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Socrates Nelson

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Socrates Nelson
Member of the Minnesota Senate
from the 1st district
In office
December 7, 1859 – January 8, 1861
Personal details
BornJanuary 11, 1814 (1814-01-11)
Conway, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMay 6, 1867(1867-05-06) (aged 53)
Stillwater, Minnesota, U.S.
Cause of deathTuberculosis[5]
Resting placeFairview Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic[1]
Spouse(s)Betsey D. Bartlett[a]
Children2 biological, 1 adopted[2][3]
EducationDeerfield Academy[4]
OccupationMerchant, politician, lumberman, real estate investor
CommitteesRailroad and Railroad Bonds Special Committee
State Prison Committee

Socrates Nelson (January 11, 1814 – May 6, 1867) was an American businessman, politician, and pioneer who served one term as a Minnesota state senator from 1859 to 1861. He was involved in the early community of Stillwater, being a founding member of the first Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge in Minnesota as well one of the earliest members of the Minnesota Historical Society. As a businessman, he was a general store owner, lumberman, and real estate speculator associated with numerous companies in the insurance and rail industries.

In politics, he was involved in the formation of the Minnesota Territory, having co-authored a successful petition to Congress in 1848. He took part in the creation of the Minnesota Democratic Party, held various posts such as county treasurer, territorial auditor, and county commissioner, and was a member of the University of Minnesota's board of regents before being elected to the senate. As a senator, he helped to repeal the Loan Amendment – intended to expedite the creation of railroad infrastructure – from the Minnesota Constitution. He was later elected as a delegate for the 1864 Democratic National Convention.

In 1867, he donated a block of land for what is Minnesota's oldest standing courthouse, and a plaque on the courthouse commemorates Nelson's donation. Nelson died in Stillwater of tuberculosis. The Nelson School, named after him, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Early life[]

A panoramic, aerial sketch of Stillwater. Steamboats enter and leave the city on the St. Croix River. The town, surrounded by timberland and hills, has a Main Street which runs along the of the St. Croix, and a locomotive runs parallel to it. A courthouse, built on land donated by Nelson, is located to the left (south) in a more sparsely populated part of the town.
Panoramic sketch of Stillwater drawn in 1870. The courthouse built on land donated by Nelson appears along Third Street next to the '1' marker.

Socrates Nelson was born in Conway, Massachusetts, on January 11, 1814,[5] to Socrates Nelson and Dorothy Boyden.[6] He lived in nearby Greenfield and attended Deerfield Academy, taking a partial course before returning to his hometown to become a merchant.[4][7][8] He moved to Illinois in 1839 on a prospecting tour at age 25 and then to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1840 to sell goods and collect furs.[2][9] There, he met his future business partner Levi Churchill – married to Elizabeth Marion (née Proctor).[4] In early 1844, he traveled up the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Chippewa River in the Wisconsin Territory and opened a trading post at a site known as Nelson's Landing or Nelson's Point – maintained for several years but since washed away.[5][10][11][b] On October 23, he married Betsey D. Bartlett[a] (born September 6, 1813, also in Conway) in Hennepin, Illinois, who had moved there with her parents after the death of her previous husband.[14][15]

Later that year, Nelson took a steamboat farther north to the recently settled town of Stillwater and opened its first general store, known as Nelson's Warehouse,[4][16][17][c] and Betsey joined him soon after.[22] With the Churchills remaining temporarily behind in St. Louis, the two parties would exchange goods through the Mississippi River – Nelson's furs for Churchill's merchandise.[4] In 1845, shortly after arriving in Stillwater, Nelson, Churchill, and other early settlers of the area laid claim to large tracts of land near the St. Croix River, which they purchased from the General Land Office in 1849.[2][23] By the summer of 1847, Nelson was shipping rafts of white pine hundreds of miles downriver to St. Louis,[24] and in the summer of 1848, he and Churchill had together purchased an area of timberland.[25]

