Story originally printed in the Westby Times or online at www.westbytimes.com
Published - Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Reflections of the Times
published in 1928
The first group of Norwegian immigrants came to America in 1825. They settled in the northwestern corner of the state of New York, where they lived for many years in great poverty. They did not seem to exert any noteworthy influence on further immigration to American. It was not until ten years later when Cleng Peerson and Knut Andersen Slogvik visited Norway that anybody had any idea of leaving Norway and moving to America. These two men must have traveled widely in western Norway and given laudatory reports of America, for immediately following began a large flow of immigrants.
In 1836 and 1837, there were no less than four ships which sailed from Stavanger and Bergen with about 350 immigrants aboard. Since this time a steady stream of immigrants has left Norway continuing to the present period.
In the first years there were mostly people from the western part of Norway who left for America. There was very little communication between the scattered rural communities in Norway, which lay far apart from one another with high mountains between them. The newspapers did not have much say about those who left their land, but after a few years the news about the free, beautiful and fruitful land in America spread over the mountains to eastern Norway. Here and there in the large valleys there were people with a desire for adventure and emigration who were brave enough to leave. They broke from a patterned way of life unchanged over several centuries, packed their belongings, and sailed for America.
One of the first to leave from eastern Norway was Gulbrand Gunderson Skaret and his family from Sigdal. They left Norway in 1841 and had a son by the name of Helge Gulbrandson who became the first white settler in Coon Valley. The father, Gulbrand Gunderson, was, however, not very successful in America. He settled in Muskego, which at that time was an untamed wilderness and a very unhealthy place. After ten years of hard work clearing the land both Gulbrand and his wife died of the horrible Asiatic cholera. In the meantime, a man by the name of Per Snedherhaugen had settled in Muskego and was one of Gulbrand Gunderson’s closest neighbors. He came there in 1847 and was one of the first to emigrate from Biri. He had a daughter by the name of Agnette, and in a short time Agnette and Helge became very good friends and were married in 1849. Since Muskego did not have much to offer to bold and energetic young person, Helge and Agnette left there the summer of 1849. All they owned was piled in a wagon pulled by two oxen and there was still plenty room for they did not own much. Their belongings consisted of a few tools, a gun, some sacks of oats, wheat and barley, very few household articles, and a couple of bundles of some keepsakes from the past plus some cows. With these meager possessions they boldly traveled into the wilderness to create a new home. At night they slept under the wagon while the oxen grazed in a nearby clearing. Day after day they continued westward without any idea where they would stop. Then they reached Koshkonong in Dane County they heard that several people were journeying to a new unknown place far to the West which was called Coon Prairie. Helge and Agnette joined this group, and after a trip lasting a couple of weeks the party arrived at Coon Prairie.
Continued next week
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