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Home > History > Tukwilla Valley
IMMIGRANT FARMERS BUILD FARMS IN THE VALLEY- THE NELSENS
This shift to dairying and market garden produce around 1890 coincided with the historic lead that the Scandinavians took in the Great Migration to America. As a result of overpopulation and the poor future outlook in Scandinavia, young single women and men began coming to America in large numbers in the 1880s-preceding the mass migration of the turn of the century from southern and eastern Europe. Between 1880 and 1920 about 40 percent of the population of Scandinavian countries immigrated to the United States. Coming from farm backgrounds, these people sought farms, and were attracted to the Northwest by its good soil and general similarity to the Nordic lands. A part of this great demographic move were the Danish Nelsens of the Duwamish and lower White River valley, now known as the Green River Valley . The story of the Nelsen brothers-James, Herman, and Fred-who emigrated from Denmark in the 1880s and settled in the area provides insights into the life decisions and hard work put into realizing their objectives that characterized the people populating the valley in this period. Their efforts to establish themselves, their formation of families, and their contributions to their community and region demonstrate the dreams, goals, determination and effort that they, and others like them, made during their lifetimes. Two sisters, Sophia and Mary, and another brother, Ole, also immigrated and settled in the Northwest. However, since they did not live in the valley their stories are not recorded here. The Nelsen brothers lived in the vicinity of Renton Junction and Orillia, i.e., Fort Dent Park and the South center district. Nels and Maren Olsen of Karebaek, Denmark, had ten children, six of whom emigrated to America. In Denmark it was not the custom to use a family surname; however, at the time of entry into the United States the Nelsens took the name Nelsen, i.e., "son of Nels," as their surname. For each of the Nelsens, formal education ended between the fourth and ninth grade. James withdrew from school at age 9 and went to work as a farm hand. Herman left home to support himself at age 12. JAMES NELSEN
While working in the Gatzert household Nelsen became friends with Mary Dobler, a German immigrant who was Babette Gatzert's maid. Like James Nelsen, Mary Dobler was raised in a rural area, and was an adventurous and self ~sufficient person. She has come alone to the United States in 1882 at age 19. In 1885 James and Mary were married and returned to his land to develop a farm. Their land was heavily covered with trees and dense brush, and part of it was swampy, which made immediate cultivation impossible. However, James's older brother Ole, who had recently come from Denmark and married another Danish immigrant, joined James and Mary, and the four young people pooled their money and rented a nearby piece of cleared land which they farmed together. With the gain from that year, James and Mary turned to industriously clearing and draining their own land. The couple had settled on Henry Meader's donation claim and were among the first to extensively clear and develop for agriculture the rich White River bottom land. in the vicinity of the confluence of the rivers. Long days of hard manual labor, combined with wise business decisions, allowed them to prosper, and they soon bought the Ringsdorfs' 210-acre hop farm nearby, which had seven cleared acres. It was a small parcel but enough to increase their income sufficiently to allow them to save money for more land. The rest of the Ringsdorf land was still in its natural state. They raised potatoes and hops. To raise cash Jim worked out as a hop foreman in the valley, while Mary ran the farm in Jim's absence and looked after the children, Harry born 1888, Frank, 1890, and Sidonia, 1895.
In the 1910s Nelsen bought a fine piece of Vermont granite from the Catholic Ladies Aid, who had acquired it with the intent of commissioning a statue of the pioneer priest Father Prefontaine. That project fell through, and Nelsen got the stone. Barging it up from Tacoma, he commissioned Sam Barrett, a stone carver and painter living in Riverton, to transform the stone into the pair of substantial lions that have guarded the front of the house for over 70 years. The Nelsens' dairy barn, built in 1903 south of the house, was a large frame structure crowned by a pair of seven-foot gable-roofed cupolas. In 1969 the barn was moved across the West Valley Highway near the entrance to Longacres Racetrack, where it served as the Renton Auction Barn until demolished in 1990. However, the original homestead barn, built in 1887, remains. The Nelsens' son Harry became an electrician, Frank became a steamboat engineer, and Sidonia (Kettering) managed the Nelsen family water company. Helen joined the First National Bank of Renton (later Peoples Bank), and remained in the family home throughout her life seeing to its maintenance and preservation. In addition to farming, James Nelsen involved with a number of significant community-building activities. With three others he founded and maintained the Independent Water Company, a private water supply system which served parts of the Tukwila community for 50 years. In addition, he was the County Road Supervisor the South King County District for 15 years. Nelsen was one of the original organizers of the Renton Citizens Bank later known as the First N ational and then as Peoples Bank. Nelsen also supported the area schools by serving on the Renton School Board for many years. Nelsen was a strong advocate of cooperation among the farmers, and was a founder and director of the King County Dairymen's Association. Both Mary and James Nelsen were active for decades in the White River Grange, based in Orillia. Mary and James maintained a strong sense of Danish ethnic identity through affiliation with the Danish Brotherhood and Sisterhood and the Danish Lutheran Church. A prominent Democrat, Nelsen was also a member of the King County Pioneer Association and the Pioneers of Washington. Most of James and Mary's children graduated from college. James Nelsen lived in the Renton Junction for 66 years. After his death, the following tribute was made to Nelsen and his life: "King County remembers him among its most progressive successful farmers and the rules which govern his life are such as constituted the basis of all honorable and desirable prosperity, while his personality is one that inspires esteem and friendship." HERMAN NELSEN Herman Nelsen immigrated in 1889, coming directly to James Nelsen's farm. After helping his brother for a year, Herman went to work for a neighboring farmer, Neils Andersen, another Danish immigrant. After Andersen died, Herman Nelsen