
the founding of the Koshkonong Settlement, which
began in the townships of Christiana, Deerfield and
Albion, in 1840-41. We spoke briefly of the founders
and of those who came and joined the three groups
of pathfinders in the following year. In Chapter
264 They had twelve children in all.
258 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
XXVIII a similar record has been given of the events
which led to the settling of the Town of Pleasant
Spring by four families in 1843, and by others in
the following year. We have also observed how the
towns of Dunkirk and Cottage Grove became settled
in 1843, and that Dunn received its first Norwegian
settlers in 1844. The towns of Sumner and Oakland,
in Jefferson County, in the eastern extremity of
Koshkonong Prairie also received a small contingent
of Norwegian immigrant settlers in 1842 and 1843
respectively. The original nucleus and the subse-
quent expansions of the settlement, east, west and
north, are thereby indicated.
In four years after its inception, the settlement
covered an area of about fifteen square miles. But
the settlers lived, for the most part, far apart; geo-
graphically they had made ample provisions for a
great settlement in this garden spot of Wisconsin.
While there were as yet (in 1843) not more than a
hundred and fifty individuals in the settlement, there
was room for thousands more without going beyond
the boundary as already laid out. The beginning
made in a few years was remarkable, but the growth
in the years immediately following was even more
wonderful. For a time Koshkonong was the desti-
nation of four-fifths of those who emigrated from
Norway.
The year 1842 records the beginning of the great
development, which in five years resulted in the set-
tling of almost the whole of this vast area by immi-
EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 259
grants from Norway. The next year was that of the
great influx from various points in Telemarken, es-
pecially, Siljord, Laurdal and Hvideseid, although
there were considerable numbers also from Vinje
and Tin. The year 1843 was the one in which the
Telemarkings took possession of Koshkonong; they
gradually selected their permanent homes in Pleas-
ant Spring, extending into Dunkirk and Cottage
Grove and the northeastern sections of Christiana
(as Eggleson, Bjoin, Hauge, Borgerud, Bosbon and
Kingland). The Numedalians came only in limited
numbers after 1842 and did not spread much be-
yond the original center around East Koshkonong
church in southeastern Christiana and northern Al-
bion townships. Those on the extreme west were
Levi Kittilson, Levi Holtan, 0. 0. Lenaas and Tore
E. Smithback, all coming somewhat later than those
in the eastern extremity. The immigration from
Numedal, which began in Eollaug, is after 1842 al-
most confined to Flesberg, a parish which furnished
no immigrants before 1842.
In the year 1843, there came to Koshkonong,
35 families and many single persons, or a total of
182 individuals. This was the year of heaviest im-
migration to Koshkonong. The year's influx is sig-
nificant in the large number of districts in Norway
represented, Telemarken leading as has been pointed
out above. In addition to 9 persons from Numedal,
and a small contingent from Voss, the first party
of fourteen persons arrived from Kragero. These
260 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
first immigrants from Kragero were: Bjorn 0.
Rom, Kjostolf Tollefsen Hulderoen 265 (b. 1821),
Even E. Buaas (b. 1799), Abraham K. Ronningen,
Erick K. Ronningen, Halvor E. Dahl (b. 1802), wife
Anne, and family, Torbjorn K. Ronningen, Glus P.
Tyvang and wife, Audi, and Peder K. Ronningen.
From Leikanger in Sogn 266 Anna L. Eggum (or Eg-
gene, b. 1811), who in 1845 married Sjur C. Droks-
vold, from Voss; from Lier came Knut 0. Lier, as
also the widow Anne Thorstad, Knut Asdohldalen
and Gabriel Bjornson (from Drammen) ; from
Drangedal came Baruld J. Strandskougen and fam-
ily, from Sandsvaerd, Ellef A. Berg, from Skauger,
Halvor J. Stubbenid, from Rogen, Lars P. Haukelien
and family, from Holte, Tarald E. Midbb'e, from
Gjerpen, Peder H. Moe, and from Hallingdal, Even
Olson.
We have noted the fact above that there came
for the first time in 1843 a group of immigrants
from Flesberg Parish in Numedal. We shall note
here briefly who these were. For the facts I am
indebted to Mrs. Levi Holtan, formerly of Utica,
at present of Stoughton, Wisconsin. The name of
the ship on which these people came, Mrs. Hol-
tan cannot remember, but it was commanded by Cap-
tain Overvind; the first mate was Friis. In the
party of ninety persons were : Halvor Kjb'len, Juul
265 Came to Muskego in 1843, went back to Norway and returned,
settling in Koshkonong in 1846.
266 There was one immigrant from Aurland, Sogn, in 1843, but
he stopped the first winter in Muskego. See next chapter.
EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 261
Hamre and wife Anne, Tostein Ullebaer and Halvor
Aasen, who went to Jefferson Prairie, 267 Gulleik
Laugen, who stopped in Bochester, but soon after
came west, locating on Bock Prairie, Paal ("Spelle-
man") Lund, Guldbrand G. Holtan, a widower, his
brother Ole G. Holtan, 268 Knut K. Bakli and Kittil
G. Bakli and families, Ambjor Olsdatter and Syn-
nove Kristoffersdatter Bekkjorden from Lyngdal
Annex of Flesberg. This was the ship on which
also Per Svartskuren and wife Gro, Knut Lier and
Baruld Johnson came on. 269 In the same party emi-
grated also Klemet Larson Stalsbraaten and wife
Gunild, and his brother Halvor Stalsbraaten (Kra-
vik) from Sigdal in Numedal. Halvor Stalsbraaten
took the name Kravik from the estate where he had
worked five years before emigrating. Beverend
Kasberg writes me, citing Halvor Kravik, that they
(the Stalsbraatens)
"Bought tickets for America at Konigsberg Fair, left
Drammen May 6 ult, 1843, arrived at New York July
fourth, ninety passengers on the ship." * * * "The com-
pany of immigrants went from Milwaukee to Muskego.
Halvor Kravik and a young boy from Sandsvaerd walked
to Koshkonong, arriving Friday evening. Monday morn-
267 Rev. K. A. Kasberg, of Spring Grove, Minn., writes me that
Halvor Kravik in speaking of some of these people says Halvor Aasen
went to Eock Eun as did also Paal ' ' Spellemand. " He also adds
the name Gunnar Springen who, he says, went to Eock Prairie.
268 As I learn through Eev. G. A. Larsen.
269 The name of the ship, as we learn elsewhere, was Hercules.
See above page 228.
262 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ing Halvor was at work for one of the Englishmen further
south. Kravik took a claim in 1844. During the winter
he staid with Gunnul Vindeg, sleeping in the part of the
house occupied at the time by Rev. Dietrichson, while the
parsonage was being built."
The rest of the party also came to Koshkonong
a short while after, except those who went to Bock
County. Ole G. Holtan (b. 1821) and Ambjor Olsdat-
ter (b. 1821) were married a few weeks after arriv-
ing; Ole Holtan died in 1851, leaving wife and two
children, Anna and Ole. Anna later became the wife
of Levor Kittilsen Fjose (Levi Kittilsen) well known
farmer and prominent in the councils of the West
Koshkonong Church. 27 Ambjor, widow of Ole G.
Holtan, married Nils Torgerson Grotrud in 1852 ; he
had come to America in 1849. 271
We have, on page 183 above, spoken of Lars J.
Holo, who was the earliest immigrant from Bings-
aker (1839). From Bochester, New York, he came
to Muskego, Bacine County, Wisconsin, in 1841; in
1843 he located permanently on Koshkonong. His
son Johannes also settled on Koshkonong, as also the
sons Lars and Martin Holo. The latter now owns
the farm originally purchased in Albion Township
270 Levi Kittilsen died suddenly in 1907 ; the widow is living
(at Stoughton) ; a daughter, Andrea, is married to Eev. Abel Lien,
Ada, Minn.; a son, Carl, is in Nome, Alaska. Dr. Albert N. Kittil-
sen, another son, owns valuable mines at Nome, Alaska; he is living
in the State of Washington.
271 Nils Grotrud assumed the farm name Holtan and is there-
fore Nils T. Holtan. He located first on the Holtan farm south of
Utica. About 1868 the family settled two miles east of Utica.
EXPANSION OF KOSHKONONG SETTLEMENT 263
by Bjorn Kvelve. Halvor Kravik (b. 1820) was the
son of Lars A. Stalsbraaten and wife Maria. In 1845
he married Kristi Guldbrandson, who had come to
America in 1842. They bought land and settled per-
manently about three-quarters of a mile south of
East Koshkonong Church at what came to be called
Kraviklnaugen (the Kravik hill). The homestead
has now for many years been occupied by the oldest
son, Lars C. Kravik. Since about 1899, Halvor and
his wife lived with their son-in-law, Eev. K. A. Kas-
berg, in Stoughton, Wisconsin, later in Grand Forks,
North Dakota, now for several years past at Spring
Grove, Houston County, Minnesota. Mrs. Kravik
died a year ago; Mr. Kravik in February, 1909.
Kjostolf Hulderoen (Hulroya), who came to
Muskego in 1843, went back to Norway two years
later, but returned to America in 1846, settling on
Koshkonong, at Cambridge. In 1848 he married
Haege 0. Sube, who had come from Telemarken to
this country that year. In 1853 he started a general
merchandise business in Bockdale, Dane County,
where he lived till his death in 1889. The widow is
living with her oldest daughter Mrs. John Halvorson
in Eockdale. A son, Charlie C. Tellefson, one of
Dane County's prominent democrats, resides at Uti-
ca, Wisconsin.
Gabriel Bjornson was one of the few who came
to Koshkonong from the region of Drammen. He
married Gunhild Grotrud, sister of Nils T. Holtan
(Grotrud). Bjornson is said to have been the first
264 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Norwegian to be admitted to the bar in this coun-
try. He died in Ada, Minnesota, in 1889 ; he was at
that time County Attorney of Norman County.
There were two families from Voss, who had im-
migrated earlier among those who settled permanent-
ly on Koshkonong in 1843, namely Styrk Olson Saue,
who, we have seen, came to America in 1837, and
Gulleik Torsteinson Saue, who immigrated in 1840;
they had lived most of the time in Chicago. There
Styrk Saue married Eli K. Vsete ; she died at Deer-
field about 1885. Styrk died in 1894. Gulleik Saue
(b. 1821) married Donant Bolje in 1844. They
purchased land in northern Christiania, not far from
Cambridge ; here, and in neighboring parts of Deer-
field Township, Gulleik Thompson, as he called him-
self, became in the course of time the owner of about
1,000 acres of farm land. At the time of his death
he was Koshkonong 's wealthiest farmer. His son,
Hon. T. G. Thompson, occupies the old home and
owns the estate.
CHAPTER XXXI
The Coming of the First Large Party of Immigrants
from Sogn. New Accessions from Voss.
It has been noted above that one of the earliest
pioneers at Wiota, La Fayette County, Wisconsin,
was from Vik Parish in Sogn, namely, Per Unde
who emigrated in 1839. In 1842 Ole Unde came and
joined his brother at Wiota. In 1843 Ole Schasr-
dalen 272 came to America from Aurland, Sogn; he
was the first emigrant from that parish. It has been
said that there was a party of immigrants from
Sogn in 1843, but this I doubt as I have been able
nowhere to verify it. Ole Schaerdalen went to Mus-
kego where he stopped the first year, then he joined
the party of Sognings who came that year and passed
through Muskego en route for Koshkonong. Per
and Ole Unde wrote letters home to Vik Parish; in
response to these letters, full of praise for Wiscon-
sin, there came many immigrants from Vik during
the next two years. Ole Schaerdalen in a similar way
aided in promoting emigration from Inner Sogn.
In Aurland Parish lived Ole Tor jus sen Flom ; he
had travelled much in Norway and come in contact
with people who had relatives and friends in Amer-
272 So written, but pronounced Schirdalen in the dialect. My
father is the authority for the statement that Schaerdalen was the
first to emigrate from Aurland.
266 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ica, and who themselves were planning to emigrate.
He was well acquainted with Schaerdalen and he had
been in Vik and knew, it seems, the Unde family.
Ole T. Flom (b. 1794) was the son of Torjus Flom
(b. about 1765) generally called Torjus i Midgarden,
who was the owner of a valuable estate at Flaam
near Fretheim. There were three sons, Gulleik, Ole,
and Knut ; by the right of primogeniture the estate
would fall to the oldest son, Gulleik Flom. Ole Flom
had selected for purchase a place then for sale, in
Voss, and it was his intention to remove to Voss.
He was, however, prevailed upon not to do this by
his father who told him he would give him half of
the family estate. When, however, the time came,
the temptation to follow the general practice and give
the estate intact over to the oldest son became too
strong for the father and he gave it all to Gulleik
Flom.
Ole T. Flom then began thinking about emi-
grating to America. In 1843 he went to Vik Parish
and while there he and Anfin J. Seim agreed to go
to America. After he returned to Aurland others in
the parish also began to make preparations for leav-
ing for the New World and the fever spread to Fres-
vik and Systrond and up as far as Sogndal Parish.
In the spring of 1844 a considerable number from
these regions and from Vik stood ready to emigrate.
Ole T. Flom, wife Anna and sons Ole and Anders,
Ivar H. Vangen and Knut Aaretuen (i Aureto),
IMMIGRANTS FROM SOGN 267
wife Anna 273 and three children left Aurlandsvan-
gen on the 12th of April. They had engaged pas-
sage on Juno, Captain Bendixen, but were obliged
to wait in Bergen two weeks before sailing. In the
meantime others who also were to go on Juno joined
them at Bergen. Among them were the Melaas fam-
ilies from Norum Annex of Sogndal Parish; they
were the first to emigrate from that district. This
party was composed of the following eleven mem-
bers: Mons Lasseson Melaas (b. 1787) and wife
Martha ; Kristen L. Melaas, wife Aase and daughter
Anna; Johans K. Bjelde and wife Kristi; Ole A.
Slinde, wife Martha ; 274 and two children.
The following persons from various parts of
Sogn also embarked on Juno: Anders Engen, Per
L. Gjerde, Michel J. Engesaeter and wife Synnove
from Systrand, Ole I. Husebo with wife Ingeleiv and
children, and Ole A. Vssrken (Grinde) from Leikan-
ger, Nils T. Seim, wife Mari and children (3) and
Thomas T. Seim from Laerdal, and the aforemen-
tioned Anfin I. Seim from Vik with his wife Britha
and five children. 27S There were about sixty per-
sons on Juno when it sailed in May. At the same
273 She was a daughter of Ole Schserdalen.
274 A daughter of Mons Melaas. Their husbands took the name
Melaas in this country.
275 Eelative to the personnel of this party and the sailing of
Juno I am especially to Kristi Melaas, with whom I have had several
interviews on the question. She is the oldest surviving member of
the party and is still living at Stoughton, Wisconsin. My father,
Ole O. Flom, has also supplied many facts; he was thirteen years
old at the time of immigration.
268 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
time two other ships sailed from Bergen with immi-
grants for America; they were Kong Sverre, Cap-
tain Vingaard and Albion, Captain Brock. A very
large number of those who embarked on these ships
also were from Sogn, especially Vik, nearly all these
going to Long Prairie (see next chapter). Among
those who came to Koshkonong were: Torstein
Thronson Selseng and wife Kari, Knut Grjerde, Ole
Selseng, Jakob I. Gjerdene, from Sogndal, Elling 0.
Flatland, wife and children, and Sjur S. Olman.
Kong Sverre and Albion sailed three days be-
fore Juno, but arrived in New York several weeks
later. Juno made the journey to New York in five
weeks and three days, which, says Kristi Melaas,
broke the record for fast sailing at that time. ' * The
Brock ship" took eight weeks for the journey, while
Kong Sverre was on the ocean twelve weeks. The
party that came with Juno was therefore the first
large group of Sognings to land in Ajnerica, the
date of their landing being St. John's Eve. From
New York they went by canal-boat to Buffalo, where
they arrived on the fourth of July. Here they were
put on board an old steamboat, which the immigrants
feared would go to the bottom at any moment of
the journey, says Mrs. Melaas, over the lakes to
Milwaukee, where they arrived at the end of July. 276
276 Kristi Melaas called the boat ' ' ein rota boot skiklce-leg. ' '
She says the agent who had charge of the journey to Milwaukee was
a man by the name of Hohlfelt, a typical immigrant "runner," it
seems, whom she styles as "ain rigele bedragar, ain stakkars Mann
va han. "
IMMIGRANTS FROM SOGN 269
Kristi Melaas says the agent weighed their goods at
every stopping place and charged toll each time.
There was no interpreter on the boat who could
voice their objections. The ticket from New York
to Chicago was $14, but by additional charges along
the route, the expense of the inland journey was
greater than that from Bergen to New York. In
Milwaukee most of the party, including Ole Vendelbo,
Ole T. Fiona, Knut Aaretuen and Michel Engesaeter
went to Koshkonong via Muskego, but the Melaas
family went to Chicago, as did Ole Husebo and one
man from Vik who had intended to go south to Mis-
souri, 227 and they were all met in Chicago by one
who was to bring them to Missouri. It seems, how-
ever, that the departure hither was delayed for
weeks by their guide who was addicted to drink. In
the meantime the Melaas families becoming discour-
aged and having met a certain Ole Bringa who urged
them to come to Koshkonong, decided to go where
the rest of the party had already directed their
course. They then bought two yoke of oxen and
drove to Koshkonong, stopping in Pleasant Spring
Township about two miles northeast of Lake Kegon-
sa.
Soon after arriving at Koshkonong they were
met by Ole Trovatten who aided them in the selec-
tion of land and who accompanied Johans and Ole
Melaas to Milwaukee to purchase the land selected.
The two brothers bought each forty acres at first in
277 This man we learn was Anfin Seim (see next chapter).
270 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
section three ; later Johans bought out Ole and eighty
acres more adjacent to the acquired forty. Ole A.
Melaas thereupon located on section thirty-five in
Cottage Grove Township, a mile northeast of his
brother's property. The Melaas families all located
in that immediate neighborhood. Ole T. Flom
bought eighty acres in Cottage Grove Township, a
mile north of Door Creek where also Ole Vendelbo
Olson settled, purchasing forty acres. Olson, how-
ever, sold this out to Ole T. Flom not long after, and
moved to Minnesota. Nile Seim also located near
there, while Per Gjerde settled in section two in
Pleasant Spring, near the Cottage Grove line. Ole
I. Husebo settled in Christiana Township and Sjur
Olman settled a mile north of Nora Post-office. Ivar
Vangen located on Bonnet Prairie, Michel Engesaeter
lived a few years on Koshkonong, then removed to
Norway Grove. Knut Aaretuen settled in Kosh-
konong, but went west (to Minnesota) after some
years. Anfin Seim, who was from Vik, went with the
Melaas families to Chicago, and thence to Long
Prairie, Boone County, Illinois (see next chapter).
The only family from Vik to locate in Koshkonong
that year was that of Mons Halringa, who settled in
Pleasant Spring, a mile or so southwest of Utica ; the
homestead being that later occupied by his son
Simon.
The immigration to Koshkonong in 1844 was
thus principally from Sogn, and it is to be noted that
a considerable number of these settled in the north-
IMMIGRANTS FROM SOGN 271
ern extremity of the settlement, north of Door Creek
and Nora. At the same time there were new acces-
sions from other districts, especially Voss and Laur-
dal in Telemarken, while from Eollaug came that
year Gisle H. Venaas and Anfin A. Haugerud.
Among those who came from Voss I shall name here
the brothers Nils and Sjur Droksvold, Ole Droks-
vold, Henrik 0. Haeve, Erik V. Bio (Williams), Erik
S. Fliseram, and Knut E. Eokne ; all these had fam-
ilies.
Among earlier immigrants from Voss who locat-
ed in Dane County in 1844 were Ole and Steffen Gil-
derhus; the former had immigrated in 1839 while
Steffen came in 1838. As has been observed above,
Lars D. Eekve, who came to America in 1839, did not
actually settle in Koshkonong until 1844. Kokne
and Venaas settled in Christiana, the former three
miles west of Cambridge, the latter two miles north-
west of Eockdale. Most of the Vossings, however,
located in Deerfield Township, south and west of
the village of Deerfield. "We shall now turn to the
immigrants who came from Sogn with Kong Sverre
and Albion in 1844 and did not settle in Wisconsin.
CHAPTER XXXII
Long Prairie in Bo one County, Illinois; a Sogning
Settlement.
In the vicinity of the present village of Capron,
Illinois, a few Norwegians located in 1843, forming
the nucleus of what later came to be known as Long
Prairie. This settlement is located only a few miles
south of Jefferson Prairie (which extends into Illi-
nois) and is about sixty-five miles distant west from
Chicago. The earliest Norwegian settlers here were
Thor Olson Kaasa and Thov Knutson Traim, his
wife Ingebjorg and sons, Knut, Kjetil, and Ole, from
Siljord in Upper Telemarken. Thor Kaasa was the
son of Ole Kaasa and wife Margit, who immigrated
in 1843 with a family of nine children, of whom Thor
was the oldest. We have spoken of their coming on
page 235. Among the other children the sons, Gjer-
mund, Jens, Jorgen, and Kittel, and daughters,
Guro, Aase, Emelie and Kristense, also moved to
the settlement in 1845. Both Ole Kaasa and his wife
died of cholera in 1854; Jorgen Kaasa settled in
Winneshiek County in 1852, while Thor Kaasa
moved to Filmore County, Minnesota; Jens located
permanently in Chicago.
In 1844 there came five persons from Siljord,
Norway, namely Bjorn Brekketo 278 and wife Guro,
278 Knut Brekketo, a son of Bjorn Brekketo, is living at Capron
at present.
LONG PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS 273
her brothers Jens and Steinar, and Johannes Kleiva.
Bjorn Brekketo died early and the widow married
Ole Oreflaat. Not many more immigrants from Tel-
emarken located at Capron. In 1844-45 natives of
Sogn took possession of Long Prairie, and the set-
tlement has ever since remained preeminently a
Sogning settlement.
We have observed above that of those who came
from Sogn on the ship Juno in 1844, Anfin Seim and
family did not locate in Koshkonong, but went to
Boone County, Illinois; they were the only ones of
Juno 's passengers to settle in Illinois. On the other
hand a considerable number of those who came on
Kong Sverre and Albion located at Long Prairie.
Among them were the following who came with the
Albion: Ole J. Aavri, wife Britha and daughter
Inga and sons Johans and Andres. 279 Ivar S. Eis-
lauv and wife Eli, a daughter of Ole Aavri; Lars
Johnson Haave, wife Bandi, daughter Britha, and
two sons Joe (John) and Ole; Andrew Olson Stad-
hem (Staim), wife Sigrid, two sons and four daugh-
ters, Olina, Britha, Aase, and Inga ; Ole Stadhem and
family; Ivar I. Haave, wife Barbro and sons Inge-
brigt and Elling ; Endre H. Numedal and wife Helga,
daughter of Ivar Haave; Ole Berdahl and family;
Ingebrigt N. Vange, wife Britha, and three daugh-
ters, and Ole Vange.
With the Sverre came : Anders H. Numedal and
wife Aagot, Ole Tistele, Ole 0. Tenold and wife
279 Andres Aavri soon after returned to Norway.
274 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Sigri, Ole P. Tenold, Ole J. Orvedal, wife Eagnilda,
and three daughters, 28 Lars 0. Folie, Joe Folie, who
died of cholera in Chicago, Ivar Folie, Lars Jensen
Haave, with family and Ingebrigt J. Fuglegjaerdet.
Besides these there were on both ships a number of
young unmarried men and women whose passage
was paid for by Lars Johnson Haave and Joe Folie,
who may perhaps be regarded as the leaders of this
party. Most of those named were men of means,
and some of them were owners of valuable estates
which were of course sold and converted into cash
upon emigrating to America. Albion took eight
weeks for the voyage. Kong Sverre took twelve.
The former arrived in New York about July 25th.
From New York they took the usual inland route
to Chicago, their destination being Wiota. But at
Belvidere in Boone County, they met Thor Olson
Kaasa, who advised them strongly against going to
Wiota, which, he said, was two hundred miles from
a market. La Fayette County was moreover noth-
ing but hills, and he gave such an unfavorable des-
cription of that locality, that the immigrants decided
to accept his suggestion and go to Long Prairie,
where they were told there was plenty of level and
fertile land only seventy miles from Chicago. A few
were deputed to wait at Belvidere for those who
were coming on Kong Sverre, and inform them of
the change in plans ; the rest accompanied Kaasa to
280 One of whom married Ole Tenold ; they moved to Calmar,
Iowa. The Orvedal family all moved to Winneshiek County in the
fifties.
LONG PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS 275
Boone County, 281 where also soon after the second
party came. Thus by the autumn of 1844 the settle-
ment numbered about one hundred individuals. 282
In the year 1845 about fifty persons settled
near Capron. It has already been observed that the
Kaasa family moved out there that year from Chi-
cago. 283 Others came directly from Sogn, Norway,
the recruiting region being Vik Parish exclusively.
In that year three ships left Bergen again with im-
migrants principally from Sogn, especially Aurland
and Vik. Those who came from Aurland went to
Koshkonong, as also many of those who came from
Vik. One of these ships was Albion, Captain Brock,
the passengers of which went, most of them, to Long
Prairie.
Eelative to the voyage of Albion, Elim Elling-
son of Capron, who was on this ship, tells me the
following incident which occurred in mid-ocean.
"One day a boat carrying seven or eight men, rather
ugly in appearance, evidently Spanish pirates, approached
us from the west, and their leader demanded to speak with
the captain. They said they came from the New Found-
land coast and wanted to send some letters back. There-
upon they veered about and rowed back to their ship
which lay some distance to the west, put out nine boats
with a large number of men and rowed back toward our
ship. The captain, suspecting their purpose and realizing
281 Anfin Seim, who had come on Juno, was in Chicago when
they came there; he joined them there when they started for Wiota.
282 Some of them moved away a few years later as had already
been indicated in the notes on the preceding pages.
283 The family numbered ten persons.
276 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
that we would be helpless before an attack of pirates,
turned the ship around and sailed back for one whole day
and night. In the meantime a considerable tumult arose
on board, axes and guns being gotten in readiness and
many carried up stones from the ballast. We succeeded,
however, in escaping, and, after sailing a day and a night,
we turned back and arrived safely in New York. Here
we learned that recently a ship had arrived at port, the
masts of which had been entirely destroyed by guns from
a pirate attack."
Mr. Ellingson in telling this, added that it is
doubtful what fate might have awaited them, had not
the captain promptly turned the ship about and suc-
ceeded in escaping what most certainly would have
been a similar attack.
Among those who came on that ship at the same
time, and who located at Capron, were: Johans
Dahle from Voss, his wife, Ingebjor, and son, Ole ; 284
Lasse Ellingson Aase (b. 1808), wife Gjori Ravsdal
and five children, Eagnild, 285 Elling (Elim), (b.
1835), Nils, Endre and Britha; Andres E. Aase, wife
and two sons ; 286 Anders 0. Torvold, Johannes
Lie (now living in Goodhue County, Minnesota), and
Johanna Stadhem. John Benson of Capron tells
me that his grandmother, Martha Numedal, a widow,
284 A son Andres Dahle was not in the ship, says Elim Ellingson,
and probably did not come therefore until the next year.
285 Who married Sjur 6'lman, who also came in 1844 and settled
in Cottage Grove Township, Dane County.
286 Andres Aase and family soon after moved to Dane County,
Wisconsin, and settled near Cambridge; they finally located perma-
nently in Winneshiek County, Iowa.
LONG PEAIRIE, ILLINOIS 277
came there in 1845 or 1846, and also the following:
Joe Sande, who was married to a Miss Aase, Edlend
Myrkeskog, wife Eli and daughter Ingebjor, 287 and
Ole Myrkeskog, who is living at Capron yet at the
age of eighty.
The Long Prairie Settlement continued to grow
for a decade. Space does not, however, permit
printing here the complete list of later arrivals, kind-
ly supplied me by Elim Ellingson and John Ben-
son. 288 We shall now speak briefly of the growth
of the old settlement of Muskego.
287 Edlend Myrkeskog died about 1850, and the widow later
moved to Iowa.
288 Mr. Benson came there in 1851.
CHAPTEK XXXIII
The Growth of the Racine County (Muskego) Settle-
ment, 1843-1847. Personal Notes.
In Chapter XV we discussed briefly immigration
to Racine County in 1841-1842. The period of larg-
est growth of the settlement was between 1842 and
1847 ; an especially large party came in 1843. After
1847 the arrivals that became permanent residents
were few and scattered. In the early fall of 1842
there arrived at one time a party of forty persons.
They had embarked at Langesund about May 30th,
were over eleven weeks on the ocean, arriving in
New York August 16th. Here they met Elling Eiel-
son, who accompanied them to Albany; three weeks
later they landed in Milwaukee. Among others
there were the following persons: Hermo Nilsen
Tufte and family from Aal in Hallingdal, Johan
Landsverk and family from Tuddal, Telemarken,
Sondre N. Maaren and wife and his brothers Ostein
and Nils from Tin, Osten Gr. Meland also from Tin,
Tostein E. Cleven and Aanund Bjaan (Bjoin) and
family who were the first to emigrate from Siljord.
Of these several remained only temporarily; thus
Anders Dahlen went to Winnebago County, Wiscon-
sin, about 1848, in company with Ole Myhre, an immi-
grant of the year 1843. Kjittel Busness, who was a
brother to the said Ole Myhre 's wife, also remained
KACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 279
in Racine County only a few years, then lie went to
Stoughton, Dane County.
Sondre Maaren settled on section 34, Town of
Norway, where he and his wife lived in a dug-out
for a time; later, selling out to a Mr. Sawyer, they
moved to Jefferson Prairie and ultimately to Cresco,
Iowa. Aanund B join died in 1847 ; the son Halvor,
then eighteen years old, walked to Koshkonong with
the view of selecting land and settling there, and the
rest of the family moved there that same year.
Johan Landsverk, who was a brother of Ole Lands-
verk, an immigrant of 1838, settled on Yorkville
Prairie and remained there till 1854, when he moved
to Sande in Chickasaw County, Iowa, where he lived
till his death. A son, Peder J. Landsverk, born
1840, occupied the homestead later ; he died in Janu-
ary, 1908. Hermo Nilson Tufte and family located
on section 31 in Raymond Township; here he lived
till his death.
As has been said, Tufte came from Aal Parish,
Hallingdal, and was not only the first emigrant to
America from Aal, but it seems, also the first from
the Valley of Hallingdal. The Tufte farm lay in
the extreme north of the valley close up under the
mountains ; the region is extremely cold, much of it
covered by snow the whole year round. The family
was extremely poor; of a pious nature and fervid
adherents of Hans Nilsen Hauge. Besides the
father and mother there was a son, Nils, and a
daughter, Sigrid. The latter, in whom the piety of
280 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
the mother had found strong expression, was attract-
ed to the young lay preacher, Eielson, and in July
the next year became his wife. The son, Nils, mar-
ried in 1865 a daughter of Ole Sanderson in Perry
Township, Dane County, and lived on the old home-
stead until he died about 1901. The daughter, Julia,
married Thomas Adland of North Cape, Racine
County, and another daughter, Betsey, married 0. B.
Dahle of Perry, Dane County. Hermo Nil son and
his wife both died in the latter part of the sixties.
Three different parties of immigrants, nearly
all from Telemarken, came to Eacine County in 1843.
One, the so-called Wigeland party, left Skien early
in the spring by ship commanded by Captain Bloom,
sailing to Havre, France. The second party, going
about the same time, sailed out from Skien by the
Olius, Captain Bjornson, also going to Havre. Of
the third party we shall speak below.
At Havre those in the first party seem to have
engaged passage on an American ship Argo, a five-
masted sailing vessel loaded with Swedish iron bound
for New York. While Olius was laid up for repairs,
the American captain began cutting prices, offering
at last to take the new arrivals to New York for nine
five-franc pieces each (or about $8). Many did not
dare to take passage on the Argo, fearing that some
trick was being played on them, but most of them
went. Argo proved a good sailer, reaching New
York four weeks ahead of Olius. There were, how-
ever, long delays in New York and Buffalo, so that
EACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 281
the immigrants did not reach Milwaukee before Aug-
ust 15th. Among those who came on the Argo were :
Arentz Wigeland and wife Gunild, his aged father
Andrew Wigeland, and his brothers George and
Andrew, and two sisters ; Halvor Pederson Haugholt,
with wife Tone and four sons and two daughters,
Gunild and Ingeborg ; Ole Overson Haukom and fam-
ily, eleven in all ; Anders Jacobson Bonningen, wife
Kjersti and three sons; 289 Jens Hundkjilen and
Anders Smekaasa; Amund S. Sotholt, his brother,
Soren S. Sotholt, Sven S. Klomset; Lars Tinder-
holt; Nils H. Narum, Halvor Nisson, John Maaren,
Nils Kue, John Kossin, John Husevold, all with fam-
ilies ; Osten Ingusland, John Husevold, Hans Tveito,
Svein Nordgaarden, Gjermon T. Nordgaarden, Ma-
thias H. Kroken, wife and children, his wife's sister
Anne and their mother Sissel; Ole 0. Storlie, with
wife, 29 four sons and two daughters ; Kjittil Hau-
gan and family ; Gunuld K. Maaren, Gro Grave and
her mother; Halvor I. Doksrud, wife and two sons,
Halvor and Ingebret. All these, about one hundred
in all, were from different parts of Telemarken. Be-
sides there were sixteen persons from Saetersdalen
as follows: Tollef Gunnufson Huset, wife Haege
Olson and six children from Bygland, Augun Berge
and wife from Vallo, Kjogei Harstad from Valid,
289 One of whom, Jacob, now lives in Racine.
290 It was Mrs. Ole Storlie, who was accidentally shot by Soren
Bakke, which unfortunate event seems to have been the chief cause
why Bakke, almost crazed with grief, gave up pioneer life and re-
turned to Norway.
