CHAPTER IX

_Growth of the Fox River Settlement. The Immigration of 1836. Further Personal Sketches._

On page fifty-five above I spoke of the advance troop of six men who established the Fox River Settlement in 1834. A list of those who followed from New York in 1835 was also given. Other settlers came in subsequent years, more and more now coming directly from Norway to La Salle County. The vicinity of the present towns of Norway and Leland, in eastern and northern La Salle County, became centers of a settlement, which later extended east into Kendall County (Newark and Lisbon) and into Grundy County toward Morris, as also north into DeKalb County (Rollo, Sandwich), and northwest clear into southwestern Lee County (Paw Paw, Sublette, and surrounding region). The slooper, Ole Olson Hetletvedt, had not come west with the first party. He lived first in Kendall and then went to Niagara Falls, being there employed in a paper mill. Here he married a Miss Chamberlain, then moved back to Orleans County. In 1839 he and his wife went west, settling in Kendall County. He bought land on the spot where the town of Newark now stands. He became well known as a lay preacher of the Haugian faith in the Fox River Settlement, also visiting the settlements founded soon after in Wisconsin and in Lee County, Iowa. He died in Kendall County in 1849 or 1850.[61]

[61] One of his sons was Colonel Porter C. Olson of Civil War fame, member of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry.

Iver Waller, who bought a claim of Miss Pearson in 1835, came directly from Norway to La Salle County that year. Baldwin's _History of La Salle County_ lists Ove Stenson Rossadal and wife, and John Stenson Rossadal among the arrivals of 1835, and as being brothers of Daniel Rossadal, of whom we have spoken above. Strand's _History of the Norwegians in Illinois_ correctly names them as sons of Daniel Rossadal. Nils Bilden, who also came during this period (year uncertain), was therefore one of the very first emigrants from Hardanger to the United States. He settled at Rochester, Sangamon County, Illinois.

As to the extent of Norwegian immigration during the years immediately preceding the year, 1836, which inaugurates a new period in the movement, our information is very fragmentary. American statistics give forty-two and thirty-one, respectively, for 1834 and 1835, as the total immigration from Norway and Sweden. In 1833 there were sixteen, while the number for 1832 is three hundred and thirteen.[62] The total number between 1826 and 1831 is given as sixty-eight. It is probable, however, that these figures do not represent the full number of immigrants during these years. Norwegian government statistics on immigration which are available since 1836, give the number of immigrants for that year as two hundred, which is also the figure for the following year. It is to this exodus that we shall now turn.

[62] Among those who came in 1832 was John Nordboe from Gudbrandsdalen, Norway.

We have above, under Causes of Emigration, had occasion to speak of Knud Slogvig's return to Norway in 1835, after a ten years' residence in America;[63] the results of his return were also there briefly noted. In the two ships, _Norden_ and _Den Norske Klippe_,[64] which sailed from Stavanger in July of 1836, came two hundred immigrants,[65] who located for the most part in the Fox River Settlement. These stopped en route for a short time in Rochester, no doubt gathering advice and information from Lars Larson, the captain of the sloopers, resident there as we know; thence they continued their journey west to Chicago and to La Salle County. Thus the nucleus which had been formed in 1834-35 in a very short time developed into a considerable settlement at a time when the surrounding country was practically a wilderness. The immigrants of 1836 were, in part, from Stavanger, some, however, were from other districts, east and north, as especially Hardanger and Voss.

[63] While in Norway he married a sister of Ole Olson Hetletvedt, which may have been in part the purpose of his return.

[64] _The North_ and _The Norwegian Rock_.

[65] Langeland says a hundred and sixty on page eighteen of his work, elsewhere a hundred and fifty. Two hundred seems, however, to have been approximately the number.

Not all who came settled in Mission and the later Miller townships, however. Some went considerably farther north and established, in Adams Township, a northern extension of the original settlement at and around the present village of Leland. The two, however, later grew together into one large settlement, extending also, east into Kendall County. The first white settler in Adams Township was Mordicai Disney, who located there in 1836, slightly prior to the coming of the immigrants from Stavanger.[66]

[66] Disney left again in 1837.

The first of our immigrants to locate in Adams Township where Halvor Nelson and Ole T. Olson, who in the spring of 1837, settled on sections twenty-one and twenty-two;[67] they had lived in Mission Township since their coming in 1836. Among those who came in 1836 and located in Mission Township were: Amund Anderson Hornefjeld, who in 1840 went to Wisconsin (see below), Erick Johnson Savig[68] and wife, Ingeborg, from Kvinherred Parish, Knud Olson Hetletvedt and wife, Serena (both of whom died of cholera in 1849), Osmund Thomason,[69] wife and daughter, Anne, Henrik Erickson Sebbe and two sons, who went to Salt Lake City in 1848 (see above, p. 78). Samuel Peerson and Helge Vatname also seem to have come in 1836; they are recorded as living at Norway, Illinois, in 1837, and as aiding in bringing some of the immigrants of 1837 from Chicago to La Salle County.

[67] The Olson homestead is still owned by the son, Nels Olson.

[68] Died in 1840, leaving wife and two children, John and Anna Bertha; the latter later became the wife of John J. Næset in the town of Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin. Sævig was born in 1803, his wife in 1809.

