UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT UK3 ANA-CHAMPAIGN STACKS The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN MAR 17 OCM119!9 L161 O-1096 wawr UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES VOL. 111. NO. 3 SEPTEMBER, 1914 The Scandinavian Element in the United States BY KENDRIC CHARLES BABCOCK, Ph. D. Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the University of Illinois Sometime Fellow in the University of Minnesota and in Harvard University PRICE $1.00 ,. PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA COPYRIGHT, 1914 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS . I TO HARRY PRATT JUDSON., KNUTE NELSON,, NICOLA Y A. GREVSTAD, AND ALBERT BUSHNELL HART IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OP UNFAILING ASSISTANCE, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND FAITHFUL CRITICISM CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introduction General discussion 7-14 CHAPTER II Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes 15-21 CHAPTER III Early Norwegian Immigration 22-34 CHAPTER IV The Rising Stream of Norwegian Immigration 35-49 CHAPTER V Swedish Immigration before 1850 50-61 CHAPTER VI The Danish Immigration 62-65 CHAPTER VII A Half Century of Expansion and Distribution, 1850-1900 66-78 CHAPTER VIII Economic Forces at Work 79-105 CHAPTER IX The Religious and Intellectual Standpoint 106-129 CHAPTER X Social Relations and Characteristics 130-139 CHAPTER XI The Scandinavian in Local and State Politics 140-156 CHAPTER XII Party Preferences and Political Leadership 157-178 CHAPTER XIII Conclusion .". 179-182 CHAPTER XIV Critical Essay on Materials and Authorities 183-204 APPENDIX I Statistical Tables of Population 206-216 APPENDIX II Statistics of Three Minnesota Counties 217 INDEX 219-223 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. The history of the United States, according to newer views which have largely supplanted, or progressed be- yond, those of the New England school of great historians, is the history of the march of a civilization, chiefly English, across the vast North American continent, within the short period of three hundred years. It is the story of the transformation of a widVstretching wilderness of an ever- advancing frontier into great cities, diversified industries, varying social interests, and an intensely complex life. Wave upon wave of races of mankind has flowed over the developing and enlarging West, and each bas left its im- press on that area. Across the trail of the Indian and the trapper, the highway of the pioneer on his westward journey, have spread the tilled fields of the farmer, or along it has run the railroad. The farm has become a town-site and then a manufacturing city; the trading post at St. Paul and the village by the Falls of St. Anthony have expanded into the Twin Cities of the Northwest; the marshy prairie by the side of Lake Michigan, where the Indians fought around old Fort Dearborn, has come to be one of the world's mighty centers of urban population and all this transformation within the memory of men now living. The progress of this rapid, titanic evolution of an em- pire was greatly accelerated by the desires, the strength, and the energy of multitudes of immigrants from Europe ; and in at least six great commonwealths of the Northwest the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes have been among the chief contributors to State-building. During the eighty years ending in June, 1906, among the 24,000,000 immi- grants who came to the United States, the Scandinavians 7 8 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [238 numbered more than 1,700,000. Whether viewed as emi- grations on the eastern shores of the Atlantic, or as immi- grations on the western shores, these modern Volkerwan- derungen constitute one of the wonders of the social world, in comparison with which most of the other migrations in history are numerically insignificant. The Israelites marching out of Egypt were but a mass of released bond- men ; the invasions of the Goths, Vandals, and Huns were conquering expeditions, full of boisterous, thoughtless, unforecasting energy. Even the immigration from Europe to America in the whole of the seventeenth century scarcely equalled in number the columns which moved westward in any one year from 1880 to 1890. In this flux of humanity, mobile almost to fluidity, various in promise of utility, shifting in proportions of the good and bad, of pauper, refugee, and fanatic, or "bird of passage", sweatshop man, and home-builder, there has been such an interplay of subtle and vast forces that no just and final appreciation can as yet be reached. But some sort of tentative conclusions may be arrived at by intensive study of each immigrant group, following it through years and generations, searching for its ramifications in the body politic and social. The student of this phase of American history must attempt the scientific method, and exercise the patience, of the student of physical nature. No geologist, for example, would think for a moment of generalizing as to the history and the future of a continent of complicated structure after a few examinations here and there of cross-sections of its strata. He must know from thoro-going observation the trend, thickness, and composition of each stratum; he must trace, if possible, the sources of the material which he finds metamorphosed ; he must be familiar with the physical and the chemical forces at work in and on this material, heat, pressure, movement, affinities, gases, water, wind, and sun. In like manner, the student of immigration as a whole, or of a section as large as that of the Scandinavians or Italians, must make careful discriminations as to pre- 239] INTRODUCTION 9 vious conditions and influences, and also must notice care- fully the differentiation of peoples, places, and times. Too much stress, however, should never be laid on the character of any one group of immigrants, lest it warp the judgment upon the immigration movement as a factor in American progress. The ardent political reformer in New York City, seeing the political activity of the Irish, and the easy, fraudulent enfranchisement of newly-arrived aliens, cries in a loud voice for restriction or prohibition of immi- gration. The California labor agitator, feeling chiefly the effect of Chinese efficiency in the labor market, would close the gates of the country to all the eastern nations. The social worker, knowing mainly and best the degradation of the Hungarians in the mines, or of the Hebrews in the sweatshops, prophesies naught but evil from foreign immi- gration. From an opposite point of view, when a man travels in leisurely fashion up and down Wisconsin, Illi- nois, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, and finds a dozen race elements English, German, Norwegian, or Russian he begins to understand the real benefit to the nation of the coming of this vast, varied, peaceful army. 1 The scale of immigrants runs from the pauper or the diseased alien, awaiting deportation on Ellis Island in New York Harbor, to the rich Norwegian or German owning a thousand-acre farm in North Dakota, and to the millionaire Swedish lum- berman or manufacturer of Wisconsin or Minnesota. For more than half a century, the United States has been almost a nation of immigrants, a mixture of races in the process of combination; upon the exact nature of this combination, whether it take the form of absorption, amal- gamation, fusion, or assimilation, depends future political and social progress. The writer has for years felt a profound conviction of the vital importance of this whole problem of the alien, and a corresponding belief in the value of the investigation of each cohort in the national forces. Hence this attempt at a sympathetic study of the Scandinavian element in Ameri- 1 Whelpley, The Problem of the Immigrant, i. 10 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [240 can life and of its contributions to the evolution of the Northern Mississippi Valley during the last sixty years. In such a study, the Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes, like all other citizens of foreign birth, must be judged by the character and preparation which best fit men to con- tribute to the permanent progress of a self-governing peo- ple. What are the signs of readiness for full American- ization? The fundamentals are manliness Roman viril- ity , intelligence, and the capacity for co-operation, en- nobled by "dignified self-respect, self-control, and that self- assertion and jealousy of encroachment which marks those who know their rights and dare maintain them" ; 2 devotion to law, order, and justice; and a ready acquiescence in the will of the majority duly expressed. 3 Such qualities in America have been the especial pos- session of that sub-race of the Caucasian stock which the later ethnologists call -the Baltic, in contradistinction to the co-ordinate sub-races, the Alpine, and the Mediterran- ean or Ligurian. This Baltic race has for centuries occu- pied the British Isles, the northern plains of Germany, and the North European peninsulas, being found in its purest state in Norway, Sweden, and Scotland. The people of this sub-race, asserts the writer of an admirable article on racial characteristics, are mentally "enterprising and persevering, and cheerfully dedicate most of their time and thought to work. . . . They are liberally gifted with those moral in- stincts which are highly favorable to the creation and growth of communities, altho not always so favorable to the individual who possesses them ; they are altruistic, fear- less, honest, sincere. They love order and cleanliness, and attach considerable importance to the dress and personal appearance of individuals." 4 While the other Caucasian sub-races do not lack these qualities, their most dominating characteristics are different; for example, one may 2 J. R. Commons, "Racial Composition of the American People," Chautauquan, XXXVIII, 35. 8 R. Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration. *G. Michaud, "What shall we be?", Century, LXV, 685. 241] INTRODUCTION 11 exemplify the artistic or the idealistic Side of human nature. As related to the progress of civilization in America, all immigrants fall into three classes : those who powerfully re-enforce the strength and virtue of the nation, those who supplement its defects with desirable elements, and those who lower its standards and retard its advancement. Hence, those immigrants will be presumably the most desirable to America who come from the regions where the purest Baltic stock now exists, that is, north of a line run- ning east and west through Brussels, and especially in north-central Germany and the Scandinavian peninsula. Measured by character and training, the Baltic race in America stands up well to the test, not only in the for- eign-born alone, but in the second and third generation born on American soil. If generations of ignorance, mental inertia, social depression, political passivity, shiftlessness, and improvidence stretch behind the immigrant, if his religion be chiefly a superstition or strongly antagonistic to the principles of the Republic, and if he be physically inferior and long inured to the hardships of a low standard of living, just so far is he an undesirable addition to American population. But, on the other hand, if his home- land show a very low percentage of illiteracy; if his life has been saturated with the ideas of thrift and small economies; if he hold himself free from domination by priest, landlord, or king; and if his history be the story of a sturdy struggle for independence, he should be rated high and welcomed accordingly, for it is of such stuff that mighty nations are made. The student of Scandinavian immigration in the nine- teenth century is not left to conjecture in his endeavor to estimate the probable result of the injection into American society of this foreign-born element. Before the second generation of English and Dutch settlers in America in the seventeenth century had grown to manhood, the Swedes began a colony upon the Delaware River ; and their descendants are still a distinguishable part of the popula- 12 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [242 tion of the lower Delaware valley. This beginning of Swedish immigration to America is particularly instructive because the settlements undertaken in the period of the Thirty Years War drew their recruits from the same classes of Swedish society as the movements of the nineteenth cen- tury, and developed under substantially similar conditions and along much the same lines. The Swede of the seventeenth century and the Swede of the nineteenth century are essentially one in character, for two hundred years have wrought less change in him than in his cousins of Germany and England. The accounts of Stockholm, its people and its surroundings, written in the early seventeenth century, might serve, with very little modification, to describe the large features of the Sweden and the Swedes of today. Great progress has of course been made in two centuries, but in political wisdom, high moral courage, and benevolent purpose, Gustavus Adolphus and his advisers were distinctly in advance of the first two English Stuarts and their courts. Perhaps no better illustration of this difference could be found than in the plans for the beginnings of the colonies on the James River and on the Delaware River. The scheme for a colony on the Delaware was originally out- lined by the great Gustavus himself in 1624, but sterner duties took his energies; and after the fatal blow on the field of Ltitzen, it devolved on his daughter, Queen Chris- tina, and her faithful minister, Oxenstjerna, to carry out his plan for establishing a colony which was to be "a blessing to the common man," a place for "a free people with wives," and not a mere commercial speculation or a haven for aristocratic adventurers and spendthrifts. 5 The first company of immigrants arrived in 1638, and year by year additions were received. So early as the mid- dle of the seventeenth century, Sweden had a touch of the "America fever," and when an expedition left Gothenburg in 1654 with 350 souls on board, about a hundred families 9 Argonauiica Gustaviana, 3, 16. 243] INTRODUCTION 13 were left behind for want of room. Perhaps only the trans- fer of the colony, first to the Dutch and then to the English, prevented the Swedish immigration from attaining large proportions two and a half centuries ago. The Swedish flag floated over New Sweden notwithstanding the protests of both the Dutch and the English, until the conquest of the colony by Governor Stuyvesant in 1655, and then it disappeared from the map of America. In spite of threats, subjugation, and isolation, the prosperity of the early colony continued, and by the end of the seventeenth century it numbered nearly a thousand. No injustice in dealing with the Indians provoked a mas- sacre, for these proteges of the Swedish crown, before Wil- liam Penn was born, carefully and systematically extin- guished by purchase the Indian titles to all the land on which they settled. Their piety and loyalty built the church and fort side by side, and long after they became subjects of the king of Great Britain they continued to receive their ministers from the mother church in Sweden. In fact, pastors commissioned from Stockholm did not cease their ministrations until they came speaking in a tongue no longer known to the children of New Sweden. This Swedish colony, planted thus in the midst of larger English settlements, continued for many generations to add its portion of good blood and good brains to a body of colonists in the New World, which too often needed sorely just these qualities. The Honorable Thomas F. Bayard, who lived long among their descendants, wrote in 1888: "I make bold to say that no better stock has been contrib- uted (in proportion to its numbers) towards giving a solid basis to society under our republican forms, than these hardy, honest, industrious, law-abiding, God-fearing Swe- dish settlers on the banks of the Christiana in Delaware. While I have never heard of a very rich man among them, yet I have never heard of a pauper. I cannot recall the name of a statesman or a distinguished law-giver among them, nor of a rogue or a felon. As good citizens they H THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [244 helped to form what Mr. Lincoln called the plain people of the country, and I have lived among their descendants and know that their civic virtues have been transmitted." 6 Their thrift and comfort and sobriety attracted the at- tention of Thomas Pascall, one of the Englishmen of Penn's first colony, who wrote in January, 1683 : "They are gen- erally very ingenious people, live well, they have lived here 40 years, and have lived much at ease having great plenty of all sorts of provisions, but they were but ordinarily cloathed ; but since the English came they have gotten fine cloathes, and are going proud." 7 Penn himself declared: "They have fine children and almost every house full ; rare to find one of them without three or four boys and as many girls ; some six, seven and eight sons. And I must do them right I see few young men more sober and industrious." 8 Mattson, Souvenir of the 25oth Anniversary of the First Swedish Settlement in America (1888), 44, "This letter, printed as a broadside in England about 1683, was fur- nished me by Mr. George Parker Winship of the Carter Brown Library of Providence, Rhode Island. 8 Janney, Life of William Penn, 246-247. CHAPTER II. SWEDES, NORWEGIANS,, AND DANES The common use of the term Scandinavian to describe Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes in a broad and general way, is one of the products of the commingling of these three peoples on the American side of the Atlantic. The word really fits even more loosely than does the word Brit- ish to indicate the English, Welsh and Scotch. It was applied early in the history of the settlements in Wisconsin and Illinois, to groups which comprised both Norwegians and Danes on the one hand, or Norwegians and Swedes on the other hand, w r hen no one of the three nationalities was strong enough to maintain itself separately, and when the members of one were inclined, in an outburst of latent pride of nationality, not to say conceit of assumed superior- ity, to resent being called by one of the other names; for example, when a Norwegian objected to being taken for a Swede. Thus the Scandinavian Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, organized in 1860, included both Norwe- gians and Danes ; ten years later the name was changed to the Norwegian-Danish Conference; and in 1884 the differ- entiation was carried further, and the Danes formed a new Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church Association, supple- menting the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which dated back to 1871. Vigorous protests were made from time to time against the use of "Skandinavian v or "Skandinav." "Shall we Norwegians let the Danes persist in calling us Scandin- avians?" wrote "Anti-Skandinavian" to the leading Amer- ican Norwegian weekly of 1870. 1 He also quoted the sar- castic words of Ole Bull : "Scandinavia, gentlemen, may I ask where that land lies? It is not found in my geo- l F Register, XXIX., 115. Several extended quotations from newspapers in New York, Boston, and Baltimore, for the month of Octo- ber, 1825, relating to this company of the sloop "Restoration", indicating the interest created by its coming, are printed in Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 69-76. 