The United States has been a cultural melting pot ever since it was founded 250 years ago. American culture did not spring up out of a vacuum but instead originates from the unique mixture of cultures that different immigrant groups brought with them over the centuries. The United States is quite unlike most other countries due to the circumstances in which it arose. The first founders of America’s government were not the original inhabitants of the land but rather were immigrants from Britain. After the forcible removal of Native Americans from their land, either through forced relocation to small reservations or even mass slaughter, the United States government opened up the stolen land to farmers and their families. This led to a massive influx of immigrants that were seeking a better life than what they had in their native country. Between 1870 and 1900, 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States. By 1880, roughly a third of Minnesota’s population was foreign born. Immigrants have formed an integral part of Minnesota and its population, both in the past and in the present.

In 1853, 20 years after the topographer Albert Miller Lea surveyed southern Minnesota, a Norwegian immigrant, Ole Gulbrandson, and his family became the first settlers in the area now known as Freeborn County. Two years later, the next settler to move to Freeborn County was William Rice, who settled near what would become the township of Shell Rock. 1855 marked the beginning of a steady stream of immigrants to Freeborn County throughout the latter half of the 19th century. Lorenzo Merry and George S. Ruble established the town of Albert Lea, and the town Geneva and former towns of St. Nicholas, Moscow, and Freeborn Lake were all created in that very year. 

Most of the immigrants to Freeborn County in the second half of the 19th century were European, mainly from the countries of Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. There were also some immigrants from England, Prussia, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and a few other European countries. Many of the immigrants from these countries were farmers looking for land to cultivate, although there were also some people in search of jobs in the logging and mining industries. The United States was appealing to many immigrants due to problems and lack of opportunity within their home country, including overpopulation, economic instability, and crop failures. The cold climate of Minnesota, similar to the climate of Scandinavia, attracted many immigrants from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. By 1875, Norwegians formed 39.3% of the total Freeborn population, and by the end of the 19th century, northern Freeborn County also contained the largest Danish settlement in Minnesota. 

The stark transition between life in their home country and their new life in Minnesota was difficult for many early European immigrants, but luckily there were resources that helped them adjust to American life. Churches started by these immigrants were a central part of their community, where sermons were held in their native language, language classes were taught, and where cultural and holiday celebrations were held. 

Immigrants also published their own newspapers, some examples from Freeborn County being the past Norwegian newspapers “Søndre Minnesota Tidende” and “Albert Lea Skandinav.” There was also the Danish Brotherhood Lodge, which existed from 1894 to 2011, that helped out new Danish immigrants by providing them with supplemental income for the first 13 weeks after they arrived. The impact of this early wave of immigration can still be felt today. Most Freeborn County residents can trace back their ancestry to Scandinavia, and the abundance of Lutheran churches here is partially due to the fact that Lutheranism was very common among early Scandinavian immigrants. The notable mermaid statue in Fountain Lake, which is based on the famous mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark, was commissioned by Albert Lea’s Danish Brotherhood in 1981. The presence of Scandinavian culture can still be felt in the modern day. 

By the beginning of the 20th century, more immigrants began searching for more urban, rather than rural opportunities in the United States. The stream of previous Western European immigration also decreased, due to improved conditions in their home countries and also the outbreaks of World War I and II. This led to an increase in immigrants from Eastern Europe, who were escaping the atrocities of war and authoritarian governments. The 20th century also marked the beginning of multiple waves of immigrants from other continents and areas, including Latin & South America, Asia, and Africa. In the first half of the 20th Century, Freeborn County received immigrants from Sweden, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Mexico, although there were still an overwhelming number of Scandinavians. By the second half, the amount of European immigration was surpassed by the number of people from Asia and Latin America. 

One often-overlooked aspect of migration history in America was the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North, who were escaping the horrors of segregation and racial violence. Minnesota received a few escaped former slaves in the years before the Civil War, and the Great Migration happened between the years of 1910 and 1970, but most of Minnesota’s and Freeborn County’s new citizens arrived during the 1950s and 1960s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. While Minnesota was an improvement from the segregated life in the South, African-American migrants still could not fully escape racism and racial violence. For example, the city of Austin, which is in the adjacent county to Freeborn, was a historical sundown town. Sundown towns were towns where Black people were forced to vacate the town before sundown, or else they would be violently expelled or even lynched. Some sundown towns also didn’t allow Black people to even be in the town at all. In 1922, African-American workers hired by Hormel were driven out of town by a white mob, and when 40 more Black workers were hired a few years later, they were driven out again, giving Austin a reputation for racism up until the 1950s. Albert Lea itself was not any better, there being an active KKK chapter in the 1920s that held events at the fairgrounds and burned crosses on Broadway. 

