As I wished to own land of my own as soon as possible, I went to Primrose in 1849. Here I met Niels Einarson. There was enough of land, but how to get the number of what I selected, was the question. After much search we found a large oak a short distance east from where Norman Randal lives. On this tree was clearly to be seen the following letters and numbers: N. W. 1/4, S. 23, T. 5, N. R. 6 E. There was neither pen nor paper to get without going many miles, and something had to be done at once. I borrowed an axe of Emerson, cut down a little poplar, and, after having cut it flat on both sides, so that it became quite thin, I took my pocket knife and cut into it the letters and numbers just as they were in the tree. With this poplar stuck under my arm I went to the land-office and laid the stick and the money on the table, to the official’s amusement. They understood the description and I got the land.[378]
During 1850 came Mrs. Ole Baker with son P. O. Baker (b. 1838), Mons Ness, Elling Stamn, Ole Skuldt and Lars Halvorson from Hallingdal, Knut and Jens Olson from Stavanger, Lars L. Kolve and family from Voss and Knut Baardson (Bowerson) and family from Sætersdalen. During 1853 to 1855 Norwegians came in still greater numbers, writes Reverend Höverstad.
About twenty Norwegians settled in Perry in 1849; they were: Torger Hastvedt, Hans J. Dahle, Ole Gangsei and Jacob Aanhus from Telemarken, Andreas Stutelien and Jul Haavernd, wife and eight children from Valders, and Anders Sanderson from Hallingdal. After 1849 Norwegians came in in large numbers, settling up the town rapidly.[379] I shall mention here only Onon Björnson Dahle (b. 1823) from Nissedal, who settled in Perry in 1853, and Christian Evanson (b. 1819) from Valders, and wife Ragnild from Numedal, who came there in 1854.[380] Dr. Evans tells me that Ragnild Evanson (maiden name Ragnild Brekke) was born in Numedal, Norway, in 1819, and after her marriage to Christian Evanson, immigrated to America in company with her brother Lars N. Brekke (who for many years resided and conducted a grocery store in Madison, Wis.) in the year 1848, preceding her husband by about five years. They came by sailing vessel, and were sixteen weeks on the voyage, having been grounded on a rock off the coast of England and were obliged to wait repairs. After landing in New York they came by Erie canal and the lakes to Milwaukee, Wis., then to near Stoughton, Wis., and later to Madison, where she met her husband five years later. From Madison they moved to Perry, Dane County, and settled on section twenty-three and remained there until their death.[381] O. B. Dahle, who had been a school teacher in Nissedal, left Norway in company with a cousin, Knut Dahl, in 1848. They first came to Koshkonong, where the former taught parochial school for two years. They went to California in 1850 in search of gold as so many others. Having been unusually successful in the gold mines, they returned in 1853, and Onon Dahle bought a farm in Perry, on which he founded the village of Daleyville, beginning at the same time there a mercantile business. Here he amassed a fortune, retired and moved to Mt. Horeb in 1897. In 1854 Dahle married Betsey Nelson, daughter of Hermo N. Tufte of Racine County, and sister of the well-known lay evangelist, Elling Eielson. Mr. Dahle always took an active interest in public affairs and in the work of the Lutheran Church of which he is a member. He died in July, 1905, his wife having died in February of the same year.[382]
We shall close this chapter with a word about the first Norwegians in Madison, Wisconsin. It is not until 1850 that Norwegians began to locate in Madison in considerable numbers. However, there were a few there before that. As near as I can find out, Ole Torgeson, Ole O. Flom, Ole Lenvick, and Halvor N. Hauge, all of whom came to Madison in 1844, were the first Norwegians in Madison. All four of these worked for a printer by the name of Daniel Holt. Ole Flom, as we have seen, had come from Norway with his parents that summer in the first party that left Aurland, Sogn. He remained in Madison till 1847 when he returned to his father’s farm at Door Creek.