Elise Waerenskjold

Elise Waerenskjold lived at Four Mile Prairie in Van Zandt County for forty-six years and died in Hamilton. She and Wilhelm took a square mile there in 1848, expecting to raise cattle; the Civil War ended that plan, and Wilhelm turned to milling, farming and contracting. Their youngest son died in January 1866, and in November Wilhelm was murdered. Through drought, insects and poverty she sold magazine subscriptions, books and garden seeds and taught school. She held to her opposition to slavery before the war. She died on January 22, 1895, at her eldest son Otto's home in Hamilton.

What the plaque says

Elise Waerenskjold (1815 - 1895) Gifted pioneer whose 1846-1895 writings brought many settlers to Texas from her native Norway. Countrymen also found her home open to newcomers. She is now called "Lady with the Pen". She and her husband had 3 sons, many descendants. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hamilton County Courthouse — 0.5 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.
• Meridian State Park — 28 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.

More markers nearby

• Col. George R. Freeman — 0.4 mi
• Frederick B. Gentry — 0.4 mi
• Elise Waerenskjold — 0.5 mi
• Ann Whitney — 0.5 mi