NELSON, Martin Wesley 1903-1993

NELSON, CRANDALL, THOMAS, MCELWAIN, NORTH

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/7/2012 at 16:16:35

A memorial service will be held at the Schumburg Funeral Home on Saturday afternoon, April 17, 1993, for Martin W. Nelson, 89, who died at the Nora Springs Care Center on Saturday, April 10, 1993. Pastor B. Green will officiate.

Interment will be in the Riverside Cemetery at Rockford, at another time.

Martin Wesley Nelson was born on November 28, 1903, to Oscar and Maude (Avery) Nelson, near Soldier, Iowa. He had one brother, Melvin, five sisters: Berniece, Dottie, "Toots", Pearle and Edythe, and one half sister, Nellie. His early years were spent in and near Charter Oak, Iowa.

Martin's father died when he was nine years old. His mother, Maude Crandall, and all but one sister, Edythe Thomas of Mason City, and a sister-in-law, Rose Nelson of Rockford, have died since then.

After some years of working at a variety of jobs, Martin was married on September 2, 1926, to Hazel E. McElwain, and settled in southwest Iowa for the first years of their married life. To this union were born two children, Dorothy (Mrs. Jim) North, Rockford, and James, Des Moines.

A depression years scarcity of work brought the Nelsons, seeking work, to Rockford, where Martin's mother was living at the time. Employment here included initial sales work, followed by years at the local Brick and Tile Co., and later, the Municipal Light Plant, from which he retired in December 1968.

Then years earlier, in his customary manner of planning ahead, he had begun a saw sharpening and repair business at their home, for retirement years, and this he continued until he sold the business in March of 1979. He had earned the nickname of "Mr. Fix-it."

In the interim since then, he spent satisfied hours maintaining the house he so enjoyed, working with his numbers, gardening, and playing his numerous stringed instruments. Later he was to add rhythm-making to his repertoire of musical expression. Spring time always found him bringing the first blooms to his wife.

In 1989, as their diminishing health became evident, the Nelsons moved to the Rockford Manor. Martin remained there for a couple years, even after his wife changed residency to the Care Center at Nora Springs. Last year he joined her, and had lived there until the time of his death, which followed his weeks' long decline with congestive heart failure.

Besides his sister and sister-in-law, and his wife, Hazel, Martin is survived by his two children and their spouses, Jim and Margot Nelson, Des Moines, and Dorothy and Jim North, Rockford; nine grandchildren and their spouses, and 15 great-grandchildren.

[Nora Springs Advertiser -- 14 APR 1993]