We shall now turn to the two other groups of settlers on Koshkonong in 1840.
Among the immigrants who came from Rollaug, Numedal, in 1839, was Gunnul Olson Vindeig, though, as we have seen, he did not come in Nattestad’s party. Through the illness of a child he was prevented from emigrating with Nattestad, as he had intended. Coming later in the year, he went via Chicago, directly to Jefferson Prairie, where he remained during the winter. In the early spring of 1840, about the time our Vossings, spoken of above, are moving north to locate on their claims, Vindeig built or bought a boat at Beloit, and this being ready, he, with a companion, Gjermund Knudson Sunde, rowed north along the Rock River, up Koshkonong Lake and Koshkonong Creek, into the Town of Christiana.
That the journey should have been made in a boat up Rock River against the stream, may sound like a legend; why not have walked this comparatively short distance (about forty miles), just as Gilderhus and party had walked the much longer distance from La Salle County? The Norwegian pioneers were good walkers and seem to have loved walking. Vindeig evidently did not. That he actually navigated up stream I take, however, 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 visited Ole Gunnulson, Vindeig’s son, who is still residing on the old homestead, last August (1908), and also received his confirmation of the route his father took in the spring of 1840. Lars Lier, a neighbor of Ole Gunnulson, is cited by Prof. R. B. Anderson as having been told by Gjermund Sunde himself, that they had tied the boat a little below the Anikstad ford, where the Funkeli bridge was afterwards built. Evidence comes also from some of the oldest pioneers of the locality, as Halvor Kravik and Jens P. Vehus.
Gunnul Vindeig and Sunde returned soon after to Beloit, as they had come, by way of the Rock River. Thereupon Vindeig, with his wife, Guri, and two sisters, moved from Jefferson Prairie via Milton, to Koshkonong, driving in a covered wagon, and proceeded to take possession of the land he had selected. 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.[135]
Gjermund Sunde selected forty acres of 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 sixteen days after the purchase by Gilderhus and Bolstad 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 before 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 together, 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 inclined to think the cottage erected by Gilderhus, Bolstad, and party, was the first.
Let us now turn to our third group of settlers, most of them immigrants from Stavanger, who were living in La Salle County. These four men were Thorsten Olson Bjaaland, Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, Björn Anderson Kvelve, and Lars Olson 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, being 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, Björn Kvelve, we have also met with among the arrivals of 1836; he had been living mostly in Chicago and La Salle County. He had come from Vikedal Parish in Ryfylke. Three other men, Erick Johanneson Savik, Lars Scheie, and Amund Anderson Rossaland, intimate friends of Kvelve, were of the party, but these did not settle on Koshkonong.
In the spring of 1840, these seven men decided to go north in search of homesteads.[136] From Gilderhus and Bolstad they had received information of Koshkonong and they decided also to go there and inspect the locality. About the middle of May, I take it, they started on foot for Wisconsin. The way led by Shabbona Grove, in De Kalb County, through Rockford, Beloit, Janesville, and Milton. They crossed the Rock River at Goodrich’s Ferry, now Newville, then pushed on until they reached the southern line of Dane County, stopping in the Town of Albion, near Koshkonong Creek,[137] and about four miles north, slightly by east, of Lake Koshkonong. Here they found country that suited them in every way. Björn 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 Vossings, looked for wood and water; they did not realize 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 desirable to locate within access of that primary necessity of life, water. In this region, then, our party selected land. Amund Hornefjeld chose the east half of the southeast quarter of section one,[138] and Björn Kvelve, the west half of the same quarter section.
Thorsten Bjaaland chose eighty acres immediately 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.[140] This is recorded at the land office under date of June twenty-second, 1840, just one month, therefore, after entry was made of Vindeig’s claim in section thirty-four in Christiana, the next township and section north. Amund Rossaland selected a piece of land near that of Björn Kvelve, but he was later informed that it had already been taken;[141] so Rossaland did not settle on Koshkonong, but went to Jefferson Prairie, as did also Lars Scheie, thence again elsewhere.
