The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration to America
in This Century, with Its Causes and Results,

How many Norwegians landed in America between the years 1492 and 1821 it is impossible to determine. We have no statistics to guide us, and we know there was no regular and systematic immigration from Norway. They did not come in collective bodies and form settlements, and we are able to trace them through their descendants who have kept family records, or in the public documents or published works where they happen to be mentioned. In this way Hans Hansen, Bergen, Claes Carstensen, Thomas Johnson, and the others have been found. But it is fair to presume that a considerable number of enterprising Norwegians found their way to their old Vinland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and particularly during the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

From 1820 the United States Government supplies us with immigration statistics; but down to 1868 Sweden and Norway are grouped together, so that is impossible to determine how many came from each country. From 1833 we are helped out by Norway, where the government in that year began to collect and preserve statistics of emigration These early tables are, of course, more or less imperfect and we are justified in assuming that the actual number of emigrants was larger than the one given. In the American statistics the numbers of passengers and immigrants from Sweden and Norway from 1829 to 1835 inclusive is given as follows: 1820, 8; 1821, 12; 1822, 10; 1823, 1; 1824, 9; 1825, 4; 1826, 16; 1827, 14; 1828, 10; 1829, 13; 1830, 3; 1831, 13; 1832, 313; 1833, 16; 1834, 42; 1835, 31. From 1836 Norway furnishes statistics of Norwegian as follows: 1836, 200; 1837, 200; 1838, 100; 1839, 400; 1840, 300; 1841, 400; 1842, 700; 1843, 1.600. From this time on the Norwegians came to America by the thousands every year, and the means and conveniences for emigrating in Norwegian vessels became thoroughly organized and systematized. The immigration from Norway culminated in 1882, in which year 29.100 Norwegians landed in the United States. The total number of immigrants from Norway from 1820

As will partly be seen from the statistics which I have quoted. Norwegian immigration did not amount much before the year 1836. In that year two ships brought immigrants from Stavanger to New York. These were the so-called Kôhler briggs, the one named "Norden" (The North" and the other "Den Norske Klippe" (The Norwegian Rock.) The "Norden" left Stavanger the first Wednesday after Pentecost in 1836, Capt. Williamson commanding, and arrived in New York July 12. My father, Bjorn Anderson, from the farm Quelve in Vige... (red.noe var uleselig - se orginal 05700634.gif), north of Stavanger, my mother, and my two oldest brothers were passengers on this ship. The old brigg, "Den Norske Klippe" sailed a few days later from Stavanger and arrived about three weeks later in New York. Each of the ships had nearly hundred passengers. The following year a ship called "Enigheden" (The Unity" from Egersund, a small seaport south of Stavanger, brought ninety-three immigrants. Another ship, with about 100 passengers sailed that same year (1837) from Bergen, Norway, with Mr. Behrens as Captain. From that time the stream of Norwegian immigration gradually broadens, and a discussion of it does not come whitin the scope of this article. My investigation, so far as the actuall immigration is concerned, ends with the year 1837, but so far as their destinica in the New World are affected I propose to watch their progress down to 1840, when we shall find them located in half a dozen Nor

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