The
Danish
Texans
John L. Davis ·
The
Danish
Texans
THE TEXIANS AND THE TEXANS
A series dealing with the many kinds of people who have contributed
to the history and heritage of Texas.
Now in print:
Pamphlet series: The Indian Texans, The Norwegian Texans, The Mexican
Texans (in English), Los Tejanos Mexicanos (in Spanish),
The Spanish Texans, The Greek Texans, The jewish Texans,
The Syrian and Lebanese Texans, The Afro-American Texans,
The Anglo-American Texans, The Belgian Texans, The
Swiss Texans, The Czech Texans, The French Texans, The
Italian Texans and The Chinese Texans.
Book series: The Danish Texans, The Irish Texans, The German Texans, The
Polish Texans and The Wendish Texans.
The
Danish
Texans
John L. Davis
I (' '(~:
The Danish Texans
Second Edition, Revised, 1983
Copyright © 1979
The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
Jack R . Maguire, Executive Director
Pat Maguire, Director of Development
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-63226
International Standard Book Number 0-86701-010-X
This publication was made possible, in part, by a grant from
The Houston Endowment, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
Preface
This book presents a general story of Danish immigration to Texas,
discussing the major areas of settlement and giving an outline of why
these individuals and groups came and what they did after their move.
It is a book of examples, not an exhaustive history. Neither is this
work a genealogical reference nor does it presume to tell the story of
every Dane who came to Texas. There are far too many individuals
for a work of this length.
Most examples included are either first-generation arrivals or
immediate descendants. Most of them stayed, a few moved on, but
all left their mark as part of Texas's diverse culture.
Contents
I. The Danish Texans 9
II. The Start of Emigration 15
III. A Few Individuals 29
IV. Lee County: "Little Denmark" 39
V. Increased Emigration 45
VI. Danevang: The Danish Field 71
VII. A New Century 91
VIII. "Is There Nothing
Left from the Good Old Days?" 113
IX. Recent Emigration 127
X . Afterword 137
Acknowledgments 139
Sources 141
Photographic Credits 159
Index 163
I. The Danish Texans
The people of Lynchburg decided to take action. Lynchburg was
a tiny settlement and ferry crossing where Buffalo Bayou enters the
San Jacinto River in present Harris County. It was the end of sum­mer,
1835. William Scott, a former Kentuckian and now a member
of Austin's Texas colony, had just offered to equip anyone willing to
fight for the cause of Texas against Mexico. The equipping included
a good horse with saddle and bridle, a gun and a suit of clothes. Scott
was very patriotic and obviously wealthy.
The offer was a straightforward one; the cause of Texas was com­plex.
For several years Texas settlers, both those from Mexico and the
more numerous crowd from the United States, had gotten into
difficulties with the Mexican government. Many of the settlers did not
like the governmental shift from a states' rights position to a central
control less responsive to the colonials. The Anglos from the United
States, invited in as settlers, were not familiar with Mexican law or
custom, language or religion. Because they had been drawn by the
almost free land in Mexican Texas, their loyalty to the Mexican govern­ment
was questionable. Yet at the beginning of real trouble in the
1830's, most settlers seemed merely to want Texas to stand as a separate
state, with its own local government, in a Mexican republic.
9
But there had been clashes. At Anahuac settlers led by William
Barrett Travis, a South Carolina lawyer who had come to Texas to
avoid an unhappy marriage, had attacked Mexican troops because
of a dispute involving land titles. Trouble simmered, and the Mexican
President, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, sent troops to the province
of Texas to help collect taxes and import duties. They also were
instructed to quiet any restiveness. Santa Anna stated that Mexico
was not quite ready for democracy.
It didn't work. The Mexican troops were repulsed. About this
time Stephen F. Austin, the Anglo colonial leader, went to Mexico
to ask for local self-government. Suspected of supporting insurrection
in Texas, he was arrested. After a year in prison he returned to Texas
converted from the peace party into a war-party man. The talk in Texas
turned to a war for independence, and offers like William Scott's
increased the discontent.
About 30 men accepted Scott's offer. Among them was Charles
Zanco, a 28-year-old Dane who was in the area for a reason now
unknown. He was a painter and was probably seeking adventure.
One morning while military business was under way in Lynch­burg,
Scott, who had been elected captain, approached his second
lieutenant, James McGahey, with four yards of blue silk.
"Mac," Scott said, "if you'll make a staff, we'll have a flag."
McGahey did more. First he got Fanny Lynch, the wife of
Nathaniel, who ran the local ferry and had given his name to the
settlement, to reinforce the cloth with a piece of cotton domestic. Then
he asked Zanco to paint a design on the flag. Zanco painted a large,
five-pointed star in the center.
"Well now;' Zanco said, stepping back, "that looks naked. Let me
paint something under it. What shall it be?"
McGahey suggested the word "Independence;' and Texas soon
had a revolutionary flag. The design proved almost too revolutionary.
A few settlers passing through to San Felipe thought the design was
fine. They took word of the flag to another volunteer group up the
bayou at Harrisburg. Like some Texans of the time, the Harrisburg
group was ready for action- but not full independence. They made
the offer, by courier, to go downstream and shoot any man who raised
such a motto before the proper authorities had decided upon such
10 .
strong action. The Lynchburg company sent back their own courier
inviting the Harrisburg men to visit the next day for the flag raising.
When the Lynchburg men raised their flag, two boats of armed
men from Harrisburg had pulled up to the bank of the San Jacinto
to watch. The flag was unfurled with a flourish and, for a while, no
one said a word. It was a tense moment, but the word "Independence"
waving in the breeze won everyone over. The two Harrisburg boats
pushed off for home. The captain of one stood up, waved his hat and
cried, "Hurrah for the Lone Star!" And, locally, that was the start of
the revolution.
But not the finish- Charles Zan co left with the group from
Lynchburg, going west and into the regular Texas army. He ended
up at the Alamo in time to die there five months later.
About the same time Zanco was painting his flag, Christian
Hillebrandt, in east Texas, was wondering what to do with his cattle
during what looked like the start of a revolution.
Hillebrandt was born around 1800 in Denmark's Schleswig­Holstein
area and was an early immigrant to America. He arrived
in Louisiana in 1820, married a French-Acadian wife, Eurasie
11
Christian Hillebrand! and his family combine a cattle drive and
a move into Texas in 1830
Blanchette, and started ranching. About 1830 Hillebrandt decided to
move to Texas and drove his small herd of cattle across the Louisiana
border. Settling in what is now Jefferson County, Hillebrandt filed
for and received a league of land in August of 1835.
Hillebrandt may have worried about the impending war, but he
weathered those troubled times and many another year. By 1840 he
owned 21,000 acres of land, 36 horses and 77 5 head of cattle -large
holdings for those days. At the time of his death in 1858, Hillebrandt's
holdings included 9,000 head of cattle, 1,100 horses, 13 slaves and land
that included some 1,500 acres near the present site of Beaumont.
Hillebrandt was a very successful businessman and established
holdiQ.gs which passed on to his descendants. Zanca's contribution was
of the different sort that also goes with settlement and conquest. Both
men were Danes, having come a third of the way around the world
to cast their fortunes in a new land. Why?
Emigration was not always an accepted thing- from Europe or
anywhere else. In earlier years in many places it had been illegal. The
wealth of a country lay not only in land and money but also in people­people
to work and fight. For someone to leave a homeland was more
than an insult to the king or parliament - it was an economic loss.
But of human curiosity there is no end. Add to this personal economic
12
troubles, lack of food, an unstable government, religious persecution,
a border or ocean that can be crossed-and emigration starts. Not
all these reasons for moving existed in Denmark, or in any one country
of Europe, but enough reasons did exist.
Danes coming to the Americas were eventually to number more
than 300,000, a small percentage of which came to Texas. And the
story started about the time of Zanco and Hillebrandt.
• l l,•pr"
e 'Ju],,,
TEXAS
100 200
APPROXII\.1ATE SCALE (MI LES)
Areas of Major Danish Settlement
13
DENMARK, NORWAY
AND SWEDEN
~DANISH EMPIRE (1560)
0 100 200
APPROXIMATE SCALE (MILES)
FINLAND
RUSSIA
POLAND
14
II. The Start of Emigration
Denmark is a small, low-lying peninsula and some 500 islands
on the north side of Germany, dividing the Baltic and North seas.
The most southern of the Scandinavian countries, it has had close rela­tionships,
good and bad over the years, with its larger neighbors.
The land is in a central position in northern Europe. In the first
millennium A.D., it included part of the homeland of the Anglo.Saxons
and lay between the Frisians, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans and
British. It soon became a crossroads of trade in an area of changing
empires. Partially as a result of this, the Danish people are of mixed
Nordic stock.
The country came into existence as a national entity more than
a thousand years ago and at various stages of its history included most
of present-day Scandinavia as well as overseas colonial holdings.
European border shifts were to tie together lands as different as another
crossroads called Texas: the Jylland peninsula and 482 islands, the
larger of which are Sjaelland, Fyn, Lolland and Falster. In the days
of the Vikings- in the late 9th and the 10th centuries- Denmark even
colonized and ruled much of England.
However far ranging the Vikings were-and there is even ques­tionable
evidence that they knew the Gulf of Mexico- few Danish
15
Arrival of immigrants
16
individuals settled in the Americas before the 19th century, with the
exception of the 17th and 18th century Caribbean settlements. Formerly
even more than today, a country's wealth was measured in people as
well as lands and money. Colonies as part of a national empire might
be started, but emigration from one country to another either was
not encouraged or was actually illegal.
In the 1750's the King of Denmark, Frederick V, warned his
people not to listen to the "seductions" of those who talked of leaving
the country. A century later education for everyone was more common
in Europe and so were social revolution and economic depression.
Emigration was not only permitted but encouraged.
The opening of the Americas created a tremendous frontier which
was to absorb over 35 million of Europe's people. Land across the
Atlantic would create an escape for many a person caught in the
problems of the Old World.
Some individual Danes left their homeland, in early years, but
the bulk of the emigration occurred between 1820 and 1920.
Denmark in the 19th century was a country undergoing change.
After many centuries the status of the small farmer and the hired
worker had declined. Taxes increased and land was often taken up
in large holdings, a legacy of the 13th through 16th centuries. In some
areas of Denmark, until the late 18th century, it was illegal for farm
A farmer's meal in Denmark, 1860
17
workers to leave the estate on which they were born. The government
and large landholders believed they had to tie people to the land as
workers, or the economy would fail.
In addition, the 19th century brought better health and medical
care. In former centuries a sizeable percentage of those born died as
infants, and a person's life was generally none too long. With improved
medical care the birth rate increased and the death rate decreased.
In many areas this meant serious overpopulation.
Laws were changed. Young men were no longer bound to work
for estate owners, but there was little land for them to buy in the
country, even if they had money, and few jobs in town. The common
man was most often a poor man.
Danish fishermen, 1860
People coming of age, marrying and starting families simply could
not earn a living. In the 1870's a farmhand's pay came to about 100
kroner a year, but the annual cost of an average laborer's household
was more than 230 kroner. How could a man get married? He could
not even buy a farm and house without 30 years of saving for just
the down payment- even when a good place was available.
In 1801 there were about 962,000 people in Denmark. Somewhat
more than a century later, the number would be four times as large,
not counting more than 300,000 people who would leave the country.
Danes drifted from the countryside into the towns, hoping to
become tradesmen or work in the new factories. But there, in the 1870's,
18
the industrial revolution was slow in getting started. Even before 1870,
when there was no such thing as unemployment pay, the percentage
of unemployed in the towns rose to 50%.
Danish women in Schleswig costume, c. 1860
Yet the people were educated. A system of compulsory
education-started in 1814 for all children-had given a new genera­tion
the power to think for themselves. The possibility of changing
things or of simply leaving the country were new realizations. Under
the social pressure, leaving had become possible. Economically it was
often necessary. Even the government had no answers. A person could,
theoretically, choose his own fate -at least he could leave the country
and try life somewhere else. J
So the Dane, pressed to make a living, at times drifted from his
hometown to the city, and from the city, across the ocean.
The voyage of Die Elbe was one such venture that did not get very
far, but did illustrate how much people wanted to come to America.
Early accounts hint that the voyage was planned to the gulf region.
In August of 1838 Jacob Dessau of Aarhus ran an advertisement
in the local newspaper seeking people to join in a voyage to America.
The lands west across the ocean were thought to be places of unlimited
19
Engraving of Galveston, c. 1852
Engraving of Corpus Christi's port, 1846
20
opportunity. Almost for the first time people heard news of such places
from travelers and in newspapers. Public information was a new and
powerful thing.
About 60 Da-les responded, and they sailed out in their newly­bought,
second-hand ship right into a storm in the Kattegat Sea. After
reviving their resolve in northjylland, the group sailed south through
the English Channel into an Atlantic storm that drove them into the
Bay of Biscay. On the coast of Spain they found themselves in the midst
of a Spanish civil war. They were plundered by pirates, cast ashore,
and left, in their words, desolate and without a drop of beer. Some
of the Danes finally made it back home years later.
This group had failed, but the general yearning was not quenched.
Some were to try again. In the early 19th century ocean travel was
still quite uncertain. As passenger vessels, ships were primitive and
could carry few people.