Asian immigration to Minnesota began in the 1870s, but discriminatory immigration laws were passed by the United States government in order to exclude Asians, like the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882, which prohibited Chinese people and many other Asians from entering the U.S., and the 1917 Immigration Act, which designated multiple groups of Asian people as inadmissible. During and after World War II, there was some increased leniency to permitting Asian immigrants, specifically Chinese, Korean and other Asian people fleeing the iron fist of Imperial Japan, but there were still restrictions in place. This changed in the 1960s and 1970s, when there was an increased number of people seeking asylum from Asian countries. The United States’ wars in Korea and Vietnam led to many people in Asia seeking to immigrate to the United States. There were also many refugees fleeing violence and genocide after U.S.-backed regimes collapsed in Laos and Cambodia. A few small groups of Vietnamese immigrants escaping the war were bussed to Albert Lea in the 1970s. By the 2010s, Asian immigrants were the fastest growing immigrant group in America. 

One Asian immigrant group that has a large presence in Freeborn County are the Karen. The Karen are an ethnic group from Myanmar, and most immigrants are also refugees that have escaped the ongoing genocide against them that is being perpetrated by Myanmar’s government. Myanmar has murdered and raped thousands of Karen, burned and destroyed their villages, have made them do forced labor, removed their rights to a fair trial and many other atrocities. A refugee camp program in Thailand that was started by the U.S. government in the 2000s has helped many Karen refugees immigrate to America. There are at least 17,000 Karen in Minnesota and an estimated 1,500 Karen in the Albert Lea and Austin area. There is an annual Karen New Year celebration at Albert Lea High School, and there is also the Zion Karen Baptist Church, whose congregation is made up of Karen.

Another large immigrant group in Freeborn County are Latino immigrants. Most people of Latino descent in Freeborn are of Mexican origin, but there are also people from Cuba and other Latin American countries. The first major wave of Latino immigration to Minnesota happened around 1900, mainly due to the Mexican Revolution (1900-1910) and its aftermath. People became displaced because of the Revolution and were struggling with poverty and economic instability, so many farm workers from Mexico immigrated to the United States in search of better opportunities. In the 1990s, there was another large wave of Mexican immigration, and immigrants searched for jobs in construction, factories or industrial plants. Many aspects of Mexican culture are huge staples in Freeborn County, including the many different Mexican restaurants, community groups, and events, which includes the annual Mexican Independence Day celebration downtown. Unfortunately, there is less available information about the history of Latino immigration to Freeborn County, due to sources focusing more on European immigration. 

Finally, there are still some immigrants from other areas around the globe, including Africa and Oceania. There are some people from the African countries of Togo and Benin, who came to America in the search of better economic opportunities, or from countries like Sudan, who came to America to escape war and violence. Once again, due to lack of historic sources on immigrants from non-European countries, there is less available information.

America and its culture would not be the same without immigrants. Freeborn County would not be the same without immigrants. America would not exist without immigrants. So many of the things that people take for granted in their everyday life, from the names of our sports teams to the restaurants we eat at, would not exist without the decades and centuries of cultures being brought to America with each new group of immigrants. So, if immigrants are so integral to the foundation of the United States, then why do so many others demonize them? If someone’s great-great-great grandparents came from Norway, then why do they despise people from other places, people who may have also been here for decades or centuries, even? Every immigrant to the United States was new, once, even the Scandinavians and Europeans, so why can’t we let any more immigrant groups in just because they are new themselves? With legal citizens and lawful immigrants being harassed, detained, and even deported in recent months, there is one question we should all ask ourselves: is it really because these people are “illegal,” or is it actually because of the color of their skin? Immigrants are regular, everyday people; they are friends, neighbors, family, and important members of the community. America has been a nation of immigrants and always will be. America can, and should be, a home for everyone. 

The information used in this article was acquired from online sources by the Minnesota Historical Society, the Library of Congress, the Albert Lea Tribune, the Associated Press, Carleton College and Tougaloo College. Information was also acquired from the written texts of the “History of Freeborn County” by Edward Neill, “Early Norwegian Settlements in Minnesota” by Ulvestad, “Danish Settlement in Minnesota” by Thomas Christensen, and “Pioneer Norwegian Settlement in Minnesota” by Carlton Qualey. I would also like to extend thanks to the History Center of Freeborn County, who provided information and the photos used in this article. There is also an exhibit on immigration at the History Center, where you can see more artifacts in person.