Dakota County, Minnesota

Early Norwegian Settlement

The first Norwegians in Dakota County were Peter Sampson from Voss, Ole Olsen and Ole Toresen from Hallingdal, and Johannes Jacobsen from Vinje, Telemark. They came from Wisconsin and settled in 1853 in the area that later became known as the Christiania Settlement. The Christiania Settlement lay west of Farmington.

O. P. Ruh, who settled there a few years later, recalled that the journey from Muskego, Wisconsin, covered about 400 miles and was made with oxen, which remained the settlers’ principal draft animals for another ten years. Hastings and St. Paul, the nearest towns, were twenty-five to thirty miles away. Ruh noted that the hardships of pioneer life, including Indian raids and fears of war, were too numerous to recount in detail.

The settlers initially relied on hay production, but wheat later became their principal source of income. Those who worked for wages generally earned about fifty cents a day, and there was considerable clearing work available.

The Indian War of 1862

Halvor Torgersen from Telemark, who had lived in the settlement before moving to Homen, North Dakota, later recalled the tension that followed the outbreak of the Indian War in 1862. The settlers had agreed that, in an emergency, they would gather at the home of John Jacobsen.

On one occasion, Ouver Olsen and Torger Juveland were leading a group of refugees, including women and children, when Ouver suddenly shouted for everyone to drop down because he believed Indians were approaching. The entire group threw themselves to the ground, expecting an attack. After a moment, Torger Juveland cautiously looked up and saw no one. He then discovered that Ouver had mistaken the hindquarters of a deer for an approaching Indian. The incident quickly turned fear into laughter and remained a story Juveland continued to tell in old age. By the time of theaccount (about 1905), he was over eighty years old, and still lived on his homestead in the Christiania Settlement.

Churches and Congregations

Christiania Congregation was established in 1857 and built a church in 1862. It belonged to the Augustana Synod and was identified as the first Norwegian congregation in Dakota County, although one of the author’s correspondents noted that the Norwegian Synod organized a congregation at about the same time. By 1905, the county had two Norwegian congregations and two churches. One congregation belonged to the Norwegian Synod and the other to the Lutheran Free Church.

Norwegian Place Names

Dakota County once had two post offices with distinctly Norwegian names: Christiania and Eidsvold.

Sources:

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