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diff --git a/43939-0.txt b/43939-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4739b22 --- /dev/null +++ b/43939-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8798 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43939 *** + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/scandinavianelem33babc + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Small capitals in the original work are represented here + in all capitals. + + Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to directly + below the paragraph to which they belong. + + Some tables may not line up vertically. + + + + + +University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences +Vol. 111. No. 3 September, 1914 + +THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES + +by + +KENDRIC CHARLES BABCOCK, Ph. D. + +Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the University of +Illinois + +Sometime Fellow in the University of Minnesota and in Harvard +University + + + + + + + +PRICE $1.00 + +Published by the University of Illinois +Urbana + +Copyright, 1914 +By the University of Illinois + + + + + TO + HARRY PRATT JUDSON, KNUTE NELSON, + NICOLAY A. GREVSTAD, AND ALBERT BUSHNELL HART + IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF + UNFAILING ASSISTANCE, ENCOURAGEMENT, + AND FAITHFUL CRITICISM + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + Introduction--General discussion 7-14 + + CHAPTER II + Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes 15-21 + + CHAPTER III + Early Norwegian Immigration 22-34 + + CHAPTER IV + The Rising Stream of Norwegian Immigration 35-49 + + CHAPTER V + Swedish Immigration before 1850 50-61 + + CHAPTER VI + The Danish Immigration 62-65 + + CHAPTER VII + A Half Century of Expansion and Distribution, 1850-1900 66-78 + + CHAPTER VIII + Economic Forces at Work 79-105 + + CHAPTER IX + The Religious and Intellectual Standpoint 106-129 + + CHAPTER X + Social Relations and Characteristics 130-139 + + CHAPTER XI + The Scandinavian in Local and State Politics 140-156 + + CHAPTER XII + Party Preferences and Political Leadership 157-178 + + CHAPTER XIII + Conclusion 179-182 + + CHAPTER XIV + Critical Essay on Materials and Authorities 183-204 + + APPENDIX I + Statistical Tables of Population 206-216 + + APPENDIX II + Statistics of Three Minnesota Counties 217 + + INDEX 219-223 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The history of the United States, according to newer views which have +largely supplanted, or progressed beyond, those of the New England +school of great historians, is the history of the march of a +civilization, chiefly English, across the vast North American continent, +within the short period of three hundred years. It is the story of the +transformation of a wide-stretching wilderness--of an ever-advancing +frontier--into great cities, diversified industries, varying social +interests, and an intensely complex life. Wave upon wave of races of +mankind has flowed over the developing and enlarging West, and each has +left its impress on that area. Across the trail of the Indian and the +trapper, the highway of the pioneer on his westward journey, have spread +the tilled fields of the farmer, or along it has run the railroad. The +farm has become a town-site and then a manufacturing city; the trading +post at St. Paul and the village by the Falls of St. Anthony have +expanded into the Twin Cities of the Northwest; the marshy prairie by +the side of Lake Michigan, where the Indians fought around old Fort +Dearborn, has come to be one of the world's mighty centers of urban +population--and all this transformation within the memory of men now +living. + +The progress of this rapid, titanic evolution of an empire was greatly +accelerated by the desires, the strength, and the energy of multitudes +of immigrants from Europe; and in at least six great commonwealths of +the Northwest the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes have been among the +chief contributors to State-building. During the eighty years ending in +June, 1906, among the 24,000,000 immigrants who came to the United +States, the Scandinavians numbered more than 1,700,000. Whether viewed +as emigrations on the eastern shores of the Atlantic, or as immigrations +on the western shores, these modern _Völkerwanderungen_ constitute one +of the wonders of the social world, in comparison with which most of the +other migrations in history are numerically insignificant. The +Israelites marching out of Egypt were but a mass of released bond-men; +the invasions of the Goths, Vandals, and Huns were conquering +expeditions, full of boisterous, thoughtless, unforecasting energy. Even +the immigration from Europe to America in the whole of the seventeenth +century scarcely equalled in number the columns which moved westward in +any one year from 1880 to 1890. + +In this flux of humanity, mobile almost to fluidity, various in promise +of utility, shifting in proportions of the good and bad, of pauper, +refugee, and fanatic, or "bird of passage", sweatshop man, and +home-builder, there has been such an interplay of subtle and vast forces +that no just and final appreciation can as yet be reached. But some sort +of tentative conclusions may be arrived at by intensive study of each +immigrant group, following it through years and generations, searching +for its ramifications in the body politic and social. + +The student of this phase of American history must attempt the +scientific method, and exercise the patience, of the student of physical +nature. No geologist, for example, would think for a moment of +generalizing as to the history and the future of a continent of +complicated structure after a few examinations here and there of +cross-sections of its strata. He must know from thoro-going observation +the trend, thickness, and composition of each stratum; he must trace, if +possible, the sources of the material which he finds metamorphosed; he +must be familiar with the physical and the chemical forces at work in +and on this material,--heat, pressure, movement, affinities, gases, +water, wind, and sun. In like manner, the student of immigration as a +whole, or of a section as large as that of the Scandinavians or +Italians, must make careful discriminations as to previous conditions +and influences, and also must notice carefully the differentiation of +peoples, places, and times. + +Too much stress, however, should never be laid on the character of any +one group of immigrants, lest it warp the judgment upon the immigration +movement as a factor in American progress. The ardent political reformer +in New York City, seeing the political activity of the Irish, and the +easy, fraudulent enfranchisement of newly-arrived aliens, cries in a +loud voice for restriction or prohibition of immigration. The California +labor agitator, feeling chiefly the effect of Chinese efficiency in the +labor market, would close the gates of the country to all the eastern +nations. The social worker, knowing mainly and best the degradation of +the Hungarians in the mines, or of the Hebrews in the sweatshops, +prophesies naught but evil from foreign immigration. From an opposite +point of view, when a man travels in leisurely fashion up and down +Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, and finds a dozen race +elements--English, German, Norwegian, or Russian--he begins to understand +the real benefit to the nation of the coming of this vast, varied, +peaceful army.[1] The scale of immigrants runs from the pauper or the +diseased alien, awaiting deportation on Ellis Island in New York Harbor, +to the rich Norwegian or German owning a thousand-acre farm in North +Dakota, and to the millionaire Swedish lumberman or manufacturer of +Wisconsin or Minnesota. + + [1] Whelpley, _The Problem of the Immigrant_, I. + +For more than half a century, the United States has been almost a nation +of immigrants, a mixture of races in the process of combination; upon +the exact nature of this combination, whether it take the form of +absorption, amalgamation, fusion, or assimilation, depends future +political and social progress. + +The writer has for years felt a profound conviction of the vital +importance of this whole problem of the alien, and a corresponding +belief in the value of the investigation of each cohort in the national +forces. Hence this attempt at a sympathetic study of the Scandinavian +element in American life and of its contributions to the evolution of +the Northern Mississippi Valley during the last sixty years. + +In such a study, the Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes, like all other +citizens of foreign birth, must be judged by the character and +preparation which best fit men to contribute to the permanent progress +of a self-governing people. What are the signs of readiness for full +Americanization? The fundamentals are manliness--Roman virility--, +intelligence, and the capacity for co-operation, ennobled by "dignified +self-respect, self-control, and that self-assertion and jealousy of +encroachment which marks those who know their rights and dare maintain +them";[2] devotion to law, order, and justice; and a ready acquiescence +in the will of the majority duly expressed.[3] + + [2] J. R. Commons, "Racial Composition of the American People," + _Chautauquan_, XXXVIII, 35. + + [3] R. Mayo-Smith, _Emigration and Immigration_. + +Such qualities in America have been the especial possession of that +sub-race of the Caucasian stock which the later ethnologists call the +Baltic, in contradistinction to the co-ordinate sub-races, the Alpine, +and the Mediterranean or Ligurian. This Baltic race has for centuries +occupied the British Isles, the northern plains of Germany, and the +North European peninsulas, being found in its purest state in Norway, +Sweden, and Scotland. The people of this sub-race, asserts the writer of +an admirable article on racial characteristics, are mentally +"enterprising and persevering, and cheerfully dedicate most of their +time and thought to work.... They are liberally gifted with those moral +instincts which are highly favorable to the creation and growth of +communities, altho not always so favorable to the individual who +possesses them; they are altruistic, fearless, honest, sincere. They +love order and cleanliness, and attach considerable importance to the +dress and personal appearance of individuals."[4] While the other +Caucasian sub-races do not lack these qualities, their most dominating +characteristics are different; for example, one may exemplify the +artistic or the idealistic side of human nature. + + [4] G. Michaud, "What shall we be?", _Century_, LXV, 685. + +As related to the progress of civilization in America, all immigrants +fall into three classes: those who powerfully re-enforce the strength +and virtue of the nation, those who supplement its defects with +desirable elements, and those who lower its standards and retard its +advancement. Hence, those immigrants will be presumably the most +desirable to America who come from the regions where the purest Baltic +stock now exists, that is, north of a line running east and west through +Brussels, and especially in north-central Germany and the Scandinavian +peninsula. + +Measured by character and training, the Baltic race in America stands up +well to the test, not only in the foreign-born alone, but in the second +and third generation born on American soil. If generations of ignorance, +mental inertia, social depression, political passivity, shiftlessness, +and improvidence stretch behind the immigrant, if his religion be +chiefly a superstition or strongly antagonistic to the principles of the +Republic, and if he be physically inferior and long inured to the +hardships of a low standard of living, just so far is he an undesirable +addition to American population. But, on the other hand, if his homeland +show a very low percentage of illiteracy; if his life has been saturated +with the ideas of thrift and small economies; if he hold himself free +from domination by priest, landlord, or king; and if his history be the +story of a sturdy struggle for independence, he should be rated high and +welcomed accordingly, for it is of such stuff that mighty nations are +made. + +The student of Scandinavian immigration in the nineteenth century is not +left to conjecture in his endeavor to estimate the probable result of +the injection into American society of this foreign-born element. Before +the second generation of English and Dutch settlers in America in the +seventeenth century had grown to manhood, the Swedes began a colony upon +the Delaware River; and their descendants are still a distinguishable +part of the population of the lower Delaware valley. This beginning of +Swedish immigration to America is particularly instructive because the +settlements undertaken in the period of the Thirty Years War drew their +recruits from the same classes of Swedish society as the movements of +the nineteenth century, and developed under substantially similar +conditions and along much the same lines. + +The Swede of the seventeenth century and the Swede of the nineteenth +century are essentially one in character, for two hundred years have +wrought less change in him than in his cousins of Germany and England. +The accounts of Stockholm, its people and its surroundings, written in +the early seventeenth century, might serve, with very little +modification, to describe the large features of the Sweden and the +Swedes of today. Great progress has of course been made in two +centuries, but in political wisdom, high moral courage, and benevolent +purpose, Gustavus Adolphus and his advisers were distinctly in advance +of the first two English Stuarts and their courts. + +Perhaps no better illustration of this difference could be found than in +the plans for the beginnings of the colonies on the James River and on +the Delaware River. The scheme for a colony on the Delaware was +originally outlined by the great Gustavus himself in 1624, but sterner +duties took his energies; and after the fatal blow on the field of +Lützen, it devolved on his daughter, Queen Christina, and her faithful +minister, Oxenstjerna, to carry out his plan for establishing a colony +which was to be "a blessing to the common man," a place for "a free +people with wives," and not a mere commercial speculation or a haven for +aristocratic adventurers and spendthrifts.[5] + + [5] _Argonautica Gustaviana_, 3, 16. + +The first company of immigrants arrived in 1638, and year by year +additions were received. So early as the middle of the seventeenth +century, Sweden had a touch of the "America fever," and when an +expedition left Gothenburg in 1654 with 350 souls on board, about a +hundred families were left behind for want of room. Perhaps only the +transfer of the colony, first to the Dutch and then to the English, +prevented the Swedish immigration from attaining large proportions two +and a half centuries ago. The Swedish flag floated over New Sweden +notwithstanding the protests of both the Dutch and the English, until +the conquest of the colony by Governor Stuyvesant in 1655, and then it +disappeared from the map of America. + +In spite of threats, subjugation, and isolation, the prosperity of the +early colony continued, and by the end of the seventeenth century it +numbered nearly a thousand. No injustice in dealing with the Indians +provoked a massacre, for these protégés of the Swedish crown, before +William Penn was born, carefully and systematically extinguished by +purchase the Indian titles to all the land on which they settled. Their +piety and loyalty built the church and fort side by side, and long after +they became subjects of the king of Great Britain they continued to +receive their ministers from the mother church in Sweden. In fact, +pastors commissioned from Stockholm did not cease their ministrations +until they came speaking in a tongue no longer known to the children of +New Sweden. + +This Swedish colony, planted thus in the midst of larger English +settlements, continued for many generations to add its portion of good +blood and good brains to a body of colonists in the New World, which too +often needed sorely just these qualities. The Honorable Thomas F. +Bayard, who lived long among their descendants, wrote in 1888: "I make +bold to say that no better stock has been contributed (in proportion to +its numbers) towards giving a solid basis to society under our +republican forms, than these hardy, honest, industrious, law-abiding, +God-fearing Swedish settlers on the banks of the Christiana in Delaware. +While I have never heard of a very rich man among them, yet I have never +heard of a pauper. I cannot recall the name of a statesman or a +distinguished law-giver among them, nor of a rogue or a felon. As good +citizens they helped to form what Mr. Lincoln called the plain people +of the country,--and I have lived among their descendants and know that +their civic virtues have been transmitted."[6] + + [6] Mattson, _Souvenir of the 250th Anniversary of the First Swedish + Settlement in America_ (1888), 44. + +Their thrift and comfort and sobriety attracted the attention of Thomas +Pascall, one of the Englishmen of Penn's first colony, who wrote in +January, 1683: "They are generally very ingenious people, live well, +they have lived here 40 years, and have lived much at ease having great +plenty of all sorts of provisions, but they were but ordinarily +cloathed; but since the English came they have gotten fine cloathes, and +are going proud."[7] Penn himself declared: "They have fine children and +almost every house full; rare to find one of them without three or four +boys and as many girls; some six, seven and eight sons. And I must do +them right--I see few young men more sober and industrious."[8] + + [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. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SWEDES, NORWEGIANS, AND DANES + + +The common use of the term Scandinavian to describe Swedes, Norwegians, +and Danes in a broad and general way, is one of the products of the +commingling of these three peoples on the American side of the Atlantic. +The word really fits even more loosely than does the word British to +indicate the English, Welsh and Scotch. It was applied early in the +history of the settlements in Wisconsin and Illinois, to groups which +comprised both Norwegians and Danes on the one hand, or Norwegians and +Swedes on the other hand, when no one of the three nationalities was +strong enough to maintain itself separately, and when the members of one +were inclined, in an outburst of latent pride of nationality, not to say +conceit of assumed superiority, to resent being called by one of the +other names; for example, when a Norwegian objected to being taken for a +Swede. Thus the Scandinavian Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, +organized in 1860, included both Norwegians and Danes; ten years later +the name was changed to the Norwegian-Danish Conference; and in 1884 the +differentiation was carried further, and the Danes formed a new Danish +Evangelical Lutheran Church Association, supplementing the Danish +Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which dated back to 1871. + +Vigorous protests were made from time to time against the use of +"Skandinavian" or "Skandinav." "Shall we Norwegians let the Danes +persist in calling us Scandinavians?" wrote "Anti-Skandinavian" to the +leading American Norwegian weekly of 1870.[9] He also quoted the +sarcastic words of Ole Bull: "Scandinavia, gentlemen,--may I ask where +that land lies? It is not found in my geography; does it lie perhaps in +the moon?"[10] But the use and acceptability of the word steadily grew; +the great daily paper in Chicago took the name _Skandinaven_; in 1889, +the editor of _The North_ declared: "The term has become a household +word ... universally understood in the sense in which we here use it (to +designate the three nationalities)."[11] + + [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. + +Ole Bull was, of course, right in saying that there is no Scandinavian +language, no Scandinavian nation; but the ordinary reader or student +does not recognize clearly that Sweden, Norway and Denmark have +different spoken languages (though the Danish and Norwegian printed +language is one), different traditions, as well as different +governments. Almost while these words are being written, the coronation +ceremony in the ancient cathedral at Throndhjem completes the process by +which Norway is severed entirely from Sweden and again assumes among the +powers of earth that "separate and equal station to which the laws of +Nature and of Nature's God entitle them." + +The physique and characteristics of the three Scandinavian peoples have +been profoundly affected by the physical features of the northern +peninsulas; the mountains, fjords, and extensive coast lines of Norway, +the level stretches, lakes, and regular coast of Sweden, and the low, +sandy islands of Denmark find a counterpart in the varying types of men +and women of those countries. The occupations which necessarily grew out +of these differences of surface and soil tended to give to all a strong, +sturdy, hardy body; farming naturally claims by far the largest +percentage, though great numbers of the men yield to the call of the +sea. Both Norway and Sweden have large lumbering interests, while Norway +leads in fishing industries, Sweden in mining, and Denmark in dairying. + +Nature is no spendthrift in any part of the Scandinavian peninsulas; +small economies are the alphabet of her teaching, and her lessons once +learned are rarely forgotten. Her children of the North, therefore, down +to the stolidest laborer, mountaineer, and fisherman, are generally +industrious and frugal, and when they migrate to the American West, to +enter upon the work of pioneering, with its stern requirements of +endurance, patience, persistent endeavor, and thrift, they start out in +the new life with decided temperamental advantages over most other +immigrants, and even over most native-born Americans. + +Other characteristics common to these three peoples distinguish them +strikingly from the South European. From their Viking ancestors they +have inherited a love for adventure, a courage in facing the +possibilities of the future. Their hatred of slavery, and their clear, +high ideas of personal and political freedom, are strongly marked, and +their peasantry is ranked highest on the continent.[12] Their +adaptability to changes of clime, of conditions, of circumstance, has +been remarkably demonstrated over and over again, in Normandy in the +11th century, in Sicily in the 12th, and in America in the 19th; yet it +has not degenerated into a facile yielding to moods and whims even under +the rapid changes of New World society. + + [12] N. S. Shaler, "European Peasants as Immigrants," _Atlantic_, + LXXI, 649. + +The typical Swede is aristocratic, fond of dignities, assertive: he is +polite, vivacious, and bound to have a jolly time without troubling too +much about the far future. Yet he is not afraid of hard work; he is +persistent, ofttimes brilliant, and capable of great energy and +endurance. He is notably fond of music, especially the singing of +choruses and the opera, and the poetry of Bellman and the epics of +Tegner belong to the great literature of the world. + +The Norwegian is above all democratic. He is simple, serious, intense, +severe even to bluntness, often radical and visionary, and with a +tendency to disputatiousness.[13] There is an unmeasured quantity of +passion and imagination in him, as there are unmeasured stores of power +and beauty in the snows of his mountains and the waters of his coast. He +has the capacity for high and strenuous endeavor, even verging on the +turbulent, but he rarely has developed the qualities of a great leader. +Like the Swede, the Norwegian is fond of music, but it is of a different +sort. Both in his music and in his literature, the dramatic element is +strong; no names in the realm of literature of the last generation stand +higher than those of Ibsen and Björnson, who are first cosmopolitan and +then Norwegian. + + [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. + +The Dane is the Southerner of the Scandinavians, but still a +conservative. He is gay, but not to excess; the healthiness and jollity +of a Copenhagen crowd are things to covet. He is pre-eminently a small +farmer or trader, honest and persevering, ready and easy-going, and +altho not given to great risks, he is quick to see a bargain and shrewd +in making it. Of self-confidence and enterprise he manifests a decided +lack.[14] His country is small, open on all sides, and near to great +Powers; his interests, therefore, have led him out from his peninsula +and islands, and foreign influences have more affected him than they +have his neighbors across the Sound and the Skager Rack. His best work +in literature and art has been done under strong Romantic and classic +impulses from the South. + + [14] Borchner, _Danish Life in Town and Country_, 3-6; Bille, _History + of the Danes in America_, 1, 7, 8. + +Such being the qualities of the peoples of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, +the conditions of life and society in those countries in the first half +of the nineteenth century seem on close examination quite unlikely to +produce a great emigration, in comparison with conditions in other +countries from which large numbers of men and women migrated to America. +There were no great social, economic, or political upheavals sufficient +to cause the exodus of any class; religious intolerance and persecution +were, with few minor exceptions, neither active nor severe. The +Napoleonic wars did not depopulate these northern lands, nor did they, +like their sister nations to the south, suffer seriously from the +commercial restrictions of the Emperor of the French. Militarism did not +crush them with its weight of lead and steel and its terrible waste of +productive energy. Political oppression and proscription, so marked in +the affairs of central and western European states down to 1850, were +not features of the history of Norway, Sweden or Denmark. Though Norway +protested in 1814 in no uncertain terms against the union with Sweden in +a dual monarchy, she was, under the constitution of that year, one of +the freest nations of Europe, "a free, individual, indivisible kingdom." +In Sweden before 1840, one of the chief restrictions on the individual +was potential rather than actual: a man who wished to leave the kingdom +must have a passport from the king, for which he had to pay 300 kroner +(about $81). He would also be under the close supervision of the state +church, to which he was expected to belong. + +There were, however, conditions in the home-lands as well as in America, +which impelled immigration. Anyone who has travelled over the fertile +prairies of the Mississippi valley and then through Norway or Sweden, +will often wonder that so many people have been content to remain so +long in the older Scandinavia. In Norway there were in 1910, in round +numbers, 2,390,000 people on an area of 124,000 square miles.[15] Of +this population, about 425,000 were gathered in the larger towns, and +250,000 were in the smaller towns, making a total urban population of +29%, over against 21% twenty years before. The remainder were scattered +over the vast mountainous country or along the coast-line of three +thousand miles.[16] Thousands of fishermen's huts are grappled +barnacle-like to the rocks, while behind them along a trickling thread +of water stretches a precious hand-breadth of soil. The greater part of +the interior is one wide furrowed plateau, in whose hollows, by lakes +and streams, thrifty farmers skilfully utilize their few square yards +of tillable land and pasture their cattle on the steep slopes. Save +around Lake Mjösen, the Leir, Vos, and Throndhjem, there can scarcely be +found in all Norway anything like a broad rich meadow. The farm products +are almost literally mined from the rocks. "It is by dogged, persistent, +indomitable toil and endurance, backed up in some cases by irrepressible +daring, that the Norwegian peasant and fisher-folk--three-fourths of the +population--carry on with any show of success their struggle against iron +nature."[17] Yet in spite of such adverse conditions, these people have +ever clung with passionate tenacity to their mountainous storm-beaten +Norway, and by it have been made brave without bitterness, hardy without +harshness, strong yet tender. + + [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. + +In Sweden the physical conditions are decidedly different. The area of +172,900 square miles supports a population of 5,600,000 (1912), of whom +50% dwell in cities of which there are now thirty with more than 10,000, +Stockholm leading with 350,000. The urban population increased 166% +between 1871 and 1912.[18] There are few lofty mountains and no jagged +peaks, majestically dominating the outlook; the crag-set fjords are +replaced by gentler bays and sounds sprinkled with beautiful islands; in +some parts of the country, as in Wermland and Smaaland, are low and +marshy sections, where, according to legend, the Lord forgot to separate +the land and water. Agricultural conditions are less hard and means of +communication are better than in Norway; closer relations exist between +provinces and between parishes; information is more readily diffused, +and gatherings of considerable size are held without particular +difficulty. + + [18] _Statesman's Year-Book, 1914_, 1316. The increase of urban + population was five times the increase of the kingdom. + +Denmark more closely resembles Sweden than Norway, and is in still +better touch with the larger world than either of the others. With an +area of about 15,000 square miles,--Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and +Connecticut, combined--it held in 1911 a population of 2,775,000. +Copenhagen and its suburbs had a population of 560,000. The urban +population was 26%. Unlike the other two, Denmark has several important +colonies in other parts of the world.[19] + + [19] _Statesman's Year-Book, 1914_, 789 ff. + +In all three countries, as in the rest of Europe, changes in commercial, +industrial, social, legal, and religious matters were sure to be slow. +The tenure and succession in lands, the limited market for labor, the +relatively small opportunity for initiative, especially for the younger +members of considerable families,--all of these conditions with the +characteristics already described, lent added attractiveness to the call +of the American West. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLY NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION. + + + "Arrived last evening" (October 9, 1825). + + "Danish Sloop Restoration, Holland, 98 days from Norway, via Long + Island Sound, with iron to Boorman and Johnson, 52 passengers."[20] + + "The vessel is very small, measuring, as we understand, only about + 360 Norwegian lasts, or 45 American tons, and brought 46 + passengers, male and female, all bound for Ontario County, where an + agent who came over sometime since, purchased a tract of land."[21] + + [20] _The New York Evening Post_, Oct. 10, 1825. + + [21] _The New York Daily Advertiser_, Oct. 12, 1825. + +These ordinary shipping notices in the newspapers of New York City, and +several other similar paragraphs, are the first entries in the +chronicles of the newer Scandinavian immigration to the United States. +From the cessation of Swedish immigration in the seventeenth century +down to 1825, no considerable companies made the long journey from the +Northlands to America, tho adventurous fellows in twos and threes came +now and then, men who misliked the humdrum life in the old parishes, +with its narrow opportunity and outlook, men who found the sea the only +highway to novelty and a possible fortune.[22] Now, at last, the coming +of a company of some size, from Norway, adding one more to the +lengthening list of nationalities which contributed to the complex +population of the United States, attracted more than passing +attention.[23] That the sloop was not Danish, and that there is some +discrepancy in the number of passengers--(and crew?)--and in the number of +days in the voyage, are minor matters and easily accounted for; the New +Yorker of 1825 could hardly be expected to distinguish clearly between +Danes and Norwegians, when the people of the Northwest at the present +time apply the name Swede indiscriminately to Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, +Finns, and Icelanders. But back of the arrival of this little sloopful +of Norwegians, is a story of motive, organization, and movement, more or +less characteristic of Scandinavian immigration during the next two +generations. The two main elements are: conditions in Norway and the +United States, and the personal activities of one of the adventurous +fellows already referred to. + + [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. + +In the region about Stavanger, in southwestern Norway, in 1825, there +had been for some time a feeling of discontent with the religious +conditions of the country, and a tendency to formal dissent from the +established church. The direction of this tendency and the definition +of the movement were vitally influenced by certain zealous and +philanthropic Quaker missionaries from England, Stephen Grellet and +William Allen, who visited Norway in 1818. Grellet was a French nobleman +who sought refuge in the United States during the French Revolution, and +there united himself with the Quakers or Friends. After residing in +America for twelve years, he began making tours through Europe to +propagate Quaker ideas, even obtaining an interview with the Pope, which +he describes in his diary. The visit to Norway was in furtherance of his +general plan. While his account of his stay in Norway does not make any +mention of America, it is impossible to believe that no reference to +America and to the conditions of the Friends in that part of the world, +where he himself found refuge, crept into the conferences which he held +around Stavanger, and that no seeds of desire to seek the New World were +sown in the slow-moving minds of the Norwegian peasants whom he met.[24] + + [24] Grellet, _Memoirs_, I, 321 ff. + +As dissenters from the established church, these Quakers were +continually subject to actual or threatened pains and penalties, in +addition to those troubles which might arise from their refusal to take +oaths and to render military service. Their children and those of other +dissenters must he baptised and confirmed in the Lutheran Church; they +must themselves attend its services and pay taxes for its support, or +suffer fines or other punishment for failing so to do. Tho prosecutions, +or persecutions, were really few before 1830, an episode now and then +showed the dissenters what might be in store for them if they persisted, +as when one of the Quakers was arrested in 1821 for burying his children +in unconsecrated ground, and fined five specie dollars a day until he +re-bury them in consecrated ground, and agree to follow the outward +ceremonies and customs of the state church.[25] Two years before one of +the Friends wrote: "There are no laws yet made in favor of Friends, so +that those who stand firm in their principles act contrary to the laws +of the country. Friends must be resigned to take the consequences."[26] +With signs of persecution, with an increase of discontent, and with the +leadership of a man possessed of first-hand knowledge about the United +States, it is not surprising that emigration was decided upon. + + [25] Richardson, _Rise and Progress of the Society of Friends in + Norway_, 37. + + [26] _Ibid._, 23. + +Kleng Peerson, called also Kleng Pederson and Person Hesthammer, was a +man of dubious character, who has been variously described. One has +called him the "Father of the Newer Norwegian Immigration" and as such +entitled to a chapter by himself; another has written him down as a +tramp.[27] A softer characterization, however, makes of him a "Viking +who was born some centuries after the Viking period."[28] He appears to +have been a sort of Quaker, either from conscience or convenience. His +leaving his home parish of Skjold near Stavanger, and his emigration to +the United States in 1821 in company with another Norwegian, are +attributed to motives ranging from a commission from the Quakers to find +a refuge for them in America, to a desire to escape the rich old widow +whom he married, and who was tired of supporting him in idleness.[29] +Certain it is that upon his return to Norway in 1824, after three years +of experience in the New World, the sentiment favoring emigration from +Stavanger soon crystallized. + + [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. + +By midsummer of 1825 a company of fifty-two persons, mostly Quakers from +the parish of Skjold, was ready to journey to America. They purchased a +sloop and a small cargo of iron which would serve as ballast and which +might bring them profit in New York, tho this was probably a secondary +matter.[30] On the 4th of July, 1825, they set sail from Stavanger, and +after a somewhat circuitous voyage of fourteen weeks, which was not very +long, as such voyages went, they made their landing in New York, October +9th, numbering fifty-three instead of fifty-two, for a daughter was born +to Lars Larson on shipboard.[31] This landing of the "Sloop Folk" of the +"Restoration," whose story is a favorite and oft-told one with the older +Norwegian immigrants, is occasionally likened to the Landing of the +Pilgrim Fathers who fled to a wilderness to escape persecution and to +seek social and religious freedom; but on close examination the +comparison breaks down at almost every point,--motive, objective, method +and result.[32] + + [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. + +In New York the captain and mate of the "Restoration" were arrested for +having more passengers than the Federal law allowed--two passengers to +each five tons of the vessel. Having an excess of twenty, the sloop was +legally forfeited to the United States.[33] However, for some unknown +reason, the offenders were released and allowed to dispose of their +cargo. The original cost of ship and cargo appears to have been about +$1950, but both were sold for $400. This inadequate sum was supplemented +by the generosity of the Quakers of New York, whose contributions and +assistance enabled the "Sloop Folk" to proceed inland to Western New +York. + + [33] _Statutes of the United States, 1819_, Act of March 2. + +They took up land in Kendall and Orleans County on the shores of Lake +Ontario, about thirty-five miles northeast of the new town of Rochester +in which two of the families decided to remain. The price of the land +was $5 per acre, and each man was to take about 40 acres; but as they +were without cash, they agreed to pay for their farms in ten annual +instalments. The reasons for selecting this region are not difficult to +surmise, tho there is no direct proof of the motive. The country around +Rochester was, in 1825, in the midst of a sort of Western "boom"; the +Erie Canal was just finished, and the prospects of Rochester were very +promising.[34] Its population grew quite marvelously; in September, +1822, it was 2700; in February, 1825, 4274; and in December of the same +year, nearly 8,000.[35] + + [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. + +The first five years of the little colony were full of hardships and +suffering. It was November of 1825 when they reached their destination; +the country was all new and thinly settled; their own land was wild and +could be cleared only with difficulty; and nothing could be grown upon +it before the following summer. Just one man among them, Lars Larson, +understood any English. By united efforts several families built a +log-house, where the winter was spent in a most crowded condition, worse +even than the three months in the close quarters of the "Restoration". +The only employment by which they could earn anything was threshing with +a flail in the primitive fashion of the time, and the wages consisted of +the eleventh bushel threshed. With these scanty earnings and the help of +kindly neighbors, they passed the dismal winter in a strange land. "They +often suffered great need, and wished themselves back in Norway, but +they saw no possibility of reaching Norway without sacrificing the last +mite of their property, and they would not return as beggars."[36] But +at length time, patience, and their own strength and diligence gave them +a foothold. The land was cleared and produced enough to support them. A +five years' apprenticeship made them masters of the situation; and when +at last they had the means to return to the parish of Skjold, the desire +had gradually faded out. Instead of re-migration, they were persuading +others to join them in the New World. + + [36] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 15. + +But the New Norway, or the New Scandinavia, was not to be located in the +Middle Atlantic States, though a beginning was made in Delaware and in +New York. Land was too dear around the older settlements even at $5 per +acre; the promised land was shifted to northern Indiana and northern +Illinois, where fine prairie tracts which needed no clearing could be +had for $1.25 per acre and upwards. And into these newer regions went +the settler and the land speculator, sometimes in one and the same +person. Schemes for internal improvement sprouted on every side, and +canal-building was much discussed as the best means of providing cheap +transportation.[37] One of these projects was for a canal from Lake +Michigan to the Illinois River, for which a land grant was made in 1827. +This canal would bring great prosperity to northern Illinois, it was +argued, just as the Erie Canal had developed central and western New +York; the price of land would go up, markets would be accessible, and +speculator and farmer would reap rich rewards. + + [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." + +Nor was this argument based entirely on theory, for halfway to the East, +in Indiana, this progressive realization was in full blast. Harriet +Martineau travelled through this part of the West in 1836, and noted +with the eye of an acute and experienced observer, the rapid rise in +values of farms. She estimated that a settler, judiciously selecting his +land in the Northwest, would find it doubled in a single year, and cites +the case of a farmer near LaPorte, Indiana, whose 800 acres, costing +him $1.25 per acre three years before, had become worth $40 per +acre--probably not a unique example of prosperity.[38] With these visions +before them, many men moved from western New York, and along the line of +the proposed canal in Illinois grew up hamlets bearing the names +familiar along the great Erie Canal,--Troy, Seneca, Utica, and Lockport. + + [38] Martineau, _Society in America_, I, 247, 259, 336. + +Among those attracted thither, was Kleng Peerson, who again served, +perhaps without deliberate planning, as a scout for his Quaker +friends.[39] On his return to the Orleans County settlers, he convinced +them that a better future would open to them in Illinois, and in the +spring of 1834 some of the families moved into the West and began the +so-called Fox River settlement in the town of Mission near Ottawa, La +Salle County, Illinois. By 1836 nearly all the Norwegians of the New +York colony had removed to the West, and several tracts of land were +taken up in the towns of Mission, Miller, and Rutland. The sections +located seem to have been unsurveyed at the time of the first +settlement, for no purchases are recorded until 1835.[40] Henceforth +most of the immigration from Norway was turned toward the prairie +country, and whole companies of prospective settlers after 1836 went +directly to the Fox River nucleus, for the region thereabouts had the +double advantage of being at once comparatively easy of access and in +the most fertile and promising region in which government land could be +had at the minimum price. + + [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. + +In its new location, the twice transplanted colony of "Sloop Folk" was +reasonably prosperous from the start, tho the panic of 1837 made +impossible any realization of Miss Martineau's roseate estimate of +probable profits. No further move of the original immigrants was made, +and the Fox River Valley is still occupied by the well-to-do descendants +of the Norwegian settlers of the thirties. + +As a preliminary to further immigration from the three countries of +Northern Europe, a definite knowledge of America and its opportunities +must be developed among the peasants, and a desire to remove themselves +thither must be awakened and stimulated. To whole communities in Norway, +made up of simple, circumscribed people, America about 1835 was an +undiscovered country, or at best a far-off land from which no traveller +had ever come, and from which no letters were received; the name itself, +if known at all, was a recent addition to their vocabulary. Ole +Nattestad, one of the early immigrants, who was decently educated for +his time and more experienced in the world than the majority of his +neighbors, relates how he first heard of America in 1836, when he was a +man thirty years old.[41] + + [41] _Billed Magazin_, I, 83. + +The leavening process went on but slowly from 1825 to 1836, for the +story of the early experiences of the little company of dissenters, +obscure persons from an obscure parish, if known at all, was not likely +to inspire others to follow in large numbers. With increasing prosperity +in the Rochester, and later in the Fox River, colony, the tone of +letters sent back to friends in Norway took a new ring: America came to +mean opportunity, and now there were men speaking the Norwegian tongue +to whom newcomers might go for instruction, advice, and encouragement. +Old settlers still bear witness to the great influence of these letters +of the thirties telling of American experiences and of American +conditions. Among the most influential of these semi-conscious +propagandists of emigration was Gjert G. Hovland, who came to the +Rochester settlement with his family in 1831, and bought fifty acres of +land, which after four years of cultivation he sold at a profit of $500. +Writing to a friend near Stavanger in 1835, he spoke in terms of high +praise of American legislation, equality, and liberty, contrasting it +with the extortion of the Norwegian official aristocracy. He counseled +all who could to come to America, as the Creator had nowhere forbidden +men to settle where they pleased.[42] Of this and other letters by +Hovland, copies were made by the hundred and circulated in the Norwegian +parishes, and many of the early immigrants have stated that they were +induced to emigrate by reading these letters.[43] Another man whose +words prompted to emigration, was Gudmund Sandsberg, who came to New +York in 1829 with a family of four.[44] + + [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. + +These letters scattered through western Norway from 1830 to 1840, were +as seed sown in good ground. Times were hard; money was scarce and its +value fluctuating.[45] The crops were often short, the prices of grain +were high, and the demand for the labor of the peasants was weak; the +economic conditions of the lower classes, especially in the rural +districts--much the greater part of the country--were growing worse rather +than better.[46] Even the oldest son, who was heir to his father's +homestead, was likely to find himself possessed of a debt-burdened +estate and with the necessity of providing for the mother and numerous +younger children.[47] The younger sons, being still worse off, were +forced to try their hands at various occupations to earn a bare living. +Ole Nattestad, already mentioned, was by turns before his emigration +farmer, peddler, blacksmith, and sheep-buyer.[48] To many a man with a +large family of growing children the possibility of disaster in the +United States was less forbidding than the probability of ultimate +failure in Norway. + + [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. + +But not to occasional letters alone was the peasant,--and the emigration +movement--to be left for information and inspiration. Young men who had +prospered in the new life returned to the homesteads of their fathers +and became, temporarily, missionaries of the new economic gospel, +teaching leisurely but effectively by word of mouth and face to face, +instead of by written lines at long range. One such man was Knud A. +Slogvig, who returned to his home in Skjold in 1835 after ten years in +America, not as an emigrant agent nor as a propagandist, but as a lover +to marry his betrothed,--an early example which thousands of young +Scandinavians in the years to come were to follow gladly.[49] Whatever +may have been the results of his visit to Slogvig personally, they were +of far-reaching importance to the emigration movement in western Norway. +From near and from far, from Stavanger, from Bergen and vicinity, and +from the region about Christiansand, people came during the long +northern winter, to talk with this experienced and worldly-wise man +about life in New York or in Illinois--or, in their own phrase, "i +Amerika." There before them at last, was a man who had twice braved all +the terrors of thousands of miles of sea and hundreds of miles of +far-distant land, who had come straight and safe from that fabulous vast +country, with its great broad valleys and prairies, with its strange +white men, and stranger red men. The "America fever" contracted in +conferences with Slogvig and men of his kind, was hard to shake off.[50] + + [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." + +The accounts of America given by this emigrant visitor were so +satisfactory, that when he prepared to go back to the United States in +1836, a large party was ready to go with him. Instead of the fifty-two +who slipped out of Stavanger, half-secretly in 1825, there were now +about 160, for whose accommodation two brigs, _Norden_ and _Den Norske +Klippe_, were specially fitted out.