_The Earliest White Settlers on Rock and Jefferson
Prairies. The Founding of the Rock Prairie
Settlement. The Earliest Settlers on Rock
Prairie_
We have seen that when Ole Nattestad settled at Clinton on July first,
1838, the country was a wilderness, he being the only white man there.
He speaks, however, of eight Americans living some distance from him,
in similar condition. It was less than three years prior that the first
white settlers had located in the county. On the eighteenth day of
November, 1835, John Inman, of Lucerne County, Pennsylvania, Thomas
Holmes, William Holmes, and Joshua Holmes, of Ohio, Milo Jones and
George Follmer, settled on the site of the present city of Janesville,
opposite the "big rock."[85] This was the first settlement in Rock
County. Inman and William Jones had visited the locality and selected
this spot in July of that year. On this occasion they had camped on
the bluff on the Racine road. Our authority relates: "From this point
they saw Rock Prairie stretching away in the distance to the east and
south, till the verdant plain mingled with the blue of the horizon.
They saw before them an ocean of waving grass and blooming flowers, and
realized the idea of having found the real Canaan--the real paradise
of the world." They returned to Milwaukee, having in their ten days'
exploration of the Rock River Valley, found but one family, namely,
a Mr. McMillan, who resided where Waukesha now stands.[85] Somewhat
later in the year came Samuel St. John and his wife, the last being
the first white woman in the county. The next year there were several
new arrivals. On December seventh, 1836, townships one, two, three,
and four north of ranges eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, of
the fourth principal meridian, afterwards the eastern sixteen of the
present twenty townships of Rock County,[86] were taken from Milwaukee
County and constituted a separate county, called Rock. The county
took its name from the "big rock" on the north side of the river, now
within the city limits of Janesville, and an ancient landmark among the
Indians and the early traders.
[85] _History of Rock County_, p. 335.
[86] Avon, Spring Valley, Magnolia and Union being added in 1838.
All these earliest settlements (1836-1837) were made near and along
the Rock River. In 1838 there were four hundred and eighty settled
in this region chiefly, the centers of population being already then
Janesville and Beloit. Next follow Johnstown, Lima, and Milton, in the
northwestern part of the county, and Union. The region west of Beloit,
Newark, Avon, Spring Valley, was still wholly unsettled in the summer
of 1839. The Town of Bradford, the next north of Clinton, was first
settled by Erastus Dean, in 1836; there were very few before 1838.
The Town of Clinton, as originally organized (1842), comprised the
territory of the present town, the south half of Bradford, and portions
of Turtle and La Prairie.
The first actual settlement in the present township was made in May,
1837, on the west side of Jefferson Prairie, by Stephen E. Downer and
Daniel Tasker, and their wives, on the southeast side of the prairie.
In July, Oscar H. Pratt and Franklin Mitchell, from Joliet, Illinois,
made claims. These were the earliest. On the west side of the prairie
settlement was made in October, 1837, by H. L. Warner, Henry Tuttle,
Albert Tuttle, and Griswold Weaver. We recall that Ole Nattestad said
that when he came to Clinton on July first, 1838, there were eight
Americans living isolated at considerable distance from him. Nattestad
located on section twenty. Here Christopher Nyhus also settled, while
Thore Helgeson settled on section twenty-nine. Who the eight settlers
were that Nattestad met, remains somewhat uncertain, but it does not
seem unlikely that it was the four last mentioned, and some of the
first explorers, who are named as Charles Tuttle, Dennis Mills, Milton
S. Warner, and William S. Murrey.
The Town of Turtle, directly west of Clinton, was not organized
until 1846. The first settlers were S. G. Colley, who located on
section thirty-two, in the spring of 1838, and Daniel D. Egery, who
came there about the same time, locating on section thirty-six (to
Beloit, however, in 1837). Such were the beginnings of settlement east
of Beloit prior to Nattestad's coming, and it was still virtually
a wilderness when Ansten Nattestad's party came at the close of
September, 1839. West of Beloit, in the Town of Newark, the Norwegians
were the first, while in Avon and Spring Valley they were among the
earliest groups of settlers. It is the settlement of this region, and
especially the Town of Newark, to which we shall now turn.
