The founders of the settlement at Wind Lake in the Town of Norway were Sören Backe, son of Tolleff O. Backe a merchant of Drammen, and Johannes Johanneson. The latter was a clerk in the employ of Tollef Backe of Drammen, whom he latter deputed to accompany his son to America. He was a man of about forty years of age, of strong character and moral principles. He had some knowledge of the English language, having once lived for a short time in England. Sören Backe was a young man, evidently of little promise, whom the father sent to America ostensibly that his ambition might be kindled by American opportunities and by being placed upon his own responsibility. In company with them came also a third man, of whom I shall speak again in a later chapter, namely Elling Eielson Sunve from Voss, a lay preacher and the noted founder of the "Ellingian" sect of the Lutheran Church. These three left Drammen in the summer of 1839, and arrived in La Salle County in the fall of that year. The forest land had all been taken and was now occupied by settlers, and Johannesen seems to have been suspicious of the prairie, where land could still be had. A contributor to the _Billed-Magazin_ for 1869 says that the conditions of distress, the winter storms and the extreme cold on the prairies were the things that influenced them to seek a locality for a settlement elsewhere, and that they did not go north to Racine County until the spring of 1840. He says: "Early the next spring they walked north and came as far as to Wind Lake, where there was then a single settler, an Irishman. Here in the primeval forest, on the shores of the little lake they had found what their hearts desired; and they bought the piece of ground which the Irishman was cultivating, and Backe chose this place as his home." It is to be noted, however, that K. Langeland in _Nordmaendene i Amerika_ says that they remained in La Salle County only a few weeks and went north to Wisconsin that same fall (page forty-three).[115] Langeland adds further, that they dug a cellar in an Indian mound in which they lived during the winter. [115] Professor Anderson accepts unreservedly the authority of _Billed-Magazin_ in the matter and decides for the date 1840.