The Scandinavian Element in the United States

CHAPTER XIV.

Critical Essay on Materials and Authorities

The term bibliography does not accurately or fully describe the materials upon which this study of the Scandinavians in the Northwest is based. To the printed sources of all sorts, – official reports of European and American governments, autobiographies, travels, and the like – and to a wide range of secondary works, there must be added much matter relating to the subject gathered by means of personal interviews, correspondence, and observations extending over a series of years. The Scandinavian press is an inexhaustible mine of source material; its information, in nuggets, flakes, and fine particles, must be sought for diligently, extracted, refined, and shaped; but it is the purest source material, nevertheless, comprising brief autobiographies, letters, personal opinions, description of surroundings and movements, and contributions to current discussion in politics, religion, and education. The county and local histories which multiplied rapidly between 1880 and 1895, and which have not yet ceased to appear, are not far from the borderland of source material. Their sketches of men and women and settlements, tho for the most part of a crude, innocent, laudatory type based upon brief personal interviews by canvassers and elaborated according to the varying size of the subscriptions of individuals, are almost indispensable for certain statistical purposes.

The customary distinction between source material and secondary material is often hard to maintain, so recent is the Scandinavian immigration, and so numerous are the first-hand and second-hand accounts by contemporaries participating in or observing the phenomena under consideration. The Northern peoples settling in the United States have had no William Bradford for a historian, but the work of Norelius and Mattson is in a class similar to that of Plimouth Plantation.

The best bibliography of immigration in general is that published by the Library of Congress, A. P. C. Griffin (compiler), A List of Books (with References to Periodicals) on Immigration (3rd issue, with additions, 1907), but this is not complete, especially as relating to Scandinavian immigration. It omits all state documents, but is strong in its list of Congressional and executive documents. For the Scandinavian movement, the bibliography in O. N. Nelson (editor), History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States (2nd ed., I, 265-295), is the most useful, though it is unfortunately arranged on a strictly chronological basis in two parts. It is, however, far from complete, omitting practically all Federal and State publications, and all periodicals save for specific mention of certain articles. In the field of periodicals, is Bibliografi; Svensk-Amerikansk Periodisk Literatur (being No. 8, Kungl. Bibliothekets Handlingar, Stockholm, 1886).

In a general way, the following bibliography includes only those books, pamphlets, periodicals, and newspapers which were directly used in the preparation of this volume. In the case of foreign publications, the place as well as the date of publication is usually given.

1. Official Publications of the United States.

Five series of reports published by the Federal Government are of very great importance in the study of immigration, both for their scope and their accuracy: the Reports of the censuses from 1850 to 1910; the Annual Statistical Abstracts (36 vols., 1879-1913); Annual Reports of the Commissioner-general of Immigration (17 vols., 1891-1909); Reports from the Consuls of the United States (notably vol. 22, No. 76, 1887), particularly those from the consuls in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; and Special Consular Reports (particularly vol. 30, 1904). The Report of the Industrial Commission (especially vols. XV. (1901) and XIX (1902)), contains a vast amount of recent, complete, and diversified material in the testimony taken by the Commission and in the well-digested reports prepared by experts like John R. Commons. The Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, Immigration into the United States, showing number, nationality, sex, age, destination (etc.) from 1820-1903 (in Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, June, 1903), gives general tables and a review in convenient form.

The following reports of committees of the House of Representatives and of the Senate include usually the “hearings” of the committees, if any have been held: Report from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, 51 Cong., 2 Sess., H. R. No. 3472 (Owen Report, 1891); 52 Cong., 1 Sess., H. R. No. 2090 (Stump Report, 1892); Report of the Committee on Immigration, 52 Cong., 2 Sess., S. R. No. 1333 (Chandler Report, 1893); 54 Cong., 1 Sess., S. R. No. 290 (Lodge Report, 1896); 57 Cong., 2 Sess., S. Doc. No. 62 (Penrose Report, 1902). Special reports of importance are: Report of the Immigration Investigating Commission (1895); Edward Young, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Special Report on Immigration, (42 Cong., 1 Sess., H. Mis. Doc. No. 19 (1871)); and C. C. Andrews, Report made to the Department of State on the Conditions of the Industrial Classes in Sweden and Norway (1874).

