Johan Reinert Reierson (1810-1864) was born in Vestre Moland, Aust-Agder, Norway. He was a Norwegian-American writer, author and publisher as well as an early Texas pioneer and emigration activist. Reierson had been sponsored in 1843 by a group of prospective emigrants and financiers to tour the United States and report settlement possibilities. He made his way to the Republic of Texas. Reierson traveled to Austin, where President Sam Houston encouraged him to bring Norwegian settlers to the republic and promised aid in the establishment of a colony.

In 1844, Reierson wrote and published a comprehensive book about America titled Pathfinder for Norwegian Emigrants to the United North American States and Texas, a comprehensive book about America published in Norway. Reierson particularly advocated Texas as the most promising region for settlement.

Reierson immigrated to Texas and established a Norwegian colony in the spring of 1845. Before departing for America, he established a monthly magazine, Norge og Amerika, to report on the progress of the Norwegians in America to the people of Norway. When Reierson immigrated to Texas, Elise Wærenskjold assumed the editorship of the popular magazine until she herself immigrated to Texas in 1847.

Scope and Content: 

Papers of the Norwegian-born founder of the Brownsboro, Texas, settlement: a bound volume of twelve issues of "Norge og Amerika" and a copy of an article which appeared in "Morgenbladet" (July 11, 1884). Both items aim to treat conditions among Norwegians in America in such a manner as to arouse people of Norway to free themselves of non-democratic constraints. Includes Reiersen’s original travel journals from 1843 and onward. He talks about meeting Sam Houston, and details his path to get to Texas.