On September 22, 1848, the Nelsons had twin girls Emma A. and Ella, but Ella died in infancy on October 23, 1849.[26][5][27] That same year, Nelson became a founding member of the Minnesota Historical Society,[28] and on November 1, he was named a corporator of the Minnesota Mutual Fire Insurance Company.[29] Along with state legislator Mahlon Black, Nelson became one of the first two men in Minnesota to be initiated into the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, later co-founding Minnesota Lodge No. 1 in Stillwater in 1852.[30][31]

Business ventures[]

Nelson entered the lumber business in earnest on February 7, 1851, as one of the incorporators of the St. Croix Boom Company organized by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.[2][32][33] In 1852, Nelson – along with business associates David B. Loomis and Daniel Mears – platted what is now Bayport.[7][34] There, they erected a boarding house and a lumber mill, called the S. Nelson Lumber Company.[7][35] The steam-powered sawmill operated from 1853, the year when Nelson departed from the mercantile business,[36] to November 1858, when the company dissolved, leaving Nelson as its owner.[37][38][39] He would operate it scarcely over the next ten years,[39] and it would be rebuilt in 1873 as the St. Croix Lumber Company.[34][40] In early March 1853, he became one of the corporators of the Louisiana and Minnesota Railroad Company,[41][d] the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company,[44] and the Minnesota Western Railroad Company.[45] In 1854, a stock company consisting of Nelson and others published Stillwater's first newspaper, the St. Croix Union – a Democratic-leaning, weekly periodical which was printed until 1857.[46][47]

The Washington County Courthouse is a red brick building. Atop the building is a dome with multiple windows. There is a staircase leading up to the courthouse entrance. The entrance sits under an archway and consists of two wooden doors.
The Washington County Historic Courthouse in Stillwater, Minnesota, which was built on land donated by Nelson and his business partner

Riding a boom in real estate speculation and soaring land prices, Nelson and Churchill deeded 40 acres (0.16 km2) of land in January 1857 to St. Paul real estate salesman Robert F. Slaughter, half of which Slaughter deeded in turn to Hilary B. Hancock.[48][e] Along with their wives, the four platted the area of nearly 500 lots on June 15, just months before the onset of a worldwide financial crisis known as the Panic of 1857.[50] Amid a collapsing real estate market and with speculation screeching to a halt, the value of the now-platted and mostly unsold land plummeted to practical worthlessness.[50][51] Months after the Panic began that August, Levi Churchill died in St. Louis on December 24, ceding his estate to Elizabeth.[26] Demoralized by deflated land prices, Slaughter and Hancock forfeited their claim to the lots.[26]

On January 27, 1867, during his twilight months, Nelson became a corporator of the Stillwater & St. Paul Railroad.[52] In April 1867, hoping to spur development and drive demand for nearby lots they owned,[53] Nelson and Elizabeth Churchill offered to give the city of Stillwater an entire block of land for $5 (equivalent to $93 in 2020) with no strings attached for the construction of a courthouse; the city accepted, and as of 2021, the building is the longest-standing courthouse in Minnesota.[54][55] Following Nelson's death that May, Betsey, alongside local businessman and court clerk Harvey Wilson (d. November 13, 1876), continued to manage his business affairs, both trustees under Nelson's will.[56][57] Owing to development sparked by the courthouse, the lots began selling for sometimes upward of $1000 apiece (equivalent to $18,517 in 2020).[26] In 1867, Nelson's estate was valued at over $100,000, (equivalent to $1,850,000 in 2020).[58][59] By November 1880, this inheritance had been reduced by one-third, and by September 1901, it had plunged to under $1000, (equivalent to $31,100 in 2020), due to extravagant spending by Nelson's son-in-law.[60]

Political career[]

