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. [1]
The Memorial celebrates the first arrival in 1834 of a pioneering band of farm-seekers led by the peripatetic ethnic leader Cleng Peerson. [2] Peerson's vessel, the Restauration , is often credited with bringing the first group of immigrants from Norway to Kendall, New York in 1825. Scandinavian farm life had been devastated in 1816 by the Year Without a Summer, and younger sons and daughters from farm families in Norway were looking for new opportunities. During the 1840s, the Fox River Settlement frequently became a stopping-off point for Norwegian immigrants who entered America. [3] [4] [5]
The Memorial was dedicated in 1934 to commemorate the initial arrival in the Fox River Valley of the group led by Cleng Peerson. At the time the Memorial was dedicated, many of the descendants of the Peerson party were still working the land their ancestors had taken up in 1834. Today the Memorial is an un-staffed historic site of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. [2]
Three different plaques are located at the Norwegian Settlers Memorial. The plaque dedicated in 1934 commemorates the arrival of the first group of Norwegian-American immigrants. The second and third plaques were dedicated in 1975 to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Norwegian-American Immigration and to dedicate the adjacent Cleng Peerson Memorial Highway. His Majesty King Olav V of Norway dedicated the Cleng Peerson plaque on October 17, 1975. [6] [7] [8]
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.
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.
Viking is a Viking ship replica. It is an exact replica of the Gokstad ship recovered from Gokstadhaugen, a Viking Age burial mound in Sandefjord, Norway in 1880. Viking was featured at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.
St. Olaf Kirke, commonly referred to as The Rock Church, is a small Lutheran church located outside of Cranfills Gap, Texas, United States, in an unincorporated rural community known as Norse in Bosque County, Texas. The Church is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Our Savior's Lutheran Church, is a Lutheran church located near the cities of Clifton and Cranfills Gap in the unincorporated community of Norse in Bosque County, Texas.
Restauration was a sloop built in 1801, in Hardanger, Norway. It became a symbol of Norwegian American immigration. Historical sources may contain several variations on the name of the sloop, including Restauration, Restoration, Restaurasjonen, and Restorasjon.
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.
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.
The Muskego Settlement was one of the first Norwegian-American settlements in the United States. Situated near today's Muskego, Wisconsin, the Muskego Settlement covered areas within what is now the town of Norway in Racine County, Wisconsin.
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.
Alfred Hauge was a Norwegian educator, journalist, novelist, poet and historian. He wrote extensively about life on the Ryfylke islands and about Norwegian-American emigration.
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.
Norse is an unincorporated community in Bosque County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 110 in 2000.
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 arived 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.
The sobriquet "Slooper" refers to the 52 Norwegians who traveled to the United States in 1825 aboard the sloop Restauration. Within the first 100 years, the Slooper community numbered at least 1,000 persons.
