1 Or over thirty-eight thousand square miles.

2 Compare BjÖrnson’s account of the temperature at Kvikne in his autobiographical sketch, Blakken.

3 The statistical and much of the other matter in this chapter has been taken from Norway, Official Publication for the Paris Exhibition, 1900, published at Christiania. But I am also indebted to the stately publication by Norwegian authors and artists entitled Norge i det nittende Aarhundrede, 2 volumes, large folio, 436 and 468 pages. Christiania, 1900. The scholars who published this are W. C. BrÖgger, B. Getz, A. N. KjÆr, Moltke Moe, Bredo Morgenstjerne, Gerhard Munthe, Frithjof Nansen, Eilif Peterssen, Nordahl Rolfsen, J. E. Sars, Gustav Storm and E. Werenskjold. The editor in chief for the texts is Nordahl Rolfsen, for the illustrations E. Werenskjold. There is a large staff of collaborators, each article is prepared by a specialist; the whole is a rare piece of book-making. The printers are Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag, Christiania. I wish to mention also especially here Christensen’s Det nittende Aarhundredes Kulturkamp i Norge, Christiania, 1905.

4 It was 1,490,950 in 1855, 2,350,000 in 1908.

5 Dr. A. Magelson of Christiania has recently written a work on Norway as a health resort entitled: To Norway for Health. A Scientific Account of the Peculiar Advantages of the Norwegian Climate, published by Nikolai Olson, Christiania.

6 The Reliance which defended the America cup against Shamrock III in 1903 was manned almost exclusively by Norwegians. They were from the following towns in Norway: Arendal, Aalesund, Stavanger, Bergen, Larvik, Christiania, and Haugesund.

7 The Norwegian Total Abstinence Society.

8 When the Sunday closing order was instituted in Minneapolis in December, 1905, the Minneapolis Journal commented upon the fact that the Norwegian citizens made no complaint, as it appears others did.

9 This is located at DrÖbak.

10 Though Norway’s participation in the Universal Exposition at St. Louis in 1904 as regards number of exhibits was limited, its exhibits were acknowledged to be of very high grade, thus in its tapestries, in carved and inlaid work, in silver and enamel displays it received the highest awards. Report by Consul Fr. Waage, General Commissioner to the St. Louis Exposition, Skandinaven, June 14th, 1905.

11 Mostly in recent years.

12 In the early period chiefly.

13 The figures here are for the period closing with 1890 before which year Russia had furnished very few emigrants to the United States.

14 The four last named countries have, as we know, in the last decade entered very extensively into the emigration movement.

15 Or 28,000 according to Norwegian statistics.

16 This includes also fishermen and foresters.

17 Outside of Chicago, Illinois had in 1840 a population of 142,210; Wisconsin was organized as a Territory in 1836, its population in 1840 was 30,945; Iowa had a population of only 192,212 in 1850; and Minnesota, organized at a Territory in 1849, had in 1850, 1,056 inhabitants. To the square mile the population of each was in 1850: Illinois, 15.37; Wisconsin, 5.66; Iowa, 3.77; Minnesota, .04.

18 The Vinland voyages in the 11th–14th centuries do not come within the scope of our discussion.

19 It seems that this city was so named by the colonists after the city of Bergen, Norway.

20 Anderson’s First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 21.

21 See The Bergen Family, by Teunis Bergen.

22 Our authority here is Rev. Rasmus Anderson, who has given this subject much study.

23 The name John M. Calberlane, originally Hans Martin Kalberlahn, is an interesting instance of an early Americanization of a Norwegian name.

24 For some of these facts I am indebted to Juul Dieserud, Washington, D. C.

25 P. S. Vig in his book De Danske i Amerika says Iverson was of Danish descent but gives no reasons for the claim. As the name “Iver” is peculiarly Norwegian I must therefore adhere to my view as formerly expressed (Sc. Immig. to Iowa).

26 Cited from a prospectus of the Society issued in December, 1901, and kindly sent me by C. M. Machold of Philadelphia.

Variant forms of the name Wassingatun are, as given in the prospectus, Wessington, Whessingtone, Wasengtone, Wassington and finally Washington. The prospectus itself cites from Machold’s History of the Scandinavians in Pennsylvania.

