m a r k e r i c k s o n p a i n t i n g s Family Photographs - 1865 - 2017 Sweden * Italy * England * France * Germany New York City * California * Colorado * North Dakota
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The (Nilsson) Nelson Family in Painted Woods 1903-1949 My Grandmother Clara Amelia (Nilsson Nelson) Erickson and her parents and siblings were born in Sundsvall, Sweden. The Nelson Family emigrated from Europe in 1903 to the Great Northern Plains of Dakota. From a young age, Clara Amelia grew up on the Family Farm in Painted Woods, North Dakota. She lived there when she married my Grandfather Frank G.S. (Ersson Eriksson) Erickson and through the birth of her son, my Father Ernest Anders Erickson. In the late 1920s, Clara, Frank, and Ernest Anders moved to Wilton. Frank worked in the mines from 1920-1921, then began work with the Corps of Engineers (1775-Present) on various Missouri River Bridge Projects. In 1935, Frank and his Brother Anders 'Andy' Sebran along with help from my Father Ernest Anders built the Family home in the Parkhill District of Bismarck along the Missouri River. In 1940, Clara and Frank's Daughter Dian Marcella Erickson was born in Bismarck. In 1941 Sgt. Frank G. S. Erickson began work at Bismarck's Fort Lincoln's POW/Relocation Camp as a Guard. Frank was promoted to Captain of the Guard, and on occasion accompanied prisoners back and forth from New York City, Ellis Island, and Washington DC via train. He continued at Fort Lincoln till the camp was closed in 1946. Soon after graduating from Bismarck High School in 1941, my Father Ernest Anders joined the Army Air Corps beginning his Pilot training at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, and Langley Field in Virginia. After receiving his wings at Blackland Airfield in Texas in October of 1943, the following December he and his crew flew a brand new B-17 (Flying Fortress) to Scotland via the Greenland and Iceland northern route. At the Royal Air Force Airfield at Prestwick, located near Glasgow, Scotland Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson was assigned to the 8th Air Force. By February 1944 he was flying formation training and awaiting his first Combat assignment as a B-17 pilot with the 95th Bomb Group out of Horham Airfield in East Anglia, England. My Father went on to accomplish thirty-five bombing missions over Nazi-occupied Europe between February and September 1944. He returned home in late 1944 and served as a Flight Instructor in Texas and Arizona till the end of the war in 1945. In 1948, Frank again with the Corps of Engineers, began work on the massive Garrison Dam Project near Riverdale. At the time, the family was living in Bismarck, then in the Spring of 1953 the Missouri Bismarck Flood damaged their home. Clara, Frank, and Dian moved to Riverdale where they lived up until the late 1950s. Dian Marcella graduated from Riverdale High School in 1958. After the Garrison Dam Project was complete, the family moved back into their home in Bismarck. Frank continued working in Bismarck as a Carpenter and Plumber until he retired in the late 1960s. I call the first photograph below, 'Fresh Eggs.' It's an endearing photo taken in 1919 in Painted Woods. The sight of my sixteen-year-old Grandmother makes me smile. Fun abounds in their faces. It was taken at the beginning of the 20th Century giving me another extraordinary glimpse of my family's life on the farm over one hundred years ago. Hard farm work was the number one activity, though family life prevailed along with some amusing moments. Clara Amelia with her often great smile holds a bowl of eggs framed by the window laughing with two of her four brothers Albert ‘Bob’ William on the left and Anton Nick (Nilsson) Nelson. Clara Amelia often talked of weekend family get-togethers at various farms in Burleigh County. The Missouri River was just a short walk from the farm, and she would gladly recount memories of fishing along the shoreline, swimming in Wildwood and Painted Woods Lakes, and countless tales of the farm animals she tended. All of the memories she told me live inside me. "Hard work mixed with good times" was what Clara recounted when asked about her farm days along the River. She had no major complaints, but one that we often revisited when hunting deer came up. Clara's many years of eating Venison came to a point when mentioned, my grandmother