[383] Halvor Hauge had come from Norway with his parents in the summer of 1844; the family had located in the Town of Christiana. Halvor went to California in 1848 where he remained several years, returning then to Koshkonong. Ole Torgerson had emigrated from Norway in 1844, coming directly to Madison, where he continued to live till his death in 1900. He published during 1850 there a Norwegian paper in the interests of the Whig party, but as this was not a paying enterprise he sold his types to Knut Langeland, who soon after began the issue of Maanedstidende in Janesville, having previously published Nordlyset and Demokraten in Muskego. Among other Norwegians in Madison in the early days were: Anne Vik, who worked for Dr. Collins during 1845;[384] in 1846 she married Halvor Bjoin, a Koshkonong pioneer. In July, 1846, Hans Christianson from Lærdal, Sogn, came to Madison; he, however, soon removed to Blooming Grove, where he located permanently.[385] Halvor Gabriel immigrated from Haugesund in 1848, coming direct to Madison, where he continued to live until 1877; he then moved to Sun Prairie and in 1893 to Fort Atkinson, where he died in 1897. Among the subscribers to Nordlyset and Demokraten, 1848–1850, appear the names of three residents of Madison, namely: Eric Anderson,[386] Lars Johnson, and William Anderson. Finally, when the Bethel Congregation was organized in 1855 the following appear as charter members: Ole Torgerson, Mrs. Ole Torgerson, Hans Olsen, Mr. Erickson, Olaf Olson, Haakon Larson, Nels Peterson, Lars Nelson, Ole Lawrence, Halle Steensland, Eline Hoel, Anne Nilson, Ingeborg Olson and Anne Olson. Lars Nelson (Brekke) had come there in 1848 from Numedal,[387] coming direct to Madison. Mr. Nelson was well and favorably known as the owner of a grocery store on West Main Street for many years. Of the other persons mentioned above only Haakon Larson and Halle Steensland are now living. The latter has always held a prominent place in the financial history of the capital and in general in the upbuilding of the city. He has always been a staunch member of the Bethel Church, and was one of the leaders in the organization of the Norwegian-American Pioneer Association, of which he was president in 1903–05.
CHAPTER XL
The Hardanger Settlement in Lee and De Kalb Counties, Illinois. Big Grove in Kendall County and Nettle Creek in Grundy County, Illinois.
Although Hardanger has contributed a relatively small proportion of the American immigrant population from Norway, several of the earliest arrivals were from that province and its sons occupy today a prominent place in Norwegian American history. It has been shown above, chapters IX and X, that several members of the party who came in 1836, as also of that of 1837, were natives of Hardanger; and in the Chicago colony in 1839 we met with several natives of that province. In 1839 a considerable number left Hardanger, especially from Ulvik Parish, as we learn from Nordmandsforbundet, 1909, page 175. Among these were the brothers Anders and Johan Vik from Eidfjord in Hardanger. The two brothers first went to Wiota, where they secured work in the lead mines. In 1844 John Vik (Week) went to Dodgeville, where he established himself as a shoemaker, entering into partnership with Johan Lee from Numedal. Later he went to Portage County, Wisconsin, where he prospered and was for over a decade a dominant power in the lumber trade of northern Wisconsin.[388]
Among the immigrants who had come from Hardanger, Parish of Ullensvang, in 1836, we mentioned Ammund Helgeson Maakestad above, page [95]. Maakestad dropped the family name in this country and called himself Ommon Hilleson. For a little over a year he was a coast sailor; then he decided to go west and secure land where his countrymen had settled. This he did, but not in the usual way, for Hilleson walked the whole distance from New York to Chicago. This was in 1837.[389]
From Chicago he directed his steps farther west; he did not, however, go to the settlement founded several years before, but pushed on as far as Lee Center in the County of Lee.[390] Here he secured work, saved some money, and bought a homestead in Bradford Township, and erected thereon a sod house. Soon after he married Catherine Reinhart, daughter of a German pioneer, recently moved in.