ABERCROMBIE TRAIL: The Abercrombie Trail was an early route connecting the Fort Snelling area near present day Minneapolis with the Red River Valley of the North and points west.  The earliest travelers were explorers and geographers sent by the US government in the early 1830’s to map and describe these unknown lands. The route was then used heavily by fur traders traveling from the north to sell and ship their pelts via the Mississippi River. 

At the time of Minnesota statehood in 1858 and the westward expansion, the military used and improved the Abercrombie Trail, making it an official military road for the transport of troops and supplies between Fort Snelling and the forts in Dakotah Territory and Montana. A few years later, the trail was used by Gold Rush wagon trains heading west to the gold fields in western Dakotah. Finally, the first homesteaders used the trail to reach their Minnesota destinations. A portion of the trail ran diagonally through Wang Township and some of it could be seen as recently as the 1950’s.

ADAMS COUNTY WISCONSIN: a county in central Wisconsin where many Scandinavian immigrants first stopped before moving further west. Many immigrants stopped at similar preliminary locations (often staying with relatives) while working on preparations for the second stage of the trek westward.  Several families moved from Wisconsin to western Minnesota after family members who had returned from military service reported the presence of  good farmland in western Minnesota. Some of this land was reclaimed by the US government as a result of the Dakota Conflict of 1862 and the land patents bear the designation Sioux Redemption Land.

In 1867 several Adam County families formed a wagon train and after a month of travel reached Sioux Agency and Swedes Forest township (then Redwood County) on July 4. Fifty years later, in 1917, surviving members of the wagon train, their families, and friends celebrated this event and took a photograph to commemorate the event. 

CHURCHES: Vestre Sogn, Wang, Hawk Creek, Rock Valle, Rock Dell. Saron. These rural Lutheran churches were founded by Norwegian settlers.  Over the decades they have undergone numerous theological disputes, divisions, and mergers.

DAKOTAH TERRITORY: The territorial area west of Minnesota, later divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota.

FARM ANIMALS: The farms were self-sufficient for their own produce, meat, milk, butter and cheese.  Animals were also raised for sale. Horses, oxen, cattle, hogs and chickens were present on all farms, and some farmers had sheep and/or goats.

GOODHUE COUNTY: A county in eastern Minnesota where many immigrants from Valdres stopped before settling in Wang Township.  Fillmore County was a similar stop in eastern Minnesota.

GRAINS: During the early years, farms produced a large number of crops: oats, wheat, flax, barley, and sorghum, and maize/corn.  Later other crops became popular such as soybeans, alfalfa, and sugar beets.

GRAIN ELEVATORS: These tall structures were built adjacent to rail lines for milling, storing and shipping grain.  These elevators may be owned by cooperatives or commodity dealers like Cargill.

HAWK CREEK:  A small river which winds its way through many sections of Wang Township, eventually joining the Minnesota River on the border of Renville and Yellow Medicine Counties.

HIRED MAN OR HIRED WOMAN OR GIRL: Hired help, not family members, who worked seasonally or sometimes year-round, living with the family.

HOMESTEAD ACT OF 1862: Signed by President Abraham Lincoln, this act drove the settlement of the American west by providing a process to claim 80 acres by improving it with land tillage, buildings and five years of occupancy after which the land was ceded to the claimant for only a small filing fee. The land was free and clear to those who could complete the work. In some cases, veterans who served in the US Military were granted free acreage or given reduced time requirements. Most of western Minnesota was settled through this act.

HORSE-DRAWN FARM EQUIPMENT:  In the first settlement years, strong, slow oxen pulled the farm equipment.   Gradually, the oxen were replaced by draft horses.  Plows, cultivators, and wagons were pulled by teams of horses. Many fieldwork photos show horses wearing flynets or blankets to protect them from insects or dust.

IMPROVING THE LAND, PROVING UP A LAND CLAIM: To complete the homestead process, each farmer had to break prairie land for planting and harvesting, and the farmer had to build a house. Continuous occupancy, witnessed by neighbors, was a requirement. Application for citizenship was part of the process.

LAGS:  Lags (pronounced like “logs”) are organizations which focus upon specific districts in Norway and which were created for social gatherings and reunions of immigrants from these areas.  Many lags still exist today. The Valdres Lag is the oldest Lag in the United States and many of its loyal members lived in Wang Township.

LUTHERAN CHURCH LANGUAGE:  Norwegian Lutheran Church congregations in the USA continued to conduct all services and religious education in the Norwegian language until the early 1930’s.  Confirmation in the faith was an important step in reaching adulthood.  After two years of instruction, confirmands were tested on their knowledge of the faith at an event held before the entire congregation.  All of this was presented in the Norwegian language.