[51] The increased size of this party +was doubtless due in some measure to discontent with the religious +conditions of the kingdom, but more to the activity of Björn Anderson +Kvelve, who desired to escape the consequences of his sympathy with +Quakerism, and of the marriage which he, the son of a peasant, had +contracted with the daughter of an aristocratic, staunchly Lutheran +army officer.[52] Being, as his son admits, "a born agitator and +debater"--others have called him quarrelsome,--he persuaded several of his +friends to join the party, and he soon became its leader.[53] The +greater part of the two ship-loads, after arrival in New York, went +directly to La Salle County, Illinois, a few stopping in or near +Rochester. For several years after the arrival of this party, the +immigrants from Norway generally directed their course towards the +Illinois settlement, which, as a result, grew rapidly and spread into +the neighboring towns of Norway, Leland, Lisbon, Morris, and Ottawa. + + [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. + +The actual process of migration from Norway to Illinois or Wisconsin was +full of serious difficulty, and to be entered upon by those only who +possessed a strong determination and a stout heart. The dangers, +discomforts, and hardships which everywhere attended immigration before +1850, were made even more trying, in prospect, by the weird stories of +wild Indians, slave-hunters, and savage beasts on land and sea, all of +which were thoroly believed by the peasants. Moreover, the church took a +hand to prevent emigration, the bishop of Bergen issuing a pastoral +letter on the theme: "Bliv i Landet, ernær dig redelig." (Remain in the +land and support thyself honestly.)[54] Until a much later time, no port +of Norway or Sweden had regular commercial intercourse with the United +States, and only by rare chance could passage be secured from Bergen or +some southern port direct to New York or Boston. The usual course for +those desiring passage to America was to go to some foreign port and +there wait for a ship; it was good luck if accommodation were secured +immediately and if the expensive waiting did not stretch out two or +three weeks. The port most convenient for the Norwegians was Gothenburg +in Sweden, from which cargoes of Swedish iron were shipped to America; +from that place most of the emigrants before 1840 departed, tho some +went by way of Hamburg, Havre, or an English port. + + [54] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 22. He naïvely remarks + that the Scandinavians have preferred to follow that other text: + "Be fruitful ... replenish the earth." + +Long after 1850, the immigrants came by sailing vessels because the +rates were, on the whole, cheaper than by steamer; those men who had +large families were especially urged to take the sailing craft.[55] +The days of emigrant agents, through-tickets, and capacious and +comparatively comfortable steerage quarters in great ocean liners were +far in the future; the usual accommodations were poor and unsanitary; +the danger from contagious diseases, scurvy, and actual famine were very +real, especially if the voyage, long at the best, was prolonged to four +and perhaps five months.[56] The cost of passage varied greatly +according to accommodations and according to the port of departure. +Sometimes the passage charge included food, bedding, and other +necessaries, but usually the passengers were required to furnish these. +One company of about 85 in 1837 paid $60 for each adult, and half fare +for children, from Bergen to New York.[57] In the same year another +company of 93 paid $31 for each adult from Stavanger to New York, +without board; still another, numbering about 100, paid $33 1-3 for each +adult passenger from Drammen in Norway to New York; the Nattestad +brothers paid $50 from Gothenburg to Boston.[58] In 1846, a large party +went to Havre, and paid $25 for passage to New York.[59] The extreme +figures, therefore, seem to be about $30 and $60 for passage between one +of the Scandinavian ports and New York or Boston. When the cost of +transportation from the Atlantic seaboard to Illinois and Wisconsin is +added to these figures, it will be plain that a considerable sum of +ready cash, as well as strength and courage, was necessary for +undertaking the transplantation of a whole family from a Norwegian +valley in the mountains to an Illinois prairie. + + [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. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE RISING STREAM OF NORWEGIAN IMMIGRATION. + + +The second period of Norwegian immigration, extending from 1836 to 1850, +is marked by the strengthening and deepening of the emigration impulse +in Norway and by its spread to new districts, and also by the deflection +of the course of the rising stream in the United States. Not merely in +the vicinity of Stavanger, from which a second party, made up of 93 +persons from Egersund, followed the wake of the first and reached +Illinois in 1837, but from Bergen and in the districts near it, the +"America fever" was spreading. The letters of Hovland circulated there, +and at least three men journeyed to interview Slogvig. Knud Langeland, +whose little book on the Northmen in America is frequently quoted in +these pages, relates how, as a young man of sixteen, his imagination was +fired by reading a small volume written by a German and entitled +_Journey in America_, which he discovered in the library of a friend in +Bergen in 1829; how he read eagerly for several years everything which +he could lay hands on relating to America; and how he gathered all +possible information about the emigration from England, during a visit +to that country in 1834--and then became himself an immigrant.[60] + + [60] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 20-21. See Cobbett, _The + Emigrant's Guide_ (London, 1829), a typical English guide book + of the period. + +By 1837 a goodly number were determined to emigrate, and had disposed of +their holdings of land. A way opened for them to make the long voyage +under especially favorable circumstances. Captain Behrens, owner and +commander of the ship _Ægir_, on his return to Bergen in the autumn of +1836, learned that a large party wanted transportation to America. In +New York he had seen vessels fitted up for the English and German +immigrant traffic; he had learned the requirement, of the laws of the +United States on the subject; two German ministers who returned to +Europe in his ship, gave him further information. He therefore fitted up +his vessel for passengers, and carried out his contract to transport to +New York the party which finally numbered 84, being mainly made up of +married men each with "numerous family," at least one of which counted +eight persons.[61] From New York the company proceeded to Detroit, where +they were joined by the two Nattestad brothers from Numedal, and from +thence they went by water to Chicago. + + [61] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 25 ff. + +Their original intention was to go to the La Salle County settlement, +but in Chicago they met some of the Fox River people, Björn Anderson +among others, who gave such an unfavorable account of conditions in that +colony that the majority determined to seek another location. At the +instigation of certain Americans, presumably land speculators, a +prospecting party of four, including Ole Rynning, one of the leading +spirits of the company, went into the region directly south of Chicago +and finally chose a site on Beaver Creek. Thither about fifty immigrants +went, and began the third Norwegian settlement, which proved to be the +most unfortunate one in the history of Norwegian immigration. Log huts +were built and the winter passed without unusual hardships, tho it was +soon evident that a mistake was made in settling so far from neighbors +and from a base of supplies at that time of the year when the soil +produced nothing. Serious troubles, however, developed with the spring, +and grew with the summer. The land which appeared so dry and so +well-covered with good grass when it was selected and purchased in +August or September, proved to be so swampy that cultivation was +impossible before June. Malaria attacked the settlers, and as they were +beyond the reach of medical aid, nearly two-thirds of them died before +the end of the summer. The remnant of the colony fled as for their +lives, regardless of houses and lands, and scarcely one of them +remained on the ground by the end of 1838.[62] + + [62] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 30 ff; Anderson, _Norwegian + Immigration_, 195 ff. + +One of the victims of these hard experiences was Ole Rynning, who +succumbed to fever in the autumn of 1838. Tho in America scarcely a year +and a half, he is one of the uniquely important figures in the history +of Norwegian immigration. The son of a curate in Ringsaker in central +Norway, and himself dedicated by his parents to the church, he passed +the examinations for entrance to the University of Christiania, but +turned aside to teaching in a private school near Throndhjem for four +years before his emigration.[63] He is invariably spoken of as a man of +generous, philanthropic spirit, genuinely devoted to the human needs of +his fellow immigrants. + + [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. + +Having learned by personal observation in America the answers to many of +the questions which he, as a man of education, had asked himself in +Norway, he took advantage of the confinement following the freezing of +his feet during a long exploring tour in Illinois, to write a little +book of some forty pages, to which he gave the title (in translation): +"A true Account of America, for the Instruction and Use of the Peasants +and Common people, written by a Norwegian who arrived there in the Month +of June, 1837."[64] The manuscript of this first of many guidebooks for +Norwegian emigrants was taken back to Norway by Ansten Nattestad and +printed in Christiania in 1838.[65] It plays so large a part in a great +movement, that a detailed analysis is worth presenting. + + [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. + +The preface, bearing the author's signature and the date, "Illinois, +February 13, 1838," is translated as follows: + +"Dear Countrymen,--Peasants and Artisans! I have now been in America +eight months, and in that time I have had an opportunity of finding out +much in regard to which I in vain sought information before I left +Norway. I then felt how disagreeable it is for those who wish to +emigrate to America to be in want of a reliable and tolerably complete +account of the country. I also learned how great is the ignorance of the +people, and what false and ridiculous reports were accepted as the full +truth. In this little book it has, therefore, been my aim to answer +every question which I asked myself, and to clear up every point in +regard to which I observed that people were ignorant, and to disprove +false reports which have come to my ears, partly before I left Norway, +and partly after my arrival here."[66] + + [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. + +The body of the book is made up of thirteen chapters devoted to these +questions and their answers: + + 1-3. The location of America, the distance from Norway, the nature + of the country, and the reason why so many people go there. + + 4. "Is it not to be feared that the land will soon be + overpopulated? Is it true that the government there is going to + prohibit immigration?" + + 5-6. What part of the land is settled by Norwegians, and how is it + reached? What is the price of land, of cattle, of the necessaries + of life? How high are wages? + + 7. "What kind of religion is there in America? Is there any sort of + order and government, or can every man do what he pleases?" + + 8-9. Education, care of the poor, the language spoken in America, + and the difficulties of learning it. + + 10. Is there danger of disease in America? Is there reason to fear + wild animals and the Indians? + + 11. Advice as to the kind of people to emigrate, and warning + against unreasonable expectations. + + 12. "What dangers may be expected on the ocean? Is it true that + those who are taken to America are sold as slaves?" + + 13. Advice as to vessels, routes, seasons, exchange of money, etc. + +Rynning assured his readers, in the seventh chapter, that America is not +a purely heathen country, but that the Christian religion prevails with +liberty of conscience, and that "here as in Norway, there are laws, +government, and authority, and that the common man can go where he +pleases without passport, and may engage in such occupation as he +likes."[67] Then follows this strong, significant paragraph, +intelligently describing the slavery system, which undoubtedly had a +powerful influence on the future location, and hence on the politics, of +the immigrants from Scandinavia: + +"In the Southern States these poor people (Negroes) are bought and sold +like other property, and are driven to their work with a whip like +horses and oxen. If a master whips his slave to death or in his rage +shoots him dead, he is not looked upon as a murderer.... In Missouri the +slave trade is still permitted, but in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin +Territory it is strictly forbidden, and the institution is strictly +despised.... There will probably soon come a separation between the +Northern and Southern States or a bloody conflict." + + [67] Rynning, _Sandfærdig Beretning_, 23, 24. Translated in Anderson, + _Norwegian Immigration_, 214-215. + +From the account given thirty years afterwards by Ansten Nattestad, it +appears that a chapter on the religious condition of Norway was omitted +by the Rev. Mr. Kragh of Eidsvold, who read the proofs, because of its +criticisms of the clergy for their intolerance, and for their inactivity +in social and educational reforms.[68] This has led some writers like R. +B. Anderson to attribute large weight to religious persecution as a +cause of emigration. While religious repression was a real grievance +and affected many of the early emigrants, the cases where it was the +moving or dominant cause of emigration after 1835 are so few as to be +almost negligible.[69] At best, it re-enforced and completed a +determination based on other motives. For most Norwegian dissenters, the +Haugians for example, lack of toleration was rather an annoyance than a +distress, save, perhaps, for the more persistent and turbulent +leaders.[70] It is hardly fair, therefore, to compare them, as a whole, +with the Huguenots of France.[71] + + [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. + +In the years immediately following 1838, the "America Book," distributed +from Christiania, went on its missionary journeys and reached many +parishes where the disaster at Beaver Creek and the untimely death of +Ole Rynning had never been heard of. By its compact information and its +intelligent advice, it converted many to the new movement. The diary of +Ole Nattestad, printed in Drammen in the same year, seems to have +exerted very little influence, but the visit of his brother Ansten to +his home in Numedal, in east-central Norway, a hitherto unstirred +region, awakened keen and active interest in America, and again men +travelled as far as 125 English miles to meet one who had returned from +the vast land beyond the Atlantic.[72] + + [72] _Billed Magazin_, I, 94. + +The first party from Numedal left Drammen in the spring of 1839, under +the leadership of Nattestad, and went directly to New York. It numbered +about one hundred able-bodied farmers with their families, some of them +being men with considerable capital. From New York they went to Chicago, +expecting to join Ole Nattestad at the Fox River. At the latter city +they learned that he had gone into Wisconsin after his brother left for +Norway in 1838, and that he had there purchased land in the township of +Clinton in Rock County, thus being probably the first Norwegian settler +in Wisconsin. Accordingly the larger part of the Numedal party followed +him to the newer region, where better land could be had than any +remaining in La Salle County, Illinois, at the minimum price, and took +up sections near Jefferson Prairie. Thus the current of Scandinavian +settlement was deflected from Illinois to Wisconsin, and later comers +from Numedal, in 1840 and afterwards, steered straight for southeastern +Wisconsin. In 1839 and later other recruits for the growing and +prosperous settlement of Norwegians in Rock County and adjoining +counties came from Voss and the vicinity of Bergen. Possibly the +difference of dialects had something to do with drawing people from the +same province or district into one settlement, but in a general way the +same reasons and processes operated among the Norwegian emigrants as +among those from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia who settled +in various States in sectional groups, sometimes dividing a county by a +well-defined line. + +Closely connected with this settlement, begun under the leadership of +the Nattestad brothers, were other settlements in adjacent townships,--at +Rock Prairie or Luther Valley, comprising the present towns of Plymouth, +Newark, Avon, and Spring Valley in Rock County, Wisconsin, and Rock Run +in Illinois. Through these settlements many new comers filtered and +spread out rapidly toward the West and Northwest, reaching in a few +years as far as Mineral Point, more than fifty miles from Jefferson +Prairie. + +Other sections of Norway than those already mentioned began to feel the +effects of the emigration bacillus after 1837, and the processes +illustrated by the movements from Stavanger, Bergen, and Numedal were +repeated--the emigration of two or three, letters sent home, the return +of a man here and there, the organization of the party, the long +journey, and the selection of the new home. Thelemark, the rugged +mountainous district in south central Norway, was in a condition to be +strongly moved by stories of freer and larger opportunities. Long before +1837, great tracts of land in Upper Thelemark became the property of two +wealthy lumber men, and the tenant-farmers were drawn more and more into +work in the lumber mills, to the neglect of farming and grazing. +Consequently, when logging was suspended in the hard times, and the +wages, already low, were stopped altogether, great distress resulted, +and emigration seemed about the only means of escape. "With lack of +employment and with impoverishment, debt and discontent appeared as the +visible evidences of the bad condition. That was the golden age of the +money-lenders and sheriffs. So the America fever raged, and many crossed +the ocean in the hope of finding a bit of ground where they could live +and enjoy the fruits of their labors without daily anxiety about +paydays, rents, and executions."[73] + + [73] Translated from _Billed Magazin_, I, 18 ff. + +A company of about forty, representing eleven families from Thelemark, +failing to get accommodations with the Nattestad party at Drammen, went +on to Skien and thence to Gothenburg, where they secured passage in an +American vessel loaded with iron, and made the voyage to Boston in two +months.[74] Three weeks more were consumed in the circuitous journey to +Milwaukee by way of New York, Albany, the Erie Canal and the Great +Lakes. Like several other parties of that year they originally aimed at +Illinois.[75] But their boat "leaked like a sieve," and the stop at +Milwaukee was probably precautionary. Instead of proceeding further, +they were persuaded to send a committee, under the guidance of an +American, into the present county of Waukesha, where they selected a +tract about fourteen miles southwest of Milwaukee, on the shore of Lake +Muskego.[76] Here each adult man took up forty acres at the usual +minimum price of $1.25 per acre, and so began the Muskego colony +proper, the name, Muskego, however, being later applied to the group of +settlements in Waukesha County and to several towns in Racine +County.[77] Like the colony in Rock County, the Muskego group grew +rapidly in spite of malarial troubles, and for ten years it was an +objective point for immigrants from Thelemark, and a halting place for +those bound for the frontier farther west in Wisconsin or in Iowa. + + [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. + +As the emigration movement from Norway increased, the planning of +settlements and the organization of parties took on a more definite and +business-like air. The process is well illustrated in the case of the +town of Norway in Racine County, Wisconsin, which was one of the most +successfully managed settlements in the Northwest. In the fall of 1839, +two intelligent men of affairs, Sören Bakke, the son of a rich merchant +of Drammen, and John Johnson (Johannes Johannesson), came to America on +a prospecting tour, for the purpose of finding a place where they might +invest money in land as a foundation for a colony, which they may +possibly have intended to serve as a new home for a sect of dissenters +known as Haugians.[78] After visiting Fox River in Illinois, and various +locations in Wisconsin, they found a tract that suited them--good land, +clear water, and abundance of game and fish, enough to satisfy the most +fastidious. This they purchased, building a cabin on it and awaiting the +coming of their friends to whom they sent a favorable report.[79] The +party arrived in the autumn of 1840, under the leadership of Even Heg, +an innkeeper of Leir, who brought still more money, which was also +invested in land. Altogether, the money which Bakke brought with him, or +received later, amounted to $6000.[80] It was all used for purchasing +land, which was either sold to well-to-do immigrants, or leased to new +comers. This business was supplemented by a store kept in the first +cabin. Upon the death of Johnson in 1845, Bakke went home and settled +upon an estate owned by his father in Leir, one of the first of the very +small number of men who have returned to permanent residence in Norway +after some years spent in America.[81] Even Heg became the real head of +the colony at Norway, Wisconsin, after the departure of Bakke, whose +interests he continued to look after, and under his management a steady +development followed. This settlement became the Mecca of hundreds of +immigrants arriving in Milwaukee in the late forties, and "Heg's barn +was for some months every summer crowded with newcomers en route for +some place farther west."[82] + + [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. + +Another important and highly prosperous group of settlements, called +Koshkonong after the lake and creek of that name, sprang up in 1840 and +1841, in the southwestern corner of Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and the +adjacent parts of Dane and Rock Counties. The beginning was made by men +who removed thither from the Fox River and Beaver Creek localities after +investigating the lands in Wisconsin. In 1840 there were nine entries of +land by Norwegians in the present townships of Albion, Christiana, and +Deerfield, the usual purchase being eighty acres; the next few years saw +the spread of the colony to the townships of Pleasant Valley and +Dunkirk, from the influx of immigrants from Illinois and from +Norway.[83] After the stress and hardship of the first pioneer years, +the fortunate choice of location in one of the best agricultural +sections of Wisconsin told very promptly, and Koshkonong became "the +best known, richest, and most interesting Norwegian settlement in +America, the destination of thousands of pilgrims from the fatherland +since 1840."[84] Many of the farms are still in possession of the +families of the original settlers, whose children are prominent in +business, professional and political circles. + + [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. + +The movement of the stream of Norwegian immigrants after 1845 was +distinctly in a direction westward from the Wisconsin settlements; the +land farther out on the prairies was better, tho it did not have the +combination of timber and stream or lake which the early settlers +insisted on having, often to their detriment, since land chosen with +reference to these requirements was apt to be marshy. The fresh +arrivals, after a few weeks or months in the friendly and helpful +communities of early immigrants, were better prepared by a partial +acclimatization, by knowledge of the steps necessary for acquiring +citizenship and land-ownership, and by the formation of definite plans +of procedure, for the next stage in the western course of their empire. +Occasionally a shrewd farmer of the older companies took advantage of +the rise in the value of his farm, sold out, and bought another tract +farther out on the frontier, perhaps repeating the process two or three +times.[85] John Nelson Luraas, for example, was one of those men who +first spent some time in Muskego, then bought land in Norway, Racine +County; after improving it for three years, he sold it in 1843 and moved +into Dane County.[86] Here he lived for twenty-five years, and then +moved into Webster County, Iowa, taking up new land. After a few years +he went back to his Dane County property, where he spent another +thirteen years; finally, as an aged, retired, wealthy farmer, he died in +the village of Stoughton in 1890.[87] + + [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. + +Provision for religious instruction and ministration was one of the +early concerns of the Norwegian immigrants, as would be expected from a +people essentially religious, who moved by whole families. Nor was there +much distinction between the more orthodox and the dissenters. After +their magnetic center shifted to the west in 1835 and the settlements +and population multiplied, a good deal of lay preaching of one sort and +another went on,--Lutheran, Methodist, Haugian, Baptist, Episcopalian, +and Mormon. Lay services, in fact, were the rule all along the westward +moving frontier, and services conducted by regular clergymen the +exception. One of the Norwegians wrote: "We conducted our religious +meetings in our own democratic way. We appointed our leader and +requested some one to read from a book of sermons.... We prayed, +exhorted, and sang among ourselves, and even baptised our babies +ourselves."[88] + + [88] A letter of John E. Molee, February, 1895, quoted by Anderson, + _Norwegian Immigration_, 320. (See also, _ibid._, 396-399.) + +Cut off by language from much participation in English worship--a man +must know an alien tongue long and thoroly to make it serviceable for +religious purposes--the men from Numedal, Vos, and Drammen, felt keenly a +great need for some one to instruct their children in the Norwegian +language and in the Lutheran religion after the Old World customs. In +1843, two hundred men and women in the flourishing group of settlements +around Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, signed a petition addressed to +Bishop Sörenson in Norway asking him to send them a capable and pious +young pastor, to whom they promised to give a parsonage, 80 acres of +land, $300 in money, and fees for baptisms, marriages, and the like.[89] +Tho this petition itself seems not to have been answered, it was not +long before a properly ordained clergyman arrived. + + [89] Anderson, _Norwegian Immigration_, 255. + +Claus Lauritz Clausen, a Danish student of theology seeking employment +as a tutor in Norway, was persuaded, probably by the father of Sören +Bakke in Drammen, to heed the call from America.[90] On his arrival in +the West in 1843, he found the need for a pastor and preacher more +urgent than for a teacher, and accordingly he sought and received +ordination at the hands of a German Lutheran minister, October, +1843.[91] He proceeded to organize, in Heg's barn at Norway, the +first congregation of Norwegian Lutherans in the United States, and so +began a career of useful ministration which lasted nearly half a +century. Not long after his ordination, its validity was called in +question by strict Lutherans. The question was finally submitted to the +theological faculty of the University of Christiania, which decided that +"the circumstance that an ordination is performed by a minister and not +by a bishop, cannot in itself destroy the validity of the ministerial +ordination."[92] At any rate, Clausen's activity, general helpfulness, +staunchness of convictions, and length of service, if not his +ordination, make him one of the typical pioneer preachers.[93] + + [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." + +Another clergyman of the same class as Clausen, was Elling Eielsen, a +Haugian lay-preacher who went from place to place in the Northwest from +1839 to 1843, holding services with his countrymen. He was ordained in +the same month as Clausen, and, like him, in a semi-valid fashion, by a +Lutheran clergyman, not a bishop.[94] Like Clausen, also, his term of +labors as a Haugian apostle, passed forty years.[95] + + [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. + +Whatever irregularities in the ordination of Clausen or of Eielsen may +have disturbed the consciences of the stricter of the Lutheran sect, +nothing of the sort attached to the Rev. Johannes Wilhelm Christian +Dietrichson, who arrived in 1844, fresh from the University of +Christiania and from the ordaining hands of the Bishop of Christiania. +He was a diligent, aggressive, zealous young man of about thirty, sent +out as a kind of home missionary in foreign parts at the expense of a +wealthy dyer of Christiania. For two years, summer and winter, he went +back and forth in southern Wisconsin ministering to the Norwegians of +all ages and beliefs,--and all for the stipend of $300 yearly.[96] One of +the results of these labors, was a little book, _Reise blandt de norske +Emigranter i "de forenede nordamerikanske Fristater,"_ in which +Dietrichson gives the earliest detailed account of the settlements in +Wisconsin and Illinois before 1846. He described the origin, numbers, +conditions, and prospects of each community in his wide parish. At Fox +River, he says he found about 500, who were of all creeds, mostly +dissenters, including 150 Mormons. + + [96] _Minde fra Jubelfesterne paa Koshkonong_ (1894), 54 ff; Bothne, + _Kort Udsigt_, 839-842. + +Three church edifices were erected in 1844-5, and dedicated within a +short time of each other. Dietrichson dedicated one at Christiana, Dane +County, Wisconsin, December 19, 1844, and another at Pleasant Valley a +little further west; Clausen dedicated his church at Muskego on March +13, 1845.[97] All were simple structures, as would be expected; a plain +table was the altar, and the baptismal font was hewn out of an oak log. +But they served none the less as effective and inspiring centers of the +religious life of the settlements. For the Muskego church, Even Heg gave +the land, and Mr. Bakke of Drammen, whose protégé Clausen was, gave $400 +towards construction. Dietrichson left his two churches in Koshkonong in +1845, and returned to Norway where he remained about a year. Aided by +benevolent friends and by the Norwegian government, he came back to his +prairie parishes in 1846 for a final stay of four years.[98] But his +ways were not altogether ways of pleasantness, nor entirely in the paths +of peace. The records of the church, and his own story, show that he had +more than one stormy time with his people.[99] He departed for Norway +in 1850, and never again was in America.[100] + + [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_. + +The preceding account of the beginnings and progress of the earliest +Norwegian settlements in Illinois and Wisconsin has been given in some +detail, for the reason that the course of these settlements, in a very +broad sense, is typical of all the Norwegian colonization in the +Northwest, and of the Swedish and Danish as well. In the later chapter +on economic conditions, the causes which led these people to settle upon +the land rather than in the cities will be discussed at length. Suffice +it here to say that the average immigrant brought only a small amount of +cash, along with his strong desire for land, and he consequently went +where good land was cheap, in order the more speedily to get what he +wanted. This meant that he would push out on the newly accessible +government land in Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas in turn. So the +transformation of the frontier has witnessed the continual repetition of +the experiences of the early Norwegian immigrants in Illinois and +Wisconsin in the years from 1835 to 1850, as they are described in this +and the preceding chapters. At the present time, in the remoter parts of +the Dakotas, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and Utah, the same story is +being retold in the same terms of patience, hardship, thrift, and final +success. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SWEDISH IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850. + + +When the Swedish emigration of the nineteenth century began, it is +doubtful if many persons in Sweden knew of the existence of the +descendants of their compatriots of the seventeenth. The last Swedish +pastor of Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia died in 1831, and there is +no evidence that any immigrant after 1800 turned his steps toward +Philadelphia or the valley of the Delaware expecting to join the third +or fourth generation of Swedes there.[101] Before 1840, in New York, +Philadelphia, and a few other places, a Swede might now and then be +found. One of these adventure-seeking young fellows was Erick Ålund, who +reached Philadelphia in 1823; another was O. C. Lange who arrived in +Boston in 1824, and by 1838 found himself in Chicago, probably the first +of that mighty company of Swedes which has made Chicago the third +Swedish city in the world.[102] Olof Gustaf Hedström, who left Sweden in +1825, and his brother Jonas, were influential early arrivals.[103] But +the number of such men could not have been large, for ignorance as to +America was quite as dense in Sweden as in Norway, the name being all +but unheard of in parts of the kingdom.[104] + + [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. + +Sixteen years elapsed after the "Sloop Folk" landed in New York, and +five years after they located in their second American home, in +Illinois, before the Swedish immigration really began. The first party, +or regular company, of Swedes, consisting of about twelve families, +arrived in 1841 under the leadership of Gustav Unonius, a young man who +had been a student at the University of Upsala.[105] It was made up of +the "better folk", and included some, like Baron Thott, who were +entitled to be called "Herr."[106] The immigration does not appear to +have been induced by any religious persecution or discontent, but was +purely a business venture of a somewhat idealistic sort, into which the +immigrants put their all, in the hope that they could get a more +satisfactory return than they could from a like investment in Sweden. + + [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. + +From New York the party went by the water route to Milwaukee, following +in the wake of parties of Norwegians. There they met Captain Lange, who +seems to have persuaded them to select a location near Pine Lake--a name +that would certainly attract a Swede--in the neighborhood of the present +town of Nashotah, about thirty miles west of Milwaukee. Here they were +later joined by a variegated assortment of characters attracted by +letters which Unonius wrote to newspapers in Sweden,--noblemen, ex-army +officers, merchants, and adventurers,[107] so that the colony took on +almost as motley an air as that at Jamestown in the first years after +1607. While they hardly could have succeeded under more favorable +circumstances, they were particularly unfitted by their previous manner +of living to become farmers or to undergo the deprivations and hardships +of pioneering. The winter of 1841-2 was severe, and their poorly-built +houses gave inadequate protection against the cold of January and +February in Wisconsin; their land was badly tilled, tho they labored +earnestly; and their first crop fell short of their necessities. Their +hope of leading an Arcadian life in America was rudely shattered. +Captain von Schneidau, late of the staff of King Oscar, was a farm +laborer, and Baron Thott became a cook for one of the settlers in order +to get a bare living.[108] Sickness, misfortune, want of labor, and lack +of money led to almost incredible suffering at the first, and some of +the settlers, like Unonius and von Schneidau, went to Chicago, where the +former became pastor of a Swedish congregation, and the latter prospered +as "the most skilful daguerreo-typist, probably, in the whole +state."[109] + + [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." + +Frederika Bremer, the famous Swedish traveller, visited both the +Norwegian and the Swedish settlements in Wisconsin in 1850, and has left +a very graphic and sympathetic account of the Pine Lake colony where she +spent a few days.[110] She found about a half dozen families of Swedes. +"Nearly all live in log-houses, and seem to be in somewhat low +circumstances. The most prosperous seemed to be that of the smith; he, I +fancy, had been a smith in Sweden ...; he was a really good fellow, and +had a nice young Norwegian for his wife; also a Mr. Bergman who had been +a gentleman in Sweden, but who was here a clever, hard-working peasant +farmer."[111] At one of the houses she met twenty-one Swedish settlers. +The failure of the colony, to Miss Bremer's mind, was not altogether due +to circumstances; the settlers at first "had taken with them the Swedish +inclination for hospitality and a merry life, without sufficiently +considering how long it could last. Each family built for itself a +necessary abode, and then invited their neighbors to a feast. They had +Christmas festivities and Midsummer dances."[112] + + [110] _Ibid._, 225-235. + + [111] _Ibid._, 225; Unonius, _Minnen_, II, 6 ff. + + [112] Bremer, _Homes of the New World_, II, 214. + +Notwithstanding the hard life of the first years at Pine Lake, the +letters from well-educated and well-known men like Unonius, especially +those published in the Swedish newspapers, helped to stimulate a desire +for emigration in Sweden. A company of fifty, from Haurida in Smaaland, +left in the autumn of 1844, part of them going to Wisconsin, and at +least one family going to Brockton, Massachusetts, and beginning the +considerable Swedish settlement in that city.[113] In the following +year, five families were influenced by letters from a Pine Lake settler, +to leave their homes in Östergötland, and to set out for Wisconsin. At +New York, however, they were persuaded, probably by Pehr Dahlberg, to go +to Iowa, then just admitted to the Union, where land was supposed to be +better than at Pine Lake, and could be had at the same price. The route +followed was an unusual one for Scandinavian immigrants,--from New York +to Pittsburg, down the Ohio River, and up the Mississippi. The location +finally chosen was in Jefferson County, Iowa, about forty-two miles west +of Burlington; and the settlement was christened New Sweden. To it many +immigrants from the parishes of Östergötland found their way in later +years. The second rural settlement of the Swedes thus established was, +quite in contrast to the first one, distinctly successful from the +start.[114] + + [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. + +The first Swedish settlements in Illinois, may be traced to the efforts +of the brothers Hedström already mentioned. Olof visited his old home in +1833, after an absence of eight years, and on his return to New York he +was accompanied by his brother Jonas.[115] These two men influenced the +course which Swedish immigrants were to take in America down to 1854, +in much the same way as the Nattestad brothers had earlier affected the +Norwegians. After several years, spent presumably in New York, Jonas +moved into Illinois and settled in the township of Victoria, in Knox +County.[116] Olof Hedström was converted to Methodism in America, and +became a zealous minister of that church; in the history of Methodism in +New York City and in the chronicles of Scandinavian immigration, his is +a unique figure. The needs of the multiplying hosts of immigrants of all +sorts, who were flocking to New York, were thoroughly understood by the +Methodist authorities of that city, and Hedström was put in charge of +the North River Mission for Seamen. His "Bethel Ship" work began about +1845, a time when there was great need for a helping hand to be extended +to the Scandinavians, among other immigrants, for whom agents, +"runners," and "sharks" were lying in wait. The Rev. E. Norelius, the +cultivated and scholarly pastor and historian, who had personal +experience of the kindly offices of Hedström, declares that the +missionary was a father to the Scandinavian people who came to America +by way of New York.[117] + + [115] Norelius, _Svenskarnes Historia_, 21. + + [116] _Ibid._, 24-26; Johnson and Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, + 286. + + [117] Norelius, _Svenskarnes Historia_, 21, 23-26. + +With Olof Hedström offering friendly greeting, help, and advice in New +York, and working in connection with his brother Jonas in Illinois, no +prophetic instinct was needed to foretell the goal which would be +ultimately sought by those who came under the benevolent ministrations +of this Swedish Methodist preacher. The path to Illinois became a +highway for multitudes of Swedes, and that State was to the Swedish +immigration what Wisconsin was to the Norwegian. + +Swedish settlement on a large scale began in 1846, with the founding at +Bishop Hill, in Henry County, Illinois, of the famous Jansonist colony, +whose history is exceedingly interesting and, at times, highly pathetic. +Not only were there many hundreds of Swedes and some Norwegians grouped +together in a single county, but the colony was also an experiment in +communism, based on peculiar religious tenets.[118] + + [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. + +The Jansonist movement in Sweden, which must not be confused with the +Jansenist school or system of doctrine of another time and place in +Western Europe, began about 1842 in Helsingland, in the prosperous +agricultural province of Norrland.[119] For fifteen years there had been +an undercurrent of dissent in the Established Church in that province, +led by Jonas Olson, who called his followers "Devotionalists." The +agitation was carried on primarily against the general ignorance of the +people and the sloth of the clergy, but not until Eric Janson appeared +on the scene did any organization of the dissenters take definite form. +When he moved from Wermland to Helsingland in 1844 and published the +high claim that he represented the second coming of Christ and was sent +to restore the purity and glory of Christianity, he was received with +great enthusiasm by the restless peasants, and accepted as a divinely +appointed leader who should gather the righteous into a new theocratic +community.[120] + + [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. + +The progress of the dissenting sect was so rapid that the Established +Church, backed by the civil authorities, took stern measures to suppress +the heresy. It must be confessed that the dissenters continued to show a +fanatical spirit, and gave the ecclesiastical officers special cause for +alarm. In June, 1844, for example, the Jansonists made an immense +bonfire near Tranberg, and burned as useless and dangerous, all the +religious books which they could lay their hands on, with the exception +of the Bibles, hymn-books, and catechisms. As if one offense of this +kind were not enough to shock the pious Lutherans and everywhere stir +up the zeal of the Lutheran clergy, a second burning of books followed +in October, in which the Bible alone was spared.[121] + + [121] Mikkelsen, _The Bishop Hill Colony_, 22; Norelius, _Svenskarnes + Historia_, 63. + +Janson was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned; his followers were +subjected to the same treatment; and finally, a price was put upon the +head of the pestilent arch-heretic. It was these persecutions, +supplemented by letters from a Swedish immigrant in America, which +turned the thoughts of the Jansonists towards the United States. So it +happened that when Janson was rescued by his friends from the crown +officer who had him in custody, he was spirited off over the mountains +to Norway, and thence to Copenhagen, where he embarked for America. In +New York he met Olof Olson, the "advance agent," who was sent out by the +new sect in 1845 to spy out the better country where there was no +established church, no persecution for conscience's sake, and no +aristocracy.[122] Olson met Olof Hedström on landing in New York, and by +him was directed to his brother Jonas in Illinois, who gave the +new-comer a hospitable reception, and assistance in a prospecting tour +of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Olson decided on Illinois as the State +in which to plant the proposed colony. On the arrival of Eric Janson in +1846, the exact site in Henry County was selected, and the name Bishop +Hill given it after Biskopskulla, Janson's birthplace in Sweden.[123] + + [122] Mikkelsen, _The Bishop Hill Colony_, 24. + + [123] Johnson and Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, 26; _History of + Henry County, Illinois_. + +Janson appointed leaders for the would-be emigrants,--captains of tens +and of hundreds--before he left Sweden, and under their guidance several +parties made their way to Henry County in 1846, usually going by way of +New York, the Erie Canal, and the Great Lakes. Nearly 1100 persons were +ready to emigrate, but, like the early Norwegians, they experienced +great difficulty in securing passage, being compelled to go in companies +of fifty or one hundred in freight vessels, usually loaded with +iron.[124] The greater number sailed from Gefle, though some went from +Gothenburg and some from Stockholm.[125] + + [124] Swainson in _Scandinavia_, Jan., 1885. + + [125] Mikkelsen, _The Bishop Hill Colony_, 28. + +The greater part of these emigrating Jansonists were poor peasants, +unable from their own means to bear for themselves and their families +the great expense of the long journey from Helsingland to Illinois. In +addition to other difficulties some of them had to purchase release from +military service. It was to solve these problems of poverty and expense, +that Janson followed the example of other leaders of religious sects, +even of the early Christian leaders, and instituted community of goods +for the whole sect. The pretext seems to have been religious, but from +this distance it is clear that the motive of the leader was essentially +economic and philanthropic. Nothing could better attest the tremendous +earnestness of these uneducated enthusiasts than their implicit +obedience to the commands of Eric Janson, for they gave all they had +into his care and discretion--their property, their families, and +themselves. The amounts contributed to the common treasury after the +sale of individual property varied greatly, of course. Some turned in +almost nothing, while others gave sums reaching as high as 24,000 +kroner, or about $6,500.[126] + + [126] Johnson and Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, 28. + +The methods and practices of the sect are revealed, in unsympathetic and +perhaps exaggerated fashion, in a printed letter, dated at New York, May +23, 1847, written by one who found himself unequal to the high demands +of the new faith and its self-appointed apostle.[127] This backslider, +who emigrated with the rest, tells a story that sounds strangely like +accounts of the action of more recent sects and their "divinely +ordained" prophets and priestesses. Janson and all his works are +denounced in very bitter terms. After a five-months voyage not more +than fifty out of three hundred, says the writer of the letter, were +well, and many were suffering from scurvy; but Janson's "prophets" came +aboard and "tried to work miracles and heal the sick," even damning +those who did not believe they were well when they were raised up. He +further says that the Jansonists were warned in Illinois to use medicine +or the government would take a hand in their affairs. The letter closes +with a statement that more than a hundred had already left the society. + + [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. + +The colony had a homestead at the outset, for Janson and his co-workers +purchased for $2000 a tract of 750 acres, part of which was under +cultivation. By the end of 1846, new recruits brought the number in the +settlement up to about 400 souls, who were accommodated in log-houses, +sod-houses, dug-outs, and tents. A church was improvised out of logs and +canvas, and services were held daily at half past five in the morning +and in the evening. In spite of the community of goods, the first year +with its crowding brought much suffering; the funds of the society were +depleted by the expenses of the great journey for so many people, and by +the expenditures for land. + +With the coming of spring in 1847, the settlement became a hive of +industry. Adobe bricks were made, a new saw-mill was erected, better +houses were built, and more land was bought to accommodate the new +arrivals. By 1850 the community owned fourteen hundred acres of land, +nearly free from debt. The religious or economic attractiveness of the +colony is evidenced by the fact that its population in 1851 reached the +considerable figure of about eleven hundred,[128] nearly one-third of +the total population of Henry County, notwithstanding a schism in 1848 +whose centrifugal force drove upwards of 200 from the fold, and +notwithstanding the epidemic of cholera in 1849 which claimed 150 +victims. Among these hundreds were representatives of almost every +province in Sweden. + + [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. + +The communistic principle worked well, at least in the first years, in +spite of the severity of the religious discipline. The land was +thoroughly cultivated. The growing of flax became a prominent factor in +the prosperity of the colony, and from this crop were made linen and +carpeting which found a ready market, the product of the looms reaching +30,579 yards in 1851.