[A] It will have been observed that it has been impossible to make out some of the names, the last part of the Register having been written in a very illegible hand.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
The Founding of the Norwegian Settlements of Norway Grove, Spring Prairie and Bonnet Prairie in Dane and Columbia Counties, Wisconsin.
In the extreme northern part of Dane County in the Towns of Vienna, Windsor and Bristol, a large number of Norwegian immigrants, principally from Sogn, settled in 1846–1848, forming the nucleus of what in a few years came to be one of the most prosperous settlements in Southern Wisconsin. The first Norwegian in this section was Svennung Nikkulson Dahle, who came from Flatdal in Telemarken in 1844 to Koshkonong, and the next year purchased land and settled near Norway Grove in the Town of Vienna. He was then only eighteen years old.[360] Nearly all who came later were from Sogn, and Dahle was and remained the only native of Telemarken in Vienna. In 1846 Erik Engesæter, from Leikanger, Sogn, with family, including a son John, settled there. In 1847 Ole H. Farness (b. 1826) and wife Gertrude came from Sogn, Norway, to Norway Grove. Erik C. Farness[361] (b. 1828) also came the same year. These men both acquired large farms there in the course of time, Ole Farness owning 530 acres. Arne Boyum and family, five in all, from Outer Sogn, came in 1848 as did Knut K. Naas (b. 1810), with wife Alau and family of four children from Kragerö.[362]
The first Norwegian to buy land in Windsor Township was Ingebrigt Larson Tygum, from Systrand, Sogn, who immigrated in 1844, lived one year in Muskego, then came to Windsor in 1845. For two years he seems to have been the only Norwegian in the Town.[363] In 1852 Tygum sold his farm in Windsor and moved into Vienna Township, buying the farm at present occupied by the son Lars (b. 1849). In 1847 the following settled in Windsor Township: Stephen Holum and family, who had immigrated in 1845 and lived two years at Rock Prairie, Sjur Grinde and family, and Truls E. Farness and wife.[364] These families are intimately connected with the history of the Village of De Forest. A son of S. Holum, namely Ole S. Holum (b. 1847), lives on 204 acres of land adjoining the village. Ole Holum is a prominent democrat and has held various offices of trust, being e. g. Register of Deeds in 1877–78.[365] In 1848 several families moved in, among them Lars Eggum, Ole Haukness and family (ten in all), and Sjur S. Vangness and family. Vangness had immigrated in 1844, first settled in Rock County, then came to De Forest in 1848. He died there in 1878. The family included a son, Sjur S. Vangness (b. 1816 at Vangsness in Sogn), whom we meet with later as a man of much influence in the township; he owned 264 acres of land near De Forest.[366]
In Bristol Township three families settled as early as 1846; namely that of Botolf E. Bergum (b. 1816), who came there in the fall of 1846, and continued to reside there until his death in 1904 (his wife died in 1903; after a wedded life of fifty-four years),[367] Sjur Johnson and wife Ingeborg and one son, and Erik Larson and wife and several children.
In 1848 Hans H. Quamme came up to Bristol from Rock Prairie, where he had settled in 1846, coming from Norway that year. During the next three years so many immigrants came from Sogn and located in Norway Grove that the settlement came to be called “Sogn.” Among the many families who located there at that time, John Ollis of Madison, Wisconsin, writing in Bygdejaevining, page 341, names: “Engesæther, Grinde, Farnes, Tygum, Eggum, Boyum, Huseböe, Hamre, Ohnstad, Slinde, Sværen, Vangsness, Holum, Linde, Lidahl, Thorsnes, Fosse, Rendahl, Ethun, Vigdahl, Ulvestad, Röisum, Svalem, Fjerstad, Henjum, Jerde, Haukeness,” besides all who were called Olson, Larson, Nilson, Anderson, Peterson, Johnson, etc.
About ten miles northwest of Norway Grove, at Lodi in Columbia County, a smaller settlement of immigrants from Hardanger takes its beginning in 1847–48; although one family had settled there as early as 1844. In that year Peder L. Ödvin (b. 1819) and wife Kathrine Spaanem, from Ulvik in Hardanger, emigrated to America and went direct to Lodi. Ten years later they moved to Springdale in Dane County.[368] In 1847 Peder Fröland (see page 336) and Ole Jone, both from Hardanger, became the founders of the Hardanger Settlement there. In 1846 Ammund Himle and family from Voss immigrated and settled near Lodi, but below the Dane County line.
The origin of the Spring Prairie Settlement in Columbia County, the northern extremity of which is more specifically called Bonnet Prairie, dates back to 1845. In that year four men settled about the same time on Spring Prairie, namely: Odd Himle and Sjur S. Reque from Voss, Anders Langeteig from Vik in Sogn, and Knud Langeland from Racine County. The three first of these had families. Reque moved away again four years later, settling on Liberty Prairie, not far from Deerfield. Langeland, as we have recited above, was already in 1848 back in Racine County as one of the founders of Nordlyset, the first Norwegian newspaper published in this country; but Himle and Langeteig became permanent settlers.