Tulare County Biographies

CHARLES A. NELSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Charles A. Nelson, who came to Exeter, California, in the summer of 1912 
and engaged in fruit growing, was born in Wright county, Minnesota, April 21, 
1874, a son of John and Karin (Pearson) Nelson. His father helped to build the 
Great Northern Railroad through Minnesota, after which he took up a homestead in 
Swift county, where he became a large landowner and prominent in local affairs.
        Charles A. Nelson lived on his father's farm until after his marriage. 
For several years he and his brother Alfred conducted the farm together. Then 
they went to South Dakota, where they entered homesteads. Afterward they were in 
business in the town of Peever. Upon selling out their South Dakota holdings, 
Charles A. Nelson went to Wilcox, Saskatchewan, Canada. Here he was one of the 
organizers of the Prudential Exchange Company, which was authorized by its 
charter to do a banking and ranching business, both of which were carried on 
successfully. From 1906 to 1913 Mr. Nelson was vice president of the company and 
manager of the branch bank at Wilcox. In July, 1912, he came to Exeter, though 
he still holds an interest in the company and spends some time in Saskatchewan 
every summer in connection with its affairs.
        Upon coming to Exeter Mr. Nelson bought thirty acres of land, where he 
now lives. Twenty acres of this have been made into a fine vineyard and on the 
other ten acres is a peach orchard. He also owns some land near Lindsay. He is a 
member of the Farm Bureau, a Master Mason and a Modern Woodman of America.
On June 24, 1900, in Minnesota, Mr. Nelson was united in marriage to Miss Agnes 
E. Hillstrom, who was born in Cannon Falls, that state. Her father, Magnus 
Hillstrom, was for many years a leading citizen of Red Wing, Minnesota, and 
later of Maiden Rock, Wisconsin. He was a large landowner, a merchant, operated 
several sawmills, owned a hotel and was active in political affairs as a 
democrat. Late in life he went to Yakima, Washington, where he died. He was 
prominent in the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
        Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson : Merle E. graduated 
in music from the College of the Pacific and is now the wife of Harry E. 
Coleman, physical instructor in the Exeter high school ; Hillis O., a high 
school graduate, spent one year in Stanford University and is now manager of a 
ranch of 100,000 acres, fifty miles south of Calexico, California, though only 
twenty years of age ; Leland K., when only fourteen years old passed himself off 
for eighteen and enlisted with the marines, spent eighteen months at Pearl 
Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands and is now bookkeeper for the Imperial Irrigation 
Company of Calexico, California; the youngest daughter died on March 23, 1923, 
from the effects of the influenza. She was a brilliant scholar and a girl of 
great promise.
 
Source:  History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen 
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1926., p. 237