We observed above that some of Ansten Nattestad's party who came to
Jefferson Prairie in September, 1839, did not remain there. These
went fourteen miles farther west and established a settlement in the
Township of Newark, which had not been settled by white men before,
while a few of the members of this latter party went south from there
eighteen miles, crossing the Illinois line, and located in the Township
of Rock Run, in Stephenson County, Illinois.
The founder of the Rock Prairie Settlement was Gullik Olson Gravdal, of
Vægli, Numedal; he emigrated from Norway with Ansten Nattestad in 1839.
He came directly to Jefferson Prairie, but did not remain there. With
Gisle Halland and Goe Bjöno he went west a distance to look over the
country, with a view to settling elsewhere. Having arrived at Beloit,
they managed here to secure a map and from it got some idea of where
government land was to be had. Then they continued their journey along
the Madison road seven miles farther west. Finally, he came to a place
which suited him, for he found, as he says, "good spring water, as
also prairie and woodland in the right proportion." Together with Lars
Röste, a single man from the Parish of Land, he then bought forty acres
of land.[87] Gisle Halland bought land one mile farther east, while
Goe Bjöno took a claim on a piece of land for Mrs. Gunhild Ödegaarden,
three miles south of the site selected by Gravdal.
[87] Röste later went back to Norway, however.
Gunhild Ödegaarden (who emigrated from Nore, annex parish in Numedal)
was a widow of considerable means, who had paid the passage of several
other persons. Her family, among whom were grown sons and daughters,
emigrated with her to America in the Nattestad party and came directly
to Jefferson Prairie. Immediately after Bjöno's purchase of land for
her in Newark Township she, with family, moved out there and had a log
cabin erected, this being the first dwelling built in that township.
This statement is based upon the authority of Gravdal himself, as
printed in an interview on page 162 of _Billed-Magazin_ for 1869. _The
History of Rock County_ agrees in this statement that Mrs. Ödegaarden's
log cabin, built in the fall of 1839, was the first house erected in
the Town of Newark. Gunhild Ödegaarden's name appears regularly as Mrs.
Gunale (or Gunile). She is there mentioned several times, her family
being extensively intermarried with the old pioneer families in the
settlement.[88] Gravdal completed the erection of a cabin late in the
fall, and his family having been left on Jefferson Prairie, he brought
them to Rock Prairie in the latter part of November (_Billed-Magazin_,
1869, page 162).[89]
[88] Thus Ole Gulack Gravdal, son of Gullik Gravdal, married Juri
Ödegaarden (given as Juri Gunale in _The Rock County History_)
in 1855.
[89] There can be no doubt as to the correctness of the facts
as here given. It has also been said that Lars Skavlem's
house was the first to be erected, and J. W. C. Dietrichson
erroneously even names him as the first Norwegian in Rock
Prairie.
That same fall Gisle Halland married Margit Knudsdatter Nösterud
from Rallaug Parish, Numedal, being obliged to go as far south as
Rockford, Illinois, to get the ceremony performed. Their oldest child,
Kristine, born in the fall of 1840, was the first white child born in
that township. Gravdal, speaking of those days, says: "When I located
in this region, the whole country to the west was a desert. I do not
know whether there lived white people anywhere between my home and the
Mississippi. The same was also the case toward the north; however,
about seven miles west (east?) from my home two Yankees had settled in
the wilderness. The Indians were still lords of these regions. They
often visited us in our houses, but they were always friendly and
courteous. We were never molested by the wild son of the desert. There
was at this time an abundance of game; we saw stags in large herds,
and prairie chickens literally swarmed." There seem to have been no
fresh accessions of settlers until the spring of 1841. Then Lars H.
