The Scandinavian Element in the United States

307

Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 96-112.

308

“Den skandinaviske tidnings-pressens barndom i Amerika,” Hemlandet, Feb. 25, March 4, 1913; Hansen and Wist, “Den Norsk-Amerikanske Presse”. Norsk-Amerikanernes Festskrift, 1914. 9-203.

309

Rowell, American Newspaper Directory, 1870, 948.

310

Ibid., 633.

311

The North, Aug. 9, 1893, reports six weeklies “suspended within the past few weeks.”

312

Rowell, American Newspaper Directory for years named; Hemlandet, Mar. 4, 1903: “De svenska tidningarne i Amerika har nu sammenlagt en prenumerantsiffra som uppgår till 400,000.”

313

Lenker, Lutherans in all Lands, 771.

314

Madison Democrat, Oct. 6, 1898.

315

Skandinaven, May 3, May 31, 1893.

316

Ibid., Jan. 27-April 30, 1904; Dannevirke, March 30, 1904.

317

Svenska Amerikanska Posten, Feb. 17, June 30, 1903.

318

Hemlandet, Feb. 25 (quoting from Nya Dagligt Allehanda of Stockholm for Feb. 7), July 15, Aug. 19, 1903.

319

Bremer, Homes of the New World, II, 222, 227, 236; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 372, 380, 384, 404, 423, 429, 438, 504, 530.

320

U. S. Tenth Census, 1880, I, 676.

321

U. S. Twelfth Census Reports, 1900, I, Population, Pt. 1, CXCIII, and Tables 43, 46, 56.

322

U. S. Consular Reports (1887) No. 76, 148; Young, Labor in Europe and America, 681.

323

Special Reports, Bureau of the Census, “Supplementary Analysis and Derivative Tables” (1906), 32-33.

324

Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, Iowa, 110; History of Fillmore County (Minnesota), 377 ff., 434 ff.

325

J. O. Ottesen, “Bidrag til vore Settlementers og Menigheders Historie,” Amerika, April-September, 1894, especially July 4.

326

These biographies are numerous in the many county histories which appeared between 1880 and 1890 as the work of a syndicate of publishers; they are also the staple of the latter half of such works as Johnson and Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, and Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, and II. All the Scandinavian newspapers print many similar sketches, biographical, autobiographical, and obituary.

327

U. S. Consular Reports (1887), No. 76, 151; Young, Labor in Europe, 689. C. C. Andrews, U. S. Minister to Sweden, 1873, states: “The proportion of illegitimate births, including the whole kingdom was 5.85 %, but including only cities, the proportion of illegitimates was 14.32 %.”

328

Statesman’s Year Book, 1900, 1048.

329

Ibid., 1062; Folkebladet, Feb. 5, 1896.

330

A discussion of these statistics for 1885-1890 is given in The Forum, XIV, 103. The reports of the superintendents of some of the institutions give more or less of the history of each case. See Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, 1-23.

331

Special Reports, Bureau of the Census, 1904, “Insane and Feebleminded in Hospitals and Institutions,” 20.

332

Hall, Immigration, 166.

333

Special Reports, Bureau of the Census, “Insane and Feebleminded,” 21.

334

Minnesota Executive Documents, 1900– statistics for the insane for 1890, 1896, and 1900; The North, Dec. 18, 1889; Wisconsin State Board of Control [biennial], 1890 to 1902.

335

Special Reports, Bureau of the Census, 1904, “Insane, etc., in Hospitals,” 21. Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, ch. i, makes a conscientious, but rather lame, attempt at analyzing available statistics of insanity, and gives his conclusions for two periods, 1881-2 and 1890-4: ratio of insane in total population, 1:2718 and 1:1719; in American-born, 1:4120 and 1:3009; in foreign-born, 1:1480 and 1:1144; in Irish, 1:1061 and 1:769; in German, 1:1461 and 1:1439; in Scandinavian, 1:1588 and 1:819.

336

Gronvald, “The Effects of the Immigration on the Norwegian Immigrants,” Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Minnesota, 520.

