Cleng Peerson
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Cleng Peerson (17 May 1783 – 16 December 1865) led the first group of Norwegians to emigrate to the United States, traveling on the sloop Restauration.
He was born in Tysvaer, Norway, and died in Bosque County, Texas. Peerson is buried in the cemetery of Our Savior's Lutheran Church outside of Cranfills Gap, Texas.
In 1825, he led a group of Norwegians, many of them Quakers, who traveled from Stavanger, Norway to New York City, arriving on 9 October 1825 after a three-month voyage, and onward to their first settlement, in Kendall, Orleans County, New York. The people who made this voyage are sometimes referred to as the Sloopers.
In honor of the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of this event, in 1975 Cleng Peerson and a portion of an America letter were depicted on a Norwegian NK 1.40 postage stamp. The sloop Restauration (also spelled Restoration) was featured on a United States postage stamp honoring the centennial in 1925.
