The first in the area of Louisburg were Jacob Nilsen and Torkel Thompson from Hallingdal and Ole Skordal from Telemarken. The first in the area of Marietta was A. M. Aves from the Trondhjem area. The first in the area of Boyd was Peder Quaal from Orrkedalen. The first in the county's southern part - in the area of Freeland - was Andreas Eriksen from Eidsvold, a veteran of the Civil War.
In "The Town of Freeland's History" that some enterprising Norwegians had written, Eriksen tells:
"In the beginning, we lived 15 miles from our nearest neighbors. The Indians visited us regularly in the first years and made much mischief by pilfering anything they could manage, when they lay fishing along Florida Creek. Once, when my wife and children were home alone, an Indian chieftain came from the Sisseton Reservation with a tomahawk in his hand and sat in the middle of the floor in the house. His aim was to frighten my wife and children out of there so he could help himself to the foodstuffs, and his wish was fulfilled, since the terrified woman took herchildren and fled as fast as she could. Otherwise, these Indians were peaceful. In 1878, when the government decided that they should move back to their reservation, they came in a great group with a peace pipe, which we all had to smoke with them as a sign of peace and friendship. When this ceremony was over, they withdrew peacefully and we never saw them again."
He tells further:
"In 1876-77 the grasshoppers came in monstrous swarms that blotted out the sun as they flew in the air. They landed in the fields and destroyed everything on their way. In 1877 we had 18 acres of wheat. We worked without a break, night and day, took straw, hay and other combustible material and took it to the side of the wheat fields and set fires, and so hindered the grasshoppers from ruining the harvest, with fire and smoke. This was strenuous work but it was a matter of a living for the family. Our efforts were richly rewarded, on the 18 acres, we got 200 bushels of wheat, enough for ourselves and for next year's seed. On other places the crop was totally destroyed, yes even the grass and the leaves on the trees were eaten by the voracious insects.
"Another dangerous element were the prairie fires that from time immemorial have ravaged these plains. Just for fun, the Indians set fire to the high grass and the fires were driven by the wind at lightning speed across the prairie, consuming everything in the way in a sea of flames. Like a consuming sea, the fire came racing over the endless plateau. No plowed field, no river could do anything 'to stop or slow its furious speed. Some furrows around our houses was the only protection and sometimes that failed. Often one lost everything one owned and escaped with his life by the skin of his teeth. Many times I fought against prairie fires until I was more dead than alive."
"Of snakes and serpents there was such a number," he says, "that there was great trouble and fear, they crept into our houses, that were not as tight as the farmer's houses nowadays, and often got up into our beds. One time my wife found a snake lying rather cozily beside our little child in bed. Once we found 15-20 in one place. In a short time we lost our fear of them. It showed that their bite was not poisonous and they were eradicated after the land was cultivated."
Another of the old settlers, Berger Steffensen from Eidskogen, tells about how it went when he wanted to buy a 'team' for the first time. It was a pair of oxen he wished to obtain. Naturally, he had to go east to get them. After many days of difficult travel, he finally bought a pair, northeast of Montevideo. He was poor and had to buy them on credit but he was nevertheless happy to have his own team. It was arduous to get to the oxen home, there were no bridges over rivers or creeks, and there was no road. To get across the Minnesota River, the oxen swam with the owner hanging onto their tails, but later he got one of the animals to carry him on its back. Late in the fall he went to Appleton, the nearest place one could get grain milled. He was completely unfamiliar with the land, nor was there any road. Then the skies opened and it began to rain heavily and the wet soil heaved. "I finally got there and had my grain ground," he says. "On the way home the weather changed to snow and biting cold. What the oxen and I suffered on that trip is impossible to recount. After 5-6 days of adversity, we finally got home."
Herman Olsen Dale from Eidskogen tells, "In the year 1881, when we had a bad snow winter, our dugout, that we lived in was often buried in snowdrifts so that in the morning we had to shovel the snow into the room so that we could get out, and the lamps had to be lit all the time to get light because the snow lay 8-10 feet deep. However, we were comfortable and warm and suffered no want."
"Lac qui Parle Congregation," which was established in 1870 by Pastor Peder Thompson of Elling Eielsen's Society, was the first Norwegian congregation in the county. Now there are 27 Norwegian congregations and 24 churches, 15 of them belong to The United Church, 7 to Hauge's Synod, 2 to The Evangelical free Church, 1 to The Norwegian Synod, 1 to The Lutheran Free Church and 1 to Elling Eielsen's Society.
Peter F. Jacobsen and Colbe Anderson, who were elected in 1872 to County Treasurer and County Commissioner respectively, were the first Norwegians in public positions in the county. The aforementioned Peter Jacobsen was also the first Norwegian to represent Lac qui Parle County in the State Legislature, elected 1875.
"Minnesota Tidende" (For a time called "Madison Tidende") was published in the aforementioned city in the 90s.
The United Church's Normal School was founded in Madison, Minn. in 1892.
Post Offices with Norwegian names: Norman, Vaaler and Sverdrup, all closed.
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