In 1840 a few came here from Numedal and from that time the number of settlers steadily increased, chiefly by new arrivals from Norway. The most of those from Numedal settled in the northern part of the colony, for we who came after my brother, who was here before any of us, bought land in the place where he had built his cabin and those from the same part of Norway who came later as immigrants and who sought us out in the far west settled as our neighbors. I and the first Numedalians chose this tract as our home and our choice was made immediately after our arrival. The same autumn, 1839, a company from Voss in Norway came to the settlement. These Vossings went farther south and as “birds of a feather flock together” so their friends from Voss gradually settled with them. Hence the Jefferson Prairie settlement, as to population, may be divided into two districts, of which the northern consists chiefly of Numedalians while the Vossings predominate in the southern part. In searching for the Nattestad book I learned that Ole Nattestad had preserved a manuscript copy of it and that sometime in the eighties he had handed this to Prof. Peter Hendrickson, then editor-in-chief of _Skandinaven_ in Chicago, with the view of having the manuscript revised and reprinted; but before Professor Hendrickson found time to do this work, his home in Evanston, Illinois, was burned to the ground and in this fire the Nattestad manuscript was lost. Not long since, however, it was shown that the Nattestad book was not a myth. Mr. H. L. Skavlem of Janesville, Wisconsin, is a most patient and thorough student of Norwegian pioneer life in America, and especially of everything pertaining to the people who have emigrated from Numedal. In 1915 he published an account of the “Skavlem and Odegaarden Families in this Country” which is a masterpiece of genealogical records and pioneer history. Mr. Skavlem, beside being an authority on Indian relics and on Wisconsin bird life, has done much to preserve the history of the Norwegians in America. It was he who secured a printed copy of the Nattestad book for preservation in the library of the State Historical Society, so far as known the only copy in existence. [Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF OLE NATTESTAD’S “JOURNEY TO NORTH AMERICA” Photographed from the copy in the Wisconsin Historical Library] Of this copy, which is now being printed in an English translation, Mr. Skavlem gives the following account: