Of this party Simonson, Opdahl, Abrahamson, and Quale settled in Springfield, the rest in Decorah and Glenwood Townships.[433] Most of the members of these parties had come to America several years before, as Opdahl in 1848 and Tostenson in 1847; three of them, as we know, Rudi and the two Johnsons, had immigrated in 1839.
A small party from Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, including Tore P. Skotland and his brother Endre P. Sandanger, Ellef and Lars Land, natives of Ringerike, also came the same summer; these secured claims around Calmar. The first list of landed assessments in Winneshiek County[434] records the names of Jacob Abrahamson, Knud Guldbrandson (Opdahl), Ole Gullikson (Jevne), Egbert Guldbrandson (Saland), Erik Clement (Skaali), Halvor Halvorson (Groven), O. A. Lomen, Ole Larsen Bergan, Mikkel Omli, Tollef Simonson (Aae), T. Hulverson, and Ole Tostenson.
Among other settlers of 1850, not named above, I may name: Nils Thronson, who had come from Valders in 1848, settling in Dane County, Wisconsin he located in Glenwood Township in the summer of 1850; Christopher A. Estrem from Vang Parish, who had immigrated to Chicago in 1848; he came to Winneshiek County and located in Frankville Township as one of the very first Norwegians there; Engebret Haugen, who had immigrated in 1842, locating near Beloit, Wisconsin; the family settled near Decorah in 1850, purchasing the old Indian Trading Post then owned by J. G. Rice.
In the fall of 1850 Johannes Evenson, Ole L. Bergan, Knud L. Bergan, and Jörgen Lommen came. Of these Evenson located west of Decorah, in Madison Township, becoming the first Norwegian to settle there.[435] As near as I can tell, Lars Iverson Medaas and family were the first Norwegians to settle in Canoe Township. Iverson who was born at Tillung, Voss (in 1802), but had married Sigrid Vikingsdatter in Graven, Hardanger (1835) and settled on the farm Medaas, emigrated to America in 1850. They spent the first winter on Liberty Prairie, Dane County, Wisconsin, and moved to Winneshiek County early in the spring of 1851, locating in Canoe Township, on section two, where they lived till their death.[436]
The first Norwegians to enter Hesper Township were a party of immigrants who came by the ship Valhalla from Tönsberg in the summer of 1852. They were from Tolgen, in northern Österdalen, and from Röraas and Guldalen,[437] hence from a much more northerly region than their countrymen in southern Winneshiek County. The party consisted of the following: Trond Laugen, John Losen, Sr., Bendt Pederson, Ingbrigt Bergh, Mons Monsen, all of whom were married, and John Vold and Jocum Nelson. These were followed in the next year by John S. Losen, Jr., and Ole B. Anderson Borren. Among the earliest settlers from other regions were Paul Thorsen, Salve Olson and Torjus Gunderson from Sætersdalen, Knut Herbrandson and Christian Lien from Hallingdal, Aadne Glaamene and family from Voss, Lars Bakka and Bendik Larson from Sogn, and Peder Wennes from Vardalen.[438]
From the towns of Springfield, Decorah, and Glenwood, the settlement thus soon spread into the neighboring townships—north into Canoe, Hesper, and Highland, where it united with the settlement in northwestern Allamakee County, and south through the towns of Calmar and Military, uniting with the settlement in north central Fayette County in Door Township. This last settlement extends through Pleasant Valley southward into Clayton County. Together these settlements form the eastern part of Clayton County, west through Fayette, and north through Winneshiek to northern Allamakee. In Allamakee it extends as far as Harper’s Ferry and Lansing. The bulk of the population, however, is found in Winneshiek County. The principal Norwegian townships are: Glenwood, Decorah, Springfield, Madison, and Highland. About half of the population of the county is of Norwegian birth, or of that descent.
CHAPTER XLII
Survey of Immigration from Norway to America. Conclusion.
We are then at the end of our task. We discussed at first early individual immigration from Norway down to the year 1825. Then tracing briefly the fortunes of the party of immigrants who came from Norway that year we followed the subsequent immigration, year by year, down to 1848, and the founding of settlements in this country from Orleans County, New York, in 1825, to Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1850. The growth of the emigration movement in Norway and the course of settlements here have been indicated. The names of the promoters of emigration in each district and province and of the founders of settlements have in all cases been given. In most cases we have succeeded in giving a fairly complete list of names of the settlers in any community during the first four to eight years of its history, that is its period of growth, the years during which it assumed the character of a Norwegian settlement. The varied causes of emigration were also discussed at some length as also other questions as the cost of passage and duration and course of the journey; and in the discussion of the individual settlements we have now and then given a glimpse of the general conditions of life in early pioneer days. I desire now by way of conclusion to summarize briefly the course of emigration in Norway and the distribution of the representatives of each district in this country.