27 Anne (b. 1814), Nels (b. 1816), Inger (b. 1819), and Martha (b. 1823).

28 Ellen (b. 1807), Ove (b. 1809), Lars (b. 1812), John (b. 1821), Hulda (b. 1825).

29 Rachel (b. 1807), Julia (b. 1810), Senena (b. 1814).

30 Sara (b. 1818), Anna Maria (b. 1819), Caroline (b. 1825).

31 Nels Thompson had married Bertha Caroline, the widow of Olen Thompson in 1827. She had three daughters by her first husband: Sara, born 1818; Anna, born 1819; and Caroline, born 1825 (died in Rochester, N. Y., 1826). Nels Thompson and wife had two children: Serena, born 1828; Abraham, born 1830; and Caroline, born in 1833.

32 Or are these two the same person?

33 Mrs. R. W. Bower of Sheridan, Illinois, is a daughter of Haugaas and his wife Caroline. Other children of his are Daniel Haugaas in Henderson, Iowa, and Mrs. Isabel Lewis, Emington, Illinois, and Thomas Haugaas.

34 For these facts I am indebted to R. B. Anderson, as also for other details of the personal history of the slooper’s descendants.

35 First Chapter, p. 331.

36 That is, “Northman.”

37 A great change for the better has been taking place during the last few years.

38 Thus the failure of crops and the famine in Northern Sweden, Finland, and Norway in 1902 was followed by a vastly increased immigration from these sections. See above page 28. Compare Table II, Appendix.

39 The area and population of the three countries are:—Sweden, area 172,876 sq. m., population in 1901, 5,175,228; Norway, area 124,129, population in 1900, 2,239,880; Denmark, area 15,360, population in 1901, 2,447,441.

40 First Chapter, etc.

41 Billed-Magazin, 1869, pp. 82–83.

42 Billed-Magazin, 1869, pp. 6–7.

43 In 1868, Mr. Luraas moved to Webster County, Iowa, returning to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1873. I knew him in the early nineties as a well-to-do retired farmer living in Stoughton, Wisconsin. He died in 1894.

44 Letter copied from the original by R. B. Anderson in 1896 and printed in First Chapter, pp. 135–136.

45 As a result of the Dano-Prussian war of 1864 Jutland below Skodborghus became a province of Prussia. The greatly increased taxes that immediately followed and the restrictions imposed by the Prussian government upon the use of the Danish language, as well as other oppressive measures that formed a part of the general plan of the Prussianizing of Sleswick-Holstein, drove large numbers of Danes away from their homes, and most of these came to the United States. In notes and correspondence from Denmark in Scandinavian-American papers during these years complaints regarding such regulations constantly appear, and figures of emigration of Danes “who did not wish to be Prussians” are unusually large for this period; for example in the foreign column of the Billed-Magazin. The United States statistics also show a sudden increase in the Danish immigration during the sixties and the early seventies. From 1850–1861 not more than 3,983 had emigrated from Denmark; while in the thirteen years from 1862 to 1874 the number reached 30,978.

46 So named from Biskopskulla, Jansen’s native place in Sweden. See article by Major John Swainson on “The Swedish Colony at Bishopshill, Illinois,” in Nelson’s Scandinavians, I, p. 142. This article gives an excellent account of the founding of the Bishopshill settlement and Jansen’s connection with it. See also American Communities by Wm. Alfred Hinds, 1902, pp. 300–320.

47 Decorah-Posten, September 9, 1904, p. 5. See also above p. 37.

48 R. B. Anderson is emphatic in this view. Pages 45–131 of his First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration are devoted to a discussion of the sloop “Restaurationen” and the Quaker Colony in Orleans County.

49 Nelson’s History of Scandinavians, 1901, p. 133.

50 B. L. Wick, in The Friends, Philadelphia, 1894, according to Nelson, p. 134. I have not been able to secure a copy of the above article, therefore cannot here state the arguments, or cite more fully.

51 The reader who knows BjÖrnson’s SynnÖve Solbakken will remember the author’s introduction of this feature in Chapter II, the first two pages.

52 Lars Larson settled in Rochester where he could attend a Quaker church. The same is true of Ole Johnson, another of the “sloopers” who later settled in Kendall but finally returned to Rochester, where he died in 1877.

53 Some of the early Mormon leaders were Norwegians, however, as Bishop Canute Peterson (Marsett), of Ephraim, Utah, who came to America in 1837 from Hardanger, Norway. The slooper Gudmund Haugaas became an elder in the church of the Latter Day Saints in La Salle County, Illinois; he died in 1849 and was succeeded by his son Thomas Haugaas.

