_Shelby County, Missouri. Ansten Nattestad's Return
from Norway in 1839. The Founding of the
Jefferson Prairie Settlement in Rock
County, Wisconsin._
Before returning now to the thread of our narrative, I wish to speak
briefly of an early effort, and the only one, before the fifties, to
found a settlement from the southern point of dispersion.
In 1837 Kleng Peerson, Jacob and Knud Slogvig, Andrew Askeland, Andrew
Simonson, Thorstein Thorson Rue, several of whom had families, and
about eight others, left La Salle County, went to Missouri and made
a settlement in Shelby County; this, however, proved unsuccessful,
principally on account of the lack of a market.
Peerson does not seem to have selected a very desirable locality, and
he did not possess the steadfastness of purpose that would seem to
be a prime requisite in the pioneer. He was too much of a lover of
adventure, and hardly was a plan brought to completion before his head
was again full of new dreams and fancies.
He was something of a Peer Gynt but without Peer Gynt's selfishness
or his eye for the main chance; the roving spirit dominated Peerson
wholly; not until old age had laid its hand on him did he yield to the
monotony of a settled life; but even then in the wilderness of Texas
in the fifties. I have personal information of his life there; he took
no part in the upbuilding of the community, no active interest in its
progress. In a settled community he alone was unsettled; he was never
able to gather himself together into concentrated action and prolonged
effort in a definite cause or undertaking. A vagabond citizen, he
died in poverty. The only activity we associate with his name is the
adventurous wanderings of his youth.
After having spent a year in Missouri Peerson returned to Norway,
evidently for the purpose of recruiting his colony, but I have no
evidence that he succeeded in this. Independent of Peerson's efforts,
the little colony did receive an accession of three in 1838, namely,
Knud and Ole Lydvo and Lars Gjerstad, and of one person in the fall of
1839, namely, Nils Lydvo, who had just come from Voss, Norway, with a
group of immigrants from that region, most of whom remained in Chicago.
The Shelby County settlement did not thrive. It was too far removed
from other settlers, too far from a market; the settlers suffered want
and became discouraged. The colony was practically broken up in 1840,
when most of the settlers removed north into Iowa Territory into what
is now Lee County. Here they established the first Norwegian settlement
in Iowa. Of this we shall have occasion to speak under the year 1840.
Let us now return to Ansten Nattestad and his party of emigrants, whom
we left above, page 119, as about to depart for America.
Ansten Nattestad's party of one hundred then sailed from Drammen by
the _Emelia_, Captain Ankerson, late in the spring of 1839. It was the
first time, says he, that the people of Drammen had seen an emigrant
ship. Every person paid thirty-three dollars and a half (specie); they
were nine weeks on the ocean, going direct to New York. They took the
usual route inland and arrived in Milwaukee just at the time when
the Luraas party had returned to Milwaukee to purchase land already
selected in Waukesha County, as we have seen above. They urged the
new arrivals to stop in Milwaukee and go with them to Muskego, but
Nattestad objected, and so they continued their journey to Chicago.
Here Ansten learned that his brother had located in Wisconsin the year
before. The party's destination was La Salle County, but this changed
the course of some of them. Some who had friends there did go to La
Salle County, a few remained in Chicago, especially single men, but
the majority went with Ansten to Clinton. All these (excepting some
to be noted below) bought land and began the life of pioneers there
in the fall of 1839 on what came to be known as Jefferson Prairie.
