Fredrik O. Nilsson

http://www.pietisten.org/xxvi/1/nilsson.html

Born in 1809 on the small island of Vendelso off the western coast of Sweden south of Gothenburg. He was the second of four sons of Pehr Nilsson and Catherina Werdelin. His family for generations had made its living by the sea: his father and both grandfathers were sea captains. He was a member of an unusual class of peasants along the coast of Halland province who combined agriculture and seafaring so successfully that they were often referred to as the "seamen-nobility." His mother died of consumption in 1816, when Fredrik was six years old. His father sold their property and moved to the Onsala Peninsula on the mainland, where he took a lease on an even finer and more elaborate estate, and married a wealthy widow. During this period the sons were scattered among several relatives; Fredrik remained with his father most of the time. he was sensitive and reflective by temperament. Captain Pehr Nilsson either owned or had an interest in the cargoes of several ships that suffered losses during the Napoleonic Wars, while the port of Gothenburg was under a blockade. He was consequently unable to make payments on his financial obligations, and this led to the collapse of his fortunes. He may have been an alcoholic. In the Spring of 1844, he attempted to cross on foot from the mainland to his ancestral island while the winter ice was in the process of breaking up: apparently he fell among the floes and was drowned. In his turn Fredridk went to sea in 1827 or 1828, serving at first on Swedish vessels that sailed in the Baltic Sea, to the Mediterranean, and across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1831 he reportedly jumped ship in the port of New Orleans, and sailed thereafter on American vessels out of New York harbor. He moved in the world of merchant seamen, a world that has been described in books like Charles Dana's Two Years Before the Mast.

In 1835, he wrote "I began to take up the cross before the world, and to make known my intention of becoming a Christian. But I didn't know how to apply the merits of Christ to myself; but kept on praying to God to convert me, till one night, at sea, on board of the vessel, between eleven and twelve o'clock, (I was very sorrowful on account of my sins, weeping and praying to God) these words were applied to my mind: "All tears shall be wiped away from their eyes" and a power went through my whole system, and left such an unspeakably happy sense of the forgiveness of my sins, and my acceptance with God, that I cried out, "My Lord and my God." That whole night I could not sleep, so happy was I' but kept on weeping and praising God. Soon after I came to New York, I went and told my Christian brethren how happy I was." He spent time ministering to sailors, became involved in temperance work. 

Fredrik döptes i floden Elbe i Hamburg 1 augusti 1847. Sent på kvällen 21 september 1848 förrättades det första baptistdopet i Sverige. Efter dopet i Vallersviksbukten vandrade deltagarna till en stuga i Borekull. Där bildade de Sveriges första baptistförsamling. År 1850 utvisades därför Fredrik. Han reste runt i USA för att predika. Efter tio år återkallades han och hustrun till Sverige. Han blev en av ledarna i Baptistsamfundet.