Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

JAMES F. NELSON

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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

            An orchardist and vineyardist of Live Oak whose trim twenty acres 
adjoining the town on the west attest to his experience and enterprise as a 
progressive rancher, is James F. Nelson, widely known for his high-grade walnuts 
and almonds, and also his superior French prunes, of which he has ten acres set 
out to trees five years old.  He has witnessed the ups and down of fifteen years 
of the fruit industry in Sutter County, and his present position as a 
horticulturist is based on close observation and practical experience.  He was 
born in Monarch County, Mo., on December 20, 1863, the fourth of six children of 
David Nelson, a pioneer of Missouri, who was born, lived and died in Monarch 
County.  David Nelson married Miss Mary Todd, also a native of the Iron State, 
the younger sister of N. F. Todd, venerable pioneer of Sutter County, now 
deceased.  James Nelson accompanied his mother and the rest of the family to 
California in 1865, and they came out to the Todd ranch, two miles to the south 
of Live Oak.  His mother, remarrying, became the wife of John Kluckey, of Live 
Oak, after her children had been reared.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Kluckey, as well as 
Mr. Nelson, have been deceased for years.
            James Nelson attended the Clay school; but when about twelve years 
of age, he went to work, in his first effort to support himself.  He ran sheep 
near Live Oak, and for two seasons was in the Sutter Buttes.  He then learned 
the blacksmith trade, under Thomas Stafford, becoming an apprentice at the age 
of seventeen; and for two years he worked for $8 per week, after which he was 
paid $2.50 per day.  He bought a share in the Stafford business; but later, 
selling out his equity, he went to work for William Stafford, and a year later 
removed to Oroville, where he remained eight months.  Then, perceiving the real 
prospects of trade at Live Oak, he returned and opened a shop, which he 
conducted for fourteen years, selling seventeen years ago to B. M. Sweeney.  He 
bought the property of A. B. Church, and gave a lot in exchange for the 
building.
            At Live Oak, Mr. Nelson married Miss Edith M. Knapp, a gifted lady, 
the daughter of Silas and Madelia Knapp.  She was born in Michigan and 
accompanied her parents to California.  Three children were granted Mr. and Mrs. 
Nelson, of whom only one has survived.  Verna passed away, leaving four 
children:  Nela (Adams), Edith, Alva and Lavern; Lois died at the age of twelve; 
and Delbert B. is a rancher, and lives at home, with a wife and three children, 
Leslie, Opal and Fern.  Mr. Nelson belongs to the Odd Fellows of Live Oak.  He 
has been a member there for twenty-two years, is a Past Grand, and was a 
delegate to the Grand Lodge at San Francisco in 1907.  Mrs. Nelson is a member 
of the Rebekah Lodge.  Mr. Nelson is a Republican, and has been a delegate to 
the primaries.  He heartily believes in the bright future of the section about 
Live Oak as a thriving center of the fruit industry, and is at all times a live 
booster of Live Oak and Sutter County.  He has made an enviable record for 
public service; for fourteen years he served as constable, and during the same 
time was deputy sheriff at Live Oak.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p.  571-572