| Introduction | [15] |
| Chapter I. Norway. Population, Resources, Pursuits of her People, Social Conditions, Laws and Institutions | [18] |
| Chapter II. Emigration from Norway | [27] |
| Chapter III. The Earliest Immigrants from Norway, 1620–1825 | [35] |
| Chapter IV. The Sloopers of 1825. The First Norwegian Settlement in America. Kleng Peerson | [45] |
| Chapter V. The Founding of the Fox River Settlement. Personal Notes on Some of the Founders | [55] |
| Chapter VI. Causes of Emigration from Norway. General Factors, Economic | [64] |
| Chapter VII. Causes of Emigration Continued. Special Factors. Religion as a Cause. Emigration Agents | [73] |
| Chapter VIII. Causes of Emigration Continued. The Influence of Successful Pioneers. “America-Letters.” The Spirit of Adventure. Summary | [80] |
| Chapter IX. Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immigration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches. | [89] |
| Chapter X. The Year 1837 Continued. The Sailing of Aegir. | [97] |
| Chapter XI. Beaver Creek. Ole Rynning | [102] |
| Chapter XII. Some of the Immigrants of 1837. The First Pathfinders from Numedal and Telemarken | [108] |
| Chapter XIII. Ansten Nattestad’s Return to Norway in 1838. The Year 1839. Immigration Assumes Larger Proportions. The Course of Settlement Changes | [116] |
| Chapter XIV. Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten Nattestad’s Return from Norway in 1839. The Founding of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement in Rock County, Wisconsin | [125] |
| Chapter XV. The Earliest White Settlers on Rock and Jefferson Prairies. The Founding of the Rock Prairie Settlement. The Earliest Settlers on Rock Prairie | [135] |
| Chapter XVI. The Rock Run Settlement. Other Immigrants of 1839. The Immigration of 1840 | [147] |
| Chapter XVII. The Settlement of Norway and Raymond Townships, Racine County. The Founders of the Settlement. Immigration to Racine County in 1841–1842 | [155] |
| Chapter XVIII. The Establishment of the Koshkonong Settlement in Dane County, Wisconsin | [164] |
| Chapter XIX. The Settling of Koshkonong by Immigrants from Numedal and Stavanger in 1840. Other Accessions in 1841–1842 | [172] |
| Chapter XX. New Accessions to the Koshkonong Settlement in 1840–1841. The Growth of the Settlement in 1842 | [180] |
| Chapter XXI. The First Norwegian Settlement in Iowa, at Sugar Creek in Lee County | [190] |
| Chapter XXII. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Wiota, La Fayette County, and Dodgeville, Iowa County, Wisconsin | [198] |
| Growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement from 1841 to 1845. The First Norwegian Land Owners in Rock County | [204] |
| Chapter XXIV. Immigration to Rock Prairie from Numedal and Land in 1842 and Subsequent Years | [211] |
| Chapter XXV. Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Immigration from Numedal. Other Early Accessions | [216] |
| Chapter XXVI. Economic Conditions of Immigrants. Cost of Passage. Course of the Journey. Duration of the Journey | [221] |
| Chapter XXVII. Norwegians in Chicago, 1840–1845. A Vossing Colony. Some Early Settlers in Chicago from Hardanger | [230] |
| Chapter XXVIII. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers in the Township of Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin | [241] |
| Chapter XXIX. The First Norwegian Settlers in the Townships of Dunkirk, Dunn, and Cottage Grove, in Dane County, Wisconsin | [249] |
| Chapter XXX. The Expansion of the Koshkonong Settlement into Sumner and Oakland Townships in Jefferson County. Increased Immigration from Telemarken. New Settlers from Kragerö, Drammen and Numedal | [255] |
| Chapter XXXI. The Coming of the First Large Party of Immigrants from Sogn. New Accessions from Voss | [265] |
| Chapter XXXII. Long Prairie in Boone County, Illinois; A Sogning Settlement | [272] |
| Chapter XXXIII. The Growth of the Racine County (Muskego) Settlement, 1843–1847 | [278] |
| Chapter XXXIV. The Heart Prairie Settlement in Walworth Co., Wis. Skoponong. Pine Lake | [289] |
| Chapter XXXV. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Sugar Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin. The Influx from Land, Norway, to Wiota and Vicinity, 1844–1852 | [300] |
| Chapter XXXVI. Continued Immigration from Aurland, Sogn, to Koshkonong. The Arrival of Settlers from Vik Parish, Sogn, in 1845 | [305] |
| Chapter XXXVII. Kirkeregister. Church Register of East Koshkonong, West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie Congregations as Constituted During the Years of Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson’s Incumbency of the Pastorate from 1844 to 1850, and as Recorded by Reverend Dietrichson | [314] |
