Immigrants to this nation from Europe a century or more ago had various reasons for making the journey across the sometimes vary hazardous Atlantic Ocean. Some of those reasons were based on religious persecution, being part of an ethnic minority, compulsory military service, a desire for a better life, or to join family members already in North America. For Chris J. (Nelsen) Nelson the main reason he left Denmark was based on poverty.

Chris was born during 1885, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jens Nielson (also spelled Nelsen) of Myrdahl, Denmark. (The Nelson aspect of his last name came later in life.) His parents were extremely poor. At the age of nine Chris was sent to several nearby farms to work as a hired hand. I get the impression he had very little education in Danish classrooms.

As a teenager, Chris became involved in an apprentice deal based on work as a carpenter for very little pay. By he time he was 19, the young Dane became very discouraged regarding future life in Denmark.

He had six brothers and sisters; one sister had died in infancy. By this time an older brother had migrated to Pine River here in Minnesota. Chris had a twin sister who was already married and living in Connecticut. He wrote to his twin sister expressing unhappiness with life in Denmark and asking for her possible help in the future. Her reply contained a one-way steamship ticket to America.

He left Europe on June 28, 1904, as a passenger on the Danish ship Norga.

Four days later, off the coast of north Scotland, this ship struck a submerged rock and quickly sank. More than 700 people died in this disaster.

The Norga was one of many ships back then hauling people from Europe to North America. One of the sad details for many of these ships of that era is the stupid fact that they had just enough lifeboats for the officers and crew.

Somehow, Chris ended up in a tiny lifeboat containing three Swedes, 16 Norwegians, a dozen Russians and one lonely Dane. This group drifted around on the ocean without water or food for six days before being rescued. Three people in the lifeboat died.

Chris eventually came to the U.S., lived in Connecticut and New York for a short time, and came to Minnesota in 1906. He worked as a carpenter in Blooming Prairie for a few months, then moved to Albert Lea. Chris married Marie Frankson, a Danish-American from Grand Meadow, in 1909. They had one daughter, Marian.

He became a contractor. Among the projects he and his crew built were the top two floor addition to the Hotel Albert, creameries in Clarks Grove, Red Oak and Hayward, and the first concrete bridge and dam at the outlet of Fountain Lake. Later in life, Chris became involved in the Freeborn County Historical Society and built many of the wooden and glass display cases still in use at the museum.

Before he left Denmark Chris had promised his mother he would return for a visit on her golden wedding anniversary. In 1924 he could afford the cost of this trip and even take his wife and daughter to Denmark. Yet, his experiences based on the ship wreck and six days in a overcrowded lifeboat made him very apprehensive about travel across the ocean. The Nelson family (his last name had been changed in 1912 on his naturalization papers) made it to Denmark and back to Albert Lea without any problems. In fact, he made four more trips back to Denmark during his lifetime. During his last trip in the 1970s Chris was interviewed on Danish television about his memories based on the sinking of the Norga and six days in an overcrowded lifeboat.

His wife died in 1957 and Chris spent the last six years of his life as a resident at St. John’s Lutheran Home.

This Danish immigrant who survived a shipwreck to become a very productive American died on April 29, 1982, at the age of 97.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.