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This volume is intended to present the progress of immigration from Norway to this country from the beginning down through what may be termed the first period of settlement. It is possible that I may at some future time return to these studies to trace the further growth of the Scandinavian element and its place and influence in American life.

Four years ago I contributed an article to The Iowa Journal of History and Politics upon “The Scandinavian Factor in the American Population,” in which I discussed briefly the causes of emigration from the Northern countries. This article forms the basis of chapters VI-VIII of the present volume, much new evidence from later years having, however, been added. In a subsequent issue of the same Journal I published an article on “The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa,” which is embodied in part in chapters III-V of this volume. The remaining thirty-six chapters are new. During the last three summers I have continued my investigation of that part of the subject which deals with the immigration movement. This book represents the results of that investigation down to 1848.

For invaluable assistance in the investigation I gratefully acknowledge indebtedness to the numerous pioneers whom, from time to time, I have interviewed and who so kindly have given the aid sought. I wish to thank, also, several persons who generously have accepted the task of personally gathering pioneer data for certain localities. For such help I owe a debt of gratitude to the following persons: J. W. Johnson, Racine, Wisconsin; Reverend A. Jacobson, Decorah, Iowa; Reverend G. A. Larsen, Clinton, Wisconsin; Henry Natesta, Clinton, Wisconsin; Rev. O. J. Kvale, Orfordville, Wisconsin; Rev. J. Nordby, Lee, Illinois; Dr. N. C. Evans, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin; M. J. Engebretson, Gratiot, Wisconsin; Dan K. Anderson and wife, Woodford, Wisconsin; Ole Jacobson, Elk Horn, Wisconsin; Samuel Sampson, Rio, Wisconsin; T. M. Newton, Grinnell, Iowa; Harvey Arveson, Whitewater, Wisconsin; and Reverend Helge Höverstad, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. My thanks are also due to Reverend G. G. Krostu of Koshkonong Parsonage for having placed at my disposal the Koshkonong Church Register from 1844–1850; as also for verifying my copy of it in some cases of names and dates; for the privilege accorded me of using these so precious documents I am most grateful. Reverend K. A. Kasberg of Spring Grove, Minnesota, has given me certain important data on part of the immigration to East Koshkonong in 1842, and similarly N. A. Lie of Deerfield, Wisconsin, for immigration from Voss in 1838–1844, and Mr. Elim Ellingson and wife of Capron, Illinois, on the founders of the Long Prairie Settlement. Many others might be mentioned who have given valuable assistance by letter and otherwise in the course of the investigation, and to whom I owe much. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. N. C. Evans of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, for the loan of Cyclopedia of Wisconsin (1906) and Illustreret Kirkehistorie (Chicago, 1898); Mr. O. N. Falk of Stoughton, Wisconsin, for loaning me Billed-Magazin for 1869–1870, and my brother, Martin O. Flom, of Stoughton, for securing for my use several Wisconsin Atlases and a copy of The Biographical Review of Dane County (1893).

Of published works on Norwegian immigration which I have found especially useful are to be mentioned S. Nilsen’s Billed-Magazin on causes of immigration and the earliest immigrants from Telemarken and Numedal; R. B. Anderson’s First Chapter on Norwegian Immigration for the sloopers of 1825, and their descendants; Strand’s History of the Norwegians in Illinois (1905) for the Norwegians in Chicago; H. L. Skavlem’s sketch of Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County, Wisconsin, Normandsforbundet for February, 1909, and several articles in Symra, 1905–1908. I must also mention a most valuable series of articles on the Rock Prairie Settlement, Rock County, Wisconsin, which appeared in Amerika in 1906. (See further the Bibliography at the end of this volume.)

No one who has never been engaged in a similar undertaking can have any conception of the difficulty of the task and the labor involved in the collecting, weighing and sifting of the vast amount of detail material. I have tried to write a work which shall be correct as to details and historically reliable. That errors have crept in I doubt not. I shall be grateful to the reader who may discover such errors if he will call my attention to them.

Finally, I wish to say that I have attempted nothing complete with reference to the personal sketches of the earliest pioneers; this was manifestly impossible. I have thought also that this was not here called for except in cases of founders of settlements, and even here I have sometimes lacked the full facts. To many it will also undoubtedly seem that the early days of the church and the founding of congregations should have received more attention. I can only say that this volume deals specifically with the causes, course and progress of Norwegian immigration and that this plan precluded a discussion in this volume of religious and educational movements among the pioneers, or of social questions, occupations, public service, and like topics. The work thus aims to keep only what the title promises, and I hope it will be found to be a real contribution to history within the scope marked out for it.