Other Danes were luckier in their travels, perhaps because they
were better sailors. One, Peter Johnson, went to sea as a young man
and was soon operating his own vessel, the three-masted Belleport, in
international trade. For him, leaving the country meant something
quite different from that which had motivated the first emigrants.
In 1832Johnson put into a Gulf of Mexico port, perhaps Mobile,
and from that time took up shipping on American coasts. He
apparently liked the New World. He became a citizen of the United
States and started operating ships between Mobile, New Orleans and
Galveston. He was soon bringing settlers and supplies to the Mexican
province of Texas.
He liked Texas. At the close of the revolution Captain Johnson
moved his base to Galveston and became a citizen of the republic.
In 1850 he located at Indianola where he became the government mail
runner from there to Corpus Christi. This led him further into the
coastal shipping business, both at sea and on land, which he successfully
operated until the Civil War.
Captain johnson built a large, two-story building at the west end
of St. Joseph's Island as a warehouse and home. It was soon the center
of a small settlement. By this time he owned two ships, three landside
stage stations and routes, two stagecoaches and a ferryboat. He man­aged
quite a crew of captains, teamsters and freight handlers.
21
About this time he also married Wilhelmina Rabel, an Alsatian.
In fact, he married her twice, once in a civil ceremony at Indianola
and later in a church service at the young town of Lamar.
Life in the large building on St. Joseph's Island was pleasant
enough until the Civil War when United States forces began a blockade.
Federal vessels sailed the coast, putting an end to shipping, and Captain
Johnson's business went downhill. Not only did he have to hide his
ships, but home life became trying. Gunners of the Federal navy, as
they patrolled the coast, used the settlement-and particularly the
captain's taller building- for target practice.
Captain Peter Johnson's family takes shelter as his home on St. joseph's Island is used for
target practice by Federal ships during the Civil War
Finally, harassed by landing parties and the increased accuracy
of Union warships, the captain gave up and moved his family inland
near Lamar. Shortly after, his house and the settlement were sacked
and burned by Federal forces .
The captain and his family weathered the Civil War, but he did
not return to the sea. He took up farming, cattle trading and salt selling.
In fact, the captain contacted Union forces after the war and told them
that the postal service had been somewhat interrupted by the conflict
22
and they had neglected to reinstate it. He presented a petition to the
government about the conditions. The petition was granted, and
Captain johnson was named postmaster at Lamar. His home became
the post office, and so it remained until his death in 1895.
Another Dane who became a seafarer was John Edward
Henrichson, who was only about 12 years old when he put to sea as
a cabin boy in 1819. He had been working for his father in Copenhagen,
learning the cabinetmaking trade. For a while, most of their work was
for ships: building the trunks and cabinets, shelves and containers for
trading vessels. Young Henrichson liked the work and the ships, but
was more fascinated by their destinations. The prospect of an exciting
voyage lured him.
With the help of a ship captain who was also a family friend ,
Henrichson convinced his father that he was old enough to leave on
a voyage. His age might have been questionable, but his size was not.
As an adult, he would stand almost seven feet tall and weigh nearly
300 pounds of well-developed muscle and bone. At a little past 12 years
old, he was as large as most sailors.
The elder Henrichson relented, and young john put to sea. He
first served as a cabin boy, attending to the officers' meals and making
himself generally useful. But the officers soon realized they had a willing
volunteer as well as an employee. Before long Henrichson was helping
with the records of the trading ship and had changed part of his duty
to that of a cabinetmaker and repairman aboard ship.
More voyages followed as he grew older, and one part of the world
caught the young man's eye- the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
Matamoros, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, was a frequent port of
Brownsville and the Santa Cruz Ferry, 1863
23
call, and here young Henrichson helped the traders sell cargoes of
cheese, lumber and European manufactured goods. At least once when
the ship was being cleaned and repaired, Henrichson accompanied
the captain and his party to Monterrey and Saltillo, Mexico. Other
times the crew would take flatboats up the Rio Grande, trading with
the ranchers upstream. Henrichson saw a lot of the country. He had
also learned French, Spanish and English and was a very valuable crew
member at bargaining time.
The trading stops included the first Texas ports: the mouth of
the Nueces, at Powderhorn, Copano and Matagorda bays, Galveston
Bay, then to New Orleans.
Henrichson became interested in land around the Nueces River.
He heard of the possibilities of obtaining a land grant from the Mexican
government, yet apparently never completed a petition.
New Orleans became his first New World home. On one trip
there, Henrichson persuaded his captain to leave him in the port to
buy sugar, hides and flour for the next trip. However, in the course
of Henrichson's purchasing, he drifted out of seafaring.
The plantations of New Orleans in the early 19th century were
houses of trade, and Henrichson naturally had to visit them to get
the best prices. In addition to purchasing, there was the Louisiana
social life to deal with. Balls were often given in the evenings by plan­tation
owners, and businessmen were invited. Dances blended in
French and Anglo reels and jigs, and standing an impressive head
or two taller at these gatherings was Henrichson, the blond Viking
of Danish and Swedish heritage.
At one such gathering the owner of the plantation, a wealthy
widow, caught Henrichson's eye. The effect was mutual. Henrichson
visited later to improve his French, next to help sell the products of
the sprawling lands, then he remained as husband of the woman and
manager of the plantation.
After his marriage Henrichson continued to travel between New
Orleans and the Texas coast with shiploads of wax and sugar and manu­factured
goods in return for the products of Texas and Mexico: hides
and silver, wool and oils, cochineal and indigo dyes. On the Louisiana
plantation Henrichson's family managed while he was away; the widow
had older children when she married the wandering Norseman.
24
Henrichson and the widow-whose name is not remembered in the
family- had three children, two girls and a boy.
In the late 1830's Henrichson was again attracted to the Nueces­Powderhorn
area of Texas. A revolution had come and gone, and the
land seemed ripe for settling. Henrichson knew that his wife and her
children would never leave Louisiana. So, with or without her knowl­edge,
he left, taking his children Mary Ellen, Catherine and George
Washington. They never returned. In fact, once settled as a rancher
and trader in the future Corpus Christi area, Henrichson never used
his own name on cargo to and from New Orleans. Thus, he could
not be easily traced.
The children were between five and ten years of age when
Henrichson arrived, but were a great help. On a frontier everybody
works. He had chosen to come in the summer when good weather
would favor their land hunting and house building. After a year or
two they had a substantial ranch somewhat inland near San Patricio
largely on the south bank of the Nueces. Henrichson found himself
in the "Irish Colonies" founded in the days of Mexican control.
john Edward Henrichson and his three children settle on the Nueces River
The land was sparsely settled, but the Dane knew that the area
would attract more people. He began to buy parcels of land, improve
them as ranch holdings and sell them at a good profit. His own ranch­lands
became well known. He operated a supply store and was soon
known as "El Grandor;' certainly because of his size and physical
prowess, but also because he could speak any local language and was
a friend to all.
25
Henrichson was too large a man to ride the small mustang horses.
In fact, when he tried, his feet almost touched the ground and his
weight was the equivalent of two men. The nearby Mexican settlers
had several humorous phrases for the sight, and Henrichson gave up
this mode of transportation. Nor did he particularly like wagons. In
walking, however, he excelled: a walk of 10 miles was nothing to the
man. His ranch foremen would often have to trot their horses to keep
up with him. A man who neither took a drink nor smoked, Henrichson
developed great physical endurance.
When the Mexican War started General Zachary Taylor landed
at Corpus Christi Bay with instructions to cross the Nueces River
(which Mexico regarded as the Texas border) into the disputed territory
north of the Rio Grande. This naturally precipitated hostilities.
Henrichson and his young son decided to enlist and go along with
the army, apparently mostly for the fun. The father enlisted as a black­smith
and his son as a wagon driver. Soon they were at Fort Brown
and, indeed, got their fill of adventure. Young George was narrowly
missed by a cannonball, Henrichson was at the Battle of Resaca de
las Palmas, and both spent long days keeping the army horses shod
and repairing metal equipment. They had enough of the war in Texas
without going farther. As the United States troops marched south across
the Rio Grande singing "The Girl I Left Behind Me," the Henrichsons,
at least in family tradition, returned to the N ueces singing, "My Black
Eyed Senorita!'
Henrichson apparently never said what he thought about the
United States' imperialistic war in which he involved himself, but settled
back into his ranching business. He became a rather rich man, as far
as anyone knows. Distrusting banks, he converted his wealth, the
proceeds of cattle and land sales, into gold coin and buried it some­where
on his lands. He was successful enough in business to leave the
bulk of it in the ground. The gold was still buried in 1877, when his
son George was summoned home from a cattle shipping trip to be
present at his father's death.
When George entered his father's room the elder man waved him
over to the bed. Henrichson had caught pneumonia and was struggling
to breathe. He could hardly talk. He tried to tell his son where the
gold had been buried, indicating that corral posts were connected in
some way with the site or sites. But his voice broke, for a moment
26
he fought for breath, then died. Neither George nor any other member
of the family ever found the gold.
But the ranch lands themselves supported the family, and several
generations to come. George Washington Henrichson lived to start
a large local family with his wife Elizabeth Charlotte Ashton. A slender
man with sandy hair and blue eyes-a mixture of the French and the
N orthmen- he was as well known as his father.
John is buried at the old cemetery at San Patricio, George at
Sandia, but the family, comprising many members, lives on.
27
Emigrants below decks on a steamer, 1860's
Steerage bunks
28
Ill. A Few Individuals
Danes who came to Texas in the 1850's and 1860's, including those
from other parts of the United States, had survived a perilous ocean
voyage. They then entered the state either overland, often from the
plains of the Midwest, or by ship along the Gulf coast.
Only the United States' Civil War slowed the traffic for a few years.
The frontier remained open, however; and as soon as the conflict was
settled, even more Europeans lined up to come. The perils of the
Atlantic voyage, particularly before the 1870's, were considerable. As
emigration from Europe increased, ship owners and captains were
quick to capitalize on this desire to cross the ocean. Some were
unscrupulous, crowding passengers into filthy holds formerly used only
for cargo. At times, more than 800 passengers were lodged between
decks, subject to the most horrible stages of seasickness, unable to eat
for days. Aboard ship, inadequate food, poor or lacking sanitary facili­ties,
or even a brutal crew were not uncommon. Death was frequent
on the Atlantic voyage. Cholera and measles would occasionally deci­mate
those aboard. Once at sea, there was no escape.
Some Atlantic passages were more humane, even pleasant, on
a good ship in favorable weather with adequate food and sleeping
29
Burial of an emigrant child
at sea, 1882
quarters. Yet the voyage was tedious at best. After 1900 the sailing
time across the Atlantic would be cut to two weeks, but in mid-19th
century steamships were not common and the trip was slow. Depending
on the weather, the voyage could take from 35 to 60 days. And this
was the time between the common transfer point- Liverpool,
England-and New York, not the whole journey.
In Denmark unrest was reaching high levels. Religious groups
gathered not only to save souls but also to emigrate to America. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon Church,
was particularly active in missionary work -and arranging for the
emigration of converts to the United States. Few of these families, how­ever,
came directly to Texas. Denmark's defeat by Germany in the
War of 1864, and the disastrous peace treaty which followed, not only
lost all of Schleswig and Holstein, but also many a citizen who chose
to try his fortune elsewhere.
The first of the travel agents offered tickets to the New World,
for a fee, and some former emigrants even came back for a visit to
Denmark, usually bearing good stories of life overseas. The govern­ment
openly approved of emigration.
Danish emigrants were beginning to show up in Texas. In the
1850 census Danes were counted in at least ten counties: Tarrant, Ft.
30
Bend, Bexar, Galveston, Liberty, Matagorda, Nacogdoches and­most
of all- in the counties of the lower Rio Grande Valley. There
were only about 50 Danes listed, but they represented a wide range
of employment. Otto Kass was a soldier at Ft. Worth; Thomas
Moosewood was a wagon master for the military in Bexar County;
William Davisson and Peter Hansen were seamen at Galveston; D.B.
Leoz was a clerk, Peter Miller a carpenter, and Christian Bedstrup
a boatman, all in the Valley. They had survived the long journey to
enter a new life.
Emigrants at dinner aboard ship, 1840's
In the late 1840's George Henry Trube and his wife Sophie
Dorothea Knute from the port of Kiel, a German possession after 1864,
decided to come to America. Trube had been a gardener for a noble­man
and, with his three sons, decided to cast his fortunes elsewhere.
John Clement Trube, one of the sons, was ten when the family
arrived on the East Coast. Some years later, John left home, drifted
to the Gulf area and found a job as cabin boy on the steamer Farmer
between Galveston and Houston. He liked the area. By 1855 John
had started a real estate business in Houston and two years later
married Veronica Durst, daughter of a Swiss family. In fact, the families
became closely related. John's brother Henry John Trube married
Sophia Durst in 185 7, settled himself in the area, and the other brother,
Charles Frederick Trube, married Henrietta Bock, a half-sister in the
Durst family.
31
john Clement Trube
Henry John Trube
Charles Frederick Trube
32
The brothers set up their respective businesses and investments.
Charles set up a shop repairing watches and ship's instruments. John
Clement moved to Galveston in 1868 after serving in the Civil War.
