DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker in Bosque County has to say about Cleng Peerson — and it's a story worth every mile. Now, most folks who shaped the great migrations of this country get statues in capital cities, maybe a holiday named after 'em. Cleng Peerson got something better.
He got a legend. Born on May 17, 1782, in Norway, Peerson crossed an ocean and kept right on movin'. He came to the United States in 1821, and from the moment he arrived, it seems the man could not sit still.
He traveled extensively across this young country — east, midwest, wherever the land looked promising — and then he'd turn right around and write back, or ride back, or somehow get word to his countrymen in Norway: come on over. I found you a place. He was a scout, a herald, a one-man welcome committee for an entire nation of people looking for somewhere new to call home.
That's why they called him the Father of Norwegian Immigration to America. That title wasn't handed out lightly. But here's where Texas enters the story, as Texas so often does.
In 1849, Peerson came south. He was getting on in years by any measure, and yet there he was, riding into Texas, and what did he find near Dallas? Norwegian families already settled in.
He hadn't planted that seed, but he recognized the soil. And so he did what Cleng Peerson did — he started looking around for where others might move. Four years later, in 1853, he led a group of settlers to Bosque County.
That journey planted the roots of what would grow into a large Norwegian settlement in this area. You don't lead people across wild country to an unfamiliar county if you don't believe in what you're doing. And Peerson believed.
After that, he didn't wander much anymore. He lived out his days on the O. Colwick farm, just half a mile south of where this marker stands.
A man who had crossed an ocean, crisscrossed a continent, and guided whole communities to new ground — he found his final place right here in Bosque County. Cleng Peerson died on December 16, 1865, and he is buried in the church cemetery at Norse. Norse, Texas.
A Norwegian settlement in the Texas Hill Country, seeded by one restless man from across the sea. Some legacies, it turns out, you can still visit.
What the marker says
(May 17, 1782-Dec. 16, 1865) Called the "Father of Norwegian Immigration to America", Cleng Peerson migrated to the United States from his native Norway in 1821. He traveled extensively and encouraged his countrymen to settle on land he selected in the east and midwest. Coming to Texas in 1849, Peerson discovered Norwegian families living near Dallas and located sites where others might move. In 1853 he led a group to Bosque County, beginning the large Norwegian settlement in this area. Peerson lived on the O. Colwick farm (.5 miles south) until his death. He is buried in the church cemetery at Norse. (1975)