Christian Nelson

NELSON, OLSON, WALLE, HANSON, GILBERTSON, DAHL, JENSEN, SLYDE, STUTSMAN, ELLEFSON, MANS

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 2/5/2010 at 05:06:34

CHRISTIAN NELSON

Christian Nelson, well known as a representative and respected farmer of Eden township, Winnebago county, living on section 27, was born near Stavanger, in the county of Vegedal, Norway, February 2, 1848, his parents being Nels and Mary (Olson) Nelson. In the family were eleven children, four of whom are yet living: Christian; Severt, who still makes his home in Norway; Ada, the wife of Nels Walle, of Norway; and Mrs. Elizabeth Hanson, of that country. The parents never came to the United States, the father always following farming in the land of the midnight sun.

Christian Nelson pursued his education in the common schools of his native country until confirmed. He remained a resident of Norway until twenty-four years of age, when the favorable reports which he heard concerning the business conditions and opportunities of the new world proved to him an irresistible attraction and he crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1872. He made his way first to Benton county, Iowa, where he remained for five years and then removed to Worth county where his older brother, Ole, had previously located, he being the only other member of the family in the United States. For two years Christian Nelson worked as a farm hand and then purchased the southeast quarter of section 25, Eden township, Winnebago county. It was a tract of raw land on which not a furrow had been turned, nor an improvement made, but he at once began to develop the property and resided thereon for five years, his labors producing a marked change in the appearance and in the condition of the farm. At length he sold that property and bought one hundred and twenty acres on section 27, Eden township. This, too, was wild land but in a short space of time it had been placed under the plow and was producing good crops He has since extended the boundaries of his place by the purchase of an additional tract of one hundred and twenty acres and is now the owner of two hundred and forty acres of valuable land in Eden township. He is also a stockholder in the elevator and creamery of Thompson.

On the 23d of May, 1878, Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Carrie Gilbertson, a daughter of Gilbert and Anna Dahl, who were natives of Norway, where they were reared and married. Their daughter, Mrs. Nelson, was two years of age when they crossed the Atlantic with their family and established their home near Northwood, in Worth county, Iowa. Still later they became residents of Silver Lake township in that county and there the father engaged in farming until his life's labors were ended in death. Both he and his wife were laid to rest in the Lime Creek Church cemetery near Emmons, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have become parents of nine children, as follows: Nels, who resides near Leland, in Winnebago county; Anna, who gave her hand in marriage to Tom Slyde, of Thompson; Minnie, who is the wife of Chris Jensen, of Forest township; Gina, the wife of Hans Ellefson, of Stutsman county, North Dakota; Andrew, who operates the home farm: Clara, the wife of Charles Mans, of Stutsman county, North Dakota; Gilbert, who cultivates the home place; and Ada and Oscar, both at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Nelson hold membership in the United Lutheran church and his political allegiance is given to the republican party. His has been an active and useful life, fraught with good results. The excellence of a plan is determined by the real accomplishment of its full purpose. Mr. Nelson has always formed his plans carefully and has carried them forward to successful completion. He early realized that obstacles and difficulties can be overcome by persistent, earnest effort and he has therefore never allowed them to bar his path. Working diligently, making each day count as a full-faithed attempt to accomplish something, he has gone on year by year and has won a place among the men of affluence in Eden township, being now the possessor of a comfortable competence.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 539-540.