McCook County, South Dakota

Early Norwegian Settlement

Andreas Larson from Texe, Stavanger County, together with John Larson, Christian Larson, and Luther Larson, were the first Norwegian settlers in McCook County. They came from Crawford County, Wisconsin, and settled in the vicinity of Bridgewater in 1875. Later that same year came the pharmacist A. Wettergren, who was also from the Stavanger area.

E. L. Hunskaar at Spencer

Stationmaster E. L. Hunskaar from Bergen was the first Norwegian settler in Spencer and the surrounding area. He later recalled that he too had experienced pioneer life, although under rather different circumstances from those faced by the farming settlers. In 1887, the railroad’s operations manager asked him to take charge of the station at Spencer. The railroad had not yet reached the site, there were no station buildings, and Hunskaar was expected to make the best possible arrangements despite having neither a house nor neighbors and no means of transportation except the work trains. A boxcar was placed at his disposal and served simultaneously as warehouse, office, kitchen, and bedroom. Hunskaar recalled that he felt he had reached the outermost limits of civilization. There were neither settled communities nor other people nearby, apart from a few claim shanties several miles away. He regarded himself as a forerunner of the civilization that would follow the railroad and therefore accepted the conditions, even though the experience was often extremely cold, lonely, and dreary. Once the railroad was completed, more settlers arrived and conditions improved considerably. Looking back, Hunskaar remarked that it had been many years since he had thrown his first office furniture, a pair of rough packing boxes, out the door.

Churches and Congregations

There was a Norwegian church in the vicinity of Bridgewater. The congregation belonged to the United Church.

Sources:

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