In 1846 Syver O. Haaland, wife and nine children, Hadle Evenson and wife Anne J. Fjösne, and Tostein H. and Osmond O. Högstul came to Skoponong, the latter two from Tuddal in Telemarken; the former were from Etne Parish in Söndhordland. Björn Holland of Hollandale, Wisconsin, who is a son of Syver Haaland,[312] writes me that they came on the ship _Kong Sverre_ from Bergen.[313] In Ulvestad's _Nordmaendene i Amerika_, page 56, appears an account of their first few weeks in the settlement and of S. Haaland's sickness and death. The Högstul party came in a brig by the name of _Washington_, which carried iron from Tvedestrand, commanded by a Norwegian captain by the name of Simon Cook. He says: "In Milwaukee, there were only a few stores at the time. We drove with oxen and a wagon to the so-called Skoponong Settlement near Whitewater. When we came there nearly all the settlers lay ill with ague, the condition was wretched. We immediately began to rid and break some land and after a while we got so far that we could raise some wheat. But we had to haul it fifty miles to Milwaukee with oxen; there we got 25 cents per bushel.... wages was usually 25 cents a day in the spring and fall; in the haying it was 50 cents. But there was little work to get. Like other settlers my parents were poor. My mother made baskets from withes; these she then carried on her back about the prairie and sold them to Americans, getting in return for them flour, pork and garments, in order that we should not suffer distress." [312] The family changed the name to Holland in this country. [313] Letter of May 5, 1905. Hadle Evenson moved to Perry, Wisconsin, in 1854, where Mrs. Evenson died in 1861. The oldest son Edwin Hadley, enlisting in Co. E, 15th Wisconsin, was killed at the Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia, in May, 1864. In 1875 Mr. Evenson settled at Slater, Story County, Iowa. Peter Hadley, Treasurer of Webster County, is the only surviving son. Among the early settlers at Skoponong was Mrs. Ingeborg Nelson who came from Evanger, Voss, in 1849. She left Skoponong a few years later, settling permanently at Deerfield, Dane County, in 1853, where she is still living at the age of ninety-five. Mrs. Nelson is the mother of Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who was born in Norway in 1843. Knute Nelson was educated at Albion Academy, Albion, Wisconsin, and removed to Alexandria, Minnesota in 1871. He was Governor of Minnesota during 1892-1895. In the latter year he was elected U. S. Senator and has been reëlected twice since, serving now his third term.