_Causes of Emigration continued. The Influence of
Successful Pioneers. "America-letters."
The Spirit of Adventure. Summary._
Far more influential, however, than the factors just noted were the
efforts put forth by successful immigrants to induce their relatives
and friends to follow them. Numerous letters were written home praising
American laws and institutions, and setting forth the opportunities
here offered. These letters were read and passed around to friends.
Many who had relatives in America would travel long distances to
hear what the last "America-letter" had to report. Among the early
immigrants who did much in this way to promote emigration from their
native districts was one whom we have already spoken of, Gjert
Hovland. He wrote many letters home praising American institutions.
These letters "were transcribed and the copies distributed far and
wide in the Province of Bergen; and a large number were thus led to
emigrate."[57]
[57] See _Billed-Magazin_, p. 74.
The interviews in _Billed-Magazin_ contain statements from several
among the early settlers on Koshkonong Prairie and the neighborhood
of Stoughton which give evidence of the part that "America-letters"
played in their emigration. On page 123 occurs a statement of Gaute
Ingbrigtson (Gulliksrud) who came from Tin in Telemarken in 1843 and
became one of the earliest pioneers of Dunkirk Township in Dane County.
He says: "Two of my uncles and a brother emigrated in 1839. I, however,
remained at home with my father who was a farmer in the Parish of Tin.
But then letters came with good news from America, and my relatives as
well as other acquaintances on this side of the ocean were encouraged
to emigrate. From this it came about that I and many others in my
native district prepared for leaving in the spring of 1843. The party
numbered about one hundred and twenty...."
We have already had occasion to refer to a letter received by Ole
Menes of Stoughton in 1845. Ingbrigt Helle came from Kragerö in
1845 and settled in the Town of Dunn. The ship he came on brought
one hundred and forty immigrants and he mentions the fact that
many had been induced to emigrate by letters from America, and he
writes: "Such letters from America urging emigration was, as far as
I can see, the thing that brought the majority of emigrants to bid
farewell to Norway." Ole Knudson Dyrland, who emigrated from Siljord,
Telemarken, in 1843, and became one of the earliest white settlers in
Dunn Township, Dane County, testifying to the same fact, mentions Ole
Knudson Trovatten as one who, through letters, exerted considerable
influence upon emigration in Telemarken (page 218, _Billed-Magazin_,
1870). We shall meet Trovatten again below as a pioneer in the Town
of Cottage Grove in the same county. The editor of _Billed-Magazin_
writes of Trovatten elsewhere, page 283, after giving a brief sketch of
his life: "he settled on Koshkonong and wrote therefrom many letters
to his numerous friends in his native country in which he, with
much eloquence, made his countrymen acquainted with the glories of
America, and there is no doubt that Trovatten in a large measure gave
the impulse to the rapid development of emigration in the region of
Telemarken."
Of Trovatten's influence as a promoter of immigration Gunder T. Mandt,
himself an immigrant of 1843 (died 1907, Stoughton, Wisconsin), gives
similar testimony. He speaks of the opposition to emigration in Upper
Telemarken, which found expression in all sorts of adverse accounts
of America, especially among the clergy, and that much uncertainty
prevailed among the masses as to the advisability of going to America.
During all this, Trovatten, he says, "came to be looked upon as an
angel of peace, who had gone beforehand to the New World, whence he
sent back home to his countrymen, so burdened by economic sorrows,
the olive-branch of promise, with assurances of a happier life in
America.... 'Ole Trovatten has said so,' became the refrain in all
accounts of the land of wonder, and in a few years he was the most
talked of man in Upper Telemarken. His letters from America gave a
powerful impulse to emigration, and it is probable that hundreds of
those who now are plowing the soil of Wisconsin and Minnesota would
still be living in their ancestors' domains in the land of Harald
Fairhair, if they had not been induced to bid old Norway farewell
through Trovatten's glittering accounts of conditions on this side of
the ocean." (_Billed-Magazin_, 1870, p. 38.) Similar evidence of the
influence of "America-letters" is also given by Knud Aslakson Juve, a
pioneer of 1844, in the Town of Pleasant Spring, in Dane County.
At the close of the preceding chapter I spoke of Gjert Hovland's
letters in 1835 as a chief factor in bringing about the emigration of
1836. From settlers in other portions of the country comes testimony
of similar nature, and I have spoken with many pioneers from a later
period of immigration, whose coming was, in the last instance,
determined by favorite accounts of America received from friends and
relatives already resident there.
In letters from immigrants to their relatives at home prepaid tickets,
or the price of the ticket, were often enclosed. This custom was so
common as to become a special factor in emigration. According to
_Norsk Folkeblad_ (cited in _Billed-Magazin_, p. 134), 4,000 Norwegian
emigrants, via Christiana in 1868, took with them $40,335 (Speciedaler)
in cash money of which $21,768 (Spd.) had been sent by relatives in
America to cover the expense of the journey. It has been estimated that
about fifty per cent of Scandinavian emigrants, arrive by prepaid
passage tickets secured by relatives in this country.[58]
[58] Nelson's _History of Scandinavians_, page 56.
The visits of successful Scandinavians back home was in the early days
an important factor; and as a rule only those who had been prosperous
would return. In 1835 Knud Anderson Slogvig, who had emigrated in the
sloop as we know, returned to Norway and became the chief promoter of
the exodus from the Province of Stavanger in 1836, which resulted in
the settlement at Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois.