54 See a brief account by Rev. N. M. Liljegren in Nelson’s History of Scandinavians, I, pp. 205–209.

55 Methodism had been introduced into Sweden from England early in the century.

56 By far the larger number, however, are Swedes.

57 See Billed-Magazin, p. 74.

58 Nelson’s History of Scandinavians, page 56.

59 True Account of America for the Information and Help of Peasant and Commoner, written by a Norwegian who came there in the month of June, 1837.

60 The Pathfinder, a book of one hundred and sixty-six pages.

61 One of his sons was Colonel Porter C. Olson of Civil War fame, member of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry.

62 Among those who came in 1832 was John Nordboe from Gudbrandsdalen, Norway.

63 While in Norway he married a sister of Ole Olson Hetletvedt, which may have been in part the purpose of his return.

64 The North and The Norwegian Rock.

65 Langeland says a hundred and sixty on page eighteen of his work, elsewhere a hundred and fifty. Two hundred seems, however, to have been approximately the number.

66 Disney left again in 1837.

67 The Olson homestead is still owned by the son, Nels Olson.

68 Died in 1840, leaving wife and two children, John and Anna Bertha; the latter later became the wife of John J. NÆset in the town of Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin. SÆvig was born in 1803, his wife in 1809.

69 Died in 1876, ninety-two years old.

70 Abel Catherine von Krogh was born in 1809. Her father was Arnold von Krogh. BjÖrne Anderson Kvelve was born in 1801. For a sketch of BjÖrn Anderson and his wife see pages 155–170 of First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration by R. B. Anderson, who is their third son (b. 1846 in Albion, Wisconsin); I am indebted to this work for many facts relative to the Illinois pioneers of 1836–1837.

71 Especially in a German book on travels in America, see his account, p. 21. Knud Langeland did not emigrate, however, before 1843.

72 BjÖrn Anderson seems to have in part been instrumental in their not going to La Salle County, but there is no evidence that he recommended Iroquois County as far as I am aware.

73 Niels Veste may also have been of the party.

74 This he bought of the father of Rev. B. G. Muus, well-known in Norwegian-American church history, and a long time pastor at Norway, Goodhue County, Minnesota.

75 See above p. 103.

76 Ansten Nattestad, of whom below, took it with him to Norway that year and got it printed in Christiania.

77 See above, page 101, for the circumstances of Narvig’s coming to Michigan.

78 Attorney Samuel Richolson, of Ottawa, who died in 1906, was a son of Lars Richolson. He was born March twenty-fifth, 1841, on the homestead bought by his father in 1837–38. He was for a long time member of the firm, Boyle and Richolson, in Ottawa, was mayor of Ottawa from 1871–1881, at one time attorney for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. His widow, Marietta Richolson, and two children are still living.

79 According to Ole Nattestad’s letter in Nordlyset for May eighteenth, 1848.

80 As brought out by Nils A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin.

81 The Kendall Settlement.

82 Aasland did not take anything for it, says Canute Orsland in letter of 1895 to R. B. Anderson; letter is printed on page 265 of First Chapter.

83 Whose name appears as Torro Holgeson in The History of Rock County, Wisconsin, 1879, p. 780, to which work I am indebted for some of the facts recited above.

84 They again have four children. Mr. Larson enlisted in the 42d Illinois Regiment, later transferred to the Mississippi Marine Brigade, was at the battle of Vicksburg, served faithfully and was honorably discharged.

85 History of Rock County, p. 335.

86 Avon, Spring Valley, Magnolia and Union being added in 1838.

87 RÖste later went back to Norway, however.

88 Thus Ole Gulack Gravdal, son of Gullik Gravdal, married Juri Ödegaarden (given as Juri Gunale in The Rock County History) in 1855.

89 There can be no doubt as to the correctness of the facts as here given. It has also been said that Lars Skavlem’s house was the first to be erected, and J. W. C. Dietrichson erroneously even names him as the first Norwegian in Rock Prairie.

90 His wages were from six to ten dollars a week.

91 Whom we now know to have been Hellik Glaim.

92 This log cabin is still used as a chicken house on the old Springen homestead.

93 The Rock County History says of Stordok: “He and his family lived in a haystack for three months until they had completed a log cabin” (page 774). As we have seen, it was not a haystack they lived in. Stordok’s family consisted, as yet, only of himself and wife.

