It seems to me that the story told about my father must, to say the least, be overdrawn. The facts as I have them from my mother, from Mons Aadland, and even from Ole Nattestad himself, do not warrant the painting of so weird a picture. All the prose there is in the romance is that my father met these people in Chicago and was unwilling to recommend the Fox River settlement with which he was not pleased, and as he had never seen Iroquois County, he had no share in recommending the immigrants to go to Beaver Creek. His dissatisfaction with the Fox River settlement is further confirmed by the fact that in 1840 he found a new home in Albion, Dane County, Wisconsin. In support of my view, may here quote the words of Prof. Svein Nilsson in Billed Magazin (1869) where, in alluding to the Beaver Creek settlement he states: I Ole Rynning's company met Bjorn Anderson Kvelve in Chicago. The unfavorable description he gave of the land both west and north frightened the immigrants from locating in any of the existing Norwegian colonies and this resulted in the founding of the Beaver Creek Settlement whose sad story is well known to the Scandinavian population in the northwest. In this connection bitter reproaches have been directed against Bjorn Anderson Kvelve as being in a great measure to blame for the fatalities of Beaver Creek. But it is usually the case that people like to seek in others the cause of their misfortune. This is true of the individual as well as of corporations and societies and perhaps a little more so in the case of the immigrants visited by adversity. At all events, it is our opinion that we do a justice to the man when we say that the criticism of Bjorn Anderson Kvelve has been too severe, if not utterly unfounded. Ole Nattestad continues: In the spring of 1838 my brother, Ansten, went to Norway and I worked by the day in the northern part of Illinois. The first of July, 1838, I came to my present home in about the middle of the town of Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin, where I bought land and I am consequently the first Norwegian to settle in this state. So far as known, no other Norwegian had planted his feet on Wisconsin soil before me. For a whole year I saw no countryman but lived alone without friend, family, or companion. Eight Americans had settled in the town before me but they lived about as isolated as I did. I found the soil very fertile and the monotony of the prairie was relieved by small bunches of trees. Deer and other game were abundant. The horrid howl of the prairie wolf disturbed my sleep until habit armed my ears against annoyances of this sort. The following summer [1839] I built a little log hut and in this residence I received in September a number of people from my own parish in Norway. They had come as immigrants with my brother, Ansten. The most of these settled on Jefferson Prairie and in this way the settlement got a large population in a comparatively short time. In 1840 Ole Nattestad married Lena Hiser who died September 15, 1888. She left seven children, all well educated and in good circumstances. Henry, the youngest son, now occupies the old homestead. We now pass to Ansten Nattestad, the brother of Ole, and will let him tell the story as published in the Billed Magazin: In the spring of 1838 I went by way of New Orleans to Liverpool and thence to Norway to visit friends and acquaintances in my native land. [What he tells about Rynning's and his brother Ole's manuscripts has already been stated.] I spent the winter in Numedal. The report of my return spread like wildfire through the land and an incredible number of people came to see me and to get news from America. Many came as far as twenty Norwegian [140 English] miles to have a talk with me. It was impossible to answer all the letters I received asking questions about the condition of things on the other side of the ocean. In the spring of 1839 about 100 persons from Numedal stood ready to go with me across the sea. Among these were many farmers and heads of families, all, excepting the children, able-bodied persons in their best years. Besides these there were a number from Thelemarken and from Numedal who were unable to join me as our ship was full. We went from Drammen direct to New York. It was the first time the inhabitants of Drammen saw an emigrant ship. [The name of the ship was Emelia and the Captain's name was Ankerson]. Each person paid $33.50 for his passage. We were nine weeks on the sea; the passage was a successful one and there was no death on board. From New York we took the common route up the country. In Milwaukee we met those from Tin and Thelemarken and the others who were unable to come in our ship across the sea. [They had come by way of Gothenborg, Sweden, to Boston.] They came on board to us and wanted us to go with them to Muskego, Wisconsin. Men had been out there to inspect the country and they reported that the grass was so high that it reached up to their shoulders and told of many other glorious things. The Americans, too, used every argument to persuade us to stop in Milwaukee. I objected and we continued our journey. In Chicago I learned that my brother, Ole, had settled in Wisconsin during my absence in Norway. Some of the party went to the Fox River settlement where they had acquaintances, while some unmarried persons found employment in Chicago and vicinity. The rest of them, that is to say, the majority, accompanied me to Jefferson Prairie. Among these were a few who settled in the town of Rock Run, Stevenson County, in the northern part of Illinois about fifty miles southwest from Jefferson Prairie, and there they formed the nucelus of the Norwegian settlement. Others of my company went to Rock Prairie, a few miles west of Jefferson Prairie. I and the rest came at once to Jefferson Prairie where we bought land and began to cultivate it. In 1840 a few came here from Numedal and from that time the number of settlers steadily increased, chiefly by new arrivals from Norway. The most of those from Numedal settled in the northern part of the colony, for we who came after my brother, who was here before any of us, bought land in the place where he had built his cabin and those from the same part of Norway who came later as immigrants and who sought us out in the far west settled as our neighbors. I and the first Numedalians chose this tract as our home and our choice was made immediately after our arrival. The same autumn, 1839, a company from Voss in Norway came to the settlement. These Vossings went farther south and as "birds of a feather flock together" so their friends from Voss gradually settled with them. Hence the Jefferson Prairie settlement, as to population, may be divided into two districts, of which the northern consists chiefly of Numedalians while the Vossings predominate in the southern part. In searching for the Nattestad book I learned that Ole Nattestad had preserved a manuscript copy of it and that sometime in the eighties he had handed this to Prof. Peter Hendrickson, then editor-in-chief of Skandinaven in Chicago, with the view of having the manuscript revised and reprinted; but before Professor Hendrickson found time to do this work, his home in Evanston, Illinois, was burned to the ground and in this fire the Nattestad manuscript was lost. Not long since, however, it was shown that the Nattestad book was not a myth. Mr. H. L. Skavlem of Janesville, Wisconsin, is a most patient and thorough student of Norwegian pioneer life in America, and especially of everything pertaining to the people who have emigrated from Numedal. In 1915 he published an account of the "Skavlem and Odegaarden Families in this Country" which is a masterpiece of genealogical records and pioneer history. Mr. Skavlem, beside being an authority on Indian relics and on Wisconsin bird life, has done much to preserve the history of the Norwegians in America. It was he who secured a printed copy of the Nattestad book for preservation in the library of the |