Skavlem arrived and located on section eleven. Gullik Knudson Laugen
also came at the same time, and not long after several Americans moved
in. Both Skavlem and Knudson had come to America in 1839, having been
members of Nattestad's party. Skavlem had, in the interval, lived on
Jefferson Prairie. Gullik Knudson had remained in Chicago, as had also
Gunnul Stordok, securing work there,[90] as did also two girls from
Numedal, to whom they were engaged in Norway. These two couples were
married the following winter, and, having saved some money from their
small earnings, they decided to buy a home somewhere in the Norwegian
settlement in Rock County. Knudson relates: "I walked about several
days to find a location for a home, and at last came to a place on
the verge of a prairie, where a rushing spring of water poured out of
the ground. Here I decided to build and live, and I called the place
_Springen_ (the spring). The land about was like a desert; barring the
four Norwegians who had come before me, there were no settlers. Toward
the west one had to travel twenty-two miles to find white people. It
was fortunate that there was an abundance of game, for what we secured
by hunting was the sustenance on which we chiefly relied during the
winter." He tells how, with the first fall of snow, he and another[91]
walked on _skis_ to Beloit to buy flour, and how the tracks left in the
snow by the skis had aroused considerable wonder and speculation among
the Americans about there, who afterwards discovered the tracks, and
that it became the subject of extensive discussion as to what unknown
monster could have left such tracks. Beloit, he says, consisted then of
a mill, a hotel, two stores, and a few laborers' cottages.
[90] His wages were from six to ten dollars a week.
[91] Whom we now know to have been Hellik Glaim.
From the fact of his location near the big spring, "Springen," as
Knudson called it, he came to be called Gullik Springen; his sir name,
Laugen, he no longer used, but wrote himself Gullik Knudson. Here
by this spring, Knudson built a hut of shrubs, thatched with straw,
in which they lived for three months while the log cabin was being
built.[92] The flat cover of a chest, brought from Norway, served for
a table, and the cooking was done on the ground. In December the log
cabin was ready. Gunnul Stordok and wife, who did not come to Newark
until September, lived with Knudson during the first winter, after
which they removed to Illinois.[93]
[92] This log cabin is still used as a chicken house on the old
Springen homestead.
[93] _The Rock County History_ says of Stordok: "He and his family
lived in a haystack for three months until they had completed
a log cabin" (page 774). As we have seen, it was not a
haystack they lived in. Stordok's family consisted, as yet,
only of himself and wife.
In the summer of 1841 a considerable number of Knudson's acquaintances
from Norway came; these found a temporary home with Knudson, sharing
in his genuine pioneer hospitality. Among them were Halvor Skavlem
and his wife, Berit, the daughter, Kari, and two sons, Ole and Paul
Skavlem, the latter with wife and child, Bessie. Halvor Skavlem died
one week after their arrival. The son Paul bought land; Ole first,
however, went to Mineral Point, in Dodge County, returning, however,
later; he settled near Orfordville. Another of this group was Halvor
Nilson Aas, who, with his family, settled near Gravdahl, in Newark
Township. Knut Kristensen also came in 1841 and located on section
eleven, erecting a log cabin there. Finally, Ole Halvorson Valle, who
later moved to Iowa, was among this number.
