_Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock
Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Immigration
from Numedal. Other Early Accessions._
We will now turn to another contingent in the early immigration to Rock
Prairie,--that from the dialect district of Hallingdal. The emigration
from this region began in 1842 with the departure of the brothers
Knud and John Ellingson Solem, who came direct to Rock Prairie. In
1843 Kleofas Halvorson Hansemoen immigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard)
and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in Newark Township, Rock
County.[198] Kleofas's father's name was Halvor Kleofasen Hansemoen;
he did not emigrate. There were two other brothers, Erik and Hans, of
whom the former did not come to this country. Hans Hansemoen had in
Norway bought an estate called Husemoen, not intending to emigrate.
But when his brother sent favorable reports back from America, he sold
out and came to this country in the fall of 1845. He bought land in
sections eleven and twelve in Newark Township, near his brother. The
above is narrated in part to show how his name happens to appear as
Hans Husemoen, while the brother is Kleofas Hansemoen and the brother's
children are Halvor Kleofas, Knud Kleofas, etc. (see note 198). Hans
Husemoen's wife's maiden name was Bergit Halvorsdatter Tveto; she was
from Aal Parish in Hallingdal.
[198] They had five children in this country: Knud, Kleofas,
Eyvind, Eirik and Caroline, all now married and with
families. The sons adopted Cleofas as the family name. The
daughter was married to Kittil Haugen, now living in Pelican
Rapids, Minn.
In 1845 the settlement received other accessions from Hallingdal. The
list includes: Ola Brunsvold, Halvor Hesgard, Kristen Grimsgaard,
Ole Skaalen, Nils Roe, Ola Sando, Mikkel Rust, Svend Hesla, Gjermund
Mæhtum, Aslak Rustad and Aslak Ulsak.
In 1846 about three hundred persons emigrated from Hallingdal. How many
of these came to Rock County I am not able to say; among them were,
however, Erik Kolsrud and family, Ole Hei and family, Nils Haugen,
wife and six children, Knud Tröstem, Henrik Henriksen Tröstem, Halvor
Ness, Hans Engen, Kari Husemoen, Guttorm Roen and son, Ole, Tollef
Tollefsrud-Ballandby and sons Nils, Ola and Amund, Henrik Rime, brother
of Tollef, A. T. Beigo, Timan Burtness and his brother John, Aadne
Engen, Kristen Megaarden, Lars Grimsgaard, wife and family, Ingeborg
Olsdatter Tröstem, Asle Hesla, and Asle Brunsvold. Many of the above
had families. The leaders of this party were the three first named and
Tollef Tollefsrude. They were the owners of large estates in Norway
which they sold when they left for America. They paid the passage for
many who came from Hallingdal that summer, but I cannot give the names
of these. The party of emigrants left Drammen in April by the ship
_Newmann_, which took them to Havre, France. Here they remained one
month, before the ship on which they were to sail was gotten ready.
They did not arrive to Rock Prairie until October, having been six
months en route.
In 1847 very few came from Hallingdal, among them are mentioned Ole
Onsgaard, Nils O. Wikko,[199] and Östen Burtness. In the following
year, however, there was a considerable immigration. Erik K. Berg and
his brother Truls Berg, Ole Trulson Ve and Ole Gulsen (Tröstem) with
wife and son Gul and daughter Guri, Erik Ovestrud, Tideman Kvarve,
Guttorm Megaarden, a Mr. Sagdalen and wife, Kari,[200] Levor Kvarve
and family of twelve, and Knut Guttormsen Tyrebakken.[201] There came
others from Hallingdal also in the years following. I may mention
here Ole J. Bakke and wife and Herbrand K. Finseth (born in Hemsedal
in July, 1830), who emigrated in 1852 and lived three years on Rock
Prairie. They moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota, in 1855, as did also
Knut K. Finseth and A. K. Finseth, brothers of Herbrand; these together
with Halvor Hesgard, Aadne Engen and Christen Evenson, who removed to
Minnesota at the same time, were the first white settlers in the Town
of Holden, Goodhue County.[202] I may also mention Kittel O. Ruud, born
1823 of parents Erik Sanderson and Margit Ruud, and who came to Rock
County in 1850. A few years later he moved to Northwestern Iowa and in
1855 became a pioneer settler in Holdon, Goodhue County, Minnesota,
where he married Margrethe Andersdatter Flom in 1856. She was born in
Aurland, Sogn, 1824. She died in March and he in April, 1903.[203]
[199] Nils O. Wikko was from Gol, Hallingdal. He married Beret
Halvorson in 1854, and removed soon after to Worth County,
Iowa. He died in 1904, at the age of eighty-three, survived
by widow and six daughters.
[200] They moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1853. He died in
1894 and she in 1904, at the age of eighty-four.
[201] Tyrebakken moved to Black Hammer, Minnesota, in 1854, when he
married Mari Haugejordet. He was born in 1823, in 1905.
[202] Knut Finseth died in 1869. Herbrand Finseth married Guri
Ouri in 1867; he died in January, 1901, leaving wife and six
children.
[203] I gather these facts from an obituary notice, which speaks at
length in eloquent terms of the noble lives of this couple.
The immigrants from Hallingdal settled chiefly in Spring Valley, and
Plymouth; Beloit and Newark townships were settled for the most part
before the Hallingdal immigrants began to come in larger numbers,
yet some are located in Beloit Township. Newark is occupied largely
by immigrants from Numedal, as is also Beloit. While Rock Prairie
was taken possession of chiefly by pioneers from Numedal, Land,
and Hallingdal, there were also a few from Telemarken, Sigdal and
Ringerike, and one from Valders among the pioneers of the forties.
Of those who came from Telemarken I shall mention Knut Simon (born
1819), who located near Janesville in 1843. He removed to Rice County,
Minnesota, in 1854, and thence to Pope County in 1865; died in 1905.
The single immigrant from Valders to locate on Rock Prairie was Guul
Guttormson. He came in 1843 and is the first known American immigrant
from that district. He was born at Ildjernstadhaug in Hedalen in 1816.
About 1840 he had removed to Modum; here a copy of Nattestad's journal
fell into his hands and he and Hans Uhlen and Anders Aamodt[204]
decided to emigrate. These three came on the same ship that brought
Kleofas Halvorson and Peder Gaarder. Guttormson bought land half way
between Orfordville and Broadhead. He was always called "Guul Valdris"
for he was and remained the only "Valdris"[205] there, for while he
wrote home urging his friends in Valders to come to America, the
immigration from Valders did not set in before 1847-48 and by that time
Rock Prairie had been, as we have seen, taken up largely by immigrants
from Hallingdal and Land. Guul Guttormson's oldest son, Guttorm Guul
(Broadhead, Wisconsin), born August, 1848, was probably the first child
born of Valdris parentage in America. I have already spoken of the
emigration of Syver Gaarder,[206] a "Valdris" who came with the party
from Land in 1849. They located at Albany in Green County. These I
believe were the only settlers from Valders in this locality.
[204] These two were the first to emigrate to America from Modum.
[205] Valdris is the Norwegian appellation of a native of Valders.
[206] Syver Gaarder's daughter, Barbro, married Martin Johnson
(Nederhaugen) in 1855. Dr. J. S. Johnson, of Minneapolis,
is their oldest son; other children are: Ben Johnson,
Orfordville, Wisconsin; Mrs. Rev. Langseth, Glendorado,
Minn.; Mrs. Rev. L. Njus, McIntosh, Minn.; Mrs. Strömseth,
living on the homestead; Mandy Johnson.