337

For an interesting background for this discussion, see Grellet, Memoirs, I, 324. He wrote in 1818 of a parish named Stavanger, having a population of some 7,000: “We visited their prison and their schools; the former kept by an old woman. She had but one prisoner in it, and had so much confidence in him that the door of his cell was kept open.”

338

Minnesota Executive Documents, biennial reports of State Prisons for the years mentioned.

339

U. S. Twelfth Census, I, Population, Pt. I, Tables 25, 38, 40.

340

Reports of the Wisconsin State Board of Control for the years mentioned.

341

Minnesota Executive Documents, Reports of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, especially for 1884, 1890, 1896; The North, Dec. 18, 1889. Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, II, ch. i, tabulates his estimates of criminality as he does those of insanity; for the years 1880-1822 and 1892-1894:

342

Statistics for foreign-born in 1890:

343

In 1850 the total of foreign-born Scandinavians was 12,678, of whom 3,559 were Swedes. In 1860 the corresponding figures were 43,995 and 18,625. In 1880 the Swedes numbered 194,337, and the Norwegians, 181,729. United States Census Reports for the years 1850, 1860, 1880.

344

Christiana got its name through the carelessness of Gunnul Vindæg, who desired to name the town after the Norwegian capital, but omitted the “i” in the last syllable. Billed Magazin, I, 388.

345

Mattson, Story of an Emigrant, 50-51; History of Goodhue County, Minnesota, 248.

346

History of Fillmore County, Minnesota, 346, 378.

347

History of the Minnesota Valley, 688, 690, 693.

348

Ibid., 688.

349

Ibid., 790, 837; History of the Upper Mississippi Valley, 572.

350

Amerika, May 20, 1901.

351

“The Norwegians of Wisconsin”, Phillips Times (Wis.), April 22, 1905.

352

The nearest postoffice to the early settlers in Fillmore County, Minnesota, was twenty miles away at Decorah, Iowa. History of Fillmore County, Minnesota, 429.

353

From the list transcribed from the books of the Appointment Office of the Post Office Department, Dec., 1856. Andrews, Minnesota and Dakota, 191.

354

Mattson, The Story of An Emigrant, 50.

355

Mattson, The Story of an Emigrant, 62.

356

Personal interview with Mr. Aaker, May, 1890. He was school teacher, in English, and school district clerk in Wisconsin before moving to Iowa and Minnesota. See also Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1893, 89-92; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 365.

357

By these changes Johanson became Johnson; Hanson, Jackson; Fjeld, Field; Larson, Lawson (as Victor F. Lawson, the great newspaper owner of Chicago). By taking the homestead name, the too common name of Olson was changed to Tuve in one case, while Adolf Olson became Adolf Olson Bjelland in another.

358

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1893, 341-366 (naming 16 officers for most counties); Wisconsin Blue Book, 1895, 630 (naming 10); North Dakota Legislative Manual, 1895; Basford, South Dakota Handbook and Official and Legislative Manual, 1894, 16-120.

359

Amerika, Nov. 18, 1904.

360

Journal of the Second Convention, 18; Tenney, Fathers of Wisconsin, 249; Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 94-96; Wisconsin Blue Book, (1895), 141, 173.

361

Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 96.

362

Ibid., 95.

363

Journal of the Second Convention, 31, 129.

364

Ibid., 422, 638; Poore, Charters and Constitutions (2nd ed.), 2037.

365

Wisconsin Blue Book, 1895, 136 ff; Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1893, 87-92; History of the Upper Mississippi Valley, 573; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 390.

366

Wisconsin Blue Book, 1895, 136 ff. For the more recent legislatures it is possible to be fairly exact in these data, since the blue books and manuals give biographical sketches.

367

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1895, 573 ff.

368

Wisconsin Blue Books, 1895, 66; 1901, 733 ff; 1903, 740 ff.

369

Minnesota Legislative Manuals for 1893, 1899, 1905.

370

Legislative Manual of North Dakota, 1895, 18; North Dakota Senate Journal, 1901, 1; North Dakota House Journal, 1901, 1.

371

Amerika, Nov. 18, 1904.

372

Basford, Political Handbook (South Dakota), 149-197; Senate Journal and House Journal, 1897, 1903; Amerika, Nov. 18, 1904.

