Transcriber's Note
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_.
The footnotes have been consolidated and moved to directly follow the
paragraphs in which they are referenced. Be advised that the internal
page references made in the text are necessarily meaningless in this
version, since the printed page numbers are lost.
History of Norwegian Immigration
A History of Norwegian Immigration
to
The United States
From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848
By
GEORGE T. FLOM, Ph. D. (Columbia)
Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures and Acting
Professor of English Philology, State University of Iowa
[Illustration]
PRIVATELY PRINTED
IOWA CITY, IOWA
1909
COPYRIGHT 1909
GEORGE T. FLOM
THE TORCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA
TO MY MOTHER
THROUGH WHOM I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING
OF THE HEROIC WOMANHOOD EXEMPLIFIED IN THE
LIVES OF OUR PIONEER MOTHERS, THIS VOLUME IS
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
FOREWORD
This volume is intended to present the progress of immigration from
Norway to this country from the beginning down through what may be
termed the first period of settlement. It is possible that I may at
some future time return to these studies to trace the further growth of
the Scandinavian element and its place and influence in American life.
Four years ago I contributed an article to _The Iowa Journal of
History and Politics_ upon "The Scandinavian Factor in the American
Population," in which I discussed briefly the causes of emigration
from the Northern countries. This article forms the basis of chapters
VI-VIII of the present volume, much new evidence from later years
having, however, been added. In a subsequent issue of the same Journal
I published an article on "The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa," which
is embodied in part in chapters III-V of this volume. The remaining
thirty-six chapters are new. During the last three summers I have
continued my investigation of that part of the subject which deals with
the immigration movement. This book represents the results of that
investigation down to 1848.
For invaluable assistance in the investigation I gratefully acknowledge
indebtedness to the numerous pioneers whom, from time to time, I have
interviewed and who so kindly have given the aid sought. I wish to
thank, also, several persons who generously have accepted the task of
personally gathering pioneer data for certain localities. For such help
I owe a debt of gratitude to the following persons: J. W. Johnson,
Racine, Wisconsin; Reverend A. Jacobson, Decorah, Iowa; Reverend G. A.
Larsen, Clinton, Wisconsin; Henry Natesta, Clinton, Wisconsin; Rev. O.
J. Kvale, Orfordville, Wisconsin; Rev. J. Nordby, Lee, Illinois; Dr. N.
C. Evans, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin; M. J. Engebretson, Gratiot, Wisconsin;
Dan K. Anderson and wife, Woodford, Wisconsin; Ole Jacobson, Elk Horn,
Wisconsin; Samuel Sampson, Rio, Wisconsin; T. M. Newton, Grinnell,
Iowa; Harvey Arveson, Whitewater, Wisconsin; and Reverend Helge
Höverstad, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. My thanks are also due to Reverend
G. G. Krostu of Koshkonong Parsonage for having placed at my disposal
the Koshkonong Church Register from 1844-1850; as also for verifying
my copy of it in some cases of names and dates; for the privilege
accorded me of using these so precious documents I am most grateful.
Reverend K. A. Kasberg of Spring Grove, Minnesota, has given me certain
important data on part of the immigration to East Koshkonong in 1842,
and similarly N. A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin, for immigration from
Voss in 1838-1844, and Mr. Elim Ellingson and wife of Capron, Illinois,
on the founders of the Long Prairie Settlement. Many others might be
mentioned who have given valuable assistance by letter and otherwise
in the course of the investigation, and to whom I owe much. Finally,
I wish to thank Dr. N. C. Evans of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, for the loan
of _Cyclopedia of Wisconsin_ (1906) and _Illustreret Kirkehistorie_
(Chicago, 1898); Mr. O. N. Falk of Stoughton, Wisconsin, for loaning
me _Billed-Magazin_ for 1869-1870, and my brother, Martin O. Flom, of
Stoughton, for securing for my use several Wisconsin Atlases and a copy
of _The Biographical Review of Dane County_ (1893).
Of published works on Norwegian immigration which I have found
especially useful are to be mentioned S. Nilsen's _Billed-Magazin_ on
causes of immigration and the earliest immigrants from Telemarken and
Numedal; R. B. Anderson's _First Chapter on Norwegian Immigration_
for the sloopers of 1825, and their descendants; Strand's _History
of the Norwegians in Illinois_ (1905) for the Norwegians in Chicago;
H. L. Skavlem's sketch of _Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock
County, Wisconsin_, _Normandsforbundet_ for February, 1909, and several
articles in _Symra_, 1905-1908. I must also mention a most valuable
series of articles on the Rock Prairie Settlement, Rock County,
Wisconsin, which appeared in _Amerika_ in 1906. (See further the
Bibliography at the end of this volume.)
