Hans Peter Nelson (1917)
CALAHAN, DAVIS, NELSON
Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 3/2/2007 at 11:23:12
The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, April 1917HANS PETER NELSON, Earlham
Hans Peter Nelson was born in Denmark May 27th, 1837, where he spent most of his young manhood and early married life.
About 1867, just following the close of the Civil War, Mr. Nelson came to America, and two years later he with his wife and four children came to try their fortunes in the new world. Desiring to engage in farm work and obtain a home they came to Iowa, settling on the 'Coon River at Bates' Sawmill near Joseph Harmon's.
After one year he went to Omaha and then to Des Moines, but in a few years he returned to the vicinity of Earlham, where he and his wife have been residents for forty-two years, the latter twenty-two being spent in Earlham except the past eighteen months which were spent with their daughter in Des Moines.
Mr. Nelson was a man of little education, but a citizen who desired the very best for his family and the community. Shortly after coming to Earlham he and his wife united with the Friends Church. Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at the Friends Church conducted by the pastor Rev. Haworth, and the remains were laid at rest in Earlham Cemetery. Five children, besides his wife, Mrs. Mattie Nelson, survive the departed, J. P. Nelson of Earlham, Lena Calahan, Grand Island, Nebr., Mary Davis, Des Moines, and Charles Nelson, Earlham. A large circle of relatives and friends join the family in loving sympathy for the loss of their loved one.
Funeral services were held at the Christian Church in Earlham Tuesday afternoon, April 3, conducted by Rev. Clarence Eppard, and interment was made in Earlham Cemetery.
________________________The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, April 11, 1917
Page 4, Column 2Nelson Suicides
The shocking news reached here Wednesday evening that Mr. H. P. Nelson had committed suicide at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Harry Davis, residing at 1806 Allison St., Des Moines, at 2:30 that afternoon.
His sons, Charles and J. P. went to Des Moines on the evening train, and the return of the former today confirms the tragic event.
Mr. Nelson had been acting strangely even before his departure from Earlham on Monday, but the seriousness of his aberration was hardly realized.
Immediately preceding the act he had been chatting with his daughter in the kitchen and walked from there through the bedroom where his wife sat, into the adjoining room and shut the door. In a moment a shot was heard and upon investigation, the body of the aged man was found prone upon the floor with a revolver of 38 calibre belonging to Mr. Davis at his side. Death had been instantaneous, the bullet penetrating the heart.
Mr. Nelson had been in a feeble condition of health for some time, and brooding upon this trouble probably unsettled his intellect. The body will be brought to Earlham Saturday and funeral services held there. - Earlham Echo.
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