The whole party then returned to La Salle County, Illinois, and did not move to Albion Township 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, too, didn’t wish to go along to Milwaukee and purchase 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, Illinois. 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. Anderson, 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] Thorsten Bjaaland (born in 1795 in Haa Parish, about thirty [American] miles south of Stavanger, Norway) was still unmarried when he came to Dane County, as was also Lars Dugstad. The latter evidently came north from La Salle County about the same time as Kvelve and Bjaaland. Amund Hornefjeld 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 located in northeastern Albion Township that spring. The Hornefjeld family moved directly into the shanty 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 married and moved into a large log-house. Björn 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.
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 Björn Kvelve and Lars Dugstad before these had left for Milwaukee and Illinois in June, 1840. Knud Vindeig and Lars Kvendalen (the latter also from Numedal) came to America in the fall of 1839. Another 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 Vindeig and Kvendalen in Albion Township in the summer of 1840, and he engaged them to split rails during 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 land, but worked for a time for others in the settlement.
In the autumn of the same year came Hellik Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen (generally called Nils Halling), 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 married John G. Smith, a man who played a role as both doctor and preacher among the pioneers in the forties. There were no further additions to the southern part of the settlement in the fall of 1840, so far as I know.
Late in the fall of that year Lars Davidson Rekve[145] came to Koshkonong and selected land in the Town of Deerfield. Entry of this was made at Milwaukee on December eighth, 1840; the land was the south half of the southwest quarter of section twenty-eight, about a mile south of Deerfield, and two miles northwest of the eighty acres selected by Gilderhus in the spring. Together with Rekve came also Ole K. Gilderhus, who had immigrated from Voss, Norway, in 1839. When they reached Albion they stopped over night at the house of Thorsten Bjaaland, who had not yet returned to Illinois for the winter. Then they travelled north until they came to the place where the four settlers from Voss had erected a log cabin the spring before. Not having the means wherewith to make improvements on his land, Rekve soon after (summer 1841) went to Muskegon, Michigan, where he secured employment in a sawmill. He did not settle in Dane County before 1842.
If now we pass on to the year 1841, we shall find that there were several accessions to the Koshkonong 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 children, Rasmus Grane, Ole Grane, Kolbein Vestreim, Nils Vikje, Lars J. Mön, Knut Larson Böe, 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 Björgo, 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. Björgo 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 Björgo twenty-seven years later.[147] Björgo and Ole Gilderhus had, of course, arrived before Anders Nilson Lie.
During the first winter John Björgo lived in 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 housework. Near by an Indian tribe had erected a camp, where they remained from that fall until the next spring. Björgo says of them that they were friendly and neighborly, and he never suffered inconvenience 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 family 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 Atkinson. Here an American took him across the Rock River in a canoe, and by waiting there a day he was 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 Deerfield 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[150] 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 himself.
