My Genealogy Hound

N. E. NILSON, JR., the subject of this biographical notice is a native of Sweden, and was born in the year 1856. He is a son of Nils and Hannah Nilson, natives also of Sweden, the former having been born in 1825 and the latter in 1823. His father and mother were married in 1851, and became the parents of five children, all of whom are now living, having reached maturity, are married and are themselves the heads of families. These are — Mrs. Bettie Nilson, Peter Nilson, Nilson E. Nilson, Mrs. Ellen Lind and Mrs. Anna Bergom.

The subject of this notice was reared in his native place and began the battle of life at the early age of nine, hiring out to a farmer at that time for his board and clothes, doing farm work through the summer and attending school during the winter. In this way he received the rudiments of a common-school education and the training of au industrious, frugal farmer’s boy. He came to America at the age of twenty and stopped in Henderson county, Ill., where he went to work as a farm hand, and remained till 1877, coming then to Nebraska. He settled in Kearney county, taking a homestead in section 8, township 6, range 15 west, which he proved up on and sold, purchasing another place in the same vicinity, where he located and continued to reside. He had been steadily engaged in farming, and although he has had many ups and downs, not the least of which have happened to him since becoming a citizen of Kearney county, he has, notwithstanding, prospered under all his trials and hardships, and he is to-day recognized as one of the most successful farmers, as well as one of the most highly esteemed citizens of the locality where he lives.

In 1882 Mr. Nilson married Miss Kate Oleson, a native of Sweden, born in 1853, and this union has been blessed with a family of three children — Mary E., born April 20, 1883; Oscar, born August 1, 1887, and Arthur A., born May 12, 1888.

Mr. and Mrs. Nilson are zealous members of the Lutheran church, as were also their parents. In politics Mr. Nilson is a republican and takes an active interest in public matters, though never to the extent of asking office for himself, he being a man of plain life and unambitious impulses, content to follow the even tenor of his way, discharging his duties as a citizen and to his family and his church, therein finding his chief pleasure and best reward.