Texas Historical Marker #12805
Danevang Community Hall (Danevang Forsamlingshus). Danevang Community Hall (Danevang Forsamlingshus) The Danish community of Danevang (Danish Field) was founded in 1894, at the height of Danish emigration to the United States. The Dansk Folkesamfund (Danish Folk Society), organized in the Midwest in 1887 to preserve Danish culture, language and religion, arranged for land for a settlement here and contacted Danes living in the northern and midwestern United States to establish a colony in Texas. After the first colonists arrived, the society helped fund a building the community could use as a gathering place. Completed in 1895, the Danevang Community Hall (Forsamlingshus) later was donated by the society to the community, along with 45 acres of land. Until the first church building was constructed about 1908, the community hall served as both church and assembly space, and provided living quarters for the Danish Lutheran pastor on the second floor. The Danevang School, also dating to 1895, held its first classes in the building. Over the years, additions and modifications were made to the Danevang Community Hall to accommodate the needs of the colonists. All major secular and sacred festivals were celebrated here, and the building became a cultural landmark for the community. Torn from its foundation in a 1945 hurricane, the Forsamlingshus was repaired and continues to serve the community, which remained largely Danish American at the turn of the 21st century. (2002) #12805
CR 426, just east of its intersection with SH 71, Danevang, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #01163
Danevang. The first successful Danish community in Texas. Established in 1894 on a portion of 25,000 acres secured through option by Danish Folk Society from Texas Land and Cattle Company. Most immigrants came first to the northern United States, where other Danes had settled, and then to Texas, desiring to preserve their national culture, language, and religion. A Lutheran church was erected in 1895. Hardships included disease, insects, poorly drained land, and primitive transportation; but hard work, farming ability, and cooperation brought success. (1970) #1163
?, Danevang, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #00172
Ansgar Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cemetery. The Danish Folk Society obtained a land option from the Texas Land and Cattle Company and helped 93 Danish families from the midwest establish the Danevang Cooperative Settlement here in the early 1890s. The settlers, strong adherents of the Lutheran religion, organized an evangelical Lutheran congregation in 1895 with the help of the Rev. F. L. Grundtvig. Worship services were first held in the home of Mads and Maren Andersen. Early pastors came from Denmark and held services in the Danish language. The congregation erected a meeting hall at this site in 1895. A sanctuary made of native pine and cypress was erected here in 1909. A painting of St. Ansgar baptizing a child was placed inside the new church building and a 1700-pound bell, which could be heard four to five miles away, was placed in the church steeple. The sanctuary was destroyed in a 1945 storm and replaced with an army chapel which the congregation reassembled at this site. The first recorded interment was that of Maren Andersen in 1895. The cemetery, maintained by a board established in 1965, contains three former pastors and veterans of wars ranging from the Civil War to World War II among its more than 500 burials. (1994) #172
CR 426, Danevang, TX, United States