In 1843 he bought forty acres farther west in the northeast corner of the town of Pleasant Spring, becoming the first Norwegian to settle in that township; selling this out in the fall of 1844 to Peder Gjerde, he located on section thirty-two in Deerfield Township, where he lived most of the time till his death in 1907.[151]
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; but I may add that the names of Grane, Vikje, Vestreim, Mön, or Böe, do not appear in the roll of members 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 Brække. He and his wife located in Deerfield Township 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 Numedal in 1842. The first of these, I believe, were Jens Pederson Vehus, from Nore Annex of Rollaug Parish, Numedal, and Thore Knudson Nore and sons, Knut, Lars, Ole and Sæbjörn, 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-quarters of a mile southeast of Gunnul Vindeig, on the north half of the northeast quarter of section thirty-five. Later in the summer, and in the fall, this locality 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 Jefferson 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,[154] and children, Barbro and Ole, from Nore; Niels Olson Smetbak, wife Barbro Olsdatter, and family, from Nore; Mrs. Ole Bakli (Bagley), widow, and her son, Ole, from Flesberg; Björn Guldbrandsen Mörkvold, wife Asbjör and son, Guldbrand; Hellik Gunderson Hvashovd and wife, Marit, from Flesberg; Hellik’s parents, Gunder Gunderson Hvashovd and wife, Kirsti; Mari Guldbrandsen (cousin of Gunnar Hvashovd) and her daughter, Kristi (born Kristoffersen 1826); Herbrand Tollefson Mörkvold and son, Ole, and daughter, Ragnild; Torstein Levorsen Bergrud, wife Kirsti Gundersdatter (born Hvashovd) and son, Levor, from Flesberg; Thore Olson Kaasa, wife Anne Torsteinsdatter, and daughter Aslau, from Rollaug; Ole Amundson Buind, wife Helene (Brandt), and daughter Anne, from Flesberg; Gjertrud Olsdatter Sælabakka (born 1822), from 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 Helliksen Foslieiet (born 1812), his wife Sigrid, and children, Hellik (born 1833), Anders (born 1835), Marit (born 1838), Christoffer (born 1841).[155]
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 relative of Mari Gulbrandsen. Some early settlers on Liberty Prairie (Koshkonong) took their baggage to Koshkonong while the immigrants walked. These facts are told me by Reverend K. A. Kasberg of Spring Grove, Minnesota, as related by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Halvor Kravik, who was in the party (she was Kristi Kristoffersen). She relates also that “in the spring (hence 1843) she and her mother walked to Madison to get work. There was only one house on the whole road, that of an American family; but their friendly ‘come in, come in’ (Norwegian kom ind, kom ind, but pronounced alike) was easily understood. Here we were well entertained over night.”
From Telemarken the following came:[156] Richard Björnson Rotkjön (born 1816), and brother Aslak (born 1826), from Vinje; Torstein Torsteinson Gaarden, from Tin; Ole Höljeson Yttreböe, with wife, Margit, and children, Johanne and Anne, and Halvor Hansen Dalstiel (Dalastöl), from Hvideseid; Ole Torsteinson Aasnes, wife, Ingeborg, and daughter, Hæge, 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; Torbjörn Havredalen, wife, Lisa, and family, from Vinje;[157] and Gunhild Saamundsdatter (born 1798), from Laurdal. Furthermore Guro Olsdatter (born 1821), from Nissedal, and Thomas Johnson Landeman (born 1804), from Sandsværd; and Torbjörn 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 Vindeig 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, 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, tracing the further development on Koshkonong Prairie, it will be in order to note the advance in other localities.
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 corner 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 settlers 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 move to Iowa. Going north into Lee County, Iowa, they located at a place six miles northwest of Keokuk, 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 themselves. 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, Missouri; 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 Settlement when he came from Norway in 1837, but with a few others left in 1840, coming to Lee County somewhat before the party that came with Andrew Simonsen from Shelby County. They may originally 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 Overhalden in the province of Trondhjem about 1870.
In 1838 Kleng Peerson went to Norway to gather recruits for the Shelby County colony; the following year he brought back with him from Stavanger County the three brothers, Peter, William, and Hans Tesman, Nils Olson, Ole Reierson and family, and six or seven women, all of whom came to Missouri; 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 O. Hetletvedt, Mrs. Thorstein T. Rue and her sons, Thorstein and John, Peter Omundson Gjilje, Erik Öie, Ole Öiesöen, 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. 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 endowment, and he had a fair education. In Norway he had been a pronounced nationalist of the Wergeland direction and had taken part in the first peasant uprising. He was for a time a member of the Storthing (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 expression to the principles for which he stood. This frequently involved him in litigation; and, feeling himself persecuted, he at last decided to emigrate to America in 1837.[163] Barlien seems to be the second Norwegian emigrant from Trondhjem.[164] Lars Tallakson came from Bergen, while the rest of the colonists were mostly from the region of Stavanger.
