The Scandinavian Element in the United States
5
Argonautica Gustaviana, 3, 16.
6
Mattson, Souvenir of the 250th Anniversary of the First Swedish Settlement in America (1888), 44.
7
This letter, printed as a broadside in England about 1683, was furnished me by Mr. George Parker Winship of the Carter Brown Library of Providence, Rhode Island.
8
Janney, Life of William Penn, 246-247.
9
Fædrelandet og Emigranten, May 12, 1870: “Skulle vi Norske lade de Danske fremture i at kalde os Skandinaver?”
10
“Skandinavien, mine Herrer, tör jeg spörge, hvor det Land ligger? Det findes ikke i min Geografi; ligger det maaske i Maanen?” Ole Bull, Fædrelandet og Emigranten, May 12, 1870.
11
The North, June 12, 1889.
12
N. S. Shaler, “European Peasants as Immigrants,” Atlantic, LXXI, 649.
13
N. P. Haugen comments on the good and bad features of this tendency in his Norway Day speech at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Skandinaven, May 24, 1893.
14
Borchner, Danish Life in Town and Country, 3-6; Bille, History of the Danes in America, 1, 7, 8.
15
Statesman’s Year-Book, 1914, 1141 ff.
16
In 1880, 20 % lived in towns; in 1890, 23.7 % lived in towns, and 76.3 % in the rural districts. Norway (English edition of the official volume prepared for the Paris Exhibition of 1900), 90.
17
Wm. Archer, “Norway Today,” Fortnightly Rev., XLIV, 415.
18
Statesman’s Year-Book, 1914, 1316. The increase of urban population was five times the increase of the kingdom.
19
Statesman’s Year-Book, 1914, 789 ff.
20
The New York Evening Post, Oct. 10, 1825.
21
The New York Daily Advertiser, Oct. 12, 1825.
22
Interview with Capt. O. C. Lange (who reached America in 1824) in Chicago, 1890; Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 1.
23
Niles’ Register, XXIX., 115. Several extended quotations from newspapers in New York, Boston, and Baltimore, for the month of October, 1825, relating to this company of the sloop “Restoration”, indicating the interest created by its coming, are printed in Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 69-76.
24
Grellet, Memoirs, I, 321 ff.
25
Richardson, Rise and Progress of the Society of Friends in Norway, 37.
26
Ibid., 23.
27
R. B. Anderson, “En Liden Indledning” in the series of articles “Bidrag til vore Settlementers og Menigheders Historie,” Amerika, April 4, 1894. Bothne, Kort Udsigt over det Lutherske Kirkearbeide bladnt Normændene i Amerika, 822.
28
O. N. Nelson, “Bemerkning til Prof. Andersons Indledning”, Amerika, May 2, 1894.
29
Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 134 B-C.
30
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 11.
31
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.
32
J. B. Wist, Den Norske Invandring til 1850, published about 1890, ventures to question seriously whether such a company ever came to the United States! 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.
33
Statutes of the United States, 1819, Act of March 2.
34
“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.
35
Ibid., I, 155.
36
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 15.
37
Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads (No. 23, Fergus Hist. Ser.), 19, quoting an editorial from the Sangamo Journal, Oct. 31, 1835: “We rejoice to witness the spirit of internal improvement now manifesting itself in every part of Illinois.”
38
Martineau, Society in America, I, 247, 259, 336.
39
“I have complete evidence that he visited La Salle County, Illinois, as early as 1833.” Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 172.
40
Ibid., 174, 176 ff.
41
Billed Magazin, I, 83.
42
Translated from Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 16n. This writer summarizes a letter of which he saw a copy as a young man in Norway.
43
Ibid.; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 147.
44
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 133.
45
Billed Magazin, I, 18-19. Of the year 1836, one writer asserts: “En Daler ei gjældt mere end to norske Skilling,” and that many lost all their property.
46
In Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 133-135, is a translation of a letter written in Hellen in Norway, May 14, 1836: “If good reports come from them (certain emigrants about to sail) the number of emigrants 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.”
47
Billed Magazin, I, 6 ff.
48
Ibid., I, 83.
49
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 148.
