1891-1932
The Erik Alfred Nelson Papers are located at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, and personal papers of Southern Baptist missionary, Erik Alfred Nelson, that record nearly fifty years of his pioneer mission work in Brazil. The papers include material in three languages – English, Portuguese, and Swedish. Materials in this presentation include correspondence from Nelson’s family members, Nelson’s diaries from 1891-1900, and some of the collection’s subject files.
Erik Alfred Nelson was born December 17, 1862, in Orebro, Sweden, to Anders and Ana Nelson. When Erik was seven years old, his father, a Baptist minister, moved the family to the United States of America, settling near Chanute, Kansas, with other Swedish immigrants, to escape religious persecution in his own country. Nelson professed faith in Christ and was baptized into the membership of a Swedish Baptist church when he was 14 years old. He worked on his father’s farm and later became a cowboy, traveling extensively in the west and neglecting his religious background. As a man in his 20s, he returned to Kansas and began to diligently study the Bible. Inspired by a letter written by W. B. Bagby, a missionary in Brazil, Nelson was determined to go to Brazil. After disappointments in trying to further his education, he sailed for Brazil in 1891, at the age of 29. He married Ida Lundberg from Kansas January 7, 1893, and she joined him in Brazil. In 1897, upon the recommendation of Baptist missionaries, William Entzminger and Solomon Ginsburg, Nelson was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board. His total service in Brazil was 48 years. Rev. Nelson died in his home in Manaus, Brazil June 15, 1939. His funeral was in the First Baptist Church, which he founded in 1900, and his body was buried in a nearby cemetery.