In a class by itself is the recent elaborate Report of the Immigration Commission, S. Docs., 61 Cong., 2-3 Sess. (Dillingham Report, 1910-1911), 43 vols., of which vols. 1 and 2 (Abstract), 4, 34, and 36 are specially important for this study. The Report is by far the most scientific, thorough-going, and detailed study of the nature, extent, distribution and results of immigration to the United States, and to a few other countries like Canada, Australia, and Brazil, which has yet been produced.

Various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large and the Congressional Directories have also some material.

2. Official Reports of Scandinavian countries.

Denmark: annual volumes of Statistisk Aarbog.

Norway: annual volumes of Norges Officielle Statistik (1870-1913), of Norges Land og Folk (1885-1906), and of Meddelelser fra det Statistiske Centralbureau (1883-1899); and Oversigt over Kongeriget Norges civile, geistlige og judicielle Inddeling (1893).

Sweden: annual issues of Bidrag till Sveriges officiella statistik (1857-1913), covering a wide range of topics. Gustav Sundbärg (editor), Sweden, Its People and Its Industry (1904), is a valuable “historical and statistical handbook published by the order of the Government” of Sweden, in Swedish, English, and French.

Norway, —Official Publication for the Paris Exhibition, 1900 (Christiania, 1900) is a companion volume to that for Sweden just mentioned.

3. Official Publications of Great Britain.

The Report of the Board of Trade on Alien Immigration (into the United States) (London, 1893) is at once able, comprehensive, judicious.

4. Official Publications of the Northwestern States.

The various annual or biennial legislative handbooks contain useful biographies and statistics, especially the volumes since 1880: The Legislative Manual of the State of Minnesota; Wisconsin Blue Book; The Legislative Manual of North Dakota; South Dakota Political Handbook and Official and Legislative Manual (sometimes entitled South Dakota Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Directory). Of the great number and variety of official State documents and reports, those most directly useful for this study are the volumes of statistics of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota; those relating to the State censuses, State institutions (a board of control as in Wisconsin and Iowa, or a board of charities and corrections, for certain institutions, in Minnesota and South Dakota), commissioners or boards of immigration, and boards of health. Reports of officers in charge of immigration matters are in State documents as follows: Wisconsin, 1853, 1854, 1869-1875, 1880-1882, 1884, 1886, 1897, 1900; Iowa, 1872; Minnesota, 1867-1872. The publications of certain institutions chiefly supported by the States, like the Wisconsin Historical Society, the State Historical Society of Iowa, especially vol. III (1905), and the Minnesota Historical Society, really fall into this class of sources.

The classical work on the broad subject of immigration, notable alike for the breadth and penetration of its views, is Richmond Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration: a Study in Social Science (1890). Two other works by the same authority, are: Immigration and the Foreign-Born Population (in vol. III of the Publications of the American Statistical Assn., 1893), and Statistics and Sociology (1895). The Publications of the Immigration Restriction League take a wide range in 63 pamphlets (1894-1914). Next to these in importance come: Prescott F. Hall, Immigration and its Effects upon the United States (1906), an excellent and compact study, somewhat marred by the bias of its author, who is secretary of the Restriction League; J. R. Commons, Races and Immigrants in America (1907), a popular rather than profound statement, but the fresh work of a careful scholar; E. A. Steiner, On the Trail of the Immigrant (1906); S. McLanahan, Our People of Foreign Speech … with particular reference to religious work among them (1904).

A group of more recent works by competent scholars combining qualities of penetration and popular presentation in satisfying proportions are: H. P. Fairchild, Immigration: a World Movement and its American Significance (1913); J. W. Jenks and W. J. Lauck, The Immigration Problem (3d ed. revised and enlarged, 1913), by two men intimately connected with the making of the Dillingham Report; E. A. Ross, The Old World in the New: The significance of past and present immigration to the American people (1914), especially ch. IV; F. J. Warne, The Immigrant Invasion (1913), ch. XII.

