The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 1, number 2, December 1917

              a journey to north america 165 my ears against annoyances of this sort the following summer 1839 i built a little log hut and in this residence i received in september a number of people from my own parish in norway they had come as immigrants with my brother ansten the most of these settled on jeffer son prairie and in this way the settlement got a large population in a comparatively short time in 1840 ole nattestad married lena hiser who died september 15 1888 she left seven children all well edu cated and in good circumstances henry the youngest son now occupies the old homestead we now pass to ansten nattestad the brother of ole and will let him tell the story as published in the billed magazin in the spring of 1838 i went by way of new orleans to liverpool and thence to norway to visit friends and acquaintances in my native land . . . what he tells about rynning's and his brother ole's manuscripts has already been stated i spent the winter in numedal the report of my return spread like wildfire through the land and an incredible number of 3eople came to see me and to get news from america many came as far as twenty norwegian 140 english miles to have a talk with me it was impossible to answer all the letters i received asking questions about the condition of things on the other side of the ocean in the spring of 1ss9 about 100 persons from numedal stood ready to go with me across the sea among these were many farmers and heads of families all excepting the children able-bodied persons in their best years besides these there were a number from thelemarken and from numedal who were unable to join me as our ship was full we went from drammen direct to new york it was the first time the inhabitants of drammen saw an emigrant ship the name of the ship was emelia and the captain's name was ankerson each person paid 33.50 for his passage we were nine weeks on the sea the passage was a successful one and there was no death on board from new york we took the common route up the country in milwaukee we met those from tin and thelemarken and the others who were unable to come in our ship across the sea they had come by way of gothenborg sweden to boston they came on board to us and wanted us to go with them to muskego wisconsin men had been out there to inspect the country and they reported that the grass was so high that it reached up to their shoulders and told of many other glorious things the americans too used every argument to persuade us to stop in milwaukee i objected and we continued our journey in chicago i learned that my brother ole had settled in wisconsin during my absence in norway some of the party went to the fox river settlement where they had acquaintances while some unmarried persons found employment in chicago and vicinity the rest of them that is to say the majority accompanied me to jefferson prairie among these were a few who settled in the town of rock run stevenson