No one who has never been engaged in a similar undertaking can have any
conception of the difficulty of the task and the labor involved in the
collecting, weighing and sifting of the vast amount of detail material.
I have tried to write a work which shall be correct as to details and
historically reliable. That errors have crept in I doubt not. I shall
be grateful to the reader who may discover such errors if he will call
my attention to them.
Finally, I wish to say that I have attempted nothing complete with
reference to the personal sketches of the earliest pioneers; this
was manifestly impossible. I have thought also that this was not
here called for except in cases of founders of settlements, and even
here I have sometimes lacked the full facts. To many it will also
undoubtedly seem that the early days of the church and the founding of
congregations should have received more attention. I can only say that
this volume deals specifically with the causes, course and progress of
Norwegian immigration and that this plan precluded a discussion in this
volume of religious and educational movements among the pioneers, or
of social questions, occupations, public service, and like topics. The
work thus aims to keep only what the title promises, and I hope it will
be found to be a real contribution to history within the scope marked
out for it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 15
CHAPTER I. Norway. Population, Resources, Pursuits of her
People, Social Conditions, Laws and Institutions 18
CHAPTER II. Emigration from Norway 27
CHAPTER III. The Earliest Immigrants from Norway, 1620 to 1825. 35
CHAPTER IV. The Sloopers of 1825. The First Norwegian
Settlement in America. Kleng Peerson 45
CHAPTER V. The Founding of the Fox River Settlement.
Personal Notes on Some of the Founders 55
CHAPTER VI. Causes of Emigration from Norway. General Factors,
Economic 64
CHAPTER VII. Causes of Emigration Continued. Special Factors.
Religion as a Cause. Emigration Agents 73
CHAPTER VIII. Causes of Emigration Continued. The Influence
of Successful Pioneers. "America-Letters." The Spirit
of Adventure. Summary 80
CHAPTER IX. Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The
Immigration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches. 89
CHAPTER X. The Year 1837 Continued. The Sailing of _Aegir_. 97
CHAPTER XI. Beaver Creek. Ole Rynning 102
CHAPTER XII. Some of the Immigrants of 1837. The
First Pathfinders from Numedal and Telemarken 108
CHAPTER XIII. Ansten Nattestad's Return to Norway in 1838.
The Year 1839. Immigration Assumes Larger Proportions.
The Course of Settlement Changes 116
CHAPTER XIV. Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten Nattestad's
Return from Norway in 1839. The Founding of the Jefferson
Prairie Settlement in Rock County, Wisconsin 125
CHAPTER XV. The Earliest White Settlers on Rock and Jefferson
Prairies. The Founding of the Rock Prairie Settlement.
The Earliest Settlers on Rock Prairie 135
CHAPTER XVI. The Rock Run Settlement. Other
Immigrants of 1839. The Immigration of 1840 147
CHAPTER XVII. The Settlement of Norway and Raymond Townships,
Racine County. The Founders of the Settlement.
