From America to Norway: Norwegian-American Immigrant Letters 1838-1914 Volume II: 1871-1892 (Volume 2)

About this book

Seeking economic improvement or a fresh start following family or news of a land of opportunity Norwegians left their homeland for America in great numbers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They settled in Pennsylvania and Illinois and moved on to Wisconsin Iowa Minnesota and the Dakotas finding in the preire or prrie a promising and hospitable landscapeand they wrote home about it. From these letterssome published in newspapers or newsletters most found on family farms and in homes held for generation after generationcomes a polyphonic history of Norwegian immigration. Sent from towns and cities and rural outposts from Chicago and Minneapolis (the Norwegian-American capital) from Four Mile Prairie Texas and Coon Prairie Wisconsin from Hot Creek Nevada and Rock Creek Iowa and from Christiana Wisconsin to Christiania (now Oslo) Norway these letters were concerned with matters from the price of postage to the question of picking up stakes and moving halfway around the world and afford an intimate view of the vast and varied experience of Norwegian immigrants settling in this country. In this volume edited and translated by Orm verland and covering the period from 1871 to 1892 Norwegian immigrants relate the successes challenges and sorrows of their new life to the communities they left behind.