MINNESOTA RIVER: One of Minnesota’s two largest rivers, the Minnesota is a geographical feature of western Minnesota.. The course of the river determines many boundaries and played an important part in the Dakotah Conflict of 1862 as well as providing river transportation.

MUSIC: Music was an important source of home entertainment. Fiddles, accordions,  lap harps, pump organs, and pianos were present in many homes.  Cornet bands and small orchestras were also created. Some traditional Norwegian dances were maintained for a while but American popular music eventually displaced this tradition. Victoria record players were popular in many homes.

NATIVE AMERICANS: The Native Americans lived along the Minnesota River for hundreds of years. After the Dakotah Conflict of 1862, the state removed the Dakotah people to the Dakotah Territory to the west. The land they had occupied was organized to make it available for homesteading. This is a complex and important history.

NATURALIZATION: Most immigrants filed the papers to become naturalized citizens. This was a two-step process and involved paying a small fee.  Citizenship was obtained by the male family member and his wife and children were then citizens automatically.

NEW LISBON POST OFFICE and STAGECOACH STATION IN WANG TOWNSHIP:  Prior to the construction of railroads, stagecoaches followed routes connecting the larger towns, making regular stops at smaller stations. Wang Township had such a stop, with the stage stopping twice weekly on the route between Willmar and Granite Falls.  The station, an official post office, was named New Lisbon and was located on the farm of A. T. Ellingboe in the northern part of the township.  The name New Lisbon appears on many maps from the 1880’s.

The coaches carried mail, newspapers and packages.  When villages and towns formed, post offices were established there and eventually the US Congress approved Rural Free Delivery, which brought mail to each individual farm mailbox.

NEWSPAPERS: Both Norwegian and English newspapers were readily available for subscription delivery to rural readers.  Magazines were also delivered to rural readers.

NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN CHURCH:  This was not the only denomination in Minnesota rural settings but for the three townships here discussed (Swedes Forest, Sioux Agency and Wang), the Lutheran Church was the only denomination within the townships.  These churches provided all the religious rituals and services including:  baptisms, confirmations, marriages, funerals, theological and social gatherings.

NORWEGIAN TRADITIONS:  Many Norwegian foods are still popular in America. The Norwegian language gave way to English but the brogue and some Norwegian expressions can still be heard in some locales.  Social space and other patterns of communication are also present.

NORWEGIAN TRADITIONS – JULEBOKING: A Christmas tradition of surprise masked visitors and food treats, was practiced for many years, before finally declining in the 1950’s.

PATRONYMICS, THE NORWEGIAN NAMING TRADITION:  The naming tradition, as it is involved with HeenBook project, is both a gift and a challenge in the determination of genealogy facts.  With large families and each child named the grandfather, grandmother, and so on, there are often many children with the same name, born about the same time.  This requires real digging to find the proper family and dates.  How many Tronds and Kjerstis or Christopher and Annas do we have here?  

PRAIRIE FIRE: A wild fire, sometimes created by lightning, a fire that spreads quickly across miles of prairie, burning crops and grasslands in its path.  Prairie fires travel at the speed of the wind.

REDWOOD COUNTY:  Redwood County was established in 1862, and was named for the Redwood River.  In the early 1860’s Redwood County extended beyond its current boundaries.  In later years portions of Redwood County were divided into separate counties.

RENVILLE COUNTY:  Named for Joseph Renville, Renville County was established in 1855.  The southern boundary is marked by the Minnesota River, which is where early settlers established their homes.  

SCHOOLS:  In the settlement years, one of the first acts of the community was the building of a school, and in the rural setting the school was a one room country school for the education of children in grades 1 through 8.  Immigrant adults seeking to improve their English skills often found this a welcome avenue for their goal.  Schools were located a few miles apart and served large student populations.  The local school board of directors oversaw the operations, hired the teacher and maintained the building.  Often the school building was also used for parochial (religious) school after the regular school year was completed.

High School was the next step in education, and these were established in the towns. The country school children went into town for this schooling.

Normal School is the term given to early teacher training colleges, following completion of high school.  Private colleges, often with a church affiliation, were another approach to earning a degree. The Land Grant University, created by the US government was a major university offering a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees, and an emphasis on research programs.

SIBLINGS, AUNTS AND UNCLES:  Many family groups immigrated and settled near each other.  This helped their transformation, survival and success.  They shared labor, gave personal support, provided social time and acted to resolve disasters and or handle bereavements. They raised nieces and nephews who had lost one or both parents and conveyed the cultural values they shared to the next generation. The labor they gave was mutual, reciprocal and therefore unpaid, a free exchange.

SIOUX AGENCY AND SWEDES FOREST HORSE COMPANY: Livestock was the strength of every farm operation and improvement of stock lines was a strong goal.  Late in 1880, a group of farmers pooled their money, forming a syndicate,  selling shares at $100 for the purchase of a purebred Percheron stallion.  They formed a company, determined rules of operation, and paid $2500 for a large horse called Demosthenes.  The company did well on the fees and paid off the initial cost within three years.  The company records are now in the Minnesota Historical Society.

