December 1, 2011 at 4:37 p.m.
Civil War Scrapbook
Nels Anderson/Oppen emigrated from Norway, married Guri Nelson also a recent immigrant from Norway and settled in the Town of Highland in 1857. They worked hard to establish their homestead and farm the land near where the Pine Knob post office was located at the time. Nels was a kind, Christian man, unpretending in his ways and strictly honest in all his doings. So, as required, he registered for the draft in June of 1863. Then the notice came, he was drafted into Company F of the Wisconsin 17th Infantry Regiment on November 18, 1864. Nels said he would never forget the hour when he left home to go to the front, as duty called. His little one room cabin was about completed, but there was no money and no clothes or provisions for the coming winter. Under those circumstances it was pretty hard to leave his young wife and small children. He was with Sherman on the great march to the sea and was mustered out on July 14, 1865 in Louisville, KY. When he returned to the little cabin among the hills at the close of the war, he found that where there had been four little children when he left, there were now only two, and one was mortally sick. The other two had died from an epidemic of scarlet fever. They carried on to have more children, were faithful members of Otter Creek Lutheran Church and a well respected citizen the Town of Highland. The loss of their children never left their thoughts. A writer of the time questioned "ill the true, full history of our dear, early pioneers, their suffering, privations and toil, which they so bravely endured, ever be written in full? No, never in full, it can be but fragmentary."
To share your story, write it up and drop it off at the Iowa County Historical Society Museum 1-4 p.m. any weekday or E-MAIL it to IowaCountyScrapbook@gmail.com. If you would rather, you can call the Iowa County Historical Society at 935-7694.
