Although after the war he would relocate to New York, he continued to help Swedes move to Texas, especially to work on his ranches in Northwest Texas. Swenson had to flee to Mexico during the Civil War because of the Unionist sympathies he shared with his old friend Sam Houston. Some of these immigrants were related to S.M. recruited 25 Swedes who went directly to the plantation near Richmond in Fort Bend County that S.M. The Austin area attracted other Swedes who settled in Hutto, Swedish Hill, East Sweden and other communities in Travis and Williamson counties. Swante would later serve as Swedish-Norwegian vice consul in Austin, and through the years, acquire one of the largest book collections in the state, which he left to the University of Texas. had established his business headquarters. His uncle Swante Palm arrived in 1844 to open mercantile businesses in La Grange and Austin where S.M. He first worked as a clerk in Galveston, working his way up to be able to buy land set aside to fund railroads and schools in Texas. Swen (Sven, Svante, Swante) Magnus Swenson is called the father of Swedish immigration to Texas because many of the first Swedes to follow his arrival in 1838 were either related to him or received financial support from him. 23, 1836, where he died in the battle of March 6. Within months, Charles joined the Lynchburg Volunteers in the Texas Revolution.
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He, his wife and three of his sons began farming a short distance south of Dallas in 1841.Ĭharles Hillebrant, born in Denmark in 1793, drove his cattle herd across the Sabine River from Abbeville, Louisiana, in 1830 to settle on the bayous south of present-day Beaumont, and a few years later brought his family to join him.Īmong those who came directly to Texas were Charles Zanco and his father Frederick, who arrived in Galveston from Denmark in the summer of 1835 and began farming in Harris County. Johannes Nordboe, the first permanent Norwegian settler, arrived in Galveston at age 73 after nine years in New York state.
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Lloyd Bentsen, perhaps the most well-known Danish-Texan, came to the Lower Rio Grande Valley from South Dakota in 1918.Īnd, Swen Magnus Swenson, who would eventually establish the massive SMS Ranches in Northwest Texas, left Sweden in 1836 for New York and Baltimore before arriving in Texas in 1838. Timeline of Immigration.Īlthough many of the early Scandinavian immigrants came to Texas directly from Europe, this group more than any other ethnic group had successive waves move to Texas from other states in the union.įor example, the family of the late Sen. The same 2007 survey estimates 137,342 Texans of Norwegian ancestry and 50,689 Danish-Texans. census estimate, the 2007 American Community Survey, putting their number at 155,949. Texans of Swedish descent are the tenth largest ethnic group in the state, according to both the 19 censuses, with the latest U.S.