Norway, Illinois | |
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![]() Hauge Lutheran Church in Norway | |
Coordinates: 41°27′56″N88°39′52″W / 41.46556°N 88.66444°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Illinois |
County | LaSalle |
Township | Mission |
Elevation | 640 ft (200 m) |
Time zone | UTC-6 (CST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
ZIP code | 60551 (Sheridan, Illinois) |
Area codes | 815 & 779 |
[1] |
Norway is an unincorporated community in Mission Township, LaSalle County, Illinois. Located along the Fox River, the community was the site of an early Norwegian-American settlement. Today it is the site of the State of Illinois Norwegian Settlers Memorial. [2]
Norway received its name from the nearby rural community of settlers from Norway in the area known as the Fox River Settlement. The village was the center of Norwegian immigration dating to 1834. The settlers had in large part relocated from the Kendall Settlement in New York State which had been founded earlier by pioneers who arrived from Norway during 1825 aboard the Restauration . Norwegian-American pioneer leader Cleng Peerson founded this second settlement in the Fox River Valley of Illinois. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Norway does not have a local government, fire district, school district, local policing or postal services. Most local government services are provided by the nearby community of Sheridan. Postal addresses are designated as either being in Sheridan or Serena both of which are no more than six miles away.
Norway and the neighboring community of Newark represent the predominating Scandinavian heritage of the far northeast corner of LaSalle County, part of Kendall County, and far southeast corner of DeKalb County. Norway was also an early site of missionary work by Mormons, which laid the groundwork for later Mormon missions in Scandinavia. [7]
Just south of Norway, there is a memorial dedicated to Norwegian immigrants who settled in the area, with a small park, a cemetery, and a plaque from King Olav V. This memorial commemorates the Fox River Settlement, the site of the first permanent Norwegian-American immigrant settlement in the Midwest. [8]
Norsk Museum is located 9 miles northeast of Ottawa, Illinois on highway 71. The museum is located in a former Norwegian Lutheran Church which served as a house of worship from 1848 until 1918. Norsk Museum is dedicated to the Scandinavian settlers who founded the area around Norway, Illinois in the 1800s. [9]
Norway is deeply connected to its past, as most evidently shown at the Norway Store. The store has sat on the same spot for over a century, and the Borchsenius family, which started the store, still continues to own the store, as well as a nursery and a few other pieces of land in the immediate area. [10]
LaSalle County is a county located within the Fox Valley and Illinois River Valley regions of the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 Census, it had a population of 109,658. Its county seat and largest city is Ottawa. LaSalle County is part of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area of Northern Illinois.
Kendall County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, within the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 131,869. Its county seat is Yorkville, and its most populous municipality is Oswego.
Millington is a village in Kendall and LaSalle counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 617 at the 2020 census, down from 665 at the 2010 census.
Sheridan is a village in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the village's population was 2,431, up from 2,137 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ottawa Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Kendall is a town in Orleans County, just west of the town of Hamlin in Monroe County, in New York State, United States. The population of Kendall was 2,724 at the 2010 census. The Town of Kendall is in the northeast corner of Orleans County and is northwest of Rochester.
Norwegian Americans are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans, according to the 2021 U.S. census; most live in the Upper Midwest and on the West Coast of the United States.
Illinois Route 71 is a 66-mile-long (106 km) southwest-to-northeast state highway in north central Illinois. It runs from the end of Interstate 180 in Hennepin to U.S. Route 34 in Oswego. This is a distance of 69.37 miles (111.64 km).
Native Americans in the United States have resided in what is now Iowa for thousands of years. The written history of Iowa begins with the proto-historic accounts of Native Americans by explorers such as Marquette and Joliet in the 1680s. Until the early 19th century Iowa was occupied exclusively by Native Americans and a few European traders, with loose political control by France and Spain.
Cleng Peerson was a Norwegian emigrant to the United States; his voyage in 1824 was the precursor for the boat load of 52 Norwegian emigrants in the following year. That boat load was a precursor for the main wave of Norwegian immigration to the United States.
Nordic and Scandinavian Americans are Americans of Scandinavian and/or Nordic ancestry, including Danish Americans, Faroese Americans, Finnish Americans, Greenlandic Americans, Icelandic Americans, Norwegian Americans, and Swedish Americans. Also included are persons who reported 'Scandinavian' ancestry on their census. According to 2021 census estimates, there are approximately 9,365,489 people of Scandinavian ancestry in the United States.
A block settlement is a particular type of land distribution which allows settlers with the same ethnicity to form small colonies. This settlement type was used throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves. As a legacy of the block settlements, the three Prairie Provinces have several regions where ancestries other than British are the largest, unlike the norm in surrounding regions.
Mission Township is located in LaSalle County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,972 and it contained 1,083 housing units.
Northville Township is located in LaSalle County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 7,410 and it contained 3,143 housing units.
The Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United States is a general term to describe the Lutheran church tradition developed within the United States by immigrants from Norway.
Indian Creek, also known as Big Indian Creek, is a 51.5-mile-long (82.9 km) tributary of the Fox River in Lee, LaSalle, and DeKalb counties in Illinois.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Norway is a restorationist free church. There are more than 4,500 members in Norway. A temple to be built in Oslo was announced on April 4, 2021 by church President Russell M. Nelson.
Jehans Persson Nordbu (1768–c.1860), also Johannes Nordboe, was a Norwegian-American immigrant to the United States and an early settler in the state of Texas.
The Norwegian Settlers Memorial is the official memorial of the U.S. state of Illinois maintained in honor of immigrants from the nation of Norway. This Memorial commemorates the Fox River Settlement, the site of the first permanent Norwegian-American immigrant settlement in the Midwest. The Memorial is situated just south of the community of Norway in LaSalle County, Illinois. It is located by the roadside of Illinois Route 71, 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Exit 93 on Interstate 80.
Helmar is an unincorporated community in Kendall County, Illinois. The community is located near Newark and Plattville and is between Illinois State Routes 71 and 47.
The Fox River Settlement was the first permanent Norwegian-American immigrant settlement in the Midwest. It was located in La Salle County, Illinois in Mission and Miller Townships, with a part of Rutland Township. Opinions differ as to when they first arrived at the Fox River Settlement with some writers fixing 1835 as the year, Knud Langeland claiming it was 1836, and Prof. Rasmus B. Anderson arguing that it was 1834.