Muskego Settlement, Wisconsin

[1] John Nielsen Luraas (1813–1890) first led the colony which was founded in 1839, primarily by immigrants from the Norwegian county of Telemark.

The following year two other settlers, Søren Tollefsen Bache (1814–1890) and Johannes Johannsen, settled in an adjacent area in Racine County, just south of the first settlement, in what is now the town of Norway, Wisconsin.

He served as one of the founders of Nordlyset, the first Norwegian-language newspaper published in the United States, and was the author of a remarkable pioneer diary.

His spacious barn played a prominent part in the early history of the settlement, both as an assembly place and as a social and religious center for the Muskego community of Norwegian immigrants.

[7] Elling Eielsen, who had immigrated to the United States during 1839, had first arrived at Muskego prior to moving to the Jefferson Prairie Settlement.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Eielsen Synod) founded in 1846 at the Jefferson Prairie Settlement, was to bear his name.

The inscription of the plaque acknowledges the leadership of John Luraas, Even Hansen Heg, Johannes Johannsen, Søren Bache, Elling Eielsen, Claus Lauritz Clausen and James DeNoon Reymert.