373

Mattson, The Story of an Emigrant, 115; Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1905, 99.

374

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1905, 99; North Dakota Legislative Manual, 1895, 66; South Dakota Legislative Manual, 1894, 130, 134.

375

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1905, 99, 627.

376

Ibid., 99-106, 627-637; Wisconsin Blue Book, 1895, 662 ff; South Dakota Political Handbook, 1894, 130 ff; The Viking, I, 3 (1906).

377

Stenholt, Knute Nelson, 68-78; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 451; Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1893, 549.

378

Svenska Amerikanska Posten, Nov. 22, 1898; World Almanac, 1899; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 432.

379

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1905, 506, 520. In this election of 1904, P. E. Hanson, a Swedish immigrant of 1857, was elected on the Republican ticket as Secretary of State by a plurality of more than 96,000.

380

World Almanac, 1907, 487.

381

Ibid., 1909, 639.

382

Ibid., 1911, 673; 1913, 741; Who’s Who in America, 1914-15.

383

Wisconsin Blue Book (1903), 1070; World Almanac, 1907, 513.

384

Minnesota Legislative Manual (1895), 325-6, 648; Congressional Directory, May, 1914.

385

Wisconsin Bluebook (1895), 191-2; Congressional Directories, 1887 to 1914, which contain brief biographies of Representatives and Senators. Other Representatives for briefer terms than those mentioned above are: from Minnesota, Kittle Halvorson (Norwegian), 1891 to 1895; Halvor E. Boen (Norwegian), 1893 to 1895; Charles A. Lindbergh (Swede), since 1906; from Wisconsin, H. B. Dahle (Norwegian), 1899 to 1901; John M. Nelson (Norwegian), since 1906; and Irvine L. Lenroot (born of Swedish parents in Wisconsin), since 1909; from North Dakota, Henry T. Helgesen (Norwegian, born in Iowa), since 1911; and from Utah, Jacob Johnson (the only Dane who has sat in the House), since 1913.

386

Who’s Who in America, 1914-5.

387

Ibid.; Anderson, Norwegian Immigration, quoting from the Madison Democrat.

388

Mattson, The Story of an Emigrant, 143-145.

389

Congressional Directory, 1897, 1907, 1914; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 435, 480, 503; II, 195.

390

Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, 389.

391

Du Bois, Suppression of the African Slave-Trade, 90 n 5, 131, 143 n 1.

392

Baker, History of the Elective Franchise in Wisconsin, 9; including a reference to the Wisconsin Banner, Oct. 17, 1846.

393

Journal of the Second Convention, 511, 584.

394

Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 96.

395

Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 98: “Den förste Indvandrer-befolkning hovedsagelig bestod af Folk fra Landsbygderne, som for en stor Del ikke var vant til at læse andet end Deres Religionsböger, og mange af dem ansaa det endog for en Synd at læse politiske Blade.”

396

Ibid., 98.

397

Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, xii; Mattson, The Story of an Emigrant, 56; Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 305, 310.

398

Langeland, Nordmændene i Amerika, 110.

399

Peterson, Svenskarne i Illinois, part II.

400

Ibid., 353; “Medlem i de ‘moralska ideernas’ politska parti – det republikanska.”

401

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1893, 482:

402

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1889, 397; 1893, 472.

403

Mr. J. J. Skordalsvold in The North, Aug. 10, 1892.

404

The ticket in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, in this year, 1892, is an interesting illustration of “recognition” of the power of the recent deserters. The Scandinavians had:

Minneapolis Journal, Nov. 3, 1892.

405

Letter of Thomas Thorson, Secretary of State of South Dakota, April 9, 1906.

406

Letter of C. M. Dahl, Secretary of State of North Dakota, March 24, 1896.

407

Letter of E. Winterer, Valley City, March 21, 1896, and of Siver Serumgard, March 24, 1896.

408

Rowell, American Newspaper Directory for 1896, 1901, 1906; Cosmopolitan, Oct., 1890, 689.

409

Interview in 1890 with the editor of Norden, Mr. P. O. Strömme. He said that the change was an excellent move for the paper.

