Norwegian emigration, part 7
When immigrants from Norway finally reached southeastern Minnesota, there was plenty of farm land available. According to the Distribution-Preemption Act of 1841, a squatter could live on 160 acres of federal government land and then pay the minimum price of $1.25 an acre ($39 value in 2021) when the land was officially opened for settlement. One had to be a “head of household,” a single man over 21 or a widow. One also had to be a citizen of the United States or an immigrant intending to be naturalized and a resident of the claimed land for at least 14 months. In 1862, the Homestead Act offered free land. Compared to farms back in Norway with maybe only 10 acres of tillable land, the pioneers could own tracts of land that only the wealthy could possess in Norway. Many immigrants had been tenant farmers in Norway with scant opportunity of owning land.
The pioneer marked the corners of his claim with signs bearing his name and then headed off to the first land office (established in 1854) at Brownsville on the Mississippi River – 25 to 35 miles on foot or by oxcart from areas around Spring Grove.
Although land in Minnesota was inexpensive and required no down payment, many immigrants were nearly penniless when they reached Houston County and Fillmore County. They had already financed a three or four-month ocean voyage, often for an entire family, and then paid for passage through canals and the Great Lakes to reach Wisconsin or Illinois, where the best land was quickly being claimed. There, among other immigrant countrymen, some hired out to raise money for the final overland trek to Minnesota.
During the first years when they were preparing Minnesota land for production, there was little that could be converted into ready cash. They needed to save for purchasing the land as well as purchasing farm implements and other essentials.
Rasmus Spande, who pioneered on Stavanger Prairie in eastern Fillmore County related, “the first 10 years, I did not have an overcoat, overshoes or underclothes, just a blouse and overalls.
“We were desperately poor and our neighbors almost the same fix. There was no country store where we could buy on credit, and the little I made working in the logging woods was hardly enough for food and interest on our debt.
“The first winter, I split 2,700 rails at 50 cents a hundred. I was small, not very strong and unaccustomed to this kind of labor. For lunch at noon, all I had was a piece of bread frozen stiff, which I chopped off with an axe.”
There were no local banks where the pioneer farmers could apply for a loan. And if they traveled far enough to find a bank, they were so far from home that no one knew them well enough to approve a loan. So they were at the mercy of loan sharks. Most infamous was Lars Dommerud, who conducted business in Fillmore and Houston Counties in Minnesota and Winneshiek County, Iowa. While under the jurisdiction of the territorial government, he could charge whatever he pleased. The general rate of interest was 40%, but Dommerud was known to charge as much as 75% for those who were extremely desperate. After Minnesota statehood in 1858, the legal rate was 12%. But Dommerud was known to find other ways to fleece the farmers.
Once after collecting interest payments at Highland Prairie Church, he discovered some boys had written with chalk on his wagon, “Beware of Death, Judgment Day, the Devil and Dommerud.”
Shelter was the immediate need when arriving on the frontier. Some newcomers were fortunate enough to be taken in by settlers who already had a dwelling with a roof. Spande spent the first winter with his brother-in-law, Tore Faae.
Before constructing a cabin, many slept in or under their covered wagons, which drawn by oxen, had carried their possessions the last miles. Some lived in a lean-to or in a cave where muddied rain might come through the turf roof. Ole Sagadalen, in 1847, dug into a hillside where he lived for two years. Anders Gubberud dug a hillside cave near Spring Grove.
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