RECOLLECTIONS OF A NORWEGIAN PIONEER IN TEXAS

Abstract

RECOLLECTIONS OF A NORWEGIAN PIONEER IN TEXAS TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY C. A. CLAUSEN The 1840's were stirring years in the history of Texas. The Texan war for independence from Mexico which had broken out in 1836 went on with intermittent skirmishes until 1845. ìn that year, after lengthy negotiations, the republic of Texas was finally admitted to the Union as a state. Both as an independent republic and as a state, Texas carried on a vigorous campaign to attract settlers to her vast but sparsely inhabited areas. Since emigration from Norway was rapidly increasing during this period, it is not strange that several little Norwegian settlements were established in Texas.1 The man primarily responsible for leading Norwegians into that region was Johan Reinert Reiersen , a liberal journalist from Christiansand. In 1843-44 he traveled widely in America, trying to find suitable locations for Norwegian settlements. He was favorably impressed with Texas and wrote enthusiastically that relief was in sight for thousands of his countrymen then "gathering crumbs from the table of the aristocracy." The article translated below was written by Knudt Olson Hastvedt, a member of an immigrant party which left Norway for Texas in 1846. Though it was composed years afterward, it gives a vivid account of the passage across the Atlantic and of the hardships encountered in the new land. It also helps to explain why Texas, in spite of its many inducements, failed to attract any great number of Norwegian settlers. 1 An account of the Norwegian settlements in Texas can be found in Theodore C. Biegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860, 177-189 (Northfield, 1931). See also Lyder L. Unstad, trans, and ed., "The First Norwegian Migration into Texas," in Studies and Records, 8:39-57 (Northfield, 1934). 91 92 STUDIES AND RECORDS Recollections of the Journey of the First Norwegian Immigrant Society to Texas and of the First Six Years of Pioneer Life There2 Year by year many of the old settlers are gathered to their graves and with them much of our immigrant history is lost. This ought not to be. Everyone who can relate experiences of the first years in this country ought to do so, because such recollections will be of great interest to coming generations. In the year 1843 a society in Lillesand sent Johan Reinert Reiersen on an exploring trip to America to find a suitable location for Norwegian emigrants. He traveled through Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and up to St. Joseph, Missouri, thence down to St. Louis and on to New Orleans. From there he went up the Mississippi and Red River to Grand Ecore in Louisiana and further on to Nacogdoches in Texas. There he fell in with some Germans who were celebrating because of the war with Mexico. He was introduced to several high military officers. Reiersen spoke both English and German well and acquainted them with the object of his journey. He was well received by them. Among others, there was a surveyor named Hoff, a Pennsylvania German, who befriended him and accompanied him to the Kickapoo River in Henderson County, about fifty miles from Nacogdoches, where government land was available. Reiersen secured half a section and hired an American named Sullivan to put up the necessary buildings. These consisted of two one-story log houses, sixteen feet square, with a twelve-foot walk between them. Lumber for the floor Sullivan had to saw with a handsaw out of fir logs which were plentiful in this area. This happened in the fall and winter of 1843-44. Reiersen then set out for home by way of the Mississippi and came to Galena in March. A marvel among other marvels of this trip was that twice he had summer and twice he had winter during one and the same year. He came back to Norway in the summer or fall of 1844. 2 The original of this document, written in longhand, is in the possession of the Texas State Historical Association at Austin. A typewritten copy has been placed in the archives of the Norwegian-American Historical Association at St. Olaf College , Northfield, through the courtesy of Mrs. Burt Knatvold of Albert Lea...