California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


CHARLES CROSS NELSON is a worthy representative of that class of enterprising citizens who has 
made the prosperity of California a possibility. He has been closely identified with the interests of 
Merced county, in the vicinity of Plainsberg, since 1856, and is now living retired in this place, 
enjoying the fruits of his well-directed life. 

Mr. Nelson was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., November 7, 1832, the youngest son of 
Robert and Margaret (Cross) Nelson, both of whom were natives of Orange county, that state. 
Robert Nelson was a farmer and it was upon the home farm that Charles C. spent his boyhood 
days and attended the district school. Leaving school at the age of fourteen years, he assisted 
his father with the work upon the home farm until he had reached manhood's estate, at which 
time he embarked upon an independent career. In December, 1853, he took passage on the  
vessel Star of the West, from New York for California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. From 
Greytown to Virgin Bay he traveled in a small boat, and on horseback from the latter place to 
San Juan, where he secured passage on a Pacific vessel for San Francisco, arriving there twenty- 
eight days after leaving New York. He went to the mines after he had spent two months on 
a ranch, believing he could better his financial condition more rapidly. After spending two 
years in the mines of Mariposa county with varied success, he again turned his attention to 
the calling he had followed from boyhood, having great faith in the future of California as an 
agricultural state. 

In partnership with E. T. Givens he engaged in farming in the vicinity of Plainsberg for a 
few years, meeting with gratifying success. He then sold his interests in the co-partnership and 
embarked in a general farming enterprise independently. So successful was he that he made 
purchases of land from time to time until he had acquired fourteen hundred and forty acres, 
which he improved, giving his undivided attention to its cultivation until about 1890, when he 
disposed of his holdings and has since lived a retired life, free from the cares of business 
which had engrossed his attention since 1854, the year of his arrival in this state. 

A Democrat in politics, Mr. Nelson has taken an intelligent interest in the workings of that party 
and acceptably served as supervisor of Merced county from his district from 1888 to 1896, dur- 
ing which time he was instrumental in doing much good for his section of the county. He also 
served as postmaster of Plainsberg for several years. A man of high moral principles, of broad 
mind and public spirit, he has ever been a champion of all worthy causes that had for their object 
the advancement of the educational and moral status of the county or state, and he is highly 
esteemed by all who know him.