Goodhue County, Minnesota

The First Norwegian Settlement

Norwegians first established a settlement in Goodhue County in 1854. They arrived in such numbers that they took the county, so to speak, by storm, settling simultaneously in Holden and Wanamingo Townships, as well as in parts of Leon and Mineola Townships. With the arrival of the Norwegians, Indian control of the area came to an end, although the Indians continued to be a frequent source of concern to the white settlers, as later accounts illustrate. Mathias Pedersen Ringdahl from Hadeland came to Red Wing in 1851 and remained there for one year. He then moved away but returned to the same town in 1853. He was therefore the first Norwegian in Goodhue County, although he did not establish a settlement.

The first Norwegian settlers included Hans Ovaldsen from Kragerø; Henrik Nilsen Talla and Tøge Nilsen Talla from Luster, Sogn; William Rønningen from Sannidal; Anders Vaanhus from Sauherad, Telemark; John Strømme, Anders Hesjedalen, and Haldor Eide, the last three from Strilelandet; Tosten Aaby from Sigdal; Bernt Sauland from Jæren; Torbjørn Wraalstad from Drangedal; Nils Fenne and Enver Homedal from Voss; Gunder Hestemyr from Sannidal; Ole P. Ness from Vik in Sogn; Guttorm Otternes from Aurland; Mathias Rindal from Fåberg; Christian Lunde and Andreas Erstad from Land; Tosten Gulbrandsen from Gudbrandsdalen; Ole Ofteli and Aamund Ofteli from Telemark; Knut Finseth, Anders Finseth, Ole Finseth, and H. K. Finseth from Hallingdal; and Jens Ottum, O. J. Sortedal, Kolben Egtveit, O. O. Huset, Halvor Enersen, Torbjørn Enersen, Ole O. Oakland, Ole J. Bakke (Bakko), Tosten Andersen, and Nels Gudbrandsen.

As far as is known, all of them arrived in 1854, most coming from Wisconsin.

They were followed by Svend Norgaard from Telemark; Ole Qvernhus from Krødsherad; Kristian Halvorsen Dokken from Hallingdal; Ragnvald Olmstad from Aurland in Sogn; Ole Eriksen; Elling Halgrimsen; Lars By; G. K. Norsving; Ole O. Nesseth; Erick Anderson; Nils Mikkelsen; Mikkel Johnson; P. R. Langemo; Syvert Halvorsen Dokken; Halvor Syvertsen Dokken; Syvert Markussen; Lars Markussen; and Helge Gulbrandsen Bakken from Vang, Valdres. Helge Gulbrandsen Bakken, who arrived at about the same time, came on foot from Decorah, Iowa.

Early Experiences in Holden

Mrs. Ole Bakke, the first white woman in Holden, recalled that she once left her child lying alone in bed while she went outside to fetch water. When she returned, the child was gone. She rushed outside and heard the child crying from a nearby grove. An Indian woman had taken the child, but when she heard the mother approaching, she placed the child on the ground and ran away.

Mrs. Torbjørn Enersen gave birth to the first child born in Holden.

Erik Elton died there in the fall of 1855, the first recorded death in the county.

The pioneers of Goodhue County were as poor as they were capable. Their greatest difficulty was the lack of clothing suitable for the severe cold, but they soon overcame these hardships. Before long, they began growing wheat on a larger scale.

One example illustrates what the earliest settlers sometimes endured. During the winter of 1855, a man traveling to Oronoco in Olmsted County stayed overnight with Erik Talla and continued his journey the following morning. Three days later, he returned. During the entire period, he had wandered across the prairie in a blinding snowstorm, unable to determine where he was and without encountering another person.

The Indian Scare of 1862

The following account was provided by Kleng J. Dale:

“It was in 1862. One evening, at about seven o’clock, word came that the Indians were on the move and had murdered our nearest neighbor and his family. It was not easy to decide what to do. We abandoned the thought of saving any of our possessions and concluded that it was best to flee as we were.

My wife and I took our one-year-old daughter and went east to Osmund Wing’s home. We found him preparing to load his family into a wagon. We decided to continue eastward to the home of Torger Rygh, an old and trusted countryman whose house was a common gathering place.

A large group soon assembled there. The women and children were given space on the second floor, while the men remained below and armed themselves as well as they could with clubs and hay forks, since we owned no guns. The men who had the most Viking blood in them were stationed as guards.

The Indians did not come. The following morning, we sent out two scouts to determine what had happened to our homes. They returned with the news that, as far as they could see and hear, everything was quiet and our homes were undisturbed. We then left and returned home.

Farther west, in the vicinity of New Ulm, many white settlers were killed and their homes destroyed by the Indians. At that time, B. J. Muus was pastor of the Holden congregation. He fled with his family all the way to Red Wing.”

He later returned and continued his work until old age.

Prairie Fires

Herman Hansen Bakke, who was living at Spring Valley, Wisconsin, when this account was written, stated that he settled at Belvidere Mills in Goodhue County in 1855. During his first five years there, he had no harvest because prairie fires destroyed his crops.

On one occasion, he also lost his farm equipment and everything else he owned except his house.

