SIXTY YEARS GOSPEL SONG MUSIC and TESTIMONY
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SIXTY YEARS in GOSPEL SONG MUSIC and TESTIMONY \ ilMIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllflllllffMlllllillHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItlllilllJHIIIIIIIIfllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllltlllllllinflllH > EntiiiMirinuniiiJiiriitnjiiiiiiMiiiijiuiiiiiiiÉiiiniJ»iiiuiii»n»uiiiiiijiiMiiiiiaiiiiiiiuniiniiinii»iiiiiJUiiuiiiuMiJHi»»ii By Hi NATHANIEL CARLSON m SIXTY YEARS IN GOSPEL MUSIC SONG AND TESTIMONY Price, $1.10 Postpaid By NATHANIEL CARLSON 3418 Blaisdell Avenue Minneapolis 8, Minnesota Printed by OSTERHUS PUBLISHING HOUSE 4500 West Broadway Minneapolis 22, Minnesota, U. S. A. All Rights Reserved .-*-»*-$ Rev. and Mrs. Carlson at our 40th anniversary DEDICATION To the memory of my darling mother, who went to be with the Lord in her best years, and in my early 'teens, yet left a never-to-be-forgotten impression on my young mind and soul; to my beloved wife, who is a true, loving and faithful companion at all times; and to my sweet, de voted daughter Violet, now Mrs. C, J. Nyvall, who was our constant and efficient helper in the years of our musical itineraries, both in this country and in Europe, do I lovingly dedicate this little volume of memoirs, Nathaniel Carlson FOREWORD TIME is a mysterious quantity; who can tell when or where it began, or the length of its duration until NOW? Who can compute the space of its existence, or the span of its eternal future? We measure it by years, months, weeks, days, minutes and seconds, and yet a year is less than a particle of sand on the shores of time. No one can stop it in its flight. Even when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, that event was measured in hours. The meagre years of a human life is infinitessimal in its relation to time itself. When looking back over the years of one's life, they appear to have flown so fast, under usual circumstances. Jacob told Pharaoh that "the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have they been. ." Mine, of course, have not been so many—and never will be here on earth; and I cannot say they have been "evil", when reviewing the blessings with which God has enriched them. And so, with a thankful heart have I sketched the re view of these bygone years, sending them out as a testi mony to the goodness and grace of our Lord, and with a prayer that they may be an encouragement for young people to begin and serve the Lord in early years, and to be faithful whatever betides. Nathaniel Carlson, Minneapolis, Minnesota May 1955 CONTENTS Coming to America —.—. —... Page 8 My First Instrument Page 13 Evangelizing — "Missions-meetings" Page 17 Meeting a Partner in Gospel Work _ Page 21 Conducting My First Service Page 26 In Tent Meetings _„ , Page 30 A Revival in Wisconsin Page 31 Instructions in Music „.. - — Page 35 Call to Minneapolis - - — - Page 39 In Wisconsin Again - Page 40 From the Woods to the Prairies - Page 47 Starting Out in Gospel Singing Work — ,„„ Page 55 • Terrible Forest Fires _ - — Page 58 Great Revival in Benson, Minn. Page 61 Seven Years Experience in Florida — —- Page 66 Sailing for Sweden — — —- Page 84 Journeying in Norway —. Page 94 Entering Germany - _ _. „ Page 10O The Journey Home —~ .— Page 103 ON THE FARM My first engagements in the blessed Gospel work began in my home state, Minnesota, when yet in my 'teens. Learned to play by chords on my first instrument the guitar, quite early, and to use it as accompaniment for singing. Our home was in a settlement called Svea Hill, and by the name the reader guesses that it was started by Scan dinavians, mostly Swedes. There we lived on a farm origin ally aquired by my stepfather as a homestead, near the eastern edge of a river-meadow about a mile wide which winds its way for many miles among the hills, and through which a river flows, the St. Francis, which starts from Elk Lake in the north. Here the poor and hardworking farmers, several of whom were newbeginners at it, having quite recently moved out from the city of Minneapolis about 45 miles away, tilled the sandy soil and raised livestock, which had to be fully housed and fed during the cold winters, getting the largest percentage of their hay from the before men tioned haymeadow. The hay had to be put up by hand in the latter part of the summer and hauled home on sleighs during winter; so the farmers had a fulltime job all the year around. Some of