_Some of the Immigrants of 1837. The First Pathfinders
from Numedal and Telemarken._
Besides the 177 immigrants, who came to America from Stavanger and
Bergen in 1837, there was a considerable number who embarked from
Gothenburg, Sweden. These came mostly from Numedal and Telemarken in
the south central part of Norway.
Among the immigrants of 1837 were, also, the brothers, Ole and Ansten
Nattestad, from Vægli, Numedal, both of whom came via Gothenburg, and
Hans Barlien, who emigrated with _Enigheden_. These men played such a
part in the immigration history of the period as to deserve something
more than a mere mention.
Ansten Nattestad may be regarded as the father of the emigration
movement from Numedal, Norway, from which some of the most successful
Norwegian settlements in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, were later
recruited. His brother, Ole Nattestad, became the founder of one of
these settlements, that of Jefferson Prairie, in Rock County, Wisconsin
(also extending into Illinois); while Hans Barlien founded the first
Norwegian settlement in Iowa, at Sugar Creek, Lee County. Of the
circumstances which led to the emigration of the Nattestad brothers, an
interesting account appears in _Billed-Magazin_, 1869, pages 82-83.
This, which is an interview with Ole Nattestad, has been reprinted in
other works and I shall not take the space for it here. We may note,
however, that they had received their first news of America upon a
journey to the neighborhood of Stavanger in the close of 1836. During
Christmas of that year, they were the guests of Even Nubbru in Sigdal,
a member of the Storthing, and it was his praise of American laws which
first aroused Ole Nattestad's desire to emigrate, as he had already had
some unpleasant experiences in that respect.
In April, 1837, they stood ready to leave for America, having converted
their possessions into cash, a sum of eight hundred dollars. They
went on _skis_ from Rollaug to Tin, over the mountains and through
the forests to Stavanger. Halsten Halvorson Brække-Eiet, also from
Rollaug, became a third member of the party. In Stavanger, local
official hostility to emigration led them into difficulties, and they
were forced to seek safety in flight by night. They went to Tananger,
where they were more successful, a skipper contracting to take them in
his yacht to Gothenburg. In Gothenburg, they secured passage with a
ship which carried iron from Sweden to Fall River, Massachusetts. The
journey lasted thirty-two days. Thence, they went to New York, where
they met a few Norwegians, and thence again to Rochester. Here they
spoke with several members of the sloop party of 1825, now living in
Rochester, and they were, for a short time, the guests of Lars Olson,
as so many others of the immigrants of those years. Hearing that those
who had come to America in 1836 had gone west to La Salle County, they
decided to go there. In Detroit, Ole Nattestad was one day walking
about to view the city, and he says:
Here I accidentally came upon a man, whom I immediately recognized
by his clothes as a countryman from the western coast of Norway. I
greeted the man, and the meeting was for us both as if two brothers
had met after a long separation.
This man was one of the passengers on the _Aegir_, who had just then
arrived in Detroit. The Nattestad party now joined these, all (except
N. P. Langeland and family, as we have seen, page 102 above), going
west to Chicago. Here they met Björn Anderson Kvelve, whose unfavorable
account of the Fox River locality first gave them some doubt as to the
wisdom of going there. Of the subsequent events, the reader has already
been told. We shall meet again with both Ole and Ansten Nattestad
below. Halsten Brække-Eiet later settled in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
Hans Barlien was from Overgaarden, Trondhjem; he seems to have been
the second emigrant to America from that region. Of him there will
be occasion to speak more in detail in connection with the first
Norwegian settlement in Iowa. I desire, here, however, to mention five
others, who came via Gothenburg to America in the same year, namely,
Erick Gauteson Midböen, Thore Kittilson Svimbil, and John Nelson Rue,
who had large families, and two single men, Gunder Gauteson Midböen
and Torsten Ingebrigtson Gulliksrud. These form the advance troupe
of emigrants from the Parish of Tin in Upper Telemarken, a region
which furnished a large share of recruits for the pioneer colonies
of Wisconsin and Iowa in the forties and the fifties. Thore Svimbil
became a pioneer in Blue Mounds, Dane County, where we shall find him
later. Erik Gauteson Midböen, who had a large family, settled in La
Salle County, but, says our authority, "fortune was not kind to him."
He later joined the Latter Day Saints and undertook a journey to Norway
as a representative of that church, returned to America and died soon
after, about 1850, as near as I can ascertain. Torsten Gulliksrud
also settled in Illinois, but died early. John Nelson Rue will appear
later in our account as one of the founders of the earliest Norwegian
settlement in Winneshiek County, Iowa.
We do not know what the circumstances were that led to the emigration
of this little group from Upper Telemarken in 1837. It seems not
unlikely that the news of America had come to them through copies
of letters from Hovland or others, though they may also have had
information more directly through Knud Slogvig's return. The latter
does not to me seem so likely, however, for they appear to have made
no attempt to secure passage from Stavanger. The departure of this
group from Tin does not seem to have had any immediate influence upon
emigration from that region. The real exodus from Tin does not begin
till 1839, and then as a part of the general movement, but this may
have been aided by letters from those who went thence in 1837. The
number that in this way took passage via Gothenburg that year may have
been larger than we have knowledge of. While the number, two hundred,
which our statistics, cited above, gives as that of the emigration from
Norway in 1837 is certainly rather low, it is highly improbable that it
was as high as three hundred, as elsewhere given. A conservative and
reasonable estimate would seem to place it at about two hundred and
forty or fifty.
