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.
In our discussion of the settling of Koshkonong by immigrants from Numedal in 1840–42, mention was made of Tore Knudson Nore and wife Gjertud among those who arrived in 1842. Tore Nore did not, however, locate in Christiana or Albion townships, where his compatriots had settled. He selected land about three miles southeast of where Gunnul Vindeig had located, across the Jefferson County line in what later was named Sumner Township. Tore Nore, who was then a man of about forty years of age and had a large family, had emigrated in the spring of 1842, but had not, as the immigrants from Numedal so far had generally done, gone to Jefferson Prairie or Rock Prairie, but had stopped in Muskego. Being dissatisfied here, he decided to go to Koshkonong. Taking his family with him, he arrived there about October first of that year. Soon after he erected his log cabin in Sumner,[261] being, therefore, the first Norwegian to settle in that part of Jefferson County, his being the second family to enter the township of Sumner.[262] Here he lived till his death in 1868, at the age of seventy-six. Gjertrud Nore died in 1884. Three sons are prosperous farmers living in the neighborhood of the father’s original homestead. A daughter, Gro, married Peder Larsen Svartskuren (or Svartskor) in Norway, in June, 1842. They became the second Norwegian family to settle in the township. Peder Svartskuren was a native of Konigsberg, Norway, being, as it appears, the third emigrant to America from that locality.[263]
In an interview with Svein Nilson printed in 1870, Peder Svartskuren mentions Björn Anderson (Kvelve), Amund Hornefjeld, Gunnul Vindeig and Thorsten Olson as being the only Norwegians living in the neighboring towns of Albion and Christiana when he came there. He speaks of Sumner Township as being a heavy primeval forest, with only here and there a stretch of open country. “There was an abundance of game, deers and prairie chickens, and the lake (Koshkonong) and creek were full of fish. The Indians were roving about the country, but they did no one any harm and were kindly and ever ready to help.”
Mrs. Svartskuren, who is now eighty-seven years old and quite feeble, has, since 1902, lived at Leeds, North Dakota, with a son, Carl, he having sold the homestead after the father’s death, and moved to Viroqua, Wisconsin, and later to Leeds. Peder Svartskuren was among the founders of the East Koshkonong Church; he was a man of strong character, who enjoyed in large degree the love and the respect of his fellows.
The Town of Sumner did not receive many accessions from Norway. In the same interview Svartskuren says: “There are now twelve Norwegian families, besides six Swedish families. The rest are German and English.”
The Town of Oakland, Jefferson County, also received a few settlers at this early period. The earliest arrival there was, I believe, Tollef Bækhus and wife, Aasild; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and located two miles east of the village of Rockdale. They were from Laurdal Parish, in Upper Telemarken, had been married in 1838, and had two children when they came to this country. Tollef Bækhus died in 1897, the widow lived until 1906, being ninety years old at the time of her death. A son, John Bækhus, now owns the homestead.[264]
In [Chapter XVIII] above we gave an account of the founding of the Koshkonong Settlement, which began in the townships of Christiana, Deerfield and Albion, in 1840–41. We spoke briefly of the founders and of those who came and joined the three groups of pathfinders in the following year. In Chapter XXVIII a similar record has been given of the events which led to the settling of the Town of Pleasant Spring by four families in 1843, and by others in the following year. We have also observed how the towns of Dunkirk and Cottage Grove became settled in 1843, and that Dunn received its first Norwegian settlers in 1844. The towns of Sumner and Oakland, in Jefferson County, in the eastern extremity of Koshkonong Prairie also received a small contingent of Norwegian immigrant settlers in 1842 and 1843 respectively. The original nucleus and the subsequent expansions of the settlement, east, west and north, are thereby indicated.
In four years after its inception, the settlement covered an area of about fifteen square miles. But the settlers lived, for the most part, far apart; geographically they had made ample provisions for a great settlement in this garden spot of Wisconsin. While there were as yet (in 1843) not more than a hundred and fifty individuals in the settlement, there was room for thousands more without going beyond the boundary as already laid out. The beginning made in a few years was remarkable, but the growth in the years immediately following was even more wonderful. For a time Koshkonong was the destination of four-fifths of those who emigrated from Norway.