[69] Died in 1876, ninety-two years old.

Some of those who came in 1836 did not go directly to La Salle County. Andrew Anderson (Aasen), wife, Olena, three sons and two daughters, from Tysvær Parish, Skjold, remained two years in Orleans County, New York, coming to La Salle County in 1838; he died of the cholera in 1849. John Hidle from Stavanger County, Norway, also emigrated in 1836, coming direct to La Salle County. In 1838 he settled at Lisbon, Kendall County, being thus the first Norwegian to locate there and as far as I have been able to find out, the first Norwegian to settle in that county (for Ole O. Hetletvedt did not come till 1839). Hidle, who wrote his name Hill in this country, married Susanna Anderson, daughter of Andrew Anderson; she was fourteen years old when her parents came to America, and is still living, at Morris, Illinois, with her daughter Mrs. Austin Osmond. Lars Bö and Michael Bö, who lived and died in La Salle County, came when John Hill did. Lars Larson Brimsöe, born in Stavanger, 1812, worked for some time as a carpenter in New York and Chicago before settling in La Salle County. In 1858 he located in Benton County, Iowa, and in 1872 went to Adams County (died 1873). Björn Anderson Kvelve and wife, Catherine,[70] and two sons, Arnold Andrew and Brunn, from Vikedal, Ryfylke, lived for a year in Rochester, New York, came in 1837 to Mission Township, La Salle County. He removed to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1839. Of Lars Tallakson, who came to America in 1836 (by way of Gothenburg), we shall speak below. Herman Aarag Osmond, born near Stavanger, 1818, also came to America in 1836. He first lived in Ohio, came in 1837 to Chicago, then to Norway, La Salle County. He settled on a farm near Norway in 1848, but bought in 1869 a farm near Newark, Kendall County; Herman Osmond died in Newark in 1888.

[70] Abel Catherine von Krogh was born in 1809. Her father was Arnold von Krogh. Björne Anderson Kvelve was born in 1801. For a sketch of Björn Anderson and his wife see pages 155-170 of _First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration_ by R. B. Anderson, who is their third son (b. 1846 in Albion, Wisconsin); I am indebted to this work for many facts relative to the Illinois pioneers of 1836-1837.

Some of the immigrants of 1836 located in Chicago, which then consisted of only a few houses. Among these was first, Halstein Torison (or Törison), to whom Knud Langeland accords the distinction of being the first Norwegian resident of Chicago. He was from Fjeldberg in Söndhordland, and he came to Chicago with wife and children in October, 1836. The site of his home was that now occupied by the Chicago and Northwestern Depot on Wells Street. He worked first as a gardener for a Mr. Newberry. Reverend Dietrichson speaks of him, in 1844, as prosperous and as occupying a leading position among Chicago Norwegians at that time. In 1848 he moved to Calumet, twenty miles south of Chicago, where he lived until his death in 1882.

Svein Lothe, from Hardanger, also came in 1836, as did Nils Röthe and wife, Torbjör, who were from Voss. The latter remained, however, in Rochester, New York, one year before coming to Chicago. Nils Röthe and wife were the first to emigrate from Voss, Norway. Johan Larson, from Kopervik, an island not far north of Stavanger city, also located in Chicago in 1836. He was a sailor and had, it seems, visited Chicago before; what year he came to America, I do not know. I may also mention Baard Johnson, who, with his wife and five children, settled in Chicago in 1837. Those we have mentioned form the nucleus out of which has grown today the largest Norwegian city colony in this country.

Svein Knutson Lothe, who emigrated with wife and two children from Hardanger in 1836, was from the Parish of Ullensvang. There were eleven persons in all who came from Ullensvang that year, the other seven being: Jon Jonson Aga, wife and two children, Torbjörn Djönne, Olav Öystenson Lofthus and Omund Helgeson Maakestad. Maakestad became the founder of the Hardanger settlement in Lee County, Illinois (see below). I am not able to say where Aga, Djönne or Lofthus located. There were also seven immigrants from Ulvik Parish, Hardanger, that year; they were: Sjur Haaheim and wife, Paul Dale and wife, Sjur Dale and wife and Aslak Holven. These eighteen persons form the advance guard of the immigration from Hardanger.

We have spoken of the two ships that came from Stavanger in 1836. These were followed in the next year by _Enigheden_ (Harmony), Captain Jensen, carrying ninety-three passengers. These were for the most part from Tysvær and from Hjelmeland, and Aardal in Ryfylke, from the city of Stavanger, and from Egersund. They came to New York, thence went to Albany and Rochester, and by way of the lakes to Chicago. Most of them went to La Salle County, although not all settled there permanently. Among the passengers were Hans Valder and wife from Ryfylke, Knud Olson Eide, Ole Thompson Eide, from Fogn, near Stavanger, Thomas A. Thompson, Christopher Danielson and family, Östen Espeland and family, and Knud Danielson and family.

The sailing of _Enigheden_ may be regarded as a continuation of the movement in Stavanger county, which was given such an impetus by Knud Slogvig's return in 1835. Other immigrants continued to come from this region in subsequent years, but the autumn of 1837 inaugurates a change in the course of the movement to a more northerly region, Hardanger, Voss, and Bergen, for a period, contributing a large share to the now rapidly increasing numbers of emigrants.