Immigration to Racine County in 1841-1842 155
CHAPTER XVIII. The Establishment of the Koshkonong Settlement
in Dane County, Wisconsin 164
CHAPTER XIX. The Settling of Koshkonong by Immigrants from
Numedal and Stavanger in 1840. Other Accessions in
1841-1842 172
CHAPTER XX. New Accessions to the Koshkonong Settlement in
1840-1841. The Growth of the Settlement in 1842 180
CHAPTER XXI. The First Norwegian Settlement in Iowa, at Sugar
Creek in Lee County 190
CHAPTER XXII. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Wiota,
La Fayette County, and Dodgeville, Iowa County,
Wisconsin 198
CHAPTER XXIII. Growth of the Jefferson Prairie Settlement
from 1841 to 1845. The First Norwegian Land Owners
in Rock County 204
CHAPTER XXIV. Immigration to Rock Prairie from Numedal and
Land in 1842 and Subsequent Years 211
CHAPTER XXV. Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock
Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Immigration from
Numedal. Other Early Accessions 216
CHAPTER XXVI. Economic Conditions of Immigrants. Cost of
Passage. Course of the Journey. Duration of the Journey 221
CHAPTER XXVII. Norwegians in Chicago, 1840-1845. A Vossing
Colony. Some Early Settlers in Chicago from Hardanger 230
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers in the
Township of Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin 241
CHAPTER XXIX. The First Norwegian Settlers in the Townships
of Dunkirk, Dunn, and Cottage Grove, in Dane County,
Wisconsin 249
CHAPTER XXX. The Expansion of the Koshkonong Settlement
into Sumner and Oakland Townships in Jefferson
County. Increased Immigration from Telemarken. New
Settlers from Kragerö, Drammen and Numedal 255
CHAPTER XXXI. The Coming of the First Large Party of
Immigrants from Sogn. New Accessions from Voss 265
CHAPTER XXXII. Long Prairie in Boone County, Illinois;
A Sogning Settlement 272
CHAPTER XXXIII. The Growth of the Racine County (Muskego)
Settlement, 1843-1847 278
CHAPTER XXXIV. The Heart Prairie Settlement in Walworth Co.,
Wis. Skoponong. Pine Lake 289
CHAPTER XXXV. The Earliest Norwegian Settlers at Sugar Creek,
Walworth County, Wisconsin. The Influx from Land,
Norway, to Wiota and Vicinity, 1844-1852 300
CHAPTER XXXVI. Continued Immigration from Aurland, Sogn,
to Koshkonong. The Arrival of Settlers from Vik
Parish, Sogn, in 1845 305
CHAPTER XXXVII. Kirkeregister. Church Register of East
Koshkonong, West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie
Congregations as Constituted During the Years of Reverend
J. W. C. Dietrichson's Incumbency of the Pastorate from
1844 to 1850, and as Recorded by Reverend Dietrichson 314
CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Founding of the Norwegian Settlements
of Norway Grove, Spring Prairie and Bonnet Prairie in
Dane and Columbia Counties, Wisconsin 331
CHAPTER XXXIX. Blue Mounds in Western Dane County, Wisconsin 340
CHAPTER XL. The Hardanger Settlement in Lee and De Kalb Counties,
Illinois. Big Grove in Kendall County, and Nettle Creek
in Grundy County, Illinois 350
CHAPTER XLI. The First Norwegian Pioneers in
Northeastern Iowa 362
CHAPTER XLII. Survey of Immigration from Norway to
America. Conclusion 375
APPENDIX I 383
APPENDIX II 386
BIBLIOGRAPHY 387
INDEX 389
INTRODUCTION
In this volume I shall aim to give an account of the Norwegian
immigration movement from 1825 down to 1848. Thereupon will follow
a brief survey of the course of the movement and the growth of the
settlements founded here in that period. In the introductory pages
I shall discuss briefly individual immigration from Norway from its
earliest known beginnings down to 1825.
Immigration from Norway resulted in the founding of settlements in
New York, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa successively; I shall try to
give a correct narrative of the beginnings and the growth of these
settlements. In this part of the work I shall stress the oldest and
largest settlements in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, for
the relation of these to the whole movement and later colonization
of the Northwestern States by the Norwegians is one of especial
importance. I shall treat somewhat fully of the causes of emigration,
of the growth of the movement, and the part in it that each district
or province in Norway has played. The leaders from each district
and the founders of the settlements here will be named and in many
cases, sketches will be given of their lives. Such questions as the
course of the movement in Norway, the cost of the voyage, the course
of the journey, early wage conditions, the economic conditions of
the immigrants, the geographical trend of settlement, will also be
considered, and approximately complete lists of the accessions in each
settlement for the first few years will be given. The limits of this
volume, however, will preclude the treatment of social or cultural
questions, or to take more than the briefest notice of the pursuits and
occupations of the Norwegian-American and his contribution to American
life. I hope to be able to treat elsewhere, later, of some of these
problems.
The story of the immigrant settler is one that is well worth the
telling; it is one that is justly receiving increased attention in
recent years. I believe that the writer of American history will, in
the future, pay far greater attention than he has in the past to the
immigrant pioneer as a factor in the development of the nation. There
are in America today about one million people of Norwegian birth, or
Norwegian parentage. That is, there are nearly half as many of that
nationality in America as in Norway itself. The transplanting of so
large a proportion of a race from the land to which it is rooted by
birth and by its history is indeed remarkable.
