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dahlen
Junior member
USA
32 Posts |
 Posted - 31/03/2010 : 18:41:41
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| I was just wondering how many members on this board had ancestors 1st settle in the Koshkonong Prairie communities in Wisconsin? |
Roald Dahlen |
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dahlen
Junior member
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - 31/03/2010 : 20:42:52
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| Should have clarified topic on Koshkonong Prairie. Cambridge(Christiana township) Stoughton, Edgerton, Deerfield area? This was an area where many of the early Norwegian immigrants 1st settled in America before heading elsewhere. |
Roald Dahlen |
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Lislcat
Advanced member
USA
690 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 20:08:40
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| Of course you probably know this, but there is still a large Norwegian population in that area. Many people settled there. I've often thought that my great great grandparents who came over in 1843, probably stopped in one of the early settlements is southern WI, before settling in Portage County, WI. The Jefferson Prairie Settlement was also a possibility. Other members of my family, settled north of DeForest, WI, which was also an early settlement. |
Lislcat |
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dahlen
Junior member
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 20:44:30
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Yes, I was raised in Cambridge, and my dad and his parents are buried in East Koshkonong Cemetery which is the oldest continuous operating Norwegian Lutheran congregation in Ameria. Also, my mom still lives in the house we were raised in which is also a previous home of Ole Evinrude, the man who invented the 1st commercially useable outboard motor. Cambridge and the whole area has lots of Norwegian heritage.
The tobacco raising is still done by relatives of Norwegian immigrants in the Cambridge, Deerfield, Edgerton and Stoughton area. Thanks for the reply. |
Roald Dahlen |
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dahlen
Junior member
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 20:47:32
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| Hi, Must clarify again that the East Koshkonong cemetery is not the oldest continuous Norwegian Lutheran congregation in America, but the churches in front of the cemetery. |
Roald Dahlen |
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Lislcat
Advanced member
USA
690 Posts |
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dahlen
Junior member
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2010 : 00:58:23
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| Thanks, this is useful and very interesting information. |
Roald Dahlen |
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TerryHill
New on board
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 17/05/2010 : 15:46:46
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| My great great grandfather was Henrik Henrikson Fadnes from Voss, Hordaland, Norway. When he first came to the US he settled for a time on Koshkong Prairie. He later moved on to Winneshiek County, Iowa where he stayed the rest of his life. His brothers Jon, Ole, and Jakob Fadnes settled permanently on Koshkonong. If you're read any of the Norwegian histories that contain the story, Henrik was the one who wrestled the bear. I'm not sure that I entirely believe the story, but it makes for an interesting wives tale. |
T Hill |
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kpeterson
Junior member
Italy
62 Posts |
Posted - 17/05/2010 : 19:11:38
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Although this is a document for school teachers, it has an interesting and very informative letter about the Koshkonong area by Gunder Asmundson Bondal of Fyrsedal.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/teachers/lessons/secondary/norwegian.asp
It is sad to think that in those days the line "greet my aged father if he is still living" was very common. They left Norway and usually never saw those left behind again.
My gggrandparents also came from Voss (Anders Pedersen Berge and Ingebjorg Knudsdatter Hefte) but the group Anders came with in 1844 settled in the Manitowoc area, another area with a Norwegian population. Although not approaching the Koshkonong for Norwegians, it is interesting to note that the area north of Waupaca (Iola and Scandinavia) still has people who speak Norwegian at the local cafe in Iola once a week just to keep in practice -- they learned it from their grandparents and there are even teenagers in the area who know some Norwegian. |
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peder
Advanced member
USA
835 Posts |
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Lislcat
Advanced member
USA
690 Posts |
Posted - 18/05/2010 : 15:54:10
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| I'm originally from the area north of Iola, and my father spoke Norwegian at home all the time and didn't learn English until he went to school. I think that was very common in that area. Even though both my father's parents were born and raised in that area, you wouldn't know it from their accents. They only spoke Norwegian and spoke very broken English to me, when I was a child. I wish my father and his siblings would of passed the language on to their children. Doesn't Iola High School still offer Norwegian as a foreign language class? They did when I was young. |
Lislcat |
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kpeterson
Junior member
Italy
62 Posts |
Posted - 18/05/2010 : 18:35:43
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I sent a quick query to Iola school district and they last taught Norwegian in 1987; they now offer the more generic French and Spanish, unfortunately.
