Veien FM 219 i Texas gjennom Norse-distriktet i Bosque County er tilegnet Cleng Peerson og de tidlige norske nybyggerne i Texas.

Cleng, Cleng
Name like a song.
Lonely and lean
Drifting along.
Crossing the prairies and wading
the streams,
His purse full of nothing, his hat
full of dreams.
— Veien har ingen ende.

Kilde: Erik Bye, 1975 i boken Erik Bye, Veien har ingen ende, med tegninger av Karl Erik Harr, utgitt av J. W. Cappelen Forlag a.s, Oslo 1976, s. 27.

Cleng Peerson

Cleng Peerson was born in 1783 in Tysvær, Rogaland County, Norway, and died in December 1865 at Norse, Bosque County, Texas. He has a long-lived and well-earned reputation as the pathfinder of Norwegian emigrants. Today he is still a symbol of all people who dare to leave their homes and communities and take the risk of wandering into the unknown to build a new life. During his own life Cleng Peerson represented tolerance for others with regard to their way of life: their religion, language, and the color of their skin. He would talk with everyone he met on his way, and respected them all.

The concept of migration concerns movement in general. When we speak about human migration, we think about wandering, exploration and settling, groups or individuals crossing borders between countries and regions. Sometimes migration comes about because of poverty and repression, sometimes by the unknown possibilities at another place. It is our goal that the site will promote tolerance and respect for people on the move – be it the migrants of today, or of the centuries before us.

They came to build

On this site we will present short articles on migration: on lived life, but also articles about cultural, social, religious, economical and political elements that together create the society where the migrants lived their lives. See Why migration?

If you would like to contribute an article, see Write an article!

www.clengpeerson.no will be updated on a regular basis.

Latest news!

From the Cleng-Peerson-monument at the  cemetary of «Our Savior’s Lutheran Church» in the Norse district, Bosque County, Texas. The monument was unveiled before Christmas 1886.
«Cleng Peerson. The Pioneer of Norse Emigration to America. Born in Norway, Europe May 17, 1782. Landed in America in 1821. Died in Texas December 16, 1865. Grateful countrymen in Texas erected this to his memory.»

Coming soon!

Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas: Norwegian Immigrants, 1845–1900
By Gunnar Tore Nerheim
Texas A&M University Press, Tarleton State University Southwestern Studies in the Humanities

The book will be launched during the Texas State Historical Association Meeting 2024 at College Station, Texas, at the end of February/March 2024. A fortnight later, on March 16, the Norwegian American Historical Association will present the book at Norway House, Minneapolis. The book presents considerable new knowledge about the father of Norwegian immigration and the first Norwegian immigrants in Texas.

From the forthcoming  Texas A&M Catalogue 2024: “As historian Gunnar Tore Nerheim states in his introduction, “Norway is a foreign country to Texans, and Texas is a foreign country to Norwegians. Neither in Norway nor Texas has there been any awareness that so many Norwegians settled in antebellum Texas.” Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas brings Norwegian settlement in Texas to light and in doing so offers the first-ever comprehensive history of Norwegians in Texas.”
Read more…

The long, low hills in Bosque reminded them of Norway.

The early settling of Manitoba

Homesteaders exploring opportunities for settlement on the Canadian prairie west of Winnipeg, traveled along either the north or south branches of the Saskatchewan Trail. Prior to 1870 settlements in Manitoba were confined to river lots along the Red River and the Assiniboine River. Technological…

Les mer… The early settling of Manitoba

Scroll to Top