50
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 18; Billed Magazin, I, 83. Langeland writes: “Tre af Nedskriverens Paarörende, som reiste fra Bergen i 1837, var blandt dem, som i Vinteren 1836 besögte ham, og kom hjem fulde af Amerikafeber.”
51
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 18; Billed Magazin, I, 83, 150 (Nattestad’s account).
52
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 157 ff; Madison Democrat (Wis.), Nov. 8, 1885.
53
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 155.
54
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 22. He naïvely remarks that the Scandinavians have preferred to follow that other text: “Be fruitful … replenish the earth.”
55
Billed Magazin, I, 123-124.
56
Interview with the late Rev. O. C. Hjort of Chicago, July, 1890, whose party spent five months on the sea.
57
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 25 – “saavidt nu erindres.”
58
Billed Magazin, I, 9, 94.
59
Ibid., I, 388.
60
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 20-21. See Cobbett, The Emigrant’s Guide (London, 1829), a typical English guide book of the period.
61
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 25 ff.
62
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 30 ff; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 195 ff.
63
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 203-205; Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 31. Much information regarding Rynning was derived from the Rev. B. J. Muus, of Minnesota, a nephew of Rynning.
64
Sandfærdig Beretning om Amerika til Veiledning og Hjælp for Bonde og Menigmand, skrevet af en Norsk som kom der i Juni Maaned, 1837.
65
Billed Magazin, I, 94.
66
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.
67
Rynning, Sandfærdig Beretning, 23, 24. Translated in Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 214-215.
68
Billed Magazin, I, 94.
69
Letters of R. B. Anderson and J. A. Johnson, Daily Skandinaven, Feb. 7, 1896.
70
Brohough, Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed, 10-11, 20-21, 30-36.
71
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 50.
72
Billed Magazin, I, 94.
73
Translated from Billed Magazin, I, 18 ff.
74
Ibid., 6-7.
75
A shipping notice in the Boston Daily Advertiser, Aug. 1, 1839 reads: “Passengers, – in the “Venice” from Gothenburg, 67 Norwegians on their way to Illinois.”
76
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.
77
Billed Magazin, I, 10.
78
Ibid., I, 12.
79
Ibid., I, 18.
80
Ibid., I, 12.
81
Ibid.; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 280 ff.
82
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 44; Billed Magazin, I, 13.
83
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.
84
M. W. Odland, Amerika, Jan. 15, 1904.
85
Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 44-45; Billed Magazin, I, 13.
86
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.
87
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 276.
88
A letter of John E. Molee, February, 1895, quoted by Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 320. (See also, ibid., 396-399.)
89
Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, 255.
90
Nelson, Scandinavians in the United States, (2d ed.) 387 ff.
91
Bothne, Kort Udsigt, 835 ff.
92
Jacobs, Evangelical Lutheran Church, 411.
93
Bothne, Kort Udsigt, 835; Jensson, American Lutheran Biographies, “Clausen.”
94
Brohough, Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed, ch. II, and App.
95
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 services in the loft, with the possibility of the formation of a congregation. Eielsen’s biographer makes no mention of his organization of a regular congregation. Brohough, Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed, 61.
96
Minde fra Jubelfesterne paa Koshkonong (1894), 54 ff; Bothne, Kort Udsigt, 839-842.
97
Dietrichson, Reise blandt de norske Emigranter, 45 ff; Minde fra Jubelfesterne paa Koshkonong.
98
Nordlyset, Sept. 9, 1847.
99
Dietrichson, Reise blandt de norske Emigranter, 57-67. Some of the church records are printed in The Milwaukee Sentinel, July 21, 1895.
100
The following year he published a second book, Nogle Ord fra Prædikestolen i Amerika.
101
Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, IV, 488.
102
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!
103
Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 23-26.
104
Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 26.
105
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.
106
Unonius, Minnen, I, 5 ff; History of Waukesha County, Wis., 748.
107
“and a large proportion of criminals,” Nelson, Scandinavians in the United States, II, 117.
108
History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, 749.
109
Bremer, Homes of the New World, II, 214-217. Miss Bremer relates 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.”
110
Ibid., 225-235.
111
Ibid., 225; Unonius, Minnen, II, 6 ff.
112
Bremer, Homes of the New World, II, 214.
113
Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 27.
