Ole Natesta laid the foundation of a Norwegian colony at Beaver Creek, Iroquois county, Illinois.

The evidence

• “Natesta and Veste should remain and build a house for the reception of the immigrants while Rynning and Brudvig returned to Chicago for their company. Thus we find Ole Natesta in the fall of 1837 laying the foundation of a Norwegian colony at Beaver Creek, Iroquois county, Illinois, where before winter set in had a sufficient number of log huts to house a population of about fifty persons. The sad story of the Beaver Creek settlement is fully chronicled in Professor Anderson's book previously referred to.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/18-scandinavians.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 454 / book p. 420

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources