Jefferson County, Wisconsin

The Rock River Settlement

An Early Settlement That Declined

A considerable number of Norwegians settled in the Rock River area, some as early as 1842. Many later moved elsewhere, and the settlement gradually declined. Several of the Rock River pioneers later served in the American Civil War. Martin Ulvestad includes an interesting excerpt from the memoirs of the pioneer and Civil War veteran Torger Wesley, who recalled his family's journey to the Rock River Settlement in Jefferson County:

"I emigrated with my parents from Gran Parish in Hadeland in the summer of 1848. We were supposed to depart from Hamburg, but when we reached Drammen, war had broken out between Denmark and Germany, and all passenger traffic from the Scandinavian countries had been suspended. After waiting seven weeks in Drammen, we obtained passage aboard a sailing ship to New York. From New York to Albany, we traveled by steamboat, and from Albany to Buffalo by canal boat drawn by horses. That journey alone took six days. From Buffalo to Milwaukee, we continued by steamboat, and from Milwaukee by horse-drawn wagon to the Rock River Settlement in Jefferson County. Conditions were not good there. Within a few weeks, seven of the nine members of our family became ill, and Father had run out of money. Somehow we managed to get through the winter, and later conditions improved."

Torger Wesley eventually settled at Garfield in Portage County, Wisconsin.

Churches and Congregations

A Norwegian Lutheran congregation was established in Jefferson County in the late 1840s, and several more were organized later. By 1905, none of these congregations still existed. Only a small Adventist congregation remained. The conditions were quite different in the neighboring counties, where Norwegian church life remained much stronger.

Norwegian Place Names

Kroghville Post Office, which had received its name from Norwegians, had been discontinued many years before this account was written in 1905.

Sources:

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