Bellum Vita—Vita Bellum. War is Life and Life is War. Der, hvorom intet er at stride, er heller ingen seir at vinde.

Adopting the conventional form of autobiography, I will begin by saying that I was born in the town of Albion, Dane county, Wisconsin, January 12, 1846. My father was Bjorn Anderson Kvelve, born in Vikedal, Norway, June 3, 1801; died in the town of Albion, Dane county, Wisconsin, August 10, 1850. My mother's maiden name was von Krogh, her full name before her marriage being Abel Catherine yon Krogh. She was born in Sandeid, near Vikedal, Norway, October 8, 1809. She died October 31, 1885, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. T. A. Torgerson, near Bristol, Worth county, Iowa, where she had made her home for the eighteen years previous to her death. My father was of the peasant class, a man of great energy and ambition, and before coming to this country owned a small farm in Vikedal, a short distance north of Stavanger. The farm name was Kvelve.

My mother was of a prominent military family which by various intermarriages had been connected with many other of the more prominent families of the country, including royalty. The von Kroghs had come into Denmark from Germany about 1640 and the military annals of Denmark and Norway from that time on show many officers bearing that name. My mother's grand uncle, General George Frederick von Krogh (born 1732, died 1816), was commander in chief of the Norwegian army. He lived in Trondhjem where he owned the magnificent house at which King Haakon stopped when he came to Trondhjem to be crowned. This house was built by his son's mother-in-law, Mrs. Scholler. The son went to Denmark and gave the house to his father. I have now in my possession General von Krogh's cane which bears part of the coat-of-arms of the family. Later a cousin of my mother commanded the Danish army at Isted, the chief battle in the first war with Prussia in the '40s. Her father, who had been an officer in the war with Sweden in 1808–9, had been wounded. On being retired and pensioned he had bought a farm at Westbo, in Sandeid, and it is probable that my father and mother first met at church there. My mother's decision to marry a peasant was an offense in the eyes of her more aristocratic family, so their marriage was somewhat in the nature of a misalliance. They were married in July, 1831.

But she had further offended by marrying a dissenter from the established church. My father belonged to the Society of the Friends. During the Napoleonic wars a Norwegian ship was captured and taken to England, the Danes and Norwegians at this period being friendly to Napoleon. In England the captives fell in with the sect of Quakers, who treated them with the greatest kindness. Eventually the prisoners accepted the faith of the Friends.

After the battle of Waterloo they were returned to Norway. Most of these captives were from Stavanger and on their return 0025 3 they organized a Quaker congregation in that city. Religious freedom had not yet been established in Norway, so the little society had much trouble with the government. It was not until in the '40s that the harsh laws then prevailing were abrogated, thus giving full religious freedom. A large book was written in English on the persecutions to which these Norwegian Quakers were subjected.

My father had become acquainted with these Quakers. He owned a small coasting vessel and in addition to attending to his farm he carried on a coasting trade, carrying fish, produce, etc., to Stavanger and bringing back goods. At Stavanger he met the Quakers and eventually identified himself with them, thus becoming a dissenter. This was in the middle of the '20s.

My father was a born agitator and frequently stirred up trouble by urging his views, and this fact combined with the displeasure my mother had created in her family by her marriage, made their life less agreeable than they had hoped it would be. My father sought to cheer his wife by telling her of the land beyond the seas where they might freely hold whatever views they chose and where class distinctions were not so pronounced and offensive. If necessary to their peace, he said, they could go there.

Finding the persecutions and ostracisms to which they were subjected unendurable, the Norwegian Quakers in 182l determined to raise a fund and send two men to America to find them land and homes in the new world. The men sent out were Kleng Peerson and Knut Fide. Fide died while in America on this journey, but after three years Kleng Peerson returned (1824) and gave a glowing account of what he had seen and heard in America. He had met a party of Friends in New York and these had proposed to find homes for the Norwegian Quakers in Orleans county, New York. on the shores of Lake Ontario, north of Rochester. Accordingly these Quakers in 1825 combined and purchased a small sloop 0026 4 which they ballasted with iron and on July 4, 1825, the first little Norwegian emigrant party sailed out of the harbor of Stavanger, bound for New York, where they landed October 9, having been a little over three months at sea. Their vessel was “Restaurationen”, which may thus appropriately be called the Norwegian Mayflower. There were 52 members in the party which set sail, but 53 in the party that landed, a girl baby having been born at sea. This sloop baby is Mrs. Margaret Atwater of Western Springs, III, still living at a hale old age, the only other survivor of the sloop party at the last reports being Mrs. Hulda Olson of Sheridan, LaSalle county, III., who came as a child on that eventful voyage. *

After adjusting some trouble they had with the American authorities because of the overloading of their boat, the immigrants landed and were received by the Quakers of New York, who helped them to their destination in Orleans county. They settled at Kendall and there descendants of members of this sloop party may yet be found.

In 1833 Kleng Peerson left the Kendall settlement and went west. About 80 miles west of Chicago he located what has since become known as the Fox River settlement. He found a desirable tract of land in LaSalle county and on his recommendation many of the settlers at Kendall moved with their families in 1834 to the new home and founded the first Norwegian settlement west of the lakes and the second in this country. It is still a flourishing Norwegian community.

My father had kept in touch with the sloopers which developed in him the resolution to emigrate, and on the basis of the reports received from America he began to agitate emigration in the community. He found a number of neighbors willing to go and then went to Stavanger and persuaded a ship company to equip a vessel to take a load of emigrants to New 0027 5 York. However, before they were ready to embark so many others wanted to go that it was necessary to fit out a second ship. Accordingly, two Kohler brigs, “Norden” and “Den Norske Klippe”, left Stavanger in the spring of 1836 loaded with emigrants bound for New York. My father was generally regarded as the leader of the party.

My father and mother and their two sons, Andrew and Bruun, were passengers on the “Norden”. There were about 150 passengers on the two vessels. These were all bound for the Fox River settlement in LaSalle county, Illinois, but my father and his family left the party at Rochester, N.Y., where they spent the summer and the following winter, my father obtaining employment in the city as a cooper.

The next year, 1837, my father and his family moved to the Fox River settlement, where they remained for the next three years. However, not liking the conditions there, my father, in 1840, went northwards with three companions and crossed the Rock river into what is now the town of Albion, Dane county, Wisconsin. There he found such conditions as he liked and June 22, 1840, bought 80 acres of government land, being thus among the very first of Norwegians to enter land in Dane county. His entry was the west half of the southeast quarter of Section l. The township had then no name, but with the arrival of a colony of English Primitive Methodists in 1844 it was given the name of Albion.

My father built a log cabin and the next year, 1841, brought his family to its new home. My mother was the first white woman to live in the town, and my sister Martha was the first white child born there. At that time the Indians had a camp on my father's land and the nearest white woman that my mother could visit was at Milton, twelve miles away.

My father was greatly interested in education. Besides spending much time in teaching his children himself he twice employed private teachers for that purpose. One of these by 0028 6 name Corneliuson later became register of deeds of Dane county. Me spent one winter at my father's house and taught the children for his board. The other tutor employed was Gabriel Bjornson, who also later became a county official. Neither of them was then married. Also while the settlers were discussing the building of a school house my father cut logs and hauled them to the roadside and built the first school house largely at his own expense. It was donated to the district. Here was the only district school that I ever attended. The school house was used for many years, after which my mother bought it and had it moved on the old home farm where it is still standing.

My parents had the usual experiences of pioneer life, my father raising wheat and hauling it to Milwaukee and my mother making all the clothes for her children, besides meeting her many other household duties. They had begun to prosper and my father had purchased more land and all looked very encouraging for the future when he was suddenly cut off by cholera. This dreadful scourge swept through the settlement in the summer of 1850 and for a time it was feared it would wipe out the community. Practically every home was turned into a house of mourning. In one nearby family all the members died except two little girls. One of these girls later became Mrs. Ole Melaas of Stoughton, Wis. All of us in our family also came down with the disease, but my father and my second eldest brother Bruun, then sixteen years old, were the only ones to die. My brother died August 6 and four days later my father passed away. As I was only four years old at the time of my father's death, I have only a faint recollection of him, but I remember sitting by his sickbed and fanning him to drive away the flies. A neighbor, Ole Teigen, father of Dr. K. M. Teigen, the well known Norwegian-American writer, made coffins for my father and my brother and buried them. My father had set aside a corner of his farm for a private 0029 7 cemetery and here he and my brother were buried. There also is buried my mother, my stepfather and my own first child and there I expect to be laid to rest.A monument and an iron fence mark the little burial ground.

My mother was left a widow with eight children, but bravely remained on the farm and held her family together until the older members were able to go out and make their own way in the world. In 1854 she was again married, her second husband being Ingebright Amundson from near Stavanger, Norway. He died in 1860, leaving one son, now Dr. A. C. Amundson of Cambridge. Of the children in our family a few words may here be said:

My oldest brother, Andrew, was born in Norway in 1832, so he was eighteen years old when our father died. Being ambitious, he left horne and became a sailor on the great lakes, becoming in time chief steward on a propellor running between Milwaukee and Buffalo. After some years he became tired of sailing and when the railroad was built to Edgerton, Wis., near our home, he opened a general store at that place. Not prospering here, he went to Milwaukee and became a clerk in the large drygoods house of Candee, Dibble & Co. After clerking some years he married a Swedish lady of that city and in 1861 opened a store of his own in Milwaukee. He was nearly ruined by the war which then broke out and tried to enlist, but as he had once frozen his feet while out hunting and had thus lost a toe he was rejected. Soon afterwards he removed to Goodhue county, Minnesota, where he is still living and where he has become a prosperous farmer and raised a large family.

Elizabeth, my oldest sister, was born in LaSalle county, Ill., in 1837. She married a pioneer farmer of Goodhue county, Minn., named Hans Danielson. He served in the Indian war in Minnesota in 1862 and lost a leg. He died three years ago leaving a large family. My sister is still living.

Cecilia, who was also born in LaSalle county, Ill., was married 0030 8 to Rev. S.S. Reque, who died some years ago while pastor at Spring Grove, Minn. My sister died about a dozen years ago. They also had a large family.

Martha, while on a visit ta our sister Elizabeth in Minnesota, was married to a Dane named Lewis Johnson, who is a leading farmer there.

Dina was married to Rev. T. A. Torgerson, who died a half dozen years ago in Worth county, Iowa, having been for many years president of the so-called Iowa district of the Norwegian Synod. She is now living with her son, August, who succeeded his father as pastor.

I was the next in the family and then came Abel, who is now a Lutheran minister at Montevideo, Minn. He was educated at Albion academy, the University of Wisconsin, Decorah and St. Louis.

Bruun, now known as Brown, is a prosperous merchant at Spring Grove, Minn.

Dr. A. C. Aroundson, the youngest of the family, is a physician and bank president at Cambridge, Wis.

All of us except Andrew attended Norwegian parochial school and were prepared for confirmation. If my father had lived we would probably all have been brought up as Quakers. The children who had been born in Norway had been baptised there according to law. When my father died the other six children had not been baptised.

It is interesting to note here that the first Scandinavian Methodist was a Dane named Christian Willerup. He had been ordained as a Methodist minister and became active in promoting the faith. He came to Cambridge, Wis., in the early '40s and went among the Norwegians in and around Cambridge making proselytes and there he organized the first Scandinavian Methodist society in the world. Here he and his congregation built a stone church, which in remodeled form is still standing. 0031 9 Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish songstress, contributed $200 to this church.

Willerup came to our home and succeeded in persuading my mother that the children ought to be baptised, so the whole flock received baptism on the same day.

After founding the church at Cambridge, Willerup returned to the old world to promote the cause of Methodism in Denmark and Norway. He was very successful in his efforts and was made superintendent of the Methodist church in the countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. After he had baptised us I did not see him again until I went to Copenhagen as United States minister in 1885, when one of the first things I did was to look him up. He was then old and crippled and had largely lost his memory. His wife was younger and more vigorous and tried to have him recall the occasion when he baptised a whole family of children in America, but we received only a smile in return. Soon afterwards he died.

The church founded by Willerup at Cambridge became the nucleus of Methodist work among the Scandinavians which has grown to large proportions among the Danes, Norwegians and Swedes on both sides of the Atlantic. Norwegian Methodist congregations now exist at Cambridge, Stoughton, Milwaukee, Chicago and various other points in the northwest. The Norwegian-Danish Methodist church has a professorship at the Northwestern university at Evanston, Ill., and also publishes a church paper in Norwegian. The name of the paper is “Den Christelige Talsmand”.

Having been baptised by Willerup it would have been natural to expect that we should join the Methodist church and this might have happened had not my mother been connected by marriage with the wife of Rev. A. C. Preus.

As has been indicated, the sloopers of 1825 were nearly all Quakers. A few of the immigrants who came in 1836 were also Quakers. Those who remained in Kendall had regular 0032 10 Quaker worship, but those who came westward were too scattered and not numerous enough to organize a Quaker church. Many of the Norwegians of the LaSalle county settlement were also influenced by Mormon missionaries and one of the sloopers named Haukaas became a high priest of Melchisedec in the Mormon church. Lay preachers of various kinds traveled through the settlements, each holding services in his own way.

Most of the Norwegian settlers of this period, however, were known as Haugianere or followers of Hans Nilsen Hauge. Early in 1839 Elling Eielsen carne to America from Voss and exercised a great influence. He had been a lay preacher before leaving Norway and after coming to America he gave all his time and energy to preaching the gospel among his countrymen. In 1842 he built a meeting house in the town of Norway, LaSalle county, Ill., and this was the first building put up for church purposes among the Norwegians in this country. Eielsen had himself ordained by a Rev. F. A. Hoffman, at Duncan's Grove, twenty miles north of Chicago, October 3, 1843, and in that way he became the first ordained Norwegian Lutheran minister in this country.

Eielsen founded a church of his own which grew into a large organization, but in the '70s a rupture occurred in this body and the majority then assumed the name of the Hauge Synod, with headquarters at Red Wing, Minn., where it has a large school. A small minority remained loyal to Eielsen, claiming to be the original Eielsen organization. This body still exists, having about a dozen ministers, but more than twice as many congregations. The president of the body, Rev. S. M. Stenby, lives in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The first work toward establishing what is now known as the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran church of America was clone by C. L. Clausen.

Claus Lauritz Clausen was a Dane. He was born November 0033 11 3, 1820, on the island of Ærö, Fyen Stilt, in Denmark, and he died in Paulsbo, Washington, in 1892.

In 1841 he came to Norway to seek work in the missionary field in South Africa, but he found that there did not seem to be an opening for him in that direction. Tollef O. Bache, a merchant in Drammen, whose son Soren, with Johannes Johannesen, had settled in Muskego, Wis., and was anxious to send a teacher to America in order that his own grandchildren and other children growing up there might be properly instructed in the religion and language of their fathers. Tollef Bache's attention had been called to this young man, Clausen. A proposition was made and Clausen accepted. He first went to Denmark, and married Martha F. Rasmussen, and then proceeded to his new field of work in Muskego, where he arrived with his young wife in August, 1843.

After arriving in Muskego it seemed to him and to the people of Muskego that his services were more needed as a preacher than as a teacher, and accordingly he was called as preacher, duly examined by a German Lutheran minister by name L. F. E. Krause and ordained by him on the 18th of October, 1843, just fifteen days after Elling Eielsen had been ordained. Clausen at once began to preach in Even Heg's barn, in the houses of the settlers and in school houses. On the second Sunday after Easter, 1844, he confirmed the first class of children in Even Heg's barn. This was the first Norwegian Lutheran confirmation in America. In the fall of 1843 the congregation (sit venia verbo) decided to build a church. Heg gave the ground on the so-called Indian Mound, and here the church was built. Tollef Bache in Drammen contributed $400 to the church, and the building of it was begun early in 1844. The dedication took place March 13, 1845. It was the first Norwegian church built in America.

Clausen was a strong and interesting character. He was a 0034 12 leading figure in the Norwegian Synod for years and president of that body, but in the '60s he became involved in a bitter controversy with his brethren over the slavery question. The Norwegian pastors, influenced by the German Missouri Synod with headquarters at St. Louis, had taken up the defense of slavery which led Clausen to sever his connection with the Synod in 1868. From that time on he was connected with the Norwegian-Danish conference, another Lutheran body. He was also instrumental in founding the second newspaper among the Norwegians of this country at Immansville, Rock county, Wis., where he was pastor for a time. The paper was known as “Emigranten”.

In the early '50s he moved to Mitchell county, Iowa, where he founded a new Norwegian settlement and the town of St. Ansgar. Here also he built churches. He served as a member of the Iowa legislature and during the civil war was chaplain for a time of the Fifteenth Wisconsin regiment, known as the Norwegian regiment. After the war he was particularly active in the controversy over the doctrine of slavery which had not yet Been repudiated by the Norwegian Synod and for that matter has not yet been definitely disavowed. Its practical defense of slavery did the Synod much harm. When the question came up for the last time at the Synod meeting in Chicago in 1868 and where it was again practically endorsed Mr. Clausen and I and a couple of other delegates walked out of the meeting and Clausen was never afterward connected with the Synod.

It was known in Norway that a considerable number of Norwegians had located in the southeastern part of Dane county in what is still called in church parlance East Koshkonong, West Koshkonong and Liberty Prairie, so a number of persons in Norway raised a fund and induced Rev. J. W. C. Dietrichson, a minister known to them, to go to America to organize the Lutheran church there. He left Norway in the brig Washington 0035 13 May 16, 1844, and landed in New York July 9. After preaching twice to the Norwegians, Swedes and Danes of New York he came westward to the Muskego settlement where he stopped a short time with Rev. Mr. Clausen, whose ordination he recognized as regular in every respect. Late in August he proceeded to Koshkonong where he at once began preaching and organizing congregations. On October 10 he organized the so-called East Church in the town of Christiana and on October 13, the so-called West Church, in the present town of Pleasant Springs. The following year he returned to Norway where he remained for a year and during his absence his congregations at Koshkonong were served by Mr. Clausen. In 1846 he came back to Wisconsin and remained until 1850 when he returned to Norway to remain.

During his last four years in this country, besides serving his two congregations at Koshkonong, he visited the various localities where Norwegian settlements had been established, such as Blue Mounds, Primrose, Wiota, Rock county, Fox River (Ill.) and Chicago, preaching to the settlers and making efforts to gather them into organized congregations.

In 1850 he was succeeded by Rev. A. C. Preus, who was also a regular graduate in theology of the University of Norway and had been ordained by a Norwegian bishop. Other ministers also soon came from Norway to serve the congregations partially organized by Mr. Dietrichson in the newer settlements. By 1853 these ministers and congregations felt strong enough to get together and organize what is known as the Norwegian Synod, at present divided into five districts. A meeting for that purpose had been held in 1852 at the parsonage on Koshkonong and the next year (1853) another meeting was held at Immansville, on Rock Prairie, where organization was effected.

Now it so happened that Rev. A. C. Preus was married to a granddaughter of the distinguished Norwegian bishop and 0036 14 poet in Bergen, Johan Nordahl Brun, one of the most eminent preachers and poets of his day. My mother's aunt was married to a son of Bishop Brun, a minister at Fjeldberg, near Bergen, a parsonage where my mother was an occasional visitor before her marriage. It will be seen, therefore, that my mother and Mrs. Preus were quite closely connected by marriage, and the further fact that they were many thousands of miles from Norway brought them together as if they were sisters. As our home was only three miles from the Preus parsonage they were able to see each other frequently. While my father had not only refused to take part in organizing the Norwegian congregation, but, being a born agitator, had done all in his power to throw obstacles in Mr. Dietrichson's way, it was nevertheless perfectly natural that my mother, who had never become devoted to the religion of the Friends and who had now had her children baptised by a Methodist, should find it easy to become a member of Mr. Preus' congregation.

Mr. Dietrichson was highly educated and scholarly and was considered a very able minister. At the same time he was strict and overbearing. He was also thought to be avaricious. In regard to this charge made against this distinguished pioneer preacher, the late John A. Johnson, founder of the Gisholt Machine company, frequently told the following story:

As a boy preparing for confirmation he lived at the Dietrichson parsonage doing chores for his board. One clay an American stopped at the parsonage to call on the pastor and requested young Jens (Jens Shipnes, later changed to John A. Johnson) to hold his horse for him. When the American left he handed the boy a dime. This was observed by the pastor, who promptly took it from the boy and kept it.

The following story illustrates his severity and strictness as a pastor:

In building the East Koshkonong church it was agreed among the members that each one should furnish his share of 0037 15 logs hewn ready to put into the walls, and each one should contribute a number of days work. In this way the church was built and roofed. It had no seats, however, so it was further agreed that each father of a household should bring two benches, one for the men's side of the church and one for the women's side. Among the settlers then living on the banks of Koshkonong creek was one Peter Funkeli. His conduct was not above reproach in the eyes of his pastor, who had now and then found it necessary to discipline him. When persuasion no longer served the purpose Mr. Dietrichson determined to exercise his authority in accordance with the rules of the church of Norway. He decreed that for a number of services Mr. Funkeli should occupy a seat on a bench next to the entrance door. This was to be his punishment. The next Sunday Mr. Funkeli came late to church and disregarding the order of the pastor took his seat on the bench which he himself had furnished and which was the first one in front of the pulpit, suspended on the south wall. Mr. Dietrichson stopped preaching, spoke to Funkeli and requested him to go back and take his seat near the door. Funkeli paid no attention to the order. The pastor insisted on obedience. Funkeli replied that the seat on which he was sitting belonged to him and he refused to leave it. Dietrichson then left the pulpit and called the wardens to come to his assistance in putting the rebellious member out of the church by force. Dietrichson, who was a powerful man, assisted the wardens and Funkeli was finally ejected although he resisted vigorously. Funkeli then went to my father and laid the matter before him. My father told Funkeli that he could prosecute Dietrichson for assault and battery. This suited Funkeli. An attorney in Cambridge named Isaac Brown was engaged and my father having by that time acquired considerable proficiency in the English language served as interpreter for the witnesses. The case was tried before Justice Stillman at Albion Center. Funkeli won his case and Dietrichson was 0038 16 fined $10 and costs, a large sum in those days, and in accordance with what has been stated above an amount that must have looked quite large to the pastor. This happened on Dietrichson's first visit to America, in 1845, just before his first return to Norway. While in Norway in 1845–46 Dietrichson wrote a book of considerable size giving an account of his experiences and his work among his countrymen in America. This book was published in Stavanger in 1846. In the '90s I reedited and reprinted it. The last pages of this book are devoted entirely to this Funkeli episode and Dietrichson tells that he had appealed the case to the circuit court at Madison, but that his attorney had neglected to attend to the case on time. The attorney, he said, arrived one day too late. Of course we know that the law abounds in technicalities.

Without going into the niceties of theology we might say that Dietrichson represented the church of Norway, the Norwegian Lutheran; but he was known to be somewhat influenced by Grundtvigianism. As poet, historian, theologian, Grundtvig was probably the greatest mind Denmark ever produced. He held the view that the only parts of the Scriptures that were inspired were the words instituting the sacraments, the Lord's prayer and the Decalogue, the remainder he considered as merely so much church history. With the Passages of the Bible which he held to be inspired he also included the apostolic creed or three articles of faith, which are not found in the Bible. Dietrichson was inclined toward somewhat the same views.

While discussing church matters it might be interesting to here note the first split in the Norwegian Lutheran church in this country. I have the story as it was told me by Hon. Gunnuf Tollefson of Primrose. If we go back to 1843 there were only two ordained ministers among the Norwegians in America —Elling Eielsen and the Dane, C. L. Clausen. In the beginning these two were in harmony and worked together to build up that Norwegian-American Lutheran church which has since been split into half a dozen different organizations. The first split or division came about in this manner: On Jefferson Prairie, near Beloit, a little girl had been left an orphan by the death of her parents. Rev. Elling Eielsen took this little girl with him to Muskego and had her placed with a Roman Catholic family. For this he was severely criticised. Norwegian Lutherans could not understand how he could turn the child over to Catholic foster parents and the matter created a great deal of discussion and aroused considerable criticism and ill will. The affair finally came up before Mr. Clausen and his congregation in Muskego. In the meantime Eielsen doubtless coming to the conclusion that he had made a mistake went to the farm where the girl had been placed and in the dusk of the evening kidnapped her while she was outside playing. But 2 0040 18 this only served to aggravate the case. Eilsen did not appear before the meeting and was declared guilty of two offenses, first of giving the child over to Catholics, and, second, of kidnapping. The result was that Eielsen and Clausen parted company and Eielsen founded his own church. I understand that the girl who was the innocent cause of this rupture grew up, was married and moved to northern Michigan.

Note.— Since the above was published in “Amerika” I received a communication from Rev. Erik O. Mörstad of Forest county, Wis. His article is published in full in “Amerika” for Feb. 27, 1914. The gist of Mörstad's communication is that Clausen and Eielsen had never worked together and consequently there could be no split. I believe Rev. Mörstad is correct in his contention, and gladly accept his statements, well supported by evidence, as entirely satisfactory. We may, however, safely assume that the kidnapping incident would naturally have a tendency to make the separation more pronounced.

Resuming the thread of family narrative, I will say that our farm consisted of 210 acres and we all remained upon it until the children one by one were able to shift for themselves. The ambition of all seemed to be to go out in the world and become the architects of their own fortunes. My eldest brother, Andrew, had left home before my father died and gone with a couple of neighbors' sons of the same age to cut timber near Port Washington, a short distance north of Milwaukee. After that he became a sailor on the great lakes as heretofore stated. All the girls went out as housemaids, working for American families in Albion, Milton, Janesville, and other places, until they married.

When I was about thirteen years old Rev. A. C. Preus of Koshkonong and Rev. C. L. Clausen of St. Ansgat, Iowa, united in engaging a family tutor. They secured a university student from Norway by name Carl Johan Rasch, who gave the children instruction at the Koshkonong parsonage. Clausen sent his son Martin to be taught with the Preus children. Then as I had the reputation of being a bright scholar at the common school and also at the parochial school, where I was taught Norwegian and religion, Mr. Preus requested my mother and stepfather to let me attend this private school at the parsonage which was three miles from our home. I was eager 0046 24 to attend this school and for a whole school year I walked the three miles to school and back again six days a week. At this school I was taught the rudiments of Latin and German and received some lessons in general history. At the age of 14 I was confirmed. Meanwhile the private school at the parsonage was discontinued. I was very anxious to attend Albion academy, which was only a short distance from our home, and had recently been founded, but my parents did not feel able to furnish me with the necessary funds.

That same year, 1860, my oldest brother had opened a store of his own on Spring street in Milwaukee. He offered me an opportunity to clerk for him for my board. He had recently married and established a home. Afterward he moved his store from Spring street to Reed street, Milwaukee, continuing the business for a little more than a year, when he sold out. Milwaukee was then a city of about 60,000 people. During the year or a little more that I spent in Milwaukee, I saw the great bank riot, the Germans and others attacking the, banks to get out their deposits. The governor had to send militia to quell the riot. I also saw the first Wisconsin regiment in camp at the west end of Spring street, now Grand avenue, under Col. Starkweather. I saw this regiment leave for the front and heard Gov. Randall make a speech to the soldiers at the railroad station from the top of a freight car. During the presidential campaign of 1860 I saw the great wide-awake processions in oilcloth capes marching through the streets of Milwaukee carrying kerosene lamps. I also saw the candidate Stephen A. Douglas ride in a carriage drawn by four or six white horses from the railroad station to the front of the city hall. I stood quite near the platform while Mr. Douglas was speaking. In the midst of his speech the platform broke down. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but a cry went up from the republicans in the 0048 26 audience that the “Little Giant” was running for president on a poor platform.

Besides helping my brother Andrew in the store I engaged in the business of an apple peddler. Every day I filled my basket with apples and looked for my customers, partly on the Spring street bridge, but mainly in the offices of business men. I had Alexander Mitchell, the president of the Milwaukee Marine and Fire Insurance bank, as a frequent customer and thereby hangs a tale.

In the latter part of the '70s it was still customary for all people of any prominence—in office or out of office—to have railroad passes. In the city of Madison all the state officers, all the judges, all the county officers and city officers, including the aldermen and their families, had annual passes on the railroads entering Madison. With these passes they could go to Chicago or Milwaukee to do shopping or attend theaters and concerts. I had no pass. When Mrs. Anderson was asked to join some of the ladies with whom she was acquainted to attend some event in Chicago or Milwaukee she had no pass and consequently was unable to go. She finally took me to task by saying that if I was as smart as I pretended to be I'd have a pass too. Nettled by this I went to my library, determined to find a way of getting a railroad pass if such a thing were possible. I canvassed several schemes in my mind, but finally settled on the following: Alexander Mitchell was then president of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad. As a boy 14 years old I had sold apples to him. Why not make use of this fact to secure a pass from him? I sent him a letter reading substantially as follows:

“Honorable Alexander Mitchell, ex-Member of Congress, President Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, etc., Milwaukee, Wis.

Sir:

“Nearly twenty years ago a small white-headed Norwegian apple-boy was in the habit of calling on you at your 0049 27 office in your bank. If he happened to find you in good humor you would select with the greatest care, three beautiful red Spitzenbergs and pay the boy 5 cents and many a time you made that boy happy. That little white-headed apple-boy was I, sir, and I am now a professor in the University of Wisconsin and am drawing a great salary. I have, also, as you may have observed perpetrated on the public sundry books which are returning me immense dividends in the way of royalties. The facts are, Mr. Mitchell, that my income has of late become so alarmingly large that I have been seriously puzzled as to how to get my surplus funds properly invested. But I have finally decided to invest these surplus funds in a private railroad from Chicago to Madison via Milwaukee. Now please do not become alarmed, Mr. Mitchell, as my private road is not to enter into serious competition with the great Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul road, but mine is to be a splendid railroad in all its appointments. I shall have a perfectly level and well ballasted roadbed. I shall have the most modern locomotives and most skilful engineers. Mine shall be all palace cars and dining cars with the most careful, courteous and accommodating conductors and attendants.

“And now, sir, when this projected road of mine is completed it is my intention to give to yourself and lady an annual pass as a token of recognition of your kindness to me as an apple-boy and I shall never forget to renew it every new year's day. But now it has occurred to me that, inasmuch as it will take some little time before this projected road of mine will be completed, you might be willing to let me and my wife ride on your lines in anticipation of all the magnificent rides you and your lady are to have on mine.”

Well, the letter brought from Mr. Mitchell a pass for Mrs. Anderson and me and this pass was renewed every January as long as Mr. Mitchell lived. He had a folder map in which he preserved this letter of mine as a curiosity, having it tied up with 0050 28 silk ribbons. Then he invited Mrs. Anderson and me to make his house our home whenever we came to Milwaukee. He assigned to us what he called the “red room” in his mansion and placed his coach and driver at our disposal. I do not think Mr. Mitchell remembered buying any Spitzenbergs from me, but he made up his mind that he remembered it and took great pains to introduce me to his various acquaintances as one whom he had befriended as a boy. When he lacked one for a game of euchre he would telegraph to Madison for me to come to Milwaukee and help out.

I lived with my brother in Milwaukee until he sold out, or about a year. Among the other interesting circumstances connected with my life there I may mention that I narrowly escaped being a passenger on the Lady Elgin when she went down off the shore of Waukegan, causing the greatest marine disaster in the history of the great lakes. I had arranged to go on that excursion which proved fatal to so many, but an Irish girl whom I was to escort to the boat was so long in dressing that when we arrived at the pier the boat had just pulled out. I afterwards went to the depot and saw a whole car-load of dead bodies unloaded.

In Milwaukee I was present at a meeting in Stamm's hall on the south side called by Hans C. Heg for the purpose of getting volunteers for the Fifteenth Wisconsin regiment. Hans C. Heg had twice been elected state prison commissioner at Waupun, an office which at that time was elective. He was the first Norwegian-American to be elected to a state office in this country. He resigned the office for the purpose of organizing a regiment to help put clown the rebellion. He succeeded in raising the regiment, became colonel and fell at the battle of Chickamauga. Mr. Heg impressed me as a fine-looking, eloquent man and very earnest and enthusiastic.

My brother Andrew sold out his business on Reed street in 0051 29 Milwaukee to Hatlestad, Hjelm & Ole Heg. Hatlestad was a brother of Rev. O. J. Hatlestad and Ole Heg was a brother of Col. Heg. Ole Heg afterwards became a sutler in the 15th regiment. I was engaged as clerk in the new firm and continued in their employ for a few weeks. Then, I presume in October, 1861, I one clay met a stranger on the Walker's point bridge (the whole south side was called Walker's point then). He spoke to me and asked me whether I knew of any boy that could speak Norwegian. I informed him that my parents were Norwegian and that I was able to speak the language. He then told me that he had a general store in La Crescent, Minn., across the Mississippi from La Crosse, and that he needed a clerk that could speak the Norwegian language. This man was W. H. Merrick. His father was a prominent attorney in Milwaukee, having an office on the northwest corner of East Water and Wisconsin streets. I indicated a willingness to go to La Crescent and so he took me to his father's office where a contract was made and I received a railroad ticket from Milwaukee to La Crosse, agreeing to leave Milwaukee that night. I returned to my employers, informed them what I had done, obtained their consent and took the train the same evening for La Crosse. This ended my career as a clerk and apple-peddler in the metropolis of Wisconsin. i had seen more or less of Milwaukee life and the city having at that time already a large German population, I had availed myself of every opportunity to acquire a speaking knowledge of the German tongue. In fact, I may say without boasting that the day I left Milwaukee I could speak with about equal fluency English, Norwegian and German.

Early the next morning I landed in La Crosse where I took a ferry boat for La Crescent which became my home until New Year's. During my whole stay there I had the annoyance of not being able to get the points of the compass correct. Every day the sun rose in the west and set in the east. Wisconsin was on the west and Minnesota on the east side of the Mississippi. I knew this was wrong, but it was utterly impossible for me to get the matter righted.

A large part of the little town La Crescent consisted of a colony of southerners from Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi, below St. Louis. They had moved away from their southern home on account of the war of the rebellion and had taken with them their personal property including some of their slaves. They seemed to be living in easy circumstances and had negroes, both as male and female servants. These southerners were Baptists and in La Crescent they had built a church and also what may be called an academy, or more properly a select school. The pastor of the congregation and also the principal of this select school was a young man by name Sheldon Jackson.

Right here I want to make a digression. In course of time Sheldon Jackson had become the head of the educational department for the aborigines of Alaska, at Washington. As such 0053 31 official he made annual visits to the different parts of Alaska and made investigations as to what the government could do to improve the conditions of the Eskimos, physically, intellectually, morally, and, I may perhaps add, spiritually. On my return from Denmark in 1889 1 read a report written by Sheldon Jackson, giving an account of the vast amount of reindeer moss growing, especially in the northwestern part of Alaska. This moss covered the country ankle deep and there were then no reindeer in the country to make use of it. It was claimed there was sufficient moss to support millions of reindeer. Jackson had decided to import a few reindeer from Siberia, on the other side of Bering strait, and some natives of that country as herders, in order to start a reindeer industry among the Eskimos. He tells this story, that in bringing a small herd of deer from Siberia in a government ship the officers of the boat were delighted to get reindeer milk for their coffee, but when they afterwards found that the Siberian herders to milk the deer threw the animal on the ground, sucked the milk from the teats with their mouths and then spit it into a cup, they preferred thereafter to drink their coffee black. The fact is that the Siberian reindeer are only half domesticated and their herders are less than half civilized. One winter while minister to Denmark I made a journey with my friend Dr. Frantz Moeller of cod-liver oil fame to the land of the mid-day moon, that is to say: to the Lofoten islands and Lapland. I went principally to make an investigation of the cod-fishing and the cod-liver oil industry in the Lofoten islands, but I also had an opportunity of visiting a number of camps or villages of Lapps. I found that the Lapland reindeer was thoroughly domesticated and that the Lapps themselves were highly civilized. They had for generations been converted to the Lutheran religion, were organized politically and ecclesiastically and had churches and schools; their children were all confirmed and could read and write. But while the reindeer moss was growing ankle deep in Alaska it 0054 32 was continually growing more and more scarce in Lapland and the Lapps were compelled to flit from one place to another to find a scant subsistence for their valuable herds of reindeer.

Having read this report on Alaska it occurred to me that if our government wished to introduce the reindeer industry in Alaska it would be better to get both the animals and the herders from Lapland than from Siberia. I therefore went to Washington and laid this matter before the chief of the United States educational department.

In that office I found Dr. Sheldon Jackson and in the course of our acquaintance we discovered that we had perhaps known each other in La Crescent, Minn., in the autumn of 1861. I remembered that I had attended his church and he remembered that there was a white-headed Norwegian boy clerking in Merrick's store. Dr. Jackson, who was the chief of the educational department, accepted my suggestions with the greatest enthusiasm and decided to carry them out as speedily as possible.

Sheldon Jackson authorized me to find a suitable person to go to Lapland for a colony of Lapps. I selected Mr. William Kjellman, a man then living in Madison, Wis. He was born and raised in Hammerfest, Norway, and had had extensive dealings with the Lapps, being also able to speak their language. He proceeded at once to Washington where he received his government appointment and instructions and went thence directly to Karashok and Kautekeino, in Lapland. He secured a permit from the government authorities of Norway and engaged several families, with their children and their dogs, to spend three years in Alaska to teach the Eskimos how to take care of reindeer. At the end of three years our government agreed to return them to their homes. On their way to Alaska they camped for a few days in Madison, Wis., and then proceeded to the coast to continue by steamer to their destination. These Lapps being members of the Lutheran church, the government agreed to send with them a Lutheran 0055 33 pastor and teacher. Dr. Sheldon Jackson left it to me to select the pastor. I turned this matter over to Rev. H. A. Preus, Columbia county, Wis., the president of the Norwegian Synod and he recommended Rev. T. L. Brevig, then of Hudson, Wis., to take this position. Mr. Brevig went with the Lapps and served for some years as their pastor, the instructor of their children and so far as he was able as their physician.

Before leaving Madison one couple of these Lapps were united in wedlock by Rev. Mr. Brevig. Mr. Kjellman and the Lapps soon found that the Siberian reindeer were not serviceable and that their domestication would probably take several generations and so the government sent Mr. Kjellman back to Lapland the following year to purchase a shipload of reindeer and bring them to Alaska. This he did, but there were unexpected delays on the journey and at Sitka, in Alaska, more than half of his herd perished from want of suitable fodder. The remainder were brought to their destination and became the nucleus of the now exceedingly prosperous reindeer industry in Northwestern Alaska, where a number of reindeer are also used in the mail service as mail carriers. Mr. Kjellman and a couple of these Lapps were among the first to discover gold at what is now Nome City. They returned to the United States with their coffers well filled with this precious metal. One of the Lapps sent $80,000 to a bank in Tromsö, Norway. The Lapps finally returned to their native land.

The Norwegian Synod is still maintaining its mission among the natives at Teller station, Alaska. Sheldon Jackson died several years ago. 3

While I lived at La Crescent there came to attend this Baptist select school or seminary a young boy from Houston, Minn., by name Even Homme, who was destined to acquire considerable prominence among the Norwegian-Americans. He became the founder of that group of charitable institutions in Wittenberg, Wis., including an orphan home, a home for the aged, factories for supporting them, manufacturing pulpits, etc., a printing establishment, a church and various other things. This boy Homme and I usually spent our Sundays together, taking long walks over the high bluffs along the Mississippi near La Crescent.

My stepfather had died in the year 1860, at the old home, in Albion, before I left Milwaukee. In the fall of 1861 the Norwegian Synod had opened a sort of academy at Half Way Creek, in La Crosse county, Wis., about a dozen miles north of La Crosse, and a few miles north of Onalaska, at the parsonage of the Half Way Creek congregation. This was the first institution of higher learning established by the Norwegians on this side of the Atlantic. It was domiciled at this parsonage for one year and then moved to Decorah, Iowa, and was thus the beginning of the now widely known Luther college of which I am listed as the first graduate. The teachers at Half Way Creek were Prof. Laur. Larsen and Prof, F. A. Schmidt, the latter a German.

Prof. Larsen was the president of Luther college for more than forty years and is still living at Decorah, being at this writing past 80 years old. * Prof. Schmidt later became professor of theology and has for many years been one of the faculty of the theological seminary of the United Lutheran church at Minneapolis. He still lives at Minneapolis as a professor emeritus, giving occasional lectures at the seminary.