114
G. T. Flom, “Early Swedish Immigration to Iowa,” Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III, 601 ff. (Oct., 1905); Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 27.
115
Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 21.
116
Ibid., 24-26; Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 286.
117
Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 21, 23-26.
118
The history of this Swedish settlement, with its numerous peculiarities, 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.
119
Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 19 ff.
120
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 Mikkelsen from Cateches, of Eric Janson (Söderhamn, 1846), 80.
121
Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 22; Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 63.
122
Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 24.
123
Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 26; History of Henry County, Illinois.
124
Swainson in Scandinavia, Jan., 1885.
125
Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 28.
126
Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 28.
127
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.
128
Swainson puts the number of seceders at 250, and asserts that they were drawn off by Jonas Hedström, the Methodist. Scandinavia, Jan. 1885. Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 33, 35, 37.
129
Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 335.
130
Ibid., 39.
131
Act of January 17, 1853. The Charter and Bylaws are reprinted in Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 73 ff. (App.).
132
Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 44 ff.
133
Mikkelsen, The Bishop Hill Colony, 71.
134
Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 49-52.
135
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.
136
Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 30-38.
137
Norelius, Svenskarnes Historia, 34.
138
See the tables in Appendix.
139
Bille, History of the Danes in America, 8 n2, summarizing H. Weitemeyer, Denmark, 100.
140
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.
141
Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, 49.
142
Bille, History of the Danes in Amerika, 18.
143
Bille, History of the Danes in America, 18n. The appropriation was $840 per year.
144
Ibid., 21; Kirkelig Samler, 1878, 320.
145
Bille, History of the Danes in America, 16.
146
Bille, History of the Danes in America, 15; Estrem, “Historical Review of Luther College,” in Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, 24.
147
After 1850 the book of Frederika Bremer, 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.
148
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.
149
Sundbärg, Sweden (English Translation), 132; Sundbärg, Bidrag till Utvandringsfrågan från Befolkningsstatistisk Synpunkt, 34 ff.
150
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), 110.
151
United States Statutes at Large (1861-2), 392 ff.
152
Young, Labor in Europe and America, 676, – quoting and summarizing from a report to the Secretary of State by C. C. Andrews, United States Minister to Sweden, Sept. 24, 1873.
153
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.
154
For Denmark, the increase has been about 1 % per year since 1870; Sweden shows a slightly smaller increase, falling as low as ¼% in 1890; Norway has a still smaller average increase than Sweden, estimated by Norwegian authority “1865-1890,65 %”. The same writer adds: “The 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 Year-Book, 1900, 491, 1047, 1050.
155
Supplementary Analysis of 12th Census, 31-33.
156
These figures are drawn from the tables in the Census Reports, 1910, Population, I, 875 ff. The statistics generally deal only with white persons, thus excluding blacks and mulattoes of the Danish West Indies.
157
See chapters VIII-X.
158
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, III, 52.
159
For the tables illustrating this discussion, see Appendix.
160
Gronberger, Svenskarne i St. Croixdalen, 3 ff.
161
Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, Iowa, III.
162
See Appendix I.
163
Svenska Folkets Tidning, Jan. 1, 1896, estimated the totals as follows: Swedes, 100,000, Norwegians, 62,000, and Danes, 35,000!
164
Kæding, Rockfords Svenskar, 27, 35.
165
Census Reports, 1900, Population, I, Tables 33 and 35.
166
These are of course enumerated as Danes. Pembina County, in the extreme northeast corner of North Dakota had in 1900 1588 Danes (Icelanders). The movement from Iceland began about 1870. See R. B. Anderson in Chicago Record Herald, Aug. 21, 1901.
167
G. T. Flom, “The Scandinavian Factor in the American Population”, Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III, 88.
168
Statistical Atlas of the Twelfth Census, Plates 69, 71, 73, 76; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, III, 76.
169
Mattson, Story of an Emigrant, 60, 94. Here is printed, in translation from Hemlandet, a stirring appeal “To the Scandinavians of Minnesota!;” Fædrelandet og Emigranten, September 29, 1870.
170
Osborn, “Personal Memories of Brig. Gen. C. J. Stolbrand”, Year-Book of the Swedish Historical Society of America, 1909-10, 5-16.
171
Dietrichson, Det Femtende Wisconsin Regiments Historie, 26.