Various European peoples have contributed to the growth of the
American population; they have each given something to the sum total
of present American life and in some measure helped to shape American
institutions. As a people America is yet in the formative period;
racially, at least, one-half of the population is not Anglo-Saxon.
It is by the amalgamation of all its ethnic factors that the future
American people will be evolved. The contribution that each foreign
element will make to that evolution will be determined by the
civilization, which each represents as its racial heritage, the culture
which, in the course of its history, each has evolved as a people
and a nation. As the true student of American history takes note of
these things in the future, the significance of the foreign factor in
the growth and the upbuilding of the country will receive its just
recognition.
We of Norse blood, but American birth, if we are true to the best
that is in us, cannot fail to have an interest in the trials and
the achievements of the pioneer fathers. We must recognize the true
heroism of the men and women who braved the hardships and suffered
the privations of frontier life in the thirties, the forties and
the fifties. The part that the pioneers of those days played in the
development of the Northwest was a great one; in comparison with it
that of the present generation is wholly insignificant. It is to the
memory of those pioneers, in recognition of their true worth, that this
record of their coming is dedicated.
CHAPTER I
_Norway: Population, Resources, Pursuits of her
People, Social Conditions, Laws and Institutions._
Norway is, as we know, a long and narrow strip of country in the west
of the Scandinavian Peninsula, stretching through thirteen degrees of
latitude, and in the north, extending almost three hundred miles into
the arctic zone. Nearly a third of the entire country[1] is the domain
of the midnight sun, where summer is the season of daylight and winter
is one long unbroken night. Even in Southern Norway total darkness is
unknown in summer, the night being merely a period of twilight. In
Christiania the nights are light from April twentieth to the third
week in August, in Trondhjem, a week more at either end. In the latter
city there is broad daylight at midnight from May twenty-third to July
twentieth. Correspondingly there is a period of continuous darkness
in the extreme north. Thus at Tromsö the sun is not visible between
the twenty-sixth of November and the sixteenth day of January. The
long night is therefore short as compared with the long day of summer.
Climatically, also, Norway is naturally a land of extremes, extending,
as it does, over such a vast area north and south. Yet the populous
portion of the country, the southern two-thirds, is not appreciably
colder than the State of Iowa and the southern half of Wisconsin
and Minnesota. The winter is severest in the great inland valleys.
Gudbrandsdalen, Valders and Hallingdal, but especially in Österdalen.
In the last-named valley the lowest temperature ever observed has been
recorded, namely, 50°, mercury often having been frozen.[2] The winter
is also excessively long in these valleys; in Fjeldberg and Jerkin in
the Dovre Mountains the temperature is below the freezing point two
hundred days in the year. In the south and in the west coast-districts
the climate is more uniform and more temperate. Northern Norway, with
its gulf stream coast, presents the same general climatic conditions
as Western and Southern Norway; the inland region of extreme cold is
limited because of the very limited inland area, which also is very
sparsely populated.[3]
[1] Or over thirty-eight thousand square miles.
[2] Compare Björnson's account of the temperature at Kvikne in his
autobiographical sketch, _Blakken_.
[3] The statistical and much of the other matter in this chapter
has been taken from _Norway, Official Publication for the
Paris Exhibition_, 1900, published at Christiania. But I am
also indebted to the stately publication by Norwegian authors
and artists entitled _Norge i det nittende Aarhundrede_, 2
volumes, large folio, 436 and 468 pages. Christiania, 1900. The
scholars who published this are W. C. Brögger, B. Getz, A. N.
Kjær, Moltke Moe, Bredo Morgenstjerne, Gerhard Munthe, Frithjof
Nansen, Eilif Peterssen, Nordahl Rolfsen, J. E. Sars, Gustav
Storm and E. Werenskjold. The editor in chief for the texts is
Nordahl Rolfsen, for the illustrations E. Werenskjold. There
is a large staff of collaborators, each article is prepared by
a specialist; the whole is a rare piece of book-making. The
printers are Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag, Christiania. I wish
to mention also especially here Christensen's _Det nittende
Aarhundredes Kulturkamp i Norge_, Christiania, 1905.
The population of Norway[4] is very unevenly distributed, the north
being rather thinly settled. The area of Norway is 124,495 square
miles, or somewhat more than that of Wisconsin and Illinois together.
