This is the steamship Bergen. John Thompson, his parents and sister family took this ship from Bergen Norway to the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on the second leg of their journey to America.
The Meråker 8. John’s Trip to America.
April 13th, 1854. Eight families from Meråker, Norway started their journey to America. Nils Fosmo, wife Susanna, their three sons and one daughter; Jonas Mehaugen, wife Bertha and one daughter beside his brother Ivar Mehaugen; Olava, midwife, her husband and two children; Lars Anderson Oien, wife Mali and two children; his brother Ole the younger and their father’s brother Rolog Svedjoan; Erick Hemmingson Kirkebytro, wife Elsa and their son and daughter; Arnt Johanson Haugtro and wife Karena and two children; Guttorm Johnsen Kirkeby, wife Bertha with son (John Thompson) and daughter Serie (Sigrid); Peter Einarson Halse, wife and two children. I’ve taken to calling this group “The Meråker 8”, representing the 8 pioneer families from Meråker that traveled to America in 1854. I have attached the immigration document from Meråker below. Norwegian’s keep great records and they recorded the group leaving for their journey to America.
There is an account of this trip that was first published in the “Scandinavian” in Feb. 1906 which was an account of the travels of the first group of immigrants from Meråker by Hemming Erickson. The article was called “An American Journey”.
The trip, at least to Wisconsin, followed this route:
• Meråker to Stjordal by road
• Stjordal Bay to Bergen by the Sloop Maria Sophie following the coast to Bergen
• Bergen to Hamburg, German Confederation, by steamship
• Hamburg to Hull, England by steamship
• Hull to Liverpool, England by train
• Liverpool to Grosse Île, United Province of Canada (Quarantine Island) then to the City of Quebec, United Province of Canada, by large sailboat (most likely a bark or large steamship)
• Quebec to Montreal by canal steamer arranged by Elias Strangeland
• Montreal to Niagara Falls on the same canal steamer arranged by Elias Strangeland
• Niagara Falls to Buffalo by train arranged by Elias Strangeland
• Buffalo to Milwaukee by steamship arranged by Elias Strangeland
• Milwaukee to Koshkongong and Stroughton Wisconsin by train arranged by Elias Strangeland
(I am trying to locate the specific lines and trains etc. but the research has been difficult and I have not been successful. )
There was no shipping company in Trondhjem so the Meråker 8 went to Bergen to board an immigrant ship. They journeyed the approximately 75 km from Meråker to Stjordals City either by road from Meråker or by the Stjørdalselva River. The river appears to be able navigable by a flat bottom boat possibly but this seems unlikely. There was no rail at the time. The rail line called Meråkerbanen started in 1882. It is literally the rail line from Hell. The line starts in Hell, outside Stjørdal, through the municipalities of Stjørdal and Meråker in Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway, to the village of Storlien in Sweden.
The group departed from Stjordals Bay to Bergen on a small sloop by the name of Maria Sophie which was commanded by the brothers Peter and Tollov from Fetten in Aasen. The trip took quite a long time as they had to go into port each night. If you want to see how crazy this actually is get a map or Norway and look at the route by sea….MADNESS. They arrived in Bergen the immigrant ships had all departed so they contracted with an English line to get to America. They left on the steamship named Bergen (Bergen, 476 tons, built 1852 and wrecked at Mandal 1871) to Hamburg where they purchased tickets to Quebec. The cost was $43 dollars for an adult fare and half that for a child. From Hamburg they left on a steamship to Hull England then took a railroad line to Liverpool. They then boarded a large sailboat which had just come back from Quebec taking 700. There were only 500 souls on this trip so they had plenty of room. (I have tried to find a ship departing from Liverpool arriving in Quebec but I cannot find one during this time. The records are not complete but I have found four ships arriving in Aug 1854 but found none that departed from Liverpool until I came across the following from an account of Karl E. Erickson in 1896. Karl was the clerk in the Strangeland office in Quebec in 1854.
“During the season when the Wisconsin agency was stationed at Quebec, twenty-eight Norwegian ships landed 5,488 persons at that port. All of them came directly by Norwegian vessels, except forty who arrived via Liverpool. Nine ships had taken on their passengers at the port of Christiania, nine at Bergen, two at Drammen, two at Stavanger, two at Kragero and one at Porsgrund. – Karl E. Erickson in 1896. This is the only ship from Liverpool in 1854 that Strangeland handled. The Meråker 8 party had at least 38 members.” So I have found the ship but not the record or the name as yet.
The trip across the Atlantic took 7 weeks. The wind was against them and the trip was partly windless. A little boy belonging to Lars Oien died on the trip and was buried at sea. They sighted land in late August and traveled up the St. Lawrence. When they landed (a port before Quebec) they got off ship so the ship could be cleaned. This port is likely Grosse Île, an island located in the St. Lawrence River downstream from the City of Québec. Unprecedented immigration on the St. Lawrence River required Quebec to take steps to prevent major cholera and smallpox epidemics. In order to help control the spread of the diseases, the quarantine station at Grosse Île was established in 1832 and operated until its closure in 1937. Meråker 8 member, Hemming Erickson said “When we came up to the pier the ship dropped anchor, and all emigrants went ashore, as the ship was to be cleaned, and we then first heard that cholera had raged quite dreadfully among the emigrants that summer, up throughout the land and the hospitals along the pier were full of sick emigrants”. They got back on the ship that evening (So just a half day on land) and by the next morning, they were in Quebec.
