by ARNFINN ENGEN translated by C. A. CLAUSEN 8 Emigration from Dovre, 1865-1914* This tion article to America is an from attempt Dovre, to a record mountain the commu- emigration to America from Dovre, a mountain community located in the northern part of Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, and to analyze the background of this movement . By limiting the research to one community it is possible to delve more deeply into the sources than can be done by scholars who deal with larger areas. At the same time it may be possible to broaden the perspective beyond the purely local by casting light on emigration questions of a more general nature, since Dovre is to a degree representative of just those regions which sent the largest percentage of their population to America. Mountain communities throughout Norway were heavily drained of manpower through emigration; furthermore , Dovre was a part of the former Kristiāns amt present -day Oppland fylke - the county which for a long time had the highest rate of emigration in Norway. The principal questions discussed in this article are the nature and the causes of the emigration movement from Dovre. The problem of causes can be presented *This article is adapted from a thesis, entitled "Oppbrot og omlegging. Utvandring og 0konomisk utvikling i Dovre pâ 1800-talet," presented to the Department of History at the University of Oslo, 1973. Parts of the thesis have been printed as articles in Arnfinn Engen, ed., Utvandringa - det store oppbrotet (Oslo, 1978). 210 Dovře Community of Op plan d County COUNTY BOUNDARIES COMMUNITY BOUNDARIES VILLAQE • CHURCH + RAILROAD i i i i i i i SCALE ■ *** T * y miles »* iļ» ' r' ' / S Wl « MAP D. M- DIVIR5 Arnfinn Engen under two main headings: (1) why do people decide to emigrate, and (2) why do they leave at some specific time? Therefore, the first concern will be to determine the fundamental developments which could induce people to forsake their homes; and the second to analyze the factors which caused certain groups to leave in one year rather than another. It is primarily conditions in Norway which will be studied. POPULATION AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN DOVRE, 1801-1865 Population changes and economic conditions in a given area are closely connected. Good or bad times are soon reflected in population increase or decrease; and the size of the population in turn has a definite influence on the economy. Economic conditions in Dovre before emigration set in will be examined first. Table 1: Population, excess of births over deaths, and migration from Dovre, 1801- 1865 1 Years Population 1301 1342 1632 1975 1829 1982 2204 Population change +41 +290 +343 -146 +153 +222 Excess of births over deaths since previous census 191 349 442 187 352 427 Net out-migration since previous census 150 59 99 333 199 205 Looking first at population developments, one finds a pattern which closely resembles developments in the country at large, with slow growth until 1815 followed by a rapid increase up to 1865. An exception is the decade following 1835, when there was a decrease; but still the population shows an increase of about 70 percent during the sixty-five-year period. 212 EMIGRATION FROM DOVŘE Next, with the aid of church records, one can calculate the excess of births over deaths and so estimate the relationship between in-migration and out-migration during the decades separating the various censuses. Then the interesting fact appears that there was a great migration out of Dovre during the whole period under discussion. Actually there was a net out-migration of more than 1,000 persons between 1801 and 1865 - as many as emigrated to the United States up to the First World War. If the great migration from Dovre before the overseas emigration began is to be explained one must take a look at economic conditions in the community. As was true of most regions in eastern Norway (0stlandet) in the early nineteenth century, the greater part of the population drew its sustenance from the soil. Some 70 or 80 percent of the families engaged in farming either as landowners or as cotters, while most of the others also had some connection...