The first settler in the town of Norway was Thomas Drought, who came
from Lower Canada, with oxen and wagon, and in September, 1838, made a
claim of 160 acres in Section No. 12, in the northeast part of the town,
where he has ever since resided. He was accompanied in his settlement by
a sister, and was afterward followed by other members of the family, and
the section of the town where he located has ever since been known as the
"Drought Settlement." James Ash came into Norway in the autumn of '38, and
Alfred Thompson and George Drought in '39.
In the summer of 1839, a vessel arrived at Milwaukee laden with a party
of sturdy emigrants, about forty in number, fresh from their homes among
the Norway mountains. They were destined for Illinois, but were prevailed
upon to delay their journey. Mr. George Walker, whom good health had made
ruddy and corpulent, urging them to settle in Wisconsin, and another
person, from Illinois, whose countenance fever and ague had sadly blighted,
urging them to carry out their original intention. The healthfulness
of climate, as then judged of by the appearance of the representatives
of the two states, decided the question with the rugged Norwegian
pioneers, and they chose Wisconsin as their future home. -- They had
listened with wonder to descriptions of the great land beyond the
ocean, the strong attachments that bind dwellers among beautiful
mountain scenes to their native huts and lost their power of restraint,
and now with brave hearts and determined purpose, they were ready for
hardship, adventure and work. A few days after landing at Milwaukee they
lost their faithful interpreter, who was accidentally drowned in the
river, but furnished with guides, a party of emigrants set out upon
explorations, and soon found themselves within the vicinity of Muskego
Lake. It was a dry season, and the marshes resembled prairies in their
appearance surrounded by forests. Cabins soon sprung up on the
hillsides around the marshes, but the bright hopes of the settlers
were quenched when the spring floods came and converted the promising
prairie land into lake and morasses. This caused a removal of the
colony further south and west. Mr. Halver Thompson settled on the
banks of Wind Lake; John Nelson, another of the party, settled on an
adjoining claim, which he improved considerably, and from which he
subsequently removed to Kos Kenong prairie. An American by the name
of Flether also located in the vicinity of these settlements.
In the spring of 1840 Soren Backe and Johannes Johansen, men of
intelligence and means, who had come from Norway the preceding fall,
and spent the winter in Illinois, visited the region. They were looking
for a place to establish a colony. The cluster of beautiful lakes, the
clear streams of living water swarming with fish, and the forests
abounding with game, which they found in the town of Norway, satisfied
their desires. A cabin was built on the bank of one of the lakes;
reports of the country were sent to their friends across the sea, and
in the fall of 1840 Evan Hansen, known also as Evan Hansen Heg,
arrived with a large company of emigrants and settled around the lakes.
Backe having considerable capital, which he invested in a large tract
of land, sold parcels to the poorer colonists upon favorable terms.
In a short time the colony increased in numbers and became the center
of Scandinavian emigration to the state, and Johannes Johansen,
Soren Backe and Evan Hansen were regarded the founders of the first
permanent Scandinavian colony in Wisconsin. Among the other colonists
were Sivert Ingerbretsen, Knud Arslarksen, Johannes Evensen,
Ole Hogensen, Gurder Gurtesen, Niels H. Narum, John Larsen, Hans
Jacobsen, Peter Jacobsen and Ole Andersen.
A trading point was established on Mr. Heg's farm. An excavation was
made in a large Indian mound and roofed over and fitted up into commodious
apartments for families. Johannes Johansen received the appellation
of "King" and here the colonists received their supplies and mail, and
the first Scandinavian newspaper in the country was published,
called the Nord Lyset (Northern Light), and edited by
J. D. Raymert. This was also the birthplace of John P. Jacobsen,
to whom I am indebted for information concerning the establishment of
the first Scandinavian settlement in Norway.
Evan Hansen was the father of Hans C. and Ole Heg. His name, as
inscribed on his gravestone, is Evan Hansen Heg, and I am told that
the name Heg was derived from the place where the family lived in
Norway, of the farm which they possessed, and which was known
as "Headquarters."
A log church was built at the central point of the settlement, by the
colonists, in 1845. The settlers were a religious people, and of the
Lutheran belief. In the church yard, where the log church was built,
many of the original founders of the colony were buried, and here rest
the remains of Hans C. Heg, a gallant soldier, who fell fighting the
battles of his adopted country.
The town of Norway was created by an act of the Territorial legislature
on the 11th of February, 1847, and the people who gave to the town its
name, and who have so successfully built up the colony originally
projected by those I have named, have distingished themselves as among
the most prudent, industrious, and thrifty citizens of the county.
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