Potter County, Pennsylvania

Ole Bull’s Colony at Oleana

In the early 1850s, Ole Bull attempted to establish a Norwegian colony in Potter County. He invested heavily in the venture, purchasing large tracts of land on installment, laying out towns, building roads and bridges, and encouraging Norwegian immigrants to settle there. The planned capital of the colony was called Oleana. There, “Bull’s Castle” was built as a center for music and social life, and a hotel was established where Scandinavian travelers could find food, lodging, and rest. At its height, the colony was said to have had close to 1,000 inhabitants. The settlers hoped that Oleana would become a prosperous Norwegian community in America, and the colony inspired the well-known song beginning:

“I Oleana er det godt at være…”

The optimism did not last. The land titles issued to Ole Bull proved worthless, and neither Bull nor the Scandinavian settlers obtained legal ownership of the land they believed they had purchased. When Bull realized that the situation could not be resolved, he left the colony and returned to performing. He later used part of his earnings to purchase provisions for the settlers at Oleana and, as he became able, helped many of them move away and establish themselves elsewhere.

The End of the Colony

Most of the settlers eventually left for places offering better opportunities, particularly Norwegian communities farther west. Ole Olsen, one of Ole Bull’s most loyal supporters, remained at Ny Bergen. He died there in 1903 at the age of eighty-seven and was described as the last of the original settlers to remain. 

Although the colony itself disappeared, several of the Norwegian names introduced by Ole Bull survived, including Oleana, Odin, and Ny Bergen.

A number of former colonists later appeared in Norwegian communities elsewhere in the United States. Ole Snyder, the first boy born in the colony, later lived in Buffalo, New York. The first girl born there, a daughter of the later well-known bookbinder Suckow of Madison, Wisconsin, eventually settled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where her husband became Mayor. Halfdan Eckholdt, who had emigrated to Oleana with his parents, later became a lawyer in Rochester, Minnesota, while P. J. Moe eventually moved to Springfield, Minnesota.

Most former colonists moved westward and settled among other Norwegians in the Northwest.

Sources:

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