About four per cent of this, however, is covered by lakes, and the
average number of inhabitants to the square mile is only seventeen. The
corresponding figures of inhabitants to the square mile for Sweden is
twenty-eight; for Denmark, however, it is one hundred and forty-eight,
and for all Europe, it is ninety-eight. The density of population is
greatest in Larvik and Jarlsberg on the south (barring the cities of
Christiania and Bergen). In these provinces there are one hundred and
sixteen inhabitants to the square mile. In Hedemarken the number falls
to twelve. The western fjord districts, those of Trondhjem Fjord, the
Sogne Fjord and the Hardanger Fjord are thickly populated.
[4] It was 1,490,950 in 1855, 2,350,000 in 1908.
Norway is a land of fjords and lakes, of mountains and glacier
expanses. Less than one-fourth of the country is capable of
cultivation, and eighty per cent of this is forest land. This leaves
less than five per cent under actual cultivation. We may compare again
with Denmark, where seventy-six per cent of the land is cultivated,
while in all Europe the ratio is forty per cent.
Norway's climate is noted for its healthfulness,[5] and its inhabitants
attain a higher degree of longevity than those of most other European
countries. Nearly seven per cent of its people reach the age of sixty
to seventy, while one per cent attain to the age of from ninety to one
hundred years. That is, reckoned as a whole, about twelve per cent
attain to the age of sixty years or more. This is considerable in excess
of that of nearly all other European countries.
[5] Dr. A. Magelson of Christiania has recently written a work on
Norway as a health resort entitled: _To Norway for Health. A
Scientific Account of the Peculiar Advantages of the Norwegian
Climate_, published by Nikolai Olson, Christiania.
The average age in Norway is fifty, while for instance, in Italy it
is thirty-five. But the expectancy is far more than this for him who
passes infancy; thus if one attains to the age of fifty in Norway, one
still may expect to live twenty-three years. Such is the health and the
expectancy of life among our immigrants from Norway.
The predominant pursuit in Norway is agriculture, cattle farming and
forest cultivation. Herein forty-eight per cent of the population seeks
its maintenance. The immigrant pioneer generally selects in America
the pursuit or occupation for which he has been trained in his native
country. And so we find that the great majority of Norwegian immigrants
have sought homes in rural communities and engaged in farming and
related pursuits. In fact, more than eighty-eight per cent of our
Norwegian immigrants have come from rural communities. Twenty-three
per cent of the population of Norway are engaged in industries and
mining. To these occupations in this country, Norway has, especially
in the later period of immigration, contributed a considerable share.
A little over eight per cent of her people are engaged in fishing.
And so we find that a proportionately very large amount of the New
England fisheries is conducted by fishermen who have come from Norway.
Navigation engages six per cent of the population of Norway. In this
connection I note that our warships in the Spanish-American war were
many of them manned almost exclusively by Norwegian sailors;[6] and
there were Norwegians in the American marine service as early as the
War of Independence, as again in no small proportion in the Civil War
in the sixties.
[6] _The Reliance_ which defended the America cup against _Shamrock
III_ in 1903 was manned almost exclusively by Norwegians. They
were from the following towns in Norway: Arendal, Aalesund,
Stavanger, Bergen, Larvik, Christiania, and Haugesund.
Perhaps about five per cent of Norway's population is engaged in
intellectual work. Here, too, the contribution of Norway to our
population in America has been considerable, especially during the last
twenty years.
Nearly all of the Norwegian population is of the Protestant faith, and
the great majority of these are members of the state church, which is
the Lutheran. Somewhat similar are the affiliations in America.
The constitution of Norway is liberal and the government highly
democratic. In these respects the people of Norway are now perhaps as
favorably circumstanced as we in America. The Norwegian readily enters
into the spirit of American laws and institutions, for their laws are
not essentially different from his own. Being accustomed to a high
degree of freedom, he has been trained to a high conception of the
responsibilities that that freedom entails. He has long been accustomed
to representation and sharing in the rights of franchise, and he
exercises that right as a privilege and a solemn duty. It may be said,
I believe, that no people has a higher sense of right and wrong and a
stronger moral incentive to right. Frauds in elections and graft in
official life are yet unheard-of among our Norwegian-American citizens.
Norway is, next to Finland, the most temperate of European countries.
