The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 125

THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
VOL. XLV OCTOBER, 1941 No. 2
NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS
AXEL ARNESON'
Complying with the request to contribute to the history of
Norwegian Settlements in Texas, there is perhaps little I could
add to the store of knowledge already in possession of the
Norwegian American Historical Association. Now that so few
of us remain from pioneer days, we, who then were youngsters,
share in the regret over the failure to record detail and data
from the experience of elders, who could have told the story
at first hand.
Much of the knowledge retained from those days is, of course,
more or less inexact or incomplete. For recorded data special
credit is due to Theodore Colwick, long since deceased, also to
Jacob Olson. Theodore Colwick was a custodian of "settlement
lore"--Jacob Olson, the Nestor among the remaining few, al-
ways a student, who fifty or sixty years ago, beside his farm
duties, began his remarkable collection of fossils and Indian
relics, many of which are now in the splendid collection of
The University of Texas. Among the younger we have Eilert
Albertson Moore of Clifton College, whose scholarly attain-
ments have already contributed much of historic value in his
review on School and Church Development in Bosque and of
Clifton College in particular.
The writer's knowledge from personal association with set-
tlers of the "Old Guard" of long ago cannot, therefore, lay
claim to historic value as source documents, and tribute is here
acknowledged to the labor of love that others have performed.
Further, only a minor interest can attach to Norwegian settle-
ments in the South and Southwest, for comparatively few of
us came this way. Numbers of Norwegian settlements were
'Axel Arneson was born on November 17, 1862, in the little town of Hamar
on the shores of Lake Mjosen in Eastern Norway. In 1869, with his father,
Peder, his mother, Elli, his younger brother, Nicoli, and others, he sailed
westward for America. Mr. Arneson died February 7, 1941.
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