would make a funny face and say. "Never never again, too gamey, just terrible!" Winters were extremely tough on the Plains, often in the 1920s Clara's Father Anders worked in the mines near Wilton from November through the late Winter. Farm work during those times continued by Gerda and the children. Clara loved to tell the story of one of the family horses, Nelly, whose Father Anders would ride every Monday in the Winter from the farm in Painted Woods to Wilton for the week's work in the mine. Upon arriving, Anders would let the horse go free and Nelly would head back to the farm, where Clara's mother Gerda would meet Nelly at the coral and make sure she was fed and sheltered for the cold eve. By late Friday one of Clara's brothers would hitch up the family carriage with Nelly and head to Wilton and pick up his father for his return to the farm for the weekend. The Nelson Family were neighbors of German American Paulina & Herman & their two sons Clarence & Ray Hildebrandt. Paulina was like an Aunt to the young Clara. Shown in the photographs below are Clara and the Hildebrandt Family during harvest time in Painted Woods. Also below: My Grandmother Clara Amelia on the request from her son, my Father Ernest Anders, wrote down her complete Nelson Family History starting in Sweden and carrying forward to when she and her family emigrated from Landskrona to Painted Woods. Clara wrote it at the kitchen table at her home on Jefferson Avenue in the Park Hill District of Bismarck, North Dakota. It spanned the Nelson family history covering over one hundred years. I am very grateful to my Grandma Clara, a gem of a gal, it's enabled me to be more accurate in my writings on the family photographs she and my Grandfather Frank kept over the years. Her writing covers the birth of her parents, Gertrude 'Gerda' (Miljander) & Anders (Nilsson) Nelson, their marriage, the births of her six siblings, and leading up to the period when the Nelsons emigrated (1902 & 1903) from Landskrona, Sweden to Painted Woods, North Dakota. Her writing leads up to the present time of her writing. Anders & Gerda (Miljander) Nelson and four of their five children, one being my Grandmother Clara, after emigrating from Landskrona the Family lived with Ander's Brother August Frederick and sister-in-law Amelia 'Aunt Molly' Josephine (Holm) in Painted Woods until they Homesteaded in 1907 at a farm nearby. Their youngest daughter Klara (1894-1896) passed away in Landskrona and Clara's younger Brother Bob Nelson was born on the farm in 1905. In 1907, another daughter Bertha was born on the farm and unfortunately, she passed away in 1908. My Great Grandparents Anders & Gerda (Miljander) (Nilsson) Nelson and their four children, one being my Grandmother Clara, emigrated from Landskrona, Sweden in 1902 and 1903 respectively, and lived with his Brother August and sister-in-law Amelia in Painted Woods until they Homesteaded in 1907 at a farm nearby. Great Uncle August Frederick Nelson arrived from Sweden in 1880 and lived in Montana until he married Amelia in Helena, Montana. Soon after the couple moved back to Painted Woods, North Dakota where Amelia had a Homestead with her Brother Charles 'Charlie' Holm. Amelia had arrived from Sweden in 1889 and headed to Painted Woods where her Father Peter Erik Holm, having emigrated a few years before, had a Homestead. This incredible (Nilsson) Nelson Family portrait was taken in 1918 on the Family Farm in Painted Woods, North Dakota. One family member, Sture Albin Nelson, the oldest son of Gertrude 'Gerda' (Miljander) & Anders' (Nilsson) Nelson was home on leave. He would soon be shipping out for service in the Navy during the First World War. The photograph comes from my Grandparents Clara Amelia (Nilsson) Nelson (15 years old, sitting on the left) and Frank G. S. Erickson's classic leather black page photo album. The first two generations of Nelsons to emigrate from Landskrona, Sweden to the Dakotas between 1880 and 1903, are present. Clara wrote along the side of the photographs the names of everyone, even though I knew 80%, probably from the many times Clara and I looked through the family albums together. Clara's forethought made the identification of everyone a certainty.
left to right - standing:
Uncle Anton Tony Nelson, Uncle August Valentine Nelson, Uncle Albert 'Bob' William Nelson, |
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