_The Founding of the Norwegian Settlements of Norway
Grove, Spring Prairie and Bonnet Prairie in Dane and Columbia
Counties, Wisconsin._
In the extreme northern part of Dane County in the Towns of Vienna,
Windsor and Bristol, a large number of Norwegian immigrants,
principally from Sogn, settled in 1846-1848, forming the nucleus of
what in a few years came to be one of the most prosperous settlements
in Southern Wisconsin. The first Norwegian in this section was Svennung
Nikkulson Dahle, who came from Flatdal in Telemarken in 1844 to
Koshkonong, and the next year purchased land and settled near Norway
Grove in the Town of Vienna. He was then only eighteen years old.[360]
Nearly all who came later were from Sogn, and Dahle was and remained
the only native of Telemarken in Vienna. In 1846 Erik Engesæter, from
Leikanger, Sogn, with family, including a son John, settled there. In
1847 Ole H. Farness (b. 1826) and wife Gertrude came from Sogn, Norway,
to Norway Grove. Erik C. Farness[361] (b. 1828) also came the same
year. These men both acquired large farms there in the course of time,
Ole Farness owning 530 acres. Arne Boyum and family, five in all, from
Outer Sogn, came in 1848 as did Knut K. Naas (b. 1810), with wife Alau
and family of four children from Kragerö.[362]
[360] About 1858 he married Maline Öien (b. in Aardal, Sogn, in
1835). Svennung Dahle died in 1872, the owner of 400 acres of
land.
[361] He was married to Ingeborg Grinde in 1851, Rev. A. C. Preus
performing the ceremony. Ingeborg was the daughter of Botolf
Grinde who came from Sogn in 1846 and settled on Liberty
Prairie.
[362] Two sons, Thomas and Isak, went to the War in 1860. Thomas
was killed in the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862.
Knut Naas died in 1868; his wife in 1887.
The first Norwegian to buy land in Windsor Township was Ingebrigt
Larson Tygum, from Systrand, Sogn, who immigrated in 1844, lived one
year in Muskego, then came to Windsor in 1845. For two years he seems
to have been the only Norwegian in the Town.[363] In 1852 Tygum sold
his farm in Windsor and moved into Vienna Township, buying the farm
at present occupied by the son Lars (b. 1849). In 1847 the following
settled in Windsor Township: Stephen Holum and family, who had
immigrated in 1845 and lived two years at Rock Prairie, Sjur Grinde
and family, and Truls E. Farness and wife.[364] These families are
intimately connected with the history of the Village of De Forest. A
son of S. Holum, namely Ole S. Holum (b. 1847), lives on 204 acres
of land adjoining the village. Ole Holum is a prominent democrat and
has held various offices of trust, being e. g. Register of Deeds in
1877-78.[365] In 1848 several families moved in, among them Lars
Eggum, Ole Haukness and family (ten in all), and Sjur S. Vangness and
family. Vangness had immigrated in 1844, first settled in Rock County,
then came to De Forest in 1848. He died there in 1878. The family
included a son, Sjur S. Vangness (b. 1816 at Vangsness in Sogn), whom
we meet with later as a man of much influence in the township; he owned
264 acres of land near De Forest.[366]
[363] Larson married Brita (Dale) widow of Jon Eiken on Rock
Prairie in 1847; she died in 1902, aged 89.
[364] Farness came from Balestrand Parish.
[365] Farness died in 1885, his wife died in 1902 at the home of
her daughter, Mrs. H. T. Lerdall, Madison, Wisconsin.
[366] As I shall not have occasion elsewhere to speak of the
Township of Burke directly south of Windsor, I may here say
that the first Norwegian settlers were Torkel Gullikson
(b. 1815) and wife Margarete, whom he had married in 1843;
they came to Pleasant Spring in 1844 and moved up to Burke
the following year. For several years there came no more
Norwegians.
In Bristol Township three families settled as early as 1846; namely
that of Botolf E. Bergum (b. 1816), who came there in the fall of 1846,
and continued to reside there until his death in 1904 (his wife died
in 1903; after a wedded life of fifty-four years),[367] Sjur Johnson
and wife Ingeborg and one son, and Erik Larson and wife and several
children.