282 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Tollef Knudson and wife and three children from
Holestad Parish, and Tolleif Rbisland and Ole Num-
meland from Vallo, the first emigrants from Sseters-
dalen to America. All but the last two of these went
to Muskego. 291
Arentz Wigeland, born 1812, who may be regard-
ed as the leader, had sailed for seven years between
Boston and the West Indies and along the American
Atlantic coast. Passing the winters in Boston he
had learned the English language, and in 1842 re-
turned to his home in Bamle, Norway, to bring his
family to America. He became the chief promoter
of the considerable immigration from Lower Tele-
marken that year. Wigeland settled in Yorkville
Township. In 1844 he married Gunild Pederson ; he
died in 1862. The daughter Maren (b. 1845) mar-
ried John W. Johnson in 1865. Mrs. Wigeland died
in Racine in 1897. Haugholt (b. 1799) was from
Saude Parish in Lower Telemarken. He settled on
section 18 in the Town of Raymond ; there he died in
1882, his wife 292 died in 1876, aged 79 years. Their
oldest son Ole, who was drowned in the fifties in the
Norway marshes, was the first person buried in the
Yorkville Cemetery.
Nels Narum was from Stathelle in Bamle Par-
ish; he settled in Norway Township on section 20.
Both he and his wife died in 1887, about eighty-seven
years old. Hans Tveito (Twito) settled in the part
291 Koisland and Vigeland settled at Pine Lake.
292 She was Gunild Wigeland ; they were married in 1844.
RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 283
of the settlement that lay in Waukesha County; he
moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1855 and in
1866 to Filmore County; Halvor Nissen who was
from Bamle, also settled in Waukesha County. Ole
Overson was from Hviteseid Parish; when they
came to Norway they lived for some time with John
Dale (who had come from Norway in 1837 with Mons
K. Aadland and Ole Eynning) . In 1845 he preempt-
ed land in section 34, where his son Frank Overson
lived until quite recently.
Our third party of emigrants were from Upper
Telemarken, mostly from Siljord Parish. They
came on the ship Vinterftid. 293 Among those in the
party were: Knud S. Kvistrud and Kari Berge
from Tin, Egil 0. Cleven and family, and a cousin
Knut Haugan, wife and two daughters from Lange-
lev; Bjorn Stondal, Ole 0. Hedejord 294 and wife Liv,
three daughters, Esther, Ida and Etta, and two sons,
Ole and Edward; Torbjorn G. Vik and family, who
later moved to Koshkonong ; Aanund Drotning who
also went to Koshkonng that same year ; 29S Aase
293 Many of the facts relative to this party were gathered on a
visit at the home of Mrs. Ingeborg Eoswall, Whitewater, Wisconsin,
August 12, 1908; Mrs. Eoswall does not remember the name of the
Captain of the ship.
294 Ole Hedejord died on Koshkonong; Liv is still living, with
her grandchildren on the old homestead, near Waterford, in the Town
of Yorkville.
295 Edwin Drotning of Stoughton tells me that his father Anon
remained a while in Milwaukee before going to Koshkonong, where
he located, as we know in 1844.
284 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
and Ingeborg Olson 296 from Mandal, Telemarken.
John Homme from Siljord, father of Reverend G.
Homme, founder of the Indian School at Wittenberg,
Wisconsin, also came at the same time, as also Ole
Myren and wife Bergit, and Torgrim Busness and
wife Anne from Tin, who moved to Springfield
Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1851.
That year also Ole Heg, son of Even Heg and a
brother of Colonel Hans C. Heg, 297 came and settled
in Racine County, as also Knud Langeland from
Samnanger, who in 1866 became the first editor of
Skandinaven founded that year by John Anderson
in Chicago. Knud Langeland lived at first in Muske-
go, later at North Cape, Racine County. In 1849 he
married Anna Hatlestad (born in Skjold Parish,
Ryfylke, in 1830), whose parents Jens 0. Hatlestad
and wife Anne had immigrated in 1846, and settled
in the Town of Norway. Knud Langeland was also
the first editor of Amerika, which began publication
in Chicago in 1884. During the last years of his life
Langeland lived in North Cape and in Milwaukee,
where he died in 1888 ; his wife died in 1908, at the
296 These two sisters married Tostein and Gulleik Cleven in 1844.
Tostein and Aase Cleven lived in Yorkville till 1866, when they moved
to Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin. Tostein died in 1893,
Aase in 1905, leaving four daughters and three sons: Mrs. Astri
Drotning, Mrs. Ed. Drotning, both of Stoughton, Wisconsin, Mrs.
Anna Howe, Mrs. Edwin Bjoin, Eice Lake, Wisconsin, Ed., Thomas,
and Henry. Thomas Cleven occupies the farm.
297 Ole Heg is still living in Burlington, Racine County, Wiscon-
sin.
RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 285
home of her son, Dr. Peter Langeland with whom
she had lived since her husband's death. 2n
There came three persons from Voss to Racine
County in 1843, namely, Knut S. Skjerve (b. 1808),
and wife Kari, and his unmarried sister, Brita Sel-
heim. Skjerve located in Norway, Eacine County,
in the neighborhood of Nils Johnson. In 1847
Skjerve sold his land to Knut K. Aaretuen from
Sogn and went to Jefferson Prairie, Boone County,
Illinois, where he bought a farm and lived till his
death in 1892 ; his wife died there in 1873.
During 1844-1846 the increase in immigration
was constant, though not large. In 1847 there ar-
rived a considerable number. The scattered acces-
sions of these years represent as widely removed
parishes as Skien, Laerdal in Sogn, and Namsos in
Trondhjem. The following is a partial list: 1844,
John Larson and Peter Jacobson and family from
Stathelle, Bamle, Johannes J. Quala from near Sta-
vanger ; Thormod S. Flattre with wife Ingeborg (Ly-
dahl) 2 " and children from Voss, who settled in Nor-
way Township, Halvor 0. Skare and wife Margrete
and two children from Lower Telemarken, who lo-
cated in Norway Township in 1845 ; 30 John I. Berge
and wife Julia, and Hans H. Bakke and wife Inge-
298 The other children are James, Charles, and Frank Langeland,
and Mrs. Harry Brimble of Chicago, and Leroy Langeland, who is
news editor of the Evening Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
299 Thomas F. Thompson, who died in Leland, Illinois, in 1908,
was their son.
300 He moved to Winchester, Wisconsin, in 1854.
286 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
borg, who moved to Spring Grove in 1854, and Peder
Torgerson and wife Anne and five children from
Kragero. 301 In 1846: Jens 0. Hatlestad and wife
(see above page 284) parents of Rev. 0. J. Hatlestad,
pioneer publisher, minister, and author of Histori-
ske Middelelser om den norske Augustana-Synode,
Decorah, Iowa, 1877; Elling Spillom, wife Maren
and three sons, Ole, Hendrik, and Mikkel and one
daughter ; Ole Homstad and Mathias Homstad, both
with families, from Namsos in Trondhjem Diocese ; 302
they settled in Raymond Township; Halvor and
Ingebret Roswald 303 from Gjerpen. Knudt K.
Hedle, wife and sons Mathias, Peter, and daugh-
ter Betsy from Laerdal, Sogn; Tyke Hendrikson
Lokken and wife Anne from Gjerpen, who bought
the Aslak Aas farm in Norway Township; they
had four children, Hans, Ole, Peter and Maria. 304
In 1847: Peter M. Andsion from Namsos, with
301 Torgerson removed to Wheeler Prairie, Dane County, in 1846.
One of the children Anne Tomine, married Ole C. Erikson in 1854 and
they moved to Lake Mills, Jefferson County. In the spring of 1867
they moved to Stoughton, Wisconsin, where Erikeon was one of the
first promoters of the Stoughton Wagon Company. Mrs. Erikson is
still living in Stoughton.
302 They were the first families to emigrate from Trondhjem.
303 Ingebret Eoswald married Ingeborg Cleven in 1854, and they
then settled in Dodge County. The widow is now living in White-
water, Wisconsin.
304 Hans died in 1856, Ole died in Milwaukee in 1901. Peter
Hendrikson graduated from Beloit College, held a chair in Modern
Languages there for about ten years, was later editor of Slcandinaven
and Principal of Albion Academy, Albion, Wisconsin. Is now en-
gaged in farming in the State of Maine.
RACINE COUNTY SETTLEMENT 287
wife and four children (three daughters and a son) ;
they settled in Norway Township.
In this year Captain Hans Friis from Farsund,
Agder, Norway, settled in Muskego. Friis was a
sailor with Enigheden in 1837 (see above page 96),
and between 1837 and 1847 had made nine journeys
to America. After settling in Muskego he contin-
ued for many years sailing on the Great Lakes. In
1848 the following came to Muskego: George J.
Bjorgaas from Houg, Voss, 30S Tollef 0. Oien from
Tonset, Osterdalen (removed to Kewanee County in
1855), and J. H. Skarie, from Hadeland, who locat-
ed in Town of Norway. This year also brought to
Muskego the pioneer minister Hans Andreas Stub
(b. 1822), who had that spring received and accept-
ed the call to the Muskego church. Knut and Anna
Aaretuen from Aurland, Sogn, also appear among
the number; they bought the farm of Knut S.
Skjerve in Norway Township. In 1854 they moved
to Winneshiek County, Iowa, and about 1860 to Gil-
more County, Minnesota. John T. and Christoffer
Olson from Eomskogen in Rodenass, Halvor "Mo-
dum" from Modum, Norway, and Guro Wait and son
Eeuben from Osterdalen, Norway, all came in 1848.
This brief outline of the growth of the settle-
ment represents fairly completely the increase by
immigration from Norway between 1842 and 1850.
The wave of migration had long ago moved west-
30S His parents with family of ten came in 1849. George Bjor-
gaas moved to Adams County, in 1849, where he has lived since.
288 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ward ; it had already gone beyond Koshkonong also.
It was northern and western Dane County and
southern Columbia County that were now the Mecca
of immigrants. In the meantime some small settle-
ments in Walworth and Jefferson Counties had al-
ready been founded. "We shall, therefore, briefly
discuss these now.
*""'*
CHAPTEE XXXIV
The Heart Prairie Settlement in Walworth County,
Wisconsin. Skoponong. Pine Lake.
Walworth County forms one of the southern
tier of counties in Wisconsin, being situated between
Eock on the west and Kenosha and Eacine on the
east ; to the north lies Jefferson County. There are
four Norwegian settlements in the county, as fol-
lows : (1) in the southern part of the Town of White-
water and the northern part of the Town of Eich-
mond lies the Heart Prairie Settlement, taking its
name from the beautiful little prairie directly east
of it ; (2) about four miles east of the city of White-
water lies Skoponong, partly in Whitewater Town-
ship and extending north into Jefferson County as
far as Palmyra; (3) in the city of Whitewater there
is a considerable Norwegian colony, and (4) about
six miles southeast of Heart Prairie lies the Sugar
Creek Settlement, extending from about five miles
north of Delavan to about three miles northeast of
Elk Horn, the county seat of Walworth County. It
is the first of these settlements that we shall discuss
in this chapter.
The first Norwegian settlers at Heart Prairie
were Ole A. Sogal and wife Kari, who, with their
four children Anne, Andrea, Karen, and Johanne,
came in 1842 and located four miles and a half
,Vtf
290 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
southeast of the city of Whitewater. They lived
there only a few years, however, then moved to Wau-
toma, Waushara County, in Central Wisconsin. The
next settler was Ole's brother, Hans A. Mil ebon, who
with his wife Kari came in 1843, and settled about
a mile north of his brother's place; they had one
daughter, Mary Ann, who was about three years old
when they came, and who is still living near White-
water.
During the year 1844 a number of families ar-
rived from Norway and settled at Heart Prairie.
They were as follows : Hans Arveson Vale and wife
Aaste (Esther), with children Arve (or Harvey) and
Isak. Mr. Arveson bought his first eighty acres at
government price of $1.25 per acre, and built his log
house in the fall of 1844. In this log cabin many a
Norwegian immigrant found a temporary home upon
his first arrival in Wisconsin in the early days of
the settlement. Here Mr. Arveson lived, cultivating
his own farm, until his death in 1873 at the age of
sixty-one; the widow died in June, 1900, at the age
of eighty-six. Hans Thompson and wife Marie also
came in 1844; they had three children, Thomas,
Karen and Ann. He bought land adjoining Arve-
son 's farm, lived the first winter in a dug-out. But
the next spring "when the snakes began to come
in," writes my informant, they moved to the Arve-
son 's where they lived till they got their log-house
built.
Andres J. Skipnes and his wife Aaste also came
at the time ; they settled near Ole Arveson, but lived
HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 291
there only a short time, then moved to a farm near
Stoughton, Wisconsin. Ole J. Vale and wife Anne
likewise came in the same party, but they went to
Sugar Creek, where a son, John, and a daughter,
Annie Torine, had located the year before. 306 An-
other arrival at this time was Peder H. Swerge, and
Ole Tolvson Gronsteen and wife Kari and three chil-
dren, Tosten Olson, a carpenter, and wife Aaste*
Karine, a daughter of Halvor Anderson, came in
1844. Tosten built most of the log-cabins that were
erected in the settlement for a number of years. His
wife died soon after coming to America, and Tosten
died in the Civil War. Finally the accessions of 1844
included also the following persons: Gunder H.
Lunde, Anne Kosa, Ole 0. Huset and family, John C.
Opsal, and Halvor Huset. The latter two remained
only a short time, then went west; Ole 0. Huset
located on Koshkonong. 307
All the above thirty-one persons who emigrated
in 1844 were from the vicinity of Skien in Holden,
and all came on the same ship, namely, Scdvator,
Captain Johan Gasman. They were nine weeks on
306 The rest of their children who came with them were Aaste, a
widow, Andrea, Anders, and Anne Christine.
Thomas Thompson married Mary Ann, daughter of Christen
Mason. They lived on the Thompson homestead till their death;
Thomas died in 1869, his wife in 1871. They had six children, of
whom Hans, the oldest, lives at Forest City, Iowa. Karen Thompson,
oldest daughter of Hans Thompson, married Jens Skipnes (better
known as John A. Johnson of the firm, Fuller and Johnson, Madison,
Wisconsin ), and with him lived near Stoughton, Wisconsin, where
she died about four years after their marriage.
307 See Koshkonong Church Eegister, page 324 telow.
292 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
the ocean, landing in New York July 4th ; they came
by the regular route to Milwaukee, thence they drove
in lumber wagons to Heart Prairie.
For the year 1845 the following accessions are
to be noted: The brothers Nils and Gunder C. Op-
sal ; Halvor A. Lunde and wife Ann and six children,
most of them grown up, and another son Gulleik and
wife Dorothea; Anders J. Bjorndokken; Johans
Gronsteen with wife Maria and three children. For
1846 we note the following : Anders Gunderson, John
Arveson and wife Kjersti and four children ; 308
Lukas Ingebretson; Anders G. Bjerva, wife Anne
and four children : 309 Anne, Borte Maria, Karen, and
Jens, who many years ago moved to Crookston, Min-
nesota; and John Gronsteen and wife Asberg. All
those who came during the years 1845-46 were from
near Skien.
In 1847 Christen M. Bo, wife Inger and four
children from Gjerpen came to Heart Prairie ; and in
1848 came Ole Nilsen from Christiansand.
In either 1848 or 1849 came Nils, Steen and Ole
Haatvedt ; Nils moved to Wautoma, and Ole settled
in Waupaca after living a few years at Heart
Prairie. In 1850 Hans Hanson, a blacksmith, came
from Holdon and located there; he worked for a
time with the George Esterly Harvesting Machine
308 The mother and one child died that same fall.
309 She was a widow when he married her. The children of the
second marriage were: Gunder, Christen (Whitewater), Esther (who
was Mrs. Chas. Sobye, Stoughton, Wisconsin, but now dead). Anders
Bjerva and wife died many years ago.
HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 293
Co., then bought a farm, which he occupied till his
death in 1893. Another blacksmith by the name of
Glaus Hanson came at the same time ; worked at his
trade for a while in Whitewater then went to Mich-
igan, married and came back and settled in Milwau-
kee, where he is still living. In 1851 Arve Gunder-
son Vale emigrated ; his son Hans Vale had come in
1844; Arve Vale lived only a week after arriving.
With him came Gunder H. Vala and wife Kersti
and seven children ; they moved to Vermillion, South
Dakota, a few years later, all except the oldest son
Halvor, who is living at Eio, Wisconsin. In that
year (1851) came also Christopher Steenson Haa-
tvedt and his two brothers-in-law, Peter Kystelson
Haatvedt and Christen J. Tveit, while in 1852 came
Jorgen A. Nilson Vibito and wife Karen Kristine,
nee Hanson, and six children. Jorgen Nilson had
taught parochial school in Norway for twenty-nine
years and continued to do so here for many years.
The above is a complete account of all arrivals
to the settlement from Norway down to the year
1852; the roster of settlers here given has been
patiently gathered during several months of re-
search by Mr. Harvey Arveson 310 of Whitewater,
himself the oldest son of the third settler in the com-
munity, namely Hans Arveson Vale, of whom we
3101 acknowledge here with gratitude Mr. Arveson 'a valuable
aid. It is only through such intelligent interest and patient effort
on the part of the sons of the pioneers themselves, who have con-
tinued to live in the community, that such reliable facts can be
secured.
294 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
have spoken above. I have followed his manuscript
closely, omitting only certain facts of family and
personal history. Mr. Arveson speaks briefly of the
trying summer and fall of 1846 when for a time sick-
ness and death seemed to threaten to exterminate
the settlers of Heart Prairie. I will quote from his
own account of the condition; speaking of John
Gronsteen, who came in 1846 and died that same fall,
he continues:
There was so much sickness here at that time that
there was hardly any one well enough to bury those that
died; and well can I remember that the men had to come
down to our house and rest before they could finish the
grave, and well can I remember that the cow stood outside
bellowing to be milked and no one able to milk her; every-
body was thirsty as all had fever and ague and had to go a
mile for water before we got to the well, and sometimes
no one able to go after it. I am sure a great many died
for want of care, as there was none that understood the
English language and did not understand how to take their
medicine. Those were hard times, and to many this ac-
count may sound incredible; nevertheless, it is true and
I could write volumes and tell true incidents of the trials
and hardships that the old pioneers had to endure.
Whitewater city received no Norwegian settlers
until in the fifties, therefore an account of their
coming falls outside the scope of our discussion.
Of the old Skoponong Settlement I am able to give
only a few general facts. The first settlers came in
1843-44 ; they were : Kittil Jordgrev, Hans Bukaasa,
and Bjorn Lien from Upper Telemarken, Hans and
Harald Nordbo from Flaa, Hallingdal, Ole Lia from
HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 295
Hiterdal, Halvor Valkaasa from Sauland, Lars
Johnson Lee, Sjur Hydle, Knut T. Bio, and Tollef
Grane from Voss, and Anon Dalos ; several of these
had families. Lars Lee and wife Britha came to
Muskego in the summer of 1843 and to Skoponong
early in the fall, and were therefore among the very
earliest in that locality. They lived there until
1861, when they located at Spring Prairie, Town of
Leeds, Columbia County. 311 In his history of the
Skoponong Congregation (founded in 1844), C. M.
Mason, Secretary of the congregation, names also
the following among the earliest members of the
church: Halvor Mathison (in whose house the
church was organized in 1844), Styrk Erikson, Knud
Dokstad, Nils Herre, Ole Sjurson, Simon Sakrison,
Jacob Kaasne, Halvor Glenna, Mathias Baura,
Bjorn Hefte, Sjur Flittre, Lars Klove, Mathias Lia
and Even Gulseth.
In 1846 Syver 0. Haaland, wife and nine child-
ren, Hadle Evenson and wife Anne J. Fjosne, and
Tostein H. and Osmond 0. Hogstul came to Skopon-
ong, the latter two from Tuddal in Telemarken ; the
former were from Etne Parish in Sondhordland.
Bjorn Holland of Hollandale, Wisconsin, who is a
son of Syver Haaland, 312 writes me that they came on
the ship Kong Sverre from Bergen. 313 In Ulvestad's
Nordmaendene i Amerika, page 56, appears an ac-
311 Lars Lee died in 1883, his wife in 1905. Dr. Lewis Johnson
Lee of De Forest, Wisconsin, is their son.
312 The family changed the name to Holland in this country.
313 Letter of May 5, 1905.
296 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
count of their first few weeks in the settlement and
of S. Haaland's sickness and death. The Hogstul
party came in a brig by the name of Washington,
which carried iron from Tvedestrand, commanded
by a Norwegian captain by the name of Simon Cook.
He says:
"In Milwaukee, there were only a few stores at the
time. We drove with oxen and a wagon to the so-called
Skoponong Settlement near Whitewater. When we came
there nearly all the settlers lay ill with ague, the condition
was wretched. We immediately began to rid and break
some land and after a while we got so far that we could
raise some wheat. But we had to haul it fifty miles to
Milwaukee with oxen; there we got 25 cents per bushel.
. . . wages was usually 25 cents a day in the spring and
fall; in the haying it was 50 cents. But there was little
work to get. Like other settlers my parents were poor.
My mother made baskets from withes; these she then car-
ried on her back about the prairie and sold them to Amer-
icans, getting in return for them flour, pork and garments,
in order that we should not suffer distress.
Hadle Evenson moved to Perry, Wisconsin, in
1854, where Mrs. Evenson died in 1861. The oldest
son Edwin Hadley, enlisting in Co. E, 15th Wiscon-
sin, was killed at the Battle of New Hope Church,
Georgia, in May, 1864. In 1875 Mr. Evenson settled
at Slater, Story County, Iowa. Peter Hadley, Treas-
urer of Webster County, is the only surviving son.
Among the early settlers at Skoponong was Mrs.
Ingeborg Nelson who came from Evanger, Voss, in
1849. She left Skoponong a few years later, settling
permanently at Deerfield, Dane County, in 1853,
HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 297
where she is still living at the age of ninety-five.
Mrs. Nelson is the mother of Senator Knute Nelson
of Minnesota, who was born in Norway in 1843.
Knute Nelson was educated at Albion Academy, Al-
bion, Wisconsin, and removed to Alexandria, Minne-
sota in 1871. He was Governor of Minnesota dur-
ing 1892-1895. In the latter year he was elected U.
S. Senator and has been reflected twice since, serv-
ing now his third term.
I shall mention one more settler, namely Tor-
stein Rio, 3H born at Vossevangen in 1835, who, with
his wife Ingeborg (Bershaugen) and family came to
America in 1849 on the ship Henrik Wergeland and
located at Skoponong. A brother whose name also
was Torstein came at the same time, and the family
included a son Nels (Thompson), who is living at
Madison, Wisconsin, having moved there in 1860. 31S
Torstein Eio died at Skoponong in 1869, his wife
died in Madison in 1876.
At Pine Lake and Nashota in northwestern
Wausheka County a considerable number of Nor-
wegians lived among the forties and fifties, since
which the settlement has dwindled very much. 316 At
Pine Lake the first Swedish settlement founded in
America in the last century had been established
in 1841 by Gustav Unonius. 317 In 1843 about fifty
3 14 Father of Knut Rio.
315 In 1880 Nels Thompson became a member of the well known
firm of clothiers, Boley, Hinrichs and Thompson, later Hinrichs and
Thompson.
316 Or rather also in part Americanized.
317 I have discussed this in my Chapters on Scandanavian Immi-
gration (1906), pages 83-85.
298 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Norwegian families located at Pine Lake, according
to Unonius Minnen, 1862, page 3. Unonius mentions
especially a Captain Hans Gasman as the principal
figure there. Gasman had a large family of sons
and daughters, and the name is a well known one
among the early pioneers of Racine, Waukesha, and
Dodge Counties. 318 Other members of the family
were Charles, Peter and Captain Johan Gasman,
who commanded the Salvator, plying between Skien
and New York. This very ship brought a number
who located at Pine Lake, among them Halvor Sal-
veson from Gjerpen. 319
Among the fifty families who came to Pine Lake
in 1843 I may name Engelbret Salveson from Gjer-
pen, Erik Helgeson, Hans Eoe, Christen Puttekaasa,
Halvor Eosholt, Jacob Bosholt, Peter Nses from near
Skien and Gjerpen, Ellef Bjornson and Halvor Hal-
vorson from Saude, Telemarken, and Tollef Waller
from Eidanger in Lower Telemarken, Christopher
Aamodt and Hans Uhlen from Modum, Tolleiv Bois-
land and Ole Nummeland from Vallo in Ssetersdalen
and Ole Lia from Gausdal. 320 Some of these, as e. g.
Halvor Halvorson 321 located in the extreme north-
318 Into this county the settlement extended to and about Aship-
pun and Toland.
319 Many of those who came with Capt. Gasman this time went
to Heart Prairie.
320 Holand De norske Settlementers Historic, page 170, to which
I am indebted chiefly for this roll of immigrants to Nashota, etc., in
1843.
321 Halvorson died in the spring of 1908 as the last of the orig-
inal Norwegian settlers at Toland; he was born in 1818, married in
1848 Kirsten Aandrud, who survives him.
HEART PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT 299
era part of the settlement at Toland, and John Lia
settled across the Jefferson County line, 322 but most
located in Waukesha County at Hartland or Nashota.
In subsequent years there arrived constantly
new settlers from Skien, Saetersdal and Gudbrands-
dalen, but even in the later forties many began to
go to the counties immediately northwest to Wau-
paca and Portage counties and elsewhere. In 1850-
54 these counties, as also Waushara and Winnebago
counties on the south, received hosts of Norwegian
settlers, some coming direct from Norway, a large
number however from Racine and Dane Counties,
and the Pine Lake region. 323 The period of growth
in this settlement was therefore relatively short, and
the removals relatively large. The result was that
the Norwegians came to live more scattered and the
community soon began to lose its distinctive national
character. Thus it is significant, that of the ninety
services held during 1907 in Vor Frelsers Kirke at
Oconomowoc sixty-three were in the English lan-
guage. 324 But we are here touching upon questions
which it is not our purpose to discuss in connection
with the survey of settlement.
322 Through John Lia 's influence this then came to be the des-
tination of the earliest emigrants from Gudbrandsdalen between
1846-49.
323 Walworth County contributed some of the number ; thus Ole
Sogal, the first Norwegian settler at Heart Prairie, was one of those
who went to Waushara County.
324 By way of comparison the number of English services to
Norwegian as far as statistics are available were in the following
localities: Morris, 111., 13 of 67, Blue Mounds, Dane Co., Wis.,
of 22; Leland, 111., 14 of 28; Stoughton, Wis., 35 of 80; Long
Prairie, 7 of 25; Koshkonong, of 75; "Muskego," 41 of 112.
CHAPTER XXXV
The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Sugar Creek,
Walworth County, Wisconsin. The in-
flux from Land, Norway, to Wiota
and Vicinity, 1844-1852
We have briefly referred to Sugar Creek, Wal-
worth County, Wisconsin, in chapter XXXIII above.
This little settlement received its first Norwegian set-
tlers in 1844 when Ole Vale and wife Anne from Hoi-
den Parish, Skien, located there ; with them came the
sons John and Anders and the daughters Aasta,
Anne, Turine, Andrea and Maria. Vale and his
wife lived in Sugar Creek till their death, and the
daughters all married and settled there. In the
same year Ole Kittelson and Nils T. Kvamodden,
both unmarried and both also from Holden, came to
the settlement. Ole Kittelson located permanently
in Sugar Creek, but Nils Kvamodden and wife moved
to Norway Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota,
in 1857. There they died years ago, the homestead
being now occupied by the son Ole.
Christian L. Vestremo and wife Ingeborg and
three children, and Gunder K. NsBseth emigrated
from Gjerpen near Skien, in 1844. Naeseth moved
to Norway, Minnesota, in 1856 and Vestremo in 1857.
According to Ole Jacobson of Elk Horn, to whom I
am indebted for these facts, there were no further
SETTLERS AT SUGAR CREEK 301
accessions to the colony before 1847. In that year
his parents came from Gjerpen, as also Jacob Tor-
stenson and wife Maren Margrete and three sons
Ole, Torsten and Jacob, and a daughter, Maria with
her husband Lars Jensen Teigen and family. With
them came also Teigen 's mother. Jacob Torstenson
died in 1861 ; the widow is still living at the old home.
Ole Jacobson writes me that his father and
family left Skien in April by the ship Axel (og) Val-
borg, Captain Bloom, going first as far as Havre,
France. There they waited three weeks, then se-
cured passage with an American ship, the journey
being very slow. Landing in Boston, they went by
train to Albany, thence by canal boat to Buffalo, and
by steamboat via the lakes to Milwaukee, where they
arrived sometime in August. From Milwaukee they
thereupon proceeded to Sugar Creek, where they
located permanently. Ole Jacobson is at present
living on the farm purchased in 1847. In 1849 Aslak
Basmusson Slettene with wife Gunild and eight
children came from Gjerpen, Norway. 32S Grinde-
melum, with wife, son, and daughter, also came in
1849, as did Peter J. Gromstulen, wife Svanang and
five children, and Nils J. Overholt, wife and two
children.
There do not seem to have been any further
accessions of Norwegian immigrants during the
pioneer days of the Sugar Creek settlement. In the
sixties quite a number came and located at and
325 Some of the children have moved away, to Minnesota and
Washington.
302 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
about Elk Horn but these do not fall within the
scope of our survey.
The original home of immigrants from Land,
Norway, was Rock Prairie, as we saw above, chapter
XXIV. From this as their distribution point they
migrated west and north, aiding in the founding of
other settlements. As early as 1844 we find one
pioneer at Wiota from Land, Norway, namely Syver
Johnson Smed (see above page 213). But the influx
from Land did not begin until 1847. 326 In that year
two families, numbering in all fourteen persons, ar-
rived via Eock Prairie; they were those of Svend
Norstelien (wife Karen, and five children) and of
the widow Kari Lillebsek, who had six children. 327
In 1848 Hovel Tollefsrude, wife Bertha and child-
ren: Christopher, Hans, Jahannes, Siri, and Lovise
arrived. Further immigrants of that year were : Jo-
hannes Brenom, wife Ingeborg and three children;
Hans Halvorson (Brenna), wife Eli, and children,
Berte, Halvor and Johannes; Johannes E. Smeds-
rud, with wife Anne and two sons Engebret and
Mathias; and Johannes Smehogen (or Smed) with
wife Engeborg, and two children.
In 1849 came Torkild Husvseret, with wife and
three sons, Gulbrand, Lars and Frederik; Ole Mon-
son Tollefsrude, wife Karen and three children, and
Nils Aason, Ovre Hasle and wife Ingeborg, who had
326 Matthew J. Ingebretson of Gratiot, Wis., who came to Wiota
with his parents in 1848, has kindly aided me with many of the facts
on immigration to Wiota in 1847-50.
327 John Larsen Lillebsek was one of her sons.
SETTLERS AT SUGAR CREEK 303
come to Rock Prairie in 1848 (removed to Wiota in
1848). Hans Lillebaek came in 1850 and about twen-
ty in all in 1851-52.
Ole Monson, whom we have mentioned as com-
ing in 1849, was the builder of the old Norwegian
church at Wiota, which is still standing; the present
larger and more commodious structure stands on
the wall built by Ole Monson.
There were not very many from other provinces
in Norway among those who emigrated to Wiota in
the late forties. We have spoken of Ingebrigt
Fuglegjaerdet's coming in 1846 from Long Prairie,
where he had lived two years; he was from Vik,
Sogn. 328
From Vik came Erik I. Haave and wife in 1847,
while Harald Melland and wife Anne came from
Telemarken. From Sigdal there came one family
in 1848; Ellef (Alef) Johnson and wife Anne. The
latter served in the Civil War, in Company G of the
Twenty-Second Wisconsin Regiment. 329 In 1872 he
married Mary Larson, 330 of Blanchardville, La Fay-
ette County, where they are now living.
