The photo shows (L-R) Miner, Harris (on the ground), Peter (in chair), Fred, Nels, Mary Alice (in chair holding May), and Chase.

Peter Nelson was born in Helsingborg, Skane, Sweden on 5 Mar 1848 and came to Sweetwater Illinois about 1867.

He married an American, Mary Alice Alkire, a native of Sweetwater and became a naturalized American citizen.

Peter & Alice moved to a sod house on a homestead on the Rush County Kansas prairie, which they eventually traded for farmland in Scotland County Missouri.

Peter died in 1893 (the year following this photo) and Mary Alice died in 1897 leaving their children orphaned.

Little May was taken in by a neighbor, the boys (with furthur help from neighbors), stayed on their farm and fended for themselves till adulthood.