[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.