Biography of Thomas Nelson, pages 539 / 540. History of De Kalb County, Indiana. Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885. Thomas Nelson, one of the most successful farmers and stock-raiser of Concord township, was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Aug. 14, 1816, the eldest son of Hugh and Mary (Wilson) Nelson, natives of Harrison County, Ohio, the former a son of John Nelson, who came from Ireland with his parents when ten years old, and settled in Pennsylvania, and when a young man moved to Ohio, and the latter a daughter of Thomas Wilson, a native of New Jersey, also an early settler of Ohio. Our subject was born about the time the Indians left that part of Ohio, and his youth was spent in helping to clear a frontier farm. He was married in August 1834, when eighteen years of age. He then entered eighty acres of land and built a pole-cabin in the woods, where he commenced housekeeping. He had thirty-five bushels of wheat and borrowed $15 with which he entered forty acres more land. The first winter he taught a subscription school which furnished them with provisions. After getting his land under cultivation, he sold it for $1,200 and bought 200 acres of unimproved land and again began to clear a second and larger farm. He afterward bought eighty-eight acres which he sold a year later for $500 more than he gave for it. He then bought 150 acres near New Philadelphia Landing, which he kept four years and sold for $1.700 advance of the purchase price. He then sold his 200 acres for $5,000, and in 1868 moved to De Kalb County and bought 150 acres of land for $6,600, seventy acres for $925, forty-six acres for $1.500, and three acres near Newville for $400; now has a landed estate of 269 acres all under cultivation. He has some of the finest stock in the county, generally taking the first premium wherever it is exhibited. His family has consisted of ten children---Mary A. died at the age of twenty-two years; Elizabeth J. is the wife of Richard Crumb; John T. died, aged thirteen years; Rachel married Samuel Armstrong, who died, and she is now the widow of William Sechler; Levina is the wife of Job Worford; Rebecca is the wife of John Deardorf; T.W. married Martha Warner; Lennie is the wife of Chester Hoisington; Hugh died, aged one year, and Sarah aged two years. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson joined the Methodist Episcopal church in their youth, but there being no church of their choice near them they are now members of the United Brethren church. Mrs. Nelson has for several years been afflicted with her eyes, and in 1884 entirely lost her sight. In politics Mr. Nelson was originally a Whig, but now casts his suffrage with the Republican party. Submitted by: Arlene Goodwin Auburn, Indiana Agoodwin@ctlnet.com