_The First Norwegian Settlement in Iowa, at Sugar
Creek, in Lee County_
The same year that records the genesis of the Koshkonong Settlement,
also registers the founding of the earliest Norwegian colony in Iowa,
that of Sugar Creek, in Lee County, in the southeastern part of the
state. When Kleng Peerson was on his way to Missouri in 1837 (see
above, page 117), it seems that he passed through the southeastern
corner of Iowa; he was, therefore, in all probability the first
Norwegian to enter the State of Iowa.[158] Iowa had been organized
as a territory in 1838. The settlers in Shelby County, Missouri,
were dissatisfied, and, having heard of the natural resources of
the Territory of Iowa, immediately to the north, and that good land
with a near market[159] could be had in the southeastern part of the
territory, they decided to move to Iowa. Going north into Lee County,
Iowa, they located at a place six miles northwest of Keokuk, known as
Sugar Creek. Andrew Simonsen and most of the settlers in Shelby County
came at that time; but Peerson remained in Missouri. Here, however,
they found a small colony of Norwegians who had, it seems, but recently
established themselves. With the exception of one to be mentioned
below, it is not known who these earlier settlers were, and I have not
been able to ascertain where they came from.
[158] Though not the first Scandinavian, for a Dane, Niels
Christian Boye, came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1837. In 1842
he located in Iowa City; a daughter, Julia Boye, the only
surviving member of the family, lives now in Iowa City.
[159] One of the settlers in Shelby County, Missouri, was Peter
Omundson Gjilje. As an illustration of the state of
wilderness of the country around them it is related that
Gjilje once walked for nine whole days in the forest tract
before he found human habitation. One morning early he heard
a cock crow, and then he found people. During these days he
had lived on wild strawberries. These facts are related by
Mr. B. L. Wick of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Kleng Peerson has been accredited with being the founder also of the
Sugar Creek Settlement, but there is no proof that he previously
selected the site or even that he located there in 1840. Indeed the
evidence goes rather to show that he never actually settled at Sugar
Creek. His home in the following years was probably chiefly in Shelby
County, Missouri; in 1847 he sold his land there and joined the
Swedish colony in Henry County, Illinois, which had been founded in
1846. Nor does it seem to me that Hans Barlien was a member of the
Missouri colony, as Professor Anderson suggests. No mention of Barlien
can be found in connection with the Shelby County colony or any other
settlement. It seems more probable that he went to the Fox River
Settlement when he came from Norway in 1837, but with a few others left
in 1840, coming to Lee County somewhat before the party that came with
Andrew Simonsen from Shelby County. They may originally have received
their knowledge of this locality from Peerson. Barlien himself may have
been in La Salle County when Peerson in 1837 returned from his journey
to Missouri. It was, then, Barlien and a few immigrants with him whom
Andrew Simonsen and others from Shelby County found already settled at
Sugar Creek in the spring of 1840. If this is correct then the first
Norwegian settler in Iowa and the real founder of the first Norwegian
colony in the state is Hans Barlien, who was born at Overhalden in the
province of Trondhjem about 1870.
In 1838 Kleng Peerson went to Norway to gather recruits for the Shelby
County colony; the following year he brought back with him from
Stavanger County the three brothers, Peter, William, and Hans Tesman,
Nils Olson, Ole Reierson and family, and six or seven women, all of
whom came to Missouri; but several of these went to Lee County, Iowa,
the following year.
As far as known, the first settlers who came with Andrew Simonsen from
Missouri were: Omund Olson, Knud Slogvig,[160] Jacob O. Hetletvedt,
Mrs. Thorstein T. Rue and her sons, Thorstein and John, Peter Omundson
Gjilje, Erik Öie, Ole Öiesöen, and the three Tesman brothers; some of
the rest seem to have followed later. Lars Tallakson settled there
about the same time, but he came from Clark County, Missouri, where
he had located in 1838. Gjermund Helgeson[161] was also among the
earliest settlers, and Jacob Slogvig, who had gone back to La Salle
County in 1838, likewise later located at Sugar Creek. Among the
subsequent arrivals were Ole Soppeland, Hans William, C. Person, and
Nils and Christ Nelson; these located there before 1846.
[160] Jacob Slogvig was also among the first settlers; he had
returned from Shelby County, Missouri, to La Salle County, in
1838, as also had Andrew Askeland.
[161] Helgeson may have come with Barlien from Illinois.
The leading spirit in the colony was undoubtedly Hans Barlien. He was
a man of great natural endowment, and he had a fair education. In
Norway he had been a pronounced nationalist of the Wergeland direction
and had taken part in the first peasant uprising. He was for a time a
member of the Storthing (the national parliament). In religion he was a
liberal, which aroused the hostility of the clergy, while his radical
political views called forth the enmity of the official class. He owned
a printing establishment at Overgaarden, and published a paper[162]
in which he did not hesitate to give expression to the principles
for which he stood. This frequently involved him in litigation; and,
feeling himself persecuted, he at last decided to emigrate to America
in 1837.[163] Barlien seems to be the second Norwegian emigrant from
Trondhjem.[164] Lars Tallakson came from Bergen, while the rest of the
colonists were mostly from the region of Stavanger.
[162] _Melkeveien_, the Milky Way.
[163] See J. B. Wist, in _Bygdejaevning_, Madison, Wisconsin, 1903,
p. 158; also _First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration_, pp.