At the Half Way Creek school there were in all sixteen students during the year though not that number at any one time. A part of them went home for the Christmas holidays and did not return and others took their places during the winter and spring term. Of these sixteen eight are dead, the eighth death being that of John Ollis in Madison, November 16, 1913. Eight are still living and so far as I know all prosperous and in reasonably good health. These eight are: Rev. Olaus Norman of Ashby, Minn., Ole Vik of Brooton, Minn., Mr. Evans (Folkestad) of Alexandria, Minn., Eilif Olson of Canton, S. D., P. P. Iverslie of Minneapolis, Minn., B. Hovde of Manitowoc, Wis., Lasse Bothun of South Dakota and R. B. Anderson.

After my stepfather's death our Koshkonong pastor, Rev. J. A. Ottesen, urged my mother very strongly to send me to Half Way Creek. He knew that I had been taught the rudiments of Latin, German and some other branches at the home of his predecessor, Rev. A. C. Preus. Immigration from Norway was increasing rapidly. A great number of new congregations were being organized and there was consequently a greater need of ministers than could be supplied by the University of Norway. The purpose of the school at Half Way Creek and Decorah was chiefly to educate young men for the ministry, and I presume Rev. Otteson thought that there was timber in me out of which to make a Lutheran clergyman. I 0058 36 am sorry to add that in this he was greatly mistaken. My mother was easily persuaded by Mr. Otteson and so about Christmas, in 1861, I received a letter from home informing me that there was place for me at the school at Half Way Creek and urging me to proceed thither at once. I did not need to be asked twice, because to go to school and get an education was the chief ambition of my life. I obtained my employer's consent and before leaving him he handed me a splendid testimonial of character and as it were to give emphasis to this testimonial he helped me pick out in the store a complete suit of clothes, including a coat, trousers and vest, underwear, socks, a winter cap and boots, of which he made me a present.

I lost track of W. H. Merrick. I had no idea what had become of him, but the day after I had been appointed United States minister to Denmark I received a congratulatory telegram from him from Portland, Oregon. In the telegram he stated that he had never forgotten the nice boy that clerked for him, but that he had lost track of me until he had read a newspaper dispatch about my appointment.

On leaving LaCrescent and bidding goodbye to Mr. Homme we made an agreement that if I liked the school he would come and join me later. I urged him to come and the next autumn he too became a student at Luther college in Decorah. He was too old to take a full college course, so after spending a year at Decorah he was sent to the theological seminary at St. Louis after which he became a minister in the Norwegian Synod. He afterwards joined the anti-Missourian or F. A. Schmidt faction and then became the founder and promoter of the Wittenberg institutions already mentioned. He died several years ago.

The school year at Half Way Creek ended early in June and the students engaged a farmer to take their trunks to LaCrosse, but the boys themselves used the same means of conveyance as the Apostles are said to have employed. We all 0059 37 walked and trotted in a bunch from Half Way Creek to La Crosse. The parsonage which served as the cradle of the first Norwegian-American higher institution of learning was, I think, in the '80s, burned to the ground and a more pretentious building was erected in its stead. To tell the truth I was not pleased with the school It did not meet my expectations. I realized that my two professors were men of considerable learning and high personal character, but I could not help comparing the general equipment of this school with what I had heard or read about American academies and colleges. While I was eager to get an education I thought I had better go to work and earn enough to pay my way at some American college of standing. I therefore decided not to return home to the farm in Albion, but to go back to Milwaukee where I felt sure I could find employment at fair wages. It must be remembered that this was in the midst of the war of the rebellion when thousands of able-bodied young men had gone to the front as soldiers and that there consequently was a scarcity of labor of all kinds. Well, I went to Milwaukee where I was immediately engaged to clerk by the same men that bought out my brother's store and for whom I had worked a short time before going to La Crescent.

Before taking my position I obtained a week off to visit my home. My mother and brothers and sisters were wondering what had become of me. Two other boys from Half Way Creek had returned to Koshkonong but were unable to give any account of me. They said they had lost track of me in La Crosse. A few days later, however, the lost boy put in an appearance and the anxiety ended. It so happened that the wife of Rev. Mr. Ottesen, the wife of Rev. O. J. Hjort and another lady, Miss Norman, a member of the Ottesen household, were visiting at our house when I arrived home. When I said that I did not like the school and that I had secured a position in Milwaukee Mrs. Ottesen and the other ladies were 0060 38 greatly displeased. They took both me and my mother in hand and insisted that I must go to Decorah, Iowa, in the fall. They asked my mother to exercise her authority and make me obey her. The scene produced a flood of tears and the result was that I had to yield to their wishes and cancel my engagement in Milwaukee.

I spent the summer at home doing the ordinary work on the farm. Labor was so scarce that my sisters had to work in the harvest field. In the books I had from Half Way Creek I studied at least an hour every day and the most of the Sundays and while I was working in the fields I reviewed in my mind as much as possible of what I had read in my books. I think this practice more than anything else I can mention helped to give me the memory for which I have sometimes been praised.

We were approaching the 4th of July and the people in the neighborhood had decided to celebrate the day. Some of the neighbors had gotten together and planned a celebration in a grove on Jens Naset's farm. There was to be music, by the Albion Prairie band, singing, speaking and refreshments. But where to get the orator of the day was the great problem. I was the only person in the whole neighborhood who had attended a higher institution of learning. Besides I had been absent from home a couple of years, had lived in Milwaukee and in Minnesota, all of which tended to give more or less prestige. A committee of three were appointed to wait on me and extend to me a formal invitation to be the orator of the day at the fourth of July celebration only a week later. I replied to the committee in the most formal manner possible, thanked them for the honor conferred on me and informed them that it 0062 40 would give me great pleasure to accede to their wishes. I forgot that I had never spoken in public in my life, that I had never heard a fourth of July oration, that I had not the faintest idea of what a person was to say on such an occasion. But I now either had to keep my promise or go to bed and play sick. My stepfather had been a constant reader of the New York Tribune. And here I may add that my first recollection of newspaper reading was during the trial of John Brown at Harper's Ferry. The New York Tribune contained a very full account of the court proceedings in this famous trial, and when we received the Tribune all work was suspended and one of my sisters had to read every word aloud to the family. I may say that that reading made a deep impression on my mind though I was at the time only a dozen years old. The copies of the New York Tribune had not been destroyed, but were kept in a large imported Norwegian chest upstairs. It occurred to me that by going through all these copies of the Tribune I doubtless would find something that I could crib and make use of as a fourth of July oration. But all my search was in vain, and in the meantime the fourth was drawing nearer and nearer. It was the fourth of July, 1862, in the midst of our great civil war and so I took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and wrote out a few pages about our relatives and friends engaged in putting down the rebellion, I tried to describe the life and dangers of the soldier. I had at my elbow an abridged Webster's dictionary in which I hunted industriously for big words, thinking that an oration ought to be “hifalutin” as possible. I used a lot of words of which I scarcely knew the meaning myself. I would look at the word oppose, for instance, and take “repugn” instead and so on.

I copied this speech in my finest Italian hand and every day that remained before the fourth I went into the woods nearby and rehearsed it to the birds and squirrels. I finally knew it well by heart. It had been thoroughly advertised that I was 0063 41 to speak and on that beautiful fourth of July people came by the wagonload—buggies were scarce in those days—from far and near to take part in the celebration and to hear the famous orator. A high platform had been built under an immense oak tree with loose boards for a floor. There were no steps leading up to the platform. I took hold of the end of one of these boards to lift myself onto the platform. I lifted the board instead, falling on my back on the ground with the board on top of me. In this manner I made my first bow to an admiring public. I was helped up again and after music by the band, etc., I was introduced. I recited my speech in a loud voice and with much feeling. Many of the women in the audience who probably had no comprehension of my big words shed tears profusely and used their handkerchiefs energetically when they heard me refer to their husbands, sons and brothers who were facing rebels in the south. On account of this reference to husbands, sons and brothers on southern battlefields my oration was vociferously applauded and pronounced a great success. My sister Dina got my manuscript and laid it away. She kept it until three or four years ago when I visited her in Worth county, Iowa. Then she brought it out to show it to me and made me a present of it.

In September all the boys from the eastern part of Dane county that were going to Luther college at Decorah were coralled at Madison to take the same train for Prairie du Chien which was at that time the terminus of the so-called Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien railroad. At Prairie du Chien we crossed the river on the ferry to McGregor which was then the metropolis of northern Iowa. At McGregor we were joined by other young men bound for Decorah; we hired a couple of teams with farm wagons to take our trunks and belongings to Decorah, some forty miles distant, and the whole group of boys took tickets by the “Foot and Walker's” line. We made the journey by foot in two short days. I shall never forget the delicious wild grapes and wild plums that we gathered and ate on the way.

I have no doubt that our simple primitive way of going to college was fully as interesting and enjoyable as the more stylish modern way.

Luther college at Decorah had been planned, but had not yet been built. All there was of it was a considerable tract of land on the west side of the river at Decorah which had been secured, but for the college itself not even the necessary funds had been raised. The Norwegian Synod had purchased an old hotel built of brick and called the St. Cloud. This building stood near the business center of the east side. It was re-modeled 0065 43 internally so as to serve the purposes of a school for a couple of years. The basement was converted into a dining room, and a part of the first floor was occupied by Prof. Larsen as the head of the institution. In fact, the students had only one small room on this floor and this was occupied by the uppermost class to which I belonged, for study and recitations. The second floor was occupied in the same manner by the rest of the body of students and the third floor consisted of a single attic room in which all the forty to sixty students slept in single beds. Such were our accommodations the first two years except that the second year, 1863, a small one-story building was erected on the west side of the old hotel as a recitation room. The new building, also called “hutitu,” was two stories. The first floor was for study and recitations and the second floor was filled with beds for students.

It would be interesting to have moving pictures of this old school with its body of students. The students were not such as are now found as beginners in college. Only a few of them were young boys in their teens. The majority of them were men away up in the twenties and even in the thirties. There were men who sported heavy beards and had more years to their credit than either one of their professors.

During the recess hours this whole body of students could be seen in the middle of the street in front of the college playing marbles. A large number of them were dressed in homespun. My mother had sheared the sheep, spun the wool, dyed the yarn, woven the cloth and cut and sewed the coat, vest and trousers that I wore. I remember how lovely my sisters Cecilia and Dina looked in dresses which they had themselves made from cloth woven by our mother.

The discipline at this school during its early years was most severe and rigid, particularly when we consider the mature years of the great majority of its students. I cannot conceive of such strict rules governing a body of students unless it should be at West Point or Annapolis. The whole day, from 6 o'clock in the morning until 10 at night, was cut up into fragments. The rules plainly written were pasted inside of the door of each recitation room. These rules prescribed what a student was to do every hour and partly every half hour of the whole day. In the forenoon, after breakfast, there was a half hour recess during which the students were strictly forbidden to do any writing or to look inside of a book. At noon and in the evening there was an hour when the same rule was enforced. The only hour when the students could either study or read, or write letters, or do nothing, or go to bed, was from 9 to 10 in the evening.

Students under 18 were not allowed the use of tobacco. All recitations except English grammar and mathematics were conducted in the Norwegian language. The school included five and a half days a week, that is, from Monday morning until Saturday noon. Instead of a daily there was a weekly time-table, some branches occurring only once a week, others twice, some three times, while as I remember Latin occurred every 0067 45 day. The theory was that all the branches to be studied during the whole six years' course should be started at the beginning of the first year and carried on pari grassu until graduation. One unfortunate result of this was that if a student on account of ill health or financial embarrassment was obliged to leave school he would take home with him only a smattering or a very elementary knowledge of a dozen different subjects. The argument in favor of such a course was that the student would receive a more harmonious development of his mental faculties. As I understand it, this system has long since been abandoned at Luther college.

Naturally the students chafed more or less under this rigid system of discipline and made many complaints in regard to the crowded quarters in which they had to live. The fare in the dining room was severely criticised by the students and the students had to take turns after each meal to wash and wipe the dishes. Students also had to take turns to saw and carry in wood. The students had to take turns in sweeping the floors. In fact they had to do all the housekeeping of the institution except the cooking. On several occasions the students met and discussed affairs and appointed committees to lay their complaints before Prof. Larsen. He would express his sympathy and point to the hill on the west side of the river and ask us to be patient until we could move into the new building. Then things would be different. We decided to be patient, that is, the most of us did. During the spring vacation of 1864, being unwilling to submit to these hardships any longer, I went home and made it known to my family that I would not return to Decorah. But Rev. Mr. Ottesen, his wife and Miss Norman again appeared on the scene and told my mother that she must drive me back if I did not go willingly. I replied that if she insisted I would not disobey her and so I went back. The two last summers I spent in Decorah, that is, 1864 and '65, I was hired by the Norwegian congregation of Decorah to teach their 0068 46 parochial school. The school was held in the annex above mentioned and I got my board in the families of the congregation, boarding a few days with each. The last year, from September, 1864, to June, 1865, Mr. J. D. Jacobson, afterwards Prof. Jacobson, and I secured a room at Mr. Wheelock's on Broadway Street and boarded ourselves. Twice a week we got a tin pail of soup at the college and the balance of my food during the whole year consisted of bread and molasses, excepting that I occasionally was invited out for a Sunday dinner when one need not be surprised to hear I took in a good supply. I had the advantage of an extensive acquaintance, having the summer before served as parochial teacher.

In the fall of 1865 the new college building was finished. It had cost the Norwegian pioneers about $75,000 and this money was raised while the country was in the throes of the civil war. The dedication was to take place October 14. The week before all the students emigrated from the old St. Cloud hotel where they had been housed for three years to enter this magnificent building on the hill. The dedication of Luther college was the greatest event among the Norwegians in America up to that date. People came from far and near, from Wisconsin, from Illinois, from various parts of Iowa and from Minnesota. Husbands came with their wives. All the ministers then connected with the Norwegian Synod were there as a matter of course and many of them too had their wives with them. The people were anxious to see dedicated the school which they had built with such great sacrifice of their hard-earned money. The little town of Decorah was thronged with visitors. The great German Missouri Synod was represented by the distinguished Dr. Walther, the greatest Lutheran theologian of modern times, and by other prominent scholars of that organization. The 14th of October was a beautiful day and the dedication ceremonies were most impressive. They mark a most memorable event in Norwegian-American history.

But the students were not satisfied. After getting into the new building we found that the conditions were to be very much the same as before. There were the same rules about washing and wiping dishes, sweeping floors and sawing and carrying wood. The students were bunched together in the same old way in their different recitation rooms which they were to use during hours of study. The hours from 6 in the morning until 10 at night were parcelled out in the same manner as before. No student was permitted to go down town without asking leave. The college was a four-story building, the fourth story being a mansard divided into four corner rooms by two halls crossing each other. These corner rooms received no other light or ventilation than what could be gotten through bull's-eyes of each. In these four rooms in the attic all the students were to sleep, so that if one student was afflicted with any trouble it easily spread among the whole student body.

The dissatisfaction among the students culminated in a unanimous strike or insurrection. I was a member of the highest class and it may not be considered improper for me to add that I had to some extent inherited my father's qualities as an agitator. I talked over our grievances with the members of my own class and with various members of the lower classes and found a unanimous opinion that something ought to be done. The conditions being favorable I called a meeting of all the 0070 48 students except the new arrivals. These were excluded. The meeting was held in one of the large recitation rooms. I was unanimously elected chairman of the meeting and chief leader of the campaign about to be inaugurated. A program was outlined and resolutions were adopted. After the dedication exercises it was announced that the students were at the service of the visitors. Our professors had requested the students to take all the strangers through the building and show them all its splendid appointments. I gave orders to obey these instructions, but to take that opportunity of explaining to the visitors how badly everything had been planned and arranged and that the students must not fail to take the guests into the dormitories. After the dedication ceremonies the ministers were to remain a few days for a conference in which our professors would take part as members. I and a couple of other members of my class had been appointed to give instruction in various lower classes during the conference. My instructions were that we should hear the lessons in the classes of the new arrivals, but that no member of the other classes must touch a book pending the strike, that is, until we had secured complete victory or until our demands had been granted. I also insisted on the maintainance of perfect good order and decorum in every respect. My fellow students had made me their unanimous choice as the leader or generalissimo of this great revolution. I promised to be faithful to the cause and assured them that they had chosen a leader on whom they could rely and with all the youthful energy and ardor there was in me I called upon all not to leave me in the lurch. I had an apprehension that the students might be taken to task by the ministers from whose congregations they had come. With the greatest enthusiasm the whole body of students present assured me of their absolute loyalty. But I still had doubts and in order to get all the students committed to our program I prepared with considerable care a document in which I stated in the briefest possible form 0071 49 the changes and reforms which we demanded. This document I submitted to every student for his signature, agreeing on my part to put it in my pocket and not to produce it or make any use of it except as a last resort. If any one in my little army should prove a traitor or deserter I could produce the goods and show his signature under this declaration.

Much of this program was carried out in a magnificent manner. The hundreds of visitors were taken in squads by the students and shown every part of the college building from the basement to the dormitories in the mansard. Men and women from the various Norwegian settlements escorted by students went with heavy hearts from one story to the other and many of them shed tears most copiously on the representations made to them by the students. All these people who had come filled with enthusiasm for the great work that had been accomplished returned home the day after the dedication with sad hearts and serious misgivings. As students we had gained one point. We had drawn attention to the conditions of which we complained and made them a subject of serious discussion in every Norwegian settlement in America.

While I was getting signatures to this declaration or bill of rights Isak Preus, one of the new arrivals among the students, and son of the Rev. A. C. Preus, whom I have already mentioned as being married to a relative of my mother's, a kid of some fifteen summers, wanted to be one of the signers. When I refused to permit him to sign he became angry and declared that he would “tell his papa”. He did tell his father, and in this way information about our document was soon brought to the attention of our professors and spread among all the ministers who remained in Decorah for the three-day conference. I had planned to have a committee appear before our professors and, if necessary, before the whole conference, but the action of young Isak Preus resulted in a complete change in the development of the revolution. Instead of our sending a committee 4 0072 50 to the professors, the conference in session sent for me to appear before this venerable body as the leader of the insurrection.

Ministers and professors were in session. The students were in their respective classrooms maintaining the utmost quiet and order. All books were on their shelves. It was a part of the program not to engage in any study or reading. I was in the room of the small upper class, where we were engaged in a heart-to-heart discussion of what might happen. Without any warning a minister walked in, took a look at the situation and walked out again. By and by another minister walked in in the same manner, looked at us and walked out again without saying a word. A third minister visited us in exactly the same manner. It appeared that these three ministers made their rounds to all the other classrooms and made their reports to the conference. A little later Rev. A. C. Preus, who had confirmed me, and at whose parsonage I had received my elementary instruction in German and in Latin, took me into a room by ourselves where he exhausted his eloquence, both in scolding and in entreating, to get me to surrender and put a stop to the rebellion. His efforts were of no avail whatever. I returned to my classmates and had scarcely told of the inquisition to which I had been subjected before Rev. J. A. Ottesen came in and invited me to go with him to the same room where I had just had a conference with Rev. A. C. Preus. Rev. Ottesen was my own and my mother's pastor and as such claimed to have some authority over me. He too was unable, either by threats or kindness, to get me to abandon the position to which I had been called by my fellow students. While I was making the report of my interview with Mr. Ottesen to my classmates Rev. O. J. Hjort of Paint Creek, Alamakee county, Iowa, invited me to the same sort of conference. His wife was a sister of Rev. J. A. Ottesen and I had spent all my Christmas vacations and at least one of my Easter vacations at his very hospitable parsonage. Rev, Hjort's efforts were as fruitless 0073 51 as those of Preus and Ottesen. It was like pouring water on a duck's back. I did not want to disappoint my fellow students, who had faith in me and had chosen me for their leader. I had told them in open meeting that they might rely on my faithfulness to the cause which we had espoused. I returned to my classroom stronger in my convictions and purposes than ever.

Later the president of the college, Prof. L. Larsen, entered our classroom, evidently sent there by the conference. He tried to be diplomatic in his tactics. He said: “I have been informed that a petition has been circulated and signed by the students. This petition I would like to see.” Of course he well knew that it was in my possession, but what I allude to as his diplomatic tactics is the fact that instead of asking me for it he turned to my classmates and asked them, one by one, saying, “Have you it, Norman?” “No”; would be the reply. “Have you it, Juve?”. “No.” “Have you it, Bergh?” “No.” “Have you it, Stub?” “No.” And thus he proceeded, leaving me for the last one, when he asked, “Have you it, Rasmus?” He was in the habit of addressing me by my first name. I said, “Yes sir, I have.” “I would like to see it.”

“You can't have it, sir.”

“Rasmus Anderson, do you not know that when I ask you for something you have you owe me obedience, and must give it to me.”

I answered, “In this case I cannot comply with your request.”

Prof. Larsen grew more and more excited. The veins in his forehead were swollen and he burst out, saying:

“I demand of you, Rasmus Anderson, that you give me that petition.”

Again I firmly refused.

He then said, “Aye, aye, Rasmus, we'll see about this,” and started to leave the room. When he had reached the door I 0074 52 called him back and assuming all the dignity of which I was capable I said to him:

“The petition you ask for does not belong to me alone. It is merely in my custody. I do not, however, care to act arbitrarily in the matter, and am willing to leave it to my classmates who are here present as to whether I ought to give it you or not. You may ask them one at a time.”

He then looked about him as if he wanted to select the weakest one to begin with and said, “Have you any objections, Juve?”

Not having the courage of his convictions Juve, after a little hesitation, blurted out, “No.”

“Have you any objections, Norman?” “No.”

The rest followed suit and said “no” and then I took the document out of my inside pocket and with as much ceremony as I could muster I said something like this:

“My fellow classmates having no objections I have the honor herewith to hand you this petition, Prof. Larsen.”

After this scene Prof. Larsen hurried back to the conference, the happy possessor of our bill of rights. My classmates and I sat looking at each other with most serious faces, each one doubtless considering what was next on the program. I told them that I would be the first to be arrested and examined, but assured them that they could depend absolutely on my loyalty. In a few moments President Larsen again entered our room and said, “Rasmus Anderson. you are to go with me”.

I went with him and he escorted me into a large room where the whole body of professors and ministers were in session. The number of professors had by this time been increased to four, Mr. L. Siewers and Rev. N. Brandt having been added to the original faculty. The ministers and professors formed a semi-circle. In front of them was a table at which sat the chairman and the secretary. I was asked to sit down in a chair in front of this table facing the conference. Before I sat 0075 53 down I took a look at them all, tried to smile and asked whether the intention was that I was to be president of this meeting. President Larsen informed me that they did not want any insults from me and asked me to sit down. When I had taken my seat President Larsen stood up and read aloud the document signed by the students and which I had written in English. Then he translated it into Norwegian. Turning to me he said, “This looks like your handwriting, Rasmus Anderson. Have you written this?”

I said, “Yes, sir.”

“Are you also the author of this document?”

I said, “I am, sir.”

“Do you actually mean what you have written here?”

I told him, “Most assuredly.”

Though it may seem somewhat egotistic I will here make a slight digression to explain that I was at that time considered to be the best student that up to that time had attended Luther college. I was completing a six-year course in about three and a half years; had obtained the highest standing at every semiannual examination and had also taken up independently a number of studies not found in the Luther college curriculum. Among such studies were French, botany and higher mathematics.

In the college curriculum we had only a small book not much more then 100 pages as a text book in Norwegian history. It was a little skeleton work written for the elementary schools in Norway by Sigwart Petersen. But once in passing through Madison on my way to Decorah I called on the pioneer Norwegian bookseller in this country, Mr. Monsen, and purchased from him a copy of Jacob Aal's translation of Snorre Sturlason's “Norges Kongesagaer,” the so-called “Heimskringla.” For this copy I paid $11, a great deal of money for me at that time, but I have ever since looked upon it as the best investment I ever made. This book became the foundation of my whole 0076 54 after career. Thus it will be seen that I read and studied extensively outside of the regular Luther college curriculum of that day. What I wish to emphasize in this digression is that on account of my standing as a student the professors and ministers at this conference were anxious to save me if possible from suspension or dismissal. If there was to be a scapegoat on account of the insurrection I have no doubt that they would have been glad to find another victim for this purpose.

After getting my admission that I was the writer and author of the document signed by me and the other students and which had now been read and translated by Prof. Larsen I was subjected to a rigid examination, perhaps it might be styled a third degree process. Questions came in rapid succession from all parts of the auditorium. I replied to all as well as I was able and was utterly deaf to all suggestions of surrender. I have often heard it said that “the defiance and fearlessness of that lad in the face of so august an assembly was most astonishing.” What became of the document I do not know, but I hope it is preserved somewhere in the archives of Luther college. I was repeatedly requested to retract and to apologize, but I stubbornly refused to do so. It was then unanimously voted by the whole conference that I was at once to be expelled from the college. As a final act in this proceeding I was addressed in long speeches by Prof. Larsen and by Prof. Schmidt and in brief remarks by Prof. Siewers and Prof. Brandt and then I was told that I might take my leave.

While the investigation and trial was proceeding I observed that two members of the conference left the room by a back door. For what reason they did this did not at the time occur to me. After I had paid my respects and said goodbye to the conference I hastened out into the halls of the college, entered various classrooms looking for my fellow students, but none were to be found. I wanted to inform them of what had happened to me and to urge them not to flinch, but stand by their 0077 55 colors even though they had lost their leader. The fact was that the two men who had left the conference room had gone out and gathered all the students into the college chapel and kept them well guarded there. While I was going from classroom to classroom I met two students who had not yet been coralled and shouting to them that I had been expelled and urging them not desert the cause, I heard a voice behind me, “I think the most sensible thing you can do, Rasmus, is to get your things packed and get away from here. Come with me!” The person speaking to me was Prof. L. Siewers. He had been appointed to take charge of me and get me away from the college at the earliest possible moment. It was his duty to see to it that I did not come in touch with any of my fellow students. He stood guard while I packed my trunk which I was to send for the next day. It was nearly midnight before I was through. Prof. Siewers escorted me to the door of the college. There stood two ministers who escorted me as far as to the bridge between East and West Decorah. I wish to repeat that it was nearly midnight and I was absolutely penniless.

In a brushwood on the way to the bridge one of my fellow students, T. O. Jure, was hiding and apparently waiting for me to go by. Hearing footsteps he spoke saying, “Is it you, Rasmus?” but my escorts answered for me by asking him, “Who are you?” Nothing more was heard from Juve. After my escorts had left me at the bridge I went to the east end of the town to the house of Mr. Tobiason. I had taught his children in the parochial school, had taken meals at his house and was well acquainted with the family. I knocked at his front door, the people in the house wondering who could be making all this disturbance at this time of night. Mr. Tobiason got out of bed, opened the door. I told my tale of woe and he gave the refugee a bed to sleep in and breakfast in the morning. The balance of the insurrection can be told in very few words.

After I had been expelled T. O. Juve was called before the conference and seated in the same chair that I had occupied. He was the second signer of the document, and after a few preliminaries he was requested to retract. He was made to understand, that if he did retract, he would receive full pardon, but if he did not, he would at once be expelled. Mr. Jure had a suspicion, as he afterwards told me, that I had retracted and that the conference would be pleased to make an example of him. He tried to meet diplomacy with diplomacy. Before retracting he said he would like to know what Rasmus Anderson had done. Prof. Larsen promptly replied: “That does not concern you, Mr. Juve. The question is what you are going to do about it.” This prompt answer from Prof. Larsen convinced Jure that they had saved me and now simply were after his scalp. And so without much hesitation he wilted and retracted.

The same course was adopted with O. A. Norman, who was the third to appear before the conference. He also retracted and apologized.

Although it was late in the evening the whole conference before which we three had been tried adjourned to the chapel, where all the students. who had signed the petition and bill of rights had been coralled. Jure and Norman were brought in there as shining lights and examples. The document was again read and translated. This was done in the chapel, while I was occupied with my packing.

After it had been shown how Juve and Norman had retracted and apologized Prof. Larsen addressed himself to the whole body of students, pointed to Jure and Norman as shining examples and said that if there were any others who did not wish to retract he wanted to hear from them. The students looked at each other; there being no one who cared to break the ice and be first, the silence was not broken. Prof. Larsen 0079 57 expressed himself as highly gratified at this and stated that the whole conference looked upon this silence as an acquiescence and full retraction. All received full pardon and were dismissed. Thus ended the first Punic or rather punitive war.

What did I get out of it? A considerable amount of cheap advertising; the name of the naughty boy at Luther college became a household word in every Norwegian settlement in the United States. An enterprising photographer in Decorah, by name Richardson, took my picture and sold it to people in Decorah and vicinity. The next annual meeting of the Synod was held in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. At that meeting a report was made of the insurrection at Luther college and therein it was stated that with God's help “we got rid of the weed”. This report was unanimously approved. At the same time this event that I have now described became a most important turning point in my life. Had these things not occurred there is no doubt that I would have gone to St. Louis the following year, there taken my three-years course in theology at the Concordia seminary of the German Missouri Synod, then been ordained as a minister, received a call and, if my life had been spared, I would at this time still be preaching from some Norwegian-American pulpit.

While it was expected of me that I would return home to Koshkonong I decided to remain in Decorah. Although I was penniless I was not without resources. Early the next morning after my expulsion I went to the store of Cleghorn & Monte, clothing merchants, and at once secured a position as a 0081 59 clerk. I had had some experience in selling goods, both in Milwaukee and at La Crescent, and Messrs. Cleghorn and Monte thought there might be profit in the notoriety that I had just achieved. I was engaged at $40 a month.

At this time there was no railroad entering Decorah, but during the past year the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien road had been continued from McGregor into Iowa, and at this time had reached a terminus called Conover, about seven miles south of Decorah. The conference of ministers had adjourned the same night as I was expelled and were returning to their homes the next day. Many of them had to be taken to Conover where they were to take the train for Wisconsin. Among the ministers was Rev. S.S. Reque, married to my sister Cecilia, and Rev. T. A. Torgerson, engaged to be married to my sister Dina. I decided that I would take Reque and Torgerson to Conover, and to do it in the following ostentatious manner: Having secured a position with Cleghorn & Monte, I arranged to begin work there the following day.

I selected from the store a new suit of clothes, the best to be then found in the store, including shoes, and a fine hat. At the livery stable I engaged the best rig and the finest pair of horses to be had and with these I drove in great style up to the front of Luther college. In front of the college stood a number of rigs, chiefly lumber wagons, to take the members of the conference to the station at Conover. Inside of the college the people were busy packing and bidding goodbye. I got my stylish rig well up toward the front entrance and sat there waiting. The front windows of the college were filled with spectators. I presume they were wondering who the distinguished guest might be. I presume it was also determined that it was obligatory on the president of the college to receive the guest in person. He came; he bowed to me, but I had been so transformed by my new clothes that he did not recognize me. Besides he was very nearsighted; he came nearer and nearer, took my proffered hand 0082 60 and finally looked close into my face. Suddenly it flashed upon him that it was none Other than Rasmus Anderson. His expression of disgust was indescribable. He turned away from me with an “ish,” and hastened back into the college. This served only to increase the curiosity of those inside and every window was crowded with spectators. A little later the janitor of the college, the amiable Ole Dalemo, came out to see me. I told him my errand; I said I wished to take Reque and Torgerson to Conover in my rig and requested him to notify them of this fact. He soon returned and informed me that Reque had accepted my invitation, but that Torgerson had refused to ride with me. In saying goodbye to me this big hearted man, Ole Dalemo, slipped a silver dollar into my hand.

On the way to Conover I listened patiently to all the upbraidings of my brother-in-law Reque, but all he had to say fell on me like water on a duck's back; it left no impression. I was utterly deaf both to his scolding and his pleading. At Conover we had to wait a couple of hours for the train. I mingled with the crowd at the station, looking them boldly and defiantly in the face, the most of them returning my looks with scorn.

But something was about to happen. The reader will remember that before I was confirmed I had received instructions from a private tutor at the Koshkonong parsonage. The tutor was Carl Johan Rasch, scion of a distinguished family in Christiania, Norway, and he was engaged jointly by Rev. A. C. Preus and Rev. C. L. Clausen of St. Ansgat, Iowa. At the parsonage on Koshkonong, Clausen's oldest son, Martin, was also a pupil. At the time now under discussion he had entered Luther college as a student. In this way we were brought together again. Rev. C. L. Clausen knew me through his son and had become considerably interested in me.

Around the Conover station the virgin forest was growing. Rev. Clausen spoke to me kindly and took me aside into the brushwood for a conference. He told me how painful it had 0083 61 been to him as a member of the conference to witness my stubbornness and defiance on the evening before. He told me I was committing a grave sin and ruining my future. He pleaded with me with all the ardor of his large heart and with tears rolling clown his cheeks urged me by all means to retrieve my steps and to make a suitable apology for my conduct. This was more than I could stand and I made a complete surrender. I had wilted. All broken down I promised Mr. Clausen I would lose no time in seeing President Larsen and the other members of the faculty, make a full retraction and ask their pardon. I was not in a mood to return to the depot platform and exhibit more of my defiance to the ministers there. I at once untied my horses and started back to Decorah. My heart was heavy. Midway between Conover and Decorah lived a young lady by name Ingrid Egge. She was a schoolma'am. She afterwards married Rev. L. J. Markhus. After his death she was for a time matron of the Lutheran ladies' seminary in Red Wing, Minn., and she is known as translator of the Norwegian story “Laila,” by the Norwegian author Fries. She still lives, I think, at Willmar, Minn. Her brother, Dr. Albert Egge, is a professor at the state agricultural college of Washington, a scholar and writer of note. I invited Ingrid for a short drive. She had heard about the affair at the college, disapproved of my conduct and pleaded with me during our short drive to “be a good boy.” Otherwise she would have to cut my acquaintance. She was older than I and I had great respect for her opinion. I also promised her that I would do my best to make things right.

Having returned my team to the livery stable I proceeded in the dusk of the evening toward the college. On the way I met Prof. F. A. Schmidt, but he avoided me and refused to talk with me. I reached the college and rapped at Prof. Larsen's door.

He was in his office upstairs. His wife stroked my cheeks and caressed me, telling me how sorry she was that I had been 0084 62 so naughty. I tore myself away from her to make my way upstairs, but in the middle of the stairway I was met and seized by Miss Neuberg, a sister of Mrs. Larsen. She too smothered me with caresses and told me how sorry she was for me and for my family. Having torn myself away from her too I knocked at Prof. Larsen's door. Imagine his surprise when he saw the naughty boy standing before him! It was no longer the naughty boy but the penitent boy. Prof. Larsen could scarcely believe his own eyes and ears. He looked at me with bewilderment and listened to my story of repentance with astonishment. I never saw that splendid man look more beautiful; tears of joy streamed down his cheeks. We had a session together never to be forgotten. At its close he fell on his knees beside one chair and I on my knees beside another and a fervent prayer ascended from the lips of Prof. Larsen. I felt relieved and humbly took my leave. Before returning to my boarding place I called on Prof. Schmidt, Prof. Brandt and Prof. Siewers and informed them of what had happened and asked for their pardon. Prof. Schmidt and Prof. Brandt were entirely willing to forgive me, but Prof. Siewers received me coldly and stated that he could not forget the manner in which I had treated him. This remark might refer to my rudeness toward him the night before, while he stood guard over me; but, as a matter of fact, it had a deeper source. He had met my sister Dina and had been smitten. She refused to listen to his protestations of love and he was unable to win her. He suspected me of taking sides against him in this courtship or at least of not having been ardent in advocating his cause and this was what he alluded to as something he could never forget. But time heals all ills, and years afterwards Siewers and I became the best of friends.

The next day I took my position behind the counter in Cleghorn & Monte's clothing store. There the most of my former fellow students called on me when they came down town. They were anxious to have me come back to college. Farmers from the surrounding country would enter the store in groups and someone would point me out as the fellow they wanted to look at. I may say without boasting that in this way I was the means of drawing not a little trade to the store. Engaging me as a clerk proved to be a good investment for Cleghorn & Monte. Cleghorn, by the way, had been captain in a Wisconsin regiment during the war of the rebellion and Mrs. Cleghorn was a niece of judge H. S. Orton of the supreme court of Wisconsin.

In the midst of all this my desire to complete my course of education kept steadily growing. I discussed the matter with my former fellow students and classmates and corresponded with my mother. After a few weeks I went to call on Prof. Larsen. He received me with his usual kindness. I knew I could not get any assistance from home to continue my studies without the recommendation of Prof. Larsen and our Koshkonong pastor, Rev. J. A. Ottesen. I stated my errand; I said I was anxious to continue my studies and graduate. In one way and another I had formed a great idea of Yale college, I presume from studying on my own hook Dana's textbook on 0086 64 geology, and so I indicated to Prof. Larsen that I preferred to go to Yale, but that I would be satisfied to re-enter Luther college or go to the German Missouri Synod's college at Fort Wayne, Ind. After reflecting for some time, Prof Larsen told me that he was sorry that it was not possible for him to recommend to me to continue as a student. On account of my temperament and fondness for agitation, to a considerable extent, he claimed, inherited from my father, he did not think it would be best for me to choose an academic career. He feared that an equipment of knowledge might prove my undoing and with the utmost kindness in his words he advised and urged me to return home to my mother and make a good farmer of myself adding that the education I had received would be of great help to me on the farm. I am unable to describe what a profound shock this advice was to me; if accepted it would smash to bits all my ambitious dreams of a career as a scholar among my fellow men. I braced up and told Prof. Larsen that I was surprised; that I had not looked for such advice; that I could not accept it, and that “here and now our ways part.” I left him and this interview became the turning point in my career.

At this time there had developed among the Norwegians in this country a considerable opposition to the Norwegian Synod. As may be easily realized, the Preuses, the Ottesens, the Korens, the Stubs, the Dietrichsons, etc., came from the so called “conditioned” classes in Norway. They and their wives were sons and daughters of what might be called the office-holding class in the old country. Between this office-holding class and the lay people, or masses, particularly during the larger first half of the nineteenth century a wide social gulf existed. The office-holding classes were thought to be, and in many cases were, overbearing, and the common people who emigrated to the United States were glad to get away from what they regarded as an oppression. They felt that they no longer had to stand in the ante-room of the office-holder with their caps in their hands. It was therefore natural that they should protest against any similar treatment from the sons of these office-holders who became their pastors on this side of the Atlantic. This was one reason why many either became followers of Elling Eielsen, who was a plain peasant, or connected themselves with the Methodist or Baptist churches, or, what was still worse, became religious tramps, not identifying themselves with any church.

As will be remembered, there was great demand in the Synod for ministers. Immigration went forward with leaps and bounds and Norway was unable to supply this demand. The 5 0088 66 Synod selected a committee to visit the various German Lutheran organizations in this country for the purpose of effecting an arrangement by which ministers might be educated here. This was in the latter part of the '50s. Indeed, there was an effort made at the same time to establish a connection between the Synod and the University of Wisconsin so that students might take the academic course at the university, in it be taught Norwegian, and subsequently take a course in theology in recitation rooms provided by the university, but under teachers paid by the Synod. This plan did not materalize, but the committee I have mentioned, and of which Rev. J. A. Ottesen was one, after visiting Buffalo, New York, and other places, came back full of enthusiasm for the great German Missouri Synod. This Synod under the leadership of the distinguished Dr. Walther had established a college at Fort Wayne, Ind., and a theological seminary, the Concordia, at St. Louis, Mo. The Missouri Synod was found to be the most orthodox Lutheran body on earth, and that honor belongs to it at the present time. The Missouri Synod received the emissaries from the Norwegian synod with open arms and offered to assist them in every way possible in educating ministers. As a result, Rev. Laur. Larsen was given a professorship at the theological seminary in St. Louis. The Synod ministers at once picked out the brightest lads they could find in their congregations and sent them, partly to Fort Wayne, Ind., and partly to St. Louis, to prepare for the ministry. My brothers-in-law, Rev. Reque and Rev. Torgerson and others, received their instruction in and graduated from Concordia. The arrangement, so far as the school in Fort Wayne was concerned, lasted only until the starting of Luther college at Half Way Creek in 1861.

The arrangement at St. Louis continued until the latter part of the '70s when the Synod bought the old soldier's orphans home in Madison, Wis., and converted it into its theological seminary. In the '80s this property was sold and the theological 0089 67 seminary was moved to Robbinsdale, a little north of Minneapolis, and then again moved to its present magnificent quarters at Hamline, midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul. But even since the Synod obtained its own theological seminary some Norwegian students have taken their course in theology at Concordia.

