Brownsboro Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery
Brownsboro, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After migrating from Norway in 1845, Ole Reierson bought the land that included this cemetery site (1.1 mi. ESE). He chose the spot for his burial and carved several of the plain brown gravestones before he died in 1852. The cemetery's 24 marked and 81 unmarked graves are mostly those of Norwegian immigrants. A Lutheran church built nearby in 1889, served as a cemetery chapel until the 1920s. Will Tergerson tended the site for many years. An association formed in 1974 by descendants of early settlers now maintains it.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Ole Reierson, who left Norway in 1845, bought the land holding this burial ground and chose the spot for his own grave, even carving several of its plain brown headstones before he died in 1852. Most of its two dozen marked and eighty-odd unmarked graves belong to Norwegian immigrants, and a Lutheran church built nearby in 1889 served as a cemetery chapel into the 1920s. Descendants of the early settlers formed an association in 1974 to keep the site tended.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the memory of one of the earliest Norwegian immigrant colonies in Texas, part of the broad Scandinavian migration that helped settle nineteenth-century America.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Ole Reierson
- · Will Tergerson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Old Normandy
Brownsboro, TX
In 1845, editor Johan Reinert Reierson and his brother Ole founded the first Norwegian colony in Texas here, inspired by Reierson's newspaper articles urging his countrymen to seek 'a rich life' across the Atlantic. His associate editor Elise Tvede also emigrated, continuing to write for Norwegian publications and, as Elise Warenskjold, opening her home to newcomers. Their settlement helped spark Norwegian immigration to Texas at the very dawn of American statehood.
Wood-Verner Cemetery
Tyler, TX
The Wood-Verner Cemetery, named for two landowning families, is the oldest known graveyard in Tyler's Dixie community, its earliest marked grave that of John Gordon in 1850. Long tied to the local Methodist church and now kept by a volunteer association, it holds a cross-section of frontier Texas: pioneer settlers, Polish immigrants, former slaves, and at least two Civil War veterans. Many of its graves are unmarked.
Christ Episcopal Church
Tyler, TX
Christ Episcopal Church traces its roots to 1866–1867, when Alexander Gregg, the first Episcopal bishop of Texas, began missionary work with the congregation in the years right after the Civil War. Early services were held in borrowed rooms until the parish was organized in 1874 under its first rector, the Hungarian-born Emir Bela Gyeita Cardis Hamvasy. A larger brick church was completed in 1918, and the congregation still counts descendants of those first worshippers among its members.
Echols Cemetery on Jennings Mountain
Brownsboro, TX
Atop Jennings Mountain near Brownsboro, this cemetery began as a settlers' burial ground after Richard and Margaret Echols arrived in 1877 to farm. Richard served as a school trustee and credit lender, and after his death in 1905 Margaret founded a Brownsboro bank focused on agricultural lending, becoming a successful businesswoman before deeding the grounds to the community in 1926. Among those resting here is Isaac Anderson Barton, a mason, ginner, and Brownsboro's first mayor.