Danevang, a small community ten miles south of El Campo, was founded by Danish settlers in the late nineteenth century. However, this area of southeast Texas was not the first place these Danish immigrants settled. Many of the founding families first lived in northern stats such as Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. These families hired a land company called the Danish Folkesamfund, or the Danish Folk Society of America, to find land that was suitable for farming. They had heard tales of the fertile land that was available in Texas. The company selected two areas of land on the Texas coast to survey. The first was the area along Lavaca Bay. This land looked very appealing to them since much of Denmark is surrounded by water. However, the land was not suitable for farming. The second area was along the present-day Wharton and Matagorda County line. They believed that this area would prove to be a prosperous farming area.
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