Lee County was but little settled at that time;[165] land was bought of the Indians for a nominal price, but it often became expensive enough in the end, since it proved very difficult for many of the settlers to obtain a clear title from the United States. This is one reason why the settlement did not grow, though probably not the chief cause. In 1843 there were between thirty and forty families, writes John Reierson,[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 settlement 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 rather too far south, Norwegians have everywhere in America thriven best in the more northerly localities. Again, the tide of emigration from the vicinity of Stavanger was not sufficiently heavy to recruit the various settlements already established by immigrants from that region. The majority of those who came went direct to the Fox River Settlement in Northern Illinois, which offered unsurpassed natural 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 movement had their attention directed just at this time in another direction. The other provinces in question are Voss, Telemarken, and Numedal. It was representatives of these that founded the Wisconsin settlements in 1839–40, and in them the great majority of immigrants from those provinces located in the following decade. This is also true of those who came from Hardanger, Sogn,[167] and from Western 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 interest. It is enough to mention that several different religious sects were represented in the little settlement, chief among which were the Quakers and the Latter Day Saints. Just across the Mississippi 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 farther north, as in Salem, Henry County.[170] 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 descendants 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.[171]
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 La Salle County, Illinois, in Shelby County, Missouri, 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 Settlement in 1842. Mrs. Thorstein Rue and her son, Thorstein, lived in Sugar Creek till 1846, when they went to Wisconsin, and took part in the founding of the Blue Mounds Settlement in western Dane County. 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 O. 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 Bornevik, from Nærstrand, Norway) died in 1902, aged eighty-six.
About forty miles directly west of Rock Prairie lies Wiota, about which town stretches in all directions a Norwegian settlement of considerable size. It is separated from Luther Valley by Green County and lies only twenty-five miles distant, northwest, from the old settlement of Rock Run, in Illinois. Here extensive lead mines were being operated in the forties, and they were the means of drawing to that locality a large number of immigrants of different nationalities, many of whom, to be sure, only remained there temporarily, going elsewhere to buy a home as soon as they had accumulated 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 O. Week, both from Eidfjord, in Hardanger. 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 remained there only a few years. In 1844 John Week moved to Dodgeville in Iowa County, where he established 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 California gold-seekers.
In the spring of 1842 Lars Davidson Reque, 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 December, 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 possession of his land until the summer of 1842.[174] Rekve remained at the Diggings only about one year. In 1841 the first permanent settlers arrived; these were Per Unde, from Vik Parish, Sogn, Per Davidson Skjerveim, Sjur Ulven, and Arne Anderson Vinje, from Voss. The first of those was, it seems, the earliest emigrant from Sogn to America. He was a man of considerable means, but a copy of Rynning’s Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika fell into his hands and he decided to emigrate. He remained in Chicago the first year and a half or over. Ulven and Skjerveim had come from Norway in 1840. Arne Vinje (born 1820) came to Chicago in September, 1840, after having been five months on the journey. He had left Norway April sixteenth with his wife,[175] and a party of twenty other persons from Voss. The following spring Vinje and Skjerveim, having decided 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 difficult 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, however, 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. Gilderhus, Knudt Rokne, Mads Sonve, Baar Lawson Böe (a brother of Iver Lawson), Lars Röthe, Brynnel Ronve, two young ladies from Saue, one from Ronve and one from Gilderhus. In discussing the voyage Vinje says:
The bottom of the ship in which we sailed was declared by Capt. Ankerson to be one hundred and fifty years old and when, in midocean, we encountered a severe 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 case the ship foundered. Even Hegg, and others from “Östlandet,” who came from Drammen with Capt. Ankerson, 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 Harrison 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 people. That was effective electioneering!
