McDonough ILGenWeb

NELSON, C. T. — The many advantages of specializing in stock find expression in the successful venture of C. T. Nelson, upon whose finely improved farm of 160 acres on Section 10, Blandinsville Township, have been raised during the past fifteen years some of the best Short-horn cattle in the State of Illinois. Mr. Nelson is one of the colony of Swedish-Americans whose energy and resourcefulness have helped to develop the great natural resources of McDonough County. He was born in Sweden, in 1863, a son of Swan and Hattie Nelson, also natives of Sweden, and farmers by occupation. Six years of age when he came to the shores of America, Mr. Nelson brought nothing with him but a good constitution and plenty of grit and determination. He was educated principally in the Henderson County and Galesburg public schools, and for eighteen years was employed on the farm of David Rankin, near Biggsville, Henderson County. He then came to McDonough County and lived thirteen years on the S. Givins place, Blandinsville Township, and four years on the John Huston farm, moving from the latter to his present home on Section 10, which he purchased of Matt Huston. He forthwith engaged in general farming and stock-raising, finally branching out into extensive Short-horn and Percheron horse breeding, at which he has made a decided success. His cattle yield a substantial yearly income, independent of general produce, and it is no uncommon thing for him to receive as high as four hundred dollars for a nine months' calf. His farm is highly improved, with special regard to stock breeding, and while frugal and abstemious, as the majority of his countrymen, he is not unmindful of the comforts and refinements which lift country life above the curse of drudgery and deprivation. In addition to his own property he farms 640 acres of rented land, last year having 870 acres under his control.

In Blandinsville Township, in 1888, Mr. Nelson was united in marriage to Augusta Larson, who came from Sweden to McDonough County when about twelve years old, a daughter of Joseph Larson, a farmer of Blandinsville Township, but in Sweden a contracting brickmason. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are the parents of five children: Maud, Carl, Elwin, Mabel and Fern. Mr. Nelson is a Republican in politics, and in religion a Lutheran. He is a shrewd and farsighted business man, an excellent manager and a past master of agricultural science. He has the faculty of getting the best possible service out of his employes, and of teaching them to become, like himself, thorough and painstaking landsmen.

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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, compiled by Dr. Newton Bateman, and Paul Shelby, 1907, volume 2, page 965, extracted 17 Mar 2020 by Norma Hass.