Veien FM 219 i Texas gjennom Norse-distriktet i Bosque County er tilegnet Cleng Peerson og de tidlige norske nybyggerne i Texas.

Cleng, Cleng
Name like a song.
Lonely and lean
Drifting along.
Crossing the prairies and wading
the streams,
His purse full of nothing, his hat
full of dreams.
— Veien har ingen ende.

Kilde: Erik Bye, 1975 i boken Erik Bye, Veien har ingen ende, med tegninger av Karl Erik Harr, utgitt av J. W. Cappelen Forlag a.s, Oslo 1976, s. 27.

Cleng Peerson

Cleng Peerson was born in 1783 in Tysvær, Rogaland County, Norway, and died in December 1865 at Norse, Bosque County, Texas. He has a long-lived and well-earned reputation as the pathfinder of Norwegian emigrants. Today he is still a symbol of all people who dare to leave their homes and communities and take the risk of wandering into the unknown to build a new life. During his own life Cleng Peerson represented tolerance for others with regard to their way of life: their religion, language, and the color of their skin. He would talk with everyone he met on his way, and respected them all.

The concept of migration concerns movement in general. When we speak about human migration, we think about wandering, exploration and settling, groups or individuals crossing borders between countries and regions. Sometimes migration comes about because of poverty and repression, sometimes by the unknown possibilities at another place. It is our goal that the site will promote tolerance and respect for people on the move – be it the migrants of today, or of the centuries before us.

They came to build

On this site we will present short articles on migration: on lived life, but also articles about cultural, social, religious, economical and political elements that together create the society where the migrants lived their lives. See Why migration?

If you would like to contribute an article, see Write an article!

www.clengpeerson.no will be updated on a regular basis.

Latest news!

Emigrants from Byneset, Trøndelag, ended up in Montana

Before the Civil War, emigrants from Norway usually crossed the Atlantic on board a Norwegian sailing ship from a Norwegian harbor to New York or Quebec. This mode of transportation changed radically in the 1870s. Trans-Atlantic steamship companies from British ports offered faster journeys. A steamship crossed the Atlantic in less than half the time of a sailing ship. On top of that the passengers…

Read more… Emigrants from Byneset, Trøndelag, ended up in Montana

From Texas A&M University Press catalogue 2024 on Gunnar Nerheim, Norsemen deep in the Heart of Texas.
Find out more here….

The long, low hills in Bosque reminded them of Norway.

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