Nelson, James bio

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 367-368; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
James Nelson. Superintendent of Claire Coal Company, at Middle Grove. Scotland has contributed her full quota to the population and development of the great West, and her sons have been found almost uniformly thrifty and industrious, and especially is this true in the case of James Nelson. Coming from the land where flows the "bonny Dee," and where the purple heather clothes the ground with a bright and seemingly unbroken carpet, he possesses all the poetic genius and love of the beautiful which seems somehow an innate principle of every Scotchman's nature. Although a comparative stranger in this city, Mr. Nelson has by his ready wit, courtesy, and kindness of heart won for himself the esteem of this community.
Mr. Nelson was born in Holley Town, Scotland, and there surrounded by the beauties of his native land, passed a happy childhood. His father, Alex Nelson, and his mother, who previous to her marriage was Miss Annie Kirkwood, were natives of Scotland and were married in that country, and their five children were born there before they emigrated to America in 1864. Upon first reaching the United States they settled in Pittsburg, and later in Ohio, where the father died in 1885, having attained his sixty-seventh year. The mother is at the present writing living in Ohio, and is sixty-eight years of age, and her children were named respectively: Alex; John (who was killed by a baseball when fourteen years of age); Jane, Ellen, and James.
Our subject's birth occurred on February 19, 1845, and his recollections of bonny Scotland are very pleasant indeed. His educational advantages were excellent, and he lost no opportunity to improve his mind. At the early age of ten years he began to work in a colliery, and when fifteen years of age enlisted in the Seventy-eight Highlanders, and was on the point of departing for the Cape of Good Hope, but was recalled home by his parents, and seeing how much the idea distressed his mother, concluded to abandon the ranks and sailed for America in 1860. He landed in New York in August, and going to New Jersey began to work on a farm, but not being accustomed to that kind of work he soon abandoned it and went to Pennsylvania, where he engaged in coal mining for four months, and was at a later day engaged in the same business in Maryland. In the latter named State he lost his heart to Miss Elizabeth Allen, who was like himself a native of Scotland, and after a nine months' courtship they were married on November 10, 1862, in the city of Pittsburg, and there made their home for a time. One child was born to them, Annie, who died when only eighteen months old.
Mr. Nelson enlisted in 1864 in Company A, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Pennsylvania Infantry, and was mustered into service at Camp Willkins, and discharged at Pittsburgh, Pa., in the fall of the following year. He then turned his attention to coal mining at Uniontown, Ky., and while there fell a victim to the ague, which is so prevalent in that State. He was engaged in mining through different parts of Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, and Illinois, and has traveled through the greater portion of seventeen States. He took possession of the Claire Coal Company in September of the year 1889, a company which is turning out one hundred and forty tons of lump coal per day, and engages forty miners. Of this business our subject is well prepared to take charge, having had a most extensive experience. Though at present so closely identified with the business and social affairs of Middle Grove, his residence is at Gloucester, Ohio.
To Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have been born six sons and four daughters, of whom one is dead, and the following living, viz: Annie, Alex, Frank, James Bruce, Nettie, Robert, Willie, Mary and Andrew. Our subject was ordained to preach in the Methodist Church in 1873, at Mt Vernon, Ohio. He is a Good Templar, and took an active interest in organizing the lodge at Middle Grove, and takes pleasure in always supporting the prohibition ticket with his vote and influence. Mr. Nelson at the time of his residence in Ohio was Deputy High Chief Ruler of the Independent Order of Rechabites. He is an unusually intellectual man, and his extensive travels have given him a clear insight into the social and business customs both of the United States and Scotland.