235-236, and _Republikaneren_, February 9, 1900.
[164] The first was Ole Rynning. See above, p. 107, and
_Normaendene i Amerika_ by Knud Langeland, pp. 26-29.
Lee County was but little settled at that time;[165] land was bought
of the Indians for a nominal price, but it often became expensive
enough in the end, since it proved very difficult for many of the
settlers to obtain a clear title from the United States. This is one
reason why the settlement did not grow, though probably not the chief
cause. In 1843 there were between thirty and forty families, writes
John Reierson,[166] but in 1856 there were, according to the census of
that year, only sixty-eight Norwegians in the county. This number had
in 1885 decreased to thirty-one. In the fifties many of the settlers
moved to other localities, but throughout the forties there was a
prosperous colony that contributed not a little to the development of
the community and the county in that early period. The settlement is of
special interest in that it was the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa.
Its founding inaugurated Norwegian colonization in the state which,
particularly in the fifties, resulted in the establishment of a score
of extensive settlements in the central and the northern counties.
[165] The first postoffice was established in Lee County in 1841.
[166] _Veiviser for Emigranter_, 1843.
There are many reasons why the Sugar Creek Settlement did not grow
as did the later settlements north and west. First of all, land was
not of the best in Lee County. And then, the locality was rather too
far south, Norwegians have everywhere in America thriven best in the
more northerly localities. Again, the tide of emigration from the
vicinity of Stavanger was not sufficiently heavy to recruit the various
settlements already established by immigrants from that region. The
majority of those who came went direct to the Fox River Settlement in
Northern Illinois, which offered unsurpassed natural advantages. To
be sure, the Shelby County (Missouri) and the Lee County settlements
might have been recruited from other districts in Norway. But it must
be remembered that such other districts as had begun to take part in
the emigration movement had their attention directed just at this
time in another direction. The other provinces in question are Voss,
Telemarken, and Numedal. It was representatives of these that founded
the Wisconsin settlements in 1839-40, and in them the great majority
of immigrants from those provinces located in the following decade.
This is also true of those who came from Hardanger, Sogn,[167] and from
Western Norway in general.
[167] Immigration from Sogn was at first directed almost
exclusively to Boone County, Illinois, and Dane County,
Wisconsin.
There is still another reason why the colony did not grow. Beyond the
common desire of material betterment, there was too little of community
of interest. It is enough to mention that several different religious
sects were represented in the little settlement, chief among which were
the Quakers and the Latter Day Saints. Just across the Mississippi
was the town of Nauvoo,[168] which was a Mormon center at the time.
When the Mormons who did not believe in polygamy established themselves
at Lamoni some years later, many Norwegians of that belief went
with them.[169] And not a few of the Quakers joined American Quaker
settlements farther north, as in Salem, Henry County.[170] In the later
fifties a prosperous colony was founded at and south of Legrand in
Marshall County. A few of the early pioneers, however, remained and
their descendants live in Lee County to-day. Finally, the difficulty of
securing a title to the land upon which many Norwegians had settled,
to which reference has been made above, undoubtedly drove many to seek
homes elsewhere.[171]
[168] In the Fox River Settlement in Illinois many Norwegians
joined the Mormons and later moved to Utah. Bishop Canute
Peterson was one of these.
[169] The Mormons first moved into Iowa in 1839, having received
assurance of protection and the liberty to practice their
belief from Governor Lucas in that year. They located in
Lee County not far from Sugar Creek. The town of Nauvoo,
Illinois, had been bought by them. The name was changed from
Commerce.
[170] Omund Olson was converted to Quakerism at Salem, Henry
County. As early as 1842 several of the settlers joined with
him in erecting a meeting house on his farm.
[171] The question has been investigated somewhat by Mr. B. L.
Wick. See _Republikaneren_, February 9, 1900.
Of these first Norwegian pioneers in Iowa I shall here add a brief
final note, as we shall not meet with them again. We have met the
brothers Knud and Jacob Anderson Slogvig four times as the founders
of settlements--in Orleans County, New York, in La Salle County,
Illinois, in Shelby County, Missouri, and in Lee County, Iowa. Jacob
Slogvig went to California about 1850; there he became wealthy and
died in 1864. Knud Slogvig moved to Lee County early in the fifties,
I believe, and died there. Hans Barlien died in the Sugar Creek
Settlement in 1842. Mrs. Thorstein Rue and her son, Thorstein, lived in
Sugar Creek till 1846, when they went to Wisconsin, and took part in
the founding of the Blue Mounds Settlement in western Dane County. Lars
Tallakson settled about a decade later in La Salle County, Illinois,
where he lived to a good old age.[172] Jacob Olson Hetletvedt (brother
of the slooper, Ole O. Hetletvedt) continued to live in Lee County till
his death in August, 1857. His widow married Sven Kjylaa, with whom she
then moved to the Fox River Settlement. Per Omundson Gjilje was one of
the last to leave the settlement; in 1864 he removed to New Sharon,
Mahaska County, Iowa, where he died in 1895. His wife (born Karina
Bornevik, from Nærstrand, Norway) died in 1902, aged eighty-six.
[172] He died about 1900. Among those who moved to New Sharon were
Sjur Olson, Nils Nilson and Aad Nilson and wife Kristina;
Martha Erickson was until recently, at least, living in Clark
County, Missouri.