_The Earliest Norwegian Settlers in the Township of
Pleasant Spring, Dane County, Wisconsin_
I have above spoken of the fact that Knut H. Roe was one of the party
that emigrated with John Luraas from Tin, Telemarken, in 1839. These
two men became the first Norwegians to settle in the townships of
Pleasant Spring and Dunkirk respectively in 1843. Roe had lived for a
time in La Salle County, Illinois, going to Racine County, Wisconsin,
in 1842, as we have seen above. In the fall of 1841 a few of the
settlers in Racine County had travelled west as far as Koshkonong
Prairie, for the purpose of inspecting the uninhabited country there,
of which they seem already to have heard from friends. In the townships
of Albion and Christiana, these met and spoke with those who had come
there from Jefferson Prairie in 1840.
The favorable report of these explorers relative to the fertility
of the soil and the general character of the country on Koshkonong
created considerable restlessness among the pioneers at Wind Lake, in
Racine County, and many decided to remove to Dane County. Among these
were Knut Roe and John Luraas. We shall first follow the fortunes of
the former. As soon as the snow was gone with the end of the winter
of 1842-43, Roe walked on foot to Koshkonong, where he visited the
different parts of the prairie, and selected a spot on which to settle.
Then he walked back to Racine County. John Luraas and family also
having decided to remove to Dane County, the two families secured a
team for the overland journey; they reached their destination on one
of the last days in May. "Two weeks before St. John's eve," writes
Roe, "my first home, a hut of brushwood and leaves, supported at the
four corners by an oak, was ready sufficiently so that my wife and
child and myself could find protection therein against rain and wind."
This he built in the southeast corner of section twenty-two in the
Town of Pleasant Spring, at a point about two miles and a half west
of Utica. Knut Roe, his wife, Anne, and family were the first white
settlers in the township. An interview with Roe which the editor of
_Billed-Magazin_ prints will therefore be of interest. He says: "I
often received visits by the Indians, and the many deep paths in the
ground showed that the son of the wilderness often held forth in the
region about me. In their marches between the Lake Koshkonong and the
four lakes which have made Madison famed far and wide for its beauty,
the Redskins often pitched camp close to my brushwood hut. Sometimes
I accompanied them on their hunts. They never caused me any trouble,
but on the contrary were always ready to be helpful. There was game in
plenty. Almost daily I saw herds of deer, flocks of prairie chickens,
and I was often awakened at night by the howling of the wolf."
In the autumn Roe built a log cabin; in this cabin he and family
continued to live till 1870. During the earliest years, he writes,
he was obliged to drive as far as Whitewater, thirty miles east, or
Madison, a distance of eighteen miles, for flour. At Lake Mills,
twenty-two miles, there was a saw-mill. After a time the settlers began
to sell some wheat; this had to be hauled to Milwaukee, seventy-five
miles away. Their only means of transportation at that time was the
_Kubberulle_, or block-wheeled wagon, drawn by oxen, much of the way
through forest, where a way had to be cut by the axe. Two weeks after
Roe's settling, Ole K. Trovatten came from Muskego and located on the
farm later owned by Gunder J. Felland. Trovatten, who had been a school
teacher in Norway, had emigrated from Laurdal, Telemarken, to Muskego
in 1840. He was, therefore, the second Norwegian to locate in Pleasant
Spring. He, however, left for Cottage Grove that same fall. See below,
page 252.
The next arrivals were Osmund Lunde and his brother-in-law, Aslak
Kostvedt, both from Vinje in Telemarken. The latter bought land three
miles southeast of West Koshkonong Church, near Trovatten's place.
Lunde lived at first with Kostvedt; thereupon he bought land in section
three. Some years later Lunde sold his farm to Kittil Rinden, oldest
son of Kittil Rinden, Sr., and moved to Minnesota, whither Kostvedt
also moved.
On the third of August a small group of immigrants arrived and selected
a home and settled directly west of West Koshkonong Church, on section
fourteen. These were Knut A. Juve,[243] his brother, Knut Gjötil
(or Jöitil), and his sister, Tone Lien, then a widow. Juve owned an
estate in Telemarken, which he sold upon deciding to emigrate, in May,
1843. They sailed on the brig _Washington_, which carried eighty-six
passengers, mostly from the parishes of Hvideseid and Laurdal.[244]
They landed in New York on July fourth. It was the intention of the
members of this party to settle in Illinois, but in Milwaukee they were
advised against doing so; they were told that many who had settled in
Illinois had later moved to Wisconsin and bought homes there. Many
remained in Milwaukee, some went direct to Koshkonong, while others,
including the Juve party, went to Wind Lake, in Racine County. Knut
Juve was not pleased with Wind Lake. One day he met a pioneer settler
from the Town of Christiana, Dane County, who, when he noticed Juve's
downcast condition, said to him: "Go farther west; not until you get
to Koshkonong are you in America." Juve acted upon the advice; he and
his brother and sister started west soon after, arriving in the Town
of Pleasant Spring, as we have said, on the third day of August. Half
a mile west of where the church was built two years later, they built
their hut of brushwood, thatched with straw.
[243] Knut Juve was born in 1799. Knut Jöitil in 1803.
[244] Most of them in fair circumstances says Juve.
"Our furniture," says Juve,[245] "consisted of a few chests, that
were used both as table and chairs, while the bed was arranged on the
ground on some twigs and grass." Here they lived till October, when
they made a dugout, in which they lived till the following summer. Both
Juve and Jöitil were soon, however, taken ill with the climate fever.