94 Of these various removals to Mitchell County, Iowa, I shall speak more fully in the proper place.

95 Glaim located at Hanley Falls, Minnesota, in 1866.

96 They have two children, Lulu and Lewis.

97 Not on the homestead, as History of Norwegians of Illinois, page 487, has it.

98 In 1895 he organized the Farmers Bank of Davis, Illinois, of which his son, C. O. R. Stabeck, is now cashier.

99 When he returned to Newark in 1870 he bought two hundred acres of land, for which he paid seven thousand dollars.

100 Their children are Ole Anderson and Andrew Anderson at Davis, Illinois, and Mrs. O. H. Lerud at Lyle, Minnesota; four children are dead.

101 He moved to the Old People’s Home in Stoughton in 1903, where he died in 1907, his wife having died in 1905. His only son was killed in the Civil War.

102 Where, however, they did not remain, as we shall see.

103 Bygdejaevning, page 43.

104 Anderson’s First Chapter, page 330.

105 Andrew Nelson Brekke.

106 They are all dead long ago.

107 A daughter of theirs is Mrs. J. A. Waite of the Anchor Line Steamship Company. I am indebted to Strand’s Norwegians in Illinois (page 215) for some of the facts of BrÆkke’s personal history.

108 As also from Drammen, see below, page 159.

109 Father of Torger G. Thompson of Cambridge, Dane County, Wisconsin.

110 I gather most of these names from Nils A. Lie’s account in Bygdejaevning, pages 47–48.

111 The route led by way of Havre and New York.

112 H. R. Holand writes of Per Unde in Skandinaven for July seventeenth, 1908, stating that he came in 1842. Unde’s nephew, Jacob Unde of Sherry, Wisconsin, contributes in a later issue of Skandinaven some corrections, among them that Per Unde came in 1839.

113 To whom I am indebted chiefly for the family history. Alex Hanson lives at Ellsworth, Iowa.

114 The editor of Billed-Magazin writes, page eleven of volume I, that at that time (1869) Kittil Lohner and his brother Halvor Nilson Lohner, from Hjertdal, Telemarken, and the family of Gisle Danielson, from Skjold, were still living in the settlement. The rest were dead or had moved away. But Knud J. BÆckhus, from Hjertdal, and Ole Kjonaas, from BÖ, had settled west of the colony in the town of Vernon.

115 Professor Anderson accepts unreservedly the authority of Billed-Magazin in the matter and decides for the date 1840.

116 In The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 1905, page 360.

117 Mons Aadland had a sister Malinda, the wife of Anders Nordvig, who came to America in the same ship as he. Anders Nordvig died in Beaver Creek. His wife moved to the Fox River Settlement, where she died, ninety years old, about 1892. I have above written the name Adland as it came to be written in this country.

118 Nor any from other provinces, for Hermund Tufte who, in Holand’s De norske Settlementers Historie, is said to have come in 1841, did not come before 1842.

119 See below under Rock Prairie.

120 The Biographical Review of Dane County, Wisconsin, 1893, page 239, gives 1842 as the year Seamon A. Seamonson came from Skien, Norway, to Racine County, his wife and three children coming the next year (see later chapter).

121 In reality a group of prairies.

122 Later Norwegians settled also in Blooming Grove (west of Cottage Grove) and in Rutland (west of Dunkirk), but they always remained here a minority of the population. On the north the settlement extends also into southeastern Sun Prairie and southwestern Medina.

123 But Spring Prairie was settled slightly earlier than Norway Grove.

124 The settlement enters the Town of Dane (northwestern part) on the west.

125 That is, excluding the southwestern part of the town and sections 6, 7, and 18 along its western line.

126 A work which, unfortunately, contains a great many errors.

127 In the spring of 1842 Duty J. Green and Jesse Saunders came, both from Alleghany County, New York; they settled near Saunders’ Creek, where Albion village now stands. Saunders had lived one year in Rock County. In 1842 also, Samuel Clarke of Yorkshire, England, son of James and Judith A. Clarke, arrived, and located on Albion Prairie. John S. Bullis, Giles Eggleston, Lorenzo Coon, and Barton Edwards, came in 1842, C. R. Head in 1843, as also Adin Burdick, and in 1844 Job Bunting, L. O. Humphrey, R. P. Humphrey, Henry Job, Samuel Marsden, and James Wileman.