Besides Ole Knudson Nattestad and his brother Ansten, those who
founded this settlement were: Halvor Pederson Haugen, Hans Gjermundson
Haugen, Thore Helgeson Kirkejord, Torsten Helgeson Kirkejord, Jens
Gudbrandson Myhra, Gudbrand, Myhra, Erik Skavlem, the brothers Kittil
and Kristoffer Nyhus, and T. Nelson. Halvor Haugen did not come with
the Nattestad party, although he was in Drammen intending to sail on
the _Emelia_. Owing to lack of room about thirty persons, including
children, had to be left behind. Halvor Haugen has himself told (in
_Amerika_, September, 1907) of the coming of these. After several
days of waiting, they secured passage on a boat bound for Gothenburg,
Sweden. The journey went via Fredrikshald, where another stay of two
or three days took place. At Gothenburg a wait of ten days followed
before the brig _Bunyan_, on which they were to sail, was ready. "It
was certainly fortunate," says our narrator, "that people were not in
such haste then, or the repeated delays of several days duration would
have been the cause of much unpleasant irritation." Landing in Boston,
the immigrants travelled by rail to Providence, Rhode Island, thence by
steamboat to New York. Here they boarded the boat which was to carry
them to Albany. As they were told the boat was not to leave before
five o'clock in the afternoon most of the men of the party went ashore
again to purchase food. When they returned however the boat had sailed
having left at ten in the forenoon instead of five in the afternoon as
planned. Those left behind managed to reach their destination also,
though with many difficulties and unpleasant experiences. From Albany
they travelled by canal to Buffalo. "Of this part of the journey,"
says Haugen, "there is nothing to be said except that, like all other
earthly things, this also at last came to an end." From Buffalo the
journey went by steamboat to Chicago. They did not go thence to La
Salle County though undoubtedly intended originally to do so. I do not
know what changed their course, but on the next day after arriving in
Chicago, they went to Du Page County, Illinois, where a week later they
met those who had gone with Nattestad in Captain Ankerson's ship. The
party whose coming has thus briefly been related was composed of Halvor
Haugen, wife, three sons, Peder, Halvor and Andreas, and two daughters
Bergit and Sigrid; Halvor Stordok, Lars Haugerud, Gunder Fingalpladsen,
Engebret Sæter, Lars Dalen, Gjermund Johnson, and Sven Tufte, all of
whom also had families, besides some single persons. Halvor Haugen's
family and most of the party remained in Du Page County for a time,
and Peder Haugen and his brother Andreas and the two sisters secured
employment there. The father, however, went with Erik Skavlem to
Jefferson Prairie to help him build a house. At Christmas the rest of
the party also went to Jefferson Prairie. During the winter they all
lived in Skavlem's house. This house is described as follows:
"It was sixteen by sixteen and quite low. In order to add to room
'crowns' were erected overhead, that is, beams which were laid
crosswise near the ceiling. These beams were cut pointed at the
ends which were made to rest between the logs in the walls on
either side, like riders across the house. On top of these again
was laid flats, on which beds were arranged. Down below on the
floor there were also three beds."
A writer in _Amerika_, March first, 1907, quotes one of the immigrants
as speaking of the cramped quarters in the log cabin, in which the
whole party lived that fall and winter; room which to one family would
seem too small now. "How these settlers," he says, "could manage in
one log cabin a whole winter is a riddle to me." The following spring
Halvor Haugen also built a cabin which was always full as newcomers
were constantly arriving. At the same time other cabins were erected
by Kittil and Kristoffer Nyhus, Gudbrand and Jens Myhra, and Torsten
Kirkejorden. Two years later all of these built new and more commodious
houses.
The settlement thus founded exclusively by immigrants from the district
of Numedal has always continued to be recruited largely from that
region (see, however, below). In the following year a few more families
came from Numedal, while from 1841 the accessions were considerable
every year for a number of years. Among these is to be mentioned Bergit
Nelson Kallerud, from Vægli, who also came in the ship _Emilia_,
in 1839, but who does not seem to have gone directly to Jefferson
Prairie. She married Jens Gudbrandson Myhra at Christmas, 1839, while
his brother, Gudbrand Myhra, married Ambjör Olson (also from Vægli)
in 1840. The following year they, however, moved to the Rock Prairie
Settlement (see below), and in 1852 they settled in Mitchell County,
Iowa. In connection with the settling of this county we shall have
occasion to speak again more fully of them. Jens Myhra was born in
Vægli, Numedal, in 1812.
[Illustration: Map of Southern and Central Norway
See Appendix for names of parishes here numbered.]