There he built up a chain of investments that in four years, when he
was 35, allowed him to retire.
In 1890 John Clement decided to build a new home. Doing most
of the design himself- family members later said he fondly remem­bered
details from a Danish castle-Trube entered into a $9,700
contract with John W. Pope, contractor, and Alfred Muller, architect.
Money went a long way before the turn of the century. The result
was a 30-room mansion that is a historical landmark today.
The home was described by an architectural critic a few years
ago as a "fearless melange;' possessing an "exuberant spirit:' Another
called it an "undisciplined and individualistic cross between Gothic
and Moorish design." The home is certainly unique. The building is
brick, plastered with Belgian cement to resemble cut stone. The man­sard
roof is punctuated with 12 gables, and an unusual, ornate chimney
Trube home, Galveston
33
Stairway of the Trube home, Galveston
I !
I I I ,: I .
j I . l
Bedroom in the Trube home, Galveston
divides as it rises to frame a cathedral window with stained glass
imported from Italy. Despite all this the home took only three months
to build. And it is strong. The building has survived many a hurri­cane
in Galveston with no more damage than a few bits of fallen plaster.
John Clement Trube died in 1925, but the house is still in the family,
still as solid as ever.
One Dane who apparently never stated a reason for coming to
America was Christian Dorbrandt who arrived in 1834. Born in
Denmark in 1818, he was 16 when he arrived, but apparently did not
come to avoid military service. Dorbrandt joined the United States
army and fought as a private in the Mexican War.
The young man then decided to stay with the army and was first
stationed in Maryland. On a visit to New Orleans in the early 1850's,
he met and married Annie Dunlavy of Ireland who was in the city
visiting her uncle.
Dorbrandt was transferred to Ft. Sill, Indian Territory, then to
Ft. Croghan near Burnet, Texas. He served as quartermaster sergeant
there for a while, but with the closing of the fort in 1855, Dorbrandt
retired from the army and built a home near present Marble Falls.
34
Battle of Cerro Bordo, 1846-47
Here, the young couple's first child, a daughter named Henrietta, was
born. She was the first of 14 children who were to form a large central
Texas family.
Dorbrandt did not have the military out of his blood, however,
and served as a Texas Ranger captain, then joined the Confederate
army. Often during the Civil War Annie was left alone in their rock
home in Backbone Valley. More than once, she locked herself in and
kept armed guard over her children while Indians threatened.
Dorbrandt, at 60 years of age, patrolled the Colorado River area
around Austin with the Rangers as they made the transition from
Austin skyline, c. 1860
35
Indian fighters to lawmen. Dorbrandt and his wife also built and oper­ated
a gin after a later move to the South Gabriel community. He
led an active life and died in 1910.
The Dane had remained rather a military man all his life. One
grandson recalled how all the children's shoes (and those of three grand­children
who lived in the home) had to be cleaned, polished and lined
up in precise order for the next morning. The grandchild assumed
this was a carryover from his grandfather's army days. It might also
have been a necessity with, at any one time, at least a dozen people
to get up and off to school.
One son, Christian Jr., was a cattle trail rider for years and became
city marshal of Burnet and sheriff of the county before he went into
ranching as a full-time profession.
Not all Danes who came to America were from the middle and
lower classes, workmen and farmers. Baron de LelVenskiold made the
same decision.
The L~:wenskiold family was prominent in Denmark. It included
relations to Norwegian families dating to when most of Norway was
part of the Danish empire. Individuals of high government rank and
accomplished literary and scientific talents were common.
Charles Grimur Thorkelin de Lr;wenskiold was born in 1823 at
Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. Here, where the young man's family
was in the service of the king, he was surrounded by the opulence
of royalty: paintings, music, weapons of the Norsemen and the sagas
of his forefathers. Educated by private tutors, then at the University
of Copenhagen, Thorkelin became a master linguist, fluent in French,
Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, Italian and English. He also learned
Danish court law and received superb military training.
When he was 19 a new world beckoned. He set sail for New York,
remaining there a time before sailing down to Florida, then to New
Orleans. Here the young baron was commissioned as a lieutenant
because of his past military training. In the city he met Sophie, daughter
of Sarah and Joseph Clark. They were married in 1848, and in New
Orleans a son, Oscar, was born. Here the young baron dropped his
royal titles; the "0" in his name changed to "o" in the New World.
In New Orleans in the 1850's there was much talk of the new
state of Texas. Colonel Henry Lawrence Kinney, a promoter and devel-
36
The Galveston waterfront, 1855
oper, interested the young man in his calls for settlement on the coast.
Lovenskiold decided on Corpus Christi, and in 1853 the family settled
in their new home.
In 1855 Lovenskiold decided to open an academy for young men
and women. He brought in a faculty of three teachers and started
Corpus Christi Academy. The school flourished and attracted students
from Texas and Mexico.
After a while Lovenskiold sold the school but kept busy practicing
law. He became known as a powerful speaker who could hold his own
in any courtroom. At the outbreak of the Civil War he became a colonel
for the Confederacy. During the war, and at the close of hostilities
Confederate attack on Galveston, january 1863
37
Capture of the Federal gunboat Harriet Lane during
the Confederate attack retaking Galveston, J anuary 1863
when he was a prisoner, the colonel's health was impaired . A severe
bronchial infection, which later required surgery, caused him virtually
to lose his voice. This curtailed his speaking in court but not his activity.
He joined up with a "speaking partner;' and the law firm went on.
After the war, in 186 7, a yellow fever epidemic struck the city.
The Lovenskiold family cooked meals, and the colonel took the food
to needy families. In the evenings the children were kept awake by
the hammering of coffin makers who worked across the street from
the Lovenskiold's home at Blucher and Carancahua Streets . . . but
the family escaped the plague.
Lovenskiold's law practice was a success, and he became well
known in south Texas. H e was a frequently elected alderman of the
city and was so serving at his death in 1875. Two sons, Oscar and
Perry, were mayors of Corpus Christi.
The Danes in early Texas were few compared to other groups
of immigrants. They brought intelligence and daring, resourcefulness
and skills. They made a direct contribution to Texas, but they did
not transplant a culture. They came as individuals. In the years before
the peak of emigration near the turn of the century, this would remain
the case. Danish colonial efforts were still to come.
38
IV. lee County: "little Denmark"
Sometime in the 1860's- the exact year is now forgotten- two
Texans turned up in Denmark asking if anyone wanted to move to
central Texas. This rather unlikely question, however, fell upon recep­tive
ears.
The two men were Travis Shaw and John Hester, and the main
reason for their trip was probably to sell land. Shaw lived near
Lexington on land his father had received for Texas revolutionary
military service, and Hester was a German whose wife, Louise Larsen,
was Danish. She had come to Texas earlier with three brothers. Perhaps
it was Louise who influenced the trip to Europe.
Today it is no longer known just which families came directly
from Denmark and which families moved from other places in the
United States, but within a few years northern Lee County was known
as "Little Denmark."
In the 1860's the area was Burleson County. Lee County was
created in 1874 largely from Burleson and Bastrop counties. It was
a pleasant plain of open fields separated by swaths of post oak. The
oldest settlement anywhere around was Lexington, which had been
settled in the 1850's.
39
On board an emigrant ship, 1870
Immigrants picking up train tickets in New York on the way west, 1880
40
Initially, more than 20 Danish families came to the area about
eight miles west of Lexington, and others moved in between 1870 and
1880. A few continued to arrive until about the turn of the century.
Most of the Danes who chose this area for a new home were farmers
or farm workers, but a few were craftsmen in various trades.
Christian Moelbeck, a saddlemaker, his wife, her brother and
a related family, Mr. and Mrs. C.D.A. Schutt, were among the first
to arrive. Paul Paulsen was a cabinetmaker; Niels Thompson was a
carpenter and bricklayer; Klaus and J ens Thomassen were farmers;
and Peter Jensen was a blacksmith. Other families were led by Hans
Sorensen, Peter Andersen, Niels Petersen, Niels Christian Olsen, Peter
Nygaard, Rasmus Rasmussen and jacob Vittrup among others. Some
single men arrived; most married local girls. Some husbands came
from Denmark alone and sent for their families later.
Here were enough families to preserve things Danish- for a short
time. Most of the families adapted quickly to American life. After all,
in t~ir new home they were a very small minority. Names changed:
Thomassen became Thompson, Hojst became Hoyst, Rasmussen
changed to Robertson andjens became Yens as a Dane gave up trying
to write the 'T' for Americans who pronounced it another way.
A change in spelling happened to many a Danish name in the
Americas. Some Danish individuals adopted German spelling, some
Norwegian or Swedish, and some took forms they thought were more
"American." For centuries the Danes had used patronymic names: The
son would be called by his father's first name plus " -son," or " -sen"
in Danish. This resulted in a family name change in each generation.
In 1856 a government decree abolished the system. Family names were
fixed, leaving over one-third of the population with " -sen" endings.
This spelling was often changed to " -son" in the United States.
There were other changes. A few families in the Lee County area
taught their children Danish, but this did not last long. Members
drifted out of the Lutheran church to join local denominations. Church
gatherings were considerably different in this new land, particularly
the brush arbor gatherings or camp meetings. Near the Hvidberg farm
Brother Henry Purser, a Methodist minister, conducted his outdoor
meeting. Families arrived ready to camp out for up to a week. They
brought chicken coops on their wagons or even led milk cows. In the
days before ice, food had to be transported fresh . The wagons also
41
carried blankets for sleeping, some even a tent. In a week's time Brother
Purser, or men like him, could count on quite a few conversions. And
some Danish families were at the camp meetings.
The Danes enjoyed visiting among themselves, and there was a
lasting community spirit. They did not give up their family gatherings
that, besides beer and polkas, now included new-found dominoes. They
did not give up their kartojler (boiled potatoes) or rodgrod (a thickened,
fruit juice pudding) at mealtimes. Nor did they often forget the custom
of pastry and coffee every day at 10 a .m. and at 3 p.m.-a requirement
if visitors were in the home.
But most of the Danes did what other early settlers had to do:
the women made clothes for the family, prepared the food and took
care of the young children, while the men farmed or worked at a craft,
more often and worked at a craft, selling any surplus in town.
Jens Thomassen's story is not uncommon. He and his brother
Klaus were sons of a parish schoolteacher who lived on the North Sea
side of] ylland near Thisted. Emigration from this part of Denmark
would reach 89 people out of 1,000. Talk about going elsewhere was
in the air.
}ens and Klaus Thomassen arrive in Lee County, 1874
42
In 1870 the brothers decided to make their move. Jens was 21
when he arrived in New York, unable to speak English, but aware
that other Danes he traveled with were going to Chicago. There he
was a quarry worker for a while, but decided to leave for Louisiana.
It was no better. Cutting barrel staves from cypress logs in a mosquito­infested
bayou country was not to his liking. In 1874 he and his brother
heard of, then came to, Lee County. Jens Thomassen, now Yens
Thompson, was attracted by more than the farmland. He met and
married Anna Oman, a Swedish girl who lived there.
Four boys and four girls were born to the young couple. Yet Lee
County was a frontier, and these were years before antibiotics and
regular medical care. Food and shelter were not the only problems.
Two boys died as children, and their mother died of pneumonia in 1894.
Yens later married a widow, Mrs. Denolus Thomas, a school­teacher
known as Nolie. Yens and Nolie had three daughters born to
them and also reared Nolie's daughter by her former marriage. It was
a large group. Years later a younger daughter, Flora Thompson, wrote
of the family: "None of us had ever 'set the world on fire: We just
'growed' on a sandhill farm three miles west of Lexington, the whole
'pahsel' of us:' Six children of the family were teachers, and a son,
Thomas W. Thompson, became county attorney, then county judge.
This family, like most of the others, produced leading citizens,
farmed and built, and solved the problems of living very much like
families today. In fact, most of the problems are the same: how to
make a living, raise a family, make a chair or a poem or a good corn
crop and find joy in life. An immigrant is merely a person making
a home in a new place.
Most Danish families in northern Lee County raised large vege­table
gardens along with orchards of fruit trees. Niels Thompson also
operated Thompson's Gin for cotton in the Liberty settlement area
and made bricks; and Peter Christian jensen, originally from Copen­hagen,
soon had what he could not have in Denmark-a farm of 375
acres. After a dispute about who could attend a local private school,
Peter gave part of his land for a school which he named the "Equal
Rights School" because anyone could attend. Some of the first arrivals
moved on after a number of years to Williamson County or Rockdale
or Austin- as did most of their children.
43
Today, the original Danish families are hard to spot through their
descendants. There were not enough people to form a lasting colony,
and acculturation of local habits and intermarriage evened out the
differences . Yet asking about the Danes in Lee County today usually
brings a simple response: "They're mighty fine people."
V. Increased Emigration
The peak years of Danish emigration were between 1885 and about
1895. National legislation had required ship companies to provide
better facilities for passengers, new steamships had cut the Atlantic
passage time to between 11 and 14 days, and emigration agents
thronged Europe selling tickets to America. Books and brochures
described not only the general desirability of America, but also listed
specific areas where land or jobs were available. And most letters from
relatives in America confirmed the opportunities.