22 253] EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 23 That the sloop was not Danish, and that there is some dis- crepancy in the number of passengers (and crew?) and in the number of days in the voyage, are minor mat- ters and easily accounted for; the New Yorker of 1825 could hardly be expected to distinguish clearly between Danes and Norwegians, when the people of the Northwest at the present time apply the name Swede indiscrimin- ately to Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Finns, and Icelanders. But back of the arrival of this little sloopful of Nor- wegians, is a story of motive, organization, and movement, more or less characteristic of Scandinavian immigration during the next two generations. The two main elements are: conditions in Norway and the United States, and the personal activities of one of the adventurous fellows al- ready referred to. In the region about Stavanger, in southwestern Nor- way, in 1825, there had been for some time a feeling of discontent with the religious conditions of the country, and a tendency to formal dissent from the established church. The direction of this tendency and the definition of the movement were vitally influenced by certain zealous and philanthropic Quaker missionaries from England. Stephen Grellet and William Allen, who visited Norway in 1818. Grellet was a French nobleman who sought refuge in the United States during the French Revolution, and there united himself with the Quakers or Friends. After residing in America for twelve years, he began making tours through Europe to propagate Quaker ideas, even obtaining an interview with the Pope, which he describes in his diary. The visit to Norway was in furtherance of his general plan. While his account of his stay in Norway does not make any mention of America, it is impossible to believe that no reference to America and to the conditions of the Friends in that part of the world, where he himself found refuge, crept into the conferences which he held around Stavanger, and that no seeds of desire to seek the New World were sown in the slow-moving minds of the Norwegian peasants whom he met. 5 'Grellet, Memoirs, I, 321 ff. 24 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [254 As dissenters from the established church, these Quak- ers were continually subject to actual or threatened pains and penalties, in addition to those troubles which might arise from their refusal to take oaths and to render mili- tary service. Their children and those of other dissenters must be baptised and confirmed in the Lutheran Church; they must themselves attend its services and pay taxes for its support, or suffer fines or other punishment for failing so to do. Tho prosecutions, or persecutions, were really few before 1830, an episode now and then showed the dis- senters what might be in store for them if they persisted, as when one of the Quakers was arrested in 1821 for bury- ing his children in unconsecrated ground, and fined five specie dollars a day until he re-bury them in consecrated ground, and agree to follow the outward ceremonies and customs of the state church. 6 Two years before one of the Friends wrote: "There are no laws yet made in favor of Friends, so that those who stand firm in their principles act contrary to the laws of the country. Friends must be resigned to take the consequences." 7 With signs of perse- cution, with an increase of discontent, and with the leader- ship of a man possessed of first-hand knowledge about the United States, it is not surprising that emigration was decided upon. Kleng Peerson, called also Kleng Pederson and Person Hesthammer, was a man of dubious character, who has been variously described. One has called him the "Father of the Newer Norwegian Immigration" and as such entitled to a chapter by himself; another has written him down as a tramp. 8 A softer characterization, however, makes of Richardson, Rise and Progress of the Society of Friends in Norway, 37- "'Ibid., 23. 8 R. B. Anderson, "En Liden Indledning" in the series of articles "Bid- rag til vore Settlementers og Menigheders Historic," Amerika, April 4, 1894. Bothne, Kort Udsigt over det Lutherske Kirkearbeide bladnt Nor- mandene i Amerika, 822. 255] EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 25 him a "Viking who was born some centuries after the Viking period." 9 He appears to have been a sort of Quaker, either from conscience or convenience. His leav- ing his home parish of Skjold near Stavanger, and his emigration to the United States in 1821 in company with another Norwegian, are attributed to motives ranging from a commission from the Quakers to find a refuge for them in America, to a desire to escape the rich old widow whom he married, and who was tired of supporting him in idle- ness. 10 Certain it is that upon his return to Norway in 1824, after three years of experience in the New World, the sentiment favoring emigration from Stavanger soon crys- tallized. By midsummer of 1825 a company of fifty-two persons, mostly Quakers from the parish of Skjold, was ready to journey to America. They purchased a sloop and a small cargo of iron which would serve as ballast and which might bring them profit in New York, tho this was probably a secondary matter. 11 On the 4th of July, 1825, they set sail from Stavanger, and after a somewhat circuitous voyage of fourteen weeks, which was not very long, as such voyages went, they made their landing in New York, October 9th, numbering fifty-three instead of fifty-two, for a daughter was born to Lars Larson on shipboard. 12 This landing of the "Sloop Folk" of the "Restoration," whose story is a favorite and oft-told one with the older Norwegian immi- grants, is occasionally likened to the Landing of the Pil- grim Fathers who fled to a wilderness to escape persecution and to seek social and religious freedom; but on close examination the comparison breaks down at almost every point, motive, objective, method and result. 13 9 O. N. Nelson, "Bemerkning til Prof. Andersons Indledning", Amer- ika, May 2, 1894. 10 Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 134 B-C. 11 Langeland, Nordnuzndene i Amerika, 1 1. 12 C. A. Thingvold gives a list of the names of the "Sloop Folk," save four, which he obtained from one of the survivors, in "The First Norwegian Immigration to America," The North, Aug. 10, 1892. 13 J. B. Wist, Den Norske Invandring til 1850, published about 1890, ventures to question seriously whether such a company ever came to the 26 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [256 In New York the captain and mate of the "Restora- tion" were arrested for having more passengers than the Federal law allowed two passengers to each five tons of the vessel. Having an excess of twenty, the sloop was legally forfeited to the United States. 14 However, for some unknown reason, the offenders were released and allowed to dispose of their cargo. The original cost of ship and cargo appears to have been about $1950, but both were sold for $400. This inadequate sum was supplemented by the generosity of the Quakers of New York, whose contribu- tions and assistance enabled the "Sloop Folk" to proceed inland to Western New York. They took up land in Kendall and Orleans County on the shores of Lake Ontario, about thirty-five miles north- east of the new town of Rochester in which two of the fam- ilies decided to remain. The price of the land was $5 per acre, and each man was to take about 40 acres ; but as they were without cash, they agreed to pay for their farms in ten annual instalments. The reasons for selecting this region are not difficult to surmise, tho there is no direct proof of the motive. The country around Rochester was, in 1825, in the midst of a sort of Western "boom" ; the Erie Canal was just finished, and the prospects of Rochester were very promising. 15 Its population grew quite marvel- ously ; in September, 1822, it was 2700 ; in February, 1825, 4274; and in December of the same year, nearly 8,000. 16 The first five years of the little colony were full of hardships and suffering. It was November of 1825 when they reached their destination ; the country was all new and thinly settled; their own land was wild and could be cleared United Stai'es! His reason is that the clearance records of Stavanger show no such name as the "Restauration," and American statistics give the total Scandinavian immigration as 35, of whom 14 are credited to Norway. "Statutes of the United States, 1819, Act of March 2. ""Rochester is celebrated all over the Union as presenting one of the most striking instances of rapid increase in size and population, of which the country affords an example." Capt. Basil Hall, Travels in North America, I, 153. ., I, 155- 257] EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 27 only with difficulty; and nothing could be grown upon it before the following summer. Just one man among them, Lars Larson, understood any English. By united efforts several families built a log-house, where the winter was spent in a most crowded condition, Avorse even than the three months in the close quarters of the "Restoration". The only employment by which they could earn anything was threshing with a flail in the primitive fashion of the time, and the wages consisted of the eleventh bushel threshed. With these scanty earnings and the help of kindly neighbors, they passed the dismal winter in a strange land. "They often suffered great need, and wished themselves back in Norway, but they saw no possibility of reaching Norway without sacrificing the last mite of their property, and they would not return as beggars." 17 But at length time, patience, and their own strength and diligence gave them a foothold. The land was cleared and produced enough to support them. A five years' apprenticeship made them masters of the situation; and when at last they had the means to return to the parish of Skjold, the desire had gradually faded out. Instead of re-migration, they were persuading others to join them in the New World. But the New Norway, or the New Scandinavia, was not to be located in the Middle Atlantic States, though a beginning was made in Delaware and in New York. Land was too dear around the older settlements even at $5 per acre; the promised land was shifted to northern Indiana and northern Illinois, where fine prairie tracts which needed no clearing could be had for $1.25 per acre and upwards. And into these newer regions went the settler and the land speculator, sometimes in one and the same person. Schemes for internal improvement sprouted on every side, and canal-building was much discussed as the best means of providing cheap transportation. 18 One of 17 Langeland, Nordmandene i Amerika, 15. 18 Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads (No. 23, Fergus Hist. Ser.), 19, quoting an editorial form the Sanganto Journal, Oct. 31, 1835: "We rejoice to witness the spirit of internal improvement now manifesting itself in every part of Illinois." 28 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [258 these projects was for a canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, for which a land grant was made in 1827. This canal would bring great prosperity to northern Illi- nois, it was argued, just as the Erie Canal had developed central and western New York ; the price of land would go up, markets would be accessible, and speculator and farmer would reap rich rewards. Nor was this argument based entirely on theory, for halfway to the East, in Indiana, this progressive realization was in full blast. Harriet Martineau travelled through this part of the West in 1836, and noted with the eye of an acute and experienced observer, the rapid rise in values of farms. She estimated that a settler, judiciously selecting his land in the Northwest, would find it doubled in a single year, and cites the case of a farmer near LaPorte, Indiana, whose 800 acres, costing him $1.25 per acre three years before, had become worth $40 per acre probably not a unique example of prosperity. 19 With these visions before them, many men moved from western New York, and along the line of the proposed canal in Illinois grew up hamlets bearing the names familiar along the great Erie Canal, Troy, Seneca, Utica, and Lockport. Among those attracted thither, was Kleng Peerson, who again served, perhaps without deliberate planning, as a scout for his Quaker friends. 20 On his return to the Orleans County settlers, he convinced them that a better future would open to them in Illinois, and in the spring of 1834 some of the families moved into the West and began the so-called Fox River settlement in the town of Mission near Ottawa, La Salle County, Illinois. By 1836 nearly all the Norwegians of the New York colony had removed to the West, and several tracts of land were taken up in the towns of Mission, Miller, and Rutland. The sections lo- cated seem to have been unsurveyed at the time of the first settlement, for no purchases are recorded until 1835. 21 19 Martineau, Society in America, I, 247, 259, 336. 20 "I have complete evidence that he visited La Salle County, Illinois, as early as 1833." Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 172. 21 Ibid., 174, 1/6 ff. 259] EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 29 Henceforth most of the immigration from Norway was turned toward the prairie country, and whole companies of prospective settlers after 1836 went directly to the Fox River nucleus, for the region thereabouts had the double advantage of being at once comparatively easy of access and in the most fertile and promising region in which gov- ernment land could be had at the minimum price. In its new location, the twice transplanted colony of "Sloop Folk" was reasonably prosperous from the start, tho the panic of 1837 made impossible any realization of Miss Martineau's roseate estimate of probable profits. No further move of the original immigrants was made, and the Fox River Valley is still occupied by the well-to-do descendants of the Norwegian settlers of the thirties. As a preliminary to further immigration from the three countries of Northern Europe, a definite knowledge of America and its opportunities must be developed among the peasants, and a desire to remove themselves thither must be awakened and stimulated. To whole communi- ties in Norway, made up of simple, circumscribed people, America about 1835 was an undiscovered country, or at best a far-off land from which no traveller had ever come, and from which no letters were received; the name itself, if known at all, was a recent addition to their vocabulary. Ole Nattestad, one of the early immigrants, who was decently educated for his time and more experienced in the world than the majority of his neighbors, relates how he first heard of America in 1836, when he was a man thirty years old. 22 The leavening process went on but slowly from 1825 to 1836, for the story of the early experiences of the little company of dissenters, obscure persons from an obscure parish, if known at all, was not likely to inspire others to follow in large numbers. With increasing prosperity in the Rochester, and later in the Fox River, colony, the tone of letters sent back to friends in Norway took a new ring : America came to mean opportunity, and now there were ^Billed Magasin, I, 83. 30 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [260 men speaking the Norwegian tongue to whom newcomers might go for instruction, advice, and encouragement. Old settlers still bear witness to the great influence of these letters of the thirties telling of American experiences and of American conditions. Among the most influential of these semi-conscious propagandists of emigration was Gjert G. Hovland, who came to the Rochester settlement with his family in 1831, and bought fifty acres of land, which after four years of cultivation he sold at a profit of $ 500. Writing to a friend near Stavanger in 1835, he spoke in terms of high praise of American legislation, equality, and liberty, contrasting it with the extortion of the Nor- wegian official aristocracy. He counseled all who could to come to America, as the Creator had nowhere forbidden men to settle where they pleased. 23 Of this and other letters by Hovland, copies were made by the hundred and circulated in the Norwegian parishes, and many of the early immigrants have stated that they were induced to emigrate by reading these letters. 24 Another man whose words prompted to emigration, was Gudmund Sandsberg, who came to New York in 1829 with a family of four. 25 These letters scattered through western Norway from 1830 to 1840, were as seed sown in good ground. Times were hard; money was scarce and its value fluctuating. 26 The crops were often short, the prices of grain were high, and the demand for the labor of the peasants was weak ; the economic conditions of the lower classes, especially in the rural districts much the greater part of the country were growing worse rather than better. 27 Even the oldest 28 Translated from Langeland, Nordmtendene i Amerika, i6n. This writer summarizes a letter of which he saw a copy as a young man in Norway. *Ibid.; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 147. 25 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 133. -^Billed Magasin, I, 18-19. Of the year 1836^ one writer asserts: "En Daler ei gjaeldt mere end to norske Skilling." and that many lost all their property. 27 In Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 133-135, is a translation of a letter written in Hellen in Norway, May 14, 1836: "If good reports 261] EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 31 son, who was heir to his father's homestead, was likely to find himself possessed of a debt-burdened estate and with the necessity of providing for the mother and numerous younger children. 28 The younger sons, being still w T orse off, were forced to try their hands at various occupations to earn a bare living. Ole Nattestad, already mentioned, was by turns before his emigration farmer, peddler, black- smith, and sheep-buyer. 29 To many a man with a large family of growing children the possibility of disaster in the United States was less forbidding than the probability of ultimate failure in Norway. But not to occasional letters alone was the peasant, and the emigration movement to be left for information and inspiration. Young men who had prospered in the new life returned to the homesteads of their fathers and became, temporarily, missionaries of the new economic gospel, teaching leisurely but effectively by word of mouth and face to face, instead of by written lines at long range. One such man was Knud A. Slogvig, who returned to his home in Skjold in 1835 after ten years in America, not as an emigrant agent nor as a propagandist, but as a lover to marry his betrothed, an early example which thousands of young Scandinavians in the years to come were to follow gladly. 30 Whatever may have been the re- sults of his visit to Slogvig personally, they were of far- reaching importance to the emigration movement in west- ern Norway. From near and from far, from Stavanger, from Bergen and vicinity, and from the region about Christiansand, people came during the long northern winter, to talk with this experienced and worldly-wise man come from them (certain emigrants about to- sail) the number of emi- grants will doubtless be still larger next year. A pressing and general lack of money enters into every branch of business, stops, or at least hampers business, and makes it difficult for many people to earn the necessaries of life. While this is the case on this side of the Atlantic, there is hope of abundance on the other, and this, I take it, is the chief cause of this growing disposition to emigrate." 2 *Billed Magazin, I, 6 ff. "Ibid., I, 83. 30 Anderson, Xorwegian Immigration, 148. 32 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [262 about life in New York or in Illinois or, in their own phrase, "i Amerika." There before them at last, was a man who had twice braved all the terrors of thousands of miles of sea and hundreds of miles of far-distant land, who had come straight and safe from that fabulous vast coun- try, with its great broad valleys and prairies, with its strange white men, and stranger red men. The "America fever" contracted in conferences with Slogvig and men of his kind, was hard to shake off. 31 The accounts of America given by this emigrant visitor were so satisfactory, that when he prepared to go back to the United States in 1836, a large party was ready to go with him. Instead of the fifty-two who slipped out of Stavanger, half -secretly in 1825, there were now about 160, for whose accommodation two brigs, Norden and Den Norske Kllppe, were specially fitted out. 32 The increased size of this party was doubtless due in some measure to discontent with the religious conditions of the kingdom, but more to the activity of Bjorn Anderson Kvelve, who desired to escape the consequences of his sympathy with Quakerism, and of the marriage which he, the son of a peasant, had contracted with the daughter of an aristo- cratic, staunchly Lutheran army officer. 