410

Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1889, 432-445.

411

G. T. Rygh, “The Scandinavian American,” Literary Northwest, Feb., 1893. He estimated the total number of papers at “about 125.”

412

Laws of Wisconsin, 1889, ch. 519.

413

The Bennett Law Analyzed, a campaign pamphlet issued by the Republicans in 1890, in English, German, Polish, and Norwegian, had for its heading a picture of a district school house labelled “The Little School House,” and underneath, “Stand by It.”

414

See F. W. A. Notz, “Parochial School System” in Stearns (editor), The Columbian History of Education in Wisconsin (1893).

415

The North, Apr. 30, May 7, 14, 21, 28, June 4, 25, July 2, 1890.

416

Public Opinion, IX, no. 1, Apr. 12, 1890.

417

Laws of Wisconsin, 1891, chaps. 4, 187.

418

Wisconsin Bluebook (1895), 342-342, 347.

419

Laws of Illinois, 1889, Act of May 24.

420

America, V. 201 (Nov. 20, 1890). See also editorial in the same volume, 172-174 (Nov. 13, 1890).

421

Laws of Illinois, 1893, Acts of February 17 and June 19, 1893.

422

The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota, 1894, secs. 3908-3909 (Laws of 1883, Chap. 140.)

423

Nelson, Scandinavians in the United States (1st ed.), I, 541-542.

424

Revised Codes of North Dakota, 1895, sec. 887 (Laws of 1891, chap. 60).

425

Letter of Siver Serumgard, City Attorney of Devil’s Lake, N. D., March 24, 1896, and various other letters.

426

Minneapolis Journal, Jan. 16, 1891. In Dakota “the reform was asked for more earnestly by the Scandinavian element than by any others.” Ralph, Our Great West, 152.

427

The ticket voted in Minneapolis in 1893, illustrates this tendency. Among the Prohibitionist nominees were two Scandinavian presidential electors, the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, county treasurer, one candidate for the legislature, and one for the city council!

428

Legislative Manual of North Dakota, 1889-1890, 170, compared with the population tables of the census of 1890; Ralph, Our Great West, 152.

429

Ibid., 1895, 19-20; Minneapolis Sunday Times, Feb. 10, 1895.

430

Letter from C. M. Dahl, March 24, 1896.

431

Editorial in Superior Tidende (Wisconsin), Feb. 2, 1898. See also Vikingen, Aug. 18, 1888.

432

P. O. Strömme in Amerika og Norden, Feb. 2, 1898.

433

Fædrelandet og Emigranten, July 10, 1870. See also an editorial in The North, June 12, 1889, regretting that the question of national proportions and groups should be raised “but the principle having been recognized, we consider it our plain duty to see that it is fairly and squarely enforced.”

434

The North, July 10, 1889.

435

The North, July 10, 1889, including translations from Posten og Vesten of Fargo.

436

Ibid., letter of Sigurd Syr.

437

Ibid., Aug. 28, 1889. After the fall election the same paper, October 9, announced: “The Scandinavian Union thus seems barren of results… Peace be with its ashes!” – because it secured only 5 senators and 18 representatives in the State legislature.

438

Skandinaven, April 5, 1893.

439

The North, Jan. 22, 1890, quoting in translation from Fædrelandet og Emigranten.

440

The North, July 17, 1889.

441

Translated from Svenska Folkets Tidning (Minneapolis), April 20, 1890.

442

Boyeson, “The Scandinavians in the United States,” North American Review, CLV, 531; Rockford Register (Ill.), Sept. 16, 1889.

443

The North, Aug. 14, 1889, translating from Skandinavia (Worcester, Mass.)

444

Billed Magazin, I, 139 (1869); Skandinaven, Feb. 5, 1896 – an editorial printed, like many others, in English and evidently designed for the consumption of editors of English papers. It is also evident that Skandinaven’s readers understood English. Söderström, Minneapolis Minnen, 132, gives a fairly complete list of all the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes elected or appointed to city, state or county office, even including policemen. For similar list for a rural county, see Tew, Illustrated History and Descriptive and Biographical Review of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota (1905).