Having thus made their choice of land, Gilderhus, Bolstad, and Himle returned to Illinois by way of Milwaukee, walking the whole distance; they remained in La Salle County through the winter. Their account of the land of promise which they had discovered, aroused much interest, and, as we shall see below, brought others in their train later. Early in the spring of 1840, Gilderhus and Bolstad, accompanied now by Magne Bystölen and also Andrew Finno, started for Koshkonong, driving, this time, in wagons drawn by oxen. They arrived there at the end of April and immediately took possession of the land selected. The land that had been chosen for Bystölen was inside the Christiana Township line, where Anders Finno also now located. Nils Gilderhus's land lay within Deerfield Township; he was the first Norwegian to locate there. He built a log cabin, which was the first house in the town. Nils Gilderhus and, I believe, Nils Bolstad, soon after walked to Milwaukee and filed their claims at the government land office, Nils Gilderhus being the first in the party to purchase land. The date of the purchase is May sixth, 1840; the land is the south half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-five. Nils Bolstad entered on forty acres of section two in the Town of Christiana, and Magne Bystölen's forty acres lay directly east of Bolstad's in the same section.[131] [131] Their names are recorded in the land office as Nils Seaverson, Nils Larson and Magany Buttelson. Their first habitation was a hurriedly built log cabin; it was not plastered, and, as we can believe, proved inadequate as a protection against winter, which was already setting in. Here they experienced the intensest suffering from cold,[132] until, the condition becoming intolerable, they dug out a cellar against an embankment, where they lived during the remainder of the cold season. In this "dugout" Nils Gilderhus and Magne Bystölen continued to live another year, but Nils Bolstad erected a log cabin in 1841, when he married Anna Vindeig, who was the first white woman in the locality. Gilderhus erected a cabin in the town of Deerfield near the Christiana line in 1842, but he sold out in 1843 to Gulleik Thompson Saue; for further facts about these men see below. Andrew Fenno and Odd Himle did not purchase land.[133] [132] Odland writes: when they had finished their work outside, they were obliged to lie down on their beds and cover up with robes in order not to freeze. [133] Himle settled some years later at Norway Grove, Dane County. We shall now turn to the two other groups of settlers on Koshkonong in 1840. CHAPTER XIX _The Settling of Koshkonong by Immigrants from Numedal and Stavanger in 1840. Other Accessions in 1841-1842._