Excerpts from a memoir written by Knut Olsen Hastvedt, an Ancona passenger who settled in Texas

We sailed from Christiansand [on August 29th] on the schooner "Flyvende Fisk," which belonged, if I remember correctly, to the Torkelson line. The previous winter we had been in Arendal to register and to make a deposit for sailing on a German ship from Bremen, which was also called "Bremen." This ship was supposed to come past Arendal and take the emigrants aboard. Consequently we left for Arendal to await the coming of the "Bremen." When we had waited a couple of weeks and it did not come, we demanded and received our deposit money back. And since it was said that ships left from Christiansand for Havre, France, we sailed to that port in an open boat. There we also had to wait two or three weeks until the "Flyvende Fisk" was ready to sail. The journey to Havre de Grace was uneventful except that a child belonging to Ole Gunstenson died under way. [The schooner arrived in Le Havre on September 8th] In France our company was joined by Anders Ørbek, who had been in Bremen to see what had happened to the ship "Bremen," and by Osmund Røraas.

Original map at Antique Maps and Prints

Ancona Passenger List

We stayed in Havre about two weeks before we secured passage on an American cotton packet from New Orleans [that sailed on September 19th]. Orbek served as interpreter and guide. He had graduated from Latin school and talked French and German fluently, as well as Latin. He was in charge of the distribution of water both among the Norwegian and German emigrants. I cannot highly enough praise his helpfulness to each and every one, and he deserves historical fame for his kindness to his fellow travelers.

The trip [on the Ancona] from Havre to New Orleans took seven weeks. Nothing of importance occurred except that during a storm the cookhouse, which was on the deck, caught fire, causing quite a panic. This happened on a pitch-dark night while all the emigrants were in bed. A terrible tumult arose, and, of course, I rushed up on deck to see what was happening. By that time, the cookhouse had gone overboard. To show how greatly the ship listed, I will merely state that, when I stood beside the bulwark, I could easily reach the water, while normally it was fourteen feet from the surface of the ocean. The terror must have been much greater among the Germans because they stayed up all night praying, with the Catholic priest in their midst. But all of us escaped with merely the shock. When we entered the gulf we believed firmly that we were pursued by Mexican privateers. The ship's crew believed the same. This we learned from one of the sailors named Meyer, who was a German but who could also speak Norwegian. Three small ships which appeared, some distance apart, had lights on deck at night and seemed to be signaling each other. They came nearer until a storm drove two of them away. The third came clear up on one side of us, then sailed ahead and let itself drift back on the other side. It was a small ship which we could look right down upon from our high deck. It made no sign of violence but sailed away, to our great satisfaction. When we came farther into the gulf, past Santo Domingo, we ran onto a sand bar, but came off again so quickly that we hardly had time to become afraid. It was in the gray of the morning and soundings were taken continually, but all of a sudden we stuck fast. The captain came up in a hurry, and all men took to the rigging. He himself took the rudder. The sails were quickly rearranged and the ship slid off the bank, which lay in such shallow water that we could easily see it.

When we arrived at New Orleans [on November 3rd], we met Gerhard Reiersen, who had just been mustered out of the army because of sickness. He stayed with us all the time and helped us by word and deed; so did a Norwegian sailor from Arendal who was named Even Olson but later went by the name of Even Nielson. He also joined the company. There was in New Orleans at that time a Norwegian merchant from Bergen by the name of Tromse, who carried on an apparently flourishing business. He helped us to secure contracts with the steamship companies for passage [on the river]. When he bade us farewell, he gave us much good advice, especially about being careful of the steamboats, a precaution which we soon found to be necessary...

Kittel Snartland and family; the widow, Christie Graver and family; and Herjus Osmundson and his wife from Fyresdal set out from New Orleans….for the Fox River settlement in Illinois...They took passage to La Salle on the Illinois River and from there went by wagon into the country, where, by a remarkable coincidence, they found the people who were staying in Elling Eielsen's "meetinghouse." Snartland, Mrs. Graver, and Osmundson went to Chicago, while [others] went to Wisconsin.

Note: The original plan likely would have brought Kristi and her family to the port of New York, with instructions to make their way to Chicago and contact someone who could assist them with the rest of the trip to Koshkonong.  It seems equally likely that Kristi and her family could have changed their minds once they spoke to people in Fox River, and headed directly to Wisconsin.

Route from the Mississippi to Koshkonong

According to oral tradition, Kristi and her children spent some time working en route to Wisconsin. Kristi and her daughters found work in the plantation houses on the river, while Ole and Tarje worked on the levees.  They could not speak English, they were faced with an unfamiliar and humid climate, and they were learning firsthand about the Southern institution of slavery.  This could hardly have been their American dream!

Is this true?

Ole K. Trovatten and Western Telemark Immigration

Norway Heritage

Passenger Lists and Emigrant Ships

Fox River Lutheran Church History

The oldest Lutheran Church in America

Includes downloadable book about Elling Eielson