Brownsboro Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery

The cemetery sits where Normandy's Norwegians became Brownsboro's neighbors. Brownsboro grew from a toll bridge John (Red) Brown ran across Kickapoo Creek from 1849, on the road to Jordan's Saline and Tyler, and the Handbook of Texas says several Norwegians settled there between 1849 and 1857. The Handbook dates a Lutheran church and cemetery at Normandy to 1853. When the Cotton Belt came through in 1880, the town moved a short distance to the railroad, and Brownsboro is the oldest existing town in the county.

What the plaque says

Brownsboro Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery After migrating from Norway in 1845, Ole Reierson bought the land that included this cemetery site (1.1 mi. ESE). He chose the spot for his burial and carved several of the plain brown gravestones before he died in 1852. The cemetery's 24 marked and 81 unmarked graves are mostly those of Norwegian immigrants. A Lutheran church built nearby in 1889, served as a cemetery chapel until the 1920s. Will Tergerson tended the site for many years. An association formed in 1974 by descendants of early settlers now maintains it. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 11 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 17 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 19 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 21 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Normandy — steps away
• Old Rock Hill Cemetery — 3.7 mi
• Edom — 4.8 mi
• John Crane — 7.3 mi