In the spring of 1841 Peder Skjerveim, who had come from Norway in 1837, having lived in Chicago in the interval, drove from Chicago up to Hamilton Diggings to explore the region. Upon his return 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 tiresome 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 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 convenient 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 Brække 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 Skien,[176] and Christian Hendrickson from Lier, Norway. The latter however moved to Primrose Township in Dane County in 1846. (See below).
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 Ashley 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 Fuglegjærdet, who came from Vik, Sogn, in 1844. Of the immigration from Land, Norway, to Wiota, which began with Syver Johnson (Smed or Smedhögen in 1844), I shall speak in the next chapter. The growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement will, however, claim our attention briefly first.
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 immigrants 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 Tönnes Tolleivson (or Tollefson) from Jæderen, and Svend Larson, both of whom settled in Boone County in 1840; Tollefson 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 Norway. 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 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 Clinton and extends about four miles down into Illinois.
We have observed above that Ole Nattestad’s house became the stopping place of the earliest immigrants 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 (skræppe) 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 Nilsen, the date of whose purchase is December 25th, 1839.[180] On January 25, 1840, Anders Jacobson’s 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, respectively, 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 section, 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 sections 1 and 9. Mrs. Gunnild Ödegaarden 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 Halvorson Skavlem, Nils Olson Vegli (Wagley) and Gunnel Holgerson, while in May, 1840, Gulleik H. Blakestad Skavlem had become the owner of forty acres in Beloit Township.[181]
The Jefferson Prairie Settlement received considerable accessions during the next four years. Lena Sondal came in 1841, Haakon Paulson from Sigdal and his wife Inger came in 1842, Ole Severtson and family from Numedal, including a daughter, Petra, who is now Mrs. Henry Jacobson (Oppedal)[182] of Clinton, came in 1843, as did also Brynild L. Lie and wife from Voss, Lars O. Lie from Hallingdal[183] and Edwin O. Wilson Næshaug. 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. Kvarma wife and four children from Voss, Brynild Dugstad,[185] wife and five children, Erik K. Dugstad, wife and child, Lewis Severts, Ole Shipley and wife Guri, Lars Grane, Sjur Grane, Elling Ellingson and wife Magela, Ole Skutle,[186] Peder Bere and wife Britha. Also the following came about the same time (1844 or the following year): Lars Baarson and wife Gudve, Guru Isakson, Sjur A. Grönlien, wife and two children, and Erik E. Slæen. 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 O. Train. From Hardanger also there was, it seems, only one immigrant among those who came during this earliest period, Anna Tollefson, wife of Tönnes Tollefson, who, as we have seen, came to America in 1839. From Telemarken there were about twelve persons, among them Steinar E. Hadland, wife and son, Guldmond; Gunder O. Vedfald, wife and daughter; Even Haatvedt and Ole A. Haatvedt and wife, besides the Vedfald family spoken of above. From Næs in Hallingdal we find Knud R. Væterud, a widower, and his two daughters, Ingeborg and Rönnau, besides Lars O. Lie, and from Modum, Thov Modum and wife Karen; finally Krödsherred is represented by Even Fingerson Foslien.
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 translation of the Norwegian. Ole Newhouse married Helen Stabæk, daughter of Klemet Stabæk, who has been spoken of as the founder of the Rock Run Settlement in Stephenson County, Illinois, in 1839.
Sjur Kvarme’s children included a son, Kolbein (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 Reverend O. Andrewson and wife, Ragnild Paulson, both of whom came to America in 1841, but did not settle in Clinton Township before 1855; in that year Rev. Andrewson accepted a call as pastor of the congregation which he had organized there in 1850. Mrs. Andrewson, who is now eighty-five years old, is still living there.
In the above survey of the growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement during these years many names have been omitted because of the uncertainty among my informants as to the year of their arrival. In a subsequent chapter I shall also outline the subsequent growth of the settlement. I shall here merely note the fact that Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson speaks of the congregation in 1844 as numbering 150 members.
