_The Coming of the First Large Party of Immigrants
from Sogn. New Accessions from Voss._
It has been noted above that one of the earliest pioneers at Wiota,
La Fayette County, Wisconsin, was from Vik Parish in Sogn, namely,
Per Unde who emigrated in 1839. In 1842 Ole Unde came and joined his
brother at Wiota. In 1843 Ole Schærdalen[272] came to America from
Aurland, Sogn; he was the first emigrant from that parish. It has been
said that there was a party of immigrants from Sogn in 1843, but this
I doubt as I have been able nowhere to verify it. Ole Schærdalen went
to Muskego where he stopped the first year, then he joined the party
of Sognings who came that year and passed through Muskego en route
for Koshkonong. Per and Ole Unde wrote letters home to Vik Parish, in
response to these letters, full of praise for Wisconsin, there came
many immigrants from Vik during the next two years. Ole Schærdalen in a
similar way aided in promoting emigration from Inner Sogn.
[272] So written, but pronounced Schirdalen in the dialect. My
father is the authority for the statement that Schærdalen was
the first to emigrate from Aurland.
In Aurland Parish lived Ole Torjussen Flom; he had travelled much in
Norway and come in contact with people who had relatives and friends
in America, and who themselves were planning to emigrate. He was well
acquainted with Schærdalen and he had been in Vik and knew, it seems,
the Unde family. Ole T. Flom (b. 1794) was the son of Torjus Flom (b.
about 1765) generally called Torjus i Midgarden, who was the owner of a
valuable estate at Flaam near Fretheim. There were three sons, Gulleik,
Ole, and Knut; by the right of primogeniture the estate would fall to
the oldest son, Gulleik Flom. Ole Flom had selected for purchase a
place then for sale, in Voss, and it was his intention to remove to
Voss. He was, however, prevailed upon not to do this by his father who
told him he would give him half of the family estate. When, however,
the time came, the temptation to follow the general practice and give
the estate intact over to the oldest son became too strong for the
father and he gave it all to Gulleik Flom.
Ole T. Flom then began thinking about emigrating to America. In 1843 he
went to Vik Parish and while there he and Anfin J. Seim agreed to go to
America. After he returned to Aurland others in the parish also began
to make preparations for leaving for the New World and the fever spread
to Fresvik and Systrond and up as far as Sogndal Parish. In the spring
of 1844 a considerable number from these regions and from Vik stood
ready to emigrate. Ole T. Flom, wife Anna and sons Ole and Anders,
Ivar H. Vangen and Knut Aaretuen (i Aureto), wife Anna[273] and three
children left Aurlandsvangen on the 12th of April. They had engaged
passage on _Juno_, Captain Bendixen, but were obliged to wait in Bergen
two weeks before sailing. In the meantime others who also were to go on
_Juno_ joined them at Bergen. Among them were the Melaas families from
Norum Annex of Sogndal Parish; they were the first to emigrate from
that district. This party was composed of the following eleven members:
Mons Lasseson Melaas (b. 1787) and wife Martha; Kristen L. Melaas,
wife Aase and daughter Anna; Johans K. Bjelde and wife Kristi; Ole A.
Slinde, wife Martha;[274] and two children.
[273] She was a daughter of Ole Schærdalen.
[274] A daughter of Mons Melaas. Their husbands took the name
Melaas in this country.
The following persons from various parts of Sogn also embarked on
_Juno_: Anders Engen, Per L. Gjerde, Michel J. Engesæter and wife
Synnöve from Systrand, Ole I. Husebö with wife Ingeleiv and children,
and Ole A. Værken (Grinde) from Leikanger, Nils T. Seim, wife Mari and
children (3) and Thomas T. Seim from Lærdal, and the aforementioned
Anfin I. Seim from Vik with his wife Britha and five children.[275]
There were about sixty persons on _Juno_ when it sailed in May. At
the same time two other ships sailed from Bergen with immigrants
for America; they were _Kong Sverre_, Captain Vingaard and _Albion_,
Captain Brock. A very large number of those who embarked on these ships
also were from Sogn, especially Vik, nearly all these going to Long
Prairie (see next chapter). Among those who came to Koshkonong were:
Torstein Thronson Selseng and wife Kari, Knut Gjerde, Ole Selseng,
Jakob I. Gjerdene, from Sogndal, Elling O. Flatland, wife and children,
and Sjur S. Ölman.
[275] Relative to the personnel of this party and the sailing
of _Juno_ I am especially to Kristi Melaas, with whom I
have had several interviews on the question. She is the
oldest surviving member of the party and is still living
at Stoughton, Wisconsin. My father, Ole O. Flom, has also
supplied many facts; he was thirteen years old at the time of
immigration.
