In 1825, the first group of Norwegian immigrants to North America, fifty-two "Sloopers," departed Stavanger on July 4 aboard the 54-foot sloop Restauration; fifty-three arrived in New York City on October 9 after a baby was born during the voyage. Because the vessel exceeded the sixteen-passenger limit under U.S. maritime law, it was impounded, the captain was arrested, and a $3,150 fine was levied, but President John Quincy Adams pardoned them. The Sloopers then traveled up the Hudson River and along the newly completed Erie Canal, meeting Governor De Witt Clinton and the Seneca Chief before disembarking near Holley in late October, then continuing on foot to Lake Ontario in what is now the Town of Kendall, where Cleng Peerson had bought land for them. Lars Larson Geilane remained in New York to sell the sloop, but when the canal closed for the season by the time he reached Albany, he ice skated 290 miles to Holley, the longest such feat in history. Larson was the spiritual leader of at least 28 Sloopers affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends, while most of the others followed the Lutheran dissenting pastor Hans Nielsen Hauge; they had fled religious persecution in Norway. Larson later built a house on Rochester's Atkinson Street and became a successful canal boat builder.