[129] + + [129] Johnson and Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, 335. + +The death of Eric Janson by the hands of a Swedish adventurer, John Root +(or Rooth), with whom he had a quarrel of long standing, removed the +prophet and builder of this New Jerusalem, but did not seriously +interrupt its development. In fact it might be said to have been a +benefit to the colony, for Janson was not a careful and skilful man of +business, and he had involved the community in debt. To relieve this +pressure of obligation, Jonas Olson, Janson's right-hand man, was sent +out with eight others, in March, 1851, to seek a fortune in the +California gold fields.[130] + + [130] _Ibid._, 39. + +The period of which this chapter treats ends with 1850; but inasmuch as +that year marks no break in the history of Bishop Hill, it will be well +here to finish the sketch of the development of that colony. On learning +of the death of Janson, Olson returned at once from California and +became the head of the colony after February, 1851. Improvements +immediately followed; the government, which had been autocratic or +theoretically theocratic, became more and more democratic under Olson. +Finally, as a completion of this broadening evolution, an act of the +Illinois legislature of 1853 incorporated the Bishop Hill Colony, and +vested the government in a board of seven trustees who were to hold for +life or during good behavior, their successors to be elected by the +community.[131] + + [131] Act of January 17, 1853. The Charter and Bylaws are reprinted in + Mikkelsen, _The Bishop Hill Colony_, 73 ff. (App.). + +The trustees were from the first afflicted with a speculative mania, and +invested in all sorts of enterprises--in grain, in lumber, in Galva town +lots, in railroad and bank stock, and in a porkpacking establishment. +Disaster after disaster followed between 1854 and 1857, when a general +panic prostrated the industries of the country. The climax of the +reckless mismanagement of the Colony came in 1860, and the corporation +went into the hands of a receiver, only to get deeper and deeper into +financial and legal troubles. Individualization of property took place +in 1861, when $592,798 was distributed among 415 shareholders, and other +property to the value of $248,861 was set aside to pay an indebtedness +of about $118,000.[132] The last traces of communism were gone, and with +the disappearance of communism went also the old religious tenets +peculiar to the faith. The majority of the Jansonists joined the +Methodist communion; even Jonas Olson deserted and became "an +independent Second [Seventh?] Day Adventist."[133] + + [132] Johnson and Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, 44 ff. + + [133] Mikkelsen, _The Bishop Hill Colony_, 71. + +Difficulties continued, however, for Olof Johnson, the chief offending +trustee, secured his appointment as one of the receivers. Assessment +followed assessment, and when the totals were footed up the chicanery of +trustees and receivers was made clear: to pay an original debt of +$118,403, these ill-fated people of the Bishop Hill Colony actually +expended in cash $413,124, and in property $259,786, or an aggregate of +$672,910.[134] Of course a lawsuit was begun, and the "Colony Case" +dragged along in the courts for twelve years, to be finally settled by +compromise in 1879, nine years after the death of Olof Johnson.[135] + + [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. + +Besides the numerous companies which went to Bishop Hill, many others +between 1846 and 1850 sought different localities in the United +States.[136] Some remained in Chicago; some built homes in Andover, +Illinois; others began the large Swedish settlement in Jamestown, New +York; while still others were persuaded to go to Texas, thus beginning +the only considerable permanent settlement of Scandinavians in the +Southern States before 1880, with the exception of settlements in +Missouri. During these years, knowledge of the prosperous condition of +the immigrants was spreading, in the usual fashion, into every province +of Sweden; Småland, Helsingland, Dalarne, and Östergötland, were +especially affected. Not merely were Jansonists and dissenters moved to +emigrate, but men of the Established Church as well; a Jansonist's word +in matters of faith, Scriptural interpretation, and religious practice +was worse than worthless to staunch Lutherans, but there was no reason +to doubt the accuracy of his statements regarding land, wages, prices, +and opportunities in Illinois or Iowa. Even Lutheran clergymen began to +lead little companies of their adherents to the "States," and no one +considered it a mortal sin or eternal danger to follow in the footsteps +of worldly-wise heretics.[137] + + [136] Norelius, _Svenskarnes Historia_, 30-38. + + [137] Norelius, _Svenskarnes Historia_, 34. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE DANISH IMMIGRATION. + + +The Danish immigration began much later than the Norwegian and Swedish, +and its proportions were inconsiderable until after the Civil War. Not +until 1869 did the annual influx of Danes reach 2,000. Tho the +population of Denmark was and is somewhat greater than Norway's, yet the +Danish immigration has never in any one year equalled the Norwegian, and +in but seven years has it been more than one-half. As against Norway's +total of nearly 600,000 from 1820 to 1905, Denmark's is only about +225,000.[138] In calculating the immigration, however, a large allowance +must be made. Since the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were acquired +by Prussia in 1864 and 1866, their emigrants have of course been +recorded as German. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the movement from +Denmark has lacked momentum; its proportions are relatively small; and +the influence of the Danes in the United States is much less important +than that of either of the other Scandinavian nationalities. + + [138] See the tables in Appendix. + +The causes of the smaller emigration from Denmark are to be found in the +nature of the people and in the conditions of the kingdom itself. +Generally speaking, the Danes are not highly enterprising, adventurous, +or self-confident; instead of daring all and risking all for possible, +even probable, advantage, they remain at home, for, + + "Striving to better, oft we do mar what's well." + +Want is practically unknown in Denmark outside the slums of Copenhagen. +The condition of the common people has steadily improved since the +beginning of the nineteenth century, when nearly all the land was in the +hands of the nobility; at the present time, six-sevenths is owned by the +peasants. While this change has been going on, another, of even greater +significance, has taken place. Improved methods of cultivation, in the +course of a hundred years, have multiplied the productive power of the +land by ten, which is equivalent to increasing tenfold the available +area of the kingdom. No nation, except the United States and Canada, has +in recent times had such agricultural prosperity.[139] + + [139] Bille, _History of the Danes in America_, 8 n2, summarizing H. + Weitemeyer, _Denmark_, 100. + +As already noted, the activity of the Mormon missionaries drew off into +the wilderness of Utah nearly 2000 Danes between 1850 and 1860, and +nearly 5000 more in the next decade. In the two Prussian duchies after +1866, the discontent of Danes who preferred emigration to German rule +drove a large number to the United States; and as these were far from +being sympathizers with Mormonism, they found homes in the middle west. +Settlements sprang up after 1870 in Wisconsin, at Racine; in Iowa, at +Elk Horn in Shelby County and in the adjoining counties of Audubon and +Pottawatomie; and in Douglas County (Omaha), Nebraska, just across the +line from Pottawatomie County, Iowa. It should be noted in this +connection that all the Danish settlements save those in Utah, were well +within the frontier line, and hence are not to be classed as pioneering +work, for which the Danes have shown little inclination. + +The efforts of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, +organized at Neenah, Wisconsin, in 1872, have been several times +directed deliberately to the organization of new Danish colonies, +always, of course, with a view to strengthening the church or to +carrying out some of its peculiar ideas. Of the four colonies,--in Shelby +County, Iowa, in Lincoln County, Minnesota, in Clark County, Wisconsin, +and in Wharton County, Texas,--that in Iowa is the most noteworthy and +successful. Soon after 1880, the church secured an option on a tract of +35,000 acres in Shelby County from a land company. In return for 320 +acres to be given by the company to the church for religious and +educational purposes when one hundred actual settlers were secured, the +church promised to use its influence to secure settlers for the whole +tract. The company agreed for three years time to sell only to Danes at +an average price of $7 per acre, for the first year, with an advance not +exceeding $.50 per year for each following year. The end of the first +year found more than the required number of settlers, the church +received its grant, and still maintains its worship, a parochial school, +and a high school, in a community which numbers about 1,000 Danes. The +other colonies have been less successful.[140] + + [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. + +The Danish element in America has always lacked unity and solidarity. +Even in their European home the Danes possess no strong national +ambition, and no national institution claims their enthusiastic and +undivided support. The Danish church, or churches, has gripped its +immigrant sons and daughters less closely than similar organizations +among the Swedes and Norwegians. It is estimated that only one out of +fifteen of the Danes in the United States belongs to some church, while +one out of five of the Swedes, one out of three and one-half of the +Norwegians, and one out of three of the total population of the country, +is connected with an ecclesiastical organization.[141] + + [141] Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, II, 49. + +One reason for the low ebb of church influence among the Danes is +undoubtedly the wranglings of the clergy over matters of theology and +polity, a continuation of the factional differences between the +followers of Bishop Grundtvig and the anti-Grundtvigians or Inner +Mission people in the years 1854-1895. In its beginning, the Danish +Lutheran Church in America unanimously adopted this resolution: "We, the +Danish ministers and congregations, hereby declare ourselves to be a +branch of the Danish National Church, a missionary department +established by that church in America."[142] The government of Denmark +recognized this relation; graduates of the University of Copenhagen, +who received calls to churches in America, were ordained by a bishop in +Denmark, and were appointed by the King as regular ministers in the +Danish Church; and since 1884 the Danish Government has made a small +annual appropriation for the education of ministers for the American +branch of the Danish Church. This allowance was at first spent in +Denmark, but since 1887, in the United States.[143] But with all this +effort at maintaining unity and continuity, the American branch has not +been united, peaceable or effective. + + [142] Bille, _History of the Danes in Amerika_, 18. + + [143] Bille, _History of the Danes in America_, 18n. The appropriation + was $840 per year. + +If the test of supporting educational institutions for their own people +be applied to the Danes, the same deficiency of interest and +contributions as in matters ecclesiastical, will be revealed. The +attempt of the Grundtvigians to set up the peculiar "high schools" which +they maintained in Denmark, for instruction of the common people in +Scandinavian history, mythology, religion, language, and literature, all +in Danish, was doomed to failure.[144] The first of these schools was +located at Elk Horn, Iowa, in the midst of the largest Danish settlement +in the United States, yet in the fifteen years after its establishment +in 1878 the average attendance never reached forty. Four other schools, +in Ashland, Michigan, in Nysted, Nebraska, in Polk County, Wisconsin, +and in Lincoln County, Minnesota, all established between 1878 and 1888, +suffered from like indifference and lack of financial help; not one +averaged thirty pupils per year. Aside from tuition, the contributions +of the Danes for educational purposes did not reach fifty cents per +communicant during any consecutive five years up to 1894.[145] This is a +poor showing alongside the three dollars per communicant contributed by +the Norwegians when they were building Decorah College in 1861 to +1865.[146] + + [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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A HALF CENTURY OF EXPANSION AND DISTRIBUTION, 1850-1900. + + +While the immigration movement from Norway and Sweden was +well-established by 1850, and certain to expand, it was numerically +unimportant when compared with that from some other countries of Europe. +In 1849 the influx from all Scandinavia was slightly more than one +per-cent of the total immigration from Europe. Yet the rising stream +had, by 1850, worn for itself a clear and definite channel from eastern +ports like New York and Boston to such gateways to the Northwest as +Chicago and Milwaukee; and through these it continued to flow out over +the wilderness of the upper Mississippi Valley extending north of the +Missouri and Illinois Rivers and west of the Great Lakes. For more than +a half century there have been relatively few variations from this +course, tho in the later decades, with an increase in the proportion of +skilled laborers among the incoming thousands, certain eastern cities +have detained a considerable percentage. + +No other marked change in the character and quality of the immigrants +has developed since 1850, nor have any new motives appeared, except in +the case of the Danes, to be discussed later. In a word, the +Scandinavian immigration since 1850 is simply the earlier Scandinavian +immigration enlarged in numbers, with broader and deeper significance. +The areas of interest in emigration in Europe gradually extended to +every part and every class of the three Northern kingdoms; and the +localities attractive to Scandinavians in the United States, expanded +until eight contiguous States in the Old Northwest and the Newer +Northwest showed each a foreign-born population of Northmen numbering +more than thirty thousand. In the State of Minnesota they now reach +close to a quarter of a million.[147] + + [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. + +The total recorded Scandinavian immigration, according to the statistics +of the United States, from 1820 to 1912, is in round numbers 2,200,000. +According to the statistics of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which may be +disregarded for inaccuracy before 1850, the total falls about 142,000 +short of this figure, a difference which may be easily enough accounted +for by persons leaving those countries for a more or less indefinite +stay in other parts of Europe, before starting for America.[148] The +American statistics in later years have sometimes shown larger numbers +than the Swedish, but the discrepancy is accounted for by the fact that +a great number of emigrants from Finland have passed through Sweden on +their way to America and therefore are counted as Swedes.[149] The +totals by decades with the percentages of the whole immigration for the +decades, is as follows:[150] + + Per cent + Denmark Norway Sweden Total Sc. of immig. + + 1820-1830 189 91 280 .2 + 1831-1840 1,063 1,201 2,264 .4 + 1841-1850 539 13,903 14,442 .8 + 1851-1860 3,749 20,931 24,680 .9 + 1861-1870 17,094 109,298 126,392 5.2 + 1871-1880 31,771 94,823 115,922 242,516 8.6 + 1881-1890 88,132 176,586 391,733 656,451 12.5 + 1891-1900 52,670 95,264 230,679 378,613 9.8 + 1901-1910 65,285 190,505 249,534 505,524 5.7 + + [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. + +The fluctuations of the annual immigration have been very great, as an +inspection of the accompanying chart and the tables in Appendix I, will +readily show. The addition of other lines to this chart indicating the +fluctuations in the numbers of immigrants from Germany and Ireland, +demonstrates that these rather striking variations were chiefly caused +by conditions and prospects in America, rather than by circumstances in +Europe. In 1849 the total immigration of Norwegians and Swedes passed +2,000, and even reached 3,400, but the terrible scourge of cholera in +that year under which so many of the Scandinavians in the West fell, +caused a falling off of more than half in 1850. After the panic of 1857, +the Danish immigration fell from 1,035 to 252 in one year, while the +total from the Northern lands fell steadily from 2,747 to 840 in 1860. + +The Civil War disturbed comparatively little the conditions favoring +Scandinavian immigration, for the Northwest was never in danger of +invasion, and nominal prices for farm produce ranged higher and higher. +Furthermore, the Homestead Act of 1862 gave new and cumulative impetus +to the immigration which sought farming lands.[151] So from a total of +850 in 1861 (the statistics of Norway show 8,900 emigrants for that +year, and those of Sweden, 1,087), the numbers gradually increased, in +spite of the war, to 7,258 in 1865. The panic of 1873 did not affect the +Scandinavian movement so immediately and seriously as might at first +thought be expected, probably because the Northmen were seeking farms in +the West, and also because the farmers as a class are about the last to +feel the effects of financial crises like that of 1873. As the +depression deepened, letters from America to Northern Europe lost their +tone of buoyancy and enthusiasm; the eastward flow of passage-money and +prepaid tickets almost ceased. At the same time a series of good crops +in the three Scandinavian countries caused a rise of wages about 1873, +doubling them in some instances.[152] Consequently the current of +immigration lost force and volume for several years, the totals +dropping, in round numbers, from 35,000 in 1873, to 19,000 in 1874, and +to 11,000 in 1877. + + [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. + +After the high-water mark of 105,326 in 1882, reached during the revival +of business from 1879 to 1884, the totals did not again fall below +40,000 Scandinavian immigrants per year, until after the industrial and +financial stagnation of 1893 to 1896; 62,000 in 1893 became 33,000 in +1894, and 19,000 in 1898. With the prosperity of the first years of the +new century in the United States, the number again passed 50,000, +reaching another climax in the 77,000 of 1903. + +In general, the variations of the curves for the three nationalities +under discussion have been nearly co-incident, as for example the high +points in 1873 and 1882, and the low points in 1877, 1885, and 1898. The +Danish immigration did not rise proportionately with the other two, +especially in 1903, probably because of the democratizing of +land-ownership in Denmark, and because of the remarkable improvement in +methods of cultivation in the course of the nineteenth century.[153] No +such decided improvements took place in the other peninsular kingdoms. + + [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. + +Another feature of the fluctuation is entitled to some consideration. In +proportion to the population of those nations, the emigration from +Norway and Sweden since 1870 has been very large, and such drafts as +were made in the years 1882 or 1903 could not be expected to keep up. +The periodicity of the ripening of a good "crop" of eligible emigrants +for the great American West seems to have been since 1877 from five to +eight years. In this connection it is a noteworthy fact that the +population in each of the Scandinavian kingdoms, notwithstanding the +great emigrations, has steadily tho slowly increased since 1850.[154] +For the last decade of the nineteenth century, the figures for the +increase were, Denmark, 16.6%, Norway, 10.6%, Sweden 7.3%, United States +20%.[155] In this statistical distribution, account must also be taken +of the Scandinavians of the second generation, born in this country of +foreign-born parents, since this element, racially speaking, is just as +much an alien stock, with its inheritance of tendencies, temperament, +and passions, as were the original immigrants. The census of 1910 +enumerated among the foreign-born and the native-born of specified +foreign parents:[156] + + Native white having + Foreign-born both parents born Total + white in specified country + + Danes 181,621 147,648 329,269 + Norwegians 403,858 410,951 814,809 + Swedes 665,183 546,788 1,211,971 + --------- --------- --------- + 1,250,662 1,105,387 2,356,049 + +To these must be added still another group, made up of those persons +having a father born in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, and a mother born in +one of the other two countries, in other words, persons of pure +Scandinavian descent. The number of such in 1910 was 72,152. It does not +include, be it noted, those persons of equally pure Norse blood whose +parents, one or both, were born in the United States. The minimum number +of Scandinavians, then, in the United States in 1910, who must be taken +into account in all calculations and estimates of power and influence +exercised by that factor of the population, is 2,428,201. If it were +desired to bring the estimate up to date, the immigration of 1910-1913 +and an approximation of the increase of the native-born, would have to +be included, and the grand total of persons of pure Northern stock +would not be far from 2,700,000 at the present time (1913). + + [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. + +The distribution of this vast company to the different States of the +Union is a consideration of primary importance. The detailed analysis of +the motives, processes, and results of the occupation of the +Northwestern States by the children of the Northlands, belongs in later +chapters.[157] The reasons why the stream flowed to the north of Mason +and Dixon's Line are a combination of climate and a fear and hatred of +slavery. If the movement from Scandinavia had begun fifty years earlier, +before the anti-slavery agitation became acute, the New Norway and the +New Sweden of the nineteenth century, would doubtless still have been in +the North and probably in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, for very much the +same reason that the Western Reserve was a New Connecticut. + + [157] See chapters VIII-X. + +Desiring ownership of good agricultural land above all else, and finding +after 1835 that the best and cheapest was to be found along the +advancing frontier west of a north-and-south line drawn through Chicago, +the men from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark followed their distant cousins +of New England and the Middle States in the great trek into the +Any-Man's-Land of the fertile upper Mississippi Valley.[158] For more +than two decades after the Civil War, tho slavery no longer existed in +the South, that region was still in the depression and uncertainty of +the post-bellum industrial disorganization, and hence unattractive to +immigrants of any class. So the tide continued to run high in the +Northwest and spread wider and wider because of the traditions of two +generations, and because of the attracting power of the Scandinavian +mass already comfortably and solidly settled there. + + [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. + +The first States of the Northwest into which the Norwegians and Swedes +penetrated, as has been described above, were Illinois and Wisconsin; +and in the censuses of 1850 and 1860 Wisconsin held first place in the +number of these aliens, showing an increase from 8,885 to 23,265.[159] +In 1850, Iowa, in the "far west," ranked fourth, with 611. Minnesota, +which then stretched away to the Rocky Mountains, had 4 Swedes, 7 +Norwegians, and 1 Dane.[160] By 1860 Iowa was passed by Minnesota which +then had 11,773, and thenceforward the Scandinavians were to keep close +step with the westward march of the frontier. In 1870 Minnesota took +first place, with 58,837, a position which the State has continued to +hold. In 1890 she had within her borders 236,670 foreign-born Northmen, +and enough of the second generation to make her Scandinavian population +466,365, or about one-fifth that of Denmark or Norway. The order of +Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa held good for 1870 and 1880, +but Wisconsin and Illinois changed places in the reports of 1890 and +1900. The Dakotas, as one Territory, received their first Norse settler +in 1858, but when the census of 1880 was taken there were 17,869, and in +1890, when the Territory was divided into two States, the Scandinavian +contingent was more than 65,000 strong.[161] Nebraska illustrated in a +similar manner the widening overflow of the steady stream out of the +European North; her population of Scandinavian birth which numbered only +3,987 in 1870, grew by direct entry of immigrants, and by the secondary +movement of early immigrants out of the middle Northwest, to 16,685 in +1880, and to 40,107 of foreign-born in 1900. According to this last +census, Nebraska counted 38,914 native persons of foreign-born +Scandinavian parents, showing that the second generation did not fall +much behind the first in the habit of frontier-seeking.[162] + + [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. + +In the rush of gold-seekers into California after 1848 were many Danes +and Swedes, who gave that State in 1860 fifth rank as to the number of +Scandinavians; by 1890 these numbered about 42,000, of whom the greater +part were of the two nationalities just named. Another frontier region +which gained from the Danish immigration between 1850 and 1860 was the +Territory of Utah, for the Mormon missionaries seem to have been +particularly successful in Denmark, and nearly every convert became an +immigrant. Quite in advance of their invasion of Dakota, more than 2,000 +Danes had settled in the Mormon Territory, and ten years later Utah +counted nearly twice as many Scandinavians as Nebraska, seven-tenths +being Danes. + +The increasing density of this Scandinavian population in certain +localities,--what might be called its vertical distribution--is strikingly +illustrated in both urban and rural communities. Chicago had barely +emerged from the Fort Dearborn stage when the first Scandinavians walked +its streets. Yet within two generations there were found inside of her +wide-stretching borders more than 100,000 Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes +of foreign birth, and enough of the second generation to give her more +than 190,000, so that the city at the head of Lake Michigan was next +after Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania,--the largest Scandinavian +city in the world.[163] By a similar calculation, Minneapolis would rank +sixth or seventh. + + [163] _Svenska Folkets Tidning_, Jan. 1, 1896, estimated the totals as + follows: Swedes, 100,000, Norwegians, 62,000, and Danes, 35,000! + +Rockford, Illinois, received the first of its signally prosperous +Swedish colony about 1853; by 1865 the city had 2,000 Swedes.[164] The +census of 1910 credits Rockford with 10,000 foreign born Swedes, and a +total of Swedish parentage reaching close to 19,000. One of the +west-central counties of Minnesota, Otter Tail, counted (1900) more than +half of its 45,000 population of pure Scandinavian blood of the first +and second generation of immigrants. Polk county, newer and farther +north in the same State, reveals almost sixty per-cent of the same sort +of population in a total of 35,000. For some of the still newer and more +sparsely settled counties even larger percentages might be obtained. + + [164] Kæding, _Rockfords Svenskar_, 27, 35. + +A closer analysis of the tables of population reveals some further facts +as to the distribution of the different nationalities. The Swedes are +the most numerous in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and +Kansas; the Norwegians predominate in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South +Dakota, and nearly equal the Swedes in Minnesota where each passes +200,000. The Danes are strongest--they can hardly be called a very +important factor in any State--in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, +and Nebraska; in each State they have more than 25,000. Another feature +of this varying density of the three groups has to do with the cities. +Chicago, Rockford, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth account for a large +proportion of the Swedes of Illinois and Minnesota, and represent the +later rather than the earlier stages of distribution. Outside of the +cities mentioned, the Norwegians in Minnesota outnumber the Swedes by +some 52,000. In North Dakota, the Norwegians are 72% of the foreign-born +Scandinavian population, in South Dakota, 56%, and in Wisconsin, 60%, +while in Illinois the Swedes are about 70%, and in Michigan and +Nebraska, 63% and 59% respectively. The Danes reach their highest +percentages of the Scandinavian foreign-born in Utah, 50%, in Nebraska, +34%, and in Iowa, 23%. Large numbers of the later immigrants, especially +of the skilled Swedish laborers, have found occupation in New York and +Brooklyn, Boston and Worcester, Hartford and Providence. These have +raised the proportion of the Swedes in the United States living in +cities of more than 25,000, to 36%, while only 28% of the Danes, and 19% +of the Norwegians were similarly located in 1900.[165] + + [165] _Census Reports, 1900, Population_, I, Tables 33 and 35. + +Climate, particularly the mean temperature, has also played considerable +part in the choice by the immigrants from Northern Europe of the sites +for their new homes, though it is an open question whether they would +not have been established where they were and when they were even if +the climate were different. Certain it is that the few Icelandic +settlements are situated in the extreme northern part of Minnesota and +North Dakota, and in Southern Manitoba.[166] South of them come, in +order, the zones of densest Norwegian population, 49° to 42°, of the +Swedish, 48° to 40°, and of Danish, 44° to 38°. The three nationalities +thus occupy relatively the same latitudinal position in America as in +their homes in the Old North.[167] + + [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. + +Summarizing the matter of location, the great bulk of the Scandinavian +immigrants went into the Northwest, 78% of them during the first fifty +years of the movement, and about 70% of the total. Out of the +immigration of the different nationalities, 81% of the Norwegians are in +the Northwest, 60% of the Danes, and 59% of the Swedes, the percentage +of the last being brought down, in comparison with the Norwegians, by +the fact that nearly 100,000 Swedes are found in Massachusetts, New +York, and Pennsylvania.[168] + + [168] _Statistical Atlas of the Twelfth Census_, Plates 69, 71, 73, + 76; _Iowa Journal of History and Politics_, III, 76. + +The Civil War occurred before the numbers and expansion of the Norse +element of the country's population had much passed a promising +beginning; the 75,000 present in 1860 could not be expected to play any +large and leading rôle. Yet the one dramatic and heroic chapter in the +whole story of the progress of the Scandinavians in America is that +dealing with their part in that great struggle, in which many hundreds +of them gave their strength and their lives for the unity and safety of +their adopted country no less bravely and no less cheerfully than did +the native-born American. The men from Thelemark and Smaaland and the +sons of Massachusetts and Michigan were inspired by the same fine and +pure motives; they hated slavery and loved the flag under whose folds +they realized their hopes and dreams.[169] By temperament, by religion, +by education, by tradition, men of Norse parentage were fitted to +participate in upholding a cause so essentially right and high. + + [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. + +In the short space of this volume, details of the loyal services of +companies made up wholly or in large part of Swedes and Norwegians must +be omitted, and the laurels won by such men as General Stohlbrand, who +was made a brigadier by President Lincoln himself,[170] Colonel H. C. +Heg,[171] Colonel Mattson,[172] and Lieutenant Colonel Porter C. +Olson,[173] must be passed by with mere allusions. + + [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. + + [172] Mattson, _Story of an Emigrant_, 59-93. + + [173] Anderson, _Norwegian Immigration_, 112-127. + +The Fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment of Volunteers, consisting of about 900 +men, whose organization was decided upon at a mass meeting held in the +Capitol at Madison, in September, 1861, was made up almost entirely of +Norwegians and Swedes, some of whom had been in the United States less +than a year. Hans C. Heg, one of the early leaders of the Norwegian +immigration into Wisconsin, was appointed colonel of the regiment and +began organization at Camp Randall, near Madison, in the following +December.[174] The roster of officers indicates plainly their origin, +including such names as Rev. C. L. Clausen, Thorkildson, Hansen, +Grinager, Skofstad, Ingmundson, Tjentland, and Solberg.[175] The +regiment left for the front in March, 1862, and participated in the +operations of the next three years in Kentucky, Tennessee and northern +Georgia. It was mustered out at Chattanooga in February, 1865, having +lost about 300, quite one-third of its total enlistment, from deaths in +battle or in the hospitals, including Colonel Heg, who was killed at +Chickamauga.[176] Its record is summed up by the military historian of +Wisconsin who states that it was "one of the bravest and most efficient +regiments that Wisconsin sent to the field."[177] + + [174] Enander, _Borgerkrigen i de Forenede Stater_, 106; Dietrichson, + _Det Femtende Wisconsin Regiments Historie_, ch. i. + + [175] Dietrichson, "The Fifteenth Wisconsin, or Scandinavian, + Regiment," _Scandinavia_, I, 297 ff. + + [176] Nelson, _History of Scandinavians_, I, 166. + + [177] Quiner, _The Military History of Wisconsin_ (ch. xxiii, + "Regimental Histories--15th Infantry"), 631. + +Besides this Scandinavian regiment, there were several others in which +the Norse element was large. Company C of the 43d Illinois Regiment was +made up of Swedes, serving under Captain Arosenius. It was organized in +the spring of 1862 and mustered out in the fall of 1865, with +an honorable record of services faithfully and uncomplainingly +performed.[178] Company D of the 57th Illinois Regiment, which served +from the autumn of 1861 to July, 1864,[179] and Company D of the 3d +Minnesota Regiment, which was mustered in at about the same time,[180] +were composed of Scandinavians. A sprinkling of Swedes, Norwegians, and +Danes appears in the lists of many of the regiments of Illinois, +Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and many of these men rose to the ranks of +commissioned officers.[181] The Adjutant General of Minnesota in 1866 +estimated that of the enlistments from that State, at least 800 were +Norwegians, 675 Swedes, and 25 Danes. "In numerous instances the +nativity of the soldiers is omitted; and it is not easy to count +correctly all the names in such publications; hence it is fair to +estimate that 2,000 Scandinavians from Minnesota enlisted under the +Stars and Stripes.... One-eighth of the total population of the State +enlisted under the Union flag; while at the same time one out of every +six Scandinavians in Minnesota, as well as in Wisconsin, fought for his +adopted country."[182] + + [178] Johnson and Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, 143-149. + + [179] _Ibid._, 155-161. + + [180] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 59-93. + + [181] _Ibid._, 62. + + [182] _Annual Report of the Adjutant General of Minnesota_, 1866, II; + Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 303-304. Similar + figures for Iowa are in Nelson, II, 67. + +Everywhere the story of their services in the army is creditable, and it +is not strange that the survivors are proud of their war records as the +badge of loyal Americanism. They did not go into the war for mere love +of adventure, nor for love of fighting, for men in large numbers do not +leave their families and their half-developed farms for flimsy and +temporary reasons. They loved the new country they had made their own, +with a love that was measurable in the high terms of sacrifice, even to +the shedding of blood and to death. The stock out of which Gustavus +Adolphus made brave and effective soldiers had not degenerated through +lapse of time nor through transplanting. + +Though John Ericsson was in no wise connected with the regular Swedish +immigration movement, nor with Swedish settlement in the Northwest, the +United States owes him too large a debt for what has sometimes been +called the salvation of the Union through the agency of his "Monitor", +to warrant the omission of his name from among those Swedes who served +American freedom during the Civil War.[183] + + [183] Church, _Life of John Ericsson_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ECONOMIC FORCES AT WORK. + + +In the many monographs and more pretentious works dealing with various +phases of the economic history of the United States, much attention +has been given to the tariff, manufacturing, banking, currency, +transportation, and public lands. Only recently have the economic +results of immigration begun to receive the attention which their +importance deserves. For a long time the excellent work of Professor +Richmond Mayo-Smith, _Emigration and Immigration_ (1890), notable for +the strength and breadth of its general treatment, was quite alone in +its field. Mere statistical studies no longer suffice, and just as the +census-taking of the Federal Government has changed from the simple, +old-fashioned inventory of numbers--so many heads, black and white, +native-born and foreign-born--to an elaborate investigation of the life +problem of the population, so the meaning of immigration as a whole, and +of Scandinavian immigration in particular, requires a discussion +extending beyond annual and decennial statistics and maps of the density +of settlement. + +In the economic development of the Northwest, as compared with the +history of the Eastern, Middle, or Southern States during the nineteenth +century, the three principal topics are immigration, the Federal land +policy, and improvements in transportation. In a peculiar manner the +last two subjects are interwoven with the story of the Norwegians, +Swedes, and Danes in America. When people by the hundreds of thousands +were settled in the West, when commerce and manufacturing arose upon the +sound basis of a prospering agriculture, then and not till then, +protection, currency, and bimetallism might be accepted as real and +immediate issues. + +The Scandinavian immigrants along the frontiers, like the other pioneers +all through the prairie west, were from the first vitally interested in +securing some form of cheap transportation of the produce of the farms +to a good market; railroads were indispensable to the development of the +agricultural areas of the Great West. Western Pennsylvania might find +profit in 1794 in shipping the quintessence of its agriculture across +the mountains in demijohns; the cattlemen of the South and Southwest +might drive their products to market on the hoof; but at the very best +these were exceptional, inelastic, and primitive methods. Many pioneer +Norwegians and Swedes in Minnesota and Iowa were obliged to carry their +wheat and corn forty and fifty miles to have it ground for their +families, but they could not hope to haul any great amount of ordinary +farm produce over the abominable roads of the West for a distance +greater than forty miles and make a profit.[184] Without the hope of +railroads, the vast stretches of cereal-producing land in the +trans-Mississippi would long have remained virgin soil. Yet without +assurance that population would rapidly increase in numbers and in +complexity of life, thus giving a large traffic in both directions, no +railroad company would build out into the thinly settled area.[185] + + [184] _Fædrelandet og Emigranten_, July 21, 1870; interview in 1890 + with the Rev. U. V. Koren, the first Norwegian Lutheran minister + permanently located west of the Mississippi. Miss Bremer in + October, 1850, described the road over which the early settlers + in Wisconsin went 30 and 40 miles to market: "the newborn roads + of Wisconsin, which are no roads at all, but a succession of + hills and holes and water pools in which first one wheel sank + and then the other, while the opposite one stood high up in + the air.... To me, that mode of travelling seemed really + incredible.... They comforted me by telling me that the + diligence was not in the habit of being upset very often!" + _Homes of the New World_, II, 235-236. + + [185] It was on faith in the future of the northern zone of the + Northwest, based upon observation, that the Great Northern + Railroad was built without any land-grant or subsidy such as + the Northern Pacific and other roads demanded and got. + +Broadly speaking, then, the real problem of the Northwestern frontier +after 1850 was: how to put more and ever more men of capacity, +endurance, strength, and adaptability into the upper Mississippi and Red +River valleys, men who first break up the prairie sod, clear the brush +off the slopes, drain the marshes, build the railroads, and do the +thousands and one hard jobs incident to pioneer life, and then turn to +the building of factories and towns and cities. Not every sort of man +who could hold a plow or wield a hoe would do: Chinese coolies, for +example, would hardly be considered desirable, even with all their +capacity for hard work, persistence, and patience. Furthermore, it is +plain now, that the West could not have looked to the Eastern States +alone to send out an industrial army sufficient in numbers and spirit +for the conquest of the new empire and the extraction of its varied +resources at the desired speed. The demands were too severe, the rewards +too remote and uncertain for the average prosperous native-born citizen. +The aliens from the western side of the Atlantic, as it were by +regiments and battalions, must re-enforce the companies westward-bound +from the older States; in such a situation the Scandinavians were all +but indispensable to rapid material progress in the Northwest after the +middle of the last century. + +It is not easy to realize how attractive to the Northland immigrants +were the broad, level lands of the West, to be had from the United +States Government on the easiest of terms, both before and after the +passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. Scarcely in their dreams had they +conceived of soil so fertile, so readily tilled, and so cheaply +acquired. To speak to a Norwegian from Thelemarken, to a Swede from +Smaaland, or to a Dane from the misty, sandy coast of Jutland, about +rich, rolling prairies stretching away miles upon miles, about land +which was neither rocky, nor swampy, nor pure sand, nor set up at an +angle of forty-five degrees, about land which could be had almost for +the asking in fee simple and not by some semi-manorial title--this was to +speak to his imagination rather than to his understanding. The letters +from immigrants to their old friends in Europe continually dilated on +these advantages, sometime with a curious mingling of humor and pathos. +One of these communications, which was printed as a small pamphlet in +1850, sets forth in large letters, that the land was so plentiful that +the pigs and cattle were allowed to run at will.[186] What more could +be asked of Providence by a poor peasant or "husmand," owing to his +landlord, for the little strip of land on which he lived, the labor of +two or three days each week?[187] + + [186] A copy of this interesting little pamphlet, without signature, + was found in the National Library in Stockholm. + + [187] Young, _Labor in Europe and America_, 696. Laing, _Journal of a + Residence in Norway_ (1834), 151, describes the conditions in a + parish, Levanger, near Throndhjem. There fifty estates were + entered to pay land tax. Out of a population of 2465, 124 were + proprietors cultivating their own land; 47 were tenants leasing + lands, and 144 were "housemen" or tenants owing labor for their + land. + +These strictly economic advantages of soil and price were not the only +attractions for the sons of the Northlands. Both the traveller and the +prospector for a site for a settlement were deeply impressed by the +general appearance of the rolling country of the Northwest with its +abundance of streams and lakes. During her visit to Wisconsin and +Minnesota in the fall of 1850, Frederika Bremer saw with quite prophetic +vision, the possibilities of the region: + +"What a glorious new Scandinavia might not Minnesota become! Here would +the Swede find again his clear, romantic lakes, the plains of Scania +rich in corn, and the valleys of Norrland; here would the Norwegian find +his rapid rivers, his lofty mountains, for I include the Rocky Mountains +and Oregon, in the new kingdom; and both nations their hunting fields +and their fisheries. The Danes might here pasture their flocks and +herds, and lay out their farms on richer and less misty coasts than +those of Denmark.... Scandinavians who are well off in the old country +ought not to leave it. But such as are too much contracted at home, and +who desire to emigrate, should come to Minnesota. The climate, the +situation, the character of the scenery, agrees with our people better +than that of any other of the American States, and none of them appear +to me to have a greater or a more beautiful future before them than +Minnesota. Add to this that the rich soil of Minnesota is not yet bought +up by speculators, but may everywhere be purchased at government +prices.... There are here already a considerable number of Norwegians +and Danes."[188] The Swedish air-castle took material shape rapidly; +during forty years the name Minnesota, even more than Iowa, or +Wisconsin, was a name to conjure with among the laborers and would-be +farmers of the old kingdoms.[189] + + [188] Bremer, _Homes of the New World_, II, 314-315. + + [189] The charm of this name was illustrated in a curious way during + the journey of the writer and another American through the + mountains of central Norway in the summer of 1890. One early + evening they came to the cabin of a _sæter_, or summer pasture, + high up on the side of Gaustafjeld, and asked to be lodged for + the night. It appeared that the only room available for + strangers was already occupied by two young men from + Christiania; but when the conversation developed the fact that + both the late-comers were from America, and one from Minnesota, + the woman of the house hastened off into the next room, ordered + out the two Norwegians, and announced on returning that the room + was at the service of the foreigners! + +Of the peculiar fitness of the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes for this +promotion of economic progress in a great section of the country, there +is practically a unanimous opinion. A dispassionate, mature estimate is +expressed officially by an agent of the British Government sent out to +study the question of immigration in the United States. "It is generally +admitted," he states, "that physically, morally, and socially, no better +class of immigrants enter the United States. In some respects they are +the most desirable of all."[190] A first-hand observer of their work as +western farmers wrote in 1868 concerning the settlers in a Norwegian +township in Minnesota, "They open their farms quicker, raise better +stock than most any other class, and quickly become wealthy."[191] In a +hearing before the Industrial Commission in 1899, Hermann Stump, a +prominent German, testified that the Scandinavians "are really the best +immigrants who come to the United States."[192] + + [190] _Report of the Board of Trade of Great Britain on Alien + Immigration to The United States_, 211, 212. + + [191] Goddard, _Where to Emigrate and Why_, 247. + + [192] _Report of the Industrial Commission_, XV, 22. + +While the Scandinavians were admirably fitted to become substantial +citizens and to develop their own properties, and while the prospect of +possessing a farm was the most potent and pervading influence affecting +their movements after about 1850, the very high rate of wages paid in +the United States, as compared with the wages in Europe, was everywhere +an important factor among the immediate attractions. All of the western +States, in the first decade of their growth, were exceedingly anxious to +secure settlers who should take up and improve the vacant square miles, +thus adding to the population and to the taxable values of the +commonwealth. At the same time there was a large and steady demand for +wage-labor; the farmers needed helpers; the construction of internal +improvements, begun and projected, like the rapidly expanding railroad +systems, could be carried on only by the aid of an abundance of +laborers.