In Chapter XI above we have given an account of the beginnings of the Rock Prairie Settlement and traced its growth down to 1842. We shall here briefly 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 (Frögne), both from Nore in Numedal, who settled in Newark.[188] Halvor Stordok and Ole Stordok, brothers of Gunnul Stordok mentioned before, both came in 1842. Halvor bought land near Sugar River Bottom; he married Ingeborg Paulson, and the couple lived on the homestead till their death. Their children, Knud, Halvor, Inge and Ingeborg, all unmarried, are still living there. They are all over fifty years of age now. Ole Stordok, who married Anne Sand from Rollaug, located at Sand Prairie, five miles south of Broadhead. In the same year came also Gullik O. Mygstue, with wife Jöran and five children, from Vægli, 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.[190]
Among those who came from Numedal to America in 1842 was also Herbrand H. Berge (born in Rollaug in 1821). He remained for a year and a half on Jefferson Prairie, however, so that he did not locate on Rock Prairie until early in 1844. Anna Torbjörnsdatter, who later became his wife (1847) also immigrated in 1842. They removed to Jackson County, Minnesota, in 1876; he died there in December, 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 Rock Prairie. Holtan was a man of much intelligence and strength of character, who soon came to hold a leading place among the pioneers in the community.
So far we have spoken only of immigrants from Numedal. In the year 1842 the first family from Land, Norway, came to Rock Prairie, namely Hans Smedsrud and wife. We have seen that the first immigrant from Land, Lars Röste, who came in 1839, located at Rock Run. It was the year 1843 which inaugurated the tide of emigration to America from Land and nearly all the earliest arrivals located on Rock Prairie. Thus in that year came Harald Ommelstad and family, five in all, Anders Lundsæter and family, in all five, Peder H. Gaarder with family (six), Sören Sörum, 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 Midböen with wife and one child, Anders Engen, Gudbrand Gaarder, Helene Gaarder, Inger Gaarder, and Helene Klevmoen. Anders Erstad and wife, and Syver Smed, who came at the same time, did not locate on Rock Prairie; the former went to Rock Run while Smed located at Wiota, being 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 Jörandlien, wife and four children. Jörandlien or Jorlien, as the name is usually 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 brought Ole Nörstelien, Christine Nörstelien 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 Rock Prairie; Ole Gaarder and wife, Andreas Sörum, Ingebrigt Fossum and family (six), Halvor Ruud and family (seven), Johans Nederhaugen[193] and family (four), Johan Frankrige and family (five) and Hovel Jensvold,[194] Hovel Smeby and Bertha Lybæk.[195] In all there were fifty-four who came from Land in 1848; of these, twenty-eight settled on Rock Prairie, twenty-five at Wiota and one at Rock Run. The roster of immigrants from Land in 1849 includes forty-eight persons, of whom sixteen located on Rock Prairie; they were: Johannes Ommelstadsæteren, Ingeborg Ommelstadsæteren, Marthea Brendingen, Johans Lybæk, Bertha Fröslie, Marit Fröslie, Hans Engen (Fröslieit) and family (five) and Jonas Gjerdet and family (five). Syver Gaarder and family, thirteen in all, who located farther 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, as we have seen, only six years.[196] The accessions for 1850 were: Ole Smeby and family (five), Östen Lundsæteren and family (five), Sjugal Frankrige and family (six), Helene Fröslie, Bertha Sörum, Hovel Fossum, Ole Hovdelien and Hans Værhaug, 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 published in part in Amerika for March 8th, 1907. Hans Tollefsrude’s name occupies a foremost place in the early history of the Rock Prairie Settlement. In the seventies he again became a pioneer, locating now in Pocahontas County, Iowa.[197]
We will now turn to another contingent in the early immigration to Rock Prairie,--that from the dialect district of Hallingdal. The emigration from this region began in 1842 with the departure of the brothers Knud and John Ellingson Solem, who came direct to Rock Prairie. In 1843 Kleofas Halvorson Hansemoen immigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard) and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in Newark Township, Rock County.[198] Kleofas’s father’s name was Halvor Kleofasen Hansemoen; he did not emigrate. There were two other brothers, Erik and Hans, of whom the former did not come to this country. 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 his name happens to appear as Hans Husemoen, while the brother is Kleofas Hansemoen and the brother’s children are Halvor Kleofas, Knud Kleofas, etc. (see note 198). Hans Husemoen’s wife’s maiden name was Bergit Halvorsdatter Tveto; she was from Aal Parish in Hallingdal.
