Emigration from the District of Sogn, 1839-1915

Abstract

by RASMUS SUNDE translated by C. A. CLAUSEN 4 Emigration from the District of Sogn, 1839-1915* The part district of Nordre of Sogn Bergenhus is located amt, in the present-day southern part of Nordre Bergenhus amt, present-day Sogn og Fjordan efylke (county), in western Norway. In the opening years of the nineteenth century people dwelling in the Sogn area were rather isolated from the rest of the world. The long Ijord made communication easy between the communities along its shores and with the city of Bergen, but most of the inhabitants clung to the neighborhoods and the farms of their birth. New developments of every kind tended to arrive later here than in most other parts of the country. As far as one can gather there was little mobility among the people of Sogn until well into the 1800s. By the 1830s, however, a change seems to have begun. The people of Sogn were getting into motion. They visited neighboring communities, they went to the city of Bergen, to Romsdalen, and eventually even to far-off northern Norway. And as early as 1839 the first family from Sogn left for America. A certain inner restlessness *This article is based on a thesis, entitled "Ei unders0king av utvandringa til Amerika fra Vik i Sogn 1839-1915," presented to the History Department of the University ofTrondheim, 1974. Ill SuNNFjORD District e^VIK COMMUNITY of SOQN er fjORDANE COUNTV O TOWN + CH U RCH • VI L LAĢE ' ° R D A N E J i COUNTY Ï ^ ^ ,, EMIGRATION FROM THE DISTRICT OF SOGN seemed to be stirring the communities and this ferment among the people expressed itself more and more vigorously . This helps to explain why Sogn was one of the Norwegian districts which, in relation to population, sent most emigrants to America. The movement struck Sogn comparatively early. Per Ivarson Undi, a farmer from Vik who left with his wife and two children in 1839, was the first emigrant. He was the pioneer who blazed the trail. In 1843 thirty more people left Vik, and in 1844 and 1845 the wave gained force when 103 and 111 emigrants , respectively, departed. During these same years an additional 223 people left for America from other parts of Sogn. Between 1856 and 1865 present-day Sogn og Fjordane lost a larger proportion of her population through emigration than any other Norwegian county. This is astonishing, especially since almost all the emigrants from the county were from Sogn. To be specific, 6,430 emigrants left Sogn while only 226 left the northern district of Sunnfjord og Nordfjord. The emigration from Sogn is still more impressive when one considers that the communities of outer Sogn had very few emigrants - less than a hundred before 1865. From inner and central Sogn, however, migration up until 1865 exceeded 25 percent of the median population figure, the most intensive migration reached by any region. During the five years from 1856 through 1860 almost 20 percent of all Norwegian emigrants were from Sogn. Not surprisingly, therefore, in 1866 the district topped all others in emigration figures. About 5 percent of all the people of Sogn left for America. Since emigration from the area west of Vik and Balestrand was very low, emigration from central and inner Sogn must then have been exceptionally high. For example, from the parish of Arnafjord in Vik more than 10 percent of the inhabitants left for America in 1856. In comparison with the rest of the 113 Rasmus Sunde country, emigration from Sogn declined greatly toward the end of the nineteenth century. During the period 1865-1895 Sogn with 14,500 emigrants represented only 3.5 percent of the Norwegian total. This may indicate that the transition to modern farming techniques, which demanded fewer laborers, had less effect on emigration from Sogn than from other parts of the country. There are no exact figures for inner and central Sogn, but according to official statistics roughly 25,000 to 30,000 natives of these districts broke loose from their home communities and set off for America. Vik was one of the communities in Sogn hardest hit by the so-called "America fever." During the emigration...