A TYPICAL NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT: SPRING GROVE, MINNESOTA

Abstract

A TYPICAL NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT: SPRING GROVE, MINNESOTA BY CARLTON C. QUALEY Houston County, in southeastern Minnesota, is bounded on the south by the state of Iowa, on the east by the Mississippi River and the state of Wisconsin, and on the north and west by Winona and Fillmore counties. The township of Spring Grove is in the southwestern corner of this county. Topographically the township is part of a pocket of unglaciated land, bare of lakes but drained by numerous creeks, and marked by a series of connecting, elevated ridges forming broad uplands high above the surrounding region. One ridge extends diagonally from eastern Spring Grove Township into the western part of neighboring Wilmington Township and is over a mile in breadth. From this main upland, numerous spurs project in various directions, some for two miles, with valleys between. Some of the spurs are at least two miles across. The ridges in the western part of the township are not as wide as those in the eastern part. In the northwestern section of the township there is a deep valley, cut along the bed of Riceford Creek. The southern part of the township is lower than the eastern , retaining, however, the broad ridges. The streams in this part of the township drain into the Iowa River, while those farther north flow into the Root River. The land is well wooded with frequent openings - usually called "oak opening land." The soil is mostly rich black loam with a substratum of sandy clay; one strikes rock soon if one digs any distance beneath the surface. It has frequently been remarked by settlers and visitors that the region resembles eastern Norway. This township and the neighboring Wilmington and Black Hammer townships were settled almost 54 A NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT 55 solidly by Norwegians, and a large percentage of the original settlers remained permanently. II The township of Spring Grove is part of the large area of Norwegian settlements extending from western Houston County to the western part of Fillmore County, adjoining Houston County to the westward. This particular area is one of the most densely settled Norwegian- American colonies in the United States. The Spring Grove settlement or , as it was previously called, " Norwegian Ridge " - is perhaps the most exclusively Norwegian portion and has retained the language and customs of Norway longer than most of the others. The Norwegian language is today spoken commonly on the streets of the village of Spring Grove, and business continues to be transacted in both English and Norwegian . There is only one church in the township - a Norwegian Lutheran congregation. This settlement was one of the important distribution points for Norwegian settlement in the American Northwest, and there are hundreds of Norwegian- Americans in western Minnesota and the Dakotas whose ancestors stopped for a time in Spring Grove Township before going on farther westward. It is with the pioneer years of this settlement that we are here concerned the quarter century, roughly, from 1852 to the 1870's. Although the tract in the southeastern corner of Minnesota was acquired from the Indians in 1830, it was not legally open to settlers until the act of Congress of August 4, 1854, extended the right of pre-emption to unsurveyed public lands in Minnesota Territory. Surveys were begun in this area in 1853, but the first block of land was not offered for sale until 1855. This block of 1,178,003 acres included the township of Spring Grove.1 But before 1855 thousands of people had 1 William W. Folwell, History of Minnesota, vol. 1, ch. 10; E. V. Robinson, Early Economic Conditions and the Development of Agriculture in Minnesota, 39 (Minneapolis, 1915). 56 STUDIES AND RECORDS crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota Territory and a considerable number of settlers had taken lands in Spring Grove Township. The lands in this township could be secured through the land office at Brownsville, Minnesota thirty -five miles to the eastward on the Mississippi River and one of the earliest markets for settlers in the township. A considerable group of settlers, the first recorded, arrived in the township of Spring Grove in the spring of 1852. The man generally credited as being...