Jens (James) Magnus Fredriksen Wahl

Conflicting information: Birth in Storval, Namdal, Norway Death: 1940 in Canton, SD, USA

First Name (Official Birth Name): Jens

Other information: Emigrated in 1868 Naturalized 10/17/1873

"James M. Wahl (1846-1939) was a Norwegian American settler and the first legislator of Lincoln County.[1] He named the city of Canton, South Dakota.[2]

• Wahl was born in Storvahl, Naeroe, Norway, January 7, 1846. He was a resident of the United States for 73 years. He emigrated to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1867, from Norway. He attended West Salem seminary in LaCrosse and upon completion moved to Sioux City, Iowa. He served as a guide to expeditioners coming to Lincoln County from Norway for many years. He later moved to the Sioux Valley, arriving on April 23, 1868, in Canton. He filed for a homestead and on this very piece of property, the county courthouse stands today.
• Among many contributions to the community, Wahl assisted with the organization of Bethlehem Lutheran church, organized bringing the Augustana College from Marshall, Wisconsin, to Canton, and writing a 277 page record of local settlement.[3]' [1] http://legis.state.sd.us/historical/Index.aspx?FuseAction=Detail&Me... [2] http://www.augie.edu/cws/Norwegian-American%20guide%202006-07.pdf [3] "James M. Wahl: Earliest Co. Pioneer Dies." Sioux Valley News, Sioux Falls South Dakota. February 9, 1939 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Wahl

"Wahl, James M. (1846—1939), Julia Ulberg Wahl (1862-1915) A Norwegian carpenter, James Magnus Wahl led other Scandinavians to Dakota Territory and Minnesota. Born Jens Magnus Wahl on January 7, 1846, he was a native of Storvahl in the coastal parish of Naeroy along the Norwegian Sea and the first of the nine children of farmer Frederich Andreas Jenssen and Johanna Iversen Wahl. He bore the name of his grandfather, Jens Wahl, born in Fosnes, Norway, in 1790.

Wahl's marriage Co Anna Sundvold appears to have ended in their teens. In spring 1867, he led sixty-seven emigrants on a nine-week ocean voyage from Christiana to Quebec and by rail in freight cars southwest to Chicago, Illinois. After boarding passenger cars at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, individuals went their ways to Mississippi River sites in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

After graduating in spring 1868 from West Salem Seminary at La Crosse, Wahl traveled aboard the slow, difficult Yankton stage route to Sioux City on the Iowa-South Dakota border. The trip coincided with hostilities of Sioux residents of the sacred Black Hills against gold miners and lumbermen. On journey to Fort Dakota (present-day Sioux Falls), his companion refused to buy any of Dakota Territory's flat terrain and returned to Wisconsin, Wahl made his home on the Minnesota-Dakota border in Sioux Falls.

Recruiting Pioneers

Wahl aided Norwegian pioneers in making the move to Lincoln County. On April 23, 1868, he relocated, traveling on foot from Yankton co southeastern Minnesota through waist-high prairie grass. He gravitated to the tree-lined streams of Sioux Valley, Minnesota, where water power promised abundant milling. In June, wagon train brought 180 Norwegians in 23 clans from Iowa to the valley. Wahl named the new settlement Canton, which he calculated stood on the opposite side of globe From Canton, China.

After fling for a homestead, Wahl supported local institutions, co-forming 600 Norwegians the Bethlehem Lutheran Church congregation in 1872, with services in Norwegian and English. He promoted the opening Of Augustana College in Canton, where classes met in the former Naylor Hotel. At age 24, he as summed the offices of justice of the peace and probate judge while building Canton's first public school. In 1872, he accepted appointment as Lincoln County treasurer and represented the area in the territorial legislature, which he served for four years.

In an effort to consolidate a community of northern Europeans, Wahl assumed the task of auditor for the Commissioner of Immigration in 1875 and distributed eighteen thousand five hundred promotional pamphlets issued in English, German, and Norwegian. The following year, the commission increased its advertisement twenty-two thousand leaflets. With the aid of German saloonkeeper Jacob Brauch of Yankton, Wahl scoured Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for likely settlers.

To the north, Wahl solicited interested Scandinavians in Montreal and Quebec and offered reduced train fares for prospective settlers of Plains. He led Russian-German Mennonites from Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia to south of Dakota Territory. He lived to see the community flourish in 1880 from extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, which carried freight and mail to pioneer settlements of far West. In 1881, Wahl selected twenty agents to represent the Allen Steamship Company at the Boston office and escort more Norwegian emigrants from Trondheim to the plains.

Establishing a Family

In 1883, Wahl married 21-year-old Julia Ulberg of Valdres, Norway, the granddaughter of Bishop Peter Lund and daughter of immigrants Rangnild Bakke and Andreas Olsen Ulberg, who arrived in American In August 1868. Over decade, the Wahls produced seven children. Albert Fredrik Il and Cora Victoria died in early childhood; five daughters survived—Clara, Hannah Rebecca, Alma Carolina, Pearl Julia, and Cora Wahl. When South Dakota gained statehood in 1889, the family resided at a farm northeast of Lennox. Wahl also claimed pioneer son-in-law, Hans Ramstad, who immigrated from Norway, at age 23 in 1900 and wed Hannah Rebecca.

On November 4, 1914, Julia died following a buggy accident caused by a car that startled the horses. In old age, Wahl composed a history of Lincoln County, acquiring for himself the title of "Lincoln County's Grand Old Man." After two years of failing health, he became bedfast in November 1938 under the care of Pearl Julia and died on February 2, 1939, at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. SOURCE: Odland, Rick D. Sioux Falls. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2007." Source: ‘Wahl’ (Settlers of the American West by Mary Ellen Snodgrass - p. 158-159) https://books.google.com/books?id=n0PYBgAAQBAJ&q=wahl