Prof. L. Larsen was sent to St. Louis for the purpose of giving the Norwegian students a proper equipment in the Norwegian language. After graduation these Norwegian students were to serve Norwegian congregations and hence they needed a thorough drill in the Norwegian language. After the founding of Luther college this instruction in Norwegian at St. Louis was no longer a necessity. Students carne there from Luther college or from similar schools in Norway already instructed in their mother tongue. Hence it was that Prof. Larsen severed his connection with Concordia and was made the head of Luther college, a position which he held for more then forty years.

The connection between the Norwegian Synod and the German Missouri Synod proved to be a great blessing to the Norwegian Synod from a doctrinal point of view. Under Dr. Walther and the other professors at Concordia the Norwegian Synod acquired a thoroughness in Lutheran doctrine of which they had never dreamed before. But this picture also has its dark side. A considerable part of the Missouri Synod was domiciled in the south and St. Louis itself was in a slave state. A large number of the members of the Missouri Synod were owners of slaves. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president, in '61 he was inaugurated and after secession was proclaimed of course whatever other causes may have led to the war, slavery was the main issue. Throughout the north abolition was rampant. When the Norwegians settled in the United States nearly all of them affiliated with and became members of the democratic party. Then came William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace 0090 68 Greeley, with his powerful “Tribune”, and Harriet Beecher Stowe with her immortal ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin.’ The republican party was founded. The Norwegians looked with horror on the institution of human slavery, and, like a flock of sheep, they emigrated from the democratic into the new republican party. A large number of them voted for John C. Fremont and nearly all of them voted for Abraham Lincoln.

The first annual address delivered before the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, after moving into our present quarters, was delivered by Charles Francis Adams, a direct descendant of the presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. In this address Mr. Adams gave it as an historical fact that the Norwegians who had settled in the Northwest were the primary cause of the rebellion. He showed that the Norwegians in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, joining the republican party made these states republican and that these states gave the majority to Lincoln in the electoral college. At least such was the contention of Charles Francis Adams.

But to get back to the Missouri Synod. Their seminary was located in the slave state of Missouri and, as stated, a large number of the members of this church were owners of slaves. We need not therefore be surprised that they took sides with the secessionists and defended slavery. They contended that slavery was sanctioned by the Bible, quoting in support of their contention numerous passages, both from the Old and from the New Testament. It seems that they easily converted Prof. Larsen. There were a number of Norwegian students at the Concordia seminary, and the Norwegians who had espoused the cause of abolition began to be suspicious of what was going on in St. Louis. Among those who expressed themselves most energetically on the subject were Col. Hans. Heg and John A. Johnson. Mr. Johnson published in “Emigranten,” in Madison, an article calling upon Prof. Larsen to define his attitude on the slavery question, and on the rebellion. 0091 69 Prof. Larsen replied, defending slavery as having divine sanction and then a war broke out among the Norwegians which lasted for years find threatened to annihilate the Norwegian Synod. With their keenness as debaters, Prof. Larsen and Prof. Schmidt succeeded in convincing Rev. H. A. Preus, Rev. V. Koren, Rev. N. Brandt, Rev. B. J. Muus, Rev. J. A. Ottesen and the rest of the ministers in the Synod that the Missouri Synod was perfectly sound in its doctrine concerning slavery. The only minister who refused to be convinced was the Rev. C. L. Clausen of St. Ansgar. And with him, as the leader of the opposition, the war in the Synod was continued until 1868, three years after the surrender of Gen. Lee at Appomattox.

Speaking of Lee's surrender at Appomattox reminds me of an episode at Luther college in the spring of 1865. It should have been told in connection with my story of Luther college, but the omission may be mended here. It goes without saying that the Norwegian Synod ministers who defended the institution of Slavery thereby made themselves very unpopular, not only among Norwegian-Americans, but among citizens of all nationalities. They were looked upon as “copperheads”, as sympathizers with the rebellion, and at times it would not have taken much to make them the subjects of personal assaults.

The episode in Decorah to which I have alluded was as follows:

On the 9th or 10th of April, 1865, a report came to Decorah that Gen. Lee had surrendered and that the rebellion had collapsed. The report set the whole town wild. In the evening all Decorah was illuminated. Every tallow clip and every kerosene lamp was shining in the windows. All the people were out and making all the noise they possibly could. When people met they embraced each other. The saloons were filled and everybody was treating the crowd. I saw one man sitting on his horse in front of the bar inside of a saloon hurrahing for General Grant and the Union and for Abraham Lincoln and 0092 70 asking everybody to drink at his expense. It was the most exciting demonstration that I ever witnessed.

At Luther college, still located down town, all was noiseless and perfectly dark. The college did not in any way take part in the general rejoicing. The professors were busy looking for students in the crowds and sending them home. This gloom at the college made a deep impression on the citizens and revived talk about “copperheads.” The day after some citizens called a mass meeting at the court house and sent a demand to the professors to appear before this mass meeting and declare their attitude.

Prof. Larsen, Prof. Schmidt and Prof. Siewers were escorted to the court house where questions were put to them and each one had to state his position on the great subject that for four years had cost the country so much blood and treasure. They rose in their places and replied that they meant to be perfectly loyal to the American government and were pleased to know that the north had conquered. They did not wish that their conduct on the evening above described should be interpreted as want of loyalty or as sympathy with secession. The replies were considered satisfactory. Had not such a meeting been held and the proper assurance been given there is no telling what might have happened to the school and its professors.

The Missouri Synod also took strong grounds in opposition to the American public schools. The Norwegian Synod agreed with the Missouri Synod. It was argued that the public schools were hostile to the Christian religion; that in their very nature they were inimical to the kingdom of God. At the Synod meeting in Manitowoc in 1866 it was resolved that in the Norwegian Synod, as was the practice in the Missouri Synod, the congregations should establish parochial schools, so that the children would not need to be sent to the public schools. To this program there was also much opposition among the rank and file of the Norwegians in this country.

All this opposition to the Synod ministers on account of their aristocratic tendencies, on account of their defense of slavery and on account of their hostility to the American public schools, the naughty boy, now serving as a clerk behind the counter at Cleghorn & Monte's store resolved to make use of in the conflict in which he was soon to be engaged. My first plan was to build a Norwegian school, that is, an academy or college, in distinct opposition to Luther college. My school was to be patterned after the best American schools of this order. Of course there was to be instruction given in the Norwegian language and its students were to be taught the rudiments of the Christian religion. The curriculum and the discipline was to be wholly different from that of Luther college. The plan required organization and funds. I proposed to make use of what knowledge I had acquired while at Luther college and also of what reputation or notoriety I had gained by my expulsion. I interviewed a number of more or less prominent Norwegians in and around Decorah, selecting such as I knew belonged to the opposition on account of the reasons which I have already stated. I met with considerable success, I found men willing to contribute the use of their names, much of their time and of their money for the cause. We organized the Norwegian-American Educational Society, the first society of the kind among the Norwegians of America. Erik Ellefson Sleen, who 0094 72 was called “the king of Big Canoe,” was elected president. In all respects he was the most able and persistent opponent of the Synod ministers then living on the west side of the Mississippi river. Ole Noben, a successful mechanic in Decorah, was elected treasurer, and I was chosen secretary.

The society had more than a hundred substantial members who had signed its constitution and by-laws. This society decided to build a Norwegian-American college at some suitable Norwegian center, preferably in Minnesota, and to put me in charge of it. In the meantime, while the necessary funds were being gathered, the society was to defray my expenses as a student at Yale college in order that I might come back thoroughly educated and equipped for so important a position.

While I Was busy with this work the other side was not idle. I was under age; I was a mere minor; I was a disobedient child; I was so lacking in moral character that I did not obey my mother, who was requesting me to come home. Of course we knew where she got her advice. I had just passed my twentieth year, and in a conference with the president Erik Ellefson Sleen, with the treasurer, Ole Noben, and a few other members of the society it was decided that our cause would be greatly strengthened and not much time lost if I should go home and remain there until I became of age. I took the advice of my friends and went home.

I may add here that Messrs. Cleghorn & Monte dissolved partnership and Mr. Monte moved the store to Conover and took me with him. This happened after New Year's.

While in Conover I was equipped with a large sled and a pair of mules, and with these I took a stock of goods to sell in Howard, Mitchell and Worth counties, Ia. On this trip I visited Rev. Clausen in St. Ansgar and made my headquarters at his house while I canvassed his town and surrounding country. The town of St. Ansgar and the Norwegian settlement around it had been founded by Mr. Clausen in the early '50s. This 0095 73 trip as a peddler I made during the month of February, 1866, and I made good use of it in advocating the Norwegian-American Educational Society among the Norwegians that I met. Rev. Clausen was in full sympathy with the movement and agreed to give the matter his support. It was after the return to Conover from this trip that I had a conference with the officers and others of the society and acquiesced in their advice to go home and remain there until I should become of age. I returned to Koshkonong in the early spring of 1866.

On my arrival home I found all plans perfected for making me a farmer. My only older brother Andrew had a farm of his own in Goodhue county, Minnesota, and was in easy circumstances, hence I would be in line to assume the management of the homestead. My mother, who had been a widow since 1860, and who was getting on in years, was anxious to be relieved from the responsibilities of managing the farm. The plan was to sell the farm to me on easy terms and so, on the one hand, relieve my mother, and, on the other, rivet me to the soil and to agricultural pursuits. Our pastor, Rev. J. A. Ottesen, was a frequent visitor at our home during those days and exhausted his eloquence in urging me to become a farmer. Neighbors were also drawn into the scheme and exerted their influence to the same end. Several of those who took a hand in this matter had even gone a step further. They had selected what they called “the rose of Koshkonong Prairie” to be my partner and no opportunity of bringing that stunning young lady and me together was neglected. There was a wedding; the “rose of the prairie” was bridesmaid and I had to serve as best man. A few young people engaged me to give lessons in German and the “rose of the prairie” was one of my pupils. I did not take either to the farm or to the girl. So far as the girl was concerned I had already seen the lass who later became my wife, Miss Bertha Karina Olson of Cambridge, Wis., and with me my intentions were not to be changed. Concerning 0096 74 the farm I finally yielded on the express condition that I should not be obliged to run it or even to keep it. This point was yielded as all hoped that matters would work out satisfactory, and so I bought without money the farm of 230 acres and became a farmer.

Albion academy was located about in the center of the town of Albion, scarcely three miles from my home. Indeed, with the right kind of wind, we could sometimes hear the Albion academy bell. This school was one of the oldest higher institutions of learning in the state of Wisconsin, having been founded in the early '50s. I had had a keen desire to attend this school before I went to Milwaukee, but could not get the consent of my stepfather. The school had been founded and was owned by the Seventh Day Baptists, a large number of whom had come to Wisconsin, partly from Rhode Island, and partly from Alfred Center and vicinity in New York state, and had settled at Milton and in the town of Albion. These Seventh Day Baptists were very much interested in educational work; they had a university at Alfred Center, New York, and on account of some disagreement they founded two rival academies in Wisconsin, one at Milton (now Milton college) and the other at Albion. Both seemed to prosper and had a good attendance until the war broke out, when a number of the students enlisted. Among those who enlisted from Albion academy was Knute Nelson, from Deer field, Dane county, at present United States senator from Minnesota. At the close of the war Knute returned to the academy and graduated. Of graduates of this academy I may have something to say later on.

It was June, 1866. Albion academy was to hold its regular annual graduation exercises. These were held in a grove on the south side of the town. I decided to attend. Among the students there was one of Norwegian parentage, Peter Tjentland (Chantland) from the western part of Dane county. He afterwards became a prominent citizen of Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he died a few years ago. On a little investigation I found that the academy had had just three Norwegian students during the year now closing. While attending these graduation exercises a stream of thoughts and new ideas coursed through my mind. Here was a full fledged academy with a faculty of teachers; here were two large academy buildings, one for men and one for women, located on twelve acres of land in the very heart of this beautiful village. Several hundred students could easily be accommodated and instructed here. In spite of these facts the school was having an attendance of only 40 to 50 students. The school was located only three miles north of Edgerton; hence it was easily accessible to students from a distance.

Albion was an ideal village, removed from all the temptations that surround young people in cities. There had never been a drop of liquor sold in Albion up to that time, nor has there since. I thought of our Norwegian Educational Society in Decorah and it flashed across my mind that right here could be realized all the purposes of the academy or college that this society had planned to build and equip, and here we could begin at once without the necessity of soliciting subscriptions. Here were the buildings and the teachers. To the north were the large Koshkonong settlements, beginning in Albion and extending clean into Columbia county. To the west and northwest were Primrose, Perry, Blue Mounds and a number of other populous Norwegian settlements. We did not have to go far south to reach the prosperous Norwegian settlements in Rock county and northern Illinois and for people from a greater 0099 77 distance we had ample transportation facilities to Edgerton. As I keep on saying, the conditions here struck me as being absolutely ideal for the realization of all the plans that I had conceived and worked out in connection with the organization of the Norwegian Educational Society in Decorah.

Dr. C. R. Head was the president of the board of trustees of Albion academy. I called on him and unfolded my plans to him with all the eloquence at my command. He became deeply interested. He said there was to be a meeting of the board of trustees that afternoon and requested me to be present. I appeared before this body and explained to them how they might more than double their attendance by adding a Norwegian-American to the faculty, that is by securing a person who could do the necessary missionary work and canvassing in the Norwegian settlements and persuade the parents to send their sons and daughters here. They asked me where such a teacher could be found. Without any hesitation I told them that I was their man and that i wanted the place. They claimed that they had no funds in the treasury with which to pay me for my work. I replied that I did not ask any fixed salary and that I would be content to receive the tuition money paid by Norwegian students that would come. So far as I now remember, the tuition amounted to $7 a term for each student. They asked me what branches I could teach. With brazen effrontery I declared that I was able to teach any branch taught at Albion academy, and some others besides. I claimed to be able to give instruction in English, German, French, and Norwegian, in fact, in any modern language; that I was competent to take advanced classes in Latin, Greek and Hebrew and that i was prepared to take charge of the department of mathematics and of the various classes in such sciences as botany, zoology, geology, astronomy and physics.

Although as the reader knows I had been at Half Way Creek and Decorah barely three and a half years, still I pretended 0100 78 to be an all-round man able to do work in any line where I might be needed. My statements almost took the breath of the venerable members of the board. They looked at each other and at the beardless boy with astonishment. The school had gotten pretty near to low water mark, partly on account of the war and partly on account of its rival at Milton and another rival at Beloit, and was in a life and death struggle for existence. The idea of bringing in scores of Norwegian boys and girls appealed to them. The fact that I did not ask any salary both astonished and pleased them. The claims I made in regard to my equipment confounded them. I left the board and a couple of hours later I was informed by President Head, that my terms had been accepted and that I had been elected professor of Greek and modern languages to begin the coming fall term.

This was one of the happiest days of my life. I had the news proclaimed from the housetops, I rented my farm to one of my neighbors, Martin L. Hollo, for three years. I immediately began a systematic canvass of the towns of Albion, Christiana, Deerfield, Pleasant Springs, Dunkirk and the village of Stoughton, made trips into Windsor and Vienna and succeeded in inducing a considerable number of boys and girls to come to Albion.

Then there was a hitch. In my absence tares had been sown among my wheat. I was requested to come to Albion as soon as possible. I went there. Dr. Head told me that it had become his unpleasant duty to inform me that I was not eligible to a position in the academy. The board of trustees had been made acquainted with my relations to Luther college. They had been informed of my expulsion. To employ me at Albion academy would be a distinct violation of the code of academic ethics; it would be an act of discourtesy for one school to give shelter and protection to a student who had been expelled from another. Dr. Head assured me that he was very sorry, but he 0101 79 knew no remedy. The shock to me was more violent than I am able to describe. It came as an utter surprise. Dr. Head did not tell me whence the board had obtained this damaging news concerning me; they had evidently received it in confidence. For my own part I had no doubt as to the source. I asked who the informant was, but could get no answer.

As a large majority of the board lived at Albion, I now demanded that the members be brought together and that they give me an opportunity to make a statement in my own defense. The Albion members of the board were quickly convened. I appeared before them and made as complete a statement in regard to my expulsion as has been made in the preceding pages of this work. I closed by saying that I had already secured more than a dozen new students for the fall term and that whether I was wanted or not I was coming all the same to take my place in the faculty. The story of my expulsion enlisted their sympathy and the remarks with which I closed seemed to fill them with wonderment. They passed a unanimous resolution that they could see nothing to hinder my continuing as a member of the Albion academy faculty.

I continued my canvass for students with all the energy possible. Albion academy became a subject of discussion throughout the Norwegian settlements in Dane county. When the fall term opened there were fifteen new Norwegian students, a much larger number than there had been at any one time at Half Wav Creek, a result most gratifying not only to me, but to the board of trustees of the academy. During the winter term the number increased to twenty-six, but in the spring term it dropped to eighteen.

During the year we had about twice as many Norwegian students at Albion academy as there were in attendance at Luther college during its first year's existence at Half Way Creek.

At the Christmas recess the students made me a present of a solid silver goblet, and at the end of the year of a gold-headed cane. At the anniversary exercises of the academy I delivered an address on the subject “The Good Student,” and received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. On the platform sat Governor Lucius Fairchild and Congressman L. B. Caswell. I thought it a great honor to be invited to dine with these distinguished men at the home of Dr. Head, the president of the board of trustees.

The first year's work having been finished under such auspicious circumstances, I went to work during the vacation to arouse a still greater interest in the academy for the following year. I went out as the summer before, but extended my canvass to a larger territory. During my canvass I met Captain John Anderson of Milwaukee. He was the owner of the brig Montezuma. He thought I needed a little rest and recreation and so he invited me to take a trip with him from Milwaukee to Menominee and back. On our return to Milwaukee he sent me in a ship of one of his friends from Milwaukee to Buffalo and back. This gave me an opportunity of seeing Niagara Falls.

The first mate on the ship to Buffalo and back was a highly educated Finlander. Every day when he was off duty he gave me lessons in the Finnish language. When we parted I knew the elements of his tongue fairly well and he opened to my mind great vistas of Finnish literature, mythology, traditions and song and it was he that opened my eyes to the transcendant, the splendid and immortal beauties of the Kalevala, the Finnish epic, which suggested to Longfellow the poetic dress of his famous song Hiawatha. I am still able to give from memory snatches of song that this Finlander taught me.

I think I forgot to state heretofore that while I lived in Conover, Iowa, during the winter of 1866, I acquired a fairly good reading and speaking knowledge of the Bohemian language. 0103 81 Near Conover there was then and is still a large Bohemian settlement and in waiting on these people in the store where I clerked I soon became able to talk with them in their own vernacular. The Bohemian is one of the Slavonic group of languages; the Finnish is a Tshudic, or Ugro-Finnic form of speech, that is to say, Hungarian and Finnish are both daughters of the same original parent language. My knowledge of Bohemian served me a good purpose a few years ago when I, at the instigation of the present Judge J. C. Karel of Milwaukee, was invited to deliver the decoration day address at his old home in Kewaunee, Wis., where there is a large Bohemian population. When the city mayor had introduced me as the speaker of the day I began my address in Bohemian to the great delight and astonishment of the audience.

After the three weeks spent on the lakes the rest of the vacation was devoted to an industrious canvass for students. The great Norwegian newspaper “Skandinaven,” in Chicago, was, by a mere coincidence, founded at the very time that I began my work at Albion academy in 1866. The founder of this paper was John Anderson, the editor was Knut Langland. John Anderson had come to Chicago from Voss, Norway, as a poor boy and had learned the printer's trade in the Chicago Tribune rooms and was well equipped for the business end of the enterprise. Knut Langland had come to America in 1837. He had received something more than a “confirmant's” education in Norway and was by nature a student with an unlimited thirst for knowledge. He had, with O. J. Hatlestad, bought “Nordlyset” in 1848 and had changed its name to “Demokraten.” He had served one term in the state assembly as a representative of Racine county. He was a broadminded man and an ardent republican, a thorough-going abolitionist; in a word, he was in every way exceptionally well fitted to be the editor of “Skandinaven.” He was a small, wiry person, not unlike Lyman C. Draper, the founder of the Wisconsin State Historical 6 0104 82 Society, in his general appearance. He was my steadfast friend till his death, which occurred in the '80s. His last letter before he died was written to me while I was in Copenhagen as minister to Denmark. I had read of his death before his letter reached me. I do not know of any Norwegian in this country who had a larger or more healthy influence on the Norwegian group of our population.

The president of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran church founded in 1846 by Elling Eielsen, Rev. S. M. Stenby of Clear Lake, Iowa, and Rev. Erik Morstad of the same church have both protested against what they deem a slur on the good name of Elling Eielsen when I say that he kidnapped a little girl that he had placed with a Catholic family in Muskego, Wis. I therefore take this opportunity of making a more complete statement of this incident.

The parents of two little girls had come to America in 1839 and had died from cholera on Jefferson Prairie near Beloit in 1844. One of these girls by name Gjertrud became the foster child of Endre Glasmager in Norway, III. She afterwards married Ole A. Quam, who is still living at the age of 84—born Jan. 17, 1830—with his son-in-law, Thomas Edwards, in Ashland, Wis. Thomas Edwards is president of the independent telephone company in Ashland and a large dealer in cement. He is in easy circumstances and three of his boys are graduates of the University of Wisconsin. His only daughter is at present a student at the same university. The other little girl, Anna, first married a man named Goddard and settled in the province of Quebec, Canada. After Goddard's death she married Mr. Arthur Newell. Anna died in the '90s, leaving several children and grandchildren. One of her grandsons is a well known singer.

Anna was the girl left by Elling Eielsen with a Catholic family. Having repented of this he tried to get her back from her new foster parents, but they refused to give her up. He afterwards took Gjertrud with him and she about sundown succeeded in finding her sister and taking her away from the home to where Eielsen was waiting for them with his rig.

A son of Ole A. Quam, J. A. Quam, of Sheridan, Ill., married a daughter of Peter C. Nelson, the last male survivor of the sloopers of 1825. Peter C. Nelson came with his father, Cornelius Nelson, in the sloop and Cornelius Nelson was married to a sister of Kleng Peerson, the promoter of the sloop party. Ole A. Quam's mother was a sister of Ole Olson Hetletvedt, who also came in the sloop, while she came to this country later.

While I have no apology to make, I am entirely willing to admit and have no doubt that Elling Eielsen acted in perfect good faith and believed he was doing an act of kindness to little Anna when he found a nice home for her with a Catholic family and that he did his duty when he afterwards took her away from there, though he had to do this secretly. He acted from the purest motives.

For the facts as here stated I am indebted to Mr. Thomas Edwards, who, as the reader will have seen, is a son-in-law of Gjertrud.

I had the good fortune of securing the enthusiastic support in my work at Albion of Mr. Langland and the paper he so ably edited. “Skandinaven” at once took a pronounced position against the Norwegian Synod, both in regard to the slavery question and the question of the American common school, a position which was maintained vigorously during Langland's long career as editor. Langland repeatedly called the attention of his readers to the work I had undertaken and was doing at Albion and recommended Albion academy most cordially. I also had the support of Rev. C. L. Clausen of St. Ansgar, Iowa. He sent one of his sons to the academy.

John A. Johnson, then county clerk of Dane county, Wisconsin, was also among my staunch friends. He too had served a term in the Wisconsin assembly from Dane county, his home being formerly in Pleasant Springs. We made fine progress and the attendance of Norwegian students the next year (1867–68) was more than double that of the previous year. The faculty was enlarged and I received a regular salary. Though it was very small, I was content.

But now I had to meet another attack from the enemy. It was an attack of a new kind. I was accused of being a deserter from my nationality. I was charged with being too proud to be a Norwegian and with using my position and influence 0108 86 to make the Norwegians ashamed of their nationality and to become “yankeefied.”

This charge was both base and false and I went to work to meet it as best I could. In the first place I began soliciting contributions for a Scandinavian library at the academy; in the second place I studied the few Scandinavian books I had. I particularly made as thorough a study of Snorre's “Heimskringla” as possible, a work of which I fortunately was the happy possessor. I found references to the discovery of America by the Norsemen in the tenth century, a fact which was not then mentioned in any text book on American history. I visited the State Historical Society at Madison and found there to my great delight all the works published by the Royal Antiquarian Society of Copenhagen on this subject. I copied everything and immediately prepared a lecture on the Norse discovery of America five centuries before Columbus and sandwiched into it the most enthusiastic eulogies of the viking age, of the Eddas, of the Scandinavian exploits, of the literature, music and art down to present times. I gave under hydraulic pressure a most glowing tribute to both the ancient and modern Scandinavians. This lecture took the wind out of the sails of my accusers. I delivered it at the academy, in school houses, in various parts of the county, in Chicago, and as far north as New Lisbon, Juneau county, Wisconsin. The lecture was in English, but was delivered before mixed audiences.

The delivery of this lecture that I have reason to remember best was at the old Norwegian Methodist church in Cambridge, Wis., in the spring of 1868. After the lecture I went with Miss Bertha Karina Olson, who had helped furnish music for the occasion, to her home. She was the daughter of the shoemaker, Hans Olson, who had come to America in 1852 and settled in Cambridge. I had seen her at three different weddings, including my own sister's wedding, had visited her at Fort Atkinson and on this evening we became engaged. She 0109 87 had attended a select school in Cambridge and had herself taught district schools in the country and had made good use of such opportunities for education as were afforded in those pioneer days. I may here add that two of my younger brothers married two of her younger sisters, so that we are three brothers wedded to three sisters. As I may have something to say of my family life later on I will only add here, that Bertha Karina has been a good wife to me and a mother of rare tenderness and devotion to our children.

Before the end of the second school year an address was delivered at the academy by P. A. Chadbourne, then president of the University of Wisconsin. To A. R. Green, who took the president to the train at Edgerton, Mr. Chadbourne expressed himself as surprised at finding the academy in so flourishing a condition and inquired into the causes thereof. Mr. Green told him that the school had gotten a new start in attendance since I became connected with it and gave him a general idea of the work I had done.

Immediately after the closing of the spring term, while I was planning my summer campaign I received a letter from President Chadbourne requesting me to visit him at once at his home in Madison, Wis. President Chadbourne then lived in the house which afterwards became the residence of the professor of astronomy. The president received me most kindly. He told me that he had acquainted himself with the work that I had done the past two years at Albion Academy and wanted to give me a larger field in which to operate. He was then making arrangements for his staff of instructors for the coming year and offered me a position as instructor. He said he knew that I had not a complete college training, but promised that I should have the opportunity of completing a college course and get my bachelor of arts degree at the university while I was serving as instructor. He urged me strongly to accept his advice and 0111 89 pictured to me a much greater field of usefulness with the university as a base and with the proper attention given to my studies than would be possible at Albion.

I was persuaded; I accepted the position he offered me with a salary of $400 for the first year. I was to teach in the lower classes and be a student myself in the upper classes. My name was sent in to the board of regents and all was settled.

On returning to Albion, I explained what I had done and tendered my resignation. This was refused. Nobody could think of the idea of my leaving Albion at that time. The board of trustees held meeting after meeting and insisted on my remaining. Practically the whole village of Albion met in mass meeting and adopted a resolution begging me to continue my work at Albion academy. This was urged as my duty and it was claimed that in the end this would be of great advantage to me. My friends did not forget to quote Julius Caesar when be said he would rather be the first man in a small town in Spain than second in the great city of Rome. At Albion I could easily, they asserted, be the first, while at Madison and at the university my identity would be lost.

I fell. I presume I had my share of human vanity and I was unable to resist all the flattery, praise and blandishments heaped upon me. Albion had had a taste of prosperity and didn't see how to continue without me. I agreed to stay, but on condition that several changes should be made. The board of trustees, without any solicitation on my part made Prof. A. R. Cornwall and me joint principals of the academy, making us absolutely equal in authority. This I accepted. Then `I asked that a number of prominent Norwegians be made members of the board of trustees. This was agreed to with alacrity. Rev. C. L. Clausen of St. Ansgar, John A. Johnson of Madison, Knut Langland, editor of “Skandinaven,” and Jens Olson Kaasa of Chicago were elected as members of the board.

Everything pointed to a spendid year for Albion. I received reports of new students from every part of the Northwest. Boys and girls were coming from Chicago, from Milwaukee, from all parts of Wisconsin, from Iowa and from Minnesota. The fact was that there were more coming than we could possibly accommodate in our two buildings. I therefore resolved to put up a third building at the south side of the academy grounds. This building to be built of cream colored brick would cost completed and ready for use between $6,000 and $7,000. I went out among my Norwegian friends to raise this money and I was successful. Many of the farmers in Dane county gave me, some $25, others $50 and a few even $100 each, and the necessary funds were soon in sight. I went to Chicago and got Jens Olson Kaasa, who was a contractor, to come to Albion and bring with him a sufficient number of men, bricklayers, plasterers and carpenters, and put up a building in a hurry and have it ready for occupancy for the winter term. I raised all the money, Mr. Kaasa put up the building and received his pay. This building is still standing. When taken into use it was named “Kumlien Hall.”

Miss Olson and I were married July 21, of that summer, and the south half of the first floor of Kumlien Hall became our first home. During the balance of the vacation and during the fall term we had been boarding.

Having secured subscriptions enough for the new building I devoted a part of my summer vacation and the fall term to collecting books and funds for a Scandinavian library. The books thus secured I kept in my own apartments at the south hall and never formally turned them over to the academy. The attendance at the academy was large and in the winter term still larger. We had over 300 students registered and every available room in the three buildings was rented. Boarding houses in the town had all the roomers and boarders they could accommodate. We had as many if not more Norwegian students at Albion academy than were in attendance at Luther college.

All the dreams of our little Norwegian-American Educational Society, organized in the late autumn of 1865, at Decorah, now seemed more than realized, and there was no prouder man among the Norwegians on this continent than the 22-year old Rasmus B. Anderson. I now decided to rehabilitate this Norwegian-American society on a larger scale. I wanted to make Albion academy a pattern for similar work in other American educational institutions throughout the Northwest. The idea of creating Scandianavian professorships in the leading colleges and universities of the whole land had not yet dawned on my mind. What I now dreamed of was American academies and colleges in various centers for the growing Norwegian population, these to be supplied each with a Norwegian teacher like myself to attract Norwegian boys and girls. I had in my mind that there ought to be such a Norwegian teacher at the University of Wisconsin, another at Beloit college and others at similar schools in Iowa and in Minnesota. These schools would furnish teachers for the common school and educate the rising generation for all walks of life.

For the realization of this plan—of which only this bare outline can be here given—I consulted with Rev. C. L. Clausen, John A. Johnson, Knut Langland, Wilhelm Winslow and 0117 95 other friends. They approved my purpose and we decided to call a meeting of all who might be interested to be held at the court house in Madison in early March, 1869. A Norwegian-American educational society was there to be organized, equipped with constitution, by-laws and officers to raise funds and carry out the purposes of the society.

A couple of other things happened in this to me so eventful year, 1868. One of these was that I took a dip into the sea of politics. There was to be a state election and a national election. I was an ardent republican, but had never taken any personal part in politics. A friend of mine in Albion, who was considered a very astute politician, told me he was going to have me elected a delegate to the state convention and possibly even to the national convention. I told him that it was impossible, but he insisted that I should not interfere, but simply let him manage it. I agreed. At the caucus in Albion I was elected a delegate to the assembly convention of that district. This convention was largely manipulated by my friend, the politician. From there he took me to the senatorial convention held at Cottage Grove and there I was with great unanimity elected a delegate to the state convention which was to elect delegates to the national convention to be held in Chicago. At this state Convention Horace Rublee and Mr. Seymour of La Crosse, afterwards consul to China, were elected delegates at large. My friend, the politician, was lobbying among the delegates and insisted that the Norwegians in Wisconsin being practically all republicans ought to be represented at the national convention and I was elected Rublee's alternate. Thus I swung around the circle. I got my certificate and my badge and my transportation, went to Chicago, took part in all the deliberations 0119 97 of the Wisconsin delegation, heard all the arguments of all the visiting delegations from the various states presenting the claims of the various candidates and actually sat in the national convention that nominated Grant for president and Colfax for vice president.

Somewhere between Madison and Portage there lived at that time a somewhat prominent Wisconsin politician by name R. B. Sanderson, When the Milwaukee Sentinel came to Albion the name of this R. B. Sanderson was printed as that of Rublee's alternate. The successful man in politics always has his rivals and so I had mine and these had a jollification meeting at my expense, thinking that I was so green in the profession that I had heard R. B. Sanderson proposed and elected delegate and supposed it was myself. There was always a large crowd present at the postoffice when the mail came from Edgerton. In a few days I received a large envelope containing my credentials, my badge and my railroad transportation and I took pains to open this envelope in the most conspicuous manner, and thus ended the R. B. Sanderson episode. Nevertheless I was the first Scandinavian-American sent to a national convention. 7

In January, 1868, I had the good fortune of meeting a man who was destined to have a great and important influence on my whole subsequent life. It was also the first time that I came in close touch with a person enjoying a world-wide fame. This person was Ole Bull, the greatest violinist in his day and the most widely known Norwegian. He had come to America in the autumn of 1867 and had been engaged for a concert tour from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New York to San Francisco. In Wisconsin he was to play in Janesville, in Madison and in Milwaukee. His first concert in this state was given in Janesville. A large number of the Norwegian students at Albion went there to hear him. In one of the rigs was found room for me. We reached Janesville long before concert time. There I learned that Ole Bull was stopping at the Hotel Meyers. I was eager to meet him and decided to make use of the excuse that he and I were distantly related on my mother's side. Thus armed I sent my name up to his room. I told him that my mother was a von Krogh and he at once recognized the connections between the Bull and the Krogh families in Norway. He received me with the utmost cordiality. I had a ticket to the concert, but he insisted on my staying with him behind the curtain on the stage where we could talk when he was not playing. I told him of my life, of my experiences in Decorah and at Albion and he became deeply interested. He 0127 105 wrote out a short address, a sort of greeting to the Norwegian students at Albion academy which I was to read to them on my return to the school.

He was due that same nigh.t at Madison where he was to be received by a torchlight procession and he insisted on my going with him. There was no train from Janesville to Milton and therefore a carriage had to be hired to take Ole Bull and his party to that place. The party consisted of Ole Bull, Madam Varian, the soprano, Mr. Hoffmann, the pianist, Ole Bull's son Alexander, Mr. Widdows, his agent, and myself, three in each seat. I was squeezed in between Ole Bull and Madame Varian, and I felt that I had never before been in such distinguished company.

At Milton Ole Bull was met by a delegation from Madison, John A. Johnson, B. W. Suckow, and two or three others. At Madison a large number of Norwegians had turned out with torchlights and escorted their distinguished countryman from the West Madison depot to the Vilas House. In front of the Vilas House a speech of welcome was delivered by John A. Johnson to which Ole Bull responded. Ole Bull considered himself a greater orator than violinist, but he seldom attempted to speak without making some kind of break. I remember his saying at this time that the Norwegians honored themselves when they honored him. Of course what he meant to say was that he accepted such honors as intended more for his dear Norway than for himself. In my conversation with him at Janesville I had not forgotten to mention to him that I was studying and lecturing on the discovery of America by the Norsemen. In his response to the address of welcome he made a special point of calling attention to Leif Erikson as the real discoverer of this continent; in fact, he made use of the most of our conversation on this subject. The address of welcome was in Norwegian and Ole Bull responded in the same tongue.

At the hotel he secured me a room next to his own and he appointed me his representative to whom visitors would have to apply for audience with his majesty, the king of the violin.

The next day the city was crowded, particularly with Norwegians from all parts of Dane and adjoining counties. The concert was to be given on the third floor of the city hall and the limited number of tickets were soon exhausted. Tickets held by speculators went up to fabulous prices. To meet this difficulty Ole Bull quickly decided to give a matinee in the afternoon at which the city hall auditorium was filled to its utmost capacity. Both at the matinee and the evening concert every available seat was sold. Between the matinee and the evening concert the Norwegians gave Ole Bull a banquet at the Odd Fellows hall. An address of welcome was delivered by Mr. Sanborn, then the mayor of Madison, and an address in Norwegian by John A. Johnson.

I had the honor of sitting next to Ole Bull at the banquet board. In conversation with him he asked me whether there were any Danes or Swedes present. He was himself intensely Norwegian and very much opposed to what was called Scandinavianism, that is to any closer union between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He wanted Norway to stand on her own feet as she does now, and his anti-Scandinavian feeling kept him from giving concerts in Denmark or Sweden and sometimes led him to exhibit his animosity toward individuals representing those nationalities. When he asked me concerning the presence of Danes or Swedes at this banquet I pointed out to him Mr. Hans Borchsenius and Mr. Mathiesen, both Danes. I knew that there was a Swede at the table, but I was unable to locate him. When the time for Ole Bull to respond came he expressed his thanks for the honor shown him and in the course of his remarks he stated that he was particularly pleased to know that there, at this banquet, were present only two Danes and one invisible Swede. But such violations of the proprieties 0129 107 of life were always excused in Ole Bull. He had carte blanche to say anything he pleased and it gave no offense.

Perhaps I ought to mention here that for the first time in my life I was called on to speak at a banquet. I remember how embarrassed I was. Still I thought I must say something and so I attempted to draw attention to Norway's contributions in the field of history, poetry, folk lore, painting and music and Ole Bull himself led the applause when I mentioned P. A. Munch, Asbjörnsen, Tidemand, Lindeman, Welhaven and Wergeland. I had made my maiden effort as a banquet speaker, but when I sat down I was more dead than alive.

At the hotel Mrs. Carr, wife of Ezra Carr, professor of chemistry in the University of Wisconsin, called on Mr. Bull. The Carrs lived on Gilman street in the stone house now occupied by the banker, J. W. Hobbins. Mrs. Carr invited Ole Bull to a reception at her home after the concert in the evening. This invitation was accepted.

At this reception, which was attended by the elite of the city, including the governor and other state officers, judges of the supreme court—all of these with their ladies—I had the honor of presenting Mrs. Thorpe and her young daughter, Sara, to Ole Bull. They were infatuated with him. Ole Bull had a habit of asking everybody that he met to visit him at his magnificent home, Valestrand, on the Oster island, a few miles north of Bergen. He invited Mrs. and Miss Thorpe to pay him a visit in Norway. Mrs. Thorpe at once accepted and said that she and her daughter would go with him when he returned to Norway the next spring. They did not forget their promise.

When Ole Bull reached New York the following spring Mrs. Thorpe and daughter were there and went with him to Valestrand where they spent the summer. Ole Bull and Sara became engaged and on their return to America they were joined in marriage by Rev. Richards of the Congregational 0130 108 church at the Thorpe home, which afterwards became and is still the governor's mansion at Madison.

The next day after this reception at Carr's Ole Bull went to Milwaukee and I returned to my work at Albion.

I have dwelt thus fully on my first meeting with the wizard of the bow, in the first place because it had an important influence on my whole subsequent career, and in the second place because it represents a hardly less important turning point in the remarkable career of Ole Bull himself. He was then a widower, 58 years old; Sara Thorpe was still in her teens, only 19 years old. Bull was in his full vigor. On the stage he was harmony not only to the ear, but also to the eye. In society he had every accomplishment and we need not be surprised that he was able to win the heart even of a maiden in her teens. But Ole Bull was a moody man which Sara soon learned to her sorrow. The marriage was decidedly a misalliance and a misfortune to both the contracting parties. To me it was a blessing because it brought Ole Bull to Madison to spend much of his time the remaining years of his life and in this way brought me into the most intimate relation with this grand old man for about a dozen years.

From a valued friend, who was my fellow student at Decorah, I have received the following interesting letter:

Bemidji, Minn., Feb. 16, '14.

Friend R. B. Anderson, Madison, Wis.

Dear Sir:—Through the courtesy of a friend I am reading your “History”. I am much interested as I have known you, or at least known of you., since the fall of 1862 when we first met at Decorah. And so far I find only a few immaterial mistakes as to fact, but quite a few single letter misprints. On page 11 of No. 4 you say that: in 1863 a one-story building was erected as a study room &c. Now the fact is that there was a second story with about 25 beds. When I arrived there for my second year, in the fall of '64 I was domiciled there and slept upstairs all the time. Both floors had but one room each. And it was from a remark of mine that the place received its nickname of “Hutetu”. For one evening the boys were playing the piano, dancing and scuttling when I jumped out through the door and exclaimed: “Hutetu for Ieven!”

