A Few Wayside Notes Prairieville Aug. 18, 1901

Aug. 18, 1901

A Few Wayside Notes

Some seventeen miles east of the city of Kaufman and within one and
a half miles of the western border of Van Zandt County is the old, yet
lively, village of Prairieville. The surrounding country is undulating
black sandy prairie, of good fertility and well adapted to a variety of
agricultural products. This village contains only three business
houses, a hotel and a blacksmith shop, besides the residences of its
125 inhabitants yet it is the oldest settlement in Kaufman County. The
oldest citizen of Prairieville is Ole Olson, a native of Norway. Mr.
Olson came direct from Norway to Texas in 1853, being then 11 years
old. His parents settled at Prairieville, together with four of five other
Norwegian families who came with them. About a year previous to
this time a Norwegian named Andrew Irbeck had located here and
ran a small store. The postoffice was established about 1854 or 1855.

Being settled first by the little colony of Norsemen the village for a
time went by the name of Norway. A portion of the Norwegian
colony, of which this settlement formed one branch (some seven or
eight families), settled at Brownsboro. In Henderson County, and a
larger number went southwest into Bosque County and formed the
old Norse colony, a few miles from Clifton. Thus, it transpired that the
village of Prairieville was founded by a very thrifty, honest and hardy
class of pioneers.

Greatly to the credit of Prairieville, its business record does not show
a single mercantile failure during the forty-plus years of its existence.
It has been the beginning point in the careers of a number of the
leading business men of the city of Kaufman. In its earlier days it was
the best educatiomal point in all this section.

The Norwegians here still follow the religious teachings of their
parents and have a church of the Lutheran faith, where they worship.
During the Civil War a man named Peter Pierson (could be Rierson)
ran a wool carding machine by horse power, where rolls were carded
for the ladies to spin into yarn. At that time a great many sheep were
raised upon the then uninclosed prairies. The depredations from
wolves became so great, however, that sheep raising was superseded
by cattle raising, and later on the face of the entire country has been
fenced up and nearly all the land put under cultivation.

The Dallas Morning News

Old Newspaper of Henderson County

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