I may conclude this chapter by saying that Arne
328 Ingebrigt Johnson removed to Town of Dane, Dane County,
Wisconsin, in 1851; there he lived till his death in 1893, his wife
having died in 1890. John J. Johnson, retired fanner, of Lodi,
Columbia County, Wisconsin, is their son, as is also Joseph Johnson
of Dane Township in Dane County.
329 He was only sixteen when he enlisted.
330 She was a daughter of Ole Larson, who served in the Third
Eegiment, Wisconsin Infantry, in the Civil War.
304
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Vinje, whose name is so intimately interlinked with
the history of the community, died in 1903, having
lived on the old homestead for sixty-two years. Of
his eight children, three are living : Peter S. Ander-
son, Newell, Iowa, Daniel K. Anderson and Mrs.
Martha Brunkow of Woodford, Wisconsin.
CHAPTER XXXVI
Continued Immigration from Aurland, Sogn, to
Koshkonong. The Arrival of Settlers from
Vik Parish, Sogn, in 1845.
In the year 1845-1846 immigration to Kosh-
konong from Laurdal, Vinje and Moe Parishes con-
tinued and a considerable number came from Fles-
berg. The accessions from Laurdal, Moe, and Hvid-
eseid for these years record the end of a movement
that began in 1843. But that which especially char-
acterized the growth of the Koshkonong Settlement
in 1845-1846 was the extensive additions through im-
migrants from Sogn. So extensive, in fact, was the
influx from Sogn these years as to make their total
representation on Koshkonong at once exceed that
from either Voss or Numedal, and equal to about
half that from Telemarken. These four have ever
since been the dominant elements in Koshkonong 's
population. A part of this immigration from Sogn
was from parishes represented among the arrivals
of the year before. Such were Botolf J. Grinde,
Ole N. Steenhjerde and Sjur I. Romoren from Lei-
kanger, Herman T. Vee, Joseph J. Gjellum and Her-
mund 0. Offerdal from Laerdal, Anders S. Ovrebo,
wife Anne and three children from Lyster, Erik L.
Grov and Anders H. Odegaard and wife Martha
from Hafslo.
306 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
But much more significant was the immigration
from Aurland Parish in 1845-1846, from Sogndal in
1846, and the new immigration from Vik Parish in
1845. We shall discuss these three groups in order
briefly.
We have noted above, Chapter XXXI, that there
were several persons from Aurland Parish, Sogn,
among the immigrants who settled on Koshkonong
in 1844. I am now in receipt of a letter from Anders
J. Flaam of Flaam in Aurland, Norway, relative to
the earliest emigration from Aurland to America.
His letter, as also that of Reverend E. P. Juul, the
present Minister of the Parish, shows that the earli-
est emigrants left there in 1844. I quote in trans-
lation from Reverend Juul's letter:
"Those who, according to parochial records here,
were the first to emigrate to America are the following:
Iver Hansen Vingum, age twenty-five, unmarried, (331) Ole
Torjussen Flaam, age fifty, wife Anna Botolfsdatter, age
forty, and children, Ole, thirteen and a half years old, and
Anders, ten years. Of these, Iver Hansen 's certifcate of
emigration is shown to have been issued March 20, 1844,
and he to have left the district on April 13th the same
year. Ole Torjussen's certificate of emigration was issued
on the 13th of April, 1844, and his departure took place
the following day. All therefore emigrated together. ' '
Reverend Juul thereupon gives a list of those
who emigrated from Aurland in 1845, and while sev-
331 The writer's father has always pronounced the name Vangen,
which also according to Haakon Lie, is the correct form. Iver Van-
gen settled on Bonnet Prairie, where his son Hans Vangen is still
living.
' *
CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 307
eral of these did not settle on Koshkonong it will
be of interest to the reader to see this list. I there-
fore give it complete here:
"In 1845, on the 19th of April the natives of Aurland
(Aurlsendinger) left their native village: Torsten Olsen
Bjelde, (45 years of age) wife, Anna (29), and son, Ole
(31/2 years) ; Iver Ingebrigtsen Ytreli (32 years) ; Jens
Botolfsen Bergkvam (23% years) ; Jens Torgersen Tasrum
(44% years), wife Ragnhilde Monsdatter (27) and son
Torger (one year) ; Sjur Olsen Stundal (19) and sister
Katrine (30) ; Anna Marie Hansdatter Vangen (28%) ;
Erik Johannesen Ytreli (43) and wife Marthe Larsdat-
ter (48) and children; Brita (21 years), Magnilde (18
years), Johannes (16 years), Ingeborg (14 years), Lars
(10% years), Haakon (9 years), Anna (7 years), Tomas
(5 years) ; Johanne Botolsdatter Ytreli (16 years) ; Eilef
Olson Loven (24 years) ; Mikkel Knutsen Osterbro (22%
years), and wife Martha Gulvsdatter (27% years), and
son Knut (two months) ; Lars Gundersen Gjellum (33%
years) and wife Gjertrud, and son Knut (4 years) ;
Martha Gundersdatter (17 years) ; Josef Johannesen Vin-
dedal (73 years), and wife Anna Jensdatter; John John-
sen Frondal (28 years) and wife Magnhilde; Rognald
Johannesen Knit (19% years) ; Simon A. Gjellum (20
years) ; Peder Monsen Loven (34 years) ; Johanne M.
Loven (20 years) ; Iver J. Stene (22 years).
These are the emigrants who first went to America
from this Parish.
Aurland Parish, January 25th, 1909.
E. P. Juul."
Some of the immigrants mentioned by Reverend
Juul are still living on Koshkonong. Thus among
308 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
the children of Erik J. Ytreli (who died in 1892, at
the age of 90), 332 Johannes (John E. Johnson) is
still living on the old homestead, two miles east of
Utica, and his brother Haakori is living there with
him. 333 Simon Gjellum lived two years in Chicago,
then entered the Mexican War, after which he came
to Koshkonong. Ivar I. Ytreli 334 had been a school
teacher and deacon at Systrond, in which capacity
he continued serving here in this country, at Bock
Prairie, Rock County, whither he went soon after
arriving in Wisconsin; he died there about 1875.
332 The family shortened the name to Lie in this country.
333 During a visit with him at the John E. Johnson homestead
last August I had the pleasure of listening to H. Lie's narrative of
the emigration of this party from Aurland and of their early ex-
periences. Haakon Lie has a remarkable memory and he has made
it a point to follow the career and keep in touch with his fellow
immigrants of 1845, and their history in this country. Space does
not permit me to give here details from my interview with him, nor
from that with others relative to the immigration of these years.
But I may add that the party sailed with Kong Sverre, Captain
Fisher; they were six weeks and four days on the way from Bergen
to New York, thence they went by steamboat to Albany, where they
arrived on the fourth of July. Arriving in Chicago one of the last
days in July, they remained there a week then proceeded to their
destination, Koshkonong, driving with oxen from Chicago.
Haakon Lie says there were none on the ship from Telemarken
or Numedal; the 300 passengers were all from Sogn and Voss; but I
learn through others that there were some from Hardanger on the
ship.
The limitations of space necessitates curtailment in the account
in nearly every chapter. From the vast amount of material I have,
I can offer here practically only that which pertains specifically to
the history of immigration.
334 Or, as Kristen Sherpi of West Koshkonong called him in an
interview last summer, Ivar i Heggvikji.
CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 309
Of other immigrants from Aurland, which Mr.
Anders J. Flaam speaks of, I shall mention Peder J.
Gjeirsme, and Torbjorn 0. Gjeirsme, wife Metta and
family, who came in 1846, and Hans Torjussen Flom,
who, he says, went soon after Ole T. Flom.
During the year 1845 there came also a group of
immigrants to Koshkonong from Vik Parish, name-
ly several families from near Arnefjord. This
party included several Nagset families, the oldest liv-
ing survivor of which is Jens J. Naeset (b. 1828),
well-known Koshkonong architect, who resides at
Stoughton, Wisconsin. 33S I have had several inter-
views with Mr. Nasset relative to their sailing, and
their early life as pioneers ; it will be possible to bive
here only the briefest facts. Jens Naeset tells me
that there were eight estates at Naeset and that the
owners of four of them sold out at the same time
and went to America. The biggest of these estates
was that of Ingebrigt Naeset, or as he was usually
called, Skuungen. In the party were Jens Naeset 's
parents, Johannes Jensen Naeset and wife Eli, his
oldest sister Gro, married to Ole Larson (Haugan) 336
who is living in Cambridge, Wisconsin, two brothers
Ingebrigt and John, and another sister who later
married Henrik Lien of East Koshkonong. 337
335 Jens Nseset, I have just learned, died at Stoughton last
week, May, 1908.
336 They had one child when they came ; she is Mrs. Ole Venaas,
Eockdale, Wisconsin.
337 Johannes Nseset was born in Feios, but his father had bought
Naeset in 1823 and settled there, three Norwegian miles from Arne-
fjord.
310 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
There were three ships that sailed at the same
time, Naeset relates. One of these was the Kong
Sverre, Captain Fischer (of which Haakon Lie speaks
above), and on which the emigrants from Aurland
were embarked. Another was a two-masted sloop,
Peder Schroder, and which carried about 130 pas-
sengers, among whom the Naeset families ; this sloop
had crossed twice before. The third was one com-
manded by Captain Brock. The passengers on this
ship were mostly from Sogn, but there were three
boys from Hardanger, and a few persons from Voss.
Peder Schroder also carried emigrants principally
from Sogn, but there were two from Voss, says
Naeset. One of these was Brynjulf Leland, who set-
tled at Norway Grove, where he is still living. The
other was Odd Himle, whom we have met with above
page 168, as the guide of the first party of explorers
of Koshkonong in 1839. He had returned to Nor-
way in 1844, married there in 1845, and was now re-
turning to America. Among those who came on the
Brock-ship were Skuungen and Ole Menes.
We recognize in Captain Brock's ship the same
ship that Lasse Ellingson of Capron, Illinois, came
on in 1845. It was furthermore the very same voy-
age of this ship. The name of the ship was Albion.
For a partial list of the passengers on this ship as
of Peder Schroder, whose captain was Vingaard, 338
the reader may now be referred to the account of the
sailing of these two ships above, Chapter XXXII.
338 The much talked of Vingaard-ship.
CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 311
The two ships Kong Sverre and Peder Schroder
sailed side by side the whole way, relates Naeset,
Kong Sverre arriving in New York in the evening,
Peder Schroder the next morning. Captain Brock's
ship which had started ten days earlier, arrived
three days later (see above page 275). From New
York the immigrants were taken over the usual route
to Milwaukee. 339 Having arrived in Muskego, they
secured Halvor Luraas to take their goods to Kosh-
konong; he brought them to Clinton (Eockdale),
where the first man they met was Torstein Selseng,
who had emigrated from Aurland, Sogn, to Kosh-
konong the preceding year. Johannes Nseset, who
was a man of considerable means for the time,
bought the land, which is now occupied by the son
Ingebrigt Ngeset, which is section thirty-five in the
southeastern part of Christiana Township.
Johannes Naeset was born in Leikanger Parish
in 1795 ; his wife, Eli I. Berdahl, was born in 1797.
She died in Koshkonong in 1850, Johannes died in
1882. He was noted for his ability as a mechanic,
was successful as a maker of violins, and was him-
self a capable player. Jens Naeset early dis-
tinguished himself as a builder and an architect.
Though but sixteen years old he assisted in the build-
ing of the old log church in East Koshkonong in
1844, and it was Naeset who took it down again in
1858 and constructed the old stone church, which a
few years ago was replaced by a handsome brick
339 Mr. Naeset 'a full account of this journey I shall publish else-
where.
312 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
edifice. He also built the tower of the old Liberty
Prairie Church, and a number of the oldest houses
on Albion Prairie were erected by him. Jens Naeset
was married in 1850; he has no children. Mrs. Ole
Melaas of Stoughton, Wisconsin, is an adopted
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Naeset. 34
As has been noted, there was a considerable im-
migration from Sogndal, Sogn, in 1846 ; to name only
a few : Ole C. Teigen, Ellend T. Quale, with wife
Dordei Baardsdatter and family, eight in all, Anders
S. Hundere, Nils 0. Selseng and wife, and Johannes
I. Gjerde. From Aurland, Sogndal, and Hafslo
there came others in the following four years. I
shall here name Peder Sylfestson Aaberge from
Hafslo, who came in 1847, Ole 0. Anderson (1848),
Ole 0. Hemsing (1849), both from Sogndal, Atle S.
Gjellum and family, Per Sherping and wife Kristine
and Kristen Olson Gulvangen from Aurland in 1849.
Of these Aaberge later moved to Minnesota. Ole
Anderson (often called Skog-Ola) settled three
miles north of Albion, where he lived till his death.
He married Guri Pederson, adoptive daughter of
Torstein Selseng in 1851, who had come to America
in 1849. She died in June, 1909. Ole Hemsing lo-
cated first in Cottage Grove; in 1855 he purchased
the old Hemsing farm three miles north of Stough-
ton, later owned by the son Ole H. Hemsing (b. 1853),
since 1884, of Stoughton, Wisconsin. Ole 0. Hemsing
died about 1895, the widow (Eagnilda) died in 1907.
340 The Nsesets have been living in Stoughton since 1876.
CONTINUED IMMIGRATION 313
Per Sherping died early and the widow married
Kristen Olson, who then took the name Sherping
(Sherpi). Kristen Sherpi (b. 1823) is still living
at the old homestead near West Koshkonong
at the old homestead near West Koshkonong Church.
There was scattered immigration from Telemarken
down to 1850, especially from Hvideseid, about forty
in all came from Hallingdal, and twenty-five from
Hardanger; Valders, Ringsaker, Biri and Vardal,
and a dozen other provinces and parishes are repre-
sented by four or five settlers each. The first to
arrive from Hardanger were Svend L. Lund,
Ingebrekt, Nicolai, and Johannes Erdahl, Guttorm
Buo, Ole L. and Aslak E. Quammen; these came in
1847. From Ringsaker came Anders J. Tommer-
stigen, wife Maria Olsdatter and children Johannes,
Olive, Peter (b. 1843) and Karen Marie, in 1846,
while from North Aurdal in Valders came Ole Loe
and Ole H. Hippe, both with families, and from
Slidre, Tollef H. Gvale, all in 1847.
I shall now offer a copy of the official register of
members of the Koshkonong churches during this pe-
riod, according to the Parochial Records left by Rev-
erend J. W. C. Dietrichson for the years 1844 to
1850. This is here printed for the first time and will
be read with considerable interest by the many des-
cendants of the founders of these two historic con-
gregations on Koshkonong Prairie.
CHAPTER XXXVII
' Kirkeregister." Church Register of the East Kosh-
konong, West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie
Congregations as Constituted During the
Years of Reverend J. W. C. Dietrich-
son's Incumbency of the Pastorate
from 1844 to 1850, and as Re-
corded by Reverend Diet-
richson. 341
Bygd
Ole Knudsen Trovatten
Gunnul Olsen Vindseg
Ole, 1842
Gudbrand Gudbrandson Holtan
Torkild Gunlegsen Sundboe ***
Torstein Thronsen Selseng
John Pederson Tverberg
Knud Mortensen Roland
Mikkel Johnson Engesaeter M3
Niels Olsen Smetbak
Gisle Helgesen Venaas
Sondre Olsen Reishus
Even Stenerson Bilstad
Johannes Johnson Berg
Gunder Jorgensen Fladland
Bjorn Gulbrandsen Morkvold
Gulbrand
Halvor Johnson Grovund
341 To save space I have set the wife's name at the extreme
right of the page, instead of below the husband's name; children's
names are given in the second line. The English foot notes are my
own additions. Caption in fourth column added by me.
342 Han bor paa Sun Prairie. Han arbeidede den forste Dobe-
font i Vestre Kirke, 1844.
343 Er flyttel til Norway Grove.
Indvan-
Navn
drede
Fodt
Kones Navn
i Aar
Aar
og Fodselsaar
Laurdal
1840
1807
Rollaug
1839
1808
Guri, 1811
1842
Flesberg
1843
Sillejord
1843
1816
Margit
Sogndal
1844
Kari
Tind
1842
1811
Gro
1844
Leganger
1844
1819
Synneva, 1822
Rollaug
1842
Barbro
Rollaug
1844
Sillejord
1843
1820
Moe
1843
1802
Dagne
Kragero
1844
Hvidsoe
1843
Rolland
1842
Asbjor
Nissedal
1843
Gunhild
CHURCH REGISTER
315
Gaute Ingebretsen Gulliksrud
Niels Colbeinsen Fladland
Hans Pedersen Tverberg
Peder, 1845
Amund Anderson
Anfin Anfindsen Haugerud
Knud Olsen Holtene
Mikkel Hansen Strommen
Anen Tollefsen Bolstad
Baruld Johnsen Strandskougen
Aase Helene, Helge Marie
Knud Aslaksen Gjottil
Niels Torstensen Seim
Ingeleif, Torsten, Britha
Christen Olsen Hole
Tollef Olsen Kaase
Johannes Johnson Berge
Ellef Anderson Berg
Tollef Johannesen Berge
Jens Pedersen Vehus
Knud Osmundsen Dahle
Vetle Osmundsen Dahle
Richard Bjornsen Rotkjon
Knud Aslaksen Juve
Halvor Paulsen Grovum
Even Eilertsen Buaas
Bjorn Olson Rom
Hellik Gundersen Vashovd
Peder Larsen Svartskuur
Marthe Marie, Grethe Sophie
Thore Knudsen Nore
Knud Kittilsen Baglie
Ole EJlingsen Fladland
Peder Kittilsen Byestolen
Tov Kittilsen Svimbll
Kittil 1833, Ole, Gunhild 1843
John Halvorsen Grovum
Ole Pedersen Selseng
Tarald Ellefsen Midboe""
Ole Helgesen Lien
Barbro Larsdatter (her child), Ole
Lars Johannesen Hollo
Fredrik, Martin, Anders
Gunstein Rolfsen Omdal
Odne Osmundsen Bondal
Halvor Larsen Stahlsbraaten
Gjertnund Knudsen Sunde
344 Married the widow Anne Gurine Engebrektsdatter in 1846.
Tind
1843
1815
Kari
Hvidsoe
1843
Tind
1841
1814
Ingeborg,
1820
Stavanger
1836
Ingeborg
Rollaug
1844
Hvidsoe
1843
Kirkesanger
Hvidsoe
1843
Gjerpen
1844
Drangedal
1843
Kari Kristine
Laurdal
1843
1803
Thone 1816
Leirdal
1844
1812
Mari
Vos
1844
1813
Laurdal
1844
Laurdal
1843
1791
Birgit
Sandsvxrd
1843
Laurdal
1843
1814
Rollaug
1842
1814
Sillejord
1843
Sillejord
1843
Vinje
1842
1816
Hvidsoe
1843
1799
Gudbjor 1802
Nissedal
1843
Krageroe
1843
1799
Krageroe
1843
Flesberg
1842
Marith
Eger
1843
Groe
Rollaug
1842
Gjertrud
Flesberg
1843
Sogndal
1844
Voa
1843
Tind
1836
1801
Sigrid, 1800
Nissedal
1843
Sogndal
1844
Holt
1843
Anne
Rollaug
1841
Thuri
, Ole
Hedemarken
1839
Marie
Moland
1844
Moland
1843
Rollaug
1843
1820
Rollaug
1839
1812
316
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Ole Knudsen Hjemdal
Laurdal *
1844 1799
Gunder Gundersen Vashovd
Flesberg
1842 Kirsti
Ole Torgersen Bergland
MM
1843
Knud Ellingsen Doknaes
Holt
Christen Lassesen Melaas
Sogndal
1844 1799 Aase, 1803
Peder Larsen Hollo
Ringsager
1839
Stener Evensen Bilstad
Moe
1843 1828
Halvor Aslaksen Kostvedt
Vinje
1842 Sigrid
Aslak 1845
Ole Laurandsen Hogndalen
Sillejord
1843 1807
John Halvorsen Vindlos
Laurdal
1844
Even Jorgensen lualen
Laurdal
1844
Osmund Aslaksen Naestestue
Vinje
1843 1797
Hermund Endresen Huke
Leganger
1844 1811 Kirsti
Endre, Lars
Neri Tarjesen Hauge
Hvidsoe
1844
Peder Larsen Gjerde
Leganger
1844 1797
Halvor Laurantsen Fosheim
Sillejord
1843 1810
Aslak Olsen Gjergjord
Hvidsoe
1843
Ole Iversen Huseboe
Leganger
1844 1808 Ingeleiv, 1805
Anna 1833, Gjertrud 1837,
Lars 1840, Iver
1844
Lars Larsen Hollo
Ringsager
1839 Gunbjor
Ole Knudsen Dyrland
Sillejord
1843 1819
Kittil Kittilsen Rinden
Moland
1843 1791
Ole Sondessen Braekken
Vinje
1844
Sjur Sjursen Olmen
Sogndal
1844 1816
Gotskalk Odmundsen Meland
Vos
1844 1806
Thone Aslaksdatter Lien
Laurdal
1843 1807
Anna Larsdatter Eggum *"
Leganger
1843 1811
(widow, one child, Anna)
Stephen Knudsen Gilderhus
Vos
1838 1813 Anne, 1806
Elling Olsen Fladland
Sogndal
1844
Knud Annundsen Jamsgaard
Vinje
1843
John Osmundsen Suboe
Henrik Olsen Harve
Vos
1844 1800
Berge 1833
Reinert Andreas Gunstelnsen
Moland
1844
Clemet Larsen Stahlsbraaten
Modum
1843
Johannes Larsen Hollo
Ringsaker
1839 1822 Andrine
Ingeborg Olsdatter Trovatten, EnkeLaurdal
1843
Ole Herbransen Morkvold
Rollaug
1842
Aslak Evensen Groven
Laurdal
1843 1802
Bjorn Olsen Hustvedt
Vinje
1843
Amund Olsen Jordet
Moland
1843 1816
Tollef Kittilsen Rinden
Moland
1843 1R25
Gunder Kittilsen Rinden
Moland
1843 1823
Ole Andersen Vaerken
Leganger
1844 1823
345 Was married in 1845 to Sjur Colbeinsen Droksvold.
317
Osmund Vetlensen Dahle
Herbrand Tollefsen Morkvold
Knud Helliksen Roe
Ole Larson Stromi
Anund Olsen Drotning
Gunleg Johnsen Haugelie
Aslak Bjornson Rotkjon
Thron Halvorsen Gjotil
Ole Aslaksen Rorge
Abraham Knudsen Ronningen
Knud
Erik Knudsen Ronningen
Halvor Eilertsen Dahl
Eilert, Olaus, Carl
Niels Johnson Luraas
Anver Halvorsen Grovum
Anders Halvorsen Grovum
Tarje Nerisen Hauge
Ole Sorensen Quistrud
Knud Halvorsen Teisberg
Thorbjorn Guttormsen Viig
Ole Gulbrandson Holtan
Niels Olsen Grovum
Knud Olsen Lien
Halvor Johnsen Donstad
Torstein Gunlegsen Bringa
Askjer Knudsen Hjemdal, Pige
John Olsen Haugen
Harald Kittilsen Dahle
Halvor Kittilsen Luraas
Kittil 1840, Niels 1845, Ingeborg
Lars Gunlegsen Sundboe
Berit Levorsdatter Bergerud
Anders Andersen Fenne
Aadne Bjornson Lien
Botolf Larsen Lunde
Knud Thoresen Nore
Aslau Thorsdatter Kaase
Gulbrand Gulbrandsen Holtan
Kittil Gulliksen Baglie
Inbeborg Tollefsdatter Midtlien
Tellef, Gunhild, Thone
Mons Simonsen Halfsrund
Halvor Danielsen Stensrud
Bjorn Osmundsen Naestestue
Eigil Aslaksen Lien
Erik Henriksen Haeve
Sillejord
1843
Rollaug
1842
Tind
1839 Anne
Vos
1844 1796
Vinje
1843 1S19 Lisbeth
Hvidsoe
1844
Vinje
1842 1826
Laurdal
1843 1819
Laurdal
1843 Gunhild
Krageroe
1843 Ingeborg
Krageroe
1843
Krageroe
1843 Anne
Tind
1843 1789
Nissedal
1843 1814
Nissedal
1843 1824
Hvidesoe
1844
Tind
1843
Laurdal
1843 1803
Sillejord
1843
Flesberg
1843
Nissedal
1843
Laurdal
1844 1797 Ragnhild
Hvidesoe
1843 1816
Sillejord
1843 1817
Nordrehaug
1840
Sillejord
1843
Tind
1841 1814 Jorand, 1815
t
Sillejord
1843 1829
Flesberg
1843
Vos
1838
Hvidesoe
1843
Vos
1844
Rollaug
1842
Rollaug
1842
Flesberg
1843
Flesberg
1843
Moland
1843
Viig
1844
Sanne
1849
Vinje
1843
Vinje
1843
Vos
1844
346 Lisbeth Evensdatter Tvebaskken, from Vinje.
318
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Ole Nielsen Grovum
Torsten Torstenson Gaarden
John Johnson Landsvaerk
Peder, John
Tollef Sigurdsen Tveten
Juri Knudsdatter Holtene
Turi Hermandsdatter Fjerrestad 8W Viig
Martha Ellingsdatter Fladland
Ingeborg Halvorsdatter Hagedalen Hvidesoe
Anna Christensdatter Melaas
Martha Henriksdatter Haeve
Aslau Eivindsdatter Qualen
Guro Olsdatter Stromi
Synneva Olsdatter Huseboe
Ingeborg Tarjesdatter Dyrdal
Ragnhild Herbrandsdatter Morkvold Rollaug
Gjertrud Brynildsdatter Sanve
Knud Olsen Hjemdal
Thorbjorn Gunderson Fladland
Halvor Nerisen Hauge
Asbjorn Eivindson Qualen
Colbein Nielson Fjeldfcye
Tollef Anesen Bolstad
Ole Gundersen Bringen
Tarje Aslaksen Lien
Ole Henriksen Haeve
Gunhild Aslaksdatter Giottil
Kristi Halstensdatter Vinje
Knut Jarandsen Bosboen
Ole Olsen Stuen
Aslak, Ole
Gunvor Johannesdatter Berge
Gunleg Torkildsen Sundboe
Gunder Olsen Skrabak
Ole Anderson Sanden
Kittil Tovson Aase
Liv Pedersdatter Bjaaen, Enke
Johannes Anderson Aabo
Ole Knudsen Gilderhus
Britha
Lars Nilsen Vaehle
Lars Torgersen Rote
Torge 1845
Torstein Levorsen Bergerud
Levor
Nissedal
1843
Tind
1842
Anna
Hjendahl
1842
Anne
Omgangsskolelaerer, Kii
Laurdal
1844
Hvidesoe
1843
Viig
1844
Sogndal
1844
Hvidesoe
1843
Sogndal
1844
Vos
1844
Laurdal
1844
Vos
1844
Sogndal
1844
1831
Laurdal
1843
1829
Rollaug
1842
Vos
1844
Laurdal
1844
Hvidesoe
1843
Hvideso
1844
Laurdal
1844
Vos
1844
Gjerpen
1844
Sillejord
1843
1830
Moe
1843
Vos
1844
Laurdal
1843
1792
Vos
1844
1821
Sillejord
1843
Sovde
1843
1814 Asian
Laurdal
1843
1822
Sillejord
1843
1785 Margit
Sillejord
1843
Sillejord
1843
1821
Sillejord
1843
Sillejord
1842
Hvidesoe
1843
Vos
1839
1817 Martha
Vos
1844
1803
Vos
1840
1819 Ingebor
Kirkesanger
Flesberg
1842
Kirsti
350 Later married Stephen Olsen Dahle.
351 She was born in Leganger.
CHURCH REGISTER
319
Anne Marie Halvorsdatter Thorstad
enke
There Olsen Kaase
Niels Larsen Bolstad
Lars, Ingeborg
Ole Sjurdsen Gilderhus
Martha 1845, Syvert 1845
Lars Davidsen Rekve
Ole Larsen Dygsteen
Niels Cornelius Nielson Tveten
Osmund Osmundsen Lunde
Niels Ellefsen Masterud
Vaeren Svendsen Tveten
Even Olsen Unskard
Ole, Mari
Aasild Torgrimsdatter Strand
Anders Nielsen Grove
Anders Halskusen Sanden
Even Sorensen Bjaaland
Barbro Evensdatter MT
Eilert Evensen Buaas
Aslak Anundsen Juvet
Thore, Thov, Thone
Even Olsen Ramberg
Gunhild Nielsdatter Luraas
Aslau Nielsdatter Luraas
Jacob Jarandsen Bosboen
Gulleck Torstensen Saue
Donaut Torgeirsdatter Rolje
Ole Knudsen Schserdal
Ole Knudsen Traengeklev
Knud Ingebrigtsen Gjerde
Ole Gunlegsen Sundboe
Knud Olsen Asdohldalen
Johannes Christiansen Bjelde
Hans Thowsen Ederklip
Lars Henricksen Lien
Mette Larsdatter Lien
Henrich Larsen Lien
Ole Holjesen Yttreboe
Johanne, Anne
Lier
1843
1809
Rollaug
1842
Anne
Vos
1837
Anne
Vos
1840
1814
Eli
Vos
1839
1818
Ingeborg
Vos
1843
Anna
Sandsvaerd
1844
Anna Kirstine
Vinje
1842
Bamble
1843
1816
Laurdal
1844
Hallingdal
1843
Sigrid
Moland
1843
1774
Vos
1843
Borgilda
Sillejord
1844
Laurdal
1844
Sannikedal
1843
1827
Sannikedal
1843
1829
Laurdal
1843
Barbro
Vinje
1844
Tind
1826
Tind
1829
Sillejord
1843
Voss
1840
1821
Voss
1844
1820
Urland, Sogn
1843
Sillejord
1843
1816
Sogndal
1844
Synneva
Sillejord
1843
1819
Lier
1843
1821
Sogndal
1844
Christie
Rollaug
1843
Ness
1845
1790
Jorand, 1787
(Hallingdal)
Ness
1845
1823
Ness
1845
1826
Hyidesoe
1842
Margit
347 Later married Tollef S. Aae ; he was not in the congregation.
348 ' ' Hans hustru er endnu i Norge, men ban venter hende i
Sommer. " Added later: "ban er dod. "
349 She was Christie Monsdatter Melaas; is still living (Stough-
ton, Wis.).
