CHAPTER VIII

_Causes of Emigration continued. The Influence of Successful Pioneers. "America-letters." The Spirit of Adventure. Summary._

Far more influential, however, than the factors just noted were the efforts put forth by successful immigrants to induce their relatives and friends to follow them. Numerous letters were written home praising American laws and institutions, and setting forth the opportunities here offered. These letters were read and passed around to friends. Many who had relatives in America would travel long distances to hear what the last "America-letter" had to report. Among the early immigrants who did much in this way to promote emigration from their native districts was one whom we have already spoken of, Gjert Hovland. He wrote many letters home praising American institutions. These letters "were transcribed and the copies distributed far and wide in the Province of Bergen; and a large number were thus led to emigrate."[57]

[57] See _Billed-Magazin_, p. 74.

The interviews in _Billed-Magazin_ contain statements from several among the early settlers on Koshkonong Prairie and the neighborhood of Stoughton which give evidence of the part that "America-letters" played in their emigration. On page 123 occurs a statement of Gaute Ingbrigtson (Gulliksrud) who came from Tin in Telemarken in 1843 and became one of the earliest pioneers of Dunkirk Township in Dane County. He says: "Two of my uncles and a brother emigrated in 1839. I, however, remained at home with my father who was a farmer in the Parish of Tin. But then letters came with good news from America, and my relatives as well as other acquaintances on this side of the ocean were encouraged to emigrate. From this it came about that I and many others in my native district prepared for leaving in the spring of 1843. The party numbered about one hundred and twenty...."

We have already had occasion to refer to a letter received by Ole Menes of Stoughton in 1845. Ingbrigt Helle came from Kragerö in 1845 and settled in the Town of Dunn. The ship he came on brought one hundred and forty immigrants and he mentions the fact that many had been induced to emigrate by letters from America, and he writes: "Such letters from America urging emigration was, as far as I can see, the thing that brought the majority of emigrants to bid farewell to Norway." Ole Knudson Dyrland, who emigrated from Siljord, Telemarken, in 1843, and became one of the earliest white settlers in Dunn Township, Dane County, testifying to the same fact, mentions Ole Knudson Trovatten as one who, through letters, exerted considerable influence upon emigration in Telemarken (page 218, _Billed-Magazin_, 1870). We shall meet Trovatten again below as a pioneer in the Town of Cottage Grove in the same county. The editor of _Billed-Magazin_ writes of Trovatten elsewhere, page 283, after giving a brief sketch of his life: "he settled on Koshkonong and wrote therefrom many letters to his numerous friends in his native country in which he, with much eloquence, made his countrymen acquainted with the glories of America, and there is no doubt that Trovatten in a large measure gave the impulse to the rapid development of emigration in the region of Telemarken."

Of Trovatten's influence as a promoter of immigration Gunder T. Mandt, himself an immigrant of 1843 (died 1907, Stoughton, Wisconsin), gives similar testimony. He speaks of the opposition to emigration in Upper Telemarken, which found expression in all sorts of adverse accounts of America, especially among the clergy, and that much uncertainty prevailed among the masses as to the advisability of going to America. During all this, Trovatten, he says, "came to be looked upon as an angel of peace, who had gone beforehand to the New World, whence he sent back home to his countrymen, so burdened by economic sorrows, the olive-branch of promise, with assurances of a happier life in America.... 'Ole Trovatten has said so,' became the refrain in all accounts of the land of wonder, and in a few years he was the most talked of man in Upper Telemarken. His letters from America gave a powerful impulse to emigration, and it is probable that hundreds of those who now are plowing the soil of Wisconsin and Minnesota would still be living in their ancestors' domains in the land of Harald Fairhair, if they had not been induced to bid old Norway farewell through Trovatten's glittering accounts of conditions on this side of the ocean." (_Billed-Magazin_, 1870, p. 38.) Similar evidence of the influence of "America-letters" is also given by Knud Aslakson Juve, a pioneer of 1844, in the Town of Pleasant Spring, in Dane County.

At the close of the preceding chapter I spoke of Gjert Hovland's letters in 1835 as a chief factor in bringing about the emigration of 1836. From settlers in other portions of the country comes testimony of similar nature, and I have spoken with many pioneers from a later period of immigration, whose coming was, in the last instance, determined by favorite accounts of America received from friends and relatives already resident there.

In letters from immigrants to their relatives at home prepaid tickets, or the price of the ticket, were often enclosed. This custom was so common as to become a special factor in emigration. According to _Norsk Folkeblad_ (cited in _Billed-Magazin_, p. 134), 4,000 Norwegian emigrants, via Christiana in 1868, took with them $40,335 (Speciedaler) in cash money of which $21,768 (Spd.) had been sent by relatives in America to cover the expense of the journey. It has been estimated that about fifty per cent of Scandinavian emigrants, arrive by prepaid passage tickets secured by relatives in this country.[58]

[58] Nelson's _History of Scandinavians_, page 56.

The visits of successful Scandinavians back home was in the early days an important factor; and as a rule only those who had been prosperous would return. In 1835 Knud Anderson Slogvig, who had emigrated in the sloop as we know, returned to Norway and became the chief promoter of the exodus from the Province of Stavanger in 1836, which resulted in the settlement at Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois.