[367] They left five sons: Erik, Ellik, Peter, who live on Spring
Prairie, Marcus (Deerfield), and John, who lives in Cottage
Grove, and one daughter, Mrs. Peter Hagen, Spring Prairie.
In 1848 Hans H. Quamme came up to Bristol from Rock Prairie, where he
had settled in 1846, coming from Norway that year. During the next
three years so many immigrants came from Sogn and located in Norway
Grove that the settlement came to be called "Sogn." Among the many
families who located there at that time, John Ollis of Madison,
Wisconsin, writing in _Bygdejaevining_, page 341, names: "Engesæther,
Grinde, Farnes, Tygum, Eggum, Boyum, Huseböe, Hamre, Ohnstad, Slinde,
Sværen, Vangsness, Holum, Linde, Lidahl, Thorsnes, Fosse, Rendahl,
Ethun, Vigdahl, Ulvestad, Röisum, Svalem, Fjerstad, Henjum, Jerde,
Haukeness," besides all who were called Olson, Larson, Nilson,
Anderson, Peterson, Johnson, etc.
About ten miles northwest of Norway Grove, at Lodi in Columbia County,
a smaller settlement of immigrants from Hardanger takes its beginning
in 1847-48; although one family had settled there as early as 1844.
In that year Peder L. Ödvin (b. 1819) and wife Kathrine Spaanem, from
Ulvik in Hardanger, emigrated to America and went direct to Lodi. Ten
years later they moved to Springdale in Dane County.[368] In 1847 Peder
Fröland (see page 336) and Ole Jone, both from Hardanger, became the
founders of the Hardanger Settlement there. In 1846 Ammund Himle and
family from Voss immigrated and settled near Lodi, but below the Dane
County line.
[368] Peder Ödvin and wife returned to Norway in 1893 to spend
their declining days at Hardanger; Mrs. Ödvin died there
in 1895. In 1902 the son, L. P. Ödvin, visited his father
in Norway and brought him back to his home in Verona, Dane
County, where he died in 1903.
The origin of the Spring Prairie Settlement in Columbia County, the
northern extremity of which is more specifically called Bonnet Prairie,
dates back to 1845. In that year four men settled about the same time
on Spring Prairie, namely: Odd Himle and Sjur S. Reque from Voss,
Anders Langeteig from Vik in Sogn, and Knud Langeland from Racine
County. The three first of these had families. Reque moved away again
four years later, settling on Liberty Prairie, not far from Deerfield.
Langeland, as we have recited above, was already in 1848 back in Racine
County as one of the founders of _Nordlyset_, the first Norwegian
newspaper published in this country; but Himle and Langeteig became
permanent settlers.
In his book _Nordmaendene i Amerika_ Langeland gives a circumstantial
account of his coming to Spring Prairie. He says that in August of
1845 he and Niels Torstensen, equipping themselves with a cook stove,
provisions, bedding, and all the necessities for camping out, drove
with oxen and a wagon from Racine via Koshkonong, following the regular
road to Madison (presumably going by West Koshkonong Church). But
Madison did not attract them. He says: "Madison had nothing remarkable
about it except its natural beauty and the big Territorial Building,
which looked very imposing among the small frame houses." These sons
of the land of mountains "were scared away by the big hills" where the
University is now situated, and turned east, driving almost as far
as Fort Winnebago, where Amund Rosseland, a friend of Langeland's,
from Norway, had recently settled. Not finding the marshes here very
inviting, and failing to meet Rosseland at home, they decided to turn
back. Camping out over night, they drove back twenty miles the next
day; then upon the advice of an American by the name of Young, they
turned east, and driving on a few miles, came upon an American by the
name of Gilbert, who was just engaged in erecting his log hut. The
prairie here was to their liking and they selected a site and in due
time entered a claim on land.