[193] + + [193] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 29 ff. + +These needs could not be met by any considerable migration of laborers +from the eastern States, for there the development of manufacturing and +of transportation by land and by sea would operate to keep up wages and +so to hold the laborers. The hard labor of the Far West, therefore, must +be done, if done at all, by those who had not already found places for +themselves in the industrial system of the United States, and for such +services a good rate of wages would be paid, or at least a rate +sufficient to draw the desired labor. In 1851 the $15 per month received +by some Swedes working as farm hands near Buffalo, New York, was +considered "big wages."[194] At the same time laborers on railroad +construction in the West were receiving $.75 and $1 per day. Whether +measured as real or nominal wages, these rates were certainly higher +than even the average skilled laborer could earn in Norway or +Sweden.[195] Tho the wages in the peninsular kingdoms rose considerably +from 1850 to 1875, there was still at the later date and afterwards a +large differential in favor of the American scale, whether for skilled +or unskilled laborers. The experienced agricultural laborer in the +fields of Illinois or Wisconsin received two or three times as much as +the corresponding worker in Norway and Sweden, while in new States like +Minnesota the multiple was even greater.[196] Still more marked were the +differences between skilled laborers, such as carpenters and smiths, in +America and Europe even after the panic of 1873.[197] + + [194] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 17. + + [195] _Ibid._, 29. For work on the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad, + Mattson received $.75 per day, and paid for board $1.50 a week, + but the determination of the real wages, per month, requires a + liberal deduction from these day-wages, for the process of + acclimatization was severe in such malarial districts as that + in which Mattson worked, and few men at first worked more than + fifteen or twenty days in the month. + + [196] The following tabulation is drawn from the statistics of Dr. + Young, _Labor in Europe and America_, to illustrate the + differences of wages. Personal inquiries among men from all + parts of Northern Europe confirm in a general way these figures + reported from Europe. The European rates are reduced to gold + values, while those for the United States are in paper money + values, and should be discounted 10% or 12% to put them on a + par with the other rates. + + Summer Winter + + Experienced agric. With Without With Without + laborers, per day Board Board Board Board + + Sweden, 1873 $ .66 $ $.46 $ + Norway, 1873 .28-.43 .42-.55 .21-.31 .55 + Denmark, 1872 .54 .80 .40 .60 + U.S. (Western), 1870 1.34 1.84 .97 1.40 + Minnesota, 1870 1.60 2.50 1.17 1.67 + U.S. (Western), 1874 1.15 1.58 .93 1.35 + Minnesota, 1874 1.00 1.50 .75 1.25 + + [197] _Ibid._ + + Mechanics and skilled + laborers, per day Blacksmiths Carpenters + + Sweden, 1873 $.80 $.80 + Norway, 1873 .90 .85 + Denmark, 1873 .85 .65-.85 + U.S. (Western), 1870 & 1874 2.88 & 2.66 2.98 & 2.72 + Minnesota, 1870 & 1874 3.03 & 3.00 2.92 & 2.50 + Domestic servants, female, per month + Sweden, 1873 $2.14-8.00 + Norway, 1873 (cooks) 2.42-3.59 + U.S. (Western), 1870 & 1874 9.43 & 9.28 + Minnesota, 1870 8.98 + +The eloquence of these figures, and of the conditions behind them, was +not left to do its work by chance in the private letters of immigrants +or in the occasional pamphlet. States and counties, as well as railroad +corporations disseminated very widely and systematically the knowledge +of the opportunities open to the laborer in the great West. If he were a +man who would progress from a temporary tho necessary factor in +construction or in the field, to a permanent settler taking up vacant +land, so much the better for the State and the corporation. Fortunately +for those great railroads, which were pushing construction and receiving +large subsidies in public lands, they found just such men in the Swedes +and Norwegians. As the Rock Island railroad pushed across Illinois and +Iowa, as the Northern Pacific built out through Minnesota and Dakota, +and as the road now known as the Great Northern carried its lines from +St. Paul into the Red River valley, and on across North Dakota, the +Scandinavian and the Irishman supplied the demand for labor front 1850 +to 1890, in precisely the same way as the Italian, Pole, Mexican and +Greek have been doing in later years. + +When construction of a railroad ended, the demand for immigrants merely +changed its form and became cumulative. The dividends of any railroad +running out into a new country depend on the development of the +tributary territory, and this is especially true of the land-grant roads +which owned half of the land within ten miles of their tracks. Thus it +came about that the Scandinavians were doubly valuable, first as +laborers for wages, and second as independent farmers in the townships +made accessible by the new lines.[198] It was, indeed, faith in human +nature, and especially Swedish and Norwegian human nature, which led to +the construction and profitable operation of hundreds of miles of new +roads in Minnesota and Dakota after 1880. One prominent railroad man +estimated that each settler (presumably each head of a family) meant in +the long run from $200 to $300 a year for the railroad.[199] + + [198] Personal interviews with a large number of Swedes and Norwegians + in northwestern Minnesota, in May, 1890, brought out the fact + that many of them worked in the construction of the Northern + Pacific and Great Northern railroads, and then invested their + savings in railroad lands in the Red River valley, where they + were prosperous farmers. + + [199] Mr. Powell. General Immigration Agent of the Chicago, Milwaukee + & St. Paul Railroad, in the _Milwaukee Sentinel_, Dec. 30, 1888, + p. 10. + +The fulfilment of the expectations of the builders of railroads and +commonwealths was often surprisingly prompt. The prophetic insight of at +least one "captain of industry," President James J. Hill of the Great +Northern Railway Company which built its transcontinental system without +land-grant, was as sure a reliance for capital as the subsidy of the +federal Government. Speaking in 1902 at Crookston, in the center of the +great Scandinavian region in northwestern Minnesota, he described in +striking terms the growth of farm values, and of the railroad business +in some of the towns in Minnesota and North Dakota: "I took the best +towns [of the Red River valley] outside Crookston [for comparison with +towns in North Dakota].... I will give you the annual business. Warren's +last year's railroad business with our company was $86,000; Hallock, +$94,000,--a respectable sum; Stephen, $87,000; Ada, $81,000.... Langdon +[in North Dakota] ... away up towards the boundary, upon Pembina +Mountain, $210,000; Osnabrock, I hardly know where it is myself, +$101,000; Park River, $170,000; ... Bottineau, away at the west end of +the Turtle Mountains, where a few years ago people said it was too far +away; could not live there and could not raise anything if they did live +there, $258,000.... Land up there [around Bottineau], worth $3, $5, and +$8 an acre, and a few pieces $10 an acre, a few years ago, is worth +today $25 and $30 per acre."[200] + + [200] _Northwest Magazine_, XX. 7, 11 (1902). + +The railroads left nothing undone to stimulate the economic desire of +the Scandinavians to migrate to their particular sections of land and to +the adjoining government sections. Several companies maintained for +years regular immigration or land agents, besides a considerable and +variable corps of sub-agents, port agents, and lecturers; some of them +paid the expenses of men representing groups of prospective immigrants, +who desired to visit and report upon a particular locality. The St. +Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad advertised in "Facts about +Minnesota" (1881): "The settler--his family, household goods, live stock +and agricultural implements--will be carried from St. Paul to any point +on either of our lines at one-half the regular price." + +Besides these efforts and inducements, the railroad companies prepared +handbooks in different languages, distributed them widely throughout the +East and West, and circulated them systematically in Norway, Sweden and +Denmark.[201] A few of the companies even sent special representatives +to Europe to work directly with the people of those countries. The Hon. +Hans Mattson left the office of Secretary of State in Minnesota in 1871 +to become the liberally paid European agent for the Northern Pacific +Railroad whose resources he was to advertise from his headquarters in +Sweden.[202] He was not, however, to organize regular parties of +emigrants. A high official of one of the northwestern roads summed up +the matter by saying, "There is as much competition among the railroads +desiring to attract immigrants, as among dry-goods stores in aiming to +attract customers." + + [201] Such pamphlets were issued by the Wisconsin Central, the Chicago + & Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and the + Northern Pacific railroads. Some of them were printed in + Swedish, Norwegian, German, Dutch, and Polish. + + [202] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 118 ff. + +The northwestern State governments were hardly less interested in +inducing immigrants to help fill up the vacant square miles and +townships than were the railroads, for developed farms meant towns, +diversified industry, and greater assessment values, which, being +translated, meant much-needed public buildings, institutions, and +improvements. The competition of the States, for immigrants such as the +Norwegians, re-enforced and parallelled that of the railroad and land +companies. Wisconsin appointed a Commissioner of Emigration in 1852, +who resided in New York, and employed a Norwegian and a German +assistant.[203] The following year another Act created a Traveling +Emigrant Agent, and prescribed that he should "travel constantly between +this State and the city of New York," to advertise "our great natural +resources, advantages and privileges, and brilliant prospects for the +future."[204] Pamphlets by the thousand in German, Norwegian, and Dutch +were sent out in America and Europe. The office was abolished in 1855, +but in 1867 another Act created an unpaid Board of Immigration and +appropriated $2,000 for printing pamphlets in English, Welsh, German, +and the Scandinavian languages.[205] The State even went so far, in a +later Act, as to authorize the Board, in its discretion, to help with +money, "such immigrants as are determined to make Wisconsin their future +home."[206] + + [203] _Laws of Wisconsin_, 1852, ch. 432; Ibid., 1853, ch. 53; + _Wisconsin Documents_, 1853, 1854, Reports of Commissioner + of Emigration. + + [204] _General Acts of Wisconsin_, 1853, ch. 56. + + [205] _Ibid._, 1855, ch. 3; 1867, ch. 126; 1868, ch. 120; _Governor's + Messages and Documents_, 1870, 11. + + [206] _General Acts of Wisconsin_, 1869, ch. 118. + +The Board was succeeded by a Commissioner (Ole C. Johnson) in 1871, +whose office was in turn abolished in 1874. The story of Wisconsin's +later organizations for promoting immigration ought almost to go into +the chapter on politics--a new Board in 1879, abolished in 1887, renewed +for two years in 1895, and revived for another two years in 1899.[207] +In 1880, at the request of the president of the Wisconsin Central +Railway Company, K. K. Kennan, agent of the land department of that +company, was also appointed agent for the State in Europe, without +expense to the State.[208] + + [207] _Ibid._, 1871, ch. 155; 1874, ch. 238; 1879, ch. 176; 1887, ch. + 21; 1895, ch. 235; 1899, ch. 279. The abolished Commissioner of + 1874 declared the repeal was "conceived in vindictiveness and + brought about by third-rate politicians, and followed my refusal + to appoint to place in my office" certain incompetents. _Report + of Commissioner of Immigration_, 1874, 2. + + [208] _Annual Report of Board of Immigration_, 1880, 6. + +For the same purposes, and with the same methods, Iowa had a +Commissioner, 1860-1862, and a Board (of which the Rev. C. L. Clausen +was a member), 1870-1874, which sent agents to Norway, Sweden, and +Denmark, where they published articles in the newspapers and stirred up +emigration sentiment.[209] + + [209] _Laws of Iowa_, 1860, ch. 81; 1862, ch. 11; 1870, ch, 34. + +Minnesota, likewise, in 1867 created a Board of Emigration, and Hans +Mattson was appointed secretary. He proved a very efficient officer, and +not the less so because at the same time, as he admits, he acted as land +agent for one of the great railroad companies, whose line went through +Wright, Meeker, Kandiyohi, Swift and Stevens counties.[210] Of the work +of the Board, Mattson gives a convincing summary: "In the above-named +localities there were only a few widely scattered families when I went +there in 1867, while it is now (1891) one continuous Scandinavian +settlement, extending over a territory more than a hundred miles long +and dotted over with cities and towns, largely the result of the work of +the board of emigration during the years 1867, 1868, and 1869.... Our +efforts, however, in behalf of Minnesota brought on a great deal of envy +and ill-will from people in other States who were interested in seeing +the Scandinavian emigration turned towards Kansas and other States, and +this feeling went so far that a prominent newspaper writer in Kansas +accused me of selling my countrymen to a life not much better than +slavery in a land of ice, snow, and perpetual winter, where, if the poor +emigrant did not starve to death, he would surely perish with cold. Such +at that time was the opinion of many concerning Minnesota."[211] + + [210] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 97, 99, 101. + + [211] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 100-101. + +The secretaries or commissioners of immigration were usually men of +alien birth or extraction, and therefore intelligent and sympathetic in +their labors for succeeding immigrants.[212] Probably no State gave +better care, guidance, and protection to foreigners coming as settlers +than did Minnesota, and naturally, with a Swede as commissioner, the +Scandinavians were "preferred stock." The work of the Minnesota +commission included the appointment of interpreters to meet immigrants +at New York, Montreal, and Quebec and accompany them to Minnesota; +provision for temporary homes for the new-comers until they went to +their chosen locality; and wide publication of newspaper articles in +different languages. Pamphlets containing maps and detailed descriptions +of States and counties were distributed at railroad stations and on +steamers, in America and in foreign countries.[213] It would be +stretching the truth a little to say that these circulars sent out by +States, counties, and railroad companies were always strictly accurate +and ingenuous, but they brought the desired results, not in one campaign +alone, but year after year. Taken as a whole the energies of the State +and railroad agents, were honorable, well-managed, and highly beneficial +to both the States and the immigrants. The best evidence for this +statement lies in the figures of the censuses of 1880, 1890, and 1900 +for the population of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.[214] + + [212] _Ibid._, 99, 102; _Wisconsin Legislative Manual_, 1895, 133. + + [213] See Bibliographical Chapter, under the names, Hewitt, Listoe, + and Mattson, for Minnesota. + + [214] See Statistical chapter, tables 5, 6, 7. + +The value of so many tens of thousands of immigrants added to the assets +of western commonwealths,--so many scores of thousands of "hands," to +make use of the colloquial term for labor units,--is at once great and +difficult to measure or estimate. In economic terms, how much is a +full-grown, healthy, intelligent, literate young man worth to a +community into which he drops himself, for is he not as much a finished +labor-performing machine as a new traction engine or a span of mules, +either of which the assessor would set down in his books? The risks and +pains and costs of up-bringing through unproductive years, of educating, +of training for occupation, have all been borne by another community; +the increment of wealth arising from his labor, providence, and skill +will enrich the United States. + +Yet it is not a fair test of the value of an immigrant to this country +to measure it by the cost of his bringing up and education, either by +the standards of his old home or by the American standards. Professor +Mayo-Smith pointed out the fallacy in the oft-quoted estimate of Kapp, +made up on this basis, that "the capital value of each male and female +immigrant was about $1,500 and $750 respectively, making an average of +$1125."[215] Dr. Young, formerly Chief of the United States Bureau of +Statistics, chooses as a basis the "market value" rather than the "cost +of production," and estimates the approximate yearly addition made by +each immigrant to the realized wealth of the country in the form of +farms, buildings, stock, tools, and savings, to be about $40, which, +capitalized at 5%, gives $800 as the value of each immigrant.[216] An +interesting German calculation in 1881, made in much the same way as Dr. +Young's, put the capital value of each immigrant at $1,200.[217] Another +method of gauging the amount contributed to the earnings of the country +by each immigrant, is to multiply the average daily wage of $1 by +one-fifth the total number of immigrants, and that by 300, the number +of working days in the year.[218] Taking the values of the immigrant +over fourteen years of age and under forty-five, as $1000, and +estimating conservatively that 80 per-cent of the foreign-born +enumerated in the census of 1900 reached the United States between those +ages, the Scandinavians so enumerated represented a capital value of +about $850,000,000, to which the immigration from the North countries in +the next five years added not less than $230,000,000. Viewed from one +point, this capital was just so much given by the gods of plenty to +accelerate the development of the West. + + [215] Kapp, _Immigration and the New York Commissioners of + Emigration_, 146; Mayo-Smith, _Emigration and Immigration_, + ch. vi. + + [216] Young, _Special Report on Immigration_ (1871), vii-ix. + + [217] "According to other statistics, the average annual earnings of a + workman amount to $625, and one may safely presume that every + able-bodied workman contributes every year 1/5 of his earnings + to the increase of national wealth. Taking into consideration + the period of time of a full working capacity of emigrants + according to their age, and considering the much less working + capacity of females, and the cost of raising the children which + they bring with them, one may fairly presume that, during the + last few years, not only considerable cash capital has been + taken to the United States by emigrants, but that every one of + them carries to that country, in his labor, a capital which may + be estimated at $1200. The total value of the labor thus + conveyed to the United States during the last five years, may + therefore be estimated at about $700,000,000. No wonder that the + United States of America prosper." _Hamburger Handelsblatt_, + March 18, 1881, quoted in translation from this "leading trade + journal of Germany", in _Annual Report of the Wisconsin Board + of Immigration_, 1881, 14. + + [218] J. B. Webber, in _North American Review_, CLIV, 435 (1892). + +Another phase of the economic advantages of Scandinavian immigration has +to do with the cash capital brought by the incoming thousands. While the +first Norwegians were of the poorest class of the community, who escaped +from unfavorable conditions almost empty-handed, squeezed out from the +bottom of society, as it were through cracks and crevices, and while +many of the later arrivals have had no other capital than strong hands +and equally strong determination, the great proportion of adults have +brought with them average sums variously estimated from $22 to $70 each. +G. H. Schwab of New York, whose firm was general American agent for the +North German Lloyd Steamship Company, estimated the average money or +money equivalent brought by the Scandinavians, at $22 per head, probably +including children in the calculation.[219] W. W. Thomas, Jr., +Commissioner of Immigration for Maine, and later minister to Sweden, +states that 900 Swedes who came to Maine in one year, besides clothing, +tools, and household goods, had $40,000 in cash; and elsewhere he puts +the average at $50 per head.[220] The figures from Wisconsin, which +received better material than the average, would naturally run higher; +in 1880 the official estimate of cash brought by each immigrant was +"from $60 to $70."[221] Assuming an average of 50,000 Scandinavian +immigrants per year for the last thirty years,--a safe minimum--and an +average of $50 cash per capita, the annual addition to the cash capital +of the country would be at least $2,500,000. + + [219] _Forum_, XIV, 810. + + [220] _Report of the Board and Commissioner of Immigration of Maine_, + 1872, 6; F. L. Dingley, "European Emigration," _Special + Consular Reports_, II, No. 2, 1890, 260. + + [221] _Annual Report of the Board of Immigration of Wisconsin_, 1880, + 4. A writer in the _Milwaukee Sentinel_, Sept. 10, 1889, states, + "Many of them (Germans and Scandinavians) bring abundant means + to secure large farms and stock them well." + +Whatever may be gained in this way is, however, offset by the steady +stream of remittances flowing from America to Northern Europe, +especially during the last quarter of a century, and by the large sums +spent by the thousands of erstwhile immigrants returning to their old +homes for a winter or for a vacation.[222] Many a son, prospering in +America, has contributed regularly to the support or added comfort of +his parents or family in the fatherland; every holiday season swells the +mail sacks with letters containing money-orders and drafts. During 1902 +at least $1,000,000 was sent to Norway alone.[223] In the last two +months of 1903, it is estimated that $3,000,000 went from the United +States to the Scandinavian countries in these personal remittances.[224] +Another sort of remittance which does not immediately take the form of +cash, is the prepaid ticket for passage to an American port, sent to +friends and relatives to assist them to emigrate. The United States +consuls at Bergen and Gothenburg reported that about one-half of the +emigrants from Norway and Sweden in 1891 made the journey on tickets +sent from America.[225] In this connection, it should be noted that the +money thus spent by immigrants is not in the nature of a permanent +investment of hoarded earnings; it is not the remittance of "birds of +passage" like some Italians, for example, who will shortly follow it. In +comparison with the millions of dollars sent home by Italian immigrants +in an average year, the Scandinavian remittances and spendings are +almost insignificant.[226] + + [222] Brace, _The Norsefolk_, 146; _Harper's Weekly_, Sept. 1, 1888; + _Gamla och Nya Hemlandet_, Jan. 14, 1903 (Malmö correspondent). + + [223] _Special Consular Reports_, XXX, 116 (1903, Christiania). + + [224] _Amerika_, Jan. 8, 1904. + + [225] _Letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, etc._, 1892, 45, 50, + 65. + + [226] "In an average year the Italian bankers of New York City alone + sent to Italy from $25,000,000 to $30,000,000. This is said + to have an appreciative effect upon the money market." + _Lippincott's Magazine_, LVIII, 234 (1896). + +From the first, great numbers of the immigrants have come with no other +capital than strong and willing hands, stout hearts, and an unchanging +land-hunger. They served for a time as laborers on the older farms, in +town, in the lumber camps, or in railroad construction, saving their +money, learning American ways, and acquiring some English, but as soon +as money enough was saved, perhaps in a year, to buy forty or eighty +acres of government land at the minimum price, a yoke of oxen or a team +of horses, and a few necessary farm tools and implements, the +prospective farmer moved upon new land and started out for himself. +Under the Homestead Act of 1862 the amount of capital required for the +beginning of operations was greatly reduced, and it was under this act +that the lands of the northwestern States beyond the Mississippi were so +rapidly taken up.[227] + + [227] "An Act to secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public + Domain," _U. S. Statutes at Large_, 1861-2, 392. + +A typical illustration of the process described is found in Levor +Timanson, who came with his father in 1848, at the age of eighteen, to +Rock County, Wisconsin, where he worked for several years as farm +laborer, carpenter, and mason. He visited Iowa and Minnesota in 1853 in +search of satisfactory land; finding it at Spring Grove, in the latter +State, he settled down there as a grain and stock farmer. In 1882 he +owned 840 acres of land of which 550 acres were under cultivation.[228] +A study of the histories of counties and townships in eastern Iowa and +Minnesota, and of the biographies which usually accompany them, reveals +clearly the fact that the larger part of the Scandinavian farmers +resident in those counties in the sixties and seventies spent from one +to five years in Wisconsin or Illinois before moving into the Farther +West.[229] They were in turn apprentices and journeymen, and finally +attained to the full dignity of masters of their own estates. + + [228] _History of Houston County, Minnesota_, 481. + + [229] _History of Goodhue County, Minnesota_; _History of Houston + County, Minnesota_; Sparks, _History of Winneshiek County, + Iowa_. See the numerous biographies in Nelson, _History of + the Scandinavians_, I, II. + +The economic as well as the social importance of the tendency of the +Scandinavian immigrants to settle upon the unoccupied farm lands of the +West, can scarcely be over-emphasized. It gains still more striking +significance when the figures showing such settlement are compared with +those of some other races which have more recently contributed largely +to the immigrant population; for the man who owns and develops a farm +necessarily makes a permanent, long-time investment of himself and his +family in a reproductively extractive industry; while the wage-earner in +the mines or in lumbering is quite likely to be a "bird of passage," +engaged in destructively extractive industries, with only vague notions +of, or longings for, citizenship and its responsibilities. Professor +John R. Commons, perhaps the best statistical authority on this subject, +gives some striking figures illustrative of the farm-ward tendencies of +different alien elements, showing the percentage of total number of +males in 1890 engaged (1) on farms, (2) as farmers and planters, and (3) +as laborers not specified:[230] + + (1) (2) (3) + Farm Labor Farmers Laborers + + Danes 40.78 27.41 13.30 + Swedes and Norwegians 38.26 27.12 14.95 + Germans 27.04 21.14 11.58 + English 18.53 14.82 7.47 + Irish 14.71 11.60 25.16 + Russians 13.19 11.03 10.96 + Italians 5.81 3.91 34.15 + Hungarians 3.92 2.13 32.44 + +From calculations based upon the reports of the censuses of 1870, 1880, +and 1890, it appears that one out of four of the Scandinavians was in +the last year engaged in agriculture; of the Americans, one out of five; +of the Germans, one out of six; and of the Irish, one out of +twelve.[231] + + [230] _Report of the Industrial Commission_, XV, 301-302. Mr. R. C. + Jones, assistant superintendent of Castle Garden, New York, + estimated, according to an interview in the _Milwaukee + Sentinel_, Dec. 30, 1888, that about one Swede out of a + hundred went to a city. + + [231] See Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 246. + +One of the very natural consequences of the tendency of the Norse +immigrants to seek agricultural locations, and to seek them along the +advancing frontier, is the township and even the county, particularly in +Minnesota and the Dakotas,[232] peopled almost solidly with the men and +women of one nationality. The names of post-offices and townships, and +the assessment rolls of the counties, bear witness to the density of +these settlements which were made up of immigrants in both the first and +second stages, composed in part of people coming from the older colonies +like those in Dane County, Wisconsin, or Henry County, Illinois, or +Goodhue County, Minnesota, and in part of newcomers direct from their +Old World homes. About 1880, the names of those whose land abutted upon +the two railroads traversing Houston County, Minnesota showed plainly +this process of massing. Taken in order, the first twenty-two names were +those of American, Irish, and German settlers; then followed nineteen, +all Scandinavian save two.[233] Fillmore County, Minnesota, one of the +older counties, largely Norwegian from its beginning, and Chisago +County, on the eastern border of the same State, a stronghold of the +Swedes from its first settlement, are excellent examples of the economic +contributions made to the State by the Scandinavian element through its +development of the wilderness into cultivated fields and prosperous +villages. Of the transformation of Dakota before 1890, and the part of +the sons of the North in it, a writer says: "Most of them came with just +enough to get on Government land and build a shack.... Now they are +loaning money to their less fortunate neighbors.... Every county has +Norwegians who are worth from $25,000 to $50,000, all made since +settling in Dakota."[234] + + [232] _History of the Upper Mississippi Valley_, 281, 312, 416, 440, + 511; _History of Fillmore County, Minnesota_, 344, 346; + _Northwest Magazine_, Oct., 1899. + + [233] _History of Houston County, Minnesota_, 286. + + [234] _The Northwest Magazine_, Oct., 1889, p. 32. + +In comparing statistics of such counties as Fillmore and Chisago, +showing their growth in wealth and productivity, as reported in the +decennial census, two facts regarding the nativity and parentage of the +population must be kept clearly in mind if the full significance of the +work of the men of alien stock is to be appreciated: first, that the +increase of the foreign born is largely made up of adults; second, that +the increase of the native-born is in reality an increase of the purely +Norwegian or Swedish element, the sons and daughters, grandsons and +granddaughters of foreign-born parents, for the census-taker, even in +1900, did not penetrate beyond the first degree of ancestry. + +The tabulation given in Appendix II illustrates the economic progress of +three Minnesota counties in which the Norse factor has been strong from +the early days of their settlement: Fillmore, Chisago, and Otter Tail, +one of the newer counties in the west-central part of the State. From +these figures some conception of the influence of the North European in +one American commonwealth may be obtained. These are not unique cases, +but rather they are what might be called normal counties of their class, +counties whose population is made up more or less of good native-born +settlers from the older Eastern States. + +Several processes already discussed will be easily and forcibly +illustrated by these tables. In Fillmore County, for example, the oldest +of the three, the increase of the foreign-born element was most rapid in +the decade 1870-1880, while during the next ten years there was a +distinct falling off, due beyond any doubt to the rise in the price of +lands in that county and to the opening up of new counties like Otter +Tail where just as good land was to be had at the minimum rate. This +falling off was paralleled in the same decade in Chisago County, while +both the rise and decline in the number of foreign-born Norwegians +going into Otter Tail County occur in the two later decades, 1880-1890 +and 1890-1900, when the Dakotas were filling up. + +The continuing additions to the acreage of farm lands and the steady +transformation of unimproved areas into improved areas, indicate the +extent to which the labor of alien hands was enhancing the value of the +prairies even down to 1900, and presumably since that date. The figures +for the increase of the cash values of the farms, including fences, +etc., but not improvements, have been chosen because the increases in +the total valuations of counties is not infrequently due to the rise of +considerable villages and cities, and to the building of railroads, and +to these enterprises in contrast with the evolution of agricultural +values, the Scandinavian is a comparatively insignificant contributor. +The extent to which this development of rural areas may go, is curiously +evidenced in the names of the subdivisions of the relatively new Otter +Tail County. Of its sixty-two townships in 1900, not less than thirteen +bear unmistakable Scandinavian (Norwegian) names--Aastad, Aurdal, +Norwegian Grove, St. Olaf, Tordenskjold, Throndhjem, etc. + +The price which the immigrant-agriculturist was willing to pay for his +coveted free-hold farm was not measured in dollars and cents alone. In a +very real way, the land was to become the property of the highest +bidder, tho each one paid $1.25 per acre; the land was sure to go to +him who would in the long run put the most of himself into the +bargain--muscle, courage, patience, pride in his family, and the future +of himself and his family as over against the present. It was due in no +small degree to the composite nature of this individual investment by +the man from Europe's Northwest, that he so promptly and intelligently +succeeded in acquiring free of debt his farm and home in the American +Northwest.[235] + + [235] See the testimony of John Anderson, editor of _Daily + Skandinaven_, before the Select (Congressional) Committee + on Immigration and Naturalization, 1891. _House Reports, + No. 3472_, 51 Cong. 2 Sess., 679-683. + +Another reason for his nearly uniform success lies in the fact that he +was brought up to a more careful and intensive system of farming than +his average American neighbor. Perhaps, too, he works harder than the +American, but hard work, long and unflinchingly continued, is a +fundamental condition of the success of a farmer whatever his +nationality. From the Scandinavian immigrant's point of view, he does +not work so hard in the United States, in order to gain a given +result,--ownership of his own farm, for illustration,--as he would have +had to work in the land of his birth. Personal interviews with scores of +men in various parts of the Northwest confirm the opinion expressed to +Miss Bremer in Wisconsin so far back as 1850, when pioneering was as +hard as at any time since the "Sloop Folk" landed in New York: "About +seven hundred Norwegian colonists are settled in this neighborhood, all +upon small farms.... I asked many, both men and women, whether they were +contented; whether they were better off here or in old Norway. Nearly +all of them replied, '_Yes_, we are better off here; we do not work so +hard, and it is easier to gain a livelihood.'"[236] + + [236] Bremer, _Homes of the New World_, I, 242. + +In a discussion of the competition of the immigrants with American +laborers, an eminent scholar maintains that the Scandinavians of the +West have succeeded where the American with a better start has +failed.[237] He questions if this success is a survival of the fittest, +if it has not been purchased at the expense of American labor which is +forced elsewhere, because the Americans will not endure the hard work +and live on the coarse fare, through which the immigrants win their +success.[238] However true this might be as a generalization about +immigrants as a whole, it can hardly be true of the Swedes and +Norwegians, except in so far as they have been more willing than the +native American to live the life of a pioneer and to stick to the soil. +But this cannot fairly be called forcing out American labor, or driving +the American to the wall; immigrant labor went in where there was no +labor of any kind. Furthermore, up to 1890, there was certainly plenty +of land for all the American, or native-born, laborers who desired to +devote themselves to that sort of work by which the Scandinavians were +gaining their independence. If the agricultural land of the vast West be +looked upon as a national asset, to be held for cautious and +discriminating distribution to examined and approved settlers, then it +may be that the foreigner has occupied land which might have sometime +fallen to a better man. + + [237] Mayo-Smith, _Emigration and Immigration_, 146. + + [238] _Ibid._, quoting a letter from Fargo, Dakota, July 24, 1887, to + the _New York Times_. + +The standard of living among the Scandinavian settlers, whether on the +frontier or in the towns, has not been very different from that of their +American neighbors. It cannot vary much in a sod-house on the prairie, +in a cabin on a claim, or in a log-hut in a clearing, whether the +occupant be of Viking or Puritan descent.[239] The food was Indian corn, +sometimes ground in a coffee-mill, occasionally wheat, milk, fish, wild +fowl, pork, and common vegetables; the clothing was often primitive and +always rough, and in the early days, at least, "men in wooden shoes and +home-made woolen jackets were no uncommon sights at their religious +meetings, or even when they were locked in holy matrimony before the +altar."[240] But with prosperity, Americanization, and the settling up +of the region about them, they took to comforts and luxuries just as +soon as they could afford them. During the autumn of 1886 the writer +spent more than six weeks in the family of a well-to-do Danish farmer in +central Minnesota, and made frequent calls at the homes of Swedish and +American neighbors; very little perceptible difference could be observed +in the standards of living, whether judged by furniture, dress, or food. +In the gradations up to the wealthy families of the larger towns and +cities, the same statement would be true. If any modifications were to +be made, it would be that Scandinavians set a more bountiful table, and +give more attention than the Americans to festivals and celebrations. + + [239] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, ch. xi; Strömme, _Hvorledes + Halvor blev Prest_,--an excellent picture of life among the + Norwegians in Wisconsin and Minnesota; Foss, _Tobias: a Story + of the Northwest_. + + [240] _Scandinavia_, I, 142. + +The men of Scandinavian stock have by no means devoted themselves +exclusively to agriculture, tho it has already been shown how dominant +with them is the desire for the possession of land and the independence +which that possession brings. In business--trade, manufacturing, and +finance,--and in the professions, in all that differentiates the village +or urban community from time rural, they have, especially since 1890, +played an active part. A rising percentage of skilled laborers and of +those who had in the Old World experience with business affairs, marked +the immigration from Northern Europe after 1880. The accumulated wealth +of the earlier immigrants sought investment in the thriving towns of the +newer commonwealths of the Northwest. Villages which sprang up along +railroads, became cities with the advent of other lines; water power has +developed fast; the forests were to be turned into lumber and its +further manufactured products. The Scandinavian villages and wards of +great cities evolved their own stores, shops, factories, and banks just +as they did their churches, lodges, and other social organizations, +manned by men of ambition, ability, skill, and resourcefulness. + +Both in the cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, Rockford, and Madison, and +in the more homogeneous villages of the solidly Scandinavian counties, +Norwegian and Swedish merchants and tradesmen, catering to Americans as +well as to persons of their own nationality, rapidly achieved success +and fortune. Seven years after landing, a Swedish immigrant is +reported in 1873 to have built up in Anoka, Minnesota, the largest +grocery establishment in that section, doing an annual business of +$100,000.[241] In the city of Minneapolis one of the largest department +stores west of Chicago, and probably the greatest Scandinavian business +house in the country, is that of S. E. Olson & Co., which does a yearly +business of about $2,000,000, and in the height of the season employs +more than 700 persons.[242] Scattered over the Northwest are scores of +enterprising Scandinavian individuals and firms engaged in business as +merchants, grain-dealers, contractors, etc., whose annual business +passes $100,000.[243] + + [241] _History of the Upper Mississippi Valley_, 228. + + [242] Söderström, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 204; Nelson, _History of the + Scandinavians_, I, 466. + + [243] _Ibid._, I, 504, 467; II, 160, 164, 193, 229, 233, 248, 261; + Söderström, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 202, 203. + +The manufacturing industries in which the Swedes and Norwegians play the +more active part are those closely related to agriculture and the +forest--the cutting and sawing of lumber, the manufacture of furniture, +and the manufacture of agricultural implements. By foresight and shrewd +investments in timber lands in Wisconsin and Minnesota, a certain +Norwegian immigrant accumulated nearly a million dollars; a Swedish +immigrant in like manner built up the C. A. Smith Lumber Company of +Minneapolis, one of the great manufacturers of the upper Mississippi +Valley, with works occupying seventy acres, employing upwards of 800 +men, and with branch lumber yards situated in western Minnesota and in +the Dakotas.[244] + + [244] S. A. Quale, a Norwegian immigrant of 1869, and C. A. Smith, a + Swedish immigrant of 1867. _The North_, May 21, 1890; + Söderström, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 191. + +The manufacture of furniture is the chief occupation of the Swedes of +Rockford, Illinois, who comprise fully one-third of that city's +population of 30,000. In 1875 fifteen Swedes organized the Forest City +Furniture Company, with a capital of $50,000; ten years later, Rockford +was the second city in the country in the production of furniture, and +in 1893 there were more than twenty furniture companies with a capital +varying from $50,000 to $200,000. Nearly all of these companies were +organized on the co-operative basis, nearly all were composed of Swedes, +and nearly all were earning a clear profit of 20 per-cent and +upwards.[245] Other notable instances of successful Scandinavian +manufacturers are John A. Johnson, whose works for making agricultural +implements in Madison, Wisconsin, employed about 300 men; the great +printing and publishing house of John Anderson & Company of Chicago, +from which are issued the daily and weekly editions of "Skandinaven," +and the Swedish-American Publishing Company of Minneapolis, publishing +the widely circulated "Svenska Amerikanska Posten."[246] + + [245] Kæding, _Rockfords Svenskar_, 67, 95; _The North_, Jan. 8, 1890, + July 12, 1893. + + [246] Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, II, 209; Söderström, + _Minneapolis Minnen_, 181-189. + +The economic progress of the immigrants from the Northlands may well be +gauged by the number of public and private banking establishments in the +Northwest controlled by them. Surprisingly numerous are the men who, +after gaining a competency as merchants, grain-dealers (one of these +built twenty-five elevators along the Great Northern Railway), land +speculators, and lumbermen, have turned to banking as their communities +developed. The market for capital was active, ready to absorb large or +small amounts; rates of interest ran from ten to twenty per cent.; the +thrift and honesty of the Norse folk were equivalent to a bond. Hence +small banks with $25,000 and $50,000 capital multiplied, not always on +the soundest basis, it should be said, though this does not imply +dishonesty. In Minneapolis, between 1874 and 1900, the names of no less +than six Scandinavian banks appear, the largest becoming the strong +Swedish American National Bank with a capital of $250,000.[247] Smaller +cities like Sioux City and Boone, Iowa, have developed similar sound +banks capitalized for $100,000. Not all Scandinavian bankers, however, +have escaped the temptations of "high finance," though the total of +failures is comparatively small. One of the most notorious and shameful +examples of bank-wrecking in recent years occurred in Chicago in 1906, +when Paul O. Stensland, for years the trusted and honored and admired +president of the Milwaukee Avenue State Bank, the depository of hundreds +of working men and small tradesmen, wrecked the bank through +speculations in real estate, fled to Africa, and was brought back and +placed in the Joliet prison for a term of fifteen years.[248] + + [247] Söderström, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 206; Nelson, _History of the + Scandinavians_, II, 164, 228. + + [248] The Chicago papers for August, September, and October give full + details of the wrecking of the bank and the career of its + president. See _Chicago Tribune_, August 9 ff., 1906. + +As the regions into which the Scandinavian immigrants have gone so +determinedly as agricultural settlers have gradually become more complex +in their economic structure, these men and women have once more +illustrated their notable capacity to adapt themselves to the new +conditions and to share in new advantages. The second and third +generation will probably develop much the same tendency city-ward which +the Americans of the same class show so markedly; and they will take +their share of the honors and emoluments of business, manufacturing, +banking, the technical professions, and the so-called learned +professions. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE RELIGIOUS AND INTELLECTUAL STANDPOINT + + +The social results of the settlement of a body of aliens in any country, +as compared with the economic, are far more undefinable and elusive, +even when the settlement is compact and homogenous, like that of the +Dutch in New York or the French in Louisiana. But when a particular +element, like the Irish or the Scandinavian, in a complex population, is +distributed over a wide area, with accessions running through +three-quarters of a century, the problem of its social influence and +importance becomes vastly more difficult. No study or observation of +such a well-established racial group, outside of the purely statistical, +at best can reach far beyond an impression or an individual opinion; it +cannot arrive at a convincing and conclusive scientific deduction.[249] +Looked at in its length and breadth, the question of social results of +Scandinavian immigration takes various forms. Have the foreign-born +citizen and his immediate descendants adapted themselves rapidly and +vitally to the best American customs in business, politics, education, +and religion? Have they learned English quickly? What has been their +attitude towards such questions as intemperance, slavery, and public +honesty? Are they re-enforcing the best standards of public and private +morality prevailing in the communities into which they come? + + [249] Hall, _Immigration_, ch. viii. + +Fundamental to this discussion, is the general effect of the process of +immigration and new settlement, upon the physical and intellectual state +of the immigrant and his offspring. It has already been pointed out that +the immigrants of the nineteenth century, like those hardy souls of the +sixteenth, who left England, Holland, France, or Sweden, were the more +adventurous and determined men and women of their parishes, and that the +incidents and anxieties of settling up affairs in their old homes and of +getting off for America, would stir to quicker thinking the minds of +even the slow and inert. Then came the influence of adjustment to the +ways of a new and larger world, with its greater distance, its more +rapid communication, its more strenuous activities, its new language, +and its different climate and diet; all these re-enforced the original, +quickened impulse, and of necessity affected both subtly and powerfully +the mind and body of two generations. + +The change has in general been for the better, tho some observers think +they see a retrogression, especially in physical respects. A Norwegian +physician who spent about nine months in the United States in 1892, +wrote for a Christiania medical journal an article in which he declared: +"That the Norwegian race in the United States is declining physically, +every one, I think, who has spent some time among our emigrated +countrymen there must admit. But the change is a slow one." The causes, +as he saw them, were the unwholesome climate of the Northwest, the +unsuitable food of the farmers, the cold, damp houses of the prairies, +and the abuse of alcoholic liquors and tobacco. By way of final summary +of opinions, he states that "the general rule is that, these dark sides +to the contrary notwithstanding, the social conditions in America and +its democratic institutions are conducive to individual thinking thereby +contributing to the development of individual talent, great or small as +that may be."[250] + + [250] Dr. E. Kraft, "The Physical Degeneration of the Norwegian Race + in North America," _The North_, Jan. 3, 1893,--translation from + _Norsk Magazin for Lægevidenskaben_; Ch. Gronvald, "The Effects + of the Immigration on the Norwegian Immigrants," appendix + to the _Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of + Minnesota_, (1878), II, 507-534. + +The views of Dr. Kraft were more or less disputed by several Norwegian +physicians in the United States, in _The North_ for January and +February, 1893. Dr. Harold Graff, writing to the periodical in which Dr. +Kraft's article originally appeared, says: "With astonishing rapidity, +the wide mouth and ungainly nose of the specific Norwegian peasant type +become modified and disappear, the difference between the physiognomy +and facial expression of parents and children being often bewilderingly +great.... I have interviewed some of the oldest and most experienced +physicians practising in this country, and also other intelligent +Norwegians who have travelled among their countrymen in the States, +without as yet having heard any divergent opinion whatever. All agree +that the Norwegian race in every respect is progressing in both mind and +body."