Again this locality is called upon to mourn the death of an honored citizen in the decease of Nels Peter Nelson. His native home was in Judtland, Denmark, where he was born July 1847.
In the spring of 1870 he came to America and in the following autumn settled in Omaha, Neb. While he was living in Denmark, Mr. Nelson became acquainted with Miss Caroline Martenson, who also came to America. This acquaintance ripened into love and on July 1, 1871, they were married in Omaha. The west was emerging from its pioneer conditions. But there were enough of the hardships that go with this settling of a new country to challenge the courage of the will and the sturdiness of the physical powers. The young couple were ready to become a part of the developing, civilizing forces that were to bring a new day into these undeveloped regions.
In the fall of 1872 they set out from Omaha by the overland route for the home they were to make at Dell Rapids, So. Dak., Territory. This was particularly an undeveloped region. The trip was made with a team and wagon attended by the inconveniences incident to those pioneer times. The roads were rough, scarcely more than a trail. The journey was slow and tedious. Often the streams were high and boisterous. The deprivations were trying and often could loosen the courage of the sturdiest hearts. But none of these caused Mr. and Mrs. Nelson to lose their courage or faith. Mr. Nelson secured a grant of land from the government and by industry and thrift in which his wife shared an equal part succeeded in establishing a home in that pioneer state.
He was always active in the work of the community. He realized the advantages of schools in any locality and worked for the better education of the children, to give them the best that times and conditions could afford.
Mr. Nelson was intensely interested in religious and spiritual things. In Denmark he united with the Baptist church. When he came to Dell Rapids he had the Sabbath question constantly put before him by his father-in-law, who was a Sabbath observer. Mr. Nelson began to search the Scriptures to find material with which to refute the arguments for the Sabbath. The more he studied, the less ground he found for his opposition and in 1873 he began the observance of the Sabbath of the Bible.
He was one of the seven constituent members of the Seventh Day Baptist church organized by Elder James Bailey in 1877 at Dell Rapids and called the Big Sioux Seventh Day Baptist church. In 118 he was made pastor of the church and continued as its leader until the removal of the family to Milton, Wisconsin, in 1906.
Although of a humble and retiring disposition, yet Mr. Nelson was active in helping to promote all projects that were for the betterment of the community. He was a profound believer in God and the effective ministry of Christ. He was a great lover of the Bible. He was a constant supporter of the church and all of its auxiliary work.
It was a great joy to him that he and his faithful wife were permitted to celebrate on the first of last July, their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Here, in the midst of the entire family and invited guests, relatives and friends, Mr. Nelson related some of the experiences of their early life on the frontier. Whatever the conditions that they had had to face, they held true to God and right.
Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson. Two of these died in infancy and another, Anna, the wife of Joseph Swenson, died at the age of twenty-two. Besides his wife, Mr. Nelson is survived by Alice, the wife of C. Allen Davis, Hannah, Carrie, of Battle Creek, Mich., Charles, Lena, the wife of Byron R. Rood, Martin, of Walworth, Wis., Julius, and Lyda, the wife of R. Vernon Hurley. There are fifteen grandchildren.
Farewell services were held at the house and the Seventh Day Baptist church on Tuesday afternoon, conducted by pastor Henry N. Jordan. A male quartet composed of profs L. H. Stringer, D. N. Inglis, W. D. Burdick and Mr. J. H. Lippincott, sang two songs at the church and at the grave sang the beautiful prayer, 'After the sowing cometh the reaping.'
