We are long overdue for a character profile. The last one I did was of Caroline Quiner Ingalls (Ma) back in 2021. Today, we will cover Nels Oleson.
The character of Nels Oleson in Little House on the Prairie may be based upon William Owens, a storekeeper in Walnut Grove. He had a wife named Margaret and children named Nellie and Willie. Let's take a look at the Nels Oleson that Richard Bull brought to life.
WARNING!!! CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
Little House on the Prairie fans meet Nels Oleson in the first episode of Season 1, "Harvest of Friends." Charles and his family have just settled in Walnut Grove. With planting season around the corner, he needs a plow and seed. The problem--he has no money. In a quickly uncomfortable conversation, Nels explains they can't extend credit because they need money to pay for what they sell in the store. Harriet--Nels's wife--isn't quite so pleasant, and Charles storms off. It's clear, however, that Nels wishes he could help. And he gets his chance in episode 2, "Country Girls," when Mary and Laura start school and need supplies. It is in this moment, we see the kindness and generosity Nels will be known for throughout the series.
You can't talk about Nels without discussing his family, because it is their interactions that bring so much humor and sometimes tenderness to this family drama. We don't know a lot about Nels and Harriet's life before Walnut Grove, but in the Season 9 episode, "May I Have This Dance?" we learn his mother was angry he planned to quit college to get married. Nels admits that marrying Harriet was the smartest thing he ever did.
But, there are plenty of examples where we see Nels frustrated with how Harriet spoils the children and treats other people. Once, he is even so angry with how taken advantage of he is that he opens a mobile emporium (Season 6, "Second Spring") and takes his wares on the road. He winds up staying at a boarding house run by Molly Reardon, and they become fond of each other. However, Nels finally breaks the news to Molly that he is already married, and he and Harriet have a touching reunion.
That wasn't the first time Nels lost his temper over how Harriet acts. In the Season 1 episode, "Family Quarrel," they get into a tiff over how Harriet treats Caroline Ingalls. Nels moves into the boarding house rooms above the post office--with a dog I don't think we see after this episode--and their friends work to help them repair their relationship.
For the most part, however, their quarrels lighten the more dramatic moments of the series. Like when Harriet overhears his mumbling and grumbling, and Nels makes up words that he supposedly said. And the series creators and fans embraced their antics more as time went on. By the Season 8 episode, "The Legend of Black Jake," no one is surprised that Mrs. Oleson refuses to pay a $100 ransom for the release of her husband or the way Nels exacts his revenge.
As a father, Nels struggled to contain the unruly ways of Nellie and Willie, but when he had to he could be firm with them. Like in the Season 3 episode, "The Music Box," where Nels finds out Nellie has been making fun of a classmate and blackmailing Laura, who had accidentally broken Nellie's music box. His interactions with Willie don't seem to be as many and typically center around Willie's insatiable appetite and looting the candy jars.
After Nellie gets married and moves to New York City with her husband, Harriet falls into a deep depression. So the Olesons travel to the orphanage in Sleepy Eye and adopt Nancy, who will make Nellie look like a saint. Luckily, most of Nancy's schemes involve other children, not Nels.
Nels was a good friend to many of the Walnut Grove residents. From the very beginning, "Harvest of Friends," you knew he could be counted on. In the Season 3 episode, "Blizzard," he helps the other men search for children who are lost in the storm, even though his own children are safe. When Carrie falls in an old mine shaft in the Season 3 episode, "Little Girl Lost," Nels tells Charles to take all the equipment he needs from the store and goes out to the site to help. And in the Season 9 episode, "A Child with No Name," most of the town turns against Doc Baker when Laura and Almanzo's infant son dies unexpectedly, but Nels defends his friend and scolds Harriet for snubbing him.
The one thing the Olesons never had to worry about was money. Nels admits that to Charles in the Season 2 episode, "The Richest Man in Walnut Grove." However, in the two-part Season 5 episode, "As Long as We're Together," even the Olesons fall on hard times. Many people are leaving Walnut Grove, so they must sell their stock for pennies on the dollar. They end up settling in Winoka, where the Ingalls family and the Garveys go to find work. For the first time in a long time, Nels finds himself working for someone else. Thankfully, it doesn't last long.
In "Little House: The Final Farewell," a land baron has acquired title to all of Hero Township. Being faced with the idea of working the land and businesses in town for the benefit of Mr. Lassiter, the Walnut Grove residents make a drastic choice to blow up the town buildings, which includes the Oleson Mercantile and Nellie's Restaurant.
As the townsfolk gather together with their packed wagons ready to go, one by one the town buildings are blown to bits. With Willie now married, Nels and Nancy plan to visit Harriet, who has been away convalescing after a lengthy illness.
As he marches out of town, Nels leaves behind a legacy of a life well lived in the town of Walnut Grove, where he made many good friends and lent a helping hand when he could. He is a man who rarely minded playing second fiddle to his independent wife but could stand firm when it mattered. It would be hard to imagine Walnut Grove without his kind, gentle spirit.
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