Livingston County, Illinois - Chapter 21: Colonies of Foreign Settlers, 1909

Faith

ARRIVAL OF FIRST NORWEGIAN COLONY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1825 - STORY OF THE VOYAGE - CLING PEARSON, THE LEADER, VISITS ILLINOIS - FIBST COLONY ARRIVES IN LA SALLE COUNTY IN 1834 - LATER ARRIVALS FROM NORWAY - LAND MARKET CONDITIONS - NORSEMEN IN LIVINGSTON COUNTY NUMBER ABOUT 750 - RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION - THE AMISH (GERMAN MENNONITE) SETTLEMENT - RULES OF LIFE AND RELIGIOUS FAITH.

The first emigration from Norway to the United States was in 1825, just five years previous to the time the first settler arrived in Livingston County and erected his cabin. Cling Pearson, of Hesthamer, Norway, came over in 1822, and on his return gave a glowing picture of America, and finding the people of Stavinger, a small town of his neighborhood, dissatisfied with their minister, appointed by the government, and desirous of changing their location, he persuaded them to emigrate. They purchased a small yessel, a two masted fishing sloop, for $1,800, and fifty-two emigrants set sail in their little craft for the western continent. They salled through the North Sea and English Channel to Madeira, where they got short of provisions, picked up a pipe of wine, which they enjoyed hugely, and there laid in a stock of proyisions. They left Norway July 4, reached Funchal August 18, and New York the last day of October, 1825, fifty-three in number, an in- crease of one. In New York, they sold the vessel for $400 and the company divided, twentyeight going with Cling to Orleans County, New York, where they purchased land and formed a settlement, the first Norwegian settlement in America. But Cling Pearson was a restless spirit. He again rambled West and explored Illinois, and fixed on a location in La Salle County, near the border of Livingston. Cling stated that when exploring the country afterward occupied by his countrymen, becoming weary, he lay down under a tree, slept, and dreamed, and in his dream he saw the wild prairie changed .to a cultivated region, teeming ` with all kinds of grain and fruits, most beautlful to behold; that splendid houses and barns stood all over the land, occupied by a rich, happy people. He awoke refreshed, and, nerved anew by his dream, went back to his countrymen in New York and persuaded them to emigrate to Illinois. Cling's dream may have been dreamed awake, but it has been fully realized. The early days of the Norwegian settlement were days of poverty and toil, and they repeatedly suffered terribly by Asiatic cholera, but they have surmounted their trials, and are now, as seen in Cling's dream, a wealthy, prosperous and happy people. Cling Pearson afterward went to Texas and died there. The first Norweglan colony from New York came to La Salle County in 1834, being part of the fifty-three who came over from Norway in 1825. Since that, others have followed from Norway, and the first fifty-three emigrants haye welcomed many of their old neighbors to the land of their adoptian. Some of the Norwegian settlers of Livingston County came direct from Norway, but the first ones came from La Salle County here, whith was known in the early days among the Norwegian people as the "country of frogs," due to the great amount of lowlands and swamps. But the land was cheap, as low as $1.25 per acre, Government price, and grass and pasture were plentiful. Markets, however, were poor and money was very hard to get. The principal markets which they visited at times were St. Louis and Chicago, which were reached mostly by boats through the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and the Illinois and Michigan canal. The local market was at Ottawa and the milling was done at Dayton, La Salle County. The distance was traveled by oxen over the prairies and around the swamps as best they could. They usually went to La Salle once or twice each year to do their trading and milling. Later, Pontiac became their local market, and still later, Rowe, Graymont, Cornell, ete.