Sven Norgard

Ole Serumgard, who was then manager of the U.S. Land Office at Devils Lake, North Dakota, wrote the following after referring to Amund Nilsen Opheim, “Pioneer Nilsen,” who is mentioned in the account of Griggs County, North Dakota:

“Another Norwegian worthy of mention who moved to the Sheyenne Valley in 1881 was Sven Norgard. He was a veteran of the Civil War, and in his youth he had been a boisterous fellow.

Norwegian readers are familiar with Mr. Janson’s story of the ‘Bygdekonge’ (Community Boss). It includes an account of a battle between the Boss and his gang and a young pioneer who, together with his wife and children, was attempting to establish a home on land that the others had unlawfully tried to keep free of settlers.

Janson’s story is a true depiction of this young pioneer, who, with his wife and children, tried to clear land in the woods of Goodhue County, Minnesota. He eventually won the ‘Klubbeslaget’ (club battle) and beat the Boss black and blue. This pioneer was none other than Sven Norgard.

He was large and strong and a true Viking. In his younger days, he might more properly have been called a berserker, and many old settlers in Goodhue County could tell of his activities.

From there, he moved to Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, where he was elected District Attorney. While he was there, some Norwegian neighbors were charged with unlawfully cutting timber on railroad property. Norgard defended them.

The case came before the court in New Ulm, Minnesota. It continued for a long time, and the defendants were nearly worn out. One evening, when the case was to be heard, the lights in the courtroom went out. When the lamps were relit, the case documents had disappeared.

The most thorough search failed to locate them. The case was dismissed, and Norgard’s clients went free. Reliable sources stated that when the lights went out, Norgard seized the papers and ate them. This was clearly a lawyer’s trick that no one has repeated.

That the old man, despite his wildness, still had a good heart is shown by the following account. Omund Opheim had a daughter who was not always of sound mind. She was married to a rowdy named Olsen, who abandoned her and their five children.

Olsen had a fine homestead in the woods along the Sheyenne. When he left, he sold a relinquishment to a saloonkeeper in Moorhead. However, when former Governor Austin, who was then registrar of the Land Office in Fargo, was informed of the situation, he refused to accept the relinquishment because he believed that, in this case, the land rightfully belonged to the wife and children.

The wife became insane and was sent to the asylum in Yankton in 1885. The grandfather took in the children, but after he died, a Swede named Olsen obtained the land as a homestead through underhanded means because the necessary final proof had not been completed within the required time.

Old Norgard, now advanced in years, could not bear to see such an injustice inflicted upon the descendants of his old friend. He took up the case, and in 1899 the land was granted to the mentally ill wife and her children, almost twenty years after it had first been claimed as a homestead by Pioneer Nelson’s son-in-law.

These two men, Pioneer Nelson and Sven Norgard, stand out to me as true representatives of the Norwegian pioneers of the Northwest. Without much formal education, but possessing an abundance of natural ability, they developed strong and honorable characters during long lives on the frontier of civilization. It is to men such as these that we owe the respect we have won among the people of our new home in the Northwest.”

Pioneer Peder Langemo’s Recollection

Pioneer Peder Langemo related:

“The houses were small, usually only ten by twelve feet, but small as they were, they often housed two or three families and even ‘the bailiff.’

During the first year after Minnesota became a state, an order was issued requiring the town treasurer to collect the taxes. In Holden Township, the treasurer and his family lived with another man in a log cabin that appeared to be even smaller than the others.

One day, a man from Hallingdal who lived on the west side of the township came to pay his taxes. As he approached the cabin, however, he began to fear that he had come to the wrong place. After examining it from every side, he asked, ‘Is this where the bailiff lives?’

The treasurer was the honorable Ole Solberg, and after receiving an affirmative answer, the man paid his taxes.”

Churches and Congregations

The Holden Congregation, established in 1856 by Pastor H. A. Stub of the Norwegian Synod, was the first Norwegian congregation in Goodhue County. The congregation did not have regular services until Pastor V. J. Muus arrived in 1859. The church was built in 1861.

At the time this account was written, the county had twenty-six Norwegian congregations and twenty-five churches. Eleven belonged to the United Church, five to Hauge’s Synod, three to the Norwegian Synod, three to the Brodersamfunnet, two to the Lutheran Free Church, and two to the Methodist Church.

Public Office

Hans Hansen Holtan was the first Norwegian to hold public office in Goodhue County, in 1857.

Newspapers, Schools, and Institutions

Budbæreren, the official publication of Hauge’s Synod, was founded in Red Wing in 1868 and was the oldest Norwegian newspaper in the county.

It was followed by Børnevennen, The Little Messenger, and Nordstjernen, all published in Red Wing, as well as Broderbaandet in Kenyon.

Red Wing Seminary, the school of Hauge’s Synod, and the Lutheran Ladies’ Seminary, was supported primarily by members of the Norwegian Synod.

The United Church’s hospital was established in Zumbrota.

Norwegian Place Names

Places in Goodhue County with Norwegian names included Holden, Norway, Toten, Eidsvold, Dovre, Sogn, Henning, Vang, Nansen, Aspelund, and Stuberg. By about 1907 only the last three remained as post offices. Rural Free Delivery, or R.F.D., had replaced the smaller post offices there and in other parts of America.

Sources:

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