Nelson Joseph Lee 1873-1953

LEE, ELLINGSON, AMUNDSON, ROBB, RANDOLPH

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 10/23/2010 at 14:18:57

Judge Lee, Prominent Iowa Attorney Dies at Estherville

Judge Nelson J. Lee, 80, died Sunday morning at 8:15 of a coronary occulusion at his home in Estherville. Services were held Tuesday at the Sandin funeral home with the Rev. Thomas Melton of the Presbyterian church officiating. Burial was in Oak Hill cemetery.

Judge Lee was the oldest practicing attorney in Emmet county when retirement was forced upon him by a heart attack lat July. He began the practice of law in Des Moines and later in the same year in Estherville in 1898.

His career included the judgeship, work as a legislator and as assistant attorney-general.

He was born March 11, 1873, in High Lake township, southeast of Estherville, just east of Wallingford on the east side of the river. His parents, Joseph Nelson Lee and Christe Ellingson, homesteaded there and built themselves a pioneer-type of cabin, where Judge Lee was born.

Judge Lee served as city attorney of Estherville in 1899 and 1900 and was county attorney from 1901 to 1905. He was a member of the 32nd and 33rd general assemblies, 1907-1911, taking a prominent part in passage of the primary election law, which he had charge of drafting.

He was elected judge of the 14th judicial district in 1912, serving on the bench for 11 years. He retired from the judgeship in 1923 to resume private practice of law.

He is survived by his widow, two sons, Robert and Deemer Lee, publishers of the Estherville Daily News; two sisters, Mrs. H. J. (Clara) Amundson of Alexander, North Dakota, and Mrs. W. E. (Jo) Robb of Billings, Montana. He was preceded in death by two sisters, May, who died in youth and Mrs. T. J. (Nettie) Randolph. (Graettinger Times, Estherville, IA, March 26, 1953)

Around Iowa: Nelson Lee Dies – Services for Nelson J. Lee of Estherville, former state legislator and district judge who died Sunday, will be held Tuesday. Lee, 80, was a native of Emmet county and practiced law in Estherville for 54 years. He was a state representative from 1907 to 1911 and was on the bench from 1913 to 1923. (Cedar Rapids Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA, March 23, 1953)