Formation of Settlements. 
13 
From the above tables it will be seen that the Norwegians 
concentrated from the beginning in the four adjacent states, 
Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa; while the Danes were 
scattered across the whole width of the continent. From the 
parochial reports of the Norwegian church in America it appears 
that their settlements were about as large and compact in the 
fifties and early sixties as they are now; while as late as 1870 
there were only five cities and six counties in the United 
States in which five hundred or more Danes could be found. 
These were: New York; Chicago and Rock Island, Illinois; Racine 
and Waupaca, Wisconsin; and Winnebago county, Wisconsin; 
Douglas county, Nebraska; and four counties in Utah where they 
had been massed by the Mormon church. 
From this it is plain that the present concentration of the 
Norwegians is not due to accident, nor to the fact that they 
have been longer in this country than the Danes; nor is it 
because the conditions in the four states, Illinois, Wiscon¬ 
sin, Minnesota and Iowa, are more congenial to the Norwe¬ 
gians than to the Danes. The opposite might seem to be the 
the case, for the climate, productions, and occupations in these 
states are more like those existing in Denmark than in Norway. 
There can be only one possible explanation of this difference be¬ 
tween the Danes and Norwegians,—that the Danes who emigrate 
have less love of their native land and its institutions, less na¬ 
tional pride, than the Norwegians, and therefore less desire to 
concentrate. 
That such is the case is shown not only in the settlements of 
the two nationalities, but also in the manner each has supported 
the church of the mother country. 
The first Norwegian church society in America was organized 
about 1850, when there were only a little more than 12,000 Nor¬ 
wegians in this country; and before this time several local con¬ 
gregations had been organized with their own ministers and 
churches. 
The first Danish church society was organized in 1872, when 
there were more than 30,000 Danes in the United States; and be¬ 
fore this time there was not a single purely Danish congrega¬ 
tion with a Danish minister. It is true that some of the Danes 
