Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


ALBERT NELSON. � A viticulturist whose experience and exceptional 
ability have placed him in a position of much responsibility is Albert Nelson, 
who came to California in the middle nineties. He was born on the island 
of Oland, in the Baltic. July 11, 1875. the son of Nels P. Nelson, a carpenter 
and builder. He was the eldest in a family of four, of whom two are still 
living, the other surviving brother being Carl Nelson, the proprietor of a 
furniture factory in Sweden. 

Mr. Nelson was reared and educated in his native land, attending the 
public schools there, and remained at home until his thirteenth year. That 
year he went to sea, shipping before the mast on a sailer engaged in the 
coasting trade; and when fifteen he embarked on a merchant vessel, the 
S. S. Stanley, putting out from Bergen. He went to the Black Sea for wheat. 
returned to England, made a trip to Odessa, and then ran from the north 
Baltic with lumber for Liverpool. In that busy harbor he left the ship and 
signed up on the Swedish steamer Colga ; and with that vessel he continued 
until he was nineteen years of age. About this time he decided to come to 
America. After his arrival in New York he soon came on to San Francisco ; 
and from there he went to Caspar, where he was in the employ of the Caspar 
Lumber Company for a year. In 1895. he moved to Fresno and entered the 
service of Smith & Moore, of the Sanger Lumber Company; and in their 
mill he continued until 1896. He then made a change that led him into an 
entirely new field; for coming to know Mr. Rice, in the Kutner Colony, he 
took up work in his vineyard. On leaving him, he became foreman of the 
St. George Vineyard Company, where he was given entire charge of their 
extensive ranch, and continued to exercise the responsibility for a decade of 
years. After that he was foreman for L. R. Rogers, and was engaged in de- 
veloping the Rogers vineyards on Belmont Avenue for a period of four years. 
During the season he still has charge of the Rogers Fruit Company's shed 
at Smithville when, for three or four months of the year, shipments of fruit 
are made; the output in 1917 consigned from Smithville reached the total 
of seventy-five cars. Mr. Nelson is a member of the California Associated 
Raisin Company. 

When Mr. Nelson resigned from the management of the Rogers vine- 
vards. he went into business for himself, and in the spring of 1911 he bought 
his present place, some twenty acres on Belmont Avenue, eleven miles east 
of Fresno, which he has developed into one of the finest of up-to-date vine- 
yards. The land is set out to Malaga and Emperor grapes in particular, 
through which he has made for himself an enviable reputation, and he also 
has a good assortment of wine grapes. In the fall of 1918, Mr. Nelson and 
J. B. Rogers bought a sixty-acre tract at Redbank, which is in grapes and 
figs. 

Mr. Nelson was married at the Scandinavian Colony in Fresno County to 
Miss Laura B. Anderson, a native of San Francisco, who was reared not far 
from Fresno. She is the daughter of Fred Anderson, a pioneer vineyardist, 
who had a fine tract of forty acres that he considerably improved. He and 
his wife died there, leaving five children, four of whom grew up, namely: 
Otto, who is on the west side ; Mrs. Emma Coppin, residing in the Scandi- 
navian Colony ; Mrs. James Allen, who lives on Blackstone Avenue ; and Mrs. 
Nelson, the subject's wife, a noble-hearted and attractive woman, whose 
influence for good in the community has long been felt. Four children have 
blessed their home : Chester, Floyd, Lavern and Maud. Mr. and Mrs. Nel- 
son are among the most popular members of the social circles of both the 
Eagles and the Woodmen of the World. In national politics he is a 
Republican.