Book 2 - Nathan, Amy, Madison and Ethan Berga

The sitting room’s French doors opened revealing a
large unused formal room. It was a special treat to
sit and visit in this room that had a flowered carpet.
The room was usually open only in the summer. A
large window on the
north overlooked the
lawn, hedges and green
valley, and a heavy oak
table sat in front of the
window with a lamp having
colored upper and
lower globes painted with
flowers. Another window
on the west had a huge
fern sitting on a pedestal
table. Between them was
an old, beautiful ebony
piano that no one played.
Occasionally, as a child,
I would be asked to play
and did so, even though it
was horribly out of tune.
The room aired signs of
wealth with its black and
brown leather settees and
chairs. My brother and I
used to sit on the rug and
look through the stereo
glasses at old 3-D picture
cards. The room was always
kept the same, and
always dusted.
An archway in the corner of the “sitting room” emptied
into a guest bedroom, which at one time might have
been the master bedroom. A huge black walnut bed,
dresser and matching vanity filled the room. All the
windows in the house were trimmed with lovely lace
curtains. The bed headboard was approximately eight
to ten feet high with woodcarvings, and small shelves
on the sides to hold candles. The footboard was shorter
but still high and carved – very elegant. The bed
stood off the floor two to three feet with feather mattress,
pillows and quilts made from chicken and geese
down, probably taken from the farm. I slept with my
Mary Nordrum Nelson
Wedding 29 May 1893
27
mother in that bed one time and didn’t wake up until
noon! The high dresser also had shelves on either side
of the tall mirror for candles. The vanity and dresser
had marble tops. The pictures on the wall were of
John and Mary Nelson in
large oval wooden frames
with rounded glass.
A door in the dining room
led to the upstairs bedrooms
where Iva and Luella
slept throughout their
lives. There were probably
three bedrooms upstairs
since John Nelson hired
a handyman to oversee
his property. The upstairs
was heated from the wood
stove by way of a grated
floor opening in the kitchen
called registers. Until the
bathroom was built in the
1960’s an out house was
used, as well as a slop jar
in the bedrooms at night,
emptied each day. There
was no running water until
the bathroom was built.
Water was pumped from a
well off the pantry, from
outside in the yard, and
then heated on the stove.
Only once, was I invited up the narrow stairway into
the hallway to see beautiful lace, embroidered linens
and other things stored in trunks. The trunks came
from Norway. The sisters gave me a set of 12 silver
coffee spoons in later years, and a set of white lace
pillowcases.” 19
John Nelson died in 1944, he was 82. His widow,
continued to live with her daughters in their home
until her death on March 5, 1953; she was 91. Both
are buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery. 4,47