Several of those who had come to Jefferson Prairie in 1839 removed to
Rock Prairie in the summer of 1841. Thus, Hellik Glaim, Lars Skavlem,
and the latter's three brothers, Gullik, Gjermund, and Herbrand; these
all moved there upon their father Halvor's arrival from Norway that
summer. Hellik N. Brække and Nils Olson Vægli came directly from Norway
in 1841. The last mentioned was from Vægli Annex to Rollaug Parish in
Numedal. He was born at Vægli Parsonage and was therefore often called
Nils Prestegaard. He lived at Gravdal's the first winter; the following
summer he, with two others, Paul Skavlem and Hellik Brække, bought a
quarter section of land together in section thirty-two in Plymouth
Township. Nils Vægli was married in 1844 to Kari Skavlem, daughter
of Halvor Skavlem; they went to Koshkonong, in Dane County, to be
married by Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson, who had just come there from
Norway. They were one of the first couples to be married by him. Hellik
Brække sold out his share in the land, and in 1852 moved to Mitchell
County, Iowa. Lars Skavlem bought land and settled near Halvor Aas,
whose daughter (Groe Nelson) he married in 1844; hence, he was also
called Lars Aas. He later bought his father-in-law's farm, the place
being called "the Skavlen farm" (Skavlenfarmen). Gullik Skavlem bought
land three miles east of Gisle Halland in Beloit Township, about three
miles from Beloit; he, however, moved to Mitchell County, Iowa, in the
fifties.[94] Hellik Glaim had stopped in Chicago till 1840, when he
came to Rock Prairie. Ten years later he sold out and moved to Fillmore
County, Minnesota.[95]
[94] Of these various removals to Mitchell County, Iowa, I shall
speak more fully in the proper place.
[95] Glaim located at Hanley Falls, Minnesota, in 1866.
The above is a brief record of the beginnings of the Rock Prairie
Settlement. Of some of the founders of this settlement, which, in a few
years, became one of the most prosperous in the state, I may here add:
Gullik Gravdal, the nestor of the settlement, was born in Vægli,
Numedal, in 1802; he died in 1873, leaving widow, a daughter, Sarah,
and two sons, Ole and Tolle. Ole Gravdal was born in Norway in
1830; he married Jöri Ödegaarden in 1855, after which he lived for
thirteen years in Beloit, then removed to Newark Township. He is at
present living in Beloit, Wisconsin. Ole Gravdal dropped the latter
name and used the patronymic Gulack. Tolle Gulack Gravdal was born
in 1833. He married Bessie Skavlem, daughter of Paul H. Skavlem, in
1857. They lived on the farm in Newark until 1894 (Tolle having lived
there fifty-five years), in which year they moved to Beloit. He died
in September, 1903, leaving a widow and two children, a son, Gilbert
Gravdal, in Newark Township, and a daughter, Mrs. C. E. Inman, in
Beloit. A son, Henry, died in 1902, and a daughter, Nellie (Mrs.
W. O. Hanson), died in the summer of 1903. _Amerika_ for September
twenty-fifth, 1903, prints an obituary notice of Tolle Gravdal,
according to which his death was sudden, being stricken as he was
at work. The notice says, "he was one of those who had tried the
privations and the trials of pioneer life, and he was always ready
to extend a helping hand to all who needed it. He enjoyed universal
respect and love for his sincerity and his integrity and his lovable
nature." Sarah Gravdal, daughter of Gullik Gravdal, married Halvor
Halvorson (son of Cleophas Halvorson), of Newark Township, in 1869.
Hellik Nilson Brække married a sister of Reverend C. F. Clausen's
wife; in 1852 he joined the latter's colony of settlers in Mitchell
County, Iowa. Lars Skavlem was born in 1819. He married Groe Nilson
Aas in 1844; their children are Halvor, Bessie, Helen and Carolina.
The son, Halvor L. Skavlem, born 1848, is a farmer in Newark Township;
he married Cornelia Olmstead, in Plymouth, a granddaughter of Mrs.
Gunild Ödegaarden.[96] Gunnul Stordok moved to Rock Run (see below). It
seems that he had retained some of his land in Newark, for when Gunder
Knudson Springen (brother of Gullik Springen) came there in 1843, he
bought land then owned by Gunnul Stordok.
[96] They have two children, Lulu and Lewis.
We shall now leave, for the present, the Rock Prairie Settlement, and
observe what was taking place elsewhere during the period that has been
briefly sketched here.