managed the farm for Margaret Andersen, and later they were married. Together they owned 60 acres on the White River ( the Henry Adams donation claim) and leased an additional 120 acres. Herman and Margaret Andersen Nelsen maintained a very efficient and immaculate dairy farm operation. They used modern equipment, including an ice plant with a daily capacity of two tons of ice, a bottle washer and a bottle filling machine, all electrically operated-a very modern innovation for the day. Herman Nelsen was a lifetime member of the White River Grange and a member of the State Board of Directors from 1915 until his death in 1936. In addition, Nelsen was a director of the Orillia Water Supply Co. and the Seattle Milk Shippers Association. He was also the secretary-treasurer of the Renton-Kent National Farm Loan Association. Margaret Andersen Nelsen had six children by her first marriage, and she and Herman had one son, Marcus, a graduate of Eastern Washington State University, who was the Kent postmaster for many years. The eldest Nelsen brother, Ole, settled in the lower Cedar River area in the 1890s, where he developed a large successful dairy farm opposite the Veenhuizen farm. Ole's son Herman later owned and operated the farm. FRED NELSEN Fred Nelsen, the second-youngest of the Nelsen brothers to emigrate from Denmark, was born in 1871 and came to the United States in 1889. He traveled directly to his brother James in the White River Valley. Fred worked for a number of farmers in the following years, including Chris Jorgensen, who had settled at Black River Junction around 1870. In 1898 he married Jorgensen's daughter Dora. The couple bought 100 acres of land from James that lay at the confluence of the rivers. Like his brothers, Fred went into dairying and developed a large, prosperous modern dairy in the area known as Renton Junction after the building of the Interurban. The Nelsens had six daughters, Rose, Elsie, Hilda, Alma, Eleanor and Dorothy, and one son Evan. Most of the Nelsen children graduated from college. Fred and Dora are distinguished for their civic spirit and community leadership in local organizations and the Grange, where they served on local, regional and state levels. They were charter members of the White River Grange No.238 in 1908. In 1919~21 Dora served as state Pomona. Active for over a half a century, Fred served the Grange in many capacities including State Grange Overseer and Master, 1919~25, and State Grange Executive Committee Emeritus, 1953-63. He was the State CJrange Treasurer for 24 years. In 1958 he received the Grange Leadership Award. He organized 15 Granges across Washington and in 1958 received the high honor of Gold Sheaf Member status, for 50 years of service. Fred Nelsen greatly supported cooperatives, an idea that was first successfully realized in Denmark in the 1880s. Nelsen provided able leadership with the Western Washington Cooperative Movement and served as President of the Grange Cooperative Wholesale for 30 years. He was a founder and charter member of the Board of Directors of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. Fred Nelsen's civic interest extended beyond the concerns of farming. In 1934 he was named by Governor Martin to the newly created State Planning Council. A Democrat throughout his life, Nelsen also served as the District Representative in the State Legislature from 1917 to 1919. On the local level, for many years he and Dora actively served on the Renton School Board, where their children attended high school. In 1964 the Fred Nelsen Junior High School, Renton, was dedicated to the memory of Fred Nelsen and his community service. Both Fred and Dora Nelsen were proud of their Danish heritage and remained active in the Danish Brotherhood and Sisterhood throughout their lives, as well as the Danish Lutheran Church. An energetic, generous, caring and idealistic person, Fred Nelsen expressed his vision of community service in the following words delivered to the 55th National Grange Conference in Portland, Oregon, in 1921 :
Dora Nelsen died in 1938. In 1940 Fred married MetaJonientz. She died in 1962, and Fred died in 1963 at the age of 92. The Nelsens have been described as belonging to "that desirable class of foreign-born American citizens whose inherited tendencies of industry and perseverance have constituted important factors in the upbuilding of the Pacific Northwest." Through conscientiously operated businesses, as well as regionalleadership of the caliber of the Nelsens, the valley gained recognition and respect throughout the region for agricultural progressiveness in the period from 1890 to 1940. |
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Entering the U.S. in 1881, James Nelsen made his way to Washington by way of Illinois after two years working near his sister Sophia's farm. In 1883 Sophia, with her husband Fred Ditlivesen and family, and James Nelsen caught an immigrant train to Puget Sound. After a short stay in Seattle doing odd jobs, James went to work on the farms of Danish immigrants Chris Jorgensen and Martin Nelsen in the Black River Junction area. With three years' savings Nelsen bought his first tract of land-about 25 acres of woods and marsh. Nelsen suffered from the same problem as the earlier donation claim pioneers-land but no money with which to improve it. He returned to Seattle and became a coachman for the prominent Seattle banker Bailey Gatzert, who was closely associated with Jacob Furth.
Nelsen built a small house for his family at what later became 16010 W. Valley Rd. Eventually they acquired 280 acres of additional land. They began their dairy milking a few cows and selling the milk in Seattle, sending it first by boat down the river and after 1902 on the Interurban. Gradually they increased their dairy herd to 70 good-grade cows and shifted from selling milk retail to selling it on a wholesale basis. By the 1920s the Nelsens had a modern dairy operation that met the highest standards of the day. On their large acreage they grew corn, hay and grain. They raised all the feed for their animals, storing it in a pair of tall silos. The Nelsens' herd consisted of quality Holstein and Guernsey cows, and registered Holstein sires. Eventually, the problem of the soggy land was resolved by laying tile to drain the land. Fully developed, the Nelsens' farm had substantial modern outbuildings and a large handsome Victorian home, built in 1905 by Mr. Olsen, a local Danish carpenter. Their last child, Helen, was born in the house in 1906.
[The Grange] has never been commercialized or subsidized, but of, by and for the farmer and actuated by the highest motives, it holds a record individually and collectively of unselfish service and accomplishment, which places it in a place all its own and richly entitles it to the esteem and confidence it enjoys.