Of the other founders of this settlement I may here add the following
facts. Ole Knudson Nattestad was born at Vægli, in Rollaug Parish,
December twenty-fourth, 1807. We have above given an account of his
settling at Clinton. In _Nordlyset_ for May eighteenth, 1848, there
appeared a communication from Nattestad relative to this occasion, in
which he rightly claims to have been the first Norwegian to settle
in the state. He married there Lena Hiser in 1840; he lived in the
settlement, as an influential, respected member of the community, till
his death, which occurred at Clinton, May twenty-eighth, 1886. His wife
died in September, 1888. They left seven children; Henry Nattestad,
the oldest, at present occupies the homestead. The other children are,
Charles (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), James (Dakota), Ann (Clinton),
Julia (Mrs. Martin Scofftedt Lawrence, Kansas), Caroline (Mrs. Louis O.
Larson, Clinton), and Eliza (Clinton). Ansten Nattestad was born August
twenty-sixth, 1813, the youngest of three brothers. Ole was the next
oldest.
Their father, Knud Nattestad, was a man of some means, but by the right
of primogeniture, the oldest inherited the estate and he remained
in Norway. Of these things and the early life of the two younger
brothers, Ole Nattestad gives an account in an interview printed in
_Billed-Magazin_, 1869, where also is a detailed account of Ansten
Nattestad's coming to America with his group of one hundred immigrants
in 1839. He also there, pages 107-108, gives a description of the
settlement as it was in 1869, and he has elsewhere in the columns of
that magazine made important contributions to the immigration history
of the years 1838-1840, which now are among the original sources of
material for a history of Norwegian immigration. Relative to the
further career of Ansten Nattestad I shall only add here that he became
one of the substantial members of this great and growing settlement, in
which he continued to live until his death on April eighth, 1889.
Hans G. Haugen was born at Vægli in Rollaug Parish in 1785. He was
an old soldier, having been in the Norwegian-Swedish War of 1814,
and having served in the Norwegian army for seven years. His wife,
whose maiden name was Sigrid Pedersdatter Valle, was born in January,
1803. The family consisted further of two sons, Gunnul and Gjermund,
the former born at Vægli, April twenty-eighth, 1827, the latter on
September nineteenth, 1836. The father, Hans Haugen, lived only a year
after coming to America; he died in October, 1840. In 1849 the widow
and two sons moved to Primrose, Dane County, Wisconsin, where we shall
meet with them again. Sigrid Haugen died in Beloit in 1885. It may be
added here that the family took the name of Jackson in this country. Of
the circumstances that led to the adoption of this name the son gives
an account which appeared in Anderson's _First Chapter_, etc., page two
hundred sixty-three.
Thore Helgeson Kirkejord[83] was born September twelfth, 1812;
married in 1837. They had one daughter, Christie, born 1849, and
who is married to Gunder Larson.[84] Thore Helgeson died in Clinton
in 1871. Christopher C. Nyhus (Newhouse) was born at Vægli in July,
1812. When he came to Clinton Township he first entered claim to
forty acres of land, which was later increased to a hundred sixty. He
married a daughter of Halvor Halvorson in the fall of 1843. They had
five children, Christopher, who died in infancy, Oliver, Christopher
2d, Torrena (Mrs. Gustav Nelson, Clinton), and Christiana. T. Nelson
settled on section twenty in 1839; he married Rachel Gilbertson that
year. They had five children. The son, T. T. Nelson, married Mary
Tangen of Manchester, Illinois, in 1872. They have two daughters, Anna
R. (b. 1875), Gertine (b. 1878).
[83] Whose name appears as Torro Holgeson in _The History of Rock
County, Wisconsin_, 1879, p. 780, to which work I am indebted
for some of the facts recited above.
[84] They again have four children. Mr. Larson enlisted in the 42d
Illinois Regiment, later transferred to the Mississippi Marine
Brigade, was at the battle of Vicksburg, served faithfully and
was honorably discharged.