See also: Territorial era of Minnesota
A tablet commemorating the 1848 Stillwater convention. To the top left and top right are the years 1848 and 1948. The text reads: "Birth of Minnesota – On this site, in the frontier river settlement of Stillwater, sixty-one delegates from the vast unorganized wilderness west of the St. Croix assembled on August 26, 1848 to hold the Minnesota Territorial Convention. In this convention the name Minnesota was selected and the spelling agreed upon, a petition was drawn, memorializing Congress to set up a territorial government, and H. H. Sibley was dispatched to Washington as the delegate of the convention bearing the petition." Below this is smaller print, reading: "This tablet erected by the Stillwater Territorial Centennial Committee – August 26, 1948".
A tablet commemorating the sixty-one delegates who attended the 1848 Stillwater convention, one of whom was Socrates Nelson

In 1846, Nelson was elected treasurer for St. Croix County, Wisconsin Territory, and in 1847, he was elected treasurer and county commissioner.[61] That year, Nelson was appointed master in chancery for the county by Territorial Governor Henry Dodge.[62][63] He was one of a seven-man committee[f] whose petition to Congress and its sixty-one signatures at the August 26, 1848, Stillwater convention led to the 1849 establishment of the Minnesota Territory.[64][65] Later that year, on October 20, 1849, Nelson became a founding member of the Minnesota Democratic Party at a convention held in Saint Paul.[66]

On November 26, 1849, Nelson was elected to serve as treasurer for the newly formed Washington County, Minnesota Territory.[67] He was on the University of Minnesota's first board of regents[g] from February 1851 to February 1859, serving on the building committee which, in May 1856, was assigned to solicit plans for necessary buildings.[68][69][70] He served as Minnesota Territorial Auditor under Governor Willis A. Gorman from May 15, 1853, to January 17, 1854,[71][72] succeeding Abraham Van Vorhes.[73][74] In 1852, 1855, and 1856, he served as a commissioner for Washington County.[75] In 1858, Nelson organized Baytown Township on the south side of Stillwater.[7] That May, he also named the township of Greenfield just east of Stillwater after his former Massachusetts home, which was later renamed to Grant Township in 1864.[7][76] On October 4, 1858, Nelson – alongside Charles E. Leonard – was declared the Minnesota Democratic Party's Washington County nomination for state senator.[77]

Nelson served in the Minnesota Senate from 1859 to 1861, elected as a Democrat from the 1st district on October 12, 1858, along with Republican William McKusick.[1][78] During his term in the 2nd Minnesota Legislature, he served on the Railroad and Railroad Bonds Special Committee and the State Prison Committee.[78] As part of the committee on railroads, Nelson co-authored a report with Lucius K. Stannard on February 4, 1860, recommending the expungement of Article IX Section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution – known as the Loan Amendment. The amendment was introduced in 1858 to expedite the development of railway infrastructure and authorized a total of up to $5 million (equivalent to $144,000,000 in 2020) in loans for railroad companies.[79][80] Section 10 was expunged soon thereafter during the 1860 presidential election.[81][82] On March 5, 1860, Nelson was one of five Democrats in the Minnesota Senate to vote in favor of a failed bill – introduced by Charles N. Mackubin – to legalize slavery in Minnesota.[83][84][h] On October 12, 1860, the Democratic District Convention met and nominated Nelson for the 2nd district; Republicans nominated Joel K. Reiner,[85][86] a physician who had previously served the 1st district in the 1st Minnesota Legislature.[87] Reiner won the election held on November 6, 1860, defeating Nelson as part of a string of legislative gains for Minnesota's Republican Party.[88][89]

Nelson later served on the Stillwater City Council from 1863 to 1865,[90] and in 1864, he was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention,[91] wherein he voted for George B. McClellan.[92]

Later life and death[]

In 1859 and 1866, Nelson served as the president of the Old Settlers Association,[93] having been one of its charter members.[94] In 1866, he was a trustee for the local society of Christian universalists.[95] At some point later in his life, he came to own an Indian pony mare named Lady Maguire.[96]

