Cleng Peerson and the Communitarian Background of Norwegian Immigration

Abstract

by MARIO S. DE PILLIS 5 Cleng Peerson and the Communitarian Background of Norwegian Immigration Cleng Peerson's endeavor was then, and is still, to unite all Norwegians into one community owning all its property in common. - OLE RYNNING Cleng tion, Peerson, the Norwegian the father pathfinder, of Norwegian the Norwegian immigration , the Norwegian pathfinder, the Norwegian trail blazer, the Norwegian Daniel Boone, the Peer Gynt of the prairies, is one of those fascinating but enigmatic figures who stand at the beginnings of things. Like so many such figures , especially those at the sources of large historical developments , Peerson did not leave much for historians to work on: his early beliefs and activities are as obscure as they are important. While the scholar expects a haze of origins to surround such a person, he cherishes the eternal hope of penetrating to the "real man," the man behind the titles and praises of posterity. It is not always the mere passage of time that effaces and distorts; other factors have lessened our knowledge of Cleng Peerson. For one thing, he was a wanderer with no settled occupation . He has been described as a dreamer and dubbed "Peer Gynt on the Prairies" - mainly on the basis of his fabled dream of Illinois as an Eden for Norwegian settlers. One day in Illinois, Peerson lay down under a tree, and, falling asleep, beheld the wild prairie transformed into a great fruitful gar136 CLENG PEERSON den with herds of fat cattle peacefully grazing between splendid fields of waving grain. This vision he took as a sign from God that the Fox River Valley was to be the Norwegian Land of Promise and he its Moses. His hunger and sufferings were then forgotten.1 This oft recounted and variously embellished story of Peerson 's dream contained a few kernels of truth - as folk myths often do. Peerson did wander through Illinois in its primitive, frontier state. He was very much taken with it. He did encourage Norwegians to settle there. He was a restless man, a "loner" who tramped thousands of miles, carrying but a small pack of personal belongings. He traveled through a nation that knew not his native tongue, through alien corn. He saw little corn, however, in his wanderings: rather only canebrakes , dismal swamps, woods, brush, and, eventually, the prairies of the great American back country. Such men leave few tracks. Our knowledge of Peerson rests largely on oral testimony written down years after it was spoken, or on chance remarks made about him in letters. He himself was little given to writing, and his backwoods roamings afforded him little opportunity to do any. Despite Rasmus B. Anderson's diligent interviewing during the nineteenth century and despite the monumental work of Theodore C. Biegen in our own time, the pathfinding Peerson, the Peerson of New York and Illinois, still preserves an air of mystery. Enigmas and hazy origins usually encourage legend, speculation, controversy, and "problems." What is definitely known about Peerson? A sketch of his life would begin in 1783, the year of his birth in Tysvaer Parish, Stavanger Amt , Norway, the son of Peder Hesthammer. Originally his name was Kleng Pedersen Hesthammer. He is said 1 Walter Havighurst, "Peer Gynt on the Prairies," in Upper Mississippi , 9-23 ( Rivers of America Series , vol. 2- New York, 1937); Rasmus B. Anderson , "Kleng Peerson," in American-Scandinavian Review , 8:504 (July, 1920); Theodore C. Biegen, Norwegian Migration to America , 1825-1860 , 61 ( Northfield , 1931 ); Biegen, ed., Land of Their Choice: The Immigrants Write Home, 32 (Minneapolis, 1955). 137 Mario S. De Pillis to have traveled in England, France, and Germany. He first came to America in 1821, and after some travel, mostly in New York State, he made a hurried visit to Norway in 1824, apparently to promote a Norwegian colony in Murray (now Kendall) Township, Orleans County, near Rochester, New York. This led to the organization, under the leadership of Lars Larsen, of a company of Norwegians intending to settle in western New York. Purchasing a sloop much too small for their safety, fifty-two Norwegians sailed in 1825 for New York City. Cleng Peerson met them at the pier.2 The...