320
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Ingebregt Ingebrechtsen Naese Wiigs
Prestegjaeld
John, Ingebrecht, Gjertrud
Gudve Nielsdatter Droksvold, Enke, Voss
Anders Ellingsen Aase
Johannes Jensen Naese
Jens Johannesen Naese
Sjur Magnesen Ssetre
Mons Lassesen Melaas
Ole Andersen Melaas
Mons 1840, Kari 1844
Birgitte Johnsdatter Lien
Ingeborg Johnsdatter Lien
Niels Nielsen Giri
Wiigs Preste-
gjaeld
Wiig
Wiig
Vos
Sogndal
Sogndal
1810
Tind
Tind
Naess,
Hallingdal
Niels 1841, Mari, 1843, Iver, 1845
1845
1844
1845
1845
1845
1844
1844
1844
1843
1843
1845 1817
Johanne
Eli
1787 Martha, 1796
1812 Martha
Christine
Ole Gulliksen Kjerre
Gjertrud Olsdatter Saelabakka
Lasse Sjursen Lillesand
Knud Laavesen Aaker
Lars Knudsen Aaker
Wetle Torjusen Haatvedt
Torjus Vetlesen Haatvedt
Aasne Evensdatter Rue
Peder Monsen Loven 3S3
Jens Torgersen Tserum
Torger 1844, Unni
Ingeborg Olsdatter Kammerfos
Sorine Johannesdatter Helle
Birgith Pedersdatter Tverberg
Hans Olsen Asche
Knud Larsen Bjaaland
Gunder Tollefson Qvaale
Iver Hansen Naese
Anders Sjursen Ovreboe
Laurdal
1845
Rollaug
1842
1822
Vig
1845
1820
Laurdal
1845
1797
Laurdal
1845
1825
Laurdal
1845
Birgit
Laurdal
1845
Laurdal
1845
Sogn
1845
1811
Johanna
Sogn
1845
1801
Sanikedal
Sanikedal
Tind
Laurdal
Laurdal
Laurdal
Sogn
Sogn, Lyster
1845
1845
1842
1845
1845
1845
1845
1845
Ole 1834, Andrine 1838, Christine 1841
Ole Syvertsen Skotter
Halvor Svennungsen Barstrak
Anne Marie Christensdatter
Thor Larsen Skareboe
Britha Hansdatter Quamme
Ole Vetlesen Qualen
Anders Olsen Askje
Stener Halvorsen Junnsaas
Laurdal
1845 1813
Drangedal
1845
Drangedal
1845
Sanikedal
1845 1830
Vig
1845
Laurdal
1845 1812
Laurdal
1845
Sande
1845
1819
1823
1797
1799 Anne
Signe
352 Martha Monsdatter Melaas, b. 1818.
353 Same as Per Tredja.
CHURCH REGISTER
321
Knut Erichsen Rokne
Ole Tostensen Gaarden
Torbjorn Ellefson Skaatc
Anders Olsen Skolaas
Aslak Olsen Midgaarden
Anders Evensen Trovatten
Kittil Rolleifsen Leguam
Rolleif
Torgeim Olsen Askje
Ole Andersen Droksvold
Sjur Colbeinsen Droksvold
Jacob Thomsen Aase
Ole Tollefsen Quaale
Gunder Torgeson Sundet
Lars Ellefsen Mastrei
Jens Ellefsen Mastrei
Knud Sorensen Quistrud
Gunild Kittelsdatter Borte, Enke
Claus Gjermundsen Traae
Kittil Torjusen Borte
Iver Ingebrechtsen Yttrelie
Johannes Olsen Finne
Ole Olsen Skrabak
Niculs Halvorsen Aasen
Anders Johnson AabSe
Kittil Kittilsen Stohrtnyr
Andreas Larsen Hollo
Ole Anundsen Buina
Anne 1846
Iver Knudsen Gildertius
Johannes Johannesen Maenses
Ole Olsen Nsese
Aslak Andersen AabOe
Ole Pedersen Naese
Erich Evensen Helle
Knudt Bendt Nielsen Helle
Tollef Olsen Haatvedt
Peder Simon Asmundsen
Endre Andersen Vraae
Lars Davidson Molster
Anne Gislesdatter Hamre
Halvor Hansen Dalstiel
Thomas Tostensen Seim
Margrethe Olsdatter GJeKTe
Sebjorn Thoresen Nore
Osten Olsen Blomhauge
Halvor Staalesen Sandbzk
Voss
1840
1820 Cherstie "
Tind
1843
Krageroe
1845
1814
Laurdal
1843
1817
Laurdal
1844
1819
Laurdal
1843
Sande
1844
Liv
Laurdal
1845
Vos
1844
Vos
1844
Sillejord
1843
Laurdal
1845
1816
Moe
1843
Bamble
1843
Bamble
1843
Tind
1843
Boe
1845
(three children)
Drangedal
1845
Boe
1845
Sogn
1845
Fraflyttet
Viig
1845
Sillejord
1843
1823
Laurdal
1845
1826
Hvidesoe
1845
Boe
1845
1815
Ringsaker
1843
Flesberg
1842
Helene
Vos
1845
1810
Wiig
1845
Sigrid
Wiig
1845
Hvidesoe
1845
Wiig
1845
Sanikedal
1845
1822
Sanikedal
1845
Laurdal
1845
Sanikedal
1845
Hvidesoe
1843
Vos
1844
1814
Flesberg
1842
1797
Hvidesoe
1842
Leirdal
1844
1827
Leirdal
1845
Rollaug
1842
Tind
1843
Laurdal
1844
354 They were married in 1845.
322
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Halvor Gulliksen Bringa
Peder Torjussen Tallakshavnen
Torjus Pedersen Tallakshavnen
Ole Pederson Tallakshavnen
Guttorm Torbjornsen \VHg
Halvor Asbjornsen Juve
I4v, Asbjorn, Eigild, Asmund
Helge Sigurdsen Grimsrud
Sigurd
Aslak Olsen Olsnes
Olaus
Torbjorn Knudsen Rodningen
Ole Vendelbo Olsen Gjerlov
Ole Stephanus
Sjur Iversen Romoren
Ole Tostensen Aasnaes
Knud Danielsen Stubberud
Hans Daniel 1839
Peter Knudsen Stubberud
Halvor Jensen Stubberud
Aadne Eigilsen Ogaard
Ole, Torbjorn 1843
Lars Pedersen Haukelien
Anne, Hans, Caroline
Niels Sjursen Gilderhus
Martha Maria 1846
Sigurd Johnson Gislov
Ole Nielsen Steenhjerde
Haege Olsdatter Aasnaes
Kittil Hansen Strommi
Anne Halvorsdatter Limesand
Halvor Torjussen Borte
Ole Larsen Fimrede
Endre Endresen Rudi
Maritha 1838, Olene
John Torjussen Homme
Stephen Olsen Dahle
Torsten Olsen Brsekke
Ole, Ragnilda
Knud Olsen Aaretuen
Gunilda Christine (Urland),
Torstein Olson Bjodland
Ole, John, 1846
Vetle Thronsen Norgaarden
Hans Gulbrandsen Morkvolden
Sillejord
1843
Krageroe
1845
Krageroe
1845
Krageroe
1845
Laurdal
1843
Hvidesoe
1842
Birgith
I, Anne
Tind
1842
Vinje
1842
Anne
Krageroe
1843
Urland
1844
Ragnild. Er
Fraflyttet
Leganger
1845
1824 Brithe
Winje
1842
Ingeborg
Skauger
1844
1798 Martha Maria
Skauger
1844
1824
Skauger
1843
1803
Vinje
1843
Guro
Rogen
1843
Bertha
Vos
1839
Ragnild
Winje
1845
Leganger
1845
1821
Vinje
1842
Hvidesoe
1843
1790 Dagne
Viig
1845
Boe
1845
1826
Sogndal
1846
1810
Vos
1839
1796 Jorand
Hvidesoe
1843
Viig
1845
1825
Urland
1845
1800 Anne
Leirdal
1844
1812 in Urland, Anne
Annie Marie,
Ole
(Leirdal)
Haae, Jsederen
1826
1803 Guro
Hvidesoe
1843
Rollaug
1845
1805 Ingeborg
355 Came to America in 1843.
356 Born 1819 in Laerdal.
CHURCH REGISTER
323
Gabriel Bjornson w
Drammen
1843 1820
Hellik Helliksen Berge
Flesberg
1843 1821
Ole Aslaksen Lien
Vinje
1843 1821
Ole Anundsen Jamsgaard
Vinje
1846 1816
Hermand Thomassen Vee
Leirdal
1845 1805 Ingeborg An-
Johanne 1838, Ingeborg Andrea, 1843
drea b. 1813
Ole Olsen Svakur
Leirdal
184S 1820
Thomas Johnsen Landeman
Sandsvaerd
1842 1804 Stine
Erik Johannesen \TtterHe
Urland
1845 1802 Martha, 1798
Ingeborg 1831, Lars 1833,
Anna 1858, Haaken 1835, Thomas, 1840.
Johannes Eriksta Ytterlle
Urland
1845 1829
Lars Gundersen Gjellum
Urland
1845 1811 Gjertrud, 1817
Knud, Marthe
Thorbjorn Olsen Gjesme
Urland
1846 1802 Inga
Ingeborg, ' Kari
Ole Olsen Gjesme
Urland
1846 1805 Ingeborg
Ole
Jens Bottolsen Bergvam
Urland
1845 1821
Tosten Bottolsen Bergvam
Urland
1845
Ellend Thronsen Qvale
Sogndal
1846 1801 Dordei
Synneva, Thron, Baar,
Johannes, Ellend,
Dorthe
Vetle Gundersen Felland
Moe
1846 1819 Astrid 1821
Gunder, Else 1844
Ole Halvorsen Kirkeboe
Laurdal
1841 1799
Kittil Torgersen Teigseth
Flesberg
1846 1805 Berit
Kittil Kittilsen Teigseth
Flesberg
1846 1829
Gullik Gislesen Hamre
Flesberg
1846 1795
Hellik Gulliksen Hamre
Flesberg
1846 1829
Ole Tollefsen HulcJeroen
Krageroe
1846 1815 Anne 1821
Jorgen Kittilsen Strommen
Hvidesoe
1843
Abraham Kittilsen Strommen
Hvidesoe
1843
Anders Helliksen Texle
Flesberg
1846 1791 Gunhild
Lars Thorbjornsen Gjesme
Urland
1846 1829
Ole Ingebretsen Homstad
Overhalden
1846 1794 Marie 1798
Knud Eriksen Aaretuen
Leirdal
1846 1796 Christie 1796
Gullik Halvorsen Holtan
Flesberg
1846 1791 Anne
Levor 1830, Berit 1836
Halvor Gulliksen Holtan
Flesberg
1846 1823
Joseph Johannesen Gjellum
Leirdal
1845 Anna
Amund Olsen StromI
Vos
1844 1828
Eigild Eigildsen Bredland
Laurdal
1845
Johannes Andersen Leidal
Vos
1845 1819
Tollef Olsen Hulderoen
Krageroe
1843 1781 Helga 1777
Thosstol Tellefsen Hulderoen
Krageroe
1843 1821
Anders Sjursen Hundere
Sogndal
1846 1817
Iver Knudsen Seim
Vos
1846 1806 Anna
Isak Jacobsen Nordboe
Moland
357 Er Justice of the Peace.
324
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
1843
1846
1827
1817
Guri Pedersdatter Sogndal 1844 1831
Niels Olsen Selseng Sogndal 1846 1802
Ole Christiansen Selseng Sogndal 1846
Britha, Gjertrud, Christian
Ole Rasmussen Reinen Moe
Michel 1832, Rasmus 1837
Ole Olsen Reinen
Knud Saammudsen Aae Laurdal
Anders Johannesen Tommerstigen Vardal
Johannes, Olive 1836 ( Vardal) Peder 1843
Johannes Leiersen Svanejord Hvidesoe
Ole Bjorgosen Oftelie Laurdal
Knud Stephensen Tveit Vos
Johannes Johannesen Vaerlie Sogndal
Marthe Knudsen Braekke Urland
Peder Larsen Lien Naes i Halld
Ole Torjussen Flom Urland
Ole 1830, Anders 1823 s88
Niels Nielsen Giri Naes i Halld 1846 1793
Ole Gulliksen Barstad Sillejord 1842 1791
Vetle, Eivind, Halvor
Halvor Olsen Gjerjord Vinge 1843 1822
Henrik Halvorsen Lien Naes, Halld 1846 1831
Ole Johnson Holstad Viig 1845 1810
Britha 1831, Ragnald 1823, Johannes 1836, Olive 1843
Ingeborg,
Martha
1802
1846 1775 Ingeborg, 1794
Aslaug
Ringsaker, 1807
Maria, 1807
(Vardal) Karen Marie, 1845
1846 1818
1846 1799 Thone, 1801
1845 1801
1846 1816
1846 1813
1845
1844 17*4 Anna, 1798
Ingeborg, 1799
Gjertrud, 1800
Nicolai Halvorsen Paus
Jens Sjursen Hundere
Martha Olsd. Selseng
Ole Vaernsen Skotter
Ole Olsen Huset
Hvidesoe
Sogndal
Sogndal
Laurdal
Holden
1846
1846
1844
1845
1844
1824
1821
Kirsten Maria,
1825
Ole, Karen, Andrea Sugar Creek 1846 Sugar Creek dobt
Ole Olsen Huset Holden 1846 1790 Anna
Gunder, Hans, Anders, Aslaug Maria, Karen Maria
Christen Tellefsen
Tellef, Villam
Ole Olsen
Hulderoen
Anders Olsen Baerstad
Ole Andersen Baerstad
Kari Olsdatter Dale
Ole Gundersen Felland
Simon Monsen Halfrund
Torbjorn Halvorsen
Bjorgo Haraldsen
Thomas Johnsen
Krageroe
LaurvJg
Drangedal
Drangedal
Viig
Moe
Viig
Vinje
Vinje
Drangedal
1846
1844
1846
1846
1845
1846
1845
1845
1845
1846
Karen Maria
Anne, Christiania,
1843, fraflyttet
1828
1826
1774
358 This is an error ; Anders Flom was born in 1834.
CHURCH REGISTER
325
Niels Knudsen Grovund
Sogndal
1846 1822
er flyttet til
Spring Prairie, Menighed
Aanund Monsen Njos
Leganger
1846 1808
skal vsere dod i
Milwaukee
Britha Samsonsdatter
Leganger
1846 1810
Unni Lassesdatter
Leganger
1846 1791
Ole Henriksen Fadness
Vos
1846
Synneva
Knud Henriksen Brumborg
Vos
1846 1813
Anders Sandersen
Aal, Ilalld
1846 1807
Aagot, 1821
Anders Knudsen
Holden
1846 1812
John Henrikson Fadness
Voss
1846
Aale Thorsen Hagen
Aal, Halld
1846 1802
Astrid
Anders H. Odegaard
Hafsloe
1845 1792
Martha
Trtrr ( 5 1
Tind
1841 189T
i ege v. - r )
Halvor Johnson Odegaarden
Laurdal
-lotO AOA
1846 1805
Gunder Gunderson Felland
Moe
1846 1810
Thone
Lisbeth Olsdatter Huset
Holden
1844 1796
Tollef Gunderson Fladland
Kittil Thoreson Svimbil
Juul Gislesen Hamre
Flesberg
1842 1805
Anne
Gisle, Kjersti, Gunder
Johannes Ingebretsen Gjerde
Sogndal
1846
Ole Gregoriussen Vestendahl
Hvidesoe
1843 1798
Ole Johnson Bjon
Bamble
1846
Glaus Johnson
Bamble
1846
Jorgen Johnson
Bamble
1846
Erik Larsen Grov
Hafsloe
1845
Anfind Hansen Biestol
Vug
1846 1796
Even Anderson Ostbergreie
Ringsaker
1847 1793
Tellef Aslaksen Kostvedt
Vinje
1843 1820
Gunder Ostensen Jordahl
Kinservig
1847
Sigtrud
Halvor Ellefson Bradlos
Krageroe
1846 1828
Anders Ellefsen Bradlos
KragerSe
1846 1829
Hans Mikkelsen Lote
Kinservig
1847 1817
Britha
Bottolf Johannesen Grinde
Leganger
1846 1799
Marhi, 1806
Marhi, 1833, Peder, 1839,
Johanne, 1834
Aslak Hansen Halferdalen
Hvidesoe
1843 1820
Aslak Knudsen Midboe
Vinje
1843
Knud Svordesen Rogndal
Laurdal
1846 1822
Torstein Eriksen Rokne
Vos
1845 1824
Iver Nielsen
Vos
1845
Gunleg Torkilsen Oversaker
I.aurdal
1846 1816
Endre Rasmussen Odegaard
Lyster
1847 1826
Ole Olsen Loe
Nordre Aurdal
1847 1813
Ingeborg, 1808
Ole, 1842
Hermund Thomassen Aarebroe
Leirdal
1846 1816
Ole Henriksen Hippe
Nordre Aurdal 1847 1812
Guri (Slidre)
Astrid, Marit, Ragnhild, Henrik
Hans Johnson Dahle
vider ikke hvor ban er
326
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Hans Sjursen Urlandvangen
Osmund Osmundsen Kjerre
Knud Knudsen Gilderhus
Voa
1845 1824
Mikkel Gulliksen Erdahl
Hardanger
1847 1807 Thorbjor, 1809
Sigrid 1832, Ragne 1833,
Augund 1838, Torbjor, Gullik, Mikkel, Christie
Erik Sjursen Fliseram
Vos
1844 1811
Sylfest Sjursen Fliseram
Vos
1846 1819
Anders Helleksen Lande
Flesberg
1847 1786
Torger Brynildsen Morkve
Vos
1845 1817
Thor Thorbjornsen Kingeland
Vinje
1847 1807
Ole Hermansen Alne
Hafsloe
1847 1808
Hans Pedersen Pladsen
Halsloe
1847 1819
Peder Sylfestsen Aaberge
Hafsloe
1847 1819 (Sogndal)
Lars Osmundsen Juvet
Laurdal
1846 1798 Inbegorg
Johannes Sjursen Hundere
Sogndal
1846 1811
Pernille Johannesdatter
Ringsaker
1848 1794
Peder Amund Egdetvedt
Vos
1846 1798
Colbein Torkildsen Edgetvedt
Vos
1846 1816
Ole Gundersen
Moe
1846 1796
Nicolai Arneson Auland
Peder Olsen Brandstad
Biri
1846 1799 Erika, 1847, 1807
Agnethe, Eline, Pauline,
Otto, Martinus
Jens Skaksen Bahuus
Sogndal
1847 1817
Tarje Halvorson Morkve
Moland
1843 1806
Erik Thorsen S vender esde. .t
Rollaug
1846 1806
Anders Nielsen Lie
Vos
1841 1814 Gunvor, 1805
Martha 1838, Niels 1841,
Sjur, 1848, Anders
1848
Svend Larsen Lund
Graven
1847 1813 Guri
Halvor Bjorgosen Huverstad
Hvidesoe
1844
Ole Andersen Lande
Flesberg
1847 1826
Gullik Andersen Lande
Flesberg
1847 1823
Jacob Jacobsen Njos
Leganger
1846 1818 Mette, 1821
Kari, 1844
Tollef Halvorsen Gvale
Slidre
1847 1829
Sjur Johannesen Quam
Sogndal
1847 1847
Ingebret Pedersen Erdahl
Hardanger
1847 1809 Anne
Guttorm Johannesen Buo
Hardanger
1847 1848 Ragnhilde
Johannes Larsen Erdahl
Graven
1847 1809 Catarine
Hellik Helliksen Foslieiet
Flesberg
1842 1812 Sigrid
Hellik 1833, Anders 1835, Marit 1838, Christoffer 1841, Christine,
Johannes Anderson Tommerstigen Ringsaker
Kjostolf Gunderson Nseset Holden 1844 1808 Marie
Gunder, Halvor, Ole
Peder Halvorsen Moe Gjerpen 1843 1821
Halvor Kittilsen Naestestug Sillejord 1847
Ole Jorgensen Hustvedt Omlie 1846
Ole Gundersen Brodalsgaard Aal 1847
Ole Tollefsen Stolen Herroe 1847
Tollef
Sigrid
1822
1823
1801
Mari (Holdon
kom, 1844)
Martine
CHURCH REGISTER
327
Gunhild Saamundsdatter
Hermund Olsen Offerdal
Ole, Anders
Simon Atlesen Gjellum
John Olson Herjedahl
Ole Johnson Herjedahl
Svend Amundsen Sinnes
Tarald Nielsen
Gunder Torgesen Lie
Anders Sjursen Gilderhus
Gregor Halvorsen Kddingsaas
John Olsen Eide
Sjur Storksen Reque
Zacharias Iversen
Johanne, Ivar
Magne Nielsen Naested
Tallef Gjermundsen Gulsteen
Niels Olsen Selseng
Thoe Levorsen Svartedal
Niels Larsen Skjaerve
Bottolf Olsen Livbroen
Johannes Jacobsen Hovden
Jarrand Olsdatter Skrae
Hans Amundsen Helland
Kelge Sjursen Saetre
Halvor Halvorsen Strand
Tarje Tollefsen Felland
Amund Larsen Felland
Niels Hermansen Naese
Bernt Mathias Taamsen
Ole Olson Tveten
Anders Ellingsen Quale
Ole Siversen Kilen
Niels Bjornson Farastad
Ole Johannesen Skauhovd
Ole Torkildsen Lislerud
Amund Amundsen Braata
Ole Nerisen Kjaere
Thron Olsen Lindevigen
Odd Sjursen Naatvedt
Knud Olsen Unneland
Olaf Laavesen Bergland
Inga Olsdatter
Mikkel Larsen Hole
Michael Johannesen
Kari Gulliksdatter Lande, Enke
Halvor Halvorsen Strand
Ole Larsen Quammen
Aslak Olsen Sandager
Laurdal
1842
1798
Leirdal
1846
1819
Kristi, 1814
Urland
1845
1825
Britha
Haug
1847
1802
Haug
1847
Hvidesoe
1848
1803
Dagne, 1812
Drangdal
1846
1825
Hvidesoe
1846
1808
Vos
1843
1798
Jaarand
Sillejord
1847
1822
Evindsvig
1848
1814
Vos
184S
1809
Leganger
1848
1817
Kari
Vos
1848
1811
Aal
1847
1816
Sogndal
1848
1781
Ingborg, 1792
Vinje
1848
1818
Vos
1843
1813
Vos
1848
1797
Britha, 1797
Vinje
1847
1795
Margit
Moland
1846
1795
Rennesoe
1848
1826
Vos
1848
1779
Aurdal
1848
1779
Moe
1846
1818
Moe
1846
1827
Viig
1846
1825
Herroe
1848
1821
Vinje
1845
1820
Sogndal
1848
1804
Christi
Moe
1848
1812
Vinje 3
Vinje
1845
1813
5
Vardal
1848
1817
4
1842
2
Flesberg
1847
1
Laurdal
1848
5 plus 2
Laurdal
1848
3
Vos
1845
1817
6
Vos
1845
1809
5
Laurdal
1848
4
Vos
1843
4
Vos
1846
2
Rollaug
1848
2
Flesberg
1847
1
Valders
1849
Hardanger
1847
1814
3
Hvidesoe
1848
328
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Lars Johannesen Quanunen
Hardanger
1848 1823
2
John Engbretsen Londe
Soldal
1848 1825
2
Herge Aadren Brumberg
Vos
1848 1786
2
Syvert Olsen Berge
Laurdal
1848
2
Aslak Endresen Quammen
Hardanger
1847 1805
6
Gunder Halvorsen Bjornstad
Moland
1846 1807
3
Aurdal
2
Knud Knudsen Bjelde
Urland
1847 1818
5
Bendik Andersen Haave
Ieganger
2
Anders Nicolaison Mastad
Vos
1848 1801
6
Helge Olsen Botnen
Soldal
1848 1786
2
Anand Bjornson
Biroen
1848
Jacob Ingebretsen Gjerdene
Sogndal
1844 1803
Ole Torkildsen Krogen
Lyster
1847
4
Rasmus Nielsen
Sorov i
Danmark
1847 1805
5
?
Holden
1841
1
Knud Bendiksen Nordstrand
Aurdal
1848 1824
3
Colbein Olsen Saue
Vos
1837 1805
Anna,
1800
Hans Olsen Kjorn
Rollaug
1848 1787
Jaarand, 1797
Christian Tarjesen
Tnomoe
1849
2
Flesberg
1
Tarje Aslaksen Groven
Moland
1846
Gunder Osmundsen Brudal
Moland
1848
5
Kari
Turi, Margit, Osmund, Eivind
Kittil Olsen Solberg
Hvidesoe
1849
Knud Olsen Hostvedt
Hvidesoe
1846
Abraham Jacobsen Ongnevig
Lyngdal
1849 1806
7
Boe
2
Stork Tarjesen Gjierum
Vos
1848
Iver Gulbrandsen Ringsted
Slidre
1849 1812
7
Hvidesoe
1
John Sjursen Bjorgan
Vos
1849 1798
6
Sjur Johnson Bjorgan
Vos
1849
3
Erik Mikkelsen Moland
Vos
1845
5
Kirstine Andersdatter Sherping, EnkeUrland
1849 1824
3
Sondre Eivindsen Groven
Sillejord
1848 1804
5
Ole Halvorson Odegaard
Hjerdal 1848
(Siljord) 1823 3
Gunhild
Aamund Mikkelsen Sanden
Hvidesoe
1848
3
Tollef Halvorsen Stornslie
Moe
1849
Halvor Mathesen Prsestholdt
Moe
1846
Laurdal
1
Nicolai Mikkelsen Erdahl
Graven
1847
Gunder Gundersen Hvideklev
Hvidesoe
1845
Moe
1
Elling Andersen Qualen
Sogndal
Ole Nielsen Selseng
Sogndal
4
Jens Pedersen Tyvang
Krageroe
1843
Audi
Peder Knudsen Rodningen
K rage roe
1843
CHURCH REGISTER
329
Osmund Nerisen Tveten
Peder Povelsen Schogen
Martha Svendad Legreid
Johannes Halvorsen
Peder Nielsen Steengjerde
Torger Endresen Groe
Lars Bergessen Tillung
Thor Eriksen Valle
Christen Tellefsen Ulleroen
Christian Hermansen
Ole Christiansen Teigen
Jacob Jacobsen Njos
Gjermund Aslaksen Dalen
Niels Torjusen Grotherud
Ole Eielsen Naset
Christen Olsen Saghougen
Amund Amtndsen Braata
Tolard Amundsen
Ole Olsen Stuen
Andres Ellingsen Aasen
Ole Monson Stop
Ole Farnaes
Anfind Anundsen
Knud Toresen Nore
Clemet Larsen Stalsbraaten
Atle Simonsen Gjellum
Hans Knudsen Ramsoe
Tosten Eriksen Ramsoe
Ommund Asbjornson Stengjen '
Knud Knudsen Rio
Halvor Brynildsen Lonne
Even Knudsen Raabeli
Thorbjorn Guttomsen Viig
Ole Gundersen
Helge Andersen Kirkebye
Ole Olsen Haugan
Ommund Larsen Quammen
Johannes Johannsen Henjotn
John Thorsen Lie
Thor Rollefsen
Peder Ulrik Berntsen
Johannes Larsen Hedemarken
. . ?
Anders Andersen Grimeland
Vinje
1845
Gran
1849
Slidre
1
Hardanger
1849
Sandsvserd
3
Leganger
1847
2
Vos
1846 1816
2
Vos
1847 1819
2
Bamble
1849 1830
Bamble
Hafslo
1837 1816
Leganger
2
Moe
1849
Flesberg
1849
3
Winje
1843 47 Aar
2
Gusdal
1849 45 Aar
Gertrud
Flesberg
1850 53 Aar
4
Vinje
1850
Viig, Sogn
1845
Sigrid
2
Vos
1845 53 Aar
3
Rollaug
1842 26 Aar
bar
varet medlemmer
Urland
1849 44 Aar
3 datter Kari
gift med Jo-
hannes E. Lie
Aadsland
1849 46 Aar
Aadsland
1849 59 Aar
Sogndal
1849 34 Aar
2
Vos
1844 60 Aar
2
Vos
1849 62 Aar
3
Slidre
1848 27 Aar
Sillejord
1843
3
Moland
1850
Hvidesoe
1849
Sillejord
1842 30 Aar
2
Graven(Hard)1847 47 Aar
2
Sogn
1850 43 Aar
(Systrand) 2
Hvidesoe
1850 42 Aar
2
Hvidesoe
1850 69 Aar
Aa
1849 49 Aar
10
Ringsager
1839 28 Aar
4
Ringsager
5
Omblie
1849 37 Aar
359Stenhjem!
330
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Isak Olsen Suftestad
Iver Nielsen Evanger
Niels Olsen Anskjser
Torgrein Knudsen Tvedtene
Vilhelm Jorgensen Hegland
Simon Atlesen Gjellum
Eigild Eigildsen Breiland
Lars Josephsen I<ie
Even Halvorsen Leifstad
Anders Torgersen Liinaas
Nicolay Nielsen Tvete
Erik Johannesen Yttrelie
Gullik Gislesen Hamre
Ole Thoresen Nore
Niels Halvorsen Langemoe
Peder Johansen Klungehelt
Knud Arnesen Tvedt
Iver Pedersen Skaar
Anfind Stryksen Leidal
Enke. Karen Halvorsdatter
Jens Brottolfen Berggvam
Lars Hovelsen Bovre
Jens Johannesen Nsese
Den 28nde Mai, 1850.
Nses,
Nissedal
1850 28 Aar
4
Vos
1845 37 Aar
2
Vos
1850 32 Aar
7
Nissedal
1850 23 Aar
Krageroe
1850
3
Urland
1845 26 Aar
2
Laurdal
1845
2
Vos
1850 29 Aar
2
Moe
1846 28 Aar
Vos
3
Flesberg
1849 38*/, Aar
6
Graven
1850 25 Aar
2
Urland
1845 49 Aar
Flesberg
1846 55 Aar
3
Nummdal
1842 25 Aar
3 plus
Sannikedal
1850 58 Aar
4
Hedemarken
1849 58 Aar
5
Flaaberg
1849
2
Kindservig
185025 Aar
Graven
1850 23 Aar
Lysten
Solum
Urland
Hvidesoe
Bier
Wiig
Ringsaker
1850 50 Aar
1845 30 Aar
1850 43 Aar
1845 23 Aar
2012
J. W. C. DlETRICHSON.
* It will have been observed that it has been impossible to make
out some of the names, the last part of the Eegister having been writ-
ten in a very illegible hand.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
The Founding of the Norwegian Settlements of Nor-
way Grove, Spring Prairie and Bonnet
Prairie in Dane and Columbia
Counties, Wisconsin
In the extreme northern part of Dane County in
the Towns of Vienna, Windsor and Bristol, a large
number of Norwegian immigrants, principally from
Sogn, settled in 1846-1848, forming the nucleus of
what in a few years came to be one of the most pros-
perous settlements in Southern Wisconsin. The first
Norwegian in this section was Svennung Nikkulson
Dahle, who came from Flatdal in Telemarken in 1844
to Koshkonong, and the next year purchased land
and settled near Norway Grove in the Town of Vi-
enna. He was then only eighteen years old. 36
Nearly all who came later were from Sogn, and
Dahle was and remained the only native of Tele-
marken in Vienna. In 1846 Erik Engesaeter, from Lei-
kanger, Sogn, with family, including a son John,
settled there. In 1847 Ole H. Farness (b. 1826) and
wife Gertrude came from Sogn, Norway, to Norway
Grove. Erik C. Farness 361 (b. 1828) also came the
360 About 1858 he married Maline Oien (b. in Aardal, Sogn, in
1835). Svennung Dahle died in 1872, the owner of 400 acres of land.
361 He was married to Ingeborg Grinde in 1851, Rev. A. C. Preus
performing the ceremony. Ingeborg was the daughter of Botolf
Grinde who came from Sogn in 1846 and settled on Liberty Prairie.
332 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
same year. These men both acquired large farms
there in the course of time, Ole Farness owning 530
acres. Arne Boyum and family, five in all, from
Outer Sogn, came in 1848 as did Knut K. Naas (b.
1810), with wife Alau and family of four children
from Kragero. 362
The first Norwegian to buy land in Windsor
Township was Ingebrigt Larson Tygum, from Sy-
strand, Sogn, who immigrated in 1844, lived one
year in Muskego, then came to Windsor in 1845. For
two years he seems to have been the only Norwegian
in the Town. 363 In 1852 Tygum sold his farm in
Windsor and moved into Vienna Township, buying
the farm at present occupied by the son Lars (b.
1849). In 1847 the following settled in Windsor
Township: Stephen Holum and family, who had
immigrated in 1845 and lived two years' at Bock
Prairie, Sjur Grinde and family, and Truls E. Far-
ness and wife. 364 These families are intimately con-
nected with the history of the Village of De Forest.
A son of S. Holum, namely Ole S. Holum (b. 1847),
lives on 204 acres of land adjoining the village. Ole
Holum is a prominent democrat and has held various
offices of trust, being e. g. Register of Deeds in 1877-
78. 36S In 1848 several families moved in, among
362 Two sons, Thomas and Isak, went to the War in 1860. Thomas
was killed in the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. Knut
Naas died in 1868; his wife in 1887.
363 Larson married Brita (Dale) widow of Jon Eiken on Rock
Prairie in 1847; she died in 1902, aged 89.
364 Farness came from Balestrand Parish.
FOUNDING OF NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENTS 333
them Lars Eggum, Ole Haukness and family (ten
in all), and Sjur S. Vangness and family. Vangness
had immigrated in 1844, first settled in Bock County,
then came to De Forest in 1848. He died there in
1878. The family included a son, Sjur S. Vangness
(b. 1816 at Vangsness in Sogn), whom we meet with
later as a man of much influence in the township;
he owned 264 acres of land near De Forest. 366
In Bristol Township three families settled as
early as 1846 ; namely that of Botolf E. Bergum (b.
1816), who came there in the fall of 1846, and contin-
ued to reside there until his death in 1904 (his wife
died in 1903; after a wedded life of fifty-four
years), 367 Sjur Johnson and wife Ingeborg and one
son, and Erik Larson and wife and several children.
In 1848 Hans H. Quamme came up to Bristol
from Rock Prairie, where he had settled in 1846,
coming from Norway that year. During the next
three years so many immigrants came from Sogn
and located in Norway Grove that the settlement
came to be called "Sogn." Among the many families
who located there at that time, John Ollis of Madison,
365 Farness died in 1885, his wife died in 1902 at the home of
her daughter, Mrs. H. T. Lerdall, Madison, Wisconsin.
366 As I shall not have occasion elsewhere to speak of the Town-
ship of Burke directly south of Windsor, I may here say that the first
Norwegian settlers were Torkel Gullikson (b. 1815) and wife Mar-
garete, whom he had married in 1843; they came to Pleasant Spring
in 1844 and moved up to Burke the following year. For several
years there came no more Norwegians.
367 They left five sons : Erik, Ellik, Peter, who live on Spring
Prairie, Marcus (Deerfield), and John, who lives in Cottage Grove,
and one daughter, Mrs. Peter Hagen, Spring Prairie.