Of less direct bearing, but valuable: W. J. Bromwell, History of Immigration to the United States (1856); F. L. Dingley, European Immigration (1890); F. Kapp, Immigration and the Commissioners of Immigration of the State of New York (1870); R. M. LaFollette (editor), The Making of America, vols. II and VIII (1906); F. A. Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, vol. II (1899).

The great mass of periodical literature is listed in Griffin’s bibliography, already cited. Including general and special articles and some speeches in the Congressional Record, nearly 700 titles are arranged chronologically. The list is incomplete, omitting several articles, dealing particularly with the Scandinavians.

Three works deal with the history of the Scandinavian immigration in a large-spirited, comprehensive way, and by these characteristics stand out from the mass of less important works. O. N. Nelson (compiler and editor), History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States (2 vols., 2nd revised ed., 1904), is made up of specially prepared articles, reprinted articles, statistical tables, a bibliography, and some two hundred and eighty biographies of men in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. It is very uneven, and on almost every page betrays at once the zeal, honesty, and the inadequate training of the authors and the compiler. It might almost be characterized as a cyclopedia of the Scandinavians in America. E. Norelius, De Svenska Luterska Församlingarnas och Svenskarnes Historia i Amerika (1890), while nominally a church history is in reality an excellent history of Swedish settlement; George T. Flom, A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States from the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 (1909), made up in part of articles mentioned elsewhere, is a painstaking, exhaustive, accurate account of Norwegian immigration of that period into Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.

Other books dealing with special groups or States or localities are: Axel A. Ahlroth, Svenskarne i Minnesota – Historiska Anteckningar (Westervik, 1891); Rasmus B. Anderson, The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, 1821-1840, a prolix, padded, but valuable volume; and Tale ved Femtiaarsfesten, for den Norske Udvandring til Amerika (1875); John H. Bille, A History of the Danes in America (Trans. Wis. Acad. of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, XI, 1896), a short pamphlet; Tancred Boissy, Svenska Nationaliteten i Förenta Staterna (Göteborg, 1882), a reprint of correspondence in Sydsvenska Dagbl. Snällposten; J. W. C. Dietrichson, Reise blandt de Norske Emigranter i “de forenede Nordamerikanske Fristater” (Stavanger 1846, and reprinted Madison, 1896), a historical and contemporary description of the early settlements, and Nogle Ord fra Prædikestolen i Amerika og Norge (1851); Robert Grönberger, Svenskarne i St. Croix-Dalen, Minnesota (1879), an early and reliable piece of work; George Kæding, Rockfords Svenskar – Historiska Anteckningar (1885); Knud Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika – Nogle Optegnelser om de Norskes Udvandring til Amerika (1889), – one of the very best of the books on the Norwegians; C. F. Peterson (see also Eric Johnson), Sverige i Amerika – Kulturhistoriska och Biografiska Teckningar (1898); Johan Schroeder, Skandinaverne i de Forenede Stater og Canada, med Indberetninger og Oplysninger fra 200 Skandinaviske Settlementer (1867), – full of the most valuable information about life and conditions in the Northwest; Ole Rynning, Sandfærdig Beretning om Amerika til Oplysning og Nytte for Bonde og Menigmand (Christiania, 1838), – a remarkably clear, compact, and influential pamphlet; Carl Sundbeck, Svenskarna i Amerika, Deras Land, Antal, och Kolonien (Stockholm, 1900); Alfred Söderström, Minneapolis Minnen (1899), an excellent, extensive, newspaper-like description of the life and activities of the Scandinavians in that half-Norse city; Alfred Strömberg, Minnen af Minneapolis (1902); Underretning om Amerika, fornemmeligen de Stater hvori udvandrede Normænd have nedsat sig, … udgivne af X (Skien, 1843); M. Ulvestad, Normændene i Amerika, deres Historie og Record (1907); P. S. Vig, Danske i Amerika (1900); Johs. B. Wist, Den norske Indvandring til 1850, og Skandinaverne i Amerikas Politik (1884?), – a small but suggestive pamphlet.

