{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Augustus Nelson | image = August Nelson.jpg | birth_name = Nils Peter Gustafsson | birth_date = {{birth date|1838|09|05}} | birth_place = Ödängla, Kalmar County, Sweden | death_date = {{death date and age|1909|05|19|1838|09|05}} | death_place = Apia, German Samoa | spouse = Sine Gogo Tugaga Maso' | children = 6, including Olaf }} '''Augustus Nelson''' (born '''Nils Peter Gustafsson''', 5 September 1838 – 19 May 1909), also known as '''Gustav August Nilspeter Nilsson''', was a Swedish sailor emigrating to Samoa and the patriarch of the Nelson family in Samoa.

==Biography== Little is known about Nelson's early life other than that he was born Nils Peter Gustafsson<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.helagotland.se/kultur/kultur-och-noje/artikel/det-ar-stickan-nilsson-som-ar-slakt-med-kungen-pa-samoa/lyg0mdpl | title=Det är "Stickan" Nilsson som är släkt med kungen på Samoa | date=20 September 2007 }}</ref> in Ödängla,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.barometern.se/artikel/kand-slakts-rotter-eftersoks-pa-odangla/ | title=Känd släkts rötter eftersöks på Ödängla | date=21 September 2018 }}</ref> Mönsterås outside Kalmar and went to sea around 1850<ref name="F">{{cite web | url=http://www.kalmarlansmuseum.se/samlingar/vara-samlingar/manadens-foremal/ie-toga-fran-samoa/ | title=`ie toga från Samoa | publisher=Kalmar County Museum | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320144456/http://www.kalmarlansmuseum.se/samlingar/vara-samlingar/manadens-foremal/ie-toga-fran-samoa/ | access-date=14 July 2015 | archive-date=20 March 2015}}</ref> at the age of 12 or 13 years.

Nilsson worked as a sailor for about 7 years before he turned to gold mining, first in the Hokitika area<ref name="C" /> in New Zealand and later also in Australia<ref name="C" /> but without becoming wealthy. He then decided to try his luck with copra trading, which was a lucrative business on many islands in the South Pacific.

===Settlement in the South Pacific=== thumb| Nelson house, around 1936 Nilsson left Sydney in early 1868<ref name="C" /><ref name="F" /> and arrived in Apia on 9 March of the same year. There, he teamed up with British F. Cornwall<ref name="C" /> and together they founded a trading company in the villages of Falelatai and Gagaemalae on Savaii and acquired two schooners for the business. Both ships, however, were lost at sea, and Cornwall turned to land dealings, while Nilsson continued his trading operations on the southern part of Savaii.

Nilsson now changed his name to Augustus Nelson,<ref name="F" /> his business prospered, and he became a wealthy man. 1878<ref name="C" /> he moved to the village of Safune<ref name="F" /> on the northern part of the island. There, he met the Samoan woman Sine Gogo Tugaga Maso'<ref name="B"> [http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4n5/nelson-olaf-frederick Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand] (accessed 14 July 2015)</ref> (also Sina Masoe)<ref name="E">[http://www.samoaobserver.ws/other/history-a-heritage/13680-how-samoas-freedom-was-won Samoa Observer] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150831022231/http://www.samoaobserver.ws/other/history-a-heritage/13680-how-samoas-freedom-was-won}} (accessed 14 July 2015)</ref> whose family had roots in the local noble family Sa Tupua.<ref name="B" /><ref name="E" /> They later married, and the couple had six children, with their son Olaf Nelsson being the firstborn.

===Later life=== Nelson stayed in Safune until 1903<ref name="C" /> when he handed over the business to his son Olaf<ref name="B" /> and the family moved to Apia. On 19 May 1909, Gustav Nelson died in his home in Apia at the age of 71.<ref name="C"> [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WenGua-c13-1.html Victoria University of Wellington] (accessed 14 July 2015)</ref>

==Legacy== Nelson's son would become a leading figure in Samoa's independence efforts<ref name="B" /> and the Nelson family has since played an active role in the country's economic and political development.

In 1959<ref name="D">[http://www.nationallibraryofsamoa.org/history.php Nelson Memorial Public Library] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714014827/http://www.nationallibraryofsamoa.org/history.php}} (accessed 14 July 2015)</ref> the "Nelson Memorial Public Library" was inaugurated in the center of Apia, partially donated by the family. The library was the first in the South Pacific to later implement the Koha system<ref name="G"> [http://librarytechnology.org/libraries/library.pl?id=38310 Libraries.org] (accessed 14 July 2015)</ref> with assistance from UNESCO.

In 1967<ref name="F" /> Kalmar County Museum received a memorial gift in the form of a traditional Samoan garment (`ie toga) in his memory, the cloth having been presented to Ambassador Olof Kaijser during a visit<ref name="F" /> to Safune in Samoa the previous year.

==References== {{reflist}}

===Literature=== * {{cite book |author=Scarr, Deryck |year=1990 |title=The History of the Pacific Islands – Kingdoms of the Reefs |place=Hants, United Kingdom |publisher=Macmillan Publishers |isbn=0-7329-0210-X }} * {{cite book |author=Fischer, Steven Roger |year=2002 |title=A History of the Pacific Islands |place=Hampshire, United Kingdom |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=0-333-94975-7 }}

==External links== * [http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2FHeritageImages%2Findex.htm&AC=QBE_QUERY&TN=heritageimages&QF0=ID&NP=2&RF=HIORecordSearch&MR=5&QI0=%3D%2231-2600%22 image of Gustav August Nelson (Libraries Auckland council)] * [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=974879482538978&set=p.974879482538978&type=1&theater image of Gustav August Nelson (Facebook)] * [https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1452594 image of Nelson's shop in Apia (Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa)] * [https://s3.amazonaws.com/bg.ami.com/headstones/images/20141229/10804510.jpg image of Augustus Nelson's gravestone (Billion Graves)] * [http://www.helagotland.se/start/stickan-nilsson-ar-slakt-med-kungen-pa-samoa-1219728.aspx brief about the Nelson family] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20131127011408/http://www.las.org.ws/AboutUs/LibraryHistory/tabid/4390/language/en-NZ/Default.aspx about Nelson Memorial Public Library]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Gustav August}}

Category:People from Mönsterås Municipality Category:Swedish sailors Category:Swedish emigrants Category:Swedish businesspeople Category:Samoan people of Swedish descent Category:Immigrants to Samoa Category:History of Samoa Category:1838 births Category:1909 deaths