Owing to the great amount of swamps and stagnant water evaporating, the country was unhealthy, especially for those coming from the far north, and a great deal of malarial disease, with consequent hardships, was encountered by the Norsemen. It was a very common thing for the farmers to be taken down in the midst of their summer work with what they called the ague and other malarial diseases, These lowlands are now all drained out by tile drainage, they have a healthy climate, and are supposed to be the best land in the world, worth from $125 to $200 per acre. A considerable number of the Norsemen and their descendants have managed to retain a good portion of it. i

In politics, with few exceptions, they are Republicans. A large number have served and are now serving in different capacities as township officers, and, as far as known, with honor and integrity, but no county or higher office has yet been held by a Norseman. The reason is perhaps that nearly all who have settled here have come from country districts in the old country where a liberal education was hard to get, and the younger generation has not availed itself of the opportunities afforded here for higher education.

However, the Norsemen are awaking in Livingston County along political lines for the first time in their history. On several occasions one of their number has aspired to a county office, only to meet with defeat at the hands of the convention. On Monday, February 24, 1908, they met at the city hall in Pontiac and organized a branch of the Scandinavian League by electing the following officers:

The first church work done among the Norse settlers of Livingston County was in Amity Township by a Methodist missionary by the namé of John Brown. He baptized a number of children and preached among them with good success un- til the year 1862, but without having organized a congregation. About this time, a Lutheran congregation was organized and they called a pastor by the name of Peter Asbjorson, belonging to the Lutheran Augustana Synod. The work went on nicely for some time and a wealthy American by the name of Bronson Murray, who came to the county in an early day and bought up land, offered to give them forty acres of good land on which to build a parsonage. While this was pending, a difference of opinion concerning the church liturgy caused a division, as some adhered to the old state church of the Norwegian Synod, and the Murray offer was withdrawn. The remnant proceeded, however, and built what was known as the Augustana Church in the western part of Esmen Township. Later, the others, known as the Norwegian Synod people, somehow connected with the Missouri Synod, built a church at Rowe Station. Both of these congregations have lately been merged, forming the St. Paul Lutheran Church at Rowe, now belonging to the United Lutheran church, and under the charge of Rey. Mickelson.

In 1872, a preacher by the name of Herman W. Abelson became known by some families and was engaged to take up the pastoral work in the locality. Being a resident of La Salle County at the time, be came to Amity quite frequently and preached, and performed pastoral work between the years 1872 and 1880, but no organization was effected by what was called the Hague people until February 3, 1880. On that date a congregation by the name of Abel's Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized. Pastor H. W. Abelson was called and the congregation adopted formally a Lutheran creed as accepted and set forth in Hague's Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and a subscription was taken up for its school in Red Wing, Minn. About the same time the pastor took up the work in a small settlement near Mud Creek, which was kept up a number of years by him and his successor, Rev. Theodore Hansen, and later taken up by a minister from Rowe, and which is now under the charge of Pastor Mickelson of the United Lutheran Church.

Pastor Abelson about the same time, or a little later, took up work in what was known as the Rooks Creek settlement, a congregation being organized there in 1880, known as the Rooks Creek * health he had to resign shortly afterward and, as his successor, Pastor Theodore Hansen was called and served eleven years. After him other ministers of the same synod have continued the work in the congregation, which now also has a church and services in Pontiac.

The Amish Settlement

Throughout the southern portion in the county, especially in the townships of Pike, Indian Grove, Pleasant Ridge, and Forrest, are located many German Mennonites, more commonly known as Amish. The largest colony is in Waldo Township. They first settled in this county in the early '60s, and at the present time there are at least 1,000 heads of families within its borders. They are an industrious. frugal class of people and fond of their church and customs. They profess to be followers of Amah, a noted preacher in their country, who made many converts from the original Mennonite body. There are four denominations in this county - the Old Amish, New Amish, Eggli and Stuckey. The people are simple in their habits and dress, and wear no jewelry. The male members are shorn of their mustaches and do not vote. The rules of one faction of the church are as follows:

Property, although in the name of individnals, is held by the community, and if a member of the community is without money or lands,. all must help to secure them for him.

After the marriage ceremony has been performed, the couple must separate for a week, and not see each other during that time. Afterward they must live together.

The leading features of Amish, or more properly speaking, Mennonite bodies, have been baptism, or professing of faith, refusal of oaths, of civic offices and of the support of the state in war and a tendency toward asceticism.