soil of their native Norway. In the judgment of those men, the prairie land and the location seemed favorable for a settlement. Several large tracts of land were purchased from the government at the price of $1. 25 per acre, and smaller tracts were purchased from private owners at $10. 00 per acre.
"Following the return of these men to Lisbon, Illinois, with their favorable reports, a caravan of twelve families and three single men left in May 1856 for the new location. The following are the names of the men and their families who comprised the first settlement of Norwegians in this part of Story County: Rasmus Sheldahl, Erick Sheldahl, Elias Hendrickson, Jonas Duea, Rasmus Tungesvik, Sjur Britson, Jacob Nelson Brue, Jacob Austin Jacobson, Ole Rasmusson, Jacob Erickson, Hans Twedt, Torkel Opstvedt, and single persons, Hans Pederson, Lars and John Ness. John Ness was drowned in the Cedar River and was buried near there.
"The journey was made in eighteen covered wagons, one horse drawn, the others pulled by yokes of oxen. Reaching their destination in the middle of June, they settled on farms on the east side of the Skunk River, mostly at a point where Roland is now located. "
W. O. Payne, in his History of Story County published in 1911, commented thusly about the Norwegian settlement of Howard Township:
"Not in the earliest years but in the first decade, there was a movement here that perhaps has counted more than any other one similar movement upon the character of the county and its population. This movement relates to the coming of the Norwegians. Theirs was in the beginning not a straggling movement, nor one in which a number of individuals of family relationship or previous personal association joined their efforts, but it was a matter of deliberate colonization. An emigration from Norway to Illinois had been started a few years before and considerable numbers of Norwegians had located in Northern Illinois, but they were looking for lands at near the government price, and their numbers had become such as to make practicable a concerted effort at colonization, and they sent a committee out into Iowa to see what they could find. This committee looked over the Country, just how much of it, we are unable to say; but after looking around quite thoroughly and enough to satisfy them of the soundness of their judgment, they picked out a tract in what is now Howard Township and there founded the village of Roland and to that locality removed their Illinois settlement. Not long after, a similar, but perhaps more individual movement, was made by Norwegians from Illinois and Wisconsin and Norway into Palestine Township, and from these two settlements have spread the Norwegian colonies in the County. Growth of these colonies has been steady and great. It was not long, of course, before the newcomers came directly from Norway for the most part, rather than by stages through Illinois and Wisconsin, but, however they came, they occupied the country, improved it and developed interests of notable prosperity which have entered conspicuously into all the affairs and developments of the County. "
Historian Payne also reported the original designation of Howard Township thusly: "The first definite division of the county into townships was made by Judge Evans in June, 1853; or, at least, in his entries upon the county records, he recognized them as certain townships then existing. These were . . . Lafayette, comprising the present townships of Lafayette and Howard. . . .
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