You will probably get into fractions with Ingrid Egge about her age. You say she was older than you. But I think the fact is anyway that you are 4 or 5 years older than she.

I remember well the celebration of the 10th of April, 1865. I think there was a fairly good excuse for the college not being illuminated just then. The stage coming about supper time brought the news. And when the noise began the boys all struck down street and got so interested that they forgot study-hours and all. I know that was my case.

You mention the man on horseback. I remember well Dr. John Stiles (veterinary) on a white stallion. He first forced his horse to leap over or through a ten-foot high bonfire in the street. Then he rode into old Wagner's saloon, turned around and stopped in front of the bar. Then two more men mounted the horse and sat there drinking whisky. At the same time another elderly man stood on his head at the end of the counter.

When I came outside again one of our boys said they were talking about our establishment and were going up to speak to the professors. Some one on horseback led, and quite a crowd, mostly boys, formed an irregular procession going around the block so as to come up to our buildings from the west.

Both the buildings were in the dark sure enough. But after some effort Professor Larsen came out and was asked to make a statement. And while I can't repeat his little talk I know he said he thought we had a good government and even if it were a bad government he meant to honor and obey, considering all governments established by the Supreme Being &c.

I never heard of the conference of the next morning that you mention.

The man that called on Prof. Larsen never left his saddle while at the college.

I have lived here since last July.

Yours truly O. B. Stephens alias Hustvedt.

I have dwelt at considerable length on the year 1868. In many respects it has seemed to me to be the most important year in my whole life. It was crowded with events of the greatest significance to me. It was all sunshine. During the whole year there was not a cloud visible above the horizon.

In 1868 I had revived the Norwegian-American Educational Society; I had made the acquaintance of Ole Bull; in that same year I had been the first of Scandinavian blood to occupy a seat in a national convention; in the summer of that year I had represented the old East Koshkonong congregation in the annual meeting of the Norwegian Lutheran Synod in Chicago; in that year I had received and accepted an appointment as an instructor in the University of Wisconsin, but soon afterward reconsidered my action and withdrew my acceptance; I had made a new deal with Albion academy and had been put at the head of that institution jointly with Prof. A. R. Cornwall; I had gotten a number of prominent Norwegians elected as members of the academy board. Norwegian boys and girls were seeking admittance to the academy in large numbers from all parts of Norwegiandom in America. Albion academy, as I then saw it, was going to be the chief center of education for Norwegians on this continent. I had drawn that splendid scholar and fine-grained gentleman Thure Ludwig Kumlien out of his. shell and out of his obscurity and gotten him 0134 112 elected professor of botany and natural history at our academy. I had been honored with the degree of master of arts by Alfred University of which I have spoken. I had begun giving lectures on the discovery of America by the Norsemen and on other subjects. I had made the beginning of a Scandinavian library as a source of information for all seeking a knowledge of Scandinavian history and literature. Before the close of the year I had added a third building to the equipment of the academy, the so-called South Hall. To crown it all I had found the girl who loved me and shared my interests and aspirations. We were engaged on April 11 and celebrated our nuptials at the parsonage of my brother-in-law, Rev. S. S. Reque, in Lemonweir, about three miles south of New Lisbon, Wis.

As stated, 1868, was all sunshine and it looked to me as if the foundations were laid for a splendid future for Albion academy and for an interesting and useful career for myself.

But how little we know of what is in store for us! In the northern mythology the three horns, or wierd sisters, are Urd, the past; Verdande, the present, and Skuld, the future. They do not, like the Greek fates, spin the threads, but they weave the webs of our lives. Urd holds one end of the woof in the far east, Skuld sits at the other end and Verdande plies the shuttle beneath the midday sun. No historian has yet succeeded in unraveling the mysteries of the past; even the present is largely wrapped in mist, and Skuld conceals from us the future, dosing our eyes with her hands.

The heavy clouds gathering beyond the horizon in 1868 I did not see nor suspect, and yet I was destined to encounter a storm of the greatest violence, and by it the work done at Albion was to be completely wrecked, and therewith all my hopes and expectations frustrated. From the giddy height of arrogance and pride to which I had climbed I was to fall and be thoroughly castigated and humiliated.

The winter term of the academy opened with as many students as we could possibly accommodate.

Before going any further I want to explain here a fact which in my youthful ardor I did not then understand. My colleague as joint principal, Prof. A. R. Cornwall, was utterly reckless in his domestic economy and in his financial relations. He incurred debts right and left, never considering that there would come a day when he would be called upon to pay. He borrowed and bought on credit wherever he could and, in short, was in debt to everybody, and he would borrow from Peter to pay Paul. When hard pressed he would hustle and get money wherever he could lay his hands on a 'few dollars to satisfy his creditors.

On opening the school the fall term of 1868 we appointed Prof. Josiah Beardsley treasurer, but at the end of the term, when he made his report, it was found that from a large number of students Prof. Cornwall had collected privately the tuition money and room rent and of course spent it. The result was that none of the teachers received all their pay and I did not get a dollar. To mend this difficulty it was agreed that I should take the treasuryship the next term, that is the first, or winter, term in 1869 and here the trouble begins.

Some of the students came to me to pay their tuition and room rent. A large number did not come. When I went to collect from these I was invariably told that they had paid Prof. Cornwall. If I had been an older and more experienced man I would probably have been able to find some businesslike way out of the difficulty, but I was only twenty-three years old and had never had any experience along these lines. With my youthful spirit of independence I simply became disgusted and with all the energy and vehemence of my nature I rebelled. I was angry and excited and while A. R. Cornwall collected money right and left I protested right and left. The situation produced a tremendous tempest. Ill-considered words were 8 0136 114 spoken, I presume, on both sides and in the midst of it all Cornwall was quoted as saying that there were “more Norwegians than white folks at Albion academy” and that it was not the kind of school he cared to be connected with.

In the heat of the conflict I handed in my resignation. I decided to try to obtain again the position I had refused at the State University and to have nothing to do with Albion academy. I took a train for Madison to see President Chadbourne. He chided me for being vacillating, but received me with much kindness. I explained the situation to him as I was able and he gave me his sympathy in full measure. He told me he had no place for me for the spring term, but promised me a position as instructor for the next year and advised me to attend the university during the spring term as a post graduate student with a view of getting a university degree later.

With this arrangement I felt that I had weathered the storm at Albion and had reached a harbor of safety. But my success with Chadbourne made the Albion people wild. They were determined to have me disgraced and so make my connection with the university impossible. They refused to accept my resignation and proposed instead to have the board of trustees dismiss me. Before they took any action they sent for Knute Nelson and for John E. Johnson. Both came and spent a day at Albion in consultation with Dr. Head, A. R. Cornwall and many others, but did not come near me. I have never been able to understand why these two gentlemen neglected to call on me and hear the other side of the case in which they were called in as advisers. I have never been able to excuse or fully forgive them for this.

After they had gone I was told that the board had held a meeting and had given me dishonorable dismissal to be spread on their records; they had also elected one of our most promising Norwegian students, John M. Engesether, of Vienna, Wis., 0137 115 to succeed me, not as joint principal with Cornwall, but as professor.

At this time there was an academy at Marshall, in Dane county, Wis. As had been the case with Albion just before I became connected with this school, the Marshall academy had a hard struggle to maintain its existence. I knew of this school, but had never met any one connected with it. In the battle now at its height at Albion it flashed upon my mind that the most of the Norwegian students at Albion might be transferred to Marshall to continue their studies there, that is, So far as they were not prepared to enter the preparatory department of the state university.

One of the most talented and the one farthest advanced in his studies among the Norwegian students at Albion was P. A. Flaten from Black Earth, Wis. He afterwards studied medicine and died in the midst of a successful career as a physician. I explained to Mr. Flaten the plan I had in my mind in regard to Marshall academy and he consented to accept a position as a teacher there if tendered to him. We got a horse and buggy and drove to Marshall, arriving there in the middle of the forenoon. Here I persuaded the principal of the academy to call a meeting of the board of trustees and of as many as possible of the leading citizens immediately so. that I might have an opportunity of laying this matter before them. My address was listened to with the greatest interest and closest attention and within two hours, Mr. Flaten, whom I introduced to the audience, was elected a professor of Marshall academy and guaranteed a salary of $ 400 a year, which was considered good remuneration in those days. He was to begin with the opening of the spring term and we were now nearing the end of the winter term. Mr. Flaten and I returned to Albion with victory perched on our banners.

I had won two battles; I had secured a new appointment for myself in the university and had found a place for Mr. Flaten 0138 116 and our Norwegian boys and girls at Marshall and was now ready to depart from Albion. Before leaving I invited all the Scandinavian students to a reception and oyster supper given by my wife and me at our home in the South Hall. Our apartments were crowded to their utmost capacity. I there made a complete statement of all that had transpired, invited those who were able to come to the university and advised all others to continue their studies at Marshall academy. I am not exaggerating when I add that there were many tears trickling down the cheeks of that audience.

The next day these students held a mass meeting in which they, with great unanimity, applauded what I had done and resolved to leave Albion academy in a body at once. They also insisted that Mr. Engesether should not serve as a “tool of our enemies” and he had to acquiesce though perhaps somewhat reluctantly in this unanimous demand made upon him. Parenthetically I may add here that John M. Engesether came to the university the next year where at the beginning of the winter term he was taken down with smallpox. He was transferred from the South Hall to an improvised pest house at the Camp Randall grounds where he died, presumably from exposure, in a few days. He was one of the most gifted and promising young men among those who have been my pupils.

To meet the emergency created by this mass meeting of the students Prof. Cornwall called a meeting of students and citizens in the chapel early the next morning. The deputy sheriff came to me and said he had been appointed to stay with me and serve as my body guard and protector, saying that there was fear that I might be molested. I would have liked to have gone to the chapel, but my body guard feared it might not be safe. Some hot-headed person might take a notion to do me bodily injury and so I stayed away from the meeting. I was told that Prof. Cornwall delivered a long and very denunciatory harrangue with R. B. Anderson as its main topic. But 0139 117 it did not help his side. There was about a week left of the winter term, but that very day all available teams and rigs were employed in taking students to the trains at Edgerton and to their homes. It is a remarkable fact that not only the Scandinavian students departed in a body, but also a large number of Americans and English joined the exodus. The school was practically suspended.

Efforts were made the following term and for a few years afterwards to maintain the semblance of an academy, but without success. The school kept dwindling and was finally closed. The buildings were unoccupied and the beautiful grounds uncared for and those halls that had resounded with the cheerful voices of ambitious students were used in time by neighboring farmers for tobacco sheds. Sic periat gloria mundi! So passes away earthly glory!

It so happened that the meeting to organize the Norwegian-American Educational Society was to be held in the court house at Madison the very same week in which all these troubles took place at Albion. I went to Madison, attended the meeting and returned the next day. Personally I was so discredited by the turmoil I was in that I kept myself entirely in the background and had not a word to say. The meeting was well attended and an organization effected, but the conditions at Albion academy, to which the meeting was to point with pride, put a wet blanket on the proceedings, which consisted mainly in adopting a constitution, electing officers and adjourning. No later meetings were held. The Norwegian-American Educational Society organized at the court house at Madison in March, 1869, was a stillborn child.

About the middle of the '90s the whole property of Albion academy was sold for a song to Prof. Peter A. Hendrickson on the condition that it should be used for educational purposes. Peter Hendrickson was a graduate of Beloit college. After graduating he studied theology in a Congregationalist seminary. He also spent a couple of years as a student in Europe. In order to meet the competition for Scandinavian students which I had created, first at Albion and later at the university, Hendrickson was elected a professor at Beloit college, a position which he filled with credit to himself for nearly twenty years. He was an able teacher, but did not seem to have any ambition to do any literary work outside of his teaching. In the middle of the '80s he was offered a position as editor in chief of “Skandinaven” and accepted it. He held this position for about seven or eight years, but as he several times admitted to me it did not suit him. For some reason or other he and the owner, John Anderson, were not in accord and he was succeeded in the early '90s by N. A. Greystad. Being without employment he conceived the idea of purchasing Albion academy. He opened the doors of Albion academy again, spent considerable time and money in cleaning house and giving it a presentable appearance again and was in a measure successful. His very able wife Served as a most efficient preceptress. One of his 0141 119 sons was also a teacher. Together they made a comfortable living, but the outlook was not promising, and so after a few years of hard work Prof. Hendrickson decided to dispose of his interest in Albion academy.

Since the above was written I have received the following letter from my old friend, Prof. Peter Hendrickson. From a literary point of view it is a gem and it throws so much valuable light on our lives and on conditions in the '70s and later, that I at once asked for and obtained his permission to incorporate it in this volume. I am sure it will be read with more than ordinary interest. Here it is:

Foxcroft, Maine, Aug. 8, 1915.

My Dear Professor Anderson:—

I have recently returned from a visit to my old home and friends in and around Portland. I intended to write you a few words before going, but failed to do so. I wanted to tell you how very interesting I found your biography as I hastily read it through in “Amerika”. In fact I rather had in mind to write you a semi-humorous contrast between you and me, for I think it would be hard to find two characters more diametrically unlike than we are. I would have classified you as of the warlike and me of the pacifist nature, or perhaps more appropriately, you of the do-something and me of the do-nothing type. The furious activity of your constantly battling career appalls me and fills me with admiration, while a glance at my own past fills me with shame not to say disgust. Well, regret is useless and reparation too late, so let that chapter pass. When I think of it all I am reminded of the words of Victor Hugo: “Peu de travail ennuie; beaucoup de travail amuse” or something like that. You certainly have had your full share of “amusement” and I heartily congratulate you on the number of victories you have scored, though your nature is in many respects wholly incomprehensible to me. As I was reading 0142 120 your story I very often was reminded of Theodore Roosevelt and the few other men of that stamp known to history.

I was at the same time reading the “Reminiscences of Lyman Abbott” who for constant activity and mass of work accomplished compares with you, but the two natures as different as peace and war. How grand such lives of activity are! When I read your book again I shall be able to study it with more care, and I may take the liberty to ask you some questions.

Now where do I come in? The “do-little folks” generally think they are and also seem to be quite busy. Until now I have most always been panting and puffing and struggling, yes even sometimes with an element of seeming heroism in it; but when I look back upon the now long path it looks like a blank where it is yet covered with heaps of neglected opportunities. My boy life at home on the farm was placid, goody, and a little bookish, something like a wild flower by the edge of the garden—nothing to spur, nothing to hinder.

At seventeen I went to Beloit, arriving there with just what was left of a five dollar bill my father gave me at the station. Four years in the academy without a cent of help from any source and only about half pay for my work at home on the farm in vacation. It was saw wood, do chores, run errands, or janitor work, at times almost “unto blood” and on the brink of despair. I did, nevertheless, come out of the academy at the head of my class, but I think with some of my physical elasticity strained. In college it was not quite so bad, for I had then “learned the ropes” and I got some help the last year and a half and graduated third in the class. But now comes the great mistake—I went right into a great fog. I had no definite purpose, no fixed ambition. I somehow thought the great battle of life was all over and victory won. It was now to slip into a smooth rut and move gracefully along to easy triumphs. To stand before audiences, charm them with the grace and dignity 0143 121 of our manners, the elegance of our diction, and the force of our arguments was all there was to life, and all this we had “learned to perfection”. In all these things I was pretty near at the top. I had talked to cows and horses and even pigs in barns hundreds of times and nearly as often to birds and rabbits in the woods, and always with the same “irresistible force of logic and eloquence”.

I inherited a piece of property, sold it and had three years in Europe. I studied and read much and made many friends but all with the same want of a definite plan and purpose. But I am making you tired, if you have not already thrown this into the waste basket.—But, wait, I must add that I think I was a fairly good teacher at Beloit, and at Albion for seven years (by the way, you once published it as only five years it was full seven) I worked hard, harder, hardest—nobody can ever know how desperately hard I worked and sacrificed. I earned over two thousand dollars in political campaigns and put it in; I sunk my $5,000 life insurance in it, and even then, if it had not been for the splendid efficiency of my wife we would have been swamped. I got some of it back. I think you have also made the statement that I “made a fair living there”—yes, call it so, but at the expense of three-fourths of a nervous system.

But there is one thing I would like to make clear to you in regard to my education and its results. There was nothing in my boy days at home to awaken in me any interest in Norway or “überhaupt” in Scandinavian matters. Norwegian history or literature was not heard of in my surroundings. I occasionally saw and heard the earliest Norwegian preachers like the Preuses, Brandt, etc., and the easy, soft and kindly Stub, and a fool named Thalberg who confirmed me. But neither of them ever tried to interest me in anything human or divine (outside of the instruction for confirmation) and I never got any respect for them as men or as Christians. We had a couple of 0144 122 Norwegian teachers and we despised them as they richly merited. My mother was great —that is, religiously; she taught us from very infancy with wisdom and skill. She was a Christian: the preachers—in my estimation—were not. Well, my oldest brother, Hans, was a wonder—one of those precocious children that know more at ten than most mature men. From the age of three mother had taught him. He had a memory that let nothing drop. At the age of seven he could repeat the gospel of Mathew and many of the church hymns, etc., etc. Through Rev. Clausen he learned of the young Beloit college, and in 1849 became, I think, the first Norwegian boy at that institution. Like me, he got no help from—home that was not thought necessary in those times—but he performed the marvelous feat of passing entrance examination in a year and a half, and in the first three years in college he made a record that had never been equalled, according to the unanimous testimony of the professors. Shortly after coming home in long vacation he died of cholera—July 26, 1854. He was the oldest and I was the youngest in my mother's family of four. I was then twelve, and five years later I went to Beloit. My mother's teaching and my brother's example was what animated me and fixed my purpose. I had nothing to battle with except poverty; I knew nothing but friendship, encouraging words from teachers and fellow Students buoyed me up; I was a “popular student”; everybody called me Peter, but I never heard anything about Norway or Scandinavian matters. Besides the classics, oratory and elocution monopolized the attention of all and in that line I got all the honors that lay in my path. Besides this, the great moral lesson I had gotten was: “Go out into life, be loyal to your convictions of truth and honor and take the first work that is placed before you, do it faithfully and well, and Providence will steer you all the rest of the way.”

The college and most of the community was composed of New Englanders: by these surroundings I was literally adopted, absorbed and transformed. When I graduated I was a New Englander in mind and spirit, nothing else. My first year in Europe I spent in Norway, not for any definite purpose, but mainly out of curiosity and also to please my parents, who seemed to have a pride in it.

In Norway I was disappointed. I have always been bashful and timid; I did not push myself forward, I was really not “discovered” till I had been there six months. Then I suddenly became popular and was somewhat feted as the first emigrant boy who had gone through an American institution and revisited his native land. But I did not value these attentions very much. The cultured life, and especially the student life did not please the “Puritan New Englander” in me. The lectures seemed dull and clumsy and hard to get interested in; and the students led a wild and often riotous life—drunken, dissipated and vile were many of them. A relative of mine, a very fine, brilliant young man, just past his “Anden Examen” was going to study theology and did actually become a preacher, but was now a notorious “rangler” with whom I soon refused to associate.

The very first week I was in Christiania I got switched onto a sidetrack which has very much influenced my later life. A Danish professor, Rasmus Nielsen, Was then delivering a course of lectures on “Tro og Viden”. He was a disciple of Sören Kierkegaard, a brilliant lecturer, and I soon fell to reading Kierkegaard and Martensen and all the philosophers of that time with almost feverish zeal. Nothing had ever taken such hold of me.

And now I will cut this whole lingo short by confessing that I have never yet known whether I was a philosopher or a fool. I am reading philosophy now all the time as diligently as if for an examination. Nothing else for the past three years. Theosophy 0146 124 —oriental religions, Buddhism, etc. Now very busy with the writings of William James which captivate me very much. In fact I am struggling to work out a “Weltanschauung” of my own. I enjoy it. Time is not heavy on my hands. I should be very happy and contented if, on looking back, I could see a little larger results of my life.

Pardon me for sending you all this stuff.

Yours truly, Peter Hendrickson.

The Norwegian Synod congregations in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois had held several meetings on the question of establishing an academy of their own. At their meetings they received bids from Beloit, from Deerfield, from Cambridge, from Stoughton and from Madison. Prof. Hendrickson offered to sell them his interest in Albion academy. On account of its favorable location, I and others urged the purchase of Albion academy and our arguments finally carried the day. The property was turned over to the Norwegian Synod, was immediately opened by it and Albion academy still continues to be conducted under its auspices. It has an able corps of teachers and a reasonably good attendance. I feel a deep personal interest in its welfare.

It would be unfair to Albion academy if I should omit calling special attention to the great work done by this institution from its incipiency in the early '50s down through the early pioneer days in Wisconsin. It was indeed a lamp of inestimable value to guide the early settlers. It furnished a large number of district schools with efficient teachers. By awakening an interest in literature, it brought sunshine into many homes. Many of the farmers and business men of Dane and surrounding counties owed all they possessed of higher training to this academy.

Some of the students and alumni of the Albion academy that practically closed its doors in March, 1869, have become prominent in various walks of life. I will mention a few of these with an apology to those whom I may not remember.

There is Knute Nelson who was the first Norwegian to be elected to a seat in congress, serving the “bloody fifth” of Minnesota in that capacity for several terms. He was also the first Norwegian to fill the office of governor, being twice elected to that office in Minnesota. Likewise he was the first Norwegian to be elected United States senator, in which position he has recently been reelected to the fourth consecutive term. He has a wonderful hold on the good will of the people of his state and has attained high rank among his colleagues in the senate. All his education was received at Albion academy. After graduating at Albion he studied law in the office of John C. Spooner's father at Madison.

While discussing Knute Nelson's career I seize the opportunity of giving this somewhat interesting episode from his life in Wisconsin.

In 1868 Knute Nelson had been elected a member of the assembly from the eastern half of Dane county. In that way he became at once a representative Norwegian in the state.

Before the state convention the following year a number of prominent Norwegians held a meeting in the Dane county court 0148 126 house for the purpose of securing the nomination of a Norwegian on the republican state ticket. This group of our citizens had not been represented on a state ticket since the days of Hans Heg, he having been twice elected state prison commissioner before the war at which time the commissioner was a regular state officer. As heretofore stated Hans Heg resigned to raise and organize the Fifteenth regiment of Wisconsin volunteers for the war.

Knute Nelson was at the above mentioned meeting in the court house. He was called on to speak, but was not willing to commit himself. The meeting was asking for a Norwegian for the office of secretary of state, but Knute Nelson had evidently promised to support an American friend of his, a Dane county man by name Spencer, for that place on the ticket. It may be added that it was Spencer who had helped Mr. Nelson to be elected assemblyman. Mr. Spencer was at this time serving as assistant secretary of state and was a candidate before the state convention for the office of secretary. The Norwegians convened at the court house, were steered mainly by John A. Johnson, and adopted a resolution recommending Col. Ole C. Johnson, a brother of John A. Johnson, to the state convention for the nomination of secretary of state.

Ole C. Johnson had served as an officer in the Fifteenth regiment, had been a prisoner of war, had suffered all kinds of hardships, had escaped in a miraculous way by cutting a hole through the floor of a freight car and lying down between the ties, had let the whole train pass over him, badly tearing his clothes, and after that reaching the union lines by perilous night marches. Near the close of the war he had been appointed colonel of a regiment which did not, however, see much active service. The Norwegians of Wisconsin now wanted Col. O. C. Johnson to be their political Moses to lead them into Canaan's happy land of political offices.

At the state convention the next day the court house resolutions were read. Both O. C. Johnson and Mr. Spencer were placed in nomination for secretary of state, but Spencer won by a substantial majority. Knute Nelson, who was a delegate, voted for Spencer.

The campaign had not progressed far when it appeared that Mr. Spencer, as assistant secretary of state, was guilty of irregularities in his accounts. A special meeting of the state committee was immediately called. Mr. Spencer's name was taken off the ticket and that of Llywelln Breese of Columbia county substituted. It seemed to me that it would have been good politics if the committee had given the place to Col. Johnson although this might have irritated some of Spencer's friends on account of the previous contest. Mr. Spencer refused point blank to acquiesce. He declared himself innocent of any irregularity in the office from which he had been removed and decided to make the run as an independent candidate. Knute Nelson loyally supported him. Spencer was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls in November and both Spencer and Nelson were politically dead. It ended Nelson's political career in Wisconsin. He moved to Cambridge, in the eastern part of Dane county, and hung out his shingle as an attorney, but there was not much for a lawyer to do in that small village and so Knute Nelson gathered up his personal effects and moved with his family to Alexandria, Minn., which has been his home ever since and where he soon entered upon the brilliant political career which has since been his good fortune.

Another Albion student who has made his mark in the world is J. Q. Emery. I remember him from the day of his graduation. The following year he was my colleague as a professor at the academy and I gave him private lessons in Latin. He afterwards became county superintendent of schools, then city 0150 128 superintendent of schools in Fort Atkinson, Wis., thereupon president of our Normal school at River Falls, then elected and reelected state superintendent of public instruction, and has now for years held the position of state dairy and food commissioner with great credit to himself and to all concerned.

One of Albion's distinguished sons is Alva Adams. He came from Black Earth, Wis., moved to Colorado where he has accumulated a fortune, where he has repeatedly been elected governor, although he is a democrat, and where he would years ago have been elected to a seat in the United States senate had his party been in control of the legislature. He is an orator and writer of rare ability and a gentleman of charming personality.

C. V. Bardeen was the son of a prominent tobacco grower midway between Albion and Edgerton. He practiced law successfully for many years in Wausau, Wis., was elected circuit judge in that part of the state and then served several years until his untimely death as a member of the supreme court of Wisconsin.

W. C. Silverthorn of Wausau is eminent as an attorney, has seen service as circuit judge and has been the democratic candidate for governor.

Louis R. Head, the son of Dr. C. R. Head, president of the board of trustees of Albion academy, has held various high positions as physician. was for some years superintendent of the Mendota hospital, Madison, Wis., and since his retirement from that position has built up a large practice of medicine in Madison, where he is a leading citizen.

E. L. Greene, a graduate of Albion of 1866, has had a wonderfully successful career as a botanist. He was reared in the Seventh Day Baptist church. In the '60s he became a preacher in the Methodist church; later he became a pastor in the Episcopal church and finally identified himself with the 0151 129 Catholic church of which he is still a distinguished member and a professor in its great university at Washington, D.C. His first steps in the study of botany were taken under the guidance of T. L. Kumlien. Later he went to the far west where he became the discoverer of countless hitherto unknown members of our American flora. He became a close friend of the distinguished Asa Gray and many other American and European botanists and is today himself one of the great botanists of the world. E. L. Greene is without any doubt the most noted scientist that Albion academy has produced and would be a credit to any university or any nation.

Good things could be said of a number of others who received their education at Albion academy and have since attained prominent positions in their respective communities. There are the brothers Sylvanus and A. R. Ames, the former now superintendent of schools in the eastern district of Dane county and the latter a prominent real estate man of Madison, and I. P. Ketchurn, business manager of the Madison (Wis.) Democrat. I had the honor of giving I. P. Ketchurn his first lessons in bookkeeping.

Of Norwegian Albion students who subsequently made their mark in life I may here mention Christ Melaas, the merchant prince of Stoughton, Wis., P. A. Flaten and A. L. Hollo, who both became well known and highly respected physicians; P.O. Noben, who died as a prominent attorney in Duluth and my brother Abel Anderson, who is a Norwegian Synod minister in Montevideo, Minn.

But this sketch of Albion academy students would be sadly defective if I did not mention Elias Molee. His father came from Tin, Telemarken, Norway, in 1839 and settled in Muskego. One of his aunts was married to Col. Hans Meg and another aunt was married to Elias Stangeland, a man who became widely known as a Norwegian journalist in Madison, Wis., and as a publisher of a Norwegian edition of Luther's 9 0152 130 sermons, a book nearly the size of Webster's unabridged, a Herculean undertaking among the Norwegians of the '50s in this country. I presume he lost money on this venture. The book was published in Madison. Elias Molee was sent to Luther college in Decorah. There he and I became intimate friends and he followed me to Albion. He graduated at Albion in 1868 and afterwards became my pupil at the University of Wisconsin. He was a young man of extraordinary ambition. While yet a student at Decorah he began deploring the multiplicity of languages and insisted there ought to be only one universal tongue and this one tongue ought to be simple and absolutely regular. As a student in Albion he had the idea of becoming the creator of such an universal language. He entered Luther college under the name Elias Johnson. This was also his name at Albion academy, but he thought there were too many Johnsons and that it would not be easy for him to establish his identity and make his mark in the world with so common a name. Therefore, in order to distinguish himself from the other Johnsons he inserted a “t” and called himself “Johnston.” But this did not serve his purpose. His correspondents seemed to overlook the “t” and write his name, as before, “Johnson.” He envied such men as Clay, Webster, Lincoln and others who seemed to have gotten names that would easily be remembered and serve as identification. He studied the problem and wishing to have a name that nobody else bore he coined the word “Monololo” and for a time he used that as his surname. It was “Elias Monololo”.

From the university he went to Houston county, Minn., where for two terms he was elected county treasurer, but under the name Elias Johnson. In Spring Grove, in that county, he met a widow with two grown daughters and considerable property. The widow's name was Velo. I think Mrs. Velo courted him. At all events they were married. Elias now thought his time had come to create a new language for the 0153 131 whole world. He thought Velo would be an excellent name for him to be known by and so he applied to the state legislature of Minnesota to have his name changed from Elias Johnson to Elias Velo. This was done, but the transcribing clerk had made the “l” look like an uncrossed “t” and so the governor remarked that he did not care to veto the bill changing “Johnson” to “Veto”.

Elias and his wife were not compatible. He was the essence of good nature but she seems to have looked upon him as a shiftless person who wanted to dabble in literature at her expense. So they agreed to separate. They went together to the judge in Caledonia, the county seat of Houston county, and asked for a divorce, but as neither one was able to give a sufficient cause the judge refused to grant it.

Mr. and Mrs. Velo than agreed that one would have to strike the other so as to establish a cause for the desired divorce. Elias said it would not look well for a large able-bodied man like himself to assault a frail woman and so it was agreed that she should strike him. She did so and with this evidence they went a second time to the judge and then obtained their divorce. Elias then went to Bristol, S. D., engaged in farming and in working on his universal language. He accumulated some property and then went to Minneapolis where he fell in with another widow who had several children and some property. This woman also got tired of supporting Elias, who spent his time and money in linguistic pursuits of which she had no appreciation.

After a couple of years they also agreed to separate and since that time Elias has enjoyed the blessedness of single life. For many years he has lived in Tacoma, Wash., which is still his home. He has published a number of pamphlets and several books, all on the one subject of his universal language, a form of speech entirely distinct from Volapuk or Esperanto. His first book was published by “Skandinaven” in Chicago, his 0154 132 second by Rand, McNally & Co. of Chicago, and his last one by the great Trubner publishing house of London. He calls his language “Tutonish”. It is made up of roots from the Germanic languages. It is entirely regular and he uses no capitals.

A few years ago he went to Europe solely in the interest of his language. He visited Christiania where he organized a Tutonish language society, getting the support and cooperation of a number of the most distinguished scholars in that city. He also visited Berlin, Leipsic and other German cities and as he has written me he was well received. The best proof of distinguished attention lies in the fact that he secured the Trubners as publishers of his last book. This gave him a distinct standing in the world of books and writers.

After his separation from his second wife he assumed the name Molee based on his father's farm name in Tin, Norway, which was “Moyli”. He has reflected great credit on Albion academy and earned an honorable position among its most distinguished sons. He has made the name elias molee immortal.

I would like to give a list of all the 303 students that attended Albion academy during the year 1868–69, but it would take too much space. In addition to those already mentioned. I think I ought to mention: H. C. Adams, from Cottage Grove. He afterwards served our district as member of congress and died in the harness; Halsten O. Brager from Black Earth; Albert J. Berge, Mt. Horeb; Ole Bilstad, who is now a prosperous druggist in Cambridge, Wis., and whose son is a well-known physician in that city; S. M. and H. A. Bue from Deerfield, Wis.; Charles P. W. Clausen, who has repeatedly been elected to state office in the state of Washington. He is a son of the late Rev. C. L. Clausen. F.W. Coon, who is a publisher and leading citizen in Edgerton, Wis. Geo. W. Currier, who became a prominent journalist and citizen of Stoughton, Wis. Edwin A. Drotning, the present postmaster 0155 133 in Stoughton. E.T. Farnes from DeForest. He afterwards took a full course in the state university, and then studied theology, Michael S. and Thomas Frawley. Sina C. Johnson of Christiana. H.M. Langland of Lucust Lane, Iowa. O.H. Lee of Christiana. He afterwards married Sina C. Johnson. They now reside in the state of Washington. L.K. Lief of Christiana. L.K. Luse, now a prominent attorney. Chas. Olson (Kittel Onsgard) of Albion, now a prosperous farmer in Burke, Wis. D.N. Rothe, Deerfield. C.A. Sjolander from La Crosse. Nels O. Starks, who died as a successful real estate dealer in Madison. H.O. Texley of Cambridge. T. G. Thompson of Deerfield. He has served a term as assemblyman. E.A. Weigen, who died seeking gold in Alaska. O. P. Swerig, now a citizen of Minneapolis. Jessie Brodahl, daughter of Rev. P.M. Brodahl of Perry, Wis. Julia Ingebrigtsen of Stoughton and her sister Betsey. Julia afterwards married the well-known Prof. J. D. Jacobson of Luther college. Florence Taylor of Cottage Grove. Her father William R. Taylor served one term as governor of Wisconsin. Th. W. Evans, now a well-known physician in Madison, had charge of the bell. D.J. Whittet, the father of Assemblyman L. C. Whittet.

I hope to be forgiven by those whom I after this long stretch of years may have forgotten to mention in this list of Albion students.

Besides meeting Ole Bull I desire to mention here that I once heard T. H. Brand give a violin concert in the chapel of Albion academy and I thought his music the finest I ever heard or would ever hear. In Janesville I one night heard John B. Gough, the great temperance orator, and he gave his famous passage on water with a full glass of water in his hand. I also heard the country's most distinguished senator, Charles Sumner, deliver his address “Are We a Nation?” in Janesville. At the hotel I was allowed to shake hands with him and look at 0156 134 the scar on his head from the wound after the assault made on him by the southerner Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina.

The student making a study of pioneer life in Wisconsin will not fail to find that it contained many virtues that are sadly lacking in our day. It is true that the pioneers as a whole were deficient in what is called education, culture and refinement; but they were industrious, serious and ambitious. Whether occupied in tilling the soil, in selling goods or in the practice of various professions they applied themselves with great diligence and singleness of purpose, and their children, whether in the common school or later in the academy, college or university, exhibited those same traits of industry and ambition. Every pupil was determined to get the best results possible from the time he was allowed to attend school. In this way alone can be explained the large percentage of successful men and women in the various walks of life.

After March, 1869, Albion, with its academy became for years a mere story of what it had been. On the fatal day which has been described nearly all the students returned to their homes, the academy buildings were empty and the town was deserted.

I loaded my few belongings consisting mainly of my books and a few modest pieces of furniture on a wagon and sent them to Cambridge where they were stored. With these goods I also had the library which I had gathered during the previous twelve months. For my wife, who was soon to become a mother, I found temporary shelter in the home of her parents in Cambridge. All this done as well as circumstances permitted, I went to Madison to study at the university during the spring term. I was offered a room and board at the house of my good friend, John A. Johnson. I sawed and carried his wood, did little chores and helped take care of his little daughter Ida. Mr. Johnson was at that time associated with Williams, Hoyt, Proudfit & Gernon in the handling of Walter A. Wood's reapers and mowers in the Northwest. In this business he laid the foundation of his later wealth. His home was at that time on the north side of West Main street midway between Broom and Bassett streets. Before this time he had served several terms as county clerk and he was, all things considered, probably the best known and most influential Norwegian layman in America at that time.

When the spring term opened at the university I was on hand to register and to determine which classes I could attend. President P. A. Chadbourne sent for me to come to his office. Imagine my consternation when he informed me that I could not be admitted to the university even as a student and that my engagement as instructor for the next year had been cancelled. He explained that he had full information in regard to me, both concerning Albion academy and Luther college and he regarded my record at both places to be of so serious a character as to entirely exclude me from the university.

It seemed as if the floor were sinking beneath my feet. My future seemed a mere blank. But I braced up and gathered up all the courage there was in me and with all the emphasis that I could command I demanded an opportunity of presenting my side. He had heard the representations of my worst enemies and I urged that he had no right to pass judgment without also hearing the other side. My appeal to him was so earnest and passionate that he could not refuse me a hearing. He therefore appointed an hour on the next clay when he would be pleased to listen to me and hear what I had to say in my defense. Accordingly the next day I came to his office and gave him a complete history of my life, including a detailed account of my 0159 137 expulsion from Luther college and of the circumstances that culminated in my departure from Albion.

It may be immodest on my part to mention it, but I do believe that I was really eloquent in this narration of my life story to President Chadbourne. It was an eloquence produced by the feeling that my whole future depended on the effect of my words. President Chadbourne listened to me with increasing interest. My story made a deep impression; he arose and told me that he was convinced that I had been much wronged. He told me that I might enter the university and that my engagement as instructor would not be cancelled. I remember that he patted me on my cheeks, telling me that I should look upon him as my friend and that I should feel free to come to him with my troubles. This interview dispersed the clouds and brought sunshine back into my life. I devoted the most of my time during that term to the study of Latin, Greek and history and in hearing lectures by President Chadbourne on botany.

At the end of the spring term I rented a small cottage on West Main street opposite John A. Johnson's home and brought my little family to Madison. The library which I had begun collecting while at Albion I now turned over to the University of Wisconsin library, calling it “Mimer's Subdivision”. It consisted of several hundred volumes, many of which were of but little value, but this Mimer's library became the nucleus of that splendid collection of Scandinavian books now found at the university.

In order not to have to refer to my flitting again I will now state, once for all, that Mrs. Anderson and I lived only two months in that cottage on West Main street. From there we moved into a small house on East Washington avenue below Blair street, thus becoming a near neighbor of Halle Steensland. The next summer we rented a house owned by Col. O. .C. Johnson on East Gorham street nearly opposite the second 0160 138 ward school house. In the fall of 1871 we rented a cottage built by Prof. J. W. Sterling at what is now called Sterling Court, near the university. Three or four years later we rented a house owned by Alexander Gill on West Washington avenue below Broom street. In 1881 we purchased a house at 316 North Carroll street and this has been our home from that time to this.

In these our various homes we have had the pleasure of entertaining a number of distinguished guests among whom I may here mention Ole Bull, Björnstjerne Björnson, Kristofer Janson, Edward Everett Hale, John Fiske, Edward Remenyi, Paul B. Du Chaillu, the celebrated explorer of Africa, Knut Hamsun, the Danish minister Bille, the Norwegian minister Bryn, Halfdan Koht, Captain Angell, Mrs. Dick-Vaaler, C. L. Clausen, V. Koren, H. A. Preus, J. A. Ottesen, Sven Oftedal, Sven Gundersen, Prof. L. Larsen and scores of others, particularly Scandinavians of prominence in this country.

My first year at the university as an instructor consisted chiefly in hard work. I had four classes per day, five days a week. I keenly felt that my teaching would be scrutinized as it never had been before. It seemed like beginning life over again and that what I had done heretofore was without value. I also realized that the atmosphere was filled with prejudice against me and that it was up to me to make good. I was a sort of supernumerary and had to take such classes as were assigned to me. If an instructor were needed in mathematics, I had to take the class and so on in the different departments. During my first years in the university I taught Latin, Greek, German, Anglo-Saxon, ancient history, English grammar, arithmetic, and several other subjects, and I was kept pretty busy in studying my lessons before appearing in the class room.

The idea of a chair of Scandinavian languages, literature and history in the university had begun to take shape in my mind, but had not yet matured. There were but few students of Scandinavian parentage in attendance and I saw but little opportunity of organizing a class in Scandinavian studies, and as I keep on indicating I was exceedingly timid on account of all my recent troubles. Of the fact that my Norwegian enemies had not laid down their arms President Chadbourne furnished the proof. One day shortly before Christmas he asked me to 0162 140 come to his office. He then informed me that he had received letters from Norwegian-Americans who protested vigorously against my being employed as a university teacher and urged that my services be discontinued. The president did not inform me from whom he had received such letters, but he said he wanted me to know the fact, at the same time assuring me that his personal relations to me had undergone no change. He advised me not to pay any attention to my enemies, but to concentrate all my energies on my university work and leave the rest to him, he would take care of me.

