Manistee County, Michigan

Early Norwegian Settlement

Oliver Thompson from Telemark was the first Norwegian settler in Manistee County. He settled in the vicinity of Onekama in 1851. Shortly afterward, a few Norwegians also settled in the city of Manistee. Lars Hansen from Ullensaker and Christian Stevenson from Grue, Solør, settled in the vicinity of Chief in 1858. The following year, Gilbert Overn from Nes, Hedmark, arrived together with several others.

Logging and Farming

Logging and potato growing became the most important sources of income for the Norwegian settlers. During the early years, a worker in the woods could earn about fifty cents a day. Employment in the sawmills paid about ten dollars a month for a twelve-hour working day.

A Fraudulent “Pastor”

One of the author’s correspondents recalled an incident that occurred while a group of Norwegian emigrants traveled by canal boat from New York to Buffalo. A man presenting himself as a pastor came aboard and complained that the emigrants did not have more religious guidance among them. He offered to accompany them for a few days and look after both their spiritual and material welfare. He sang, prayed, and preached, and also offered to examine whether the emigrants had brought valid American money with them. He warned, correctly enough, that immigrants were often taken advantage of by dishonest people. Many of the emigrants then produced their purses, which for the most part contained ten-dollar gold coins. The supposed pastor told them that these coins were too large to be practical in Michigan and offered to exchange them for smaller coins that would be easier to use there. The following morning, both the “pastor” and the gold coins had disappeared. The loss caused great distress among the emigrants, many of whom were now left without the money they needed for the remainder of their journey.

Churches and Congregations

Norwalk Evangelical Norwegian Lutheran Congregation was established at Manistee in 1864 by Pastor Abraham Jacobsen. At that time, it belonged to the Augustana Synod and was the first Norwegian congregation in Manistee County. A church was built at Manistee in 1868. The congregation that built it, however, consisted of Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes, so the author considered it more accurately described as Scandinavian rather than exclusively Norwegian. By 1905, Manistee County had three Norwegian congregations and three churches. Two congregations belonged to the United Church and one to the Methodist Church.

Norwegian Place Names

In earlier years, the county had two post offices with Norwegian names: Norway and Arendahl.

Sources:

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