Cemeteries in Southern Wisconsin

JEFFERSON PRAIRIE CEMETERY
    ESTABLISHED 1848

Clinton Township, Rock County, Wisconsin

The Jefferson Prairie Lutheran Church is located in South Bergen, Illinois The Jefferson Prairie Cemetery was established in 1848 when land was purchased to buld the West Church which was also known as the Augustana Church. The church was completed in 1860. Jefferson Prairie's first settler Ole Natesta was buried in this cemetery.

JEFFERSON PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT	Ole Knutson Nattestad, first Norwegian settler in Wisconsin, came to Clinton Township, July 1, 1838.      In his native Humedal, Nattestad had been a farmer, peddler, and blacksmith. In 1836 he and his brother Ansten visited Stavanger and there heard for the first time about America. Early the next year they secured passage to Massachusetts and a few months later had worked their way to Chicago.      In the spring of 1838, Ansten returned to Norway while Ole "explored" northward, eventually reaching Clinton Township.      Ansten organized more than a hundred emigrants and led them to Wisconsin the following year. Some joing Ole Nattestad on Jeffereson Prairie; others went west to Rock Prairie Luther Valley.      Although the groups organized different church congregations and were separated by settlers of different nationality, they are usually regarded jointly as the first Norwegian settlement in Wisconsin and fourth in America.

Information source: Historical information regarding the cemeteries in Clinton Township was primarily found in Clinton Bicentennial 1776-1976 and the Beloit Wisconsin Veteran's Association

Cemeteries in Rock County
Cemeteries in Southern Wisconsin

Cemeteries in Northern Illinois

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