Nels Eli Charlson

CHARLSON, AXENDAL, JENSON

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 1/16/2007 at 22:41:54

Nels Eli Charlson has carried on farming with marked success since starting out in life for himself and is now the owner of a valuable farm of four hundred acres in Center township, Winnebago county, his home being on section 28. He was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, on the 8th of January, 1858, and is a son of Nels and Ellen (Axendal) Charlson, who came to this country from Norway in 1850 and first located in Stoughton, Wisconsin, but after residing there for a short time removed to Dane county, that state, where the father purchased land and engaged in farming until 1865. In that year he brought his family to Winnebago county, Iowa, and took up a homestead of one hundred and twenty acres on section 28, Center township, where our subject now resides. To the improvement and cultivation of this farm he devoted his energies until 1877, when he retired from active labor, but continued to reside upon the farm until called from this life March 1, 1905, when he had reached the advanced age of ninety-three years. His wife had died in March, 1897.

Mr. Charlson of this review was about seven years of age when the family came to Winnebago county, and here he grew to manhood, his education being obtained in the district schools near home. He never left the parental roof, but in 1877 purchased the farm belonging to his father and has since added to it until he now owns four hundred acres of as fertile and productive land as is to be found anywhere in the county. He has also made many useful and valuable improvements upon the place, making it one of the most attractive country homes in Winnebago county. At the present time, however, most of his land is operated by tenants.

On the 17th of June, 1882, Mr. Charlson was united in marriage to Miss Rachel Jenson, a daughter of Jens and Marie Jenson, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Charlson have been born nine children, but Josephine, who became a teacher, died in 1910 at the age of twenty years, and Nels, Alvin and Josie all died in infancy. Those still living are: Ellen, at home with her father; Bertha, who is now attending college at Cedar Falls, Iowa; Selma, who is teaching school in Center township; and Evelyn and Hazel, both attending Waldorf College at Forest City. After a lingering illness of two years the wife and mother' passed away February 16, 1915.

Mr. Charlson has not only prospered in his farming operations but has also met with success in stock raising, making a specialty of high grade Chester White hogs, Shropshire sheep and shorthorn cattle. He has become interested in other business enterprises and is now a stockholder and director of the Farmers Elevator Company and the Lake Mills Creamery Company and is also a stockholder in the Lake Mills Lumber Company. He is a good reliable business man of marked ability and foresight and the success that has come to him is but the just reward of his own labors. His political support is given the men and measures of the republican party and he is a consistent member of the United Lutheran church.

Source: History of Winnebago and Hancock Counties, Iowa, 1917, Vol. II, page 468.

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