John and Mary Colwick House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the John and Mary Colwick House in Bosque County. Now, some houses just sit there. This one has a story baked right into its walls.

And I do mean that literally. Back in 1859, a man named Cleng Peerson brought a group of Norwegian colonizers to Texas. John Colwick came on that journey, along with his parents, and they put down roots in this part of the state.

Twenty years passed. John Colwick married a woman named Mary Jenson in 1879, and the two of them made their home on this very site. It wasn't much to look at, that first dwelling.

Small, the marker says. But it was theirs. Then 1889 rolls around, and something worth rememberin' happens.

A builder named J. H. Nordahl constructed a new house for John and Mary right here.

And here's the part that gives you a little pause. Nordahl didn't start from scratch. He used some of the materials from that original small home, folding the old life into the new one, board by board.

What Nordahl built was a vernacular farmhouse, and it carries something you don't often see out on the Texas plain. Unusual proportions, the marker tells us, drawn from traditional Norwegian forms. The old country, quietly present in the geometry of the walls.

And if you look at that porch, you'll find Eastlake brackets, simple and elegant, a detail that rewards the eye if you're paying attention. That house stood as testament to a family that traveled a long way, started small, and built something that lasted. The walls remember, even when we forget.

What the marker says

John Colwick and his parents came to Texas with Norwegian colonizer Cleng Peerson in 1859. Colwick married Mary Jenson in 1879, and they lived in a small home on this site. Using some materials from that dwelling, this house was constructed for them in 1889 by J. H. Nordahl. The vernacular farmhouse exhibits unusual proportions derived from traditional Norwegian forms. Its simple, elegant detailing includes Eastlake brackets on the porch. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1989