Johan Reinert Reierson (April 17, 1810,

Vestre Moland Vestre Moland is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Møglestu where the Vestre Moland Church is located. The municipality existed from 1838 until 19 ...

Aust-Agder Aust-Agder (, ) was a county (''fylke'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Vest-Agder to form Agder county. In 2002, there were 102,945 inhabitants, which was 2.2% of Norway's population. Its area was . ...

- September 6, 1864) was a

Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans () are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 milli ...

writer, author and publisher as well as an early Texas pioneer and emigration activist.

Immigration

Reierson had been sponsored in 1843 by a group of prospective emigrants and financiers to tour the United States and report settlement possibilities. He made his way to the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

. Reierson traveled to

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

, where President

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...

encouraged him to bring Norwegian settlers to the republic and promised aid in the establishment of a colony. In 1844, Reierson wrote and published a comprehensive book about America titled ''Pathfinder for Norwegian Emigrants to the United North American States and Texas'' (Norwegian: ''Veiviser for norske emigranter til De forenede nordamerikanske stater og Texas'') a comprehensive book about America published in Norway. Reierson particularly advocated Texas as the most promising regions for settlement. Reierson decided to immigrate to Texas and establish a Norwegian colony in the republic. With a small group of Norwegians, including his own family, he returned in the spring of 1845. Before departing for America, he established a monthly magazine, ''Norway and America'' (Norwegian: ''Norge og Amerika'') to report on the progress of the Norwegians in America to the people of Norway. When Reierson immigrated to Texas,

Elise Wærenskjold Elise Wærenskjold (February 19, 1815 – January 22, 1895) was a Norwegian-American writer, temperance leader and early pioneer in Texas. Background Elise Amalie Tvede Wærenskjold was born in Dypvåg parish in Tvedestrand in the county of Aust ...

assumed the editorship of the popular magazine until she herself immigrated to Texas in 1847. After the annexation of Texas in 1845, Reierson led his group of settlers into the state and established the first real Norwegian immigrant colony in Texas in Henderson County. The colony, originally named Normandy, merged with nearby Brownsboro. In 1850, Reierson established a second colony. Families from Brownsboro moved to these communities, which they named Four Mile Prairie in

Van Zandt County Van Zandt County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas, in the northeastern part of the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 59,541. Its county seat is Canton, Texas, Cant ...

and Prairieville in Kaufman County. In 1848 the Texas legislature had formed Van Zandt and Kaufman counties out of Henderson County. His pro-American letters to Norwegian newspapers continued to mark him as a controversial figure in his homeland.

Personal life

Reierson married Henrietta Christine Waldt (1818–1851) on August 5, 1836 in Prairieville, Texas. The couple had six sons and two daughters. He spent the remainder of his life as a farmer and member of the Prairieville community. When he died in Prairieville, he was still writing about Texas in publications in Norway. He was buried at Four Mile Prairie Norwegian Cemetery.''Four Mile Cemetery'' (Four Mile Prairie Norwegians)
/ref>

References

Other sources

* Blegen, Theodore C. ''Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860'' (2 vols., 1931; 1940., New York: Haskell House, 1969) *Unstad, Lyder L. ''The First Norwegian Migration into Texas'' (Southwestern Historical Quarterly 43. October 1939) *Clausen, C. A., ed., ''The Lady with the Pen: Elise Waerenskjold in Texas'' (Norwegian-American Historical Association, Northfield, Minnesota. 1961) *Russell, Charles H. ''Undaunted: A Norwegian Woman in Frontier Texas'' (Texas A&M University Press. 2005) *Payne, Darwin ''Early Norwegians in Northeast Texas'' (Southwestern Historical Quarterly 45. October 1961) *Van Zandt County History Book Committee, ''History of Van Zandt County'' (Dallas: National ShareGraphics; 1st edition 1984) *Hall, Margaret Elizabeth ''A History of Van Zandt County'' (Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company. 1976)

External links

Four Mile Prairie, TexasPrairieville, TexasNormandy, Texas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiersen, Johan Reinert 1810 births 1864 deaths People from Lillesand Norwegian emigrants to the United States American Lutherans Norwegian newspaper editors People from Kaufman County, Texas 19th-century Norwegian journalists Male journalists 19th-century Norwegian writers 19th-century Norwegian male writers 19th-century Lutherans 19th-century American journalists