Jens Jenson Homestead
Clifton, Bosque County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Jens Jenson (1835-1912) came to this county with his Norwegian parents and their family in 1854. Later he was a sailor berthed in Galveston for some years; he also served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War (1861-65). After he bought part of his parents' land in 1867, he built one stone room of this house and married Sarah Swenson in 1868. As his family grew to 11 children, he added rooms, three of stone, two of wood. After his death, a son, Palmer, bought the place. In 1958 grandson Arden Jenson purchased the land. He lives in the house, farming the ancestral acres. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Jens Jenson came to Bosque County in 1854 with his Norwegian immigrant family, went to sea out of Galveston, and served in the Confederate Army before settling to farm. Beginning with a single stone room in 1867, he expanded the house as his family grew to eleven children, and his descendants have farmed the ancestral acres ever since.
Why it matters
The homestead embodies both the Norwegian immigrant settlement of central Texas and the multigenerational family farm at the heart of rural American life.
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Related people
- · Jens Jenson
- · Sarah Swenson Jenson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Homestead of Knud S. Knudson
Cranfills Gap, TX
Norwegian immigrant Knud S. Knudson brought his family to Bosque County in 1868, received a state land grant, and built a farm at this site. A small 1860s log home was later enlarged with a limestone addition, and the farmstead, with its home, barns, and outbuildings, stayed in the family until 1945. It survives as a fine example of a rural Norwegian vernacular farm complex.
The Rock Church - St. Olaf Lutheran Congregation
Cranfills Gap, TX
The Rock Church was raised in 1886 from native stone by architect Andrew Mickelson and his brothers Christian and Ole, beginning humbly with a dirt floor and planks laid across kegs for pews. It served the Norwegian settlers of this Bosque County community, an offshoot of Our Savior's Lutheran Church at nearby Norse. As the settlement grew, the St. Olaf congregation organized in 1902 and later built a new church in Cranfills Gap, leaving this sturdy stone sanctuary for special occasions.
Our Savior's Lutheran Church
Clifton, TX
Norwegian settlers organized this congregation in Bosque County in 1869, and over the next decade and a half built the stone church that would become the mother church of Texas's Norwegian Lutherans. Buried in its grounds is Cleng Peerson, the restless "father of Norwegian emigration" who first landed in America in 1821 and spent his life guiding his countrymen to new homes on the prairie. Enlarged, brick-veneered, and adorned with memorial windows over the years, the church still anchors a distinctly Norwegian corner of central Texas.
Cleng Peerson
Clifton, TX
Known as the "Father of Norwegian Immigration to America," Cleng Peerson left Norway in 1821 and spent decades guiding his countrymen to new homes across the eastern and midwestern United States. Reaching Texas in 1849, he scouted sites for settlers and in 1853 led a group to Bosque County, seeding the large Norwegian community that took root there. He lived out his years nearby and is buried at Norse.