- Muskego Settlement
The Muskego Settlement, situated near today's
Muskego, Wisconsin was one of the firstNorwegian American settlements in the United States, growing to be one of the most prominent centers of Norwegian-American life.History
The colony was founded in 1839, primarily by immigrants from the Norwegian county of
Telemark , led by John Luraas, who in turn had been encouraged by the Nattestad brothers to seek their fortune in Wisconsin. The party staked out 640 acres in two sections inWaukesha County . The following year, two other settlers, Søren Bache (who returned to Norway) and T. Johanessen, settled in an adjacent area inRacine County , just south of the first settlement, in what is now the town ofNorway, Wisconsin . The Muskego Settlement thus came to straddle the county border.A number of other immigrants followed, among them Even Heg (the father of
Hans Christian Heg ), who established a transit center of sorts for immigrants, known as the Heg Hotel.The settlement was afflicted by
cholera at least twice, in 1849 and 1851; ultimately, the original settlement site was abandoned, and the Muskego settlement covered areas now within what is now the neighboring town of Norway.References
* "The Old Muskego Settlement", in
Waukesha Freeman , September 7, 1916 [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleView.asp?pg=2&orderby=&id=11182&pn=1&adv=yes&hdl=&np=&ln=&fn=&q=&y1=&y2=&ci=&co=&mhd=Immigrants&shd=Norwegian]
*Rasmus Björn Anderson: "The first chapter of Norwegian immigration (1821-1840) : its causes and results : with an introduction on the services rendered by the Scandinavians to the world and to America," Self-published in Madison, 1895 [http://books.google.com/books?id=AJ4hAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA276&dq=muskego+settlement] .
*Henry Eduard Legler: "Leading Events of Wisconsin History: The Story of the State", Sentinel Co, 1898 [http://books.google.com/books?id=BTMdAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211&dq=muskego+settlement&as_brr=1]
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