Who was Cleng Peerson, the father of Norwegian Emigration?

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.

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 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.”[1]

In his book The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, published in 1895, Rasmus B. Anderson characterized Cleng Peerson as “thoroughly unselfish in his character, and he devoted his life largely to the service of his countrymen. While he never had what might properly be called a home after he left Norway, he spent his time and his scanty means in getting homes for others.” There was no doubt in the mind of Anderson: “His great services to Norwegian immigration deserve to be remembered and appreciated, and with all his eccentricities and shortcomings his countrymen will look upon him as a benefactor to his race and as an honest and benevolent man.”[2] 

An honest man or a scoundrel?

In 1907, however, the American Norwegian historian George T. Flom characterized Peerson as a “shiftless” person, a “vagabond,” and a “scoundrel”. Not until his old age in Texas, wrote Flom, did he “yield to the monotony of a settled life.” According to Flom, Peerson did not take an active part in the development of the Norwegian community in Texas. He showed “no active interest in its progress. In a settled community he alone was unsettled; he was never able to gather himself together into concentrated action and prolonged effort in a definite cause or undertaking. A vagabond citizen he died in poverty. The only activity we associate with his name is the adventurous wanderings of his youth.”[3]

Flom’s assessment of Peerson’s personality still lingers on in the literature. Theodore C. Blegen, however, the Norwegian American historian whose works it still pays well to read closely, was always in line with Anderson’s evaluation of Cleng Peerson.

Replica of the Restauration in 2015 at the small harbor Ramsvik, an earlier coastal store, with historians Gunnar Nerheim and Hans Eyvind Næss, complete with map of Norwegian emigrants from 1825 to 1865.
Replica of the Restauration in 2015 at the small harbor Ramsvig, an earlier coastal store and meeting place in the Ryfylke basin, with historians Hans Eivind Næss and Gunnar Nerheim looking at the boat and volunteers. The chart shows the flux of Norwegian emigration from 1825 to 1865. In connection with the Crossings 200 years’ Anniversary of organized Norwegian emigration in 2025 it is planned to sail the sloop from Stavanger on July 4, 2025, and hopefully to arrive in New York Harbor on October 9.

This writer has found numerous sources that support the views of both Anderson and Blegen and further expand our understanding of Peerson. In his article in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review in 1921, Blegen emphasized that it was Cleng Peerson who “led the way in the settlement of the Norwegians on American soil, and thousands of natives of Norway and their descendants now occupying happy and luxurious homes in the Fox River Valley owe their prosperity and happiness in part at least to the leadership and efforts of that remarkable man.”[4]

What can we learn from Peerson’s last move – to Texas?

Towards the end of his life, Peerson became an ardent promotor of Norwegian settlements in Texas. Between 1850 and his death in December 1865 he lived among Norwegians on the frontier with Indians in Central Texas. Over the years few primary sources have thrown light on Peerson’s life in Texas. Most of what we know is built on secondary sources. But during the last decades new material on the life of Peerson and the Norwegians in Texas has been digitized and come into the public domain.

Peerson’s role as a pathfinder for Norwegian immigrants in the 1820s and 1830s is still as important as it always was. The year 2025 is the 200-year anniversary of the first organized Norwegian immigration to the United States. It is now high time to focus on the last migration chain Peerson helped establish, during his last years in Texas. It is also highly appropriate to summarize the latest evidence of this exploring, intelligent man.

Cleng Peerson was born in Tysvær in Ryfylke region of Rogaland

Cleng Peerson was born in Tysvær municipality, Rogaland County, Norway, in summer 1783. On April 2, 1807, he married the widow Ane Katrine Sælinger, 34 years older than he. She lived at a cotter’s place under the farm Kindingstad on the island Finnøy, Rogaland County. Cleng was her fifth husband.[5]

On the 4th of july 2025 the replica of the emigrant sloop Restauration will come from Stavanger and the the Royal launching of Crossings 200, the official Norwegian 200 years' Emigration celebration. This fiord opening onto the North Sea, also saw the original sloop set sail, going west and sout of the Tungenes lighthose afte passing Randaberg mountain and the Randeberg farms, shown here.
The emigrants’ sailing route going north from Stavanger in 1825, the Ryfylke fiord and mountains in the background. This view from the Randaberg Mountain will give visitors to Crossings 200 a grandstand view of the replica Restauration, on the 4th of July 2024, after the Royal send-off in Stavanger harbor.