128 From whom Wheeler Prairie takes its name. I am inclined to think that Wheeler preceded Luraas (see below).

129 The prairie takes its name from Koshkonong Creek (and Koshkonong Lake).

130 As Mr. Odland points out. Odland adds: “They were all Vossings and to emigrants from that celebrated district in Norway, therefore, belongs the credit of founding the most important Norwegian settlement in America.” (Article in Amerika).

131 Their names are recorded in the land office as Nils Seaverson, Nils Larson and Magany Buttelson.

132 Odland writes: when they had finished their work outside, they were obliged to lie down on their beds and cover up with robes in order not to freeze.

133 Himle settled some years later at Norway Grove, Dane County.

134 Anderson’s First Chapter, page 338.

135 He was killed by a loaded wagon tipping over him.

136 For these facts I acknowledge indebtedness chiefly to Prof. R. B. Anderson, who is a son of BjÖrn Anderson Kvelve; he gives an account of the journey of these men on pages 347–354 of his book, and a sketch of his parents pages 155–165; see also page 171, and 245.

137 Then a little river; now it is almost dried out.

138 So the description reads but the Amund Anderson homestead is the east half of the northwest quarter, and the Kvelve homestead is directly south.

139 Thorsten Bjaaland and Amund Hornefjeld built shanties on their land before leaving.

140 Their names are given as: Omund Anderson, Birn Anderson, Lars Olson, and Foster Olson.

141 It was soon after taken possession of by William Fulton.

142 That is, Ole O. Hetletveidt. This incident is related in Amerika in September, 1903; the words were: eg faar meg nok ein FlÆk Jord her hos han Ola Meddlepeint.

143 Arnold Andrew Anderson was born in Norway in 1832. The second son of Kvelve, Augustinus Meldahl Bruun, was born in 1834. A daughter was born and died in Rochester, New York, where the Kvelve family lived 1836–37. Elizabeth was born in La Salle County, Illinois in 1837, and Cecelia in 1840. A daughter, Martha, was born in Albion Township in the fall of 1841, being, it seems, the first white child born in the town.

144 See above, page 179.

145 L. D. Reque is still living in Deerfield, Dane County, Wisconsin.

146 A brother of Nils Gilderhus.

147 Interview printed in Billed-Magazin, 1869, page 387. Late in the summer of 1841 a few Americans came and settled there.

148 John BjÖrgo died in October, 1868; his wife, Martha, died in May, 1898. They are both buried in West Koshkonong Cemetery, as Rev. G. G. Krostu of Utica, Wisconsin, informs me.

149 These may have been Hellik Vindeig and Nils Kvendalen.

150 The family being sent for soon after; his wife, Gunvor Sjursdatter, was born in 1805; the children were Martha (born 1838) and Nils (born 1841).

151 After his wife’s death he lived some years in North and South Dakota. Anders Lee was born in 1814, and attained therefore to the good old age of ninety-two. His wife died in 1876; they were married three years before leaving Norway. Anders Lee left three sons, Nils A. in Deerfield, Sever Lee in Grafton, N. D., and Andrew Lee of Washington County, N. D.

152 Andrew E. Lee was governor of South Dakota from 1896–1900.

153 There Nore located across the Jefferson County line.

154 Turi Lien, whose maiden name was Smetbak, was born in 1811; she died in 1899; Ole Lien died in 1850; the widow then married Lars T. Nore.

155 The daughters Christine and Sigrid were born in 1842 and 1844.

156 Many of these located in the eastern and northern part of the settlement a year or two later.

157 Who located in Town of Deerfield. Some of these, as Dalstiel, left Koshkonong a few years later.

158 Though not the first Scandinavian, for a Dane, Niels Christian Boye, came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1837. In 1842 he located in Iowa City; a daughter, Julia Boye, the only surviving member of the family, lives now in Iowa City.

159 One of the settlers in Shelby County, Missouri, was Peter Omundson Gjilje. As an illustration of the state of wilderness of the country around them it is related that Gjilje once walked for nine whole days in the forest tract before he found human habitation. One morning early he heard a cock crow, and then he found people. During these days he had lived on wild strawberries. These facts are related by Mr. B. L. Wick of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

160 Jacob Slogvig was also among the first settlers; he had returned from Shelby County, Missouri, to La Salle County, in 1838, as also had Andrew Askeland.

161 Helgeson may have come with Barlien from Illinois.

162 Melkeveien, the Milky Way.

163 See J. B. Wist, in Bygdejaevning, Madison, Wisconsin, 1903, p. 158; also First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, pp. 235–236, and Republikaneren, February 9, 1900.

