In 1844 Bryngel Henderson and wife Martha came to Chicago and became permanent residents of the city, as did also Knut Iverson Glimme, Mrs. Julia Nelson, Ellef G. Severtson[234] and John A. Hefte. These were all from Voss; Severtson was from Vossevangen. Ole Bakketun and family and Sjur M. Sære, also with family, both from Voss, came to Chicago in 1844, but lived there only one year, when they went to Koshkonong.
The year 1844 also brought Chicago another permanent resident from Voss, who later became prominently associated with the commercial and political life of the city. This was Iver Larson Bö, born 1821, in Voss, Norway, who came to Chicago that year and not as generally found stated in or about 1840,[235] locating on the north side. Iver dropped the surname Bö, and changed Larson to Lawson, so that his name became Iver Lawson. He was one of the organizers of the First Lutheran church in 1848, located at that time on Superior Street between Wells Street and La Salle Avenue.[236] Lawson took a prominent part in the political life of early Chicago, e.g., as member of the city council, and otherwise. In 1869 he was a member of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature. As legislator his name is most closely associated with the establishment of Chicago’s excellent system of parks; the creation of Lincoln Park in particular was due in great measure to Lawson’s efforts.[237] Iver Lawson’s name is also associated with that of John Anderson in the founding of Skandinaven, now the largest and most widely circulated Norwegian newspaper in this country.[238]
The year 1845 brought a number of accessions to the Norwegian colony of Chicago. Among them Kittil Nirison, from Bö Parish in Telemarken, one of the few from Telemarken who settled in Chicago in the early days, Knud K. Harrisville and wife Maren Karine (née Larson), Christian Lee, from Gausdal, and Andrew Anderson, wife, Laura, and family from Voss. This family included a son John, born March, 1836, who is the well known founder and owner of Skandinaven and president of the John A. Anderson Publishing Company.[239]
Andrew Anderson died of the cholera in 1849, and to the son John, then thirteen years old, fell the task of supporting his mother and baby sister, which he did at first by peddling apples and carrying newspapers. Then he became “printer’s devil” and soon learned the art of distributing and setting type.[240] In the following years he was successively connected with The Argus, The Democratic Press and The Press-Tribune. In 1866 he launched a paper of his own, Skandinaven, which at first a small sheet issued weekly has grown until, through its daily, semi-weekly and weekly issue, it is now the largest and politically the most influential of Norwegian newspapers in the country. Mr. Anderson has engaged extensively in the publishing of books, issuing a far larger number of books a year than any other Norwegian-American publisher. In this connection it is to be especially mentioned that he has also in recent years done excellent pioneer work in the publishing of certain educational works, as school and college texts of Norwegian literature, thereby facilitating materially instruction in this field in our colleges and universities.
In succeeding years the Norwegian colony in Chicago grew rapidly. Already in 1850 it was considerable; to-day there are more Norwegians in Chicago than any other city in the country (see also footnote 443). They resided in the early days for the most part on the north side, south of Chicago Avenue, between the lake and the present Orleans Street. Later the region of Wicker Park became a Norwegian center. To-day they are found very extensively in the vicinity of Humboldt Park and Logan Square, the business center is along West North Avenue.[241]
Among the earliest Norwegian settlers of Chicago now living is to be mentioned finally Mrs. Martha Erickson who come to this country in 1841. She is the daughter of Björn Björnson, who accompanied Kleng Peerson to America in 1825. For account of this see above page [50]. The other twin, there referred to came to America in 1866; her name is Mrs. Bertha Fuglestad. They are both living in Chicago enjoying excellent health at the age of eighty-eight. Björn Björnson settled in Rochester, New York, where he died in 1854.[242] On their eighty-fifth birthday in 1906, the twin sisters held a family festival at the home of Mrs. Eric Ross at which four children and one grandchild of Mrs. Erickson were present and Mrs. Fuglestad’s four children, eighteen grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Earliest Norwegian Settlers in the Township of Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin
I have above spoken of the fact that Knut H. Roe was one of the party that emigrated with John Luraas from Tin, Telemarken, in 1839. These two men became the first Norwegians to settle in the townships of Pleasant Spring and Dunkirk respectively in 1843. Roe had lived for a time in La Salle County, Illinois, going to Racine County, Wisconsin, in 1842, as we have seen above. In the fall of 1841 a few of the settlers in Racine County had travelled west as far as Koshkonong Prairie, for the purpose of inspecting the uninhabited country there, of which they seem already to have heard from friends. In the townships of Albion and Christiana, these met and spoke with those who had come there from Jefferson Prairie in 1840.