_Kong Sverre_ and _Albion_ sailed three days before _Juno_, but arrived
in New York several weeks later. _Juno_ made the journey to New York
in five weeks and three days, which, says Kristi Melaas, broke the
record for fast sailing at that time. "The Brock ship" took eight
weeks for the journey, while _Kong Sverre_ was on the ocean twelve
weeks. The party that came with _Juno_ was therefore the first large
group of Sognings to land in America, the date of their landing being
St. John's Eve. From New York they went by canal-boat to Buffalo,
where they arrived on the fourth of July. Here they were put on board
an old steamboat, which the immigrants feared would go to the bottom
at any moment of the journey, says Mrs. Melaas, over the lakes to
Milwaukee, where they arrived at the end of July.[276] Kristi Melaas
says the agent weighed their goods at every stopping place and charged
toll each time. There was no interpreter on the boat who could voice
their objections. The ticket from New York to Chicago was $14, but by
additional charges along the route, the expense of the inland journey
was greater than that from Bergen to New York. In Milwaukee most of the
party, including Ole Vendelbo, Ole T. Flom, Knut Aaretuen and Michel
Engesæter went to Koshkonong via Muskego, but the Melaas family went
to Chicago, as did Ole Husebö and one man from Vik who had intended to
go south to Missouri,[277] and they were all met in Chicago by one who
was to bring them to Missouri. It seems, however, that the departure
hither was delayed for weeks by their guide who was addicted to drink.
In the meantime the Melaas families becoming discouraged and having
met a certain Ole Bringa who urged them to come to Koshkonong, decided
to go where the rest of the party had already directed their course.
They then bought two yoke of oxen and drove to Koshkonong, stopping in
Pleasant Spring Township about two miles northeast of Lake Kegonsa.
[276] Kristi Melaas called the boat "_ein rota baot skikke-leg_."
She says the agent who had charge of the journey to Milwaukee
was a man by the name of Hohlfelt, a typical immigrant
"runner," it seems, whom she styles as "ain rigele bedragar,
ain stakkars Mann va han."
[277] This man we learn was Anfin Seim (see next chapter).
Soon after arriving at Koshkonong they were met by Ole Trovatten
who aided them in the selection of land and who accompanied Johans
and Ole Melaas to Milwaukee to purchase the land selected. The two
brothers bought each forty acres at first in section three; later
Johans bought out Ole and eighty acres more adjacent to the acquired
forty. Ole A. Melaas thereupon located on section thirty-five in
Cottage Grove Township, a mile northeast of his brother's property.
The Melaas families all located in that immediate neighborhood. Ole
T. Flom bought eighty acres in Cottage Grove Township, a mile north
of Door Creek where also Ole Vendelbo Olson settled, purchasing forty
acres. Olson, however, sold this out to Ole T. Flom not long after,
and moved to Minnesota. Nile Seim also located near there, while Per
Gjerde settled in section two in Pleasant Spring, near the Cottage
Grove line. Ole I. Husebö settled in Christiana Township and Sjur Ölman
settled a mile north of Nora Post-office. Ivar Vangen located on Bonnet
Prairie, Michel Engesæter lived a few years on Koshkonong, then removed
to Norway Grove. Knut Aaretuen settled in Koshkonong, but went west
(to Minnesota) after some years. Anfin Seim, who was from Vik, went
with the Melaas families to Chicago, and thence to Long Prairie, Boone
County, Illinois (see next chapter). The only family from Vik to locate
in Koshkonong that year was that of Mons Halringa, who settled in
Pleasant Spring, a mile or so southwest of Utica; the homestead being
that later occupied by his son Simon.
The immigration to Koshkonong in 1844 was thus principally from Sogn,
and it is to be noted that a considerable number of these settled in
the northern extremity of the settlement, north of Door Creek and
Nora. At the same time there were new accessions from other districts,
especially Voss and Laurdal in Telemarken, while from Rollaug came
that year Gisle H. Venaas and Anfin A. Haugerud. Among those who came
from Voss I shall name here the brothers Nils and Sjur Droksvold, Ole
Droksvold, Henrik O. Hæve, Erik V. Rio (Williams), Erik S. Fliseram,
and Knut E. Rokne; all these had families.
Among earlier immigrants from Voss who located in Dane County in 1844
were Ole and Steffen Gilderhus; the former had immigrated in 1839 while
Steffen came in 1838. As has been observed above, Lars D. Rekve, who
came to America in 1839, did not actually settle in Koshkonong until
1844. Rokne and Venaas settled in Christiana, the former three miles
west of Cambridge, the latter two miles northwest of Rockdale. Most of
the Vossings, however, located in Deerfield Township, south and west of
the village of Deerfield. We shall now turn to the immigrants who came
from Sogn with _Kong Sverre_ and _Albion_ in 1844 and did not settle in
Wisconsin.