164 The first was Ole Rynning. See above, p. 107, and Normaendene i Amerika by Knud Langeland, pp. 26–29.

165 The first postoffice was established in Lee County in 1841.

166 Veiviser for Emigranter, 1843.

167 Immigration from Sogn was at first directed almost exclusively to Boone County, Illinois, and Dane County, Wisconsin.

168 In the Fox River Settlement in Illinois many Norwegians joined the Mormons and later moved to Utah. Bishop Canute Peterson was one of these.

169 The Mormons first moved into Iowa in 1839, having received assurance of protection and the liberty to practice their belief from Governor Lucas in that year. They located in Lee County not far from Sugar Creek. The town of Nauvoo, Illinois, had been bought by them. The name was changed from Commerce.

170 Omund Olson was converted to Quakerism at Salem, Henry County. As early as 1842 several of the settlers joined with him in erecting a meeting house on his farm.

171 The question has been investigated somewhat by Mr. B. L. Wick. See Republikaneren, February 9, 1900.

172 He died about 1900. Among those who moved to New Sharon were Sjur Olson, Nils Nilson and Aad Nilson and wife Kristina; Martha Erickson was until recently, at least, living in Clark County, Missouri.

173 They came in the same ship as Knut Roe.

174 He did not actually settle there permanently before 1844.

175 Her maiden name was Martha Gulliksdatter Kindem.

176 I am told that he came in 1841, but this seems to be a mistake.

177 Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson, speaking of the Wiota Settlement in 1844 says, that there had been organized a congregation that year, which numbered about one hundred members, of whom the larger part were from Voss; these, he says, had settled there for the most part in 1843. He mentions Per Davidson as deacon and a leading member of the church, and Knud Knudson as one who by great energy had acquired considerable wealth.

178 Situated in section 26 in Turtle Township.

179 H. L. Skavlem in Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County, a most interesting and valuable pamphlet, though very brief.

180 The first Norwegian land owner in the county was however Gisle SebjÖrnson Halland as shown by H. L. Skavlem’s researches. The date of Halland’s purchase was November 29th.

181 In December, 1842, Mrs. Gisle Halland bought forty acres in Beloit Township. Her name appears as Margarett Nutes (Margrit Knutsdatter).

182 Henry Jacobson is a son of Jacob J. Oppedal, who came from Hardanger in 1850.

183 Frederik Frederikson’s wife, who was Martha Larson, also came in 1843. Frederikson came some years later.

184 We have seen that Clas Isakson had immigrated from Voss in 1840. He was the first Vossing to settle on Jefferson Prairie.

185 Brynild Dugstad located in the northern part of the settlement. A son, Knut B. Dugstad, died at Clinton, Wis., in April, 1905, age 80.

186 Ole Skutle later married Lena Sondal, who had come in 1841; see above.

187 Of those who come in 1844 from Numedal were Gulleik Svensrud and family, who however removed to Blue Mounds, Dane County, in 1847. In 1860 he married Ingeborg Lohn who died in 1903; there are five living children.

188 Aaen is said to have been something of an inventor. He made two clocks, one of which was bought by Mr. Chrispinson; the other was bought by Simon Strand, and is now probably in the possession of Stone or Gunild Strand says a writer in Amerika for March 15th, 1907. Aaen died about 1886.

189 The location of his farm is half a mile from Orfordville.

190 Mrs. Mygstue died in 1892. Ole Mygstue then sold his farm and moved to his sister, Mrs. Engen, in Primrose, Dane County. An obituary notice of Ole Mygstue (who died in 1902) speaks very highly of him as a member of the church and a citizen. He was a man of kindly nature and helpful spirit in whom all reposed implicit confidence.

191 Their children are: Paul Berge, Herbrand Berge and Mrs. Henry Anderson, all living in Jackson, Minnesota.

192 Svend NÖrstelien and family (seven) and Kari LillebÆk and six children from Land, who also came that year, settled in Wiota.

193 Martin Johnson of Orfordville, Rock County, is his son.

194 Christian Lunde, who also came from Land in 1848, located at Rock Run. Several families went to Wiota; see above, Chapter XXII.

195 Who later married Syver MidbÖen.

196 Of the remaining twenty-three of this year’s immigration from Land eleven went to Wiota, seven to Rock Run, and five scattered elsewhere.