SIOUX AGENCY TOWNSHIP IN YELLOW MEDICINE COUNTY:  By 1865, Sioux Agency had its first settlers and was designated as a township in 1866.  Ten years later the boundaries were changed and it was officially named Sioux Agency Township.  The name was taken from the presence of the Upper Sioux Agency site in the northern part of the township, which operated as a government agency from 1854 to 1862.

SPORTS AND GAMES: Activities were usually active, athletic sports for the young children, with minimal equipment needed. Jjip-pi-peenie was played by young children.  Young adults preferred baseball and basketball, with baseball being the sources of great rivalries between churches, townships, and towns. Swimming, skating, and fishing were popular.

STEAM POWER:  As fields enlarged in size and steam powered machines were invented, the harvest functions were taken over by large threshers and teams of workers.  This was the beginning of mechanization of farming and within a few years, gas engines and gas-powered tractors were easing the burden of manual labor.

SWEDES FOREST TOWNSHIP IN REDWOOD COUNTY: The first settlers arrived in Swedes Forest by September 1865.  The township government was organized in 1872 and the name was given in honor of early Swedish farmers.  

TELEPHONES: Bell invented the telephone in 1876 and within twenty years the towns had phone systems, and the rural areas were added quickly.  Wang Township, like many others, established and operated its own telephone company in 1906.  However, it took many years before all the residents subscribed to telephone service. 

TALLGRASS PRAIRIE: A large ecosystem that runs from southern Canada through Minnesota, Iowa, and other states including parts of Texas.  The wild grasses were 5 to 7 feet tall, with roots of equal length.  The soil from the grassland, produced and enriched for millenia, was very black and very rich.  It was especially difficult to break this sod into farm fields because of the strength of the root system.

TERRITORY, STATE: Territory was the designation for a large land area before it had matured in population, commerce and government in order to be granted statehood by the US Congress.

TOWNSHIP:  The US federal government conducted a national land survey project, mandated by the Northwest Ordinance, in order to establish uniform land designations throughout the nation. The basic unit of designation was the township. A township is a unit 6 miles by 6 miles (36 square miles).  Within the township, each unit measuring one mile by one mile square is called a section.  Each section contains 640 acres and all land descriptions, deeds, etc. are built on basic and identifiable portions of the section.

The township government was a designated local government and remains in effect to the present time: The township board oversees voting, local taxation, and other administrative business such as road maintenance and bridges.  In the early years, the township also had a justice of the peace for select acts of legal service and a constable for law and order. The township was responsible for reporting marriages, births and deaths until the laws changed early in the 1900’s. Each township had and has an elected board of officers who reside in the township.

VOYAGE OF THE FREDRIK PETERSEN:  This immigrant ship (bark) traveled from Norway to Quebec in 1866.  The ship carried 311 from Vang and Slidre, Valdres, Norway: 45 families, 7 sibling groups of 2 or more and 82 individuals. The Valdres people traveled overland to Bergen by wagon, then set sail on April 26 for Quebec, the shortest route across the Atlantic. The voyage lasted 6 weeks and 6 days, and two passengers died during the trip. Once they reached land, they sailed on the great lakes and then went overland to the Midwest. At least 26 passengers from the Fredrik Petersen made their homes in Wang Township.

YELLOW MEDICINE COUNTY:  Bordering the Minnesota River on the east end of the county, Yellow Medicine County was established in 1871 when Redwood County was divided into additional counties.

WAGON TRAINS:  During the westward expansion of the US, all manner of transport was used prior to the development of railroad lines. The fur traders used two wheel, ox-drawn carts for their trains. Covered wagons of various shapes and sizes were used for households and families moving west. Some wagons were uncovered as well, and all used either oxen or horses to pull the load. Livestock was herded along with the wagonloads. Some trains were made up of settlers. Other trains were passing through the area, headed for supposed gold fields or for other points west.

WANG TOWNSHIP IN RENVILLE COUNTY:  Wang Township was named for Vang, Valdres, Norway, because many of its early settlers came from that region of Norway.  The first settlers arrived in 1867, building shelters along the banks of Hawk Creek.  The township government was established 28 July 1875.

WOODLOTS, WOOD CUTTING, TREES:  The prairies had few trees for either shelter or firewood. Many homesteaders took advantage of their good fortune in being close to the forests of the Minnesota River Valley by purchasing a strip of land called a woodlot.  From their lots they took trees for transplanting, firewood, and lumber. The lumbering work took place in winter when the trees were frozen and easy to cut, and often large crews of families and neighbors worked together for these weeks.