[251] Others, who were not so sure of the physical improvement, +agree as to the intellectual quickening. In a word, if the transplanting +of the tree has not certainly produced an improved trunk or foliage, it +has bettered the quality of the fruit. The next logical step is to +attempt to estimate the value of such fruit in the American market. + + [251] _The North_, Jan. 18, 1893, translating the article mentioned. + +The two obvious ways of determining the influence of a foreign element, +are to compare it with some other foreign-born constituent longer and +better known, and to compare it with the native American. The latter is +the fairer criterion, but it is not easy to ascertain and define what +are the purely American characteristics with which comparison is to be +made. Statistics on social matters are so incomplete that reliance must +be placed upon the consensus of opinion of thoughtful, sympathetic +observers and students of American life, whether they be statesmen and +philosophers bred in the United States, or scholarly, penetrating +foreigners like James Bryce and Alexander de Toqueville.[252] Such men +of insight agree that the American ideal comprises love of freedom, +independence, and equality; respect for law, government, education, and +social morality (including reverence for the family and the home); and +lastly a willingness to share the common burden and, if need be, to make +a common sacrifice for the permanent welfare of the commonwealth. + + [252] Bryce, _American Commonwealth_ (3rd ed.), ch. lxxx; Matthews, + _American Character_, 20-34; Roosevelt, _American Ideals_, ch. + i, ii. + +In acquiring the use of English and in maintaining high standards of +education, the Scandinavians have an unimpeachable record which no other +foreign, non-English-speaking element can equal. Illiteracy in Norway +and Sweden is almost unknown. Taken together, these two kingdoms have +less than one per-cent of illiteracy, and among the recruits in Sweden +in 1896 only .13% were unlettered, and only .63% were unable to +write.[253] Personal acquaintance with many hundreds of Scandinavians, +on both sides of the Atlantic, has failed to reveal to the writer a +single adult who was unable to read and write. + + [253] _Statesman's Year Book, 1900_, 1049; Kiddle & Schem, _Dictionary + of Education_, 452. In the latter work, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, + and Switzerland are marked with asterisks, signifying that they + are practically without illiteracy. The contrast of these + figures with the percentages of illiteracy of some other + European countries is very striking. In 1890 the percentage of + illiterates in Austria was 40%, in Hungary, 54%, in Italy, in + 1897, among conscripts, 37.3% (reduced from 56.7% in 1871), and + among those persons marrying, males, 32.9%, females, 52.13% + (reduced respectively from 37.73% and 76.73% in 1871). For + Russia the percentage is probably about 80%, perhaps as high as + 90%. See _Statesman's Year Book, 1900_, 374-375, 392, 744-745. + Statistical returns relating to German army recruits indicate + that in 1896-7 only about .11% could neither read nor write. + _Ibid._, 592. See also, Hall, _Immigration_, 46, 48, 54, 61, + 141. + +One of the very first matters to receive attention in a Scandinavian +settlement in the United States, has been the establishment of a school, +and, as speedily as possible, the instruction has been given in English, +partly because the school laws of most of the States would not recognize +a public school conducted in a foreign language, and partly because the +settlers desired to have the children know English.[254] For a year or +two in some of the isolated communities, as in Arendahl, Fillmore +County, Minnesota, in 1857-8, it was necessary to conduct the schools in +Swedish or Norwegian; but only rarely has any attempt been made +to continue systematic, regular instruction exclusively in the +mother-tongue by the maintenance of year-long parish schools. The +immigrants have frequently been insistent, and properly so, upon some +scheme by which they might be able to educate their children in the use +of the mother-tongue; but schools for this purpose have usually +supplemented rather than supplanted the ordinary public school.[255] In +a very few localities, like the older settlements in Goodhue County and +Fillmore County, Minnesota, Allamakee County, Iowa, and Dane County, +Wisconsin, parish schools are still maintained throughout the year.[256] + + [254] _History of Fillmore County, Minnesota_, 346, 463,--a Norwegian + school for one year in a private house, then an English school; + Sparks, _History of Winneshiek County, Iowa_, 16-17. + + [255] For a discussion of the Bennett Law in Wisconsin, see pp. + 167 ff. + + [256] _Beretning om det syttende Aarsmöde for den Forenede norsk + lutherske Kirke i Amerika_, 1906,--"Parochialraporter for + Aaret 1905." + +The church schools are more commonly a sort of summer vacation school +supported either by the persons whose children attend, or at the expense +of the whole congregation; in them are taught the language of the +parents and the preacher, the church catechism, and something of church +history; sometimes especial attention, as in the case of the Danish +Grundtvigian "high schools," is given to keeping alive the traditions of +the European kingdom from which sprang the immigrants. The teacher of +both the language and the doctrines of religion is customarily a student +in some theological seminary of the denomination to which the +congregation belongs. The Lutherans have kept up these vacation schools +more consistently than any other Scandinavian church. The report of the +parochial schools of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church for 1905 +showed that on the average almost thirty days were devoted to the church +school in each of the 750 congregations reporting.[257] + + [257] "Sammendrag af Parochialraporter", _Beretning om det syttende + Aarsmöde for den Forenede norsk lutherske Kirke i Amerika_, + 1906, LVI; J. J. Skordalsvold, in Nelson, _History of the + Scandinavians_, I, 241. + +The clergy are mainly active in this mild paternalism, upon which the +younger people not infrequently look with disfavor, for to the second +generation it appears an unnecessary perpetuation of an un-American +custom, a scheme for emphasizing peculiarities and differences rather +than a means of hastening the process of amalgamation. Sometimes the +younger men have revolted and broken entirely with the Lutheran church, +identifying themselves with American congregations, or drifting out on +the wide sea of religious indifference. + +The loyalty of the Scandinavians to the public school system has been of +far-reaching consequence to the immigrants themselves as well as to +American society. There is always a more or less strongly marked +tendency among aliens speaking a foreign language to congregate in +groups in the country or in certain wards in large towns and cities, and +out of this tendency springs a sort of clannishness which cannot be +avoided and which is not peculiar to any class, for the immigrants +naturally follow the lines of least resistance. They go to those whom +they know, to those whose speech they can understand, to those from +whose experience they may draw large drafts of suggestion and help. But +this clannishness with the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, has been but a +stage in their evolution out of which, through the gates of the English +language, public schools, naturalization, and increased prosperity, they +have passed to broader relations. The filling up of the Scandinavian +quarters of great cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, may +modify the effect of their persistent attachment to the public school; +but so far the public school is the great foe to clannishness, and +loyalty to it one of the best evidences of the desire of these people +from the Northern lands to become Americanized. In the cities of +Minneapolis and St. Paul, with their large Scandinavian population, +there was not in 1907 a single parish in which the parochial school +lasted through the year, and only a few in which vacation schools were +maintained. + +In higher education the Scandinavians have allowed their denominational +zeal to outrun their judgment. They have founded numerous seminaries and +so-called colleges, but almost invariably as a part of the necessary +equipment of a religious denomination, for how could a self-respecting +sect, no matter how young or how slightly differentiated from its older +brethren, permit its children to attend the schools of those whose +denominational beliefs or practices had become objectionable enough to +warrant a schism in the church? A few of these institutions, like Luther +College, at Decorah, Iowa, Gustavus Adolphus College at St. Peter, +Minnesota, Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois, and Bethany +College at Lindsborg, Kansas, have maintained an excellent standard of +work and exercise a wide and beneficent influence.[258] The great +majority, however, have simply wasted resources by the multiplication of +ambitious, struggling, poorly-equipped, so-called colleges, with little +or no endowment, and often dependent upon the congregations of the +denomination which gave them birth.[259] + + [258] See catalogs of these institutions. + + [259] Several of the Norwegian and Swedish weekly papers supported by + the different denominations publish regularly lists of donors to + particular schools, stating the amount of money, or the nature + of the articles given, enumerating the books, quantities of + fuel, clothing, etc. + +One of the results of the excessive splitting-up of the Scandinavian +churches is that the energies which ought to be concentrated are +frittered away on unnecessary schools. A separate denominational school +and a family paper seem to be indispensable parts of the machinery of +every newly organized sect, no matter how young or how small or how poor +it may be.[260] The number of these institutions continually varies with +the ups and downs of the denominations trying to support them. In 1893, +Mr. J. J. Skordalsvold, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, put +the number of Scandinavian colleges, schools, and seminaries in the +United States at thirty-six, with an attendance of about five +thousand.[261] Sixteen of these, with an attendance of twenty-five +hundred, one-half of the total, were located in Minnesota. By 1900 the +sixteen had grown to twenty schools, having property worth $500,000, one +hundred and sixty teachers, and three thousand students.[262] In that +state, however, and in others like North Dakota, these schools are +likely to follow the same course as many of the schools of other +pioneering Protestant denominations, and become little more than +preparatory schools on the one hand, or theological seminaries on the +other, leaving to the State university the maintenance of higher +education in every field save arts and theology. Even as secondary +schools, not many of them will be likely to survive the third generation +of the original immigrants, unless they are much better endowed than any +one of them is at the present time.[263] The Red Wing Seminary (Hauge +Synod) of Red Wing, Minnesota, founded in 1878, is essentially an +ordinary private secondary school with a theological course attached, +and three-fourths of its work is conducted in English.[264] Bethany +College at Lindsborg, Kansas, one of the three prosperous Swedish +colleges, and perhaps the most ambitious, is substantially an +English-speaking college, with nine departments of instruction, and in +1912 a registration of 919. Only in the classes in Swedish language and +literature is the instruction given in Swedish, tho "Swedish is required +of all students preparing to enter the ministerial work of our Swedish +Evangelical Lutheran Church."[265] Luther College, the Norwegian +institution at Decorah, Iowa, has followed along the same course only +not quite so far. Several years ago the proportion between English and +Norwegian as media of instruction was slightly in favor of the English +in the college classes; in the classes in the preparatory department, +in the literary societies, and in the conversation of the students, +English was decidedly predominant.[266] The practice of this, the +oldest, and in some respects the soundest and most influential, of the +Scandinavian colleges, is sure to be adopted by the lesser schools which +survive their adolescence. + + [260] Bille, _History of the Danes in America_, 20-24,--an excellent + account of some of these attempts. + + [261] (Transcriber's Note: This footnote does not exist in the + original work.) + + [262] Nelson, _Scandinavians in the United States_ (2nd ed.), 317 ff. + + [263] _The World Almanac and Encyclopedia_, 1914, 599-609. + + Instructors Students Prod. Fds. Income + + Augsburg Seminary 8 173 40,000 20,000 + Augustana College 31 629 414,356 101,923 + Bethany College (Kan.) 44 893 55,777 93,166 + Gustavus Adolphus College 23 348 75,000 35,328 + Luther College 16 213 272,408 37,000 + St. Olaf College 32 550 250,000 74,000 + + [264] Interview with Professor G. O. Brohough, August, 1906. See + Nelson, _Scandinavians in the United States_, I, 179-180. + + [265] _Catalogue of Bethany College, 31st Academic Year_ (1912), 54. + + [266] A. Estrem, "A Norwegian-American College," _Midland Monthly_, I, + 605-611. + +From a religious standpoint, the most noteworthy characteristic of +Scandinavians wherever found, is their intense Protestantism. Everywhere +and always they are uncompromising enemies of the Roman Catholic church, +and there are barely enough Catholics among them in Europe and in the +United States to prove that it is possible to convert one of them to +that faith. In fact, their dislike of Catholicism is an instinct coming +down from Reformation times rather than a matter of experience or +close-at-hand observation; but so strong is this feeling that it colors, +consciously or unconsciously, their relations in politics and society in +the United States. Their distrust of the Irish is at bottom more a +religious than a racial instinct, even when it takes an active form. +While this dislike and suspicion are still real and large, it has +undoubtedly been reduced by the breaking-up of the old rigid lines of +Lutheranism, which has taken place in the last two decades in the United +States. + +Each of the three peninsular kingdoms of Northern Europe has an +established Lutheran church, administered by bishops, which holds still +the great majority of the people. Toleration has been generally +practiced for a half century, the sole exception being the ban against +Jesuits in Norway.[267] Of all the Protestant churches, none is more +rigidly orthodox than the Lutheran, none is more unwilling to admit +changes in its traditional creed; only a few years ago, the Norwegian +Synod in America re-affirmed its belief in the literal inspiration of +the Bible. Yet in spite of this conservatism, the Lutherans settled in +the United States have invariably rejected the episcopal form of +government, and have organized upon a more or less democratic basis. No +matter how loyal they were to the Establishment in the Old World, a +bishop has not appeared to be necessary to their happiness or salvation +in the New. The Lutheran Church proper has kept within its folds a much +larger percentage of Swedes than of Norwegians in the United States, the +characteristic independence of the latter leading many of them even +farther than mere separation from the mother-church. The persistence of +the centrifugal force of dissent shows itself again and again in the +violent polemics and divisions which have marked the course of Norwegian +church history in America.[268] While this divisiveness may in some +degree be due to the fashion set by the early settlers of whom many were +dissenters, probably the deeper cause is to be found in the general +freedom from religious restriction and prescription which characterizes +the whole United States and especially the West. + + [267] _The Statesman's Year Book, 1900_, 491, 1048, 1062. + + [268] Gjerset, "_The United Norwegian Lutheran Church_," in Nelson, + _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 229-242. + +Even the more extreme sects, in regard to belief and practice, have been +recruited from among the Scandinavians both before and since their +coming to this country. The Mormons were early at work as missionaries +in Northern Europe and, as has been stated above, won many converts, +particularly in Denmark, from whose immigration Utah mainly profited. In +1900 Utah had a total foreign-born population of 53,777, of whom 9132 +were Danes; 7025, Swedes; and 2128, Norwegians. The real result of the +missionary work, however, is better seen in the figures for persons +having both parents born in a specified country and residing in Utah in +1900: Danes, 18,963; Swedes, 12,047; Norwegians, 3,466; total, +34,476.[269] + + [269] _Twelfth Census, 1900_, _Population_, Pt. I, Tables 33 and 39; + H. H. Bancroft, _Utah_, 441, 431; Montgomery, _The Work Among + the Scandinavians_, 8. Mr. Montgomery, the superintendent of + Minnesota for the American Home Missionary Society (1886), + laments the fact that very large numbers of the Scandinavians + "have become converts to Mormonism, and have 'gathered' to + Utah," and adds further: "I have before me the official + statistics of the Mormon church (not easily obtained) giving a + report of their missionary work in Scandinavia for each year + from 1851 to 1881. They report that their converts in these + lands during these thirty-one years reached the enormous total + of 132,766 persons, and that of these 21,000 emigrated to Utah." + From a beginning of four elders of the Mormon church at work in + Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in 1850, the force increased to + sixty-one missionaries at work in 1881. + +The American churches and missionary societies were not unmindful of the +needs of the Scandinavians scattered over the Middle West in the early +days of its development, and in zealous and effective fashion gave them +aid. The work of the Hedström brothers in New York and in the West, +already described, reflects credit on the Methodist Church. Once at +least, help came to them from an unexpected source: Jenny Lind, the +"Swedish Nightingale," devoted to charity the proceeds of a concert in +New York, in November, 1850, and among the items of the distribution of +the total of $5073.20 by a committee, is "To the Relief of the Poor +Swedes and Norwegians in the city of New York per the Rev. Mr. Hedström, +$273.20. To the distribution of Swedish Bibles and Testaments, in New +York."[270] Besides the Bethel Ship in New York Harbor (1845), this same +church established a Scandinavian mission in the Rock River Conference, +in Illinois, in 1849, and two others in Iowa and Wisconsin in 1850. +Three years later the report showed two Swedish missions with four +missionaries, and two Norwegian missions with four missionaries.[271] + + [270] Rosenberg, _Jenny Lind in America_, 79. + + [271] Simpson, _Cyclopedia of Methodism_, 785. + +The American Lutheran churches undertook to aid their co-religionists, +and in 1850 the Pittsburg Synod and the Joint Synod of Ohio each sent +one of its ministers into the Northwest, but the epidemic of cholera +caused them to hurry back to their former homes.[272] The real support +of some of the immigrant Lutheran missionaries came from the American +Home Missionary Society (Congregational). One of the men thus assisted +was Paul Anderson (Norland) who came from Norway in 1843, and received +a part of his education in the new Congregational college at Beloit. He +was chosen pastor of the first Norwegian Lutheran Church in Chicago in +1848, and journeyed to Albany, New York, to be ordained by a Lutheran +minister, but he nevertheless served under a commission from the +Congregational Society, and made reports to it for several years.[273] + + [272] _The North_, Aug. 30, 1893, quoting from _The Workman_. + + [273] Jensson, _American Lutheran Biographies_, 25 ff; _The Home + Missionary_, XXII, 263, 264; XXIII, 119. In Anderson's report + for 1850 is an account of a visit to Dane County, Wisconsin, + where 'one of the Formalists,' after five years of labor had + failed to bring much enlightenment. "There are some four + thousand or more Norwegians in one settlement, about + three-quarters of whom are members of this man's church, and the + rest are sheep without a shepherd. They had had preaching there + for the last five years, but such gross immorality I had never + witnessed before.... We have no reasonable ground to hope that a + single individual of those three thousand souls is converted to + God; for all are intemperate and profane.... Of all I saw (and I + saw a great many) two out of three were intoxicated, or had been + drinking so that it was offensive to come within the sphere + poisoned by their breath; and of every two I heard talking + together one or both profaned their Maker." + +In a similar manner this Society supported for several years the +missionary labors of Lars Paul Esbjörn, a graduate of Upsala University, +who was ordained a Lutheran clergyman when he emigrated in 1849, and +likewise the labors of T. N. Hasselquist. Esbjörn was appointed a +missionary of the Society in December, 1849, on the recommendation of +the Central Association of Congregational Ministers of Illinois, to whom +he presented his credentials and by whom he was examined and received +into the Association.[274] He was re-appointed year by year, making +reports from 1851 to 1854.[275] Hasselquist makes acknowledgment of his +obligations to the Society in a letter of July, 1853, saying that he +rejoices "in connection with your in the highest sense benevolent +Society, without which it would have been impossible for me to do for my +scattered countrymen what I have done.... I give humble thanks to the +Home Missionary Association which out of Christian benevolence helps to +build up the Kingdom of Christ among scattered Swedes who are almost all +very poor, but still love the word of God."[276] In 1852 the Society +appointed the Rev. Ole Anderson [Andrewson?] to the charge of the +Scandinavian church in Racine, Wisconsin, and two years later he reports +to the Society from La Salle County, Illinois.[277] + + [274] _The Home Missionary_, XXIII, 250, 263. + + [275] _Ibid._, XXIV, 238; XXIV, 287. + + [276] _The Home Missionary_, XXVI, 73. + + [277] _Ibid._, XXV, 77; XXVI, 268. + +Since the Civil War and the great increase in the numbers of immigrants, +the home missionary efforts of the Methodists, Congregationalists, and +Baptists have been carried on with persistence, if not always with +perfect wisdom. In 1911 the Methodists had five Swedish Conferences with +222 churches, a membership of about 18,000, and property valued at +upwards of $2,000,000, and two Norwegian-Danish Conferences, with 119 +churches, 6,300 members, and property worth $400,000.[278] The cost of +this work to the Methodist Missionary Society is not far from $50,000 +per year.[279] The Baptists began their proselyting work in Norway and +Sweden, and have prosecuted it steadily in the Northwest since the +establishment of the first Swedish Baptist church in Rock Island, +Illinois, in 1852. In 1912 the church reports showed 18 Swedish +conferences, 374 churches, 28,000 members, and current income of +about $350,000, and also eleven Norwegian-Danish conferences, 94 +churches, 5,900 members, and current income of $65,500.[280] The +Congregationalists have pushed their denominational interests in like +manner, and in 1913 had about one hundred churches, with rather more +than six thousand members.[281] Besides these churches regularly +connected with the Congregational organization, there are about one +hundred congregations of the Swedish Mission Union, and the group of +independent congregations whose faith and practice are closely allied +with those of the Congregationalists.[282] The Unitarian church has +endeavored to organize congregations, spending $25,000 on one church in +Minneapolis in sixteen years.[283] A few Protestant Episcopal parishes +also exist among the Swedes, chiefly in the large cities.[284] + + [278] Liljegren, "Historical Review of Scandinavian Methodist in the + United States," in Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, + 208; _The Methodist Year Book_, 1912, 42-45. + + [279] Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 337; _The Methodist + Year Book_, 1912, 90-92. + + [280] Newman, _A Century of Baptist Achievement_, 126; Nelson (and + Peterson), _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 202; _Annual of + the Northern Baptist Convention_, 1913, 189. + + [281] _Congregational Year Book_, 1914. Cf. Nelson, _Scandinavians + in the United States_, I, 346; Montgomery, _Work among the + Scandinavians_ (1888), and a _"Wind from the Holy Spirit" in + Norway and Sweden_, 7-8, 109-112. + + [282] Söderström, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 231-236. + + [283] _Cosmopolitan_, Oct., 1890; Nelson, _Scandinavians in the United + States_, I, 337; Söderstsröm, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 249-250. + + [284] Söderström, _Minneapolis Minnen_, 237-241. + +The three denominations first mentioned have for many years maintained, +in their respective western theological seminaries, departments or +professorships for the education of young men for ministerial service +among the immigrants from the Northlands. At the Chicago Theological +Seminary (Congregationalist) the Dano-Norwegian department was organized +in 1884, with one professor and two students; in the following year a +Swedish department was added, the professor being chosen from the +Swedish Free Mission Church. In 1906 these two departments had each two +professors and respectively thirteen and twenty-seven students, and +published a religious paper, _Evangelisten_.[285] Besides the Garrett +Biblical Institute (Methodist), Northwestern University has two similar +departments, with thirty-one students in the Swedish, and sixteen in the +Norwegian-Danish section.[286] In the Divinity School of the University +of Chicago (Baptist), the same departments appeared up to 1912; in 1897 +there were twenty-two students in the Dano-Norwegian Department, and +thirty-five in the Swedish; for 1905, the corresponding figures were +twenty-four students, with one professor and two instructors, and +thirty-four students, with two professors and one instructor. Both +departments were dropped after 1913.[287] + + [285] _Year book of the Chicago Theological Seminary_, 1906; + Montgomery, _The Work Among the Scandinavians_ (1888), 9-12, 22. + + [286] _Catalogue of the Northwestern University_, 1913-1914, 379-380, + 478. + + [287] _Annual Register of the University of Chicago_, 1904-5; + 1912-1913, 311. + +So far as the movements represented by these missionary endeavors and by +the organization of schools help to furnish church privileges to those +beyond the reach of other Protestant churches--since the Catholics are +out of the question--they are admirable, accomplishing much good. But +when they cease to be efforts to extend religious opportunities, when +they are mainly devoted to swinging men and women already Christian from +one denomination to another, they simply add one more factor to the +inexcusable competition which too often characterizes the home +missionary activity, even when it does not degenerate into a mere +scramble for denominational advantage. The results in very many cases +have been sadly disproportionate to the expenditures.[288] + + [288] Nelson (and Skordalsvold), "Historical Review of the + Scandinavian Churches in Minnesota," _History of the + Scandinavians_, I, 335-349. + +Not all the forces, however, have been centrifugal; the divided body of +Lutherans has attempted, with varying success, to effect permanent +union. Since 1890 the centripetal reaction has been strong, gaining +impetus from the highly significant efforts of the branches of the +Norwegian Lutherans in a synod held in that year in Minneapolis, to +create a single organization. The United Norwegian Lutheran Church, +formed June 13, 1890, was made up of the Norwegian Augustana Synod, the +Norwegian-Danish Conference, and the Anti-Missourian Brotherhood, thus +becoming the strongest of all the American Norwegian churches, numbering +1,122 congregations, about 120,000 members, and having property valued +at more than $1,500,000.[289] But old antagonisms and animosities, +generated in the bitterness of religious controversy, were not easily +overcome, and disputes soon arose to disturb the life of the United +Church. The chief of these related to the control of certain educational +institutions, especially Augsburg Seminary (theological) in Minneapolis. +So acute was the factional quarrel that it was taken into the courts in +1893, and continued on until 1898, when the "Augsburg strife" was +settled out of court by mutual agreement. Meantime the Augsburg party +had withdrawn from the United Church, taking some 40,000 members, +keeping the Seminary, worth about $60,000, but giving up to the United +Church the endowment fund of about $40,000.[290] In spite of factions, +secessions, and the expulsion of twelve congregations, the United Church +as a whole prospered. Its annual report for 1905 gave the following +statistics: congregations, more or less closely affiliated, 1,325; +ministers and professors, 453; communicants, 267,000; property, +$715,000.[291] While the United Church was the largest, there were no +fewer than four other branches of Norwegian Lutherans in 1914.[292] + + [289] _Ibid._, I, 236 ff.; Jacobs, _History of the Evangelical + Lutheran Church in the United States_, 513; _Minneapolis + Tribune_, June 14, 1890. + + [290] Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 217-224, 263; _U. S. + Eleventh Census_, 1890, Churches, 452. + + [291] _Beretning om det syttende Aarsmöde for den Forenede norsk + lutherske Kirke i Amerika_, 140 and LVI. + + [292] _World Almanac and Encyclopedia, 1914_, 538-539. + +In contrast with the Norwegians, the Swedes have manifested a +commendable unity in keeping the faith once delivered to them by the +fathers, the chief exception being the Swedish Evangelical Mission +Covenant, which can scarcely be called Lutheran. The great Swedish +Lutheran Augustana Synod, one of the constituent members of the General +Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, stood staunchly +united in the midst of many changes in other branches of the church. +Under the broad name of the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana +Synod of North America, which comprised both Norwegians and Swedes down +to 1870, it grew rapidly, setting its face sternly against the New +Lutheranism which sought to modify the old rigidity of doctrine and +practice. In 1894 the word Scandinavian was dropped.[293] By 1899 the +Synod represented 900 congregations, 200,000 members, and a material +estate of $4,200,000.[294] + + [293] Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 219. + + [294] _Ibid._, I, 217; Carroll, _The Religious Forces of the United + States_ (rev. ed.), 190. + +The break-up of the Lutheran church is not wholly to be regretted when +viewed in relation to the process of Americanization, for the church has +usually been a stronghold of traditionalism and conservatism. Perhaps, +too, the vigorous religious and ecclesiastical disputes, wasteful of +energy and of money as they sometimes seem, have contributed to a +wholesome and pervasive intellectual activity not altogether unlike the +results of the Puritan disputations. So careful a student of +Northwestern immigrants as Mr. O. N. Nelson is inclined to the opinion +that the contentions of the Lutherans may have benefited the church. +"Close observation has convinced us that if there had been peace instead +of war, the Norwegian Lutherans in the State (Minnesota) would have +numbered several thousand less than they do. It may not seem pious to +say so, but many a worldly-minded Viking has become so interested in the +fight that he has joined the faction with which he sympathized in order +to assist in beating the opposing party."[295] + + [295] Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 339. + +The church services in the great majority of cases are still conducted +in the mother-tongue. In the United Norwegian Lutheran Church, in 1905, +for example, the services in Norwegian numbered 30,407 as against 1,542 +in English, and out of 1,300 congregations reporting, no more than six +held services in English only, including two large congregations in +Chicago and Milwaukee.[296] Five other congregations conducted more +services in English than in Norwegian; in ten localities the numbers +were equal; and in twenty-two, they were about equal, making a total of +forty-three in which English figured prominently.[297] The Hon. N. P. +Haugen, speaking on Norway Day at the World's Columbian Exposition, in +Chicago, commented on the fact that a Lutheran church had just been +dedicated, in which English alone would be used, and said significantly: +"Twenty years ago our theologians would not have entertained such a +proposition."[298] Now the younger Lutheran preachers are expected to be +able to preach both in their mother-tongue and in English. + + [296] _Beretning om det syttende Aarsmöde for den Forenede norsk + lutherske Kirke i Amerika, 1906_, XLIV. + + [297] _Ibid._, II-LV. + + [298] _Daily Skandinaven_, May 24, 1893. + +The conduct of services in non-English languages will and should +continue so long as there is a considerable body of men and women who +emigrated too late to learn the new language well enough to stand that +final linguistic test, the power to worship genuinely and satisfyingly +in the adopted speech. This means that the churches will use the foreign +speech until the generation of the foreign-born ceases to be +predominant, and in the cities, perhaps while the second generation is +in the majority; but children who receive their education in the public +schools or other English speaking schools, will require that their +religious instruction and their devotional exercises be conducted in +English. + +The children and grandchildren of the immigrants, except in certain +large and compact settlements, chiefly in the cities, prefer English, +and commonly use that language in conversation and in correspondence +with each other. In the Swedish and Norwegian wards of such cities as +Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Rockford, and in a county like +Goodhue in Minnesota, where the presence of large numbers of the +foreign-born makes the use of the foreign tongue imperative in the +homes, streets, markets, and places of business, and where the news is +read in a Scandinavian daily or weekly, the tendency to keep to the +speech of their ancestors is strong. The preacher and the politician +alike understand this, and the literature, speeches, and even the music, +in the campaigns for personal and civic righteousness are presented in +no unknown tongue, as the theological seminaries and Scandinavian +departments in other institutions, and the Swedish and Norwegian +political orators in critical years, bear abundant witness. + +Co-ordinate with the school and the church, as a social force to be +estimated, is the press. Newspapers and periodicals of various sorts in +foreign languages inevitably follow the settlement of any considerable +number of aliens in a given community, for people of education and +ambition will look in a familiar medium for their news and gossip, their +instruction in commerce and politics, as well as their teaching in +religion. So the Chinese and Japanese on the Pacific Coast, no less than +the Germans, Italians, and Greeks on the Atlantic, have their dailies +and their magazines. Since the three Norse peoples, practically without +illiteracy and with active and ambitious minds, have settled in a large +number of moderate-sized communities, frequently isolated from each +other, and since their differences of opinion in matters religious and +ecclesiastical are often positive and aggressive, the number of their +publications of all kinds since the middle of the last century is +curiously large, and quite as remarkable for their migratory and +short-lived character. + +The newspapers usually serve as the chief means of keeping informed +concerning the general news of the European home-lands, as well as of +the United States. Nearly all the larger papers publish regular European +correspondence, summaries of events, letters, and clippings, under such +headings as "Sverige," "Fra Norge," etc.[299] + + [299] _Gamla och Nya Hemlandet_, Apr. 8, 1903. + +The newspapers and magazines render another service by the publication, +on the instalment plan, either as a part of the regular columns or as +inserted sheets, of standard works of the great Scandinavian writers or +of translations of the masterpieces of English and American authors. +Since these novels, essays, and histories are so printed that they may +be folded up and form a pamphlet for preservation, the periodical +serves both as newspaper and library. "It was the Swedish-American press +which caused the Swedish literature, as it is in America, to spring +up."[300] + + [300] _Gamla och Nya Hemlandet_, April 8, 1903 (translated). + +The dailies of Chicago, Minneapolis, and Duluth, in particular, publish +every week scores of communications from subscribers in all parts of the +Northwest, in a department devoted to neighborhood news or gossip. The +old settler writes his reminiscences, sometimes a brief letter called +out by some event, sometimes at great length, like the Rev. J. A. +Ottesen's "Contribution to the History of our Settlements and +Congregations," which ran through eleven numbers of the weekly paper +_Amerika_, from April to September of 1894, and gave very minute details +of immigrant families unto the third and fourth generation, as they had +passed under the kindly eye of the patriarchal old pastor in his service +of forty years among them.[301] Great numbers of these communications +relate to the conditions and prospects of local settlements as viewed +from the settler's standpoint--crop conditions, market prices, wages, +opportunities for labor, nature and prices of nearby land, schools, +religion. As a revelation of the real mind of a community or of an +element of the population, showing the inducements and motives operating +upon the immigrant, and his response, they are exceedingly valuable, and +in some important respects almost unique. + + [301] "Bidrag til vore Settlementers og Menigheders Historie." + +The editors and business agents of the larger and more enterprising +Scandinavian papers very early began making journeys about the country, +especially into the newer parts, in the interests of their papers; +incidentally they were spying out the land for themselves, but +indirectly they were furnishing first-hand observations of frontier +conditions to the hundreds who were moved to reinvest themselves and +their small accumulations. One of these "circuit riders" was Johan +Schröder, editor of _Fædrelandet og Emigranten_, founded at La Crosse, +in 1864, who published a little book of information for immigrants in +1867, after one of his extensive journeys among the settlements.[302] +Three years later he made a trip into Minnesota as far as Otter Tail +County--"En Snartur i Nordvesten"--and was deeply impressed with the +possibilities of that fertile section, to which many men of his +nationality were already looking, as the Newtown folk in Massachusetts +Bay looked in 1636 toward the Connecticut country, with a "strong bent +of their spirits to move thither." Such words as these were as seed sown +in good soil: "So far as I have journeyed about in the prairie counties +of Minnesota and Iowa, I have not yet met with any county which in +multiplicity of natural resources can come up with Otter Tail. +Immigration this year is very strong. Both newcomers direct from Norway, +and older farmers from Iowa, Wisconsin and Southern Minnesota take their +various ways thither."[303] The "America fever" of the Old World was now +the "West fever," and again more of the "West fever."[304] These +articles were not mere generalizations, but often, as in those just +quoted from, they gave the exact and practical information the reader +would desire--break-up of the prairie would cost $25 or $30 for five +acres on which to grow wheat and potatoes, cash to be had by working on +the nearby railroad at $2.50 per day, salt to be had at five cents per +pound, butter could be sold for ten cents per pound, fish and game were +abundant,--also mosquitoes![305] + + [302] This valuable little book bore the title _Skandinaverne i de + Forenede Stater og Canada, med Indberetninger og Oplysninger fra + 200 Skandinaviske Settlementer. En Ledetraad for Emigranten fra + det gamle Land og for Nybyggeren in Amerika._ + + [303] Translated from _Fæderelandet og Emigranten_, July 21, 1870. + + [304] Schröder, _Skandinaverne i de Forenede Stater og Canada_ (1867), + 53. + + [305] _Ibid._, 53; also a two-and-a-half-column article "Vink til + Nysettlere i Minnesota," in _Fædrelandet og Emigranten_, + June 29, 1871. + +The first of a long line of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish periodicals +in the west, was a little paper called _Nordlyset_ (Northern Light), +which began publication in the Norwegian colony in Racine county, +Wisconsin, in 1847, with James D. Reymert as editor. It was a small +four-page sheet which at the start espoused the cause of the Free Soil +party. In 1850 it changed hands, and was re-christened _Demokraten_; tho +its subscription list increased to three hundred, the venture proved a +failure.[306] + + [306] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 94-107. Langeland succeeded + Reymert as editor of _Nordlyset_. A few copies of _Nordlyset_, + _Demokraten_, _Emigranten_, and some fifteen other early + Norwegian papers were found some years ago in the hands of an + old Norwegian, Christopher Hanson of St. Ansgar, Iowa. By him + they were turned over to Rasmus B. Anderson, then editor of + _Amerika_. _Amerika_, Jan. 4, 1899. Anderson sold the collection + for $100 to the United Church in whose Seminary Library it now + rests. "Raport fra Komiteen til Indsamling af historiske + Documenter," _Beretning om det syttende Aarsmöde for den + Forenede norsk lutherske Kirke i Amerika_ (1906), 126-128. + +After 1850 the number of Scandinavian newspapers and religious +periodicals multiplied rapidly. Langeland, himself an editor and +publisher of the time, mentions five of these publications on the +Norwegian side alone in the decade following 1850.[307] _Skandinaven_, +whose foundation marks an era in the Scandinavian press, dates back to +this period. From its small beginnings has grown a great metropolitan +daily, with a circulation of 20,000, besides its semi-weekly and weekly +editions which have a circulation all over the Northwest of nearly +50,000.[308] In the ten years after 1870, a second expansion in the +number of publications took place, tho the fifteen Scandinavian papers +given in the list published in the standard newspaper directory for +1870, make an almost insignificant showing by the side of the two +hundred and fifty or more printed in America in German.[309] + + [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. + +The Swedish press in the United States began somewhat later than the +Norwegian, but it manifested a stability and steadiness of progress +which the latter too often lacked. _Hemlandet_ was founded in 1855 as an +organ of Swedish Lutheranism, but in 1870 it was a political as well as +a religious journal, with 4,000 subscribers to the weekly edition, and +2,000 to the monthly,--"the largest circulation of any Swedish political +newspaper in this country."[310] + + [310] _Ibid._, 633. + +The high-water mark in the number of these publications in the Northern +tongues seems to have been in 1892 or 1893, when Rowell mentions 146, of +which Minnesota is credited with 33, Illinois with 30, Iowa with 13, and +Wisconsin with 10, a total for these four States of 86, with a reported +total of 140,000 subscribers, out of 550,000 subscribers for all the +Scandinavian papers in the country. By 1901, the number of papers had +fallen off--many suspended in the hard times after 1893[311]--but the +number of subscribers increased for the whole country to more than +800,000, and for the four States just enumerated, to more than +650,000.[312] + + [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." + +The politics and religion of the papers reflected the variegated +opinions of different parties and sects, and of men who would found new +parties and denominations, but Lutheranism and Republicanism have been +from the start the dominating influences. A historian of Lutheranism +named 16 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran periodicals in existence in the +United States in 1896.[313] About the same time a Democratic paper +remarks grudgingly and sourly: "It is worthy of note that of the fifty +or sixty Norwegian papers in the United States, including two dailies, +all are Republican tho at rare intervals some may bolt individual +nominations. Generally, however, they are amazingly steadfast to +party--moss-backed and hide-bound, in fact."[314] + + [313] Lenker, _Lutherans in all Lands_, 771. + + [314] _Madison Democrat_, Oct. 6, 1898. + +The strong hold which this press exercises upon its subscribers is +excellently illustrated in the large sums of money raised from time to +time through its agency in behalf of sufferers from fire and famine in +the North European peninsulas. By editorials and special correspondence, +by subscriptions and the publications of lists of contributors, by +stimulating concerts for raising relief moneys, these journals have +pursued the shrewd, enterprising, and, at the same time, benevolent +schemes of advertising, followed by their American contemporaries. In +1893 _Skandinaven_ received and remitted to Norway for the relief of +sufferers from a landslide in Thelemark more than $2,700.[315] When a +great fire nearly destroyed the city of Aalesund, that journal in the +winter and spring of 1904 gathered and sent to Norway $19,000, mostly in +sums ranging from $.25 to $2.00; at the same time _Decorah Posten_ +remitted more than $12,000 for the same purpose.[316] The great famine +in northern Sweden and Finland in 1902-3 gave rise to a similar +collection of money; the editor of the _Svenska Amerikanska Posten_, the +powerful Swedish newspaper of Minneapolis, headed the list for his +paper, and at the end of several months the contributions through this +one journal reached the total of approximately $18,000.[317] Of course +not all the money so liberally poured out to aid the unfortunate by the +Baltic or the North Sea, was transmitted through the agents of the +newspapers, but it is true that almost the sole inspiration for the +gifts came more or less directly from the Scandinavian press. Probably +out of $175,000 sent from the United States to the famine sufferers in +1903,--and America's quota was about one-half of the total handled by the +Swedish central committee in Stockholm--the newspapers were instrumental +in raising fifty per-cent.[318] + + [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. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SOCIAL RELATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS + + +While the normal unit in Scandinavian immigration is the family, a +considerable proportion of the immigrants has consisted of young, +unmarried men and women. Not infrequently the young man left behind him +a sweetheart who followed a little later when a solid foundation was +laid for the prospective family; or perchance, if sufficiently +prosperous, he went back at some Christmastide to marry her and bring +her to America. In any case, the farm meant a home, and the marriage +back of it was generally between two of the same nationality. Still, +intermarriages between Scandinavians and persons of American or of other +alien stock, are not infrequent, tho the number and significance of such +marriages is more a matter of personal opinion and estimate than of +exact statistics, since the latter are lacking. The opinions expressed +in this chapter are based upon the inconclusive figures of the census +reports, upon a study of a large number of brief biographies, and upon a +considerable acquaintance with conditions in the Northwest. The +biographies, it should be noted, are almost exclusively of men of +Scandinavian birth, whose intermarriage with American women is less +common than that of American men with Scandinavian women.[319] + + [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. + +Before the flood tide of immigration in the period beginning about 1880 +brought to America so many young, unmarried women, intermarriages were +more infrequent than in the later time. Hence the discussion of the +matter in the Census Report of 1880 would not necessarily hold true for +the subsequent period: "There is but one important element (other than +the Irish) which manifests an equally strong indisposition to +intermarriage, viz., the Scandinavian. This element appears in an +important degree in but few of the States and Territories embraced in +the following tables, but in these the effects of intermarriage are +slight. Thus in Wisconsin, while there are 42,728 persons born on our +soil having both Scandinavian father and Scandinavian mother, there are +but 2,083 persons having a Scandinavian father and an American mother. +In Dakota, the respective numbers are 10,071 and 418; in Minnesota +69,492 and 1,906.... It will be noted that in some of the States and +Territories where the Scandinavians are few and where it is notorious +that they are thoroly mingled with the general population, the +proportion of intermarriages is not a low one."