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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER XLII
Survey of Immigration from Norway to America. Conclusion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Appendices

APPENDIX I

TABLE I

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

TABLE II

APPENDIX II

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY