_Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immigration
of 1836. Further Personal Sketches._
On page fifty-five above I spoke of the advance troop of six men who
established the Fox River Settlement in 1834. A list of those who
followed from New York in 1835 was also given. Other settlers came
in subsequent years, more and more now coming directly from Norway
to La Salle County. The vicinity of the present towns of Norway and
Leland, in eastern and northern La Salle County, became centers of
a settlement, which later extended east into Kendall County (Newark
and Lisbon) and into Grundy County toward Morris, as also north into
DeKalb County (Rollo, Sandwich), and northwest clear into southwestern
Lee County (Paw Paw, Sublette, and surrounding region). The slooper,
Ole Olson Hetletvedt, had not come west with the first party. He lived
first in Kendall and then went to Niagara Falls, being there employed
in a paper mill. Here he married a Miss Chamberlain, then moved back to
Orleans County. In 1839 he and his wife went west, settling in Kendall
County. He bought land on the spot where the town of Newark now stands.
He became well known as a lay preacher of the Haugian faith in the Fox
River Settlement, also visiting the settlements founded soon after in
Wisconsin and in Lee County, Iowa. He died in Kendall County in 1849 or
1850.[61]
[61] One of his sons was Colonel Porter C. Olson of Civil War fame,
member of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry.
Iver Waller, who bought a claim of Miss Pearson in 1835, came
directly from Norway to La Salle County that year. Baldwin's _History
of La Salle County_ lists Ove Stenson Rossadal and wife, and John
Stenson Rossadal among the arrivals of 1835, and as being brothers
of Daniel Rossadal, of whom we have spoken above. Strand's _History
of the Norwegians in Illinois_ correctly names them as sons of
Daniel Rossadal. Nils Bilden, who also came during this period (year
uncertain), was therefore one of the very first emigrants from
Hardanger to the United States. He settled at Rochester, Sangamon
County, Illinois.
As to the extent of Norwegian immigration during the years immediately
preceding the year, 1836, which inaugurates a new period in the
movement, our information is very fragmentary. American statistics give
forty-two and thirty-one, respectively, for 1834 and 1835, as the total
immigration from Norway and Sweden. In 1833 there were sixteen, while
the number for 1832 is three hundred and thirteen.[62] The total number
between 1826 and 1831 is given as sixty-eight. It is probable, however,
that these figures do not represent the full number of immigrants
during these years. Norwegian government statistics on immigration
which are available since 1836, give the number of immigrants for that
year as two hundred, which is also the figure for the following year.
It is to this exodus that we shall now turn.
[62] Among those who came in 1832 was John Nordboe from
Gudbrandsdalen, Norway.
We have above, under Causes of Emigration, had occasion to speak of
Knud Slogvig's return to Norway in 1835, after a ten years' residence
in America;[63] the results of his return were also there briefly
noted. In the two ships, _Norden_ and _Den Norske Klippe_,[64] which
sailed from Stavanger in July of 1836, came two hundred immigrants,[65]
who located for the most part in the Fox River Settlement. These
stopped en route for a short time in Rochester, no doubt gathering
advice and information from Lars Larson, the captain of the sloopers,
resident there as we know; thence they continued their journey west
to Chicago and to La Salle County. Thus the nucleus which had been
formed in 1834-35 in a very short time developed into a considerable
settlement at a time when the surrounding country was practically a
wilderness. The immigrants of 1836 were, in part, from Stavanger, some,
however, were from other districts, east and north, as especially
Hardanger and Voss.
[63] While in Norway he married a sister of Ole Olson Hetletvedt,
which may have been in part the purpose of his return.
[64] _The North_ and _The Norwegian Rock_.
[65] Langeland says a hundred and sixty on page eighteen of his
work, elsewhere a hundred and fifty. Two hundred seems,
however, to have been approximately the number.
Not all who came settled in Mission and the later Miller townships,
however. Some went considerably farther north and established, in Adams
Township, a northern extension of the original settlement at and around
the present village of Leland. The two, however, later grew together
into one large settlement, extending also, east into Kendall County.
The first white settler in Adams Township was Mordicai Disney, who
located there in 1836, slightly prior to the coming of the immigrants
from Stavanger.[66]
[66] Disney left again in 1837.
The first of our immigrants to locate in Adams Township where Halvor
Nelson and Ole T. Olson, who in the spring of 1837, settled on sections
twenty-one and twenty-two;[67] they had lived in Mission Township
since their coming in 1836. Among those who came in 1836 and located
in Mission Township were: Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, who in 1840 went
to Wisconsin (see below), Erick Johnson Savig[68] and wife, Ingeborg,
from Kvinherred Parish, Knud Olson Hetletvedt and wife, Serena (both of
whom died of cholera in 1849), Osmund Thomason,[69] wife and daughter,
Anne, Henrik Erickson Sebbe and two sons, who went to Salt Lake City in
1848 (see above, p. 78). Samuel Peerson and Helge Vatname also seem to
have come in 1836; they are recorded as living at Norway, Illinois,
in 1837, and as aiding in bringing some of the immigrants of 1837 from
Chicago to La Salle County.
[67] The Olson homestead is still owned by the son, Nels Olson.
[68] Died in 1840, leaving wife and two children, John and Anna
Bertha; the latter later became the wife of John J. Næset in
the town of Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin. Sævig was born
in 1803, his wife in 1809.
[69] Died in 1876, ninety-two years old.
Some of those who came in 1836 did not go directly to La Salle County.
Andrew Anderson (Aasen), wife, Olena, three sons and two daughters,
from Tysvær Parish, Skjold, remained two years in Orleans County,
New York, coming to La Salle County in 1838; he died of the cholera
in 1849. John Hidle from Stavanger County, Norway, also emigrated in
1836, coming direct to La Salle County. In 1838 he settled at Lisbon,
Kendall County, being thus the first Norwegian to locate there and as
far as I have been able to find out, the first Norwegian to settle in
that county (for Ole O. Hetletvedt did not come till 1839). Hidle,
who wrote his name Hill in this country, married Susanna Anderson,
daughter of Andrew Anderson; she was fourteen years old when her
parents came to America, and is still living, at Morris, Illinois, with
her daughter Mrs. Austin Osmond. Lars Bö and Michael Bö, who lived
and died in La Salle County, came when John Hill did. Lars Larson
Brimsöe, born in Stavanger, 1812, worked for some time as a carpenter
in New York and Chicago before settling in La Salle County. In 1858 he
located in Benton County, Iowa, and in 1872 went to Adams County (died
1873). Björn Anderson Kvelve and wife, Catherine,[70] and two sons,
Arnold Andrew and Brunn, from Vikedal, Ryfylke, lived for a year in
Rochester, New York, came in 1837 to Mission Township, La Salle County.
He removed to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1839. Of Lars Tallakson, who
came to America in 1836 (by way of Gothenburg), we shall speak below.
Herman Aarag Osmond, born near Stavanger, 1818, also came to America in
1836. He first lived in Ohio, came in 1837 to Chicago, then to Norway,
La Salle County. He settled on a farm near Norway in 1848, but bought
in 1869 a farm near Newark, Kendall County; Herman Osmond died in
Newark in 1888.
[70] Abel Catherine von Krogh was born in 1809. Her father was
Arnold von Krogh. Björne Anderson Kvelve was born in 1801. For
a sketch of Björn Anderson and his wife see pages 155-170 of
_First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration_ by R. B. Anderson,
who is their third son (b. 1846 in Albion, Wisconsin); I am
indebted to this work for many facts relative to the Illinois
pioneers of 1836-1837.
Some of the immigrants of 1836 located in Chicago, which then consisted
of only a few houses. Among these was first, Halstein Torison (or
Törison), to whom Knud Langeland accords the distinction of being
the first Norwegian resident of Chicago. He was from Fjeldberg in
Söndhordland, and he came to Chicago with wife and children in October,
1836. The site of his home was that now occupied by the Chicago and
Northwestern Depot on Wells Street. He worked first as a gardener
for a Mr. Newberry. Reverend Dietrichson speaks of him, in 1844, as
prosperous and as occupying a leading position among Chicago Norwegians
at that time. In 1848 he moved to Calumet, twenty miles south of
Chicago, where he lived until his death in 1882.
Svein Lothe, from Hardanger, also came in 1836, as did Nils Röthe and
wife, Torbjör, who were from Voss. The latter remained, however, in
Rochester, New York, one year before coming to Chicago. Nils Röthe and
wife were the first to emigrate from Voss, Norway. Johan Larson, from
Kopervik, an island not far north of Stavanger city, also located in
Chicago in 1836. He was a sailor and had, it seems, visited Chicago
before; what year he came to America, I do not know. I may also mention
Baard Johnson, who, with his wife and five children, settled in Chicago
in 1837. Those we have mentioned form the nucleus out of which has
grown today the largest Norwegian city colony in this country.
Svein Knutson Lothe, who emigrated with wife and two children from
Hardanger in 1836, was from the Parish of Ullensvang. There were
eleven persons in all who came from Ullensvang that year, the other
seven being: Jon Jonson Aga, wife and two children, Torbjörn Djönne,
Olav Öystenson Lofthus and Omund Helgeson Maakestad. Maakestad became
the founder of the Hardanger settlement in Lee County, Illinois (see
below). I am not able to say where Aga, Djönne or Lofthus located.
There were also seven immigrants from Ulvik Parish, Hardanger, that
year; they were: Sjur Haaheim and wife, Paul Dale and wife, Sjur Dale
and wife and Aslak Holven. These eighteen persons form the advance
guard of the immigration from Hardanger.
We have spoken of the two ships that came from Stavanger in 1836.
These were followed in the next year by _Enigheden_ (Harmony), Captain
Jensen, carrying ninety-three passengers. These were for the most part
from Tysvær and from Hjelmeland, and Aardal in Ryfylke, from the city
of Stavanger, and from Egersund. They came to New York, thence went to
Albany and Rochester, and by way of the lakes to Chicago. Most of them
went to La Salle County, although not all settled there permanently.
Among the passengers were Hans Valder and wife from Ryfylke, Knud Olson
Eide, Ole Thompson Eide, from Fogn, near Stavanger, Thomas A. Thompson,
Christopher Danielson and family, Östen Espeland and family, and Knud
Danielson and family.
The sailing of _Enigheden_ may be regarded as a continuation of the
movement in Stavanger county, which was given such an impetus by Knud
Slogvig's return in 1835. Other immigrants continued to come from this
region in subsequent years, but the autumn of 1837 inaugurates a change
in the course of the movement to a more northerly region, Hardanger,
Voss, and Bergen, for a period, contributing a large share to the now
rapidly increasing numbers of emigrants.