[237] Brought out by Strand’s investigation.
[238] V. F. Lawson was also the owner of The Chicago Record before the Record and the Herald were combined about year 1898.
[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.
[241] Strand, p. 180. See also above page 50.
[242] For above facts I am indebted to Mrs. Eric Ross of 217 Mozart Street, Chicago, a daughter of Mrs. Fuglestad. Mrs. Erickson’s children: Mrs. Robert S. Carroll, Otto G. Erickson, Samuel Erickson and Alex Erickson. Mrs. Fuglestad’s children are: Mrs. Anna Ross, Thomas B. Fuglestad in Chicago, Peter A. Fuglestad, Forest City, Iowa, and Mrs. Mary Jacobson in Beltram, Minnesota.
[243] Knut Juve was born in 1799. Knut Jöitil in 1803.
[244] Most of them in fair circumstances says Juve.
[245] Interview in Billed-Magazin, 1870, page twenty-four.
[246] Torkild Sundbö and wife, Margit, later moved to Sun Prairie.
[247] Dyrland says there were 211 immigrants on the ship on which he came, and most of these, it seems, were from Telemarken.
[248] His brother, also named Gunnar, came to America in 1848; T. G. Mandt, inventor of the Stoughton wagon, was a son of the latter.
[249] Endre Vraa paid his passage to America.
[250] Published in Amerika and Skandinaven in January, 1906.
[251] Ole K. Roe of Stoughton, is a son of K. Roe; other children are: Mrs. F. Johnson, Mrs. Ole Thorsen, Mrs. O. Swerig and Mrs. J. King. Since the above was written I have learned that Helleik Roe has died (April, 1909).
[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.
[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 Dunkirk. He died in 1856.
[254] Two of his maternal uncles and a brother had emigrated in 1839 and located in Muskego; letters from these induced them to emigrate.
[255] Called also Halvor i Vinje.
[256] Page 15 of Kort Uddrag of den norske Synodes Historie, by Rev. Jacob Aal Ottesen, Decorah, 1893.
[257] Asmund Næstestu was the son of Aslak Næstestu, a man of much native ability and influence in Vinje. Anna Næstestu, a daughter of Aslak, married Ole Bækhus; they were the parents of the Bækhus (Gjergjord) brothers of whom we shall speak in the next chapter.
[258] They came in the same ship as Knut Jöitil and Anund Drotning, who, as we have seen, located in Pleasant Spring. Knut Teisberg moved from Cottage Grove to Pleasant Spring in 1846.
[259] Hustvedt wrote his name Ben Stevens.
[260] According to interview printed in Amerika.
[261] This log-cabin was still standing not many years ago.
[262] An American family had come there before him.
[263] The first emigrants from Kongsberg were Thomas Braaten, and Halvor Funkelien.
[264] They had twelve children in all.
[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.
[267] Rev. K. A. Kasberg, of Spring Grove, Minn., writes me that Halvor Kravik in speaking of some of these people says Halvor Aasen went to Rock Run as did also Paal “Spellemand.” He also adds the name Gunnar Springen who, he says, went to Rock Prairie.
[268] As I learn through Rev. G. A. Larsen.
[269] The name of the ship, as we learn elsewhere, was Hercules. See above page 228.
[270] Levi Kittilsen died suddenly in 1907; the widow is living (at Stoughton); a daughter, Andrea, is married to Rev. Abel Lien, Ada, Minn.; a son, Carl, is in Nome, Alaska. Dr. Albert N. Kittilsen, another son, owns valuable mines at Nome, Alaska; he is living in the State of Washington.
[271] Nils Grötrud assumed the farm name Holtan and is therefore Nils T. Holtan. He located first on the Holtan farm south of Utica. About 1868 the family settled two miles east of Utica.
[272] So written, but pronounced Schirdalen in the dialect. My father is the authority for the statement that Schærdalen was the first to emigrate from Aurland.
[273] She was a daughter of Ole Schærdalen.
[274] A daughter of Mons Melaas. Their husbands took the name Melaas in this country.
[275] Relative to the personnel of this party and the sailing of Juno I am especially to Kristi Melaas, with whom I have had several interviews on the question. She is the oldest surviving member of the party and is still living at Stoughton, Wisconsin. My father, Ole O. Flom, has also supplied many facts; he was thirteen years old at the time of immigration.
[276] Kristi Melaas called the boat “ein rota baot skikke-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.”
[277] This man we learn was Anfin Seim (see next chapter).
[278] Knut Brekketo, a son of Björn Brekketo, is living at Capron at present.
[279] Andres Aavri soon after returned to Norway.
[280] One of whom married Ole Tenold; they moved to Calmar, Iowa. The Orvedal family all moved to Winneshiek County in the fifties.
[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.
[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 Ölman, 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 permanently in Winneshiek County, Iowa.
[287] Edlend Myrkeskog died about 1850, and the widow later moved to Iowa.
[288] Mr. Benson came there in 1851.
[289] One of whom, Jacob, now lives in Racine.