Among earlier Danish emigrants the percentage of single men
was high. As family size declined generally in Denmark, more young
couples emigrated on their own. Individuals still accounted for most
of the first moves. In 1870 about 50% of the Danish emigrants were
in family groups. By 1890 only 25% were families. The motive for
emigration began to change from a hard economic necessity to a desire
for adventure or fortune hunting. Few of the emigrants were starving,
but most thought they could better their lot in life elsewhere. When
asked why they emigrated, most people answered "I did not want to
be a common laborer in my own country" or "I did not care to live
such a life of drudgery and poverty as my parents lived; I can't do
worse in America, and I may do better."
45
Emigrants boarding a steamer in Hamburg, Germany, 1894
And America was getting good people. Some countries, including
Denmark, did rouse the ire of American officials by occasionally
shipping out criminals, but the practice was rare. Careful studies made
in some areas- particularly Sweden- show that the average Scandina­vian
emigrant setting out for the New World was measurably more
intelligent, often had a better education, and was a bit more enter­prising
than the person of the same social class that stayed at home.
America was not a dumping ground, except in an economic sense.
Most of those who came from Denmark did not own land. They
were farm workers, servants, and younger sons and daughters. A few,
about 3%, were landholders; fishermen accounted for nearly 2%; busi­nessmen
and professionals totaled almost 8%; some 18% were crafts­men
and apprentices; about 25% were domestic or industrial workers
from town; and almost 44% were rural laborers, the landless.
Dealing with these people were the emigration agents. Indepen­dent
or in the pay of transportation or land companies, they set up
headquarters in towns and toured the countryside. They sold ship
tickets, railroad tickets for the land part of the journey in America,
guidebooks and even supplies for the voyage.
Sometimes, even though traveling conditions were improving,
emigrants were handled like cattle. The American Aid & Homestead
46
Interior of an
immigrant train, 18 74
47
An immigrant train going west, 1880's
The hold of an emigrant ship, 1869
Company, while recruiting emigrants, claimed to have vast Texas
holdings. When the company suddenly admitted bankruptcy, one boat­load
of 400 Scandinavians was actually auctioned off. Officials of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, who wanted settlers to buy their land,
bought rights to the entire group for a commission of $5000. Some
emigrants, unable to speak English and generally confused over the
arrangements, ended up where they had no plans to be. "Runners"
or baggage grabbers thronged ports, officially charging little for helping
the newly arrived immigrant with luggage and information, but many
were swindlers and confidence men. The worst were perfectly capable
of separating the newly arrived person from most of his money.
Travel agents from Texas, Arkansas and California set up shop
in Copenhagen and engaged in highly competitive campaigns to secure
emigrants, just a little short of shanghaiing, in the opinion of some.
C .D. Friedel, an agent from the Cunard Ship Line, was a Danish
brewer who immigrated to Texas, then returned to work as an agent
in Copenhagen. The second move was probably more profitable.
But all of the perils were braved, most emigrants survived, and
the Danes arrived in increasing numbers. No one knows just how many
Danes decided that the New World was not for them and went home.
Some studies show this number may have been as high as 10% from
some areas.
48
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Christian Mouritzen's store and
emigration office in Copenhagen
The Danes were a bit different from the Norwegians or Swedes.
More Danes went to other parts of the world (particularly Australia),
and single men made up a greater percentage than in other Scandi­navian
groups. The Danes sent back only about one-half as many
prepaid tickets to America as the Norwegians. Immigration statistics
hint that the Danes were a bit more individualistic in their choices
of direction of travel and where to live. Still, 88% of the emigrating
Danes came to America. Of all the Scandinavians, they spread out
more over the country, did not congregate into communities as much
and were the most quickly assimilated into the American way of life.
For the 1840-1914 period about 309,000 Danes left their home­land,
compared to 1,105,000 Norwegians and about 754,000 Swedes.
The emigration rate itself, the percentage, was almost always lower
in Denmark.
49
Danes who came to Texas in the latter three decades of the 19th
century had often seen considerable travel before they settled down.
One such was John J. Peez, later Captain John Peetz, after a
slight name change. He was born in Schleswig and came with his
parents John and Annie Peez to New Orleans in 1849. The family
moved to Mobile where John J. soon learned the trade of ship's car­penter.
He left on his first voyage just in time to join the British navy
and end up in the Crimean War. Leaving that employment, he sailed
on successive ships to Peru, Chile, Argentina, Holland, Massachusetts
and back to New Orleans.
Working on the Gulf coast, Peetz joined Confederate forces at
the start of the Civil War and ended up for a time as an artilleryman,
very much on land, in the Appalachians. His talents were finally
realized, and he was returned to naval duty.
After the war and a trip to Europe, Peetz came to Galveston and
engaged in coastal trade east to Louisiana and west to Tampico. In
1874 he married Alvena Langholz, also originally a native of Schleswig.
Her father was Major A.H. Langholz, a Dane serving with Union
forces. He had come to Texas with Federal troops during reconstruc­tion
and shortly thereafter brought his family to Galveston. Here the
Danish captain met his future wife.
Christian Andersen had a somewhat similar story, but ended up
further inland. Young Christian lived outside Aalborg, Denmark,
where his father was a small landholder. Christian's first job, in 1844
when he was five, was tending geese, but by the time he was ten his
horizons had broadened. He had heard of the goldfields of California.
His mother died when he was 16, his father remarried, and Christian
was drafted to fight the Germans. This he did, but Denmark lost. The
War of 1864 lost Schleswig and Holstein to Germany until 1920 when
north Schleswig was returned to Denmark through a plebiscite, a
general vote. For the Danes in these provinces the intervening decades
were confusing. Although Christian did not live in the transferred
provinces, he decided to leave Denmark.
In 1866 Christian and a wartime acquaintance, Harry Johnsen,
traveled to England, then Quebec. By the time they arrived in America,
they had $5 each. It was winter, but being Danes they knew what cold
weather was all about. Unable to find work immediately, they somehow
50
Passenger lists of emigrant ships give a minimum of information
about those who made the journey. The following are examples of Danes
landing at Galveston.
Biel, Carl- Norden; wife Mathilda nee Hander- Christiansfeld, Denmark, to Austin
County, Magnet, 1851.
Bobzien, Fried., with wife-Trendelberg, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
Hander, Amalie Maria-Christiansfeld, Denmark, to San Antonio; Gutenberg, 1855.
Hander, Carl- Christiansfeld, Denmark, to Fayette Co.; Gutenberg, 1855.
Hander, Christian Wilhelm- Christiansfeld, Denmark, to Austin Co., later to Falls
Co.; Gutenberg, 1855.
Hander, Julius- Christiansfeld, Denmark, to Washington Co., later to McLennan Co.;
Gutenberg, 1855.
Hander, Maren, 50 (died in Coma! Co., 1856), Carl22, Christian 21, Julius 18, Maria
15, Charlotte 12- Christiansfeld, Denmark; Gutenberg, 1855.
Hansen, Lorenz-Sunderbord, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
Jessen, Joh. Henrik, 36-Svendborg, Denmark; Gutenberg, 1855.
Marxen, Phil.- Marne, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
Matsen, Ch.-Oesterbye, Denmark; Washington, 1852.
Meyer, Christian and wife- Helgoland to Bexar; Gaston, 1860.
Neils, Hans, 25-Bordesholm, Holstein; Gutenberg, 1855.
Nicolaisen, Nils- Oesterbye, Denmark; Washington, 1852.
Niedermann, Carl- Middelfarth, Denmark; Washington, 1852.
Nielsen, Cornel- Roming, Denmark; Washington, 1852.
Plambeck, Heinrich, Catharina, Christian, Heinrich, Anna, Catharina-Neumuenster,
Holstein; Gutenberg, 1855.
Schnoor, Claus, wife and 4 children-Kuden, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
Schnoor, Heinrich, wife and 8 children; Copernicus, 1852.
Steffansen, Caroline, 16, with J oh. H . Jessen -Svendborg, Denmark; Gutenberg, 1855.
Stein, Christian, Doris, Hein., Christian, Hans-Neumuenster, Holstein; Gutenberg, 1855.
Staertjer, Anna-Garz, Holstein; Hampden, 1854.
Striegler, J.F.G., 41, Christine 41, Ernestine 18, Alphorstine 16, Arthur 15, Wilhelm
13, Nicolaus 12, Ida 11, Friedr. 7, Olga 4, Jens V. -Svendborg, Denmark, to Gillespie
Co. (1860); Gutenberg, 1855.
Thoischen, E.- Christiansand, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
Thorngrel, J.- Copenhagen, Denmark; Leibniz, 1850.
Traudgen, Carl, 33 -Svendborg, Denmark; Gutenberg, 1855.
Vock, Georg- Benz, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
Weide, Fr. Wilhelm- Flensburg, Denmark; Copernicus, 1852.
From New Homes in a New Land, German Immigration to Texas, 1817-1861
by Ethel Bander Geue.
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51
traveled west, following other Danes to the north central states. In
Michigan a Swedish farmer gave them the not-too-cheerful job of
grubbing stumps out of his snow-covered fields .
By spring the young men had found better work in a sawmill,
which gave them enough money to travel south and take a ship for
Panama. By this time they were bound for California. After crossing
the isthmus they embarked on an unlucky ship. Cholera broke out
soon after departure.
Christian Andersen and Harry Johnsen watch a
burial while taking refuge in the rigging during a
cholera epidemic at sea
The Danes climbed high into the rigging with what supplies they
could carry and refused to come down. Either their resistance or their
altitude was high enough- they did not catch cholera. They survived,
grimly watching below as the bodies of other passengers were dropped
into the sea.
After three weeks of quarantine at San Francisco, the men did
not even want to debark over the gangplank. They jumped into the
bay and swam ashore well away from the docks.
52
Once ashore, the only California gold Andersen andj ohnsen saw
was their pay from a sawmill where they worked. After a time the
young men wandered back east, overland through Wyoming, Nebraska,
then into Kansas at the Oklahoma line where they tried farming, but
they made two mistakes. They had actually settled on Indian land
and were told to move by the Indian agent. They did not take much
convincing because the second mistake was that their farm lay right
in the path of the Texas cattle drives.
They moved south through Dallas, then on to San Antonio in
the spring of 1872, hoping to join a wagon train headed west. While
at a market area they met judge Booker Davenport who invited them
to take a look at Bandera and the Texas Hill Country.
They agreed, but the trip was a slow one. The wagon broke a
wheel and one of the team of horses broke a leg. The spring weather
and the beautiful country did the rest. The Danes decided they had
had enough traveling.
Although Johnsen later did move to Del Rio, Christian looked
at and later bought a ranch up Red River Creek. He stayed there the
rest of his life. Christian became a citizen, married Adeline Klemme
of Boerne in 1874 and raised a family of four. Christian Andersen
lived until 1926. His family said that he never really gave up his dream
of having a home overlooking San Francisco, paid for with California
gold. But a daughter, Lana Anderson Wallace, left a thought that may
have been as good: "My father gathered very little California gold to
leave to posterity, but he did leave a good name and very sweet mem­ories,
and I am glad he was my Dad."
The Gillespie County area attracted a number of Danish families
over the years who were often related by marriage, were friends or
had heard of central Texas through former acquaintances in Denmark.
One early arrival was Rasmus Frandsen who had gone to
America, drifted around for a while and decided on the central Texas
Hill Country as home. He often wrote back to a former schoolmate,
J ohan Striegler, telling him how good America was.
Thus J ohan Frederick Gottlieb Striegler and his wife J en sine
Lange decided to make the journey to Texas. Theirs was no easy deci­sion.
Jensine was the daughter of a well-known architect and well­established
Danish family. Johan was an educated man, part Norwe-
53
Jensine Lange Striegler Johan Frederick Gottlieb Striegler
gian, a talented musician, and owner of a small linen textile mill and
a dry goods store. J ohan was also the inventor of a loom which prom­ised
to have great application in making woolen materials. For a time
he was even the owner of two farms in Denmark and was assistant
mayor of Svendborg. But, with a growing family, business was simply
not good enough to give the Strieglers the security they wanted. Nor
did the opportunities look good enough for their children. And perhaps
J ohan and his wife liked adventure.
Leaving their businesses and lands in the care of relatives, the
family left their homeland. The father Johan was 42 when he made
the move with his wife and nine children. In October of 1855 the party
of 15 landed at Indianola, Texas, after a seven-week trip. With the
family were two servants and two young men who had previously
worked in the linen factory. Not incidentally, one of these young men,
William Otte, was the fiance of Antoinette Striegler, the eldest daughter.
Agreeing with Antoinette that the Atlantic Ocean would not separate
them, he stowed away on the ship. When well out at sea, he revealed
his presence and was, perhaps necessarily, welcomed by the family.
The couple was wed in the spring of 1856 at Fredericksburg.
54
After a rough journey by oxcart the family arrived at the Rasmus
Frandsen home where they were to stay until they could build their
own house. Johan bought a parcel of land near the Rocky Hill com­munity
just east of Fredericksburg, where other Danish families were
later to settle, and finished a house there.
While the men set about getting a farm going, building houses
and animal shelters, making furniture and farm equipment, the women
set up housekeeping. They took care of the younger children, cooked,
sewed, made soap and candles, knitted stockings and scarves, and pre­pared
any farm surplus for market. What food could be raised was sup­plemented
by deer, fish, squirrel, wild turkey and ducks, honey, wild
grapes, plums and pecans- all abundant in the Pedernales River valley.
About 1860 J ohan and his three oldest sons became United States
citizens-just in time for secession and the Civil War. The three older
sons joined the Confederate army; and the two youngest and their
father served in the Home Guard and trucked freight to Mexico during
the years of the Federal blockade.
Johan died in November of 1872 and was, according to the family,
well satisfied with his move to a new land.
0. W Striegler and daughter Constance
55
One of his sons, Frederick Christian, remained on the family
farm for a while, then at age 21, after the Civil War, joined the Texas
Rangers. He served until 1871 in the San Saba area, then worked as
a cowboy on the Chisholm Trail, returning to Texas with wagons of
trade goods. Frederick evidently tired of wandering, for he returned
to central Texas and married Mary Louise Mogford. The couple reared
a large family and lived the rest of their lives in central Texas.
Another son, Arthur, started his adult life as a mail carrier, then
entered Civil War service as an interpreter. He could speak English,
French, German and Spanish in addition to his native Danish. After
some postwar years as a cattleman, Arthur managed the family farm
until 1887. Going back to Denmark for a visit, Arthur there met Marie
Lorentzen. Denmark, particularly in the company of Marie, was attrac­tive,
but he decided not to stay. Back in Texas he became a public
surveyor in 1891, when he was 51, and worked for several counties.
In the meantime Marie had become his fiancee. She arrived in
Galveston in 1892, and they were married.
Arthur and Maria Striegler with children George, Signe and Richmond
Arthur gave the land at Rocky Hill for the local school which
became the community school for children of the area. Establishing
56
The Rocky Hill School near Fredericksburg
Gathering for the golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Ove Striegler, July 1919
57
their home nearby, they raised their three children on a farm for a
number of years, then moved into Fredericksburg after the turn of
the century. The Striegler family, including many other members,
became well-known, contributing notable citizens to Texas, California
and England.
And the Danes-a few-spread out over Texas in these years. Most
of them found prosperity and pleasant times enough for a family; some
bear stories of success and some of trouble.
In 1891 an Andersen family arrived in central Texas from
Denmark via Galveston. This family left again, returning to Denmark
in 1904 because of the promise of receiving land there. The promise
was not fulfilled, and the family found itself financially unable to return
to America. Perhaps as a compromise, the daughters, Katrine Anine
andJensine Andrea, returned alone to make new lives for themselves.
John Sorenson came to Texas in 1872 and worked as a bricklayer
near Dallas. In the late 1870's Sorenson worked on the Galveston,
Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad, but later moved to New Mexico
where he became a contractor. He started doing military contract work
and moved on to El Paso in 1880 to work on buildings at Ft. Bliss.
Sorenson remained in town, starting his own brickyard and contracting
for most of the first brick buildings in town.
Frederick D. Bader came to Texas as a member of the commissary
department of the United States Army in 1866. Bader served for a
time in the state police, then later as a Bexar County deputy sheriff.
A few Danes made Williamson County their home. Some families
moved into the Frame Switch and Hutto areas, largely from other areas
of Texas. The first blacksmith in Hutto was Carl "Cap" Hansen, a
Dane who helped immigrant families set up homes in the area during
the 1880's.
Thus, the Danes came in small numbers, had many vocations
and were found in most areas of the state. The story of Christian
Mathisen shows the effect of a good recommendation by a country­man.
This was a common way for Danes to learn of a new, possibly
better, homeland.
Before 1890 S0ren Hoisager and others like J ens Hansen had
settled in the Stonewall area. J ens, a sea captain from the island of
Sejem, traded his heavy overcoat for a cow and his gold watch for
58
Christian Mathisen
at about age 26
The Peter Anderson family who came to Hutto in 1891
59
a horse to set himself up as a central Texas farmer. S0ren decided to
return to Denmark to visit his family. There he met Christian
Mathisen. Christian had just finished his apprenticeship as a black­smith
and was about to start traveling, hoping to build up trade for
himself and even perhaps find a permanent location.
Meeting Hoisager and hearing his description of the Texas Hill
Country, however, changed things. Mathisen and Hoisager's sister
decided to go to America with S0ren . According to family tradition,
Christian's motive was curiosity. By November of 1890 the three were
in Texas. Christian spent that Christmas at the farm ofjens Hansen,
in the company of fellow Danes, but far from home.
Within one year Hoisager's stories were proven correct. The new
land was a good place to live- good for a new home. Christian's father,
Mathis Mathisen, his mother and their other children- Christine,
Marius, Julia, Annie, Walter and Andrea-joined the move from
Stenderup, Denmark, to the Fredericksburg area.
Fredericksburg, c. 18 90
60
Christian and his father set up a blacksmithing business, including
Mathis's occupations as wheelwright and cabinetmaker. They repaired
all sorts of machinery, shod horses, and made plows and wagons. What
may have been the first gasoline engine in the county was used to power
the lathe and even run an elevator in the building. Their shop operated
in a small building on Main Street in Fredericksburg.
The Mathisens maintained a number of Danish customs including
the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, a gathering of families for each
birthday and occasional songs in Danish. No effort was made to teach
Danish, however, so only that which was spoken in Mathis's and
Christian's generation prevailed. In fact, in this area of predominantly
German settlement, Christian's children learned German during their
first school years along with English. There was no apparent Danish­German
rivalry in the Texas Hill Country- unlike conditions in
Europe. In fact, many of the Danish families intermarried quickly
with the Germans who had preceded them by nine or so years.
Christian Mathisen and his wife Emily Striegler are remembered
for their storytelling. Emily had a great store of fairy tales, not the
least of which were the same as those written by Hans Christian
Andersen. Christian, by contrast, had tales of the pagan gods, Odin
Mr. and Mrs. Christian Mathisen
61
and Thor, and he told the stories in verse-with great conviction. He
always had an appropriate story to illustrate any happening of the day.
But Danish was not spoken in the home, and only one rhyme-a
Danish children's poem fancifully naming the fingers of the hand­survives
in the family: "Tommeltot, Slikkepot, Langemand, Guldibrand, Litle
Peter Spillemand."
Christian was always an active man and a person highly thought
of by his neighbors. In addition to his founding work with the
Fredericksburg National Farm Loan Association, he had more unusual
activities. Near the turn of the century, long before there was a question
of energy supply, Christian built a wind-powered electric generator.
In those early years, however, there was no practical use for the strange
device, and the children would play with it, drawing mild but quite
appreciable shocks from the apparatus.
Christian, however, was particularly known for working with the
farm loan program and other activities such as rural free mail delivery,
local telephone systems and innovative agricultural methods.
The entire family was an active one. Marius, Christian's brother,
produced a tubeless automobile tire in San Antonio during World War
I, but it was a device ahead of its time. His compact radio antenna
was more practical. One of Christian's daughters, Colonel Louise
Mathisen Ergas, made a career of military nursing. A former operat­ing-
room chief and chief anaesthetist at Fort Sam Houston Base
Hospital, she served in World War II. After the war she worked in
Hawaii, Germany and occupied Japan. Fred Mathisen became a
leading Fredericksburg businessman and rancher engaged in a large
number of civic activities, and Mrs. Myrtle Maren Mathisen
Westerfeldt was a teacher with experience from college physics down
to the first grade.
And today scores of others descended from the first Danish families
live in the area. As far as some Danish Texans are concerned, the Hill
Country is home.
Hans Gammel, who was to become a well-known Danish Texan
indeed, arrived in 1877. He was later the bookman of Texas: collector,
seller, publisher, and undisputed bibliophile of Texana and western
titles. He already had quite a bit of activity in the field behind him
when he came to Texas.
62
Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel
Karl Hans Peter Marius Nielsen Gamel, who was to become
H.P.N. Gammel in America, was born in 1854 in Grenaa, Jylland.
His father Niels Hansen and mother Mette Marie Jensen Brugger
had eight children, four of whom died young. Hans was a robust young
man, hardworking and, in his words, "always in trouble."
What Hans's father did is not known now. He was either a small
landholder or a miller. Hans worked as a farm laborer when young,
bringing in extra money to the family. Times were hard, and Hans's
brother Niels and two sisters, Minnie and Sena, left for America.
Hans worked hard. "I grew up at 15 and was a full grown man
at 16." He was strongly built, active all his life and wore rather long
blond hair. Hans, like many a young man, did not like schoolrooms,
but he did like to read, an interest that would shape his later life.
At 16 Hans fell in love. He ". . . saw Marie and wanted to get
married. I had to lay my case before the King who authorized the
marriage before I was of age. I got my papers, married, worked hard.
And after a year or more we had a sweet baby born to us." Hans and
Anna Marie Andersen soon had a family, and equally soon, found
themselves in the common condition of so many other Danes. Life
could be lived, but not nearly so well as one might wish.
63
In 1874 Hans's sister Minnie came home from America for a visit.
When she returned Hans went with her "to dig some gold and send
for the family:' Arriving in New York, Hans traveled to Chicago where
he stayed with his other sister, Sena. There his brother Niels came
too, and they teamed up to make their way in the new land.
Both Hans and Niels had what the family called a ')olly" dispo­sition.
In fact, they were hardworking optimists. The brothers soon
had jobs as traveling salesmen. They dressed in fine suits and sold
inexpensive jewelry. Niels had learned the ways of America, and so
did Hans, who did not like to be taken for a greenhorn. Hans had
some trouble at first with language. He learned to say "ham and eggs"
and ordered only this breakfast until his English improved. That took
a while. In later years he avoided that dish.
But he kept traveling and selling cheap jewelry until he knew
English and much of America. The brothers traveled to the young
towns of the West and the older ones of the East. They saw other
immigrants-much like themselves-populating the Great Plains and
crossing the Rockies. They traveled with settlers and desperadoes,
families and rootless men.
"What we did and how;' Hans later said, "is a dead letter. I never
killed anybody and never robbed anybody and I hardly ever carried
a gun except (when) deputized. I will say I was with many desperate
men, knew them but never was in trouble with them. I would drink
but never got drunk. If I did drink, I would never fight."
This was a good enough set of rules for living in the early
American West. Hans survived and soon brought his wife and daughter
to Chicago. Then he and Niels went south. They arrived in Galveston
in 1877, stayed in Houston for awhile and were in Austin the next
year. Hans liked the small capital city and wrote his wife that it was
a good place, but told her she could not join him just then because
he had lost most of his money through a bit of gambling in Houston.
Young Marie wrote back that, money or no money, she was coming
down. That decided Hans's permanent home. Marie and their daugh­ter
were soon in town, and Hans worked at a number of activities
to keep the family together and food on the table.
He rented a place on Congress Avenue and set up shop as a
merchant, selling whatever he could: stationery for soldiers and freight-
64
Congress Avenue, Austin, c. 1875
ers, jewelry and lemonade. He worked with two other Danes supplying
poles for telegraph lines and took odd jobs in town. Behind the store
he set up a combination bedroom, parlor and dining room.
"We lived high;' Hans wrote later, "with a bed made of some old
boxes and a table and 2 chairs I bought for 40¢.
One day Hans bought 24 books for 25¢ . First, he read them to
improve his English, then he put them out on a shelf in a chinaberry
tree in front of his shop. They sold. Gammel found out that Texans
like himself did read, and he soon was regularly buying books for 5¢
and selling them for a dime. This was the start of one of the most
famous bookstores and private collections of books in the state.
Gammel moved several times in Austin, once even to El Paso for
a short time, but did not ever swerve from his interest in books. His
business at first was a ten-cent store, where he sold all sorts of items,
but the books gradually took over. Austinites called his store "a
bookstand where lemonade was sold on Saturdays" or "a lemonade
stand with books and trinkets for sale also." It was soon to be nationally
known. And the window displays became legendary. Once he bought
a cheap violin and put it in his front window-with a price tag of
$2,500.00. He made up a wonderful story about a Dane who, at the
end of an incredibly difficult journey, played the instrument for the
king. The violin did attract browsers. Much later a stranger stopped
by when the store was filled with regular customers and to their
amusement asked to buy the violin for $2.50. He had misread the
65
· The Colonial Capitol, Austin, c. 1880
· ~ --;_ ~
Burning of the Capitol, 1881
The Colonial Capitol in Austin after
the fire of November 1881 •
66
marked price. "Sold;' Gammel said and hastily concluded the deal to
everyone's amazement. The violin had already done its job, of course,
and H.P.N. Gammel went on to other unusual window displays.
Life in Austin was varied, with its share of sadness. Late in 1880
his wife died of typhoid, and he and his daughter were hospitalized
for weeks. Finally recovered, Gammel found himself almost alone.
Even his brother was in some unknown place. "When I got up, my
little business was gone, wife gone, brother gone. Baby was all I had."
But Gammel was not down for long. He was then 27, and he
started again. About a year later he attended a camp meeting north
of Austin. At these religious revivals ministers often resorted to various
offers to keep interest high. The minister in charge of the weeks-long
camp offered to perform the first marriage ceremony absolutely free
during the course of the meetings.
