Based upon the account of Knut Olsen Hastvedt and historical sources

The emigrants took a riverboat up the Mississippi from New Orleans.  Depending on the size of the craft, the group would have transferred to a smaller boat at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi near St. Louis, and/or at Alton, Illinois where the Illinois River joins the Mississippi.  After taking the Illinois River to La Salle, they made the final leg of the journey to the Koshkonong settlement, a distance of approximately 100 miles, by wagon. 

The Fox River settlement, located in La Salle County, was the first permanent Norwegian settlement in the Midwest.  It provided a comfortable and familiar rest stop after the long journey across the Atlantic and up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

The Fox River Settlement

The first permanent Norwegian settlement in the United States was located at Kendall, New York. Cleng Peerson walked from Western New York through Michigan and on to Illinois in search of a new settlement area. When he returned to Kendall, he reported that he had found a land of milk and honey in the Fox River Valley of Illinois, seventy five miles southwest of the then tiny village of Chicago.  Norwegian settlers started arriving in the Fox River Settlement in 1835. It would become the second Norwegian settlement in America and the first in the Midwest.

An Excerpt from La Salle County, Illinois History    p. 13-14

from 'Nordmændene i Amerika' by Martin Ulvestad

History Book Company’s Forlag, Minneapolis, MN 1907

p. 13-14

   Elling Eielsen, who came from Norway to Fox River in 1839, started holding meetings and erected a meeting house that year. This was the first Norwegian meeting house in America. It was later used as a church.  Eielsen was encouraged to seek ordination as a pastor. The ordination was conducted by F. A. Hoffman, D.D., a German Lutheran pastor at Duncan's Grove on October 3, 1843. However, Elling preferred to be seen as a lay preacher, which actually he was - in the mode of Hans Nilsen Hauge. He was passionate and talented, and traveled constantly with his axe, compass, coffee pot, rain clothes etc. He spent many nights sleeping under the skies, often with Indians who found him to be a good friend. Eielsen shared the gospel with many lonely Norwegian pioneers and set a good example during his long service to the Norwegian settlements in America. He was born in Voss on September 19, 1804 and died in Chicago, Ill. in 1883.