[320] The figures for the +children of such mixed marriages given in the reports of the Twelfth +Census certainly reveal a decided increase in the number, especially +when the necessary allowance is made for the decreasing birthrate +naturally incident to the development of urban communities and to +filling up of States, which took place between 1880 and 1900.[321] + + [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. + +In these two decades, large numbers of young unmarried women, moved by +the same economic motives as the young men, came to the United States +and took service among the Americans as domestic servants. The demand +for capable and well-trained servants far exceeded, and still exceeds, +the visible supply, and the wages which seemed high to the American +housewife seemed trebly high to the girl who received in cash wages in +the old home only $20 or $30 per year.[322] In the new service the girls +must perforce learn English rapidly or fail, so they learned the +language and also the ways of the American household. In return they +gave an honest, good-tempered, and trustworthy if sometimes clumsy +service. If they were not always evidently grateful for the instruction +and patience of the mistress of the household, if frequently they +married soon after they were trained into efficient and satisfactory +servants, they should not be condemned wholesale! While the marriages of +these strong, healthy, intelligent, domestically capable young women +with non-Scandinavian young men of the middle and lower classes +constitute the larger proportion of intermarriages, the intermarriage of +the American-born Scandinavian girls, trained in the public schools and +colleges, with American men is also frequent, and no reservation as to +the mixture of social classes needs to be made. + + [322] _U. S. Consular Reports_ (1887) No. 76, 148; Young, _Labor in + Europe and America_, 681. + +Large families have been a prominent characteristic of the home life of +the Northmen in America's Northwest. Race suicide should not be charged +against the Scandinavians either in their new homes or in their old, for +in spite of the steady drain which emigration has made upon the +population of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark for fifty years, each country +in each decade has shown an increase of population, due solely to +natural increase.[323] In America this natural fecundity was re-enforced +by the conditions under which settlement was made, for large families +are characteristic of the early years of a developing agricultural +frontier. So when the Scandinavians entered the newly-opened regions of +the Great West and found land and food abundant, both immediately and +prospectively, they felt no necessity for enforcing prudential or other +checks upon the increase of population. Putting the case more +positively, circumstances put a premium upon families with numerous +children; the farmer welcomed additions to his circle of boys and girls +who would grow up into helpers upon the expanding cultivated acreage of +the farm, and later take up land near the original homestead, +buttressing it with prosperous allied homes. Families of ten and twelve +were common, while others reached sixteen, eighteen, and even +twenty-four.[324] In his remarkably detailed reminiscences of Norwegian +settlers in Wisconsin and the further Northwest, the Rev. J. A. Ottesen +refers to families of his friends and acquaintances, sometimes in exact +figures, as seven, ten, or fourteen children, and sometimes in such +general phrases as "many children," or "several children," making use of +these phrases no less than seventeen times in three columns of a single +article.[325] + + [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. + +An examination of several thousand biographical sketches of Danes, +Norwegians, and Swedes who have attained some degree of success in the +American West, the very class which would first begin to limit the size +of the family, leads to the conclusion that the average number of +children per family among them is between four and five. In other words +the average is nearly double that of the United States taken as a +whole.[326] + + [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. + +Closely connected with this immigration of so many young, unmarried +girls of the servant class, is the question of sex morality and +illegitimacy. The statistics relating to this question are particularly +unsatisfactory so far as the United States is concerned, even for a land +where the scientific statistician is a recent product, and where the +collection of social statistics, left mainly to the States and to local +authorities, is very loosely carried on. The motives for concealment and +for prevarication are obvious, and the records of municipal courts, even +if closely inspected, would not give much more than a scant minimum of +information applicable to an estimate of the Scandinavian element in the +population. + +To judge from the figures given for certain cities in Norway and Sweden, +it would be natural to expect a much higher percentage of illegitimate +births among the immigrants from those countries than among persons of +American ancestry. The United States Consul at Stockholm reported for +1884 for the whole of Sweden that 10.2% of all births were illegitimate; +for the city of Stockholm alone, 29.3%.[327] Twelve years later the +figure for the whole kingdom was 11%.[328] For Norway, the figure for +the kingdom was 7.2% for 1896; in the city of Christiania, 15.4% of the +5,349 births in 1895 were illegitimate.[329] + + [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. + +Such statistics are certainly ominous, whatever the allowance which +should be made for peculiar social conditions in Europe, which make the +begetting of children after betrothal and before actual wedlock a less +heinous offence against good order and morality than in America. But +over against these startling figures stands the fact that it does not +seem to be harder to maintain order and decency in cities like +Minneapolis and St. Paul, or in the Scandinavian wards of Chicago, than +it is in Detroit or Boston, or in the other alien quarters of Chicago +itself. Nor does an inspection of the court and police records of cities +of the Northwest for crimes and offences against decency, or against +women, give cause for any special alarm for the future morality of the +Scandinavians of that section. + +For a safe and conclusive estimate of the contributions made by the +Scandinavian element to the delinquent and defective classes of society, +no very complete or satisfactory data are at present to be had. A +detailed study of the statistics of these classes in Wisconsin and +Minnesota warrants the judgment that the immigrants from Northern +Europe, and their immediate descendants, have a much smaller percentage +of paupers and criminals and a much larger percentage of insane, than do +either the Germans or the Irish, the two other alien elements which +approach the Scandinavians in importance in those States.[330] But these +statistics are at best unconvincing, because they are acknowledgedly +incomplete, and because in them little attempt is made to distinguish +between the children of American descent and those born of immigrant +parents in America. + + [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. + +The experts working out the interpretation of the results of the Twelfth +Census (1900) have made distinct progress towards a fair comparative +judgment in matters relating to social classes and conditions. John +Koren, for example, the son of the veteran Norwegian Lutheran pastor, +the Rev. V. Koren, and an investigator and writer of unusual weight, +points out that the insane in hospitals are at least ten years of age, +while there are few children under fifteen among the immigrants as +compared with the number under that age among the native whites, and he +accordingly concludes that "Of the whites at least 10 years of age in +the general population of the United States in 1900, 80.5% were native +and 19.5% were foreign-born; while of the white insane of known nativity +enumerated in hospitals on December 31, 1903, 65.7% were native and +34.3% were foreign-born. Relatively, therefore, the insane are more +numerous among the foreign born whites than among the native."[331] How +much more convincing is such a cautious and careful estimate than the +sweeping generalizations of another recent writer: "Roughly speaking, +the foreigners furnish more than twice as many criminals, two and +one-third times as many insane, and three times as many paupers as the +native element."[332] + + [331] _Special Reports, Bureau of the Census_, 1904, "Insane and + Feebleminded in Hospitals and Institutions," 20. + + [332] Hall, _Immigration_, 166. + +The statistics for the insane in hospitals at the end of 1903 and of +those admitted during 1904, as given by Mr. Koren, show a strikingly +high percentage of insane persons of foreign parentage in Wisconsin, +Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa. No other State comes within ten +per-cent of the ratio of the first three. Of those enumerated in +December, 1903, 56% in Wisconsin, 48% in Minnesota, 52% in North Dakota, +and 34% in Iowa, were of foreign parentage; the percentages of the +admissions for 1904 were 53% in Wisconsin, 55% in Minnesota, and 33% in +Iowa.[333] In all these States the Scandinavian element has been +numerous for at least two generations. Figures gathered for this study +for the period between 1885 and 1895, before the children of the +Scandinavian immigrants reached in very considerable numbers what might +be termed the age for acquiring insanity, gave similarly significant +conclusions. Of the inmates of the state hospitals for the insane in +Minnesota, the foreign-born Scandinavians were 28% in 1886 and 30.7% in +1890; of the admissions to the state hospital at St. Peter in 1890, 35% +were Norse. Of the total admissions for the State in 1900, 23% were +Scandinavians, while in the Fergus Falls hospital, located in the heart +of a more recently settled Scandinavian area, 40% were of that +nationality; Wisconsin reports show like percentages.[334] All of these +statistics warrant the general conclusion that of all the foreign-born, +the Scandinavians are the most prone to insanity.[335] + + [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. + +If one seeks for adequate reasons for this unusual tendency to insanity, +he will not find ready satisfaction. Undoubtedly the difference of +environment and the severer strain upon muscle and nerve imposed by +American industrial conditions, by which the machinery of the individual +must run at a higher and unwonted speed, will account for part of the +phenomena, but these causes operate alike upon all classes of +immigrants. The change from the mountains of Norway, or from the rugged +sea-coast of the great Northern peninsula, to the rolling prairies and +the vast silent plains of the interior of the United States, has also +its depressing effect. The very flatness of the land, its extremes of +temperature, the fierce tornadoes of wind, the bewildering, imprisoning +storms of snow, with no friendly mountain or forest to offer a body of +protection or a face of comfort, and the isolation of the life of the +frontier farmer and his family, together with the severity of their +labor--all these are causes operating with peculiar force in the case of +the Norwegian and Swedish immigrants. Dr. Gronvald, writing in 1887, +stated his conviction that the women of these classes, especially the +Norwegians, were predisposed to nervous disorders and insanity by early +and frequent child-bearing, and from early rising from child-bed.[336] + + [336] Gronvald, "The Effects of the Immigration on the Norwegian + Immigrants," _Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health + of Minnesota_, 520. + +Since the Norse immigrants have rarely if ever been charged with +illiteracy, dependency, pauperism or mendicancy, the remaining social +test, usually considered co-ordinate with that for insanity, is the +proportion of criminals contributed to the total of delinquents.[337] +Earlier computations must undergo the same severe correction as do the +estimates regarding the insane. By 1885 there were in the Northwest +large communities made up of the older Norwegian and Swedish settlers +and their descendants, and other communities comprising great numbers of +recently arrived immigrants. According to the State census of 1885 in +Minnesota, the Scandinavians formed 16.5% of the population, and the +Germans, 11.5%. The reports of the wardens of the State's prisons for +1886 show 8.7% of the prisoners to be Scandinavian, and 7.4% German. The +population of the State during the next five years grew rapidly; the +Scandinavian element increased faster than the German and nearly twice +as fast as the native American. Yet in 1890 the percentage of the +prisoners who could be identified as Scandinavian was only 7.1%.[338] + + [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. + +In Wisconsin, where the increase of population in the last ten years of +the nineteenth century was in the native-born of Scandinavian parentage, +rather than in the number of immigrants, the reports of the Waupun State +Prison may be supplemented by those of the State Industrial School, the +reformatory for first offenders between the ages of fifteen and thirty. +In 1900, the foreign-born Scandinavian population of Wisconsin was 5% of +the total, and the Scandinavian population of foreign-born parentage was +10% of the total.[339] Of the prisoners received at Waupun, the +Scandinavians were: 1891, 4.1%; 1898, 4.4%; 1900, 3.7%. Of boys and +young men received at the Industrial School, those of Scandinavian +parentage were: 1890-1892, 7%; 1896-1898, 6.5%; 1900-1902, 6.6%.[340] + + [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. + +In the matter of petty offences which are usually tried in the police +courts, particularly cases arising out of intemperance, the records of +convictions in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Chicago, together with the +statistics of city prisons and workhouses, indicate that the Northmen +are clearly the chief offenders.[341] + + [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: + + Ratio of criminals in the whole population 1:2302 1:1999 + American-born population 1:2413 1:2013 + Foreign-born population 1:2035 1:1887 + Irish population 1:1600 1:860 + German population 1:2713 1:2715 + Scandinavian population 1:3706 1:5933 + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE SCANDINAVIAN IN LOCAL AND STATE POLITICS + + +The Scandinavian usually entered the field of politics rather slowly; he +took out his "first papers" for the purpose of acquiring land, not that +he might vote in the next election. In the early years of his settlement +he was too busy building and paying for a home, learning English, and +adopting American customs, to give much time or attention to public +affairs. The clearing of woodland, the breaking up of the prairie, and +the transformation of a one-room shack into a frame dwelling required +severe labor and all his energies. Not until the leisure of some degree +of success was his, did he yield to his natural inclination for politics +of the larger sort. + +The Norwegian, of all the men of the Northern lands, has the strongest +liking for the political arena, and has had the most thoro political +training at home. Since 1814 he has lived and acted in a community +markedly democratic. He understands the meaning of the Fourth of July +all the better because he, and his ancestors for two or three +generations in their home by the North Sea, celebrated on the +Seventeenth of May the independence of Norway and the advent of +republicanism. His sense of individuality and equality is stronger than +that of his cousins to the east or south, and he steadily and stubbornly +fights for the recognition and maintenance of his rights. In 1821, +before the first real immigrants sailed for the United States, Norway +abolished nobility, while Sweden and Denmark still retain the +institution. Equipped thus, and educated in such a vigorous school, it +is the Norwegian rather than the Swede or Dane who figures most largely +in the political activities of the American Northwest. + +Several causes operating on the western side of the Atlantic augmented +these natural advantages of the Norwegians. In their settlements they +had ten or fifteen years the start of the Swedes, and in the formative +period of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota they greatly +outnumbered both the Swedes and Danes. They went into new States and +territories, and, settling on farms, profited by the power which the +rural portion of a developing region usually exercises in politics. On +the other hand, tho the Swedes in Illinois since the early fifties, and +in Kansas since the late sixties, have formed decidedly the larger part +of the Scandinavian population of those two States, they have by no +means taken a part in politics equal to that taken by the Norwegians. In +1890 the foreign-born Swedes in Iowa were more numerous than the +foreign-born Norwegians, and in Minnesota about equal in number, but +these figures do not fairly represent the political strength of the two +elements, for to the foreign-born Norwegians must be added those of +the second and third generation of persons of purely Norwegian +extraction.[342] The sons, and even the grandsons of the early Norwegian +settlers were voters before the Swedish immigration greatly exceeded the +Norwegian.[343] Broadly speaking, the early political pre-eminence of +the Norwegians has never been overcome. + + [342] Statistics for foreign-born in 1890: + + Iowa Minnesota + + Norwegians 27,078 101,169 + Swedes 30,276 99,913 + Danes 15,519 14,133 + + [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. + +For the common people of Sweden and Denmark, political experience +practically began with the agitation for the reforms of 1866 and 1867. +The peasants and burghers thus came to think definitely and decisively +about what they desired and of the means for securing the wished-for +reforms. It may therefore be asserted without reservation that after +1870 the average Scandinavian immigrant brought to America a fairly +clear understanding of the meaning of republicanism; elections, +representation, local self-government, and constitutions, are neither +novel nor meaningless terms to him; he is ready to fill his place, play +his part, and cast his vote, as "a citizen of no mean city." In the +discharge of their civic duties, the Scandinavian voters have had the +aid of several unusually well edited newspapers in their own languages. +Since active participation in politics and patriotism are not always +synonymous, one branch of the Scandinavian peoples may be just as +patriotic as another. Certain it is that in the Civil War the Swedes +were every whit as prompt and hearty in their response to calls for men, +and as thoro in their efficiency and courage as soldiers, as were the +Norwegians. + +From a political view-point, the importance of the Norse immigrants in +the agricultural regions of the West has not been fully recognized. At +first thought, it would seem that location in a city or town, with its +intimate associations and sharper competitions, with its friction of +frequent contact with Americans, should be more conducive to rapid +Americanization of immigrants, than the life of the farm or of the rural +village, with its isolation and narrow horizon. More careful +consideration will make clear that the opportunities for political +action beyond merely casting a vote, are really much better in a new, +thinly-settled township than in a ward of a large town or city. It +surely was not a hunger for the sweets of political influence or +official place which led the Scandinavians into frontier regions; but +once there, with the old political ties forever severed by taking out +their "first papers," with partial title to land entered by preemption +or by homesteading, their first and greatest steps in Americanization +were safely made, and each one carried certain political consequences. +Local political organization had to be effected somehow as a given +locality filled up, and it happened frequently that there were none but +Scandinavians to undertake the task. No matter what their political +inclinations, no matter what form of organization they would have +preferred, only one course was open to them: to get information as to +the laws and customs of the United States and of the States in which +they were settled, to prepare for the elections, and to assume the +responsibilities of the necessary offices. Over and over again these +things were done promptly and well by men in whose veins coursed only +Viking blood, by men but recently transplanted from Norway, Sweden, and +Denmark. + +Whenever a township became populous enough to have a name as well as a +number on the surveyor's map, that question was likely to be determined +by the people on the ground, and such names as Christiana, Swede Plain, +Numedal, Throndhjem, and Vasa leave no doubt that Scandinavians +officiated at the christening.[344] Besides the names of townships, +Minnesota alone has no fewer than seventy-five postoffices whose names +are unmistakably Norse,--Malmö, Ringbo, Ibsen, Tordenskjold, and the +like. It was in organizing these new townships, working the town +machinery, carrying on elections, levying and collecting taxes, and +laying out roads, that the Scandinavian immigrants learned the rudiments +of American politics.[345] In studying the accounts of the formation of +scores of towns inhabited wholly or in major part by Norwegians or +Swedes--accounts usually written by Americans, and often going into +minute details--not one was found which describes any noteworthy +irregularity. Except for the peculiar names no one would suspect that +the townmakers were born elsewhere than in Massachusetts or New York. + + [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. + +In some cases probably more than one-fifth of the men of the community +shared in the actual administration of town affairs; and while this +ratio decreased with the growth of the town, the tendency of the +Scandinavian settlers to move on from one new region to another gave +many of them continuing opportunities to gain political experience. Had +the same number of men located in the larger towns or cities, their +active duties as citizens would generally have ended with the casting of +their annual ballot. A few might have become policemen, commissioners, +or even aldermen, but they would have made an insignificant percentage; +the management or mismanagement of finances, schools, streets, +sanitation, and public services would go on without their efforts or +participation. + +A few illustrations selected almost at random, will give a concrete idea +of the process just described. Two townships in Fillmore County, +Minnesota, were organized in 1860, and received the familiar Old World +names, Norway and Arendahl; at the first election, all the officers +chosen in both townships were Norwegians, and for twenty years and more, +the Norwegians continued to fill nearly all the offices.[346] Another +and later example is found in Nicollet County, Minnesota, farther west +than Fillmore County, where the township of New Sweden was formed in +1864. Thirty votes were cast at the first election, and at the first +town-meeting, held three months later, all the offices were filled by +the election of six Swedes and four Norwegians.[347] Five years later +this township was divided and the name Bernadotte was given to the new +township; by the first election, all ten offices were filled by +Swedes.[348] Other Minnesota towns, Johnsonville in Redwood County +(1879), Wang in Renville County (1875), and Stockholm in Wright County +(1868), were similarly organized and officered by Norwegians and +Swedes.[349] + + [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. + +As the townships developed, and the villages grew into cities with large +foreign-born elements, the familiar and characteristic Northern names +continue to fill the official records. Stoughton, Wisconsin, the +capital, so to speak, of the solid old Dane County settlement, is a case +in point. So late as 1901 the roster of the city ran as follows: + + Mayor, O. K. Roe, born in Dane County of Norwegian parents + + President of the Council, J. S. Liebe, born in Laurvik, Norway + + Aldermen, four born in different parts of Norway, two born in Dane + County of Norwegian parents.[350] + +Much of the business in these new communities in their first years was +carried on in a foreign tongue. Certainly election notices and documents +of that sort were issued in Norwegian or Swedish, and sometimes orders, +ordinances, and laws. No evidence, however, has come to hand to prove +that any official records were ever kept in any other language than +English, even in villages composed almost exclusively of Norwegians or +Swedes.[351] + + [350] _Amerika_, May 20, 1901. + + [351] "The Norwegians of Wisconsin", _Phillips Times_ (Wis.), + April 22, 1905. + +One of the first offices that had to be filled in the growing settlement +was that of postmaster; for no considerable number of people, educated +and intelligent, will long be content with a postoffice twenty miles +away.[352] In 1856 there were five Scandinavian postmasters in Minnesota +alone.[353] Thus the immigrant settlers came in contact with the +national government at the postoffice more directly and frequently than +they did at the land-office. + + [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. + +Township affairs shade off almost imperceptibly into county affairs in +the western States, and the Scandinavians soon began to take part in the +latter. No records are at hand for the Wisconsin settlements, but in +1858 the first Norwegian was elected to the board of supervisors in +Goodhue County, Minnesota, and in the following year Hans Mattson, who +was active in building up the town of Vasa, where he filled various town +offices, was elected auditor of the county.[354] He continued to fill +the office until July, 1862, tho in name only for the last months, for +in the minutes of Board of Supervisors of Goodhue County appears the +resolution that "because the County Auditor, Hans Mattson, has +voluntarily gone to the war with a company of soldiers, a leave of +absence shall be extended to him, and that the office shall not be +declared vacant so long as the deputy properly performs the duties of +the place."[355] + + [354] Mattson, _The Story of An Emigrant_, 50. + + [355] Mattson, _The Story of an Emigrant_, 62. + +Hans Mattson was only one of many who found Goodhue County politics and +a term of service in the army excellent fitting schools for larger +activity in State affairs. One of the Norwegians who served an +apprenticeship in Wisconsin, a journeymanship in Iowa, and came to the +master-grade of citizenship--office-holding--in Minnesota, was Lars K. +Aaker, who represented Goodhue County in the Minnesota Legislature in +1859-1860. After service as first lieutenant in Mattson's Scandinavian +Company, he again sat in the Legislature in 1862, 1867, and 1869. Again +after twelve years of residence in Goodhue County he moved to Otter Tail +County, and represented that county in the State Senate, later becoming +Register of the United States Land Office. In 1864, he moved again, to +Crookston, in the extreme northwestern corner of Minnesota, where he +served as Receiver of the Land Office from 1884 to 1893.[356] As the +counties and towns have multiplied, by the biological process of +division, in Minnesota and the Dakotas, Scandinavian names recur more +and more frequently in their records, tho it is not always easy, +especially since 1880, to identify such names, for the Norsemen have had +a habit of Americanizing their original names or changing them +altogether either with or without legal process.[357] + + [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. + +The county offices which seem to be most attractive to the Scandinavians +are those of sheriff, treasurer, auditor, and register of deeds. The +lists of county officers for several years in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and +the Dakotas, show that the number of Swedes and Norwegians in the four +offices just mentioned was closely proportioned to their percentage in +the population of the States named.[358] Because the Scandinavians are +less numerous in the other county offices, their proportion of the total +offices in the counties of the States falls considerably below their +proportion of the population. Estimating on the basis of a sure minimum, +with the difficulties in identifying names eliminated, the Scandinavians +for several years about 1895 filled approximately one-fifth of the 1235 +county offices in Minnesota, one-fifth of the 268 in North Dakota and +one-tenth of the 702 in Wisconsin. Their numbers relative to the +population in each State were respectively one-fourth in Minnesota, +two-fifths in North Dakota, one-eighth in Wisconsin, and one-fifth in +South Dakota. More recent illustrations are to be found in the election +of 1904. In Traill County, North Dakota, the sixth in size of the forty +counties in the State, the sheriff, judge, treasurer, auditor, +register, surveyor, coroner, and superintendent of schools were of +Scandinavian origin; in Lac Qui Parle County, Minnesota, a similar clean +sweep was made; while in Yellow Medicine County seven out of ten +principal officers were Scandinavians.[359] + + [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. + +The first Scandinavian to enter the field of State politics was James D. +Reymert, a Norwegian, who represented Racine County in the second +constitutional convention of Wisconsin in 1847, and later in the +Assembly of that State, first from Racine County and then from Milwaukee +County in 1857.[360] He was also a candidate for presidential elector on +the Free Soil ticket in 1840.[361] The son of a Scotch mother, and +receiving part of his education in Scotland, he was better prepared than +other Norwegians for taking part in politics, and for the work of +editing the first Norwegian newspaper in America, _Nordlyset_--"The +Northern Light"--which appeared in 1847 as a Free Soil organ.[362] In the +constitutional convention he was not active in the debates, tho he +advocated a six-months' residence as a qualification for voting, saying, +"as to foreigners, the sooner they were entitled to vote, the better +citizens they would make."[363] For one provision of the Wisconsin +constitution he was personally responsible: Article VII, section 16, +which directed the legislature to establish courts or tribunals of +conciliation.[364] But in spite of the command, "The legislature shall +pass laws" for these courts, no such law was ever passed in Wisconsin. + + [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. + +Down to the close of the Civil War the Scandinavians exercised very +little influence in State politics. Here and there one or two of them +appeared as members of conventions or of the legislatures, but even in +Wisconsin the number rarely went above two in a single session of the +legislature.[365] By 1870 many of the Norwegians and Swedes were +well-to-do, while others who had served in the Civil War returned to +their homes with the prestige conferred by honorable service in that +great struggle. Furthermore, the suspicion with which foreign-born +citizens had been viewed was greatly reduced, if not dissipated, by the +highest evidence which any man can give of his patriotism and loyalty to +his adopted country. No one might thenceforth deny them any of the +rights, privileges, and honors of the political gild. Accordingly the +number of them elected to the legislatures in the Northwest after 1870 +increases noticeably both in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and in the +Dakotas, where rapid material development and growth of population +furnished unusual political opportunities which the Norwegians and +Swedes were not slow to improve. + +In the Wisconsin legislature of 1868 sat 2 Norwegians; in 1869, 3; in +1871, 4.[366] In Minnesota, the figures are striking: 1868, 2 +Scandinavians; 1870, 4; 1872, 9; and 1873, 13.[367] Since then the +percentage of Norse representatives has steadily grown, tho it is not +always easy to determine the racial stock from which a native-born +officer came. Recent Wisconsin legislatures had apparently out of a +total membership of 133, in 1895, 5 Scandinavians; in 1901, 10 (1 Dane, +1 Swede, and 8 Norwegians); in 1903, 6.[368] The Minnesota legislature +of 1893 had 9 out of 54 senators, and 20 out of 114 representatives, who +were of Viking origin--fully one-sixth of the total membership. + + [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. + +In the legislatures of 1899 and 1905 the numbers were as follows:[369] + + 1899 + + Senate 63 members Norwegian 7 (3 American born) + Swede 2 + + House 119 members Norwegian 16 (3 American born) + Swede 9 (4 American born) + Dane 1 + + 1905 + + Senate 63 members Norwegian 7 + Swede 4 + + House 119 members Norwegian 20 (7 American born) + Swede 9 + + [369] _Minnesota Legislative Manuals_ for 1893, 1899, 1905. + +In the newer States to the West, the percentages rise still higher. In +North Dakota, the legislature of 93 members contained 17 men of +Scandinavian parentage in 1895, and 18 in 1901--16 Norwegians (4 American +born), one Dane, and one Icelander.[370] Unofficial figures for 1904 +gave the Scandinavians 38 out of 140 members.[371] South Dakota in 1894 +had 15 Norwegians (5 native-born) and 5 Swedes, in a legislative body of +127; in 1897, 17; in 1903, 16; and in 1904, 17.[372] + + [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. + +In the executive and administrative departments of State government, as +distinguished from the legislative, the participation of the +Scandinavians notably increased after 1869. In the summer of that year, +a Scandinavian convention was held in Minneapolis for the express +purpose of booming Colonel Hans Mattson for the office of Secretary of +State in Minnesota. Of his fitness there was no doubt, for in addition +to holding local offices in Goodhue County and his service in the army, +he had for two years served as Commissioner of Emigration. The +Republicans took the hint and nominated him almost unanimously in +September, and his election followed. He served one term at this time +and by re-elections filled the same office from 1887 to 1891.[373] So +frequently have Swedes and Norwegians been elected to this office both +in Minnesota and in the Dakotas that it might almost be said that they +have a prescriptive right to it.[374] In the thirty-seven years ending +in January, 1907, the Swedes filled the office in Minnesota sixteen +years and the Norwegians four years.[375] Other State offices like those +of Treasurer, Auditor, and Lieutenant Governor, not to mention +commissionerships and appointments to boards, have also been frequently +filled by Scandinavians in the States of the Northwest.[376] + + [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). + +The first Scandinavian to reach the eminence of a governorship was Knute +Nelson, an emigrant from Voss, near Bergen in Norway, in 1849, who, +after service in the Civil War, was elected in succession to the +legislatures of Wisconsin and Minnesota and to the Congress of the +United States. Nominated by acclamation for governor of Minnesota on the +Republican ticket in 1892, he was elected by a plurality of 14,620 +votes; two years later he was unanimously re-nominated, and re-elected +by a plurality of more than 60,000 votes.[377] He served only one month +of his second term, accepting election to the United States Senate, to +the disappointment, not to say the disgust, of many who had voted for +him for Governor, who considered him in duty bound to serve in that +capacity after accepting their suffrages. + + [377] Stenholt, _Knute Nelson_, 68-78; Nelson, _History of the + Scandinavians_, I, 451; _Minnesota Legislative Manual_, 1893, + 549. + +The second Scandinavian governor was a Swede born in Smaaland, who +landed in the United States in 1868 at the age of fourteen--John Lind. +Passing up through such political gradations as county superintendent of +schools, receiver of the United States Land Office, and Republican +representative in Congress, he allied himself with the free-silver +movement of 1896 and became the Fusion candidate for governor of +Minnesota. Opposed by the leading Swedes who remained loyal to the +Republican party, he was defeated by a small majority, tho supported by +many of the Norwegians. The Spanish War, in which he served as +quartermaster of volunteers, gave him a new claim to popular favor, and +when he again ran for governor in 1898 he was elected by a combination +of Democrats and Populists, turning his former deficiency of 3,496 into +a plurality of 20,399.[378] This victory was due more to a revolt +against the Republican candidate than to clannish support of a Swede by +Swedes, for the two strongholds of the Swedes, Chisago and Goodhue +Counties, went Republican as usual, while the German and Irish wards of +St. Paul and Minneapolis gave majorities for Lind. + + [378] _Svenska Amerikanska Posten_, Nov. 22, 1898; _World Almanac_, + 1899; Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, I, 432. + +The third of Minnesota's Scandinavian governors came into office under +circumstances of distinctly dramatic character. John A. Johnson was born +of Swedish parents in the State over which he was to be made ruler; at +the age of fourteen he became the support of his mother and of the +family, save the inebriate father who was sent to an almshouse where he +died. When nominated by the Democrats in 1904, Johnson had been for +eighteen years editor of a country newspaper printed in English. The +Republicans, especially their candidate for governor, a coarse-grained, +distrusted, machine politician, endeavored to make political capital out +of the fact that Johnson's father died in the poorhouse. The Democratic +leaders persuaded Johnson with some difficulty to let the plain truth be +told, and told on the stump--and Johnson, the son of a Swedish immigrant, +a man from a small, interior city, a Democrat in a State strongly +Republican as a rule, won by a plurality of 6,352 votes in a +Presidential year, when Theodore Roosevelt carried the State by +161,464.[379] Two years of vigorous but quiet administration brought the +reward of a renomination and re-election in 1906 by a plurality of +76,000.[380] Again in 1908, another presidential year, Governor Johnson +was re-elected by 20,000 plurality, though Taft received a plurality of +85,000.[381] + + [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. + +The death of Governor Johnson in October, 1909, made the Republican +Lieutenant Governor, Adolph Olson Eberhardt, the fourth Scandinavian +executive of Minnesota. He was born in Sweden, the son of Andrew Olson, +and came to America in his eleventh year. He added Eberhardt to his name +by permission of the proper court in 1898 because several other persons +in his community also bore the name of Adolph Olson. Governor Eberhardt +reached the governor's chair by various business and political +experiences--as a lawyer, contractor, United States Commissioner, deputy +clerk of the United States District and Circuit Courts, State senator, +and lieutenant governor. He was re-elected in his own right in 1910 by a +plurality of 60,000, and again in 1912 by 30,000.[382] + + [382] _Ibid._, 1911, 673; 1913, 741; _Who's Who in America_, 1914-15. + +James O. Davidson rose to the governorship of Wisconsin through long +service in subordinate capacities. Of Norwegian birth, immigrating in +1872, he was elected to the Wisconsin legislatures of 1893, 1895, 1897; +twice chosen State Treasurer; elected Lieutenant Governor on the ticket +with R. M. LaFollette, and upon the election of the latter to the United +States Senate succeeded him as governor in January, 1906. In the summer +of that year Senator LaFollette vainly stumped the State to prevent +Davidson's nomination for Governor on the Republican ticket, and in the +election that followed the Norwegian-born, soundly-experienced Governor +was chosen by the handsome plurality of 80,247 votes.[383] In 1908 he +was re-elected by a plurality of 76,958. + + [383] _Wisconsin Blue Book_ (1903), 1070; _World Almanac_, 1907, 513. + +Still further up the political scale, men from Northwestern Europe have +been taking an active part in national affairs. Sixteen of them have +been elected to the House of Representatives of the Federal Congress. +The first one to achieve this high position was Knute Nelson who sat in +the House from 1883 to 1889 as the Representative of the Fifth Minnesota +District. In 1895 he was chosen United States Senator and has served +continuously since March 4, 1895.[384] Others who have served for +several terms in the House are: Nils P. Haugen, a Norwegian representing +a Wisconsin district from 1887 to 1895; John Lind, a Swede, who +represented the Second Minnesota District from 1887 to 1893; Asle J. +Gronna, who was a member of the House from 1905 to 1909, and succeeded +Johnson as Senator from North Dakota, serving up to the present time; +Gilbert N. Haugen, another Wisconsin-born Norwegian, who has +represented the Fourth Iowa District since 1899; Andrew J. Volstead, a +Minnesota-born Norwegian, who has sat for the Seventh Minnesota District +since 1903; and Halvor Steenerson, born in Dane County, Wisconsin, of +Norwegian stock, who has represented the Ninth Minnesota District since +1903.[385] Martin N. Johnson, who was born of Norwegian parents +in Wisconsin, had his first legislative experience in the Iowa +legislature, sat in the House as representative at large from the new +State of North Dakota from 1891 to 1899, and then, after a period of +retirement, was sent to the United States Senate from the same State, +serving from March, 1909, until his death in October of the same year. + + [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. + +An analysis of this list of Representatives shows that eleven of the +sixteen were Norwegians of the first or second generation of immigrant +stock, four were Swedes, and one a Dane. Six of the eleven were born in +America, three of them in the old Wisconsin settlements; only one of +these represented the district in which he was born, the rest receiving +their reward in the newer western sections into which they had migrated +with the movement of population beyond the Mississippi. + +Different Federal administrations have deemed it wise to "recognize" the +Scandinavian among other elements of the political population, in making +appointments in the diplomatic and consular services of the United +States. One of the most notable instances is that of the selection of +John Lind, the former governor of Minnesota, as the personal +representative of President Wilson in Mexico during the troubled months +of 1913 and 1914 and as adviser to the United States embassy in Mexico +City during the period following the recall of Ambassador Henry Lane +Wilson. Another instance of appointment in this service is that of +Lauritz Selmer Swenson, a Norwegian of the second generation, born in +Minnesota, who was minister to Denmark from 1897 to 1906, and later +received appointments as minister to Switzerland and to Norway, +terminating the latter in 1913.[386] Rasmus B. Anderson represented the +United States at the Danish court from 1885 to 1889, being at that time +a Democrat. He was born in Wisconsin of pure Norse parentage, and had +served as professor of the Scandinavian languages in the University of +Wisconsin.[387] + + [386] _Who's Who in America_, 1914-5. + + [387] _Ibid._; Anderson, _Norwegian Immigration_, quoting from the + _Madison Democrat_. + +The appointment of Nicolay A. Grevstad as minister to Uruguay and +Paraguay in 1911 was a fitting recognition of ability combined with long +and able service to the people of the older, or middle, Northwest as +editor of the _Minneapolis Tribune_, the _Minneapolis Times_, and the +great Chicago daily, _Skandinaven_ (1902-1911). Hans Mattson, a Swedish +veteran of the Civil War, was consul general at Calcutta from 1883 to +1885;[388] Soren Listoe, the Danish editor of _Nordvesten_ of St. Paul, +Minnesota, was consul at Düsseldorf, 1882-3, consul at Rotterdam, +1897-1902, and consul general at the same city, 1902-1914.[389] At +Rotterdam he succeeded L. S. Reque, a Norwegian from Iowa. Several other +men have served for long terms in minor positions in the foreign +service.[390] + + [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. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +PARTY PREFERENCES AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP + + +The great majority of the Scandinavians, prior to 1884, were thoro-going +and uncompromising Republicans, and tho the party still holds most of +them, profiting largely from their natural conservatism and their +loyalty to a principle, it can by no means depend upon them with the +assurance it had in the "good old days" when to find a Scandinavian +voter in the Northwest was to find a Republican. + +The causes which determined the early party affiliations of the +naturalized sons of the Vikings, in the broad area of State and Federal +affairs, are to be found in the character of the immigrants themselves +and in the great questions agitating the country at the time they became +citizens. Coming to the United States with an endowment of natural +independence, with an innate respect for government, and with an +inclination for public concerns, their interest was at once actively +aroused in the great problem of slavery that vexed national life from +the time of the Sloop Folk to the Civil War. As their information about +the slave system grew more exact, and as the tremendous significance of +the restriction of the slave area as a cardinal political issue was made +clear to their minds, they became of one mind in the mighty agitation. +Neither they nor their ancestors for hundreds of years had held slaves; +few of them had ever seen a slave, for their numerous traders and +sailors, with slight exceptions, had no smell of blood of the African +slave trade on their hands.[391] It was not chance, therefore, which +kept the stream of North European immigrants from flowing into the South +and Southwest; no attractiveness of climate or soil could compensate for +the presence of Negro slavery. A horror and hatred of slavery colored +their thinking from their first month in the New World; it was first a +moral, then a political, conviction, not the sentiment of individuals, +but the well-reasoned opinion of the whole community. + + [391] Du Bois, _Suppression of the African Slave-Trade_, 90 n 5, 131, + 143 n 1. + +Bound together on this great question, then so dominant, they naturally +maintained unity on other political questions as well as on slavery; and +when once their ideas were fixed, any change would be effected slowly +and with difficulty. The newcomers, in their first months in the older +settlements, were speedily indoctrinated with anti-slavery sentiment. +Thus it came about that one party received and retained the vast +majority of the Scandinavians down to 1884, simply because a bent that +way was given in the early years of immigration from the Northern +peninsulas, and because the question of the status of the Negro, in one +form or another, continued to be a political issue. + +The first appearance of the Norwegians in State politics in Wisconsin, +as already noted, was under the Free Soil banner between 1846 and 1848, +when that State was endeavoring to form a constitution. The first +constitution submitted to the people, in 1847, was rejected by a large +majority, including a separately-submitted provision granting equal +suffrage to Negroes. While the State decisively voted thus, the counties +in which the Scandinavian vote was largest--Racine, Walworth, and +Waukesha--showed large majorities in favor of giving the Negroes +political privileges equal to those of the Whites. On the other hand, +counties where the German votes were numerous stood solidly against +equal suffrage, seemingly because in the constitutional convention the +question of Negro suffrage was coupled with that of the granting of +suffrage to foreign-born, in a way that greatly displeased the +Germans.[392] When the second convention finished its constitution, in +1848, resolutions were introduced to provide for printing and +distributing translations of the document, 6000 copies in German, and +4000 copies in Norwegian, a hint of the relative strength of the two +groups.[393] + + [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. + +The relation of James Reymert and his _Nordlyset_ to the Free Soil +movement has been mentioned. When the Democratic papers mercilessly +criticised the little sheet and poked fun at its name, the paper was +sold by Reymert to Knud Langeland in 1849, and by him removed to Racine; +the name was changed to _Demokraten_, but the politics of the paper were +not affected.[394] As a political organ among the Norwegians, it was +ahead of the times; the support of the paper was insufficient to pay the +bills, and it was discontinued in 1850. The Norwegian immigrants were +unaccustomed to a purely secular press; they preferred to have +their politics wrapped up in papers labelled "religious." Langeland +declares that many of them considered it a sin to read a political +newspaper.