197 The limitations of space forbid a sketch of Mr. Tollefsrude in our survey of Rock Prairie.

198 They had five children in this country: Knud, Kleofas, Eyvind, Eirik and Caroline, all now married and with families. The sons adopted Cleofas as the family name. The daughter was married to Kittil Haugen, now living in Pelican Rapids, Minn.

199 Nils O. Wikko was from Gol, Hallingdal. He married Beret Halvorson in 1854, and removed soon after to Worth County, Iowa. He died in 1904, at the age of eighty-three, survived by widow and six daughters.

200 They moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1853. He died in 1894 and she in 1904, at the age of eighty-four.

201 Tyrebakken moved to Black Hammer, Minnesota, in 1854, when he married Mari Haugejordet. He was born in 1823, in 1905.

202 Knut Finseth died in 1869. Herbrand Finseth married Guri Ouri in 1867; he died in January, 1901, leaving wife and six children.

203 I gather these facts from an obituary notice, which speaks at length in eloquent terms of the noble lives of this couple.

204 These two were the first to emigrate to America from Modum.

205 Valdris is the Norwegian appellation of a native of Valders.

206 Syver Gaarder’s daughter, Barbro, married Martin Johnson (Nederhaugen) in 1855. Dr. J. S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, is their oldest son; other children are: Ben Johnson, Orfordville, Wisconsin; Mrs. Rev. Langseth, Glendorado, Minn.; Mrs. Rev. L. Njus, McIntosh, Minn.; Mrs. StrÖmseth, living on the homestead; Mandy Johnson.

[207] It is only “financial prosperity” which we are here speaking of, of course. The question of “success” is entirely a different one.

[208] The regulations varying with different ships, Juno, which brought the first party from Inner Sogn in 1844, did not accept any passenger who had not provided himself with food supply for twelve weeks.

[209] i. e. $47. R. B. Anderson’s First Chapter, page 313.

[210] In American money, of which less than half for the ocean voyage.

[211] Of the trials and the hardships of the ocean voyage in the thirties, forties and fifties, we can to-day have no conception. It would, however, fall outside the scope of this work to discuss that here. I may refer the reader to a well-written article by H. Cock Jensen in Nordmandsforbundet, December, 1907, pages 53–66. See also Holand’s article, pages 56–60.

[212] A good account of the character of this journey is given by Holand, pages 65–74.

[213] Via Montreal, Toronto, Port Huron and Detroit.

[214] Billed-Magazin I, 123–124, article “Om Udvandringen,” by J. A. Johnson Skipsnes.

[215] To Port Huron 189 miles, thence to Milwaukee 85 miles.

[216] The author’s grandfather, Ole Torjussen Flom, and party of about fifty-three, from Inner Sogn, were obliged to wait in Bergen nearly three weeks before sailing.

[217] There was of course great difference in the speed of the boats.

[218] For account of the voyage see Appendix 2.

[219] The article forms one in a series of most interesting articles bearing the general title “Blandt Vestens Vikinger” (’Mongst the Vikings of the West) printed in Amerika in 1901 and 1902. Dr. Teigen, son of O. C. Teigen, Koshkonong Pioneer of 1846, is a poet and story writer of the first rank among Norwegians in America.

[220] I instance the families of Th. Saue and Kvelve who went to Koshkonong, and Unde, Ulven, Skjerveim and Vinje who went to Wiota.

[221] For instance the Kaasa family went to Long Prairie in 1845.

[222] The Newberry, whom Torrison worked for as a gardener was the founder of well-known Newberry Library.

[223] For this and many other facts in this chapter I am indebted to Strand’s History, pages 182–186.

[224] A. E. Strand published some facts from this directory on pages 183–184 of his work.

[225] He was a carpenter. Mr. Strand thinks the three were brothers. This is a mistake of course.

[226] Strand’s History, p. 187.

[227] Facts gathered from Normandsforbundet II, where Rev. O. Olofson of Ullensvang, Hardanger, discusses most interestingly the early emigration from Hardanger to America (pp. 169–180).

[228] The Chicago census for 1839 does not include the names of any of this party.

[229] She was born in 1827 at StÖkebÖ in Levanger Parish, Diocese of Bergen.

[230] Mrs. Jens Olson died in 1895.

[231] Our Savior’s Church.

[232] She was the daughter of Anders Knutson Lydvo and wife, Martha (RÖthe). Anders Lydvo died in 1860 and Martha in 1875.