President Chadbourne's kind words gave me the kind of encouragement of which I was much in need, but all is not gold that glitters and my future in the university was not, by far, so secure as the reader may have been led to suppose. There was a serious flaw in President Chadbourne's assurances of protection. I knew that I could depend on his good will, but it was already being talked all over the state that Chadbourne would sever his connection with the university the next spring, and if he left who would take his place as my protector? The fact is, and I may as well state it now, that President Chadbourne did resign at the end of this school year and left the university and Wisconsin for good. Prof. Sterling took his place during the interregnum, then the regents committed the egregious blunder of electing the unexperienced, clumsy, impractical Methodist preacher, J. H. Twombly, as president.

The regents soon discovered their mistake, demanded Twombly's resignation and elected as his successor Prof. John Bascom of Williams college, decidely one of the brainiest men who ever set foot on Wisconsin soil. John Bascom was a great man, a great teacher and a great university president. No teacher in our university has been more beloved and respected by the students, and he left an impression on all who came under his influence. In him I found again a warm friend. He took an 0163 141 interest in my university work and in my literary activities and aspirations.

But to return to my first year in the university. Already the second term of that year the number of Scandinavian students had increased and so I was able to organize a small class in Norwegian. With this as a basis, I gradually began to urge the addition of Scandinavian languages, etc., as an elective study in the university curriculum. I wanted these languages and literatures formally recognized. The whole university faculty refused to listen to me. They were, all of them, totally ignorant of Scandinavian literature and had only the most superficial knowledge of Scandinavian history. They said I had Scandinavian languages on my brain; they regarded this as a form of disease and pitied me. Imagine a man coming to the university today and insisting it was absolutely necessary to establish a chair in Patagonian, imagine him claiming that Patagonia is the cradle of all our liberties and of the laws out of which all modern civilization has poured, imagine him urging that Patagonian is more important than any of the studies now offered in the university curriculums, imagine what sort of reception this Patagonian would receive, and you have a clear idea of my position as an advocate, champion and apostle of Scandinavian studies. My efforts hardly left an impression.

The university had few books to which I could refer to furnish evidence of the correctness of my contentions. I was but poorly armed and equipped for the contest. To please President Chadbourne, to show my appreciation of what he had done for me and to make my bow to the public as a writer I translated a small pamphlet by Chadbourne into Norwegian. I set the type myself, working nights in .a printing office owned by B. W. Suckow. He was publishing at that time an Illustrated monthly called “Billedmagazin,” edited by Svein Nilson, afterwards for many years editor in chief of “Skandinayen.” In 1868 this same “Billedmagazin” had contained an 0164 142 extended account of my work at Albion academy, with pictures of the academy buildings. Chadbourne was a sincere Christian. The subject of the pamphlet which I translated and published was “The Relations Between Science and Christianity”, the author's object being to show that there is no conflict between the teachings of Christianity and the teachings of science.

My chief object in translating the booklet was to show that the Norwegian Synod ministers were mistaken when they denounced the American public schools as godless and destructive of the Christian faith. The booklet produced a great deal of discussion, pro and contra, in the Norwegian-American press and thus my main purpose with this my first literary attempt was fully realized. It was published in 1869.

In the summer of 1870 President Chadbourne resigned and went to Utah and from what I have already stated about all his kindnesses to me his leaving was a very great loss to me. There was no one left in the faculty to whom I could go and discuss my aims and aspirations. Outside of the faculty I had Ole Bull, and John A. Johnson. Indirectly Ole Bull was a tower of strength, but he was not equipped for doing any personal work, either with the university faculty or its regents. John A. Johnson, on the other hand, was an experienced politician, and he knew how to approach the people in authority in my behalf and in the interests of the cause. He also knew all the state officers and the members of the board of regents and his word had great weight with them.

While Prof. Sterling, as acting president, and his successor, President Twombly, were without any interest in or appreciation of the Scandinavian languages as a branch of university instruction, still they knew that there was a large and growing Scandinavian population in the Northwest; they noticed that a considerable number of Scandinavian students were attending the university, and so they came to look upon it as a matter of good business policy to give this group of our population some sort of recognition in the department of instruction in the university. I attribute to this, that as one year after the other ended I was not dropped a.s an instructor.

In the meantime two things were uppermost in my mind. The one was to do as well as I was able the teaching assigned to me; the other to make the university well known among the Scandinavians and to get as many as possible of their children to enter it as students and make it the center of education for the whole Scandinavian population of this country. I organized classes in the Scandinavian languages and persuaded as many as possible to join these. I also induced a number of students who were not of Scandinavian extraction to learn one or more of the Scandinavian tongues. As a text book I used Björnson's “Synnöve Solbakken” and Tegner's “Fridtjof's Saga”.

Outside of the university I took every opportunity to urge the tremendous importance of Scandinavian history and literature as an element of culture, and in this I was splendidly supported by Ole Bull. After his marriage Ole Bull made Madison his American home and spent much of his time there. I was in almost daily intercourse with him and I think I may safely attribute it to him that my eyes were opened to the need of a vast amount of work in the line of presenting Scandinavian antiquities, history and literature to American readers. Somebody would have to do on a large scale for the other departments of Scandinavian culture what Jenny Lind and Ole Bull had accomplished in music. In the early '70s very little had been clone in the English language. In this country George P. Marsh had translated Rask's “Icelandic Grammar”; Longfellow had translated Tegner's “The Children of the Lord's Supper” and Bayard Taylor had published a book on his travels in Scandinavia. An obscure Dane by name Sinding had published in New York a very flimsy history of Scandinavia. It is fair to say that at this time Scandinavia was among the cultivated Americans an unexplored country.

This petit done and undone vast constantly occupied my mind, but how to get it done, there was the rub. I wanted to 0167 145 do it, but knew only too well that I lacked the education; that I did not have access to the necessary books; in a word, that I did not have the necessary equipment. But where there is a will there is a way. If I could not do all, I could at least make a beginning and blaze the route for others, and so I went to work and applied myself industriously with the limited means at my command. For some reason or other, I had arrived at the conclusion that Norway outclassed all other countries in the field of folk-lore, or nursery tales. The German folk-lore tales had been collected by the Brothers Grimm. In Norway Asbjörnsen and Moe had performed a similar task. As a boy still on the farm in Albion I had read a small volume of Asbjörnsen and Moe's folk-lore tales. Now in 1871, I conceived the idea that these stories ought to be read by all Norwegian children in America and that a collection of them would serve admirably as a text book in teaching the Norwegian language in the university.

Accordingly I went to work, selected what I thought to be the most characteristic of these stories, furnished them with a glowing preface or introduction and the “Skandinaven” published them for me in a little volume called “Julegave” (Christmas Gift). I builded more wisely than I knew. The book served me well as a textbook in the university and became very popular with the general public. This little book has been published in eight editions and is still selling. I think I can say without exaggeration that no other book hitherto published in the Norwegian language in this country has done as much to create and preserve an interest in our Norwegian inheritance in America, that is to say, outside of the work done by the church and its religious books.

“Julegave” was published in the autumn of 1872. While nothing in it was original, except the introduction, still it was the first book within the domain of secular, cultural literature 10 0168 146 in any Scandinavian tongue printed on the western continent, and thus I became the pioneer or pathfinder, in this field of endeavor, just as I was the first Norwegian-American to teach in an American academy in 1866 and the first Norwegian-American to serve as instructor in an American state university, in 1869, where in 1875 I was to occupy the first chair of Scandinavian languages established on this continent. I like to impress upon my readers the fact that the securing of recognition of Scandinavian culture involved a tremendous struggle. The great majority of the Norwegians themselves were either ignorant or indifferent in regard to their inheritance. It was necessary to do a lot of missionary work among them in order to arouse in them enthusiasm for their ancestors and respect for their language and literature. I wanted them to be good Norwegians and loyal Americans at the same time, and I wanted to impress the Americans with the fact that they were greatly indebted to the north of Europe for their liberties, laws and institutions. Along these lines I conducted my campaigns.

I was poor; I had sold my farm, but the proceeds for many years went to paying my debt on that farm; my salary was small, only $400 the first year, $600 per annum the next two years; then $800 the fourth year. Our little daughter, born April 18, 1869, died on April 18, that is on Easter Sunday, in 1870. Thus the reader will see that I had much with which to contend, and still I was in no way disheartened. Now and then I would secure a new book either for my own private library or for the university library, or I would get Mr. Lyman C. Draper, the founder of the State Historical Society, whose friendship and good will I had won, to purchase books that I wanted to use, for the great library that he was creating.

In the spring of 1872 I conceived the idea of going to Ole Bull for assistance. I requested him to give a concert for the benefit of the Norwegian (I did not dare to say Scandinavian) library in the University. He responded with alacrity. He chose the 17th of May, Norway's fourth of July, for the concert, and we secured the assembly chamber in the capitol for this great festival. We had this celebration advertised far and wide. A choir came from La Crosse and assisted at the concert. A large delegation came from Chicago. The assembly chamber was crowded to its utmost capacity. President Twombly of the university presided. At the end of the concert 0170 148 there was an informal reception at which Governor Fairchild, John A. Johnson, Ole Bull, I and others spoke.

The music played by Ole Bull at that concert was Norwegian and so were the songs sung by the choir.

I spoke mainly on the significance of the 17th of May in Norwegian history. The enthusiasm was great and by this event the Norwegians were raised materially both in their own estimation and in that of their American fellow citizens. It was surely the greatest 17th of May celebration ever held in America up to that time. Besides the proceeds of the tickets, which were $1 apiece, I secured some outside subscriptions so that the day after the concert I had about $750. Mr. Iver Lawson of Chicago, father of the well known Victor F. Lawson, then contributed about $250, sufficient to make the whole fund an even $1,000. This was all to be invested in Scandinavian books for the university library.

Then Ole Bull, in his great generosity, proposed that I should go with him to Norway and purchase the books. He offered to defray all my expenses, I to be on the whole journey his guest. He wanted to assist in educating the Norwegian instructor at the university. He was anxious that I should see Norway, its mountains and valleys and fjords and the people living amid those romantic environments. He also wanted me to meet as many as possible of Norway's scholars, authors and artists, so that I might speak and write of those things with a more intimate knowledge of them. He promised my wife to take good care of me and obtained her consent.

There were at that time somewhat strained relations between Ole Bull and his wife and the Thorpe family. Mrs. Bull and her mother, Mrs. Thorpe, decided to remain in Wisconsin, but it was arranged that Mr. Thorpe and the son Joseph, a young man who some years later married one of the daughters of the poet Longfellow, should go with Ole Bull, presumably to keep an eye on his movements and acts. We spent a few days in 0171 149 New York. While there Ole Bull took me with him to call on John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor. Ole Bull had himself during the past couple of years invented a piano with a new kind of sounding board. The frame for this piano had been made in John Ericsson's laboratory and the visit had reference to this work. We found John Ericsson in a blouse full of work. He was a medium-sized, thick-set, fair-faced, gray-haired man with keen, sparkling eyes. I thought it a great honor to be permitted to shake hands with this greatest of living inventors, with the man who had invented the propeller for steamers and the world-famed warship, the “cheesebox” called the Monitor, and to watch him and Ole Bull visit together as if they were two turtle doves.

John Ericsson was no “invisible” Swede to Ole Bull. Ole Bull realized what a charming man he was and that he had compelled the world to destroy its old commercial and naval fleets and build new ones from his pattern. All the old style ships became worthless with his inventions and new ones had to be propelled by Ericsson's screw. This visit was the only glimpse I ever had of this great and modest man, but I can never forget it.

To show how utterly reckless Ole Bull was in money affairs an instance or two will serve. He had in his trunk a large amount, many thousands of dollars of American paper currency. This he wished to change into British gold. He took the money out of the trunk and wrapped it up carelessly in one of the large daily newspapers, handed it to me and asked me to go with him. We went to a bank near Trinity church. In the bank Ole Bull relieved me of the bundle and laid it on the ledge between a couple of the interior windows. The tellers at the bank were busy and could not wait on him at once, so he calmly lit his cigar and went out of doors to take a walk up and down the sidewalk, giving no thought whatever to the bundle of money. Of course I had horse sense enough to stay 0172 150 near the money. I do not believe he had the least idea how much the package contained.

When he re-entered the bank he finally succeeded in shoving the package into the hands of the cashier and telling him he wanted it changed into English gold. This he received in a fair-sized canvas bag which he let me carry back to the hotel. At the hotel he took a good handful of the gold, handed a part of it to me and put the rest loose in his inside vest pocket. The bag containing the balance of the gold he threw carelessly into his valise among his linen and underwear.

Ole Bull and I got a stateroom together on the White Star line steamer Atlantic, supposed at that time to be the finest ship afloat. It was new and its record between New York and Liverpool was ten days. J.G. Thorpe and his son secured berths in another part of the steamer.

Perhaps it should have been stated before that Norway had reached in this year the thousandth year of her existence as a monarchy and great preparations had been made for the celebration of this anniversary. Norway had been united into one kingdom at the battle of Hafersfjord, near Stavanger, in the summer of 872 by Harald Fairhair. On his grave, near Haugesund, a monument had been erected. This was to be unveiled with royal ceremonies on the 18th of July.

The event was the occasion of drawing many Norwegian-Americans to Norway that summer. Many of the trans-Atlantic steamship lines advertised excursion rates to Norway on account of the celebration. Of such excursionists there were a considerable number on board the Atlantic. They were all in a part of the steerage which had been fitted up for their special accommodation. Among these Norwegian passengers were Halle Steensland and B. W. Suckow, of Madison, Wis. I had many pleasant visits with them, both on board the steamer and later in Norway.

Ole Bull seemed to know everybody; he had been intimately acquainted with Daniel Webster, with Henry Clay and with many of the other old-timers, and he enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, in fact with all Americans of note, in journalism, in art, in science and in literature, and they all loved him.

Among the passengers on the Atlantic on this trip were Cyrus W. Field and General W. B. Franklin. General Franklin's brother, Colonel Franklin, had been for a year professor of military tactics at the University of Wisconsin. For this reason I easily became acquainted with the general.

Ole Bull was a passionate whist player and he got Mr. Field, General Franklin and me to form a whist club. We played assiduously a great share of the time until we reached Liverpool.

About mid-ocean Ole Bull was persuaded to give a concert for the benefit of sailors' widows. I still have the invitation which was signed in red ink by all the officers and first class passengers on board. Tickets were sold at any price the purchaser cared to pay and the concert produced a very substanstial sum for the sailors' fund.

A little incident occurred on this my first journey to the old world and I will tell it wholly for the reason that it throws a sidelight on the life of the famous Ole Bull. If it did not involve him it would be of no interest to the reader. As already stated Ole Bull's father-in-law was a passenger on the Atlantic. There was no intercourse between the two on board the steamer. I saw and talked with Mr. Thorpe every day. In the middle of the Atlantic ocean he decided not to go direct to Norway, but to make a hurried detour to London, Paris, Switzerland, take in a few cities in Germany and then swing up to Norway later. He knew that I could speak German and a little French and besides preferring to have company he invited me to go with him wholly at his expense. This seemed to me an offer that I could not afford to decline. I told Mr. Thorpe that I would be more than glad to go with him, but being Ole Bull's guest I would have to have his consent.

Ole Bull and I had the same stateroom, he occupying the lower and I the upper berth. In the evening I, with all the diplomacy at my command, suggested that I would like to take a run to London, Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen and join him later in Bergen, assuring him that I would get to Norway in ample time for the unveiling of the Harald Haarfager monument, the 18th of July. I also urged that I might remain a 0175 153 little longer in Norway in the autumn. But Ole Bull's suspicions were at once aroused. In his own mind he saw every string in this deep-laid plot. He at once started piling up reasons to show how foolish it would be for me to waste my time chasing through the streets of those large cities staring at the buildings. To my answers he did not pay the least attention. Neither he nor I mentioned Mr. Thorpe, but it was clear that he understood that the proposal had come from his father-in-law and that was what worried him.

I was pretty stubborn and tried to persuade him that my plan was a reasonable one, but assured him that I could not think of making this sidetrip without his approval.

Ole Bull had put on his nightshirt and sat barefooted on his berth. In spite of the fact that I had yielded he continued to scold and ridicule me all night long and until after breakfast time in the morning. Neither he nor I got a wink of sleep. He told me what interest he had taken in me and of all the things that he wanted to do for me. He reminded me that he had promised my wife to take care of me, but if I was going to act in this manner we better part for good. He said that we should have our misunderstanding committed to writing in duplicate and we were to sign this document which he was to frame in the presence of witnesses. I informed Mr. Thorpe the next day that Ole Bull was obdurate and that it was impossible for me to accept his generous offer.

I have given this episode to show how even great men can become worked up over trivial things and make mountains out of molehills.

I can never forget the strange feelings that overwhelmed me when for the first time I planted my feet on the historic soil of Europe. At every Step I seemed to be treading on sacred ground.

At Liverpool we dined and took a drive with Mr. Lucius Fairchild, who had just reached that city as American consul. He had been appointed by President Grant. From Liverpool Fairchild went to Paris as our consul general and from there he was sent to Madrid as our minister to Spain.

One day while in Liverpool Ole Bull and I went to hear an organ concert by Mr. Best, on one of the world's most powerful organs, and Ole Bull said that Mr. Best was the greatest organist then living.

From Liverpool we proceeded by rail to Hull and there we embarked for Norway. On the North sea we struck a gale. I had not been seasick a minute and Ole Bull, who had traveled by water so much was supposed to be seasick-proof and was anxious to be so considered. I too was ambitious to be considered a good seaman. We had left Hull about midnight and had plunged into the midst of the gale. For breakfast there appeared only the captain at the head of the table and Ole Bull and I, one on each side of him. I did not feel well, but would not admit there was anything the matter. Ole Bull's 0177 155 complexion was exceedingly fair, but I noticed traces of unusual paleness. I tried to keep up with him in eating and remained till the meal was finished. I then hastened to my room and gave my breakfast to goddess Ran. I noticed that Ole Bull did not smoke his cigar, but neither would admit to the other that there was anything the matter.

At dinner the same trio put in their appearance. All the other passengers were invisible. Ole Bull appeared paler than ever, and his accustomed smile was gone, but of course there was nothing the matter with either one of us. I was determined to eat all that was set before me, but when I had finished the soup I had to take my leave suddenly and without ceremony and again pay my respects to goddess Ran. I had remained for some time in my stateroom when I thought I was in condition to pay a visit to my friend. I entered Ole Bull's stateroom and found him exerting all his energy in turning his dinner over to Aegir. His humiliation was indescribable. I think he would rather have lost his best violin than be seen in this predicament.

When we came in sight of Norway Ole Bull sent for me to join him on the deck. There he stood with his head uncovered and with tears streaming down his cheeks as he pointed out to me those mountains of his native land that he loved so well. When King Frederick VII of Denmark once asked Ole Bull who had taught him to play he replied, “the mountains of Norway, your majesty”. I once asked Ole Bull what had inspired his weird and original melodies. His answer was substantially that from his earliest childhood he had taken the profoundest delight in Norway's natural scenery. He grew eloquent in his poetic descriptions of the grand and picturesque, flower-clad valleys filled with soughing trees and singing birds;of the silver-crested mountains from which the summer sun never departs, of the melodious brooks, babbling streams and thundering rivers; 0178 156 of the blinking lakes that sink their deep thoughts to star-lit skies; of the far penetrating fjords and the many thousand islands on the coast. His face lighted up with inspiration when he talked of the eagerness with which he as a boy had devoured all myths, folk-tales, ballads and popular melodies; “and all these things”, he said, “have made my music”.

These things did make his music, not only by their influence upon his mind, but also by the impression they had made upon several generations of his ancestors who had contemplated them. Ole Bull's forebears had for many generations been people of culture and refinement. When we see a beautiful and thoughtful face we sometimes forget to consider how much the ancestors of that man or woman must have suffered and labored and thought before such beauty and intelligence became possible.

I am unable to describe the feelings with which I for the first time in my life beheld Norway floating on the horizon. Behind these mountains my forefathers had lived for ages. Norway had become to me next to America the dearest land on earth and this country was this very year celebrating its thousandth anniversary as a kingdom. On the 18th of July a monument was to be unveiled on Harald Haarfager's grave at Haugesund. Harald was to be honored as the creator of a united Norway.

I did not feel and did not share in this admiration for the famous Harald; I looked upon him then as I still do, as a tyrant and usurper. Behind these mountains at which I was looking lay the cradle of modern free institutions. Before the days of Harald the Norwegians had been a free people, making their own laws and electing their own rulers. Harald, encouraged by the girl whom he had asked to be his wife, determined to destroy the liberties of Norway and make himself the despot of the country. He had learned of the system of Charlemagne and had made up his mind to impose it on Norway 0179 157 He made war on the thirty-odd ancient republics and conquered them one by one until he fought the last bloody battle at Hafersfjord, near Stavanger, presumably in July, 872. This battle of Hafersfjord, which was this summer to be celebrated by the unveiling of a monument to the victor, you do not find mentioned in our encyclopedias, nor in our universal histories, but to my mind it is the most important battle of all mediaeval and modern history, judging it not by the number of people engaged in it, nor by the number of heroes who there found a watery grave, but by the results which followed to bless mankind.

In the battle of Hafersfjord Harald conquered the last of those who opposed his subjection of Norway and the usurpation of its freedom for his crown; but the proud freemen of Norway, though conquered, disdained to give up their time-honored independence and be degraded. They resolved to abandon those homes in the beautiful Norwegian valleys which they could now no longer call their own and resolved to emigrate and found new homes. Harald's victory resulted in an exodus from Norway the like of which has never been seen in that or any other land. Whither should they go? Not less than 70,000 went in their ships to Iceland. Other large numbers went to the Faroes, to the Shetland isles and to the Orkneys and Hebrides.

In Iceland they established a republic which flourished for about 400 years, and it was during this republic's existence that the immortal Eddas and Sagas were committed to writing by the Icelanders. We do not have any words of praise for Harald, but we thank him that he made this exodus to Iceland necessary. It was Harald Haarfager's tyranny and usurpation of power that made Norway pour her best blood out of her loins. A band of these emigrants found their way to France where they took possession of one of the fairest districts and 0180 158 called it Normandy and the Normans became the leaders in France in the various industries, in architecture, in art and in literature. Descendants of these Normans founded kingdoms and principalities along the Mediterranean, in Italy and in Sicily; and it was they who led the van in rescuing Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher from the heathens.

The leader of the Norwegians that founded Normandy in the year 912 was Gange-Rolf (Rollo). He was the first Norwegian known in history to accept the Christian faith and be baptised. He received the daughter of the French king Charles the Simple for his wife and was made by him duke of Normandy. His great great grandson was William the Conqueror, who won for himself the crown of England at the battle of Hastings on the plains of Senlac in the year 1066, and it is proper to add that from this conquest of England by the Normans from France the pride and glory of Great Britain descended. The English trace their free institutions back to this conquest. Putting all this in a nutshell we may say that of the tree of liberty that had thrived for ages in the secluded valleys of Norway Rollo and his companions brought seed to France where it flourished in the fertile soil of Normandy. William the Conqueror and his Norman heroes planted scions of this Norwegian tree of liberty throughout England where it budded in the Magna Charta and the many bills for the advancement of human rights. Our pilgrim fathers carried seed of this same tree with them in the Mayflower and scattered it in the virgin soil of New England where the tree unfolded the world's fairest blossom in the Declaration of Independence and produced the ripest and sweetest fruit in the Constitution of the United States.

The fruits of Harald's usurpation were the settlement of Iceland, the discovery and settlement of Greenland in 983, the discovery of America (Vinland) by Leif Erikson in the year 0181 159 1,000, the founding of Normandy and the spreading of the idea of individual liberty and independence throughout the world. On this basis, I say, the struggle at Hafersfjord was the most important battle fought in the history of Europe.

The land with this wonderful history I now had before my eyes and was soon to put my feet on its soil and to mingle with its people. Our steamer landed in Christiansand. Here Ole Bull and I parted. He went north to his home, Valestrand, north of Bergen, and he sent me east to Christiania where I was to purchase books for the library of the University of Wisconsin. Ole Bull furnished me with letters and cards of introduction to people whom he wanted me to meet and some of whom were to assist me in selecting books for the $1,000 I had with me. From his inside vest pocket he took a handful of gold to defray my expenses.

Ole Bull had given me a letter to his friend, the poet Björnstjerne Björnson, the celebrated writer of Norway's most popular national song. I was familiar with his poems, stories and dramas and had a keen desire to see him. During the weeks that I spent in the capital of Norway I was a frequent guest at his house. He was a man of great personality, a commanding figure, with the head of an Apollo. He was Norway's lion, both in appearance and in his unique position as a national character. In his intercourse with people he was exceedingly arrogant and superbly reckless. He thought aloud and did not hesitate to give expression to anything that came to his mind. He was not so handsome a man as Ole Bull. When Ole Bull stood on the stage he was harmony both to the eye and to the ear. Björnson too was fascinating but he lacked the polish and amiability of the wizard of the bow.

Björnson was eloquent as a public speaker and in private circles a most charming conversationalist and story-teller. He received me at his home with the utmost kindness and was delighted 0182 160 with my deep interest in everything Norwegian. I had some special business to transact with him.

Shortly before I left America there had been trouble in the office of the “Skandinaven” of Chicago. John Anderson, the publisher, and Knut Langland, the editor, had fallen out and the latter had resigned. He, with John A. Johnson of Madison, and Iver Lawson, had started a new organ called “Amerika”. These three gentlemen, with all of whom I was on most intimate and confidential terms, had asked me to secure correspondents for “Amerika” in Norway and they had authorized me to pay Björnson $300 a year for four letters annually. Björnson accepted this engagement with the greatest enthusiasm. He was having trouble with newspapers and with his publishers in Norway and so he wrote out a contract agreeing for $300 a year not only to correspond exclusively for “Amerika”, but also to send all his poems, stories and dramas for publication in “Amerika” before they appeared elsewhere. This contract I brought with me to America.

As is evident from Björnson's writings, he was a keen psychologist. In his presence it seemed as if he could read your thoughts. On one of my visits this incident occurred: While we were drinking the afternoon coffee the mall carrier brought the post. The maid handed to Björnson a large package and a big letter. Sitting near him I saw that both the package and the letter were covered with American postage stamps. Björnson opened the letter and found in it a photograph and a long epistle from Wait Whitman. Then he opened the package and found in it a large book called “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman. He asked me to read the letter which contained a lot of nice things about one of Björnson's stories which Whitman had read in an English translation and he begged him to accept the photograph and “Leaves of Grass” with his compliments.

I was an American and here was an American of whom I had never heard even the name before. I was a teacher at an American university and thought that it would be a disgrace to the University of Wisconsin and to my country if I exposed this ignorance of mine to the great Norwegian author and his family. I was unable to lay my hands on the book and the letter which I had read and translated gave me no clue to Whitman's identity. What I feared happened. Björnson asked me what I thought of Walt Whitman. I hesitated. I wanted to make an answer that should not expose my ignorance.

The title “Leaves of Grass”, I thought, might fit a work on botany, a subject in which I was deeply interested, but the only American botany that I knew was Gray's. Upon reflection I thought it would be safe to say that the opinion in regard to Walt Whitman's merit and standing was divided.

Björnson looked at me, he became wild; he got up and paced the floor like a raging lion. He told me that i knew nothing about Whitman, that I was only trying to deceive him. He said that we Americans did not appreciate our greatest men; that we let our most gifted poets starve to death, and while he was abusing me and attacking the Americans he kept sandwiching in something that sounded to me like “Democratic Wits”. He declared that no poet's fancy had ever soared so high and no poet's thoughts had ever sunk so deep as Walt Whitman's, and as he paced the floor he kept on shouting, “Walt Whitman! Democratic Wits! Walt Whitman! Democratic Wits!” and said that we Americans ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

There was nothing for me to do, but to make a clean breast of it and confess my total ignorance of Walt Whitman; but I made a faithful promise that on my return to America I should read his books. On my return to Madison I tried to secure a 11 0184 162 copy of “Democratic Wits”, but no bookseller knew of any such book. I finally, however, secured a copy of a pamphlet by Wait Whitman entitled “Democratic Vistas” and this Björnson had read in a Danish translation.

I wrote a letter to Walt Whitman giving him an account of this episode and received from him in return a copy of “Leaves of Grass”, a copy of “Democratic Vistas”, Whitman's photograph, with his autograph and a package of unfavorable criticisms of his writings. While publishers reproduce the nicest things said of their books Walt Whitman ignored all praise, but reprinted on slips the unfavorable criticisms and sent these leaflets broadcast.

I may not have occasion to speak of Walt Whitman again, so I will add that in 1877 1 had the honor of paying this charming old man a personal visit at his home in Camden, New Jersey. He was an old bachelor living with his brother. He had a striking appearance and talked in the same kind of endless wave sentences that one finds in his “Leaves of Grass”. He told me he had been present at the unveiling of the Edgar Allen Poe monument in Baltimore and added that he was the only “Poet” there.

With the reader's permission I will here make a digression and give a brief outline of the activities of one of the Norwegian-American churches of which I was at the time a member. The discussion of the slavery question in Chicago produced a small split in the Norwegian Synod. Rev. C. L. Clausen and several congregations left the Synod. These united with what was then called the Augustana Synod and organized the Norwegian-Danish Conference. This Conference later became a part of the United Lutheran church, but trouble soon sprang up and those who had been leaders of the Norwegian-Danish Conference seceded and formed what is now called the Free church, with headquarters at Minneapolis. This Free church has its own college and theological seminary and its own organ, “Folkebladet”.

Having left the Synod in Chicago, I was instrumental, together with John A. Johnson and others, in organizing an independent Lutheran congregation in Madison and Rev. C. L. Clausen accepted our call as its visiting pastor. The Norwegian-Danish Conference purchased the academy at Marshall, Wis., the school at which P. A. Flaten had become a teacher after we left Albion. This school was turned into an academy and theological seminary for the Norwegian-Danish Conference. I was elected principal of the academy, but declined the 0186 164 election. At the head of the theological department was Prof. A. Wenaas, a graduate of the University of Norway. When Wenaas came to Marshall he succeeded Clausen as our pastor in Madison and later he was succeeded by Rev. M. Falk Gjertsen, who lived in Stoughton.

And now to run back to Christiania for a moment. I there received a call from a man of about my own age by name Sven Oftedal, a brother of the well known preacher and politician, Lars Oftedal. Sven Oftedal wanted to talk with me about America and we soon became fast friends. He, with Georg Sverdrup and Sven Ruud Gundersen, formed a brilliant triumvirate of theological students. They were fresh from the university where all three had taken high honors. Gundersen had gotten a position as teacher in a reform prison in Christiania. He was married and kept house, and at his home this triumvirate met frequently. Sven Oftedal wanted me to know the other two members of this coterie and so I met them several evenings at Gundersen's home. All three expressed a keen desire to go to America and find work among their countrymen there. They overestimated the position I held at the University of Wisconsin and wanted me to find similar positions for them. I agreed to keep my eyes open and not to fail to inform them if I succeeded in finding suitable positions for them. I also engaged all three as correspondents for the Chicago paper “Amerika”. They were to write without pay, but I urged that this would be an excellent way to make themselves known among the Norwegians in America. The arrangements were carried out. Oftedal spent the following winter in Paris and from there he sent letters to “Amerika”. Gundersen sent the paper news from Norway and all of them corresponded privately with me.

During the fall and winter of 1872-73 the Norwegian-Danish Conference grew ambitious and decided to build a college 0187 165 and theological seminary in Minneapolis and at the same time to close their school at Marshall. They expected to grow and so to need additional instructors and professors. Professor Wenaas moved to Minneapolis to be president of the college and seminary. At the annual meeting of the Conference in the spring it was decided to engage two or three additional professors and Prof. A. Wenaas and Rev. M. Falk Gjertsen were elected a committee to proceed at once to Norway to find suitable candidates. On their way to Norway they visited me at Madison. I at once called their attention to Oftedal, Sverdrup and Gundersen. I described them as the three ablest and most promising young men in all Norway. I assured them that they could get them and insisted that they must go directly to them and seek no further. I armed them with letters of introduction and in private letters to Oftedal, Sverdrup and Gundersen I strenuously urged them to accept the positions that would shortly be offered to them and tried to show to them what a great career of usefulness there was before them on this side of the Atlantic.

As will be shown later I went to Norway again with Ole Bull, in 1873. I had no knowledge of this journey when I talked with Wenaas and Gjertsen. The decision to go was taken one day and I started for Norway on the next. In Norway I parted with Ole Bull in Christiansand and went as the year before to Christiania. I was there to fetch Björnson and bring him with me to Bergen. Björnson decided that we go by land across the mountains as he was a poor sailor.

He and I and Mrs. Björnson proceeded to Drammen, where there was at that time being held a national exposition, At this particular time there was also being held in Drammen a large conference of Norwegian ministers. At this conference I found Sven Oftedal. He had already been seen by Wenaas and Gjertsen and had taken their call under advisement. The 0188 166 plan was that Oftedal was to go to Minneapolis in the autumn of 1873, that he was to be followed by Gundersen in 1874 and then by Sverdrup in 1875, thus increasing the faculty pari grassu with the growth of the school.

Björnson and I were to go to Bergen by the way of Hallingdal, Hemsedal, Lerdal and the Sognefjord. The first stretch of our journey from Drammen was by rail north to Krödern. Oftedal had never met Björnson and would like to be introduced to him, so I invited Oftedal to accompany us as far as Krödern in order that he might have an opportunity of visiting with his distinguished countryman. He accepted the invitation. When we had left Oftedal Björnson advised me not to put too much faith in that fellow. He thought him “foxy”.

Oftedal's home was in Stavanger. There lived his aged father, a venerable, fine-looking old schoolmaster. There also lived his brother Lars, the great revivalist, philanthropist and politician.

In Bergen I arranged a series of concerts to be given by Ole Bull for the benefit of the Leif Ericson monument. The first concert was given in Bergen, the second in Stavanger. In Stayanger Ole Bull, Mrs. Bull and I were the guests of Mrs. Kielland at her beautiful home. In the afternoon I went to seek Sven Oftedal and found him at home. He introduced me to his fiancee. He expressed a desire to meet Ole Bull. I therefore asked him to go with me to Mrs. Kielland's where it would give me pleasure to introduce him. Mrs. Kielland invited him to a cup of coffee with Ole Bull. In parting with him I handed Oftedal tickets for himself and his fiancee to the Ole Bull concert. I am giving all these details for a purpose, as the reader will see later.

In the autumn I left Bergen to return to the United States. My steamer for Newcastle was to stop for an hour at Stavanger. I telegraphed to Oftedal requesting him to meet me at the 0189 167 wharf. On going ashore in Stavanger I found Oftedal waiting for me at the landing and he now introduced me to his wife, they having been married just the day before. I handed Mrs. Oftedal a sovereign as my wedding present. Oftedal now informed me that the calls received from Minneapolis had been accepted and that he was to depart for America so as to reach his destination by Christmas. I invited him and his wife to stop off at Madison and be our guests for a week or ten days in order that we might discuss from Dan to Beersheba the whole situation of Norwegian America, socially, politically and in reference to schools and churches. I desired to give him as a newcomer the benefit of all my knowledge anent these matters. I had navigated the Norwegian-American seas for several years and thought my experience and knowledge of dangerous places might be of benefit to him. He accepted my invitation and toward Christmas he came and spent about ten days at our modest home in Madison, with his wife and maid. During those days Rev. Gjertsen of Stoughton was an almost daily visitor and together we discussed every phase of Norwegian-American history, present conditions, and future prospects. We mapped out a campaign for work that needed to be done.

Oftedal then went to Minneapolis to begin his work there with Wenaas immediately after the holidays. Some time later, I think it was in the spring of 1874, I happened to be sitting in the editorial rooms of “Skandinaven og Amerika”, the two papers having then been consolidated. The mail came. In it was a large envelope. The editor, the old Svein Nilssen, opened it and seeing that it was from Wenaas and Oftedal he handed it to me to read and give him my opinion of it.

The document I read was the notorious “Aaben Erklæring” (Public Statement). it was a document signed by Wenaas and Oftedal giving their view of the religious work hitherto done among the Norwegians in this country and outlining what 0190 168 reforms were needed. They posed as great progressives. I found that the publication of such a document was premature and that many of its statements were not in accord with the facts. I asked the editor not to print it for the present. I told him that Wenaas and Oftedal were friends of mine and I at once wrote to them that I had taken the responsibility of requesting the editor not to publish the public statement. The editor agreed to it until he should hear from the authors. In their eagerness to bring their statement before the public they at once upon receipt of my letter telegraphed to the editor of “Skandinayen og Amerika”, saying that if their article did not appear immediately they would have it printed elsewhere. The article was sure to create a sensation and the “Skandinaven og Amerika” wanted the benefit thereof. It appeared. I looked upon this article as an undeserved depreciation of all the hard work that had up to that time been done for the advancement of our people and as an insult to those who had done this great work. I felt that I more than anyone else was responsible for Oftedal. He had been engaged on my recommendation. It was widely known that he had been my guest in Madison and therefore must have been coached by me. I was myself on a war footing with many of those people against whom the “Public Statement” was directed and it would be natural therefore to infer that I shared its sentiments. So I immediately wrote and sent a brief reply attacking the “Public Statement”, pointed out that it contained unwarranted charges and protested against it as a document that ought to be recalled. My name was signed to this protest which was at once published by “Skandinaven og Amerika” and was the first public reply to the “Public Statement”. I wanted to wash my hands and clear myself of all responsibility in connection with this unfortunate publication.

Not long afterwards I received from Prof. Sven Oftedal the following letter:

“From the first moment that I met you I have known you, I repeat that I have known you. You are a person whose aim has been more to become somebody than to be somebody. Your relations with Ole Bull and Björnstjerne Björnson have caused you the loss of everybody's respect in Norway. Oh that you would abandon your mania for popularity and in quiet, earnest work devote yourself to an idea.

Yours, Sven Oftedal.”

The reader will now see why I have been so particular in giving the details of our various meetings and I need not call attention to the fact that he insists in his letter that he had had the same opinion of me all the time since we met in Christiania in the summer of 1872. In his letter to me from Paris he smothered me with praise; he could not understand how I could have learned many things with which I was familiar. In one of his letters from Paris he breaks out: “When you and I shall fight side by side in America how the fur will fly I” (hvor det skal sprute omkring os!).

I made a copy of the letter given above and sent it to him telling him that he must have written it hastily, in anger, and that in looking it over calmly he doubtless would like to recall it.

He replied: “I am not a man who says one thing today and another tomorrow.”

The bonds of friendship between us were severed.

S. R. Gundersen came to Minneapolis the next year and during the Christmas holidays he and his wife came to Madison to visit us. I laid all the facts before him and he fully agreed with me. He proposed to take Oftedal in hand and compel him to make the amende honorable. In this he failed utterly and this failure caused a breach between Gundersen and Oftedal. Gundersen soon resigned as a professor at Augsburg and accepted a call from the Hauge. Synod's seminary at Red 0192 170 Wing. After teaching there a while he accepted a call as pastor at Grimstad, in the southern part of Norway and returned to his native land.

Then came Sverdrup, the third member of this triumvirate and he and Oftedal seemed to pull together remarkably well. It can be truly said of Sverdrup that he was one of the most gifted and best educated scholars that Norway has given to America.

The following summer (1875) I came late to supper one evening and found to my utter surprise seated at the table with my family Prof. Sven Oftedal and Rev. M. Falk Gjertsen. There was a vacant chair for me. I took supper with them. After supper Oftedal took a large rocking chair in the parlor. An Icelander, Jon Bjarnason, and his wife Laura were living at our house. He and Gjertsen were familiar with the relations existing between Oftedal and me, so they took their hats and went out for a stroll, thinking Oftedal and I might want a “twa-handed” chat. I fully expected an apology from Oftedal and I waited for him to begin. As we sat there looking at each other he started the conversation by asking me if I had lately heard from Björnson and what literary work he now was engaged upon. I replied that I did hear from Björnson occasionally, but that he did not reveal to me his literary plans. Then he asked me where Ole Bull was keeping himself. You see he was talking to me about the very two people who, in his opinion, had caused me the loss of everybody's respect in Norway.

I told him I did not know where Ole Bull was just at that time, but I asked him whether there was not something else he and I ought to talk about. He shrugged his shoulders in a manner peculiar to him and replied that there was nothing so far as he knew.