We have already above, page 63, recited this fact and its significance
toward promoting further emigration from Stavanger Province and of
inaugurating the first exodus from Hardanger also. Thus, while Jacob
Slogvig, the brother, was one of a few to secure land in La Salle
County and make the beginnings of settlement, Knud became the means
of bringing hosts of immigrants from Norway to recruit the colony and
start it upon its course of growth. In precisely a similar way did two
other brothers become even more significant factors in the foundation
and development of the earliest Norwegian settlement in Wisconsin,
namely, that of Jefferson Prairie in Rock County. They were Ole and
Ansten Nattestad, who had emigrated in 1837. Returning to Norway in
1839 Ansten Nattestad became the father of emigration from Numedal,
Norway, bringing with him a large party of immigrants, who located for
the most part in southern Rock County, Wisconsin, and adjacent parts of
the state of Illinois. But of this movement I shall have occasion to
speak more fully below.
An equally interesting instance we have from a somewhat later period.
We have above referred to Ole Dyrland's testimony of the effect of Ole
Trovatten's letters. After remarking that many still were doubtful of
the advisability of emigrating he goes on to say:
"But then Knud Svalestuen of Vinje, who had lived for a time in the
Muskego Settlement, came home on a trip back to Norway, and by his
accounts even the most hesitating were made firm in their faith.
Knud came in the fall of 1843, and during the winter he received
visits of men sent out from various districts in Telemarken, who
came to secure reliable information about the new country. The
next spring hosts of intending emigrants left the upper mountain
districts of the country.... Three emigrant ships left that year
from Porsgrund. On board the ship I left in there were two hundred
and eleven emigrants."
The editor of _Billed-Magazin_ gives other interviews with pioneers
showing the effect of Svalestuen's return (page 293).
Some of the Norwegian pioneers wrote books regarding the settlements
and American conditions, and these, laudatory as they were, exerted
not a little influence. Special mention should be made of Ole Rynning,
whose pamphlet, _Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika til Veiledning og
Hjaelp for Bonde og, Menigmand, skrevet of en Norsk som kom der i
Juni Maaned_, 1837.[59] This little book of thirty-nine pages had
not a little to do with the emigration that followed to La Salle
County, Illinois, and elsewhere. In it the author gives an intelligent
discussion of thirteen questions regarding America which he set himself
to answer. Among them were: What is the nature of the country? What is
the reason that so many people go there? Is it not to be feared that
the land will soon be overpopulated? In what parts are the Norwegian
settlements? Which is the most convenient and the cheapest route to
them? What is the price of land? What provision is there for the
education of children? What language is spoken and is it difficult
to learn? Is there danger of disease in America? What kind of people
should emigrate?
[59] _True Account of America for the Information and Help of
Peasant and Commoner_, written by a Norwegian who came there
in the month of June, 1837.
Another writer of immigration literature whose writings were widely
distributed and had considerable influence was Johan Reinert Reierson.
He came to America in 1843, but returned to Norway soon after. In
America he had written a book, _Veiviseren_,[60] which he published
in Norway and was read far and wide. This book contains a fund of
information regarding the different settlements, as Racine County,
Wisconsin, La Salle County, Illinois, and Lee County, Iowa, and others,
all of which Reierson had himself visited. Reierson became the founder
of the first Norwegian settlement in Texas in 1847-48.
[60] _The Pathfinder_, a book of one hundred and sixty-six pages.
Of the events leading up to this, _Billed-Magazin_ for 1870 gives a
circumstantial account, pages 58-60, 66-67, and 75-76. Reierson's
book seems to have been a leading factor in promoting emigration from
Valders. Among the earliest to leave this region were Nils Hanson
Fjeld and family of South Aurdal, Valders, who emigrated in 1847. He
says, page 236 of _Billed-Magazin_ for 1870, that before him only
two or three single men had gone to America from that region. The
"America-fever" had not yet taken hold of the people, "many would not
give credence to mere hearsay, but after a while a couple copies of
Reierson's book about Texas came to the district. 'Now we have the
printed word to go by,' it was said, and many of the doubters soon were
converted to the orthodox faith in the land of promise beyond the great
ocean." And as a result, many began to emigrate. As early as 1848,
emigration from Valders on a considerable scale was already in progress.
I shall here also mention Ansten Nattestad, who wrote a similar book,
which he took with him on his return to Norway in 1838, and had printed
there; this became a factor operating toward emigration, especially
in Numedal. Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson's _Reise blandt de norske
Emigranter i de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater_, Stavanger, 1846
(124 pages), gave much valuable information about the settlements, but
was not calculated to exert much influence toward emigration. The first
three that I have mentioned, however, had an influence which we today
can hardly fully appreciate.
Finally, curiosity and the spirit of adventure have doubtless prompted
some to cross the ocean.
To sum up, the chief influences that have promoted Scandinavian
emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century have been
in the order of their importance: first, the prospect of material
betterment and the love of a freer and more independent life; second,
letters of relatives and friends who had emigrated to the United
States and visits of these again to their native country; third, the
advertising of agents of emigration; fourth, religious persecution at
home; fifth, church proselytism; sixth, political oppression; seventh,
military service; and eighth, the desire for adventure. Fugitives from
justice have been few, and paupers and criminals in the Scandinavian
countries are not sent out of the country; they are taken care of by
the government.