| Chapter XXXVIII. The Founding of the Norwegian Settlements of Norway Grove, Spring Prairie and Bonnet Prairie in Dane and Columbia Counties, Wisconsin | [331] |
| Chapter XXXIX. Blue Mounds in Western Dane County, Wisconsin | [340] |
| Chapter XL. The Hardanger Settlement in Lee and De Kalb Counties, Illinois. Big Grove in Kendall County, and Nettle Creek in Grundy County, Illinois | [350] |
| Chapter XLI. The First Norwegian Pioneers in Northeastern Iowa | [362] |
| Chapter XLII. Survey of Immigration from Norway to America. Conclusion | [375] |
| Appendix I | [383] |
| Appendix II | [386] |
| Bibliography | [387] |
| Index | [389] |
INTRODUCTION
In this volume I shall aim to give an account of the Norwegian immigration movement from 1825 down to 1848. Thereupon will follow a brief survey of the course of the movement and the growth of the settlements founded here in that period. In the introductory pages I shall discuss briefly individual immigration from Norway from its earliest known beginnings down to 1825.
Immigration from Norway resulted in the founding of settlements in New York, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa successively; I shall try to give a correct narrative of the beginnings and the growth of these settlements. In this part of the work I shall stress the oldest and largest settlements in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, for the relation of these to the whole movement and later colonization of the Northwestern States by the Norwegians is one of especial importance. I shall treat somewhat fully of the causes of emigration, of the growth of the movement, and the part in it that each district or province in Norway has played. The leaders from each district and the founders of the settlements here will be named and in many cases, sketches will be given of their lives. Such questions as the course of the movement in Norway, the cost of the voyage, the course of the journey, early wage conditions, the economic conditions of the immigrants, the geographical trend of settlement, will also be considered, and approximately complete lists of the accessions in each settlement for the first few years will be given. The limits of this volume, however, will preclude the treatment of social or cultural questions, or to take more than the briefest notice of the pursuits and occupations of the Norwegian-American and his contribution to American life. I hope to be able to treat elsewhere, later, of some of these problems.
The story of the immigrant settler is one that is well worth the telling; it is one that is justly receiving increased attention in recent years. I believe that the writer of American history will, in the future, pay far greater attention than he has in the past to the immigrant pioneer as a factor in the development of the nation. There are in America today about one million people of Norwegian birth, or Norwegian parentage. That is, there are nearly half as many of that nationality in America as in Norway itself. The transplanting of so large a proportion of a race from the land to which it is rooted by birth and by its history is indeed remarkable.
Various European peoples have contributed to the growth of the American population; they have each given something to the sum total of present American life and in some measure helped to shape American institutions. As a people America is yet in the formative period; racially, at least, one-half of the population is not Anglo-Saxon. It is by the amalgamation of all its ethnic factors that the future American people will be evolved. The contribution that each foreign element will make to that evolution will be determined by the civilization, which each represents as its racial heritage, the culture which, in the course of its history, each has evolved as a people and a nation. As the true student of American history takes note of these things in the future, the significance of the foreign factor in the growth and the upbuilding of the country will receive its just recognition.
We of Norse blood, but American birth, if we are true to the best that is in us, cannot fail to have an interest in the trials and the achievements of the pioneer fathers. We must recognize the true heroism of the men and women who braved the hardships and suffered the privations of frontier life in the thirties, the forties and the fifties. The part that the pioneers of those days played in the development of the Northwest was a great one; in comparison with it that of the present generation is wholly insignificant. It is to the memory of those pioneers, in recognition of their true worth, that this record of their coming is dedicated.