Clay County, Iowa

Early Norwegian Settlement

George Hansen from Kristiania (Oslo) was the first Norwegian settler in Clay County. He left Chicago, where he had worked as a blacksmith, and settled at Fostoria in 1870. Later that same year came Ole A. Berg from Trondheim, M. Hofstad from Stjørdalen, A. J. Aaker from Drammen, and A. Strand from Gudbrandsdalen. They settled in the vicinity of Spencer. During the first years, the settlers had to make do with dugouts. Wheat farming became their principal source of income, and the settlement was known as Little Sioux.

An Emigrant’s Journey to America

One of the early settlers later described his journey to America. After several weeks crossing the Atlantic, during which many passengers became ill from hunger and poor treatment, the emigrants reached Quebec. They remained there for three days in order to wash and prepare for the rest of the journey. During those three days, a number of emigrants died. As the settler recalled, the St. Lawrence River “had no mercy for them” and received the dead.

The journey then continued by railroad, but the emigrants were not given ordinary passenger coaches. Instead, they traveled in cars that had previously been used to transport cattle, with considerable manure still inside, and were given planks to sit on. After two and a half days, they reached Chicago, where they were driven “like sheep” into a covered enclosure. There they remained for several days while agents from various railroad companies examined and sorted the passengers before sending them onward to their respective destinations.

Norwegian Place Names

Clay County had both a township and a post office named Petersen.

Sources:

[Ulvestad, Martin. Nordmændene i Amerika. Utg. History Book Company's Forlag. Minneapolis, Minn. 1907.]