33 Being, as his son admits, "a born agitator and debater'- others have called him quarrelsome, he persuaded several of his friends to join the party, and he soon became its leader. 34 The greater part of the two ship-loads, after arrival in New York, went directly to La Salle County, Illinois, a few stopping in or near Rochester. For several years after the arrival of this party, the immigrants from Norway 31 Langeland, Nordmcendene i Amerika, 18; Billed Magasin, I, 83. Langeland writes : "Tre af Nedskriverens Paarorende, som reiste f ra Bergen i 1837, var blandt dem, som i Vinteren 1836 besogte ham, og kom hjem fulde af Amerikafeber." 32 Langeland, Nordmcendene i Amerika, 18; Billed Magazin, I, 83, 150 (Nattestad's account). 33 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 157 ff; Madison Democrat (Wis.), Nov. 8, 1885. 34 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 155. 263] EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 33 generally directed their course towards the Illinois settle- ment, which, as a result, grew rapidly and spread into the neighboring towns of Norway, Leland, Lisbon, Morris, and Ottawa. The actual process of migration from Norway to Illi- nois or Wisconsin was full of serious difficulty, and to be entered upon by those only who possessed a strong deter- mination and a stout heart. The dangers, discomforts, and hardships which everywhere attended immigration before 1850, were made even more trying, in prospect, by the weird stories of wild Indians, slave-hunters, and savage beasts on land and sea, all of which were thoroly be- lieved by the peasants. Moreover, the church took a hand to prevent emigration, the bishop of Bergen issuing a pas- toral letter on the theme: "Bliv i Landet, eraser dig redelig." (Remain in the land and support thyself hon- estly.) 35 Until a much later time, no port of Norway or Sweden had regular commercial intercourse with the United States, and only by rare chance could passage be secured from Bergen or some southern port direct to New York or Boston. The usual course for those desiring passage to America was to go to some foreign port and there wait for a ship; it was good luck if accommodation were secured immediately and if the expensive waiting did not stretch out two or three weeks. The port most convenient for the Norwegians was Gothenburg in Sweden, from which car- goes of Swedish iron were shipped to America; from that place most of the emigrants before 1840 departed, tho some went by way of Hamburg, Havre, or an English port. Long after 1850, the immigrants came by sailing ves- sels because the rates were, on the whole, cheaper than by steamer ; those men who had large families were especially urged to take the sailing craft. 36 The days of emigrant agents, through-tickets, and capacious and comparatively comfortable steerage quarters in great ocean liners were far 85 Langeland, Nordmcendene i Amerika, 22. He naively remarks that the Scandinavians have preferred to follow that other text : "Be fruit- ful .... replenish the earth." ^Billed Magasin, I, 123-124. 34 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [264 in the future; the usual accommodations were poor and unsanitary; the danger from contagious diseases, scurvy, and actual famine were very real, especially if the voyage, long at the best, was prolonged to four and perhaps five months. 37 The cost of passage varied greatly according to accommodations and according to the port of departure. Sometimes the passage charge included food, bedding, and other necessaries, but usually the passengers were required to furnish these. One company of about 85 in 1837 paid $60 for each adult, and half fare for children, from Bergen to New York. 38 In the same year another company of 93 paid $31 for each adult from Stavanger to New York, without board; still another, numbering about 100, paid $33 1-3 for each adult passenger from Drammen in Norway to New York; the Nattestad brothers paid $50 from Goth- enburg to Boston. 39 In 1846, a large party went to Havre, and paid $25 for passage to New York. 40 The extreme figures, therefore, seem to be about $30 and $60 for passage between one of the Scandinavian ports and New York or Boston. When the cost of transportation from the Atlantic seaboard to Illinois and Wisconsin is added to these figures, it will be plain that a considerable sum of ready cash, as well as strength and courage, was necessary for undertaking the transplantation of a whole family from a Norwegian valley in the mountains to an Illinois prairie. "Interview with the late Rev. O. C. Hjort of Chicago, July, 1890, whose party spent five months on the sea. 38 Langeland, Nordmandene i Amerika, 25 "saavidt nu erindres." 39 Billed Magazin, I, 9, 94. *Ibid., I, 388. CHAPTER IV. THE RISING STREAM OF NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION. The second period of Norwegian immigration, extend- ing from 1836 to 1850, is marked by the strengthening and deepening of the emigration impulse in Norway and by its spread to new districts, and also by the deflection of the course of the rising stream in the United States. Not merely in the vicinity of Stavanger, from which a second party, made up of 93 persons from Egersund, followed the wake of the first and reached Illinois in 1837, but from Ber- gen and in the districts near it, the "America fever" was spreading. The letters of Ho viand circulated there, and at least three men journeyed to interview Slogvig. Knud Langeland, whose little book on the Northmen in America is frequently quoted in these pages, relates how, as a young man of sixteen, his imagination was fired by reading a small volume written by a German and entitled Journey in America, which he discovered in the library of a friend in Bergen in 1829; how he read eagerly for several years everything which he could lay hands on relating to Amer- ica; and how he gathered all possible information about the emigration from England, during a visit to that country in 1834 and then became himself an immigrant. 1 By 1837 a goodly number were determined to emi- grate, and had disposed of their holdings of land. A way opened for them to make the long voyage under especially favorable circumstances. Captain Behrens, owner and commander of the ship sEgir, on his return to Bergen in the autumn of 1836, learned that a large party wanted trans- portation to America. In New York he had seen vessels Langeland, Nordwandene i Amerika, 20-21. See Cobbett, The Emi- grant's Guide (London, 1829), a typical English guide book of the period. 35 36 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [266 fitted up for the English and German immigrant traffic; he had learned the requirement of the laws of the United States on the subject ; two German ministers who returned to Europe in his ship, gave him further information. He therefore fitted up his vessel for passengers, and carried out his contract to transport to New York the party which finally numbered 84, being mainly made up of married men each with "numerous family," at least one of which counted eight persons. 2 From New York the company proceeded to Detroit, where they were joined by the two Nattestad brothers from Numedal, and from thence they went by water to Chicago. Their original intention was to go to the La Salle County settlement, but in Chicago they met some of the Fox River people, Bjorn Anderson among others, who gave such an unfavorable account of conditions in that colony that the majority determined to seek another loca- tion. At the instigation of certain Americans, presumably land speculators, a prospecting party of four, including Ole Rynning, one of the leading spirits of the company, went into the region directly south of Chicago and finally chose a site on Beaver Creek. Thither about fifty immi- grants went, and began the third Norwegian settlement, which proved to be the most unfortunate one in the history of Norwegian immigration. Log huts were built and the winter passed without unusual hardships, tho it was soon evident that a mistake was made in settling so far from neighbors and from a base of supplies at that time of the year when the soil produced nothing. Serious troubles, however, developed with the spring, and grew with the summer. The land which appeared so dry and so well- covered with good grass when it was selected and pur- chased in August or September, proved to be so swampy that cultivation was impossible before June. Malaria attacked the settlers, and as they were beyond the reach of medical aid, nearly two-thirds of them died before the end of the summer. The remnant of the colony fled as for their 2 Langeland, Nordmandene i Amerika, 25 ff. 267] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 37 lives, regardless of houses and lands, and scarcely one of them remained on the ground by the end of 1838. 3 One of the victims of these hard experiences was Ole Rynning, who succumbed to fever in the autumn of 1838. Tho in America scarcely a year and a half, he is one of the uniquely important figures in the history of Norwegian immigration. The son of a curate in Ringsaker in central Norway, and himself dedicated by his parents to the church, he passed the examinations for entrance to the University of Christiania, but turned aside to teaching in a private school near Throndhjem for four years before his emigra- tion. 4 He is invariably spoken of as a man of generous, philanthropic spirit, genuinely devoted to the human needs of his fellow immigrants. Having learned by personal observation in America the answers to many of the questions which he, as a man of education, had asked himself in Norway, he took ad- vantage of the confinement following the freezing of his feet during a long exploring tour in Illinois, to write a little book of some forty pages, to which he gave the title (in translation) : "A true Account of America, for the Instruc- tion and Use of the Peasants and Common people, written by a Norwegian who arrived there in the Month of June, 1837. " 5 The manuscript of this first of many guidebooks for Norwegian emigrants was taken back to Norway by Ansten Nattestad and printed in Christiania in 1838. 6 It plays so large a part in a great movement, that a detailed analysis is worth presenting. The preface, bearing the author's signature and the date, "Illinois, February 13, 1838," is translated as follows : "Dear Countrymen, Peasants and Artisans ! I have 3 Langeland, Nordmandene i Amerika, 30 ff; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 195 ff. *Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 203-205 ; Langeland, Nordmcend- ene i Amerika, 31. Much information regarding Rynning was derived from the Rev. B. J. Muus, of Minnesota, a nephew of Rynning. 5 Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika til Veiledning og Hjaelp for Bonde og Menigmand, skrevet af en Norsk som kom der i Juni Maaned, 1837." ^Billed Magazin, I, 94. 38 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [268 now been in America eight months, and in that time I have had an opportunity of finding out much in regard to which I in vain sought information before I left Norway. I then felt how disagreeable it is for those who wish to emigrate to America to be in want of a reliable and tolerably com- plete account of the country. I also learned how great is the ignorance of the people, and what false and ridiculous reports were accepted as the full truth. In this little book it has, therefore, been my aim to answer every question which I asked myself, and to clear up every point in regard to which I observed that people were ignorant, and to disprove false reports which have come to my ears, partly before I left Norway, and partly after my arrival here." 7 The body of the book is made up of thirteen chapters devoted to these questions and their answers : 1-3. The location of America, the distance from Nor- way, the nature of the country, and the reason why so many people go there. 4. "Is it not to be feared that the land will soon be overpopulated? Is it true that the government there is going to prohibit immigration?" 5-6. What part of the land is settled by Norwegians, and how is it reached? What is the price of land, of cattle, of the necessaries of life? How high are wages? 7. "What kind of religion is there in America? Is there any sort of order and government, or can every man do what he pleases?" 8-9. Education, care of the poor, the language spoken in America, and the difficulties of learning it. 10. Is there danger of disease in America? Is there reason to fear wild animals and the Indians? 11. Advice as to the kind of people to emigrate, and warning against unreasonable expectations. 7 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 207-208. In making this and the following translations, Mr. Anderson used the copy of Rynning's book belonging to the Rev. B. J. Muus, the only copy known to be in America. This copy is now in the library of the University of Illinois. 269] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 39 12. "What dangers may be expected on the ocean? Is it true that those who are taken to America are sold as slaves?" 13. Advice as to vessels, routes, seasons, exchange of money, etc, Rynning assured his readers, in the seventh chapter, that America is not a purely heathen country, but that the Christian religion prevails with liberty of conscience, and that "here as in Norway, there are laws, government, and authority, and that the common man can go where he pleases without passport, and may engage in such occupa- tion as he likes." 8 Then follows this strong, significant paragraph, intelligently describing the slavery system, which undoubtedly had a powerful influence on the future location, and hence on the politics, of the immigrants from Scandinavia : "In the Southern States these poor people (Negroes) are bought and sold like other property, and are driven to their work with a whip like horses and oxen. If a master whips his slave to death or in his rage shoots him dead, he is not looked upon as a murderer. ... In Missouri the slave trade is still permitted, but in Indiana, Illinois, and Wis- consin Territory it is strictly forbidden, and the institution is strictly despised. . . . There will probably soon come a separation between the Northern and Southern States or a bloody conflict." From the account given thirty years afterwards by Ansten Nattestad, it appears that a chapter on the religious condition of Norway was omitted by the Rev. Mr. Kragh of Eidsvold, who read the proofs, because of its criticisms of the clergy for their intolerance, and for their inactivity in social and educational reforms. 9 This has led some writ- ers like R. B. Anderson to attribute large weight to relig- ious persecution as a cause of emigration. While religious 8 Rynning, Sandfardig Beretning, 23, 24. Translated in Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 214-215. ^Billed Magazin, I, 94. 40 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [270 repression was a real grievance and affected many of the early emigrants, the cases where it was the moving or dominant cause of emigration after 1835 are so few as to be almost negligible. 10 At best, it re-enforced and completed a determination based on other motives. For most Norwe- gian dissenters, the Haugians for example, lack of toler- ation was rather an annoyance than a distress, save, per- haps, for the more persistent and turbulent leaders. 11 It is hardly fair, therefore, to compare them, as a whole, with the Huguenots of France. 12 In the years immediately following 1838, the "America Book," distributed from Christiania, went on its missionary journeys and reached many parishes where the disaster at Beaver Creek and the untimely death of Ole Rynning had never been heard of. By its compact information and its intelligent advice, it converted many to the new movement. The diary of Ole Nattestad, printed in Drammen in the same year, seems to have exerted very little influence, but the visit of his brother Ansten to his home in Numedal, in east-central Norway, a hitherto unstirred region, awakened keen and active interest in America, and again men travel- led as far as 125 English miles to meet one who had re- turned from the vast land beyond the Atlantic. 13 The first party from Numedal left Drammen in the spring of 1839, under the leadership of Nattestad, and went directly to New York. It numbered about one hundred able-bodied farmers with their families, some of them be- ing men with considerable capital. From New York they went to Chicago, expecting to join Ole Nattestad at the Fox River. At the latter city they learned that he had gone into Wisconsin after his brother left for Norway in 1838, and that he had there purchased land in the township of Clinton in Rock County, thus being probably the first Nor- wegian settler in Wisconsin. Accordingly the larger part 10 Letters of R. B. Anderson and J. A. Johnson, Daily Skandinaven, Feb. 7, 1896. "Brohough, Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed, 10-11, 20-21, 30-36. 12 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 50. ^Billed Magazin, I, 94. 271] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 41 of the Numedal party followed him to the newer region, where better land could be had than any remaining in La Salle County, Illinois, at the minimum price, and took up sections near Jefferson Prairie. Thus the current of Scan- dinavian settlement was deflected from Illinois to Wiscon- sin, and later comers from Numedal, in 1840 and after- wards, steered straight for southeastern Wisconsin. In 1839 and later other recruits for the growing and prosper- ous settlement of Norwegians in Rock County and adjoin- ing counties came from Voss and the vicinity of Bergen. Possibly the difference of dialects had something to do with drawing people from the same province or district into one settlement, but in a general way the same reasons and processes operated among the Norwegian emigrants as among those from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia who settled in various States in sectional groups, sometimes dividing a county by a well-defined line. Closely connected with this settlement, begun under the leadership of the Nattestad brothers, were other set- tlements in adjacent townships, at Rock Prairie or Luther Valley, comprising the present towns of Plymouth, New- ark, Avon, and Spring Valley in Rock County, Wisconsin, and Rock Run in Illinois. Through these settlements many new comers filtered and spread out rapidly toward the West and Northwest, reaching in a few years as far as Mineral Point, more than fifty miles from Jefferson Prairie. Other sections of Norway than those already men- tioned began to feel the effects of the emigration bacillus after 1837, and the processes illustrated by the movements from Stavanger, Bergen, and Numedal were repeated the emigration of two or three, letters sent home, the return of a man here and there, the organization of the party, the long journey, and the selection of the new home. Thele- mark, the rugged mountainous district in south cen- tral Norway, was in a condition to be strongly moved by stories of freer and larger opportunities. Long before 1837, great tracts of land in Upper Thelemark became the property of two wealthy lumber men, and the tenant- farmers were drawn more and more into work in the lum- 42 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [272 ber mills, to the neglect of farming and grazing. Conse- quently, when logging was suspended in the hard times, and the wages, already low, were stopped altogether, great dis- tress resulted, and emigration seemed about the only means of escape. "With lack of employment and with impoverish- ment, debt and discontent appeared as the visible evidences of the bad condition. That was the golden age of the money-lenders and sheriffs. So the America fever raged, and many crossed the ocean in the hope of finding a bit of ground where they could live and enjoy the fruits of their labors without daily anxiety about paydays, rents, and executions." 