Canuteson, Ole

Canuteson's Bosque settlement began inside McLennan County. The Handbook of Texas says Bosque County was formed in February 1854 from McLennan County, so the Norwegians who came in 1853 settled on land that was then McLennan's. The Norwegians in Texas project says all accounts agree Canuteson was the first to settle there, with a group of seventeen. The accounts differ on who sent them. The Handbook gives two stories, one crediting Cleng Peerson and one a soldier at Fort Graham. His move to Waco in 1868 returned him to the county.

What the plaque says

Canuteson, Ole Ole Knudson was born in 1832 to Knud and Anna Knudson in Norstrokke on Norway's Karmoy Island. In 1850, the family, changing their name to Canuteson, moved to Illinois, where Ole wed Ellen Maline Gunderson, also of Nordstokke. At the urging of immigration promoter Cleng Peerson, the family moved to Texas, settling near Dallas. They then moved with other Norwegian families to establish Norse Community in Bosque County (northwest of Waco). There, Ole was a blacksmith and mechanic, making farm implements. He also served as postmaster and community leader. In 1868, he and his family moved to Waco, where he operated a successful machine shop and metal foundry. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — 0.5 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 1.2 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 1.4 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 1.7 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• Oakwood Cemetery — steps away
• Robertson — steps away
• Dr. Rufus Columbus Burleson — steps away
• Hallie Earle, M.D. — 0.2 mi