Charles F. NELSON

NELSON, MADSON, MCCURRY

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 5/15/2009 at 09:02:02

C. F. NELSON

Towner county probably has no more enterprising citizen than C. F. Nelson, president of the Citizens State Bank of Bisbee and one of the leading business men of that town. He was born in Goldfield, Iowa, March 4, 1876, his parents being Lewis H. and Hannah (Madson) Nelson, who were natives of Denmark and were brought to the United States by their respective parents, the former at the age of nineteen years and the latter at the age of thirteen. They located in Goldfield, Iowa, where they were subsequently married, and for forty-eight years they lived on a farm near that city. The father died on the 21st of December, 1914, at the age of sixty-five years, and the mother passed away December 28, 1915, at the age of sixty. In the early days Mr. Nelson paid five dollars per acre for his first tract of land. He steadily prospered in his farming operations and added to his property from time to time until he owned about one thousand acres of very valuable and productive land, worth two hundred dollars per acre.

C. F. Nelson was given good educational advantages during his youth, attending the Evergreen high school, the State Normal School at Cedar Falls, Iowa, and the Agricultural College at Ames, that state. He also took a business and typewriting course at the Metropolitan Business College of Chicago, Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1901, and was thus well equipped for a business career on starting out in life for himself. Following his graduation he went to Parker, South Dakota, where he began dealing in real estate, but in 1903 he removed to Cooperstown, Griggs county. North Dakota, where in connection with W. T. Munn, now of Westhope, he established the Iowa &. North Dakota Land Company. Within three months they sold over twelve thousand acres of land around Cooperstown and later Mr. Nelson was referred to as the man who made Griggs county. In 1906 he went to Davidson, Saskatchewan. Canada, where he again turned his attention to the real estate business in partnership with Elmer G. Opper, but after spending a year and a half in that locality Mr. Nelson decided that North Dakota was the only place to live and became a resident of Bisbee, where he organized the Citizens State Bank, becoming cashier of the institution when it was opened for business September 1, 1907. In 1913 a new bank building was erected, it being one of the finest in a town of the size of Bisbee in North Dakota. Mr. Nelson was elected president of the bank on the 1st of January, 1916, and is now serving in that capacity. On coming to this state his capital consisted of seven hundred and seventy-five dollars and Mr. Munn had but thirty-five dollars when they began business in Cooperstown. but today Mr. Nelson ranks among the substantial men of North Dakota. He is not only president of the Citizens State Bank of Bisbee but is also president of the Hanson Ellington Hardware Company and of the Nelson Investment Company, two important concerns.

On the 28th of December, 1904, Mr. Nelson was united in marriage to Miss Harriet E. McCurry, of Eagle Grove, Iowa, and to them have been born three children, Cosette Ione, Fahe Elizabeth and Ehea Ethlyn. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are members of the Presbyterian church, and he also belongs to Cando Lodge, No. 40, A. F. & A. M.; Cando Chapter, No. 17, R. A. jr.; the Modern Woodmen of America; and the Danish Brotherhood of America. The republican party finds in him a stanch supporter of its principles and in 1912 he was a candidate for state representative, but in the republican defeat of that year he lost, though by only twenty-five votes. He is now serving as president of the village council, also of the Bisbee fire department and of the Parents & Teachers Association of Bisbee. He is public-spirited and progressive, taking a commendable interest in all measures calculated to promote the moral, educational or material welfare of his community, and he never withholds his support from any worthy enterprise. In business circles he occupies an enviable position, and the success that has come to him is but the just reward of his own industry, good management and fair dealing.

North Dakota history and people; outlines of American history, volume 3, 1917, pages 65-66; Author, Clement A. Lounsberry.