Langeland says there came no other Norwegians there that fall, but as
we have seen, three others did locate in other parts of the prairie,
about the time Langeland came there. That same fall Langeland went to
Milwaukee to take out pre-emption papers and he stopped at Koshkonong,
and told his countrymen there of the beauties of the prairies to the
north, and a little later he wrote letters to friends in La Salle
County, Illinois. From Milwaukee he says he brought back to Spring
Prairie with him a plow, a harrow, and other farm tools.
In the spring of 1846 Peder Fröland[369] came up there from La Salle
County, bringing with him two ox-teams and a wagon and farm tools,
but he seems to have been the only one who came from La Salle County;
a number of settlers, however, came from Boone County and Jefferson
Prairie to Spring and Bonnet Prairie in 1847-1850. In June, 1846,
Norwegian immigrants began to come in hosts from or via Koshkonong,
says Langeland. He and Fröland plowed about one hundred acres of
prairie land for the newcomers that season. Two years later Langeland
sold his claim and moved back to Racine County.
[369] Who had come to America in 1837.
So it happened that also Spring Prairie became settled largely from
Koshkonong, and as this was the period in which immigration from Sogn
was taking place on a large scale, it was especially Sognings who
took possession also of this region; though a considerable number of
Vossings also gradually moved in. Reverend L. S. J. Reque writes me
that Spring Prairie is today almost exclusively a Sogning-Vossing
settlement, and the former predominate.
The Spring Prairie Settlement, whose beginnings have here been briefly
sketched, rapidly expanded north to Bonnet Prairie, this part of it
coming to be known as the Bonnet Prairie Settlement. The settlement
is located principally in Otsego Township, but partly in Hampdon and
surrounding towns. The first Norwegian settlers in this locality were
John Anderson and Kjel Anderson, who came in 1846, having immigrated
from Saude, Telemarken, that year.
The following is a list of the founders of the settlement as submitted
to me by Samuel Sampson of Rio, Wisconsin. Mr. Sampson (b. 1839) is the
only survivor of those who settled there at that time, being the son of
Thorbjörn Skutle. The year to the right of each name indicates the year
of immigration to America. All except the last two settled at Bonnet
Prairie in 1846; these two settled there in 1848.
_Name_ _Wife_ _Where from_
John Anderson Anne Saude 1844
Kjel Anderson Ingebor Saude 1844
Hans Jörgensen Kjösvik Kari Holden 1847
Peter Halvorson Valöen Kirsti Holden 1846
Augon Aarness Ingeborg Saude 1843
Leif Johnson Dahle Liv Marie Saude 1843
Tollef Olson Hawkos Ingebor Bö 1846
Iver Vangen Martha Aurland 1844
Gunleik Olson Svalestuen Ingebor Saude 1844
Knut Gunnelson Tveten Margit Numedal 1844
Even Tostenson Indlæggen Guro Saude 1844
Hans Hawkos Aase Anna Bö 1846
Hans Tollefson Helene Saude 1846
Johannes Frondal Ragnild Aurland 1845
Eilif Olson Johanne Sogn 1845
Mikkel Knutson Sogn 1845
Johannes Johanneson Gvaale Kari Saude 1845
Halvor Shelby Ingri Saude 1848
Thorbjörn Sampson Skutle Anna Voss 1848
Since the above was written I have received from Reverend L. S. J.
Reque of Morrisonville, Wisconsin, further facts relative to the
earliest settlers there. The earliest records of the Bonnet Prairie
Church kept by Reverend A. C. Preus show that the testimonial of
emigration was issued to "Eivind T. Indlæggen." April 5, 1843, to
"Johannes Johannesen" April 10th, 1843, to John Anderson and wife
May 3d and 6th, 1843, to "Hans Olsen Haukaas" May 7th, 1843. Also to
"Thorbjörn Samsonsen and wife Anna Ellingsdatter" May 13th, 1844.
As it is probable that these emigrated at the time of issue of the
testimonial of emigration the table should be corrected with reference
to these names. During the intervening three years most of the above
had lived in Boone County, Illinois, whither also some of the later
settlers came en route to Bonnet Prairie. Thorbjörn Skutle and family
who came from Voss, sailing on the ship _Hercules_, located first at
Jefferson Prairie. T. Skutle and his wife both died in 1897, age 88 and
91 respectively.