In 1845 the settlement received other accessions from Hallingdal. The list includes: Ola Brunsvold, Halvor Hesgard, Kristen Grimsgaard, Ole Skaalen, Nils Roe, Ola Sando, Mikkel Rust, Svend Hesla, Gjermund Mæhtum, Aslak Rustad and Aslak Ulsak.
In 1846 about three hundred persons emigrated from Hallingdal. How many of these came to Rock County I am not able to say; among them were, however, Erik Kolsrud and family, Ole Hei and family, Nils Haugen, wife and six children, Knud Tröstem, Henrik Henriksen Tröstem, Halvor Ness, Hans Engen, Kari Husemoen, Guttorm Roen and son, Ole, Tollef Tollefsrud-Ballandby and sons Nils, Ola and Amund, Henrik Rime, brother of Tollef, A. T. Beigo, Timan Burtness and his brother John, Aadne Engen, Kristen Megaarden, Lars Grimsgaard, wife and family, Ingeborg Olsdatter Tröstem, 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 Drammen in April by the ship Newmann, which took them to Havre, France. Here they remained one month, before the ship on which they were to sail was gotten ready. They did not arrive to Rock Prairie until October, having been six months en route.
In 1847 very few came from Hallingdal, among them are mentioned Ole Onsgaard, Nils O. Wikko,[199] and Östen Burtness. In the following year, however, there was a considerable immigration. Erik K. Berg and his brother Truls Berg, Ole Trulson Ve and Ole Gulsen (Tröstem) with wife and son Gul and daughter Guri, Erik Ovestrud, Tideman Kvarve, Guttorm Megaarden, a Mr. Sagdalen and wife, Kari,[200] Levor Kvarve and family of twelve, and Knut Guttormsen Tyrebakken.[201] There came others from Hallingdal also in the years following. I may mention here Ole J. Bakke and wife and Herbrand K. Finseth (born in Hemsedal in July, 1830), who emigrated in 1852 and lived three years on Rock Prairie. They moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota, in 1855, as did also Knut K. Finseth and A. K. Finseth, brothers of Herbrand; these together with Halvor Hesgard, Aadne Engen and Christen Evenson, who removed to Minnesota at the same time, were the first white settlers in the Town of Holden, Goodhue County.[202] I may also mention Kittel O. Ruud, born 1823 of parents Erik Sanderson and Margit Ruud, 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 Andersdatter 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 numbers, yet some are located in Beloit Township. Newark is occupied largely by immigrants from Numedal, as is also Beloit. While Rock Prairie was taken possession of chiefly by pioneers from Numedal, Land, and Hallingdal, there were also a few from Telemarken, Sigdal and Ringerike, and one from Valders among the pioneers of the forties. Of those who came from Telemarken I shall mention Knut Simon (born 1819), who located near Janesville in 1843. He removed to Rice County, Minnesota, in 1854, and thence to Pope County in 1865; died in 1905.
The single immigrant from Valders to locate on Rock Prairie was Guul Guttormson. He came in 1843 and is the first known American immigrant from that district. He was born at Ildjernstadhaug in Hedalen in 1816. 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 remained 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 Rock Prairie had been, as we have seen, taken up largely by immigrants from Hallingdal and Land. Guul Guttormson’s oldest son, Guttorm Guul (Broadhead, Wisconsin), born August, 1848, was probably the first child born of Valdris parentage in America. I have already spoken of the emigration of Syver Gaarder,[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.