Ole Rynning’s company met Bjorn Anderson Kvelve in Chicago. The unfavorable description he gave of the land both west and north frightened the immigrants from locating in any of the existing Norwegian colonies and this resulted in the founding of the Beaver Creek Settlement whose sad story is well known to the Scandinavian population in the northwest. In this connection bitter reproaches have been directed against Bjorn Anderson Kvelve as being in a great measure to blame for the fatalities of Beaver Creek. But it is usually the case that people like to seek in others the cause of their misfortune. This is true of the individual as well as of corporations and societies and perhaps a little more so in the case of the immigrants visited by adversity. At all events, it is our opinion that we do a justice to the man when we say that the criticism of Bjorn Anderson Kvelve has been too severe, if not utterly unfounded. Ole Nattestad continues: In the spring of 1838 my brother, Ansten, went to Norway and I worked by the day in the northern part of Illinois. The first of July, 1838, I came to my present home in about the middle of the town of Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin, where I bought land and I am consequently the first Norwegian to settle in this state. So far as known, no other Norwegian had planted his feet on Wisconsin soil before me. For a whole year I saw no countryman but lived alone without friend, family, or companion. Eight Americans had settled in the town before me but they lived about as isolated as I did. I found the soil very fertile and the monotony of the prairie was relieved by small bunches of trees. Deer and other game were abundant. The horrid howl of the prairie wolf disturbed my sleep until habit armed my ears against annoyances of this sort. The following summer [1839] I built a little log hut and in this residence I received in September a number of people from my own parish in Norway. They had come as immigrants with my brother, Ansten. The most of these settled on Jefferson Prairie and in this way the settlement got a large population in a comparatively short time. In 1840 Ole Nattestad married Lena Hiser who died September 15, 1888. She left seven children, all well educated and in good circumstances. Henry, the youngest son, now occupies the old homestead. We now pass to Ansten Nattestad, the brother of Ole, and will let him tell the story as published in the _Billed Magazin_: