Background
Ole Rynning was born at Ringsaker, Norway, the son of the Rev. Jens Rynning and his wife, Severine Cathrine Steen. His father, then curate at Ringsaker, later minister at Snaasen, was noted for his writings on scientific subjects.
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Ole Rynning's True Account of America (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Ole Rynning's True Account of America Mater...)
Excerpt from Ole Rynning's True Account of America Materials of this kind have a many-sided interest. They contain contemporary descriptions of the various settlements established in the United States by Norwegian immigrants, and thus possess permanent value for the history of the Nor wegian element in America. Not a few of the books deal generally with the United States, presenting accounts Of American institutions and customs as viewed by Norwegians, and thus have a place in that large but relatively little ex ploited literature designated as general American travel and description. One of the most interesting aspects of the books is their influence in Norway. In their original form they played an important part in the dissemination throughout Norway of information about America; they were read by thousands upon thousands of prospective emigrants; and they must be studied by the modern reader who wishes to understand the back grounds Of the vast emigration from Norway in the nineteenth century. N'or must it be forgotten that what was happening in Norway had its counterpart in many other countries of Europe. In other words, these Norwegian books and pam phlets are in many respects typical of the travel accounts, emi grant guides, and similar works that went to almost every part Of Europe, contributing everywhere to the advertising of America among Europeans in the nineteenth century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Ole Rynning
Edit ProfileEducation
Ole was tutored privately for matriculation at the national university in Christiania, where he studied from 1830 to 1833.
Career
Rynning then opened a private school at Snaasen and soon became interested in the economic conditions of Norwegian farmers and laborers. The Gordian knot of their difficulties could be cut, he believed, by emigration, and in 1837 he set out for America as the leader of a group of eighty-four emigrants who sailed from Bergen for New York on April 7, aboard the bark 'gir.
Celebrating the Norwegian national holiday in mid-ocean, these country people of western Norway voiced, in an emigrant song that Rynning wrote for them, the pull of destiny westward and sounded an undertone of affection for the viking North. The 'gir reached New York, on June 9, and a week later the immigrants started for Illinois.
From Chicago, Rynning and three companions made their way to the Beaver Creek region in Iroquois County, where they selected a settlement site to which about fifty of the immigrants came later. The low land of the vicinity, dry in the late summer, was flooded the next spring; ultimately the colony was devastated by malaria; and in 1840, the last of the Norwegian pioneers of 1837 departed from it. Meanwhile, Rynning had written a work that became known throughout Norway as the "America Book. " He had gone away on a trip to explore the surrounding countryside and had been caught in a blinding blizzard. When he was found both his feet were frozen and lacerated. While confined to his bed he wrote A True Account of America for the Information and Help of Peasant and Commoner, reading each chapter aloud to his neighbors and inviting their criticisms. He met misfortune with simple courage and rose above local circumstance to take a broad view of the American scene.
He completed his book in February 1838, and the next spring, Ansten Nattestad, a member of the colony, journeyed back to Norway by way of New Orleans, taking the manuscript with him. It was published at Christiania late in the year. A second edition appeared in 1839. "Many who were scarcely able to read, " said one immigrant, "began in earnest to practice in the 'America-book' " (Billed-Magazin, Apr. 17, 1869).
In thirteen concise chapters Rynning discussed such topics as the climate, soil, and products of America; the cost of provisions and of land; the American government; the religious situation; the problem of language and of education; the fortunes of the earlier settlers from Norway; and the prospects for immigrants. He disposed of many absurd rumors about America with quiet common sense and gave much shrewd advice. He praised the ideas of general freedom and equality, but denounced the slavery system and predicted that the United States ultimately would witness a separation of the North and South or violent civil disputes. A fourteenth chapter, in which he criticized the Norwegian state church, was excised by a state-church dean who, unluckily, read the proof.
Rynning regained the use of his feet, but in September 1838 he fell victim to the epidemic then scourging the Beaver Creek colony and died. Only one of his neighbors was well at the time; he chopped down an oak and from it hewed a crude coffin; in this, Rynning's body was placed and buried in an unmarked grave on the prairie.
Achievements
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Rynning was known as the leader of Norwegain colonists in America. He was noted for his book "A True Account of America for the Information and Help of Peasant and Commoner". It created a sensation among the common folk of Norway. No book like it had appeared in that country before. Compact and informative, "the work of a keen observer, " as Prof. Edward Channing has said, it is one of the most interesting of all immigrant guidebooks (A History of the United States, V 1921, p. 469). For many years the book stimulated Norwegian emigration.
Works
book
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Ole Rynning's True Account of America (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Ole Rynning's True Account of America Mater...)
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Ole Rynning's True Account of America (Classic Reprint)
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Nattestad, who knew Rynning well, said, "When sickness and suffering visited the colonists, he was always ready to comfort the sorrowing and to aid those in distress so far as it lay in his power. Nothing could shake his belief that America would become a place of refuge for the masses of people in Europe who toiled under the burdens of poverty" (Billed-Magazin, Feb. 20, 1869).