In 1821, Quakers in the town of Stavanger offered Cleng Peerson an assignment to travel to New York to explore the conditions for Norwegian emigrants. Peerson was not a Quaker, but he sympathized with their teachings.

Hand drawn map of the Erie Canal from New York to Holley, where the first Norwegian immigrants had bought their land.
Hand drawn map of the Erie Canal from New York City to Holley. (c) Fagbokforlaget, Norway.

Between 1821 and 1824, Peerson built up a strong relationship with Quaker groups in New York state, especially the Quakers in Farmington in western New York. Farmington was located about twenty-five miles southeast of Rochester.[6] The Farmington Quakers were the “pioneers of all Quakerism in western New York, and also they were the first white men to bring their families into the vast forest of New York State west of Seneca Lake for the purpose of transforming Seneca’s wilderness hunting ground into a white man’s homeland.”

Some groups of Quakers had also settled in nearby Macedon and Palmyra, three miles east of Macedon.[7] The Quakers whom Peerson lived among, played an active role in the economic boom connected with the building of the Erie Canal.

Back in Stavanger after three years in America

Peerson returned to Stavanger, Norway, in summer 1824. He presented a positive report to his sponsors on the prospects for emigration and especially to western New York, and they in turn responded favorably. During his visit they decided to emigrate the following year. When Peerson returned to New York the sponsors asked him to locate and buy land on their behalf in the western part of the state and supplied him with the capital thought necessary to accomplish the task.

In a letter to Stavanger, dated December 20, 1824, Peerson wrote that important parts of his assignment had already been executed. “It is well known that Cleng Peerson traveled from the Quaker settlement of Farmington, Ontario County, to Geneva,” wrote Richard Canuteson in 1954. He purchased land for “the prospective settlers from Joseph Fellows, subagent under Robert Troup for the Pulteney Estate.”[8] The Pulteney Estate had for sale enormous areas of land in the region. He had been well received by the land commissioner, wrote Peerson in his December letter. Fellows promised to aid the Norwegian group when they arrived next year. “We arrived at an agreement in regard to six pieces of land which I have selected, and this agreement will remain effective for us until next fall.”[9]

The 4th of July 1825

Peerson’s letter of December 1824 is crucial for our understanding of what happened in western New York before the first group of Norwegian emigrants left Norway in summer 1825. The decisions Peerson took on their behalf before their arrival defined the subsequent paths for action afterwards. The land Peerson had acquired was only a short distance away from the Erie Canal. The Norwegians chose to settle on homesteads in the most dynamic economic region of the United States at the time. This region was also a hothouse for religious revivals and new religious sects.

DUring preparations for the great 200 year's anniversary for Norwegian emigration to USA and Canada, the replica sloop Restauration was visited by an American study group in 2024. The local young men's choir sang shanties and songs for the visitors.
Randaberg Young Men’s Choir singing for a study group from USA at the home harbor of the Replica at Utstein Kloster Hotell.

On July 25, 1825, the Norwegian newspaper Den Norske Rigstidende in Oslo had a short notice about forty-five men, women and children and a crew of seven who had emigrated on board the small sloop Restauration from Stavanger on July 4, 1825. They hoped to find a land of Canaan in America – a land described in the Bible, where the land flowed with milk and honey? The Atlantic voyage from Stavanger to New York City marked the beginning of organized emigration from Norway to the United States.

Representatives of the emigrants purchased the sloop Restauration in spring 1825. Lars Larsen Geilane, Stavanger, oversaw the planning of the voyage. Six families invested their savings in the ship. It was originally built in 1803 but was lengthened in 1819. It measured 18.5 “kommerselester”, in Norway and Denmark 5,200 pounds from 1769, or 38.5 register tons. One of the investors, Johannes Jacobsen Stene, a shipowner and citizen of Stavanger, was registered as the owner.

In his December letter to Norway in 1824, Cleng suggested that it might be a good idea to buy iron, transport it on board the ship, and sell it after arrival. The money would be useful for funding their new homesteads. Export of bar iron from Sweden to the USA was still common, and Norwegian iron was often sold as Swedish iron in the United States.

Why did the captain and his crew choose the “Cape Route”?

In the 1820s, when the Restauration crossed the Atlantic, several sailing routes connected Europe with the United States. The primary route was known as the “Great Circle Route”. It connected ports in the United Kingdom, such as Liverpool and London, with ports on the east coast of the United States, like New York and Boston. The route minimized travel distance and travel time by following the curvature of the Earth. Ships sailed northward from Europe, then westward across the Atlantic. Less common for direct travel to the United States was the “Cape Route”. Ships sailed south from Great Britain, crossed the Bay of Biscay, continued along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, before sailing along the western coast of Africa as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Then the ships changed direction in a northerly direction to reach America.

