From Chicago he directed his steps farther west; he did not, however, go to the settlement founded several years before, but pushed on as far as Lee Center in the County of Lee.[390] Here he secured work, saved some money, and bought a homestead in Bradford Township, and erected thereon a sod house. Soon after he married Catherine Reinhart, daughter of a German pioneer, recently moved in. [390] Strand relates an experience which Hilleson had between Chicago and Lee Center and which would seem to indicate that he had intended to go to La Salle County. For ten years Hilleson was the only Norwegian settler in the county, but in 1847 there arrived in response to letters from Hilleson, a considerable party from Hardanger. These left Sörfjorden in Hardanger, and embarked in May at Bergen in the sailing vessel _Juno_, which brought them to New York in a little over four weeks, a remarkable record for that time.[391] Mr. T. M. Newton (Torgels Knutson) says, when we came to Buffalo we met an old man who was returning to Norway. He advised us to go back at once, saying America was not a fit place for respectable people to live in, it was a place for thieves and robbers. The party consisted of the following persons: Lars Larsen Röisetter (Risetter), Lars Olson Espe, Lars Helgeson Maakestad, Gjertrud H. Lönning, Helge H. Maaketad (who died in 1854), Ingeborg H. Maakestad, Torgels Knudson Maakestad, Sjur Sjurson Bleie (Bly) and Lars Larson Bly. They were met at Chicago by Ommon Hilleson; Lars Bly remained in Chicago, the rest started for Lee County, stopping a short time at Norway, La Salle County, thereupon all but Ingeborg Maakestad drove to Hilleson's home in Lee County.[392] Most of them settled in Bradford Township, but Lars Risetter (born 1827 in Ullensvang) bought eighty acres of land in Sublette Township, whither other subsequent immigrants from Hardanger also soon moved. Soon after arriving, Risetter and Gjertrud Lönning were married in the first house built by a Norwegian in Lee County, at the home of Ommon Hilleson. Lars Espe and Lars Risetter were the first two of the party to build a log cabin. [391] T. M. Newton says the journey took only three weeks; others say, four. Newton was from Kinservig. [392] The journey was made with oxen and lumber wagon. Inger Maakestad remained at Norway for a time; she married Lars Espe soon after. Mr. Newton tells that two young men came from La Salle County about the same time and bought a piece of land in Franklin Grove about two miles and a half from where he lived. "They lived in a log cabin on their place," he says. "One night about two months after we arrived, they were both murdered. The same day I had tried to persuade one of them to stay with me, but he felt it necessary to be at home. Their heads had been split open with an ax. I then thought of what the old gentleman had tried to tell us and heartily wished myself back in Norway."