14 A company of about forty, representing eleven fam- ilies from Thelemark, failing to get accommodations with the Nattestad party at Drammen, went on to Skien and thence to Gothenburg, where they secured passage in an American vessel loaded with iron, and made the voyage to Boston in two months. 15 Three weeks more were con- sumed in the circuitous journey to Milwaukee by way of New York, Albany, the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. Like several other parties of that year they originally aimed at Illinois. 16 But their boat "leaked like a sieve," and the stop at Milwaukee was probably precautionary. Instead of proceeding further, they were persuaded to send a com- mittee, under the guidance of an American, into the present county of Waukesha, where they selected a tract about fourteen miles southwest of Milwaukee, on the shore of Lake Muskego. 17 Here each adult man took up forty acres at the usual minimum price of f 1.25 per acre, and so began "Translated from Billed Magazin, I, 18 ff. Ibid, 6-7. 16 A shipping notice in the Boston Daily Advertiser, Aug. i, 1839 reads: "Passengers, in the "Venice" from Gothenburg, 67 Norwegians on their way to Illinois." 17 An oft-repeated story tells how the company was persuaded to remain in Wisconsin by some enterprising Milwaukee men who pointed out to the immigrants a fat, healthy-looking man as a specimen of what Wisconsin would do for a man, and a lean, sickly-looking man as a warning of what the scorching heats and fever of Illinois would quickly do to a man who settled there. See Billed Magazin, I, 7. 273] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 43 the Muskego colony proper, the name, Muskego, however, being later applied to the group of settlements in Wauke- sha County and to several towns in Racine County. 18 Like the colony in Kock County, the Muskego group grew rapidly in spite of malarial troubles, and for ten years it was an objective point for immigrants from Thelemark, and a halting place for those bound for the frontier farther west in Wisconsin or in Iowa. As the emigration movement from Norway increased, the planning of settlements and the organization of parties took on a more definite and business-like air. The process is well illustrated in the case of the town of Norway in Racine County, Wisconsin, which was one of the most successfully managed settlements in the Northwest. In the fall of 1839, two intelligent men of affairs, So'ren Bakke, the son of a rich merchant of Drammen, and John Johnson (Johannes Johannesson), came to America on a prospect- ing tour, for the purpose of finding a place where they might invest money in land as a foundation for a colony, which they may possibly have intended to serve as a new home for a sect of dissenters known as Haugians. 19 After visiting Fox River in Illinois, and various locations in Wisconsin, they found a tract that suited them good land, clear water, and abundance of game and fish, enough to satisfy the most fastidious. This they purchased, building a cabin on it and awaiting the coming of their friends to whom they sent a favorable report. 20 The party arrived in the autumn of 1840, under the leadership of Even Heg, an innkeeper of Leir, who brought still more money, which was also invested in land. Altogether, the money which Bakke brought with him, or received later, amounted to $6000. 21 It was all used for purchasing land, which was either sold to well-to-do immigrants, or leased to new com- ers. This business was supplemented by a store kept in the first cabin. Upon the death of Johnson in 1845, Bakke 18 Billed Magazin, I, 10. 19 /Wrf., I, 12. 20 Ibid., I. 1 8. 2l lbid., I, 12. 44 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [274 went home and settled upon an estate owned by his father in Leir, one of the first of the very small number of men who have returned to permanent residence in Norway after some years spent in America. 22 Even Heg became the real head of the colony at Norway, Wisconsin, after the depart- ure of Bakke, whose interests he continued to look after, and under his management a steady development followed. This settlement became the Mecca of hundreds of immi- grants arriving in Milwaukee in the late .forties, and "Heg's barn was for some months every summer crowded with newcomers en route for some place farther west." 23 Another important and highly prosperous group of settlements, called Koshkonong after the lake and creek of that name, sprang up in 1840 and 1841, in the south- western corner of Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and the ad- jacent parts of Dane and Rock Counties. The beginning was made by men who removed thither from the Fox River and Beaver Creek localities after investigating the lands in Wisconsin. In 1840 there were nine entries of land by Norwegians in the present townships of Albion, Chris- tiana, and Deerfield, the usual purchase being eighty acres ; the next few years saw the spread of the colony to the town- ships of Pleasant Valley and Dunkirk, from the influx of immigrants from Illinois and from Norway. 24 After the stress and hardship of the first pioneer years, the fortunate choice of location in one of the best agricultural sections of Wisconsin told very promptly, and Koshkonong became "the best known, richest, and most interesting Norwegian settlement in America, the destination of thousands of pilgrims from the fatherland since 1840." 25 Many of the farms are still in possession of the families of the original settlers, whose children are prominent in business, profes- sional and political circles. Ibid.; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 280 ff. 23 Langeland, Nordmcendene i Ainerika, 44; Billed Magasin, I, 13. 24 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 326 ff. Anderson quotes in full a letter from the United States Commissioner of Land Office giving date and extent of each entry by Norwegians. 2B M. W. Odland, Amerika, Jan. 15, 1904. 275] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 45 The movement of the stream of Norwegian immigrants after 1845 was distinctly in a direction westward from the Wisconsin settlements ; the land farther out on the prairies was better, tho it did not have the combination of timber and stream or lake which the early settlers insisted on hav- ing, often to their detriment, since land chosen with refer- ence to these requirements was apt to be marshy. The fresh arrivals, after a few weeks or months in the friendly and helpful communities of early immigrants, were better pre- pared by a partial acclimatization, by knowledge of the steps necessary for acquiring citizenship and land-owner- ship, and by the formation of definite plans of procedure, for the next stage in the western course of their empire. Occasionally a shrewd farmer of the older companies took advantage of the rise in the value of his farm, sold out, and bought another tract farther out on the frontier, per- haps repeating the process two or three times. 26 John Nelson Luraas, for example, was one of those men who first spent some time in Muskego, then bought land in Norway, Racine County ; after improving it for three years, he sold it in 1843 and moved into Dane County. 27 Here he lived for twenty-five years, and then moved into Web- ster County, Iowa, taking up new land. After a few years he went back to his Dane County property, where he spent another thirteen years; finally, as an aged, retired, wealthy farmer, he died in the village of Stoughton in 1890. 28 Provision for religious instruction and ministration was one of the early concerns of the Norwegian immigrants, as would be expected from a people essentially religious, who moved by whole families. Nor was there much dis- tinction between the more orthodox and the dissenters. After their magnetic center shifted to the west in 1835 and the settlements and population multiplied, a good deal of lay preaching of one sort and another went on, Lutheran, 26 Langeland, Nordmandene i Amerika, 44-45; Billed Magasin, I, 13. 27 It may be well to note that the name of Dane county has no relation to Scandinavian settlement, but was given in honor of Nathan Dane of Massachusetts, author of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. 28 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 276. 46 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [276 Methodist, Haugian, Baptist, Episcopalian, and Mormon. Lay services, in fact, were the rule all along the westward moving frontier, and services conducted by regular clergy- men the exception. One of the Norwegians wrote: "We conducted our religious meetings in our own democratic way. We appointed our leader and requested some one to read from a book of sermons. . . . We prayed, exhorted, and sang among ourselves, and even baptised our babies ourselves." 29 Cut off by language from much participation in Eng- lish worship a man must know an alien tongue long and thoroly to make it serviceable for religious purposes the men from Numedal, Vos, and Drammen, felt keenly a great need for some one to instruct their children in the Norwegian language and in the Lutheran religion after the Old World customs. In 1843, two hundred men and women in the flourishing group of settlements around Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, signed a petition addressed to Bishop Sorenson in Norway asking him to send them a capable and pious young pastor, to whom they promised to give a parsonage, 80 acres of land, $300 in money, and fees for baptisms, marriages, and the like. 30 Tho this petition itself seems not to have been answered, it was not long before a properly ordained clergyman arrived. Glaus Lauritz Clausen, a Danish student of theology seeking employment as a tutor in Norway, was persuaded, probably by the father of Soren Bakke in Drammen, to heed the call from America. 31 On his arrival in the West in 1843, he found the need for a pastor and preacher more urgent than for a teacher, and accordingly he sought and received ordination at the hands of a German Lutheran minister, October, 1843. 32 He proceeded to organize, in Heg's barn at Norway, the first congregation of Norwegian Lutherans in the United States, and so began a career of 29 A letter of John E. Molee, February, 1895, quoted by Anderson. Norwegian Immigration, 320. (See also, ibid., 396-399.) 30 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 255. 81 Nelson, Scandinavians in the United States, (2d ed.) 387 ff. 32 Bothne, Kort Udsigt, 835 ff. 277] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 47 useful ministration which lasted nearly half a century. Not long after his ordination, its validity was called in question by strict Lutherans. The question was finally submitted to the theological faculty of the University of Christiania, which decided that "the circumstance that an ordination is performed by a minister and not by a bishop, cannot in itself destroy the validity of the ministerial ordination." 33 At any rate, Clausen's activity, general helpfulness, staunchness of convictions, and length of service, if not his ordination, make him one of the typical pioneer preach- ers. 34 Another clergyman of the same class as Clausen, was Elling Eielsen, a Haugian lay-preacher who went from place to place in the Northwest from 1839 to 1843, holding services with his countrymen. He was ordained in the same month as Clausen, and, like him, in a semi-valid fashion, by a Lutheran clergyman, not a bishop. 35 Like Clausen, also, his term of labors as a Haugian apostle, passed forty years. 36 Whatever irregularities in the ordination of Clausen or of Eielsen may have disturbed the consciences of the stricter of the Lutheran sect, nothing of the sort attached to the Rev. Johannes Wilhelm Christian Dietrichson, who arrived in 1844, fresh from the University of Christiania and from the ordaining hands of the Bishop of Christiania. He was a diligent, aggressive, zealous young man of about thirty, sent out as a kind of home missionary in foreign parts at the expense of a wealthy dyer of Christiania. For two years, summer and winter, he went back and fortli in 33 Jacobs, Evangelical Lutheran Church, 411. 3 *Bothne, Kort Udsigt, 835; Jensson, American Lutheran Biographies, "Clausen." 33 Brohough, Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed, ch. II, and App. 86 Nelson, in his Scandinavians in the United States, 388, is probably mistaken in stating that Eielsen built the first Norwegian church and organized the first congregation in 1842 at Fox River, confusing the fact that Eielsen had built a log house on his own land, and held religious ser- vices in the loft, with the possibility of the formation of a congregation. Eielsen's biographer makes no mention of his organization of a regu- lar congregation. Brohough, Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed, 61. 48 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [278 southern Wisconsin ministering to the Norwegians of all ages and beliefs. and all for the stipend of |300 yearly. 37 f *> V One of the results of these labors, was a little book, Reise bhindt de norske Emigranter i "de forenede nordameri- kanske Fristater," in which Dietrichson gives the earliest detailed account of the settlements in Wisconsin and Illi- nois before 1846. He described the origin, numbers, con- ditions, and prospects of each community in his wide parish. At Fox River, he says he found about 500, who were of all creeds, mostly dissenters, including 150 Mormons. Three church edifices were erected in 1844-5, and dedi- cated within a short time of each other. Dietrichson dedi- cated one at Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin, Decem- ber 19, 1844, and another at Pleasant Valley a little further west; Clausen dedicated his church at Muskego on March 13, 1845. 38 All were simple structures, as would be ex- pected; a plain table was the altar, and the baptismal font was hewn out of an oak log. But they served none the less as effective and inspiring centers of the religious life of the settlements. For the Muskego church, Even Heg gave the land, and Mr. Bakke of Drammen, whose prot6g6 Clausen was, gave $400 towards construction. Dietrichson left his two churches in Koshkonong in 1845, and returned to Norway where he remained about a year. Aided by benevolent friends and by the Norwegian government, he came back to his prairie parishes in 1846 for a final stay of four years. 39 But his ways were not altogether ways of pleasantness, nor entirely in the paths of peace. The rec- ords of the church, and his own story, show that he had more than one stormy time with his people. 40 He departed 37 ^finde fra Jubelfesterne faa Koshkonong (1894), 54 ff; Bothne, Kort Udsigt, 839-842. 38 Dietrichson, Reise blandt de norske Emigranter, 45 ff; Minde fra Jubelfesterne paa Koshkonong. *Nordlyset, Sept. 9, 1847. 40 Dietrichson, Reise blandt de norske Emigranter, 57-67. Some of the church records are printed in The Milwaukee Sentinel, July 21, 1895. 279] LATER NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION 49 for Norway in 1850, and never again was in America. 41 The preceding account of the beginnings and progress of the earliest Norwegian settlements in Illinois and Wis- consin has been given in some detail, for the reason that the course of these settlements, in a very broad sense, is typical of all the Norwegian colonization in the Northwest, and of the Swedish and Danish as well. In the later chapter on economic conditions, the causes which led these people to settle upon the land rather than in the cities will be dis- cussed at length. Suffice it here to say that the average immigrant brought only a small amount of cash, along with his strong desire for land, and he consequently went where good land was cheap, in order the more speedily to get what he wanted. This meant that he would push out on the newly accessible government land in Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas in turn. So the transformation of the frontier has witnessed the continual repetition of the ex- periences of the early Norwegian immigrants in Illinois and Wisconsin in the years from 1835 to 1850, as they are de- scribed in this and the preceding chapters. At the present time, in the remoter parts of the Dakotas, Montana, Wash- ington, Oregon, and Utah, the same story is being retold in the same terms of patience, hardship, thrift, and final success. 41 The following year he published a second book, Nogle Ord fra Pradikestolen i Amerika. CHAPTER V. SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850. When the Swedish emigration of the nineteenth cen- tury began, it is doubtful if many persons in Sweden knew of the existence of the descendants of their compatriots of the seventeenth. The last Swedish pastor of Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia died in 1831, and there is no evi- dence that any immigrant after 1800 turned his steps to- ward Philadelphia or the valley of the Delaware expecting to join the third or fourth generation of Swedes there. 1 Before 1840, in New York, Philadelphia, and a few other places, a Swede might now and then be found. One of these adventure-seeking young fellows was Erick Alund, who reached Philadelphia in 1823; another was O. C. Lange who arrived in Boston in 1824, and by 1838 found himself in Chicago, probably the first of that mighty company of Swedes which has made Chicago the third Swedish city in the world. 2 Olof Gustaf Hedstrom, who left Sweden in 1825, and his brother Jonas, were influential early ar- rivals. 3 But the number of such men could not have been large, for ignorance as to America was quite as dense in Sweden as in Norway, the name being all but unheard of in parts of the kingdom. 4 Sixteen years elapsed after the "Sloop Folk" landed in New York, and five years after they located in their second American home, in Illinois, before the Swedish immigration 1 Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, IV, 488. Interview with Capt. O. C. Lange in Chicago, March, 1890. He stated that he was the only Swede in Chicago in 1838, but that there were thirty or forty Norwegians "who were doing anything for a living, even begging," but Capt. Lange was an ardent Swede and despised Norwegians ! 3 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 23-26. 4 Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 26. 50 281] SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 51 really began. The first party, or regular company, of Swedes, consisting of about twelve families, arrived in 1841 under the leadership of Gustav Unonius, a young man who had been a student at the University of Upsala. 5 It was made up of the "better folk", and included some, like Baron Thott, who were entitled to be called "Herr." 6 The immigration does not appear to have been induced by any religious persecution or discontent, but was purely a busi- ness venture of a somewhat idealistic sort, into which the immigrants put their all, in the hope that they could get a more satisfactory return than they could from a like investment in Sweden. From New York the party went by the water route to Milwaukee, following in the wake of parties of Norwegians. There they met Captain Lange, who seems to have per- suaded them to select a location near Pine Lake a name that would certainly attract a Swede in the neighborhood of the present town of Nashotah, about thirty miles west of Milwaukee. Here they were later joined by a variegated assortment of characters attracted by letters which Unon- ius wrote to newspapers in Sweden, noblemen, ex-army officers, merchants, and adventurers, 7 so that the colony took on almost as motley an air as that at Jamestown in the first years after 1607. While they hardly could have succeeded under more favorable circumstances, they were particularly unfitted by their previous manner of living to become farmers or to undergo the deprivations and hard- ships of pioneering. The winter of 1841-2 was severe, ,and their poorly-built houses gave inadequate protection against the cold of January and February in Wisconsin; 8 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 2 ff. The early history of the Swedish immigration is treated in a much more complete and scholarly fashion than is the Norwegian, in the works of Unonius, Norelius, and Peterson and Johnson. For this reason, and because of the similarity of the early Swedish and Norwegian movements, the Swedish settlements are not followed up in this study with the same detail as the Norwegian. "Unonius, Minnen, I, 5 ff ; History of Waukesha County, W\s., 748. 