334 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Wisconsin, writing in Bygdejaevining, page 341,
names: ' ' Engessether, Grinde, Fames, Tygum, Eg-
gum, Boyum, Huseboe, Hamre, Ohnstad, Slinde,
Svaeren, Vangsness, Holum, Linde, Lidahl, Thorsnes,
Fosse, Rendahl, Ethun, Vigdahl, Ulvestad, Roisum,
Svalem, Fjerstad, Henjum, Jerde, Haukeness," be-
sides all who were called Olson, Larson, Nilson, An-
derson, Peterson, Johnson, etc.
About ten miles northwest of Norway Grove,
at Lodi in Columbia County, a smaller settlement of
immigrants from Hardanger takes its beginning in
1847-48; although one family had settled there as
early as 1844. In that year Peder L. Odvin (b. 1819)
and wife Kathrine Spaanem, from Ulvik in Har-
danger, emigrated to America and went direct to
Lodi. Ten years later they moved to Springdale
in Dane County. 368 In 1847 Peder Froland ( see page
336) and Ole Jone, both from Hardanger, became the
founders of the Hardanger Settlement there. In
1846 Ammund Himle and family from Voss immi-
grated and settled near Lodi, but below the Dane
County line.
The origin of the Spring Prairie Settlement in
Columbia County, the northern extremity of which
is more specifically called Bonnet Prairie, dates back
to 1845. In that year four men settled about the
same time on Spring Prairie, namely: Odd Himle
368 Peder Odvin and wife returned to Norway in 1893 to spend
their declining days at Hardanger; Mrs. Odvin died there in 1895.
In 1902 the son, L. P. Odvin, visited his father in Norway and brought
him back to his home in Verona, Dane County, where he died in 1903.
FOUNDING OF NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENTS 335
and Sjur S. Keque from Voss, Anders Langeteig
from Vik in Sogn, and Knud Langeland from Racine
County. The three first of these had families.
Beque moved away again four years later, settling
on Liberty Prairie, not far from Deerfield. Lange-
land, as we have recited above, was already in 1848
back in Racine County as one of the founders of
Nordlyset, the first Norwegian newspaper published
in this country; but Himle and Langeteig became
permanent settlers.
In his book Nordmaendene i Amerika Langeland
gives a circumstantial account of his coming to
Spring Prairie. He says that in August of 1845
he and Niels Torstensen, equipping themselves
with a cook stove, provisions, bedding, and all the
necessities for camping out, drove with oxen and a
wagon from Racine via Koshkonong, following
the regular road to Madison (presumably going by
West Koshkonong Church). But Madison did not
attract them. He says: " Madison had nothing re-
markable about it except its natural beauty and the
big Territorial Building, which looked very impos-
ing among the small frame houses. ' ' These sons of
the land of mountains "were scared away by the
big hills" where the University is now situated, and
turned east, driving almost as far as Fort Winne-
bago, where Amund Rosseland, a friend of Lange-
land 's, from Norway, had recently settled. Not find-
ing the marshes here very inviting, and failing to
meet Rosseland at home, they decided to turn back.
336 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Camping out over night, they drove back twenty
miles the next day ; then upon the advice of an Amer-
ican by the name of Young, they turned east, and
driving on a few miles, came upon an American by
the name of Gilbert, who was just engaged in erect-
ing his log hut. The prairie here was to their lik-
ing and they selected a site and in due time entered
a claim on land.
Langeland says there came no other Norwegians
there that fall, but as we have seen, three others did
locate in other parts of the prairie, about the time
Langeland came there. That same fall Langeland
went to Milwaukee to take out pre-emption papers
and he stopped at Koshkonong, and told his coun-
trymen there of the beauties of the prairies to the
north, and a little later he wrote letters to friends
in La Salle County, Illinois. From Milwaukee he
says he brought back to Spring Prairie with him a
plow, a harrow, and other farm tools.
In the spring of 1846 Peder Froland m came up
there from La Salle County, bringing with him two
ox-teams and a wagon and farm tools, but he seems
to have been the only one who came from La Salle
County; a number of settlers, however, came from
Boone County and Jefferson Prairie to Spring and
Bonnet Prairie in 1847-1850. In June, 1846, Nor-
wegian immigrants began to come in hosts from or
via Koshkonong, says Langeland. He and Froland
plowed about one hundred acres of prairie land for
369 Who had come to America in 1837.
FOUNDING OF NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENTS 337
the newcomers that season. Two years later Lange-
land sold his claim and moved back to Eacine
County.
So it happened that also Spring Prairie became
settled largely from Koshkonong, and as this was
the period in which immigration from Sogn was tak-
ing place on a large scale, it was especially Sognings
who took possession also of this region; though a
considerable number of Vossings also gradually
moved in. Reverend L. S. J. Eeque writes me that
Spring Prairie is today almost exclusively a Sogn-
ing-Vossing settlement, and the former predominate.
The Spring Prairie Settlement, whose begin-
nings have here been briefly sketched, rapidly ex-
panded north to Bonnet Prairie, this part of it com-
ing to be known as the Bonnet Prairie Settlement.
The settlement is located principally in Otsego
Township, but partly in Hampdon and surround-
ing towns. The first Norwegian settlers in this
locality were John Anderson and Kjel Anderson,
who came in 1846, having immigrated from Saude,
Telemarken, that year.
The following is a list of the founders of the
settlement as submitted to me by Samuel Sampson
of Rio, Wisconsin. Mr. Sampson (b. 1839) is the
only survivor of those who settled there at that time,
being the son of Thorbjorn Skutle. The year to the
right of each name indicates the year of immigra-
tion to America. All except the last two settled at
Bonnet Prairie in 1846; these two settled there in
1848.
338
Wife
Anne
Where from
Saude
1844
Ingebor
Kari
Saude
Holden
1844
1847
Kirsti
Holden
1846
Ingeborg
Liv Marie
Saude
Saude
1843
1843
Ingebor
Martha
Bo
Aurland
1846
1844
Ingebor
Margit
Guro
Saude
Numedal
Saude
1844
1844
1844
Anna
Bo
1846
Helene
Saude
1846
Ragnild
Johanne
Kari
Aurland
Sogn
Sogn
Saude
1845
1845
1845
1845
Ingri
Anna
Saude
Voss
1848
1848
Name
John Anderson
Kjel Anderson
Hans Jorgensen Kjosvik
Peter Halvorson Valb'en
Augon Aarness
Leif Johnson Dahle
Tollef Olson Hawkos
Iver Vangen
Gunleik Olson Svalestuen
Knut Gunnelson Tveten
Even Tostenson Indlaeggen
Hans Hawkos Aase
Hana Tollefson
Johannes Frondal
Eilif Olson
Mikkel Knutson
Johannes Johanneson Gvaale
Halvor Shelby
Thorbjorn Sampson Skutle
Since the above was written I have received
from Eeverend L. S. J. Beque of Morrisonville, Wis-
consin, further facts relative to the earliest settlers
there. The earliest records of the Bonnet Prairie
Church kept by Reverend A. C. Preus show that the
testimonial of emigration was issued to "Eivind
T. Indlaeggen" April 5, 1843, to ''Johannes Johanne-
sen" April 10th, 1843, to John Anderson and wife
May 3d and 6th, 1843, to "Hans Olsen Haukaas"
May 7th, 1843. Also to ' * Thorbjorn Samsonsen and
wife Anna Ellingsdatter" May 13th, 1844. As it is
probable that these emigrated at the time of issue
of the testimonial of emigration the table should
be corrected with reference to these names. Dur-
ing the intervening three years most of the above
FOUNDING OF NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENTS 339
had lived in Boone County, Illinois, whither also
some of the later settlers came en route to Bonnet
Prairie. Thorbjorn Skutle and family who came
from Voss, sailing on the ship Hercules, located
first at Jefferson Prairie. T. Skutle and his wife
both died in 1897, age 88 and 91 respectively.
CHAPTER XXXIX
Blue Mounds in Western Dane County, Wisconsin
The extensive Norwegian settlement in Western
Dane County, ordinarily referred to as Blue Mounds
from the "blue mounds" in the township of that
name, was founded in 1846. Three families had,
however, located there as early as 1844, namely those
of Thor Aase, Peder Dusterud, and Lars P. Duste-
rud. Thor Aase, with wife Martha, five sons and two
daughters, 370 settled on section ten in Springdale ;
they came from Sogn in 1843 and had lived one year
at Wiota. Peder Dusterud and wife and family set-
tled on section 33 in Blue Mounds and the son Lars
Dusterud and wife located on section 27, both in Blue
Mounds Township. These two came from Eock Run,
Illinois, where they had located in 1842, immigrating
from Vsegli, Numedal. 371 They had also worked for
some time in the Dodgeville, Wis., lead mines.
In 1846 a company of eleven persons arrived
from Racine County ; they were the following : Tore
Toreson Spaanem, Halvor and Nils H. Grasdalen,
John I. Berge and wife Julia and one child, his
sister Mrs. Knut Sorenson Kvisterud, Tosten
Thompson Rue, Ole T. Garden, Ole Kvisterud, and
370 The children were Ivar (b. 1818), Lasse, Hermund, Talak,
John, Synneva, and Britha.
371 Lars Dusterud anu. wife are still living at Mt. Horeb.
BLUE MOUNDS 341
Ole Sjutvett. Knut S. Kvisterud, who had just be-
fore this gone to Mineral Point and secured work
there, came to Blue Mounds in 1848. John Thomp-
son later was more generally called " Snow-shoe
Thompson" from the fact that he carried the U. S.
mail over the Sierra Nevada Mountains for twenty
years (1856-1876), walking on skis.
All these came from Muskego, Wisconsin, whith-
er they had immigrated from Tin, Telemarken.
Spaanem and Halvor Grasdalen had come there in
1841, Knut Kvisterud and wife in 1843, and Berge
in 1845. The Rue family had come from Norway,
as we have seen, in 1839 (see above page 125). In
1846 the Town of Primrose, immediately south of
Springdale, also received its first Norwegian set-
tlers, namely, Christian Hendrickson, wife Maria
and three children, Caroline, Henry, and Charles.
He had emigrated from Lier, Norway, in 1842. and
worked four years in the lead mines at Wiota to
pay his passage from Norway. Mr. Hendrickson
drove from Wiota to Primrose with oxen, all his pos-
sessions being then a wagon, a cow, and seventy-
five cents. He lived eight years in the log hut first
erected and built a stone structure in 1855.
The next arrivals to Blue Mounds were Erik
Solvi, who came from Sogn in 1847, and lived suc-
cessively in Springdale, Vermont, and Blue Mounds,
and Gullik Svensrud and family from Vaegli, Nume-
dal, who had immigrated in 1844, 372 and first located
372 The party with which they came left Drammen April 20th
and landed at Quebec June 20th; they arrived at Bock Prairie on
342 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
on Eock Prairie. It was also in 1847 that the first
immigrant from Valders arrived in Blue Mounds;
this was Kagnild Fadnes who in 1851 married Ever
Halsten. She was born in North Aurdal in 1826;
as near as I am able to determine she was the only
member of the family who came at the time.
During 1846-1847 other localities, Wiota, West-
ern Koshkonong, Spring Prairie and Norway Grove
had claimed a considerable portion of the immi-
grants. But in 1848 they began to come in in large
numbers in the townships of western Dane County
and neighboring parts of Iowa County. To Prim-
rose the following came in that year: Nils Skogen,
Salve Jorgenson, and Nils Einarson. To Perry:
Ole 0. Bakken and wife Anne (Bergum) and two
sons (Ole and Tideman) from Valders. This was
the first Norwegian family to locate permanently in
Perry; Bakken bought the claim of a "squatter"
named Andreas Olson, who was therefore the earli-
est Norwegian in the township. Later in the same
year came Lars Langemyr from Christiania, Norway,
Torger T. Tvedt from Aamli in Nedenaes, Reiar Aar-
hus from Telemarken, Halvor 0. Milesten from
Hadeland, and Lars Halvorson and Hans Johnson
from Drangedal.
The arrivals of 1848 were Ole Barton, wife Inge-
borg and son Ole, Gulbrand Elseberg, 373 wife Inge-
July 4th. The family included several children; a daughter Gunhild
(b. 1837), married Halvor Halvorson of Mt. Horeb in 1856.
373 Elseberg not long afterwards started for Manitowoc to visit
a brother, who had just come there, and was never heard from again.
BLUE MOUNDS 343
borg and two daughters, Christian 0. Skogen, Ole
O. Braaten and Nils 0. Belgum ; and in 1849 : Knud
Larson, Anders Lundene, Iver Halstein, Iver Lund,
Ole Jelle, Sr., and Tore Maanem, all of whom were
from Valders, mostly from North Aurdal. Tollef
S. Anmarksrud and wife Karen came to Koshkonong
the latter year, but he also removed to Blue Mounds
in 1850. During the next few years immigration
to the various townships of western Dane County
was rapid. For the fall of 1849 and in 1850 are to
be mentioned, e. g. the following arrivals in Spring-
dale Township : Harald and Arne Hoff, Ole and As-
lak Lee, Levor Lien, Ole Thompson Brenden, Anders,
John and Knut Lunde, Knut J. Lindelien, Harald
Stugaard, Michel Kolskett and Erik 0. Skinrud ; sev-
eral of these had large families. To Blue Mounds
Township came: Erik Engen, Ole Boley, wife and
four children, and Arne Roste, with family of eleven
children ; all those named here came from Valders. 374
From Sogn came Ole A. Grinde and Ole Menes,
the latter remaining, however, two years in Nor-
way Grove before coming to Blue Mounds. Mich-
ael Johnson (b. 1832 in Leikanger, Norway) emi-
grated to America in 1853, located first in Windsor,
then removed to Vienna, finally settled permanently
in Springdale in 1856. His parents, Jon Michelson
Dahlbotten and wife Eandi, and his sister Martha 37S
and younger brother Botolf came to America in
374 Boley and Roste were from South Aurdal.
375 Martha married Ole O. Flora in 1854. Botolf is B. J. Bor-
laug, well-known capitalist and banker of Kenyon, Minnesota. The
344 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
1854. Mr. Johnson became a prosperous farmer and
stock-raiser, his farm of 400 acres being one of the
finest in that part of the state. He took an active
part in church and school affairs and was for many
years a member of the governing body (Kirkeraad)
of the Norwegian Lutheran Evangelical Synod
of America. He held many positions of trust in the
town and the county, was a member of the State
Legislature for three consecutive terms, 1874-75-76,
and for years a well-known figure in the politics of
the state. Mr. Johnson lived in Mt. Horeb since
1894; he died in 1908, leaving a widow and seven
children.
In Primrose and Perry the Norwegians also set-
tled extensively in 1849-1850. Among those who
arrived in the former year were Grunnuf and Ole
Tollefsen from Saetersdalen, who as we have seen
above, page 281, had immigrated to Muskego in
1845. Others who came to Primrose that year were
G. and Ole Danielson 376 from Telemarken, Leif Ol-
son, Kittil Moland, Ole Anderson and Peter P. Hasle-
rud. Tollef son relates how he became the possessor
of his quarter section in Primrose as follows : 377
As I wished to own land of my own as soon as possible,
I went to Primrose in 1849. Here I met Niels Einarson.
There was enough of land, but how to get the number of
what I selected, was the question. After much search we
family had moved from Aurland to Borlang in Feios, Leikanger
Parish, where the children were all born.
376 Ole Danielson had lived in Illinois since he came from Norway
in 1846.
377 The citation is from Langeland, page 73.
BLUE MOUNDS 345
found a large oak a short distance east from where Norman
Randal lives. On this tree was clearly to be seen the fol-
lowing letters and numbers : N. W. y 4ft S. 23, T. 5, N. E.
6 E. There was neither pen nor paper to get without go-
ing many miles, and something had to be done at once.
I borrowed an axe of Emerson, cut down a little poplar,
and, after having cut it flat on both sides, so that it be-
came quite thin, I took my pocket knife and cut into it
the letters and numbers just as they were in the tree.
With this poplar stuck under my arm I went to the land-
office and laid the stick and the money on the table, to
the official's amusement. They understood the descrip-
tion and I got the land. 378
During 1850 came Mrs. Ole Baker with son P. 0.
Baker (b. 1838), Mons Ness, Elling Stamn, Ole
Skuldt and Lars Halvorson from Hallingdal, Knut
and Jens Olson from Stavanger, Lars L. Kolve and
family from Voss and Knut Baardson (Bowerson)
and family from Sastersdalen. During 1853 to 1855
Norwegians came in still greater numbers, writes
Reverend Hoverstad.
About twenty Norwegians settled in Perry in
1849; they were: Torger Hastvedt, Hans J. Dahle,
Ole Gangsei and Jacob Aanhus from Telemarken,
Andreas Stutelien and Jul Haavernd, wife and eight
children from Valders, and Anders Sanderson from
Hallingdal. After 1849 Norwegians came in in large
numbers, settling up the town rapidly. 379 I shall
378 Tollefson says that at Clinton he worked for a Mr. Sherwood
a while; he cut 600 rails for the loan of the latter 's oxen and wagon
with which to bring his parents from Muskego to Rock County.
379 Among them were Knut Grimstvedt and Ole Hastvedt from
Telemarken.
346 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
mention here only Onon Bjornson Dahle (b. 1823)
from Nissedal, who settled in Perry in 1853, and
Christian Evanson (b. 1819) from Valders, and wife
Eagnild from Numedal, who came there in 1854. 38
Dr. Evans tells me that Eagnild Evanson (maiden
name Kagnild Brekke) was born in Numedal, Nor-
way, in 1819, and after her marriage to Christian Ev-
anson, immigrated to America in company with her
brother Lars N. Brekke (who for many years resid-
ed and conducted a grocery store in Madison, Wis.)
in the year 1848, preceding her husband by about
five years. They came by sailing vessel, and were
sixteen weeks on the voyage, having been grounded
on a rock off the coast of England and were obliged
to wait repairs. After landing in New York they
came by Erie canal and the lakes to Milwaukee,
Wis., then to near Stoughton, Wis., and later to
Madison, where she met her husband five years later.
From Madison they moved to Perry, Dane County,
and settled on section twenty-three and remained
there until their death. 381 0. B. Dahle, who had
been a school teacher in Nissedal, left Norway in
company with a cousin, Knut Dahl, in 1848. They
first came to Koshkonong, where the former taught
380 Jens P. Tyvand (b. 1817) who had emigrated from Sannikedal
in 1843 to Lisbon, 111., and removed to Stoughton, Wis., in 1847, set-
tling in Pleasant Spring, located in Perry in 1854.
381 Mrs. Evanson died in 1894 and Mr. Evanson in 1897, sur-
vived by two children, Anne and Niels (Dr. N. E. Evans of Mt.
Horeb). C. Evanson was a successful farmer, owning 279 acres of
land; he also conducted a store at Perry after 1874.
BLUE MOUNDS 347
parochial school for two years. They went to Cali-
fornia in 1850 in search of gold as so many others.
Having been unusually successful in the gold mines,
they returned in 1853, and Onon Dahle bought a farm
in Perry, on which he founded the village of Daley-
ville, beginning at the same time there a mercantile
business. Here he amassed a fortune, retired and
moved to Mt. Horeb in 1897. In 1854 Dahle married
Betsey Nelson, daughter of Hermo N. Tufte of Ra-
cine County, and sister of the well-known lay evan-
gelist, Elling Eielson. Mr. Dahle always took an ac-
tive interest in public affairs and in the work of the
Lutheran Church of which he is a member. He died
in July, 1905, his wife having died in February of
the same year. 382
We shall close this chapter with a word about
the first Norwegians in Madison, Wisconsin. It is
not until 1850 that Norwegians began to locate in
Madison in considerable numbers. However, there
were a few there before that. As near as I can find
out, Ole Torgeson, Ole 0. Fiona, Ole Lenvick, and
Halvor N. Hauge, all of whom came to Madison in
1844, were the first Norwegians in Madison. All
four of these worked for a printer by the name of
Daniel Holt. Ole Flom, as we have seen, had come
from Norway with his parents that summer in the
first party that left Aurland, Sogn. He remained in
Madison till 1847 when he returned to his father's
382 They left four children : H. B. Dahle, one time member of
Congress, J. T. Dahle (who died in 1908), Henry L. Dahle, all of
Mt. Horeb, and Mrs. James A. Peterson, Minneapolis.
348 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
farm at Door Creek. 383 Halvor Hauge had come
from Norway with his parents in the summer of
1844 ; the family had located in the Town of Chris-
tiana. Halvor went to California in 1848 where he
remained several years, returning then to Kosh-
konong. Ole Torgerson had emigrated from Nor-
way in 1844, coming directly to Madison, where he
continued to live till his death in 1900. He published
during 1850 there a Norwegian paper in the in-
terests of the Whig party, but as this was not a
paying enterprise he sold his types to Knut Lange-
land, who soon after began the issue of Maaneds-
tidende in Janesville, having previously published
Nordlyset and Demokraten in Muskego. Among
other Norwegians in Madison in the early days were :
Anne Vik, who worked for Dr. Collins during
1845 ; 384 in 1846 she married Halvor Bjoin, a Kosh-
konong pioneer. In July, 1846, Hans Christiansen
from Laerdal, Sogn, came to Madison; he, however,
soon removed to Blooming Grove, where he located
permanently. 38S Halvor Gabriel immigrated from
Haugesund in 1848, coming direct to Madison, where
he continued to live until 1877; he then moved to
Sun Prairie and in 1893 to Fort Atkinson, where he
died in 1897. Among the subscribers to Nordlyset
and Demokraten, 1848-1850, appear the names of
three residents of Madison, namely: Eric Ander-
383 Flom was with Dr. CoHins during 1846.
384 As we have seen, Knud Langeland and Niels Torstenson
passed through Madison in 1845.
385 He died there a few years ago.
BLUE MOUNDS 349
son, 386 Lars Johnson, and William Anderson.
Finally, when the Bethel Congregation was organ-
ized in 1855 the following appear as charter mem-
bers: Ole Torgerson, Mrs. Ole Torgerson, Hans 01-
sen, Mr. Erickson, Olaf Olson, Haakon Larson, Nels
Peterson, Lars Nelson, Ole Lawrence, Halle Steens-
land, Eline Hoel, Anne Nilson, Ingeborg Olson and
Anne Olson. Lars Nelson (Brekke) had come there in
1848 from Numedal, 387 coming direct to Madison. Mr.
Nelson was well and favorably known as the owner
of a grocery store on West Main Street for many
years. Of the other persons mentioned above only
Haakon Larson and Halle Steensland are now liv-
ing. The latter has always held a prominent place
in the financial history of the capital and in general
in the upbuilding of the city. He has always been
a staunch member of the Bethel Church, and was
one of the leaders in the organization of the Nor-
wegian-American Pioneer Association, of which he
was president in 1903-05.
386 Erik Anderson had come to America with his parents in
1839 and lived in Chicago till 1845 (see p. 232). Then they moved to
McHenry County, Illinois. In 1847 Erik went to Muskego, where
he engaged as compositor in the office of Nordlyset, setting the
type for the first number. In 1848 he went to Madison and began
clerking in a general store. He settled as a farmer in Winneshiek
County, Iowa, in 1850.
387 See page 346 above.
CHAPTER XL
The Hardanger Settlement in Lee and De Kalb
Counties, Illinois. Big Grove in Kendall
County and Nettle Creek in Grun-
dy County, Illinois.
Although Hardanger has contributed a relative-
ly small proportion of the American immigrant pop-
ulation from Norway, several of the earliest ar-
rivals were from that province and its sons occupy
today a prominent place in Norwegian American his-
tory. It has been shown above, chapters IX and X,
that several members of the party who came in 1836,
as also of that of 1837, were natives of Hardanger;
and in the Chicago colony in 1839 we met with sev-
eral natives of that province. In 1839 a consider-
able number left Hardanger, especially from Ulvik
Parish, as we learn from Nordmandsforbundet, 1909,
page 175. Among these were the brothers Anders
and Johan Vik from Eidf jord in Hardanger. The
two brothers first went to Wiota, where they se-
cured work in the lead mines. In 1844 John Vik
(Week) went to Dodgeville, where he established
himself as a shoemaker, entering into partnership
with Johan Lee from Numedal. Later he went to
Portage County, Wisconsin, where he prospered and
was for over a decade a dominant power in the lum-
ber trade of northern Wisconsin. 388
THE HARDANGER SETTLEMENT 351
Among the immigrants who had come from
Hardanger, Parish of Ullensvang, in 1836, we men-
tioned Amnmnd Helgeson Maakestad above, page 95.
Maakestad dropped the family name in this coun-
try and called himself Ommon Hilleson. For a
little over a year he was a coast sailor; then he de-
cided to go west and secure land where his coun-
trymen had settled. This he did, but not in the
usual way, for Hilleson walked the whole distance
from New York to Chicago. This was in 1837. 389
From Chicago he directed his steps farther
west; he did not, however, go to the settlement
founded several years before, but pushed on as far
as Lee Center in the County of Lee. 39 Here he
secured work, saved some money, and bought a
homestead in Bradford Township, and erected there-
on a sod house. Soon after he married Catherine
Eeinhart, daughter of a German pioneer, recently
moved in.
For ten years Hilleson was the only Norwegian
settler in the county, but in 1847 there arrived in
response to letters from Hilleson, a considerable
party from Hardanger. These left Sorfjorden in
Hardanger, and embarked in May at Bergen in the
388 These facts gathered from an article by L. J. Erdall in
Amerika for September 18, 1901. The brother, Anders Vik (Andrew
Week), went to California in 1849.
389 As Reverend J. Nordby, Lee, Illinois, informs me.
390 Strand relates an experience which Hilleson had between
Chicago and Lee Center and which would seem to indicate that he
had intended to go to La Salle County.
352 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
sailing vessel Juno, which brought them to New
York in a little over four weeks, a remarkable record
for that time. 391 Mr. T. M. Newton (Torgels Knut-
son) says, when we came to Buffalo we met an old
man who was returning to Norway. He advised us
to go back at once, saying America was not a fit
place for respectable people to live in, it was a place
for thieves and robbers. The party consisted of the
following persons: Lars Larsen Eoisetter (Eiset-
ter), Lars Olson Espe, Lars Helgeson Maakestad,
Gjertrud H. Lonning, Helge H. Maaketad (who died
in 1854), Ingeborg H. Maakestad, Torgels Knudson
Maakestad, Sjur Sjurson Bleie (Ely) and Lars Lar-
son Ely. They were met at Chicago by Ommon
Hilleson; Lars Ely remained in Chicago, the rest
started for Lee County, stopping a short time at
Norway, La Salle County, thereupon all but Inge-
borg Maakestad drove to Hilleson 's home in Lee
County. 392 Most of them settled in Bradford Town-
ship, but Lars Eisetter (born 1827 in Ullensvang)
bought eighty acres of land in Sublette Township,
whither other subsequent immigrants from Hardan-
ger also soon moved. Soon after arriving, Eisetter
and Gjertrud Lonning were married in the first house
built by a Norwegian in Lee County, at the home of
Ommon Hilleson. Lars Espe and Lars Eisetter
391 T. M. Newton says the journey took only three weeks; others
say, four. Newton was from Kinservig.
392 The journey was made with oxen and lumber wagon. Inger
Maakestad remained at Norway for a time; she married Lars Egpe
soon after.
THE HARDANGER SETTLEMENT 353
were the first two of the party to build a log cabin.
Mr. Newton tells that two young men came from
La Salle County about the same time and bought a
piece of land in Franklin Grove about two miles and
a half from where he lived. "They lived in a log
cabin on their place," he says. "One night about
two months after we arrived, they were both mur-
dered. The same day I had tried to persuade one
of them to stay with me, but he felt it necessary to
be at home. Their heads had been split open with
an ax. I then thought of what the old gentleman
had tried to tell us and heartily wished myself back
in Norway."
During the years 1848 no immigrants left Hard-
anger for America, and Lee County received no set-
tlers directly from Norway. In 1849, however, thir-
ty-two emigrated from Ulvik, but none of these seem
to have come to the settlement. In 1850 there was
one accession, namely, Amund Lonning, who came
directly to his brother-in-law, Lars Risetter, in Sub-
lette Township. He worked in the harvest the first
season for Thomas Fessenden for $11.00 a month,
bought a quarter section in Willow Creek Township
in 1852, being the first Norwegian to settle there.
In 1857 Lars Eisetter also moved into Willow Creek
Township, where he has since lived. 393
Of the rest Torgels Maakestad, who adopted
the name T. M. Newton (Knutson), is still living, his
393 Mrs. Eisetter died in 1897 ; Mr. Risetter is still living. Hia
two sons, Lewis and Holden, occupy the homestead with him.
354 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
home being at Grinnell, Iowa. Sjur Bleien lives at
the Old People's Home, Stoughton, Wisconsin.
In 1851 the following arrived from Ullensvang,
Hardanger, and located in the settlement: Jacob
0. Kogde (b. 1828), Haaken L. Eisetter and wife
Maria (Hildal), Haldor Nilsen Hovland, and Agatha
Espe, a sister of Lars Espe. Bogde purchased
eighty acres of land in Bradford Township in 1854
and in 1855 he married Else Ely from Hardanger,
who had come to America in 1854. 394 Haakon Biset-
ter settled in Ogle County immediately north of Lee
County. Of those who arrived in subsequent years
many settled across the county line in De Kalb
County, and in a few years there had sprung up a
thriving and prosperous community. At present
the Bradford Norwegian Evangelical Congregation
of Lee numbers 300 adult members. The center of
the settlement is about four miles south of Franklin
Grove.
Immediately east of De Kalb and the northern
part of La Salle County lies Kendall County, into
which extends a northeastern branch of the original
Fox Biver Settlement, located chiefly in Big Grove
Township; the village of Newark lies within its
394 C. Christopher of Gruver, Iowa, who has kindly given me
many of the facts relative to the immigration from Hardanger,
names the following as arriving in Lee County in 1854; Lars N.
Rogde and wife Angar W. Sandvaen, Wigleik W. Eisetter, Helle
P. Ely and wife Torbjb'r (Skare), Samson 8. Sandy-sen and wife
Baegga H. Maakestad. The last three and Lars Bogde died the
same year.
THE HARDANGER SETTLEMENT 355
boundaries. The first Norwegian to settle in the
village of Newark was Ole Olson Hetletvedt, as we
have observed above. Ole Hetletvedt, or Medlepeint
as he was called, was born in August, 1797, and was,
as we know, one of the members of the sloop party.
Of his first years in this country we have already
spoken. He came to Newark in 1839 ; there he lived
till his death in 1854. The next settlers in Newark
were Herman Osmonson and Knut W. Tysland, both
of whom also located there in 1838.
The first Norwegian settler at Lisbon was John
Hill (Hidle) from Fjeldberg in Sondhordland, Nor-
way. He came to America in 1836, 39S going direct to
La Salle County. Among the immigrants of that year
were also Anders Anderson Aasen and wife Olena
and family from Tysvaer Parish, a little south of
Haugesund. The family included a daughter Su-
sanna, (born 1822), who was married to John Hill
in 1844. The Aasen family lived in Kendall, New
York, for two years, then in 1838 moved to La Salle
County, Illinois. In 1839 John Hill located at Lis-
bon, and he was thus the first Norwegian to settle
here, whither a considerable number later moved. 396
About 1846 Sjur Larson came there from Skaanevik,
Norway; Lars Chelley (Kjelle) came in 1847.
The Norwegians did not begin to come in exten-
sively to Lisbon before 1850. Mrs. Austin Osmond,
395 Lars Bo and Michael B6 came at the same time.
396 John Hill died in 1892, but Mrs. Susanne Hill is still living
with her daughter, Mrs. Austin Osmond (b. 1845), in Morris, Grundy
County, Illinois.
356 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hill, who is
now living in Morris, Grundy County, tells me that
she was the only Norwegian child in school at Lis-
bon when she first began to attend, but later there
gradually came more. At Newark several Norwe-
gians had already begun to move on. Goodman
Halvorson (b. 1821) and wife Martha Grindheim
from Etne Parish in Sondhordland, came to America
in 1847 and purchased land in Fox Township, Ken-
dall County; he erected his log cabin there in the
spring of 1848. Halvorson is still living on the old
homestead which, however, he leases to other parties.
Osmund Tutland from Hjelmeland in Eyfylke, and
wife Malinda from Aardal in Byfylle and two child-
ren had come to Mission Township, La Salle County,
in 1836; a daughter, Mrs. Anna Hegglund (b. 1842)
is at present living in Newark. Tutland became, in
1854, the founder of the Norwegian colony at Nor-
way, Benton County, Iowa. 397
Among the old pioneers of Lisbon was also
Henry Munson from Voss, but I am not able to give
the year of his arrival. Munson died in 1907,
being over ninety years old. Wier Sjurson Weeks
(born in Skaanevik in 1812), and wife Synneva and
two children emigrated in 1846; after much hard-
ship, and sickness in the family, through which they
lost the two daughters, they arrived at Lisbon late
in 1846. Here Weeks worked at first at the trade
397 Lars Finland of Newark is a son of Nils Froland, who
emigrated from Samnanger, near Bergen, in 1837, settling in La
Salle County.
