Scandinavian Settlement in Seattle, "Queen City of the Puget Sound"

Abstract

by PATSY ADAMS HEGSTAD 2 Scandinavian Settlement in Seattle, "Queen City of the Puget Sound,,iķ Founded shore of Puget in 1851 Sound, on the Seattle wooded was acquiring southeastern by shore of Puget Sound, Seattle was acquiring by the turn of the century the Scandinavian flavor which still remains a feature of the city. Until the latter 1880s Scandinavians had comprised a relatively insignificant proportion of the city's population, but by 1890 they constituted fully one-fourth of Seattle's foreign-born. After that, the number of Seattle residents native to the Nordic countries increased steadily, exceeding 5,000 in 1900 and expanding to nearly four times that by 1910. In the latter year no less than eight percent of the city's inhabitants, or one person in twelve, had been born in Denmark, Finland, Norway, or Sweden. The actual number of first-generation Scandinavians in Seattle reached its zenith in 1920, peaking at 23,856. Throughout the entire period 1890-1960, however, as Table 1 shows, Nordic immigrants comprised a sizeable fraction of Seattle's population and between one-fourth and *This article is based upon the writer's doctoral dissertation, "Naturalization Propensity and Voter Registration of Nordic Immigrants in Seattle, 18921900 ," at the University of Washington. 55 Patsy Adams Hegstad one-third of its foreign-born. The "queen city of the Puget Sound" had become one of the important places of settlement for Scandinavians in the Pacific Northwest and had earned the reputation of being a center of Scandinavian culture in the Far West.1 That the Nordic population moved from relative numerical unimportance among the foreign-born of Seattle before 1890 to such numbers as to become one of the city's distinctive features involves a variety of factors. In addition to geographical and physical characteristics of the Puget Sound area, economic opportunities, and the general movement west, there was also active recruitment of Scandinavian immigrants by the state, by business , and by private individuals. Although the precise relationships among these and other factors have not been documented and perhaps cannot be, their importance is suggested by specific cases and studies.2 Descriptions of Puget Sound written by Scandinavians repeatedly emphasized its similarities to regions in Norway, Sweden, or Finland. Thos. Ostenson Stine's glowing descriptions of Puget Sound and Seattle included the observation that "When you throw your eye upon Puget Sound, and behold the fleet of fish barges, rolling upon her briny breast, a reminiscence of the coast of Norway steals into your soul." Ernst Skarstedt likened the climate and landscape of Washington generally to that of Norrland, noting that they shared "mountains, dark evergreen forests, and rushing rivers." Ingrid Semmingsen quotes an early immigrant 's description of Puget Sound as being "as like Hardanger as any place can be." Semmingsen herself continues in a similar vein, describing the landscape with its "sounds and islands, fjords and mountains" as reminiscent of Vestlandet. The cartographer G. E. Kastengren , who settled in Seattle, went so far as to com56 SCANDINAVIANS IN SEATTLE o Ci I- I¿ oo f-H c o '•w JS "3 a o a o ü o z C/5 "li cd (U in H JD 3 cd H Cfl Mm ctí J ° c -fi O C.5ř£ 05©TfHC0^05t05(N^ g ■fi o ï 2 dai^co^d^oiai^t^ a S u o c o -£ N«C0NC0C0N(MH c ^ lo c ^ 1 C/i X QJ W) W- fi 3 00 -3 Ctí O o ^ ^ fi ü C« td cqr-OOcOOCDTfcOOOíCO g .£ 0) 'S ütS's H (Ü00 5 n 3 >- H Q p" f2 5 n o A) Q Q "£ p" io z A) s. ¡2 Q "£ -e- io -o •S § 'C * •S c CU ^ HOWCCCOCOCßOlßOJ® fi ctí C lfl ^ y wocoootWHcoMßn J2 „ c Ē lfl U ¿fi HCOOÓQOrtrtHh^ 3 o „ ctí o fi c co in af co co" a>" co" ^h" x" £ X ^3 C o X ^3 «S - «« Íh -h" oí 00" o" af i> ao co" ei 'S S "5 -& m ~ I- I¿ . . -& m s I- i -S & >c£ . . C0CÎHO5W(OMCÎH O v¡ g o L ctí n IßfO-HTfcOtOCN O fi o L o -a...