CHAPTER XLII

_Survey of Immigration from Norway to America. Conclusion._

We are then at the end of our task. We discussed at first early individual immigration from Norway down to the year 1825. Then tracing briefly the fortunes of the party of immigrants who came from Norway that year we followed the subsequent immigration, year by year, down to 1848, and the founding of settlements in this country from Orleans County, New York, in 1825, to Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1850. The growth of the emigration movement in Norway and the course of settlements here have been indicated. The names of the promoters of emigration in each district and province and of the founders of settlements have in all cases been given. In most cases we have succeeded in giving a fairly complete list of names of the settlers in any community during the first four to eight years of its history, that is its period of growth, the years during which it assumed the character of a Norwegian settlement. The varied causes of emigration were also discussed at some length as also other questions as the cost of passage and duration and course of the journey; and in the discussion of the individual settlements we have now and then given a glimpse of the general conditions of life in early pioneer days. I desire now by way of conclusion to summarize briefly the course of emigration in Norway and the distribution of the representatives of each district in this country.

The first emigrants from Norway were from Stavanger, Haugesund and Ryfylke. Before 1836 the movement did not reach out beyond these districts although a few individuals had come from Söndhordland and Hardanger. The emigration from Hardanger begins properly in 1836; that year also records the first arrivals from Voss.[439] However most of the immigrants of that year, as the following two years, were from the districts that had furnished the emigrants of the decade 1825-1835. The year 1837 is especially noteworthy for the sailing of the first emigrant ship from Bergen and that the immediate vicinity of Bergen for the first time furnished its quota of the emigration. It is further significant in that Voss now enters definitely into the movement, and that Upper Telemarken and the neighboring region of West Numedal contributed the first recruits to the American settlements. The emigrants of 1839 came in considerable part from Upper Telemarken, from Numedal, from Voss and Hardanger, but not a few also from the older districts. This continued in 1840 and 1841, except that there were no emigrants from Hardanger during these two years and very few for the next four years also. In 1842 the first party left Sogn and in 1844 and 1845 considerable numbers came to America from this district. The year 1843 is especially noteworthy for the very large emigration of that year from Upper Telemarken and the growth of the movement in new parishes in Numedal. In this year also the America-fever enters Lower Telemarken, a number of families going to America from Holden Parish and Kragerö, which in 1844-1845 expands to include Sande and Bö and the region of Skien. During 1843 the first emigrants also leave Sætersdalen, and from now on it is to be observed that there is a steady out-going of emigrants from Ryfylke and Söndhordland for the period of nearly a decade. The movement is also beginning to expand in two other directions; north from Numedal into Hallingdal and soon after northeast from the region of the Sognefjord up to northern and the extreme Inner Sogn. The influx of immigrants from Telemarken and Numedal continues, and in increased numbers from Voss and the movement begins anew in Hardanger in 1846. Hallingdal sent forth a large number of families and single persons in 1846-47, most of whom as we know settled in Rock and La Fayette Counties, Wisconsin, many later moving into Iowa. In 1847-48 these two movements meet in Valders, the one from Hallingdal entering first in South and North Aurdal, the other from Lærdal and Aardal in Sogn, entering about 1850 into Vang, Hurum and West Slidre in Valders. In the meantime the movement has traveled also from Lower Telemarken, Drammen and Eastern Numedal (Sigdal) up through Ringerike, Hadeland and Land. Especially large was the emigration from North and South Land clear to Torpen in 1847-1850. The region east of Land, i. e., Toten, Hedemarken and Solör furnish occasional immigrants from now on but not in considerable numbers until many years later. From Land and from Valders the movement grows northward into Gudbrandsdalen and northwestward into Österdalen and Trondhjem, from which provinces, however, relatively very few emigrated to America until after 1850, and the emigration was not heavy from this region or from the northern coast districts,--Söndfjord, Nordfjord, Söndmöre, Nordmöre--until after the Civil War.[440]

[439] At least eighteen persons from Hardanger and two from Voss.

[440] And from Nordland not until after 1875. It is to be observed also that the emigration from the older inland districts was very heavy clear down to 1890.

As to the number of immigrants that each of the districts had contributed to the American population before 1850, or have down to the present time, it would be difficult to say. The emigration from such vast districts as Telemarken and Sogn, as later from Gudbrandsdalen, Hedemarken and Österdalen, has been heaviest, while from Ryfylke and Voss the incoming settlers have been very numerous, as also from the small but very populous Söndhordland, Hadeland and Land. Valdris and Hallingdal[441] each about half as large as Sogn have contributed perhaps each about one-third as many immigrants as Sogn, each contributing about equally to the American emigration. Relatively small has been the immigration from Hardanger, Sætersdalen and the vicinity of Stavanger. The extensive districts of Telemarken and Sogn entered early into the movement and have continued down to the present time to furnish large numbers of recruits to the Norwegian immigrant population. Representatives of these two regions, the immigrated and their descendants, are, I believe, most numerous among the various groups of Norwegian settlers in America.

[441] In 1891 Hallingdal had a population of 12,900, Valdris 17,000, Sogn 37,050, Söndhordland 34,750, Hardanger 25,900, Ryfylke 46,000, Telemarken 44,000, Sætersdalen 8,380. The population of each is much larger now.

In this country the relative position of the representatives of each is about that which they occupied in the old; this finds its reason chiefly in the time at which the different states were opened up to settlers. Natives from Stavanger, Ryfylke and Söndhordland are found chiefly in Illinois and in the settlements of Central Iowa (Benton and Story Counties). In Illinois are located also in large numbers natives of Hardanger (Lee County), and Voss (Chicago), but only to a very limited extent those of other districts. In Southern Wisconsin and to a slight extent in the adjacent parts of Illinois have located especially the natives of Numedal, and to some extent those of Land and Sogn. Natives of Sogn have, however, found homes most extensively in the various settlements of Wisconsin and Minnesota and Northern Iowa.[442] Here they are present in all parts of the states but in largest numbers in the oldest settlements in Southern and Western Wisconsin and in Southeastern Minnesota. Natives of Telemarken are found well scattered, from their original center in Racine County, through Walworth and Dane Counties, thence to Central Wisconsin and Minnesota. The representatives of Valders are found in largest numbers in Western Dane County, in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, and in Goodhue County, Minnesota.

[442] In Winneshiek and Worth Counties, where also natives of Hallingdal have settled in large numbers.

It will not be possible to discuss here the later development of the various settlements that have been treated above or the increase of the Norwegian factor in the counties where these settlements were formed. Space forbids this, and these facts have, furthermore, been briefly indicated elsewhere in this volume. Thus in