Daddy's Bums

Nels Pearson came from a very poor family of farmers. At the age of fourteen he was on his own, in the world of hard labour and very little pay. His first job was with a carriage maker where the food often consisted of little more than dry mouldy bread and the pay for one years work was one outfit of work cloths and a pair of boots.

He was born around 1850- a time in Sweden when the poor were poverty stricken and found it necessary to grub their meagre living from the wealthy landowners. There was little chance of advancement.

How long he worked as a carriage maker is unknown, or what he did for the next several years but he was a strong healthy young man, tall and Viking like of stature with an unbreakable faith and love of God.

It is said that while working for the carriage maker one evening he looked up at the big mansion and said to his fellow workers ,"One day I will own a house like that", of course they just laughed.

In 1875 Nels met and married Maria Jenson of Copenhagen Denmark. Maria was an orphan who had been raised by her loving Aunt and Uncle in Copenhagen. As a young girl she had gone to work on a large estate. There she learned to make butter and cheese and became a proficient maker of dairy products. Danish cheese, being a product known all over the world demanded perfection from anyone who undertook such work.

After Nels and Maria were married they managed to buy a small dairy in the sea coast town of Malmo in Sweden. With hard work and putting almost everything they made back into the business it thrived and soon they were shipping butter and cheese all over Europe .

In order that nothing should be wasted the aggressive young couple bought a Piggery as they were called at that time. The cream was skimmed off the milk for the butter and cheese and then the soured skim milk went to feed the pigs. The manure from the pigs went to fertilize the land, which in turn fed the cattle.

By this time the Pearsons were employing a fairly large staff, all of whom worked happily and were fed well and earned a suitable wage. Nels then bought an Inn and Livery and subsequently became an estate holder and town councillor who held the respect and admiration of the town.

During these years the family had multiplied. Nels and Maria had seven children, Martin, Ludwig, Ida, Alma, Hilma, Hilding and Lydia. Their home was a beautiful big brick mansion, which was run mostly by a staff of servants as Maria was still very active in the business.

Nels and Maria loved music, so at an early age the children started to take music lessons on an instrument of their choice. Hilma studied the piano and Lydia the mandolin. Hilding began his training on the violin at the age of ten. Over the years he became a beautiful violinist with a touch that mastered the emotions of his audience and a knowledge of the story behind every selection and its composer that he played. His instructors believed that he had the makings of a concert violinist.

Alma was never very well. From birth she was afflicted with a very bad heart.

She was never to be roused by strong emotions of any kind and her welfare was a constant concern to the whole family.

When Ida was five years old tragedy struck the family with an unspeakably cruel hand. She had been an angel at the Christmas concert the church had put on, and when she came home she ran into the kitchen to show her angel costume to one of the maids she was fond of. One of the staff had just put a tub of boiling lye water on the floor and little Ida fell into it. The Doctor came right away but there was nothing he could do. Ida died within hours.

The family was in shock and Maria was put to bed and could not even attend little Ida’s funeral. She did not seem to know anyone for weeks and the Doctor was worried that she may stay that way. But Maria was a strong lady and came out of it. However the loss of Ida lingered with her for the rest of her life.

With business flourishing and the family growing up Nels had become a very important man in the sea coast town of Malmo.

It was only natural that he was approached now and then by promoters looking for financial backing in business deals. But he was a shrewd self made man and made no commitments without first giving it a lot of thought.

But he was also a man who drove himself to the limit and demanded more sometimes then his body could give. As a result, just about the time of the turn of the century he became ill with congestion of the lungs. He drove himself on even when very sick and it was in this weakened condition that he was approached by a company of contractors who desired financial backing to build three large churches in and around Malmo. After much discussion he did back them, unknown to any of the family.