Nelson fish stories and mystery of what happened to their house behind Armory
- Lynn Nelson
- Apr 23, 2024
- 6 min read
My Grandpa John Nelson and Grandma Marion (Schaefer) Nelson grew up near White Bear Lake (Centerville and Withrow, respectively) and settled here shortly after they married.
For most of their married lives, they lived at a white house with black trim on Cook Avenue – right behind the Armory. The house was torn down or moved within the past 20 years. I am not sure which but would sure like to know.
Left: Only pic I could find of my father's childhood home on Cook Avenue
First-hand story of 1941 tornado
My Dad’s (Curtis Nelson) favorite story about the Armory focused on the tornado of 1941. He was nine years old and was playing near the front steps with a friend.
The wind started blowing, and he says it started raining the biggest rain drops he’d ever seen, so he and his friend headed for their respective homes.
If you’re interested in his account of the story, click on the link immediately below for the recording. Although, his hearing isn’t too good, he has an amazing memory for a 92-year-old, which he proves during our conversation. I recorded it on April 12 of 2024.
He had a brand new bike, which he didn’t want to leave outside when he got home. A plumber was at the house trying to fix something for my Dad’s Mom, Grandma Marion, and the plumber couldn’t open the door to the basement, because of the suction caused by the wind.
He tried and tried, but never could do it during the storm. Fortunately, none of them were injured, but the top of the Armory was shirred off and had to be rebuilt, and the house across the street was heavily damaged. There are some good accounts of this storm in the last four pages of the Looking Back at White Bear Lake book by Cynthia Vadnais.
According to my Dad, Grandpa John and Grandma Marion met during the late 1920s at a dance at the school house at 170th St and Hwy 61 between Forest Lake and Hugo. (The building is currently being renovated. https://hopkinsschoolhouse.org
They lived near Union Cemetery in a house that is no longer there when they first moved to White Bear circa 1932.
Left: John and Marion Nelson with sons Curt (oldest) and Laury (youngest). Not sure where middle son Gerry was when this was taken.
A first-generation American, Grandpa John went to Dunwoody in Minneapolis to become a car mechanic after high school; his first job was at Lavalle Motors (Chevrolet) in Hugo.
For 15 years, he was part owner of White Bear Lake auto dealership Rademacher-Nelson Dodge Plymouth. He sold his share in 1949 and owned Nelson Auto Service in the 1950s, and later worked as a mechanic for Knutson Auto Service.
There were only three car dealerships in White Bear Lake at the time. Dad says Cleo Smith, former mayor of White Bear Lake, owned one of them, possibly the Chevrolet dealership.
Now there are a dozen in the City of White Bear Lake and another dozen in the surrounding area.
Fish stories
Grandpa John was an avid fisherman. He had a sign he’d hang at his car repair shop near Johnson Boatworks; it said “Gone fishing, honk your horn if you need me.”
We also heard him give this advice many times while we were growing up: “If you don’t get out fishing by 5 a.m., you’re just out for a boat ride.” I suspect he was back from fishing before most of his customers showed up at the shop.
First ice-fishing house
When Dad was age 9 or 10, his father had a customer who told him he was going to go fishing in an outhouse on Bald Eagle Lake.
One day Grandpa and Dad were ice fishing on Bald Eagle. They were leaving the lake by car and came around a corner where they saw an outhouse on the lake. “Dad said that must be Leo,” my father recalled. “He was sitting on the seats not meant for fishing,” he laughed, scoffing at the uber expensive fish houses of today that feature TVs and other luxuries.
While Grandpa was its president, the White Bear Lake Rod and Gun Club started an ice fishing contest on White Bear Lake in the mid 1940s, which became a regular St. Paul Winter Carnival event.
Catching Northern by hand
One of my Dad’s favorite fish stories is that in the 1940s he caught a Northern by hand. Here’s the way he tells it: “At the north end of Bald Eagle, there was a creek that ran between Bald Eagle and Otter Lake, and a concrete dam was erected to limit water going from Bald Eagle into Otter Lake.