On the first day Gammel met a young Swedish woman, Josephine
Matilda Ledel. She had been sent to Texas to live with relatives when
her family had drifted into difficult financial straits. Now 16, she
planned to return to Sweden but, within a few days, found herself very
much in love with Gammel. They took up the minister's offer. Hans
wrote of his marriage as "an incident of interest ... that was entirely
out of the book business." But he always understated his enthusiasms- it
was a match that was to last the rest of their lives.
A few months later an event took place that was to have a singular
effect on Gammel's life. About noon on Wednesday, November 9, 1881,
the state capitol building caught fire, probably from a defective stove.
In a matter of hours it was gutted. State officials saved what they could,
but the local water pressure was too low to fight the fire, and soon
the building was a collapsed, smoldering ruin, gradually becoming
watersoaked in a slow, winter rain.
Inside had been the records of the state for 36 years, the Republic
of Texas, and even documents dating to Mexican and Spanish times:
land titles, laws, census figures, transcribed speeches, letters and tax
records. And in these things Gammel had a great interest. He secured
salvage rights to the building and a small salary in return for removing
the rubble.
Before the winter weather could add to the damage, the husky
Dane waded into the mass of charred furniture, papers, walls and
67
Hans Gammel salvages papers from the remains of the capitol fire of 1881
cabinets, dressed in hip boots and overalls. He would often work all
day, his wife bringing his lunch to the ruins. Hans removed the rubble,
but the papers of state went back to his house. There he and Josephine
hung the documents on clotheslines to dry, inside the house and out.
They cleaned what they could and ironed wrinkled papers. Josephine
was not too happy about the job at first. She agreed with the
neighbors- it was quite a sight- but Hans's enthusiasm about the
salvaged documents was infectious. It became a challenge: the papers
should not be lost, and later there might be a use for them. The
documents were stored with the family belongings of the newlyweds.
They lay idle for a long time -long enough for Hans to enter the
publishing business.
This activity started in 1890 with Early Times in Texas and included
many other titles, but the largest venture was the Laws of Texas,
1822-1897. This ten-volume work, bound as 30 volumes, was an instant
and overwhelming success. The volumes depended heavily on the
salvaged state papers which C.W. Raines, the state librarian, helped
Gammel put into shape. The set was an instant classic and remains
so even to this day: the fundamental collection of Texas law.
68
Gammel's success was assured, even though stormy days as a state
printer and unsuccessful ventures into Texas oil and New Mexico
meerschaum were also his lot. Gammel did some land buying and
selling over much of Texas, including parcels in Rains, Ward, Loving
and Liberty counties and town lots in Lubbock, Galveston and
Harlingen, but with no great profit. He even bought chances in the
Danish Colonial Class lottery, but his store continued to be the chief
source of income and, other than the Laws of Texas, the occupation
for which he was most well known.
Gammel's letterheads became collectors' items. One printed in
1917 read "The Oldest Book Store in the State, Established in 1877.
The proprietor, Gammel, was born in Denmark, rich and good
looking- not so now." Another listed his business references as "Mrs.
H .P.N. Gammel, her three boys and five girls, and a few other friends:'
He also printed a "Public Notice" that said" .. . H.P.N. Gammel is
guaranteed safe and solid by his long time friend, H .P.N. Gammel:'
One letterhead gave his company rundown: "Capital Stocks
$000,000.00; Director: H .P.N. Gammel; President: H .P.N. Gammel;
Site of the Gammel-Statesman Publishing Company on Congress Avenue, Austin
69
Vice-President: H.P.N. Gammel; and Secretary-Treasurer: H.P.N.
Gammel." His invoices bore what was to become a famous logotype:
"If it's a book . . . Get it at Gammel's."
And at his desk book orders and shipment notes were kept on
fragments of paper sacks, envelopes, tablet pages, the backs of wedding
invitations, and even postcards.
Hans's personal collection of books relating to Texas became
famous. He always maintained he was no expert, but was certainly
considered so in all matters of books. In addition, his store had the
largest holdings of literature, law and Texana titles in the state.
Gammel was always a friendly and predictable presence in his
store. He wore fine suits, but apparently always had on the same black
string tie- he kept 24 of them, exactly alike in wear. His business desk
was complete with a trained mouse, and his dog Bill had a charge
account at the nearby market and drugstore. At home Gammel enter­tained
with his famous Copenhagen punch, the composition of which
remained a secret even from friends- it was, in fact, the remains of
the bottles in his liquor cabinet, whatever that might be at the time
of compounding. But Gammel was no eccentric. To him, these "jollities"
were as real as his book collection and his family- no less a part of
his life.
Gammel died in February of 1931, a year after Josephine, leaving
married daughters and sons to carry on the business for a time. It
perhaps was not the same, for Gammel was a part of the bookstore
and his personal collections. The latter passed into the Vandale col­lection,
then to The University of Texas.
And today, the initials G.P.L. have a special meaning to Texana
book collectors. When Gammel would acquire a particularly rare item,
it would go into his private library, where people were free to read,
but seldom to borrow. Gammel's sons would say to later dealers that
a title was in "papa's private librarY:' This was gradually converted to
"Granpa's Private Library" which referred to a rare and wonderful book
indeed. Today, the "G.P.L. item" can be counted on to drain the purse.
70
VI. Danevang: The Danish Field
The first group of Danes who could be called colonists came to
Texas in 1894. Land on the coastal plain had been bought by the Dansk
Folkesamfund, the Danish People's Society. In southwest Wharton
County the society hoped to found a colony where Danish culture and
language might be preserved. A branch of the Danish Lutheran Church
also supported the effort as a church colony. This interest had started
some years earlier and arose in part from a church dispute in Denmark.
Around 1870 (officially from 1894) the Evangelical Danish
Lutherans in America split into two synods. The break created the
Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Danish Lutheran
Church, close in name, but indicating a rift between groups of Danish
Americans. The Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, the branch or
synod to have the Texas colony as its religious charge, was composed
of the followers of N.F. S. Grundtvig- clergyman, philosopher, poet,
historian and prophet of the mild, low-church side of Danish Luther­anism.
Adherents were known as the "happy Danes." The United
Church members were known as the "holy Danes;' "gloomy Danes"
or the Home or Inner Mission people-a much sterner group.
71
..-.....-.....
The church at Danevang, 1911
The Danes did not adhere as strongly to a national church as
did Norwegian and Swedish immigrants, but the Lutheran split did
affect them. At times, the two branches of the church worked against
each other, founding rival colonies and settlement areas, and actually
contributing to a faster assimilation of Danes into American life. The
United Church, much more pro-assimilation, was also much more
successful in increasing membership.
The Texas colony-Danevang- started with the desire of the
church for a colony and the wish of the Dansk Folkesamfund, the spon­soring
society, for a place to preserve Danish culture.
The bulk of the society's members were in the north central United
States, where most of the Danes had first settled: Illinois, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.
F.L. Grundtvig, youngest son of the Danish clergyman, had come to
Wisconsin on his honeymoon and dreamed of coastal colonies to the
south. These were to be founded in the name of the society and in
behalf of the church movement his father had represented. In fact,
he and other friends had founded the Dansk Folkesamfund in 1887
to start further colonial efforts in America. Soon an Iowan, J .C. Evers,
72
was appointed by the folk society to look at Texas land as part of a
three-man land committee, the Landudvalg.
Before the turn of the 19th century, most of Wharton County,
Texas, was ranch country, much of it owned by the Texas Land and
Cattle Company. Evers, after looking at various areas in the south,
was shown this land, a grassy plain covered with thousands of cattle.
It was a tempting sight. Discarding earlier possibilities, the commit­tee
took an option with the company for the sale of 25,000 acres to
people of Danish extraction.
The price was to be $9.00 an acre, paid for by the settlers at a
rate of $1.00 per acre cash down payment, with only the interest on
the remaining $8.00 per acre in the second year. Thereafter, they were
to pay $1.00 per acre per year, plus the interest. Now this, even then,
was a good deal. A land owner near Chicago could sell off his holdings
and buy many times more land in Texas for the same money. The
young family who could not find a place to their liking in the Dakotas
might get a little cash together for a small parcel of Texas land, and
there was an advantage in living near their countrymen.
Whatever the desires of the Dansk Folkesamfund, the settlers were
looking for cheap land and a place to raise a family. In fact, the Danish
settlers did not become land barons. Only two of the original 78 families
bought the maximum offer of 320 acres.
An arrival at Danevang, 1894
73
Evers's contract called for the sale of 8,000 acres of land the first
year. If that were done, the land company agreed to give 160 acres
for a school and church site. The Dansk Folkesamfund was to receive
25q: per acre from the transaction, a part of which paid Evers's salary.
Although some Danes were to come directly from Denmark to
the new colony later in 1905, Evers did his main recruiting in the north
central states.
In August of 1894 the first colonists arrived. According to most
records, Jens Peter Olson was the first to buy land on August 17, 1894.
Olson, from Holbaek, Sjaelland, was followed by more than 70 initial
families whose names included Mogensen, Larsen, Rasmussen,
Madsen, Hansen, Krag, Thomsen, Lykke, Andersen, Nygaard,
Hermansen, Treumer, Christensen, Wind, Ravn, Berndt, Petersen
and Jorgensen. Not all stayed. One man, Mogensen, built a home,
but returned rather quickly to Chicago. His house was thereafter used
as shelter by some of the settlers the first year.
]ens Peter Olsen of Danevang
74
What the first settlers saw when they arrived was a flat, grass­covered
plain as far as the eye could see, with trees here and there
only along the low streams. They named it Danevang, the Danish field.
Tres Palacios Creek lay about four miles to the east, and Juanita and
Willow Creeks to the west. El Campo, the closest settlement, was about
ten miles north over a dirt trail that was soon a dirt road. The area
north had been settled earlier by Spanish and Mexican families, later
by Anglos, Swedes, Norwegians, Czechs and Germans. Danevang was
known in the northern United States as "the Danish Colony, El Campo,
Texas;' for a time.
J.P. Olson came somewhat before his wife and family. He had,
incidentally, changed the spelling of his name from Olsen because
"Olson" was more American- to his eye. He arrived, picked out and
bought his land, then returned for his family.
The Olsons came from Kansas in January of 1895, riding in a
rented railroad freight car with their daughter, family belongings,
furniture and livestock. When the family got to Rosenberg, west of
Houston and on their way to El Campo, they were not allowed to ride
in such a manner on the Southern Pacific line. They had to move to
a passenger car. Finally arriving in El Campo, they stayed at the hotel
while their house was finished.
By February many of the first colonists had arrived, but it was
to a bleak scene. From an unknown cause, the lush prairie grass had
burned, leaving a plain of black ash. Sine Nygaard recalled that after
being welcomed by the burned, silent prairie, the next day rain fell,
turning the ash into a sea of black mud. This was followed by snow.
Some of the cattle the Danes had brought died from starvation.
The Danes had come to Texas with a background of north-country
farming experience. They knew how to raise cold-weather grains and
livestock. With a trace of overconfidence, some thought of showing
the Texans how farming should be done. The northern crops they tried
would not grow, and unfamiliar cattle diseases killed the livestock they
had shipped in. The farmers with families to support had even more
problems. Of the pioneer life some said simply, "It was toil and drudg­ery."
But they also said that the Danes were ones to hold their ground.
Their first homes were primitive and the flat plain, flooded so
much of the year that ploughing was at times impossible, was more
75
than disappointing. It was a disaster. The first year the Danes lived
mainly on chickens, deer, berries and sweet potatoes.
F.L. Grundtvig and Evers visited the colony in 1895. Grundtvig
held church services in Mads Andersen's home. That summer Ingeborg
Olson was born, the first child born in Danevang, and was baptized
by Grundtvig. Mrs. Mads Andersen died in the same year, the first
to be buried in the cemetery.
Andrea Nielsen was a young Danish woman, married for five years
to Marcus, a farmer and blacksmith, when they decided to move from
the Midwest to Danevang. They had heard of the colony through Evers,
who was always recruiting people and traveling with them to Texas.
Marcus bought 160 acres of the colony's land, between two creeks.
This proved to be a mistake, for after rains, the land would stand in
water for several days. Marcus eventually had to build small levees
to keep back the water. He ploughed with oxen at first because the
horses they brought died in a general plague. Marcus soon found out
that cotton was the best money crop.
When Andrea arrived she remembered the drive from El Campo
as long miles of mud. After a rain the nine miles seemed like 900.
The wagon wheels repeatedly fouled and had to be cleaned. When
she arrived Mrs. Christian Rasmussen had bread, pastry and coffee
to welcome her, but also broke into tears, saying, "I'm so unhappy here."
Andrea found her first home in the south full of bedbugs. She
and her husband put the bedposts in pans of water thinking this would
keep the vermin from crawling up and into bed, but the bugs then
dropped on the sleeping couple from the ceiling.
"I'll have to admit," Andrea said, "that I cried nearly every evening."
And Evers and Grundtvig, going back to Iowa after their visit in 1895,
sat on the train and also cried. Even their hopes for the colony were low.
The initial payments on the land could not be met. Herman
Kuntz, president of the Texas Land and Cattle Company, visited
Danevang, however, and was so impressed with the determination of
the Danes that there was no difficulty getting an extension on the bank
notes. In fact, when asked by an outsider why he did not foreclose,
a representative of the banking firm said he would not "kill the goose
which in time would lay golden eggs."