Waupaca used to have large weekend dances for the local Scandinavian (mostly Danish and Norwegian) population in the 1870s and into the early 20th century in what is now the big antique "mall" at the end of the main street. When you go inside this old building, you can get a feeling for what it must have been like as the balcony and wood interior is relatively unchanged since that time. I am sure that there would be photos and more information on that with the local historical society -- they have a lot of well documented information there on immigrants to the area for such a small town!
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Lislcat
Advanced member
USA
690 Posts |
Posted - 18/05/2010 : 21:21:53
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I've found it interesting when looking at early Norwegian settlements in Wisconsin, that not very much is said about the Waupaca and Portage County area. I've mentioned this many times before on this site, but if anyone is interested, "From The Indian Land" by Malcolm Rosholt, which is a translation of Thor Heleson's, 1915 book Fra Indianernes Lande, has a vast amount of information on Norwegian and even Danish settlers to the Waupaca and Portage County area. It was available through the Iola Historical Society, when I bought my copy, a few years ago. It's also available through ILL through your local library.
I'm disappointed to hear that Iola School district doesn't offer the Norwegian class anymore. I always thought about transferring there, just for that reason. :-) |
Lislcat |
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kpeterson
Junior member
Italy
62 Posts |
Posted - 19/05/2010 : 12:53:09
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I agree! The Norwegian settlements in Portage and Waupaca counties, as well as Shawano and Manitowoc counties don't seem to have a lot of information on them about Norwegian settlers although people are working on rectifying this!
My gggrandfather Anders Pedersen Berge (changed to Andrew Berge Peterson in the US) left Voss Hordaland in May 1844 on the Hercules, and arrived in what is now Manitowoc county (it was Brown County then) in July 1844. My family told me of the stories he would tell about how the axes went dull quickly, bouncing off the hardwood trees. Indians living in the area would come in and out of his home, sit down and eat, and then ask for "tabac" (the Indians were French-speaking), and he literally started from scratch. Leaving poor from Norway, he eventually became a farmer who worked hard enough to pass on a legacy to his children.
On the other side, my ggrandmother came from Brevik (I am still trying to find the death of her first husband on another posting!), was married in Shawano at her brother's home, and then moved to Waupaca (what used to be Parfreyville but which is all but erased from teh map) with her Danish husband. They moved back to Shawano (precisely Hutchins) about 7 years later as there was more opportunity. There was a strong community there of people from Brevik/Porsgrunn, Bamble, and Hordaland. There are a number of people active in researching their Norwegian immigrant ancestors in the area and the Shawano county wigenweb has an excellent site with photos, etc! http://wigenweb.org/shawano/
I will definitely look into the book you mentioned and hopefully they still have it at Iola Hist Soc. Next time I am around there, I need to look up that place!
I would also like to mention a very interesting book "History of Wiskonsan, from its first discovery to the present period, including a geological and topographical description of the territory with a correct catalogue of all its plants"
Buffalo: Steele's Press, 1846" which is available for reading at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?id=WI.HistoryWisk
While the book is more about the flora and fauna of the area as well as a very condescending picture of the Indians, it does mention the Norwegian immigrants specifically, but more importantly gives a very candid look at a territory before it became a state, and an idea to we descendants of early Norwegian immigrants as to what they faced in their new land. |
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Pat Lindgren
Starting member
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 14/10/2010 : 04:13:28
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Two of my ancestors, Mons Lasseson Torsness, and Urjans Iverson Syse, settled originally on the Koshkoning Prairie. Mons and his son Martin settled at Hampden and Leeds Townships in Columbia County. Urjans Iverson Syse settled first near Madison and later moved to the Spring Prairie area of Columbia County. Both families eventually ended up in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota (and married to each other).
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Pat Lindgren |
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Koshkonong Prairie
