Norwegian emigrants chose land in Bosque County, Texas, in November 1853, but Cleng Peerson was not one of them. He was present and helped them with his knowledge and experience. Peerson had lived in the United States for more than thirty years and had been the pathfinder for Norwegian settlers more than once. He knew […]
How did Cleng Peerson get his land from the Texas legislature? Read more...
The first Norwegian immigrants to settle on the western frontier in the Bosque River Valley arrived in late 1853 and early 1854.[1] The North Bosque River begins in north central Erath County, flows through Hamilton County, and continues east through Bosque County and into central McLennan County before it flows into Lake Waco. Bosque River
Settling on virgin soil in the Bosque River Valley Read more...
The first organized emigration from Norway to the USA was triggered by the persecution of a small Quaker sect in Stavanger around 1820. The Quakers in Stavanger, western Norway, felt harassed by the state church, by the authorities, and people in the local community. The Quakers and religious freedom. During the Napoleonic Wars, from 1807 to 1814, the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway was at war with Great Britain.
First organized emigration from Norway Read more...
In the decades before the American Civil War and also the first few years after the war, most Norwegian emigrants chose to buy a ticket on a Norwegian sailing ship that brought passengers directly from a Norwegian port to America. After the Civil War, Quebec in Canada replaced New York City as the main port
Sailships, steamships and Norwegian emigrants Read more...
The first Norwegians in western New York worked hard for several seasons to grow enough food for their families to last through the long and cold winters. Their new home in America was no Canaan’s Land. Could there be a new beginning farther west? When the ice broke up on Lake Erie and Lake Michigan
A new beginning farther west Read more...
On October 21, 1825, most of the Norwegian emigrants from the sloop Restauration boarded a steamship from New York to Albany. From Albany they traveled west through the region of the brand-new canal, which was creating a direct route to Lake Erie from New York City. Only five days later, the whole length of the
No milk and honey for Norwegians in Western New York Read more...
Just before Christmas in 1886 the Cleng Peerson monument was unveiled in the cemetery of “Our Savior’s Lutheran Church” at Norse in Bosque County, Texas. The monument was dedicated to “Cleng Peerson, the Father of Norwegian Emigration to America”. It had the following inscription in Norwegian and English: “Cleng Pierson, the Pioneer of Norse Emigration
Who was Cleng Peerson, the father of Norwegian Emigration? Read more...
Before the Civil War, emigrants from Norway usually crossed the Atlantic on board a Norwegian sailing ship from a Norwegian harbor to New York or Quebec. This mode of transportation changed radically in the 1870s. Trans-Atlantic steamship companies from British ports offered faster journeys. A steamship crossed the Atlantic in less than half the time
Emigrants from Byneset, Trøndelag, ended up in Montana Read more...
It is high time to tell the story of early Norwegian immigration to Montana. In his excellent book from 1958, Kenneth Bjork, West of the Great Divide. Norwegian Migration to the Pacific Coast, 1847-1893, wrote that important research themes such as the “movement of immigrants from region to region in the New World have been
Time to tell the story of early Norwegian immigrants in Montana Read more...
Many people have written about the history of the Montana cattle industry. In comparison, historical research and writing on the sheep industry in Montana is scant. The stories of “the great sheep trails from California and Oregon have lain in deep obscurity,” wrote Edward N. Wentworth in 1941, while the trails from Texas “with its
Early sheep industry in Montana. The big picture Read more...