My Genealogy Hound

John W. Nelson, an enterprising farmer of Ozark Township, Webster Co., Mo., was born in Huntingdon, Penn., May 18, 1849, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Heffner) Nelson. The father was born in Pennsylvania in 1820, and is now living in Bedford County, that State. In 1862 he enlisted in the Eighteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was first lieutenant of Company K. February 4, 1863, he was severely wounded, near Fairfax, Va., by Mosley’s guerrillas. The mother was born in Huntingdon County, Penn., in 1829, and died in her native county in 1851. John W. Nelson was the second of three children, two of whom are now living. His father being a miller, the early life of Mr. Nelson was spent in his father’s mill, but in 1864 he began working on the farm at $7 per month, and in 1868 he rented a farm and began working for himself. This occupation he continued for nine years, and then purchased a portion of the farm he had rented, and here cultivated the soil until the fall of 1885, when he came to Webster County, Mo., settling where he now lives, and here he has since remained. He is an industrious farmer, and was married October 6, 1870, to Miss Hannah K. Mann, who was born in Bedford County, Penn., November 13, 1850, and who is the daughter of George and Hester (Zimmers) Mann, natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are the parents of an interesting family of children: Myrtle, born in 1871; Mary E., born in 1874; Maggie M., born in 1876; Elsie E., born in 1879, and William Roy, born in 1882. Mr. Nelson is a Democrat in politics, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.