7 "and a large proportion of criminals," Nelson, Scandinavians in the United States, II, 117. 52 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [282 their land was badly tilled, tho they labored earnestly; and their first crop fell short of their necessities. Their hope of leading an Arcadian life in America was rudely shattered. Captain von Schneidau, late of the staff of King Oscar, was a farm laborer, and Baron Thott became a cook for one of the settlers in order to get a bare living. 8 Sickness, misfortune, want of labor, and lack of money led to almost incredible suffering at the first, and some of the settlers, like Unonius and von Schneidau, went to Chicago, where the former became pastor of a Swedish congregation, and the latter prospered as "the most skilful daguerreo- typist, probably, in the whole state." 9 Frederika Bremer, the famous Swedish traveller, visited both the Norwegian and the Swedish settlements in Wisconsin in 1850, and has left a very graphic and sympa- thetic account of the Pine Lake colony where she spent a few days. 10 She found about a half dozen families of Swedes. "Nearly all live in log-houses, and seem to be in somewhat low circumstances. The most prosperous seemed to be that of the smith; he, I fancy, had been a smith in Sweden. ... ; he was a really good fellow, and had a nice young Norwegian for his wife; also a Mr. Bergman who had been a gentleman in Sweden, but who was here a clever, hard-working peasant farmer." 11 At one of the houses she met twenty-one Swedish settlers. The failure of the colony, to Miss Bremer's mind, was not altogether due to circum- stances; the settlers at first "had taken with them the Swedish inclination for hospitality and a merry life, with- out sufficiently considering how long it could last. Each family built for itself a necessary abode, and then invited ^History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, 749. 9 Bremer, Homes of the New World, II, 214-217. Miss Bremer re- lates how Mrs. von Schneidau "had seen her first-born little one frozen to death in its bed," and how Mrs. Unonius "that gay, high-spirited girl, of whom I heard when she was married at Upsala to accompany her husband to the New World . . . had laid four children to rest in foreign soil." 10 Ibid., 225-235. ., 225; Unonius, Minnen, II, 6 ff. 283] SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 53 their neighbors to a feast. They had Christmas festivities and Midsummer dances." 12 Notwithstanding the hard life of the first years at Pine Lake, the letters from well-educated and well-known men like Unonius, especially those published in the Swedish newspapers, helped to stimulate a desire for emigration in Sweden. A company of fifty, from Haurida in Smaaland, left in the autumn of 1844, part of them going to Wisconsin, and at least one family going to Brockton, Massachusetts, and beginning the considerable Swedish settlement in that city. 13 In the following year, five families were influenced by letters from a Pine Lake settler, to leave their homes in Ostergotland, and to set out for Wisconsin. At New York, however, they were persuaded, probably by Pehr Dahlberg, to go to Iowa, then just admitted to the Union, where land was supposed to be better than at Pine Lake, and could be had at the same price. The route followed was an unusual one for Scandinavian immigrants, from New York to Pittsburg, down the Ohio River, and up the Mississippi. The location finally chosen was in Jefferson County, Iowa, about forty-two miles west of Burlington; and the settle- ment was christened New Sweden. To it many immigrants from the parishes of Ostergotland found their way in later years. The second rural settlement of the Swedes thus established was, quite in contrast to the first one, distinctly successful from the start. 14 The first Swedish settlements 'in Illinois, may be traced to the efforts of the brothers Hedstrom already mentioned. Olof visited his old home in 1833, after an absence of eight years, and on his return to New York he was accompanied by his brother Jonas. 15 These two men influenced the course which Swedish immigrants were to 12 Bremer, Homes of the New World, II, 214. 13 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 27. 14 G. T. Flom, "Early Swedish Immigration to Iowa," Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III, 601 ff. (Oct., 1905) ; Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 27. 15 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 21. 54 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [284 take in America down to 1854, in much the same way as the Nattestad brothers had earlier affected the Norwegians. After several years, spent presumably in New York, Jonas moved into Illinois and settled in the township of Victoria, in Knox County. 16 Olof Hedstrom was converted to Methodism in America, and became a zealous minister of that church; in the history of Methodism in New York City and in the chronicles of Scandinavian immigration, his is a unique figure. The needs of the multiplying hosts of immigrants of all sorts, who were flocking to New York, were thoroughly understood by the Methodist authorities of that city, and Hedstrom was put in charge of the North River Mission for Seamen. His "Bethel Ship" work began about 1845, a time when there was great need for a helping hand to be extended to the Scandinavians, among other immigrants, for whom agents, "runners," and "sharks" were lying in wait. The Rev. E. Norelius, the cultivated and scholarly pastor and historian, who had personal ex- perience of the kindly offices of Hedstrom, declares that the missionary was a father to the Scandinavian people who came to America by way of New York. 17 With Olof Hedstrom offering friendly greeting, help, and advice in New York, and working in connection with his brother Jonas in Illinois, no prophetic instinct was needed to foretell the goal which would be ultimately sought by those who came under the benevolent ministra- tions of this Swedish Methodist preacher. The path to Illinois became a highway for multitudes of Swedes, and that State was to the Swedish immigration what Wiscon- sin was to the Norwegian. Swedish settlement on a large scale began in 1846, with the founding at Bishop Hill, in Henry County, Illi- nois, of the famous Jansonist colony, whose history is exceedingly interesting and, at times, highly pathetic. Not only were there many hundreds of Swedes and some Nor- wegians grouped together in a single county, but the colony 19 Ibid., 24-26; Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 286. 17 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 21, 23-26. 285] SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 55 was also an experiment in communism, based on peculiar religious tenets. 18 The Jansonist movement in Sweden, which must not be confused with the Jansenist school or system of doctrine of another time and place in Western Europe, began about 1842 in Helsingland, in the prosperous agricultural prov- ince of Norrland. 19 For fifteen years there had been an undercurrent of dissent in the Established Church in that province, led by Jonas Olson, who called his followers "De- votionalists." The agitation was carried on primarily against the general ignorance of the people and the sloth of the clergy, but not until Eric Janson appeared on the scene did any organization of the dissenters take definite form. When he moved from Wermland to Helsingland in 1844 and published the high claim that he represented the second coming of Christ and was sent to restore the purity and glory of Christianity, he was received with great enthu- siasm by the restless peasants, and accepted as a divinely appointed leader who should gather the righteous into a new theocratic community. 20 The progress of the dissenting sect was so rapid that the Established Church, backed by the civil authorities, took stern measures to suppress the heresy. It must be confessed that the dissenters continued to show a fanatical spirit, and gave the ecclesiastical officers special cause for alarm. In June, 1844, for example, the Jansonists made an immense bonfire near Tranberg, and burned as useless and dangerous, all the religious books which they could lay their hands on, with the exception of the Bibles, hymn- books, and catechisms. As if one offense of this kind were 18 The history of this Swedish settlement, with its numerous peculiar- ities, its prosperity and its misfortunes, has been so often written up with considerable detail, that only the outlines of it are given here. See Bibliography. "Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, ig ft. 20 Ibid., 25. "The glory of the work which is to be accomplished by Eric Janson, standing in Christ's stead, shall far exceed that of the work accomplished by Jesus and his Apostles," quoted in translation by Mik- kelsen from Cateches, af Eric Janson (Soderhamn, 1846), 80. 56 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [286 not enough to shock the pious Lutherans and everywhere stir up the zeal of the Lutheran clergy, a second burning of books followed in October, in which the Bible alone was spared. 21 Janson was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned; his followers were subjected to the same treatment; and finally, a price was put upon the head of the pestilent arch- heretic. It was these persecutions, supplemented by letters from a Swedish immigrant in America, which turned the thoughts of the Jansonists towards the United States. So it happened that when Janson was rescued by his friends from the crown officer who had him in custody, he was spirited off over the mountains to Norway, and thence to Copenhagen, where he embarked for America. In New York he met Olof Olson, the "advance agent/' who was sent out by the new sect in 1845 to spy out the better coun- try where there was no established church, no persecution for conscience's sake, and no aristocracy. 22 Olson met Olof Hedstrom on landing in New York, and by him was directed to his brother Jonas in Illinois, who gave the new-comer a hospitable reception, and assistance in a prospecting tour of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Olson decided on Illinois as the State in which to plant the proposed colony. On the arrival of Eric Janson in 1846, the exact site in Henry County was selected, and the name Bishop Hill given it after Biskopskulla, Janson's birthplace in Sweden. 23 Janson appointed leaders for the would-be emigrants, captains of tens and of hundreds before he left Sweden, and under their guidance several parties made their way to Henry County in 1846, usually going by way of New York, the Erie Canal, and the Great Lakes. Nearly 1100 persons were ready to emigrate, but, like the early Nor- wegians, they experienced great difficulty in securing passage, being compelled to go in companies of fifty or one 21 Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 22; Norelius, Svenskarnes His- toria, 63. "Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 24. "Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 26; History of Henry County, Illinois. 287] SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 57 hundred in freight vessels, usually loaded with iron. 24 The greater number sailed from Gefle, though some went from Gothenburg ajid some from Stockholm. 25 The greater part of these emigrating Jansonists were poor peasants, unable from their own means to bear for themselves and their families the great expense of the long journey from Helsingland to Illinois. In addition to other difficulties some of them had to purchase release from military service. It was to solve these problems of poverty and expense, that Janson followed the example of other leaders of religious sects, even of the early Christian leaders, and instituted community of goods for the whole sect. The pretext seems to have been religious, but from this distance it is clear that the motive of the leader was essentially economic and philanthropic. Nothing could better attest the tremendous earnestness of these unedu- cated enthusiasts than their implicit obedience to the com- mands of Eric Janson, for they gave all they had into his care and discretion their property, their families, and themselves. The amounts contributed to the common treasury after the sale of individual property varied greatly, of course. Some turned in almost nothing, while others gave sums reaching as high as 24,000 kroner, or about f 6,500. 26 The methods and practices of the sect are revealed, in uns3 T inpathetic and perhaps exaggerated fashion, in a printed letter, dated at New York, May 23, 1847, written by one who found himself unequal to the high demands of the new faith and its self-appointed apostle. 27 This back- slider, who emigrated with the rest, tells a story that sounds strangely like accounts of the action of more recent sects and their "divinely ordained" prophets and priest- esses. Janson and all his works are denounced in very 24 Swainson in Scandinavia, Jan., 1885. 25 Mikkelsen. The Bishop Hill Colony, 28. 26 Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 28. 27 This account is contained in a small pamphlet, signed O. S., which was unearthed in the Royal Library in Stockholm while the author was searching there in 1890 for material on Swedish emigration. 5S THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [288 bitter terms. After a five-months voyage not more than fifty out of three hundred, says the writer of the letter, were well, and many were suffering from scurvy; but Janson's "prophets" came aboard and "tried to work miracles and heal the sick," even damning those who did not believe they were well when they were raised up. He further says that the Jansonists were warned in Illinois to use medicine or the government would take a hand in their affairs. The letter closes with a statement that more than a hundred had already left the society. The colony- had a homestead at the outset, for Janson and his co-workers purchased for $2000 a tract of 750 acres, part of which was under cultivation. By the end of 1846, new recruits brought the number in the settlement up to about 400 souls, who were accommodated in log-houses, sod-houses, dug-outs, and tents. A church was impro- vised out of logs and canvas, and services were held daily at half past five in the morning and in the evening. In spite of the community of goods, the first year with its crowding brought much suffering; the funds of the society were depleted by the expenses of the great journey for so many people, and by the expenditures for land. With the coming of spring in 1847, the settlement be- came a hive of industry. Adobe bricks were made, a new saw-mill was erected, better houses were built, and more land was bought to accommodate the new arrivals. By 1850 the community owned fourteen hundred acres of land, nearly free from debt. The religious or economic attrac- tiveness of the colony is evidenced by the fact that its pop- ulation in 1851 reached the considerable figure of about eleven hundred, 28 nearly one-third of the total population of Henry County, notwithstanding a schism in 1848 whose centrifugal force drove upwards of 200 from the fold, and notwithstanding the epidemic of cholera in 1849 which claimed 150 victims. Among these hundreds were repre- sentatives of almost every province in Sweden. 28 Swainson puts the number of seceders at 250, and asserts that they were drawn off by Jonas Hedstrom, the Methodist. Scandinavia, Jan.. 1885. Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 33, 35, 37. SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 59 The communistic principle worked well, at least in the first years, in spite of the severity of the religious disci- pline. The land was thoroughly cultivated. The growing of flax became a prominent factor in the prosperity of the colony, and from this crop were made linen and carpeting which found a ready market, the product of the looms reaching 30,579 yards in 1851. 29 The death of Eric Janson by the hands of a Swedish adventurer, John Root (or Booth), with whom he had a quarrel of long standing, removed the prophet and builder of this Xew Jerusalem, but did not seriously interrupt its development. In fact it might be said to have been a benefit to the colony, for Janson was not a careful and skilful man of business, and he had involved the com- munity in debt. To relieve this pressure of obligation, Jonas Olson, Janson's right-hand man, was sent out with eight others, in March, 1851, to seek a fortune in the Cali- fornia gold fields. 30 The period of which this chapter treats ends with 1850; but inasmuch as that year marks no break in the history of Bishop Hill, it will be well here to finish the sketch of the development of that colony. On learning of the death of Janson, Olson returned at once from Cali- fornia and became the head of the colony after February, 1851. Improvements immediately followed; the govern- ment, which had been autocratic or theoretically theo- cratic, became more and more democratic under Olson. Finally, as a completion of this broadening evolution, an act of the Illinois legislature of 1853 incorporated the Bishop Hill Colony, and vested the government in a board of seven trustees who were to hold for life or during good behavior, their successors to be elected by the community. 31 The trustees were from the first afflicted with a specu- lative mania, and invested in all sorts of enterprises in grain, in lumber, in Galva town lots, in railroad and bank 29 Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 335. /Wrf., 39. 31 Act of January 17, 1853. The Charter and Bylaws are reprinted in Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 73 ff. (App.). 60 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [290 stock, and in a porkpacking establishment. Disaster after disaster followed between 1854 and 1857, when a general panic prostrated the industries of the country. The climax of the reckless mismanagement of the Colony came in 1860, and the corporation went into the hands of a receiver, only to get deeper and deeper into financial and legal trou- bles. Individualization of property took place in 1861, when $592,798 was distributed among 415 shareholders, and other property to the value of $248,861 was set aside to pay an indebtedness of about $118,000. 32 The last traces of communism were gone, and with the disappear- ance of communism went also the old religious tenets pe- culiar to the faith. The majority of the Jansonists joined the Methodist communion; even Jonas Olson deserted and became "an independent Second [Seventh?] Day Ad- ventist." 33 Difficulties continued, however, for Olof Johnson, the chief offending trustee, secured his appointment as one of the receivers. Assessment followed assessment, and when the totals were footed up the chicanery of trustees and re- ceivers was made clear : to pay an original debt of $118,403, these ill-fated people of the Bishop Hill Colony actually expended in cash $413,124, and in property $259,786, or an aggregate of $672,910. 34 Of course a lawsuit was begun, and the "Colony Case" dragged along in the courts for twelve years, to be finally settled by compromise in 1879, nine years after the death of Olof Johnson. 