In the short time it took the ship to travel the approximately 46km from Grosse Île to Quebec, Sigrid 17, John Thompson’s sister and a boy named Ivan Mehaugen, 22, came down with cholera and were removed from the ship and taken to the hospital in Quebec (Aug 1854). This means they made it past the quarantine station and are not buried on Grosse Île but somewhere in Quebec City. In 1854 there were 95 burials on the Grosse Île.
During the summer of 1854 a severe cholera epidemic was prevalent at the seaports, and it extended throughout the western part of the country. Quite a number of Norwegian immigrants were detained and placed in hospitals at Grosse Isle, the regular quarantine station situated on the St. Lawrence River some distance below Quebec, on British territory and managed by officers under that government. At this place all incoming ships had to stop for inspection. Immigrants were there subjected to rigid examination by physicians and all sick persons were ordered ashore. A gang of men were then sent aboard from the hospital to fumigate and disinfect the entire ship with all there was in it. This done, the ship was allowed to proceed up the river to the city; the sick ones had to remain at the hospital. This was the first trial the newcomers had to endure after reaching the happy shores. Friends, companions, and often members of families were ruthlessly separated, in many eases never to meet again. Many would die and their remains be interred; those who got well often had to start on their way alone and follow their friends as best they could, often not knowing where they could be found. – Karl E. Erickson in 1896
Quebec had two competing agency’s vying for the Norwegian immigrants during the 1850’s. One headed by Elias Strangeland and the other by John Holfeldt. In Quebec the Meråker 8 chose the Wisconsin Immigration Agency to help them to get to Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Immigration Office in Quebec, headed by Elias Strangeland and his staff of five, represented companies that used the St. Lawrence Seaway, the canal, rail and the Great Lakes to funnel immigrants to Wisconsin. Strangeland was appointed as Immigrant Agent for the State of Wisconsin on 1 May 1854 for a term of 6 months. He was to open an office, hire a staff and entice Norwegian immigrants to come to Wisconsin and to help them arrange their travel to the state. Holfeldt, who was a hunchback, would jump over the railings of ships arriving in port, usually beating Strangeland in getting the ship captain’s business. “You will see an elderly thick-set man with a big hunchback and a stovepipe hat,” they said.
Strangeland contracted with Maxell and Patten a shipping company from Buffalo to funnel emigrants to Wisconsin. The Meråker 8 contracted with Stangeland in Quebec who then used the firm of Maxwell and Patten to get them to their final destination. Joshua Maxwell and Julius C. Patten are listed in the 1853 and 1854 City directory’s as Forwarding and Commission Merchants in Buffalo, NY located on Long Warf, which ran along the harbor from the foot of Commercial. They came together from separate businesses to form a partnership in 1850-1851. In 1855, J. C. Patten is still in business (later with Patten and Munderback) but it appears he is not affiliated with Maxwell. Maxwell was later an agent for a company called NWTL and others.
Before Stangeland went to the old country on his visit he apparently had made arrangements with the owners and managers of the particular line of transportation that he commended, Messrs. Maxwell and Patten of Buffalo. When immigrants arrived at Quebec they were (sometimes) transferred without much delay to large river steamers that carried them to Montreal, which is at the head of ocean navigation on that river. Then passage was taken on canal steamers some twenty-five miles to a place called La Chine; sometimes this journey was made by railroad. The canal has a number of locks, and the passage through them was a novel experience to newcomers. At La Chine passengers boarded large lake steamers that carried them through the Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario, in the western part of which liners were running to different landing points. One of these liners took the passengers to the city of Lewiston, and from there both passengers and luggage were carried about seven miles to Niagara Falls on large stagecoaches drawn by horses, thence to Buffalo by rail, and then on steamers over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee or Chicago. The trip from Quebec required about seven days. – Karl E. Erickson in 1896.
By the time the Meråker 8 arrived in Montreal, Guttorm and Berit, John’s parents, were dead of cholera. They were taken off the ship in Montreal and it is unknown where they were buried. (August 1954).
Several in our company became ill, namely Guttorm Johnson Kirkeby and his wife and the husband to Olava, the midwife and their two children. All died that night. The next morning the ship lay at the wharf in Montreal. There stood two men with coffins nailed together of rough boards, wherein they laid the dead and took them away to be buried. That was the last anyone saw of them. – Hemming Erickson, Feb 1906
The steamship continued to Niagara Falls. From Niagara Falls they took a train to Buffalo, NY where they stopped for a day. They lodged in a large warehouse that was full of coffins and clothes from other immigrants who did not make the hazardous trip. Ole Oien took ill in Buffalo, NY that day and when his brother Lars went to see him the next day, Ole was already dead and buried. From Buffalo they boarded a steamship to Milwaukee then on rail to Koshkonong, Jefferson County, WI and Stoughton, Dane County, WI. Both which are near Madison WI.
The story is muddled from here on until John enlists at Madison. Did he stay with his Uncle and Aunt? Most likely but I can not find the 1860 census record. I have hand searched the records of almost all of central Wisconsin and I can’t find them. If anyone has the record please let me know.
Little John possibly stayed with his “Gilseth Aunt” (I can guess but I am still trying to figure out who she is exactly) I believe and also with his friends the Jonas Nelson’s family. Nelson’s family later went to Minnesota to pioneer and John might have stayed around Mount Morris, Wis with his relatives. John would later travel to Madison to enlist in the 7th Wisconsin for the impending war.
John went to Minnesota, Goodhue County after the war and met up with his friend Jonas Nelson. There John married a good Valders girl, Kristi Haugen, there at the Holden Church. They soon after made their way to Dakota for the promise of land John and Jonas had earned by being Union Soldiers.