On the Bishop Hill colony, the best authorities are: Michael A. Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, a religious communistic Settlement in Henry County, Illinois (Johns Hopkins University Studies, X, No. 1, 1892) – the most convenient work in English, based almost entirely on Norelius, and on Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, Johnson being a son of the founder, Eric Janson; Emil Herlenius, Erik-Jansismens Historia ett Bidrag till Kännedomen om det Svenska Sektväsendet (Jönköping, 1900); History of Henry County, Illinois (1877); Erick Jansismen i Nord Amerika (Gefle, 1845); Hiram Bigelow, The Bishop Hill Colony (No. 7 of the Publications of the Illinois State Historical Library, 1902); W. A. Hinds, American Communities (1902).

Articles in periodicals: R. B. Anderson, “Norwegian Immigration,” “The Coming of the Danes,” “Icelandic Immigration,” Chicago Record Herald (June 19, 26, July 24, Aug. 21, 1901); K. C. Babcock, “The Scandinavians in the Northwest,” Forum, XIV (1892), “The Scandinavian Contingent,” Atlantic, LXVII (1896), “The Scandinavian Element in American Population”, American Historical Review, XVI (1911); H. H. Boyesen, “Norse Americans,” The American, I (1880), “The Scandinavians in the United States,” North American Review, CLV (1892); G. T. Flam, “The Scandinavian Factor in the American Population,” Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III (1905), and (in Norwegian translation) in Vor Tid, I (1905); A. H. Hyde, “The Foreign Element in American Civilization,” Popular Science Mo., LII (1898); Luth Jæger, “The Scandinavian Element in the United States,” The North, June, 1889, – with many other similar discussions in the same weekly paper, all of them excellent; Kristofer Janson, “Norsemen in the United States,” Cosmopolitan, IX (1890); Axel Jarlson, “A Swedish Emigrant’s Story,” Independent, LV (1903); F. H. B. MacDowell, “The Newer Scandinavian – a Sketch of the Growth and Progress of the Scandinavian Races in America,” Scandinavia, III (1884); J. A. Ottesen, “Bidrag til vore Settlementers og Menigheders Historie,” Amerika (Apr. to Nov., 1894), – an elaborate series of articles, full of genealogical and community details; E. A. Ross, “Scandinavians in America,” Century, LXXXVIII (1914); Geo. T. Rygh, “The Scandinavian Americans,” The Literary Northwest, II (1893); Albert Shaw, “The Scandinavians in the United States,” Chautauquan, VIII (1887).

The number of historical books and pamphlets relating to the States, counties, cities, and settlements in the Northwest is very great, and for the larger part, unsatisfactory but indispensable. They have usually been written by ambitious but untrained persons, either as commercial ventures, advertising agencies, or as the pastime of retirement or old age; they are nevertheless full of suggestive data; now and then one is found which can be trusted throughout.

First in importance for the Scandinavian settlements in Minnesota are four county histories: History of Fillmore County, including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota (1882); History of Goodhue County (1882); History of Houston County, etc. (1882); Martin E. Tew and Victor E. Lawson and J. E. Nelson, Illustrated History and Description and Biographical Review of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota (1905), – easily the best local history relating to Scandinavian settlement, as well as one of the latest and most comprehensive. Closely connected with this last work in scope and value is Alfred Söderström, Minneapolis Minnen: Kulturhistorisk Axplockning från Qvarnstaden vid Mississippi (1899). Other works dealing with the State or sections: Isaac Atwater (editor), History of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota (1893); Fredk. W. Harrington, Geography, History, and Civil Government of Minnesota (1883); Soren Listoe, Staten Minnesota i Nord Amerika (1869); History of the Minnesota Valley (1882); History of the Upper Mississippi Valley (1882).

W. A. Gates, Alien and Non-resident Dependents in Minnesota (in Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Correction, (1899)); F. H. B. MacDowell, “Minneapolis and her Scandinavian Population”, Scandinavia, III (1884); Louis Pio, “The Sioux War, in 1862 – a Leaf from the History of Scandinavian Settlers in Minnesota”, Scandinavia, I (1883).