This was more than I would stand. I told him that he had then come to insult me in my own home and that was something I could not permit. He was a larger and stronger man than I was, but I took hold of him vigorously, led him to the front door and pushed him out, telling him never to set foot on my premises again. I went in and got his hat and handed it to him at the gate. This ended for all time my intercourse with Sven Oftedal.

But the matter had other consequences. Rev. Gjertsen was my pastor. Oftedal was a most conspicuous teacher in the Norwegian-Danish Conference. Rev. Gjertsen had gone daft on Oftedal. In his mind Oftedal could do no wrong although he knew all the facts as I have here stated them. He vigorously defended Oftedal and blamed me. For this reason I refused to recognize him any longer as my pastor. I left his congregation and became once more a religious tramp.

From that time until late in the '90s I was not identified with any church. What bearing all this had had upon the history of Norwegiandom in America the intelligent reader will understand.

After this lengthy digression let us return to Christiania in the summer of 1872. While in the city I found a number of my wife's relatives whom I frequently visited, and one clay I engaged a photographer and drove with two of Mrs. Anderson's cousins and their wives a few miles east of Christiania where we visited her uncle Ole and photographed a house near by in which my wife was born. The little cottage was still standing, but occupied by people of no particular interest to me.

In Christiania several of the university professors aided me in selecting books that I was to purchase with the $1,000 draft in my pocket. Björnson was also very helpful to me in this matter. I had the honor of meeting the great linguist, Ivar Aasen, the distinguished lexicographer, Knud Knudsen, the historian, Sigvart Petersen, whose text book on Norwegian history I had studied at Luther College, and many other men and women of note. Being recommended by Ole Bull, I was admitted everywhere. Some of the well-to-do people made contributions of books to the Norwegian library at the University of Wisconsin, and I had every reason to be well pleased with my sojourn in the capital of Norway.

The most prominent business man in all Norway at that time was the banker, Thomas Johan Heftye. His ancestors had come from Switzerland and he represented Switzerland in Norway 0195 173 as consul. He owned the finest mansion in the city, a fine country seat, “Sarabraaten”, on the east side of Christiania, and another on the west side called “Frognersæteren”. Ole Bull had recommended me to him most cordially, and he entertained me most royally. In fact, he was looked upon as Norway's viceroy, performing the social duties of king when the real king was in Stockholm: He took me to “Sarabraaten” and to “Frognersæteren”. He entertained me at his palatial residence in the city. There he had an old engraving of my great great grand uncle, Gen. George Frederik von Krogh, and this he gave to me to take with me to America.

The time for the millennial celebration was approaching. A steamer had been fitted up to take Prince-Regent Oscar, his suite and invited guests to Haugesund. Consul Heftye was on the committee on arrangements and invitations. He said he had looked over the names of the guests, but that he found no American among them. He therefore gave me an invitation to be one of the guests to accompany Prince Oscar to Haugesund. I could not resist. I had no full dress suit, or uniform, but Mr. Heftye told me that such things were not necessary. He was not going to Haugesund himself, but he took me on board the steamer and there introduced me to Norway's prime minister, Frederik Stang, who in turn presented me to his royal highness Prince Oscar. Later I was introduced to the members of the king's cabinet and to the various Norwegian and foreign guests. Among the latter was a son of the great English commoner W. E. Gladstone. Really it seemed as if the boy born among the Indians around Koshkonong lake had now reached the top round of the ladder. With how much modesty and dignity I maintained myself this book fails to tell. All I can say is that I felt it incumbent on me to act as if I had never known other surroundings.

I had been told that I must not approach the prince and talk to him and that it was his prerogative to come to me if he cared to, and he did come to me on several occasions and engaged me in conversation, asking me all sorts of things about 0197 175 the Scandinavians in the United States. I answered his questions as well as I was able. A story was circulated that I had informed his royal highness that I too was a prince and that for this reason ! said “thou” to him. This story was made out of whole cloth. The only foundation for it was that I did inform Prince Oscar that it was the first time in my life that I had the honor of talking to royalty and that I begged him to pardon me for my awkwardness in addressing him as I did, A man born and raised in the woolly west does not become a Chesterfield in one week.

The trip to Haugesund was a series of great ovations and receptions to Prince Oscar. Wherever there were forts salutes were fired and replied to by our steamer. We stopped at Arendal, Christiansand and Stavanger. All of these places were gay with flags and bunting; the wharves and streets were crowded with people in their best dress; there was music; there were poems and public addresses. All the way from Christiania to Haugesund was what the Swedes would call an “ericksgata”, that is, a procession of triumph.

Hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of people and many regiments of soldiers were gathered around the Harald Haarfager monument at Haugesund on July 18. Prince Oscar delivered the unveiling speech which was brief and to the point. His voice had splendid carrying qualities. His first sentence was, and he spoke in Norwegian: “Harald Haarfager has with a mighty hand united this kingdom.”

It should probably be mentioned that neither Björnson nor Ibsen was recognized in connection with this national celebration. The poems, or songs, on the program were written by Jonas Lie, he having been preferred to the other two. Björnson took no notice of the celebration in any way, while Ibsen sent from his exile, a lengthy, most pathetic, though partly sarcastic poem. It ranks today as one of the greatest poems in any Scandinavian tongue,

Having witnessed this celebration I at once left Haugesund for Stavanger, that ancient city near which the liberties of Norway had been slain just a thousand years before at Hafersfjord; that city from which the Norwegian Mayflower, the sloop “Restaurationen”, had set sail with its precious cargo for the land of freedom in the west on the fourth of July, 1825; that city from which my own father and mother and two eldest brothers had sailed for America in the spring of 1836, this city so crowded with interesting memories I was now to visit.

I had no relatives or acquaintances there, but I made use of the time in visiting the different parts of the city and surroundings. The great industry in sardines, fish balls, cod roes, and ptarmagans, which has made Stavanger so widely known throughout the civilized world had not yet been started. I knew that the father and brother of my stepfather were farmers a few miles from Stavanger and so I engaged a liveryman to take me out to see them. On the way I met a man carrying an immensely large salmon. This I bought of him for one dollar.

I found my aged stepgrandfather, Around Goa, living with his son Ole and they were glad to receive a visit from one who could tell them so much of their deceased son and brother in Wisconsin. Ole's wife served a splendid dinner consisting chiefly of boiled fresh salmon and boiled potatoes in the jackets. 0199 177 All in all, this was one of my red-letter days in Norway in 1872.

The pastor of one of the principal churches in Stavanger was the Rev. Wellhaven, a brother of the celebrated poet, J. S. Welhaven. Mr. S. R. Gundersen, one of the trio that I had met in Christiania, was married to his daughter and had written to his father-in-law about me. When Rev. Welhaven learned that I was in the city he called on me and invited me to visit him at his horne to meet his family and a few friends. I spent a delightful evening at his house. Mr. Welhaven also wrote poetry and had published a volume of poetical selections. At the dinner he presented me with a copy of this volume with the following inscription. I quote it because it was the first poetry ever written in my honor:

Da jeg red, De er glad I sange og kvad Helst som de synges i Norden, Saa bærer jeg frem Bogen til Dem. At ogsaa jeg Paa sangernes vei Nævnet er vorden, Maa vist nævnes reed ret En vansirende plet. Og hærer til bogens uorden.

At the hotel in Stavanger I met Halle Steensland, my friend and neighbor from Madison, and he and I at once took a steamer for Vikedal, his birthplace and also the birthplace of my parents. The emotions, with which I stepped ashore on this venerable ground I am unable to describe. I felt as if I wanted to kiss the ground under my feet. 12

Mr. Steensland immediately went to his birthplace in the northern part of Sandeid. I went first to Westbö, in Sandeid, where I found my uncle Sören, my uncle Bernhard, my aunt Dina and several cousins. The old home where my mother was born was now occupied by my uncle Bernhard. I spent several days most delightfully with these relatives of mine. I visited the old church where my mother had been baptized and confirmed. I had the graves of my grandparents pointed out to me and I plucked from them flowers which I took back to America and presented to my mother.

One day accompanied by my cousins I took a walk around the mountain to Vikedal and visited Kvelve where my father was born, but I found no near relatives there. One of my father's nephews by name Rasmus Danielson was then, and is still living, * at St. James, Minn., and his brother Ole I afterwards met in Bergen where I also met my mother's brother Christian yon Krogh. Recently I have had an oil painting of Kvelve and Kikedal made by the Norwegian artist, Lars Haukaness.

Mother's oldest brother, Sören, had a cane which had belonged to Gen. Georg Fredrick von Krogh. He was determined that I should have some souvenir of my visit, and so he insisted on my accepting this relic. The handle is a dog rampant in bronze taken from the coat-or-arms of the yon Krogh family. The stick was in bad shape, so I Americanized the cane by substituting a stick of genuine American hickory.

From Sandeid Mr. Steensland and I proceeded to Bergen. There we met Mr. B. W. Suckow. Mr. Suckow was an old friend of Ole Bull's and Steensland was also acquainted with the wizard of the bow, and so both Suckow and Steensland went with me to Ole Bull's celebrated home Valestrand, on 0201 179 Oster island, some miles to the north of Bergen. There we were all most hospitably entertained at his magnificent home.

Ole Bull was very fond of his Arabian horse, Karages, (lightning), which he had imported from Russia. He had it saddled and showed it to us, offering us a ride. The only one who dared to accept the invitation was I, but I was soon through and t deemed myself in luck that I did not break my bones.

Karages treated me like a cowboy's broncho, while he was happy and docile with Ole Bull in the saddle.

Valestrand was an extensive estate on which Ole Bull had spent thousands upon thousands. He had built near the seashore facing the south a splendid residence which he had furnished with costly imported curtains, tapestries, rugs and furniture. On the second floor he had a large music hall, most artistically designed. In fact, the building was well nigh royal in all its appointments from the well-supplied wine cellar to the garret. Costly paintings decorated its walls, and all the money had been made by his invincible bow. On the estate he had devoted much attention to a system of drainage of his own invention and the whole estate was covered by a system of splendid roads. He had also built one of the finest barns to be found in all Norway. He wanted his dear Valestrand to be ideal in all respects and to this quiet country seat he returned now and then to spend a month or two in a luxurious far niente. The loyal Knut took charge of the farm and Martha was his faithful housekeeper. Steensland and Suckow returned to Bergen the next day, but I remained for a few clays to make my report to my benefactor of how I had spent my time since I left him at Christiansand.

One day while I was at Valestrand Ole Bull received a visit from a young man who was already then looked upon as the coming leader of western Norway. This young man was Wollert Konow, born at Stend, in Fane, near Bergen in 1845, 0202 180 less than a year older than I. We soon became such warm friends that we addressed each other as “Wollert” and “Rastous”. Wollert invited me to visit him at Stend, an invitation which I eagerly accepted.

In a few days I said goodbye to Ole Bull, returned to Bergen and from there I proceeded at once to Stend, in Fane. Stend is one of the largest estates in western Norway and has long been the property of the Konow family. Wollert still owns it and has greatly increased its value. At this time his parents were living and at the home were Wollert's two sisters, like himself unmarried. The Konows originally came from Germany. They had prospered and many of this family are prominent in the annals of Norway. Wollert's father, whose name also was Wollert, was a writer of distinction, had been a member of the Norwegian Storting and his good wife was the daughter of Denmark's greatest poet Adam Oehlenschlæger. The three days I spent at Stend with these charming people were among the most delightful of my visit to Norway in 1872.

The young man whom I here call “Wollert” has since served a long time as member of the Storting, has been cabinet officer and for a period Norway's prime minister. After the death of his father his mother and sisters made prolonged visits in Copenhagen and there I had the opportunity of renewing my acquaintance with them and talking over auld lang syne. Notwithstanding their wealth and distinguished ancestry and connections, the Konows were exceedingly democratic and Wollert has been a consistent leader of the liberal element in Norway's politics.

What particularly interested the Konows in me was that although I was born among the Winnebago Indians in the far west I was able to recite to them many of the choicest pieces of Norwegian poetry. The poet Oehlenschlæger had looked upon the cultivation of the Norwegian dialects with contempt, 0203 181 and had gone out of his way to ridicule Henrik Wergeland. Oehlenschlæger had in turn been lampooned by Wergeland, but when I declaimed snatches of poetry from Vinje and Aasen I saw tears trickling down the cheeks of the daughter and granddaughters of Denmark's greatest skald. A cousin of Wollert, also named Wollert Konow, from Hedemarken, has had a career very similar to that of our Wollert from Bergen.

It is necessary to make an end of this my first visit to the land of my forebears. After my three days' visit at Stend I returned to Bergen where I called on my uncle, Christian yon Krogh, on my cousin, Ole Danielson, a son of my father's only sister, and my cousins on my mother's side, the Beyers. Frederick and Morten Beyer owned the principal publishing house in Bergen. In the city I met Mr. Steensland and Mr. Suckow again and we three decided to go to Christiania over land. We first took a trip through the Hardanger fjord, visiting every nook in this most beautiful district of Norway.

From Hardanger we went to Voss. This beautiful district has supplied America with several prominent citizens. From this district came Senator Knute Nelson, John Anderson, the founder of “Skandinaven”, and Canute Matson, a soldier in the war of the rebellion, for many years connected with the Chicago postoffice and in the '80s sheriff of Cook county, Ill. Matson was the sheriff at the time when the anarchists were executed in Chicago.

Near Vossevangen, on the way to Stalheim, is a mountain called Lönehorgen. At the foot of this mountain lies the farm Löne, where my old friend and teacher Knut Henderson, now living near Cambridge, Wis., was born. Knut Henderson deserves to be remembered as the first Norwegian to teach and publish music in America. He came to this country as a young man with his father, who settled near Cambridge. Knut took a deep interest in music and in Chicago he took lessons in harmony from the distinguished song composer Geo. F. Root and 0204 182 other teachers. In 1853 he organized a singing school in the East Koshkonong congregation. My sisters and I were members of this class, A similar school which he maintained at Cambridge was attended by my wife. In this way a number of young people of Koshkonong learned the rudiments of written music. Later Knut Henderson published a volume of Norwegian songs and still later a hymnal, being the pioneer in this field. He is now a prosperous farmer near Cambridge, has an interesting family and is hale and hearty in his eighty-second year.

From Voss we went by way of Stalheim to Gudvangen, at the head of Neröfjord. From Stalheim you descend by a zigzag road by the side of a beautiful waterfall into the Nerö valley.

This short valley, with its lofty, perpendicular mountains on either side seems like a mere gorge and hardly wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. In the middle of this valley we met going the opposite way Rev. J. A. Ottesen, his wife, his son and his two daughters, from Koshkonong, Dane county, Wisconsin. This delightful meeting was entirely unexpected, as we did not know that they were in Norway. It appeared that Rev. Ottesen's father had recently died and had left him some property. He and his wife were making use of this inheritance to visit their native land and to show its glories to their children.

Speaking of this unexpected meeting, I may here mention that I had a good friend by the name of Jurgens, who in the early '70s was a banker in La Crosse, but before that had lived in Madison. From La Crosse he moved to Chicago. At present he is living in Norway.

In 1873 Björnstjerne Björnson, Sven Oftedal and I were on a train going north from Drammen. At a station we met the southbound train, In the coupe opposite the one we occupied I saw Mr. Jurgens and was able to shake hands with him before 0205 183 the train left. In 1885 I was on a train from Stockholm to Malmö, in Sweden. At a station we met the northbound train and in the coupe opposite me sat Mr. Jurgens. We shook hands. In 1886 Consul Tönsberg, the old bosom friend of Henrik Wergeland, had invited me to visit him at his home in Christiania, saying he would meet me at the wharf. While the steamer was being towed to the landing I stood on the deck looking for Mr. Tönsberg, but the first faces I discovered were those of Mr. and Mrs. Jurgens, who were still living in America.

In the early '90s I was invited to speak at a celebration by the Norwegians in Chicago of an Ole Bull's birthday, February 5. I had a box ticket and when I entered the box to take my seat there sat Mr. and Mrs. Jurgens opposite me. Such are coincidences in life.

Rev. Ottesen had secured a landau carriage at Gjövik, in the eastern part of Norway, and used this as their conveyance to Lerdalsören, thus changing only horses and driver at each station. He was to send this rig back to its owner in Gjövik and he now generously offered it to Steensland, Suckow and me. At Gudvangen we took a steamer to Lerdalsören through some of the grandest, most majestic and awe-inspiring fjord and mountian scenery of Norway. At Lerdalsören we secured the Ottesen landau and proceeded like princes of the blood through Lerdal, Borgund, over the mountains, down through the different parts of Valdres, through Vardal to Gjövik, the people standing at the different stations awe-stricken at the millionaires from America who could afford so sumptuous an equipage. They took off their caps to us, but did not venture to speak to us.

The station on the top of Filefjeld is Nystuen, the uppermost farm in Valdres. The Nystuen station is situated at the foot of a mountain rising a few hundred feet on its north side. we could see the station a mile or more before we reached it. It 0206 184 was in the latter part of July; the days were still long and though it was about 9 o'clock in the evening the sun had not yet set on the other side of the mountain. I intended to go on the mountain top until I reached Nystuen where I expected to descend and join Steensland and Suckow again for the night. It seemed so easy. The distance was greater than I had calculated and the road was not so smooth as it looked from a distance, and what was worse I had not gone far before clouds had gathered around me and the snow was falling thick and fast. I was in despair. I decided to try to find my way back, but for a while the snow fell so thickly that I lost the points of the compass. Fortunately the clouds broke again and I could see the road in the valley to the south of me. I returned as nearly as possible to the place where I had ascended and fortunately found a place where I could get down on the plain again.

At the tavern they had grown very anxious about me, fearing that I might perish, They had planned to send parties out to search for me. I had been on this expedition about four hours and reached the wayside inn about 1 o'clock in the morning. In the register in the hotel the traveler reads on the first page this caution: “Tourists must not climb the mountain from Nystuen without a guide; it is dangerous.” I saw this and I wrote underneath it: “I tried it and can testify that the above is good advice.”

The trip through Valdres and Vardal to Gjövik was uneventful. From Gjövik we went to Eidsvold and inspected the building in which the constitution of Norway was adopted May 17, 1814. This building corresponds to Independence hall in Philadelphia, and is kept in the same manner, open to visitors. From there we proceeded by rail to Christiania. Here Steensland, Suckow and I parted. I had to hurry back to America. I said goodbye to the friends I had met, took a steamer to Hull and went from there to Liverpool. In Liverpool 0207 185 I went by the Allan line to Quebec. As we were about to enter the straits of Belle Isle we were caught in a dense fog. The temperature of the water showed that we were near icebergs. For twenty-four hours the steamer kept going slowly in a circle, but then the fog lifted and we found ourselves in the midst of an immense number of icebergs, a wonderful sight.

Just in time to begin my work at the university I returned to Madison.

The goal to which all my efforts were now concentrated was to get a professorship of Scandinavian languages, history and literature established at the University of Wisconsin. The obstacles to overcome were immense. There was no professorship of this kind either in this country or in England. The professors at the University of Wisconsin knew but very little about Scandinavia and its claims to recognition in a university curriculum and cared less. i had come to the university very poorly equipped for promoting such a thing, but on my return from Norway I felt that I had added materially to my efficiency. Before leaving for Norway I had my enthusiasm and my energy, but against me I had not only my lack of knowledge, but also my unfortunate experiences at Decorah and at Albion, and besides I had the active opposition of the most influential men in the church. On the other hand I had the warm support of John A. Johnson, of Knut Langland and his paper “Amerika”, and I had the cordial backing of the famous Ole Bull. I had already placed the nucleus of a Scandinavian library in the university and to this there would now be a material addition, the proceeds of Ole Bull's concert on the 17th of May.

I had now been in Norway; I had written a series of letters about my first visit to Norway for the columns of the “Amerika” which I have heretofore mentioned. In Norway I had traveled not a little and had made the acquaintance of a number of men of note, including the reigning prince, Björnstjerne Björnson, Ivar Aasen and others. All this helped to give me 0209 187 a certain prestige. I was one of the few in the Madison of those days who had crossed the Atlantic. The number of boys and girls of Scandinavian descent attending the university was increasing and I left no stone unturned in my efforts to secure a recognition of the Scandinavian languages and literatures.

Still, so far as the university faculty at that time was concerned, I might as well, as I have said, have been advocating the establishing of a professorship of Patagonian. It was necessary to do something to draw special attention to the importance of what Scandinavia had contributed to the progress and culture of the world.

Having a better library at my command than I had had before, I went to work and prepared and published a sixteen page pamphlet on the historical, linguistic and literary value of the Scandinavian languages. In this pamphlet I quoted H. W. Longfellow, O. C. Marsh, Benson Lossing and Bayard Taylor among American authorities, Samuel Laing, Max Muller, Robert Buchanan and a number of other British and German authorities. I dedicated this pamphlet to Ole Bull and printed a thousand copies which I distributed as extensively as possible among the most cultured people not only in Madison, but in the whole state of Wisconsin and elsewhere.

Ole Bull, who returned to Madison late in the autumn, was delighted with this little pamphlet and talked about it to his friends.

During the winter I was invited to lecture in the city hall on the Norse discovery of America. I had a packed house; the applause was most generous and in a long review of the lecture the next day in the State Journal all the claims I had made were fully endorsed. This lecture also made Lyman C. Draper my staunch friend during the rest of his life. He from that time labored most assiduously for my recognition and advancement at the university.

In the course of time I persuaded John A. Johnson, who had been very successful in his business in a partnership with Chauncey Williams, M. E. Fuller, A. E. Proudfit and L. W. Hoyt in promoting the sale of Walter A. Wood's reapers, to create a fund at the university of $5,000, the income of which was to be used to assist Norwegian students attending the State University. Until the end of the century the income was to be given exclusively to students of Norwegian descent, but after the year 1900 the proceeds were to be open to all regardless of nationality. Thus a Norwegian American established the first scholarship fund in the University of Wisconsin. By this my position was also materially strengthened, but I was still far, very far from my goal. It was still the petit done and the undone vast.

Late in the fall of 1872 Ole Bull returned to Madison. I was engaged in teaching his wife Norwegian and I devoted much time, partly to reading aloud to Ole Bull books of interest to him, and partly in taking notes with a view to writing for him his autobiography and also his views upon the violin. I took down voluminous notes concerning his career and he also dictated to me his views in regard to the various old makes of violins, such as Gaspar da Salo, Stradivarius, Guarnerius, Amati and others, who have made old Cremona famous and also concerning the most distinguished violin players.

After the death of Ole Bull I turned all these notes over to Mrs. Bull and she published them, partly in her own name and partly in the name of Dr. A. B. Crosby, as her biography of her husband. The book was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. in 1882.

During this same time I talked much with Ole Bull about the Norse discovery of America. I argued that Leif Erikson should be honored with a monument. Christopher Columbus, who was merely the rediscoverer of this continent, had had much honor paid to him in the way of monuments, paintings and otherwise. It was time Leif Erikson should receive similar recognition and honor. In this matter Ole Bull was an “easy mark”. He had given but little attention to the details of the Norse discovery, but his enthusiasm was easily aroused 0212 190 for anything that would redound to the fame and glory of his dear fatherland. What we proposed to do was to raise funds sufficient to erect a suitable Leif Erikson monument on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in front of the main building. There Leif should stand proclaiming his discovery of Vinland and this would help us to make the University of Wisconsin the chief center of Scandinavian study in the United States. It would help make Madison the Mecca of Norwegiandom in America. We took John A. Johnson with us in our councils. He fully approved of our plans and purposes, and so, early in 1873, we three organized ourselves into a Leif Erikson monument committee. Mr. Johnson and I elected Ole Bull president, Ole Bull and I elected John A. Johnson treasurer and Ole Bull and Mr. Johnson elected me secretary.

Our thought was that the necessary funds, say $25,000, should be contributed by the Norwegians in this country and that such an enterprise, if carried out, would be of great benefit to them in many ways. This triumvirate prepared an address to the Norwegians on this side of the Atlantic and asked for contributions from 25 cents up. Ole Bull, Mr. Johnson and I subscribed $100 each. We published the address in “Skandinaven” and in the other Norwegian-American papers. It seems—incredible,—but the truth must be told—this call for voluntary contributions to so magnificent a cause did not produce one single response. Not one cent was received from anybody.

Ole Bull felt humiliated and angry; he decided to take the bull by the horns and raise the necessary funds himself with the aid of his invincible bow. He ordered me to proceed at once to arrange a series of concerts for the benefit of the Leif Erikson monument fund. The only ones to appear on the program were Ole Bull, Mrs. Ole Bull as accompanist and R. B. A. to talk to the audience between the musical numbers.

I arranged concerts in Madison, Stoughton, Cambridge, Fort Atkïnson, La Crosse, Prairie du Chien, MacGregor, Ia., and Decorah, la. At all these concerts we had packed houses. I opened with a few introductory remarks, then between the first and second and second and third appearances of the great master I sandwiched in the story of the Norse discovery of Vinland, condensed under hydraulic pressure. I am unable to give the exact amount realized from these concerts, but it was in the neighborhood of $2,500, and this money was turned over to our treasurer, John A. Johnson.

Ole Bull was going back to Norway and requested me to go with him to help him arrange a series of concerts there for the benefit of this fund. Of course I could not say no. This year Mrs. Bull, her father, J. G. Thorpe, and her brother Joseph also accompanied Ole Bull to Norway.

Let me here make a brief digression. In his youth Ole Bull had fallen in love with one of the most charming spots in all Norway. It was an island called Lysöen, some fifteen or twenty miles to the south of Bergen. In 1872 he had succeeded in purchasing this island and he had engaged an eminent architect to build a large villa on it in Turkish or oriental style. This villa had been completed and we were going to Norway to occupy it. It had a large music hall decorated throughout with Norwegian woodcarving. From the cupola there was an extensive view in all directions over sea, islands and mountain ranges. To the east seven ridges of mountains rising one above the other could be seen. When we reached Norway the house had been completely furnished, partly from Valestrand, and that summer Ole Bull made his headquarters at Lysöen.

The journey to Norway that summer was by the usual route, by the White Star line to Liverpool, thence to Hull, thence to Christiansand, and was uneventful. I say uneventful, but to this I must make an important exception.

On the steamer Celtic, from New York to Liverpool, there was a young passenger, then unknown to fame, but whose name is now a household word throughout the civilized world. This young man was 26 years old, that is he was a year younger than I. His name was Thomas A. Edison. He had formerly been a newsboy on a railroad train in Michigan, but had at the same time learned to hold down a telegraphic instrument. He later became a telegraph operator in Boston and had made various improvements in telegraphy. His last discovery, in 1873, was a method by which he could transmit four messages over the same wire at the same time. It was called quadruplex telegraphy. His invention had been pattented, both in America and Europe, and he was now on his way to England to 'make personal demonstrations.

Edison had not then paid much attention to the amenities of life. It was noticed that he was very fond of his fine cut and he was so full of inventions that he wanted to talk about them continuously. The eagerness with which he wanted to tell everybody all that he knew about electricity and its possible uses made many of the passengers actually shun him. There 0215 193 was, however, one passenger who never wearied of listening to Edison and that was Ole Bull. I think one of the reasons why Ole Bull became so interested was that he did not really comprehend what Edison was talking about. The more obscure and hazy the subject was the more it appealed to Ole Bull's imaginative mind. At least this is my interpretation of it. In this connection I may refer to the fact that Ole Bull made me read to him by the hour from Helmholz' scientific work on sound and sound waves, and I know that he understood no more of it than I did. It was a sealed book to me.

You cast your bread on the waters and it will return to you after many days.

A few years ago I was to reap a peculiar benefit from having crossed the ocean with Edison in 1873. More than thirty years afterward ! was sitting on my porch one afternoon and was considering what new thing I might do to promote an interest in this country in Scandinavian culture. It came to me like a flash from a clear sky, first, that we had no Scandinavian music on the phonographs, and second, that I knew Edison, the inventor of the phonograph. I therefore immediately wrote him a letter telling him of all the beautiful melodies to be found in the grand old North and telling him also that there were millions of Scandinavians scattered throughout this country who would become good customers if they could get the folk songs and best melodies of Norway, Sweden and Denmark for reproduction on their phonographs. I received immediately a reply from Edison's secretary thanking me for the suggestion and stating that it would be attended to at once. The result is that we now can get any Scandinavian music of merit for our phonographs. I was the first one to call attention to these Scandinavian records in my paper “Amerika” and I look upon this as one of my most important services in this line of promoting Scandinavian culture. 13

On reaching Christiansand Ole Bull and his wife proceeded at once to Bergen, but he handed me a handful of gold and sent me to Christiania. The plan was to give the first concert in Bergen, and this entertainment was to have on its program Norway's greatest trio. Ole Bull was to appear as violinist, Edward Grieg as pianist, and Björnstjerne Björnson as orator. A more artistic combination could not then be found in Norway. I was to make a few opening remarks and state the purpose of these concerts.

I went to Christiania to see Björnson and bring him without fail to Bergen, his expenses to be paid to Bergen and back to Christiania. I succeeded. Björnson was unwilling to go by boat, He was a poor sailor and did not care to make the long sea voyage around the coast, hut was willing to make the journey over land. It was on this journey that we met Sven Oftedal in Drammen. Mrs. Björnson accompanied us as far as to this city. From Drammen Björnson and I proceeded by rail to the lake Kröderen, then by steamer to the lower end of Hallingdal, then through this valley and Hemsedal to. Borgund in Sogn and hence down to Lerdalsören where we took a steamer through the romantic Sognefjord around to Bergen.

And now another digression. At Borgund we took a look at the old Borgund stave church with its wierd architecture. It is one of the oldest remains of church architecture in Norway. 0217 195 At this antique church we met the pastor of that parish, the Rev. Schellerup. He was pleased to meet Norway's greatest poet and invited us to go with him to the parsonage where his wife served us with refreshments. To meet Björnson meant controversy. The pastor and Björnson were soon plunged into a violent political and religious discussion. At such times Björnson was loud, vehement and even bitter. After we had enjoyed the hospitality of the parsonage for an hour or more we left for Lerdalsören. We had to remain in Lerdalsören all the rest of that day and until late in the afternoon of the next before our steamer departed for Bergen.

During that time Björnson and I made a careful inspection of this old town. He had a notebook. In it he made, first, a psychological description of Rev. Schellerup, of his wife and of their two daughters. He described their outward appearance and their manners and their mental characteristics. He made a diagram of the road from Borgund to Lerdalsören and a very minute sketch of the town and he said to me:

“Here I have the plot for my next novel.”

He carried this sketch with him to Rome the following autumn and there produced his remarkable story “Magnhild”. “Magnhild” is an orphan rescued from a landslide and reared at the above parsonage. As a compliment to his American fellow traveler he lets his heroine go to America and there uses Mrs. J, M. Rusk, wife of the late governor of Wisconsin, as his model, I having talked to him about her, she being a Norwegian-American girl who had married an American of great prominence. I once asked Mrs. Rusk whether she had read Björnson's story “Magnhild”. She said she had not done so. I told her she ought to read it because the author had made use of her as one of the characters in the book.

You ask me about Björnson as a traveling companion. This question is not easily answered. I may say that he was very moody, but upon the whole charming. In traveling through Hallingdal and Hemsedal it was a bitter disappointment to him that nobody seemed to know him even by name or reputation. He had a most striking appearance which made people dread to approach him. They would come to me and ask me who that man was. I would tell them that he was Norway's most distinguished living writer, that he was the author of “Synnöve Solbakken”, “Arne”, “A Happy Boy” and their great national song, “Yes we Love with Fond Devotion”, but these were things that the people in Hallingdal and Hemsedal had not yet heard of. They said they knew a man by name Peter Björnson, a road engineer, who had done some work up there, but had never heard of “Björnstjerne”. By the way this Peter Björnson happened to be B. Björnson's only brother and he seemed to be well known to all the people in this part of Norway. This ignorance of him made Björnson rave against the narrow valleys of Norway. He was disgusted with them and he exclaimed:

“Give me the broad ‘bygds’. There I am known.”

At one time he fell to congratulating himself on his fine appearance and his commanding presence. “Oh, Anderson!” 0219 197 he said, “you have no idea what it means to be a great personality like me! It gives so much weight to everything I say.”

At one station where we stopped we took a walk into the fields. He sent me several rods away and then he made a speech to show me the great carrying qualities of his voice and the splendid acoustic qualities of the Norwegian mountain air. Sometimes he would amuse himself by showing me how easy it was for him to produce rhymes about the objects around us.

Between two stations we had a girl for our driver and during that time she monopolized his attention.

While Henrik Wergeland and Robert Burns looked upon every flower and blade of grass and insect or bird as a fellow sentient being, Björnson did not seem to care much for either flora or fauna. He was above all the keen psychologist. His fellowmen was what interested him. He wanted to read their inmost thoughts and be their leader.

The entertainment in Bergen by Ole Bull, Edward Grieg and Bjöson was a decided success. Björnson recommended the monument to Leif Erikson in glowing terms. The day after a banquet was given in honor of this trio at one of the wealthiest homes in Bergen. At this banquet stewed eels were served. Mrs. Ole Bull liked them so well that she accepted a second dish. She asked me, sitting opposite her, what it was that tasted so nice. Not suspecting that I was doing any mischief I told her it was eels. She at once left the table and did not return.

At this banquet there were toasts in honor of Ole Bull, in honor of Edward Grieg and in honor of Björnson. They were praised as the three most brilliant stars then visible above Norway's horizon, and when all these toasts had been responded to other guests were called upon for speeches and my turn came too. I responded by proposing a new coat of arms for the city of Bergen. Bergen's coat of arms is the three mountains surrounding the city resting on seven balls. Bergen is known as the principal market of the dried codfish (ludefisk) and is also renowned for it continuous rains. Every person you meet on the street carries an umbrella because it may rain at any moment. I therefore proposed as a new coat of arms a 0221 199 dried codfish under an umbrella in a shower of rain. Guests all applauded.

Edward Grieg left the table but soon returned having fetched his umbrella and this he presented to me as a reward for my brilliant suggestion. I am sorry that this is one of the treasures that I have lost.

Björnson left his place at the table, came over to clink his glass with mine and drink “dus” with me, that is, hereafter we were to address each other with the more familiar “Du” instead of “De”.

On the north side of the city overlooking the harbor Edward Grieg had a cottage. It contained only one room and in it he had a Chickering piano. To this cottage he retired every day to do his composing. He wanted to be alone in a well lighted room with fine views from the windows. These things helped to inspire him. When he presented me with his umbrella he invited me to visit him in this retreat. I went there the next day. In the course of my chat with him I told him that I had often watched Ole Bull when he improvised melodies on the violin and told him that I wondered how Grieg managed to get those melodies and harmonies on paper. He said:

“I will show you.”

Getting some music paper and pen and ink which he placed on a small table in front of the piano, he seated himself at the instrument, assumed a very serious, almost superhuman look, whistled a little; then played what he had whistled and then wrote down what he had played; whistled another phrase, played another phrase, wrote down another and kept on in this manner until he had filled two pages. These he gave to me as a souvenir of this visit. I asked him to dedicate the music to my wife rather than to me, which he did. This piece called “Humoresque” is found in all editions of Grieg's collected works.

A couple of days later Ole Bull, Mrs. Bull and I left Bergen for Stavanger, Christiansand and Christiania where concerts were given for the benefit of the Leif Erikson monument. The proceeds of the four concerts, as I now remember, were between $1,500 and $2,000 and this money was turned over to our treasurer John A. Johnson in Madison.

I came near forgetting an interesting little incident at the Hotel Scandinavie in Christiania where the Thorpes, father and son, and I were stopping. On a visit to Thomas Heftye's summer resort “Sarabraaten”, I had made the acquaintance of a German poet, from Breslau, Heinrich Traumann. He too was stopping at the same hotel. Among the guests at the hotel I had noticed a distinguished looking person that seemed to attract the attention of everybody. On inquiring I learned that this fine-looking gentleman was the famous naturalist, Prof. Sven Lovén. He was in Christiania visiting his scarcely less distinguished colleague, Prof. Georg Ossian Sars of the University of Christiania. When dinner was served in the dining room I had at my left J. G. Thorpe, St., on my right the poet Traumann and next to him sat a Norwegian to whom I had been introduced. With Mr. Thorpe I conversed in English; with Mr. Traumann in German, and with the Norwegian beyond him I spoke Norwegian, these three speaking only their own vernacular. Directly opposite me at the table sat Dr. Loren and his daughter, a young lady in her teens. The daughter seemed to watch me with interest. At last I heard her whisper in her father's ear in Swedish, saying:

“What man is that, papa, that knows so many languages?

” Prof. Lovén answered his daughter in a low voice:

“That I do not know. It must be an emigration agent.”

Having heard this I looked at the professor and said to him in Swedish:

“I believe the gentleman opposite me is a Swede. Am I not right?”

He answered: “Yes, Sir, I am a Swede. Can you talk Swedish too?”

I answered that I was no expert in speaking Swedish, but that I was very much interested in everything that concerned Sweden, and then I continued about as follows, speaking in Swedish as well as I could:

“I know who you are, Sir. You are the distinguished Dr. Lovén, professor of natural history in the Upsala University. I have long known you by your great reputation.” Then I added: “I have a splendid Swedish friend in America where i live. He too is a great naturalist and I am greatly indebted to him for my interest in Swedish culture. I am referring to a man that knows you well, Dr. Lovén, and I have no doubt you know him. His name is Kumlien.”

Dr. Lovén dropped his knife and fork and raising both his hands and his eyes sparkling with joy and wonderment he exclaimed:

“Thure Ludwig Kumlien! Koshkonong Lake! Do you really know him?”

I told him I had known him from my infancy. lie then got up from his chair, walked around the table and came to me to take me by the hand. I quickly rose, told him who I was and chatted with him about Kumlien. He apologized for having insinuated that I was an emigration agent; then he invited me to his room in the hotel where I met him and his daughter and had a most interesting visit. He insisted on my visiting him in Upsala. Unfortunately this never became convenient, but I brought most hearty greetings from him with me to Kumlien.

As I have already in a former chapter given some of the incidents in connection with this visit to Norway and do not intend to refer to it again hereafter, I will only add that I took a trip with Joseph Thorpe across the country via Drammen, Kongsberg, Bolkesjö, Rjukanfos, through all the districts of Telemarken down to Skien, thence up to Siljord, through Vinje, across Haukelid, down to Roldal, thence to Odda in Hardanger, and from there by steamer to Bergen. Here I bade goodbye to Ole Bull and his family, took a steamer via Stavanger to New Castle, going from New Castle to Edinburgh, from Edinburgh to Glasgow and from Glasgow to New York and home. Mrs. Bull sent four large trunks of baggage with me to Madison.

On the trip through Hemserial with Björnson a fine old Hemsedöling, Mr. Bjöberg, made me a present of a pair of reindeer antlers of unusual size. These I took with me and I still have them.

When I reached the steamer in Glasgow all my baggage was lost, although it had been checked in the usual way. All the employes of the steamship line were made busy hunting for my baggage. Telegrams were sent to Edinburgh, to New Castle and to Liverpool, but no trace could be found. The steamer was about to leave and I had made up my mind to wait for the 0226 204 next steamer, but a few minutes before the boat was to leave a stevedore reported that he had seen reindeer antlers in the hold of the ship with the luggage of the steerage passengers. This proved to be my lost baggage and I embarked happy.

We had a pretty stormy voyage. Among my fellow passengers were Prof. A. Wenaas and Rev. M. Falk Gjertsen, who have been mentioned heretofore. As soon as Prof. Wenaas landed in New York he received the sad tidings that his wife had died during his absence in Norway. Rev. O. J. Hjort of the Norwegian Synod, near Lansing, Iowa, also had the misfortune of losing his wife while on a visit to Norway the same summer. She was a sister of Rev. J. A. Ottesen. She was burned to death by the explosion of a kerosene lamp.

In New York I was for the only time in my life “taken in” by a confidence man. I had taken a room in a small hotel, had taken my bath and was sitting on the porch smoking my cigar when a well-dressed young man spoke to me by name and asked me how we were getting on at Madison. I explained to him that I was on my way home from Norway and consequently had no fresh news from Madison. He then asked me how soon I was going to leave town. I told him that same day. Then he asked me if I would not be kind enough to take with me a small package for a friend of his employed in the American Express office in Madison. He had previously explained to me by way of introducing himself that he had recently come from Madison and had been a clerk in the American Express office there. He told me that the package he wished to send was so small that I could carry it in my pocket. He claimed to know me by sight and reputation. Of course he had found my name and residence in the hotel register. I told him to bring the package and that I would be glad to serve him.