35 Besides the numerous companies which went to Bishop Hill, many others between 1846 and 1850 sought different localities in the United States. 36 Some remained in Chi- cago; some built homes in Andover, Illinois; others began the large Swedish settlement in Jamestown, New York; 32 Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 44 ff. 33 Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 71. 34 Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 49-52. 36 The special master in chancery found in 1868 that Olof Johnson was indebted to the Colony in the sum of $109,613.29. Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 68. 36 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 30-38. 291] SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 61 while still others were persuaded to go to Texas, thus be- ginning the only considerable permanent settlement of Scandinavians in the Southern States before 1880, with the exception of settlements in Missouri. During these years, knowledge of the prosperous condition of the immigrants was spreading, in the usual fashion, into every province of Sweden; Smaland, Helsingland, Dalarne, and Ostergot- land, were especially affected. Not merely were Jansonists and dissenters moved to emigrate, but men of the Estab- lished Church as well; a Jansonist's word in matters of faith, Scriptural interpretation, and religious practice was worse than worthless to staunch Lutherans, but there was no reason to doubt the accuracy of his statements regard- ing land, wages, prices, and opportunities in Illinois or Iowa. Even Lutheran clergymen began to lead little com- panies of their adherents to the "States," and no one con- sidered it a mortal sin or eternal danger to follow in the footsteps of worldly-wise heretics. 37 37 Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 34. CHAPTER VI. THE DANISH IMMIGRATION. The Danish immigration began much later than the Norwegian and Swedish, and its proportions were incon- siderable until after the Civil War. Not until 1869 did the annual influx of Danes reach 2,000. Tho the popu- lation of Denmark was and is somewhat greater than Norway's, yet the Danish immigration has never in any one year equalled the Norwegian, and in but seven years has it been more than one-half. As against Norway's total of nearly 600,000 from 1820 to 1905, Denmark's is only about 225,000.* In calculating the immigration, however, a large allowance must be made. Since the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were acquired by Prussia in 1864 and 1866, their emigrants have of course been recorded as German. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the movement from Denmark has lacked momentum; its proportions are relatively small; and the influence of the Danes in the United States is much less important than that of either of the other Scandinavian nationalities. The causes of the smaller emigration from Denmark are to be found in the nature of the people and in the con- ditions of the kingdom itself. Generally speaking, the Danes are not highly enterprising, adventurous, or self- confident; instead of daring all and risking all for possi- ble, even probable, advantage, they remain at home, for, "Striving to better, oft we do mar what's well." Want is practically unknown in Denmark outside the slums of Copenhagen. The condition of the common people has steadily improved since the beginning of the nineteenth century, when nearly all the land was in the hands of the nobility; at the present time, six-sevenths is owned by the peasants. While this change has been going on, another, of even greater significance, has taken place. 1 See the tables in Appendix. 62 293] THE DANISH IMMIGRATION 63 Improved methods of cultivation, in the course of a hundred years, have multiplied the productive power of the land by ten, which is equivalent to increasing tenfold the available area of the kingdom. No nation, except the United States and Canada, has in recent times had such agricultural prosperity. 2 As already noted, the activity of the Mormon mis- sionaries drew off into the wilderness of Utah nearly 2000 Danes between 1850 and 1860, and nearly 5000 more in the next decade. In the two Prussian duchies after 1866, the discontent of Danes who preferred emigration to German rule drove a large number to the United States; and as these were far from being sympathizers with Mormonism, they found homes in the middle west. Settlements sprang up after 1870 in Wisconsin, at Racine; in Iowa, at Elk Horn in Shelby County and in the adjoining counties of Audubon and Pottawatomie ; and in Douglas County (Omaha), Nebraska, just across the line from Pottawa- tomie County, Iowa. It should be noted in this connection that all the Danish settlements save those in Utah, were well within the frontier line, and hence are not to be classed as pioneering work, for which the Danes have shown little inclination. The efforts of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, organized at Neenah, Wisconsin, in 1872, have been several times directed deliberately to the organization of new Danish colonies, always, of course, with a view to strengthening the church or to carrying out some of its peculiar ideas. Of the four colonies, in Shelby County, Iowa, in Lincoln County, Minnesota, in Clark County, Wisconsin, and in Wharton County, Texas, that in Iowa is the most noteworthy and successful. Soon after 1880, the church secured an option on a tract of 35,000 acres in Shelby County from a land company. In return for 320 acres to be given by the company to the church for religious and educational purposes when one hundred actual settlers were secured, the church promised to use 2 Bille, History of the Danes in America, 8 n2, summarizing H. Weite- meyer, Denmark, 100. 64 THE SCAM UN AVIAN ELEMENT [294 its influence to secure settlers for the whole tract. The company agreed for three years time to sell only to Danes at an average price of $7 per acre, for the first year, with an advance not exceeding $.50 per year for each following year. The end of the first year found more than the re- quired number of settlers, the church received its grant, and still maintains its worship, a parochial school, and a high school, in a community which numbers about 1,000 Danes. The other colonies have been less successful. 3 The Danish element in America has always lacked unity and solidarity. Even in their European home the Danes possess no strong national ambition, and no national institution claims their enthusiastic and undivided sup- port. The Danish church, or churches, has gripped its immigrant sons and daughters less closely than similar organizations among the Swedes and Norwegians. It is estimated that only one out of fifteen of the Danes in the United States belongs to some church, while one out of five of the Swedes, one out of three and one-half of the Norwegians, and one out of three of the total population of the country, is connected with an ecclesiastical organiza- tion. 4 One reason for the low ebb of church influence among the Danes is undoubtedly the wranglings of the clergy over matters of theology and polity, a continuation of the factional differences between the followers of Bishop Grundtvig and the anti-Grundtvigians or Inner Mission people in the years 1854-1895. In its beginning, the Danish Lutheran Church in America unanimously adopted this resolution : "We, the Danish ministers and congrega- tions, hereby declare ourselves to be a branch of the Danish National Church, a missionary department established by that church in America." 5 The government of Denmark 8 Bille, History of the Danes in America, 26-28; A. Dan, "History of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America," in Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 166-171. 4 Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, 49. 5 Bille, History of the Danes in Amerika, 18. 295] THE DANISH IMMIGRATION 65 recognized this relation; graduates of the University of Copenhagen, who received calls to churches in America, were ordained by a bishop in Denmark, and were appointed by the King as regular ministers in the Danish Church; and since 1884 the Danish Government has made a small annual appropriation for the education of ministers for the American branch of the Danish Church. This allowance was at first spent in Denmark, but since 1887, in the United States. 6 But with all this effort at maintaining unity and continuity, the American branch has not been united, peaceable or effective. If the test of supporting educational institutions for their own people be applied to the Danes, the same defi- ciency of interest and contributions as in matters eccle- siastical, will be revealed. The attempt of the Grundt- vigians to set up the peculiar "high schools" which they maintained in Denmark, for instruction of the common people in Scandinavian history, mythology, religion, language, and literature, all in Danish, was doomed to failure. 7 The first of these schools was located at Elk Horn, Iowa, in the midst of the largest Danish settlement in the United States, yet in the fifteen years after its establishment in 1878 the average attendance never reached forty. Four other schools, in Ashland, Michigan, in Ny- sted, Nebraska, in Polk County, Wisconsin, and in Lincoln County, Minnesota, all established between 1878 and 1888, suffered from like indifference and lack of financial help; not one averaged thirty pupils per year. Aside from tuition, the contributions of the Danes for educational purposes did not reach fifty cents per communicant during any consecutive five years up to 1894. 8 This is a poor showing alongside the three dollars per communicant con- tributed by the Norwegians when they were building Decorah College in 1861 to 1865. 9 Bille, History of the Danes in America, i8n. The appropriation was $840 per year. ''Ibid., 21 ; Kirkelig Samler, 1878, 320. 8 Bille, History of the Danes in America, 16. 9 Bille, History of the Danes in America, 15; Estrem, "Historical Re- view of Luther College," in Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, 24. CHAPTER VII. A HALF CENTURY OF EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900. While the immigration movement from Norway and Sweden was well-established by 1850, and certain to ex- pand, it was numerically unimportant when compared with that from some other countries of Europe. In 1849 the influx from all Scandinavia was slightly more than one per-cent of the total immigration from Europe. Yet the rising stream had, by 1850, worn for itself a clear and definite channel from eastern ports like New York and Boston to such gateways to the Northwest as Chicago and Milwaukee; and through these it continued to flow out over the wilderness of the upper Mississippi Valley extending north of the Missouri and Illinois Rivers and west of the Great Lakes. For more than a half century there have been relatively few variations from this course, tho in the later decades, with an increase in the proportion of skilled laborers among the incoming thousands, certain eastern cities have detained a considerable percentage. No other marked change in the character and quality of the immigrants has developed since 1850, nor have any new motives appeared, except in the case of the Danes, to be discussed later. In a word, the Scandinavian immigra- tion since 1850 is simply the earlier Scandinavian immigra- tion enlarged in numbers, with broader and deeper sig- nificance. The areas of interest in emigration in Europe gradually extended to every part and every class of the three Northern kingdoms; and the localities attractive to Scandinavians in the United States, expanded until eight contiguous States in the Old Northwest and the Newer Northwest showed each a foreign-born population of Northmen numbering more than thirty thousand. In the State of Minnesota they now reach close to a quarter of a million. 1 1 After 1850 the book of Frederika Bremen, Homes of the New World, is credited with large influence in Sweden among the better classes. See McDowell, "The New Scandinavia", Scandinavia, Nos. 5-8. 66 297] EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900 67 The total recorded Scandinavian immigration, accord- ing to the statistics of the United States, from 1820 to 1912, is in round numbers 2,200,000. According to the statistics of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which may be disregarded for inaccuracy before 1850, the total falls about 142,000 short of this figure, a difference which may be easily enough accounted for by persons leaving those countries for a more or less indefinite stay in other parts of Europe, before starting for America. 2 The American statistics in later years have sometimes shown larger num- bers than the Swedish, but the discrepancy is accounted for by the fact that a great number of emigrants from Fin- land have passed through Sweden on their way to America and therefore are counted as Swedes. 3 The totals by de- cades with the percentages of the whole immigration for the decades, is as follows: 4 Per cent Denmark 1820-1830 189 1831-1840 1,063 1841-1850 539 1851-1860 3,749 1861-1870 17,094 1871-1880 3i,77i 1881-1890 88,132 1891-1900 52,670 1901-1910 65,285 Norway Sweden 1,201 13,903 20,931 109,298 94823 115,922 176,586 391,733 95,264 230,679 190,505 249,534 Total Sc. of 280 .2 2,264 4 14,442 .8 24,680 9 126,392 5-2 242,516 8.6 656,451 12.5 378,613 9-8 505,524 5-7 2 Nelson in his History of the Scandinavians, I, 253 ff., gives some careful and excellent tables of statistics compiled from official publications of the United States and of the three Scandinavian kingdoms. Too much reliance should not be put upon the earlier figures derived from either source. It will also be noted that the European figures are in many cases given in even fifties and hundreds, which savors of estimates rather than of exact statistics. Nelson, p. 244, declares that these foreign statistics, so far as they go, are more reliable than the American. 3 Sundbarg, Sweden (English Translation), 132; Sundbarg, Bidrag till Utvandringsfrdgan fraii Befolkningsstatistisk Synpunkt, 34 ff. 4 The statistics of Norwegian and Swedish immigration were combined down to 1868, but for convenience here the combination is continued to the end of the decade. Statistical Abstract of the U. S. (1912), no. 68 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [298 The fluctuations of the annual immigration have been very great, as an inspection of the accompanying chart and the tables in Appendix I, will readily show. The addition of other lines to this chart indicating the fluctu- ations in the numbers of immigrants from Germany and Ireland, demonstrates that these rather striking variations were chiefly caused by conditions and prospects in Amer- ica, rather than by circumstances in Europe. In 1849 the total immigration of Norwegians and Swedes passed 2,000, and even reached 3,400, but the terrible scourge of cholera in that year under which so many of the Scandinavians in the West fell, caused a falling off of more than half in 1850. After the panic of 1857, the Danish immigration fell from 1,035 to 252 in one year, while the total from the Northern lands fell steadily from 2,747 to 840 in 1860. The Civil War disturbed comparatively little the con- ditions favoring Scandinavian immigration, for the North- west was never in danger of invasion, and nominal prices for farm produce ranged higher and higher. Furthermore, the Homestead Act of 1862 gave new and cumulative im- petus to the immigration which sought farming lands. 5 So from a total of 850 in 1861 (the statistics of Norway show 8,900 emigrants for that year, and those of Sweden, 1,087), the numbers gradually increased, in spite of the war, to 7,258 in 1865. The panic of 1873 did not affect the Scandinavian movement so immediately and seriously as might at first thought be expected, probably because the Northmen were seeking farms in the West, and also be- cause the farmers as a class are about the last to feel the effects of financial crises like that of 1873. As the depres- sion deepened, letters from America to Northern Europe lost their tone of buoyancy and enthusiasm ; the eastward flow of passage-money and prepaid tickets almost ceased. At the same time a series of good crops in the three Scandi- navian countries caused a rise of wages about 1873, doub- ling them in some instances. 6 Consequently the current ^United States Statutes at Large (1861-2), 392 ff. Young, Labor in Europe and America, 676, quoting and summariz- ing from a report to the Secretary of State by C. C. Andrews, United States Minister to Sweden, Sept. 24, 1873. 299] EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION,, 1850-1900 69 of immigration lost force and volume for several years, the totals dropping, in round numbers, from 35,000 in 1873, to 19,000 in 1874, and to 11,000 in 1877. After the high-water mark of 105,326 in 1882, reached during the revival of business from 1879 to 1884, the totals did not again fall below 40,000 Scandinavian immigrants per year, until after the industrial and financial stagnation of 1893 to 1896 ; 62,000 in 1893 became 33,000 in 1894, and 19,000 in 1898. With the prosperity of the first years of the new century in the United States, the number again passed 50,000, reaching another climax in the 77,000 of 1903. In general, the variations of the curves for the three nationalities under discussion have been nearly co-incident, as for example the high points in 1873 and 1882, and the low points in 1877, 1885, and 1898. The Danish immigra- tion did not rise proportionately with the other two, espe- cially in 1903, probably because of the democratizing of land-ownership in Denmark, and because of the remarkable improvement in methods of cultivation in the course of the nineteenth century. 7 No such decided improvements took place in the other peninsular kingdoms. Another feature of the fluctuation is entitled to some consideration. In proportion to the population of those nations, the emigration from Norway and Sweden since 1870 has been very large, and such drafts as were made in the years 1882 or 1903 could not be expected to keep up. The periodicity of the ripening of a good "crop" of eligible emigrants for the great American West seems to have been since 1877 from five to eight years. In this connection it is a noteworthy fact that the population in each of the Scandinavian kingdoms, notwithstanding the great emigra- tions, has steadily tho slowly increased since 1850. 8 For 7 J. H. Bille, "History of the Danes in America", Transactions of the Wis. Acad. of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, IX, 8 n., citing H. Weitemeyer, Denmark, 100. 8 For Denmark, the increase has been about i% per year since 1870; Sweden shows a slightly smaller increase, falling as low as Yflo in 1890; Norway has a still smaller average increase than Sweden, estimated by Norwegian authority "1865-1890, .65%". The same writer adds: "The 70 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [300 the last decade of the nineteenth century, the figures for the increase were, Denmark, 16.6%, Norway, 10.6%, Sweden 7.3%, United States 20%. g In this statistical dis- tribution, account must also be taken of the Scandinavians of the second generation, born in this country of foreign- born parents, since this element, racially speaking, is just as much an alien stock, with its inheritance of tendencies, temperament, and passions, as were the original immi- grants. The census of 1910 enumerated among the foreign- born and the native-born of specified foreign parents: 10 Native white having Foreign-born both parents born Total white in specified country Danes 181,621 147,648 329,269 Norwegians 403,858 410,951 814,809 Swedes 665,183 546,788 1,211,971 1,250,662 1,105,387 2,356,049 To these must be added still another group, made up of those persons having a father born in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, and a mother born in one of the other two countries, in other words, persons of pure Scandinavian descent. The number of such in 1910 was 72,152. It does not include, be it noted, those persons of equally pure Norse blood whose parents, one or both, were born in the United States. The minimum number of Scandinavians, then, in the United States in 1910, who must be taken into account in all calculations and estimates of power and influence exercised by that factor of the population, is 2,428,201. If it were desired to bring the estimate up to date, the immigration of 1910-1913 and an approxima- tion of the increase of the native-born, would have to be in- Norwegian race, in the course of the fifty years from 1840 to 1890 must have about doubled itself, which is equivalent to an annual growth of about 1.4%." Norway, 103; Statesman's Y ear-Book, 1000, 491, 1047, 1050. Supplementary Analysis of I2th Census, 31-33. 