Of the State as a whole: J. W. Hunt, Wisconsin Gazetteer, containing the Names, Locations, and Advantages of the Counties, Cities, Towns, Villages, Postoffices, and Settlements (1853); Wm. R. Smith, The History of Wisconsin, in three Parts: Historical, Documentary, and Descriptive (1852); Alexander M. Thompson, A Political History of Wisconsin (1902); Charles R. Tuttle, An Illustrated History of the State of Wisconsin (1875); R. G. Thwaites, Preliminary Notes on the Distribution of Foreign Groups in Wisconsin (in Annual Reports of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1890); G. W. Peck (editor), Cyclopedia of Wisconsin, 2 vols. (1906).

For the localities: Spencer Carr, A Brief Sketch of La Crosse, Wisconsin (1854); Daniel S. Durrie, A History of Madison, the Capital of Wisconsin … with an Appendix of Notes on Dane County (1874); E. W. Keyes, History of Dane County, 3 vols. (1906); The History of Racine and Kenosha Counties (1879); The History of Rock County (1879); The History of Waukesha County (1880); H. L. Skavlem, “Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County, Wisconsin”, Normands-Forbundet (1909).

Charles A. Church, History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois, From its first Settlement in 1834 to the Civil War (1900); History of Henry County, Illinois (1877); The Past and Present of La Salle County (1877); John M. Palmer, The Bench and Bar of Illinois. Historical and Reminiscent (1899).

Eric Johnson (Janson) and C. F. Peterson, Scans-karne i Illinois Historiska Anteckningar (1880), is an early work of limited scope but judiciously written.

E. W. Olson (Editor with A. Schön and M. J. Engberg), History of the Swedes of Illinois, 2 vols. (1908), has some valuable chapters in the first volume, especially ch. IV on the Bishop Hill Colony, and the chapters dealing with Swedish churches; volume two is devoted to the usual illustrated biographies.

Charles R. Tuttle, An Illustrated History of the State of Iowa (1876); W. E. Alexander, History of Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties, Iowa (1882); Charles H. Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, with Biographical Sketches of its Eminent Men (1877); J. J. Louis, Shelby County; Charles H. Fletcher, The Centennial History of Jefferson County (1876); A Biographical Record of Boone County (1902); A. Jacobson, The Pioneer Norwegians (1905).

G. T. Flom, “The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa,” Iowa Jour. of Hist. and Politics, III (1905); “The Early Swedish Immigration to Iowa,” Ibid., III (1905), “The Danish Contingent in the Population of early Iowa,” Ibid., IV (1906), and “The Growth of the Scandinavian Factor in the Population of Iowa,” Ibid., IV (1906); B. L. Wick, “The Earliest Scandinavian Settlement in Iowa,” Iowa Historical Record, XVI (1900); F. A. Danborn, “Swede Point, or Madrid, Iowa”, Year-Book of the Swedish Historical Society of America, 1911-1913.

North Dakota: H. V. Arnold, History of Grand Forks County … including an Historical Outline of the Red River Valley (1900); T. Haggerty, The Territory of Dakota (1889); Compendium of the History and Biography of North Dakota (1900).

Nebraska: History of the State of Nebraska (1882).

Kansas: John A. Martin, Addresses (“The Swedes in Kansas”) (1888).

Utah: H. H. Bancroft, Utah, 1540-1886 (in History of the Pacific Coast States of North America, vol. XXI, 1889).

New York: Arad Thomas, Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York (1871); G. J. Mason, “The Foreign Element in New York City,” Harper’s Weekly (Sept., 1888); S. Folkestad, “Norske i Brooklyn-New York”, Symra (1908).

Good accounts of conditions in the European kingdoms, as those conditions were related to emigration at different periods, are: Samuel Laing, A Tour of Sweden in 1838: comprising Observations on the Moral, Political and Economic State of the Swedish Nation (London 1839), and Journal of a Residence in Norway during the Years 1834, 1835 and 1836 (2nd ed., 1837); Charles Loring Brace, The Norsk Folk; or a Visit to the Homes of Norway and Sweden (1857); Mrs. Woods Baker, Pictures of Swedish Life, or Svea and her Children (1894); J. F. Hanson, Light and Shade from the Land of the Midnight Sun (1903).