CHAPTER XXIV

_Immigration to Rock Prairie from Numedal and Land in 1842 and Subsequent Years._

In Chapter XI above we have given an account of the beginnings of the Rock Prairie Settlement and traced its growth down to 1842. We shall here briefly discuss the development of this settlement during the next eight years. Already in the summer of 1842 a considerable number of immigrants came, most of them locating there permanently. I shall mention first Halvor N. Aaen and wife, Guri (Frögne), both from Nore in Numedal, who settled in Newark.[188] Halvor Stordok and Ole Stordok, brothers of Gunnul Stordok mentioned before, both came in 1842. Halvor bought land near Sugar River Bottom; he married Ingeborg Paulson, and the couple lived on the homestead till their death. Their children, Knud, Halvor, Inge and Ingeborg, all unmarried, are still living there. They are all over fifty years of age now. Ole Stordok, who married Anne Sand from Rollaug, located at Sand Prairie, five miles south of Broadhead. In the same year came also Gullik O. Mygstue, with wife Jöran and five children, from Vægli, Numedal. Gullik died in 1852, but the widow lived till 1887. Their oldest son, Ole (born in 1825), had learned the trade of a shoemaker and conducted a shoemaker's shop on his farm long after he had begun farming.[189] In 1848 he married Sive Espeset from Hallingdal, Norway; they had no children. [190]

[188] Aaen is said to have been something of an inventor. He made two clocks, one of which was bought by Mr. Chrispinson; the other was bought by Simon Strand, and is now probably in the possession of Stone or Gunild Strand says a writer in _Amerika_ for March 15th, 1907. Aaen died about 1886.

[189] The location of his farm is half a mile from Orfordville.

[190] Mrs. Mygstue died in 1892. Ole Mygstue then sold his farm and moved to his sister, Mrs. Engen, in Primrose, Dane County. An obituary notice of Ole Mygstue (who died in 1902) speaks very highly of him as a member of the church and a citizen. He was a man of kindly nature and helpful spirit in whom all reposed implicit confidence.

Among those who came from Numedal to America in 1842 was also Herbrand H. Berge (born in Rollaug in 1821). He remained for a year and a half on Jefferson Prairie, however, so that he did not locate on Rock Prairie until early in 1844. Anna Torbjörnsdatter, who later became his wife (1847) also immigrated in 1842. They removed to Jackson County, Minnesota, in 1876; he died there in December, 1903, and she in February, 1904,[191] at the age of seventy-seven. In 1843 Hellik Olson Holtan with family from Flesberg in Numedal emigrated and settled on Rock Prairie. Holtan was a man of much intelligence and strength of character, who soon came to hold a leading place among the pioneers in the community.

[191] Their children are: Paul Berge, Herbrand Berge and Mrs. Henry Anderson, all living in Jackson, Minnesota.

So far we have spoken only of immigrants from Numedal. In the year 1842 the first family from Land, Norway, came to Rock Prairie, namely Hans Smedsrud and wife. We have seen that the first immigrant from Land, Lars Röste, who came in 1839, located at Rock Run. It was the year 1843 which inaugurated the tide of emigration to America from Land and nearly all the earliest arrivals located on Rock Prairie. Thus in that year came Harald Ommelstad and family, five in all, Anders Lundsæter and family, in all five, Peder H. Gaarder with family (six), Sören Sörum, and Anne Marie Nilsdatter, in all eighteen persons. These were followed the next year by fifteen persons, namely: Lars Nord-Fossum and family (five), Hans Christofferson Tollefsrude and wife, Anders Midböen with wife and one child, Anders Engen, Gudbrand Gaarder, Helene Gaarder, Inger Gaarder, and Helene Klevmoen. Anders Erstad and wife, and Syver Smed, who came at the same time, did not locate on Rock Prairie; the former went to Rock Run while Smed located at Wiota, being the first native of Land to settle in La Fayette County.

I shall also add here the names of those who came from Land in the following years. In 1845 came two families, namely Askild Ullensager, wife and four children, and Tarald Jörandlien, wife and four children. Jörandlien or Jorlien, as the name is usually rendered, located in Newark. In 1846 Marie Engen and her son, Hans (born 1823) and daughter, came, as did also Erik Nederhaugen. The year 1847 brought Ole Nörstelien, Christine Nörstelien and Hans Sveum, wife and five children.[192] The year 1848 with its extensive immigration also brought an increased contingent from Land. The following settled on Rock Prairie; Ole Gaarder and wife, Andreas Sörum, Ingebrigt Fossum and family (six), Halvor Ruud and family (seven), Johans Nederhaugen[193] and family (four), Johan Frankrige and family (five) and Hovel Jensvold,[194] Hovel Smeby and Bertha Lybæk.[195] In all there were fifty-four who came from Land in 1848; of these, twenty-eight settled on Rock Prairie, twenty-five at Wiota and one at Rock Run. The roster of immigrants from Land in 1849 includes forty-eight persons, of whom sixteen located on Rock Prairie; they were: Johannes Ommelstadsæteren, Ingeborg Ommelstadsæteren, Marthea Brendingen, Johans Lybæk, Bertha Fröslie, Marit Fröslie, Hans Engen (Fröslieit) and family (five) and Jonas Gjerdet and family (five). Syver Gaarder and family, thirteen in all, who located farther west at Albany, Green County, came directly from Land, but they were natives of Valders. He had moved from Valders to Torpen in Land and bought there the Gaarder farm when the Gaarder family emigrated in 1843, remaining there, however, as we have seen, only six years.[196] The accessions for 1850 were: Ole Smeby and family (five), Östen Lundsæteren and family (five), Sjugal Frankrige and family (six), Helene Fröslie, Bertha Sörum, Hovel Fossum, Ole Hovdelien and Hans Værhaug, in all twenty-one.

[192] Svend Nörstelien and family (seven) and Kari Lillebæk and six children from Land, who also came that year, settled in Wiota.

[193] Martin Johnson of Orfordville, Rock County, is his son.

[194] Christian Lunde, who also came from Land in 1848, located at Rock Run. Several families went to Wiota; see above, Chapter XXII.

[195] Who later married Syver Midböen.

[196] Of the remaining twenty-three of this year's immigration from Land eleven went to Wiota, seven to Rock Run, and five scattered elsewhere.

The account of immigration from Land which it has been possible to give so fully here is based on the private records of Hans C. Tollefsrude, as published in part in _Amerika_ for March 8th, 1907. Hans Tollefsrude's name occupies a foremost place in the early history of the Rock Prairie Settlement. In the seventies he again became a pioneer, locating now in Pocahontas County, Iowa.[197]

[197] The limitations of space forbid a sketch of Mr. Tollefsrude in our survey of Rock Prairie.