10 These figures are drawn from the tables in the Census Reports, 79/0, Population, I, 875 ff. The statistics generally deal only with white persons, thus excluding blacks and mulattoes of the Danish West Indies. 301] EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900 71 eluded, and the grand total of persons of pure Northern stock would not be far from 2,700,000 at the present time (1913). The distribution of this vast company to the different States of the Union is a consideration of primary import- ance. The detailed analysis of the motives, processes, and results of the occupation of the Northwestern States by the children of the Northlands, belongs in later chapters. 11 The reasons why the stream flowed to the north of Mason and Dixon's Line are a combination of climate and a fear and hatred of slavery. If the movement from Scandinavia had begun fifty years earlier, before the anti-slavery agi- tation became acute, the New Norway and the New Sweden of the nineteenth century, would doubtless still have been in the North and probably in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, for very much the same reason that the Western Reserve was a New Connecticut. Desiring ownership of good agricultural land above all else, and finding after 1835 that the best and cheapest was to be found along the advancing frontier west of a north-and-south line drawn through Chicago, the men from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark followed their dis- tant cousins of New England and the Middle States in the great trek into the Any-Man's-Land of the fertile upper Mississippi Valley. 12 For more than two decades after the Civil War, tho slavery no longer existed in the South, that region was still in the depression and uncer- tainty of the post-bellum industrial disorganization, and hence unattractive to immigrants of any class. So the tide continued to run high in the Northwest and spread wider and wider because of the traditions of two generations, and because of the attracting power of the Scandinavian mass already comfortably and solidly settled there. "See chapters VIII-X. 12 The "line which limits the average density of 2 to a square mile, is considered as the limit of settlement the frontier line of population". Eleventh Census, Report on Population, I, xviii. See R. Mayo-Smith in Political Science Quarterly, til, 52. 72 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [302 The first States of the Northwest into which the Nor- wegians and Swedes penetrated, as has been described above, were Illinois and Wisconsin; and in the censuses of 1850 and 1860 Wisconsin held first place in the number of these aliens, showing an increase from 8,885 to 23,265. 13 In 1850, Iowa, in the "far west," ranked fourth, with 611. Minnesota, which then stretched away to the Rocky Moun- tains, had 4 Swedes, 7 Norwegians, and 1 Dane. 14 By 1860 Iowa was passed by Minnesota which then had 11,773, and thenceforward the Scandinavians were to keep close step with the westward march of the frontier. In 1870 Minne- sota took first place, with 58,837, a position which the State has continued to hold. In 1890 she had within her borders 236,670 foreign-born Northmen, and enough of the second generation to make her Scandinavian population 466,365, or about one-fifth that of Denmark or Norway. The order of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa held good for 1870 and 1880, but Wisconsin and Illinois changed places in the reports of 1890 and 1900. The Dakotas, as one Territory, received their first Norse settler in 1858, but when the census of 1880 was taken there were 17,869, and in 1890, when the Territory was divided into two States, the Scandinavian contingent was more than 65,000 strong. 15 Nebraska illustrated in a similar manner the widening overflow of the steady stream out of the European North ; her population of Scandinavian birth which numbered only 3,987 in 1870, grew by direct entry of immigrants, and by the secondary movement of early immigrants out of the middle Northwest, to 16,685 in 1880, and to 40,107 of for- eign-born in 1900. According to this last census, Nebraska counted 38,914 native persons of foreign-born Scandinavian parents, showing that the second generation did not fall much behind the first in the habit of frontier-seeking. 16 In the rush of gold-seekers into California after 1848 were many Danes and Swedes, who gave that State in 1860 13 For the tables illustrating this discussion, see Appendix. 14 Gronberger, Svenskarne i St. Croixdalen, 3 ff. 15 Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, Iowa, in. 18 See Appendix I. 303] EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900 73 fifth rank as to the number of Scandinavians; by 1890 these numbered about 42,000, of whom the greater part were of the two nationalities just named. Another frontier, region which gained from the Danish immigration between 1850 and 1860 was the Territory of Utah, for the Mormon missionaries seem to have been particularly successful in Denmark, and nearly every convert became an immigrant. Quite in advance of their invasion of Dakota, more than 2,000 Danes had settled in the Mormon Territory, and ten^ years later Utah counted nearly twice as many Scandinavi-^ ans as Nebraska, seven-tenths being Danes. The increasing density of this Scandinavian popula- k^^V / tion in certain localities, what might be called its vertical v N ty /^ distribution is strikingly illustrated in both urban an4 rural communities. Chicago had barely emerged from the Fort Dearborn stage when the first Scandinavians walked its streets. Yet within two generations there were found inside of her wide-stretching borders more than 100,000 Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes of foreign birth, and enough of the second generation to give her more than 190,- 000, so that the city at the head of Lake Michigan was next after Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania, the largest Scandinavian city in the world. 17 By a similar calculation, Minneapolis would rank sixth or seventh. Rockford, Illinois, received the first of its signally prosperous Swedish colony about 1853; by 1865 the city had 2,000 Swedes. 18 The census of 1910 credits Rockford^ with 10,000 foreign born Swedes, and a total of Swedish parentage reaching close to 19,000. One of the west-central^ counties of Minnesota, Otter Tail, counted (1900) more than half of its 45,000 population of pure Scandinavian blood of the first and second generation of immigrants. Polk, county, newer and farther north in the same State, reveals almost sixty per-cent of the same sort of population in a total of 35,000. For some of the still newer and more 17 Svenska Folkets Tidning, Jan. i, 1806, estimated the totals as fol- lows: Swedes, 100,000, Norwegians, 62,000, and Danes, 35,000! 18 Kaeding, Rockfords Svenskar, 27, 35. 74 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [304 sparsely settled counties even larger percentages might be obtained. A closer analysis of the tables of population reveals some further facts as to the distribution of the different nationalities. The Swedes are the most numerous in Min- nesota, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and Kansas; the Norwegians predominate in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and nearly equal the Swedes in Minne- sota where each passes 200,000. The Danes are strongest they can hardly be called a very important factor in any State in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ne- braska; in each State they have more than 25,000. Another feature of this varying density of the three groups has to do with the cities. Chicago, Rockford, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth account for a large proportion of the Swedes of Illinois and Minnesota, and represent the later rather than the earlier stages of distribution. Outside of the cities mentioned, the Norwegians in Minnesota outnumber the Swedes by some 52,000. In North Dakota, the Nor- wegians are 72% of the foreign-born Scandinavian popu- lation, in South Dakota, 56%, and in Wisconsin, 60%, while in Illinois the Swedes are about 70%, and in Michi- gan and Nebraska, 63% and 59% respectively. The Danes reach their highest percentages of the Scandinavian for- eign-born in Utah, 50%, in Nebraska, 34%, and in Iowa, 23%. Large numbers of the later immigrants, especially of the skilled Swedish laborers, have found occupation in New York and Brooklyn, Boston and Worcester, Hartford and Providence. These have raised the proportion of the Swedes in the United States living in cities of more than 25,000, to 36%, while only 28% of the Danes, and 19% of the Norwegians were similarly located in 1900. 19 Climate, particularly the mean temperature, has also played considerable part in the choice by the immigrants from Northern Europe of the sites for their new homes, though it is an open question whether they would not have been established where they were and when they were 19 Census Reports, /poo, Population, I, Tables 33 and 35. 305] EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900 75 even if the climate were different. Certain it is that the few Icelandic settlements are situated in the extreme northern part of Minnesota and North Dakota, and in Southern Manitoba. 20 South of them come, in order, the zones of densest Norwegian population, 49 to 42, of the Swedish, 48 to 40, and of Danish, 44 to 38. The three nationalities thus occupy relatively the same latitudinal position in America as in their homes in the Old North. 21 Summarizing the matter of location, the great bulk of the Scandinavian immigrants went into the Northwest, 78% of them during the first fifty years of the movement, and about 70% of the total. Out of the immigration of the different nationalities, 81% of the Norwegians are in the Northwest, 60% of the Danes, and 59% of the Swedes, the percentage of the last being brought down, in comparison with the Norwegians, by the fact that nearly 100,000 Swedes are found in Massachusetts, New York, and Penn- sylvania. The Civil War occurred before the numbers and ex- pansion of the Norse element of the country's population had much passed a promising beginning ; the 75,000 present in 1860 could not be expected to play any large and leading role. Yet the one dramatic and heroic chapter in the whole story of the progress of the Scandinavians in America is that dealing with their part in that great struggle, in which many hundreds of them gave their strength and their lives for the unity and safety of their adopted country no less bravely and no less cheerfully than did the native-born American. The men from Thelemark and Smaaland and the sons of Massachusetts and Michigan were inspired by the same fine and pure motives; they hated slavery and loved 20 These are of course enumerated as Danes. Pembina County, in the extreme northeast corner of North Dakota had in 1900 1588 Danes (Ice- landers). The movement from Iceland began about 1870. See R. B. Anderson in Chicago Record Herald, Aug. 21, 1901. 21 G. T. Flom, "The Scandinavian Factor in the American Population", Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III, 88. ^Statistical Atlas of the Twelfth Census, Plates 69, 71, 73, 76; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III, 76. 76 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [306 the flag under whose folds they realized their hopes and dreams. 23 By temperament, by religion, by education, by tradition, men of Norse parentage were fitted to participate in upholding a cause so essentially right and high. In the short space of this volume, details of the loyal services of companies made up wholly or in large part of Swedes and Norwegians must be omitted, and the laurels won by such men as General Stohlbrand, who was made a brigadier by President Lincoln himself, 24 Colonel H. C. Heg, 25 Colonel Mattson, 26 and Lieutenant Colonel Porter C. Olson, 27 must be passed by with mere allusions. The Fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment of Volunteers, con- sisting of about 900 men, whose organization was decided upon at a mass meeting held in the Capitol at Madison, in September, 1861, was made up almost entirely of Nor- wegians and Swedes, some of whom had been in the United States less than a year. Hans C. Heg, one of the early leaders of the Norwegian immigration into Wisconsin, was appointed colonel of the regiment and began organization at Camp Kandall, near Madison, in the following Decem- ber. 28 The roster of officers indicates plainly their origin, including such names as Rev. C. L. Clausen, Thorkildson, Hansen, Grinager, Skofstad, Ingmundson, Tjentland, and Solberg. 29 The regiment left for the front in March, 1862, and participated in the operations of the next three years in Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Georgia. It was mustered out at Chattanooga in February, 1865, having lost about 300, quite one-third of its total enlistment, from 23 Mattson, Story of an Emigrant, 60, 94. Here is printed, in transla- tion from Hemlandet, a stirring appeal "To the Scandinavians of Minne- sota ! ;" Fadrelandet og Emigranten, September 29, 1870. 24 Osborn, "Personal Memories of Brig. Gen. C J. Stolbrand", year- Book of the Swedish Historical Society of America, 1909-10, 5-16. 25 Dietrichson, Det Femtende Wisconsin Regiments Historic, 26. 28 Mattson, Story of an Emigrant, 59-93. 27 Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 112-127. 28 Enander, Borgerkrigen i de Forenede Stater, 106; Dietrichson, Det Femtende Wisconsin Regiments Historic, ch. i. 29 Dietrichson, "The Fifteenth Wisconsin, or Scandinavian, Regi- ment," Scandinavia, I, 297 ff. 307] EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900 77 deaths in battle or in the hospitals, including Colonel Heg, who was killed at Chickamauga. 30 Its record is summed up by the military historian of Wisconsin who states that it was "one of the bravest and most efficient regiments that Wisconsin sent to the field." 31 Besides this Scandinavian regiment, there were sev- eral others in which the Norse element was large. Com- pany C of the 43d Illinois Regiment was made up of Swedes, serving under Captain Arosenius. It was organ- ized in the spring of 1862 and mustered out in the fall of 1865, with an honorable record of services faithfully and uncomplainingly performed. 32 Company D of the 57th Illinois Regiment, which served from the autumn of 1861 to July, 1864, 33 and Company D of the 3d Minnesota Regi- ment, which was mustered in at about the same time, 34 were composed of Scandinavians. A sprinkling of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes appears in the lists of many of the regiments of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and many of these men rose to the ranks of commissioned officers. 35 The Adjutant General of Minnesota in 1866 estimated that of the enlistments from that State, at least 800 were Nor- wegians, 675 Swedes, and 25 Danes. "In numerous in- stances the nativity of the soldiers is omitted; and it is not easy to count correctly all the names in such publi- cations; hence it is fair to estimate that 2,000 Scandi- navians from Minnesota enlisted under the Stars and Stripes. . . . One-eighth of the total population of the State enlisted under the Union flag; while at the same time one out of every six Scandinavians in Minnesota, as well as in Wisconsin, fought for his adopted country." 36 30 Xelson, History of Scandinavians, I, 166. 31 Quiner, The Military History of Wisconsin (ch. xxiii, "Regi- mental Histories I5th Infantry"), 631. 32 Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 143-149. 33 Ibid., 155-161. 34 Mattson, The Story of an Emigrant, 59-93. S5 /W c 'c AT u 3 So .S c ^3 ''S "? H 5 S If I &* 2 j u 4 $ is*!! 3 ! * H : : : o : : : : : f :::::ooooo o J :::io: i" 1 ;oooooo 5 E 3 >. """' " 1 :!: ij^ji ::|:: c> ' p *"* f *' c> i M S-S-S**" s Q .ti *? ,- < ' n B 8*1 Ml 2 4 u ^ 3 *^ ^ 4 U} u rt 5 25 'l3 > t s a e Q ** > rt ? I < 3 X c ".Zs^^ !> J ^ 1 9ll W >-J O +r \ & S "~ C M -a 'Q ~ : m *-* 4* 4 "^ ~^- . O tx ^^ ^*" CM OS tx to C^ O C*J ^ f*5CMO*O^CMO^t"ON *O l/> i4 2 ^- -S >Ci OS o c/j Q, * o oo oT *o \o tC o o od tC CM" "i -H CM o oo >o to ^ o\ oo oo V o\ ^ O ^^* ^- "^ ~J * ^H * i CM CM C*i to CM *O to ^ ^ tx tx f*5 \O OO C*\ y ,.-0 >- *^ ~~ ^ c V m a\ j, rt 2 .jj "J -^ 3 10 o H M y S ^ ~ = bo = J ^ -S tc tr : C! _i *X3 *> Q 25 ~~" rj ^ CJ5u^T3%> rttMCMCM CM-itMe>NO-' OO f>rooO>O>OtxO\ OO O 'O H M ^|S"- ll ' ~ | clS|S| \ o H | SI .e--j J 4 4 *- u at3 c 4r J g : -s 2 M 'I 'S ^ c c EC rt o i_^ . ^ *J ^*r Q 1 .5 "2 * -3 ^" 6 W O m g *a t 'cS < -2^~ ? y S **l'| fi 5 t J x H * 15 a-~ "a 55 S ft* ~ ~ C. H cfc^g^J ? j < JWwg-ot) f 1 W 2.J rt t3 "^ 2 4 1 "3 "o - * 3 i - *- - s ^ ^!_, 00 ^ >> oooooooocooooooooooo oo oooooooooooooooooooo oo 437] STATISTICAL TABLES 207 r c "> OOOOOOOOOO O fx vo vo f*S 00 IO VO t O vo CM OO IO OO VO 00 CM CM 00 ^[J'j'txvocM^r'^voTi^or-* o_ "l c i vo . o l."l'~t' H . c i e ?.'^. i ^^"i*"!""!. !. 1 *!* . 5:3 - - -i H e I DQ (J c W ** c-3C\ffr 5 " " " CM "" & ~ " H voCM irovo^Otx O .-T ^ ^J" r r* if m e^ %r ^ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOiOON-< . > . KKKKM *. K ,*. nK *.., HKK fL| O fiOrtPOVOCM-HiVOOOiO i*-*>OCMo O & 04 liniMiNi i liiiitiiii i Miiiiii ! I ' .2io\mxo*n' \oootx^-o i- \o^'m<*JlN,\o^o^4^c^^o ci ooinfNjoooooCQ*o ^ I S o rtCMOOtxroOOtOCM-HOOOO POOCjNCMTCtO'^voON'* OO lOlO-HVOiOOsOvOO ^ . KKO.AK , ..-.K - _...,.. 3| ,'- I - ! ^1 '8 I H -g < * H cO ^ M ro-3CM-<-rO* ^H 00 ^ 00 C fO ^H f- ^ ^ ^H (5 o o .:.:. 10 : . . : : vo ooooooooooooooooocoo oo ocooooooooooooaooooo oo ooooooooooooaooo 00 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [438 rt T ri --ro-T ovoo to totovoixrviporoio^cvio^ oo P ox ? r: V -i M 5! > r*j ts, vo >o o ^ to o o o IN t^ o ^ - ~ - ^ -r ~ r- -/: b i o 'X t-c>iroO'r^'^'ro'txo o to OO Cvl -T "-. ^. O -" CM C: w & C >- b < 55 I i E 2 rvirvioxoxo)vo<^oO' 00 **5 CV1 - ir. 2 CM CM n M e M - *o '5 fr * c M '^O**OO^-'> N OO\ONOOO oo vo t^ S -r M ". ~ 8 1^ 1 t i 5 1 s - r*i to vo CO D TT to PO H ? M E- : S s ^^^SS-2S^S o OX Is in i/-. = I- -f. i/-. Q C b e 2 - < o fc 5 I 4 1 .* \ ji 1 cq CM CM CM t> oo ox M - 5 "_<-. t CM OX (VJ vo Ox S "- O i^ M n V c 00 OO 00 0\ 00 I (If! : ~ op . . . o $ SS SS SS SS SS SS SS SS S5 SS 1 oo sss 5 X r. M y. './i ~x. oc oo oo 5 i x 439] STATISTICAL TABLES 209 rt u>OCMxO\voOt ON CM O JoS^SScSSSSS 3 VO 00 O\ 2 c oC iC * ox ^ * vo o o 9- txOvOJOOOOOtx-OON - TT O c/ C E- J s en i j C^tO OSCM^-ONTCCMOS t 10 VO 10 00 r- < h !/ : w 1 i CM CM < i gcMSSS^SSS^S oo *CM;oOvS?5oOCM S CM !>. r* X a C g t ^ r ~ > *5 j O\ CMCM-HCMCM*^ rx VO VOOOCMOOlOOOlOtxOO V m vo 1 r c TJ- o tx 0 ^. ONtxOOO^J--xOOtxlO <"3 10 00 s OO OO tx f> m 1 e u 2 00 1O f tx oT w CO M VO CM VO VO tx 0\ CM CM CM 1O CM "i TABLE c. H t G H "c g * C/2 m 10 < CM m OC 00 O s M rrj ^ I 4 | C V t 4 "* "^ ^ fO OO 00 tO ^^ **5 Cfl CQ 00 5 " a J O ' CM o CM rx CM 00_ ?^ o c | i t f h 5 o o--. 1 4 4 o\ m oo oo vo X w t^ 3 gvSS^SSSg^SS o ^~ t^ OJ i VO 1^ OJ i : j *> ooSxoaooooooooooox o\ oo ooooooooo o CM O S 5 c- "5 2 210 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [440 TABLE II FOREIGN-BORN SCANDINAVIAN POPULATION, 1850 U. S. Census of 1850 Total Total States and Territories Denmark Norway Sweden Scandi- Popu- navians lation Alabama 18 3 51 72 771,623 Arkansas 7119 209,897 California 92 124 162 378 92,597 Conecticut 16 1 13 30 370,792 Delaware 1 2 3 91,532 District of Columbia.... 