My great great great grandfather, Nielson, of the Rosendahl clan, was born in 1804. During his lifetime he saw an upsurge of social reform. Denmark avoided bloody revolution seen in other countries when a constitutional monarchy was established in 1849. The Danes experienced increased national pride. Slavery was abolished in the Danish West Indies.
Schleswig-Holstein, however, the ancestral home of Baron Juvre/Rosendahl, remained a prickly problem for Denmark. Schleswig-Holstein sought independence from Denmark, leading to the First Schleswig war (1848-1851). "Let 'em go," Nielson joked, reflecting the sentiment that drove the old baron to move north -- "They're too damned German!"
The First Schleswig war ended in a stalemate due to the intervention of England and other powers. Much debate followed in Denmark about the Schleswig-Holstein problem. National-Liberals wanted Schleswig to remain tied to Denmark, but the more German Holstein could do as it wished. However, international events overtook Danish domestic politics when Denmark was forced into a war against Prussia and Austria. Denmark was quickly defeated and had to give up both Schleswig and Holstein.
The loss of Schleswig and Holstein caused the Danes to do some serious soul-searching, to come to grips with their changing national identity. Denmark had once been a world power; the most powerful nation in northern Europe. For a time Denmark extended from England to Jutland and Schleswig-Holstein, eastward to Sweden, Norway, and part of Finland. Now the country was greatly reduced in power and prestige.
Hans Christian Andersen wrote:
Once you master were of all the North
Ruled over England, now they call you weak,
A small land, yet through the world
Are still heard Danish song and hammer-beat.
Nielson joked, “Well, they may take away our land -- we’ve still got the sea!” His son, Christensen, and grandson, Mads Christian Madsen, would later take the joke seriously.
Nielson had four sons: Nels Peter Hans Madsen, Nielson, Rosendahl and Christensen. Christensen, echoing Hans Rosendahl’s love of the sea, went to sea and was never heard from again. His grandson, Mads Christian Madsen, my great grandfather, along with two other brothers, against their father’s wishes, joined the merchant marine, left Denmark and sailed to the U.S.
Farm work was hard and boring. Mads was eager for the lure of adventure, the clean air, the foaming spray, the wild waves. His two brothers just wanted to escape dreary labor and crop failure. Whatever their motives, their outraged father disowned them all. They became “Mads’ sons,” or Madsens. In America they would change the spelling to “Matson.”
The loss of Schleswig-Holstein came as the latest in the long series of defeats and territorial loss that had begun in the 17th century. The Danish state had now lost some of the richest areas of the kingdom: Skåne to Sweden and Schleswig to Germany, so the nation focused on developing the poorer areas of the country. Extensive agricultural improvements took place in Jutland, and a new form of nationalism, which emphasized the "small" people, the decency of rural Denmark, and the shunning of wider aspirations, developed.
Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) was a prolific writer, contributing major works in theology, education, literature, politics and history. He was also a poet and hymn writer. He had a great deal of influence on the development of the Danish soul -- what it meant to be Danish. He influenced social reform. He wrote a sermon attacking the mainstream Lutheran church for betraying the Christian gospel. His theological views often put him in conflict with church elders. Theologically, he argued for the authority of ‘the living word’ and for the organization of the church through independent, self-organizing congregations. Grundtvig also became active in politics; at first broadly conservative, but later tended to further social reform. He advocated the foundation of folk high schools. His ideas found fruition when Kristen Kold, a follower of Grundtvig, established the Danish Folk High School in Rødding in 1844.
Many in the Rosendahl-Madsen families became adherents of Grundtvig. One brother is believed to be Hans Rosendahl (1839-1921). He was Folk School principal in the Grundtvig persuasion. In 1867 he established the Vingling Folk School, near Vejle and was its principal until 1892. Then he was principal of Grundtvig Folk School in Lyngby (1892-1919). He was a prominent teacher of history.
There is also Axel Rosendahl, born 1883. He was probably a son of Hans Rosendahl (my great grandfather’s brother). Axel became a bishop in 1914 and was pastor of a church in Copenhagen (probably Methodist). In 1935 he was bishop of Roskilde and the author of several collections of sermons. For many years he was editor of a Grundtvigian paper.
There was also a Nielson-Rosendahl. He was active in the Scandinavian seminar 1950-1960. He was a Methodist bishop in Denmark. He came to Racine, Wisc., to visit my great grandfather in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
My great great grandfather, Nels Peter Hans Madsen was born June 3, 1844, in Rosendahl Ådum (Odum) Sogn and died 1931 in Gundesbol Ådum Sogn.
My great grandfather, Mads Christian Madsen, was born July 4, 1870 in Schleswig-Holstein and came to the U.S. in 1888. When he and his brothers followed their love of the sea and joined the merchant marine, their stern father disowned them for their disobedience.
His brother, Tom, was born May 27, 1880 in Oderup Ådum Sogn, and came to the U.S. in 1902. He died in Racine about 1965.
My grandfather, Leonard Philemon Matson, was born in Kenosha, Wisc., May 27, 1895, died Jan. 14, 1983 in Birmingham, Ala. He spoke Danish until he was about nine years old. But one day his father, Mads Christian Madsen, said, “We are Americans now. Only English.”
My grandfather, whom we called “Pawp,” also inherited Hans Rosendahl’s love of the sea, and he passed it along to me. When he was a teenager he built and sailed a canvas covered sailing canoe on Lake Michigan. As he grew older, Pawp’s love of sailing never faded. He owned a 19-foot Lightning sloop, later a 22 square meter racing yacht, and a 50-foot yawl, “Truant.” He told me about sitting in “Truant’s” bilge, tapping on the beams and thinking, “If I just had a thousand dollars, I could buy this boat.” Somehow he found some friends who went in with him on buying his dream boat.
My first sailing experience was on my grandfather’s friend’s 22 square meter out of Belmont Harbor in Chicago. I was 9. I was in love. Still am.
My grandfather moved from Chicago to Birmingham to be near his daughter, my mother, who married an Alabamian, Charles Gordon Brooks, of Andalusia. My Dad met her while studying art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He later became the editorial cartoonist for the Birmingham News, a job he loved.
I was inebriated with the joy of sailing. I pestered my Mom and Dad day and night. We weren’t rich. Even a modest Sailfish was out of reach. Finally, Dad bought an aluminum skiff and outboard motor. We launched it at Lake Guntersville. It was nice, but it wasn’t a sailboat.
Pawp found the answer -- a new, simple one design sailboat, the Windmill. Pawp acquired the plans for the 15½- foot sloop. I mowed lawns, took cash instead of birthday or Christmas presents, and came up with the money for materials. Pawp built my first boat for me. We launched it at Lake Guntersville in 1961. I was 14. A reporter for The Birmingham News thought it was a cute story, so they published it in The Birmingham News Sunday Magazine. Later, Pawp became one of the founders of the Birmingham Sailing Club on Lake Logan Martin.
No comments:
Post a Comment