[395] But the Free Soil sentiment was too strong to go without +printed expression in Norwegian; and accordingly the propaganda +continued in the form of speeches of Chase, Seward, Hale, Giddings, and +other anti-slavery leaders, which were translated into Norwegian and +mixed in with non-political matter in _Maanedstidende_, a paper whose +publication, after the failure of _Demokraten_, Langeland undertook +along with four clergymen, Clausen, Preuss, Stub, and Hatlestad.[396] + + [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. + +As they read these speeches of the great leaders, as they heard from +Negroes themselves the evils of slavery, as they learned of the +high-handed doings in Kansas, the zeal of the Scandinavians for human +freedom increased. There were no old party traditions, feelings, or +feuds, to keep them from judging the issue of slavery's expansion on its +merits; no loyalty to the memories of dead heroes held them in mortmain. +Some few of them voted for Cass in 1848 and for Pierce in 1852, but by +1856 there was only one issue for them: simply and straightforwardly and +almost to a man, they became Republicans.[397] The Democrats, of +course, did not let the children of the North go without an effort to +secure them in their ranks. In 1856 Elias Stangeland of Madison, +Wisconsin, started a Norwegian paper, _Den Norske Amerikaner_, in +support of James Buchanan. His efforts to get Langeland to undertake the +editorship failed because the latter was an ardent admirer of Fremont. +The paper had a short life, and probably Langeland is right in +attributing its disappearance to the withdrawal of the Democratic +subsidy.[398] A long time was to elapse before a successful attempt +would be made to maintain a Democratic paper in Norwegian or Swedish. + + [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. + +What the anti-slavery agitation left undone towards making the +Scandinavians unswervingly Republican, was accomplished by the Civil +War. The lingering glories of the golden age of the Democracy of Jackson +and Jefferson were entirely obscured by the attitude of the Democratic +party toward the conduct of the war. Only when the memories of the Civil +War grew less vivid and less influential with new arrivals from the Old +World, and not until moral questions were superseded in political +discussions by economic questions relating to the tariff, currency, and +labor, did the Scandinavians begin to arrange themselves in any +considerable numbers outside the Republican ranks. + +Four times during the last thirty-five years the Scandinavian voters in +large numbers, under varying circumstances and in different degrees in +different States, have abjured Republican leadership. After each such +excursion they have returned, for the most part, to their old party +relations, but never with quite the same fervent, reliable zeal for +Republican principles and candidates. The development of the bacillus of +independence is unmistakable. One defection affected Wisconsin alone, +the only instance where the Democrats profited directly by the votes of +large numbers of Scandinavians. At a later time, when the Free Silver +and Populist ideas took strong hold on the Northwest, the Scandinavian +vote re-enforced the personal popularity of John Lind, the Swedish +candidate of the Populist-Democratic party, and secured his election, +tho the rest of the Fusion ticket suffered defeat. + +The first time Norse voters broke from the Republican ranks was in +connection with the Greenback movement which began with the depression +following the panic of 1873 and culminated in the election of 1880. Many +of them, especially the Swedes in Illinois, became out-and-out +Greenbackers or Independents. In his book on the Swedes in Illinois, +published in 1880, C. F. Peterson gives brief biographies of some seven +hundred Swedes, men of all walks of life above day laborer, who may be +considered as representatives of the 40,000 Swedes in Illinois at that +time.[399] At least they represent the classes which would be least +likely to be led off into economic heresies. Of 628 whose party +affiliations are stated, 472 were Republicans; 76, Independents; 55, +Greenbackers; and 25, Democrats or Prohibitionists. In other words, out +of the total number canvassed, more than twenty per-cent were dissenters +from Republican orthodoxy. + + [399] Peterson, _Svenskarne i Illinois_, part II. + +The relation of political and religious sentiment is strikingly +illustrated in analyzing these biographies, for those who were Lutherans +or Methodists were usually Republicans in politics, and proud to belong +to "the party of moral ideas."[400] Those stating their religious +preferences as Lutheran numbered 388, and of these only 10 were +Democrats, 16 were Greenbackers, and 19 were Independent. On the other +hand, of 131 who belonged to the three political parties last mentioned, +87 were in religion also Independent, Free Thinkers, or "Ingersollites". +For States other than Illinois, no such complete contemporary data are +available; but since the Greenback vote in Minnesota was only 2% of the +total, and in Wisconsin 3%, it is fair to assume that the Scandinavians +did not desert the Republican standard in very large numbers in those +States. + + [400] _Ibid._, 353; "Medlem i de 'moralska ideernas' politska + parti--det republikanska." + +The second case of considerable defection among the Republican +Scandinavians occurred after the widespread development of agrarian +discontent in the late eighties. The farmers and laborers, American and +Scandinavian alike, felt the stress of hard times, turned to political +agencies for relief, forsook the old parties, and formed the party +called variously the Populist, People's, and Farmers' Alliance Party. +Besides those Norwegians and Swedes who had been for years Republicans, +whose political color was fixed by the mordant of slavery and the Civil +War, there was then a very large number of men who arrived in the vast +immigrant invasions between 1880 and 1885, and who were just coming into +the full exercise of the rights of citizenship. An increasing proportion +of these later arrivals went to the large cities and towns. All of them +were moved less by the traditions of "moral ideas" and more by the +contagious discontent of the older settlers and by the arguments of +industrial and political agitators. + +In the election of 1890 a serious break occurred in the Republican Party +in Minnesota and in the Dakotas. There was a general impression in the +rural districts of Minnesota that the Republican candidate for governor, +William R. Merriam, a wealthy banker of St. Paul, was renominated for +his second term by a political ring composed of lumber-kings, wheat +dealers, and millers who combined to cheat and rob the farmer. +Accordingly the Farmers' Alliance nominated a third ticket headed by S. +M. Owen, the editor of an agricultural paper in Minneapolis, who polled +a vote of 58,513, and reduced Merriam's vote of 1888 by about +46,000.[401] Merriam was re-elected by a plurality of less than 2,500, +tho he had had more than 24,000 two years before. + + [401] _Minnesota Legislative Manual_, 1893, 482: + + 1888 1890 + Republican candidate 134,355 88,111 + Democratic candidate 110,251 85,844 + Prohibition candidate 17,026 8,424 + Farmers' Alliance candidate ... 58,513 + +A careful examination of the votes for 1888 and 1890 in such strong +Scandinavian counties as Otter Tail, Douglas, Chisago, Freeborn, Polk, +and Norman leaves no doubt that the Swedes and Norwegians in very large +numbers either voted for Owen, or refused to vote for Merriam.[402] In +some cases the Republican vote fell off one-half and even two-thirds, +and third-party Alliance candidates for the legislature were elected. A +prominent Norwegian writer estimated that "25,000 Norwegian-born farmers +turned their backs upon Mr. Merriam and voted for Mr. Owen for +governor," disregarding the injunction of the Scandinavian Republican +press to "stick to the grand old party, for the grand old party is +particularly favorable to the Scandinavians, and the best political +party in America."[403] + + [402] _Minnesota Legislative Manual_, 1889, 397; 1893, 472. + + [403] Mr. J. J. Skordalsvold in _The North_, Aug. 10, 1892. + +At the next state election in the presidential year, 1892, a Norwegian +ran for governor on the Republican ticket, and a large part of the +Scandinavian deserters wheeled into line and voted the Republican +ticket. With a total vote only 15,000 greater than in 1890, the vote for +the Republican candidate for governor increased in round number 20,000, +for the Democratic candidate, 9,000, and for the Prohibition candidate, +4,000, while the vote of the Alliance or People's party fell off +20,000.[404] + + [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: + + Republican Democrat Populist + + Presidential elector 1 2 2 + Governor or Lieutenant Governor 1 ... 1 + Secretary of State 1 1 1 + Legislative ticket 2 2 ... + County officers 2 1 ... + City officers 4 1 ... + + _Minneapolis Journal_, Nov. 3, 1892. + +Conditions in North Dakota and South Dakota were even more favorable to +the new party than in Minnesota. Estimates based on a study of +statistics and newspapers have been confirmed by prominent officials of +those States, one of whom declares that "in some localities quite a +per-cent has joined the Populist party; but it is very rare indeed to +find a Scandinavian Democrat."[405] Another believes that a considerable +portion of the Scandinavians voted the Populist ticket in 1892 and in +1894, but that they were normally believers in the protective principle +and therefore naturally affiliated with the Republican party.[406] A +German lawyer of Valley City, North Dakota, a Democrat, practically +agreed with the Norwegian city attorney of Devil's Lake in the same +State, the one saying that a large part of the Norse voters were +Populists, the other declaring that the Populist party was largely +composed of Scandinavians.[407] All agreed that these voters later +tended to return to their former Republican alliance. It may be doubted, +however, whether the hold of the protection idea is one of the primary +reasons for Scandinavian Republicanism. At any rate the vote of the Hon. +Knute Nelson for the Mills Bill for tariff revision in 1888--one of six +Republican votes for the measure--did not make him politically _persona +non grata_ or a suspicious character among his Norwegian or Swedish +brethren. + + [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. + +Another index of the shifting of political sentiment among the Norse +voters is found in the changes in the party affiliations of Scandinavian +newspapers, tho the varying importance of these journals imposes special +caution in interpreting these figures. It would be obviously unfair to +offset the staunch and well-supported Republicanism of the ably-edited +and widely-circulated _Skandinaven_ of Chicago with the less stable +_Normannen_ of Stoughton, Wisconsin, which had not one-third the +circulation nor one-tenth of the influence of the metropolitan +journal.[408] The "mugwump spirit" of the press is well illustrated by +the case of _Norden_, a Norwegian weekly of Chicago, Republican up to +1884, when it took an independent attitude. In 1888 it became avowedly +Democratic and supported Grover Cleveland for the presidency. This move +was made only after the proprietor and editor assured themselves that +the patrons of the paper would sustain them in the proposed change.[409] + + [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. + +Of the secular political Scandinavian papers published in Minnesota +in 1889 nine were Republican--five Norwegian or Norwegian-Danish, +four Swedish; three were Democratic,--all Norwegian; two were +Prohibitionist,--one Norwegian and one Swedish; and one was +Labor,--Norwegian.[410] In the next five years, the independent press in +Minnesota and other states increased in numbers at least, and included +such influential journals as _Amerika_ and _Folkebladet_. George Taylor +Rygh, professor of Scandinavian languages in the University of North +Dakota, estimated in 1893 that "until a few years ago over four-fifths +of the [Scandinavian] secular press were strictly Republican in +politics. One after another has ceased to defend the Republican party, +and today not more than one-third of the whole number are strictly +Republican."[411] While this personal opinion or impression is probably +exaggerated, it may represent approximately the temporary state of that +year if proper emphasis be laid on the word "strictly." Since there +appears to be no evidence that these papers, with two or three +exceptions, were subsidized to induce their change of political creed, +it is reasonable to conclude that they had behind them a solidified +constituency, for they were run neither for personal amusement, pure +philanthropy, nor mere partisan propaganda. + + [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." + +The third defection occurred in Wisconsin alone, and took its rise in a +purely local question. Its interest lies in the peculiar and remarkable +temporary alliance to which it led. The Wisconsin Legislature passed an +act, approved April 18, 1889, "concerning the education and employment +of children."[412] To the ordinary provisions for coercing parents and +children, so that all children between the ages of seven and fourteen +years should attend at least twelve weeks in some public or private +school in the city or town or district in which they lived, nobody +objected. But the fifth section of the act, which was known as the +Bennett Law, was in certain church circles, like a dash of vitriol in +the face: + +"No school shall be regarded as a school under this act unless there +shall be taught therein as a part of the elementary education of the +children, reading, writing, arithmetic, and United States history, in +the English language." + + [412] _Laws of Wisconsin_, 1889, ch. 519. + +The last four words of this section, innocent and reasonable as they +look to the average American, stirred up one of the bitterest political +fights ever known in Wisconsin. The Roman Catholic church, unalterably +committed to a system of parochial schools in many of which instruction +is given in a foreign language, was for once in accord with the German +and Scandinavian Lutherans who maintained similar schools. The +compulsory use of English in instructing pupils in specified subjects +turned priests and pastors and whole congregations into active, +vociferous politicians, for Germans, Norwegians, Poles, and Bohemians +claimed the right to educate their children in parochial schools of +their own choosing. Was not education education, whether carried on in +English or German or Polish or Norwegian? Were not the graduates of +church schools, even tho they spoke English brokenly or with brogue, +just as intelligent, just as capable, just as industrious, and just as +honest, as those educated in the "little red school house" and the +public high school?[413] The chairman of the Lutheran Committee on +School Legislation stated the matter clearly from the standpoint of the +churches: + +"The Lutherans of Wisconsin do not oppose the Bennett Law because they +are the enemies of the English language.... The Lutherans oppose the +present compulsory school law because--whether designedly or not--it in +fact infringes on the rights of conscience guaranteed by the +constitution, and the right of parents to educate according to their +convictions, their own children.... In short, the Lutherans insist upon +their right to establish private schools at their own expense, and +regulate them, without any interference on the part of the State, ... +that their children may become Lutheran Christians as well as loyal and +good citizens."[414] The official circular of the State Superintendent +of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, dated January 25, 1890, almost a +year after the passage of the act, was a statement of the opposite point +of view, and a justification of attempts to enforce the law. +Incidentally it was a political pamphlet as well. Superintendent Thayer +said: "The thing that is antagonized by this law is the practice of +allowing children of this State of proper school age, to pass that +period of life without acquiring the minimum of education in elementary +branches; without acquiring the ability to think in the language of the +country, to express themselves intelligibly in that language, orally, in +writing, and in business forms." + + [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). + +All through the latter part of 1889 and the first ten months of 1890, +the agitation went on. The press gave great space to it; some papers +through several months, both in Wisconsin and in the neighboring States +where Lutherans and Catholics were numerous, offered "symposiums" which +printed arguments on both sides.[415] _Public Opinion_ summarized the +sentiment for the larger world.[416] Church assemblies took action, and +finally an Anti-Bennett Law convention was held in Milwaukee, June 4, +1890. + + [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. + +The Democrats were not slow in seizing the advantage offered, and +managed their campaign of 1890 very shrewdly. The combination of sternly +anti-Catholic German and Norwegian Lutherans, usually Republican, with +Roman Catholics, under the Democratic banner, was irresistible. In spite +of the frantic appeals of the Republican press and speakers for loyalty +to the American flag and to the "little red school house," the Democrats +elected their candidate for governor, and a legislature pledged to give +the desired relief. By the six-line act of February 5, 1891, the Bennett +Law was repealed, and two months later another compulsory education act +was passed without the offensive and troublesome four words.[417] The +work of the Lutheran-Catholic alliance was done; the heterogeneous, +naturally antagonistic elements fell apart; and in a few years old party +lines were re-established. The plurality of 28,000 by which the +Democratic Governor, G. W. Peck, was elected in 1890, overcoming the +usual Republican plurality of about 20,000, was reduced at his +re-election in 1892 to 7,700. In 1894 the Republican candidate defeated +Governor Peck by the handsome plurality of 50,000 votes.[418] + + [417] _Laws of Wisconsin_, 1891, chaps. 4, 187. + + [418] _Wisconsin Bluebook_ (1895), 342-342, 347. + +While the Bennett Law agitation was going on in Wisconsin, a similar, +but milder disturbance occurred in Illinois. The compulsory education +act of the latter State, which went into effect July 1, 1889, was +closely, if not deliberately, modelled after the Wisconsin statute, and +enacted that "no school shall be regarded as a school under this act, +unless there shall be taught therein in the English language, +reading, writing, arithmetic, history of the United States, and +geography."[419] In the campaign of 1890, the Republican candidate for +State Superintendent of Education, favoring the new compulsory education +law, was defeated by some 36,000 votes by Raab, the Democratic candidate +who opposed the law. The Norwegians and Danes in the city of Chicago +probably voted for Raab in large numbers, tho he won the Swedish wards +of that city by small pluralities. In such counties as Knox, with its +two thousand Swedish voters, and Winnebago (in which is situated the +city of Rockford, with about fifteen hundred Swedish voters), where +one-third of the foreign born population was at that time Scandinavian, +the Republican candidate received large majorities. A writer for +_America_, the periodical published in English for Scandinavian readers, +claimed proudly that "the large Swedish settlements in Henry, Rock +Island, Bureau, De Kalb, Henderson, Warren, Mercer, Ford, Whiteside, and +other counties cast a solid vote for Edwards.... The Swedes were in +favor of compulsory education almost to a man."[420] In the city of +Chicago, the County Superintendent of Schools for Cook County was +re-elected by a plurality of 23,000 tho he favored the compulsory law. +The repeal of the law of 1889 was not so prompt in Illinois as it was in +Wisconsin, for it was not until 1893 that a new and expurgated +compulsory education measure took its place.[421] + + [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. + +A close and detailed examination of the legislative journals and the +statutes of the Northwestern States does not reveal above a half-dozen +laws which can be said to be due to the leadership and direct influence +of the Scandinavians as such. On the other hand, in the field of general +legislation these men have been indistinguishable from the native-born +in ability, efficiency, and uprightness; the gross and net products of +the labors of those legislatures with many Scandinavian representatives +in such states as Minnesota and North Dakota, are not perceptibly +different from the output of legislatures in which no Swede or +Norwegian ever sat, as in Michigan or Colorado. Scarcely a law has been +passed for the purpose of catering to the preferences, or of catching +the vote, of the sons of the Northlands. + +An exception to this general statement is the Minnesota law of 1883 +providing for the establishment of a "professorship of Scandinavian +language and literature in the State University, with the same salary as +is paid in said University to other professors of the same grade." The +man to be chosen must be "some person learned in the Scandinavian +language and literature, and at the same time skilled and capable of +teaching the dead languages so called."[422] + + [422] _The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota_, 1894, secs. + 3908-3909 (_Laws of 1883_, Chap. 140.) + +The motives of the makers of the law were benevolent enough, and +circumstances warranted its passage, but nothing could better illustrate +the utter carelessness and looseness with which American State +legislators do their work, than this simple statute. It was drawn up by +a distinguished American lawyer, Gordon E. Cole of St. Paul, at +the request of Truls Paulsen by whom it was introduced into the +legislature.[423] It created a chair of "Scandinavian language," when +there is no such language, living or dead; the professorship was +established "in the State University," when the laws of the State +recognize no institution bearing such a name. The Norwegian who +presented the bill, the legislature (including twenty-one other +Norwegians and Swedes) which passed it, and the Governor who signed it, +all showed the same quality of ignorance and neglect of fact, law, and +English. A second law, undoubtedly based directly upon the first, even +to copying its confusion of terms, was the act passed by the legislature +of North Dakota in 1891, creating a chair of Scandinavian language and +literature in the University of North Dakota.[424] + + [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). + +Another statute having still more distinct Scandinavian earmarks was +passed by the legislature of North Dakota in 1893, providing for +tribunals of conciliation, to be composed of four commissioners of +conciliation elected in each town, incorporated village, and city. The +measure was modelled in a feeble and tentative fashion after a statute +of Norway, where such courts have been in operation since 1824, proving +especially efficient in securing amicable adjustment of petty +neighborhood difficulties.[425] But the law in North Dakota speedily +fell into "innocuous desuetude," in spite of the enormous percentage of +Norwegians in that State; its construction was defective; its +constitutionality was questioned; its machinery was cumbersome and +expensive. During its first two years, many communities failed to elect +commissioners, and no serious attempt was made to comply with its +provisions; even the Norwegians themselves manifested no anxiety or +haste to make use of this characteristically Norwegian court. Nor did +the amendment of 1895, substituting for compulsory use of the tribunal +hearings at the request of one party and with the consent of both +parties, improve matters. One Norwegian attorney pronounced the law "an +unmitigated absurdity under present conditions," because most suits in +the United States arise out of contracts, debts, titles, etc., rather +than out of neighborhood quarrels, slanders, and the like. + + [425] Letter of Siver Serumgard, City Attorney of Devil's Lake, N. D., + March 24, 1896, and various other letters. + +In all matters relating to temperance and temperance legislation, the +Scandinavian voters have almost invariably been on the side of +restriction of the saloon and the liquor traffic. They have supported +prohibition in Iowa and in the Dakotas, high license in Minnesota, and +the patrol-limit system in Minneapolis.[426] The prohibition State and +local tickets, especially in Minnesota, and in the Dakotas, always have +a large proportion of Norwegians and Swedes among their nominees.[427] +The best illustration of this sentiment, however, is to be found in the +history of prohibition in North Dakota. When the new constitution for +the proposed State was made and presented to the people in 1889, the +section which provided for the absolute prohibition of both the +manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors was submitted separately to +the voters. Thus the prohibition issue was presented fairly and squarely +to every man in the State. The constitution itself was carried by a +majority approximating twenty thousand in a total vote of upwards of +thirty-five thousand; the prohibitionist section received a majority of +1159. Analysis of the vote by counties makes it clear that in every +county where the Scandinavians predominated, with a single exception, +the section was carried by fair majorities.[428] The question of +re-submission of this section to the vote of the people of the State +came up in 1895, and was postponed indefinitely by the House of +Representatives of the State of North Dakota by a vote of twenty-six to +twenty-two, fourteen of the sixteen Scandinavian members of the House +voting with the twenty-six.[429] This seems to justify the opinion of +the Secretary of State of North Dakota: "Nearly all Scandinavian members +of the legislature have invariably voted against the resubmission of the +question to the people.... It is safe to say that at least three-fourths +of the Scandinavian population of this State favor prohibition, and +one-half of them are earnest advocates of the law."[430] + + [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. + +The only remaining question as to the political influence of +the Scandinavians is the claim of the Swedes and Norwegians for +"recognition" at the hands of old parties; and the concessions which +such claims have extorted. From the foregoing accounts, it is evident +that the Scandinavians have been ready in fitting themselves into the +political system of the United States. Altho they have not been guilty +of that excessive and pernicious activity in the field of public affairs +which has characterized some classes of immigrants settling by +preference in the great cities, it must be admitted that they have now +and then appealed to race pride and prejudice and jealousy, re-marking +boundary lines and distinctions which should be obliterated. The +practical politicians, on their part, have not hesitated to stir up, for +party advantage, the sensitiveness of naturalized citizens to real or +imaginary slights and discriminations against them by "the other party." + +The appeal of the Norwegian and Swedish press is not infrequently based +frankly on the essential sentiment of clannishness: "Scandinavians in +Superior and other places should always support a country man for +election to public office," and if he is in all ways worthy, "we should +all together rally around him, lay aside all small considerations, and +honor him with our trust and esteem."[431] Ridiculing the narrowness of +these "demands," another editor, under the heading "From Norway, +Birthplace of Giants," suggests a full Republican ticket of Norwegians, +including Rasmus B. Anderson, "Republican pro tem.," and also a full +Democratic ticket of Norwegians, including Rasmus B. Anderson, "thinking +that he may next year be a Democrat again."[432] This trick of asserting +their political importance in the Northwestern States was very early +learned; and so long as party managers bid for votes in the tongues of +the aliens, bribing them with nominations of the foreign-born, just so +long will these groups of adopted citizens reiterate and multiply their +demands, just so long will they capitalize their voting power +and collect a generous interest in the shape of nominations and +appointments. It must not be supposed that the Norwegian and Swedish +party papers in America exist for the primary purpose of forwarding the +political interests of people of those nationalities as such, for they +do not, any more than do the partisan papers printed in English, but the +Scandinavian groups are so large and so definite that appeals to them to +stand together as a race for their own interests are inevitable. + + [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. + +So early as 1870, one of the leading Norwegian newspapers declared +that it was time for the Norwegians to get a Representative in +Congress just as well as other nationalities--"_ligesaavel som andre +nationaliteter_."[433] The editor suggested that the eight thousand +Norse voters in the southern Minnesota district hold a convention the +day before the regular Republican convention, and agree upon a candidate +for the Congressional nomination: if the Republicans refused to nominate +him, put on the screws! About twenty years later this very method was +resorted to in North Dakota, when the Scandinavians of that State "in +mass convention assembled," proceeded to pass resolutions and to +organize the Scandinavian Union of North Dakota, to secure for +themselves "that share in the government to which their competency, +their character and numerical strength, and their rank as pioneers in +all matters of civilization entitle them." While declaring that it +believed that every man should stand or fall on his own merits, the +convention resolved "that we have seen with deep regret the disposition +of a large number of our fellow citizens in some parts of North Dakota +to discriminate against us, because we are Scandinavians, and that an +unprovoked war has been waged against us."[434] The Hon. M. N. Johnson, +presiding officer, presumptive beneficiary of the Union, an aspirant for +nomination as Representative, stated the case very frankly: "The +Scandinavians constitute a majority of the Republican party in North +Dakota. Under the territorial government they have not received many +official favors, but with the opening of statehood it is proper that +they should have some recognition. The Scandinavians are not disposed to +leave the Republican Party. They are heartily loyal to the organization +and its principles.... We have the numerical strength to demand and +secure justice, and all we ask is fair play.... We are simply organizing +our forces for united action in urging our just demands."[435] Their +just demands consisted in "from three to five of the State officers, and +if they stand together and attend the primaries, there is no doubt but +that they will get what they ask for."[436] + + [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. + +The effectiveness of this movement is sarcastically summed up by a +correspondent of _The North_, in reporting the Republican convention: +"M. N. Johnson's Scandinavian League has evidently come out of the small +end of the horn. To be sure M. N. was made the chairman of the +convention and the dear Scandinavians got honorary mention in the +resolutions: but M. N.'s chairmanship was evidently devoid of results +beneficial to the Scandinavians, and as for resolutions--talk is +cheap!"[437] + + [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. + +In an editorial in English _Skandinaven_ discussed "Governor Sheldon's +Mistake" in 1893: "Upwards of one-third of the population of South +Dakota is of Scandinavian birth or origin, while Scandinavians furnish +not less than one-half of the Republican vote of the State. Governor +Sheldon is apparently oblivious to this fact; for in making his +appointments he saw fit to ignore the Scandinavian-American citizens of +South Dakota. For the sake of the Republican party of the State this +mistake is very much to be regretted. The Scandinavians are sensitive of +their rights as American citizens.... What has the Republican party of +South Dakota done to Governor Sheldon that he should deal it such a +dangerous blow?"[438] Five years later the governor of Minnesota was +accused of a like offence in that, on the State boards appointed by +Governor Merriam, the Scandinavians were "insufficiently represented," +having only five out of one hundred members, or one-twenty-fifth, when +they constituted one-third of the population of the State.[439] + + [438] _Skandinaven_, April 5, 1893. + + [439] _The North_, Jan. 22, 1890, quoting in translation from + _Fædrelandet og Emigranten_. + +The pettiness of these squabbles over political "recognition" and spoils +is well illustrated by a letter written in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to a +Minneapolis newspaper in 1889: "While our people here number over 3000, +and the Irish only 1400, the latter hold a still larger percentage of +offices than they do in your city. This year for the first time the +Scandinavians (or more correctly speaking, the Danes) have succeeded in +obtaining a place on the police force"![440] + + [440] _The North_, July 17, 1889. + +These insistent demands do not stop with simple recognition of the +Scandinavian race: different sections must be satisfied. The most +influential Swedish paper of the Northwest announced in 1890 that "what +we on the other hand with full propriety and without the least danger of +transgression can demand, is a man of Swedish descent at the head of one +of our State departments.... To deny them (Swedes) this just recognition +would stir up bad feeling, and would be looked upon as a slight, not to +say contempt.... Our brethren, the Norwegians, are a little more +numerous in Minnesota, than the Swedes, although not equally good +Republicans. They, too, are entitled to a place on the State ticket, and +for a long time have had one [Lieutenant Governor Rice]."[441] + + [441] Translated from _Svenska Folkets Tidning_ (Minneapolis), April + 20, 1890. + +The failure of the Scandinavians to receive what some of them consider a +just and due reward, one in proportion to their numbers and their +devotion to one party, is not to be attributed wholly to the hardness of +heart of the party leaders, nor to their shortsightedness. Nor can it be +fairly charged to any strong dislike of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes +for each other: the Swedes, for example, have never bolted a ticket +because it happened to be headed by a Norwegian.[442] In addition to the +extension of religious antagonism into politics, "there is still another +reason for the limited success of the Scandinavians in the political +field, and that is their natural apathy [antipathy?] to following a +leader. Each one considers himself competent to work on his own hook. To +follow a leader seems incompatible with their ideas of liberty. Yet +without union and without leaders, victory is impossible.... 'Everybody +for himself, and the Devil for the hindmost' is the law governing +American life, and this the Irish have learned, while the Scandinavian +is generally waiting for someone to come along and offer something with +the polite 'if you please.' But he has to wait."[443] + + [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.) + +The Scandinavian press, in complaining of "a failure to get a due share +of offices," in declaring that Norwegians are "entitled to ten seats" in +the Wisconsin legislature when they happen to have but three, or in +insinuating that they have never been fittingly recognized in Iowa, +resorts to political claptrap, often quite unworthy of the journal +printing it. The facts so easily forgotten are that the counties and +legislative districts in which the Scandinavians are a ruling majority +are comparatively few, while the districts in which they are an +influential minority are very many.[444] The system of representation in +the United States is not based on any racial divisions or class +distinctions, and not until some scheme of minority representation is +adopted can any foreign element get its "share" of the political plums. +It would be hard to suggest a more dangerous and disrupting experiment, +in these decades when aliens by the hundreds of thousands, not to say +millions, enter the country and are incorporated into the body politic, +than to attempt to "recognize" the various alien factors in complex +public affairs, even if they were all as adaptable as the men from the +Northlands. Nothing would do more, for example, to develop the latent +religious and racial antipathies between the Scandinavians and the +Irish. The fundamental assumption, therefore, which lies back of all +claims for "recognition" of Swedish-Americans, or other hyphenated +Americans, as such, savors of ward politics and the machine, rather than +of political equity or right, and just so far as it does this it menaces +social and political safety. + + [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). + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +CONCLUSION + + +The meaning of the word American as applied to the inhabitants of the +United States, has undergone a great change as they have multiplied +fifteenfold in numbers and many times in varieties of nationalities in +the course of a century. In that progress the Norwegians, Swedes, and +Danes have played a conspicuous and constructive part. As late as 1840, +American ordinarily meant a white person of English descent, born in +America or resident in the United States long enough to understand and +accept as fundamental and vital certain political and social ideals and +ideas. That simple and definite significance applies no more. The +American race is already alarmingly complex, tho the old type has been +more closely adhered to than would be expected from an enumeration of +the elements which have gone into the crucible. + +In temperament, early training, and ideals, the Scandinavians more +nearly approach the American type than any other class of immigrants, +except those from Great Britain. In such features as adaptability and +loyalty without reservation, no exceptions need be made. They have not +come to the New World merely to get away from Europe, nor to escape +Siberian exile or an Abyssinian war; nor has their motive been one of +ordinary adventure-seeking. Theirs has been a determined purpose and a +serious resolve to "arrive" somewhere in America, and, finding their +places, to fill them with honorable endeavor and steady ambition. They +have come as families, or with a wholesome desire to establish families +for themselves. Most of them have fallen considerably below the best +types of their own nationalities; their conservatism has sometimes been +of the degenerate sort bordering on stolidity; their independence and +individualism has come painfully near stubbornness; and their shrewdness +has not infrequently developed into insincerity. They have now and then +manifested a clannishness which led them into disagreeable, if +temporary, complications. + +The fact that this characteristic or that tendency exists in an +immigrant or alien element, should not cause disturbance of mind to the +good citizen, the statesman, or the scholar; the real question is +whether this characteristic or tendency is growing stronger or +disappearing more or less rapidly. For example, is the stolidity of a +group deepening, or does mental agility develop in the second and third +generation? That the Scandinavians have readily outgrown much of their +clannishness, perceptibly quickened their energies in the new +environment, and developed notably in social, commercial, and political +efficiency cannot be seriously questioned by any one who studies their +activities as a whole, or who has observed them for two generations. + +The immigrants from the North are decently educated, able-bodied, +law-abiding men and women, not illiterates, paupers, or criminals. They +are not here as exiles from home and country for a few years, after +which they purpose to return to their native lands, there to enjoy a +cheap and narrow idleness. They are in the United States as citizens, to +become thoroly and loyally American. Their ingrained habits of industry +and economy, coupled with a natural conservatism and shrewdness, have +given them material success and contributed in large measure to the +prosperity of the States in which they have made their settlements. They +have ever striven for homes, and while some of them have been content +for a few years to serve others, the proletariat has not been largely +recruited from them. Mere wage-earning has not been a permanent +condition, but a stepping stone to a greater or less degree of +independence. In politics and in war they have evidenced their ability +to stand side by side with the native-born of New England, Pennsylvania, +Ohio, and Indiana, and, with real faithfulness and efficiency to fill +such places, low or high, as shall be opened to them. + +Tho as Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes they will gradually disappear, +becoming indistinguishable from other Americans, their fundamental +characteristics cannot be blotted out even in the third and fourth +generation. Men do not change so readily, even under the most favorable +conditions. Fresh additions from Europe will continue to re-enforce the +old stock; but they too will be sturdy, independent, and Protestant. It +is not too much to expect that their virtues of intelligence, patience, +persistence, and thrift, will be preserved as they mingle in the current +of national life. The demand for these qualities will be steady; the +supply on the part of the Scandinavians will not be readily exhausted. +The intermarriage and amalgamation of two peoples so closely allied as +the Scandinavians and Americans connotes much of promise and little of +danger. + +Several forces will continue to operate in the future, as they have in +the past, against perpetuating any distinctively Scandinavian influence +on the population or institutions of the United States. All three +Northern peoples are particularly free from other than traditional ties +and sentimental attachments binding them to the mother countries. No one +of the three kingdoms is great or powerful in the affairs of Europe; the +heroes of the past, like Gustavus Adolphus, are too far away in time to +affect powerfully the imaginations of today. Patriotism with them in the +Old World is quite as much a sentiment or love for the parish or the +homestead as it is a fierce and militant passion for the power and +leadership of the nation. No dramatic outbursts of national feeling, or +antagonisms to ancient enemies, will rekindle old enthusiasms in the +American Scandinavians. Even the prospect of war between Norway and +Sweden, when the former dissolved the Dual Monarchy, did not profoundly +stir the Swedes or Norwegians in the Northwest; and had war broken out +all the recruits from America could probably have been shipped across +the Atlantic in one voyage of a small steamship. + +Furthermore, no great and permanent causes centering in Europe +continually demand their active and intense sympathy and financial aid, +knitting them closely together, as in the case of the Irish or the +Russians. The Scandinavian contributions to European causes have been +filial and fraternal, never political, never revolutionary, never such +as to raise a national issue in America. Their church organizations, +decentralized, centrifugal rather than centripetal, recognizing no unity +under a temporal head, cannot be turned into a keen, insinuating +political weapon. They have no secret societies ramifying through their +settlements, no Mafias, "Molly Maguires," anarchist lodges, or other +badges of ancient servitude or foreign hates. + +The Scandinavians, knowing the price of American citizenship, have paid +it ungrudgingly, and are proud of the possession of the high +prerogatives and privileges conferred. They fit readily into places +among the best and most serviceable of the nation's citizens; without +long hammering or costly chiseling they give strength and stability, if +not beauty and the delicate refinements of culture, to the social and +economic structure of the United States. + +For all these reasons the difficulties of the United States in adjusting +the life and ideals and institutions of the nation to the presence of +foreigners are reduced in the case of the Scandinavians to a minimum. +The Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes are not likely to furnish great +leaders, but they will be in the front rank of those who follow with +sturdy intelligence and conscience, striving to make the land of their +adoption strong and prosperous,--"a blessing to the common man," +according to the original vision of America seen by Sweden's great king +Gustavus Adolphus. They will be builders, not destroyers; their greatest +service will be as a mighty, silent, steadying influence, re-enforcing +those high qualities which are sometimes called Puritan, sometimes +American, but which in any case make for local and national peace, +progress, and righteousness. + + + + +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. + + +DOCUMENTARY SOURCES + +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. + + +GENERAL WORKS + +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. + + +SPECIAL HISTORIES + +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). + + +SELECT ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS + +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). + + +_State and Local Histories_ + +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. + + +A. MINNESOTA + +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). + + +B. WISCONSIN + +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). + + +C. ILLINOIS + +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. + + +D. IOWA + +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. + + +E. OTHER STATES + +_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). + + +TRAVELS AND GUIDE BOOKS + +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). + +Of the numerous travelers through the American Northwest, noting the +Scandinavian settlements or the conditions affecting them, the most +significant is Frederika Bremer, _The Homes of the New World--Impressions +of America_ (In translation from the Swedish, 3 vols., London, 1853), +the work of an educated, alert, sympathetic Swedish lady already noted +as a writer. Others of special worth are C. C. Andrews, _Minnesota and +Dakota: in Letters Descriptive of a Tour through the Northwest in the +Autumn of 1856_ (1857); Johan Bolin, _Beskrifning öfver Nord Amerikas +Förenta Stater_ (Wexjö, 1853); A. Budde, _Af et Brev om Amerika_ +(Stavanger, 1850); Basil Hall, _Travels in North America in the Years +1827-1828_ (1829, Edinburgh, 3 vols.); Thorvald Klavenes, _Det Norske +Amerika_ (Kristiania, 1904); Harriet Martineau, _Society in Autumn of +1856_ (1857); Johan Bolin, _Beskrifning öfver Amerika_ (Göteborg, 1872); +P. Waldenström, _Genom Norra Amerikas Förenta Stater: Reiseskildringar_ +(Stockholm, 1890); Victor Wickström, _Som Tidningsman Jorden Rundt_ +(Östersund, 1901). + +Of guidebooks and handbooks for emigrants and immigrants there is a +great number, in English, Swedish, and Norwegian; some issued from +philanthropic motives, some by interested States, railroad companies, +land companies, and counties, and some by the United States. Only those +that directly affected the Scandinavians, or that are typical of a +period, are mentioned, and the list is not meant to be exhaustive of +titles or editions. Some of the publications by States, might well have +been put under the heading of State documents. + +One of the typical, widely circulated English handbooks is William +Cobbett, _The Emigrant's Guide, in ten Letters addressed to the +Taxpayers of England, containing Information of every Kind, necessary to +Persons who are about to emigrate_ (London, 1829). A similar Norwegian +pamphlet is L. J. Fribert, _Haandbog for Emigranter til Amerikas Vest_ +(Christiania, 1847), or J. R. Reierson, _Veiviser for norske Emigranter +til de forenede nordamerikanske Stater och Texas_ (Christiania, 1844, +reprinted in America, 1899). The United States issued a guide: Edward +Young, _Special Report on Immigration; accompanying Information for +Immigrants_ (1871), reprinted in 1872, with editions in French and +German. Other works are: Frederick B. Goddard, _Where to Emigrate and +Why_ (1864); and Edward Young, _Information for Immigrants, relative to +Prices and Rentals of Land, etc._ (1871). + +For Wisconsin, the most significant and helpful are: _Beskrivelse over +Staten Wisconsin: Dens Klimat, Jordbund, Agerdyrkning, samt Natur- og +Kunstprodukter. Udgivet efter Legislaturens Ordre af Statens +Immigrations Department_ (1870); K. K. Kennan (joint agent in Europe +for the Wisconsin State Board of Immigration and the Wisconsin Central +Railroad, without expense to the former), _Staten Wisconsin, dens +Hjælpekilder og Fordele for Udvandreren_ (1884)--in several editions, and +also in Swedish; C. F. J. Moeller, _Staten Wisconsin, beskreven med +særligt Hensyn til denne Stats fortrinlige Stilling som et fremtidigt +Hjem, for Emigranter fra Danmark, Norge, og Sverige_ (1865); +_Wisconsin,--What it offers to the Immigrant. An official Report +published by the State Board of Immigration of Wisconsin_ (1879)--many +editions, and in various languages. + +For Minnesota: Girart Hewitt, _Minnesota: Its Advantages to Settlers_, +etc. (1868),--seven editions, one being published by the State; Hans +Mattson, _Minnesota och dess Fordelar for Indvandreren_ (1867); +_Minnesota as a Home for Emigrants_ (1886),--in Norwegian and Swedish +also. + +For other States: _Resources of Dakota,--an Official Publication compiled +by the Commissioner of Immigration_ (1887), later editions dealing with +the two States formed from the Territory of Dakota; Fred. Gerhard, +_Illinois as it is: its History, Geography, Statistics_, etc. (1857); +_Iowa: the Home for Immigrants_ (1879), also in Swedish, Norwegian, +German, and Dutch. + + +BIOGRAPHIES AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES + +Several of the books mentioned under special histories, like those +of Norelius, Langeland, Dietrichson, and Schroeder, have much +autobiographical material in them; while others, such as the volumes of +O. N. Nelson and C. F. Peterson and the county histories, contain +hundreds of brief biographies. The more important and illuminating +autobiographies are: Hans Mattson, _Minnen_ (Lund, 1890) and the same in +translation, _Reminiscences, the Story of an Emigrant_ (1891), an +interestingly naïve account of the varied activities of a prominent +politician and business man; Gustaf Unonius, _Minnen från en +sjutton-årig Vistelse i Nordvestra Amerika_ (2 vols., Upsala, 1862), a +graphic account of the first years of Swedish settlement, by one of its +highly educated leaders, and _Bihang till Minnen_ (Stockholm, 1891). +With less direct bearing, is W. H. C. Folsom, _Fifty Years in the +Northwest_ (1888); H. P. Hall, _H. P. Hall's Observations, being more or +less a History of Political Contests in Minnesota from 1843 to 1904_ +(1904); John Reynolds, _My Own Times, embracing also the History of My +Life_ (Chicago, 1855); Stephen Grellet, _Memoirs_ (edited by Benj. +Seebohm, 2 vols., 1860); and S. B. Newman, _Pastor S. Newmans +Sjelfbiografi_ (1890). + +Four biographies stand out above the others: T. N. Hasselquist, +_Lefnadsteckning af E. Norelius_; L. A. Stenholt, _En Studie af Knute +Nelson_ (1896); Chr. O. Brohough, and I. Eisteinsen, _Kortfattet +Beretning om Elling Eielsens Liv og Virksomhed_ (1883); and L. M. Björn, +_Pastor P. A. Rasmussen_ (1905). Other biographies of less significance +for this study are: C. J. Rosenberg, _Jenny Lind in America_ (1851); +Sara C. Bull, _Ole Bull_ (1883); W. C. Church, _Life of John Ericsson_ +(2 vols., 1890). + +Other collected biographies, including Scandinavians, are: J. C. +Jensson, _American Lutheran Biographies_ (1890); _Men of Minnesota_ +(1902); F. G. Flower, _Biographical Souvenir Book_ (1899), relating to +North Dakota alone; _Prominent Democrats of Illinois_ (1899); H. A. +Tenney, and D. Atwood, _Fathers of Wisconsin_ (1880); C. J. A. Erickson, +"Memories of a Swedish Immigrant," _Annals of Iowa,_ April, 1907. + + +RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND THE PRESS + +No attempt is made here at a bibliography of the abundant polemical +religious literature, nor of the sermons and proceedings of church +conventions, nor of denominational year books, further than to show the +material contributing to this volume. In similar manner, a limit is put +upon the list of catalogs and publications of colleges and seminaries, +and upon the periodicals and newspapers of which the number is very +large. + +A very recent and excellent volume dealing with Norwegian progress and +culture in America is _Norsk-Amerikanernes Festskrift, 1914_ (Chief +Editor, Johs. B. Wist) which was prepared as an American contribution to +the celebration of the centennial of Norwegian independence. Important +chapters are devoted to the press (noted below), the churches, schools, +literature, and men in public or political life, each being the work of +a careful scholar. + +The most valuable volumes dealing with the religious histories of +Scandinavian settlement are E. Norelius, _De Svenska Luterska +Församlingarnas och Svenskarnes Historia i Amerika_ (1890) and, of +almost equal worth, for Norwegian church history, Th. Bothne, _Kort +Udsigt over det Lutherske Kirkearbeide blandt Nordmændene i Amerika_ +(1898), being a separate made up of a section of "Norske Kirkeforhold i +Amerika," pp. 815-903, of H. G. Heggtveit, _Illustreret Kirkehistorie_. +Good brief sketches of various denominations are embodied in O. N. +Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians_, already noted. The most +important of the other works are: R. Anderson, _Den Evangelisk Lutherske +Kirkes Historie i Amerika_ (1889); and _Emigrantmissjonen, Kirkelig +Vejledning for Udvandrere_ (1884); H. K. Carroll, _The Religious Forces +of the United States, enumerated, classified, and described on the Basis +of the Government Census of 1890.... Revised to 1896_ (1896); Theodor H. +Dahl, _Den Forenede Kirke: Fred og Strid eller Lidt Forenings Historie_ +(1894); O. Ellison, _Svenska Baptisternas i Wisconsin Missions Historia_ +(1902); Simon W. Harkey, _The Mission of the Lutheran Church in America_ +(1853); O. J. Hatlestad, _Historiske Meddelelser om den norske Augustana +Synode_ (1887); H. G. Heggtveit, _Illustreret Kirkehistorie_ (1898); +Chauncy Hobart, _History of Methodism in Minnesota_ (1887); Henry E. +Jacobs, _A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United +States_ (1893); J. N. Lenker, _Lutherans in all Lands_ (1896); N. M. +Liljengren and C. G. Wallenius, _Svenska Methodismen i Amerika_ (1885); +_Minde fra Jubelfesterne paa Koshkonong_ (1894); M. W. Montgomery, _The +Work among the Scandinavians_ (1888) and "A Wind from the Holy Spirit," +_Sweden and Norway_ (1884); A. H. Newman, _History of the Baptist +Churches in the United States_ (1894), and _A Century of Baptist +Achievement_ (1901); E. Norelius, _Evangeliska Luterska Augustana +Synoden i Nord Amerika och dess Mission_ (1870); _Affidavits of Sven +Oftedal, et al_ (in Dist. Court of Minnesota, 4th Jud. Dist.) (1897); H. +Olson, _Minnesotal öfver framlidne pastorn O. G. Hedström_ (1886); +George Richardson, _The Rise and Progress of the Society of Friends in +Norway_ (London, 1849); Matthew Simpson (editor), _Cyclopedia of +Methodism_ (5th ed., 1882); E. J. Wolf, _The Lutherans in America_ +(1890); N. C. Brun, "Kort Omrids af den amerikansk-lutherske Kirkes +Historie", _Vor Tid_, I (1905). + +On the educational side are Kiddle and Schem, _Dictionary of Education_ +(1890); Chr. Koerner, _The Bennett Law and the German Parochial Schools +of Wisconsin_ (1890); J. W. Stearns (editor), _The Columbian History of +Education in Wisconsin_ (1893); _The Bennett Law Analyzed_ (1890); A. +Estrem, "A Norwegian-American College (Luther College)," _Midland +Monthly_, I (1894); E. S. White, "Elk Horn College," _Midland Monthly_, +II (1894); J. P. Uhler, "Scandinavian Studies in the United States," +_Science_, IX (1887); G. Andreen, "Det svenska Språket i Amerika", +_Studentföreningen Verdandis Småskrifter_, No. 87 (Stockholm, 1900); G. +T. Flom, _A History of Scandinavian Studies in American Universities_ +(Bulletin of the State University of Iowa, No. 153, 1907), and "Det +norsk sprogs bruk og utvikling i Amerika", _Normands-Forbundet_, IV +(1912); G. Bothne, "Nordiske studier ved amerikanske universiteter", +_Norsk-Amerikanernes Festkrift, 1914_; A. A. Stomberg, "Swedish in +American Universities", _Year-Book of the Swedish Historical Society of +America_, 1909-1910; C. G. Wallenius, "Den högre Skolverksamheten bland +Svenskarne i Amerika", _Year-Book of the Swedish Historical Society of +America_, 1911-1913. + +University and college catalogs and registers need not be enumerated for +each year; two typical years would be 1895 and 1905; Augustana College +and Seminary, Rock Island, Ill.; Luther College, Decorah, Iowa; Bethany +College, Lindsborg, Kansas; Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, +Minnesota; St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota; Elk Horn College, +Elk Horn, Iowa; Augsburg Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Red Wing +Seminary, Red Wing, Minnesota; Northwestern University; University of +Chicago; Chicago Theological Seminary; University of Wisconsin; +University of Minnesota; University of North Dakota; University of +Nebraska; State University of Iowa. + +Exhaustive and scholarly discussions of the history and character of the +Scandinavian newspapers and periodicals published in the United States +are: Juul Dieserud, "Den norske presse i Amerika. En historisk +oversigt", _Normands-Forbundet_, V (April 1912); Carl Hansen, "Et Stykke +Norsk-Amerikanske Pressens-historie", _Kvartalskrift_, III (Jan. 1907), +"Den norsk-amerikanske presse før borgerkrigen", _Symra: en Aarbog for +Norske paa begge Sider af Havet_, IV (1908); and "Den norsk-amerikanske +presse: Pressen til borgerkrigens slutning", _Norsk-Amerikanernes +Festskrift, 1914_; Johs. B. Wist, "Den norsk-amerikanske press: Pressen +efter borgerkrigen", _Norsk-Amerikanernes Festskrift, 1914_--remarkably +full and complete in its details; E. W. Olson (editor), "Press and +Literature", _History of the Swedes in Illinois_ (1908), ch. 13. Less +important is Eric Johnson, "The Swedish American Press", _The Viking_, I +(July and Aug. 1906). + +For statistics and ratings of newspapers, G. P. Rowell & Co., _American +Newspaper Directories_ (1869 to 1906); N. W. Ayer, _American Newspaper +Annual_ (1881-1914) (Philadelphia). + + +ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS + +Florence E. Baker, _A Brief History of the Elective Franchises in +Wisconsin_ (1894); Fremont O. Bennett, _Politics and Politicians of +Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois_ (1886); Eugene Brown and F. Fred +Rowe (compilers), _Industrial and Picturesque Rockford, Illinois_ +(1891); Carlo De'Negri, _Appunti di Statistica Comparata dell' +Emigrazione dell' Europa e della Immigrazione in America e in Australia_ +(in _Bulletin de l'Institute International de Statistique_, 1888); John +G. Gregory, _Foreign Immigration to Wisconsin_ (1902); C. H. Gronvald, +_The Effects of the Immigration on the Norwegian Immigrants_ (in _Sixth +Annual Report to the State Board of Health of Minnesota_, 1878); Hans +Mattson (editor), _Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First +Swedish Settlement in America, September 14, 1888_ (1889); Robert P. +Porter (and others), _The West: from the Census of 1880_ (1882); Julian +Ralph, _Our Great West: a Study of the Present Conditions and Future +Possibilities of the New Commonwealths and Capitals of the United +States_ (1893); Gustav Sundbärg, _Bidrag till Utvandringsfrågen från +Befolkningsstatistisk Synpunkt_ (in _Upsala Universitets Årsskrift_, +1884 o. 1885); Carl Sundbeck, _Svensk-Amerikanerna, deras Materialla och +Andliga Sträfvanden_ (1904)--a good up-to-date summary of conditions in +America; William W. Thomas, _Sweden and the Swedes_ (1893); James D. +Whelpley, _The Problem of the Immigrant_ (1905); Edward Young, _Labor in +Europe and America, a Special Report on the Rate of Wages, etc._ +(1875),--a particularly valuable book, dealing with conditions in Europe +on the eve of the great movement to America. + +Two groups of Federal reports are very useful: _Emigration from Europe_, +(_Reports from the Consuls of the United States_, No. 76, 1887), dealing +with European conditions; and _Emigration to the United States_ +(_Special Consular Reports_, vol. XXX, 1904). Another exhaustive and +scholarly investigation is embodied in _Reports of the Industrial +Commission on Immigration, including testimony, with Review and Digest, +and Special Reports_, being vol. XV of the Commission's _Reports_ +(1901). + +The Civil War as related to immigration from Northern Europe is treated +in: Ole A. Buslett, _Det Femtende Regiment Wisconsin Frivillige_ (1895); +P. G. Dietrichson, _En Kortfattet Skildring af det femtende Wisconsins +Regiments Historie og Virksomhed under Borgerkrigen_ (1884); J. A. +Enander, _Borgerkrigen i de Forenede Stater i Nord Amerika_ (1881); John +A. Johnson, _Det Skandinaviske Regiments Historie_ (1869). + +Important articles in periodicals: F. W. Hewes, "Where our Immigrants +Settle" (with excellent statistical maps), _World's Work_, VI (1903); G. +G. Huebner, "The Americanization of the Immigrant," _Annals of the +American Academy of Political and Social Science_, XXVII (1906); +Richmond Mayo-Smith, "Control of Immigration", _Political Science +Quarterly_, III, 46, 197, 404 (1888); G. H. Schwab, "A Practical Remedy +for the Evils of Immigration," _Forum_, XVI (1893); Nicolay A. Grevstad, +"Courts of Conciliation," and "Courts of Conciliation in America," +_Atlantic_, LXVIII (1891), LXXII (1893). + +Various numbers of _Normands-Forbundet_, published in Christiania, have +contained noteworthy articles, besides those mentioned elsewhere in +this bibliography, dealing with American conditions: S. Sondresen, "Den +norsk-amerikanske farmer" (1908); J. Dieserud, "Nordmændenes +deltagelse i de Forenede Staters politiske liv" (1908); M. Alger, +"Re-immigrationen" (1913); Av. Kand. Gottenborg, "Hjemvandte +norsk-amerikanere, deres livsforhold i Amerika og i Norge efter +hjemkomste" (1913); O. K. Winberg, "Degenererer Nordmænd i Amerika" +(1910). + +Three small novels contain particularly graphic accounts of the life and +social conditions among the Norwegian settlers: P. O. Strömme, +_Hvorledes Halvor blev Prest_ (1893), one of the very best pictures of +pioneer immigrant family life; H. A. Foss (translated by J. J. +Skordalsvold), _Tobias, a Story of the Northwest_, an exaggerated +account of intemperance; and Sigurd H. Severson, _Dei möttes ve Utica. +En paa personlig Iagttagelse grundet Skildring af Livet i ældre +Norsk-Amerikanske Settlementer_ (1882). + + +NEWSPAPERS + +The number of newspapers and other periodicals for the Scandinavians in +the United States yearly given in G. P. Rowell Co., _American Newspaper +Directory_, has varied in recent years from 125 to 140, while the total +of short-lived and long-lived publications of the same sort would pass +200. The following list includes those periodicals, chiefly newspapers, +which were useful in some special degree in preparing this volume: + + _America_, Chicago, an English monthly for Swedes and Norwegians. + + _American-Scandinavian Review_, New York, 1913--Engl. bi-mo. + + _Amerika_, Chicago & Madison, Wis., 1884 (united with _Norden_, 1897 + q. v.), Norw. Wkly. + + _Billed-Magazin, Skandinavisk_, Madison, Wis., 1868-1870. Norw. mo. + + _Budstikken_, Minneapolis, 1872--. Norw. wkly. + + _Chicago Daily Tribune_, Chicago, 1847--. dly. + + _Chicago Record-Herald_, Chicago, 1854--. dly. + + _Dannevirke_, Cedar Falls, Iowa, 1880--. Dan. wkly. + + _Danske Pioneer_, Omaha, Neb., 1873--. Dan. wkly. + + _Decorah Posten_, Decorah, Iowa, 1874--. Norw. wkly. + + _Fædrelandet og Emigranten_, La Crosse, Wis., and Minneapolis, + 1864-1888. (_Emigranten_, Inmansville, Wis., 1852; Janesville, 1856; + Madison, 1857; La Crosse, 1864, and united with _Fædrelandet_.Q Norw. + wkly.) + + _Folkebladet_, Minneapolis, 1878--. Norw. wkly. + + _Gamla och Nya Hemlandet_, Chicago, 1855. Sw. wkly. + + _Korsbaneret_, Rock Island, Ill., 1880. Sw. church annual. + + _Kvartalskrift_, Minneapolis, 1903--. Nor. qtly. + + _Madison Democrat_, Madison, Wis., 1852--. Eng. dly. + + _Milwaukee Daily Sentinel_, Milwaukee, Wis., 1837--. Eng. dly. + + _Minneapolis Evening Journal_, Minneapolis, 1878--. Eng. dly. + + _Minneapolis Times_, Minneapolis, 1889-1905. Eng. dly. + + _Minneapolis Tribune_, Minneapolis, 1867--. Eng. dly. + + _Minneapolis Tidende_, Minneapolis, 1887--. Norw. dly. and wkly. + + _Minnesota Stats Tidning_, Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1877--. Sw. wkly. + + _Norden_, Chicago, 1874-1897 (united with _Amerika_). Norw. wkly. + + _Nordvesten_, St. Paul, 1883--. Norw.-Dan. wkly. + + _Nordmanden_, Grand Forks, N. D., 1887--. Norw. wkly. + + _Nordmands-Forbundet_, Christiania, Norway, 1908--. Nor. + + _Normannen_, Stoughton, Wis., 1867. Norw. wkly. + + _The North_, Minneapolis, 1889-1894. Eng. wkly. for Scandinavians. + + _Red River Posten_ (merged with _Dakota_), Fargo, N. D., 1879--. Norw. + wkly. + + _Rockford Register_, Rockford, Ill., 1867--. Eng. dly. + + _Rodhuggeren_, Crookston, Minn., 1880-1884. Norw. wkly. + + _Scandinavia_, Chicago, 1883-1886. Eng. mo. for Scandinavians. + + _Skandinaven_, Chicago, 1866--. Norw. dly., wkly., and tri-wkly., the + strongest and most influential Scandinavian paper in the United + States. + + _St. Paul Pioneer-Press_, St. Paul, 1849--. Eng. dly. + + _St. Paul Dispatch_, St. Paul, 1868--. Eng. dly. + + _Superior Tidende_ (originally _Posten_), Superior, Wis., 1888--. + Norw.-Dan. wkly. + + _Svensk-Amerikaneren_, Chicago, Ill., 1866--. Sw. wkly. + + _Svenska Amerikanska Posten_, Minneapolis, 1886--. Sw. wkly., a large + and influential paper. + + _Svenska Folkets Tidning_, Minneapolis, 1883--. Sw. wkly. + + _Svenska Tribunen_, Chicago, 1868--. Sw. wkly. + + _Ugebladet_, Chicago, later Minneapolis, 1888--. Norw. wkly. + + _Valdris-Helsing_ (_Valdris-Samband_), Iowa City, Ia., later + Stillwater and Minneapolis, Minn., 1893--. Norw. mo. (since 1912) + devoted to interests of immigrants from Valders. + + _The Viking_, Fremont, Neb., 1906--? Eng. mo. for Scandinavians. + + _Vikingen_, _Minneapolis_, 1906--. Norw.-Dan. mo. + + _Vor Tid_, Minneapolis, 1905-1908. Norw. mo. + + _Wisconsin State Journal_, Madison, 1897--. Eng. dly. + + + + +APPENDIX I + +Statistical Tables + +TABLE I + +STATISTICS OF IMMIGRANTS FROM DENMARK, NORWAY AND SWEDEN. + +The number of alien passengers and immigrants from the Scandinavian +countries arriving in the United States, 1820-1913, together with the +total number of alien arrivals according to the statistics of the United +States, and, where available, of the Scandinavian kingdoms. The figures +from 1820-1840 are at best a safe minimum. The earlier figures reported +by the Scandinavian kingdoms, given in round numbers, are probably +estimates based upon partial data. See United States _Reports of the +Bureau of Commerce and Navigation, Annual Statistical Abstracts_ and the +report of the Dillingham Commission (1911); Sundbärg, _Bidrag til +Utvandringsfrägen frän Befolkningsstatistisk Synpunkt;_ Nelson, +_Scandinavians in the United States,_ I. 253-264c; _Bulletin de +l'Institute Internationale de Statistique,_ III, ii, 125-127; +_Statesman's Year-Books, 1906-14_. + + +-------------------- UNITED STATES STATISTICS ------------------+ + + Total Total + Denmark Norway Sweden Scandinavian Aliens + + 1820 20 3 23 8,385 + 1821 12 12 24 9,127 + 1822 18 10 28 6,911 + 1823 6 1 7 6,354 + 1824 11 9 20 7,912 + 1825 14 4 18 10,199 + 1826 10 16 26 10,837 + 1827 15 13 28 18,875 + 1828 50 10 60 27,382 + 1829 17 13 30 22,520 + 1830 16 3 19 23,322 + + 1820-1830 189 94 283 151,824 + + 1831 23 13 36 22,633 + 1832 21 313 334 60,482 + 1833 173 16 189 58,640 + 1834 24 42 66 65,365 + 1835 37 31 68 45,374 + 1836 416 57 473 76,242 + 1837 109 290 399 79,340 + 1838 52 60 112 38,914 + 1839 56 324 380 68,069 + 1840 152 55 207 84,066 + + 1831-40 1,063 1,201 2,264 599,125 + + 1841 31 195 226 80,289 + 1842 35 553 588 104,565 + 1843 29 1,748 1,777 52,496 + 1844 25 1,311 1,336 78,615 + 1845 54 928 982 114,371 + 1846 114 1,916 2,030 154,416 + 1847 13 1,307 1,320 234,968 + 1848 210 903 1,113 226,527 + 1849 8 3,473 3,481 297,024 + 1850 20 1,569 1,589 369,980 + + 1841-50 539 13,903 14,442 1,713,251 + + 1851 14 2,424 2,438 379,466 + 1852 3 4,103 4,106 371,601 + 1853 32 3,364 3,396 368,645 + 1854 691 3,531 4,222 427,833 + 1855 528 821 1,349 200,877 + 1856 173 1,157 1,330 200,436 + 1857 1,035 1,712 2,747 251,306 + 1858 232 2,430 2,662 123,126 + 1859 499 1,091 1,590 121,282 + 1860 542 298 840 153,640 + + 1851-60 3,749 20,931 24,680 2,598,212 + + 1861 234 616 850 91,918 + 1862 1,658 892 2,550 91,985 + 1863 1,492 1,627 3,119 176,282 + 1864 712 2,249 2,961 193,418 + 1865 1,149 6,109 7,258 248,120 + 1866 1,862 12,633 14,495 318,568 + 1867 1,436 7,055 8,491 315,722 + 1868 819 11,166 11,985 142,023 + + 1861-68 9,362 42,347 51,709 1,578,036 + + 1869 3,649 16,068 24,224 43,941 352,768 + 1870 4,083 13,216 13,443 30,742 387,203 + 1871 2,015 9,418 10,699 22,132 321,350 + 1872 3,690 11,421 13,464 28,575 404,806 + 1873 4,931 16,247 14,303 35,481 459,803 + 1874 3,082 10,384 5,712 19,178 313,339 + 1875 2,656 6,093 5,573 14,322 227,498 + 1876 1,547 5,173 5,603 12,323 169,986 + 1877 1,695 4,588 4,991 11,274 141,857 + 1878 2,105 4,759 5,390 12,354 138,469 + 1879 3,474 7,345 11,001 21,820 177,826 + 1880 6,576 19,895 39,186 65,657 457,257 + + 1869-80 39,503 124,607 153,589 317,699 3,552,162 + + 1881 9,177 22,705 49,760 81,582 669,431 + 1882 11,618 29,101 64,607 105,326 788,992 + 1883 10,319 23,398 38,277 71,994 603,322 + 1884 9,202 16,974 26,552 52,728 518,592 + 1885 6,100 12,356 22,248 40,704 395,346 + 1886 6,225 12,759 27,751 46,735 334,203 + 1887 8,524 16,269 42,836 67,629 490,109 + 1888 8,962 18,264 54,698 81,924 546,889 + 1889 8,699 13,390 35,415 57,504 444,427 + 1890 9,366 11,370 29,632 50,368 455,302 + + 1881-90 88,132 176,586 391,776 656,494 5,246,613 + + 1891 10,659 12,568 36,880 60,107 560,319 + 1892 10,593 14,462 43,247 68,302 623,084 + 1893 8,779 16,079 38,077 62,935 502,917 + 1894 5,581 8,867 18,608 33,056 314,467 + 1895 4,244 7,373 15,683 27,300 279,948 + 1896 3,167 8,855 21,177 33,229 343,267 + 1897 2,085 5,842 13,162 21,089 230,832 + 1898 1,946 4,938 12,398 19,282 229,299 + 1899 2,690 6,705 12,797 22,192 311,715 + 1900 2,926 9,575 18,650 31,151 448,572 + + 1891-00 52,670 95,264 230,679 378,643 3,844,410 + + 1901 3,655 12,248 23,331 39,234 487,918 + 1902 5,660 17,484 30,894 54,038 648,743 + 1903 7,158 24,461 46,028 77,647 857,046 + 1904 8,525 23,808 27,763 60,096 812,870 + 1905 8,970 25,064 26,591 60,625 1,026,499 + 1906 7,741 21,730 23,310 52,781 1,100,735 + 1907 7,243 22,133 20,589 49,965 1,285,349 + 1908 4,954 12,412 12,809 30,175 782,870 + 1909 4,395 13,627 14,474 32,496 751,786 + 1910 6,984 17,538 23,745 48,267 1,041,570 + + 1901-10 65,285 190,505 249,534 505,234 8,795,386 + + 1911 7,555 13,950 20,780 42,285 878,587 + 1912 6,191 8,675 12,688 27,554 838,172 + 1913 6,478 8,587 17,202 33,267 1,197,892 + + Totals + 278,277 696,401 1,071,835 2,047,513 30,833,643 + + +----------------- EUROPEAN STATISTICS ----------------+ + + Total + Denmark Norway Sweden Scandinavian + + 1820 ... ... ... + 1821 ... 1 1 + 1822 ... ... ... + 1823 ... ... ... + 1824 ... ... ... + 1825 ... 53 53 + 1826 ... ... ... + 1827 ... ... ... + 1828 ... ... ... + 1829 ... ... ... + 1830 ... ... ... + + 1820-1830 ... 54 54 + + 1831 ... ... ... + 1832 ... ... ... + 1833 ... ... ... + 1834 ... ... ... + 1835 ... ... ... + 1836 ... 200 200 + 1837 ... 200 200 + 1838 ... 100 100 + 1839 ... 400 400 + 1840 ... 300 300 + + 1831-40 ... 1,200 1,200 + + 1841 ... 400 400 + 1842 ... 700 700 + 1843 ... 1,600 1,600 + 1844 ... 1,200 1,200 + 1845 ... 1,100 1,100 + 1846 ... 1,300 1,300 + 1847 ... 1,600 1,600 + 1848 ... 1,400 1,400 + 1849 ... 4,000 4,000 + 1850 ... 3,700 3,700 + + 1841-50 ... 17,000 17,000 + + 1851 ... 2,640 934 3,574 + 1852 ... 4,030 3,031 7,061 + 1853 ... 6,050 2,619 8,669 + 1854 ... 5,950 3,980 9,930 + 1855 ... 1,600 586 2,186 + 1856 ... 3,200 959 4,159 + 1857 ... 6,400 1,762 8,162 + 1858 ... 2,500 512 3,012 + 1859 ... 1,800 208 2,008 + 1860 ... 1,900 266 2,166 + + 1851-60 ... 36,070 14,857 50,927 + + 1861 ... 8,900 1,087 9,987 + 1862 ... 5,250 1,206 6,456 + 1863 ... 1,100 1,485 2,585 + 1864 ... 4,300 2,461 6,761 + 1865 ... 4,000 3,180 7,180 + 1866 ... 15,455 4,466 19,921 + 1867 ... 12,829 5,893 18,722 + 1868 ... 13,211 21,472 34,683 + + 1861-68 ... 65,045 41,250 106,295 + + 1869 4,340 18,070 32,050 54,460 + 1870 3,264 14,834 15,430 33,528 + 1871 3,249 12,276 12,985 28,510 + 1872 5,941 13,865 11,838 31,644 + 1873 5,926 10,352 9,486 25,764 + 1874 2,261 4,601 3,380 10,242 + 1875 1,678 4,048 3,591 9,317 + 1876 1,336 4,355 3,702 9,393 + 1877 1,374 3,206 2,921 7,501 + 1878 2,300 4,863 4,242 11,405 + 1879 2,845 7,608 12,761 23,214 + 1880 5,475 20,212 36,263 61,950 + + 1869-80 39,989 170,124 148,649 306,928 + + 1881 7,823 25,976 40,620 74,419 + 1882 11,385 28,804 44,359 84,548 + 1883 8,280 22,167 25,678 56,125 + 1884 6,149 14,776 17,664 38,589 + 1885 4,211 13,901 18,222 36,334 + 1886 5,558 15,116 27,913 48,587 + 1887 8,184 20,706 46,252 75,142 + 1888 8,269 21,348 45,561 75,178 + 1889 8,271 12,597 28,529 49,397 + 1890 9,524 10,898 29,487 49,909 + + 1881-90 77,654 186,289 324,285 588,228 + + 1891 9,781 13,249 36,134 59,164 + 1892 9,763 16,814 40,990 67,567 + 1893 8,551 18,690 37,321 64,562 + 1894 4,105 5,591 9,529 19,225 + 1895 3,607 6,153 14,982 24,742 + 1896 2,876 6,584 14,874 24,334 + 1897 2,260 4,580 10,109 16,949 + 1898 2,340 4,805 8,534 15,679 + 1899 2,799 6,466 11,842 21,097 + 1900 3,570 10,931 16,209 30,710 + + 1891-00 49,652 93,863 200,524 344,029 + + 1901 4,657 12,488 20,306 37,451 + 1902 6,823 19,225 33,151 59,199 + 1903 8,214 24,998 35,439 68,651 + 1904 9,034 20,836 18,533 48,403 + 1905 8,051 19,638 20,520 48,209 + 1906 8,516 20,449 21,242 50,207 + 1907 7,890 20,615 19,325 47,830 + 1908 4,558 7,850 8,873 21,281 + 1909 6,782 15,237 18,331 40,350 + 1910 8,890 17,361 23,529 49,780 + + 1901-10 73,415 178,697 219,249 471,361 + + 1911 8,303 11,122 15,571 34,996 + 1912 + 1913 + + Totals + + +TABLE II + +FOREIGN-BORN SCANDINAVIAN POPULATION, 1850 + +U. S. Census of 1850 + + States and Total Total + Territories Denmark Norway Sweden Scandinavians Population + + Alabama 18 3 51 72 771,623 + Arkansas 7 1 1 9 209,897 + California 92 124 162 378 92,597 + Connecticut 16 1 13 30 370,792 + Delaware 1 ... 2 3 91,532 + District of Columbia 6 ... 5 11 51,687 + Florida 21 17 33 71 87,445 + Georgia 24 6 11 41 906,185 + Illinois 93 2,415 1,123 3,631 851,470 + Indiana 10 18 16 44 988,416 + Iowa 19 361 231 611 192,214 + Kentucky 7 18 20 45 982,405 + Louisiana 288 64 249 601 517,762 + Maine 47 12 55 114 583,169 + Maryland 35 10 57 102 583,034 + Massachusetts 181 69 253 503 994,514 + Michigan 13 110 16 139 397,654 + Minnesota Territory 1 7 4 12 6,077 + Mississippi 24 8 14 46 606,526 + Missouri 55 155 37 247 682,044 + New Hampshire 3 2 12 17 317,976 + New Jersey 28 4 34 66 489,555 + New Mexico Territory 2 2 1 5 61,547 + New York 429 392 753 1,574 3,097,394 + North Carolina 6 ... 9 15 869,039 + Ohio 53 18 55 126 1,980,329 + Oregon Territory 2 1 2 5 13,294 + Pennsylvania 97 27 133 257 2,311,786 + Rhode Island 15 25 17 57 147,545 + South Carolina 24 7 29 60 668,507 + Tennessee 8 ... 8 16 1,002,717 + Texas 49 105 48 202 212,592 + Utah Territory 2 32 1 35 11,380 + Vermont ... 8 ... 8 314,120 + Virginia 15 5 16 36 1,421,661 + Wisconsin 146 8,651 88 8,885 305,391 + ----- ------ ----- ------ ---------- + Total 1,837 12,678 3,559 18,074 23,191,876 + + +TABLE III + +FOREIGN-BORN SCANDINAVIAN POPULATION, 1870 + +U. S. Census, 1870 + + States and Total Total + Territories Denmark Norway Sweden Scandinavians Population + + Alabama 80 21 105 206 996,992 + Arkansas 55 19 134 208 484,471 + California 1,837 1,000 1,944 4,781 560,247 + Connecticut 116 72 323 511 537,454 + Delaware 8 ... 9 17 125,015 + Florida 40 16 30 86 187,748 + Georgia 42 14 35 91 1,184,109 + Illinois 3,711 11,880 29,979 45,570 2,539,891 + Indiana 315 123 2,180 2,618 1,680,637 + Iowa 2,827 17,554 10,796 31,177 1,194,020 + Kansas 502 588 4,954 6,044 364,399 + Kentucky 53 16 112 181 1,321,011 + Louisiana 290 76 358 724 726,915 + Maine 120 58 91 269 626,915 + Maryland 106 17 100 223 780,894 + Massachusetts 267 302 1,384 1,953 1,457,351 + Michigan 1,354 1,516 2,406 5,276 1,184,059 + Minnesota 1,910 35,940 20,987 58,837 439,706 + Mississippi 193 78 970 1,241 827,922 + Missouri 665 297 2,302 3,264 1,721,295 + Nebraska 1,129 506 2,352 3,987 122,993 + Nevada 208 80 217 505 42,491 + New Hampshire 11 55 42 108 318,300 + New Jersey 510 90 554 1,154 906,096 + New York 1,698 975 5,522 8,195 4,382,759 + North Carolina 8 5 38 51 1,071,361 + Ohio 284 64 252 600 2,665,260 + Oregon 87 76 205 368 90,923 + Pennsylvania 561 115 2,266 2,942 3,521,951 + Rhode Island 24 22 106 152 217,353 + South Carolina 50 ... 60 110 705,606 + Tennessee 86 37 349 472 1,258,520 + Texas 159 403 364 926 818,579 + Vermont 21 34 83 138 330,551 + Virginia 23 17 30 70 1,225,163 + West Virginia 21 1 5 27 442,014 + Wisconsin 5,212 40,046 2,799 48,057 1,054,670 + Arizona Ter. 19 7 7 33 9,658 + Colorado Ter. 77 40 180 297 39,864 + Dakota Ter. 115 1,179 380 1,674 14,181 + Dist. of Columbia 29 5 22 56 131,700 + Idaho Ter. 88 61 91 240 14,999 + Montana Ter. 95 88 141 324 20,595 + New Mexico Ter. 15 5 6 26 91,874 + Utah Ter. 4,957 613 1,790 7,360 86,786 + Washington Ter. 84 104 158 346 23,955 + Wyoming Ter. 54 28 109 191 9,118 + ------ ------- ------ ------- ---------- + Total 30,098 114,243 97,327 241,686 38,558,371 + + +TABLE IV + +FOREIGN-BORN SCANDINAVIAN POPULATION, 1890 + +U. S. Census of 1890 + + States and Total Total + Territories Denmark Norway Sweden Scandinavians Population + + Alabama 71 47 294 412 1,513,017 + Arizona Territory 180 59 168 407 59,620 + Arkansas 125 60 333 518 1,128,179 + California 7,764 3,702 10,923 22,389 1,208,130 + Colorado 1,650 893 9,659 12,202 412,198 + Connecticut 1,474 523 10,021 12,018 746,258 + Delaware 41 14 246 301 168,493 + District of Columbia 72 70 128 270 230,392 + Florida 105 179 529 813 391,422 + Georgia 61 88 191 340 1,837,353 + Idaho 1,241 741 1,524 3,506 84,285 + Illinois 12,044 30,339 86,514 128,897 3,826,351 + Indiana 718 285 4,512 5,515 2,192,404 + Iowa 15,519 27,078 30,276 72,873 1,911,896 + Kansas 3,136 1,786 17,096 21,998 1,427,096 + Kentucky 92 120 184 396 1,858,635 + Louisiana 232 136 328 796 1,118,587 + Maine 696 311 1,704 2,711 661,086 + Maryland 130 164 305 599 1,042,390 + Massachusetts 1,512 2,519 18,624 22,655 2,238,943 + Michigan 6,335 7,795 27,366 41,496 2,093,889 + Minnesota 14,133 101,169 99,913 215,215 1,301,826 + Mississippi 90 54 305 449 1,289,600 + Missouri 1,333 526 5,602 7,461 2,679,184 + Montana 683 1,957 3,771 6,411 132,159 + Nebraska 14,345 3,632 28,364 46,341 1,058,910 + Nevada 332 69 314 715 45,761 + New Hampshire 64 251 1,210 1,425 376,530 + New Jersey 2,991 1,317 4,159 8,467 1,444,933 + New Mexico Ter. 54 42 149 245 153,593 + New York 6,238 8,602 28,430 43,270 5,997,753 + North Dakota 2,860 25,773 5,583 34,216 182,719 + North Carolina 26 13 51 90 1,617,947 + Ohio 956 511 2,742 4,209 3,672,316 + Oklahoma Ter. 37 36 138 211 61,834 + Oregon 1,288 2,271 3,774 7,333 313,767 + Pennsylvania 2,010 2,238 19,346 23,594 5,258,014 + Rhode Island 154 285 3,392 3,831 345,506 + South Dakota 4,369 19,257 7,746 31,372 328,808 + South Carolina 36 23 60 119 1,151,149 + Tennessee 92 41 332 465 1,767,518 + Texas 649 1,313 2,806 4,768 2,235,523 + Utah Territory 9,023 1,854 5,986 16,863 207,905 + Vermont 58 38 870 966 332,422 + Virginia 108 102 215 425 1,655,980 + Washington 2,807 8,334 10,272 21,413 349,390 + West Virginia 44 7 72 123 762,794 + Wisconsin 13,885 65,696 20,157 99,738 1,686,880 + Wyoming 680 345 1,357 2,382 60,705 + ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------- + Total 132,543 322,665 478,041 933,249 62,622,250 + + +TABLE V + +FOREIGN WHITE STOCK OF SCANDINAVIAN ORIGIN, 1910 + +13th Census, I, Chapter viii, Table 29 + + Under each state the figures represent + (1) foreign born, corresponding to the figures given + for 1850, 1870, and 1890 + (2) native white of foreign parentage + (3) native white of mixed parentage + + Grand + Norway Sweden Denmark Totals Total + + Alabama 266 752 197 1,215 + 114 481 105 700 + 168 274 128 570 2,485 + + Arizona 272 845 284 1,401 + 164 427 172 763 + 106 302 246 654 2,818 + + Arkansas 76 385 178 639 + 49 176 72 297 + 77 374 198 649 1,585 + + California 9,952 26,210 14,208 50,370 + 4,666 14,797 8,244 27,707 + 2,528 5,464 4,043 12,035 90,112 + + Colorado 1,787 12,445 2,755 16,987 + 1,421 9,681 1,894 12,996 + 826 3,287 1,061 5,174 35,157 + + Connecticut 1,265 18,208 2,722 22,195 + 499 14,508 1,845 16,852 + 204 1,788 418 2,410 41,457 + + Delaware 38 332 52 422 + 15 208 17 240 + 12 85 19 116 778 + + Florida 303 728 295 1,326 + 158 387 110 655 + 303 412 161 876 2,857 + + Georgia 145 289 112 546 + 56 153 33 242 + 85 196 72 353 1,141 + + Idaho 2,566 4,985 2,254 9,805 + 2,221 3,876 2,680 8,777 + 1,289 2,124 2,532 5,945 24,527 + + Illinois 32,913 115,422 17,368 165,703 + 26,572 94,830 11,551 132,953 + 8,953 19,879 4,600 33,432 332,088 + + Indiana 531 5,081 900 6,512 + 363 4,824 692 5,879 + 299 1,896 582 2,777 15,168 + + Iowa 21,924 26,763 17,961 66,648 + 30,392 28,859 17,814 77,065 + 14,586 10,573 5,966 31,125 174,838 + + Kansas 1,294 13,309 2,759 17,362 + 1,371 15,911 2,635 19,917 + 1,031 6,411 1,822 9,264 46,543 + + Kentucky 53 190 78 321 + 39 104 40 183 + 40 148 96 284 788 + + Louisiana 294 344 239 877 + 92 154 125 371 + 252 438 392 1,082 2,330 + + Maine 580 2,203 929 3,712 + 288 1,478 715 2,481 + 218 627 340 1,185 7,378 + + Maryland 363 421 237 1,021 + 144 209 88 441 + 164 261 158 583 2,045 + + Massachusetts 5,432 39,560 3,403 48,395 + 2,170 25,149 1,706 29,025 + 768 3,759 963 5,490 82,910 + + Michigan 7,638 26,374 6,313 40,325 + 6,778 25,624 6,055 38,457 + 2,358 4,939 2,431 9,728 88,510 + + Minnesota 105,302 122,427 16,137 243,866 + 126,549 118,083 15,430 260,062 + 47,755 27,508 5,957 81,220 585,148 + + Mississippi 91 292 119 502 + 32 178 51 261 + 116 280 122 518 1,281 + + Missouri 660 5,654 1,729 8,043 + 543 4,937 1,147 6,627 + 537 2,936 1,380 4,853 19,523 + + Montana 7,169 6,410 1,943 15,522 + 4,859 3,865 1,302 10,026 + 1,914 1,527 696 4,137 29,685 + + Nebraska 2,750 23,219 13,673 39,643 + 2,989 26,599 13,957 43,545 + 1,968 8,668 4,932 15,568 98,755 + + Nevada 254 708 616 1,578 + 107 293 393 793 + 92 192 307 591 2,962 + + New Hampshire 491 2,068 131 2,690 + 292 1,172 55 1,519 + 69 316 69 454 4,663 + + New Jersey 5,351 10,547 5,056 20,954 + 2,256 5,899 3,350 11,505 + 745 1,902 1,261 3,908 36,367 + + New Mexico 151 365 116 632 + 109 240 75 424 + 71 144 91 306 1,362 + + New York 25,012 53,703 12,536 91,251 + 10,171 29,284 5,006 44,461 + 2,221 7,248 3,167 12,636 148,348 + + North Carolina 39 112 36 187 + 13 36 13 62 + 28 70 28 126 375 + + North Dakota 45,937 12,160 5,355 63,452 + 56,577 10,533 5,043 72,153 + 20,770 4,107 1,805 26,682 162,287 + + Ohio 1,109 5,522 1,837 8,468 + 571 4,075 1,150 5,796 + 351 1,458 808 2,617 16,881 + + Oklahoma 351 1,028 550 1,929 + 425 943 518 1,886 + 432 1,058 577 2,067 5,882 + + Oregon 6,843 10,099 3,215 20,157 + 4,643 5,866 2,167 12,676 + 1,949 2,233 1,391 5,573 38,406 + + Pennsylvania 2,317 23,467 3,033 28,817 + 995 22,803 1,656 25,454 + 651 5,415 1,261 7,327 61,598 + + Rhode Island 577 7,404 328 8,309 + 230 5,174 153 5,557 + 109 636 108 853 14,719 + + South Carolina 82 95 51 228 + 19 20 9 48 + 40 68 68 176 452 + + South Dakota 20,918 9,998 6,294 37,210 + 27,803 9,640 6,396 43,839 + 12,025 3,654 2,273 17,952 99,001 + + Tennessee 89 363 163 615 + 74 237 87 398 + 79 281 119 479 1,492 + + Texas 1,784 4,703 1,287 7,774 + 1,649 4,724 844 7,217 + 1,012 2,171 942 4,125 19,116 + + Utah 2,304 7,227 8,300 17,831 + 1,562 5,906 10,169 17,637 + 1,643 3,930 8,142 13,715 49,183 + + Vermont 102 1,331 172 1,605 + 41 905 74 1,020 + 32 185 68 285 2,910 + + Virginia 311 368 239 918 + 222 215 140 577 + 164 138 95 397 1,892 + + Washington 28,363 32,195 7,804 68,362 + 18,486 18,244 4,988 41,718 + 5,875 5,640 2,286 13,801 123,881 + + West Virginia 38 278 67 383 + 10 196 51 257 + 31 124 48 203 843 + + Wisconsin 56,999 25,739 16,454 99,192 + 71,681 23,268 15,903 110,852 + 29,020 6,379 5,958 41,357 251,401 + + Wyoming 623 2,497 962 4,082 + 381 1,455 866 2,702 + 245 598 521 1,364 8,148 + + + + +APPENDIX II + +STATISTICS OF THREE MINNESOTA COUNTIES + +From the U. S. Census Reports + + Chisago County 1860 1870 1880 + White population 1,729 4,358 7,982 + White native-born 1,209 2,164 4,017 + White foreign-born 734 2,194 3,965 + White foreign Danish ..... 14 50 + White foreign Norwegian ..... 1,674 3,160 + White foreign Swedish ..... ..... ..... + + Acres in farms + Improved 3,468 8,004 31,198 + Unimproved 18,484 34,593 72,595 + + Cash value of farms $124,019 $477,720 $1,171,426 + + Chisago County 1890 1900 + White population 10,359 13,248 + White native-born 5,613 8,230 + White foreign-born 4,746 5,018 + White foreign Danish 67 55 + White foreign Norwegian 50 69 + White foreign Swedish 3,955 4,215 + + Acres in farms + Improved 43,476 85,277 + Unimproved 101,649 129,501 + + Cash value of farms $2,563,630 $3,419,310 + + Fillmore County 1860 1870 1880 + White population 13,542 24,887 28,162 + White native-born 9,045 15,178 19,243 + White foreign-born 4,497 9,709 8,919 + White foreign Danish ..... 13 96 + White foreign Norwegian ..... 6,61 5,191 + White foreign Swedish ..... ..... ..... + + Acres in farms + Improved 75,542 185,087 361,100 + Unimproved 216,454 214,459 134,333 + + Cash value of farms $1,844,797 $6,636,880 $9,535,815 + + Fillmore County 1890 1900 + White population 25,966 28,238 + White native-born 19,034 22,378 + White foreign-born 6,932 5,860 + White foreign Danish 68 59 + White foreign Norwegian 4,171 3,593 + White foreign Swedish 66 53 + + Acres in farms + Improved 357,083 389,386 + Unimproved 117,670 131,875 + + Cash value of farms $9,935,202 $14,240,595 + + Otter Tail County 1860 1870 1880 + White population 178 1,968 18,675 + White native-born 178 888 11,249 + White foreign-born ..... 1,080 7,426 + White foreign Danish ..... 41 214 + White foreign Norwegian ..... 889 4,772 + White foreign Swedish ..... ..... ..... + + Acres in farms + Improved 306 3,632 131,804 + Unimproved 2,118 28,898 340,355 + + Cash value of farms $17,550 $151,281 $3,650,223 + + + Otter Tail County 1890 1900 + White population 34,232 45,375 + White native-born 20,884 30,988 + White foreign-born 13,348 14,387 + White foreign Danish 345 372 + White foreign Norwegian 5,955 5,738 + White foreign Swedish 2,470 3,038 + + Acres in farms + Improved 311,175 505,358 + Unimproved 405,380 439,374 + + Cash value of farms $8,511,465 $12,478,640 + + + + +INDEX + + + Aaker, L. K., 146-47. + + Agriculture among Scandinavians, 95-98. + + "America Book", influence on Norwegian emigration, 37-40. + + Americanization, 106-111, 180-182. + + Anderson, Paul, 116-117. + + Anderson, R. B., 39, 155, 173. + + + Banks, Scandinavian, 104-5. + + Baptist Church, work among Scandinavians, 118-120. + + Behrens, Capt., 35-36. + + Bennett Law (Wisconsin), 166-168. + + Bibliography, 183-204. + + Birth rate, 132-33. + + Bishop Hill (Ill.), Swedish settlement, 54, 56-60. + + Bremer, Frederika, quoted, 52-3, 82. + + Bull, Ole, on the term "Scandinavian", 15-16. + + Business, Scandinavians in, 102-5. + + + California, Scandinavian population, 72-4. + + Capital: + brought by immigrants, 92-96; + investment, 94-97. + + Chicago (Ill.): + Scandinavian population, 73-4; + Swedish settlement, 60. + + Chisago Co. (Minn.), Swedish settlement, 97-98; + politics, 163. + + Church, _see_ names of denominations, i. e., Baptist church. + + Cities, Scandinavian element, 73-4. + + Citizenship, 11, 83-4, 179-82. + + Civil War, part played by Scandinavians, 75-8, 142, 149. + + Clausen, C. L., 46-7. + + Climate, influence upon distribution of immigration, 74-5. + + Colleges, Scandinavian, 111-14. + + Communism, in Bishop Hill settlement, 51-60. + + Congregational church, work among Scandinavians, 116-19. + + + Dane Co. (Wis.) settlement, 110, 145. + + Danes: character, 18; + in politics, 140-43; + settlements, 63, 65. + + Danish immigration: 69, 73-4; + character of, 64; + statistics, 62, 67-74. + _See also_ Immigration. + + Danish churches, 15, 63-65. + + Davidson, J. O., 153. + + Defectives, 134-45. + + Delaware River (Swedish) colony, 11-13. + + Delinquents, 134-35, 137-39. + + Democratic party, 160-64, 166-70. + + Denmark: + economic conditions, 18-19, 21, 62-63, 68. + emigration: 62, 64; + causes, 62, 63, 115; + statistics, 62, 67-74. + population: + distribution, 21; + increase, 69-70, 132. + + Dietrichson, J. W. C., 47-8. + + Duluth (Minn.), Scandinavian population, 74. + + + Eberhardt, A. O., 153. + + Education, 65, 109-14, 166-70. + _See also_ English language; illiteracy. + + Elk Horn (Ia.), Danish settlement, 63, 65. + + Emigration, _see_ Immigration; Names of countries, e. g. Denmark. + + English language, use among Scandinavians, 109-10, 113, 122-23, 131, + 145, 166-72. + + Ericsson, John, 78. + + Esbjörn, Paul, 117-18. + + + Families, large, 14, 132-133. + + Farmers' Alliance, 162-63. + + Fillmore Co. (Minn.), 98-99, 110, 144. + + Fox River (Ill.), Norwegian settlement, 28-29, 36. + + Free Soil party, 158-59. + + + Greenback party, 161. + + Grevstad, N. A., 156. + + + Hasselquist, T. N., 117-18. + + Hedström, Jonas, and O. G., 50, 54, 116. + + Heg, Even, 43, 44, 48. + + Heg, H. C., 76. + + Hesthammer, Peerson, _see_ Peerson Kleng. + + Hovland, G. G., 30, 35. + + + Illinois: + Norwegian settlement, 27, 28-9, 32-3, 36; + politics, 161, 168-69; + Scandinavian population, 72-4; + Swedish settlement, 53-4, 56-7, 60. + + Illegitimacy, 134. + + Illiteracy, 109. + _See also_ Education. + + Immigrants, Americanization, 10, 107-108, 179-82; + classes, 11; + value to U. S., 9, 91-93, 179-82. + + Immigration, Scandinavian: + causes, 18-21, 81-8; + distribution, 71-4; + promoted by railroads, 86-98; + promoted by states, 88-90; + statistics, 7-8, 67-74, 205; + value to U. S., 91-105; + westward expansion, 45, 66, 71, 75, 96. + _See also_ Names of peoples, i. e., Danes. + + Independent party, 161. + + Indiana, Norwegian settlement, 27. + + Industry, Scandinavians in, 102-5. + + Insanity, 135-37. + + Intermarriage, 130-131. + + Iowa: + Danish settlement, 63; + immigration promoted by state, 89-90; + Scandinavian population, 72-4; + Swedish settlement, 53. + + + Janson, Eric, 55-9. + + Jansonist colony, see Bishop Hill. + + Jansonist movement, 55-61. + + Jefferson Prairie (Wis.), Norwegian settlement, 41, 46. + + Johnson, J. A., 152-53. + + Johnson, John, 43. + + Johnson, M. N., 154, 174-175. + + + Koshkonong (Wis.), Norwegian settlement, 44. + + Kvelve, B. A., 32. + + + Labor, demand for, influence on immigration, 84-6. + + Laborers, Scandinavian, compared with American, 100-1. + + Land: value in North West, cause of immigration, 81-2, 99; + increase, 87. + + Langeland, Knud, 35, 160. + + Legislation, influenced by Scandinavians, 169-71. + + Lind, John, 152, 154-55, 161. + + Liquor traffic, attitude of Scandinavians, 171-72. + + Listoe, Sören, 156. + + Lutheran church: + among Scandinavians in U. S., 46-7, 63-5, 114-16, 120-23; + educational efforts, 110-14; 166-67. + + + Marriage, 131-32. + + Martineau, Harriet, quoted, 28. + + Mattson, Hans, 90, 146, 150-51, 156. + + Merriam, W. R., 162, 176. + + Methodist church, work among Scandinavians, 54, 116, 118-20. + + Michigan, Scandinavian population, 74. + + Minneapolis (Minn.), Scandinavian population, 73, 74, 134; + politics, 163 n. + + Minnesota: + Danish settlement, 63; + economic development, promoted by Scandinavians, 97-9; + immigration promoted by state, 90-1; + politics, 144-56, 162-63; + Scandinavian population, 72-4, 138. + + Missionary work among Scandinavians, 46-48, 54, 115-20. + + Morality, 133-34. + + Mormons, influence upon Danish immigration, 63, 73, 115. + + Muskego (Wis.), 42, 48. + + + Nattestad, Ansten, 37, 39-42. + + Nattestad, Ole, 29, 31, 40. + + Nebraska: + Danish settlement, 63; + Scandinavian population, 72-3, 74. + + Nelson, Knute, 151, 154, 164. + + New Sweden (Ia.), 53. + + New York, Norwegian settlement, 26-7; + Swedish settlement, 60. + + Newspapers, Scandinavian: 16, 124-9, 203-4; + importance, 124-5, 129, 183; + in politics, 128, 142, 159-60, 164-5, 173-4; + number, 128. + + _Nordlyset_, 126, 148, 159. + + North Dakota: + politics, 147, 149-51, 162-3, 174-5; + Scandinavian population, 72-4. + + Northwest, economic development, 79-105. + + Norway: + economic conditions, 18-20, 30-1, 41-2, 68. + emigration: 22-3, 35, 40-2; + cost, 34; + difficulties, 33-4; + influenced by religious persecution, 24, 40; + influenced by settlers, 29-32, 37, 40; + statistics, 62, 67, 74. + population: + distribution, 19; + increase, 69-70, 132. + + Norwegians: + character, 17, 93; + in politics, 140-56, 162. + immigration: 22-3, 32, 35-6, 93; + effects upon Norwegians, 107-8; + routes, 33-4, 36, 40-2; + statistics, 61, 67-74. + _See also_ Immigration. + settlements: + in Illinois, 28-9, 36; + in New York, 26-7; + in Wisconsin, 41, 42, 43-5. + _See also_ Scandinavians. + + + Occupations of immigrants, 84-7, 95-7, 102, 131-2. + + Olson, Jonas, 55, 59, 60. + + Olson, Olof, 56. + + Otter Tail Co. (Minn.), 98-99, 126; + politics, 163. + + Otteson, J. A., 125, 133. + + + Peerson, Kleng, 24, 25, 28. + + Periodicals, religious, 127-9. + + Pine Lake (Wis.) settlement, 51-53. + + Place names of Scandinavian settlements, 99, 143-5. + + Political parties, _see_ Names of parties. + + Politics, Scandinavian: 140-56, 166-78; + influenced by newspapers, 164-6, 173-4. + + Populist party, 161, 164. + + Prohibition, _see_ Liquor traffic. + + + Quakers, influence upon Norwegian emigration, 23-5. + + + Racine Co. (Wis.) settlement, 42; + politics, 158. + + Railroads, stimulus to immigration, 86-8. + + Religion, among Scandinavians, 45-8, 114-20; + relation to politics, 161. + + Religious persecution, 24, 40, 56. + + Remittances to Europe, 94, 129. + + Republican party, 157, 160-4, 166-8, 174-7. + + "Restoration" (ship), 22, 25-6. + + Reymert, J. D., 126, 148. + + Rochester (N. Y.), Norwegian settlement, 26. + + Rockford (Ill.), furniture industry, 103; + Swedish population, 73-4; + politics, 169. + + Rynning, Ole, 36-7, 39. + + + St. Paul (Minn.), Scandinavian population, 74, 134. + + "Scandinavian", objection to term, 15. + + Scandinavian immigration, _see_ Immigration. + + Scandinavians: + birth rate, 132-3; + character, 10, 16-7, 179-82; + in agriculture, 97-100; + in business, 102-4; + in cities, 73-4; + in Civil War, 75-8, 142, 149; + in domestic service, 131-2; + in industry, 103-4; + in politics, 140-56, 169-78; + morality, 133-4; + occupations, 84-7, 95-7, 102-5; + standard of living, 101-2; + value to U. S., 7, 11, 83-4, 91-105, 179-82; + wealth, 97-8, 102. + _See also_ Danes, Norwegians, Swedes. + + Schröder, Johan, 125-6. + + Settlers, propagandists of immigration, 29-32, 41. + + Slavery, attitude of Scandinavians towards, 157-9. + + South Dakota: + politics, 147, 149-51, 162-3, 175-6; + Scandinavian population, 72-4. + + Standard of living, 101-2. + + Statistics, tables of, 67, 85, 205. + + Sweden: + economic conditions, 18-20, 68. + emigration: 50-1, 53; + causes, 51, 53-4, 56, 61; + statistics, 67-74. + population: + distribution, 20; + increase, 69-70, 132. + + Swedes: + character, 12; + in politics, 140-56, 161-2, 166-70; + value as citizens, 13, 14. + + Swedish immigration: 12, 22, 50-1, 53, 56-7, 61; + routes, 51, 53, 56-7; + statistics, 67-74. + _See also_ Immigration. + settlements: + on Delaware River, 11-3; + in Illinois, 60; + in Iowa, 53; + in New York, 60; + in Wisconsin, 51-2. + _See also_ Scandinavians. + + Swenson, L. S., 155. + + + Texas, Danish settlement, 63; + Swedish settlement, 61. + + Timanson, Levor, 95. + + Transportation in West, 80, 84, 87. + + + Unitarian Church, work among Scandinavians, 119. + + United Norwegian Lutheran Church, 110, 120-121. + + U. S., described for emigrants, 37-40; + economic conditions, influence on Scandinavian immigration, 68-9; + economic development, 7, 79-105; + population, increase, 70. + + Unonius, G., 51, 53. + + Utah, Scandinavian population, 73-4, 115. + + + Wages, in Scandinavian countries, 85, 131; + in U. S., 85, 131. + + Wealth, possessed by Scandinavians, 97-8, 102. + + Wisconsin: + Danish settlements, 63; + immigration promoted by state aid, 88-9; + Norwegian settlements, 40-46; + politics, 145, 148-51, 153-4, 160-1, 166-8; + Scandinavian population, 72-4, 138; + Swedish settlement, 51-3. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Tables within a paragraph have been relocated to immediately above or +below the relevant paragraph. + +Depending on available fonts, some tables may not line up vertically. + +Reference pages have been standardized with "ff" following the page +number and a space (e.g., 789 ff) due to the preponderance of this +style in the original work. + +Both "reelected" and "re-elected" appear in the original work. They +have been standardized as "re-elected". + +Both "post-office" and "postoffice" appear in the original work. Both +spellings have been retained. + +Page 59: "was sent out with eight others, in March, 1851" is +inconsistent with "returned at once from California and became the head +of the colony after February, 1851." This was verified with the page +scan of the original work. + +Page 112, Footnote 261: There is no footnote reference in the original +work. + +Appendix 1, Table V, Nebraska: 1st row totals are off by 1. + +This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and +inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below. +Spelling changes are shown within single quotes. Other changes are +shown in curly brackets, { }, for clarity. + +Obvious printer's errors have been silently corrected. + +Page 37, Footnote 64: {1837."} changed to {1837.}. + +Page 75, Footnote 168: The footnote anchor is missing but it is +believed that it should be on page 75 in the paragraph ending, {Swedes +are found in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania.[168]}. + +Page 76: {men as General Stohlbrand} should probably be {men as General +Stolbrand}. + +Page 87: {$86,000:} changed to {$86,000;}. + +Page 98: {rather are they} changed to {rather they are}. + +Page 127, Footnote 306: 'lutherke' changed to 'lutherske'. + +Page 153: 'reelection' changed to 're-election' for consistency. + +Page 185: {(especially vols. XV. (1901) and XIX (1902), contains} +changed to {(especially vols. XV (1901) and XIX (1902)), contains}. + +Page 185: {(42 Cong., 1 Sess., H. Mis. Doc. No. 19, (1871); and} +changed to {(42 Cong., 1 Sess., H. Mis. Doc. No. 19, (1871)); and}. + +Page 192: {(in _Proceedings_ of National Conference of Charities and +Correction, (1899); F. H. B. MacDowell,} changed to {(in _Proceedings_ +of National Conference of Charities and Correction, (1899)); F. H. B. +MacDowell,}. + +Page 202: 'Nordmaend' changed to 'Nordmænd'. + +Page 203: {(Emigranten, Inmansville, Wis., 1852; Janesville, 1856; +Madison, 1857; La Crosse, 1864, and united with Fædrelandet.Q Norw. +wkly.} changed to {(Emigranten, Inmansville, Wis., 1852; Janesville, +1856; Madison, 1857; La Crosse, 1864, and united with Fædrelandet.Q +Norw. wkly.)}. + +Page 220, Index: {Immigration, Scandinavian: causes, 18-21; 81-8;} +changed to {Immigration, Scandinavian: causes, 18-21, 81-8;}. + +Appendix 1, Table I: The table was split into two sections in order to +reduce the table width. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43939 *** |