76
The Hansen brothers plowing a field at Danevang
The Danes observed farming conditions in Texas and learned to
raise southern crops. Turning mainly to cotton, they soon had crops
that gave the little community its first economic base. In fact, H.P.
Hermansen wrote an article for more northern Danish readers, giving
a description of the strange plant called cotton. The men raised pigs,
then smoked bacon by the traditional Danish method in a barrel and
sold this with surplus dairy products processed by the women. They
knew how to solve their problems. Against hardships, the earlier settlers
said "we kept our ears stiff;' and they gradually made headway.
Margrethe Henningsen remembered the rather uncooperative
cows-even the "Danish" ones. Her family had gotten a cow from Iver
Wind, and they had high hopes.
"Mother stood with pail in her hand for now we were really going
to have milk, cream and butter; but, alas, when Mother sat down to
milk, both she and the pail landed in the grass. Father and Mr. Wind
tied the cow . . . then Mother tried again. But the monster jumped
into the air with all four legs?'
This cow was exchanged for another, but the new one was a Texan.
"We looked askance at the new cow, for it was a real Texas cow with
long horns out to the sides. But it proved to be quite gentle as long
as there was enough cotton seed in the feedbag . It was just a matter
of getting through first. If the cow finished eating first, she ran, and
77
then we either had to get more feed or content ourselves with what
milk we had:'
But the climate proved to be worse than the strange cows. The
Colorado River, some ten miles east, would flood the whole country,
so much that one could go by boat almost anywhere. Before the days
of upriver dams and flood control, residents saw the Brazos and
Colorado Rivers join into one sheet of water scores of miles wide. Most
homes were built up on blocks, about a foot above the ground, both
to escape the water and to be cooler in the summer. Even so, after
high water, mud would have to be shoveled off the first floor. And a
trip to the outhouse was sometimes only possible in h igh boots,
sometimes not possible at all.
By the end of 1895, 93 families had purchased more than 9,000
acres, and more settlers were coming. Many of the Danes had come
originally from Schleswig or the islands of Fyn and Sjaelland, but most
parts of Denmark were represented. Since there was some dialect
difference, the standard "national" Danish language was used. Most
of the Danes had lived in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Kansas or the Dakotas for a little while and were used to
some language changes.
The colony even attracted Danes from other places in Texas.
Andreas and Karen Marie Zarine Fredericksen came from Vejle,
Jylland, to San Antonio in 1890, but moved to Danevang in 1896.
The goal of the first 8,000 acres was reached, but the entire total
of 25,000 acres set aside was never bought by the settlers. Some was
sold to others by the holding company. By 1898 about 13,000 acres
had been sold to 150 Danish buyers. The Dansk Folkesamfund i
Amerika had received the extra land for selling the first quota and
in turn sold 40 acres to the church for $1.00- the only restriction being
that if the congregation ever seceded from the Danish Evangelical
Lutheran Church, they would forfeit the land. Twenty acres on Tres
Palacios Creek was given to the church as a park and picnic area for
the members of the colony.
Peter N. Thomsen and his wife came to Danevang after seven
years of indifferent fortune in Illinois. He had improved his lot from
29 acres, a small house, one table, six chairs, a bedstead and one wash
pot to four horses, a cow and calf, farming equipment and a fair
78
collection offurniture. But land to the south was tempting. Deciding
on the move to Danevang, Thomsen loaded his animals and belong­ings
into a railroad boxcar for the journey to Houston. Thomsen was
milking the cow as the train arrived in town. It was Christmas. Then,
as now, milking had to be done every day, Christmas or travel or
anything- there are no vacations. Suddenly, the train was derailed
by accident, and the boxcar smashed down the roadbed, throwing the
cow upside down into one end of the car and Thomsen, equally upside
down, among the farm tools. Not seriously injured, he crawled from
the wreck and angrily reproached the train crew. He only received
their comment that "It is Christmas day, and one couldn't expect
anything else." It took him a little longer to get to El Campo, then
Danevang, than he had expected.
Community hall at Danevang, c. 1896
The Danes built a community meeting hall in 1895 and established
their post office the same year along with their own school and U.S.
weather station. H.P. Hermansen was both postmaster and weather
observer. After initial meetings in Mads Andersen's home, the church
services were held in the meeting hall by the Reverend L. Henningsen,
and the meetings were a great comfort to the settlers. The first carpenter
79
Gathering at the Danevang Community Hall
in the colony was C.A. Nygaard who stayed for the first six years during
the first major building period. He then moved on to Galveston.
The Danes felt a great sense of community and were quick to
help one another. In fact, at church baptisms not only the godparents,
but also the entire congregation would rise to indicate their total sup­port
for the new community member.
The Danevang settlers were and are known for their community
singing. Almost any public gathering, party and church service was
filled with song. The first pastor, Reverend Henningsen, remarked
"That the people are fully alive is immediately evident by their excep­tionally
hearty singing:' And even in the worst times, the Danes never
seemed to be without their magnificently brewed coffee and delicious
pastry, the ingredients for which were brought from El Campo -a
trip which could take from before sunrise to well after sunset.
The first ministers were native Danes and needed a multitude
of talents themselves to survive in this new frontier on an average of
$15 a month. The Reverend S.H. Madsen, for example, served also
as a doctor, making use of his own carbolic ointment. He repaired
watches and sewing machines. Most ministers raised what food they
could in a garaen next to the meeting hall. Such versatility was consid­ered
admirable- but it was also necessary. The first minister, Reverend
Henningsen, had a salary of $101.15 in 1896; and Madsen's annual
salary was $300 from the colony and $100 from the Danish Folk Society.
And Texas was itself a strange place. When the Henningsens
arrived they were delighted with the "lark and the roses of the prairie;'
80
Reverend S.H. Madsen, Danevang
pastor when the first church
was finished, 1909
but not so much taken with the nearby ranch cattle that would wander
over and scratch themselves on the first, rather shaky houses. The land
around the settlers was still open range land, owned and stocked by
a large cattle company. Mrs. Ella Hansen remembers when as a young
child she was once grabbed by her mother and carried into the house
just ahead of a stampede of cows across the yard.
Like everyone else, the Henningsens did not like the absence of
trees around the houses- they soon planted some- nor the mud. This
family remembered the early day picnics over at Tres Palacios Creek
Group at the church picnic grounds at Tres Palacios Creek near Danevang
81
under oaks draped with Spanish moss. They considered the strange
moss a "holiday dress" for the trees. Fishing would fill the afternoon,
with the men netting in the creek and the women making an evening
meal of fried fish. Along the tree-lined creeks were wild grapes and
dewberries which were gathered in season as a special treat.
Occasionally community members would decide on a tree plant­ing
day. The men of the settlement would donate a day to transplanting
native trees to locations around the community hall or church. They
usually selected quick-growing trees from the nearby streams: cotton­woods,
chinaberries, mulberries and sycamores.
P J. Agerskov Petersen was a slightly later arrival in the colony
who became the local historian both of the church and the settlement,
as well as a successful farmer. Petersen, who added the name of his
hometown, Agerskov, to his name because he felt there were too many
Petersens around, heard of the colony and bought 40 acres on a visit.
But the young man did not have the immediate means to start farming,
so he went to Galveston to work on the wharves.
Not only did he make enough money to sponsor his farming,
but he found a wife, ] ohanne Hansen from Fyn. She had departed
Denmark for Michigan, but after folk high school training, left for
82
P j. Agerskov Petersen and wife Johanna
with their children
Galveston to start a Scandinavian Seaman's Mission Home. Although
this was eventually a financial failure, she did meet Petersen and
married him in Galveston. The couple lived there for a few years, then
moved to Danevang.
J ohanne Petersen arrived in February of 1900 after a cold journey
from Galveston with her four-week-old daughter. "When I reached
El Campo, my husband was at the station with the buggy and a pair
of fast horses. We were soon in the seat, warmly tucked in with shawls
and blankets, and we hardly felt the penetrating cold. After a while
we came to our little home. Our good friend, Ivar Wind, was nailing
a flag to the gable of the house. We quickly entered the warm room.
The coffee was steaming, and a huge bowl of aebleskiver (a Danish
popover dusted with sugar) awaited us on the table. From the music
box came the song 'Two thrush sat upon the beech twig.' It was a festive
reception. When spring came the cotton was planted, and we made
a little vegetable garden and two large flower gardens:'
Their farm was soon one of the most well-ordered, andjohanne's
flower gardens were always most colorful. Their home was a stopping
place for travelers and at times a visiting place for new arrivals. The
couple was active in community affairs and even directed amateur
theatrical presentations in the colony.
P j. Agerskov Petersen farm at Danevang, 1906
83
Agerskov Petersen was one of the "most Danish" settlers. Danish
was spoken in the home, and the children remember the ever-present
folktales in the evenings (most of them from Hans Christian Andersen
or the Brothers Grimm). It was said that, although Agerskov Petersen
did not reject English, "his spiritual thinking was based on the Danish:'
And indeed more than the spiritual: for years his name, or the initials
"PJ.A-P.:' was the byline on many an article on Danevang published
in American Danish-language newspapers and magazines.
Little by little, new houses were built, crops were raised, children
were born, and the rather inhospitable plain became a home. The
turning point seemed to come after the Galveston storm of 1900. This
hurricane devastated Galveston and also Danevang, among other
coastal communities. The cotton crop was wiped out. The Danes almost
decided to abandon the colony. Even the minister lost hope. He advised
the settlers to burn what buildings were left, then he would lead them
away, riding in front on his pony and singing hymns. Hymns or no,
the settlers did not like the suggestion- or did not have the money
to make another move. A few left in search of other jobs, but most
stayed. From 1900 on, times were better. Fremskridt (progress) was the
byword, and the old-timers later called 1901 the "golden year:' The
depression many of the settlers felt at first was overcome.
Christian Madsen and his wife Kristen on their farm at Danevang, c. 1900
84
!
LJ. Lykke farm, Danevang
Soon the Danes had started a cooperative economic system. Such
efforts were common in Denmark, and it came naturally to the set­tlers.
It started in general with the spirit of cooperation necessary to
survive, and in detail with a supply of bug poison bought for the whole
community to protect the cotton . But the settlers went on to bigger
things. The Danes established a fire insurance company which was
organized in 1897 and incorporated in 1901. The first local cotton gin
was built in 1897 by Marcus Nielsen. A telephone exchange was started
in 1913 and successfully operated until 1948 when the system was sold
to Southwestern Bell. Old-timers say the modern service is almost as
good as the cooperative system they built themselves, and the rates
are only 15 times higher.
The Danevang Farmers Cooperative Society was organized in 1920
and incorporated the next year. This association coordinated the
marketing oflocal crops and bought supplies needed by the members
at better prices than could be had individually. This organization led
to the purchasing offeed in 1922, farm equipment in 1923, a coopera­tive
gin in 192 7, a gasoline station in 1932 and a cooperative grocery
in Danevang in 1939. The latter came to pass after 17 years of careful
discussion. The Danes proceeded in a thoroughly democratic, but
occasionally slow manner.
85
In fact, the cooperative associations even bought household appli­ances
for the families at wholesale rates, somewhat to the consternation
of commercial dealers in nearby towns. Even the coffin supply was
handled cooperatively at first. A carpenter would be hired at a reduced
rate to build five of various sizes at one time. These were kept in the
community hall until needed.
One of Danevang's purposes was to preserve the Danish way of
life, and this, besides an economic base and the church, called for
education. The first public school was started in 1895 at the community
hall, and local efforts were continuous until consolidation with the
El Campo schools in 1951.
Danevang school and students in 1 908
Until 1941 the church summer school instruction included Biblical
history and Danish history, literature and geography. The day closed
occasionally with the story hour common to Danish-American summer
schools. Even some of the songs in summer school told stories of Danish
history. The usual ''American" subjects were taught during the regular
school year. Even these classes were taught, until about 1938, only
by people of Danish background. Three one-room schools were built
in 1909, and in 1918 a larger school was built which even included
high school grades until the late 1940's.
In the early years Danish was the local language of business, home
and church. In the schools, however, Danish was taught only in the
86
Mr. and Mrs. H.P. Jensen, Danevang Ella Hansen and Emma Petersen
at Danevang
summer, and English formed the backbone of the instruction because
it was evident that, Danish colony or not, English was the language
to learn for any sort offuture in the United States. For the older adults,
however, there was the Tylvten Club, the "twelve;' composed of twelve
families. A set of Danish books would be ordered with dues, then circu­lated
among the members. The club disbanded as English became
more common.
The church congregation had met first in homes and then mainly
in the community hall after being founded on May 24, 1895, and the
first ministers had lived in the hall or temporarily with other families.
In 1902 a parsonage was built, allowing the ministers a regular home,
and by the winter of 1908-1909 the Ansgar Evangelical Lutheran
Church was built. Its bell could be heard for miles and in the first
years was not just sounded on Sunday, but at each sunrise and sunset.
In 1908 Danevang had 64 families on the church roster; by 1919 the
church membership listed 464 individuals- and noted there were 80
others living there not on the church rolls.
