The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1929-09-19
WRITER SAYSNORSK
: SPIRIT MADE N. W.
U. E. ROlvaag, Historian Says
Adventurous Spirit Caused
immigration
CLENG PERSON LEADER
More Norwegian Americans
in United States Than in
the Native Land

Norway, with it's Viking spirit
that sent explorers and settlers
westward in the days of Lief The
Lucky, is responsible for the pres
ent greatness of the Northwestern
states, according to O. E. Rolvaag,
noted writer and historian of his
own race.
1t was renewal of the adventur--
GUS desire to seek new lands that
caused Norway in the Nineteenth
Century, to give to the United
States more emigrants than any
other country with the possible
exception of Ireland.
Today there are more American
citizens of Norwegian descent in
the United States than there are
natives of Norway, Rolvaag de-
clares in The American Magazine.
The pioneer behind the great
movement toward the Northwest,
was Cleng Pierson, says the writer,
and this year marks the 96th an
niversary of his lone pilgrimage on
foot from the first Norwegian col
onies on the shores of Lake On
tario in New York State, to the
fertile lands that were to become
Southern Wisconsin and Northern
Illinois, and there find home sites
for the newcomers in one of the
most important racial movements
that America had ever experienced.
Until that time, no other foreign
people and not even the Americans
on the Eastern seaboard had VEN
tured into the wilderness in suffic-
lent numbers to start healthy
population growth.
In 1888 Pierson left the first band
of Norwegians on the sandy soil of
their New York settlement and
started westward. He found but a
few scattered huts and shanties
making up the settlement Of Chi
cago. Unimpressed, he walked on,
reaching Milwaukee, town con-
sisting of three houses, one Of
which stood empty.
"Woud he ever find the Promised
Land?" says Rolvaag. From Mil
waukee he struck out in wester-
ly direction, over the prairies until
he beheld vision that he believed
was created by the nists cf the
evening. He slept and dreamed Of
rich fields of grain, well painted
barns, fine dwellings,. When he.
awoke he found himself in the rich
land that is now La Sale County,
Ill. Late the same fall, he came,
walking back to the colonies on
Lake Ontario and told his story so
well that the greater number OF,
Norwegians decided to pull up
stakes and move westward.
Persons journey marked the:
coming of the Norwegians to the
Middle West and it is typical of
the history of the Mississippi Val
ley, Illinois and Wisconsin at that
time were not much except in area.
Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska
were terra incognita, while TIE Da-
kotas, Montana and other western
states were not even heard Of. But
when the settlers wrote home
about the new Goshen, the stream
was loosed. Never since the day
man first took UP his struggle, has
the human race known such faith
and a like confidence. Once more
the race had been made young.
1.-THE vast wilderness of the Mid
die West could never have been
peopled in so short a time had it
not been for the romantic mood
which, about the year 1900, began
to gain full sway of mems minds in
the nations of the North. The
Westward movement could not, at
least at that time, have gained
much momentum except for immi-
grafton; and immigration would
not have been what it became had
not this romantic spirit given it
impetus. It is this trinity of mighty
forces, each quickening the other,
that has built up the Mississippi
Valley and the West"