W. J. Nelson, attorney at law, general land and loan agent, Albion, has been engaged in the practice of law since 1866. He moved to Nebraska, locating at Columbus, in April, 1871. During that year, he located his farm in Boone County, on the northeast quarter of Section 28, Township 20, Range 6, of which 100 acres are under cultivation. He also owns the southeast quarter of Section 27, of which twenty acres are under cultivation. His home farm is well improved, having a good frame house, being, at the time it was built, the best house in Albion and vicinity. He moved his family to his farm in the spring of 1872. For several years, the county business was transacted at his house. He is closely identified with the organization and government of the county. He held the office of County Clerk one term and was elected County Judge in 1873. He has done nearly all the surveying and locating farms of settlers in the county. He was born in Stark County, Ohio, January 2, 1839, living there until 1869. He enlisted, in Stark County, Ohio, in August 1862, in Company B, One hundred and Fourth Ohio Volunteers as First Sergeant. In the following November, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of his company. In August, 1863, he was again promoted, being made Quartermaster of his regiment; was afterward Brigade Quartermaster and Post Quartermaster at Knoxville, Tenn. In April 1864, he was made Assistant Quartermaster of the Twenty-third Army Corps. He was afterward Master of Transportation of the Army of the Ohio, under Gen. Schofield, in the Atlanta campaign. Toward the close of the war, he was sent to Washington, D. C., remaining there until the close of the war, Receiving Officer for Sherman’s army. He was one of the paroling officers at Greensboro, N. C., and signed the parole of Raphael Semmes. For several months after the war closed, he was engaged in collecting abandoned Government property in North and South Carolina, and moved to Washington the Harper’s Ferry arsenal property from Cape Fear River, where it was found. He was discharged at Washington City in September 1865. He then returned to his home in Ohio, where, until the spring of 1869, he carried on a large flouring mill. He then visited the West, in the interest of an agricultural implement manufactory company, living in Northeastern Missouri and at Keokuk, Iowa, until he moved to Nebraska, in the spring of 1871. He was married near Canton, Ohio, in the fall of 1865, to Miss Kate Kaler, who was born in Stark County, Ohio. They have two children–Harry J. and Cora K. Judge Nelson has been a member of the M. E. Church since he was fifteen years old. He has held all the official positions in that church. He takes very great interest in everything pertaining to its management, and is the most active and energetic member in that church at Albion. He has been a Delegate to every Lay Conference held in the State since his residence therein. He was also Alternate Delegate to the General Conference held at Baltimore in 1876. He is the proprietor of the Albion Cemetery, situated on his land, and which he intends to make one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the West. It is prominently situated on a high knoll, one mile south of Albion, and commands a fine view of Albion and the Beaver Valley, over twelve miles each way. He is also a prominent Republican; was a Delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1881.