The sale of liquor is permitted only in incorporated cities and
towns, and only by an association that is organized under government
supervision. It is the so-called Gothenburg system that is in use. Of
the earnings of such organization the government takes five per cent,
the county ten per cent and the municipality fifteen per cent, while
the net profit of the association must not exceed five per cent on the
investment in any one year. The hours of sale are very much restricted.
Not only is there no sale of liquor on Sundays, but places of such
business must close at one o'clock on Saturday and on days preceding
holidays. Norway is essentially a temperate country. Statistics show
that out of every thousand deaths, only one is due to drink. The
Norwegian people have educated themselves to abstinence, and the
temperance movement found wide support earlier in Norway than anywhere
else. _Det norske Totalafholds Selskab_[7] was organized in 1859; ten
years ago it had ten hundred and twenty branches and a hundred and
thirty thousand members, while other temperance associations also have
a considerable membership. Here in America, the Norwegian immigrant has
taken a prominent part in legislation looking toward the restriction of
the sale of intoxicating liquors,[8] and the Prohibition party finds
its strongest support among the Norwegians, as it finds a relatively
large number of its candidates for state and county offices from among
them.
[7] The Norwegian Total Abstinence Society.
[8] When the Sunday closing order was instituted in Minneapolis
in December, 1905, the _Minneapolis Journal_ commented upon
the fact that the Norwegian citizens made no complaint, as it
appears others did.
Crime conditions in Norway are similarly significant. Comparative
statistics are difficult of access, but Norway's proportion of
serious offences is very low. In the whole period from 1891-1895
the total number was only two hundred and sixty-one. Norway has its
poor as every country has, but it has its excellent system of taking
care of the poor. Thus every municipality has a Board of Guardians
(fattigkommission), which consists of the parish minister, a police
officer, and several men chosen by a local board. Norway keeps her
criminals and takes care of her poor; she does not send them to
America, as has only too often been the case in some other countries.
Norway has a highly developed school system crowned by the Royal
Frederik University at Christiania. It has compulsory education, its
boards of inspection and its great Department of Public Instruction. It
has its People's High School, its Workingmen's Colleges, and a system
of secondary schools, whose curricula are still on a conservative
basis. Its one University ranks with the foremost in Europe, and with
it are connected various laboratories and scientific institutions, and
it has a library of three hundred and fifty thousand volumes. Here
too are located its Botanical Gardens, the Historical Museum, the
Astronomical and Magnetic Observatory, the Meteriological Institute
and the Biological Marine Station.[9] The salaries of its teachers
in _Middelskole Gymnasium_, and of instructors and professors in the
University, reckoned by the purchasing power of money, is approximately
thirty per cent greater than that of our middle western universities.
I shall also mention _The Royal Norwegian Scientific Society_ at
Trondhjem, founded 1760, a similar society in Christiania, founded
1857, the _Bergen Museum_, founded 1825, with its literary and
scientific collections illustrative of the life and cultural history of
Western Norway, _The Norwegian National Museum_ in Christiania, founded
1894, similar, but more general in character, _The Industrial Arts
Museum_,[10] and the various archives of the Kingdom.
[9] This is located at Dröbak.
[10] Though Norway's participation in the Universal Exposition at
St. Louis in 1904 as regards number of exhibits was limited,
its exhibits were acknowledged to be of very high grade,
thus in its tapestries, in carved and inlaid work, in silver
and enamel displays it received the highest awards. Report
by Consul Fr. Waage, General Commissioner to the St. Louis
Exposition, _Skandinaven_, June 14th, 1905.
As to the Norwegian language I shall merely speak of its highly
analytic character, in which respect it has for a long time been
developing in the same direction as English, though of course,
absolutely independently. Being closely cognate with English, a large
part of the vocabulary of the two is of the same stock. Further, its
sound system is fundamentally similar. These three considerations,
especially perhaps the first, will make clear to us the reason why
the Norwegian so readily learns to use the English language, and
if he learns it in youth, even to the point of mastery. This is of
the greatest importance, for language is in modern times the real
badge of nationality. A correct use of the English language is the
first and chief stamp of American nationality, the key without which
the foreigner cannot enter into the spirit of American life and
institutions.
Norwegian literature I cannot either discuss here. The great movements
it represents in recent times are fairly well known; its significance
and its broad influence are beginning to be understood. The genius of
Norwegian literature is morality and truth. It expresses herein the
high ethical sense of the nation, which is pagan-racial, but which is
also Christian-Lutheran, a church which in its preëminent spirituality
is the typical Teutonic church.