A New Beginning in Iowa

Castle Garden New York Harbor

Before 1855, when Castle Garden became the official processing center for immigrants, ships arriving in New York docked at one of the piers in Manhattan where they were cleared by local officials.  The Hans Holmboe arrived on June 29, 1853, six weeks after it left Bergen. The immigrants had survived the difficult ocean voyage, but they still had many hurdles ahead of them. Since 1845, it had been possible to make the trip from New York City to Lake Erie by rail for $3.50, but the most common way to travel was by steamboat along the Hudson River as far as Albany, after which it was necessary to change to canal boats on the Erie Canal as far as Buffalo.  This was the worst part of the trip.  It could take as many as ten long, miserable days and many people died.  From Buffalo they could take a train to Chicago where they might find a welcome with Norwegian kin living in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.  Anders Brekke Foley’s wife, Anna, died there of cholera shortly after arriving in Chicago.  Endre and Anna had family living at Capron, and it is likely that they went there from Chicago. 

Norwegian Settlement in the Midwest

By 1853, most of the land around Capron had been purchased, and people were moving westward to Iowa and SE Minnesota.  Endre and Anna probably left the Long Prairie Settlement in the spring of 1854, accompanied  by Anna’s sister sisters, Aase and Store Anna, and their families, the Hermund Iverson family, Guttorm Tisdel and his wife, Kari Nilsdatter Vange, and many others.  Guttorm’s wife and infant daughter had died on the way from New York to Illinois, and Kari’s husband, Johannes Orvedal, died within two years of arriving in the Long Prairie Settlement.  Kari’s father was Nils Person Vange from Vik.  Their destination was Winneshiek County, Iowa.  The settlement  that grew up around Decorah become known as Madison Prairie. 

Site of Madison Settlement Church and Cemetery

The first Norwegian Lutheran church organized in northeastern Iowa was called the Little Iowa Congregation, and it is in the congregational minutes that we first find a record of the presence of the Endre Brekke family in Iowa.  On the 21st of June, 1855, Pastor Koren has recorded the names of Endre and Lille Anna as the sponsors for baby Ola, son of Anna Olsdotter (Hopperstad) and her husband, Ola Johannesen Hopperstad.  Two years later, on July 18, 1857, John Endreson Brekke was both born and baptized.  His sponsors, Erik and Åase Albrektsen Skjerven, John Anfinnson Seim, and Ingeborg Ellingsdotter Myrkaskog, were all close relatives of Endre and Anna.  The records of the Little Iowa Congregation show that Pastor Koren baptized eight infants that day (Little Iowa Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation).

Endre and Anna Hopperstad Brekke's Rosemaled Trunk

Endre and Anna prospered in Iowa.  They purchased land in sections 5,6,and 7 of Calmar Township, a mile and a half north of the village of Spilleville. All of their children grew to adulthood, married well, and established themselves. Three had been born on the farm at Vik.  They were Ragnhild, Mikkel and Oline.  Three were born in Iowa: John, Ole and Margrete. 



As the first born son, Mikkel had the option to remain on the farm and chose to do so, but he also earned a business degree at Upper Iowa University in Fayette.  This is his diploma issued in 1871.  Note the diploma reads Michael E. Michelson.

National Business College Diploma of Michael E. Michelson

Michael married Mari Nilsdatter Vange. 

The History of Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties, published in 1882, stated that the first settler in Sumner Township was a Mr. A. Tracy of Decorah, who came there in 1858.  Following a description of Mr. Tracy’s activities this brief note is added.  “There was a Norwegian settlement in the northeast on the Turkey River before Mr. Tracy came.”  Mr. Tracy’s presence in Sumner Township post-dates the arrival of the first Norwegian immigrants by a full ten years.  By the time he arrived on the scene, much of the township was already occupied by Norwegian settlers whose names and origins were not deemed significant enough by the old stock Americans who put together the early history to merit any more than a passing nod of acknowledgment.