[290] It was Mrs. Ole Storlie, who was accidentally shot by Sören Bakke, which unfortunate event seems to have been the chief cause why Bakke, almost crazed with grief, gave up pioneer life and returned to Norway.
[291] Röisland and Vigeland settled at Pine Lake.
[292] She was Gunild Wigeland; they were married in 1844.
[293] Many of the facts relative to this party were gathered on a visit at the home of Mrs. Ingeborg Roswall, Whitewater, Wisconsin, August 12, 1908; Mrs. Roswall does not remember the name of the Captain of the ship.
[294] Ole Hedejord died on Koshkonong; Liv is still living, with her grandchildren on the old homestead, near Waterford, in the Town of Yorkville.
[295] Edwin Drotning of Stoughton tells me that his father Anon remained a while in Milwaukee before going to Koshkonong, where he located, as we know in 1844.
[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, Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Ed., Thomas, and Henry. Thomas Cleven occupies the farm.
[297] Ole Heg is still living in Burlington, Racine County, Wisconsin.
[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.
[301] Torgerson removed to Wheeler Prairie, Dane County, in 1846. One of the children Anne Tomine, married Ole C. Erikson in 1854 and they moved to Lake Mills, Jefferson County. In the spring of 1867 they moved to Stoughton, Wisconsin, where Erikson was one of the first promoters of the Stoughton Wagon Company. Mrs. Erikson is still living in Stoughton.
[302] They were the first families to emigrate from Trondhjem.
[303] Ingebret Roswald married Ingeborg Cleven in 1854, and they then settled in Dodge County. The widow is now living in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
[304] Hans died in 1856, Ole died in Milwaukee in 1901. Peter Hendrikson graduated from Beloit College, held a chair in Modern Languages there for about ten years, was later editor of Skandinaven and Principal of Albion Academy, Albion, Wisconsin. Is now engaged in farming in the State of Maine.
[305] His parents with family of ten came in 1849. George Björgaas moved to Adams County, in 1849, where he has lived since.
[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 Register, page 324 below.
[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.
[310] I acknowledge here with gratitude Mr. Arveson’s valuable aid. It is only through such intelligent interest and patient effort on the part of the sons of the pioneers themselves, who have continued to live in the community, that such reliable facts can be secured.
[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.
[314] 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 Scandinavian Immigration (1906), pages 83–85.
[318] Into this county the settlement extended to and about Ashippun and Toland.
[319] Many of those who came with Capt. Gasman this time went to Heart Prairie.
[320] Holand De norske Settlementers Historie, 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 original Norwegian settlers at Toland; he was born in 1818, married in 1848 Kirsten Aandrud, who survives him.
[322] Through John Lia’s influence this then came to be the destination of the earliest emigrants from Gudbrandsdalen between 1846–49.
[323] Walworth County contributed some of the number; thus Ole Sögal, 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, Ill., 13 of 67, Blue Mounds, Dane Co., Wis., 0 of 22; Leland, Ill., 14 of 28; Stoughton, Wis., 35 of 80; Long Prairie, 7 of 25; Koshkonong, 0 of 75; “Muskego,” 41 of 112.
[325] Some of the children have moved away, to Minnesota and Washington.
[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 Lillebæk was one of her sons.
[328] Ingebrigt Johnson removed to Town of Dane, Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1851; there he lived till his death in 1893, his wife having died in 1890. John J. Johnson, retired farmer, of Lodi, Columbia County, Wisconsin, is their son, as is also Joseph Johnson of Dane Township in Dane County.
[329] He was only sixteen when he enlisted.
[330] She was a daughter of Ole Larson, who served in the Third Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry, in the Civil War.
[331] The writer’s father has always pronounced the name Vangen, which also according to Haakon Lie, is the correct form. Iver Vangen settled on Bonnet Prairie, where his son Hans Vangen is still living.
[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 experiences. 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.
[335] Jens Næset, I have just learned, died at Stoughton last week, May, 1908.
[336] They had one child when they came; she is Mrs. Ole Venaas, Rockdale, Wisconsin.
[337] Johannes Næset was born in Feios, but his father had bought Næset in 1823 and settled there, three Norwegian miles from Arnefjord.
[338] The much talked of Vingaard-ship.
[339] Mr. Næset’s full account of this journey I shall publish elsewhere.
[340] The Næsets have been living in Stoughton since 1876.
[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 förste Döbefont i Vestre Kirke, 1844.
[343] Er flyttel til Norway Grove.
[344] Married the widow Anne Gurine Engebrektsdatter in 1846.
[345] Was married in 1845 to Sjur Colbeinsen Dröksvold.
[346] Lisbeth Evensdatter Tvebækken, from Vinje.
[347] Later married Tollef S. Aae; he was not in the congregation.
[348] “Hans hustru er endnu i Norge, men han venter hende i Sommer.” Added later: “han er död.”
[349] She was Christie Monsdatter Melaas; is still living (Stoughton, Wis.).
[350] Later married Stephen Olsen Dahle.
[351] She was born in Leganger.
[352] Martha Monsdatter Melaas, b. 1818.