The Restauration chose the Cape Route. The captain and his crew obviously had incomplete knowledge of navigation in international waters. It had been well known for more than 200 years that the Cape Route could be treacherous in late summer both with respect to hurricanes or no wind for days and weeks, or both.

The dangers of the Cape Route

The Englishman Anthony Parkhurst described what could happen by choosing this route as early as the autumn of 1564. He was on board a slaving ship, which first sailed to Africa to load slaves, before crossing the Atlantic to America to sell the slaves in the Spanish colonies. After delivery, the English ship continued in a northern direction and anchored off a small French settlement in Florida. When the ship continued further north, the ship and its crew were beset by unfavorable winds for weeks. The food reached a low level, and the crew members collapsed on deck in fervent prayer.

God heeded their call and sent a “Prosperous” wind that blew the ship very far north along the American coast to the Banks. Here they observed European ships actively engaged in rich fishing. The European fishermen had followed the Great Circle Route, arrived at Newfoundland and then sailed south along the coast of the eastern states.[10]

The clearing of crew lists with Stavanger authorities

The captain of the Restauration, Lars Olsen Helland, cleared the crew list with the authorities of Stavanger, and the cargo with the customs and pilotage office. On July 4, he received a health certificate from the magistrate covering the crew, passengers and cargo. The first leg of the Atlantic voyage was the crossing of the North Sea. After the English Channel the Restauration stopped briefly at a small port near Lizard Point on the southern tip of England, and then continued south along the “Cape Route”. After crossing of the Bay of Biscay Restauration sailed to Cabo Finisterre on the northwest coast of Galicia, Spain, and then changed the course in a southwestern direction to Madeira. The distance from the Bay of Biscay to Madeira is between 800 and 1,000 nautical miles, depending on the route.

In the middle of the Hurricane season

The Restauration entered the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the Hurricane season, and experienced what Parkhurst had described from his voyage in 1564. Sometimes there was hardly enough wind to fill the sails for days and weeks, at other times storms and hurricanes blew the Restauration off course. The sailing ship was forced by the weather in many a direction around the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico before settling on a steady course to the north.

In the end the Restauration and its passengers all survived. The ship arrived at the port of New York City on Sunday morning, October 9, 1825, after 98 days at sea. “Cleng Peerson met the immigrants in New York, as he had promised”, wrote Theodore Blegen. The connections Peerson had already made in the city were of great benefit to the newcomers.[11]

This is plate no. 20 from William G. Wall, and Henry L. Megarey’s important 1825 Hudson River Port Folio. The Hudson River Port Folio is considered to be the first and finest set of views of the Hudson River ever published. The portfolio was based upon a series of watercolors by the Dublin-born artist William Guy Wall. The New York publisher Henry Megarey hired John Hill to create a series of aquatints based upon Wall’s work. The result, published between 1821 and 1825, was a cost effective and popular series of views that led to widespread appreciation for the American indigenous landscape.
New York Harbor 1824. Plate no. 20 from William G. Wall, and Henry L. Megarey’s important 1825 Hudson River Port Folio. The series is based upon a series of watercolors by the Dublin-born artist William Guy Wall.

Can stories by historians and novelists about the Atlantic crossing be trusted?

Novelists as well as historians have countless times told the story of the Atlantic crossing and the dramatic events the Norwegian emigrants experienced before their arrival in New York City. Best known is the trilogy written by Alfred Hauge, the notable Norwegian novelist and poet, which explores the life of Cleng Peerson. His trilogy includes the novels Hundevakt (Midwatch), published in 1961, Landkjenning (Land Sighting), published in 1964, and Ankerfeste (Anchoring), published in 1965. In his novels Hauge provides a vivid portrayal of the challenges and experiences faced by the first Norwegian emigrants. The novels delve into the themes of identity, belonging, and the struggle to adapt to a wholly new world while maintaining ties to the land they had left. Through his descriptions of Cleng Peerson, Hauge tries to capture the spirit of adventure and resilience characteristic for many of the first Norwegian emigrants.

Both novelists and historians deal with storytelling and the past

There are great similarities between storytellers and historians, but their approaches as well as their objectives are different. The novelist primarily aims to entertain, provoke thought and evoke emotions and will mainly use fictional narratives. He or she has the freedom to create characters, plots, and settings from their imagination. They can blend reality with fiction to craft compelling stories. They are not bound by factual accuracy and can take creative liberties to enhance a “real life” story.

