State and Local Histories
The number of historical books and pamphlets relating to the States, counties, cities, and settlements in the Northwest is very great, and for the larger part, unsatisfactory but indispensable. They have usually been written by ambitious but untrained persons, either as commercial ventures, advertising agencies, or as the pastime of retirement or old age; they are nevertheless full of suggestive data; now and then one is found which can be trusted throughout.
A. MINNESOTA
First in importance for the Scandinavian settlements in Minnesota are four county histories: History of Fillmore County, including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota (1882); History of Goodhue County (1882); History of Houston County, etc. (1882); Martin E. Tew and Victor E. Lawson and J. E. Nelson, Illustrated History and Description and Biographical Review of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota (1905),—easily the best local history relating to Scandinavian settlement, as well as one of the latest and most comprehensive. Closely connected with this last work in scope and value is Alfred Söderström, Minneapolis Minnen: Kulturhistorisk Axplockning från Qvarnstaden vid Mississippi (1899). Other works dealing with the State or sections: Isaac Atwater (editor), History of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota (1893); Fredk. W. Harrington, Geography, History, and Civil Government of Minnesota (1883); Soren Listoe, Staten Minnesota i Nord Amerika (1869); History of the Minnesota Valley (1882); History of the Upper Mississippi Valley (1882).
W. A. Gates, Alien and Non-resident Dependents in Minnesota (in Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Correction, (1899)); F. H. B. MacDowell, “Minneapolis and her Scandinavian Population”, Scandinavia, III (1884); Louis Pio, “The Sioux War, in 1862—a Leaf from the History of Scandinavian Settlers in Minnesota”, Scandinavia, I (1883).
B. WISCONSIN
Of the State as a whole: J. W. Hunt, Wisconsin Gazetteer, containing the Names, Locations, and Advantages of the Counties, Cities, Towns, Villages, Postoffices, and Settlements (1853); Wm. R. Smith, The History of Wisconsin, in three Parts: Historical, Documentary, and Descriptive (1852); Alexander M. Thompson, A Political History of Wisconsin (1902); Charles R. Tuttle, An Illustrated History of the State of Wisconsin (1875); R. G. Thwaites, Preliminary Notes on the Distribution of Foreign Groups in Wisconsin (in Annual Reports of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1890); G. W. Peck (editor), Cyclopedia of Wisconsin, 2 vols. (1906).
For the localities: Spencer Carr, A Brief Sketch of La Crosse, Wisconsin (1854); Daniel S. Durrie, A History of Madison, the Capital of Wisconsin ... with an Appendix of Notes on Dane County (1874); E. W. Keyes, History of Dane County, 3 vols. (1906); The History of Racine and Kenosha Counties (1879); The History of Rock County (1879); The History of Waukesha County (1880); H. L. Skavlem, “Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County, Wisconsin”, Normands-Forbundet (1909).
C. ILLINOIS