Nordic Fairytales

First Norwegian in Wisconsin

Reque`s destination was Chicago, where a friend, Nils Rothe, was awaiting him. He went by way of the Erie canal and the Great Lakes, reaching the future metropolis late in July. He was almost penniless, could not speak a word of English, and the situation seemed most gloomy.
"Oh, how I wished myself back in Norway," says the pioneer. "My heart sank when I looked out upon Chicago for the first time. Why, it was the nastiest place you can imagine; nothing but a slimy marsh, with some miserable shanties here and there. How it ever got into the heads of sensible folks to start a city in such a place is beyond my comprehension. Many a time did I sink to my knees where some of the biggest buildings now stand.
" I spent a part of the following summer in Michigan floating logs down the Muskegon river, and working on a steamboat plying between Chicago and points in Michigan. While logging I became acquainted with Indians. They fairly swarmed up and down the Muskegon, hunting in the woods. They never molested me, so I never feared them.

"I entered my land in Koskoaong in December, 1840, but I didn`t live on it steadily till after 1841. About the only tools I had when I began farming were a spade and an axe. With my axe I cut down enough logs to build a hut 12 by 8 feet, without floor or ceiling. With my spade I broke a small patch of ground whick I planted to potatoes. Early in the summer I hired my neighbor, Ole S. Gilderhus to cultivate these, as I wanted to go to the lead mines in southwestern Wisconsin and make some money. You see, I wanted to have a plow and oxen so I could make some headway at farming.
"When I got back from the mines in the fall and settled up with Gilderhus for cultivating my potatoes, I paid him 18 cents more than I sold them for afterward. This was my first effort at farming, and you see the profits were not very encouraging. 
" There were to many difficulties to contend with to make money, and many a time I felt that I was wasting my life. My nearest market for a number of years was Milwaukee, some seventyfive miles away. It took me a couple of weeks, when the roads were bad, to make the trip. I carried food with me and slept under the wagon. Generally I went in company with one or more of my few neighbors. In Milwaukee we had often to wait several days at the mill for our turn to unload our wheat and have it ground while we waited.
"It was not till the railroad reached Whitewater, Madison and Sun Prairie that I was able to sell my grain to advantage. After that time I made headway year by year"
Mr. Reque has done a great deal for newcomers from Norway. His house in Deerfield has been a sort of object

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ive point for them. He has taken them into his house, fed them free of charge, taught them valuable things regarding American affairs, and sent them forth with hope and cheer to begin life in the "New world," as they call our country. Sometimes also he has sent money to Norway for young men too poor to buy transportation and there are many Norwegians thru-out the northwest who have been thus helped by him.

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