THE HARDANGER SETTLEMENT 357
of a carpenter. In 1848 he bought eighty acres
of land on North Prairie, five miles north of Lis-
bon. 398 Here he settled permanently, prospered,
and became an influential citizen and active member
of the Lutheran Church of North Prairie. Mr.
Weeks died in February, 1900, at the age of eighty-
seven; his wife lived till 1904, reaching the age of
ninety-four. A name most closely associated with
the early annals of Newark is that of Torris John-
son (b. in Skaanevik 1837), who came to America
with his grandfather Torris Torison in 1848. 3 "
Having arrived at Chicago, they went to Calumet,
twenty miles south of Chicago, to Halstein Torison,
who was an uncle of Torris Johnson. There John-
son remained till 1851, when he located in Kendall
County. Mr. Johnson served in the war, being
promoted to sergeant; after the war he returned to
Newark. In 1865 he married Elizabeth Ryerson,
born in Stavanger, Norway ; they have had six child-
ren. Mr. Johnson is still living, his home being in
Newark.
Although E. S. Holland (b. 1834) of Big Grove
Township, did not settle in Kendall County before
1866, he belongs to the earlier pioneers now resident
there, having come to this country with his parents
in 1846. In 1854 he settled in York Township,
Green County, Wisconsin, where he married Jo-
hanne Chantland the following year. In 1866 they
398 Mr. Strand has given a very complete sketch of W. S. Weeks
to which I am indebted for these facts.
399 His parents died in Norway when he was a child ; a brother
and sister also came to America at the same time.
358 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
removed to Kendall County, Illinois. 400 Mr. Hol-
land has been especially active in the work of the
church, and has been trustee and treasurer of Pleas-
ant View Luther College since its organization.
The name of Nels 0. Cassem occupies a prom-
inent place in the history of the settlement as of
that of Kendall County in general. Born in 1829
about seven miles east of the city of Stavanger,
Norway, he emigrated in 1849. Coming to Illinois he
settled in Fox Township, Kendall County, in July
of that year. Here he purchased land and began
farming, an occupation which he prospered in to
an unusual degree, his estate being estimated at a
little over one million dollars upon his death in
1904. 401 "When he came to Illinois," writes his son,
"he found work on the tow-path of the old Illinois
and Michigan Canal, at fifty cents per day. During
this time he formed the habit of saving, that was
the unerring guide of all his future life." Eandall
Cassem defines the principal causes of his father's
success as:
' ' Health ; industrious habits formed in youth ; the fact
that money came hard earned at first, thus teaching him
the value of the dollar ; courage and self-reliance ; knowing
400 Mrs. Holland died in 1884 and Mr. Holland married Christina
Peterson of Skien, Norway, in 1885.
401 Cassem married Margaret Fritz in 1851; she died in 1872.
There are five children: Eandall Cassem, attorney at Aurora, 111.;
Mrs. Olive J. Osmondson of Seward Township, Kendall County; Oscar
E. Cassem, Mitchell, South Dakota; Mrs. Margaret Olson, Aurora,
Illinois; and Mrs. Anna O. Eood, Chicago, Illinois.
THE HARDANGER SETTLEMENT 359
the value of little things; the practice of self-denial and
rigid economy; never striving after extravagant profits in
any of his undertakings. To all of this we may add, his
high sense of honor, his unimpeachable integrity that, as
those who knew him testify, never permitted him to be other
than absolutely fair and just in all his dealings and finan-
cial transactions with others. ' ' (402)
Among those who immigrated in 1844 and
located in Chicago was also Anders K. Vetti
from Vettigjaeld, Norway. He lived in Chicago
until about 1849, 403 when he bought a farm at
Yorkville Prairie in Kendall County. He mar-
ried Anna Martha Ortzland in 1850 and lived
there till his death in 1875. Mr. Vetti was a
man of strong character and unusual intellectual
endowments. He wielded much influence politically
in his community, and enjoyed in a high degree the
confidence of those who knew him. An obituary
notice says of him: his truest and most enduring
monument will be the good resulting from his labor
in the cause of universal education, in untiring op-
position to the superstitious observance of cere-
monies incompatible with the spirit and the progress
of the age, and in his hatred of all forms of political
oppression. 404
404 The words ' ' universal education ' ' contain a reference to his
fight for the common schools.
402 Kari Melhus of Newark, Illinois, who came to America about
1852, is said to be the oldest Norwegian woman in America. She
was born in Hjelmeland Parish, Kyfylke, in 1804.
403 A. K. Vetti 's oldest daughter, Mrs. Samuel Mather (b. 1853)
of Springdale, Linn County, Iowa, says that it was in 1849, or 1850
perhaps, but she is not certain which.
360 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
A few miles south of Lisbon, across the Gnindy
County line, a settlement was founded in 1846. The
county had been completely settled by Americans
already, but Norwegians bought these out and grad-
ually supplanted them, exactly as they began doing
a decade later at Saratoga in Grundy County, and
have done still later in the city of Morris in the
same county. The settlement is located in Nettle
Creek Township. The first arrivals were Easmus
Scheldal, Ole Torstal, Paul Thompson, Michael
Erickson, Simon Frye, John Wing, Lars Scheldal,
Ben Hall, Ben Thornton, John Peterson, G. E.
Grundstad, William and Samuel Hage. Several of
these men had families; they came mostly from
Skaanevik; all came between 1846 and 1848. In 1849
Halvord Eygh, Sr., and family of seven, and Sjur
Nelson, wife, Jennie, and family, came from Norway
and located there. Several of these men later moved
away, as Paul Thompson, Michael Erickson, Rasmus
Scheldal, and Ole Tvistal, who went to Story County,
Iowa, while some members of the Eygh and Wing
families went to Goodhue County, Minnesota, 1856.
Sjur Haugen and family moved up to Helmar, Ken-
dall County, in 1855. 40S
With this brief survey of the founding of these
eastern extensions of the Fox Eiver Settlement, we
shall leave Kendall and Grundy Counties. The his-
tory of these settlements takes its beginnings at the
405 The latter family included a son Nels (b. 1840), who is Nels
S. Nelson of Helmar, well known as a successful farmer and a
Republican leader in Kendall County.
THE HARDANGER SETTLEMENT 361
very close of the period we are here considering.
Their fuller discussion belongs to the history of the
immigration of the following decade. 406
406 Individual settlers and single families had located in various
towns in northern Illinois during the later thirties and forties. I
shall name here Severt S. Holland and wife Ingeborg who immi-
grated in 1836 and settled at Woodstock, Illinois. Helland (b. 1828)
came from Gjerdevig in Fjeldbjerg Parish; his wife was born 1825
at Helland in Etne Parish. They moved to Chicago in 1855 and in
1857 settled near Slater, Iowa.
CHAPTER XL1
The First Norwegian Pioneers in Northeastern Iowa
In this chapter I shall give a brief account of
the coming of Norwegians into northeastern Iowa
and their founding of settlements there between
1846 and 1851. We are near the close of the period
which this volume deals with. The founding of set-
tlements in Iowa in 1849-50 is but a part of a larger
movement now beginning, which, in the course of a
few years, resulted in the establishment of numerous
settlements in Wisconsin, Iowa, and southeastern
Minnesota. 407 These settlements were founded
in general through internal migration away from the
older settlements in Racine, Rock, and Dane Coun-
ties. The latter were now becoming overcrowded
and they furnished hundreds upon hundreds of re-
cruits to the new settlements that were fast springing
up. It is with the years 1848-49 that we associate this
new trend in the movement, and which inaugurates
this new period in the whole movement. Only its be-
ginnings will here briefly be sketched as related to
the counties of northeastern Iowa. Of the mass of
material which has been placed at my disposal, I can
only select what appears most essential to the pur-
pose.
The first county settled by Norwegians in
407 And Texas.
FIRST NORWEGIAN PIONEERS 363
northeastern Iowa was Clayton. The first settlers
were Ole H. Valle and wife and Ole T. Kittelsland
who located in Kead Township in the summer of
1846. Both these men had, however, entered Iowa
three years before. In 1843 they had come to the
old Fort Atkinson in Winneshiek County, and had
remained there for three years in the service of the
government. 408 Valle and Kittelsland were both
from Eollaug, Numedal; they had immigrated in
1841 to Bock Prairie, and had from 1841-1843 worked
in the Dodge ville mines. In 1846 Soren 0. Sorum
from Land Parish, Norway, came to Fort Atkinson
and in 1847 Ingeborg Nilsen, a cousin of Ole Valle,
came there.
In the summer of 1846 then, Valle and Kittels-
land located in Clayton County, 409 buying a farm
together, about three miles southeast of the present
village of St. Olaf. 41 Through letters from Valle
the locality was soon brought to the attention of
Norwegian settlers in Rock Prairie and Koshkonong.
In the spring of 1849 Ole Herbrandson and family
came out there from Koshkonong; he was an immi-
grant from Morkvold, Bollaug, in 1842 and had, it
408 Their duties being to show the Indians how to farm and in
general to teach them the white man's ways.
409 The first white child born of Norwegian parents in the
county was Jorund Valle (Mrs. Lars Thovson, St. Olaf), daughter
of Ole Valle.
410 See article by Kev. Jacob Tanner, entitled: "En kort Beret -
ning 50 Aars kirkelight Arbeide; Clayton County, Iowa," in Luther-
aneren, 45 (1901). My facts here are gathered in large part from
this article.
364 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
seems, visited Valle in Clayton County in 1848 and
found the locality to his liking. In June 411 Halvor
Nilsen Espeseth, Knut Hustad, Ole Sonde, and Ing-
bret Skarshaug, came from Eock Prairie ; 412 going to
the western part of the county, Nilsen selected land
in Grand Meadow Township, becoming the founder of
the Clermont extension of the settlement, which, as
Norwegians began to come in gradually, expanded
north into Fayette and Winneshiek Counties. Other
arrivals of the same summer were Abraham Bustad
and family, Bredo A. Holt, Jens A. Holt, all from
Hadeland, Bertie Osuldson, Tallak Gunderson and
family from Arendal, and Ole Hanson and family.
These located in the Clermont region; Jens Holt
on section 17, Marion Township, and Hanson on sec-
tion 6 in the same township. About simultaneous
with these, Fingar Johnson, Helge Eamstad and
wife, Thorkel Eiteklep 413 Ole E. Sanden, with wife
Guro and family, located in the eastern settlement. 414
The founders of these settlements nearly all
came from Rock Prairie, where they had lived the
first few years after immigrating. During the years
1850-1851 a large number of immigrants joined the
colony. The first of these were Lars Valle, Hellik
Glaim, 41S and Ansten Blaekkestad, all from Numedal,
411 The date was June llth according to History of Clayton
County, 1882, p. 831.
412 The last three were from Hallingdal.
413 According to others these two did not arrive till 1850.
414 Tanner's article. Sanden and Fingar Johnson settled in
Wagner Township.
415 See above page 143.
FIRST NORWEGIAN PIONEERS 365
Ole Engbrigtsen and Peter Helgeson from Sig-
dal in Numedal, and Ole Gunbjornson and Knut
Jaeger from Hallingdal, while Halstein Groth and
family from Nses in Hallingdal and Kittil Rue locat-
ed in the western part of the settlement. The Groth
family located in Marion Township, where also
James and Jacob Paulson Broby, who came from
Hadeland the next year, settled. Mrs. Holger Peter-
son and son (Peter Holgerson) came in 1851 and set-
tled in Wagner Township. Soren 0. Sorum and
wife 416 settled in Farmersburg Township in 1850,
being the first Norwegians there. 417
But in the very beginning of this period the
movement was directed to the counties to the North,
Allamakee and Winneshiek. The immigration
of Norwegians into Clayton County had practically
ceased by 1855, the chief reason for this probably
being that the Germans came in very large numbers,
particularly to Clayton County, during the early fif-
ties and soon occupied all the best land. 418 North-
eastern Iowa was but little settled, and the develop-
ment of the wilderness had only begun. Clayton
County had in 1850 a population of three thousand
eight hundred and seventy-three, while Fayette had
41 6 See note, on p. 213.
417 In 1867 he moved to Wagner Township.
418 Rev. Tanner writes: "When we look at this Norwegian
settlement as it was then and is to-day largely, it immediately
strikes us that it was wood and water the colonists looked for, and
therefore they let the prairie lie and chose the hills along the
Turkey Eiver. Not until later did they learn to understand the
value of the prairie, but then the Germans had taken most of it."
366 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
only eight hundred and twenty-five, and Allamakee
seven hundred and seventy-seven. The population
of Winneshiek County had reached four thousand
nine hundred and fifty- seven.
Allamakee was the next county in order of set-
tlement. 419 This county was opened to settlement
in 1848, but land was not put upon the market before
1850. 42 In 1849 Ole L. Rothnem, Ole 0. Storlag,
Olo K. Grimsgaard and Erik K. Barsgrind came
from Rock County to Allamakee County and select-
ed land. In 1850 they moved out with their families
and in company with them came : Ole K. Stake, Arne
K. Stake, Syver Wold and Thomas A. Gronna.
Others who came about the same time were : Thomas
Anderson 421 and wife Emilie, Sven E. Hesla, 421
Bjorn Hermundson, Nils T. Rue, Osten Peterson,
Lars Jeglum, Halvor E. Turkop, Ole S. Lekvold, all
from Hallingdal, and Nils N. Amesgaard, who was
from Numedal. Among others who followed the
next year I shall mention : Knut Knutson, 422 G. H.
Fagre and wife Katherine, and Ole Smeby (b. 1804),
wife and sons Hans, Ole, and John. They settled on
419 The Fayette County settlement about Clermont is a western
extension of the second settlement in Clayton County; its begin-
nings have been referred to above.
420 The first entry of purchase appears under the date of Octo-
ber 7, 1850. The earliest settler in the county was Henry Johnson,
after whom Johnsonsport was named, but I do not know of what
nationality he was.
421 Hesla had came to America in 1845, Anderson in 1846.
422 Settled in Makee Township ; he had came from Norway in
1849.
FIRST NORWEGIAN PIONEERS 367
the prairie north of Paint Creek, living in their can-
vas-covered wagons until houses were built. Those
here named formed the nucleus of the Paint Creek
Settlement, which already the next year received
large accessions.
The early settlers of Allamakee and neighbor-
ing counties experienced all the trials and hardships
of pioneer life in an unsettled country. There was
no railroad nearer than Milwaukee. At McGregor
there were a few stores where the necessaries of life
could be had. 423 The process of home building and
the clearing of the forests was slow and often attend-
ed with many difficulties. The pioneers generally
brought with them no other wealth than stout hearts
and strong hands, and it was only by industry and
severe economy that they were able to make a living
for themselves and their families. Those who hired
out to others received very small wages, and as there
was little money among the pioneer farmers this was
paid in large part in food or other articles. It may
serve as an illustration that in the winter of 1850-51
a pioneer in Clayton County 424 split seven thousand
rails of wood for fifty cents a hundred ; for this he
was paid $3.50 in cash and the remainder in food. 42S
Most of the Norwegians who first settled in Al-
423 In the Clermont Settlement there was a log-cabin store at
the village of Clermont.
424 This pioneer is still living. See Tanner 'B article.
425 A barrel of flour at that time cost twelve dollars in Iowa, and
a bushel of corn seventy five cents. The usual wages was 25c a day,
sometimes a little more.
368 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
lamakee County came from Bock County, Wisconsin ;
later, some came from Dane County, Wisconsin, and
also from Winneshiek County, where a settlement
was formed in June, 1850. Several, however, came
from Norway by way of New Orleans and the Mis-
sissippi, as did Gilbert C. Lyse in 1851.
In 1856 there were in the whole county five hun-
dred and five Norwegians ; one hundred and eighty-
one of these had settled in Paint Creek (then Water-
ville) Township, the rest being located mostly in
the neighboring towns of Center, La Fayette, Taylor,
Jefferson and Makee. In the meantime a new settle-
ment had been established in the northwestern part
of the county, in Hanover and Waterloo, which soon
extended into Winneshiek County. But the earliest
Norwegian settlement in Winneshiek was formed on
Washington Prairie in June, 1850, 426 when a number
of families moved in from Racine and Dane Coun-
ties, Wisconsin. Eastern Winneshiek County re-
ceived in the following year a large Norwegian pop-
ulation.
Those who came in the latter part of June, 1850,
and settled on Washington Prairie were: Eric An-
derson (Eudi), 427 the brothers Ole and Staale T.
Haugen from Flekkefjord, Ole G. Jevne, Ole and
Andrew A. Lomen, Knut A. Bakken, Anders Hauge,
John J. Quale, and Halvor H. Groven, all from
Valders, and Mikkel Omli from Telemarken. On
426 The county was organized in 1850, and the first term of court
convened on October 5th, 1851.
427 See above page 232.
FIRST NORWEGIAN PIONEERS 369
July third another party headed by Nels Johnson 428
arrived, including Tollef Simonson Aae, Knud Op-
dahl, Jacob Abrahamson, 429 Iver P. Quale, Gjer-
mund Johnson (Kaasa), 43 and John Thun.
Of the coming of this party Eeverend Jacobson
has given the following account: In the spring of
1850 his parents and a number of other families left
Muskego to move out west. The leader of the party
was Nels Johnson; he had a large military wagon
drawn by six oxen. * * This had a big box on, filled with
household goods and covered with white canvas.
On the outside was placed, lengthwise, the wagon box,
several joints of stove pipe, so the outfit, with a little
stretch of imagination, ' ' says Rev. Jacobson, * * looked
like a man-of-war; this was the so-called 'prairie-
schooner.' Then there were other vehicles of all
sizes and shapes, from truck wagons, the wheels of
which were made of solid sections of oak logs, down
to the two- wheel carts." At Koshkonong, Dane Coun-
428 The father of Martin N. Johnson, member of Congress from
North Dakota. Nelson Johnson was one of the founders of the
Muskego Settlement in Wisconsin in 1839. He later entered the
Methodist ministry and was for two years, 1855-1857, pastor of the
Norwegian M. E. Church in Cambridge, Wisconsin. With the ex-
ception of these two years he lived in Winneshiek County until his
death in 1882.
429 Father of Eev. Abraham Jaeobson, to whom I am in part
indebted for facts on the early settlement of Washington Prairie.
Rev. Jacobson has also printed a pamphlet: The Pioneer Norwegians,
Decorah, 1905, 16 pages, which is a most valuable contribution to the
pioneer history of Winneshiek County. A very brief chapter on the
"Pioneer Norwegians" may also be found in Alexander's History of
Winneshiek County, 1882, pages 185-186.
430 A brother of Nels Johnson. Thun was from Valders.
370 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ty, so many more joined them that they were in all
over one hundred individuals; the caravan included
furthermore now two hundred head of cattle, a few
hogs and sheep, a mare and a colt. They drove on
via Madison, then a little village, to Prairie du Chien,
where the party divided one-half going to Vernon
County, 431 Wisconsin, the other half to Iowa. Rev.
erend Jacobson says of the journey at this point:
The Wisconsin river had to be crossed on a small ferry
boat, the propelling power was furnished by a horse placed
on a tread-power which worked the paddle-wheels. Only
one wagon and a team at a time could be taken aboard.
The herd of loose cattle had to swim over the river, all of
which was accomplished without any accident worthy of
note. The ferry boat at Prairie du Chien was larger and
propelled by four inule power, but the water being high,
the Mississippi River was nearly two miles wide, and much
time was taken to get all to the western bank. Thirteen
miles northwest from McGregor at Poverty Point, since
called Monona, another halt of a creek was made. The
scouting party before alluded to had visited several local-
ities, and opinions were divided as to which was the best
point to settle down. The company was now divided into
three divisions, we going with the original leader to the
vicinity of Decorah, landing on our claims on the third of
July. The journey had taken five weeks, counting from
the time of starting. Those who had room enough slept
under the wagon covers, the others slept on the bare ground
under the wagons. (432)
431 The Norwegian settlement at and about Westby, Vernon Co.,
dates from this time, 1850.
432 Speaking of the Indians Kev. Jacobson says, ' ' They had their
FIRST NORWEGIAN PIONEERS 371
Of this party Simonson, Opdahl, Abrahamson,
and Quale settled in Springfield, the rest in Decorah
and Glenwood Townships. 433 Most of the members
of these parties had come to America several years
before, as Opdahl in 1848 and Tostenson in 1847;
three of them, as we know, Eudi and the two John-
sons, had immigrated in 1839.
A small party from Jefferson Prairie, Wiscon-
son, including Tore P. Skotland and his brother
Endre P. Sandanger, Ellef and Lars Land, natives
of Eingerike, also came the same summer; these se-
cured claims around Calmar. The first list of landed
assessments in Winneshiek County 434 records the
names of Jacob Abrahamson, Knud Guldbrandson
(Opdahl), Ole Gullikson (Jevne), Egbert Guldbrand-
son (Saland), Erik Clement (Skaali), Halvor Hal-
vorson (Groven), 0. A. Lomen, Ole Larsen Bergan,
Mikkel Omli, Tollef Simonson (Aae), T. Hulverson,
and Ole Tostenson.
Among other settlers of 1850, not named above,
I may name: Nils Thronson, who had come from
homes in the Territory of Minnesota, and did not molest the settlers
in the least." On the banks of the Upper Iowa river many Indian
graves were found. The bodies were buried in a sitting position,
with the head sometimes above the ground. A forked stick put up
like a post at each end of the grave held a ridge pole on which
leaned thin boards, placed slanting to each side of the grave. Thus
each grave presented the appearance of the gable of a small house.
433 The eastern two-thirds of Winneshiek County clear to the
Minnesota line in a few years became extensively settled by Nor-
wegians.
434 According to Eeverend Jacobson, The Pioneer Norwegian p.
5; the list is for 1852.
372 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Valders in 1848, settling in Dane County, Wiscon-
sin; he located in Glenwood Township in the sum-
mer of 1850 ; Christopher A. Estrem from Vang Par-
ish, who had immigrated to Chicago in 1848; he
came to Winneshiek County and located in Frank-
ville Township as one of the very first Norwegians
there; Engebret Haugen, who had immigrated in
1842, locating near Beloit, Wisconsin; the family
settled near Decorah in 1850, purchasing the old In-
dian Trading Post then owned by J. G. Bice.
In the fall of 1850 Johannes Evenson, Ole L.
Bergan, Knud L. Bergan, and Jorgen Lommen came.
Of these Evenson located west of Decorah, in Mad-
ison Township, becoming the first Norwegian to set-
tle there. 43S As near as I can tell, Lars Iverson
Medaas and family were the first Norwegians to set-
tle in Canoe Township. Iverson who was born at
Tillung, Voss (in 1802), but had married Sigrid Vik-
ingsdatter in Graven, Hardanger (1835) and settled
on the farm Medaas, emigrated to America in 1850.
They spent the first winter on Liberty Prairie, Dane
County, Wisconsin, and moved to Winneshiek Coun-
ty early in the spring of 1851, locating in Canoe
Township, on section two, where they lived till their
death. 436
435 Helge N. Myrand and his widowed mother, who had immi-
grated in 1841 and settled in Muskego County, came west and located
in Madison in 1851.
436 Iverson died in 1887, his wife in 1890. Iver Larson, well
known merchant and for many years treasurer of the United Nor-
wegian Lutheran Church, who died in 1907, was a son of Iverson.
FIRST NORWEGIAN PIONEERS 373
The first Norwegians to enter Hesper Township
were a party of immigrants who came by the ship
Valhalla from Tonsberg in the summer of 1852.
They were from Tolgen, in northern Osterdalen, and
from Boraas and Guldalen, 437 hence from a much
more northerly region than their countrymen in
southern Winneshiek County. The party consisted
of the following: Trond Laugen, John Losen, Sr.,
Bendt Pederson, Ingbrigt Bergh, Mons Monsen, all
of whom were married, and John Void and Jocum
Nelson. These were followed in the next year by
John S. Losen, Jr., and Ole B. Anderson Borren.
Among the earliest settlers from other regions were
Paul Thorsen, Salve Olson and Torjus Gunderson
from Saetersdalen, Knut Herbrandson and Christian
Lien from Hallingdal, Aadne Glaamene and family
from Voss, Lars Bakka and Bendik Larson from
Sogn, and Peder Wennes from Vardalen. 438
From the towns of Springfield, Decorah, and
Glenwood, the settlement thus soon spread into the
neighboring townships north into Canoe, Hesper,
and Highland, where it united with the settlement in
northwestern Allamakee County, and south through
the towns of Calmar and Military, uniting with the
settlement in north central Fayette County in Door
Township. This last settlement extends through
Pleasant Valley southward into Clayton County.
437 They were the first emigrants to America from this district.
438 Tor the facts on Hesper Township I am indebted to Mr.
J. A. Nelson of Prosper, Minnesota, a student in the State Univer-
sity of Iowa.
374 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Together these settlements form the eastern part of
Clayton County, west through Fayette, and north
through Winneshiek to northern Allamakee. In Al-
lamakee it extends as far as Harper's Ferry and
Lansing. The bulk of the population, however,
is found in Winneshiek County. The principal Nor-
wegian townships are: Glenwood, Decorah, Spring-
field, Madison, and Highland. About half of the
population of the county is of Norwegian birth, or
of that descent.
CHAPTER XLII
Survey of Immigration from Norway to America.
Conclusion.
We are then at the end of our task. We dis-
cussed at first early individual immigration from
Norway down to the year 1825. Then tracing brief-
ly the fortunes of the party of immigrants who came
from Norway that year we followed the subsequent
immigration, year by year, down to 1848, and the
founding of settlements in this country from Orleans
County, New York, in 1825, to Winneshiek County,
Iowa, in 1850. The growth of the emigration move-
ment in Norway and the course of settlements here
have been indicated. The names of the promoters of
emigration in each district and province and of the
founders of settlements have in all cases been given.
In most cases we have succeeded in giving a fairly
complete list of names of the settlers in any com-
munity during the first four to eight years of its
history, that is its period of growth, the years dur-
ing which it assumed the character of a Norwegian
settlement. The varied causes of emigration were
also discussed at some length as also other ques-
tions as the cost of passage and duration and course
of the journey ; and in the discussion of the individual
settlements we have now and then given a glimpse
of the general conditions of life in early pioneer
376 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
days. I desire now by way of conclusion to summar-
ize briefly the course of emigration in Norway and
the distribution of the representatives of each dis-
trict in this country.
The first emigrants from Norway were from
Stavanger, Haugesund and Eyfylke. Before 1836
the movement did not reach out beyond these dis-
tricts although a few individuals had come from
Sondhordland and Hardanger. The emigration
from Hardanger begins properly in 1836 ; that year
also records the first arrivals from Voss. 439 How-
ever most of the immigrants of that year, as the fol-
lowing two years, were from the districts that had
furnished the emigrants of the decade 1825-1835.
The year 1837 is especially noteworthy for the sail-
ing of the first emigrant ship from Bergen and that
the immediate vicinity of Bergen for the first tune
furnished its quota of the emigration. It is further
significant in that Voss now enters definitely into
the movement, and that Upper Telemarken and the
neighboring region of West Numedal contributed the
first recruits to the American settlements. The emi-
grants of 1839 came in considerable part from Upper
Telemarken, from Numedal, from Voss and Hardan-
ger, but not a few also from the older districts.
This continued in 1840 and 1841, except that there
were no emigrants from Hardanger during these
two years and very few for the next four years also.
In 1842 the first party left Sogn and in 1844 and
439 At least eighteen persons from Hardanger and two from Voss.
SURVEY OF IMMIGRATION 377
1845 considerable numbers came to America from
this district. The year 1843 is especially noteworthy
for the very large emigration of that year from Up-
per Telemarken and the growth of the movement
in new parishes in Numedal. In this year also the
America-fever enters Lower Telemarken, a number
of families going to America from Holden Parish
and Kragero, which in 1844-1845 expands to include
Sande and Bo and the region of Skien. During 1843
the first emigrants also leave Saetersdalen, and from
now on it is to be observed that there is a steady
out-going of emigrants from Eyfylke and Sondhord-
land for the period of nearly a decade. The move-
ment is also beginning to expand in two other direc-
tions : north from Numedal into Hallingdal and soon
after northeast from the region of the Sognefjord
up to northern and the extreme Inner Sogn. The
influx of immigrants from Telemarken and Numedal
continues, and in increased numbers from Voss
and the movement begins anew in Hardanger in 1846.
Hallingdal sent forth a large number of families and
single persons in 1846-47, most of whom as we know
settled in Eock and La Fayette Counties, Wisconsin,
many later moving into Iowa. In 1847-48 these two
movements meet in Valders, the one from Hallingdal
entering first in South and North Aurdal, the other
from Laerdal and Aardal in Sogn, entering about
1850 into Vang, Hurum and West Slidre in Valders.
In the meantime the movement has traveled also
from Lower Telemarken, Drammen and Eastern
378 SURVEY OF IMMIGRATION
Numedal (Sigdal) up through Eingerike, Hadeland
and Land. Especially large was the emigration from
North and South Land clear to Torpen in 1847-1850.
The region east of Land, i. e., Toten, Hedemarken
and Solor furnish occasional immigrants from now
on but not in considerable numbers until many years
later. From Land and from Valders the movement
grows northward into Gudbrandsdalen and north-
westward into Osterdalen and Trondhjem, from
which provinces, however, relatively very few emi-
grated to America until after 1850, and the emigra-
tion was not heavy from this region or from the
northern coast districts, Sb'ndfjord, Nordf jord,
Sondmore, Nordmb're until after the Civil War. 44
As to the number of immigrants that each of
the districts had contributed to the American pop-
ulation before 1850, or have down to the present time,
it would be difficult to say. The emigration from
such vast districts as Telemarken and Sogn, as later
from Gudbrandsdalen, Hedemarken and Osterdalen,
has been heaviest, while from Eyfylke and Voss the
incoming settlers have been very numerous, as also
from the small but very populous Sondhordland,
Hadeland and Land. Valdris and Hallingdal 441
each about half as large as Sogn have contributed
440 And from Nordland not until after 1875. It is to be ob-
served also that the emigration from the older inland districts was
very heavy clear down to 1890.
441 In 1891 Hallingdal had a population of 12,900, Valdris 17,-
000, Sogn 37,050, Sondhordland 34,750, Hardanger 25,900, Ryfylke
46,000, Telemarken 44,000, Sastersdalen 8,380. The population of
each is much larger now.
SURVEY OF IMMIGRATION 379
perhaps each about one- third as many immigrants
as Sogn, each contributing about equally to the
American emigration. Eelatively small has been the
immigration from Hardanger, Ssetersdalen and the
vicinity of Stavanger. The extensive districts of
Telemarken and Sogn entered early into the move-
ment and have continued down to the present time to
furnish large numbers of recruits to the Norwegian
immigrant population. Representatives of these
two regions, the immigrated and their descendants,
are, I believe, most numerous among the various
groups of Norwegian settlers in America.
In this country the relative position of the rep-
resentatives of each is about that which they occu-
pied in the old; this finds its reason chiefly in the
time at which the different states were opened up to
settlers. Natives from Stavanger, Eyfylke and
Sb'ndhordland are found chiefly in Illinois and in the
settlements of Central Iowa (Ben ton and Story
Counties). In Illinois are located also in large num-
bers natives of Hardanger (Lee County), and Voss
(Chicago), but only to a very limited extent those
of other districts. In Southern Wisconsin and to
a slight extent in the adjacent parts of Illinois have
located especially the natives of Numedal, and to
some extent those of Land and Sogn. Natives of
Sogn have, however, found homes most extensively
in the various settlements of Wisconsin and Min-
nesota and Northern Iowa. 442 Here they are pres-
442 In Winneshiek and Worth Counties, where also native* of
Hallingdal have settled in large numbers.
380 NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
ent in all parts of the states but in largest numbers
in the oldest settlements in Southern and Western
Wisconsin and in Southeastern Minnesota. Natives
of Telemarken are found well scattered, from their
original center in Eacine County, through Walworth
and Dane Counties, thence to Central Wisconsin and
Minnesota. The representatives of Valders are
found in largest numbers in Western Dane County,
in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, and in Goodhue
County, Minnesota.
It will not be possible to discuss here the later
development of the various settlements that have
been treated above or the increase of the Norwegian
factor in the counties where these settlements were
formed. Space forbids this, and these facts have,
furthermore, been briefly indicated elsewhere in this
volume. Thus in Chapter II we have outlined the
extent of immigration from Norway and the geo-
graphical distribution of settlements, while the subse-
quent history of the special settlements has often
been briefly indicated. It may here be added that the
counties in Southern Wisconsin as a whole enjoyed a
much more rapid development during the years 1840-
1850 than those of Northern Illinois, and that this
was due in a very large measure to the incoming of
such a large number of settlers from Norway 443 in
the best years of their life.
