CHAPTER XXV
_Immigration from Hallingdal, Norway, to Rock Prairie from 1843 to 1848. Continued Immigration from Numedal. Other Early Accessions._
We will now turn to another contingent in the early immigration to Rock Prairie,--that from the dialect district of Hallingdal. The emigration from this region began in 1842 with the departure of the brothers Knud and John Ellingson Solem, who came direct to Rock Prairie. In 1843 Kleofas Halvorson Hansemoen immigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard) and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in Newark Township, Rock County.[198] Kleofas's father's name was Halvor Kleofasen Hansemoen; he did not emigrate. There were two other brothers, Erik and Hans, of whom the former did not come to this country. Hans Hansemoen had in Norway bought an estate called Husemoen, not intending to emigrate. But when his brother sent favorable reports back from America, he sold out and came to this country in the fall of 1845. He bought land in sections eleven and twelve in Newark Township, near his brother. The above is narrated in part to show how his name happens to appear as Hans Husemoen, while the brother is Kleofas Hansemoen and the brother's children are Halvor Kleofas, Knud Kleofas, etc. (see note 198). Hans Husemoen's wife's maiden name was Bergit Halvorsdatter Tveto; she was from Aal Parish in Hallingdal.
[198] They had five children in this country: Knud, Kleofas, Eyvind, Eirik and Caroline, all now married and with families. The sons adopted Cleofas as the family name. The daughter was married to Kittil Haugen, now living in Pelican Rapids, Minn.
In 1845 the settlement received other accessions from Hallingdal. The list includes: Ola Brunsvold, Halvor Hesgard, Kristen Grimsgaard, Ole Skaalen, Nils Roe, Ola Sando, Mikkel Rust, Svend Hesla, Gjermund Mæhtum, Aslak Rustad and Aslak Ulsak.
In 1846 about three hundred persons emigrated from Hallingdal. How many of these came to Rock County I am not able to say; among them were, however, Erik Kolsrud and family, Ole Hei and family, Nils Haugen, wife and six children, Knud Tröstem, Henrik Henriksen Tröstem, Halvor Ness, Hans Engen, Kari Husemoen, Guttorm Roen and son, Ole, Tollef Tollefsrud-Ballandby and sons Nils, Ola and Amund, Henrik Rime, brother of Tollef, A. T. Beigo, Timan Burtness and his brother John, Aadne Engen, Kristen Megaarden, Lars Grimsgaard, wife and family, Ingeborg Olsdatter Tröstem, Asle Hesla, and Asle Brunsvold. Many of the above had families. The leaders of this party were the three first named and Tollef Tollefsrude. They were the owners of large estates in Norway which they sold when they left for America. They paid the passage for many who came from Hallingdal that summer, but I cannot give the names of these. The party of emigrants left Drammen in April by the ship _Newmann_, which took them to Havre, France. Here they remained one month, before the ship on which they were to sail was gotten ready. They did not arrive to Rock Prairie until October, having been six months en route.
In 1847 very few came from Hallingdal, among them are mentioned Ole Onsgaard, Nils O. Wikko,[199] and Östen Burtness. In the following year, however, there was a considerable immigration. Erik K. Berg and his brother Truls Berg, Ole Trulson Ve and Ole Gulsen (Tröstem) with wife and son Gul and daughter Guri, Erik Ovestrud, Tideman Kvarve, Guttorm Megaarden, a Mr. Sagdalen and wife, Kari,[200] Levor Kvarve and family of twelve, and Knut Guttormsen Tyrebakken.[201] There came others from Hallingdal also in the years following. I may mention here Ole J. Bakke and wife and Herbrand K. Finseth (born in Hemsedal in July, 1830), who emigrated in 1852 and lived three years on Rock Prairie. They moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota, in 1855, as did also Knut K. Finseth and A. K. Finseth, brothers of Herbrand; these together with Halvor Hesgard, Aadne Engen and Christen Evenson, who removed to Minnesota at the same time, were the first white settlers in the Town of Holden, Goodhue County.[202] I may also mention Kittel O. Ruud, born 1823 of parents Erik Sanderson and Margit Ruud, and who came to Rock County in 1850. A few years later he moved to Northwestern Iowa and in 1855 became a pioneer settler in Holdon, Goodhue County, Minnesota, where he married Margrethe Andersdatter Flom in 1856. She was born in Aurland, Sogn, 1824. She died in March and he in April, 1903.[203]
[199] Nils O. Wikko was from Gol, Hallingdal. He married Beret Halvorson in 1854, and removed soon after to Worth County, Iowa. He died in 1904, at the age of eighty-three, survived by widow and six daughters.
[200] They moved to Houston County, Minnesota, in 1853. He died in 1894 and she in 1904, at the age of eighty-four.
[201] Tyrebakken moved to Black Hammer, Minnesota, in 1854, when he married Mari Haugejordet. He was born in 1823, in 1905.
[202] Knut Finseth died in 1869. Herbrand Finseth married Guri Ouri in 1867; he died in January, 1901, leaving wife and six children.
[203] I gather these facts from an obituary notice, which speaks at length in eloquent terms of the noble lives of this couple.
The immigrants from Hallingdal settled chiefly in Spring Valley, and Plymouth; Beloit and Newark townships were settled for the most part before the Hallingdal immigrants began to come in larger numbers, yet some are located in Beloit Township. Newark is occupied largely by immigrants from Numedal, as is also Beloit. While Rock Prairie was taken possession of chiefly by pioneers from Numedal, Land, and Hallingdal, there were also a few from Telemarken, Sigdal and Ringerike, and one from Valders among the pioneers of the forties. Of those who came from Telemarken I shall mention Knut Simon (born 1819), who located near Janesville in 1843. He removed to Rice County, Minnesota, in 1854, and thence to Pope County in 1865; died in 1905.
The single immigrant from Valders to locate on Rock Prairie was Guul Guttormson. He came in 1843 and is the first known American immigrant from that district. He was born at Ildjernstadhaug in Hedalen in 1816. About 1840 he had removed to Modum; here a copy of Nattestad's journal fell into his hands and he and Hans Uhlen and Anders Aamodt[204] decided to emigrate. These three came on the same ship that brought Kleofas Halvorson and Peder Gaarder. Guttormson bought land half way between Orfordville and Broadhead. He was always called "Guul Valdris" for he was and remained the only "Valdris"[205] there, for while he wrote home urging his friends in Valders to come to America, the immigration from Valders did not set in before 1847-48 and by that time Rock Prairie had been, as we have seen, taken up largely by immigrants from Hallingdal and Land. Guul Guttormson's oldest son, Guttorm Guul (Broadhead, Wisconsin), born August, 1848, was probably the first child born of Valdris parentage in America. I have already spoken of the emigration of Syver Gaarder,[206] a "Valdris" who came with the party from Land in 1849. They located at Albany in Green County. These I believe were the only settlers from Valders in this locality.
[204] These two were the first to emigrate to America from Modum.
[205] Valdris is the Norwegian appellation of a native of Valders.
[206] Syver Gaarder's daughter, Barbro, married Martin Johnson (Nederhaugen) in 1855. Dr. J. S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, is their oldest son; other children are: Ben Johnson, Orfordville, Wisconsin; Mrs. Rev. Langseth, Glendorado, Minn.; Mrs. Rev. L. Njus, McIntosh, Minn.; Mrs. Strömseth, living on the homestead; Mandy Johnson.