SVEIN NILSSON, PIONEER NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORIAN

Abstract

SVEIN NILSSON, PIONEER NORWEGIANAMERICAN HISTORIAN BY D. G. RISTAD For qualities of mind and character, for leadership in the furtherance of cultural progress among his countrymen both in Norway and in the United States, and particularly for his pioneering work in Norwegian- American settlement history, Svein Nilsson merits historical recognition.1 Nilsson served as the editor of Billed-magazin , the first illustrated monthly issued in the Norwegian language in America. This periodical was published by B. W. Suckow at Madison, Wisconsin, beginning in the autumn of 1868. For this magazine Nilsson wrote a series of articles that constitute an important landmark in the recording of the pioneer Norwegian settlements of the West and the coming of the early immigrants. These articles bear the general title "De skandinaviske setlementer i Amerika" (The Scandinavian Settlements in America) . A commentary upon Nilsson 's fitness for his task and his conception of the problem involved in it is given in his own " Introductory Statement " in the first issue of Billed-magazin: 2 1 See an article " Svein Nilsson " by the present writer in Trtfndelagets aar bok , 1931, p. 63-70, and also in the same series, 1926, p. 21-38, an article entitled " Utvandring til Amerika fra Overhalla, Namdalen." 2 Billed-magazin, 1:6 (October 3, 1868). Files of this rare magazine are owned by the Minnesota Historical Society and the Luther College Library. The series on the Scandinavian settlements ran in the issues from October 3, 1868, to September 17, 1870. They are to be found in volume 1:6-8, 10-13, 17-20, 30-31, 34-36, 44-46, 62-63, 69-72, 74, 82-84, 93-95, 102-104, 107-108, 154-55, 171-173, 182-183, 186-188, 202-204, 226-227, 234-235, 386-390, 398-399, 412-414; and volume 2:15-16, 23-24, 36-38, 41-44, 50-52, 114, 122-123, 130-132, 150, 154-155, 162-164, 202-204, 210-211, 218-219, 236-238, 242, 276-277, 282-283, 293-294, 300-301. In volume 2, p. 58-60, 66-67, 75-76 (February 19 and 26 and March 5, 1870), Nilsson published a very interesting " Beretning om de norské setlementer i Texas " (Account of the Norwegian Settlements in Texas) by Mrs. Elise Amalie Waerenskjold, one of the most noted of the Norwegian pioneers in Texas. See Theodore C. Biegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860, 184 ff. (Northfield, 1931). 29 30 STUDIES AND RECORDS One of the most remarkable phenomena of this century is the emigration that has taken place from Europe to the New World discovered by Columbus. The inhabitants of Ireland together with the Germans have furnished the largest quota to the ranks of the emigrants. To these emigrant hosts, but fewer in number , the French, the Italians, the Swiss, and other national groups have joined themselves. Even the sparsely populated Scandinavian countries have participated actively in this emigration , and their number in America now must be close to three hundred thousand souls. The significance of this movement upon the history of culture in America is strikingly evident to anyone who undertakes a journey over the northern half of this western continent for the purpose of gaining historical information. A comparison between the present time (1868) and a time less than a generation ago reveals the progress. The rapid change from wilderness to fertile fields, the steadily increasing prosperity of the settlers, the rapid development of industry and other sources of subsistence , and an almost unparalleled advance in all directions must of necessity strike the visiting stranger with surprise. From the east westward the stream of immigrants has flowed over the immensely great western plains. The barbaric son of the wilderness has fled before the advancing civilization. The natural resources so generously provided by Providence have become available; an industrious and virile people have become the possessors of the soil; immigration has brought a steady supply of energetic labor power; the use of machinery, to an extent unapproached in other countries, has raised industry and agriculture to a level impossible of realization without these aids; the free institutions and the free choice of occupation have aided in the development...