It has elsewhere in this volume been shown that
Wisconsin early became the objective point of im-
443 Similarly the ' ' Norwegian ' ' county of La Salle in Illinois
SURVEY OF IMMIGRATION 381
migrants from Norway. This significant position
in Norwegian- American history Wisconsin continued
to hold throughout the whole period we have dis-
cussed and for a long tune afterwards. In 1850, fifty
per cent of all Norwegians in the United States
were domiciled within the borders of the State of
Wisconsin. It was with Wisconsin that the chief
events in early Norwegian- American history are as-
sociated. The principal scenes in the great pioneer
drama were enacted here. As all the paths of the
Norwegian immigrant in that early day led to Wis-
consin so the threads of all subsequent Norwegian
history in America lead back to Wisconsin. 444
Whether in material welfare, in church, in politics
or in education it was in Wisconsin that the Norwe-
gian first made a place for himself in America and
laid the foundation for all his later progress. 445
was the leading county in that part of Illinois in the same period,
its population in 1850 being 17,8 15, that of Grundy 3,023, and De
Kalb, 7,540.
In the year 1900 the principal Norwegian counties among
those that fall within the scope of the discussion in this volume were
in order: Cook County, Illinois; Dane County, Wisconsin; Winne-
shiek County, Iowa; Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; Bock County,
Wisconsin; and La Salle County, Illinois.
444 Barring the relatively very small Norwegian factor in the
cities of the East, which stands practically isolated from Norwegian
American life.
445 At the same time we must not forget that the era of settle-
ment began in Illinois, and Illinois has always continued to hold a
prominent place in Norwegian-American history.
Appendices
APPENDIX I
TABLE I
Michigan .
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
Wisconsin
Illinois . . .
Iowa ....
Minnesota
Nebraska .
North Dakota
I
. . 8,885
. . 3,631
.. 611
12
898
23,265
12,073
7,814
11,773
323
5,276
48,057
44,570
31,177
58,837
3,987
16,445
66,284
65,414
46,046
107,768
16,685
41,496
99,738
128,897
72,873
215,215
46,341
40,928
103,942
144,812
72,611
236,670
40,107
South Dakota
129
1,674
17,868
( 34,216
42,578
Total in Northwest
New England. .
New York )
.13,278
. 749
56,275
1,507
193,578
3,113
336,511
11,243
670,'l48
43,606
33,473
715,121
70,632
New Jersey C
Pennsylvania )
. 1,897
4,506
12,291
28,492
75,331
105,641
The South 1
All other states. . .
Total outside Northwest
Total
. 1,084
. 1,067
. 4,797
. 18,075
1,531
8,763
16,307
72,582
3,189
29,497
48,090
241,668
4,081
59,935
103,741
440,252
5,936 7,646
138,328 166,525
263,201 350,444
933,349 1,065,565
TABLE II
Showing the growth of the Norwegian foreign-born
by decades since 1850
Maine . ^ I86 9 7 187
"VT v J.^ f
-New Hampshire 2 5
Vermont g
Massachusetts , . . QQ
Ehode Island
Connecticut j
New York '. '. 392
New Jersey 4
Maryland 20
Delaware
District of Columbia .
Pennsylvania 27
Virginia ...".' 5
West Virginia
171
38
22
539
65
7
1
83
8
58
55
34
302
22
72
975
90
17
5
115
17
1
population in each state
1880
99
79
10
639
56
168
2,185
229
108
6
19
381
29
3
1 Not including Missouri.
1890
1900
311
509
251
295
38
54
2,519
3,335
285
342
529
709
8,602
12,601
1,317
2,296
164
246
14
49
70
101
2,238
1,393
102
123
7
19
386
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
North Carolina 5
South Carolina _ Q
rida ' 4 23
Georgia * 21 24
Alabama 3 51 21 j
Tennessee .. ft 91
Kentucky 1| 10 W JJ
Mississippi ^ 76 78
Louisiana 33
Arkansas J 373
Missouri MJ 64 17g
Ohio g -II 182
:::::::: 2,415 4, 89 i n/so 16,970
8 gi n js -ass JS
.". '361 5,688 17554 21583
"::: 7 ^ 3 ^8 IS
, 506 2010
Nebraska ,
South Dakota j 129 1,179 13,245 j
North Dakota ) 2g 74 (
Wyoming 354
Colorado
326 403 880
7 45
613 1,214
80 119
61 276
Idaho 9 5 17
New Mexico ^ n , 7fif -
715 1,000 1,7^5
104 580
Washington ^^ 174
Mont T a ot a a r :::v.v::::::: '.12,407 43,695
13
23
179
88
47
41
120
54
136
60
526
511
285
30,339
7,795
65,696
27,078
101,169
1,786
3,632
19,257
25,773
345
893
36
1,313
59
1,854
69
741
42
3,702
2,271
8,324
1,957
302,721
21
49
235
155
159
141
34
74
189
123
530
639
384
29,979
7,582
61,575
25,634
104,895
1,477
2,833
19,788
30,206
378
1,149
118
1,356
123
2,128
50
1,173
33
5,060
2,78S
9,891
3,354
335,72
TABLE III
Showing the Norwegian foreign parentage population in the United States
according to the U. S. Census for 1900
1. Minnesota 257,959
2 Wisconsin 155,125
3. North Dakota 72,012
4. Iowa 71,170
5. Illinois 59,954
6. South Dakota 51,199
7. New York 18,928
. Washington .........
9. Michigan ........... 14,09
10. California ..........
11. Nebraska ...........
12. Montana ........... 5 ) 6 '
13. Oregon ............. 5,5
14. Massachusetts ....... 5,0
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
387
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
Utah 4,557
Kansas 3,731
New Jersey 3,518
Texas 3,406
Idaho 2,767
Pennsylvania 2,254
Colorado 2,096
Alaska 1,454
Missouri l'301
Ohio 1,174
Connecticut 1,083
Indiana 852
Maine 833
Wyoming 727
Florida 558
New Hampghire 504
Rhode Island 502
Maryland 442
Louisiana 441
34. Tennessee 333
35. Alabama 375
36. Hawaii 379
37. Oklahoma 350
38. Virginia 282
39. Georgia 277
40. Arizona 228
41. Mississippi 211
42. District of Columbia . . 195
43. Arkansas 133
44. Indian Territory 115
45. Nevada 95
46. Vermont 93
47. Kentucky 88
48. South Carolina 86
49. Delaware 59
50. West Virginia 46
51. North Carolina . 44
APPENDIX II
Names of Parighes and Settlements in Norway (see page 131).
1. Skjold.
2. Kopervik.
3. Tananger.
4. Aardal.
5. Vikedal.
6. Hjelmeland.
7. Skaanevik.
8. Vinje.
9. Mo.
10. Flatdal.
11. Siljord.
12. Hviteseid.
13. Laurdal.
14. Nissedal.
15. Moland.
16. Drangedal.
17. SandokedaL
18. Bamle.
19. Gjerpen.
20. Porsgrund.
21. Hiterdal.
22. Eollaug.
23. Nore.
24. Sigdal.
25. Flesberg.
26. Lyngdal.
27. Eggedal.
28. Hovin.
29. Tin.
30. Bo.
31. Holden.
32. Slemdal.
33. Sandsvaerd.
34. Eker.
35. Modum.
36. Lier.
37. Skauger.
38. Sande.
39. Kvindherred.
40. Odde.
41. Jondal.
42. Vikor.
43. TJUensvang.
44. Ulvik.
45. Vossevangen.
46. Vossestranden.
47. Evanger.
48. Graven.
49. Samnanger.
50. Vik.
51. Aurland.
52. Lserdal.
53. Lekanger.
54. Sogndal.
55. Aardal.
56. Lyster.
57. Jostedal.
58. Fjerland.
59. Balestrand.
60. Borgund.
61. Hemgedal.
62. Gol.
63. Nffis.
64. Flaa.
65. Sondre Aurdal.
66. Nordre Aurdal.
67. Vestre Slidre.
68. Ostre SUdre.
69. Hurum.
70. Vang.
71. Nordre Land.
72. Sondre Land.
73. Vardal.
74. Biri.
75. Eingsaker.
76. Ullensaker.
77. Faaberg.
78. Rendalen.
79. Vaage.
80. Froen.
81. Lesje.
82. Eid.
83. Selbu.
84. Soknedalen.
85. Bindalen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The brief bibliography here given is not intended to be com-
plete. The books and articles spoken of in the "Foreword" of this
volume, pages 7-9, are not re-listed here.
Anderson, Rasmus B. Bygdejaevning. Madison, Wis., 1903. Pp.
VI + 215. Has very little historical value; a series of uncritical
contributions.
Flora, George T. Chapters on Scandinavian Immigration to Iowa.
Iowa City, 1905. Pp. IV + 150. A brief survey.
Hatlestad, O. J. Historiske Meddelelser om den norske Augustana
Synode. Decorah, Iowa, 1887. Pp. 254.
Holand, Hjalmar E. De norske Settlementers Historic. Ephraim,
Wis., 1908. Pp. 603. A series of brief surveys (on pages 100-
565) of most of the settlements down to 1865, unfortunately in
part uncritical.
Keyes, Judge E. W. History of Dane County. Madison, Wisconsin,
1906. Volumes I-III. Scandinavian matter very incomplete
and often erroneous. Names frequently misspelled.
Kvartalslcrift. TTdgivet of Det norske Selskab i Amerika. Wai-
demar Ager, Redaktor I-V, 1905-1909. Various articles, usually
very good.
Langeland, Knud. Nordmaendene i Amerika. Chicago, 1889. Pp.
224. Fragmentary.
Nelson, O. N. History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scan-
dinavians in the United States. Minneapolis, Minn., 1901. Vol-
umes I-II. A series of articles by various contributors and a
large number of biographies. In general very reliable.
Normandsfor'bundet, I-II, 1907-1909. A number of excellent articles
of real permanent value.
Peck, Geo. W., ed. Cyclopedia of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin,
1906. Volumes I-II. Scandinavian biographies, etc., often full
of errors.
Ulvestad, Martin. Normaendene i Amerika, deres Historic og
Record. Minneapolis, 1907. Pp. 871.
INDEX
LThe Church Register and the footnotes are not indexed.!
AABERGE, Peder S., 312
Aadland, Knud, 162
Aadland, Mons, 100, 103, 112, 158,
161, 162, 222, 283
Aadland, Thomas, 162, 280
Aaen, Halvor N., 211
Aamodt, Anders, 220
Aamodt, Christopher, 298
Aaretuen, Anna, 287
Aaretuen, Knut, 266, 269, 270
Aaretuen, Knut K., 285, 287
Aarhus, Rasmus J., 37
Aarhus, Reiar, 342
Aarness, Angon, 338
Aas, Aslak, 286
Aas, Halvor N., 143, 144
Aas, Lars, see Skavlem, Lars
Aase, Anders K., 276
Aase, Hans H., 338
Aase, Lasse E., 276, 310
Aase, Thor, 340
Aasen, Halvor, 148
Aasen, Halvor, 261
Aasen, Nils, 302
Aasland, Ole, 118, 119, 222
Aasnes, Ole T., 188
Aavri, Anders O., 273
Aavri, Johans O., 273
Aavri, Ole J., 273
Abrahamson, Jacob, 369, 371
Aga, Jon J., 95
Allen, Mrs. Margaret, 45, 60
Allen, William, 49, 76
Anderson, Arnold A., 178
Anderson (Aasen), Andrew, 93, 355
Anderson, Andrew, 238
Anderson, A. S., 59
Anderson, Anderson G., 58
Anderson, Arle, 232
Anderson (Kvelve), Bjorn, 93, 110,
175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 256
Anderson, Dan K., 8, 304
Anderson, Eric, 232, 348
Anderson, Erik A.
Anderson, Halvor, 291
Anderson, John, 337, 338
Anderson, J. C., 235
Anderson, John A., 238, 284
Anderson, Kjel, 337, 338
Anderson, Lars O., 149
Anderson, Martha, 235
Anderson, Ole, 13
Anderson, Ole, 147, 159, 202
Anderson, Ole, 344
Anderson, Ole O., 312
Anderson, Peter S., 304
Anderson, R. B., 9, 37, 47, 56, 66,
103, 173, 191
Anderson, Susanna, 93
Anderson, William, 348
Andrewson, Rev. O., 209
Andsion, Peter M., 286
Anmarksnid, Tollef S., 343
Arnesgaard, Nils, 366
Arveson, Hans, 290, 293
Arveson, Harvey, 8, 290, 293, 294
Arveson, Isak, 290
Arveson, John, 292
Arveson, Ole, 290
Asdohldalen, Knut, 260
Askeland, Andrew, 125
Atwater, John, 60
BAARSON (Bowerson), Knut, 345
Baarson, Lars, 208
Backe, Soren, 156, 158, 159, 160
Backe, Tollef O., 156
Baker (Eager), John, 251
Baker, Mrs. Ole, 345
Baker, P. O., 345
Bakka, Lars, 373
Bakke, Hans H., 285
Bakke, Ole J., 218
Bakken, Ole O., 342
Bakken, Tideman, 342
Bakketun, Anna, 150, 233
392
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Bakketun, Nils, 235
Bakketun, Ole, 236
Bakli, Kittil, 261
Bakli, Knut K., 261
Bakli, Mrs. Ole, 186
Barlien, Hans, 108, 110, 123, 192,
193, 197
Barstad, Ole G., 188
Barton, Ole, 342
Bauge, Thomas, 100
Baura, Mathias, 295
Behrens, Captain, 78, 100
Beigo, A. T., 217
Bekkjorden, Synnove K., 261
Belgum, Nils O., 343
Bendixen, Capt., 267
Benson, John, 276
Benson, Ole, 277
Berdahl, Eli I., 311
Berdahl, Ole, 273
Bere, Peder, 208
Berg, Ellef A., 260
Berg, Erik K., 218
Berg, Ingebrigt
Berg, Truls, 218
Bergan, Ole L., 371
Berge, Herbrand H., 212
Berge, John L, 285, 340, 341
Berge, Kari, 283
Bergen, Augun, 281
Bergen, Hans, 36
Bergkvam, Jens B., 307
Bergland, Gunhild, 254
Bergrud, Levor, 186
Bergrud, Torstein L-, 186
Bergum, Botolf E., 333
Berry, B. K., 168
Bilden, Nils, 90
Bjaaland, Thorsten O., 47, 55, 56,
62, 101, 175, 177, 178, 181, 256
Bjelde, Johans K. See Melaas, J. K.
Bjelde, Torsten O., 307
Bjerva, Anders G., 292
Bjoin (Bjaan), Aanund H., 163, 278
Bjoin, Halvor, 279, 343, 348
Bjono, Goe, 138, 139
Bjorgaas, George J., 287
Bjorgo, John H., 62, 101, 113, 182
Bjorndokken, Anders J., 292
Bjornson, Bjorn, 50, 239
Bjornson, Ellef, 298
Bjornson, Gabriel, 260, 263
Bjortuft, Ragnild
Bjortuft, Thorgrim O.
Blakestad (Skavlem), G. H., 207
Blegeberg, Gunder H.
Bleie, Sjur S., 352
Bloom, Captain, 301
Bogstrandiet, Ole P., 206
Boley, Ole, 343
Bolstad, Nils L., 62, 101, 113, 168-
171, 174, 175, 181
Borlang, B. J.. 344
Borren, Ole B. Anderson, 373
Boyum, Arne, 332
Braaten, Ole O., 343
Brekketo, Bjoin, 272
Brenden, Ole T., 343
Brendingen, Marthea, 214
Brenna, Hans H., 302
Brimsoe, Lars L., 93
Bringa, Ole, 269
Bringa, Tostein G., 245
Broby, Jacob P., 365
Brock, Captain, 310
Brown, Lewis, 40
Bruavolden, Ole, 203
Bruavolden, Sjur T., 202, 203
Brudvig, Ingebrigt, 100, 102
Brunkow, Mrs. Martha, 304
Brunsvold, Ola, 217
Brunsvold, Asle, 217
Brzkke, Anders N., 150
Brsekke, Hellik N., 143, 145
Braekke, Knud, 150, 185
Braekke-Eiet, Halstein. 109, 110
Buind, Ole A., 186
Bukaasa, Hans, 294
Buo, Guttorm, 312
Burtness, John, 217
Burtness, Timan, 217
Busness, Kjittil, 278
Bystolen, Magne B., 150, 168-171
Baekhus, Alexander O., 252
Baekhus, John, 257
Bjekhus, Tollef, 257
Bo, Baard Lawson, 200
B6, Christen M., 292
INDEX
393
Bo, Knut L-, 182, 235
Bo, Lars, 93
Bo, Michael, 93
CALBERLANE, Dr. John M., 38, 39
Campbell, Mitchel, 167
Cannteson, Oliver, 57
Carstensen, Clses, 36, 57
Cassem, Nels O., 358
Cassem, Randall, 358
Chelley, Lars, 355
Christensen, Christian, 39
Christiansen, Hans, 348
Clement, Erik, 371
Cleven, Egil O., 283
Clousen, Rev. C. F., 145
Colley, S. G., 137
DAHL, Endre (Andrew), 47, 55, 59
Dahl, Halvor E., 260
Dahl, Knut, 346
Dahlbotten, Botolf, 343
Dahlbotten, Jon Michelson, 343
Dahlbotten, Martha, 343
Dablbotten, Randi Botolfsdatter, 343
Dahle, Johans, 276
Dahle, Hans J., 345
Dahle, Leif J., 338
Dahle, O. B., 280, 346, 347
Dahle, Svennung N., 331
Dahlen, Anders, 278
Dalen, Lars, 129
Dale, John J.. 163, 283
Dale, Paul, 95
Dale, Sjur, 95
Dalos, Anon, 295
Dalstiel, Halvor H., 188
Danielson, Christopher, 96, 114
Danielson, Gitle. 120, 222, 224, 227
Danielson, Knud. 96
Danielson, Ole, 344
Darnell, Sarah, 113
Dean, Erastus, 136
Dejean, Joseph, 167
Dietrichson, Rev. J. W. C., 87, 94,
144, 185, 210, 313
Djonne, Torbjorn, 95
Doksrud, Halvor H., 281
Doksrud, Halvor I., 281
Doksrud, Ingebret H., 281
Donstad, Halvor, 254
Downer, Stephen, 137
Doyle, Simon, 231
Droksvold, Niels, 271
Droksvold, Ole, 271
Droksvold, Sjur C., 260, 271
Drotning, Aamund O., 248, 283
Dugstad, Brynhild, 207
Dugstad, Lars, 150, 175, 177, 179,
180
Dugstad, Erik K., 207
Dusterud, Lars B., 340
Dusterud, Peder, 340
Dykesten, Lars K., 236
Dyrland, Ole K., 81, 85, 246
Dyvik, Ole, 101, 113
EGEBY, Daniel D., 137, 205
Eggum, Anna L., 260
Eggum, Lars, 333
Eide, Knud Olson, 44, 46, 49
Eide, Knud Olson, 96
Eide, Ole Thompson, 96
Eiclson, Elling, 75, 156, 158, 161,
278, 280, 347
Einarson, Nils, 342, 344
Eiteklep, Thorkel, 364
Kllingsdatter, Anna, 338
Ellingson, EHm, 8, 275, 276, 277
EUingson, Elling, 207
Ellingson, Endre, 276
Ellingson, Magela, 207
Ellingson, Nils, 276
Elseberg, Gulbrand, 342
Enerson, Enert, 39
Engebretson, M. J., 8, 203
Engbrigtsen, Ole, 365
Engen, Aadne, 217, 218
Engen, Anders, 213, 267
Engen, Erik, 343
Engen, Hans. 213, 217
Engen. Marie, 213
Engesaeter, Erik, 331
Engesseter, Michel J., 267, 269, 270
Engesseter, John, 331
Erdahl, Ingebrigt, 312
Erdahl, Johannes, 312
Erdahl, Nicolai, 312
Erickson, Mrs. Martha, 239, 240
Erickson, Michael, 360
Erickson, Nils, 45, 47, 54
394
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Espe, Lars O., 352, 354
Espeland, Osten, 101, 114
Espeseth, HaJvor N., 364
Esterly, George, 292
Estrem, Chr. A., 372
Evans, Dr. N. C., 8, 9
Evanson, Christian, 346
Evanson, Ragnild, 346
Evanson, Christen, 218
Evenson, Hadle, 295
Evenson, Knut, 52
FADNES, Ragnild, 342
Fagre, G. H., 366
Falk, O. N., 9
Farness, Erik C., 331
Farness, Ole H., 331, 332
Farness, Truls E., 332
Felland, Gunder, 243
Fellows, Joseph, 48
Fenne, David L., 201, 202
Fenne, Ivar, 203
Fenne, Martha, 203
Fenne, Nils, 201, 202
Fenne, Per, 203
Person, Baron Axel, 41
Fingalpladsen, Gunder, 129
Finno, Anders, 149, 150, 171
Finseth, A. K., 218
Finseth, Herbrand, 218
Finseth, Knut K., 218
Fischer, Captain, 310
Fjeld, Nils H., 87
Fjose, see Kittilson
Fjosne, Anne, 295
Flaam, Anders J., 306, 309
Flage, Anders, 150, 231
Flatland, Elling O., 268
Flattre, Thormod S., 285
Fliseram, Erik S.
Flittre, Sjur, 295
Flora, Anders O., 266, 306
Flom (Flaam), Ole Torjussen, 265,
266, 269, 270, 306, 309
Flom, Gulleik T., 266
Flora, Hans T., 309
Flom, Knut T., 266
Flom, Margrethe A., 219
Flom, M. O., 9
Flom, Ole O., 71, 266, 306
Flom, Torjus, 266
Follmer, George, 135
Foslieiet, Hellik, 187
Foslien, Even F., 208
Fosseim, Halvor L-, 245
Fosseim, Ole L., 246
Possum, Hovel, 215
Possum, Ingebrigt, 214
Frankrige, Johan, 214
Frankrige, Sjugal, 215
Friis, Captain Hans, 287
Frondal, John J., 307, 338
Fruland, Lars, 112
Frye, Simon, 360
Froland, Nils, 100, 112
Froland, Peder, 334, 336
Froslie, Bertha, 214
Froslie, Helene, 215
Froslie, Marit, 214
Froslieit, Hans Engen, 214
Fuglegjordet, Ingebrigt, 203, 274,
303
Fuglestad, Mrs. Bertha, 239, 240
Funkelien, Halvor, 185
Folie, Ivar, 274
Folie, Joe, 274
Folie, Lars O., 274
GAARDEN, Forstein T., 188
Gaarder, Gudbrand, 213
Gaarder, Helene, 213
Gaarder, Ole, 214
Gaarder, Peter H., 213, 220, 222
Gaarder, Syver, 214, 220
Gabriel, Halvor, 348
Gangsei, Ole, 345
Garden, Ole T., 340
Gasman, Capt. Hans, 297
Gasman, Capt. Johan, 291, 297, 298
Gilbertson, Ole, 233
Gilbertson, Rachel, 134
Gilderhus, Anna, 150
Gilderhus, Nils S., 149, 168-170,
174, 183, 185
Gilderhus, Ole K., 150, 181, 182,
185, 233, 271
Gilderhus, Ole S., 152, 200
Gilderhus, Steffen K., 117, 233, 271
Gjeirsme, Peder J., 309
Gjeirsme, Torbjorn O., 309
INDEX
395
Gjellum, Joseph J., 305
Gjellum, Lars G., 307
Gjellum, Simon A., 307, 308
Gjerde, Johannes L., 312
Gjerde, Pe(de)r L,., 184, 267, 270
Gjerdene, Jakob I., 268
Gjerdet, Jonas, 214
Gjergjord, Aslak O., 253
Gjergjord, Halvor O., 253
Gjerstad, Lars, 117, 126
Gjilje, Peter O., 192, 197
Gjostein, Knud, 150
Claim, Hellik, 143, 144, 364
Glenna, Halvor, 295
Glimtne, Knut I., 236
Goeranson, Rev. Andrew, 42
Grane, Lars, 207
Grane, Ole, 182
Grane, Rasmus, 182
Grane, Sjur, 207
Grane, Tollef, 295
Grasdalen, Halvor H., 340, 341
Grasdalen, Nels H., 340
Gravdal, Gilbert, 145
Gravdal, Gullik O., 138, 139, 140,
144, 222.
Gravdal, Ole, 144, 145
Gravdal, Tolee, 144, 145
Gravdal, Sarah, 145
Grave, Gro, 281
Grellet, Stephen, 76
Grimestad, Klaus, 152, 200, 233
Grimsgaard, Lars, 217
Grimsgaard, Ole K., 366
Grimsrud, Helge S., 249, 250
Grimsrud, Sigurd, 249
Grinde, Botolf J.,' 305
Grinde, Ole A., 343
Grinde, Sjur, 332
Grindemelum, 301
Gromstu, Torgus T., 41
Gromstulen, Peter J., 301
Grov, Erik L-, 305
Groven, Aslak E., 246
Groven, H. H., 368, 371
Grundstad, G. E., 360
Gronna, Thomas A., 366
Gronsteen, Asberg, 292
Gronsteen, Johans, 292
Gronsteen, John, 292, 294
Gronsteen, Ole T., 291
Groth, Halstein, 365
Grotrud, Gunhild, 263
Grotrud, Nils T., 262
Gudbrandson, Erik, 206
Gulack, Tolee, see Gravdal
Gulberg, Arne
Gulbrandson, Gulbrand, 206
Guldbrandson, Kristi, 263
Guldbrandson, Mari, 186
Gullikson, Ole, 371
Gulliksrud, Torsten Ingebrigtson, 111
Gulseth, Even, 295
Gulvsdatter, Martha, 307
Gunale, Mrs., 139, see Odegaarden
Gunderson, Anders, 292
Gunderson, Ashley, 203
Gunderson, Tallak, 364
Gunnulson, Ole, 173
Guttormson, Guul, 220
Guul, Gultorm, 220
Gvaale, Johannes J., 338
Gvale, Tollef H., 312
HAAHEIM, Sjur, 95
Haaland, Syver O., 295, 296
Haatvedt, Christoffer S., 293
Haatvedt, Even, 208
Haatvedt, Ole, 292
Haatvedt, Ole A., 208, 252
Haave, Erik I., 303
Haave, Elling, 273
Haave, Ingebriet, 273
Haave, Ivar I., 273
Haavejohn L., 273
Haave, Lars Jensen, 274
Haave, Lars J., 273, 274
Haave, Ole L., 273
Haaverud, Jul, 345
Hadland, Steinar E., 208
Hadley, Peter, 296
Hage, Samuel, 360
Hall, Ben, 360
Hallan, see Ove C. Johnson
Halland, Gisle, 137, 138, 143
Halringa, Mons, 270
Halsten, Ever, 342, 343
Halvorson, Goodman, 356
Halvorson, Gunder O., 149
Halvorson, Halvor, 145, 298
396
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Halvorson, Mrs. John, 263
Halvorson, Kleofas, see Hansemoen
Halvorson, Lars, 342, 345
Halvorson, Tallev
Harare, Juul G., 187, 261
Hansemoen, Erik, 216
Hansemoen, Halvor K., see Kleofas
Hansemoen, Hans, see Husemoen
Hansemoen, Kleofas H., 216, 217,
220
Hansen, Hans, 36
Hanson, Alex H., 154
Hanson, C. F., 154
Hanson, Claus, 293
Hanson, Hans, 292
Hanson, Ole, 364
Hanson, Ole H., 154
Hanson, Mrs. W. O., 145
Harald, Fairhair, 83
Harlow, John, 167
Harrison, General, 201
Harrisville, Knud K., 237
Harrisville, Maren K., 238
Harstad, Kjogei, 281
Harvig, Henry C., 47, 54, 57
Hasle, Ovre, 302
Haslerud, Peter P.. 344
Hastvedt, Peter K., 293
Hastvedt, Torger, 345
Hatlestad, Anna, 284
Hatlestad, Jens O., 284, 286
Hatlestad, O. J., 286
Haugaas, Gudmund, 47, 55, 57
Haugan, Knut, 283
Hauge, Anders, 368
Hauge, Halvor N., 347, 348
Hauge, Hans Nielsen, 75, 279
Haugen, Andreas, 129
Haugen, Baard, 101, 113
Haugen, Engebret, 372
Haugen, Gjermund, 133
Haugen, Gunnul, 133
Haugen, Halvor P., 127, 128, 129,
130
Haugen, Hans G., 127, 133
Haugen, Kjittil, 281
Haugen, Knut, 283
Haugen, Nils, 217, 222
Haugen, Ole, 43, 44
Haugen, Ole O., 188
Haugen, Ole T., 368
Haugen, Peder, 129
Haugen, Staale T., 368
Haugerud, Anfin A., 271
Haugerud, Lars, 129
Haugholt, Halvor P., 281, 282
Haukaas, Hans O., 338
Haukelien, Lars P., 260
Haukness, Ole, 332
Haukom, Ole O., 281, 283
Havey, see Haeve, Ole
Havredalen, Torbjorn, 188
Hawkos, Tollef O., 338
Hayer, A., 115
Hedejord, Edward, 283
Hedejord, LIT, 283
Hedejord, Ole O., 283
Hedle, Knut K., 286
Hedle, Mathias, 286
Hedle, Peter, 286
Hefte, Bjorn, 295
Hefte, John A.. 236
Heg, Even H., 159, 160, 161, 183,
187, 201, 222, 246, 284
Heg, Hans C., 161, 284
Heg, Ole E., 284
Hegglund, Mrs. Anna, 356
Hei, Ole, 217
Heier, Ole, 115
Helgeson, Erik, 297
Helgeson, Gjermund, 192
Helgeson, Peter, 365
Helgeson, Tore, 206
Helle, Ingebrigt J., 81, 227, 251
Helle, Metta, 45
Helle, Thomas, 45
Hemsing, Ole H., 312
Hemsing, Ole O., 312
Henderson, Bryngel, 236
Hendricks, Annecken, 37
Hendricks, Helletje, 36, 37
Hendrickson, Charles, 341
Hendrickson, Christian, 202, 341
Hendrickson, Henry, 341
Herbrandson, Ole, 363
Herre, Nils, 295
Hersdal, Cornelius N., 46, 54, 55
Hersdal, Nels N., 47, 56. 59
Hesgard, Halvor, 217, 218
Hesla, Asle, 217
INDEX
397
Hesla, Svend E-, 217
Hetlctvedt, Jacob O., 192, 197
Hetletvedt, K. O., 92
Hetletvedt, Ole Olson, 47, 56, 57,
59, 62, 89, 355
Hidle, see John Hill
Hilbeitson, Erik, 206
Hilbeitson, Jas., 206
Hill, John, 93, 355, 356
Hitnle, Amrnund, 334
Himle, Odd J., 101, 113, 168-171,
310, 334
Hippe, Ole H., 312
Hiser, Lena, 132
Hoff, Arne, 343
Hoff, Harald, 343
Hogenson, Ole, 159
Holgerson, Gunnel, 206
Holland, Bjorn, 295
Holland, E. S., 357
Holmes, Joshua, 135
Holmes, Thomas, 135
Holmes, William, 135
Holo, Lars J., 153, 262
Holo, Martin, 262
Holt, Bredo, 364
Holt, Daniel, 347
Holt, Jens, 364
Holtan, Gudbrand G., 261
Holtan, Hellek O., 212
Holtan, Levor, 259, 260
Holtan, Nils T., 263
Holtan, Ole, 248
Holtan, Ole G., 261, 262
Holton, Levi, see Levor Holtan
Holum, Ole S., 332
Holum, Stephen, 332
Holven, Aslak, 96
Homme, Rev. G., 284
Homme, John, 284
Homstad, Mathias, 286
Homstad, Ole, 286
Hornefjeld, Amund Anderson, 92,
175, 176, 179, 256
Hougen, John O., 251
Hovdelien, Ole, 215
Hove, Erik E., 201, 203
Hove, Iver, 69
Hovland, Gjert, 52, 56, 61, 62, 80,
83, 222
Hovland, Halvor N, 354
Hoyme, Christoffer T.
Hulderoen, see Tellefson
Hundere, Anders S., 312
Hundkjiolen, Jens, 281
Husebo, Ole I., 267, 269, 270
Husebo, Synneva, 247
Husemoen, Hans, 216, 217
Husemoen, Kari, 217.
