Translated from 'Nordmændene i Amerika' by Martin Ulvestad. 1907. Lincoln County Knut T. Nameland from Bakke, Sætersdalen writes, "Before I mention our present home, I will mention 'the home we left'. We settled in the Rock River Settlement, 9 miles from Watertown, Wis. in 1844. There we lived for 3 years. Our house was built of basswood. A large tree, whose bark was loosened on one side, served as both door and hinge. From Wisconsin we moved to Boone County, Ill., where we lived until 1870. Then I went to Lincoln County, Minn. At that time this area was wilderness. I believe certainly that I was the first white man that visited Lincoln County with the intention of taking land. Some Indians (half-breeds) told me that there was still forest to be found, and forest was what we all coveted at that time. I wandered around for 4 days without finding either people or wagon tracks, but I found what I was looking for. Later in the year, I received many neighbours. The land was still not surveyed. To our little post office it was 35 miles, the nearest flour mill was 60 miles away. Now, it is only 2 miles to the nearest town - Porter." The Honourable John Hanson, Hendricks, Minn. says: "In the election of 1873, Lyon County was divided in two parts and the western part (15 Townships) was organized under the name Lincoln County. At that time there were only a few Norwegian settlers, and they had settled in the northeast part of the county, near where the little Town of Porter in Yellow Stone County was later built. Of these can be mentioned; Jacob and Johannes Dahl from the Trondhjem area, who are both dead. And Amund Gunderson from Sætersdalen, he still lives there and cultivates his farm. Also, Ole Syverson from Gudbrandsdalen, he is still alive but has moved from there. These and some others were the first settlers in the Town of Alta Vista. to the west lies the Town of Marble. This town also received some new settlers in 1872, among them, Ole Fladeland from Sætersdalen and Martin Paulson from Nordland, but these two families moved from here many years ago and are likely dead. West of Marble, we have Hansonville, where the author of this account, John Hanson was the first settler. I settled here the 4th July 1873 and functioned as absolute ruler for almost 3 years, but since I had only grasshoppers and blackbirds to rule, the position was not so great as the words suggest, but big enough and good enough since I sat here as one of Uncle Sam's sons (bachelors) and my freedom was unlimited. But it is not good for people to be alone, I needed neighbours and the emigration here had stopped. Whether it was the grasshoppers that scared people off, I do not know, but I will put the blame on them anyway, for they were very numerous, but for me it made no difference, but they took all we sowed and planted and this people usually detested. With these conditions, I found no other way to get more people in our Township than to take a wife, and this ceremony took place the 5th April 1876, when Miss Karen Caulum from Næs, Hedemarken abandoned her maiden name and took the name Mrs. Karen J. Hanson. This ceremony doubled the immigrant population in our Township but diminished my lordship fifty percent. As mentioned, in the spring of 1876 our Township had only one family, but in 1880, when as an enumerator for the U.S. Census Department,, I did the census for these three mentioned Townships, it was 30 families and in all three Townships, not quite a hundred and fifty families, of which at least ninety percent of the parents were Norwegian born. By this time the grasshoppers had disappeared and the worst had been overcome, and a degree of prosperity had begun to take the place of poverty, even though in 1881 almost everyone needed to grind their flour in a coffee mill, since we had 3 to 20 feet of snow in the fields so that no one could go the 30 to 40 miles to the mill. But we had enough wheat that, as soon as we learned the milling profession, we also had our own flour - a sort of first patent. Then we were in our best age and of capable ancestry, had good health and appetite and were not concerned that cold and snow drifts bit a little in the ears and noses, we overcame everything we had to go through very well. Since 1872 until now, great changes have taken place, the prairies has been converted to fertile fields and gardens and greater or amaller forest groves are to be seen on almost every farm, so prosperity and pleasant homes are to be seen everywhere. Instead of sod huts we have large, splendid, modern houses, the horse had taken the ox's place, threshing machines are run with steam, 'fine' wagons are Top buggies and Surreys, the homesteader is called Master, the wife uses false teeth and is called 'Missus'." Of the oldest settlers there should be mentioned Lars Fjeseth, John Knutsen, Ole Nesseth, Nils Thoresen† and Ole E. Larson, all from Singsaas, Knut Støver from Opdal, as well as Jens Hansen, John Thoresen and M. B. Nygaard. They came here in 1876, most of them from Allamakee County, Ia. There are 3 Norwegian churches and 5 congregations in the county, 2 belong to The United Church, 2 to the Methodists and 1 to The Norwegian Synod. The aforementioned John Hanson of Hendricks was the first Norwegian official in this county. He was elected County Commissioner in 1874. He was also the first and, until now, the only Norwegian to represent the county in the State Legislature (elected 1886). Townships whose names are of Norwegian origin; Hansonville and Drammen. And for a time the was a post office with the name Harstad.