[353] Same as Per Tredja.
[354] They were married in 1845.
[355] Came to America in 1843.
[356] Born 1819 in Lærdal.
[357] Er Justice of the Peace.
[358] This is an error; Anders Flom was born in 1834.
[359] Stenhjem?
[360] About 1858 he married Maline Öien (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.
[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.
[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 Township of Burke directly south of Windsor, I may here say that the first Norwegian settlers were Torkel Gullikson (b. 1815) and wife Margarete, 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.
[368] Peder Ödvin and wife returned to Norway in 1893 to spend their declining days at Hardanger; Mrs. Ödvin died there in 1895. In 1902 the son, L. P. Ödvin, visited his father in Norway and brought him back to his home in Verona, Dane County, where he died in 1903.
[369] Who had come to America in 1837.
[370] The children were Ivar (b. 1818), Lasse, Hermund, Talak, John, Synneva, and Britha.
[371] Lars Dusterud and wife are still living at Mt. Horeb.
[372] The party with which they came left Drammen April 20th and landed at Quebec June 20th; they arrived at Rock Prairie on 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.
[374] Boley and Röste were from South Aurdal.
[375] Martha married Ole O. Flom in 1854. Botolf is B. J. Borlaug, well-known capitalist and banker of Kenyon, Minnesota. The 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.
[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.
[380] Jens P. Tyvand (b. 1817) who had emigrated from Sannikedal in 1843 to Lisbon, Ill., and removed to Stoughton, Wis., in 1847, settling in Pleasant Spring, located in Perry in 1854.
[381] Mrs. Evanson died in 1894 and Mr. Evanson in 1897, survived 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.
[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.
[383] Flom was with Dr. Collins 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.
[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.
[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.
[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 Espe soon after.
[393] Mrs. Risetter died in 1897; Mr. Risetter is still living. His two sons, Lewis and Holden, occupy the homestead with him.
[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. Sandvæn, Wigleik W. Risetter, Helle P. Bly and wife Torbjör (Skare), Samson S. Sandvæn and wife Bægga H. Maakestad. The last three and Lars Rogde died the same year.
[395] Lars Bö and Michael Bö 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.
[397] Lars Fruland of Newark is a son of Nils Fröland, who emigrated from Samnanger, near Bergen, in 1837, settling in La Salle County.
[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.
[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: Randall Cassem, attorney at Aurora, Ill.; Mrs. Olive J. Osmondson of Seward Township, Kendall County; Oscar E. Cassem, Mitchell, South Dakota; Mrs. Margaret Olson, Aurora, Illinois; and Mrs. Anna O. Rood, Chicago, Illinois.
[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, Ryfylke, 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.
[404] The words “universal education” contain a reference to his fight for the common schools.
[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.
[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. Helland and wife Ingeborg who immigrated 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.
[407] And Texas.
[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 Rev. Jacob Tanner, entitled: “En kort Beretning 50 Aars kirkelight Arbeide; Clayton County, Iowa,” in Lutheraneren, 45 (1901). My facts here are gathered in large part from this article.
[411] The date was June 11th 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.
[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 River. Not until later did they learn to understand the value of the prairie, but then the Germans had taken most of it.”
[419] The Fayette County settlement about Clermont is a western extension of the second settlement in Clayton County; its beginnings have been referred to above.
[420] The first entry of purchase appears under the date of October 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.
[423] In the Clermont Settlement there was a log-cabin store at the village of Clermont.
[424] This pioneer is still living.—See Tanner’s 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.
[426] The county was organized in 1850, and the first term of court convened on October 5th, 1851.
[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 exception of these two years he lived in Winneshiek County until his death in 1882.
[429] Father of Rev. Abraham Jacobson, 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.
[431] The Norwegian settlement at and about Westby, Vernon Co., dates from this time, 1850.
[432] Speaking of the Indians Rev. Jacobson says, “They had their 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 Norwegians.
[434] According to Reverend Jacobson, The Pioneer Norwegian p. 5; the list is for 1852.
[435] Helge N. Myrand and his widowed mother, who had immigrated 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 Norwegian Lutheran Church, who died in 1907, was a son of Iverson.
[437] They were the first emigrants to America from this district.
[438] For the facts on Hesper Township I am indebted to Mr. J. A. Nelson of Prosper, Minnesota, a student in the State University of Iowa.
[439] At least eighteen persons from Hardanger and two from Voss.
[440] And from Nordland not until after 1875. It is to be observed 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, Söndhordland 34,750, Hardanger 25,900, Ryfylke 46,000, Telemarken 44,000, Sætersdalen 8,380. The population of each is much larger now.
[442] In Winneshiek and Worth Counties, where also natives of Hallingdal have settled in large numbers.
[443] Similarly the “Norwegian” county of La Salle in Illinois was the leading county in that part of Illinois in the same period, its population in 1850 being 17,815, 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; Winneshiek County, Iowa; Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; Rock 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 settlement began in Illinois, and Illinois has always continued to hold a prominent place in Norwegian-American history.