I asked many, both men and women, whether they were contented; whether they were better off here than in old Norway? Nearly all of them replied “Yes. We are better off here; we do not work so hard, and it is easier to gain a livelihood.” One old peasant only said, “There are difficulties here as well as there. The health is better in the old country than it is here!”
I visited also, with Mrs. P., some of the Norwegian peasant-houses. It may be that I did not happen to go into the best of them; but certainly the want of neatness and order I found contrasted strongly with the condition of the poor American cottages. But the Norwegians wisely built their houses generally beside some little river or brook, and understand how to select a good soil. They come hither as old and accustomed agriculturists, and know how to make use of the earth. They help one another in their labour, live frugally, and ask for no pleasures. The land seems to me, on all hands, to be rich, and has an idyllian beauty. Mountains there are none; only swelling hills, crowned with pine-wood. About seven hundred Norwegian colonists are settled in this neighbourhood, all upon small farms, often at a great distance one from another. There are two churches, or meeting-houses, at Koskonong.
The number of Norwegian immigrants resident at this time in Wisconsin is considered to be from thirty to forty thousand. No very accurate calculation has, however, been made. Every year brings new immigrants, and they often settle upon tracts of country very distant from the other colonists. They call a colony “a settlement,” from the English word settlement. I have heard of one called “Luther's Dale,” nearer to the limits of Illinois, which is said to be large and remarkably flourishing, and under the direction of an excellent and active pastor, Mr. Claussen. If I could have made the time, I would have gone there.