The first automobile was in Danevang in 1911, but the highway
from El Campo was not paved until1931. H .P. Jensen carried the mail
over this road every day except Sundays from 1902 to 1914 with a mule
87
The Petersen farm, Danevang
and a cart or buggy. And he did this for an annual stipend of $500.
Because of this mail delivery, he soon was known locally as "Uncle Sam."
The coastal plain was subject to severe storms, and although tree
windbreaks were planted for some relief, winds still have little to stop
them on the flat coast. Andrea Nielsen remembered the storm of 1909
as the worst. Her husband had driven into El Campo on a hot, sultry
morning, and by one o'clock in the afternoon, a gusty downpour moved
through the little settlement. She was in the house with her six-year­old
son, then expecting what was to be her last child, Lillian. "One
thing I was thankful for and that was that the Negro, George Peters
and his family, came in to spend the night in the storeroom." Her other
children were caught at school by the storm and were taken to a nearby
cellar to weather out the evening.
The storm grew worse during the afternoon. By evening windows
were blown out and screen doors were ripped from their hinges. Roofs
were torn off neighboring homes, and all the animal sheds and the
barn at the Nielsens' were blown down.
"I saw the storm tear the outbuildings down one after the other
and how the poor horses and cattle ran out into the storm, when they
felt their shelter give way." A neighbor's house was literally blown apart,
88
and the family, unable to walk, huddled on the ground outside pro­tecting
their faces by turning away from the wind to keep from
drowning. The storm did not let up until dawn.
"Never has the church bell sounded so festive to me;' Andrea said
later, "as that morning when Reverend Madsen rang it. It was as though
it said, 'Your children are all well.' And the children came home
presently wading in water and mire. Our chickens were drowned ... ?'
Her husband came home later, and as soon as the land around
dried out a bit, the Danes got together for coffee at neighboring homes
and decided who needed help and who could give it. "We were like
one big family. . . ."
Indeed, the Danes were like one big family in the early years,
sharing dinners, celebrations on july 4 for United States independence
and June 5, Danish Constitution Day, as well as Christmas.
Magdalene Ravn, the wife of Pastor Ravn, thought that Christ­mas,
with the feast and dancing at the community hall, was particularly
a children's time. The Danish dance around the tree, the food and
the songs were all European, but other things were different.
Pastor Johannes Ravn and family, 1913
"Down here the children are not accustomed to looking for
Christmas snow each morning when they get up as we used to do in
89
Denmark before Christmas. No, the little Danevang boy would cer­tainly
be surprised if he were to experience a white Christmas. But
then he can experience a Christmas with such mild weather that one
can have windows and doors open Christmas Eve, and can see the
fireflies light their . .. lights out on the plains, and maybe see one
of those glorious sunsets which is familiar to those who have been where
the land is flat and where the horizon can be seen on all sides."
The Texas fireflies may have had an extended season then, but
Nordic Christmas trees were unavailable. The large tree decorating
the community hall was actually several native trees tied together in
a bundle. And the children, whose eyes reflected the Christmas lights,
were not only growing up where there was rarely any snow, but they
were also growing up differently. They were doing what later sociolo­gists
would call acculturating. They were modifying Danish customs
to resemble the larger and somewhat different culture in which they
found themselves. Their parents were first-generation Danes who were
becoming American citizens; they would become Danish Americans
who preserved a few older customs; their children would be American.
The "East" Danevang school
The first years had been rough, but after all, as a later descendant
remarked, "We are the sons of Vikings!" The spirit of Danevang was
that of the poet Ove Nielsen, who wrote:
Gone is the Viking who battled the wave
But never his spirit will rest in the grave.
We are Americans, fruit of the Danes,
The blood of the Viking is warm in our veins.
And this was no mere sentiment-it was the truth.
90
VII. A New Century
Fewer Danes came to the United States in the early years of the
20th century than in the previous decades, but even so they accounted
for nearly 90,000 arrivals. Between 1900 and 1914 annual totals were
around 7,000 persons.
The First World War almost stopped emigration, but in the 1918
to 1920 period, the number of individuals coming over rose again.
From 1921 to 1931 about 63,000 Danes left their homeland, but only
about half, 34,200, came to the United States. The reason was that
after 40 years of debate, the U.S. Congress had passed laws regulating
European immigration. Also in Denmark, after decades of a prevailing
liberalism concerning emigration, the government passed somewhat
restrictive policies concerning departures.
In 1921 the first quotas were enacted concerning Denmark. The
United States allowed 5,694 Danish immigrants, but this figure proved
a bit too high because not that many came. So from 1925 the quota
was lowered to 2,789, a figure which proved to be too low. Most of
the Danes in excess of the quota chose Canada, and immigration to
the United States fell again.
91
Emigrants in the ship's steerage, 1905
This end to the large immigration figures spelled doom for the
use of native Danish in the United States. Fewer and fewer native
speakers entered the country, and fewer second-generation Danes had
any reason to speak Danish. Ansgar Lutheran Church at Danevang
was one of the last places Danish was used at church services.
After 1900 not only the number, but the character of emigration
from Denmark changed. More single men emigrated than men in
families . In the 20-to-30 age group, up to 69% were single men. And
the average age of emigrants declined: more people from 20 to 30 years
of age came- fewer from the 40-to-60-year-old bracket. With the
increase of single men came a decline in families, of course. Moreover,
more individuals came from the cities of Denmark. Some of these
people, it is true, had first moved from the country to a Danish town
and had stayed there for a time before moving to America. Even so,
many urban natives were leaving.
Once in America, the Danes were also going to different places.
Most of the earlier Danes settled as farmers- always more spread out
than Norwegian or Swedish families . After the turn of the century
Danes chose more often to settle in larger towns, looking for city work.
The central motive for leaving Denmark was usually the same-a
lack of opportunity in the homeland. But this reason was helped along
92
by the railroads in the United States as well as by the established steam­ship
lines and their agents. In fact, steamship company agents were
known to go to great lengths to secure passengers. Pastor Erik Moller
remembers that at the appearance of Halley's comet in the skies over
Denmark in the spring of 1910, agents maintained that it would miss
America, but that Denmark was perhaps not so safe. It would therefore
be wise to buy a ticket. Moller's family resisted the wild story at the
time, but he later made the trip to America for more usual reasons.
In the late 19th century the railroads of the United States were
given large amounts of government land somewhat in return for putting
in the lines essential for the growth of the new country. At first there
was little profit to a railroad company laying new track in unsettled
land. The government gave blocks of public land to the companies
as part oftheir investment. The companies then sold much ofthis land
to settlers. In Denmark many an advertisement appeared offering this
land for very cheap prices. And every advertisement claimed to offer
the best land.
Naturally, the steamship companies still went after the emigrant
business. At the turn of the century a steerage ticket across the Atlantic
cost the emigrant $22.50 (not counting food) , but the actual cost to
the steamship company was about $1. 70. It was a profitable business.
·' .i. - -
:-. ~ .-- -
·: ··--
Emigrant ship at Galveston, 1896
In these years almost 7 5% of the emigrants traveled on tickets
that not only took them across the Atlantic, but also put them aboard
93
a train to land that could be bought or to a city where a job might
be had. And the Danes already in America helped matters. Many of
the tickets were prepaid for a family member, prospective bride, farm
worker or friend.
Correspondence between individuals in the United States and
Denmark rose dramatically after the turn of the century as did the
amount of money sent back to the homeland (to a peak of 2,400,000
kr. in 1911, although some $500,000 came back to the U.S. the same
year). A lot of the letters inspired emigration, of course, and some
of the money was used to get to America. A few Danes went back
home. In the 20th century perhaps not quite a tenth of the Danes
returned. About 8.6% is one estimate.
Emigration figures and statistics usually reflect only the broad
outlines of human movement. Statisticians guess that some of the earlier
figures concerning emigration and immigration, up to 1870, could be
50% inaccurate. Nobody kept very good records. This error may be
trimmed to 10% as one approaches modern times, but whatever the
inaccuracies, the figures are indicative of one of the most massive
human movements in European history.
The Danes were active immigrants, adding much to this new
culture they found- in fact, often directly influencing those around
them. In terms of acculturation- the changing patterns of belief and
custom and habit- their culture was already Nordic and very similar
to the English and other dominant northern European groups they
found in America and Texas. In "assimi lation'~ intermarriage with
and being absorbed by other groups- the Danes moved faster than
most Norwegians and Swedes.
In dress, Danish clothing was only slightly different from
American. Only a few examples of the older regional costumes were
brought, as this dress was already uncommon in Denmark.
In farming, methods did differ; but again, the Danes made few
efforts to use methods from their old homeland. A common Danish
European tradition for farm construction was the habit of construc­ting
dwellings in connected wings. Few followed this style in America,
switching to the outbuilding style of the Americans (and Norwegians)
which called for separate buildings.
94
Danish ethnic organizations were similar to other Scandinavian
groups, but because there were fewer Danes in a thinner pattern of
settlement, they did not last as long. Groups were formed in the Rio
Grande valley of Texas and in most large cities. Until the 1930's Dallas
had a coherent group of about 40 Danish families which were later
absorbed into other Scandinavian clubs. Other cities, El Paso, Amarillo
and Houston, also had a fair number of Danish families that were
aware of each other even if lasting organizations were not a result.
The Danish Brotherhood in America, still in existence, had formed
groups in Dallas and Galveston in 1912 and 1913. Originally these
groups had about 20 charter members from an estimated population
of 400 Danes in Dallas and 200 in Galveston. In 1917 the brotherhood
counted almost 1,300 first-generation Danes in Texas and slightly more
than 3,000 individuals in Texas born of Danish parents.
The Danes of the second generation married outside the group
in almost four times greater numbers than the first generation, leading
to a fast assimilation in terms of what language was spoken in the
home and in family custom. It became difficult to tell just who qualified
as a Danish American.
The Danes were inclined not to be too nationalistic. To begin
with, some stated their homeland had not offered them enough oppor­tunities
or they would never have left. Now that they had left, they
were ready to accept another nationality and a new life. Even F.L.
Grundtvig, after one of his glowing talks in the Midwest, was chal­lenged
by an outspoken settler who noted that America gave them
food and land while the old country let them go hungry and landless.
The Danes did, for a time, preserve some of their older ways,
but they had strong reasons to welcome a new life and little fear of
doing so. They were the least nationalistic of any Scandinavian group,
and among themselves, most nationalistic only in the Grundtvigian
colonies like Danevang.
The evidence of national traits is always questionable, but in
literature and letters the Danes usually characterize themselves as rather
modest, unobtrusive people with a notable determination and whimsi­cal
humor that can be pronounced in personal relations. They were
able to fit in quite well in a new land.
Native-born Danish settlers in Texas were not very numerous.
Between 1850 and 1950 they never numbered more than about one
95
person for every 3,000 of Texas's population. This ratio was approxi­mately
the same for the 1880-1920 period.
The immediate children and later descendants, being born in
Texas, are not counted in the earlier census figures. In some counties
the school census counted the "descendants:' In Williamson County
in 1923, for example, one percent of the schoolchildren were Danish
in descent, much lower than Czech or German, but higher than the
second-generation Scottish or Irish or French. Thus the number of
"Danish Texans" in any year is many times more than double the
recorded numbers:
NUMBER OF NATIVE- %OF TOTAL
YEAR BORN DANISH SETTLERS POPULATION
1940 1117 .017
1930 1350 .023
1920 1508 .032
1910 1287 .033
1900 1089 .036
1890 649 .029
1880 489 .031
1870 159 .019
1860 150 .024
1850 49 .023
County statistics are quite lengthy because many counties list two or
three Danes, but by way of comparison, these are the counties reporting
15 or more native-born Danes for two decades:
COUNTY
1890 Bexar
Bosque
Dallas
Galveston
Gillespie
Grayson
Harris
Lee
Limestone
McLennan
NUMBER OF NATIVE­BORN
DANISH SETTLERS
96
38
17
44
61
22
22
25
35
24
19
Milam 18
Tarrant 15
Travis 41
Williamson 20
1900 Bexar 62
Bosque 22
Brazoria 42
Dallas 39
Denton 17
Galveston 92
Gillespie 31
Grayson 16
Harris 89
Jefferson 33
Lee 17
Limestone 15
McLennan 22
Travis 75
Val Verde 18
Wharton 122
Williamson 89
The figures occasionally reflect errors. The Danes of Lee County, for
example, were probably more numerous. The figures do show the
appearance of the first settlers at Danevang in Wharton County.
Danes who came to Texas from the turn of the century to about
1930 settled in widely scattered areas, more now trying their luck in
the cities.
Viggo Kohler, one son of a rather large Copenhagen family,
decided that the New World was for him. The family was not poor-the
father Frans was in the construction business- but this son was a
wanderer. Born in 1844, Viggo was in Chicago by 1867 working first
in a box-manufacturing plant, then on a bridge-building crew. No
one in the family now knows why Texas attracted him, but in two years
he was in the state. He first settled at St. Mary's of Aransas on Copano
Bay. This small port was at that time a well-known lumber import
center for west Texas, and Kohler went into that trade. But the area
railroad was built into Rockport, St. Mary's declined , and Kohler
moved in 1885 to Beeville.
97
·. "'
Viggo Kohler's family in Denmark
Kohler himself attracted other Danes to Texas through visits and
letters to Denmark. A number of immigrants