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the government surveyors began their work of running
lines and establishing section comers. In 1856 these
surveys had reached the Kandiyohi region and it was
opened for settlement.
The first white man known to have visited the
Kandiyohi region was Jacob Fahlstrom. Born in Stockholm
in 1793 he went to sea as a boy, was in a shipwreck,
came to London as a waif, accompanied Lord Selkirk’s
expedition to Red River, was lost in the woods and
adopted by the Chippewas, became fur buyer for the
American Fur Company and in this capacity visited the
Kandiyohi region long before there were any settlements
in the territory. In advancing years he located at Taylor’s
Falls, near the first Swedish settlement in Chisago County.
He told all who tired of the slow process of clearing
timber land that if they wanted good prairie land they
should go to the Kandiyohi lakes.
With the first rush of township promoters we shall
not concern ourselves. It was as homeseekers with a view
to permanent residence that the first Scandinavians came.
The vanguard arrived in Meeker County in 1856—some
Swedes by way of Chisago Lake, who located near Swede
Grove, and a colony of Norwegians from Rock County,
Wisconsin. The latter came originally from Naes,
Hal-lingdal, hence the name “Ness” which they gave their
settlement. This colony continued to grow and the
Norwegian church of Ness was organized by the Rev.
B. J. Muus in 1861.(1) It was in the Ness churchyard
where the first five victims of the Indian Outbreak at
Jones cabin, August 17, 1862, were buried by the Nor-
(1) Ness Settlement og Menighed, by O. M. Norlie,
Augsburg Publishing House, 1911, contains a comprehensive history
of this colony.
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