For ten years Hilleson was the only Norwegian settler in the county, but in 1847 there arrived in response to letters from Hilleson, a considerable party from Hardanger. These left Sörfjorden in Hardanger, and embarked in May at Bergen in the sailing vessel Juno, which brought them to New York in a little over four weeks, a remarkable record for that time.[391] Mr. T. M. Newton (Torgels Knutson) says, when we came to Buffalo we met an old man who was returning to Norway. He advised us to go back at once, saying America was not a fit place for respectable people to live in, it was a place for thieves and robbers. The party consisted of the following persons: Lars Larsen Röisetter (Risetter), Lars Olson Espe, Lars Helgeson Maakestad, Gjertrud H. Lönning, Helge H. Maaketad (who died in 1854), Ingeborg H. Maakestad, Torgels Knudson Maakestad, Sjur Sjurson Bleie (Bly) and Lars Larson Bly. They were met at Chicago by Ommon Hilleson; Lars Bly remained in Chicago, the rest started for Lee County, stopping a short time at Norway, La Salle County, thereupon all but Ingeborg Maakestad drove to Hilleson’s home in Lee County.[392] Most of them settled in Bradford Township, but Lars Risetter (born 1827 in Ullensvang) bought eighty acres of land in Sublette Township, whither other subsequent immigrants from Hardanger also soon moved. Soon after arriving, Risetter and Gjertrud Lönning were married in the first house built by a Norwegian in Lee County, at the home of Ommon Hilleson. Lars Espe and Lars Risetter were the first two of the party to build a log cabin.
Mr. Newton tells that two young men came from La Salle County about the same time and bought a piece of land in Franklin Grove about two miles and a half from where he lived. “They lived in a log cabin on their place,” he says. “One night about two months after we arrived, they were both murdered. The same day I had tried to persuade one of them to stay with me, but he felt it necessary to be at home. Their heads had been split open with an ax. I then thought of what the old gentleman had tried to tell us and heartily wished myself back in Norway.”
During the years 1848 no immigrants left Hardanger for America, and Lee County received no settlers directly from Norway. In 1849, however, thirty-two emigrated from Ulvik, but none of these seem to have come to the settlement. In 1850 there was one accession, namely, Amund Lönning, who came directly to his brother-in-law, Lars Risetter, in Sublette Township. He worked in the harvest the first season for Thomas Fessenden for $11.00 a month, bought a quarter section in Willow Creek Township in 1852, being the first Norwegian to settle there. In 1857 Lars Risetter also moved into Willow Creek Township, where he has since lived.[393]
Of the rest Torgels Maakestad, who adopted the name T. M. Newton (Knutson), is still living, his home being at Grinnell, Iowa. Sjur Bleien lives at the Old People’s Home, Stoughton, Wisconsin.
In 1851 the following arrived from Ullensvang, Hardanger, and located in the settlement: Jacob O. Rogde (b. 1828), Haaken L. Risetter and wife Maria (Hildal), Haldor Nilsen Hovland, and Agatha Espe, a sister of Lars Espe. Rogde purchased eighty acres of land in Bradford Township in 1854 and in 1855 he married Else Bly from Hardanger, who had come to America in 1854.[394] Haakon Risetter settled in Ogle County immediately north of Lee County. Of those who arrived in subsequent years many settled across the county line in De Kalb County, and in a few years there had sprung up a thriving and prosperous community. At present the Bradford Norwegian Evangelical Congregation of Lee numbers 300 adult members. The center of the settlement is about four miles south of Franklin Grove.
Immediately east of De Kalb and the northern part of La Salle County lies Kendall County, into which extends a northeastern branch of the original Fox River Settlement, located chiefly in Big Grove Township; the village of Newark lies within its boundaries. The first Norwegian to settle in the village of Newark was Ole Olson Hetletvedt, as we have observed above. Ole Hetletvedt, or Medlepeint as he was called, was born in August, 1797, and was, as we know, one of the members of the sloop party. Of his first years in this country we have already spoken. He came to Newark in 1839; there he lived till his death in 1854. The next settlers in Newark were Herman Osmonson and Knut W. Tysland, both of whom also located there in 1838.
The first Norwegian settler at Lisbon was John Hill (Hidle) from Fjeldberg in Söndhordland, Norway. He came to America in 1836,[395] going direct to La Salle County. Among the immigrants of that year were also Anders Anderson Aasen and wife Olena and family from Tysvær Parish, a little south of Haugesund. The family included a daughter Susanna, (born 1822), who was married to John Hill in 1844. The Aasen family lived in Kendall, New York, for two years, then in 1838 moved to La Salle County, Illinois. In 1839 John Hill located at Lisbon, and he was thus the first Norwegian to settle here, whither a considerable number later moved.[396] About 1846 Sjur Larson came there from Skaanevik, Norway; Lars Chelley (Kjelle) came in 1847.
The Norwegians did not begin to come in extensively to Lisbon before 1850. Mrs. Austin Osmond, oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hill, who is now living in Morris, Grundy County, tells me that she was the only Norwegian child in school at Lisbon when she first began to attend, but later there gradually came more. At Newark several Norwegians had already begun to move on. Goodman Halvorson (b. 1821) and wife Martha Grindheim from Etne Parish in Söndhordland, came to America in 1847 and purchased land in Fox Township, Kendall County; he erected his log cabin there in the spring of 1848. Halvorson is still living on the old homestead which, however, he leases to other parties. Osmund Tutland from Hjelmeland in Ryfylke, and wife Malinda from Aardal in Ryfylle and two children had come to Mission Township, La Salle County, in 1836; a daughter, Mrs. Anna Hegglund (b. 1842) is at present living in Newark. Tutland became, in 1854, the founder of the Norwegian colony at Norway, Benton County, Iowa.[397]
Among the old pioneers of Lisbon was also Henry Munson from Voss, but I am not able to give the year of his arrival. Munson died in 1907, being over ninety years old. Wier Sjurson Weeks (born in Skaanevik in 1812), and wife Synneva and two children emigrated in 1846; after much hardship, and sickness in the family, through which they lost the two daughters, they arrived at Lisbon late in 1846. Here Weeks worked at first at the trade of a carpenter. In 1848 he bought eighty acres of land on North Prairie, five miles north of Lisbon.[398] Here he settled permanently, prospered, and became an influential citizen and active member of the Lutheran Church of North Prairie. Mr. Weeks died in February, 1900, at the age of eighty-seven; his wife lived till 1904, reaching the age of ninety-four. A name most closely associated with the early annals of Newark is that of Torris Johnson (b. in Skaanevik 1837), who came to America with his grandfather Torris Torison in 1848.[399] Having arrived at Chicago, they went to Calumet, twenty miles south of Chicago, to Halstein Torison, who was an uncle of Torris Johnson. There Johnson remained till 1851, when he located in Kendall County. Mr. Johnson served in the war, being promoted to sergeant; after the war he returned to Newark. In 1865 he married Elizabeth Ryerson, born in Stavanger, Norway; they have had six children. Mr. Johnson is still living, his home being in Newark.
Although E. S. Holland (b. 1834) of Big Grove Township, did not settle in Kendall County before 1866, he belongs to the earlier pioneers now resident there, having come to this country with his parents in 1846. In 1854 he settled in York Township, Green County, Wisconsin, where he married Johanne Chantland the following year. In 1866 they removed to Kendall County, Illinois.[400] Mr. Holland has been especially active in the work of the church, and has been trustee and treasurer of Pleasant View Luther College since its organization.