In 1840 a few came here from Numedal and from that time the number of settlers steadily increased, chiefly by new arrivals from Norway. The most of those from Numedal settled in the northern part of the colony, for we who came after my brother, who was here before any of us, bought land in the place where he had built his cabin and those from the same part of Norway who came later as immigrants and who sought us out in the far west settled as our neighbors. I and the first Numedalians chose this tract as our home and our choice was made immediately after our arrival. The same autumn, 1839, a company from Voss in Norway came to the settlement. These Vossings went farther south and as “birds of a feather flock together” so their friends from Voss gradually settled with them. Hence the Jefferson Prairie settlement, as to population, may be divided into two districts, of which the northern consists chiefly of Numedalians while the Vossings predominate in the southern part.
In searching for the Nattestad book I learned that Ole Nattestad had preserved a manuscript copy of it and that sometime in the eighties he had handed this to Prof. Peter Hendrickson, then editor-in-chief of Skandinaven in Chicago, with the view of having the manuscript revised and reprinted; but before Professor Hendrickson found time to do this work, his home in Evanston, Illinois, was burned to the ground and in this fire the Nattestad manuscript was lost. Not long since, however, it was shown that the Nattestad book was not a myth. Mr. H. L. Skavlem of Janesville, Wisconsin, is a most patient and thorough student of Norwegian pioneer life in America, and especially of everything pertaining to the people who have emigrated from Numedal. In 1915 he published an account of the “Skavlem and Odegaarden Families in this Country” which is a masterpiece of genealogical records and pioneer history. Mr. Skavlem, beside being an authority on Indian relics and on Wisconsin bird life, has done much to preserve the history of the Norwegians in America. It was he who secured a printed copy of the Nattestad book for preservation in the library of the
State Historical Society, so far as known the only copy in existence.
TITLE PAGE OF OLE NATTESTAD’S “JOURNEY TO NORTH AMERICA”
Photographed from the copy in the Wisconsin Historical Library
Of this copy, which is now being printed in an English translation, Mr. Skavlem gives the following account:
In the summer of the year 1900 James and Henry Natesta, the sons of Ole K. Nattestad, the author of the pamphlet, took a short trip to Norway to visit the home of their forefathers, located in Vegli, Numedal. They made diligent inquiries for a pamphlet said to have been published from a manuscript sent to Norway in 1838 by their father. An old gentleman living close by the old homestead told them he had a copy, which they secured and brought back with them to this country. This copy has been in the possession of the Natesta brothers until last January (1916) when it was turned over to me and I handed it over to the State Historical Society.
In regard to the book, or pamphlet, it is to be stated that while Ole Nattestad had learned to write, he was entirely ignorant of Norwegian grammar. Both his orthography and his syntax are very faulty. There are many subordinate clauses with the principal clause left out. The surprising thing is that the printers in Drammen did not make the necessary corrections. I was requested to follow the original as closely as possible, so as to convey to the reader of the translation as complete a presentation of the original as possible. The mistakes in orthography could only be reproduced in the translation where they concerned proper names. The faults in syntax I have generally reproduced. The reader will have to be the judge of how well I have succeeded. The book is of more than ordinary interest from the fact that it contains a description of an emigrant’s journey from Norway to Chicago in 1837, the only description we have of that kind, and also from the fact that it is written by the first immigrant from Norway who set foot on Wisconsin soil.
DESCRIPTION OF A JOURNEY TO NORTH AMERICA