Florence County, Wisconsin

Norwegian Settlement

The Norwegian population in this county was still small by the turn of the twentieth century. Martin Ulvestad includes an interesting excerpt from the diary of a pioneer who settled in this county. The following is an excerpt from the diary:

April 10: Arrived at my log cabin in the clearing after forty miles of difficult travel. The journey took two days, and the roads were very poor because the frost had not yet left the ground. Planted my apple trees in a circle in the garden, fed the horses and oxen, and had a good cup of tea. And so ended my first day as a pioneer.

April 11: My helper Hans watered the horses and cattle. Since it was Sunday, we went to a prayer meeting.

April 12: Reprimanded Hans because he had stayed out too late the previous night. Planted apple trees and flowering trees, worked on the fence, checked the meat barrel and found everything in good condition, repaired the spout on the teakettle, borrowed a frying pan, and cooked potatoes in a brewing kettle because I had forgotten to provide the house with proper cooking utensils. One cow calved, and one sheep had a lamb.

April 13: Hired a cook for four dollars a month and bought four cows for eighteen dollars each.

April 14: Sowed wheat after soaking the seed in salt water and drying it with lime. Planted early peas and other garden seeds. Hans plowed with the oxen. Two sheep had lambs.

April 15–16: Rain both days. Worked on four new rakes, fitted handles to the new axes, and repaired the hay barn.

April 17: Everyone worked on the roads.

April 18: Everyone attended prayer meeting because it was Sunday, and we never failed to attend services. There was a terrible thunderstorm. We barely managed to get home from town.

April 19: A neighbor was killed by a falling tree.

April 20: Sowed more oats and finished planting corn. Slaughtered a calf and sold one quarter of it for $1.25.

April 21: Rainy day. Sheared the sheep, which had been brought inside before the rain began.

April 22: Hans spread manure ahead of the plow while I planted potatoes by hand behind him. As long as the tree stumps remained in the fields, it was impossible to plant potatoes in regular rows.

April 23: Finished the new fences and built a very small house far back in the garden. There were very few such buildings in the area, although the diarist remarked that anyone with a reasonable sense of decency should not be without one. He added that there were only poorly civilized people in his neighborhood and no Norwegians.

April 24: Hilled the corn. The heat was unbearable. The thermometer showed 88 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade.

April 25: Sunday, and we went to church.

April 26: Rainy. Sharpened the scythes.

The Diary Resumes

September 12: Have been too busy during the summer to keep the diary. I begin again today. More rain, with a severe storm of thunder and lightning. A barn in the neighborhood burned after a worker entered it with a lit pipe. Some people seem to have a pipe in their mouths at all times. Slaughtered a fat calf.

September 13: Put a dry cow on feed for slaughter. One of my neighbor’s oxen died after getting into my cornfield and overeating. This had the fortunate result that the neighbor finally came and repaired his part of the fence, something I had never before been able to persuade him to do.

September 14: Hans churned butter before breakfast and cut wood for the kitchen. It was too hot to plow at midday, so Hans and I worked on the fences.

September 15: Good weather. Drove to town with beef, butter, and eggs, and also arranged for part of the harvest. I was pleased to hear that several Norwegians were coming here to replace these Bohemians, or whatever they call themselves these days.

Sources:

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