them though, had some experiences of tilling the soil and cutting the hay with a scythe, from the "Old Country." And when this writer was 15 and 16 years old he. spent many days, sometimes weeks, swinging the scythe in the meadows and coaxing music out of the steel blade by the rythmical manipulation of the whetstone. Sometimes we would run into a hornets nest in the long grass, near the ground, and that was more than fun. ! In this settlement there was a group who loved the Lord and met in the homes for prayer and testimony. Here I received my first real and lasting spiritual impressions. At a prayer meeting in our home one time, the Holy Spirit was near, and spoke to my heart very distinctly. I responded to His call and great joy flooded my soul. We were all affected by this power and broke out in joyous praise to God. I was then 8 years old. 7 8 SIXTY YEARS IN GOSPEL SONG, MUSIC AND TESTIMONY Itinerant preachers came to us now and then and had meetings in the homes and in the local schoolhouse. These visits were real spiritual feasts for the Christian settlers. There was no organization and no Sunday school in the early years. To this part of the country my mother brought me one early summers day in 1886, from Minneapolis. I was then seven years old. COMING TO AMERICA But before this many things had come to pass in my young life. Born in a suburb of Gothenborg, Sweden, my mother took me along to America when I was about 14 months old. A brother two years old had died that same year. As times were hard for the working-man in Sweden then, my father had left early in the year 1880 for the great land of promise, the TJ. S. A. He stopped at Ralston, Pa. and took a job in a coalmine. A great number of men among Scandinavian and German immigrants did so, be cause it offered an immediate job at good pay in those days. So when father had saved enough he sent for mother and me, and we arrived in June, after a tedious journey. Mother was happy in the prospect of meeting her loved one, and to settle down to housekeeping for the little family again. But when we arrived at the town, no one was there to meet her. She found her way to the given address, was greeted and welcomed. Upon inquiry why her husband had not met her at the station, the lady answered evasively, that probably he didn't know when we were to arrive. "Is he at work now," mother asked. The answer was no. 'Where is he then?" The lady answered: "He is resting." At once mother surmised that something had happened—and it was this: Father was both dead and buried! Not used to such work and with a steady, cold draft in the tunnels, my father had contracted a severe cold, which lead to other complications that proved fatal. My mother told me once, years later, that the day be fore sailing she went back to her home place to say goodby to friends and neighbors. But an unexplained burden of SIXTY YEARS IN GOSPEL SONG, MUSIC AND TESTIMONY 9 anxiety and foreboding seemed to weigh her down, so she wondered if something was going to happen to her, or if she should go at all. And when she now came and found out what date he died—it was that same day. A cablegram had been sent to her but that arrived after the ship had left. What a shock to mother! Now a widow, without a home, without money or support, and a little child to care for, the burden was very heavy! Father's and her friends, some of them from the same parish in Sweden, were all working people in small circumstances, and had enough of cares for their own. She told me in later years when I was old enough to understand, that if she had not known the Lord, to Whom she could pray in time of trouble, and Who would share her burdens, (I Peter 5:7) she wonlrl Via^e Father Moiner and iNatnaniel, 14 mos. old 10 SIXTY YEARS IN GOSPEL SONG,'MUSIC AND TESTIMONY broken down entirely. I, of course, do not remember my father, or these trying times for mother. But prayer and courage found a way. She soon found work as a domestic with enough pay so she could board me out. She told me that the first family to take me, were un godly, illtreated and neglected me, but she had little choice. But soon a fine Christian couple came from Sweden whom she knew, and they, being childless, took me into their home and treated me as their own and brought me up in a Chris tian way, for which I have thanked God many times. He helped my mother, and held His guardian hand over me. Later we all came to Minneapolis, where mother found work as cook in a well-to-do family home.