The Norse-American Centennial

THE NORSE-AMERICAN CENTENNIAL21 Maze, going to Misery Square through Wretch's Pit, to Remorse Hedge. Another opportunity now offers of mending their ways, for should they be wise enough to go by Penitent's Pass, they may enter by Wondrous Mercy Gate and at last repose in Peaceful Mind Bower, in the vicinity of Happy Old Age Hall. I have hitherto spoken of such as go by Direction Gate. I am now to caution you against leaving my house as some have left their parents, by a Careless Backway and traversed among crooked and strange paths, the very names of which, viewing them on the Map, will, I hope, deter you from entering therein. A Parent. Note: The late Rachel H. Roberts who deceased at Moorestown, N. J., in the year 1881, in the 91st year of her age, said that, in her childhood, a copy of this map hung in her father's house. The map has a few slight errors, the Path to Mending Quarters should be from "Pausing Window" and not from Sorrow Chamber; it should not be "Pausing Gateway." Gallows Hill should be a small hill to the right of the path with a slight gibbet on it. Henry B. Abbott. Philadelphia, Pa. 1st Month, 1921. THE NORSE-AMERICAN CENTENNIAL. By Henry J. Cadbury, Ph. D., of Harvard University. In the year 1825 a little sloop named Restaurationen1 brought the first group of emigrants from Norway to the United States. This event is commonly regarded as marking the era from which Norwegians in America date their history. Accordingly in 1925 the various clans organized a national celebration, which took place at the State Fair Grounds, Minnesota , June 6th-9th. President Coolidge attended and gave an address. The government further recognized the occasion by issuing two special stamps (2 and 5 cents) marked "Norse-American Centennial 1825-1925." Other organizations have held appropriate proceedings. The Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, now happily united, issued a memorial volume, History of the Norwegian People in America (Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis ) under the able editorship of Prof. O. M. Norlie of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Considerable notice also has been given the event by 'The final "en" corresponds to the English definite article, "the." A translation of "Restaurationen" would therefore be "The Restoration." 22 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Americans of Norwegian descent, who are now said to number over two million. Less notice of the event has been taken in Norway. Stavanger, from which the first emigrant company came, had on hand a much older anniversary, the founding of an episcopal see in 1125. (See the volume, Stavanger 1125-1425-1925, Stavanger, 1925.) The Society of Friends has not celebrated the event. The Quaker share in this anniversary was not to be guessed from any Quaker histories, but has become clear as a result of researches converging in this centennial. At the request of the editor of the Bulletin a few bibliographical references to this recent and fugitive literature are here offered, but nothing further since a more extensive attempt to rewrite this chapter in Quaker history has been attempted elsewhere. It is hoped that some of the more interesting documents that have come to light can be offered to readers of the Bulletin, and that still further information may be gleaned and published from Quaker records in Stavanger, London, New York or Illinois, or from original Quaker MS. journals (e. g. of Stephen Grellett, William Allen and Thomas Shillitoe if they are in existence). The beginnings of Quakerism in Norway and the thirty years of persecution that followed were well told on the basis of original documents, some still in Friends Reference Library, London, by George Richardson in his Rise and Progress of the Society of Friends in Norway (London, 1849). The romantic story of the conversion to Quakerism of Norwegian prisoners in prison ships on the Thames had been published earlier in the anonymous pamphlet, An Account of a Religious Society in Norway called Saints. . . . also Some Interesting Particulars relating to Several Prisoners on Board a Danish Sloop who were Convinced of the Principles of Friends from the year 1812 to 1814 (London, 1814). Much accurate...