Jens Jenson Homestead

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Bosque County, there's a homestead that's been holding its ground for a long time, and the story starts even before the first stone was laid. Jens Jenson was born in 1835, and in 1854 he came to this county as a young man, traveling with his Norwegian parents and the rest of the family.

Now, you might think that's where he settled in and got to work. But Jens had some wandering to do first. He ended up a sailor, berthed in Galveston for some years.

The Gulf Coast, the salt air, a life on the water. Then the Civil War came along, 1861 to 1865, and Jens served in the Confederate Army. The sea, then the war.

A man picks up a lot of story before he ever drives a single stake in the ground. But 1867 is when Jens finally turned toward something lasting. He bought part of his parents' land, right there in Bosque County, the same county his family had come to back in 1854.

And he started building. One stone room. That was the beginning of this house.

One room, cut from stone, standing firm. In 1868 he married Sarah Swenson, and what happened next was the kind of thing that turns one stone room into something considerably larger. Their family grew, and grew, and grew, until there were eleven children under that roof.

So Jens kept building. Three more rooms of stone. Two of wood.

The house expanded the way families do, a little at a time, each addition a quiet answer to a new need. When Jens Jenson died in 1912, the place passed to his son Palmer, who bought it and kept it in the family. Then in 1958, grandson Arden Jenson purchased the land.

And here's the part that really lands, Arden didn't sell it off, didn't let it go to strangers. He lives in that house. Farming those ancestral acres.

The same ground Jens bought in 1867, the same stones Jens stacked with his own hands. Three generations, and the homestead is still a homestead. Some houses just refuse to let go of their people.

What the marker says

Jens Jenson (1835-1912) came to this county with his Norwegian parents and their family in 1854. Later he was a sailor berthed in Galveston for some years; he also served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War (1861-65). After he bought part of his parents' land in 1867, he built one stone room of this house and married Sarah Swenson in 1868. As his family grew to 11 children, he added rooms, three of stone, two of wood. After his death, a son, Palmer, bought the place. In 1958 grandson Arden Jenson purchased the land. He lives in the house, farming the ancestral acres. (1976)