“The Creek had to go underneath the road, and there were vertical rods to prevent fish from going through. One day the water got high enough that a fish flopped over the dam into a shallow pool, so I was able to reach down and grab it.
“Mom was always excited to eat Northern. So my friend Charlie, who was driving, and I headed back to the house on Cook Avenue. My parents were in bed when I came up to show them the fish, which accidentally fell into bed with my mother.
“She got even with it by cleaning and cooking it the next day,” laughed my Dad.
Great grandparents came to this area from Norway
Grandpa John’s parents probably got to Minnesota around 1912. Before leaving Norway, they worked on a farm near Oslo. And when they got here, Ole Kristian Roras Nilsen became Kristian Nelson, and his wife Gina Gulliksen became Gina Nelson (or Jenny?). And they got jobs at the James J. Hill Farm in North Oaks.
Right: Kristian and Gina Nelson shortly after arriving here from Norway.
About 10 years ago, my Mom invited me to join her and Dad for a tour of the Hill Farm. It was fun to imagine my great grandparents working there, possibly in the fields, possibly in the dairy building.
The farm still exists in a much smaller fashion. It is now 5.6 acres and features renovated buildings from the turn of the century, including a barn, dairy building, granary, etc. It will be open to the public during its annual Farm Fest on Sept 8, 2024. There is also an ice cream social open to the public on June 23, 2024. https://www.hillfarmhistoricalsociety.com/events/ice-cream-social
Left: My Mom and Dad Barb and Curt Nelson visiting the James J. Hill Farm about 15 years ago.
Kristian died within a dozen years of arriving in the United States. And Gina died a few years later, leaving six children under the age of 20.
A pair of twins who were very young, Jennie and her brother were very young and raised by their older siblings, including my Grandpa John and Grandma Marion, who were the oldest surviving family members, and according to my Great Aunt Jennie were very generous and welcoming.
Jennie became somewhat of an ancestry buff when she retired. (I guess it runs in the family.) She was married to Richard Haertel, a successful German-born business owner in St. Petersburg, Fla., who spent time in a concentration camp during World War II. But that’s another story!
During the late 1990s, Aunt Jennie and Uncle Richie were in their 70s when they traveled to Europe. Much to her surprise, Jennie discovered her half brother Einer Anderson and the rest of the Nelson family near a small city the size of White Bear Lake called Tonsberg; it’s within an hour’s drive of Oslo.
All of the relatives insisted that she meet Captain Anderson, who ferried ships filled with valuable oil from Norway to the United States during WWII. He was eventually entrusted with carrying the King and Queen of Norway and their family and possessions to England when the Nazis invaded Norway.
Jennie and Captain Einer met on a fine June day over coffee. She was relieved that he spoke English very well, and language was not a barrier. After a fair amount of conversation Jennie asked Einer how they were related, and he chuckled: “Closer than you think.” He brought out a picture and said, “this is our mother.”
Of course, Jennie was shocked that she had a half-brother she never knew about. Her flight left the next day, but when she parted with Einer, they promised they would stay in touch and according to her scrapbook: STAY IN TOUCH WE DID.
Jennie became a great connector and encouraged the Norwegian family members to visit the United States in 2003, where they visited her in Florida.
From there, they headed to Minnesota – much to my surprise their lodging plans fell through – and at the last moment they ended up staying with me and my family in Minneapolis. And after that with my Uncle Morris Carlson and Aunt Donna Carlson in Centerville.
When Gina and Kristian left Norway for the United States in 1912, they left behind Einar, who was probably less than 10 years old and was born out of wedlock when she was young. He was raised by her sister and the rest of her family.
My Mom has collected many ship manifests that show that Einar travelled to the United States many times while working as a sailor, sometimes as the ship’s captain.
Once he got as close as the Great Lakes – but he did not find his biological mother, although there is evidence that she communicated by letter with her family in Norway.