Jan 21, 2021 courtesy photo As Texans, weâre usually proud of our ancestors who settled on the Texas frontier. Of course many of them came from other parts of the U.S. but there were also many who arrived in groups from European countries. Weâre familiar with the many German settlers around Fredericksburg yet there is one particular national group that we can trace to Henderson County. These were the Norwegians who arrived in mid 1850s â a record noted by a Dallas paper in 1901. The Dallas Morning News of August 18, 1901 related this information under the headline âA Few Wayside Notesâ describing the location of some Norwegian settlers located in the âold, yet livelyâ Van Zandt County community of Prairieville. In the town at that time there were three commercial enterprises, a hotel and a blacksmith shop, and a population of about 125. Also, they noted that one of the oldest residents was Norway native Ole Olson who had come to Texas in 1853 at age eleven. After a while, though, some of these Norwegian newcomers moved to other parts of Texas, including one group that settled in Henderson County in the Brownsboro area.