Einar Sæter (born 1917) wrote the book "Gullfeber"/"Gold Fever", about Norwegian pioneers in Klondike and Alaska. Einar's father was Anders Sæther, a true pioneer in Nome, Alaska, around 1900. >In this book all Norwegian pioneers are listed and here they come :

Kjære Vidar,
The list was sent to me from Jørn. I think its fine you list it on your site.
Sincerely,
Karla

Traveltime and route to USA.

Hi All,

From time to time someone asks about the time it took to make the trip from Norway to the Midwest. While poking around in my books today I found a detailed account of a family of Swedish emigrants that traveled from Malmo in Sweden via Copenhagen to the end of the railroad tracks 3 miles west of Dassel, Minnesota in Meeker County, and on to Litchfield 8 miles further by wagon. I am going to pretend somebody just asked and post this now because I will forget where it is when I next want it.
The book this information is from is "Ever The Land - A Homestead Chronicle" by Ruben L. Parson. It was published by Adventure Publication of Staples, Minnesota 56479 and printed by Arrow Printing Company of Bemidji, Minnesota 56601. The Library of Congress Catalog Card number is 78-71174. It is written in a format like a novel but really gives detailed information about life in Meeker, Kandiyohi, Sterns, Pope, Douglas, Todd, Otter Tail, and Grant Counties. It is over 300 pages of rather small print. I recommend it if you can find it.

This appears to me to be a typical case that would apply to most Norwegian ports of departure as well. This is an interesting route because they came by train from New York rather than the Erie Canal route. Here are the facts. It is astonishing to me how efficient the whole system worked. These people were really hustled along. The fare for the trip from Malmo to New York was $54 each and half fare for children.

May 11, 1869 left Malmo shortly after midnight on a ferry to Copenhagen. They are deposited next to the ship they will take to England.

May 11, left Copenhagen at 3:30 AM aboard the Ocean Queen, a iron-screw steamer. The steamers of this day also had masts and sails that were used when the wind was favorable. The Ocean Queen is 137.5 feet long, has a crew of 15, and can carry between 100 and 150 passengers.May 11, docked at Hull on the east coast of England at 8:00 PM. The boat train to Liverpool was waiting at the quay. They were quickly loaded and the train left quickly.

May 11, the train comes to a screeching halt at the Liverpool docks at 11:00 PM. They are quickly boarded to another iron-screw steamer named the France. It is 385.6 feet in length, has a crew of 100, and can carry 1,200 passengers.

May 11, the France leaves Liverpool a few minutes before midnight. They encounter 2 storms during the crossing. May 26, arrive in New York in the evening and remain on the France until the next morning.

May 27, in the morning they are herded off the boat into a large room and instructed to set down their baggage. Almost at once a voice yells out in Swedish, "All Swedes headed for Minnesota this way!" A quarter of the crowd responded. The man who yelled was an immigrant agent for Minnesota and the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. He accompanied them all the way to Minnesota and made certain they got where they were supposed to be and weren't cheated by anyone. They exchanged their Swedish money and got $985.33 in American money. These people were relatively wealthy. The train fare from New York to the end of the line past Dassel was $42 each and children under 6 go free.

May 27, depart in the afternoon aboard the Central Railway of New Jersey bound for Pittsburgh. They arrive 16 hours later and change trains.

May 28, depart Pittsburgh aboard the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway bound for Chicago. They arrive 24 hours later and change trains.

May 29, depart Chicago aboard the Northwestern Railway (Milwaukee Division) bound for Milwaukee. They arrive 6 hours later and change trains.

May 30, depart Milwaukee aboard the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway bound for St. Paul. They arrive 24 hours later and change trains.

May 31, depart St. Paul aboard the St. Paul and Pacific Railway (under construction) bound for the end of the tracks 3 miles west of Dassel.  They arrive 3 hours later and are still 8 miles short of Litchfield. There are an assortment of stagecoaches, buggies, wagons, and buckboards waiting to be hired to take them on to Litchfield.   The fare for the 8 miles to Litchfield was $1.50 each and children under 6 go free.

May 31, in late afternoon they arrive in Litchfield and take a room in the new and roughly built hotel.

Total time from Malmo to Litchfield was just less than 20 days. Most emigrants that took this route thought that the journey inland from New York was a greater ordeal than the crossing of the North Atlantic. The worst trial of all were the "emigrant coaches" on which they came most of the way. These monstrosities were entirely of wood (excepting the under pinnings and wheels, of course), built over a frame of heavy timbers bolted together. Huge straps of iron ran from the mid-point of the bottom on each side to the upper end corners --- as the main supports. They were furnished with benches almost entirely devoid of padding. When utterly fatigued, parents sat asleep leaning against each other, their children across their laps. Sanitary facilities were comprised of two 2-hole privies, one at each end of the coach.
The coaches were heated with coal stoves, which appeared to emit more gas than heat. They were, in truth, more suitable for hauling swine than for transporting humans. But rates on them were only 2 to 3 cents per mile, often the limit of a poor immigrants's meager resources. In 1869 the Central of Pennsylvania operated 52 such abominations. The predecessor of the Great Northern (St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba) once built emigrant coaches almost 100 feet long, with 5 decks. It would be difficult to design a more colossal fire trap. Railroad men commonly referred to them as "Zulu" cars --- reminiscent of slave trafficking. By the time the family in this story arrived in Litchfield, they all had lice that they picked up in the railroad cars. Bear in mind, these people were pretty wealthy compared to almost all the emigrants. One of my great grandparents left Oslo with his wife and 3 children on prepaid tickets to McGregor, Iowa and when they left they had a total of 3 specie dollars, about $3.50. Almost all the passengers had around that much and quite a few had less. How did they all survive?
My God! We owe them a lot!

Kneel

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