Of the events leading up to this, Billed-Magazin for 1870 gives a circumstantial account, pages 58–60, 66–67, and 75–76. Reierson’s book seems to have been a leading factor in promoting emigration from Valders. Among the earliest to leave this region were Nils Hanson Fjeld and family of South Aurdal, Valders, who emigrated in 1847. He says, page 236 of Billed-Magazin for 1870, that before him only two or three single men had gone to America from that region. The “America-fever” had not yet taken hold of the people, “many would not give credence to mere hearsay, but after a while a couple copies of Reierson’s book about Texas came to the district. ‘Now we have the printed word to go by,’ it was said, and many of the doubters soon were converted to the orthodox faith in the land of promise beyond the great ocean.” And as a result, many began to emigrate. As early as 1848, emigration from Valders on a considerable scale was already in progress.
I shall here also mention Ansten Nattestad, who wrote a similar book, which he took with him on his return to Norway in 1838, and had printed there; this became a factor operating toward emigration, especially in Numedal. Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson’s Reise blandt de norske Emigranter i de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater, Stavanger, 1846 (124 pages), gave much valuable information about the settlements, but was not calculated to exert much influence toward emigration. The first three that I have mentioned, however, had an influence which we today can hardly fully appreciate.
Finally, curiosity and the spirit of adventure have doubtless prompted some to cross the ocean.
To sum up, the chief influences that have promoted Scandinavian emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century have been in the order of their importance: first, the prospect of material betterment and the love of a freer and more independent life; second, letters of relatives and friends who had emigrated to the United States and visits of these again to their native country; third, the advertising of agents of emigration; fourth, religious persecution at home; fifth, church proselytism; sixth, political oppression; seventh, military service; and eighth, the desire for adventure. Fugitives from justice have been few, and paupers and criminals in the Scandinavian countries are not sent out of the country; they are taken care of by the government.
CHAPTER IX
Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immigration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches.
On page [fifty-five] above I spoke of the advance troop of six men who established the Fox River Settlement in 1834. A list of those who followed from New York in 1835 was also given. Other settlers came in subsequent years, more and more now coming directly from Norway to La Salle County. The vicinity of the present towns of Norway and Leland, in eastern and northern La Salle County, became centers of a settlement, which later extended east into Kendall County (Newark and Lisbon) and into Grundy County toward Morris, as also north into DeKalb County (Rollo, Sandwich), and northwest clear into southwestern Lee County (Paw Paw, Sublette, and surrounding region). The slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt, had not come west with the first party. He lived first in Kendall and then went to Niagara Falls, being there employed in a paper mill. Here he married a Miss Chamberlain, then moved back to Orleans County. In 1839 he and his wife went west, settling in Kendall County. He bought land on the spot where the town of Newark now stands. He became well known as a lay preacher of the Haugian faith in the Fox River Settlement, also visiting the settlements founded soon after in Wisconsin and in Lee County, Iowa. He died in Kendall County in 1849 or 1850.[61]
Iver Waller, who bought a claim of Miss Pearson in 1835, came directly from Norway to La Salle County that year. Baldwin’s History of La Salle County lists Ove Stenson Rossadal and wife, and John Stenson Rossadal among the arrivals of 1835, and as being brothers of Daniel Rossadal, of whom we have spoken above. Strand’s History of the Norwegians in Illinois correctly names them as sons of Daniel Rossadal. Nils Bilden, who also came during this period (year uncertain), was therefore one of the very first emigrants from Hardanger to the United States. He settled at Rochester, Sangamon County, Illinois.
As to the extent of Norwegian immigration during the years immediately preceding the year, 1836, which inaugurates a new period in the movement, our information is very fragmentary. American statistics give forty-two and thirty-one, respectively, for 1834 and 1835, as the total immigration from Norway and Sweden. In 1833 there were sixteen, while the number for 1832 is three hundred and thirteen.[62] The total number between 1826 and 1831 is given as sixty-eight. It is probable, however, that these figures do not represent the full number of immigrants during these years. Norwegian government statistics on immigration which are available since 1836, give the number of immigrants for that year as two hundred, which is also the figure for the following year. It is to this exodus that we shall now turn.