Wilhelmina Margaretha Vanderwel

Wilhelmina Margaretha Vanderwel

• born September 5, 1893
• died June 27, 1974
• came to America in 1900 at the age of 6
• taught school as a profession before and after her marriage
• was talented in the arts, music, story telling, drawing

Wilhelmina Vanderwel Nelson was born September 5, 1893 in the city of Charlois, Holland, a third daughter – fifth and last child of Jan and Neeltje Barendregt Vanderwel.  They named her Wilhelmina Margaretha Vanderwell, the namesake of her two grandmothers.  She often joked about her long name and how she couldn’t write it all in the short spaces given for names on various forms.  And so for convenience sake she shortened her name to Wilma. 

In Holland the people in those days were fond of cheese sliced very thin.  Wilma’s parents owned and operated a small cheese market in Charlois.  They were very successful as her mother was well known for being able to slice the thinnest, most perfect slices of cheese in that area.

The Mormon Missionaries found their home and taught the Gospel to them.  They believed and became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They then planned and saved until by selling their business they were able to go by ship to America.

They made their first home in Ogden, Utah.  Her father bought a ten acre farm.  Also her father and older brother worked on the railroad.  Wilma was six years old when they arrived.  Teachers and friends helped them to learn the English language.  She and her sister played with the other children around them learning their games and customs.  In this new county there were vegetables and fruit that they were not accustomed to and thought were poisonous.  But they soon learned that tomatoes and rhubarb were good to eat.  She and her sister showed the other children how to knot black stockings while jumping rope.

After a few years in Ogden her family moved to Minidoka, Idaho and homesteaded some land.  She helped with grubbing sagebrush and clearing the land for cultivation.  One of her chores was to tend the cows and bring them home though the tall sagebrush.  While tending the cows she would med the socks and do knitting.

She attended grade schools at Minidoka and then continued her education at the Albion State Normal School there in Southern Idaho.  When she received her teaching certificate she went to Garfield, Idaho to teach school where she taught two years.  Her work there was very good and she was asked to teach in Rigby.   She spent the next eight years teaching school in Rigby.  She kept going to summer school at Albion until she was able to earn her Life Teaching Certificate.  While in Rigby, she worked as a Counselor in the Y.M.M.I.A. and she was also a Sunday school teacher. 

She was offered a teaching job in Rexburg in the year 1921.  She accepted this position for the next three years.  While working in Rexburg she met Andrew A. Nelson.  They were married May 23, 1924 in the Salt Lake Temple in Utah.  Eleven children were born – six sons and five daughters: Arlene, Lois, Kwenden, Merla, Marvin, Dwain, Zyrl, David, Nylin, Coral, and NellJean.

The family lived on a forty acre farm in Burton, Idaho, until 1937 when they moved to the city of Rexburg.  During the following years she taught school at Herbert Hawthorne and Clementsville.  She also was the Cultural refinement instructor in the Relief Society and the sisters used to often comment on how much they enjoyed her lessons.

She taught her children the Gospel and correct ways of living.  She never left her children with a baby sitter.  Thought she remembered the Dutch language very well she could speak English correctly without any accent of her native tongue; she had a great appreciation for music, are and literature.  She frequently recited the many poems she had learned as a girl and she often sang the songs she had learned, these poems and songs became a part of her children’s education.  She was very firm about speaking English well and correctly using only the right form of speech.  She strongly disapproved of using slang.  Before she was married she bought a beautiful mahogany upright piano of which she was very proud and treasured very much.  She encouraged her daughters to learn to play the piano.  She often sat and played her favorite music on this splendid piano.

She was very artistic and created beautiful bulletin boards at the schools in which she taught.  She could draw and paint well and create very fascinating stories for the children.  She would tell these stories to her own children while there were snapping beans and shelling peas.  She taught her children how to cook, sew and clean house, to work hard and complete whatever was started before starting on something else.  She was always loyal to her husband a respected and supported him.  As one observes her posterity some of these qualities are yet reflected in their conduct which is a compliment to her good example.  She passed away June 27, 1974.

(Prepared by a son, Nylin B. Nelson – June 1983)

Notice the phrase, Catch the Sunshine, on her headstone.  I asked Uncle Nylin the significance of that, he told me that it was the name of her favorite song that she would play often on the piano.  I did a little research and found the book that it was in, below is a copy of the song.