Norwegians and Swedes in the United States: Friends and Neighbors

Chapter 15. Norwegians and Swedes in Willmar, Minnesota in the Early Twentieth Century: Neighbors, Friends, Schoolmates, and Lovers

258 ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ Chapter 15 Norwegians and Swedes in Willmar, Minnesota, in the Early Twentieth Century Neighbors, Friends, Schoolmates, and Lovers Byron J. Nordstrom The setting for this chapter is the town of Willmar, Minnesota. Located about ninety miles west of Minneapolis, it is the county seat for Kandiyohi County. It is named after Leon Willmar, a Belgian who worked as an agent for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (later the Great Northern Railroad), and its real growth only came when that railroad reached the community in 1869. In 1875, Willmar’s population was 1,004. Fifteen years later it had risen to 1,825, and by 1900 it was 3,409. Today this figure is just over 18,000.1 Little has been written about the ethnic history of Willmar, and what follows is a somewhat eclectic introduction to the place and the possibilities that present themselves for further research based largely on four sources: Victor Lawson’s Illustrated History and Descriptive and Biographical Review of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota; the 1910 United States Census Population Schedules; the Willmar Tribune from 1905; and my own family’s history. The chapter has three parts. The first looks at residential and commercial Willmar and examines where some of the Norwegians and Swedes lived, what places they occupied in the town’s economic life, and who some of the more successful among them were. The second examines how the Norwegian-Swedish Union Crisis of 1905 was covered in the town’s English-language, weekly newspaper. The third personalizes the story and looks at myownfamily—Norwegianonmymother’ssideandSwedishonmyfather’sside. Where They Lived, Who They Were In the later decades of the nineteenth century, Willmar and the county that surrounded it were important ethnic settlement magnets for Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Irish, Norwegians, Swedes, so-called Yankees (residents born in the United States of U.S.–born parents), and others. Scattered across the neighboring countryside were tightly knit ethnic enclaves, often built around churches and frequently peopled by immigrants from relatively small emigration regions in the home lands. Ethnic patterns established in these years carried over into the early decades of the twentieth century.2 Norwegians and Swedes in Willmar, Minnesota ❖ 259 When I began this study, I expected the settlement patterns for Willmar’s ethnic populations to echo closely those I had discovered many years ago in my work on the Sixth Ward of Minneapolis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Maps picturing the distribution of a random sample of Norwegians and Swedes in Minneapolis’s Sixth Ward in 1910 show they are grouped in Church communities in Kandiyohi County, 1905 260 ❖ Byron J. Nordstrom relatively distinct ethnic enclaves, usually clustered together close to churches, employment opportunities, or cost-based housing options. As the map above indicates, however, no such clear pattern emerged from a random sampling of where Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and Yankees lived in Willmar in 1910. Still, there appear to have been some definable ethnic neighborhoods, as in the case of the clusters of Norwegians on Seventh Street and Fifteenth Street or of the one of Swedes along Fourth Street. A number of boarding houses were exclusively Norwegian or Swedish, and Norwegians and Swedes (and others) frequently lived in relatively close proximity as neighbors. Why the variety in residential distribution? The answer to this question probably lies in a number of factors that determined where people took up residence in Willmar. Certainly, ethnicity was important. So too were economic status; proximity to a specific church, school, or job; intentional settling in development projects initiated by ethnically specific builders; what housing was available when specific individuals arrived; and the simple fact that there was less room to spread out and establish ethnic enclaves. The settlement map of Willmar is a mixture of accident, intent, and circumstances. In some cases, individuals could actually choose to live on a block or in a new tract of houses in a decision made with some measure of ethnic concern. In other instances— perhaps most—individuals simply settled where they could. Sample of ethnic residence distribution in Willmar, 1910, based on U.S. Census Population Schedules Norwegians and Swedes in Willmar, Minnesota ❖ 261 Another way of looking at the Norwegians and Swedes in Willmar is through an economic lens. What jobs did they hold or what businesses did they own or operate? (See table 15.1.) The occupation or employment information available in the census population...