In his novels on early Norwegian emigration Alfred Hauge used all the techniques of the novelist. He has obviously done it so well that many Norwegians, even people who consider themselves well read, still believe that Hauge tells the truth and nothing but the truth. Many years of internet writing reinforced Hauge’s version that Peerson himself was one of the passengers on the “Restoration”. Hauge knew very well that Peerson was not on board. But as a novelist he allowed himself to create and tell the story that worked best in his narrative. This misinformation has lately been corrected, but is a good example of how stubbornly written texts resist new research, or the historians’ often desperate pleas for respect for good quality source work.

The methods of historical reconstruction

A contract for a sale in Texas of 16 horses from 1865, where Cleng Peerson is among the witnesses. An example of an authentic witness of what factually happened, with whom, and where.
A contract for a sale in Texas of 16 horses from 1865, where Cleng Peerson is among the witnesses. An example of an authentic proof of what factually happened, with whom, and where.

The history scholar does research, interprets, and presents factual accounts of past events, in a way that is true to what really happened and the context where it happened. The goal is to provide an accurate and comprehensive understanding of history. Historians are trained to search for and rely on primary sources: documents, letters and artifacts. Documents written about an event when it happened or a short time after it happened are regarded as more trustworthy than stories written thirty or a hundred years later. Old men forget or want to forget! Historians also use secondary sources, like books and articles in scientific journals, and newspaper accounts. The historian, however, is committed to factual accuracy and uses a lot of time to try to verify his or her findings through the methods of “historical reconstruction”.

The novelist Wolfe and the Right Stuff

At times novelists work as hard in the archives as the professional historian. Tom Wolfe is a case in point. With good reason his book The Right Stuff, published in 1979, became a bestseller. It brings the reader into the lives of US test pilots involved in post WWII research with experimental rocket-powered high-speed aircraft, and the first astronauts selected for NASA’s Project Mercury program. Wolfe’s work is admired for its detailed portrayal of the bravery and machismo – the “right stuff” – required by these pilots and astronauts.

Wolfe was inspired by his fascination with the astronaut’s willingness to face the dangers of space flight. At a conference for the “Society for the History of Technology” several years ago I met an historian of technology at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum who had worked in the NASA archive in Houston during the same summer as Tom Wolfe. In his view Wolfe worked at least as hard as any other historian. He arrived in the morning when the archive opened, went to lunch, and stayed until the archive closed, day in and day out. Wolfe conducted extensive research, including interviews with test pilots, astronauts and their families.

Imagination and evidence

To generalize, novelists often do extensive historical research but use their imagination to create stories. Historians use evidence to reconstruct and interpret real events. Both play important roles in how we understand and engage with the past. This article and all the other articles on this site www.clengpeerson.no, are written with the bias of a professional historian still believing in the importance of historical reconstruction.

To the best of my ability this article and many others are based on historical research on Cleng Peerson and Norwegian immigrants. Readers hunting for further discussion on how to use the methods of historical reconstruction in migration history can consult: Gunnar Nerheim, I hjertet av Texas. Den ukjente historien om Cleng Peerson og norske immigranter I Texas, Fagbokforlaget, Bergen, 2020; or Gunnar Nerheim, Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas. Norwegian immigrants in Texas 1845 – 1900, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas, 2024.

When the Restauration arrived: How many people were on board?

Rasmus B. Anderson, the author of The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, published in 1895, presented a list of the passengers on board on the morning Restauration arrived in New York City. Since that time many researchers have put in tremendous amounts of research time, and are still doing so, to verify or refute the names and numbers of emigrants on board. This author trusts the work of Gunleif Seldal, who has done excellent and extensive research in primary sources on the history of the Restauration and its passengers. Seldal read meticulously published books and pamphlets.

He found much of it “erroneous, copying has been extensive, myths abound.”[12] According to Seldal existing primary sources from 1825 can be trusted to a higher degree than documents written decades later. “The magistrate’s health certificate stating 52, the bishop’s report stating 51, and the US customs officials stating 52 should be considered highly reliable.”

The authorities confiscated the vessel

The immigrants ran into serious problems with the New York port authorities. In relation to the size of the ship, Restauration had far more passengers on board than American law permitted. The authorized number of passengers was exceeded by twenty-one people.[13] The customs officers had to report the matter to the authorities. The ship was confiscated, the owners were fined USD 3,150, and the captain was arrested. Fortunately for the Norwegians, the agent of the Pulteney Estates, Joseph Fellows, was present in New York to receive the Norwegians, together with Cleng Peerson.