Then he said that he was working in an office only half a block from the hotel and invited me to take a walk with him there. I went. We ascended a flight of stairs, went through 0227 205 a long narrow hall and then entered a room furnished only with a table and a couple of rude chairs. There were two other gentlemen in there when we entered, but one of these went out. My friend then asked if this was the office of the Havana lottery; the other fellow said yes. My friend then said that he had a ticket and understood that he had won a prize and gave the number of his ticket. The other gentleman opened a book, looked in it and said:

“Yes, you have drawn $5,000.”

By this time I was getting anxious. I rose and went to the door, but found the door was locked. I gathered up all my viking strength, braced my knee against the side of the door, pulled with all my might, broke the lock, got out and hurried away.

But to return to our Leif Erikson monument enterprise. Beyond the proceeds of the contents of which I have given an account, nothing was done. The work did not progress. Ole Bull was absent much of the time during the year 1874 and 1875. John A. Johnson was immersed in his business and I was busy getting the professorship of Scandinavian languages established.

In 1876 Ole Bull rented the home of the poet, James Russell Lowell, who was then our American ambassador in London. While at Cambridge Ole Bull succeeded in interesting a number of Massachusetts friends in the monument project. The matter was launched at a grand reception given to the distinguished artist in the music hall in Boston, Dec. 8, 1876. At this reception Edward Everett Hale in an address said that he supposed it was known to all who were present that Ole Bull had spent almost the whole of his active life in knitting those ties which connected his country with ours and that he hoped that there might be erected a physical memorial to the early Norse discoverers of this country. Mr. Hale thought that such an enterprise ought to appeal to Massachusetts men and he suggested that the committee that had arranged this reception should also be a committee of New England to take this matter in special charge.

The committee was a large one and included Thomas G. Appleton as chairman, the governor of Massachusetts, Alexander H. Rice, the mayors of Boston and Cambridge, James R. Osgood, Oliver Ditson, Henry W. Longfellow, John G. Whittier, E. N. Horsford, Oliver Wendell Homes, James Russell Lowell, James T. Fields, Charles W. Eliot, Edward Everett Hale and many others renowned throughout the world in science, in letters and in the arts. In fact, no American enterprise ever had a more distinguished committee as its promoters. This committee meant success. The necessary funds came forth speedily. John A. Johnson sent what was in his keeping to Mr. Thomas G. Appleton.

The eminent American sculptress, Miss Whitney, was engaged to make the statue of Leif Erikson in heroic size, and in the second half of the '80s it was unvailed with suitable ceremonies, Prof. E. N. Horsford delivering the principal address. It was not placed on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, as was first intended, and as might have been, but it stands with a Viking ship for a pedestal on Commonwealth avenue in Boston, overlooking the Boston Back Bay. At the request of the committee I wrote the inscription, both with runic letters and in English. I was invited to speak at the unveiling, but could not at that time be absent from my post in Copenhagen.

The statue is subject to criticism. Miss Whitney made a figure more or less resembling Ole Bull. Leif Erikson has a smooth face, and upon the whole it is in all its outlines more a Roman than a Norse work of art, but is a great work of art nevertheless. In a conversation with James Russell Lowell he said to me that he considered Miss Whitney's Leif Erikson the high water mark of American sculpture at that time.

Ole Bull died in the summer of 1880 and so did not see his favorite project entirely realized, but he was remembered at the unveiling. A wealthy lady in Wisconsin, Mrs. Gilbert, a relative of the Thorpes; secured a replica of this monument and 0230 208 gave it to the city of Milwaukee where Leif Erikson on a plain pedestal stands in Juneau park shading his eyes with his right hand looking for land.

Such was the result of the initiative taken by Ole Bull, John A. Johnson and myself in the early part of 1873.

In the '90s the Norwegians in Chicago organized a Leif Erikson monument committee. They had better luck than Ole Bull, Johnson and I and succeeded in the course of time in unveiling a Leif Erikson monument in Humboldt park.

The fact is the Scandinavians have been very enterprising in later years in erecting monuments and statues. They have put up a Thorvaldsen monument in New York, a Linné monument in Lincoln park, Chicago, an Ole Bull monument in Minneapolis, a Wergeland and a Gange-Rolf monument in Fargo, N. D., an Ivar Aasen and a Hans Nielsen Hauge monument in Moorhead, Minn., a Hans Christian Andersen monument in Chicago, and possibly others that I do not now think of.

“America Not Discovered by Columbus.”

As indicated, I had strenuous days before me at the university. The professorship of Scandinavian languages was not yet in sight. There was yet very much to be done. The large field in Scandinavian literature had not yet been opened to American readers. Fully aware that my equipment was limited, I decided to make a beginning. I chose as my first subject and as the one I thought I could best handle, the discovery of America by the Norsemen. I had lectured somewhat extensively on this subject and could make use of my lecture as the basis of a book. I wrote a little book of something more than a hundred pages, gave it a thoroughly sensational and defiant title, “America Not Discovered by Columbus”, thus challenging the claims of Christopher Columbus to this honor. I appeared as a fearless iconoclast, well aware of the prejudices to be overcome. What I meant by this aggressive title was not to detract in any way from the great honor belonging to the Italian navigator, but to insist that he did not discover, but only rediscover the western world. To belittle the services of Columbus would be the part of a crank and none of my critics have ever called me a crank. Indeed the great scholar and historian John Fiske published an article in the Atlantic Monthly on the subject of “Cranks”, and he begins this article 0233 211 by telling his readers that “R. B. Anderson is not a crank” and then goes on to show why Marie Brown, George Francis Train and others must be put in the category of cranks.

I had my manuscript ready, put it in my pocket and went to Chicago to secure a publisher. I called on the well known publishing house of S.C. Griggs & Co. That patriarchal publisher, Mr. Griggs, with a great beard extending down to his waist, received me very cordially, but told me that he was very sorry that the book I offered him was not in his line. He did 'not think it would sell. He said that American readers did not care more about who discovered America than about who had first seen Goat island at Niagara Falls. But I had acquired the knack and habit of being persistent. I answered him that he must publish the book. He finally agreed to print it if I would buy of him at wholesale price the first 500 copies. That meant $300, more money than I could lay my hand on with a salary of only $800 a year.

I went to my friend, Victor F. Lawson. I had known him since he was a child. With John A. Johnson and Langland, Victor Lawson's father had become part owner of “Skandinaven”. The father, Iver Lawson, who had contributed so liberally to the Norwegian library at the university, was dead and Victor was now the business manager of “Skandinaven”. My readers know how he has since risen to eminence as a publisher and business man.

I laid the facts before Victor. He decided to help me out and at once agreed to buy from S.C. Griggs 500 copies of “America Not Discovered by Columbus”, and gave me the agreement in writing. He expected to sell that number to the readers of “Skandinaven”. Griggs was satisfied and now the manuscript passed into his pocket. In the evening it went home with him as he forgot to leave it at his office. That night Chicago had its second great fire. The immense Griggs publishing house and book store was entirely consumed. The only 0234 212 thing combustible that was saved was my manuscript which Griggs had forgotten to take out of his pocket.

And so it came to pass that when S.C. Griggs & Co. opened their business again mine was the first book to be published. This book was the first one in English written by a Norwegian-American. It is on account of this and my other books that followed in rapid succession that I have been called “the father of Norwegian literature in America”.

The book was remarkably well received. Long and favorable notices were given it in the leading newspapers and magazines, both in this country and in England. The demand was so large, particularly in the east, that the first edition was soon exhausted, and Griggs had to buy books back from Victor Lawson to supply his customers. This book has passed through half a dozen editions in this country. The “Skandinaven” published a Norwegian translation. It has been translated into Danish, German and Russian. Before this book was published not a single text book of American history contained any reference to the Norse discovery. Today all such text books contain something about the early Norse discoverers, and I think I may claim that the recognition accorded to the Norsemen in this field is largely attributable to this little book of mine.

I collected in my little library in my modest home on Washington avenue all the works relating to Scandinavian mythology within my reach.

The work of writing was done chiefly by lamp light, many a night I kept on writing until dawn came peeping in at my window. I first wrote enough to make a book of about 200 pages. Then I started again, wrote it once more and more than doubled its size.

Early in the autumn of 1875 my manuscript was finished. I had suddenly grown ambitious. I wanted an eastern publisher. It was supposed to be more creditable to have one of the great houses of New York or Boston as a publisher than a more or less obscure publishing house in the undeveloped west. I now wanted either the Harpers or James R. Osgood & Co., the publishers of the leading writers of the country. I wanted to trot in the same class with them.

Ole Bull was not here, so I went to John A. Johnson and talked the matter over with him. He sympathized with me and he gave me $100 to pay my expenses to Boston and back. At the end of the fall term of 1874 I packed my grip and started for Boston. I went first-to Ithaca, N.Y., where I visited the distinguished scholar Willard Fiske. He had visited the Scandinavian countries, was now the senior professor in Cornell University and was well versed in Scandinavian languages, 0237 215 history and literatures, and was particularly interested in the old Norse and Icelandic. I acquired his friendship which I retained to the end of his life. He paid me a long visit later in Copenhagen. I read to him from my work on Norse mythology and he was pleased With it. He gave me a letter to H. W. Longfellow, whom he knew well.

From Ithaca I went directly to Cambridge, Mass. Longfellow occupied a splendid mansion near Harvard University, the celebrated house in which George Washington had his headquarters when he took command of the American army. Longfellow was now a widower for a second time.

With the permission of the reader I may state that I rang his door bell with the greatest timidity. I believe I heard my heart beat. I found the poet at home and was conducted into his library. In his presence I soon forgot my timidity, His manner was so democratic. He knew how to put himself on the same level with me. I told him my errand and I handed him Fiske's letter. He immediately gave me permission to read to him and to his two daughters the opening chapter of my manuscript. He praised it with enthusiasm and said he wanted his friends to enjoy this reading with him, and so he fixed an evening when I was to come and read for an hour from my Norse mythology to him and such friends of his as he might invite.

On the evening of the day after his parlor was well filled and I had in my audience many of the most distinguished writers then living in Cambridge and Boston, among them the president and many of the professors of Harvard, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Eben Norton Horsford, James T. Fields, Thomas G. Appleton and others. My reading was applauded and I was smothered with compliments from my hearers as they bade me goodnight. Longfellow invited me to dinner and to tea. He gave me permission to dedicate my work to him. Then he gave me a letter to James R. Osgood, his own publisher. 0238 216 The present name of the house is Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Mr. Osgood said that a recommendation from Longfellow was sufficient and that he would be pleased to publish the work at once. I told him that I would like to take the manuscript home with me and give it one more careful revision.

When I informed S. C. Griggs of what I had done and of my plans to have my book published by Mr. Osgood he became furiously jealous and took the first train for Madison. He insisted that it was he who had been at the trouble and expense of getting me advertised and that I had no moral right to desert him as soon as I could get another publisher. He offered to lay the matter before President Bascom and John A. Johnson as arbitrators between us. He also argued that he not having so big a list Of publications could give to each book more attention, and assured me that he could handle “Norse Mythology” more successfully for me than any of the eastern houses who rarely paid any special attention to any of their books.

I agreed to leave the matter to Mr. Johnson. So we went together to lay the question before him. Mr. Johnson found Mr. Griggs' arguments reasonable and gave it as his opinion that it was my duty to allow Griggs to continue as my publisher and do the work that he had so well begun. I yielded. I immediately informed James R. Osgood and he consented to the change with great courtesy.

I then went to work and gave the book a second revision, rewriting various parts and making important additions. All I expected in the beginning was to give a brief synopsis of the religion of our forefathers, but now that I had secured a publisher in advance I wanted the book to be as complete and exhaustive as any work on that subject in any language.

The book appeared early in August, 1875. In June I had been elected professor of the Scandinavian languages in the University of Wisconsin and thus was able to state this fact 0239 217 under my name on the title page. I got the American artist, James R. Stuart, who had come to Madison from the south, to make a representation of Thor for the back of the book, and of Odin, with his ravens and wolves for the front cover and “Thor Fighting the Giants” for a frontispiece.

I am not overstating the matter when I say that “Norse Mythology” was remarkably well received by the scholars and by the press generally of this country and of other lands. E. P. Whipple, the great American critic, wrote in the Boston Globe:

“A masterly work * * * No American book of recent years does equal credit to American scholarship or is deserving of a more pronounced success.”

The great professor, William Dwight Whitney of Yale College, wrote:

“I have been struck with the warm glow of enthusiasm pervading it and with the attractiveness of its descriptions and discussions. I sincerely wish it a wide circulation and careful reading.”

Prof. F. Max Möller of Oxford sent me a letter in which he said:

“I like it decidedly. A mythologist must be not only a scholar, but a bit of a poet; otherwise he will not understand the petrified poetry out of which the mythology of early nations is built up. You seem to me to have that gift of poetic divination, and therefore whenever I approach the dark runes of the Edda I shall gladly avail myself of your help and guidance.”

The Bibliotheca Sacra, edited by the professors of Yale College, stated'

“We have never before seen so complete a view of the religion of the Norsemen. The myths which Prof. Anderson has translated for us are characterized by a wild poetry and by suggestions of strong thought. We see images of singular 0240 218 beauty in the landscape of ice and snow. Sparks of fire are often struck out from these verses of flint and steel.”

The Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review contained an extended review in which the following was found:

“Prof. Anderson is an enthusiastic as well as an able scholar and he imparts his enthusiasm to his readers. His volume is deeply interesting as well as in a high degree instructive. No such account of the old Scandinavian mythology has heretofore been given in the English language. It is full and elucidates the subject in all points of view * * *. Prof. Anderson's interpretation of the myths throws new light upon them and are valuable additions (as is the whole work) to the history of religion and of literature. * * * It deserves to be welcomed not only as most creditable to American scholarship, but also as an indication of the literary enterprise which is surely growing up in our northwestern states.”

The reviewer in the New York Tribune said:

“Prof. Anderson has produced a monograph which may be considered exhaustive in all its relations.”

Commendations of this kind might be multiplied with quotations from all the leading magazines including Harper's Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly in this country, and the great quarterlies in England. The poet Longfellow wrote the review for the Boston Advertiser.

I presume I may say without exaggeration that by the publication of this work my reputation as a Scandinavian scholar was established throughout the English-speaking world.

I have a copy of the will of an old wealthy bachelor in Melbourne, Australia, in which he has set apart 500 pounds to be used for distributing “Norse Mythology” and “America Not Discovered by Columbus” in Norway after his death.

I will add here that the book has been reprinted in England, has been translated into French by Jules Leclerc and published in Paris. It has been translated into Italian by the 0241 219 Italian poet and scholar Tomaso Cannizzaro of Messina. Mine is the only work on the subject in French and I am single-handed fighting Jupiter and Mars and the other ancient Roman divinities in Italy.

I think it was in 1877 that my “Norse Mythology” was used as a text book for subjects in preparing the floats in the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans.

But what is perhaps most remarkable in this connection is the fact that both “Norse Mythology” and “America Not Discovered by Columbus” have been translated into Danish, and published in Christiania and Copenhagen. This went beyond all my dreams and most sanguine expectations. In “Verdens Gang” in 1881 the poet Björnson wrote:

“Anderson's scientific work rests on an unlimited industry in the acquisition of knowledge. What he has been able to gather and with what unusual memory he controls what he has gathered challenges the respect of all who are familiar with the circumstances under which Prof. Anderson has worked. In my whole circle of acquaintances there are only one or two similar examples. The fact is attributable, in addition to his intellectual endowments and strong physique, to a strictly moral life and an iron will. A recognition like that given him by the Icelandic skald Mathias Jochumsson who says ‘his “Norse Mythology” is the best Scandinavian mythology ever written’, cannot be set aside.”

In this same article in “Verdens Gang” Björnson says a number of other nice things about me. I take the liberty of quoting further:

“Anderson has one single purpose in life: To make the Norwegians honored in America. * * * When I gather in my memory all the splendid people I met in the west, all the good, loving men and women, with the marked qualities of honest minds,—Prof. Anderson is and will remain No. 1. I prefer to remember him walking. Few things reveal a person 0242 220 more perfectly than his walk. Whoever observes Prof. Anderson's walk gets into good humor by noticing the energy with which he makes his way. All men resemble animals and he resembles the Norse fjord-horse which is equally splendid in running or in pulling, on the level or up the side of the mountain.”

All the eulogistic reviews of “America Not Discovered by Columbus” and particularly of “Norse Mythology” did not fail to make an impression on the professors, my colleagues at the University of Wisconsin. They began to think that there must after all be something of value in the traditions, history and literature of Scandinavia. I have heretofore dwelt on the fact that there was not one professor in the university who had even paid the slightest attention to this field of investigation and there was no one to assist me in defending the cause of which I was the advocate and apostle. Still there were members of the faculty who recognized my earnestness and extended to me considerable sympathy. Among these I like to remember in these memoirs particularly Prof. W. F. Allen and Dr. S. H. Carpenter. They were always willing to extend to me a helping hand and to aid me in getting suitable work in teaching. Then there was one professor, whose name I dare not mention, whose heart overflowed with kindness and who was always ready to help me with all sorts of advice and suggestions. If I happened to mispronounce a word he would immediately take me to one side and inform me how the word ought to be pronounced. If I had said “advertisement” with the accent on the third syllable and the long sound of “i” he would take the first opportunity of telling me that I must say “advertisement,” with the accent on the second syllable. If I gave the long sound to “i” in “direction” he would tell me that the word was pronounced “detection.” This became a habit with him. When he had seen the many reviews of the two books above mentioned he grew exceedingly attentive and 0243 221 patronizing. One day I met him in the lobby of the post-office. He at once approached me and asked me what my next book would be. I answered him that I was trying to make an English translation of the “Elder Edda”. Following his old habit he told me that the correct pronunciation of the word in English was “Eldorado”.

When we consider that this professor was himself a graduate of a prominent American college this example illustrates the dense ignorance in regard to Scandinavia even among the scholars of the land. In those days there were not many university professors who could explain after whom the days of the week were named.

During our visit to Norway in 1873 the relations between Ole Bull and his wife and her family grew gradually more and more strained. I think Mr. and Mrs. Bull might have gotten on harmoniously if she could have been divorced from her mother, but Ole Bull could not endure Mrs. Thorpe. Ole Bull wanted to make his home at Lysöen. Mrs. Thorpe wanted her daughter in America. Of course Mrs. Thorpe and the rest of her family knew well the history of Ole Bull's life with his first wife. They were aware that he was not very domestic in his habits. He was an artist and as such he had visited all parts of the civilized world, appearing before large audiences and overwhelmed with applause and attentions of every sort. In the midst of all these ovations and honors heaped upon him, finding society revolving around him as its center, he very easily forgot that he had a home, a wife and children. Naturally enough Mrs. Thorpe did not like to see her only daughter left alone at Lysöen and her husband flitting from one city to another. The question between them now was whether Mrs. Bull should obey her husband and make her home with him in Norway or he accommodate himself to the wishes of his mother-in-law and live in America.

One of the reasons that led Mrs. Bull to decide to go back to her mother was the fact that her physical condition was such 0245 223 that she thought she might need her mother's special care. As heretofore indicated Mrs. Bull sent with me when I returned to Madison several trunks filled with her personal possessions, clothes and other articles, as she had determined to leave later in the autumn.

Toward Christmas Mrs. Bull returned to Madison alone. She was very much depressed. The ocean voyage had proved disastrous. She came to see me almost daily, appealing to me to find some way of bringing about a reconciliation. I sympathized with her, but I also had much sympathy for Ole Bull. I studied the matter carefully and finally hit on this means of getting the two reunited. I knew Ole Bull's great enthusiasm for everything that would in any way spread the glory and fame of his clear old Norway. I saw how I could kill two birds with one stone. He too was anxious to diffuse an interest in Norwegian literature. I therefore selected the story “The Pilot and His Wife”, by Jonas Lie, as a book that I would help her translate into English. With this book in her hand I felt sure that Ole Bull would take back his wife with enthusiasm and forget all about her desertion. Besides this work would keep her mind occupied and help her forget her troubles.

I easily secured S. C. Griggs in Chicago as her publisher, both for this book and later for “The Barque Future”, another novel by the same author.]

The next autumn when “The Pilot and his Wife” had left the press Mrs. Bull put a dozen copies of the book in her trunk and went to Norway. As I had expected Ole Bull was so delighted that he received his wife with open arms and the reconciliation was complete. She brought him back to Madison, but this again brought him more or less in contact with Mrs. Thorpe.

It is not an agreeable task, but it is a duty, both to Ole Bull and to his wife, to state that Mrs. Thorpe, while we admit her many excellent qualities, did grate on Ole Bull's nerves, and it 0246 224 may be said without stretching the truth that he did not hesitate to show that he did not like her.

While in Madison in 1874 and 1875 the family. reached a compromise, agreeing to settle in Cambridge, Mass., where Ole Bull could associate with Henry W. Longfellow and many other of his distinguished friends in Cambridge, in Boston, and in the east generally. They rented the furnished home of the poet James Russell Lowell, who was at that time our minister to England. Here Ole Bull seemed to be very happy. He was in close touch with friends; he gave a concert now and then; spent his summers in Norway at his favorite Lysöen; came to Madison now and then and seemed fairly happy and contented. But his health was gradually failing; he complained of his stomach; now and then he would have violent spasms of vomiting. These spasms became more frequent and more violent. The last time I saw him was early in the year 1880. He looked very discouraged; he said he must go to Norway for his health. He was sure that the balmy air and ozone of Lysöen would make him well. He had lost much flesh; the vigorous grasp of his hand had departed and I felt I was bidding him goodbye for the last time.

As soon as Ole Bull and his wife could get ready they started for Norway. They got as far as Liverpool where they had to remain for a time and it looked for a time as if Ole Bull would end his days there. He improved a little and proceeded under great difficulties to Hull and thence to Bergen and Lysöen. There he was put in a bed in his great music hall. His wife gave him the most delicate attention. Fresh heather flowers were brought to him every day. Mrs. Bull played the choicest music that she knew for him at the piano, but death had knocked at his door and entered his home and he soon passed away. This was in the month of August, 1880, and he was then in his seventy-first year, having been born February 5, 0247 225 1810. An autopsy showed that his disease had been cancer of the stomach.

There was the greatest funeral ever seen in the city of Bergen. King Oscar telegraphed his grief at the loss of so distinguished and beloved a citizen. The principal speaker at the grave was Björnstjerne Björnson, who began his remarks by saying:

“Ole Bull was beloved. That we all see today.” In vigorous language he told the vast throng whose idol Ole Bull had been what a great loss the world and Norway, and particularly Bergen had suffered, and he called upon his hearers to be kind to his widow, who was there prostrated with grief.

While in Madison Ole Bull occupied what is now the governor's mansion on Gilman street. The wealthy lumberman J. G. Thorpe, Mrs. Bull's father, had bought this home from George P. Delaplaine. After the marriage of Ole Bull to Sara Thorpe Mr. Thorpe deeded the house to his daughter and some time after her husband's death she sold it to the state of Wisconsin. To this home were brought many treasures from the Ole Bull home Valestrand in Norway. Among these were three large parlor mirrors, framed in carved birchwood.

Much hospitality was dispensed at the Ole Bull home in Madison. There were frequent entertainments attended by the leading citizens of Madison, including the governor and other state officers, the judges of the supreme court, and the president and professors of the state university. To all these parties Mrs. Anderson and I were regularly invited.

Ole Bull was passionately fond of cards and billiards. In the middle of his lawn he built a billiard hall and there he spent much time playing billiards with his neighbor C. S. Meats, father-in-law of J. H. Palmer, the prominent Madison banker of today. A frequent visitor there was the artist James R. Stuart. At the entertainments Ole Bull usually gave a short musical program with his wife as accompanist, but sometimes he 15 0248 226 was balky and could not be induced to touch his Guarnerius. His chief motive in refusing to play was to plague his mother-in-law.

I saw him nearly every day; I would call on him at his home; take dinner with him; then he would go home with me, take supper and spend the evening until midnight at our house, and then I would escort him home again. At our house he got anchovies, which he swallowed whole, head and all, and he was particularly fond of Mrs. Anderson's broiled quail on toast.

I presume I may tell here without offending any one of the living that at one time Mrs. Thorpe had made elaborate preparations and invited many guests to a swell entertainment at which Ole Bull, of course, was to be the great star and the chief attraction. But Ole Bull was not in the mood for social duties. He said he was tired of being put on exhibition. In the afternoon he took me with him for a long walk. He insisted on going to our house for supper and to spend the evening there. At the entertainment they waited in vain for Ole Bull to appear. After 12 o'clock Ole Bull and I returned to the Bull mansion and at the head of Mifflin street we met Mrs. Bull. I never heard Ole Bull laugh more heartily than when he met his wife. Mrs. Bull said they had been searching for him and had been greatly worried about him.

On another occasion a large number of distinguished people had been invited and had been distinctly promised that Ole Bull would play. At this time he did not leave the house but he refused absolutely to produce his violin.

It was arranged between Bull and me that I was to write his biography and in connection with it publish a separate chapter, giving his views of the violin, of the different old Italian Cremonas, the Gaspar da Salo, the Stradivarius, the Guarnerius, the older and younger Amati and of some of the later makers and players. The makers of the varnish used by 0249 227 the old Italian makers was a lost art which he claimed to have rediscovered. He had his own views about the bridge and the sounding post, and while in Madison he invented a chin rest. Of all these things I took notes from his dictation. Then he turned over to me his biography written in Norwegian by Henrik Wergeland, another one written by Winther-Hjelm and a large amount of newspaper and periodical sketches gathered in England, Germany, France, Italy and many other countries. Out of all these I was to construct the story of his life, adding such new matter as he and I together could supply. Much of this work had been done when he left Madison and settled in Cambridge, Mass.

The notes on the violin I took at his house and he always had one of his violins in his hands while he dictated. When he was at our house I had to read to him. I read newspapers, magazine articles, and books to him. He was very fond of poetry and listened with eagerness to every new book that I received from Norway. This also helped me keep from getting rusty.

In the spring of 1873, three men, one of whom was Syver Holland, from Moscow, Wis., called at our house one evening. They were a committee to invite me to deliver the 17th of May oration at Moscow, a little village in Iowa county, some thirty miles southwest of Madison. There was no railroad and the country to be traversed was very hilly. When the three men came to our house Ole Bull happened to be there. I introduced them to him. In course of time they broached their errand saying they were making preparations for the celebration of Norway's day of independence and had come to invite me to be the orator of the day. Instead of replying to them I turned to Ole Bull and asked him whether I should accept the invitation. Ole Bull said:

“Certainly, you must; you cannot refuse to speak on the 17th of May.”

I answered him:

“I will go to Moscow, if you go with me.”

“Of course, I will go with you.”

The committee could hardly believe their own ears. The idea that they were to have at Moscow the most distinguished Norwegian that ever lived at their 17th of May festival was more than they could take in. I can still see how Syver Holland sat rubbing his hands together with joy. They were too full for utterance. I presume they would have liked to hurry back to Moscow that very night to proclaim the great and good tidings.

One trouble they had after they got home was to get the people out there to believe them when they told that Ole Bull was coming. People thought it was a trick for the purpose of drawing a crowd. I invited John A. Johnson to accompany Ole Bull and me to Moscow. Mr. Johnson got a double seater and he served as coachman. We had been invited to go to O. B. Dahle in Perry, near Moscow, on the 16th to stop over night and proceed the next morning to Moscow.

Mr. Johnson having been much in county politics was supposed to know the way. We had gotten within a few miles of O. B. Dahle's when the road forked and Mr. Johnson did not know which of the two roads to take. Several rods from the road on the left hand side stood a small farm house and I went there to inquire as to which road to take. I could not get anyone to hear me knocking at the front door, so I went to the back door and there I found an old man chopping wood. I said to him:

“I am going to Dahle's, but there are two roads and I do not know which one to take. Shall I take the one to the right or the one to the left?”

The old gentleman looked at me, examining me from head to foot, and then replied:

“Are you the one who are to speak in Moscow tomorrow?”

“Yes, I am he”, I answered. “Will you kindly tell me whether I am to take the road to the right or the one to the left.”

The gentleman again looked at me earnestly and then replied:

“Are you really Rasmus Anderson that I have seen so much about in the newspapers?”

“Yes, that's my name, shall I take the road to the right or the one to the left?”

The gentleman still looked inquiringly at me and then replied:

“Is Ole Bull with you?”

“Yes, he is”, I said; “shall I take the road to the right or the one to the left. I want to get to O. B. Dahle's before it gets dark.”

The gentleman then again replied:

“Yes, I will tell you which road to take,” and so he walked on ahead of me up to the road. Standing by the carriage he took a survey of the man in the front seat and of the one in the rear seat. After examining both carefully, pointing at the one in the rear seat he said:

“Is that Ole Bull?”

I said: “Yes sir, it is.”

He was struck dumb with astonishment.

Then I asked him: “Will you now tell me which of these roads I am to take?”

The man pointing at the gentleman in the front seat replied again saying:

“Who is that fellow there?”

I told him that was John A. Johnson, a young man whom he had probably voted for several times; “shall we take the road to the right or the one to the left?”

After looking Mr. Johnson all over and telling him how well he knew him by reputation he drew a long breath and said:

“You have to take the road to the right.”

The gentleman here described reveals a not uncommon trait among his countrymen. In other words, I mean to say that while men in other nations have to be made the Norwegians are born diplomatists.

This sturdy farmer, who told us to take the road to the right, spoke in his pure Sogning, one of the most musical dialects of Norway, and this gave to his conversation a piquant flavor, which unfortunately is not reflected in my English translation.

The old fellow showed us the road; we were handsomely entertained until the next morning by the Dahles. Then we drove on to Moscow where we were met far outside of town by a large body of celebrators headed by a brass band. They escorted us to the celebration grounds where there was music and speaking.

I delivered my speech, our coachman, John A. Johnson, also spoke, and Ole Bull talked on the violin. He did not have his own violin with him, but an old fiddle was produced and on this he played a few Norwegian melodies. This fiddle belonged to Peter Holt, who died this year, 1914, at the age of 87 years. His son Ole now owns the fiddle. It has received the best of care and is still exhibited as a curiosity, having been actually played upon by the world's greatest violinist. I do not think the owner would part with it for a farm.

Ole Bull did not like to play on any other violin than his own. He had his own ideas about the sounding post and especially in regard to the bridge and strings. He whittled down the bridge so as to make it nearly level on the top, the A and D strings being but very little more elevated than the E and G strings. This enabled him to play upon all four strings at the same time. Expert musicians did not understand how he managed to play “Home, Sweet Home”, for instance, in four parts. To play on four strings at the same 0253 231 time and not allow any of them to touch the finger board required enormous strength of muscle and a steady nerve.

Ole Bull would never touch the Hardanger violin which is the national instrument of Norway because it has a shorter neck and less space between the notes than the Italian violin and he did not want to give his fingers the wrong habit. So it was not from pride that he refused to play on any instrument that might be handed him. His nerve and muscle enabled him to play staccato equally well on the down or up stroke of the how and in harmonics he has never been excelled, if equalled. Well might Strakosch say of him:

“le Bull's right hand is invincible.”

Ole Bull's appearance at Moscow the 17th of May, 1873, has ever since been one of the choicest traditions in that village and the surrounding country. The fact that he was willing to take that long journey over a rough country and that he condescended to play on an old common fiddle reveals one of the most beautiful and lovely traits in Ole Bull's character. It showed him to be, as he always professed to be, a true democrat in full sympathy with the rank and file.

Here we have a man, who had stood before all the crowned heads of Europe and been entertained by the various aristocratic circles of the old world, associating with and taking his position on the same level with the common immigrants from Norway. By this he proved himself truly great.

A number of stories could be told about Bull showing the eccentricities of genius. Out of the many that I have heard I may tell one which I have on most excellent authority. Iver Lawson of Chicago, father of the well known Victor F. Lawson, was a warm friend of Ole Bull's and to some extent his financial manager or guardian. Iver had invested some of Ole Bull's money in two lots on North Clark street in Chicago; but there was one lot between his two. All three tots were vacant. Business had been extended beyond these lots 0254 232 and so Iver Lawson advised him to build stores on his lots in order that he might derive an income from them. It would be easy to get the stores rented. Ole Bull replied:

“All right; you may build on my lots.”

Then Mr. Lawson suggested that if he could buy the lot between Ole Bull's two he could put up one building on all three lots and in this way the construction would be more economical.

“All right; buy the lot,” said Ole Bull.

In a few days Mr. Lawson informed Ole Bull that the owner of the lot in question demanded a so exorbitant price that he could not advise him to buy it. Then Ole Bull, as if he had received inspiration from on high, burst out:

“Build over him, and let him keep his lot!”

He had conceived the idea that he could build up say one story on his two lots and then unite his buildings over the other man's property and it was difficult for Mr. Lawson to get Ole Bull to understand that the other fellow owned the space above and below the lot as well as the surface.

In this story of my life I am not dwelling much on my speeches and lectures. It is probably sufficient to say that I lectured in a great many different places on a variety of Scandinavian subjects and that I rarely failed to speak somewhere on the 17th of May and on the fourth of July. But a couple of instances of this sort now come to my mind and these are of such a character that I wish to make a special record of them.

One of these occasions was in Chicago July 4, 1875. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the departure of the sloop “Restaurationen” from Stayanger July 4, 1825. The celebration gotten up by the Nora Samlag society in Chicago was held in the open air in a park on the northwest side of the city. It was one of the largest assemblies I ever addressed. On the platform sat nearly all the then surviving members of the sloop party. I think I made a decided hit with my address, which was immediately printed in a large edition and sold at 25 cents per copy. Nora Samlag banquetted me in the evening and as a souvenir of the event presented me with a gold-headed cane.

Another occasion was the winter before I went to Denmark. I was invited, as I had been before by Mrs. May Wright Sewall, to give parlor lectures at her spacious home in Indianapolis and she had made engagements for me to lecture 0256 234 at the University of Indiana and at the various colleges in that state.

My lectures in Mrs. Sewall's parlors were attended by such notables as Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Hendricks, Charles Dudley Foulke and several other distinguished people. At the DePauw I was introduced to the audience by the very popular historian, Clark Ridpath. At the University of Indiana where I delivered three lectures I was a guest at the home of its president, David Starr Jordan.

These invitations were entirely a recognition of my services to Scandinavian literature, my diplomatic appointment not having been even dreamed of at that time.

One of the most original and most interesting Norwegians that ever came to America was Dr. J. C. Dundas of Cambridge, Wis. He was a direct descendant of the famous Nordland poet Petter Dass and J. C. Dundas was everywhere known as “Dr. Dass.” In Norway he had been intimately acquainted with the poets Welhaven and Wergeland and had fallen desperately in love with Wergeland's sister, afterwards the distinguished Camilia Collett.

Mr. Dundas came to Cambridge in the latter part of the '40s and built up a lucrative practice in medicine and surgery. He was a passionate hunter and very fond of horses and horse racing. With his long duster he could be seen at every county fair. He wrote poetry by the yard. Many of his poems were published from time to time in the Norwegian newspapers, but the large bulk of them have never seen the light of print.

Dr. Dundas had traveled in many lands. He had lived and studied in Holland, England, Germany and Scotland and had gone as ship physician to China and Japan. When he was in his full dress he wore a vest of Chinese silk in many colors. After his death which occurred in Madison this remarkable vest was given to me.

Dr. Dundas and Ole Bull were fast friends and enjoyed each other's company very much. When Ole Bull gave his concert in the Methodist church in Cambridge for the benefit 0258 236 of the Leif Erikson monument, Dundas had on his Chinese vest and was on the street the whole day waiting for his distinguished guest.

The Methodists did not want a violin concert given in their church, But Dr. Dass had secured the key to the church door and the church was soon filled in spite of them. A suit was threatened, but did not materialize. The day and night that Dundas had Ole Bull as his guest was surely the happiest day of his whole life; and Ole Bull was happy too.

What I have of souvenirs of my intimate relations with Ole Bull consist mainly of a few letters received from him at various times. These letters are full of enthusiasm and very characteristic of the writer. Then I have an unabridged Webster's dictionary which he handed to me as a Christmas gift, a flyleaf of which he has covered with a unique presentation. On leaving Valestrand in 1872 he gave me the autograph copy of Henrik Wergeland's wonderfully beautiful poem to him, written to him in 1843, when he was about to leave for America. The title of the poem is “Norway to America”, written on the occasion of Ole Bull's departure for his first visit to this country. In this poem Wergeland shows a remarkable knowledge of American geography and expresses his opposition to the American institution of slavery. The poem reads as follows:

Back in the '40s, when this story begins, there was only a handful of Norwegians in this country and these Were located in small settlements mainly in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Emigration from Norway kept increasing through the '40s and '50s and by 1860 we find them scattered throughout the northwest even to the borders of what is now the Dakotas.

Immigration subsided somewhat during the dark days of the rebellion, but after the close of the war it took a fresh start and down through the rest of the '60s and all of the '70s the Norwegians came by the thousands every year. The '70s were strenuous years in forming settlements and starting enterprises of all kinds. A person visiting them, say in 1880, would find them well established in every line of activity.

There were prosperous farmers scattered in large and small settlements throughout the Northwest even to the Pacific coast. The several church organizations were continually creating new congregations, building new and costly churches and parsonages and establishing colleges, academies, theological seminaries, hospitals, old people's and children's homes and publishing church organs and religious books, pamphlets and tracts of all kinds.

Prominent among the churchmen were Rev. V. Koren, Rev. J. A. Ottesen, Rev. B. j. Muus, Prof. L, Larsen, Rev. N. 16 0264 242 Brandt, Rev. H. A. Preus, Prof. S. Oftedal, Georg Sverdrup, A. Wenaas, and many others from the University of Christiania. Besides there was a large group of ministers who had been educated in this country. The Norwegian Synod had its college in Decorah, Iowa, and its theological seminary at Madison, Wis.

Hauges Synod had its college and seminary at Red Wing, Minn., and the Conference (now the Free Church) had its college and seminary at Minneapolis.

In 1880 a considerable number of Norwegians had been elected to both branches of the legislatures of various states and to state and county offices, particularly in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Dakota. Knute Nelson was a member of congress; Hans B. Warner had been elected secretary of state in Wisconsin and J. S. Irgens to the same office in Minnesota. It would take too much space to mention here all the Norwegians who clown to the year 1880 had been elected to important public offices even if I were able to do so, and the good work begun has gone on without interruption, so that we now, in 1914, can point to three Norwegians, who are, or who have been, members of the U.S. senate, to three who have served as United States ministers abroad, a dozen or more members of congress and a large number of United States consuls. In Wisconsin J. O. Davidson, in Minnesota Knute Nelson, and in South Dakota C. N. Herreid and Andrew Lee have served as governors.

In 1880 the Norwegian press was well established. There were large and influential Norwegian papers in Chicago, in Decorah, in St. Paul, in Minneapolis and at Fargo. These papers wielded much influence in promoting the political interests of the Norwegians.

The importation of Norwegian books had become a prosperous business. Both “Skandinaven” and I. T. Relling were successful booksellers and each church organization had its 0265 243 own publishing house and book business. There being no international copyright law to interfere a considerable number of Norwegian books were reprinted in this country, particularly by “Skandinaven” and by the various churches. The production of Norwegian books by authors on this side of the Atlantic did not make much headway until later. Large numbers of the Norwegian-American youth were flocking to the schools, both to those built and maintained by the Norwegians and to the American universities, colleges, academies and normal schools. Hundreds of Norwegian young men and women were engaged as teachers in our public schools. In the higher schools, besides myself in the State University of Wisconsin, we find Peter Hendrickson had been for many years professor at Beloit College, Mr. Breda was a professor in the University of Minnesota and Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen was a professor at Columbia College in New York.

Mr. Boyesen made his debut as an author with the story “Gunnar” only a few months later than I with my “America Not Discovered by Columbus”, and when he died a little more than fifty years old, about the year 1900, his published works filled a whole shelf of hooks.

All the Norwegian settlements and the cities having a considerable Norwegian population were well supplied with physicians and surgeons, partly from Norway and partly educated here. Conspicuous among them was Dr. Knut Hoegh, for several years located at La Crosse, but now living in Minneapolis, Dr. E. Hansen, of Koshkonong, who afterwards returned to Norway, and the doctors Paoli and N. Quales of Chicago.

So far as I have been able to learn, the first regular graduate of the medical department of the University of Norway, who came to America to practice medicine was a man by name Brandt from Drammen. I do not know his first name. I was told by Dr. J. C. Dundas that he first practiced a while in Chicago, 0266 244 then in the Norwegian settlements in Illinois, then bought a farm in Iowa, and finally settled as a regular practitioner in Indiana. I have not been able to learn what year he came to America, or what finally became of him. Dr. Brandt was followed by Theodor Schjötte and Gerhard C. Paoli. Both of these came to Koshkonong. Dr. Schjötte returned to Norway and became a government physician in Finmarken. Dr. Paoli moved to Chicago where he continued to practice medicine until he died at an advanced old age. Dr. Madsen was a medical student from Norway. He settled in Cambridge, Wis., and died there. Dr. J. C. Dundas came to America in 1850 and settled in Cambridge, Wis. He died in the beginning of the eighties. After him came Dr. E. Hansen, who settled near Utica on Koshkonong, but eventually returned to Norway where he became the government physician in Romsdal, where he died a very old man. While in America he wrote and published a book under the title: “Menneskelighed og Orthodoxi” (Humanity and Orthodoxy). It was provoked by the discussion of the slavery question.

In the legal profession there were hardly any who had studied jurisprudence in Norway. Among the more prominent ones who had acquired. a reputation before 1880 I may mention Knute Nelson in Alexandria, Minn., Andreas Ueland in Minneapolis, Louis R. Larson, who was the first Norwegian to graduate from the University of Wisconsin, and John W. Arctander, also of Minneapolis; but it must be admitted that the Norwegian-Americans have not acquired any great prominence in the legal profession in this country.

The cultivation of the fine arts, music, painting and sculpture was reserved for a later date. I cannot think of anything original in these lines prior to 1880. Of course I do not think of Ole Bull as a Norwegian-American.

In mercantile pursuits, in banking, and in manufacturing the Norwegians had made considerable progress. They had 0267 245 stores of every description scattered throughout the Northwest and a few were engaged in banking and manufacturing.

In Chicago Iver Lawson and others were large dealers in real estate. Chicago also had some prominent vessel owners and sea captains. Paul O. Stensland had built up a large dry goods business and the Johnsons operated a large furniture factory.

The Norwegians have persistently kept their hands off the brewing industry, leaving this to the Germans. If you had visited Milwaukee at this time you would have found Mr. Saveland and other well to do vessel owners, the brothers Joice as large ship chandlers and John Thorson, the wealthy lumberman. In Manitowoc, Wis., we find the leading merchant of that city to be Ossul Torrison. His oldest son Thomas is at present the head of the large Torrison estate; one son, Isaac, married to a daughter of Rev. V. Koren, is the Synod minister in Decorah; one son, Oscar, is a municipal judge in Chicago; another son, George, is a leading physician in the same city, and Mrs. Adolf Bredesen, who recently died, was a daughter of Ossul Totrison. His widow is still living.

In Green Bay we find a large pea canning industry founded by two Norwegians.

Proceeding westward we find Gilbert Anderson, the leading clothing merchant in Whitewater, Wis.

In Beloit John Thompson is the owner of one of the largest plow factories in the West.

In Stoughton, Wis., T. G. Mandt had come to the front as a manufacturer and inventor of wagons and sleighs. The oscillating sleigh knee was invented by him. In Stoughton we also find Mathew Johnson and Chr. Melaas the leading merchants in that city.

In Madison, Wis., the two most prominent Norwegian business men were Halle Steensland and John A. Johnson. Steensland early became one of the leading grocers, and in 0268 246 1880 he ranked as one of the most prominent business men in the city. John A. Johnson had acquired a fortune as a dealer in agricultural implements and was engaged in organizing the Fuller & Johnson Manufacturing Company. In the early '70s Mr. Johnson and Mr. Steensland, together with others, on my suggestion, organized the Hekla Fire Insurance Company, which for many years did a prosperous business and was the forerunner of the present Savings Loan and Trust Company of Madison, Wis. B. W. Suckow had for years owned and operated a large book-bindery, one of the very few in that line of business among the Norwegians in America. Totgrim Olson from Valdres, who is now the head of the Olson & Veerhusen Co., had forged to the front as a clothing merchant. Another leading clothier was Gilbert Winden.

In La Crosse we find Mons Anderson, the largest drygoods merchant, and Charles Solberg, the largest grocer west of the lakes.

In St. Paul and Minneapolis a number of Norwegian business men and some bankers were gradually coming to the front, and there were prosperous merchants in Rochester, Fergus Falls and Albert Lea in Minnesota, and in Fargo and Grand Forks, N. D.

Of country storekeepers who acquired prominence by their remarkable success, O. B. Dahle of Perry, Wis., was a fine example. His son Herman B. has served two terms in congress.

We have hit only some of the most conspicuous heads in this attempt to show the progress which the Norwegians in this country had made at the close of the '70s and have no doubt that the reader will easily be able to fill in the rest of the picture.

Having now for some time, and doubtless to the great satisfaction of the reader, kept myself in abeyance, I shall again return to the chief subject of this story and try to carry my own life forward down to about the year 1880.

I may say in general that the '70s were perhaps the most strenuous years of my life. I was working hard in the university, and am not overstating it when I add that we who then were employed as teachers had to do more for the small compensation then received than the far better paid professors have to do now.

I have told how I published my first English pamphlet and a translation into Norwegian of a little pamphlet by President Chadbourne. Later I published Norwegian translations of two of John Bascom's baccalaureate addresses. In 1872 I published “Julegave”, a collection of Norwegian folk-lore stories, a book which I also used in my classes of beginners in Norwegian.

Before publishing “Norse Mythology” I wrote a small book called “Den Norske Maalsag”, and of this the “Skandinaven” was my publisher.

As is known, Norway was for about 400 years prior to 1814 subject to the king of Denmark. Norway had no university; Norwegian young men seeking an education had to go to Copenhagen and Norway was flooded with Danish office holders of all kinds, including the pastors of the congregations. The result was that Danish was the only language that appeared in print, that was taught in the elementary schools, that was heard from the pulpit and in all public proceedings. During all these 400 years Norway had no parliament and consequently no way of asserting herself as a distinct nation.

In 1814 Norway got rid of the Danish yoke. She had already a few years before started her own university and now in her union with Sweden she obtained her own parliament. But she was still under the yoke of a foreign tongue. The Norwegian language was still spoken throughout the land, particularly by the peasantry, but it did not appear in print or in writing. Men of large views saw the impropriety of this. Henrik Wergeland wrote a most interesting essay, showing how absurd it was that the Norwegians should be compelled to use Danish instead of their own tongue. There were two 0271 249 ways by which the people might now get rid of the Danish language. One way was to gradually graft Norwegian words into the Danish parent stock and continue in this manner until the whole was Norwegian and nothing left of the Danish. This seems to have been the view of Wergeland, Knudsen and others. The other way was to take several of the least corrupted dialects in the mountain districts and make them the basis of a new Norwegian national language.

The great poet A. O. Vinje produced a vast amount of splendid prose and poetry, using mainly his mother's tongue as he learned it in the remote valleys of Telemarken. But his contemporary, Ivar masen, was not only a poet, but developed into one of the most learned philologists of his time. He gathered together all the dialects of Norway and on the basis of these he Constructed or created a new language for Norway.

While the official language is called the “Rigsmaal”, the language created by Aasen is called the “Landsmaal”. Aasen wrote an exhaustive dictionary and also a grammar of this “Landsmaal” and these were published on account of their profound scholarship and linguistic value with the-aid of appropriations by parliament, and the author received from parliament a stipend for life. This “Landsmaal” soon got prominent advocates; gifted authors such as Kristofer Janson, Henrik Krohn, Christopher Brun and others adopted it as the vehicle of their writings and it has steadily grown in popularity to this day. In fact the Storting has by a recent law placed the “Landsmaal” on an equal 'footing with the “Rigsmaal”.

In 1872 and again in 1873 I had the honor and pleasure of being presented to the great peasant scholar, Ivar masen. I visited him several times in his bachelor quarters and saw him in his slippers and long study gown smoking his meerschaum with a stem reaching to the floor. He was one of the most venerable men that I have ever met. I had become fond of the 0272 250 “Landsmaal” before I ever met Aasen, but after talking with him I became its advocate. And so it happened that in 1874 I wrote my ambitious book in defense of the “Landsmaal”, that is, “Den Norske Maalsag”. As an appendix I reprinted one of Kristofer Janson's stories, “Per og Bergit”. The book sold slowly, but the edition has long since been exhausted. It received an enthusiastic review from the pen of Arne Gatborg, published in the “Landsmaal” periodical called “Fedraheimen”, and Kristofer Janson wrote in high praise of it. I am the only one who has published a book on this subject in America.

In this story of my life I have already touched the year 1880 and am anxious to get through what still properly belongs to the '70s. I am not sure that I shall give the following episodes in their chronological order, but there remain a few things that I do not think I ought to leave unnoticed.

I devoted all my spare time to literary work, and in 1881 I had published “Viking Tales of the North”, containing G. Stephens' translation of Tegner's “Fridtjof's Saga”, made under the poet's auspices, together with two Icelandic sagas, that is, Thorstein Vikingson's Saga and the saga of Fridtjof the Bold, and also the life of Tegner and an introduction to the saga literature of Iceland, This work I dedicated to Iceland's great American friend, Prof. Willard Fiske.

The two greatest poetic productions in the Swedish tongue are without question Tegner's “Fridtjof's Saga” and Runeberg's “The Ensign's Stories” (Fänrik Stal's Sägner). “Fridtjof's Saga” had been translated into many modern languages and into English at least twenty-two times.

Then I made a more complete translation of the “Younger Edda” than had ever. appeared before in any language. Together with Auber Forestier, I now made a somewhat extensive selection of Norwegian folk melodies, national airs and modern compositions of Norway and these were published in a large quarto volume by Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston. The words 0274 252 were all given in the original and in translations, either by myself or by Auber Forestier. This work has done much to make the American people acquainted with Norwegian music and is still having a considerable sale. This work was dedicated to the memory of Ole Bull.

There was great need of a history of Scandinavian literature. No such work had yet appeared, either in England or in America. The great Danish scholar, Frederik Winkel Horn, with whom I was in close touch, wrote a condensed history of Scandinavian literature in German and had it published in Leipsic. I secured his consent to translate this book into English on the condition that I be permitted to make such additions as I might find desirable. I more than doubled the size of the original work; parts of the additions being supplied in manuscript by Mr. Horn and the rest by myself.

This work contains: Part I, the old Norse and Icelandic literature; part II, Denmark and Norway; part III, Sweden, including the Finlanders, who wrote in Swedish. This work was published in 1883 and I got my friend Thorvald Solberg in Washington, D.C., to prepare for it a bibliography of all works in English relating to Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland.

Solberg was born of Norwegian parents in Wisconsin. He was for many years connected with the Library of Congress at Washington and is at present the register of copyrights. Mr. Solberg has done much valuable work in the line of bibliography. One of his great achievements in this line is his “Bibliography of Literary Property”, which paved the way for our present international copyright laws. I have frequently met Mr. Solberg in Washington and through him I made the acquaintance of Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of “That Lass o' Lowtie's”, and also of the famous negro orator and diplomat, Frederick Douglass. With Solberg I had the honor of taking dinner both with Mrs. Burnett and with Fred 0275 253 Douglass; with the latter at his home in Anacostia, where Solberg then lived. In the '80s Mr. Solberg visited me in Copenhagen.

One summer during the '70s a St. John's festival was celebrated by the Norwegians in a beautiful grove on a high hill a few miles east of Lodi, in Columbia county, Wisconsin. I was invited to deliver the address of the occasion. A Madison brass band was engaged. The weather was exceedingly fine and a large number of people came to the festival, not only Norwegians, but also of other nationalities. An elaborate stage had been built. This was decorated with flags and bunting.

At this time there lived with an unmarried daughter in Lodi a widower by name Frederick Brown. He was a brother of the celebrated John Brown of Ossawattomie and Harper's Ferry fame. He was a large, smooth-faced, white-haired man, with a somewhat florid complexion and a very sweet, intelligent and benevolent countenance. He had come to attend this St. John's festival and there I was introduced to him. John the Baptist and John Brown were instantly connected in my mind and I requested the president of the day, Hans Grinde, to invite Mr. Frederick Brown to take a seat on the stage, which he did. Mr. Brown soon occupied a seat by my side.

St. John's day was in ancient times in Norway a midsummer festival corresponding to the Yule festival in midwinter. After the introduction of Christianity the Yule festival was 0277 255 turned into Christmas in honor of the birth of Christ and the midsummer festival was assigned to St. John the Baptist. St. John's day is still celebrated every 24th of June throughout Scandinavia, and Shakespeare's “Midsummer Night's Dream” shows that the day was formerly popular in England.

Having Frederick Brown by my side on the platform I decided to make this a day not only in honor of John the Baptist, but also of our great John in American history. As soon as I had been introduced as the speaker I called attention to the fact that there was sitting on the stage a brother Of the martyr patriot John Brown. I pointed out that John the Baptist was the forerunner of our Saviour; that he was the voice of Christ crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the greater One who was soon to appear. I showed how John the Baptist gave his life for the cause which he had espoused and how Christ died on, the cross for the salvation of man.

Paralleling this, I showed how John Brown was the forerunner of Abraham Lincoln, how he might truly be characterized as Lincoln's voice crying in the Kansas wilderness and how he too lost his life in the cause which he advocated. Then came Lincoln, who carried forward to completion the work of striking the shackles of millions of bondsmen by his emancipation proclamation, giving freedom to the slaves in our southern states. He too had to sacrifice his life on the altar of his country.

I hope none of my pious readers will look upon the parallels here drawn as in any way blasphemous.

With similar remarks I asked Frederick Brown to stand up and I introduced him to the audience as the only living brother of John Brown. He was greeted with prolonged applause. The whole audience stood up and cheered him. He took his seat again. Then I addressed myself to the band and requested it to play “John Brown's Body Lies Moldering in the Grave; But His Soul Goes Marching On”, While the band 0278 256 played this piece the whole audience remained standing and the stalwart Frederick Brown stood by my Side, the tears streaming down those venerable checks. Then I asked him to talk to the audience. He said he was no orator; but with much feeling he gave a heart-to-heart talk, telling what he remembered about his brother while they still were together under the parental roof. The whole festival was an event never to be forgotten by those who were present.

After that I met Frederick Brown several times. He used to call at our house in Madison. It was agreed between us that I was to write for him a history of his family and particularly of his brother, John Brown. We were to be joint owners of the book. But we never got started. It all ended in talk. He always had some excuse, either ill health, or something else, and he soon left Lodi and I lost track of him. Mr. A. O. Barton tells me that he moved to Kilbourn City and died there, as he has been told.

The publication of my books, especially of “Norse Mythology,” brought me many invitations to give public lectures and parlor readings. I read lectures before a large number of literary clubs, in Chicago, Milwaukee and in other cities. One winter I was one of the speakers in a course of lectures given at Quincy, Ill. But the greatest distinction that I achieved in this line was in February, 1877, when I delivered by invitation a course of four lectures at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. This invitation was distinctly a tribute to the author of “Norse Mythology.” I gave one lecture on “The Norse Discovery of America,” one on “The Odinic Religion,” one on “The Viking Age” and one on “Our Teutonic Epic.” The last one I myself consider to be the best lecture that I have ever written in English. My only effort in this line that I might regard as superior to “Our Teutonic Epic” is my lecture in Norwegian entitled “Vor Fædrenearv” (Our Norse Inheritance). Neither of these lectures has ever been published.

Perhaps I ought to explain that the subject treated in “Our Teutonic Epic” is the story of Sigurd and Brynhild, both in its original Norse form as found in the Edda poems and in the Volsunga saga, and in its later German version, particularly in the middle high German “Niebelungen” lied. In this lecture I try to show that our story of Sigurd and Brynhild is the greatest, the profoundest, the most sublime, the most comprehensive of the 17 0280 258 world's five popular epics. The other four popular epics are (1) The Iliad, and Odyssey (Greek); (2) The Mahabharata and Ramayana (Hindooic); (3) The Sha-na-meh (Persian); (4) The Kalevala (Finnish).

I hold that our Teutonic Epic contains the virtues and merits of the best epics of art and popular epics combined.

During the two weeks that it took to deliver this course of lectures I made visits to Philadelphia and to Washington. It was on one of these visits that I called on Walt Whitman in Camden, N. J., and made the acquaintance of Thorvald Solberg, Mrs. Burnett and various other people of note in those cities.

During the '70s, besides teaching and writing books and lecturing, I wrote extensively both for the Norwegian and American press. My contributions to “Skandinaven” alone would fill several volumes if published separately. I became a regular contributor to the columns of “The Nation,” published and edited by E. L. Godkin and W. P. Garrison. Mr. Garrison was a son of the distinguished abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison. “The Nation,” which was afterwards consolidated with the New York Evening Post, founded by William Cullen Bryant, has long been regarded as the high water mark of journalism. It is still published as a weekly edition of the New York Evening Post. It was said of E. L. Godkin that he never had his equal in skilful use of quotation marks. Woe be to his opponent who became a victim of E. L. Godkin's quotation marks. It meant confusion and defeat.

It is a strange fact that while “The Nation” soon reached a circulation of 10,000 it has never been able to get far above this mark. It is still taken only by America's upper ten. In my opinion “The Nation” should be read with considerable caution. A constant reader of this publication is very apt to lose the habit of thinking for himself and letting “The Nation” do the thinking for him, One finds constant readers of 0281 259 “The Nation” accepting all its statements without question and “The Nation” supplies them with their whole stock of knowledge of current events. All they care to know is what. “The Nation” says on the subject. As tame fowls have lost the art of flying from not using their wings, many of the readers of “The Nation” have lost the art of independent thinking. My department was to review books published in Scandinavia and books published in other countries on Scandinavian subjects. In this way I got an additional channel for creating an interest in Scandinavia.

I also secured positions on various encyclopedias, writing for them articles on Scandinavian topics, especially biographies. In this way I found an opportunity of presenting the leading authors, poets, composers and artists of the past and present in Scandinavia to the encyclopedia readers. I succeeded in securing the recognition of many Scandinavians whose names had never before been seen in the pages of an American encyclopedia.

My work in this field in the '70s and since that time includes Johnson's, Kiddle & Schem's, McClintock & Strong's, the American Supplement to the Britannica, Chambers' and several others.

While I am on this subject I might as well add now that I served in later years as a contributor to the Century Dictionary, edited by W. D. Whitney, and that I am one of the editorial staff on the Standard Dictionary, published by Funk & Wagnalls. In the Standard Dictionary I had charge of the words connected with Scandinavian mythology, antiquities and history, and in this work place was found for more than 150 names and words that had never before appeared in any dictionary of the English language.

In the first place all the old Scandinavian divinities were introduced and defined, and in the next place words of direct Scandinavian origin, such as “ski,” “fjord,” “fjeld,” “foss,” 0282 260 etc., were inserted. I also secured recognition of the pronunciation “viking” (veeking), instead of “viking” (vieking). In my encyclopedia article on “viking” I was the first one to suggest or point out that the word is not derived from “vik,” a bay, but from “veida,” to slay, so that the etymology of the word “viking” is not “bay-ing” but “slayer,” that is, warrior. This suggestion of mine was endorsed by Norway's greatest linguist, Sophus Bugge. While I do not claim to have fully established the derivation from “veida,” I have certainly shown the absurdity of the old supposed derivation from the word “vik,” a bay. Before the word “viking” was known outside of Scandinavia the old Norsemen themselves regularly made use of the phrase, “at farai viking,” which meant “to go abroad,” to gather fee and fame—i. e. wealth and culture.

Before leaving the '70s for good I insert here a slightly abbreviated sketch of me from “History and Biographical Annals of the University of Wisconsin,” written by C. W. Butterfield and published by the University Press Co. in 1879. It supplies in a nutshell a review of my literary work down to that year, and it is so much easier to let some one else sing your praises.

Mr. Butterfield's sister was the wife of Pete Hyacinthe, the famous Dominican and Carmelite monk, who from 1864–1868 preached to immense audiences in Notre Dame in Paris. He took issue with the dogma of infallibility and left the Catholic church, styling himself old Catholic and tried to organize an independent Catholic church. Pete Hyacinthe and his wife visited C. W. Butterfield and wife, our neighbors, in Madison.

This is the sketch:

In June, 1875, Rasmus B. Anderson, A.M., was elected professor of Scandinavian languages in the University of Wisconsin. He was born the twelfth of January, 1846, in Albion, Dane county, Wisconsin, of Norwegian parents,—his father having been, in 1836, the leader of the first large company of emigrants that came from Norway to the United States,—arriving in Wisconsin in September, 1841. The son received such common school instruction as the pioneer settlement afforded. At the age of fourteen, he left home, leading a somewhat 0284 262 unsettled life for the next two years. He then entered an Iowa college, where he studied over three years, at the expiration of which time he returned to Wisconsin and, in June, 1866, was elected professor of Greek and modern languages, in Albion academy, in his native county. This position he held for nearly three years, drawing into the institution a large number of Scandinavian pupils.

Professor Anderson then entered as student the post-graduate course in the University of Wisconsin, where he remained during the spring term of 1869. In the summer thereafter, he was appointed instructor in languages in that institution, continuing in the position until the summer of 1875, when, as before stated; he was called to the chair of Scandinavian languages,—the first native-born citizen of Wisconsin to be honored with a full professorship in that institution. This office he continues to fill with credit and ability. He was appointed librarian of the University in 1877, which position he still holds. He has established, in the institution, a Scandinavian Mimer's library, the best one of the kind in the United States. It contains over one thousand volumes. In the founding of this library, he received much assistance from Ole Bull, the world-renowned violinist, who, on the seventeenth of May, 1872, gave a concert in Madison, Wisconsin, in aid of the enterprise.

Professor Anderson is, for his age, one of the most prolific writers of the country. As a contributor to the periodical press and as an author of books for general reading, no other citizen of Wisconsin has gained so extended a reputation. He early began to feel an especial interest in Norse literature,—collecting works upon subjects connected therewith, the result being the accumulation, at this time, of a large and unique private Scandinavian library. His first contributions to the press were made in 1865, at the age of nineteen, Since then he has contributed extensively to newspapers and magazines published in the Norwegian language, in the United States and Norway. 0285 263 These articles are, to some extent, upon history and belles-lettres, but the larger portion are polemic. Among these contributions are to be found “Runer;” “Folkefrihedens Vugge stod i Norge;” “C. C. Rafn,—Biografisk Skisse;” “Oplysningens Nytte i timelig Henseende; ” and numerous others of recognized ability. The burden of his controversial articles has been an ardent defense of American institutions, particularly of the common school. The gist of his sentiments with reference to this cherished institution of our country is to be found in this terse, and rather startling motto adopted by him: “Whosoever, directly or indirectly, opposes the American common school is an enemy of education, liberty, and progress. Opposition to the common school is treason to our country.”

In the English language Professor Anderson has supplied papers to be found in the Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The Christian at Work, Inland Monthly, Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, Robinson's Epitome of Literature, The Library Table, and others; to the English press, articles to be found in various periodicals, especially in The London Academy. His contributions to the daily papers, east and west, in the United States, have been numerous. His connection with “Osszehasonlito Irodalomtortenelmi Lapok” (Journal of Comparative Literature) has been interesting and quite extensive. This polygot journal is published by the professors of the Royal University of Hungary. In it, he has published a number of articles both in poetry and in prose. It is a periodical circulating among scholars in every quarter of the globe.

Professor Anderson began his successful and enviable career as an author of books, by giving to the world, in 1872, “Julegave,”—a work in Norwegian. It is a collection of Norse folk-lore stories and has reached its third edition. Of the work, The Nation of Feb. 20, 1879, says: “The ‘Julegave’ (Christmas-gift), of fairy tales and stories to children of the Norwegian settlers on our continent, consists of selections chiefly from the 0286 264 charming collections of Asbjörnsen and Moe, and owes its existence to a desire to provide the little ones with entertaining reading in the language of their fathers. Among the tales, we recognize such common property of the Aryan race as ‘Little Red Ridinghood,’ ‘Faithful John,’ and ‘The Master Thief;’ while others bear a more distinctively Norwegian stamp. We can heartily recommend them to both young and old.”

In 1874, Professor Anderson published another Norwegian book,—his second effort for public favor. The work was entitled “Den Norske Maalsag; ” it being an account of the movement to restore a national language in Norway. Says The Nation: “The written language of Norway, as is well known, differs widely from the spoken dialect, and ‘Den Norske Maalsag’ gives an interesting account of the efforts that, since the separation from Denmark in 1814, have been made by an evergrowing number to supplant the Danish of the press and literature of the ‘Alnuemaal.’ To the book is appended a story in Norwegian by Krostofer Janson, one of the foremost champions of the movement.” The London Academy, while opposing the project thus illustrated and supported by Professor Anderson, admitted that his book said everything that could be said in favor of the movement. The journal added: “Mr. Anderson supplements his clever little book with a specimen of the new language.”

Professor Anderson now entered upon a larger field of literature, which he has since cultivated with even more success than the other. His first book in the English language was “America Not Discovered by Columbus;” third edition, in 1877. This work has been received with marked attention at home and abroad. It has been reviewed in many languages; and, with one notable exception, these notices have all been commendatory. This history is an attempt to place (what the author believes to be) the facts of the Norse discovery of America in the tenth century, within the reach of all; and to show, 0287 265 by a chain of Circumstantial evidence that Columbus, before sailing upon his famous voyage in 1492, was in possession of knowledge of the Norse discovery. Of the work, the London Notes and Queries says: “It is a valuable addition to American history. * * * The book is full of surprising statements, and will be read with something like wonderment.” The book has been twice translated into the Norwegian language,—once, into modern Norwegian, and again into the tongue advocated by the author's “Maalsag.”

The idea of erecting a monument to Leif Erikson, claimed to be the discoverer of America, was first suggested by Professor Anderson, who has interested himself greatly in the undertaking, securing the cooperation of Ole Bull and John A. Johnson. From the attention called to the supposed discovery by the publication of “America Not Discovered by Columbus,” also from Ole Bull's efforts and influence, and from the contributions of others, a sum sufficient has been raised.

In 1875, Professor Anderson published his “Norse Mythology.” This is his largest work and the one upon which rests, to a great extent, his excellent literary reputation. It is an exhaustive and systematic presentation of the Odinic religion of the old Teutons, based on the Icelandic Eddas and Sagas. Few books have been more extensively or more generously noticed by the press of America. In Europe, its reception has been equally cordial: —English, French, German, and Scandinavian journals gave it, and are still giving it, elaborate and most favorable notices. Says the Christian Era: “It is full of matter at once entertaining and instructive. What Hans Christian Andersen was to the children, Professor Anderson is to the ‘children of larger growth.’ He is a guide into the most famous fable-land of the globe, and a translator of the most marvelous traditions among men.” This, from the Hartford Post: “Professor Anderson's ‘Norse Mythology’ is without a peer in the English language. There is none so thorough 0288 266 and complete, so appreciative and enthusiastic, so really fresh and vivid as a tale by Dickens, and enchants one by the beauty and simplicity of its strange conceptions. At the same time, it exhibits all the earnestness and purity of ancient northern thought and purpose.” The New York Tribune has words equally commendatory: “Professor Anderson has produced a monograph which may be regarded as exhaustive in all its relations. His work gives evidence of wide research.” Says Scribner's Monthly: “Professor Anderson's work is incomparably superior to the already existing books of this order.” Prof. Max Müller writes thus to the author, of his work: “I like it decidedly; and, whenever I approach the dark runes of the Edda, I shall gladly avail myself of your help and guidance.” “We say in all sincerity,” is the language of the Boston Globe, “that no American book of recent years does equal credit to American scholarship, or is deserving of more pronounced success.” And thus the Boston Daily Advertiser: “The volume is rich in poems from the Eddas; and the myths are as wonderful, as fantastic, as exciting, as any of the, Greek fables, and have the additional elements of ice and frost to enhance their wildness and mystery.” The book, some time ago, reached a third edition, and a fourth will soon be issued. *

Professor Anderson's “Viking Tales of the North” was issued from the press in 1877. It is a literary study of Tegner's celebrated Fridthjof's Saga, giving, in an English translation, the Saga material, out of which Tegner fashioned his poem; giving, furthermore, an introduction on Saga literature; also, a biography of Tegner; and, by way of an appendix, Professor Stephen's English translation of the poem:—the whole carefully annotated by Professor Anderson. Says the Boston Commonwealth: “This work will vie in interest to 0289 267 scholars with the Vedas of the East.” And thus, The Nation: “Professor Anderson's book is a very valuable and important one. The ‘Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son,’ * * * teems with magnificently dramatic situations, the impressiveness of which is rather increased by the calm directness and dignity with which they are related. And these features are as characteristic of the English version as of the Icelandic originals. The translator shows an intimate acquaintance with all the intricacies of that cruelly inflected language, and an enthusiastic appreciation of its epigrammatic pith and vigor. * * * Tegner's celebrated poem ‘Fridthjof's Saga’ is sufficiently novel in its theme and abounding in melody and rhythm to yield a large measure of enjoyment.” Thus, the Boston Traveller: “It is impossible to describe these writings; but the reader will find himself immeasurably repaid by their perusal.” Says The Churchman: “This work, as a whole, will please and instruct all classes of readers, and especially those who wish to search out the antiquities of Scandinavian literature. But every one will be struck with the majesty and force of that old poetry of the north.”

Professor Anderson is now at work, with Ole Bull, upon a book to be entitled “Violins and Violin Makers.” He has in hand, also, a translation, from Icelandic, of the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda, in all three volumes; “A Guide into Teutondomm,” one volume; and “Folk-lore Stories, from the Norse,” one volume. He has, likewise, other literary enterprises under way, prominent among which are an English version of the Finnish national epic “Kalevala,” and an extensive and thorough study of the Magyar poet, Petöfi, whom he hopes soon to introduce to the English-speaking public. *

The chief of Professor Anderson's prose translations is “Charcoal Burners,” from the Swedish. This has already 0290 268 been noticed as a work annotated and published, in the English language, by Professor Nicodemus. From the Norwegian, Professor Anderson has translated for the Smithsonian institute among other articles, an account of the Norwegian North Sea exploration, by Prof. Georg O. Sars. He has translated a large number of poems from Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic; some have been printed in musical publications; one, in Longfellow's “Poems of Places”; several, in the Hungarian Journal of Comparative Literature; others, in various periodicals at home and abroad. His translation used by Longfellow is from the Norwegian poet, Andreas Munch, and is entitled

In 1856, Lord Dufferin, who afterwards became governor-general of Canada and viceroy to India and who occupied nearly all of the most important British ambassadorships, including St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Rome and Paris, while yet a young man, made a voyage in his yacht to Iceland and Jan Mayen. In Iceland he was most royally entertained. On his return he followed the coast of Norway, stopping at various points. This journey led him to make a fairly thorough study of Iceland and its interesting history, and of this visit he wrote one of the most charming books of travel ever produced.

In this work he takes occasion to tell of the discovery and settlement of Iceland and of the causes that led to that tremendous emigration from Norway. He also touches briefly on the discovery and settlement of Greenland, and then gives an outline of the voyages to Vinland. The title of his book is, “Letters from High Latitudes.” It overflows with good will to Iceland and to the Icelanders.

This book has been printed in many editions on both sides of the Atlantic. While Lord Dufferin was governor-general of Canada an American publisher asked him for permission to reprint this very popular book. He graciously granted this permission, but said that he would like to give the book a revision. This was in the '70s. He wrote to me and said that he had read my “America Not Discovered by Columbus” and “Norse 0297 275 Mythology” and asked whether I would be willing to revise for him his “Letters from High Latitudes.” A new edition was about to be published and he was too busy a man to undertake the revision himself. He knew that his book contained misspelled names, some wrong dates and other minor errors. I answered him that I would be delighted to render him this service. I said I would correct and eliminate such faults as it was possible for me to find, adding that I did not regard myself as any authority. He sent me a copy of his book. I gave it as thorough a revision as I was able and returned it to him. For the pains I had taken he sent me his hearty thanks and a draft for $300. This was my first big money for literary work and it made me feel rich.

From that time on my relations with Lord Dufferin were most cordial. He repeatedly invited me to visit him and be his guest at the government mansion in Ottawa. But as I have more than once stated my life was at that time exceedingly strenuous and my means very limited. I continued to postpone this visit until it became too late. Lord Dufferin left, Canada for higher posts of honor in the old world. Still he now and then found time to write me a short letter. He was particularly pleased when he found that I too had been called into the diplomatic service. He then addressed me as his “dear colleague.”

But the heading of this chapter is “The Icelanders,” and I have apparently drifted away from my topic. Let me return to it. Sitting in my chair and dictating this to Mr. Barton I shall not be able to give accurate dates, nor is this necessary. It all happened during the '70s. Even before the '70s a few Icelanders had emigrated to America. They were of the working class and found employment here and there among their Norwegian cousins.

The first one of these Icelanders whom I saw came to our house in 1871. He was working on a farm near Madison. 0298 276 His name was Bergman and he came from Akureyri in the north part of Iceland. I had not learned old Norse or Icelandic at Luther college. In my study of the discovery of America and of Scandinavian mythology and history I became most painfully conscious of my need of understanding old Norse. I got text books from Norway, Sweden and Denmark and studied these books most industriously, and now you may imagine how glad I was to get hold of an Icelander who could actually read and understand my old Norse books. I made him read aloud to me; then I read aloud to him. I do not know whether it was a blessing or a misfortune that this Icelander knew neither English nor Norwegian. He had been sent to me by Madison people because they could not converse with him and they thought I might be able to do so.

This Icelander brought three or four of his countrymen to see me and we soon all became fast friends. I looked upon these sons of Iceland with wonderment and they all had to help me to read correctly and to talk Icelandic which is practically the same today as it was in the days of Leif Erikson. It is the only vernacular that has continued more than a thousand years with practically no change of utterance. When you talk with an Icelander you are hearing the same words, the same accents that you would have heard had you listened to Harald Haarfager at the battle of Hafersfjord in 872.

Later, in 1871, I received a prolonged visit from the Icelandic poet Jon Olafsson. He was a fugitive from Iceland. At about this time, that is to say, in the latter part of the '60s and the beginnings of the '70s the relations between Iceland and Denmark were exceedingly strained. The Icelanders were clamoring for home rule. They wanted their own parliament, a demand which the Danes later very wisely granted. I may add here that Iceland with its scattered population of about 70,000 has absolutely no illiteracy. Although there are no schools outside of Reykjavik, the capital, in the south, and 0299 277 Akureyi on the north coast, the children are taught to read and write by their parents in the long winter nights and there is not to be found in the whole island a single man or woman of normal mind who is unable to read and write Icelandic, while a large percentage of the population can read Danish and English and some of them even German and French books. It is also a remarkable fact that Iceland has no executioner and hence a person guilty of a capital crime cannot be executed. Not a criminal has been executed in the past one hundred and fifty years.

Jon Olafsson was charged with high treason. Though but a young man in the early '70s he was very precocious and had already written enough to make a substantial volume. Among other things he had written a patriotic song breathing defiance to Denmark, and it was for this that he was to be arrested and tried for treason. He escaped to Norway in a Norwegian tramp vessel. From Norway he made his way to America and when I first heard of him he was working on a farm in the Norwegian settlement called Muskego in Racine county, Wisconsin. I invited him to visit me and I remember he went with me to Moscow, Iowa county, Wisconsin, where we both spoke on the 17th of May.

Young Olafsson was highly educated. He was well versed in the ancient classics and spoke fluently both Danish and English. With him I took a strenuous course in Icelandic, reading long parts of the eddas and sagas and also of modern Icelandic literature. He remained with us about two weeks and then returned to his work in Muskego. His career in this country was most remarkable. He had conceived the idea that it would be a splendid thing for the Icelanders to emigrate in a body to Alaska. In emigrating from and abandoning Iceland they would escape Danish tyranny and besides find better soil and a finer climate than in Iceland. But how to carry out this idea, that was the great problem. Prof. Willard Fiske of 0300 278 Cornell University and I equipped him with letters to Washington, but after getting there he would have to fight his own battles. After he got to the seat of our government he elbowed his way to members of congress, to United States senators and members of the cabinet and even got an audience and interview with President Grant. He told all of them that he wanted the 70,000 people in Iceland to leave the homes they and their forebears had occupied for a thousand years and settle in Alaska. He made it appear that the idea was perfectly practicable. And what happened? Jon Olafsson received an appointment from President Grant to take two other Icelanders with him and proceed at once to Alaska to select a site for a settlement. A United States revenue cutter was placed at his service and provisions made for the necessary travel in Alaska.

Jon Olafsson and his companions made the journey. Of the trip and of the Alaskan country in general Olafsson wrote in Icelandic a ponderous report. It was a large octavo pamphlet of, I think, not less than 200 pages. This was ordered printed by the government in an edition of several thousand copies. In the meantime Jon Olafsson through diplomatic correspondence had received full pardon for his treasonable poem and so could return to Iceland unmolested.

The president of the United States sent him to his native land with a cargo of his pamphlet on Alaska. On his arrival home he at once began to agitate in favor of emigration to Alaska and distributed his pamphlet. But neither his preaching nor his pamphlet had any other effect than to make him the butt of ridicule. His audiences hissed him and he was, by way of disparagement, called “Jon Olafsson Alaska-fari,” i.e. “Alaska-farer”. The whole enterprise was a colossal failure and fell flat. Not a single Icelander was found willing to give up his Iceland home in exchange for one in Alaska.

Jon Olafsson remained in Iceland, started a newspaper and lived there until in the early '90s when he again visited America, 0301 279 living most of the time in Chicago and then a short time in Madison, Wis. Here he edited a Norwegian paper published by O. A. Buslett. Then he returned to Iceland where he still lives.

As above indicated Iceland obtained home rule in 1874 and Jon Olafsson has for many years been a leading and very influential member of the Icelandic parliament.

The settlement of Iceland by people from Norway on account of the tyranny of Harald Haarfager dates from the year 874, and in 1874 the Icelanders celebrated their millennial. The king of Denmark attended the celebration in person and brought with him as his millennial gift a new constitution for Iceland providing for home rule. The celebration was attended by many distinguished visitors, among whom was Bayard Taylor from the United States; Willard Fiske of Cornell in the east and I in the west made a large collection of books which we sent to the library at Reykjavik in honor of the millennial. No other people in the world appreciate books more than the Icelanders. On his return home Bayard Taylor published his very readable book on his journey to Iceland and I made all this aid me in the campaign I was conducting to get the Scandinavian languages, including Icelandic, recognized at the University of Wisconsin.

Icelanders came to America in increasing numbers. Early in the '70s we find a whole colony located on Washington island outside of Green Bay. Quite a number had located in Milwaukee and others had found their way into various Norwegian settlements on both sides of the Mississippi. Among these there were bright and ambitious young men who wanted to attend school and such were assisted by Synod ministers and sent as students, first to Luther college, and thence to St. Louis to study theology. I kept one of these young men by name Thorlaksson, who afterwards became a pastor in Canada, in footwear 0302 280 during his course at Decorah and then St. Louis. I had promised to take care of his “understanding.”

Then, I think it was in 1874, Luther college added an Icelander to its faculty. This was Jon Bjarnason. He was a graduate of the college at Reykjavik, in Iceland, a gifted man and ripe scholar. Unfortunately, he was found by Rev. V. Koren of the Synod and by his colleagues in the faculty to entertain theological views that were not strictly orthodox. He was thought to be too liberal. This caused friction and at the end of the school year he lost his position.

With me it was still the petit done and the undone vast in Icelandic, as in many other things, and so I invited Prof. Bjarnason and his wife, Laura Pjetursdottir, to come and make their home with us for a year or pending his finding some other position. Laura was a daughter of the organist at the Reykjavik church, a musician of note. She too was an able musician and an expert on the guitar. She assisted Mrs. Anderson in doing the housework, while Bjarnason gave me a rigid course in reading, translating and speaking Icelandic and in assisting me in various ways in my literary work. He helped me prepare for publication my “Viking Tales of the North.” Before the year was out he got a position as editor of a Norwegian paper, published in Madison by Lars J. Grinde, but Jon and Laura continued to live at our home. The next spring I got him a position on “Skandinaven” in Chicago.