In the interview from which we have already cited, he speaks of how
many a time during his illness he longed back to the old home, kindred
and friends in his native land. In the summer of 1844 a log cabin
was built, and not long after Jöitil and the widowed sister also had
erected log cabins of their own in his immediate neighborhood. In the
spring of 1844 Juve broke two acres of ground and raised a little corn
and potatoes; the next summer he raised enough of grain and potatoes
for family use; the third year he was able to sell a little. Such were
the beginnings of agriculture in the wilderness.
[245] Interview in _Billed-Magazin_, 1870, page twenty-four.
About the middle of August a large number came and located in the
settlement. Among these were Gunleik T. Sundbö (b.1785), with wife
and three sons, two of whom were married and had families.[246]
Others who came were: Tostein G. Bringa (b. 1817), with wife and son,
Halvor Laurantson Fosseim (b. 1810), and family, his brother, Ole L.
Fosseim, and Ole K. Dyrland (b. 1819).[247] Sundbö, Bringa, Fosseim
and Dyrland all bought land not far from Knut Juve and Knut Jöitil.
During the next two months the following arrived: Torbjörn G. Vik,
with wife and son Guttorm, and daughter Anna from Siljord, Aslak E.
Groven (b. 1812), and family, from Laurdal, Ole E. Næset (b. 1796),
and family, and his brother Aadne, from Vinje, and Gunnar T. Mandt,
from Moe, Telemarken.[248] Groven settled about a mile east of the
West Koshkonong Church near the Christiana Township line; the two
Næset brothers also located near there. This group of immigrants came
via Racine County, where they had remained a few weeks resting after
the journey, as the guests of Even Heg. They arrived on Koshkonong
Prairie in the latter part of September, having walked from Muskego.
Gunnar Mandt first came to Pleasant Spring, but as he did not have
anything[249] with which to buy land, as he says, he worked for
others there and elsewhere for five years. From his autobiographical
sketch[250] I cite the following account of the method of threshing in
those days:
"There were no mowers, no reapers, binders or threshing machines,
everything had to be done by hand. When we were to thrash, the
sheaves of wheat or oats were placed on the ground in a large
circle. Then three or four yoke of oxen were tied together with
an iron chain; one man stood in the center of the circle on the
sheaves of grain and drove the oxen around over the grain. These
would then stamp the kernels out of the straw little by little, and
so we kept on, until we had the sheaves replaced by new ones and
got the straw away. For cleansing the grain thus secured, we used
short basins or bowls such as were made in Norway formerly. After
a while we got a kind of fanning-mill, mower, reaper, etc. But
they were imperfect and cannot be compared with the machines and
implements used nowadays."
[246] Torkild Sundbö and wife, Margit, later moved to Sun Prairie.
[247] Dyrland says there were 211 immigrants on the ship on which
he came, and most of these, it seems, were from Telemarken.
[248] His brother, also named Gunnar, came to America in 1848; T.
G. Mandt, inventor of the Stoughton wagon, was a son of the
latter.
[249] Endre Vraa paid his passage to America.
[250] Published in _Amerika_ and _Skandinaven_ in January, 1906.
Gunnar Mandt worked in Chicago during the years 1844-45, where he got
seventy-five cents a day, but had to furnish his own keep. In 1846
he returned to Pleasant Spring; in April, 1848, he married Synneva
Olsdatter Husebö, from Systrond, Sogn, who had come to America with
her parents in 1844. Having secured his own farm (on section nine) he
farmed there until 1875, when he moved to the village of Stoughton.
Gunnar Mandt died in December, 1907, his wife having died a month
earlier.
The greater part of nine sections (13-15 and 22-27) in this part of the
Township of Pleasant Spring, was settled before the winter of 1843-44.
Knut Roe says that, while he was alone there when he came in June, he
had neighbors on all sides before winter came, although the distance
between the pioneer cabins was, of course, considerable. The year 1844
brought a large influx of settlers, chiefly from Telemarken, but in
part also from Voss. Among them I shall here speak only of Hendrik Hæve
and family, from Voss, who located somewhat farther north, on section
one, on the property later owned and occupied by his oldest son, Ole
Hæve (Havey); Anfin O. Holtan and family from Sogn, who settled in the
southeastern part of the town on section thirty-six, where the son,
Ole Holtan, later lived; and Ole Iverson and his wife Angeline and son
Lewis.
There were a few others, as Aanund O. Drotning, from Vinje, and Knut H.
Teisberg, from Laurdal, Telemarken, who came to America in 1843, but
they, too, settled elsewhere first; we shall have occasion to speak
of them again. Finally, relative to Knut Roe, I may add that he and
his wife continued to live on the old homestead till their death; he
died as early as 1874, but she lived till 1908, being then a little
over ninety years of age. The homestead was owned by the oldest son,
Helleik. On the occasion of Mrs. K. Roe's ninetieth birthday, all her
children, eight grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren,
gathered at the old home to commemorate the event.[251]
We shall now turn to Dunkirk Township, the earliest settling of which
also dates from 1843.
[251] Ole K. Roe of Stoughton, is a son of K. Roe; other children
are: Mrs. F. Johnson, Mrs. Ole Thorsen, Mrs. O. Swerig and
Mrs. J. King. Since the above was written I have learned that
Helleik Roe has died (April, 1909).