Fellows was a lawyer and a man of considerable political influence. He mobilized a large network to help the Norwegians. Legal help was obtained, and a written request was sent to the Secretary of the Treasury.The case went all the way up to President John Quincy Adams, who instructed the administration to make an exception: “Let the fine and confiscation be revoked upon payment of all costs incurred by the United States in connection with the case. J. Q. Adams. November 5, 1825.” The official document of the exemption was received on November 15.[14]

Too little start-up capital

Restauration was sold at a huge loss; the sale only brought in four hundred dollars, less than a quarter of what the ship was bought for in Stavanger. As a result, the Norwegian immigrants had far less start-up capital when they began their new lives in the USA than planned. The lack of capital haunted them then and there, and in the longer term.

Tungenes Lighthouse in Randaberg municipality, where the fiord out of Stavanger meets the North Sea.
Tungenes Lighthouse in Randaberg municipality, where the fiord out of Stavanger meets the North Sea. On the 4th of July, 2025, the Crossing from Norway’s mainland to New York will begin.

Henry Gahn, the Swedish Norwegian consul in New York, wrote a detailed report to the Norwegian government about the arrival of Restauration and the problems that had arisen in relation to the American authorities. In a letter dated November 25, 1825, Gahn wrote that the immigrants had “passports and good reputations with them which meant that I would in any case give them help and assistance.” They also had good connections with people in New York who were familiar with the case and who contributed “money and clothing before they left the city for the country.”

Credits

Image of New York Harbor as seen in 1824: http://www.geographicus.com/mm5/cartographers/ – This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, a specialist dealer in rare maps and other cartography of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as part of a cooperation project. It is open to use in the Public Domain. File:1825 Wall and Hill View of New York City from the Hudson River Port Folio – Geographicus – NewYorkGovernorsIsland-hudsonriver-1825.jpg. Created: 31 December 1824. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons 25 March 2011 and to clengpeerson.no 16.01.2025.

Map of Erie Canal: Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas. Norwegian Immigrants 1845 – 1900, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas, 2024 shared by (c) Fagbokforlaget, Bergen.

All other images Inger Kari Nerheim (c).

Notes

[1] Gunnar Nerheim, Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas. Norwegian Immigrants 1845 – 1900, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas, 2024, p. 58.
[2] Rasmus B. Anderson, The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration (1821-1840). Its Causes and Results, Madison, Wisconsin, 1895, p 193.
[3] George T. Flom, A History of Norwegian Immigration the the United States, first privately published Iowa City, Iowa, 1909, republished 1992, Heritage Books, Bowie, Maryland, p. 126.
[4] Theodore C. Blegen, “Cleng Peerson and Norwegian Immigration”, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 301-331, p. 320.
[5] Nils Olav Østrem, ”Cleng Peerson – skaparen av den store forteljinga om Amerika”, Ætt og heim. Lokalhistorisk årbok for Rogaland 1999, Stavanger, 2000, pp. 9-10, 16-17.
[6]  Blake McKelvey, “The Genesee County Villages in Early Rochester’s History”, Rochester History, Vol. XLVII, January and April 1985, No. 1 and 2, p. 6; George S. Conover (ed.), History of Ontario County, New York, compiled by Lewis Cass Aldridge, Syracuse, New York 1893, chapter XXI.
[7] Alexander M. Stewart, “Sesquicentennial of Farmington, New York 1789 – 1939”, Bulletin of Friend’s Historical Association, Vol. 29, No. 1, spring 1940, pp. 37-43; “The Society of Friends in Western New York”, The Canadian Quaker History Newsletter, No. 37, July 1985, pp. 6-11.
[8] Richard Canuteson, “A Little More Light on the Kendall Colony”, Norwegian American Studies, volume 18 (1954), pp. 82-101.
[9] Cited from Blegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860, p. 39.
[10] James Evans, Emigrants. Why the English Sailed to the New World, Weidenfels & Nicholson, London, 2017. pp. 20-23.
[11] Blegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860, Northfield, MN, 1931, p. 51.
[12] Gunleif Seldal, «The Sloopers», unpublished paper, Cleng Peerson Conference, Bosque Museum, Texas, October 2015, p. 1.
[13] Den Norske Rigstidende, Oslo, July 25, 1825. See Gunleif Seldal, «The Sloopers», p. 23.
[14] Theodore C. Blegen, “John Quincy Adams and the Sloop Restauration”, 1940, p. 18.

Views: 39

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top