- OLE KNUDSON NATESTA, originally NATTESTAD, who founded the
first Norwegian
- settlement in Wisconsin and the fourth in the United States,
was born December 24, 1807, in Vaegli Rollong parish, Norway.
His early ambition was to be a farmer and own a farm in his
own country, but not finding that occupation profitable, he became
for a time an itinerant merchant and then worked at blacksmithing,
but was handicapped, since the law did not allow him to work
at his trade in the city. In 1836, with his younger brother,
Austen, he went over the mountains to the western part of Norway
to buy sheep, and was so impressed with the wonderful stories
he heard about America that he resolved to seek a home there.
Hastily preparing for the journey, the two brothers in 1837,
with $800 in Norwegian money, sailed from Gotherborg on a vessel
laden with Swedish iron, and after a voyage of thirty-two days
landed at Fall River, Mass., paying $50 each for their passage.
He settled in the northern part of Clinton township July 1,
1838, that being the beginning of Jefferson Prairie, now one
of the garden spots of the state, and he being the first Scandinavian
to settle in Wisconsin. There were then but eight American settlers
in the township. In the spring of the next year his brother
Austen, with Thore HOLGESON, Kittle and Christopher NEWHOUSE,
Erik SKAVLEN and others, bought land and settled near him. Austen,
who was born August 26, 1813, died April 8, 1889.
- On his arrival in the spring of 1838 Mr. NATESTA worked by
the day in the northern part of
- Illinois, but in July of that year he bought land in Clinton
township, where in 1839 he built a small log house, in which
he received his fellow countrymen named above. In 1840 he married
Miss Lena HISET, who died September 15, 1888. Mr. NATESTA was
an enterprising man, prosperous and thrifty and esteemed by all
who knew him as a kind benefactor and good citizen. He was a
Republican in politics and served on both the town and school
board. His death occurred at Clinton on May 28, 1886, and his
body is interred, as is also that of his widow, in the cemetery
at Bergen.
- Mr. and Mrs. NATESTA reared a family of seven children, all
of whom are well educated and in
- prosperous circumstances. Henry O., the youngest, who now
owns and lives on the old homestead, comprising 113-1/2 acres,
was born in Clinton township on March 5, 1856. He carries on
general farming and stock raising through his tenants, though
he has an oversight of affairs. The place is finely improved,
having a spacious and substantial dwelling house and other buildings,
and in fact all the equipments that go to make a modern model
farm. He also owns besides the home farm sixty-eight acres well
improved in section 28. He is a Republican in politics and has
served as a member and chairman of the town board and for several
years was supervisor, and chairman one term. He is a member
of the Norwegian Lutheran church and for fifteen years has been
its treasurer, and was vice-president of the "home-coming"
at Clinton, which occurred July 4, 5 and 6, 1907.
-
- Taken from "Rock County, Wis." by William Fiske
Brown, (c)1908, pp. 990-991.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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