There was so much sickness here at that time that there was hardly any one well enough to bury those that died; and well can I remember that the men had to come down to our house and rest before they could finish the grave, and well can I remember that the cow stood outside bellowing to be milked and no one able to milk her; everybody was thirsty as all had fever and ague and had to go a mile for water before we got to the well, and sometimes no one able to go after it. I am sure a great many died for want of care, as there was none that understood the English language and did not understand how to take their medicine. Those were hard times, and to many this account may sound incredible; nevertheless, it is true and I could write volumes and tell true incidents of the trials and hardships that the old pioneers had to endure. [310] I acknowledge here with gratitude Mr. Arveson's valuable aid. It is only through such intelligent interest and patient effort on the part of the sons of the pioneers themselves, who have continued to live in the community, that such reliable facts can be secured. Whitewater city received no Norwegian settlers until in the fifties, therefore an account of their coming falls outside the scope of our discussion. Of the old Skoponong Settlement I am able to give only a few general facts. The first settlers came in 1843-44; they were: Kittil Jordgrev, Hans Bukaasa, and Björn Lien from Upper Telemarken, Hans and Harald Nordbö from Flaa, Hallingdal, Ole Lia from Hiterdal, Halvor Valkaasa from Sauland, Lars Johnson Lee, Sjur Hydle, Knut T. Rio, and Tollef Grane from Voss, and Anon Dalos; several of these had families. Lars Lee and wife Britha came to Muskego in the summer of 1843 and to Skoponong early in the fall, and were therefore among the very earliest in that locality. They lived there until 1861, when they located at Spring Prairie, Town of Leeds, Columbia County.[311] In his history of the Skoponong Congregation (founded in 1844), C. M. Mason, Secretary of the congregation, names also the following among the earliest members of the church: Halvor Mathison (in whose house the church was organized in 1844), Styrk Erikson, Knud Dokstad, Nils Herre, Ole Sjurson, Simon Sakrison, Jacob Kaasne, Halvor Glenna, Mathias Baura, Björn Hefte, Sjur Flittre, Lars Klove, Mathias Lia and Even Gulseth. [311] Lars Lee died in 1883, his wife in 1905. Dr. Lewis Johnson Lee of De Forest, Wisconsin, is their son.