Remembering our roots ~ Roger & Denise (Peterson) Nelson

By John Godsman Times Contributor

Roger’s great-grandfather Andrew and great-grandmother Gauvaelin Nillson came from Vesterbotten, Sweden to Canada around the 1850s, settling in Seven Farms, Sask. Grandfather Robert was born in Canada and his son, Roger’s dad Albert, was born at Whitewood, Sask. on Oct. 30, 1918. When Albert joined the Canadian army in the Second World War, the enlisting officer wrote down “Nelson” instead of “Nillson,” which in addition to changing the family name, caused major problems when Albert tried to collect his pension.
Roger’s maternal grandmother Matilda Abelson came from an area of Sweden close to the Norwegian border, and this side of the family came to Canada in 1900, settling in Metiskow, Alta. near Provost where they homesteaded. His mother Ruby Abelson was born in Provost Oct. 30, 1927.
Albert and Ruby met when his aunt and uncle took both of them to a dance at the Provost Hotel. They were married in 1952, and had three surviving children, of which Roger was the second.
Roger was born in Killam, Alta. In August 1955, and attended the Edwin Parr Composite High School in Athabasca through Grade 12, then obtained his Bachelor of Education at the University of Alberta. In 2006, Roger began a four-year Diaconate Program in Calgary. He was ordained to the Sacred Order of Permanent Deacon (Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary) on Oct. 3, 2010 and was assigned to three parishes – Strathmore, Siksika and Cluny.
Denise’s paternal family originates from County Cork, Eire (Ireland). To escape the poverty in Eire in the 1870s, great-grandfather Tom Carroll emigrated with his family to P.E.I. where Tom and his brothers became potato farmers. Grandfather Joe Carroll moved to Edmonton in the early 1900s, to join the Alberta Provincial Police. He married grandmother Mary McIsaac in Edmonton in 1910. After he retired from the police force in 1920, they moved to Oyen where they homesteaded. They had six children, and Denise’s dad Percy was the second, born in 1912. Percy quit school when he was 11 years old to earn income for the family. At age 12 he joined a threshing crew, broke horses and worked forestry in B.C. He also worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company, breaking land that homesteaders had abandoned in the Dirty Thirties. By 1938, he had earned sufficient money to purchase his own mixed farm south of Oyen, which he purchased from the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Denise’s maternal grandparents, Frank and Leontine Lijdsman, were from Breda and Venlo, Netherlands. They were married on Feb. 26, 1919 at the end of the First World War. They had five children, of which Denise’s mother Helen was the second oldest. During the war, her grandfather Frank, a lieutenant in the Dutch army, had docked in Boston in 1916, and while there filed on a homestead in southern Alberta. They actually moved to Canada in 1919, arriving on the last ship that brought soldiers home from Europe after the war. They homesteaded close to the community of Bindloss, Alta. Daughter Helen attended Normal School in 1939, and assumed a teaching position in September 1940 at Southview School, Alta. near Bindloss. It was in this community that Percy and Helen met, and were then married on Aug. 31, 1944.
Denise was born July 29, 1954 at Oyen, the fourth of five siblings. She attended a one-room school in Greenmound, south of Oyen, through Grades 1-4, then went to Oyen for Grades 5 to 11. At the age of 17, she married a local rancher and they had three children. When this marriage broke up in 1981, she moved with her three children to Calgary, where despite only having a Grade 11 education, she upgraded her high school education, then completed her Bachelor of Education Degree at the University of Calgary (U of C), in 1984. That same year, she was hired by County of Wheatland #16 to teach at the Young Offenders Centre, where Roger was the vice-principal. Roger and Denise were married Dec. 24, 1985 and they share five children and eight grandchildren. Denise returned to U of C in 2012, and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Research in 2014.
They were, and continue to be, very involved in the community. Roger’s highlights include serving on Strathmore town council from 1989-2004, member of the Strathmore and District Agricultural Society and principal of Storefront School from 2003-2010. He’s been a volunteer fireman and vice-principal of the Strathmore Young Offenders Centre as well. In his spare time, he is a wood carver.
Denise has been very involved with both the province and local Alberta Teachers Associations, has served on many volunteer committees including Wheatland Housing, FCSS, Project Hope, Strathmore Library and Children’s Services, and is currently a member of the Western District Historical Society.
She also coached fastball for 26 years. She served as principal of Storefront School from 1996-2003, was a teacher at Sequoia School from 2003-2013 and has worked at Siksika Outreach as a consultant and teacher from 2013 to present. She has been a member of Strathmore town council since 2013.
In her spare time Denise is a potter.
Both Roger and Denise say the biggest change they’ve seen in their Strathmore community, south of downtown, is the shift from retired farmers with single family dwellings to highly densified multi-family dwellings.