This publication is not intended as a biography of my parents, Hans and Danielle Nesse. Rather, it is a selective compilation of their writings. It includes selected personal letters, published articles from the China scene, as well as some related material covering a period of some 33 years. It begins with reports of the first impact of Chinese society on Danielle Johannesen from Norway and Hans Nesse who came to China from the U.S. The material offers an intriguing view of life in Central China (principally southern Henan and Wuhan, Hupeh) from about 1910 to 1933 through the eyes of sympathetic, albeit objective, observers and participants in the events reported. The material is grouped chronologically with explanatory notes as needed.
Hans Nesse emigrated from Norway to the United States in 1890 at age 18. He had no family or other support but was able to find work as a carpenter and as a steward on steamers plying the Great Lakes that border the U.S. and Canada at that time. Through this and other work he earned the means to attend school to complete his mastery of the English language and continue his education through seminary training at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. After ordination, he accepted a call from what was then the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America to serve as a missionary to China. In 1910 he traveled to China for training in Chinese language and culture before beginning pastoral work.
Danielle Johannesen was trained as a nurse in Oslo, Norway, and worked for some years in that capacity in Stavanger. In fulfillment of childhood ambitions she was engaged as a nurse and medical missionary by the Norwegian Missionary Association of Stavanger. The Association assigned her to work at the Tao Hua Lun Norwegian Mission Hospital in Yiyang, Hunan. In addition to her nursing work, she established a school for girls and was active in public health and sanitation programs in the community.
As mature adults Hans and Danielle met on Jigong Mountain in the summer of 1912 where they both were vacationing at the summer community established by two missionaries, Harold Martinson Senior and Daniel Nelson. Hans and Danielle came from the same small fishing village in Norway; they were the same age and had gone to school and Confirmation Class together. At the time they met on Jigong they had not been in contact for perhaps ten years and neither had any idea that the other was in China as a missionary.
Danielle resigned from her position with the Norwegian Mission and she and Hans were married in the stone chapel on Jigong on August 28, 1913. After their marriage Danielle joined Hans in his work in developing a new mission station at Sniping, Henan, and establishing Christian work in nearby rural villages. They were in Suiping for twelve years and later were assigned by the mission board to the Loshan, Kioshan and Chengyang mission stations. For a number of years Hans was the principal and teacher in mission Bible Schools in Hsuchang and Xinyang. In addition to family duties, Danielle continued her nursing work, promoting educational programs for women and doing home visitations. Hans and Danielle had three sons, Gerhard (1916), Henry (1919) and Arthur (1922).
From 1924 through 1951, except for a period in U.S from 1926-1928, the Nesse family made their home in Xinyang. Danielle developed breast cancer in 1928 and, despite surgery and care at the Beijng Rockefeller medical center, passed away in 1932. Hans continued in Xinyang. He resided for some years with the Harold Martinson family and traveled throughout the mission field on Church outreach programs.
My father continued his work in Xinyang in partnership with the distinguished Chinese pastor Wu Ying after the Japanese occupied the city in October 1938. Successful mission work continued during the Japanese occupation and 847 members were added to the Christian community in Xinyang during those years. In 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and WW II broke out he was interned by the Japanese until the end of the war in 1945. Experiences during the Japanese occupation and the internment period are reported in a book by H.M.Nesse titled Under Nippon ‘s New Order”
After release from Japanese internment in 1945, some months in Xinyang and a furlough year in the U.S. my father returned to Xinyang in 1948. He continued there through the turnover from Nationalist to Communist rule in 1949. In 1951 Chinese Communist programs discouraged foreign missions to the point that the mission board judged best that he return to the U.S. Experiences during this time are recorded in a booklet titled Living in Communist China —1949-1951.On his way back to the U.S. my father was enjoying visits with family and relatives at his childhood home in Norway when he died of a heart attack in the place where he was born 70 years earlier.
Arthur C. Nesse