New Jersey

Early Norwegian Settlements in New Jersey

Hudson County, New Jersey
   In Hoboken there are quite a few Norwegians. There are also two Norwegian congregations each with a church. One of them belongs to The Norwegian Synod and the other to The Evangelical Free Church.
   In Jersey City there are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry. The aforementioned societies each have a congregation and church here also. Therefore we find 4 Norwegian congregations and 4 churches in Hudson County.
   The most important source of income for the Norwegians: 1) loading and unloading ships, 2) shipping and 3) work in shipyards, drydocks, repair shops as well as paper and silk mills.
   The newspaper 'Luthersk Sendebud', published by The Norwegian Synod's clergy on the Atlantic Coast, was begun in 1904.

Union County, New Jersey
   Most of the Norwegians in Union County (there are not however, very many of them) live in Elizabeth City, where factory work is the most important employment. In Elizabeth there is also a congregation belonging to The United Church.
   In this county there was once a post office called Thorsland. It is also known that there was a little Norwegian settlement in this area but it no longer exists. The Norwegian settlers sold their homes and moved west.

Essex County, New Jersey
   At Orange, where a number of Norwegians settled, Enok Bore from Stavanger was the first. He settled there in 1872. Next after him came Sigvart Pedersen† from Stavanger and a Mr. Halvorsen from Kristiania as well as Ludvig Oftedal and Reinert Rolfsen. Later came T., A. and R. Opsahl as well as T. Oftedal and Emanuel Seland, all from Lyngdal. Most were employed at the hat factories.
   Of those the author knows in Newark, the following have lived there the longest; Erling Bore from Stavanger, A. Arnesen from Oplandene, T. Høiland from Lyngdal and A. Heydal from Skien.

Passaic County, New Jersey
   Norwegians are extremely few in this county. There is one however who has made himself known, Civil Engineer Anton L. Pettersen in Passaic City. He was elected a Member of the State Legislature in 1902. See the section 'Norwegians in public positions in America'
   In this county there is a post office with the name Moe, but who or where the man is, is not known. It must have been a Norwegian who came up with this name.
   But the Norwegians likely moved westward, as mentioned.

Translated by Olaf Kringhaug
Vernon, British Columbia, Canada
Nordmændene i Amerika by Martin Ulvestad, 1907
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