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The Settlement When Kong Sverre completed its voyage at the wharf in Manhattan, of New York City, the second leg of the Henriksen party was completed. Their destination was Koshkonong Prairie in Dane County Wisconsin, and an arduous trek yet remained. A small community of Norwegian immigrants from Voss (Vossinger) had already settled at Koshkonong, including brother Henrik who had emigrated the previous year. In 1839 three Vossings, who had already settled in LaSalle county Illinois, set out in search of better land for homesteading; Nils Gilderhus, Nils Bolstad and their guide, Odd Himle. They walked 150 miles from LaSalle county to Milwaukee and then 80 miles to the eastern part of Dane county. At Koshkonong Prairie they found "a wilderness covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, and a great profusion and variety of beautiful flowers, displaying the colors of ten thousand rainbows painted not by the hand of man" The abundance of hardwood timber, plenty of marsh hay and fine fishing in the Koshkonong Creek were an answer to their quest. They each selected 40 acres and 40 for a friend, Magne Bystølen, and, with winter approaching, they walked back to LaSalle County by way of Milwaukee. Early in the spring of 1840 Gilderhus, Bolstad, Bystølen and Andrew Finno started for Koshkonong, driving wagons drawn by oxen. They arrived at the end of April, and took possession of their land. Their glowing reports of the Prairie lured others, and by 1841 another fourteen settlers had arrived from LaSalle county, including John Haldorson Bjørgo, a first cousin of the Henriksens. "Koshkonong, 'the lake we live by' was named by the Indians. For generations they fished for suckers, pickeral, pike, catfish, black bass, perch, bullheads, and dogfish in Lake Koshkonong. Only the Indians camped, held pow-wows and hunted for partridge, quail and deer on the prairie. From 1830 to 1838 Chief Black Hawk, and his Winnebago Indians, camped near the lake. The Black Hawk Trail followed the Rock River from Rock Island, Illinois to the east and northeast side of Lake Koshkonong and on through Ft Atkinson." The normal route from New York to the mid-west was by steamboat to Albany, canal boat on the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo and by steamboat on the Great Lakes from Buffalo to Chicago or Milwaukee. Ole and his party went to Milwaukee. In 1896 a group of early Norwegian pioneers formed the "Norwegian Pioneer Associaton", in Deerfield, Wisconsin to "promote a better acquaintance, and closer ties of friendship between the sons and daughters of old Norway in America." Each of the members was interviewed and a brief biography of their history was recorded. One of the members was Hendrick J. (Johnson) Fadness, the son of Ole's brother John. The following is excerpted from Hendrick's record of his Fathers experience after reaching Milwaukee: "After they got there they stayed over night but had to stay out of doors to watch their goods the whole night to save it from being stolen, but they soon started out for Koshkonong Prairie afoot. Their chests and boxes was brought from Milwaukee by a man who had an oxen team and waggon, and lived on Koshkonong Prairie. Ole Hendrickson Fadness, a brother of John Hendrickson Fadness who came in company with them from Norway, bought a pair of oxen and a lumber waggon in Milwaukee. Well, after awhile they arrived at the house of John Haldorson Bjørgo, cousin of John Hendrickson Fadness, who resided on Section no. 9 in what is now called town of Christiana, county of Dane, Wis., but in that time it was called Koshkonong Prairie. He lived with his cousin until the spring of 1847, then he settled on a piece land on Section no. 3, in the town of Christiana, and during the harvest of 1846, he cradled and his wife raked and bound after him, and all they got was one dollar per day, which they thought was good wages, compared with wages in Norway, and it also shows that early settlers was satisfied even if they had to work hard. In the winter he worked in the woods choping and splitting rails, improving his farm as fast as means and time would permit, he come here empty handed, and a little in debt to, but by hard work and good management he got along well and done well." I am not aware of similar accounting of events for the other brothers. Ole was the oldest and I suspect he may have been the money manager. I have found, in the Wisconsin Land Records, several filings for forty to eighty acre parcels of land by Ole, from 1848 to 1851, but none by his brothers. It may have been that Ole did the filing and his brothers took ownership. Also, since these records are only for government land, typically at a cost of $1.25 per acre, other purchases of established farms may have been made. However the land was acquired, K. A. Rene's book, "Historie om Udvandringen fra Voss og Vossingerne i Amerika", indicates that both Ole and John settled on Section 3 of Christiana township, and that Ole also had land in Deerfield township, and John had additional land in Section 4 of Christiana. Knut settled on Section 21 of Deerfield township, and when Jacob came in 1850, he also settled on Section 21, next to Knut. Rene also states that the son of Jacob's wife Anna, from a previous marriage, Lars Mikkelson, "died early, and that Jacob also died shortly after that." The year and cause of death is not given. When Jacob died, the "land went to his brother", and Anna went to Minnesota to live with an "old neighbor" from the Sætre farm. It's probable that Jacob got land from Knut when he arrived from Norway, and the land reverted to Knut when Jacob died. When Henrik emigrated from Norway with his wife Kari, in 1845, they had a year old child and Kari was pregnant with their second child. The child, Henrik, was born during the voyage and Kari died bringing Henrik into the world. So, when Henrik arrived in Koshkonong, he had two infants, and no wife to care for them. I do not find Henrik, nor his two children, in the 1850 census of Norwegians in America. The Rene book, however, has him living at a farm in Christiana township, "3 miles from Cambridge." In May 1851 he married again, to Anna Knutsdatter Langeland. They were married by Rev Preuss, who served both the East and West Koshkonong congregations, and became the first pastor of St Paul's Liberty Lutheran Church of Liberty Prairie. In 1853 Henrik and Anna, with Ola and Henrik, born to Kari, and year old Knud, started out for Iowa in a wagon pulled by oxen. They settled in Big Canoe township of Winneshiek county, and he became one of the most successful farmers in Iowa. He was a big man, and the following story is told of him: "Henrik had once gone out with a hunting party to kill a bear that had killed a man. Some of the men had guns but Henrik did not. Suddenly, close to a small river, Henrik encountered the bear. He ran to the bear and grabbed hold of it, while shouting to the others, 'Sjot no, fyr no heldu eg han!'. (Shoot while I am holding him!). Njål Fadnes, a friend in Stavanger, Norway, said that this story of Henrik was told in a Norwegian lesebok (reader) when he first went to school, over 50 years ago. The Henriksen families of Koshkonong were among 100 immigrant Norwegian families who founded St. Paul's Liberty Lutheran Church in 1851. Each family contributed seven dollars for construction of the Church, which was begun in 1852 and completed in 1853. Regular Sunday worship has been conducted continuously from that time to the present, and today they have an active and thriving membership.
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