The Bottineau courant., 1909-05-14
Norwegians
in America


recently come from the press.
The first 81 pages of the book
are devoted to the report of the
secretary. The rest of the book
is filled with documents and
papers bearing on North Dako-
ia history. Two of the articles
were contributed by students
of the university who were do
ing work in the department of
history under the direction of
DR.. Libby. Miss Bemis made
a careful study of Riverside
township, Steele county, gath.
ering her material from the
settlers and such records as she
could find. 1t was original
work, the history of the town
ship never having been written
before. Mr.. Herigstad's paper
on Norwegian immigration is
a continuation of his paper on
the first Norwegian settlement
in Griggs county, which ap-
peared in the first biennial re-
port of the historical society.
In doing such work as this
students learn how history is
written and makes a contribu-
ton to the history of his state.
A brief review of Mr.. Herig-
stad's article follows.
According to Mr.. Herigstad's
paper, in 1900 there we're
1886. $50 foreign bornNorwegians
in the United States. Accord
ing to Mr.. Andre Hanson, the
noted Norwegian economist, in
1905 the native born Nor
wegians in this country num-
bered 100000.
The following table shows
the number of people who emf
grated to the United States
from the different countries Of
northern Europe between 1866
and 1896 and the per cent the
number is of the present popu-
lation of those countries:
No. people Per cent
Country Emigrated pres. pop.
Ireland. 100000 A
Norway. .1,516,OO0 %
Sweden. ). ...947, 600 18
Germany. 8, 469, 537 6
When we consider that the
percentages given above we're
based on the present population
of the countries mentioned and
the changes in the population
of Ireland and Norway in the
last forty years as shown by
the following table, we see
that Norway is a close rival to
Ireland for the honor of being
the country that sent the
greatest per cent of her people
to the United States in the last
forty years.
Population Population
Country 1866 1906
Ireland. 5,8Oo,ooo 1888, 1o7
Norway. 1,712,000 2,24O, 900
The sons and daughters of
Norway who sought homes in
the western hemisphere were
mostly young men and women
trained and educated and just
ready to become wealth pro-
ducers. Norway had educated
and prepared them at her ex-
pense and the United States
reaped the benefit.
Conservative estimates and
prominent economists show
that the money value of Nor
ways contribution of trained
and educated citizens to the
United States is at least $780,
COO, ,OOG.
Norwegians come to America
because they do better here.
The Norwegians are an agri-
cultural people, yet less than
three per cent of the land of
Norway is suitable for farming
and that. only by means of
fertilizing. Norway is about
eight times the size of Den
mark, including the Farce Is
lands, and yet Denmark has
three times as much cultivated
land as Norway. The last few
years Norway has turned her
attention to manufacturing in
hopes of providing profitable
employment for her people.
The Norwegians are prin-
cipally found in the northwest.
A Norwegian colony was found
ed in Texas in 1910, but they
did not seem to take kindly to
that region. The census of
1900 shows that less than 1 per
cent of the Norwegians in the
United States are in the south
arr s4atos 4 nor cant -, 4Io