6 5 11 51,687 Florida 21 17 33 71 87,445 Georgia 24 6 11 41 906,185 Illinois 93 2,415 1,123 3,631 851,470 Indiana 10 18 16 44 988,416 Iowa . 19 361 231 611 192,214 Kentucky 7 18 20 45 982,405 Louisiana _.. 288 64 249 601 517,762 Maine _ 47 12 55 114 583,169 Maryland 35 10 57 102 583,034 Massachusetts 181 69 253 503 994,514 Michigan 13 110 16 139 397,654 Minnesota Territory 1 7 4 12 6,077 Mississippi 24 8 14 46 606,526 Missouri 55 155 37 247 682,044 New Hampshire 3 2 12 17 317,976 New Jersey 28 4 34 66 489,555 New Mexico Territory.... 2215 61,547 New York. 429 392. 753 1,574 3,097,394 North Carolina 6 9 15 869,039 Ohio 53 18 55 126 1,980,329 Oregon Territory 2125 13,294 Pennsylvania 97 27 133 257 2,311,786 Rhode Island 15 25 17 57 147,545 South Carolina 24 7 '29 60 668,507 Tennessee 8 8 16 1,002,717 Texas 49 105 48 202 212,592 Utah Territory 2 32 1 35 11,380 Vermont _ _ 8 8 314,120 Virginia 15 5 16 36 1,421,661 Wisconsin . 146 8,651 88 8,885 305,391 Total 1,837 12,678 3,559 18,074 23,191,876 441] STATISTICAL TABLES 211 TABLE III FOREIGN-BORN SCANDINAVIAN POPULATION, 1870 U. S. Census, 1870 Total Total States and Territories Denmark Norway Sweden Scandi- Popu- navians lation Alabama 80 21 105 206 996,992 Arkansas 55 19 134 208 484,471 California 1,837 1,000 1,944 4,781 560,247 Connecticut 116 72 323 511 537,454 Delaware 8 9 17 125,015 Florida 40 16 30 86 187,748 Georgia 42 14 35 91 1,184,109 Illinois 3,711 11,880 29,979 45,570 2,539,891 Indiana 315 123 2,180 2,618 1,680,637 Iowa 2,827 17,554 10,796 31,177 1,194,020 Kansas 502 588 4,954 6.044 364,399 Kentucky 53 16 112 181 1,321,011 Louisiana 290 76 358 724 726,915 Maine 120 58 91 269 626,915 Maryland 106 17 100 223 780,894 Massachusetts 267 302 1,384 1,953 1,457,351 Michigan 1,354 1,516 2,406 5,276 1,184,059 Minnesota 1,910 35,940 20,987 58,837 439,706 Mississippi 193 78 970 1,241 827,922 Missouri 665 297 2,302 3,264 1,721,295 Nebraska 1,129 506 2,352 3,987 122,993 Nevada 208 80 217 505 42,491 New Hampshire 11 55 42 108 318,300 New Jersey 510 90 554 1,154 906,096 New York 1,698 975 5,522 8,195 4,382,759 North Carolina 8 5 38 51 1,071,361 Ohio 284 64 252 600 2,665,260 Oregon 87 76 205 368 90,923 Pennsylvania 561 115 2,266 2,942 3,521,951 Rhode Island 24 22 106 152 217,353 South Carolina 50 60 110 705,606 Tennessee 86 37 349 472 1,258,520 Texas 159 403 364 926 818,579 Vermont 21 34 83 138 330,551 Virginia 23 17 30 70 1,225,163 West Virginia 21 1 5 27 442,014 Wisconsin 5,212 40,046 2,799 48,057 1,054,670 Arizona Ter 19 7 7 33 9,658 Colorado Ter 77 40 180 297 39,864 Dakota Ter 115 1,179 380 1,674 14,181 Dist. of Columbia 29 5 22 56 131,700 Idaho Ter 88 61 91 240 14,999 Montana Ter 95 88 141 324 20,595 New Mexico Ter 15 5 6 26 91,874 Utah Ter 4,957 613 1,790 7,360 86,786 Washington Ter 84 104 158 346 23,955 Wyoming Ter 54 28 109 9,1 If Total .. ... 30,098 114,243 97,327 241,686 38,558,371 212 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [442 TABLE IV FOREIGN-BORN SCANDINAVIAN POPULATION, 1890 U. S. Census of 1890 States and Territories Denmark Norway Sweden Alabama 71 47 294 Arizona Territory 180 59 168 Arkansas 125 60 333 California 7,764 3,702 10,923 Colorado 1,650 893 9,659 Connecticut 1,474 523 10,021 Delaware 41 14 246 District of Columbia.... 72 70 128 Florida 105 179 529 Georgia 61 88 191 Idaho 1,241 741 1,524 Illinois 12,044 30,339 86,514 Indiana ., 718 285 4,512 Iowa 15,519 27,078 30,276 Kansas 3,136 1,786 17,096 Kentucky 92 120 184 Louisiana 232 136 328 Maine 696 311 1,704 Maryland 130 164 305 Massachusetts 1,512 2,519 18,624 Michigan 6,335 7,795 27,366 Minnesota 14,133 101,169 99,913 Mississippi . 90 54 305 Missouri 1,333 526 5,602 Montana 683 1,957 3,771 Nebraska 14,345 3,632 28,364 Nevada 332 69 314 New Hampshire 64 251 1,210 New Jersey 2,991 1,317 4,159 New Mexico Ter 54 42 149 New York 6,238 8,602 28,430 North Dakota 2,860 25,773 5,583 North Carolina 26 13 51 Ohio 956 511 2,742 Oklahoma Ter 37 36 138 Oregon .'.... 1,288 2,271 3,774 Pennsylvania 2,010 2,238 19,346 Rhode Island ... 154 285 3,392 South Dakota 4,369 19,257 7.746 South Carolina 36 23 60 Tennessee 92 41 332 Texas 649 1,313 2,806 Utah Territory 9,023 1,854 5.986 Vermont 58 38 870 Virginia 108 102 215 Washington 2,807 8,334 10,272 West Virginia 44 7 72 Wisconsin 13,885 65,696 20,157 Wyoming ..:.... 680 345 1.357 Total Scandi- navians 412 407 518 22,389 12,202 12,018 301 270 813 340 3,506 128,897 5,515 72,873 21,998 396 796 2,711 599 22,655 41,496 215,215 449 7,461 6,411 46,341 715 1,425 8,467 245 43,270 34,216 90 4,209 211 7,333 23,594 3,831 31,372 119 465 4,768 16,863 966 425 21,413 123 99.738 2,382 Total Popu- lation 1,513,017 59,620 1,128,179 1,208,130 412,198 746,258 168,493 230,392 391,422 1,837,353 84,285 3,826,351 2,192,404 1,911.896 1,427,096 1,858,635 1,118,587 661,086 1,042,390 2,238,943 2,093,889 1,301,826 1,289,600 2,679,184 132,159 1,058,910 45,761 376,530 1,444,933 153,593 5,997,753 182,719 1,617,947 3,672,316 61,834 313,767 5,258,014 345,506 328,808 1.151.149 1,767,518 2,235,523 207,905 332,422 1.655,980 349,390 762.794 1.686.880 60.705 Total . 132.543 322.665 478.041 933,249 62.622.250 STATISTICAL TABLES 213 TABLE V FOREIGN WHITE STOCK OF SCANDINAVIAN ORIGIN, 1910 13th Census, I, Chapter viii, Table 29 Under each state the figures represent (1) foreign born, corresponding to the figures given for 1850, 1870, and 1890 (2) native white of foreign parentage (3) native white of mixed parentage Grand Total 2,485 2,818 1,585 90,112 35,157 41,457 778 2,857 1,141 24,527 332,088 15,168 Alabama Norway 266 Sweden 752 Denmark 197 Totals 1,215 114 168 481 274 105 128 700 570 Arizona Arkansas 272 164 106 76 845 427 302 385 284 172 246 178 1,401 763 654 639 49 77 176 374 72 198 297 649 California 9,952 4,666 2,528 26,210 14,797 5,464 14,208 8,244 4,043 50,370 27,707 12,035 Colorado 1,787 1,421 826 12,445 9,681 3,287 2,755 1,894 1,061 16,987 12,996 5,174 Connecticut 1,265 499 204 18,208 14,508 1,788 2,722 1,845 418 22,195 16,852 2,410 Delaware 38 15 12 332 208 85 52 17 19 422 240 116 Florida . Georgia 303 158 303 145 728 387 412 289 295 110 161 112 1,326 655 876 546 Idaho 56 85 2,566 153 196 4,985 33 72 2,254 242 353 9,805 Illinois 2,221 1,289 32,913 3,876 2,124 115,422 2,680 2,532 17,368 8,777 5,945 165,703 Indiana 26,572 8,953 531 94,830 19,879 5,081 11,551 4,600 900 132,953 33,432 6,512 363 299 4,824 1,896 692 582 5,879 2,777 214 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT TABLE V (Continued) Iowa . . . Norway 21,924 Sweden 26,763 Denmark 17,961 Totals 66,648 30,392 14,586 28,859 10,573 17,814 5,966 77,065 31,125 Kansas Kentucky 1,294 1,371 1,031 53 13,309 15,911 6,411 190 2,759 2,635 1,822 78 17,362 19,917 9,264 321 39 40 104 148 40 96 183 284 Louisiana Maine ...... ........ 294 92 252 580 344 154 438 2,203 239 125 392 929 877 371 1,082 3,712 Maryland 288 218 363 1,478 627 421 715 340 237 2,481 1,185 1,021 144 164 209 261 88 158 441 583 Massachusetts .... Michigan 5,432 2,170 768 7,638 39,560 25,149 3,759 26,374 3,403 1,706 963 6,313 48,395 29,025 5,490 40,325 Minnesota 6,778 2,358 105,302 25,624 4,939 122,427 6,055 2,431 16,137 38,457 9,728 243,866 126,549 47,755 118,083 27,508 15,430 5,957 260,062 81,220 Mississippi 91 32 116 292 178 280 119 51 122 502 261 518 Missouri . 660 543 537 5,654 4,937 2,936 1,729 1,147 1,380 8,043 6,627 4,853 Montana 7,169 4,859 1,914 6,410 3,865 1,527 1,943 1,302 696 15,522 10,026 4,137 Nebraska Nevada 2,750 2,989 1,968 254 23,219 26,599 8,668 708 13,673 13,957 4,932 616 39,643 43,545 15,568 1,578 107 92 293 192 393 307 793 591 New Hampshire- 491 292 69 2,068 1,172 316 131 55 69 2,690 1,519 454 [444 Grand Total 174,838 46,543 788 2,330 7,378 2,045 82,910 88,510 585,148 1,281 19,523 29,685 98,755 2,962 4,663 445] STATISTICAL TABLES 215 TABLE V (Continued) Norway Sweden Denmark Totals Grand Total New Jersey 5,351 2,256 745 10,547 5,899 1,902 5,056 3,350 1,261 20,954 11,505 3,908 36,367 New Mexico New York. 151 109 71 25,012 365 240 144 53,703 116 75 91 12,536 632 424 306 91,251 1,362 10,171 2,221 29,284 7,248 5,006 3,167 44,461 12,636 148,348 North Carolina.... 39 13 28 112 36 70 36 13 28 187 62 126 375 North Dakota...... 45,937 56,577 20,770 12,160 10,533 4,107 5,355 5,043 1,805 63,452 72,153 26,682 162,287 Ohio Oklahoma 1,109 571 351 351 5,522 4,075 1,458 1,028 1,837 1,150 808 550 8,468 5,796 2,617 1,929 16,881 425 432 943 1,058 518 577 1,886 2,067 5,882 Oregon 6,843 4,643 1,949 10,099 5,866 2,233 3,215 2,167 1,391 20,157 12,676 5,573 38,406 Pennsylvania 2,317 995 651 23,467 22,803 5,415 3,033 1,656 1,261 28,817 25,454 7,327 61,598 Rhode Island 577 230 109 7,404 5,174 636 328 153 108 8,309 5,557 853 14,719 South Carolina.... 82 19 40 95 20 68 51 9 68 228 48 176 452 South Dakota 20,918 27,803 12,025 9,998 9,640 3,654 6,294 6,396 2,273 37,210 43,839 17,952 99,001 Tennessee Texas 89 74 79 1,784 363 237 281 4,703 163 87 119 1,287 615 398 479 7,774 1,492 1,649 1,012 4,724 2,171 844 942 7,217 4,125 19,116 Utah 2,304 1,562 1,643 7,227 5,906 3,930 8,300 10,169 8,142 17,831 17,637 13,715 49,183 216 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [446 TABLE V (Continued) Norway Sweden Denmark Totals Vermont Virginia 102 41 32 311 1,331 905 185 368 172 74 68 239 1,605 1,020 285 918 222 164 215 138 140 95 577 397 Washington 28,363 18,486 5,875 32,195 18,244 5,640 7,804 4,988 2,286 68,362 41,718 13,801 West Virginia 38 10 31 278 196 124 67 51 48 383 257 203 Wisconsin Wyoming 56,999 71,681 29,020 623 25,739 23,268 6,379 2,497 16,454 15,903 5,958 962 99,192 110,852 41,357 4,082 381 245 1,455 598 866 521 2,702 1,364 Grand Total 2,910 1,892 123,881 843 251.401 8,148 447] STATISTICAL TABLES 217 APPENDIX II STATISTICS OF THREE MINNESOTA COUNTIES From the U. S. Census Reports Chisago County 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 White population 1,729 4,358 7,982 10,359 13,248 White native-born 1,209 2,164 4,017 5,613 8,230 White foreign-born 734 2,194 3,965 4,746 5,018 White foreign Danish 14 50 67 55 White foreign Norwegian 1,674 3,160 50 69 White foreign Swedish 3,955 4,215 Acres in farms Improved 3,468 8,004 31,198 43,476 85,277 Unimproved 18,484 34,593 72,595 101,649 129.501 Cash value of farms $124,019 $477,720 $1,171,426 $2,563,630 $3,419,310 Fillmore County White population 13,542 24,887 28,162 25,966 28,238 White native-born 9,045 15,178 19,243 19,034 22,378 White foreign-born 4,497 9,709 8,919 6,932 5,860 White foreign Danish 13 96 68 59 White foreign Norwegian.. _ 6,612 5,191 4,171 3,593 White foreign Swedish 66 53 Acres in farms Improved 75,542 185,087 361,100 357,083 389,386 Unimproved 216,454 214,459 134,333 117,670 131,875 Cash value of farms $ 11,844,797 $6,636,880 $9,535,815 $9,935,202 $14,240,595 Otter Tail County White population 178 1,968 18,675 34,232 45,375 White native-born 178 888 11,249 20,884 30,988 White foreign-born 1,080 7,426 13,348 14,387 White foreign Danish 41 214 345 372 White foreign Norwegian- 889 4,772 5,955 5,738 White foreign Swedish 2,470 3,038 Acres in farms Improved 306 3,632 131,804 311,175 505,358 Unimproved 2,118 28,898 340,355 405,380 439,374 Cash value of farms $17,550 $151,281 $3,650,223 $8,511,465 $12,478,640 INDEX Aaker, L. K., 146-47. Agriculture among Scandinavians, 95-98. "America Book", influence on Norwegian emigration, 37-40. Americanization, 106-111, 180-182. Anderson, Paul, 116-117. Anderson, R. B., 39, 155, 173. Banks, Scandinavian, 104-5. Baptist Church, work among Scandinavians, 118-120. Behrens, Capt., 35-36. Bennett Law (Wisconsin), 166-168 Bibliography, 183-204. Birth rate, 132-33. Bishop Hill (111.), Swedish settlement, 54, 56-60. Bremer, Frederika, quoted, 52-3, 82. Bull, Ole, on the term "Scandinavian", 15-16. Business, Scandinavians in, 102-5. California, Scandinavian population, 72-4. Capital : brought by immigrants, 92-96 ; investment, 94-97. Chicago (111.): Scandinavian population, 73-4; Swedish settlement, 60. Chisago Co. (Minn.), Swedish settlement, 97-98; politics, 163. Church, see names of denominations, i. e., Baptist church. Cities, Scandinavian element, 73-4. Citizenship, n, 83-4, 179-82. Civil War, part played by Scandinavians, 75-8, 142, 149. Clausen, C. L., 46-7. Climate, influence upon distribution of immigration, 74-5. Colleges, Scandinavian, 111-14. Communism, in Bishop Hill settlement, 51-60. Congregational church, work among Scandinavians, 116-19. Dane Co. (Wis.) settlement, no, 145. Danes : character, 18 ; in politics, 140-43 ; settlements, 63, 65. Danish immigration: 69, 73-4; character of, 64; statistics, 62, 67-74. See also Immigration. Danish churches, 15, 63-65. Davidson, J. O., 153. Defectives, 134-45. Delaware River (Swedish) colony, 11-13. 219 220 THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [450 Delinquents, 134-35, 137-39- Democratic party, 160-64, 166-70. Denmark: economic conditions, 18-19, 2I 62-63, 68- emigration: 62, 64; causes, 62, 63, 115; statistics, 62, 67-74. population : distribution, 21 ; increase, 69-70, 132. Dietrichson, J. W. C, 47-8. Duluth (Minn.), Scandinavian population, 74. Eberhardt, A. O., 153. Education, 65, 109-14, 166-70. See also English language; illiteracy. Elk Horn (la.), Danish settlement, 63, 65. Emigration, see Immigration ; Names of countries, e. g. Denmark. English language, use among Scandinavians, 109-10, 113, 122-23, 131, 145, 166-72. Ericsson, John, 78. Esbjorn, Paul, 117-18. Families, large, 14, 132-133. Farmers' Alliance, 162-63. Fillmore Co. (Minn.), 98-99, no, 144. Fox River (111.), Norwegian settlement, 28-29, 36. Free Soil party, 158-59. Greenback party, 161. Grevstad, N. A., 156. Hasselquist, T. N., 117-18. Hedstrom, Jonas, and O. G., 50, 54, 116. Heg, Even, 43, 44, 48. Heg, H. C., 76. Hesthammer, Peerson, sec Peerson Kleng. Hovland, G. G., 30, 35. Illinois: Norwegian settlement, 27, 28-9, 32-3, 36; politics, 161, 168-69; Scandinavian population, 72-4; Swedish settlement. 53-4, 56-7, 60. Illegitimacy, 134. Illiteracy. 109. See also Education. Immigrants, Americanization, 10, 107-108, 179-82; classes, 11; value to U. S., 9, 91-93, 179-82. Immigration, Scandinavian: causes, 18-21 ; 81-8; distribution, 71-4 ; pro- moted by railroads, 86-98; promoted by states, 88-90; statistics, 7-8, 67-74, 205; value to U. S., 91-105; westward expansion, 45, 66, 71, 75 96. See also Names of peoples, i. e.. Danes. Independent party, 161. Indiana, Norwegian settlement, 27. Industry, Scandinavians in, 102-5. Insanity, 135-37- 451] INDEX 221 Intermarriage, 130-131. Iowa: Danish settlement, 63; immigration promoted by state, 89-90; Scan- dinavian population, 72-4; Swedish settlement, 53. Janson, Eric, 55-9. Jansonist colony, see Bishop Hill. Jansonist movement, 55-61. Jefferson Prairie (Wis.), Norwegian settlement, 41, 46. Johnson, J. A., 152-53. Johnson, John, 43. Johnson, M. N., 154, 174-175. Koshkonong (Wis.), Norwegian settlement, 44. Kvelve, B. A., 32. Labor, demand for, influence on immigration, 84-6. Laborers, Scandinavian, compared with American, 100-1. Land: value in North West, cause of immigration, 81-2, 99; increase, 87. Langeland, Knud, 35, 160. Legislation, influenced by Scandinavians, 169-71. Lind, John, 152, 154-55, 161. Liquor traffic, attitude of Scandinavians, 171-72. Listoe, Soren, 156. Lutheran church: among Scandinavians in U. S., 46-7, 63-5, 114-16, 120-23; educational efforts, 110-14; 166-67. Marriage, 131-32. Martineau, Harriet, quoted, 28. Mattson, Hans, 90, 146, 150-51, 156. Merriam, W. R., 162, 176. Methodist church, work among Scandinavians, 54, 116, 118-20. Michigan, Scandinavian population, 74. Minneapolis (Minn.), Scandinavian population, 73, 74, 134; politics, 163 n. Minnesota : Danish settlement, 63 ; economic development, promoted by Scandinavians, 97-9 ; immigration promoted by state, 90-1 ; politics, 144-56, 162-63 ; Scandinavian population, 72-4, 138. Missionary work among Scandinavians, 46-48, 54, 115-20. Morality, 133-34- Mormons, influence upon Danish immigration, 63, 73, 115. Muskego (Wis.), 42, 48. Nattestad, Ansten, 37, 39-42. Nattestad, Ole, 29, 31, 40. Nebraska : Danish settlement, 63 ; Scandinavian population, 72-3, 74. Nelson, Knute, 151, 154, 164. New Sweden (la.), 53. New York, Norwegian settlement, 26-7; Swedish settlement, 60. Newspapers, Scandinavian: 16, 124-9, 203-4; importance, 124-5, 129. 183; in politics, 128, 142, 159-60, 164-5, 173-4! number, 128. THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT [452 Nordlyset, 126, 148, 159. North Dakota: politics, 147, 149-51, 162-3, 174-5; Scandinavian population, 72-4. Northwest, economic development, 79-105. Norway: economic conditions, 18-20, 30-1, 41-2, 68. emigration : 22-3, 35, 40-2 ; cost, 34 ; difficulties, 33-4 ; influenced by religious persecution, 24, 40; influenced by settlers, 29-32, 37, 40; statistics, 62, 67, 74. population: distribution, 19; increase, 69-70, 132. Norwegians: character, 17, 93; in politics, 140-56, 162. immigration: 22-3, 32, 35-6, 93; effects upon Norwegians, 107-8; routes, 33-4, 36, 40-2; statistics, 61, 67-74. See also Immigration. settlements : in Illinois, 28-9, 36 ; in New York, 26-7 ; in Wiscon- sin, 41, 42, 43-5. See also Scandinavians. Occupations of immigrants, 84-7, 95-7, 102, 131-2. Olson, Jonas, 55, 59, 60. Olson, Olof, 56. Otter Tail Co. (Minn.), 98-99, 126; politics, 163. Otteson, J. A., 125, 133. Peerson, Kleng, 24, 25, 28. Periodicals, religious, 127-9. Pine Lake (Wis.) settlement, 51-53. Place names of Scandinavian settlements, 99, 143-5. Political parties, see Names of parties. Politics, Scandinavian: 140-56, 166-78; influenced by newspapers, 164-6, 173-4- Populist party, 161, 164. Prohibition, see Liquor traffic. Quakers, influence upon Norwegian emigration, 23-5. Racine Co. (Wis.) settlement, 42; politics, 158. Railroads, stimulus to immigration, 86-8. Religion, among Scandinavians, 45-8, 114-20; relation to politics, 161. Religious persecution, 24, 40, 56. Remittances to Europe, 94, 129. Republican party, 157, 160-4, 166-8, 174-7. "Restoration" (ship), 22, 25-6. Reymert, J. D., 126, 148. Rochester (N. Y.), Norwegian settlement, 26. Rockford (111.), furniture industry, 103; Swedish population, 73-4; poli- tics, 169. Rynning, Ole, 36-7, 39. 453] INDEX 223 St. Paul (Minn.), Scandianvian population, 74, 134. "Scandinavian", objection to term, 15. Scandinavian immigration, see Immigration. Scandinavians: birth rate, 132-3; character, 10, 16-7, 179-82; in agriculture, 97-100; in business, 102-4; in cities, 73-4; in Civil War, 75-8, 142, 149; in domestic service, 131-2; in industry, 103-4; m politics, 140-56, 169-78; morality, 133-4; occupations, 84-7, 95-7, 102-5; standard of living, 101-2; value to U. S., 7, n, 83-4, 91-105, 179-82; wealth, 97-8, 102. See also Danes, Norwegians, Swedes. Schroder, Johan, 125-6. Settlers, propagandists of immigration, 29-32, 41. Slavery, attitude of Scandinavians towards, 157-9. South Dakota: politics, 147, 149-51, 162-3, 175-6; Scandinavian population, 72-4. Standard of living, 101-2. Statistics, tables of, 67, 85, 205. Sweden : economic conditions, 18-20, 68. emigration: 50-1, 53; causes, 51, 53-4, 56, 61 ; statistics, 67-74. population : distribution, 20 ; increase, 69-70, 132. Swedes: character, 12; in politics, 140-56, 161-2, 166-70; value as citizens, 13, 14- Swedish immigration: 12, 22, 50-1, 53. 56-7, 61 ; routes, 51, 53, 56-7; statistics, 67-74. See also Immigration. settlements: on Delaware River, 11-3; in Illinois, 60; in Iowa, 53; in New York, 60; in Wisconsin, 51-2. See also Scandinavians. Swenson, L. S., 155. Texas, Danish settlement, 63; Swedish settlement, 61. Timanson, Levor, 95. Transportation in West, 80, 84, 87. Unitarian Church, work among Scandinavians, 119. United Norwegian Lutheran Church, no, 120-121. U. S., described for emigrants, 37-40; economic conditions, influence on Scandinavian immigration, 68-9; economic development, 7, 79-105; population, increase, 70. Unonius, G., 51, 53. Utah, Scandinavian population, 73-4, 115. Wages, in Scandinavian countries, 85, 131 ; in U. S., 85, 131. Wealth, possessed by Scandinavians, 97-8, 102. Wisconsin : Danish settlements, 63 ; immigration promoted by state aid, 88-9; Norwegian settlements, 40-46; politics, 145, 148-51, 153-4, 160-1, 166-8; Scandinavian population, 72-4, 138; Swedish settlement, 51-3.