Nelson died of tuberculosis in Stillwater on the morning of May 6, 1867, at the age of 53,[5][36] having been ill for several months and bedridden for several weeks.[97][98] An obituary in local newspaper The Stillwater Messenger reported the closure of most of the city's businesses that afternoon in observance of his death.[99] Four years later, Emma married attorney Fayette Marsh, a former engineer and chronic alcoholic who had studied law and moved to Stillwater to co-found a firm.[60][100] They built a house in 1873[101] and had three children – Ella N., Nelson Orris, and Faith Marsh[102] – before Emma died on November 23, 1880, at age 32 of what was described by her obituary as "a short but painful illness".[100][103] From 1873–4 until 1876, Betsey continued to manage Nelson's estate while living in the Marsh residence.[101] In 1882, she moved next door,[12] having had disagreements with Fayette over Nelson's estate for years.[104] She died five years after Emma of heart complications on October 8, 1885, at age 72, having been ill for two months prior.[12][14][101]

Legacy[]

A light-red-brick building. A bay window sits above the entrance, while two stone signs to the left and the right, respectively, read "Nelson" and "A.D. 1837". The building has two chimneys and a window at the top middle.
The building of the Nelson School, named in Socrates Nelson's honor

A plaque on the north portico of the Washington County Historic Courthouse commemorates the date when Nelson and Churchill sold the block of land for its construction.[55] Nelson Street, perpendicular to the St. Croix riverfront in Stillwater,[105] is named for him.[8] Nelson's shop was torn down for lumber in March 1911, having been previously turned into a furniture store.[8]

In 1885, the Nelson School, named after him, was constructed in Stillwater and opened on September 28 of that year.[106] To accommodate a growing student body, a new facility was opened at the same site on September 25, 1897,[107][108] and on October 25, 1979, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[109]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b Betsey D. Bartlett is referred to in various sources as 'Betsy' and 'Bertha' (and in one contemporary news source as 'Martha E.'[12]), but US census data from 1850 records her given name as 'Betsey D.'[13]
  2. ^ This post was located approximately three miles south of Wabasha, Minnesota.[10]
  3. ^ Having originally opened his business in a shack in 1844, Nelson built the general store under the same roof as his Main Street home in summer 1845,[18][19] located near the St. Croix by the intersection of modern-day Nelson Street and South Main Street.[4] While one source leaves room for error, calling his store "the first, or among the first, in Stillwater",[20] and another calls both Nelson's and Walter R. Vail's the first,[21] there are no accounts of any before it, and it is therefore regarded unambiguously by most sources as the first.
  4. ^ No railroad was ever laid by the Louisiana and Minnesota Railroad Company.[42] On March 5, 1869, the Minnesota Legislature transferred the benefits and powers the company had been given by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature to the Brownsville, Caledonia and State Line Railroad Company.[43]
  5. ^ Hancock was the identical twin brother of 1880 Democratic presidential nominee Winfield Scott Hancock.[49]
  6. ^ The other six members were Joseph R. Brown as chairman, Calvin Leach, H. H. Sibley, M. S. Wilkinson, Henry Jackson, and Henry L. Moss.[64]
  7. ^ Nelson served on the first board of regents alongside Isaac Atwater, Joseph W. Furber, William Rainey Marshall, Bradley B. Meeker, Alexander Ramsey, Henry Mower Rice, Henry Hastings Sibley, Charles K. Smith, Franklin Steele, Nathan C. D. Taylor, and Abraham Van Vorhes.[68]
  8. ^ The other yeas were Mackubin himself, Samuel Emery Adams, Thomas Clark, and Joel D. Cruttenden.[84]

References[]

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  5. ^ a b c d e The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Minnesota Volume. New York, NY and Chicago, IL: American Biographical Publishing Company. 1879. pp. 235–236. LCCN 17014354. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
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