Among the passengers on the _Aegir_, we mentioned Nils Fröland. He
was one of two, the other being Mons Aadland, to first join Nils P.
Langeland in his preparations for emigrating to America. With his
wife and children, he located at Beaver Creek, and they were among
the fortunate survivors of that colony. In 1839, he moved to Mission
Township in La Salle County, and to the present Miller Township the
next year. He died there in 1873. His widow (born 1798) was still
living in 1895. A grandson, Lars Fruland, resides at Newark, Illinois.
Anders Nordvig, who also came on the _Aegir_, died in the Beaver Creek
Settlement. His widow, a sister of Knud Langeland, moved to La Salle
County; she died there at the age of ninety in 1892. A daughter,
Malinda, married Iver Lawson (Iver Larson Bö), who came to Chicago
from Voss, Norway, in 1844. Victor F. Lawson, owner of _The Chicago
News_, is her son. Another daughter, Sarah (born 1824), married a Mr.
Darnell, a pioneer of Benton County, Iowa, in 1854. Mrs. Darnell was
the first Norwegian in that county. After Darnell's death, she returned
to Illinois, locating at Sandwich, De Kalb County.
Among the passengers on _Aegir_, Odd Himle, Baard Haugen, Ole Dyvik
and John Björgo went direct to La Salle County. The first of these
returned to Norway in 1844, and, while there, married Marie L. Jermo;
he returned to America in 1845, and settled on Spring Prairie in
Columbia County, Wisconsin, where we shall meet with him again. He died
in De Forest, Dane County, Wisconsin, in May, 1893. We shall also meet
John Björgo below as one of the pioneers of Koshkonong, Wisconsin.
Halle Væte died in Beaver Creek, as did his wife and grown-up
daughter. Kolbein Saue and Styrk Saue both went to Beaver Creek and
were among the survivors; they came to Koshkonong in 1843 and are to
be remembered among the early pioneers there. Styrk Saue was born in
Voss, September twenty-fifth, 1814; his wife, Ellen Olson (born Rekve),
was born in 1816. They were married in America. Nils Bolstad settled
in Koshkonong in 1840. He was one of a group of three to visit Dane
County, Wisconsin, on a trip of exploration in the fall of 1839, being,
therefore, the first Norwegians in that county.
Among the passengers on _Enigheden_ was Hans Valder and wife. He was
born on the farm, Vælde, in Vats Parish in Ryfylke in 1813. Having
received an education he taught school in Tysvæer some years before
emigrating. Here he heard much about the earliest emigration to America
from Stavanger. In Detroit, Valder and Östen Espeland separated from
the rest of the party and went to Adrian, Michigan. Thence they went a
few miles into the country in Lenawee County to visit a small Norwegian
settlement, whither Ingebrigt Larson Narvig had recently moved from
Monroe County, where he had settled in 1833.[77] In the spring of
1838 Valder left for La Salle County, Illinois. Here he lived until
1853, when he moved to what is at present Newburg, Fillmore County,
Minnesota, and became one of the earliest Norwegian pioneers in
Minnesota. Östen Espeland and family remained at the home of Narvig a
little longer than Valder, but then they also went to La Salle County.
[77] See above, page 101, for the circumstances of Narvig's coming
to Michigan.
Another passenger on _Enigheden_ was Christopher Danielson from
Aardal, in Lower Ryfylke. He was fifty-seven years old at the time of
emigrating, settled in Mission Township, La Salle County, where his
wife died a few years later. Danielson died of the cholera in 1849.
His son, Christopher Danielson (born in Norway), resides at Sheridan,
Illinois. Thomas A. Thompson, born 1812 in Skjold Parish, Ryfylke,
settled in Norway, La Salle County, Illinois. In 1867 he removed to
Adams County, Iowa, where he died in 1870. Lars Richolson and wife
also came in 1837, and settled near Ottawa in La Salle County. Lars
Richolson, as, indeed, several of the pioneers of these years, soon
became one of the substantial men of the community.[78] Ole Heier, who
also came in 1837, from Tin, Telemarken, located in La Salle County.
He had been an ardent Haugian, but became a Mormon in Illinois, and
later a Baptist. In 1868 he moved to Iowa, where he died in 1873. A
son, A. Hayer, lives in Leland, Illinois. Finally there came that year
Even Askvig with wife and children from Hjelmeland Parish in Ryfylke.
Settling first in Indiana (Beaver Creek) they removed the next year to
La Salle County, Illinois. Late in the forties they settled in Texas
and at last in 1852 the parents and a part of the family located in
southwestern Iowa, where Even Askvig died in 1875 and his wife in 1881.
[78] Attorney Samuel Richolson, of Ottawa, who died in 1906, was a
son of Lars Richolson. He was born March twenty-fifth, 1841,
on the homestead bought by his father in 1837-38. He was for a
long time member of the firm, Boyle and Richolson, in Ottawa,
was mayor of Ottawa from 1871-1881, at one time attorney
for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. His widow,
Marietta Richolson, and two children are still living.