Per Selander

His music can also be found under the name "Blinda Pelle" or "Blind Pete"  
  • Born: 1871. Bergsjö, Gävleborg, Sweden
  • Emigrated: 1899  Settled in Minnesota: Quamba, Kanabec County and Cambridge, Isanti County.
  • Death:  1928. (In Sweden) ​
Photo of Per Selander from his book "Per Selanders lefn adsteckning" Published in 1913
Photo Per Selander and friends playing music outside his home near the railroad tracks in southern Cambridge.   Per appears to be playing a harp guitar, and is accompanied by Jon-Erik Öst, a famous touring musician from Sweden.  Courtesy of the Isanti County Historical Society.   ​
This story features translated excerpts from Per's book,  "Per Selanders lefn adsteckning" (1913).   
Per was born on June 5, 1871, and became blind within three days due to an eye disease. As a child, he made pretend violins with scrap wood. Recognizing his son’s musical inclination, Per's father, Abraham, traded a gun for an accordion. Per played the accordion incessantly, despite his mother growing weary of the non-stop bellowing.

His father taught Per tunes by singing to him, and at times Abraham would strike young Per if he made mistakes. At 14, Per borrowed a homemade violin, and taught himself to play well enough for local dances. However, he abandoned the violin quickly due to a commonly held religious belief that the violin displeased God and was an instrument of sins.

At 19, he received a guitar and soon mastered that instrument as well. When his parents immigrated to America in 1893, Per remained in Sweden, supporting himself by making brooms, baskets, and playing music at local dances.  He believed he played better with a few nips of brännvin (vodka) and the dancers were more than willing to keep him happily playing.   

When Per decide to immigrate to the US he carried a large knapsack with his belonging and some food  in one hand and his guitar in the other.  He reached St. Paul's Union Station on November 15, 1899, and stayed there a few days entertaining people with his music, before his final destination of Quamba, just outside of Mora, MN. 

In Minnesota, he acquired a good violin, and played, "those old Swedish songs , which I remember from my grandmother and grandfather and the old players”.  He also played tunes he recalled his mother singing while herding the cows in Sweden.  Per noted that these tunes are not written down anywhere, but he kept in his heart and memories. 

During his first year in winter, Per played music most evenings but grew bored and turned to drinking again with ample amounts of alcohol at the events he played.   He sometimes wondered how his music sounded so good, considering his drinking.   Per stated “Satan protects his property and it always went well."  

However, he later quit drinking through the support of  a Good Templar Association he founded, and worked various jobs to support himself, including selling confections and cigars, newspapers, and even working as a chimney sweep among his jobs. 

In 1911, he arranged concerts in Cambridge City Hall, with the first show disrupted by weather, the second show was a full house success and he received a large collection.  He received a typewriter on Christmas Eve 1911,  eventually wrote his memoir in 1913.
​
By 1928, Per had returned to Sweden and died of Hepatitis B.  His life story is available in both Swedish and translated versions at the Minnesota History Center with links below.  
FUN FACTS: 
  • Per Selander was the nephew of the Hälsingland fiddler, "Hultkläppen" 
  • Jon-Erik Öst, famed musician from Sweden, asked Per to join him on his tour of USA    
  • Per also wrote the  "Henry Ford's March"  (1916) and the "Swedish American March (1917)    
  • The 4-25-1918 issue of the Princeton Union news had this to say about Per Selander.  
Music Links​