European Languages and Societies Commons^™

Peter Larson -- Danish Immigrant Entrepreneur, Henry Jorgensen

The Bridge

Eighty years ago, on July 13, 1907, Helena residents picked up their newspaper, the Helena Independent and read these front-page headlines:

"PETER LARSON DIES AT HIS HOME IN HELENA."

"A CALAMITY TO THE WHOLE NORTHWEST."

"The Man Who at the Age of Twenty Was Still a Danish Peasant is Remembered by Thousands for His Benefactions" . . ."Contractor and Master Business Man."

Danish Methodists In America, Arlow W. Andersen

The Bridge

The separate histories of foreign-language missions present a special challenge to students of American church history. Descendants of the immigrants, more and more of mixed ancestry, lack the ability to read and translate material published in the language of their forebears. To make matters more difficult, the children and grandchildren of the pioneers often shun the tedious work of research and writing. Their handicaps apply to the offspring of all foreignspeaking peoples in America. Of the nineteenth-century immigrants, the Danes come to mind.

The Danish Community Of Chicago, Philip S. Friedman

The Bridge

Although millions accepted the challenge of immigrating to America, that choice required extraordinary courage. Even the initial task of leaving the homeland and traveling to America often took on mythical proportions. Prior to the journey, the immigrant needed to settle his affairs, selling for cash the possessions which could be sold. Having decided to emigrate to the New World, he did not expect to make the long return trip for many years. 1 After gathering a few essential provisions and saying goodbye to his old home, the immigrant and his family boarded a ship for the two-week voyage. Every ship …

Chapter Ii: Chicago And The Danish Settlement

The Bridge

If two words characterized Chicago in its first halfcentury, they were "growth" and "change." In 1840 Chicago was a small prairie town of 4,500 inhabitants. But the forces that brought immigrants to the Midwest had already begun to transform Chicago. With the development of trade and commerce between the Midwest and the East, better transportation over land and water became essential. In the 1840s, the State of Illinois constructed the Illinois and Michigan Canal, connecting the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan by way of Chicago. For the first time, Midwestern produce could go to market through the Great Lakes, as …

Immigrating To America, Andrew Christensen

The Bridge

To get the proper backdrop for this article, let me quote a few statements from the introduction of an outstanding book on immigration to America, sponsored by the Rebild Society and written by Kristian Hvidt, the Chief Librarian of the Danish Parlimentary Library:

"In the course of the fifty years preceeding the outbreak of World War I in 1914, well over 300,000 Danes left their homeland to become immigrants; ninety percent of them settled in the U.S.A. The illuminating facts stated in human terms show that our grand and great-grandparents saw every tenth one of their countrymen leave their land …