We have noted above, Chapter [XXXI], that there were several persons from Aurland Parish, Sogn, among the immigrants who settled on Koshkonong in 1844. I am now in receipt of a letter from Anders J. Flaam of Flaam in Aurland, Norway, relative to the earliest emigration from Aurland to America. His letter, as also that of Reverend E. P. Juul, the present Minister of the Parish, shows that the earliest emigrants left there in 1844. I quote in translation from Reverend Juul’s letter:
“Those who, according to parochial records here, were the first to emigrate to America are the following: Iver Hansen Vingum, age twenty-five, unmarried,[331] Ole Torjussen Flaam, age fifty, wife Anna Botolfsdatter, age forty, and children, Ole, thirteen and a half years old, and Anders, ten years. Of these, Iver Hansen’s certificate of emigration is shown to have been issued March 20, 1844, and he to have left the district on April 13th the same year. Ole Torjussen’s certificate of emigration was issued on the 13th of April, 1844, and his departure took place the following day. All therefore emigrated together.”
Reverend Juul thereupon gives a list of those who emigrated from Aurland in 1845, and while several of these did not settle on Koshkonong it will be of interest to the reader to see this list. I therefore give it complete here:
“In 1845, on the 19th of April the natives of Aurland (Aurlændinger) left their native village: Torsten Olsen Bjelde, (45 years of age) wife, Anna (29), and son, Ole (3–1/2 years); Iver Ingebrigtsen Ytreli (32 years); Jens Botolfsen Bergkvam (23–1/2 years); Jens Torgersen Tærum (44–1/2 years), wife Ragnhilde Monsdatter (27) and son Torger (one year); Sjur Olsen Stundal (19) and sister Katrine (30); Anna Marie Hansdatter Vangen (28–1/2); Erik Johannesen Ytreli (43) and wife Marthe Larsdatter (48) and children; Brita (21 years), Magnilde (18 years), Johannes (16 years), Ingeborg (14 years), Lars (10–1/2 years), Haakon (9 years), Anna (7 years), Tomas (5 years); Johanne Botolsdatter Ytreli (16 years); Eilef Olson Loven (24 years); Mikkel Knutsen Österbro (22–1/2 years), and wife Martha Gulvsdatter (27–1/2 years), and son Knut (two months); Lars Gundersen Gjellum (33–1/2 years) and wife Gjertrud, and son Knut (4 years); Martha Gundersdatter (17 years); Josef Johannesen Vindedal (73 years), and wife Anna Jensdatter; John Johnsen Frondal (28 years) and wife Magnhilde; Rognald Johannesen Knit (19–1/2 years); Simon A. Gjellum (20 years); Peder Monsen Loven (34 years); Johanne M. Loven (20 years); Iver J. Stene (22 years).
These are the emigrants who first went to America from this Parish.
Aurland Parish, January 25th, 1909.
E. P. Juul.”
Some of the immigrants mentioned by Reverend Juul are still living on Koshkonong. Thus among the children of Erik J. Ytreli (who died in 1892, at the age of 90),[332] Johannes (John E. Johnson) is still living on the old homestead, two miles east of Utica, and his brother Haakon is living there with him.[333] Simon Gjellum lived two years in Chicago, then entered the Mexican War, after which he came to Koshkonong. Ivar I. Ytreli[334] had been a school teacher and deacon at Systrond, in which capacity he continued serving here in this country, at Rock Prairie, Rock County, whither he went soon after arriving in Wisconsin; he died there about 1875. Of other immigrants from Aurland, which Mr. Anders J. Flaam speaks of, I shall mention Peder J. Gjeirsme, and Torbjörn O. Gjeirsme, wife Metta and family, who came in 1846, and Hans Torjussen Flom, who, he says, went soon after Ole T. Flom.
During the year 1845 there came also a group of immigrants to Koshkonong from Vik Parish, namely several families from near Arnefjord. This party included several Næset families, the oldest living survivor of which is Jens J. Næset (b. 1828), well-known Koshkonong architect, who resides at Stoughton, Wisconsin.[335] I have had several interviews with Mr. Næset relative to their sailing, and their early life as pioneers; it will be possible to give here only the briefest facts. Jens Næset tells me that there were eight estates at Næset and that the owners of four of them sold out at the same time and went to America. The biggest of these estates was that of Ingebrigt Næset, or as he was usually called, Skuungen. In the party were Jens Næset’s parents, Johannes Jensen Næset and wife Eli, his oldest sister Gro, married to Ole Larson (Haugan)[336] who is living in Cambridge, Wisconsin, two brothers Ingebrigt and John, and another sister who later married Henrik Lien of East Koshkonong.[337]
There were three ships that sailed at the same time, Næset relates. One of these was the Kong Sverre, Captain Fischer (of which Haakon Lie speaks above), and on which the emigrants from Aurland were embarked. Another was a two-masted sloop, Peder Schröder, and which carried about 130 passengers, among whom the Næset families; this sloop had crossed twice before. The third was one commanded by Captain Brock. The passengers on this ship were mostly from Sogn, but there were three boys from Hardanger, and a few persons from Voss. Peder Schröder also carried emigrants principally from Sogn, but there were two from Voss, says Næset. One of these was Brynjulf Leland, who settled at Norway Grove, where he is still living. The other was Odd Himle, whom we have met with above page [168], as the guide of the first party of explorers of Koshkonong in 1839. He had returned to Norway in 1844, married there in 1845, and was now returning to America. Among those who came on the Brock-ship were Skuungen and Ole Menes.
We recognize in Captain Brook’s ship the same ship that Lasse Ellingson of Capron, Illinois, came on in 1845. It was furthermore the very same voyage of this ship. The name of the ship was Albion. For a partial list of the passengers on this ship as of Peder Schröder, whose captain was Vingaard,[338] the reader may now be referred to the account of the sailing of these two ships above, Chapter [XXXII].