Ole Knutsen Nattestad was the first Norwegian settler in Wisconsin. He and his brother Ansten had met Ole Rynning and his company in Detroit on their way to the Middle West and had gone with them to Beaver Creek. In the summer of 1838, while Ansten was in Norway, Ole left Illinois and went to the Wisconsin Territory, for he was convinced that the soil was better to the north and west. He reached what was later Clinton township in Rock county near Beloit on July 1. There he bought land and founded a settlement that became known as Jefferson Prairie.