Background
Carl M. Bergh was born in Søndre Land in Oppland, Norway and was raised in Wisconsin.
Carl M. Bergh was born in Søndre Land in Oppland, Norway and was raised in Wisconsin.
He had operated a masonry and plaster business in Minnesota and Wisconsin for several years, and had farmed in Kansas and Tennessee for 15 years before coming to Virginia as a land agent for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). Bergh felt that the availability of good farm land at reasonable prices and the temperate climate in eastern Virginia would be attractive to Scandinavians who had settled in northern and Midwestern states, as he was aware of their problems with the difficult winters there. He printed and distributed brochures in English, Norwegian, and German describing the climates and opportunities in James City County, Virginia, purchasing a home for his own family in 1896.
Beginning in 1898, immigrant Norwegians, Swedes and Danes came to Norge from the Midwest, especially the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
Most arrived by train on the C&O, whose nearest station was located at Toano, several miles west. After some debate, it was named Norge.
Bergh"s son, Alfred Bergh, established the Bergh Hotel which opened in 1906. In 1908, the railroad built a station at Norge.
Later generations of many other early families now populate Norge, nearby Croaker, and western James City County, as well as the Lighfoot area which includes land in both James City and York Counties.