We have already above, page 63, recited this fact and its significance toward promoting further emigration from Stavanger Province and of inaugurating the first exodus from Hardanger also. Thus, while Jacob Slogvig, the brother, was one of a few to secure land in La Salle County and make the beginnings of settlement, Knud became the means of bringing hosts of immigrants from Norway to recruit the colony and start it upon its course of growth. In precisely a similar way did two other brothers become even more significant factors in the foundation and development of the earliest Norwegian settlement in Wisconsin, namely, that of Jefferson Prairie in Rock County. They were Ole and Ansten Nattestad, who had emigrated in 1837. Returning to Norway in 1839 Ansten Nattestad became the father of emigration from Numedal, Norway, bringing with him a large party of immigrants, who located for the most part in southern Rock County, Wisconsin, and adjacent parts of the state of Illinois. But of this movement I shall have occasion to speak more fully below.

An equally interesting instance we have from a somewhat later period. We have above referred to Ole Dyrland's testimony of the effect of Ole Trovatten's letters. After remarking that many still were doubtful of the advisability of emigrating he goes on to say:

"But then Knud Svalestuen of Vinje, who had lived for a time in the Muskego Settlement, came home on a trip back to Norway, and by his accounts even the most hesitating were made firm in their faith. Knud came in the fall of 1843, and during the winter he received visits of men sent out from various districts in Telemarken, who came to secure reliable information about the new country. The next spring hosts of intending emigrants left the upper mountain districts of the country.... Three emigrant ships left that year from Porsgrund. On board the ship I left in there were two hundred and eleven emigrants."

The editor of _Billed-Magazin_ gives other interviews with pioneers showing the effect of Svalestuen's return (page 293).

Some of the Norwegian pioneers wrote books regarding the settlements and American conditions, and these, laudatory as they were, exerted not a little influence. Special mention should be made of Ole Rynning, whose pamphlet, _Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika til Veiledning og Hjaelp for Bonde og, Menigmand, skrevet of en Norsk som kom der i Juni Maaned_, 1837.[59] This little book of thirty-nine pages had not a little to do with the emigration that followed to La Salle County, Illinois, and elsewhere. In it the author gives an intelligent discussion of thirteen questions regarding America which he set himself to answer. Among them were: What is the nature of the country? What is the reason that so many people go there? Is it not to be feared that the land will soon be overpopulated? In what parts are the Norwegian settlements? Which is the most convenient and the cheapest route to them? What is the price of land? What provision is there for the education of children? What language is spoken and is it difficult to learn? Is there danger of disease in America? What kind of people should emigrate?

[59] _True Account of America for the Information and Help of Peasant and Commoner_, written by a Norwegian who came there in the month of June, 1837.

Another writer of immigration literature whose writings were widely distributed and had considerable influence was Johan Reinert Reierson. He came to America in 1843, but returned to Norway soon after. In America he had written a book, _Veiviseren_,[60] which he published in Norway and was read far and wide. This book contains a fund of information regarding the different settlements, as Racine County, Wisconsin, La Salle County, Illinois, and Lee County, Iowa, and others, all of which Reierson had himself visited. Reierson became the founder of the first Norwegian settlement in Texas in 1847-48.

[60] _The Pathfinder_, a book of one hundred and sixty-six pages.

Of the events leading up to this, _Billed-Magazin_ for 1870 gives a circumstantial account, pages 58-60, 66-67, and 75-76. Reierson's book seems to have been a leading factor in promoting emigration from Valders. Among the earliest to leave this region were Nils Hanson Fjeld and family of South Aurdal, Valders, who emigrated in 1847. He says, page 236 of _Billed-Magazin_ for 1870, that before him only two or three single men had gone to America from that region. The "America-fever" had not yet taken hold of the people, "many would not give credence to mere hearsay, but after a while a couple copies of Reierson's book about Texas came to the district. 'Now we have the printed word to go by,' it was said, and many of the doubters soon were converted to the orthodox faith in the land of promise beyond the great ocean." And as a result, many began to emigrate. As early as 1848, emigration from Valders on a considerable scale was already in progress.

I shall here also mention Ansten Nattestad, who wrote a similar book, which he took with him on his return to Norway in 1838, and had printed there; this became a factor operating toward emigration, especially in Numedal. Reverend J. W. C. Dietrichson's _Reise blandt de norske Emigranter i de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater_, Stavanger, 1846 (124 pages), gave much valuable information about the settlements, but was not calculated to exert much influence toward emigration. The first three that I have mentioned, however, had an influence which we today can hardly fully appreciate.

Finally, curiosity and the spirit of adventure have doubtless prompted some to cross the ocean.

To sum up, the chief influences that have promoted Scandinavian emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century have been in the order of their importance: first, the prospect of material betterment and the love of a freer and more independent life; second, letters of relatives and friends who had emigrated to the United States and visits of these again to their native country; third, the advertising of agents of emigration; fourth, religious persecution at home; fifth, church proselytism; sixth, political oppression; seventh, military service; and eighth, the desire for adventure. Fugitives from justice have been few, and paupers and criminals in the Scandinavian countries are not sent out of the country; they are taken care of by the government.