Huset, Halvor, 291
Huset, Ole, 291
Huset, Tollef Gunnufson, 281
Husevold, John, 281
Hustad, Knut, 364
Hustvedt, Bjorn O., 254
Hustvedt, Bjorn S., 254
Husvaeret, Torkild, 302
Hvasshovd, Gunder G., 186
Hvasshord, Hellik G., 186
Hydle, Sjur, 295
Hylle, Knud J., 152. 200, 201
Have, Henrik O., 248, 271
Have, Ole, 248
Hogstul, Osmond O., 295
Hogstul, Tostein H., 295
Hoverstad, Rev. Helge, 8
INDB.BGGEN, Even T., 338
Ingebretson, Erik, 39
Ingebretson, Gaute, 81, 250
Ingebretson, Lucas, 292
Ingusland, Osten, 281
Inman, Mrs. C E., 145
Inman, John, 135
Isakson, Guru, 208
Isham, Chauncey, 167
Iverson, Captain, 41
Iverson, Cathrine, 58
Iverson, Halvor, 47
Iverson, Lars (Medaas), 372
Iverson, Lewis, 248
Iverson, Ole, 248
Iverson (of Georgia), Senator, 41
JACOBSON, Rev. A., 8, 70, 369, 370
Jacobson, Anders, 205
Jacobson, Henry, Mrs., 207
Jacobson, Ole, 8, 300, 301
398
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Jacobson, John, 163
Jacobson, Peter, 285
Jansen, Eric, 74
Jeglum, Lars, 366
Jellarviken, Halvor, 120
Jensen, Captain, 96
Jensvold, Hovel, 214
Jermo, Marie I,., 113
Jevne, Ole G., 368
Johanneson, Johannes, 156, 158, 160
Johnson, Andrew, 231
Johnson, Aufin, 231
Johnson, Baard, 95, 231
Johnson, Baruld, 261
Johnson, David, 232
Johnson, Ellef, 303
Johnson, Fingar, 364
Johnson, George, 47, 56
Johnson, Gjermund, see Kaasa
Johnson, Ingeborg, 179
Johnson, Isak, 202
Johnson, John, 231
Johnson, John A., 227
Johnson, John E., 308
Johnson, J. W., 8, 282
Johnson, Lars, 348
Johnson, Michael, 343, 344
Johnson, Nels, 369, see Kaasa
Johnson, Ole, 47, 54
Johnson, Ove C.
Johnson, Sjur
Johnson, Syver, 203, 302
Johnson, Thomas, 40
Johnson, Torris, 357
Jone, Ole, 334
Jones, John Paul, 40
Jones, Milo, 135
Jordgrev, KittSl, 294
Juul, Rev. E. P., 306
Juve, Knut A., 83, 244, 245, 246
Jaeger, Knut, 365
Jorandlien, Tarald, 213
Jorlien, see Jorandlien
Jordre, Nils L., 100
KAASA, Gjermund O., 222
Kaasa, Gjermund Johnson, 120, 121,
158, 369
Kaasa, Jens O., see Olson
Kaasa, Jorgen, 272
Kaasa, Kittil O., 272
Kaasa, Nils Johnson, 120, 158, 285
Kaasa, Ole, 235, 272
Kaasa, Thor O., 186, 235, 272, 274
Kaasne, Jacob, 295
Kalberlahn, Catharine, 39
Kallerud, Bergit N., 130
Kasberg, Rev. K. A., 8, 187, 261, 263
Kearney, Philip, 167
Keen, Andrew, 42
Kirkejord, There H., 128, 134, 137
Kirkejord, Torsten H., 128, 130
Kittilson, Levi, 259, 262
Kittelson, Ole, 300
Kittilsland, Ole T., 363
Kjonaas, Ole, 120
Kjylaa, Sven, 197
Kjolen, Halvor, 260
Kjosvik, Hans J., 338
Kleiva, Johannes, 273
Kleofas, Halvor, 217
Kleofas, Knud, 217
Klevmoen, Helene, 213
Klomset, Sven S., 281
Klove, Lars, 295
Knit, Rognald J., 307
Knudson, Gullik, 141, 142
Knudson, Tollef, 282
Knutson (Springen), Gunder, 146
Knutson, Mikkel, 338
Knutson, Oliver, 57
Kolskett, Michel, 343
Kolsrud, Erik, 217
Kosa, Anne, 291
Kossin, John, 281
Kostvedt, Aslak, 243
Kostvedt, Halvor, 252, 253
Kravik, Halvor, 187, 261, 263
Kravik, Lars C., 263
Kristensen, Knut, 143
Kristian IV, King of Denmark, 35
Kroken, Mathias H., 281
Kroken, Ole H., 120
Krostu, Rev. G. G., 8
Kvale, Rev. O. J., 8
Kvamodden, Nils, 9, 300
Kvarma, Sjur K., 207, 209
Kvarma, KolKein, 209
Kvarve, Levor, 218
Kvarve, Tideman, 218
INDEX
399
Kvelve, see Anderson
Kvendalen, Lars, 179, 180
Kvendalen, Nils, 181
Kvisterud, Knud S., 283, 340, 341
Kvisterud, Ole, 340
LAFLIN, Mathew, 157
Land, Ellef, 371
Land, Lars, 371
Landeman, Thomas J., 188
Landsverk, Johan, 278, 279
Landsverk, Ole, 279
Landsverk, Peder J., 278
Langeland, Knud, 48, 93, 97, 112,
157, 284, 335, 336, 348
Langeland, Malina, 112
Langeland, Nils P., 97, 99, 101, 110,
112
Langeland, Dr. Peter, 285
Langemyr, Lars, 342
Langeteig, Anders, 335
Larsen, Bendik, 373
Larson, Erik
Larson, Rev. G. A., 8
Larson, Georgiana, 46
Larson, Gunder, 134
Larson, Haakon, 349
Larson, Ivar, 372
Larson, Johan, 95, 231
Larson, John, 285
Larson, Knud
Larson i Jeilane, Lars, 45, 46, 49,
50, 60, 76, 91
Larson, Mrs. Louis O., 132
Larson, Mary, 148, 303
Larson, Ole, 309
Larson, Sara, 47
Larson, Svend, 204
Laugen, G., see Springen
Laugen, Trond, 373
Lawrence, Ole, 349
Lawson (Larson) Canute, 232
Lawson, Iver, 112, 232, 237
Lawson, Victor P., 113
Lee, Andrew E., 185
Lee, Christian, 238
Lee, Erik, 185
Lee, Johan, 350
Lee, Lars J., 295
Lee, Ole Aslak
Leidal, Anfin, 149
Lekvold, Ole S., 366
Leland, Brynjulf, 310
Lenaas, O. O., 259
Lenvick, Ole, 347
Lia, John, 298
Lia, Ole, 294, 298
Lia, Mathias, 295
Lie, Anders N., 182, 183, 184
Lie, Brynild L., 207
Lie, Haaken, 308, 310
Lie, Johannes, 276
Lie, Lars O., 207, 208
Lie, N. A., 8, 150, 183
Lien, Bjorn, 294
Lien, Henrik, 309
Lien, Lars, 173
Lien, Levor, 343
Lien, Tone, 244
Lier, Knut O., 260, 261
Lier, Lars, 173
Lier, Ole, 174
Lillebsek, Hans, 303
Lillebsek, Kari, 302
Lima, Simon, 47
Lindelien, Knut J., 343
Loe, Ole, 312
Lofthus, Olav 0., 95
Lohner, Halvor N., 120
Lommen, Andrew A., 368
Lommen, O. A., 368, 371
Losen, John S., Sr., 373
Losen, John S., Jr., 373
Lothe, Svein K., 95, 231
Loven, Johanne M., 307
Loven, Peder M., 307
Lund, Iver, 343
Lund, Paul, 261
Lund, Svend L., 312
Lunde, Christian, 149
Lunde, Gulleik, 292
Lunde, Gunder H., 291
Lunde, Halvor A., 292
Lunde, Osmund, 243, 252
Lundene, Anders, 343
Lundsseter, Anders, 213
Lundsaeteren, Osten, 215
Luraas, Halvor O., 120, 158, 311
Luraas, John N., 68, 70, 120, 158,
167, 222, 241, 242, 249
400
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Luraas, Knut N., 120, 158
Luraas, Nils J., 249
Luraas, Torger 0., 120, 158
Lybzk, Bertha, 214
Lybaek, Johans, 214
Lydvo, Knud, 117, 126, 149
Lydvo, Nils, 126, 149
Lydvo, Ole, 117, 126, 149
Lydvo, Randver, 235, 236
Lyse, Gilbert C., 368
Lysenstoen, Halvor L-, 163
Lokken, Hans, 286
Lokken, Ole, 286
Lokken, Peter, 286
Lokken, Tyke H., 286
Lonflok, Halvor T., 120
Lonning, Amund, 353
Lonning, Gertrud, 352
MAAKESTAD, Helge H., 352
Maakestad, Omund Helgeson (Hil-
leson), 95, 351, 352
Maakestad, Torgels, see Newton
Maanem, Tore, 343
Maaren, Gunuld K., 281
Maaren, Sondre N., 278
Madland, Thomas, 46, 54, 56, 57, 58
Mandt, Gunnar T., 82, 246, 247
Mans, Martha, 39
Markoe, Abraham, 41, 42
Marsett, Peter C, 58
Mason, C. M., 295
Mastre, Nils E., 251
Mathieson, Halvor, 295
Mathieson, Helge, 120
Maurset, Peder J., 100
Mayhew, Wm. M., 166
Medaas, see Iverson
Megaarden, Kristen, 217
Melaas, Kristen L., 267
Melaas, Kristi, 227, 268
Melaas, Johans K., 269
Melaas, Mons L., 267
Melaas, Ole A., 269, 270
Melaas, Mrs, Ole, 312
Meland, Helge, 203
Meland, Osten G., 278
Melland, Harald, 303
Menes, Ole O., 69, 70, 81, 310
Midboe, Tarald E., 260
Midboen, Anders, 213
Midboen, Erick G., 110, 111
Midboen, Gunder G., Ill
Midthus, Svein L-, 100
Milebon, Hans A., 290
Milesten, Halyor O
Mills, Dennis, 137
Mitchell, Franklin, 137
Mitchell, John S., 58
Mo, Olav L-, 234
Modum, Halvor, 287
Modum, Thov, 208
Moe, Peder H., 260
Mogen, Kari G., 228
Moland, Kittil
Molee, John E., 120, 163
Monsdatter, Ragnhilde, 307
Monson, Mons, 373
Munk, Jens, 35, 36
Munson, Henry, 356
Murray, William S
Mygstue, Gullik O., 211, 212
Mygstue, Ole, 212
Myhra, Gudbrand, 128, 130
Myhra, Jens G., 128, 130, 132
Myhre, Ole, 278
Myren, Ole, 284
Myrkeskog, Edlend, 277
Myrkeskog, Ole, 277
M6n, Lars J., 182
Morkvold, Bjorn G., 186
Morkvold, Ole H., 186
NAAS, Knut K., 332
Narum, Nels H., 281, 282
Narverud, Syvert L, 159
Narvig, Ingebrigt Larson, 52,53, 114
Natesta(d), Henry, 8, 132
Nattestad, Ansten, 84, 108, 110, 116,
118, 127, 132, 133, 138, 205, 224,
227
Nattestad, Charles, 132
Nattestad, Eliza, 131
Nattestad, James, 132
Nattestad, Knud, 132
Nattestad, Ole, 67, 84, 102, 108, 109,
110, 116, 127, 132, 133, 135, 137,
205
INDEX
401
Nederhaugen, Erik, 213
Nederhaugen, Johans, 214
Nelson, Aad, 197
Nelson, Carrie, 55, 56, 58
Nelson, Christ, 193
Nelson, Groe, 144, 145
Nelson, Mrs. Gustav, 134
Nelson, Mrs. Ingeborg, 296
Nelson, Inger, 58, 151
Nelson, Ira, 59
Nelson, Jocum, 373
Nelson, Mrs. Julia, 235
Nelson, Knute, 297
Nelson (Brekke), Lars, 346, 349
Nelson, Martha, 58
Nelson, Nels, 58
Nelson, Nils, 193
Nelson, Peter, 59
Nelson, Peter, 235
Nelson, Peter C., 58
Nelson, T., 128, 134
Nelson, T. T., 134
Ness, Halvor, 217
Ness, Mons, 345
Newhouse, see Nyhus
Newton, T. M., 8, 352, 353
Nicholson, Henry, 233
Nicholson, John G., 233
Nilsen, Ole, 292
Nilson, F. O., 76
Nilson, Halvor, 92
Nilson, Hermo, 162, 278, 279, 280,
347
Nilson, Nels, 279
Nilson, Prof. Svetn, 67, 256
Nilson, Thorstein, 205
Nirison, Kittil, 237
Nisson, Halvor, 281
Noorman, Claes, 63
Noorman, Hans, 36
Nordboe, Johan, 52, 122, 153
Nordbo, Harald, 294
Nordbo, Hans, 294
Nordby, Rev. J. S.
Nord-Fossum, Lars, 213
Nordgaarden, Gjermon T.
Nordvig, Anders, 100, 112
Nordvig, Ingebrigt, 101
Nore, Gjertrud, 256
Nore, Gro, 256
Nore, Lars, 185
Nore, Knud, 185
Nore, Ole, 185
Nore, Szbjorn, 185
Nore, Tore K. 185, 255
Norman, see Bxkhus
Nubbru, Even, 109
Numedal, Anders H., 273
Numedal, Endre II., 273
Nummeland, Ole, 282, 298
Nyhus, Kittil, 128, 130, 206, 208
Nyhus, KristofTer, 128, 130, 134,
137, 208
Nyhus, Ole C., 206, 208
Nyre, Baard, 152, 233
Nzs, Peter, 298
Nseset, Aadne E., 246
Nzset, Ingebrigt, 309
Nseset, Jens J., 309, 311, 312
Naeset, Johannes J., 309, 311
Nzset, John J., 309
Nxset, Ole E., 246
Naeseth, Gunder K., 300
Nseshaug, see Wilson, 207
Naestestu, Asmund A., 253
Norstelien, Christine, 214
Norstelien, Ole, 214
Norstelien, Svend, 302
Nosterud, Margit, 140
OFFERDAL, Hermund O., 305
Olmstead, Benson C., 59
Olmstead, Charles B., 59
Olmstead, George, 58
Ollis, John, 333
Olsdatter, Bergit, 163
Olsdatter, Guro, 188
Olson, Aase, 284
Olson, Ambjor, 130
Olson, Borre
Olson, Christian, 52, 57
Olson, Christie, 148
Olson, Christoffer, 287
Olson, Eilif, 338
Olson, Ellen, 113
Olson, Gudbrand, 206
Olson, Ingeborg, 284
Olson, James W., 59
Olson, Jens, 235, 272
Olson, John T., 287
402
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Olson, Lars, 45, 46, 54, 109
Olson, Leif, 344
Olson, Nils, 192
Olson, Olaf, 349
Olson, Ole T., 92
Olson, Ole Vendelbo, 269, 270
Olson, Ommund, 192
Olson, Porter C., 59
Olson, Salve, 373
Olson, Soren I,., 59
Olson, Thorsten, see Bjaaland
Olson, Tosten, 291
Omli, Mikkel, 368, 371
Ommelstad, Harald, 213
Ommedstarsaekeren, Johannes, 214
Onsgaard, Ole, 218
Opdahl, Knut, 369, 371
Opsal, Gunder C., 292
Opsal, John C., 291
Opsal, Nils, 292
Orsland, Canute, 118
Orsland, Hallock, 118
Orsland, Harry B., 118
Ortzland, Anna M., 359
Orvedal, Ole J., 274
Osmond, Mrs. Austin, 93, 355
Osmond, Herman A., 94
Osmonson, Herman, 355
Osmundson, Isabella, 154
Osuldson, Bertie, 364
Overholt, Nils J., 301
Overson, Frank, 283
Overson, Ole, see Haukom
Overvind, Captain, 260
Ovestrud, Erik, 218
PAASKB, Alexander, 43
Patterson, Torgen, 147
Paulson, Hovel, 148
Paulson, Sakarias, 42
Pederson, Gunild, 282
Pederson, Guro, 312
Peerson, Kleng, 44, 46, 48, 49, 53,
55, 62, 101, 117, 125, 190, 191,
192, 239
Peerson, Samuel, 92
Person, C., 193
Person, Georgiana, 46
Peterson, Frank, 43
Peterson, Mrs. Holger, 365
Peterson, John, 360
Peterson, Nels, 349
Peterson, O. P., 78
Pond, Daniel, 167
Pratt, Oscar H., 137
Prentice, John, 167
Prestegaard, Nils, 143
Preus, Rev. A. C., 338
Puttekaasa, Christen, 297
QUALA, Johannes J., 285
Quale, Ellend T., 312
Quale, Iver P., 369
Quale, John J., 368
Quamme, Hans H., 333
Quammen, Aslak E-, 312
Quammen, Ole L-, 312
RAMLO, Tarald
Ramstad, Helge, 364
Rasdall, Abel, 166
Reierson, Johan R., 86, 87
Reierson, Ole, 192
Reinke, Abraham, 39
Rekve, Lars D., 149, 150, 181, 199,
271
Reque, Reverend L. S. J., 337, 338
Reque, Sjur S., 335
Rice, J. G., 372
Richey, Will P., 59
Richey, William W-, 59
Richolson, Lars, 115
Rime, Henrik, 217
Rime, Toiler, 217
Rinden, Kittil, 243, 244
Rio, Erik V., 271
Rio, Knut T., 295
Rio, Torstein, 296, 297
Risetter, Haakon, 354
Risetter, Lars, 352, 353
Robertson, David, 167
Roe, Anne, 242, 248
Roe, Hans, 297
Roe, Helleik, 248
Roe, Knut H., 154, 162, 167, 241,
242, 243, 248
Roe, Nils, 217
Roen, Guttorm, 217
Roen, Ole, 217
Rogde, Jacob O., 354
Rokne, Knut E., 152, 200, 271
INDEX
403
Rom, Bjorn O., 260
Romoren, Sjur I., 305
Ronve, Brynjulf, 152, 200, 233
Rosholt, Halvor, 297
Rosholt, Jacob, 297
Ross, Mrs. Eric, 240
Rossadal, Daniel S, 46, 56, 59, 90
Rossadal, Johan S., 90
Rossadal, Ove S., 90
Rosseland, Amund, 100, 177
Rosseland, Sjur E., 100
Rostad, Kristopher, 147
Rostad, Lars, 148
Roswall, Ingebret, 286
Rosoino, Peder, 120
Rothnem, Ole I*., 366
Rotkjon, Aslak B., 187
Rotkjon, Richard B., 187
Rue, John, 192
Rue, John N., 110
Rue, Kittil, 365
Rue, Thorstein, 192, 197.
Rue, Thorstein T., 125
Rue, Mrs. Thorstein T., 192, 197
Rue, Tosten Thompson, 340 Thor-
stein Thorson Rue, see above
Rustad, Abraham, 364
Rustad, Aslak, 217
Rust, Mikkel, 217
Rund, Halvor, 214
Rund, Kittil O., 219
Rund, Margit, 219
Rygh, Halvor, Sr., 360
Rynning, Rev. Jens, 107
Rynning, Ole, 85, 100, 102, 103, 107,
118, 122, 199, 283
Roisland, Talleef, 282, 298
Rolje, Donant, 264
Ronningen, Abraham K., 260
Ronningen, Anders Jacobson, 281
Ronningen, Erick K., 260
Ronningen, Torbjorn K., 260
Roste, Arne, 343
Roste, Lars, 139, 213
Rothe, Lars T., !52, 200, 233
Rothe, Nils, 62, 95, 231, 236
Rothe, Torbjor, 231
SAAMANDSDATTER, Gunhild, 188
Sagdalen, 218
St. John, Samuel, 136
Sakrison, Simon, 295
Salveson, Engelbret, 297
Salveson, Halvor, 297
Sampson, Samuel, 8, 337
Sandanger, Endre P., 371
Sande, Joe, 276
Sanden, Embrigt
Sanden, Ole, 364
Sanderson, Erik, 219
Sanderson, Ole, 280
Sando, Ole, 217
Sandsberg, Andreas, 69
Sandsberg, Gudmund, 51, 57, 69, 70
Sandsberg, Marie, 51
Sane, Gulleik T., 171, 200, 233, 264
Sane, Kolbein O., 101, 113
Sane, Lars, 200
Sane, Styrk O., 101, 113, 264
Sane, Torstein, 200, 233
Savig, Erick J., 92
Savig, Ingeborg, 92
Savik, Anne B., 178
Savik, Erik, 177, 178, 179
Savik, John, 178
Scheldal, Lars, 360
Scheldal, Rasmus, 360
Schaerdalen. Ole, 265
Scofftedt, Mrs. Martin, 132
Sebbe, Henrik E.. 78, 92
Seim, Anfin J., 266, 267, 270
Seim, Nils T., 267, 270
Selseng, Nils O.. 312
Selseng, Ole, 268
Selseng, O. P., 252
Selseng, Thorstein T., 268, 311
Severts, Lewis, 207
Severtson, Ellef G., 236
Severtson, Ole, 207
Shelby, Halvor, 338
Sherburne, John Henry, 40, 41
Sherping, Kristen, 312
Sherping, Per, 312
Shipley, Ole, 207
Sigurdson, Helge, 163
Simerson, Simon, 70
Simon, Knut, 219
Simons, William G., 167
Simonson, Andrew, 125, 191, 192
Simonson, Tollef, 369, 371
404
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Sjurson, Ole. 295
Sjutvett, Ole, 341
Skaalen, Ole, 217
Skare, Halvor O., 285
Skarie, J. H., 287
Skarshaug, Ingbret, 364
Skavlem, Bessie, 145
Skavlem, Erik, 128
Skavlera, Gullik, 143, 144
Skavlem, Halvor L-, 9, 143, 145,
146, 205
Skavlem, Kari, 143
Skavlem, Lars H., 141, 143, 144,
145, 206
Skavlem, Ole, 143
Skavlem, Paul H., 143, 145, 206
Skeie, Lars G., 100, 175
Skinrud, Erik O., 343
Skipnes, Anders J., 290
Skjerve, Knut S., 285, 287
Skjerveim, Peder Davidson, 152,
199, 200, 201, 202, 232
Skofstad, Johannes E., 159
Skogen, Christian O., 342
Skogen, Nils, 342
Skotland, Tore P., 371
Skuldt, Ole, 345
Skutle, Ole, 208
Skutle, Thorbjorn. 337, 338
Slettene, Aslak R., 301
Slinde, Ole A., see Melaas, O. A.
Slogvig, Jacob A., 47, 55, 57, 84,
128, 193, 196, 197
Slogvig, Knud A., 47, 55, 56, 61,
62, 63, 84, 91, 97, 111, 125, 192,
197.
Slaen, Erik E., 208
Smeby, Hovel, 214
Smeby, Ole, 215
Smed, see Syver Johnson
Smedsrud, Engebret, 302
Smcdsrud, Johannes E., 302
Smedsrud, Mathias, 302
Smehogen, Johannes, 302
Smekaasa, Anders, 281
Smetbok, Niels O., 186
Smith, John G., 181
Smithbak, Tore E., 259
Solem, John E., 216
Solem, Knud E-, 216
Solheim, Anna, 182
Solvi, Erik, 341
Sondal, Lena, 207
Sonde, Ole, 364
Sonve, Mads, 152, 200, 233
Soppeland, Ole, 193
Spaanem, Kathrine
Spaanem, Tore T., 340
Spears, Robert, 168
Spilde, Lars, 234
Spillom, Elling, 286
Spillom, Hendrik, 286
Spillom, Mikkel, 286
Spillom, Ole, 286
Springen, Gullik, 141, 142, 206
Stabzk, Clemet T., 147, 209, 222
Stabaek, Helen, 209
Stabsek, Narve, 149
Stabaek, Torsten K. O., 147
Stadhem, Andrew O., 273
Stadhem, Johanna, 276
Stadhem, Ole, 273
Stake, Arne K., 366
Stalsbraaten, Klemet L,. 261
Stalsbraaten, Halvor, 261
Stamm, Elling, 345
Stangeland, Andrew, 47, 54, 118
Steen, Severine Catherine, 107
Steenhjerde, Ole N., 305
Steensland, Halle, 349
Stene, Ivar J., 307
Stene, Johannes, 47
Stewart, Samuel T., 166
Stille, John, 42, 43
Stokkeberg, Susanna, 39
Stondal, Bjorn A., 254, 283
Stordok, Gunnul, 141, 142, 146, 148,
211
Stordok, Halvor, 129, 211
Stordok, Inge, 211
Stordok, Knud, 211
Stordok, Ole, 211
Storlag, Ole O., 366
Storlie, Ole O., 281
Strandskongen, Baruld J., 260
Stub, Hans A., 287
Stubberud, Halvor J., 260
Stundal, Sjur O., 307
Sube, Hsege O., 263
INDEX
405
Sundbo, Gunleik T., .245
Sunde, Gjermund K., 172, 173
Sunve, Maline, 203
Sunve, Nils, 203
Svalestuen, Gunleik O. F 338
Svalestuen, Knud, 85, 159
Svartskuren, Carl, 257
Svartskuren, Peder L., 256, 261
Svensrud, Gullik, 341
Svimbil, Thore K., 110, 111
Svinalie, Erik, 120
Swerge. Peder H., 291
Sselabakka, Gjertrud O., 186
Saere, Sjur M., 236
Ster, Ingebrigt, 129
Sogal, Andrea, 289
Sogal, Anne, 289
Sogal, Johanne, 289
Sogal, Karen, 289
Sogal, Kari, 289
Sogal, Ole A., 289
Sorum, Andreas, 214
Sorum, Bertha, 215
Sorum, Soren, 213, 363, 365
Sotholt, Amund S., 281
Sotholt, Soren S., 281
TAASINGK, Andreasen, 42
Tallakson, Lars, 94, 192, 193, 197
Tamnes, Christen
Tangen, Mary, 134
Tangen, Peder A., 224
Tasker, Daniel, 137
Tastad, Elias, 45, 76
Teigen, Dr. K. M., 228
Teigen, Lars J., 301
Teigen, Ole C., 312
Teisberg, Knut H., 248, 254
Tellefson, Charlie C., 263
Tellefson (Tollefson) Kjostolf, 260,
263
Tenold, Ole O., 273
Tenold, Ole P., 274
Tesman, Hans, 192
Tesman, Peter, 192
Tesman, William, 192
Thomasson, Osmond, 92
Thompson, Gulleik, see Saue
Thompson, Hans, 290
Thompson, Helge, 159
Thompson, John, 341
Thompson, K
Thompson, Nels, 296
Thompson, Paul, 360
Thompson, Sara, 58
Thompson, Thomas, 290
Thompson, Thomas A., 96, 114
Thompson, T. G., 234
Thompson, Tore, 203
Thompson, Oien, 47, 54
Thorgrimson, Jacob
Thornton, Ben, 360
Thorson (Thompson), Nels, 45, 55,
56, 59, 62
Thorson, Paul, 373
Thorstad, Anne, 260
Thronson, Nils, 371
Thun, John, 369
Tistele, Ole, 273
Tollefsjord, John, 120
Tollefsjord, Ole, 120
Tollefson, Anna, 208
Tollefson, Gunnuf, 344
Tollefson, Hans, 338
Tollefson, Ole, 344
Tollefson, Syvert, 147
Tollefson, Tonnes, 204, 208
Tollefsrude, Christian H., 70
Tollefsrude, Christopher H., 302
Tollefsrude, Halgritn L
Tollefsrude, Hans C., 70, 213, 215
Tollefsrude, Hans H.. 302
Tollefsrude, Hovel, 302
Tollefsrude, Johannes H., 302
Tollefsrude, Ole Monson, 302, 303
Tollefsrude-Ballandby, Tollef, 217
Torblaa, Lars, 234
Torgerson, Ole, 347, 348, 349
Torgerson, Peder, 286
Torison, Halstein, 94, 231, 234, 357
Torison, Torris, 357
Torstenson, Jacob, 301
Torstensen, Niels, 335
Torstenson, Ole, 301
Torstenson, Torsten, 301
Tostenson, Ole, 371
Torvold, Anders O., 276
Traim, Kjetil, 272
Traim, Knut, 272
Traim, Ole, 272
406
NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION
Traini, Thov K., 272
Train, Ole O., 208
Trovatten, Ole K., 81, 82, 83, 85,
243, 252, 269
Trostem, Henrik H., 217
Trostem, Ingeborg, 217
Trostem, Knud, 217
Tufte, Hermund N., see Hermo
Nilson
Tufte, Nels, see Nilson
Tufte, Sven, 129
Turkop, Halvor E., 366
Tutland, Osmond, 356
Tuttle, Albert, 137
Tuttle, Charles, 137
Tuttle, Henry, 137
Tvedt, Torger T., 342
Tveit, Christen J., 293
Tveito, Gunnar, 234
Tveito, Hans, 281, 282
Tverberg, Hans P., 249, 250
Tverberg, John P., 249
Tveten, Knut G., 338
Tygum, Ingebrigt L., 332
Tyrebakken, Knut G., 218
Tysland, Knut K., 355
Tyvang, Glus P., 260 ,
Taerum, Jens T., 307
Taerum, Torger J., 307
Tommerstigen, Anders J., 224
Tommerstigen, Johannes, 312
Tommerstigen, Olive, 312
Tommerstigen, Peter, 312
UHLEN, Hans, 220, 298
Ullebzr, Tostein, 261
Ullensager, Askild, 213
Ulsak, Aslak, 217
Ulven, Sjur, 199, 200, 201, 233
Unde, Britha, 202
Unde, Erik, 202
Unde, Ole, 154, 202, 265
Unde, Peder J., 153, 199, 200, 201,
222, 233, 265
Unonius, Gustav, 297
Urland, Arne, 152
VALA, Gunder H., 293
Valder, Hans, 96, 114
Vale, Anders, 300
Vale, Arve G., 293
Vale, Hans A., see Hang Arveson
Vale, John, 291, 300
Vale, Ole J., 291, 300
Valkaasa, Halvor, 294
Valle, Iars, 364
Valle, Ole, 363
Valle, Ole H., 143, 363
Valle, Sigrid P., 133
Valoen, Peder H., 338
Vambheim, Nils, 234
Van der Bilt, Jan A., 37
Vanderbilt, Commodore, 37
Van der Weir, Jacob, 42
Vange, Ingebrigt N., 273
Vange, Ole, 273
Vangen, Anna Marie H., 307
Vangen, Ivar H., 266, 306, 338
Vangsness, Sjur S., 333
Van Sant, Claes, 36
Vasberg, Bjorn T., 251
Vatuame, Helge, 92
Ve, Ole T., 218
Vedfald, Gunder, 207, 209
Vedfald, Olav, 209
Vee, Herman T., 305
Vegli, Nils O., 206
Vehus, Jens P., 185
Venaas, Gisle, 271
Veste, Thorbjorn, 100
Vestreim, Kolbein, 182
Vestremo, Christian I,., 300
Vetlahuso, Anna, 44
Vetti, Anders K., 359
Vibito, Jorgen A. Nilson, 293
Vik, Anders, see Week
Vik, Anne, 348
Vik, Guttorm T., 246
Vik, Johan, see Week
Vik, Torbjorn G., 246, 283
Vikje, Nils, 182
Vindedal, Josef J., 307
Vindeig, Gunnul O., 172, 174, 177,
180, 185, 189, 256
Vindeig, Helleik, 180, 181
Vindeig, Knud O., 179, 180
Vinje, Arne Anderson, 151, 199, 200,
201, 203, 233, 304
Vinje, Martha, 151
INDEX
407
Void, John, 373
Vzgli, Nils O., 143
Vaerhaug, Hans, 215
Vzrken, Ole A., 267
Vaete, Eli K., 264
Vsete, Halle, 100
Vaeterud, Knud R., 208
WACLEY, see Vegli
Wait, Guro, 287
Wait, Reuben, 287
Waller, Iver, 90
Waller, Tollef, 298
Warner, H. L., 137
Warner, Milton S., 137
Washington, George, 42
Weaver, Griswold, 137
Week, Andrew, 198, 199, 234, 350
Week, John O., 198, 199, 234, 350
Weeks, Wier S., 356, 357
Wennes, Peder, 373
Wheeler, John, 167, 249
Wigeland, Andrew, 281
Wigeland, Arentz, 281, 282
Wigeland, G. A., 235
Wikko, Nils O., 218
Willerup, C B., 78
William, Hans, 193
Williams, Mrs. Julia K., 151
Wilson, Edwin O., 207
Wing, John, 360
Wittenberg, Jens, 39
Wold, Syvver, 366
Wright, John, 151
YCRE, Lars, ISO
Ytreboe, Ole H., 188
Ytreli, Erik J., 307, 308
Ytreli, Iver I., 307, 308
Odegaard, Anders S., 305
Odegaarden, Gunhild, 139, 146, 206
Odegaarden, Jori, 144
Odvin, Peter L., 334
Oie, Erik, 192
Oien, Tollef O., 287
Oiesoen, Ole, 192
Olman, Sjur S., 268, 270
Osterbro, Mikkel K., 307
Ovrebo, Anders S., 305
JV
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