Texas Norwegians, arriving and settling as small rural groups, have been few. The 1900 census listed a peak number of 1,356 native Norwegians in the state, a total that declined to 1,000 in 50 years. Today, some 95,000 Texans claim Norwegian descent.

Most of the emigration came from rural areas in Norway to rural areas in Texas. The first known individual was Johannes Nordboe, who, in 1841 when he was over 70, settled near Dallas with his family.

Johan Reinert Reiersen attempted a colony in Henderson County in 1845; another group influenced by the earlier arrivals moved to Van Zandt and Kaufman Counties between 1846 and 1853. Reiersen, a journalist, editor, and author, had been sponsored in 1843 by a group of prospective emigrants and financiers to tour the United States and report settlement possibilities.

This Reiersen did—he heard about Texas in New Orleans. Visiting the republic, he was given a welcome by Sam Houston. Reiersen apparently was convinced; returning to Norway, he so complimented Texas and so insulted the opportunities in Norway that many Norwegians were outraged.

Deciding to emigrate, Reiersen left for Texas, arriving in 1845. He established the magazine Norge og Amerika before leaving, turned it into an emigration newsletter, and edited it from Texas.

After annexation he brought settlers to Henderson County in the new state, where he was joined also by his two brothers. They named the place Normandy, but after 1848 the name yielded to Brownsboro. Later, at Four Mile Prairie on the border of Kaufman and Van Zandt Counties, a colonial area was established with a small number of families. Reiersen died in Texas, still writing, always irritating native Norwegians by telling them Texas was better than their homeland.

Cleng Peerson, Ole Canuteson, and Carl Quæstad walked the Bosque River and led a few Norwegians into the new Bosque County in 1854. West of Waco, the community of Norse was for a time the largest concentration of Norwegians in Texas. The area remains home to about a hundred people today; many are descendants of the Norwegian arrivals. The church community has maintained one custom into recent years, an annual smörgåsbord held at Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

Cleng Peerson, responsible for much of the Norwegian immigration to the eastern United States as well as to Texas, is buried at the Norse church.

Norwegian immigration lasted somewhat past the Civil War, and individual families did maintain some Old World customs. But, separate as most homesteads were, Norwegian as a language disappeared in all practical use by 1940.

The Norwegian Society of Texas, with groups in several Texas cities, was founded in 1975 to preserve, and certainly to replicate, Norse heritage. Members of this group still emphasize their Viking heritage and costume—which were never actually a part of Texas culture until the last two decades.