ANTON NELSON.
Among the farmers of Audubon county, Iowa, who believe in following twentieth century methods, is Anton Nelson, of Hamlin township. Mr. Nelson comes from a splendid family, one that has always been foremost for right living and industrious habits, for education and morality and for all that contributes to the welfare of the commonwealth. Such people are welcome in any community, for they are empire builders and as such have pushed the frontier of civilization ever westward and onward, leaving the once green, wide-reaching wilderness and the far-stretching plains populous with contented people and beautiful with green fields. They have constituted that sterling horde which caused the great Bishop Whipple to write the memorable words, "Westward, the course of empire takes its way."
Anton Nelson was born on May 3, 1874, in Denmark, and is the son of Nels and Christina (Rasmussen) Nelson, both natives of Denmark. Nels Nelson was a painter by trade and Anton helped him at his trade until he was fourteen years old. Anton Nelson received a good, common-school education.
In 1893, or when Anton Nelson was nineteen years old, he came to the United States, landing at New York city, and came direct to Audubon county, where he had two brothers, H. C. and Nels J. Anton Nelson first worked by the month. He worked for six years but after working about four years, he purchased eighty acres of land where he now lives, but did not begin farming it himself until two years after he bought it. When Mr. Nelson was married, he moved to this farm and has lived there since that time. The farm was but poorly improved at the time and had only a small three-roomed house for a residence. Mr. Nelson has since built a large eight-roomed house with halls, pantry and basement. Two large barns are now standing on the farm, one of which is fifty-two by fifty-six feet and the other thirty-six by fifty-two feet. Mr. Nelson has good hog houses, cribs, granaries, implement shed and garage. He has also added one hundred and twenty acres more to his farm and is, indeed, a progressive citizen.
On February 22, 1896, Anton Nelson was married at Audubon, Iowa, to Mary Aagaard, the daughter of Andrew Aagaard. Five children were born to this union. Nelson C., Mabel, Andrew, Martha and Tilda. The mother of these children died on February 18, 1910.
On May 11, 1912, Mr. Nelson was married to Thea Top in Chicago, Illinois. She was born in Denmark, May 12, 1885, and is the daughter of Hans and Hannah (Nelson) Top, both natives of Denmark, where her father was a laborer. Thea Top came to the United States in 1908. To this second union, two children. Hannah and Rosa, have been born.
Mr. Nelson is a member of the Blue Grass Creamery Company and is assistant secretary of the organization. He assisted in the organization of the Farmers Savings Bank of Hamlin and is a director in this institution. He does general farming and stock raising and has been, as this brief record of his life will show, very successful as a farmer.
Mr. Nelson is a Republican, and is at present a school director, being keenly interested in the educational affairs of his township. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson and all the members of the family are identified with the Danish Lutheran church.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 479-480.
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